Loosely Assembled

Regression therapy?

via: @samgrover via @anildash via mmmeow.com

A five-centimeter fir tree has been found in the lung of a man who complained he had a strong pain in his chest and was coughing blood.

(Via MosNews.com.)

Just reading about Monster Mummies of Japan, and I remembered (and wondered what ever happend to) the cat mummies we found at my brother’s house. How could I not have saved those?

Can’t convince anyone that your brilliant idea will really work? Can’t find a convenient way to prove your point? Oh yeah, just try it on yourself.

There is a great collection of self-experimentation stories up at the New Scientist site. Get ready to read about people pouring yellow fever infected vomit into their eyes, stabbing themselves, inflicting themselves with radiation burns, suffering from oxygen poisoning, sleeping with cave-rats, dropping acid, trying to get ulcers, and letting hookworm larvae burrow away.

• so glad to see the snow again, just took a little ride in it to get some more chicken feed #

The metro police department in Africa’s largest city claim that a car thief SHAPE SHIFTED INTO A GOAT to avoid being caught. It didn’t work, the cops got him, and paraded him around in front of news media (having trouble finding a clip).

Imagine the NYPD officially saying that a murderer had his sentence reduced because the victim was raised from the dead.

My thoughts and questions on this:

• are they holding tho goat still? will he go to trial? be fined? be imprisoned?
• if that goat actually belongs to someone, how will they convince the cops to give back their property?
• i realize i hold a naive assumption that urbanization reduces superstition
• religiously based world views of reality are insanely tenacious

Looks like the government is all creeped out by black magic already, this story tells of a related event. Apparently this is Islamic black magic as well, certainly a new concept for me.

Lawmakers in the Nigerian State of Ekiti are recruiting “prayer warriors” to assist them in their fight against Black Magic assailants.
The voodoo plot is alleged to centre around Ekiti State House of Assembly speaker Femi Bamisile who was impeached on the 9th July after being found guilty of the theft of 18 fire extinguishers from a university in 1989.
On Wednesday this week chaos ensued when a Juju act took place in the assembly chamber. Despite the chamber being securely locked a fetish substance was left on the seats of the lawmakers in what is believed to be an attempt to pervert the course of justice.
“We were jolted by the reports that marabouts had invaded the Assembly chambers to plant fetish substances on the seats diabolically to harm legislators who might be too strong to break.” Said a spokesman for the assembly.
“The intention of the hatchers of this heinous plot was to sacrifice not too few honourable members as eternal ransom to an ousted legislative leadership that had expired in morals, virtues and value.”
Some of the 26 lawmakers that attend the assembly have vowed never to step foot in the chamber until they are certain of their spiritual safety, and others are in fear of their lives.
A prayer session was held on Thursday to try to nullify the fetish, one lawmaker gave this comment,
“we believe with the prayer, whatever the juju was meant for would not come to pass, because the power of God is above all other powers,”

there are more everywhere

from changingminds.org

Description

People initially believe everything they see and hear (’seeing is believing’), but then rapidly assess whether it is true or not and consequently reject or continue to believe things. This assessment and decision takes time and energy, so the more tired people get or more distracted by other things, the more they are likely to believe false information.

Research

Gilbert, Tafarodi and Malone (1993) asked people to read crime reports and recommend prison sentences, including some false statements which were marked in red to indicate them as such. In normal situations, they were not affected by the false statements. However, when they were overloaded by additional work, the false statements affected their judgment.

So What?

Using it:

Persuade people when they are tired distracted. Make then tired by spending a long time with them in exhausting activities, physical or mental. Distract them by giving them a lot of information or points of special interest and then slipping in the thing you really want them to believe.

Defending:

Do not make commitments when you are tired or distracted. Watch out for people trying to persuade you during such times when you cannot give the matter your full and proper attention.

Obviously this phenomenon is being exploited by advertising, religion, urban myths, memetics, and even late night news.

South Carolina Considers Law That Would Criminalize Profanity In Public Forums: “Slashdot points us to an immensely troubling law being proposed by a state Senator in South Carolina that would make it a felony to use profanity in a public forum, whether written or spoken (so assume the internet is included). Punishment could include fines up to $5000 or prison sentences up to 5 years in length.

Oh, it’s the same guy that tried to ban sagging pants. What a fucking joke this guy is!

Isn’t “profane” a religious concept? How could this even be under serious consideration?

profane |prəˈfān; prō-|

adjective

1 relating or devoted to that which is not sacred or biblical; secular rather than religious : a talk that tackled topics both sacred and profane.

• (of a person) not initiated into religious rites or any esoteric knowledge : he was an agnostic, a profane man.

2 (of a person or their behavior) not respectful of orthodox religious practice; irreverent : desecration of the temple by profane adolescents.

• (of language) blasphemous or obscene.

This is a good time to link off to the Freedom From Religion Foundation, long time fighters in the battle to maintain a separation between church and state.

(Via Techdirt.)

Excavation of an ant colony: “

Jennifer Lum points us to this fascinating segment from the TV documentary ‘Ants! Nature’s Secret Power.’ Jen says, ‘Scientists poured cement into an ant colony structure and then excavated it (I imagine the ants died). It revealed an amazing network of fungus gardens and tunnels and garbage pits.’

“