Exorcism, Bigfoot, UFOs and good old Westboro Baptist
I’ve been having fun setting up Google Alerts for various subjects to try and expand my blog fodder searches, and came across some stories that are worth sharing.
Drama club claims responsibility for UFO sightings in Pottsville
The flying objects in the skies above Pottsville on Tuesday night have been identified.
Barbara Gough, Ashland, the club adviser for the Theater Arts Group at Nativity BVM High School in Pottsville, said they were “Thai Wish” lanterns launched by the group.
Woman dies after ‘exorcism’ in Kodinar
A 36-year-old woman died in Kodinar [India] on Thursday allegedly after she was not given food for 22 days and made to sleep on sand under sun. According to the father of the deceased, she was harassed physically and mentally by her husband, in-laws and a dargah priest on the pretext of freeing her from ‘spirit possession’.
Searching for Sasquatch here in South Texas
Last December, a homeless couple in San Antonio called 911 saying they saw something in the woods off Highway 151 and Culebra. “I would be a liar if I said I thought I knew what it was, but I don’t know. I know it picked up that deer and walked,” reported the caller. Police checked it out, but nothing was ever found.
Constance McMillen’s Graduation Will be Picketed By Hate Group
Members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas are planning to picket Constance McMillen’s high school graduation. McMillen came to the public eye after her school canceled the prom to avoid letting her escort her girlfriend and wear a tuxedo. With the help of the ACLU, the school held a prom at a separate location. Sounds good, but the rest of the school went to a private prom held by parents. The parents childishly didn’t invite her to that prom.
That Lousy Canuck gets hitched…
Filed under: AaRB News, Facebook, Fun, Holidays & Observances, Humanism, Recommendations, Round Up, Science, Twitter
A big huge heartfelt congratulations to Jason and Jodi on their wedding tonight. Welcome to the club! People will say what they will about marriage, but it was the best choice I ever made. Being with the one you love is the best thing in the world.
…and a special thanks to @JSWadley and @cyberlizard for live tweeting the glorious event!
Will Smith, Christian Guitar Hero and a new Mr. Deity
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health have eliminated cervical cancer in mice with two FDA-approved drugs currently used to treat breast cancer and osteoporosis. Science Daily
There is a guitar hero for Christian Rock. “WTF?” springs to mind. Religionlulz
Derek Acorah, the famous English charlatan, and his MJ seance is dissected at JREF
Will Smith explains how 2 + 2 only equals 4 if he wants it to…and other insane babble he learned from Tom Cruise over at The Good Atheist.
And of course, there is a new Mr. Deity video out.
Good Stuff
A laser-powered robotic climber has won $900,000 in a competition designed to spur technology for a future elevator to space. I love it when science fiction becomes science!
PZ Myers has a copy of one of the strangest emails I’ve ever seen. It’s astonishing what the combination of fear and ignorance can do to people.
The Friendly Atheist blogged about a kindergarten teacher in Texas, no doubt, who is suing to avoid having her fingerprints taken for a background check, most likely to make sure she’s not a child molester. She believes this law prohibits free exercise of her religion. What do you think, religious fanatic or someone with something to hide? I’m going with the latter.
Sarah Palin listed her upcoming appearances to help promote her book on Facebook,
An interview with Oprah Winfrey is already scheduled, and I’m also hoping to have the opportunity to talk with Bill O’Reilly, Barbara Walters, Sean Hannity, Greta Van Susteren, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Laura Ingraham, Dennis Miller, Tammy Bruce, and others, including local Alaska personalities Bob & Mark and Eddie Burke. (Variety is the spice of life!).
Sorry, what kind of variety is that? Two celebrity chasers and a bevy of right-wingers. Then again, at least she knows her market. Who outside of the Fox News congregation will read her book other than to lampoon it? (thanks to Ed Brayton)
The Intelligence Squared Debate with Christopher Hitchens and Stephen Fry is on YouTube, check out all five parts below or go to YouTube.
Oh, and the world may end on Wednesday…as predicted by the same moron who’s gotten it wrong half a dozen times in the last two years. One would think that after a while you’d just give up, but what is it they say? Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Yeah, that seems about right.
Today’s Good Stuff
And, in a related post the Rabid Atheist has given 53% of Maine’s population his Bigot of the Week award.
