Ploughing Championships

Geomy

I see there was members of the clergy there to bless the land.

Does this upset some Atheists ?

Or would you see it as tradition.

After all sure there's no point in cutting off the hand that feeds you. ...

Kiwi in IE

Geomy wrote: »

I see there was members of the clergy there to bless the land.

Does this upset some Atheists ?

Or would you see it as tradition.

After all sure there's no point in cutting off the hand that feeds you. ...

It dosn't upset me at all. I couldn't give a hoot if they run naked in a circle, around a cauldron full of boiled frogs legs and newts eyes, and cast a spell over the land where the ploughing championships are to be held.

If I owned the land I would object to a priest 'blessing' it. But I do not, so I could not care less about magic spells being cast on it.

Mark Hamill

Geomy wrote: »

I see there was members of the clergy there to bless the land.

Does this upset some Atheists ?

Or would you see it as tradition.

After all sure there's no point in cutting off the hand that feeds you. ...

Do the clergy plough the land themselves after blessing it? Because I don't see how maybe not wanting them to bless it leads to "there's no point in cutting off the hand that feeds you".

Geomy

Mark Hamill wrote: »

Do the clergy plough the land themselves after blessing it? Because I don't see how maybe not wanting them to bless it leads to "there's no point in cutting off the hand that feeds you".

I suppose they'll go around telling people that they will reap what they sow.

Im not a fan of the clergy myself, I was just wondering what an Atheists thoughts on the matter would be.

Personally I don't give a toss whether there's a pagan ceremony or cath blessing.

robindch

Geomy wrote: »

I see there was members of the clergy there to bless the land. Does this upset some Atheists?

I think most atheists would find it a bit embarrassing that a fairly major wants magic spells cast around the place. Doubly so for the poor twit casting the spells.

It's all a bit Fr-Ted, isn't it?

Geomy

robindch wrote: »

I think most atheists would find it a bit embarrassing that a fairly major wants magic spells cast around the place. Doubly so for the poor twit casting the spells.

It's all a bit Fr-Ted, isn't it?

Shhhhh Ted only lives up the road from me. ...

Don't mention all those practising Catholic s who roll out of their beds every Sunday morning during the matchmaking festival in Lisdoonvarna....

The ones that can't miss mass. ..

"If the campers rocking don't come Knockin" is a popular camper van sticker up there. ..

Absolutely ghastly. ...

Gordon

It's probably good for the bits of grass that need watering. This is the type of blessing that the guy throws some water over the place right? Not the one with the bobblechain with smoke on it that gets waved about?

TheChizler

Is it just me or are thread titles recently getting a bit strange?...

Corkfeen

Gordon wrote: »

It's probably good for the bits of grass that need watering. This is the type of blessing that the guy throws some water over the place right? Not the one with the bobblechain with smoke on it that gets waved about?

Incense is only used for type 5 miracles I believe. Or is it type 5 holy stones?

smacl

Blessing the land harks back to pre-Christian pagan Ireland, many of the traditions of which were quietly absorbed by the Catholic church as people were in no hurry to give them up. Once they're not sacrificing virgins under the shrine to Massey-Ferguson, let them have their fun.

kylith

Mark Hamill wrote: »

Do the clergy plough the land themselves after blessing it? Because I don't see how maybe not wanting them to bless it leads to "there's no point in cutting off the hand that feeds you".

Ara, sure half of them became priests to get out of doing the ploughing.

krudler

I heard they upgraded it to a class 2 field.

Sulla Felix

I prefer the Roman tradition of getting a couple to have sex amid the furrows myself. A lot more fun to be had with double entendres at the very least. "ploughing" champions, eh, eh, eh? :P

kylith

Sulla Felix wrote: »

I prefer the Roman tradition of getting a couple to have sex amid the furrows myself. A lot more fun to be had with double entendres at the very least. "ploughing" champions, eh, eh, eh? :P

Really?! Jaysus, them Romans knew how to party.

recedite

Did you know that in Russia they are equipping tractors with Glonass satellite trackers (the new Russian equivalent of decadent capitalist GPS system, which is slightly more accurate than GPS at northern latitudes) and they can plough for yonks in a dead straight line?
Now I'm not saying this approach is necessarily better than blessing the tractor, but...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSmZzy4FGFQ

We had a small local ploughing competition on our land a few years back and we had none of that malarkey.

We did have a chip van in though.

Turtwig

Totally off topic but then anyone else refer to them as the plown championships and not actually grasp the link to "ploughing" for years?

robindch

recedite wrote: »

Did you know that in Russia they are equipping tractors with Glonass satellite trackers

I don't believe they've any choice since the Russian government -- in a splendidly trade-barrier kind of way two years ago -- now requires (a) anybody selling anything with GPS in Russia, also to support GLONASS or face a heavy import duty and (b) anybody manufacturing any kind of mechanized transport within Russia must include a GLONASS receiver.

Globally, GLONASS is slightly less accurate than GPS, while GLONASS generally beats GPS over Russia, where the majority of GLONASS satellites reside. The EU's Galileo system is currently in testing and when complete by around 2020 is expected to provide vertical and horizontal accuracy of less than a meter which will make it significantly more accurate than the current versions of both GPS and GLONASS.

</geek>

Hotblack Desiato

They don't 'reside', if they did they'd become meteorites in short order :pac:

They use higher-inclination (angle between plane of the orbit and plane of the equator) orbits than GPS, so if you're in a polar region (north or south) you're likely to see more satellites and get a quicker and more accurate fix. Better still is to combine GPS and GLONASS in one receiver which is now common.

