Saturday, May 27, 2006

"The popular narrative conceit of Wild Kingdom was criticized at times by some zoologists and environmentalists for putting entertainment values before those of ecological education. Yet Wild Kingdom reflected in precisely these ways many of the dominant ecophilosophical and ecological tenets of its day." Entry for Mutual of Omaha's television show "Wild Kingdom"- The Museum of Broadcast Communications

"GlaxoSmithKline announced in November 2004 that its vaccine, which contains two strains of HPV thought to cause 70 per cent of cervical cancers, had prevented 90 per cent of new infections and all persistent infections. The US-based firm Merck announced similar results last week with its vaccine, which contains the same two cancer-causing HPV strains plus two strains that cause genital warts. Merck's official reason for including the warts strains is that they can confuse screening tests, leading to unnecessary scares. But another reason, says Anne Szarewski of the charity Cancer Research UK, who is helping to organise one of the vaccine trials, is that men who get vaccinated to prevent disfiguring warts will no longer transmit the cancer-causing strains to women. That might be the key to getting vaccines accepted in cultures where trying to prevent sexually transmitted infections is equated with promiscuity." A news article regarding the same topic- NewScientist.com

"As they flex their political muscle, right-wing Christians increasingly reveal their condescending view of women as moral children who need to be kept in line sexually by fear. That's why antichoicers will never answer the call of prochoicers to join them in reducing abortions by making birth control more widely available: They want it to be less available. Their real interest goes way beyond protecting fetuses--it's in keeping sex tied to reproduction to keep women in their place." An editorial by Katha Pollitt on news about a human papilloma virus vaccine- The Nation