Interesting Stuff Thread

Turtwig

robindch wrote: »

And an intriguing paper on arXiv:

http://arxiv.org/abs/1304.3381

The fossil record indicates that applying Moore's law to the complexity of DNA suggests that it's been doubling something like every 380m years, with a start-point 9.7b years ago.

This is billions of years before the sun was formed, implying that not only are we made from star-stuff, but our ancestors were living there too.

How insanely neat is that?

So what you're saying is our DNA Is too complex to have spontaneously formed in such a short time period? Sounds like proof of God.

robindch

Jernal wrote: »

Sounds like proof of God.

God really is just great, isn't he?

fisgon

Not sure if anyone watches the show The Good Wife. It's a CBS show starring Julianna Margulies as the wife of Illinois State's attorney who is also a practicing lawyer.

The show tends to look at topical subjects, gay marriage, the military, the recession. This week it was religion. Alicia was under pressure to admit to some kind of religious belief, as her husband is running for Governor. She gave the idea that she was going to, but after a few drinks, when asked the question about her beliefs, she smiled and said to the reporter "I'm an atheist."

This is an interesting approach. The Good Wife is a very popular show, and Julianna Margulies' character, Alicia, is a kind of heroine, strong, respected, honest, sexy, intelligent, successful. The fact that she has come out as an atheist on mainstream American television is, I think, significant.

Gbear

fisgon wrote: »

Not sure if anyone watches the show The Good Wife. It's a CBS show starring Julianna Margulies as the wife of Illinois State's attorney who is also a practicing lawyer.

The show tends to look at topical subjects, gay marriage, the military, the recession. This week it was religion. Alicia was under pressure to admit to some kind of religious belief, as her husband is running for Governor. She gave the idea that she was going to, but after a few drinks, when asked the question about her beliefs, she smiled and said to the reporter "I'm an atheist."

This is an interesting approach. The Good Wife is a very popular show, and Julianna Margulies' character, Alicia, is a kind of heroine, strong, respected, honest, sexy, intelligent, successful. The fact that she has come out as an atheist on mainstream American television is, I think, significant.

Interesting to see how it'll affect the ratings.

Mammy Gbear watches it.

TheChizler

Gbear wrote: »

Interesting to see how it'll affect the ratings.

Mammy Gbear watches it.

They were hinting at that when the hip Christian guy baptised her daughter, testing the waters then maybe?

Hotblack Desiato

fisgon wrote: »

Alicia is a kind of heroine, strong, respected, honest, sexy, intelligent, successful.

Just like real-life atheists

Have, ahem, acquired that show lately, is it worth watching at all? Not for the sake of 3 seasons leading to Tony's woman saying she's an atheist like.

Bannasidhe

Deleted User wrote: »

Have, ahem, acquired that show lately, is it worth watching at all? Not for the sake of 3 seasons leading to Tony's woman saying she's an atheist like.

Plucky female lawyer up against the odds with added relationship issues ...

OH likes it...

The fact that "female" or a synonym is always mentioned puts me off somewhat.

Bannasidhe

Deleted User wrote: »

The fact that "female" or a synonym is always mentioned puts me off somewhat.

In this case, apart from Alicia having a vagina, she could be a John Grisham 'plucky lawyer who wins against the odds and struggles with the ethos of their firm when it conflicts with their personal ethics' stock hero.

It's actually OK - no Boston Legal but not the worst of the plucky lawyer shows.

MrPudding

Bannasidhe wrote: »

In this case, apart from Alicia having a vagina, she could be a John Grisham 'plucky lawyer who wins against the odds and struggles with the ethos of their firm when it conflicts with their personal ethics' stock hero.

It's actually OK - no Boston Legal but not the worst of the plucky lawyer shows.

I loved Boston Legal, but I think it is a slightly different proposition to The Good Wife, which I also love. I loved William Shatner in Boston legal, but the thing I liked the most was Alan's closing arguments, they were generally awesome.

