Swine Flu and a Beautiful Event!

Hi everyone,

I was on Facebook earlier today and had a bit of a dialog with my sister in law, Connie, and some of her friends regarding inoculation against influenza. One of her friends said that it was a con job and all government propaganda, another indicated that getting the shot for children was a serious decision and required much reading and careful consideration before, err, something, what, oh, yeah, I know, PROTECTING YOUR CHILDREN!!!

OK - I have heard it all. Let's go through this. Vaccinations are a mechanism to trigger an immune response to a virus. They are a dead, weakened or simulated virus shell to which your T-Cell's react producing antibodies. This process is as natural as all get out. There is no "natural immunity" which is somehow better than "vaccinated immunity". A second concern is that vaccines are somehow harmful, causing something like autism. Well, I could debate this, not that it needs a debate - no evidence for this exists, but instead I will say the following:

"Jenny McCartney is a big fat idiot"

Plus she is wrong.

Plus there is no evidence for a link between autism and vaccination.

Plus she is an idiot, oh, sorry, I repeat myself when I am under stress...

There is no debate in the medical community here. Doctor's are sworn to "do no harm" and they are committed to this. Every Doctor you will meet will tell you to get the shot so do it, damn it. The alternative is well understood and well documented.

Let me lay that out for you:

• You are born, there is a 20% chance that you or your mother will die during the process. If she dies, chances are you go too.
• You may die during childhood. In fact if injury doesn't do it, disease, usually viral or bacterial based will do it
• If you make it to your child bearing years, say 15 or so, there is a 20% chance that you or your child will die in childbirth
• Then you die - in your late 30's or early 40's...

Each of these statements is true without modern nutrition and medicine. There is no "ancient knowledge", there are no "good old days". So take advantage - let your kids have the best chance of living full lives, get the flu shot and follow a rational immunization schedule.

Here endeth the pontification.

Now onto NASA....

Way cool!

More on Ares later....

Paul

Simple and limited message today...

Suzanne Somers is bad actress, from a stupid TV show, who has never done anything worthwhile in her life other than be a "celebrity". In other words, an evil idiot bastard. This "lady" comes up with lies by the mile - particularly with respect to Hormone Replacement Therapy.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33387002/ns/health-cancer/

I am too disgusted to comment further...

Bye!

Update from the Nation's Capital...

The Nigerian Nation, that is.

I am back in Abuja which I have often described as "Nigeria Lite" - a far easier place to function in that Lagos in many ways but, also, in some ways, not nearly as interesting as Lagos.

Nigeria has a bad reputation and there are some justifiable reasons for that: corruption, crime, poor infrastructure, etc. The funny thing is that it is not how poorly it functions that is of note, it is how it manages to function at all! This is a place of dynamic people who are among the greatest traders and natural business people I have ever met. Nigeria has more people and more oil than anywhere else in Africa and it is only 49 years away from colonial rule. Now, many Nigerians lament that things were better during the colonial era than today but, well, people always pine for the good old days and while Independence, military dictatorships and civil war have been part of the story since 1960, there are things that I must admit I like about Nigeria and the thing I like the most are the people. They are warm, friendly and very, very smart.

Anyway, heading out in two days and on my way for an annual sojourn to Las Vegas - yet another opportunity to not gamble in a place where they make gambling almost compulsory. Will update this space after that trip.

A note on the Ares 1X Mission - slight delay but we might still get the bird up this month:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33351268/ns/technology_and_science-space/

Great article from SpaceRef on the LCROSS impact including some nice pictures:

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=32609

While the visual impact of this was less than spectacular, the scientific gains will be important.

On the entertainment front, my son James just pointed me to a remake of the 1960's show The Prisoner. The trailer looks intriguing.



Well, got to go. Will update again before very long.

Paul

A story on healthcare - and 13 annoying things...

Hi everyone,

As you know I am something of a fan of the Canadian Healthcare system. We are truly blessed, no matter what our cousins to the south say, they just aren't even close...

A friend of mine, an older gentlemen, was playing tennis last week and suddenly felt some chest pains. He drove himself to the hospital, was diagnosed with a heart attack and admitted. Four hours later, from what I am told, he had received angioplasty, a stent installed and was looking at hospital release within 72 hours.

Wonderful! No bad side to this story - and it could be true in Canada or the US, Britain too, and any major European country. Great. The difference, of course, is that in the US, if this gentlemen didn't have insurance, like 47 million of his compatriots (1/6th of the population), he would be facing bankruptcy. Further, I doubt that any environment in the world could beat the four hour record for a procedure that didn't exist 20 years ago.

Cousins to the south, when your lying Republican politicians tell you that "we don't need a Canadian style Socialized Health Care System", apply to immigrate - we are actually pretty nice up here! Taxes are higher, to be sure, but look what you get - including an additional 3 years in life expectancy!

OK 13 annoying or, at least, unbelievable things. I am reading a book called 13 Things That Don't Make Sense by Michael Brooks. Here is the actual list:

• Most of the Universe is Missing
• The Pioneer Anomaly
• Varying Constants
• Cold Fusion
• Life
• Methane from Mars
• The Wow! Signal
• A Giant Virus
• Death
• Sex
• Free Will
• The Placebo Effect
• Homeopathy

This is a great book, read it, if nothing else will convince you of the advantage of natural explanation and the scientific method as opposed to supernatural explanations and "will of god" this will.

http://www.13thingsthatdontmakesense.com/default.aspx

Get better, Ed.

Paul

Something very sad...

Hi there

I have been following this case for a while and came across its sad and, I think, unjust conclusion today.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/091006/health/health_us_prayer_death

I don't know if they are stupid or brainwashed - they certainly are "holier than thou". It is clear from the article that, even at the end, the father doesn't get it that he did something wrong. Now, as the bloggerets out there know, I am not particularly tolerant of these things, but in this case I have to worry about the other children in this family. The father is, err, unrepentant and clearly too stupid to breathe, doesn't say much about the mother but, hell, she married the moron.

Sometimes I despair.

And then something like this comes along to make my day. Thanks Rachel!





OK, last thing for this update - LCROSS, LCROSS, LCROSS - coming to the Lunar south pole in just over 48 hours!

http://lcross.arc.nasa.gov/


Back at you from Nigeria in a couple of days!

Paul