Liquid Nonsense

This seems a fine a day as any to attempt a new posting format. Here's how I envision this working:

1) I will offer a statement, or series of statements, intermixed with various questions related to potentially corresponding issues. For instance: During my childhood my parents routinely gave me vanilla ice cream, does that imply chocolate ice cream is not fit for child consumption or that it is simply not a hallmark of my youth?

2) You, the reader, will then formulate some kind of response. I'm more interested to see what forms these may take and what questions generate the most volume. Preferably they may be comments posted here or extended entries posted in your own blog (though I request a link be provided in the comments to maintain a more aggregate body of work if you write a response elsewhere).

My friends are a highly diversified lot and often questions I pose tend to generate extremely varied responses. This is my effort to create an academic exercise so people can flex the brain I know they have. This one will consist of two questions. Feel free to respond to one or both.

Reading 1: "Slut pride") Margaret Cho has often self-identified as being a slut, and generally asking where her parade is going to be held. Though slut is a term we hear often, it can mean several different things depending upon context. For some of us, myself included, it can be a term of endearment. However, it is also potentially a firebrand used by others to indicate disapproval of promiscuity. From your own perspective, is "slut" a term that you identify with or aspire to, or is it a term that you would find highly offensive if directed toward you? If you do identify with it do you consider it a point of strength, or a vice you have simply been caught with? For those that find it offensive please elaborate and provide a context for why it is used negatively or why it indicates something you would never want to be identified with. Consider social implications, long term personal goals, experiences, and sexual wants. Also, identify your criteria for using the term and what constitutes a person being a slut versus not being a slot. Are these fairly black and white criteria, or do they provide a full gradient of grays with blurred boundaries and exceptions? Lastly, does the context (or the answers to) of the previous questions change if we add the Spring Break effect, that is to say "What happens on Spring Break, stays on Spring Break" (ethics in a vacuum)?

Reading 2: "Defrost on high") Combinations of modern medicine and science have potentially brought us the gift of receiving treatment for our terminal illnesses in the future. The proposed solution is that we essentially let people "die" today and then cryogenically preserve their body so that we may resuscitate them at an unknown point in the future when medicine is capable of correcting their ailments. Do you agree with long term cryogenic preservation, and if so, why or why not? Though no successful attempts have been made to restore one of these individuals, it is largely guess work at this point. Would you allow a loved one to undergo cryostasis if they requested it? If so, what if the treatment was only available through the usage of this individual's entire life insurance plan? Furthermore, consider the psychological shock imposed on an individual that is now potentially hundreds of years out of context. Your education is primarily useless and you would have no understanding of the pop culture of when you are restored (consider someone from the 17th century attempting to browse the Internet). It may not even be on Earth. How substantially would that alter the remainder of your life, and does that psychological shock still seem worth it for the chance to artificially extend your life? Discuss the potential outcomes and pitfalls of a world where indeterminate medical preservation is possible. Be sure to state your assumptions.