Friday, August 5, 2011

not so angry

We're going to Disney World!! It's going to be the time of our lives! We'll never've felt this way before. I swaer. It's the truth.

That is all.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Want.

I. Want. My. Caddy. For the first time. Only $8595.




I want it even more than I wanted to buy the Amityville Horror House, and way more affordable. Kinda.

So, gimme.

Friday, April 1, 2011

this week in information (4/01)

I hate April Fool's Day, so none of this is a joke.

Important Perspective: Radiation Dosage Chart from Information is Beautiful

Along with the triangle choke (which is cool) and the Bermuda Triangle (which is dumb), there is another triangle about which you should know: The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. Friday (3/25) was the 100th anniversary of this tragedy, which set the stage for improvements in workers' rights, labor conditions and safety standards.
Let's not dishonor the victims by going backward, eh? I'm TALKING TO YOU, WISCONSIN!!!

I didn't participate in Earth Hour last week, but these pictures are really interesting and startling.

Nerdilicious epic battle: Einstein vs. Hawking Aaaaand I went to high school with that kid. Good to see somebody made it.

OMGyouguys!! The escaped cobra from the Bronx Zoo is totally on Twitter!!! Srsly, that is some brilliance. Oh, and I would totally watch an Animal Planet special about her, April Fool's or not. Update: she snuck back into the Reptile House and they think she was there all along. Clever girl...

Pretty: the aurora
Starkly pretty: South Dakota

My new favorite picture, if anyone's curious: me and other me, huggin' at derby, N-E-R-D-Y are we...

Let's end with some damn funny cats.

Friday, March 25, 2011

this week in information (3/25)

Happy belated 0h0m0s Right Ascension, 0°0m0s declination!!!

Earlier this week, the Secular Coalition for America wanted me to contact my representative regarding legislation unnecessarily reaffirming the divisive phrase "In God We Trust" and encouraging its display. Great, except that my representative has already replied to each of my missives regarding equality and secular government with a patronizing dismissal.
He is clearly only interested in hypocritically pushing his own views onto his constituents and not in entertaining a difference of opinion. Barf.
I haz a sad. And so much angriez.

TV's Adam Savage is an atheist, and an inspiring one.

(Alleged) fraud Andrew Wakefield is trying to kill Somali children now. Somalia? Doomed.

3/24 marked the 137th birthday of eminent skeptic Harry Houdini. Ta-DA!!

Some perspective on radiation, if you're worried your face might melt off, what with the doom and all...

The "Do Something on Facebook and Pretend it Matters" bullshit has returned. This time, we're to post a flavor indicating our relationship status as our Facebook status to "confuse the guys" and raise awareness of breast cancer. Um, pretty sure people are aware of breast cancer. Also, pretty sure the guys don't care. No one cares. Facebook is not that big of a deal. More importantly, though: THIS SHIT DOESN'T DO ANY GOOD!! If you want to do some good, how about donating to an organization that actually helps breast cancer sufferers and survivors?!?! Or, just click here and give free mammograms! You know, DO something.
Sigh.

Rochester's Writers & Books is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, and its 11th year of the If All of Rochester Read the Same Book program. My mother and I have read the book and attended programs each year for the past seven years, and were happy to participate in the program again this year -helping Writers & Books continue to have the highest participation per capita of any literary community center in the country. Hooray!!
The books chosen by Writers & Books so far have been:
2001: A Lesson Before Dying, Ernest Gaines
2002: The Sweet Hereafter, Russell Banks
2003: Kindred, Octavia Butler
2004: Peace Like a River, Lief Enger
2005: Servants of the Map, Andrea Barrett
2006: Name All the Animals, Alison Smith
2007: The Buffalo Soldier, Chris Bohjalian
2008: Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, Laila Lalami
2009: Jim the Boy, Tony Earley
2010: Bel Canto, Ann Patchett
2011: The Good Thief, Hannah Tinti

DINOSAURS!! RARR!!

Aaaaand, Astronom-O's!!

Thursday, March 17, 2011

this week in doomed (3/18)

Doomed. Doomed doomed doomed.
Japan? Doomed.
Libya? Doomed.
Wisconsin? Doomed.

