The next Sachin Tendulkar? Martin Crowe thinks so.

In discussing the successfully dysfunctional 1990-91 Chicago Bulls team, Coach Phil Jackson once referred to the following Graham Greene quote from The Third Man:

In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed – they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance.  In Switzerland they had brotherly love, five hundred years of democracy and peace, and what did they produce? – the cuckoo clock.

The same could be said of the current Pakistani cricket team. Their fairytale run to the World T20 Title, while not wholly unexpected, presented a contrast in approaches to more organized outfits like Sri Lanka, South Africa and Australia. Inevitably, the months since that victory have seen a crisis in captaincy, more leadership issues in the PCB and the growing realization that teams will not tour Pakistan over security concerns. While domestic instability has contributed towards the last factor, the PCB can only blame itself for a number of other issues (see the Osman Samiuddin piece for more on that train wreck; Tony Greig has similar thoughts here). The Pakistani team seems to be in a twilight zone of sorts- absurdly, the current tour of New Zealand counts as a “home” series, as will the fixtures played out against Australia in England next year- where unpredictability is the norm.

And yet, out of this storm have emerged some of the most exciting young talents on the cricket scene. Mohammad Asif is old hat to many Indian fans, who will recall his demolition job in Lahore, but we forget that he is only 27 years old- as old as Gautam Gambhir, who is still grouped with other youngsters in the Indian team. I am not entirely sold on Fawad Alam, but scoring a century on debut, in Sri Lanka, is laudable and he has time aplenty to prove himself. Huge holes at the top of the order continue to plague the batting line-up, but the most exciting member of the Pakistani team comes further down. Martin Crowe mentioned that he hadn’t seen such a batting prospect since Sachin Tendulkar made his first hundred in New Zealand, nearly twenty years ago. Calm and collected in the game’s shorter formats, this wunderkind is helping Pakistani cricket fans banish memories of Inzamam. Despite being less than ten matches old, his omission in a recent ODI in Sharjah was criticized universally. Ladies and gentleman, the next big thing: 19 year old Umar Akmal.

I am normally loathe to make such grandiose pronunciations, but in Umar Akmal, Pakistan really seems to have found the genuine article. Elder brother and incumbent wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal- arguably one of the more technically correct batsmen in the line-up- is no mug with the bat either, but Umar seems destined for greater things. The century on debut, two days ago, was laudable enough for its statistical worth, but the manner in which the runs were scored was equally important. Much as South Africa’s J. P. Duminy oozes class, Umar Akmal exudes an aura of confidence. However, where this confidence has often bordered on bravado with someone like Shahid Afridi, Umar’s brand is more restrained. With the young Afridi, the confidence was as much his weakness as it was his strength- not so with Umar Akmal. At the age of 19, Umar Akmal seems to play the bowler more often than the bowler plays him. In addition, Akmal possesses a range of weapons- he plays the cut, the drive and the pull with equal proficiency. In fact, the closest comparison does seem to be a young Sachin Tendulkar- terrifyingly belligerent and deathly calm at the same time. So captivating was Umar’s counter-offensive (in partnership with his brother, I might add) in Dunedin that I had little time for India’s concurrent blitzkreig in Kanpur. I had watched Umar’s heroics in a few limited overs games, but test cricket is an entirely different ballgame, especially when your team has collapsed to 87 for 5. Barring a couple of early chances- excusable, given the mood that Shane Bond was in- Umar exemplified the best qualities of Pakistan cricket: a never-say-die spirit and plenty of derring-do. If Pakistan goes on to win the match today, as well they might, much will be owed to Umar Akmal.

It is early days yet- in more technical terms, the sample size is too small to make a reliable judgment on Umar Akmal. He has less than 15 international matches under his belt (see below), with a mouth-watering second test innings only expected tonight. At the same time, statistics don’t tell the entire story- its part of the reason why I am still unsure as to the methodological basis that I want to adopt in my own research. Numbers tell a lot of things, but they serve to obscure many others. The record books will show that Sachin Tendulkar scored a century on his first Australian tour in Perth, while they will also register his somnolent 100 last week in Ahmedabad. Two similar scores, meaning entirely different things, at aesthetic extremes. In an attempt to eke out as much meaning as possible, statistics can often be self defeating; this issue lies at the heart of the problem in comparing athletes across generations. A run is not the same as a run, an economical spell of quick bowling is not the same as an economical spell of quick bowling. Statistics have their uses, but at times, we need to throw them out of the window because they are far too impersonal…soulless…and strangely enough, uninformative. Umar Akmal scored 129 of 160 balls, but the meaning of that innings? Cricket purists know that the meaning is far, far more than those numbers indicate.

Umar Akmal's stats, as of November 27th, 2009.

