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Roald Dahl on Vaccination
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Author:
Marc |
Date: 2009-06-19 |
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I am not usually one for celebrity anecdotes, but I thought this 1986 letter by Roald Dahl (courtesy of the Millenium Project) says quite a bit about the potential consequences of antivaccination quackery. While the bugbear du jour of the antivaxxers is the so-called MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine, they actively rail against all other vaccines as well. I bring this up in view of a recent addition to the antivaxxer body count (from Phil Plait): In Australia, this movement is taking root as well. Calling the alarm to this, a TV program in Oz called "Sunday Night" aired an excellent exposé of what happens when parents don’t vaccinate their kids: they risk their children’s lives, and those of others. In the case shown on the TV show, a four-week-old baby, Dana McCaffery, died of whooping cough. This innocent infant wasn’t eligible for vaccination yet, but the lack of herd immunity — that region has lower-than-average vaccination rates — sealed her fate. The fact that other parents didn’t vaccinate their kids gave that little girl a death sentence. This is disturbing on a number of levels. You can see where the anti-government kooks find common ground with anti-science kooks and freedom-of-choice kooks. It is spun up into a toxic maelstrom of pseudoscientific antivaccination rhetoric at an ever-increasing volume, resulting in critically low vaccination rates, particularly in the U.K. and Australia. If you wonder about what pertussis sounds like, visit doitforyourbaby.com and have a listen.
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Comments: 0 |
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Aerodynamics of Oblate Spheroid, etc.
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Author:
Marc |
Date: 2009-06-12 |
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Below is a document I will be using for a worst-case analysis of risk due to impacting inert intact vehicles: AERODYNAMICS OF A SPHERE AND AN OBLATE SPHEROID
FOR MACH NUMBERS FROM 0.6 TO 10.5 INCLUDING SOME
EFFECTS OF TEST CONDITIONS
M. LEROY SPEARMAN
AND
DOROTHY O. BRASWELL Like many useful papers, NASA has posted it online. It can be found at this address.
Another interesting link is the Aviation Formulary which contains a few equations I have used in coordinate transformation and other types of software.
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Comments: 0 |
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Doing God's Work
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Author:
Marc |
Date: 2009-06-12 |
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I came across this piece at The Skeptic's Dictionary regarding the attribution of things that happen to a God: God's lesson plan this week also included the mid-ocean crash of an Air France passenger plane carrying 228 people. Apparently, the plane went down in a vicious thunderstorm, a known divine method to remind us of His power and keep us in line. His continued support for trouble with Israel and its enemies reinforces the message that God loves a struggle, and nothing seems to please Him more than giving His creatures a chance to overcome major obstacles. Another example along these lines comes from the revelation of the arrest of a married couple in their 70s charged with spying for Cuba for three decades. It is relatively rare that Robert Carroll goes on a full-on tirade like that one. The whole article is worth a read. But fair warning, it may angry up the blood...
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Comments: 0 |
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Betty Bowers on
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Author:
Marc |
Date: 2009-06-08 |
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I found this on Bartcop:
Damned homos.
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Comments: 2 |
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On Consequences and Cowardice
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Author:
Marc |
Date: 2009-05-22 |
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What should we read into the existence of a debate on torture in the United States of America?
I once felt the sort of patriotism about this nation that is so perfectly espoused by the 1984 movie Red Dawn. It took me many years to really understand the nature of the difference between the U.S. Constitution and the governmental mandates of other nations.
I can't even finish this, whilst mostly sober. I fear that tackling this issue will require something of a higher proof and in higher volume than I could manage this evening. I have to get up rather early tomorrow for some important errands.
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Comments: 2 |
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Curve Fitting
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Author:
Marc |
Date: 2009-05-17 |
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For a simple guide to basic curve fitting, this page seems like a good resource.
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Comments: 0 |
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A
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Author:
Marc |
Date: 2009-05-06 |
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Comments: 1 |
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