Shivver Me Timbers!!1!

Avast Ye Swabs!

Shiver me Timbers, and Hoist the MainBrace!

There be trouble and storms ahead on the High Seas, landlubbers.

Click to embiggen

Poor old Capt. Blackbeard has lost his moral compass, and our #BraveHero Capt. Pogsurf intends to get it back.

Using the treasure map on the left, try to work out how Capt. Blackbeard will get from the land of morris men to the land of black gold.

Will he find his lost moral compass along the way, or will Pogsurf have to hand it to him on a party plate like a giant foam pie? We just don't know, and half the fun is just joining in and trying something new out.

Happy Sailing to all travellers worldwide. And watch out for pirates!

Interesting conversation from the internet's biggest coward

Tweets by @pzmyers

Another abusive e-mail

Regular readers of Pogsurf will know that we do not treat abusive e-mailers very kindly here. The most recent abusive e-mail comes from David Pollock who is Regional Coordinator, Europe for the International Humanist and Ethical Union. His e-mail address is david.pollock@iheu.org .

Between 10th and 25th June 2013 I sent a total of five e-mails on the subject of rape jokes and threats made by PZ Myers. Pollock says that the subject I refer to is "a crude but not uncommon trope". Pollock feels he is entitled to comment upon my psychological state, a common silencing tactic, and labels me "obsessive". For the record Mr David "Wanker" Pollock, the correct word is 'tenacious'.

Pollock's malicious communication has been forwarded to Hertfordshire Constabulary. The IHEU have been warned that any further abusive e-mails they send to Pogsurf will be published in full.

Conference resource

Updated 24 June 2013
The competition is now closed and all panelists have been contacted directly.

Click here to download the answers

If you would like to see how rape culture on a blog can lead to threats to others being treated as normal click here.

Original post (as amended) follows:
______________________________________________

I have a resource which I am aiming to distribute to the skeptical, feminist and non-feminist and atheist communities by 29th June 2013, in time for the Empowering Women Through Secularism conference which is being held in Dublin.

Click here to download the resource

If you would like a clue to questions 1 to 3 click here

If you would like to see some background research click here and scroll down to 'Rape culture'

______________________________________________
Distribution list

Conference panelists

• Dan Barker, Freedom From Religion Foundation, USA
• Ophelia Benson, author and commentator, USA
• Ann Brusseel, Member of Flemish Parliament, Belgium
• Mairin de Burca, writer and secularist, Ireland                             
• Carlos Diaz, President Atheist Alliance International, Argentina
• Jane Donnelly, Education Policy Officer Atheist Ireland
• Annie Laurie Gaylor, Freedom From Religion Foundation, USA
• Anthea McTiernan, reproductive rights activist and journalist
• Maryam Namazie, Fitnah Movement for Women’s Liberation
• Taslima Nasrin, novelist and activist, Bangladesh and India
• Michael Nugent, Chairperson Atheist Ireland
• Nina Sankari, Polish Rationalist Association                                
• Farhana Shakir, lawyer and legal consultant, Pakistan
• Kate Smurthwaite, comedian and activist, Britain
• Anne Marie Waters, One Law for All Campaign, Britain
• Rebecca Watson, Skepchick network, USA

Other named individuals

• Christine Shellska 
• Jeremy Shepperd 
• Justin Vacula 
• Sara E. Mayhew 
• Stuart Bechman 
• Tim Larmour 
• Tim Skellett 
• Victor Franco

Organisations

• Ateistisk Selskab
• Atheism UK
• Atheist Association of Finland
• Atheist Foundation of Australia
• Atheïstisch Verbond
• BC Humanist Association
• Centar za građansku hrabrost
• Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain
• Free Society Institute
• Freedom From Religion Foundation
• Freethought Lebanon
• Gambia Secular Assembly
• HALEA
• IBKA-Vorstandssekretariat
• Iniciativa Atea
• Malta Humanist Association
• Minnesota Atheists
• Philippine Atheists and Agnostics Society
• Progressive Atheists Inc.

______________________________________________
If you would like to add more names or organisations to my distribution list please feel free to do so, then comment below, or to get in touch with me personally to let me know.

