The Bish

Found it from Pharyngula’s science blog.

A New York Judge ruled to continue an injunction against Premise Media, which effectively prevents Premise, the producers of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, from further distribution. Expelled is a film about intelligent design and creationism starring Ben Stein, and is currently playing at 200 U.S. theaters. Since its April 18 debut it has received criticism from the scientific community, which considers both pseudoscience, and film critics.

The case Lennon v Premise Media was filed by Yoko Ono, Julian Lennon, Sean Lennon, and EMI Blackwood Music, Inc. against Premise Media, C&S Production, and Rocky Mountain Pictures in United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on April 23, 2008 alleging copyright infringement concerning John Lennon’s song “Imagine”. Premise is being represented by Anthony Falzone of the Fair Use Project.

EMI filed its own separate lawsuit against Premise in a New York state court alleging that Premise’s usage of the song is harming EMI’s ability to license “Imagine,” which has only been licensed in one film (The Killing Fields).

In court, Judge Richard Lowe, according to the Wall Street Journal, “seemed skeptical” about Falzone’s arguments. Lowe asked Falzone why the film’s producers did not read the lyrics to the song or flash the lyrics on the screen. Lawyers also pointed out that Premise Media licensed all other music in the film except for Lennon’s song. At the end of the hearing Lowe “decided to stay the original TRO pending his ruling, which means that Expelled, currently playing in theaters around the country, cannot be reproduced or otherwise distributed.”

The judge promised a quick decision since the film will debut in Canada on June 6 and DVD rights must be finalized by the end of May for October distribution

DENVER – LaVeda Frasier fears proposed changes to Colorado’s child-abuse law would criminalize her practice of relying on prayer – instead of medicine – to heal her five children when they are sick.

Frazier, a Colorado Springs resident, joined fellow members of the Christian Science Church (oxymoron much?) on Tuesday testifying against House Bill 1286, which would allow district attorneys to pursue child-abuse charges against faith healers whose practices result in the serious injury or death of a child.

The Christian Science Church is one of 12 religious organizations in Colorado whose members use prayer and other spiritual practices instead of medicine to treat illness.

If the law does go through, who is to say that I am a criminal or practicing my religion?” said Frasier, who says she has seen prayer heal everything from concussions to complications in a pregnancy. “The line is so thin.”

Despite the objections of Frasier and about two dozen followers of Christian Science, the House Criminal Justice Committee voted 8-3 to approve HB1286, setting it up for a vote by the full House.

Rep. Kay Alexander, R-Montrose, said the bill is needed because of several high-profile faith healing fatalities, including the Feb. 5 death of 13-year-old Amanda Bates in Grand Junction. Amanda died of complications from untreated diabetes. Her parents are members of the General Assembly Church of the First Born, a religious sect that eschews medical treatment in favor of prayer.

“We are not imposing medical treatment on anyone today,” Alexander said. “We are truly here for the protection of Colorado’s children. We still would encourage people to pray.”

She points out that Mesa County has seen three faith-healing related deaths in the past three years, all stemming from members of the Church of the First Born.

“All would be alive today if their parents had sought routine medical care,” said Frank Daniels, Mesa County district attorney.

“My real concern is the message that the state of Colorado is sending to people who practice faith healing in lieu of medical care,” Daniels added. “Right now, the state is saying there is an exemption in the child-abuse law.”

The exemption has been on the books since 1989, and many who are skeptical of the faith-healing practice feel it is time to change it.

“Faith healing cannot be used as a substitute for appropriate medical care,” said Tamara Grigsby, a pediatrician at The Children’s Hospital in Denver. “A majority of these deaths are preventable. We support legislation that holds parents accountable legally when they withhold proper medical care.”

Followers of Christian Science, however, believe their treatment, which consists of prayer and little else, is just as effective.

