The debate over Vaccines

For over 200 years vaccines have been the norm in countries all over the world. It has helped eradicate several diseases including the dreaded Polio. The major concern around vaccines seemed to be that because of the cost and logistics of getting it to every single corner of the world a significant portion of children, estimated by the WHO at around 20% were not able to receive vaccines.

It was therefore surprising to see a debate about vaccines in the US in 2015. A debate on whether parents can be compelled to have their children vaccinated. Earlier this week, the "federal government has confirmed more than 100 people across 14 states have now developed measles. Public health officials suspect the outbreak, which is concentrated in California, began when an infected person visited Disneyland in Anaheim in December."
http://www.democracynow.org/2015/2/5/inside_the_vaccine_war_measles_outbreak


The reasons being given for them to have a choice was the "Freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution". You would expect that these arguments were coming from a few people with radical views. These are mainly from the conservative right. I was shocked when a section of the Republican party seemed to endorse this point of view. Notable amongst them was Senator Paul Rand, who shockingly is a medical doctor. He claimed that vaccines can cause “profound mental disorders”.

Hence its no surprise that the Democrats are highlighting the dangers. Hilary Clinton contributed with her own tweet.

The point of view which advocates "Freedom" seems to have an extremely flawed understanding and interpretation of the word. "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" is a well-known phrase in the United States Declaration of Independence. When a group of people demand their right to choose, they forget that their right comes secondary to the the right of everybody else's, to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Hence any action or inaction by them that leads to anybody else losing their inalienable rights cannot be a right they have.

Hence its my contention that we have the freedom of choice if and only if, it does not encroach upon others freedom of choice as well as their inalienable rights. It is my opinion that getting ones children vaccinated is not a matter of choice. It would be irresponsible not to. Irresponsible to their child as well as society which would be unnecessarily exposing its children to the totally avoidable risk of being infected. All because a group of people claim that their rights take precedence over the rights of a society.

False Memories

I've always been fascinated by friends and colleagues who thought they had great memories. They remembered almost everything. Problem was on several occasions what they remembered was no where close to what actually happened. Even when I showed them notes, they still insist their memory could not have been wrong. I've always been confused by this as on all occasions it was obvious that they truly believed what they were saying.

I recently came across a talk that addressed this issue, albeit in a much more serious way where these memory lapses had dramatic consequences. Check this out.

"Psychologist Elizabeth Loftus studies memories. More precisely, she studies false memories, when people either remember things that didn't happen or remember them differently from the way they really were. It's more common than you might think, and Loftus shares some startling stories and statistics --  and raises some important ethical questions."

Virtual Reality. A real expereince.

Yesterday Freia got home a piece of cardboard. She excitedly showed us what she called Google Cardboard. We weren't impressed.

And then she put her phone in it and asked me to take a look. It was Paul McCartney performing "Live and Let Die". It was 3D and was really good. And then Freia said, "Turn around". I did. I turned around and it was like virtual reality. And just when I thought I'd seen it all, I realized that there was more. I could look up and down and all around and it was beautiful From every position and every angle. This was Amazing.

And all the virtual reality experience needed was Google cardboard, an inexpensive piece of cardboard and a regular Android phone. This is an experience you've got to have. So go get yourself a Google Cardboard. Or better still, build one.

 

The Daily News : Delivered your way

Once upon a time there was a dearth of news. Today we have the exact opposite problem. There's too much news. And we sometimes miss the important news depending on our source of news. So I came up with a list of 5 news sources who send a daily e-mail or summarize the news for you. A combination of real news and not so real news that will make you smile.


the Skimm

"theSkimm is the daily e-mail newsletter that gives you everything you need to start your day. We do the reading for you - across subject lines and party lines - and break it down with fresh editorial content.

