The Swiss Commission is quick to point out however, that this conclusion does not apply to all HIV-infected individuals and that informed consent is mandatory for the infected person’s partner. Myron Cohen, director of the University of North Carolina’s Center for Infectious Diseases in Chapel Hill indicates that although the risk for transmitting the virus to an uninfected partner appears to decrease in the Swiss study, the possibility of infection still remains. Given the HIV epidemic, one wonders if such a practice does not leave open the possibility of future infection. Dr. Cohen relates…”We have an HIV epidemic, and suggesting that some people with HIV can have sex without a condom will only create confusion and make it worse.”

To add to this, another study released in early February found that macaques on anti-retroviral medications do not acquire the simian version of HIV when exposed. Although this is good news in terms of such medication slowing or preventing HIV and even it’s use as a prophylactic, the possibility of abuse, particularly in light of the Swiss study remains.

1) rainbow ties, with flower shirts (this fashion mistake is from the 70’s)
2) The Vanilla Ice jacket that he wore in the Ice, Ice Baby video-yes GQ actually endorsed the jacket
3) Male scarfs with suits or blazers instead of a tie. Yikes!
4) leopard skin smoking jackets-many, many animals were harmed in the making of this thing
5) Capes, yes you heard me, capes-not exactly superman capes but lion skin capes, probably a follow-up to the leopard skin thing
6) Back to the seventies for the classic male jumpsuits-for those of you that remeber Steve Austin (six million dollar man) we mean these jump suits. especially the valor jump suits with no buttons-I could go on, but I will stop here with this fashion mistake.
7) Rainbow jackets-this includes jackets with rainbows, moons, suns or stars anything in the sky that appears on a jacket-saddly every once in a while it seems that someone tries to make this thing come back into style. Say it with me “Never Again!”
Flair jackets-okay so picture Jennifer Aniston in the movie Office Space working in that restaurant-remember the buttons all over here waitress uniform-okay now imagine that on a suit vest on a guy. Terrible.
9) Multi colored suit vests-enough said
10) Speedos-Damn!

Junior Agogo, the star striker from Ghana was offered just that, Agogo, scored the deciding goal in a 2-1 victory over Nigeria allowing Ghana to move into the semi-finals against Cameroon. 24hrs later an 82 year-old fan of Agogo was at Agogo’s hotel stating “I came here last night with my very beautiful granddaughter to introduce her to you.”She is not here with me now because she wanted to pick something from town. Son, when she comes, she is all yours.”

I don’t think soccer players need the help, nor do grandfather’s need to be pimping out there granddaughters, but that’s just me. Agogo later asked if her granddaughter had a sister—-just kidding, about the sister part.
oh boy.

Sanon later described his goal and snapping Zoff’s record and how it was perceived by Italy, stating..”Imagine you went to a bar or restaurant, and you walked straight to Mike Tyson and slapped him in the face in front of everybody, and you got him mad.” It certainly got Italy mad as they responded by scoring 3 goals and closing out the match. Sanon’s contribution to Haitian soccer did not end with Italy as Sanon subsequently scored against powerhouse Argentina before being eliminated. Sanon also briefly coached the Haitian national team in the 1990’s.

The prime minister of Haiti Jacques-Edouard Alexis called for a moment of silence on Friday to remember Sanon. Sanon died of pancreatic cancer, he was 56. He is survived by his wife and four children.

A recent case of a more disturbing situation happened in South Africa in December 2007. 49 people were being held in a South African hospital for drug resistant TB (the details of the strain of TB have not been released). Again the treatment of these individuals appeared to be similar to the treatment of prison inmates, these patients-which is really what they are later escaped cutting through a perimeter fence. Of the 49 patients 26 returned, however 23 patients are still “on the loose”. These situations highlight the problems associated with the practice of quarantine.

