Monthly Archives: January 2011

If you keep telling them to bring guns, they will eventually start shooting.

UPDATE (7:50pm Central):

There has been a lot of confusion in details, partly because of the usual blinding incompetence of anyone major news networks deem worthy of putting in front of a camera, partly because the press conference at a hospital will not cover information about those transported to other hospitals or directly to a morgue, and partly because of the high tolerance of those delivering and watching the news to inaccuracy. There is really no other reason for the basic facts to be so incorrect for so long at a highly secured crime scene.

Anyway, the following appears to be pretty accurate, though the exact number wounded remains a bit of a guess.

Suspected Shooter: Jared Lee Loughner
Second Suspected Suspect: Unidentified white male
Weapon: 9mm Glock Model 19 handgun with a 30-round magazine

Killed (6):

-John Roll, 63, a federal district court judge.
-Gabriel Zimmerman, 30, Giffords’ director of community outreach
-Dorwin Stoddard, 76, a pastor at Mountain Ave. Church of Christ.
-Christina Greene, 9, a student at Mesa Verde Elementary
-Dorothy Morris, 76
-Phyllis Schneck, 79

Wounded:
1) U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Arizona
2-14) Unidentified UPDATED: two more than yesterday claimed to be wounded


UPDATE: Giffords is out of surgery but in critical condition. Six were killed. Some information about the shooter is becoming available: Jared Lee Loughner. He had a YouTube channel (see quote below) clearly indicating a very disturbed individual with leanings pretty much as one might expect.

Reporters are, right or wrong (who knows?) using the phrase “bullet through the brain” in relation to Gifford’s injuries. ADDED: The doctor at the hospital news conference states he is optimistic about the outcome. He states that the bullet went through and through, through her brain. He also mentioned that the one dead is a child (9 yrs old). (The number of dead, as usual, fluctuates up and down. Judge John Roll is also dead.)

From HuffPo:

Sarah Palin has posted a statement on Facebook in response to the Arizona shooting involving Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

Palin writes:

“My sincere condolences are offered to the family of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the other victims of today’s tragic shooting in Arizona.

On behalf of Todd and my family, we all pray for the victims and their families, and for peace and justice.”

There is no evidence at this time that the shooting of Giffords was politically motivated, but it’s grimly ironic that the candidate appeared on a map of House Democrats “targeted” by Palin in 2010.

The map controversially used actual target markers on locations these Democrats lived and listed their names.

back to the original post…


We don’t know if this is Michel Bachmann’s Teabaggers shooting Democrats yet, but there are perfectly valid reasons to consider that possibility while investigating the horrific events unfolding as we speak in Arizona.

Representative Gabrielle Giffords, third term Democrat, has been shot in the head, and may or may not have died as of this writing, and several other shot and some killed, at an event in Tuscon.

Giffords, who was re-elected to a third term in November, was hosting a “Congress on Your Corner” event at a Safeway in northwest Tucson when a gunman ran up and started shooting, according to Peter Michaels, news director of Arizona Public Media.

The suspect fired indiscriminately from about four feet away, Michaels said. A congressional official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity that the gunman was using an automatic weapon.

The suspect ran off and was tackled by a bystander. He was taken into custody. Witnesses described him as in his late teens or early 20s. Federal, state and local law enforcement authorities in Arizona are investigating the shooting.

Remember that the Congresswoman’s office was attacked violently by teabaggers during the election.

Anybody know anything else yet?

House Speaker John Boner made a statement about being horrified. Perhaps he should just shut up.

UPDATE: Final words on the shooter’s final video on his YouTube account:]

“In conclusion, reading the second United States Constitution, I can’t trust the current government because of the ratification: the government is implying mind control and brainwash on the people by controllin grammar.

No! I won’t pay debt… with a currency that’s not backed by gold and silver!

No! I won’t trust in God!”

Here’s one of his videos:

Just who are you, anyway? Personas.

I don’t often point people to online game-like interactive thingies, but this one has my endorsement. Give yourself a few minutes to watch the process. It can be gruesome:

Personas is a component of the Metropath(ologies) exhibit, recently on display at the MIT Museum by the Sociable Media Group from the MIT Media Lab (Please contact us if you want to show it next!). It uses sophisticated natural language processing and the Internet to create a data portrait of one’s aggregated online identity. In short, Personas shows you how the Internet sees you.


Click here to get started.

If it is not gruesome enough for you, enter my name, you’ll be shocked.

Hint: If using a small screen, a) run this in its own firefox window, and b) use F11 to maximize the screen if requested by the application. Then, when it’s done, you’ll have to close the window with brute force because F11 probably won’t work from within the flash display that will have filled the screen. So Alt-F4 or Alt-Tab your way out of there.

