RationalWiki:What is going on in the world?/May 2010

May 2010
On a Visit to the U.S., a Nigerian Witch-Hunter Explains Herself According to her, a school for children abandoned as witches is a "419 scam". And Libservatism started so well, UK school kids are going to get a history curriculum advised by Niall Ferguson, a man who blames the deaths of 29 million Indians in the 19th Century on an "erroneous understanding of economics" rather than brutal enforcement of right wing economics. Let's have a laugh. Texas cops mistake an actual weed for Marijuana. How bad was your day? Canada’s teen birth & abortion rate drops by 36.9 per cent, explained by a "relaxed attitude to adolescent sexuality." Well they did receive a Presidential pardon. That's better..... Sort of. The only word that comes to mind is "EEEEEEEEYOUCH!!!" (please heed the warning on that page before you scroll down -- it's not a link for everyone) Keep on riding, Dennis Hopper. Operation "Top Kill" fails. In a suburb of Portland, Oregon, a man with a concealed-carry permit for a largely defensive weapon of gun was waiting in line at an AT&T store when two shoplifters made off with four iPhones. Thinking he was in a 1930s gangster movie, he ran after them and tried to shoot out their car tires in the parking lot. (The cops haven't found where the bullets went.)  Naturally, he doesn't understand why the cops arrested him. No wonder the new design for RationalWiki is causing such fuss; all you creative types are insane. It appears that God needs some target practice, as he's destroyed his own building with a bolt of lightning. The US House of Representatives voted to allow military commanders to get rid of Don't Ask Don't Tell A science paper tries to explain why people don't understand science. Tautology? You decide! Remember air travel? Katla's playing up. Cause I'm Jesus, yes I'm the real Jesus/All you other Jesuses are just imitating/So won't the real Jesus please stand up, please stand up, please stand up?  wants creationism in prize winning Ulster Museum. <vote poll=world1754 closed="yes">"Creatively and successfully defusing the situation with no bloodshed goes against everything we are there for." <votecp poll=world1753 closed="yes">Talk about sweet, sweet revenge! Almost exactly 20 years after Microsoft stole the idea of a graphic interface from Apple, Apple finally, finally overtakes Microsoft in market value!!! Of course, Apple stole the idea from Xerox. No revenge there, then. <vote poll=world1752 closed="yes">You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off! <vote poll=world1751 closed="yes">Could it be that the influence of Sarah Palin and the Tea Party movement on the GOP is running out of steam? In Idaho, one of the most conservative states in America, Palin's choice for the 1st Congressional District -- who was also endorsed by Tom Tancredo, John McCain, Barry Goldwater's son Barry Jr., and Pat Buchanan's sister Bay -- was an Iraq War veteran, had been in the race for over a year, had a 6-to-1 fundraising advantage, and was designated a "Young Gun" by the National Congressional Campaign Committee. And he still lost by more than nine percentage points to an upstart candidate who entered the race a mere six months ago. <vote poll=world1750 closed="yes">Republicans are having problems with trolls on their new website. In other news, we have a new conservative website to troll! <vote poll=world1749 closed="yes">Roll up! Roll up! All the fun o' the fair! Come and see our tricksy-dicksy mathematicians prove that a fairground favourite was a fraud! Roll up! <vote poll=world1748 closed="yes">The problem of polling firms' reliance on land-lines only is getting worse and skews results toward the Republicans. <vote poll=world1747 closed="yes">Just when it seemed that the Catholic priest - child sex abuse scandal was calming down a bit, this happened. <vote poll=world1746 closed="yes">The Times cedes the UK Internet news market to the Guardian and the BBC. And just to make sure, they're keeping that darned Google out. Dear Rupert, don't let the paywall hit your arse on the way out. <vote poll=world1745 closed="yes">Bishop writes prayers for the World Cup <vote poll=world1744 closed="yes">Andrew Wakefield (of MMR fame) is struck off the medical register after being found guilty of misconduct in his research. S'pose we have to call him Anew Wakefield now. <vote poll=world1743 closed="yes">A public service announcement in relation to the Tea Party movement: Don't drunk-dial FreedomWorks (YouTube link). <vote poll=world1742 closed="yes">The first proof that Israel has nuclear weapons surfaces - and they were trying to sell them to apartheid South Africa. UPDATE Shimon Peres denies the story. <vote poll=world1741 closed="yes">Louisiana to feds: Let us protect ourselves from spill. <vote poll=world1740 closed="yes">At 95, we have lost a great man. Martin Gardner has left this mortal coil. <vote poll=world1739 closed="yes">Not 24 hours after that controversy Rand Paul causes another one.

