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The Wall Street Journal This Morning radio show had a story today about a drug trial for an AIDS medication.  The pill in question, Truvada, is already in use as an antiretroviral for patients who are HIV-positive.  It’s now being tested as an AIDS prevention medication. The trial involves giving the drug (or a placebo) to gay and bisexual men, who are to take the one pill a day.

What really angered me about the story was that the woman reporting on the trial said, at least twice, “It’s hard taking a pill every day.”

No. It’s not hard to take one pill a day that will prevent you from getting a dread disease.

Of course, AIDS is a disease that can be avoided by not engaging in certain high-risk behaviors.  These people can’t seem to avoid doing that either.

Allen  Nov 24, 2010 NaBloPoMo 2010, Society

• Netflix now offers, as its primary plan, unlimited streaming over the internet but no DVDs for $7.99. I say this is their primary plan, because it’s the one they list on their home page — and you can add unlimited DVDs starting at only $2 a month more.  More evidence that cable TV is on its way out. Meanwhile, Blockbuster Video declared bankruptcy in September.
• Homefront is a new game from THQ in which Korea invades and occupies the US mainland in 2026. North Korea fired shells into an island claimed by South Korea yesterday.  Reality imitates art.
• There’s snow all over around here — it fell yesterday.  Yesterday I talked with colleagues and clients in Toronto, New York, Baltimore, and central Pennsylvania.  These are all places I expect to have snow before Seattle. None of them had any — in fact, they all had temperatures in the 40s or 50s.  That’s just not right.

Allen  Nov 23, 2010 NaBloPoMo 2010, Personal, Politics, Society

An open question: Does the new full body scanner -OR- enhanced pat down constitute an unreasonable breach of privacy?

This story is exploding all over the media and the blogosphere. But this is just the latest expansion of the intrusiveness of security screening at our airports. I travel by air a few times a year for work.  Every time I go through security, I want to ask how long this is going to continue.  I never do bother asking, though, because I know the answer: it’s never going away.

However, this is the first time that we’ve seen such an outcry against security procedures.  It’s gone so far that Saturday Night Live ran a sketch mocking TSA this past weekend.

Allen  Nov 22, 2010 NaBloPoMo 2010, Politics, Society