The Off Topic Topic

[crazy canuck]

Recieved an odd random letter today. From the next town over, just 10 mins walk away. Hand written address to the house holder and inside a lengthy handwritten letter about jesus...
I guess that's one tactic to try to stop people throwing it away straight away but...
Couldn't you have posted this without a stamp?
And.... Why?

We got a handwritten letter about Jesus from someone too. I guess it's an attempt to do the door-to-door proselytization that's required by their specific brand of evangelism while complying with Covid measures. And looking at and throwing out a letter is less of a bother than telling some people at the door that I'm not interested at all and please go away.

Honestly, I'm okay with it. I mean, I find door knocking Jesus pushers fairly annoying. And it's pretty clear that their activities are about them scoring enough points for their souls rather than anything to do with me. But I give them credit for carrying on without increasing transmission risks.

Why would you say that?  I'm pretty sure most evangelist types are genuinely concerned with the state of your soul (even if I find them annoying as well).

I find a firm 'Not interested - I'm satisfied with the Church I currently attend' shuts down most attempts pretty quickly - and you don't even need to tell them how often you attend.

In my experience telling them that there is no God and then closing the door is just as effective.

[Jacob]

I mean, there's something to that... Take the Mormons.  You're generally required to go out on mission when you're 18-19, often to a foreign country.  Problem of course is 18-19 year olds from a foreign country aren't really the most effective missionaries.  I've always taken it more as a form of building solidarity and identity within the LDS church (and I would very much reject the label "cult").

The line between "a religion" and "a cult" will be drawn differently by different people. Door-to-door evangelism is enough to put a group into "cult-like enough to call it a cult when it annoys me" territory in my eyes.

But still, when you say "one of the least effective"... evangelism is hard.  Real hard.  There is no one single easy way to spread the Good News and get people's butts into church.  And the ways that are at least remotely effective all involve direct person to person contact.  Like going door to door.

So while I acknowledge your point, I still very much dispute that gaining new believers is 'just a nice bonus', and not an essential goal of the entire exercise.

It's essential, but happens something like 0.0001% of the time, while the other function is constant. Fair enough. I think there's a semantic argument to be had, but I doubt either of us are interested in pursuing it

I find it a little depressing that our society has grown so insular that a simple knock on the door is "interrupting my day".

Depends who's knocking. But if you're selling shit that I'm not interested in - and less than one in a thousand of the people you interact with are interested in your particular brand of Jesus loving - then it's presumptuous as hell.

Political candidates and canvassing teams during an election? Yes perfectly okay, even for candidates I don't agree with. Democracy is supremely important. Bring it on.

Wanting to buy or sell my house, paint it, or upgrade my services of some sort? No, I can reach out when I need services. Leave me alone.

A friend or a neighbour needing a friend or neighbour thing? Of course!

Charites - no, there are too many. I can reach out.

Girl guides or local kids fundraising for something by selling chocolate or whatever? For sure, it's my community.

I mean, modern life is pretty busy and someone knocking on the door will always be an interruption because typically we're doing something (and when we're not, that time is precious too). But the interruption can be okay, depending on the reason. Offering me information that I've already heard, that is readily available for anyone who's interested, and that you know most people don't care to hear from you is not sufficient reason. That has little to do with insularity, and more to do with presumption on the part of the evangelizers IMO.

[Josquius]

Is getting free bin bags from questionable sources claiming to be collecting clothes for charities you've never heard of a purely local thing or do others get it too?
In my last flat I never had to buy any bin bags of my own through them.

[Sheilbh]

No. But I get a crazy amount of recycling bin bags from the council. I have no idea how much recyclable waste they're expecting me to produce

[Tamas]

I get recycling bin bags from the council

WTF

[Sheilbh]

WTF

Honestly though Labour'd win a landslide on a "Vote Labour, Two Weekly Bin Collections" policy.

[garbon]

I get recycling bin bags from the council

WTF

I used to get them in Islington too. Not so much in my current borough.

[Grey Fox]

What's a recycling bin bag? 🤔

[Sheilbh]

What's a recycling bin bag? 🤔

A bin bag for your recycling I think it's for blocks of flats because we don't have our own bin or recycling bin.

[Admiral Yi]

What's a recycling bin bag? 🤔

A milk crate made of cloth with handles.

[Grey Fox]

What's a recycling bin bag? 🤔

A milk crate made of cloth with handles.

@Sheilbh Does it go in a bin?

This month, Laval (my suburban hell) has started using mechanized collection for non-recyclable/non-organic waste. Therefore, I now have 3 ~120l bins. I like it, reduces how many plastic bag I need to buy.

[Syt]

The time scales of dino evolution are quite something, and thanks to pop media it's difficult to forget that a lot of "famous" species didn't exist concurrently.

[The Larch]

We can blame it on Jurassic Park.  IIRC it used mostly species from the Cretaceous, but Jurassic sounded cooler.

[Josquius]

I find it interesting that the iphone is such a symbol of our modern era.
I've seen the same thing fairly often about Cleopatra and the Pyramids

[The Larch]

IT and cultural awareness! Two flavours that go great together! 

Tui plane in 'serious incident' after every 'Miss' on board was assigned child's weight
Service from Birmingham to Majorca took off with less thrust because pilot thought it was 1,200kg lighter

A software mistake caused a Tui flight to take off heavier than expected as female passengers using the title "Miss" were classified as children, an investigation has found.

The departure from Birmingham airport to Majorca with 187 passengers on board was described as a "serious incident" by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB).

An update to the airline's reservation system while its planes were grounded due to the coronavirus pandemic led to 38 passengers on the flight being allocated a child's "standard weight" of 35kg as opposed to the adult figure of 69kg.

This caused the load sheet – produced for the captain to calculate what inputs are needed for take-off – to state that the Boeing 737 was more than 1,200kg lighter than it actually was.

Investigators described the glitch as "a simple flaw" in an IT system. It was programmed in an unnamed foreign country where the title "Miss" is used for a child and "Ms" for an adult female.

Despite the issue, the thrust used for the departure from Birmingham on 21 July 2020 was only "marginally less" than it should have been, and the "safe operation of the aircraft was not compromised", the AAIB said.

The same fault caused two other Tui flights to take off from the UK with inaccurate load sheets later that day.

The system was adapted when the problem was first identified 11 days earlier, but this did not correct the weight entries for the 21 July flights.

The operator subsequently introduced manual checks to ensure adult females were referred to as Ms on relevant documentation.