I took this photo literally 30 minutes ago of a member of the Pro-Palestine encampment creating graffiti on the side of a building in the Quad. I could submit many, many more photos of vandalism around the Quad, but there's so much at this point that it's impossible to avoid.
Why is this activity permitted by the University or the encampment? Surely they don't believe it helps their cause? I could (charitably) support graffiti of actual artistic value, but I'd argue the slogans being painted around the Quad are of even less artistic value than graffiti tagging (the simplest, most amateur type of graffiti). A graffiti artist considers the form, flow, and style of their tags; most of those vandalizing the Quad clearly do not meet this extremely low standard.
Instead of wasting time and supplies on vandalism which pushes people away from supporting the encampment, how about encouraging projects of actual artistic and persuasive value (like those erected along the walkway today) and actively policing members of the encampment to prevent vandalism? At least then it would be plausible to believe the encampment was being run in a disciplined fashion.

About over one year ago I got a Varicocelectomy in the subinguinal area, I started experiencing painful erections weird curvature and I’ve been having a hard time getting an erection it doesn’t point up anymore I bought a cheap penis pump off Amazon because someone recommended it, I think I mangled it, I have morning wood sometimes but it goes away as soon as I get up. Viagra doesn’t seem to help and the urologist who did the surgery asked for a photo of my erection he looked at it for ten minutes with another doctor in the other room and came back and said “ the surgery might’ve caused it” what do I do.

I'm talking to a 79 year old 😦
I currently see a 72year old who is sweet, doesn't want much except a HJ with his barely erect ****
I'm debating how genuine he is at the moment. He's asking for photos of me and not giving too much away
Found him on Facebook which doesn't have privacy settings.
Edit : I continued to try get him to answer (and the most he said was into messy) and started to wonder if he's missing some faculties or he is just being intentionally obstinate. He asked me to specifiy but gives absolutely nothing away himself. I won't do this.
He eventually says he feels uncomfortable. I say no problem, we won't talk about it until you're ready.
Then this morning, asks me if I am interested again. Messy can be all sorts. Could be just body fluids, could be a bit of finger or tongue at the behind, could be food, could be a**l.
He also asked me a few times yesterday for a photo and then when he got one he'd answer my questions. I send him a headset and he didn't answer. He then tried to get a sexy photo in return for showing me pictures. I said not until I'm in an arrangement.
I'm debating whether to try start something and get money and indulging him or just ignore him.
I think truly a man that age is probably not that experienced in the dating world and doesn't have many options which could be good for me

I’ve posted about my fiancée and his penile issue /peyronies. Well, he did get images done finally. How folks are able to get into urologists within a couple weeks and all that stuff is mind blowing considering it takes at least a few months here. Very jealous!
Urologist 1- Spent 5 mins barely doing anything and complained about previous patient the entire time. Didn’t do any exam and left. Most told was to come back 1 year after any pain subsided. He said it was peyronies. This felt super off to us. Which lead to seeking a second opinion.
Urologist 2- He had this appointment already set up when he saw the first doc however it wasn’t for like 6 months. Finally got in there. Fairly discrete, they had the male PA do the palpitating then the women doctor came in afterwards. She confirmed her colleague felt the scar tissue area and said it was peyronies, however given the description of the curvature warned some curves / twisting cannot be helped by injection. Told to have penetrative sex and scheduled an ultrasound.
Fast forward to imaging appt. He said again, they had a male tech do all the ‘embarrassing’ stuff. Then she came in, injected the viagra stuff in and told him the tech would be back in about 7 mins but to work up an erection in the meantime… as fiancée stated, this was a surprise to him and just freaky as hell. They put porn on and left him to get it up. As he said, no amount of viagra is going to help him in that situation.
By the time tech came back, he said between the needle site aching like crazy, the whole situation and the tech handling his semi erect member, he couldn’t maintain anything. I told him that tech also has a penis and has seen his fair share most likely. Not a great comfort to him, I guess.
Fast forward, after all done he went and waited in another room. Doctor comes in and tells him there was no curvature and that one of two tubes that carries blood into the shaft was damaged not holding blood in place and, as he said, there was a lot of jargon tossed about he didn’t quite understand and next thing he knew he was being scheduled for an inflatable penile implant surgery… he was very confused wth just happened.
And so, since that appointment, he has since called off the scheduled surgery as it didn’t make sense to him. He still gets and maintains erections like a teenager, he performs fine during sex, if not climax much faster than before all this began over a year again due to, as he said, it not feeling like his own penis. There’s just a large bite mark below the head and a twist/curve downward.
So, we discussed this and think a third opinion is justifiable since there’s two diagnosis, add in that the second doc is a surgeon so he’s not convinced she just wants to operate regardless.
Any advice?
It makes no sense to us the second appt they confirmed there was peyronie’s evidenced, however the twist and curve (via photo he showed) would make treatment difficult yet next appt for imagining claims there’s nothing there…
Edit: He is 46, taking 5mg of Taladafil nightly. He’s lost some girth mainly from the bite mark looking area under the head and it now twists to the right and down. Has used the stretchy contraption daily along with manually stretching with his hands throughout the day.

