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Interesting Stuff Thread

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Comments

  • #6392
    robindch
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 24,396 Mod ✭✭✭✭robindch


    Peregrinus wrote: »
    The linked newspaper report does not suggest that there have been any objections from Christian groups to the inclusion of the Satanic symbols in the display.
    No, but the linked christian group, an outfit named Illinois Family Action does contain the text of the complaint.

    Hard to know whether it's going to go any further than the IFA waving its tiny corporate fist though since the constant stream of twitchy upset which is their twitter feed suggests that while they may well be the most easily upset snowflakes about, they seem to be quite averse to actually doing anything about it.


  • #6393
    robindch
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 24,396 Mod ✭✭✭✭robindch


    Pew Research determines that Ireland is a touch less than half as religious as Greece, and a little more than three times as religious as Estonia:

    http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/12/05/how-do-european-countries-differ-in-religious-commitment/


  • #6394
    robindch
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 24,396 Mod ✭✭✭✭robindch


    Finally, a (protestant) religious service in Holland has found a real-life purpose:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/10/world/europe/migrants-dutch-church-service.html


  • #6395
    recedite
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,993 ✭✭✭✭recedite


    If you look at the 15 year old in the photo, his head has rolled over to one side he is enjoying the service so much.


    Fair play to the Tamrazyan family for enduring the neverending church service for this long, without any headphones or earmuffs. I think they should be granted asylum now. They have proved their case. Surely they must have been fleeing terrible and genuine persecution if this is preferable.


  • #6396
    Hotblack Desiato
    Registered Users Posts: 33,825 ✭✭✭✭Hotblack Desiato


    From https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=108865386&postcount=1056

    https://www.rte.ie/radio1/mass/

    They're looking for feedback on their religious services broadcasting, not sure if they'd appreciate what I'd have to say about it though :p

    Life ain't always empty.



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  • #6397
    robindch
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 24,396 Mod ✭✭✭✭robindch


    Hotblack Desiato wrote: »
    They're looking for feedback on their religious services broadcasting [...]
    A note suggesting equal time for programs with an atheistic theme might set a few feathers fluttering.


  • #6398
    robindch
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 24,396 Mod ✭✭✭✭robindch


    Scientists published in Nature make remarkable discovery in monkey poo.

    Download the PDF of the article, then zoom in to the back end of the turd on page three to see it.

    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-20427-9


  • #6399
    Hotblack Desiato
    Registered Users Posts: 33,825 ✭✭✭✭Hotblack Desiato


    Thought it was going to be Jesus, he's been slacking off on the old PAs lately

    Life ain't always empty.



  • #6400
    Hotblack Desiato
    Registered Users Posts: 33,825 ✭✭✭✭Hotblack Desiato


    This picture

    468263.jpg

    reminded me of this one, the "fraternal kiss":

    Breznev-Honecker_1979.jpg-

    :)

    Life ain't always empty.



  • #6401
    robindch
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 24,396 Mod ✭✭✭✭robindch


    Is negative times negative a positive, or is it just zero? A Colombian man tries to find out.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46675190


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  • #6402
    robindch
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 24,396 Mod ✭✭✭✭robindch


    Interesting report into murder by extremists in the USA produced by the Anti-Defamation League, an organization originally set up around a century ago to monitor anti-Semitism which more recently monitors hate-related crimes in general.

    The report shows that, over the last ten years, it turns out that around 75% of extremist murders were committed by right-wing extremists and around 23% by islamist extremists and around 2% by left-wing extremists (including anarchists and black nationalists).

    Of the 75% of extremist murders committed by right-wing extremists, around 75% were white supremacists, around 20% were anti-government nutters, with the remainder spread over incel activists, anti-abortion activists and 'other'.

    The full report is here:

    https://www.adl.org/media/12480/download


  • #6403
    Hotblack Desiato
    Registered Users Posts: 33,825 ✭✭✭✭Hotblack Desiato


    Looks like christianity is still the religion of terror then...

    Life ain't always empty.



