27 November 2011

Candiru Catfish & Penises

So as I'm getting my Grey's Anatomy fix on Netflix, they mention something so absurd I had to Google it.

McSteamy and Burke reviewing an X-ray revealing the candiru catfish lodged into the patient's urethra.

From River Monsters: Candiru Catfish:
The Candiru is the star of an urban legend — which turns out to be true — of a man who was urinating in the Amazon River when a 6-inch Candiru swam up his urine stream into his penis. The fish remained there for days, until a surgeon was able to remove it.
 

What's a Prisoner Worth?

I have a stack of reading material (old copies of the New Yorker and Newsday, as well as a textbook on skin carcinomas I picked up from a local thrift store) piled on top of my toilet's tank, and I often earmark really good reads that I want to share with my friends. Sometimes, I'll post links to the articles on my Facebook (which go largely unnoticed in that platform of useless status updates about being hungover, heartbroken or some other uesless shit), but for the most part, I carry these notable reads on my mind and rarely ever get a chance to discuss them at length. But now I'm going to create a new label on Rough Draught called "poop reading material."

During my last bathroom session, I came across "What's a Prisoner Worth?" in the October 24 Newsday edition.


1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for 1 Israeli. Does anyone else find this shocking? It never occurred to me to do research on the number of prisoners on either side.

Interesting points from the Wikipedia page on Palestinian Prisoners in Israel:
  • "...as of 31 August 2011, there were 5,204 Palestinians imprisoned in Israel, of them 272 in administrative detention."
  • "...between the years after the Six Day War (1967) and the First Intifada (1988), more than 600,000 Palestinians were held in Israeli jails for a week or more."
  • "Between October 2000 and April 2009, approximately 6,700 Palestinian children between the ages of 12 and 18 were arrested by the Israeli authorities, according to Defence for Children International's Palestine Section (DCI/PS). The number of Palestinian children held in detention and interrogation centers, as well as prisons, both in Occupied Palestinian Territory and inside of Israel, was 423 in 2009. In April 2010 the number was 280. DCI/PS reports that these detentions stand in contravention of international law."  
 
Now I know that there are two sides to this story (that's your cue to opine here), and I acknowledge that some of these prisoners were incarcerated because of acts of terrorism, etc., but take one second (or several) to think about this -- ONE THOUSAND INDIVIDUALS for ONE INDIVIDUAL. How did the Israeli government choose which prisoners deserved freedom?

Wikipedia (as well as various news articles and websites) might not be the greatest or most reliable source for my information, but I find that it quenches my thirst for a discourse on this topic. I'm getting tired of friends who tell me "Politics bore me." It's not boring, people! Wake up! Where is the compassion? These events are happening and being experienced by individuals, people with families, previous careers, and aspirations of all sorts.

23 November 2011

The Fraud Police

Amanda Palmer is a musician that I follow. While some don't really like her music, I feel that I must share this with you. She was invited to speak at a graduation and this is what she shared with them.

If you ever question yourself and what the fuck you're doing, you will benefit from this video.

"The Fraud Police" - AFP's Commencement Speech to NEIA's Class of 2011 from Amanda Palmer on Vimeo.


Here's the transcript if you want to read along: http://bit.ly/AFPsGradSpeech


"The fraud police are this imaginary, terrifying force of experts and real grown-ups who don't exist and who come knocking on your door at 3am when you least expect it, saying "fraud police. we've been watching you and we have evidence that you have no idea what you are doing. and you stand accused of the crime of completely making shit up as you go along. you do not actually deserve your job and we're taking everything away. and we're telling everybody."

22 November 2011

New artists every month

I'm super excited that this blog has found a second (third?) life in it.

I remember at my last birthday when I asked, oh yeah so Aileen and Vic got back together? and everyone else was like, Where have you been? I advocated a friendly "email newsletter what have you" of sorts while everyone else was like, use facebok. Dude! But its more than that. Facebook has its place. And I think this blog does too. To share whatever the fuck you like.

Anyways, you might have notice that the art changed around here. I'm hoping to change the RD imagery every once a while, changing the person every month or so.
This month, we're featuring polaroids by my friend Rita. (She doesn't contribute to this blog and she doesn't know I'm using her work.) Here is her blog: http://polarita.tumblr.com/

Happy posting y'all!

21 November 2011

Hello there. I went on a 2.5 year hiatus from this blog, but was encouraged to start contributing again as I read through old entries (thanks for posting that nostalgic status on Facebook, Kat). This space used to integrate so many different perspectives from college students aspiring to be writers, scientists, politicians and artists. It's a beautiful thing to fast forward and see where we all stand as we approach our mid twenties. Although the founders of this blog are rarely all in one room, let's keep this blog going because we were all an integral part of each others' lives during our most formative years -- we inspired each other, which made life so enjoyable back then (hey, guys, remember FtL! events?) and would certainly (at least in my opinion) serve as a much needed distraction from our current demanding lives.

And a fitting song for this entry, Youth Lagoon's "17":


 " Oh when I was seventeen, my mother said to me 'don't stop imagining, the day that you do is the day that you die' "