Condom Testing Reveals Best Brands

[kach22i]

I thought this part was to the point:

While abstinence has a 0 percent failure rate, doing nothing to prevent pregnancy has an 85 percent failure rate,
the group found.

From:
Condom Testing Reveals Best Brands
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1896&e=3&u=/nm/health_condoms_dc
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The consumers group best known for rating cars and washing machines has turned its testing prowess to condoms to find out which ones measure up best and how other birth control methods compare.

[RickM]

Doi they need volunteers to test the product?

[BlueSkyJaunte]

A few classmates and I actually performed similar testing for an engineering class one semester.

Ramses came out on top (no pun intended). It surpassed all other brands in tip strength, inflation volume before catastrophic failure, and the "water balloon drop test".

Trojans fell somewhere in the middle range.

The worst performer was a brand callled "Kiss of Mint". We took to calling it "Kiss of Death" after the first two tests!

[red-beard]

My ex-wife was a "Cosmo" reader. One issue was all about Condoms. The one that CU reports as best was rated the lowest by the "test" subjects. I think "inner tube" was how it was described by, uh, both sides...

[Superman]

Right. The most effective and reliable condom would also be the least, ummmm, sensitive. A cellophane product might be pleasant to use, but unreliable. A condom made by Michelin or Hoozier might be the most reliable, but not as fun to use as their line of tires.

[BlueSkyJaunte]

LOL, I just read the article. The part about the inflation size is probably understated.

We ran out of yardstick when measuring the size of the Ramses condom as it inflated. It became known as "The Hindenberg" in our report!

And when those things pop, lemme tell you, they 'splode!

[bryanthompson]

While abstinence has a 0 percent failure rate, doing nothing to prevent pregnancy has an 85 percent failure rate, the group found.

True, abstinence works every time it's tried, but that doesn't mean that teaching abstinence is the equavalent of doing nothing. Abstinence isn't allowed to be taught, becuase apparently you have to be a religious nut to not have sex.

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Anyone preaching abstinence as the be-all end-all solution for 100% of the population has obviously never gone through puberty.

"Hormones with feet", we call 'em.

[red-beard]

Actually used a vinyl condom....about as good as ****** with a baggie on...

[Porsche-O-Phile]

I've been at many a concert where they were being batted around as beach balls - they'll blow up nearly as big too!

[Adam]

"The consumers group best known for rating cars and washing machines has turned its testing prowess to condoms to find out which ones measure up best and how other birth control methods compare."

LMAO! It's a "growth" market, really. Glad to hear they've got a firm hand on the testing process.

[BoxerRep53]

Wonder if they gave any of them a HEAD start. Hehe....the whole thing BLOWS if you ask me.

[Isabo]

Has everyone seen the barroom trick where one puts a condom on one's head, pulls it over the nose, breaths in from the mouth and inflates it by breathing out through the nose? Not that we ever did things like that when I was a student.
But on to more serious matters...

Originally posted by bryanthompson
While abstinence has a 0 percent failure rate, doing nothing to prevent pregnancy has an 85 percent failure rate, the group found.

True, abstinence works every time it's tried, but that doesn't mean that teaching abstinence is the equavalent of doing nothing. Abstinence isn't allowed to be taught, becuase apparently you have to be a religious nut to not have sex.

Not a religious nut, just a nut
How exactly does this abstinence thing work? What is the message nowadays, I feel like a laugh with my cappuccino.
As a 14 year old in cat in heat mode in a catholic school I remember being told that boys were dirty, diseased, would get me pregnant, would abandon me etc etc etc. The version for boys was that girls were dirty, diseased and that the girls who would have sex with them only wanted a meal ticket for life, that she would get herself pregnant, no guarantee that it was yours and they would have to leave school for a deadend job to maintain wife and brat.
I preferred the "it's fun, it's natural, use a condom and you'll be ok speech" from older friends. Which would you take seriously? Over 30 years later I can still only laugh at schoolfriends who took it seriously and wonder if they had any regrets when they discovered sex (in the case of a couple of my classmates I'd bet they never did enjoy it and had an exorcism performed after everytime, sad)
Trying to promote abstinence is a recipe for being ridiculed (quite rightly in my opinion) by teenagers, never mind adults, will they take you seriously on important matters such as if you try and teach them about the dangers of drugs after they've laughed at you about sex?
I tried to bring my daughter up with a healthy attitude to sex but without pushing her into the arms of some of the dirty, diseased boys who would get her pregnant and then abandon her that she used to hang out with One of the hardest things for me to come to terms with as a mother was that my daughter was sexually active, not a little girl anymore and had charge of her own body. Partly, I suppose, because I would have liked to have kept her a protected little girl and partly because it meant I was getting older.
The sexually frustrated and sexually repressed only make this world more miserable. How does promoting abstinence help that?

[Isabo]

Bumptothetop
I was hoping somone would try and promote the case for abstinence with either a real world rational argument or even better a head in the clouds one.
Lackaday! It seems there are no takers.
Back to condoms then, one from when I was a schoolgirl was blowing one up and tying it onto another girl's wooly bobblehat without her noticing it. The rule was only one victim at a time and no one would say anything.

[ronin]

Originally posted by Isabo
The version for boys was that girls were dirty, diseased and that the girls who would have sex with them only wanted a meal ticket for life, that she would get herself pregnant, no guarantee that it was yours and they would have to leave school for a deadend job to maintain wife and brat.

sounds like present-day reality to me

(not personally, thank God)

[kach22i]

Originally posted by Isabo
The sexually frustrated and sexually repressed only make this world more miserable. How does promoting abstinence help that?

Don't know if this statement is intended to have a political or religious slant......................it's so true in any case.

[kach22i]

Originally posted by Isabo
blowing one up and tying it onto another girl's wooly bobblehat without her noticing it.

Is that like a hat, purse or backpack? Seriously, I have no idea what a "wooly bobblehat" is.
Think I found it...........a knit hat or tuke.

[Isabo]

That's it! The wooley bobble hat of my mispelt skooldaze
The trick was to tie the condom to a thread and the thread to the bobble. Best performed when the person was sitting down in front of you such as on a bus.