Patriotism in action (or, Biggotts iz fick, pt. $BIGNUM)

by Feòrag

United Kingdom: SF author Liz Williams also runs a brace of occult shops in Glastonbury and, like many people, is interested in the recent leak of a British National Party (most of whom would have been more comfortable on the other side during WWII) membership list.

Following the leaked BNP list, I acquired a virtual pair of tongs and a face mask and took a look at the BNP's website. It is, not surprisingly, the usual vacuous presentation of some fairly sensible (in theory) policies with, as far as I could see, very little said about actual implementation....

One of these issues was that of buying British. Now, even anticipating the beat of jackboots down Glastonbury High St, this is something I can get behind - we support a lot of local craft people in the shops, but we can't exclusively buy British goods because of cost effectiveness. But there is already quite a lot of very good stuff out there, being made by woodworkers and metalworkers in the UK, and so I perused Excalibur, which is the BNP's online shop....

And lo! A lot of the stuff they sell, especially the Celtic things, is not just like the stuff we sell - it *is* the stuff we sell.

It's made in China.

And more dumb—Liz Willams' Journal, 20th November 2008.

Tags: bampots, British National Party, racism, United Kingdom

Darwin Award nominee of the day

by Feòrag

England: A Portsmouth man has died after his imaginary friend told him not to seek treatment for a minor injury to his foot.

Russell Jenkins injured his left foot treading on an electrical plug at his home.

The wound later became infected, but the 52-year-old shunned conventional treatment, saying his 'inner being' told him not to go to hospital.

Instead he tried treating it with honey, an ancient remedy for the treatment of infected wounds.

He refused treatment even when an enormous ulcer developed.

Healer dies after failing to treat a foot wound—The News, 17th November 2009.

Tags: darwin

Expensive police investigation turns up nothing

by Feòrag

Jersey: To those familiar with the "satanic panic" of the late 1980s and early 1990s, the investigation into allegations of child murder at the Haut de la Garenne children's home on Jersey bore a stark familiarity. Today, police released a statement that there were no murders committed at the home, and that evidence they had previously released was inaccurate.

They said there was no evidence that any children had been murdered or bodies destroyed at the former home. ...

The Deputy Chief Officer, David Warcup, expressed much regret at misleading information released by his predecessor on items found at the property.

Detectives said only three of the bone fragments found could be human, and two of these were hundreds of years old.

'No child murders' in Jersey home—BBC News, 12th November 2009.

Tags: child abuse, Haut de la Garenne, Jersey

Bargain of the Day: Kitty-chan died for your sins

by Feòrag

The amount of Hello Kitty religious tat on the market is not limited to the unofficial, it seems. For example, here is a Hello Kitty Cross Rosary pendant for sale on a Japanese Sanrio web site. The cross is about 3.0 x 3.2 cm in size and is made of sterling silver with a rhodium finish. Four cubic zirconia stones are placed in the centre of the flowers. It comes with a 50cm chain, and costs a mere ¥9,800 (approximately £45).

But that's not all. Look what Hello Kitty Hell found: a blinged out Hello Kitty cross, with diamante everywhere and a Kitty head that swings in front. No news on whether it sings Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, but it ought to.

But Kitty's for everyone, not just Christians. Again, unlikely to be official product is this Hello Kitty yarmulke:

Tags: Christianity, Hello Kitty, Judaism, religion

What passes for sane in some parts of the world

by Feòrag

United States: A 20-year-old male student has been expelled from an adult education college after he poured liquid over his English Literature teacher and threatened her with a lighter and a cigarette. He accused her of being a witch.

Darin Najor of Ferndale is charged with assault and battery, a 93-day misdemeanor in the Sept. 11 incident at Taft Educational Center where he attends adult education classes, Ferndale Police Lt. William Wilson said today. The students had been reading Arthur Miller's The Crucible regarding the Salem witch trials.

This apparently occurred after a class discussion on witchcraft, and what people used to do with witches, said Wilson. After one class, he asked his teacher if she believed in witchcraft and what was done, and she said no. The next thing she knew, he came up behind her and poured some liquid on her out of a bottle and ignited a cigarette lighter, as if he was going to light her on fire.

According to another report, Najor allegedly told police that he was trying to kill her by pouring holy water over her. More detail about the incident is given, suggesting that Najor was inspired by his Christian faith:

Najor asked the teacher if she believed in witchcraft, police said. The teacher told him she did not believe in witchcraft and explained that the events in the play were a metaphor for unjust persecution, police said.

The suspect threw his homework papers on the floor and declared it was all blasphemy, Denmark said. The next day he came up behind her chanting what sounded like religious verses while she was working at her desk.

Najor was briefly detained in a psychiatric hospital, but has now been charged with assault and battery.

Student accuses Ferndale teacher of being a witch and tries to set her on fire—The Detroit News, 8th October 2008; Man accused of assaulting 'witch' at Taft—Daily Tribune, 8th October 2008.

Tags: bampots, Christianity, religion, United States

Bargain of the Day: Hail Kitty full of grace

by Feòrag

Our local Chinese supermarket sells Hello Kitty stickers. Today I picked up some that I suspect are definitely not Sanrio official licensed product. Even though I don't read Portuguese, the slogans didn't look right. Indeed, they looked Prattleworthy, so I spent an extra quid and then used Google Translate to check the slogans. And what did I get?

• Let Sign That You Call That Came To Be The Son Of God!
• The love of Jesus and for all!
• Open your heart too!
• Much Life!
• Come on!

