The Refuge of the Toads

[Guest_935516df]

If people wish to attempt google searches, here are the key text items:

Application of Atheism - Atheist Forum
无神论的应用 - 无神论论坛

It kind of appears as if "无神论论坛" i.e. Atheist Forum is the most critical of search terms.

In 2016, it apparently was held in Beijing

Do a google translate on this to find out a bit more:
ikexue.org/archives/42075

Atheists need not witness each other, scientific communication depends on contending collaboration. The Autumn of the Northern Kingdom, 2016 Science and Atheism Forum once again send you a sincere invitation.
The Atheist Forum, sponsored by the Science Park, aims to build a platform for Chinese scientists and scientists to integrate with the global atheism movement and spread the scientific world view, which has been held in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai for four times. The 5th Science Park Atheism Forum was once again held in Beijing. The form and connotation were also innovated and extended, and upgraded to the Scientific and Atheism Forum in 2016.
The guests were invited to participate in this forum, including renowned international biologists, atheistic movement of the world leader, both domestic first-line scientific research workers, but also the author of the popular science writers. From the Jurassic to the near future, from the interpretation of the situation to the philosophical analysis, from breaking the traditional to innovative action, thinking feast Cup chopsticks already prepared, waiting for you to meet in Beijing.

Brief introduction of some speakers
Luo Siyang: Condensed Matter Physics Ph.D., senior engineer 100101; science from the media, "Man of science," the founder
Speech Topic: New Era science needs product and thinking
Jiang Hong: Famous people paleontological science, screen name "Jiang Microraptor," Yantai City Museum assistant librarian
Lecture Topic: The Great Events in Life Evolution
PZ Myers: the famous American biologist, strong atheists
Topic: Five difficult concepts in evolutionary thinking ...... and how to address them
Key pillars: science writer, "100 days ate genetically modified food" Public science project sponsors.
Theme of the Speech: Media Application and Ethical Reflection on Forcible Science Popularization
Tu Jianhua: philosophy professor, an atheist
Theme: Theism and Harm in Traditional Culture
Liqing Chen: Medical science writer, "Heart Legend" author
Topic: History of Surgery
Wang Lin: science and historical columnist, author of "railway Legend" and other six works.
Topic: Taking the Railway as an Example to Discuss the Creation of Popular Science and the Spread of Science and Technology
David Silverman: American Atheists Association president
Topic: Fighting God
Xi fifty-one: Professor, Graduate School of CASS
Speech Topic: Watching against the Inclination of Islam in Contemporary China

Forum Time: October 29 to October 2016

Location: Chaoyang District, Beijing

Registration: Forum registration with real-name system, registration please provide real name and contact information. The Forum's solemn commitment to the preparation of the Forum, without my consent will not be disclosed in any form of your personal information. Participants are limited, on October 28, 20 points before the registration is valid, do not accept on-site registration.
Registration microblogging: @ Science Park
Registration micro letter: science-atheist
Atheist Forum WeChat two-dimensional code

(If you have any questions or needs, please add WeChat consultation)
Attendance Notice
Participation fee AA, budget and payment methods are as follows:
Payment methods

The venue will be sent to the applicants after registration to play the designated contact information.
Forum fees do not include accommodation and transportation costs.
For hotel reservations or recommended, please indicate in the registration information (activities for the hotel four-star hotel, Senior Standard Room 560 yuan / day, 280 yuan / person)
Atheist microblogging Alipay two-dimensional code
Alipay two-dimensional code
Note: Forum staff is limited, after the payment to the settlement date no refund procedures, please carefully play money.
Date: October 13, 2016 Category: Enlightenment Social
Tags: atheism Science Forum

2015 Blog about the purpose of the "Atheist Forum" event's purpose. Use google translate. This looks like a decent read if you are trying to figure the whole thing out. The 2015 forum was a single day event with 70 attendees and 5 speakers.
douban.com/note/511413345/

The forum was directly inspired by the idea of ​​"new atheism". "New Atheism" is a worldwide ideological movement. In recent years, the religious forces (especially religious extremism and fundamentalism), which tend to decline in the course of science and modernization, have rebounded strongly with the change and unbalanced development of world politics and economy. The threat of religious extremism to the world's liberal order and peace-loving people aroused the determination of the intelligentsia and of the people with a sense of justice to defend their free borders. "New atheism" movement is in this context in Britain, the United States and other countries first to rise. Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, American journalist Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris, an American writer (Doctor of Neuroscience), are known as the "New Atheist Four Knights." As the leader of this ideological movement, the British biologist Richard Dawkins, American philosopher Daniel Dennett, To Dawkins "God's scam" as the representative of the ideological works, in many parts of the world with scientific literacy and truth-seeking people's minds, has an important position.

China's "Atheist Forum" was founded in 2012, is to respond to this wave of worldwide thought. To promote the spirit of science as a purpose, and the Chinese society is still a great market pseudo-science, superstition in the head against each other, trying to issue a sound science and justice. The first forum and the second are held in Beijing, the third moved to Guangzhou, have received great repercussions, especially since the last term, including many scholars, including Fang's participation in science, the forum has become the domestic propaganda science Thought important position. Therefore, the organizers believe that as the "North Canton" one-third, the fourth activities will be undertaken by the Shanghai side users take the initiative. But also as a local popular science, science enthusiasts a party. Trying to use their own thinking to answer the theme of this forum: "the application of atheism."

--- cut ----
The finale of this forum is the presentation of "Fighting the Lie of God" by David Silverman, president of the American Atheist Association. As an eloquent orator, Silverman presented a passionate speech about the atheistic movement that is flourishing in the United States. Facing the pressure of heavy resistance and religious extremism, he did not choose to give in and retreat, but more loudly issued his own voice. He advocated the use of data and the truth to speak, through the 2007 United States "new atheism movement" since the unremitting propaganda and promotion, more and more originally think "humanism" or "agnostic" people, more stand up and support Science, support the "new atheism movement" to start a new enlightenment.

He also admitted that the new atheism movement is still in the process of development, with the "New Atheist Four Knights" as the representative of the popular knowledge of those who question the concept of religion, more and more people choose to support the scientific atheism. As long as people make an effort to face the extreme ideas and superstition, the confidence to express their objections, the truth can be more of a consolidation. The purpose of the atheistic movement is to give people greater courage to speak their own beliefs about science and to express their views without being blinded by extreme thought. But also hope that this is the vigorous development of new ideas in Europe and America, new ideas, can further affect the social development of China, and look forward to produce optimistic results.

Here is the website for Science Park if anyone wishes to go dumpster diving for a potential video.
scipark.net

All & all it appears that the meeting is rather harmless by my cursory assessment.

-Soylent

[Brive1987]

I am so bored. I've literally run out of an awards night to get a Big Mac

[Shatterface]

Still seems a bit perverse to be doing atheist outreach in the one region in the world where nonbelievers aren't particularly troubled (for their nonbelief anyway) but some theists are.

Christians and Buddhists are persecuted minorities in China.

Given a choice between modern Christianity and communism I'd chose modern Christianity.

