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

July 2011
Quackery: It also evolves. [http://sensuouscurmudgeon.wordpress.com/2011/07/28/everything-proves-creationism/ What drives creationism? The scientific principle of Oogity Boogity.] Ratings agencies are totally impartial organizations with no ulterior political or financial motives.🇱🇮 More shrillness! First it was Bobo, now Kathleen Parker has joined in the shrillfest. Uncyclopedia: Successful government trolls are successful. Global warming denialism ends now. Get ready for a climate crank-gasm: The entire CRUTEM3 database excepting Poland has been released. (Obviously, Polish temps are the key to debunking global warming and are being suppressed.) Maureen Dowd compares and contrasts the cozy relationship between British PM Gordon Brown and the "pope of Fleet Street" with the now-strained relationship between Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny and the actual pope, whom Kenny [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYOpkArDzpE has accused of attempting "to frustrate an inquiry (into another local church sex scandal) in a sovereign, democratic republic as little as three years ago, not three decades ago." (Video)] Johann Hari: The IMF should be on trial Box Office Mojo takes to task the right-wing spin over the lackluster debut for Sarah Palin's hilariously titled new documentary The Undefeated. Summer heat records are outpacing cold records 8 to 1. Cue the mantra of "It's not global warming...it's not global warming...it snowed a lot last winter..." Update: You fools, the heat-wave is a concoction of the liberal media! Good rundown of stupid House bills, including the emergency vote (!) to defund the dreaded NPR. The Onion: US concedes, Soviets win the space race.

Climategate-gate? Neil Wallis is implicated in helping to feed the denialist echo chamber. More: Joe Romm on Olbermann on re-opening Climategate

Butthurt billionaires' greatest hits. Yes, ratings agencies suck at rating public debt as well as private. <vote poll=blog1632 closed="yes">There is a clash of civilsations, but not as usually understood <vote poll=blog1631 closed="yes">A free thinker is Satan's slave! Wat. <vote poll=blog1630 closed="yes">Does local weather affect people's opinions of climate change? <vote poll=blog1629 closed="yes">A petition to save the funding for the James Webb Space Telescope. <vote poll=blog1628 closed="yes">Worst Congress ever? <vote poll=blog1627 closed="yes">Creationist school appears out of nowhere. "‘I was as surprised as anyone to find myself here,’ said newly created headmaster, Dr William Jennings Bryan."

<vote poll=blog1626 closed="yes">60% texans suspended by the time they graduated, says study. There's a smart, ironic snark at creationist "studies" re: atheists somewhere in there, but i'm too dumb to spell it out. <vote poll=blog1625 closed="yes">Epic takedown of an anti-gay witness by sen. Al Franken. <vote poll=blog1624 closed="yes">How UK libel laws may have influenced the press' use of underhand tactics, i.e., phone hacking. <vote poll=blog1623 closed="yes">Obamageddon: The Novel! <vote poll=blog1622 closed="yes">Steve Novella looks at "nudges" for public health. <vote poll=blog1621 closed="yes">Justice Stephen Breyer fails at neuroscience. <vote poll=blog1620 closed="yes">Jan "Why there was nothing 'natural' about Stephen Gately's death" Moir quote-mines Stewart Lee to death, and Lee hits back. <vote poll=blog1619 closed="yes">On the Historicity of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. <vote poll=blog1618 closed="yes">Republican governors try to pray away the gay heat. <vote poll=blog1617 closed="yes">A Bloomberg gov't app lets you decide who to screw over if the debt ceiling isn't raised. <vote poll=blog1616 closed="yes"> [http://4simpsons.wordpress.com/2011/07/11/superstition-and-religion/ As a Christian, I scoff at superstitions. I leave those to non-believers.] (via Ed Brayton) <vote poll=blog1615 closed="yes">What happened to the anti-war movement? <vote poll=blog1614 closed="yes">The Daily Telegraph is live-blogging the hackgate scandal; get popcorn. <vote poll=blog1613 closed="yes">Marcus Bachmann: possibly straight man. <vote poll=blog1612 closed="yes">A blog called Unequally Yoked is running an "ideological Turing test": in the first round, atheists answer questions about their beliefs honestly, and Christians answer those same questions pretending to be atheists; the second round is the reverse. The readers then vote on which entries they thought were telling the truth and which were lying. Voting for the first round is over, but you can still vote for the second, and stick around for the results! <vote poll=blog1611 closed="yes">That News International apology translated. <vote poll=blog1610 closed="yes">The lies I told as a psychic - Confessions of a former phone psychic. <vote poll=blog1609 closed="yes">Deficit fetishes. <vote poll=blog1608 closed="yes">The general trend in the retreat of arctic sea ice has been greater than predicted by most climate models, and July is already a record-setting month. <vote poll=blog1607 closed="yes">(Self promotion!) Forget the News of the World, Coulson and Brooks. There's a revolution to be had here. <vote poll=blog1606 closed="yes">Comedy site Cracked.com takes up arms versus anti-gay marriage nutters.