I have the Mantor DS and at times its great, (ive only worn it so far 5 times. Its a little uncomfortable after the 5 hour mark where the edge of the gripper is on my skin. its hard to explain how I grip, but im pretty much towards the pelvic area when I get enough skin to cover and the head of my penis is practically inside of my pelvic cavity lol. Photos or videos im open to sending in a DM of how I have to put it on if that helps determine if I have enough skin for the mantor or if I can get aways with the air. Im roughly a CI1 - 2 when flacid. and a CI1 when fully erect.
Thanks guys!

Does anyone know what happened to the person that crashed their car into the home on Esplanade near the museum killing one of the occupants. Supposedly he ran away on foot and there were two other occupants in the car. Chico PD had reported they had detained the individual but, it turned out to be the wrong person. Haven't really heard anything since. So terribly tragic. I drive my daily since I live very close by. It literally breaks my heart as they were an elderly couple. a memorial has been erected and a photo of the couple posted on the home. Hoping for some justice in this senseless tragedy.

TLDR: Cleaning myself in the shower got paraphimosis which resulted in bloodflow restriction causing my foreskin getting necrotic and sloughing off and making myself from uncut to cut.
So this happened 2 weeks ago when i was showering on Sunday night to get ready for work. For background context I knew I had a mild issue of phimosis where my foreskin wouldn't fully retract during masturbation or sex and would sometimes be uncomfortable. In fact I was going to schedule an appointment to a urologist to hopefully get some medication to try and fix the problem but my GP said to try using lubricant first before she was going to make a referral.
I digress...So my usual Sunday evening post yard work, workout, excursions, etc comes with an evening shower. I also like to play with myself which means as an (former) uncut man includes cleaning my little soldier so that there is no smegma which as anyone who's familiar with it knows, smells and is gross. This process I do almost every time I take a shower and never in the past had issues retracting when flacid. Unfortunately this time, for reasons only a teen would know, I got an erection in the middle of the process. It took me a second of trying to fix it before I began to panic...Then when trying to fix it myself I ended up tearing my frenulum (this detail is important later). Panicking, and in immense pain I was frantically Googling what to do. The first result said it was a medical emergency so I quickly drove to my nearest ER. After getting checked in and getting a fast track to a bed the ER doc came in ready to perform surgery to repair my torn frenulum. At this point my giblets were staring to swell and everything hurt. After taking a look at everything he said the tear wasn't actually that bad and the swelling would go down if I put sugar on it this actually is a studied treatment. It also works for hemorrhoids apparently. So I asked him if this is an emergency, he said no, you should be fine but get to a urologist in the next 3-5 days, gave me some antibiotics and scrip for pain meds. The next day I tried calling the urologist that was listed on the referral but they wouldn't see me until June 19 (again this was 2 weeks ago). In the meantime I tried the sugar technique, it didn't work. Anyway I got on the waiting list and decided to call another hospital nearby who said they couldn't see me without a referral and even then that wouldn't be until July. OK I told myself, I need to call and get an appointment with my GP, see them, get a referral, and then maybe they can see me in the next few days as per the ER doc. So I was able to get an appointment with another doc in my GP's group that Wednesday afternoon. I did a bit a research on my own and came to the conclusion that I would probably get a slit cut which would allow whomever is working on me to put things back in the correct place. At worst a partial circumcision which I prepared myself for. After the new doc came in he gave me that bad news, they aren't able to perform these kind of procedures due