Myeres might as well have attended an anti-Buddhist conference in Tibet.

[Guest_935516df]

Still seems a bit perverse to be doing atheist outreach in the one region in the world where nonbelievers aren't particularly troubled (for their nonbelief anyway) but some theists are.

Christians and Buddhists are persecuted minorities in China.

Given a choice between modern Christianity and communism I'd chose modern Christianity.

Myeres might as well have attended an anti-Buddhist conference in Tibet.

Perhaps Myers went over to pick up a few pointers about how to control conversations.

-Soylent

[Shatterface]

The big conflict of the 21st Century might be China vs Islam. Myeres is going to have to chose which sexy exotic form of totalitarianism he is prepared to shill for.

[AndrewV69]

Am old story, they set out to do good and ended up doing very well.

I spent quite a bit of time on it.

In addition to going through their financials, I also download their "hate" incident database and sampled around 100 entries. I found lack of followup to stories concerning convictions, exonerations, false reports etc. etc. I also found only one single black on white crime.

I concluded they were only concerned with registering any possible "hate" incidents and did not care about the actual outcomes.

[Kirbmarc]

The big conflict of the 21st Century might be China vs Islam. Myeres is going to have to chose which sexy exotic form of totalitarianism he is prepared to shill for.

Whoever wins, humanity loses?

But I don't think it'll be that simple. I don't think that the Chinese, for all their faults, have imperialistic plans. Not beyond taking back/invading (depending on who you ask) Chinese Taipei/Taiwan and "influencing" Korea and ideally (in their heads) Japan, that is. The Chinese have to worry about their own issues.

Russia also has limited ambitions when compared to the worldwide potential reach of the US and of the delirious plans for Muslim if domination of earth in the heads of Muslim supremacists.

Of course no one can know the future, but my guess (which is as good as anyone's, but I of course think has some weight to it) is that there's going to be a progressive loss of power of international institutions (NATO, the UN, the EU,the WTO, the World Bank) and a rise of nationalisms and of regional powers. Different countries will start playing intricate web of alliances which will go against the traditional alignment. Muslim supremacists are probably going to carry on the fight between Shia and Sunnis, but if the petro-states collapse (and they might sooner than we think) they'll turn on each other, too. I think that unless the US stop siding with the petro-states many Middle Eastern countries will be torn apart by civil wars and the death toll will be staggering. Muslim communities in Europe will either stay out of it or, if they cause too much trouble, they'll suffer. Terrorism will likely soar to unprecedented levels.

In general right-wing nationalism will be on the rise in Europe, and many Western right-wing parties might see Russia as a potential ally, while Eastern Europeans right-wing parties will be wary of Russia for historic reasons and side with the US, or, in the case of progressive US isolationism, possibly China. On the other side of the aisle the SJWs in Europe and the US will be co-opted by the petro-state lobbies and carry on telling people that Islam didn't do anything wrong. I suspect that this will make them less and less popular among those who don't go to their universities or belong to the "oppressed groups", and the general public in Europe and in many parts of the US will lean more and more towards the right as a result. Christian churches might experience a revival if they're appealing to the right-wing with a clear anti-muslim stance.

Meanwhile the Chinese will consolidate their neo-colonialist hold on Africa and try to subtly undermine Russia while they play the part of their allies. The US might actually exploit this and try to pit Russia against China. Or the Chinese will pit Russia against the US. Or the Russians will manipulate the US and China into fighting only between themselves and leaving them alone. It'll be a meleé a trois.

India might side with Russia against both Muslim supremacist Pakistan and China.

[Cnutella]

Kehinde Andrews has a piece in The Guardian giving whitey stick in terms of housing choices. It's a perfect microcosm of SJW 'damned if you do, 'damned if you don't". He starts of explaining why white flight is a racist problem...

At the same time as restricting where migrants could live in the country, white residents abandoned neighbourhoods as minority residents moved in. “White flight” meant that areas that had been exclusively white quickly became dominated by ethnic minorities, who were given limited choice about where to settle. Though Cantle is keen to avoid using the term, his evidence clearly demonstrates that white flight is still as prevalent today as it was in the 1960s. His “complex” set of reasons for white flight include that people want better housing and dream of life in the suburbs... ... But the most important aspect missing from the discussion is that the areas white people are fleeing from are not run-down, crime-ridden ghettoes. Handsworth, for instance, features some of the nicest houses in Birmingham; so it is the people in the neighbourhood who are the reason for white flight, not the housing.

So white people should just stay where they are then? No, that's practically colonialism.

The self-segregated white middle class is assumed to have the correct values and therefore does not need to be integrated into the nation. However, it is seen as dangerous to have ethnic minorities cut off from the white population where they may develop “parallel” and dangerous lives. There is also a paternalistic idea that to succeed in society, minorities need to integrate and learn from mixing with white people. You cannot measure equality by who lives together; you measure it by the outcomes for different groups.

So white people should try to integrate into minority neighborhoods? You may as well join the Klan.

One of the newer forms of urban population movement is white middle class people moving into inner city areas previously dominated by ethnic minorities, such as Brixton in south London. As the centres of cities develop and expand, the once deprived inner city becomes prime real estate and increasingly “marketable”. The result is the development of expensive flats and wine bars, and the pricing out of local communities. In some areas there is now the reverse of white flight, with ethnic minority communities being forced out of the areas they were historically assigned to. White residential settlement is actually one of the problems facing ethnic minority communities, and definitely not any kind of solution.

So as far as I can tell, his conclusion is that white people should be less racist and middle-class and should live in quantum indeterminacy.

https://web.archive.org/web/20161103093 ... ite-people

[Kirbmarc]

Kehinde Andrews has a piece in The Guardian giving whitey stick in terms of housing choices. It's a perfect microcosm of SJW 'damned if you do, 'damned if you don't". He starts of explaining why white flight is a racist problem...

At the same time as restricting where migrants could live in the country, white residents abandoned neighbourhoods as minority residents moved in. “White flight” meant that areas that had been exclusively white quickly became dominated by ethnic minorities, who were given limited choice about where to settle. Though Cantle is keen to avoid using the term, his evidence clearly demonstrates that white flight is still as prevalent today as it was in the 1960s. His “complex” set of reasons for white flight include that people want better housing and dream of life in the suburbs... ... But the most important aspect missing from the discussion is that the areas white people are fleeing from are not run-down, crime-ridden ghettoes. Handsworth, for instance, features some of the nicest houses in Birmingham; so it is the people in the neighbourhood who are the reason for white flight, not the housing.

So white people should just stay where they are then? No, that's practically colonialism.

The self-segregated white middle class is assumed to have the correct values and therefore does not need to be integrated into the nation. However, it is seen as dangerous to have ethnic minorities cut off from the white population where they may develop “parallel” and dangerous lives. There is also a paternalistic idea that to succeed in society, minorities need to integrate and learn from mixing with white people. You cannot measure equality by who lives together; you measure it by the outcomes for different groups.

So white people should try to integrate into minority neighborhoods? You may as well join the Klan.

