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RationalWiki to do list
Contents: New article suggestions - Recent suggestions – Cover story nominees – Articles requiring attention – Article writing resources - Technical
If you are really bored, you can help RationalWiki by writing stuff for us.
If you are really really bored, you can visit articles for deletion and see what needs pruning.
You can also help expand articles.
This is a place where:
- You can add topics that you think might be good article subjects.
- You can draw people's attention to articles which you think are mission-critical and/or need work.
- You can find articles that are nearing front page status and bask in the reflected glory of getting "your" article on the main page.
- You can find bits of random wikicruft that fitted nowhere else.
If you find yourself creating a stub-level article just to remove a link from the list, consider whether you should be doing it at all.
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Resources
Here are lists of resources that may aid in article writing.
Quality control[edit]
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New article suggestions
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New articles[edit]
These former suggestions have been recently created and may still need plenty of work.
| 265 | America's War on Sex: The Attack on Law, Lust and Liberty, by Marty Klein. It's about the desperate efforts of the American Right to stop any form of sexual activity except vaginal intercourse between married couples in the missionary position with clothes on, the lights off and no birth control from taking place. |
| 31 | Greta Thunberg, a sixteen-year-old climate change activist from Sweden. She has organized global school climate strikes and even addressed the 2018 United Nations Climate Change Conference . There have been rumors circulating that her family has a background in Satanism, mostly because her mother, the famous opera singer Malena Ernman , appeared on the cover of Vi magazine with the caption "Everyone sells their soul to the devil sometime".[1] Her grandmother, Mona Andersson, also starred in the 1964 black and white film, 491 which was the first to feature gay teen rape and bestiality which led to the film being banned in Sweden and Malaysia. Her great great grandfather was Svante Arrhenius , a famous Swedish chemist, physicist, and eugenicist, who was the discoverer of the greenhouse effect. |
| 101 | New Zealand First, a populist, anti-immigrant party in New Zealand, currently part of the government coalition with the Labour Party. With the focus on racism and anti-immigrant feeling after the Christchurch terrorist attacks, an article would be timely. Plus they're actually in government. |
| 13 | Abortion doping - an urban legend spread by anti-abortion campaigners that Soviet/communist athletes deliberately got themselves pregnant and then had abortions for the increase in testosterone and other hormones that pregnancy gives. The Wikipedia article debunks the rumors (which were sourced to someone pretending to be a Russian athlete) but doesn't mention how they've been used by anti-abortion campaigners. |
| 14 | Yugoslav Wars : conflicts in the 1990s in southeast Europe that saw mass murder, rape as a military tactic, and attempts at genocide, and popularised the term ethnic cleansing; authoritarian Serb leader Slobodan Milošević is also missional. Subject of extended war-crimes trials, and the aftermath of incidents like the Srebrenica massacre is still playing out in western European courts and politics.[2] Also played an important role in international law/diplomacy in defining the proper use of military force, influencing later military interventions. The role of ethnic and inter-religious tensions and pseudohistorical narratives in the conflict is also missional (Muslim Bosnians vs Orthodox Serbs vs Catholic Croats, with the Serbs particularly fond of demonising their enemies). |
| 8 | Arielle Scarcella, LGBT rights activist who has recently faced accusations of transphobia. |
| 22 | Michael Knowles, part time actor, part time writer for The Daily Wire, and overall someone who comes off as insufferable. "Wrote" a book purporting to list reasons to vote democrat. Spoiler alert, it's just 266 blank pages. It became a #1 best seller on Amazon and (perhaps not surprisingly) Donald Trump praised the book as "a great book for your reading entertainment". An article on him would be interesting. |
Most wanted articles[edit]
   | 282 | Something along the lines of race and police brutality in the United States – title flexible, obviously – is desperately needed. There are tons of major incidents that have received widespread coverage (Michael Brown and Eric Garner being probably the most prominent) that all follow the same pattern: cop shoots and kills black person in circumstances that didn't warrant violent action, then gets away with it. Cover the incidents, cover the statistics, cover right-wing media distortions of the incidents, cover protests, cover riots and maybe even online responses (#BlackLivesMatter). |
   | 291 | Metabunk.orgEdit draft, a site dedicated to refuting conspiracy theories, which, unsurprisingly leads to accusations of being a shill. Countless Youtube videos have whistleblowers "exposing" Metabunk. |
   | 238 | We should have an article on Christian supremacy, the societal mindset in the US promotes the superiority of Christianity and by extension Christians, be they social or institutionalized norms. (Think of the phrase "It's the Christian thing to do.") Note: we already have an article on the United States as a Christian nation. |
   | 174 | False rape accusations. While this is partially covered in the article on rape apology, it could use its own article, since it's the favourite canard of the "men's rights" movement and it seems to creep into any serious discussion about rape. |
   | 163 | AATIP - a Pentagon program that basically searched for UFOs in early 2010s, cost 20 million, found nothing and was strongly backed by Harry Reid at the time. It hit the news very recently, so it might be nice to get an article on this while the usual suspects are still scrambling to shoehorn it into their theories. For eight years the project was headed by Luis Elizondo until his resignation. On September 18, 2019 the US Navy confirmed that the footage Tom DeLonge has collected from AATIP was in fact legitimate.[3] |
   | 164 | The four 2019 U.S. Navy patents whose inventor is listed as Dr. Salvatore Cezar PaisCreate draft have been described as "Star Trek technology".[4] The patent names include "High frequency gravitational wave generator", "Piezoelectricity-induced Room Temperature Superconductor", "Electromagnetic ‘force field’ generator", and the one that initially caught my eye: US10144532B2 "Craft using an inertial mass reduction device". A patent prosecuted by a navy attorney, defended by a Navy CTO, and pushed through in an unusual way. There is a comment by a patent lawyer discussing the unusual nature of this here. There is some good analysis in it, and the comments after could explain all those UFO sightings as military craft tests.