And in a related story Respectful Insolence reports that Desiree Jennings, the “former marathon runner” who had been championed by the anti-vaxers last month as proof that vaccines are harmful, is apparently cured by another form of woo…showing this was nothing more than either a scam altogether or that the disease symptoms she experienced were psychogenic.
I propose a new rule: from now on, anyone who worships a dude who spent His entire adult life hanging out with a dozen other guys, was known to be kissed by them and wash their feet, and is frequently portrayed in a nearly-nude S&M glamour shot, isn’t allowed to have a problem with gay people.
And of course there is a new Mr. Deity video out.
Today’s Good Stuff
Le Café Witteveen made some good observations about how Biblical miracles do not even come close to comparing with what people consider a miracle today,
If finding your car keys, getting a job, being sent an anonymous envelope with an amount of money to pay bills, or experiencing childbirth is where your bar is set, your bar is WAY too low. Either ratchet that shit way up or face reality. It’s really not supernatural, and it’s not ever going to be supernatural.
Richard Dawkins suggested to the LA Times that we need to stop calling evolution a theory because it confuses people, “Start calling it a fact” (thanks to @MThellfire).
Outside the Asylum discussed de-friending those Facebook friends that make you sick with their religious status updates and discussions. I’ve tossed this idea over and over in my head, but despite having to “debate” them sometimes I’d rather keep them around for the blog fodder.
Is there anything Kari Byron can’t do? Here she creates her first ice sculpture in a cut scene from last night’s Mythbusters (thanks to @Discovery).
Here’s a video of how a red fox catches a mouse in the winter snows…what a cutie-pie.
NATURE “Christmas in Yellowstone” (thanks to Unreasonable Faith)
Many of my readers know I tried for several hours to get banned by ChristianChirp.com (the Christian alternative to Twitter) the other night but to no avail. Several of my Twitter friends did manage to do it while I was slightly engaged in a “debate” about questioning god which ended with the “chirper” not responding to my accusation that he/she obviously subscribed to Pascal’s Wager. Here’s a good synopsis of the creator of ChristianChirp.com and how he loves to manipulate (thanks to @religionlulz).
Relatively Unrelated has also done a nice post about ChristianChirp.com.
The first images since the Hubble upgrade are out (thanks to @BadAstronomer ).
Bears in a zoo in eastern Germany have lost their fur, but international experts cannot work out why (thanks to @bbcworld).
Good old Answers in Genesis is not to happy about PBS’s new Nova series, Becoming Human, and is upset that scientists are just not open-minded enough to consider an imaginary guy in the sky magically created man 6,000 years ago.
Then again, this is no surprise, for the evolution-only monopoly is well entrenched in almost all of America’s taxpayer-funded schools and in tax-supported media outlets such as PBS. That monopoly is unbecoming of an academic community that constantly insists it is open to new thinking and discoveries, yet persists in censoring any challenges to the evolution worldview.
And just for a little fun, here’s a totally random YouTube video.
Today’s Good Stuff
eSkeptic, the email newsletter of the Skeptics Society, is celebrating Carl Sagan’s 75th birthday. Free full-length lecture video and tons of articles (thanks to @michaelshermer)
Placing peeled onions on your coffee table will not keep you from getting swine flu despite what that viral email from your idiot friend Holly told you (thanks to @briandgregory)
The Jenny McCarthy Body Count Video (also thanks to @briandgregory)
A company called SkinzWraps is making “skins” for vehicles resembling golf balls (well, they claim it’s more like shark skin). I think Jamie and Adam deserve their due credit for this one (thanks to @Discovery).
Iraq’s security forces are using a fancy looking dowsing rod to find bombs (thanks to @michaelshermer). Phil Plait also had something to say about this at JREF.
There is a poll on same-sex marriage here (thanks to Pharyngula). Here are the results as of 4:30pm EST today (big difference from when PZ posted this).
Do you support same-sex marriage?
Absolutely, yes 54%
Sure, why not? 14%
Not really 6%
Absolutely, no 19%
I don’t care either way 7%Total Votes for this Question: 6166
The Rabid Atheist made the point that hating religion does not equate to hating christians or any other type of religious person. I wrote about anti-clericalism the other day, and though that principle is a bit more specific in regards to politics and actual church structure, the general sentiment of disliking what organized religion has done to the world is quite common to many atheists.
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Don’t feed the trolls
