A recent study conducted by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, has found that people infected with HIV in Thailand die from the disease significantly sooner than those with HIV living in other parts of the world. The researchers found that, the shorter survival time measured in the studies suggests that HIV subtype E, which is the most common HIV subtype in Thailand, may be more virulent than other subtypes of the virus.
The first study followed 228 men over a 14-year period starting in 1991. All of the men were serving in the Thai military and were HIV-negative when they enrolled in the study. The researchers tested for HIV every six months to determine approximately when they acquired HIV. The men were also diagnosed at a time before combination antiretroviral drug therapy was available.
The researchers compared the group of Thai men to a group of similar HIV-positive men living in North America and Europe who were included in another study. The median time from HIV infection to death for the Thai men was 7.8 years compared to 11 years for HIV-positive men living in North America and Europe.
The survival rate for the Thai men was also lower than studies of similar populations living in low- and middle-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa where subtypes A, C, D and G circulate. However, the shorter survival after HIV infection among persons in Africa infected with subtype D was similar to the survival among the Thai men.
"Fortunately, the men who have survived after their infection are now receiving treatment with effective antiviral drugs and doing very well," he added. [via Thailandnews.net]
Sierra Tangos
- The State Railway of Thailand (SRT) is making sure Thais across the country have no excuses for not going to the polls this year. The SRT is offering a fifty percent discount on all second and third class tickets to encourage as many people as possible to cast their vote on December 23. An SRT public relations officer said the offer is valid between Dec 21-24. [via Bangkok Post] Ed. Before you start planning a cheap visa run by rail to Penang, all passengers will be asked to present their personal identification cards to the ticket office to be eligible for the discount. I think that means no cheap foreigners.....
- The National Legislative Assembly (NLA) passed the two- and three-digit lottery bill on its third reading on Wednesday by 83 to 26 votes. The amended lottery bill, proposed by NLA member and economist Sangsidh Piriyarangsan, will become law as soon as it is posted in the Royal Gazette. [via Bangkok Post]
- A major study of the world's worst polluters shows that Thailand is emitting more carbon dioxide per capita than China or India. On a per capita basis, Thais emitted 4.2 tonnes of CO2, while the Chinese emitted 3.8 tonnes and Indians 1.2 tonnes. Australians were emitting 16.2 tonnes per capita in 2004. [via ABC News] Ed. I suspect it's something to do with all those used condoms they're burning....... On a more serious note, this will encourage the Thai pro nuclear energy lobby.
- According to Thai Channel 3, bars will be closed from 6.00pm, 22 Dec and all day 23rd and 24th Dec. Thai Anxiety feels this could be mistake with the bars only closing from 6.00pm, 22 Dec and all day 23 Dec. Let's hope Thai Anxiety has it right. All will be revealed in the course of Thai time.
- A Barrow born pensioner arrested in Thailand on child abuse and child porn charges has had the case against him dropped. Thai police confirmed the charges had been dropped in a fax to the British embassy, seen by the Evening Mail. The note, sent by Police Lieutenant Major Chanaphat Naowalak, states: “At present the investigating officer has completed the investigation and ordered the charge to be dismissed.” The Foreign and Commonwealth Office were unable to comment at the time of going to press. [via Northwest Evening Mail]
- BBC, ITV and Channel 4 will launch a joint online on-demand video service in 2008, providing hundreds of hours of TV program, all in one place. The content offered by the currently unnamed service (code name being Kangaroo) will include over 10,000 hours of program, including current shows and archive materials. Furthermore, the three production houses hope to have other content providers join their service.
Presently, these three broadcasters each have their own separate VoD services: BBC’s iPlayer, ITV’s catch-up and Channel 4oD will coexist with the new service after the launch. The new service can thus be described as an aggregator of all this content. Users will be able to download, stream, rent and purchase content over the Internet, while expansion to other platforms is planned.
“The new service will contain some of the very best of the UK’s content for consumers to view in one place, which will be both easy to use and great fun” said John Smith, chief executive of BBC Worldwide.
Several questions with services such as this, of course, are inevitable. One is DRM. I doubt that consumers will welcome yet another shoving of DRM-infected content down their throats, although the idea of having thousands of hours of TV available on-demand sounds terrific. The other is availability: will the content be available to anyone, or only UK customers? Then, there’s quality, which will hopefully go all the way up to HD. [via Mashable]
- Don't know what to buy your pervy mate for Christmas? How about an upskirt mouse. Yes that's correct, an upskirt mouse. Get all that groping out of your system in the comfort of your own home, before you get anywhere near Soi 6. [via sexornot] Ed. I'm starting to think I've led something of a sheltered life. First 'Two Girls & A Cup', now this.
- DVD43 - DVD43 is a program that runs in the background and decrypts copy-protected DVD’s on the fly. It has the effect of making a DVD unrestricted and region free, allowing for simple copying of files to your hard drive within the Windows file system and/or unrestricted access to the DVD by third party software. It will also remove audio CD protection.