<vote poll=world1737 closed="yes">Not 48 hours after his landslide victory in a Republican Party primary, Teabagger candidate Rand Paul steps into controversy. <vote poll=world1735 closed="yes">It's life Jim, but not as we know it. <vote poll=world1734 closed="yes">Same sex love in Malawi - fourteen years jail time <vote poll=world1733 closed="yes">A child-minder, who allowed 3 men into her employers' house, whereupon they attacked her and the one-year-old child in her care, putting the child in intensive care, is sacked. Then sues for unfair dismissal. <vote poll=world1732 closed="yes">Not content to let the Catholics have all the fun, Scientologists in Australia face sexual abuse charges. <vote poll=world1731 closed="yes">Idiotic judge is rebuked... nine months later. Awfully long bollocking. <vote poll=world1730 closed="yes">South Korea officially blames North Korea for an attack on their warship. This is Captain Obvious signing off. <vote poll=world1729 closed="yes">The British Medical Association say that Homeopathy is witchcraft. <vote poll=world1728 closed="yes">More incumbent Republicans take a whuppin' at the hands of the Teabaggers. <vote poll=world1727 closed="yes">Another Republican politician is caught with his pants down. Unlike previous philanderers, he made it a point to leave his wife at home when he went public. (And then he called attention to her absence at his press conference. What a guy!)  And in the "you can't make this shit up" department, last year he and his mistress made a series of videos touting abstinence-only sex education. <vote poll=world1726 closed="yes">Look out! Here comes the Spider-goat! <vote poll=world1725 closed="yes">Apparently, "I got knocked up as a teenager" qualifies you to earn $15-30K per speaking engagement. Well, it helps if your last name is "Palin" and your Mom's name is "Sarah". <vote poll=world1724 closed="yes">Portugal runs the risk of suffering from earthquakes, tidal waves and collective boils on the botty as their President prepares to sign into power the law legalising same-sex marriage.

<vote poll=world1722 closed="yes">15 year old Jehovah's Witness refuses blood - dies. <vote poll=world1721 closed="yes">Billy Joel's daughter attempted to OD on homeopathic pills. <vote poll=world1720 closed="yes">Brit Hume, of the ever accurate Faux News, asks: where the oil in the Gulf is? <vote poll=world1719 closed="yes">The Catholic Church has come up with a rather inspired (but not very inspirational) defense in its child sexual abuse scandal. As of 17 May 2010, the Vatican's official position regarding all local priests, bishops, archbishops and cardinals will be as follows: "You can't sue us because they aren't our employees." <vote poll=world1718 closed="yes"> Attention fundies (and rest of the world) this is what real religious persecution looks like. <vote poll=world1716 closed="yes">Being a disgusting beast is natural. Monkeys will pay valuable juice for pictures of female monkey butts. <vote poll=world1717 closed="yes">Do you take the to be thy lawfully wedded [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/16/AR2010051600741.html?hpid=artslot ERROR! ERROR! DESTROY!] <vote poll=world1736 closed="yes">Maine Republicans hold a meeting in a school classroom over the weekend, and decide to search it and remove any "anti-American" items they found. Pure class. <vote poll=world1715 closed="yes">Evolution continues to happen. Observing speciation happening in real time. <vote poll=world1714 closed="yes">Not even Confucius is safe from commercialism in China. <vote poll=world1713 closed="yes">Virginia Attorney General doesn't believe in Global Warming and doesn't like that a University of Virginia scientist does. UVA fights back <vote poll=world1712 closed="yes">Some people just don't get it. <vote poll=world1711 closed="yes">Sony drops PS3 support for alternative operating systems. US Air Force is unhappy. <vote poll=world1710 closed="yes">[http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37135563/ns/us_news-environment