The recent earthquake in Japan actually changed the earth's rotation. It moved the Japanese coastline eight feet (cue TMBG "Science" song). The tsunami swamped nuclear power plants and they are creeping closer to meltdown every day. The country is basically melting and drowning and also on fire. Oh, AND the homeopaths are cashing in on the disaster by offering worthless scams. Never fear, water's here!! Hooray.


THE LIBYANS
are all fighting each other and trying to get their whackjob leader to step down and instead of realizing that he's in trouble and his people hate him, he rambles meaninglessly while carrying a parasol. Check the internoodlez if you don't believe me.

Wisconsin... No longer just for cheese and Packers. Nope, now it's for union-busting and teacher-firing. Because the way to fix an economy that's been sucked dry by banker bonuses and corporate tax cuts is to sacrifice kid's education and public employee benefits. Go, big business!! Again, check the internoodlez if you don't believe me. You'd have to be blind and deaf (or watching Fox News, which amounts to the same thing) to not know what's going on.

We're all still doomed, but at least we can laugh while we cry. "A legislative Schrodinger’s cat killed by the quantum mechanics of the legislative process"? What? Nice. Thanks Rep. Markey.

Also, GIVE. Give to help Japan.

Basketball is not interesting to me, but helping fund vaccine initiatives is.
Made up religious bullshit that I might be convinced to support: all hail St. Urho!! This is especially spectacular since I've always been a little weirded out by St. Patrick's Day because of the whole Catholics-driving-the-pagans-out-of-Ireland thing, but I literally just found out, ON St. Urho's Day, that I am in fact about an eighth Finnish!! Weeeee!!!

The moon is cool. The back side of the moon is cool, too. But it didn't cause the freaking earthquake. "We’re not making it any better by panicking over something we know isn’t real."

Also cool, Preserve's recycling program for number five plastics: Gimme 5.

At least we have Nick Frost and Simon Pegg re-enacting Star Wars.

Also, Monday was Pi Day. Mmmmm, Pi.

Today is St. Patrick's Day. I'm of two minds about it. One mind says I like to drink. The other mind objects to the Catholic subjugation and expulsion of everything different. Maybe I should be wearing purple. You know, for St. Urho. Hey, did you guys know I'm an 8th Finnish?

Friday, March 11, 2011

this week in information (3/11) -and also Lent

It snuck up on me before I even realized it: Lent is here!! For most people who claim they are Catholics, this means giving up something meaningless in a transparent effort to get on the good side of a deity for which they cannot provide anything but emotional anecdotes as evidence. For a few Catholics, it means making an actual sacrifice of something truly meaningful in order to bring oneself closer to one's faith and savior; a time of penitence and reflection that one can only hope will carry over into the rest of the year.
For me, it means eating meat. Tasty, tasty murder meat and lots of it. The rest of the year, I buy my meat at the public market where the animals are raised with kindness and humanity and I am not supporting a sick culture of corn-suffocating antibiotic-pushing shit-wallowing miserableness.
I haven't enjoyed a McDonald's cheeseburger in over two years, I don't get street meat or cart hot dogs or have the burgers at family gatherings, I make my tacos with cheese and lettuce and sometimes other vegetables but I leave out the ground beef. I've learned to enjoy Quorn and some tofu creations (I have the tastiest vegan tofurkey/spinach/cranberry sauce/stuffing wrap after Thanksgiving this past year and I could eat that every damn day), Amy's and Annie's and Helen's (oh my!).
Lunch and breakfast every day are vegetarian, and dinners that do include meat are as responsible and ethical as I can make them without actually being a vegan or vegetarian. Which should ultimately be the goal, I know.
You're supposed to give up something important to you, for Lent, and so for Lent I give up giving up factory farmed beef. Not every day, but especially on Fridays. Because I am irreverent and sarcastic and kind of a bitch. Blessed be.


Lentien irreverency:
- PZ Myers on why everyone has smudgies on their foreheads
- via PZ Myers: hypothetical Christian science test

Touchdown, Discovery!! Phil Plait, as always, is well worth reading.

Mike Starr, former Alice in Chains band member, succumbed to his addiction this week, at age 44. Very sad, but also -more sadly- not surprising.

A greater tragedy: an 8.9 magnitude earthquake has shattered and burned Japan and lead to a tsunami that could reach as far as the tip of South America. And, of course, there are already woo-woo claims about the disaster... Sigh.


