Young Men

In HBO's new show "Girls," creator Lena Dunham conjures up an image of young men so inundated with online porn that they almost unwittingly try to reenact it in their own boudoir escapades. The show is fictional, but Stanford University psychologist Philip Zimbardo believes there's a lot of reality to it. In a new e-book, "The Demise of Guys: Why Boys Struggle and What We Can Do About It," written with Nikita Duncan, Zimbardo theorizes that all those hours spent in front of a screen - not just watching porn but playing video games too - is leaving men in the dust socially, unable to relate to women and unable to function in society.

After making "Route Irish," a dark 2010 drama about private security contractors who had been in Iraq, British filmmaker Ken Loach and his partner, Scottish screenwriter Paul Laverty, were searching for their next project. "Paul will go away and start writing a few characters down, and we will decide if we want to do it," explained Loach, 76, best known for his uncompromising political and sociological dramas such as 1998's "My Name Is Joe" and 2006's "The Wind That Shakes the Barley.

They moved through the night with names like "the Birds. " The fight was primal, about survival from block to block. But at the same time, it was fun for the young men of Misurata, an adrenaline rush, like a Jean-Claude Van Damme film come to life. From the gang leader who loved to peer at Moammar Kadafi's snipers through night-vision goggles, to the teenage fisherman who became the booby-trap king, to the young medical student who rode shotgun in his green scrubs, they were suddenly action heroes in a city under siege.

Olen Burrage, a farmer and Ku Klux Klan member who owned the Mississippi land where the bullet-riddled bodies of three civil rights workers were found buried in the 1960s, has died. He was 82. Burrage, who was acquitted on civil rights charges related to the murders, died March 15 at a medical center in Meridian, Miss., the McClain-Hays Funeral Home announced. The cause was not released. The Ku Klux Klan slaying became one of the most infamous episodes of the civil rights era and led to the 1965 passage of the Voting Rights Act, which outlawed discriminatory practices that kept African Americans from voting.

La Gaviota is a graceless homemade rowboat of ill-sawed timber and tired green canvas that will never look like its seagull namesake. But on the rocky beach here Monday, six friends labored mightily to make their craft seaworthy--for they plan to bet their lives on it. This morning they almost certainly will be between hope and desperation in the Florida Straits. In the chronicle of a failing revolution, it is a time of the young men and the sea.

Three young men armed with semiautomatic handguns forced their way into a bank vault Friday morning and escaped with an undisclosed amount of cash, authorities said. No one was injured in the 10 a.m. robbery of the Bank of America at 43501 13th Street. The robbers--between 15 and 24 years old--fled in a blue four-door car, authorities said.

Hello Kitty is no sexist. The cute cuddly white cat from Japan's Sanrio Co., usually seen on toys and jewelry for girls and young women, will soon don T-shirts, bags, watches and other products targeting young men, company spokesman Kazuo Tohmatsu said Friday. "We think Hello Kitty is accepted by young men as a design statement in fashion," he said. The feline for-men products will go on sale in Japan next month, and will be sold soon in the U.S. and other Asian nations.

Two suspects were behind bars Wednesday in connection with the shooting of three young men at a Long Beach intersection. One of the victims dated the sister of one of the suspects, who was angry about how she was being treated by the victim, said Long Beach Police Sgt. Bill Snow. The victims, two 17-year-olds and a 15-year-old, were at Obispo Avenue and 15th Street when the suspects drove up in a vehicle, got out and confronted them, said Snow.

Two young men were fatally shot early Saturday morning in separate incidents that also left one man wounded. Terry Dewayne Ross, 20, died at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana shortly after being shot about 2 a.m. in the parking lot of a 7-Eleven store at 302 E. 17th St., said Police Lt. Earl Porter. Police said Ross, a Santa Ana resident, was sitting inside a car with Stephen Eugene Strong, 22, when a group of men walked up to them.

The bodies of two young men who had been shot to death were found side by side and face-down behind a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Carson on Tuesday morning. Sheriff's homicide investigators shut down the restaurant until midafternoon while they combed the parking lot for evidence and tried to identify the bodies. Both men, described as blacks in their 20s, were fully clothed and wore white socks, but neither wore shoes. "All we know is that . . .

