Wasting your time
choofnagle | January 21, 2008Those of you on my snail mail list receive holiday cards from me every December, but this year was so hectic that I never got to one. So, today (really tomorrow), I'm mailing my MLK Day cards, which will include A is for Abandonable, Chris' Abecedarium of Dysphemisms (PDF). Use these words liberally to spice us your scienceblog!
choofnagle | January 18, 2008I'm willing to bet that you weren't at Explo '72, the "Christian Woodstock," which received an encomium in today's Journal by John Turner:
In 1972, Mike Huckabee -- still in high school -- followed the example of thousands of other young Americans. He went to a weeklong festival, waded through mud and listened to rock music. But the throng of students he was a part of was different from the youthful gatherings more often associated with the late 1960s and early 1970s. These young people were in Dallas for Campus Crusade for Christ's "Explo '72" -- at "Godstock" rather than Woodstock.
It was…
choofnagle | January 18, 2008The Wall Street Journal's Alexandra Alter reports on the newest reason not to spend your money and time at church: shunning has returned, meaning that years of devotion to your religious institution can be cut off if you do something like gossip or dare to question the grand panjandrum:
On a quiet Sunday morning in June, as worshippers settled into the pews at Allen Baptist Church in southwestern Michigan, Pastor Jason Burrick grabbed his cellphone and dialed 911. When a dispatcher answered, the preacher said a former congregant was in the sanctuary. "And we need to, um, have her out A.S.A.P…
choofnagle | January 11, 2008No, the Denialism Blog is not my personal travel blog, although it might seem that way lately. I was in Guatemala last month, where I encountered dirty hippies and woo, and learned about a new religion called new age.
This week, I was at the Consumer Electronics Show doing a consulting gig for a large software company. CES is amazing--140,000 attendees, 2,700 exhibits. It's like being at the biggest Best Buy evar. I saw a 150" HD plasma television, with pandas on the screen, the smallest bluetooth headsets imaginable, neat location-aware devices, etc.
Perhaps the most difficult…
choofnagle | January 4, 2008One last note on my trip to Guatemala--as part of it, we traveled to Tikal, to see the ruins. Here's the view from one of the temples early in the morning.
Okay. So, our tour guide is relating various facts of dubious veracity on the ride to town. And then he says that a new religion has been invented, making my ears perk up. Very earnestly, he says:
It's a combination of science, astrology, and one's own ideas. It is called New Age
I almost fell out of my seat! What a great definition!
choofnagle | January 2, 2008Today's WSJ picks one of Dennis Kucinich's old scabs: just what happened with this whole UFO sighting claim that he made? Remember that back in October, Kucinich mentioned the incident in a debate, but he has smartly kept the matter quiet since. Well, apparently, this incident happened when Kucinich was staying at Shirley Maclaine's house (Maclaine was away at a performance), with Maclaine's security guard, Paul Costanzo, and Costanzo's anonymous ex-girlfriend:
The day was strange from the start. For hours, Mr. Kucinich, Mr. Costanzo and his companion noticed a high-pitched sound. "There…
choofnagle | December 31, 2007All, I'm sorry for being AWOL on the Denialism Blog. I've just returned from a longish trip with Dr. Girlfriend to Guatemala, where we visited Guatemala City, Lake Atitlan, Antigua, and Tikal. I'll blog soon with some of the outrageous woo we encountered in San Marcos. But for now, enjoy the view from our place on Lake Atitlan!
denialism | December 18, 2007So asks the copyranter over this latest example of human stupidity:
What's even funnier than the absurd notion that a "Hearts on Fire" diamond will buy you monogamy (or that diamond purchases aren't so frequently given in penitence for the sins of infidelity) is that really all it says is your man is a sucker.
Not everyone agrees that the cut is special. If you wander New York's diamond district on 47th Street and ask about Hearts on Fire, you'll hear that it's just another ideal-cut diamond, differentiated only by its marketing.
Charles Rosario, a senior vice-president at Lazare Kaplan,…
denialism | December 17, 2007I'm in DC this week working for Dr. Mom and getting my physical exam skills back up to snuff, so I'll be a little quiet. In the meantime, Cectic is keeping the dream alive:
I love these guys.
denialism | December 13, 2007I have to spend a few days doing anesthesiology during my surgery rotation, luckily one of the other med students forwarded this helpful video.
I had no idea it was so complicated.
I also like the drug song:
denialism | December 13, 2007I don't have the time to be anything but a jerk today so I'm going to imitate Barry Arrington of Uncommon Descent, who tried to place the blame for the most recent shootings at a church on atheist writers.
