Random Thread

[Rounin Ryuuji]

I find much of that very amusing.

[Raphael]

Catholic religious practice question: what happens when someone who converts to Catholicism as an adult goes to their first confession? Are they supposed to confess all the sins they committed up to that point? How would that even be possible?

[linguistcat]

Catholic religious practice question: what happens when someone who converts to Catholicism as an adult goes to their first confession? Are they supposed to confess all the sins they committed up to that point? How would that even be possible?

They would confess any sins they were aware of from the point they were baptized. Also, unless it's a particularly severe situation (you physically hit or killed someone, committed adultery, stole something knowingly or the like), you can actually be kinda vague about it. Like "I've had lustful thoughts. I've been subject to the sin of rage in situations calling for patience. I've failed to be generous. Etc Etc" Instead of "I've been fantasizing about these two women at work, and everyday when I'm in traffic I get angry at the other drivers and snapped at my wife. I could have helped my friend with $15 and she probably would have repaid me but I really wanted this specific item right now and I wouldn't have been able to buy it if I'd lent or gave her the money. ..." The priest might ask for more specifics, but it would only go back to Baptism since that "wipes the slate clean".

Granted this is as I understand it from when my dad converted and I went through Catechism as a young teen.

[Raphael]

Thank you!

[Raphael]

When I first saw the title of zompist's latest blog post:

https://zompist.wordpress.com/2022/09/04/sandman-tv/

for a moment I thought it might be about this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandm%C3%A4nnchen

[Raphael]

Over the course of this late morning, while I was still pretty sleepy and couldn't answer the phone yet, I got six cold calls from six different numbers. As it later turned out when I checked the country code on the web, all of these six different numbers were in the Netherlands. The calls were all to our landline phone. The number for that one is basically known only to our phone provider, some friends and acquaintances of my flatmate, and probably the world's scammers. A seventh call followed a while later, when I was already out of the bed and had already done some basic research, but by then I recognized the Dutch country code and didn't answer that one, either. None of the calls left any voice messages.

All this is creeping me out a bit.

[Moose-tache]

Which two countries (currently existing, widely recognized) are the most similar? Interpret the word "similar" as you wish.

[Ares Land]

Over the course of this late morning, while I was still pretty sleepy and couldn't answer the phone yet, I got six cold calls from six different numbers. As it later turned out when I checked the country code on the web, all of these six different numbers were in the Netherlands. The calls were all to our landline phone. The number for that one is basically known only to our phone provider, some friends and acquaintances of my flatmate, and probably the world's scammers. A seventh call followed a while later, when I was already out of the bed and had already done some basic research, but by then I recognized the Dutch country code and didn't answer that one, either. None of the calls left any voice messages.

All this is creeping me out a bit.

Oh, they're telemarketers. I don't have a landline anymore, mostly to avoid them.

[Raphael]

Oh, the Board is intermittently slow again. Great.

Oh, they're telemarketers. I don't have a landline anymore, mostly to avoid them.

Ah, thank you.

Which two countries (currently existing, widely recognized) are the most similar? Interpret the word "similar" as you wish.

Thinking about it, that's a much more difficult question than it seems at first. Even in cases where two neighboring countries are culturally, linguistically, religiously, and politically very similar, usually, one of them is a lot bigger than the other, which is a pretty important difference. For instance, for a moment I was tempted to say "Italy and San Marino", but of course one of those plays a much bigger role in European and even international affairs than the other.

[doctor shark]

Which two countries (currently existing, widely recognized) are the most similar? Interpret the word "similar" as you wish.

Luxembourg is a complicated situation, because many people see Luxembourg simultaneously as similar to each of its neighbors, but it's probably most similar to Belgium: shared history, similar-ish governmental structure, multilingualism, home to EU institutions, quite close ties between the two since World War I... Luxembourg and Belgium would be my answer here.

[alice]

Which two countries (currently existing, widely recognized) are the most similar? Interpret the word "similar" as you wish.

Luxembourg is a complicated situation, because many people see Luxembourg simultaneously as similar to each of its neighbors, but it's probably most similar to Belgium: shared history, similar-ish governmental structure, multilingualism, home to EU institutions, quite close ties between the two since World War I... Luxembourg and Belgium would be my answer here.

This mighgt be reinforced by the fact that Luxembourg is also a province of Belgium.

[doctor shark]

Which two countries (currently existing, widely recognized) are the most similar? Interpret the word "similar" as you wish.

Luxembourg is a complicated situation, because many people see Luxembourg simultaneously as similar to each of its neighbors, but it's probably most similar to Belgium: shared history, similar-ish governmental structure, multilingualism, home to EU institutions, quite close ties between the two since World War I... Luxembourg and Belgium would be my answer here.

