@slowoldman I get the same at work when people ask very involved questions, without providing enough information and then want a yes/no answer. They are clearly not looking to know that 'it depends'!
Matt
fatmountain
Member
I don’t claim to have authority over anything. Many of my students are doing post-graduate research in engineering or sciences and have far more specialised knowledge about their disciplines than I ever will. I help them with topic sentences and how to avoid comma splices and various other things. I don’t think highly of myself at all.
But in an earlier post you claimed to be a "trained Academic"... an Academic is someone who holds and advanced degree such as a PhD, someone who understands academic rigour, critical thinking and the ability to construct facts/theory from multiple, often competing sources.
I don't want to put you down here, but a non-lecturing teacher at a university who holds no degree is no more an Academic than the man who comes to service my boiler is an Engineer. You are, no doubt, a skilled professional and work at an academic institution, but whilst your interest is laudable, please do not abuse the titles. Those of us who've worked hard to achieve them know that they're abused enough in the UK as it is.
matt_bl
Member
@slowoldman I get the same at work when people ask very involved questions, without providing enough information and then want a yes/no answer. They are clearly not looking to know that ‘it depends’!Matt
ha that's funny - i had a meeting with our new chairman a while back, he was asking which i can understand to be striaght forward quetions. The prbelem with this, is that there are many variables that affect the answer so, i could onyl answer with a "depends" and then give the rationale behind it.. in the end he just said i should stop being a politician- still not entirely sure what he meant by that.
This is worth a read. Not directly related to the OP, but it's an interesting read and touches on a lot of what we were discussing around the worth of published papers and the spread of misinformation.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/06/hydroxychloroquine-trump-coronavirus-drug
i could onyl answer with a “depends” and then give the rationale behind it.. in the end he just said i should stop being a politician
Having come into contact with all levels of corporate manglement, I believe there might be some mileage in replacing people that elementally require and demand binary answers with some sort of device or or mechanical contraption that can make decisions based on binary inputs...
This is worth a read. Not directly related to the OP, but it’s an interesting read and touches on a lot of what we were discussing around the worth of published papers and the spread of misinformation
Good article.
This was a bit of a head scratcher.
The idea that hydroxychloroquine is “the cure” has taken off within certain online communities, including among anti-vaxxers
The mental contortions you must have to go through to convince yourself that one drug is a panacea to a global pandemic, while another is a consiracy by "big pharma" to poison your children is quite something.
A bit like the mental gymnastics that must take place to post garbage on social media about 5G from a mobile phone or wi-fi connected device.
Its almost like these people want to be mocked.
.
Dr. Rashid Buttar BLASTS Gates, Fauci, EXPOSES Fake Pandemic Numbers As Economy Collapses
Don't he's a fan of 5g either!
"Rashid Buttar is an American osteopathic physician from Charlotte, North Carolina. He is known for his controversial use of chelation therapy for numerous conditions, including autism and cancer. He has been reprimanded by the North Carolina Board of Medical Examiners for unethical treatment of patients."
From Wiki - I stopped at 'osteopath', as that's a sufficient level of quackery to suggest anything else he promotes is also bollocks.
Look into False Authority Syndrome. (-:
That’s Trump, that is! It’s odd how Gates has somehow become the whipping boy for the whole C19 situation.
It’s odd how Gates has somehow become the whipping boy for the whole C19 situation
Gates is funding research for a vaccine and also funded a conference (event 201) last year to tell governments how to handle a pandemic so is deeply involved in the current situation. Gates is going to make the covid vaccine his next version of windows. He will license it and get governments to insist every citizen is vaccinated before they can travel outside of their country. He will have some kind of license that you have to present for travel (document or chip). And when he's made billions from it he will create vaccine 2.0 then 3.0 then xd and vista etc. and everyone will have to upgrade.
He is set to make more billions than anyone thought was possible and he has the governments of the world assisting him willingly. Because it will take several months to develop the vaccine and he doesn't want people building immunity naturally the lockdown scenario was presented at his conference. By the time freedom of movement is relaxed he will be almost ready with his first vaccine.
Yet more dangerous conspiracy bollocks from the US.
I thought I’d update this thread after just reading a Wired UK article in Flipboard - this insane 5G/C19 conspiracy crap isn’t just spreading, it’s now resulting in Openreach engineers working on broadband installations being threatened and attacked by members of the public!
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/5g-coronavirus-conspiracy-theory-attacks
White Nancy above Bollington, Cheshire has been on the receiving end of these 5G/C19 conspirasist bell-ends. Lots of graffiti painted on White Nancy and the stone flags around it. It has Grade 2 listed status and was built to commemorate the Victory of the battle of Waterloo.
