fruitvilla

Just had to get out of the reactions Brentford thread.

There is so much nonsense there.

Out of curiosity, who believes in cause and effect? I do. Though I accept it might not be true. But assuming cause and effect are true, that leads to some inescapable if not uncomfortable positions. For example, today's draw with Brentford was inevitable. And all the moaning we have on today's Brentford thread is also inevitable.

Could have been worse.

Olsen was not the problem

Well ... I'm going downstairs to watch the game.

I may be gone a while.

On 26/11/2020 at 00:00, sidcow said:

I've been thinking about how my loft space is absolutely baking hot like an oven all summer long.  The heat in there ought to be easily enough to heat the house throughout the winter. 

There surely ought to be some way to capture and store all that heat, or use it to generate electricity? 

I doubt it ... the energy content of the air in your loft is about 0.5 kWh.  ... assuming your loft volume is 100 m3 and there is a 20 C differential that is attainable. The unknown is at what rate does the loft heat up? Assuming it could heat up from 20 C to 40 C every day. Half a kilowatt hour is not going to cut it. Might make sense to have a fan and a heat exchanger to preheat the cold water going into the hot water tank. But the costs are probably not worth it.

As to the original topic ...  only makes sense if the delivery van is leaving the depot partially full.

9 minutes ago, Anthony said:

I grew up in my teens in rural Norfolk. Not even in the village. If you need a 4x4, get a 4x4. Nobody needs these things, which look like they might be good at off road because they're big, but are shit at it. 

I see, there is fog on the channel; Europe is cut off.

1 hour ago, Anthony said:

I don't need them.

FIFY

Do you live in a country where you get real snowfalls? I do and my Ford Focus, at times, just does not cut it.

14 minutes ago, Captain_Townsend said:

Agree 100%, social media seems to have driven traditional Conservative parties absolutely insane!

That is true for aspects of the left too. Critical Theories for example.

24 minutes ago, LondonLax said:

The entire US population will decide ...

Not in the US system.

2 hours ago, Mandy Lifeboats said:

There are no gods.  

While I agree with this ... I remain agnostic ... ie I don't have an ideology or doctrine regarding gods.

30 minutes ago, Jareth said:

2 hours ago, Mandy Lifeboats said:

Religion causes evil.  

Nah - people cause it - under the banner of religion

Nah ... evil (and good) are social constructs ... literally, they are figments of our collective imagination.

Also, I think you mean theistic disaster, rather than theological. Or perhaps religious disaster.

Tomorrow morning, I'll get up in a leisurely fashion around 8 am. And watch a recording of the game. During which, Mrs FV has promised to make breakfast. We 'spring forward' tonight so not going to sweat it. I will avoid VT before watching and if we don't get at least a draw, I am staying away until Monday.

Enjoy the game.

16 minutes ago, ender4 said:

£5 (1 drink)

How much of that £5 is tax, the actual cost of the drink, plus there will be sundries like filling and cleaning the delivery machine, extra insurance, etc. Extra security, extra janitorial requirements. I don't think the calculation is as simple as you make out.

I was thinking American Woman

6 hours ago, Marka Ragnos said:

idiom "take his chances" or "take their chances"

It is Gretzky's "You miss a 100% of the shots you don't take."

8 hours ago, Mandy Lifeboats said:

boulangerie

Most days ... go over to my neighbour's garage around 4 pm and a few other neighbours get together for a happy hour. Believe it or not, boulangeries came up in the topic of conversation today.

6 hours ago, mjmooney said:

One of my birthday presents was the book pictured below. Many of the paintings are of Birmingham buses, from the routes that I used to use (nos 1, 50, 11, etc.) 

Neat.

The 11 bus route was the closest to where I lived and I routinely caught the 50 (and then hopped on to the 54) to get to school. Other local bus routes were 48/49 that went into town and the 2 and 27 routes that headed off in exotic (Stirchley) directions. Can't place the 1 route.

The cream and blue livery was a classic.

9 minutes ago, Marka Ragnos said:

I myself don't put much store by the literality of the virgin birth, etc. It's not very well supported in textual evidence.