  • #6404
    robindch
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 24,396 Mod ✭✭✭✭robindch


    SpaceX fires a double-boosted Falcon Heavy skywards and achieves orbital insertion in short order. No first-stage rockets were harmed during this launch:

    https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/11/livestream-watch-spacex-falcon-heavy-rocket-launch-and-landing.html

    Bonus - includes splendid hat-tip to Iain M Banks.


  • #6405
    Hotblack Desiato
    Registered Users Posts: 33,825 ✭✭✭✭Hotblack Desiato


    Elon Musk is still a cnut though. :)

    Life ain't always empty.



  • #6406
    robindch
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 24,396 Mod ✭✭✭✭robindch


    Remember that black hole image from a couple of days back? The one that looked like an unbalanced donut?

    477623.jpg

    Turns out there's quite a lot going on in that image, not all of which was explained clearly in the accompanying hoopla:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUyH3XhpLTo


  • #6407
    smacl
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 15,705 Mod ✭✭✭✭smacl


    Alternatively....

    56669449_10158883185646840_7924265268719648768_n.jpg?_nc_cat=1&_nc_ht=scontent.fdub4-1.fna&oh=7215f91a4ab154b4cabf9a87be81bafc&oe=5D4FC4A9


  • #6408
    Hotblack Desiato
    Registered Users Posts: 33,825 ✭✭✭✭Hotblack Desiato


    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-28/a-gay-atheist-plots-to-save-his-catholic-country
    Biedron, 43, is the first openly LGBT politician in Poland, which has emerged as a key battleground in the war between the rival political forces fighting over the European Union’s future. His party, Spring, is less than three months old, but opinion polls suggest it could get to play kingmaker should a pro-EU alliance of opposition parties eat into support for the governing Law & Justice party.

    But here's the twist:
    A dozen Virgin Mary figurines decorate Robert Biedron’s office in Warsaw, picked from about 400 or so he’s gathered from across the world. Some show her smiling or suffering, some with dark or pale skin and others skinny, plump or even pregnant.

    Such a collection might not be unusual in Poland, a devout bastion of the Catholic Church and birthplace of Pope John Paul II. What’s unusual is the collector: a gay atheist who wants to pull his country back into the European mainstream and away from the pious nationalism and homophobia that’s permeated society under the government that won power in 2015 and is seeking re-election this year.

    Life ain't always empty.



  • #6409
    robindch
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 24,396 Mod ✭✭✭✭robindch


    Are trigger-warnings useful? Three psychologists from The Department of Psychology at Harvard University think not - with evidence:

    https://osf.io/axn6z/
    Jones, Bellet, McNally - results + conclusions wrote:
    We found no evidence that trigger warnings were helpful for trauma survivors, for those who self-reported a PTSD diagnosis, or for those who qualified for probable PTSD, even when survivors' trauma matched the passages’ content. We found substantial evidence that trigger warnings countertherapeutically reinforce survivors' view of their trauma as central to their identity. Regarding replication hypotheses, the evidence was either ambiguous or substantially favored the hypothesis that trigger warnings have no effect.

    Conclusions: Trigger warnings are not helpful for trauma survivors. It is less clear whether trigger warnings are explicitly harmful. However, such knowledge is unnecessary to adjudicate whether to use trigger warnings – because trigger warnings are consistently unhelpful, there is no evidence-based reason to use them.


  • #6410
    robindch
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 24,396 Mod ✭✭✭✭robindch


    Two more fun papers:

    Dunning-Kruger at the voting booth - Overclaiming Knowledge Predicts Anti-establishment Voting:

    https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1948550619862260
    Concluding Remarks wrote:
    In a polarizing political climate, citizens often express a deep-rooted distrust of the incumbent political establishment. It is important for scientists, practitioners, and policy makers to take such anti-establishment sentiments seriously, as they can influence election outcomes and thus shape society and economy. [...] The present research suggests that such high confidence often reflects overconfidence. We conclude that anti-establishment voting increases to the extent that citizens believe they have sophisticated understanding of political decision-making, yet it is lower to the extent that citizens actually possess the knowledge necessary for such understanding.

