Call off the Pap Rally?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/linecon0/ / CC BY SA 2.0

After years of needlessly conducting countless Pap tests and subsequent follow-up exams on low-risk women, North American health organizations are finally moving to replace antiquated cervical cancer screening policies.

Wait a minute…what? Antiquated? You mean women don’t have to make annual appointments for those awkward and uncomfortable tests? Can we get a cheer going?

Don’t gimme a P! (P)
Don’t gimme an A! (A)
Don’t gimme a P! (P)

(Well, not as often anyway.)

According to an article in today’s Globe and Mail– “Cancer experts call for reduction in Pap tests” –Carly Weeks puts forth the notion that we may be booking more paps than we actually need.

North American women are often advised to get their first screening at the age of 18, and to do a test every year after that. But apparently, more screenings don’t necessarily result in lower disease rates.

Even though Weeks highlighted some guidelines for screening, her article made it apparent that there are still some inconsistencies that may confuse women. Check ‘um out:

That time my birthday was front page fluffy news

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So, my face was on the front page of Metro yesterday.

The only reason I’m saying this so nonchalantly is because it’s still kind of surreal.

I mean, I saw myself while sitting across from a man reading the paper on the bus. I was half expecting him to look at the picture, then look at me, then back at the picture and then…I don’t know.

What does one do in that situation?

But enough stalling–you’re probably wondering what landed me in that prominent spot in the first place.

Thank goodness I’m too obscure to have a political scandal at this tender age.

Long story short, I’d agreed to an interview about successfully organizing a Science World birthday party for myself in a new city. When I agreed to being profiled (mostly for good journalistic karma) I never expected it to be a cover story.

My j-school peers kind of teased me about it but, hey,  it was something to write home about. When I told my mom I’d made the front page, she assumed it was something I’d written and asked me what the story was.

“Well that’s the thing… I’m the story,”  I said, rather sheepishly. “It’s kind of about my birthday.”

Now I have to go hunt down some copies for my grandma.

For posterity, I’ve reposted the story below.
Serious question: how am I ever going to top this on my 25th?

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Mix one science centre, Facebook, get big party

Original article in Metro Vancouver
By Kristen Thompson
20 November 2009

New Vancouverite Fabiola Carletti has got making friends down to a science. Her formula? A novel birthday party idea and Facebook.

Carletti, who moved from Toronto in September to attend the University of B.C., had her heart set on celebrating her 24th birthday at a Telus World of Science’s After Dark event — a themed adults-only soiree.

When she learned there weren’t any events planned for the immediate future, Science World told her they’d open the venue for the night — and provide a cash bar to boot — if Carletti could find 100 guests.

“I didn’t think I’d actually be able to do it,” said Carletti, who used Facebook to ask friends and classmates to spread the word.

“It’s kind of like casting a line — you don’t know if they’re going to bite.”

Carletti said guests started signing up in small increments.

“We’d be at 70 (guests) and stay there, and then all of a sudden it would jump to 85. I swear it stayed at 99 for so long. When it went to 100 I took a screen shot.”

“It’s exciting when Facebook can facilitate something you may have been interested in, but couldn’t (pull off).”

Pamela Findling, spokesperson for Science World, said they’ve never done something like this at the venue before.

“It’s a great opportunity for (Carletti) to have a (great birthday) and to have an audience that would not normally come into Science World,” Findling said.

METRO VANCOUVER

Tibetan monks build a sand mandala at the MOA

Technophiles miss out on the message of a transient, ancient art
Originally published in The Ubyssey & theubyssey.ca on Nov. 19, 2009 || Culture

Tsengdok Rinpoche braves the cold ocean to complete Tibetan ritual

Listen to the audio version of this story

For seven days, Tibetan monks hunched over a circular outline at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC. Using cone-like metal tools called chak-pur, they crafted an elaborate design using millions of grains of coloured sand.