to lack of instruments as well as risk of infection. Great. Then he asks me to drop trow to see what was going on. He was immediately concerned and said I have 24 hours to get this fixed before there is irreparable damage. My glans were swollen to almost an inch all the way around the head of my penis for reference. This doc immediately called the urology department of the hospital to get someone to see me. They refused, giving him the same answer they gave me. He. Was. Pissed... At this point he said I need to go to the ER and get looked at by the on call urologist because one way or another he was going to see me. He got me fast tracked to the ER so I only had to wait an hour to get a bed. The new ER doc saw me and was immediately concerned, took photos to send to the on call urologist and pumped me full of fent (25 micrograms). He and another higher level doc tried to manually pull my swollen dick and even with that IT. FUCKING. HURT. After 20 minutes I get moved to another room used for critical surgery because it was the only one available at the time to wait for the urologist on call to show up. Of course the room they don't have the control to call a nurse if there is a problem. In the meantime my pain meds start to stop working, because while it is nearly instantaneous in IV it only works for ~30 minutes. So as the meds start to wear off, the nurse who is supposed to be helping me leaves her station (I assume because she has another patient to help) and I'm starting to feel like shit. After what I think is 10-15 minutes she finally hears me calling for her help which then takes another 10 minutes to get the next round of pain meds because it's a controlled substance and locked until approval is granted. Another 30 minutes goes by and the urologist finally arrives and takes a look and I can tell by his reaction that it isn't good. The next 45-60 minutes includes getting pricked in the crotch by needles to numb the area, another round of fent, expressing the edema, cutting, and sewing. Also the iodine used to sterilize the area felt like someone poured a bottle of hand sanitizer on my dick and lit it on fire. At the end of it all i was given pain meds and a topical antibiotic to put over the open wounds. The doc told me that I was going to have to have a follow-up procedure and most likely be circumcised but he was trying to save my foreskin if possible. Fast forward 10 days of exposed dick, open wounds, and generally being uncomfortable I had my follow-up Friday. He sees me and immediately asks if he can call another urologist for a consult. I agree because fuck it, cant be any worse than what has already happened right? Turns out the foreskin was so tight it blocked the bloodflow causing the skin to become necrotic and sloughed off by the time of the original surgery. I just thought it was all being sutured to try to keep everything together if possible but nope it cut everything off at the head.
So now I have another check-up in 4 weeks. I still have a small edema below my glans but is slowly going down. Scabs are forming but keep reopening because as any healthy man, or woman who sleeps with their male SO knows, random erections in the middle of the night cause it to split. Yay....
To those who are uncut but fear they have phimosis, learn from me please. Get that shit checked out immediately.

https://ibb.co/album/H71p88
23 yrs old, Urologist had done a physical examination and felt no signs of plaque, prescribed tadalafil, with vitmain e, and pentoxifylline to be taken for 3 months in case there is a true bend to penis. Haven't felt any pain just mild ED, but the bends are very new and I have not recognized them there before, not sure if I may be overthinking or over examining but just wanted to ask for anyone else's experience
Update: still have been noticing a new bend to penis while semi erect, the straightest version of the penis in photo was closest I felt to a full erection, yet there seems to be a slight bend, not sure if the medications will help, or prevent any plaque from forming. Does anyone have any experience with this? Could the cause of the bend be due to random erections while wearing tight underwear ? Tadalfil has allowed me to gain full erections

