Interesting Stuff Thread

Bald–hairy (Russian: лысый–волосатый) is a common joke in Russian political discourse, referring to the empirical rule of the state leaders' succession defined as a change of a bald leader to a hairy one and vice versa. This consistent pattern can be traced back until as early as 1825, when Nicholas I succeeded his late brother Alexander as the Russian Emperor. Nicholas I's son Alexander II formed the first "bald–hairy" pair of the sequence with his father.

The current "bald–hairy" pair of Russian rulers are the balding Vladimir Putin and the hairy Dmitry Medvedev (who has a full head of hair). Putin was the president from 2000 until 2008; Medvedev held the post until 2012, whereupon Putin became president again.

The Finnstown Castle Hotel recently hosted the very first of a new type of ceremony for children who are not making their first holy communion.

My Little Big Day is a non-religious ceremony for children whose classmates were making their Holy Communion.

The event is parent-led, child-centred and not for profit and was the culmination of a year-long project which brought like-minded families together to organise a day of celebration for their children.

Head coordinator of My Little Big Day, Tony O’Donohoe told Dublin Gazette that the idea came about as he is raising his own son Brandon in a non-religious way.

He said: “We’re raising Brandon in a non-religious way. We have him in a multi-denominational school and it was just very apparent that his classmates were going to be making their holy communion and he and a whole other bunch of kids in the school were going to be missing out on the day.

“So we just thought what we could do about it. We don’t want him to be penalised because we’ve decided to raise him in a non-religious way.”

On the day, 12 children from 10 families took part in the ceremony, which saw children add wishes to a “Wish Tree” and read out lines from some of their favourite poems and songs.
Most of the families involved did not know one another prior to becoming part of the project, and all had the same goal.

As part of the preparation for the ceremony, the children had a play date at BASE in Celbridge, some met for a picnic and games, and they planted a tree locally as well.
They made new friends, had lots of fun and did something really positive for the environment.

Tony said the group hopes to assist other parents to organise their own ceremonies.
“If your child’s classmates are due to make their Holy Communion in 2019, but they themselves are not, there is now an alternative,” he said.

“And that alternative is positive, uplifting and has a wonderful message for the children taking part.”

Anyone looking for more information on holding a ceremony can email littlebigdayproject@gmail.com

silverharp wrote: »

...whereas a makey uppy baby naming ceremony would just feel like a pale imitation and would lack the sense of occasion

An Austrian woman's conviction for calling the Prophet Muhammad a pedophile did not violate her freedom of speech, the European Court of Human Rights ruled Thursday.

The Strasbourg-based ECHR ruled that Austrian courts carefully balanced the applicant's "right to freedom of expression with the right of others to have their religious feelings protected, and served the legitimate aim of preserving religious peace in Austria."

Atheists in foxholes

Sir, – In response to a recent freedom of information request, our Defence Forces have confirmed that the chaplains in our military are appointed by bishops. As last reported to the Dail, the State spends approximately €1 million a year on military chaplain salaries, with one being Church of Ireland and the remaining 17 being Roman Catholic.

It is often said by military chaplains that “there are no atheists in foxholes”, but in fact it would be closer to the truth to say that there are more atheists in foxholes than chaplains in foxholes.

Atheists in uniform are as entitled as anyone else to relevant counsel about the ethics and morality of putting themselves and others in harm’s way. It is hugely disrespectful to atheists in our military (and inconsistent with the Employment Equality Act) that the Minister for Defence insists they may only receive counsel from a priest appointed by a bishop. Moreover, endowing bishops with these hugely valuable appointments is also inconsistent with Article 44.2.2 of the Constitution.

Today a person who carries a Bible into a church is paid more than twice as much by our Defence Forces as a person who carries a rifle into a foxhole.

The Minister should immediately revise the Defence Forces regulations to bring these well-remunerated military chaplaincy roles into line with best practice in public appointments.

All chaplaincy positions should be open to applicants of all faiths or none, and awarded to the best candidate for the job. – Yours, etc,

JOHN HAMILL,

Castleblayney,

Co Monaghan.

robindch wrote: »

The Temple of Satan has added some religious symbols to festive displays at government buildings in Illinois:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46453544
https://www.sj-r.com/news/20181203/satanic-temple-monument-added-to-illinois-capitol-rotunda-displays

A christian group has objected, though the symbols remain in place for the time being.

One eyed Jack wrote: »

I had heard about this before, but something on the news recently brought it to my attention again, can’t remember what it was specifically, but there have been interesting developments with regard to human reproduction in medicine and technology -


First UK womb transplant 'by end of 2018'


Still prohibitively expensive for most people I would imagine, and we haven’t even legislated for surrogacy in Ireland yet (I don’t know whether we will or we won’t at some point in the future), but it’s still interesting to see what they’re doing in other countries.