Skeptoid 150th Episode Party

WOO IN REVIEW: Lost Time Travel Contest Finalists

The Lost Time Travel Contest now closed for entries, but it's not over yet! Read over these three entries and vote in the comments (with words, not with the Vote Up/Vote Down button) for your favorite explanation of time travel. The winner of the contest will be announced at 12:00pm tomorrow, and that lucky individual will receive an autographed copy of Phil Plait's Death From the Skies!

ENTRY 1:

written by jpedigo, January 23, 2009
I'm going with option two: "If you believe that time travel is possible in reality, write a comment explaining how, why, under what circumstances, and what would be possible."

Were it not for three notable events that shared a common thread, it might have been an ordinary Saturday morning during the summer of 2007.

The first of these events occurred in California where some 200 invited attendees descended upon the Google campus to attend the second annual ‘Science Foo Camp,' a conference that draws together leading scientists and experts in technology and public policy from around the world. The format of SciFoo is unusual for lacking any predetermined agenda and being participant-driven where each attendee is expected to give a talk of some kind. Among those attending for the first time were two names familiar to skeptics, PZ Myers and James Randi.

This story is so sad, and what makes it worse is that it was preventable.

The Centers for Disease Control has put out an alert: in Minnesota in 2008, there were five confirmed cases of Haemophilus influenzae type b (or Hib) among children younger than five years old. Of these five cases, three of the children were unvaccinated, one had started the series of vaccines but did not complete the series due to shortages, and the fifth -- who had been fully vaccinated -- had an immune deficiency.

Five cases may not sound like a lot... until you learn that one of the unvaccinated children died. This was a baby, just a seven-month-old infant.