gaiagirl

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Posts by gaiagirl

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  10

  THE (predicted) FUTURE vs the ACTUAL FUTURE (in fiction)

  by Terry in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i think of flash gordon's bigscreen tv and dick tracey's wristwatch 2-way radio and i see there is a long wait for such technology to appear.in general, fiction writers are always a bit optimistic timewise.however, i'd posit it is the fiction writer's idea which sparks the forward motion on bringing to fruition the technology itself.the modern cellphone is mighty close to what captain kirk was using.

  as far as i know, nobody anticipated the portable pc.

  computers (in the early days) were hulking mammoths with blinking lights and a paper feed (for answers.

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  gaiagirl

  It seems as if we are quite close to having humanoid robots. I want a robotic teddy bear such as the one in "Artificial Intelligence". Lasar rays are possible now, even some the size of a writing pen, however the power consumption required to use them as a weapon makes them not very practical. Home computers were predicted in Childcraft books (a division of World Book Encyclopedia) way back in the '60s, and they hit the nail with their illustration of a machine which kids could use to look up information and do homework. Even earlier in the 50's, Issac Asimov wrote a story about a man living in the future who was surrounded by telephones and intercoms in his home and at work, and eventually begins having a nervous breakdown because he had absolutely no privacy. This sounds very much like the current situation in which cell phones keep people in constant communication. Also in the 50's, Mechanics Illustrated imagined giant motor homes used for vacations, just like a self-propelled travel trailer
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  57

  What is your favorite classical music piece and artist?

  by restrangled in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  since modern music keeps coming up, we need to address the classical!

  what are your favorite pieces and the artists?

  if you play an instrument, pick the piece that's your favorite to play or you wish you could play.. r.. my favorite is fantasy impromtu by chopin.

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  gaiagirl

  I second Stravinski's "Rites of Spring" and add "Firebird Suite" as well.
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  37

  Famous lines from the toons? Got any?

  by AK - Jeff in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

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  "phineas j whoopee you're the greatest".

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  gaiagirl

  "I'm not bad. I'm just drawn that way." Jessica Rabbit
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  11

  List the Best

  by Outaservice in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  a previous thread asked us to list our favorite song.

  also, i am wondering what you would consider your all time favorite 'book'?.

  i am presently reading, and like very much, the book entitled..................... an arrow pointing to heaven, a devotional biography of rich mullins.

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  gaiagirl

  Wow, I've really enjoyed so many books, however, the one(s) which really had an impact on me personally were those written by Carl Sagan: Cosmos, Dragons of Eden, Pale Blue Dot, Contact, Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, and the most recent, Varieties of Scientific Experience. Carl was a scientist who could make science accessible to everyone. Carl wrote in such a manner that even though the Universe is very large, I was made to feel connected to the rest of the Universe, and that I am made of star-stuff. I received a very "spiritual" feeling from reading his books. To me, these are probably the most inspiring books I've read.
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  8

  Only 7 years to go until 2014 - What will happen then?

  by truthseeker in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  thanks to a poster, we now have the number of memorial partakers worldwide and the number has increased by over 230.. i forget how many there are now, but there are enough threads on the forum to find the info, as well as interesting stats.. .

  the watchtower bible & tract society has always been a chronology-based religion.. from its start, russell predicted the christ would bring the end of the world in 1914. when that failed, jesus came invisibly in that year and then selected the international bible students in 1918.. the three and a half years that rutherford and his cronies were in prison during 1914-1918 supposedly parallel the 1,000 + days mentioned in daniel.. then we have the long-forgotten, remembered by no one, "trumpet blasts" at various locations in the u.s. during the 1920s.. in 1931 the name jehovah's witnesses was chosen over the international bible students and four years later, the anointed had been sealed and the door shut to newcomers, although replacements could always find a way to squeeze through and seemingly still do so today.. unknown to many witnesses, 1957 would have marked the end of the generation of 1914, simply because one of the gb felt that the launch of sputnik signified the end times.

  (see coc).