"It is a well-known facet of quantum field theory that everything can be described in quantum mechanical terms. The complex interactions between a physical system and its surroundings (environment), disrupt the quantum mechanical nature of a system and render it classical under ordinary observation. This process is known as decoherence . However, it is argued that we can retard (delay) decoherence (and possibly even suppress it – namely decouple a physical system from the environment) by accelerated spin and/or accelerated vibration of electrically charged matter under rapid acceleration transients. This may be the very condition to achieve a state of macroscopic quantum coherence, the idea being that we never let the system achieve thermodynamic equilibrium, by constantly delaying the onset of relaxation to equilibrium (hence the production of maximal entropy is delayed). The system may ‘violently’ react by generating ‘anomalous’ emergent phenomena, such as, but not limited to, inertial mass reduction." Implementations of these patents are possibly what was pictured in the AATIP UFO videos released by Tom DeLonge and recently confirmed by the US Navy found here. He recently released yet another controversial patent, this one titled "Plasma Compression Fusion Device" would be small enough to fit inside of a vehicle and produce energy on the gigawatt to terawatt scale.[5] |
   | 169 | Dr. Mary's Monkey is a book with a surprisingly large following considering how absolutely nuts it is. It details an insane conspiracy theory where (if I'm remembering correctly) a cancer researcher was using a linear accelerator at the CIA's request to try and create a virus to inflict cancer (in order to kill Fidel Castro) and accidentally created AIDS as a result and that's why she was murdered. |
   | 189 | Jeffrey Epstein Currently just a section in Clinton body count, infamous pedophile and alleged ring-leader with more than a few billionaires upset with him.[6] Of course, including the Clintons[7] and Trump.[8][9] He deserves an article after his recent suicide while under suicide watch. His eugenicist plans to create a master-race based on his own DNA, and interest in cryonics and transhumanism are also missional.[10][11] According to forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden who witnessed the autopsy, Epstein's wounds were concurrent with murder by strangulation rather than suicide.[12][13] Rick Wiles on the other hand believes that Jeffrey Epstein is "alive and well" and living in another country after receiving a full face transplant ... "or maybe even a head transplant."[14] |
   | 173 | Gun control in Nazi Germany - Whether as a separate article or as a sub-section in the article about gun control. It's commonly asserted that the Nazis took away everybody's guns and thus were able to begin committing genocide because they were disarmed. This flies in the face of that fact that the Nazis actually relaxed Germany's gun laws (albeit not for the Jews) after the populace were disarmed by allies after World War 1. A draft has been created at Draft:Gun control in Nazi Germany. |
   | 174 | Anti-gravity or anti-gravity machine: It ties in with a variety of crankery, like John Hutchison, "lifters", UFOs, Podkletnov, super secret aircraft, etc. There's a short section in science woo and gravity is relevant. But a lot more to say, including Podkletnov's spinning disk[15], various things involving gyroscopes, manipulating a hypothetical fifth force, historical devices, etc. See the Wikipedia article on Anti-gravity. |
   | 160 | Gravitational waves have just recently been directly proven to exist, confirming an old postulate of Einstein's. May not be worthy of a separate article rather a subsection of the main Gravity article. What is really interesting to me here is the (hopefully impending) response by biblically motivated science deniers like Conservapedia to spin this into a narrative of "...and now let me tell y'all how this negates general relativity, physicists ideas for the origin of the universe and probably the whole scientific method altogether." |
   | 163 | Andrew Yang, is a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate currently mentioned merely in small sections on the 2020 Democratic Party presidential nomination and basic income pages. We definitely need a separate article on Yang, considering his rising popularity, how much of his campaign and policies he claims are based on math and science, and the unfortunate alt-right support he's gotten despite being a progressive. A draft can be found at Draft:Andrew Yang. |
   | 160 | Project 1794, a declassified 1950's Air Force project centered around the construction of a flying saucer whose details were disclosed in 2012. The extended delay between the end of the project and the release of these documents has led some to doubt their authenticity with claims that they were likely fabricated recently and "declassified" to explain UFO encounters retroactively. The documents' claim that Project 1794 was able to reach its goal of Mach 4 when it was the predecessor to the Avrocar project (which topped out around ~35mph) has also brought skepticism to their validity. The project was also named "1794", presumably after the 1794 silver dollar which became famous in 2010 when it broke the world record after being sold for nearly $8 million (the disc-shaped craft was silver and may have resembled the coin). |
   | 162 | John McAfee Libertarian burn-out businessman who is running for President at the same time that he is under scrutiny for maybe committing several crimes. He is the founder of McAfee, Inc. (now Intel Security) and was a potential 2016 Libertarian Party candidate and plans to run again in 2020. He has come out against the TSA and government surveillance, but he may not know what he is talking about when it comes to modern encryption. He also appears to be seems prone to pop-psychology. He has also never been convicted of rape or murder, but not in the same way that you or I have never been convicted of rape or murder. nb. Dysk has a draft, see Draft:John McAfee. |
   | 156 | NESARA (National Economic Security and Recovery Act), a economic reform proposal that later was appropriated as a conspiracy theory/scam by victims of the Omega Trust scam as the "National Economic Security and Reformation Act". (NESARA on Wikipedia.) We can also comment on the "feasibility" of the actual idea. |
These are the most recent ideas for new articles. Remove if downvoted to death.
Note: We have a huge archive of hundreds of article requests dating back to RationalWiki's creation in 2009 (
archive 5,
archive 4,
archive 3, and
archive 2) that also deserve consideration.
   | 9 | The WalkAway campaign, also styled #WalkAway, is a social media campaign that launched ahead of the 2018 mid-term elections by self-described former liberal Brandon Straka, a hairstylist and actor from New York City, in a video released 29th June 2018 entitled #WalkAway - Brandon Straka, "Why I Left The Democrat Party". The campaign's stated goal is to "encourage others to walk away from the "divisive" left, but also take back the narrative from the "liberal" media about what it means to be a conservative in America." |
   | 7 | Elijah SchafferCreate draft, also known as Slightly Offensive, is an alt-right YouTuber whose entire gimmick is to generalize the left by mocking the far-left. His channel is populated mainly with videos of him asking politically charged questions to people he meets on the street — sometimes until one of them attacks his film crew. He titles his videos somewhat less introspectively: “PUNCHED by ANTIFA” and “Exposing the Sluts,” for example. |
   | 6 | Other Losses, a 1989 book by Canadian James Bacque about the alleged mistreatment and deliberate mass murder of German prisoners of war by Allied authorities in general and Dwight D. Eisenhower in particular. The book has been mostly condemned as completely baseless, but it still influences some revisionist circles. |
   | 16 | Sabo is the pseudonym of a politically conservative street artist active based out in Los Angeles, California. He's been active in street art since 1999, though he began to take his activity in the scene more seriously around 2008. Sabo's works have been critical of left-wing politics (and its prominence in the entertainment industry) and the Democratic Party, claiming that "leftism is a mental disorder". |
   | 5 | A page on the Younger case, involving a 7-year old trans girl in Texas named Luna, who's father was just awarded joint custody of.[17] |
   | 10 | Daniel Di MartinoCreate draft is a Venezuelan-American student at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. Because he experienced the terrible consequences of socialism firsthand in Venezuela, he's become a conservative and libertarian voice against what he perceives as the rise of socialism in America. |
   | 13 | Oil pipeline -- there are over 200,000 miles of these criss-crossing North America, some of which have attracted protests. On the one hand, people hate Big Oil™ and a big leak could be disastrous; on the other hand, petroleum pipelines are generally safer than transport by oil tanker. |
   | 3 | JP Sears, a Youtube comedian and "emotional healing" coach known for parodying new age hippies while also appearing to peddle pseudoscience, including veiled attacks on vaccines and the American Heart Association[19][20][21]. |
   | 19 | Katie Hill is an American politician who has recently become a subject of controversy after her ex-husband leaked revenge porn of her.[22] |
   | 10 | Penile plethysmograph used to detect sexual arousal and in the diagnosis of pedophilia and (formerly) homosexuality. It's mentioned in Pseudopsychology but without a proper explanation of the history, nefarious uses, and whether it has any validity at all. |
