Wednesday, October 31, 2007

For those who like science to back up their claims...

I know I tend to write a lot about reproductive choice, mainly because this administration works its hardest to deny it, but debating on principle alone can only get you so far. That's where science comes in, and come in strong it did. Published in the Lancet by the Guttmacher Institute and the World Health Organization, a new study investigated the occurrence and trends of abortions world wide. In summary, it found the following:

1) Abortions are less common now than a few years ago (46 million in 1995 vs 42 million in 2003)

2) In 2003, 48% of abortions were unsafe, with 97% of these occurring in developing countries

3) Western Europe, where birth control and abortion are most prevalent with little restrictions, had the lowest rate of abortions

Overall, abortion rates for developing versus developed nations were similar, even though developing nations generally had greater restrictions on access (i.e. in many it was illegal entirely). Unfortunately, the health risks for such countries are much higher, as women are more likely to have an unsafe abortion when illegal. This is even more of a reason as to why it is crucial we stop the global gag rule I referenced yesterday.

Especially in countries where it is not a legal issue, we should have no business restricting what resources health care agencies provide with non-US money. It's shocking and disappointing that we have been for so long now.

Just to be thorough, for more info on just what has been done with this administration in regards to accessing birth control and abortion services, check this out This is why your vote counts, in more ways than you'd imagine.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Global Gag Rule

Since I'm currently in lab, I'll write my thoughts on this later. But for now, care of NARAL:

On his first day in office, George W. Bush reinstated the global gag rule. This policy prohibits the United States from granting funds to any overseas health clinic unless it agrees not to use funding from any other source to provide abortion services, abortion-related advocacy, or even abortion counseling or referrals.

The global gag rule blocks women's access to family-planning services that prevent maternal and child deaths, unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortions, and the spread of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

As part of the annual foreign-aid bill, the Senate passed a full repeal of the gag rule and the House passed a partial repeal. The Senate and the House are now working on a compromise version to send to the president.

On Wednesday, October 31, the House Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a crucial hearing on the global gag rule. Check out NARAL's website to do something about this, ASAP.

Monday, October 29, 2007

Friends and Honesty

I should be asleep now, but instead I figured I'd blog about something that's been on my mind a lot lately. The question is, to what extent do you want your friends to be honest with you (and vice versa)?

I personally like to think one of the most important roles my close friends have is to call me out on my bs. They can tell me when I'm wrong, am acting too full of myself, or am taking a passive-aggressive stance on something. In this way, they help to shape me as a better person, and challenge me in new directions. Apparently, though, honesty is not always the best policy, for some friends I know are overly sensitive to certain things. And since I've never been able to lie worth a damn, I avoid the subject matter unless asked.

However, why do some people ask questions they don't want to know the answer to? I mean, I had to train my mother not to ask me about physical relationships with guys, but she finally got the message. Nothing irks me more than when people go fishing for a compliment or some other desired response, and are hurt when I tell them my honest opinion. Now, granted, I may not always give positive feedback as often as I should, and I'm working on that, because it is important to not be consistently negative toward an individual and to let someone know when you think highly of them. But asking the stereotypical "Does this dress make me look fat?" question just to have a friend tell you you look awesome is a little much. NOTE: this is not to be confused with asking a friend's advice on clothing, that is totally different and often required to leave the house looking put-together ;).

So the question is, to what degree should our friends challenge us, push us in new/uncomfortable surroundings? And to what degree are they there to support us in our actions, just because they're our friends?

Friday, October 26, 2007

Multitasking does NOT make you more productive

I know this is quite trivial, but it's been on my mind lately as I know too many people who do it. How many times have you heard someone say, "I can't study/work without the tv/radio on" ?

Now, forgive me for being blunt, but this is the biggest load of bs that way too many people convince themselves of. When you were younger and played on a sports team, what would your coach have said if you pulled out some headphones (if you dared)? She'd yell at you and tell you to focus on the game. Well, why do some people decide that it will help them with their studies? You are not concentrating 100% at the task on hand if you are doing something else. It's like the printer/fax/copier combo: yeah, it can do all three functions with one machine, but it doesn't do ANY of them particularly well. Why on earth are you going to waste your time trying to multitask when you could really focus and finish your work/studying much more quickly and thoroughly? Now, if background noise is what you want, go looking for someplace with white noise that you will actually ignore.

You know, it's the same thing with the people who go to the gym and barely break a sweat. Newsflash: be more productive with your time and you won't have to spend so much of it doing one task. Yeah, reading while on the elliptical seems like a good idea, but if you can manage to do both you aren't pushing yourself very hard exercising. You're only cheating yourself...

Phew, I feel so much better now that I got that off my chest. To all my readers to whom it applies, no offense guys, but seriously, common! Next to tackle: sleep deprivation, but this time my own ...

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Key West Ponderings... Part II

Ok, so back to my Key West storytelling.

