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Tag: condoms

  • Groupon Recalls Fake, Possibly Holey Condoms

    Groupon Australia has admitted that it sold a bunch of counterfeit condoms that may, in fact, be full of holes.

    The condoms were sold between March 12 and April 10. If you do the math, and it’s not a hard one, you’ll realize there’s a good chance many of these holey condoms have been deployed already.

    According to the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission, the condoms were branded as Durex ‘Extra Safe’, ‘Thin Feel’ and ‘Performa’ varieties – but were in fact counterfeit.

    “The condoms may be counterfeit products with defects such as holes in the latex,” says the ACCC. “The condoms may not prevent pregnancy or protect users against sexually transmitted diseases, which can result in serious illness or death.”

    Oops.

    The Australian government Department of Health has issued an advisory, saying,

    “Counterfeiting is a problem for all major condom brands and consumers should be alert for potential fakes. Signs that might indicate a potential counterfeit products include suspiciously low prices, poor quality of printing on the packaging and whether information on the foil packaging of individual condoms match that on the box … In this situation, the seller was Edgelounge Enterprises (trading as Citrus Beat), who was responsible for direct shipment of the affected products to customers.”

    Groupon has offered customers a full refund on any returned condoms.

    “Customers are our utmost priority at Groupon and we take their health and safety very seriously. All customers who purchased the counterfeit products have been proactively contacted by Groupon notifying them of the recall and have been advised to discontinue use immediately, dispose or return the goods, and seek professional medical advice if they have concerns about their health,” said Groupon Australia in a statement.

    According to The Independent, this is not a rare occurrence:

    Counterfeiting is a serious problem for condom manufacturers, with cheap fake condoms being produced in their millions across the world, many of them in China.

    Shanghai Police yesterday announced they had seized three million fake condoms that contained toxic metals, with officers reporting that the lubricant used to coat the condoms was so disgusting that it made them feel sick.

    Bottom line: If you bought bulk condoms from a Groupon in Australia over the past month and a half – don’t use them.

    Images via Shawn Latta, Flickr Creative Commons

  • Vatican Cocaine: Drug-filled Condoms Seized in Transit to Catholic City

    In January, German customs officials at Leipzig airport seized 340 grams (12 ounces) of cocaine packed into 14 condoms that were en route to the Vatican city.

    WHOA. PAUSE. SAY WHAT?

    According to the New York Post, a weekly report by Bild am Sonntag shared Sunday how the shipment of cocaine was packaged in pillow cushions, addressed to the Vatican Post Office.

    Officials say that the package could have been picked up by anyone in the Catholic city, which is home to 800 residents.

    Since there wasn’t a specified address labeled on the parcel, no one arrived to claim the narcotic. As a result, German officials were unable to arrest the intended addressee.

    Authorities believed that the purchaser might have been tipped off about the interception.

    The German Finance Ministry, which supervises customs, initially confirmed reports about the drug smuggle.

    Whether this was an intentional drug haul or just a subliminal message to the Vatican is unclear.

    However, what is evident is that the choice of packaging was quite creative-especially since the cocaine-filled condoms were being sent to a place where sex is morally forbidden.

    Discovery of the shipment definitely raised serious questions, but for others, it was quite amusing.

    The jokes made on Twitter made this story very laughable:

    The drugs apparently had a street value worth 40,000 euros ($55,000).

    Customs officials say that it was originally sent from South America. An investigation is still in progress to identify the drug traffickers.

    Image via Youtube

  • Your Next-Gen Condoms Could Be Made of Graphene

    This past May, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation lamented that the condom, one of the most simple tools ever devised to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies, hasn’t really been improved upon in five decades. The condom we all know and love tolerate is in dire need of a tuneup.

    With that in mind, the Gates Foundation decided to issue a condom challenge. As part of round 11 of its “Grand Challenges Explorations” initiative, the charitable organization decided to award a series of grants to help scientists develop a better condom – one that “significantly preserves or enhances pleasure, in order to improve uptake and regular use.”

    Now, with the help of a $100,000 grant, scientists in the UK are working to develop a next-gen condom that’s thinner, stronger, and will hopefully provide people with a stronger incentive to wrap it up.

    And to achieve this goal, scientists at The University of Manchester are turning to graphene.

    Graphene, a one-atom thick layer of the mineral graphite, was first isolated in 2004 and is one of the strongest and lightest materials in the world. Its use in composite materials ranges from automobile construction to computer chips, and from Kevlar vests to smartphones. Soon, it may find a place in your condoms.

    These next-gen condoms would be made of a composite material, consisting of a mixture of graphene and latex or another sort of elastic poylmer.

