So, a girl gets raped by her stepfather and you know what happens? She gets a 100 lash punishment. Yes, you got that right, she is going to get punished for having had no choice in getting raped. So sign the petition, and let the Maldive’s government know what you think of this crap.
By the way, don’t think this victim blaming stuff that only happens in other countries. Look at what happened recently in the US’s Stuebenville rape case. The victim got threats as the disgraceful US media continuously went on and on about how sorry we are supposed to feel for the boys who permanently damaged their lives. Yeah, CNN, they permanently damaged their lives. It is called consequences. It is something that happens when a person destroys another person’s life.
Seriously, fuck you all who feel sorry for rapists, you are terrible human beings.
And the Republicans are still lying. This time, the House of Representative voted to defund Planned Parenthood with statements that are plain untrue:
What is wrong with those people?! This organization provides valuable reproductive health care services. Of course, they can’t have that because it provides abortion because abortion is the same as killing a fully conscious human being, isn’t it? Who cares about the women, all that matters is that they baby producing machines, ripe for brainwashing them into the next generation of hateful human beings, just like them. Isn’t that wonderful? Isn’t that heartwarming? And all of these started because of a heavily edited video by another right wing nutjob whose goal is to see institutions like these fail because they have the need to tell everyone else what to do. They always talk about how they are against big government, how they are pro life, but as you can see, they are a bunch of lying sack of shit. The Republican party is the party of big government, and the party of death.
If anyone reading this wants to see these monsters fail at defunding this great organization, please, go here and sign a letter for congress. They need as much help as they can get.
Edit: If you think those are the only Republican attacks on women, think again. Here is a decent small list. After reading that, if you tell me that the Republicans are good for the country, my opinion of you will surely diminish into negative one hundred.
Stupid has no limits. It especially burns when you know something. And indeed, the following video is like showing a cross to a vampire, except this one is with science and educated people:
Just in case you don’t know, homeopathy basically says that if you imbibe something that caused harm in small amount, it will cure you of whatever you had. I know, it is like saying if you rub feces on you, you will get cleaner. Just doens’t make sense. Orac does a good job deconstructing these things (and hat tip to him for providing this entertaining and painful show). Of course, he focuses in the medicine, but he can also tell something is horribly wrong in her “physics” lecture. He covers the physics part pretty well, but I will go in more details in the physics side of things.. Even if I become Patrick Star stupid after this, I will at least have provided entertainment, so here I go. *gulp*
Note:I am not an expert in physics, but I did make as much as I could with what I knew, and a little research. Any errors, feel free to correct me.
And heh, she says at the beggining that she will “explain” things, heh, “explain,” followed by asking if anyone had chemistry classes. Probably none of them had it, and if they did, they must have failed horribly, or it is the suckiest school ever because as you watch the rest of the tape, you will start wondering what part of all of these were part of physics and chemistry classes.
Notice how she begins by throwing in a famous name? Makes everything seem a little bit oh so credible, doesn’t it. Immediately after mentioning his name, though, she begins to screw with physics and what he actually said. Okay, not so much, it is more of me nitpicking. C squared is speed of light squared, not speed of light. If it were speed of light, then you wouldn’t need that square, would you? But now the mental stuff begins. She claims that if you put all the mass in the universe so that there is no space in between the matter, that it would be the size of a bowling ball. Well, if she means by all the spaces an atom has because of electrons, you only need to look at neutron stars. Neutron stars are so massive that electrons are absorbed by the proton, turning into neutron. It happens to 1.5 solar mass core of even more massive giant stars. So you see, if the whole universe is squeezed like that, it would certainly be much larger than a city sized neutron star, and then, it would squeeze into a black hole, which is mathematically infinitely small. Of course, mathematics does not reflect reality, but it is super small definitely. If you take account of the event horizon, that is a different story.
