The Weirdest Sex Manuals Throughout History

Want 2400-year-old Viagra? Try bee stings. 

By Johannah King-Slutzky

Everyone knows that the sexual revolution invented sex, right? Oh, people have been doing this for millennia? With Masters of Sex premiering Sunday, it's clear sex how-to is more than a one-off source of fixation. But what did sex manuals look like before contemporary iterations like The Lovers' Guide or Savage Love? Nerve scavenged Google Books to find out just how variable (and seemingly ahead-of-its-time) sex advice can be. Some of it's beautiful, some of it's weird, some of it's eerily prescient: Here's our favorite historical sex advice. (Illustrations might be NSFW.)

1. The School of Venus, 1680

This premodern sex manual is surprisingly frank about sexuality, covering seemingly anachronistic ground like condoms, female orgasms, and fuck buddies. Samuel Pepys, noted diarist, called it "the most bawdy, lewd book that ever I saw" -- and then bought it. Excerpts and illustrations below. (h/t The Appendix)

2. An ABZ of Love, 1963

A favorite of Kurt Vonnegut's, this tender sex manual authored by Danish couple Inge and Sten Hegeler promises: "aspects of sexual relationships seen from a slightly different standpoint.” In the Hegelers' case, that meant a progressive approach to LGBT rights, sexism, and family-oriented sex ed, often penned in a sweet, wry tone.

"We are none of us so full of common sense as we would like to think ourselves. So there are two paths we can take: one is try to deny and suppress our emotions and force ourselves to think sensibly. In this way we run the risk of fooling ourselves. The other way is to admit to our emotions, accept our feelings and let them come out into the daylight. By being suspicious of all the judgments we pass on the basis of what we feel (and not until then) we shall taken a step towards becoming practitioners of common sense."

 

h/t Brainpickings.

 

3. Private Sex Advice To Women, 1917

Penned by R.B. Armitage, M.D., this guide for "For Young Wives and Those Who Soon Expect To Be Married" is morally a mixed bag. On the one hand, Armitage spends several chapters talking about the major hip new technology of his time, eugenics. Not so great. But there's also advice that sounds surprisingly contemporary, namely, on the ethics of birth control and abortion. It's still just another old white guy talking to women about their bodies; but it's pretty cool that he grasped the importance of planned parenthood and the weight of such a personal choice before there was a Planned Parenthood or Pro Choice. The more things change...

"One of the most distressing features of the popular prejudice against Birth Control, arising from a total misconception of the subject, has been the widely spread and popularly accepted notion that Birth Control is practically analogous to abortion[...]. We realize that in exercising control over the entrance gate of life we are not fully performing, consciously and deliberately, a great human duty, but carrying on rationally a beneficial process which has, more blindly and wastefully, been carried on since the beginning of the world. There are still a few persons ignorant enough or foolish enough to fight against the advance of civilization in this matter; we can well afford to leave them severely alone, knowing that in a few years all of them will have passed away. It is not our business to defend the control of birth, but simply discuss how we may most wisely exercise that control." (Via.)

4. Kama Sutra, 400 BCE-200 CE

Everybody knows the Kama Sutra is kinky. But what you probably didn't know is that its fascinations don't stop at the art of human pretzels. In Sanskrit Kama means sensual pleasure (one of the four goals of Hindu life) and Sutra, the root-word for English's "sew," means thread. All told, the Kama Sutra is a vast compendium of prose, poetry, and (eventually) illustration which served as both a practical guide to sex and a long treatise on love, family, and well-being. But while beautiful, to modern eyes it can get downright weird. For example, want 2400 year old Viagra? Try bee stings.

"When a man wishes to enlarge his lingam, he should rub it with the bristles of certain insects that live in trees, and then, after rubbing it for ten nights with oils, he should again rub it with the bristles as before. By continuing to do this a swelling will be gradually produced in the lingam, and he should then lie on a cot, and cause his lingam to hang down through a hole in the cot. After this he should take away all the pain from the swelling by using cool concoctions. The swelling, which is called 'Suka', and is often brought about among the people of the Dravida country, lasts for life.” (Via)

5. The Canons of Theodore, ca. 900

Contrary to popular belief, the Catholic church was a rapidly changing institution over the course of the 500 some odd years that make up what we now call "the Medieval Era." Penitentials are one such artifact of that transitioning. First compiled by Irish monks in the 6th century, penitentials are little handbooks that detail the sins a monk might be likely to hear in confession.Though they might cover anything from murder to eating habits, sex was the main course for these monastic manuals. The Canons of Theodore, whose manuscript is featured below, is one example. The proscribed punishments in these things aren't that weird -- just seemingly arbitrary. But the many yays and nays of monastically approved sex in the 10th century are totally wacky. (See: flowchart.) 