   | 7 | Nik & Eva Speakman, otherwise known as The Speakmans, are a pair of English former financial advisors and life coaches who're now pretending to be psychologists or psychotherapists, promoting their invention "schema conditioning psychotherapy" through frequent TV appearances, notably on ITV's This Morning. They typically focus on problems such as phobias, often treated in a gimmicky fashion, and make a lot of money in the process.[16] According to their Wikipedia page they once gave a DeLorean car to pedophile politician Cyril Smith, but I'm sure there's nothing dodgy about that. |
   | 7 | Windrush scandal, after whom the Windrush generation are named, a racist UK policy under the present Conservative government involving deportation and other denial of rights to people of African-Caribbean heritage. |
   | 13 | The Adam and Eve StoryCreate draft, a 1960's book allegedly censored by the Central Intelligence Agency and declassified in 2013, contains pole shift and flood myth/Bible/angels nonsense, as well as some quackery about antigravity and evolution. |
   | 4 | Hanne Nabintu Herland, a Norwegian right-wing/alt-right author who pushes borderline if not outright racist/islamophobic/anti-western conspiracy theories. Also collaberates with Milo Yiannopoulos from time to time. Also has a Youtube channel[23]. |
   | 24 | Epik, domain registrar of choice to the far right, although it recently dropped 8chan.[17][18][19] Some explanation in layperson's terms about what it does and who it hosts. |
   | 18 | Hillsong Church is an Australian megachurch famous for its hipster vibe, multi-platinum house band, and connections to celebrities like Justin Bieber, Chris Pratt, and Kevin Durant. But behind the flashing lights and thick-rimmed glasses is an ultra-conservative church with a dark past. |
   | 24 | Comicsgate is a campaign, similar to Gamergate, in opposition to perceived "forced diversity" and progressivism in the content of North American superhero comic books and the kinds of creators who work in the industry. The movement has been described as part of the alt-right movement, and as a harassment campaign, which targets women, people of color, and LGBT individuals in the comic book industry. |
   | 3 | Hasan Piker is an entertainment and political journalist known for his explainer videos on The Young Turks that provide detailed analysis on the top news stories of the day.[24] |
   | 19 | Cancel Culture, the latest bogeyman of the anti-SJW crowd. Won't anyone think of the bigots who are facing consequences for the bullshit they spew? |
   | 11 | TheQuarteringEdit draft is a very popular Anti SJW youtuber. The fact that there is no article on this motherfucker and his multicolored beard is offensive. |
   | 8 | Austen "Fleccas" Fletcher is the host of the YouTube show Fleccas TalksCreate draft featuring interviews at protest rallies from across the political spectrum including conservatives, liberals, and libertarians. His main theme, however, is making anti-Trump protesters look like politically clueless idiots. |
   | 2 | Igor and Grichka Bogdanoff, French television personalities who authored several nonsensical physics/mathematics/quantum woo articles and papers in notable publications in the early 2000's and caused a minor shitstorm in the academia (the similarities to Alan Sokal are obvious) |
   | 7 | Jussi Halla-aho, Finnish blogger and since 2017 the chairman of the far-right Finns Party, has a cult-like following among the Finnish far right (seriously, he is known as The Master among them) |
   | 2 | Elizabeth Heng, a failed California candidate for the House of Representatives who sparked controversy recently over an ad her campaign comparing AOC to the Khmer Rouge[25]. |
   | 10 | Maxime Bernier, Leader of the People's Party of Canada and (quite arguably) Canada's answer to Trump. |
   | 7 | Terry Goodkind, who's mentioned in fantasy and Ayn Rand. An Objectivist fantasy writer who's been in trouble for the vast amount of rape in his books, but has himself been critical of sexist fantasy art.[25][26] This Reddit thread title sums it up.[27] And here's an article by actual Randians about him.[28] |
   | 95 | The Woozle effect, aka evidence by citation, where frequent citation elevates a lie or error into the the truth. Something similar is mentioned with respect to Wikipedia at Wikipedia#Circular_reporting, but the Woozle effect is also common in academia where lazy citation of papers can lead to the repetition of untruths. |
   | 51 | Amazon Rainforest : As there has been a lot of misinformation about this in the media recently, it seems fitting. |
   | 9 | The RageholicCreate draft is a Far-Right youtuber & vlogger. His bio. He's also a conspiracy Theorist that believes Hollywood is being controlled by pedo's & communists. He also posts video game vids on his channel and has some really woke playlists on his youtube channel. |
   | 42 | "BlatherCreate draft is an educational tool that allows users to analyze and pinpoint the accuracy of claims made on social media. This site is meant to help people spot out erroneous logic so that similar arguments will not be made in the future. However, there are a number of factors that make this a difficult task." https://blather.io/ |
   | 3 | HedgewikCreate draft needs a article, if you don’t know, he is a rising star in the Nazi comic world whose art is as good as a preschooler. |
   | 15 | I'm thinking an article on reframingCreate draft Part of the paradox of tolerance, but deliberately invoked by the bigoted. Like how Christians oppress LGBT people, then turn it around as them being oppressed when we ask them to stop. |
   | 5 | Derrick Jensen is an anarcho-primitivst in the same vein as John Zerzan, except with a great deal more emphasis on the environment, and arguably a hefty dose of Native Woo (who knows how much of my memory of him has turned to straw...). Worth noting that he heads a movement called Deep Green Resistance , which at the very least dismisses the idea of transsexuality, believing that gender is a strictly social construct with no biological basis. Apparently there have been concerns (including from Zerzan?) that it's become a personality cult. |
   | 8 | PSA SitchCreate draft An anti-SJW YouTuber who recently cracked 100k subscribers. He acutally makes some points that deserve response unlike most anti-SJWs who are just in it to troll and mock leftists. |
   | 13 | Michael BiggsCreate draft, a sociologist at Oxford University who opposes trans rights and claims to defend academic freedom of speech. He has also been caught running a Twitter account which posted a load of transphobic nonsense.[29][30][31] He is becoming one of the leading figures in the UK in the war against trans rights, cited in mainstream media and writing on dubious TERF blogs like Transgender Trend.[32][33][34] |
   | 24 | A page for Brock Turner, maybe? Or maybe about the larger case, not necessarily with his name on it. Or at least a section in an existing article. The case says quite a lot about rape culture and privilege, so it would seem to be on mission. |
   | 58 | Filibuster in the United States Senate, Democratic Presidential candidates have talked about getting rid of it. There also seems to be a lot of confusion on what the filibuster actually is, and when there is confusion deceitful malcontents will be there. |
   | 40 | Harry Price, a British magician and psychic researcher in the early 20th century who debunked several mediums and hauntings, although he still preserved some belief in the possibility of psychic phenomena. He is mentioned in various articles here (e.g. Helen Duncan) but there are lots of stories about his investigations and he deserves his own page as a promoter of rationalism. EDIT: Price was also a sensation-monger of huge proportions who blew up the non-story of Borley Rectory into the legendary "most haunted house in England." |
   | 21 | Nathan Larson is a politician from Virginia, who has been arrested for threatening the president, supports repealing woman’s right to vote, is most likely a pedophile, and is an anarcho capitalist, how does he not have a page? |
   | 58 | Think we ought to have a page for Ivanka Trump ? There seems to be a fair bit of material to rake her over the coals with, especially her recent epic fail at the G20 summit, trying to hobnob with world leaders who looked like, "WTF is she doing here?" |
   | 77 | Get A DripCreate draft/Drip barsCreate draft Get A Drip is a company that offers vitamin-filled IV drips in a clinic in the middle of a shopping centre. They have been in trouble for promising to treat infertility with a drip (it won't work), and doctors have pointed out that a one-time IV won't cure a chronic vitamin deficiency.[35][36] But the woo health press is all over them.[37][38] (I posted something in clogs before they got mainstream press in the UK.) The generic term for this kind of business is a drip bar, and has also received criticism in the US, with the general recommendation that you should just drink fluids.[39] |
   | 11 | Coleman Livingston Blease, a politician and an unrepentant white supremacist who was responsible for making the law that labels undocumented immigrants as criminals. |
   | 4 | List of Political Parties A page to show the political parties of the world and whether pages have been made on them or not. |
   | 11 | List of Religions It would be nice to have a list of religions and their denominations, especially since it would make ot easy to find which of them haven't had pages written about them yet. |
   | 36 | Woke - the current page is a redirect to Feminist glossary but surely now it's more than just a feminist term, and in fact it's well-known enough to have its own subterm "woke-washing" as this article indicates). That should be enough to earn something more than a redirect or dicdef. Note that "woke" is also used by the conspiracy theory crowd to refer to themselves. |
