RationalWiki:What is going on in the blogosphere?/October 2011

October 2011
And while we're on the Sally Morgan debacle, here's some amusing correspondence between her lawyer and Simon Singh. Derren Brown on Sally Morgan and testing psychics. An interview with You Are Not So Smart author and blogger David McRaney - covering the basics of the psychological and cognitive biases that plague our daily lives. David Brin: It is your duty to risk your brain and argue with your crazy uncle about climate change. The Onion: Nation Finally Breaks Down And Begs Its Smart People To Just Fix Everything Find your human number among 7 billion. "Confession: I have a thing for the GOP." One pair of hands at work does more than a thousand clasped around a piece of paper with writing on it. The best anti-bullying video in a while. But, as always, Jesusland won't listen.

Engineers vs. intellectuals?

The best Private Eye covers over 50 years. Robin Ince on political correctness, Ricky Gervais' bullishness and some horribly turbulent language. Libertarians come to debate. During the 16th and 17th centuries, the earth experienced a period global cooling that has since been nicknamed "the little ice age." So what caused it? A Stanford University geochemist has named the culprit -- Christopher Columbus! The Onion: Comatose GOP candidate drops out of the presidential race due to sex scandal. Denialism: Then and now. <vote poll=blog1830 closed="yes">The Hamster Wheel takes a look at Sacha Baron Cohen's latest character: Lord Christopher Monckton. Totally serious. <vote poll=blog1829 closed="yes">Here's what you missed last night: Evil Liberal #1 on Mitt Romney's new flip-flop, and Evil Liberal #2 on pepper spray, dwarf-throwing regulations and his new SuperPAC ad. (make sure you see the ending) <vote poll=blog1828 closed="yes">Steve Jobs and woo. <vote poll=blog1827 closed="yes">No, this is the best OWS sign. <vote poll=blog1826 closed="yes">The Hitch: Are Mormons a cult? Who cares, it's their sinister beliefs we should be worried about! <vote poll=blog1825 closed="yes">Charlie Brooker makes "a fairly pedestrian winge" and a Ross Kemp lookalike at The Telegraph doesn't get the joke. Brooker then responds in kind - because David Cameron is totally a motherfucking lizard. Isn't it obvious?🇱🇮 <vote poll=blog1824 closed="yes">All time greatest scientific abstract ever. <vote poll=blog1823 closed="yes">Internships are like slavery - Actually, the comparison with slave owners is, in many respects, unfair. Say what you will about them, but slave owners had to meet the full cost of bed and board. They did not tell the slaves that they had to pay for the privilege of working for them either. <vote poll=blog1822 closed="yes">Economics has met its match: itself. Where the hell is the Globe and Mail hiring these people? <vote poll=blog1821 closed="yes">Are touch screen tablets going to destroy our ability to read books? <vote poll=blog1820 closed="yes">Not all deficits are economic. <vote poll=blog1819 closed="yes">"Theoclassical" economics indeed. <vote poll=blog1818 closed="yes">HuffPo blogger Amanda Terkel thinks she knows the origin of the 9-9-9 plan that Herman Cain is touting. And if she's correct, Cain needs to get out of his mother's basement more often. Update: Politifact tests Cain's math. Just guess what they thought of it. <vote poll=blog1817 closed="yes">Confused about whether or not to be a dick? <vote poll=blog1816 closed="yes">The Onion: [http://www.theonion.com/video/presidents-approval-rating-soars-after-punching-wa,26349/ Obama finally punches a banker in the face. His approval rating skyrockets to 93%.]

<vote poll=blog1815 closed="yes">PZ Myers rips Deepak Chopra a new one.

<vote poll=blog1814 closed="yes">Alabama brings back slavery. <vote poll=blog1813 closed="yes">Kate Fox (of Watching The English fame) on the UK's alcohol fuelled binge problem. - "The effects of alcohol on behaviour are determined by cultural rules and norms, not by the chemical actions of ethanol." <vote poll=blog1812 closed="yes">Is atheist money just too controversial for the American Cancer Society? <vote poll=blog1811 closed="yes">Where the hell did Alan Grayson come from? And the conservative responses are: a) You are dirty hippies! and b) Bullshit from PJ O'Rourke about the half-assed Dodd-Frank act. <vote poll=blog1810 closed="yes">Yes furriners, many 'Murricans believe this nonsense. <vote poll=blog1809 closed="yes">It wasn't long ago that top Republicans were appalled by the idea of giving super-rich investors a big tax break... <vote poll=blog1808 closed="yes">Wegman's plagiarism: It just never ends. <vote poll=blog1807 closed="yes">By now, it's probably conclusive that there isn't a left-wing bias in the American media. <vote poll=blog1806 closed="yes">Shit's gonna go down. <vote poll=blog1805 closed="yes">Socialists and market fundamentalists are the same...at least in one way. <vote poll=blog1804 closed="yes">The so-called "Communist Broadcasting Corporation" at its conservative worst. <vote poll=blog1803 closed="yes">"Put simply, we need an epistemic common currency..." <vote poll=blog1802 closed="yes">VIDEO: A young Midwesterner who went through reparative therapy talks about the experience. <vote poll=blog1801 closed="yes">Fox attempts to bait a Wall Street protester and fails. If there's one video from the Wall Street protests you need to see, it's this. <vote poll=blog1800 closed="yes">Marge Phelps: "Look at us! Look at us! We're relevant! Please look at us!! "God created the iPhone so I could tweet about Steve Jobs being in Hell" <vote poll=blog1799 closed="yes">Papa Bear's running out of "coherent" responses. <vote poll=blog1798 closed="yes">The "denier-industrial complex" in one graphic. <vote poll=blog1797 closed="yes">Jerry Bergman claims that atoms are irreducibly complex. Let's look at that and see why it's wrong.Note; long post. Skip to section 5 if you're already familiar with ID and IC. <vote poll=blog1796 closed="yes">You know something's wrong when pro-market groups start worrying about income inequality, calling it the "New Gilded Age." <vote poll=blog1795 closed="yes">Poe's Law and RationalWiki featured on the front page of Know Your Meme! <vote poll=blog1794 closed="yes">"But three decades of these supply-side policies have produced the same economic problems they were supposed to fix...(resulting in) a fierce tug of war among global policy makers, pitting those who would impose stricter fiscal austerity on already ailing economies against those focused on keeping the spending tap on." <vote poll=blog1793 closed="yes">The beauty of technology. <vote poll=blog1792 closed="yes">Penn Jillette asks why politicians have come over all religious recently. <vote poll=blog1791 closed="yes">Robert Reich explains the US credit downgrade. <vote poll=blog1790 closed="yes">Wingnut welfare hits the UK. <vote poll=blog1789 closed="yes">Anthony Watts desperately fails at attempting to "debunk" Al Gore and Bill Nye. (Snarkier take at Wotts.)