“The imposed choice of treatment, medical treatment … would ignore 100 years of spiritual treatment in Colorado,” said Robert Doughtie, a spokesman for the Christian Science Church. “We are serious people, and we do not neglect our children.”

That thought resonated with Rep. Richard Decker, R-Fountain, who voted against the bill.

“I think it is going to hurt a lot of good people,” Decker said. “They aren’t perfect people, but they are sincere people.”

Rep. Lynn Hefley, R-Colorado Springs, felt differently. She voted for HB1286.

“Adults, you can choose what you want do,” Hefley said. “For children, we as the state have an obligation to protect our children.”

- Kyle Henley covers state government and politics and may be reached at (303) 837-0613 or khenley@gazette.com.

House Bill 1286

SPONSOR: Rep. Kay Alexander, R-Montrose

WHAT IT WOULD DO: Repeal a 12-year-old law that exempts those who believe in faith healing from the state’s child-abuse laws.

PROGNOSIS: The bill seems to have broad bipartisan support, but there are those who believe it tramples the constitutional right to freedom of religion.

WHAT’S NEXT: A vote by the full House.

ON THE WEB: www.leg.state.co.us/2001/pubhome.nsf

Copyright 2001
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.

Through the magic of Jesus I have reclaimed a normal sleeping schedule. I routinely woke up between the hours of 8am and 10am durring my 4 day mem weekend. I have no idea how or why it happened; I’m still going to bed @ 2am-4am, though on fri, sat, sun, and mon I swore it was at least 1pm-2pm when I decided it was time to pee, though when I checked my PC time…low and behold, it be early. I also woke up @ 7am this morning (35 mins before my alarm) and I wasn’t pissed off at the world.

Memorial weekend was pretty much a weekend like last weekend and the weekend before that. Spent the weekend with the kartel. I tried not to drive my car much because I don’t want to go to jail. Mission success. Unless they have PCs in prisions and that’s where im blogging from at this very moment…while being raped.

Friday: Rocket Room > Music > Shots+Beer > Drunk > Don’t see the band you came for because you are too drunk > Home
Saturday: A > L > C > O > H > O L
Sunday: Sober + Poker (this was the 1st game ive played while not being under the influence of several different substances)
Monday: Blindfolded Lawn Darts > 1st Aid Kit > Hospital

OP is the shit.

Ok. I want you all to do something.

Click on this link Chicago Street View”

This should have opened up a new window. In this window is google maps. Within google maps there should be a picture, the street view link.

Click the street view link.

Now I want you to click north twice, and then pan to the left either 2-3 times and tell me what you see, you may have to zoom in.

Have a nice day.

I originally found this on the Boulderfist Realm forums for WoW. It took me a bit to find the treasure in the photo, but it was worth it.

I would say I’m sorry for not updating, but I’m not.

I finally saw Ironman. Totally worth it.

Mariokart Wii is the shit. Somehow Nintendo can give you a FLAWLESS…and I mean fucking flawless gameplay between you and 11 random nigs in Japan…but I can’t play SSBB with my brother who lives in OK.

Good job Nintendo, you get the fuckass award. But seriosuly, if you have a Wii, you should def pick up Mario Kart. You like sex right? This is like that, but without the whole vagina/penis thing.

Memorial Day is comming up soon. I plan on having no plans. I think I went to the sand dunes last year. This year may just be a herbal fiesta.

This blog was cool for the first couple of months…but unless something weird/random/crazy happens to me I don’t really have much to say. Like right now. You’re reading shit about me…shit that doesn’t really matter.

I need to hire people to fuck with my life so insane nutty shit is always happening to me, otherwise I post daily miniscule mundane activities that you do not care about. Or just the fact that anyone who reads this is most likely my neighbor and is already in the know of what is going to be known after reading my unknown(though already known). I suppose if I just make every post funny the content shouldn’t really matter much.

“Why did the gum cross the road?”

