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

March 2013
Creationist stakes $10,000 on contest between Bible and evolution. Why do I get the feeling he'll never pay up? Egypt issues arrest warrant for Bassem Youssef, the "Egyptian Jon Stewart". "Act of God" destroys 25 cars at a religious gathering. Sometimes your faith in humanity is rekindled (Anyone got that pic of Muslims protecting Christians in Egypt?) Let's see how much of a bluffer you really are... The only way to say this is is to say it straight: Pope Francis washed the feet of a female Muslim prisoner, sparking fears among conservative Catholics over women priests. The Governor of Iowa wants to increase education spending by $187 million. Guess his party affiliation. According to a Pew study, 48% of US Christians say that Jesus will return within the next 40 years. First Neanderthal/modern human hybrid found. 40,000-30,000 years ago, northern Italy. Original paper. The NRA serves to protect responsible gun owners...especially when one of them is the Sandy Hook massacre shooter. Anti-gay protesters in Paris attack the police and use their kids as human shields. You know, “pro-family.” Australia to crack down on bogus "therapeutic goods". Ok, who gave Papa Bear the weed? Start seriously worrying about Korea. Update: Here come the B-2s. Christians rush to the Supreme Court in the wake of the Prop 8 case screaming about states' rights and their imaginary world in which the USA is run on mobocracy. Bonus points for non-white Christians telling others who they can't marry! Anthony Kennedy, the Justice who wrote the majority opinion on Lawrence v. Texas and is likely to be the decider on SCOTUS legalizing gay marriage, is being a bit grumpy today. <vote poll=world6808 closed="yes">Tennessee lawmakers reassured that mop sink isn’t sink for Muslims to wash feet <vote poll=world6807 closed="yes"> A gay teenager with Asperger's syndrome was viciously abused at his own birthday party; he was forced to strip down, had homophobic slurs written on his body, and was then set on fire. He died the next morning. The individual responsible gets a whopping three and a half year sentence. <vote poll=world6806 closed="yes">Get your printed organs here. <vote poll=world6805 closed="yes">No Christianity in our Easter eggs, please. <vote poll=world6804 closed="yes">Where's Rosa Parks when you need her? <vote poll=world6803 closed="yes">How we died for 100 years <vote poll=world6802 closed="yes">Richard Littlejohn has blood on his hands. <vote poll=world6801 closed="yes">And from the air came water. <vote poll=world6800 closed="yes">It's official. Fox News is too liberal for the Tea Party. <vote poll=world6799 closed="yes">Due to sequestration, NASA suspends all its educational and outreach efforts "pending further review". Some people are already calling the death of the agency... <vote poll=world6798 closed="yes">Michele Bachmann doesn't understand how science works, blames government regulation for the continued existence of Alzheimer's disease. <vote poll=world6797 closed="yes">North Korea may be selling meth out of its embassies. <vote poll=world6796 closed="yes">Today in Harper's Canada: a motion, essentially affirming that accurate scientific research is useful in sound public policy making, was defeated in the House of Commons after every single Conservative MP voted it down. (to be fair, party solidarity means that it would be political suicide to vote against your party line) <vote poll=world6795 closed="yes">Angry at new gun laws, a Colorado based magazine manufacturing company decides to takes its ball and leave, costing Colorado a whopping 200 jobs. <vote poll=world6794 closed="yes">The Aussies have "revived and reactivated" an unusual species of frog that went extinct 30 years ago. <vote poll=world6793 closed="yes">From the Planck satellite: Big Bang theory reinforced, more matter and less energy than we thought there was, and