Marty and Jay just left to head back out west. We managed to do some more damage to the truck I think — it turns out that when you smash into five foot high dirt embankments and run over trees you can puncture the rad. Who'd a thunk it. Easy fix though, no big deal.
I realized as well I haven't posted any shots that really show the size of the new BME and PsyberCity offices… So below are two in-construction pictures. Soon that'll be full of computers, cars, and other fun stuff.
Everyone's doing it, so I'm doing a slightly modified version of saram's poll. I've also seen it on destrss, LexTalonis, and rebekah's pages. The only change I made is making each category five items. Some of the questions imply “grand” answers; I've tried to give a range when possible.
Five Figures That Shaped History
Five Truly Inspirational Movies
Five Inventions Modern Society Couldn't Exist Without
Five Ground Breaking Musical Artists
Five Devastating Events
Five Books Everyone Should Read
A large number of people have sent me the following link: Medicine: An Earful at the Mall, the latest iteration of the ear piercing gun story. It started as a “ear piercing guns lead to problems, get pierced at a studio” story, with doctor back-up, and now somehow the powers have flipped it to being a “pro-gun, anti-needle” story. Anyway, here's the letter I wrote them:
My name is Shannon Larratt and I am the publisher of BMEzine.com, the world's largest resource and information source on body modification, and the only site that actively catalogs all modifications as well as their risks. I have published four books on the subject and have appeared in on TLC, The Discovery Channel, and many other shows as an expert in the field.I recently read your article "Medicine: An Earful at the Mall" (online at https://www.msnbc.com/news/826550.asp), and while I am glad that the risks of mall piercing are being pointed out, I feel that it's important to mention a number of rather glaring errors. I am concerned that a number of these errors are literally opposite to medical knowledge on the subject and that some of the advice you are giving, while well meaning, may well be endangering your readers.
You say, "doctors advise against using disinfectant, since the studs are sterilized before shipping." In a perfect world that might be true, but, as you pointed out, and as the recent cases in Oregon illustrate, stores like Claire's use young employees who have neither the training nor the equipment to ensure that the items that come in contact with your blood are not contaminated. In an age of hepatitis, AIDS, and other deadly blood-borne diseases, I think it is very irresponsible to imply that one can safely patronize anything but a fully equipped piercing studio for such services.
You then go on to quote "Nicole Maye" of Claire's Accessories. First, I think it's deceptive to call her a "piercer". Body piercers that work in piercing studios receive extensive training, and in most parts of the US, are licensed by state health boards ensuring that they have only hard cleanable surfaces, a well maintained and regularly tested autoclave, and so on. As you point out in the article, mall kiosks and stores such as Claire's do not have the facilities to properly guarantee the safety of their clients, nor have their employees received adequate training in the field.
This inexperience and lack of knowledge is reflected in Maye's statement that piercings performed with a needle are more likely to lead to infection. To put it simply, this is a lie. As the doctors you quote pointed out, piercing guns violently rip and tear through the ear, rather than creating a clean and quick-healing cut like a needle does. In addition, a needled piercing, done in the context of a piercing studio, uses only items which are either disposable or fresh out of autoclaved packaging.
Given the choice of being pierced by an experienced piercer with clean surgical gear that's freshly out of an autoclave (the same device a hospital uses to sterilize its tools), or some kid ramming ear studs that haven't been sterilized since before they were shipped through me with a spring loaded gun, I think the choice is obvious.
If you or other writers have any follow-up questions I would be glad to assist.
Shannon Larratt
BMEzine.com
If you want to write a letter of you're own, you're welcome to rewrite any of the above for your own purposes. Seth also has an excellent letter on his page that he sent them about it.
PS. I always feel like a goof doing self-horn-tooting, but I figure it makes them more likely to take it seriously.
Slashdot readers have probably just seen this story about a statement from EMI about CD copying. A customer send a message that said, “I just bought a CD from you, and it won't play in my CD player. What should I do?” The response included,
[Copy protection] means the end of free music, something that must cause you much grief... [What you are claiming] can, in our experience, only originate from the realm of fairytales... Copy protection is a reality, and within a matter of months more or less all audio media worldwide are copy protected. And this is a good thing for the music industry. In order to make this happen we will do anything within our power -- whether you like it or not.
Let me briefly explain how copy protection on CDs works (it's really lame). A CD has a “table of contents” that says what's on it. If that CD was created by a computer, there may be multiple tables if the CD has been updated (ie. a “multi-session” CD). As such, according to “official specs”, an audio player should always read the first table of contents, and a computer should always read the last one. So what they do is put a “valid” first table of contents in, and then a bunch of bogus ones. Audio players grab the valid one, and computers grab the bogus ones.
Boy, that'll be tough to crack. What, all of one line of code will have to be altered!?!? They can't seriously think this is going to work… At least Macrovision took a little effort. Anyway, consumers will rightly demand that the audio CDs can be played in the computer. The fact is that if you can play something, you can copy it. That will not change.
This afternoon I decided to take a closer look at Rob's barn. Although much of what's here appears to have been built relatively recently, it was built using very classic low-tech construction methods so it interested me.
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