Politics
oracknows | May 10, 2010Now here's a project of which I entirely approve: Its an Encyclopedia of American Loons. It's up to seven as of this writing, including Mike Adams (of course!), who is characterized as "Complete loon, flamingly stupid, extremely paranoid, a zealot and a fraud; his influence is probably limited but given just a small base of followers he could wreak some havoc," and HIV/AIDS denialist Mohammed Al-Bayati, who is characterized as "Self-unaware belligerent zealot, victim of extreme confirmation bias; impact uncertain." Of course, both of these loons have been featured right here on this very blog…
pharyngula | May 10, 2010I apologize. You might not want to read any of this post if you simply cannot bear the raging stupidity that characterizes Fox News. Fair warning: the clip below features both Bill O'Reilly and Sarah Palin.
I suspect that a lot of you, if you got this far, turned that clip off scant moments into it. The inanity and ignorance is too strong. But here are just a few tidbits. In his opening statement, that fathead O'Reilly says:
The constitution clearly states that the government cannot impose religion on citizens, but setting aside a day to encourage expression of voluntary spirituality is in…
oracknows | May 9, 2010I'm a bit of an odd bird in the world of cancer. No, it's not because I run a snarky skeptical blog that routinely deconstructs the nonsense that alt-med practitioners sprew far and wide, nor is it because I've developed a middling level of popularity that shocks me from time to time. Nor is it because I've taken on an obscure pseudonym based on a computer that looked like a Plexiglass box full of colored blinking lights from an even more obscure late 1970s British science fiction show with the low-budget asthetic of Tom Baker-era Doctor Who, although personally I sometimes wonder what it…
drorzel | May 9, 2010When I was writing about the seemingly contradictory meanings of "adiabatic" the other day, I almost gave "theory" as an example of a word with nearly opposite meanings. After all, as anyone who has even glanced at the evolution-creation "debate" has heard, a "Theory" in science is something more exalted than a mere guess-- it's a guess that has been confirmed by observations and experiments, and can thus be regarded as true with a high degree of confidence (and assigned a capital letter in this post, to set it apart). (Also, in physical science at least, it makes quantitative predictions.).…
grrlscientist | May 9, 2010tags: Did Religion Have an Evolutionary Value?, religion, psychology, social structure, social commentary, cultural observation, Richard Dawkins, streaming video
Richard Dawkins argues that humanity's historical predisposition towards religion and supernatural beliefs may have held an evolutionary utility. "The rule of thumb: 'Believe whatever your parents tell you,' quite clearly could have survival value," says Dawkins.
He's the King of All the Atheists (um, yeah, right), and now Richard Dawkins is hammering home what he sees as his key argument against the existence of God. In his book,…
grrlscientist | May 8, 2010tags: Mexican Bishops Ask for Forgiveness, catholicism, religion, sex abuse, child rape, pedophilia, social commentary, cultural observation, Al Jazeera, streaming video
As the Vatican tries to defuse growing anger over child abuse by priests in the Roman Catholic Church, bishops in Mexico have released a statement asking victims for forgiveness.
Church authorities in Mexico have now admitted that one of their priests, Marcial Maciel, had over a 40-year period, preyed on nearly 200 young seminarians and children, including two of his own.
The Vatican has continued to deny allegations of a…
stoat | May 8, 2010There is some more Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality up - go get it now (ht: Paul).
Ha ha, fooled you. This is actually a post about rowing :-). Today was the H2H or Head to Head: 2000m, a brief break (well, 20 mins wating by the bank in the rain, yummy; and lets not mention the brief altercation with the marshall over our spinning :-), then 2000m back. We took 14:22, which is quite passable... I'd be happy to do that on an erg. It was also a very clean row and enjoyable. We got stuffed by various 1st Mays crews (winner: 12:48). But in the rowing and running theme, it is…
illconsidered | May 7, 2010Science has published a letter with 250 signatories protesting the recent and extreme attacks on scientists, climate scientists in particular. I agree with Michael, this letter should not be behind a paywall. I think the fact that it is, is disturbingly revealing of the disadvantage science has in the PR arenas.
It is very well done, though to be honest I wish they had not pushed the creationist button and had instead used an entirely different example of well established science to make their point. As scientifically non-controvesial as the age of the earth is, we need to reach even those…
stoat | May 6, 2010Yes, the Greens have got their first UK parliamentary seat [1]. Congratulations to Caroline Lucas in Brighton. And with the current hung parliament, it might even do some good. I wonder how well the GP would stand up to real politics?
More later when the results come in.
Oh yes: as a token gesture towards the real world: shame abuot the Lib Dems. Which caused me to look up South Cambs. This is usually a shoo-in for Lansley. And it was this time too, except that the Lib Dems were very clearly second and Labour nowhere. Maybe some hope for next time.
Incidentally, do you realise I'm not the…
sa smith | May 6, 2010Oh yeah-- Today is the National Day of Prayer (WHOOO NICK! WHOOOOO!!!).
Lets celebrate!
