ThingsOrdinary

In the unpublished study, "Money, Sex, and Happiness," researchers from Dartmouth College and Warwick University (UK) found that people who consider themselves happiest are those who are having the most sex. The study does not claim that having sex causes happiness or vice versa. But of the 16,000 people in the research sample, happiness was associated with sex for both women and men and people under and over the age of 40. And despite the notion that money can buy happiness, researchers found little — if any — connection between increased wealth and long-term happiness.


http://www.plannedparenthood.org/pp2/portal/files/portal/webzine/sexualityhealth/feas-050713-sex-happiness.xml

(From Planned Parenthood)

Legislators in 12 states — Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, and West Virginia — have introduced bills this year to ban nearly all abortions. Even in the traditionally pro-choice state of Massachusetts, Governor Mitt Romney (R) announced this month that he would sign a bill outlawing most abortions if it ever reached his desk.



The current wave of state abortion bans is a serious, direct threat to our most basic, fundamental rights — one that has severe repercussions for all Americans.

Sadly, the bans are just one part of an ongoing anti-choice, legislative strategy to deny women their right to determine whether and when to have children. State politicians across the country are creating a gauntlet of legislation to restrict abortion — and women are paying the price with their health and safety.

For example, a number of states currently have laws on the books that force women to receive biased, state-mandated lectures before they get an abortion. These so-called "counseling" requirements can force health care providers to dispense medically inaccurate information to women, such as the suggestion of a link between abortion and breast cancer — a link that has been proven false time and again.

At the state level, more than 860 choice-related bills have been introduced or carried over in the first two months of the 2006 legislative session. While some have been proactive efforts to protect reproductive rights, the majority have been attempts to restrict those rights.

Read More: http://www.plannedparenthood.org/pp2/portal/files/portal/webzine/newspoliticsactivism/fean-060309-states-abortion.xml

HPV(Human Papillomavirus), more commonly known as genital warts, effects nearly 50% of college aged people in the US, and most of them have no idea they have it.



Infection with human papillomavirus (HPV) is a major risk factor for preinvasive and invasive cervical cancer. In this randomized, multicenter, industry-sponsored clinical trial, researchers evaluated a vaccine against HPV type 16, which is present in half of all cases of invasive cervical cancer and high-grade intraepithelial lesions.

One can anticipate a number of challenges to widespread use of such a vaccine: In the U.S., where the federal government supports vaccination of children, will there be political obstacles to funding a vaccine that makes sex safer? Given that the main beneficiaries of an HPV vaccine will be women, will parents of teen boys balk at having their sons vaccinated? In less developed countries where invasive cervical cancer is most prevalent, will cost considerations and the need for 3 injections limit vaccine use?

Read Article: http://womens-health.jwatch.org/cgi/content/full/2003/108/1

Think again, America. Not so promising views on the oil situation and the value of the American dollar:

1. http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=%20CU20060209&articleId=1926

2. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060505/ap_on_bi_ge/iran_oil_euros_1

3. http://www.energybulletin.net/2877.html

4. http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ta?s=OIH&t=my&l=on&z=m&q=l&p=m50,m200&a=&c=

5. http://www.rutledgeblog.com/askrutl/archives/cat_global_economy.html

Every week I go to this local graphic design meetup here in Charlotte, NC. We get together at a bar, talk about design, look at each others work, give job leads, etc. It's a great networking environment, and the people are really down to earth and friendly.

The last time I went, there were several new attendees, which is always good because it brings new topics to the table. However, there was this strange guy there. What I mean by strange is he could not take his eyes off of me for more than 30 seconds at a time. All I could see out of my peripherial vision is dude just gawking like a 13-year-old boy seeing porn for the first time. It was VERY disturbing. I tapped my friend on the shoulder and asked her to observe him for the next few minutes, just to make sure I wasn't over reacting. About ten minutes goes by and she says, "Yeah, that's really creepy."

After ignoring the entire announcements portion of the meeting to gawk like a serial rapist, he comes up to talk to me. He introduces himself, and I mumble my name and turn to talk to someone else. He didn't bother me again to talk, but he continued to stare. I waited until about half an hour after he left to walk to my car because I was so fucking creeped out. I was worried he was waiting for me to leave or something. Not to mention his behavior was odd anyway. The topics and questions he brought up were ignorant, not things anyone with a design background would ask.