So I propose that we throw caution to the winds, prudence by the wayside and stick our necks out to declare: Umar Akmal is the next big thing. Those who view the glass as half empty may point out that the next Sachin Tendulkar could just as easily be the next Vinod Kambli. Perhaps…at the same time, if you were a betting man, which predicted path would you place your money on right now?

Thats what I thought.

Addendum (November 28th, 2009): In talking about Pakistan’s young guns, I forgot to mention the exciting 17-year old Mohammad Aamer, on whose shoulders the Pakistani chase currently rests. The Akmal brothers had a useful partnership again, before they both fell (Umar for a patient, studied 75 of 174 balls). Umar’s innings was marked in its contrast to his enterprising knock in the first innings, underscoring the versatility of this young man. Aamer and Ajmal still remain, with 48 runs to get and 2 wickets in hand. It wasn’t too long ago that this pair put on a sensational last-wicket stand to nearly achieve the impossible; I suggest turning to the match ASAP.

Wearable artinya bisa dipakai. Apa? Komputer bisa dipakai, seperti baju begitu? Hehe.. iya, di sejumlah posting terdahulu tanda-tanda itu sudah terlihat. Komponen elektronika yang namanya transistor, sudah demikian kecil sehingga bisa diintegrasikan ke mana saja.

Subtrat. Bagi yang sempat mengenal dunia elektronika di sekolah (SMP? SMU?), rangkaian elektronika ditempelkan di atas alas (istilahnya substrat atau platform) yang disebut dengan PCB (printed circuit board). Warnanya kehijauan atau kecoklatan. Bagi yang belum pernah, coba ‘deh intip bagian dalam TV atau radio yang ada di rumah.

Pakaian Komputer. Selain PCB  sekarang platform atau substrat elektronika juga bisa diterapkan di atas tekstil atau di badan kita. Gambar memperlihatkan contoh pakaian yang dipasangi perangkat set komputer Xybernaut MA-V (yang di pinggang itu: Intel Mobile Celeron 500 MHz, harddisk 5 GB,  256 MB RAM, Windows XP), dilengkapi monitor HMD (head mounted display), peralatan navigasi (GPS - global positioning system dan sensor magnetik), dan tak ketinggalan, mouse!

Di awal pasti tampak aneh tetapi lama kelamaan terbiasa, bahkan jadi mode! Ada yang berminat pesan? Bergegaslah, karena tidak berapa lama lagi perangkat ini akan meng”hilang”, menyatu dengan pakaian dan tubuh kita. Nantikan artikel berikutnya, “Sim-Sala …Bim“.

Belum diperlihatkan di pakaian, peralatan komunikasi. Kita berharap sebuah telepon seluler unik seperti gambar dapat menjadi kenyataan. Telepon ini diikat di atas punggung tangan yang menganggur, jari kelingking jadi mikrofon dan ibu jari jadi speaker… “good morning Sir, this is rio speaking, may i help you?”

Menarik.

Sedikit ribet tak mengapalah, yang penting nyentrik, gaya!

Menjual berbagai macam PCB board dari single sampai multy layer.

Dengan kualitas terbaik untuk anda dan ramah lingkungan.

Baik partai besar ataupun kecil , kami siap melayani

hub harjan@dutaelectronics.com

ph 021 7406188

mobile 085282617695

website www.dutaelectronics.com

Kami menyediakan berbagai komponen elektronik dan Pcb board .
DIP dan SMD .
ATMEL , ALTERA . MAXIM . SAMSUNG , ST , SHARP , INFINEON , TDK , NEC , TOSHIBA , ACTEL , TEXAS INSTRUMENTS, XILINX , AMD
, NXP , LATTICE , DALLAS dll
hub harjan@dutaelectronics.com
ph 021 7406188
mobile 085282617695
website www.dutaelectronics.com

Kleine Anfrage

Dr. Ruth Seidl und Horst Becker, Bündnis 90/Die GrünenDrucksache 14/9883

PCB an der Uni – dürfen Informatikerinnen in Bonn nicht mehr schwanger werden?

Namens der Landesregierung beantworte ich die Kleine Anfrage im Einvernehmen mit dem Finanzministerium, dem Ministerium für Arbeit, Gesundheit und Soziales und dem Ministerium für Umwelt und Naturschutz, Landwirtschaft und Verbraucherschutz wie folgt:

Zu Frage 1: In wie vielen Räumen der Universität Bonn ist der Aufenthalt für Schwangere, Stillende, Säuglinge und Kleinkinder aufgrund der PCB Belastung verboten?

Zu Frage 2: Welche Einschränkungen der Studien- und Arbeitsmöglichkeiten ergeben sich daraus insbesondere für Schwangere oder Stillende, aber auch für alle anderen Hochschulangehörigen?

