Fox News fails at basic graphics, yet again, once more, redux

Fox News really needs remedial statistics and chart-making lessons, if only for the schadenfreude in watching them get flunked over and over again:

Tags: Fox News • gas prices • graphics • charts

Daily Blend: Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Peter Gleick

My thoughts on Leaked-Heartland-Anti-Global-Warming-Documents-Gate, in (sorta-)brief: The only (major) objection I would have with what Peter Gleick ^[pictured] did is if he stole someone else’s identity rather than forge a fake one (and I withhold judgment on that matter until I see confirmation either way). Otherwise, I can only support his actions (even though he apologized for his self-called “serious lapse of [his] judgment and ethics”). No laws were broken, no-one was harmed in their persons or rights, and in the end, truth trumps all. Not that it stops Heartland from crying foul, nor the usual denialist suspects from crowing – even after cheerleading for the “Climategate” perpetrators (who actually did break the law, unlike Gleick) only a couple years previously. But then, denialism of any flavor does usually come bundled with weapons-grade hypocrisy.

All in all: No harm or foul (again, as long as Gleick didn’t steal any real person’s identity), the truth won out, and the anti-science liars are whining because someone used (a watered-down version of) the same tactics they so eagerly applaud when used against actual scientists. It’s only sad that Gleick now faces a ruined career for having ostensibly done the right thing.

And with that out of the way, I now present your links:

Dead-child law in 3 … 2 …
(via The Agitator)

Death by denial: A look at the (literally) dying field of HIV/AIDS denialists.
(via The Daily Grail)

Pathetic smear piece in The Telegraph: Richard Dawkins should apologize for having a distant ancestor who owned slaves hundreds of years ago!

• On that subject, Vox Day never misses a shot at making a more pathetic ass of himself than I thought possible.

Oh, Canada: Ontario universities sign ridiculous copyright agreement stipulating that emailing links is equal to photocopying, incurring heavy fees.

Homeowner to armed burglar who just shot him in the head: “F—- you, you son of a bitch, now it's my turn.”
(via @radleybalko)

The march sprint to Idiocracy continues.
(via The Daily Grail)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: Michael Truluck • Kris Keys • energy drinks • dead-person laws • HIV/AIDS denialism • Richard Dawkins • The Telegraph • Adam Lusher • Henry Dawkins • Vox Day • Theodore Beale • Canada • universities • Access Copyright • Western University • University of Toronto • burglary • home invasion • Jay Leone • Samuel Cutrufelli • Ultimate Taser Ball • extreme sports • stun guns • Taser

Fail/Ironic Quote of the Day: Gingrich sugar-daddy’s hypocrisy

Sheldon Adelson

From billionaire casino mogul and Newt Gingrich’s primary financial backer, Sheldon Adelson, when asked about his possible future $100 million donation to Gingrich’s super-PAC:

“I’m against very wealthy ­people attempting to or influencing elections,” he shrugs. “But as long as it’s doable I’m going to do it.”

You’d think it were satire. It ain’t.

Tags: Sheldon Adelson • Newt Gingrich

Headline of the day: Epic Santorum edition

Presented so without comment:

(via @radleybalko)

Tags: Rick Santorum • santorum • Spreading Santorum • headlines • Cumming, GA

Study: Gender-non-conforming children face more abuse

If you think this boy deserves bullying, you are the problem [source]

Today from the Institute of Sadly Obvious Research:

Children who express gender nonconformity before age 11 face increased risk of being physically, psychologically, and sexually abused, a study published Monday says.

As well, they are prone to suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) by early adulthood.

Conducted by researchers at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), the study is the first to use a population-based sample to look at gender nonconformity as a risk factor for abuse. It will appear in the March issue of Pediatrics magazine.

[…]

The researchers, led by Roberts and senior author S. Bryn Austin, examined data gathered from nearly 9,000 young adults who enrolled in a study, Growing Up Today, in 1996.

The respondents, whose average age was 23, were asked in 2007 to recall their childhood experiences, including favourite toys and games, roles they took while playing, media characters they imitated or admired, and feelings of femininity and masculinity.

They also were asked about physical, sexual, or emotional abuse they experienced and were screened for PTSD.

