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Ted Cruz

7 (6.5%)

Rick Santorum

16 (14.8%)

Michelle Bachmann

13 (12%)

Chris Christie

23 (21.3%)

Rand Paul

49 (45.4%)

Total Members Voted: 107

[wierd]

Sadly, it is not safe for me to receive vaccinations, having a documented medica history of serious adverse reactions. (Seizures, high fever, and unconsciousness, which did result in minor nerve damage. It took years of therapy to overcome a lazy left eye. Considering the possible outcome I could have had, I am quite fortunate it was caught almost immediately. Many people who react to vaccination in that way end up paraplegic, or vegetables.)

I do not take the flu vaccinations. However, people in my predicament are most endangered by the loss of group immunity. The possible lack of availability of vaccine for those able and willing to use it is worrisome.

[Xantalos]

So I haven't mentioned this, but I've been thinking about it: Being that the CDC is shut down, America is getting no flu vaccines until this is over. And October is usually the beginning of when it hits.

...
Suddenly very glad I live in Canada.

Sure, it's not like there is only a completely arbitrary and highly porous border separating you from the US, oh, wait... Well, I suppose there is always the poles.

Universal healthcare which I love.

Well then, enjoy getting and recovering from the Flu. I, for one, have medicaid, and will use this and my cities generousness to obtain a shot. I know my mother already had one.

Too late, already gotten sick enough times that I bounce back from flu in less than a day.

[Bauglir]

Well, on the upside, our pharmacy is still dispensing flu vaccines like candy, so the supply hasn't dried up yet. I'm not 100% sure on how this works, but I was under the impression that the vaccines are manufactured by the private sector, and the CDC coordinates distribution and targeting. So I was expecting that over the next couple of weeks, there'll be sporadic shortages and overstocks around the country, but not a complete evaporation of the supply.

I could be wrong, however.

[wierd]

Actually, that just means you are an incubator for mutation.

When humans or animals are infected with influenza, the viral dna permanently takes up residence in their bodies. The virus has 4 discrete viral genomic capsids, which engage in crossng over type activities prior to assembly.

A host infected with multiple strains of the virus, will thus serve as an incubator for the virus strains to recombine in new ways prior to assembly inside their bodies.  This is also true for people who have been previously infected in some cases.

While the body's B cells will be on high alert for viral capsid protiens, getting infected, even for a short time, means your body will serve the virus as a repository of past successful infections, and can activate the dormant dna for transcription and recombination.

Reactivation of dormant viral genomes is how chicken pox becomes shingles later in life. It is the same virus, after lying dormant in all your sensory nerves. Fun stuff.

[FearfulJesuit]

Xantalos is Bay12's Patient Zero.

[misko27]

I very rarely become sick, and when I do it's usually wither something I barely notice for a few hours after waking up for a day or two, or when I eat something that disagrees with me.

In fact, me becoming sick enough to warrant is rare enough that I can't remember the last time it happened. Christmas of last year I think.

Xantalos is Bay12's Patient Zero.

Kill him now before he lays eggs! I think.

[Xantalos]

Actually, that just means you are an incubator for mutation.

When humans or animals are infected with influenza, the viral dna permanently takes up residence in their bodies. The virus has 4 discrete viral genomic capsids, which engage in crossng over type activities prior to assembly.

A host infected with multiple strains of the virus, will thus serve as an incubator for the virus strains to recombine in new ways prior to assembly inside their bodies.  This is also true for people who have been previously infected in some cases.

While the body's B cells will be on high alert for viral capsid protiens, getting infected, even for a short time, means your body will serve the virus as a repository of past successful infections, and can activate the dormant dna for transcription and recombination.

Reactivation of dormant viral genomes is how chicken pox becomes shingles later in life. It is the same virus, after lying dormant in all your sensory nerves. Fun stuff.

In that case, I'm fucked if all the diseases I've ever had reactivate.

[wierd]

Not really. Viral genomes lack complimentary pairs in most cases, meaning they experience tremendous numbers of transcription errors after incorporation, and usually become inert. However, the DNA can actually prove beneficial to the host species, as it is a driver of horizontal gene transfer between species, and even give rise to radical new morphologies and evolutionary lineages.

For instance, the mutation that makes placental mammals produce a placenta instead of laying eggs able to efficiently draw nutrients from the uterus has been traced to an ancient viral genome. (Will see if I can find the source.)

Ok, its a blog, but its from discover magizine. Not the best source, but far from the worst either.

*not even my memory is 100% perfect. only human.

[Max White]

www.nasa.gov/‎


I get the feeling it is more of a protest really.

[misko27]

Well this is useful

• Vital services that ensure seniors and young children have access to healthy food and meals may not have sufficient Federal funds to serve all beneficiaries in an extended lapse.
• Call centers, hotlines and regional offices that help veterans understand their benefits will close to the public.
• Veterans’ compensation, pension, education, and other benefits could be cut off in the case of an extended  shutdown.
• Every one of America’s national parks and monuments, from Yosemite to the Smithsonian to the Statue of Liberty, will be immediately closed.
• New applications for small business loans and loan guarantees will be immediately halted.
• Research into life-threatening diseases and other areas will stop, and new patients won’t be accepted into clinical  trials at the National Institutes of Health.
• Work to protect consumers, ranging from child product safety to financial security to the safety of hazardous waste facilities, will cease.
• The EPA will halt non-essential inspections of chemical facilities and drinking water systems.
• Permits and reviews for planned energy and transportations projects will stop, preventing companies from working on these projects.
• Loans to rural communities will be halted.
• Hundreds of thousands of Federal employees including many charged with protecting us from terrorist threats, defending our borders, inspecting our food, and keeping our skies safe will work without pay until the shutdown  ends.
• Hundreds of thousands of additional federal workers will be immediately and indefinitely furloughed without pay

Now that, that reads like a protest.

[Bauglir]

• New applications for small business loans and loan guarantees will be immediately halted.

Well, thank Zeus I decided that I needed another degree before starting one of those.

[SalmonGod]

Wondering how many businesses are going to take advantage of the temporary lack of oversight, to the detriment of everyone else... and how many of the people responsible for this shutdown will have ties to those businesses.

[Helgoland]

People, one thing about that Godwin's law stuff: It definitely applies to "Stazi". There was the MfS, Ministerium für Staatssicherheit, usually called the Stasi, and there was the NSDAP, the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, usually called the Nazis. Stazi would be an amalgamation (and not a terribly good one).

How about we coin a new term for this sort of shutdown! We have balkanization, how about "belgianization"?

[Tomcost]

PTW.

Also: are you sure that if the USA enters in default shit will hit the fans all over the world?

[Max White]

You know that thing we like to do with other countries? I think they called it 'trade'? As long as we want to keep doing that in the same fashion, the US defaulting would be bad.
Not as bad as it could have been a few years back, some nations have already started to make contingency plans in case this happens, mostly revolving around using Yuan, but the US owes so much money to China that the Yuan would also suffer immeasurably. A lot of nations are already counting their gold, hoping the worlds hardest to print fiat tender will protect them. Maybe, maybe... But it is hard to illegitimate metals, so the more gold you carry, the bigger the target painted on your back. Small nations in unstable regions will either go bankrupt and starve at a time when the world can't afford to send aid, or warlords will go into overdrive.

Look it just isn't good.