Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Our Wacky World—8/20/2014

Spam of the week: "Be a lethal weapon in the bedroom"

More fake bomb detectors, more convictions, more deaths. Long-suffering readers will recall this earlier post on the long-running topic.

Don't get me started on this clusterfuck
'...the fastest rebuttal I give when I run into one of these [chemtrails] nuts is: “Do you even understand the first thing about our atmosphere? Anything released at 30,000 feet will blow for miles away from where you see it, and has virtually no chance of settling straight down onto the people below, and be so diluted it would have no measurable amount of the chemical by the time it lands. That’s why crop-dusting planes must fly barely 30 feet off the ground"'
Skeptic Blog


There's a homeopathic cure for ebola!:
"During the Spanish influenza epidemic of 1918, eighty percent of the people treated with allopathic drugs died. Eighty percent of the people who took homeopathic remedies, mostly Crolatus horridus, survived. We are once again faced with a virus that is poised sweep our country."
Light Party


Your small town needs way more policing:
"The same insurance company canceled its coverage this year for Oakley, a village in Saginaw County, after the police chief there brought in 100 unpaid and uncertified auxiliary officers, some from as far away as metro Detroit, to patrol a town of 290."
Detroit Free Press


Also in Detroit, what happened when the bankrupt city switched to cheap batteries for their parking meters to save money? They lost millions:
"At 8 volts, they stop working. So while the savings with the less-expensive battery might sparkle on a spreadsheet, it’s less practical when repair crews have to actually go out and replace them …"
Detroit News


Gun rights for the blind—hell yeah:
"Do you think because they're blind that they're going to start shooting in every direction and kill everyone? Fact is that it's been proven that people that lack vision have an increased awareness of their hearing and spatial surroundings."
Crooks & Liars

"The Public Prosecutor's Office in the Brazilian state of São Paulo is investigating why women are being asked to either submit to gynecological tests or, in some cases, prove their virginity in order to apply for state jobs."
Huffington Post


Another school system decides to buy gadgetry so they can give up making decisions:
Beginning this school year, Dubuque, Iowa public school students in middle and high school are to be required to wear heart rate monitors to determine their activity levels in gym class. “It will be a large portion of their grade, because we want to grade them on what they’re actually doing in our class,” Hawkins said. “It really takes the opinion out of things. You know it’s not really ‘I think your kid is doing this and this in class.’”
Turley's Blog

OTOH, the gym teacher who hated me gave me a failing grade for not being able to do a cartwheel. I guess it was a bad judgement call.