Remember the SOPA drama last week? It has given MPAA not-quite-lobbyist Chris Dodd a bad case of foot-in-mouth: he publicly threatened politicians who’d taken MPAA money for not doing what the MPAA wanted. On national television, no less. Un-freakin’-believable. And just this side of actually criminal. Dodd is a former senator — he should know [...]
Archive of posts filed under the Idiots and/or Pseudoscience category.
“7 Habits of Highly Effective Marketting” [sic]
In honor of the year’s first Friday the thirteenth: it’s not bad luck when you bring it on yourself.
“The Other Intelligent Design Theories”
The synopsis: Religion and brute force failed to quash the idea of Darwinian evolution. Creationists and their Bible verses just irritated nonbelievers. Now Intelligent Design (ID) tries to topple Darwin again, not by offering a viable alternative, but by trying to co-opt the same concepts that have raised science to its current strength. Unfortunately for [...]
“The DHS Partners with Major League Soccer to Promote Fear”
As reported here. Why? Simple enough: fear shuts off the brain. It’s easier to control people who are afraid, something that dictators, politicians, and televangelists know very well.
“Moon *Not* Made of Cheese, Physicist Explains”
Just in case you were wondering. I don’t know the context of that quote, but I’m very concerned about the science deniers in the US. It seems that, despite mandatory science classes in high school, most people still don’t understand science. Conservatives seem to think that science is like religion: convince enough people of something [...]
“Halloween Sadism: The Evidence”
It seems that our parents were — again — worried about absolutely nothing. Which makes sense… anyone contemplating such a move would quickly realize that if they did it on a mass scale they’d be tracked down in a day or two at most, and even targeting it at the one brat that has been [...]
“Nigerians panic over killer calls”
You know, I can understand this. If you don’t know how technology works, you’re as likely to believe impossible things as possible ones. What I can’t believe is how many people here fall for things just as ludicrous.
“Why Is It So Hard to Find a Suicide Bomber These Days?”
A very long article, but the basic gist of it can be summed up by this paragraph from the middle: [...] To put this in context: Out of more than 150,000 murders in the United States since 9/11 — currently more than 14,000 each year — Islamist terrorists accounted for fewer than three dozen deaths [...]
“Are Some Evangelicals Beginning to Question the Existence of Adam and Eve?”
This week, on the Colbert Report, I heard something that shocked me: some evangelical Christian scientists were beginning to publicly doubt that humanity could be descended from one man and one woman, as described in the book of Genesis. The reason it shocked me is that I couldn’t believe that someone who identified himself as [...]
“8 Scenes That Prove Hollywood Doesn’t Get Technology”
It’s a good thing that I’ve had a lot of practice at suspending my disbelief, or today’s shows would often be ruined for me. These (link NSFW due to language) are just some of the many, many reasons. At least with real science fiction shows, the writers generally goes out of their way to make [...]