But no, the fact that she was wrong on that fact was not why it bothered me. Uh uh. If you keep playing the video, she is implying as if having small volume means that the amount of mass is small. That is incredibly stupid. Look, we are mostly empty space, all right? Because an atom’s size depends on the very small, very far apart electrons. I still weigh 70 kilos regardless! I would weigh 70 kilos even if I shrunk enough so that I become a neutron star. I would weigh 70 kilos even if I became a black hole, albeit a super small black hole. If you squeeze a cotton ball, there is still the same amount of cotton. Volume doesn’t matter, only the amount of stuff matter. You still have to take account of the stuff.
And then she makes an even a larger leap of logic. She then claims that since mass occupies a small volume, the term mass(m) of e=mc^2 becomes infinitely small, and what is left is e=c^2! Ow, ow, I got brain fever. What a horrible abuse of math and physics. Firstly, as I said before, mass does not change! Secondly, if you make the limit of mass to zero, then it might as well become zero value. And if you multiply 0 value by c^2, guess what? E=0! Also, how does the unit m^2/s^2 makes sense? That is speed squared, not energy. Energy has the units kg*m^2/s^2. What e=mc^2 do say, though, is that if, say, you turn a paperclip into pure energy, it will probably explode with the power of a nuclear bomb. Tiny little mass=BIG BOOM! And even if there were a gazillion times more energy in the universe (well, there is dark energy, but that is a different story) than energy stored as matter, it doesn’t change the fact that those matter exist.
Then she mentions the fact that vision is important because energy=C^2. I don’t get it. More importantly, of course having “vision system” is important! We would die without the ability to sense our way around. We evolved that way. Life adapts to nature, and natural selection did the best it could by selecting genes for eyes. I don’t know who “Hanneman” is, but I strongly suspect I know why scientists didn’t fall in his camp (clue: he was wrong).
Afterwards comes another abuse of physics, this time throwing unceremoniously the name Stephen Hawkings. Can someone go to her and tell her to research things at least a little bit, or consult with a physicist, a little, at least, or something. Stephen Hawkings did not invent string theory, funnily enough (check year 1970). He is known for his work on black holes and Hawkings radiation, so I don’t know how someone came up with that connection. Anyways, string theory doesn’t say that there are whole other particles out there that are like strings. It states that those particles are made out of those strings, which vibrate at certain frequency (or was it wavelenght?). Different frequencies corresponds to different particles. And no, those strings are subatomic, so it doesn’t affect the macroscopic except the fact that normal matter is made of them. When she mentions that strings vibrating is energy, e=c^2… More research, ma’am, more research. The internet is awefully convenient for that, you know.
Then she goes on to the connection of physics and biology. Again, she makes the statements which I addressed before, cells are still made of mass, even if it is mostly empty space! And the fact that atoms are mostly empty doesn’t matter at this large scale either. She then talks of breaking the cells into energy, like protons, electrons, neutrons… Wait a minute… That is what atoms are made out of, and atoms are matter! *facepalm* With that logic, she says we are made of energy. Physics class indeed, physics class. With that comes the most incredible piece of stupid in the video yet, just when I thought it couldn’t get stupider. She declares we are energy and that diseases are caused by changes in energy state, like turning chemical energy into heat or something, except something else. Well, there goes germ theory of disease. People, I present to you a most puzzling and curious specimen, a germ theory denialist in the 21st century. Of course, she isn’t denying the germ theory only, since not all diseasees are due to germs, she is ignoring the basics of all biology, pretty much.
Okay, here comes the apex (or nadir, the bottom, if you will) of illogic of the whole piece, which doesn’t make sense even if all her other premises were true: We are energy, disease is caused by energy change, so to cure disease, you have to change it into a prevous state… by using the same stored energy that caused the bad thing to happen. All of it with the analogy of throwing a bomb to a neighbor’s house because a dog pooped in your home. Yup, even if her bad science were true, it doesn’t make sense. It is like saying that you can quench thirst by drinking salt water because salt water causes thirst. And all of that comes along with bad analogy. She is holding no punches back.
