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RationalWiki:What is going on in the world?/October 2010
October 2010[edit]
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45 |
Most US soldiers don’t object to gay servicemembers says a poll conducted by that notorious left-wing, gay-loving institution... The Pentagon |
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11 |
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7 |
Mother shakes baby to death, because it was crying while she played Farmville. |
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14 |
Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich found common ground in the Nineties: fooling around on their wives. |
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6 |
Gather around, kids. Let me tell you about the good old days. I know it's had to believe, but before every home had a computer, and the schools closed after a big snowstorm, they actually allowed us to go outside and play in it, rather than spend all day stuck inside in an online classroom. |
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33 |
Meanwhile, in Bizarro world, the Rand Paul supporter who stomped on a MoveOn supporter wants her to apologize to him. |
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-4 |
Vatican doesn't want former Iraqi minister Tariq Aziz to hang. |
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10 |
Straight couple fight for the right to have a civil partnership. |
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35 |
What Happened When I Yelled Back at the "Christians" Calling My Wife a Murderer. "These people aren't used to being confronted. They prey on the weak and they pounce on the wounded. But I chose to fight back." |
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15 |
Minnesota Public Radio makes a shocking revelation: "There may be a religious undercurrent to the harassment of teens who are seen as gay." What will they think of next, that the Spanish Inquisition was religiously motivated or something? |
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3 |
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4 |
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16 |
Massive fossilised amber find. "It's like having the complete dinosaur, not just the bones. You can see all the surface details on their bodies and wings. It's fantastic." |
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7 |
As France bans covering up a small part of Italy contemplates a ban on revealing all. |
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20 |
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4 |
It's a shame that some people take political polls seriously. Consider this example from the Fifth Congressional District of Oregon. On the morning of 25 October, the (Portland) Oregonian published the results of a 18-21 October poll conducted by Elway Research of Washington State. Elway gives the Democratic incumbent, Kurt Schrader, a 50-38 lead over his Republican challenger, Scott Bruun. That evening, the Huffington Post quoted the results of a 17-19 October poll from New Jersey-based SurveyUSA, and from HuffPo's firm, Pollster.com. SurveyUSA shows Bruun leading 51-41. Pollster.com shows that Schrader once led, but now trails 45.3-42.1. |
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7 |
NPR CEO, Vivian Schiller: Juan Williams was fired for "expressing strong personal opinions on controversial subjects in public settings." She seems to be using some hitherto unknown definitions of "strong personal opinions," "controversial," and "public settings" that do not include calling all black leaders "phonies" on an NPR news show. |
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10 |
The Guardian took those 400,000+ Wikileaks pages from Iraq, then pasted all of the geographic data of casualties onto a Google map, and, well. . . . |
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5 |
Oh, look! The Associated Press has noticed the likes of RealCatholicTV and the anti-heterodoxy forces of "Taliban Catholicism." |
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8 |
Bert comes out of the closet. Cue the obvious jokes about having a hand inserted in him all these years… |
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7 |
I can only assume it's to remove the liberal bias. The Kama Sutra is to be re-translated. Presumably they won't be including the parable about getting stoned with an adulteress… |
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11 |
"Just say grow" Conservatives who support legalizing marijunana. |
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10 |
We all know about hijacking planes, cars and boats; but hijacking companies? |
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14 |
Ah, Southern law. A Florida teenager who was burglarizing a house with some friends faces a 50-year sentence for second-degree murder because the homeowner shot one of his accomplices dead. Will the homeowner face murder or manslaughter charges? No, although he was found to be in possession of a shit-load of cocaine. |
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-3 |
What's on? Martin Freeman is to play the Baggins (have you spotted the pun yet?). All together now: "What's in my pocket?". Tricksy hobbit…. |
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11 |
The Pot/Kettle Comparative Blackness Index (PKCBI) climbs into previously unknown territory. |
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14 |
Lets not only ban abortion, but also many forms of birth control, stem cell and in vitro fertilization treatments. |
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8 |
33 Chilean miners were rescued after 69 days underground, but it seems that it's the other 400 workers that are facing the most uncertain future. |
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4 |
Friday Night Lights are about football, fun, community, youth, |
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2 |
During this election cycle, the Republicans have pushed the meme that the $15 trillion debt is all the fault President Obama and the Democrats, and not the Bush Administration. Has their message been successful? Well, on 20 October -- five days after it was announced that federal spending and the national debt and deficit had all declined over the previous year -- few people noticed when Dubya admitted that bailing out Wall Street was an easy decision, but Fox News loves that an 18-term Democratic congressman from a strongly Democratic Minnesota district got booed for suggesting that most of the debt and deficit are carryovers from the Bush years. |
