Just in case there is more than one of you, I’ll mention that a Pharyngula fan group has been formed to coordinate social activities in Baltimore. Surely this will not involve alcohol or blasphemy, will it? Nor will there be rudeness and vociferous argument? Perhaps there will be squid.

Won Chong Boyd, the wife of Mark Boyd, president of the Central Valley Alliance of Atheists and Skeptics, has died suddenly while on a trip to Korea. This is a deep personal shock for him, of course, but it’s also a serious financial hardship. If any of you can help out, go to the link.

I thought I’d stumbled onto FSTDT, but no…it’s a collection of quotes from the Texas board of education collected over the last year. At least I learned that Don McLeroy is an honest man.

Am I a religious fanatic? Absolutely. You’d have to be to do what I do.

A while back, I asked you all to vote in the L’Oréal Women of Worth contest, which gives awards to notable women who have provided good service to their communities. I was a bit self-interested, because one of the nominees was an alumnus of my university: Shannon Lambert runs support services for victims of rape at Pandora’s Project.

This is an update: she won!

I wonder where one gets mollusc flavoring?

It was the classic scam. An elderly couple are told they’ve won the lottery, and millions of dollars are theirs…they just have to pay a few taxes and fees first in order to free up the cash. First it was a few thousand dollars, than a few thousand more, than a few tens of thousands, and finally, their savings account stripped dry of about $78,000, they catch on: they’re being conned. It’s a monumental personal tragedy that has impoverished them, and there’s nothing that can be done—the scammers are gone.

There is a lesson to be learned, although these victims haven’t learned it.

“We were going to move into (a) retirement home, but now we don’t have the money. I just want to help other people who are in the same predicament.”

She can’t believe she was fooled for so long.

“We’re honest,” she said. “We were raised Catholic, and we just believe everybody. It’s just torn up our whole life.”

She was raised a victim.

I’m an atheist and scientist. I don’t believe anybody without good evidence.

Back in October, I sent you off to vote in an online poll that pitted real social workers, SozialHelden, against homeopaths, in a contest that actually had consequences: the winner would get a “Dedication Award” for their work.

We just got word from SozialHelden on the outcome of the poll:

haben gerade den Deutschen Engagementpreis 2009 gewonnen. Danke für Eure Stimmen!

They’ve won the German Engagement Prize for 2009. Thank you for your votes!

They have successfully spawned. Say hello to Huxley Laden!

Every year, L’Oreal selects women who have made significant contributions to community service and awards their organization a substantial grant of $5,000. There are ten honorees this year, and they’ve all got good stories to tell. You also have a chance to vote on one of the ten, and the winner of that popularity contest will get an additional award of $25,000 — read their nominations and you’ll see that they all could use it, and you should vote for whatever cause you find most worthy.

However, I will gently nudge you in one direction, suggesting that if you don’t find that any one cause speaks to you, you should consider voting for Shannon Lambert, who manages a local service called Pandora’s Project, which helps survivors of rape and sexual abuse. We’re a little bit biased, though, since Shannon is a graduate of the University of Minnesota Morris. Just take a look, and if you think her work is good, take just a second and leave one vote for her.

Dan Casey has just posted the first installment in a story about the day Pat Robertson’s bodyguard pulled a gun on him, which is so far an interesting perspective on the obscenely wealthy life of a televangelist. I wish I could afford to build a mighty mansion on an isolated hilltop that I would only visit once a month!

It’s a cruel tease, though. Casey is serializing it: we’ll have to remember to check in every Friday to get the full story.