Regret this site admin and author-in-chief had an accident resulting in hospitalisation and severe restrictions to my mobility, which is why things have gone a bit quiet. However, my ankle may be broken but my typing fingers aren’t, so aim to start writing again ASAP. Meanwhile, if there’s anything you’d like to read about here, please email us.

E-mail: mail@suffolkhumanists.org.uk Event description: Andrew is the Education Officer for the British Humanist Association. He’ll be talking about the BHA’s education policy and campaigns, and sharing ideas and information relevant to our work in Suffolk. We won’t be in Room 6 (first floor), as previously stated, but in the hall on the ground floor at Castle Hill Community Centre, Highfield Road, Ipswich. Map link: tinyurl.com/fj2ck

We’ll be at the Quaker Meeting House, Church Street, Colchester. Michael Imison is organising an experimental “ethical jury”. He writes, “I’d like members to bring one or more examples of actual situations where the moral course was not clear. The examples should, for the purpose of this exercise, be as specific as possible, maybe even derived from the member’s own experience. The jury will need to know as much as possible about the facts surrounding the case.

E-mail: mail@suffolkhumanists.org.uk Event description: The AGM part shouldn’t take long – new officers needed please! Most of the meeting will be about how the group can raise the profile of Humanism and Secularism in Suffolk and N E Essex during the coming year. If you’re one of the many who think that religious organisations have too much influence in public life, come and help us plan our strategy. We’ll be in Room 1 (next to the front door) at Castle Hill Community Centre, Highfield Road, Ipswich.

Conservapedia has over 3,800 educational, clean and concise entries on historical, scientific, legal, and economic topics, as well as more than 350 lectures and term lists. There have been over 2,500,000 page views and over 19,000 page edits. Already Conservapedia has become one of the largest user-controlled free encyclopedias on the internet. This site is growing rapidly. Oh dear! Should you laugh or cry? Conservapedia is being touted as a reliable alternative to Wikipedia, “the free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit”.

Peter Tatchell will be the guest speaker at our meeting in Colchester on Thursday March 15th. For details, see our events calendar. Peter is, amongst other things, a Guardian ‘Comment is Free’ columnist. His profile on the Guardian web site begins: Peter Tatchell is a human rights campaigner, and a member of the queer rights group OutRage! and the left wing of the Green party. His key political inspirations are Mahatma Gandhi, Sylvia Pankhurst, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.

This week’s Moral Maze on Radio 4 debated fundamentalism. One of the contributors was Hanne Stinson, British Humanist Association Chief Executive. You can listen again via the BBC but will need Real Player on your PC, which you can download free from the BBC help page.  Tags: BBC, Moral+Maze, Religion, BHA

The Ipswich Crematorium management has erected signs in the driveway to reserve parking spaces for funeral officiants. The significance of the wording is important. Where other crematoria still have parking spaces signed as reserved for ‘clergy’, these use the word ‘officiant’ – a neutral term that includes religious ministers, civil celebrants and humanist celebrants. Thank you, Ipswich Borough Council. Crematoria are owned and run by local authorities, such as Ipswich and Colchester, or private companies such as the Westerleigh Group, which owns West Suffolk Crematorium.

Headteachers should be stripped of the power to pick pupils amid fears the best schools are colonised by middle-class children, according to one of Tony Blair’s favourite think-tanks. The IPPR says faith schools are 10 times more likely to be over-run with middle-class children compared to other schools Faith schools, which can select according to religious belief, are 10 times more likely to be “highly unrepresentative” of the children in their local communities, said the report published today by the Institute for Public Policy Research.

Friday news and web links… An Alexandrian court has sentenced Abdel Kareem Nabil Suleiman to four years imprisonment for “inciting hatred of Islam” and insulting President Hosni Mubarak in his blog, using the pseudonym “Kareem Amer.” Visit the Free Kareem! website to call for his freedom. As Amnesty International reports, the sentence means that bloggers are under threat from the Egyptian authorities. All copies of Egyptian feminist writer, activist and medical doctor Nawal Al Saadawi’s latest book, God Resigns in the Summit Meeting, were removed from circulation and destroyed last week by her publisher Mahmoud Madbouli, according to German news service Deutsche Press Agenter.