... which reminds me: RESISTANT STRAINS.  Not just sexually transmitted but other as well.

Resistant gonorrhea, and other resistant bugs, for which the treatments that worked in the past are now not working.

Thanks to massive abuse of antibiotics in agriculture, and also thanks to humans who misuse antibiotics in various ways, we are rapidly heading for the "pre-antibiotic" era all over again.  The whole topic of antibiotics and resistance ought to be on our agenda, including non-sexually-transmitted resistant bacteria such as MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus) and MDRTB (multi-drug-resistant and massively-drug-resistant tuberculosis), and XDRTB (extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis).

Tuberculosis is a big deal in certain parts of the Bay Area including San Francisco and Oakland.  There are certain bus lines in SF that doctors & nurses call "TB runs" because taking those buses entails a high risk of exposure to TB.   

For that matter we should also be thinking about emerging influenza strains such as the new variant of avian flu (H5N9 if I recall correctly) that's just killed five people in China, and the other new virus that's killed a half dozen or so in the Middle East and England: right now these seem like tiny isolated events, but any new flu strain has the risk of turning out to be another monster pandemic that causes millions of deaths in months.  Viruses of course are not treated with antibiotics, but are relevant because they are infectious/contagious.

These things are killers, and death by untreatable infection is nasty in the utmost.

Minus antibiotics again, sanitation & hygiene, safe food preparation, and safe sexual practices, become that much more important. 

One thing everyone can do starting right now, is wash hands a) after using the toilet, b) before preparing food, and c) before eating: every time, no exceptions.  Toward that end we can make sure that the bathrooms and kitchen in the common spaces, and the industrial sink in our space, all have bottles of hand-washing soap and paper towels at all times.

-G.

=====







On 13-04-04-Thu 9:53 AM, Vicky Knox wrote:
WOW. OK, where to start?

First off: https://sudoroom.org/wiki/page/Today_I_Learned#May_4

Table of Contents
@Masturbation Lib and Teledildonics
@Men
@Gonorrhea
@Sudo Room Donations
@Community Infrastructure

@Masturbation Liberation and Teledildonics: Anon195's ideas are amaaaazing! I've been fascinated by teledildonics ever since I heard of the existence of Ted Nelson. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teledildonics> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Nelson>
The closest thing to that that I've run into via the hackerspaces has been the Dongiverse, which is cool except that I wouldn't want a sharp, porous plastic dong up any of my orifices. <http://dongiverse.com/>
Maybe a class field trip to Arse Elektronica 2013? (AE is an annual SF sex and technology event/conference/thingy.) Or how about getting in touch with their organizers to see if they'd like to collaborate on a workshop? Ooh ideas! <http://www.monochrom.at/arse-elektronika/>
Masturbation liberation: Fuck yeah! I think this should be its own TIL and I'm ready to make it happen. Wanna chose a date, Anon195? Or would you like to wait on that until we talk more and/or contact our contacts (such as AE)? 
**So who's got the teledildonics connection?

@Men: Would there be any interest in formulating a men's meetup to talk about, you know, stuff? 

@Gonorrhea: I think the greatest workshops I've ever been to have been variety hours. It's absolutely lovely and fascinating to have educational interludes, kind of like exploring Wikipedia's intertwingularity (see Ted Nelson article). May 4th is reserved! Does anyone else have an educational interlude they'd like to add to Hacking Menstruation? 

@Sudo Room Donations: These events are the perfect opportunity for us to pounce upon unsuspecting donors. Please reach far and wide into your networks to advertise this. I'll send a follow-up reminder!

@Community infrastructure: A random hack of kindness will soon be making its way toward Sudo Room. 


2013/4/4 Marina Kukso <marina.kukso@gmail.com>
excellent.

i think this also presents an excellent opportunity for discussing what kind of (light) infrastructure would facilitate reproductive and sexual health at the space - very basic stuff, tampons etc., but also community infrastructure - are we living up to our goal of being inclusive by providing options in both the physical and community dimensions of the space that allow everyone to feel at home. everyone should be a part of this discussion and i would love to speak more with women, queer folks, people of all stripes about it.

- marina


On Thu, Apr 4, 2013 at 8:25 AM, Craig Rouskey <craigrouskey@gmail.com> wrote:

I would be down to talk about Gonorrhea and plug our program to eradicate the antibiotic resistant strains! May 4 th

—
Sent from Mailbox for iPhone


On Thu, Apr 4, 2013 at 3:46 AM, Anon195714 <anon195714@sbcglobal.net> wrote:



Yo's-

Re. "What does it mean to hack sexual health...?"

Here's one example.  For years I've had a slogan I tell people (typically guys) whose sex drive is on overdrive to the point where it warps their attitude toward others (typically gals):

"Masturbate and keep your objectivity."

70% of guys "admit" that they play with themselves, and the other 30% are lying.  Yet the hypocrisy around this subject is just astounding, and the result is that physical needs become conflated with social attitudes and generate oppression of self and oppression of others.

Envision a culture where relationships are based on partners feeding each other (as in, holding the forks and spoons full of food up to each others' mouths during a meal) instead of on people having sex with each other.  People would run around frantically seeking partners because otherwise they'd either have to feed themselves (oh!, the embarrassment!) or go hungry and die. 

That's where our culture is about sex.  It's crazy. 

So I'd suggest "masturbation liberation" as a sexuality hacking topic. 

It even has major potential for cybernetic devices and interfaces and online communication enhancements. 

"Did you try building the new Orgasmatron?"

"Yeah.  The interface works pretty well, but there's a bug in the code, so I patched it.  Wanna' download my version, see what you think?"

Later.... "Hey, your version's a lot better than the original.  Now I was thinking, the interface could be improved.  Here, I'll make one for you on the 3D printer."

"Oh, cool, yeah I like your CAD diagram, I think it'll work, so go ahead and print one for me..."

Here's another potential topic:

Chastity belts for men in cultures that oppress women (for example by making women wear oppressive shapeless garments from head to toe, that barely leave enough of an opening for their eyes to see the world). 

Even one decent prototype would stir up a bunch of publicity about the subject, and hopefully generate some embarrassment on the part of men whose answer to their own weaknesses is to oppress women.  "Stop the problem at its source: the dirty minds of men!"

OK, enough for one night;-)

-G.


=====


On 13-04-04-Thu 12:18 AM, Vicky Knox wrote:
Tonight during the general meeting I proposed the Today I Learned event "Hacking Sexual Health". I'd like to open up the floor to multiple facilitators interested in this topic area to help me lead either one TIL workshop, or a series of workshops if there is sufficient excitement. Hacking Sexual Health is intended for sexual and asexual people alike. 

So what does it mean to hack sexual health? Ruminate on it. :]

My personal interest is hacking menstruation. I'd like to lead a workshop for creating cloth pads out of recycled clothing. The workshop is intended both for people who menstruate and for people who have friends who menstruate (and want to make them lovely presents!). We will go over different lady product options and have fun cost-comparisons for different products and unproducts. 

I will be reserving either April 27th or May 4th upon consulting my secretary. :P

Please contact me if you are interested in developing your own workshop or helping me to facilitate menstruation hacking! 

ykciV

PS: Clothing hackers, you know who you are! 


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