The study says men who ranked in the top 10th percentile of childhood gender nonconformity reported a higher prevalence of sexual and physical abuse before age 11 and psychological abuse between ages 11 and 17 compared with those below the median of nonconformity.

Women in the top 10th percentile reported a higher prevalence of all forms of abuse as children compared with those below the median of nonconformity. Rates of PTSD were almost twice as high among young adults who were gender nonconforming in childhood than among those who were not.

The report also offers this ready-made refutation for the moronic claim that childhood behavior is supposedly a reliable indicator of adulthood sexuality:

The researchers also found that most children who were gender nonconforming were heterosexual in adulthood, a finding reported for the first time in this study.

Daily Blend: Sunday, February 19, 2012

Obscenely tempting

Scusi for the lack of blogging lately. I didn’t think the news could get this slow.

Storm in a teacup neutralized: Canadian Conservative gov’t closes gay marriage loophole to preserve marriages of foreigners.

Fox News flunks basic geography. Yet again.

Nuke your ’hood: Fascinating (and terrifying) interactive map to see the scale and effects of nuclear weapons. (I honestly thought the primary blast area was bigger. Yay?)
(via Joe. My. God.)

Today in WANT: Peanut butter cup cake. ^[pictured]
(via @jennifurret)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: Canada • Conservatives • gay marriage • same-sex marriage • Fox News • Bret Baier • polar ice • Himalayas • geography • Global Warming • nuclear bombs • nuclear weapons • atomic bomb • NUKEMAP • Alex Wellerstein • peanut butter cups • Reese's • Williams-Sonoma • cakes

Fail Quote: Bryan Fischer attacks Jessica Ahlquist

Bryan Fischer

From the American Family Association’s arch-bigot, Bryan Fischer, summarizing his entire screed about Jessica Ahlquist and her successful bid to rid her Rhode Island high school of a prayer banner with this tidbit:

This small-minded and vengeful brat has managed to override the Constitution’s guarantee of the free exercise of religion and free speech just by being noisy and mean. She is the newest religious bigot in America.

This sort of impotent bombast would be irritating if it weren’t so amusing, especially given that Fischer’s projecting hard enough to screen a movie on the Moon. Not once in his rant does he mention the Establishment Clause, instead holding onto the delusion that “freedom of religion” somehow means “freedom to have your religion endorsed by governmental institutions”, a dubious interpretation that’s all too pervasive amongst the Christian-Right. And the idea that trying to get the government to obey its own laws makes one a “religious bigot” – well, I’ve already addressed that nonsense with Myth A13, so that’s that.

Really, as Greta Christina explains at AlterNet, the only thing remotely surprising about this case was that the school and its legal representation thought they had even the slightest chance at anything other than a complete and unambiguous defeat in court. There was simply no other way it could possibly have ended for them, not with decades upon decades of clear-cut legal precedent stacked firmly against them. That so many Christianists reacted with the level of fury and hatred that we’ve seen makes it only too clear who the true bigots really are … and it ain’t the teenage girl who’s been threatened with rape, death and more simply for trying to get her school to obey the law.

(via Right Wing Watch)

Edit (07/14/12 1:01 PM ET) – Added the missing link to Fischer’s post.

Tags: Bryan Fischer • Ahlquist v. Cranston • Jessica Ahlquist • Cranston High School West

Bayley wants the Internet and Dawkins to get off his lawn

Stephen Bayley

It must be quite the insult to the English for Stephen Bayley to be “described as ‘the second most intelligent man in Britain’”, as his bio at The Telegraph boasts, given that this sort of mindless drivel is what he considers worthy of sharing:

Who is to say that the internet is not the Devil's work? It daily corrupts the concentration of billions: idle hands are very welcome in cyberspace. Wanton flesh and dishonest money are its staple items of trade. It immerses us in a seething babel of irrelevance, promises sociability while creating alienation and, so far from being "clean", has destructively enlarged global demand for electricity. And if you want more evidence of Satan at work, just look at the agents he has hired to do his work. What is it about computer professionals that discourages dissimulation? My current adviser says he is a property developer and his predecessors were really geneticists and musicians. Mephistopheles comes camouflaged.

