As part of a series on the history of the internet, All Things Considered has taken a look at the ways that adult entertainment has shaped the progress of the internet at large—with Kink.com's Peter Acworth along for the ride as a guest expert.

· Thank Sex For Making The Internet Hot (npr.org)
· Thumbnail star: Old school Stoya browses the internet (twitter.com)

A mixture of nude portraits and commentary from their subjects, 40 Over Forty pulls back the curtain on the sexuality of women of a certain age; revealing something beautiful, awe-inspiring, and uniquely sexy in the process.

· 40 Over Forty (campanella.com, via indienudes.com)

Still with us? Awesome. You must be the type of person who appreciates the tender moments us humans share, whether they be post-coital or pre-coital (tenderness is only acceptable in proximity to sex). So let's all get into bed, whip up a bit of spooning, and share some good ol' cuddle porn courtesy of Time Out New York.

· "Pictures in Bed" (newyork.timeout.com)

And for those inclined to follow in these readers' footsteps—whether you'd like to hit up the bath house or cheat on your spouse—TOC helpfully offers some first time tips (yes, they offer tips for wouldbe cheaters. Who knew Chicago was so libertine?). Also in the issue: servicey suggestions on hot lingerie, what your bedsheets say about you, and hot hook up hotels—and, of course, an interview with Hugh Hefner (it never gets old, does it).

· There's a First Time for Everything (timeout.com)

Isabella's got the squid, the anchovy, the shrimp, and the elephant seal covered. Dinner at Red Lobster will never be the same again.

· Green Porno (sundancechannel.com)

Will we still be boning when we're all plugged in to computers, Matrix-style, experiencing the world in a virtual way? Will our robot avatars be bumping uglies? And what about porn? H+ Magazine has assembled some of the leading minds in the radical tech community to get their thoughts on the issue. A few selections below:

Conventional sex will likely persist in a transhumanist future, but only as a small subset of a much larger space of pleasurable activities which have been deliberately engineered. The connection between certain activities and the sensation of pleasure lies entirely in our cognitive architecture, which we
will eventually manipulate at will. It's probably less complex than we think - many drugs can directly stimulate the pleasure center, and these are much simpler than brain-to-computer interfaces. - Michael Anissimov

Anything that has persisted for hundreds of millions of years clearly has high survival value. Transhumanism seeks to enhance the positive aspects of the human condition, so love and sex are unlikely to be abandoned. Differences? Yes. Sex for procreation will be separated from sex for pleasure. Polyamorism will be the norm. After all if "I" have uploaded, duplicated myself and exist as self-similar copies in cyberspaces co-existent with realspace, where does the "self" end and the "other" begin? - Extropia DaSilva

The experience of gaining pleasure via in some sense merging with another being... that will probably survive the Singularity, but will likely be customizable into various forms, which may end up bearing little resemblance to "sex" as we know it today... - Ben Goertzel.

The primary purpose of the Singularity will be seen, after the fact, to be Awesome Sex. There will be exponentially more sex, with exponentially more interfaces, and with exponentially more measures of pleasure. - Alex Lightman

Exosex, sex outside the biological body, would be simulated in virtuality, much like Second Life or Skype and other digital formats where sex is enhanced, extended, digitized, and synthetic. It would be more real than real - a hyper-real experience.

Endosex, sex within the body or form, would exist even if the posthuman is so-called disembodied or, better, a distributed collection of selves (multiselves) co-existing on multiple platforms, including biological personas, virtual avatar personas or other types of forms in different substrates and platforms. - Natasha Vita-More

So there you have it: sex will maybe, probably, definitely still exist; and will be exactly like nothing we've ever experienced before. Also, we'll be doing it all the time, with everyone. So, uh, win?

For the full article, check out h+'s digitial edition (link below).

· h+ Magazine Fall 2009 Digital Edition (hplusmagazine.com)
· Thumbnail star: Futuristic Sasha Grey (hustlercash.com)

Highly esteemed research journal Details has the story: armed with a few statistics (there's a lot of porn out there, most kids have seen it at some point, anal sex is increasingly popular) and a handful of anecdotes, they're here to make the case that the internet has dramatically changed the way that teens have sex. And they don't seem to think it's a bad thing—but we suspect that the countless other outlets that pick up the story and treat it as gospel will do their best to incite a moral panic.

