Thimerosal-Autism Stupidity

In the post below Kurt9 take me to task for not discussing the link between thimerosal and autism in a post about the morality of vaccination.

That’s because there isn’t any link, and until some trial lawyers pays me gobs of cash I’m not going to say there is. Tons of research have been done on the subject. No one who doesn’t stand to make a lot of money from lawsuits maintains that any link exists between thimerosal and autism.

I won’t recapitulate this well worn debate. (Quackbuster provides a good summation.) I will simply point out the last piece of evidence that puts the nail into the entire fraud once and for all.

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Moralism as a Response to a Free-Rider Problem

From the perspective of evolutionary game theory, moralism presents something of a dilemma.

Evolutionary game theory is a branch of mathematics that seeks to explain the behavior of animals and humans based on the assumption that all behavior ultimately must arise from the imperatives imposed by natural selection. From this perspective, human behavior originates largely in selfish motives and true altruism becomes the most difficult behavior of all to evoke.

Moralists exist in all cultures and in all cultures the moralist seeks to persuade or coerce other members of the culture into obeying the moral codes of the culture. Moralists concentrate on suppressing behaviors that do not cause immediate harm to others. Indeed, most moralists target self-destructive behaviors. Both individuals and societies spend a great deal of time and energy moralizing.

The evolutionary game theorist is forced to ask: Why bother? What is in it for the moralist?

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Nuclear Radiation? Not So Bad After All.

From Der Spiegel comes a story about the findings of scientists investigating the results of real-world cases of exposure to man-made nuclear radiation.

Their surprising conclusion? Turns out that radiation exposure from real-world events isn’t anywhere near as lethal as commonly thought.

Wow! Who knew?

Well, I did, as did anyone who actually objectively read the 70+ years of research on the matter of radiation exposure.

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