One of the newer forms of urban population movement is white middle class people moving into inner city areas previously dominated by ethnic minorities, such as Brixton in south London. As the centres of cities develop and expand, the once deprived inner city becomes prime real estate and increasingly “marketable”. The result is the development of expensive flats and wine bars, and the pricing out of local communities. In some areas there is now the reverse of white flight, with ethnic minority communities being forced out of the areas they were historically assigned to. White residential settlement is actually one of the problems facing ethnic minority communities, and definitely not any kind of solution.

So as far as I can tell, his conclusion is that white people should be less racist and middle-class and should live in quantum indeterminacy.

https://web.archive.org/web/20161103093 ... ite-people

The solution she asks for is clear if you read between the lines:

You cannot measure equality by who lives together; you measure it by the outcomes for different groups.

The counter to inequality, as we know, is countered through quotas and reparations. White people should just pay, pay and pay more until non-white people can build their own countries within the country:

However, it is seen as dangerous to have ethnic minorities cut off from the white population where they may develop “parallel” and dangerous lives. There is also a paternalistic idea that to succeed in society, minorities need to integrate and learn from mixing with white people.

Integration is racist. Instead we'll have thousands of little basically independent states supported by raising taxes on the white middle class. If those states turn out to be ruled by Muslim supremacists and by gangs, who make life in those isolated communities worse, we'll blame the white middle class again and ask them to pay more.

[Kirbmarc]

The real solution would be to stop focusing on race and start focusing on race-neutral policies to help economic growth in disadvantaged areas and the forging of a common understanding of the law and language of the land and of the rules of a liberal democratic nation.

But this would make SJW clickbaiters obsolete, and clickbaiters gotta clickbait.

[HunnyBunny]

Oh gosh, it appears the UK High Court have put the parliament back into parliamentary democracy. What a surprise.

Brexit court defeat for UK government - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-37857785

[Kirbmarc]

Holy shit, that is depressing. I guess the difference is that Pat Morita acutally did something people actually give a fuck about.

True that. And he was very kind and happy to have a chat with us, and didn't try to hit on my sister. So, really not like Carrier after all.[/quote]

Also Morita probably didn't think that he was the smartest man on earth, while I'm pretty sure Carrier still thinks that he understand physics better than physicists, math better than mathematicians and history better than anyone on earth.

Dickie actually thought he could solve the issues about reconciling quantum mechanics and gravitation through his philosophical approach. He's probably convinced that he's been robbed of a Nobel prize. :lol:

[Hunt]

Ok, which one of you is krsone? Don't pull my dick, one of you had to have done this.

krsone

2 November 2016 at 12:54 pm

“I also don’t often know how to “own it”.”

I don’t think that you could ever “own it”, but there are many thing that you (a generic you which includes all white people, not just you as PZ Myers) can do to at least acknowledge that you OWE things to black people. Black people built the society that gives you those privileges through their slave labor, and anything you own and enjoy can be chalked up to exploitation and unfair treatment of black people from a white supremacist society.

You can start by supporting reparations: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/rep ... fac1276bd7 And not just support it symbolically, by stating you’re in favor of it if the government will ever (if ever) enact institutional reparations, but support it in actuality. Give money to Black Lives Matter, to charities who help black communities, to projects that enable black people to live better.

Don’t just donate once to placate your conscience, donate as much as you can and never feel “proud” of doing it, because what you’re doing is just basic retributive justice. And let’s face it, it’s long overdue and you should HAVE to do, because you’re getting the benefits of policies which have enslaved and oppressed black people for centuries, many of which still happen today. You’re enjoying the profits of theft and forced labor.

You, just by being white in a white supremacist society, are living on the backs of black people. You’re like a parasite organism which is fed by a host and builds its life from the life of the host. Parasites can’t help but being parasites, but human beings have a choice. If you really care about stopping the abuse and exploitation and start a process of balancing the scales you don’t have to just apologize, you have to pay back.

But it wouldn’t be enough. It could never be enough. Even if you donated all your money to black people it wouldn’t be enough to repay black people of the numerous injustices that have allowed you to prosper and your country to be built. You should not only give money, but activism for justice.

Don’t let black people carry on the labor of fighting against injustice: they’re the victims and have been exploited enough, you should doing the hard work for them. Be an activist for causes of justice like Black Lives Matter. Correct other white people when they say racist thing, listen to black people, show other white people how much they OWE to black people and for fuck’s sake get the whitesplainers to just shut the fuck up. Petition your local government and vote only for candidates that have reparations for black people in their political agenda.

Volunteer your time for activism for black people. It’s not a way for you to feel better, it’s a DUTY for justice. White people should be FORCED to duty activism for reparations. They’ve earned so much from black people that ensuring that the plundering and exploitation stops is the bare minimum. You owe your time and money to black people, so giving them back is just basic fairness, nothing to feel proud or good about,

As for you personally, Mr. Myers, if you really cared about black people you shouldn’t have gone to China, but donated the money you spent in your travel to black people. You should donate the revenue of this blog, which claims to fight for social justice, to charities that help black people. You should donate a great part of your wage as a privileged white man in academia to black people. Ideally you should resign and offer your job to a black person.

After all the universities where you have studied and where you teach were created by the government using tax money over businesses which exploited black people, and using wealth accumulated through slavery of black people. So everything that has given you the chance to be a university professor is due to exploitation of black people, and it’d be only fair for you to pay it back.

That’s how you would have to address the injustices that have given you money if you cared about black people beyond empty words.

Read more: http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/ ... z4OwhwAMnX

[Hunt]

oop, sorry for not deleting the link.

[screwtape]

Ok, which one of you is krsone? Don't pull my dick, one of you had to have done this.

krsone

2 November 2016 at 12:54 pm

“I also don’t often know how to “own it”.”

I don’t think that you could ever “own it”, but there are many thing that you (a generic you which includes all white people, not just you as PZ Myers) can do to at least acknowledge that you OWE things to black people. Black people built the society that gives you those privileges through their slave labor, and anything you own and enjoy can be chalked up to exploitation and unfair treatment of black people from a white supremacist society.

You can start by supporting reparations: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/rep ... fac1276bd7 And not just support it symbolically, by stating you’re in favor of it if the government will ever (if ever) enact institutional reparations, but support it in actuality. Give money to Black Lives Matter, to charities who help black communities, to projects that enable black people to live better.

Don’t just donate once to placate your conscience, donate as much as you can and never feel “proud” of doing it, because what you’re doing is just basic retributive justice. And let’s face it, it’s long overdue and you should HAVE to do, because you’re getting the benefits of policies which have enslaved and oppressed black people for centuries, many of which still happen today. You’re enjoying the profits of theft and forced labor.

You, just by being white in a white supremacist society, are living on the backs of black people. You’re like a parasite organism which is fed by a host and builds its life from the life of the host. Parasites can’t help but being parasites, but human beings have a choice. If you really care about stopping the abuse and exploitation and start a process of balancing the scales you don’t have to just apologize, you have to pay back.

But it wouldn’t be enough. It could never be enough. Even if you donated all your money to black people it wouldn’t be enough to repay black people of the numerous injustices that have allowed you to prosper and your country to be built. You should not only give money, but activism for justice.