This mighgt be reinforced by the fact that Luxembourg is also a province of Belgium.

This is, indeed, a Luxembourg, but not the Grandest of Duchies of which I speak. Yay for identically named places.

[Moose-tache]

I ask this question in part because I want to know the answer (I believe there is a single correct answer, but I could be wrong), but also because I suspect that people will answer this question in certain ways. My first prediction is that no one will choose their own country as one half of a pair of most similar countries, and so far that seems to hold up.

[bradrn]

I ask this question in part because I want to know the answer (I believe there is a single correct answer, but I could be wrong), but also because I suspect that people will answer this question in certain ways. My first prediction is that no one will choose their own country as one half of a pair of most similar countries, and so far that seems to hold up.

Well, Australia and New Zealand are pretty similar in many ways…

[WeepingElf]

Luxembourg is a complicated situation, because many people see Luxembourg simultaneously as similar to each of its neighbors, but it's probably most similar to Belgium: shared history, similar-ish governmental structure, multilingualism, home to EU institutions, quite close ties between the two since World War I... Luxembourg and Belgium would be my answer here.

This mighgt be reinforced by the fact that Luxembourg is also a province of Belgium.

This is, indeed, a Luxembourg, but not the Grandest of Duchies of which I speak. Yay for identically named places.

The two Luxembourgs, of course, were once one entity which was partitioned in 1839.

[alynnidalar]

I ask this question in part because I want to know the answer (I believe there is a single correct answer, but I could be wrong), but also because I suspect that people will answer this question in certain ways. My first prediction is that no one will choose their own country as one half of a pair of most similar countries, and so far that seems to hold up.

Truth be told, my immediate first reaction was the US and Canada (as an American who has visited Canada many times). But Raphael's point about how often one nation is much larger/has more political influence than the other certainly holds in that case.

[Travis B.]

I ask this question in part because I want to know the answer (I believe there is a single correct answer, but I could be wrong), but also because I suspect that people will answer this question in certain ways. My first prediction is that no one will choose their own country as one half of a pair of most similar countries, and so far that seems to hold up.

Truth be told, my immediate first reaction was the US and Canada (as an American who has visited Canada many times). But Raphael's point about how often one nation is much larger/has more political influence than the other certainly holds in that case.

As someone who has visited Canada only a couple time, my thought is that the US and Anglophone Canada are quite similar, but not the US and Francophone Canada.

[Raphael]

I ask this question in part because I want to know the answer (I believe there is a single correct answer, but I could be wrong), but also because I suspect that people will answer this question in certain ways. My first prediction is that no one will choose their own country as one half of a pair of most similar countries, and so far that seems to hold up.

There are, of course, many important similarities between Germany and Austria, but also some important differences: Austria was historically overwhelmingly Catholic, while Germany historically had an about even split between Catholics and Protestants; Germany was split during the First Cold War and in NATO afterwards, while Austria was mostly neutral; and returning to my earlier point, Germany has a good deal more weight to throw around on the European and global stage.

It just occured to me that the closest thing to a "correct" answer might be some pair of two small island nations in the Anglophone Caribbean. But no matter which two you pick, their inhabitants might still point to important differences most outsiders aren't aware of.

By the way, Moose-stache, you mentioned "widely recognized" as a requirement for candidacy, but does that mean recognized as independent? How about self-governing "colonies", "dependencies", or "overseas territories" that send their own teams to the Olympics?

[Raphael]

By the way, is zompist.com down?

[Linguoboy]

It just occured to me that the closest thing to a "correct" answer might be some pair of two small island nations in the Anglophone Caribbean. But no matter which two you pick, their inhabitants might still point two important differences most outsiders aren't aware of.

For some value of "important". I think the narcissism of small differences is hard to ignore here. Catholic vs Protestant is a huge distinction for Europeans due to historical conflicts, but does it really make much difference in the present day--especially given the overwhelming secularism of Western Europe? To most of the world, y'all are just slightly different flavours of "Christian" anyway.

(My first tongue-in-cheek response to your question was "Austria and Bavaria". I don't think it's a stretch to say that the cultural differences within Germany exceed the cultural differences between Austria and adjoining parts of Germany. Administrative borders and cultural borders seldom match up; I see this all the time when people try to define cultural features on the state level in the USA. Is Missouri "Southern"? Parts of it, for sure. But it's nearly 500 km from north to south and you can't expect homogeneity throughout that entire space.)

So I don't know much about their methodology. but I do know that there is something called the "World Values Survey" which surveys people from around the world and then attempts to plot the country-level results in map format. If you accept that as a reasonable approximation of "similarity", then I suppose the answer is as simple as just picking the two dots that are the closest on the current map.