This will be more of a vent than anything but I'll structure it so it's easy to understand.
For this to make any sense i have to give context.
i am a 20 year old man.
I was molested as a child. But i was undeniably beautiful. Despite the constant homelessness, and the overt lack of nice clothes, or haircuts, the dark skin color, the unkept hair, i walked through life as a beautiful child and never even knew it. Privileges and patience was awarded to me without me ever earning them. This, coupled with being the top of my class, winning spelling bees, and always being seen as bright left me always feeling good about myself, and feeling like a special class of human.
Even though objectively terrible things would happen to me over and over again, i never felt beaten down, i never felt oppressed. I could always smile and just think about some childish thing like sonic, even when my dad got shot right in front of my home, or we lost the house and had to sleep in a hotel/casomeone else's home. I could feel good about myself.
I never cared about what God had to say. I would do and consume objectively evil things simply because i could. The rules didn't apply to me and i was smart enough to not get caught. i knew that i could get almost anyone to do almost anything because of my privilege's.
At around 13 years old i repented and attempted to change my ways. It was a long and arduous battle of dealing with the consequences of doing objectively terrible things. I had the "I'm young" excuse, but there was no real protection from consequences. After years of mental illness, failed suicide attempts, repentance, reconciliation, and atonement, i finally was able to live without guilt.
And just as i could finally feel good about myself, my body began to suddenly degrade rapidly. My blood pressure rapidly increased, I can feel the strain on my heart, my hair began to fall out, my penis got smaller and wasn't able to produce a full erection, and among other things my testosterone production decreased drastically.
I'm trying desperately to recover any semblance of previous beauty, but it doesn't seem to be working. Aside from the obvious of how it makes me feel, I've also rapidly lost any of privilege i had.
Suddenly no girls of any quality want me at all. People seem to frown or grimace anytime they see me. My smile makes them frown harder. Tinder is of course ego destroying. And as time goes on, even using my older photos gets me nothing. My family treats me worse and their smiles leave quicker, i can't seem to make any friends anywhere, it's like there's a barrier between me and all other humans. It's like as soon as anyone sees me they hate me.
I didn't have a lot of friends before, but now i have none.
I'm going to head to turkey for a couple of surgeries, among a few: "hair transplant, buccal fat removal, cheekbone implants, zygo implants, and a couple others"
My father says I'm putting my beauty above the Lord, but he doesn't seem to understand that nobody anywhere cares what i have to say unless i look good. I have no prospects for a happy life unless i do this.
It's my belief the Lord understands and wants me to be beautiful. I've been alone for years now. I can't imagine living the rest of my youth as this unloved THING, when I know what it's like to be treated well.

