Scientific illiteracy all the rage among the glitterati

[jundp 191]

I'm a science nerd

do you own one of these?

OMG I found one of those in one of P's boxes.

[Dr. Obvious 49]

God, this whole "vaccines cause autism" ####### is so ridiculous, not to mention dangerous. I was pretty ashamed to see Obama fall for it. No scientifically credible study has shown a connection between these vaccines and autism, yet this myth continues to pervade because the media and our politicians keeps lending it credibility.

I agree.

I also. It's just a bunch of garbage to make the parents feel good about being so 'educated' and about them 'sticking it to the man'. It was fun when I was pregnant in Germany and got my rubella titer back as no longer immune (MMR is notorious for wearing off in shorter times than cited). The same day I read about a pair of large rubella outbreaks in cities about 40km away. In Germany, outbreaks as a result of anti-vax nonsense are commonplace. For those who don't know, congenital rubella syndrome is no laughing matter. As soon as she was born, I got caught up on those vaccinations and will be forever annoyed with those who think themselves too cool to vaccinate their children. I think it is sick that they want their children to suffer needlessly. My brother and I had only mild cases of chickenpox. It sucked. My sister had a 3-4 week hellish ordeal where she needed to be drugged to sleep and screamed all day at 3 years old from the pain. She is still covered in scars. Harmless childhood disease my azz.

[NickD 203]

Did listen to another PBS call in program where mind altering prescription drugs are on a huge rise, to condense an hour long program into one short sentence, key problem is that kids either need love and attention, or a kick in the butt, or to dump really boring teachers, but much easier to give the kid a pill.

Those pills will have very negative future consequences for many kids.

No time to play around with a slide rule or an abacus today, too darn slow, though I proved four significant digit accuracy is possible with a slide rule. Most dedicated engineering programs do the math for you, but only if they are differentiable or integrable. That really narrows the field, still requires good judgment and testing, the consequences are product liability laws. US Patent office doesn't accept any patent based on math theory, need data and actual real life tested proof. Get with it.