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nolanews: There are some cool things coming to the National World War II Museum. Dignitaries and officials topped off the newest expansion with an evergreen tree at the highest point on the new building, the U.S. Freedom Pavilion. The Pavilion, expected to open to the public this winter, will display the museum’s “macro” artifacts: airplanes, tanks, jeeps and a “simulated submarine ride in which 27 visitors at a time will feel the floor vibrate and the whoosh of a torpedo being fired.” Also today, there was a ceremony to break ground for the _next_ expansion to the museum, called the Campaigns of Courage: European and Pacific Theaters. The exhibits on display here will have an interactive narrative element that will guide visitors through the experiences of a particular service member: “Each visitor will receive a bar-coded version of a GI’s dog tag bearing a service member’s name. Throughout the exhibit, updates will be available at kiosks.” The updates will be supplied via information the museum collected through oral-history interviews with the actual service members. You guys, this is going to be so cool. I cannot wait. Isn’t history the best?!

nolanews:

There are some cool things coming to the National World War II Museum.

Dignitaries and officials topped off the newest expansion with an evergreen tree at the highest point on the new building, the U.S. Freedom Pavilion.

The Pavilion, expected to open to the public this winter, will display the museum’s “macro” artifacts: airplanes, tanks, jeeps and a “simulated submarine ride in which 27 visitors at a time will feel the floor vibrate and the whoosh of a torpedo being fired.”

Also today, there was a ceremony to break ground for the _next_ expansion to the museum, called the Campaigns of Courage: European and Pacific Theaters.

The exhibits on display here will have an interactive narrative element that will guide visitors through the experiences of a particular service member:

“Each visitor will receive a bar-coded version of a GI’s dog tag bearing a service member’s name. Throughout the exhibit, updates will be available at kiosks.”

The updates will be supplied via information the museum collected through oral-history interviews with the actual service members.

You guys, this is going to be so cool. I cannot wait. Isn’t history the best?!

50 Best to Worst States for Women

iVillage, a website dedicated to news and content for women, recently rated the 50 states based on how pleasant or awful it is to live there as a woman. From the site: 

In creating our rankings, we analyzed health care and reproductive rights as well as economic success, access to affordable childcare, female representation in government and educational attainment. We wondered: Which states are getting things right and really helping women? And which states still have a learning curve on these issues? 

Sadly (but not surprisingly), Louisiana was near the bottom of the list. 

This makes me feel very lucky, since I have health insurance and a reasonable income, but also very sad that the reality is that this great state has a long way to go to be more inclusive. 

So I woke up this morning in a pool of my own blood.»

itscandidlycara:

Wait, let me back up.

Hi, my name is Cara and I’m a 21 year old woman. Every 28 days, give or take, I have a period. And it fucking sucks. Today, was one of those where I take from the 28 day cycle. I wasn’t due for another period for at least a week, but considering that my period is pretty much permanently irregular, I get to wake up a lot of mornings in a pool of my own blood. Hmm. Lovely.

I then proceed to dump my sheets, my underwear, and my pajamas in my laundry room in a tub filled with cold water, with the hopes that this timeI haven’t ruined them permanently.

What next? Well, a shower of course! To wipe off the smell of rotting blood from my body! Squeaky clean and towel fresh I have about a two minute window before the volcano of blood begins to erupt again from my vagina.

What will it be today? A piece of chlorinated toilet paper cardboard with a string that I get to shove up my hole wherein the blood will sit and rot until the next time I can shove another piece of chlorinated cardboard up the same hole? Or, a plastic lined toilet paper diaper attached to my underwear that causes rug burn to my vaginal area when I walk? Well the later requires less coordination, and it is early, so I guess I’ll be sitting in a period diaper today. The best ever.

Of course, I could always just get birth control, and lessen this whole shit. But 1) I can’t afford it 2) I can’t ask my dad to pay for it because, guess what? Just like the men who run my government, my father correlates birth control with sexual promiscuity! Thus, sitting on my rotting blood, undergoing severe cramps that have on more than one occasion caused me to black out, it is! (Not that birth control is such a walk in the park either, our bodies have to learn to deal with the hormones and other chemicals and consequences that birth control entails.)

Then, I get to go to class, where I have to pretend that I am not a leaky faucet of blood and tissue. I get to sit in Calculus, and if heaven forbid, I need an additional pad, I have to be discrete about it, so as not to offend the men’sgentle sensibilitiesto the fact thatI am the one dropping tissues and blood from my body through my vagina.  

I once asked a male to take me to the pharmacy so that I could pick up (GASP) pads, or as we like to call it “feminine products” (again, so as not to offend the gentlemen’s overly sensitive natures) and had him equate me talking about my period to him talking about his erections.

ARE

YOU

FUCKING

KIDDING

ME

No.

