A car might roll off the line every 60 seconds, but each individual car takes ~20 hours to make. And that only works because they are all the same with only superficial differences.

No, because 3D printers weren't developed until the 80s. :)
=Smidge=

So is DEATH the only level of harm you can think of that should be avoided? Is that really the threshold below which you don't care anymore?

Going back to the food service employee analogy: It probably won't kill anyone if an employee doesn't wash their hands or use gloves...
=Smidge=

Not all vaccinations last your whole life.

=Smidge=

Any disease that they could reasonably be expected to come into contact with and communicate to others.

So yes, that includes flu shots. That also includes MMR, Diphtheria, shingles (if you're over 60), pertussis, and pneumo/meningococcal vaccines.

Again, it's not about risk to YOU, but risk to others. Taking steps to protect others is what "personal responsibility" is all about.
=Smidge=

Sorry, nobody has the right to endanger other people through irresponsibility.

You're free to do what you wish with your body, but if your job is interacting with thousands of people every day - especially children - then you should get vaccinated so you do not become a vector of disease. It doesn't matter one bit if YOU get sick or not. This isn't about you. It's about protecting the people you come into contact with.

It's basically the same level of common sense as employees washing hands and wearing gloves when handling food. It's not about keeping the employee's hands clean.
=Smidge=

At which point you know about it, and can therefore be upset about it. Being aware of something is a necessary precondition to having any emotional response to it.

Otherwise it's called paranoia.
=Smidge=

It's very, very difficult to get upset over things you don't know about.

Doesn't stop some people from trying, though...
=Smidge=

Wait, if he's not up for re-election... could that mean he's genuinely interested in engaging younger audiences?

The implications boggle the mind!
=Smidge=

I came here to moderate, but unfortunately slashdot's bug initiation team has made it so I either have to have teeny tiny print or a side scroll. Hey, slashdot, we aren't all using thirty inch monitors! Jesus, even the newspapers (most are the worst sites on the web) don't fuck up this bad.

Really, slashdot, is Dice trying to get rid of you? This is really lame. You really should hang your heads in shame.

See you at Soylent News.

Now, someone else with points please mod me offtopic. Thanks.

ASCII is fine if it's only going to be published at slashdot, but conversion is a pain in the ass I shouldn't put up with.

It seems that slashdot no longer fixes bugs, but are trying to introduce more. Today I have a choice between a tiny font and a side scroll. LAME!

I think the writing was on the wall over a year ago when they tried to shove Beta down our throats.

I miss Taco, the place worked when he was here.

This is why I've been pushing to argue in favor of reducing fossil fuel use not from an environmental point of view, but from an economic one. People can bury their heads in the sand when it comes to science, but people always listen when money is involved.

Even though the US imports about a third of our petroleum, that's still equivalent to hundreds of billions of dollars per year leaving our economy. If we transition to renewable energies, that money stays around a bit longer.

Renewable energies might have a larger up-front capital cost (but not by much, and it's getting better every day), but the long term costs are overwhelmingly favorable.

With the current crash in oil prices it should be clear that our economy is in the hands of foreign interests. We are hostages to international petroleum markets. Let's develop domestic sources to free ourselves from foreign influence. Remember: There's no reason why oil couldn't have been this cheap all along, and the price only went down right when we were posed to start reducing imports in favor of domestic natural gas production. We're being played!

(Oh, and if we happen to mitigate the environmental damage we're doing in the process and avoid global catastrophe, I guess that'll be a bonus...)
=Smidge=

No, but he DID speak. This theory is the dumbest theory I've seen coming from someone who should know better for years; it's already been disproven before the dumbass thought of it.

Other apes have language. Prairie dogs have language. Even dogs have language, even though the only three things they say are "I'm hurt", "I'm lonely" and "get off my property before I eat you!" Previous STUDIES have shown this.

Why do these educated morons think vocal cords evolved for in the first place??

Also, the summary is likewise retarded: "If there's one thing that distinguishes humans from other animals, it's our ability to use language."

We may use it better than other species, but this is unproven; whales and dolphins may have more sophisticated language than us, but we can't tell because we can't understand them. It may well be that we're the only species to have abstractions, but that's not proven, either.

Tools aren't even human-only; birds and other animals have been spotted using tools. So what makes us different?

Music, art, and humor. No other species laughs (Hyenas' "laughs" aren't from humor); no other species make art (the elephant doesn't count; do you really think he knows what's going on?), and no other species makes music -- and no, bird "song" isn't music, it's speech (that the idiots coming up with this absurd theory don't understand).