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Carnival of the Liberals - call for submissions

Want this badge? Message from the proprietors of the Carnival of the Liberals: Dear Liberal Carnivalers, Did you think we'd disappeared? Don't worry (or celebrate), you're not getting rid of us that easily! Some logistical issues caused a bit of a delay and resulted in The Uncredible Hallq swapping hosting slots with Varkam at Neural Gourmet. Varkam will be hosting Carnival of the Liberals #15 on Wednesday, June 21st and and the deadline is Tuesday, June 20th by 7PM EDT. So, what are you waiting for? Get to sending in those submissions! Note: Anyone who sent in something prior to this…

What do you imagine Rick Warren thinks about evolution?

Go ahead, guess. Would you be surprised to learn that Warren is a creationist? I believed that evolution and the account of the Bible about creation could exist along side of each other very well. I just didn't see what the big argument was all about. I had some friends who had been studying the Bible much longer than I had who saw it differently...Eventually, I came to the conclusion, through my study of the Bible and science, that the two positions of evolution and creation just could not fit together. There are some real problems with the idea that God created through evolution... My…

Freethinker Sunday Sermonette: when a picture isn't worth any words

Every once in a while we use this space for news clips reporting someone sighting the face of Jesus or the Virgin Mary or Mother Teresa or Michael Steele on a wall or a piece of toast. Like this: The point is less about the benighted souls whose over active pattern recognition is featured as to point out the collosal drivel dished out by local TV news outlets, the main source for this kind of crap (Fox News seems particularly fond of these stories, but they're all guilty). It's not an aberration, either. The sheer volume is almost as mind numbing as the content. The following compilation of…

Cluster bombs: refusing to refuse

44 more days until these murdering bastards are out of OUR government. Meanwhile how much damage will they do? Damage, as in broken bodies, maimed children, dead people: An Afghan teenager who lost both legs in a cluster bomb explosion helped persuade his country to change its stance and join nearly 100 nations in signing a treaty Wednesday banning the disputed weapons. Afghanistan was initially reluctant to join the pact - which the United States and Russia have refused to support - but agreed to after lobbying by victims maimed by cluster munitions, including 17-year-old Soraj Ghulan Habib…

A Thanksgiving tale of an encounter with a chicken activist

It's Thanksgiving Holiday in the US. For many Americans a time to dine on traditional foods with family and friends; for a significant number of Americans a difficult time of loneliness or family tension; for the original Americans, a time to reflect on how European occupiers and invaders took your land and your way of life. We are fortunate enough to be in the first group but we never forget how fortunate we are. If you aren't American (and most of the world isn't) it's just another work day or another day of trying to make it to the next day. Whatever, it's not a heavy day for blog traffic…

Rightful actions

Our president, the wretched villain who threw away our economy and our people's lives in a wasteful, failed war, skulked into Iraq and tried to pretend he was a hero. Nobody was fooled, and he got a rude surprise. Bush had just finished his prepared remarks in which he said the security agreement was made possible by the U.S. surge of troops earlier this year, when the journalist, Muthathar al Zaidi pulled his shoes off and hurled them at the president. "This is a goodbye kiss, you dog," Zaidi shouted. Bush dodged the shoes and was not struck. Bodyguards quickly wrestled Zaidi to the…

New Hampshire is wimping out

New Hampshire is working on legalizing gay marriage, and has a bill pending…unfortunately, it is being compromised. The new version, which is expected to come up for a vote Wednesday, adds a sentence specifying that all religious organizations, associations or societies have exclusive control over their religious doctrines, policies, teachings and beliefs on marriage. It also clarifies that church-related organizations that serve charitable or educational purposes are exempt from having to provide insurance and other benefits to same sex spouses of employees. Lovely. The first part is fair…

AMNH SciCafe: Naughty vs. Nice: The Biological Basis of Greed and Altruism

From the American Museum of Natural History: SciCafe presents Naughty vs. Nice: The Biological Basis of Greed and Altruism, featuring biologist Lee Dugatkin, University of Louisville, and AMNH Curator of Invertebrate Zoology Rob DeSalle. Join fellow New Yorkers to discuss what makes us naughty or nice by uncovering the evolutionary and cultural roots of greed and altruism, and compare these seemingly human behaviors to those of other species. Surrounded by magnificent geological specimens in the Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth, enjoy the Museum after hours with music, drinks, and thought-…

Germany free of bird flu. Oh, oh.