Contrary to popular belief, weather can get too hot for lizards. And weather that is too hot for too long can kill lizards.] Thanks to global warming, many species of lizards are now indeed going extinct. (But, that can't be true! Global waring is just a librul commie myth and scare tactic!) <vote poll=world1709 closed="yes">A candidate in the Gubernatorial Primary in Alabama is attacked for possibly believing in evolution and not swallowing Genesis hook, line and sinker. The candidate is forced to respond and affirms he believes in every word in the Bible. This is what passes for politics today in the US. <vote poll=world1708 closed="yes">After being deluged with requests from Birthers for Obama's birth certificate, Hawaii enacts a law to allow officials to ignore repeated requests for public records. Crazy - ass response from the Birther movement in 3... 2... 1... <vote poll=world1707 closed="yes">Turns out Laura Bush is pro-choice and for gay marriage. Another kick in the nuts for the Republican Party. <vote poll=world1706 closed="yes">Indian yogi hasn't been eating for 70 years (aside from all the food he sneaks when nobody is looking). <vote poll=world1705 closed="yes">Arizonan school kids are no longer allowed to take "ethnic studies" classes. <vote poll=world1704 closed="yes">Hysterical Teabaggers please take note - Americans are paying the lowest level of tax since 1950. <vote poll=world1703 closed="yes">Cameron is PM, Clegg is Deputy - now we can all get the fuck on with our lives and watch a new and original government bugger it all up in a new and original way!

<vote poll=world1701 closed="yes">Pope admits that perhaps internal bad behaviour has something to do with the Catholic Church's current problems. Maybe a little bit. <vote poll=world1700 closed="yes">The Tea Party movement continues to shift the Republican Party ever more to the Right, as Senator Bob Bennett, longstanding senator from Utah, is ousted in Republican Primary by Teabaggers. <vote poll=world1699 closed="yes">Bye bye Brown. Or not. UPDATE: Bye bye Brown! <vote poll=world1698 closed="yes">Elena Kagan is nominated to the Supreme Court. Let the culture wars begin. <vote poll=world1697 closed="yes">Newton's apple tree to defy operate under the strict laws of gravity. <vote poll=world1696 closed="yes">Welcome to liberal atheist Europe! A Polish pop star faces two years in jail for blasphemy. <vote poll=world1695 closed="yes">After the "landslide victory" (hat tip to Andrew Schlafly), the UK Conservative Party grandees aren't exactly happy at what they see as a failure to achieve. <vote poll=world1694 closed="yes">Make your own solar water heater from empty Coke bottles. Plans (in Portugese) here. <vote poll=world1693 closed="yes"> <vote poll=world1692 closed="yes">Danger, Will Robinson! <vote poll=world1691 closed="yes">Apple gets mighty touchy. <vote poll=world1690 closed="yes">The good news is Tim Geithner did not ask for another emergency bailout today. <vote poll=world1689 closed="yes">Non-African humans have some Neanderthal DNA <vote poll=world1688 closed="yes">Fox refused to air an advert from VoteVets, veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, asking for clean energy development to reduce dependence upon Middle Eastern oil. <vote poll=world1687 closed="yes">Go ahead mock my big ears but they are a life-saver. <vote poll=world1686 closed="yes">BNP candidate starts a fight in the street while on camera <vote poll=world1685 closed="yes">The world-wide web goes truly global with the first, fully non-latin URLs. <vote poll=world1684 closed="yes">Today we're worried about volcanic ash clouds, but 24 years ago, there was an even scarier cloud. How soon we forget. <vote poll=world1683 closed="yes">Disneyland Paris, Europe's number one tourist attraction, is of course a great place to go, where a splendid time is guaranteed for all. Unless you work there. <vote poll=world1682 closed="yes">Fifteen years into her