— Maurice Sendak, Interview on Fresh Air (2003) (via fortuneandglory)
(via somebodysaiditbetter)
Harmless: The Anti-Porn Horror Movie
Harmless is a feature film shot in the popular found footage style. It’s the story about a husband and father and his battle with a box of porn that is found in the closet. Once opened, the box of porn begins to torment the family, much like a poltergeist. It’s sort of a social commentary on how pornography can destroy a family. Why are we doing a project like this? Because films are not only entertaining but they’re also a way to teach people. Society learns their morals and values through music, film and television. Pornography is such a huge problem that simply telling someone how dangerous it is usually doesn’t work. You have to tell a compelling story to catch someone’s attention and then educate them while they’re being entertained.
You can’t make this stuff up, folks.
(Source: harmlessmovie.com)
![theatlantic:
U.S. Teen Birthrates Are Down, But Still High in the Bible Belt
Teen birthrates are highest in Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Arkansas, and New Mexico, with slightly lower concentrations in the neighboring states of Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Arizona. New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, and Massachusetts have the lowest rates of teen births.
What factors lie behind this geographic pattern? […]
Teenage births remain high in more religious states. The correlation between teenage birthrates and the percentage of adults who say they are “very religious” is considerable (.69). The 2009 study posited that attitudes toward contraception play a significant role, noting that “religious communities in the U.S. are more successful in discouraging the use of contraception among their teenagers than they are in discouraging sexual intercourse itself.”
Teen birthrates also hew closely to America’s political divide. They are substantially higher in conservative states that voted for McCain in 2008 (with a correlation of .65) and negatively correlated with states that voted for Obama (-.62).
Class plays a substantial role as well. Teen births are negatively associated with average state income (-.62), the share of the workforce in knowledge, professional, and creative class jobs (-.61), and especially with the share of adults who are college graduates (-.76). Conversely, teen birthrates are higher in more working class states (with a positive correlation of .58).
Read more at The Atlantic Cities. [Image: Centers for Disease Control]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m2krlvhhPH1qcokc4o1_1280.png)
U.S. Teen Birthrates Are Down, But Still High in the Bible Belt
Teen birthrates are highest in Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Arkansas, and New Mexico, with slightly lower concentrations in the neighboring states of Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Arizona. New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, and Massachusetts have the lowest rates of teen births.
What factors lie behind this geographic pattern? […]
Teenage births remain high in more religious states. The correlation between teenage birthrates and the percentage of adults who say they are “very religious” is considerable (.69). The 2009 study posited that attitudes toward contraception play a significant role, noting that “religious communities in the U.S. are more successful in discouraging the use of contraception among their teenagers than they are in discouraging sexual intercourse itself.”
Teen birthrates also hew closely to America’s political divide. They are substantially higher in conservative states that voted for McCain in 2008 (with a correlation of .65) and negatively correlated with states that voted for Obama (-.62).
Class plays a substantial role as well. Teen births are negatively associated with average state income (-.62), the share of the workforce in knowledge, professional, and creative class jobs (-.61), and especially with the share of adults who are college graduates (-.76). Conversely, teen birthrates are higher in more working class states (with a positive correlation of .58).
Read more at The Atlantic Cities. [Image: Centers for Disease Control]
— Robert Owen in The Life of Robert Owen (via fortuneandglory)
(Source: books.google.com, via fortuneandglory)
WTF. He gave the blind girl his eyes? And then God happened or something?
… a means of understanding different historical periods and events, understanding our own and different cultures, promoting acceptance and knowledge of all ideas, and so forth.
Under no circumstances should it ever be taught in a science class.
Ever.
At least until there is an inkling of scientific evidence to back up the theory.
Which there isn’t.
Seriously. There isn’t.
End of discussion.
— Robert Owen in The Life of Robert Owen (via fortuneandglory)
(Source: books.google.com, via fortuneandglory)
I have read some ridiculous Facebook chain stories in my day, but this one might take the cake.
Holy. Shit.
— local anon in the opinions page (via resurrectionjo)
“I don’t consider homosexuality an abomination, Mr. President. The Bible does.”
Galileo was wrong.
Or so says Dr. Robert Sungenis – and he’s a doctor who also has a Wikipedia page, which means it’s true. Forget the fact that his degrees have no relation to science. This man is well-studied and well-rounded with his B.A. in religion from George Washington University, an M.A. in theology from a “theological seminary” that “trains pastors, teachers, and Bible specialists,” and his doctorate from the unaccredited “distance learning” institution that is Calamus International University. In other words, this man is a pioneer of science.
Oh, hell - even I’m cringing from my own sarcasm. This “doctor” has degrees that provide him as much intellectual credence as a certificate from the Academy of Performing Art in Clowning. Calamus International University is a well known diploma mill, which by definition is “an organization that awards academic degrees and diplomas with substandard or no academic study and without recognition by official educational accrediting bodies” (Sources: 1, 2, 3). Pay the fee, get the degree. Texas even has it on a list of “Institutions Whose Degrees are Illegal to Use” for being a “fraudulent or substandard degree.”
Which means that his “First Annual Catholic Conference on Geocentrism” – geocentrism being the belief that the Earth is the center of the universe – will be a waste of one’s hard-earned $50… unless, of course, one is looking for some masochistic amusement on a lazy Saturday afternoon. As it’s described on the website for the conference, it will give “a detailed and comprehensive treatment of the scientific evidence supporting Geocentrism, the academic belief that the Earth is immobile in the center of the universe.” Oh, I’d love to hear this.
The site is amusing, really… until one realizes how absolutely serious these folks are about this stuff. This is anti-intellectualism at its most bizarre. As one might presume, the purpose of all of this is so that Sungenis can sell his preposterous book, where he plasters his false PhD on the cover in an attempt to lend some sort of faux credibility to his nonsensical blathering. As one may also have guessed by this point, a main source these clowns cite in their scientific and academic arguments? The Bible.
Yikes.
