Saturday, February 16, 2013

Our Wacky World—2/16/2013

ETO explodes over Russia—cue the inevitable chorus of conspiracy theorists. Former Major League Baseball star and steroid user José Canseco has offered his priceless opinion.


Why there are so many good dashcam videos of a 10 tonne bolide screaming over Russia? A better question would be, "Why are there so many Russian dashcam videos on the internet?"

"Of the three auto-diagnosing apps, the best program missed malignant growths 30 percent of the time; a second performed only slightly better than flipping a coin. One app, instead of using an algorithm, simply forwarded the photo to an accredited dermatologist, who responded with his considered opinion 24 hours later. At $5 per lesion, this was the most expensive program, though the e-doctor misdiagnosed just one in 53 melanomas."
Salon


"Unlike Many Secular Educators We Teach The Scientific Method!"



"Five things to remember:
  1. Know your material. 
  2. Be confident. 
  3. Communicate well. 
  4. Be thorough. 
  5. Pray your exhibit will witness to non-Christian visitors."
Note that there are no pictures of this year's fair. That's because some mean atheists spoiled their fun.


How do living organisms survive without this?
"The problem with most water is that the body can’t actually absorb it, as the water’s composition can’t properly seep into the cells. You see water isn’t just water. If you’ve ever gone for a run and then stopped at a drinking fountain to drink some water, you may have experienced the feeling of the water not really quenching your thirst, besides tasting terrible. ...some people think that spring water is a good solution, but spring water...still isn’t the best because it is a simple molecular composition. While changing the pH (potential hydrogen) is helpful, that still doesn’t change the molecular structure i.e. surface tension and bonding angles. 
Starfire Water is different. Our water is spinned [sic] for several hours in a vortex to change the (hydrogen) composition of the water at a molecular level. Your cells suck up this water like a sponge."
Starfire Water


Another woo-meister bites the dust:
"In 1975 Swann wrote To Kiss Earth Good-Bye, which contains some really fascinating stuff. He makes the usual predictions of an impending ecological disaster. (The exact nature of the disaster changes from time to time, but that ecological disaster is always there in the near future, waiting for us.) Swann tells how he first established an ESP connection with one of his houseplants, asking it what was wrong when it was not doing well. The plant replied by projecting mental images to him."
BadUFOs

"As for Mike and Trina, for the past two years they have been 'unable to function' without their coffee enema, a ritual that takes five hours of planning and executing each day. They fill a 32-ounce bucket with coffee and deliver it to their lower intestine via a Vaseline-coated hose. 'That's the freaky part... I try to relax.'"
ABC

"'This is crazy. He was doing what he loved,' his mother, Doris Prokopi, said Friday from her Land O’Lakes home. 'That’s what he told them when he was arrested. That this was like arresting Indiana Jones. He collects these bones and puts them all together. This was always his dream. I don’t think he wanted to do anything else.' The question now is how should we interpret all of this? Is Prokopi a comic book hero or a black market mastermind? A scientist or a profiteer?"
The latter (Skeptic Blog)


"A pastor in Connecticut has apologized for taking part in a vigil for the victims of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School because his church does not allow worshiping with other faiths."

Click for story
We now pause for a commercial from the Scientologists.


A misogynist's tale of recovery:
"At this time, I was also dabbling in music recording and fancied myself as the new Roger Waters. When I was dumped by my then-girlfriend, I wrote a whole concept album about the break-up. Embarrassingly, it got a distribution deal and was produced on a decent-sized CD run, so there’s a permanent record of it that still comes back to haunt me."
Noodlemaz

"Ms Harris drank up to 10 litres of Coke every day – equal to more than twice the recommended safe daily limit of caffeine and almost 1 kilogram of sugar... She died...from a cardiac arrest."
SMH

"Following a rise in violent crime in Paragould, an Arkansas town of around 26,000 residents, the mayor and police chief announced that starting this month police in SWAT gear carrying AR-15s would patrol the streets. 
“'If you’re out walking, we’re going to stop you, ask why you’re out walking, and check for your ID. We’re going to do it to everybody'”
Salon

"But when the smoky haze -- caused by rapid fire of nearly 140 bullets in less than 30 seconds -- dissipated, it soon became clear that more than a dozen officers had been firing at one another across a middle school parking lot in East Cleveland."
Cleveland

"Our favorite is Fitness & Sporting Goods, where the coupon can’t be used on anything labeled a 'fitness accessory.' One could argue that almost anything in this department would fall into that category."
Consumerist

Click for the message to his holiness