Cheer worth sharing:
- Baby Got Bugs music video
- Carl Sagan parody
- on the topic of the moon... WE LIKE THE MOON!!!

Friday, March 4, 2011

this week in information (3/04)

Every morning, I click through the Charity USA "click to give" tabs and aid all sorts of groups through that simple, painless, free action. This week, I noticed that there is a new tab and new charity available that you can help with an easy click and I figured it was a good excuse to remind people of the ease with which they can do good.
No, seriously, all you have to do is click. Advertisers do the rest, and they really do provide the funds to help the way it is described. Links to partners, sponsors and beneficiaries are available on the pages themselves.
Set up an e-mail reminder, mark it as a favorite, make it a bookmark, add it to your toolbar... Whatever it takes, get there and click to help!
the Animal Rescue Site: help animals and pet shelters
the Hunger Site: help end hunger and poverty
the Breast Cancer Site: fight breast cancer and provide mammograms
the Veterans Site: give meals for homeless veterans
the Child Health Site: help children and provide child health care
the Literary Site: fight illiteracy and support reading and education
the Rainforest Site: stop global warming and protect endangered animals

Here's a scary reminder about why it's so important to be up to date on your boosters and vaccines: because the whole world IS out to get you!!

This week in awesome sciencyness: A picture of the shuttle taken from the ISS, as the shadow of the ISS passes across the shuttle!

This week in Tree Lobster awesome: AVP.

Great quote for the week: ‎"Our Republic only works if people are informed." - Brian Trent, The Rogues Gallery


Finally, apparently, the Great Ice Storm of '91 was twenty years ago today. And apparently, if the trending on Facebook is any indication, it's a big freaking deal. Granted, it was a disaster, and it was an awesome reminder of how nature can be so beautiful and destructive at the same time. But it was also twenty freaking years ago. Way worse has happened to the world since then, even in this year alone...
Twenty years... I was eleven, then, in 1991. Sixth grade, it must have been. I remember waking up through the night wondering why Mom kept walking up and down the stairs with her plastic cup full of ice water, because that's what the ice pinging off the windows sounded like to my eleven-year-old half-asleep ears. I remember that we lost power, and tree limbs were still cracking and crashing to the ground in showers of ice when I went out to see if the neighbors had power -I made it about halfway across the street before turning back. Ice storms are scary. I remember that my father built a fire and hung wool blankets and we tried to stay in the house, but Mom's asthma made that impossible. The parents of one of my schoolmates took us in, though our cat had to spend the week in their basement. I remember that my mother and I were so strung out that at dinner one night we laughed until we cried about an inexplicable Muppets episode. I remember that I watched "The Abyss" for the first time that week. I remember that a huge tree in our neighbor's backyard that down in thirds and trashed our yard, next door, and the tree's owner's yard. Fences smashed, yards torn up, wires down... It totally crushed the pussy willow tree in our yard so we cut it all down and tried to dig out the stump, but come spring there were green shoots and within five years it was a bush as tall as the tree had ever been. In the end, though, spring came and 1991 faded into the past as just another bad winter in western New York.

Monday, February 28, 2011

this week in information (2/25 belated)

Still catching up from being on vacation (in St. Martin -suck it, bitches!!) so there's not too much to share this week, but...

While I was away, I missed Darwin Day and Valentine's Day.

Republicans are being dicks (shocking!), trying to cut funding for public broadcasting, education, public services, and family planning services. Because everyone knows that all Planned Parenthood does is carve full grown babies out of unsuspecting women's bodies, so of course they shouldn't get any funding for that. Right? Oh wait, what? That's just some bullshit extremist rhetoric? No Way!!
Planned Parenthood is the primary care location for man, many women, many of them poor and unable to get care elsewhere. PPhood provides counseling and referrals and family planning services (read: contraception, which actually REDUCES the number of abortions sought in this country!). Yes, some clinics perform abortions, safe and sterile and legal abortions which enable women to better care for themselves and their families as they make very difficult decisions. And the majority of these abortions do NOT use federal funding, because the law prohibits the use of federal funds for abortions unless the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest, or if the woman's life is at risk. However, Republicans are also seeking to change the definition of rape to mean only forcible rape. I'm so mad, I can't even keep typing about this bullshit. It's all over the internets so check it out. They are being dicks and they need to be stopped.
Stand with Planned Parenthood against dangerous libel!!