Germany has been free of bird flu in poultry for three months. I predict they are about to have another outbreak. How do I know? Because every time I see something like this it's like a signal to whatever fickle gods control these things: The German government declared on Tuesday the country is free of bird flu, with no cases of deadly H5N1 avian influenza discovered in wild birds or domestic poultry for the past three months. According to German Agriculture Ministry, the last outbreak of bird flu was in poultry in rural areas west of Berlin in December. Germany had its first brush with bird…

Fox News: an excremental contribution to the news

If you live in the US you know that the Fox News Network prides itself on being the Voice of the Fatherland, connotation intended. Fox and its sleazy news anchors are not only doggedly pro-Bush but doggedly Far Right and poorly concealed racists and nativists. I don't watch it (I take my daily shower before watching TV, so it would be inefficient), but I see clips and often think to myself, "How can these people live with themselves?" Have they no self-respect, no shame? Fox news anchor Chris Wallace, at least, has answered that for us. He, at least, does have his limits and a sense of shame…

Freethinker Sunday Sermonette: Janis Joplin - Work me Lord

August, 1969. I was a young doctor and in those days it was common to lend a hand at mass demonstrations, sit-ins, "sanctuaries", free clinics. Some of it was scary as hell (the Chicago convention) but a lot of it was boring. Some of it had low priority, especially when it wasn't political and there was always more to do than time or energy to do it. So when I got a phone call from a friend asking if I would staff a clinic at a rock concert I told her, "Hell, no. It's going to rain like stink. Do you think I'm fucking crazy?" It did rain at Woodstock that weekend. And I stayed home in a nice…

This is a really cool science class

In Ormond Beach Middle School: Developed by teacher Tucker Harris and School Resource Deputy Karen Pierce, the investigation program is an innovative way to teach sixth-grade science students the scientific method. The CSI class takes students out of the classroom and into a crime scene orchestrated by the deputy. Pierce developed a fictional situation involving a property theft at the school. During the class, Pierce "briefed" the students on the crime, and the students received written statements from the victim and three suspects. The students then visited the crime scene, where they…

Do we torture with a grimace or do we torture with a smile?

Publius has an interesting hypothesis about the way the torture/Geneva convention issue may blow back into BushCo face. Publius has been over optimistic before, but do you think he is overoptimistic now? My feeling was that the split between two alternative military commission bills was a ruse - there is hardly any difference between them. By letting the McCain version win, Bush gets to do torture as much as he wants, while getting an opportunity to show public humility and going along with "the way the system works" and duping the nation that the "softer" version of the bill does not…

I Dream Of Jeannie

Comparative analysis of sexual dreams of male and female students (PDF) The subject of research is analysis of connection between sexuality as instinctive function and dreams with sexual content as cognitive function. The sample consisted of 656 students, 245 males and 411 females. Research showed significant difference between genders concerning sexual dreams their appearance, frequency, image of sexual partner, and content subjective emotional experience during dreams and talk about sexual fantasies. Based on the obtained data, the authors believe that dreams with sexual content are not…

Do-it-yourself Biology

When I was a kid, there was no such thing as "do it yourself" biology for home. Sure, you could do observational stuff, like go out in the woods with a butterfly net and a magnifi\ying glass, or plant some seeds, or look at stuff under the microscope, but it was hard to do real experiments in biology. My favourite trio of childhood science books (recently reissued) were "Between Play and Physics", "Between Play and Chemistry" and "Between Play and Mathematics" - see, no biology there! But the world of science has changed since then and there is much more stuff that one can do at home that is…

Carnival of Liberals - Big Anniversary Challenge!

Carnival of the Liberals is turning One next week. TNG of Neural Gourmet will be hosting the Big Anniversary Edition on December 6th and he has asked people to submit their best post (of course!) - but not the best post of the week: the best post of the year! However, that post cannot be one that has already been submitted or published on a previous editions of the carnival. Although I have hosted one of the first editions, I believe I have submitted only once (I do not remember which post - perhaps the one about the Love/Hate of Hillary) and NEVER had a post actually appear on the carnival…

It never ends

Get ready for the War on New Year. Apparently the forces of darkness are mounting an attack, this time on the Christian holiday of New Year's Day, which commemorates and worshipfully celebrates the anniversary of the day on which a Romanian monk miscalculated the year in which our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was born. In addition to the anticalendricals, it seems that the Chinese, Jews, and Muslims are all opting out and deciding to celebrate other days as their new year. More recently the ranks of these heathen have apparently been joined by the ancient Babylonians. Worse still, countless…

