HIV and STD guessing games

I have two tidbits today:

The first is that in the UK you can now send in a picture of your STD symptoms using your cell phone or a digital camera and have a doctor look at them. In response you will receive advice, or if it's really obvious, a prescription via email. There's a fee...but if you're choosing this route over inaction it seems best to use a high res camera, rather than your cellphone camera!

Another new guessing game (with a much different purpose) is the mtvU project Pos or not. The site presents photos of people and a little information about them. Then you are supposed to guess whether or not the person is HIV+. After guessing you get see if you were right. After several guesses you are given a zip code search box so that you can find a testing site in your area. Perhaps not being able to guess others' status reminds us that we don't always know our own.

California Supreme Court overturns Prop 22

SUPREME COURT RULED TODAY
"in contrast to earlier times, our state now recognizes that an individual’s capacity to establish a loving and long-term committed relationship with another person and responsibly to care for and raise children does not depend upon the individual’s sexual orientation, and, more generally, that an individual’s sexual orientation — like a person’s race or gender — does not constitute a legitimate basis upon which to deny or withhold legal rights. We therefore conclude that in view of the substance and significance of the fundamental constitutional right to form a family relationship, the California Constitution properly must be interpreted to guarantee this basic civil right to all Californians, whether gay or heterosexual, and to same-sex couples as well as to opposite-sex couples"

Same-Sex Marriage in California

United Nations Foundation and Vodafone Foundation help expand the mobile revolution

ISIS is proud to be included in the report produced by the United Nations Foundation and Vodafone Foundation titled Wireless Technology for Social Change: Trends in NGO Mobile Use.

The forward authored by Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin, and United Nations Foundation Chairman Ted Turner, underlines the critical time we are in; a turning point for how technologies, particularly mobile networks, are connecting critical health systems and slashing away at digital divisions around the globe.

The report showcases 11 mobile projects from around the world and shares the results of a global survey about how NGOs are using mobile technologies.

So, put up your feet, grab a hot chocolate (or an iced tea depending on where you are) and learn about how mobile phones are helping to improve HIV/AIDS care, conserve the environment and wildlife, reach youth with sexual health information, prevent violence, connect clinics and rural health care workers, deliver food in war zones...and so much more.

Big smiles.

My avatar really thought your avatar was charming but...

Forgive me if I cast a skeptical eye towards omnidate.com Its a free dating service that allows members to browse profiles in the traditional way, but then here is the extra special hook, instead of trading emails or meeting in person you can ask people on a virtual date. Apparently, avatars can flirt, blow kisses and roll their eyes etc. Is it just me or is something weird about gussying up your avatar and sending them on a hot date with the avatar of your potential new love while your actual self is sitting in a dinner stained t-shirt and ill fitting sweat pants. I know, I know, I'm a little jaded but really I have a hard time seeing how 2 idealized versions of self meeting in some idealized realm can equal love in the plain old real world. It is the same reason The Bachelor never actually marries the final rose recipient(yes, I know except for Kristin and Ryan, but thats different.) For more info check out this article, it seems that people disagree with me.


Also, the feelings of intimacy (if there could be any) one might feel after allowing their avatars to pour out digitized versions of heart felt emotion probably won't translate to the real world and that reminded me about this current.com video about texting and love.

Textual harassment in schools

The New York times reported today that over 35 percent of kids aged 11 to 18 have been sexually harassed. Boys and girls report similar levels but girls and sexual minorities suffer harsher consequences of this harassment. And it's not new to hear that besides verbal and physical abuse, young people are being sexually harassed on websites and by text message.

How have social networking sites and text messaging allowed bullies to get away with more? The schools are legally bound to protect their students from sexual harassment, but is the virtual nature of harassment sliding under the radar?

Regardless, how can young people protect themselves? Unlike a pinch in the hallway, news of a nasty Myspace comment can spread really fast. A devastating text message can come in during a class leaving us alone with our phones.

Some sites allow us to block or erase comments. We can take people off of our gchat list, we can defriend the person or erase their phone number from our vast collection. And we can tell someone and ask for support.

For more about the recent rise in cyber-bullying the New York Times also published this solid article. See also, this special edition of the Journal of Adolescent Health. Or the CDC's set of youth violence prevention resources.

Panel debates effectiveness of abstinence education April 24, 2008

Dear Magic Eightball,
Will abstinence only education ever end?
Resopnse: Out look is cloudy


By Cheryl Wetzstein
A House hearing on the effectiveness of abstinence education loosed a flurry of statistics, studies and anecdotes, but concluded yesterday with little movement on the contentious issue.

"Maybe we should just have a block grant" and let states use sex education funding for the kind of programs they want, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman, California Democrat, said near the end of the four-hour hearing.

The "let the states choose" idea followed powerful testimonies from three panels of witnesses, including one composed of leading medical and public health officials.

Republicans complained that the hearing was lopsided, but the three witnesses who supported abstinence - Sen. Sam Brownback, Kansas Republican; researcher Stan Weed; and Charles Keckler of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) - were assisted by friendly comments and questions from numerous Republican committee members who made a point of staying at the hearing.

Most of the health professionals argued that since major studies have not found abstinence education to be effective in changing teens' behaviors, the federal government should stop funding it and instead fund more-effective comprehensive sex education.

Mr. Weed and others brought up successful abstinence findings, and noted that pervasive sex and AIDS/HIV education, which stresses condom use, haven't blunted the nation's growing sexual disease epidemic.

Two witnesses - Max Siegel and Shelby Knox - testified to the harmful effects of abstinence education. Mr. Siegel, 23, said he contracted AIDS from his first sexual experience.

"I took out a condom but he ignored it," he said of his older male partner.

"I knew enough to suggest a condom," Mr. Siegel said, but because abstinence education didn't address the issue, "I had no idea how to discuss condoms with my partner."

Ms. Knox said officials in her Texas school stressed virginity pledges, but in reality, children took the vows because of peer pressure and then felt guilty when they had sex. Children were also shamed, she said.

In one meeting, a teacher asked a female student which toothbrush she would use - a filthy one or a "pristine" one. His message was that "If you have sex before marriage, you are a dirty toothbrush," Ms. Knox said.

In his remarks, Rep. Mark Souder, Indiana Republican, said a popular comprehensive sex education curriculum lists "showering together" and several noncoital sexual activities as safe for teens. Are these things appropriate to teach in schools as an alternative to abstinence education, he asked Rep. Lois Capps, California Democrat, and Mr. Brownback.

Mrs. Capps, who testified against abstinence-only education, demurred, saying she had never seen such messages taught in a school; Mr. Brownback said neither he nor most American parents would want their children taught such things.

Marcia Crosse of the General Accountability Office (GAO) said her agency has found some medical inaccuracies in federally funded abstinence materials, but HHS was actively implementing a system to ensure accuracy. Moreover, she said, while abstinence programs are gathering data on outcomes, this information is insufficient for the GAO to draw conclusions about the programs' effectiveness.

Check out WebMD's take on the issue

Another Robot Learns to Feel

I Want You to Want Me is a project by by Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar commissioned by MoMa Ny for the Design and the Elastic Mind exhibition. The piece is an interactive art work that gathers information from ever accumulating online dating profiles and organizes that info into an achingly hopeful visual system.



and if you liked that check out We Feel Fine, an earlier project by Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar, that mined the web for the phrase "I feel."

Who said computers don't have hearts...

Hey there Chlamydia

A little something to make you smile. Whats a PHalligator Friday without some Fun :)