Gonzo Forgets He Doesn't Remember

Is Alberto Gonzales writing his memoir? From a recent Wall Street Journal online article,

Alberto Gonzales, who has kept a low profile since resigning as attorney general nearly 16 months ago, said he is writing a book to set the record straight about his controversial tenure as a senior official in the Bush administration.

Maybe Gonzo doesn't remember that he can't recall specific details of just about anything that happened during his tenure in the Bush administration. He has said he remembered meetings that happened, but he doesn't recall what was said or if he even took part. So, is he writing his "Memoirs" or his "I Don't Rememoirs"?

Illumination

How different would the bible be if its very last word was "lol"?

Take this last comment from the Elwood Library Nativity dust up (in which some folks are really p.o.'d that they were asked to remove a nativity from the public library):

let me tell you what happened to my husband, he said so what's the big deal its just a bunch of plastic , let them take it down..then we fought, he couldnt get much sleep that night, he lost to credit cards the next day and some more things started to happen to ruin his day till he told God he was sorry for what he said ..then things began to look up..the clouds parted in other words..so maybe you better think before you act...lol

That "lol" quenches all the fire and brimstone talk, doesn't it? So, let's take the first few lines from the Book of Genesis and see how we might bring it up to speed:

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. :P

Now that's illuminating. :)

H2O + Einstein = Homeopathy

Energy equals the speed of light (E = c) and Stephen Hawkings gave us string theory. Cells are tiny and we are made of cells, therefore we have infinitesimal mass, therefore we are energy. We can't create or destroy energy, all we can do is transform it. Disease then is energy that has been transformed from a good state to a bad state. All we have to do is transform it back to the good state by using other energy: light, sound, homeopathy. Because of string theory, everything has a vibration. We vibrate with a plant, a mineral, or an animal. A pellet with the right energy vibrations can be used to return your bad energy state to a good one. "It's so miraculous, it's so exciting."



None of what Dr. Werner said has any basis in science. She either has no idea what she's talking about or she's making it all up. The only factual thing she said was "a dog poops in the yard". Now that I can believe.

(Found at Admirável Mundo Louco)

Hmmm, I Wonder...

If intelligent design is not based on religion, why does the Discovery Institute spend so much time defending God and christianity?

Tis The Season For Psychic Frauds

Boy, when it rains it pours. Here's another incident of a psychic scamming money from women:

Psychic Accused Of Stealing $65,000 From Broward Women
Authorities are looking for a self-proclaimed psychic who scammed five Broward County women out of nearly $65,000.

The Broward Sheriff's Office said 35-year-old Gina Marie Marks claimed she was a psychic with special powers. Over the phone and in person, she allegedly told her victims that by giving her money, she could cleanse them of curses and evil spirits.
[...]
Marks also uses the name Regina Milbourne, under which she wrote the book "Miami Psychic" in 2006.

Ironic

Man who campaigned for protection for sharks is eaten by one: Australian snorkeler snatched by shark

Hmmm, I Wonder...

Why don't UFO's turn their lights off?

Another Psychic Fraud

Yet another 'psychic' who bilked a senior citizen out of a lot of money.

San Mateo 'psychic' faces eviction from Laurelwood Shopping Center
A San Mateo woman who allegedly swindled a senior citizen out of more than $80,000 during psychic and Tarot readings could lose her business as soon today.
[...]
Prosecutors say Adams took $80,330 from an 85-year-old female client with threats that the woman's husband would die of a heart attack if she didn't pay for "special prayers."

Same old story - vulnerable person taken advantage of by psychics. This method is used by all the charlatans of the world. It's one of the reasons I believe psychics should be banned from doing business. But this particular evil went much too far based on observations from a visit by the police to the psychic's shop:

San Mateo police also had taped a search warrant to another window, and the previously tidy shop appeared to have been ransacked Friday morning. A pile of papers and objects littered the floor, and a holiday elf clad in red and green lay face down in front of the entrance.

(sniff) A dead elf over the holidays. How can anyone believe in a god after this??

The Nothing Behind Psychic Phenomena

The website for TIME magazine has an article called The Science Behind Psychic Phenomena. Since there is no science behind 'Psychic Phenomena' (not surprising, since there are no psychic phenomena outside what we imagine), then there really isn't much to write about in the article. So they spend time interviewing "former Harvard professor Diane Hennacy". She added nothing of substance to the conversation outside a few anecdotes and lame attempts to equate the four dimensions of space and time with a greater mystery of existence that only a few can access with their special abilities. Oh, and she tells us there's likely a gene for psychic abilities.

Her brand of woo leaves me unimpressed.

Hmmm, I Wonder...

Do you think Rick Warren will bring water and donuts to the inaugural invocation?

Arnold Loewy's ID Lunacy

In a recent editorial in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Professor Arnold Loewy attempted to put creationism, intelligent design, atheism, and evolution into perspective. As you will see, his sense of perspective is horribly distorted:

Teaching intelligent design could help students learn to think
To begin with, it is important to disabuse ourselves of the notion intelligent design is an alternative to, or the opposite of, evolution. The opposite of evolution is creationism, the theory that the Earth was created in six days, less than 6,000 years ago.

OK...I disabuse myself of the notion that intelligent design is an alternative to evolution. I base this on the simple observation that intelligent design is not a theory, has no hypothesis, and has no testable predictions. I don't even consider what is "the opposite of evolution". Loewy claims it is creationism. What does he say is the opposite of relativity? Germ theory? Mechanics? Science helps us answer questions about the world and universe we live in. If a theory answers a question, then it supplants ignorance with knowledge. Only in that sense is a scientific theory the opposite of anything.

Yet there is more nonsense:

The opposite of intelligent design is no intelligent design, or atheism.

Soooo...the opposite of atheism is intelligent design? Loewy, at best, is etymologically challenged, considering "atheism" derives from a- + theos, meaning godless. And every school kid knows the opposite of godless is...uh, godful. According to Loewry, the opposite of atheism is intelligent design, by which he means intelligent design is godful. No arguments from me. Bravo.

Need we go further in dismembering his editorial? Ahh, why not lop something else off:

While faith is everything in religion, it is not everything in schools. Every proposition has to be empirically examined to determine its validity. Thus, when intelligent design is examined in school, there is no a priori assumption of its correctness, or incorrectness. The evidence is examined and the chips can fall where they may.

