Did Oprah Winfrey Torpedo Labor Nominee Andrew Puzder?

Video showing the power of well-done make-up

Michelle Obama Advises High School Senior To 'Walk Proud, Work Hard And Be Confident'

Orgasm machine to deliver climax at the push of a button

Independent.co.uk - Scientists have devised a machine that can help women achieve 'emphatic' orgasms at the push of a button.

Slightly smaller than a packet of cigarettes, the device uses electrodes attached to the patients spine, with orgasms being triggered by a remote control.

The machine is not intended for a mass market looking to spice up their day at whim or expedite their sexual encounters however, but for women who normally struggle to achieve orgasm.

North Caroline surgeon Stuart Meloy told New Scientist how he conjured up the idea while performing a procedure on a female patient.

"I was placing the electrodes and suddenly the woman started exclaiming emphatically," he said. "I asked her what was up and she said, 'You're going to have to teach my husband to do that'."

Clinical trials of the machine are due to commence later in the year, with Meloy adding that it could help couples with withering sex lives.

"If you've got a couple who've been together for a while and it's just not happening any more, maybe they'll get through it a bit easier with this," he said.

Instant orgasms come at the cost of rather invasive surgery however, with CBS Charlotte detailing the procedure thus:

'During the operation, a patient would remain conscious so that a surgeon could correctly pinpoint the right nerves to fit the electrodes in a patient's spinal cord. Then, a signal generator would be connected which would be most likely implanted under the skin of a patient's buttocks.'

"It's as invasive as a pacemaker, so this is only for extreme cases," Meloy explained.

Feds Now Back Morning-After Pills for All Girls

Time.com - After setting off a storm of criticism from abortion rights groups, upset that a Democratic president had sided with social conservatives, the Obama administration said it will comply with a judge’s order to allow girls of any age to buy emergency contraception without prescriptions.

But in doing so at least one opponent of easy access to the contraception thinks the president is buckling to political pressure, rather than making the health of girls a priority.

The Justice Department on Monday notified U.S. District Judge Edward Korman it will submit a plan for compliance. If he approves it, the department will drop its appeal of his April ruling.

According to the department’s letter to the judge, the Food and Drug Administration has told the maker of the pills to submit a new drug application with proposed labeling that would permit it to be sold “without a prescription and without age or point-of-sale prescriptions.” The FDA said that once it receives the application it “intends to approve it promptly.”

Advocates for girls’ and women’s rights said Monday the federal government’s decision to comply with the judge’s ruling could be a move forward for “reproductive justice” if the FDA acts quickly and puts emergency contraception over the counter without restriction.

“It’s about time that the administration stopped opposing women having access to safe and effective birth control,” Annie Tummino, lead plaintiff in a lawsuit over unrestricted access to the morning-after pill and coordinator of the National Women’s Liberation, said in an emailed statement.

She said women and girls should have “the absolute right to control our bodies without having to ask a doctor or a pharmacist for permission.”

NARAL Pro-Choice America president Ilyse Hogue welcomed the decision by the Obama administration.

“By making emergency contraception available to women of all ages, the FDA is taking an important step to reduce unintended pregnancies and put women in control of their futures,” Hogue said in a statement.

But an opponent of the contraception plan, at the anti-abortion Family Research Council, criticized the government for not sticking with its decision to appeal.

“We’re very concerned and disappointed at the same time because what we see here is the government caving to political pressure instead of putting first the health and safety of girls (and) parental rights,” said Anna Higgins, director of the council’s Center for Human Dignity.

The government had appealed the judge’s underlying April 5 ruling, which ordered emergency contraceptives based on the hormone levonorgestrel be made available without a prescription, over the counter and without point-of-sale or age restrictions.

It had asked the judge to suspend the effect of that ruling until the appeals court could decide the case. But the judge declined, saying the government’s decision to restrict sales of the morning-after pill was “politically motivated, scientifically unjustified and contrary to agency precedent.” He also said there was no basis to deny the request to make the drugs widely available.

The government had argued that “substantial market confusion” could result if the judge’s ruling were enforced while appeals were pending, only to be later overturned.

Last week, an appeals court dealt the government a setback by saying it would immediately permit unrestricted sales of the two-pill version of the emergency contraception until the appeal was decided.

The morning-after pill contains a higher dose of the female hormone progestin than is in regular birth control pills. Taking it within 72 hours of rape, condom failure or just forgetting regular contraception can cut the chances of pregnancy by up to 89 percent, but it works best within the first 24 hours. If a girl or woman already is pregnant, the pill, which prevents ovulation or fertilization of an egg, has no effect.