I think the good wife is a little more serious, though there are some laughs in it. I do like the way they take contemporary events and issues, like Boston Legal did.

MrP

Sarky

Bannasidhe wrote: »

Plucky female lawyer up against the odds with added relationship issues ...

OH likes it...

So it's a reboot of Allie MacBeal?

Bannasidhe

Sarky wrote: »

So it's a reboot of Allie MacBeal?

Dunno - never watched MacBeal.

Think it takes itself a bit more seriously judging by what I have picked up on MacB by cultural osmosis. As I said, very Grisham but with a female 'hero'. Or at least that is the impression I get when I occasionally peer over the top of the laptop at it...

Strange to think that in this day and age the fact that the plucky lawyer has a vagina is used as the main selling point of the show...

Bannasidhe

JC is in prison???

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056931325

Well, I think that's interesting in a what on Earth could he have said that he hasn't said before especially something that would apparently merit a site ban kinda way...

:pac:

Edit - he may not be site banned after all - just in imposed temporary exile from t'udder forum with a spot of over reaction thrown in....

MrPudding

Sarky wrote: »

So it's a reboot of Allie MacBeal?

Nah, not quite. Allie MacBeal had very little law in it and did not really deal with contemporary issues. Good Wife is a little more serious, but still entertaining.

MrP

fisgon

Deleted User wrote: »

Have, ahem, acquired that show lately, is it worth watching at all? Not for the sake of 3 seasons leading to Tony's woman saying she's an atheist like.

It's good quality, intelligent, mainstream American TV. Probably as good as you are going to get on network television in the States. There are points to question, not least being the fact that the firm never seems to lose a case, and yet they find themselves almost bankrupt.

Still, I mentioned it because I can't remember another character on such a high profile US tv show - especially the central character - being so blunt about their atheism. I am wondering if it is an indication of a slight change in the direction of the wind as regards non-belief in the American mainstream.

PopePalpatine

fisgon wrote: »

Still, I mentioned it because I can't remember another character on such a high profile US tv show - especially the central character - being so blunt about their atheism.

Does Dr. House count?

Nolars

PopePalpatine wrote: »

Does Dr. House count?

"Rational arguments don't usually work on religious people. Otherwise there would be no religious people"

House md is so gd

sink

House as previously mentioned and Bones would be another atheist main character, but that said I find the way the other characters treat her beliefs to be a bit condescending.

TheChizler

sink wrote: »

House as previously mentioned and Bones would be another atheist main character, but that said I find the way the other characters treat her beliefs to be a bit condescending.

And the way it's recently commonly implied at the end that she's wrong and the religious/psychic people were right all along! One recent episode had the spirit of a dead kid watching them solve the case before he could 'cross over'.

robindch

Here's a weird one.

Somebody's recorded the geographical information associated with some 40 million tweets produced last December, and made them keyword searchable with some dinky new database code.

http://worldmap.harvard.edu/tweetmap/

Can't say how reliable or useful it is, but it's faintly interesting to search for certain keywords and see how they're distributed geographically. Hint: neither "atheism" nor "abortion" saw much action during the month in Ireland.

robindch

Highly Religious People Are Less Motivated by Compassion Than Are Non-Believers:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120430140035.htm

Science Daily wrote:

Apr. 30, 2012 — "Love thy neighbor" is preached from many a pulpit. But new research from the University of California, Berkeley, suggests that the highly religious are less motivated by compassion when helping a stranger than are atheists, agnostics and less religious people.

In three experiments, social scientists found that compassion consistently drove less religious people to be more generous. For highly religious people, however, compassion was largely unrelated to how generous they were, according to the findings which are published in the most recent online issue of the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.