I have now found the thread on Michael Nuggent's blog which details the worst excesses of the Slymepit. It can be found here, under the title "Examples of ‘nasty pushback’ against some atheist/skeptic feminists on the Internet". The items are numbered 1 to 50. I can find no threats amongst them.

Looking back at "Cataloguing threats" I can see I need to make a correction. The list of publishers of threats should read:

1. PZ Myers

A table of threats for the #FtBullies v. Slymepit blog war can now be drawn up thus:

Threat	Publisher	Nym	Redaction status
1.	PZ Myers	Janine	redacted
2.	PZ Myers	J	redacted
3.	PZ Myers	Janine	redacted
4.	PZ Myers	Wowbagger	redacted
5.	PZ Myers	stogoe	redacted
6.	PZ Myers	Blake	redacted
7.	PZ Myers	RickrOll	unredacted
8.	PZ Myers	Ward S. Denker	unredacted
9.	PZ Myers	Janine	unredacted
10.	PZ Myers	Cath the Canberra Cook	redacted
11.	PZ Myers	Jeff Eyges	redacted
12.	PZ Myers	Janine	redacted
13.	PZ Myers	phantomreader42	redacted
14.	PZ Myers	Shplane	unredacted
15.	PZ Myers	ambullcetus	redacted
16.	PZ Myers	AJ Milne	unredacted
17.	PZ Myers	Janine	unredacted

It is a now a very simple step to see that PZ Myers has unashamedly used his position as a blog publisher to enable others to make threats. I think my entire case that Myers is an unworthy recipient of the 2011 award by the IHEU is made, and I shall be e-mailling them shortly.

Abusive calls

Today was a busy day on the telephone here at Pogsurf Towers. The phone never stopped ringing. A chart detailing the number of abusive calls is shown below:

Calls to Pogsurf Towers 18th June 2013*

All calls are now being auto-diverted to Scotland Yard's Anti-Harassment Unit, logged and monitored. Suspects are being interview by local police forces where appropriate.

_______________________________________
* One caller was a receptionist working for Pogsurf's dentist. She has now been released from custody after her immigration papers were shown to be genuine. Pogsurf offers his profuse apologies for the amount of police time that she has wasted.

Cataloguing threats

Greta Christina makes a real world claim which should be possible to verify by examining the evidence:

It expressed the intent to work with “all elements of the secular community,” without any acknowledgement of the “elements” in this community who have been engaging in a persistent campaign of hatred, harassment, abuse, and threats of violence, rape, and death towards feminist women in this movement. 

Without wishing to minimise the suffering of anyone, it must be acknowledged that hatred, harassment and abuse are highly subjective, and so are going to prove much more difficult to catalogue. Threats of violence, rape or death are in themselves much more serious issues, and should in theory be simpler to catalogue.

I propose a template thus. Establish a list of publishers who have allowed threats to be made. I am unsure of who the publisher is at the Slymepit, or whether individual commentators should be identified as publishers, so for the time being the list of publishers is:

1. Unknown
2. PZ Myers
3. ... (add other publishers here)

It has been claimed that a list of Slymepit threats have been published on Michael Nugent's blog, although I have not yet seen this for myself. When this is located I will add the relevant data.

Establish a list of nyms who issue threats. From the #FtBullies side I am going to use the numbered list published at Aratina's "Skepsheik: Liar, Lunatic, or Lord?" post thus:

1. Janine
2. J
3. Janine
4. Wowbagger
5. stogoe
6. Blake
7. RickrOll
8. Ward S. Denker
9. Janine
10. Cath the Canberra Cook
11. Jeff Eyges
12. Janine
13. phantomreader42
14. Shplane
15. ambullcetus
16. AJ Milne
17. Janine
18. ... (add Slymepit and other relevant threats here)

Take the same list of threats, and note if the threat has been redacted:

1. redacted
2. redacted
3. redacted
4. redacted
5. redacted
6. redacted
7. unredacted
8. unredacted
9. unredacted
10. redacted
11. redacted
12. redacted
13. redacted
14. unredacted
15. redacted
16. unredacted
17. unredacted
18. ... (add Slymepit and other redactions here)

Obviously the above is a work in progress, and may appear quite one-sided at this time. Commenters are welcome to link to other published lists of threats and similar material below.