Letters to the Editor
sclatter
Published Letters: 45 Editor's Choice: 11
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Just because women are faithful...
[Read the article: Empowering women against AIDS]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...doesn't mean their husbands are.
Just today I read a transcript of a PBS show that discussed this exact issue. They covered a couple in Uganda as they visited a health clinic for HIV tests. Clinic workers separated the couple and asked them about their sexual history. The woman had been faithful to her husband. Her husband, not so much. He admitted to at least four partners in the previous year. Apparently this situation is very common in Uganda.
The wife didn't know. Should married women say "no", just in case?
Anyway, I've heard a bit about this gel, and applications are not just HIV. I think it may revolutionize contraception in general.
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I can think of one major issue with an electric car
[Read the article: Beyond the Multiplex]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I was just sitting here thinking, Man, I'd love to have an electric car. How great would that be. I'm a student, and I only commute few miles to work and back each day. Short range would be no trouble...
But where would I plug it in?
I live in an apartment. Lots of people do. I only have street parking. Also not unusual in a city.
Seems like the best place for an electric car--in a city, where short trips are typical--would be least conducive to actually keeping the darn thing charged. You'd need a driveway and/or a garage to deal with the thing, which is more typical in a suburban setting, where folks are also more likely to want more range.
Not that this problem couldn't be addressed with some infrastructure changes...
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"Soundly" debunked????
[Read the article: What else we're reading]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I beg to differ. I think there is a bit of misunderstanding about the resoning here.
The thing about evolution is that however things are, you can be reasonably sure that they are that way because that's the way that worked the best. If it is shown that men's sex drives stay constant and women's sex drives wane, that's because people configured that way reproductively out-competed people configured in other ways. There must be some sort of advantage to it.
In other words, everything has been tried, and the creatures on earth now are the winners. We are pretty well optimized.
Now, the part where they make suggestions about what the mechanism of the advantage might be, that's the merest speculation and should be understood as such. It's very useful speculation, however, in that it allows you to form a testable hypothesis. For instance, you might be able to test if a man's sex drive does wane if he does not have competition from other males, or if limiting sex does increase men's interest in it. Those are things you can design experiments to test, and that will lead you to a deeper understanding of human sexuality.
(This is the sort of basic misunderstanding of evolution that helps to give it a bad name in this country...)
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How does anyone choose a college?
[Read the article: Closing the doors on single-sex education?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Choosing a college is a complex decision and many different factors come to bear-- academic prestige, of course, but also location, finances, course offerings, weather, and not least of all culture. A women's college will have a different culture than a co-ed college. Not necessarily different good or different bad--it depends on what suits the individual.
I am an alumna of Mary Baldwin College. I had my own reasons for going there (specifically, their Program for the Exceptionally Gifted). Only after coming back to grad school after a break have I discovered how truly well-served I was by my MBC education. More than that, I value the culture that I experienced at MBC. The school has a closeness and a community that I treasure. I am probably the least sentimental woman I know, but I still can't make it through the Mary Baldwin Hymn without choking up.
I never met anyone who went to a women's college because they wanted to avoid the company of men. If you asked them, they would probably say that they just liked it there. In other words, it's the culture. Some women thrive in it, many would not I am sure. Different strokes for different folks. To suggest that no one should have access to single-sex education simply because most people do not prefer it seems quite absurd to me.
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Why people who love horses should not support an anti-horse-slaughter law
[Read the article: I am your elder]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Most people who are against the idea of horse slaughter favor the consideration of horses as companion animals--like dogs and cats--instead of livestock--like cows and pigs.
The problem with considering horses as companion animals is that it puts people who raise, breed, and work with horses into the same legal (read, tax) categories as dog breeders and cat fanciers, instead of what they really are-- livestock farmers. Farmers get special considerations in lots of ways, and these considerations help small horse businesses survive.
I love horses, have owned about a dozen of them, and cared for them all as best I could. I would never personally send one of my horses to slaughter. By all means, legislate more humane conditions, enforce kinder standards. But outlawing the very few slaughterhouses that exist in the US and ultimately classifying horses as companion animals will only make it harder for all the people who love horses, care for them, and build their livelihoods around them.