(Via.)

 

6. The Pillow Book, 1002

No that's not a zipcode-- it's the year Lady Sei Shonagon completed her surprisingly fresh collection of musings on life, love, and the art of negging. The Pillow Book belongs to a genre of writing called zuihitsu, which -- and I'm sure I'm mincing culture horribly here -- was more or less collected bedside Post-it notes. Very bloggerly. The Pillow Book feels particularly anachronistic because it was written by a woman, so instead of getting some kind of 11th century Act Like A Lady pulp, you end up with chapters called "Men Have Really Strange Emotions." No joke. Want some commentary on celebrities schtupping the maid? The Pillow Book's got you covered: "Sometimes a man will leave a very pretty woman to marry an ugly one." Or how about what it's like to order from ModCloth? "It is a great pleasure when the ornamental comb that one has ordered turns out to be pretty."

Image via Tumblr.

"I greatly enjoy taking in someone who is pleased with himself and who has a self-confident look, especially if he is a man. It is amusing to observe him as he alertly waits for my next repartee; but it is also interesting if he tried to put me off my guard by adopting an air of calm indifference as if there were not a thought in his head. I realize that it is very sinful of me, but I cannot help being pleased when someone I dislike has a bad experience."

Pakistan's Earthquake Was So Powerful It Created a New Island

Twitter: @Senator_Baloch

By Connor Simpson

A major earthquake struck southwestern Pakistan earlier today killing over 100 people; injuring thousands more; collapsing building and houses; and, incredibly, causing a small island to form in the sea off Pakistan's coastline.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake that hit Pakistan's Baluchistan province early Tuesday morning was a 7.8 magnitude. Officials recently said that at least 150 people died during the quake, with that number expected to rise as the Pakistani military continues the clean up. Many one-level houses in the impoverished area where the quake hit collapsed on the people inside.

In addition to the physical damage, the power and force of the quake was underscored by the small, visible island that rose off the coast of Gwadar in the Arabian Sea. Reuters reports "a crowd of bewildered people [gathered] on the shore to witness the rare phenomenon." Pakistan's Geo News reports "the island's altitude is 20 to 40 feet and width around 100 feet," and that the island is roughly 350 feet off shore, citing deputy inspector general Moazzam Jah. Arif Mahmood, the head of Pakistan's meteorological department, says they're planning to investigate further.

The new island is certainly interesting because most earthquakes rarely have such a drastic effect on the world surface. The last time an earthquake caused such a drastic change, according to i09's Annalee Newitz, was when an 8.8-magnitude quake in Chile altered the country's coastline.

Unfortunately, the damage to Pakistan and its people is more than just cosmetic. While information is still rapidly changing, some experts believe the number of casualties could rise dramatically over the next few days. Two people who created their own independent systems to estimate earthquake damage believe that, based on location and magnitude, between 1,000 and 4,600 people died in today's earthquake. For now, the official totals are much lower than that.

[Image via Sana Baloch via Twitter]

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Working As Professor Again

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a man who has been one of the most powerful men in Iran in the last couple of years and gave the West headaches through his fiery rhetoric about Israel and the development of the Iran’s nuclear program, has returned to his original profession, teaching.

Photo: RTS

After the expiry of his second term he decided to withdraw from political life and start working again as a professor and teach at the University of Science and Technology.

Photo: RTS

A situation where the highest state official and a man who wielded enormous power subsequently returns to his  humble position as a university professor job is hard to imagine.

However, the former Iranian president now takes the a bus to work every day and, judging by the photo, looks content.

Source: inserbia.info

Meet the C-17, the 'workhorse' of the US Air Force

The ample airlifter has supported missions both martial and humanitarian. Now Boeing has delivered its last one to the Air Force as it gets ready to power down its C-17 assembly lines.

By Jonathan Skillings

The final Boeing C-17 Globemaster III for the US Air Force takes off from a Boeing facility in Long Beach, Calif., on September 12, 2013.(Credit: Boeing)

Fighter jets have the sizzle. Bombers bring the oomph. But cargo aircraft like the C-17 Globemaster can always take pride in doing a good day's work.

