You know that $15B program for AIDS the President signed yesterday? A portion of it is supposed to go towards “abstinence” education. This pleases the Family Research Council, which is quite happy that fully one-third of all AIDS prevention funds must go to abstinence education. “Simply tossing out condoms and creating the illusion of safe sex does not work. Teaching abstinence…does.” Well, no, FRC. Just in time, here’s a Johns Hopkins study of Namibian youth which concludes that “common HIV/AIDS prevention terms (e.g. “abstinence” and “faithfulness”) are frequently misunderstood.” Oh, and for good measure, the Administration does with this what it’s done so often; talks lots of money, budgets little. There’s $2B in the new budget, not the $3B that was advertised ($15B over five years).
Scientific American has just handed out its third annual Sci/Tech web awards for the top 50 Web resources for information about science and technology. Winners come from ten categories, including archaeology, astronomy, biology, mathematics, and great thinkers.
Here’s the best chart I’ve seen yet illuminating the changes the FCC wants to make on June 2.