Category Archives: Entertainment

Creativity, distraction, and impatience

  By TurboFool | October 31, 2010 - 1:11 pm | Books, Fiction, Humor
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Occasionally I’m clever. Problem is it’s mostly spontaneous, short, and rarely useful. If I set out to do something clever or be clever I’m pretty much doomed to failure. But occasionally I stumble upon it.

A few years back (at least five) there was a post on the IGN Boards Vestibule (shudder) to post something completely nonsensical. I posted the following, which I wrote on the spot:

The earth really is flat, carried on the back of an octupus (of average size). The sun, which is also flat, actually revolves around the earth, flipping over at a rate of 1 googol per second. The moon (which, strangely enough, is round) is actually attached to the octupus by a giant string, and the octopus is using it as a yo-yo, but extremely slowly. The other planets are mostly illusions projected by the octopus’ older psychic brother, “sid” (not capitalized). The exception is Pluto which is, ironically, the home of Goofy, but, also ironically, this Goofy cannot talk. The planet, however, speaks in a thick, southern drawl.

Short, sweet, and arguably clever. I certainly thought so at the time, and elements of it capture my attention now. But what bugs me more is that I can rarely repeat anything of even this level, much less the exceptionally better writings that I’d love to create. Creativity astounds me, fascinates me, and earns my deepest respect. People who are creative fill me with awe, and I enjoy just basking in their existence. But inevitably I’m also left to some degree of jealousy, or at least envy.

I think my problem may simply be that I’m easily distracted and relatively impatient. I’m a perfectionist, and the catch with us is that if we can’t do something perfectly, we tend not to bother at all. When I start attempting to be creative and find myself not producing something up to my standards immediately, I walk away from it. What I completely ignore is that real authors, artists, etc. take weeks, months, or years to perfect their works, and I can only presume they all start with rough works that can’t possibly be up to their own standards. The problem is that knowing this doesn’t seem to help me. It doesn’t seem to put me on the right path. And worst of all, it doesn’t give me the idea with which to start. Perhaps that’s all I need is the kernel from which to work and I’ll have what I need.

Mmm… popcorn…

IIG 10th Anniversary Party recap

  By TurboFool | August 23, 2010 - 10:28 am | Entertainment, Free Thought, Science, Skepticism, Television
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Saturday night was the party and awards ceremony celebrating the Independent Investigations Group‘s 10th anniversary.

The party consisted of food, drinks, cake, chatter, wonderful special guests, and awards. Some of the guests included well-known heavyweights like Michael Shermer and Brian Dunning, as well as friend/colleague/lord Brian Dalton (Mr. Deity), and esteemed experts such as Carol Tavris, Harriet Hall and Eugenie Scott. This list were all presented with awards from the IIG for their achievements in promoting science, skepticism, and critical thinking.

Also awarded that evening for their achievements and assistance within the IIG were fellow members Wendy Hughes, Dave Richards, and Ross Blocher. Wendy and Dave each have brought to the IIG some of its biggest and most valuable investigations throughout its history, and Ross has pulled excessive all-nighters in redesigning the group’s web site, designing brochures and business cards, and more.

Also awarded were staff from the productions of Eureka and The Mentalist. While both could be said to play a little loose with factual science (especially the former), BOTH shows promote science and critical thinking heavily as forces for good, progress, and solving problems. They cast these topics in a positive light and help the viewers see just what we can accomplish when we focus on these topics. These two shows received the IIG’s special new SurlyRamics trophy designed by Amy Roth of Skepchick, which was truly beautiful and unique to our group.

The ceremony went smoothly and kept the attention of the crowd of over 100 people, many of whom were visiting the CFI or an IIG event for the first time, and all of whom seemed to leave with an extremely positive impression of our group and what we can achieve with little more than dedication and volunteer efforts.

I think it’s clear that after this weekend the IIG can expect to continue to steadily climb in its influence on critical thinking and skepticism. We’re branching out with affiliates across the country, and our own group has major efforts underway including our in-depth Power Balance investigation plans, The Odds Must Be Crazy web site, further efforts into the California Board of Registered Nurses reform, and much more that we’re not yet ready to talk about.

TAM8 left me with a lot of pride for the IIG’s place in the grand scheme and the respect we garnered from the community, but Saturday’s ceremony cemented it. Our impact cannot be questioned, and our support and success are all but assured if we keep up this pace.

