Never get into a land war in Asia…

…or argue with dudebros on Twitter. I made that mistake yesterday.

First problem: they were arguing with me about plagiarism. It’s not so bad, they said.

Have you ever noticed that they tend to focus on trivial interpretations of real problems? They all think that they’re like little cut-rate Malcolm Gladwells, the twerps, and that picking some bit of common knowledge and taking a counter-intuitive perspective makes them brilliant. No, it doesn’t. Most often it makes them wrong.

So they’re yammering at me that it isn’t even a crime — it’s not stealing, because the original creator of the idea hasn’t lost anything, so why should anyone complain about it? Except, of course, that the creator has had credit taken from them, and try telling a writer that they lose nothing if someone else copies their work without attribution. But hey, they were on a roll.

Then, predictable as clockwork, the second problem: stereotyping. You know who else plagiarizes a lot? Asians! Their culture encourages copying. Then, the trump card, gloriously played with a triumphant smirk: When I say plagiarism is bad, I’m accusing all Asians of theft.

Yeah. All Asia. All Asian culture thinks plagiarism is just fine.

asia

That’s where I threw up my hands and blocked them all. There is stupid, and there is impenetrable ignorance.

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Would you like to volunteer to work at the Ark Park?

Notice: I didn’t ask whether you’d like to get paid to work there — just whether you’d like to work totally for free. All you have to do is fill out the application!

This is a non-trivial exercise. It’s a long form, and you also have to be prepared to give your church references. Well, I’m out!

You also need to answer 12 questions, in detail. I’ve filled it out with my answers.

To be considered you must provide answers to the following questions. After those questions you need to utilize the blank space below to provide two detailed statements. The first statement is your Christian salvation testimony. The second statement is your belief about creation. Applicants that do not answer all questions and do not submit both statements will not be considered.

1. How does one get to heaven when they die? (One doesn’t.)

2. Why do you believe YOU will go to heaven when you die? (Nope.)

3. What would cause anyone to go to hell? (There is no hell.)

4. Do you believe suffering in hell is eternal? (No. See #3.)

5. What do you believe to be the main difference between Christianity and other religions? (Irrelevant and silly differences in doctrine.)

6. Do you believe the earth is thousands of years old or millions of years or does it matter? Explain your thoughts. (Billions. The evidence says so.)

7. “I believe that the ONLY legitimate marriage sanctioned by God and given in Scripture is the joining of one natural born man and one natural born woman. All other unions are contrary to clear Biblical teaching.” Do you agree with this statement or disagree? (I don’t really care what the Bible says.)

8. Please provide a brief statement regarding your Christian Testimony of Salvation. (I don’t believe in salvation. Brief enough?)

9. Please provide a brief statement of your position regarding Creation. (It’s nonsense.)

10. Please provide a brief statement about your position as relates to the inspiration, inerrancy (100% accuracy) of the Bible as the ONLY true Word of God. (It is neither inspired nor inerrant.)

11. How would you respond to someone who said “The Koran or the Book of Mormon are equally the Word of God.”? (I agree!)

12. Please confirm that you have a valid email address with regular access and confirm that you will periodically check email for forms and information from AiG. (Eh. Probably not.)

I wonder what the people who apply for paying jobs there have to do?

I get mail

I still get lots of plain old US Mail — it’s almost always from a crank or religious apologists, so it’s kind of entertaining. I’m not a big fan of certified mail, though. That usually means someone is going to bluster and threaten to sue me for something. I got some yesterday.

To provide a little context, I pointed out in 2008 that the latest stuff published at a meeting by Richard H. Lambertsen represented a serious decline in quality from the previous work of this rather well-known cetologist. He did not take it well. Lambertsen wrote me an email in which he suggested that I need to read some of his papers to appreciate the depth of his thinking.

I did. This was my reply then, in 2011.

In particular, they don’t explain how the evolution of the craniomandibular articulation in baleen whales was the enabling mutation that permitted the occurrence of free will, what this has to do with Einstein’s special theory of relativity, the significance of the death of the largest blue whale known on 20 March 1947, and how you tie all these disparate observations into the conclusion that humanity is about to undergo a speciation event. I looked in particular in the paper on lunge feeding for evidence that George W. Bush stole your driver’s license, as you claimed in your paper, to no avail.

Long silence.

He has now written to me again, by certified mail. I’ve scribbled on it a bit, I hope you don’t mind.

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Nimrud, Hollywood, all the same

I saw this silly comparison somewhere.

radical

Radical Islamists are destroying irreplaceable artifacts that are thousands of years old. This is deplorable and disgraceful.

Those secular “radicals” are asking that we not regard a movie promo from 1956 — that’s right, most of these monuments were sent out to advertise a movie by Cecil B. DeMille — as appropriate civic displays, and are asking that they be removed from courthouses and moved to private places, like churches.

Where the congregation can more appropriately continue their worship of Cecil, capitalism, and the era they regard as the high water mark of American culture.

Where’s the revolution when you need one?

Unbelievable.

I never saw a body with bullet holes that was more devastating than taking the right to arm ourselves away.

Ben Carson

But he has Rupert Murdoch’s support!


Ben and Candy Carson terrific. What about a real black President who can properly address the racial divide? And much else.

What it takes to become rich and powerful: a complete absence of empathy and morality. We are ruled by psychopaths.

They had t-shirts made!

How odd. The cultists who believe the world will end today had bright yellow t-shirts and hats, and professionally printed signs, and have been waving them around to announce their imminent demise. That seems like strange behavior if you really believe the entire world will be annihilated. It’s almost as if they’re less interested in their assumed facts, and more interested in advertising their dogma.

worldend

Also, the person on the right seems lacking in confidence: The End of the World, question mark? If the world does actually end today, they’re going to be roasting in hell for their lack of faith, which means they lose whether the world ends or not.

The money is all green, anyway

This retracted article is proof that there is a diversity crisis in Silicon Valley.

Forbes has removed a contributor piece titled “There Is No Diversity Crisis in Silicon Valley” after being hit with a barrage of criticism from readers, including many leading the tech industry’s movement to hire more women, Hispanics and African-Americans. The article, authored by journalist Brian S. Hall, argued that the healthy revenue streams and stock prices of companies like Apple, Google and Facebook were proof that the tech industry is doing well and has no reason to go out of its way to include more women or underrepresented minorities.

There is no crisis at all in Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley is doing absolutely gangbusters! Hall wrote, according to a cached version of the post. This is not a crisis. Silicon Valley is swimming in money and in success.

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