This catchy tune from 2004 is still 100% relevant-- from abortion to child rape... good times...
pharyngula | May 6, 2010Sometimes I am just so embarrassed by my country. Do we really need the government telling people to appeal to an invisible magic man in the sky? Apparently, we do.
"I call upon the citizens of our nation to pray, or otherwise give thanks, in accordance with their own faiths and consciences, for our many freedoms and blessings, and I invite all people of faith to join me in asking for God's continued guidance, grace, and protection as we meet the challenges before us," Obama said in his official proclamation.
Get stuffed, you pandering, unprincipled hack.
Let's just hope that the appeal of…
grrlscientist | May 6, 2010tags: David Cameron Met a Black Man, UK politics, conservative party, humor, funny, comedy, satire, art, streaming video
This video is for all my friends who are voting in today's General Election in the UK. According to my observations (admittedly, as an outsider), David Cameron is a proud member of the "it sucks to be rich" political party.
This political music video is by Tim Ireland and uses the tune 'Common People' (written by Jarvis Cocker, and covered here by Ben Folds, Joe Jackson and William Shatner) to help make its point.
jrosenhouse | May 5, 2010As part of his ongoing campaign to make himself as buffoonish as possible, Joe Lieberman devised a brilliant idea for dealing with American terror suspects:
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) thinks he's found a work-around on the whole Miranda rights debate for U.S. citizens accused of terrorism: Strip their citizenship and ship them to Guantanamo.
Lieberman plans to introduce a bill that would amend a decades-old law aimed at yanking citizenship from U.S. citizens who fight for a foreign military.
“I'm now putting together legislation to amend that to [specify that] any individual American…
grrlscientist | May 4, 2010tags: The Story of Astoria Scum River Bridge, grassroots activism, citizen activism, Hell Gate Bridge viaduct, Astoria Scum River Bridge, infrastructure, unauthorized city improvement, Amtrack, New York City, NYC Life, Jason Eppink, Posterchild, streaming video
This is a wonderfully produced video documenting a true story of creative citizen activism designed to protect the safety of the neighbors in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens, NYC.
Astoria Scum River Bridge is an unauthorized city improvement by Jason Eppink and Posterchild.
For more than twenty years, a leaky pipe on 33rd Street…
drorzel | May 4, 2010As James Nicoll is fond of saying, context is for the weak. So here's a context-free poll regarding the reporting of election results:
Releasing a rank-ordered list of candidates with vote totals after a contested election is:online survey
If you'd like to explain what context you might imagine this to have in the comments, that could be fun to see.
palmd | May 3, 2010Many years ago, when fascist Jean-Marie Le Pen was riding a wave of racist sentiment in France, I was a young student out with friends on a perfect spring evening along the Seine. There was at that time always a vigorous national police presence in Paris. The CRS with their sub-machine guns were visible outside government buildings and patrolling the streets.
Racism was a palpable presence in Paris. A popular deli, Jo Goldenberg's, had been bombed a few years earlier, and the nearby Holocaust museum had bullet holes in one of its glass walls. One time when I tried to order coffee at a…
illconsidered | May 3, 2010A = $6.08 billion
B = $75 million
Profits for the single last quarter for BP were 6.08 Billion dollars. Under current US law, their total liability for non-cleanup and containment damages is .075 Billion dollars.
Would any free market supporters like to defend this thinly veiled example of corporate welfare?
See also Things Break for some early estimates of how bad the worst case scenario could get, including implications for the entire US economy.
Like Katrina, global warming did not cause this disaster. But also like Katrina, it is an excellent illustration of issues relating to risk…
ddobbs | May 3, 2010
Newscom/Zuma, via TPM
Brains, genes, and taxes won the month.
How does Williams syndrome prevent racism? It's subtle
Ed Yong, Mo Costandi, Scientific American, and others have covered nicely a new paper finding that people with WIlliams syndrome (a condition I've been interested in since writing a long feature about it for the Times Magazine a few years back) show little or no racial bias. But I wanted to add one thought about the finding.
Most of the write-ups have emphasized, rightly, that people with Williams tend to show little or no social fear -- a lack that could explain a lack of…
grrlscientist | May 2, 2010tags: Wikileaks on the Culture Show, freedom of publishing, freedom of press, investigative journalism, communication, information technology, internet, television, Culture Show, Jacques Peretti, John Young, Julian Assange, streaming video
Jacques Peretti looks into Wikileaks, the anonymous whistle-blowing internet site. Features an interview with John Young of Cryptome and Julian Assange of Wikileaks. Just for good measure, John has published details of the email correspondence with the BBC.
pharyngula | May 2, 2010I was shocked to see that the Virginia attorney general has filed papers against the climate researcher, Michael Mann. Mann had worked at the University of Virginia for 5 or 6 years, doing climate studies that cost the state about a half million dollars over that time. (To put that in perspective, that's a middling sized grant; big biomedical researchers can get much more than that.) Cuccinelli is claiming that Mann committed fraud, and wants to demand all that money back.
There are no grounds to consider Mann to have committed any breach of ethics. The sole foundation for his legal attack is…