I guess that giant platter of cheese called Megashark vs. Giant Octopus was not enough — now the SyFy Channel has commissioned a new project, Sharktopus. I don’t want to know any more.
The worst part is…yes, I will watch it.
Desiree Jennings was a young woman with some peculiar symptoms: after getting a seasonal flu shot, she was diagnosed with dystonia. Her speech was slurred, she couldn’t walk without going into painful-looking spams…except that she was fine when she walked backwards or ran. It was very odd, and the blame was being placed on vaccinations.
Now, though, she’s been caught by a camera crew, walking normally, driving, and just generally looking perfectly fine. Her only remaining symptom seems to be that she is afflicted* with an Australian accent. She claims to have been treated by some quack with needles and electrodes and vitamin supplements.
I call shenanigans.
I am going to stop taking vitamins for a while, though, just in case they might make me talk funny, mate.
*I’m going to be pilloried in the comments for that choice of word, aren’t I?
I’m still digging out from under the pile of neglected email that accumulated during my extended travels. I’m also still dealing with my disrupted physiology from all the zipping and the flying and the carousing and the glaven-hey, so cut me some slack, OK? Anyway, here are a few things that popped up that looked interesting, but that I’ll have to just quickly announce to clear them from my to-do list. I’ll let you sort through them.
The city council of Fresno is feeling some heat: the Central Valley Alliance of Atheists and Skeptics is trying to end the practice of prayer before meetings. This isn’t just generic non-denominational prayer, either; it’s very jesus-christy.
Wait a minute…the mayor is named Swearengin? I wonder if they have another problem…
From 22 February to the 26th, Oxford University is holding a series of free lectures called Think Week. Looks provocative. Wish I could be there.
The NCSE has posted a short article listing Five Reasons Why Evolution Is Important. It’s a nice article on some medical motivations to study evolution, but the Huffington Post? That den of lunacy and woo? I feel tainted now. NCSE alongside the likes of Robert Lanza and Dana Ullman? They should feel dirty, too.
Remember that very stupid article about how liberals are so condescending? It turns out that wasn’t just some wingnut penning a screed and sending it in to the Washington Post and getting lucky: the Post actively commissioned the right-wing brain-puke. Gotta love that liberal media.
Lindsay Beyerstein has a well-balanced piece on a recent accusation that 18th century pioneers of obstetrics were butchers who murdered women. I’m inclined to say that they were — birthing wards of that era were horrors, where doctors with no knowledge of hygiene would wander from bed to bed spreading pus and filth around. But this specific accusation that Hunter and Smellie had pregnant women intentionally murdered to provide cadavers for their textbooks doesn’t sound likely.
Although I would never say doctors are automatically innocent. A doctor in Texas was peddling herbal crap on the side, got reported, and retaliated by charging the whistleblowers with a crime. Oh, well…at least we can console ourselves with the idea that he wasn’t really a doctor, but just a fraud with an M.D.
Worst. Journalist. Ever. Suzan Masur is back, sowing her own peculiar brand of indignant cluelessness about science.
I complained about UM’s Center for Woo and it’s promotion of homeopathy. The U daily paper published a brief complaint about the insanity of supporting homeopathy. There was one response from a supporter of homeopathy whose argument was basically that it’s all a matter of opinion, and we ought to encourage all kinds of diverse opinions. Total silence from the administration. I expect they’re quietly working behind the scenes to create a new Center for Astrology.
Speaking of editorial exchanges on newspaper letter pages, here’s a Canadian opposing creationism. Followed by a cretin defending creationism. Followed by a pastor peddling NOMA. If this turns into a 3-way contest, I’m going to feel really queasy aligning with the sky-pilots.
Apparently, there’s a British evangelical channel where the announcers read out testimonials to faith, which is ripe for satire. Someone sent in the opening rap to the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and a sneaky paean to the Force which was a rewrite of the Star Wars narrative…and the announcer read them out before catching on. This could be a fun habit.