   | 12 | Philip DeFranco, a news commentator and YouTuber who basically goes over current events with a rather centrist tone. There are times, despite meaning well in his commentary, that he can be a useful idiot due to his tendency to attract reactionaries to his fanbase on account of his apologism for right-wingers at times and also adding onto the hysteria on how NYT was supposedly "labeling him far-right" because he popped up in a background of various YouTubers in an article of a young adult who was radicalized by YouTubers. |
   | 13 | Something around website blocks and bans, Shadow banning, and similar topics. The alt-right and similar groups are fond of complaining about "ghost banning", "shadow banning", etc, where they're supposedly denied access to different social media sites by stealth, or their posts are mysteriously deprioritized or hidden. An overview of what this means, whether this is actually possible on different sites, etc, would be useful. Wikipedia mentions a conspiracy theory about Twitter shadow banning Republicans.[40] |
   | 107 | Jackalopes are the elusive horned rabbits of the Wild West. They are often said to be a tall tale, although Shope papilloma is actually quite common among rabbits and may provide an explanation other than taxidermy. |
   | 2 | A Hat in Time, an indie platformer that has seen its fair share of controversies from Jontron to Trans Flags. |
   | 17 | Otto Strasser, Nazi who opposed Hitler, had another brother who did the same thing known as Gregor Strasser. He is known for creating the ideology of Strasserism which is basically some weird form of socialism but with a mix of nationalism (more worthy of actually being called national socialism). |
   | 86 | Whales and specifically whaling, which is the subject of some scientific debate (basically the Norwegians and Japanese claim it's incredibly important for science that they kill whales, but nobody else believes them). We have a section on Whaling in Japan (Japan#Whaling) and an article on Whale Wars, but no overview that discusses the science. There is also potential material about whale biology, whale evolution, the keeping of killer whales in parks, conservation, whether whales are more deserving than other animals, and the history of whaling, that may be relevant (see e.g. Oil#Whale oil, and compare Dolphin). |
   | 6 | Joseph EverettCreate draft, known for his YouTube channel What I've Learned, which has nearly 1 million subscribers and over 64 million video views. Has made videos promoting low-carb dieting for general weight loss, statin denialism, antidepressant denialism, and NoFap. However, he has high production values and claims to be pro-science, so perhaps it can be presumed that he's doing this all in good faith? According to Everett: "This is about connecting the dots, making conclusions and weighing that against modern dogma." Seems like the perfect subject for a RationalWiki article. |
   | 11 | Inner Peace MovementCreate draft, a 501(c)(3) non-profit group founded in 1964 with a trademarked name that has been the subject of court disputes. Their professed mission is to "help people clarify their minds and balance their spiritual direction." |
   | 53 | Hideki Tojo, Japanese prime minister/dictator during World War II and notorious war criminal. |
   | 21 | The Atheist DelusionCreate draft is a "response to the famous "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins, and the points it makes are very flawed to say the least. |
   | 11 | Mammon, the Hebrew term for money and greed, personified in medieval times as a literal being. |
   | 9 | EssenceOfThoughtCreate draft is a Youtuber who makes videos defending LGBTQ rights, atheism, secular humanism, and abortion.[26][27][28][29] |
   | 31 | The Binding of Isaac Is a 2011 indie game with randomly generated dungeons and over 500+ items. I'm suggesting this one because of the game's criticisms of Religion and the Bible and how the entire thing is somehow a controversy magnet that has avoided any actual controversy. |
   | 15 | Vampire facials (or platelet-rich plasma facials) are the latest beauty craze, apparently involving having blood removed from your body and injected into your face. They're loved by Goop, but Kim Kardashian's was less successful, and they have been linked to 2 cases of HIV transmission in New Mexico.[41][42] |
   | 55 | Sweatshop, a workplace where people are employed for long hours with poor working conditions. This wiki currently only has a brief mention of sweatshops in the Globalization article but there really needs to be an article about sweatshops not just a paragraph. |
   | 107 | FeministWikiEdit draft[30] is a website run by TERFs who, in a manner indistinguishable from that of the editors at Conservapedia, claimed "'RationalWiki' is a whacksite long run by teenage liberals who follow queer theory. (An ideology that supports prostitution and pedophilia because of its obsession with 'breaking taboos.'"[31] FeministWiki has repeatedly been caught promoting conservative Christian front organisations.[32] The person who runs the FeministWiki Twitter account is a self-admitted child molester who was previously suspended from Twitter.[33] All of the information mentioned above warrants a RationalWiki article for this TERF version of Conservapedia. |
   | 13 | Ghoul We already have a page about folklore things, like zombies, vampires, ghosts & aliens. So, why not have one about Ghouls? Wikipedia has one, but seeing that article and their talk page, I think we can safely assume that their shitty NPOV is also at work here and that they literally believe in ghouls (especially if you look at some of those "experts" that claim to have knowledge about these things...)... |
   | 51 | VeggieTales - a Christian Indoctrination program disguised as a children's show. |
   | 106 | Roanoke colony - which has two complementary aspects. Firstly there is the question of what happened to the mysterious lost colony, with various theories and contested "evidence" including the Dare Stones (now recognised as fakes) and other more recent finds[43][44]. But there's also the importance of Roanoke (and its newborn inhabitant Virginia Dare ) for American white nationalism (most obviously VDARE but it extends way beyond it - the article Pocahontas mentions crazy theories that Pocahontas was descended from VD which relate to the whole system behind segregation); Andrew Lawler wrote a book on it[45]). |
   | 21 | Stochastic terrorism and/or Lone wolf - terms used to describe terrorist attacks carried by by an individual but inspired by extremist groups and public figures. It started with Daesh but has horseshoed over to the far right. |
   | 8 | Renaud Camus, a gay French writer who is partially known for his connection to the racist "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory... a theory that helped in motivating the man behind the Christchurch terrorist attacks. His name redirects to an article on the aforementioned great replacement theory, but he should probably have his own article. |
   | 13 | Rosa Luxemburg : Polish revolutionary socialist who had a large impact on history. She's the most well-known female socialist theorist. I'm surprised there isn't already an article on her. |
   | 17 | Thierry Baudet : A Dutch populist euroskeptic who leads the Forum for Democracy, that recently won the majority vote in the Dutch provincial elections and is expected to win the majority in the Dutch Senate in May. Apparently is liked by the Dutch alt-right.[36] A draft can be started here. |
   | 64 | 1080; pesticide used to control invasive species in New Zealand and save NZ's native wildlife. Subject of all sorts of ridiculous crazy conspiracy nonsense akin to anti-vaxx nonsense. See Wikipedia and http://www.1080facts.co.nz/ |
   | 63 | Overtoun Bridge , the "dog suicide bridge"[46], a bridge in Scotland where lots of dogs reportedly commit suicide by jumping off the side. This has got press attention for a while, with some blaming supernatural influences and others suggesting bizarre canine-psychological factors. |
   | 85 | Stevia currently has a one-line reference under Sweetener, but probably deserves more due to how common it is in food products currently. A traditional sweetener containing various sweet-tasting extracts that can be extracted easily just by boiling the leaves, stevia is incredibly marketable under the Naturalistic fallacy despite the fact that commercial stevia-based sweeteners are standardised extract concentrations made in labs. There is some fear it causes cancer (it doesn't unless you're eating a terrifying amount of it), some enthusiasm that it can help manage diabetic sugar cravings and people trying to lose weight (which, used sensibly as a substitute for sugar and not as a magical potion, it does), and a few weirdos convinced that it can cure cancer, cure depression, and provide infinite energy to earth from "cold fission". |
   | 7 | Jeanine Pirro, a Fox News host who's spent nearly her entire career in some sort of controversy over one of her rants. A draft has been created at Draft:Jeanine Pirro. |
   | 17 | Captain Marvel is a movie that somehow managed to attract the outrage of conservatives, MRAs, Gamergaters, and alt-righters who didn't even watch it. (And which, at the same time, Marvel marketed as though it were the first movie to feature a strong female character evar.) |
   | -10 | Puzzle in a ThunderstormCreate draft, the guys behind three (and a half) rational podcasts including The Scathing Atheist, the Skepticrat, God Awful Movies and half of Citation Needed. |