This makes my point, too: MacLeod Cartoons

Listen up, assholes.
Stand with Planned Parenthood!!

Homeopathy = water. Homeopathy is not medicine and should not be sold in pharmacies implying it is such -no, not even in St. Martin. If you don't have the nards to confront it when you see it on store shelves, you can probably at least get up the energy to sign a petition, eh?

In good news: Obama's seen the light and is declining to defend the idiotic and plain old MEAN Defense of Marriage Act. Hooray!! I suppose his incessant god blather and prayer whinging led him someplace good after all. Now, if only he could get his brain around the separation of church and state and do away with this whole National Prayer Breakfast kowtowing-to-Family-extremist shit...

In humor: I haven't read the comics in ages and always found Doonesbury a little too real and depressing, and this example is no exception, but hooray for Trudeau calling out Jenny McCarthy as a public menace!!

Thursday, February 3, 2011

this week in information (2/03)

We are kicking the ozone layer's ASS, you guys! Good work! Keep it up, with your aerosols and your CO-spewing rollover vehicles and whatnot. Woo-ho... Oh, wait. That's not right.

Why Kermit is a butcher and not a doctor, and why this case is actually an argument FOR safe, legal abortion (because if abortion is made illegal, more abortion facilities would be like this one as all would be unregulated and women's lives would be in more danger than ever -although that's never really the concern of the religious right because all they seem to care about is the pre-birth fetus...)
PZ Myers, as usual, really gets it. Even if he is a MAN (and I'm a walking talking bad girl cliche).

What's he harm in astrology? Often not too much, but some. And it's all blather anyway as (again) Information is Beautiful makes clear. So stop freaking panicking about it.

Aaaaaand, Phil Plait on the good idea that is charging higher insurance premiums to the anti-vaxxers.

Carl Sagan kicks woo's ass! And then eats apple pie. After first creating the universe.

That'll do it for the week, I suppose. I'm out for a while. Catch you 'round.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

THE SNOWBYSS

OMfsm, it's the Snowpocalypse!! Again. Or not. Personally, I prefer SNHURRTASTROPACALYSE. SNOWPOCALYPSE NOW is good, too. Or SNOWMAGGEDON! Or SNOWDEPENDENCE DAY! Or DEEP SNOWPACT! Thanks to Sarah Smart for that cold-medicine-inspired bit of brilliance, and no thanks to the media for feeding an ever-hungry public the fodder for yet another snowpanic.

Let's get one thing clear: Short-term weather prediction is a notoriously complex and thankless job. So when the meteorologists predict snow and we just get some rain, or when the public's interpretation of their words imply doom and indicate that panic is the only option and then the storm blows through (again), we must remain calm and try to refrain from the all-to-easy blame-the-weatherman rhetoric.
It is far better to be prepared for a storm that does not come than to be surprised by a storm that was not predicted or was not expected to be so violent as it got.
We are grownups. We have to use common sense. Yes, over-prediction of terrible storms risks making people complacent and falls into the crying wolf category, but how much worse if the news did NOT broadcast anything about the weather? Farmers would not cover their crops and protect their flocks, drivers would not know they might need snow tires or chains, kids would not wear scarves and boots (okay, who are we kidding, kids never wear scarves anyway), people might not fill their gas tanks or have extra food stored in their basements.

The concern of crying wolf is valid, but people need to use their brains. I suppose the anger directed at meteorologists and the resentment of panicky people can directly be traced to a lack of critical thinking in people as a whole.

Remember, this storm was pretty terrible everywhere else that it hit, just not here in Monroe County, and every indication was that it would clobber us like it clobbered everyone else. Would you prefer they not warn us at all and leave us to guess when the next blizzard will bluster by? Or should we perhaps pay attention to the warnings and take what precautions we feel are necessary and appropriate, and then take responsibility for those actions ourselves once the storm has passed -or not manifested- ?

A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals. And you know it. So it's up to you to be smart. Don't be a sheople, but be aware of your surroundings, and try not to blame everything on the weathermen or the government or the media or the vitriol. Sometimes words do incite violence, sometimes preparedness is for naught, but sometimes (most times) we are responsible for ourselves and would do well to remember that.

Come on, kids, get over it. So, the storm blew through lighter than expected? That's a GOOD thing. Better to over-prepare than under-prepare. Watch the radar, wear your boots, get your flu shot, find your snow brush and roll with it.

