- I understand having a hangover on a Sunday morning, if you've been out, but I had a night in and yet I've still woken up sick. #determinism #
- Have just received an "Epistomology" essay. I assume it's all about my blog. #
- Just watched Jon Stewart interview King Abdullah II. I think I have a crush on the monarch. #
- Quite possibly the final part of my series on Christchurch Earthquake conspiracy theories: http://bit.ly/aP8Uqy #
- Having given up on debating the nature of what scientific consensus is, the Climate Change Deniers are now promoting "counter-consensus." #
- This is long but worthy of your time (it is on conspiracy theories and the 1st half is more salient than the 2nd): http://bit.ly/d0VjSj #
- Tummy filled with Satya goodness. Now bed. Conspiracy theories can wait. #
- The special edition, feature-length version of
Battlefield" is a tighter cut than the original four eps. This may rescue the story afterall # - Given what the 11th Doctor chose as suitable food, the 7th Doctor's threat to cook supper at the end of Battlefield is UNIT's latest threat. #
- Installing Pandoc. Maybe this will a) fix the problem I have making Word docs for my supervisors and b) allow me to become an ePub maker. #
- Time to try out the wonder of Pandoc. Compiling dependencies took forever. #
- Hmm, MacPorts won't build Pandoc properly. Getting following error: target org.macports.build returned shell command failed #
- Reading the Maps: Bill Daly: a super bigot for the super city? http://tumblr.com/xqujwikjv #
- Sorry, Belle and Sebastian, but I have to do some work now. #
- Why have Wednesday's become so hard to complete this semester? #
- Do work or clear mountains of stuff on desk? #
- Whoop. Pandoc finally installed. eBooks, here I come. #
- Unexpected Taranaki visitor-syndrome. Very nice. #
- Just spent a large chunk of the night translating the Gospel of John out of M?ori into English with some other atheists. Comedy value high. #
- Holy Zarquon's Flying Fish. #
- Why is (almost) everyone talking about the troubles between Equity and "The Hobbit" being pig ignorant? Opinions do require facts, people. #
- Making epubs with Pandoc more difficult that anticipated. #
- First ep of SGU's new season really amps up the mythology of the show. #
- So, ePubs do not do footnotes. Why not? #
- I have spent the afternoon trying to get a firm grip on what Disinformation is. Yesterday it was the notion of "plausibility." I need cake. #
- I'm not just a "top debunker;" Will Ryan calls me "king sceptic:" http://bit.ly/bajIVd I didn't realise I doubt the existence of monarchs… #
- If anyone in or attached to Twitter-land wants to come up with an appropriate badge/crest for my new position of The Debunk King, please do. #
- Why is "Bored to Death" brilliant? "I've never ridden a horse before: I'm Jewish" Jonathan Ames knows his comedy. #
- Belle and Sebastian's "I'm a Cuckoo" is on repeat in my head. I don't have a problem with this. #
- This essay on Reformed Epistemology calls theologians "Theologists" and is inconsistent with that, with the occasional "Theololigist." #
- Rubicon episode ten was good; the show still isn't giving anything away, but I like the characters. #
- My Aotearoa conspiracy theory map: http://bit.ly/bPlKHR Now too complex to modify easily in the Xmind software. #
- Given that it is International Vegetarian Day it's probably not a good idea for me to be a bad vegan and eat a pie. Damn. #
- A PDF of the entire Earthquake Conspiracy shebang: http://bit.ly/9Iw3lW #eqnz #
- Best film ever, and it's only 5/8 seconds long: http://bit.ly/bZB06l #
- I have decided to ditch Tweetie and try Echofon. It seems very… IKEA? #
- No longer trying to define plausibility. Well, I am trying to define plausibility but I've gone a little Bayesian. #
- Lots of work done today, even if it meant losing two hundred words of thesis. Ah, it's too bloaty anyway. #
- I've (finally) been welcomed on to the marae at UoA. Not sure how I hadn't managed it prior. #
- So, I suck at bowling but am a killer at laser tag and can "Word Up" to Korn with the best of them. Stag nights show the measure of a man. #
Category: General
A Conspiracy Week of Tweets 2010-10-03
The Christchurch Quake Conspiracy (plural) – Part the PDF
Here be a PDF of the Christchurch posts for your reading (and disseminating) pleasure.
