How do people show their fondness of information?

We complain about our oversupply of information. We treasure it nonetheless. We aren’t shutting down our e-mail addresses. On the contrary, we’re buying pocket computers and cellular modems and mobile phones with tiny message screens to make sure that we can log in from the beaches and mountaintops. These devices are fed by our ever-growing militia of information carriers.

Despite the pervasiveness of the procedure, drawing blood remains an arduous task. Finding a vein is often difficult; an estimated 30 percent of patients require multiple sticks. AccuVein, a New York-based company, recently developed a device that could help put an end to missed veins. It uses noninvasive infrared technology to project an image of a person’s veins onto the skin’s surface; when a patient’s arm is scanned, the musculature appears red, and the veins show as dark lines.