The BBC is reporting that a mob in western Kenya has burned to death 11 elderly people. The eight women and three men, all of whom were over 80, were on a list of people who supposedly attended a “witches meeting,” which produced a list of people who were scheduled for future bewitchment. The victims were dragged from their homes one by one and set on fire in the street. The mob then burned down their houses.

  The best (most appalling) part of the article concerns the response of the people who weren’t burned to death:

Residents have been ambivalent about condemning the attacks because belief in witchcraft is widespread in the area.

  Yes, let’s not get up on our soapbox about burning old people to death, because a lot of people think that witchcraft is real. Hopefully, it won’t be MY grandmother that’s tortured and murdered next time.

But local official Mwangi Ngunyi spoke out against the murders. “People must not take the law into their own hands simply because they suspect someone,” he told AFP news agency.

  OH CRAP YES, Mr. Nugunyi. It’s not so important that your neighbors are vicious predators, murdering elderly people. It’s not the fact that their ridiculous superstitions are inciting them to this kind of appalling violence. No, the real problem here is vigilantism. We can solve the whole problem with a small shift in behavior. Next time your suspect that your elderly neighbor is casting spells on you, don’t burn her to death. CALL THE POLICE ON HER!

  This is why superstition and belief in (or fear of) the supernatural are not harmless fun. Blind belief, ignorance and fear are volatile and dangerous. Today, we can add 11 more names to the list of innocent victims of these awful human failings.

From the Skepchick store:

*But especially for Michele.

Okay, a lot late, but I’ve been busy. The excellent skeptic/girl power communal blog Skepchick.org has a regular “Comment o’ the Week” feature. From what I can tell, a shadowy cabal of the site’s contributors arbitrarily pick a comment that amuses them.

Despite the lack of transparency in the process, their picks have been consistently excellent and LOL-inducing. Until last week that is, when, for some inexplicable reason, they picked one of my comments.

Don’t let this oversight dissuade you from reading an otherwise interesting and amusing blog. This is just evidence that it’s always good to keep your critical thinking brainmeats engaged. Even consistently smart people can make odd, irrational choices.

As part of its Expelled Exposed project, the National Center for Science Education tackles that tired creationist argument, irreducible complexity. If you’re not familiar with this line of reasoning, it basically goes like this:

“I can’t imagine how [COMPLEX ANATOMICAL STRUCTURE] could possibly have evolved from simpler structures, without any deliberate guidance. Therefore, relying only on my own ignorance as evidence, I conclude that [COMPLEX ANATOMICAL STRUCTURE] must have been conjured up fully formed by a benevolent sky-grandpa.”

Luckily for the poor, misguided creationist, there are plenty of scientists who can imagine, and describe in great detail, the intermediate stages and slow development that led to the current version of [COMPLEX ANATOMICAL STRUCTURE]. In the video below, they demystify the development of perhaps the favorite target of the irreducible complexity argument, the eye. Enjoy.

If you’ve ever suspected that the complexity and perfection of the human body are evidence that it must have been deliberately sculpted by an intelligent hand, I’d like to introduce you to the epiglottis. It’s a small flap of cartilage in the back of your throat, that hangs out just behind your tongue. When you swallow, it lays down to block off the opening to your larynx, directing food and liquids into your esophagus, and away from the “gas only” zone that is your lungs.

If something did deliberately design human anatomy, it made the choice to channel all the normal states of matter through a single space, with only a small flap of mucous-covered cartilage to play traffic cop between the lungs and the stomach. It’s both needlessly complex and downright dangerous. Building separate, dedicated pathways for breathing and swallowing would have been simpler, and far less prone to catastrophic failure.

If the human body were intelligently designed, Dr. Heimlich would have died in obscurity.

Despite millennia of being consistently mistaken, charlatans and true believers alike continue to predict that the end of the world is just around the corner. The latest entry in the Book Of Inevitable Failure comes from pastor Mark Biltz, of El Shaddai Ministries in Bonney Lake, Wash. Pastor Biltz has determined that a series of lunar eclipses that will appear in 2015 are a likely herald of the long awaited second coming. Why? Because they happen to fall on the same days as his religious festivals.(video)

This prediction has all the classic elements. Regular, predictable astronomical phenomena, reference to vague bible verses, coincidental timing with arbitrarily dated church holidays, current political unrest and enough wishful thinking to kill a yak at 20 paces.

My favorite part of this whole scenario is that Hal Lindsey, crackpot and lifetime member of the failed prophets club, dismisses Biltz’s theory as “pure speculation.” Talk about the 100% non-reflective surface calling the kettle black.

Someone remind me to send Mr. Biltz a postcard in 2016. I’m sure I’ll be way too busy not burning in hell to remember by myself.

