Sex, drugs and HIV – lets get rational

For this post I've chosen the TEDtalk of Elizabeth Pisani. She's an epidemiologist specializing in HIV and author of the book "Wisdom of Whores: Bureaucrats, Brothels and the Business of AIDS".
The talk is called "Sex, drugs and HIV – let's get rational". It was published in April 2010 and is about 19 minutes long (on the TED website).

Summary

The video deals with HIV and how "rational" decisions by drug addicts, politics and partners of those affected influence the HIV rate. Elizabeth Pisani also explains how likely a sexual transmission of HIV is, which is surprisingly much less likely than one would think. She also points out how successful therapy affects people's perception and way of dealing with HIV.

Vocabulary

• to transmit a disease

transmit
transitive verb | trans-mit
medical definition: to pass, transfer or convey from one person or place to another
noun: transmission

• to expose oneself to a disease

expose
transitive verb | ex-pose
medical definition: to make liable or accessible to something (as a disease or environmental conditions) that may have detrimental (=harmful) effect <children exposed to diphtheria>

• to provide national health service

national health service
noun | na-tion-al health ser-vice
a system that provides free health care for everyone and is paid for by taxes

Personal Reaction

This TEDtalk was rather compelling because it provided a more intimate view on HIV and AIDS. It also showed how national health services related to the rate of HIV infection. How political decisions in general can affect this rate.

The correlation between the amount of therapy and infections was quite intriguing as well. Diseases that are under control extremely well are rather likely to rise again. This is mainly due to the fact that will not be as visible. Therefore, people will lose their fear of infection and start to neglect protecting themselves. In some cases, the drawbacks might also simply outweigh the advantages. Something that can also be noticed in the recent discussions about vaccination.

Presentation Technique

Elizabeth Pisani presents her talk really well in my opinion. She speaks slowly and clearly. There is some interaction with the audience and keeps eye contact. Even though she talks about medical issues such as the transmission of HIV, she makes it easy to understand for people who are no specialists in this field.

Pisani uses a lot of humor in her presentation – at the beginning to catch the audience's attention and later to keep it. She also uses slang quite generously, sometimes simply making extremely straight forward statements ("She is a chick with a dick.") This way, she manages to keep the audience from getting bored. It also helps to get the attention of those whose mind has already started wandering back.  Oh, and she chose a really catchy title. What good is a presentation that nobody listens to?

The beginning of her presentation already caught my attention. She started with a quote, which she then revealed as her own in a humorous way. The thing that really spiked my interest though, was when she explained that it was only partially true and she would argue against it. From then on I just really wanted to know how this would turn out.

Spaghetti alla Puttanesca

There’s one dish that I really like to cook because it’s really tasty and ridiculously easy to prepare at the same time. It doesn’t require many ingredients – mostly things you have at home anyways – and it only takes about 20 minutes to prepare. Perfect for students, basically. So, here’s the recipe for Spaghetti alla Puttanesca (spaghetti whore-style):

Ingredients

10 anchovy fillets

olive oil

2 fresh red chilies

1 can of peeled tomatoes

3 or 4 cloves of garlic

¾ of a small glass of black olives

capers

salt

pepper

oregano

fresh basil

Spaghetti

Grated cheese

You could also replace the olive oil and chilies with some spicy oil. That’s how I cook it usually. Also, I ran out of spaghetti, so it’s Penne alla Puttanesca in the pictures.

Directions

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil, add the pasta and cook according to the packet instructions.

Chop or press the garlic and the chilies, cut the olives into little pieces and heat about 5 tbsp. of the oil in a frying pan over medium heat.

Once the oil is hot, place about 10 pieces of the anchovies and the garlic into the pan. Add the chili as well if you want a spicier dish. Make sure that the oil isn’t to hot, otherwise the garlic will burn really quickly and the anchovy will not "melt".

Once the garlic starts to turn golden, add the peeled tomatoes and let them simmer for a while. Then, add the herbs, and some salt and pepper after taste.

All that's left to do now, is to add the olives and some of the capers. Let it simmer for a few more minutes and you're basically finished. Just mix the sauce under the pasta (which you should drain off first, of course) and it's ready to serve with some grated cheese.

So, if you want to try out the recipe, have fun and enjoy your meal!

Who am I?

Hi, guys!

My name is Magdalena, but most people just call me Magda. I grew up in a rather small place near Klagenfurt, where my mom owns an inn. Shorty after I was born and my dad turned his parents’ attic into our apartment, she decided that taking over my grandmother’s inn was the perfect thing to do. She could work, but could still be by my side in a matter of minutes. So naturally, I spend quite sometime in the inn as well. I would play with some of the guests or wait on them – as good as you can as a four-year-old.

Since I didn’t only grow up in a house constantly full of people but a huge part of my family only lives a ten-minute walk away, I love being surrounded by people.  It’s something I appreciate about living in a student residence: You almost always can find somebody to play or cook with or just sit down and talk to. Unfortunately, I won’t have that privilege much longer since I’m about to move into my very own flat.

Inspiration for my own flat

On my weekends home I’m usually busy with meeting all of my family members, trying to get all my laundry done and often also helping out in the inn. That’s also when I stop reading for a few days. Terry Pratchett, who unfortunately passed away yesterday, was one of my favourite authors alongside Neil Gaiman and Oscar Wilde and I’m still on Mission: Finish Discwold series.

Ride in a gondola-Summer 2014

I’m not going to bore you by writing about how much I love traveling or languages. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t study TKK.  I'm not even going to write about Venice, which is my favourite city. I hope you still got to know me a bit better. Have a nice weekend!

Magdalena