Planet of the Apes is a documentary … apparently!!

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While waiting to catch a flight this morning, I surfed through a few Facebook groups to see what was cooking. There is one I’m in that can be quite entertaining at times. Now, if you think that there is nobody on the planet loonier than the batshit crazy Christian fundamentalists, well you would be wrong, because the Islamic folks can offer up even crazier stuff. (Its almost akin to watching a car crash at times).

One chap  arguing against evolution proposed that it was crazy to even consider the possibility that we had evolved from apes, and offered as evidence the suggestion that folks should go watch “Planet of the Apes”. …<thud> … Yes, indeed, that sound you just heard consisted of many jaws hitting the floor. There is so much in that thought that is so out of whack with reality that what he was saying was not just ‘wrong’. Normally you can perhaps suggest that we did not evolve from apes, but rather that we and the apes share a common ancestor … but for fracks sake, where can you even begin when faced with somebody who thinks “Planet of the Apes” is akin to a documentary.

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Grieving Mother Loses $20 Million to ‘Psychics’

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I came across this utterly tragic story of loss and the hideous manner in which some truly unscrupulous psychics leveraged a human tragedy to enrich themselves.

I first found out about this from an article that Brandon K. Thorp wrote here in Gawker on 20th Aug where he writes …

Leaks in the Fort Lauderdale police department claim the best-selling author of Days of Gold, A Knight In Shining Armor, [Jude Deveraux] and almost 40 other works of literacha paid some $20 million to the Marks clan, a notorious family of fortune-tellers and occultists, to secure supernatural aid for her deceased son. The boy died at the age of eight in a motorcycle crash. Allegedly, a “psychic” told Ms. Deveraux that her son was trapped “somewhere between heaven and hell.”

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Somebody at USA Today has lost the plot and has a go at Richard Dawkins

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There is a rather strange article in US Today here that claims …

How is raging atheist Richard Dawkins “celebrating” World Youth Day? While Pope Benedict blesses a million youth in Madrid, Dawkins is promoting the latest event of the “Secular Europe” campaign, launched in 2008, to attack Vatican influence.

“Raging” … seriously!!! He refuses to go along with their silly supernatural claims, spells out the facts and gets labeled “Raging” for doing so.

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Nobody wants to talk to William Lane Craig and he is crying about it

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William Lane Craig, the American Evangelical Christian apologist, wants a public debate during his UK visit. However, the problem he faces is that nobody wants to, (You can see where this is going), so he is claiming that the atheists are scared.

Sigh! …

This month president of the British Humanist Association, Polly Toynbee, pulled out of an agreed debate at London’s Westminster Central Hall in October, saying she “hadn’t realized the nature of Mr. Lane Craig’s debating style.” (thats a polite way of saying that he is a complete kook and really likes babbling mangled pseudoscience).

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Mabus in court – charged with 16 counts.

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It has finally happened … the story just out (from here) is … The Montreal man who had been wanted by police for allegedly making online death threats against people all over the world appeared in court on Friday to face 16 charges. Known online as “David Mabus”, Dennis Markuze of St. Laurent has been … Read more

Massive copyright lawsuits – not a great idea

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I must confess, I truly do fail to understand why the entertainment industry embarked upon a campaign of massive copyright lawsuits against their own customers. There is a great deal to be said about all this, and also the obvious observation that technology has greatly disrupted their business model, but in what universe is suing your customers a good response.

There is much that could also be said about the concept of copyright itself. I do indeed understand the driving force. The originator of a work needs to be able to retain the rights to that work. Preserving income is desirable, and ensure that we can continue to receive a stream of future works … but then the industry appears to have lost the plot – exactly how many new works do we honestly expect John Lennon to produce by preserving the copyright of all he did?

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