I get that. To me, it seems a logical position. Yet you have described yourself as a Catholic. I am not understanding something here. Do you see my disquiet?

12 minutes ago, Marka Ragnos said:

I've never really thought much about the properties of God.

Again this seems contradictory to me in some sense. You know something exists but you are not aware of its supposed properties.

15 minutes ago, Marka Ragnos said:

And I'm too intellectually lazy.

Being lazy is a strength.

2 minutes ago, Marka Ragnos said:

rooted in what some philosophers might call teleology

Interesting. What is the purpose of thinking of yourself as a Catholic?

21 minutes ago, Marka Ragnos said:

To me it has the hallmarks of a tale built up from a very early first century reference by Paul — and lots of virgin birth mythology?

More or less agree, but I would not ' blame' it all on Paul.

23 minutes ago, Marka Ragnos said:

I guess I don’t really see it as a core story,

While this is likely true for you, it is at the heart of Catholicism and much of the rest of Christianity. It is a side story in Islam, not core other than that everything is true in the Quran. You seem to say it is not even true, never mind a core story? 

While the Gospels can be taken as a parable of how to lead one's life, fair enough. But I am sure there are more up-to-date books that require less creative interpretation that can inspire us. This leads us to the properties of the God that you 'know' exists and I presume occasionaly pray to.

14 minutes ago, Marka Ragnos said:

The fact that you would even care about the authenticity of such a story

I don't particularly care about the authenticity of the story. I don't think it is authentic. I do wonder how people might come to such a belief though. But this 'story' is a core belief of mainline Christianity. This of course includes Catholicism.  So, if one does not believe in this story then the bits that follow including the crucifixion and salvation make little sense. 

So without this particular belief in this "big miracle" then I don't find the whole thing particularly coherent.

4 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

I think we’ve seen more than enough examples of vast industrial scaled killing by the not particularly religiously driven to know how all the scenarios could play out. 

True ... but not my point.

5 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

Put a philosophical agnostic in charge of a people neighbouring another people that have the water or the gold and see if that stacks up.

Well if we are talking of hypotheticals ... sell them equipment/technology for digging up the gold and canalization of the water ... in exchange for some of that water.

The more interesting question would be what would happen if the nation with gold and water were inclined to philosophical agnosticism?

5 hours ago, Davkaus said:

The bigger problem with Pascal's wager is... Which god?

Pascal anticipated this question. We are told he did an extensive study of various religions and came to the conclusion Catholicism was the best bet. By an amazing coincidence, this was the religion of which he was already a member. 

But I do wonder how Pascal would have modified his wager in light of the Bayes theorem which was published a hundred years or so later.

47 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

Anybody that thinks removing religion would reduce conflict and death is either lying to us or lying to themselves.

Possibly true, but it is difficult to reconcile philosophical agnostics starting wars. We're not sure but let's start a war anyway?

3 hours ago, Marka Ragnos said:

You are in fact dealing with RC in me

The thing I don't get in this day and age is the belief that an angel came to a woman called Maryam (Mary) and foretold of some kind of divine birth, possibly parthenogenic. This belief is mostly true for two of the major Abrahamic religions, Islam and Christianity. I don't have the skill set required to hold this belief.

Just now, Marka Ragnos said:

I find Jung fascinating on many levels,  but I also feel a bit embarrassed by him because I associate him with the irrational and mysticism, and I feel ultimately very attracted to those things. I like him, but he feels weirdly immature to e always, too. It's complicated. Still, as an adult, my own approach has been one that I don't encounter in others very often. It's that I choose to believe, very much along the lines of Pascal. It's a very psychological approach to believe, perhaps, so in that sense sort of modern. 

The problem with Pascal's wager is that he puts zero negative value on living a lie. Also, if we wish to take Pascal, hook, line and sinker, we would likely choose to be Catholics. In my personal experience, I don't choose to believe stuff; more that I grow into beliefs or wake up one morning finding myself holding a position, I might not have admitted to the day before.

Have you read any Joseph Campbell?