Interesting Stuff Thread

obplayer

Pink Poison, the Surprising New Trend That’s Saving Rhinos

http://www.takepart.com/article/2013/04/10/pink-poison-rhino-horn-stop-ivory-trade

robindch

The mysterious power of an itch:

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/06/30/the-itch

*scratches self*

Autonomous Cowherd

The idea that the world is more peaceful now and less likely to be brutal is often put about; particularly it is used to quell concerns from people who make claims that geopolitics may be setting us on a collision course for catastrophe (the idea is hush, hush now, conspiracy nut, we have never had it better. We are all very grown up etc.)

This idea about diminishing violent warfare is contested here.
https://medium.com/bull-market/violent-warfare-is-on-the-wane-right-99223faa45e6

KomradeBishop

Google is experimenting with neural networks in order to perform image recognition - and when such a network is asked to splice into images, what it recognizes within them, it comes out with some extreme psychadelic pictures - see if you can count all of the animals it renders into the image of the knight, for example; utterly mental:
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jun/18/google-image-recognition-neural-network-androids-dream-electric-sheep

Hard to take anything seriously when it includes this:

For nearly more than 50 years

:P

Ah well, lies, damned lies and statistics. It's easy to find what one wants when one gets to choose the samples, especially going back a few thousand years with sketchy records.

Autonomous Cowherd

Deleted User wrote: »

Hard to take anything seriously when it includes this:

:P

Ah well, lies, damned lies and statistics. It's easy to find what one wants when one gets to choose the samples, especially going back a few thousand years with sketchy records.

Well, the copywriter on Medium.com may not have the best language skills, but the original author Nassim Taleb seems like he might be the cleverest guy in most rooms.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nassim_Nicholas_Taleb

I put it in here because I find it is interesting.

Brian Shanahan

Autonomous Cowherd wrote: »

Well, the copywriter on Medium.com may not have the best language skills, but the original author Nassim Taleb seems like he might be the cleverest guy in most rooms.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nassim_Nicholas_Taleb

I put it in here because I find it is interesting.

Most self conceited maybe, cleverest is very much up for contention.

Having bought and slogged through two of his books I'm frankly not all that impressed with Taleb's intelligence nor insight.

Autonomous Cowherd

Brian Shanahan wrote: »

Most self conceited maybe, cleverest is very much up for contention.

Having bought and slogged through two of his books I'm frankly not all that impressed with Taleb's intelligence nor insight.

Thanks. That's interesting and I accept your opinion of him. I have not read his books so you have the inside track on him that way Quite likely he is pompous - so very many intellectuals turn out to be.
I put the summary of his article in because that old chestnut about constant improvement is also formulated by anonymous statisticians somewhere, who may not only be conceited too, but perhaps wrong ?

I don't know who is correct. I just thought it was interesting.

Hotblack Desiato

Autonomous Cowherd wrote: »

I put the summary of his article in because that old chestnut about constant improvement is also formulated by anonymous statisticians somewhere, who may not only be conceited too, but perhaps wrong ?

Two words kill off the 'everything is getting worser and worser' argument :

Life expectancy.

robindch

Obama checks out religion:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWpAQDx1iVQ

Hotblack Desiato

'Mocking God' ? :rolleyes:

Viewing it on Youtube suggests the following delectable titles:

Dr. Benjamin Carson Wipes The Smile Off Obamas Face At The National Prayer Breakfast
by Mat Larson
1,496,936 views
7:05

Obama Admits He Is A Muslim
by FeelTheChangeMedia
12,749,361 views
9:57

Obama Hates Christians
by CleanTVcom
11,762 views
3:00

Obama / The rise of the Beast 666 / NWO (Part 2)
by sammyanddaiana
385,926 views
4:42

The most dangerous Barack Obama video ever!!!
by Truthzonetvcom
8,776,728 views
5:00

Obama says he is God, mocks the Bible, and supports Homosexuals (Mirror)
by 1John2v27
35,470 views
6:56

Obama Devil Horns Appears During Speech?? Christians Watch!!
by FisherOfMen
755,713 views
15:01

Scientific Proof That Hell Exists
by Planet Zion
75,529 views
17:38

Bible Codes - The Proof of God
by TheCompleteTruthBlog
297,862 views
1:32:28

OOPS... Video of Obama's shapeshifter agent hits MSM and Glenn Beck tries to debunk it.
by StillSpeakingOut
284,953 views
7:16

ISIS in Bible Prophecy: Six Trumpets Have Been Blown! Revelation 8 & 9
by Alan Tattersall
890,070 views
18:38

Barack Obama Mocks & Attacks Jesus and the Bible
by Mohammed Amin
226,415 views
2:09


Looney tunes.

robindch

Adam Gopnik: Power, Persecution and Pluralism

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0612wdr

BBC wrote:

Adam Gopnik wonders why religious people are feeling "persecuted" following the US Supreme Court ruling making same sex marriage legal in all fifty states. Can a religious person free to practice their religion actually feel persecuted? Are they just offended by the practices of a pluralistic society, or do they have a point?

