On The Limit of Poe’s Law (of which there isn’t any)

Often times, I like to think of Poe’s Law of absurdity, which according to rationalwiki: “Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is impossible to create a parody of Fundamentalism that SOMEONE won’t mistake for the real thing”

Another way to describe it is:

As limit of fundamentalism approaches infinity,

A being the absurdity values.

I know I know, putting it in math notation is useless, but I like math expressions. ^_^

Although I don’t think it has to be necessarily a fundamentalist idea, but any idea so absurd as to render satire meaningless. But then again such ideas seem to be fundamentalist in nature, so I come back full circle. Such ideas are inherently fundamentalist, I guess. That is the thing about extremist views, though. It does exactly what satire does, it takes a horrible premise,  and takes its logic to the furthest extreme possible, which is why satire and fundamentalist views are so similar. This is something slacktivist writes much better than I do, so I recommend you go there.

The reason I am doing this post is that I have been thinking hard about this. It seems like there truly is no limit to the absurdity that people will go through in order to maintain their belief. For some reason, this disturbs me greatly. Especially because I can’t understand their mindset, I can’t empathize, there is no way for me to see their point of view. It feels completely unphysical, as if something so absurd as that shouldn’t exist, and yet, they do. Take the following video, for example, of Colbert “supporting” Glenn Beck:

In that video, Colbert, which is a satire, compares Beck’s own performance to his. See how eerie it is to see Colbert compares himself to Beck? Beck feels and looks like a satire. The thing is, if Beck is dishonest and he is lying about his sincerity, that just makes him another Poe, albeit a dangerous one. You see, there are millions who watch Beck, and believe it is actual news. Can you see how astonishing that is? It implies that people are watching actual satires, and thinking that is news. Even if Beck is sincere, the implication of such is disturbing. The masses are unable to distinguish between reality and fantasy, finding comfort in maintaining their beliefs, acting selfishly at the expense of others. Also, the thing is, there are tons of other people who support crazy right wing policies like him, not only from the general public, but people at the position of authority. Plus, when you find that there are people who think that a measly 2 ton spacecraft can alter the orbit of a giant ball of rock, I can’t help it, but find myself depressed.  And that is the kind of situation we find ourselves in 21st century America.

Look at the following video, it is something you can’t possibly make up:

Once again, if you take Republican logic of voting against the bill that would prevent rape in defense contractor workplaces to its full extent, yes, they are supporting rape, or they just don’t care. Such position is so indefensible, it is a wonder that they are not being fired at this very moment. At this time, I come wondering, what if not only is the absurdity of fundamentalism=satire, what if there is no singularity, what if fundamentalist absurdity is so ridiculous it can’t possibly be a satire? Because if it were a satire, it would be such a ridiculously unclever satire. Or it could be a point in which the fundamentalist idea reaches to the absurdity before a satirist even has a chance, or even beats the full extent of the ridiculous outcome of the satire.  in which case, we are almost there. I call that hypothetical point the Poe’s equillibrium. It is like a black hole’s event horizon, or the chandrasekhar’s limit, it is extremely hard to reach, but once there, the results are quiet explosive (spaghettification AKA rack extremo and supernova, respectively).

Of course, there is a cure for all of that, and that is a good education and skepticism. Unfortunately, those doesn’t seem to be a high priority for these people, and they delightfully relish in their ignorance. Ignorance is good, knowledge is bad. After all, experts are just corporate shills. Who needs experts when you have got the “University of Google.” Irony escapes them because while accusing others of being shills, they themselves are shills, gaining money using bogus facts and evidence.

Seriously, humanity can’t get any more disappointing.

 

Carnival of Space 109, Plus Mars Hoax

From Twisted Physics.

I notice how one of the entries is about Mars looking as big as the moon at its closes approach even though it is too darn far away. Yeah, those come up every freaking year even as it never happens. Plus, the post has a link to others saying, no, it won’t happen. I don’t even get the need to spread it every year, since it still hasn’t come true! Heck, it is so widespread even NASA has a debunking page about it. Seriously people, get real, planets are really really really far away. The distance to the moon: ’round 400,000 km, but Mars is several millions of kilometers away. It will look really small, even at its closes approach because really, compared to Earth, it is half its size. Just so that those of you who are purveyors of such myths, here is a real time feed of Mars distance from the Earth (which is very cool! thanks, universe today!).

