Interesting Stuff Thread

Turtwig

limpdd wrote: »

I'm sorry, but that sh*t is fuc*ed up :eek:

For a while there I thought s/he was referring to sponsored' sig.:o

strobe

Here are some videos I thought were really interesting. The first three are briefly explaining Transactional Analysis and the fourth one is applying the principle to religion. Well worth a watch. From youtuber TheraminTrees, one of his videos dealing with Pascal's wager called 'betting on infinity' has been posted on here a few times before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKNyFSLJy6o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOqJ4sc9TAc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58F2qYyAzME

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Eam-z1bwrk

eblistic

Biffo gave a passing nod to the non-religious in this speech (albeit buried in gushing praise of faith communities and some praise for Ratzinger).

http://www.merrionstreet.ie/index.php/2011/01/statement-by-the-taoiseach-mr-brian-cowen-t-d-on-world-peace-day-1-january-2011/?cat=12

At the same time, governments must respect and fully protect the rights of those who profess no religion.

CDfm

A bit off topic but I have been reading up on the Corporate State and the power of interest groups which in Ireland is very strong. If you like it is an expanded version of Parish Pump politics.

I wonder if it has something to do with the PR System etc.

I disagree with using Bernes transactional analysis, in this context, (maybe its cos I am a believer) because also because that could be the same with any value system.

In the case of political power and interest groups it has been the dominant government philosophy since the early 60's and powerful interest groups and clientism has been a key feature in Irish politics. Transactional analysis is used in economic analysis too and the Irish system has been greatly influenced by it.

So it is no small wonder Cowen will acknowledge the church, womens movement and whoever in the upcoming election scenario.

There is a thread in history about it and how it has been developed and used since Lemass was Taoiseach and a guy TK Whitakker a civil servant who developed the economic model.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056127781

I have been surprised recently posting on a gay marriage thread in AH how little people understand about interest groups / corporate state(bigger interest groups) in Ireland.

So if you look at Cowens speech in the context of the power of unelected interest groups it makes a lot more sence.

The Mad Hatter

Orson Welles on cold reading. It's a little known fact that he was also an excellent magician, as well as actor, director, writer, artist, cinematographer, producer and editor.

Edit: He mentions becoming a "shut-eye", which I hadn't heard of before, where a charlatan psychic becomes good enough at what they do that they start to believe themselves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjPsnfysrp8

strobe

The Mad Hatter wrote: »

Orson Welles on cold reading. It's a little known fact that he was also an excellent magician, as well as actor, director, writer, artist, cinematographer, producer and editor.

Edit: He mentions becoming a "shut-eye", which I hadn't heard of before, where a charlatan psychic becomes good enough at what they do that they start to believe themselves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjPsnfysrp8

If there was ever anything that could make me become a theist it would be the fact that Orson Welles existed. I have extreme difficulty believing he came to be in the universe in any way other than as an example of an omnipotent being showing off.

Edit: Also, if Mr Hatter or anyone else knows where I can watch this whole interview, well........ that would be just swell.

Edit;Edit: In the spirit of the thread here is Parkinson interviewing the mother fukking genius. (discussing vice president elect Gerald Ford, being under constant survielence {sc?} by the inept US government and other interesting stuff).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zj0ZZnbVEMM

Part one of four.


Edit;edit;edit. I'm just going to post the next three. Cause that's just how I roll.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJvm5sMkq9M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFgt6USg4g0

liamw

Thought this was interesting:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illusory_superiority

Illusory superiority is a cognitive bias that causes people to overestimate their positive qualities and abilities and to underestimate their negative qualities, relative to others.

Svenson (1981) surveyed students in Sweden and the United States, asking them to compare their driving safety and skill to the other people in the experiment. For driving skill, 93% of the US sample and 69% of the Swedish sample put themselves in the top 50% (above the median).

robindch

liamw wrote: »

Thought this was interesting

Relatedly, there's the Dunning–Kruger effect, named for the authors of a well-known paper named 'Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments':

http://www.scirp.org/Journal/PaperDownload.aspx?paperID=883&fileName=Psych.20090100004_39584049.pdf

It's worth a read.

Dave!

eblistic

Religion: Unaffiliated:
0 members of Congress
16.1% of American adults.

http://pewforum.org/Government/Faith-on-the-Hill--The-Religious-Composition-of-the-112th-Congress.aspx

I wonder how Ireland would compare.