Obwohl im AVZ III nach den aktuellen Messergebnissen der sog. Interventionswert für Sofortmaßnahmen von 3000 ng PCB / m³ Luft nicht erreicht wird, hat die Universität Bonn am 2. November entschieden, den Großteil der bisher dort angebotenen Lehrveranstaltungen sofort in PCB-freie Räume zu verlegen. Die Hochschule wird auch die übrigen Lehrveranstaltungen kurzfristig in nicht belastete Räume verlagern. Für schwangere Mitarbeiterinnen und Studentinnen werden PCB-freie Arbeitsplätze bereitgestellt.

Zu Frage 3: Wie ist sichergestellt, dass es trotz dieser Einschränkungen nicht zu Studienzeitverlängerungen für die betroffenen Studierenden kommt?

Einschränkungen sind nicht bekannt.

Zu Frage 4: Welche Maßnahmen hat die Landesregierung seit 2005 ergriffen, um für eine Verringerung der PCB-Belastung in den Räumlichkeiten der Universität Bonn zu sorgen?

Zu Frage 5: Welche Maßnahmen hat die Landesregierung seit 2005 ergriffen, um dafür zu sorgen, dass für die betroffenen MitarbeiterInnen und Studierenden Alternativ-Angebote in unbelasteten Räumen zu Verfügung gestellt werden, solange die PCB-Konzentration in den belasteten Räumen noch nicht unter den Vorsorgewert reduziert wurde?

Der Bau- und Liegenschaftsbetrieb hat für die Informatik Ersatzbauten geplant, die sich im Baugenehmigungsverfahren befinden. Bis zu deren Fertigstellung wird die Informatik übergangsweise in anderen Räumen untergebracht werden. Solange diese noch nicht zur Verfügung stehen, wird der Bau- und Liegenschaftsbetrieb neben den vorhandenen Luftreinigungsgeräten verstärkt Luftwäscher einsetzen, um die Raumluftwerte der vorübergehend noch genutzten Räumlichkeiten zu verbessern.
Im Übrigen wird auf die Antwort zu Frage 2 verwiesen

Prof. Dr. Andreas Pinkwart

Since the beginning of this year the Petone Community Board has started uploading video clips to YouTube.

The guiding and main provider is Mason Branch, who says promoting the area in his spare time is a worthwhile pursuit and an opportunity to show off whats going on there.

The conscious decision is to cover material appropriate to the geographical area of the Community Board, hence Korokoro, Petone and Moera feature and include people or activities appropriate to those areas.

No doubt a growing resource (4 so far) and appropriate to building community identity. Credit to Mason for voluteering his time and effort to give such polished productions that offer value back to the community.

Subscribe and watch at PCBonthetube

I include one below on Jackson Street Fiesta from earlier this year.

Stepmania is awesome, you should try it sometime. It’s like Dance Dance Revolution, except it’s on PC, and it’s free. And you can make your own songs for it.
So anyways, first we have “37 Dicks” by M1DY (awesome songs), “Necrofantasia” from Perfect Cherry Blossom, and “City Escape” from Sonic Adventure.

dioxin-molekyl

Danska forskare presenterar en 326-sidig forskningsrapport som visar att pojkar redan i 2-årsåldern blir femininiserade som en följd av “gender-bending chemicals” som återfinns i  bla vattentäta kläder, gummistövlar, sängkläder, mat, blöjor, solskydd lotion och fuktgivande kräm. Till dessa kemikalier hör PCB, PVC, dioxiner, flamskyddsmedel,  ftalater (mjukar upp plast) och paraben som förekommer i många krämer och verkar hormonstörande. Ur artikeln i the Daily Telegraph:

“Sperm counts are falling so fast that young men are less fertile than their fathers and produce only a third as much, proportionately, as hamsters. And gender-bending chemicals are increasingly being blamed for the mystery of the “lost boys”: babies who should normally be male who have been born as girls instead. The Danish government set out to find out how much contamination from gender-bending chemicals a two-year-old child was exposed to every day. It concluded that a child could be “at critical risk” from just a few exposures to high levels of the substances such as from rubber clogs, and imperilled by the amount it absorbed from sources ranging from food to sunscreens.”

“Young boys, like those in the Danish study, could end up producing less sperm and developing feminised behaviour. Research at Rotterdam’s Erasmus University found that boys whose mothers were exposed to PCBs and dioxins were more likely to play with dolls and tea sets and dress up in female clothes. And it is in the womb [livmodern] that babies are most vulnerable; a study of umbilical cords [navelsträngar] from British mothers found that every one contained hazardous chemicals. Scientists at the University of Rochester in New York discovered that boys born to women exposed to phthalates had smaller penises and other feminisation of the genitals.”