If all classes are taught without a priori assumptions as to the validity of the knowledge being doled out, then how do we expect students to ever get past simple addition and subtraction? No, the truth is that we have committees of experts who set the standards to which students are taught - i.e. those a priori assumptions. Given some of Loewy's other comments in the past, it is clear he angling towards "academic freedom" - indirectly arguing that intelligent design should be treated as a freedom of speech issue within the classroom. As a constitutional law scholar, Loewy's words carry weight. It's too bad his powers of deduction, at least as seen in his Lubbock Avalanche editorial, don't carry the same intellectualism that he exhibits as a lawyer.

Even as familiar with the Kitzmiller v. Dover case as he is, this final example represents Loewy's own "breathtaking inanity" in its complete ignorance or outright avoidance of facts:

I would propose a comparable course for high school seniors. I would have them read a book like "Of Pandas and People," a book designed by proponents of intelligent design. I would also have them read a book like Richard Dawkins' book, seeking to prove that there was no intelligent designer.

Of Pandas and People was a direct translation of a creationist text to a non-creationist text, by the simple search-and-replace of "creator" with "designer". So while Loewy has argued that intelligent design is not creationism, he proposes that our high school seniors should be taught with a whitewashed creationist text.

Loewy should stick to criminal and constitutional law as it is evident he understands little about the ID/evolution debate. Next time he should have an editor edit his editorial for lucidity.

ID Booby Meeting

Friends, the Loyal Order of Intelligent Design Boobies will be meeting, according to this posting, on January 31, 2009, to hold a debate entitled Darwin vs. Design (and why it matters). Come early, booby prizes will be given at the door, as well as to each speaker. Hosted by the Discovery Institute [that bastion of scientific thinking which aims to whitewash over the theory of evolution and replace it with "God did it something really intelligent did it (just not an alien)"], the speakers are also members of the Discovery Institute. These luminary boobies include Dr. John West, Geoffrey Simmons (for comic relief), and Casey Luskin (junior grand poobah of upper butt crack). Apparently, no one from the "other side" wants to join in their reindeer games.

And just as apparently, the Discovery Institute is about to discover the sound of one hand clapping.

Psychic Nikki Gives Us Her 2009 Predictions

Psychic Nikki's latest predictions for 2009 are here. Like her previous predictions, these are a scattershot of things that have a decent probability of happening (e.g. Patrick Swayze on her health/death watch) mixed with others that are so fantastic as to be laughable (aliens will land). Still, she has no qualms about putting them online and leaving them there without (too much) post processing.
Some highlights (posted without comment):

• Danger around Barack Obama.
• Assassination attempt around Barack Obama.
• Assassination Barack Obama – New Martin Luther King.
• Race riots break out in US.
• Another planet with life will be found in the universe.
• A commercial jet liner and a meteorite will collide.
• A rare Green Flamingo will be found.
• A green bear will be found in China.
• Collapse of the Golden Gate Bridge.
• Stock Market up and down.
• Mudslides in California.
• Part of the polar ice cap melts.
• The Royal Crown Jewels are stolen.
• A blimp explosion over a sports stadium.
• A riot at a soccer stadium.
• Fashion Prediction: Capes for men, Muffs for women.
• The economic woes, more terrorist attacks, and wild weather will still be around for 2009 but within twenty four months the economy picks up and there will be a boom much like after the Second World War - although heads of governments have to watch out for danger.

Thanks Nikki...we'll see how you did at the end of 2009.

The Big Ask Video

Pass it around.



The real solution will come from those who replace the "Men in Suits".

The Pandemic vs. The Maunder Minimum

Skeptics of Global Warming (GW) like to point to the Little Ice Age as being caused by the lack of sunspots as evidence of how the sun, more than anything, can affect climate. Covering roughly 400 years and ending around 1650, the Little Ice Age is well documented in studies of glacier advances, ships' logs, and paintings of anomalous winter scenes, among others. Overlapping the Little Ice Age is the Maunder Minimum, a period of decreased sunspot activity that lasted some fifty years, breaking from the traditional 11 year solar cycle. So, hardcore GW deniers will try to convince you that the Maunder Minimum caused the Little Ice Age, explaining that a lack of sunspots means less solar intensity and therefore less heating of the Earth.

While this may be true on its face, they are exaggerating the contribution (or lack thereof) of solar intensity variability with sunspots. And they also conveniently forget that the period of the Little Ice Age was also accompanied by increased volcanic activity which served to veil the Earth in a thin cloud of ash, vastly outweighing the effects of reduced solar activity. Finally, the Maunder Minimum comes at the tail end of the Little Ice Age, so even though it may have contributed in some small way, it certainly did not cause the Little Ice Age.

Now, another contender has entered the arena, vying for its place in history as the cause of the Little Ice Age: the pandemic. Richard Nevle and Dennis Bird of Stanford have examined sediment cores and soil samples dating back 5000 years and noted a precipitous drop in charcoal ash following periods of major pandemics. This indicated a massive decrease in the clearing of forests by burning to create more land for crops. While the population recovered (remember, Europe lost 20-30 million people in the span of six years), abandoned land began to regrow. Whole new forests sprouted, sucking CO2 out of the atmosphere, effectively removing layers from the Earth's thermal blanket. Moreover, their data aligns nearly perfectly (or so they say) with other information (heavy/light carbon isotope ratios) detailing the drop in atmospheric CO2 at the same time.

This is not to say that pandemics are THE cause of the Little Ice Age. Rather, it looks like they are possibly a serious contributor. And, as far as I'm concerned, this holds as much water as the Maunder Minimum correlation. GW deniers have yet to provide a workable theory beyond a few gesticulations as to how the Maunder Minimum could so significantly affect the environment.

See the Standford University News Release for more.

Abiogenesis Is Soooo Boring

Hot ball of gas coalesces and ignites; dust and rocks form planets that settle into their own particular orbits; the planets cool and somewhere in the primordial ooze on the 3rd planet, a chain of molecules starts to replicate.

Yawn.

