This is a collection of the wisdom posted on the internet by a guy calling himself Gecko45. It all started back at the end of the halcyon summer of 2001, and his posts have created a certain urban legend that many refer to as the Mall Ninja. Hang out at any gun shop, gun show or shooting match and you’ll see one of these guys; you might even see a group of them since they are known to associate in the wild.
The Mall Ninja is easily distinguished by an abundance of “tactical” gear, such as fatigues, a thigh holster (with, of course, a Glock), combat boots, bandolier and other accouterments that you’d usually only see on a SWAT operative. Median age is usually 19-25, and they tend to boast about their various exploits with certain Special Forces units, all of which they’re too young and idiotic to have joined (real Special Forces types don’t brag). They typically have opinions on everything, regardless of expertise, they are uniformly poor shots, and they tend to exhibit a frightening lack of safety training.
40 Years ago this week, Monty Python’s Flying Circus debuted on BBC. I personally can trace the lineage of a sizeable portion of my own sense of humor and wit directly back to Monty Python as they had a profound influence on me in my adolescent years. In early 1980s, BBC shows made it to my home in northern California by way of PBS and Monty Python was one of them (along with Doctor Who, I might add). My friends and I found their intellectually driven humor refreshingly new and exciting. By our teenage years we reveled in our new found intellectual “coolness” because we could rattle off lines from “The Holy Grail” or “Meaning of Life” while everyone else around us seemed to be confused. In those years I spent a lot of time in my room building model airplanes while listening to Monty Python records – yeah, vinyl.
Each member of the troupe went on to do different projects that we all followed. John Cleese’s “Fawlty Towers” is still considered one of the funniest television shows in history by myself and many others; Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam went on to make delightfully odd films; Michael Palin had “Ripping Yarns”, another show brought to me by PBS and Eric Idle popped in and out of theaters in goofy films like “Nuns on the Run”. Sadly, I remember the day I walked into the shopette on Ft.Benning during Airborne School in 1989 and read that Graham Chapman had died.
In all Monty Python changed comedy, entertained millions and its members continue to do so. Thank you, gents.
PS. watching this scene during my Catholic School years was especially memorable.
I love XKCD - Randall Munroe’s a witty genius. He has a knack for taking obscure random things we often think about but actually apply them. In this case he takes the age old male question of “which urinal do I pick without freaking out the guy next to me?” For you non-tripods this is only a dilemma when the bathroom has just the right density of guys who need to pee. Too little and it’s a non-issue – just grab a urinal with enough space between you and the next guy – too much and who cares, we need to pee! Take a look at how Randall deals with the problem…
If you’ve been reading the news this week, you probably heard the story of Jaycee Dugard, the woman who was abducted at the age of 11 in 1991 and was recently discovered living in a virtual prison in the back yard of a couple’s come in Antioch, California. It now turns out a psychic by the name of Dayle Schear was hired by the parents to help locate their missing daughter and now that she’s been found all these years later, the psychic is claiming it proves her abilities. Say what?
Schear says she told Jaycee’s mother not to give up searching for her daughter: “I looked her in the eyes and I said… eventually she’ll walk through the door, you’re going to see her again.”Schear also claims that she correctly described the general area where Jaycee was being held. The psychic’s “information” is typical of what happens when missing persons are eventually found, dead or alive. Psychics come forward years later after the person was found to make retroactive claims about how they “knew” certain pieces of information.
This is a key aspect of psychic claims or clairvoyance – they make vague sounding statements that in hindsight can be rather easy to skew to fit the final outcome of the investigation. We see this all the time with people referencing Nostradamus or performing as a medium that contacts dead relatives. The psychic in the Dugard case never made a specific, accurate claim such as “she’s being held against her will in the backyard of a house.” Instead it was vague claims about her being “near water”, something that could be interpreted after the fact of being near a lake, a puddle or a bottle of water.
This is why the naturally skeptical aspect of double-blind scientific testing never reveals anything to psychic claims and attests to the fact that despite repeated claims, no missing person has been found solely from psychic claims. I’m sure there are charlatans amongst the psychic community that honestly know they are frauds conning people, but I suspect there’s also a segment that truly believes they have psychic abilities. This latter group is most likely sadly deluded and completely lacking a skeptical framework for critical thinking.
So it turns out that Pat Robertson needed heart surgery to save his life, specifically a convergent procedure, which involves cauterizing the continually beating heart muscle with heat generated by a radio frequency. Sounds pretty advanced, eh? During the procedure the doctors discovered an abnormally enlarged left appendage on Robertson’s heart that may have been the cause of his problems. You’d think after this experience he’d thank the doctors and medical staff for saving his life, but who does he give all the credit to instead?
“Only the prayers of thousands of believing people kept me on this earth.” Robertson said in a statement.
Mr.Robertson, you are an ungrateful ignorant idiot. Why even bother going to the hospital in the first place? This is a prime example of willful ignorance. Well done, sir.
Amazing Super Powers is one of my favorite web comics, among many others. I particularly like this one because it’s just another way of showing that much of what we consider our own reality is often just a personalized interpretation. I think of this often when people comment on something negative happening in their lives, saying “well, I guess everything happens for a reason.”
Before there was Paul Blart, there was Gecko45…
I love 