The first thing that I’d like to note is that this software is different from DVD ripping software in the vein of as RipIt4Me/DVD Decrypter or DVD FAB HD Decrypter. What DVD43 does can be though of (in a way) as transforming an otherwise encrypted DVD into what for all intents and purposes acts as a ’normal’, unencrypted DVD (similar to the shareware software AnyDVD).
In many cases using a program like DVD43 is will save you the need to spend 20-30 minutes ripping a DVD to your hard drive first (not to mention the 4.7gig-to-8gig hard drive space you might not have on hand). For example, if your objective is to ’shrink’ an 8gig DVD and copy it onto a standard size blank DVD (for which you would use DVD Shrink), DVD43 would spare you the need to rip the entire 8gigs into your hard drive first, allowing DVD Shrink to get access and get to work on the files on the DVD itself.
Or let’s say that your interest lies not in copying the DVD itself but rather in converting it into a video file that you could load up on your Ipod or mobile device using a program such as Handbrake. In this case as well DVD43 will allow Handbrake to process/convert your desired titles straight from the DVD itself, saving you the time, effort, and hard drive space of ripping the DVD first.
Here are some notes on this program:
- How to use: after installation, DVD43 will run in the background and show itself as a yellow smiley in your system tray. Once you insert a DVD into your drive it will take a few seconds to recognize it and then will change to a green smiley, indicating that it has successfully removed the protection.
- Random testing: tested DVD43 on the 3 very random DVDs that we happened to have Netflixed at the moment and it was able to decrypt all of them without hitch.
- Types of protection(s) removed: unfortunately this info is not clearly stated on the program’s home page. After some Googling I found a statement in relation to this new version (4.0) cryptically declaring that "DVD43 removes most types of copy protection found on movie DVDs".
- Resources cost: extremely small; less than 2 megs in memory.
- Audio CD protection: also supported. Did not test this one personally.
The verdict: this is just what I’ve been waiting for. I’m personally more interested in converting DVDs and viewing on my Iphone than copying them to other DVD media, and DVD43 will save me a lot of time and energy that would otherwise be spent waiting for DVDs to rip to my hard drive. A great, simple program overall that works just as intended.
Compatibility: Windows 2000, XP, Vista (32 bit). [via freewaregenius]
- Pole dancing for breakfast - not on my GMTV
- A cheating girls plea to her boyfriend for forgiveness.....
Brad,
It would be difficult for me to be any more miserable right now, I feel like the worst person ever. First, let me start by saying that I am truly truly sorry, and I hate myself for hurting you. Of all the people in the whole entire world, you were honestly the last person that I would ever want to wrong in any way. There is no excuse at all or anything that happened, so I won't even try other than to say all of us had WAY too much
to drink, and I did a stupid thing. I can handle you being p1ssed at me, I absolutely deserve it, I can even handle the ugly words that were exchanged between us, what I can't handle is thinking that you see me as a different person. It is weird, The world looked funny yesterday, I couldn't crack a smile if you paid me, there are songs I can't listen to, and I just feel beyond crushed. I don't know if you meant everything you said to me, and I am hoping that you didn't. I know that I was wrong on many levels, but I am also hoping that this is something that we can deal with. I know it sounds totally crazy and stupid, I can't imagine my days without you. It is totally strange and weird to say that, and you could say that my behavior didn't reflect that, and you would be correct. I hate feeling like you hate me, and I hate feeling like all of your friends think I am a terrible person, because I am not. I know there is nothing I can say or do to take back what happened.
I am so sorry.
Elizabeth
BRAD's RESPONSE:
Dear Elizabeth,
Thank you for your concern. I'll be sure to file it away under 'L' for 'Long-winded diatribes from drunken whores I couldn't care less about'. You did a stupid thing huh? No...doing long division and forgetting to carry the one is 'a stupid thing'; Mixing in a red sock with a load of whites is 'a stupid thing'; Blowing some guy in a bathroom for 45minutes while I sit at the bar wondering if you're taking so long because you ate too much bran that morning isn't as much a 'Stupid thing' as it is grounds for permanent removal from my social calendar. To be honest, I'm not sure if it was more amusing that you went and degraded yourself in a public toilet not once but twice in a 2 hour span, or that you seemed to think that by saying 'Well, I didn't F**k him' somehow gave you a clean slate. So forgive me if I couldn't care less if the world 'looked funny' to
you yesterday. Since your world revolves around blow dryers, golden retrievers, Prada Bags and Jelly Beans, I'm sure it must have been most unsettling to actually have to consider someone else's feelings for 24 hours straight. The good news for you is that my friends don't think you're a terrible person, they just think you're the average run of the mill cum-guzzling blond who commands about as much respect as your average child porn collector. By the way,
for the amount of time you claim to spend in spin class you really must be doing something wrong to sport the thunder thighs you do. Watching you parade around my bedroom in a thong was a little like watching sea lions mate. Thought you might like to know. PS. I forwarded about 100 people on this email.Talk to you never,
Brad
Many Thanks
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