    “This composite material will be tailored to enhance the natural sensation during intercourse while using a condom, which should encourage and promote condom use. This will be achieved by combining the strength of graphene with the elasticity of latex, to produce a new material which can be thinner, stronger, more stretchy, safer and, perhaps most importantly, more pleasurable,” says Dr. Aravind Vijayaraghavan, who heads the research at The University of Manchester’s new National Graphene Institute.

    Dr. Vijayaraghavan and his team are receiving one of a handful of grants just announced by The Gates Foundation to help increase and promote condom use around the world.

    “Quite simply, condoms save lives but new thinking is needed to ensure that men and women around the world are using them consistently and correctly to prevent unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. These projects are working to improve uptake and regular use of male and female condoms by developing new condoms that significantly preserve or enhance pleasure and by developing better packaging or designs that are easier to properly use,” said the foundation in a release.

    Another interesting project now supported by The Gates Foundation is the Rapidom, a new condom applicator that supposedly provides a simple, one-motion application that should “minimize interruption.”

    But without a condom that people actually want to use, an applicator won’t get much use.

    “If this project is successful, we might have a use for graphene which will literally touch our every-day life in the most intimate way,” says Vijayaraghavan.

    Images via Shawn Latta, Flickr and National Graphene Institute at Manchester,

  • Decision Reached in Porn Industry Suit

    Decision Reached in Porn Industry Suit

    Breaking news out of the west coast, especially if you like looking at naked people on the internet: the LA Times is reporting that a judge ruled on Friday on the Los Angeles County Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Act. The judge has declared that the new law does not violate a pornographic video star’s constitutional rights by requiring them to wear protection.

    Because so many individuals within the adult film industry are subjecting themselves to unnecessary risks, particularly in relation to sexually transmitted diseases, voters in Los Angeles recently passed a law that required porn actors to wear condoms during shooting. The law was passed in November, but it took mere days for porn producers to begin “leaving L.A. County in droves.”

    The president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Michael Weinstein, called the judge’s ruling a “tremendous victory, one that will go a long way to safeguard the health and safety of those adult performers working in the industry.” The AIDS Healthcare Foundation was among the bill’s 5 sponsors.

    When the law was being implemented in January, production companies VIvid Entertainment, Califa Productions, and porn producers Kayden Kross and Logan Pierce filed suit to halt the process. Their suit said that “the exercise of 1st Amendment freedoms cannot be limited by referendum [and, as the new law stands, it is] an unconstitutional prior restraint upon protected expression.”

    The porn producers’ attorney, Paul Cambria Jr., initially argued argued that the measure would affect the audience’s suspension of disbelief: “Assume that we’re filming an adult movie and it was taking place in the swashbuckler times. All of a sudden, Captain Jack slips on a condom… Obviously, that would basically destroy the movie, because it would be fake. Obviously, people would know that couldn’t have happened then,” he said, as if the greatest worry a porn producer could face is the plausibility of their screen story.

    Weinstein’s counter is a bit more matter-of-fact: “This is not a free speech issue. This is a workplace safety issue… If they want to digitally remove a condom [from the final movie] there’s no issue.”

    The judge’s ruling cited the evidence presented by both parties, in particular the lack of health or medical evidence on the side of the porn producers. “Plaintiffs [the porn industry] by contrast, have presented evidence from individuals in the adult film industry, but not in the public health or medical profession, who claim testing is so effective and universal that condoms are unnecessary,” his ruling read.

  • Condoms for Your Smartphone Let You Protect Your Other Important Device

    Sometimes, your device needs protection. And sometimes, you also need to protect your iPhone (apologies). With Smartskin Condoms for Smartphones, you can keep your phone safe from rain, sand, or any other unsavory materials that it may come into contact with.

    These “rubbers” are actually made of soft and stretchy protective thermoplastic – and they’re water resistant. According to the product description, your smartphone will retain full touchscreen capability and 98% camera clarity with the condom attached. That 2% is a small price to pay when it comes to keeping your device clean.

    Just snap them on and apply the sealing tabs (which you should get at least three uses out of).

    “You never know when you’ll get lucky…enough to take your phone to the beach, or on a boat, or cycling in the rain, or driving a rally car, or riding a camel in the desert. But thanks to the sleek and stretchy Condoms for Smartphone, you’ll never have to say no to an unexpected bit of excitement again. Keep them in your wallet for that special situation or emergency occasion, and know that your smartphone has protection at a moment’s notice.

    You can grab a pack of 3 for $18.49. As of now, the Smartskin condoms are only available for the Galaxy S3, and iPhones 4/4S/5. Oh, and they’re also available for your iPad.

