[Illuyankas]

If you guys can grab a copy of the book Flat Earth News, by Nick Davis, you'll both find out why shit like this has been allowed to happen to the media in general (spoilers: quite a lot of it is Rupert Murdoch's fault, though not all) and also enjoy a fascinating read about modern journalism in general.

[worry]

Are you absolutely sure great journalism isn't alive and well?:
http://thinkprogress...ok-about-jesus/

[Ain't_It_Just_]

My phone went and shat itself, losing all the media and photos and other data on it. Including the vast majority of my photos from Italy which I hadn't already uploaded. Hopefully we can get a backup extractor program or something...

[Satan]

worry, on 29 July 2013 - 12:48 AM, said:

Are you absolutely sure great journalism isn't alive and well?:
http://thinkprogress...ok-about-jesus/

While Fox news is a mess, some of the things attributed to Aslan is exaggerated - in particular the impartiality of him as a Muslim historian of religion.

Quote

Green would pivot back to Aslan’s religion at least seven more times during the interview, simply refusing to accept that a Muslim could also be an impartial scholar of Western religion

One of the things Talal Asad (most relevant in this case, but it's a standard opinion in all of social science) pointed out succinctly was how no one is impartial to their object of study. Their background will always influence how they view a case. The fact that he's a Muslim isn't irrelivant, but, I would argue, a positive since that would possibly give him a different angle compared to the legion of Christian historians of religion that have studied Jesus.

[Mrs Savagely Wishy Washy]

Silencer, on 27 July 2013 - 11:56 AM, said:

Mezla PigDog, on 25 July 2013 - 11:29 AM, said:

We have a monumentally fat man in our open plan office and air conditioning units that can be changed by anyone. He has quite an aggressive character and relatively senior in the business so when he changes the AC settings we are all too scared to say anything. His preferred setting at all times of the year is to have the AC on "Cool" mode with the fans on high and the temperature set to 19C. For fucks sake, it is absolutely freezing. The rest of us all have items of clothing to keep us warm at our desks, it was 30C outside last week and I was walking around the office wearing a fleece!! As H&S officer everyone complains to me about it but it isn't a H&S issue in UK law until the temperature gets below 14C. I tell everyone to report it to the office manager as it is more a question of office etiquette. The moron office manager has passed it back to me as a "H&S issue" and she is also a rather aggressive and irrational character so there is no arguing with her. I'm sick of being freezing so have decided to take it upon myself to install lock boxes over the AC and apparently I get to choose the settings /> Only 2 weeks before they are all fitted and the shit hits the fan (I've bought fatty a desk fan so that I can pretend I give a shit about his wellbeing). I might buy myself a lot of very cool clothing and set the things to "Heat" and 25C.

However, messing with my groove right now is the fact that I'm fecking freezing while chubby is knocking back his Type 2 diabetes pills and doesn't even have his desk fan switched on!!!!!!

To be fair, 19c is not cold. To be fairer, people who are feeling cold can wear more clothes - people who are too hot do not have the opposite (or any, really) option. Unless the guy is turning the temperature down and wearing several layers, then he's an idiot.

Not to mention that a hot working environment (and 25 is hot) is not conducive to productivity. 19 is hardly going to the other end of the scale so doesn't have the same detrimental effect.

Not to be a dick about it, but also constantly mentioning that the guy is fat is kind of a mean thing too - while that might have something to do with his preference for cooler air, it's not very fair to 1) assume that and 2) make it part of the issue. Plenty of people at my work like things to be around or below 20 (including myself, but that's irrelevant), and others would rather we have it closer to thirty - and we actually can't wear more layers, so finding a happy medium is kind of hard - but there are plenty of people of all body sizes in favour of both options. There guy may be a dick but that's no reason to be one yourself. * shrug *

I think the main issue is not so much the temperature itself but the cold draught that comes with the AC which is very unpleasant and chilling. Speaking for myself, I get headaches and colds in the middle of summer because of AC that is set below 20dC when it's 30dC outside.

This post has been edited by Miss Savagely Wishy Washy : 29 July 2013 - 08:14 AM

[Mezla PigDog]

Satan, on 28 July 2013 - 01:48 AM, said:

Mezla PigDog, on 27 July 2013 - 04:14 PM, said:

And please don't call me a dick.

Not to be a dick about it, but if the shoe fits...


Haha, no, just kidding. I love to be a dick about it.

OK, you got me. I'm prejudiced against mean belligerant sweaty morbidly obese men, I admit it. We all have our vices.