There’s no new content, although I did finesse the section changes a little. I also had fun, and by fun I meant I had to dredge up what little I could recall of how Vim works, in order to turn the LaTeX file into an ePub, but I found that it didn’t really work, due to the ePub format having to have some notable omissions (for one thing, it doesn’t seem to have support for footnotes, which is a massive oversight ((Please correct me if I am wrong.))). Still, it was worth trying out. Trying to be cutting edge, and all, you know? If anyone has any suggestions as to how to turn a LaTeX file into an ePub, please let me know. Pandoc did valiant work but the results just weren’t what I wanted.
P.S. I’ve recently updated the local conspiracy theories map, in case you want to take a gander.
The Christchurch Quake Conspiracy (plural) – Part the Last – A Conclusion, sort of
A conclusion, sort of
I’m not sure that I have covered every conspiracy theory about the Christchurch Earthquake of September 14th; the fact that Christchurch is still suffering serious aftershocks is bound to lead to even more theories as to what was really the cause. Frankly, I think it was probably the cannibalistic humanoid underground dwellers (CHUDs). They love to party, and they love to crank up the noise.
What I have found, looking at the conspiracy theories with sometimes jaundiced eyes, is just how easily the event (the Earthquake) was placed into an existing conspiracy theory dialectic/template. Do you believe in weather manipulation? If so, then the quake can be fitted into that story. Do you believe that dairy farming is evil? Guess what, dairy farmers were a cause of the earthquake? Are the gods out to get us? Sure; look at what happened on September 4th in Te Wai Pounamu.
I was a little surprised by the speed at which these theories have appeared, but I shouldn’t be. Vague theories spread quickly on the internet, and attributing a natural disaster to some fuzzy causal mechanism such as the LHC and its perpendicular gravity waves or the potential release of pressure on the local tectonic plates due to a change in the water table is just par for the course ((I don’t like golf, but I do seem to like golfing metaphors.)). I should note that there don’t appear to be any original conspiracy theories for the quake (if we ignore the satirical take of Bob Parker, Jon Gadsby and the muffins ((Do you know the Muffin Man?)).). No new theses have been advanced for the cause of the quake; rather, existing conspiracy theories were able to accommodate the quake into their narratives with nary a pause for doubt.
Business as usual.
It has been a little draining to go through all of these theories, trying to make sense of why people would shout “Conspiracy” for something that seems, not just on the face of it, to be a natural disaster. Still, I shouldn’t complain. Despite the “hardship” of reading blogposts and forum comments, nothing compares to what the people of Christchurch are going through. They’ve been through (and are still going through) hell. The last thing they need are conspiracy theorists, who don’t know any better, claiming that the disaster was the result of this, or that, or even “them.”
The people of the Canterbury Plains should not have to deal with such conspiracy theorists. Not now, possibly not even at some point in the future. Whilst I don’t know that anyone will be making much capital out of these conspiracy theories (although Jonathan Eisen and “Uncensored” might well prove me wrong), if they do… Well, point them out to me.
One final thought. I started this series of posts with the disclaimer “Conspiracy theorists are just like us and any one of us could have been a conspiracy theorist.” I have, maybe, moved away from that assertion over the last few days. Even though my doctoral work doesn’t really indicate to me that conspiracy theorists are any more pathological in their inferential mechanisms than anyone else, reading all this stuff has made me go “Hey, maybe the psychologists are right after all…” I suspect this is just a symptom of spending too much time trying to make sense of what seems like a truly crazy proposition, claiming that a natural disaster was the result of a conspiracy. I can understand conspiracy theorising when it comes to events of political import, but earthquakes? No. That seems a tad bit of crazy too far.
If new theories come up, well, I shall cover them. For the moment I think nit’s time to take a rest from this “investigative journalism” and go back to focussing on finishing this PhD of mine. I do want to do write on the Chemtrails NZ people at some point in the future; the letters Will Ryan (he who called me one of the country’s top debunkers) has been sending to Nick Smith and John Key are worthy of note. One thing this series of posts has shown to me is that local conspiracy theories really could be my bread and butter post the submission of the dissertation. Between them and the Celtic New Zealand people, why look overseas for weird and wacky ideas to entertain, critique and do the fandango over?
