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jawnbcWelcome to the dog and pony show, a/k/a the biennial International AIDS Conference. It's the third time Canada's played host (Montréal '89, Vancouver 96), and I must say it's going to be another opportunity to be proud to be Canadian. Aside from that ideologue who thinks he's got a majority when he doesn't the Prime Minister skipping out, Toronto, Ontario and Canada are shining. Even with 20,000 in attendance, it's all well run and well organized from where I sit. Without being tense or terse or pissy.
Regardless me feicin' legs err tarr'd.
This is my 4th, so I'm something of an ould whore here. This morning I slept in, toddled down to the convention centre for 11am (at which point the queues are largely gone). I grabbed my bag and promptly tossed out 1/2 of it (mostly evil big pharma marketing schtuff). Then I waddled down to the exhibition level to see what was of interest to a post-structural educational sociologist whose interests include queer youth and injection drug users. Remarkably little, as it turns out. My favourite moment was the plain clothes security personnel at the $200,000 pharma booths taking notes on who looked uppity/activisty (hint: look for the non-gay marine clones in polo shirts and 32" waist Dockers. Every time). Guess what buddy? There's still a 50/50 chance your booth is gonna get trashed. So why don't you fuckers spend less on the damned things (and marketing in general), so your pills are more affordable?
Bastards.
Waddling then moved on to the Poster exhibitions for today. There were well over 1,000 in 5 tracks (basic/lab science, clinical research, epidemiology & prevention, social/behavioural/economic research and policy). Tonight they all come down are replaced with another round. Lather, rinse, repeat 4 times over 4 days. The posters are often the most interesting, even the most rigorous--you'd be surpised how political the process is for selecting actual live (oral) presentations. Three stood out for me: one on doing ethnographic (qualitative) research in a field dominated by statistics (vis à vis AIDS), one that simply said "email me for the proper paper" (again, qualitative), and one handwritten sign that said "Air Canada lost my poster 3 days ago." I think the last one was really from a WestJet owner. My poster, in all its glory, is Wednesday but you can download it here, 'cause you're special. But it's a big file to print--so read it on your 'puter instead. And please don't disseminate unless I tell you it's OK. OK?
I had no appetite today (jet lag, sadness, missing my husband...a lot), so I skipped lunch. I ran into some folks, spent some time in a couple of oral sessions. One of my heros is the former President of Ireland Mary Robinson; she keynoted a session on girls' education and HIV risk. She was very good if not brilliant. I heard Jeff O'Malley (ex-pat Canuck who leads the International AIDS Alliance) do an amazing job synthesing 3 disparate presentations on HIV stigma. What an ambassador for Canada, even though he's worked in international development nearly 2 decades. I also caught the tail end of a session on HIV policy and the military. Almost interesting to me. Almost.
I also visited the Global Village. Which is the kewlest thing ever! Dozens of NGOs, chill areas for specfiic communities (African diaspora, sex workers, queer men, South Asians, drug users, Eastern Europe...you name it), groups selling their wares to make $$ for their programmes back home. Oh, by the way: if you wanna buy their hat or t-shirt or poster don't be an asshole and haggle over the price. Your extra $5 might feed someone for a couple of weeks. Or give someone's daughter another month of primary schooling. Really. The Global Village is full of sound, colour and life. Folks living with HIV, folks working in HIV, folks building, supporting and strengthening communities. You won't see anything quite like this at most academic conferences.
All of a sudden it was 18h00 and I was plotzed. We all get transit passes for the week, so I waddled to the Subway and then walked the 3 blocks to our accomodation. On scholarship we're in a student residence. My roommate is from Alberta and a nice fella. I'm off shortly to dinner with one of the other ethnographers here (so few, so few). Then a chat with my husband before bed time!
Regardless me feicin' legs err tarr'd.
This is my 4th, so I'm something of an ould whore here. This morning I slept in, toddled down to the convention centre for 11am (at which point the queues are largely gone). I grabbed my bag and promptly tossed out 1/2 of it (mostly evil big pharma marketing schtuff). Then I waddled down to the exhibition level to see what was of interest to a post-structural educational sociologist whose interests include queer youth and injection drug users. Remarkably little, as it turns out. My favourite moment was the plain clothes security personnel at the $200,000 pharma booths taking notes on who looked uppity/activisty (hint: look for the non-gay marine clones in polo shirts and 32" waist Dockers. Every time). Guess what buddy? There's still a 50/50 chance your booth is gonna get trashed. So why don't you fuckers spend less on the damned things (and marketing in general), so your pills are more affordable?
Bastards.
Waddling then moved on to the Poster exhibitions for today. There were well over 1,000 in 5 tracks (basic/lab science, clinical research, epidemiology & prevention, social/behavioural/economic research and policy). Tonight they all come down are replaced with another round. Lather, rinse, repeat 4 times over 4 days. The posters are often the most interesting, even the most rigorous--you'd be surpised how political the process is for selecting actual live (oral) presentations. Three stood out for me: one on doing ethnographic (qualitative) research in a field dominated by statistics (vis à vis AIDS), one that simply said "email me for the proper paper" (again, qualitative), and one handwritten sign that said "Air Canada lost my poster 3 days ago." I think the last one was really from a WestJet owner. My poster, in all its glory, is Wednesday but you can download it here, 'cause you're special. But it's a big file to print--so read it on your 'puter instead. And please don't disseminate unless I tell you it's OK. OK?