Physics professors can make this even more boring:

In a recent study called “Why did life emerge?”, two scientists, son and father Arto Annila of the University of Helsinki and Erkki Annila of the Finnish Forest Research Institute, offer some insight into the general driving force of life’s origins in terms of thermodynamics. As they explain, all organisms are composed of molecules that assemble together via numerous chemical reactions. Just as heat flows from hot to cold, these molecules obey the universal tendency to diminish energy differences, so that the most likely chemical reactions are those in which energy flows “downhill” toward a stationary state, or chemical equilibrium.
[...]
“The most important idea in our study is that there is no distinction between animate and inanimate,” Arto Annila told PhysOrg.com. “Processes of life are, in their principles, no different from any other natural processes.”

For obvious reasons, this won't play well with the Intelligent Design cabal. Never mind that no intelligence is involved; more importantly, no excitement is involved. No voice of God (i.e. James Earl Jones) saying "Let there be life", no lightning bolt from a finger tip, no harmony of angels heralding something new...

Can life just be some long, slow, silent segue of natural processes? No drum roll? No Also Sprach Zarathustra?

No wonder people still believe in fairy tale creationism. It has all the human-interest pictures without all the equations. Kind've like comic books.

Spacediving

Very realistic.



(First enjoyed at NASAWatch)

Betty Bowers on Prayer

Witty. "Place palms together...or God won't know what you're doing." I've always wondered about why people do that. But Betty doesn't stop there...

Peter Schiff: Prophet of Doom

Watch the following clip and see Peter Schiff predicting exactly what has come to pass in our economy almost two years before it happened. And watch as other big names laugh at him while claiming that Merryl Lynch was a bargain at $150 in 2007 and that the state of financial stocks back then presented a wonderful buying opportunity. Watch and see Ben Stein be completely wrong on just about everything (predicting, for example, that financial stocks would be much higher in 2008 than they were at the same time in 2007, and that the subprime mortgages were such a small fraction of the economy that they would have no impact whatsoever).



So someone tell me...why do people think Ben Stein is smart? Peter Schiff's analysis was right on target.

(Thanks go to Coby at A Few Things Ill Considered)

A Friend For Thanksgiving

Guitar Hero Robot

Man it would be cool to work at a place like Cyth Systems that pays you to build things like this!



(via Wired)

Fantastically Stupid Over Scientology

Whatever you may think about Scientology, there's no sense in being so stupid you get yourself killed! The story goes that a sword wielding man was shot by a security guard at the Church of Scientology.

Police detained the guard for questioning but said that a surveillance tape at the facility backed his claim that he fired his semiautomatic handgun to protect himself and two colleagues.

"The evidence is very clear the security officers were defending their safety," said Deputy Chief Terry S. Hara of the Los Angeles Police Department. (LA Times)

Apparently this character never saw Indian Jones: The Raiders of the Lost Ark. Anyone remember this scene?

Rancho Cucamonga - Short On Imagination

What's up with the good people and Rancho Cucamonga, CA? The city had one of those Freedom From Religion Foundation billboards taken down after receiving 90 complaints. Are the citizens so insecure in their beliefs that they're afraid of this:



It's not like this is one of those "You'll Burn In Hell" fire n' brimstone billboards. There's no implied threat. There's only outreach for any who need a place to turn to. And is 90 complaints all it takes to get something done in Cucamonga? Well I've got great advice for Cucamongans who want to lower their city taxes!

Seriously...90 complaints. I guess that was enough for City Hall to overcome what little reservations they had about squelching freedom of speech. The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin has the scoop:

Peter Scheer, executive director of the California First Amendment Coalition, said the city's actions are "dangerously close" to censorship and a violation of the First Amendment.

"A city government has no business trying to dictate or influence the content of an advertising image, particularly one that's political and controversial as this is simply because some people don't like it and complained about it," Scheer said. "The whole point of the First Amendment is to protect speech that is unpopular, to protect the views that are in the political minority, as long as they don't cross the line and use the speech for some seriously unlawful purpose, which clearly did not happen here."

I can fairly guess that the number of complaints will rise just a little. I wonder how many it takes to get the billboard put back up and honor one of America's founding principles, Freedom of Speech? Until that happens, I'll consider the Rancho Cucamonga City Hall to be a bunch of close-minded unAmericans with unrejuvenated vaginas. And that's all I have to say about that.

(I hope you read the whole news article otherwise that's not gonna make any sense at all!)

Palin Talks Turkey

Yikes! This is both disturbing and funny. It's like something straight out of The Onion (in fact, the best they could come up with was this).

Not for the faint of heart...unless you like laughing while fainting.

Karolina Kurkova - Umbilicus Minimus

1. How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince's daughter! the joints of thy thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a cunning workman.
2. Thy navel is like a round goblet, which wanteth not liquor: thy belly is like an heap of wheat set about with lilies.
3. Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins.

The Song of Solomon. (It's in the bible)

Too bad for Karolina Kurkova...her navel most definitely wanteth of liquor. Still, her two breasts are indeed like two young roes...I guess.

Kurkova, like Adam and Eve, doesn't really have a belly button. Rather, she has the barest indentations suggesting where the navel should have been. The obvious benefit is she has no need to worry about belly button lint. However, there's a certain sexual appeal to a belly button, the consequences of which she'll never experience. Think of all the men who don't come calling, turned away by her freakish body. She could be a Ginger, but she'll never be a Mary Ann.

Oh, and don't be fooled by some of those magazine spreads showing her with a normal belly button. It's been airbrushed in. Take a gander at the following, and see if you can spot the freak of nature...Umbilicus Minimus.

Michele Bachmann Rewrites History

So you're cruising along to an easy reelection to the House of Representatives, when you suddenly crash into a wall. That's what happened with Michele Bachmann. Remember her? She's the one who said Barack Obama had anti-American tendencies, and that the media should investigate the Congress for any anti-Americans roaming the halls of the Capitol. This happened on TV. We have tape. We have it digitally recorded. It's on YouTube. It's even on my answering machine. Days later, as her competitor raised millions and closed the gap, she denied she ever made these statements. Flat out denied it. Then she said she was tricked into it. Then she said it didn't matter anyway because the people didn't care about the issue. Then she said that Obama wasn't anti-American...but his views were.