Only the other week it was illuminated in blue as a nod to the NHS and other essential workers
I thought I’d update this thread after just reading a Wired UK article
Came here to post the same thing. Quote for the TLDR crowd:
Since March 30, there have been 77 arson attacks on mobile phone masts across the UK, with staff working on mobile infrastructure also reporting 180 incidents of abuse. There have been 90 additional incidents of sabotage reported, ranging from failed arson attacks to attempts to damage mobile network infrastructure in other ways.
I read coverage of one of these arson attacks where they successfully destroyed a transmitter that had been put in specifically to give better mobile internet to people in hospital who cannot receive visitors due to Covid. The destroyed transmitter was not even 5G. Very few of them are, as that article explains.
This kind of nonsense is partly why I waste time disassembling flat earthers.
It's all the same brain rot. An anti-intellectual anti-science movement that is steadily growing as people no longer understand the world around them.
In case it's not been posted:
An equally fascinating and terrifying insight into how this shit gets "published".
We had some Spanish bint over here a few years back convincing everyone they were being affected by infrasound generated by the marine turbines being tested nearby. Of course all her papers, and those of her cohorts, were published via the same "conference" papers hosted by some opaque institute in Spain. No doubt well funded shills but they had a staggering amount of people convinced in the community councils including the local hacks that wouldn't know investigative journalism if it shat in their coffee. Some of the ignorance on display was bonkers, totally disputing peer reviewed proof it was crap because "they're all in on it". Sadly before that piece was published.
@squirrelking - I can’t bring myself to watch that video, I’ll probably have an aneurism or a coronary! Either that or my teeth grinding will keep the neighbourhood awake...
I can imagine these ****s destroying a local wired broadband installation, then bitching loudly and at length about the loss of their broadband, stopping them spreading anti-5G bullshit!
Seen that Defcon vid before. It's very very concerning. Definitely worth a watch to learn how activists and lobby groups use those methods to persuade governments to change laws.
Sadly it will take at least 1 fatality to get anyone to do anything proper about the 5G stuff, rather than just Facebook finally getting around to taking down 1 "personality" some time after their highly publicised event, and conveniently forgetting about all the extremist organisations that are brainwashing exactly the same way.
Just seen a depressing post on Facebook going on about Gates creating the virus and the end civil liberty. Clicked on their profile. They are an NHS Nurse....
@ampthill was the post related to the Plandemics documentary or Judy Mikovitz? It seems to be all the rage at the moment being a combination of antivax, world domination, man made covid, etc.
Just seen a depressing post on Facebook going on about Gates creating the virus and the end civil liberty. Clicked on their profile. They are an NHS Nurse…
This is why I’ve been avoiding Fb for the last couple of years...😫
Mate has just sent me what must be the same post on fb, hes arguing with someone else about it & wants to make sure theres nothing to it, where to start!
I’ve noticed a few phone masts around here now have signs on them indicating that they’re not 5G. The world we live in 🙁
Radiographers (my wife is one) get into massive shit for accidentally over-exposing a patient, for example by x-raying a dopey patient twice in a hectic shift.
The dose of radiation is so low nowadays (unless you are doing something like a full skeletal survey) that it really won't make a rat's arse of difference to anything.
The said patient then may well go ape shit at the hospital and there is an incident etc. Loads of form filling.
That patient will then very probably expose themselves to more radiation by going on a plane for their holiday in the sun where they will pickle their liver and fry their skin with IR/UV until they can't walk it is so sore.
People are ignorant in the main. Slightly intelligent and manipulative people have a lot of easy pickings.
Bringing this up to date a bit, we now have our own groups of protesters ranting about 5G, anti-vaxx, c19 conspiracy, etc, one of their leaders is Piers Corbyn, brother of the former Labour leader. I wonder what Jeremy thinks about his brother spouting this sort of inflammatory crap?
Piers Corbyn
Mentalist.
Motion Made to Arrest Bill Gates in Italian Parliament
What the actual eff has Bill Gates got to do with anything? He like literally gives money away. People do realise he's not been in charge of Microsoft for well over a decade now, right?
We're doomed as a species. We're the most reliant on communication systems than we've ever been in the history of ever and people are tearing down phone masts. If there's anyone left to write our history I doubt it will be favourable.
In other "abject moron" news, this popped up on Facebook today:
https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/local-news/one-three-anti-lockdown-protesters-18263368?
Parks that in the same location as British MP blames flooding on homosexuality.
What the actual eff has Bill Gates got to do with anything?