A moral panic that's likely unwarranted, at that: a handful of anecdotes about how boys hate pubic hair and love facials and girls are super pervy aren't really enough to convince us that all kids, everywhere in America, are now raging sluts. Because it's not like we haven't heard this before (anyone remember the rainbow parties?). But you know what? Even if there is a widespread phenomenon of sexually literate teenagers...is that really so bad?

Sexually precocious teens have existed long before the internet, after all: over in that libertine land known as Europe, things that might pass as hardcore smut in the States are readily available; and it doesn't seem that the population is much the worse for it (in fact, if the porn we see coming out of Hungary is any indication, they're much, much better for it).

And let's not forget that access to porn isn't the only thing that's made teens more aware of—and comfortable with—sex and sexuality. The internet has also created a vast number of sex education resources, including many targeted specifically at teens. Should the fact that sites like sexetc.org offer honest info on topics like anal sex really be sending us all into a panic?

Frankly, there are worse things in the world than teens who are aware that sex is good, and that flavors beyond vanilla exist. If anything, a more sexually literate teen populace simply means that we'll have to, you know, actually talk to our kids about sex, making sure that they're getting the right message from whatever it is that they're running into.

But, oh, wait. This is America. Forget what we said before: let the moral panic commence!

· How Internet Porn Is Changing Teen Sex (men.style.com)
· Thumbnail via Stroke My Dick Now (jointheporn.com)

· Sexy Art (examiner.com)
· Erotic Heritage Museum (eroticheritagemuseum.com)

· Recession Sex Workers 2: Mandy Morbid's Sex and Death Funhouse (therumpus.net)
· Photo by Ellen Stagg (staggstreet.com)

Time Out New York has collected a gallery of some of their favorite selections from the show, which range from the silly to the sweet to the naught to the nasty (well, as nasty as Time Out's website can get, anyway).

· "Sex Cells" (timeout.com)

Often found on the walls of London's iconic red phone booths, these advertising cards have been around since the 1980's—and have evolved over time, as changes in printing technology have allowed them to become more sophisticated and complex. "Tart Cards" has collected more than 350 of these works of art, providing some background on how they came about, how they've evolved, and what, exactly, "a-levels" refers to. Curious? Take a sneak peek inside in the gallery below.

Buy "Tart Cards" (amazon.com)

Mark Batty Publisher (markbattypublisher.com)
Buy "Tart Cards" (amazon.com)

Mark Batty Publisher (markbattypublisher.com)
Buy "Tart Cards" (amazon.com)

Mark Batty Publisher (markbattypublisher.com)
Buy "Tart Cards" (amazon.com)

Mark Batty Publisher (markbattypublisher.com)
Buy "Tart Cards" (amazon.com)

Mark Batty Publisher (markbattypublisher.com)
Buy "Tart Cards" (amazon.com)

Mark Batty Publisher (markbattypublisher.com)
Buy "Tart Cards" (amazon.com)

Mark Batty Publisher (markbattypublisher.com)
Buy "Tart Cards" (amazon.com)

Mark Batty Publisher (markbattypublisher.com)
Buy "Tart Cards" (amazon.com)

Mark Batty Publisher (markbattypublisher.com)

However you learned, though, you're bound to have a story—and Beyond the Birds and the Bees wants to hear it. A collection of tales of sex education, BBB is sometimes funny, sometimes sad, and always thought provoking...and its certainly got us thinking about how we want to teach our future offspring about the sexing (you know, after Stoya and Joanna Angel allow their genes to be mixed with ours to create some genetically awesome fleshchild).

· Beyond the Birds and the Bees (beyondbirdsbees.com)
· Thumbnail: The education of Tia Sweets (wannwatch.com)

The New York Times has a fascinating profile on AQTH, its owners, and its employees—and what it means to run a company devoted to alternative sexuality in a country that's extremely repressed. Most interesting are the interviews with the employees: while some are very aware of, and even titillated by, the products' intended purposes, others remain in the dark (case in point: a man who thinks that the sex swing he's manufacturing is a hammock).

View a short clip of the video here—for the full video, click over to the Times website.

· A Pakistani Underworld (nytimes.com, thanks AS!)

