Dramatis Interruptus - Charles "I'm Not Racist" Murray's Elitism Test

(YouTube/MP3)

(I haven't decided if I'm going to keep uploading these to Blip. Anyone out there prefer watching on that site?)

Resources:

The actual test, without smart-ass remarks

The Pew Forum U.S. Religious Landscape Survey

People whose words I borrowed: Roy Edroso and TBogg

My other little project: YouTube Reacts to the DmC Extended Gameplay Reveal

Dramatis Interruptus - What Happened

(Blip.tv/YouTube/MP3)

There's way, way too much to say and not enough space. Here are a few links:

Kingdom of Sharks
Midwest to Middle Kingdom
My Pictures

Schedule Update

While I will still be doing the podcast, I can't promise a regular schedule. Keep the suggestions coming, and I'll put out new episodes as frequently as I can. Thanks for your support.

Flashback - Dramatis Personae #6

Lee Siegel v. The Daily Show was the most popular episode of Dramatis Personae I produced (not that that's saying much). It features a rather long dramatic reading of a column written by cultural scold Lee Siegel shortly before Jon Stewart's appearance at the academy awards. This episode has one of my favorite reads - I think I captured the spirit of a self-important snob pretty well.

Dramatis Interruptus Special #2 - Fan Dumb

(Blip.tv/YouTube)

Sometimes in life, a person, product or service you like will be mocked. Part of maturity is having enough perspective and self-control to handle that appropriately. Those that can't manage that are doomed to the ranks of the Fan Dumb.

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Amusingly enough, the RP video that followed the one I discussed has been pulled down on a copyvio claim (Update: It's been uploaded to Blip.tv). So much for "the video creators tend to take it well."

From a legal perspective, both LPs and RPs are derivative works. Derivative works can only be copyrighted if they display some degree of originality. The law in this area is murky - even more so than with copyright law in general - but if the LP is deemed sufficiently original to have a copyright, I'd have to assume that a commentary on it would also pass muster. Retupurae has an additional defense - as a commentary, it is legally considered parody, and parody gets a wider berth (something Seamus mentioned in response to the fans who wanted him to file a copyright claim). There's just not much of a case here.

Of course, Matthew Needler - the user who issued the claim - knows this. The copyright standards for Retsupurae were settled after YouTube reinstated the original account. People like him are relying on YouTube's slow copyvio claims process and notoriously gun-shy attitude towards anything that even smells of copyright.

Oh, and just so I can end this on a positive note: Retsupurae fanfiction with "implied slash." You're welcome.

Flashback - Dramatis Personae #9

Dramatis Personae was my first attempt at a web series. I produced 17 episodes between 10/29/10 and 03/07/11. DP was a series of video dramatic readings, each prefaced by a brief history of the subject. I discontinued DP due to low audio/video quality as well as displeasure with some of the topics covered. It was replaced with Binary Theatre, a simpler audio-only series.

I've considered deleting the old episodes; however, while I wasn't pleased with Dramatis Personae, there are some episodes for which I have a certain fondness. The ones I'm definitely keeping will be posted here for posterity. These videos are only on Blip.tv, so if you want to see any of the others you'll need to go over there.

Today's featured episode is entitled An Evening With Mark Twain and Jack Daniels. It is a bit different than most episodes, carrying on the fine tradition of "performing an intellectual task while drinking/drunk."

Dramatis Interruptus - Into the Heart of Conservapedia

(Blip.tv/YouTube/MP3)

On the continuing drama of a trainwreck website; a lunatic who became a sacred cow; a pallet of "satires" that would make Swift spin in his grave; a debate challenge that backfired; and why I find all of this hilarious.

Links:

Penn Jilette - Are You A Fat Atheist?

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Normally, I would use this space to expound further on an idea touched upon in the episode, or to bring up something I missed. Today, however, I'm going to skip that jazz and tell you that Ken DeMeyer is not the only person who thinks "PZ Myers is fat" is a valid argument.

Because I have no intention of adding to this site's value with an inbound link, here's a screen capture. A sample:

But what are we too make of the fact that the man is a tub-of-lard? Is it possible Pig Z Myers eats like a grunting hog to cover up his insecurity, ignorance, and inferiority complex with layers and layers of fat? "Fat not facts", is this really his motto? Is that why this chunky piggy slanders legitimate scientists who make him feel inferior? Well, so what? He's got serious problems so just lay off OK? Piggy Z Myers needs those layers of lard to protect him -- poor little lard belly is sensitive and is likely to begin hooting and grunting in fear, so be careful. He frightens easily. So Stop it, before he goes "oink oink oink" all the way home and gets out his torches and pitchforks. Have pity on this pathetic lard ass. Give the man a cheeseburger and a pizza and shut up.

It goes on like this for close to 800 words.

The site itself is a bit of an oddity. It looks like a squatter site, as it contains nothing but an estimate on the domain name value and the above article. The design is ridiculously sparse - clearly made in a short period of time by someone with only a rudimentary knowledge of HTML. However, doing a Google search for the site name turns up a number of articles that are still on the server, despite not being linked anywhere.

The site blocks spiders, so nothing turns up in the Wayback Machine. However, the Google Cache paints an interesting picture. As recently as the 16th, it was a fully functional website (albeit one that screams "GeoCities circa 1996") and the home of the "Journal of Cosmology." That's a bit odd, given that the site currently alleges that it "is independent of the Journal of Cosmology which has a different publisher and owners." The official Journal of Cosmology site has most of the same content as the Cache of the other site, including the same 90's web aesthetic.

All this leads me to believe that the older site was either a partial mirror for the Journal of Cosmology or (more likely) an older domain that the JoC is no longer using. Fair enough, but why the stab at PZ Myers?

That one's easy - Myers has criticized the JoC before. The JoC was the source of the "bacteria found in a meteorite" article that the media loved so dearly a few months back (I mentioned it in Episode #8). The story started to fall apart once critics began pointed out the many flaws in the paper. The final blow was the revelation that the "Journal of Cosmology" was not actually a scientific journal and the discovery that the "NASA Scientist" wasn't actually a scientist (He was an engineer, for what it's worth).

Not only was Myers one of those critics, he also made jokes at the JoC's expense after it published an article which featured softcore stills and cheesecake photos among its scientific illustrations (NSFW). That article is now gone, though the nudie shots remain on their servers.

To sum up: A site owner with a pair of redundant domain names decides to sell one of them, and uses the opportunity to take one last stab at someone he doesn't like.