Gotcha: Crooks and cheats

Reflections on some online drama

By Bruce Gorton | 12 July 2010

If you follow atheist blogs you probably know about the William sock puppet drama. A kind of infuriating series of events which highlights a few things I think I can learn from.

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The unbrilliance of crime and corruption

By Bruce Gorton | 15 March 2010

Sometimes, there are some things which are kind of obvious. Points which, when you think about them shouldn’t take all that much thinking to avoid – points like “If you are going to take bribes and exchange political favours for sexual ones, don’t write it down.

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Fraudsters, not-quite-Robin Hoods

By Bruce Gorton | 19 February 2010

Today the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court heard that two Ponzi masterminds set the whole scheme up in order to make themselves some money.

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Anti-vaccination looks sick

By Bruce Gorton | 3 February 2010

The anti-vaccine movement isn’t looking too healthy according to Time. Doctor Andrew Wakefield, a gastroenterologist at London’s Royal Free Hospital, was one of the leading figures in research intended to show that heavy metals in the preservatives used in vaccines could cause autism, a belief popularised by a former centrefold who previously thought her child was “Crystal.”

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Dowsing, the explosive case of Jim McCormick

By Bruce Gorton | 26 January 2010

Expensive nonsense generally comes with a certain harmlessness. Not exactly innocence but at least you get the vibe that people being blown up doesn’t play into it.

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