Rob

Data Scientist

[Bishop Robert Barron @BishopBarron]

In a recent interview, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, former grand chancellor of the John Paul II Institute on Marriage and Family Life, confirmed the worst suspicions that many of us had.

He admitted that the changes he made at the Institute during the Pope Francis years were designed to initiate a "very profound" reform of the idea of the natural law.

Instead of absolute moral norms grounded in a keen understanding of the basic goods, he and his colleagues were proposing a moral theory rooted in historical discernment of subjective and cultural experience--not an "armchair theology" but one operating "within history and within people's lives."

This, of course, is the language of trendy postmodernism, and it is dangerous indeed.

Allow me to illustrate the principle with one example. Is slavery wrong?

Intrinsically wrong? Wrong no matter what public opinion polls say about it, no matter what the current consensus on it might be? I imagine any decent person would say yes.

But that yes is predicated upon precisely what the tradition calls the natural law and the basic goods. There are some values so fundamental that acts repugnant to them are by their very nature wicked.

If you want a highly articulate presentation of this idea, go to St. John Paul II's Veritatis Splendor.

If we say that this is just "armchair theologizing" and that morality is a function of ever-shifting cultural and experiential data, then why couldn't slavery be justified?

One of the very smartest persons that ever lived, the philosopher Aristotle, thought it was; extremely bright and morally upright persons in our country, well into the 19th century, thought it was permissible.

Who is to say whether the consensus might shift back again? Who is to say that "lived experience" might come to justify it?

What any truly coherent moral program requires is the very thing that Archbishop Paglia and his colleagues were endeavoring to eliminate, namely, absolute moral norms.

Ridding ourselves of these in the name of freedom or pastoral sensitivity actually renders moral discourse dysfunctional, just as relativizing the basic principle of logic would render any rational conversation impossible.

The Archbishop's interview, frankly, reminded me of the discussions I had at the Synod on Synodality with some of my German colleagues. Under the rubric of the development of doctrine, they were eager to relativize or radically change the principles undergirding classical morality. If this was and is truly the game, we have ventured onto perilous seas.

Link to the article below.

[DuckDuckGo @DuckDuckGo]

New setting: hide AI-generated images in DuckDuckGo

Our philosophy about AI features is “private, useful, and optional.” Our goal is to help you find what you’re looking for. You should decide for yourself how much AI you want in your life – or if you want any at all. (1/4)

[Bjorn Lomborg @BjornLomborg]

COVID school closures were stupid

In rich world, students on average lost 7 months of math learning

The longer the closure, the greater the learning loss

Will impact future incomes

McKinsey estimated the full cost could be $1.6 trillion per year

https://t.co/6yMFoIKeyp

https://t.co/ziRt7fNnbN

[Robert F. Kennedy Jr @RobertKennedyJr]

Fast Food is a part of American culture. But that doesn’t mean it has to be unhealthy, and that we can’t make better choices. Did you know that McDonald’s used to use beef tallow to make their fries from 1940 until phasing it out in favor of seed oils in 1990? This switch was made because saturated animal fats were thought to be unhealthy, but we have since discovered that seed oils are one of the driving causes of the obesity epidemic. Interestingly enough, this began to drastically rise around the same time fast food restaurants switched from beef tallow to seed oils in their fryers.

People who enjoy a burger with fries on a night out aren’t to blame, and Americans should have every right to eat out at a restaurant without being unknowingly poisoned by heavily subsidized seed oils. It’s time to Make Frying Oil Tallow Again 🇺🇸🍔

[Javier Lanari @javierlanari]

Algunos "economistas" tratan de darle un tinte negativo al superávit y a la emisión cero. Es como que un médico te recomiende fumar, tomar alcohol todos los días y no hacer ejercicios...

[Rob @realrhall]

@engineers_feed 90 bc f(x) = x^2 + x

[Nathan Baugh @nathanbaugh27]

In 4 minutes, Kurt Vonnegut explains stories better than anyone I’ve ever heard.

“The shape of the curve is what matters. Not their origins.”

He plots stories on 2 axes:

X: Time
Y: Good fortune / ill fortune

He goes on to say,

“Somebody gets into trouble, then gets out of it again. People love that story. They never get tired of it.”

Point 1:

Stories have defined patterns.

In Joseph Campbell’s Hero of a Thousand Faces, he makes the case for the Hero’s Journey.

Since then, it’s become the most famous storytelling structure in the world.

Vonnegut argued stories could be divided into 8 shapes.

Each story, he said, fit one of the 8.

Point 2:

Vonnegut says,

“Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them — so the reader may see what they're made of.”

To see who your characters really are, you have to make them suffer.

Only then does your audience have someone worth cheering for.

Point 3:

End on a high note.

Vonnegut says, “It’s not accidental that the line ends up higher than where it began. This is encouraging to readers.”

The way a story makes people feel when they finish is how they remember it.

It’s called recency bias.

Lift people up and they will love you.

***

“There are people. There are stories. The people think they shape the stories, but the reverse is often closer to the truth.”

I wrote this with @RobbieCrab. Follow him for lessons on storytelling + fundraising.

And I talk about creative storytelling & writing fiction. Follow me @nathanbaugh27 for more like that.

[Harrison Schenck @FractionalList]

Utter rippage. dudes rock

[Rob @realrhall]

@ElonMuskAOC 3

[Rob @realrhall]

@mayemusk @elonmusk @POTUS @mayemusk Feel free to plagiarize. 😁

[Rob @realrhall]

@mayemusk @elonmusk @POTUS “My son, Elon, has the aim of maximizing the agency of the human body, mind and spirit as his chief goal. There are those in the US gov who have an interest in the human body, mind and spirit being docile and manipulable. Those interests come into conflict.”