“The contamination may also offer a clue to a mysterious shift in the sex of babies. Normally 106 boys are born for every 100 girls: it is thought to be nature’s way of making up for the fact that men were more likely to be killed hunting or in conflict. But the proportion of females is rising, so much so that some 250,000 babies who statistically should have been boys have ended up as girls in Japan and the United States alone. In Britain, the discrepancy amounts to thousands of babies a year. A Canadian Indian community living on ancestral lands at the eastern tip of Lake Huron, hemmed in by one of the biggest agglomerations of chemical factories on earth, gives birth to twice as many girls as boys. It’s the same around Seveso in Italy, contaminated with dioxins from a notorious accident in the 1970s, and among Russian pesticide workers. And there’s more evidence from places as far apart as Israel and Taiwan, Brazil and the Arctic.Yet gender-benders are largely exempt from new EU regulations controlling hazardous chemicals… Now the Danish government is planning to lobby to have the rules toughened up.”

Jordnötter innehåller också fytoöstrogener, som även kan minska risken för prostatacancer

I en färsk europeisk undersökning fann man 80 gånger så mycket östrogen-liknande substanser i sojabaserad mjölkersättning som i den vanliga ersättningen och “än så länge vet ingen vilka konsekvenser det kan ge barnen men forskarna befarar att det ökar risken för diabetes och bröstcancer.” Sojabönor innehåller som bekant fytoöstrogener och i den engelska wikiartikeln om sojabönor kan man läsa att (under “Health risks”): “Because of the phytoestrogen content, some studies have suggested that there is an inverse correlation between soybean ingestion and testosterone in men” (se vetenskaplig referens i wiki-artikeln eller här en populärartikel i BBC News från 2004). Kanske kan läkaren och genusdebattören Pelle Billing ta en titt på dessa studier . Han har för övrigt nyligen hållit en utbildning om jämställdhet  i Vellinge kommun, och Pär Ström har skrivit en debattartikel i Expressen och Axess-bloggen tar upp Birgitta Ohlssons (fp) problematiska hållning i föräldraförtsäkringsfrågan. Mycket debatt på genusfronten alltså. Själv brukar jag äta en matsked sojaprotein i veckan för att få i mig de essentiella aminosyror som behövs för att hjärnan ska kunna återställa balansen hos signalsubstanserna efter den dagliga psykos kombinerad med högt blodtryck och ångest man drabbas av i samma ögonblick som man öppnar en svensk dagstidning. I fredags har tex nätverket “Hardqueer” genomfört en husockuppation i Lund med ett queerperspektiv.

Storhetsvansinne på hjärnscanning

På tal om psykoser, jag tror jag funnit en av förklaringarna till genusmaffians storhetsvansinne såväl som framgångar i det offentliga rummet (utöver lobbyverksamheten). I veckan har jag suttit och plöjt några Timbro-rapporter inom Välfärdsprogrammet (det är aldrig för sent att rusta sig för kamp) och under “Rapporter” finner man “Bland världens mest bildade folk” av fil dr Daniel Braw och som handlar om hur läroböckerna i historia skildrat Sverige genom tiderna och frågan ställs om bilden av Sverige som ett ledande föregångsland kan påverka beslut. Ur sammanfattningen sid 29:

“Den svenska exceptionalismen, föreställningen om Sverige som föregångsland, har varit tongivande i berättelsen om Sverige. Även om det är möjligt att betrakta denna föreställning helt enkelt som en fortsättning på en gammal nationalistisk tendens att framhäva allt fosterländsk, är det frågan om det är meningsfullt eller hjälper förståelsen av exceptionalismens karaktär. Den moderna svenska exceptionalismen handlar inte, som den tidigare nationalistiska historieskrivningen, om gamla svenska seder eller traditioner, utan om Sverige som ett mönstersamhälle och föregångare i en utveckling som mer eller mindre alla länder har att genomgå. Som övergripande modell har denna föreställning blivit alltmer osannolik och sällsynt, men den lever fortfarande kvar i ett slags allmän föreställning om att Sverige tenderar att ligga i utvecklingens framkant och har en internationell betydelse som överstiger landets storlek.”

