Pointless polls
pharyngula | April 7, 2009Yet another international poll, this time from Argentina.
Do you think the government should take in consideration the (Roman
Catholic) Church's stance on abortion?
Si
79.5 %
No
20.5 %
So far the majority seems to think going along with the Vatican's silly position is all right.
pharyngula | April 7, 2009In Pharyngula's ongoing campaign of world-wide internet poll domination, how could I resist an opportunity to crash a poll in Romania? Scroll down a bit and look on the left side of the page to find this one.
Crezi in Dumnezeu? (Do you believe in God?)
da, el ma calauzeste! (Yes, he is guiding me!)
52.1%
da, dar in felul meu (Yes, in my own way)
34.1%
nu exista (Doesn't exist)
9.3%
nu, dar o forta superioara exista (No, but a higher force exists)
2.9%
nu, cred in altceva (No, I believe in another thing)
1.6%
9.3% isn't bad, but perhaps that number will shift a little bit.
I'm also…
pharyngula | April 4, 2009Yesterday, King's stupid poll was all about 'curing' autism. Today, he asks,
Do you pray?
Yes 54%
No 46%
Why, no, Larry, I don't…and I think people who do are rather ridiculous, except when they're desperate, in which case they're just sad.
pharyngula | April 3, 2009Television once again throws away its potential with a program featuring a triumvirate of inanity: Larry King lobbing sloppy wet kisses at Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy. I might tune in, even — it seems a shame to miss what must be a rare collision of extreme stupidity.
They also have a poll. Of course.
Do you think autism can be "cured"?
Yes47% 583
No53% 655
Another question: can King, Carrey, and McCarthy be "cured"? It's actually the same question: can any developmental disorder which produces a recognizable pattern of changes in the performance of the brain be cured, and should it?
pharyngula | April 2, 2009He apparently has a new and stupid habit, and US News and World Report wants to know what we think of it. Well, let 'em know.
President Obama is opening many of his public events with prayers from local community leaders. Do you support this new White House tradition?
52.57% Yes
47.43% No
(via The Friendly Atheist)
pharyngula | March 31, 2009I must thank io9 for taking the spirit of the pointless poll to the next level. They have an article on the term "nerd" and are asking whether it's a useful label or not. Here are the results so far.
Should we retire the term "nerd"?
You're dead wrong man, keep the faith! Cool stuff is still happening! Nerd4Life! 10% (169 votes)
You're way late guy; it was all over by The Phantom Menace, or maybe that Hackers film with Angelina Jolie. 19% (327 votes)
Let's keep it alive anyway for what's still valuable. Future generations of misfits will thank us. 26% (449 votes)
Answer 4 19% (323 votes)…
pharyngula | March 27, 2009Texans need some wise advice. KTBX asks, How do you think science should be taught in Texas schools?.
Evolution only - 34.50%
Creationism only - 16.83%
Combination of both - 48.67%
Total Responses -600
Those numbers don't look quite right to me. I'm about to get on a plane and fly to Minneapolis…is there any chance there will be a significant shift by the time I land?
pharyngula | March 17, 2009The Globe and Mail has a pointless poll, no doubt inspired by l'affaire Goodyear.
Do you believe in evolution?
Yes
48%
4199 votes
No
50%
4360 votes
I won't answer a question about my religion
2%
170 votes
Spank that puppy, won't you? It's a stupid question, anyway.
pharyngula | March 2, 2009The Orlando Sentinel asks the same old stupid question: Should Florida schools be required to teach intelligent design along with the scientific theory of evolution?
Yes. Intelligent Design provides an alternative explanation to evolution, which is just a theory. It's healthy to give students a choice. (3 responses)
17.6%
No. Evolution is a time-tested scientific theory, like gravity. Intelligent design is inspired by religion and has no place in a science classroom. (13 responses)
76.5%
Not sure. I don't know enough about either subject to make an informed choice. (1 responses)
5.9%…
pharyngula | March 2, 2009The American Atheists web site includes a very silly poll. Is Blasphemy a crime?
Yes: 3268
96%
No: 94
2%
Sure, it's going in a strongly sensible direction, but wouldn't a short paragraph explaining why blasphemy is not an actionable crime be more informative? Just asking atheists to state that their existence is not criminal is a no-brainer. And I sure hope they never try to claim that these results support the contention that blasphemy is not a crime.
Oops, wait...as is pointed out in the comments, I read this wrong — the poll was going in the wrong direction. I guess I just couldn't believe…
pharyngula | February 25, 2009We had a pointless poll post a while back where I pointed you at a silly site that asked what was the best evidence for the afterlife — and you people triumphantly emphasized that there was no evidence.
Amusingly, the guy who runs the site is now whining about the attention we gave him.