The results challenge a widespread assumption that acts of generosity and charity are largely driven by feelings of empathy and compassion, researchers said. In the study, the link between compassion and generosity was found to be stronger for those who identified as being non-religious or less religious. "Overall, we find that for less religious people, the strength of their emotional connection to another person is critical to whether they will help that person or not," said UC Berkeley social psychologist Robb Willer, a co-author of the study. "The more religious, on the other hand, may ground their generosity less in emotion, and more in other factors such as doctrine, a communal identity, or reputational concerns."

Compassion is defined in the study as an emotion felt when people see the suffering of others which then motivates them to help, often at a personal risk or cost. While the study examined the link between religion, compassion and generosity, it did not directly examine the reasons for why highly religious people are less compelled by compassion to help others. However, researchers hypothesize that deeply religious people may be more strongly guided by a sense of moral obligation than their more non-religious counterparts.

"We hypothesized that religion would change how compassion impacts generous behavior," said study lead author Laura Saslow, who conducted the research as a doctoral student at UC Berkeley. Saslow, who is now a postdoctoral scholar at UC San Francisco, said she was inspired to examine this question after an altruistic, nonreligious friend lamented that he had only donated to earthquake recovery efforts in Haiti after watching an emotionally stirring video of a woman being saved from the rubble, not because of a logical understanding that help was needed.

"I was interested to find that this experience -- an atheist being strongly influenced by his emotions to show generosity to strangers -- was replicated in three large, systematic studies," Saslow said. In the first experiment, researchers analyzed data from a 2004 national survey of more than 1,300 American adults. Those who agreed with such statements as "When I see someone being taken advantage of, I feel kind of protective towards them" were also more inclined to show generosity in random acts of kindness, such as loaning out belongings and offering a seat on a crowded bus or train, researchers found.

When they looked into how much compassion motivated participants to be charitable in such ways as giving money or food to a homeless person, non-believers and those who rated low in religiosity came out ahead: "These findings indicate that although compassion is associated with pro-sociality among both less religious and more religious individuals, this relationship is particularly robust for less religious individuals," the study found. In the second experiment, 101 American adults watched one of two brief videos, a neutral video or a heartrending one, which showed portraits of children afflicted by poverty. Next, they were each given 10 "lab dollars" and directed to give any amount of that money to a stranger. The least religious participants appeared to be motivated by the emotionally charged video to give more of their money to a stranger.

"The compassion-inducing video had a big effect on their generosity," Willer said. "But it did not significantly change the generosity of more religious participants." In the final experiment, more than 200 college students were asked to report how compassionate they felt at that moment. They then played "economic trust games" in which they were given money to share -- or not -- with a stranger. In one round, they were told that another person playing the game had given a portion of their money to them, and that they were free to reward them by giving back some of the money, which had since doubled in amount.

Those who scored low on the religiosity scale, and high on momentary compassion, were more inclined to share their winnings with strangers than other participants in the study. "Overall, this research suggests that although less religious people tend to be less trusted in the U.S., when feeling compassionate, they may actually be more inclined to help their fellow citizens than more religious people," Willer said.

In addition to Saslow and Willer, other co-authors of the study are UC Berkeley psychologists Dacher Keltner, Matthew Feinberg and Paul Piff; Katharine Clark at the University of Colorado, Boulder; and Sarina Saturn at Oregon State University. The study was funded by grants from UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center, UC Berkeley's Center for the Economics and Demography of Aging, and the Metanexus Institute.

[-0-]

robindch wrote: »

Here's a weird one.

Somebody's recorded the geographical information associated with some 40 million tweets produced last December, and made them keyword searchable with some dinky new database code.

http://worldmap.harvard.edu/tweetmap/

Can't say how reliable or useful it is, but it's faintly interesting to search for certain keywords and see how they're distributed geographically. Hint: neither "atheism" nor "abortion" saw much action during the month in Ireland.

Doesn't seem too reliable but interesting all the same.

Bannasidhe

Didn't know where else to put this...

