Vaccination saves lives

Stop Antivaxxers Now – Phil Plait

Vaccination saves lives. Not just the lives of those who get vaccinated, but those around them who can’t because they’re too young, immunocompromised, or have other medical reasons that they can’t.

(If you’re wondering why this is on an astronomy site, it’s because the author makes a point of promoting science education and fighting against pseudoscience across the board.)

Originally shared by Vineet KewalRamani

Vaccination as altruism

There are people in society (the immunocompromised, newborns, elderly) vulnerable to deadly viral infections that the rest of us can easily prevent through vaccination.

But if 75 percent to 95 percent of the population around us is vaccinated for a particular disease, the rest are protected through what is called herd immunity. In other words, your measles vaccine protects me [the immunocompromised NY Times Op-Ed writer] against the measles.

Obviously people will first act in their own interests, but if there are no scientifically credible data showing harm by particular vaccination, and benefits are clear to the vaccinated and also to society at large, why not do it to help protect another?

For the Herd’s Sake, Vaccinate

Problems with SOPA

“if you’re not breaking the law, you have nothing to fear from SOPA.”

Really?

Feds Falsely Censor Popular Blog For Over A Year, Deny All Due Process, Hide All Details…

And this is under the current law, without the additional tools SOPA provides.

Also, check out CloudFlare’s article about how they already have to deal with people sending bogus DMCA complaints in order to get the data needed to launch DDoS attacks. With SOPA, why bother to launch the DDoS, when you can get the law to do your dirty work for you?

Even the pro-copyright-enforcement Heritage Foundation warns about unintended consequences of the law. It doesn’t matter if the law is only intended to go after rogue sites if it’s written in a way that applies to legit sites as well, and it doesn’t matter who’s targeted if the solutions imposed result in major collateral damage.

Consider also that the “techno-elite” you’re referring to are the people and companies who built and run the Internet, and includes companies like Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Mozilla, PayPal and Wikipedia. Not just their users, but the companies. It seems they might know something about how it works, and how this law would affect it.

“I just don’t see opposing intellectual property protection as doing the right thing.”

Again, you’re falling into that second trap, where “something must be done” implies “this thing must be done.” There are other ways to protect IP than by passing SOPA or Protect IP in its current form.

On Reddit

I’ve been debating whether to move an expiring domain name over to GoDaddy

I’ve been debating whether to move an expiring domain name over to GoDaddy, where I have several others, or renew it where it is.

This answers that question.

Go Daddy’s Position on SOPA | Go Daddy Blog | Go Daddy Support

Comments on Google+:

Wayne: I love how “Comments are closed.” at the bottom. lol

Me: There are some great logical fallacies, too, like “something must be done, therefore we must do this.”

Opposition to SOPA is not all pro-piracy

Opposition to SOPA is not all pro-piracy, no matter what the bill’s sponsors claim. Even the pro-copyright Heritage Foundation, which liked the idea of suing P2P users, is opposed to SOPA because of its unintended consequences.

At least we hope they’re unintended.

Pro-copyright group takes SOPA to task

When defending intellectual property rights, the influential Heritage Foundation often sounds like it’s channeling Hollywood lobbyists. But not when it comes to the Stop Online Piracy Act. Read this…

I’m amazed that Facebook still hasn’t fixed the bug where, when you attach a link…

I’m amazed that Facebook still hasn’t fixed the bug where, when you attach a link to a Blogspot post, it pulls in the first comment instead of the post itself for the summary. Are they waiting for Google to implement OpenGraph? Does it only apply to certain themes and I’m just unlucky about which blogs I read?

Or is it one of those situations where no one’s actually reported it as a bug, because everyone assumes someone must have noticed, like the apocryphal story of the house burning down across the street from the fire station because no one called it in?

Today, I watched a lunar eclipse, sunrise, and sunset. Probably a first.

Sunset over the ocean.

Today, I watched a lunar eclipse, sunrise, and sunset. Probably a first.

Venus & Jupiter just popped into view. It would’ve been nice to add Mercury too, but it’s below the horizon.

Also: I really should’ve brought gloves.

If I’d thought about it, I could have gone back to the spot where I watched the sunrise this morning to catch the moonrise for full symmetry. Oh, well.

On Facebook

Lia BrownCool! I don’t think it was visible here…and it was so cold last night I wouldn’t have had much patience anyway…

Dec 10, 2011, 7:38 PM

Kelson VibberYeah, I think you might have been able to see the beginning of it in your area, but not much else.

Dec 10, 2011, 11:06 PM

Wendi HeckathornWhere did you watch it at?

Dec 11, 2011, 2:10 AM

Kelson VibberI watched most of the eclipse from home (well, across the street), then went down to an area of Redondo Beach where a street runs along a bluff above the beach (Esplanade & Avenue A). I tried to watch the moon set while eclipsed, but the sky was too light by then to really see it at that point, so I drove over to an east-facing hill to watch the sunrise. I came back to Esplanade at the end of the day to watch the sunset.

Dec 11, 2011, 11:25 PM

Wendi HeckathornThat’s awesome! I’m bummed I missed it, but I did enjoy seeing the beautiful full moon. Thanks for sharing the gorgeouspics you took. 🙂

Dec 12, 2011, 12:36 AM

That’s some serious wind

Whew. That’s some serious wind. Saw a bright flash off to the north as I parked at TJs. No rain, so I’m guessing instead of lightning, it’s power lines sparking somewhere.

I think these are the first Santa Anas since we moved. In a way, it’s oddly reassuring. I guess after the summer was so different from what I’m used to (even cold at times), it’s nice to know that fall weather is a bit more familiar. October heat wave, November winds, etc.

Why did I just uninstall Shareaholic?

Because the extension added contextual advertising to the PayPal login screen. That means (a) I can’t trust my browsing, even on HTTPS sites, to be private (yeah, I know DNS and Chrome’s anti-malware filter already get this info), and (b) I can’t trust secure sites to not be modified as long as the extension is installed.