the Hubble constant gets a recalculation. Also a trippy CMB map in the mix. <vote poll=world6792 closed="yes">James Herbert, he of the Rats and the Fog and so many teenage nightmares, dies. <vote poll=world6791 closed="yes">Someone follows terrible advice from Dr. Oz, sues him for injuries sustained. <vote poll=world6790 closed="yes">The Wee Frees go all slippery slope <vote poll=world6789 closed="yes">Google doesn't pay its taxes. <vote poll=world6788 closed="yes">Bollocks. <vote poll=world6787 closed="yes">Cyprus has rejected the bailout. <vote poll=world6786 closed="yes">Possible college gun massacre stopped by traditional 911 call to police. <vote poll=world6785 closed="yes">Birds evolve to avoid becoming roadkill. <vote poll=world6784 closed="yes">The GOP does some serious navel gazing, and comes up with: "The Republican Party needs to stop talking to itself…and driving around in circles in an ideological cul-de-sac...young voters are increasingly rolling their eyes at what the Party represents...and if changes aren't made, it will be increasingly difficult for Republicans to win another Presidential election." Grab some popcorn and sit back - the next eight years may be interesting times for the Party of No. <vote poll=world6783 closed="yes">Water water everywhere and every drop to drink. <vote poll=world6782 closed="yes">On the night that submissions for the board of Ireland's constitutional convention close, enormous support for same-sex marriage floods in. <vote poll=world6781 closed="yes">Oh no, we are not starting this again - Power outage at Fukushima. Update 1: Already fixed. Update 2: Official cause: Kentucky Fried Rat. <vote poll=world6780 closed="yes">The Hague is right this way, sir. <vote poll=world6779 closed="yes">Well fuck. Forget Greece, we might have an Iceland-style bank run in Cyprus. Update: Now Putin holds the cards in the Eurozone crisis? Historic vote tomorrow. <vote poll=world6778 closed="yes">Indian Police on yet another gang rape: It's your fault that you were in an area where we're completely incompetent in addressing crime! <vote poll=world6777 closed="yes">The mad scientists running New York City come up with an inventive way to deal with the city's long bemoaned rat problem. <vote poll=world6776 closed="yes">More Catholic dumbfuckery: "Paedophilia is not a criminal condition." <vote poll=world6775 closed="yes">Worst Nazi salute excuse ever. <vote poll=world6774 closed="yes">A guilty verdict for the alleged human beings in Steubenville. The scumbags receive a whole one year in juvie. <vote poll=world6773 closed="yes">How many more weeks of this shit are we going to have to take? <vote poll=world6772 closed="yes">Sherry Shriner's apocalyptic, NWO, UFO crankery drives unfortunate Detroit woman to suicide... or is that what they want you to believe? <vote poll=world6771 closed="yes">Canadian federal librarians and archivists now have to be bound to a “duty of loyalty” to Stephen Harper. Because it's librarians who are acting against the government? <vote poll=world6770 closed="yes">Don't ya luv 'em: “I didn’t know the legacy of the Republican Party included women correcting men in public.” (also: ...African-Americans “should be allowed to vote in Africa,” of course.) <vote poll=world6769 closed="yes">Senator Rob Portman, former supporter of DOMA, renounces opposition to gay marriage, but is still kind of a jerk. <vote poll=world6768 closed="yes">"Every October, a group of about 100 divorcees pack into a hotel on Treasure Island Beach, Florida, for the annual gathering of the Straight Spouse Network - bound together by their shared separation from former husbands and wives who are now openly gay." <vote poll=world6767 closed="yes">If this story is true, the sound of exploding irony meters will be deafening. <vote poll=world6766 closed="yes">Another preacher caught diddling an underage member of his flock, this time "because Jesus wanted them to have sex."

