News From Around The Blogosphere 7.20.11

Okay, it’s been awhile so this is going to a long one.

1. Campus Crusade for Christ is changing their name – In an attempt to change their image, the CCC has finally decided to get rid of that pesky “Crusade” in their name to avoid offending people and are now calling themselves the very inoffensive “Campus Holocaust for Christ.” Just kidding. From now on they’ll be known as the “cru”, cause strange lowercase acronyms are hip, chill, and groovy with the kids these days. Though if they really want to be more popular with the kiddies, maybe they should just call themselves Lady Gaga, and then put out announcements that Lady Gaga is coming to their campus. Can I solve image problems or what? I expect my check in the mail later this week.

2. Deepak Chopra, the videogame! Rated M for Moron – You know, for years I’ve listened to Jack Thompson shamelessly blaming video games for just about every atrocity in human history from the Crusades (probably) to the Virginia Tech shootings. But now Deepak Chopra is making me realize video games really can be harmful to society due to his new game called “Leela” (I’m assuming because he’s a huge Futurama fan) involving “seven different interactive exercises based on the seven ‘chakras,’ the points along the body that Chopra says serve as energy centers. No, Chopra has no background in actual human anatomy; I guess this is what he means by willing things into existence. If you believe in nonsense long enough and you can invent your own biology. In related news, Phil Plait has penned an short piece published in Playboy magazine that chastized Chopra for massacring science with his mouth.

3. Ireland vs. Vatican –

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny condemned the Vatican for continuing to downplay the rape and sexual torture of children in order to protect the image of the Catholic church.

Kenny’s condemnation comes in response to last week’s release of the Cloyne report, a scathing expose of current and ongoing Vatican efforts to cover-up the ever-present sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy.

Kenny claimsthe Cloyne report “tells us a tale of a frankly brazen disregard for protecting children;” and, “exposes an attempt by the Holy See to frustrate an Inquiry in a sovereign, democratic republic as little as three years ago, not three decades ago.”

PZ Myers also wrote about this story here. And retired Bishop of Cloyne, John Magee, has been in hiding since the Cloyne report exposing his poor handling of child sex abuse allegations was published.

And speaking of the Catholic Church…

4. Catholic bishop bans fund-raising for breast cancer research –

A bishop from Toledo, Ohio will not allow parishes and parochial schools to raise money for the Susan G. Komen Foundation (which helps fund the fight against breast cancer) because there’s a chance they may one day fund embryonic stem-cell research.

Glad to see they have their priorities in place.

5. Austrian officials allow Pastafarian to wear colander in drivers license photo – Austrian Niko Alm is being given permission to wear a colander, the official headwear for Pastafarians, on the license, which is clearly a far superior fashion statement than the Jewish yarmulke. Blessed be the Flying Spaghetti Monster and his noodly appendages.

6. Child Holocaust-denying nazi musicians renounce much of their former beliefs – The Olsen Twin look-alikes who form the Hitler-admiring pop band Prussian Blue have now publicly rejected the views that made them famous and for which their band was named after.

7. Jesus appears on Walmart receipt – Either that or Charles Manson, though that’s not really a very meaningful distinction.

Related articles

• Deepak Chopra – Leela – more details (gonintendo.com)
• Dear Playboy: Deepak Chopra is wrong (blogs.discovermagazine.com)
• Campus Crusade for Christ is No More… (patheos.com)

News From Around The Blogosphere 12.20.09

1. Australian Catholic leader says cancer can be cured with prayer – According to the head of the Catholic Church in Australia, Cardinal Pell:

“Yes obviously (cancer can be cured by prayer),” Cardinal Pell told ABC Television on Monday.

“And there are quite a number of examples in the books.”

Cardinal Pell says that won’t give sick people a false sense of security because they realise cure by prayer is a “very long shot”.

So is “God” not all powerful or just usually a prick? Which is it? How about amputees? What’s “God’s” success rate at curing them?