Happy Imbolc.

Friday, January 28, 2011

this week in information (1/28)

I heart the Information Is Beautiful website, especially for their supplement data, and this latest work about horoscope patterning is no exception. Your unique and specific horoscope? Hardly. Be sure to check out the meta-horoscope: good for all star signs! ...except, you know, Ophiuchus. Tip o' the BS Meter to Phil Plait (my always-source for all things pro-science and pro-real) for this one.

In too-good-to-be-true news, Bounce fabric softener sheets do NOT in fact keep mosquitoes away -but they have some success with fungus gnats! And, seeing as how fungus gnats are assholes and really annoying, that's wicked cool! Of course, mosquitoes are actually life-threatening in some areas, what with the malaria and West Nile and all, so it's really scary that the media is reporting this research incorrectly and implying people could forgo actual protection for fabric softener sheets... Yikes.

Holy shit, I agree with the pope about something!! Of course, I disagree with the fundamentals behind his beliefs, but the point remains valid: people have unreasonable expectations and often need counseling and not everyone should get married. Whoa. It's a freaking miracle!!

It's here! It's here! That shocking time of year! When tons of strained bipartisan thoughts miraculously appear! Yes, this week the President gave his State of the Union Address, which means that it was time once again for the State of the Union Address Drinking Game, 2011!!! (another version here)

Speaking of the SotU, check out these word clouds of such speeches, past and current.

European crack-down on "alternative" pet remedies (homeopathy: there's nothing to it!). Remember: if it worked it wouldn't be called alternative, it would just be medicine.

Athletes sued for being stupid.
Wait, how were athletes ever successful BEFORE they started wearing stupid meaningless necklaces or bracelets?
If the bracelets ARE giving them an edge, they should be disqualified for performance enhancing substances. But since there's absolutely no mechanism or science behind the company's claims regarding holograms and "energy flow," maybe famous people should just stop spreading false information and dangerous bullshit. Maybe. In a perfect world.

WHOA beauty! A national parks picture made up of other national parks pictures? Wicked awesome, NatGeo, wicked awesome.

WHOA solar flares!

Aaaaaaand, Tree Lobsters rock my BOOBS.

Happy weekend.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

stuff worth sharing

From Feministing: Happy MLK Day.

From Skepchick: Open letter to a teenage misfit.

Oprah's doing evil again. She gave Mehmet Oz his own show, on which Oz promotes the dangerous quack Joseph Mercola. Bad, bad, bad. From David Gorski, from Steven Novella, and from James Randi.
From me:
Mercola: medicine is bad; just take these unproven vitamins for your cancer
Oz: that seems reasonable; after all, you have a website -you must be for realz! also, and my wife's a reiki master so I have credibility
Oprah: here, assholes, have a show on which to spread dangerous bullshit! You get a show! And YOU get a show! Everybody gets a show!

Also, check out the Cynic's Guide to the Oprah Winfrey Network. Blerf, a whole network of awful. So much blerf.

Interesting, moving, and sad. The Poe Toaster is a no-show again... :(

Chaucer and a brief history of the word "cunt": Chaucer's Cunt. I like that cunt can mean a "clever or curious device or ornament." FTW.

Math is pretty? What? Yup.

Concerned about overpopulation? Grist gotchu.

James Randi wishes the FTC and FDA weren't such a bunch of frilly pansies, especially when it comes to internet scams.

Neil deGrasse Tyson is god. Kneel before Neil!!

Birth control does NOT cause weight gain. I've read this before, but the propaganda continues unabated because society sees women as petty and hopes to dissuade them from protecting themselves and committing the sin of family planning by fat-shaming them. Birth control lies are often spread by the anti-woman anti-choice crowd and I suspect this myth is no different. Anecdotes are not data, people, and you can't make popular assumptions without ASS.

Finally, GADS of great information and answers to frequently asked questions about childhood vaccinations, and vaccinations in general, at Immunize for Good.


In metal news: metal cephalopod.
In cute news: kittehs driftin'.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

vaccine wins of late

Andrew Wakefield's been disgraced (at least, he would be, if he had any sense of ethics or morals), and the house of cards the anti-vax community has built is coming apart at the seems.

