Meanwhile, I'm picturing a sad kid lamenting that his cool Christmas present barely lasted a month...

I'm not even so sure the [plan B is less ethical. All in all, I would like to see the increased difficulty of the close access act as a filter. How is it less ethical to bug the office of someone you're fairly convinced is an actual threat than it is to bug everyone's internet access?

It sounds like an improvement. It even sounds suspiciously close top them doing their damned job.

Am I the only one who thout replacing the "charms bar" with the "action center" sounded like a mid-'70s toy company trying to sell a "girl's toy" to boys?

How about selling an OS to adults?

You're obviously confused about which group of people the GP is talking about...

Hint: it's not the FCC.

'Yes, we have invented a way to unboil a hen egg,

Let me know when they can unboil a rooster egg. Now that will be something.

Freedompop also offers free service. 200 mins/mo, 500 text and 500mb of data. Free. As in zero ($) dollars.

I picked up a cheap iphone 4s (sprint), activated it on FP and it is decent. It doesn't do great on the move (driving), but stationary, the voice quality isn't bad. Data speeds are around 1mbps +/- 500mbps.

Their app also offers a similar free service via an app (wifi only) sans data (for obvious reasons).

I wonder how many respondents made exactly the same assumption when they indicated yes.

It comes in all forms as well. I remember when I was 8 or 9, wandering around on top of Stone Mountain. I started talking to an elderly security guard and he was in the mood for a story, so he told me about when the KKK used to meet on the mountain. I can't say thje message itself was necessarily what a parent would want their child to hear, but I knew enough to understand that he was telling a story from a different time. It wasn't until then that I actually understood racism to be a real and ugly thing rather than a set of facts in a text book. I also learned a lot about how normal that level of racisim seemed to someone from that time and how people (especially older people) may be a product of their time. No amount of droning on in a classroom could have taught that so well.

I suppose today, he wouldn't have had time to tell me that story because some MBA looking for an excuse to get rid of him would have called it goofing off. Given that part of the park's mission is teaching, he couldn't have been more on-task.

That's what's really missing. Time and energy. Families just don't have it anymore while trying to make ends meet. Nobody else really does either.

They are quite rare, but unlike the debunked autism claim, there is not a long delay from the vaccine to the reaction.

For example, anaphylaxis is goiing to happen fairly quickly if it is going to happen.

Disseminated encephalomyelitis (acute or recurring) can be set off by either a viral infection or a vaccine. Since a vaccine shouldn't be given is a current viral infection is suspected, if it happens shortly after a vaccination, it's fairly clear that either the vaccine caused it or that it should not have been given at that time.

The exceptionally rare immune system failures that can happen after a vaccine don't just spontaneously happen.

If a whole lot of a vaccine is bad, statistics do a decent job of determining that the vaccine was to blame. For example, this article where a lot polio vaccine gave the kids polio. Here is a study of DTP reactions.

The fact that the existence of severe reactions is known shows that it is statistically verifiable. Individual cases can never be proven to perfect certainty, but in the U.S. the standard for liability is preponderance of the evidence.

Looked at from another direction, justice requires that if government shields the manufacturer from liability, it must stand in and accept the liability itself.

B5 had a bathroom.

It had Earth invaded by an alien fleet lead by a human. And Earth was the bad guys.

Part of B5's problem was that they were told that season 4 would be the last, so they had to compress 2 seasons worth of story arc into one season. Then at the last minute, the execs said "just kidding!" and they had to come up with another season.

I agree that a societal solution is needed.

If employers can discriminate for not getting the vax, it is constructively mandatory. I agree that un-vaccinated students should stay home during an outbreak. Likewise employees. That is a matter of a clear and present danger.

Considering that a vaccine reaction can leave a person with lifelong disability and high ongoing bills for care, few can afford the risk alone. We already have a compensation program coupled with a liability shield for the manufacturers since otherwise nobody would manufacture the vaccine. We just need to make it actually support those very few who need it, not just barely keep them out of poverty.

A real issue is that if vaccinations become mandatory for employment. you can bet more than one radical church will decide they must be the mark of the beast and then we have a real issue.

But consider, the measles start out with flu-like symptoms. IF you feel free to stay out of work right then, you won't spread the disease. A few days later, the characteristic red rash appears to let you know it's not the flu, but by then you have been contagious for 3 days and will be for another 3. Even then, many clueless employers will insist that you must go to a doctor at the height of your contagiousness and sit in a public waiting room so you can bring a doctor's note with you when you return (or don't bother to return at all).

That situation CAN come up even if your vaccinations are in order.

I'm not so sure about making the vaccination absolutely mandatory, but I would like to see them made very easy to get, preferably they should be practically automatic. For example, have an RN on hand at school registration ready and willing to give the vaccine for free to any child that doesn't have one. As a bonus, have her hand out candy after the shot or when vaccination records are presented. Let the kids wear the parents down :-) If necessary, tell them that resistance to measles is a super power.

And make sure that the very rare but existent harmful reaction is very well compensated. After all, it happened in service to society.