The rest is just the whole vibration/energy bull, along with an anecdotal story. If you know anything about standards of evidence, anecdotes are bad evidence. Primarily because human judgment and memories are unreliable. Which is why in a court of law, if you only have eyewitness, but no material evidence, you are screwed.
Oh, and one last comment on energy. You can’t just use energy as if it were something. It exists, that is for sure. Matter turns to energy, energy turns to matter. But mostly, energy is in a form like motion, stored due to position, or as light itself, all being work due to force. So saying we are all made out of energy is… Well, in a way we are because matter is basically condensed energy, but other than that, energy is an abstract concept relating motion with a number, and in case of light, wavelenght with a number, the numbers being energy. And using that number, we can calculate all sorts of things about that motion, and that number is conserved throughout the whole thing. Indeed, this is something that physicist Richard Feynman explains very well.
Now that this mega piece of deconstruction is done, I will end with one last note. “Dr.” Werner, I have never heard so much nonsense concentrated in such a short amount of time. I believe she deserves the accolade of, as the young people say these days (yikes, I am 19 and I already feel old 😉 ), “ignunt” of the month.
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:
Vodpod videos no longer available. 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.
If you know me, which you probably don’t, then you know that I am a staunch defender of science and reason, and extremely allergic to pseudoscientific idiocy. Especially those that threatens the life of people, and antivaccine woo woo is one of those. And so, I am here to make you aware of one in particular, Bill Maher. Considering that he is a well known liberal comedian, he has an enormous potential for damage. So, I will take you to Orac’s post against Maher, who deconstructs him argument by argument far better than I ever will, considering that he knows on the subject far better than I ever will. And the thing about Maher, while he supports a lot of good liberal agendas, it seems like he doesn’t come to those conclusions in any intelligent manner at all. What I mean is that he is a liberal just for the sake of being liberal. What makes me suspect such a thing is that he supports the HPV vaccine. Now, that is like being against every dessert and pastry in the world, but then coming out and supporting chocolate. Doesn’t make much sense, does it? But then again, chocolate is special.
You have to read this, by Orac. Absolutely hilarious. This person was trying to tell the “truth” that vaccines are EEVVVIL, and in the process, messed up horribly. But just wait until you get to the end, just wait. If you know basic chemistry, it will be like a stab in your brain.
Can you believe those freaking textbooks? If it weren’t for amazon, I would have shelled out 500 bucks for those piece of crap. It still didn’t make paying for those psychologically any easier. Every purchase, I felt like someone was taking a straw, plunging it in my nose, and slurping my brain. It was that painful.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to pay over 100 bucks for something we knew a century ago packaged with a little tiny new information. Okay, in science, I would understand, but this is getting ridiculous. Most of what is in the introductory books are just that. Introductory. Which means that most of the subtleties of modern science or modern whatever is out. In history books, they would add some little new events and that is it. But noooo, the sleaze balls these textbook publishers are, they have to throw up another edition every 3 years. And oh yeah, just add another of those crappy CDs that no one uses. And worst of all, there is nothing on those CD except that they link you to another online page! So, they expect me to pay an extra 20-30$ on a piece of plastic that gives you access to the internet! Great, why not just charge us as well for the priviledge of eyeballing their textbooks.
These bookstores make the prices even worse. This one chemistry texbook cost 200$ to buy in the store, while on Amazon, it cost a good portion less than that. Used ones are even better. Then there was this retarded computer application textbook which had no binding or rings in it. If I would have opened it while I was just walking, it would have fallen all over, thereby having to organize 1000 pages of texts. Instead, I am supposed to put that ginormous thing in a ginormous binder. Of course, all I did was to just keep the uneeded chapters out. Frankly, I don’t know why the precalculus text and physics text cost so much. I didn’t see anything special in them. I can get contents as good as those and better online, jeez. For example, this physics blog has a “textbook” which is as good, and FREE!!! Although it is obviously not complete. Then why not use the old ones?! They are as good, really. Newtonian introductory physics hasn’t changed much for decades, maybe a century (although not so sure of this one). For the new stuff, the instructors themselves could come up with stuff. It is not that hard with the advent of the internet. Seriously people, what are some of you thinking?
