All weekly meetings are Fridays from 5-7 in Kerckhoff 133.

RSVP if you want at: http://www.facebook.com/events/245073592239595/

Hello everyone,

Tomorrow, May 13th (Friday the 13th no less!), Rebecca Watson will be visiting our campus! Rebecca Watson is the founder of Skepchick.org and co-hosts The Skeptics Guide to the Universe. The title of her presentation is “The Religious Right vs. Every Woman on Earth”.

This special event has been made possible through the joint efforts of Bruin Atheists and the Bruin Alliance of Skeptics and Secularists.

Please RSVP on the facebook event page:  http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/event.php?eid=193868633988159

Thanks, looking forward to seeing you there!

Featuring Hemant Mehta, the “Friendly Atheist”
When: Friday, April 23rd, 6:00 PM
Where: UCLA, Royce Hall 156

RSVP on Facebook

In 2006, Hemant Mehta “sold his soul” on eBay by offering to go to the worship service of the highest bidder’s choice. He ended up touring many churches and wrote about his experiences. Come hear about faith seen through an atheist’s eyes.

Hemant Mehta is the author of “I Sold My Soul on eBay,” blogs as the “Friendly Atheist” at http://friendlyatheist.com/, and is the Chair of the Secular Student Alliance (SSA) Board of Directors.

UCLA Anthropology Professor Joe Manson will speak on how humans are and aren’t unique amongst animals. Prof. Manson’s studies focus on the social behavior of non-human primates and humans.This talk is being held in celebration of Darwin Day!

When: Friday, February 12 from 5:00 to 6:15pm
Where: Royce 156
RSVP on Facebook

]]> http://bruinskeptics.org/2010/02/09/bass-event-are-humans-unique-insights-from-the-social-and-biological-sciences/feed/ 0 http://bruinskeptics.org/2010/01/14/bass-and-friends-protest-the-phelps-family/ http://bruinskeptics.org/2010/01/14/bass-and-friends-protest-the-phelps-family/#comments Fri, 15 Jan 2010 04:14:49 +0000 Tristan Miller http://bruinskeptics.org/?p=730 The infamous Phelps family (aka the Westboro Baptist Church) is best known for picketing military funerals with their “God Hates Fags” signs. They are coming to Beverly Hills this Sunday! We must mock them!

They are appearing at 9641 Sunset Blvd from 11:45 AM to 1:30 PM, and 9876 Wilshire Blvd from 3:00 to 5:00 PM

We are sending two groups over to see them. The first group will meet at Ackerman Terminal at 11:15 AM to carpool (Facebook: Part 1), and the second group will meet at 2:30 AM at the same location (Facebook: Part 2).  You may attend either one, or both.

If you can provide a ride there, please e-mail jachranit@gmail.com, and CC tristanmiller@bruinskeptics.org

This report is a follow up to the Pop Rocks and Coke event BASS held on Bruinwalk on Wednesday, June 3rd and Friday, June 5th. -The Eds.

Part of my current difficulty with job-hunting is that I’ve done things like this. Who the hell wants a super-villian when she can’t even take out a bunch of college kids in an attempt to boost her own GPA?

At least I got Herbert’s* whole, “plans within plans,” thing right. Shaun and I only tabled so we could hang out. Then we had to come up with something better than, “Ask an Atheist.” Then we had to come up with something better than polling BruinWalk about invisible dragons. It just so happened that we came up with something that let me slip a nefarious plot in there: Feeding the student body Pop Rocks and Coke.

A brave student ingests some Pop Rocks and Coke. Amazingly, he survived.

Genius, right? Everyone knows that Mikey from the old Life cereal commercials died when his stomach exploded after having Pop Rocks with a Coca-Cola chaser. You know all the smartie-pants are going to be all, “nuh-uh,” take it and then their stomachs explode, adjusting the grading curve accordingly. I’m like Snow White’s evil stepmom, except way more evil and substantially less hot. And lots of high fructose corn syrup instead of apples and poison combs.