Say, I've always wondered how far you could swallow your own foot. Bear with me...because even though Bachmann barely squeaked by in her reelection, she's continuing to swallow.

After Obama won a landslide victory. Michele Bachmann suddenly thought it was prudent to court favor with the new majority, saying that she was "extremely grateful" to see an African-American (i.e. an American) in the White House. Don't be fooled - she still has her foot firmly planted down her gullet. Recently on Hannity and Colmes, when asked about her original comments that set off the firestorm, she claimed that it was all an urban legend.

Amazing how some GOPers are still walking around in a daze, muttering "center right, center right". Some, like Bachmann, apparently can't cope and have developed an alternate reality in their mind where, like Hannibal Lechter, they pace the halls, looking at pictures of Don Rumsfeld and replaying tapes of journalists embedded with the military. Ah...those were the good 'ol days. People were actually afraid of something.

Politically Connected Blogs has the story:

Bachmann’s appearance on the Fox TV show also represented a change in tone from her most recent remarks about Obama. On Nov. 6, two days after the election, Bachmann was quoted in Politico saying she was “extremely grateful that we have an African American who won this year.” Although she supported GOP hopeful John McCain in the presidential election, she told Politico that Obama’s victory was “a tremendous signal we sent.”

Those remarks were widely seen as an attempt to soften her pre-election criticism of Obama, including her remarks on Matthews’ show that the Illinois Democrat “may have anti-American views'’ and that reporters should investigate whether other Democrats may be “anti-America.'’

Reminded of those remarks by Colmes Tuesday night, Bachmann suggested, as she has before, that she was baited and trapped by the media, which created an “urban legend” about what she says she really said.

I'm Too Fishy For My Cat

When American voice recognition technology meets a British accent, hilarity ensues:

Informationweek: Users posting on the Google Mobile Blog have complained that Google's app doesn't understand some British accents, a claim that isn't entirely surprising given the use of English subtitles on certain television shows imported from the United Kingdom to the United States.

"This is fantastic, except for the North American accent bias," wrote someone who identified himself as Edward Parsons. "It actually works pretty well, but I have to disguise my (North London) accent with a terrible folksy Texan tourist voice to get results. I can see this is going to be the source of much amusement and confusion if I continue with the app..."

"Awesome job, Google," wrote someone posting under the name Kevin. "Only problem is every time I say the word 'fish' it registers as 'sex.' "

The NAO Robot

Cute. Still has a long way to go. But it's got the impacted bowel syndrome walk down pretty good.



Wired Mag has the details.

Donald Barrett, Infomercial King, In $54 Million Lawsuit

If you're like many customers who were suckered into buying products based on specious claims made in infomercials, Coral Calcium probably isn't doing you a whole lot of good. "But," you say, "I saw it on TV. It must be true." That's the power of good looking smooth talkers who buy up 30 minutes of late night air time. They're not doing it for your benefit. They don't even know you. But they know your money.

Kevin Trudeau was recently fined $5 million and banned from making infomercials that sold any kind of product and banned from publishing books for three years. The courts found he was a consummate deceiver. And now, his slimy business partner is facing the courts. Donald Barrett may have to return $54 million to his unsuspecting victims for selling Coral Calcium because he deceived customers about its benefits. According to the Boston Herald:

In July, Judge George O’Toole ruled that Barrett’s infomercial on Coral Calcium was deceptive when it promised it would cure cancer, Parkinson’s and heart disease. The judge also found that the advertisement misrepresented research published in the American Medical Association and the New England Journal of Medicine that the calcium supplement “reversed cancer.”

I really don't know how people got suckered in by this clown. The first thing that comes to my mind whenever I see him is Chicago gangster...a character straight out of the early 20th century mafia. His smugness is palpable:

Barrett, who appeared on the witness stand yesterday in a crisp blue cotton shirt and a polka dot tie, was peppered with questions from Hippsley about why income on his tax returns differed from the amount of cash deposited into his bank accounts in Beverly. “I have no idea, you’ll have to ask my accountant,” he said with a grin.

It's about time he's taken down a notch. Here's a smattering of his husterisms. No need to watch the full thing...a minute will give you the idea.

Did God Bring Down The GOP?

God has done some almighty smiting in the past and, given the results of this past presidential election, he/she/it may have just smited the GOP. Over at the Washington Post, Kathleen Parker says what I've been feeling for awhile.

As Republicans sort out the reasons for their defeat, they likely will overlook or dismiss the gorilla in the pulpit.

Three little letters, great big problem: G-O-D. [...]

Simply put: Armband religion is killing the Republican Party. And, the truth -- as long as we're setting ourselves free -- is that if one were to eavesdrop on private conversations among the party intelligentsia, one would hear precisely that.

For whatever reason, right wing conservatives have relied on religion to back their position on abortion and stem cell research. Ultimately, these issues became synonymous with evangelicals and all the silly baggage that comes with. Instead of arguing from purely moral grounds, the GOP has allowed religion to become the gatekeeper for all morality and, subsequently, the de facto spokesman for select causes that sculpt the conservative identity. As Parker notes, the GOP sought to shore up its base to the exclusion of the vast middle. Inherent in this is the assumption that the middle would be swayed by the message of goodness and Godness. How could they not?

Yet more and more, society finds religion to be analogous to nudity - keep it at home, with the doors closed and the curtains drawn. No one wants to see it. Unless it's hot.

Hmmm...I think I just discovered a new moral standard.

Kevin Trudeau Gets A $5 Million Colonic

Multimillionaire infomercial mogul Kevin Trudeau has been fined for all the royalties generated by his book, The Weight Loss Cure They Don't Want You To Know About. That comes to about $5.2 million and it couldn't have happened to a nicer charlatan. Trudeau has a storied past with the law, mostly from the FTC bringing him to court to put an end to his false advertising practices.

In 2004, the FTC fined Trudeau $2 million and banned him from selling anything on the air other than legitimate products.

A Federal Trade Commission settlement with Kevin Trudeau – a prolific marketer who has either appeared in or produced hundreds of infomercials – broadly bans him from appearing in, producing, or disseminating future infomercials that advertise any type of product, service, or program to the public, except for truthful infomercials for informational publications. In addition, Trudeau cannot make disease or health benefits claims for any type of product, service, or program in any advertising, including print, radio, Internet, television, and direct mail solicitations, regardless of the format and duration.