And, of course, there is always Plan B; become moderately less poor than I am now by endorsing one of these theories and doing a lecture tour through small towns, playing to the kind of people who believe such things.
I probably jest.
Next time: Well, unless something new and interesting comes up, next time will be a pretty PDF (and maybe even an ePub) of all these posts, put together as one article. I might even try to submit it to darling old “Uncensored” to see if they would be willing to print something of a critical thinking perspective around conspiracy theories about the quake. Then again, I’m loath to legitimise Eisen and his crusade, so maybe I should submit it elsewhere. The Fortean Times, perhaps? Any other suggestions?
A Conspiracy Week of Tweets 2010-09-26
- Being wrapped in honey is quite pleasant. #
- Atheist? Theist? Agnostic? Read this: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-shook-phd/for-atheists-and-believer_b_715546.html #
- I think I might have to dump part of this chapter into another; it's good material but it does not fit. #
- Note to all; Christchurch stuff is not an example of material from the thesis. It's just a little practice of some non-thesis writing. #
- Played Grand Theft Hippo (Red Dead Redemption) on Friday; it's good but not a big enough improvement over GTA4 to get me to buy it. #
- Votes cast for the local body elections. #
- "Delta and Bannermen" continues to get worse, episode by episode. How JNT allowed Pip and Jane Baker to even put crayon to paper astounds me #
- Still, the thing that makes "D&tBm" fascinating is just how easily the Welsh and the American characters accept the presence of aliens. #
- It's a pity that this utterly breaks the suspension of disbelief. No wonder I blocked this story from my memory. #
- Part four of my continuing series on the Christchurch Earthquake conspiracy theories: http://bit.ly/9UH7lf #
- I have discovered the secret of increasing blog traffic. Write posts people want to read. I should market this (and not post it to Twitter). #
- http://win.nzherald.co.nz/change/index.php?ref=ts #
- In which I post a video of myself not talking about conspiracy theories: http://bit.ly/d57KqK #
- Bailing on "Media 7" watching again, it seems. Day started at six and I spent most of it teaching. Now all I want is Rubicon, soup and bread #
- I just did a test render of the complete thesis; it's a slim 1 meg PDF. Well done, LaTeX. It's also 102,000 words, so a bit portly in places #
- I've gone two weeks without visiting Chris Trotter's blog and I'm feeling fine. Have been watching DPF's though; he stands up for dictators! #
- Taught two classes on the North Head conspiracy theories today. My "Wayne Mapp" joke bombed but it seems the people like Indiana Jones jokes #
- RT @AlanTuringYear Office in Man Uni whr Turing & Bernard Richards workd on morphogenesis in '50s still thr! Blue commem plaque pls! #Turing #
- Just as I was about to click post, another Freemasonic plot is suggested for the Christchurch Earthquake. It might just be easier to go mad. #
- Part Five of my series on the Earthquake conspiracy theories: http://bit.ly/9e0dA0 #
- Sometimes I read, aloud, the material I am typing. Luckily, I only ever do this at home. I think my office mates might resent it. #
- Lunch with Stephen Colbert. I'm thinking of Jon. #
- Watching Plavement play on "The Colbert Report." Malkmus has aged well; the others not so much. He looks like he's playing with his uncles. #
- And lo, the conspiracy theorists began to respond to my claims about them: http://bit.ly/bJyOd2 and http://bit.ly/baevzr #
- "He declined to be interviewed yesterday, but said in TEXT MESSAGES that he still considered himself a Labour MP." #weliveinthefuture #
- Hello Twitter. I want you to somehow give unto me an iPhone 4. Have I mentioned I am a poor PhD student? #testingtwitterskindness #
- Ken Ring seems to be claiming that he predicted the Earthquake and that there will be another one on the 1st of October. #
- Why have I just spent the last hour reading up on Ken Ring? Why am I not watching mindless TV or playing a computer game? #
- My blogposts haven't been this "popular" since the blog came under attack by the 9/11 Truth Movement. #
- Angry but composed letter sent to John Key about his MMP remarks: check. #
- "You're an A convert now." #saidinclass #
- There's a sofa in this lecture theatre. How did it get there? #dirkgently #hhgttg #
- Was thinking "Mm, maybe go to Webstock." The saw the date it is on. The saw the price. Date could be negotiated, but the price… #
