Friday, July 04, 2008

Skeptics' Circle 90

It's on at the Millenium Project - an excellent site run by Peter Bowditch. It lists some of the WWW's most offensive websites. In Peter's words:
When I say that I am going to list offensive sites, that does not mean "adult" sites or even many of the more dim-witted hate sites. What really offends me is people telling lies to support a political agenda, or to exploit other people's ignorance, or to hurt and damage people with no good reason. Expect to see links to medical frauds, holocaust deniers, paedophile apologists, terrorist and survivalist groups, fanatics of all kinds, bigots, and all those other places which make rational people angry when they see them.
And my favourite bit:
Owners of sites linked to from here may be offended and feel that I am holding them up to ridicule by calling them arseholes. Good. If they wish to send me messages telling me of their displeasure, I will publish them here. If they request that the communications be kept private, I will ignore the requests and publish the messages anyway. If they get really insistent on privacy, I will publish the messages here and also send them to newsgroups and mailing lists. Similarly, all communication from lawyers will be given the widest possible distribution, including relevant bar and legal associations. Written complaints will be scanned, published here and elsewhere, and otherwise ignored.