Astonishing pusillanimity

This has to be seen to believed. John Conyers asks John Yoo a simple question: "Is there anything the president could not order be done to a suspect?" He can't give a straight answer. So Conyers reduces it to a simple hypothetical: "Could the president order a suspect to be buried alive?" He still can't answer! It's a yes or no question! What can be done in the face of such a disgusting evasion of simple decency from the Bush administration? Not much, but laugh. Gary Farber has invented a game, "Stump the Yoo". Go ahead, think of some outrage you would propose as a hypothetical to John…

SNL circa 1975

Did anyone else catch Saturday Night Live last night? NBC rebroadcast the very first episode with host George Carlin, and I had to watch. Saturday Night Live came out in 1975, when I first went off to college at Depauw University, and it was a major event — every Saturday night, we'd mob the TV lounge in the basement of Bishop Roberts Hall to see that show (this was in the days when no one had a TV in their room; we didn't even have our own telephone, but shared one on each floor. I tell kids this nowadays and they don't believe me). The old show has acquired a nice rosy patina in my mind…

A Day Late and a Dollar Short

Like how classily your blogiste introduced her co-bloggers before they put up their first posts? How gracefully I've managed to make everything work? Yeah, me neither. I must plead sleep deprivation and exhaustion - since I arrived in Washington at 3am on Thursday morning, I've not had time to touch my computer - I've been going at a dead run. Or I was running until I started drinking wine on an empty stomach in the early evening, after which it probably wouldn't have been a great idea to either run or type. I'm sorry. Bad blogiste! Anyway, let me belatedly both thank and welcome my three…

How to Think About Housing

Super-quickie from me today - officially I'm in transit, but while my visiting my MIL and miraculously having time to read the entire New York Times before breakfast (admittedly the skinny Wednesday edition, but hey, I'll take it), I wanted to draw your attention to this article by David Leonhardt about how to think about housing. Read the whole article - it is a good, basic overview of how economists generally view housing. What I'd like to write about it, but don't have time for right now (we hit the road shortly) is the way in which I think both of these viewpoints are inadequate to the…

Life In The House Of Testosterone

As you all know, I live with five males, ranging from 39 to 4. As a woman raised in a mostly all-female household (mother, step-mother, two sisters), I try gamely to fit in, but find myself occasionally mystified by the guy-ness, or inadequately equipped for things like appreciating how cool it is to write in the snow with your penis. This was clearly one of those moments. Me, (coming downstairs for a cup of tea before returning to my book) "What's with the sledgehammer, honey?" The boys: "Daddy is going to let us smash geodes! Awesome! We tried it with the hammer, but it didn't work, so…

ScienceBlogs community/reader registration: poll

It looks like ScienceBlogs will be getting a lot more community-like and a lot less we-talk-you-listen -- and that's a very good thing. Since we're listening, we'd also like your feedback on how we should set up our community. As you may have heard from one of our bloggers, ScienceBlogs will soon be introducing an optional user registration program. We hope that this will help you, as readers, connect with one another, keep track of the posts and discussions you are interested in, and control how you interact with the site. To that end, we'd love to hear what you think would most improve your…

Summer blogging break

Yes, it's here. My annual summer blogging break. A time to recharge my blogging batteries. Time to pack up my virtual bags, hop on my ePlane and take a posting holiday. As usual, I'll be offline for the next four weeks or so, probably back the week of August 24th. I have scheduled some posts for my absence, however: four Friday Fun posts as well as four items I'm reposting from the old blog. As for the summer reading poll, I guess it's now time to declare the two winners: Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman by James Gleick with 44% of the vote. The Pirate's Dilemma: How Youth…

My Job in 10 Years: The Article

Those of you with long memories may recall that I gave a presentation at the Ontario Library Association conference in 2008 based on the My Job in 10 years blog posts. Shortly after that presentation, I was approached by Cecile Farnum, the OCULA divisional editor for the OLA magazine Access about writing the presentation as an article. To make a long story short, it's just been published in the Summer 2009 issue! Of course, I've deposited a scanned version of the article in our IR here, with the scanned version here and my slightly longer original here. I came in a little longer than the…

A missing piece of the puzzle

I've been puzzling over the rationale for some recent events... Exxon has a large contract to develop oil and natural gas resources in the Russia. This can only go forward if sanctions on Russia are lifted, which seems likely to happen in the near future. But, there is too much oil and capacity to surge produce more oil and gas on the market. If nothing else, the US has well developed capacity which is idling. The problem, as it has been for the last few decades, is that Saudi Arabia can squeeze new producers out of the market, by increasing production and sharply dropping prices, for a while…

Anyone played Spore yet?