Protestmarschen kommer att kantas av några fordon som plattar till de strukturer som upprätthåller vansinnet

Bilden av Sverige som det mest demokratiska och jämlika landet och som i alla avseenden kommit längst banar givetvis vägen för genusvansinnet som ett led i kampen för jämställdhet (där Sverige ju också kommit längst) och denna tro på att utvecklingen går framåt och i rätt riktning bara för att tiden går framåt, samtidigt som det inte finns något behov av att jämföra sig med andra länder eftersom Sverige ju ändå kommit längst och alltid kommer att ligga i utvecklingens framkant oavsett vad man sysslar med, måste ju vara en bidragande orsak till att genusvansinnet kunnat etablera sig. Det finns flera bidragande orsaker och när jag funnit alla ska jag anordna en protestmarsch mot genusvansinnet. Vi ska tåga från Centrum för Genusstudier, rakt över Enheten för lika villkor och vidare till Mynttorget. Det får bli en liten omväg då, eftersom enheten för lika villkor ligger i Uppsala (eller så kan vi ta enheten för lika villkor i Linköping). Och så avslutar vi med att åka ångvält över Värdegrundscentrum vid Umeå universitet som också strör skattepengar omkring sig. Anledningen till att hemsidan inte är uppdaterad sedan 2005 är att Värdegrundscentrum med hela genus- och värdegrundsmaffian tillfälligt flyttat in i Rosenbad! Alltså räcker det att vi avslutar vår marsch där.

I Linköpings universitets portal för Lika villkor finner vi ett knappt två minuterlångt reportage från SVT från en föreläning som ägde rum nu i veckan (17/11) med titeln “Härskartekniker – den fula vägen till makt”. SE DET HÄR (eller här)! Den värsta härskartekniken är tydligen “komplimangtekniken” och glöm inte att listan utökats från Berit Ås ursprungliga fem från 1976 till de nuvarande 33 härskarteknikerna. Vi kan även se ett videoklipp om hur “heteronormativiteten tar sig uttryck i skola och lärarutbildning” – se det här (5 min): “Skolan som plats för sexualitets- och könskonstruktion”. Vi får veta att  “upprätthållandet av skolan som en asexuell plats kan förklara delvis varför det är sen sådan stark heteronormativitet”. Varför går elever, lärarstudenter och föreläsare inte runt och tänker på sex, heteronormen och maktstrukturer hela dagarna!? Detta allvarliga ämne måste diskuteras mycket och länge för skattebetalarnas pengar.

Genusmaffian ska rökas ut ur Rosenbad

För att återgå till ämnet, vi avslutar vår parad utanför Rosenbad där vi sedan röker ut genusmaffian. Medan den är på avgiftning i Dubai i Storkalifens harem (svenska sjukhus är ju överfyllda av tvångsintagna patienter som förnekat könsmaktsordningen, lider av patriotisk posttraumatisk stress eller uppvisar allvarliga dissociativa symptom i form av upphävd identitetsupplevelse som en följd av genusmaffians verksamhet) ägnar vi oss åt att avskaffa inte mindre än hela det genusindustriella komplexet. Som ni minns så ställde jag ju för ett tag sedan en medicinsk diagnos på genusmaffian och denna kommer jag att faxa till sjukhuset i Dubai och därför lär de stanna där ganska länge – så vi har gott om tid på oss att vidta åtgärder för att förevigt utestänga det globala terrornätverket “Genus och intersektionalitet” (som de kommer att ha byggt upp under sin sjukhusvistelse) och förhindra att det tar sig in i landet igen via en osmotisk process. Detta gör att vi tillfälligt måste täcka över hela landets yta med ett ogenomträngligt membran och en sådan ändlig övertäckning möjliggörs av Heine-Borels övertäckningssats. I förebyggande syfte måste vi också rensa upp på tangentborden och avskaffa alla bokstäver i alfabetet som möjliggör ordbildning i syfte att framställa politiskt korrekt propagandaklister som fäster sig i huvudet på våra ovetande landsmän likt ett obeprövat SSRI-preparat som måste tas på daglig basis för att hålla både lyckan och genusvansinnet på en onormalt hög nivå, och en handlingsplan måste också utformas för att stoppa den olagliga import av vodka som sänker fryspunkten och höjer toleransnivån hos folket. Min kvalificerade gissning är dock att vi inte behöver vara oroliga eftersom “Genus och intersektionalitet” kommer att ha fullt upp med att studera intressanta strukturer i Dubai, men om de vågar sig tillbaka så ska huvudaktörerna placeras i Riksdagens egen proteinmixer och smulas sönder likt äggulan på ett sönderkokt påskägg för att därefter reduceras till ofarliga aminosyror som vi ska använda oss av för att nära det växande folkvettet! Jag skojar bara! Men protestmarschen kommer att bli av, förr eller senare, men utan ångvältar.

In our last survey of the membership, there was definite interest in IPC market research and data trends. Our market research department publishes a comprehensive quarterly report that used to be called the Supply Chain Tracker. It’s a collection of as much monthly and quarterly data for the electronics industry worldwide as we can pull together and it’s absolutely free for members. Perhaps because of the name, it hasn’t achieved wide usage. It’s been renamed the Electronics Industries Market Data Update.