    Always pack protection.

    [Firebox via PSFK]

  • Condom Slingshot Gun Takes Applying Protection to the Extreme, Looks to Impress Bill Gates

    Recently, the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation posted a $100,000 grant offering to anyone who can help build a better condom. Why do we need a better condom? Well, increasing condom use around the world is key in the fight against sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies.

    Gates acknowledges that the condom is the “most ubiquitous” but “potentially underutilized” products on the planet. And condom technology has been pretty stagnant for nearly five decades.

    Who’s going to step up and make a better condom? Or a better condom packaging? Or a better condom delivery system?

    Enter Joerg Sprave of the Slingshot Channel who today brings to you the contest’s first submission. Yes, it’s a condom slingshot. Yes, it technically improves upon the delivery of the condom. But…yikes?

    “Dear Mr. and Mrs. Gates,” says Sprave, “nothing fascinates male human begins more than guns and sex. So when we combine both, you must see the huge potential this has. So come on, pass over the 100 grand.”

    I know it’s not serious, but let me reiterate.

    Yikes.

    [JoergSprave via reddit]

  • Bill Gates’ Condom Contest Gets the NMA Treatment

    As previously reported, the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation is looking for new innovations in the new round of their “Grand Challenges Explorations” initiative. One of these contests is for a $100,000 grant to develop a better condom, you know, to increase usage around to world to help protect against unwanted pregnancies and diseases.

    The condom hasn’t really received an upgrade in nearly 50 years, argues the foundation. And why not?

    The story is big enough that our favorite Taiwanese animators, NMA, decided to give it their treatment. As expected, it’s pretty off-the-wall. Check out the video below for hilariously misguided attempts to use condoms, Sims-like lovemaking, and a not-so-subtle hint that Apple is also looking to score in this department.

  • Bill Gates Condom Challenge Offers $100,000

    Bill Gates Condom Challenge Offers $100,000

    Bill Gates‘ philanthropy continues to press hard on issues that may seem odd, but are actually essential to propping up the developing world.

    Last year, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) selected a reinvention of the toilet that functions as a solar-powered wastewater treatment system. Now, Gates is challenging inventors to use improvements in materials science to develop a condom that feels good.

    As part of the BMGF’s Grand Challenges in Global Health initiatives, the foundation is offering a $100,000 grant to someone who is willing to design a “next generation condom that significantly preserves or enhances pleasure, in order to improve uptake and regular use.”

    The idea is that, as reliable and easy-to-use as condoms are, men supposedly experience more pleasure having bareback sex than they do using a condom. The challenge asks:

    Is it possible to develop a product without this stigma, or better, one that is felt to enhance pleasure? If so, would such a product lead to substantial benefits for global health, both in terms of reducing the incidence of unplanned pregnancies and in prevention of infection with HIV or other STIs?

    The challenge states that condoms have been in use for around 400 years, and have not improved in the past 50 years. However, the scientific advances made in the past 50 years, the initiative reads, have not been applied to this important area:

    Material science and our understanding of neurobiology has undergone revolutionary transformation in the last decade yet that knowledge has not been applied to improve the product attributes of one of the most ubiquitous and potentially underutilized products on earth. New concept designs with new materials can be prototyped and tested quickly. Large-scale human clinical trials are not required. Manufacturing capacity, marketing, and distribution channels are already in place.

    A better feeling condom could go a long way to convincing some men that they might as well roll one on before sex, if only for their own safety. However, the question of how a condom feels during sex isn’t the only factor that has prevented the condom from better curbing STIs and the AIDS epidemic seen in some regions of the world. Religious beliefs in particular continue to hinder the distribution and adoption of condoms in the developing world – and those can’t simply be engineered away.

  • Bill Gates Will Grant You $100,000 to Develop a Better Condom

    The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is looking for new innovations in round 11 of it “Grand Challenges Explorations” initiative. And one of the areas that they want to improve is contraception – specifically the condom.

    Basically, the project looks to develop a better, more enjoyable condom so that people will be more apt to use it – thus preventing unwanted pregnancies and tons of STIs including HIV.

    We are looking for a Next Generation Condom that significantly preserves or enhances pleasure, in order to improve uptake and regular use. Additional concepts that might increase uptake include attributes that increase ease-of-use for male and female condoms, for example better packaging or designs that are easier to properly apply. In addition, attributes that address and overcome cultural barriers are also desired.

    People have been using condoms for hundreds of years, and the condom that we know and love tolerate today hasn’t really been improved upon in five decades. That’s a problem, according to the Gates Foundations.