His philanthropy is heavy on donating to immunise poorer nations against diseases that are killing them in massive numbers. Therefore for the anti vaxers he is the devil incarnate controlling populations by injecting them with mind control drugs and micro chips.
And while that sounds strange, at least it is a few lunatics, think of the damage the christian church has done in stopping aid to countries unless they abandon contraceptives and family planning clinics. Some conspiracy's are real.
I had someone tell me that I'm type 1 diabetic because of vaccinations that I was given because of Bill Gates. What, in 1985?
That Armstrong Economics site is fantastic though. It sort of looks sane, then suddenly says something like "separation of church and state means that socialism is illegal because it's against the 10 commandments".
The guy behind it is a convicted fraudster, just seperating more fools from their money.
Turns out the whole 5G thing could actually be quite profitable. Just need to get me a container load of USB sticks and some red stickers and I'm away!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52810220
Unbelievable how gullible idiots are, though I'm not massively surprised it's some dolt from Glastonbury who has been taken to the cleaners (again). Crystal Chakra realigning Pawnee dreamcatchers anyone?
The guy behind it is a convicted fraudster, just separating more fools from their money.
Or separating more tools from their money..
Good news though is that COVID-19 is actually all about taxes - https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/taxes/how-taxes-will-make-covid-19-vanish/
Which is a relief, as given the gargantuan tax burden this country is going to have to swallow to pay for this mess, at least we can rest happy in the knowledge that the disease will just disappear*
* When I say "disappear" it's obvs meant in the Trumpian sense of "Will become a bigger exceptional killer of Yanks than the Vietnam and Korean wars combined"..
Worth reading this article I read today about the effect it’s having on engineers working on broadband installations being physically harassed and attacked by ignorant fools driven by these pathetic conspiracy theories.
https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/3/21276912/5g-conspiracy-theories-coronavirus-uk-telecoms-engineers-attacks-abuse
They'll be able to transfer government agents from the chem trails program now that's on hiatus to maintain the 5G death rays.
I have the perfect counter-conspiracy theory conspiracy theory.
The notion that vaccines are bad and 5G towers should be destroyed is a Russian disinformation project to destabilise the West, making its population more susceptible to life-threatening illnesses and disrupting its communication network.
Sadly, this one has a degree of truth to it.
They’ll be able to transfer government agents from the chem trails program now that’s on hiatus to maintain the 5G death rays.
🤣
Sadly, this one has a degree of truth to it.
You’re not wrong.
I have the perfect counter-conspiracy theory conspiracy theory.
The notion that vaccines are bad and 5G towers should be destroyed is a Russian disinformation project to destabilise the West, making its population more susceptible to life-threatening illnesses and disrupting its communication network.
Sadly, this one has a degree of truth to it.
Yup x2. If not Russia then certainly someone, aided and abetted by useful idiots.
You realise attributing some of these conspiracy theories to shadowy state actors is in itself a conspiracy theory?
I really enjoyed this little book that sets out the psychology of conspiracy theories.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Psychology-Conspiracy-Theories-Everything/dp/1138696102
In attributing this 5G and vaccine conspiracy theories to shadowy state actors you could be falling foul to the biases that make people believe in those. Firstly you need to believe that highly organised, malevolent and fantastically resourced state actors are actively working untroubled by our own security services.
Scary and confusing things are happening - in this case people believing in 5G death rays. Your brain's natural instinct to assign agency to things kicks in.
There seems to be lots of these scary things happening. Your brain's instinct to look for patterns kicks in.
Boom. You believe the Russians are brainwashing the American public into believing in vaccine poisons and 5g death rays.
I bumped into someone I used to work with when I was a student yesterday.
I got the full Covid conspiracy theory bullshit bingo - 5G, Bill Gates, NHS track and trace (which apparently is going to involve putting an electronic tag on you...) It was properly barking.
Otherwise a seemingly reasonable person, too. Frightening.
How do you even go about engaging with that? My primary instinct was to simply get the hell out of there, though in hindsight I should perhaps have tried to sow a few seeds of doubt.
You can't engage with the substance of them.
With conspiracy theories the word "believe" does the heavy lifting.
"I believe Bill Gates..."
"I believe that Vaccines are mind control poison"
They are beliefs and utterly immune to facts. See also religious belief.
You can try and point out some of the glaring logical flaws. Probably the only way to combat them is through education (and I mean from an early age) so folk understand cognitive biases better.
You can see posts on this page where folk hate a particular theory more because it conflicts with their beliefs, rather than hating the flawed reasoning behind it.
There is nothing inherently Trumpian or right wing about conspiracy theories. They exist in all groups, societies and time periods.
