If you do, please get in touch with him immediately and get him some help — he’s written what sounds an awful lot like a public suicide note today. Or it could just be a cry of despair. But he needs someone now.
The police in his hometown have been contacted, and I’ve heard one report that they reached him and found him safe. Everyone relax a little bit.
Oh, no—Mary found Ed Yong’s post about mosquito bites.
We live in Minnesota. We try to forget these things.
If you did not watch the first episode of the new season of Breaking Bad last night, you missed the part where it veered into Kevin Smith territory. A couple of the low-life drug dealers had a conversation about Star Trek, and it’s already been excerpted and animated!
Oh, man, that was so much better than the last Star Trek movie.
I have communicated with Ken White at Popehat, who often secures pro bono assistance for bloggers threatened with defamation suits. He has committed to help me and to attempt to secure counsel for me.
Here’s another challenge for the growing atheist movement: can we avoid the trap of charismatic leadership and the cult of personality? As church attendance declines (a good thing), as pastors wake up and realize their faith was a lie (a very good thing), and as we try to embrace even church leaders who want to join the secular movement, we have to beware of the temptation to just put them to work doing the same old thing they’re familiar with, in atheist “churches”. Donald Wright does a fine job expressing reservations I’ve also had about adopting the trappings of religion.
One of the joys I celebrate in escaping from religion and church is no longer participating in this unbridled authority and reverence given to the pastor; the position of entitlements. Their needs and desires are always met or a concerted effort is attempted by the membership with much toil and sacrifice. The pastor is doused with honor and respect, given a god-like public image, and proclaimed a truth teller. A celebrity is added to the culture.
After receiving these former religionists with open arms and nurturing their non-belief, how will the secular community respond when they seek leadership positions? Will the secularists, humanists, freethinkers, atheists, agnostics, and skeptics embrace these individuals with greater enthusiasm just because they are ex-pastors? Will they seek to find the true character and uncover those holy skeletons? Will they put forth adequate vetting to determine that their integrity matches their charisma? These are my concerns, because a secular church in the hands of a cult personality is a religion disguised as a humanist community. Will there be a secular church on every corner filled with sheeples?
What we need to construct are egalitarian institutions that do not simply co-opt the corrupt schema of existing religious institutions. We should be modeling democratic political forms rather than buying into destructive ecclesiastical patterns of organization.
Rahul, a child in India, is covered with horrible burns (caution: large color picture of scarred baby at the top of the article.)
The infant was admitted to the hospital on Thursday with burn injuries. The baby had had four such episodes with the first one barely nine days after his birth and another more recent one three weeks ago.
“An episode may or may not recur. It’s like any other burn injury, with the likelihood of scars and secondary infections. Plastic surgery is also expected to be done. The relatives or parents have to always keep an eye on the baby. Matchsticks, crackers or anything that can catch fire should not be kept near him,” Dr Babu added.
A bucket of water and fire extinguisher have always to be kept ready near the baby’s bed.
Huh? He’s in the hospital. Why are they worried about more burns rather than treating the ones he’s got?
Because they are blaming the child’s injuries on Spontaneous Human Combustion. Recurring spontaneous human combustion, no less — the kid is claimed to just burst into flames with no discernible cause.
The paediatric intensive care unit at Kilpauk Medical College and Hospital on Friday received a number of curious visitors wanting a glimpse of three-month-old baby Rahul who suffers from Spontaneous Human Combustion (SHC).
Only 200 cases have been seen such in the world over the past 300 years, the last reported case being in the United States in 2010.
“The body burns spontaneously due to combustible gases emitting from the patient’s body, without any external source of ignition,” said Dr R. Narayana Babu, head of the paediatrics department, Kilpauk Medical College. “Clothes and other things nearby that are inflammable may also catch fire.”
I have a suggestion. The bucket of water and fire extinguisher are silly. Instead, I recommend a hidden video camera…especially one that is carefully monitored whenever the parents come to visit.
The issue of sexual harassment in skeptical organizations is one chaotic uproar right now, but remember back to last week when the floodgates were opened by one person, Karen Stollznow, reporting systemic harassment by Ben Radford and neglect by CFI — well, surprise, surprise, Karen Stollznow’s post has been taken down.
My ed at Scientific American Mind just told me that CFI issued a “legal challenge” for them to take down my article about sexual harassment
There have been suggestions that CFI asked SciAm to remove the Stollznow blog piece. Incorrect. I did write, asking for 3 corrections.
Who do you trust? The fact is, the post is down.
Lindsay’s requests (which read more like demands) are now online.
I request that ScientificAmerican.com issue an immediate apology and a correction which clearly states that:
1. The Center for Inquiry has had a policy prohibiting sexual harassment since at least 2003, and its current policy has been in place since 2007;
2. The employee referenced in Ms. Stollznow’s blog post did not serve his suspension during his vacation; and
3. The Center for Inquiry does not have an extraordinary history of sexual harassment claims, nor is there any evidence to support the allegation that it has a track record of disciplining harassers lightly.
CFI is proving to be a real flop when it comes to diplomacy.
Not having access to the full history of CFI’s engagement with this problem, I can accept the claim that it does not have an “extraordinary history of sexual harassment claims”. But the fact still remains that they did deal with Radford very lightly, to the point that they lost a significant contributor thanks to their attitude, and that they’re reduced to nitpicking over dates and phrases that are of little relevance to subject of concern.
In related news, Richard Carrier explains a New York law that may be stifling the conversation, and also reveals that he’s been blacklisted by CFI. Wait, I thought Ron Lindsay didn’t accept blacklists?
And now Chris Clarke spurns CFI-LA. The informal offer he mentions was the result of a conversation I had with CFI-LA; they were considering bringing me out for a Darwin Day event, and also snagging Chris to share the stage, which would have been excellent.
It may all be moot now, anyway. I suspect I’m on the CFI blacklist along with a few other speakers whose names you can probably guess…but they won’t be the well-known men who have reputations for womanizing. Funny how that works.
The shit keeps flying!
Unbelievable, I know, but some people don’t want to buy a copy of my book, and others tragically can’t afford a copy. Here’s a chance, though: a contest to win one of ten signed copies of The Happy Atheist. If only ten of you bother to register, I think that means you’re guaranteed a free copy!
So I was down in Texas, hunting cweationists, when I was ambushed by a Skepchick and forced under torture to reveal all my secrets. It was terrifying. And now it’s been exposed on the internet.
You really have to watch out. Those Skepchicks are lurking everywhere.
This is a great short film that discusses the history of women in chemistry in Scotland, but it’s applicable to all of the sciences everywhere.
A telling quote: one chemist talks about how women were doing well but not getting promoted internally, so the well-meaning senior administrators tried to improve the situation by offering the women a course in how to get promoted.
To this day I still don’t understand how they didn’t realize it was them that needed the course.
(via Janet Stemwedel, who has a transcript.)
