Politics
grrlscientist | May 2, 2010tags: I'm A Teabagger For Jesus, teabaggers, America, poverty, racism, sexism, homophobia, socialism,humor, funny, satire, fucking hilarious, social commentary, cultural observation, Edward Current, streaming video
What would Jesus do to help America? In this video, William Current, one of my favorite social satirists, explains how he decided that he would be a Teabagger. No taxation without representation!
aardvarchaeology | May 2, 2010It is of course a major issue of public discourse these days that the Catholic church has long systematically covered up child rape in the interests of the organisation's public image. But to my knowledge, nobody has attempted to justify the rapes with reference to Catholic religious doctrine. The church's attitude has roughly been "We think this is really nasty behaviour, but more importantly we don't want any bad press".
In Nigeria, it is illegal for anyone under the age of 18 to marry. But senator Ahmad Sani Yerima, 49, is under investigation for taking a girl as his fourth wife when she…
grrlscientist | May 1, 2010tags: Bible Contradictions Quiz Show, religion, christianity, Bible, humor, funny, satire, comedy, fucking hilarious,animation, cults, streaming video
This amusing video shows a quiz show where the two contestants are asked questions about the bible -- unfortunately, the holy word of god is filled with contradictions (more contradictions than the Harry Potter series, for that matter!)
illconsidered | May 1, 2010This really must be read to be believed. IANAL, but surely this is over the top, to use the legal jargon. It is a clearly an impossible demand.
Untitled
Anyone have a link to an unembedded document?
[UPDATE: never mind, it is here[PDF]]
revere | May 1, 2010Arizona, you are looking ugly. Defenders claim its Draconian measures are a result of the failure of US immigration policy, and I have to agree. Everyone seems to agree on the need for immigration reform, but like the weather, no one wants to do anything about it. The Democrats have a bill, but no one seems to think it will succeed in an election year and may be only window dressing, anyway. The bill puts securing the border first, followed by provisions for fraud-proof identity cards. Bringing up the rear are tough requirements that would allow a path to citizenship for people currently…
illconsidered | April 30, 2010I always marvel at the scientist-government conspiracy theories the more wacky members of the climate denial machine toss around so confidently.
How do they fit this into their world view?
In papers sent to UVA April 23, Cuccinelli's office commands the university to produce a sweeping swath of documents relating to Mann's receipt of nearly half a million dollars in state grant-funded climate research conducted while Mann-- now director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State-- was at UVA between 1999 and 2005.
...
Among the documents Cuccinelli demands are any and all emailed or…
eklemetti | April 30, 2010News!
Colima in Mexico erupting in 2008.
The current activity at Eyjafjallajökull is more-or-less unchanged, with strombolian activity producing a 3-4 km tall ash-and-steam plume and the lava flows at the crater moving northward towards the GÃgjökull glacier. You can check out an extensive page on the state of this eruption at the Nordic Volcanological Center - along with a new page with thermal and LIDAR information on the eruption from France.
The Icelandic Met Office notes that the lava has been producing meltwater from the glacier - which many Eruptions readers have noticed as floods…
grrlscientist | April 29, 2010tags: Dom Sankt Bartholomäus, St Bartholomew's Cathedral, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, photography
Dom Sankt Bartholomäus (St Bartholomew's Cathedral), Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
Image: GrrlScientist, 14 April 2010 [larger view].
This is one of the back doors to the church, and it is a rather aesthetically pleasing one at that. Unfortunately, it was surrounded by a herd of parked cars, so it was impossible to get the photograph I could see in my head, unless I resorted to photoshop. This image is as close as I could get to what I was seeking, and I think of this as a "project…
pharyngula | April 29, 2010I suggested in jest that maybe we should put England's sensible Lord Justice Laws on our Supreme Court, but maybe they still need rationalists over there. The Guardian has been using a stellar pro-science panel (Goldacre and Singh, to name two members) to quiz representatives of various political parties on their science stance. They just interviewed the United Kingdom Independence Party, whose representative was…Viscount Monckton of Brenchley. You have got to be kidding; that man is a raving loon. So the UKIP rejects the science of global warming, but advocates for homeopathy.
My favorite…
cwilcox | April 28, 2010Anyone who follows me on twitter has probably noticed a lot of tweets about a shark fin bill that was being reviewed in Hawaii. I am glad to inform you that this historic bill has just passed the legislature. It's but a signature by Governor Lingle away from being enacted into law!
Of the 307 shark species assessed by the IUCN, 64 are listed as vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered due to shark finning. As a group, sharks represent the greatest percentage of threatened marine species on the Red List. Despite the overwhelming evidence that these majestic predators are in trouble,…
stoat | April 28, 2010 Ah, tis the electoral season, so it is no-holds-barred on the Tories.
