Interesting Stuff Thread

robindch · 14-04-2011 11:16PM

Silly scientists create two holes in the fossil record, where once there was just a single hole:

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/12/new-dinosaur-species-is-a-missing-link/?hpt=C2

sponsoredwalk · 16-04-2011 08:00PM

"Crackpots" who were right.

Whatever the cause, he ended his life feeling lonely and rejected.
When Feynman gave a lecture in Switzerland in 1965 he spotted
Stückelberg after the lecture leaving quietly from the back. Pointing
to Stückelberg, Feynman remarked ”He did the work and walks alone
toward the sunset; and, here I am, covered in all the glory, which
rightfully should be his!”

The story of Stückelberg shows just how easy it is to be overlooked in
science. There is no convincing reason why he was not given the full
credit he deserved for his work, but it would have helped if he
had presented his work more clearly and fully. While people like
Feynman gave seminars and wrote books, Stückelberg seems to have
quietly accepted his rejections and left it to others to speak up for him.
But that was something they did not do enough. There is a lesson to
be learnt here. Most of us cannot claim achievements comparable to
those of Stückelberg so if he can be overlooked the rest of us should
take nothing for granted. It does no good to make a discovery and
bury it so deep that nobody pays any attention until it is rediscovered
by someone else who is better at presenting it. Research needs to be
explained clearly and publicly or it sinks into obscurity.

magicbastarder · 18-04-2011 02:11PM

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/18/andres-serrano-piss-christ-destroyed-christian-protesters?CMP=twt_fd

CiaranMT · 18-04-2011 02:50PM

magicbastarder wrote: »

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/18/andres-serrano-piss-christ-destroyed-christian-protesters?CMP=twt_fd

He was looking for it, in fairness. :pac:

AH responses aside, I think religious folk could do with a dose of humour in these situations. The 'artist' is clearly looking to be controversial, and it should be seen as such.

Improbable · 19-04-2011 12:58AM

sink · 21-04-2011 03:38PM

Videos from the Global Athiest Convention 2010 in Melbourne have finally begun appearing on the web.

Richard Dawkins

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGGmuUvA2Mg

PZ Myers

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

Taslima Nasrin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uenbyW87gUg

Hedman · 26-04-2011 05:51PM

I miss Carl Sagan so much

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

The Mad Hatter · 28-04-2011 06:11PM

Can't embed this (it's on Vimeo), but it's worth a watch. The guy who does PhD Comics interviewed a couple of physicists on the subject of dark matter. This video is the result.

strobe · 30-04-2011 02:37AM

Theramintrees again.

Ignorance of incompetence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyOHJa5Vj5Y

The Mad Hatter · 30-04-2011 11:01AM

strobe wrote: »

Theramintrees again.

Ignorance of incompetence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyOHJa5Vj5Y

Fascinating - I'd never heard of that before. Followed it up a little with a bit of University of Google research - what's really intriguing is that it seems to be at its most extreme in America, and evenreversed in other countries.

Regardless of how pervasive the phenomenon is, it is clear from Dunning's and others' work that many Americans, at least sometimes and under some conditions, have a tendency to inflate their worth. It is interesting, therefore, to see the phenomenon's mirror opposite in another culture. In research comparing North American and East Asian self-assessments, Heine of the University of British Columbia finds that East Asians tend to underestimate their abilities, with an aim toward improving the self and getting along with others.

CiaranMT · 30-04-2011 10:52PM

May have studied that this term in college, attendance was so poor though for the class that I could be wrong!

Turtwig · 30-04-2011 11:21PM

CiaranMT wrote: »

May have studied that this term in college, attendance was so poor though for the class that I could be wrong!

Lol love the way you removed your own 'self' from that admission of poor attendance.:D

"My attendance" would probably be used more often when you actually feel the attendance reflected positively on yourself. Can't remember what that phenomenon is called.

strobe · 01-05-2011 02:57AM

CiaranMT wrote: »

May have studied that this term in college, attendance was so poor though for the class that I could be wrong!

Winning.

CiaranMT · 01-05-2011 03:51PM

Malty_T wrote: »

Lol love the way you removed your own 'self' from that admission of poor attendance.:D

"My attendance" would probably be used more often when you actually feel the attendance reflected positively on yourself. Can't remember what that phenomenon is called.

Well, I was referring to my fellow classmates as well as myself, we're not the most studious of Psych heads :pac:

recedite · 01-05-2011 07:50PM

Ah sure you'll learn much more here at the University of Life anyway

MagicMarker · 01-05-2011 07:56PM

....those who believed in a loving, compassionate God were more likely to cheat than those who believed in an angry, punitive God.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-beliefs-morals-20110430,0,4211564.story

Also, in the same article but not related to the study...

