Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day and possibly the first day of a new war.
I got a lot done today that I've needed to do for a while, with the house to myself. Paperwork and such, nothing exciting.
About the most riveting thing that happened was checking out the level of ink in my pen - almost gone. I've never used up a pen entirely before losing it. I know this seems like a ridiculous milestone, but it just goes to show how important the simplest things are here.
In working on the HIV/AIDS curriculum, there are a lot of tough decisions to make. In the last few years, scientists have begun to agree that HIV was born in Africa. But saying that HIV started here, went to America where it killed hundreds of thousands (and continues to, but has been contained), then an outbreak in Africa happened after Africa repulsed colonial powers, is very hard to get people to believe. Preaching this version of "out of Africa" doesn't help your credibility as a source of information and can create hostility.
So saying that scientists aren't sure - which is true of ANY theory - is true (yet mildly deceptive) and safe. Maybe when the pandemic has subsided, we'll know for sure - but it's really inconsequential right now.
Peace
John