   | 16 | An Open Secret is a 2015 documentary covering the child sex abuses at the Digital Entertainment Network, notable for its troubled production and lack of a theatrical release. Since then, producers Gabe Hoffman and Matt Valentinas have had no contact with director Amy Berg and have been actively tweeting from the film's Twitter account. They have taken a sensationalist approach, frequently tweeting news about pedophiles and "the evil liberal media" protecting them, associating with far-right figures such as Alex Jones and Mike Cernovich, including support for Donald Trump. |
   | 14 | Lindsay Shepherd is a professional victim[37] and alt-right grifter[38] who rejects indigenous land acknowledgements[39] and sympathizes with white nationalism[40] |
   | 4 | Libb ThimsCreate draft is an engineer from Chicago and creator of eoht.info, an encyclopedia of "human thermodynamics". |
   | 16 | Tom Cotton, Junior senator from Arkansas, possible future President, and definite scumbag |
   | 13 | Christine Weick : Fundamentalist Christian who opposes same-sex marriage and protested against Muslims. She also claimed that Monster Energy depicts the Number of the Beast. |
   | 15 | Girl DefinedCreate draft, a pair of right-wing evangelical Christian youtubers who make videos marketed heavily towards tween and teen girls. |
   | 30 | Nicolás Maduro : 46th president and dictator of Venezuela since 2013. |
   | 1 | Ethan Van Sciver, an American comic book artist known for illustrating and/or drawing covers primarily for DC and Marvel. Van Sciver has recently revealed himself to be an alt-right scumbag by becoming a central figure in the recent Comicsgate campaign, a campaign spearheaded by misogynistic, racist and anti-LGBTQI+ bigots who are butthurt about the idea of members of those communities being fairly and equally represented in the comic book medium. Comicsgate is essentially Gamergate but for comics instead of games, it's a campaign created by and for the Alt-right. |
   | 12 | Debbie HaytonCreate draft a trans woman who seems to spend a good chunk of her time concern trolling and spouting terf-esque arguments online and apparently calls the declaration of trans women being women to be "Orwellian thinking"[41]. Arguably an older, British version of Blaire White. |
   | 13 | Debra Soh is a useful idiot who advocates for conversion therapy for transgender children and accuses transgender activism of homophobia. |
   | 49 | Jesse Lee Peterson is a far-right conservative activist, media personality, and modern day Uncle Tom. He currently runs the TheFallenState channel on YouTube where he invites different guests to express his pro-white and anti-feminist views toward. To many people, Peterson is ofen called "Uncle Ruckus”. On his radio show, JLP Talk, he thanked God and the white people for enslaving black people and has stated that blacks were better off under Jim Crow laws. Peterson also dislikes feminism and believe women shouldn't even be allowed to vote. See Draft:Jesse Lee Peterson. |
   | 9 | NewsGuard, a fact-checking service recently integrated into Microsoft's Edge browser. While this has provided some hilarity[47], there are also concerns over whether it's a good idea to integrate this functionality into browsers with the attendant capacity for censorship and privacy violation. There are specific concerns about NewsGuard: its board has links to the CIA and George W. Bush administration, and don't all have a good record when it comes to factual accuracy, and its business model and funding are unclear.[48] But overall: good or bad? |
   | 16 | Kurt SchlichterCreate draft Townhall columnist and general right-wing nut who's notorious for his rabidly pro-Trump stance and... interesting commentary on many issues. |
   | 3 | Nicholas Sandmann is a Trump supporter who has recently attracted controversy for harassing a Native American Vietnam veteran with the help of his fellow Trump-supporting high school classmates at a March for Life rally. His mother blamed black Muslims for his deplorable behavior. |
   | 10 | The Skwawkbox, a British left-wing news blog noted for conspiracy theories (e.g. on the Grenfell Tower fire) and a lot of bias.[49] It's also had issues with press regulators.[50][51] |
   | 10 | KukuruyoCreate draft is the artist of one of the most infamous pro-Gamergate comic series. |
   | 17 | Zinnia JonesCreate draft is an Orlando trans activist and science writer. |
   | 74 | Lip reading - not so much the practice as used in conversation by deaf people, as the tendency of the media to get lip-readers to reconstruct private conversations (e.g. [53][54]). How accurate is it? Probably not very. There's also a joke/meme of publishing intentionally bad lip readings of political speeches, events, etc, which may or may not be worth covering (probably not, to be honest). |
   | 17 | Religious education, in British schools (and possibly elsewhere if relevant): for decades, RE has been taught as a subject with a broadly Christian basis in British schools (today a variety of faiths are taught, and there is discussion of wider issues around spirituality and religion, but the focus is still on Christianity), often one of the few or only compulsory subjects children must study.[55][56] It would be interesting to have a history of the way it has been taught in the various British nations, and arguments for and against it as a subject. |
   | 19 | The Parable of the talents or minas, is - according to the Gospels of Matthew & Luke - a story told by Jeebus about how maximising profits was virtuous. For the Christian right the parable serves as an ideological & moral justification for the advancement of right-wing economics (tax cuts for the rich etc.). Could also be a sub-topic under Prosperity gospel. |
   | 34 | #ThotPatrolCreate draft, also known as "#ThotAudit" is a campaign led by incels trying/threatening to report Snapchat and Instagram cam girls to the IRS.[42] Unsurprisingly, many of the ThotPatrollers are trying to claim that #ThotPatrol is ACKCHYUALLY about ethics in taxation, indicating that the movement is nothing more than a reincarnation of Gamergate. |
   | 46 | Jacobin (magazine), an increasingly influential and popular socialist magazine, and unofficial publication of the DSA. |
   | 10 | The Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market is a controversial proposed EU directive best known for two parts of it: Article 11, which grants publishers the rights to usage of their articles et al. by ISSPs and which has been nicknamed a 'link tax', and Article 13, which gives the responsibility of removing copyrighted works to ISSPs and which has received the epithet of a 'meme ban'. It is supported by, among others, the music industry and the British Labour Party. Opponents include several Silicon Valley companies, such as Google, YouTube and Facebook, as well as several famous Internet figures, like Jimmy Wales and Tim Berners-Lee. |
   | 49 | Interpol — the international police agency. China possibly forced the former president of Interpol into resigning. Russia almost got its man appointed to be the new head. China, Russia and other states have used Interpol to harass political dissidents contrary to Interpol's rules. The predecessor to Interpol was headed by three different class-A Nazi war criminals. |
   | 22 | Ron DeSantis, insane far-right governor-elect of Florida, who bears a striking similarity to Trump. |
   | 15 | The term cotton ceiling refers to the difficulty trans people experience when seeking lesbian and gay relationships, and in lesbian and gay social spaces more generally. |
   | 13 | Bret Stephens : One of the most notable Never Trumpers, and a right-wing hack if there ever was one. |
   | 10 | Andrew Cuomo : He has 8 years of governing experience and will probably run for President next year, we should document his tenure. |
   | 19 | 9/11 Truth Action ProjectCreate draft: Another 9/11 group that wants the truth about the inside jobby-job. their website. An observation made by someone from the ISF And according to that post, it would seem that the leader of this "movement", is a guy called David Fura. |
   | 26 | Jobbik : our article on Viktor Orban mentions them a lot and there's certainly a lot to talk about with them. |
   | 9 | Harvard University is a university that has recently been accused of discriminating against Asian-Americans.[43] |
   | 24 | Chepo TeamCreate draft is a propaganda comic written by a fiercely right-wing and pro-Trump author that is about fictional Hispanics who are fiercely conservative and spout the same right-wing rhetoric that Trump and other Republicans do. The author also owns two accounts on facebook which are named after the comic that both use a copy-and-paste message that immediately begins with an appeal to identity (showing no proof that he/she is Hispanic) to make wildly inaccurate claims and generalizations about leftists, along with praising other far-right figures and pro-right meme posting. |
   | 60 | Doctor Who Arguably the most popular science fiction program in the world. Numerous scientists have commented on the possibility of the various technologies addressed, though seemingly not hard science advocate Richard Dawkins, despite being married to actress Lalla Ward who played Time Lady Romana. [57] It would be worth including a discussion of the actual educational merits of the show which began as a BBC children's program, and whether or not it promotes harmful science woo doing harm to the young as the Chinese government alleges all time travel fiction does. [techland.time.com/2011/04/13/china-decides-to-ban-time-travel/] There are bound to be homophobes complaining about the latest companion being gay. [58] As of 2018, Doctor Who is now a woman.[44] |
   | 60 | ComicsGate is a political movement by the alt-right whose goal is to ‘combat SJW control of popular media’. Given their reminiscence of GamerGate in terms of tactics, their excessive focus on Marvel's new Iron Man Riri Williams , and how the group acted as a catalyst in the firing of Chuck Wendig , then this article should become a priority. |
