RationalWiki:What is going on in the world?/December 2013

December 2013
New Pew survey reveals one-third of Americans don't believe in evolution. Terri Schiavo part deux? First the Downing Street memo, then the Bush-Blair memo, then the Bush–Aznar memo, then the 2004 Iraq document leak, and now... what should be called the Big Red One. To no one's actual surprise, the NSA appears to have backdoored practically every US tech security company's product lines. I think this means Huawei is owed an apology. Look, if Nigel Farage is saying we should let Syrian refugees come to the UK, it might be worth thinking about. Devon and Cornwall Police: there to protect you from muggers, burglars, ghosts, witches and vampires. And so ends the dumbest manufactroversy since Swift Boat Veterans for Truth: "Months of investigation by The New York Times, centered on extensive interviews with Libyans in Benghazi who had direct knowledge of the attack there and its context, turned up no evidence that al-Qaeda or other international terrorist groups had any role in the assault... And contrary to claims by some members of Congress, it was fueled in large part by anger at an American-made video denigrating Islam." Sherlock Holmes is now officially in the public domain. China's one-child policy is on its last legs. New York judge says NSA surveillance is legal. Federal court fight! There's a word for someone who acts like you're their best friend when around you and depends on you for support, and who then tells your secrets to your rival: Israel Making BioShock a reality: no foolin', they've called their enclave "Galt's Gulch". McDonald's gives some more advice to its employees. Hilarity ensues once again. Utah county adopts Jim Crow-era tactic, closes its Clerk's Office until the gay marriage appeal process has played out. So yeah, screw you straight folk too. Utah appeals to the judge who threw out their same-sex ban to block gay marriages until the appeal process is worn out. Judge Shelby: DENIED 61 years after his death, Alan Turing finally gets pardoned. (Well, even that's just sort of.) <vote poll=world7977 closed=“yes”>So, it turns out that there actually is a large conspiracy around climate change: Up to a billion dollars a year spent to fight and fuel the war against climate science. <vote poll=world7976 closed=“yes”>Mikhail Kalashnikov dies at age 94. <vote poll=world7975 closed=“yes”>A new known-plaintext attack on RSA encryption is found, by listening to computer noises. <vote poll=world7974 closed=“yes”>You can get a longer sentence for abortion than for rape under Spain's new abortion "reforms". A beachhead for the revived Catholic right or just another pisspot European centre-right government lashing out blindly before it's kicked out at the next election?

<vote poll=world7971 closed=“yes”>Sorry to rain on your parade, New Mexico: [http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2013/12/20/federal-judge-rules-utahs-same-sex-marriage-ban-unconstitutional/ A federal judge has smashed another same-sex marriage ban. In Utah.] Update: "The court agrees with Justice Scalia’s interpretation of Windsor and finds that the important federalism concerns at issue here are nevertheless insufficient to save a state-law prohibition that denies the Plaintiffs their rights." Yes, you read that correctly - Scalia's opinion was just used against him. (Grab some popcorn.) <vote poll=world7970 closed=“yes”>How do you fuck up a dedication to Nelson Mandela? Easy! Use a picture of Morgan Freeman instead. <vote poll=world7969 closed=“yes”>Double-naught secret FBI interrogation manual, open to all at the Library of Congress. (They were trying to copyright it.) <vote poll=world7968 closed=“yes”>Canada's Supreme Court unanimously voids the country's prostitution laws. They stay in effect until either Parliament has enacted a new law or a year has passed. Update: The legal precedent this has set means that assisted suicide may be on its way. <vote poll=world7967 closed=“yes”>Uganda takes bold strides while preparing to join the 20th Century. <vote poll=world7966 closed=“yes”>New Mexico gives residents an early Christmas prezzie, and becomes the 17th US state to legalise gay marriage. <vote poll=world7965 closed=“yes”>MRAs and 4chan users abuse a college's online form for anonymously reporting rape, with MRAs making more than 400 false rape accusations. <vote poll=world7964 closed=“yes”>David Cameron's plan to protect the nation's children from internet porn rustle up votes from hard-of-thinking family values types will also help protect young people from sexual health sites, rape and sexual health support sites, and domestic abuse services. <vote poll=world7963 closed=“yes”>Santa Maria! The British Medical Journal reports that about 0.5 percent of American woman they surveyed "consistently affirmed their status as virgins and did not use assisted reproductive technology, yet reported virgin births." <vote poll=world7962 closed=“yes”>Shots fired: Pope Francis poops on the Prosperity Gospel. <vote poll=world7961 closed=“yes”>Stealing bikini calendars for Jesus. <vote poll=world7960 closed=“yes”>Bitcoin's value is halved as China further restricts its use. <vote poll=world7959 closed=“yes”>Issa To Texas Health Official: 'You Need To Watch More Fox News' <vote poll=world7958 closed=“yes”>"You better lawyer up asshole, because I'm not coming back for 30%, I'm coming back for everything." <vote poll=world7957 closed=“yes”>A Florida fifth-grader who won first place for a speech