avg.
pubs in 2001 service year[ usa] 945,689 compared to 945,000 avg.
in 2000.. total baptized in 2001 service year 28,239 compared to the 28,475 in 2000.
compared to other evangelical type religions that are growing much faster they must be disappointed (and worried) with these figures
The higher-ups, maybe. Rank and file JWs still seem to think that their religion is at the focus of public attention and growing like crazy. At least that's what the JWs that I know seem to think. Nevermind that they have the sad figures in black on white right in the mags.
IMHO, the only way the decline could be stopped would be "new light" on contraceptives.
f.
avg.
pubs in 2001 service year[ usa] 945,689 compared to 945,000 avg.
in 2000.. total baptized in 2001 service year 28,239 compared to the 28,475 in 2000.
Ah, so the US decline in baptism is still alive and well.
It'll be interesting to see whether this is the case for Europe, too. IIRC, the baptism decrease started much earlier there (in some Western European countries, baptism has dropped about two thirds(!) in the past decade - for instance, Denmark, Norway, France, Austria...).
I generally think that the baptism figures are more interesting to gauge trends than the avg. publishers. After all (as metatron pointed out), it's easy to write down a couple of numbers on a piece of paper. Memorial attendance figures are pretty much worthless. Baptism, however, is a clear sign of commitment. At least more so than the other statistics.
f.
*ahem* i take this moment to interrupt the usual in-fighting, cat calls, horrible insults, and general sniping to introduce a brief spelling lesson:.
it's loser!
that is how you spell someone who is not a winner.
Sorry, but I've seen this so much in this forum, other forums, everywhere, that I'm afraid it's going to infect the dictionary soon from general misuse. Drives me nuts!
It's an all-American conspiracy. See:
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.asp?id=14205&site=3
I understand your concern, Seeker. Spelling and grammer mistakes aren't a problem per say, there occurrence is completely normal as most people just aren't compatabile with written language. But its an infectious phenomena, and it's future implications could be dramatic. It should be considered worse then apostacy. Maybe their should be counciling for victims of other's bad spelling, like me.
f.
i just read the comments of australian boxer and muslim anthony mundine.
he says the attack on the wtc on sept. 11th wasn't an act of terrorism, but an act of religion, because of the actions of the united states in history.
apparently, while too cowardly to actually say he approves of the terrorism on the u.s., like so many muslims are cowardly in this regard, he seems to slip in his approval through the back door, as it were.
Mr. Mundine and all Muslims who choose to take this attitude can simply FUCK OFF.
Ah, our heroic armchair commando is having one of his 'kill-em-all' fits again. This time with real, live, dangerous ammo: the f-word, no less! I'm impressed with your bravery, really. As you remarked so aptly, it's good to be out of the hateful ideology of the Dubs, isn't it?
Why don't you get yourself a punching ball (a soft one!), or try masturbation for a change, Dick?
f.
this article was posted by "alienmole" on http://slashdot.com (aka "/.
"), in response to comments about the proper spelling of the element al (which is aluminium, as anyone with half an education knows):.
spelling matters to the /.
This article was posted by "alienmole" on http://slashdot.com (aka "/."), in response to comments about the proper spelling of the element Al (which is Aluminium, as anyone with half an education knows):
Spelling matters to the /. editors when there are alternative spellings and one of them is American. In these cases, such as with "aluminium" and "aluminum", /. editors feel obliged to take a strong patriotic stand, denying the existence of any other spellings. This offends many non-Americans, and over time, countless little incidents like this build up, eventually spawning an irrational hatred of Americans, which ultimately turns into terrorism. Some hapless terrorist then attacks America, which gives America an excuse to bomb all the countries it has been itching to bomb for the last few decades. Thus, spelling is an important tool of military conquest, and /. plays a leading role in America's foreign policy.The use of spelling in this way goes back to the very founding of America. In early secret sessions of the Congress, it was decided to deliberately change certain spellings, at that time as an irritation to the British. The King's court in England would be plunged into a grammatical outrage when receiving a communication from the American colony, containing strategic abuses of the King's English. This prompted the King to send troops to whip the colonies into shape, which in turn inspired ordinary American colonists to rise up and throw off their oppressor's yoke.
This is why the "spelling bee" is such an important feature of America's education system. As any boy can tell you, "bee" is for "bomb". Indoctrinating young Americans to misspell is the secret weapon which America has used to devastating effect against its enemies, who are so flummoxed by the apparent illiteracy of their opponent that they forget to watch for incoming Tomahawks. Misspellings are behind some of the key events which have shaped our history. Next time you see a /. editor use "then" instead of "than", turn on your TV - the consequences are sure to follow swiftly.
Makes perfect sense to me! An anonymous person agrees:
The parent poster has hit the nail on the head.Here's an example:
"We're launching an attack over the dessert."
While our grammatically precise foes waste their resources deploying surface to air missiles around their Baskin-Robbins and chocolate shops, our tanks march without resistance across the big sandy area where it doesn't rain much. This strategy (or strategery) was used during the Gulf War, decimating the Iraqi forces.
Here's another:
"Our sourthern forces are being overwhelmed! Send another compliment immediately!"
Now the enemy will think the general is going to tell their soldiers what a good job they're doing, in order to boost their morale. Confused by this choice in tactics, they fail to notice reinforcements are on the way. This tactic was used extensively during the Spanish American war.