Mario Raviglione, director of the WHO (World Health Organization) TB department indicated “it’s a last resort.” Arthur Caplan director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania conveyed his sentiments “There are certain circumstances when public health trumps individual rights-when it comes to protecting lives.” Exacerbating this problem, is underdeveloped countries if they even have hospitals, lack the facilities to effectively treat possibly infectious patients. furthermore, the possibility of a major outbreak in such a country would lead to problems of the feasibility of locking up thousands of individuals.

All experts and now policy makers are coming into line with the need for improvement in the use of quarantine in all countries, as Arthur Caplan notes…. “but you have to be careful. The purpose is to prevent spread of disease, not to punish people.”

Oh by the way the mayor told her next door neighbor’s that the dog known as Puddles had died while secretly keeping the pet for herself. With all this drama and apparent news coverage there is more to this story as a custody hearing is pending where a judge will decide the fate of the one called Puddles. The mayor, after taking the dog last summer, renamed the dog from Puddles to Panchito. The dog is a Shih Tzu.

Time Warner is not only looking to separate divisions but also to put AOL up for sale. At the time when the internet bubble was in full swing Time Warner agreed to be purchased by AOL. Since then, the bursting of the dot.com bubble, accounting improprieties, write-downs and settlements with shareholders and regulators have been commonplace. Bewkes said in no uncertain terms that Time Warner Cable specifically has different needs than that of AOL and will be better off on its own.

The answer is no,

Apparently, the latest craze in China is the Beckham condom which is the highest selling brand in China. Yes now you too can be a “Beckham” man and score with ladies, perhaps marry one of the remaining spice girls who are currently single. In a strange twist, Chinese LA Galaxy fans want the condoms banned. A Fan stated “We do not want Beckham to think the Chinese people are disrespecting him. We love him here,” one said.

It should be noted that the product is not endorsed by Beckham, I can see the disclaimer now….this product not endorsed by David Beckham, results may vary, some assembly required, etc, etc. Oh brother.

The second injustice is Daniel Day Lewis, admittedly, he does not make a lot of films but again what does he have to do? Speaking of Gangs of New York-he was in that also, great performance, yes Daniel Day Lewis does have an Oscar but in this age where two Oscars is no longer unreasonable to define the great actors-he should be in that category (of course notable exceptions to this rule are Jack Nicholson, Morgan Freeman-I mean Meryl Streep got hers), in his new film “There will be blood” he should win. If one is going by a body of work and a number of great performances which sometimes it appears the academy goes by then Daniel Day Lewis should be one of those blessed individuals.

The death of Dr. Judah Folkman.

Dr. Folkman is considered the founding father of the concept of Angiogenesis-which at the time was a radical idea that cancer cells could hijack a patient’s own blood vessels, and through the use of angiogenic factors (chemical factors) support the growth of blood vessels which are diverted to give nutrients to feed the growing tumor. He proposed this idea in 1971 and published this in the New England Journal of Medicine. The idea at the time was highly controversial and for more than two decades was not well received. Nevertheless Dr. Folkman continued to push the idea of Angiogenesis, to which everyone in the cancer community owes a debt of gratitude, as it turned out to be correct, and started the development of anti-angiogenic drugs as a treatment for cancer. Among his many accomplishments, Dr. Folkman not only came up with the idea of Angiogenesis but he also purified the first angiogenic protein from a tumor, discovered the first angiogenesis inhibitors and initiated clinical trials of anti-angiogenic therapy. Today, angiogenesis inhibitors have received FDA approval in the U.S. for cancer and for the treatment of macular degeneration and are also approved in 27 other countries.

Dr. Folkman was born in Cleveland in 1933, and graduated cum laude from Ohio State University, in 1953. He continued his education at Harvard Medical School, where he graduated magna cum laude in 1957. Dr. Folkman began his surgical residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital and served as chief resident in surgery from 1964-1965. Dr. Folkman was the author of 389 original peer-reviewed papers and 106 book chapters and monographs. He also held honorary degrees from fifteen universities and was the recipient of numerous national and international awards. He had been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Folkman died of an apparent heart attack, he was 74.