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27 |
States that stress abstinence-only sex-ed have far higher rates of teen pregnancy. You don't say? |
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8 |
You know the "bodice ripper" genre of salacious damsel-in-distress romance tales? Well, your friendly local hacks are now writing about a decidedly different community with an exciting new romance genre, the bonnet-ripper. |
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8 |
Benoit Mandelbrot, father of fractal geometry, R.I.P. |
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10 |
Rolling Stone Uganda counts down the nation's "Top 100 homos" and advocates violence against them. |
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-6 |
Dear Penthouse, I never thought I'd be writing this but I was reading the newspaper when I spotted your founder's obituary. |
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8 |
Juan Williams (Fox's token liberal or NPR's token conservative) fired from NPR for saying anti-Muslim remarks. |
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6 |
A Virginia history textbook contains some outright lies about the Civil War. But this, according to "historians from across the country," is apparently not so big a problem as the book's questioning the idea that slavery was the war's main cause. (It appears that on this point a little consistency is too much to ask.) |
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0 |
Drastic but necessary, or too harsh and too fast? The UK's budget is in with the biggest cuts in over half a century. |
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14 |
The Univision (Spanish-language) TV stations in Nevada have pulled an ad that urged Hispanics not to vote after finding out that it came from a Republican front group. UPDATE: Here's the long-form version of the ad (in English). |
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10 |
Mrs. Clarence Thomas, part 2: After leaving the Heritage Foundation early in 2009 -- claiming she wanted to avoid any apparent conflicts of interest with her hubby's day job -- she first went to work for a college, but then started a website that she said was a community for people seeking to "preserve freedom and reaffirm the core founding principles." That website has now morphed into a full-fledged Teabagger advocacy and lobbying group that has benefited greatly from her hubby's vote to lift restrictions on campaign contributions. So much for avoiding conflicts of interest. |
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5 |
Woolworths decides not to sell Christian magazines anymore. The faithful see it as "an assault on evangelistic Christianity." UPDATE: Woolies caves in. |
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4 |
Mrs. Clarence Thomas asks nicely if Anita Hill would apologize for making allegations of sexual harassment against her husband. Prof. Hill takes it remarkably well, only going so far as to report her to her campus security office, who reported it to the FBI. |
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-11 |
The BBC compares and contrasts the heads of government of Turkey and Germany. Turkish Prime Minister Erdoğan is lauded for his excellent choice of scarf. German Chancellor Merkel is tut-tutted for being so deluded as to suggest that immigrants to Germany ought to >gasp!< learn to speak German. |
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19 |
Sarah Palin makes an endorsement for the Pennsylvania Senate race. The recipient of her endorsement is running in West Virginia. |
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28 |
Christine O'Donnell doesn't know about the Constitution. Fox News reports the story with a considerably different angle. |
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7 |
Take one homemade space capsule equipped with a parachute, add one HD video camera, one iPhone (for its GPS locator), and one weather balloon, and what do you get? One really cool father-and-son home science project. (Video included.) |
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13 |
The Crystal Cathedral wasn't the first megachurch, but it was one of the first designed to exhibit showy opulence. Now, almost five years after the resignation of its founder, and after years of living beyond its means, the Crystal Cathedral has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. |
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17 |
Obama to appear on Mythbusters. Nothing to do with religion or birth certificates, however. |
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9 |
Advice to teenagers: when attempting to purchase marijuana, do not contact your local sheriff. |
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10 |
Colorado Senate candidate: being gay is like alcoholism. I'll drink to that! |
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6 |
Who says the recession isn't over? Sure, Wal-Mart believes it needs to build smaller stores to better compete with dollar stores. But at the same time, sales of luxury items have rebounded to pre-crisis levels. |
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6 |
Greater Manchester Police live-blog 24 hours of incidents on Twitter. The police tweets also archived here. |
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17 |
The Tea Party is a grass-roots movement of popular resentment against Obama, er, funded by Big Oil. |
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27 |
"They said that I was a f** and that I should die and go to hell, where I belonged. This story is for the young people who might be holding the gun tonight, or the rope or the pill bottle. You need to know that the story doesn't end where I didn't tell it, on that unfortunate day." |
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11 |
According to a Florida lawyer representing more than 3,000 foreclosed homeowners, mortgage lenders were so hot to foreclose on as many properties as possible that they hired hair stylists, WalMart floor workers, teenagers and assembly line workers as "foreclosure experts." |
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13 |
Glenn Beck: Parodist is a federally funded progressive propagandist. Original parody video here. |
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13 |
A thirty three year old woman gets her jollies by being cruel to a seven year old girl. Oh, and the little girl is dying. |
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7 |
And the new frontrunner in the 200 meter backpedal. |
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18 |
