Buttons, Quirks and Quarks and Women and AIDS

Goddammit it can be difficult to keep up with this blogging thing…

Especially as a sense of propriety really makes me feel like i have to mention some things, even things i may have nothing particularly intelligent to say about.

And of course, as i may have mentioned earlier, there is a lot i have wanted to write about but i just haven’t had time. I am going to be doing stuff later this month up until late October which should make it impossible fr me to do my regular work, little own blog, and i’ve received several large orders for buttons over the past few weeks… all of which is just to say that i have been busy.

Over the past couple of years, button making has become so much more enjoyable as i have discovered some neat stuff on the internet to listen to as i work. Most notably, CBC’s national science show Quirks and Quarks – it’s just interesting enough to keep me engaged, but also is not dealing with anything important enough that i feel i have to be following every word.

I’m mean, it’s just science, right?

That said, if you’re making thousands of buttons, you get through a lot of old shows, and you find some interesting things. Things which intersect with the real world in a political way not always evident when discussing buckyballs or dark matter. Perhaps i’ll upload some of my thoughts on these over the next little while, we’ll see…

One thing i did hope to blog about some time over the past week – but which i have been unable to find a spare hour for – was the September 9th show, which devoted quite a bit of time to the XVI International AIDS Conference which was held in Toronto last month, specifically to scientific advances in HIV prevention, and issues pertaining to women and AIDS, particularly in Africa.

I found these segments to be pretty lacking – sure some science was there, but how scientifically complete can it be when so little attention was paid to the political and social realities which have shaped the AIDS pandemic every step of the way?

Not that a social analysis was completely absent, just that it was watered-down-weak. Misleading even.

And i wanted to comment on that, to provide greater perspective.

But i didn’t have time.

So… what i am doing is just giving a heads up: you can listen to last week’s show on the Quirks and Quarks archive page – the segments to listen to are the ones on the Toronto AIDS Conference and on Women and AIDS.