This is so cool; what a great idea!

Teens Invent Condoms That Change Color When They Detect STDs

These kids aren’t just all right, they’re brilliant. A group of schoolchildren have invented a condom that changes color when it comes in contact with a sexually transmitted disease (STD). Safe to say, this isn’t the glow many of us are anticipating between the sheets.

The condom, called S.T.EYE, won the health category at the TeenTech Awards in London, which is an annual competition that aims to inspire 11- to 16-year-olds to realize “their true potential and the real opportunities available in the contemporary STEM workplace.”

S.T.EYE would theoretically have molecules in the rubber that would glow when it comes into contact with different pathogens. The condom would glow green for chlamydia, yellow for herpes, purple for human papillomavirus (HPV) and blue for syphilis. The conversation that would follow would certainly have the culprit blushing bright red.

Not sure how practical it will be to put into place, but it is a very interesting concept.

Reason #6 for why I did not have children

This European commercial should be shown to every teenager contemplating unprotected sex. According to YKWIA, who showed it to me, it was banned in the US. Pity...



Oh, and just in case you're interested, it really is on my list:

1. I did not want to be entangled with my ex-husband for the rest of my life.
   
2. I am a wuss when it comes to pain and labour scares the daylights out of me.
   
3. I do not want to pass on traits such as diabetes and depression to anyone.
   
4. Granted, the above relate to biological children. But even with adoption, there remains the fact that I am, being an only child with little child care experience, rather afraid of children. Even as a child I related better with the adults (see 6 for why). I like children in theory and love many things relating to children, but when confronted by a child, especially one who is not of an age to play with, such as the very young or teenagers, I don't know how to relate. I'd be a better children's author than children's librarian or mother.
   
5. I would constantly worry and obsess about my children neurotically without letting them breathe and giving them space to grow.
   
6. Children are holy terrors, especially as toddlers and teenagers.
   
7. The world has quite enough population, thank you, without me adding to it.
   

:)

Well, it will be pretty dark down there at McMurdo, and you've got to keep warm somehow.

Antarctica base gets 16,500 condoms before darkness

(Aerial photo courtesy of the United States Geological Survey, found at the USGS Newsroom. On that site you can click on the photo and enlarge it.) [A hint to our Gamemaster who might want to show it to the other players, since their characters are currently living in the shadow of Mt Erebus, trying to save the world.]