I wasn’t asked to make this post, but I used the Update on Friday to pull together some information for an interview for Denny and it was invaluable. If you’re a member, definitely look it up under www.ipc.org/Update (members only log in required). If you’re not a member, talk to IPC Director of Market Research Sharon Starr about getting a few pages to look at. I think you’ll be hooked.

Here’s the table of contents. The report is 34 pages.

Section 1: The World Economy

Section 2: Overview of the North American Electronics Industry: Results and Leading Indicators

Section 3: Electronics Supply Chain Performance Overview

Section 4: Business Performance Tracking Tools for IPC Members and Subscribers

Section 5: Results from the EMS Industry

Section 6: Results from the PCB Industry

Section 7: Results from the Solder Industry

Section 8: Results from the Process Consumables Industry

Section 9: Results from the Assembly Equipment Industry

Section 10: Results from the Laminate Industry

Section 11: Metal Prices Appendix: IPC Market Research and Statistical Programs

Dags för en av de största konsulterna i Stockholmsområdet där flera intressanta möjligheter inom infrastruktur diskuterades. Frontcom Micro för genomföring från automationsskåp ger en enkel och tät lösning på ett enkelt sätt för bl.a. RJ45 och USB.

På eftermiddagen fortsatte bussen till en stor elektronikbyggare där vårt sortiment av PCB-kontakter var mycket intressant.

PCB Trace Width Calculator It is here. Go above and use this pcb trace width calculator.

Differential Impedance CalculatorIf you are designing a PCB – this is a must

Panty shields up, Captain! We’re rebooting the Ovarian Operating System . . .

I know, the title of this blog alone makes you want to click fast and away. But I have to tell you a tale of consumer eco-angst removed from the simple and often expensive decision to buy local, organic products and food. But first, a little herstory . . .

There’s already been enough shame, secrecy, and taboo surrounding “that time of the month” and all the other fine euphemisms invented to be humourous or circumspect about the mystery of menstruation. There are countries where tampons weren’t and still aren’t sold because you’d have to “touch down there.” There are women who follow this practice willingly, even in forward thinking countries. They build huts and red tents and spas for this exact purpose. To wear pampers or to be pampered. Elsewhere.

But it’s moved beyond that to a place where we’re supposed to celebrate and “have a happy period,” a campaign from a company that stupidly chose their brand name to be “Always.” As in, “I’ll ALWAYS bleed, and I’ll ALWAYS wear these things.” At least Kotex, Tampex, and Playtex (all with –ex as a suffix to mean “out, from or away”) sound almost medical or medicinal. And it’s not ALL feminine hygiene, even wounded soldiers are prone to use a tampon (French for “plug” or “stopper”) to halt bullet wounds from weeping. “Always” doesn’t seem to imply medical or even chronic, instead, it implies a life sentence. Doesn’t your uterus protest? Well it should. War is hell and there’s a war in your drawers and the sick folks at Always were also responsible for aerodynamic pantyliners and pads. That’s right – they got your code red covered in homeland security and you can feel secure each month knowing there’s a little, white F-16 in your pants.

It’s not just a troubling war at home either . . . it’s covers many land masses and miles of ocean.

Spastic Plastic

Your average lady uses 16,800 tampons in her lifetime, that’s 250 to 300 pounds of tampons and applicators. Tag on a few thousand pads and panty liners, and your ecological footprint is looking more like Sasquatch. Of particular offense are the plastic applicators some tampons are encased in. They are casually tossed into wastebaskets where they later escape the curb trash or landfill, trotted off by animals, resurfacing in parking lots and playgrounds and a host of other locations you’d rather not see them appear.

They come back from the watery depths to haunt you, too.

Plastic tampon applicators from sewage outfalls are one of the most common forms of trash on beaches. Yeah, you thought food wrappers and glass bottles and needles were the only gross & hazardous materials washing out to sea and coming back in with the tides. You flush them and that’s just the beginning. For building owners, pads and tampons that are flushed down the toilet are the most common cause of plumbing problems. Further down the flow, they end up the sewage treatment plants and surf into a lake or onto a river, and on into the ocean where they pool with the rest of the plastic detritus at the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. There it all sits and breaks down into ever smaller particles until they are the size and color of plankton or worse, are pelletized high-density polyethylene (HDPE) white “nurdles” that resemble fish eggs or food to sea creatures. Then the birds and fish ingest these hormone disrupters and concentrated toxins like PCB and DDE and the circle of life gets a big kick in the nurdles.