[Tiste Simeon]

Mezla PigDog, on 29 July 2013 - 08:48 AM, said:

Satan, on 28 July 2013 - 01:48 AM, said:

Mezla PigDog, on 27 July 2013 - 04:14 PM, said:

And please don't call me a dick.

Not to be a dick about it, but if the shoe fits...


Haha, no, just kidding. I love to be a dick about it.

OK, you got me. I'm prejudiced against mean belligerant sweaty morbidly obese men, I admit it. We all have our vices.

You monster!

[BAD]

Just turn it up/down/off? I don't see the big deal. Seniority (how long someone has been in the company) should have crap all to do with the temperature setting of the AC. Majority should rule (within health and safety guidelines) and unless the minority person gets a specific referral from a medical professional regarding the temperature they should be working in they should just deal with it as any other person would. Wear layers so you can adjust. Even if they get a medical referral about it, it's then up to the company to provide specific conditions for that individual and not inconvenenience everyone else in the workplace.

If your collective workforce cannot handle this verbally with the individual write it down in complaint format to your seniors. If nothing gets done, keep sending the mails (not email an actual paper copy), send it to people higher up. This always works, eventually. No one likes getting constant repeated complaints about the same thing especially when it goes to their seniors and they get bollocked for it. Even more so when it is affecting the workforces productivity and especially when it is about something as stupid (and easily fixable) as this. I don't know how an entire office gets bullied by one person but somehow you have arrived at that situation and you can either sit there and brood about it and have it negatively impact your mood and work or you can sort it out.

This post has been edited by BAD: 29 July 2013 - 11:08 AM

[worry]

Satan, on 29 July 2013 - 08:10 AM, said:

While Fox news is a mess, some of the things attributed to Aslan is exaggerated - in particular the impartiality of him as a Muslim historian of religion.

Quote

Green would pivot back to Aslan's religion at least seven more times during the interview, simply refusing to accept that a Muslim could also be an impartial scholar of Western religion

One of the things Talal Asad (most relevant in this case, but it's a standard opinion in all of social science) pointed out succinctly was how no one is impartial to their object of study. Their background will always influence how they view a case. The fact that he's a Muslim isn't irrelivant, but, I would argue, a positive since that would possibly give him a different angle compared to the legion of Christian historians of religion that have studied Jesus.

I don't disagree in principle, but in this case it's crystal clear that she was a) totally unfamiliar with one of the most popular (and particularly TV-literate/friendly) religious scholars in the country, repeatedly dog-whistling that he must have an unprincipled or even malign agenda, c) tried to have a gotcha moment on transparency that didn't pan out because there was none to be had. I don't think anyone is claiming "impartiality" in its strictest sense, since that is literally impossible and Aslan himself makes no secret of his personal fascination with the subject, but the argument is not to reduce him to a single loaded buzzword or to ascribe a Crusades-level agenda as his motivation. Mostly, though, it's an example of bad journalism because her only familiarity with this very well-known, recognizable scholar and author she was interviewing was that Dickerson editorial she read on her own site a couple days before. Jerry Springer could have conducted a more thoughtful, competent interview.

[Gothos]

OK so I've got a death's head hawk moth in my room. I hit it with a rolled up shirt 7 times in the air, on the floor, on walls. It's still moving. Finally hit it enough that it's more or less grounded and stomped on it with my guitar case 3 times. Still twitching. So I left the guitar case standing on top of it. Kind of afraid to move it now. That fucking thing is tenacious and resilient, and now surely wants vengeance. Or maybe it's Mothra??

[Puck]

I'm somewhat miffed the local library doesn't have Joyce's Ulysses. I don't have the book and wanted to look up some things, and the only friend I know that's got it lives over an hour by train away.. I mean, come on, Ulysses.. How can a library not have that one?

[worry]

I dunno if you need a physical copy, but it's on Project Gutenberg in various formats: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4300

[Gothos]

oh and also: first time I ever took a stool sample. felt really gorram weird doing that...

[Gnaw]

Gothos, on 29 July 2013 - 10:30 PM, said:

OK so I've got a death's head hawk moth in my room. I hit it with a rolled up shirt 7 times in the air, on the floor, on walls. It's still moving. Finally hit it enough that it's more or less grounded and stomped on it with my guitar case 3 times. Still twitching. So I left the guitar case standing on top of it. Kind of afraid to move it now. That fucking thing is tenacious and resilient, and now surely wants vengeance. Or maybe it's Mothra??

Gothos, on 29 July 2013 - 11:42 PM, said:

oh and also: first time I ever took a stool sample. felt really gorram weird doing that...

