Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Unequally Yoked

Home
Catholic
7 Quick Takes (5/11/12)

7 Quick Takes (5/11/12)

Last updated on: January 9, 2013 at 11:26 am by Leah Libresco

7 Quick Takes (5/11/12) 2013-01-09T11:26:29-05:00 Leah Libresco

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

— 1 —

The Ideological Turing Test for Religion is gearing up for another go round. It’s a contest where Atheists and Christians test how well they understand each other. Contestants try to write from the perspective of the other side, and the readers see if they can tell true from false. We’re finalizing the list of questions this weekend, so please do weigh in on what kinds of prompts would elicit very different responses from atheists and Christians.

— 2 —

I don’t blog about work here, but luckily all the context you need for the next take is that I do a lot of statistical analysis, some of it related to bank reform, and I’m pretty tough. You see, when I mentioned to a friend I was listening to Sweeney Todd at work, a collaborative relyricization was born.

LEAH LEANS ON THE OFFICE WALL,
LEAH WAITS ON THE WASHINGTON MALL.
NO ONE CAN HELP, NOTHING CAN HIDE YOU –
ISN’T THAT LEAH THERE BESIDE YOU?

LIFT YOUR DATA HIGH, LEAH,
SHOW IT TO THE PRESS!
DEATH TO CARDS AND BANKS THAT SHOULD CHARGE
CLIENTS LESS!

SHE’D SENT OUT SURVEYS NEAR AND FAR
AND RUN THE NUMBERS TWICE IN R
AND IF YOU ARGUED WITH DATA SHE MINED
IT WAS HIGHLY PROBABLE YOU WOULD FIND
YOU’D EXPERIENCE RIGOR OF A DIFFERENT KIND
YOUR EPITAPH SIGNED:
THE DEMON STATISTICIAN OF DC

Look, it’s not for nothing that the picture at the top of this take was my favorite birthday present last year.

— 3 —

So, as you can tell, I’m pretty cool, but this guy who makes fractal pancakes is way cooler.

$fractal pancakes$

— 4 —

The internet has made it easy to put hire humans for weird tasks, and I love the way Matt Richardson has put this to use. He’s created what he calls a “descriptive camera.” Instead of recording an image, it outputs a text description of the scene you just shot. He’s using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk program to farm out the work. Humans receive the image and type up a description, which the camera then prints out. Here’s one ‘descriptive image’ generated so far:

Looks like a cupboard which is ugly and old having name plates on it with a study lamp attached to it.

— 5 —

The last take linked to descriptions of pictures and this project collects pictures that all match one description: What would you take out of a fire? My favorite is above.

I wonder if, as more data moves to the cloud, computers will drop out of these shots. I wouldn’t like to lose something expensive, but I’d really run back in for my external hard drive at least because I don’t want to lose something irreplaceable.

— 6 —

Via io9, the cool-looking trailer for Argo, Ben Afflect’s new too-weird-to be-fictional movie about the U.S. faking a science fiction movie as cover to smuggle out six American hostages in Iran (they got out and hid themselves before all the other embassy workers were rounded up).

The Wired story that reports on the non-fictional mission is awesome.

— 7 —

Sterilizing an operation with carbolic acid

I would hate for a Friday link roundup to go by without a history of medicine story, and, luckily, Atul Gawande, one of my favorite science writers, has a piece in the New England Journal of Medicine. Here’s my favorite quote:

It would take a little while for surgeons to discover that the use of anesthesia allowed them time to be meticulous. Despite the advantages of anesthesia, Liston, like many other surgeons, proceeded in his usual lightning-quick and bloody way. Spectators in the operating-theater gallery would still get out their pocket watches to time him. The butler’s operation, for instance, took an astonishing 25 seconds from incision to wound closure. (Liston operated so fast that he once accidentally amputated an assistant’s fingers along with a patient’s leg, according to Hollingham. The patient and the assistant both died of sepsis, and a spectator reportedly died of shock, resulting in the only known procedure with a 300% mortality.)

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

7 Quick Takes

Previous Post

May 10, 2012

Finalizing Turing Test Questions

Next Post

May 12, 2012 Which Apologetics Need Answers?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 7 Quick Takes Apologetics Atheism Book Conversion Debate Tactics Debates Epistemology/Philosophy Housekeeping Ideological Turing Test Marriage Morality in Practice Parsing Catholicism Possibly Heretical Radio Reviews/Recommendations Sequence Index Spiritual Practice Uncategorized

Select a Month April 2017 March 2017 January 2017 December 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What metaphor is often used for the righteous in Psalms and Proverbs?

Select your answer to see how you score.

A tree A mountain A river A sun