Petition to #Apple: Protect Workers Making iPhones in Chinese Factories

Here at Le Café Witteveen, we’ve been following some of the stories surrounding the controversy that Apple uses Asian manufacturers to make their products (see here and here).

Regular reader and blogger Biodork sent me a petition to Apple this morning that you can sign here.

Here’s a snip:

Here’s the thing: you’re Apple. You’re supposed to think different. I want to continue to use and love the products you make, because they’re changing the world, and have already changed my life. But I also want to know that when I buy products from you, it’s not at the cost of horrible human suffering.

And later:

Your own ads say that “the people who think they are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

Please get to it.

Hear hear.

Thanks, Brianne!

What TYWKIWDBI is posting

Lately, I can’t get enough of the blog TYWKIWDBI, and if I thought it was acceptable blogger etiquette to just repost EVERYTHING the Minnesotastan  posts, I would.

But I can’t. Or shouldn’t rather.

However, I love to send you toward great things found on the Internets. There are a couple of things I wanted to link to so that you would know which posts I think are way worth it.

This one on a saber-toothed marsupial-type animal is nothing short of awe-inspiring.

This post talking about hackers getting ahold of your computer camera and watching you masturbate is super disturbing and needs to get out.

And finally, this oneon a caterpillar that evolved to look like a snake …. holy shit! How awesome is that! Picture below.

 

Reliable Source: Did Media Treat Bachmann Unfairly Because She’s An Insane Woman

I wish my opinions were sponsored by Acura.

Could someone please make that happen?

TIA.

Gingrich: Obama declared war on religion

Surely people who think Gingrich is a decent candidate can see how ridiculous this man’s ideas are.

Surely?

I mean, what does it say about you if you fall for that kind of argument?

Via

I wanna buy the ingredients for this cocktail just to take its photo

 

I have finally found the cocktail I was looking for. It’s called, “An Alien Brain Hemorrhage”.

According to TYWKIWDBI, to make an Alien Brain Hemorrhage:

To make an alien brain hemorrhage cocktail, fill a shot glass halfway with peach schnapps. Gently pour Bailey’s Irish Cream on top. After the shot is almost full, carefully add a small amount of blue curacao. After it settles, add a few drops of grenadine syrup.

The only other way I know to make an alien brain hemorrhage is if you get abducted by aliens and they cause you to burst an artery in the brain. This would be followed by localized bleeding in the surrounding tissue that kills brain cells.

The great thing about both kinds of alien brain hemorrhages is they both kill brain cells.

Via

I’m for calling a spade a spade

Only in America can you be pro-death penalty, pro-war, pro-unmanned drone bombs, pro-nuclear weapons, pro-guns, pro-torture, pro-land mines, and still call yourself ‘pro-life.

Via some kid on Facebook

For more on this, check out this story about a North Carolinian man of sanity. Did I say sanity? That doesn’t seem very spade like.

I am the 62 percent

In this article from CBS, Rick Santorum reportedly said these words:

Because you know 62 percent of children who enter college with a faith conviction leave without it.

Finally, I’m part of the majority.

Santorum blames the absence of Judeo-Christian teachings for kids leaving college without Yeshua in tow.

I not only had 12 years of intense, evangelical training through Christian elementary to high schooling, churching, and upbringing, I also went to a Presbyterian College with a very clear Christian message.

I was the poster child of Christian indoctrination that Santorum hails as the correct way to raise children.

Santorum doesn’t want people to get an education?

He thinks putting children in churches and Christian elementary schools isn’t indoctrination? What shallow amount of child psychology does Santorum need to understand the fallacies of his reasoning?

I’ve heard this before from conservatives: education ruins belief.

How about that.

Santorum also said:

The indoctrination that occurs in American universities is one of the keys to the left holding and maintaining power in America. And it is indoctrination. If it was the other way around, the ACLU would be out there making sure that there wasn’t one penny of government dollars going to colleges and universities, right?

At Skepticamp Chicago, Jamie Bernstein talked about Probabilities. I bet the probability formula for a tried-and-true Christian graduating college from a Christian university as a soon-to-be atheist is all kinds of improbable. But there’s a formula for it, and I don’t know how to use it.

 

Bob Edwards interviews Me’Shell Ndegeocello

 

Remember Me’Shell Ndegeocello the woman from that John Mellencamp video for “Wild Night”?

Bob Edwards interviewed her on NPR this morning. She’s a really cool woman and artist.

One thing that stood out was a comment she made when asked about her “beliefs.”

She said, “I’m an atheist who is influenced by Islam.”

I thought that was odd, but needed posting. I have no idea what the influenced by Islam thing means, though. I kind of missed what she was saying in context.

#Skepticamp Chicago begs the question: “Why did I enjoy it so much?”

Jamie Bernstein points to an audience member to answer a question

Yesterday, January 28, 2012, I was happily roped in to crashing attending Skepticamp Chicago. What a great event.

Skepticamp is an event that organizes skeptics and gives them a chance to deliver short, educational presentations to their peers and to meetup with like-minded people. This Skepticamp was at Streetside Bar and Grill (3201 W. Armitage Chicago)

The presentations ranged from Conspiracy Theories and Homeopathy 101 to Canine Dominance and Aggression and Aliens. Presenters ranged from local Atheist celebrities like Jamie Bernstein (pictured above) and Phil Ferguson to people whom I’ve never heard of but sense will hear a lot from in the future. Keep your ears and eyes open for Marcus A. Davis, Matt Lowry, Ivan Phillips and Ali Marie.

Maybe they are celebs already, but they were new for me.

I’m biased toward Ivan Phillips. He’s a photographer, and a damn good one at that.  He’s also a software developer and he recently co-founded The Rational Future Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to raising public awareness of human cognitive bias and of the principles of rationality. Ivan and I spoke for a while about photography, and he’s got some amazing work that I look forward to seeing more of.

His talk on Ideal Rationality was an important one, for me anyway.

Among those in attendance were people like @godlessgirl and @abiodork, who are so badass you should bookmark their blogs and follow them on twitter.

Ali Marie

One of my favorite presentations was from 19 year old Ali Marie, who we need to bolster up and get her face and voice in front of our young people. She gave an excellent presentation on Fostering Curiosity.

Ali blogs at TeenSkepchick and Scientifica Phenomena, which writes this about her:

Ali Marie is a third-year college student and a self-proclaimed museum geek and paleo-nerd. Her interest in how the world around her works began as a young child, when she wouldn’t stop asking “why?” She’s since taken classes at museums and schools to learn as much as she can, and volunteers at museums to share that knowledge with anyone willing to listen. When not studying or spreading science, reason, and critical thinking, Ali enjoys digging up dinosaurs, reading, writing, drawing prehistoric creatures, playing an absurd number of musical instruments, and living in awe of our amazing universe.

Ali also writes for Teen Skepchick, a blog about science, critical thinking, skepticism, and feminism, geared toward the teenage girl.

Skeptic Money’s Phil Ferguson spoke about Homeopathy. His presentation was particularly interesting and his Q&A was the most lively of the day. Ferguson covered a bit of homeopathy’s history and also covered the dilution scale of their “medicines.”

The note that I took was, “Is the ratio of people who take diluted homeopathic ‘medicines’ somehow proportional to delusion?”

Phil Ferguson exposing how weak homeopathic "medicines" are.

Make sure you sign up for the next Skepticamp that comes your way. You won’t be disappointed.

Don’t believe the pipe

Magritte inspired parody of a painting of a pipe with the words, “Don’t believe the pipe.” beneath.

Clever.
Via