Thanks to anyone who showed up to the event, as well as those who watched live on Ustream, where the event can still be viewed. Your interest and enthusiasm meant the world to us.

Here’s to another great year!

NOTE: This was written via the WordPress app on my Android phone. As such it’s tricky to verify spelling and create appropriate links right now. When I have time to edit from a computer I’ll review it and correct these issues.

EDIT: I’ve now gone ahead and made my adjustments including links and spelling verifications. Should be in better shape now.

http://www.skeptic.com/

Fuck the Motherfucker (sorry)

  By TurboFool | April 29, 2010 - 9:36 pm | Atheism, Humor, Religion, Video
1 Comment

This song is full of profanity, and it’s likely to piss off a lot of people, potentially including people I know and love dearly. I apologize to them in advance, but I do not, can not, and will not apologize for the content or meaning of the song which I, instead, support with every inch of my being. It’s full of profanity (hence my title), and so is my follow-up. Easily offended? Leave now.

Tim Minchin’s one of my favorite musicians and comedians. He’s funny and honest (which tend to go hand in hand) and has no problem calling an idiot an idiot, and we need more of that. In this case he doesn’t hold back one bit, and I thank him for that.

I don’t respect this authority figure just because a bunch of other supposed authority figures got together and voted that he was the guy who should be the leader of their church. I know as a non-Catholic I can’t possibly understand what it’s like, and how important he is, and how infallible he’s supposed to be. He’s a motherfucker who covered up for and protected child-fuckers. Children were RAPED by men who they and their parents TRUSTED, who they were supposed to trust more than anyone else by the very design of the motherfucking organization, and this trust was violated. And then, when the motherfuckers who violated their trust and bodies were called out on it, even bigger motherfuckers like the current Pope (then a a Cardinal) protected them from prosecution and hid their motherfucking crimes.

So no, I don’t understand your church, and I don’t understand why you feel the need to protect this man when you’d be crying for blood if a cop or a judge or the mayor either fucked your kid or covered up for someone who did. I’m sorry I don’t understand it and I’m sorry I never, ever fucking will. There is no damn bloody excuse for this no matter who this man thinks he is, has been told he is, or has been divinely inspired to be that allows for this.

And in the off chance that I’m fucking wrong, and he is divine, and this is all part of the plan, well you know what? Fuck the motherfucking plan, too. Yes, I’m an atheist, and contrary to what people who can’t comprehend atheism believe, no that doesn’t mean I hate your god, or that I’m angry at him. It means I simply do not believe he exists. None of your evidence has managed to convince me so far. But just for a moment suppose you managed to do the trick. You managed to find the evidence, display the miracles, push the boundaries and prove to me that, holy shit, it’s all true. If the religion you reveal to me to be reality happens to be one in which motherfuckers like this are RIGHT and JUST in their actions, and your god condones this evil prick’s actions, you’ll only have managed to convince me of your first opinion. Because that’s a god I could hate, loathe, revile, detest, and vow my life against. That’s a sick, twisted deity, and one that doesn’t fit your descriptions of a loving, just god. At that point I’d be more interested in taking my chances with the devil.

Ignorant Clown Posse

  By TurboFool | April 18, 2010 - 9:50 pm | Entertainment, Humor, Music, Nature, Science, Television, Video
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So these videos have been flooding the skeptical community lately, but the latest parody from SNL brought it to the forefront for me again and I thought it was time to post these videos for myself. They’re both just too good, in very different ways, not to pass along.

First off, we have this, er, gem from ICP. Comments to immediately follow…



Courtesy of Skepchick

Okay, so let’s get the obvious out of the way first: holy fucking shit are these guys dumb. Listen, I have nothing against ICP. I also have nothing for ICP. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard their music before, but I know they have a huge, fanatical following, and I can only guess this is due to some level of talent. Heck, they seem to be able to put together a mildly catchy beat and rhyme words in this song, so I’ll give them that.

What they’re apparently incapable of is any level of truly intelligent thought. In this case they’ve decided to take all the majesty of the universe (and kudos to them for appreciating it) and boil it all down to magic. They go through a long list of random (and sometimes truly peculiar) elements of our world, and ascribe them to magic and miracles, as opposed to crediting them to everything we know they actually are. They also throw in UFOs, which is even more random, what with the lack of compelling evidence for their existence and all. Then again, they seem to have no interest in or respect for evidence.