On Sunday Tsengdok Rinpoche, from Vancouver’s Tsengdok Monastery, stood over the finished product: an intricate work of art known as a sand mandala.

Using a brush, he began to sweep it into a blur.

But the destruction of the design is part of the traditional Tibetan ritual.

“The meaning of the mandala is to remind people that nothing in life is permanent,” said Rinpoche through a translator. “Don’t get too attached, even to the most beautiful things.”

From November 8 to 15, five visiting monks from the Gaden Jangtse Monastery in India created and displayed the mandala in the Great Hall of the museum. Two Vancouver-based monks, including Rinpoche, hosted the quintet as part of their 2009 Sacred Art Tour.

Guidance from the Garbage Girl: Destination Hopenhagen

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I first saw Lindsey Hoshaw (aka the “garbage girl”) on a big screen in a dimly-lit dining room. Before an audience of scientists and journalists, Erika Check Hayden played Hoshaw’s video as an example of the kind of entrepreneurial spirit that new journalists are going to need in order to survive the shock-waves currently going through the industry–and then somehow tell the stories that need to be told.

Despite the rough audio and the simplicity of the video, I found myself drawn to the sincerity in Hoshaw’s eyes. She looked like she really wanted to spend her summer sorting through floating debris and somehow convince the average person to think about their role in producing it.

So, she cast her pitch into the vast expanses of the internet–and people bought it.
Literally.

A Fab Night at Science World

They even made me a sign! (Photo courtesy Peter Bell)

They may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. There are, it seems, at least 100 of us in Vancouver!

Let’s rewind: it all started yesterday when I heard about Science World After Dark: an adult’s only event at Vancouver’s Science World, complete with a cash bar.

Then I saw this Flickr album and my childlike delirium reached unhealthy levels.

My first thought: “holy-****-my-birthday’s-coming-up-and-this-would-be-perfect!” My inner child and my inner wino prematurely gave each other a spirited high-five…

And then I discovered that there were no upcoming “SWADs” on the calendar, much less one on my birthday, and I picked up the phone.

The Birthday Plans Project

Long story short: Science World has never done this before, but they said they’d be willing to open up a SWAD event for my birthday if I could get 100 people to commit.

I spent the next 10 minutes rapping my fingers on my desk and making that sour pout that kids make when they find out Santa is a sham.

See, I’m new to Vancouver (only here since September!) and I didn’t think I could pull off a 100-person party like it ain’t no thang.

That’s when this public Facebook event was born. The basics:

• Friday Nov. 20^th 2009 from approximately 7-10pm
• Admission for $15 (down from their regular $18 for adults)
• Access to all things Science World without the screaming line-ups of children
• And the adults-only bit: a $5 beer bar

They gave me until midnight on Monday (today) to show Science World I could pull this thing off.

Step aside, Alpha Male

Image by Flickr user Bob.Fornal

I want to try and draw some parallels, but before this is possible we need a common text.
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This fascinating podcast is about a community of baboons that Robert Sapolsky, biologist and neurologist, studied in eastern Africa. (It’s not long, and well worth a listen.)
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Here’s a very basic summary:

• The podcast opens with the increased percentage of people who don’t believe human beings will ever stop waging war because “it’s in our nature.” Just one of those sad but inevitable things we can’t change.
• We then meet Sapolsky’s study subjects, a community of “textbook” baboons. The group is highly-aggressive, hierarchical and dominated by alpha males.
• A tourist lodge opens up nearby and a different group of baboons stops foraging and starts feasting on cakes, hamburgers, etc, everyday.
• Sapolsky’s group discovers the dumping ground and wants in on the free-for-all. The tougher males fight their way into the food dump every day, for years.
• One day, some of the baboons start getting really sick. Turns out they’ve consumed contaminated meat and contracted tuberculosis. The disease  kills off most of the aggressive alpha males.
• Sapolsky is devastated by the deaths of his alphas. He also starts to observe changes in the clan. The beta males start doing things the alphas never did, like grooming the females and even other males. He figures the study group has been scientifically compromised by a freak event and moves on to a different clan.
• Six years later, Sapolsky visits his old group. To his amazement, the less violent culture remains! This despite the fact that the community is full of new males that grew up under the “old world order.”
• Surprisingly, the new males adapted to the relatively peaceful culture of the group instead of trying to become the new alphas.
• Lots of theories are thrown around, but the idea of hard-wired and inevitable aggression is called into question, especially because this more peaceful baboon behaviour has now lasted 20 years.
• Many behaviours thought to be hard-wired changed, and very quickly!
• The podcast ends with a question: can this scenario teach us something about the human potential for change?