The FDA was preparing in 2011 to allow over-the-counter sales of the morning-after pill with no limits when Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius overruled her own scientists in an unprecedented move.

The FDA announced in late April that Plan B One-Step, the newer version of emergency contraception, the same drug but combined into one pill instead of two, could be sold without a prescription to those age 15 or older. Its maker, Teva Women’s Health, plans to begin those sales soon. Sales had previously been limited to those who were at least 17.

The judge later ridiculed the FDA changes, saying they established “nonsensical rules” that favored sales of the Plan B One-Step morning-after pill and were made “to sugarcoat” the government’s appeal.

He also said they placed a disproportionate burden on blacks and the poor by requiring a prescription for less expensive generic versions of the drug bought by those under age 17 and by requiring those age 17 or over to show proof-of-age identification at pharmacies. He cited studies showing that blacks with low incomes are less likely than other people to have government-issued IDs.

Reluctant to get drawn into a messy second-term spat over social issues, White House officials have argued that the FDA and the Department of Justice were acting independently of the White House in deciding how to proceed. That approach continued Monday, with the White House referring all questions about the decision to Health and Human Services.

Still, Obama has made clear in the past that he feels strongly about the limits, and he said in 2011 he supported Sebelius’ decision to impose them despite the advice of her scientists.

“As the father of two daughters, I think it is important for us to make sure that we apply some common sense to various rules when it comes to over-the-counter medicine,” Obama said then.

I've Made £300k as a Hooker

STUNNING star student Paige Ashley turned her back on a lawyer's career to make £1million as a real life Belle de Jour.

Just like the anonymous sex blogger who last week revealed herself as scientist Dr Brooke Magnanti, Paige became a hooker to fund her studies.

But unlike Dr Magnanti, Paige was seduced by the chance to earn up to £20,000 a time and gave up her dream to work in vice full time.

Six years later she has £300,000 in the bank, a posh North London flat, a soft-top sports car and a boob job. But although Paige has vowed to keep on hooking until she has saved the magic million, she admits: "I wouldn't say I was happy.

"I can't turn my back on this. I'm making too much money. But all I've ended up doing is giving myself a hollow life.

"I should have roughed it with the other students. Now I'd love to turn back the clock and be slumming it in a bedsit."

Like the real-life Belle de Jour - played by Billie Piper in the BBC series Secret Diary of a Call Girl - Paige came from a comfortable middle-class home.

Her parents are wealthy farm owners and she enjoyed a privileged childhood. She went to a well-regarded school in Weybridge, Surrey, where she got four A-levels - including three grade As.

Her next step was to go to college to become a lawyer but her mum and dad said she had to learn to stand on her own two feet. "They said there'd be no handouts for uni so I decided to get the money myself," explained Paige.

"The problem was I'd had a nice upbringing and didn't want to slum it in some grotty bedsit spooning Pot Noodles into my mouth and drinking cider."

Then a pal confessed she'd joined a London escort agency, so Paige signed up too. But it was far from glamourous.

She recalled: "There's not a lot going for what I call bottom-end escorting.

Grunted

"My first client was a fat lawyer, who met me in a Travelodge. I remember lying back while he grunted on top of me. Not good! His breath stank - it was a big turn-off. But at least I had money.

"One bloke wanted me to re-enact a fantasy that he was a baby and I had to feed him with a bottle. Another insisted on putting on MY clothes before sex.

"I'd meet them in hotels that were usually grotty flea pits."

After two months she had £2,000 and applied to universities. But then another firm that had seen her photo on the escort agency website got in touch.

"They wanted to see if I was well- spoken and could conduct myself well in social situations," said Paige. "They asked if I wanted to join them, and told me I'd be earning £5,000 to £10,000.

"I thought that was a month but they said per BOOKING and that I could be going to locations all over the world. It seemed too good to be true."

Her first job was meeting an American businessman at a Michelin-starred restaurant in London's Mayfair then going to his hotel. He paid £5,000 for the night.

Paige said: "I was told to go out and buy a little black dress, keep the receipt and he'd pay for it. This was a million miles from the jobs I was used to, where I'd turn up and just be thankful the bloke had two eyes, a nose and a mouth!

"He was waiting for me with a bunch of flowers. He pretended he knew me and we chatted, ate and drank wine. We went back to his hotel and he ordered champagne before asking me to undress.

"I enjoyed the whole experience. I'd never been pampered before. Later he told me he was married with three kids.

"Most of my clients were married but this seemed more dishonest because he was wining and dining me. If his wife knew, she'd be devastated.

