"unprivileged" - love that.
I wish I knew then what I no know now, and I could rush into the KH one fine sunday meeting,
screaming - "unprivilege me" .... "unprivilege me" .... "unprivilege me"
I'm sure they would quickly "unprivilege me" haha!
fulltimestudent
JoinedPosts by fulltimestudent
-
30
Unprivileged
by Wake Me Up Before You Jo-Ho insomething just dawned on me today as i processed my assimilation into the real world (thanks to our new poster, @jester, giving me a major throwback to my first post).. when you're a jehovah's witness, you really are in some sort of la la land.
things which are perfectly normal are acts of eating from the table of the demons.
things which are horribly grotesque and extremely unjust are branded as "righteousness".
-
-
-
11
Is Kim Jong Un a jw?
by eyeuse2badub inworldkim jong un expands his war on christmas with new ban on singing and drinking.
aol.com 14 hours ago .
reactions.
-
-
fulltimestudent
smiddy3 : I wonder what his private life is really like , you know behind closed doors ?
We know that he has a resort residence in Wonsan. No doubt the Americans have satellite spy camera's trained on it 24/7, but I've not checked for actual piks.
We know, that he has a luxury yacht. Here's pik of the interior. There's another pik floating around the web of him having drinks with some western celebrity. The yacht was made in the UK by a famous yacht maker.
I bet he doesn't travel too far from shore these days, as I would expect that American spy satellites keep a close watch on that also. And far out at sea, accidents can happen. (grin).
It is claimed (in western scholarly circles) that a special NK department exists to procure the luxury stuff that the 'dear leader' needs to stay happy, while he looks after his people (slight sarcasm)
Its difficult to sort 'news' out. The South Koreans have a special department to 'manufacture' news about NK. That's where a lot of the weirder stories come from.
More about KJU's yacht (from one of the better specialist NK research sources): https://www.nknews.org/2013/06/exclusive-fit-for-a-princess-kim-jong-uns-7m-yacht/
--------------------------------------
Postscript: Just remembered I had posted on this before, and it was not a western celebrity on his yacht, it was some westerner involved in Korean studies.
-
5
Chinese government surveillance system....
by mikeflood inchinese goverment is using facial recognition & ai through security cameras (millions!
) to capture suspects...maybe i amgetting old, but i never thought about big brother becoming a reality..
-
-
fulltimestudent
From the HongKong based South China Morning Post:
(The author is Zigor Aldama, a Spanish Journalist reporting on Chinese Affairs (mainly, I understand for Spanish Newspapers.)
China’s big brother: how artificial intelligence is catching criminals and advancing health care.
Zhu Long, co-founder of pioneering Yitu Technologies, whose facial-recognition algorithms have logged 1.8 billion faces and caught criminals across China, says AI will change the world more than the industrial revolution
“Our machines can very easily recognise you among at least 2 billion people in a matter of seconds,” says chief executive and Yitu co-founder Zhu Long, “which would have been unbelievable just three years ago.”Does it do what is claimed?
Whole cities in which the algorithms are working say they have seen a decrease in crime. According to Yitu, which says it gets its figures directly from the local authorities, since the system has been implemented, pickpocketing on Xiamen’s city buses has fallen by 30 per cent; 500 criminal cases have been resolved by AI in Suzhou since June 2015; and police arrested nine suspects identified by algorithms during the 2016 G20 summit in Hangzhou. Dragonfly Eye has even identified the skull of a victim five years after his murder, in Zhejiang province.
You can be sure that while China may be first with this technique, others will soon pick up on the technique. Australia already has street cameras in city locations. It's a small step to using the above programs.
Is it good or bad? If you've been robbed or bashed by criminals, you'll likely thinks its good. If your a crim, you wont like it, because sooner or later your face will be caught on the system, and it will be difficult to escape.
Will the Chinese use it against political dissent? I'd believe that will be likely with the qualification that it will be dependent on how you define 'political dissent.' If you were a Muslim terrorist planning a 'criminal incident' somewhere in China, would that be 'bad?' Security services in Australia already use a variety of electronic devices to disrupt such incidents in Australia, with good success. What about some of the reportedly 100,000 plus** .public protest incidents against local authorities in rural China. Since these seldom result in jail terms (unless physical violence has been involved) I doubt that these new devices will change that situation.
