teh inetrwebz

Meet Throb, your new go-to resource for everything that’s science and sex, launched as a collaboration between the Gawker blogs io9 and Gizmodo. Among its posts you’ll discover juicy tidbits from a number of scientific disciplines as they apply to your tireless search for pleasure and romance. At the helm is Diane Kelly, a biologist you might remember from that infamous TED Talk about how erections work in mammals.

After surprising users by completely banning adult content on a blogging platform previously committed to freedom of expression, Google has done another volte-face and rolled back their draconian policy. A Google employee even acknowledged that users post “sexually explicit content to express their identities.”

We reached out to people in both the tech and adult industries to see what the options look like for the creators of adult content who will be displaced by Blogger’s ban on sexy and we have some good news. You’re not totally shit out of luck. It’s time to pack it up, and we’ve got some options lined up for you.

Today, Google announced infinite gender options for users on the social network Google Plus, a move that tops Facebook’s February announcement of 56 additional options on its gender menu. After selecting the Custom option for gender, users will be prompted to enter their preferred gender into a freeform field. A user can write anything they like there, including emojis.

A group of hacker activists are developing a suite of tools to strike back at the culture of silence and isolation that surrounds harassment, coercion and assault. There are currently seven such tools, each of which focuses primarily on dating sites and social networks (which, face it, most of us use as dating sites) — depending on the website or app that they are designed for, the tools have different capabilities.

After my last breakup, I used College Hunks Hauling Junk because what better way to move on than by ogling UCLA undergrads glistening with sweat as they labored under relics of my past? But there’s something even better, something that might even help you make some extra cash to help to make up for the financial set-back of finding a new place to live. It’s a little site called: Never Liked It Anyway.

Just days after Google announced it would no longer police the names chosen by users on its social network, Facebook decided to take up the battle cry, stressing a name policy it’s had on the books but rarely enforced until now. “Facebook is a community where people use their real identities. We require everyone to provide their real names, so you always know who you’re connecting with. This helps keep our community safe,” says the popular social network on their recently-edited name policy page.

Over the past three days, 3,996 people have donated to the GoFundMe campaign of Darren Wilson, the officer who fatally shot Michael Brown. Among his supporters is the KKK, which is raising money for what they term the officer’s “reward/fund.” GoFundMe works with WePay, a money transfer company finicky about its image. WePay has cancelled the campaigns of a number of sex workers across crowdfunding platforms for the flimsiest reasons. But from the looks of this, they’re okay with murderous racism.

Like other hookup services, Mixxxer uses your device’s geolocation to find other users who are nearby and also looking for a good time. Basically, it’s like Tinder, but rated NC-17. Oh, who are we kidding — Mixxxer’s “anything goes” attitude pretty much guarantees you’ll be seeing a range of everything from G to XXX. Just the way you like it and just the way you deserve. You’re welcome.

The FBI has seized the escort directory and forum MyRedBook.com and indicted its owner and administrator on counts of racketeering and money laundering. At present, this effort doesn’t seem connected to a recent crackdown on the sexual trafficking of minors being undertaken by over 400 law enforcement agencies in over 100 cities nationwide. A number of arrest warrants have been served throughout the Bay, though additional details are unknown.