Oh yeah, I am not using half of the textbooks anyways. Can you believe those bloody administrators or whoever is in charge of this? They make us charge over a 100$, and guess what? The teacher won’t cover half of it because a) there is too much, and b) they are not the subject of the class. This link is a good look about what it is about.
Oh, and if you look at the English department, the rip off is way worse. They are basically a collection of anthologies which you can pretty much find in the internet for free. Behold, some of the scams chronicled in this blog(you will have to navigate it a bit before you find a post about it).
I want to rip my hair off whenever I think of this. So, when a bunch of lunatics talk about how the health care reform will kill the their grannys, and make US into a Soviet socialist country, and believe that the president was born in Kenya, things have gone way out of line. Especially that people espouses the line that health care is not a fundamental right? Are you kidding me? You might as well say that having a shelter is not a fundamental right because back in the old days, we used to wander around in savannas hunting with spears. C’mon, people, without an affordable health care, how will one have the rights to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness which you guys (and I) believe in?
Oh, and another thing, Obama doesn’t have spine or guts. He is just an empty slob of skin and meat. When the going got tough, he just gave up on the public option. Look, I am not extremely informed about health care, all right? But there is an appreciable differences in the amount other industrial countries spend, and the fact that everyone in those countries are covered, while at the same time maintaining quality. So, more saving, same quality, everyone wins. And while there probably are legitimate problems with the health care bill, the looneys out there are distracting people away from the real problem, and replacing it with grossly misinformed facts like “death Panels”, the government will kill grannys, that there will be rationing (don’t they know basic economics? limited resources=rationing, all system therefore must ration). I have even heard of pathetic reasoning that suggests medicare is not a government program, which it is. But no, Obama caves in to those lunatics, and drops the option, even if the criticism they had were utter falsehoods. Obama is a coward.
Here is an example of how one deals with looney tunes like Bugs Bunny (Fox News, both equally silly), Daffy Duck (some Republican congress members, both equallly incompetent), and Elmer Fudds (public who are always trying to blow themselves up with the rest of society):
Apparently, some idiot political commentator suggested that Canada has higher life expectancy because US has 10 times the population of Canada. Somewhere, someone lost a brain, an earthquake was unleashed, the fires of hell broke loose, and an entire civilization crumbled. Basic math literacy: fail. (hat tip: krugman’s blog)
I just found a very funny video making fun of homeopathy and “alternative medicine” in general. (hat tip badastronomy) It is from a British program “That Mitchell and Webb Look.” The sketch is called Homeopathic A&E:
It basically shows how nonsensicall homeopathy is, which is basically water that has been superdiluted. According to homeopathy, diluting water with the same stuff that harmed the person can cure the person. I know, it doesn’t make sense no matter how you put it or twist it around. They also claim that water has memories so it remembers what it diluted, which if it were true, we would all get sick and died from all of the animal excrements dumped into the water. Unfortunately, some people are spreading such nonsense as fact. It is part of the larger problem called alternative medicine, which if it were real, it would just be medicine.
I have always wondered how people can be succeptible to something like that. I mean really, even if some of the alternative stuffs kind of make sense, a lot of them makes as much sense as claiming that the moon is a giant ball of cheese. Alth0ugh I see a pattern in that all of the alternative stuffs basically provide hope, and it is much simpler than reality itself. Think about it. In the dream world in which homeopathy works, all you have to do is drink water, instead of going through remedies, doctors, and annoying or invasive procedures. Personally, I would love it if any diseases I get could be gone just by drinking water. Unfortunately, the world is just the way the world is, and no matter how much one wishes it to be different, it will still remain the same: Medicine is rrreeaaallyyy complicated.
Posted by ibyea 
IBY's Island Universe 