Quit stealing our mythology!

Those bastards — the Anglicans are trying to appropriate Dr Who.

A conference of Church of England vicars watched a handful of episodes from the sci-fi series to study its religious parallels, particularly its themes of evil, resurrection and redemption.

Similarities between the Doctor and Christ, as well as whether the evil Daleks are capable of changing, were also examined.

“There are countless examples of Christian symbolism in Doctor Who, which we can use to get across ideas that can otherwise be difficult to explain,” The Sunday Telegraph in Britain quoted Andrew Wooding, a spokesman for conference organising group Church Army, as saying.

Grrr. Be done with it and simply declare that Jesus was a Time Lord, OK?

You have been very, very naughty…

…and you deserve to burn in hell for eternity. It really doesn’t matter what you’ve done — you’re damned. Take The Good Person Test and find out! It’s standard evangelical Christian nonsense in which they hammer on any niggling divergence from absolute perfection, followed by quotes from the Bible that prove that if you fibbed once, you deserve eternal torment.

One fun thing about this “test” is that you don’t have to take the bait — go ahead, deny committing any of the sins they want to accuse you of, and then it will announce “The Bible says all men are sinners, until you’re ready to admit that you can’t continue this test.” So what do we need the test for?

The perils of travel

I’ve made the journey to Seattle (actually, Auburn, where many of my family members live), and have discovered that access to the internet is spotty in the west coast suburbs — there are wireless servers everywhere, but at the same time, everyone has gotten savvy and protects them with a password. How cruel! Fortunately, I’ve talked one of my nephews into handing out their home network password to a known internet provocateur, so maybe I’ll have some access this week.

Alas, I’m too late to remind you of Atheists Talk radio — I’m sorry if you missed it, but really, it should be a habit by now. Catch it on their podcast instead!

It’s not too late to remind all that I’ll be speaking before the Northwest Science Writers Association tomorrow, Monday, 2 June, from 7-9pm at the Pacific Science Center Laser Dome. Come on out! I don’t have any other specific plans, so if anyone wanted to grab me and drag me out to a pub afterwards, I could be willingly abducted. Make suggestions for specific places in the comments — someplace near the Science Center and not too far from public transit, please — and we’ll do it.

If you can’t stand me, maybe you’ll like Carl Zimmer better. He’s talking on Tuesday at Town Hall Seattle. It’s $5 admission! My talk is free…now I feel so cheap.

I’ll also be speaking on Friday at the Seattle Skeptics, but you’ll need to buy a $30+ dinner to hear that one, and you’ll need to make reservations soon. A-ha — I’ve one-upped Carl!

Poe’s Law…confirmed again!

It’s amazing how powerfully predictive that little law is. I mentioned some similar activity a while back, but it’s still going on: kooks praying for lower gas prices.

For the past several weeks, Twyman has assembled a group at a soup kitchen in the Petworth neighborhood of Northwest Washington where he volunteers. They have driven to a gas station, locked hands, said a prayer, purchased gas and sung the civil rights anthem “We Shall Overcome,” with an added verse: “We’ll have lower gas prices.”

That’s ridiculous. Me, I’m humming the overture to Die Fledermaus and praying for dancing panda bears. I bet that will work before these clowns succeed in bringing down gas prices.

If it’s Saturday, it must be Seattle

Well, almost. My flight is delayed a bit, so I’m stuck in the San Francisco airport for a few hours. I will get there, though, and I will nap the whole way. It’s been a long couple of days.

So, yesterday for lunch I was able to visit the giant gleaming temple to rampant Darwinism, the NCSE. I got to tour the crystal dome containing the Laser of Retribution, the underground bunker, the massive computer complex…oh, wait. They didn’t have any of those things. They did have stacks of paper and an overworked staff, and Kent Hovind’s Ph.D. thesis, and the worlds most interesting bathroom, but otherwise, well, send them money. They need it.

I gave a talk. I went on too long. I chastised Berkeley briefly for giving Jonathan Wells a Ph.D., but I think they forgave me for that (but maybe not for talking too much).

We did have a Pharyngulista meetup at the local pub. I had two beers, twice my usual allotment (I was thirsty! I talked too long), so let’s see if I can remember who all made the event: Ken Cope, robbrown, Ron Sullivan and spouse, Scott Hatfield, Greta Christina, Josh Rosenau, dsmccoy, BobGo, Nurse Ingrid, a young lady on crutches (leave a comment! Tell the world your name!), Richard (leave me a link to your skeptics’ organization!). Anyone else? It was good. I also had my second California pizza of the day: the first was an arugula, walnut, and balsamic vinegar pizza at my lunch with NCSE, and the second that evening was covered with shrimp. They were very good, but purists will be horrified.

We’ll have to do something in Seattle, too!

Frontiers in cell biology

Alex Palazzo is talking about open questions in cell biology — in this case, control of organelle shape. Any of us who have poked around in cells know that it is not an amorphous blob of goo, but has characteristic, recognizable elements that we can see from cell to cell. What confers these stereotypic intracellular morphologies on organelles, and what are the functional consequences, if any?

(There are no jebons in there, so you don’t get to use those in your answer.)

We have a venue!

This is my last day in Berkeley, and the last day of the IEDG meeting, and I’m giving the very last talk of the meeting…which means, unfortunately, that the time I’ve been able to give to local readers has been minimal and is disappearing fast. Here’s one last chance. I’m talking at the Art Museum on the Berkeley campus at 7:30, and I’m guessing that it should be done by 9 (maybe later, if the audience decides to lynch me, but this really isn’t that provocative a talk, so I should be safe), and at the suggestion of a local I will then retire to the Jupiter beer pub on Shattuck, near the Bart station. If I’m delayed, start the party without me, I’ll get there eventually. And I will be thirsty.