I'll just cut the baby in half then

This is a bit off topic, but I bipped from WorldChanging over to The Long Now website, which I found to be a confusing place. But the good news was there were some links to talks given by people I pay attention to, notably, Bruce Sterling.

Listening to this talk (it is an mp3), one point made by Sterling resonated with me. He said during the talk that one of the pitfalls for scientists and science is the commoditization of what they provide, or as he put it, individual scientists can become mercenaries.

This observation is relevant to this post over at Bouphania, regarding mercury in vaccines. (And, I would contend, much of the drug industry.) I went through the whole vaccine rigamarole with my son, and compromised with The Authorities by saying no to the Hep B shots, and delayed the rest by some months.

If it is for the public good, you are made to feel like an anti-scientific crank if you complain. How to explain the nuanced position to a glaring nurse that A) I am not against vaccines in principle B) I happen to know that a 15 minute old baby doesn't need a shot to protect it from an STD that neither myself or my partner have C) It is the future, and we have antibiotics for the strains of most diseases babies get pricked for.

Another example of what I would consider to be mercenary nonsense foisted on us for the public good? The Flouride Deception. In Europe and Canada, it is not considered necessary to orally ingest a neurotoxic waste byproduct of (primarily coal) industry in an effort to brittle up teeth.

Oh, and one more, to taste.