Part two of the three-part series in the St. Petersburg Times on Scientology has been published, and it’s a detailed account of the death of Lisa McPherson. Some of the previously unpublished details include that David Miscavige was personally monitoring McPherson’s auditing over closed circuit television and deemed her “clear” in 1995, prior to her minor car accident and subsequent death after being held for 17 days in the Fort Harrison hotel and being subjected to the “introspection rundown.” This is according to Tom De Vocht and Don Jason, both former high-ranking Scientologists in Clearwater. The Church of Scientology denies that Miscavige was even present in Clearwater. In December 1999, when a judge ruled that Miscavige could be added as a defendant in the McPherson wrongful death case, he allegedly became more abusive and irrational. The criminal case against the church fell apart when the medical examiner changed her ruling from undetermined cause of death to accidental death. Former Scientologist Marty Rathbun, one of the critics speaking out for this series, agrees with the church on this point that the medical examiner’s decision was based on the evidence rather than on blackmail or pressure from the church. (Previously.) (Photograph is of a Scientology Sea Org bus near the Fort Harrison Hotel, with a couple members of the Sea Org in uniform, on June 25, 2005. Sea Org members sign billion-year contracts.)

More on Zion Oil and Gas, a company tied to Hal Lindsey that picks sites to drill for oil based on misinterpretations of the Bible–and they’re looking in Israel. The Bronte Capital blog writes about the company as a counterexample to the claim that all oil exploration work uses mainstream old-earth geology, so now, to be accurate, you need to say that this is true of all successful oil exploration work. (I believe Uri Geller allegedly helped in some oil or mineral exploration in the past, so the former claim had already been falsified, though I think the latter still holds.) Bronte Capital notes that since Zion can claim that it is making its decisions based on constitutionally protected religious belief, that may be a defense against accusations of stock fraud. Zion’s stock trades on the American Exchange under stock symbol ZN. It has a market capitalization of $85.17 million, and closed last week at $8.00/share, near the bottom of its 52-week range ($5.07-$17.68). The company formed in 2000 and has offices in Texas and Israel. The company’s stock is, unfortunately, not available for shorting. Here’s a Zion promotional video: (Previously.) ...

It turns out former head of Scientology’s Office of Special Affairs Mike Rinder, who left the Church of Scientology in 2007, has decided to speak out after all. And so has Marty Rathbun, who was Inspector General of the Religious Technology Center, the organization that acts as agent for all of Scientology’s intellectual property and was prominent in legal action against online critics. The St. Petersburg Times is running a multi-part story on their allegations of corruption and abuse inside the Church of Scientology, confirming and expanding upon stories that have long been staples of online criticisms of the church: ...

From the Technology Quarterly report in the June 6-12, 2009 issue of The Economist, a few articles of interest: Gasoline/compressed-air hybrid vehicles may prove more cost-effective than gas-electric hybrids.Bigelow Aerospace wins challenge against export control regulations that would have required non-U.S. passengers on space flights to be treated as recipients of technology transfers, which would have required an onerous approval and monitoring process. (Not reported in the story is that Robert Bigelow is now funding MUFON to pay UFO researchers.)Delay-tolerant network protocol (DTN), developed with assistance from Vint Cerf, has been tested to transfer data between NASA’s EPOXI probe and earth-based stations, which will lead to an interplanetary internet that includes the International Space Station.The heart of the cockroach has been used as the model for a new type of low-cost artificial heart for humans.Researchers are devising a laser-based defense mechanism to shoot down mosquitoes rather than missiles. Funded by the Gates Foundation, the prototype cost is only about $100. We’d like one. ...

John Wilkins sets out “a code of conduct for effective rational discussion," a list of principles for debate and discussion that aims at approaching truth rather than winning a rhetorical battle, at the new location of his Evolving Thoughts blog. The list of proposed principles is: The Fallibility PrincipleThe Truth-Seeking PrincipleThe Clarity PrincipleThe Burden of Proof PrincipleThe Principle of CharityThe Relevance PrincipleThe Acceptability PrincipleThe Sufficiency PrincipleThe Rebuttal PrincipleThe Resolution PrincipleThe Suspension of Judgement PrincipleThe Reconsideration PrincipleFleck’s AddendumCheck out Evolving Thoughts for discussion of each of these principles. ...

Stanford neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky giving a lecture on the evolution of schizophrenia, and how schizotypal personality and its associated “metamagical thinking” may be adaptive, and a source or driver for religious belief in a community. (Via boingboing.) Historical Comments Brad (2009-06-09): I love this type of discussion. There does seem to be a touch of post-hoc assumptions, but assumptions that have a large volume of rational support compared to any alternative I can think of. ...

The latest ApostAZ podcast is now out: Episode 016 Atheism and Bleep-Free Thought in Phoenix! Go to meetup.com/phoenix-atheists for group events! Special Guest August Berkshire. August Berkshire is vice-president of Atheist Alliance International (AAI), and past president of Minnesota Atheists. He is also in the midst of a three-week tour through the midwest and southwest visiting various atheist groups along the way including our own Phoenix Atheist group. Intro: Roll with an Atheist by Charlie Checkm. Outro: Fallen on the Front Lines by Galt Aureus. August is the owner of the “ATHEIST” license plate for Minnesota and is proud to be listed in the reference book Who’s Who in Hell. ———– Origin of the “Seven Deadly Sins”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7_deadly_sins ...

