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24. februar 2005
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A large study lead by Dr. Maria Wawer of Columbia University in New York has concluded that the success of Uganda's much-hailed anti-AIDS ABC programme (abstinence, being faithful, condoms ) is mostly due to the condoms.
In Rakai the rate has dropped by 30 percent. But among all age groups and in both sexes, only condom use has increased, Wawer told the 12th Annual Retrovirus Conference
"We think this is a very important paper," conference organizer Dr. David Ho of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in New York told reporters.
Wawer said she believes her team's long-term relationship with the villagers yielded an accurate picture of their behavior.
"Condom use is getting better among both sexes," she said. "About 30 percent of women with nonmarital partners use condoms consistently."
They found that 50 percent of men and boys aged 15 to 49 reported using condoms consistently with their most recent nonmarital sex partner.
"By African standards that's incredibly high," she said.
"We are seeing somewhat less abstinence, somewhat less monogamy," she added.
Still, of course, nobody is suggesting to drop the first parts of the programme.
PS: Anyone think the recovering John Paul II will be reading this report at his bedside? Me neither.
11:06:28 PM 
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Surely a sign that you've been playing too much tetris!
Unsurprisingly, it's this part of the world that poses serious problems for would-be tetris cartographers:
It took me all of two seconds to look at Scandinavia and determine that it was impossible to construct using conventional Tetris pieces.
There is something about Scandinavia that defies much conventional wisdom, true. Central Europe may provide some good examples for US conservatives who want to argue that state-run welfare programmes don't work very well. Scandinavia, however, doesn't fit into the horror tales.
Sorry, that was just a tangent.
PS: Another wild tangent. If you remove non-EU countries, which is essentially Norway, from a map of Europe, Sweden and Finland looks like a penis with accessories, like on the 2 euro coin. This, of course, hasn't prevented the euro from getting a rise (oh, horrible pun).
7:33:48 PM
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The new high-tech passports, which will contain a microchip with encoded data about its owner, will not be encrypted.
But the rules, which are open for comment until April 4, rule out encrypting the bearer's name, birth date and digital photo, saying such a move would impede worldwide adoption of e-passports and that encrypted data would slow down entry and exit at customs.
The lack of encryption baffles privacy advocates and security researchers, who say the new passports are vulnerable to "skimming," an attack that uses an unauthorized reader to gather information from the RFID chip without the passport owner's knowledge.
Comment of the day from Dave Haxton:
Why don't we just appoint Paris Hilton to the State Department's passport security team?
But, hey, how could she be expected to know 'bimbo' wasn't a secure password?
4:49:03 PM
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How dark genius Karl Rove and his evil cronies destroyed the liberal media with "Rathergate." I will not post excerpts, because you will have to see the posting in its completeness and perfection.
Tim Blair at his definite best.
3:05:03 PM
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Germany's Der Spiegel: Could George W. Bush be right?
Quick quiz. He was re-elected as president of the United States despite being largely disliked in the world -- particularly in Europe. The Europeans considered him to be a war-mongerer and liked to accuse him of allowing his deep religious beliefs to become the motor behind his foreign policy. Easy right?
Actually, the answer isn't as obvious as it might seem. President Ronald Reagan's visit to Berlin in 1987 was, in many respects, very similar to President George W. Bush's visit to Mainz on Wednesday. Like Bush's visit, Reagan's trip was likewise accompanied by unprecedented security precautions. A handpicked crowd cheered Reagan in front of the Brandenburg Gate while large parts of the Berlin subway system were shut down. And the Germany Reagan was traveling in, much like today's Germany, was very skeptical of the American president and his foreign policy. When Reagan stood before the Brandenburg Gate -- and the Berlin Wall -- and demanded that Gorbachev "tear down this Wall," he was lampooned the next day on the editorial pages. He is a dreamer, wrote commentators. Realpolitik looks different.
But history has shown that it wasn't Reagan who was the dreamer as he voiced his demand. Rather, it was German politicians who were lacking in imagination -- a group who in 1987 couldn't imagine that there might be an alternative to a divided Germany. Those who spoke of reunification were labelled as nationalists and the entire German left was completely uninterested in a unified Germany.
The comparison of Bush to Reagan looks even more correct today than it did when I first saw it made.
Of course, only history can validate (or invalidate) that comparison. History rarely repeats itself, but it often rhymes. When Middle East leaders, formerly fashionably anti-American, say their Berlin Wall has come down, something entirely new is certainly happening.
2:48:30 AM
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At this time, you have to question whether the Pope has utterly lost it:
Homosexual marriages are part of "a new ideology of evil" that is insidiously threatening society, Pope John Paul says in a new book published Tuesday.
In "Memory and Identity," the Pope also calls abortion a "legal extermination" comparable to attempts to wipe out Jews and other groups in the 20th century.
The Roman Catholic Church didn't exactly came through the Nazi Holocaust with its morality untainted, and the Pope should know when to shut up. Any comparison of your pet peeve with the industrial murder of millions of people is going to make you appear fanatical and ahistorical, and this is certainly no exception.
Abortion is a complex ethical issue for any thinking human, no matter what side you end up taking. Genocide certainly isn't.
1:32:35 AM
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WaPo's David Ignatius has seen the growing revolution in Lebanon, and is surprised by the unity of its people against Syrian occupation. It is notable who is credited with the new-found will to fight:
The leader of this Lebanese intifada is Walid Jumblatt, the patriarch of the Druze Muslim community and, until recently, a man who accommodated Syria's occupation. [...]
Jumblatt dresses like an ex-hippie, in jeans and loafers, but he maintains the exquisite manners of a Lebanese aristocrat. Over the years, I've often heard him denouncing the United States and Israel, but these days, in the aftermath of Hariri's death, he's sounding almost like a neoconservative. He says he's determined to defy the Syrians until their troops leave Lebanon and the Lahoud government is replaced.
"It's strange for me to say it, but this process of change has started because of the American invasion of Iraq," explains Jumblatt. "I was cynical about Iraq. But when I saw the Iraqi people voting three weeks ago, 8 million of them, it was the start of a new Arab world." Jumblatt says this spark of democratic revolt is spreading. "The Syrian people, the Egyptian people, all say that something is changing. The Berlin Wall has fallen. We can see it."
Stirring words.
1:18:08 AM
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© Copyright 2005 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.03.2005; 01:31:01.
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