Keith du Cros.com

Please tell, because I don’t know… I thought it was just out to jerk tears up until the eye bit.

Bad astronomy has a good write-up on the supposed link (or lack thereof) between autism and vaccinations.

I just can’t make this any clearer. Vaccines do not cause autism. Study after study has shown this, in multiple ways. The removal of the MMR (mumps-measles-rubella) vaccine in Japan did not lead to a decline in the number of cases of autisms diagnosed; instead the number of children falling in the autism spectrum increased.

I looked into this alot when my daughter was going through some of her vaccinations and came to similar conclusions. I’m all for research into the cause of autism and studies done on vaccinations and their safety, but this has been done. Its been looked into time and time again, and the results are conclusive. Sadly, there has already been damage done by the one highly questionable study that sparked alot of this as well as general claims of “toxins and evils” in vaccines…

And there is a chilling side to this. Vaccines are among the greatest achievements in human history. This is not hyperbole. Millions upon millions of lives have been saved by vaccines. Smallpox is gone. Polio is gone. A vaccine has been developed to prevent HPV, saving millions of women from the horrors of cervical cancer.

If vaccinations decline, then we will see an increase in mumps, measles, rubella, whooping cough (pertussis), and many more terrible afflictions… problems that are ultimately completely curable. This is stone, cold fact. Worse, these problems are far more severe in children.

Update: Respectful insolence has provided their own summary of the ‘autism epidemic’:

[...] the apparent increase in prevalence observed over the last two decades can be explained largely by increased awareness and diagnostic substitution. There is no autism epidemic.

The classic, Russell’s Teapot…

If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is an intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense. If, however, the existence of such a teapot were affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday, and instilled into the minds of children at school, hesitation to believe in its existence would become a mark of eccentricity and entitle the doubter to the attentions of the psychiatrist in an enlightened age or of the Inquisitor in an earlier time.

It seems as though it has been found! Further plans are currently underway…

Yes, thats right. 18 children. The Duggar family are supposedly followers of the Quiverfull movement, which is basically just against all sorts of birth control, as well as even “Natural Family Planning“.

The Pharyngula article I picked this up from has some interesting (and some, youtube-ish) comments. The main theme in the discussion, apart from a few nuts is generally just feeling sorry for the kids in the family…

Newest trailer to The Dark Knight is out… and I’ve already forgotten about Iron Man.. Easy to notice two-face and someone even noticed on Digg that scarecrow makes another appearance.

M. Night Shyamalan is about to release another unpredictable movie of awesomeness in the form of “The Happening”. Yep, after the boxoffice and review killing Lady in the Water received, he’s back at it again. I’m not really sure where to begin on this one.

First off, I can say that the new trailer does at first look passable and, at least, attention grabbing. The scope and theme of the movie reminds me alot of “I am Legend” with its worldwide epidemic… but theres also the classic Shyamalan ‘twist’ factor mixed in with it. *insert sad face right about here*

I can admit that I did enjoy The Sixth Sense. Not a bad movie at all - even the twist was ok! But things have just gone downhill ever since. I think the description “one-trick pony” suits quite well actually, and it seems that everything since has just been riding off his previous success (and the same formula), and I think people are noticing.

Everybody probably just knows the name M. Night from his movie posters and trailers. Its all over the place. When looking back on his movie history, I actually noticed a pattern. There seems to be a correlation between how bad a movie is going to be and the size and marketing push of “M. Night Shyamalan” on promotional material. Check out the following posters of movies since the Sixth Sense (which, might I add, didn’t try to sell his name on the poster at all).

There is a clear link between the quality of the movie and the marketing of the director. Therefore I propose the following scientific formula:

A = (D * S) + I

Where:

A = How awful a movie by M. Night Shyamalan is going to be.
D = Distance between name “M. Night Shyamalan” and other text on promotional material
S = Size of said name in comparison to the movie title.
I = Non-marketing related problems.

Joking aside, I could of just said A = Time since the Sixth Sense, but i actually didn’t mind Signs too much. It was just very simple minded and, well, it felt like much of the same. Overall, the above seems to be a solid formula. Will it continue to be applicable in the future? I hope not. If it is, we’re in for an interesting couple of hours! See below.

Is it advertising The Happening or M. Night Shyamalan? I can’t tell!

I picked this up from a pharyngula article this morning on “Attempted interspecies rape”… Yes thats right. But don’t jump to conclusions, there were no humans involved here. Actually just a young Fur Seal getting desperate. The BBC article is… well… something else.

De Bruyn and a colleague were on Trypot beach at Marion Island to study elephant seals when they noticed a young, adult male Antarctic fur seal, in good condition, attempting to copulate with an adult king penguin of unknown sex.

The 100kg seal first subdued the 15kg penguin by lying on it. The penguin flapped its flippers and attempted to stand and escape - but to no avail.

The seal then alternated between resting on the penguin, and thrusting its pelvis, trying to insert itself, unsuccessfully.

After 45 minutes the seal gave up, swam into the water and then completely ignored the bird it had just assaulted, the scientists report.

Oh, and there are pictures of the scene. Poor little penguin. Sexual coercion and harassment in animals is supposedly pretty common. The seal took it to new extremes though…

[ ... ] this is thought to be the first recorded example of a mammal trying to have sex with a member of another class of vertebrate, such as a bird, fish, reptile, or amphibian.

I’ve been watching the tomatometer for iron man, and it looks pretty damn impressive at 94% Fresh. In fact, just last year, Rotten Tomatoes actually did a compilation of all Comic Book movies from worst to best, and Spider Man 2, rated number 1 at the time, had a rating of 93%.

I have to admit I was expecting high 80’s at best. I loved the trailers but there was just something very “Fantastic Four” about them…

Will be checking this one out today, hopefully.