Re: Got a minute? From Ray.

Dear Ray, 

It's always good to hear from you, and I shall reply
properly when my mind has cleared.  Unfortunately I got
stuck after foolishly buying a 64 bit Intel P45 with
Pentium D that did not boot any of the CF images - not
even your "myimage".  So, not being a programmer, I've
had to spend all my spare time trying to find a fix.  
Ought to do me good in the long run - learning enough
(about the internals of CF and ANSI) to appreciate what
you are writing about here.   

Another thing that took my time was writing up some
memories of a deceased colleague who had a good idea
about AIDS prevention, and getting back to having his
idea into the public domain at last.  (Clip is below).

Keep well, 

Caritas,

Nick   

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Combat Aids the old-fashioned way

Sir: If the Nobel laureate Professor David Baltimore now
concludes that he is "profoundly depressed about the
prospects of an HIV vaccine" (report, 15 February) it
is with very good reason: thousands of talented and
dedicated scientists have been working very hard for
decades to find one. I believe one will be found
eventually; but as I reminded my optimistic friend and
colleague at the University of Surrey 20 years ago, the
late Professor Fred Brown FRS, vaccines have yet to rid
us of the common cold. While we are waiting for an
effective molecular remedy against HIV and its protean
influenza cousins, may I resubmit an old-fashioned
strategy I proposed in the 1980s?

Aids today is like TB and typhoid around 1930. Let us
resort to identification and, where necessary,
isolation. Let every person on this planet be tested
and placed on a registry for HIV and other sexually
transmitted diseases. Let everyone be obliged to
disclose their own STD status and to enquire the STD
status of prospective sexual partners. If this had been
done about 1980 I venture to assert that we might have
avoided half of the present infections: those due to
ignorance of STD status.

Dr Nicolas George Maroudas

Haifa, Israel


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