Researchers at the University of Ottawa have established that there are four types of casual sex encounters among the college-age set. Published in the Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, the U of O study interviewed 18- to 24-year-old students as well as 900 respondents under 30 involved in online focus groups. It defined four categories of encounters: the one-night stand, the booty call, the friend with benefits and the fuck buddy. According to The Globe and Mail, the report found that about 50 per cent of post-secondary students interviewed had friends with benefits. The study also found that FWB are the most sexually exclusive of the four types, and most likely to lead to a real relationship. Jocelyn Wentland, the lead author of the study, said the research showed how young adults have a broader definition of relationships.
Berlusconi, step over
An agronomy professor at the University of Guelph was mistakenly appointed to the position of Italian junior minister for agriculture last week. According to Agence France-Presse, the job which in reality was intended for Franco Braga, a civil engineering professor at Sapienza University in Rome, at first went to Francesco Braga, 53, who left Italy over 28 years ago. In the shuffle to appoint new ministers after the departure of prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, new infrastructure minister Altero Matteoli had wanted Franco Braga to be appointed to infrastructure undersecretary.
A new report by University of Ottawa researchers has found that used glass crack pipes are being thrown away in the garbage or onto the street, in parks and in sewers, instead of being disposed of properly, according to the Ottawa Citizen. The study stems from interviews with 655 users of crack cocaine who participate in the Ottawa Safe Inhalation Program (SIP). The program distributed 52,000 clean glass pipes free of charge to users in 2010 as part of a $300,000 initiative designed to reduce HIV and Hepatitis C transmission. The pipes should be disposed of in a drop box or returned to a distributor, but only 21 per cent and 13 per cent of users respectively said they did so. SIP is being urged to develop guidelines to dispose of the glass stems in a safer manner. U of O did conclude that pipe-sharing has been reduced by the program, from 64 to 49 per cent.
Don’t trust those journalists
Former Chinese spy Li Fengzhi dished on the Chinese government’s espionage priorities at a conference on espionage on Wednesday. Li, who defected in 2009, said foreign politicians are a big focus for China’s Ministry of State Security. That’s why the Canadian government should pay attention to email exchanges like the one between Conservative MP Bob Dechert and Shi Rong, a female journalist for Xinhua news agency, according to the former spy. Li said targeting politicians and posing as reporters is the way things are usually done. He surmised that even if she wasn’t a spy, Shi might have had some relationship with state security.