The C-17 likely has many years of service ahead of it, but the US Air Force won't be getting any new ones any more. Manufacturer Boeing earlier this month delivered its final C-17 to the Air Force, bring the total over the last 20 years to 223. It has also delivered 34 additional Globemasters to other customers in the UK, India, and elsewhere.

The big cargo carrier has seen duty both in war zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan, and in humanitarian efforts including Hurricane Katrina relief in 2005 and post-Fukushima cleanup in 2011.
"C-17s are the workhorse for the U.S. Air Force in wartime and in peace," said Chris Chadwick, Boeing Military Aircraft president, in a statement marking the final delivery.

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And these are big aircraft: 174 feet long and 55 feet high, with a wingspan of just under 170 feet and a maximum gross takeoff weight of 585,000 pounds. (The max payload capacity is a brawny 170,900 pounds). Even so, the C-17 Globemaster III can operate from "small, austere airfields" with runways as short as 3,500 feet, according to the Air Force.

The maiden flight of the C-17 was September 15, 1991, almost exactly 22 years to the day ahead of the first flight of the 223rd C-17 on September 12 of this year. The Air Force first took delivery of a production model in June 1993.

While Boeing has completed its contractual obligations to the Air Force, it still has a smattering of C-17 aircraft to build, an additional 22 for other customers around the world. But then that's it -- save, of course, for years of support and modernization yet to come. Boeing said this week that it will finally cease C-17 production in 2015.

A loadmaster (center) greets troops boarding a C-17 Globemaster III in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in July 2013.

(Credit: Photo by Staff Sgt. Krystie Martinez)

Dining with Al Qaeda

By Anna Therese Day

An American reporter in Syria sits down to talk to four Western-educated, radical jihadists about the war and what they think Washington should do. By Anna Therese Day.

I knocked over my tea. The explosion outside the house in northern Syria startled me. But the Pakistani, the Kuwaiti, and the two Saudi fighters breaking the Ramadan fast with me seemed unperturbed. “You wouldn’t be so scared if you had Allah, Anna!” one of them said.

Fighters from the Islamist Syrian rebel group Jabhat al-Nusra clean their weapons in Aleppo December 24, 2012. (Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters)

The four young men were members of a group called the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Shams—more commonly known as ISIS. It is an organization that has close ties to Al Qaeda. One of the quandaries for Washington as it approaches greater involvement in Syria is how to try to bring down the hated Assad government, accused of using chemical weapons on its own people, without handing power—and perhaps those weapons—to radical jihadists such as ISIS. For their part, these men wanted to convince me of the righteousness of their cause.

All four of my dinner companions had left their respective countries to join the “Syrian jihad against the Shia donkeys,” as one put it; each said he was eager for his turn to become a “martyr for the global jihad.” Yet, despite our many differences, our table shared three common characteristics: we are all under 30, we are all Western-educated college graduates, and we all speak fluent English.

 “I first started learning English from American cartoons, but when I got older, I really liked Boy Meets World. Do you know it?” asked 22-year-old Ayman. With his wide brown eyes and a patchy attempt-at-a-beard, he looked like a teenager next to his older brother and their stone-faced friends.

Had we not been just miles away from the battlefield of Aleppo, much of the dinner conversation would have been normal chatter among peers: the young men asked about my family, my schooling, and of course, my love life. They spoke fondly of their college days in Canada and the United Kingdom, and said they hoped to find a Syrian bride because “Syrian and Lebanese [women] are the most beautiful of the Muslims.”

Yet, paradoxically, as they talked about building a future on this earth, they also talked about a future in Paradise, as martyred suicide bombers. “It is a dream,” said Mohammed, his eyes glazing over as he spoke. The 24-year-old Kuwaiti engineering graduate explained that the selection process for suicide missions is very competitive and that “becoming a martyr” during Ramadan specifically is “like extra points with Allah.” Among its recent operations, ISIS carried out suicide attacks against the Mennagh Airbase of northern Syria, which was later seized by the rebels.

“Tell America: we will fight you where ever you kill more Muslims. We are ready when you are.”

“ISIS has proven remarkably adept at spreading their military resources across large swathes of territory, joining battles at the pivotal moment, and exploiting their superior organizational structures to establish political control and influence over territory,” says Charles Lister, an analyst at IHS Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Centre in London. Of the numerous armed groups in the Syrian opposition, ISIS is not one of the larger forces. Various estimates put their numbers somewhere between 3,000 and 5,000 fighters. Yet their affiliation with the decade-old Islamic State of Iraq organization, once led by the infamous Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has afforded them the international financial support and guerrilla combat experience necessary to set them apart from the local Syrian groups.