Thanks to Paul and Ow.ly.
Original by Michael Schofield. I've cropped mine a little.
Meanwhile, it looks like Brown is in trouble. Mind you, I've no idea if the original comment was justified ot not.
Remember: Vote Green.
grrlscientist | April 27, 2010tags: The Truth About HSUS, pets, animals, animal rights, wingnuts, cults, Wayne Pacelle, Humane Society of the United States, HSUS, streaming video
The real agenda of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is to remove money from your wallet and put it into their CEOs' retirement funds, to ignore animal shelters, and to forever destroy your ability to live with animals.
grrlscientist | April 27, 2010tags: Dom Sankt Bartholomäus, St Bartholomew's Cathedral, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, photography
Dom Sankt Bartholomäus (St Bartholomew's Cathedral), Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
Image: GrrlScientist, 14 April 2010 [larger view].
This gothic-style cathedral was constructed in the 14th and 15th centuries on the foundation of an earlier church from the Merovingian time. Some of these ruins are still visible. Dom Sankt Bartholomäus is the main church of Frankfurt and it has some historical significance. From 1356 onwards, kings of the Holy Roman Empire were elected in this church, and…
pharyngula | April 27, 2010Prince Charles always seemed like a walloping great dunderhead to me, and I see that my opinion has been confirmed. His great cause, the philanthropic purpose he'd like to be remembered for, is propping up the quackery of homeopathy and other such nonsensical therapies. And now one of his aides in this misguided impulse has been arrested for fraud. How appropriate. I doubt that Charles has done any embezzling — British royalty are rich enough that it would be superfluous — but it's a shame that he won't be arrested for the greater harm he has perpetrated.
Any system of hereditary transfer of…
pharyngula | April 27, 2010Yesterday, I linked to an offensive poll by Minnesota Republicans in district 42 (that's one of the Minneapolis suburbs, by the way). My readers marched in, voted against their support for Arizona's racial-profiling, anti-immigrant law, and completely skewed the results to be against the desired Republican outcome.
This happens often enough; the point is that these kinds of internet polls do not reliably produce accurate results, and it's easy to twist a poll in a contrary way. Most often these polls are put up as a kind of exercise in self-affirmation, because, for instance, very few non-…
grrlscientist | April 27, 2010tags: Political Change with Pen and Paper, politics, letter-writing campaign, Omar Ahmad, TEDTalks, streaming video
Politicians are strange creatures, says politician Omar Ahmad. And the best way to engage them on your pet issue is a monthly handwritten letter. Ahmad shows why old-fashioned correspondence is more effective than email, phone or even writing a check -- and shares the four simple steps to writing a letter that works.
After years of volunteering for grassroots political groups, I have used my experience to teach and help people write letters to politicians over the years, but…
grrlscientist | April 26, 2010tags: Du bist Terrorist, You are a terrorist, internet security, online censorship, politics, satire, social control, cultural observation, social commentary, streaming video
Du bist Terrorist (or "You are a terrorist" -- yes, this video has English subtitles) is a satirical response to two official German social-marketing-campaigns. One of them, Du bist Deutschland (You are Germany), was promoting nationalism and a child-friendly Germany, Du bist Terrorist is a look at today's politics in Germany, where all citizens are viewed with general suspicion and Germany has become a preventive…
pharyngula | April 26, 2010This is Minnesota. We're mostly pale and of Scandinavian/German ancestry up here, which means our local racists are mostly blithely confident and don't have much opportunity to express themselves. We just saw one interesting example of a regional Republican party with a contemptuous attitude towards Hispanics…but you've got to go to the teabaggers to see that topped.
Members of the Mille Lacs Tea Party Patriots held the second annual Tea Party rally on Thursday, April 15 in Milaca. Roughly 60 people turned out for the event in which Sue Bican told attendees they must resolve to become active…
pharyngula | April 26, 2010You may have heard that Arizona has a draconian new immigration law that essentially legalizes racial profiling, and requires immigrants to carry their registration documents at all times…and by default, then, you better not be caught brown in Arizona without proof of citizenship, no matter what your legal status.
One of our local Republican districts has a poll on this issue. You will not believe the wording on it.
President Obama called the new Arizona bill banning illegal immigration "misguided". Do you agree?
Sí, señor!
22%
No Way, José!
77%
They really need to add a cute…
drorzel | April 26, 2010I'm currently enjoying the high, thin whistle of an impending deadline, so here are a couple of poll questions about infuriating behaviors to pass the time. The first is about people:
Which of these is more infuriating to read/watch/hear?online surveys
The second about presentations:
Which of these talks is more infuriating to listen to?Market Research
My answers to these are probably a big part of why I sometimes have trouble with the Internet and the people on it. I'm interested to know what other people think, though. And while the polls themselves are binary choices, feel free to…