Trolls who post under several names get banned. No questions, no appeals.
RJB
This Week in Conspiracy (3 July 2011)
July 2, 2011I’ve been a little busy recently, by which I mean really a whole lot busy and how. Hey, serving the New World Order isn’t easy! You try it!
Best headline of the Week:
“Richard Gage Talk at Royal Institute of British Architects Ignites Firestorm“: Royal Institute of British Architects collapses symmetrically into its own footprint at free-fall speed. Thermite suspected.
Before It’s News invents a flag for a state called “Jew England.”
At ATS, “A Test to Show You Have a Weak Mind.” You pass (that is, fail) it by writing the test.
Conspiracist cult leader may face fine in Australia. I like Australia.
Conspiracy theorists often fear technology. Canada Free Press apparently thinks a “smart grid” is “SkyNet.”
The Truth movement vastly overestimates its importance: “Mankind’s future is dependent on our understanding that 9/11 was a false flag event committed by a small faction of criminal traitors who control the governments of America, Israel, and England.”
Conspiracy theories kill: South Africans who believe AIDS was engineered less likely to use condoms.
Here’s a new one. Anthony Weiner secretly converted to Islam. Tweets dick-pics. From Salon.
David Aaronovich was at the London Richard Gage event (or at least for a stop on it) and met an old friend.
Post hoc, ergo propter hoc fallacy redefined. Just because the federal government offers to buy (repeatedly) flooded land does not mean that they flooded it in order to get it cheap. You ass.
You know, I have found a lot of antisemitism in the 9/11 Truth community lately. I wasn’t expecting that. Perhaps as the movement has waned only the really fantasy prone have stuck with it?
FLIR images used to debunk 9/11 commission and NIST, detect ghosts.
Jon Stewart calls out conspiracy mongering on FOX. Because it’s hard?
O NOES! TSA screeners are getting cancer from the naked body scans. Implausible on so many levels including the fact it is impossible to establish this type of causality without a controlled study.
30,000 barrels of plutonium on the wall, 30,000 barrels of plutonium…a false flag nuclear operation?
Dean Haglund’s The Truth Is Out There has premiered.
Is George Soros stacking the courts? By explicitly encouraging lawyers to be able to pick judges based on merit? Explain how that works again.
UPDATE! AAAAAAAH NONONO! This is an old version of this post! The one I spent my evening typing up is gone! GONE! So, you will have to settle. However, if you come up with any good theories, please feel free to post them in the comments. Damn it.
RJB
19 Comments | 
conspiracy theory, fun, mass media, Uncategorized | 
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Posted by Bob
Eve’s Skepticamp Presentation: The Mythical Origins of Dirty Words
July 2, 2011Me again.
A few weekends ago, Eve delivered a talk at Skepticamp Atlanta about cunts, shit, fucking, and shit-fucking cunts.
The Mythical Origins of Naughty Words from Atlanta Skeptics on Vimeo.
Not safe for work. Though it is completely appropriate if your work is a daycare or a church or if you are at a McDonalds.
RJB
3 Comments | derp, fun, humanities, language/linguistics | Permalink
Posted by Bob
Here’s a ripe little slice of hell from the Atlantic
July 2, 2011It’s called, “The Triumph of New Age Medicine,” and it makes my blood boil. There’s a lot of hippy bullshit at the bottom of the page as well as some biting comments from skeptics. Some ding-dong in the comments actually suggests that doctors should not be licensed! And these people vote.
Enjoy, if you are able.
RJB
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Posted by Bob
I was on the radio…
July 1, 2011
See? Me at a radio station.
I wasn’t sure where the conversation was going to end up exactly, but we ended up talking about pseudoscience and research fakery. If you want to hear it, the show was Lost in the Stacks. You can go to that page and click on the play button under the show to hear the interview.
We talked a little about conspiracy theories and I SLAMMMMMMM the 9/11 Truthers. (Just kidding….or am I?)
The audio will be available for a week only. They play copyrighted music on the show, so they can’t make it available indefinitely.
