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donnymurph's Q&A
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Post by
Cambo
Dear donnymurph,
Please comment about your viewpoint in race relations in Australia, in particular with immigrants and natives. Past, present and future.
Post by
LeionX
XXXX exists? For some reason I always thought it was a myth, or something you guys made up to play with gullible non-Aussie minds, like drop bears. Gonna have to try that stuff someday.
Yeah is does. Alot of Aussies where pissed when the factory in Brisbane got flooded, and the beer started to float away.
Post by
Squishalot
You read Zoo Weekly? Seriously? *raises eyebrow*
Post by
donnymurph
A greater proportion of my posts have been in the Priest forum. Does this make me a superior being to you, Donny?
(This is, like, my seventh post ever in Off-Topic/Randomness)
It means that you've dedicated yourself to the priest forum for much longer than I have, sure. More dedicated to WoW as well, presumably.Studies have shown that an IQ past 120 will not make a person more successful in life, since you claim to have a very high IQ, do you agree with this statement?
Well that depends on your definition of "successful".
If you mean "financially successful", IQ doesn't mean anything.
In terms of being academically successful, I think I am proof that a high IQ doesn't mean much. I attended an academically selective high school, which accepted 180 students every year out of a typical applicant pool of over 5000, based on the results of extensive aptitude testing. In the first year I attended this school, I topped my class (30 students) in Mathematics, Geography, Science, PE/Health and History. In Mathematics, which was also ranked across the entire grade (180 students), I came fifth.
By Year 12 (final year of high school), I was in the fifth-ranked out of 8 Math classes, 72nd out of 76 Chemistry students, and came dead last in Standard English (which is the easy English course). I still did well in Physics, scoring 90% in my final exam, and moderately well in Engineering Studies, and Metal & Engineering Vocational Course. Why did I do so poorly? Lack of study, lack of caring, working 30 hours a week, drugs, alcohol, lack of desire to go to university, and depression. My IQ was definitely not enough to carry me through all that.
Certainly though, one's IQ does at least place one in a better position with regards to academic pursuits. It's up to the individual what they do with it though.
As for having a successful career. Well does "successful" mean climbing the corporate ladder, or discovering/inventing something amazing? Because I don't think the marketing director of a large banking corporation gets there because of his IQ, but rather a bunch of personality factors. Whereas I think it's fair to say that Victor Chang's IQ probably had something to do with him performing the first-ever heart transplant, for example. Or Einstein's Theory of General Relativity.
Post by
donnymurph
Dear donnymurph,
Please comment about your viewpoint in race relations in Australia, in particular with immigrants and natives. Past, present and future.
This is a very broad question, and I would prefer if you were a little more specific.You read Zoo Weekly? Seriously? *raises eyebrow*
Yes, yes I do. As well as FHM, Metal Hammer, and several modified car magazines - mostly with respect to turbocharged Japanese cars, but also some regarding Australian V8s.
Post by
Squishalot
You read Zoo Weekly? Seriously? *raises eyebrow*
Yes, yes I do.
Why?
Post by
donnymurph
I enjoy the crude humour, the trivia section at the back, the pages about gadgetry (even if I never buy any of it, I enjoy reading about it), and occasionally they do a good photo shoot. All-in-all, it's an enjoyable hour's worth of light entertainment for 4 bucks, and has made many a train ride to Sydney more bearable.
Post by
mindthegap5
you have zoo in australia?
Post by
donnymurph
Certainly do. Not the British version, we have our own.
Post by
donnymurph
Cambo I'm still waiting for you to give your question a little more focus, but I'm going to use it as an excuse to post this interesting atricle I just found on Cracked.
#5.
We Are More Racist Than We Think
Here's something that doesn't make sense: On one hand, we know that racism is still a big deal (you can't argue with it -- studies show it still turns up in everything from jury decisions to hiring practices), but how many outright racists do you actually know? How many people at your office fling the blankets aside each morning and scream, "TODAY I SHALL OPPRESS A BLACK MAN!"?
Probably not that many. So we have the seemingly impossible situation of a world with a lot of racism and not many racists (and no matter how anonymous you make the poll, you can never find significant numbers of people admitting to being racist). Science suggests it's because all of us are a little more racist than we think.
For instance, in one somewhat hilarious experiment, researchers just set up a bunch of conversations -- some between members of the same race, some between different races. Then, to liven things up, they had the conversations take place over a closed-circuit camera system and intentionally inserted awkward pauses into the conversations by adding a one-second delay. No, the participants didn't realize they were doing it.
When a white person was talking to a white person, the pauses were basically unnoticed. But in the interracial conversations, the awkward pauses caused the anxiety levels of the participants to go off the charts -- far more than in control conversations held face-to-face. No matter how nonracist and open-minded the participants thought they were, one second of awkward silence was all it took for a whole bunch of subconscious racial tensions to bubble up. "Goddamn it, I just can't connect with this person! He's different from me!"
