Wednesday, March 25, 2009

And following closely on the heels of that lovely prior post....

I get this in my inbox which was like a slap in the face...

SIECUS
Cody, WY

Sexuality education in Cody High School is under the microscope after members of Cody Right to Life submitted a petition to the school board asking to ban a local family planning group from teaching the sexuality education component of the health curriculum.

The school board accepted the petition of approximately 500 signatures and quickly voted 4–3 to suspend Northwest Wyoming Family Planning (NWFP) from teaching its one-day lesson in the health classes. The board resolution also mandates that students be segregated by gender for the lesson about contraception and STDs and that it be taught by a health teacher or school nurse.[1] In addition, the board voted to create a task force that would include representatives from NWFP, Cody Right to Life, parents, teachers, a school nurse, and a board member that would review the high school’s entire health class and come back with recommendations.

Members of Cody Right to Life, who argued that NWFP did not focus enough on abstinence, “negative outcomes,” and the risks and side effects of contraceptives, were satisfied with the board’s decision. A city council member also said she was pleased with the board because of her concern that NWFP was not covering the “damaging emotional consequences that come with underage sex.”[2]


When will people learn that their personal beliefs do not sound public health policy make?????

Ada Lovelace Day was yesterday...

Did you all know about this? I sure as hell didn't and that makes me ask myself..."WHY THE HELL DID I NOT KNOW???"

Ada Lovelace Day — Bringing women in technology to the fore
Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging to draw attention to women excelling in technology.

Women’s contributions often go unacknowledged, their innovations seldom mentioned, their faces rarely recognised. We want you to tell the world about these unsung heroines. Entrepreneurs, innovators, sysadmins, programmers, designers, games developers, hardware experts, tech journalists, tech consultants. The list of tech-related careers is endless.

Recent research by psychologist Penelope Lockwood discovered that women need to see female role models more than men need to see male ones. That’s a relatively simple problem to begin to address. If women need female role models, let’s come together to highlight the women in technology that we look up to. Let’s create new role models and make sure that whenever the question “Who are the leading women in tech?” is asked, that we all have a list of candidates on the tips of our tongues.



Don't know who Ada Lovelace is? For shame!!!!

Ada Lovelace - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (10 December 1815, London – 27 November 1852, Marylebone, London), born Augusta Ada Byron, was the only legitimate child of George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron. She is widely known in modern times simply as Ada Lovelace.

She is mainly known for having written a description of Charles Babbage's early mechanical general-purpose computer, the analytical engine. She is today appreciated as the "first programmer" since she was writing programs—that is, manipulating symbols according to rules—for a machine that Babbage had not yet built. She also foresaw the capability of computers to go beyond mere calculating or number-crunching while others, including Babbage himself, focused only on these capabilities.[1]


So yeah, the first computer programmer was a chick. LONG LIVE THE OVARIES!


I raise a glass in honor of all the awesome, tech geeky chicks I know. Every single one of you is made of win and awesome.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

March 24th-World TB Day

Just an FYI. I know most of us don't see a lot of TB in everyday life but the fact is that it remains a problem here and in many other places in the world, including our neighbors.

Materials » World TB Day
Mexico’s multidrug-resistant TB has been acknowledged as a serious public health problem. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) Global TB Report 2006, Mexico had nearly 34,000 TB cases in 2004, with an estimated incidence rate of 32 cases per 100,000 people. The prevalence of TB in Mexico is of great concern to the United States, given the shared borders and immigration flow between the two countries. To combat TB, in 2000 the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Mexican Secretariat of Health signed a $16 million bilateral grant agreement to strengthen TB prevention efforts.


Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Urgent Action Appeal from PLanned PArenthood

TELL CONGRESS: DON’T DEFUND PLANNED PARENTHOOD - Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood has just learned that Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) is expected to attack Planned Parenthood again today. He will offer an amendment to the Appropriations Act this afternoon that would block Planned Parenthood health centers from receiving federal funds from Title X, the nation’s family planning program.

This move is an unconstitutional, completely unfounded attack on the nation’s leading source of reproductive health care information and services. In these difficult economic times, we need to make reproductive health care services more available for low-income, uninsured, and underinsured women — not less.

We need you to call your senators and tell them to stand up and oppose the Vitter amendment.

The appropriations bill is being voted on this afternoon, so we need you to call today. Ask your senators to speak out on the floor and oppose Sen. David Vitter’s Amendment No. 601 to the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009 (H.R.1105).