Which, talking of dissimulation, brings me to Richard Dawkins, a fanatic disguised as a scientist. And surely, in the powerful counterproductive sway of his noisy arguments, proof of the existence of God? Terrible to awake in that groggy matutinal state when things lodge in your addled brain and hear shrill, ugly, cruel arguments on the radio. Atheists seem to be very good at dogma. Dawkins seems not to understand that his own zealotry is itself a sort of religious quest. And he applies the "logic" of science, itself a fallible human construct, to a beautiful mystery. Sure, organised religion has caused appalling conflicts. But it has also caused Michelangelo, Milton and Bach. Organised atheism has produced North Korea. There is really not much more that needs to be said.

The only good thing about this screed is how short it is, given anti-atheist cranks’ renown propensity for babbling on ad nauseum with varying levels of coherence. Still, it’s hard to say which paragraph is more pretentiously insipid, the one taking the stereotypical curmudgeonly view of those newfangled Interwebs and all these pervs who abound, or the one with about as many falsehoods and distortions about godlessness as possible crammed into 10 short sentences. Just at a glance, I can identify depictions of Myths A1, A3 and A17, along with several other canards I haven’t bothered writing up yet, mostly about how mild-mannered Richard Dawkins is supposedly a “fanatic” for speaking out about his beliefs in the exact same way – if not much more calmly and sensibly – as anyone else from politician to pundit to religious ideologue is allowed to. The only difference is they aren’t constantly subjected to demonizing scorn for it. It’s almost as if there were some sort of prejudice against atheists or something.

Really, when the only rational response to your claims is to point and laugh at you, maybe you should examine them a little more carefully, lest you destroy any illusions anyone else may have about your supposed intelligence.

(via RichardDawkins.net)

Tags: Stephen Bayley • Richard Dawkins • atheists • North Korea

Daily Blend: Thursday, February 16, 2012

Rep. Kim Pearson (R-IA)

Dear mobile readers: I have re-enabled Mobile View and added a note in the comments terms of use that messages posted in Mobile View will be transferred to the main Disqus platform.

Iowa Rep. Kim Pearson ^[pictured] (R) introduces most extreme anti-abortion bill yet, outlawing all abortions and sentencing doctors to life in prison.

Chicken-farming, Matrix-style. Or, how to turn meat-lovers into vegetarians.
(via The Daily Grail)

“[The Girl Scouts] were encouraging girls to embrace whoever they were; it didn't matter what choices they made, as long as they were true to themselves. That was a concern.”
(via Joe. My. God.)

Whoa. 80% of Tasmanian devils have been wiped out by cancer; scientists doing what they can to save the rest.

Anthropomorphic tumor Ted Nugent’s top 10 greatest hits. How telling it is that conservative groups are eager to host him. (Or The Simpsons.)

And another one: Anti-gay conservative radio host Michael Berry investigated for hit & run after leaving a drag show at a gay bar.
(via Joe. My. God.)

6 Terrifying User Agreements You've Probably Accepted.

Americans love Canada. (Sitting in a tree?)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: Kim Pearson • Iowa • felonies • Tea Party • Republicans • chickens • poultry • farming • The Matrix • Girl Scouts • American Heritage Girls • Shanna Stewart • Tasmanian devil • cancer • Tasmania • Devil Facial Tumor Disease • DFTD • Ted Nugent • National Rifle Association • NRA • right-wing media • conservatives • The Simpsons • Michael Berry • drag shows • gay bears • hit & run • EULA • Canada • United States • USA • Gallup

PETA advertizes veganism with domestic abuse imagery

Speaking of ridiculously counter-productive adverts from cartoonishly inept advocacy groups: Heeeeeere’s PETA!

My transcript: (click the [+/-] to expand/collapse →)

[−]

Disheveled woman with a neck-brace, JESSICA, walks slowly down a street. Camera includes shots of revealing panties.

NARRATOR: This is Jessica. She suffers from BWVAKTBOOM: Boyfriend Went Vegan And Knocked The Bottom Out Of Me, a painful condition that occurs when boyfriends go vegan and can suddenly bring it like a tantric porn star.

Jessica limps up stairs and enters home, sliding jacket off to reveal near-nakedness. Another up-close panty-shot while spindly BOYFRIEND turns around from plastering over hole in drywall.

BOYFRIEND: Oh, you’re back. You feeling better?

Jessica throws him the groceries, but then gives small smile as she walks away.

