Letters to the Editor
rocket999
Published Letters: 139 Editor's Choice: 11
-
You CAN get the vaccine
[Read the article: Bad news for 27-year-old virgins]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I got it when it first came out even though I was over the age limit. As I recall, it was about $300 total for three doses at the city vaccine clinic. They did seem a little surprised that I wanted it, but hey, it's my life (and they never did ask for proof of age). In my opinion, it's well worth it, especially if you don't think your current partner will be your final partner, or have any doubts at all about his total fidelity (condoms only partially block transmission).
My boyfriend tried to get it too, but they wouldn't give it to a male. Kinda silly, since HPV is associated with throat cancer (link not yet proven, but likely), and men help spread the virus between woman.
-
violence wouldn't work
[Read the article: Dalai Lama's time bomb]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Good point, Voice of Reason. Britain lost almost all of its colonies around the same time, and as far as I know, none of them had nonviolence movements like India.
Interesting to think about.
I think that Tibetan culture would have to transform radically for violence to succeed against the Chinese. It's true that the Afghanis did defeat the Russians, but that situation is not analogous to Tibet and China. Remember, the Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Estonians, Latvians, and etc. were subjegated by the Russians, and culturally the Tibetans are closer to these groups than the Afghanis.
Tibetans don't have the same culturally ingrained glorification of war as the Afghanis, and I doubt they can (or want to) develop that to the degree needed to defeat the Chinese in drawn out guerrilla warfare.
If the Tibetans move towards violence, they are almost certain to fail. I think the Dalai Lama understands this very well.
-
alternatives
[Read the article: Test drive: The Smart car is revolutionary]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I want the aerorider too, when the price is under 3k! But is it safe?
-
the problem goes waaay beyond navigational aids
[Read the article: A deluge waiting to happen]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Of greater concern to me is the fact that the silt carried by the Mississippi River is no longer being deposited along the its historical floodplain. Instead, it's being carried into the Gulf of Mexico, and literally off the continental shelf.
We will never get that soil back, not even through the movement of the tectonic plates and the gradual lifting of the North American continent in that region, which will happen eventually.
Sometimes it makes me mad how short-sighted we can be. The reason the Mississippi Valley is so fertile is because of thousands of years of soil deposits via flooding. No soil deposits, no fertility. The ancient Egyptians prospered because every year the Nile flooded and renewed their fields. It's the same thing with the Mississippi. Now the Egyptians have the Aswan dam and we have flood control channels. Exercisng that control means that in the long term, the fertility of the soils in the region will fade away. How long? I don't know. Probably hundreds of years, but not thousands.
As for the Mississippi, historically it didn't even go through New Orleans. Like any river delta, the bulk of the flow changed channels periodically, but it spent most of its time in a course we call "Old River," and from there into the Atchafalaya River. It's a historical accident that the Mississippi was flowing the way it was when we found it, and it would have changed channels already if we hadn't prevented it.
Don't believe me? Google Mississippi and Old River, or read John McPhee's book "The Control of Nature."
Our arrogance astounds me sometimes. We can't control the Mississippi forever.
-
that cracked me up!
[Read the article: The unbearable whiteness of being]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Oh man, that article and the associated site had me laughing out loud. There are a lot of negative responses to it on here, and I understand why some people don't get it or think it's trivial, but I definitely see myself and my social milieu in what he mocks, and it's damn funny. To me, that's good enough. I must not have yet attained the elite white status that allows me to look down on that type of humour.
So of course I immediately forwarded the link...to my Indian friend, who will no doubt see himself in it and crack up too.