Now, my own anecdote comes in.

Students chase sustainability: Commerce committee pushes for a greener curriculum at UBC

Trevor Wheatley, external director, steps up the podium to moderate the industry panel

BY FABIOLA CARLETTI
CONTRIBUTOR

This article was originally published in The Ubyssey

When Jennifer Matchett says things need to change, she means business.

Matchett is the co-director of the Commerce Undergraduate Society’s committee on sustainability. She is one of several students at the Sauder School of Business who want their curriculum to include more dialogue about environmental sustainability.

“We feel that the major players in any environmental movement are corporations,” said Matchett. “If they don’t change, nothing’s really going to change.”

Business students gathered on November 6 at the Liu Institute for Global Issues for the second annual Chasing Sustainability Conference. Along with guest speakers, they discussed strategies for going beyond “green-washing” and striving toward ecologically responsible businesses practices.

Brian Grant, an attendee and fourth-year accounting student, said he started thinking about ethical business practices after watching a hard-hitting documentary called The Corporation, which compares corporations to psychopaths.

“Nowadays, people are reacting to the fact that businesses have a bad rap,” said Grant.

Despite the crisp collars, neat ties and professional footwear, the event did not look like a usual conference.

Stern opens Pandora’s lunchbox, food fight ensues

Enjoying my veggie side at UBC Farm

At dinnertime, the cook at my college residence always gives me the same puzzled squint. As his hand hovers between two different serving utensils, he strains to categorize me, then asks one of two questions:

“Veg?”

“Meat?”

I remind him of the inconvenient truth: “I don’t eat red meat, but if we have fish or fowl tonight, I’m up for it.”

He never looks pleased.

People like categories, and why not? It’s easier to organize things mentally. But because I straddle both sides of the dinner menu, I confound, annoy, and/or anger both strict vegetarians and unapologetic meat-lovers.

If you must call me something, I guess you can say I’m a semi-vegetarian or flexitarian. (To be honest, I think both terms sound half-arsed, but it’s conversational short-hand.) In this Globe and Mail interview, Jonathan Safran Foer introduced me to the terms “ethical omnivore” and “selective omnivore.”

Whatever the label, it does seems like an open invitation to an ongoing dinner debate. And many people don’t find shades of gray very appetizing.

Still, all the uncertainty reflects the lag in the evolution of language when it comes to reflecting changing and nuanced realities. Many busy but concerned people want to make better choices for themselves and for the planet, but there is a whole lot of confusing and contradictory information out there.

As I enjoyed my view from the fence this week, an interesting development caught my attention.

Lord Nicholas Stern, an acknowledged authority on both climate change and economics, came right out said: “Meat is a wasteful use of water and creates a lot of greenhouse gases. It puts enormous pressure on the world’s resources. A vegetarian diet is better.”

And with that, Pandora’s lunch box flew right open.

All you have to do is google “Lord Stern + vegetarian debate” and you’ll see how riled up people can get about this issue (especially if you read the comments below articles).

Now, as someone who peeves off both parties, let me just put some interesting points out there. If you’ll excuse one more bad pun (they just pour out of me when it comes to cuisine!) here’s some…