Interesting Stuff Thread

robindch

With its other problems all resolved, the Vatican turns its teams of crack theologians to the problem of gluten and genetically modified wheat.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-40545023

The full Vatican report is here.

recedite

Gluten-free is no good because protein is needed in the bread to give it that extra "body".

Pherekydes

recedite wrote: »

Gluten-free is no good because protein is needed in the bread to give it that extra "body".

But meat is considered gluten free. Including, I'm sure, human meat.

robindch

Pherekydes wrote: »

But meat is considered gluten free. Including, I'm sure, human meat.

Schoolboy error there Pherekydes -
the human bit of the bread is the substance, but it's the accidents which are required to contain at least some gluten.

recedite

I'm guessing the gluten transmogrifies into a protein body, thereby making the meat gluten-free from the moment of substantialisation.

Hotblack Desiato

robindch wrote: »

With its other problems all resolved, the Vatican turns its teams of crack theologians to the problem of gluten and genetically modified wheat.

Well that's the OH consigned to hell then.

She'll be in good company, if it exists, though - I wouldn't like to be lonely

seamus

robindch wrote: »

With its other problems all resolved, the Vatican turns its teams of crack theologians to the problem of gluten and genetically modified wheat.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-40545023

The full Vatican report is here.

"The church is adapting to the modern world and meeting the needs of young people".

"Unless the bread is prepared exactly as it has been described in this 2000 year-old, third-hand account of an unverifiable event, then it is unable to undergo the magical transformation that makes it work. After you die.".

How people don't look at this kind of thing and think, "Hang on, this seems like bull****" amazes me.

swampgas

seamus wrote: »

How people don't look at this kind of thing and think, "Hang on, this seems like bull****" amazes me.

Because the message of the church has long been that you are a poor sinner, who must accept the divine mysteries which are far beyond the comprehension of mere mortals, but the pope has special magic powers and can figure out what it is you should believe. Don't question anything, just have faith. Remember Doubting Thomas!

Fortunately we instill this wonderful message into our children in primary school, we wouldn't want their malleable young minds infected with rationality or independent thought.

CabanSail

I am sure the way it works is the same as going to the theatre, a movie, watching TV etc. The audience are compliant. They want it to be so and suspend logic to avail of the magic. Sure there will be some, but very few, who believe the magician really did pull the rabbit out of the hat. Most of us watch for entertainment and wonder how it was done. Even the Faith Healers who work their con tricks have a compliant audience. They take money by selling hope.

Hotblack Desiato

A faith healer or magician has to 'deliver' in the short term however, perhaps a bit longer in the case of a healer, but the person coughing up the cash ultimately has to believe they are getting a tangible return for their money.

How much smarter than that is it to sell a 'product' that can only be accessed after death! No chance of adverse reviews there. No chance of chargebacks or refunds!

robindch

Intelligence - as measured by IQ tests - is positively-correlated with lower incidences of a range of life-threatening illnesses. In Scotland at least. Genetics may be to blame.

https://www.ft.com/content/2f60e7ae-6158-11e7-8814-0ac7eb84e5f1
http://www.bmj.com/content/357/bmj.j2708

BMJ article, conclusion wrote:

In a whole national population year of birth cohort followed over the life course from age 11 to age 79, higher scores on a well validated childhood intelligence test were associated with lower risk of mortality ascribed to coronary heart disease and stroke, cancers related to smoking (particularly lung and stomach), respiratory diseases, digestive diseases, injury, and dementia.

recedite

"a latent trait of optimal bodily functioning”

heh heh! Well who knows, it might be true. I suspect it was written by a geek though, (not exactly known for their great bodies)
I see they adjusted for childhood socio-economic situation, but not adult. Fair enough I suppose.

smacl

Interesting article on using DNA for general purpose storage; https://www.technologyreview.com/s/608268/scientists-used-crispr-to-put-a-gif-inside-living-dna/

recedite

smacl wrote: »

Interesting article on using DNA for general purpose storage

Mehh... I think that is about as useful as making human ear grow on a mouse's back. Amusingly grotesque, but not much more.

Meanwhile, the Chinese have managed to beam some particles from Earth up to a satellite.
Its all part of their plans for a quantum entanglement super-computer internet. That's where the data storage and transfer will really happen.

Samaris

recedite wrote: »

Mehh... I think that is about as useful as making human ear grow on a mouse's back. Amusingly grotesque, but not much more.

Meanwhile, the Chinese have managed to beam some particles from Earth up to a satellite.
Its all part of their plans for a quantum entanglement super-computer internet. That's where the data storage and transfer will really happen.

The point of growing ears on mouse backs is not so much for the sake of having a particularly earie mouse, but rather that the ear can be allowed to grow, the growth is..uh...harvested (don't ask me if the mouse survives this, I doubt it) and can be grafted to a human with no ear, afaik.

Harika

We had here or in the religion forum a discussion about creationist scientists not allowed to publish their papers in scientific papers. One of my favourite youtubers made a great video about peer reviewed papers and also talks about the case with creationist not being able to publish in scientific papers and the reasoning why.

approx at 7:15 it starts, but the time before is well worth watching.

CabanSail

Samaris wrote: »

The point of growing ears on mouse backs is not so much for the sake of having a particularly earie mouse, but rather that the ear can be allowed to grow, the growth is..uh...harvested (don't ask me if the mouse survives this, I doubt it) and can be grafted to a human with no ear, afaik.

Not quite my understanding. The goal would be that organs can be regrown when required, not on a host (in this case a mouse) but instead on the person requiring the organ. This would avoid the requirements of antirejection drugs.