While I appreciate the attention from this Big Fish of the Intarwebs (and I thought Randi and the Bad Astronomer were big), I did find a bit of perverse irony in the situation. The biggest science blog on the planet, home site of one of the foremost 'defenders of reason', telling readers to go and vote on a…
pharyngula | February 25, 2009Those wacky, madcap Germans are promoting a little change in their set of national holidays: some people want to change the Feast of the Ascension, celebrating the day Jesus supposedly floated up into heaven, to…Evolution Day! As you might guess, I think this is an excellent idea. There is a petition you can sign, and less usefully, an online poll:
Soll "Christi Himmelfahrt" in "Evolutionstag" umbenannt werden?
Ich bin dafür (for it)3061
66.30%
Ich bin dagegen (against it)1312
28.42%
Ist mir egal (don't care)244
5.28%
They even have a charming video to go with their proposal.
pharyngula | February 21, 2009Just go and gape in awe at the obliviousness of our national media. This is a poll on US News & World Report, and it asks, "If you had a choice of four daycare centers run separately by Michelle Obama, Sarah Palin, Hillary Clinton, and Nancy Pelosi, which would you choose for your kids?" Incredible.
I believe that next week they'll have a question about Barack Obama's, Colin Powell's, Al Sharpton's, and Jesse Jackson's hypothetical fried chicken stands.
pharyngula | February 21, 2009It's been a while since we had a pointless poll…so here's a light snack to nibble on. We are asked, "The best evidence for an afterlife is from…", and the answer so far is:
Mediums
3% (20 votes)
Near-death experiences
26% (147 votes)
Reincarnation memories
15% (86 votes)
Ghosts
5% (29 votes)
EVP and similar
3% (19 votes)
Crisis apparitions
2% (14 votes)
All equal
11% (64 votes)
Other
7% (41 votes)
There is no evidence
27% (156 votes)
I don't get the popularity of the NDE "evidence". I had a friend once who told me that he had the most awesome experience on 'shrooms — he'd melted into a purple…
pharyngula | February 12, 2009I confess to some mixed feelings about this one. Several schools in Wisconsin hold their graduation ceremonies in local churches, and Americans United is threatening litigation to block them. One the one hand, I am all for secularizing 'sacred' spaces — let's take them all over and do something useful with them for a change. On the other, I don't think that's what this particular situation is all about, since it looks like the schools are using the churches to pollute what should be a secular ceremony with religious smog.
There is a poll, so you can weigh in on the topic…and like all online…
pharyngula | February 11, 2009I don't even see how one could vote on this incredibly biased and stupid poll. It's another of these homophobic fundamentalist christianist sites trying to argue that homosexuality is evil, and is a conspiracy to promote an anti-Christian agenda. It contains a collection of questions that are a beautiful example of how not to design a poll. One example:
Should homosexuals be given the same special rights extended to African-Americans and other minorities?
Your choices are "yes", "no", and "undecided". They leave out the reasonable options, "Minorities aren't given special rights", "We want…
pharyngula | February 2, 2009I'm getting a big surge in requests to pharyngulate this poll, Should the motto "In God We Trust" be removed from U.S. currency?. Stop, please. That poll is already blown to smithereens; just look at the numbers. Almost 11 million votes. The results are hacked, oversubscribed, and the product of massive flooding. When you see something like that, there's no point in asking me to swamp the poll, because it's done gone and sunk already, and is plummeting to depths that will make the Marianas Trench sigh with envy.
I like my polls fresh and tangy, ripe with stupidity. This one ain't, although…
pharyngula | January 29, 2009I just don't get it. Put a few signs with the atheist point of view on a bus, and people everywhere just freak out. Anyway, Toronto secularists are planning to slap some signs on some busses now, so this poll asks the strange question, "Should atheist groups be allowed to buy advertising space on the TTC?". I should think that the answer to this one ought to be 100% yes — after all, what grounds do they have to discriminate against atheists? — but here's the current results.
Yes - if religious groups can do it, why not let atheists as well? 57%
Maybe, but it depends on the wording of the…
pharyngula | January 23, 2009Understandably awful, since it's on Bill O'Reilly's site. He asks, What do you think of Ann Coulter?. The choices are:
I love Ann Coulter
I like her, but often she's too harsh
I can't stand her
You can guess which one is winning. I doubt that we can make much headway against the mindless hordes of Orlyites, but go ahead, take a stab at it.
pharyngula | January 11, 2009Well, if you believe in online polls, they don't like it very much. But hey, you know what we think of online polls! I suspect that we'll be able to win over all of the beautiful country of Spain with a few clicks on all of our computers. Here's the question, and the current state of affairs:
Que opinas sobre esta campaña ateista? (What do you think of the atheist bus campaign?)
Pésima (very bad): 83%
Mala (bad): 4%
Antiliberal: 8%
No se (don't know): 0%
Buena (good): 5%
Will it become buena in the next few hours?
By the way, the slogan sounds much prettier in Spanish: Probablemente Dios no…