New Zealand’s Maori rediscover themselves in tattoos: With a little ink, some stinging pain and a helping hand from the ancestors, Mark Kopua can heal a wounded soul. He is a modern master of an ancient art called ta moko, one of the world’s oldest forms of tattooing and a renewed source of pride for New Zealand’s indigenous Maori people. [LA Times]
Pre-Islamic icons symbolize Iran’s confused present: There are few avenues for defiance in this Shiite Muslim nation, but one of them is in the past, where the emblems, folklore and images of old Persia mingle in quiet protest against the mullahs. The pre-Islamic era is alive in jewelry, architecture, decals, books, videos and websites that feature Cyrus the Great and gold-horned bulls. [LA Times]
In Med Schools, the Abortion Curriculum Has Left the Classroom: As recently as six or seven years ago, abortion was included in my medical school’s curriculum, but no longer. The comprehensive curriculum I naively expected that would provide medical students with the knowledge to meet the common needs of their female patients simply does not exist. [AlterNet]
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