Don’t let black people carry on the labor of fighting against injustice: they’re the victims and have been exploited enough, you should doing the hard work for them. Be an activist for causes of justice like Black Lives Matter. Correct other white people when they say racist thing, listen to black people, show other white people how much they OWE to black people and for fuck’s sake get the whitesplainers to just shut the fuck up. Petition your local government and vote only for candidates that have reparations for black people in their political agenda.

Volunteer your time for activism for black people. It’s not a way for you to feel better, it’s a DUTY for justice. White people should be FORCED to duty activism for reparations. They’ve earned so much from black people that ensuring that the plundering and exploitation stops is the bare minimum. You owe your time and money to black people, so giving them back is just basic fairness, nothing to feel proud or good about,

As for you personally, Mr. Myers, if you really cared about black people you shouldn’t have gone to China, but donated the money you spent in your travel to black people. You should donate the revenue of this blog, which claims to fight for social justice, to charities that help black people. You should donate a great part of your wage as a privileged white man in academia to black people. Ideally you should resign and offer your job to a black person.

After all the universities where you have studied and where you teach were created by the government using tax money over businesses which exploited black people, and using wealth accumulated through slavery of black people. So everything that has given you the chance to be a university professor is due to exploitation of black people, and it’d be only fair for you to pay it back.

That’s how you would have to address the injustices that have given you money if you cared about black people beyond empty words.

Read more: http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/ ... z4OwhwAMnX

Sounds like krsone is advocating slavery for white people. And someone ought to remind xir that the term xe was struggling for was 'restorative justice', rather than 'retributive justice'. The latter is frowned upon in correctional circles as mean-spirited and counter-productive.

[NoGodsEver]

Ok, which one of you is krsone? Don't pull my dick, one of you had to have done this.

kimberly1091 is also clearly a troll. Amazed that one hasn't been banned.

[Billie from Ockham]

If this approach gains traction than I'll end up owing Billie from Ockham an apology, as I really will have been contributing to the problem by insisting we keep the negative connotations of the word alive.

Why wait?

[Billie from Ockham]

Here's what's really fucked up about the 270 discussion: I'm actually more than OK with McMullin/Kaine ... McMullin being selected by the Republican-controlled House and Kaine being selected by the newly-switched Democratically-controlled Senate.

Or, if the GOP keeps the Senate, it opens up a President Pence possibility in the no-270 scenario. If most GOP House members wanted Pence, they could engineer split House votes so no one gets a majority. If the Senate picks Pence, he would then become President.

Not quite. If the House can't choose the President by January, then the Senate's choice for VP becomes acting President until the House gets its act together. But the Senate's choice is only the acting President and, as soon as the House does decide, the Senate's choice goes back to being merely the VP.

[feathers]

Ever argued with a SJW in person, without a computer or the written word? Here's some fun facts!
1. Facts are racist "if they don't support social justice."
2. Suggesting that facts are more important than feelings is "super racist."
3. It's good to use "super" a lot, because it emphasizes and proves your point, apparently.
4. Yelling is perfectly acceptable if you're a SJW.
5. Raising your voice to be heard over yelling is violence, if you're a white male.
6. Stalking off in tears means you've won the argument against patriarchal white supremacy, but you're still terrible oppressed and a victim of violence. [snip]

I don't recall ever arguing with an SJW in person, so I'm curious - did this one use and misuse the word 'literally' as much in real life as your typical SJW does online?

That would yield "I'M LITERALLY SUPER SUPPRESSED WITH RAGE!!!"

[Billie from Ockham]

One from Bearing. TED, the people who are all about spreading ideas and starting conversations, have served him with a DMCA for doing a response video to a TED-X talk.

Wow. TED is, of course, welcome to platform any idiot that they wish, from Sarkeesian to the fat lady. But a DCMA against a video that clearly didn't violate US copyright law is a great way to get you a late nomination for a Cunty.

[Bhurzum]

Even if I spend the rest of my life giving everything I earn to BLM, I would make no impact upon my "debt" and will still be "guilty" of parasitism? Krsone even said that "symbolic gestures" (or words to that effect) are meaningless and the above, if his/her/its logic is applied, means reparations are the very definition of a symbolic gesture.

Well, thanks Krsone but I'll give it a miss.

Uhuru, k'tanga, umbongo or whatever the fuck you idiots say to each other.

Now, boy, get the fuck off my property before I break out the shotgun and release the hounds.

http://stjent.pinnaclecart.com/images/p ... /69121.jpg

[Shatterface]

Not quite. If the House can't choose the President by January, then the Senate's choice for VP becomes acting President until the House gets its act together. But the Senate's choice is only the acting President and, as soon as the House does decide, the Senate's choice goes back to being merely the VP.

I think that was the plot of this year's Veep.

[CommanderTuvok]

[quote="Hunt"]Ok, which one of you is krsone? Don't pull my dick, one of you had to have done this.

[quote]

Looks like one of kibmarc's masterpieces.

[CommanderTuvok]

Carrier's Tour:

Albuquerque (NM) – Sunday 20 November (2016) – 7:30pm (to 10pm) at O’Neill’s in Nob Hill (4310 Central Ave. SE)

;)

[Tigzy]

Oh gosh, it appears the UK High Court have put the parliament back into parliamentary democracy. What a surprise.

Brexit court defeat for UK government - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-37857785

They'll also be putting UKIP into parliament if they carry on like that. :lol:

[Tigzy]

Actually, we were not that well off. All we had was a cook, two maids, a gardener and from time to time a chauffeur. Oh and I had to share a bathroom whereas most normal people had their own bathroom.

Again, this is the kind of stuff that makes me wish Bhoytony was still around.

[jugheadnaut]

Here's what's really fucked up about the 270 discussion: I'm actually more than OK with McMullin/Kaine ... McMullin being selected by the Republican-controlled House and Kaine being selected by the newly-switched Democratically-controlled Senate.

Or, if the GOP keeps the Senate, it opens up a President Pence possibility in the no-270 scenario. If most GOP House members wanted Pence, they could engineer split House votes so no one gets a majority. If the Senate picks Pence, he would then become President.

Not quite. If the House can't choose the President by January, then the Senate's choice for VP becomes acting President until the House gets its act together. But the Senate's choice is only the acting President and, as soon as the House does decide, the Senate's choice goes back to being merely the VP.

Yes, it would be a crazy situation where the House could switch Presidents at any time during the Presidential term. I presume that means if Democrats won a majority of state delegations in the House in 2018 (extremely unlikely) and the House hadn't chosen yet, they could then select Hillary a full two years after the election. These constitutional amendments were designed to ensure that there could be no deadlocks leaving the U.S. government leaderless, and they're kind of nutty but no one thought there was any real chance it could get that far. It reminds me of NFL tie-breaker rules, where, eventually it can come down to an actual coin flip.

[Billie from Ockham]

Keep in mind the weird rule that when the House chooses the President, each state (not each rep) gets one vote. The Speaker of the House decides when another round of voting for President occurs. This process repeats until one of the top three candidates (in terms of electoral votes) from the original election gets 26 states to vote for them.