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  gaiagirl

  Another recent thread discussed how they USED to teach that the "time of the end" began in 1799, and Jesus became king in heaven in 1874, this was official dogma printed in publications until the late 1920's or possibly early 1930's, when the chronology was adjusted. I believe they lost a lot of members at that time. I would expect that they will massage the numbers once again, except this time the internet is there so that people can compare notes, so may not recover from the loss of members which is likely to occur this time.
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  21

  I did it and I don't feel like a pagan!

  by TheHypnoToad in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  first christmas tree, just put it up!

  its a real one, put a lot of lights on it.. .

  the witnesses are working in our area, so i am sure its just a mater of time (no more fadding at this point).. .

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  gaiagirl

  If you don't feel like a pagan yet, you didn't do it right! : )
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  16

  If you had ONE wish....

  by gaiagirl in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  end world hunger?

  cure aids?

  i'm leaning toward equal education for everyone, with heavy emphasis in the fields of science and history.

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  gaiagirl

  ....which had to be used to help someone else, what would you wish for? End world hunger? Cure AIDS? I'm leaning toward equal education for EVERYONE, with heavy emphasis in the fields of Science and History. As I see it, lack of information limits people to make fewer choices which essentially keep them from progressing. The vast majority of advancements which make our lives better than those of people 1000 years ago (or any other time period you care to name) have come about by application of science. Science has solved many problems which plagued earlier generations, for example, some diseases which once killed thousands are almost completely gone, you hardly ever hear of anyone dying of smallpox or bubonic plague anymore. Science has given us effective birth control, so children can be had when we choose, rather than by accident. Science has shown how to grow food more efficiently and feed more people from the same amount of cropland. Admittedly, some of what science discovers can be misapplied, or used for destructive purposes, overall, science causes society to move forwards, and the more scientists a given society has, the faster that society can progress. I also believe that knowledge of history is important to see mistakes made by earlier generations.
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  23

  Transgender - A Case of Tested Friendship

  by Amazing in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  friendship comes in all stages, shapes, and sizes, from the very close, as brothers, built over a lifetime, to the budding kind that has only a few months or a year or two.

  i have been friends with sam (fictious name) for about seven years.

  we are not real close friends, but have a good quality relationship that is mostly confined to the office.. recently, sam told me that he had an issue with a female agent who tried to get him fired.

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  gaiagirl

  I don't view people as either male OR female, but as individuals who fall somewhere along a spectrum with includes girly girls, tomboys, androgynous folks, feminine men and masculine men, and probably some others as well. Everyone has seen people who looked as if the SHOULD have been "the other" gender, Bea Arthur comes to mind. Ru Paul makes a very convincing woman (or at least, used to). The particular gender which an individual identifies with and chooses to live as is their own business, and doesn't offend me in the slightest.
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  4

  Vegetarian Dinosaurs

  by catbert in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  do jw's believe the animal population was largly vegetarian prior to the flood, or that only humans were vegetarians prior to the flood?

  i saw a pdf of a recent awake magazine that seemed to make a point of mentioning dinosaurs eating grass.

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  gaiagirl

  Not sure if JW's believe this, but I've spoken with other fundamentalist Protestants who explicitly state that there were NO carnivorous animals until after Adam and Eve disobeyed God. All those fossils of ancient Tyrannosaurus, Velociraptors, Mosasaurs, and even Carachadon sharks only ate fruits and vegetation. If anything is an indicator as to which churches do NOT have the truth, I'd say this would be one of the best.
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  9

  recomnendation of show / movie to see

  by zev in

  1. social
  2. entertainment

  i recently discovered firefly, and its follow up movie, serenity.. awsome show, cancelled in it first season.

  (fox dopes!).

  made a come back as a movie!.

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  gaiagirl

  Serenity was a good movie, although I never saw the show upon which it was based. Last night I watched "Pitch Black" a really scarey sci-fi film about the crew of a ship which crashes onto a planet with multiple suns, and what happens when an eclipse causes darkness for the first time in 22 years. Looking forward to the sequel.