But I noticed whenever the subject of ,what do you athiests intend to do when you die bet ye will all have a mass and a priest' type questions come up many people stated they would quite to have a tree planted on them so, may I present bio Urn

This is a Bios Urn, a completely biodegradable urn that contains a single tree seed. When planted, the tree seed is nourished by and absorbs the nutrients from the ashes. The urn itself is made from coconut shell and contains compacted peat and cellulose. The ashes are mixed with this, and the seed placed inside. You can even choose which type of tree you'd like to grow!

http://www.martinazua.com/eng/eng/bios-urn/

FouxDaFaFa

Sounds nice but I think Hunter S Thompson did it better. Blast me into space!

Hotblack Desiato

NASA 'accidentally' draw penis on Mars

robindch

German scientists are developing GPS for deep space:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17557581

Genghiz Cohen

Not really GPS then is it?

donspeekinglesh

Galaxy Positioning System?

robindch

Parishioners in New York fall out over money and church administration. Turns out that the church holds around $2 billion worth of property and other assets and -- rather ungenerously, I thought -- distributes around 0.1% of that annually as charitable grants.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/25/nyregion/trinity-church-in-manhattan-is-split-on-how-to-spend-its-wealth.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=1&

New York Times wrote:

There has never been any doubt that Trinity Church is wealthy. But the extent of its wealth has long been a mystery; guessed at by many, known by few. Now, however, after a lawsuit filed by a disenchanted parishioner, the church has offered an estimate of the value of its assets: more than $2 billion.

The Episcopal parish, known as Trinity Wall Street, traces its holdings to a gift of 215 acres of prime Manhattan farmland donated in 1705 by Queen Anne of England. Since then, the church has parlayed that gift into a rich portfolio of office buildings, stock investments and, soon, mixed-use residential development.

The parish’s good fortune has become an issue in the historic congregation, which has been racked by infighting in recent years over whether the church should be spending more money to help the poor and spread the faith, in New York and around the world. Differences over the parish’s mission and direction last year led nearly half the 22-member vestry — an august collection of corporate executives and philanthropists — to resign or be pushed out, after at least seven of them asked, unsuccessfully, that the rector himself step down. Over the years, the church has sold or given away much of the original 215 acres from Queen Anne, but it has 14 acres, including 5.5 million square feet of commercial real estate.

It reported $158 million in real estate revenue for 2011, the majority of which went toward maintaining and supporting its real estate operations, the financial statement indicates. Of the $38 million left for the church’s operating budget, some $4 million was spent on communications, $3 million on philanthropic grant spending and $2.5 million on the church’s music program, church officials said. Nearly $6 million went to maintain Trinity’s historic properties, including the main church building, which was built in 1846; St. Paul’s Chapel; and several cemeteries, where luminaries including Alexander Hamilton and Edward I. Koch are buried. The remainder went into the church’s equity investment portfolio.

Critics argue that the church could have a higher profile as a beacon of charity and Episcopal belief. “I felt that the church was being too corporate and wasn’t acting on its values,” said Jeremy C. Bates, the congregant who filed the lawsuit and a former leader of the church’s Congregational Council.

But not all parishioners agree. “Given the resources, I think they do exactly what they should be doing,” said Susan V. Berresford, a current member of the vestry and the former head of the Ford Foundation. “This, I think, is a first-class philanthropic operation and one that is using its resources very wisely.”

The vast majority of the parish’s property is in Hudson Square, a commercial neighborhood next to the Manhattan entrance to the Holland Tunnel. These days, the area’s hulking prewar industrial buildings, designed for use by printing companies, are increasingly occupied by creative and technology companies, with restaurants and galleries on the street level.

“The Trinity Church properties are now among the most valuable in all of New York City, because they are sitting on the edge of the hottest neighborhoods in the city — SoHo, TriBeCa and Greenwich Village,” said Mitchell L. Moss, a professor of urban policy and planning at New York University. “Trinity has been either very wise or very prudent, but they have let the market mature around them, and now they are ready to take advantage of it.” [...]