My point is that the Republicans control way more than 26 state delegations. That the House is even close to evenly split is due to huge states like CA being strongly Democratic. But that doesn't help when the House chooses the President because CA gets only one vote. In short: if no-one gets 270, the Republicans choose the President, but it must be one of the original top three.

[Billie from Ockham]

Oops. I left off the other weird possibility (even if it has just about zero chance of happening): the Democrats win control of the House and Senate, but control fewer than 25 state delegations in the House. In that case, the Speaker could refuse to ever hold a vote for President (maybe using some excuse as stupid as that being used by Grassley), the Senate could choose Kaine, and Kaine would be acting President for the entire four years.

How fucked up would that be?

[Shatterface]

I'm not sure which is worse: that the Chinese may have flown PZ over to talk about atheism or that they may have flown him over to talk about the effects of RoundUp on pet-store zebra-fish.

No, what's worse is they flew him back.

[jugheadnaut]

Keep in mind the weird rule that when the House chooses the President, each state (not each rep) gets one vote. The Speaker of the House decides when another round of voting for President occurs. This process repeats until one of the top three candidates (in terms of electoral votes) from the original election gets 26 states to vote for them.

Yes, well aware of that, which is why I said Democrats would have to win a majority of House state delegations, not just House members. If the no-270 scenario actuates, the 12th and 20th amendments, pretty much constitutional wallflowers up until now, will become the Belles of the Ball.

[Billie from Ockham]

Here's my last crazy scenario: House switches to Democrat, but with less than 25 states, while the Senate splits 50/50. In this case, the new VP and acting President for at least two years (i.e., until the House is re-elected) is selected by one person: Joe Biden.

Note that if this comes to pass ... if Joe Biden chooses the next President regardless of the will of the people ... I will then-onwards refer to him as the "skinny Catholic fuck." I try to be consistent.

[jugheadnaut]

Oops. I left off the other weird possibility (even if it has just about zero chance of happening): the Democrats win control of the House and Senate, but control fewer than 25 state delegations in the House. In that case, the Speaker could refuse to ever hold a vote for President (maybe using some excuse as stupid as that being used by Grassley), the Senate could choose Kaine, and Kaine would be acting President for the entire four years.

How fucked up would that be?

We're way off in the weeds here, but that probably isn't possible. The constitution states that the vote 'shall' take place, making it mandatory.

[BoxNDox]

I'm not sure which is worse: that the Chinese may have flown PZ over to talk about atheism or that they may have flown him over to talk about the effects of RoundUp on pet-store zebra-fish.

No, what's worse is they flew him back.

Hardly worse from their perspective.

[Billie from Ockham]

Oops. I left off the other weird possibility (even if it has just about zero chance of happening): the Democrats win control of the House and Senate, but control fewer than 25 state delegations in the House. In that case, the Speaker could refuse to ever hold a vote for President (maybe using some excuse as stupid as that being used by Grassley), the Senate could choose Kaine, and Kaine would be acting President for the entire four years.

How fucked up would that be?

We're way off in the weeds here, but that probably isn't possible. The constitution states that the vote 'shall' take place, making it mandatory.

Please note my reference to silly excuses for not doing your job, such as that being used by Grassley. If the Senate can ignore a SCOTUS nomination, then I don't see why the House can ignore an incomplete election for President.

But, yeah, weeds and unlikely.

[Billie from Ockham]

Please switch "can" for "can't" when it would prevent me from looking like an idiot.

[Spike13]

According to right wing reports,

The perennial blabbermouth in the FBI known as an unnamed source, ( two actually)has said that:

Clintons server was hacked by five different countries.

Wieners laptop is giving up what are believed to be new e-mails as opposed to only dupes.

Mills and Sauelsons lap tops have not been destroyed but are currently being exploited.

An indictment is likely.

Take this for what you will, (fox and Briebart)

[feathers]

Christianity is growing by leaps and bounds in China. Within the next few years, there will be more Christians in China than in the U.S. While the authoritarian Chinese government is cracking down on this to some extent, persuasion is the much preferred route. Not thrilled with Peez as an atheist ambassador, though.

So, the Chinese government is flying in western atheists to teach Chinese atheists how to deconvert Christians? This is getting more and more bizarre.

[jugheadnaut]

[

Please note my reference to silly excuses for not doing your job, such as that being used by Grassley. If the Senate can ignore a SCOTUS nomination, then I don't see why the House can ignore an incomplete election for President.

But, yeah, weeds and unlikely.

Completely different Constitutional language, which not only doesn't mandate a confirmation vote, doesn't even mention it. The vote and all the satellite confirmation processes are internal Senate procedures. The constitution doesn't even mandate the advise and consent process, it just says it's a requirement for the appointment to be finalized. I don't support not having a vote, but in this case, their advice can be interpreted as "we won't consider a nomination which will alter the balance of the court so close to Presidential election", which is constitutionally in the clear.

[feathers]

The big conflict of the 21st Century might be China vs Islam. Myeres is going to have to chose which sexy exotic form of totalitarianism he is prepared to shill for.

Yellow people or moccha-brownish people, which are more Of Colour and therefore higher in the suppression ranks? (Even if there are almost 1.5 billion of them, virtually controlling our economy).

[Billie from Ockham]

[

Please note my reference to silly excuses for not doing your job, such as that being used by Grassley. If the Senate can ignore a SCOTUS nomination, then I don't see why the House can ignore an incomplete election for President.

But, yeah, weeds and unlikely.

Completely different Constitutional language, which not only doesn't mandate a confirmation vote, doesn't even mention it. The vote and all the satellite confirmation processes are internal Senate procedures. The constitution doesn't even mandate the advise and consent process, it just says it's a requirement for the appointment to be finalized. I don't support not having a vote, but in this case, their advice can be interpreted as "we won't consider a nomination which will alter the balance of the court so close to Presidential election", which is constitutionally in the clear.

Good point. I'm letting my annoyance with the game-playing over-ride a close reading. Thanks for steering me back.

[jugheadnaut]

Christianity is growing by leaps and bounds in China. Within the next few years, there will be more Christians in China than in the U.S. While the authoritarian Chinese government is cracking down on this to some extent, persuasion is the much preferred route. Not thrilled with Peez as an atheist ambassador, though.

So, the Chinese government is flying in western atheists to teach Chinese atheists how to deconvert Christians? This is getting more and more bizarre.

I'm not going to speculate as to why, but at least here in Toronto, Chinese people seem disproportionately drawn to not just Christianity, but to particularly dogmatic and fervent sects of Christianity like Baptist. Had to deprogram my gf after a Chinese Baptist Church got its hooks into her.

[comhcinc]

According to right wing reports,

The perennial blabbermouth in the FBI known as an unnamed source, ( two actually)has said that:

Clintons server was hacked by five different countries.

Wieners laptop is giving up what are believed to be new e-mails as opposed to only dupes.

Mills and Sauelsons lap tops have not been destroyed but are currently being exploited.