   | 40 | Boogie2988, Youtuber who thinks gay marriage shouldn’t be legal until 20 years from now in order to prevent gay people from being murdered for being gay.[45] He has also argued that some good came out of the Holocaust, using the Nazis murdering Anne Frank as an example of said "good".[46] It makes no sense to us either. |
   | 11 | 314 Action is a nonprofit political action committee that seeks to elect scientists in the United States. The mission of 314 Action is to connect people with backgrounds in science, technology, engineering, and math to the skills and funding needed for a successful political campaign. |
   | 92 | Activated charcoal - the newest fad involving ingesting and brushing your teeth with burnt wood. |
   | 10 | Philadelphia pride flag [59] - this version of the LGBTQ pride flag includes a black and brown stripe intended to represent inclusion of LGBTQ people of color. It experienced controversy as some considered it more divisive than unifying, and in response some have argued that opposition to the flag is racist. |
   | 15 | The Party of Reason and ProgressCreate draft (PORP) is an non-profit organization dedicated to promoting reason and empirically sound decision-making in modern politics. Their mission is to implement effective and rational policies through educating the general public and supporting reasonable and logical public officials and initiatives. |
   | 32 | Transgender TrendCreate draft a British anti-Transgender group that wants to circulate anti-trans material in schools. |
   | 22 | Chanty BinxEdit draft, also known as Big Red, is a Toronto resident who gained notoriety online after appearing in a video in which she aggressively promotes feminism while arguing against men's rights activists at an event in Toronto, Canada. After the video was released, Chanty was subsequently turned into a meme and was given the name "Big Red." Anti-feminists (especially those on YouTube) frequently use her video as an example to "prove" why modern feminism is stupid. |
   | 30 | Shiva Ayyadurai is a man running for US Senate against Elizabeth Warren.[54] He is most notable for falsely claiming to be the “inventor of email”.[55] He also assaulted his girlfriend and tried to stab a police officer with a pen while resisting arrest.[56] And he pretended to be black.[57] Did I mention that he is also an anti-GMO activist who is willing to pay people $10 million if they can prove that GMOs are safe?[58] Unsurprisingly, he is also a 9/11 conspiracy theorist.[59] |
   | 31 | Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria, a "syndrome" made up by TERFs to lure in transphobic parents upset that their kids came out trans. Currently a two-sentence redirect, but there's a pile of bad science involved. |
   | 53 | Something about pedometer /Fitbits, steps per day targets, or similar. There's a lot of scientific debate about whether walking 10000 steps per day is necessarily good for you and the 10,000 target seems to be an arbitrary figure somebody just made up one day.[60][61][62] On the other hand, walking more is probably good for you. |
   | 9 | The Canary, a pro-Jeremy Corbyn British news/campaigning website. It's associated by some with a fake news perspective, pushing endless biased reporting, and also criticised for its sometimes toxic tone (including attacks on the BBC). So is it the left-wing Breitbart or a legitimate news source? |
   | 10 | The Love That Dares to Speak Its Name by James Kirkup , a 1976 poem about Jesus having gay sex with a Roman soldier. It was the last work to be subject of a successful blasphemy prosecution in England, brought against Gay News Ltd and editor Denis Lemon. The case was appealed through the full range of appeal courts up to Europe, the conviction being upheld at each stage, Lemon receiving a suspended sentence. There is debate over whether the poem was any good (or was some kind of proto-Chuck Tingle). |
   | 26 | Momo is a fictional creature in the vein of Slender Man which people pretend to be, then they contact children and teenagers (typically via WhatsApp) to make them do dangerous things like self-harm, doxxing, and hurting their family members under threat of curses, being attacked by the disturbing-looking creature, etc. It has caused at least one death. |
   | 10 | Peter SageEdit draft is just another snake-oil salesman peddling woo. Apparently "serial-entrepreneur" is the new term for con-artist. |
   | 11 | Reader request: "I'm wondering if Bronze Age PervertCreate draft might deserve an entry? He has gained vast popularity in the alt-right and similar circles lastly. His book has sold very well and he seems to be something of an ideologue for them" |
   | 8 | Peter Navarro is one of Donald Trump's main trade advisors and largely thought of as a crank in economics. In his own words he "provide[s] the underlying analytics that confirm [Trump's] intuition [on trade]. And his intuition is always right in these matters." |
   | 22 | Dr ShaymEdit draft is a youtuber, antifeminst, and critic of "SJWs." He is quite popular with nearly 450k subcribers. |
   | 24 | BlacKkKlansman is a 2018 American biographical drama film directed by Spike Lee. The film is based on the 2014 memoir Black Klansman by Ron Stallworth. Set in 1972 Colorado Springs, the plot follows Stallworth, the first African-American detective to join the Colorado Springs Police Department, who sets out to infiltrate and expose the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. The film uses this historical event to offer a trenchant commentary on current events coinciding with the one year anniversary of Unite the Right and the death of Heather Heyer. The film received acclaim from critics, with many praising the performances and timely themes, as well as noting it as a return to form for Lee. |
   | 108 | ADIFOCreate draft (All DIrections Flying Object) is a Romanian company which has developed a VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) aircraft resembling a flying saucer that is able to fly in all directions having the same aerodynamic characteristics in each direction. The aircraft has a unique configuration as a circular shape, and the fuselage is also the wing.[63] The aerodynamic body is axially-symmetric and is obtained by rotating a bidirectional Dolphin airfoil around the axis perpendicular on the middle of the chord line. An ADIFO platform was tested at low speeds in a wind tunnel providing high lift/drag ratio as well as a wide range of useful incidence angles, even over 60 degrees. The aerodynamic center is located near the middle of the chord line near the body gravity center. The aerodynamic load is distributed relatively evenly along the body surface and has no stagnation point. During transonic flight the body does not generate any shockwave on the surface, and no sonic boom is generated. There are low vibrations, low aerodynamic noise, and low heating at high speeds. In transonic flight the drag is drastically reduced compared to existing airfoils which ensures very high fuel-efficiency at transonic and supersonic speeds. Moreover, the center of pressure remains close to the center of symmetry, meaning no jump of pitching moment, and insignificant roll and yaw moments. Also, there are no lift fluctuations, so in conclusion this will mean a smooth transition from subsonic to supersonic flight! Video here |
   | 111 | Sherry ShrinerCreate draft is the cult leader of a group called Faction Four who believe in alien reptile demons. She was in the news recently because one of her followers shot and killed her boyfriend after a dispute within the cult led to their excommunication.[60][61] Another follower killed herself in 2013 after not receiving treatment for schizophrenia which they do not think exists.[62] Sherry Shriner blames a NATO hit squad for the death. There also is an ED article written up that may have some useful info, but probably needs to be taken with a bit more than a grain of salt.[63] |
   | 114 | The Kyshtym dwarf or Aleshenka / Alyoshenka was a small humanoid body found near Kyshtym, Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia.[64] According to genetic experts at the Moscow Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, DNA analysis of the clothes Alyoshenka was wrapped in revealed evidence that his DNA was of unknown origin. It was also tested for radiation, but did not show high radiation levels.[65][66] |
   | 140 | 5G (Draft:5G) is the next generation of mobile phone technology, and the subject of a lot of rumor and urban legends, much of it recycling old worries about Mobile phone radiation frying our brains, but some new stuff too. There's a lot of paranoia about "5G is killing birds!"[64] Also more legitimate complaints about it messing with weather forecasting radar[65] and the whole Huawei controversy[66]. With 5G actually coming into service in various countries, this is going to get more and more important. |
   | 138 | Deepfake, technology that supposedly allows you to create video of anybody saying or doing anything. There's a lot of panic about it, and applications for the technology in fake news, porn, fraud, blackmail, etc, but some stories suggest it's still far from offering an easy way of creating convincing fake videos.[67] So it's relevant both for its potential at spreading misinformation and for the exaggerated moral panic aspects. |
   | 123 | Bill Weld Currently a redirect to the 2020 Republican Party presidential nomination article. He's an interesting candidate not only for his (comparatively) progressive views and the mere fact that he's the only candidate running against Trump in the RNC, but he was also previously a member of the Libertarian party and carries some of their support, so I think he deserves his own article. |