My favorite statement for all of this is the following from Space Disco:

 We Need The Mars Hoax… The Universe Just Ain’t Exciting Enough

I think this statement strikes true at the core of it all. In my mind, these people spreading such rumors have no curiosity at all to investigate and find out how wonderful the universe is without having to invent stuff. Heck, they couldn’t even have done the research to stop themselves to waste time. Oh well…

Oh, and Space Disco mentions about an email on a plead of a Nigerian princess. Has anyone received the scam email? ^_^ ‘Cause I did, which caused me to laugh loudly. Also, I feel like in order to have the astronomy blog badge of honor, I have to recieve the Mars getting as big as the moon hoax mail, so bring it on!

A Triple Dose of Oprah Woo, Warning: It Might Destroy Brain Cells

I don’t like Oprah. And if you looked at a previous post of mine, I think she has no redeeming quality. Sure, she helped out a few people. But when she endorsed Jenny McCarthy, leading antivax celebrity figure, which I am holding her partly responsible for the partial resurgence of some diseases that were supposed to be long gone. Unfortunately, the mainstream media hadn’t made this easy at all. Not only is Oprah one of the queen hive overlord of the media, no one else dared to question her particular brand of idiocy. The credulous media and general population just sat there like a bunch of drones sucking up to her. Well, in the case of general population, it depends on the group of people, of course. But in the case of the media, well, it did not stay quiet anymore. Finally, there is one that is willing to look at Oprah in a magnifying glass, burning away her layer of popularity and examine what she is claiming. Newsweek, you just gained my admiration. And trust me, that is not something I really have said ever before, except once or twice or thrice in my life. Indeed, when I read about this, I thought I was dreaming a place where all of my hopes and aspirations came true, where everything was flowers and butterflies, and that there were unlimited supplies of chocolate, apple pies, and cheesecakes. Either that, or the apocalypse had come. Now, if the rest of the credulous media followed… But if they would have, the Death Star would have destroyed the Earth, leaving only Earth dust behind.

In the end, there is one message, from Newsweek that I would like to leave behind:

At some point, it would seem, people will stop looking to Oprah for this kind of guidance. This will never happen. Oprah’s audience admires her as much for her failings as her successes. In real life, she has almost nothing in common with most of her viewers. She is an unapproachable billionaire with a private jet and homes around the country who hangs out with movie stars. She is not married and has no children. But television Oprah is a different person. She somehow manages to make herself believable as a down-to-earth everywoman. She is your girlfriend who struggles to control her weight and balance her work and personal life, just like you. When she recently related the story of how humiliated she felt when she arrived for a photo shoot to find that she couldn’t fit into the clothes she was supposed to wear, she knew she had every member of the audience in her hand. Oprah’s show is all about second and third and fourth chances to fix your life, and the promise that the next new thing to come along will be the one that finally works.

Hat tip: respectful insolence

Oprah Must Be Destroyed and Other Pet Peeves

I am really late at the party, but Oprah has been in my conscience for quiet some times. Sure, she can be nice, and give scholarships to 4 students from my school. On the other hand, she is a perpetuator of the typical uninformed, feel the gut type ignorance, thereby promoting horrible woo woos such as… Sorry, it is too horrible… The Secret. All I will say about it is that it is a woo of magnitude -10 in the logarithmic scale of stupidity, stupid quantum woo…

But now, Oprah is beyond redemption. Anyone who gives multimillion dollar contracts to people who put the public in danger, in this case Jenny McCarthy, who espouses antivaccine lies all the time, is dead to me. There is no way I will ever forgive her for this. I really don’t understand. What knowledge do people think they have so that they are able to promote whatever ideas they want without questioning the validity of their products? What makes their opinion more valid than the scientists who figured out all of the medicine and all?  Is it that McCarthy is a parent, and parents know for sure what is wrong with their children? Is the fact that Oprah’s show is so popular makes whatever she utters the truth, which could possibly be  illusory truth? What do these people have? Are they more comforting? Because if so, that is just lame. Because all it seems to me is that they are just driving a type of informational conformity. Because they know freaking nothing, and perhaps they at least once in a life time invite an actual expert and forget all of the “two sides in an argument” BS. Because you know what? The world just doesn’t work the way YOU freaking want them tttooo!!!!! And because of that, I just want to yell at all of you people who are promoting her stuff to STOP!!! I am sorry, I am just angry that Oprah… *furious breathing*

This is all just messed up. People would rather believe in pseudo intellectuals. And you know another thing that is just messed up? A great pop sci magazine Scientific American messed up, that is what is so messed up. What were they thinking? Inviting a homeopath to actually talk on science? Because really, the only “science” I have seen them do is just to give it to someone, and when they just get better, or the disease is in remission, they go tell everyone it works while ignoring all the cases which didn’t work. Not that it is a surprise really, because all it is, it is just water with ultra diluted chemicals, so diluted not even a single foreign molecule is in there. But of course, water has “memories”, while at the same time, forgetting all the dinosaur craps that have been dumped in our oceans for millions of years.

