"The price of freedom of religion, or of speech, or of the press, is that we must put up with a good deal of rubbish." - Robert Jackson
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Homeopathy on the NHS is unethical, doctors tell MPs - "The NHS spent £12m on homeopathic remedies between 2005 and 2008, money many critics said the health service could not afford... Unlike conventional drugs, homeopathic treatments can be sold without being proven to work in clinical trials. Instead, they can be marketed for mild conditions if homeopaths broadly agree the treatment relieves symptoms of a condition. Many scientists believe this exemption should be removed because it is misleading and undermines the credibility of pharmacists and the government's regulatory body, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency"
Business Information - "During the 1990s virtually an entire generation of top executives left their businesses, retired, or passed away. Many of these executives had achieved legendary status--[David] Packard at Hewlett-Packard, [Akio] Morita at Sony, [Sir John Harvey-] Jones at ICI, [Sam] Walton at Wal-Mart, and [Jan] Carlzon at SAS... This 'old guard' was the last of a breed of executives who developed their management skills almost entirely in the workplace... In 1993 businesses around the world spent $17 billion for consultants' recommendations, and AT&T alone lavished $347.1 million on outside expertise... we suspect that if those [managers] of years gone by found themselves at the helm of any of today's extraordinarily complex and competitive business enterprises, they would steer a straight and successful course"
What's The Harm? - "This site is designed to make a point about the danger of not thinking critically. Namely that you can easily be injured or killed by neglecting this important skill. We have collected the stories of over 670,000 people who have been injured or killed as a result of someone not thinking critically... Many proponents of these things will claim they are harmless. We aim to show that they are decidedly not."
Examples there: acupuncture, voodoo, Jehovah's Witnesses, Dowsing, Holocaust denial. Though for the last, all 5 cases of harm come about because of persecution, so it sucks as an example
Swiss prostitutes trained to use defibrillators in brothels to prevent clients dying - "Brothel owners in the Lugano area say electric shock treatment to restart customer's hearts is needed because so many elderly customers are using their services"
Tiger Woods Announces Return To Sex | The Onion - "Saying that fucking is his "calling and [his] one true passion," Woods spoke of how he has always adored the sight of a neatly trimmed mound, the smell of fresh stank early in the morning when the labia glisten with dewy juices, and the feel of a perfect impact with a woman's vagina... "I just have to take my time, visualize the line, and read the grain and the slope of the vulva correctly," Woods said. "It's really all mental at that point""
Racism!
ShadyURL - Don't just shorten your URL, make it suspicious and frightening. - "Example: http://spongebob.nick.com/backstage/characters/spongebob/ becomes http://5z8.info/malicious-cookie_d5d2_hateminorities"
Tickle Cock Bridge returned to original name after row - "In an attempt to spare blushes, a council official suggested it was called Tittle Cott bridge and a plaque bearing the sanitised name was erected... “I was horrified at another example of the nanny state telling us something we don’t want to do.”"
Comment: "Apparently the first plaque was erected. I notice that to save embarassment when reverting to the traditional name, the replacement plaque will be installed."
Bacon burger backlash rocks France - "The Quick chain has taken pork off its menu in eateries in Roubaix, northern France, as well as in Marseille and in the Paris suburb of Argenteuil to try to tap into the growing market of Muslim customers... Roubaix town leaders on Thursday filed a complaint for discrimination, their lawyer Frank Berton told AFP. He said Quick was effectively making the supplying of its products conditional on religious affiliation. "I'm not bothered by the fact that there is a halal menu," said Roubaix's Mayor Rene Vandierendonck. "But this is going too far because it is the only menu on offer and it has become discrimination." French far-right politician Marine Le Pen suggested the Halal menus were providing a financial boost to Muslim organisations that certify meat as having been slaughtered in accordance with Islamic practices."
The 24 Best Chat Roulette Screenshots [NSFW] - "Chat Roulette is quickly becoming the go to site if you want to chat with the most socially depraved people you will ever interact with. It's mostly dudes masturbating, but every now and then you'll get a good laugh out of it."
How Christian Were the Founders? - "There was a religious element to the American Revolution, which was so pronounced that you could just as well view the event in religious as in political terms. Many of the founders, especially the Southerners, were rebelling simultaneously against state-church oppression and English rule... 'You couldn’t tell the story of the Pilgrims or the Puritans or the Dutch in New York without religion'... the founders were overwhelmingly Christian; that the deistic tendencies of a few — like Jefferson — were an anomaly; and that most Americans in the era were not just Christians but that “98 percent or more of Americans of European descent identified with Protestantism”"
OMG It’s The Ultimate Photobomber!
NSFW