Origins of Space Flight and Our Future
by James Fletcher
 
Interest in outer space and of other planets in the solar system is as old as the first generations to look into the sky. The existence of other heavenly bodies that acted like the Earth in their physical presence is ancient knowledge, and philosophers have pondered their nature for millennia. One such inquiry about the planets is of the possibility of life to exist on these planets. While this concept is highly popular and present in today’s media, the concept has been written about since the classical times. Greek philosophers often wrote about life on other worlds, known as ‘plurality of worlds.’ One such world pondered over was the Moon, which Pythagoreans – followers of the teachings of Pythagoras – would describe as “terraneous, is inhabited as our earth is, and contains animals of a larger size and plants of a rarer beauty than our globe affords.” For the ancient philosophers, the idea of plant life and animal life existing was not foreign at all, and for some was in fact logical. There was disagreement on the nature of these worlds. Philosopher Epicurus also wrote of extraterrestrial worlds in a letter to Herodotus, saying “there are infinite worlds both like and unlike this world of ours,” though, these worlds were separate systems unseen by humans, each with its own earth, sun, planets, and stars, and not physically present simultaneously with the Earth.
One millennium later, Christian philosophers would ponder questions of the plurality of worlds. Debate was now more involved, as the importance of religion in society had grown with the rise of central religious institutions like the Papacy. Questions of plurality now had to contend with interpretations of the Bible, and what God’s role in these other worlds was. However, some fully endorsed the idea of extraterrestrial life. Nicolaus Krebs once wrote that, “rather than think that so many stars and parts of the heavens are uninhabited and that this earth of ours alone is peopled–and that with beings, perhaps of an inferior type–we will suppose that in every region there are inhabitants, differing in nature by rank and all owing their origin to God, who is the centre and circumference of all stellar regions,” synthesizing the idea of God as the creator with the existence of non-human life. With the developments of astronomy from Keppler, Galileo, and others that brought evidence to the ideas of planetary orbits around the sun and the physical existence of planets, plurality was debated more skeptically, at least by these astronomical figures. Keppler once wrote, in reaction to Tycho Brahe’s work on plurality, that "with the highest degree of probability… Jupiter is inhabited.” Galileo took a particularly scientific view of the question, saying “I should for my part neither affirm nor deny it, but should leave the decision to wiser men than I,” since he saw no evidence that such life was present.
Some centuries later, the idea that stars in the night sky are all part of a galactic system and may have planets of their own was developed and expanded upon. Astronomer Thomas Wright would use this information to expound upon his conception of plurality. Wright’s plurality was quite imaginative, writing that “a Universe of Worlds, all deck’d with Mountains, Lakes, and Seas, Herbs, Animals, and Rivers, Rocks, Caves, and Trees; and all the Produce of indulgent Wisdom, to chear Infinity with endless Beings, to whom his Omnipotence may give a variegated eternal Life,” invoking God as the creator of these beings. Wright was not regarded highly by his colleagues, but the ideals of plurality continued to exist in the field of astronomy and natural philosophy. Perhaps the most prolific and zealous believer of plurality, especially in relation to the Moon, was William Herschel, a musician turned astronomer. In the late 1700s, Herschel advocated heavily for the existence of life on the Moon. While, at this point, this may be quite unremarkable, where Herschel stands out is his descriptions of artificial constructions on the Moon. Once, Herschel wrote that he observed “a Cut or Canal that seems evidently to be the effect of Art rather than of Nature” on the surface, and that he had identified “a City” as well.
These ‘discoveries’ in astronomy and the ponderings of philosophers on the question of extraterrestrial life had given birth to works in the cosmic voyage genre. Writers influenced by the ideas of people like Herschel created art that detailed the travels of people to other planetary bodies and seeing creatures unlike those on Earth. The “great artificial works in the moon, erected by Lunarians,” as Gruithuisen put it, were visited, and the Kantian “dull Mercurians and super Saturnians” could be seen in one’s own eyes. A type of science fiction was born from the ideas of plurality, and the concept would go on into the 20th century with works like H. G. Wells’ War of the Worlds.
Discussion of this subject may raise the question of what this has to do with the development of the space program. What such questions do not consider is the ancient existence of the human obsession with outer space. Rocket technology is very complicated, perhaps most well understood by the phrase ‘it’s not rocket science’ when referring to a topic that is not particularly complex. As such, prior to the maturity of rocket technology, artists and philosophers dreamed of taking to the stars and discovering all there was to discover. History would see pluralists like Herschel and Gruithuisen disproven, ultimately, as astronomers have yet to find complex alien architecture on any planetary body, but their contributions to the growing human interest in space cannot be forgotten. Plurality of worlds, it can be argued, is the theoretical framework upon which science fiction would be created and ultimately influence people like Wernher von Braun to advocate so strongly for exploration of space.
 
