Three studies in Africa several years ago that claimed that circumcision prevented AIDS and that circumcision was as effective as a 60% effective vaccine (Auvert 2005, 2006). These studies had many flaws, including that they were stopped before all the results came in.
Three studies in Africa several years ago that claimed that circumcision prevented AIDS and that circumcision was as effective as a 60% effective vaccine (Auvert 2005, 2006). These studies had many flaws, including that they were stopped before all the results came in. There have also been several studies that show that circumcision does not prevent HIV (Connolly 2008). There are many issues at play in the spread of STDs which make it very hard to generalize results from one population to another.
In Africa, where the recent studies have been done, most HIV transmission is through male-female sex, but in the USA, it is mainly transmitted through blood exposure (like needle sharing) and male-male sex. Male circumcision does not protect women from acquiring HIV, nor does it protect men who have sex with men (Wawer 2009, Jameson 2009).
What's worse, because of the publicity surrounding the African studies, men in Africa are now starting to believe that if they are circumcised, they do not need to wear condoms, which will increase the spread of HIV (Westercamp 2010). Even in the study with the most favorable effects of circumcision, the protective effect was only 60% - men would still have to wear condoms to protect themselves and their partners from HIV.
In the USA, during the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and 90s, about 85% of adult men were circumcised (much higher rates of circumcision than in Africa), and yet HIV still spread.
It is important to understand, too, that the men in the African studies were adults and they volunteered for circumcision. Babies undergoing circumcision were not given the choice to decide for themselves.
Personally I think it's way easier to go after the ISPs. Currently they can provide the infrastructure without much penalty. If ISPs can be forced to take down sites of people who advertise via spam, it will hurt those people as well (they have to move, which costs money).
Shut down the spammers at the source go after the money.
Yup, the source are the countless ISPs who prefer money over whining "net cops". Quite some spam I get nowadays originates at ISPs like Dimenoc, iWeb, MediaTemple... As long as their customers pay they are happy to provide their services.
A lot of electronics in Mexico are 20-50% more expensive compared to the USA. The Apple MBP is 500 USD more expensive, for example. And then there is the warranty bullshit. Yesterday I bought a SHDC memory card with, according to the packaging, 5 years of (limited) warranty. Upon opening one finds a small paper that "replaces all warranties" and gives only 90 days. I am not sure about the legality of this, and if it actually "replaces" the warranty. When I asked around a bit, Western Digital claimed that if I buy an external disk with 3 years of warranty I have 3 years of warranty, no matter what additional paper, added by the importer states. Moreover, warranty here often seems to be split in 3 parts: first period with the shop that sold the goods, next period with the importer, and finally one has to turn to the manufacturer. Sounds all nice, but when recently my 2 month old router kept losing its connection I wanted it replaced. The sales person and a manager did their utmost best to try to send me away and insisted that I contact Cisco so they could check the issue remotely, via the Internet. After 40 minutes I stated that I wanted a new router within 5 minutes or else the police would be called. And that did finally the trick.
On one hand I can understand the price difference; the market is smaller and stock sells very slow. If something has to be ordered it's not uncommon to have to pay 50% ahead, and no money back when it's not what one wants (one gets "electronic money" or a raincheck which has to be used within the same shop within a short amount of time). But on the other hand it is painful to have and to pay 50-60% more for a Nikon camera lens (for example) and have only 1 year of warranty (in the USA one gets 3+ years or so on the same lens).
And then there is the "made for Latin America" thing.... I really have the feeling that some electronics are made with way less quality compared to similar products in the USA just because the manufacturers can get away with it. And while there is a kind of consumer protection organization in Mexico (PROFECO) in my experience it's a bit of a hit and miss besides that it eats up a lot of time (most people here probably don't even bother).
Spammers spam via botnets/proxies in parallel and accept that part of their spam will never reach human eyes. If you really want to piss of spammers then report them to their hosting providers. Some -- not all, since a spammer pays money while a bitching geek only costs money -- will drop the spamvertized site. This actually costs spammers (or their customers) actually time and money.
While it's funny that this happened via Flickr, many new species are discovered yearly.
I live in Mexico for a little over 8 years now and have stumbled upon at least 2 new scorpion species, and maybe as many as 4 the recent years. Discovering is not the hard thing to do, describing is (there seems to be quite a backlog in Mexico regarding describing scorpion species).
Wouldn't call Thomas manic depressed, nor schizophrenic, nor a bigot. Depressed, sure. Probably clinical depressed. Not a big surprise if one is diagnosed with Hansen's_disease, wife leave, taking only son. To me, this is the only fantasy I've read that's [b]realistic[/b] regarding the transfer to a fantasy world. Would you believe it if you "woke up" in a magic land where loam cures your leprosy and impotence? Or would you consider it just a dream?