<vote poll=world6764 closed="yes">The ISS just got a whole lot politer. <vote poll=world6763 closed="yes">The Family Research Council takes a little break from hating gays to hating everyone who has premarital sex. <vote poll=world6762 closed="yes">Possible Higgs boson found in 2012 now probable Higgs boson. <vote poll=world6761 closed="yes">Paul Ryan: "We're not going to give up on destroying the health care system for the American people." <vote poll=world6760 closed="yes">Religious affiliation in the United States is at its lowest point since University of California sociologists began tracking American religiosity in the 1930s. <vote poll=world6758 closed="yes">Habemus Papam. Update: It's Jorge Mario Bergoglio AKA Francis I, from Argentina. <vote poll=world6757 closed="yes">Kiwis pass gay marriage! <vote poll=world6756 closed="yes">Pope watch: First vote inconclusive. Still nothing after 3 votes. Where's a Borgia when you need 'em? <vote poll=world6755 closed="yes">Men, beware of women with poison-laced skirts! <vote poll=world6754 closed="yes">We honest, patriotic Americans, wish to name this mountain for the man who gave weapons to the Islamic Republic of Iran. The current name is too French. <vote poll=world6753 closed="yes">Who else wants to see a game of basketball between Dennis Rodman and a doddering old man? (It might be better than his last game between a younger, more... corpulent one.) <vote poll=world6752 closed="yes"> WE ARE NOT ALONE Well, that defused quickly.

<vote poll=world6751 closed="yes">Vatican "accidentally" invests 23 million euros in a ... HUGE GAY SAUNA. <vote poll=world6750 closed="yes">EU bans animal testing for cosmetics. <vote poll=world6749 closed="yes">Looks like the caveman diet may have had no real effect on heart disease. <vote poll=world6748 closed="yes">The three-body problem now has 13 more families of solutions to add to the three families that were already known. <vote poll=world6747 closed="yes">If Adolf Hitler flew in today, they'd send a limousine anyway. <vote poll=world6746 closed="yes">Quebecois association of victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy champion Marc Ouellette (one of the "dirty dozen") as Pope in the hopes that it will draw media attention to his sorry record on the issue. <vote poll=world6745 closed="yes">Second case of church standing up for the poor against shitbags Well done for once (twice?) <vote poll=world6744 closed="yes">Your rights mean nothing to us <vote poll=world6743 closed="yes">Deacon in the Archdiocese of Baltimore caught with child porn (which the genius stored in his on-line Verizon account). <vote poll=world6742 closed="yes">Mandatory gun ownership... that'll make closing time in the bars on payday interesting... <vote poll=world6741 closed="yes">Rand Paul's fillibuster - full of stupid. <vote poll=world6740 closed="yes">Let's turn abortion into a light-hearted game! Come on, people. Serious issue, serious attitude. <vote poll=world6739 closed="yes">Move to Feldheim!

<vote poll=world6737 closed="yes">Scientists say Earth is hotter today than in (most) of the last 11,000 years, suck it global warming doubters!

<vote poll=world6735 closed="yes">In Louisiana, a charter school is teaching children the Hippies worshiped Satan. <vote poll=world6734 closed="yes">Quebecois Catholic priest charged with, ah, f**k it, you know the drill.... <vote poll=world6733 closed="yes">"There are currently more people with neo-Nazi views in the Netherlands than the number of Dutch collaborators with the Nazis during the Second World War." (Where "neo-Nazi" here means "disapproves of Israel's behaviour".) <vote poll=world6732 closed="yes">James O'Keefe will pay $100K to ACORN employee he defamed. <vote poll=world6731 closed="yes">The EU is going to debate a ban on all pornography on the Internet. When this went public, the European Parliament blocked incoming email after MEPs complained about getting email from citizens about it. Update: This seems to be a habit with the EU parliament's email system, as any email with the words "gender stereotypes" in it is also blocked... on International Women's Day. <vote poll=world6730 closed="yes">There might be life under Lake Vostok. We await the marine biologist/exobiologist nerdgasms in May. <vote poll=world6729 closed="yes">Your move, Jong-un. UPDATE: North Korea ends all non-aggression pacts with the South, the largest escalation since the Korean War. <vote poll=world6728 closed="yes">That didn't take long to rectify <vote poll=world6727 closed="yes">Prepare to give a giant fuck you to David Petraeus. <vote poll=world6726 closed="yes">Explain this, YECs. 80,000-year-old grove of Aspen trees in Utah is a single vast root structure that clones itself, making it likely the oldest living organism. It may be even older. It's also the heaviest, with conservative estimates putting it at 13 million pounds. <vote poll=world6725 closed="yes">Louie Gohmert is at it again. <vote poll=world6724 closed="yes">Superman: If Orson Scott Card's writing it, I'm not drawing it <vote poll=world6723 closed="yes"> Hugo Chavez will come back from the dead, says Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. <vote poll=world6722 closed="yes">Duane Gish gallops into the sunset. (And probably the last time you'll see AiG in WIGO:World.) <vote poll=world6721 closed="yes">Let's see how those goldbugs are doing these days, shall we? <vote poll=world6720 closed="yes">TSA to allow people to bring the weapons used by 9/11 hijackers onto planes again, but not bottled water or snowglobes. <vote poll=world6719 closed="yes">The Canadian government is required to evaluate all proposed legislation for consistency with the Charter. Seems standing Harper-government policy is that it's fine if it has a 5% chance of surviving a constitutional challenge. <vote poll=world6718 closed="yes">North Korea threatens to break 1953 armistice agreement. Meanwhile the USA and China have come to an agreement on new sanctions over their nuclear test. <vote poll=world6717 closed="yes">Hugo Chavez is dead. (for real this time) <vote poll=world6715 closed="yes">A Christian school fired a woman for having premarital sex and then hired the man she had the premarital sex with.