"Their complaint is, in its way, one that seems fixed in the political choices of the late Roman Empire: the only alternatives they can recognise as real are either power or persecution. Either you are the magistrate making rules, or else you are the martyr being sacrificed to them."

robindch

The New Horizons probe finds a few:

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33524589

The probe has turned away from Earth to go do its stuff. Next call home is tomorrow evening when it's hoped there'll be a bunch of new stuff!

PopePalpatine

There's something very stark about that image. There's Pluto, and then just the darkness surrounding it. I suppose it seems stark because it's somewhere so cold that as it recedes from the Sun, it has snowfall composed of nitrogen.

robindch

PopePalpatine wrote: »

There's something very stark about that image. There's Pluto, and then just the darkness surrounding it.

The surrounding piece of sky is dark probably because the probe's camera is calibrated to Pluto's brightness and that's probably too low an exposure setting to allow the background stars to be seen. The same issue exists with that magnificent Earthrise image - no stars in the background either (and all the conspiracy theorists called "Fake!")

The probe survived the encounter and is due to start transmitting photos home shortly.

BTW, Pluto's been spotted, on - well - Pluto!

robindch

Disappointingly quickly ride in the Pluto Truthers:

http://gizmodo.com/these-pluto-truthers-insist-nasa-images-are-fake-1717828679

Brian Shanahan

robindch wrote: »

Disappointingly quickly ride in the Pluto Truthers:

http://gizmodo.com/these-pluto-truthers-insist-nasa-images-are-fake-1717828679

Of course, eny fewl kno dat it were the conjunction of Plooto and Your-Anus which caused the Costa Concordia to sink, and the alternate "explenation" given by teh govmint is part of a conpireecy for the illuminatI and the rand CORPORATION!!!!!! to take over the world and enslave us all.

They control our minds, people, control OUR MINDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111111111!!!!!!!!

obplayer

robindch

expectationlost

there was little bit in the Sunday Times this week the Rev P burke has the most bylines in the Irish Times in the year, I think they said over a hundred via his letters to the ed

obplayer

recedite

Can't quite hear what he says at the end there; give tubercular something to the aggressive males??

obplayer

recedite wrote: »

Can't quite hear what he says at the end there; give tubercular something to the aggressive males??

Tubercular meat. It comes from a case where he was doing field studies on a baboon troop and the dominant males got access to a meat source which was tubercular and killed them. The whole 'culture' of the troop changed for the better and it has actually stayed changed through the subsequent generations. It is covered in one of his other lectures, I'll find out which one.
I don't think he really intends to try it with people though :eek:

obplayer

recedite wrote: »

Can't quite hear what he says at the end there; give tubercular something to the aggressive males??

This explains the tubercular meat quote.

recedite

OK yes, I remember that study, it was posted on this forum a while ago.
I think he was having also having a go at the overly demanding questioning style of the guy he was responding to
I like his style; witty but not afraid to say he doesn't know all the answers.

robindch

obplayer wrote: »

Tubercular meat. It comes from a case where he was doing field studies on a baboon troop and the dominant males got access to a meat source which was tubercular and killed them. The whole 'culture' of the troop changed for the better and it has actually stayed changed through the subsequent generations. It is covered in one of his other lectures, I'll find out which one.

Not so much the dominant males, but the aggressive males - they all died in a fairly short period of time.

He writes about it, so far as I remember, in his book 'A Primate's Memoir':

http://www.amazon.com/Primates-Memoir-Neuroscientists-Unconventional-Baboons/dp/0743202414

(which really is an excellent book).

obplayer

robindch wrote: »

Not so much the dominant males, but the aggressive males - they all died in a fairly short period of time.

He writes about it, so far as I remember, in his book 'A Primate's Memoir':

http://www.amazon.com/Primates-Memoir-Neuroscientists-Unconventional-Baboons/dp/0743202414

(which really is an excellent book).

Yes it's a first rate book, entertaining and informative. It deals with the die off but I don't remember it covering the subsequent effects on the culture of the troop.
In baboon troops the aggressive males are the dominant ones. Therein lies the problem; as he says the baboons are awful to each other. The hierarchy defines who can torture who and who in turn they can torture.

robindch

obplayer wrote: »

It deals with the die off but I don't remember it covering the subsequent effects on the culture of the troop. [...] In baboon troops the aggressive males are the dominant ones.

The subsequent effects were what fascinated Sapolsky the most - the troop became relatively peaceful when the habit of violence died with dominant males who used it. So far as I recall - and it's been years since I read the book - after the die-off, dominance often didn't require violence.

Hotblack Desiato

obplayer wrote: »

In baboon troops the aggressive males are the dominant ones. Therein lies the problem; as he says the baboons are awful to each other. The hierarchy defines who can torture who and who in turn they can torture.

Very reminiscent of my schooldays. Not joking.

obplayer

robindch wrote: »

The subsequent effects were what fascinated Sapolsky the most - the troop became relatively peaceful when the habit of violence died with dominant males who used it. So far as I recall - and it's been years since I read the book - after the die-off, dominance often didn't require violence.

That is about it but as I say I don't recall that side of it being covered in the book though it's been a few years since I read it. Must dig it out again. In this 10 min video Sapolsky explains wonderfully.