Before they joined ISIS, Ayman and his older brother, Ahmad, were part of the group called Jabhat al-Nusra. “We are like the special forces here,” brags Ahmad. They switched to ISIS when the current Islamic State of Iraq leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, announced the merger of the two groups in April. The merger was later rejected by both Jabhat al-Nusra leader Abu Golani in Syria, and by the core al-Qaeda head Ayman al-Zawahiri, presumed to be hiding in Pakistan. But, despite minor clashes, the two groups have coordinated operations with other opposition forces in and around the cities of Aleppo, Idlib, al-Raqqa, and Deir ez Zour.

“ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra are essentially friendly rivals in that both groups represent themselves as the al-Qaeda presence in Syria,” explains Lister. “Politically, the two groups have subtly different outlooks, with Jabhat al-Nusra still stressing its Syrian nature and the limitation of its objectives to the Syrian theater. Conversely, ISIS has a more transnational look.”

That international aspect is precisely what brought Faraz, a 24-year-old Pakistani to ISIS. Faraz, who lived for seven years in the UK, spoke passionately about Western human rights abuses in the Muslim world, and said he returned to Pakistan to stand with his fellow Pakistanis against “the new era of American drone wars.” After two years in Pakistan, he moved to Syria because he realized there’s “actually a war against the entire Muslim world by the US, Israel, Europe and Iran.” (He does not consider those who practice Shia Islam, the dominant religion of Iran, to be Muslim. The Assad regime in Syria is largely composed of Alawites, who belong to another Shia-linked sect regarded as heretical by Al-Qaeda and other Sunni extremists.)

These young men agreed to an interview with an American publication in secret and on the conditions of anonymity, each seeing value in sharing his perspective with Western audiences. This openness is a major departure from the party lines of both ISIS and al-Nusra, both of which have been linked to the kidnapping of Western reporters and aid workers. Dozens of journalists have been taken hostage since the Syrian conflict began, with the numbers spiking in recent months. Al-Nusra and ISIS also have been accused of kidnapping members of the opposition that disagree with them.

Mohammed vehemently denied these claims. “We only detain spies—regime spies, Western spies, and spies from Iran. This is a war so we have to do what is necessary to make us strong enough to defeat the Shia,” he insisted.

“If any of the prisoners are really journalists, then I am sorry for that,” shrugged Ayman. “But a million journalists have told the Syrian story, and no story has changed the situation. So if we have to choose between our security and that the world will wake up from one article, of course we will choose our security! We are up against the E-Army [hackers who support the Syrian regime], Iran, the CIA, and the Israelis so we have to!”

Despite their animosity towards the United States and its allies, over the course of several meetings, all four men consistently called for Washington to arm the rebels with more sophisticated weaponry. In the most recent interviews, however, the tone shifted to a deeper mistrust and paranoia about Western involvement in Syria.

“Even if I didn’t have this, I wouldn’t take one from the Americans,” said Faraz, as he patted his Kalashnikov. “The Israelis would make sure it exploded in my hand. You [Americans] have your reasons to get involved now, and the reasons are not humanitarian.” He recited a long litany of U.S. military actions in the Muslim world that rarely if ever saved lives, and most often brought death and destruction.

“If the U.S. dares to ‘put boots on the ground’ here, they need to know that we will blow them out of Syria,” said Mohammed, staring intensely. “If they want another battle with us, we are ready for them like we are in Afghanistan, like we are in Iraq. If the US cared about the Syrian people, they would have done something before 100,000 Muslims [Syrians] were killed.”

With this, Faraz added: “Tell America: we will fight you where ever you kill more Muslims. We are ready when you are.”

First Indian-Origin Woman Crowned Miss America

Miss New York Nina Davuluri poses for photographers following her crowning as Miss America 2014.

The Miss America pageant has crowned its first winner of Indian heritage.

Moments after winning the 2014 crown, 24 year-old Nina Davuluri described how delighted she is that the nearly century-old pageant sees beauty and talent of all kinds.

“I’m so happy this organization has embraced diversity,” she said in her first press conference after winning the crown in Atlantic City, New Jersey’s Boardwalk Hall. “I’m thankful there are children watching at home who can finally relate to a new Miss America.”