As 33 Chilean miners escape through 700 metres of narrow pipe a lone sewer worker has his own lucky escape through more than 1600 metres of narrow pipe. |
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16 |
From the "Don't expect to see this on MPR" department: Obama is more popular than Palin in her home state. |
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18 |
United States District Judge in California rules Don't Ask, Don't Tell to be unconstitutional. |
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15 |
First traces of life pushed back to 3.3 billion years ago (As reported in [dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2010.09.008 Earth and Planetary Science Letters]) |
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12 |
Julia Gillard backs internet filter, on "moral" grounds. |
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7 |
33 miners, 68 days, 624 meters. The rescue of the Chilean miners is almost ready to go. |
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13 |
"There's nothing wrong with you, but there's lots wrong with the way society and the politicians treat you." The words of the late Claire Rayner to an early meeting of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality. |
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14 |
Italy cracks down on Roma (aka Gypsies). Why? "These are dark-skinned people, not Europeans like you and me." |
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14 |
Good news: You're implementing a CO2 emissions tax. Bad news: Your country doesn't yet have the correct petrol to reduce emissions. |
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14 |
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7 |
The new Nobel Laureate in literature believes that "it is very dangerous to use literature as a vehicle to promote political ideals." But it would appear that the Nobel Prize people do not agree with him, having given him the prize because his work espoused the correct political views. |
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9 |
Main Street vs. Wall Street: The day after it was reported that 95,000 Americans lost their jobs last month, the Dow Jones Industrial topped 11,000 for the first time since May thanks to a 0.8 percent drop in the value of the dollar. Woo hoo! Cheap money! |
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18 |
Oh those heathen British. The leader of a paedophile church leaves crowds wanting far less it seems. |
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11 |
More fun with |
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13 |
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17 |
Fox & Friends hosts to be replaced by chimps! Well, according to the ever-reliable Weekly World News, who acknowledged Fox's coverage of their story. |
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24 |
Is a saboteur afoot at Fox News? Fox and Fiends breathlessly reported that Los Angeles will spend $1 billion (10,000 units at $100,000 each) for jetpacks that can go 63 miles per hour and soar to 8,000 feet. Gawker got a tip that the most likely source of this story is -- wait for it -- the Weekly World News! |
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16 |
The Hardly Suprising News Department reports that a new poll has found that Tea Partiers share many values with the religious right. "Nearly half of those who identify with the Tea Party believe that the Bible is the literal word of God". |
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14 |
The "war with the Muslims has just begun" warns the Times Square Bomber who was sentenced to life in prison today. |
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16 |
Just when you thought the Republicans had contained their urges for this election cycle, along comes 67-year-old Reagan-appointed Senior U.S. District Court Judge Jack T. Camp in a case that involves illegal possession of firearms, a stripper, and the judge's attempt to buy some Roxys and blow. |
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9 |
Fox News reports on a poll that says Dems may not do as badly as thought in the mid-terms. |
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11 |
Genuine hero of comedy and Albanian icon. Norman Wisdom dies at the age of 95. |
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26 |
In the 19th century, fire departments were privately owned. If you weren't one of their paying customers, they would stand by while your house or business burned to the ground. But then evil socialists |
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11 |
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10 |
A very hard green campaign video featuring people blowing up climate change denialists is pulled for being a bit violent. |
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9 |
Democracy: One man - one vote, or $80 million dollars? |
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7 |
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8 |
New study: Collaboration beats smarts in group problem solving. Hint to study's researchers: Next time, try setting problems that actually require thinking to solve. |
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4 |
Did you do well in 4-H or the FFA? According to sociologist Thomas Espenshade, that means you're too |
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5 |
"Diversity trainer" Paul Gorski lays it right out: There is an enormous difference between actual diversity and systemic diversity. |
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9 |
You can't keep a good mercenary down. |
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8 |
Getafix's day has just been made! |
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18 |
The US accounts for 46.5% of all military spending in the world. The second largest spender is China, with 6.6%. Can the US continue to maintain such vast expenditure, and how has it come to be so large? |
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9 |
Rick Sanchez was fired from CNN for calling Jon Stewart a bigot and claiming that "The Jews" run the media. Is it because Jon keeps showing this clip? |
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14 |
Germany finally settles its debts... from WW1. Although, in fairness, they were originally pegged at a somewhat steep equivalent of 100,000 tonnes of gold. |
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14 |
To silence those snivelling shits, with their "I know my rights" rubbish, the Tories are planning to scrap the "no touch" rules in schools. |
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9 |
China takes a Great Leap... er... Upwards. |