2. Flying Spaghetti Monster or Cthulhu revealed in dining room table –

3. The Onion lists the top 10 stories of the last 4.5 billion years – The Onion proves to be the ultimate cure for end of the ubiquitous year/end of the decade lists. My favorite on the list is “Sumerians Look On In Confusion As God Creates World”:

Members of the earth’s earliest known civilization, the Sumerians, looked on in shock and confusion some 6,000 years ago as God, the Lord Almighty, created Heaven and Earth.

According to recently excavated clay tablets inscribed with cuneiform script, thousands of Sumerians—the first humans to establish systems of writing, agriculture, and government—were working on their sophisticated irrigation systems when the Father of All Creation reached down from the ether and blew the divine spirit of life into their thriving civilization.

“I do not understand,” reads an ancient line of pictographs depicting the sun, the moon, water, and a Sumerian who appears to be scratching his head. “A booming voice is saying, ‘Let there be light,’ but there is already light. It is saying, ‘Let the earth bring forth grass,’ but I am already standing on grass.”

I’m also quite partial to these other two items on the list: “Woman Domesticated” and “Industrial Revolution Provides Millions Of Out-Of-Work-Children With Jobs.”

4. Solstice display goes up in Raleigh, North Carolina – The Triangle Freethought Society put up the display in Moore Square near a nativity scene. The display tells the real reason for the season.

Happy Solstice everyone!

Pastafarians, today be Talk Like A Pirate Day! Arr!

Flying Spaghetti Monster blesses Seattle Gay Pride

Rachel Maddow accepts the Flying Spaghetti Monster into her heart

News From Around The Blogosphere 12.10.08

LATE NIGHT TALK SHOWS:

Jon Stewart interviews Mike Huckabee – Once again, Stewart does a phenomenal job illustrating the absurdity of the anti-gay marriage movement. And here’s a past interview where Stewart discussed this issue.

Hugh Laurie criticizes CAM on Conan O’Brien – And Conan agrees with him. Glad to see rational thought discussed in the popular media.

Flying Spaghetti Monster Holiday Pageant –

FULLERTON, CA – The Hunger Artists Theatre Company is proud to present the final show of its 2008 season, Flying Spaghetti Monster: The Holy Mug Of Grog.  This follow-up to Hunger Artists’ 2006 hit comedy The Flying Spaghetti Monster Holiday Pageant is written by Artistic Director Jeremy Gable and directed by Associate Managing Director Katie Chidester, and runs from December 5th through December 21st.

AND NOW FOR MOMENT OF SCIENCE:

‘Smart Fabrics’ That Monitor Health – “Researchers in United States and China are reporting progress toward a simple, low-cost method to make “smart fabrics,” electronic textiles capable of detecting diseases, monitoring heart rates, and other vital signs. A report on these straight-out-of-science-fiction-fibers, made of carbon nanotubes, is scheduled for the December 10 issue of ACS’ Nano Letters.”

News From Around The Blogosphere 12.4.08

A Very Merry Unauthorized Children’s Scientology Pageant – This is so freakin’ cool! A cast of 11 children in Arizona will be performing “A Very Merry Unauthorized Children’s Scientology Pageant” detailing everything from the life of L. Ron to the actual teachings of Scientology (Xenu included) to the involvement of people like Tom Cruise and John Tavolta.

New 220-million-year-old transitional fossil discovered – So that would be 219,004,000 years before the universe existed, according to Young Earth Creationists.

New York Times Opinion writer calls for Obama to restore science in government

9 Ways To Dress Up Flawed Research – UK sceptic (spelled the British way) Dr. Ben Goldache wrote a great expose on some of the tricks used by dishonest researchers to get their articles published in peer-reviewed journals.

Keith Olbermann‘s rebuttal to Bill O’Reilly’ rant about the atheist display in Washington – And it’s pretty outstanding.

Mmm, space beer! –

“Japanese beer brewed from barley which was grown on the international space station orbiting the Earth, has finally been tasted.”

Female thieves in Uganda use chloroformed bosoms – This might be the most awesome thing I’ve heard all day. Nothing particularly skeptical or scientific-related here but I had to post this.