Europeans should be thankful that Americans play fast and lose with the English language, because it has guaranteed the freedoms they enjoy today. The Europeans and the rest of the world may dismiss Bush, but his speech actually reveals he is the greatest military mind of the 21st century.
f.
p.s.: Original thread at http://slashdot.org/articles/01/10/21/1414253.shtml
normally, i get security alerts!
everyday, but my system makes a simple side note, and i clear it.
usually i get 20 to 30 per day, and some days 65 or 70, most of which are minor 'unused port blocking," and some few are "hacking" and a few more are "sub-seven trojans".
That is simply what you are reading into my post so you can have something to bitch at me about.
Yeah, Amazing. I like to bitch about people who use silly alarmist metaphors ("war! defcon-1! line of fire!") to describe the occasional surge in Internet's background noise. Your message contained no technically useful information at all, just lots of excitement which only serves to make the layman paranoid. Actually, I don't even see how a couple of packets that got filtered anyway can be considered a "security breach". Being in this business myself, I've had to put up with a few people who got all crazy because their personal firewall is reporting something they don't understand. "Shrieek! Someone's sending me UDP packets on port 52! I don't have an idea what that is, but it sounds dangerous as hell! Someone call the police!?"
I'm all for Windows users installing stuff like ZoneAlarm, I just wish it would be completely silent about "hacking attempts" from the outside by default. I mean, what's the point? How should the user react if he's not an expert of the intricacies of TCP/IP? The danger of attacks from the outside is way, way overrated for the average user's PC. It's the crap that people get via e-mail that's the real pest (did I mention to scrap Outlook Express ASAP? That's more of a security boost than any firewall you can buy.).
Senationalism, no.
What else should I call thread topics such as "Major Internet Security Breach"? I'm glad you added "my system" now.
So, Amazing, thanks for bringing this to our attention (I mean it), but there's no point in making this sound like the outbreak of cyberwar. People are already paranoid enough these days. I mean, you can't even have a serious dandruff problem without someone calling the men in plastic gear and gas masks.
Well, I never stated what I use. And I was not complaining about problems.
My comment was rather directed to all other readers, a "you" in the sense of "one"...maybe I should have used the plural "YOU" (NWT style) ;-)
f.
normally, i get security alerts!
everyday, but my system makes a simple side note, and i clear it.
usually i get 20 to 30 per day, and some days 65 or 70, most of which are minor 'unused port blocking," and some few are "hacking" and a few more are "sub-seven trojans".
So far, my security system is working well, but this unusual Alert stage was something like a military DefCon-1, full alert and ready for war
Pleeease, Amazing, cut the sensationalist "war" nonsense. Just because your firewall logs are showing a bit more activity than usual doesn't mean we have a "Major Internet Security Breach" going on!
The best personal firewall software is the kind that works quietly, blocks unwanted stuff and lets the good things run smoothly. Period. Unfortunately, some people just love to get all excited about "security alerts" whenever a stray ARP packet hits their cable modem. Of course, most users don't have a clue what that is, and they shouldn't have to.
If you're really, really concerned about network security, don't run Windows. Or at the very least rid yourself of software with a track record of numerous security problems, such as Outlook.
f.
i am surprised that there hasn't been a discussion here (not that i can find anyway) about jwmatch.com.
not only are they self-proclaimed, "the world's largest witnesses online community!
" (sound familiar?
but they are unabashedly commercial with several payment options ranging to 99.99 USD for membership. ... I bet they will be raking in serious money soon if they aren't already.
Note that they don't list a contact person anywhere, only an obscure "JW-Singles Verein" with a P.O. box address in Vienna. A "Verein", of course, is a noncommercial/nonprofit association.
I don't know, but...sniff...sniff...I think there's just a slight hint of that distinct smell of tax evasion around there.
f.
p.s.: If you want to log in and meet some hot sisters & brothers, the song numbers are 109 and 113. Thanks Kent :-)
http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/singlewitnesses.
let the hilarity ensue... i've already started over there, i think you should too.. slipnslidemaster:"and now about the cauldron sing, like elves and fairies in a ring, enchanting all that you put in.".
- william shakespeare, macbeth
I'm going to try to seduce JazzyVee! Any suggestions for pick-up lines?
I'd suggest a steel cable.
f.
maybe i am a cruel person deep down inside but this did make me laugh.. bush vs. the taliban .
mullah mohammed hasan akhund, the deputy taliban leader, and george w. .
bush agree to meet in kabul for the first round of talks in a new .
George W will NEVER go to Afghanistan to negotiate, so the joke is obviously a JOKE!
Oh! Thank you so very much! So that was the point! Silly me.
It's funny precisely because it IS "somebody's fantasies"!
Okay. Let's assume for a second that this very same story is altered from "Bush vs. Taliban" to "Jehovah vs. Apostates" and posted on WOL by a true believer. That's not exactly a far-fetched idea, actually. If that happened, I bet this thread would be full of expressions of disgust about the sick and twisted fantasies of the JWs making up such "funny" stories. Not that we haven't had that before, haven't we?
Or, for a different perspective, let's have some unnamed Norwegian post this story with the USA being the nation to get wiped out. Within minutes, this thread would be full of the righteous indignation of U.S. residents complaining about his incessant USA bashing.
But heck, it's just about Afghanis, and after all someone from that place killed lots of our people. So of course it's funny to fantasize about "them all" being killed.
I don't know what you call that, but I call that hypocrisy.
f.