RJB
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Posted by Bob
I’m going to be on the radio tomorrow…
June 30, 2011I’m going to be on the show “Lost in the Stacks” on WREK radio, 91.1 in Atlanta. I think that I will be on at noon, or during the noon hour, for a 15-minute interview about information ethics and (probably) conspiracy theories. I need to see how the interviews ahead of me pan out before I start shooting off my talker, since I’m not exactly sure how they are defining the issue of “information ethics.” But what the hell? I’m game for anything.
RJB
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My visit to the TruthCon…in video form!
June 30, 2011Tim Farley, or as I like to think of him, Novellatron 2.0, has created a vimeo site for the Atlanta Skepticamp. Below is the talk-version of my Skeptical Inquirer article:
All They Want is the Truth: TruthCon 2011 from Atlanta Skeptics on Vimeo.
If you want to see the vids as they appear (a couple hundred MB at a time), visit the site!
Check out Tim’s whatstheharm.net, an invaluable skeptical resource. More coming soon!
RJB
1 Comment | conspiracy theory, derp, fun, paranormal, psychology, science, science writing/reporting | Permalink
Posted by Bob
Sneak preview of things to come…
June 23, 2011A month ago, I sat down with Richard Gage at a local 9/11 Truth conference. The organizers of the event put up the video of that interview today. Here is part one of three. You can find the other ones for yourself, if you are so interested.
The wearechange.org site is pretty interesting:
The interviewer, Bob J. Blaskiewickz [sic] teaches a course on “conspiracy theory” and “pseudoscience” at the Georgia Tech Institute of Technology [sic]. Though he has been challenged to feature one of the 1,500 + Architects and Engineers in either a live or Skyped debate of the evidence he has declined to test his knowledge in front of his students with any of the 1,500+ experts. Gee, I wonder why…. Perhaps it is because if he were to attempt to defend the thoroughly discredited “official” conspiracy theory of the US government in a debate with a representative from Ae911Truth.org, that he would be exposed completely, as having little to no knowledge or understanding of the forensic evidence that he presumes to debunk in his classes.
To his credit he did behave in this interview, though many of his questions were simply reciting long discredited arguments from fellow pseudo debunkers, such as Ryan Mackey or Jonathan Kay. It remains to be seen whether or not any of the incredible forensic evidence that is brought forward in this interview or in the subsequent presentation of “Blueprint for Truth: The Architecture of Destruction” will ever find a way into any of the “Skeptical” Inquirer’s media catalog of magazines, podcasts, and videos online.
Apparently, I’m a complete bastard, but you don’t see it here. I did in fact invite a 9/11 Truther to my class, which works well enough for me. I’m pretty sure I told him that, but that’s fine.
The funny thing is that I turned in an 8,000-word article last week to Skeptical Inquirer, which will be edited down to 3,000. So, not every word can possibly be printed, but I will include a link in the edited version to this interview. You’re welcome. I just didn’t want anyone to think they had shamed me into including parts of this evidence–it is the bulk of the article I already submitted. I behave even when I’m not being filmed.
Enjoy!
RJB
64 Comments | conspiracy theory, derp | Permalink
Posted by Bob
The 4:00 AM conspiracy!
June 23, 2011Rives uncovers the truth about 4:00 in the morning in his TED talk.
RJB
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Posted by Bob
Eve at Skepticamp: The Origins of the Seven Dirty Words You Can’t Say on TV
June 22, 2011Last weekend, Eve gave her talk about the origins of a dirty words. Her journey into the seedy side of etymology was prompted by a number of glaring mistakes she encountered on skeptical sites. Her exact words, I think, were, “FUCK!”
Here is the video, which is the size of a house (a 314MB .m4v).
You can also listen to the mp3 podcast version, which is more hamster-sized.
This talk is explicit and NSFW, but it’s totally ok to listen to it in front of children, especially strangers’ children.
And a special thanks to Mark Ditzler at Abrupt Media for putting these together.
RJB
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Posted by Bob
Skeptical Humanities 