By the way, if you put us in the same room, we'll reflect that tension in our body language, regardless of our relationship to the other person. In another bizarre experiment, researchers showed a group some video clips of two people talking: one white guy and one guy who was obscured so the observers couldn't see what race he was. Test subjects could usually guess the race of the obscured guy just by watching the other one's body language.
The clips, by the way, were from TV shows where the characters were supposed to be equals and/or friendly with each other (that is, they weren't from cop shows where the white cop was arresting an obscured face wearing flamboyant pimp clothes). One of the shows that gave the "subconscious racist" response was Scrubs, for Christ's sake. These are real-life friends and colleagues playing the role of fake friends and colleagues. But put black and white together in the room, and on a subconscious level, things change.
Finally, and maybe strangest of all, is an experiment in which they gathered a random group of people -- not taken from a Klan rally or anything -- and made them watch an excruciating video of a guy's hand having a needle slooowly driven into the skin.
As you can imagine, the subjects literally felt the pain in their own hands ... as long as the hand on the screen was of the same race. The result was the same for the white and black participants -- they couldn't feel as much empathy for a member of another race.
And if you're about to say, "That's not racism! That's an involuntary response based on the fact that the hand being injured just didn't look like their own!" Hey, that's what the researchers thought, too, so they also included a purple hand. Subjects felt empathy toward it just fine. That's right -- the subjects couldn't muster empathy for a fellow human of another race but cringed at the thought of somebody hurting a @#$%ing Night Elf.
Post by
LeionX
That's right -- the subjects couldn't muster empathy for a fellow human of another race but cringed at the thought of somebody hurting a @#$%ing Night Elf.
Ok. That made my day. But it's true really. We're all racist on one level or another, or discrimatory. However, that convo belongs in another thread. Not this one.
Another Aussie based question Donny; two accually.
Maroons or Blues?
Ford or Holden?
Post by
Cambo
Let me rephrase my question.
Our countries are similar. Made up of migrants, an aboriginal people and continual arrivals from overseas. Part of my childhood I grew up in 90% white communities. From 10 years old onwards, I grew up in predominately coloured & mixed communities. Thus, I am proud to say that I can converse with any person from any religious or cultural background. I am not racist or racialist, and I believe in one set of rights & one law for all – with exception for historical native grievances.
I can’t say that for all of the people in my country however; I believe it comes down to what the person was exposed to when they were growing up.
I also believe that a country’s greatness can be reflected in how it treats peoples from other cultures and nations. For example, Cyrus the Great of Persia is agreed to have been the greatest leader of any empire or nation to date. Not just because he left Persia larger and more affluent when he died, but because when he invaded other kingdoms, he allowed them to continue to live how they always had been. They didn’t have to change religion, or way of life. His empire became a melting pot of peoples and practices, and everybody was happy.
I am not wanting to bait you. Or to reveal anything in particular. But you love your country and like talking about it, so you must have a point of view?
Post by
donnymurph
Until 8 years old, I lived with my heroin-addicted mother. She wasn't overtly racist, and hung out with a lot of Aboriginal people. I assume this was moreso because she was simply seeking out people with the same affliction as her, rather than necessarily wanting to hang out with Aboriginal people. She told me off several times for commenting on peoples' skin colour (I wasn't trying to be racist, just young and naïve). My mother didn't necessarily try
not
to be racist either. The Greek man who she died believing fathered me was often referred to as "Wog".
In March 1998, aged 8, (after I'd called the police on her and wanted out) I went through several different foster families, before eventually landing in the one whom I am living with to this day, around August 1999. Unfortunately, this particular family, who I take my surname from, are a
very
racist family, particularly towards Muslims. Just half an hour ago, my foster parents were sitting at the dinner table spurting their anti-Muslim sentiment. An hour ago, as I was getting driven home from work, there was a story on the radio about the upcoming Australian edition of The Amazing Race; featuring a pair of bikini models, a pair of surfers, a pair of old grannies and a pair of Muslims. When the radio announcer was speaking of how they would abseil down the grandstand of the Melbourne Cricket Ground, my foster father was saying "Are they gonna cut the ropes while the Muzzies are abseiling?"
Their racism worsened after 9/11, when I was only 11, so I spent a large part of my formative years being indoctrinated with this crap that came out of their mouths. Things like "Not every Muslim is a terrorist, but every terrorist is a Muslim". Did I mention that my foster-father is also racist towards Aboriginals? I once read a Winston Churchill quote that I read in Zoo Weekly. I immediately texted him the quote:
I do not accept that a great wrong has been done to the black people of Australia. A stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly, wise race has moved in and taken their place.
Now I thought that this quote was pretty Hitler-esque (and Hitler is just one part of a
very
long list that my foster father hates). His reply to my text?