- RT @juhasaarinen: RT @MiramarMike: http://www.galileowaswrong.com/ … *sigh* #
- Thinking of collating the Christchurch Earthquake conspiracy theories posts into an article. Suggestions in re places to submit it to? #eqnz #
- Good news: chapter is beginning to feel like it's going somewhere. Bad news: that "somewhere" is really messing up the chapter's structure. #
- RT @TimOfLegend: I'm angry, but more determined than ever to beat this game. This is the phase I like to call, "Hate Play." #
- Part six of my continuing series of conspiracy theories about the Christchurch Earthquake: http://bit.ly/aGqqjS #eqnz #
- RT @thisfog: Just wore the arse out of another pair of pants. Following my passion one pair of sweatpants at a time. #
- "Amnesia: The Dark Descent" was good but the last third really wasn't particularly scary whatsover. #
- Guaranteed way to make a good mood dissipate: making the mistake of reading anything recent by Lindsay Perigo. Sigh. Nap time. #
- "Psych" reference to "Remington Steele" has really made my day. #
- I was discussing exactly this subject the other day: http://bit.ly/bnOZUC #
- Quiet night in interrupted by drinking with flatmate and her sister. Good times had by all; subsequent edits of a document may need checking #
The Christchurch Quake Conspiracy (plural) – Part Six – Astrology
Written in the stars
Is a natural disaster natural if it was caused by the stars or the Moon? Probably, although most geologists and meteorologists would be surprised to hear that such distant bodies were causal factors in such essentially seismic activity. The astrological explanations for the Christchurch Earthquake of September the 4th are not conspiracy theories per se, but they are interestingly related to them, given that the assertion of these rival explanations being not just plausible candidate explanatory hypotheses for the quake but being the explanation is usually accompanied with some claim that the reason why this isn’t commonly known is because mainstream science is run by a rich elite who do not want is to know…
Over at Darkstar Astrology, earthquakes are considered to have a clear astrological origin or contributory cause.
[W]e have looked at charts for major earthquakes in relation to the aspects involving trans-Neptunian planets, especially Sedna and Eris.
and:
Sedna again looks to be important in this Christchurch earthquake. It is the action point of a Yod aspect pattern to Mars sextile Ceres.
Now, most sceptics, and most members of the public, will not be aware that earthquakes, tsunamis and the like have astrological causes, mostly because we learnt, during the Enlightenment, that such theories are bunk. Still, the modern astrologer will claim that even if the ancients were wrong (although surely they can’t have been?), new science has proven that their intuitions were basically correct. They will point towards new theories ((One webage, Astrology Notes on Earthquakes: Increased seismic risk with Saturn and Uranus in opposition , whilst talking about the link between the stars and earthquakes, has the line “Using my astro-seismic formula…” Comedy gold.)), or Quantum Physics (citing spooky action at a distance), or to the work of Richard Hoagland on hyperdimensional physics ((Which claims that vast amounts of energy, which originate from imperceivable dimensions, are to be found at latitudes 19.5° both sides of the equator on every solar body in our solar system.)).
Whatever the case, according to another of my Te Wai Pounamu-based correspondents (with her wry face set firmly to on, the astrologists claim the aftershocks should stop in first week of October. A testable prediction; I would be more impressed by the claim, if it weren’t both likely and already predicted by the rival, geological theory for seismic activity.
Meanwhile Ken Ring, astrologer and someone who claims he can predict the weather based upon the phases of the Moon, claims here that he predicted the earthquake of September 4th. Ring is an astrologer who thinks the Moon is the bee’s knees when it comes to weather prediction. Like the more traditional astrologers, he’s not really advancing a conspiracy theory about some sinister sect that induced the quake (although he does suggest that mainstream science, by deliberately downplaying good old accurate Astrology, is somehow at fault for the quake ((I.e. This suggests Ring does think there is some conspiracy, by the establishment, to keep astrologers like himself on the outside of the debate.)).
