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Creationist humorists.
Funny, but probably not in the way they intended. Dan Nuckols is no Jack Chick, but he tries. These cartoonists have a beef with
public education,
Darwin (
another),
skepticism ,
9/11,
fat kids,
non-existant cards,
cryptozoology, and
astronomers.
posted to MetaFilter by skallas
at 11:28 PM on January 30, 2006
(64 comments)
FHM rips off Music Thing blog.
Compare and
contrast. Fair use or a plain old fashioned rip-off? You make the call. Seriously, how common is this kind of thing and is the net producing content to be repackaged and sold commercially without proper permission?
posted to MetaFilter by skallas
at 8:55 PM on August 3, 2005
(25 comments)
Bill Moyers: Theocrats and ideologues in charge of US government.
Moyers: For the first time in our history, ideology and theology hold a monopoly of power in Washington. Theology asserts propositions that cannot be proven true; ideologues hold stoutly to a worldview despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality. When ideology and theology couple, their offspring are not always bad, but they are always blind. And there is the danger: voters and politicians alike, oblivious to the facts.
posted to MetaFilter by skallas
at 2:01 AM on February 24, 2005
(104 comments)
Junkscience: Top Ten "Most Embarrassing Moments" of 2004
Whoops: "10. University of Arkansas researchers attacked the Atkins Diet in January with a report linking a high-carbohydrate diet with weight loss, saying it was possible to lose weight without cutting calories and without exercising. What they didn’t reveal, however, was that the study subjects who lost weight actually ate 400-600 calories per day less than those who didn’t lose weight." I don't see the big deal behind number 6.
posted to MetaFilter by skallas
at 9:23 PM on December 5, 2004
(45 comments)
The Dawkins FAQ.
Interesting Q&A session about evolution, biology, genes, etc with an
expert. Dawkins claims no final answer on the "gay gene" or a Darwinian explanation of homosexuality.
posted to MetaFilter by skallas
at 12:01 PM on November 27, 2004
(56 comments)
Get sexually harassed, get fired.
Fox News is pushing to fire Andrea Mackris. The firing will not be "in retaliation for her accusations about the show's host." Now that's Fair and Balanced! How is this even legal?
posted to MetaFilter by skallas
at 3:45 AM on October 16, 2004
(111 comments)
What the NRA wants the NRA gets.
The Assault Weapons Ban ends Monday. In an election season where first responders have become an issue it seems odd that both parties are ignoring pleas like these, Los Angeles Police Chief
William Bratton: "Nobody has an inalienable right to run around with a machine gun. I'm sorry, that's insanity!" Also, check out this fun and informative
"banned or legal" page explaining the 1994 ban.
Ban FAQ here.
posted to MetaFilter by skallas
at 10:02 PM on September 8, 2004
(62 comments)
Richard Dawkins discusses religion with a Darwinian outlook.
RD: Could religion be a recent phenomenon, sprung up since our genes underwent most of their natural selection? Its ubiquity argues against any simple version of this idea. Nevertheless, there is a version of it that I want to advocate. The propensity that was naturally selected in our ancestors was not religion per se. It had some other benefit, and it only incidentally manifests itself today as religious behavior.
posted to MetaFilter by skallas
at 8:11 PM on September 3, 2004
(35 comments)
Jesus Boots perfected!
NYT: In the last 150 years, Americans have patented about 100 water-walking inventions. The first, in 1858, was by H. R. Rowlands, who lived in Boston, not far from where Mr. Rosen resides, in Newton, Mass. Most of the subsequent patents, Mr. Rosen said, are iterations of that same idea. "Unfortunately," Mr. Rosen observed, "none of them actually work."
posted to MetaFilter by skallas
at 9:54 AM on August 3, 2004
(13 comments)
How to be creative.
Hugh "cartoons drawn on the back of business cards" Macleod gives some excellent advice on how to do those creative things you've always wanted to do.
vis boingboing.net
posted to MetaFilter by skallas
at 5:56 PM on August 1, 2004
(16 comments)
Scott Ritter on Iraq.
Some interesting reading here from the man who stood up to the President, the pundits, the media, etc and told the world that chances are Iraq had few to no WMD. Now he's warning us that Saddam's people are really in charge and how Allawi's government is doomed to fail.
Man, I hate the IHT interface.
posted to MetaFilter by skallas
at 7:53 AM on July 26, 2004
(27 comments)
Patrick "Ask a Pilot" Smith opines on "Terror in the Skies, Again?"
Smith: I, for one, fully admit that certain acts of airborne crime and treachery may indeed open the channels to a debate on civil liberties. Pray tell, what happened? Gunfight at 37,000 feet? Valiant passengers wrestle a grenade from a suicidal operative? Hero pilots beat back a cockpit takeover?