   | 122 | CoreCivic, formerly the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), is a company that owns and manages private prisons and detention centers and operates others on a concession basis. CCA has been the subject of much controversy over the years, mostly related to apparent attempts to save money, such as hiring inadequate staff, extensive lobbying, and lack of proper cooperation with legal entities to avoid repercussions. CCA rebranded as CoreCivic amid the ongoing scrutiny of the private prison industry. |
   | 140 | Josef Papp or his Papp Engine which apparently used noble gases to generate electricity. It was demonstrated in front of Richard Feynman in 1966 but exploded, killing a spectator. Supporters claim it works like an internal combustion engine, except it uses sparks to produce explosions in noble gases. Since Papp's demo, there have been several attempts to exploit the alleged phenomenon, such as by PlasmERG.[68][69] There still seems some mystery around the 1968 demonstration, including claims that the explosion was deliberate, either to cover up Papp's deception or to protect the truth of limitless free energy. |
   | 145 | Making a Murderer is a popular Netflix documentary series outlining the case of Steven Avery and his nephew Brendan Dassey. The pair were charged with the rape and murder of Teresa Halbach, but there have been several inconsistencies in the investigation that hint at serious corruption within the Manitowoc County Sheriff's Department. Avery had previously served 18 years for a wrongful conviction of sexual assault and attempted murder in 1985 and was to be compensated $36 million before these new charges arose. |
   | 107 | Bisphenol A, also known as BPA. Harmful to developing fetuses? Causing widespread infertility in adults? Or just the latest public health scare? |
   | 102 | Lost Ship of the Desert, a legend about a ship stranded in the Sonoran Desert (or sometimes Mojave Desert), generally said to be in southern California or possibly Mexico. Probably Spanish, maybe pirates, but also claimed to be Viking, or crewed by lost Israelites. There is a rumored treasure, and various wacky people are still hunting for it.[73][74][75][76][77][78] It's the intersection of several myths: Pre-Columbian contact theories, legends from the American West about lost gold mines[79], and entrepreneurs worldwide promoting rumored shipwrecks laden with unimaginable treasure. |
   | 106 | Prevent, the British government's anti-extremism strategy[80] founded under Tony Blair in 2003 but reviewed under David Cameron/Theresa May in 2011[81] and still active, initially founded primarily to combat radical Islamism, but also involved with countering the far right[82], and radical environmentalism[83]. There are concerns about freedom of speech.[84][85] |
   | 112 | Huawei and ZTE, two popular smartphone manufacturers from China which made the headlines after being subject to accusations of spying and being a national security threat by the US government. Such claims have in turn been accused of being protectionism masked as security concerns. |
   | 109 | Eye color, specifically changing eye color that some claim correlates with their mood, weather, fatigue, or aging. I've also seen several versions of this eye color chart which does not accurately portray how Punnett squares really work[67] and could potentially lead some to falsely believe that infidelity has occurred. This could be its own article about eye colors or even just a new section added to the already existing eye article. |
   | 114 | 5-HTP, a supplement commonly advertised as a treatment for everything from depression to migraines to OCD by increasing serum levels of serotonin. Regardless of whether it works for these maladies it can be dangerous to take without taking Carbidopa alongside to regulate it, because too much peripheral serotonin can damage the heart. |
   | 131 | ASEA , another classic example of a water woo pyramid scheme, they make bold health claims and use vague, nonscientific descriptions of free radicals and "Redox Signaling Molecules", sometimes even mixing it with real science.[68][69] I found this quote regarding the ingredients: "Recently, a company called ASEA, was able to take sodium, chloride, hydrogen and oxygen (salt water) molecules, separate them and recombine them to form oxidants (free radicals) and reductants (which neutralize oxidants)."[70] They also have a YouTube channel.[71] |
   | 123 | Cryptocurrency: Currently [see what I did there?] just a redirect to Bitcoin. This should definitely be an article all of its own, between the conspiracy theories about it, the scams, and the miscellaneous other items. |
   | 130 | biofeedback is the awareness and control of physical responses in the body that may be useful for treating stress and anxiety. Articles like brainwave woo link to the biofeedback page (which is currently a fork) and is referenced in many other articles so it is probably a good idea for all those links to go somewhere |
   | 107 | The Crystal GridCreate draft: a woo-tastic website.[86]. Besides trying to build worldwide network of crystals, they've got a bogus cell phone radiation blocker.[87] |
   | 143 | Dakota Access Pipeline protests: Members of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation began protesting the construction of the pipeline in April, and were soon joined by indigenous communities all over North America. The peaceful protests are being suppressed by force, and given scant coverage by mainstream media. (Since this suggestion was written, a stub article on the Dakota Access Pipeline was created; perhaps the two can be merged.) |
   | 138 | The Innocence Project is a non-profit legal organization that is committed to exonerating wrongly convicted people through the use of DNA testing and to reforming the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice. The Innocence Project was founded in 1992 by Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld. To date, the work of the Innocence Project has led to the freeing of 337 wrongfully convicted people, including 20 who spent time on death row. |
   | 104 | Solar Roadways is a crowdfunded, startup company which is trying to replace all asphalt pavements with solar panels which will power embedded LEDs that will melt snow and light up roads. This idea is entirely, scientifically flawed and unfeasible; Thunderf00t does a good job explaining why this idea isn't even efficient.[88][89] |
   | 102 | Powdered alcohol or Palcohol is the newest moral panic drug that has been banned in several states and was subject to a moral panic after the FDA determined the non-alcoholic ingredients were safe for consumption. It is mostly an ineffective way to get drunk, but that hasn't stop people from believing it will get you drunk instantly or that it can be used to smuggle alcohol into public places. [90] (Another Thunderf00t video) |
   | 118 | Apparently we don't have an article on Rosa Parks ? There should be one if only to account for all the idiots whining that they're being just like her by breaking the law to promote their bigotry and stupidity. Would that be called the "Parks Gambit", similar to the Galileo Gambit? |
   | 132 | The O. J. Simpson murder case (officially the People of the State of California v. Orenthal James Simpson) was a criminal trial held at the Los Angeles County Superior Court in California. The former professional football star and actor O. J. Simpson was tried on two counts of murder after the deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and waiter Ronald Lyle Goldman, in June 1994. We can write an article discussing the case not just as a cultural phenomenon but also discuss the overwhelming amount of logical fallacies (emotional appeal, Chewbacca defense, prosecutor's fallacy), dishonesty tactics and evidence gathering mistakes that took place during the trial and/or behind the scenes, which all had great impact on law in America. We can also discuss the impact on race relations that took place at the time. Simpson, being an African American, had a strong appeal toward the black community because of his seemingly squeaky clean image, charismatic personality and his rags to riches story with the majority of them believing he was innocent and being persecuted for his race. Because of this, there was a height of fear in Los Angeles of another race riot worse than the 1992 Los Angeles riots if he was prosecuted. Best books to use as research for the article would be Jeffrey Toobin's The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson, and Vincent Bugliosi's Outrage: The Five Reasons O.J. Simpson Got Away With Murder. |
   | 128 | Rick SimpsonCreate draft, who believes that hemp oil cures cancer and every other ill.[91] "I haven't seen anything that the oil doesn't work on." A two-line stub was created and zapped as "so what" in 2013, but this is pretty missional if we can get some substance in. |
   | 117 | Thorium-based nuclear power A lot of crap surrounding the thorium powered reactor in pop sci magazines, a lot of it debunked by thunderf00t. |
   | 109 | We should create an article on the subject of a surveillance state since it has become an ever growing reality with the passage of the PATRIOT ACT, various NSA programs, FBI biometrics database, the FBI spying on Occupy and BLM, Five Eyes program, Canada's spying bills, etc. |
   | 115 | ExopaediaCreate draft, an encyclopaedia for exoskeletons aliens |
   | 147 | DARPA should have a whole host of conspiracy theories since it was responsible for the development of the internet, BRAIN Initiative, autonomous robots like PETMAN, etc. |