Gone are the days when all scientists were astrologers first and foremost, and when Sir Isaac Newton described astrology as the first science. Subsequently also gone are the times when science could predict anything useful.
Yes, pity poor modern science. It might be able to get objects to land on Mars and skirt close enough to the outer planets to take spectacular photos, but it’s no match for the predictive majesty of the daily horoscope.
Sarcasm aside, Ring bases his weather predictions on the phases of the Moon, which allows him to create a rather ornate pseudoscience with claims like:
A fortnight beforehand the full moon was passing over close to the equator, which would have provided enough of a tidal force to lift that plate, in other words weaken it, and then a fortnight later when the moon was high in the N hem and just rising, it would have provided the lateral force required to trigger the rest. The unusual closeness of the moon is the key.
and:
And here’s how the big earthquake unfolded. On Sept 4th the moon came significantly within range of the node at 3.37am (5deg of applying), about an hour before the earthquake occurred at 4.30am. In a manner of speaking it gave the moon an hour to take aim.
Here’s Ring’s prediction for the next big quake in March next year:
Next year, the morning of 20 March 2011 sees the South island again in a big earthquake risk for all the same reasons. This date is the closest fly-past the moon does in all of 2011. The node arrives on the 20th at 9.44am. As that date coincides with lunar equinox this will probably be an east/west faultline event this time, and therefore should be more confined to a narrower band of latitude. The only east/west fault lines in NZ are in Marlborough and N Canterbury. All factors should come together for a moon-shot straight through the centre of the earth and targeting NZ. The time will be just before noon. It could be another for the history books.
Should we take Ring seriously. One word answer: No. For more words, look here and here, where someone actually debates Ring over his claim that he predicted the events of September 4th ((This post, from the people at “Silly Beliefs” is informative for just how, well, clueless, Ring is.)). There’s no real point my replicating their work here, especially as if you read the “Silly Belief” comments thread, you get the pleasure of seeing Ring try to dodge and eventually debate his opponents.
Next time: The conclusion, probably.
The Christchurch Quake Conspiracy (plural) – Part Five – Falling and Free Masonry
Would you believe that there was a conspiracy to sell more lingerie behind the earthquake? No, nor would I, and this article doesn’t even suggest it (even though it does suggest the two are causally related). Still, if I were the writer behind the Bob Parker website, I’d be including it in the narrative.
The Eye in the Pyramid in the Field (in Christchurch)
Freemasonic plots are not common (as far as I’ve found in my reading of the local literature) in the conspiracy theories of Aotearoa. We don’t really do the “fear of what those ancient and secret societies are up to” thing; we just tend to think that the members of such fraternal orders are bit sad ((Sorry, guys, but it’s true. Your secret societies, your robes and your wacky handshakes aren’t going to get you into the parties you’d like to be going to.)). However, someone in Christchurch, writing in to The Press ((One of my bugbears, as a researcher, is that newspapers do not publish “Letters to the Editor” online, so I’d like to give a very special shout out to a friend down in Christchurch who goes out of her way to provide me with pieces like the following tidbit. Cher, mi’dear.)), thinks that there is something suspicious about the quake and the devastation it has caused to certain Masonic landmarks:
Thanks for the schematic of the epicentre. My attention was instantly drawn to the eye at the apex of a perfectly pyramidical paddock, itself part of a larger equilateral triangle formed by Kivers (Covers), Grange and Aylesbury roads.
Given that the eye in the pyramid is a classic Masonic symbol, it is strangely coincidental that much of what was destroyed in the quake involved the work of masons, my great-great-grandfather, William Brassington, chief among them.
As my Christchurch-based correspondent wrote:
Although I … [PROFESSION REDACTED TO PROTECT THE INNOCENT] make some sort of living decoding visual images, clearly it didn’t make such a profound impression on me as on the letter-writer, who is probably contacting Dan Brown with urgent new information as we speak.
Another example of this comes out from Clare Swinney. She writes:
The first earthquake report, which was numbered: 3366146/G, stated that the focal depth was 33 km and the magnitude was 7.4 on the Richter scale. Consider that 7 + 4 = 11 and that the numbers 33 and 11 are of pivotal importance to the highest echelons of the Freemasons.