** Mao started the Cultural Revolution because he believed that local administrators 'oppressed' peasants. And, he wanted them to speak out against such actions. Did it succeed? I would judge, Yes! in some places and No! in other places. But overall it caused a lot of change in China.
-
10
Christian "NO GO" zones in US
by Coded Logic ini can't believe this is taking place in our country!
all across america there are areas where people are trying to enforce christian law!
outsiders are strictly forbidden from entering and they have private security and guards to keep people out.
-
-
fulltimestudent
Most have heard an old saying, which states:
"Those who the God's wish to destroy, the first drive mad,"
Do you think this is happening?
-
9
Does the Watchtower favor interpretation over translation, especially in the case of Exodus 15:3?
by Poppy520 inexodus 15:3, "the lord is a man of war: the lord is his name.
" kjv, esv, asv.. exodus 15:3, "jehovah is a powerful warrior.
jehovah is his name.
-
-
fulltimestudent
'man of war' or 'warrior,'
A nit-picking difference, indicating an amateur approach to translation.
As you will note on this list of versions from biblehub at: http://biblehub.com/exodus/15-3.htm
Most translations choose either of those words, with one standout, which is Young's Literal Trabslation who opts for - "Jehovah is a man of battle."
Its good that you're interested in translation, but you should take a course (scholarly, of course) in biblical studies, and forget citing nonsense differences.
'
-
63
Hell Exists
by Poppy520 inmany people of all denominations are beginning to believe that hell does not exist - but the bible supports the claim that it does.
examine this verse, one under nkjv and the other nwt:.
nkjv - matthew 25:46, "and these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.".
-
-
fulltimestudent
Poppy520: When we want to prove something - we go straight to the Scriptures.
Aaawww!!! That's a bit self-righteous.
Actually you go straight to a translation of the scriptures, and its debatable whether any translation is entirely correct, because some words do not translate well. It is also debatable whether any available document in the original language that is assumed to be authentic is actually an accurate copy of the original, because none of the original text seem to have survived.
I know all the usual arguments about the YHWH/Jesus combo god being able to preserve the scriptures, but if that's the case, why didn't they preserve the original texts?
-
4
China Spreads (a shopping) Revolution to the World
by fulltimestudent inusing the internet to market and sell goods is big business in china.
company's like tencents and jack ma's alibaba are changing retailing in china and they say they will promote it all over the world.. but to get a sort of insight, here's a short video on the opening (in shanghai, last week) of the world's largest starbucks and only that chains second reserve roastery store (the first was in seattle).
go full screen to get the full impact.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9jbcpor2lw&feature=share.
-
-
fulltimestudent
Listener: That's a novel way to sell their products at Starbucks but I wonder how many people would be interested in going into their store and wasting time looking up items and info on their phones.
Yup! Doesn't appeal to me either. I go to a coffee shop to buy coffee and maybe a quiet chat with a friend, not for entertainment. I guess this is another form of "shopping as entertainment" that has been changing retailing and moving it off the main street and into malls for quite a few decades (and definitely did not originate in China).
But it also could be seen as "the smart phone as a disruptive device." And from that viewpoint we are likely to see lots of changes. Lots of people are now using their smart phones to pay, (a system that I guess was pioneered through eftpos).
And, In Australia (and probably many other nations) the government has been thinking about going digital with eht Aussie dollar:
A discussion here: https://theconversation.com/why-the-rba-would-want-to-create-a-digital-australian-dollar-86621
And just 2 days ago there was a report that one day the may print less banknotes (or, maybe none) - that would be a significant change. How would old people cope with that. Hey! I don't even own a smart phone.
And sometimes I wonder about them. When I visit China, some people are very kind to me, but I sat in a restaurant once for 2 hours while someone tried to use their smartphone to buy two tickets for us and book seats on a train for us to go back to Shanghai. And, the station was only a 10 minute drive away.