Well, no. As a matter of fact, nothing happened. Turns out the Syrians are part of a musical ensemble hired to play at a hotel. The men talk to one another. They glance around. They pee. That's it? That's it.
posted to MetaFilter by skallas
at 10:35 PM on July 20, 2004
(69 comments)
Howtoons: comics meet little science projects.
From the site: Much like MIT has OpenCourseWare distributing curricular materials for college students worldwide, our Howtoons are OpenKidsWare, with practical build-it projects letting kids learn-by-doing, MIT-style!
posted to MetaFilter by skallas
at 7:53 PM on July 16, 2004
(4 comments)
DontvoteRalph.net
"Look at just a few of those who supported Nader in 2000, but see that this year is crucially different: Noam Chomsky, Ben Cohen, Peter Coyote, Phil Donahue, Ronnie Dugger, Jim Hightower, Robert McChesney, Michael Moore, and Bonnie Raitt. In fact, can you think of a prominent supporter from 2000 who supports him in 2004? Are we all members of Nader’s “liberal inteligentsia”? Or is the Bush presidency simply such a disaster that we realize there is only one responsible action for real progressives? Despite Mr. Nader’s inevitable disagreement, we don’t think everyone is out of step but Ralph." | So who is supporting Nader?
Some think its the GOP.
posted to MetaFilter by skallas
at 11:17 PM on June 23, 2004
(41 comments)
Juan Cole remembers Reagan.
Cole: I did not say anything yesterday about Ronald Reagan's death. The day a person dies he has a right to be left alone.
But yesterday is now history, and Reagan's legacy should not pass without comment.
posted to MetaFilter by skallas
at 1:17 AM on June 7, 2004
(25 comments)
The False Controversy of Stem Cell Research.
Kinsley: In fact, thinking it through is a moral obligation, especially if you are on the side of the argument that wants to stop or slow this research.
It's not complicated. An embryo used in stem-cell research (and fertility treatments) is three to five days past conception. It consists of a few dozen cells that together are too small to be seen without a microscope. It has no consciousness, no self-awareness, no ability to feel love or pain. The smallest insect is far more human in every respect except potential.
posted to MetaFilter by skallas
at 10:17 AM on May 31, 2004
(64 comments)
Eric Alterman on Abu Ghraib and the media.
Alterman: And how pathetic is it that the only cable network really grappling with the media's failure is
Comedy Central? Let's give the last word to the Daily Show's incomparable Stephen Colbert: "The journalists I know love America, but now all anybody wants to talk about is the bad journalists--the journalists that hurt America.... Who didn't uncover the flaws in our prewar intelligence? Who gave a free pass on the Saddam-Al Qaeda connection? Who dropped Afghanistan from the headlines at the first whiff of this Iraqi snipe hunt? The United States press corps, that's who."
posted to MetaFilter by skallas
at 3:54 PM on May 26, 2004
(12 comments)
America's laziest fascist
Inside Michael Savage's hatefest. I can't tell if this is offensive or just sadly pathetic. Salon: But if the first half of the event showcased Savage's ability to stir the faithful, the second half was an object lesson in how a performer can take his audience -- and his talent -- for granted. Basically, he bombed. He spent nearly 20 minutes sitting in a stuffed chair in front of a television set, free-associating as he channel surfed. Seeing footage of Jordan's King Abdullah, he screamed, "Kiss my ass! Shut the hell up!" To a soccer match in Spanish, he quipped, "Reminds me of my gardener." It was about as entertaining as watching a middle-aged man yelling at his living room TV. Savage eventually realized things weren't going well. "You don't like this shit," he said. "It's a bad act."
posted to MetaFilter by skallas
at 8:54 PM on May 19, 2004
(49 comments)
How to get out of Iraq.
The Nation: There is, however, no agreement or even clarity about such an exit strategy. Nor is any leadership on this crucial issue coming from the Bush Administration or as yet, alas, from the presumptive Democratic candidate, Senator John Kerry. With a sense of obligation and urgency, The Nation, has asked a range of writers, both regular and new contributors to the magazine, for their ideas on America's way out of Iraq
posted to MetaFilter by skallas
at 11:35 PM on May 10, 2004
(28 comments)
Joseph Wilson interviewed at Salon.
They've also tried to portray you, and all the other whistle-blowers who have spoken out against the administration, as partisan democrats. Do you think that has been an effective technique?
It hasn't worked with me. People are touched by this story because it gives a human face to a whole host of lies and deceptions that only now are becoming apparent to the American public. Americans don't like this attitude. Americans don't like to see their women taken out and beaten up.
posted to MetaFilter by skallas
at 12:14 AM on May 3, 2004
(71 comments)
Why does Scalia hate America?