The 24 year-old Miss New York’s talent routine was a Bollywood fusion dance.

The native of Syracuse, New York wants to be a doctor, and is applying to medical school, with the help of a $50,000 (38,000) scholarship she won as part of the pageant title.

She is the second consecutive Miss New York to win the Miss America crown, succeeding Mallory Hagan, who was selected in January when the pageant was still held in Las Vegas. The Miss America Organization will compensate Hagan for her shortened reign.

Ms. Davuluri’s victory led to some negative comments on Twitter from users upset that someone of Indian heritage had won the pageant. She brushed those aside.

“I have to rise above that,” she said. “I always viewed myself as first and foremost American.”

“I am very, very, happy for the girl. It was her dream and it was fulfilled,” 89 year-old V. Koteshwaramma said by phone from her home in the city of Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh.

She said there are numerous doctors in the family, both in the U.S. and India, and that if her granddaughter wants to become one, “I am sure she will do it.”

Ms. Davuluri had planned to go to the scene of a devastating boardwalk fire in the New Jersey communities of Seaside Park and Seaside Heights Monday afternoon. But pageant officials cancelled that visit after learning that Governor Chris Christie was making cabinet officials available at that same time to business owners victimized by the fire.

Ms. Davuluri will visit at an unscheduled future date, pageant officials said early on Monday.

She will still make the traditional frolic in the Atlantic City surf Monday morning.

In the run-up to the pageant, much attention was given to Miss Kansas, Theresa Vail, the Army sergeant who was believed to have been the first Miss America contestant to openly display tattoos. She has the Serenity Prayer on her rib cage, and a smaller military insignia on the back of one shoulder.

Ms. Vail won a nationwide “America’s Choice” vote to advance as a semi-finalist, but failed to make it into the Top 10.

In a Twitter message on Sunday before the finals began, Ms. Vail wrote: “Win or not tonight, I have accomplished what I set out to do. I have empowered women. I have opened eyes.”

Ms. Jones made it into the top 5 wearing a bedazzled knee brace. She tore knee ligaments on Thursday while rehearsing her baton-twirling routine, which she executed flawlessly on Sunday night.

The pageant had pitted 53 contestants one from each state, plus District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands in swimsuit, evening gown, talent and interview competitions.

The Same Type Of Gun Was Used In The Navy Yard Shooting, Sandy Hook, And The Aurora Shooting

If you aren’t familiar with it, meet the AR-15. posted on September 16, 2013 at 4:59pm EDT

This is an AR-15-style semi-automatic assault weapon. Currently there are no federal restrictions on owning one.

Since 2012, the AR-15-style assault rifle has been involved in seven different large-scale shootings.

Charles Krupa / AP

July 20, 2012: Twelve people were killed and 70 others were injured when James Holmes opened fire in a movie theater.

Stringer / Reuters

Dec. 11, 2012: Two people were killed and a third was seriously wounded in Clackamas County, Ore., when Jacob Roberts opened fire in a local shopping mall.

STEVE DIPAOLA / Reuters

Dec. 14, 2012: Adam Lanza killed 26 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School using a AR-15-style Bushmaster semi-automatic rifle.

newtownbee.com

Feb. 19, 2013: Six people were shot and four were killed by Ali Syed in the cities of Tustin, Ladera Ranch, and Orange, Calif.

Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images

May 22, 2013: Jonathan Shank opened fire at a police officer in Longmont, Colo. The police officer was uninjured; Shank ended up in critical condition.

Greg Lindstrom / AP

June 13, 2013: John Zawahri went on a shooting rampage in Santa Monica, killing five people and injuring four others.

AP

Sept. 16, 2013: Suspected gunman Aaron Alexis allegedly shot and killed 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard reported as carrying a AR-15 military-style semi-automatic rifle.

Images via wjla.com

44 of the world’s 72 tallest buildings are Cheating

By Gwynn Guilford

There's a lot of puff built into the world's tallest buildings. AP Photo/Shiva Menon/Solent News/Rex Features

 

​Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat

It turns out that most of the world’s tallest buildings are doing the architectural equivalent of wearing platform shoes. That is, they’re scraping skies courtesy of dozens—sometimes hundreds—of meters of “vanity height,” says a new report (pdf) by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), first spotted by io9. That’s the term CTBUH uses to describe the distance between the highest floor occupied and the top of the building. Here are some of the report’s most startling facts:

61% of the world’s supertall buildings need vanity height to qualify

It turns out that 61% of the world’s “supertall” buildings—those over 300 meters (984 feet)—wouldn’t be so super if not for their vanity height. China’s 390-meter CITIC Plaza, in Guangzhou, is the tallest building to be knocked off the list if vanity height is discounted. (It would shrink to 296 meters.)

