Why do we dance?

Why do people dance? We say dance is universal. We don't say dance is global. Why? They say dance provides the three components of any well-rounded fitness program: stretch, resistance training and aerobics. It also combines utilization of the body, mind and, most essentially, the spirit. Dance is universal because we see the spheres everyday in their dance around the sun. The two main movements of human dance are revolving around an object or rotation round an axis. In both these movements we are imitating the bodies of the solar system. That is why we dance.

Porn Up Rape Down.

An academic has claimed to RAW STORY that a decline in reported rape of 85% in the past 25 years can be tied to an increase in pornography consumption.

In a study for Northwestern University's Public Law and Legal Theory Research Paper Series titled "Porn Up Rape Down," Anthony D'Amato, a Leighton Professor of Law at Northwestern University, argues that the proliferation of pornography has lead to a sharp decline in rape across the United States.

According to a 2005 National Crime Victimization Survey, the national rate of rape decreased from 2.5 to 0.5 for every thousand people over a 30-year span from 1973 to 2003. The explanations offered include less lawlessness associated with crack cocaine, women being taught to avoid unsafe situations, that more potential rapists are already in prison for other crimes, and sex education classes telling boys that "no means no."

But in an interview with RAW STORY, D'Amato argues that these are minor factors and do not explain the decline in rape. "Suppose you distribute free condoms to a country, and you find, five years later, that the birth rate has gone down 85%. Would you say that it's just a cosmic coincidence or would you say that the distribution of condoms caused the drop in the rate of birth? The reasoning is the same for my position on rape: the causation factor is reasonably inferred, " said D'Amato.

In "Porn Up Rape Down," D'Amato compiled data from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. In 2001, the four states with the lowest per capita access to the Internet were Arkansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, and West Virginia. The four with the highest per capita Internet access were Alaska, Colorado, New Jersey, and Washington.

When compared to Disaster Center's figures for forcible rape for the years 1980 and 2000, the four states with the lowest Internet access showed a 53% aggregate per capita increase in rape, while the four states with the highest Internet access showed a 27% decrease in incidence of rape.

"Critics argue that exposure to depictions of violence causes violent behavior," said D'Amato. "They say that rape is just a subcategory of this principle. They couldn't be more mistaken. Exposure to violent movies, TV programs, or video games has NOT produced more social violence. It has produced the opposite. The amount of social violence per capita in the year 1900 when street gangs attacked pedestrians and murders were common far exceeds the incidence of violence today. Sure, there is violent behavior, but when it happens it makes headlines. Back then it happened so often that it wasn't newsworthy."

"It's not a big mystery," says Bruce David, Editorial Director of Hustler magazine. "It's consistent with all the research data we've seen. In countries where adult material is legal, generally speaking there is a decline in instances of rape and spousal abuse and we have also seen in places where adult material is illegal that the abuse of women can be rampant, like Afghanistan where women are shot in soccer stadiums."

Will Ryder, Director of Hustler's Barely Legal and Britney Rears video line wholeheartedly agrees. "I have always felt this was an absurd claim and that quite the contrary would take place, due to the fact that most who view adult entertainment usually conclude their session with a self-satisfaction reward and are too damn tired to leave the house and rape somebody. The last damn thing he wants to do is go out and hunt somebody down," said Ryder.

D'Amato's interest in the rape-pornography question began in 1970, when he served as a consultant to President Nixon's Commission on Obscenity and Pornography. When the Commission found there was no connection between pornography and violent anti-social behavior, Nixon – according to D'Amato – was furious.

In the 1980s, President Reagan created a similar commission under Attorney General Edwin Meese, who D'Amato said "packed it with people who were on record denouncing pornography." In "Porn Up Rape Down" D'Amato wonders how the social facts could change so drastically in the decade between the Nixon and Reagan reports.

As in all cases involving multiple variables this also appears to be a case where all the variables have not been taken into full consideration. However D'Amato deserves praise for bringing this out in the open where now more social scientists can undertake research with more defining boundaries. Now that porn use is being investigated it is worth while also to investigate that other biggest social taboo namely masturbation. In a world burgeoning at the seams with overpopulation and environmental destruction by the rampaging human species social taboos like these designed to multiply humans appear to be out of place.

Why the moon is female?

The moon has always been associated with the feminine because of the similarity of its periodicity to the female menstrual cycle. In fact the words moon, menses, month and menstruation all originate from the same Greek word 'mene' for moon. The moon is not the cause of menses but since it waxes and wanes in a time-cycle equal to the human female's menstrual period it has been accorded feminine gender. The fact is that the periodicity of the moon equating the female menstrual cycle is a mere coincidence. The shape of the crescent moon is like that of a crucible which also must have helped in its association with the female gender.