In hindsight, they should have banned him completely. Trudeau was back on the air, but this time he avoided making claims for magic cure-alls. Rather, he said he knew the secret for curing what ails you and all you had to do was go visit his website and buy his book. He's a smooth, convincing talker and many people took the bait. His website turned out to be a teaser. It offered no real useful information up front. For the good stuff, you had to sign in...and you had to pay. And pay. And pay.

In his infomercials, Trudeau claimed that it was easy to lose weight. You could eat whatever you wanted and it didn't involve exercise and it could be done in the comfort of your home. All you had to do was buy his book and follow the procedure he outlined. Only, the procedure wasn't easy. It was a crazy regimen of colonics, injections of human growth hormone (both of which should not be done at home), eating only natural foods (i.e. you couldn't really eat anything you wanted), walking for an hour each day (which is otherwise called exercise), etc. For this, Trudeau was hauled back into court in 2007 for violating his 2004 orders by misrepresenting the contents of his book in informercials. Trudeau lost again and promptly appealed.

In October 2008, the courts upheld the earlier ruling and Trudeau was fined for the amount of royalties on his book and completely banned him from making infomercials and publishing books for three years! From the FTC press release:

In August, Judge Robert W. Gettleman of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois stood by his conclusion in 2007 that Trudeau "clearly, and no doubt intentionally," violated a provision of a 2004 stipulated court order that prohibits Trudeau from misrepresenting the content of books in his infomercials. The judge stated that "the Infomercial[s] falsely and intentionally led thousands (probably hundreds of thousands) of consumers to believe that the Weight Loss Book would describe an 'easy,' 'simple' protocol that, once 'finished' would allow the consumer to 'eat anything' he or she wants."

I don't know if Trudeau has any other legal options to fight this ruling. If he does, I'm sure he'll pursue them. In the meantime, he shouldn't be hurting for money. I'm sure he can find something useful in his latest book, Debt Cures 'They' Don't Want You To Know About.

For more information, see
Casewatch
Consumer Reports
Ridiculous Infomercial Review
WebSupp - for the latest in case law

And finally, whatever you do, don't forget to check out this hard-hitting interview. Your very life may depend on it.

Zap!

The Jeeziest* song ever. It promises to touch you deep inside. Whether it will let go is another matter:



(Wet my pants on this at Ravenscraft)

* = Cheesiest Jesus

Do Not Touch

Click to enlarge - it's pretty funny.


(First laughed at over at Ravenscraft)

The Headline That Wasn't

Did you hear NASA announced that last month was the hottest October on record? No? How about now:

The world has never seen such freezing heat
On Monday, Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), which is run by Al Gore's chief scientific ally, Dr James Hansen, and is one of four bodies responsible for monitoring global temperatures, announced that last month was the hottest October on record.

That was from the opinion pages of The Telegraph, "Britain's No. 1 quality newspaper website". The Investor's Business Daily says in their Editorial/Opinion section:

Cold, Hard Facts
Despite record snows and low temperatures around the world last month, a major Al Gore supporter says October was the hottest on record.

And Barbara Sowell of the Digital Journal piles on:

Another Dagger in the Heart of Global Warming Advocacy
When GISS made the announcement last week it was shocking. All over the world were reports of unseasonal cold temperatures and record snowfalls. Even the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration registered 115 lowest-ever temperatures for the month of October.

Were you shocked by last week's announcement? NASA announcing that "October was the hottest on record" is certainly a headline grabber and I have to admit that I was shocked...shocked that my Google newsfeed didn't pick up on this story. I checked the major news outlets...ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX, etc. I was shocked to find that none of them carried any mention last week of this historical data point in the Global Warming timeline. Of these, only FOX news has posted a quick paragraph on the matter by Britt Hume:

In Hot Water
Last week, NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies — one of the four bodies responsible for monitoring global temperatures used by the United Nations — announced last month was the hottest October on record. That was because the institute's maps showed a 10-degree increase across parts of Russia.

So why didn't responsible news organizations write a story about NASA's announcement? You're not going to believe this but there was no announcement. Christopher Booker, who wrote the original Telegraph article, made it up. Call it a lie, a fantasy, or Booker's dream story...but it never happened. What did happen was that NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) posted an erroneous data point in their monthly tabulation of global temperature data. A glitch or a program error (or whatever) caused large sections of Russian temperature data from September to be carried over into October. That is, their particular data was duplicated, causing the overall global average temperature to be artificially high. The new data point would suggest that last October was indeed the hottest October on record.

NASA did not issue a press release, did not hold a press conference, did not send out news bulletins...they did not even so much as attempt any kind of ballyhoo around this new figure. Understand that James Hansen would practically drool over such a figure because it would, in the midst of our current economic turmoil and the transition of government power, bring the topic of manmade Global Warming back to the fore.

No, the real story here is that NASA's Quality Assurance for checking their data, especially such a notable data point, sucks. The real story is that bloggers found the problem before NASA, that their ever watchful eyes are keeping NASA honest. The real story is that this is the 2nd or 3rd time this has happened. NASA's failure to keep a watchful eye over their data publishing practices only gives fodder to the ideologues who will provide no quarter for NASA scientists. All it takes is a guy like Booker and his David V. Goliath story to spawn headlines like:

• NASA Caught Publishing Phoney-Baloney Global Warming Data
• Inconvenient Truth: Team Gore Global Warming Members Hansen and Pachauri Caught Promoting Bad Data
• Hottest October on record … was really a September
• Global warming numbers get a little help from their friends

With a topic as politically charged and touch sensitive as Global Warming, NASA needs to do a better job in checking their data. Oh, they would have eventually found the error but too late to stave off the PR coup from the GW deniers.

For a more detailed analysis from real scientists, take a look at:

Mountains and Molehills, from Real Climate
GISS Releases (Suspect) October 2008 Data, from John Goetz at Watts Up With That?
and
OK, What Caused The Problem, from the ever watchful Stephen McIntyre, at Climate Audit
Mountains Out Of Molehills, from Tim Lambert of the Deltoid blog

Bible Advisory Notice

Click to enlarge for legibility.