Dear Little Bald Bastard,
How are you going to celebrate the national day of Prayer?
- Belief/relief

Dear Belief/relief,
In the classic Christian tradition of co-opting other people’s holidays (and crotch-punching the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause), U.S. evangelicals have managed to shove poor, neglected May Day 2008 aside in favor of a federally sponsored day for people of faith to beseech their favorite deity. This putatively ecumenical event has been entirely hijacked by evangelical Christians, led by Focus on The Family’s Shirley Dobson. Dobson heads the National Day of Prayer Task Force, and requires all of her coordinators to sign a statement explicitly stating belief that Jesus was both a ghost AND a zombie.

I’m going to spend my day like I spend any other. I’ll be angry that the rights of those who opt out of the supernatural aren’t as important as those of believers. I’ll be appalled at how tolerance of diverse faiths doesn’t apply to people who place their faith in the natural rather than the fantastic. I’ll be aghast at this country’s sad, greasy slide toward outright theocracy. Most of all, I’ll wish I was surprised by any of it.

Three things I did not know:

1. Dr. Henry Heimlich, purported inventor of the famed and (I shit you not) registered trademark “maneuver” for rescuing choking victims is still alive.

I don’t know why, but I always assumed that such a simple procedure must have been invented in the 19th century. Based on the last name, I pictured a humble Bavarian physician, decked out in lederhosen and suspenders. While knocking back a pint at a rural ale house, he rushed to the aid of one of the town volk who was choking on a bit of bratwurst. Thanks to his quick thinking, his technique became the namesake maneuver, and his improvised flailings (and maybe the bit of horked-up sausage) were preserved for posterity.

As it turns out, the maneuver was first described in the mid-70s. Although it is still taught as a remedy for choking, it isn’t the recommended first treatment. Dr. Heimlich was born in Delaware in 1920, and doesn’t seem to be particularly humble. Or Bavarian.

2. Dr. Heimlich has been dogged by allegations of fraud.

One of Dr. Heimlich’s most persistent critics is his son, Peter Heimlich. Among the allegations he levels against his father is the charge that the famous technique was appropriated from Dr. Heimlich’s long time colleague, Dr. Edward Patrick.

3. Dr. Heimlich may be completely, dangerously, batshit insane.

Dr. Heimlich advocates the use of his system of abdominal thrusts to treat drowning victims, despite much evidence that such use is dangerous and potentially fatal. Most obviously crazy, though, is his insistence that he can cure HIV/AIDS with an injection. Of malaria.

Dr. Heimlich, who has no training as an immunologist, seriously believes that he can cure AIDS, as well as cancer and Lyme disease, by injecting patients with malaria. In support of this hypothesis, he’s conducted ethically suspect trials with HIV patients in China and Africa. One of the conditions of those trials was that participants couldn’t receive any other treatment, either for their HIV or the symptoms of their malaria infections.

This is what I get for relying on Eddie Izzard for information about a public figure.

I’m not about to say that my hour of casual reading amounts to a definitive case, but there is a good bit of evidence of a disconnect between Dr. Heimlich’s self-promoted legacy and the details of his actual career in public health. If you think I’m wrong, feel free to argue.

Interviews and artwork in the new book Colorful Illustrations 93°C were ripped off wholesale from Darren Di Lieto’s Little Chimp Society. Dozens of original illustrations and interviews with the artists who created them have been copied and repackaged as a $100 book.

It’s the modern nightmare of electronic distribution. On the one hand, it’s an inexpensive way to get your work in front of a worldwide audience. On the other hand, a fake publisher in Hong Kong can copy it all and publish it under a fake ISBN with very little fear of legal retribution.

If you or someone you know/love/share fluids with is a big fan of overpriced art books, please make sure they know that purchasing this particular tome is a kick to the soft bits of all hard working artists who share their work online.

Dear Little Bald Bastard,
  Have you ever given somebody a piece of gum because they had nasty breath? What do you do if they say no?
- Mjr. Halitosis

Dear Mjr. Halitosis,
  Wow, awkward city. I’ve only ever been in that situation once. The unfortunate stank dragon didn’t take the hint, but he wasn’t in my space for very long, so my discomfort was short lived. If you’re stuck in close proximity to the freshness-challenged individual, you could be in for a long, gross day/evening/sexual encounter.

  If the breath offender is someone you’re close to, breath shallowly and tell the truth. If you say it nicely, you’ll likely get a better smelling environment without suffering through too much indignation.

  If you’re not comfortable saying it straight, it’s time for some passive-aggressive escalation. Repeat the offer of gum, then offer mints, mouthwash and (for good measure) gum again.

  If all of these hints fail to bring the message home, just announce loudly that you’re going to brush your teeth. You’ll either get your point across, or create an opportunity to wriggle out the bathroom window. Either way, your poor, offended nose will thank you.