The cache is a lie.

"Waist not, want not."

Is that a peculiarly American turn of phrase?

Yep, the point and click version of SUDO.

And Gatekeeper is fine (for individual use, it's not an Enterprise solution). If you don't understand the concept of walled garden or malware, then the DEFAULT secure position is to protect you from you lack of computer sophistication.

If you pass computer kindergarten and can now walk along the road unchaperoned, then you are one simple click away from freedom.

A perfectly sensible approach. I suspect that anyone posting here using OS X has unclicked Gatekeeper, but we are not it's target audience. Remember, it is still Eternal September out there.

No we don't - it's just assumed.

Close, no cigar. You're thinking of mumps (the other 'M' in MMR).

No, but we did ask Bennet Haselton.

No, the science community doesn't need to do anything. Your thesis that once a paper passes peer review it is automatically inserted into the canon is just completely wrong. You need to understand what science is.

Nothing is absolutely safe. Absolutely nothing. Pertussis is a straw-man argument; Yes the OLD vaccine caused fevers and discomfort, no, the fevers and discomfort were not particularly dangerous. No one has used whole cell pertussis vaccine for a couple of decades now.

Is the risk-benefit ratio highly skewed towards benefit with general pediatric vaccinations - yes.

And you are exactly right. The OP does have one reasonable point in his post - now that we've knocked out the 'big' childhood infectious diseases (measles, mumps, rubella, polio, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus and haemophilus) through vaccinations, we are working on immunizations where the cost - benefit ratio is much less clear.

Hepatitis B, Varicella (Chicken pox), pneumococcus, rotovirus and Hepatitis A are all safe and effective. Whether or not they need to be given to everyone is an interesting question. Hepatitis B is certainly reasonable for persons living in areas where the virus is endemic (South Asia in particular) and is reasonable for persons who plan on being drug addicts or health care workers. The problem is that most people who end up in the former life style aren't the type to seek medical attention early on. Varicella immunization, as you point out, wanes after a decade or so (as does tetanus, diphtheria and especially pertussis) and chicken pox is a largely benign illness (although complications do occur). The pediatric community has decided that a nuanced approach to this won't work so it's "everybody gets everything all of the time".

This appears to be pretty safe (again, the number of distinct antigens in all vaccines is dwarfed by the number of different proteins presented to your immune system every time you go out in a crowd) but there are theoretical concerns. You can make the argument that antigens presented by a vaccine are qualitatively different from your garden variety protein. You can also note that autoimmune diseases (where the body overreacts to antigens) is common, sometimes severe and undoubtedly increasing in the Western world. Thus, one can be concerned that pissing off the immune system could cause problems.

It, however, has never been demonstrated that vaccines are causally related to any autoimmune phenomenon or disease.

So, in the best of all worlds, one would have an informed discussion about the risks and benefits of all 14 recommended vaccines. Which would take a couple of hours. Which, of course, doesn't happen.

It might go better for you in the future if you manage to move away from 'ZombieDonut' to a real doughnut. Cops like real doughnuts, Zombies not so much.

A moose once bit my sister.

Sure dad, whatever you say.

What is 'general intelligence'? (Anything like Colonel Panic?)

Yes, if you can't read, can't figure out a bus schedule you are in a world of hurt in this society. It does not follow that being able to understand calculus gives you peace, happiness and longevity. There is going to be some broad mean that societal requirements dictate that you need. Other than than, you are at the mercy of lots of other vagaries of life.

Synthetic vaccines? They're all synthetic. We haven't used 'natural' vaccines since Jenner's day.

And speaking of crackpots....