(found at BoredStop)

Wendell, the Wallaby

Wendell the Wallaby has been missing from his owner's home for the past two weeks. The owner is very worried. But a psychic called to say that Wendell was doing just fine.

Saunders said she also got news from a psychic and a medium who called to say Wendell is in good health.

Flash forward a few hours later to see the latest news:

An intrepid wallaby that escaped from its pen at an exotic zoo and went on an 80-kilometer (50-mile) walkabout across eastern Canada was found dead on the side of a road Thursday, zookeepers said.

I guess the psychic meant to say that Wendell's spirit was in good health...the body was another matter.

Karl Rove Still Trying To Do Math?

Karl Rove is once again trying his hand at mathematics. In his most recent Wall Street Journal opinion piece, Rove pulls out his crystal ball and his slide rule to predict the outcome of the 2010 election. Obviously, he really wants to get past 2008 election cycle in a big way and look to the future, which he sees as sprinkled with honeypots of GOP victory.

History Favors Republicans in 2010 - The 2008 Election Numbers are not as Stark as the Results
First, the predicted huge turnout surge didn't happen. The final tally is likely to show that fewer than 128.5 million people voted. That's up marginally from 122 million in 2004. But 17 million more people voted in 2004 than in 2000 (three times the change from 2004 to 2008).

Second, a substantial victory was won by modest improvement in the Democratic share of the vote. Barack Obama received 2.1 points more in the popular vote than President Bush received in 2004, 3.1 points more than Vice President Al Gore in 2000, and 4.6 points more than John Kerry in 2004. In raw numbers, the latest tally shows that Mr. Obama received 66.1 million votes, about 7.1 million more than Mr. Kerry.

It is to be expected that Republicans will want to spin the democrat victory as best they can, in this case by minimizing the results and avoiding discussion about the many counties that turned from red to blue. In most of the United States, the blue component got larger, while red went down. The New York Times has an excellent slide show on this electoral shift.

So, it's no surprise that Rove is spinning. But you should also know that Rove's prowess with math and forecasting leaves a lot to be desired. It didn't take a psychic to predict that the 2006 elections would swing largely to the left. The polls were telling everyone what to expect. Yet days before the election, Rove kept predicting a GOP win. When asked about the polls, he said he had his own polling data not available to the general public. I.e. his crystal ball was special. According to an interview with NPR:

KARL ROVE: I see several things; first, unlike the general public, I'm allowed to see the polls on the individual races and after all this does come down to individual contests between individual candidates. Second of all, I see the individual spending reports and contribution reports. For example at the end of August in 30 of the most competitive races in the country, the house races, the Republicans had 33 million cash on hand and Democrats had just over 14 million.

[...]

SIEGEL: We are in the home stretch though and many would consider you on the optimistic end of realism about...

ROVE: Not that you would exhibit a bias, you just making a comment.

SIEGEL: I'm looking at all the same polls that you are looking at.

ROVE: No, you are not. I'm looking at 68 polls a week for candidates for the US House and US Senate, and Governor and you may be looking at 4-5 public polls a week that talk attitudes nationally.

SIEGEL: I don't want to have you to call races...

ROVE: I'm looking at all of these Robert and adding them up. I add up to a Republican Senate and Republican House. You may end up with a different math but you are entitled to your math and I'm entitled to THE math.

SIEGEL: I don't know if we're entitled to a different math but your...

ROVE: I said THE math.

We KNOW how the 2006 elections turned out. Bush called it "a thumpin'". And now Rove is using math again...excuse me, THE math...to say what's going to happen in 2010. Haughty arrogance is a hallmark of the Bush administration officials like Karl Rove. In fact, arrogance is a defining characteristic of the modern conservative, even in the face of overwhelming defeat. But as demonstrated by Rove, arrogance does not give you through math class.

Priest Debunks Intelligent Design

The arguments aren't new but the credentials of the person making them are important. Groups like the Discovery Institute will often trot out a "former atheist turned Christian" to help them advance their waning cause, as if that lends weight to their side. Their problem is they are trying to make a scientific case for design over evolution, so what matters most is the science...which they have none to support their case. In the following article, former priest Francisco Ayala shows that not only does intelligent design not fit the mold of good science, it is also an insult to God because ID (if it were true) would mean that God is a hopeless incompetent in the field of engineering.

As an example of the unintelligent design of living organisms, Francisco Ayala points to the human birth canal, which is small enough to make childbirth difficult, and the human jaw, which often comes with crooked teeth or wisdom teeth which must be removed.

“Our jaw is not big enough for our teeth,” said Ayala, who gave up his collar for the classroom of the University of California at Irvine. “Any engineer who would design a jaw big enough for its teeth would be fired.”

Attributing this design to God would be accusing God of incompetence, he said in a lecture this week at Northwestern University's Alice Millar Chapel. Instead, the situation could be easily explained by natural selection.

The Evolution of the 2008 Election

(First glimpsed at Evolutionary Novelties)

Dolphin Bubble Rings

This is really cool. I want to be a dolphin when I grow up.

That One

(found at Intuitive Insights)

Who Could Have Predicted?

Reaching back a year, I came across this statement for John Cainer's Psychic Museum in the U.K. that had just failed as a business:

After numerous attempts to make the Psychic Museum work as I had always envisaged it, I have reluctantly reached the conclusion that it is never going to happen until or unless I can dedicate a lot more of my personal time and energy.

I guess no one bothered to take that "negative margins, zero profits, rising debt" message from the crystal ball seriously.

God how I love the smell of psychic irony in the winter.

John Hinderacker's Amazing Alternate Reality

Sometimes reality is what you make of it. Other times, it depends on what you're smoking. So what the hell is John Hinderacker smoking?

Obama thinks he is a good talker, but he is often undisciplined when he speaks. He needs to understand that as President, his words will be scrutinized and will have impact whether he intends it or not. In this regard, President Bush is an excellent model; Obama should take a lesson from his example. Bush never gets sloppy when he is speaking publicly. He chooses his words with care and precision, which is why his style sometimes seems halting. In the eight years he has been President, it is remarkable how few gaffes or verbal blunders he has committed. If Obama doesn't raise his standards, he will exceed Bush's total before he is inaugurated.

