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

March 2013
Capitalism and Slavery, redux. Arkansas, meet Canadian ethical oil. "Sniffing that there’s no difference between New Pope and Nazi Pope is like sniffing that there’s no difference between Bush and Gore, because Al Gore isn’t Ralph Nader. The Pagan Sausage Machine Fallacy: on retconning religious histories. Video game blog Rock, Paper, Shotgun reveals one of their writers is *shudder* female. Commenters go nuts.  RPS then unleashes the snarkasm. Atheism as a civil rights issue. The Onion, on how the Supreme Court should handle the marriage equality cases. Cracked: 5 Mind-Blowing Facts Nobody Told You About Guns Church of England claims 4 out of 5 people in the UK believe in the power of prayer. Turns out they're not so clear on that 9th commandment. BuzzFeed documents some unreasonably angry Daily Mail commentors. The Republicans have a Pope Francis problem. So it turns out science makes you more moral. (in one study with a small and very WEIRD sample) Opponents of same-sex marriage are obsessed with what goes on in the bedroom? Who would have guessed? Hiroshima and Nagasaki in colour. Cecil Adams digs into the screaming flesh surrounding the Zombie Apocalypse. The Venn Diagram of Irrational Nonsense. <vote poll=blog2934 closed="yes">Software developer fired for making childish/sexist jokes during a tech conference. Woman who called him out also fired. <vote poll=blog2933 closed="yes">The Bronze Dog has a nice, concise post about privacy, the surveillance society and Google Glass <vote poll=blog2932 closed="yes">Cracked: 5 Ways Statistics Are Used To Lie To You. <vote poll=blog2931 closed="yes">Feminism isn't relevant, eh? <vote poll=blog2930 closed="yes">Beowulf, as interpreted by creationists. <vote poll=blog2929 closed="yes">Prepare to witness every neocon's brain explode. <vote poll=blog2928 closed="yes">The latest synonym for financial chicanery: London Whale. <vote poll=blog2927 closed="yes">Immigrants and video games together, a Fox News nightmare come true. <vote poll=blog2926 closed="yes">"History" Channel's Satan may look like a certain black guy. (Glenn Beck likes it, unsurprisingly.) <vote poll=blog2925 closed="yes">So much for CNN being a tool of the "liberal media." (In all irony, The Onion predicted this back in 2011.) <vote poll=blog2924 closed="yes">Exposing PseudoAstronomy interviews a former BBC producer from the Apollo era on some of Richard Hoagland's (mostly NASA-related) conspiracies. <vote poll=blog2923 closed="yes">Racist preacher elected president of Brazil's Human Rights Commission (over a week old but I don't think we've noted it) <vote poll=blog2922 closed="yes">The greatest parody of 9/11 Truthers ever made. <vote poll=blog2921 closed="yes">What is the opposite of progress? <vote poll=blog2920 closed="yes">Cecil Adams gives us the Straight Dope on Pedophilia <vote poll=blog2919 closed="yes">The National Post believes it should have the right to copyright the titles of articles.(citation not needed or we'll get sued!) <vote poll=blog2918 closed="yes">Sky News reporter gets detained by Chinese police, hilarity ensues. <vote poll=blog2917 closed="yes">From a urine accumulation to "Adam" himself: 7 things that are older than Ken Ham’s universe. <vote poll=blog2916 closed="yes">How to stop media leaks: Dig out the polygraph! (Hint to whistleblowers/leakers: Read our article, or watch QI season E, episode 7, for some tips on how to cheat it.) <vote poll=blog2915 closed="yes">Worth another look: To commemorate the election of Pope Francis I, Cracked.com has reposted this 5½ year old article it calls "The 5 Biggest Badass Popes" to its front page.

<vote poll=blog2914 closed="yes">11 Most Absurd Lies Conservatives Are Using to Brainwash America's School Kids <vote poll=blog2913 closed="yes">"Soviet killer dolphins on the loose in the Black Sea." We're boned. <vote poll=blog2912 closed="yes">Whoops, there's two Bitcoin chains, because the maths wasn't so good after all. But they'll eventually merge! In the meantime, stop mining, and your transactions are juuuust fine. Probably. Not that anyone can fix it. A reminder that Bitcoin is not yet 1.0. <vote poll=blog2911 closed="yes">The Onion: God Worried He Fucked Up His Children. <vote poll=blog2910 closed="yes">Notorious copyright trolls Prenda Law are about to get ripped several new ones by a very angry Federal judge. (Prenda who? Background on the case, h/t to Ken at Popehat) <vote poll=blog2909 closed="yes">[http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2013/03/11/an-inadvertent-truth/ Well, yes. Yes, they are.] <vote poll=blog2908 closed="yes">"Sanctity of marriage" argument destroyed in a little over a minute. <vote poll=blog2907 closed="yes">A convenient map of post-election GOP infighting. <vote poll=blog2906 closed="yes">Why North Korea will fall faster than anyone would've expected. <vote poll=blog2905 closed="yes">So... Feminist Frequency starts a series on sexist topics in video games. The men decide they to respond with some videos of their own, but the guy in charge has run off with the money. <vote poll=blog2904 closed="yes">[http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/19v8hv/i_used_to_be_professional_psychic_i_was_a_fraud/ I used to be a professional psychic. I was a fraud. Ask me anything.] <vote poll=blog2903 closed="yes">"Obama, Congress Must Reach Deal On Budget By March 1, And Then April 1, And Then April 20, And Then April 28, And Then May 1, And Then Twice A Week For Next Four Years." The header on the page says it's The Onion, but the way the news has looked lately you'd be forgiven for thinking it was actually CNN. <vote poll=blog2902 closed="yes" closed="yes">Could the European far-right find common cause with fundamentalist Islam?

<vote poll=blog2901 closed="yes">Another wasteful study that shows acupuncture doesn't do anything. Let's be clear. Acupuncture is fucking junk medicine. <vote poll=blog2900 closed="yes">If you won't let me save a dollar, I'll get my gun <vote poll=blog2899 closed="yes">All the Republicans who voted against the Violence Against Women Act. You might recognize a few of them. <vote poll=blog2898 closed="yes">No, Jesus wasn't the king of Edessa <vote poll=blog2897 closed="yes">Roger Ebert: how I am a Roman Catholic <vote poll=blog2896 closed="yes">Big Placebo is relabeling homeopathic remedies as "supplements" to avoid the stigma of homeopathy. <vote poll=blog2895 closed="yes">Exposing Pseudoastronomy on Russian meteor conspiracy theories. <vote poll=blog2894 closed="yes">An interesting look at those who still think Congress is doing an OK job. <vote poll=blog2893 closed="yes">Yvain: Selecting the next pope for hilarity potential. Since all papabile look alike, includes pictures of people of similar-sounding names. <vote poll=blog2892 closed="yes">Why the sequester won't hurt too much...for now. <vote poll=blog2891 closed="yes">Basically, fuck the NRA