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#1 2003-07-03 14:50:28

Palomar
Member
From: USA
Registered: 2002-05-30
Posts: 9,734

Re: Whistling Past the Graveyard? - Seems this "little problem" is ignored

Read Me

*Suppose this "little problem" might do in many future plans, including that of space exploration and eventual colonization?  I'm not seeking to be dramatic or theatrical here.  I transcribe enough medical reports to know that AIDS and HIV are on the rise...especially in the Seattle, WA area. 

People aren't paying attention; in 3rd world countries they can be somewhat excused (lack of education, lack of resources, etc.).  But in the US and remainder of the Western world?  Gee, you'd think there's no such thing as AIDS and HIV, what with our SEX - SEX - SEX saturated culture.  I've long thought that it's the height of stupidity that US culture is so obsessed with smoking and obesity (I'm neither), and just la-de-dah A MORE IMPORTANT PROBLEM away.  I honestly am afraid the human race is going to f*ck itself to death...literally.

Well?  Your thoughts?

--Cindy


We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)

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#2 2003-07-03 15:01:34

Josh Cryer
Moderator
Registered: 2001-09-29
Posts: 3,830

Re: Whistling Past the Graveyard? - Seems this "little problem" is ignored

Heh, the US's culture is saturated with sex? smile

I'd reckon most Americans are conservative in that respect. As it's usually pointed out, in the US, violence is okay, but sex is not, but in the EU, sex is okay, but violence is not (ie, this is how the programming on TV and general media tends to be).


Some useful links while MER are active. [url=http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html]Offical site[/url] [url=http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/MM_NTV_Web.html]NASA TV[/url] [url=http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mer2004/]JPL MER2004[/url] [url=http://www.spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/statustextonly.html]Text feed[/url]
--------
The amount of solar radiation reaching the surface of the earth totals some 3.9 million exajoules a year.

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#3 2003-07-03 15:16:51

clark
Member
Registered: 2001-09-20
Posts: 6,362

Re: Whistling Past the Graveyard? - Seems this "little problem" is ignored

Will someone please think of the CHILDREN!!!
:laugh:

STD's, by and large, affect a behaviour pattern. If evoultion is to be believed, our species should be nothing but life long monogamous couples, for the most part... in a few hundred eons.

Looks like the women win in the end.

big_smile

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#4 2003-07-04 19:22:41

Shaun Barrett
Member
From: Cairns, Queensland, Australia
Registered: 2001-12-28
Posts: 2,843

Re: Whistling Past the Graveyard? - Seems this "little problem" is ignored

I don't mean to make light of the tragedy of so many AIDS related deaths but, in terms of numbers alone, I don't think there's any imminent danger the human race is going to "f*ck itself to death".

    The article Cindy brought up mentions the possibility of 70 million AIDS deaths by 2020.
    If you subtract all deaths from all births each year, I believe that's about the number of additional humans we produce every year! By the time we've lost 70 million to AIDS in 2020, we'll have gained well over an extra billion anyway.

    Small comfort to the HIV-positives of today or tomorrow, I know, but still a long way from termination of the species. And what if a cheap vaccine becomes available in 2005, say?

    Just throwing a few thoughts into the argument!
                                    smile


The word 'aerobics' came about when the gym instructors got together and said: If we're going to charge $10 an hour, we can't call it Jumping Up and Down.   - Rita Rudner

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#5 2003-07-05 05:56:17

Palomar
Member
From: USA
Registered: 2002-05-30
Posts: 9,734

Re: Whistling Past the Graveyard? - Seems this "little problem" is ignored

*Shaun, I wish I had your cautious optimism in this regard.  I wish you could listen throughout the day about the steady stream of adults (not teenagers) going into doctor's offices with new cases of HIV, full-blown AIDS, and recently contracting other types of veneral diseases.  I am astonished at the number of *adults* who bed-hop like there's no tomorrow, sans any sort of protection, and as if it's 1953 and a little shot of penicillin will make everything better.

The problem is getting worse, world-wide.  Maybe the birth rate will off-set matters, but what sort of world will these children inherit?  Already many Asian nations cannot build AIDS hospices fast enough to accommodate the ill, and hundreds of people are dying daily in Africa. 

The West isn't going to be faring any better, if people don't wise up and take a bit of precaution and responsibility.  It's just the height of stupidity, IMO, that people are always squacking and screaming about smokers and obese people and the strain they put on health insurance costs, etc., and yet AIDS/HIV is yawned over by comparison.  But then the human race, in general and in some respects, has proven itself a SLOW LEARNER on other occasions as well. 

--Cindy


We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)

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#6 2003-07-15 13:07:14

Palomar
Member
From: USA
Registered: 2002-05-30
Posts: 9,734

Re: Whistling Past the Graveyard? - Seems this "little problem" is ignored

Hum-de-dum...((snore))

That'll be the general reaction to this "trifling" piece of news.

--Cindy


We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)

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#7 2003-07-15 13:12:42

prometheusunbound
Banned
From: ohio
Registered: 2003-07-02
Posts: 209
Website

Re: Whistling Past the Graveyard? - Seems this "little problem" is ignored

I believe there will always be a few who won't screw around Espically if that is an option, in places like the US of A.  If some don't screw around then it is almost certian that they will not get HIV or AIDs. . .long live absentinice. . .


"I am the spritual son of Abraham, I fear no man and no man controls my destiny"

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#8 2003-07-15 13:29:05

clark
Member
Registered: 2001-09-20
Posts: 6,362

Re: Whistling Past the Graveyard? - Seems this "little problem" is ignored

If some don't screw around then it is almost certian that they will not get HIV or AIDs. . .long live absentinice. . .

:laugh:  It's almost certain they won't have children either!  :laugh:

Here, Here, LONG LIVE abstinence... for a generation.   tongue

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#9 2003-07-15 17:00:39

sethmckiness
Banned
From: Iowa
Registered: 2002-09-20
Posts: 230

Re: Whistling Past the Graveyard? - Seems this "little problem" is ignored

I believe there will always be a few who won't screw around Espically if that is an option, in places like the US of A.  If some don't screw around then it is almost certian that they will not get HIV or AIDs. . .long live absentinice. . .

Sex is not the only way people contract HIV.  It is less likely but always possible to get contact with HIV from other sources, more specifically in the Health Care field.


We are only limited by our Will and our Imagination.

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