An indictment is likely.

Take this for what you will, (fox and Briebart)

Fox is an actual new serve with has the perceived issue* of its editorials bleeding in and coloring news. Breitbart is all editorial and spin. I saw the Fox piece, it's not giving any more information outside what you have said. Well except some idiot congressman who doesn't understand what treason is in this county. Went to Breitbart and didn't see a piece on it but I didn't look too hard either.


*I happen to agree with this but I wanted to be fair.

[free thoughtpolice]

Meanwhile, in northern Iraq:

[Phil_Giordana_FCD]

Fox is an actual new serve with has the perceived issue* of its editorials bleeding in and coloring news.

Am I the only one who didn't understand this at all?

[comhcinc]

Fox is an actual new serve with has the perceived issue* of its editorials bleeding in and coloring news.

Am I the only one who didn't understand this at all?

Sorry

Fox news is an actual news service. They have reporters and new crews that report on stories. IF you want to see what is happening in the world you can go to their channel and website and get an idea of things that are happening around the world. They also have editorial shows and a well known conservative world view. Many people, myself included, feel they don't do a good job of keeping their news reporting neutral.

Better?

[Shatterface]

I'm not going to speculate as to why, but at least here in Toronto, Chinese people seem disproportionately drawn to not just Christianity, but to particularly dogmatic and fervent sects of Christianity like Baptist. Had to deprogram my gf after a Chinese Baptist Church got its hooks into her.

Were their families already religious (which is why the left China in the first place) or did they become religious later?

[jugheadnaut]

According to right wing reports,

The perennial blabbermouth in the FBI known as an unnamed source, ( two actually)has said that:

Clintons server was hacked by five different countries.

Wieners laptop is giving up what are believed to be new e-mails as opposed to only dupes.

Mills and Sauelsons lap tops have not been destroyed but are currently being exploited.

An indictment is likely.

Take this for what you will, (fox and Briebart)

Fox is an actual new serve with has the perceived issue* of its editorials bleeding in and coloring news. Breitbart is all editorial and spin. I saw the Fox piece, it's not giving any more information outside what you have said. Well except some idiot congressman who doesn't understand what treason is in this county. Went to Breitbart and didn't see a piece on it but I didn't look too hard either.


*I happen to agree with this but I wanted to be fair.

Good distinction. While the Fox News division pretty clearly has a conservative bias when it comes to focus and story selection (but probably no more so than CNN on the opposite side, and less so than MS-NBC), there's nothing to indicate it isn't governed by standard journalistic ethics. Journalistically, the division is essentially run by Brit Hume and Chris Wallace, either of whom would go ballistic if sources were invented or exaggerated. On the other hand, sites like Breitbart and Drudge have become almost entirely useless as news sources. Drudge in particular, with its frequent linking to Infowars and highly selective (and sometimes deceptive) headlines. Doesn't stop me from checking it ten or more times per day.

[jugheadnaut]

I'm not going to speculate as to why, but at least here in Toronto, Chinese people seem disproportionately drawn to not just Christianity, but to particularly dogmatic and fervent sects of Christianity like Baptist. Had to deprogram my gf after a Chinese Baptist Church got its hooks into her.

Were their families already religious (which is why the left China in the first place) or did they become religious later?

My experience is that most Chinese Christians glommed onto Christianity after they moved.Should also point out that Chinese immigrants to Canada are heavily represented by high-education/high-achievement individuals who left China primarily for a better life, not because they were massively oppressed.

[Badger3k]

It's getting better & better:

[.youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pc4IFIXcDcs[/youtube]

It's become even more hilarious reading comments on videos featuring Star Citizen, allegedly showing footage of what will be in the finished game, saying things like, "This looks like No Man's Sky if it was made with a competent team!" And I'm like, "It's not even fucking out yet, mate!"

And they keep mentioning the budget as if that's their biggest trump card. This game is backed with almost 130 million dollars (and counting!), there's no way they're going to screw this up! Except GTA V had an even bigger budget, with an even bigger development team, and they managed to screw that up just fine, all with the usual stuff like bad optimization, buggy gameplay, crashes, more bugs, etcetera, etcetera, und so weiter. They were also severely burned just two months ago, when No Man's Sky turned out to be one of the most overhyped gaming duds since E.T., but already they're oh-so excited about the same fucking thing!

Most likely Star Citizen's gonna come out in 2019, it's going to be a huge disappointment and people are just collectively going to wonder what went wrong while the rest of us shake our heads.

No, it'll be like scientology - people who had waited and invested thousands of dollars will never admit that it is bad. Reading the comments of the hard core groupies, it's a cult.

[Phil_Giordana_FCD]

Fox is an actual new serve with has the perceived issue* of its editorials bleeding in and coloring news.

Am I the only one who didn't understand this at all?

Sorry

Fox news is an actual news service. They have reporters and new crews that report on stories. IF you want to see what is happening in the world you can go to their channel and website and get an idea of things that are happening around the world. They also have editorial shows and a well known conservative world view. Many people, myself included, feel they don't do a good job of keeping their news reporting neutral.

Better?

Thanks, much better.

[CaptainFluffyBunny]

snip

No, it'll be like scientology - people who had waited and invested thousands of dollars will never admit that it is bad. Reading the comments of the hard core groupies, it's a cult.

I think it entirely depends on what and how realistic your expectations are about the game. If they're happy with the game, it's more like infatuation rather than like a cult. Willing to overlook some flaws in order to derive maximum pleasure from the experience.

[AndrewV69]

Ok, which one of you is krsone? Don't pull my dick, one of you had to have done this.

krsone

2 November 2016 at 12:54 pm

“I also don’t often know how to “own it”.”

I don’t think that you could ever “own it”, but there are many thing that you (a generic you which includes all white people, not just you as PZ Myers) can do to at least acknowledge that you OWE things to black people. Black people built the society that gives you those privileges through their slave labor, and anything you own and enjoy can be chalked up to exploitation and unfair treatment of black people from a white supremacist society.

You can start by supporting reparations: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/rep ... fac1276bd7 And not just support it symbolically, by stating you’re in favor of it if the government will ever (if ever) enact institutional reparations, but support it in actuality. Give money to Black Lives Matter, to charities who help black communities, to projects that enable black people to live better.

Don’t just donate once to placate your conscience, donate as much as you can and never feel “proud” of doing it, because what you’re doing is just basic retributive justice. And let’s face it, it’s long overdue and you should HAVE to do, because you’re getting the benefits of policies which have enslaved and oppressed black people for centuries, many of which still happen today. You’re enjoying the profits of theft and forced labor.

You, just by being white in a white supremacist society, are living on the backs of black people. You’re like a parasite organism which is fed by a host and builds its life from the life of the host. Parasites can’t help but being parasites, but human beings have a choice. If you really care about stopping the abuse and exploitation and start a process of balancing the scales you don’t have to just apologize, you have to pay back.

But it wouldn’t be enough. It could never be enough. Even if you donated all your money to black people it wouldn’t be enough to repay black people of the numerous injustices that have allowed you to prosper and your country to be built. You should not only give money, but activism for justice.