Justice "Fat Tony" Scalia orders reporters to erase tapes of one of his speeches. Aren't public servents supposed to be public?
posted to MetaFilter by skallas
at 5:23 AM on April 8, 2004
(28 comments)
Paul Kurtz on the Enlightenment.
Unfortunately, there has been a massive retreat from Enlightenment ideals in recent years, a return to pre-modern mythologies. There has been a resurgence of fundamentalist religions
worldwide—Hinduism, Sikhism, Islam, Roman Catholicism, and Orthodox Judaism. Added to this are occult-paranormal claims, which allegedly transcend the existing scientific paradigm.
In the United States—the preeminent scientific-technological-military superpower in the world—significant numbers of Americans have embraced primitive forms of biblical religion. These focus on salvation, the Rapture, and the Second Coming of Jesus. Evangelical Protestant Christians have made alliances with conservative Roman Catholics and neo-conservative Jews, and they have captured political power—power they have used to oppose secular humanism and naturalism.
via the council for secular humanism
posted to MetaFilter by skallas
at 11:19 PM on April 5, 2004
(75 comments)
There is no room for a left-wing Rush Limbaugh on the radio.
"Do you think Karl Rove might have made a phone call to little General Powell, little Michael and said, 'Let's get this over with. Let's give him the fine and get this done with before Stern gets us all voted out of office,'" the National Enquirer’s Mike Walker asked Stern.
"First of all, I know that for a fact," Stern answered. "I can't even tell you how, just like you can't reveal your sources. I have two sources inside the FCC. They know exactly what is going on. They had a meeting two weeks ago, freaking out. I seem to be making enough noise that people are realizing we could hurt George W. Bush in the elections. So they are trying to figure out at what point do they fine me. So, you are absolutely right."
posted to MetaFilter by skallas
at 10:46 AM on March 25, 2004
(42 comments)
The New Science Wars.
When a leading psychologist like Harvard's
Howard Gardner calls the
president's science adviser a "prostitute," it's a safe bet that all is not well in the realm of government science policy. Indeed, in the past month, the United States has been engulfed by a kind of "science war," one pitting much of the nation's scientific community against the current administration. Led by twenty Nobel laureates, the scientists say Bush's government has systematically distorted and undermined scientific information in pursuit of political objectives.
posted to MetaFilter by skallas
at 2:13 AM on March 23, 2004
(23 comments)
Howard Stern's new found liberalism.
"The potential impact is huge," says Charles Goyette, talk-show host at KFYI in Phoenix. "And it's not just with the 8 million people who tune it, it's that he breaks the spell. Everybody's been enchanted by Bush, that he's a great wartime leader and to criticize him is unpatriotic. Now Stern pounds him every day and it shatters that illusion that the man is invincible and he shouldn't be criticized."
posted to MetaFilter by skallas
at 10:00 PM on March 12, 2004
(50 comments)
SCOTUS rules for seperation of church and state for once.
The court's 7-2 ruling held that the state of Washington was within its rights to deny a taxpayer-funded scholarship to a college student who was studying to be a minister. That holding applies even when money is available to students studying anything else.
"Training someone to lead a congregation is an essentially religious endeavor," Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist wrote for the court majority. "Indeed, majoring in devotional theology is akin to a religious calling as well as an academic pursuit."
posted to MetaFilter by skallas
at 8:47 AM on February 25, 2004
(42 comments)
The "internet-based" campaign that won.
Nickolas bought ads on 11 mostly left-leaning blogs, including Daily Kos, Political Wire and Eschaton, planning to make up the money out of his own salary if the ads didn't pay for themselves.
He needn't have worried. By the end of the day, the campaign had made back its money and then some.
The following Monday, Nickolas showed Chandler 65 e-mails that had piled up since the previous night.
"I said, 'Oh my god, these are all contributions,'" Nickolas remembered saying to Chandler. "And he said, 'Since when?' and I said, 'Since last night.' He was in disbelief that people around the country would care about this race."
posted to MetaFilter by skallas
at 9:24 AM on February 18, 2004
(3 comments)
The history of the Linux's penguin logo.
Linus: So when you think "penguin", you should be imagining a slighly overweight penguin, sitting down after having gorged itself, and having just burped. It's sitting there with a beatific smile - the world is a good place to be when you have just eaten a few gallons of raw fish and you can feel another "burp" coming.
Tux gallery here.
posted to MetaFilter by skallas
at 11:15 PM on February 8, 2004
(5 comments)
The Drug War Clock.
Its the 10th day of the new year. The US has spent 1 BILLION dollars on the drug war so far. 43,929 have been arrested, half of which for offenses related to cannibas and 6,587 people have been incarcerated. Happy New Year!
posted to MetaFilter by skallas
at 1:38 AM on January 10, 2004
(58 comments)
