<...Discovering two unknown continents didn't hurt either.

Hey general public! Space travel! Hint! Hint!

(Preaching to the choir on this board)

Africa may be having its own version of the Black Death right now, except it's called AIDS, and it's killing off the young in disproportionate numbers, unlike the Black Death, an equal-opportunity killer.

We're damn lucky it's been as hard to spread in this country as it has, or we might be in the same boat. AIDS is the very first lethal contagious virus that has somehow gained the protection of being the very first Politically Correct disease, and we were, and are, unable to use any of the normal public health methods of containing it. Hell, we couldn't even close the bathhouses in San Francisco when the epidemic started. They lost a lot of good people around here rather than face the concept that indiscriminately screwing anything that walks--the promiscuity that they labeled as an important part of "gay culture"--was not only immoral, but deadly. And it was the promiscuity that killed, not the homosexuality.

If "gay culture" had supported monogamy*, the AIDS epidemic would never have begun in this country.

*Gay culture for men, that is. Lesbian culture seems to be already strongly monogamous, which probably says more about the basic differences between men and women.

"What does a lesbian bring to a second date?"

"A U-Haul"