You see, yesterday, there was an attack on the New York subway. In one of those events generally embarrassing (and oddly redeeming) for humanity, a man was attacked for replying "Happy Hanukkah" when someone wished him "Merry Christmas". Oddly, the fight was broken up when a Muslim guy rescued the Jewish guy from the Christian guy.
Now, if I was a giant screaming asshole like Barry A, I'd…
denialism | December 6, 2007The stupidest essay ever entitled "The Death of Main Street: Are big chains to blame, or is excessive regulation? " courtesy of Reason magazine. This stuff rivals creationist drivel for sheer stupidity.
Briefly, Balko argues small businesses fail because regulations price them out of business, not because of Wal-Mart. The evidence? Old Town Alexandria! Ha!
Old Town Alexandria is an historic, charming stretch of city just outside of Washington D.C. that features lots of shops, restaurants, parks, cobblestone streets, and a waterfront teeming with American history. George Washington was a…
choofnagle | November 23, 2007
This may be obvious to the smart readers of Scienceblogs, but let me state this just for the purpose of explaining the waste that is gift cards. You might think giving cash as a gift is tacky, but the nice thing about cash is that it doesn't expire, incur fees, or become impossible to combine with other forms of payment. All those disadvantages are present in gift cards, and according to Consumers Union, those hassles resulted in $8 billion in unused gifts. Best Buy is even counting unused gift cards as a source of revenue: "...in its fiscal 2006 annual report, the retailer Best Buy…
denialism | November 22, 2007I watched the season finale of phenomenon - the show in which mentalists compete to see who is the next "phenomenon" - and Criss Angel did skeptics everywhere proud with the contents of the envelope.
You may remember his fight with the paranormal fraud we talked about last time. It started when Angel offered 1 million dollars of his own money to who could tell him what was in an envelope, thus demonstrating their psychic power. The psychic fraud, Jim Callahan, and Uri Geller got all upset and called him closed-minded, yada yada. Good times were had by all.
Luckily Callahan got kicked…
choofnagle | November 19, 2007
The Predatory Lending Association (PLA):
...is dedicated to extracting maximum profit from the working poor by increasing payday loan fees and debt traps. The working poor is an exciting, fast growing demographic that includes: military personnel, most minorities, and a growing percentage of the middle class.
Hat Tip: Concurring Opinions.
choofnagle | November 17, 2007The Southeast is having serious water shortages. Just look at Lake Lanier, the main water source for Atlanta.
Ouch!
So, what do you do when you live in Palm Beach, FL, there is a water shortage, fines for washing your car or watering your lawn except during specified hours, and serious enforcement efforts in place? The Journal's Robert Frank tells us:
...According to the rules, residents who put in "new landscaping" can water three days a week, instead of the usual one, for 30 days after the planting. Once that period ends, homeowners can plant yet again -- and resume the thrice-a-week…
choofnagle | November 12, 2007
Have you ever forgotten to pay a bill and received a call about it on your cell phone? Ever wonder how they got your number? Well, you may have given it to them, but if you didn't, they probably bought it from a commercial data broker, a company that sells personal information to businesses and law enforcement. Many of these companies exist, the most prominent are Choicepoint, Lexisnexis, Merlin, Tracersinfo, and Experian. They essentially operate search engines with proprietary information, and for a small charge, will sell all sorts of information about you.
But how did the data…
denialism | November 12, 2007BarryA at Uncommon Descent talks about a startling finding using this tool the blog readability test.
Thanks to one of our commenters for pointing out this website that calculates the reading level of blogs. Just for fun I inserted UD and it came back "High School," which means that the general discussion at this blog is at a high school level. I then inserted Pandas Thumb and it came back "Elementary School."
Make of this what you will.
Interesting, when I insert pandasthumb.org I get College/Post Grad. Oh wait, I forgot, the people at UD are morons. They put in Pandasthumb.com, an…
choofnagle | November 6, 2007Kevin Poulsen of Threat Level considers who's nuttier: Apple fans or Ron Paul fans? Complete with obfuscation, lying, and even fake posts on election sites. (Full disclosure: I am an Apple fan.)
denialism | November 5, 2007As either evidence that you can convince idiots of anything to get high, or that police don't have a sense of humor, check out the Smoking Gun's coverage of this police bulletin warning of a new drug - Jenkem.
The hilarious part? The drug is supposedly created by fermenting human sewage in the sun, then inhaling the fumes. Slang terms include: Winnie, Shit, Runners, Fruit from Crack Pipe, Leroy Jenkems, Might, Butthash, and Waste. Ha!
Now Snopes has the skinny on this supposedly new epidemic which the memo warns is "now a popular drug in American schools." Yeah, maybe among kids with…