Anyway. I thought the only ploughing priests were into was altar boys?

smacl

robindch wrote: »

Globally, GLONASS is slightly less accurate than GPS, while GLONASS generally beats GPS over Russia, where the majority of GLONASS satellites reside. The EU's Galileo system is currently in testing and when complete by around 2020 is expected to provide vertical and horizontal accuracy of less than a meter which will make it significantly more accurate than the current versions of both GPS and GLONASS.

OT, but the vast majority of modern survey grade receivers as used in tractors and machine control are GNSS, which combines GPS and GLONASS signals. In these contexts they're also being used with real time corrections (NRTK typically) which yield about plus or minus 20mm horizontally and 30mm vertically. Galileo is as more about coverage than accuracy at this point. No idea how this plays out in Russian farming mind you.

Corkfeen

This thread suddenly became fascinating, how the hell did that happen?

Corkfeen

Corkfeen wrote: »

This thread suddenly became fascinating, how the hell did that happen?

the beauty and mastery of ploughing a straight furrow gets you eventually.

Hotblack Desiato

The Furrow - A Journal for the Contemporary Church

smacl

ninja900 wrote: »

They don't 'reside', if they did they'd become meteorites in short order

Reside is probably Russian for geostationary

Hotblack Desiato

If they were geostationary, they wouldn't work for sat nav

robindch

ninja900 wrote: »

They don't 'reside', if they did they'd become meteorites in short order [...]

They can reside perfectly well if they're inserted into a geostationary orbit or parked at any of the Lagrange points.

However, the word was poorly chosen. Oops. The GLONASS satellites, as you say, orbit at a higher inclination to the plane of the equator, so they're more easily visible from higher latitudes than is GPS. Please substitute "spend a greater portion of their time flying over" for the unforgivably sloppy term "reside"

Corkfeen wrote: »

This thread suddenly became fascinating, how the hell did that happen?

Space? I think everybody loves that.

recedite

Some day I'm going to enter the Ploughing Championships, and I'm going to win while having a beer in the big tent.
My driverless tractor, guided by GPS, Glonass and Galileo, and referenced against local reference stations of known position, will plough the perfect furrow. The only problem is, which Massey Ferguson model to choose for this great endeavour?

smacl

recedite wrote: »

Some day I'm going to enter the Ploughing Championships, and I'm going to win while having a beer in the big tent.
My driverless tractor, guided by GPS, Glonass and Galileo, and referenced against local reference stations of known position, will plough the perfect furrow. The only problem is, which Massey Ferguson model to choose for this great endeavour?

Having worked with GPS extensively, you'd be well advised to get the PP to bless the Massey Ferguson, and pick a beer tent well away from the field in question. While generally accurate, GPS machine control can have its occasional 'bad days'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vU73kzrhWig

recedite

I wouldn't let the local PP near it under any circumstances.
But I can see the headlines now. "50 killed as godless tractor runs amok"

Kidchameleon

If somebody has a problem / is embarrassed by a priest blessing a field, they really need to get out more.

Pherekydes

Kidchameleon wrote: »

If somebody has a problem / is embarrassed by a priest blessing a field, they really need to get out more.

I don't think anyone has. I think it's just ol' "sittin' on the fence" Geomy trying to provoke an outraged response from A&A.

robindch

Well, I'm outraged anyway. Shocked and outraged. Face purple. Hair standing on end. Heated steam escaping from all outlets. Tin lid rattling. The works really, I suppose.

Anybody else have any outrage they want to vent either at kid's thoughts, or at the thought of a grown man slopping water around a grassy Irish field while mumbling platitudes to an invisible deity more familiar with deserts and Palestinians?

Sarky

Oh yeah. This is about how angry I am at... Whatever it is I'm supposed to be outraged at:

Bannasidhe

Kidchameleon wrote: »

If somebody has a problem / is embarrassed by a priest blessing a field, they really need to get out more.

and bring some rain gear with them in case they get caught in a priestly frenzy of blessing random bits of the outside.

DeVore

Is there *anything* to be said for another Mass?

Bannasidhe

DeVore wrote: »

Is there *anything* to be said for another Mass?

We could all chip in and buy a Mass card.

Delirium

So which competitors is the priest blessing the land in favour of? He's rigging the competitions! :eek:

I can see the headlines now, "Farmer stripped of prizes after Holy Water scandal". :pac:

Gordon

Catholicism - putting the mass into Massey Ferguson.

Calibos

I much prefer the 'Blessing of the fields' they performed in the Bible Belt states in North America.............................before the white man came....

Turtwig

Gordon wrote: »

Catholicism - putting the mass into Massey Ferguson.

No sorry that's the Higgs. Definitely the Higgs.

Corkfeen

Recently realised that Lamborghini was originally a tractor company, the only reason he branched into cars was because of a dispute he had with Ferrari over a part for his car. That's a piece of tractor trivia for all you ploughing heathens!

Sarky

Calibos wrote: »

I much prefer the 'Blessing of the fields' they performed in the Bible Belt states in North America.............................before the white man came....

Damn Whitey, ruins everyone's fun.

Bannasidhe

Sarky wrote: »

Damn Whitey, ruins everyone's dun.

Whitey ruined the dun???...now I feel intense rath!

:pac: