MINNEAPOLIS (The Borowitz Report) -- Scientists have discovered a powerful new strain of fact-resistant humans who are threatening the ability of Earth to sustain life, a sobering new study reports.
The research, conducted by the University of Minnesota, identifies a virulent strain of humans who are virtually immune to any form of verifiable knowledge, leaving scientists at a loss as to how to combat them.
"These humans appear to have all the faculties necessary to receive and process information," Davis Logsdon, one of the scientists who contributed to the study, said. "And yet, somehow, they have developed defenses that, for all intents and purposes, have rendered those faculties totally inactive."
More worryingly, Logsdon said, "As facts have multiplied, their defenses against those facts have only grown more powerful."
While scientists have no clear understanding of the mechanisms that prevent the fact-resistant humans from absorbing data, they theorize that the strain may have developed the ability to intercept and discard information en route from the auditory nerve to the brain. "The normal functions of human consciousness have been completely nullified," Logsdon said.
While reaffirming the gloomy assessments of the study, Logsdon held out hope that the threat of fact-resistant humans could be mitigated in the future. "Our research is very preliminary, but it's possible that they will become more receptive to facts once they are in an environment without food, water, or oxygen," he said.
...mostly by protecting the lives of the free expressers, at this point.
[Dhaka Tribune] All possible efforts must be made to apprehend the assailants who viciously hacked blogger Ananta Bijoy Das to death in Sylhet on Tuesday morning.
There are no new lessons to be learnt from this brutal killing. We know already that Das, like other writers before him, has faced death threats from groups merely for expressing his personal opinions.
Like Avijit Roy who was brutally murdered by fanatics on February 27 and Md Oyasiqur Rahman Babu who was hacked to death on March 30, there is no doubt he was targeted for his views.
It is completely unacceptable that groups and individuals are free to incite hatred against anyone with whom they disagree and to create hit lists by placing bounties on people's heads. If nothing is done to end the impunity with which such feelings are stirred, it becomes inevitable that even more individuals will be targeted for killing by bad boy fanatics.
The only way to resist the fear these attackers wish to create is for the government to live up to its duty to uphold rule of law and protect freedom of expression.
Authorities must uphold the provisions in Bangladesh's Penal Code which outlaw incitement to commit violence.
There must be no equivocation in addressing the real problem here. People are entitled to disagree with the views of writers such as Das, but they acted lawfully by expressing their views peacefully. It is the murderers and those who incite violence who need to be held to account.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
we can dream.... i dream of a day the Bangladeshi government prints a huge cartoon of mohammad and then gets texas on the response
would clear up their internal troubles quite quickly
#2
anon1: Our founding fathers were inspired. They established the 1st amendment (freedom of speech, religion, press, and assembly). These are stated as individual freedoms in our Bill of Rights. They then established the 2nd amendment (right to bear arms) to ensure and protect the 1st amendment and a free state.
Forcing everyone to spend only by electronic means from an account held at a government-run bank would give the authorities far better tools to deal with recessions and economic booms, writes Jim Leaviss
#5
"You don't need to buy that" - Friendly note that pops up on your 6-year old I-Phone
Then it will refuse payment if you proceed.
"Operators are available to assist you during a 15-minute period each month.
We won't tell you which 15-minutes, though."
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
05/13/2015 16:50 Comments ||
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#6
"We audited your bank account. Noticed a campaign contribution to a Tea Party candidate. It's all been Civilly Forfeited."
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/13/2015 16:59 Comments ||
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#7
"We audited your bank account. Noticed a campaign contribution to a Tea Party candidate. It's all been Assumed Guilty of being a conservative meanie and Civilly Forfeited."
#8
Your government electronic banking application is now complete. The following demographic survey is completely voluntary. If you choose the 'I do not wish to participate in the survey' box, your application will automatically default to the 'White Privilege' category at box #5.
[DAWN] THE realisation is dawning slowly and inexorably: the horror that was Dec 16, 2014 was no turning point. The curtain has not been brought down on Lion of Islam elements; not only do they remain free to propagate hatred and intolerance, those in their cross hairs still have no recourse but to fend for themselves. According to a report in this paper, senior educationist and member of the government-appointed advisory committee for curriculum and textbook reform, Dr Bernadette L. Dean, has had to flee Pakistain after a hate campaign was unleashed against her by an unnamed political party. She was accused by those against her work of being "an enemy of Islam" and "a foreigner woman who has single-handedly made changes to the curriculum and textbooks that made them secular". The campaign against Dr Dean is only the latest in a series of attacks against educationists in the country. Less than a month ago, Debra Lobo, an American national and professor at a medical college, was attacked and seriously injured in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... . Even more recently, a Karachi University professor, Dr Wahidur Rahman, was bumped off in his car.
In a time of unreason -- for what is extremism but unreason? -- clichés are handy instruments for religious zealots to exploit. Dr Dean's stellar credentials and long years of service to her country, as former principal of two leading colleges in Pakistain, professor at Aga Khan University, and presently director of the VM Institute for Education, offered her no defence. That she was part of a committee with whose other members she had co-authored the revised textbooks that were reviewed multiple times before being approved, was of no consequence. Nor was the fact that the Islamiat sections were authored only by Moslems, considered a valid argument. Dr Dean's very faith rendered her a 'foreigner', her every action suspect. In a country of unfettered extremism, every attempt to stem the slide into obscurantism is met with resistance, every voice raised in defence of moderation, plurality and intellectual curiosity is silenced, often at the point of a gun. Parween Rahman, Rashid Rehman, Sabeen Mahmud -- these are but a few among the many voices of reason that we could not afford to lose.
Instead of protecting those that are Pakistain's best hope of clawing back the space ceded to right-wing forces, the state remains shamelessly in retreat. Why has action not been taken against the quarters threatening violence against Dr Dean? Why have they been allowed to put up banners with words that are an incitement to violence? Then again, this is the same country where banned ...the word banned seems to have a different meaning in Pakistain than it does in most other places. Or maybe it simply lacks any meaning at all...
organizations have been taking out processions even after Dec 16 and threatening law-abiding citizens. Cosmetic measures, even at this point where nothing less than a single-minded cleaning of the Augean stables is required, will take us even further into the abyss.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2015 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Out of 3,400 attacks spread over 110 countries in the time period studied, 724 took place in Pakistain, making up close to a fourth of the entire number. This was so even without including the grisly attack on Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. 's Army Public School in December 2014. Ten per cent of all terrorist attacks in Pakistain targeted schools. The second position was held by Thailand, which experienced 213 attacks -- less than half the number of attacks in Pakistain.
According to the report, schools, educational institutions and universities were 88pc more likely to be targeted in the country than the world average, which stands at 69pc. The majority of the attacks on schools (and, once again, this does not include Peshawar) were non-lethal and directed at educational infrastructure.
They included most frequently bombs, arson or incendiary devices that were pointed at primary, middle or high schools while the buildings were unoccupied. Three-quarters of the attacks were carried out by "unknown perpetrators" even though the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain took responsibility for 136 of them.
The fact that the Peshawar attack was, unlike the many hundred preceding ones, particularly intended to cause a huge loss of life represents an escalation in violence and perhaps an increased desire to target not simply infrastructure but also students -- to deliberately cause the loss of life rather than simply a loss of infrastructure.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2015 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