The actual mouse in the photo's was part of an experiment about implanted cartilage being able to grow. Information about the Vacanti Mouse

recedite

The problem with growing cow's cartilage on an immuno-supressed mouse is that it would be rejected if transferred onto a human. Or even a normal mouse.
The Chinese (who else!) have managed to grow an ear on a man's arm, which seems a lot more useful. I have no idea whether any of the 20 year old eary (or eerie) mouse research helped them in this endeavour, but I doubt it.

Hotblack Desiato

Behold,
the Pizza Trieste:



Gorgonzola cheese and, yes, apple.

robindch

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

Behold, the Pizza Trieste:

First 'e' should be removed from 'Trieste'.

Samaris

Yeah, I'd be pretty triste if I had to eat that.

swampgas

Samaris wrote: »

Yeah, I'd be pretty triste if I had to eat that.

It would be even more delicious if you added a bit of pineapple on top ...

Harika

Lucien Greaves, Satantic Temple, was guest at Tucker Carlson at Fox News.

recedite

The look on Carlson's face at the end is priceless, after he asks what he thinks is his bombshell/impossible question and Greaves calmly proceeds to answer it

Samaris

swampgas wrote: »

It would be even more delicious if you added a bit of pineapple on top ...

There's already apple on it, may as well add a whole fruit salad!

Hotblack Desiato

robindch wrote: »

First 'e' should be removed from 'Trieste'.

This isn't some GermanGreek dude in Canada sticking a random fruit on a pizza and calling it after a place thousands of miles away. This is Italian. Italians, the inventors of pizza. We are not qualified to judge what is and is not canonical pizza - not when up against Italians, anyway.

I'm a lover of blue cheese (for, oh, a few months now - sometimes when you challenge your assumptions you discover that something 'horrible' is actually great) so I'm totally sold on the gorgonzola - the apple part might depend on where they are along the Granny Smith (sour, challenging, but a taste) - Golden Delicious (sweet but near tasteless) scale. I do admit I find it hard to accept a pizza with no meat on it, never mind no tomato...

The one in the back of the pic does look tasty and anchovies evolved specifically for the purpose of being dried out and sprinkled onto pizzas. Thanks guys.

recedite wrote: »

The look on Carlson's face at the end is priceless, after he asks what he thinks is his bombshell/impossible question and Greaves calmly proceeds to answer it

I can only describe his look as 'constipated'
And if you're constipated, you're full of....

Samaris

Harika wrote: »

Lucien Greaves, Satantic Temple, was guest at Tucker Carlson at Fox News.

Oh my god, shut up Carlson and let the man speak! Also, that is some resting-constipated face.

I see his point though. I don't really approve of the name "Satanic Temple" either, unless there's some link to the concept of Lucifer as the Morning Star and Enlightenment (Greaves didn't really get a chance to explain the exact reasoning). But it does seem like the name was picked purely to rile Christians, since they're choosing the name of Christianity's main villain. And there's at least some symbols that have specific meanings to Christianity and Judaism (from that clip) that are being twisted to represent this church, the name of which suggests a twisted form of Christianity or Judaism. Basically, would they even exist without those religions? (The same argument could be made in the 5thC for Islam, ofc, and "age of the religion" isn't really a fair point to judge it on).

I suspect I agree with their general aim, just "Church of Satan" does seem to be a shock tactic to get negative attention to draw attention to their aims. "Church of Humanism" I could actually get behind a lot more.

looksee

I can't say that I was impressed with either of them, I actually kinda agreed with Carlson, and I didn't think that Greaves made a very serious attempt to answer his questions. Even though I support the general ideas of the group I do think they are going about it in the wrong way, especially using children's books and classes to make their point. I agree it is all designed to be shock tactics, which is fine in the short term but a bit ineffective in the long term.

recedite

Samaris wrote: »

"Church of Humanism" I could actually get behind a lot more.

Nobody would even notice it then. The whole point is to challenge religious paraphenalia creeping into the public/secular/state realm under the guise of charity/good works.

For example their use of children's books was only to highlight the cynical way that certain religious groups had placed children's books in state schools while claiming it was some sort of charitable donation.

This latest enterprise involves a memorial installed by the Satanic temple, not to honour themselves but to honour local "veterans" :pac:
"Veterans" in the US is a bit like "mom and apple pie", nobody can really object to it.
Obviously then people are going to think "Why can't we have this memorial to honour the veterans, but without the satanic reference/sponsorship".
And that is exactly the point.

BTW, did anyone notice after that Grenfell Tower disaster in London, the local mosque had a high profile team on site organising the distribution of "aid" to victims. Possibly soup. The local council was getting nothing but abuse for its attempts to help, but the mosque's operation was getting high praise from both locals and the national media.
Its an old trick, mixing charity work with proselytising. However, it would not be right to ban it. But when the charity is targeted at public schools, or results in permanent structures/monuments being erected in publicly owned spaces, then that is crossing the line.

These satanic guys just highlight these latter kinds of practices, which might otherwise slip through unnoticed by the general public.

Peregrinus

recedite wrote: »

BTW, did anyone notice after that Grenfell Tower disaster in London, the local mosque had a high profile team on site organising the distribution of "aid" to victims. Possibly soup. The local council was getting nothing but abuse for its attempts to help, but the mosque's operation was getting high praise from both locals and the national media.
Its an old trick, mixing charity work with proselytising.

It's an old trick, describing charity as proselytism, when in fact you haven't produce any evidence at all that there was any proselytising involved. And the scare quotes around "aid" are not exactly new either.