I have very mixed feelings about this game, but I've ordered a copy anyway (Skatje told me I had to). I've played with the creature creator, which is actually rather fun…but it's really just the most elaborate version of Mr Potatohead ever designed. What I've seen of the game itself puts me off a bit, though. It's not going to teach one single thing about evolution, and actually teaches several things that are anti-evolutionary. It's a design toy, not any kind of evolution simulator, but people are gushing over it as if it might actually improve the image of evolutionary biology. So I have…

Origins conference

If any of you are going to be in the neighborhood of CalTech around the 4th of October, you might want to sign up for the big Origins conference — it definitely has some great speakers. Sean Carroll, Leonard Susskind, Paul Davies, (wait…what's with all the physicists?), Donald Prothero and Christof Koch (OK, that's better) will be presenting there. The late afternoon will feature the comedy stylings of Hugh Ross, crazy creationist, getting spanked by Victor Stenger. The evening will be topped off by a visit from Mr. Deity — how can you miss that? One disappointment in the schedule to me is…

Katla

Series of substantial earthquakes in the Katla caldera, could be nothing could be sign of an impending eruption there are multiple, relatively shallow earthquakes taking place now, several with magnitude of 3+ earthquake map at 4:10 am (from vedur.is) it is dark, no other evidence yet, eg no spike in water flow or conductivity in the glacial rivers webcam at http://ruv.is/katla is down overnight if the earthquakes continue and get larger, it is a robust sign of impending onset of eruption Jón Frímann is on it PS: still going strong, though the rate of earthquakes has tapered off GeoLurking…

Congress demands briefing on Chao's mystery proposal for risk assessment

Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Congressman George Miller (D-CA) are demanding answers from Labor Secretary Elaine Chao on her mysterious proposed rule on risk assessment.  I reported earlier this week that the Secretary's office sent a proposed rule to OMB on July 7 entitled "Requirements for DOL Agencies' Assessment of Occupational Health Risks."  Although this proposal might sound innocuous, past experience at so-called "regulatory reform" of risk assessment tells us to be very wary of plans to "improve" the risk assessment process.  In layman's terms, it means workers'…

Sizzle

Randy Olson has a new movie that is premiering today: Sizzle: A Global Warming Comedy. We all know it's going to be funny, and that because it will also criticize the scientists studying climate change, it will be infuriating and annoying and will draw lots of fire from both sides. Go ahead and start sharpening your knives, but do keep this in mind: Olson is the only guy we've got trying to widen the market for science documentaries beyond the gray-haired, PBS-watching, NPR-listening audience. He's opening this thing at Outfest, the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, rather than as a…

Marine News: Salmon, Small Fish, and Agriculture

As I skimmed through my RSS feeds and Above the Fold this morning, I noticed several stories about fish and the marine environment. Most of itâs bad news, as usual, but thereâs a glimmer of promise mixed in there, too: Researchers from NOAA and Washington State University have found that some combinations of pesticides often present in Pacific Salmonâs freshwater habitat are more lethal than higher concentrations of single chemicals. (EHP study here; AP article here) An Oceana study reports that several types of small fish are being overfished and suffering the effects of climate change;…

Good on you, Oklahoma!

Under the malign influence of the wicked and silly Sally Kern, some Oklahomans were trying to pass an awful religious viewpoints anti-discrimination act, which would have simply given further privileges to majority religious views in the state. Fortunately, Governor Brad Henry has vetoed the legislation, saying Under current state and federal law, Oklahoma public school students are already allowed to express their faith through voluntary prayer and other activities. While well intended, this legislation is vaguely written and may trigger a number of unintended consequences that actually…

David Michaels Wins Sigma Xi Award

Weâre delighted to learn that The Pump Handleâs own David Michaels has won the John P. McGovern Science and Society Award from Sigma Xi, the international honor society of research scientists and engineers. The award honors people who are highly visible and prominent spokespersons for the public understanding and appreciation of science. Our regular readers probably already know that David champions the use of science to protect public health, whether the hazard is a butter-flavoring chemical or a drug. Heâs known for exposing how product defense firms, sequestered science, and manufactured…