<vote poll=blog1605 closed="yes">Steve Coogan and Greg Dyke lay into former News of the World hack Paul McMullen <vote poll=blog1604 closed="yes">Five myths about the debt ceiling. <vote poll=blog1603 closed="yes">How Fundamentalist Religion Is Destroying the World. <vote poll=blog1602 closed="yes">Thunderf00t + Bible + Westboro Baptist Church = Shouty-shouty Time! <vote poll=blog1601 closed="yes">In honor of The Young Turks reaching nearly half a billion video views on YouTube, have a classic clip of Cenk Uygur going fucking ballistic. <vote poll=blog1600 closed="yes">Get a bad review on your bullshit creationist book? Let the libel case begin... <vote poll=blog1599 closed="yes">Brian Cox: "...this is not a political statement, but the Iraq conflict so far has cost significantly more than a manned mission to Mars." In fact, the entire Shuttle Program cost approximately the same as the UK bank bailout, and we found the money for that. <vote poll=blog1598 closed="yes">Author Andrew Morantz works for a summer at an Indian call center, and learns some interesting things about Australians. <vote poll=blog1597 closed="yes">Britain's press and politicians enjoy a far too cosy relationship.

<vote poll=blog1596 closed="yes">New research exposes "Big Wind" and how its windmills will blow the Earth out of its orbit. <vote poll=blog1595 closed="yes">Frequently bandied about statistics on income inequality receive a "mostly true" rating from PolitiFact. <vote poll=blog1594 closed="yes">A Royal Navy medic objects to fighting in Afghanistan, but as he is an atheist he only has a "slight political reservation, not a moral conviction".

<vote poll=blog1593 closed="yes">Bobo, of all people, decides to get "shrill." (Update: Krugman notices the shrillness. Update II: Comment gold.) <vote poll=blog1592 closed="yes">You ask question about stone tablet, you no go to meatland! <vote poll=blog1591 closed="yes">Phil Plait explains away the "mysterious bubble in the sky" filmed by a Hawaiian observatory webcam and gets New Scientist coverage. Countdown to a fresh batch of conspiracy and UFO nutjob theories begins. <vote poll=blog1590 closed="yes">Richard Dawkins basically tells Rebecca Watson "You didn't get raped so stop whining". PZ Myers weighs in fairly sensibly. (oh dear fuck, someone is going to have a field day...) <vote poll=blog1589 closed="yes">Microevolution and macroevolution explained for more visual learners. <vote poll=blog1588 closed="yes">The latest facepalm-worthy homeopathy indication: Malaria <vote poll=blog1587 closed="yes">GOP spews more crank-onomics: Romney signs a pledge encouraging the US to default unless a balanced budget amendment is passed while Bachmann and Pawlenty go goldbug. Former Republican Senator Alan Simpson calls it "absolute bullshit."