Don’t let black people carry on the labor of fighting against injustice: they’re the victims and have been exploited enough, you should doing the hard work for them. Be an activist for causes of justice like Black Lives Matter. Correct other white people when they say racist thing, listen to black people, show other white people how much they OWE to black people and for fuck’s sake get the whitesplainers to just shut the fuck up. Petition your local government and vote only for candidates that have reparations for black people in their political agenda.

Volunteer your time for activism for black people. It’s not a way for you to feel better, it’s a DUTY for justice. White people should be FORCED to duty activism for reparations. They’ve earned so much from black people that ensuring that the plundering and exploitation stops is the bare minimum. You owe your time and money to black people, so giving them back is just basic fairness, nothing to feel proud or good about,

As for you personally, Mr. Myers, if you really cared about black people you shouldn’t have gone to China, but donated the money you spent in your travel to black people. You should donate the revenue of this blog, which claims to fight for social justice, to charities that help black people. You should donate a great part of your wage as a privileged white man in academia to black people. Ideally you should resign and offer your job to a black person.

After all the universities where you have studied and where you teach were created by the government using tax money over businesses which exploited black people, and using wealth accumulated through slavery of black people. So everything that has given you the chance to be a university professor is due to exploitation of black people, and it’d be only fair for you to pay it back.

That’s how you would have to address the injustices that have given you money if you cared about black people beyond empty words.

Read more: http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/ ... z4OwhwAMnX

Sounds like krsone is advocating slavery for white people. And someone ought to remind xir that the term xe was struggling for was 'restorative justice', rather than 'retributive justice'. The latter is frowned upon in correctional circles as mean-spirited and counter-productive.

White men are already enslaved by white women so krsone should go talk to them. White men have no say in this at all.

[Tribble]

It's getting better & better:

EVE Online is better

I started playing Eve Online before people thought it was cool to mention Eve Online (2006). ASCN was still alive. BoB was still alive. The Russians really hadn't started playing much. Goon Squad hadn't started playing. There were no Titans. It was a much different game in many respects than it is now.

I quit a few months after the T-20 scandal when we found out that one developer (T-20) had been helping BoB because they were in BoB as PCs. Probably June, 2007.

CCP has/had a program where developers run unaffiliated alts playing through the game like a normal person would, ostensibly to get a "man on the street" viewpoint. t20's man on the street worked his way up, eventually becoming a director and head of the capital fleet in the Band of Brothers alliance. Breaking the neutrality clause the program runs upon, he revealed his identity as a CCP employee to BoB high command. Of course, this lead to nothing but trouble - he spawned T2 BPOs, at that time massively rare and expensive, and fed them information on upcoming gameplay changes, known exploits, events and so on. Everyone who wasn't in the very upper echelons of BoB directorship was unaware of this.

Enter Anthonyz, commonly known as Kugutsumen, an EVE player who happened to be an experienced hacker. Lotka Volterra director Lallente took advantage of this, hiring him to crack into our directors-only forum for a Wyvern mothership. When Lallente stiffed him on the deal he promptly went fuck LV and decided to work for their enemies (us, although we never actually hired him to do work). He stumbled on the goldmine - the smoking gun of t20's involvement in aiding the Band of Brothers alliance, posting it on the official forums. His five accounts were banned, all threads distributing this information was deleted and CCP refused to acknowledge this entire event occurred.

One threadnought, a Washington Post article and a wave of cancellations later: http://myeve.eve-online.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=424
As it stands today: t20 was ostracized and CCP forced him to leave BoB, but CCP refused to fire him from the company. BoB is still called Band of Developers, Dianabolic is still bragging about having CCP on MSN and we still fucking hate BoB for this. T20 eventually left CCP to pursue other opportunities.

[Tribble]

It's become even more hilarious reading comments on videos featuring Star Citizen, allegedly showing footage of what will be in the finished game, saying things like, "This looks like No Man's Sky if it was made with a competent team!" And I'm like, "It's not even fucking out yet, mate!"

And they keep mentioning the budget as if that's their biggest trump card. This game is backed with almost 130 million dollars (and counting!), there's no way they're going to screw this up! Except GTA V had an even bigger budget, with an even bigger development team, and they managed to screw that up just fine, all with the usual stuff like bad optimization, buggy gameplay, crashes, more bugs, etcetera, etcetera, und so weiter. They were also severely burned just two months ago, when No Man's Sky turned out to be one of the most overhyped gaming duds since E.T., but already they're oh-so excited about the same fucking thing!

Most likely Star Citizen's gonna come out in 2019, it's going to be a huge disappointment and people are just collectively going to wonder what went wrong while the rest of us shake our heads.

You know Alpha 2.5 is out, right? And that I've played it. And that's what you're seeing in the video.

So, it was seriously unoptimized in 2.0, but not any longer as I get a constant 60FPS (per FRAPS) in game (GTX 980) with no drops or spikes. And while there might be some bugs, they seem to have corrected all the ones that apply to me and my ship so I have no direct complaints or knowledge of any bugs in the 2.5 release.

Although my hanger got wonky in that some of my placeables aren't in the right spot and my ship is no longer parked straight. But I have no idea what that's about. Hardly game-breaking though.

In short, it' s a well polished Alpha release with a couple of trivial bugs.

[Tribble]

It's getting better & better:

It looks great, and I've already bought my starter pack months ago, but my machine is not up to date so the game is mostly unplayable for now. If I get the funds to upgrade, I'll dive right into it.

i7-6700K @4GHz with 16GB of very, very fast RAM and a GTX 980 with 4GB VRAM. So I have no problems running the game.

I'm one of the early (but not first wave) people (Purchased May 20th, 2013) so I get benefits you don't. LIke lifetime insurance on my ships. Some goodies you don't get. What I'm wondering is where is my damn fish tank, repair bot, test pilot suit and body armor are. I have no idea how to get to them. And there are other rewards I have no idea how to get to. But I had those, in game, in Alpha 2.0 and now I have no idea.

And it's not like I rushed in the first day I heard about it. April 28th is the day I found out about this game and I signed up at the forums. But I spent nearly a month doing a lot of reading and it took me nearly four weeks to actually spend the money. Which also blew two months of gaming budget because I bought the Freelancer.

[Bhurzum]

Pretty much unrelated to anything...

Fuck me ragged, Chaffetz is like an attack dog! Also, he's got nuts of titanium to haul off on the IRS like that!

[Kirbmarc]

I'm not going to speculate as to why, but at least here in Toronto, Chinese people seem disproportionately drawn to not just Christianity, but to particularly dogmatic and fervent sects of Christianity like Baptist. Had to deprogram my gf after a Chinese Baptist Church got its hooks into her.

Were their families already religious (which is why the left China in the first place) or did they become religious later?

My experience is that most Chinese Christians glommed onto Christianity after they moved.Should also point out that Chinese immigrants to Canada are heavily represented by high-education/high-achievement individuals who left China primarily for a better life, not because they were massively oppressed.

