RationalWiki:What is going on in the blogosphere?/December 2014

December 2014
Have you heard? NASA has announced that on Jan. 04, 2015, a rare interplanetary alignment will render the world briefly partially weightless. Except... They didn't, and it won't. A lesson on Internet credulity and the dangers of sources mixing fact with entertaining fiction: How one of the oldest astrophysics hoaxes in the book went viral. "Vaccines Work." A cartoon guide to vaccines and vaccine denialist arguments. Happen to be Hindu and born under a certain positioning of Mars in the sky? Being Manglik: a lesser known pseudoscientific stigma straining love lives in India. The Interview is out!! and it's offensively stupid garbage. WHAT ARE THE ODDS HUH Schneier on Security: Did North Korea Really Attack Sony? Rather unsurprisingly WND and David Barton seem to be being less than truthful about his recent court case. Steven Novella: Nobody's Perfect: dealing with flawed characters and the inverse stopped clocks of the world (a.k.a. "Welcome to Being Human.") Apropos of the current "Black Lives Matter" movement, here is a photo-essay about the history of lynching in the USA. Tax protesters appeal their conviction by saying the judge should not have let them use their pseudolaw theories in court, so therefore it's his fault. Another slam dunk for Kareem Abdul-Jabar. "Hunger, filth, fear and death": remembering life before the NHS. David Dunning (of Dunning-Kruger): We are all confident idiots. Yes, you too. Jimmy Wales tries to patiently explain to a Gamergater why Gamergate has some public relations problems. "It is very difficult for me to buy into the notion that gamergate is 'really about ethics in journalism' when every single experience I have personally had with it involved pro-gg people insulting, threatening, doxxing, etc." They don't quite take the recommendations of the world-famous and highly influential charity founder they enquired with to heart. Ayn Rand reviews children's movies. "Web pages, including [Doubtful News, deemed “critical” of Universal Medicine removed from Google Search results"] - let's "Streisand" 'em! Failed psychic predictions of 2014. Hey, Creationists! Charles Darwin got something wrong about evolution! But it won't help your case. Sweden's newest popular television show, Trolljägarna, hunts down internet trolls to interview in real life If you claim God and the Bible are necessary for morality ... pedophilia might not be the most robust example. So, what do U.S. cops get punished for? There's one kind of bias that affects extremists less than other people. Harper's meets the Silicon Valley capitalists and transhumanists. It's unclear if the LessWrong crew realise how they appear to normal humans. Lendrem B A D, Lendrem D W, Gray A, Isaacs J D. "The Darwin Awards: sex differences in idiotic behaviour." BMJ 2014; 349:g7094. Racists are still doing that racism thing and Cracked has the studies to prove it. Does John McCain Really Have To Remind You About Torture Again, You Assholes? The 5 Most Insidious Conspiracy Theories of 2014. Gamergate isn't over as long as its targets are still being harassed. Matt Inman gives a hilarious mocking of creationist beliefs by praising Jibbers Crabst, the giant lobster that lives behind Saturn. The sign language interpreter also gets into the speech and pushes it to the next level. | Conservative blogger goes to the Chicago zoo and finds “anti-human prejudice” and Liberal propaganda in signs that say over-hunting and habitat destruction threaten species. It will go nowhere, but thanks to ye. 9 ways Christian zealots cripple America. (No, it's not from Cracked.  It's a Salon.com repost from Alternet.com.) [https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfa1/t31.0-8/10620307_590942794340321_5495429495841033604_o.jpg A seventeen-year-old writes a poem composed entirely of anagrams of Eric Garner's last words. Chilling.] "Is the Food Babe a fearmonger?" Is the Space Pope reptilian? One of the great ironies of American politics likely to be realized this weekend: The Democratic Party will cease to be the party of the South. In this video, Barbie performs sex acts that are now forbidden in UK porn. There's also an ePetition (which is coherently written and correctly spelt). Chart Brut: The red-string-and-thumbtacks of the Internet generation A truly beautiful and only slightly cruel writeup of a Bitcoin convention at Disney in Florida. The Tea Party: Dunning-Kruger effect at its finest. Zoe Quinn gives a rather thorough breakdown of just how much Gamergate set back journalistic ethics. Some scientist has no choice but to sell his Nobel medal.