<vote poll=world6713 closed="yes">My son needed guns to shoot his girlfriend because he had to fight white crime! <vote poll=world6712 closed="yes">"But what about the third terror of the Fire Swamp Tehran? The R.O.U.S's?" "Rodents of Unusual Size? I don't believe they exist." <vote poll=world6711 closed="yes">Obama administration to the Supreme Court on Prop H8: "the exclusion of gay and lesbian couples from marriage does not substantially further any important governmental interest. Proposition 8 thus violates equal protection." <vote poll=world6710 closed="yes">"Justice must not only be done, it must be seen to -" Fuck that shit. <vote poll=world6709 closed="yes">Getting drunk at the UN? <vote poll=world6708 closed="yes">$15 million bill... for a website created with a $40 Wordpress theme. <vote poll=world6707 closed="yes">Seven children die in Chinese orphanage due to exposure, Chinese government claims illness, not the bad facilities. <vote poll=world6706 closed="yes">Haven't the Bush family fucked up the world enough already? Jeb's "...not going to declare today, ..." <vote poll=world6705 closed="yes">Unlucky, but please try again <vote poll=world6704 closed="yes">Is Israel reading the same history books as we are? <vote poll=world6703 closed="yes">In 2013, the tide was turned against AIDS ... [http://www.newstatesman.com/sci-tech/2013/03/four-things-you-should-know-about-hiv-cure-you-get-too-excited ... or maybe not ...] <vote poll=world6702 closed="yes">According to Republican Washington state legislator Ed Orcutt, a proposed bicycle tax is essential because cyclists aren't environmentally friendly due to all the CO2 they exhale. "[b]icyclists need to start paying for the roads they ride on rather than make motorists pay". <vote poll=world6701 closed="yes">In an effort to stay current, United States president Barack Obama, while talking on the subject of the upcoming sequester, made what the internet is describing as an "epic fail". Will Obama lose his nerd constituency? UPDATED: Ubernerd to Obama's rescue. <vote poll=world6700 closed="yes">Ok RationalWiki Brits, if it had to come to it, would you vote Cameron to stop UKIP? <vote poll=world6699 closed="yes">End of the line for Holocaust deniers: The total number of those exterminated could be raised to 20 million, with researchers finding six times the amount of Nazi ghettos and death camps previously estimated. <vote poll=world6698 closed="yes">Let them eat bombs <vote poll=world6697 closed="yes">China building shitloads of nuke plants. <vote poll=world6696 closed="yes">Dennis Rodman & Kim Jong-un: BFFs. <vote poll=world6695 closed="yes">Maybe Andy was right about video games: College students play video games, use what they've learned to slice people open! <vote poll=world6694 closed="yes">Churches shock us all by defending the poor against rich scum (then ruin it with the 'honest debate' copout) <vote poll=world6693 closed="yes">Next week: "Bloomberg fires cover artist"