See, according to Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope, see they don’t want to talk to a scientist (it’s unclear if this is only on the subject of how magnets work, or on everything), because “y’all motherfuckers be lyin’, and gettin’ [him] pissed.” Apparently their definition of “lying” includes telling the truth based on cold, hard facts and evidence. Magic and miracles to them are the only truth, and anyone who bothers to explain it is clearly a “motherfucker” and is just trying to confuse their feeble minds. How deeply, deeply sad.

I strongly suggest you check out Rebecca Watson’s beautiful shredding of this video by theorizing a world in which one of these two Clowns isn’t a clueless dipshit and actually answers the other one’s questions intelligently. It’s hilarious and easy to understand, and manages to prove how badly people like these two “musicians” have been screwed by education in this country.

Now the new video that touched off my desire to blog about this one is SNL’s completely brilliant parody. Yes, yes, SNL’s been hit-or-miss over recent years, and I won’t argue that. But occasionally they hit the nail right on the head, as they did here:



Courtesy of Skepchick (which includes the YouTube version for those outside the US, for as long as it stays up

The sad part is, the parody is not THAT much stupider than the actual video. Almost any of what went into SNL’s version could have been slipped into the original unnoticed. Their definitions of magic and miracles had THAT low of a threshold, that I wouldn’t have been surprised if clocks landed on their list.

Anyway, as funny as this all is, and damn is it funny, it’s just another wake-up call that if two people like this can manage to escape education on the simplest levels of science, our country needs a lot of help. Schools need to promote science at a much higher level than they are now, and the scientific METHOD most of all, so our future voters and leaders understand that science isn’t just a collection of opinions, but a technique for finding truth. As long as it’s believed to be an ideology, which it most certainly is NOT, it’s too easy for fools like this to consider it an optional opinion and dismiss it. And when they’ve got as many followers as they do, they influence a lot of minds to believe the same clueless garbage. Looks like it’s time to get to work, folks.

Oh, and for those viewing the auto-repost of this on Facebook, click the View Original Post link at the bottom of the Note to see this on my actual blog, with the embedded videos intact. Facebook doesn’t display them.

EDIT: Further courtesy of Skepchick, and specifically the comments, we have these gems:

Free Willy–wait, that’s not right…

  By TurboFool | March 29, 2010 - 10:02 pm | Books, Free Thought, Humor, Nature, Science
2 Comments

I’ve seen this image before, but it popped up in my RSS reader again today, and I just had to share it.

It’s a sad and scary truth…

(image courtesy of Crooked Timber)

EDIT: Luke from LukeSurl.com has commented below and come forward as the source of this great image. Check it out on its original page, along with his other great work, here.

“Still Alive” – Children’s Chorus Cover

  By TurboFool | March 29, 2010 - 6:36 pm | Electronics, Entertainment, Humor, Internet, Music, Software, Video, Video Games
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All right, so I’m a geek. This is well known, and nothing I hide. Still, there are moments my geekdom sinks (or soars?) to new levels. This is one of them. Below you’ll find a video I literally teared up over, and no it’s nothing remotely sad. I’m just a big frakkin’ geek, and hearing a kids’ chorus beautifully cover the incredible Jonathan Coulton end-credit song to Portal (one of the few games I not only beat, but have replayed after doing so) was a bit too much for me.

So sit back and enjoy. If you’re not a geek or haven’t played the game, you may not get this, but it’s still funny listening to these kids performing the lyrics, and much funnier if you understand them. It’s one of the most wittily-written games ever, and the song plays so well into it.

Rationality – Now in hip-hop form

  By TurboFool | March 25, 2010 - 9:43 pm | Free Thought, Internet, Music, Religion, Science, Skepticism, Video
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There’s really not much I can say to do this video justice that isn’t done by the video itself. Well-produced, fantastic animation, and good, clear messages. Glad to see the skeptical community is growing to encompass ALL forms, including people who can produce music like this:

The skeptical, rational, freethinking movement is growing at a ridiculous pace, and is unstoppable. The differences being made every day are more and more powerful and real, and the frauds out to make a dime on the unwitting public’s lack of knowledge are having to work harder than ever to skate past us. We’re on the case, and we’re not resting anymore. If you make your living off of lies and deception, you’d better start watching your back, because I can assure you, we’ve got you in our sights.