Recent posts

#1

Laid Back Lounge / Re: Photography, photos you to...

Last post by Dark Lightning - Today at 06:44:06 PM

^OK. I go to an antique truck forum and we have to tell the dirty jokes to each other via PM.

#2

Laid Back Lounge / Re: Photography, photos you to...

Last post by Tank - Today at 05:48:06 PM

Pretty much the only sites I've seen that require hosting sites for images are atheist in outlook. I wonder why that is?

Well we require hosting for 2 reasons. Bandwidth/storage of images takes up a lot of both these quantities which costs money and dedicated server. The other is that if we hosted images and allowed file transfer between users we would have to vet all files and images to ensure we weren't being abused by people sharing inappropriate material eg kiddy porn. By insisting that members use 3rd party image host we don't have to worry about inappropriate content.

#3

Laid Back Lounge / Re: Photography, photos you to...

Last post by Tank - Today at 02:09:17 PM

A curious goat watched as I took my early morning walk

#4

Laid Back Lounge / Re: Photography, photos you to...

Last post by Tank - Today at 02:01:49 PM

Can anybody confirm that this is a partridge please? It is the first time I have seen one .

#5

Current Events / Re: "No Religion" largest grou...

Last post by Tank - Today at 09:25:17 AM

Interesting.

#6

History / Re: What's this?

Last post by Recusant - Today at 02:55:46 AM

I don't think the "knitting tool" hypothesis is conclusive. Some of those dodecahedrons are only about 4 centimeters tall (1.5 inches). Seems unlikely that they were knitting gloves for infants (or toddlers for that matter). Some of them are made of stone and solid as well--would not work for the purpose. Then there are the smaller versions made of gold that were found in Asia.

Similarly enigmatic ancient objects: the carved stone balls from the British Isles.

Damn! Spoil sport! 

Yeah, though there's no saying that they weren't used by innovative Gauls to make gloves.

#7

History / Re: What's this?

Last post by Recusant - Today at 02:49:06 AM

I don't think the "knitting tool" hypothesis is conclusive. Some of those dodecahedrons are only about 4 centimeters tall (1.5 inches). Seems unlikely that they were knitting gloves for infants (or toddlers for that matter). Some of them are made of stone and solid as well--would not work for the purpose. Then there are the smaller versions made of gold that were found in Asia.

Similarly enigmatic ancient objects: the carved stone balls from the British Isles.

Thanks for the link; those stone balls are wonderful. They are quite inspiring and I shall look at more examples to use as seeds for my concrete spheres.

My pleasure. They've intrigued me for years. Thanks for the link to the video.

#8

Current Events / Re: "No Religion" largest grou...

Last post by Recusant - May 08, 2024, 10:57:26 PM

More on the "nones" and atheists in the US  .  . .

"The number of religious 'nones' has soared, but not the number of atheists – and as social scientists, we wanted to know why" | The Conversation

The number of individuals in the United States who do not identify as being part of any religion has grown dramatically in recent years, and "the nones" are now larger than any single religious group. According to the General Social Survey, religiously unaffiliated people represented only about 5% of the U.S. population in the 1970s. This percentage began to increase in the 1990s and is around 30% today.

At first glance, some might assume this means nearly 1 in 3 Americans are atheists, but that's far from true. Indeed, only about 4% of U.S. adults identify as an atheist.

As sociologists who study religion in the U.S., we wanted to find out more about the gap between these percentages and why some individuals identify as an atheist while other unaffiliated individuals do not.

[. . .]

[R]ejecting a belief in God is by no means a sufficient condition for identifying as an atheist. So why do some individuals who do not believe in God identify as an atheist while others do not?

Our study found that there are a number of other social forces associated with the likelihood of an individual identifying as an atheist, above and beyond their disbelief in God – particularly stigma.

Many Americans eye atheists with suspicion and distaste. Notably, some social science surveys in the U.S. include questions asking about how much tolerance people have for atheists alongside questions about tolerance of racists and communists.

This stigma means that being an atheist comes with potential social costs, especially in certain communities. We see this dynamic play out in our data.

[Continues . . .]

The paper is behind a paywall (though linked at "our study found" in the quoted text).

#9

Laid Back Lounge / Re: What's on your mind today?

Last post by Tank - May 08, 2024, 04:55:04 PM

...

Does each of those chimneys represent a separate dwelling, and your daughter's place is three normal people's (whose dogs don't have gardens) houses wide?

Good observation. It must be an odd optical illusion as all the houses are the same widths.

#10

Laid Back Lounge / Re: What's on your mind today?

Last post by The Magic Pudding.. - May 08, 2024, 03:15:27 PM

I think their is a reality.
I usually find my beer glass where I think I left it.