Condoms won't stop the spread of aids, says Pope

That headline graced the covers of many newspapers today.

For the first time the Pope directly addressed the controversial issue which has divided much of the Catholic church. "You can't resolve it (aids) with the distribution of condoms," the Pope told reporters aboard his plane to Yaounde, Cameroon. "On the contrary, it increases the problem."(CBC NEWS)

The church officially promotes fidelity, chastity and abstinence in the fight against the aids crisis in Africa, however, health workers (including some from the church) promote condoms as an essential elements in the prevention and protection of sexually transmitted diseases.

Beyond the questions of basic protection an interesting question is raised - should the fight against aids be focused on the stalling the spreading of the disease (condom & abstinence) or is the education of the population and the availability of drugs where emphasis should be focused?

What do you think?

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

A few random info bits to ponder while enjoying green beer today.

• St. Patrick is considered a patron saint of Ireland and the March 17th celebration is a national holiday in Ireland.
• Originally blue was the colour of St. Patrick but as the celebration took on multinational proportions and its association Irish culture and shamrock symbolism grew it changed to Irish green.
• The three leafed shamrock was also used to explain the holy trinity to pre-christian Irish.
• The emphasis of drinking alcohol on St. Patrick's day can be linked to the pagan-Roman celebration of Bacchanalia on March 15 and 16, whose patron Bacchus was the Roman wine god.
  

In the 1990's the Irish government began a campaign to use St. Paddy's Day to showcase Ireland and its culture with three goals for the festival:

• Offer a national festival that ranks amongst all of the greatest celebrations in the world and promote excitement throughout Ireland via innovation, creativity, grassroots involvement, and marketing activity.
• Provide the opportunity and motivation for people of Irish descent, (and those who sometimes wish they were Irish) to attend and join in the imaginative and expressive celebrations.
• Project, internationally, an accurate image of Ireland as a creative, professional and sophisticated country with wide appeal, as we approach the new millennium.

Enjoy!

CaniX

Apparently there's a new cross country sport in town. It's being proclaimed as the newest in outdoor health for dogs and their owners. Now I've taken part in this sport for years and to me its just called running with your dog but give it a fancy name, some new equipment, media coverage and competition and you've got CaniX.

Great initiative to motivate owners and dogs to fit but can you imagine the mayhem at a large competition?
Check out Canicross UK website for more information.

In Like A Lion...

So the groundhog predicted 6 more weeks of winter but did he perdict the wonky weather we've had lately?

+9 to -9 last week and its been the same story for this week? I really shouldn't be complaining because I am enjoying riding and running in the warmer weather but one has to admit its a little weird. March always seems to come in like a lion and leave like a lamb and I believe this year will prove to be no exception - at least with the in like a lion part!

Singles Awareness Day

While surfing for Valentine's info I can across this new satirical holiday... What do you think - does Valentine's Day need a counter-holiday or is this just going too far?

Singles Awareness Day (SAD) celebrates anti-love sentiments on February 13th, 14th and/or 15th. The official description is a holiday to celebrate being happy without a partner or gathering to commiserate being alone but some sites labeled the SAD holiday just self deprecating bad humour.

So would you wish someone "Happy SAD" or "Happy Valentine's Day"?

Valentines Day

Typically cynical towards the 'Hallmark' holiday I decided to do some investigating into the history of Valentine's Day in an attempt to give it some validity.

Originally named after a couple early Christian martyrs but not an official christian holiday it was Chaucer's era in the High Middle Ages who were responsible for developing February 14th into a recognized holiday. Predominantly celebrated in western culture Valentine's Day celebrated a tradition of courtly love in its early days. The exchange of valentines were meant to be a mutual exchange of love notes and in the 18th century an Ester Howland developed a business of selling handmade valentine cards. By the 19th century the card tradition has blossomed and been exported to North America. Today the Greeting Card Association estimates 1 billion cards are exchanged every Valentine's Day.

I guess I'll concede that there is some romantic history to Valentine's Day and though the holiday is far too commercial for my liking it is a nice excuse to show some love!

Groundhog Day

All the groundhogs in North America saw their shadows today and are predicting six more weeks of winter. Can't say I'm overly surprised (when has winter ever ended before the mid March in Canada?) but it would have been a nice relief from the -20 weather we've had all January! The whole groundhog superstition began with western folklore claiming that if a hibernating animal casts a shadow on February 2nd there are another six weeks of winter yet to come.

Mark Engstrom, senior mammals curator at the Royal Ontario Museum, stated in a Toronto Star article today that groundhogs "come out early to mate and are influenced to leave their dens based on the amount of light and their need to procreate. They are not emerging because they think it is warm." My question is if any hibernating animal will do explain to me why we haven't fired these groundhogs for a more preferable animal?

February began with two of the warmest and sunniest days we've had all winter... I'm hoping the groundhogs were wrong on this one and that my horse shedding her winter coat early has a better pulse on mother nature!

For the full groundhog prediction checkout this Toronto Star article.

Babs