Interesting Stuff Thread

smacl

Michael OBrien wrote: »

Used to love that program, although I cannot remember ANY actual story other than they seemed to travel constantly and have adventures along the way.

Been quite a few years since I've read them, but from memory the books were every bit as rambling and episodic as the TV shows and would have been the equivalent of soap opera in their day. Three kingdoms does this to such an extent that by the last third of the book we're dealing with children and grand children of the original characters (still wandering about the place). I remember struggling through another Chinese classic, the Story of the Stone, and giving up about three volumes in out of nine with the feeling that I'd tried to watch the Chinese version of Coronation Street as a boxed set in one sitting.

recedite

Ah yes, grasshopper, I remember that series. It seems we were subliminally indoctrinated into Chinese secularism by the TV as kids!

If only the church had known what was happening, they could have banned these programs before it was too late.

recedite

Actually grasshopper was a different one...... equally dangerous to young minds.

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

The Black Oil

Erm...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsAIPE2f0QQ

Hotblack Desiato

Land of the Free, my arse.

magicbastarder

first time known (well, in recent times i suppose) that a diocese in ireland will go a day without mass being said:

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/no-mass-to-take-place-in-limerick-diocese-next-tuesday-1.3056560

recedite

Its a nervous time. Hopefully the sky won't fall down on top of us, or anything.

Hotblack Desiato

I thought only teachers went off on in-service training days causing everyone to get a day off

Wonder what the topic is. "How To Not Rape Kids"?

seamus

magicbastarder wrote: »

first time known (well, in recent times i suppose) that a diocese in ireland will go a day without mass being said:

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/no-mass-to-take-place-in-limerick-diocese-next-tuesday-1.3056560

This on the same week that a spoofer on After Hours was doing his best comical Ali impression, claiming that the church in Ireland was just fine, wasn't reducing in size and was evolving to meet the needs of the modern congregation.

This is good news. Not only do they not have the native clergy, but clearly they can't import enough/any to do the job either.

One eyed Jack

seamus wrote: »

This on the same week that a spoofer on After Hours was doing his best comical Ali impression, claiming that the church in Ireland was just fine, wasn't reducing in size and was evolving to meet the needs of the modern congregation.

This is good news. Not only do they not have the native clergy, but clearly they can't import enough/any to do the job either.

A fella wouldn't want to be paranoid seamus, would he?

robindch

Dublin churches collect over ?45 million in the 18 months to the end of December 2015, a further ?43 million from other sources, apparently bringing the available cash balance to ?177,450,000.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/dublin-church-collections-bring-in-45m-accounts-show-1.3068004

The accounts are available here and they make for interesting reading:

http://www.dublindiocese.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/CHARITIES-OF-THE-ROMAN-CATHOLIC-ARCHDIOCESE-OF-DUBLIN-1.pdf

recedite

200,000 Euro was donated to assist with the build of a church in the Diocese of Pinsk, Belarus

Great for them, that they had the cash to spare, while the general public continues to pay out for the Redress scheme here in Ireland..

On P.28, 5(iii) of the document they have listed some income generated from "Garda Vetting" and "Mixed marriage papers".
Anyone know what that is all about?

Peregrinus

recedite wrote: »

Great for them, that they had the cash to spare, while the general public continues to pay out for the Redress scheme here in Ireland..

SFAIK, the Archdiocese of Dublin has no liabilities under or in connection with the Redress Scheme. Those liabilities arise under an agreement between the State and 18(?) religious orders, but there are no dioceses involved. None of the dioceses operated any residential institutions.

recedite wrote: »

On P.28, 5(iii) of the document they have listed some income generated from "Garda Vetting" and "Mixed marriage papers".
Anyone know what that is all about?

No idea what the "mixed marriage papers" entry relates to. FWIW, I'm a Catholic who married an Anglican, and I complied with the Catholic church formalities at the time and filled out various forms, but I don't recall paying (or being asked to pay) any fees. So whatever this entry relates to, I don't think it relates to fees paid by spouses in mixed marriages.

As for Garda Vetting, an individual who applies to be vetted (usually because it's a condition of being appointed to a certain job) can be required to pay a fee to the National Vetting Bureau to cover (or contribute towards) the cost of the process. The actual procedure is that you complete a form applying for and consenting to the vetting, and then give it to your prospective employer who countersigns it to say, yes, they are a "relevant organisation" and they have an obligation to get a vetting report on you, and they they send it on to the National Vetting Bureau.