But it’s not just the animals somewhat removed from you, you’re an animal too, and guess what it’s doing to you by directly inserting it? Your conventional feminine hygiene products contain a mixture of rayon and cotton. Rayon is in your blouses, dresses, lingerie, linings, scarves, suits, ties, hats, socks, the filling in Zippo lighters, blankets, window treatments, upholstery, tire cord, yarn and diapers. It’s highly absorbent but no good at retaining shape and as far as biodegradability goes, it’s a real loser. Most importantly, synthetic materials like the Rayon used in tampons show an increased risk of toxic shock syndrome (TSS), particularly for superabsorbent tampons. So if you’re a bleeder, you’re a feeder.

And sweet, white cotton isn’t much better up in there. Cotton is highly pesticide-intensive; 25% of pesticides used globally are devoted to growing cotton. To achieve that lily-white look, pads and tampons are bleached with chlorine, a process which creates dioxins, a known carcinogen and those bad boys shouldn’t be placed anywhere near your reproductive organs. And you swear you never smoked a cigar in your life. Especially in a donkey show.

Think Outside the (Tampon) Box

It’s getting easier to select tampons, pads, and panty liners made from organic, unbleached cotton which is cultivated without the use of pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, sewage sludge, irradiation, petrochemicals, or genetic engineering. All of which we now have think about when looking at the towering isle of soothing, pastel colors, reminding us that yes – we’ll be back out there swimming, riding ponies, surfing at the beach and smiling while playing miniature golf in NO time.

O.B. tampons: small box, no applicator. Compact, simple cellophane wrapper covering them, easy to use, and take up very little room in your purse. It is unfathomable, but some women simple aren’t down with getting that up close and personal with their own lady bits and maybe getting their finger a little spotty. Come on darlings – this is no time to be prim and squeamish. If you haven’t seen it in a mirror to understand how it goes together and pushed the buttons to see how it works, you don’t deserve to have sex and should just hang an “Out Of Order” sign over your girdle loop. Get over it. Get into it. It’s yours. Deal.

OG-style Tampax: wrapped in paper, cardboard applicator that breaks down relatively quickly if they happen to get loose in the environment. Preferable to the Pearl brand, which has an indestructible plastic applicator strong enough for shotgun shell casings and is then further wrapped in coated paper. Awesome. Go ahead. Try running them over with your car. You can’t destroy them. They’ll only get dirty . . . and more angry. That plastic rocket launcher is just one more wasteful obstacle between you and your nana. I don’t even want to go into the perfumed varieties. Now on top of your plastic fetish, you’re going to open a vapor-impermeable pouch and stick this vulcanized, alcohol soaked albino vampire into your hoo-ha where no one and nothing but your senseless cervix can smell it? Well it doesn’t work and now you smell of lightly talcumed meat. Fail. p.s. Talc is closely related to the potent carcinogen asbestos and talc particles have been shown to cause tumors in the ovaries and lungs of cancer victims. So hey – go easy on sprinkling the Johnson’s about your leaky basement. It’s a safety hazard. You’ll slip and fall. No need to announce “clean-up on aisle one.”

Natracare and Seventh Generation: chemical-free, non chlorine-bleached, simple packaging which means even less waste. Eco-conscious enough with all the key ingredient and disclaimers including no animal-testing and skin-tested only on fellow humans. You can sleep well in the knowledge that no bunnies had to hop about with a maxi pad strapped to their fluffy bums and instead, some nice lady in a lab got itchy a few times. This is still within the normal scope of your monthly cycle.

Jade and Pearl Sea Sponge: natural tampons inspired by the traditional use of sponges by menstruating women of ancient times. So if you want to bleed like Cleopatra, this is your bag. The Egyptians invented the tampon too – so you can thank them for that little wonder. Sea sponges are available in Teenie, Regular, and Large and you precision(?) fit to size by trimming the sea sponge and experimenting with insertion. Wow. Try not to think about doing dishes or wiping counters or a nice hot sponge bath because really, I can’t see how this is either sanitary OR relaxing. So Sally, if you’re worried about sullying up the seashore, (welcome to my new menstrual tongue twister) this is all the rage amongst mythological aquatic creatures. Apparently, sea sponges are what mermaids use.

Menstrual Cups – i.e.: Diva cup, Mooncup, Instead Softcup, Lunette, Keepercup, LadyCup, Femmecup, Miacup: Ok. Here’s where I drawn the line. This ain’t a Dixie Cup, or a Sippie Cup, a Tommee Tippee Cup or an Ice Cream Cup. This is none of those fun, sweet, childlike associations. But I trust you probably got over that the first time you sprung a leak and wrecked your favorite Underroos or your expensive lingerie for failing to count the days. Maybe I just haven’t been brave enough to go with a new, miserable experience, but let me get this straight . . . i fold a plastic, rubbery cup into a jelly roll, insert this, it pops open like a tulip, i “stir” it around to make sure the umbrella’s been fully deployed, which may take some coaxing and pushing and twisting, and then I pull it out by its dangling tail at intervals, wash it and reinsert it like tiny, portable Tupper Ware?!?!

