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A Niwot woman accused of stabbing two men in the back early Tuesday morning was engaged in a "sexual encounter" with both of them before they started fighting. According to a Boulder County sheriff's news release, Ruffin Griffin and Clint Cadigan, both 28, left a Niwot bar together and went to the house where Griffin lives with Serena M. Brooks and their 6-month-old son. "Upon arriving at the residence, the three adults engaged in a sexual encounter and a physical altercation ensued," . The men "fell to the floor" during the fight and that's when, sheriff's officials allege, Brooks used...

Meet the new players in the great American debate about values: Ryan, a 25-year-old newlywed, who is helping other men find husbands; Doug, 50, who is helping gay men in San Francisco create their ideal community; and Chris, 36, whose pursuit of happiness has switched from chasing New York hotties to seeking down-home enlightenment. They and others across the country are engaging gay men in conversations about their goals and values -- both personal and collective -- and challenging the sense of who gay men are and what makes their community. This introspection is happening as gay men are able...

Seat of female libido revealed 22:00 26 June 2006 NewScientist.com news service Andy Coghlan The precise part of the brain likely to be the seat of heterosexual desire in women has been revealed by experiments on mice. The study confirms that the hormone oestrogen is vital for arousal, but only in the specific area of the brain called the ventromedial nucleus (VMN) in the hypothalamus. Sonoko Ogawa of the University of Tsukuba in Japan and her collaborators in the US discovered this by blocking the effects of oestrogen exclusively in that part of the brain in mice. They did this...

Despite a glut of literature available on how to have more and better orgasms, science is only beginning to unravel the mysteries of the nervous system. The experiences of some paralyzed women prove how little we know: Though seemingly cut off from all feeling below the waist, some have found they still had orgasms when they tried sex. More mysterious still, some could have orgasms when touched in a spot on the trunk or neck just above the region of injury. One Philadelphia-area woman who was paralyzed from the waist down in a car accident was overwhelmed to learn she'd...

As any rush-hour subway rider knows, being rubbed up against by dozens of strangers is nobody's idea of a good time. So why would perfectly normal people pay $30 to cozy up to complete strangers on the floor of another stranger's upper East Side apartment? Say hello to the "Cuddle Party." The latest entry in the self-help revolution, the cuddle party is a way "for adults to get together and explore affectionate touch and communication without it becoming sexualized," said its founder, Reid Mihalko. Mihalko, 36, plays hosts to the weekly snuggle fest at his fifth-floor walkup, which he fills...