I am developing a new empathy for the past respiratory problems of my friends that smoke, though. Participant observation in hacking coughs. I have also learned that my idea of taking up smoking (to add another socially acceptable stimulant to my life) is probably a bad one.
![Oxo Redesigns the Common Syringe [via]Most syringes are designed for experts, rather than patients—and that makes self-administered shots all the more tricky. So OXO—better known for its ingenious ergonomics solutions for the kitchen—teamed up with UCB, a pharmaceutical company, to design a syringe that’s as safe and easy-to-use as possible.](http://30.media.tumblr.com/vkZNIX0TMosu4l6vSB2J79Pyo1_400.jpg)
Oxo Redesigns the Common Syringe [via]
Most syringes are designed for experts, rather than patients—and that makes self-administered shots all the more tricky. So OXO—better known for its ingenious ergonomics solutions for the kitchen—teamed up with UCB, a pharmaceutical company, to design a syringe that’s as safe and easy-to-use as possible.
Here’s the thing: If you’re old enough to be having sex, you’re old enough to be using Plan B. Clinical trials have shown that it’s actually extremely safe, and there are absolutely no health reasons for restricting it to women 17 and older, or 18 and older. There simply aren’t. There are only political reasons and moral reasons.
And those moral reasons aren’t coherent. Because if a 15-year-old woman is freely consenting to sex, and there is some kind of mishap that leads her to need plan B, she should be able to get it. And if a 15-year-old isn’t freely consenting to sex, but a man is raping her, then she needs plan B even more. Why does the government think that possibly being saddled with a pregnancy will make men stop raping women? It hasn’t worked before. Men still find ways to rape women, even when the threat of pregnancy is there. Men still found ways to rape women before there was birth control.
— Plan Be
A lecture by João Biehl [via]
This is just a collection of things I think are neat.
A general overview of 'things I think are neat':abandonment/the post-industrial midwest, anarchism (syndicalism, insurrectionalism, etc), race/ethnicity (esp. defining/constructing the boundaries of whiteness), gender, class (talking/thinking about class generally seems to be an underrated activity), health care (access to, the experience of obtaining, etc), art, science fiction, punk music, conservative talk radio and anthropology (which probably incorporates almost everything else about people).