Oh, hell no!

i am not about to wash my snatch basket in the sink (and carry special, mild, perfume-free, hypo-allergenic fem soap) in between classes or you know, when i take a restroom break to freshen up while out to dinner. i mean, how does one do this discreetly? Oh, and once a month, i get the distinct displeasure of a 5-minute boil for my little traveling jellyfish at the end of the cycle in some dedicated kitchen equipment that never sees food. Or, hey, i can use rubbing alcohol (and not hydrogen peroxide) to sterilize it. But I have to be extremely careful not to soak it too long and allow it to dry completely and not degrade the integrity of the plastic and rinse the residue so I don’t fuck up my vaginal pH.

O.B. tampons sounding better all the time, huh? Can you imagine wringing out your sea sponge? Wouldn’t you rather “touch it” now?

Go With The Flow

There was a time when i worked at a place so uptight, they wouldn’t allow the female staff to carry in a purse. Whether this was for security or to keep outside worldly distractions such as cell phones to a minimum was unclear, but the idea completely incensed my friend Nicole.

“What?” she snapped. “Where are you supposed to carry your tampons, up your ass?”

i explained to her how bad the work environment sucked and how tension and impossible precision reigned, thus, the topic of anal retention seemed a very fitting description. The job had me so upset, i couldn’t poop for a week. Then i quit.

And many light flow days from then, here i was on a Wednesday nite, standing there in the supermarket isle, paralyzed by too many choices and horrible, far-reaching consequences of those attempts at informed decision. There i was: hungry, cranky, wanting ice cream and a heating pad at the same time, thinking about plumbing, and ocean waters and marine life and cancer of the Yoni.

i turn to the woman next to me who is clicking and sucking at her teeth in audible consternation, just like me, and we both smile nervously, amazed at the mini internal crisis over what we’re going to buy. Neither of us will move first, both seem to be wondering how the other will select, looking for a brave trend to follow. Somehow, there’s a preposterous sense of worry over being judged, like bringing a film or a music cd or a book to the checkout clerk, the fear of choosing poorly, unwisely, without taste or sensibilities. “Hmmm,” she says. “Yeahhhhh,” I mutter slowly and drawn out. And we both start giggling.

My cup of joy is overflowing

I consider my internal flowchart for assessing absorbency needs:

junior – aww, isn’t that cute, you inked!

light – Miss Kitty has a nose bleed.

regular – oh, yay. my period’s back.

super – omg that’s a lot of blood.

super plus – jesus, maybe you should go to the hospital!

ultra – uhh, i think that blood clot just asked for a cigarette.

i am looking for regular. Just something in between, just a few tampons, a starter pack, a holdover since i don’t see any of my normal go-tos. And all they have is “a mere scratch” or “Carrie – Prom Scene.”

So i think of the dolphins and the salmon and the seabirds and i grab the 10-pack with the small, recyclable cardboard box and no applicator with the green looking package and eco-claims to fame and the woman next to me does the same. Just enough to soldier on.

It’s all i can do, really. If i don’t want to leave with anymore acronyms. Say, add PTSD to my PMS. Christ Almighty in a hybrid – i can’t even BLEED with out feeling guilty about it in my new sustainable world concept! i leave with my chlorine-free, biodegradable, non-applicator, no plastic, rayon-free tampons and my razors (which are free from animal testing) and a pint of, yes, sorry, blood orange sorbet, and it’s a good thing. While i’m happily eating my cool treat, i don’t need to imagine poor, naked bunnies hopping around with razor burn and nicks with only a maxi-pad to keep them warm. And after all this guilt, i just want to sandwich a washcloth and tuck it in my drawers or just sit on a sock and call it good.

Museum of Menstruation and Women’s Health

for all your bleeding needs . . .

Last month I had reported traffic data for September 2009 . There has been some sequential increase in the traffic in the month of October 2009 .
http://referencedesigner.com/blog/october-traffic-data/618/

It is 9:13 PM in the night of Nov 11, 2009. I have nothing special to write today in my mind.
http://referencedesigner.com/blog/making-money-by-copy-pasting-articles/625/

A trace near a differential signal can generate cross talk. The trace generates a crosstalk that has same direction for not the traces of the signal but have different magnitute.
http://referencedesigner.com/blog/cross-talk-in-differential-signals/630/

I was just looking at the blackchatcity.com , a new chat website that allows you to chat with other people of similar mind.
hhttp://referencedesigner.com/blog/a-chat-room-for-blacks/639/