(first noticed at TPM)

Transitioning: Old vs. New

On June 25, 2001, President Bush nominated John H. Marburger III to the position of Director of the Office of Science and Technology. Colloquially, Marburger was the president's science advisor and he wasn't even confirmed until October 2001. This came nine months after Bush was sworn into office. It spoke volumes on where Bush stood on the importance of science in his administration, and the past eight years has shown that science took a backseat to policy in nearly every area.

President-elect Obama is currently undergoing the transition process. Although the individual nominated for the position is much more important than when that nomination occurs, having a science advisor in place before inauguration will send a signal on the importance of science and technology in the new president's agenda.

A Partly Successful Election Prediction

Jeffrey S. Palmer's election prediction for 2008 says

The Obama / McCain presidential race will be a very close one similar to Gore / Bush. Obama will win the presidential election by a narrow margin.

So he apparently got it half-right. Obama did win the election, but he did so by a landslide and not by a "narrow margin". However, on the same website, Palmer provides his 2008 election prediction that he made in November 2006. What were his keen senses telling him then?

I feel that there is a very strong likelihood of Rudolph Giuliani running for and subsequently winning the US presidential election in 2008. Giuliani will begin campaigning in early 2007. Senator John McCain may chosen as Vice President.

Hmmm...do you get the feeling that there's really nothing to psychic predictions other than guesswork?

Preparing For A Failed Prediction.

Barbara Soblewski Garcia says she is a professional ESP consultant. She makes nebulous predictions that often lack enough specificity to call them wrong. Thus, she can claim they are successful hits. For example, she predicts that we will discover a new planet. Now that we've developed new techniques to measure the variations in the brightness of stars as well as to detect their perturbations, we've been discovering scores of new planets each year. So her prediction is a high probability hit.

In 1999, she predicted that a woman will be president by 2015. Of course, we have to wait another 7 years to check that prediction, but she's already prepared for a failure. In December 2007, she wrote (with emphasis added):

Election years have always been exciting years for Americans. I am expecting to see many twists and turns in the upcoming elections before the Republicans give way to our new Democrat leader. There will be events in the world that leave us wondering if we will even have an election. Back in the year 1999 I had stated in my forecast, "in the first fifteen years of the new millennium a woman will be named President of the United States" Psychic predictions are not fixed and can be altered. We can certainly alter this one! The candidates all look promising and wow check out who Oprah is supporting- how cool is that!

Psychic predictions are not fixed and can be altered? How convenient for the psychic. That how you build in job security. What would be the basis for altering a prediction? New facts coming to light? If so, then she's saying predictions can be changed based on observation, which amounts to making a new prediction. But if you make predictions based on observation then you start doing something I like to call: SCIENCE.

Ms. Garcia is no psychic. She simply uses the powers of observation that we all have and selects the most likely outcome, all the while leaving herself an out by changing her selection as necessary to fit the latest data. That's both shrewd and uncouth. I predict she'll keep on doing it.

Tears of the NeoCon

(found nestled among the prose at What Would Jack Do? and Stupid Evil Bastard)

More Psychic Failures

From January 1, 2008, Pernel Dove and Flash Silvermoon took a guess at who will become the next president of the United States. But since they have really really bad new-age names, they called it a prediction instead of a guess. As you can see, they are "psychics" who are also ignorant of future events.

According to Dove's annual predictions, Hilary Clinton will "without a doubt" be elected president.

The answers are in the former First Lady's energy and aura, Dove explained.

She exudes ambition, she said.

Silvermoon, astrologer and author of the Wise Woman's Tarot, agreed that America will inaugurate a woman president this year but based her prediction on a "drastic energy shift" caused by the former planet Pluto.

As Pluto switches signs from Capricorn to Sagittarius people will notice change on a personal and global scale, Silvermoon said.

She picked John McCain as the Republican candidate and predicted that write-in votes for Ron Paul will make the race especially close.

Seances, Astrology...What's The Diff?

Barack Obama held his first post-election press conference yesterday. When asked about help he's received during the transition process, he noted that he'd received good advice from all living presidents. Then he said something a little odd: "I didn't want to get into a Nancy Reagan thing about doing any seances."

It was supposed to be a little joke but it fell flat. For one, although seances have been held in the White House, it wasn't by Nancy Reagan. She consulted with astrologers. So, in one of the few public gaffes by Obama this year, he got the woo wrong. It was also disrespectful to Nancy Reagan and the difficult time she went through as her husband slowly faded away. Obama must have been feeling his oats that day and he eventually called to apologize to Mrs. Reagan.

Too late, the right wing found the one chink in his armor: Obama doesn't know his woo.

How did we ever elect a guy like that to the most powerful position in the world?

Psychic John Le Sainte Full Of Le Crap

Dateline May 29, 2008. John Le Sainte, purported psychic, confirmed douche, claims to be the one true heir to the gifts of Nostradamus. As he says, "Each Night, Nostradamus Visits my Dreams and guides me into the future as he had done 5 centuries earlier." On May 29, Le Douche gave birth to this:

6-17
October, the Virgo Candidate falls Ill,
Cain is not Able, Artery cause is believed.
Populace Revolts exerts dangerous will,
Many will believe that they are Deceived.

Le DumDum's explanation/interpretation is

John McCain will take ill about 9 days before the elections are to be held. He had been running behind in the polls and not expected to win. The timing of John McCain's sudden illness could not have been worse. The True Soul and Spirit of Nostradamus had shown me this vision about 16 months ago.

After campaigning night and day right until the upcoming Presidential Elections, John McCain will begin to seem especially tired and confused. It is only described as "Campaign Fatigue" to the press, until he collapses at a gathering on live television. He is rushed to the hospital and no "Official" word of his condition is given for over 24 hours. Rumors "leaked" to the press by McCain staffers, were that he had had a mild stroke and was recovering nicely. However, this will not be the case at all.

After this, Bush is supposed to have suspended elections, caused an uproar, mob violence, cats and dogs coexisting peacefully...

Sigh. All out of pathos. How about a cup of indifference?