"he denies that she is more than a figment of his diseased imagination."
Wouldn't you do the same? Waking up in a land that can't be anything but not real from his point of view and soon being cured. Would you consider it anything else but imagination? As for rape... I have little doubt a lot of people have had way worse dreams than that; to Thomas, at that point, it's just a dream (or maybe nightmare is better).
Anyway, The Gap series is way more bleak but I think they are an excellent read. If you think Sci-Fi is depressing/bleak, try to read stuff written by Jonathan Kellerman, Michael Connelly, John Sandford, Kathy Reichs, Dennis Lehane, etc.
I am Dutch but am living in Mexico right now, and have been living there since early 2004. In Oaxaca, Mexico, one can eat grasshoppers. I've done so on a few occasions, and it's not bad on a taco with guacamole. So it's certainly not in all of NA that people are squeamish about eating insects..
I currently develop on Linux, but going to switch to OS X soonish. I hope that those magical five minutes come from no longer having to deal with all the shit that Ubuntu has become. Wouldn't surprise me if those magical five minutes will stretch in 10 minutes in this (Ubuntu) case;-).
I think GP refers to the Gap series. Some names from that series: Angus Thermopyle, Orn Vorbuld, Milos Taverner. If you like dark SF, highly recommended. Some parts gave me the same feelings as "Alien".
"endless pages that are designed only to echo content to gain page rank for some pointless website"
That's actually what slashdot is (and always has been). One could argue if it's pointless or not, but one's pointless is another's treasure, of course.
As for PageRank: I think that one got mostly pointless several years back. It's a system that's way too easy to game, hence Google uses a lot of other ways to come up with the actual rank (position) on a search results page (SERP).
And aggregating happens because it's cheap and easy. Look at sites like LifeHacker: most of their content is just a short summary and a link to the original (or "original"). It's not done for PageRank as far as I know, just to become a major aggregating site. A lot of people are OK with consuming a short summary and don't care much about the original.
I blog here and some of the stuff took me 8+ hours to write. And some people are just happy with a 10 lines summary on an aggregation site and a link to what I wrote (or now and then via via via). Case in point, Slashdot; most people don't RTFA: the summary, no matter how wrong or badly written is enough. Moreover, most people just click "post" and off they go. Traffic, traffic, traffic.
And Google just had to get along: those copy pasta sites are important to people, hence they score well (and hence PageRank became more and more meaningless. (My blog had, and maybe still has, a PR of 7)
It's a nice device, don't get me wrong, but even if I could have warranty outside of the USA I am not interested anymore. I live in Xalapa, and there's an Apple shop "around the corner" from where I live. Beats shipping and waiting weeks if not months for repairs.
Yeah, and the interwebz too, right?
I really don't understand those "what ifs". There's no way to prove if you're right or wrong. It's more a religion thing that anything else.
I managed to get a Vostro without MS Windows and with FreeDOS: Dell Vostro 200 Windows Tax Free in Mexico. It took some effort, but I had a very good point: Dell advertised that the Vostro was sold with any software the customer wanted;-).
In Mexico it's as far as I know the only brand one can buy that doesn't have piss poor support (HP/Compaq, Acer), have the option of an USA keyboard, etc. Built your own? You must be kidding... parts are here both antique and overpriced (sometimes 2x as much as they used to cost in the USA). And if you want to order them, don't be surprised if you have to pay at least 50% in advance. And warranty? Good luck with that. Last time it took me 50 minutes of talking to get my 2 month (!) old router (well under warranty) exchanged in OfficeMax and only because I stated that if I didn't have a new one within 5 minutes we would call the police. When I left I had to promise that if the new one got the same problems that I would work things out with Cisco and not come back....
Anyway, I am happy with my Dell Vostro 200 ST, especially I paid as much for it as I would have paid for it in the USA. And while it took some effort, I could buy my Dell Vostro 200 Windows Tax Free in Mexico. Shortly after Dell even offered a similar machine without Windows (but didn't call it the Vostro Bokma, alas);-)
Great machine; shame it's running Ubuntu. Which is the reason why my next machine is going to be an Apple made one; I don't care for a hackingtosh, and am sick of the Ubuntu "dance". Yes, I am aware of Linux mint, but I am afraid that I will end up with too much tinkering that option as well.
Anyway, thanks Dell! And I am happy to read that they keep their Linux support going.
Most molluscs, and some arthropods, use copper in their "blood", so no idea how bad copper actually is for aquatic life. I do recall that it stops the growth of algae.
Slashdot Mirror
Three studies in Africa several years ago that claimed that circumcision prevented AIDS and that circumcision was as effective as a 60% effective vaccine (Auvert 2005, 2006). These studies had many flaws, including that they were stopped before all the results came in.