The Scottish Rite of Freemasonry consists of 33 degrees and 11, 22, and 33 are deemed Master Numbers, numbers worshipped to empower them in their bizarre quest to destroy humanity.
Those evil Scottish Freemasons (whose natural home is Dunedin, which is the enemy of good old Christchurch ((Well, so I imagine.))). Anyway, Swinney goes on, making supposition after conjecture after, well, whatever passes for argumentation in her world, finally saying:
I have yet to find hard evidence to substantiate this. I will let you know if I do. ((She’s talking about evidence for Tesla’s rumoured earthquake machinery, but, really, it applies to the entire screed.))
Still, it gets better, trust me.
Obligatory “The Big Lebowski” Reference
Let me return to that letter to the editor of the Press. He finishes with the following classic flourish:
Christ said he would build his assembly upon a rock. Paradoxically, our city, ostensibly named for him, is built on sand, shingle and swamp – and some deeply concealed faults.
The religious angle on the Earthquake is interesting; a fair number of right-wing commentators in the States have either lamented that a place named after the Church of Christ might be destroyed in a quake (which is how a lot of people overseas seem to be reading our natural disaster) or claim that the people of Christchurch deserved it because they had the hubris to name their city after the Lord Someone’s God, who would appear to be a vengeful spirit who really only likes hypocrites and Conservatives. Or something; the dialectic about god-induced natural disasters is all very confusing and it tends to boil down to two things.
1) Can we find some (any) transgression by the locals to blame the disaster upon, and
2) Are we such complete arseholes that we’re willing to tell the victims, who are already suffering, that they deserve to suffer because they did (or, in most cases, where alleged to do) something we’re not comfortable with.
I suspect what this proves is also twofold.
1) (Some) Religiously-minded people are incredibly vindictive, and
2) The god (or the gods), that they hold so high, obviously sub-contract out these matters to incompetents (since some of the faithful always seem to get hurt in the process), which is why:
a) We really shouldn’t worship such entities if they aren’t going to bother to micro-manage (it is their job, for god’s sake ((Oh, my comedy instinct is really running on empty at the moment.))), and
b) Perhaps this suggests that the natural disasters weren’t induced by supernatural agency after-all.
That, one would hope, pretty much wraps it up for god (or the gods). Still, the religious angle is being played out elsewhere in our own conspiracy theoretic blogosophere. Over at Issues That Matter Most one post starts:
“The NZ CHRISTCHURCH earthquake is definitely a sign from God to the CHURCH OF CHRIST. The time 4:35 AM has been mentioned several times by the doves. However, no one seems to notice the coordinates: 43.55°S, 172.18°E (link). The number 435 is in the coordinates as well — 43.55°S! What is more, 29 cubits is 43.5 feet — a direct link to NOAH and our ESCAPE at the rapture !!!!!! The remaining digit 5 & the number 172.18 form two numbers that suggest HARPAZO (518 Greek gematria, from amalgam of digit 5 and .18°; link) on the 17th day of the 2nd month (from 172°) !
The local time 4:35 AM is 16:35 universal time. GET THIS RIGHT: It is 7 hours 26th minute from MIDNIGHT (G726 is HARPAZO) !!!!!!
Now, weird numbers, simple ciphers and symbolic architecture is really the play set of a certain class of conspiracy theorist. They “see” much more by the way of connection between events in the world, the landscape that makes up the world and a number of arbitrary features that exist in between. If there is a class of conspiracy theorist I do not understand, it is this kind, who I call the cabalist.
It is hard to know where to start a critique of this kind of conspiracy theorising. The use of numbers is, of course, meaningless; you can select and manipulate the names and symbols used in Numerology to get the right values and the values themselves only have particular import if you have already arbitrarily assigned meaning to them. As for finding meaning in architecture… Well, whilst it marks for best-selling pieces of fiction, in the real world sometimes a Square and Compass motif on a building usually just tells you who designed (or built) it, rather than revealing some hidden and sinister history.
Next time: It was written in the stars; the Astrology of the Christchurch Earthquake of September 4th.