Celeste Monforton to Testify on DOL Risk-Assessment Rule

Celeste Monforton will be testifying tomorrow at a hearing of the House of Representatives Committee on Education and Laborâs Subcommittee on Workforce Protections (10am, 2175 Rayburn). Sheâll be speaking about the Department of Laborâs proposed worker health risk-assessment rule, which might have gone undetected by worker-health advocates had Celeste not spotted its name on a White House Office of Management and Budget website. In a letter to Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, Celeste and 79 other scientists and occupational health experts summarized their concerns about the rule this way: By…

Mazzocchi Book Events in DC

There are two terrific book events scheduled for Monday January 7th, here in Washington DC. Les Leopold, author of The Man Who Hated Work and Loved Labor: The Life and Times of Tony Mazzocchi, will be in town to talk about Tony's life and legacy. Les' book is a great read, an inspiring and illuminating account of Tony's lifetime organizing for worker rights and safe factories. Here's an excerpt, to give you a sense of the book's content. At noon on Monday January 7th, Les and several distinguished speakers from the House of Labor will be speaking at noon in the Gompers Room at AFL-CIO…

Bank Secrecy on Life Support

If you are socking money away in offshore banks, pay attention to this man's expression. He's saying, you're screwed. Yes, taxpaying citizens, you can rejoice, because tax cheats across the country are having panic attacks. They're thinking about refiling their tax returns, or going to the IRS to beg forgiveness with a check to cover past taxes and potential fines. Some are evening thinking about sailing away from this great country. Good riddance. As part of a 9/11 trend that requires banks to collect more information about their clients, and the fact that our government needs money,…

TRUST Seminar: Need Credit? No Identity? No Problem!

I'm doing the TRUST Seminar at Berkeley this week. Here's the info and abstract. Date: Thursday, October 18, 2007 Time: 1:00 PM (lunch will be served) Location: 540 A/B Cory Hall ABSTRACT: In synthetic identity theft cases, an impostor creates a new identity using some information from a victim that is enhanced with fabricated personal information. For instance, the impostor may use a real Social Security number, but a falsified name and address. Since this synthetic identity is based on some real information, and sometimes supplemented with artfully created credit…

Two articles on building immunity in kids

The first from the NYT discusses the fallacy that childhood illness somehow builds up the immune system making them healthier adults. Rather, it emphasizes correctly, that exposure to lots of harmless antigens seems to be the key to making kids less susceptible to asthma and allergies, not exposure to harmful ones. In other words, let your kids go outside and eat dirt, but don't take them to chicken-pox parties (vaccinate them instead). In a similar vein, Slate has an articleon eating more crap. While the point is made more carelessly, the idea is the same, that exposure to common…

Verizon: It's OUR Network

Mark is totally outperforming me on this blog for many reasons, but my newest excuse is that I went to Austin for the weekend to see the Austin City Limits Festival. W00t!!1! So, I'm going to be covering some divine articles that appeared over the weekend. First up: Verizon, it's OUR network, baby! The Journal reports: Verizon Wireless appealed the Federal Communications Commission's rules for a coming radio spectrum auction, charging the agency with exceeding its authority in requiring carriers to open their networks to any devices and cellphone applications. Yes, you read that…

Morbid freaks

Christianity is a creepy death cult. Worshipping a rotting corpse is revolting. The exhumed body of Padre Pio, a saint considered a miracle worker by his devotees, attracted thousands of pilgrims on Thursday when it went on display 40 years after his death. … His face was reconstructed with a lifelike silicone mask of the type used in wax museums because it was apparently too decomposed to show when the body was exhumed. … The body of the bearded Capuchin monk was exhumed from a crypt on March 3 and found to be in "fair condition" after 40 years. Since then a team of medical examiners and…

Wired: H1N1 a hybrid of 2 pig isolates

Brandon Keim at WiredScience has a new article on swine flu genomics. "This is what we call a reassortment between two currently circulating pig flu viruses," said Andrew Rambaut, a University of Edinburgh viral geneticist. "Why it's emerged in humans is anyone's guess. It hasn't been seen before in pigs as far as I know." *** "The new neuraminidase gene that came in from Eurasian swine is one we've never before seen circulating in humans," said Rambaut. "That's one of the reasons it's spreading rapidly. Very few people will have any immunity to this particular combination, which is what…

Freaks of Nature and Bridgeless Gaps

Readers from waaaay back may recall an event I helped out with a few years ago, bringing together scientists, philosophers, and our resident IDist to discuss evolution and intelligent design. One of the speakers was University of Iowa professor Mark Blumberg, a colleague in the Department of Psychology. Dr. Blumberg also happens to be a prolific author, and has just released his third book in 4 years: "Freaks of Nature: What Anomalies Tell us About Development and Evolution." As if that wasn't enough (and all of this while maintaining a very active laboratory, serving as Editor-in-…

My hometown...