   | 108 | Voat Voat.co is the libertarian's answer to the recent censorship and bannings over at Reddit during the last few months. Instead of being all gestapo about free speech, it just lets people incite racial violence and other lovely things like that. It's home to such lovely rascals like "race realists", proud racists, Islamophobes (especially as of late), Nazis, Holocaust deniers, antisemites, and transphobics among many, many other brands of moron. They did remove the actual child porn. The site itself is fairly alright, but the vocal community is anger-inducing. Have fun frothing from the mouth with rage studying these idiots in their natural habitat. |
   | 106 | Something along the lines of Found footage /Hidden Footage? It's a classic method Paranormal believers and conspiracy nuts alike are prone to resorting to as an easy way to fool the more Gullible on the Internet, whether it be a high-budget film or a grainy video inside a Freemason Lodge, and claiming said footage as proof for whatever crank belief/conspiracy they have. |
   | 103 | Brilliant Light Power, formerly Blacklight Power, another physics-defying startup that claims to be able to burn water by knocking hydrogen into a state below the ground state. Amazed writeup here, the crackpot paper it springs from. Noteworthy because it's soaked up millions in venture capital over a couple of decades for something that literally defies physics. Quantum physics is all wrong, energy from water, guy with an MD came up with it, $100M from investors despite every scientific authority from DoE secretary Nobel Prize winner to American Physics Society spokesman denouncing it, etc. That there is no RationalWiki article about it is less believable. See [92] |
   | 104 | uBeam: a physics-defying startup whose big idea is to transmit power by ultrasonic sound. If you do the numbers you'll see that this would require power levels that would not just deafen everyone in the vicinity, but be such that air starts going nonlinear. Site, breathless press [93][94][95] Any bored physicists in the house? |
   | 118 | Alexander Shulgin. Author of Phenethylamines I Have Known And Loved and godfather of psychedelics. Missional to the degree that he made claims about the effects and usefulness of chemicals outside the pharmaceutical industry and currently accepted medical practice. |
   | 145 | GCHQ , we have NSA, but we need to do the other side of the pond's equally spy-y institution. Or they could be merged into one article. |
   | 106 | Applied Zoopharmacognosy - "Applied Zoopharmacognosy enables self-medicative behaviour in domesticated or captive animals by offering plant extracts that would contain the same, or similar constituents to those found in an animal’s natural environment. The practice encourages and allows an animal to guide its own health, since unlike their wild counterparts, captive and domesticated animals rarely have the opportunity to forage on medical plants. The extracts offered include a variety of essential oils, absolutes, plant extracts, macerated oils, tubers, clays, algae, seaweeds and minerals. Once the animal has selected its remedy, it will then guide the session by inhaling it, taking it orally, or by rubbing a part of its body into it." Basically animal abuse with woo. (Quote from http://www.ingraham.co.uk/.) |
   | 104 | Plastic or Plastic pollution. [97] The subject of a lot of environmentalist scare stories.[98][99][100] But are they justified? What can be done? Are plastic bag taxes and plastic bottle deposit schemes useful or just window dressing? |
   | 103 | Vril - holy shit, we don't have a page on this? |
   | 122 | Electronic pickpocketing: I keep hearing ads for wallets designed to protect against this. Any legitimacy? (There is a possibility to skim contactless/NFC cards, but you sure as hell don't need to buy a $80 wallet when a fetching tinfoil hat does the same job. Feel free to repurpose that blog post. We need a good title for this article.) |
   | 102 | Lamaze, a natural childbirth technique. |
   | 104 | AIPAC. It's a lobbying group and pro-Israel, so it's basically a giant magnet for conspiracy theories. |
   | 111 | Fight The New Drug, an organization dedicated to teaching the ills of pornography as well as treating addiction to porn using all the wrong methods. Full of Mormons and with some direct LDS Church support. |
   | 104 | Fake conferenceCreate draft or scam conferenceCreate draft - the sort where there's no real scientific conference, just a lot of people's money being taken. Will accept SCIgenned papers. |
   | 110 | SCIgen, the fake paper generator used to test scam conferences and predatory journals. |
   | 108 | The Rockefeller s/Rockefeller Foundation. They're as much a magnet for conspiracy whackjobs as the Rothschilds. One story, popular among paranoid anti-feminists, is that they started feminism so that women would eventually be allowed to have jobs and thus be taxable. |
   | 133 | Titanic conspiracy theory - As with the Lusitania, there seems to be conspiracy theories surrounding the sinking of the Titanic, e.g. that it was torpedoed by a U-boat or deliberately sunk for insurance money. (See here for one instance.) |
   | 103 | The Fort Hood shooting is now getting coverage because wingnuts believe Obama the FBI has a double standard for "not treating it as a terrorist act." |
   | 117 | ACTA, or put an area for it in the SOPA article. |
   | 121 | Zuma, the Pentagon satellite recently launched by SpaceX. Right now, it seems like it simply failed. However, that conclusions hurts not only the pride in US military and technology, but also the faith of myriad geeks in SpaceX and Elon Musk. This heady mix resulted in many theories that the failure was a false flag, it's working fine because it's stealth and it's actually meant to counter North Korean EMPs. |
   | 106 | Crowdfunding, from Kickstarter to Indiegogo and the even smaller sites. How many quacks gain support and apparent legitimacy for their books or "documentaries" through these means? |
   | 108 | John Bolton, future Trump train casualty, arch-conservative wingnut, chicken hawk extraordinaire, deserves to be mocked for a long, long time. |
   | 105 | Hunting and Conservation ; an article discussing how trophy hunting is being used to provide conservation in Africa by creating economic incentives for conservation over vast areas, including areas which may be unsuitable for alternative wildlife-based land uses such as photographic ecotourism. Arguments for and against should be used. |
   | 121 | International Monetary Fund. I think most people will know about this transnational organization, hated by both libertarians for pushing down the throat Keynesian ideas (Keynes had much to see with it in the post-war years) and leftists for the economic policies pushed by them in those countries that received their bailouts (ask Greece even if the European Central Bank and the European Comission pushed the same ideas, as well as some LatAm countries during the '70s) and some of whose presidents have been involved in scandals, even if unrelated to this organization (ask Rodrigo Rato, Strauss-Kahn, or Christine Lagarde) |
   | 106 | HmolpediaCreate draft — Supposedly there is a common trait among people of IQ over 200 (e.g. Goethe: 225), like the writer of this huge site and related tomes, which makes them understand some very complex phenomenon which is called human thermodynamics explaining everything, most importantly love and it relieves them of the pains of using excel spreadsheets to find the best mate out of 19 girlfriends; however Goethe’s testimonial is missing. |
   | 104 | Central limit theorem. The central limit theorem states that if you aggregate enough random variables, you find its sum within a normal distribution. According to FiveThirtyEight, the central limit theorem plays a key role in mathematical "proofs" of God's existence. fivethirtyeight on the subject |
   | 114 | Uplifting, the process of a sentient species enhancing the intelligence of another species with transhumanist sci-fi technologies. Eliezer Yudkowsky of Less Wrong writes on the topic. Many believers in UFOs are hoping that space aliens will eventually grant us such a boon. It would compliment the page for Cybernetic revolt and could discuss the Cyberman 's burden to assimilate and upgrade others against their will. |
   | 105 | Eyewitness testimony A common police procedure known for being unreliable but also known for having terrible methodology in regards to preventing contamination. An example of this is the police lineup which pressures the witness into picking someone out of the lineup even when the perpetrator isn't present. Eyewitness identification and the accuracy thereof, especially in law enforcement (e.g. identity parades, picking out mugshots), is an interesting topic that has been widely studied. The failure of people to correctly identify suspects seems to go against common sense, and has relevance to other epistemological questions, as well as to wider issues in the criminal justice system. |
   | 105 | Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask) by David Reuben - A sex guide from the late 60's which was a best seller in its time (inspired a Woody Allen movie of the same name). Relevant because the original edition portrays homosexuality as a disorder, advocates reparative therapy, somewhat flirts with the whole pink swastika idea, claims that all lesbians are prostitutes, and also recommends a Coca-Cola douche as a contraceptive (you can read about it all in the following link). I don't know too much about the 1999 revised edition, but based on Amazon reviews it's just as bad on the homophobia front. |
- Still haven't found the perfect article subject? Don't forget archive 5, archive 4, archive 3, and archive 2!
References
Nominees for cover story
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