It'll be very interesting to see if the get funding to go to human trials. And more interesting if the trials prove effective.
HIV and Hepatitis-C (And to a small part B) are the only ones that kill with some great regularity and aren't curable. You survive HSV2, and can cure syphillis, chlamydia, and the other sexually transmitted dieseases with relatively common antibiotics.
It's end one of the plagues of the 20th and 21st centuries. The only thing that concerns me is that the drug companies make a hell of a lot of money selling the retroviral drugs and that gives me a bad feeling about the chances for success of the above mentioned trials.
ailuropoda melanoleuca torontonensis <chris.ambi...@utoronto.ca>, in article <ed338132-826f-4dc5-b510-bd2898f46...@d45g2000hsc.googlegroups.com>, dixit:
>isn't "HIV virus" sorta like "PIN number" or "one-year anniversary"?
Criticisms of the formation "PIN number" are really starting to bug me. Come on! How are you to distinguish between "pin" (and "pen") and "PIN number" in speech? What is so gosh-darned awful about disambiguation? (And don't even try to tell me that "PI number" would be better. We already have a pi number.)
> >isn't "HIV virus" sorta like "PIN number" or "one-year anniversary"?
> Criticisms of the formation "PIN number" are really starting to bug > me. Come on! How are you to distinguish between "pin" (and "pen") > and "PIN number" in speech?
By speaking with my accent, of course!
What does Chris think of PIN code? ;)
-- (*) of the royal duchy of city south and deansgate -www.davidhorne.net (email address on website) "If people think God is interesting, the onus is on them to show that there is anything there to talk about. Otherwise they should just shut up about it." -Richard Dawkins
> >[panda] > >isn't "HIV virus" sorta like "PIN number" or "one-year anniversary"? > [piglet] > Criticisms of the formation "PIN number" are really starting to bug > me. Come on! How are you to distinguish between "pin" (and "pen") > and "PIN number" in speech?
why do you need the "number" part of the phrase? how many times are you going to be using "PIN" (secret number-like signature) and "pin" (small sharp metal stick) in contexts where the two are likely to be confused? It's like people objecting to "Chair" as the title for the chief person in a department because there are several pieces of furniture by the same name in their office.
Shirley the phrases "key in your PIN and press OK" or "pin the label to the fabric" are clear enough, even when spoken (where you can't see the capital letters). I don't think too many people are going around stabbing needles (or pins, or other thin sharp objects) into automatic teller machines[*].
"number" in the "PIN number" context is redundant, just like "virus" in "HIV virus".
[*]and, for that matter, like "machine" in the phrase "ATM machine"
to quote someone else from this neck of the woods, "context, context, context"; it frequently clarifies the usage.
In article <ae2aef4c-abb1-48ce-ae4f-7bc6b975c...@k37g2000hsf.googlegroups.com>, ailuropoda melanoleuca torontonensis <chris.ambi...@utoronto.ca> wrote:
>> >[panda] >> >isn't "HIV virus" sorta like "PIN number" or "one-year anniversary"? >> [piglet] >> Criticisms of the formation "PIN number" are really starting to bug >> me. Come on! How are you to distinguish between "pin" (and "pen") >> and "PIN number" in speech?
>why do you need the "number" part of the phrase?
Because the point of talking is to use the language in the way that the people you are talking *to* use it so that they will understand you?
That's what has come into the language. Maybe in some ideal future it will be the way you think is logical, but that's not the way it is used now.
-- -- Ellen Evans If my life wasn't funny, it would j...@panix.com just be true, and that's unacceptable. Carrie Fisher
> >[me] > >why do you need the "number" part of the phrase? > [jeeves] > Because the point of talking is to use the language in the way that the > people you are talking *to* use it so that they will understand you?
when I use a phrase like "I had to go to the bank and change my PIN", people seem to understand what I'm saying. They might not where you live, but I can only speak for my own experience.
> That's what has come into the language. Maybe in some ideal future it > will be the way you think is logical, but that's not the way it is used > now.
Oh I understand that "PIN number" is a locution used by people. but, as I said, using the phrase without "number" seems to work too.
sorta like "it's our 5 month anniversary!" grates and makes no grammatical sense. I can interpret what it means, but I have no intention of using it myself.
>> >[me] >> >why do you need the "number" part of the phrase? >> [jeeves] >> Because the point of talking is to use the language in the way that the >> people you are talking *to* use it so that they will understand you?
>when I use a phrase like "I had to go to the bank and change my PIN", >people seem to understand what I'm saying. They might not where you >live, but I can only speak for my own experience.
>> That's what has come into the language. Maybe in some ideal future it >> will be the way you think is logical, but that's not the way it is used >> now.
>Oh I understand that "PIN number" is a locution used by people. but, >as I said, using the phrase without "number" seems to work too.
>sorta like "it's our 5 month anniversary!" grates and makes no >grammatical sense. I can interpret what it means, but I have no >intention of using it myself.
And nobody will atttempt to force you to do so. But at my advanced age I'm beginning to learn that there's not much point in fretting about such things, and even less point in whingeing about them. -- ---Robert Coren (co...@panix.com)------------------------------------ "After a recent trip to New York one French journalist remarked that leafing through a copy of _Forbes_ or _Fortune_ is like reading the operating manual of a strangely sanctimonious pirate ship." --Adam Gopnik
