Give it up: brownies {thanks, stock.xchng}

Self-deprivation time! Lent, the popular observance (No. 501 on stuffchristianslike.net!) where people give up something for 40 days, starts Wednesday.

To, uh, “celebrate,” we tried to contact a Lent expert/guide. In the process, we’ve decided that for Lent, we’re giving up finding a Lentpert.

So instead, we researched the top things people eschew for Lent and present a guide to cope.

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“Prostidude” Markus strikes a hulking pose {thanks, AP}

There’s a lot we like about “Markus,” Nevada’s first legit “prostidude.”

First, there’s just the fact that the 25-year-old, hired by a Nevada brothel as the state’s first male legal sex worker, is being called “prostidude.” Kind of awesome on the business card.

“Markus” is also a good prostitute name. We would have chosen Peter Eveready, but that’s just us.

And he has a made-for-TV-movie backstory: beefy college dropout-turned-porn star and then homeless man, AP reports. But “Markus” has been having a rough time lately.

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Stop smiling, ladies. There may not actuall be a G-spot {thanks, AP}

Leave it to the Brits to already be the Debbie downers of 2010 sex news.

The Times of London reports that King’s College scientists have concluded a study that claims there is no evidence for the existence of the G-spot.

Moment of silence.

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A box is filled with marijuana plants at the San Francisco Medical Cannabis Clinic {thanks, AP}

If you had asked him two weeks ago, Zach Brown would have said he didn’t think marijuana legalization would happen in his lifetime.

Things have quickly changed. Brown, the president of the University of Maryland, College Park chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, now is optimistic the country will see significant change in perhaps two decades.

“It seems up until this point, we’ve been working against the wind in a way, pushing our goals to hard opposition,” Brown said. “But there’s now a rapid growth of support. The winds have changed, and we’re riding with them now.”

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Theatrical performance “Minds Interrupted” shines spotlight on mental health {Thanks, AP}

During my first semester in college, I remember sitting in my dorm room and receiving a shocking call from a friend — she’d been forced to withdraw from school. Why? She’d had a nervous breakdown. She was later diagnosed with a bipolar disorder. For me, this shined a spotlight on the prevalence of mental illness.

The National Institutes of Health says 26.2% of Americans, or more than 57 million people ages 18 and older are diagnosed with a form of mental illness a year.

For those who don’t know mental illness firsthand but want to learn more about how it affects the lives of people, a new DVD is being produced which shares the experiences of eight Baltimore residents who have.

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We hope Victoria used 900 of these {thanks, morguefile.com}

Somewhere, Wilt Chamberlain is hanging his head in shame.

Victoria Betteridge (who is from Britain, as her Dickensian name suggests) has confessed to sleeping with 900 men in nine years. She’s 28 and an Oxford University graduate.

“I know most girls say their first time isn’t great,” Betteridge tells News of the World, “but I couldn’t get over how incredible it felt! I’d never had anyone touch my bare flesh before — it was amazing. I just wanted to do it over and over again.”

Which, apparently, she did.

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Morassa Mohseni, 28, of Hopkins' Park lab, conducts an experiment {Brian Krista, b}

Hope guides their hands.

Sometimes that’s all the members of Dr. Ben Ho Park’s breast cancer research lab have to run on.

But in this line of work, hope is a powerful motivator.

Experiments are repeated 10, 12 times. Cells die. Genes the researchers investigate within re-created breast cancer cells, genes that can be targeted for therapeutic treatment, sometimes don’t show themselves like the lab crew wants them to. It’s stressful, detailed work that tests patience.

But it is important work; the lab members know this. This is the kind of work that saves lives. This is the kind of work that will, one day, eradicate breast cancer.

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With complete and total amazement, I would like to report that I had a great 9-mile run this past Sunday but I have to tell you that it’s an absolute miracle that I finished at all, much less in a reasonable time and feeling the way I did, because I tortured my body Friday and Saturday in the following ways: 

• Friday night I stayed up late, smoked two cigarettes (ashamed to admit, but on occasion, while drinking…), and enjoyed a couple very large and very strong vodka and sodas. 
• Saturday I drank lots of coffee, hardly any water at all, and went to the Great Frederick Fair, in the rain, where I ate (are you ready for this?): Sausage and peppers, a roast beef sandwich, a corn-dog, and a giant apple-dumpling with ice-cream.  For lunch. Not exactly great fuel for an impending endurance run.

I woke up Sunday in the wee hours with a very upset stomach and feeling like I was catching a cold.  Both the upset stomach and icky-cold feeling intensified as the morning went on.  And it was raining Sunday morning which meant I’d spend all 9 miles on a treadmill at the gym (dreadful), so I was doing a lot of procrastinating.    Not sure how I managed it, but I made my way to the gym and onto the treadmill.    I kid you not, 1 minute and 9 seconds in, I got a cramp.  Fan-freaking-tastic.  But I was determined, and I wanted to try out the run-walk method (run a mile, walk a minute).   Without a doubt, The Rachel Zoe show playing on my personal treadmill-TV provided a good distraction, but this run-walk method proved to be key.  I don’t know anything about the science behind it, but being able to look forward to a short walking break at every mile made me run faster, and the walking gave me a chance to drink and give my muscles and lungs a little break.  My overall time was under 81 minutes, which is just a hair faster than a 9-minute mile pace, and I definitely felt like I could run another 3 when I finished the 9.  So I am psyched about the run-walk method and I’m hopeful that it’s going to make for an enjoyable run on race day.   In other news, my feet and toes are taking a beating, which I guess is par for the course.  Calluses, blisters, and loose toenails (yes, loose toenails) decorate my feet, so I’m requiring several bandages now before every run.  Hitting the treadmill again tonight for 5 miles and then I’ll take a yoga class. Next long run will be 10 miles (this weekend) and then the training tapers until race day (October 10^th).   I’ll give you a little info next week on racer tracking and how you can watch the race in real-time from home.     

A lab technician working with the HIV Vaccine Trial Phrase Project in Thailand, holds up a vial {thanks, AP}

Important/wonderful news. Here’s the Los Angeles Times story:

More than a quarter-century after scientists discovered the virus that causes AIDS, researchers have finally shown that an experimental vaccine can block at least some infections, marking the first small but significant step toward eventual control of this lethal pandemic.

The benefits of the vaccine were modest, only a 31% reduction in the number of new infections. But coming on the heels of previous vaccine studies that either showed no benefit at all or actually increased the risk of contracting the disease, the study buoys the hopes of researchers who had nearly given on ever finding an effective way to block the spread of the virus.

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Hi Guys,

I’m happy to say that I ran all 8 miles this past Sunday (my long run for the week) and while it did hurt a little, I finished in under 70 minutes, announcing “I did it!” I haven’t run that far in a long time.

I was up at the NCR and the cool weather along with lots of bright sunshine was enough to make me happy to be there. I had husband and baby in-tow, and a time limit (baby can only go so long between meals, and husband can only go so long strolling the baby), so I knew there would be no lollygagging. (Not to digress, but WHERE does that phrase come from? Who is Lolly and why is she gagging? Anyways…) I have to say, I was intimidated by the distance, and started my run by saying to my husband, “this is going to suck.”

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