It was clearly all about the money for Wakefield, but he lucked out when the enabling media and gullible scared parents came to his defense. Maybe now that his fraud is exposed, he'll lose some of the faithful. We can only hope.

Salon finally pulled a dangerous anti-vax article from their archives, and published a rundown behind the panic.

Elyse kicks ass and coins a new term: God Damned Mother Fucking Liar (TM)

Wait, parents who willfully put their children and everyone else at risk by refusing to vaccinate because of religion, conspiracy theory or scientific ignorance should pay more for health insurance? Great suggestion!!

Also, great site: Immunize for Good. Yes, good.

Friday, January 21, 2011

it's the dawning of the age of ...nonsense

OMG-have-you-heard?! The zodiac is all new and different and you might be married to the wrong person!! Really!! No, not really. Astrology, as always, is bull. You'd be more affected by the gravitational pull of the sun or the moon or the doctor or your MOM when you're born than by a random grouping of stars millions of light-years away. But that doesn't stop people from reading their vague horrorscopes and staking their relationships on supposed astrological compatibility. Sigh.

The earth wobbles over time, and we've been aligning the wrong signs with dates for quite some time. The zodiac has always really had more than twelve signs, anyway. But now that the media has caught on, it's NEWS!!! Granted, they got their scoop from an actual scientist, Parke Kunkle, a board member of the Minnesota Planetarium Society, but they're still all worked up about woononsense...
Speaking of the Minnesota Planetarium Society, they link to the original article in regards to the news reports, and also to (holy haleakala) Phil Plait!!! Weee!!!

Phil Plait gives a rundown; Neil deGrasse Tyson rants a bit about Ophiuchus; Rebecca Watson says OMG re: astrology, you guys!!; from the SGU blog; from Ben Radford on the inherent racism of astrology, besides

Also, an article from ABC News including the "new" signs. GASP!! I'm a Libra now!! Oh noez!! What's it mean?! Oh. Right. Nothing. Other than an awkward hanging of my Scorpius Yule tree ornament next year...

Much ado about hooey.
That is all.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

FRAUD!!! ...allegedly

Andrew Wakefield is, as has long been suspected, a FRAUD. Allegedly. The British Medical Journal has had a number of scathing pieces about his culpability and questionable ethics and his contribution to the illness and deaths of so many children through his misinformation campaign, and now the BMJ has declared his link between autism and vaccinations to be fraudulent.

Phil Plait, ever the undickish diplomat, has this to say:
If the charges of fraud can be made to stick, then we might be able to make some progress toward reality once again, and lower the rate of outbreaks of measles, pertussis, and polio… and save a lot of lives in the process.

His entire blog entry is great, and moving, and I too hope that this declaration of fraud will give parents pause and encourage them to look at the scientific consensus and preponderance of evidence, rather than nonmedical quacks.

Ben Radford has a write-up in Discovery News: Vaccine-Autism Doctor Accused of 'Deliberate Fraud' Sadly, he is probably correct that "the anti-vaccination movement will march on despite the fact that the only scientific research that supports their position was conducted by a discredited, unethical researcher."

Science-Based Medicine (imagine that, SCIENCE!!) blogger David Gorski shares his thoughts here.

Skepchick and real mommy-warrior Elyse doesn't mince words: Andrew Wakefield is, she says he's a Straight up mother fucking liar. Word.

PZ Myers: It wasn't just shoddy, it was fraud.


Also, articles from NPR and the NY Times, and Brian Deer's writeup (check back for part 2).

Unfortunately, this won't change many minds. The rabid anti-vaxxers will continue to cry "martyr" and "conspiracy" and will continue to dispense misinformation and ignore the (quite clear) science. Misinformed parents will continue to be fear-mongered out of protecting their children from deadly and disfiguring diseases. People will continue to get medical information from Google searches and Oprah Winfrey. Children and babies will still die and be harmed when they could have been protected.
We can point out the short-comings of Wakefield's study and decry his questionable methods and ethics, but the damage has already been done. It's too late for a lot of people. But it's not too late or you!! Talk to your doctor about your vaccine schedule! Ensure that you've had your booster shots! Make sure your kids are protected. Get your flu shot, especially if you're around children or the elderly or people with compromised immune systems. Get the facts, and then get your shots. Vaccines save the world, kids. Like Superman, only of terrestrial origin.