career, country singer Chely Wright has come out of the closet. She is considered the most successful closeted country artist to come out. Wright now admits that because of the need to please her mostly right wing fans and colleagues, she stuck a 9mm in her mouth and almost blew her brains out. <vote poll=world1681 closed="yes">Jerry Falwell Jr's attempt to turn Lynchburg, VA into a fiefdom of Liberty University faltered at the ballot box. <vote poll=world1680 closed="yes">The once mighty Jordan River, where Christians believe Jesus was baptised, is now little more than a polluted stream that could die by 2011. Maybe now the fundies will sit up and take note. <vote poll=world1679 closed="yes">Pedestrians fight back. <vote poll=world1678 closed="yes">Now here's a surprise: "Brain shuts off in response to healer's prayer" <vote poll=world1677 closed="yes">And with a regularity that would be boring, if it weren't so sad, another anti-gay crusader is found to be not as anti as he wanted us to believe. This time it's George Alan Rekers, co-founder of the Family Research Council, and his rentboy. <vote poll=world1676 closed="yes">At least the Greeks don't take it lying down. <vote poll=world1675 closed="yes">Amid allegations of vote fraud, an investigating journalist is attacked and beaten. Not in Afghanistan or Iraq or Zimbabwae, but east London. <vote poll=world1674 closed="yes">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/gloucestershire/8660449.stm The Cotswolds are going dogging... I mean to the dogs.] <vote poll=world1673 closed="yes">The Hutaree terrorism suspects get bail. Why are we not surprised? <vote poll=world1672 closed="yes">Life is like a box of chocolates great big oil slick. . . If the oil slick isn't BP's fault (as BP claims), then why are BP's representatives going around coastal Alabama -- particularly the hometown of the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company -- and demanding that local residents settle out-of-court for a measly $5000? <vote poll=world1671 closed="yes">Not as inbred as Cain and Eve, but Charles Darwin was sure pushing it. <vote poll=world1670 closed="yes">Drunk man has eel inserted into his rectum (by so-called friends), dies 10 days later <vote poll=world1669 closed="yes">So, not all terrorists belong to Al-Qaeda after all... <vote poll=world1668 closed="yes">A British judge has declared that Christian beliefs have no standing under secular law because they lack evidence and cannot be proven. <vote poll=world1667 closed="yes">The latest attempt by conservatives to enshrine President Ronald Reagan on the US currency falls flat. <vote poll=world1666 closed="yes">If BP makes the mess, then BP's damn well going to pay to clean it up. <vote poll=world1665 closed="yes">Barack Obama... President... Statesman... stand-up comedian? <vote poll=world1664 closed="yes">The difference between US and UK conservatives might be less than you think, as it emerges that a "rising star" in the Tory party held prayer sessions to cure gay people. <vote poll=world1663 closed="yes">You want more proof right-ringers and TV aren't a good mix? Ok, here's one from your side of the pond. <vote poll=world1662 closed="yes">Never a dull moment when you have right-wing fuckheads on live TV. <vote poll=world1661 closed="yes">Time Magazine announces their lists of the 100 most and least influential people of 2010. <vote poll=world1660 closed="yes">Are full body scanners any use at airports? Nope, says Israeli expert. <vote poll=world1659 closed="yes">More Arizona absurdity. <vote poll=world1658 closed="yes">Old actors never die, they appear on CNN, talking about alien abductions. <vote poll=world1657 closed="yes">Triumph of the spirit - Afghanistan are playing India in the 20/20 Cricket World Cup. Not bad, when you consider 2 short years ago, they were grouped with such cricketing giants as Botswana, Jersey and Japan. <vote poll=world1656 closed="yes">The latest threat to US national security? Kids that are too fat to fight.