    Frankly, We Do Give a Damn: The Relationship Between Profanity and Honesty

    https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1948550616681055
    Abstract wrote:
    We found a consistent positive relationship between profanity and honesty; profanity was associated with less lying and deception at the individual level and with higher integrity at the society level.
    Which, unhelpfully, reminds me of an old gag:

    Guy goes in for a job interview which goes well. Towards the end, one of the interviewers leans forward and asks "Well, what you would say is your worst quality?". Guy thinks briefly, then answers "Honesty, I'd say". Interviewer sits back, says "I don't think that's a bad quality at all". Guy replies, "I don't give a fuck what you think."


  • #6411
    robindch
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 24,396 Mod ✭✭✭✭robindch


    Can't remember this one showing up earlier in the year...

    Anyway, The Satanic Temple is the subject of a new documentary entitled, "Hail Satan":

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27RtJp-rhHk


    and may be available for download from here for those in the US or with some means of appearing to be in the US.


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  • #6412
    robindch
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 24,396 Mod ✭✭✭✭robindch


    ^^^ Watched part of it last night - witty, entertaining and occasionally touching.

    Separately, how many of Ireland's old gods can you recognise?

    https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/oh-god-how-many-of-ireland-s-deities-can-you-name-1.3975651


  • #6413
    Hotblack Desiato
    Registered Users Posts: 33,825 ✭✭✭✭Hotblack Desiato


    A bunch of local pols who aren't doing very well electorally have started a farcebook campaign to "Save Clondalkin Convent"*

    The convent is an ugly empty old building surrounded by an ugly, very high, stone wall. The building cannot be seen from ground level but this lot are going on about "preserving our vital heritage" and "an essential green space", even "a play area" which no child has ever been allowed to play in

    If this wasn't a church property I doubt this lot would give a damn

    At least one was a reluctant pro-choicer last year, seems now keen to repair fences with the churchgoing grey vote in the village

    The intention of the nuns is to sell it to a developer who will build an old folks home, I doubt many of the residents will be driving but the objectors are also citing traffic as a reason to object - if it was apartments with parking spaces they'd have a point

    Very little local support for this campaign from what I see, but they are well resourced, professional posters etc. and no dissenting voices allowed on their curated facebook page

    They've scheduled a march to clash with the March for Choice - deliberately I think as this will mean dissenting voices are elsewhere.


    * They know that this is one issue the likes of PBP will not get behind, which seems to me to be pretty much their sole reason for supporting it

    Life ain't always empty.



  • #6414
    niallo32
    Registered Users Posts: 620 ✭✭✭niallo32


    Hotblack Desiato wrote: »
    A bunch of local pols who aren't doing very well electorally have started a farcebook campaign to "Save Clondalkin Convent"*

    The convent is an ugly empty old building surrounded by an ugly, very high, stone wall. The building cannot be seen from ground level but this lot are going on about "preserving our vital heritage" and "an essential green space", even "a play area" which no child has ever been allowed to play in

    If this wasn't a church property I doubt this lot would give a damn

    At least one was a reluctant pro-choicer last year, seems now keen to repair fences with the churchgoing grey vote in the village

    The intention of the nuns is to sell it to a developer who will build an old folks home, I doubt many of the residents will be driving but the objectors are also citing traffic as a reason to object - if it was apartments with parking spaces they'd have a point

    Very little local support for this campaign from what I see, but they are well resourced, professional posters etc. and no dissenting voices allowed on their curated facebook page

    They've scheduled a march to clash with the March for Choice - deliberately I think as this will mean dissenting voices are elsewhere.


    * They know that this is one issue the likes of PBP will not get behind, which seems to me to be pretty much their sole reason for supporting it

    I've lived in Clondalkin village all my life and there is huge support behind it as far as I can tell. I'd imagine the march was arranged for a Saturday afternoon as the launch was a Friday morning and lots of people complained they were in work. I don't want the heart of my village replaced by a bland nursing home and I've never heard of the loss of a play area cited as an objection.


  • #6415
    Hotblack Desiato
    Registered Users Posts: 33,825 ✭✭✭✭Hotblack Desiato


    The site is a dead loss as it is, what's the point of keeping it like that when it can be used for something useful?

    There was a large empty non-religious site on Monastery Rd for years, nobody (afaik) objected to that being turned into a nursing home and it'll be completed next year, it's not as if Monastery Rd is free from traffic

    The "loss of a play area" thing was on a politician's leaflet we got through our door, Bonner I think. Stupidest thing I ever heard in my life.