Why do you need a stool sample from a half dead moth?

[amphibian]

Mezla PigDog, on 29 July 2013 - 08:48 AM, said:

OK, you got me. I'm prejudiced against mean belligerant sweaty morbidly obese men, I admit it. We all have our vices.

Aren't you the one that blocked me on here? I'm none of those things.

I'm well aware of temperature havoc due to personal preferences and the outlet that this thread provides for snark and griping, but this is probably indicative of aome improvement work you could do on your office politics game as well as the fact you've got an inconsiderate jerk working with you.

[Abyss]

Gothos, on 29 July 2013 - 10:30 PM, said:

OK so I've got a death's head hawk moth in my room. I hit it with a rolled up shirt 7 times in the air, on the floor, on walls. It's still moving. Finally hit it enough that it's more or less grounded and stomped on it with my guitar case 3 times. Still twitching. So I left the guitar case standing on top of it. Kind of afraid to move it now. That fucking thing is tenacious and resilient, and now surely wants vengeance. Or maybe it's Mothra??

And is the moth still screaming Clarice?

[Gothos]

Gnaw, on 30 July 2013 - 01:09 AM, said:

Gothos, on 29 July 2013 - 10:30 PM, said:

OK so I've got a death's head hawk moth in my room. I hit it with a rolled up shirt 7 times in the air, on the floor, on walls. It's still moving. Finally hit it enough that it's more or less grounded and stomped on it with my guitar case 3 times. Still twitching. So I left the guitar case standing on top of it. Kind of afraid to move it now. That fucking thing is tenacious and resilient, and now surely wants vengeance. Or maybe it's Mothra??

Gothos, on 29 July 2013 - 11:42 PM, said:

oh and also: first time I ever took a stool sample. felt really gorram weird doing that...

Why do you need a stool sample from a half dead moth?

The two events are not related in that fashion

[Satan]

worry, on 29 July 2013 - 09:12 PM, said:

Satan, on 29 July 2013 - 08:10 AM, said:

While Fox news is a mess, some of the things attributed to Aslan is exaggerated - in particular the impartiality of him as a Muslim historian of religion.

Quote

Green would pivot back to Aslan's religion at least seven more times during the interview, simply refusing to accept that a Muslim could also be an impartial scholar of Western religion

One of the things Talal Asad (most relevant in this case, but it's a standard opinion in all of social science) pointed out succinctly was how no one is impartial to their object of study. Their background will always influence how they view a case. The fact that he's a Muslim isn't irrelivant, but, I would argue, a positive since that would possibly give him a different angle compared to the legion of Christian historians of religion that have studied Jesus.

I don't disagree in principle, but in this case it's crystal clear that she was a) totally unfamiliar with one of the most popular (and particularly TV-literate/friendly) religious scholars in the country, repeatedly dog-whistling that he must have an unprincipled or even malign agenda, c) tried to have a gotcha moment on transparency that didn't pan out because there was none to be had. I don't think anyone is claiming "impartiality" in its strictest sense, since that is literally impossible and Aslan himself makes no secret of his personal fascination with the subject, but the argument is not to reduce him to a single loaded buzzword or to ascribe a Crusades-level agenda as his motivation. Mostly, though, it's an example of bad journalism because her only familiarity with this very well-known, recognizable scholar and author she was interviewing was that Dickerson editorial she read on her own site a couple days before. Jerry Springer could have conducted a more thoughtful, competent interview.

As I said, Fox News is a mess. But in all articles in mainstream media I've read about the episode, the journalists have portrayed a naive understanding of a social scientific approach. The whole things is a non-issue cooked up by Fox News, the journalism is atrocious, the approach is embarrassing and their agenda is clear to all, but at least they question him. Most other news outlets are guilty of all these things, but in this case not the last bit. I would be very interested to hear how his Muslim background affected his study of Jesus.

[Satan]

Mezla PigDog, on 29 July 2013 - 08:48 AM, said:

Satan, on 28 July 2013 - 01:48 AM, said:

Mezla PigDog, on 27 July 2013 - 04:14 PM, said:

And please don't call me a dick.

Not to be a dick about it, but if the shoe fits...


Haha, no, just kidding. I love to be a dick about it.

OK, you got me. I'm prejudiced against mean belligerant sweaty morbidly obese men, I admit it. We all have our vices.

That's why we love you.

[Macros]

Buried one of our dogs this morning. He was 13/14 and had cancer.
As badly as dad and I took it, I am not looking forward to my sister coming home tonight.