We read. You Skimm.

http://www.theskimm.com/



The Onion

"The Onion is an American digital media company and news satire organization. It runs an entertainment website featuring satirical articles reporting on international, national, and local news. It also runs a non-satirical entertainment section known as The A.V. Club. Since 2007, the organization has published satirical news audio and video online, as the "Onion News Network".
The Onion's articles comment on current events, both real and fictional. It parodies traditional news websites with stories, editorials, op-ed pieces, and man-in-the-street interviews, using a traditional news website layout and an editorial voice modeled after that of the Associated Press. Its humor often depends on presenting mundane, everyday events as newsworthy, surreal or alarming."

http://www.theonion.com/



Infobitt

"I’m co-founder of Wikipedia. Now think back to a time before Wikipedia—the 1990s, if you’re that old. If you didn’t know the answer to a question, and a web search brought no joy, you might have to take a trip to the library, or stay ignorant.
...

... Now I hope to organize people to summarize and rank the world’s news in a free, open content news resource. The project is called Infobitt.
...

...Here’s the Infobitt model. We grab different facts from different news sources, summarize them in sentences which link back to those sources. We each drag-and-drop the facts into our preferred order, and the system calculates the sense of the community. The result is a bitt. ..."
http://larrysanger.org/2014/11/infobitt-short/

http://www.infobitt.com/



NPR

"Great storytelling and rigorous reporting. These are the passions that fuel us. Our business is telling stories, small and large, that start conversations, increase understanding, enrich lives and enliven minds.

We are reporters in Washington D.C., and in bunkers, streets, alleys, jungles and deserts around the world. We are engineers, editors, inventors and visionaries. We are Member stations around the country who are deeply connected to our communities.

We are listeners and donors who support public radio because we know how it has enriched our own lives and want it to grow strong in a new age.

We are NPR. And this is our story."

"Now you can get one daily email subscription to our most popular stories of the day; our main coverage areas including news, arts and life, and music; select daily radio programs; and all NPR.org blogs. All of your daily selections are combined into a single digest, because no matter how much you love NPR, you probably don't want 30 emails a day."

http://www.npr.org/blogs/newsandviews/127150454/daily-news-digest/



BBC

"The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a UK-based international public-service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London.

It is the world's oldest national broadcasting organisation and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees, with around 23,000 staff in total, and 16,672 in public sector broadcasting."

http://www.bbc.com/news/help-16617948

The No Pants Subway Ride

"Improv Everywhere is a New York City-based prank collective that causes scenes of chaos and joy in public places. Created in August of 2001 by Charlie Todd, Improv Everywhere has executed over 100 missions involving tens of thousands of undercover agents."

Last Sunday was the Annual "No Pants Subway Ride". Its interesting to see the reaction of people riding the subway. To me whats even more interesting is  the participants. In addition to being an awesome group, they have to have a lot of guts to defy the norm. In public.

Enjoy the show and if you like it check other interesting public pranks.

Dieting. A secret you don't want to miss.

Most of us want to lose weight and we are always trying to find a diet that will allow us to lose weight. I've tried several and even as I write this, I'm on a diet.

I've read, viewed and tried 100s of diets, systems, revolutionary products, ... and none of them have worked beyond the first couple of weeks. Unfortunately that has not stopped me from continuing my journey to find the perfect solution.

And that's exactly what happened. I found the perfect solution in this TED talk on dieting. Check it out and if it works for you, don't forget to drop me a "Thank You" note.

Predictions for 2015

This year my blogs are going to be "S3". Short, Simple and Sweet. I'll try and learn more and say less. Which means I'll be sharing what I learn or find interesting during the week.

For the New year, here are my 5 predictions for the year. I'll be pleased if a couple of them turn out to be right. And thrilled if 3 or more are right.


5 predictions for 2015

US Stock market will correct down by 20%.

Oil will correct up by 100%.

India's growth rate will inch upwards while China's growth rate will inch downwards.

In the US overall percentage of out-sourcing will decrease and percentage of in-sourcing will increase.

Apple will out-perform. Google and Facebook will meet expectations. Amazon will under-perform.