Food production is not a valid argument, IMHO.

We already produce 2700 calories per person per day. That's plenty to feed everyone a healthy diet. The reason so many people don't have enough food has nothing to do with the amount of food available and everything to do with logistics, politics, and inequity: The food simply isn't getting to where it's needed. Growing even more food is not going to solve that problem.

Similarly, biofuel production need not make use of land that is suitable for growing common food crops. Even though I advocate biofuels, even I'm against using food crops to do so.
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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. :)
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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...
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Not all vaccinations last your whole life.

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

Doesn't stop some people from trying, though...
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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!
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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...)
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Well, no. The Shuttle's SRBs were a lot more than just a tube full of explosives.

They had thrust vector control; hydraulic power units, gimbal nozzles, control hardware. Electrical subsystems. Self contained navigation hardware. Range safety hardware. And of course everything was triple or quadruple redundant for reliability.
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The Shuttle's SRBs were reusable, and they reused them (or at least parts of them) pretty much every launch.

The big orange liquid fuel tank was not reused, though.
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I think you're misconstruing what is actually meant when physicists talk about the universe possibly being a hologram.

They don't mean the contemporary "Star Trek Holodeck" type of hologram. They mean that all of the information about the 3D volume of the universe can be contained and encoded within a 2D boundary.

This is not a mathematically rigorous concept of the universe, but if they can nail it down it might have some application in explaining how gravity works and the ultimate granularity of the universe (e.g. how small the smallest possible fundamental particles can be). But in no sense would this prove, or even really be evidence supporting, the notion that our universe is a simulation within some "larger reality."
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No, it doesn't. The mall could have been attacked at any time with no announcement at all. The only difference is now you know somebody out there has an axe to grind.

Knowing the odds does not change the odds.

In fact, I'd argue that you might actually have a slightly LOWER chance of being killed or injured if the the intent to attack is announced. They could be bluffing. Increased security could ward off or apprehend the attackers. Law enforcement might be able to intervene and prevent the attack.

The most realistic outcome of this scenario? The mall would be closed and your appointment canceled... but assuming for the sake of argument that doesn't happen, you might as well go because your odds are certainly no worse than at any other time.
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The guy in the cubicle next to mine spends his lunch hour browsing Fox News, Drudge Report and Townhall. I can make a very solid case that he's not.
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