ABCNEWS.com : Survey: Majority Believe in ‘Pseudos…

ABCNEWS.com : Survey: Majority Believe in ‘Pseudoscience’

Imagine. What with the constant drumming of specials touting pseudoscientic claims on the major networks, people start to believe this garbage — who would have thunk it? (I’ll give ABC credit; they are by far the least likely of the big four to play to the crystals-and-aliens crowd.) Or when the foundations of modern biology are suppressed from being taught in schools by religious zealots, that only a little more half of those surveyed believed that humans evolved from other animals?

When sixty percent of American “adults” believe in ESP, there’s a problem. But hey, over half knew that the Earth takes a year to orbit the sun! (We won’t get into the complexities of that right now.) And almost half knew that humans and dinosaurs didn’t coexist! Now, that’s progress!

UPDATE: Laurence at File 13 has the list of questions for the survey.

Boston.com / Latest News / Business / ABC network …

Boston.com / Latest News / Business / ABC network President Steve Bornstein resigns

Bornstein is leaving the troubled network ”to pursue other interests,” according to a statement released by Disney.

Uh-huh. The fact that ABC has had, arguably, the worst season any major network has ever had probably has nothing to do with it. Really, they need a new phrase. Everybody always leaves to either “pursue other interests” or “spend more time with their families”. And everyone knows what that means.

U.S. Indicts Colombian Terror Group (washingtonpos…

U.S. Indicts Colombian Terror Group (washingtonpost.com)

First, the article insinuates that the indictments are only because terror suspects thus far have all been Muslims. Leaving aside that it wasn’t Colombians or Irishmen or Basques who killed 3000 Americans, I prefer to give even John Ashcroft the benefit of the doubt here. There is no doubt that FARC is a terror organization and needs to be shut down; the claims that the administration is “muddying its message” are foolish when you consider that the administration has always called the present conflict a war on terror generally.

Second, I like saying “FARC”. FARC, FARC, FARC, FARC!

Singer Died in Idyllic Setting Where She Sought Ne…

Singer Died in Idyllic Setting Where She Sought New Life

Maybe it was growing up in the eighties, but “Central America” and “Idyllic” don’t associate in my mind. But Lisa Lopes apparently had no problem with it. On the other hand, she was an insane, drunken, pyromaniac, rapper, so she probably had different standards.

BIF Naked U.S. Alleges Islamic Charity Has Bin …

BIF Naked

U.S. Alleges Islamic Charity Has Bin Laden Ties (washingtonpost.com)

An affidavit filed with the complaint said that Benevolence International Foundation’s executive director, Enaam M. Arnaout, has had a relationship with terrorist leader Osama bin Laden “and many of his key associates dating back more than a decade.”

Hey, guess where BIF founder Adil Abdul Galil Betargy is from! I’ll give you a hint: It’s the same place as ObL, and one of its leaders was just visiting the President in Crawford!

Tapped, The American Prospect’s blog, finally has …

Tapped, The American Prospect’s blog, finally has a permanent url. It gets a permalink… Little Sanity hasn’t been updated in three weeks, no word why, so it goes into the lost file. Hawkgirl gets a promotion from the NIT. And I’m almost out of space down there so need a new system, I think.

You can’t spell "Barlow" without A-W-O-L Ted Ba…

You can’t spell “Barlow” without A-W-O-L

Ted Barlow is back after a week or so off (I am sorry about Chris, Ted) and he is on a roll.

The Miami Herald | 04/30/2002 | Gov. Bush attends …

The Miami Herald | 04/30/2002 | Gov. Bush attends drug summit, cries over daughter’s arrest

“Waaaah! This isn’t supposed to happen to us! I’m rich!”

CNN.com – Farrakhan banned from Britain – April 30…

CNN.com – Farrakhan banned from Britain – April 30, 2002

I don’t know how I feel about this, other than thinking I prefer Farrakhan to be as far away from me as possible. Generally, I think it’s a troubling example of Britain’s problems with free speech. Farrakhan is hateful, but he shouldn’t be banned.

Groening may pull plug on The Simpsons The Simps…

Groening may pull plug on The Simpsons

The Simpsons: is this the beginning of the end?

Actually, Matt Groening said “we are closer to winding it up”, which technically has to be true, doesn’t it? I mean, barring time travel, every day brings you closer to the end.

Groening is bitter about what he sees as poor treatment of “Futurama”, which he was more involved with these days anyway. I thought “Futurama” was OK, but it was an SF parody more than anything; I couldn’t see it enjoying a broad audience for an extended period, and it was too expensive for a niche show.