ANNOUNCER: Please, go to bwvaktboom.com and learn to go vegan safely.

I can only imagine how they come up with these PSAs:

DIRECTOR: We need ideas for a new pro-vegan advert!
MEMBER 1: Um … oh, I know – veganism increases your sex drive!
MEMBER 2: Wait, how does that make sense?
MEMBER 1: Cuz meat is bad and clogs up your penis.
MEMBER 2: Oh, okay.
DIRECTOR: Veganism = better sex! I like it. How do we show it?
MEMBER 1: How ’bout boyfriend fucks girlfriend so hard, he smashes her head into the wall and puts her in a neck-brace?
MEMBER 2: Wait, doesn’t that just sound like domestic violence?
MEMBER 1: Not if she smiles at the end.
MEMBER 2: Oh, okay.
DIRECTOR: Okay, so she’s injured by such awesome sex, but she’s okay with it, so the audience will be, too. Is she sexy?
MEMBER 1: Yeah, we make her walk around in lopsided panties and a bra and stuff.
MEMBER 2: Oh, come on, that’s just appealing to sexualization again. Don’t we do that enough?
MEMBER 1: Obviously not. Oh, and get a real nice close-up view of her half-naked ass, especially when she limps up the stairs.
MEMBER 2: I hate you.
DIRECTOR: Shut up or I’m putting you on dunking-blood-on-celebs detail again.

You just have to wonder how those things they have for minds work.

(via Joe. My. God.)

Tags: PETA • People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals • PSAs • Public Service Announcements • veganism • vegans • domestic abuse

Smart kids don’t do drugs – they jump off rooftops instead!

It’s long been established that advocacy groups who rely on shock-value and fear-mongering over appealing to people’s reason are universally terrible at what they do. And nowhere is this represented more vividly than in anti-drug PSAs from government outfits, such as with this video from Above the Influence:

My transcript: (click the [+/-] to expand/collapse →)

[−]

A teen boy prepares to leave school when he sees other kids smoking a doobie in a stairwell. He climbs past them, runs onto the roof and then starts jumping across rooftops from building to building, watching as other teens consume alcohol and other drugs on the streets below. He finally lands on the ground and starts walking coolly.

BOY (v.o.): Every day, I rise above it.

The lesson, kids: Drugs are dangerous, so you should jump off of rooftops instead. ’Cause Parkour totally isn’t dangerous.

Amazing incompetence.

(via The Agitator)

Tags: Above the Influence • Public Service Announcements • PSAs • Rise Above • Parkour • freerunning

Creationist legislators trumped by Evolution-savvy students

A few morsels of Creationism-related news today, and the outlook is brighter than it might have been. Firstly, it looks like Indiana’s multi-Creation-myths bill, which was already encountering political and legal resistance in the State House after passing the Senate, has effectively been killed, at least for the time being:

A bill that would have specifically allowed Indiana's public schools to teach creationism alongside evolution in science classes has been shelved by the leader of the Indiana House of Representatives.

The proposal cleared the state Senate two weeks ago, but Republican House Speaker Brian Bosma is using a procedural move to kill the proposal for this legislative session.

“It seemed to me not to be a productive discussion, particularly in light that there is a United States Supreme Court case that appears to be on point that very similar language is counter to the constitution,” Bosma said Tuesday. “It looked to me to be buying a lawsuit when the state can ill afford it.”

The bill approved by the state Senate would have permitted local school districts to teach creationism as long as the curriculum also incorporated origin-of-life theories from multiple religions, including Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Scientology.

Congratulations to Rep. Bosma for recognizing that “teach ALL the Creationisms!” is not a valid response to fears of violating the Establishment Clause, contra what a number of his fellow Republican seem to believe.

Rep. Jerry Bergevin (R-NH)

Unfortunately, the former apparently applies to lawmakers in New Hampshire, who now seem to think the time is ripe for pushing religious fables as science curriculum in their own state:

To state Rep. Jerry Bergevin, the horrors of the Columbine school shooting and the atrocities of Nazi Germany are linked by the theory of evolution, and that's all the evidence he needs to see that New Hampshire's children shouldn't be taught that it's correct.

Bergevin, a Republican from Manchester serving his first term, introduced one of two bills that will be before the Legislature next year addressing evolution, the first in the state since the late 1990s.