Filthy Gorgeous Things, which just launched this week, is "online magazine about sex for artists, thinkers, sensualists, and fuckers." Theme issues are released monthly; the premiere issue, Voyeur, is currently up and free to browse (future issues will be available by subscription only). In addition to its thoughtful essays and articles, the magazine features some gorgeous pictorials by some very talented photographers (Chip Willis and Noah Kalina both contributed to the first issue).

Like the sound of the site, but feeling a little subscription shy? The FGT team offers free access to The Daily Fix, a regularly updated sampler of some of the site's content (you know, so you can try before you buy).

· Filthy Gorgeous Things (filthygorgeousthings.com)
· The Daily Fix (filthygorgeousfix.com)
· Photo by Noah Kalina (noahkalina.com)

The one disappointment here? The promo balloons only feature men receiving oral pleasure. Granted, a woman on the balloon wouldn't have worked quite as well—but here's hoping this team can come up with something equally clever for the ladies.

· NYC Museum of Sex Blowjob Balloons (copyranter.blogspot.com)

It's a sad announcement, and one that sucks on many levels (which, of course, I'll get into down below). And I guess it's especially sad for me because of my personal connection to the company. You see, years ago, when I was in college, and Fleshbot was but a twinkle in a pervert's eye, I worked as an intern for Nerve.

I applied to be a Nerve intern in the summer of 2002. I was on the verge of entering into my senior year of college, and though there were many things I was still unsure of, there was one thing I knew for sure: I wanted to get an internship some place cool. Specifically, some place doing interesting work around the field of sex and sexuality. Nerve was a perfect fit for me.

What I loved about Nerve—a website devoted to "alternative stimulation" and "literate smut"—was the intelligence that it brought to the topic of sex. Through a range of essays, Nerve touched on topics deemed too shocking for most media outlets, discussing them in a thoughtful, highbrow way. I loved it.

And then, of course, there were the pictures, which solidified Nerve's commitment to destigmatizing sexuality. It's (relatively) easy to write about sex and still distance yourself from the arena of "smut" or (gasp!) porn; bringing naked pictures into the mix makes it harder to defend yourself against charges that your project is about more than simple titillation. But Nerve braved that barrier, unafraid to showcase the work of erotic artists like Clayton Cubitt, Autumn Sonnichsen, and Chase Lisbon—and, what's more, to showcase sometimes unabashedly sexual photography alongside thought provoking essays, treating them with the same level of respect.

But those days are now over, it seems: apparently, showing is more shocking than telling, and Nerve must now do away with its naughtier bits and fall in step with the rest of the media. And it's truly sad to see Nerve attempt to conform to a model "that's a lot better for more conservative companies," to shift the nudity to something "occasional and relatively incidental." Dare we say it? It feels like we're witnessing the tragic fall of one of our allies in whatever war this is that we're waging on the American attitude toward sex.

It's a sad day for smart sex on the web. We can only hope that somewhere out there, there's another brave soul willing to pick up the baton that Nerve has dropped.

· Nerve.com Hires New CEO, And New Plans To Downplay Nudity (businessweek.com, via Gawker)
· Photos from "Nerve: The First Ten Years"

Newly launched blog Said In Bed catalogs dirty talk of a different sort—from the funny to the tragic to the touching to the altogether outrageous. Submissions are, of course, accepted; but don't try passing off some Evan Stone line as your own. Trust us, we'll know.

· Said In Bed (saidinbed.com)
· Thumbnail stars: Celeste & Renee (penthouse.com, via Ask Jolene

A palatial nightclub, complete with a swimming pool, shows, and all the naked bodies that could cram into one place, Plato's Retreat was a libertine's dream—at least for the first few years. In the early eighties, Plato's was struck by a series of troubles, beset first by charges of tax evasion, and then permanently shut down by an HIV-inspired public health crackdown.

"American Swing" tracks the rise and fall of this swinger's paradise, using exclusive interviews with former patrons, employees, and family members and archival footage from the center of the action to tell the story of Plato's Retreat and its larger than life owner, Larry Levenson.

Because it contains (gasp!) uncensored footage of actual sex action, "American Swing" has had some difficulty achieving wide release; but if you're in New York City or LA, be sure to catch this riveting documentary about a very important part of swing (and American) history.

"American Swing" opens March 27th in NY at the Quad Cinema, and April 3rd in LA at the Sunset 5.

· "American Swing" (magpictures.com)