about the history of people who use religion to justify murder is stripped of the prize by an assistant principal who deemed it inappropriate for fourth and fifth graders. <vote poll=world7956 closed=“yes”>Billy Graham's grandson claims Evangelicals have a worse sex abuse record than Catholics. <vote poll=world7955 closed=“yes”>Turns out that cats have been using us for far longer than we originally thought. <vote poll=world7954 closed=“yes”>Harold Camping has been raptured. <vote poll=world7953 closed=“yes”>Canada's shame: we apparently buy into the Truther thing. <vote poll=world7952 closed=“yes”>Hopefully, this "mission accomplished" goes better than the last one. <vote poll=world7951 closed=“yes”>Judicial activism complainers will be shutting up right about now. <vote poll=world7950 closed=“yes”>Remember, what I said about Obamacare and the fact that I am signing up for it are totally separate and different issues. <vote poll=world7949 closed=“yes”>The Iraq war still isn't over. <vote poll=world7948 closed=“yes”>There's a new George Bush in town. <vote poll=world7947 closed=“yes”>China may have disproved the moon landing hoax "theory" more than anyone ever tried. <vote poll=world7946 closed=“yes”>The Sun lists Lucy Powell as one of the laziest MPs in the UK based on her voting record - actually, she was on maternity leave. (cue some serious bullshit from twitter fuckwads) <vote poll=world7945 closed=“yes”>The Mormons finally decide that black skin isn't a curse from God. (The LDS's official statement: Race and the Priesthood) <vote poll=world7944 closed=“yes”>The many benefits of smog. <vote poll=world7943 closed=“yes”>Scared you're losing the support of women? Voter ID laws will sort that problem out. <vote poll=world7942 closed=“yes”>Reports of a school shooting, one day before the anniversary of Sandy Hook. <vote poll=world7941 closed=“yes”>New Jersey politics just got very weird. <vote poll=world7940 closed=“yes”>"Worse than a dog" isn't really that much of an insult, you know. <vote poll=world7939 closed=“yes”>Texas: Where you can get pardoned after killing four people because of "affluenza." No, really. No, really. <vote poll=world7938 closed=“yes”>"The cyber attack will remain a serious threat to our national security." Your inability to control yourselves seems to be the larger problem. <vote poll=world7937 closed=“yes”>It seems the GOP wants to play with fire again. <vote poll=world7936 closed=“yes”>Australia's courts and new government give us a all a glimpse of how they wish to turn the country into a regressive piece of shit. <vote poll=world7935 closed=“yes”>Belgium will soon become the first country in the world to remove the age limit on euthanasia. <vote poll=world7934 closed=“yes”> India's Supreme Court: Being gay is a crime. <vote poll=world7933 closed=“yes”>Scientists suggest that panspermia may have been possible during the Chicxulub extinction level event, but bringing microbial life to Mars, Titan or Europa. <vote poll=world7932 closed=“yes”>This is what happens when you apply Ayn Rand to real life. <vote poll=world7931 closed=“yes”>A Conservative MP, a radical feminist and an evangelical Christian walk into a bar</s closed=“yes”> try to ban online porn in Canada. <vote poll=world7930 closed=“yes”>The Free World is once again in peril. The Nazis have Tila Tequila. Although the Nazis seem a little skeptical of their newest recruit. <vote poll=world7929 closed=“yes”>Not even Azeroth is safe from the prying spying eyes of the US ! <vote poll=world7928 closed=“yes”>When anti-asylum sentiment, liberal media whining and Nazi apologism combine. <vote poll=world7927 closed=“yes”>Measles cases in the United States have hit triple the annual average. 90% of cases are among the unvaccinated. Thanks Jenny and Andrew! <vote poll=world7926 closed=“yes”>We will lend you guys money on the condition that we will grab money from suckers who sold us credit default swaps on your company. Totally legal. <vote poll=world7925 closed=“yes”>Elsevier enters final desperation stage, going after authors sharing their own papers online. Repeat after me: "Elsevier delenda est." Update: Hits The Chronicle. <vote poll=world7924 closed=“yes”>Motorboating-stunt pickup artists, rejected by breast cancer charities, give the money directly to a victim <vote poll=world7923 closed=“yes”>Madiba has passed away at 95. <vote poll=world7922 closed=“yes”>4:00pm - International media on the tarmac: "This story has to be over." 4:30pm - "Fuck." <vote poll=world7921 closed=“yes”>400,000-year-old Denisovan DNA found in Spain. (Popularisation.) <vote poll=world7920 closed=“yes”>We've already had a goalkeeper and a Nazi, so why not a bouncer? <vote poll=world7919 closed=“yes”>Anti-GMO celebrity Gilles-Eric Séralini ticks off another item on the crank checklist by threatening to sue the journal that retracted his study. <vote poll=world7918 closed=“yes”>The Grauniad is effectively untouchable. <vote poll=world7917 closed=“yes”>So it is possible to combine the paleo diet with the Mediterranean diet. <vote poll=world7916 closed=“yes”>It's the first time in modern history that Icelandic police needed to shoot down a gun criminal. (15th in firearms ownership, yet automatic rifles and handguns are regulated to the point of banning - and police don't have to carry any guns.) <vote poll=world7915 closed=“yes”>Pope Francis becomes the ultimate troll. Related: Seriously, bodyguards, man. <vote poll=world7914 closed=“yes”>In other emerging-space-nation news, the is on its way. s way].