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NRCC website overrun with erectile dysfunction ads

Mon, 06 May 2013 14:58:00 +0000

The National Republican Congressional Committee website was hacked to show ads for erectile dysfunction drugs Viagra and Cialis over the weekend. The hack was first identified Sunday morning, but wasn't corrected until after 10 a.m. Monday morning.

As reported by the Washington Post:

The ads were first noticed by BuzzFeed reporter Evan McMorris-Santoro Sunday morning, and were still visible Monday morning. But they only appeared if you type ”nrcc.org” into your browser; “http://www.nrcc.org/” takes visitors to the correct campaign committee Web site. The site was fixed around 10 a.m. on Monday.

The ads are bare bones links with SEO-oriented titles like “viagra no doctor canada.” None of the links work; they lead to 404 error pages hosted on cellscope.berkeley.edu, a Web site set up for a University of California-Berkeley project to turn a cellphone camera into a diagnostic-quality microscope.

The NRCC recently redesigned its Web siteto make it buzzier and encourage people to spend more time on the site. Since most of the site’s traffic comes from Facebook, most users will probably never see the hacked version.

Pfizer to sell Viagra online

Mon, 06 May 2013 14:49:00 +0000

TRENTON, N.J. Men who are bashful about needing help in the bedroom no longer have to go to the drugstore to buy that little blue pill.

In a first for the drug industry, Pfizer Inc. told The Associated Press that the drugmaker will begin selling its popular erectile dysfunction pill Viagra directly to patients on its website.

Men still will need a prescription to buy the blue, diamond-shaped pill on viagra.com, but they no longer have to face a pharmacist to get it filled. And for those who are bothered by Viagra's steep $25-a-pill price, Pfizer is offering three free pills with the first order and 30 percent off the second one.

Pfizer's bold move blows up the drug industry's distribution model. Drugmakers don't sell medicines directly to patients. Instead, they sell in bulk to wholesalers, who then distribute the drugs to pharmacies, hospitals and doctors' offices.

But the world's second-largest drugmaker is trying a new strategy to tackle a problem that plagues the industry. Unscrupulous online pharmacies increasingly offer patients counterfeit versions of Viagra and other brand-name drugs for up to 95 percent off with no prescription needed. Patients don't realize the drugs are fake or that legitimate pharmacies require a prescription.

Wait, men fake orgasms?

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 22:00:00 +0000

Several years ago, a 25-year-old male patient walked into Dr. Abraham Morgentaler's office with a surprising problem: He was faking orgasms.

A man faking it? Morgentaler, an associate clinical professor of urology at Harvard Medical School, had never heard of such a thing. After he got over the puzzle of how a man could effectively pull off such a ... sleight of semen, he got to the patient's motivation. As Morgentaler writes in his new book, "Why Men Fake It: The Totally Unexpected Truth About Men and Sex," his patient was having trouble climaxing during sex with his girlfriend, so he feigned pleasure for her benefit. He "was simply trying to do what he believed was the right thing by her."

Morgentaler came to realize that faking it was more common among men than he had realized -- and that this general sexual sentiment was, too. "That is a refrain I hear regularly from men in one form or another, yet this admirable, loving aspect of male sexuality is hidden among the detritus that passes as wisdom about what men are all about," he writes. His book -- which paints a portrait of men who feel anxious about their erections, pressured into having sex and concerned about their partner's pleasure -- is all about correcting that.

Impotent, diabetic polar bears make the case against soda

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 16:19:00 +0000

A new video from the Center for Science in the Public Interest is a cute and devastating assault against sugary, bubbly drinks. The organization is also sponsoring a "Pour One Out" contest which will reward videos that show disposing of soda "in a fun, creative way." If this cartoon is any guide, contestants shouldn't err on the side of subtlety:

h/t @stratfordsj