Pharyngula

Posted by: Christian Burnham | October 9, 2007 2:42 PM

Sounds like a right den of badgers.

Posted by: redstripe | October 9, 2007 3:12 PM

Auto de fe?

(I hate myself)

Posted by: JeffL | October 9, 2007 3:20 PM

Slightly off topic: Some Muslim medical students in Britain have decided that their religion forbids them from learning about diseases caused by alcohol or sexual activity and won't treat female patients.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article2603966.ece
It should be noted that two associations of Muslim doctors do not support this idea.

Posted by: DiscGrace | October 9, 2007 3:46 PM

They've got pretty good shepherd's pie, but I seldom stray from the bangers and mash. I plan to try and make it, especially if I can convince Mr. DiscGrace to get up early so we can go to the Farmers Market first.

Posted by: Heath | October 9, 2007 4:08 PM

sounds like fun - i just joined the ffrf about 2 months ago, after I heard about some of their lobbying activities. i actually wrote them a letter thanking them and letting them know why i was joining - very friendly people.

the newsletter/newspaper has been quite enlightening so far...usually i'm not one for reading the paper, but the articles are well written and offer viewpoints that many of the people around me don't necessarily share. i'm certainly learning a lot.

i'd love to hear your "report-out" on the conference...

Posted by: Skip | October 9, 2007 4:22 PM

This lurking cheesehead looks forward to meeting some of you folks. Beware, the WI Book Festival is this weekend too so I hope someone gets there early for a table.

Posted by: Palmira | October 9, 2007 4:41 PM

redstripe:

Well, in portuguese is auto de fé, but is complicated to explain to somebody not born to the subleties of latin language that auto da fé has a completely different meaning :)

Anyway, the auto de fe was only the reading of the sentence with a long sermon about the absolute truths of the ICAR (portuguese acronym for Catholic Church, that for some reason irks the portuguese equivalent of fundies, beatos) and the absolute horrors of denying those truths. The killings were done afterwards by somebody else, so our beatos always say that the inquisition never killed a single soul, the secular powers did :)

For another auto de fé PZ style, I think I read about it here when it first was proposed, but finally last Thursday the Council of Europe approved a resolution against the teaching of creationism in schools. 48 votes in favour, 25 against and 3 abstentions. One of the guys voting against the resolution is a portuguese - the guy is Opus Dei numerary, I would say not even his (right-center) party is very happy about it -, to our shame and sorrow.

They made some minor changes (like evolution by natural selection changed to simply evolution) to the original text but is still very strongly worded:

13. The war on the theory of evolution and on its proponents most often originates in forms of religious extremism which are closely allied to extreme right-wing political movements. The creationist movements possess real political power. The fact of the matter, and this has been exposed on several occasions, is that some advocates of strict creationism are out to replace democracy by theocracy.

Posted by: David Marjanović, OM | October 9, 2007 5:57 PM

Well, in portuguese is auto de fé, but is complicated to explain to somebody not born to the subleties of latin language that auto da fé has a completely different meaning :)

"Act of faith" vs "act of the faith"?

Considering the fact that English uses its articles much more sparingly than most other languages that have articles in the first place, isn't the latter more likely to be correct?

~:-|

Posted by: Dan | October 9, 2007 6:42 PM

Auto da fé is the public announcement and execution of a person's sentences during the Inquisition.

Anyway, I'll try me darnd'st to be in Madison. The only problem I can foresee is that I would probably need a hotel room since there would be a good chance I would be far too liquored up to drive back to Milwaukee (Madison always has that effect on me).

Posted by: Palmira | October 9, 2007 6:58 PM

David Marjanović:

Sort of, actually quite accurate for a non latin :-)

It has more in it than just the articles. Acto de fé as in one acts accordingly to one's faith; acto da fé implies a bit more than an act of the faith, specially in this case. Not that I don't agree that in fact it was more an acto da fé than an acto de fé:-)

Posted by: Monado | October 9, 2007 11:50 PM

Someone from Madison, please take PZ and show him the rotating octopodes at the Octopus Car Wash. They perform only when the car washes are open.

I just posted this video of a rotating cephalopod, taken when I was in Madison in June.

Posted by: Brennon | October 10, 2007 10:18 AM

Can you get tickets at any time? ... I want to wait a bit before I buy tickets in case I'm not able to go.

Posted by: Mick | October 11, 2007 8:08 PM

I'll be there, although I'm not attending the conference due to a previous engagement.