We set up our table on Wednesday morning with a nice little tag line of, “Stressed about Finals? Free Pop Rocks & Coke!” Shaun insisted we add a polite request saying, “(Please, try not to die). A few people who came up were gravely concerned. Frankly, I was more concerned about my escape plan. Would I be able to get out of there before UCPD showed up and tazered the hell out of me? Was our cover of, “Doing it for science,” enough? And what of this photographer for UC taking pictures to promote the University? He took a lot of photos of us. If I pulled my plan off, this’d totally blow my alter-ego’s cover.

Spencer and Shaun man the handing out of the deadly coke and pop rocks to stressed students.

Eighty-four people had Pop Rocks and Coke. Zero died.

I went and cried in the third floor Ackerman bathroom as my dreams of super-villian grad school burst like so many Pop Rocks in the mouths of so many would-have-been victims.

But hey, what else was I to do but buck up and try again, right? Besides we still had more Pop Rocks. So, out we went again on Friday.

Fifty-three lived. Zero died. Again.

I’m just not very good at this, I think.

Things that could have been done better:

• Gloated over my plan and revealed all the details to a super hero
• Know a superhero
• Checking Snopes
• Doing something like this at the beginning of the year, not tenth week of last quarter (you hear me, little BASStards?)

*Dear Reader, we are sorry Deja made such an arcane and geeky reference to Frank Herbert and his Dune series. -The Eds.

Dan Barker is coming to give a presentation sponsored by BASS on Feb. 18th and so I decided to listen to a couple of his old debates. Well I totally forgot how awesome of a debater he was against all the sleazy-type debaters. People like Todd Friel, a host on Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron’s radio thingy or Dinesh D’Souza, who is sleazy beyond words in his debate style–these guys are able to one up people like Daniel Dennett or Christopher Hitchens but not Dan Barker. Barker knows exactly how to handle these type of guys who hit below the belt and well maybe I should link you all to some examples!

First, here’s the link to the Facebook event page:  http://tinyurl.com/DanBarkereventFacebook

Make us look good by at the very least saying you MIGHT attend. Haha.

Here are the debates:

Dinesh D’Souza vs. Dan

Dinesh D’Souza vs. Dan Round Two – I highly HIGHLY recommend this one.

Todd Friel vs. Dan (if you can stomach Friel)

Enjoy!

We are pleased to announce that we are co-sponsoring, with Truthdig, a debate this month between Sam Harris and Chris Hedges, moderated by Robert Scheer. The event will take place at Royce Hall on Tuesday, May 22, starting at 8 pm.

The description of the event from Truthdig:

At a time of virulent religious fanaticism extending from Afghanistan to Washington, D.C., Truthdig presents two of the most courageous writers confronting this descent into modern irrationality. A nonbeliever and a believer—one who sees religion as a scourge and one who argues that the loss of the spiritual has plunged our society into violence and extremism—they have both written passionately and profoundly about this subject and will share their thoughts in what promises to be a fascinating evening of debate and dialogue.

The debate will be followed by a book-signing.

Unfortunately, you must pay for tickets to the debate (starting at $15), but the event is a fund-raiser for Truthdig, after all. Probably the easiest place for students to obtain tickets is from the Central Ticket Office near Pauley Pavilion.

Event Information

Religion and Politics: The End of the World? A Truthdig Debate
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
8 p.m.
Royce Hall, UCLA

Parking instructions: Enter Royce Drive off Sunset Boulevard.
View the parking map

Tickets

Limited Gold Circle: $35
Preferred: $20
Standard: $15

Tickets available at Royce Hall (Campus Ticket Office) or Ticketmaster.

CTO ticket orders and information: (310) 825-2101
(Mon-Fri 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Sat-Sun 10 a.m.-2 p.m.)

Ticketmaster ticket orders: (213) 365-3500
Ticketmaster website: www.ticketmaster.com

Check out the event main page for more details: www.truthdig.com/debate

Feel free to post any thoughts about the event in general or the content of the debate here.