I had to be one of the oldest patrons at the Wilshire restaurant in Santa Monica, completely out of my element, a woman in her 40s in a sea of twentysomethings. I had been divorced for two years and rarely went out, so when my friend asked me to go dancing, I accepted. I entered this adventure with no expectations other than to let loose on the dance floor. I was self-conscious at first. My body was rigid. I felt clunky and awkward. Then I looked around and realized that no one knew me. I didn't need liquid courage; I had confidence and composure, two gifts that grace a woman with age. I closed my eyes and let my body feel the beat.

CAIRO - They are a bedraggled front line, shock troops with scabbed faces and gunshot wounds, many of them boys with runny noses and sandaled feet, standing beyond police barricades with gasoline bombs, swords and stones. They are legion, angry young men and grade school dropouts without jobs, prospects or political ideologies. They battle Egyptian police through the fog of tear gas, advancing and retreating over charred streets and shattered glass. They are as persistent as horseflies, an endless buzz at the edge of protest.

MOSCOW - They have discovered a world where no rules or laws apply, where they can be heroes, if only for a few terrifying minutes. They are skywalkers, or roofers, as they proudly call themselves. The craze, which is believed to have started a few years back with a couple of young Russians, now has hundreds of followers here and thousands of others around the globe. It works this way: The roofers climb a skyscraper, a construction crane, a tall monument, a tower or a bridge.

CAIRO -- Young men and boys clashed with security forces as tens of thousands of Egyptians protested Friday against the Islamist-led government's failure to fix the economy and heal the politically divided nation two years after the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak. The anniversary of the revolution that led to Mubarak's downfall was marked more by rancor than joy as familiar and troubling scenes played out across the country: Rock-throwing youths lunging at police through clouds of tear gas while peaceful demonstrators waved banners and shouted epithets against those in power.

Gunfire erupted from a vehicle, wounding five people, about 30 minutes after a parade honoring Martin Luther King Jr. passed a New Orleans intersection, police said. The parade was one of numerous events nationwide honoring the slain civil rights leader, perhaps the most famous modern advocate of peaceful civil disobedience, on the federal holiday created for him. “It's the state of affairs in our nation that young men do not heed the words of Martin Luther King Jr.,” New Orleans Police Supt.

NEW ORLEANS - When they were quick and strapping young men - their hair still blond, brown or black - they fought for their country. On Saturday, their country said thank you. Officially, the occasion was the dedication of a new $35-million pavilion at the National World War II Museum here. Tom Brokaw spoke, as did two U.S. senators and various dignitaries. Visitors studied the vintage aircraft, including a B-29 and P-51 Mustang hanging from the ceiling of the imposing U.S. Freedom Pavilion: The Boeing Center.

A confrontation between two groups of youths outside a popular recreation arcade left three young men wounded Friday night, the second shooting incident near the arcade since August. The youths, aged 16, 18 and 19, suffered gunshot wounds to the legs and buttocks, police said. All three victims were treated at local hospitals and released.

Five teenagers were shot to death in New Orleans early Saturday in a brazen crime that has shaken the city and police as returning residents struggle to regain their footing after Hurricane Katrina. Police said the young men, ages 16 to 19, were sprayed with bullets while sitting in a sport utility vehicle in the working-class Central City neighborhood, which is notorious for drug trafficking. The victims' names had not been released.

TRIPOLI, Lebanon - Late that evening, Abdel Hakim Ibrahim finally confirmed his father's worst fear: He had left for Syria. "I've crossed the border: Please forgive me," he said in a text message as midnight approached. "God be with you. " That was the last his family heard from Ibrahim, 19, a student described as introverted and pious. Ibrahim is among Lebanon's lost young men - 21 who reportedly disappeared into neighboring Syria one evening late last month and walked straight into a Syrian army ambush.

When it comes to homeland security, we've been seduced for more than a decade by a "preemptive" mandate that directs us to catch terrorists before they strike next. Where law enforcement once investigated crimes to determine who was responsible and how they could be prosecuted, it now also gathers intelligence to prevent potential future crimes. This mandate, however, has been characterized by a distinct absence of actual terrorist plots. Instead, we've seen an increasingly familiar pattern - the most recent case in the last few weeks involved four young Southern Californians who were arrested in a case built largely by a well-paid informant.