Link debunking the hoaxes and misleading posts about the nationwide police brutality protests (Non-fiction)

During breaking major events, rumors and hoxes seem to abound.  This week’s nationwide protests against the death of George Floyd and police brutality are no exception.  Here are some fact-checking sites debunking some of the misinformation:

  • BuzzFeed is updating this article as they get more information
  • These are the Snopes articles tagged “George Floyd”
  • Factcheck.org featured some of their articles in this post

I’m sure there will be many more hoaxes and “fake news” surrounding these protests.  These sites may not deal with all of them.  So as a good rule, remember that if a meme, post, or article seems to fit your views too perfectly, you might want to take a closer look before spreading it.

‘The Girl Survives Cancer In This One’ is more than the ending (Non-Fiction)

Miri over the Orbit just published a zine, The Girl Survives Cancer In This One.  It’s a collection of essays about being diagnosed with cancer at age 26 and her recovery from a double mastectomy.

The Girl Survives Cancer In This One

Cancer digs an immense well of sadness and suffering, but that’s not what these pieces are primarily about. I had some of my happiest, funniest, and most enriching times that year, too. All of that is part of the story as much as the pain is.

Compiled from her writings during her recovery, she vividly describes her pain management, her fears,  the people who helped her through recovery, and her observations about life.  The title is a spoiler, but the real story is how “the girl” survived cancer and how it changed her.  I highly recommend this zine.

The online version is $4, and the paperback version is $8.

How and Why (Non-fiction)

After the Tree of Life synagogue shooting, I saw this blog post by Rabbi Adam Shalom, Rabbi for Kol Hadash and the Dean of North America for the International Institue for Secular Humanistic Judaism from 2013:

This time, however, it’s just the wrong question. When tragedy happens, there is no why, no cosmic reason behind personal pain. Tragedy happens because life is not a script with a happy ending. Gravity and plate tectonics do not care about one’s moral worth. Humanity should care, and should strive to counteract the indifference of the universe. But that will still not answer the “why.”

…

To respond to the immediate need, however, we need a more direct approach. We can honestly respond to another’s grief with, “We’ll probably never know” (which is true), or even more powerfully, “We can be supportive by our presence.”

When I decided that I no longer believed in a God, I stopped looking at the events around the world as part of God’s game.  Terrible things happen not because we angered a god, but because the universe is not sentient.  So I agree with Rabbi Shalom’s more significant point that there is no ultimiate reason why these specific people were murdered.

That said, we are not entirely at the mercy of an uncaring universe.  We can stand up to anti-Semitism and bigotry in general.  We can work to vote out politicians who pander to hate groups.  We can work to strengthen gun laws.  Our actions may not eliminate mass murders, but we can try to limit their frequency.

 

 

Hurricane Relief Links (Non-Fiction)

If you’re looking for charities to donate to following Hurricane Irma, Vox has a list of charities.

The article also brings up some good points regarding donations:

  • Do your own research before giving to any group.

  • Groups with strong local ties to their community can sometimes be the best option.

  • You have a right to demand accountability of the groups you give to.

As a reminder, Foundation Beyond Belief is still raising funds for Hurricane Harvey recovery efforts.

From the webmaster:  Eclipse sparks Flat Earth debate (Mixed)

The folks over at the Philly Voice were kind enough to host dueling comments between Flat Earth believers and people who know better.

An illustration of the alternative “Pond Earth Theory.”

From the Flat Earth side:

Rahu and Ketu in Vedic astrology are considered mythology by western astronomy. Rahu is the head of the serpent and Ketu is the body. In mythology, during an eclipse, they thought the head swallowed the sun.

We have to have something rise that causes eclipses in the flat-earth model. We think it’s not necessarily caused by the moon, though it could be.

From a skeptic:

Meanwhile, over a Flat Earth, you can have a small, local sun, overtaking a small, local moon (both moving to the West above the plane of the flat Earth) and the shadow will move West to East. That’s their argument, in a nutshell, and many FE folks are very, very excited about this eclipse because it will prove them right!

The truth is that the case of the eclipse shadow is dependent on linear speed (such as miles per hour) and not angular speed. How fast will the umbra travel? The units of miles per hour require us to do some math with those units.