An interesting analysis of the linking patterns in Facebook profiles shows that the US is broken up into 7 broad domains. Hang on there—I’m living in Stayathomia, where most people link to nearby friends? I wish! I’m feeling a bit strained from all the recent Gosomewhereelsia.
That service that offers to care for your pet if you get raptured? They’ve got over 100 clients who are actually paying money for it! I thought the hypothetical pet-salvation service was a funny idea, but if they’re actually making money off the delusions of others, that’s awfully close to fraud.
The things one learns on the internet — now I know the proper way to stimulate a bull elephant, in case the opportunity ever comes up. It looks strenuous and hazardous.
I’m also amazed at the way the elephant just stands there and accepts servicing by the team of creepy bipeds. If some small species of mammal tried to massage my prostate, I’d be on a rampage of squealing disgust trying to get the icky creatures out of my butt.
Ben Goldacre found an exciting job ad. Unfortunately, he’s completely unqualified for the position, which is probably why he mocks it. It’s fear, yeah, that’s the ticket, he laughs at it because he’s afraid.
Hang on a minute…I don’t qualify for the job, either! I haven’t got the vaguest clue about how one goes about sub-molecular harmonic frequencies using ultimatonic field patterning instruments. I don’t even meet the vegetarian requirement.
Oh, well, then…mock away, everyone!
Gayle Haggard, wife of meth-snorting fan of gay prostitutes Ted Haggard has just had a press conference in which she announces that Ted Haggard is completely heterosexual…to which I can only reply with this song.
Mrs Haggard also says “Our sexuality is conditioned, and we can be conditioned in any number of ways,” which I think is partly true, but I also think is a bit disturbing. It can’t be a boost to Gayle Haggard’s self-esteem to think that her husband needed the Clockwork Orange treatment in order to find her sexually attractive, and to stop his eye from wandering to the willowy young man with needle tracks in his arm living on a street corner in the bad part of town.
There’s also a poll with the story.
Do you think a gay person really can be ‘cured’?
Yes – It is a choice a person makes. 13%
No – It is how a person is born. 79%
Not sure. 7%
I don’t care for the simple-minded dichotomy — I think your sexuality is a product of both unavoidable predispositions and early experience — but I detest that “you choose your sexual preferences” line. No, you don’t. I suspect that not one person in the history of humanity has ever reached early adolescence and made a conscious decision about what stimuli trigger a little hormonal surge.
There was another poll out there that I studiously ignored, because I was on it: Which miracle do you think Americans would most support? One of the possible answers was “PZ Myers publicly converts from atheism to follow the One True God.”
I think it was a very poor choice, because one of the ways that could happen, which would require no miracle at all, is brain damage. Alas, I have won. Now I have to be a little concerned that devout Christians will be after me with a baseball bat.
So here’s an important caveat: traumatic brain injury or organic deterioration do not count. You’re going to have to convert me with reason, logic, and evidence in order for my conversion to count as a miracle. And trust me, since Christians don’t have any of those, it really would be a miracle.
Oh, wait. Is the One True God the Flying Spaghetti Monster, though? There’s a chance there.
Because prisons ban Dungeons & Dragons.
Prison officials instigated the Dungeons & Dragons ban among concerns that playing the game promoted gang-related activity and was a threat to security.
Yeah, it might inspire them to carve a magic wand out of a bar of soap, and pew-pew prison guards with magic missiles.
Hey, can we get prisons to ban religion because it similarly promotes fantasy thinking and organizes people into groups, aka “gangs”? Bible study could be a gateway to organized crime, you know.
You can buy communion wafers on Amazon, which is no surprise. Amazon will also tell you what other customers bought when they ordered their communion wafers.
I…I…don’t understand! I get a brainlock when I try to put these things together, I’m afraid.
I’m sexy.
Well, that was unexpected. I think my name was tossed in there for comic relief.