Tags: Christianity, Hello Kitty, Portuguese, religion

Just a quickie

by Feòrag

From Failblog, and entitled Good News Fail:

Creationism in Northern Ireland

by Feòrag

Northern Ireland: In these days of peace building, the DUP (a.k.a. Ian Paisley's lot) have mostly been presenting themselves as a respectable political party committed to the peace process. But, it seems, they still have a lunatic fringe, including one that is campaigning for creationism to be taught in Northern Irish schools.

Tags: creationism, DUP, Northern Ireland, religion

Moving House

by Feòrag

I might as well just repeat what Charlie has to say, as the Prattle is moving in the very same move, and the effects will be identical:

The time has come to move servers.

(This one is so ancient it's trying to figure out who to vote for.)

Some time in the next 24-48 hours I will switch off comments globally on this blog, so that we can mirror the database over onto the new machine. The blog will still be visible — just read-only for a few days.

I'm currently running on an old version of Movable Type. One of the benefits of the move is a chance to do some spring cleaning, and in due course I will be upgrading to a much newer MT installation (and merging the other MT installation hosted on the old server, so we've only got one piece of blogging software to maintain).

When it's all up and running again, comment posting will be re-enabled. (And it had better be sorted before October 5th, because that's when the old server goes away.)

(Our email set-up at antipope.org will also be interrupted; nothing will be lost, but mail delivery may take a bit longer than usual while the DNS records are changed.)

We now return you to your regular but soon-to-be-interrupted discussion ...

Creationism updates.

by Feòrag

United Kingdom: A Royal Society representative who, in his official capacity, appeared to support the teaching of creationism in science classes has resigned.

The had issued a clarification suggesting Reiss meant when young people ask questions about creationism in science classes, teachers need to be able to explain to them why evolution and the Big Bang are scientific theories but they should also take the time to explain how science works and why creationism has no scientific basis. It was felt that the whole affair, misinterpretation or not, had diminished the reputation of the Society.

Meanwhile, Ken MacLeod has found an extremely interesting 'science' site—one where there is no doubt as to the creationist sympathies of its author. Check out the chemistry lesson Ken picked out for us.

'Creationism' biologist quits job—BBC News, 16th September 2008.

Tags: bampots, creationism, Ken MacLeod, Royal Society, United Kingdom

Bargain of the Day: pretty glass shapes

by Feòrag

I'm not exactly sure what BioGenesis is, but it looks pretty. The website isn't exactly helpful, either.

BioGenesis is the Birth of Creation. We instill the remembrance of the Process of Creation into a glass, and that glass radiates, or re-educates, its environment with the memory of the Process of Creation. Restoring the memory of this Process within an individual or object creates a living system—it becomes living matter. While this ancient technology has not been on Earth since the days of Atlantis, Ascended Masters recently re-introduced this effective energy to the World....

BioGenesis creates harmony. Harmony is structured quite simply, quite effectively, by strengthening the inherent qualities of a region. And, this is accomplished by enlivening the sequence of Initial Rotations. This is BioGenesis.

The energy placed in the glass items is Genesis™ Energy, an energy which, although many millions of years old, has not been on Earth since the days of Atlantis. Ascended Masters have recently re-introduced this Energy to Earth.

The site includes full list of products, with brief descriptions of what they allegedly do.

The Flame of Genesis directs and focuses the Light of Genesis. It supports the healing of physical traumas, degenerative conditions and diseases, non-functioning organs and many more conditions.

And there is the obligatory piece of patriotic religious tat:

The Bell of Genesis is used to ring Victory over America, to protect America and to protect your home.

Tags: newage

Satanic game of the day

by Feòrag

Apparently, the game Spore is evil, but not because of the intrusive DRM that punishes legitimate purchasers of the game. It's because it's part of a War on Creationism! The creator of the site explains where she got her insanity - it's hereditary.

(via hahathor)

Tags: bampots, Christianity, creationism, religion, Spore

Science expert calls for the discussion of pseudoscience

by Feòrag

United Kingdom: The Royal Society's Director of Education thinks that discussing pseudoscientific bollocks in science lessons will interest children in science.

The Rev Prof Michael Reiss, director of education at the Royal Society, said that excluding alternatives to scientific explanations for the origin of life and the universe from science lessons was counterproductive and would alienate some children from science altogether.

He said that around one in 10 children comes from a family with creationist beliefs. My experience after having tried to teach biology for 20 years is if one simply gives the impression that such children are wrong, then they are not likely to learn much about the science, he said.

I think he'll find that more children come from households where astrology is treated as credible, but I don't see him calling for that to be taught. Reiss, it turns out, is an ordained minister. The Guardian quickly found a couple of actual working scientists to point out his folly, both suggesting that religious studies classes were a more appropriate place to be discussing religion:

Science lessons are not the appropriate place to discuss creationism, which is a world view in total denial of any form of scientific evidence, said Dr John Fry, a physicist at the University of Liverpool.

He said challenging evolution scientifically was appropriate in school science classes. But he added: Creationism doesn't challenge science, it denies it.

Personally, I think if we want to interest children in science, we should show them episodes of Mythbusters., especially the ones where they blow stuff up. If you want to be really scientific, you can show the ones where they re-visit myths as a result of criticism. Ideally with large explosions.

Teachers should tackle creationism, says science education expert—The Guardian, 11th Spetember 2008.