​Love is supposed to be everlasting. Unfortunately for many, the only permanent thing to come out of a relationship is an incurable sexually transmitted disease.

And that's why Cyrus Sullivan, of Portland, Ore., claims that he runs STD Carriers Disease Control and Prevention Services, a website that lists claimed and confirmed carriers by their names, locations, descriptions, and sometimes their photos.

The database is completely open to the public -- you don't have to login to browse the listings, and many of the recently added carriers' pics are displayed prominently on the site's front page. Users submit photos freely. There are about 1,500 listings.

From the workmanlike design and sluggish flash slideshow and bizarre comparisons between Pearl Harbor's "hostile Asian men" and STD awareness, you might get the impression that Sullivan, who also runs an online reputation-management business, operates with a tongue-in-cheek M.O.

And you'd be wrong: Sullivan is for real and his work (for better or for worse) is heartfelt, -- and he has updated his site just in time for Valentine's Day.

From the mission statement: "It is our goal that by promoting the sharing of information that we can ultimately protect you health from dangerous diseases while protecting your civil liberties and providing quality entertainment."

Oh boy.

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• ​Tina Fey responded to Tracy Morgan's homophobic rant and his apology, saying, "I'm glad to hear that Tracy apologized for his comments. Stand-up comics may have the right to 'work out' their material in its ugliest and rawest form in front of an audience, but the violent imagery of Tracy's rant was disturbing to me at a time when homophobic hate crimes continue to be a life-threatening issue for the GLBT Community." [Deadline]
• Two days after the Brighton Beach shooting that killed a teenage girl and injured four men, the police investigation continues into what happened and why. Cops believe that the shooting arose from a fight on the beach, and that the victim, 16-year-old Tysha Jones, was not involved. [NYT]

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​Today marks the 30th anniversary of the first formal report of the disease that came to be known as AIDS. The disease baffled doctors and public health officials when it first appeared; described in some places as a "gay cancer," the HIV virus took three years to be identified and much longer than that for doctors to develop drugs that would effectively tamp down symptoms without debilitating patients.

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​An unnamed man in New Mexico has the dubious honor of being the first in the U.S. to be diagnosed with bubonic plague, a/k/a, "the Black Death," this year. Of all the luck! Via NPR, the man, 58, was hospitalized for a week after showing up at a New Mexico emergency room with a high fever and lower abdomen and groin pain. In related news, bubonic plague still exists: Avoid fleas and rock squirrels of the West, as well as prairie dogs and rats, all of which have been known to pass plague to humans. The good news is, the man is doing fine now.

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​Researchers have discovered that Armadillos in the country's southern states carry the bacteria that cause leprosy. The Independent reports that "the nine-banded armadillo is one of the few indigenous mammals that harbour the bacteria that cause the often-disfiguring disease." This news breaking on the same day of the royal wedding has not gone unnoticed, and now a world that was enchanted by their nuptials just 12 hours ago fear for William and Kate's health and safety, lest they are besieged by a pack of leprotic armadillos.More >>

via ICanHazCheezburger.com

​Since we care about the fate of adorable animals in trouble, and since raccoons can, given relative youth and the right lighting, be considered somewhat adorable (especially if they're not tipping over your garbage cans or swinging through your yard Tarzan-style to ruin your carefully tended hydrangeas), we feel it's our duty to report, via the New York Times' City Room blog, that a raccoon found dead in Prospect Park last week has turned out to be rabid. Oh, dear.

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​While "Whooping Cough" sounds like something you catch on The Oregon Trail right before your oxen die of dysentery from trying to cross the river, it's actually a deadly cold that's currently killing babies in California right now at a rate not seen since 1955. Why's this happening, and how do you know you have "pertussis"? Fear-mongering, after the jump.

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Mmmmmm

​It's like your mother always said: You don't know if you like it until you try it. Think about how much you enjoy brussels sprouts now. And they sort of smell like pee, too! BoingBoing was kind enough to point us in the direction of the special Gilpin Family single malt blend, which is not sold, but given away "as a public health statement." You know what else makes a statement? The taste of this stuff. It's gorgeous. And easy to find! If piss is not an emerging market then that means Kevin Costner was doing it wrong and that's just not possible. Follow along as we sip this goodness.

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​West Nile -- it almost sounds like something that should be on VH1's I Love the '90s -- but it's still among us and it can be dreadful, especially for those on either side of the age spectrum. The disease, first found in the U.S. in 1999, is at its highest levels in New York since 2000. There have been 13 confirmed human cases so far this season, and the risk extends until October.More >>

​Two workers in Greenpoint have contracted tuberculosis, Brooklyn Paper is reporting, cuing mass panic in northern Brooklyn and a mass exodus to Poland. Well, not quite yet. Still, it's not a comforting thought -- especially in light of the city's ongoing bedbug problem. We're dirty, dirty people. But tuberculosis? Maybe this really is the new Great Depression.

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