Transgender athletes and those athletes with differences of sexual development (DSD) will reportedly be banned from competing in female competitions at the Olympics from early next year.
A report in The Times claims this comes after a science-based review undertaken by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) which looked into the permanent physical advantages of being born male.
Previously, Olympic sports had the power individually to decide whether transgender women could compete if they had reduced testosterone levels.
What’s the backstory to the stories of angels and devils in Lithuanian tales, and how influential were pagan roots in forming their image? In conversation – Lithuanian Literature and Folklore Institute doctoral researcher Solveiga Šlapikienė.
Angels and devils are often seen as beings of opposite natures – symbols of good and evil, a classic binary opposition, even antonyms. Yet alongside their stark contrasts, there are also unexpected parallels, especially in their shared origins. How does Lithuanian folklore explain the creation of angels and devils?
The most common and well-known explanation for how angels came into being involves striking or rubbing stones together – sparks flying from flint and steel could also give rise to angels. In fact, both angels and devils are said to have originated this way. That’s an important detail.
So there are no etiological legends that explain only the creation of angels? Angels and devils always seem to appear together.
Almost always. If angels are mentioned on their own, it’s only in very brief or fragmentary tales, with just a few lines saying that angels were created in such a way – and that’s all. But in any more developed narrative, angels and devils appear side by side.
It’s worth noting that two main categories describe how angels were created. The first says that God created angels together with Lucifer, his opponent, his adversary.
The angels created by Lucifer, or by Liucius as he is sometimes called, were the same in kind as those made by God. But Lucifer, acting as a trickster, tried to imitate God’s creative acts – and failed. His attempts produced distorted, imperfect beings, darkened and flawed copies of divine creations.
Devil Museum in Kaunas, Lithuania. | LRT TV / Screengrab
Another version says that God created all the angels at once, but over time, some rebelled and were cast out. Do many Lithuanian folk tales deal with the human choice between good and evil?
Very many. Across the body of folklore about angels, only a small portion shows angels existing purely in the heavenly realm, without any contact with humans. Most of what we have speaks of guardian angels – those who accompany a person from birth to death.
And, of course, devils often appear alongside them: like a dark angel perched on one shoulder, always nearby, watching and following the person throughout their life.
One of the most popular motifs is that both angel and devil keep a record of human deeds – the angel writes down the good, the devil the bad. When death comes, each brings their book to the bedside, and the balance between good and evil determines where the soul will go: to heaven or to hell.
The presence of both beings beside a person throughout life touches on many aspects of human existence. The angel is most often associated with moments of danger. For instance, if a building is about to collapse, the angel, acting as an inner voice, may warn the person to move aside or avoid an action, thus saving them from harm.
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I would add — yes, bikes are dangerous but the danger is overemphasized. I believe it is overemphasized because all healthy men would love to ride but are afraid; and the exaggeration of danger justifies staying away; following that is the echo chamber of uninformed agreement and circular reasoning.
Modern motorcycles are definitely safer than bikes from just two decades ago. They are equipped with many traction and braking safety features. Also, airbag jackets and vests for motorcycles are available and moderately priced.
My very consistent attitude toward motorcycles is I never try to convince anyone to ride and am not doing that now. Right now, I am just setting the record straight, as I see it.
Motorcycling is a very free sport. Most riders are very pleasant, polite men; and they are that way because riding uses and exhausts primal animal hormones, thought and sensory processes, and instincts as they were evolved to be used.
Yes, some women ride and I love them for it, but the sport is mostly men. ABN
This experiment employed an individual differences approach to test the hypothesis that learning modern programming languages resembles second “natural” language learning in adulthood. Behavioral and neural (resting-state EEG) indices of language aptitude were used along with numeracy and fluid cognitive measures (e.g., fluid reasoning, working memory, inhibitory control) as predictors. Rate of learning, programming accuracy, and post-test declarative knowledge were used as outcome measures in 36 individuals who participated in ten 45-minute Python training sessions. The resulting models explained 50–72% of the variance in learning outcomes, with language aptitude measures explaining significant variance in each outcome even when the other factors competed for variance. Across outcome variables, fluid reasoning and working-memory capacity explained 34% of the variance, followed by language aptitude (17%), resting-state EEG power in beta and low-gamma bands (10%), and numeracy (2%). These results provide a novel framework for understanding programming aptitude, suggesting that the importance of numeracy may be overestimated in modern programming education environments.
American Buddhist Net 