Planet Xdroop

Shared by David
Exactly what it says it is.

Kitteh haz a smart mouf on him.

Exactly what it says it is.

xdroop: I don't feel tardy. #VanHalen

xdroop: Every time. Nice white shirt and I spill something on it.

xdroop: Overtaking, emphasis on the "over": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzFgGcfgjZ0&feature=player_embedded

xdroop: SO, BASICALLY, IT'S LIKE A CONTENT DISTRIBUTION NETWORK FOR PARKING TICKETS! http://itsthisforthat.com/

Interesting note of the weekend: straight-line speed does not solve all problems:

On a side note, both Force India cars at Spa were still 6km/h quicker down the straight than any of the title contenders.

xdroop: Good news from the school. Daring to hope again.

xdroop: @snobiwan I envy you that.

xdroop: @snobiwan Permanent? Yes. Positive?... depends on which side of the desk you are sitting on.

xdroop: "... fanboys with little insight to give..." <sigh>

xdroop: Oooh. A "Nike" power outage.

I have long beaten the drum against the antivaxxers: people who falsely claim that vaccines cause autism, or are loaded with toxins. These groups are loud, in many cases vicious, and all have one thing in common: they are wrong, wrong, wrong. The evidence is overwhelming that vaccines don’t cause autism, for example. We know they don’t.

Despite that, it’s clear that the emotional arguments of antivax groups have some traction among people, especially new parents who are understandably concerned and nervous about their children’s health. We here on the reality side of things can talk facts, statistics, and evidence all we want, but to penetrate through to reason we sometimes have to make our arguments more visceral. More demonstrative.

And that’s why I loved the recent episode of Penn & Teller’s show about vaccines. They used facts and figures, but they also use humor and emotion, and it’s really effective. In a brilliant move, they opened their show with a fantastic demonstration of just why we need to vaccinate our kids [very NSFW language]:

I love it! That is precisely right: even if vaccines caused the woes antivaxxers claim — and as Penn says clearly, they don’t — by sheer numbers it’s clear that vaccinations are still critical.

I can’t stop people from listening to the nonsense the antivaxxers spew, but I can hope that the more we talk about it — and the more we show it — the more people will realize that the antivaxxers are not just wrong, but doing something unconscionable: putting our children’s lives at risk.

---

Related posts:

- Immunization FAQ and some nice stories
- How safe is Gardasil, and a new antivax FAQ
- Antivaxxers take note: vaccines stop polio outbreak in Tajikistan
- BREAKING: Australian antivax group slammed for "misleading and inaccurate information"
- The vaccine song

xdroop: Turns out I don't have carrier pigeon service. Sorry.

xdroop: Have I mentioned that RIM changed all the connectors into the new Blackberry so that NONE of six cables I already own fit any more? Nice.

xdroop: Phone battery died. Send urgent messages via carrier pigeon for the next two hours.

xdroop: @mWare only for very low values of "interesting".

xdroop: @mWare you get kicked out of the most interesting places.

But more importantly, Alex likes Bob-TV.

Reasons why Bob-TV is better than The Wiggles:

• Although they are both music shows, the Bob-TV is better music.
• Having Bob-TV on in the background is like having the radio on from when I was going to school.
• Most importantly it takes Alex three hours to watch all three Bob-TV episodes in the PVR rather than only the one hour required to exhaust the Wiggles episodes in the PVR.

One of the current crop of Bob-TV episodes in our PVR includes Rush's Tom Sawyer in them.

xdroop: @snobiwan me, because I still have a 1998 Mazda 626 LX V6 for sale.

xdroop: "In my experience, when programmers and system administrators fight, it's because they're bored." http://tinyurl.com/39gnasd

xdroop: Welcome to hell. Here's your secured-beyond-useless KDE login session.