Smart bloke
So I have grown up with racism; a certain fear has been instilled into me, especially when they used to say things like "You can play 'Spot the White Guy' here" whenever they took me through a well-known immigrant stronghold in Sydney as a child. Unfortunately, as much as I detest racism, on a certain level, I
can't help
but be racist. It has been programmed into me. I try to fight it every day, not always successfully. In fact, I try to fight all of the hateful sentiment that my foster-father has so passionately imparted on me in the last 12 years. It's part of the reason I'm moving to Surfers Paradise in November. I actually did move out in November 2007, and deliberately lost contact with my foster parents for nearly a year. I lived a free, sometimes erratic, but always happy existence for 3 years, before circumstance left me with nowhere else to go and I moved back here in November 2010.
Of my close circle of friends, one was born in South Korea, but was given up for adoption by his parents during infancy. He has lived in Australia with an Anglo-Saxon mother for over 25 years now (he's 27), he speaks with an Aussie accent, does Aussie stuff, and sometimes refers to himself as an Aussie. The rest of my main group of friends are Anglo-Saxon. I have some other "amicable aquaintances" of Maori, Aboriginal, Pakistani, Indian, Egyptian, Chinese and Filipino backgrounds. But I would hardly call them "friends" - I wouldn't go out of my way to spend time with them.
It should be worth noting that if I ever do display a racist attitude, it is always with regards to mobs, never to individuals. I would never judge a single person by their ethnicity; not even Aborigines, despite having problems with many a drunk Aborigine (a lot of them can't handle alcohol - this has been genetically proven). However, I do enjoy racist humour, because I see it as exactly that: humour. In fact, some of the best Greek jokes I've heard were from a Greek man, some of the best Aboriginal jokes from an Aborigine. Usually the jokes are of a satirical nature, poking fun at a group who is a minority
within
a minority, and I can see the humour without buying too heavily into the underlying sentiment.
So far, this has been a pretty introverted look at the subject, I would like to write more from an extroverted point of view, but I won't do it now, because I find writing about heavy subject matter like this to be quite exhausting at times. I hope this is enough to whet your whistle for the time being.
Post by
donnymurph
Maroons or Blues?
Ford or Holden?Well, since I live in NSW and always have, I have to say Blues. Although they've been pretty disgusting for 5 years, and they can't just run to Andrew Johns anymore like they used to. Maybe after I move to Queensland I'll become a hardcore Queenslander, you never know.
As for Ford v Holden, I've always been a Holden man. But allegiances aside, Ford have built some nice cars; although they have had some pretty inexcusable quality and reliability issues from the BA onwards.
Post by
irishsnout
A lot of Americans think the Australian accent sounds cool. Do any Australians like American accents? If so, Which types? For example new yorker or southern or mid west. If No, what worldly accents sound cool to Australians?
Post by
donnymurph
I think most Aussies are suckers for an Irish accent.
Me personally, I like some American accents, Canadian, English, Irish, German, Scandinavian, Russian, Japanese, some south-east Asian, New Zealander and Lebanese accents.
I can't stand French, Italian, Scottish, Indian, Chinese accents.
Post by
Azazel
So, I've come up with a theory regarding you donnymurph. You consider yourself smart, have went to a high education school/college/something yaddah yaddah (right?). I've thought for long about this and have through work and dedication finally found the answer to why this can hold with your alcohol enthusiasm.
"Survival of the fittest", Darwin said.
Now, as we all know alcohol consumes braincells. Braincells, like every other "species" in the world, are of different strength. Some are strong and some are weak. The alcohol consumes those, so naturally the weaker ones will die first!
The conclusion is therefore, if you drink a lot, you get smart. So there is no problem in your alchol enthusiasm.
Peace out.
Post by
Interest
What games, besides WoW, do you play (if at all).
Post by
donnymurph
So, I've come up with a theory regarding you donnymurph. You consider yourself smart, have went to a high education school/college/something yaddah yaddah (right?). I've thought for long about this and have through work and dedication finally found the answer to why this can hold with your alcohol enthusiasm.
"Survival of the fittest", Darwin said.
Now, as we all know alcohol consumes braincells. Braincells, like every other "species" in the world, are of different strength. Some are strong and some are weak. The alcohol consumes those, so naturally the weaker ones will die first!
The conclusion is therefore, if you drink a lot, you get smart. So there is no problem in your alchol enthusiasm.
Peace out.
Riiiiiight.What games, besides WoW, do you play (if at all).Currently, none. In the past, I have always been a Playstation man, and have played a lot of PS1 and PS2 games, as well as some PS3 games. My favourite game franchise is Gran Turismo (I played 2, 3, 4, as well as two or three of the minigames), and I'm still toying with the idea of buying a pre-owned PS3 purely to get GT5.
I played many different styles of games, such as FPS, some RPGs, sandbox games, fighting games (not a big fan of the arcade0style ones though, like Tekken), and realistic driving games (ie not NFS).
Post by
Squishalot
Not the Burnout franchise either then, eh?
What do you think of GT5? Reckon it's worth splurging full-price on? (let alone the cost of the PS3, which is, what, still $~300 for a second hand one.
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