So if you take the Earth’s rotational surface speed (roughly 1,000 mph at the Equator, more like 800 mph in Philly), and the Moon’s orbital speed (roughly 2,000 mph, eastward), this means the shadow will move faster than the Earth’s surface, to the East.

Personally, I think Phil Plait posted the best explanation back in 1998:

There is an unambiguous effect, though, of the curved Earth, which brings me back to my vacation. My parents live in Sarasota, which is about 1600 kilometers south of where I live near Washington DC. This is equal to about 1/30 of the way around the Earth, or 12 degrees. When I am at home and go out to look at Polaris, the North Star, it is about 40 degrees above the horizon. If I lived at the North Pole, it would be 90 degrees above the horizon, or straight up. However, when I visit my parents, I travel south, and so Polaris appears lower. Much lower, 12 degrees worth! That is very noticeable to the naked eye. On the other hand, stars towards the south appear to be much higher in the sky when I am in Florida. Last year I could clearly see Canopus (the second brightest nighttime star in the sky) to the South, but it never gets high enough to see from my house.

If the Earth were flat, we’d never see this effect. If the Earth were a disk we’d only see it if we traveled along the edge, and not the face. Therefore we must live on a curved Earth, a big ball in space (as a matter of fact, this effect can even be used to determine the circumference of the Earth!).

From the webmaster: Chicagoland responds to Charlottesville (Mixed)

By Wendy Onofrey
Webmaster

I think I can speak for the staff when we say that we are shocked by the violence and act of domestic terrorism that happened in Charlottesville, VA.  I wish I could say that this was the work of Nazi’s from space, chemtrails, or a “false flag” operation.  The truth is that this was the work of humans.  Aliens also won’t save us from ourselves.  We have to work to bring about change.

These are the following events we are aware of in the Chicago area.

Refuse Fascism will gather at Millennium Park at 1 PM today, then march to Trump Tower.

The Chicago chapter of the International Socialist Organization will gather at the corner of Wacker and Wabash, across from Trump Tower, at 1 PM.

The organizers of the Illinois Women’s March will hold a vigil at 6 PM at Federal Plaza, 219 S Dearborn, ST.

There will be a gathering in front of Rep. Peter Roskam’s office in Barrington starting at 6 PM.  The address is 200 N Hough ST.  The organizer asks that all signs have a positive message.

Additionally, there is a GoFund me page to pay for the medial expenses of the 19 people injured by the car attack.

If you know of any other events or support pages, please let us know.

From the Webmaster: Maybe Milo and skepticism shouldn’t mix?

By Wendy Onofrey

Webmaster for the Bolingbrook Babbler

For some reason, Skeptic decided to post a review of Milo Yiannopoulos’s new book Dangerous.  Let’s just say that if Michael Shermer’s Moral Arc bends towards Milo, then count the staff of the Babbler out.

PZ Myers rightly condemns this favorable review.

Of course, this ‘review’ cites all the usual crap: Christina Hoff Sommers, there is no such thing as rape culture, except that when there is it comes from Islam, the police are the greatest defenders of the black community, and of course, political correctness, identity politics, and cultural Marxism. It’s a totally mindless recitation of the nonsense you get on Reddit and in YouTube comments.

Even Hayley Stevens has problems with the review and what its publication says about the skeptical movement.

Something like skepticism, as an approach to assessing claims and being proactive about tackling harmful misinformation, should be as free from ideologies as possible, and yet certain sections of organized skepticism (read: American, male, rich, and famous) seem to specifically target feminists, “identity politics” and some areas of the LGBTQ community – namely trans* people while writing fond reviews of problematic public figures such as Milo.

When Hayley and PZ agree, that’s a sign that maybe you’re doing something wrong.

To add insult to injury, Phil Torres writes for Salon about what he sees as the descent of New Atheism.

Although the new atheist movement once filled me with a great sense of optimism about the future of humanity, this is no longer the case. Movements always rise and fall — they have a life cycle, of sorts — but the fall of this movement has been especially poignant for me. The new atheists of today would rather complain about “trigger warnings” in classrooms than eliminate rape on campuses. They’d rather whine about “safe spaces” than help transgender people feel accepted by society. They loudly claim to support free speech and yet routinely ban dissenters from social media, blogs and websites.

All in all, it hasn’t been a good week for New Atheism.

Time for me to back to work on the next issue of the Babbler.  The staff on a big story that I plan on posting on Monday or Tuesday.