In 1881, the Tzar of Russia, Alexander II, was killed by a bomb thrown in his carriage. The man that made the bomb, Nikolai Kibalchich, was sentenced to death. In his cell, he created a design of a mechanism that used chemical propellant to throw an aircraft into the air. He wrote of it “if learned specialists find my idea realistic I shall be happy to be able to render service to my country and mankind. I shall meet death calmly then, knowing that my idea will not perish with me.” This was only one of many writings made on the possibility of gases to be used as a propellant during the time, and many Russians were influenced by these ideas. One such Russian was Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky, a man who by most accounts led a very tragic and difficult life. Tsiolkovsky was self-taught for the most part, and often visited the library of one Nikolai Fedorov, the creator of cosmism, which is a philosophy which holds that the universe is full of life and that humans need to move into space to advance their material and spiritual development. Fedorov would support Tsiolkovsky’s studies with tutoring and basic necessities, as he lived a spartan lifestyle, eating only brown bread and water. It was at this time that Tsiolkovsky also read the works of Jules Verne, which brought the ideals of the science fiction genre to his life.
Tsiolkovsky published works that detailed the possibility of propelling aircraft with chemical reactions. This work, published in 1903, included rockets that use the combinations of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, kerosene and liquid oxygen, alcohol and liquid oxygen, and methane and liquid oxygen, all of which are used in rocket engines today. Tsiolkovsky also theorized and designed concepts for staged rockets, as he believed – correctly – that single-staged rockets were “not up to the job” for putting objects into orbit. Tsiolkovsky’s work was ignored by the Tsarist government, but with the coming of the Soviet Union, he was given a position in the Soviet Academy of Sciences and granted a pension to work on his research. This came only after he was imprisoned for his beliefs on cosmism, which were contrary in some way to Soviet Communism.
Tsiolkovsky would write extensively about the existence of life beyond Earth and even about what would later come to be known as the Fermi Paradox later in his life. His explanation of the paradox was that, “apparently, there is hope that something worthwhile will develop from us,” implying that aliens were simply waiting for humans to become spacefaring and wise as they are. In terms of his practical contribution to rocketry, with his proposal to use liquid-fueled, staged rockets, Tsiolkovsky was the first to show a feasible way to go into Earth orbit and beyond.
While Tsiolkovsky was the first to theorize about space travel and create the theories needed to build a craft to do so, people like Robert Goddard in the United States, Robert Esnault-Pelterie in France, and Hermann Oberth in Germany would simultaneously be working on theories of rocketry and publishing in their respective countries, all influenced in some way by the science fiction of the 19th century and the idea of human space travel. Goddard in the United States, unlike Tsiolkovsky, would have the opportunity to build solid and liquid fuel engines, and even exchanged work with Oberth to help him with his research. All of these theorists and scientists were simultaneously and semi-independently building rocketry from the ground up. However, this small-scale research and development would change in the 1930s in a very unfortunate setting.
 
In 1933, the Nazi party would effectively take control of the German government, giving Adolf Hitler essentially total power. Rocketry in Germany was more organized than in other places, with organizations dedicated to rocket experiments existing since the 20s. However, with the Nazi takeover, it is said that all writing and talk in public about rockets and space travel stopped under orders from Hitler’s Nazi government. This is said to likely not be accurate, but it may be the case that the Nazis prohibited all talk of the military rocket work already under way in Germany. The German military had taken control of the rocket program in 1929, three years before Wernher Von Braun would begin working for the program. With the rise of the Nazis and the start of World War II, the rocket program ramped up, leading to the creation of the V-1 and V-2 rockets in 1944 and 1945. Rocket artillery was also common, with the most notable example being the truck-mounted Katyusha artillery that took part in the Battle of Berlin.
The military application of large rockets like the V-2 is largely regarded to be a massive failure. The V-2 only killed around five thousand people through its entire operating timeline but cost the lives of more than ten thousand slaves in building the rockets. Constructing all of the V-2 rockets was the equivalent of manufacturing more than twenty thousand bombers, which likely would have done more damage. The United States would eventually take von Braun from the German program and bring him to the United States to use his expertise in rocketry for their own.
It is worth mentioning at this point that von Braun did not intend to use his work in a strictly military application. As a child, von Braun, like the other theorists mentioned above, was interested in astronomy and space. He was highly interested in Oberth’s writings and even worked with him for a while on rocket engines. As a student, he would attempt to test the effects of gravity from acceleration on mice, which would be ended when von Braun’s landlady discovered mouse blood on the wallpaper. In all accounts, von Braun and other scientists at the time were trapped in a system that profited off of the loss of others, contrary to their idealist viewpoints.
 