The authors found that 95% of Americans believe in God, but conceive of that higher being in very different ways. About 28% believe in an "authoritative" God who is engaged in the world and judgmental, and about 22% in an engaged but "benevolent" God who loves us despite our failings. Two other groups of believers view the deity as more abstract and less engaged: About 21% conceive of a "critical" God who keeps track of our sins and may render judgment in the afterlife, and about 24% see a "distant" God who set the universe in motion but is not involved in day-to-day life.

Galvasean · 02-05-2011 01:17PM

"and about 24% see a "distant" God who set the universe in motion but is not involved in day-to-day life. "
I really don't think these people should count as 'believing in God' for statistical reasons. I mean their interpretation is nothing like any God described anywhere. If you take away enough of his attributes he stops being a God soto speak,

MagicMarker · 02-05-2011 04:35PM

I know there are plenty of instances of animals displaying altruistic traits, but this is pretty cool!! Take from cool vids and pics...

Queen-Mise wrote: »

http://cas.bellarmine.edu/tietjen/RootWeb/BadAss.htm

Mule making mincemeat of a mountain lion

A couple from Montana were out riding on the range, he with his rifle and she (fortunately) with her camera. Their dogs always followed them, but on this occasion a Mountain Lion decided that he wanted to stalk the dogs (you'll see the dogs in the background watching). Very, very bad decision...

The hunter got off the mule with his rifle and decided to shoot in the air to scare away the lion, but before he could get off a shot the lion charged in and decided he wanted a piece of those dogs. With that, the mule took off and decided he wanted a piece of that lion. That's when all hell broke loose... for the lion.

As the lion approached the dogs the mule snatched him up by the tail and started whirling him around. Banging its head on the ground on every pass. Then he dropped it, stomped on it and held it to the ground by the throat. The mule then got down on his knees and bit the thing all over a couple of dozen times to make sure it was dead, than whipped it into the air again, walked back over to the couple (that were stunned in silence) and stood there ready to continue his ride... as if nothing had just happened.

Fortunately even though the hunter didn't get off a shot, his wife got off these 4...

recedite · 03-05-2011 11:14AM

Hmmm... if I was her, I think I'd be walking home, rather than get back up on that bad-ass mule.

robindch · 03-05-2011 06:18PM

On the day after tomorrow, the UK's holding a referendum on whether or not it should switch to "AV" which is basically, the same as the PR-STV voting system that Ireland uses.

Here's Dan Snow explaining AV fairly well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jm5IBhrq_PU

Can't see it passing all the same.

MagicMarker · 03-05-2011 07:32PM

For over a century social scientists have debated how educational attainment impacts religious belief. In this paper I use Canadian compulsory schooling laws to identify the relationship between completed schooling and later religiosity. I find that higher levels of education lead to lower levels of religious participation later in life. An additional year of education leads to a 4-percentage-point decline in the likelihood that an individual identifies with any religious tradition; the estimates suggest that increases in schooling can explain most of the large rise in non-affiliation in Canada in recent decades.

PDF of the study here.

sink · 03-05-2011 07:40PM

robindch wrote: »

On the day after tomorrow, the UK's holding a referendum on whether or not it should switch to "AV" which is basically, the same as the PR-STV voting system that Ireland uses.

Here's Dan Snow explaining AV fairly well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jm5IBhrq_PU

Can't see it passing all the same.

Saw this somewhere else on boards, it's brilliant.

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

Battle Cat for PM!

robindch · 04-05-2011 08:12PM

Ever-so-slightly OTT, but hey!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JB7jSFeVz1U

robindch · 04-05-2011 08:14PM

Meanwhile, in Sydney, here's Terry Pratchett, er, in conversation with 2700 people:

http://play.sydneyoperahouse.com/index.php/media/1372-Terry-Pratchett-Conversation.html

Nodin · 05-05-2011 03:29PM

Anatomical clues to human evolution from fish
By Dr Michael Mosley BBC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13278255

CerebralCortex · 08-05-2011 12:33PM

Beat me to it!

robindch · 08-05-2011 02:12PM

All you need to know about religion in under four minutes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oR5hWbfZsYs

Morag · 09-05-2011 02:08PM

Over the weekend I was in a reconstruction of an old national school.
They had the old desks and lay out and a double sided sign over the chalk board.

Seems a shame that practice was stopped,
it certainly would make things a lot clearer for non christian kids in the 92% of primary school.

uncleoswald · 10-05-2011 07:42AM

Spot the difference?

An American Orthodox Jewish newspaper edited out the two women from the iconic photo of white house staff watching data from the Bin Laden raid. Having unenlightened views of the roles of sexes is one thing, trying to rewrite history is quite another.

http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2011/05/09/removing-women-from-situation-room-photo/

sponsoredwalk · 10-05-2011 08:27AM

Well considering that picture was created on the same computer as Obama's
birth cert & the Usama pic it doesn't surprise me that they would recreate
the picture to appease whatever sector of the population as needed.

Interesting Stuff Thread

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