?Impact

Do you have that nightmare too, about being trapped in the folding sofa bed?

Many vaccine opponents have been religious orders (Quakers, Baptists in Sweden, Jehovah's Witness had it as official policy from the 30's to the 50's, Christian Science, etc). The Vatican opposed the rubella vaccine because of the culture media was tissues from therapeutic abortions Some vaccines have been opposed because they promote evil ways (e.g. against sexually transmitted diseases). Muslims in some countries (e.g. Nigeria) opposed vaccines because they saw it as an American conspiracy to sterilize them. Most Jewish and Islamic councils allow for exceptions, but in Indonesia for example there is a large percentage of people who refuse vaccines because they might be derived from pigs. In some US states there is a 0.6% opt-out rate for religious reasons, although it is unclear how many are simply using that as an excuse because it is an allowable exemption. The Congregation of Universal Wisdom appears to be a religion set up to allow members to use its tenets to seek exemption (send $75 and you too can be a member). The more significant link is the larger outbreaks of polio in religious communities like the Amish, Mennonite, Christian Science, Muslims in Nigeria, etc. Measles outbreaks have also been linked to many religious orders like the orthodox Jews, Christian Science, Evangelical Church, etc. While the link between the scriptures and anti-vaxxers is unclear, it does appear that a large number of those opposed to vaccination are religious and their religion is the reason they oppose. On the other side there are no doubt many anti-vaxxers that are not religious, and many of the main religions of the world are proponents of vaccination.

So what is your theory? Those are social assistance are the accumulators of wealth. Homeless Joe has this big mattress under the bridge stuffed full of cash?

The dimensions of time/space are the limits of our [observable] universe. There are all sorts of science fiction suggestions for multiple universes, many of which have an overlap with the dimensions of ours and others which our outside the dimensions of ours. Some, or all, or none of these are possibilities. The point is that from within our universe, abiding by our physics, they are beyond our capacity of observation. I don't have a problem with time having a beginning, that is just a limit of our perception. As we look out in space, we are also looking back in time. There is a limit to how far we can look out in space based on the speed of light, in the same manner there is a limit to how far we can look back in time. The cosmic background radiation is an observable confirmation of the emergence of our universe from a singularity (big bang) which yields a beginning of space/time.

Excellent point, bears repeating.

That does seem to be the common sentiment, my friend Donald told me so.

The political group Britain First should be declared a terrorist organization. IMAGE LINK

I didn't know that Republican Rick Allen was Muslim.

A monkey hitting keys at random on a typewriter keyboard for an infinite amount of time will almost surely type a given text, such as the complete works of William Shakespeare. - Émile Borel?

I thought you were a centrist. My good friend Donald however proposed we ban all conservatives from entering Canada.

No, various radical Islamist groups promote violence, yet suddenly you start blaming Islam and not the radicals.

Agreed. I see surgery no different than therapy to change someone. In some cases there may be limited success, but it could also turn out to make the situation far worse. The question is if someone is unable to live as they are, who gets to choose which alternative? There is also the other alternative to help society to be more accepting and help the individual to be more comfortable with who they are instead of trying to change them. I won't address the difference between feelings and hallucinations, if you don't see the difference then maybe you need help.

Very little, the problem however is relative.

Do you see any differences between male and female minds? I am not talking intellectual capability or aptitude, but more emotional or attitude. Lets use the term wired to explain the brain since we are far from fully understanding its complexities. It is fairly clear that the older we get, the more difficult it is to rewire our brains. When we are young, we have an amazing ability to learn things like languages that become much more difficult to master as we age. Certainly some of us exhibit proficiencies in skills, like mathematics, that others find extremely difficult. Certainly some of our emotional wiring is influenced by our bodies chemistry/hormones. How much of that wiring takes place in the womb, early childhood, and later stages in life, and how difficult is it to rewire? We know from past experience that attempts to rewire people, like making them non-gay have rarely succeeded and usually end up causing far worse problems. While for most of us, for whatever reason(s), our mind tends to have similarities with others based on our genetic identity, how do you know that is not the case for all. Is it not possible that transgendered people have parts of their brains wired in a manner that aligns closer with opposite biological sex? Do you call that a defect, and pull an Orlando nightclub act and get rid of those that don't conform to your standard? Do we put them into therapy, which history tells us will fail spectacularly? Do we accept that their differences are part of them and learn how to live with that? I see the washroom/changeroom issue as completely separate. In society we have been conditioned to segregate based on biological sex, and are told that is the right thing to do. To change that causes discomfort, not because of right or wrong but because we resist change to social norms. There is also a discomfort for those who don't relate to societal norms. I am far more concerned how people treat each other than I am about biological differences. If someone is abusive to someone else, biological identity is irrelevant. If there were an abusive person around, I would be equally concerned for my son as for my daughter. I don't see sexual identity as an indicator of being abusive, only the acts a person commits.