Stanton Friedman talks smack about Brian Dunning over infamous Betty and Barney Hill case – The sad thing is that like Dunning, Friedman used to be a hero of mine. He was featured in just about every TV special about UFOs and alien visitation I ever watched (and that was A LOT!!). I don’t think anyone is more to blame for the long-held belief in alien visitation than Stanton Friedman. It’s kind of sad when you realize one of your childhood heroes is at best obsessed lunatic and at worst a fraud.

Religion and Freethinkers on Postage Stamps –

AND NOW FOR A MOMENT OF SCIENCE:

How To Destroy An Asteroid — Safely – “In the hit 1998 movie Armageddon, Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck blew up an asteroid to save the world. While the film was science fiction, the chances of an asteroid hitting the Earth one day are very real ― and blowing up an asteroid in real life, says a Tel Aviv University researcher, will be more complicated than in the movies.

Astrophysicists agree that the best method for avoiding a catastrophic collision would be to change the path of the asteroid heading toward our planet.” Take that Bruce Willis!

Robot Jumps Like Grasshopper, Rolls Like Ball – “The first robot that can jump like a grasshopper and roll like a ball could play a key role in future space exploration.”

Gene Therapy Fixes Sickle Cell Disease In Lab – “Using a harmless virus to insert a corrective gene into mouse blood cells, scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have alleviated sickle cell disease pathology. In their studies, the researchers found that the treated mice showed essentially no difference from normal mice. Although the scientists caution that applying the gene therapy to humans presents significant technical obstacles, they believe that the new therapy will become an important treatment for the disease.”

HUMOR:

Move over Frosty. There’s a new snowman in town! – And he’s a godless heathen!

Where’s Jesus? – Apparently he’s everywhere these days.

But he’s not the only one popping up:

This image of the Flying Spaghetti Monster was made with 7 different types of pasta including, of course, fusilli, presumably because religion is silly.

News From Around The Blogosphere 7.22.08

South Dakota abortion providers must tell women abortion terminates “life”-That political ideology is now being legally imposed in South Dakota is disgraceful. Until this matter is rectified, South Dakota is going on my “Is Dead To Me” list next to Louisiana for its absurd “academic freedom” law. I encourage everyone to hurl perpetual ridicule upon these states, make them the butt of your jokes. Indeed, no method has proven more effective in changing such policies in modern times as ridicule. Of course, many intelligent people who oppose this nonsense reside in these states; I encourage you all to fight these idiotic policies.

What is a skeptic and why we need them? -Out of the typing fingers of babes. One of the next generation of young skeptics comments on what it means to be a skeptic:

Why secular activism is necessary -The Religious Right affects public policy and every day they are fighting for control of the world. They’re fighting to control what we can and how we can think. This is the very antithesis of the free secular republic designed by our Founding Father. And that vision is worth protecting.

Pastafarian Swap

-TV’s reality series WifeSwap has a history of bringing atheists into America’s living rooms:

But Jinxi and Steve’s family won’t be the last atheistic family as the program is currently casting Pastafarians.

Ken Ham from Answers in Genesis’s is displeased w/ review of Creationist Museum -Apparently, Ken Ham took umbrage with a few bits in the descriptions of his Creationist Museum in the book, Weird Kentucky. What’s funny is the details he chooses to complain about how he tries to correct the book’s “errors” with information that is equally absurd than the claims suggested in the book.

Adam & Eve depiction at Creationist Museum

Center For Advanced Medicine And Clinical Research–fancy name for an anti-vaccine propaganda front -These guys are just pure evil. There’s no way I can be gentle about this. Nothing Michael Savage has said comes anywhere near as repulsive and dangerous as what this quacks says in his blogs. People see the title “Doctor” and use him as an example of doctors “exposing the evil Big Pharma conspiracy because his claims confirm what they already believe.

And some science news:

Stem Cells: New Way To Treat Spinal-cord Injury

-A researcher at MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory has pinpointed stem cells within the spinal cord that may lead to a new, non-surgical treatment for debilitating spinal-cord injuries.