[Maye Musk @mayemusk]

I am the mother of @elonmusk His goal is to make this world a better place. @POTUS wants to stop him. Have you any idea how furious I am? People in other countries are proud of Elon and do not understand the US President’s motive. Please tell me how I should answer them.

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

Don’t be S-A-D!

[Georges St-Pierre @GeorgesStPierre]

- If you call a psychic and she doesn't pick up before it rings, hang up.

[J.K. Rowling @jk_rowling]

We said ‘never again.’ The UK was a safe haven. Now, after the biggest massacre of Jews since the holocaust, British Jewish children are being advised to hide their identities as they walk to school, for their own safety. There should be mass outrage that this is necessary.

[TheHealthyRD @HeidiHmoretti]

According to recent research published in PLOS One, raw sauerkraut has over 114 types of probiotics, which beats out any probiotic supplement on the market today.

These probiotics from raw sauerkraut can survive the low acid content of the stomach, which makes sauerkraut an ideal form of probiotic.

Raw sauerkraut is also a very concentrated probiotic.  Research from Functional Foods in Health and Disease determined that a very small dose, 2 tablespoons of sauerkraut, contains over 1 million colony-forming units (CFUs) of healthy probiotics. And sauerkraut is SO much more than a probiotic.

For example, sauerkraut has anti-microbial effects too. The probiotic effects of sauerkraut help fight Listeria monocytogenes, a type of harmful bacteria. It may also reduce some strains of gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria, possibly even E. coli and salmonella.

Some health experts like Dr. Mercola have determined that the probiotic content of 4-6 oz of sauerkraut may contain trillions of healthy bacteria.  This is much more than a whole bottle of probiotic supplements!

Probiotics in raw sauerkraut aren’t just beneficial bacteria; they are beneficial fungi too. Think mushrooms.  The mushrooms in sauerkraut are microscopic. The types of fungi in sauerkraut can include Actinomucor, Amylomyces, Aspergillus, Monascus, Mucor, Neurospora, and Rhizopus.  These little fungi produce digestive enzymes to aid our bodies in digestion.

These enzymes include:

amylase
amyloglucosidase
maltase
invertase
pectinase
ß-galactosidase
cellulase
hemicellulase
acid and alkaline proteases
lipases

By increasing enzymes in the digestive tract, your food will absorb better, which may give you more energy and resilience in the face of infections.

Sauerkraut May Reduce Heartburn and Reflux

Heartburn and reflux are related and difficult to tease out.  Some people call the same symptoms dyspepsia.  Most digestive distress, heartburn, and reflux can be alleviated by a healthy gut-bacterial environment.

If you haven’t tried sauerkraut for heartburn yet, what do you have to lose? Adding a spoonful of sauerkraut is one of the most effective home remedies for heartburn in many cases.

One cause of heartburn is called autoimmune gastritis. Autoimmune gastritis is very common and presents with symptoms of heartburn, dyspepsia, as well as GERD. Autoimmune diseases are tightly linked with gut bacteria. By connecting the gut-immune system dots, it becomes clear that fermented foods like sauerkraut can help people tremendously with GI issues like heartburn and reflux.

Sauerkraut Reduces Indigestion

Have you ever eaten a meal and felt like you kept burping the food all day long and passing gas? This burping and gas is also known as indigestion and it can also ironically cause heartburn and acid reflux symptoms.

These are all signs of indigestion, meaning your food is not digesting well. Sauerkraut has built-in enzymes to help with your digestive processes.

Enjoying a couple of bites of raw sauerkraut may take away indigestion symptoms, such as belching, bloating, excess gas, gas pain, heartburn, and more.

Yes, heartburn is often a sign of indigestion instead of too much acid.

Another substance that enhances digestive enzymes is called fulvic acid.

Sauerkraut May Reduce Gas and Bloating

If you don’t digest your foods well, you will get more gas and bloating than you want.

Many people are pleasantly surprised that when they make a few changes to their diet, they can eliminate these symptoms of excess gas and embarrassing flatulence.

Support your digestion by giving it enzyme-rich sauerkraut daily.

Tip: When incorporating sauerkraut into your routine, you may be less embarrassed by flatulence over time.

Sauerkraut Improves Absorption

You will absorb your food better with sauerkraut because it has digestive enzymes and has also lactic acid. Both of these compounds help to break down anti-nutrients in foods like phytic acid and oxalates.

When you absorb your food better, you will have less gas, bloating, diarrhea, constipation, indigestion, and heartburn. Win, win, and win!

When you have probiotics, you are never alone. This is something I say to my patients and clients all the time; partly to cheer them up with a joke and partly to help them understand the significance of live cultures.

Sauerkraut May Reduce Anxiety

Consider the following studies we have so far:

Pregnant women have less post-partem depression and anxiety when given a probiotic strain called  Lactobacillus rhamnosus; this was a robust and large clinical trial. *Lactobacillus rhamnosus is found in sauerkraut.

An excellent review of probiotic foods and anxiety: 7 of 10 clinical studies show benefits for anxiety. This review was written by Psychology & Science.

This research showed compelling data for the use of probiotic foods like sauerkraut for anxiety symptoms.

Read more:

https://t.co/67NWMljn8u

[Carnivore Aurelius ©🥩 ☀️🦙 @AlpacaAurelius]

Eat meat, fruit, eggs, collagen and organs and I guarantee you will never feel better.

[Rob @realrhall]

@melaniejoly Your people cannot afford to eat or pay their rent. You tax the living hell out of them and then use their money to fund a proxy war, while nurses and carpenters and teachers live homeless on the streets. Give the money back to your people. #Pierre4PM