But, OTOH, who could've imagined back in the 1980's that the postal service (as a means of communicating) would disappear. But who sends letters now? Emails superseded mail, and now emails are being superseded by the smart phone.
-
9
The Creation of Genesis Chapter 2ff
by Doug Mason ini had long held the piece of the jigsaw puzzle which starts at genesis 2:4b – the yahwist’s creation story.
i knew that its authors had never heard of lamarck’s theory of evolution, nor had they read darwin’s “origin of species”.
the authors were addressing their own immediate culture, so i had to transport my mind to their times.
-
-
fulltimestudent
Gee Doug, I think you're opening a can of worms, (sorry, I meant snakes) with that post. Your concept could be correct, and I think you're quite correct in attempting to locate your mind in the culture of the authors of the Genesis 2 document. But that's where a big problem jumps up and bites us on the bum. What was the culture of the authors of Genesis 2.
Was the document written prior to 1000 BCE (just to attempt to see what cultural influences may have been at work)? Was Egypt the key cultural influence?
If the document was written before the Babylonian captivity, then Babylon was likely the main cultural influence. But Greek culture was also a likely cultural influence.
Or, because Palestine was on a key north-south trade route, and not far from a western terminus of a east to west trade route, were the inhabitants aware of many other cultures?
If you can get access to Stephen Harris' and Gloria Platzner's, Classical Mythology: Images and Insights, you may find many interesting thoughts on the subject of female divinities.
Quoting from the 5th edition, (p.29) an opinion is given that the Minoan and other Aegean Island cultures worshipped the "Divine Woman.' and their Ch. 5 goes on to examine the Divine woman in Greek Mythology. In the earliest information we have for that culture, the primordial goddess is Gaea. In Egypt its Isis. Serpents also have an almost universal role in folk religion, sometimes associated with a female divinity, like this snake goddess from Knossos:
And on p. 152, there's this reproduction of an image on 5th.C. BCE Athenian vase, imagining Heracles in the Garden of the Hesperides.
Heracles is resting after his journey to the land of the setting sun, where the Greek version of Gaea's 'Tree of Life' grows (and, you note, that tree has a serpent guardian). Heracles charmed the Hesperides - the nymphs who also guard the golden apples that grow on the tree, into giving him one of the golden apples (that gave immortality)..
I'd like to write more - but I'm snowed under at the moment. So thanks for posting your thoughts.
-
9
Sharing the Bad (shameful) News in all the Earth - Courtesy of the BBC
by fulltimestudent inaustralia's royal commission into child abuse released its full report yesterday, so it was gratifying to see the uk's bbc run this headline on their website this morning (aussie time):.
australia jehovah's witnesses 'did not report 1,000 alleged abusers'.
hopefully, all over the world people will learn the shameful news of what yhwh (as guided by the holy spirit) told his earthly witnesses to do.
-
-
fulltimestudent
tort500: "How can this get so much exposure in the big newspapers & not even a rumor... I wonder why ?"
The 'why' is likely that any report that conflicts with their strongly held views, creates inner emotional tensions, that many solve by saying, "YHWH knows about it (i.e.Whatever they perceive as wrong) and will fix it in his due time."
But the point is, that the more publicity there is, the less likely it is that they will convert more suckers to their religion.
-
9
Sharing the Bad (shameful) News in all the Earth - Courtesy of the BBC
by fulltimestudent inaustralia's royal commission into child abuse released its full report yesterday, so it was gratifying to see the uk's bbc run this headline on their website this morning (aussie time):.
australia jehovah's witnesses 'did not report 1,000 alleged abusers'.
hopefully, all over the world people will learn the shameful news of what yhwh (as guided by the holy spirit) told his earthly witnesses to do.
-
-
fulltimestudent
Australia's Royal Commission into Child Abuse released its full report yesterday, so it was gratifying to see the UK's BBC run this headline on their website this morning (Aussie time):
Australia Jehovah's Witnesses 'did not report 1,000 alleged abusers'
Hopefully, all over the world people will learn the shameful news of what YHWH (as guided by the holy spirit) told his earthly witnesses to do. (The JWs do claim to be guided by the holy spirit)
Check out the BBC story at: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-33673240
And more at: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-42334381