    “Material science and our understanding of neurobiology has undergone revolutionary transformation in the last decade yet that knowledge has not been applied to improve the product attributes of one of the most ubiquitous and potentially underutilized products on earth,” they argue.

    And it’s relatively easy to develop and get better condoms out on the market. Condoms using new materials can be prototyped quickly and easily, and huge clinical trials aren’t really necessary. Plus, there’s already plenty of distribution channels and a marking niche already built in.

    “To overcome persistent health and development problems, we need new, game-changing ideas,” said Chris Wilson, Director of Global Health Discovery & Translational Science at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “Inspiration can come from anywhere and we are hopeful that this new round of Grand Challenges Explorations will uncover innovative approaches to improve lives around the world.”

    The Gates Foundation says that initial grants for selected projects will be $100,000, and there’s a chance that they could receive up to $1,000,000 in additional funding.

    If you have a idea, you can file your proposal here.

    [Image via Paul Keller, Flickr]

  • Durex Commercials Push The Envelope, Still Fun

    When making a commercial, or, well, any attempting any big marketing push, the goal is to get people talking. Talking about the product, the commercial it appeared in, and any fallout that occurs from it. Face it, if a commercial accomplishes any of these things, it’s done its job. That is, as long as it’s not lambasting negativity, but then again, following the Marilyn Manson approach to marketing, all pub is good pub.

    While there’s truth to that, if you’re selling a consumer product–and not an image–perhaps people trashing your product isn’t the best way to attract potential consumers, but the point does remain. If a commercial can generate a buzz-worthy reaction, it, in all likelihood, accomplished its goal. Take the new Durex condom commercials for example. Focusing directly on the “sex AND titillation sells,” the company has introduced two new commercials that are playfully risque, while incorporating a little bit of misdirection.

    Take a look at both of them:

    The second one, while playful, doesn’t quite nail it the way the first one did. Of course, when you adding the idea of orgasms to your misdirection, you’re doing it right. In other news, another publication referred to these commercials as “vulgar.” Now, the second definition Google uses to define the word is as follows, “Making explicit and offensive reference to sex or bodily functions; coarse and rude: ‘a vulgar joke.’” Yes, these commercials are incredibly suggestive, but do they feature an “offensive reference to sex or bodily functions?” Or does the fact that, especially in the first commercial, a bodily function is suggested make it vulgar? If so, perhaps a lighter approach to such subject matter would be better.

    Finally, the lead image is courtesy of Durex’s Facebook page, which features a map called “The United States of Durex.” From here, visitors can discover their state’s official sex position. For Kentucky, the official position is, as the image suggests, the derby. Consider Kentucky’s connection to the horse industry, that only makes sense. What about you? What is your state’s “official” sexual position? Let us know in the comments.

  • QR Code Condoms Let You ‘Check In’ To Your Sexual Playgrounds

    QR Code Condoms Let You ‘Check In’ To Your Sexual Playgrounds

    Remember the I Just Made Love mobile app that helped the horizontally-inclined iPhone and Android users of the world broadcast their sexual adventures to the world? That’s so 2011. This year’s model not only lets you announce your erotic exploits to the world, but comes packaged with a QR code to save you time and let you get back to more pressing matters.

    The ingenius combination of sex and social media comes by way of Planned Parenthood of the Northwest, who, as part of a promotion for safe sex around college campuses, handed out 55,000 condoms with QR codes printed on the wrappers. By scanning the code, the just-sexed will be prompted to enter a few details (if they want) about their sexual encounter, which will then be posted to WhereDidYouWearIt.com.

    The website is playful enough and makes a point to explain that all user information (aside from the details of those down and dirty dalliances) is kept anonymous. Once the information is entered, a pin is created on an interactive Google Map that announces not just where people hooked up, but a little something about the encounter:

    As Planned Parenthood describes it, they just wanted to get the point across that safe sex happens to the world and people shouldn’t be shy about it. “You should be proud to wear protection,” according to post on their website. The statement continues, explaining that the social media aspect is meant to lessen any kind of embarrassment with talking about sex while making the practice of safe sex more fun for those doing it (although as far as that effort goes, one might have better luck re-inventing the wheel).

    It’s a pretty ingenious way to engage the gadget-friendly tendencies of college students while encouraging them into practicing safe sex at the same time (more iPads, less pregnancy scares, right?). More than that, WhereDidYouWearIt.com offers tidbits of sex ed such as why people should use condoms and where people can replenish their condom supply.

    If the goal was to get people talking more openly about making with the safe sex, I think we can confidently put a check in the Success column for Planned Parenthood.