SciAm, what do you think we are, though? Stupid? Why did you give us this cheap article on beauty?Was it to attract the female components? Hell, that is the way it feels like! What, did you  just underestimate the female audiences just like that? Are actual science underneath women? Because you should go back and stick to actual science because you know what? In the end all you are is a freaking science magazine, and I am sorry that you are not a magazine for medical quacks or one of those stupid girly magazines.

Next target… *Creepily turn head around to fake doctor* Stupid chiropractors. So, being offended is libel, ain’t it? Wow, I just committed libel! Because you can’t make no wrong, apparently, so any criticism that you are wrong is libel. But you know what? You are wrong, because you are all full of scientifically unproven shit, no evidence whatsoever to back up your claims except for stories, whose conclusions you wish it were true, or true for everyone else. You are doing this lawsuit, and why? Just because someone had the temerity to tell you in your faces that you were wrong, here is part of the article:

I can confidently label these treatments as bogus because I have co-authored a book about alternative medicine with the world’s first professor of complementary medicine, Edzard Ernst. He learned chiropractic techniques himself and used them as a doctor. This is when he began to see the need for some critical evaluation. Among other projects, he examined the evidence from 70 trials exploring the benefits of chiropractic therapy in conditions unrelated to the back. He found no evidence to suggest that chiropractors could treat any such conditions.

Worst of all, the judge somehow ruled against Simon Singh, in part because in UK, it is the person accused of libel who has the burden of evidence, and it is just much tougher in general. Anyways, read the link the third link of the above paragraph, the ruling is just plain stupid.

When something gets this frustating, don’t you just want to pull your hair out of your follicles? That is how I feel. I swear, I want to understand the phenomena behind these black hole of stupid. Which is why I feel like venting my final anger into spammers. Well, in this case, it is a questionnaire, not a rant because I am curious. They just tick me off for some reason. I don’t get them. Their job is to post links to the websites they promote, and… is that all they do? Tell me, spammers, what is the lucrative business of spamming like? Do you get a life out of doint that? What is your intrinsic and extrinsic reward? There has to be some sort of reward, or you woudn’t be doing it, I am guessing there is some money involved, right? Besides, aren’t your efforts stupidly futile? Because in all of the blogs I have read, none of them allow spam. Oh, I get it, you are hopin to find a crack, that is it. Right? Right? *sigh* Probably discussing stuff with spammers are futile, they probably have the reading and writing skills of 3rd grade, plus, they don’t care anyways.

Wow, maybe I should cut down on my rants next time. But as a final note, Measels, rubella, and mumps, three not so fun viruses, thanks Jenny McCarthy at a chance for life.

Mad as Hell

GGGGAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!! Seriously, I want to destroy something… anything. I can’t apply for financial aid for college because of situations outside my control. And you know why? Because I am illegal. Now, my family entered this country completely legal. We have social security and everything. We were in the middle of applying to permanent legal residency too. But nnnoooooo…. Some stupid lawyer of my dad’s had to screw up. He(or she) apparently decided to end the application for some stupid reason I can’t fathom. I mean really, how stupid can that be! Why would we want to cancel the residenship if we were going to live here permanently! *sigh* I swear, that lawyer will have hell to pay.

Three or So Stuffs I Have to Tell You

Firstly, if anyone has been following my blog (doubtful), sorry for not posting for over a week. I have been busy with school work, now it is easter and I haven’t felt like blogging. Hey, don’t look at me like that, I am just a high school going teenager, you should expect some procrastination. ^_^ Don’t expect me to post too often for a while  either, not until all the pressure subsides. Sorryp.