“It was stuck to the chickens foot”

Ok, not really. But it did take awhile. Then again, this is purely time invested…so im not too proud. But I been done did it.



FIRST!

Boo-Yah!

From The Guardian Boob Water

…Though I don’t see any direct coorelation between this study and the glob of matter in my skull.

Breastfed children are brainier, study suggests
Researchers monitored 14,000 children in Belarus
Findings based on IQ and academic ratings at age six

Breastfed babies are more intelligent than those weaned on formula milk, according to the most comprehensive study conducted on the issue.

Doctors followed nearly 14,000 children over six and a half years and found that those who were breastfed fared significantly better in IQ tests.

At the age of six and a half, children who had been exclusively breastfed scored 7.5 points higher in verbal intelligence tests and 5.9 points higher in overall IQ tests. Teachers also rated the breastfed children higher at reading, writing and solving mathematical problems.

The finding, which confirms earlier research, raises the question of whether it is breast milk itself or associated maternal care that is responsible for boosting the intelligence of developing babies. Previous studies have hinted that breastfeeding increases intelligence, but the effect has proved hard to nail down.

One problem is that in nearly every study so far the mothers involved have chosen beforehand whether or not they plan to breastfeed. It meant doctors could not rule out the possibility that breastfeeding women were simply brighter, or were likely to interact more with their children. In the latest study, researchers led by Michael Kramer, a professor of paediatrics at McGill University in Montreal, studied children born at 31 maternity hospitals across Belarus between 1996 and 1997. They got around the problems faced by earlier studies by randomly assigning half of the hospitals to adopt a breastfeeding promotion programme, while the rest acted as a control group and continued to offer their usual post-natal advice.

Between 2002-05 the doctors interviewed 13,889 of the children and their mothers, around half of whom had attended clinics promoting breastfeeding. Of mothers who visited clinics that advocated breastfeeding, 43% fed their babies only on breast milk until the age of three months, compared with 6.4% of women at the control clinics.

“Our study provides the strongest evidence to date that prolonged and exclusive breastfeeding makes kids smarter,” said Kramer, whose research appears in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

Figures last year from the UK Infant Feeding Survey revealed 76% of women started breastfeeding their babies, but less than half continued to breastfeed their babies beyond six weeks.

The researchers’ study fails to answer the question of what it is about breastfeeding that boosts intelligence. “It remains unclear whether the observed cognitive benefits of breastfeeding are due to some constituent of breast milk, or are related to the physical and social interactions inherent in breastfeeding,” Kramer writes.

Breast milk is known to contain essential long-chain fatty acids and a chemical called insulin-like growth factor, which alone might be responsible for boosting intelligence.

It’s 1:53AM Sunday morning. I’m not going to bed tonight so I can get back on a normal sleep schedule. For the past month I’ve been going to bed around 4-5AM and waking up @ 7:30AM. And on the weekends, such as today, I go to bed @ 7-9AM and wakeup early/late afternoon. I went to bed @ 5-6AM last night and woke up @ 2PM today. I rule. It started about 4 weeks ago when I built a new PC. I stayed up until 8AM, and since then…I’ve not been tired around my usual bedtime. I tried to correct it just by going to bed earlier…but if I’m not tired…well, I can’t sleep. So hopefully I can grind out these next 18ish hours and go to bed.

But…the point of this, I just watched the movie in the title and its pretty fucking good. Low budget, made for TV I think…but I liked it a lot. It’s on Netflix right now for instant watching aka stream it. I’d recommend paying 8 bucks a month for those of you who are already not on netflix, for unlimited streaming. The available movies are usually older and not big hits. I don’t do the DVD thing because I’m lazy, but I do watch their movies free for streaming because once again, I’m lazy.

Really good fkn read that sorta blew my mind when it comes to civilizations beyond earth. It’s over on the right hand side next to “An Atheist Manifesto” and “C:\Bishop” under “Navigate.”

It’s a pretty long read; DO IT.