Humanity has dreamed of other worlds for millennia. For thousands of years, people looked up to the sky and wondered about the possibility that life may exist beyond what they could possibly know. Theories of Lunarians and Venusians by optimistic astronomers giving inspiration to the writers and artists of the 19th century to dream up alien worlds and interplanetary voyages. Philosophers imagining the future of humanity as one that may one day live among the stars inspiring people that would strive to make such a future the reality. This, it can be argued, is an idealism based around the human condition on Earth. Despite this, Tsiolkovsky, arguably the father of space travel, was ignored, imprisoned, and used by his country. Goddard saw some success but failed to garner large-scale support. Oberth, too was instrumental in space travel theory, but did not see his vision realized. Today, visionaries at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and others around the continent and the world dream of one day flying high above the clouds and seeing the world as Alan Shephard saw it not many years ago: peaceful and still. (an image is attached.)
 
It is perhaps fitting that space exploration comes from such idealist roots. Our world ended in 1945. It might be time to strive for a new one. Let us try to make this world a better place. Let us try to learn about the fragile ball on which we live. Perhaps it will teach us to value ourselves.

Hi everyone. I'm a 32 yo. cis male who's never been in a romantic relationship or had sex. I learned more about my sexuality in my 20s but it seems I still have some things to figure out. I have a few fetishes that typically take up the bulk of my sexual attention, but when I was 25 I realized that, at the very least, I was some kind of gay. Outside of my fetishes, I feel right now that I'm probably pansexual and homoromantic. I made an alt account recently to explore my feelings a little more and affirm people who I think are attractive in some way. But something that's starting to get me down is how much penises and vulvas dominate any nsfw photos I find in my feed. Like, my fetishes are not genital-focused, so that part doesn't surprise me. But even in fetish subreddits most photos feature genitals heavily and often exclusively. Now, my irl experience with being close to any humans has been sparse. I haven't had a friendship in 10 years and I've never been naked in front of someone or vice versa. I've gotten over repulsion toward genitals per se - I think being nude lends a sense of freedom and authenticity. But I very rarely have fantasies involving genital contact, including my own. When I try to imagine it, that usually puts me out of the mood.
What I think is clear is I have no experience employing mine and others' genitals to give and receive pleasure. But also, like, I find it odd too that very few people on Reddit show off their other body parts or are in some gesture that gives me a sense of personality and also advertises their ability to do sexy things, things I find sexy. Like, I don't find just displaying your genitals sexy. I don't find just an erection to be sexy. I don't find big penises sexy. One of the reasons I came out was because I finally realized I would like to make a guy that I like feel really good... but that depends on whether I like the guy! I think frotting and tribbing looks hot. I think handsfree male orgasms look hot. I like trans guys' penises. But generally I do not like penetration. Maybe it's demisexual of me? Idk. I can imagine receiving penetration from a guy I really want to please; I can't imagine doing the same (unless it was an occasional verse thing, like a goof). I cannot imagine penetrating a woman - any invitation I see of a woman wanting someone to penetrate her or ejaculate on her disgusts me. Anyway, does anybody know wtf I'm talking about? I'm not sure I do anymore, haha. I guess I'm trying to make a connection, finally, and this is just one of the potential barriers I'm finding. When it comes to my fetishes, I can look at a complete stranger and go "Oh, yes. That's so cute. That's so hot. That's awesome" and my fantasies will start running no problem. But if I see a penis I'm like, "ok but who are you? What are you about? What's your deal? What are your needs, fella? Your desires? How's your relationship with your mother?"

Israel was still waiting for Hamas's response to the latest proposal, said an Israeli official not authorised to speak publicly.
Mediators have proposed a deal that would halt fighting for 40 days and exchange Israeli hostages for potentially thousands of Palestinian prisoners, according to details released earlier by Britain.
Any such deal would be the first since a one-week truce in November saw 80 Israeli hostages exchanged for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
The war started with Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel estimates that 129 captives seized by militants during their attack remain in Gaza, but the military says 34 of them are dead.
Israel's retaliatory offensive, vowing to destroy Hamas, has killed at least 34,596 people in Gaza -- mostly women and children -- including 28 over the past day, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
Much of Gaza has been reduced to a grey landscape of rubble. The debris includes unexploded ordnance that leads to "more than 10 explosions every week", with more deaths and loss of limbs, Gaza's Civil Defence agency said on Thursday.

