Cervarix, the new HPV vaccination, is being rolled out later this year. Great news, right? Well, not quite so great. It seems that 20% of parents involved in the preliminary trials aren't happy with the fact that, in their warped world-view, their girls are being "encouraged" to engage in sexual behaviour. Sure, I can understand wanting to be protective of one's kids, but this is anything but. I could understand maybe 5% or so of parents declining on misunderstood health grounds or whatnot, but a whole one-fifth of parents is just insane. The regrettable thing is that it isn't just the kids who suffer (which is bad enough), but it's people who they haven't even met who're also taking a hit, as herd immunity suffers when a large enough proportion of the population isn't vaccinated.
In other sad news, Albert Hofmann, the Swiss scientist who discovered LSD-25, died on Tuesday after a heart attack.
In awesome news (for those lucky bastards with Xbox 360s, and the rich idiots with PS3s), GTA IV is finally out, and unsurprisingly causing a controversy. Jack Thompson is flapping his mouth about it being "the gravest assault upon children in this country since polio", Feministing is bitching about it being degrading to womenfolks, and the MADD (Mothers Against Drink Driving) are worked up about the fact that one can drink and drive in the game.
The sad thing is that this parade of moralist morons seems to completely miss the fundamental purpose of the game- to give the player a huge variety of choices and allow them to have fun their own way. Yes, you can run down prostitutes and shoot corpses lying on the floor, but you don't have to. If you wanted, you can spend hours making money from ferrying people around in a taxi, or getting in a police car and hunting down bad guys. You can't choose not to kill random civilians unless you have the option of doing so- otherwise there's no choice at all. GTA is a wry, exaggerated look at life in a city, and it works wonderfully as a social commentary. Yes, it's not meant for kids, but GTA proves that gaming is a very valid (albeit not fully matured) art-form, and anyone who disagrees is a goddamn philistine.
In other sad news, Albert Hofmann, the Swiss scientist who discovered LSD-25, died on Tuesday after a heart attack.
In awesome news (for those lucky bastards with Xbox 360s, and the rich idiots with PS3s), GTA IV is finally out, and unsurprisingly causing a controversy. Jack Thompson is flapping his mouth about it being "the gravest assault upon children in this country since polio", Feministing is bitching about it being degrading to womenfolks, and the MADD (Mothers Against Drink Driving) are worked up about the fact that one can drink and drive in the game.
The sad thing is that this parade of moralist morons seems to completely miss the fundamental purpose of the game- to give the player a huge variety of choices and allow them to have fun their own way. Yes, you can run down prostitutes and shoot corpses lying on the floor, but you don't have to. If you wanted, you can spend hours making money from ferrying people around in a taxi, or getting in a police car and hunting down bad guys. You can't choose not to kill random civilians unless you have the option of doing so- otherwise there's no choice at all. GTA is a wry, exaggerated look at life in a city, and it works wonderfully as a social commentary. Yes, it's not meant for kids, but GTA proves that gaming is a very valid (albeit not fully matured) art-form, and anyone who disagrees is a goddamn philistine.
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