Dades

Religion: Unaffiliated:
0 members of Congress
16.1% of American adults.

Interesting new word for non-religious... "unaffiliated".

Could be a handy one to confuse your enemies or save your granny from a heart attack.

Pygmalion

Dades wrote: »

Interesting new word for non-religious... "unaffiliated".

I always assumed "unaffiliated" meant not associated with any particular church or group, rather than being non-religious.
I'd consider my mother "unaffiliated", but still a Christian.

robindch

Here's one of the better shots to come out of the eclipse the other day. It was taken in Oman by Thierry Legault who travels the world doing this kind of thing.

Note that the ISS transited the sun in 0.86 seconds, and that the exposure was 1/5000s. That's timing!

GO_Bear

Now that Beauty

sponsoredwalk

Is that a Star Wars spaceship in front of the sun, a satellite or just a giant UFO?

Dave!

sponsoredwalk wrote: »

Is that a Star Wars spaceship in front of the sun, a satellite or just a giant UFO?

It's the International Space Station

darjeeling

robindch wrote: »

Here's one of the better shots to come out of the eclipse the other day. It was taken in Oman by Thierry Legault who travels the world doing this kind of thing.

Note that the ISS transited the sun in 0.86 seconds, and that the exposure was 1/5000s. That's timing!

Joe Coleman, eat your heart out.

darjeeling

Saw this on the Guardian website yesterday. It's a sort of Kubrick 2001- / Transformers-inspired animation of the Central Dogma (of molecular biology), in which genes make RNA make protein. Here all the blobs of biomolecules are weirdly replaced with spaceships, but never mind...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3HVVi2k2No

robindch

Here's a guy who's been lecturing on the philosophy of religion for the last twenty years, but he can't take it seriously any more:

http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/atheologies/3853/a_philosopher_of_religion_calls_it_quits/

Keith Parsons wrote:

I have to confess that I now regard “the case for theism” as a fraud and I can no longer take it seriously enough to present it to a class as a respectable philosophical position—no more than I could present intelligent design as a legitimate biological theory. BTW, in saying that I now consider the case for theism to be a fraud, I do not mean to charge that the people making that case are frauds who aim to fool us with claims they know to be empty. No, theistic philosophers and apologists are almost painfully earnest and honest... I just cannot take their arguments seriously any more, and if you cannot take something seriously, you should not try to devote serious academic attention to it.

Dades

^^ I wonder if that chap had a single moment of clarity?

strobe

Dave! wrote: »

It's the International Space Station

Nah, looks like a Chinese lantern to me.

Jarndyce

Daniel Dennett seminar on the 27th of January.

http://www.seminars.ie/inspirational-seminars/seminar_details.php?event_id=190

cavedave

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLaRXYai19A

Feynman - The Likelihood of Flying Saucers

Dave!

Here's a website that most of you will find interesting: Arts and Letters Daily. That's just the name of it, there are interesting articles and book reviews and things linked to throughout the day.

The website was created in 1998 by Denis Dutton, recently deceased, a founding member of the New Zealand Skeptics.

I stumbled upon it while in Australia, didn't realise it's been around for so long :eek: I'm sure many of you will already be aware of it, but for those who aren't... give it a chance

robindch

Dave! wrote: »

Here's a website that most of you will find interesting: Arts and Letters Daily.

Seconded. Together with Slashdot, Butterflies and Wheels, it's one of a small number of thoroughly reliable 'librul' aggregator websites.

[url=http://www.fark.com[/url]Fark[/url] for grownups, perhaps.

Carl Sagan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdRCPjXn1DY

Just a nice video to listen to.

CDfm

cavedave wrote: »

Feynman - The Likelihood of Flying Saucers

I just love this guy & for logic he is the tops. Even if you dont agree with him on some things the rigour of his approach and his love of life is a bit infectious.

mikhail

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/fashion/09Modern.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

Mark Hamill

mikhail wrote: »

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/fashion/09Modern.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

I think an article called "Single, Female, Mormon, Alone" which talks about a 35 year old virgin probably belongs in the Hazards of Belief thread :pac:

mehfesto

Us Rifles to be recalled/defaced because of encoded Bible Messages on Aiming Sights