Press releases that make you go "You son of a bitch."

From PLoS ONE [to clarify, an editor has pointed out that the press release was written by the author of the paper] comes this charmer:

Male
circumcision overstated as prevention tool against AIDS

Some choice excerpts (coherent commentary will have to wait until I
stop fuming):

In new academic research published today in the online,
open-access, peer-reviewed scientific journal PLoS ONE, male
circumcision is found to be much less important as a deterrent to the
global AIDS pandemic than previously thought. The author, John R.
Talbott, has conducted statistical empirical research across 77
countries of the world and has uncovered some surprising results.

The new study finds that the number of infected prostitutes in a
country is the key to explaining the degree to which AIDS has infected
the general population. Prostitute communities are typically very
highly infected with the virus themselves, and because of the large
number of sex partners they have each year, can act as an engine
driving infection rates to unusually high levels in the general
population. The new study is entitled "Size Matters: The Number of
Prostitutes and the Global HIV/AIDS Pandemic" and is freely available
online at the PLoS ONE publication website at
http://plosone.org/doi/pone.0000543.

So far, so good. I've
been suspicious of the whole circumcision thing, and this makes sense.
But then it goes on...

The study has a number of important findings that should
impact policy decisions in the future. First, male circumcision, which
in previous studies had been found to be important in controlling
AIDS, becomes statistically irrelevant once the study controls for the
number of prostitutes in a country. The study finds that the more
Muslim countries of North Africa do indeed suffer much less AIDS than
southern and western Africa, but this lower prevalence is not due to
higher numbers of circumscribed males in these Muslim communities, but
rather results from the fact that there are significantly fewer
prostitutes in northern Africa on a per capita basis. It appears
that religious families in the north, specifically concerned fathers
and brothers, do a much better job protecting their daughters from
predatory males than do those in the south. [Emphasis
mine.]

Let's hear it for those fathers and brothers!
Because women have no agency of their own.

( It gets better, and longer. )

Like I say, too angry for coherence right now.

Happier links

The Fat Lady Sings

The real question is, do fans care as much about size as the music industry thinks they do? If American Idol is any indication, no. On this you-pick-the-star-of-tomorrow show, some of the most popular singers — LaKisha Jones, Kelly Clarkson, Kimberley Locke, Fantasia Barrino, Melinda Doolittle and Jordin Sparks — have been what my mom would politely call “big boned.”

America voted and it likes its Idols with a little junk in their trunk. Across the pond, the arbiters of hip at NME consider a chubby chick the coolest person around.

From which I also learned that I *heart* Beth Ditto (sadly, no easily accessible column archive, but you can find them using the links on the left nav).

Awesome suffragette photos via Bitch, PhD.

And the cutest police car EVER.