Flying Is Getting Worse And Other Stories
Welcome to What We Learned This Week, a digest of the most curiously important facts from the past few days. This week: Air travel sucks, the art of sound design in porn, and that one time the British hung rotting corpses in cages.
IT'S A REAL DOWNER
The Friendly Skies Are Not So Friendly Anymore
The act of riding in an airplane is an inherently stressful experience. You have to sit with very flustered people for hours on end. You're riding in a tube through the sky traveling hundreds of miles per hour. You have to take your shoes off.
The great news is that it's only getting worse.
With a series of mergers within the airline industry, just four companies command the skies — leading to higher fares and more fees. ProPublica's Justin Elliott dives into the most recent merger between US Airways and American Airlines, and how the Obama administration just let it happen, despite all the evidence the Justice Department amassed pointing otherwise.
It is, in part, a infuriating look at the concerted effort of an industry to exploit their customers. But it's also a portrait of how money and influence fuel the machinations of government, leaving one feeling angry and helpless at the same time. Kind of like how one feels when you've landed and are waiting to deplane.
TORTURE FOR WHOM?
England Used To Just Leave Their Murderers To Publicly Rot
18th century England was not a fun place. There was that whole unruliness in the Colonies, and back home executed murderers hung from poles, encased in a steel contraption known as a gibbet cage.
In Andy Wright's examination of the now-thankfully-defunct practice of gibbeting for Atlas Obscura, he finds that the Crown would just leave these rotting metal abominations up for decades. A bad man killed someone, and now the local folk would have to stare at his desiccated remains for years on end to ensure that everyone knows that… killing people is bad?
That this was happening during the time of Mozart and Goethe just seems slightly unreal. Who knows what present-day commonly accepted practice will seem just barbaric a century from now? (I'm going to go with execution.)
MASTERS OF SEX SOUNDS
The Sounds In Porn Are Real
As any accredited sex-haver can attest, porn is not actually like real sex. The sounds, however, those are all real. Mel Magazine's Lynsey G interviews various adult entertainment producers and actors and finds that in porn, there is no dubbing. Cries of ecstasy may be acted out, but they are not fake. The sounds of one giving the business to someone else are as real as it gets.
The aspiration for aural veracity in porn has its downsides too. The actors are, of course, only human and thus susceptible to the same sounds we all fear while getting lucky: farting, queefing and burping. Since porn is not Real Sex, an editor can just dub over a moan here or some slapping here to drown out an unfavorable noise. The disbelief must continue to be suspended.
AS IF BEING A WOMAN COULD BE ANY HARDER
When It Comes To The Vagina, One Bacteria Rules Them All
Microbiomes are very in right now. Jamie Lee Curtis is on TV telling you to eat yogurt impregnated with the Good Bacteria. The bacteria in your stomach has some effect on your mood. People are now performing their own fecal transplants at home.
Of course, while it's all fine and good to talk about gut bacteria and poop health, the subject of the vaginal microbiome is rarely discussed. Kendall Powell dives into the world of vaginal health for Mosaic and finds that unlike the rest of the body, the vagina thrives with the occupation of a single strain of bacteria: Lactobacillus.
As it turns out, the vagina is pretty self-sustaining. It's when nefarious intruders like semen get in there and mess with the balance, leading to bacterial vaginosis. Denise Willers, a gynecologist Powell spoke to, puts it plainly: "Your vagina is like a self-cleaning oven."
[Mosaic]
Previously on What We Learned This Week
There Is No 'Best' Seat On An Airplane
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