Posts by Bumble Bee

the wts has sent a letter to all convention overseers expressing their increasing concern at sisters "directing brothers" at district conventions.. with immediate effect (ie for dc 2008), sisters are no longer to be used as volunteers in parking and security / watchman departments.

any sisters volunteering in other departments (eg toilet cleaning) must be subordinate & follow the direction of appointed brothers.

this move will put a huge burden on the dcs in my area - nearly half the volunteers for parking are sisters and there aren't enough volunteers as it is.

Bumble Bee

I've never seen any women directing traffic, or in security, and my hubby occasionally did security at the DC (he loved it, was usually in an area where he couldn't hear a thing, lucky bastard!).

And those "brothers" that direct traffic, just one big joke! They usually just stood there waving their arms, not really knowing what to do and ended up making things more congested than they should be.

If there is the shortage of "qualified brothers" that I hear there is, this is acutally good news. One more brick taken out of the wall, pretty soon it will start to crumble.

BB

27

Do you have blue eyes? We could be related!

by Bumble Bee in

jw
friends

i thought this was an interesting article.

here's what made those brown eyes blue .

scientists find that blue-eyed individuals have a single, common ancestorby jeanna brynerlivescienceupdated 2:01 p.m.

Bumble Bee

OMG, I kissed my relative. Bee, you tricked me! Just because I grew up in WV does not mean I am into that shit.

You're from WV? Well that explains alot! BB

27

Do you have blue eyes? We could be related!

by Bumble Bee in

jw
friends

i thought this was an interesting article.

here's what made those brown eyes blue .

scientists find that blue-eyed individuals have a single, common ancestorby jeanna brynerlivescienceupdated 2:01 p.m.

Bumble Bee

I thought this was an interesting article.

Here's what made those brown eyes blue

Scientists find that blue-eyed individuals have a single, common ancestor By Jeanna Bryner LiveScience updated 2:01 p.m. ET, Thurs., Jan. 31, 2008

People with blue eyes have a single, common ancestor, according to new research.

A team of scientists has tracked down a genetic mutation that leads to blue eyes. The mutation occurred between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago, so before then, there were no blue eyes.

"Originally, we all had brown eyes," said Hans Eiberg from the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Copenhagen.

The mutation affected the so-called OCA2 gene, which is involved in the production of melanin, the pigment that gives color to our hair, eyes and skin.

"A genetic mutation affecting the OCA2 gene in our chromosomes resulted in the creation of a 'switch,' which literally 'turned off' the ability to produce brown eyes," Eiberg said.

The genetic switch is located in the gene adjacent to OCA2 and rather than completely turning off the gene, the switch limits its action, which reduces the production of melanin in the iris. In effect, the turned-down switch diluted brown eyes to blue.

If the OCA2 gene had been completely shut down, our hair, eyes and skin would be melanin-less, a condition known as albinism.

"It's exactly what I sort of expected to see from what we know about selection around this area," said John Hawks of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, referring to the study results regarding the OCA2 gene. Hawks was not involved in the current study.

Baby bluesEiberg and his team examined DNA from mitochondria, the cells' energy-making structures, of blue-eyed individuals in countries including Jordan, Denmark and Turkey. This genetic material comes from females, so it can trace maternal lineages.

They specifically looked at sequences of DNA on the OCA2 gene and the genetic mutation associated with turning down melanin production.

Over the course of several generations, segments of ancestral DNA get shuffled so that individuals have varying sequences. Some of these segments, however, that haven't been reshuffled are called haplotypes. If a group of individuals shares long haplotypes, that means the sequence arose relatively recently in our human ancestors. The DNA sequence didn't have enough time to get mixed up.

"What they were able to show is that the people who have blue eyes in Denmark, as far as Jordan, these people all have this same haplotype, they all have exactly the same gene changes that are all linked to this one mutation that makes eyes blue," Hawks said in a telephone interview.

Melanin switch The mutation is what regulates the OCA2 switch for melanin production. And depending on the amount of melanin in the iris, a person can end up with eye color ranging from brown to green. Brown-eyed individuals have considerable individual variation in the area of their DNA that controls melanin production. But they found that blue-eyed individuals only have a small degree of variation in the amount of melanin in their eyes.

"Out of 800 persons we have only found one person which didn't fit — but his eye color was blue with a single brown spot," Eiberg told LiveScience, referring to the finding that blue-eyed individuals all had the same sequence of DNA linked with melanin production.

"From this we can conclude that all blue-eyed individuals are linked to the same ancestor," Eiberg said. "They have all inherited the same switch at exactly the same spot in their DNA." Eiberg and his colleagues detailed their study in the Jan. 3 online edition of the journal Human Genetics.

That genetic switch somehow spread throughout Europe and now other parts of the world.

"The question really is, 'Why did we go from having nobody on Earth with blue eyes 10,000 years ago to having 20 or 40 percent of Europeans having blue eyes now?" Hawks said. "This gene does something good for people. It makes them have more kids."

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22934464/wid/11915773?GT1=10815

30

The Memorial

by TheDoctor in

i saw some mention of this in another post, but i wasn't sure if there was a topic about it.

being raised in the "truth" its always pointed out that even people who haven't been to meetings in years still come to the memorial.

ive noticed that a lot of time that is actually the case.

Bumble Bee

For several years Mem and I did this. It was more to put in an apperance for the family. Both sets of parents are in different cities and really didn't know the extent of our fade. We'd go to my mothers and then word would get to his parents that we were there. I was so happy when finally I said "enough" and refused to go. It was torture to sit there through that.

BB

14

How many JW's are having doubts?

by Mickey mouse in

i wonder what percentage of current jw's know it's not the truth but have too much invested to get out?

more importantly, how many of the gb know but have no where else to go?.

anyone care to hazard a guess?.

Bumble Bee

I wonder what percentage of current JW's know it's not the truth but have too much invested to get out? 10%? More?

Definatley more! There was a lurker in gabbly the other week. If what this person said is true (and it's a chatroom, so take this with a grain of salt), he's an elder, doesn't go in service, gives talks, doesn't study or really prepare ahead of time, doesn't believe, but stays because of the "position" and "perks" and because he's invested too much time to get where he is.

I tried to get him to tell me what "perks" were involved other than missing out on living your life and giving away all your time to an organization he knows is false. Never did get an answer to that one.

Then you have people like Mary's sis and her husband. It's really more of a social thing. Family, friends, it's a lifestyle more than a belief system. I think this makes up the majority of JW's.

Then you have people like my step mother - doesn't go to meetings, but believes and holds on because of the resurrection hope. That is the one thing keeping her tied to this organization - the chance to be reuinted with my father in the "new system".

I doubt there are very few that really believe everything 100%.

BB

17

Mother-in-law gets a letter from JWs

by Jim_TX in

jw
friends

first - let me point out that (for those that do not know this), neither my wife nor any of her family are jws.

my wife studied with a jw - but that was many years ago.

she never got too far into the jw religion - but got a knowledge of what - and who they are.

Bumble Bee

My mother and a friend to this instead of going d2d. Frankly neither of them are in good enough health to do that kind of walking etc, so they mail tracts etc instead. Strange about the church address as a return. Maybe you should bring that to their attention? lol They might be surprised to see that.

BB