'Get this done'

Humanitarians are struggling to get aid to Gaza's 2.4 million people, hundreds of thousands of whom have fled to Rafah, the territory's southernmost point, the United Nations says.
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told AFP late Wednesday that the movement's position on the truce proposal was "negative" for the time being.
The group's aim remains an "end to this war", senior Hamas official Suhail al-Hindi said -- a goal at odds with the stated position of Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Regardless of whether a truce is reached, Netanyahu vows to send Israeli troops into Rafah against Hamas fighters there. US officials reiterated their opposition to such an operation without a plan to protect the civilians.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has urged the Islamist movement to accept the truce plan.
"Hamas needs to say yes and needs to get this done," Blinken said Wednesday while in Israel on his latest Middle East mission.
In early April there had also been initial optimism over a possible truce deal, only to have Israel and Hamas later accuse each other of undermining negotiations.
Following a meeting with Blinken, Israel's opposition leader Yair Lapid insisted that Netanyahu "doesn't have any political excuse not to move to a deal for the release of the hostages".
Netanyahu faces regular protests in Israel calling on him to make a deal that would bring home the captives. On Thursday protesters set up over-sized photos of women hostages outside Netanyahu's Jerusalem residence. In Tel Aviv they again blocked a highway.

On trial

Demonstrators accuse the prime minister, who is on trial for corruption charges he denies, of seeking to prolong the war.
Fallout from the Gaza fighting has spread throughout the Middle East, including to the Red Sea region where commercial shipping has been disrupted.
US and allied warships have regularly shot down suspected drones and missiles fired by Iran-backed Yemeni rebels who say they act in solidarity with Palestinians.
Criticism of the war has intensified in the United States, Israel's top military supplier.
Demonstrations have spread to at least 30 US universities, where protesters have often erected tent encampments to oppose Gaza's ever-increasing death toll.
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20240502-doubts-grow-over-gaza-truce-plan

Hey guys so 2 months ago I made a post saying I was debating going on TRT. My test at the time ranged from 400-500. Despite that I was experiencing tons of negative feelings like very low libido, ED, no morning wood, little energy, no confidence, extreme muscle soreness after a workout, & my sense of well being was that as a neutered dog. I'm a male in his 30's. Despite all my doctors (and people on here) telling me I'm in normal range & refusing to prescribe me T I decided to freeze my sperm and start TRT (140mg) as of last week through a clinic. It's only been a week but woww what a difference I'm already feeling. Within 1 week my libido is back to how it used to be when I was in my 20s, my morning wood is back, rock hard erections which I haven't had in years (or without viagra), my sense of well being has even gone up with the week. I feel more clear headed & I've been able to do more activities in this week than I've done in months. Within this week I've just had a different mentality where I just want to get stuff done. Instead of dreading my errands or putting it off I just do it now, I've hit up the gym numerous times already. It's honestly mind blowing. Call it a placebo but I doubt it because a placebo isn't going to have me waking up with morning wood & bringing my libido back with full on erections. I just wanted to share this post because just because you're in a (normal range) I don't think that tells the full story. Where some people feel great at 400-500 t levels, I felt awful. I can only imagine how I'll be feeling in a month or 2 from now & am looking forward to the results. I will share my progress as my journey continues with before and after photos and all my blood results from before and after. I just wanted to share my story so far!

A part of me worries that during lockdown I might have given myself priapism, or some kind of vascular damage, from having numerous, lengthy edging sessions on a near-daily basis.
I realize priapism is generally thought of as an unwanted, non-sexually induced erection that can lead to damage of the structures of the penis often leading to pain and ED, but could a lengthy sexually induced erection, or repeated edging sessions in a day, also lead to damage? Or is this super unlikely? Is there any way to easily rule this out? My penis has been a tad sore and maybe a bit inflamed after longer edging sessions, but it’s never looked purple or dark purple like it does in many of the photos you find online when searching for priapism.