I'm not nearly a good enough writer to make my words mean something before an ongoing holocaust. Luckily, others are better prepared:
• This site is down, but for each visit, Bristol-Meyers-Squibb will donate $1 to AIDS prevention. Be nice if they donated some more pharmaceuticals, or hosted the site on servers robust enough not to fail, but they didn't. Give it a try, though. Every bit helps.
• Shakespeare's Sister has a beautiful post, including information on transmission.
• Jen notes that this isn't a foreign disease -- it still murders millions in America.
• Christy Hardin Smith details the heartbreaking intersection of AIDS and rape.
• Kaiser has reams of information on the disease, its prevalence, and our capacity for combating it.
During the minute or so it took you to read this post, five human beings died from AIDS. If you can, donate to the Global Fund, so that number drops. That, if you can afford it, is the serious way to mark World AIDS Day.