Fake. Hoax. Media Baiting as a Hobby

Pacific Northwest Medical Journal - About us

The truth about the "medical journal"

Well, the hoax is that California is funding free vasectomies for obese men. It was widely circulated, and the "medical journal" it came from looked authentic. But, it's just a hoax, thankfully. I can hate the world less now. (I won't, but it's nice to know the option is there.)

The bloggers aren't really going to fact-check. Seriously. That's not going to happen. Every shmoe on the Internet isn't going to make the phone calls. The news agencies, yes, THEY definitely need to fact-check before printing items, and it's fair to call them on it when they don't.

But, do we really need these hoaxer guys to make it their personal mission to embarrass the news agencies who don't fact check? Well, SURE they deserve it! But aren't they already embarrassed by not fact-checking, like, every other week already? When a new story comes out that doesn't get fact-checked, and we all find out?

And, YES, I'm just bitter because I bought in! I'm the one who always sends my less Internet-savvy friends to Snopes, with a lecture about being skeptical, when they send me goofy emails about Bill Gates giving away money to everyone who forwards an email, or the giant snake that ate a boy who was camping with his friends. Hmm. Seems I haven't gotten many of those types of emails lately. I wonder why my friends would have stopped sending them to me?

Does My DNA's Ass Look Fat in These Genes?

Curing Obesity through Sterility: California's Controversial Program Under the Microscope

Well, good golly. We've started checking I.D. at the entrance to the gene pool.

Fat men are getting free sterilization in San Francisco. Is it that horrible to have fat people in the world, that we have to selectively breed them out of future generations?

If this is really a good idea, why are we limiting it to fat people? We're not giving free sterilization to stupid people. Or ferociously ugly people. Or even people with genetic abnormalities, like people born with cleft palate or cystic fibrosis. Or Republicans!

One day the world might swing around, and those chubby genes will be wanted again. But they won't be there when you need them! That's right! We won't have fat genes to kick around anymore! Except, you know, from the eighty-five bazillion fat people who still are having kids.

I now officially hate everybody currently living. You alive? Okay, then, well, I hate you. Sorry. I still love you! But I hate you.

Tsunamis Are All the Rage, of Earth I Mean

Now that everybody knows what a tsunami is, we all agree: we don't like them. Funny how there weren't widespread tsunami alerts before, you know, that one big tsunami.

Used to be that earthquakes were just earthquakes. But Mother Earth is just that pissed at us, I guess. Or at least, that's the best explanation most people REALLY believe. Because now, nobody believes that dumb science stuff anymore.

That's old fashioned! Go back to your lab, science nerds! We're all into crystals now! They can cure your cancer and you can buy them on the internets! Also porn.

See-Through Computer Monitors

Transparent Screens on Flickr
And a french site, Mac Bidoille (Huh, that means "Mac Do-it-yourselfing.")

At Slashdot, I read, "Looks like the amusement factor of 'transparent' screen backgrounds is getting bigger and bigger. The french Mac fan site Mac Bidouille opened up a dedicated part of their web site where fans can post shots of their transparent backgrounds."

At first I thought, "Transparent screenshots? You mean, so it looks like you're looking right inside your monitor, and you see all the vaccuum tubes and diodes and flux capacitors? Well, that's all right, but why would lots of people be getting into that? I mean, once you've seen the internal workings of a few monitors, doesn't it get old?"

I was mistaken, because of being a moran! You don't look through the screen into the insides of your monitor! You look through the monitor entirely, at your neighbor walking by! Or at least, it LOOKS like you do.

One day we'll really have computer monitors that are made of force-fields, and you can look right through them. But for now, we'll have to just pretend.

If I did this, I would have a screenshot of a blank wall. Exciting!