Now he's already RSVP-ed to go to the next meeting, so I told the group organizer about it.

Am I being paranoid, or should I truly be creeped out by this?

Haven't they figured out abstinence preaching isn't working anymore?

(From Planned Parenthood)

One billion federal tax dollars have gone into abstinence-only programs since 1996, and $115 million dollars will be allocated to Community-Based Abstinence Education programs in the 2006 fiscal year. These programs stress abstinence as the only way to prevent unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and do not provide information about birth control methods, except to stress their failure rates.

Abstinence-only education has spilled into international funding, as well. The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which grants funding to 15 countries that have been affected by HIV/AIDS, requires grantees to allocate at least 33 percent of their prevention spending to abstinence-only-until-marriage programs.



From its inception, the abstinence-only education initiative has promoted a biased moralistic agenda instead of a public health agenda, withholding vital information and promoting misinformation. Abstinence-only programs prohibit information on contraception services, sexual identity, and human sexuality — leading to censorship within the public school system.

No research has proven that abstinence-only programs actually work. What the research does show is that Americans, by and large, are not abstinent people. More than 60 percent of high school seniors are sexually active. The median age at first intercourse for women is 17.4 years, whereas the median age at first marriage is 25.3 years. For men, the median age at first intercourse is 17.7 years, and the median age of first marriage is 27.1 years.

Read article:
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/pp2/portal/files/portal/webzine/newspoliticsactivism/fean-060413-abstinence.xml

Here are renderings of the future Greyhound Bus Station/Parking Deck my company Wagner Murray Architects is designing. The emphasis here is GREEN, and to create a building that is LEED certified. I'm not sure how many LEED points it will get though.

Now, you'll have to bare with me, I'm the graphic designer here, so they don't tell me much about this type of stuff. It has solar panels on the roof and special fans to keep it cool, and I believe the fans generate energy too. It manages storm water on site. The glass is heat/light sensitive and changes tint depending on the time of day. It has a green roof and green walls. It does recycle storm water for irrigation, and has overall increased insulation.

Again, I wish I new more about all this, but here are the renderings of what it should look like once it's completed:

(Story from Planned Parenthood Action Network)

An Indiana mother recently accompanied her daughter and her daughter's boyfriend to one of Indiana's Planned Parenthood clinics, but they unwittingly walked into a "crisis pregnancy center" run by an anti-abortion group -- one that shared a parking lot with the real Planned Parenthood clinic, and was designed expressly to lure our patients and deceive them.

The group took down the girl's confidential personal information and told her to come back for her appointment, which they said would be in their "other office" (the real Planned Parenthood office nearby). When she arrived for her appointment, not only did the Planned Parenthood staff have no record of her, but the police were there -- the "crisis pregnancy center" had called them, claiming that a minor was being forced to have an abortion against her will.

The "crisis pregnancy center" staff then proceeded to wage a campaign of intimidation and harassment over the following days, showing up at the girl's home and calling her father's workplace. Our clinic director reports that she was "scared to death to leave her house." They even went to her school and urged classmates to pressure her not to have an abortion.

This cruel and fraudulent behavior shows exactly what's behind the proliferation of these centers. That's why this new bill is so important: it would make it illegal for any entity to advertise abortion services if it does not provide such services.

Worse yet -- the Bush administration has used $60 million in taxpayer dollars to fund these propaganda machines. This has got to stop!

Source:
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/pp2/portal/files/portal/webzine/newspoliticsactivism/fean-060420-crisis-pregnancy.xml

Those damn rich kids think they can get away with anything, I tell you. This has been all over the news in North Carolina:

Racial tensions are running high, angry students and townspeople have marched in protest over the past week and now a violent e-mail has surfaced in the ongoing rape scandal that has gripped Duke University.

The campus has been rocked in recent weeks by allegations that three members of its lacrosse team were involved in the rape and beating of a stripper from a nearby college at an off-campus party last month. The incident led to the resignation of the highly ranked team's longstanding coach on Wednesday, a week after the cancellation of the rest of the squad's season.

The e-mail this testosterone-crazed imbecile sent is absolutely horrid. He sent this shortly after he and his friends allegedly gang-raped this young girl.