There's an active campaign in many Christian churches (Baptists, but also Catholics) to attract Chinese people to Christianity. Complete with love bombing and other cult-like tactics.

The Christians see China as a big playfield to conquer now that it's slowly opening socially and culturally.

[Tribble]

Oh gosh, it appears the UK High Court have put the parliament back into parliamentary democracy. What a surprise.

Brexit court defeat for UK government - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-37857785

The Brexit Anthem:

[ERV]

If people wish to attempt google searches, here are the key text items:

Application of Atheism - Atheist Forum
无神论的应用 - 无神论论坛

It kind of appears as if "无神论论坛" i.e. Atheist Forum is the most critical of search terms.

In 2016, it apparently was held in Beijing

Do a google translate on this to find out a bit more:
ikexue.org/archives/42075

Atheists need not witness each other, scientific communication depends on contending collaboration. The Autumn of the Northern Kingdom, 2016 Science and Atheism Forum once again send you a sincere invitation.
The Atheist Forum, sponsored by the Science Park, aims to build a platform for Chinese scientists and scientists to integrate with the global atheism movement and spread the scientific world view, which has been held in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai for four times. The 5th Science Park Atheism Forum was once again held in Beijing. The form and connotation were also innovated and extended, and upgraded to the Scientific and Atheism Forum in 2016.
The guests were invited to participate in this forum, including renowned international biologists, atheistic movement of the world leader, both domestic first-line scientific research workers, but also the author of the popular science writers. From the Jurassic to the near future, from the interpretation of the situation to the philosophical analysis, from breaking the traditional to innovative action, thinking feast Cup chopsticks already prepared, waiting for you to meet in Beijing.

Brief introduction of some speakers
Luo Siyang: Condensed Matter Physics Ph.D., senior engineer 100101; science from the media, "Man of science," the founder
Speech Topic: New Era science needs product and thinking
Jiang Hong: Famous people paleontological science, screen name "Jiang Microraptor," Yantai City Museum assistant librarian
Lecture Topic: The Great Events in Life Evolution
PZ Myers: the famous American biologist, strong atheists
Topic: Five difficult concepts in evolutionary thinking ...... and how to address them
Key pillars: science writer, "100 days ate genetically modified food" Public science project sponsors.
Theme of the Speech: Media Application and Ethical Reflection on Forcible Science Popularization
Tu Jianhua: philosophy professor, an atheist
Theme: Theism and Harm in Traditional Culture
Liqing Chen: Medical science writer, "Heart Legend" author
Topic: History of Surgery
Wang Lin: science and historical columnist, author of "railway Legend" and other six works.
Topic: Taking the Railway as an Example to Discuss the Creation of Popular Science and the Spread of Science and Technology
David Silverman: American Atheists Association president
Topic: Fighting God
Xi fifty-one: Professor, Graduate School of CASS
Speech Topic: Watching against the Inclination of Islam in Contemporary China

Forum Time: October 29 to October 2016

Location: Chaoyang District, Beijing

Registration: Forum registration with real-name system, registration please provide real name and contact information. The Forum's solemn commitment to the preparation of the Forum, without my consent will not be disclosed in any form of your personal information. Participants are limited, on October 28, 20 points before the registration is valid, do not accept on-site registration.
Registration microblogging: @ Science Park
Registration micro letter: science-atheist
Atheist Forum WeChat two-dimensional code

(If you have any questions or needs, please add WeChat consultation)
Attendance Notice
Participation fee AA, budget and payment methods are as follows:
Payment methods

The venue will be sent to the applicants after registration to play the designated contact information.
Forum fees do not include accommodation and transportation costs.
For hotel reservations or recommended, please indicate in the registration information (activities for the hotel four-star hotel, Senior Standard Room 560 yuan / day, 280 yuan / person)
Atheist microblogging Alipay two-dimensional code
Alipay two-dimensional code
Note: Forum staff is limited, after the payment to the settlement date no refund procedures, please carefully play money.
Date: October 13, 2016 Category: Enlightenment Social
Tags: atheism Science Forum

2015 Blog about the purpose of the "Atheist Forum" event's purpose. Use google translate. This looks like a decent read if you are trying to figure the whole thing out. The 2015 forum was a single day event with 70 attendees and 5 speakers.
douban.com/note/511413345/

The forum was directly inspired by the idea of ​​"new atheism". "New Atheism" is a worldwide ideological movement. In recent years, the religious forces (especially religious extremism and fundamentalism), which tend to decline in the course of science and modernization, have rebounded strongly with the change and unbalanced development of world politics and economy. The threat of religious extremism to the world's liberal order and peace-loving people aroused the determination of the intelligentsia and of the people with a sense of justice to defend their free borders. "New atheism" movement is in this context in Britain, the United States and other countries first to rise. Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, American journalist Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris, an American writer (Doctor of Neuroscience), are known as the "New Atheist Four Knights." As the leader of this ideological movement, the British biologist Richard Dawkins, American philosopher Daniel Dennett, To Dawkins "God's scam" as the representative of the ideological works, in many parts of the world with scientific literacy and truth-seeking people's minds, has an important position.

China's "Atheist Forum" was founded in 2012, is to respond to this wave of worldwide thought. To promote the spirit of science as a purpose, and the Chinese society is still a great market pseudo-science, superstition in the head against each other, trying to issue a sound science and justice. The first forum and the second are held in Beijing, the third moved to Guangzhou, have received great repercussions, especially since the last term, including many scholars, including Fang's participation in science, the forum has become the domestic propaganda science Thought important position. Therefore, the organizers believe that as the "North Canton" one-third, the fourth activities will be undertaken by the Shanghai side users take the initiative. But also as a local popular science, science enthusiasts a party. Trying to use their own thinking to answer the theme of this forum: "the application of atheism."

--- cut ----
The finale of this forum is the presentation of "Fighting the Lie of God" by David Silverman, president of the American Atheist Association. As an eloquent orator, Silverman presented a passionate speech about the atheistic movement that is flourishing in the United States. Facing the pressure of heavy resistance and religious extremism, he did not choose to give in and retreat, but more loudly issued his own voice. He advocated the use of data and the truth to speak, through the 2007 United States "new atheism movement" since the unremitting propaganda and promotion, more and more originally think "humanism" or "agnostic" people, more stand up and support Science, support the "new atheism movement" to start a new enlightenment.

He also admitted that the new atheism movement is still in the process of development, with the "New Atheist Four Knights" as the representative of the popular knowledge of those who question the concept of religion, more and more people choose to support the scientific atheism. As long as people make an effort to face the extreme ideas and superstition, the confidence to express their objections, the truth can be more of a consolidation. The purpose of the atheistic movement is to give people greater courage to speak their own beliefs about science and to express their views without being blinded by extreme thought. But also hope that this is the vigorous development of new ideas in Europe and America, new ideas, can further affect the social development of China, and look forward to produce optimistic results.

Here is the website for Science Park if anyone wishes to go dumpster diving for a potential video.
scipark.net

All & all it appears that the meeting is rather harmless by my cursory assessment.

-Soylent

See this is what I want. Promote this man/woman/xir!