Happy Holidays! I bring you a video I put together using the audio from a fake commercial in a 'You Don't Know Jack" game:
If you don't know what this is referring to, there are companies that sell you certificates claiming that they've named a star after you. The Cloud Registry is only slightly more ridiculous.
If you'd like to learn more I recommend this episode of the Exposing Pseudoastronomy podcast by my good friend Stuart Robbins.
I'm working on the next episode, I've just had to deal with some technical glitches that have slowed me down. In the meantime, I decided that it might be fun to make a video of all the nonsense I come across on a typical shopping trip.
Just me rambling on and complaining like a crotchety old man. What more could you ask for?
I'll let you guys know if I come across any really interesting information about these products I talked about.
Don't get me wrong, I know that it's the job of advertisers to use the truth selectively and to tell a narrative that may not be completely true to reality. But every so often I notice a commercial that I have to admit is a masterwork in using completely meaningless babble to trick people into believing they're getting actual information.
Case in point, Downy's recent "Basket of Cash" commercial. Take a look, and notice how not one single point made in the commercial carries any actual real world meaning:
Now let's take a deeper look at what the ad was showing us:
I went out to do some grocery shopping yesterday, and I decided to have a look at the magazine rack. I was hoping, but not expecting, that they had decided to start carrying one or both of the main skeptical magazines: Skeptic Magazine or The Skeptical Inquirer. Unfortunately, I was once again disappointed. They had a few interesting science magazines, but the skepticism magazines were completely absent.
This grocery store is about a 20 minute walk away from my apartment, and there are 2 other stores in that area with magazine racks, none of which carry skeptical magazines. Whenever I'm out and about in other areas of the city, I look at the magazine racks in other stores to see if they carry a skeptical magazine. I found one Shoppers Drug Mart that carried Skeptic Magazine, but not Skeptical Inquirer. Most other Shoppers Drug Marts I've been to, however, don't.
The only place I know of that carries both magazines is Chapters, a large book store here in Canada with an extensive magazine rack. I guess skepticism is still pretty much a niche topic, widely misunderstood and not well represented in our society. It's unfortunate, but there's just not the demand for this kind of content that we'd like to see, even though I'm personally of the opinion that our message can really catch on if more people are exposed to it.
It's disheartening to realize how far we have to go, even though the skeptical community has grown by leaps and bounds on the Internet. But what was even more disheartening was moving my gaze over the magazine rack to the right, where I saw this:
For anybody interested in hearing more of me, I'll be making an appearance on the next episode of the Cognitive Dissonance podcast. I had a great time.
I was planning on sending Cecil and Tom a Google Voice message, a kind of a little bit they could play during their email segment. Unfortunately I wasn't able to connect. I tried three times last night, but it just didn't work. Probably because I'm in Canada or something. Anyway, if you're interested, here's what I would have said:
Hey guys. It's... uh.. It's the Dumbass!
It's, um... right after we've finished our recording on Sunday... I uh... I hope this gets to you before you've done any editing or anything...
Listen... I... I just want to apologize for my behaviour. I think it mostly went fine, but i think I need to apologise once again for calling Tom an asshole... and for making that pass at Cecil. I was drunk, I wasn't myself... maybe I'm hitting the sauce a little too hard these days... I'll work on that. Anyway, I'm sure you'll edit that out, right?
.... and also the part where I broke down blubbering and crying for my mother. That was highly unprofessional of me, I know. I'm just... going through some hard times right now, there's no reason to go into it or put that in the episode.
.... And... um... well, I just realized that at one point in the show you may have heard me breathing... in a kind of heavy and ragged manner. I... um... I was just jogging on the spot in front of my computer. I'm trying make sure to get my... uh... exercise you know. Just.... um.. You can feel free to just ignore that and mute my audio for that part.
So... um.. yeah. I'm sure you'll edit it to sound perfectly fine and your listeners will never notice anything amiss. And of course it goes without saying that you're not going to actually play this message for your listeners, right? What am I saying, I don't even need to ask, there's no way you'd do something silly like that!
So... we're good, right? Yeah... yeah, I'm sure we're good. I think that mostly went rather well, in fact... other than, you know, the stuff I just mentioned. Anyway, thanks for having me on, I had a really great time... um... I'll just get going now. Bye!
I'm kind of glad that I wasn't able to pull it off actually, because the topic we were talking about involved child pornography. The bit about the heavy breathing might have seemed more in poor taste.
On 5/19/2013 at 12:47am samsahimi wrote: so dumbass is trying to make a point. and so many people are so angry. this is because...
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On 3/29/2013 at 3:31pm Ryan wrote: That supposed Dr. Forward paper
http://u2.lege.net/culture.zapto.org8220080124/antigravidity/Robert%20L.Forward%20%20Guidelines%20to%20Antigravity.pdf ...
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On 3/22/2013 at 12:04am NON COWARD wrote: This is Dumbass Planet and I am a SUPERHUMAN with abilities that you all are INFERIOR TO. So, I...
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On 3/11/2013 at 11:46pm melphippin wrote: I just read a short story in a book called strange tales of mystery and imagination, copyright 2000, which states...
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On 2/28/2013 at 5:48pm Dumbass wrote: Hey Enrazo75,
Take a look at this alternate angle on the "Golden Flyer" (copy and paste it to your URL bar):
http://www.dumbassguide.info/images/sitedisplay/goldenflyerscansmall.jpg
Does...
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