See http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/moral-landscapes/201109/more-circumcision-myths-you-may-believe-hygiene-and-stds
Source: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/moral-landscapes/201109/more-circumcision-myths-you-may-believe-hygiene-and-stds
See also: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/moral-landscapes/201109/myths-about-circumcision-you-likely-believe http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/moral-landscapes/201109/more-circumcision-myths-you-may-believe-hygiene-and-stds http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/moral-landscapes/201109/circumcision-social-sexual-psychological-realities http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/moral-landscapes/201109/the-ethics-and-economics-circumcision http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/moral-landscapes/201110/what-is-the-greatest-danger-uncircumcised-boy http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/moral-landscapes/201110/why-continue-harm-boys-ignorance-male-anatomy
Personally I think it's way easier to go after the ISPs. Currently they can provide the infrastructure without much penalty. If ISPs can be forced to take down sites of people who advertise via spam, it will hurt those people as well (they have to move, which costs money).
Yup, the source are the countless ISPs who prefer money over whining "net cops". Quite some spam I get nowadays originates at ISPs like Dimenoc, iWeb, MediaTemple... As long as their customers pay they are happy to provide their services.
For the same reason a lot of ISPs [b]do nothing about spam[/b]. It's paying customers versus angry nerds...
A lot of electronics in Mexico are 20-50% more expensive compared to the USA. The Apple MBP is 500 USD more expensive, for example. And then there is the warranty bullshit. Yesterday I bought a SHDC memory card with, according to the packaging, 5 years of (limited) warranty. Upon opening one finds a small paper that "replaces all warranties" and gives only 90 days. I am not sure about the legality of this, and if it actually "replaces" the warranty. When I asked around a bit, Western Digital claimed that if I buy an external disk with 3 years of warranty I have 3 years of warranty, no matter what additional paper, added by the importer states. Moreover, warranty here often seems to be split in 3 parts: first period with the shop that sold the goods, next period with the importer, and finally one has to turn to the manufacturer. Sounds all nice, but when recently my 2 month old router kept losing its connection I wanted it replaced. The sales person and a manager did their utmost best to try to send me away and insisted that I contact Cisco so they could check the issue remotely, via the Internet. After 40 minutes I stated that I wanted a new router within 5 minutes or else the police would be called. And that did finally the trick.
On one hand I can understand the price difference; the market is smaller and stock sells very slow. If something has to be ordered it's not uncommon to have to pay 50% ahead, and no money back when it's not what one wants (one gets "electronic money" or a raincheck which has to be used within the same shop within a short amount of time). But on the other hand it is painful to have and to pay 50-60% more for a Nikon camera lens (for example) and have only 1 year of warranty (in the USA one gets 3+ years or so on the same lens).
And then there is the "made for Latin America" thing.... I really have the feeling that some electronics are made with way less quality compared to similar products in the USA just because the manufacturers can get away with it. And while there is a kind of consumer protection organization in Mexico (PROFECO) in my experience it's a bit of a hit and miss besides that it eats up a lot of time (most people here probably don't even bother).
Spammers spam via botnets/proxies in parallel and accept that part of their spam will never reach human eyes. If you really want to piss of spammers then report them to their hosting providers. Some -- not all, since a spammer pays money while a bitching geek only costs money -- will drop the spamvertized site. This actually costs spammers (or their customers) actually time and money.
While it's funny that this happened via Flickr, many new species are discovered yearly. I live in Mexico for a little over 8 years now and have stumbled upon at least 2 new scorpion species, and maybe as many as 4 the recent years. Discovering is not the hard thing to do, describing is (there seems to be quite a backlog in Mexico regarding describing scorpion species).
httxx p://ar xxx chive.org/details/ Chea pAlpra zolamWitho u tAP r e sc riptionA lp r a zo la mWi thFr e eDrConsultation
URL mangled for obvious reasons...
http://maxschireson.com/2011/04/21/debunking-ssd-lifespan-and-random-write-performance-concerns/ No idea how correct this is, but I bookmarked this over a year ago.
Wouldn't call Thomas manic depressed, nor schizophrenic, nor a bigot. Depressed, sure. Probably clinical depressed. Not a big surprise if one is diagnosed with Hansen's_disease, wife leave, taking only son. To me, this is the only fantasy I've read that's [b]realistic[/b] regarding the transfer to a fantasy world. Would you believe it if you "woke up" in a magic land where loam cures your leprosy and impotence? Or would you consider it just a dream?
"he denies that she is more than a figment of his diseased imagination." Wouldn't you do the same? Waking up in a land that can't be anything but not real from his point of view and soon being cured. Would you consider it anything else but imagination? As for rape... I have little doubt a lot of people have had way worse dreams than that; to Thomas, at that point, it's just a dream (or maybe nightmare is better). Anyway, The Gap series is way more bleak but I think they are an excellent read. If you think Sci-Fi is depressing/bleak, try to read stuff written by Jonathan Kellerman, Michael Connelly, John Sandford, Kathy Reichs, Dennis Lehane, etc.