I had no appetite today (jet lag, sadness, missing my husband...a lot), so I skipped lunch. I ran into some folks, spent some time in a couple of oral sessions. One of my heros is the former President of Ireland Mary Robinson; she keynoted a session on girls' education and HIV risk. She was very good if not brilliant. I heard Jeff O'Malley (ex-pat Canuck who leads the International AIDS Alliance) do an amazing job synthesing 3 disparate presentations on HIV stigma. What an ambassador for Canada, even though he's worked in international development nearly 2 decades. I also caught the tail end of a session on HIV policy and the military. Almost interesting to me. Almost.
I also visited the Global Village. Which is the kewlest thing ever! Dozens of NGOs, chill areas for specfiic communities (African diaspora, sex workers, queer men, South Asians, drug users, Eastern Europe...you name it), groups selling their wares to make $$ for their programmes back home. Oh, by the way: if you wanna buy their hat or t-shirt or poster don't be an asshole and haggle over the price. Your extra $5 might feed someone for a couple of weeks. Or give someone's daughter another month of primary schooling. Really. The Global Village is full of sound, colour and life. Folks living with HIV, folks working in HIV, folks building, supporting and strengthening communities. You won't see anything quite like this at most academic conferences.
All of a sudden it was 18h00 and I was plotzed. We all get transit passes for the week, so I waddled to the Subway and then walked the 3 blocks to our accomodation. On scholarship we're in a student residence. My roommate is from Alberta and a nice fella. I'm off shortly to dinner with one of the other ethnographers here (so few, so few). Then a chat with my husband before bed time!
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no subject
Date: 2006-08-15 12:28 am (UTC)I was wowed by the Global Village. The vibe it has is upbeat and positive with people wanting to provide more information about that programs, etc... Certainly an eye opener.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-15 12:49 am (UTC)Oof. Gauche. Didn't think people did that, unless they were in a market that ran on haggling. :/
File's coming up corrupted here.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-15 03:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-15 03:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-15 03:33 am (UTC)No, seriously, if you have thoughts to share I'd be interested. I try to make my work as interdisciplinary-friendly as possible...
no subject
Date: 2006-08-15 03:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-15 03:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-15 03:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-15 12:52 am (UTC)I'll try the poster tomorrow when I get back to Uni.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-15 12:53 am (UTC)I think I caught some of Mary Robinson on an episode of Politically Incorrect, or some Bill Maher pannel discussion show, and she was incredible! An amazingly smart, clever, funny person who should always be in charge of something, somewhere, something big and important.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-15 04:23 am (UTC)Not to sound pedantic (really, the primary purpose of the message is to compliment you on the poster), but the word "plotz" means, literally, "explode" or "burst". So if you're tired, you're not plotzed, but you may be so stuffed from dinner that you plotz. For "tired", try "Oysgematert" ("worn out"); granted, it's not as pithy, but what can you do?
no subject
Date: 2006-08-15 08:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-15 06:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-15 11:08 pm (UTC)A large study of condom breakage in heterosexual and homosexual relationships, over a one year period (participants to describle what the act taking place was when the breakage occurred).
Could be fun, I'd volunteer!
I obviously know little about the specific field - but note that Silverman and Gross (1997) is a review article. Would it have been worth going back to the original papers on which the review was based (if there were any...) and picking their methodology to pieces?
no subject
Date: 2006-08-15 11:55 pm (UTC)Besides, how would you control for tightness, penis/object size, lubrication, experience (with anal and condoms)...
NIH and CDC have set up a lovely catch 22 here, eh?
I might write an article or chapter on this, the poster format doesn't really allow for a nuanced argument/analysis.
Really appreciate your feedback....
no subject
Date: 2006-08-16 06:12 am (UTC)As for factors such as tightness, lube use, experience, etc - Lube use could be stratified for (ask people to report whether or not they used it) - as for the others, does it matter?
I mean, yes, it might matter in terms of *factors influencing* breakage, but that's not the question under investigation. The question is "Do condoms break more often in hetero fucking than homo fucking", not "Why do condoms break during fucking".
If we are only interested in how often the condom breaks (incidence of breakage per 1000 fuck events, say) for hetero compared with homo couples (in real life situations), and not with investigating specific factors, then I would argue that you have to allow the natural variability of sexual practices to be included in the study, and attempt to control any bias by using a larger sample size.
It might be possible to discern any trend to significant difference between the hetero/homo groups by using questionnaires to elucidate any significant differences in girth, experience, object...
But I usually work with animals, so what I would do may not be feasible for people, and I'm still learning (just a humble masters student, after all), so feel free to tell me I'm spouting shit.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-16 11:05 pm (UTC)How is the conference going? And any more news of your ma? Hope she is doing better.
Hugs
no subject
Date: 2006-08-17 03:47 am (UTC)It's a good conference, great path-crossing with all sorts of folks. See you in Mexico City in 2008?