...is underwater. FINDLAY, Ohio - Hundreds of Ohio residents remained flooded out of their homes Thursday as some rivers continued to rise, while forecasters had bad news for the state and other parts of the Midwest: expect more storms and even a taste of the heat wave baking the South. *** In Findlay, Ohio, firefighters and a volunteer armada navigated boats and canoes through streets waist-deep in water on Wednesday, plucking neighbors and their pets from porches. Every downtown street and many neighborhoods were under water as the Blanchard River topped 7 feet above flood stage, its…

NCSE is sponsoring a contest!

You can join in, and many of you here are old pros at this exercise: In promoting the creationist propaganda film Expelled, Ben Stein managed to stick his foot in his mouth over and over again, issuing what seemed to be a ceaseless stream of ignorant, offensive, and just plain daffy claims. Here’s your chance to set Ben straight. Send your favorite claim to setbenstraight@ncseweb.org along with a refutation. We’ll post the best for all the world to see. And five lucky entrants will receive a year’s subscription to Reports of the NCSE along with their choice of a book from NCSE’s shelf -…

Science bloggers storm Toronto!

As I mentioned, last night I took a break and went out for dinner and conversation with a wonderful group of science bloggers. Larry Moran of Sandwalk (not pictured) was good enough to arrange it all, and we met up in his office (home of the Talk.Origins server). Joining us were (left to right) Mona of ScienceNotes; Jonathan Badger of T. Taxus, who works at TIGR the J. Craig Venter Institute; Andrew of Mixotrophy (which, OK, is just a placeholder for now, but he's a reader and commenter on many blogs); fellow University of Iowan John Logsdon, Eva of Eastern Blot (not pictured) and Chris…

Vonnegut dies at 84

As I've mentioned on here previously, I recently moved. Now that I've painted every room in the house, I've been s-l-o-w-l-y unpacking things, and today I started on my non-essential books (aka, the ones I don't need on a day-to-day basis for classes). One of the boxes I dragged in from the garage just happened to have all my Vonnegut books; except for my old yearbooks, they're all that's sitting on one bookcase in my room right now. I'm a relative latecomer to his novels; we never read Cat's Cradle or Slaughterhouse Five in school, and I somehow missed out on him during college as well.…

The sleaze is growing

This is just getting weirder and weirder. What kind of dummies are behind Expelled, anyway? First they lied about the premise of their movie to get interviews; then they copied Harvard/XVIVO's cell animations; then they threatened XVIVO with a lawsuit; now it turns out that they're using music from John Lennon and The Killers without permission, stirring the ire of Yoko Ono. It's total legal chaos, as far as I'm concerned, and I'm not going to even guess how any of it will turn out. Is the movie industry always this rife with sneakiness and dishonesty? Anyway, no matter how the lawyers dance…

STDs and circumcision update

If the last circumcision post caused a lot of heat, this news is likely to cause even more of an uproar worldwide. From NBC News comes word that the NIH will be announcing shortly that they're stopping two trials looking at circumcision and HIV in Africa, because the intervention group (those who were circumcised) show far less HIV infections than the uncircumcised men: NBC News has learned that the National Institutes of Health will announce at Noon ET Wednesday that two clinical trials in Africa have been stopped because an independent monitoring board determined the treatment was so…

Seed AIDS video

Seed's Jacob Klein has a video up from his time at the AIDS conference last week: link. It includes short interviews with Kay and Rick Warren, evangelical Christians and founders of Saddleback Church, the grandaddy of all mega-churches. (Warren is also the author of The Purpose-Driven Life, which I've admittedly not read). It's interesting to hear their views, but as noted in this SF Gate article, there's still a lot of skepticism about their motivations and methods. (For example, while they discuss treatment and dealing the HIV, they don't pass out condoms, and their ABC's emphasize "…