I think this was a request to publicize this fabulous (literally) conference.
@pzmyers Hello again, hope you are well. I just wanted to inform you about our latest event in Istanbul https://t.co/5Z7RHXNNZC
— Serra Basarir (@SerraBasarir) June 8, 2017
Well, gosh, thanks a lot. You never invite me to these things, and it looks like it was pretty posh.
Oh, wait, never mind. It was in Turkey, where I’d probably be arrested for blasphemy the moment I stepped off the plane. I’d rather not spend my golden years languishing in a Turkish prison, thank you very much.
The people who were invited didn’t have to worry about that: simpering apologists for creationism, every one, as you might expect at a goofy event organized by Adnan Oktar. I’m sure they had a grand time at an event where no one would question their ignorance and lies. Here’s the line up of shameless grand high fuckitymucks of creationism:
Dr. Fazale Rana, Reasons to Believe – “DNA’s inspirational design”
Dr. Anjaenette Roberts, Reasons To Believe – “Why did Good God create viruses?”
Dr. Paolo Cioni , psychiatrist – “Psyche and The Crisis of Materialist Reductionism”
Dr. Oktar Babuna, Neurosurgeon – “The Secret Beyond Matter”
Fabrizio Fratus, Sociologist – “Evolution: Myth or Reality?”
Carlo Alberto Cossano – “Informatics Records and Proteins Production”
Jeff Gardner – Founder of the Picture Christians Project – Closing speech
Oops, typo: these might be muckityfucks of creationism. They’re hard to tell apart.
Their choice of venue is very telling. That’s one way to make sure there aren’t any known rationalist infiltrators in your midst.
Istanbul is a gorgeous and fascinating city.
But yeah, not a good place to visit right now.
Apropos of nothing much, the company I used to work for, Big DummieCo, tried to convince me to apply for a position in an Istanbul(-near) facility, probably because that would have been cheaper than terminating my position here in France — which was very expensive (for them!). Since, unfortunately, Turkey is not a good place to visit at the moment &mash; to say nothing of moving & living there — they got a very rapid and hearty “feck off”. I actually rather liked, and still like, the idea†, but absolutely not under the current conditions.
† I note the job itself still seems to be open, over a year later!
(Posted blind due to lack of a working “Preview”.)
me@3: &mash; → — (—)
(Also posted blind due to lack of working “Preview”.)
Even in the best of times Istanbul would have been a huge culture shock after the south of France.
[blf, comment processor interprets two sequential hyphens as an mdash — like this]
I would love to hear “Why does Good God create viruses”. That had to be hilarious.
#7
That talk is probably filled with little more than, “ORIGINAL SIN!!!!11!!1”
Or MRSA bacteria.