So - wild guess here - it may be that the individual applicant also pays the fee to the relevant organisation, and they send both the form and the fee on to the Bureau. In which case the 15k of income is balanced by 15k of expenditure which is (presumablyy) included in the figure for expenditure on "child protection services" in note 6(ii).

recedite

Peregrinus wrote: »

SFAIK, the Archdiocese of Dublin has no liabilities under or in connection with the Redress Scheme. Those liabilities arise under an agreement between the State and 18(?) religious orders, but there are no dioceses involved. None of the dioceses operated any residential institutions.

Indeed. The RCC has more separate registered subsidiaries in Ireland than Zoe developments, which is why neither organisation can be bankrupted by litigation.

Peregrinus wrote: »

So - wild guess here - it may be that the individual applicant also pays the fee to the relevant organisation, and they send both the form and the fee on to the Bureau. In which case the 15k of income is balanced by 15k of expenditure which is (presumablyy) included in the figure for expenditure on "child protection services" in note 6(ii).

Possibly. I hope they are not making money out of volunteers who want to devote time to kids etc. at RC controlled facilities such as schools or scout dens.

robindch

A crow shows a causal understanding of water displacement:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZerUbHmuY04

robindch

A study from 2013 may throw some light on the vexed question of how intelligence and religiosity may be linked:

http://www.iflscience.com/brain/study-suggests-atheists-are-more-intelligent-because-they-can-override-religious-instinct-/
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1088868313497266?journalCode=psra

Zuckerman, Silberman + Hall wrote:

A meta-analysis of 63 studies showed a significant negative association between intelligence and religiosity. The association was stronger for college students and the general population than for participants younger than college age; it was also stronger for religious beliefs than religious behavior. [...]

Three possible interpretations were discussed. First, intelligent people are less likely to conform and, thus, are more likely to resist religious dogma. Second, intelligent people tend to adopt an analytic (as opposed to intuitive) thinking style, which has been shown to undermine religious beliefs. Third, several functions of religiosity, including compensatory control, self-regulation, self-enhancement, and secure attachment, are also conferred by intelligence. Intelligent people may therefore have less need for religious beliefs and practices.

silverharp

robindch wrote: »

A study from 2013 may throw some light on the vexed question of how intelligence and religiosity may be linked:

http://www.iflscience.com/brain/study-suggests-atheists-are-more-intelligent-because-they-can-override-religious-instinct-/
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1088868313497266?journalCode=psra

if I remember the meme response to this is, so that's why more blacks and women are religious

magicbastarder

https://twitter.com/susie_dent/status/867627562247241728

Bristolscale7

Today I learned that Robert Hanssen, an FBI agent and spy for the Soviets--"possibly the worst intelligence disaster in U.S. history"--was a turbo-christian Catholic and active member of Opus Dei. He was deviant in other ways too:

According to USA Today, those who knew the Hanssens described them as a close family. They attended Mass weekly and were very active in Opus Dei. Hanssen's three sons attended The Heights School in Potomac, Maryland, an all-boys preparatory school.[58] His daughters attended Oakcrest School for Girls in McLean, Virginia, an independent Roman Catholic school. Both schools are associated with Opus Dei. Hanssen's wife Bonnie still teaches theology at Oakcrest.[59]

A priest at Oakcrest said that Hanssen had regularly attended a 6:30 a.m. daily mass for more than a decade.[60] Opus Dei member Father C. John McCloskey III said he also occasionally attended the daily noontime mass at the Catholic Information Center in downtown Washington. After going to prison, Hanssen claimed he periodically admitted his espionage to priests in confession. He urged fellow Catholics in the Bureau to attend mass more often and denounced the Russians, even though he was spying for them, as "godless".[61]

However, at Hanssen's suggestion, and without the knowledge of his wife, a friend named Jack Horschauer, a retired Army officer, would sometimes watch the Hanssens having sex through a bedroom window. Hanssen then began to secretly videotape his sexual encounters and shared the videotapes with Horschauer. Later, he hid a video camera in the bedroom that was connected via closed-circuit television line so that his friend could observe the Hanssens from his guest bedroom.[62] He also explicitly described the sexual details of his marriage on Internet chat rooms, giving information sufficient for those who knew them to recognize the couple.[63]

Hanssen frequently visited D.C. strip clubs, and spent a great deal of time with a Washington stripper named Priscilla Sue Galey. She went with Hanssen on a trip to Hong Kong, and on a visit to the FBI training facility in Quantico, Virginia.[64] He gave her money, jewels, and a used Mercedes-Benz, but cut off contact with her before his arrest, when she fell into drug abuse and prostitution. Galey claims that although she offered to sleep with him, Hanssen declined, saying that he was trying to convert her to Catholicism.[65]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Hanssen

Thargor

Bristolscale7 wrote: »

Today I learned that Robert Hanssen, an FBI agent and spy for the Soviets--"possibly the worst intelligence disaster in U.S. history"--was a turbo-christian Catholic and active member of Opus Dei. He was deviant in other ways too:



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Hanssen

When the Soviet Union collapsed in December 1991, Hanssen, possibly worried that he could be exposed during the ensuing political upheaval, broke off communications with his handlers for a time.[27]
The following year, after the Russian Federation took over the demised USSR′s spy agencies, Hanssen made a risky approach to the GRU, with whom he had not been in contact in ten years. Hanssen went in person to the Russian embassy and physically approached a GRU officer in the parking garage. Hanssen, carrying a package of documents, identified himself by his Soviet code name, "Ramon Garcia," and described himself as a "disaffected FBI agent" who was offering his services as a spy. The Russian officer, who evidently did not recognize the codename, drove off. The Russians then filed an official protest with the State Department, believing Hanssen to be a triple agent. Despite having shown his face, disclosed his code name, and revealed his FBI affiliation, Hanssen escaped arrest when the Bureau's investigation into the incident did not advance.

Ha, the Russians even made a complaint about him and they still didnt connect the dots...

Hotblack Desiato

I've always thought the Opus Dei types can't be quite right in the head.

nozzferrahhtoo

For anyone who has 2 hours to spare I found the Derren Brown discussion with an evangelical Christian was worthy of the "interesting stuff" thread. Part 1 is here which I am nearly finished. There is a part 2 as well. I had not heard of Justin Brierley or his radio show before (should I have?) but he seems pretty tame and almost apologetic that he is a theist. So it was about as cordial a discussion as it gets.

jigglypuffstuff

robindch wrote: »

A study from 2013 may throw some light on the vexed question of how intelligence and religiosity may be linked:

http://www.iflscience.com/brain/study-suggests-atheists-are-more-intelligent-because-they-can-override-religious-instinct-/
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1088868313497266?journalCode=psra

I'm not trying to pick an argument here... But did you actually read the paper?

I did...as somebody tried their best to use it as a source of credibility to underpin their own biased opinion... Shortly after I posted a nice little summary over on a thread in there..and unsurprisingly got no response

Honestly, this doesn't shine light on anything ...the amount of limitations, assumptions and lack of anything significant is shocking.. Id be happy to elaborate if you want?

smacl

pone2012 wrote: »

...the amount of limitations, assumptions and lack of anything significant is shocking..

I tend to agree. I'd question any study that treats intelligence (IQ or gi) as a single scalar variable and goes on to rank people on that basis. In this article, they also go on to conflate intelligence with rationality, which is also highly dubious, as any self respecting mad scientist would attest to. I suppose at least they drag ethics into it, so evil geniuses can breath a sigh of relief.

You have to ask if you consider various types of intelligence as intrinsic or a result of education. If intelligence were intrinsic, as many people seem to presume, doing repeated IQ tests over time would yield consistent results, yet this isn't the case. My feeling is that the plasticity of the mind is such that it continuously adapts to the information presented to it, and if that happens to be endless religious dogma, that is what it will be good at. If, instead of religious dogma you treat your mind to the study of scientific endeavour, you'll be better at analysing problems in an objective fashion, not to mention certain standardised IQ tests.

J C

robindch wrote: »

A crow shows a causal understanding of water displacement:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZerUbHmuY04

Archimedes ... eat your heart out!!!:)

https://www.britannica.com/science/Archimedes-principle

nozzferrahhtoo

I have not heard it yet but I was excited today to hear that Emily Graslie (who I have a serious crush on and looks remarkably like the girlfriend I had in College, but that aside..... ) has a new podcast called "Divides Aside" comprising interfaith and atheist:theist dialogues.

Could be good, could be terrible, but certainly worth a dip in.

looksee

I wonder will she compromise them? Sorry, had to be done.

nozzferrahhtoo

Har har, damn auto spelling correction system.

robindch

The US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has released a report concerning the integrity of the current scientific process and looming threats to it.

The introduction to the report is here and the report itself is here:

https://www.nap.edu/catalog/21896/fostering-integrity-in-research

recedite

There will probably always be a problem with research being funded by industry, but at the same time somebody has to pay for it.
This is interesting..

Researchers should routinely disclose all statistical tests carried out, including negative findings, the report says. Available evidence indicates that scientific publications are biased against presenting negative results and that the publication of negative results is on the decline. But routine reporting of negative findings will help avoid unproductive duplication of research and make research spending more productive. Dissemination of negative results also has prompted a questioning of established paradigms, leading ultimately to groundbreaking new discoveries.

If your company has just wasted a lot of money proving that X does not work, then do you really want to release that information to the public? Sure, its in the public interest. But if it saves your competitor from spending their money on the same wild goose chase, then that is not in your interests. But hey, that's capitalism.