"Load of bullhit". "Outer fucking space". Clearly, sir, you are an orator beyond my wildest dreams. Anyway, check: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2222.1988.tb02872.x/abstract :

No, it wasn't. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immunity_(medical) and search for "placenta". There is an open question (unless someone can point me to some studies) whether vaccine induced immunity results in passive immunity as well as infection induced immunity. This should be testable with the current population in the UK. So far as I'm aware, it hasn't.

Where exactly did I say that? I am suggesting that measles is not - and in the west in say the 50s and 60s was not - the killer it is portrayed as. My preference would be to drop multiple vaccines; to vaccinate for measles later that the current 12-15 months; and to vaccinate against mumps and rubella later as needed based on an antibody test.

Referenced in an other reply above: http://www.healthsentinel.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2654:united-states-disease-death-rates&catid=55:united-states-deaths-from-diseases&Itemid=55 .... note that almost the entire drop occurs *before* mass multiple vaccination. Public vaccination may have been around for over a century; mass multiple vaccination has not. My point was that we *may* have reached the point where the costs of "improved health" outweigh the benefits. My views - not a pet theory - is based on reading, discussions with my wife (a biologist with experience in immune research), and logical deduction. I'm quite aware that correlation does not imply causation. But, hey, why bother with rational argument when you can fling out a few ill-thought-out points and a bunch of insults.

Note that I mentioned "the West". For measles death rates in the USA see http://www.healthsentinel.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2654:united-states-disease-death-rates&catid=55:united-states-deaths-from-diseases&Itemid=55 ... (I assume similar rates in western Europe), note that the rate has pretty well flat-lined since the 1950s. Didn't you realise the point of your third list item "More than 95% of measles deaths occur in low-income countries with weak health infrastructures". Sure, if you have an inadequate diet and crap housing, then measles vaccination probably is a good bet. But otherwise? Anyway, you are latching on to measles. Check http://www.vaclib.org/basic/japanusa.htm ... "when Japan raised its minimum vaccination age to two years in 1975 the overall infant mortality rate improved" Oh, and in response to I'm so concerned about allergies that I'm willing to risk the death or serious illness of my child and many of the vulnerable children around him; I'm a fuckshit!! .... I have personally been hospitalised with Asthma, which in my case was 100% definitely allergic. Your concerns are indeed your concerns, but I object to my concerns being dismissed as those of a fuckshit.

OK, I'm going to get flamed for this by a bunch of knee-jerk vaccination good people, but WTF. First strawman argument: which did not find convincing support for the idea that MMR shots caused autism . OK, so a load of people latch onto autism as a reason against vaccination, but its not the only concern. A lot of people are more concerned about lower-level negative immune system responses, such as increased allergy rates. Note that allergy rates have risen roughly in line with increasing hygiene and health-care in general (eg., hay fever was virtually unknown before the mid-1800s). Hygiene and health-care - vaccines included - affect the immune system, and its quite plausible that there is a balance point (between killing all but the healthiest or luckiest and weakened immune or damaged systems) which may have been passed. I'm old enough to remember measle parties, clearly people in the 50s and 60s (in the West anyway) were not very worried about it. It was something your kids got, and the sooner the better. Why is measles becoming more serious? Natural immunity to measles (ie., getting the real thing) likely results in greater protection passed to the kids from the mother (can't give exact details but the wife is a biologist who's been involved in immune research in the past). Then there's the multiple vaccination issue. The ability to survive an infection is a neccessary survival trait and would be selected for. The ability to survive multiple simultaneous infections much less so. Anyone see an issue here? I'm not anti-vaccination per-se. I am against the knee-jerk vaccinate against everything policy that governments and pharma push. MMR. How many people get bad affects from Rubella - none, only the foetus, so test girls before puberty and vaccinate those who are antibody-negative. Similarly for boys and Mumps. And I have a particular downer on the majority unthinking reactions that seem common on Slashdot whenever this topic comes up.

The typical teen sends more texts - by a factor of about 10 - per day, than I have ever sent.

I'm a caver. It would last about 30 seconds in most cave environments. It wouldn't even fit in the cave I explore most.

The Z-series mainframes cost hundreds of thousands (or even over a million) dollars, not the chips. As it says in the article.

Unfortunately, governments are likely to assume that the 1% who can remain anonymous, must have something to hide. Lose/lose :(

Bewarre dodgy comparisons: http://scienceblog.cancerresearchuk.org/2009/08/17/we-need-to-be-careful-when-comparing-us-and-uk-cancer-care/

Sorry, cave divers don't work with buddies, because it doesn't work. Zero visibility, passage too small for two people side by side, etc., etc. Cave divers may be insane but they are not mad!

Boring git. Go crawl back into the hole you came from!

When oh when will people realise this is the sort of government interference that is simply not needed. This is exactly the sort of problem that the free market will resolve. If this sort of attack ever happens, people can simply vote with their dollars and buy their electricity from another supplier. Then the generating and distribution companies will actually have to do something rather than get away with claiming that they are doing something.

OMG. It might become a micro-kernel!!!

Google started as a PhD research project at Stanford, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Google