4) Dr. Pete and friends. While we were relaxing by the pool a somewhat intoxicated middle aged man offered us drinks on his friend's (whom he called Dr. Pete) tab. Since he was friendly and was pretty much leaving us alone (and a lot of people were already drinking on Dr. Pete's check), on the 2nd offer we took him up on it. It seemed perfectly cool when we heard they all had kids at home and this was their 16th reunion. All was well until Dr. Pete's friend told us he was divorced and started paying us more attention than desired. Then we realized why the rest of the gang held back, they were nice guys who talked to Alice about her work and about their kids applying to college in very comfortable territory. I think they wanted to distinguish themselves from our initial contact since apparently he didn't understand this whole age difference thing and appropriate conversations.

All this made me wonder, what makes someone your father's age think he has a chance with you? Why are there some men who are attracted to women who are close to their daughters' age? And for less extreme examples, how exactly does one say "you're just too old for me"?

5) The Mariners. Yes, all our groups of guys have codenames, how is this different than any other guy I meet :P The mariners were the two guys who took us parasailing, one in his twenties and one in his early thirties. The younger one was pretty hot, and definitely enjoyed saying things like, "If you want to remove your clothes, now is a good time to do it", and overall just messing with us. The older one was friendly too and taught us how to tie a good knot, and they both took us on an extended tour of the harbor and swimming after we finished.

We met up with them later that night, and went to check out a country bar (yes, even key west has country bars). Except somehow it ended up being just the younger one and a couple of his friends, one of whom is officially the most boring person to talk to that I have ever met (and somehow I got stuck talking to him for extended periods of time). Now, don't get me wrong, they were all nice guys, but they were mostly born and raised in key west and were content with the lifestyle they were living (take tourists parasailing/jetskiing, go out to bars, rinse, and repeat). Since boring boy didn't even know how to flirt, there were only so many conversation starters you could try before you gave up. I know this sounds pretentious, but I realized that I quickly run out of things to say to someone who has little ambition, is largely unaware of the rest of the world, and is unable to participate in any sort of intellectual conversation. Is that a bad thing?

Anyways, overall there were some pretty obvious perks to traveling with 3 other girls: free drinks, extended tours, interesting and friendly people... did I mention free drinks? And I got to catch up with my girls, lie in the sun, and actually relax. The only bad part was coming back :)

Monday, October 15, 2007

Key West Ponderings... Part I

For those who don't already know, this past week I went to Key West with some of my closest Duke friends. In addition to all the beach and parasailing and bar hopping fun, we got to meet a bunch of interesting people, and each interaction made me think about some larger issue (shocking, I know ;)). In the order which we met them:

1) Kyle, a waiter/bartender who sat down with our table our first night there and participated in girl talk. He had a good head on his shoulders, had found his way to making decent money bartending/waiting and catching lobsters, as well as enjoying his life. One of our more entertaining conversationalists, he felt comfortable in our philosophical discussions as well as partying key west style, two things we found later to be quite distinct realms. That and he called us out for trying to define acceptability of potential guys on anything other than an individual basis, something we all tend to do to try to make dating a more rational process. In engineer speak, that's like trying to make a nonlinear process linear- it just doesn't work.

2) The band. I don't even remember their name, but they were a rock cover band who got progressively more drunk and indecent with their lyrics (and body movements) as the night went on. Oh yeah, and they also threw out sex toys to the crowd. Watching this bunch of disheveled guys perform reminded me of why every boy growing up wanted to be a rockstar: tons of wannabe groupies and adoring women throwing themselves at the band. Let me be blunt, the majority of these women wouldn't have given any of the band members the time of day normally, but because they were on stage all of a sudden they become attractive and cool. And, for some women, this means using their bodies to get up close and personal, and more. As an adolescent boy, how could this not be your dream job? And as a self-respecting woman, how can you not be weirded out by this behavior?

3) The Serbians. We had a brief encounter with 5 Serbian guys earlier at the beach, and then ran into them later at the bar. All cute and with sexy accents, and one was determined to be our alcohol sponsor for the evening. After a fun evening of flirting and dancing (and a question about whether one of the previously mentioned toys was American or European sized), our drink "sponsor" now overly drunk himself got himself in a little tiff with another customer. As his friends escorted him out, a cop starts questioning him. Alice and I being the worry-warts, decide that it is best not to leave our foreign friends with the police (who seem to be mocking him for being foreign) end up using our feminine charm to calm him down and get him home safely sans police escort or in a headlock from his friends. Free drinks and the power of feminine charm- two of the many reasons I love being a female.

The Serbians get a second point though, that we didn't realize until afterwards. When we compared notes, we all knew what each of them studied or wanted to do for a living. Only one of them bothered to ask any of us what we did (I apparently do "Brain Fucking Engineering" :) ). For being some of the most courteous, chivalrous, and friendly guys we met, the rest didn't seem to care about our careers. In fact, one explicitly told one of my friends he didn't care that she was smart (he somehow intended that as a compliment). Did their chivalry necessarily negate being impressed with female intelligence or success? Does one necessarily rule the other out?