Good luck.

Hat Tip: Joe

Why are all the birds dying?

Over the last few days, there have been several reports of mass die-offs of birds, and one report of a fish die-off. These events have been linked, via suggestion but not evidence, to hail, lightning, fireworks, aircraft, aliens, each other, poison gases, and even pockets of oxygen free air. Many have suggested that there may be a cover up. What is the explanation for so many highly unlikely events happening in such a short time period?

The answer may astound you:
Continue reading Why are all the birds dying?

A Creationist Blog Quote Mines Peer Reviewed Research about Protein Evolution

ResearchBlogging.orgIt is difficult to imagine how point mutations, a large number of which are neutral, a certain number of which are deleterious, and a tiny number of which are fitness-enhancing, can add up to the sorts of evolutionary diversity and adaptive elegance we see in real life. However, there are only two possible explanations for what we see in nature: 1) Evolution happened more or less as we think it did or 2) God created life and made it look exactly like evolution happened. Take your pick. I’m betting on number 1.
Continue reading A Creationist Blog Quote Mines Peer Reviewed Research about Protein Evolution

Is being armed the best way to thwart an armed robbery?

This was just across the river from me:

It looks like this may have stopped a local crime wave of armed robberies in the area. More inf here.

In contrast, when this couple was burglarized, there was nothing they could have done to stop it:

A 28-year-old man is facing burglary charges after police say he stole items from the home of an elderly couple who had recently passed away.

Jason Williams, of Newport, Minn., is accused of stealing jewelry, a box of photo lockets of WWI-era pictures and two watches with the couple’s initials engraved in them on New Year’s Eve. Police say the estimated value of the jewelry is more than $1,000.

Note: He was caught despite the best efforts of the residents to ignore him!

More posts on Gun Ownership here.

Will your gun help you in the case of a home invasion?

Statistics and various studies show that yes, it might, but they also show that having a gun in the home is also potentially very dangerous, so the net aggregate outcome (and economists have strong armed us into thinking that net aggregate outcomes are the only criteria that are acceptable, bless their pointy heads) of having a gun in the home is that someone in your home is more likely to be shot and possibly killed than that the gun will be used to thwart a home invasion.

But enough about facts, let’s look at two very current anecdotal cases and argue about them for a while:
Continue reading Will your gun help you in the case of a home invasion?

Dead Birds

In the renowned yet obscure documentary, “Dead Birds,” watchful men in a traditional community in Highland Papua New Guinea use the sudden flight of birds as a clue to the possible encroachment of a hidden enemy bent on blood revenge. In mines, canaries signal air too poisoned to breath by dying faster than affected humans. And in Arkansas, apparently, the sudden death of thousands of blackbirds are used to indicate the nefarious activities of aliens from another planet.

Continue reading Dead Birds

Miscellaneous

Enjoy this recent post on “How does one prove astrology?”

…The meat of Curtis’ comment appears to be a way to test astrology, or at least one aspect of it. My problem with the suggestion is the same that I’ve had with the concept of astrology as a whole — it depends on a foundation that is simply not there.

Have you ever been to Zzyzx Road, in the Mojave Desert? Carr2d2 has an excellent post on early 20th century woo and politics: Adventures of the Mind.

2010 space odyssey never did happen. But it’s not too late to engage in the conversation. You just have to know how to talk like Hal: Affirmative, Dave. I read you.

This Week’s Skeptically Speaking looks especially interesting: Your Baby’s Brain.

We’ll discuss the science of parenting with Dr. John Medina. His book Brain Rules For Baby examines some of the most basic things that science understands about the developing brain, and provides helpful strategies for encouraging your child’s development. What effect does TV really have on the infant mind? And how does a child’s happiness influence her intelligence? And to start off the episode, Geek Dad contributor Jason Cranford Teague speaks to us about science, technology and parenting.

And finally, Can Hurricanes Trigger Earthquakes? Quite possibly indirectly.

The Kiss

I went out with a friend. We were both between relationships, and we both knew somehow that this was a date though it was never called a date. And we had a perfectly good time: Good food, good conversation, good drinks. She drove.

When it came time to go home, she drove me to my house in my urban neighborhood and parked on the street near my house. As we were saying our good-byes, she enigmatically unhooked her seat belt. I wondered why. Then, I discovered that she wanted the freedom of movement to lean across the console and give me a kiss. It was a good kiss. It was actually a series of good kisses, and it went on for a while.

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And suddenly, there was a loud rapping on the window of the car. We stopped kissing and that’s when we noticed that we had steamed up the windows a bit. So I cracked the window on which the rapping had occurred and there was a police man staring in with his flashlight.
Continue reading The Kiss