This is nothing like your fucking erection’s. I don’t derive any enjoyment from this. I can’t mentally control any ounce of this entire process. I can’tmasturbate my problem away. My period does not end in orgasm.

It stays. For at least five days in my case. Draining blood out of my body. Causing me severe cramps, making me irritable -not because I’m uncomfortable (which mind you,would be reason enough) - but because my hormones are all over the place, bloating me up to two sizes larger than I normally am, I have to actively fight not to smell like a fish market, and on top of that, you want me to be hush-hush about this? Because it’s icky foryou?

And this is not an attack on that one man, this is an attack on ALL MEN who on top of sitting on their throne of gender privilege want me to stay quiet and be content about the fact that five days out of every month I get to undergo thishappiest of joys.

And then, these very same men have theaudacityto get annoyed because we don’t want to listen to their bullshit complaining about traffic? Or whatever other meaningless story they happen to tell us while our bodies are actively fighting against us? Then we get to be the butt of their tired-ass jokes? Sorry, I am most certainly not sorry.

I repeat NO. I say women come out of the period closet and say, “You know what, this happens to me. Every. Fucking. Month. And it’s terrible. LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT MY MORNING.” Because the truth is, if I live in a country where Viagra is covered by medical insurance, but birth control isn’t, I can no longer keep denying that I live in a country that is actively waging a war on women. And if I live in a country that is actively waging war on my sex, the least I am going to do is break patriarchal social propriety to inform anyone and everyone of the shit biological process I was BLESSED enough to be born into.

Hello, my name is Cara, I’m a 21 year old woman, and today I’m on my period. Let me fucking tell you about it.

YES. Thank you. 

This hit home for me because the reason that I got on birth control is because I have a very irregular periods - in fact, if I don’t take medicine I often won’t have one at all. This is called amenorrhea. It can happen for many reasons and is always annoying. 

I’m convinced this whole birth control/women’s health controversy and debate is a product of certain people attempting (and succeeding) to gain media attention. I just can’t believe that some people in America in 2012 can possibly be ignorant enough to think that birth control is unethical. What happened to freedom of choice? How can so many people possibly ignore that and all the health issues?  Why now after birth control has been around for so long? I could rant longer, but I’d rather do something I enjoy so I’m going to go eat a burrito. 

Get over it.

Sex Education in China: Elementary School»

metazensae:

I am impressed by this and applaud China’s dedication to education. For a country that is often too closed towards certain topics, they are making steps toward this intimate, yet important topic.

In the US, I have heard ridiculous stories being told to children about where they come from. One in particular included a magical key that released the baby from the mother’s belly.

I support a position that is more honest with children without being too explicit. The kids in that video were quite knowledgeable and eager to show what they’ve learned. Hopefully, this will result in educated decision making later on in early adulthood.

However, I find it highly unlikely that Chinese teenagers will have more sex if educated on safe/preventative sex measures. Chinese teenagers have little to no free time to develop casual relationships. It isn’t until they get more freedom in college that these sort of opportunities present themselves. This has, at least, been my experience with students in China, and as this topic is still somewhat taboo sexual activity was not a topic freely discussed.

I’m proud of China, and I wish that the United States would consider maturing when it comes to topics and health of the human body.

I concur with Elizabeth. Are we forgetting the wise adage, “Honesty is the best policy”? The more children and adolescents know about these topics, the easier it will be for them to make informed decisions. 

Urination at War: Don't Be Mad at the Peeing; Be Mad at the Killing»

What a world we live in, a world in which peeing on dead people yields more moral outrage than killing them in the first place.

…

If you’re a fan of dark comedy, all the hand-wringing about preserving the dignity of our enemies after they’re dead can seem outright laughable. We allow—nay, encourage and demand, our troops to shoot people in the face, stab them in the guts, and bomb their homes. We ask them to do work that destroys families, communities, cities, and countries. We ask them to witness their friends and colleagues get slaughtered on the battlefield, and to see gore and trauma generally found in scary movies. What’s more, frequently we ask them to do all this when they’re still teenagers, too young to even drink a beer.

…

More American troops now kill themselves than die in combat, and female soldiers are more likely to be sexually assaulted by a colleague than to be killed by the enemy. In short, the kids aren’t all right, and it’s time for everyone to stop being shocked when they behave in abnormal, terrifying ways. War is an awful thing that irrevocably changes and destroys people, and it yields horrific, destructive behavior. If you’d like to live in a world in which soldiers don’t pee on their dead enemies, then it’s your duty to fight for a world in which soldiers aren’t killing people in the first place.

Some pretty valid points. 

What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland's School Success - The Atlantic»

Since the 1980s, the main driver of Finnish education policy has been the idea that every child should have exactly the same opportunity to learn, regardless of family background, income, or geographic location. Education has been seen first and foremost not as a way to produce star performers, but as an instrument to even out social inequality.

Fascinating read and something to think about!