"I lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling, feeling numb. But I knew I'd have to put those sorts of thoughts behind me and get on with it." Her first job abroad was in Spain, where she spent a week as a 65-year-old businessman's "wife" for £30,000. She has since been flown to Australia, LA, Las Vegas, the Middle East and Brazil by other men.

"My biggest one-off job was with three Arab businessmen at the Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi," she said. "It's a seven-star hotel and everything is decked out in gold leaf. They paid me £20,000 for one night with all of them. By morning I was exhausted.

"Arab men are fascinated by Western women. We're almost like status symbols to them. I've met girls working in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Bahrain who've made a million out of escorting."

Her worst bookings with her new agency have been in Britain - with MPs. She said: "My job has taken me right to the heart of Westminster. I've had sex with about a dozen MPs at different times, all of them Conservatives and all what I'd term upper-class.

"They seem to think they're being naughty by spending £5,000 to have a night with me. They're rubbish in bed - all fingers and fumbling. I find them pretty distasteful.

"Funnily enough, since the expenses scandal broke I haven't met any."

Three years ago Paige told her parents about her job. "I expected them to go mad," she said. "Amazingly they didn't. Mum's first words were: 'Do they wear a condom?' I said: 'Of course they do.' She was a bit shocked I think, as was Dad. He sort of shook his head and got on with life." Since then Paige has been getting on with her chosen way of life.

But she now admits: "I've slept with more than 500 men, I travel the world and make lots of money but I wouldn't say I was happy. My job means I simply don't trust men - they are all ruled by what is between their legs.

"And all the glitz and glamour has gone out of it. I find five-star hotels pretty soulless places populated with people who should have better things to spend their money on."

She went on: "I've seen the world. I've been pampered, mollycoddled and spoilt, what more is there to do?

"At the age of 25 I feel a little bit burnt-out. But I'm tied to the golden handcuffs that is high-class escorting."

Drink Coasters Can Test for Date-Rape Drugs

Drink coasters at several North Texas bars can test for substances such as GHB and ketamine.

One of the coasters played a role in the arrest of a reserve Dallas police officer who is accused of spiking women's drinks at a Greenville Avenue bar.

Police said a bartender at the Sugar Shack saw reserve Officer Brad Hellums put something in two women's drinks. The bartender then went across the street to the Whiskey Bar to get one of the Drink Safe coasters, providing police with evidence, said bar manager Neil Ludwig, who runs several bars that use the coasters.

They can test a drink for substances such as GHB and ketamine, two popular "date-rape" drugs.

"It tells you that there is something foreign in that drink that shouldn't be there," said Dennis Burns of Drink Safe Texas, which makes them.

Testing a drink is simple. The coaster has colored dots on the corners that change color if the drink is spiked.

"And you can do that with your finger in the drink or the straw," Burns said.

The Sugar Shack now uses the coasters.

Establishments that offer them have a sign on the door to let people who might try to spike drinks know that there's a better chance they'll be caught.

"We want our customers to feel safe when they go out to drink," Ludwig said. "We want them to feel like it's secure and safe in our establishment."

The coasters cut into profits by about 40 cents each, but Ludwig said they are worth it.

"It's not a cheap thing for us to do, but we want our customers to feel safe," he said.

Drink Safe Texas also sells caps you can carry in your pocket to cover a beer bottle when it's unattended, as well as pocketsize drink testers such as the coasters that can be carried in a purse.

Report: Iranian Militias Marry, Rape Virgin Prisoners Before Executions

Members of Iran's feared Basij militia forcibly marry female virgin prisoners the night before scheduled executions, raping their new "wives" and making it religiously acceptable to execute them, a self-professed member of the paramilitary group said.

The anonymous militiaman told the Jerusalem Post that at age 18 he was "given the 'honor' to temporarily marry young girls before they were sentenced to death."

In the Islamic Republic of Iran it is illegal to execute a woman if she is a virgin, the former guard told the newspaper. So the government arranges "wedding" ceremonies to be conducted the night before executions, and prisoners are forced to have sexual intercourse with a guard.

Raped by her new "husband," a female prisoner is now fit to be put to death.

"I regret that, even though the marriages were legal," said the militiaman, who told the Jerusalem Post he had just been released from prison himself after freeing two teenagers rounded up during post-election protests.

Some of the prisoners in his care were drugged with sleeping pills to make them docile, as the girls in their custody always fought back, he said, fearing the night of the rape more deeply than their executions the following day.

"I remember hearing them cry and scream after [the rape] was over," he told the paper. "I will never forget how this one girl clawed at her own face and neck with her finger nails afterwards. She had deep scratches all over her."