Psychic Nikki Flubs Election Prediction

Psychic Nikki, the self-proclaimed "Psychic to the Stars", predicted

As for the presidential election, Nikki said she sees John Edwards in the White House after Sen. Hillary Clinton drops out of the race due to health problems.

Wrong wrong wrong. Nikki must be one of the worst psychics in history. She makes tons of predictions, gets most of them wrong, yet she still has her followers and she still makes a living at being wrong. It boggles the mind.

Elizabeth Joyce - Two Levels of Ignorance

What's sillier than a psychic who makes failed predictions? How about a Right Wing psychic that makes failed predictions. That's two levels of ignorance. One sure tell you're dealing with a nutcase is how long they rant for. When I posted about her failed presidential prediction earlier, I completely missed her posting of Oct. 26, 2008. She goes on an on about how McCain will still become president, writing with venom and hate. She predicts Obama might be assassinated (yeah...she's speaking as a psychic and her predictions are about what might come to pass. Ain't that called speculation?) Here's a sampling of her tripe:

Barack Obama is scheduled to win this election, after a very tough battle. If that occurs, he may never take office. He could be stopped in his tracks. Then Joe Biden would come into office with Hillary Clinton (possibly) coming in as Vice President.

If Barack wins and does not get assassinated, then within six months something will happen on a world wide scale (perhaps a nuclear exchange) that will bring America to her knees. We shall all weep at our great mistake and wonder why we ever voted for “the man who Oprah sponsored.” (No one will ever admit to voting for Obama when this all washes down!)

Then she speaks about McCain as if he's the one pure cowboy that will come to rescue us, standing in the saddle. Finally, she signs off with

This website has no political motivation whatsoever; it’s all and only about predictions and the sake of guiding and helping others: I predict at this stage that John McCain will be U.S. President by late 2008.

And she says Palin will be VP in 2009. You know what? I bet there are some crazies out there who believe this stuff. That's what I find to be really worrisome. We've already seen the brazenly certifiables at the McCain rallies. There's likely to be more than a few of them who feel they have their own personal mandate for change.

Obama's Not President Yet

And he may never be. Why? Because Mercury and Jupiter are in opposition and, given his birth date, that's bad juju.

Elizabeth Joyce Fumbles Her Election Prediction

Elizabeth Joyce says she was born with the authentic gift of psychic ability. She claims her readings are accurate and (no surprise) has a web page full of testimonials. Here's an example of her accuracy from a prediction she made back in Jan, 2008:

For sure…my psychic sense sees that a woman will occupy the White House as vice president as a result of the 2008 election, but not president. It’s just not Hillary’s time yet, as I have psychic stated for the past three years.
[...]
My psychic sense tells me that not only will a woman become the nation’s first Vice President at the 2008 election, but she will be sworn in as president when the male president is forced to step down due to serious health issues or worse. I have also psychically stated that we will have a one-term president in 2008.

We have to ask...did Joe Biden release ALL of his medical records, or is he holding back on us?

So, what about those testimonials then? Turns out, they're as accurate as Joyce:

When I saw the news item yesterday on the Internet about Hillary agreeing to accept the Vice Presidency, I thought of you. I remembered what you said, and everything is starting to fall into place just like you wrote. It looks like Obama will be President for a short time (just long enough to make a lot of mistakes & get people wishing Hillary was President), and then it will happen.

I'm tempted to say that Elizabeth Joyce is a fake psychic, but that would imply there are such things as real psychics. Perhaps shyster is a better word. Or fraud, charlatan, pettifogger, imposture. But I like shyster best. It's derived from the German scheisser, literally meaning defecator.

Epic Election Prediction Fails

A sampling from a great list of failed election predictions, proving these noteworthy folks are every bit as good as the best psychics. See the full list at Salon.

Nov. 6, 2008 | Bill Kristol, "Fox News Sunday" -- Dec. 17, 2006

"If [Hillary Clinton] gets a race against John Edwards and Barack Obama, she's going to be the nominee. Gore is the only threat to her ... Barack Obama is not going to beat Hillary Clinton in a single democratic primary. I'll predict that right now."

Ann Coulter, "Hannity & Colmes" on Fox News -- Dec. 20, 2007

"I think it's probably going to be Romney for the Republicans, Hillary for the Democrats."

Rudy Giuliani, MSNBC's "Road to the White House" -- Aug. 6, 2008

"And when you look at the serious questions that face us, whether it's energy or the economy, or the war on terror, I think John McCain's experience ends up being something that will win the race for him."

Tom Ridge, CNN -- Oct. 28, 2008

"I believe we need to prevail in Pennsylvania for John to win. And I think we will … I think John made an excellent choice. I've been with Gov. Palin. I've seen her energize the crowds. I know how the Republican Party and the base feels about her. John wasn't looking for a candidate to help in one state, he was looking for a candidate to help in all 50. I think he found that running mate."

Dick Morris

Morris released a book in October 2005 titled "Condi vs. Hillary: The Next Great Presidential Race."

Believerz R 2 EZ

I just came across this comment in response to a skeptical remark about Psychic Sam who supposedly predicted Obama's win...

It is too bad that many people live inside a vacuum. If they cannot actually see something with their eyes, it doesn't exist. Do you inhale oxygen each and every day? Can you see it? Prove that it exists. I rest my case. Thank you Sam for your predictions.

This person has a point. And it's lodged in their hippocampus.

Ugh...Another CNN "Hologram"

CNN is boasting with another so-called "hologram", this time with musician/producer Will.I.Am. Again, it's interesting, cool technology with a lot of potential, but it is NOT a hologram. CNN is latching on to a flashy word for marketing purposes, but in so doing, they're confusing the public as to what a hologram really is. The closest I can find to the technology being used is called Free Viewpoint Television. It's very similar to the Bullet Time effect used in The Matrix series of movies. However, while Bullet Time was used for slow motion action, FTV is process in real time.



The following, though not a true hologram, gives you an idea of what's involved in making a hologram. More info can be found here.



Holograms Drawn by Hand - video powered by Metacafe

You Can't Find The Fire If You Don't See The Smoke

Many on the right refused to see the smoke that was roiling before all America. Thankfully, cooler heads prevailed.



(Found at Wonkette)

Smug For A Day

After eight years of Bush, it feels good.