As newspapers decline and die, it’s good to see other opportunities opening up to support investigative journalism. Along with wire services, which are beefing up their staffs and seeing growing profits as their content is syndicated to more and more places including websites and broadcast media, think tanks are also getting into the business. (There are also other nonprofits that support investigative journalism, such as the Center for Public Integrity.) The Goldwater Institute has hired investigative reporter Mark Flatten from the Tribune to investigate and report on cases of government corruption, abuse, and waste. Flatten is an award-winning reporter who has covered state government for nearly 20 years in Arizona, including covering the impeachment of former Gov. Evan Mecham, the AzScam corruption scandal, and the alternative fuels fiasco. Flatten is the only reporter who has ever been banned from the floor of the state legislature, which occurred at the order of former Arizona Speaker of the House Don Aldridge (R-Lake Havasu City) because of Flatten’s reporting on links between Aldridge and Max Dunlap, who was convicted for his part in the 1976 murder of Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles. In 1976, Aldridge was a member of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, and he accompanied Dunlap to the law office of Neal Roberts on June 2, the day a bomb went off under Bolles’ car, allegedly about a runway paving problem at the Mohave County Airport (as reported in the Kingman Daily Miner, June 28, 1976). On June 3, Roberts and Dunlap met at Durant’s Restaurant to discuss raising $25,000 for the defense of Bolles’ killer, John Harvey Adamson, who was at the time facing a minor criminal charge and had not yet been caught for the murder. A May 10 NPR story describes the Goldwater Institute’s job ad for this position and raises concerns about political bias infecting any stories produced. While I think that’s a real concern, I think it’s often better to have stories come from an advertised bias rather than pretend objectivity. In any case, Flatten’s stories have gone after abuse regardless of party (Mecham was a Republican, the alternative fuels fiasco was caused by a Republican, and AzScam caught both Republicans and Democrats taking bribes). I look forward to seeing what he will investigate and write about in this new role. UPDATE (October 19, 2009): Flatten has published his first major investigative piece since being hired by the Goldwater Institute, and it’s an account of how a federal program designed to provide business opportunities to the disadvantaged is being used by political insiders for their own benefit, including County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox. Wilcox obtained the Chili’s Too franchise in Terminal 4 at Sky Harbor Airport as an Airport Concession Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (ACDBE), which requires that the owner participate in the day-to-day operation of the business, which she does not (though perhaps her co-owner does?). She also received a $450,000 loan from Host International which meant she didn’t have to bring any money to the table, a loan which violated city policy (the City of Phoenix owns and operates Sky Harbor). Flatten’s “High Fliers” report may be found here.

David Paszkiewicz, the Kearny, NJ high school teacher who was proselytizing for Christianity and creationism and then lied about it when his student Matthew LaClair complained, only to be caught because LaClair recorded the evidence, is taking students from the school on a field trip to the Creation Museum. Paszkiewicz, who is also the advisor for the school’s Christian Club, wants students to be exposed to the “science behind creationism." Apparently the original plan was to take this field trip during school hours using taxpayer funds. Matthew LaClair will be discussing this tonight on Equal Time for Freethought on WBAI radio 99.5 FM in NYC at 6:30 p.m. EDT, 3:30 p.m. MST (Arizona). WBAI broadcasts on the Internet in several streaming audio formats, so you don’t have to be in NYC to listen. ...

I’ll be giving a talk during the pre-conference workshop sessions at this week’s American Humanist Association conference, which is being held June 5-7 at the Tempe Mission Palms Hotel. My talk is on Thursday, June 4, from 4-5 p.m. in the Palm F room. While there is ordinarily a $20 charge for the pre-conference workshops, readers of this blog may attend for free (but donations to the AHA are appreciated). My talk is entitled “Lessons learned from 25 years of battling creationists, Scientologists, and fundamentalists online." I’ll also be representing the Arizona Coalition of Reason at a press conference on Friday morning about a new billboard campaign. More about that on Friday. UPDATE (June 4, 2009): My presentation (Keynote format) is here, published with a Creative Commons license (noncommercial, attribution, no derivative works). UPDATE (June 8, 2009): Friday’s press conference was held by the American Humanist Association, the United Coalition of Reason, and the Arizona Coalition of Reason. Roy Speckhardt of the AHA introduced the press conference, Fred Edwords of United COR announced his new group and that it plans to start up about 20 COR groups throughout the country by the end of the year, and I spoke on behalf of ArizonaCOR. We have a billboard up at 44th St. and Washington, on the southbound route into Sky Harbor airport. We got press coverage from ABC Ch. 15, Fox Ch. 10, and independent Ch. 3, from the Arizona Republic and New Times, and from KTAR radio. ASU’s State Press will also be running a story. Most spun the issue as a big controversy, but that seems outlandish to me. Fox’s “man on the street” interviews ended up with two atheists out of five interviewed, and most didn’t seem to think it was a big deal. The owner of the business near the billboard made some strange argument about how the billboard should have required special regulatory approval, since he needed to get approval for his own business’s signs–but apparently didn’t recognize that such approval would only be needed for the billboard itself (unless it was grandfathered), not for its content. UPDATE (June 21, 2009): Here’s my presentation, embedded via SlideShare: UPDATE (June 29, 2009): Leslie Zukor of the Reed Secular Alliance at Reed College gives a recap of the AHA conference. ...