You are currently browsing the monthly archive for April 2010.
Concordance makes great videos. This one on Homeopathy is a brilliant take down of the woo-peddlers of water.
These instruments of torture now on display in Toronto, as the CBC says:
They must be looking for footnotes...
“TORONTO – It’s an article of clothing that is widely used, rarely researched and frequently misplaced – and now has its own museum exhibition.
The Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto has opened an exhibition called Socks: Between You and Your Shoes. It includes about 40 rare socks, including a 13th century pair made of human hair.
There’s also a sock that illustrates one of the earliest surviving examples of knitting – a 900-year old sock excavated in Egypt.
Also on display are linen socks worn by King Charles I during the first half of the 17th century and a pair worn by Napoleon Bonaparte during his exile on St. Helena in the early 1800s.
There are also pale pink silk stockings worn by Queen Victoria.”
Human hair? I cannot even imagine wearing a pair of socks made out of human hair. Of course, if you think it cannot get worse, it does.
Workers in Greece Rally against the looming privatization of their society.
Greece is a mess. The IMF and EU are certainly not helping. It seems that this is the pattern as of late. Greece now Hungary stretched on the debt rack until they privatize their country, not for the benefit of the people, but for the business class and multi-national interests.
“Schaeffler told Al Jazeera: “I think Greece has to save money – and if you need to save money then you must sell your jewellery so to speak.
That’s what Greece should do. They must privatise to raise money, that’s what I said to Bild newspaper.”
I wonder when the IMF will get involved. Disaster Capitalism is lovely in the spring.
You see this sequence of events happen repeatedly. Government tries to help people, investor class loses favoured status, takes toys and goes home, economy retracts and ideologues decry high taxes. Government lowers taxes on business, cuts social spending and the people are unhappy and elect someone to enhance their disenfranchisement.
It is happening in Hungary right now.
“A far-right party in Hungary is on the verge of winning second place in Sunday’s parliamentary elections, appealing to those hard hit by the economic crisis and angry about the presence of Gypsies in the country.”
Black shirts? How original.
Huh, hard economic times and the scapegoating of a section of the population coupled with the rise of a far-right political party? Nothing could go wrong there.
Must be those hard economic times and you know those damn Socialists simply cannot manage money.
“The Socialist government led by technocrat Gordon Bajnai had to make painful budget cuts to rein in the deficit under a financing deal led by the International Monetary Fund, which rescued Hungary from financial collapse in 2008.”
Ohhh, hello IMF. (Where was the mention of the meddling by the IMP in the CBC article? The quote in green is from Al Jazeera.) The IMF would certainly not impose conditions that make it hard on the government to actually run the country would they?
“In Hungary, under IMF tutelage, liberalized trade, tightened money supply and rapid and ill-considered privatization have led to greatly increased unemployment and a redirection of resources away from education and social services and to wealthy bond holders.
Carol Welch, International Policy Analyst at Friends of the Earth, said “The IMF has a consistent record of environmental and economic destruction and poverty exacerbation. We
have to expose this and stop the Fund’s attempt to establish a permanent austerity program for the poor countries.”
Ah yes, the old “We get Free Trade, you get Financial Austerity” ploy in action, it is nice to see the naked pillage of an economy and abuse of a sovereign nation all in the name of capitalism.
Shorter version: Hungary has hard times, IMF fraks things up even worse, people coerced into electing a proto-fascist capitalist dictatorship. Good Times!
Christians everywhere awed by magical blanket, now with the image of Jesus. It is proof, proof I say of all the malarkey I have been force fed and child and led to believe. The CBC reverently intones:
“The Shroud of Turin, believed by many Christians to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ, went on public display Saturday for the first time in a decade.
Confirmation bias anyone?
Over the next six weeks, about two million people are expected to view the linen bearing the faded image of a bearded man.”
Oh fantastic. Sheeple to the ramparts, the magic cloth has arrived!
“Each visitor will be allowed five minutes to stand before the bulletproof, climate-controlled case containing the cloth inside northern Italy’s Turin Cathedral, where it has been kept for 500 years. In that time, the public has been allowed to view it on only five different occasions. The last time was in November, 1998”
And then the Jebus blankee along with the disney Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs go back into the vault. So do not delay!
“Pope Benedict XVI will visit Turin on May 2 to pray before the 4.3-metre-long, one-metre-wide shroud.”
2010. 21 century here, we really need to stop propagating foolish dangerous mythology.
From his Skeptical Essays, published in 1928:
“I wish to propose for the reader’s favourable consideration a doctrine which may, I fear, appear wildly paradoxical and subversive. The doctrine in question is this: that it is undesirable to believe a proposition when there is no ground whatever for supposing it true. I must of course admit that if such an opinion became common it would completely transform our social life and political system. Since both are at present faultless this must weigh against it.”
From the section aptly called “Diversions” section on the CBC website.
Humans - Always finding creative ways to shorten their lifespan.
“KIEL, Germany – A German adventurer is preparing to sail the world in what he says is the world’s largest solar-powered boat.
The catamaran-style yacht sporting some 5,400 square feet (500 square meters) of solar panels was put into the water Wednesday in the northern German city of Kiel.”
Is it just me or is the person attempting this is just three notches past sunny optimism? Weather at sea at best is unpredictable. At least it seems he is taking some the necessary steps so he does not end up as eco friendly shark bait.
“Skipper Raphael Domjan praised the “groundbreaking” step toward what he says will be the first ever world tour by a solar-powered boat, scheduled to start in April 2011.
In the meantime, he is planning to extensively test the boat.”
Herr Domjan, I wish you the best of luck. Keep a watchful eye out for your arch-nemesis.
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