Monday, April 20, 2015

Our Wacky World—4/20/2015

Stan Freberg has died at the age of 88. Here are some of his classic moments. A piece of my childhood gone.


Can't be bothered with peer review? Don't have time to hold a pesky press conference? Now you too can declaim pseudoscience like a Pharisee at the temple with a simple advertisement:
“In conclusion, the Ockham’s razor interpretation of Hubble’s redshift relation shows unequivocally that galaxies are in fact everywhere receding away from a nearby center in a spherically symmetric pattern, which is none other than God’s throne...at the true center of the universe, a fact which God obviously designed at the Genesis creation 6000 years ago...”
Take that, atheists. (Pharyngula)


Boy, you can tell this guy's a Christian with a capital X:
'“Then you take a sharp knife and take his manhood and hold it in front of him and say, ‘Wouldn’t it be something if [there] was something wrong with this?’” Robertson said. “’But you’re the one who says there is no God, there’s no right, there’s no wrong, so we’re just having fun. We’re sick in the head, have a nice day.’'
'Mr. Robertson would do better to keep his twisted pornographic fantasies about atheists being raped and murdered to himself. If that is his idea of how to conduct himself at a prayer breakfast, he will create more converts to atheism than he will for his cruel brand of graphic, self-righteous Christianity.'
Whose dick (not just the end of it, the entire dick) would Jesus joke about cutting off? (Politicus USA)


Finally, the true story can be told:
'Palin has been hand picked and groomed by Global Mgt. Team (“GMT”) before she was a child –this NSA-CIA “controlled asset” was hidden far away from the masses, in the tiny town of Wasilla. Palin was being trained (prog’md) by sadistic neurosurgeons, behavioral scientists, psychiatrists and psychologists working w/in Monarch Prog under aegis of NSA-CIA Military-Industrial-Apparatus and no expense was spared — Hollywood acting coaches, voice coaches and stylists were contracted to make the Alaskan MK’d Kitten sparkle! This was after years of “grooming” — first as Mrs. Wasilla, then runner -up in Mrs. Alaska pageant...methodically and skillfully layered in her “alters” (mind files) IAW-SOP rape/torture/trauma, for use in Hollywood scripted fantasy narrative of “local hometown girl makes good”... launching her meteoric rise in Alaskan political circles — then her grand entrance on natl. stage, to mesmerize electorate, capture hearts/minds of GOP evangelical base, as their first woman VP candidate, and current role as chief antagonist to Obama/ left-wing of phony political paradigm.

'As planned, she performed this “social alchemy” brilliantly. Palin’s unique blend of folksiness, brashness, quirky combativeness, stinging humor, “look-at-me” mannerisms and overt sexiness, knocked voters out! However, as one begins to pull the threads of her fictitious political resume, it quickly becomes clear, “the character” named Sarah L. Palin was carefully constructed to check off boxes on GOP candidate application – the attraction is pure cult of personality…'
"NO ONE COMES OUT OF NOWHERE!" (Intheknow7's Blog)


Another suitable case for treatment:
"Q: So it wasn’t just Wi-Fi that was making you sick at this point? 
A: No, my theory is that once you become affected by the radiation, something happens to the nervous system and it recognizes the radiation as a threat and then reacts to warn the body that something is wrong. So while the first reaction was to wireless, I then started to react to anything with vibrations, anything that the nervous system detected, so I started to be affected by electricity, then light and sound."

"Q: Do you think your friends and your family take you seriously? Have they ever doubted your condition? 
A: I’m articulate and I can explain the science behind everything, so I haven’t encountered that much doubt."
Yet another classic example of getting the cause mixed up with the symptoms. Greenbank is going to be overrun soon at this rate. (NYmag)

Fuck sympathetic magic
"There are a lot of terrible arguments against same-sex marriage, but this may be the worst: The Supreme Court must not protect gay couples’ marriages, because doing so would demean marriages between gay men and their wives."
Slate


Moving closer to an explanation for Near-death Experiences:
"The many experiences described by survivors of cardiac arrest — people revived even after their hearts stopped beating, sometimes for many minutes — include moving through a tunnel toward a white light, greeting relatives no longer alive, and overhearing conversations between family members in another room. A new study from the University of Michigan Medical School shows how the brain sends signals to the heart in the moments before death. It is this flurry of mental activity that is key to cardiac demise, the researchers say, and quite probably the foundation of near-death experiences as well."
Doubtful News

Also:
'The LifeWay Christian bookstore chain sells some of the most popular books in the genre of spiritual faith. The store, however, will no longer sell any book about contemporary people returning from heaven after a near-death experience. ...the chain decided to pull from their shelves the entire category of so-called “experiential testimonies,” such as the popular The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven, which was recently recalled by the publisher after the co-author recanted his story.'
TBO


The gay Muslimificaiton of America started when Reagan was president:
"There are countless studies showing that feminine-type behavior produces an excess of estrogen in men… the left has fallen in love with the masculinity of Islam… after a 30- or 40-year epidemic of leftism that has swept its sordid stain across America, we’ve become much more feminized and we are attracted to the masculine strength and brutality of Islam. This is the girl in the high school being attracted to the bad, tough guy and that’s really what’s happening."
Breitbart Unmasked


Voting machines in Virginia have been found to be insecure (no fucking shit):
'Why can't the vendor fix the machines, you may well ask? Because it's no longer around, Epstein says. Its domain is now owned "by a Chinese organization of some sort."'
Sophos

Longer version with greater technical detail:
'Mr. Epstein reportedly stated the WinVote system “would get an F-” in security."
Turley's Blog


Bitcoin awakens inner larceny:
'The US Department of Justice has accused two federal agents of stealing more than a million dollars in Bitcoins during the Silk Road investigation. Former Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent Carl Force and former Secret Service agent Shaun Bridges have been charged with theft of government property; wire fraud; money laundering; and a conflict of interest"
The Register


Meanwhile, on reddit.com:
"The subpoena appears to be the first hint of a federal investigation of the recently defunct massive online market known as Evolution, which sold drugs, weapons, and stolen financial details. All five targets of the subpoena were involved, to varying degrees, in the Reddit discussion of that black market’s abrupt disappearance two weeks ago, in which two top administrators apparently absconded with millions of dollars worth of bitcoin belonging to Evolution’s buyers and sellers."
Wired

"Chess champ booted for allegedly cheating with iPod app in the loo"
The Register

"Why Don't Animals Get Schizophrenia?"
Scientific American


Obamacare…works:
"It is telling that, having lost every substantive argument about the law’s operation, their sole remaining refuge is an argument about its perception. It’s true: Their lies got halfway around the world before the truth could get its pants on. Indeed, if you google most of the factual disputes I discuss above, you’ll get a lot more hits from conservatives making hysterical and false predictions than you will find from reports showing those predictions failed to come true. Those myths still hold enormous sway over public opinion. Far more Americans believe Obamacare has death panels, which is false, than believe its costs have come in under projections, which is true. Conservatives have won the propaganda war over Obamacare. The trouble is that they think this is an indictment of Obamacare, when in fact it’s an indictment of them."
NYmag