Secondly, a few stuff about my blog. I have finally made the final update to my pop quiz on rainbows, so I hope you enjoy it. ^_^  No one was responding, so  whatever, it took me long enough. Now, notice on my widgets that I posted one with body counts caused by unvaccinated people, and guess what, I am putting the weight of their death on the antivax shoulders. They are responsible for bringing some of the diseases back and increasing the amount of infection, while at the same time reducing the amount of people that could have herd immunity. Also notice the face of the person, that is Jenny McCarthy, a celebrity with a deadly pursuit of eliminating vaccines in an effort to impose an impossible demand of 100% safe vaccines. She is truly a menace, especially since celebrities are able to reach out normal people and lowest common denominators more easily, and plus, she has Jim Carrey on her side. Put this widget on your blog and oppose her. (hat tip: lay scientist, respectful insolence) Which is why I myself am doing a new page for my blog called Black Hole. It is basically a blacklist of every people who annoys me and I believe to be threats to society. It basically states my opinions about these people and link them to either my opinions or to people who are trying to raise awareness on them. I might even have a scale of annoyance. It is an unscientifically derived scale of how much these people annoy me. I will call it *drum rolls* the IBY annoyance scale!!! What else did you expect? Anyways, 1 could be mild, friendly annoyance, like my family (^_^) to I don’t know… horrifyingly moronic, brain cell killing annoying like Kent Hovind, a creationist (careful, clicking on the link can cause permanent drain bamage… do’h! It is already happeing), hopelessly delusional annoying, like VenomfangX, to real threat to society annoying, like Jenny McCarthy. Now, you will probably be picky, saying that Hovind is a threat to education. That is true, but firstly, that moron is in a freaking jail, and secondly, it seems to be his other minions who seem to be pulling the real punches here. My point is, these people will have hell to pay.

Thirdly, I guess I have to offer you something. I have recently been watching the anime Nodame Cantabile. So I found someone who is really good at piano playing the theme:

Pawning the Antivax Dudes

and

From respectful insolence.

Nothing more to be said. No mercy.

Religious Comedy, or Things Fundamentalists Actually Believe In

While riding the car, my dad tuned into a religious channel. The guy was talking about the end of times BS.  You know, the apocalypse, the coming of Christ and all that. Anyways, I thought I would never hear in my lifetime a religious kook speak, or hear anything that ridiculous. But I did… I did… Now, some of you might be saying, “you are being too mean!” Boo hoo. People like him deserve to be made fun at. Scaring people into the end of the world without any substance to the claim ain’t cool.

It was quiet funny, really, a comic relief. Basically, a bunch of people came to ask some questions and the guy answered really boring, nasal tone. Strangely, he mentioned that the end of the world would be at May 2011. Funny that, I have heard something similar for year 2012. Oh well.

And when some guys asks, “why don’t the Bible  mention other people? Like Americans, Africans, Asians, blah blah blah.” (the guy says a whole bunch of things, me thinkest that the question could have been told in a shorter way) Well, the guy just rambled on quiet incoherently. He said the Bible was a parable. I snickered because he just admitted the Bible was just stories, either that, or he just don’t know what a parable is. He rambled, and somehow ended with “we are all God’s children,” or something like that.

The last thing I remembered was this, the guy mentions the so called “tribulation” was some 100 something days. A caller asks, “isn’t it seven days?” but in a longer fashion. Then the guy rambles on about some numbers and numerology crap (somehow, he mentions multiplying 12*7*some number I don’t remember, what the heck?) and in the most ironic statement, says, God didn’t reveal to them (meaning, the theologians), mentioning how they worked hard. Somehow, he is perfectly able to make the statement himself without thinking, I don’t know, if perhaps it wasn’t revealed to him either? Just saying, you know, there is a possibility. Anyways, it was a good thing my dad turned off the car because by that point, he had made so many self defeating ironic statements that my brain was about to blow up.

Vaccines Ruled Safe in Court, Antivax People Melting

hahahahaha… HaHaHaHaHaH… WHAHAHAHA!

Oh boy, sorry, I lost my cool there for a moment. It’s just that some certain group of people had their butts kicked. Even  in science is not decided by the court, this will surely speak loudly in the minds of people who are not into the scientific method or medicine or whatever.

The group of people who got pawned are the people who think autism is caused by vaccines. They give out slogans like: “too much, too soon” and ”there are toxins and metals OMG!” The first one is not true, the second one is really dumb since it is quantity that matters, and any substance can become poisonous with enough quantity. Also, they have a study from this guy named Andrew Wakefield, which despite its horrible methodology, they have dept citing it. Well, no more, his results are *dum dum dum* Falsified. *long 24 style breath after a plot twist* Not that it was surprising, it wasn’t.

Anyways, the sooner the antivax ideology, which is causing the resurgence of some diseases and death of preventable diseases, is gotten rid off, the better.

No Mercy.

The Most Tiring Letter Ever

Imagine getting this for your e-mail. I would kill myself. PZ Myers, though, has the ability to resist stupidity without losing IQ points. That is a miracle all by itself. Go and read it, it is long and tedious, but funny and stupidly ironic. I warn you, though, your brain might not come back to the way it was. I read the entirety of it, and I almost got brain dead.