I am up ungodly late for me: 6:15 a.m., but I deserve to sleep late on a conference/vacation. Also, I was stuffed with Indian food from last night (see next post). The meetings start today with afternoon registration, and then a talk at 2:30 by Vyckie Garrison, of “No Longer Quivering”. Garrison, who won the 2014 “Atheist of the year” award from the American Atheists, was once in the odious Quiverfull Movement of Christianity (viz., the Duggars) that aimed to turn women into subservient breeding stock. I saw her speak in Pittsburgh last year, and she was absolutely terrific; her story of that movement’s beliefs and aims was terrifying. She is an engrossing and passionate speaker, and now an outspoken atheist.
An hour later, Ian Mitchell, a physician in Kamloops and clinical assistant professor at the UBC Department of Emergency Medicine, will speak on “Reefer Madness: How to go forward with evidenced-based drug policy”. After a dinner break, the UNHoly Trinity (Seth Andrews, Aaron Ra, and Matt Dillahunty, will do their joint “act”: all are podcasters, entertainers, and former fundamentalist Christians. Tomorrow and Sunday the meetings begin in the morning and last all day, but it is a pleasure to hear good speaking having a full hour to talk. (Tentative schedule here.) And the organizers always ensure plenty of time for chats and noms.
So that is how my day lines up, and I will provide photos and other information later. The weather is once again gorgeous, and although it’s early I can see a sunny and cloudless sky.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, I see Hili is actually making some incursions into philosophy!* Don’t ask me to explain this; perhaps Malgorzata will in the comments!
Hili: I have a firm principle.
A: What principle is that?
Hili: Everything that moves has to be defined immediately.
A: So what is it?
Hili: It looks like Cyrus painted with a brush made of camel hair.
Hili: Mam twardą zasadę.
Ja: Jaką?
Hili: Wszystko co się rusza musi być natychmiast zdefiniowane.
Ja: I co to jest?
Hili: Wygląda jak Cyrus malowany pędzlem z wielbłądziego włosia.
Hili is a proponent of alternate taxonomy taken from an ancient Chinese encyclopaedia and quoted by Jorge Luis Borges.
The ‘Reefer Madness’ talk should be interesting. In 2009 the Bristish Government sacked drug advisor David Nutt for expressing his reasoned view that alcohol was worse than LSD –
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/oct/30/drugs-adviser-david-nutt-sacked
There seems to be a gap between when governments want to take scientific evidence into account, & when they want to ignore it.
Nutt is still around and making politicians uncomfortable by trying to bring evidence into polemic-based drugs policy.
This weeks (last weeks? – it’s in my hotel room) New Scientist was reporting on some of Nutts work in one of it’s PopSci pieces about “what you can get away with”. Same data : far and away the most damaging drug available today is alcohol.
I heard an interview with Johann Hari on CBC a while ago where he talked about his book “Chasing the Scream” which starts with 3 basic theses:
– Drugs are not what we think they are.
– Addiction is not what we think it is.
– The drug war has very different motives to the ones we have seen on our TV screens for so long.
He claims that our current drug policies and legislation are perfectly designed to maximize the damage caused to society.
Yes, and not just ours, but many Latin American societies as well.
sub
Hili…Funny!
“Everything that moves…”
Hmm…is there anything that doesn’t move?
b&
The origin of YOUR reference system.
(Of course, other reference systems may move, or even accelerate, with respect to yours.))
You’re suggesting it’s all relative?
Perhaps…but most of my relatives are crazy….
b&
That would be because they have the wrong reference system.
Q.E.D.
Hili is sounding more Cunkish all the time.