    "Valuable green space" and "heritage" is of no use to anyone when it's locked behind a very high ugly grey stone wall. It's certainly not "the heart of the village", it's completely cut off from the village and the people

    I'd rather it was used for high density apartments (with no parking spaces) but a nursing home is at least better than it is now.

    Life ain't always empty.



  • #6416
    niallo32
    Registered Users Posts: 620 ✭✭✭niallo32


    Hotblack Desiato wrote: »
    The site is a dead loss as it is, what's the point of keeping it like that when it can be used for something useful?

    There was a large empty non-religious site on Monastery Rd for years, nobody (afaik) objected to that being turned into a nursing home and it'll be completed next year, it's not as if Monastery Rd is free from traffic

    The "loss of a play area" thing was on a politician's leaflet we got through our door, Bonner I think. Stupidest thing I ever heard in my life.

    "Valuable green space" and "heritage" is of no use to anyone when it's locked behind a very high ugly grey stone wall. It's certainly not "the heart of the village", it's completely cut off from the village and the people

    I'd rather it was used for high density apartments (with no parking spaces) but a nursing home is at least better than it is now.

    There was huge objections from the residents associations in Friars walk, Monastery, Monastery rise, Floraville & Castle along with lots of individual objections to the McCormacks Nursing home - it went ahead anyway.

    From the Clondalkin historical society regarding the 'ugly' walls - "The surrounding limestone walls of the 3-acre site are original and of an age if not older than the main buildings. Limestone walls are a feature of Clondalkin in that the stone is from local quarries. The road side walls on the houses of Convent Road are the original stone wall that ran all the way to the Round Tower. Entrances were created in the wall for each house and some houses have re rendered the original wall in mortar and dash"

    You're perfectly entitled to support Denis O'Briens nephew building a for-profit nursing home in the middle of the village on a historical site, I don't think many people in the village would support your view though.

    For info, there is also planning permission granted for another nursing home on the Boot rd, next to where McQuaids bike shop used to be.


  • #6417
    Hotblack Desiato
    Registered Users Posts: 33,825 ✭✭✭✭Hotblack Desiato


    "For-profit"? :rolleyes:
    And having a dig at someone because of who their uncle is is just an ad-hominem attack.
    I haven't yet heard a single rational reason to object to this, or to keep the convent building (and its bloody walls) in its present form

    Not surprised there is PP for another nursing home, there is a huge ageing population in the village area

    Life ain't always empty.



  • #6418
    niallo32
    Registered Users Posts: 620 ✭✭✭niallo32


    Hotblack Desiato wrote: »
    I haven't yet heard a single rational reason to object to this, or to keep the convent building (and its bloody walls) in its present form


    It's out of character with the Convent and we want to preserve our historical buildings.


  • #6419
    Hotblack Desiato
    Registered Users Posts: 33,825 ✭✭✭✭Hotblack Desiato


    niallo32 wrote: »
    There was huge objections from the residents associations in Friars walk, Monastery, Monastery rise, Floraville & Castle

    I've been living in Castle for years, my mother in law for 50 years. None of us see the "residents' association" except when they're looking for money. Never heard a word from them or anyone else objecting or looking for our support in objecting to the Monastery site.
    niallo32 wrote: »
    It's out of character with the Convent and we want to preserve our historical buildings.

    Why? What are we going to preserve it for ?

    Life ain't always empty.



  • #6420
    niallo32
    Registered Users Posts: 620 ✭✭✭niallo32


    Hotblack Desiato wrote: »
    I've been living in Castle for years, my mother in law for 50 years. None of us see the "residents' association" except when they're looking for money. Never heard a word from them or anyone else objecting or looking for our support in objecting to the Monastery site.



    Why? What are we going to preserve it for ?


    Yawn...


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  • #6421
    smacl
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 15,705 Mod ✭✭✭✭smacl


    niallo32 wrote: »
    Yawn...

    Mod warning: This post is below the standard expected of this forum, please improve on it before posting in this thread again. Thanks for your attention.


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