Male from Alberta with an avatar that says "Hippies use backdoor". Man, you gotta be a right-winger, even if your posting history doesn't confirm it.

Yes, but leftist Marxist goons burn flags and interrupt speeches.

More is emerging about the scum bag murders wife. Apparently he texted her a couple of hours into the shooting, asking if she had seen the news. She replied back that she loved him. While it is not clear from that context if she knew at the time he was the shooter, it does look suspicious. While you are doing statistics, perhaps you would care to do a similar statistic about percent of American Muslims involved in murder.

taxme is right. Leftist Marxists goons burn flags and interrupt politicians. Right wing goons on the other hand, like the guy that shot Democrat Gabrielle Giffords (killing 6 others) and the guy today that shot British Labour MP Jo Cox just pull out their firearms and begin shooting.

If I add up the number of uniformed personnel on the Canadian Forces website I get 44,200 full time and 31,200 reservists for a total of 75,400. I can't find the number of civilian personnel. Most descriptions I find around on a variety of websites from Wikipedia, World Bank, etc. peg the number of full time at around 70,000 and reservists around 30,000. I am guessing that there are about 25,000 civilians that they are including. I can find some reference to the Union of National Defence Employees representing about 19,000 workers. If we assume there are a few thousand non-union civilian employees as well, this is beginning to make sense. Of course now we need to know if the Australian figures include civilian employees or not.

The initial sales brochure on the F-35 from 1997 "The Affordable Solution - JSF" claimed R&D 6%, Production 54%, total dev & prod 60%, O&S 40%. Fast forward to 2014 when the Pentagon was looking at its figures which worked out to dev & prod -- $397B = 26%, O&S -- $1,100B = 74%, total. That means the F-35 has gone from an initial-operating cost ratio of 60-40 to 26-74, and to top it all off the product costs are also soaring. I knew I should have invested in snack oil in the 90's.

As I said, speaks to credibility. First he didn't say attrition, that was part of the damage control afterwards. The attrition rate is nowhere near reaching that number in less than a decade, let alone the timeline he suggested. Attrition doesn't address what jobs, it only addresses rate overall; what specific jobs are being cut.

Except of course he totally made up numbers that had zero basis in reality. He decided to put a stake in the ground "I am going to fire a 100,000 civil servants" and expected that people would accept that he had a clue who to fire and why. Anybody can say vote for me, I will save you billions, but if you have zero credibility then it is meaningless blather. Combine that with the fact that basically all the civil servants saw their job on the line because some dolt wanted to get elected, he immediately lost every single one of those votes as well.

It cost you a bundle more in the long run if that school produces ignorant people in industry and public policy.

Just being new does not mean there will be less problems with maintenance. The complexity of the technology has a significant influence on the maintenance cost. The F-35 is too new to have any reliable statistics, but the best estimates are that it will be about 30%-50% higher in cost per flight hour. I don't know what Canada is spending on the CF-18, if anyone has those figures it would be interesting. The estimates I have seen for the US navy are $18k/hour for F-18E/F, and $30k/hour for F-35. This is why we should be looking first and foremost at the requirements. The role the CF-18s carried out internationally the past decade would be better suited to something like the A-10 which had about 1/2 the cost per flight hour as F-18E/F, and 1/3 the cost per flight hour as F-35 projected.