Who’s the vainest of them all?

With a vanity height of 39% of its total, the Burj al Arab in Dubai is the vainest of the supertall buildings. On the other hand, Dubai also has the least vain supertall building; a mere 1% of the tower known as The Index counts as vanity height (it lacks a spire).

If you broaden the search to buildings that are simply tall, Moscow’s Ukraina Hotel is the vainest of them all; 42% of its 206 meters comes from vanity space.

Vain sisters: the New York Times Tower on the left, Bank of America Tower on the right.Reuters/Gary Hershorn

New York City is really vain

When One World Trade Center is completed in 2014, New York City will have three of the “tallest 10 Vanity Heights,” says CTBUH. Bank of America Tower has 36% vanity height, while the New York Times Tower has 31%. Just shy of 30% of One World Trade Center is slated to be unoccupied.

So is the UAE

The United Arab Emirates’ 19 supertall buildings have, on average, vanity heights of 19%, followed by China’s average of 14% for its 24 buildings. And while only 42% of China’s 24 supertalls wouldn’t qualify as supertall without their vanity heights, 68% of UAE’s 19 wouldn’t.

​Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat

But even without its vanity height, the Burj Khalifa still wins

As CTBUH points out, if the vanity height portion of the Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, were a standalone building in Europe, at 244 meters it would be the continent’s 11th-tallest building. But even if you’re counting height based solely on the highest occupied floor, the Burj Khalifa would still win:

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​​Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat

 

source: qz.com

In China, Being Retweeted 500 times Can Get You 3 Years in Prison

By Gwynn Guilford

Big Brother is scrutinizing every fleeting word. Reuters/Carlos Barria

 

Details of a new law issued by China’s supreme court are bound to make loose talkers on Sina Weibo and other social media platforms think twice before speaking freely. The law says that any libelous posts or messages will be considered “severe” breaches of the law if they are visited or clicked on more than 5,000 times or forwarded (or “retweeted,” in Western parlance) more than 500 times. Those found guilty could face up to three years in jail, reports Reuters, citing Chinese state media.

As if that weren’t alarming enough, the threshold for being charged with this crime includes offenses as vague and subjective as “damaging the national image” and “causing adverse international effects.”

The law is the latest attempt to crack down on “black PR firms,” companies that make money from removing unflattering information from the internet. Among other things, black PR firms often target companies, spreading gossip or misinformation about them, and then approaching them for payment in exchange for removing the smear campaign. It’s a big business; as TechinAsia pointed out recently, the Sina Weibo accounts controlled by a huge black PR firm that was just busted had a total audience of 220 million followers.

As Caixin reports, since the campaign against “rumor-mongering” and “spreading false information” picked up in June, Shanghai police have opened more than 380 cases, while Henan police have investigated a whopping 463 cases, making 131 arrests. And it’s not just Sina Weibo; TechinAsia reports that police are also watching Tencent’s WeChat, which is organized mainly around private circles of friends.

But for every big black PR firm bust, authorities also seem to be ensnaring a lot of innocent users of social media.

For example, in late August, a women in Anhui province posted on Sina Weibo that 16 people died in a car accident that had just taken place, when the death toll was only 10. Local police placed her under “administrative detention” for five days as punishment for “spreading rumors.” In another case, a 20-year-old Anhui woman was imprisoned for posting the comment “I heard there was a murder in Louzhuang—is there anyone who knows what actually happened?” on a Baidu discussion board. The post, which was clicked on 1,000 times, counted as “disrupting social order” (link in Chinese).

In late August, a Weibo user stoked online discussion with a post saying that the “five heroes of Langya Mountain”—martyrs in the war against the Japanese who are a source of Communist Party pride—had actually been army deserters who oppressed the local villagers of Langya, and that the latter eventually gave them up to the Japanese. This, determined the local police, “created unhealthy social effects” (link in Chinese). Authorities arrested and held the Weibo user under administrative detention for seven days. Something similar happened with four people who “defamed” the Party mascot, Lei Feng.

The new clarifications have big implications for harmless online chatter. If the posts of an amateur historian or inquisitive citizen garner enough attention, the author could face three years in prison.