The e-mail was from an account owned by team member Ryan McFadyen, and it read [typographical errors are from original document], "tommrow night, after tonights show, ive decided to have some strippers over to edens 2c. all are welcome.. however there will be no nudity. I plan on killing the b----es as soon as the walk in and proceding to cut their skin off ... " The e-mail, signed with 19-year-old McFadyen's jersey number, 41, also invited unnamed others to join in the attack. The university reported Wednesday that McFadyen had been suspended pending a campus judicial review.

Read more of article:
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1527956/20060406/index.jhtml?headlines=true

Even if he's being sarcastic, the email shows a lack of sensitivity to the incident, as well as revealing the sociopathic mind it takes to commit such an act. Another thing that gets me about this case is that a lot of poeple are indirectly saying that because this young woman was a stripper, that somehow she was asking to be raped. I thought we had moved passed this line of thinking, but I guess I was wrong. The girl is not from a rich family, like these boys, and was in college, stipping to make ends meet...that doesn't mean she was asking to be gang raped. Urgh!

Nearly three in 10 U.S. women are giving birth by cesarean section -- a record number -- and more and more of them seem to be choosing a surgical birth even when there is no clear medical need.

No one knows exactly how many C-sections are elective. It's an intense controversy: Some estimates suggest there could be tens of thousands annually, and critics say many of those women were pressured into surgery or didn't know the risks.

So what's the lure if it is not medically necessary?

Convenience plays a role for busy women. Maybe women need to schedule delivery so relatives can visit to take care of older children, or they live far from a hospital and worry about arriving in time. Or they fear something will go wrong and they'll wind up with an emergency C-section, considered far riskier than a planned one, especially if performed by a tired physician.

Others worry that vaginal deliveries can cause incontinence, although some studies dispute that the method of childbirth plays any role.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060328/NEWS07/603280313/1009

This is a dangerous procedure that puts the mother and the child at much more risk than actual childbirth. The baby often has respiratory problems afterward because it has not been exposed to the hormones that are given off during the labor process to help it get adjusted to life outside the womb. The chance of infection and hemorrhage, as with any surgery, is great.

Now come on America! If you are that busy, that you can't take time off to have a baby...then why are you having a baby?! You think you're busy now....

If you are that selfish that you would put your child's health in danger because you're worried about a bladder control issue that lasts from what I understand, a few months after giving birth...then why are you having a baby?!

A quick fix for everything...this country drives me insane.

When I lived in Virginia, sometimes I would come home pretty late at night, and my parents would always leave the porch light on for me. Well, depending on the time of the year, sometimes I would come home to several brown recluse spiders sitting on the porch. We lived in a wooded area, next to the Pocahontas State Park. The spiders liked to collect on the porch to catch the large moths that flew around the porch light.





The Brown Recluse (Loxosceles Reclusa) comes in various shades of tan to brown to darker grey-brown. Its abdomen is ellipsoidal and significantly smaller than the Black Widow. They like to hide under baseboards, bark, newspapers and in the corrugations of cardboard. The Brown Recluse is very active in the summer and more likely to be found in warmer climates. Like the Widow and unlike most spiders, the Brown Recluse is not an annual spider. They both hibernate and may endure several years.

The brown recluse hunts at night seeking insect prey, either alive or dead. It does not employ a web to capture food -- webs strung along walls, ceilings, outdoor vegetation, and in other exposed areas are nearly always associated with other types of spiders.

The initial bite is usually painless. Oftentimes the victim is unaware until 3 to 8 hours later when the bite site may become red, swollen, and tender. The majority of brown recluse spider bites remain localized, healing within 3 weeks without serious complication or medical intervention. In other cases, a bite from a brown recluse causes necroses, or the death of cells and tissues around the bite.





Read more about the brown recluse at

http://www.uky.edu/Ag/Entomology/entfacts/struct/ef631.htm

At my architectural firm, we are working on a project where actual screens along the walls of this new facility will facilitate vines and other plants that will grow up the sides of the building. I thought this was an interesting take on the green roof experiments out west. The company that is building the screens is called Greenscreen and they've done most of their work in California, so this is a huge deal for Charlotte, NC. Here are some pictures of projects Greenscreen has completed out west:









"Manufactured from recycled steel, this three dimensional welded wire system creates a captive growing space three inches deep to allow plant materials to intertwine and grow within the panel. With the easily adaptable system of attachment clips, the panel can attach to a building façade, and can span openings between floors or horizontally between posts." -greenscreen website: http://www.greenscreen.com