I am Dutch but am living in Mexico right now, and have been living there since early 2004. In Oaxaca, Mexico, one can eat grasshoppers. I've done so on a few occasions, and it's not bad on a taco with guacamole. So it's certainly not in all of NA that people are squeamish about eating insects..
Uhm.... how about charging 50+ USD/hour + miles ?
I currently develop on Linux, but going to switch to OS X soonish. I hope that those magical five minutes come from no longer having to deal with all the shit that Ubuntu has become. Wouldn't surprise me if those magical five minutes will stretch in 10 minutes in this (Ubuntu) case ;-).
Uhm, because you develop *nix software?
I think GP refers to the Gap series. Some names from that series: Angus Thermopyle, Orn Vorbuld, Milos Taverner. If you like dark SF, highly recommended. Some parts gave me the same feelings as "Alien".
as usual :-)
"endless pages that are designed only to echo content to gain page rank for some pointless website"
That's actually what slashdot is (and always has been). One could argue if it's pointless or not, but one's pointless is another's treasure, of course.
As for PageRank: I think that one got mostly pointless several years back. It's a system that's way too easy to game, hence Google uses a lot of other ways to come up with the actual rank (position) on a search results page (SERP).
And aggregating happens because it's cheap and easy. Look at sites like LifeHacker: most of their content is just a short summary and a link to the original (or "original"). It's not done for PageRank as far as I know, just to become a major aggregating site. A lot of people are OK with consuming a short summary and don't care much about the original.
I blog here and some of the stuff took me 8+ hours to write. And some people are just happy with a 10 lines summary on an aggregation site and a link to what I wrote (or now and then via via via). Case in point, Slashdot; most people don't RTFA: the summary, no matter how wrong or badly written is enough. Moreover, most people just click "post" and off they go. Traffic, traffic, traffic.
And Google just had to get along: those copy pasta sites are important to people, hence they score well (and hence PageRank became more and more meaningless. (My blog had, and maybe still has, a PR of 7)
Kindle Fire outside the USA: fun while it lasts
It's a nice device, don't get me wrong, but even if I could have warranty outside of the USA I am not interested anymore. I live in Xalapa, and there's an Apple shop "around the corner" from where I live. Beats shipping and waiting weeks if not months for repairs.
Yeah, and the interwebz too, right? I really don't understand those "what ifs". There's no way to prove if you're right or wrong. It's more a religion thing that anything else.
Do NOT cut and suck. Cutting into the bite site can damage underlying organs, increase the risk of infection, and sucking on the bite site does not result in venom removal.
Incising (cutting) and suctioning the bite area has not been shown to be beneficial, but a venom extractor (found in commercial snake bite kits) may be helpful if it is applied to the area within five minutes of the bite and left in place for 30 minutes. A 2004 study of mock venom extraction using a suction device, however, questioned the validity of venom extractors and suggested that their use is unlikely to be effective.
I managed to get a Vostro without MS Windows and with FreeDOS: Dell Vostro 200 Windows Tax Free in Mexico. It took some effort, but I had a very good point: Dell advertised that the Vostro was sold with any software the customer wanted ;-).
In Mexico it's as far as I know the only brand one can buy that doesn't have piss poor support (HP/Compaq, Acer), have the option of an USA keyboard, etc. Built your own? You must be kidding... parts are here both antique and overpriced (sometimes 2x as much as they used to cost in the USA). And if you want to order them, don't be surprised if you have to pay at least 50% in advance. And warranty? Good luck with that. Last time it took me 50 minutes of talking to get my 2 month (!) old router (well under warranty) exchanged in OfficeMax and only because I stated that if I didn't have a new one within 5 minutes we would call the police. When I left I had to promise that if the new one got the same problems that I would work things out with Cisco and not come back....
Anyway, I am happy with my Dell Vostro 200 ST, especially I paid as much for it as I would have paid for it in the USA. And while it took some effort, I could buy my Dell Vostro 200 Windows Tax Free in Mexico. Shortly after Dell even offered a similar machine without Windows (but didn't call it the Vostro Bokma, alas) ;-)
Great machine; shame it's running Ubuntu. Which is the reason why my next machine is going to be an Apple made one; I don't care for a hackingtosh, and am sick of the Ubuntu "dance". Yes, I am aware of Linux mint, but I am afraid that I will end up with too much tinkering that option as well.
Anyway, thanks Dell! And I am happy to read that they keep their Linux support going.
Most molluscs, and some arthropods, use copper in their "blood", so no idea how bad copper actually is for aquatic life. I do recall that it stops the growth of algae.