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Sorry to Snakes: The Good, The Bad & The Truth
Sofia Perez I have always been in love with paradoxes, from simple ones like Jumbo Shrimp, to the deepest philosophical questions of human nature, to the poor life- or death, or both- of Schrödinger’s cat. Recently I have invited a new conundrum into my heart’s library of contradictions: ethnoherpetology, which is the study of the…
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We don’t know our food. Are dying languages the answer?
Sofia Perez Chapter 2 of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring begins like this: “The history of life on earth has been a history of interaction between living things and their surroundings.” By asserting this fact, she is also asserting an often-overlooked reality: connection. This means that the myth of the world being divided between humankind and…
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The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Green Transition: To Fossil Fuel Or Not To Fossil Fuel?
“To fossil fuel or not to fossil fuel, that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the Earth to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous pollution, Or to take arms against a sea of emissions And, by opposing, end them. To die: to switch; No more; and by a switch to say we end…
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Cyber Rebels Unite: Hacking Inequality To Spark A Digital Revolution
Sofia Perez “We’re all just walking each other home.” -Ram Dass (Scroll to the bottom for a glossary on some of the jargon used in this article) I’ve come to the conclusion that there are two main reactions to words like “cyber”, “quantum”, and “AI”. Either these words make you shut down, overwhelmed by the…
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Time To Bleed The Room: Unlocking the Magic of Saying the Bloody Word
Sofia Perez It’s that time of the month when Auntie Flo comes around and you ride the crimson wave. It’s shark week… but also strawberry week…and also lingonberry week if you’re Swedish. It’s code red! Granny’s stuck in traffic! Les Anglais ont débarqué! If you think I’m describing a doomsday scenario with a side of…
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Not a Witch, Bitch Or Hag: The Art of Dance & Menopause
Sofia Perez “And for her true womanhood arrived here there is no growing old. Age refines and enriches, warms and illuminates, expands and exalts her. She is more and more Woman through it; not less and less. The noble life that has let her hither is her grand cosmetic. Her intellect, loosed from the golden…
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From Cloth To Comfort: A Menstrual Revolution In a Material World
Sofia Perez Contact with it [menstrual blood] turns new wine sour, crops touched by it become barren, […] hives of bees die. Pliny the elder If you’re one of the lucky ones among us who menstruate- or ever has or will- you should know a decent chunk of the humans that have ever existed would…
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Menstrual Menstralas: Why Art Is The Path Out of Stigma
Sofia Perez if there is a rivermore beautiful than thisbright as the bloodred edge of the moon ifthere is a river more faithful than thisreturning each monthto the same delta if thereis a riverbraver than thiscoming and coming in a surgeof passion, of pain if there isa rivermore ancient than thisdaughter of evemother of cain…
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Closing the Comma on Period Poverty
Sofia Perez There is a moment every female-bodied tween dreads- the day your sporadic, temperamental period comes early and you’ve forgotten your pad. You’re stuck in the bathroom stall on a muggy summer afternoon in the middle of French and you know your only option is to stuff toilet paper into your panties and say…
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A Tale of Toxineering & Tarantulas
Sofia Perez The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in Kings’ palaces. Proverbs 30:28 After defending the bad press snakes get in Western culture and highlighting the potential their venom offers the field of medicine, I was struck by a dagger of guilt. More than 220,000 species- or approximately 15% of all animal…
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Life, Death & Drugs: Why We Need Venom In Medicine
By Sofia Perez Once bitten by a snake, one is scared all his life at the mere sight of a rope. Chinese Proverb There is something deliciously poetic about using an agent of death to heal. I fell in love with the idea recently, a seductive tango between danger and relief. Venom- a killer and…
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Recycling Plastic: A Shameful Sham
Sofia Perez Today is the day in which I dispel lies with a righteous sword of truth. Here goes nothing: The institution of Recycling is a Sham. Now before you storm off angrily and tattle on me to Greta Thunberg, first read my article Greta Thunberg’s Got It Wrong…But We Can’t Get It Right Without…
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Detergent Diaries: What Can The Ancient Romans Teach Us About Laundry?
By Sofia Perez Featuring Ancient Rome It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of cleanliness, it was the epoch of dirtiness, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it…