Posts by Petraglyph

10

How to?

by OneFingerSalute in

i cannot use the "quote" feature.. if i click on the quote marks it does the hi-lite of the quote i wish, but i cannot under any circumstances get out of the yellow quote box to create my own post.. i would like to know how other posters are able to do this.

i use both ie and firefox.

the same thing happens in both of them.. also hi-liting no longer works as it used to.

Petraglyph

I know what you mean.

I now do everything in plain text and then add the quote highlighting afterwards ;)

Or you can add in some carriage returns before you do the quote so you already have a blank line to move down to.

37

This morning's magazine trolley encounter..

by GodZoo in

was just out shopping and came across two middle aged female witnesses with their magazine trolley..

i approached them and they were all glee and smiles and ready to hand me a couple of magazines.

one moment ladies i have just a couple of questions..

Petraglyph

umbertoecho: That number has climbed to about 5,000 now. Abused that is.

Do you have a written reference for this? This will mean a recalculation of the worldwide extrapolation and the potential liability for WT in Australia.

17

Äkta Människor (Real Humans)

by Simon in

we've just started watching this swedish parallel-present series about human-like robots (hubots) seeking independence.. its really well done but subtitled (if you didn't mind the original "girl with the dragon tattoo") and the best description of it i was saw the stepford wives meets blade runner.

kind of creepy and unsettling and touches on some adult themed topics (robots for sex).. anyone else seen it?

i only started watching because i was too lazy to get up and get the remote one night but it was pretty gripping.. .

Petraglyph

Thanks for the heads up about this Simon. I watched the original Swedish version and thought it was one of the best things I've seen on TV ever. It was really well paced and clearly a lot of thought had gone into what the consequences would be of having human like robots around and the numerous sub-plots bore this out. I found myself thinking 'Yes, that is what would happen' on many occasions.

I watched both series in a binge before I watched the Channel 4 version 'Humans'. I thought this was a poor copy. Too rushed, trying to pull together just the best bits of the original. But in doing so they missed out on a lot of the background stories, and having seen the original I was not as engaged and ultimately I was disappointed.

It was certainly thought provoking and I can see that these are issues that society will face over the coming decades.

Highly recommended! :)

24

So Microsoft made a laptop - Surface Pro 4 / Surface Book

by Simon in

microsoft definitely seem to be undergoing a revival and are coming out with some cool tech.

it's good to see them turning things around and keeping apple honest.. the holo-lens looks fantastic - much better than full vr headsets by providing augmented reality instead (imagine 3d minecraft projected on a table or aliens running round your living room to shoot at).. more practical though is the update to the surface tablet and the surprise release, the surface book laptop / tablet.

yeah, it's confusing - one is a tablet that becomes a laptop and the other is a laptop that becomes a tablet.. i promised our eldest a laptop for his high-school graduation and to use now he's starting university and took him to the apple store a few months ago but the macbooks i was leaning towards weren't available at the time.

Petraglyph

I don't get the hinge, it looks like a botch job. I'm generally impressed with it all, but that hinge!!?? They could have done a better job than that.

10

Campaigners issue Jehovah's Witnesses abuse warning

by LevelThePlayingField in

source:http://home.bt.com/news/uk-news/campaigners-issues-jehovahs-witnesses-abuse-warning-11364008972682.

victims of child abuse within the jehovah's witnesses may never see the perpetrators brought to justice unless the government closes a loophole allowing criminals to evade justice, campaigners have warned.. the government has been asked to introduce mandatory reporting to police whenever an allegation of child sex abuse is made within the faith group.. currently, the so-called "two-witness rule" means jehovah's witnesses deal with allegations of "sins" internally and only investigate themselves if the claim is corroborated by a second testimony - something lawyers say is unlikely given that many victims are abused on their own, in private.. concern over the number of "hidden" victims has prompted campaigners to hand a letter to downing street calling on the government to take action.. victim nick french, 43, who was abused by his stepfather gary moscrop from the ages of seven to 13, said introducing mandatory reporting would reduce the risk of paedophiles offending.. the salesman, originally from glasgow but who was raised in brighton, claimed: "when there are institutions that have rules that protect paedophiles, then something really needs to be done about that.. "when it's one word against another, they can get away with it.

certainly in my case, it just allowed him (my abuser) to become worse and worse in his criminal activities.. "what a faith group like the jehovah's witnesses would say about child abuse is they still view it as a sin, rather than a crime.. "in this day and age, as soon as a crime is reported it needs to go to the people who are qualified to deal with such a crime.

Petraglyph

I don't recall this 'landmark case' being discussed here:

Jehovah's Witness ordered to pay more than £700k to child sex abuse victim in UK first

£730k = US$ 1.1 million

These cases are quietly going through the courts. $1 million here, $1 million there... and it all starts to add up.

I noted in WT's submission to the Charity Commission they identified litigation as the first of their main risks.

51

"If you are teaching intolerance, we WILL shut you down!" English Prime Minister David Cameron

by stuckinarut2 in

the prime minister of england made the above statement yesterday regarding any schools that influence youths in a negative manner.. he went on to say that if youths are influenced in a negative manner regarding religious teachings that promote judgement of others (including same sex relationships, etc ) or that look down on other peoples free choice, the government would take action.. i cant find a newspaper article sorry...i just heard it on the radio news.... very interesting though...it may have a bearing on how those who learn ttatt are treated by the organization??

.

Petraglyph

David Cameron: Prime Minister warns over extremist teaching

16

Speculation on future donation arrangements

by respectful_observer in

in the aftermath of this year's annual meeting and the recent tremors of cash shortfalls within the organization, i began thinking "what could they do next to bring in more $$$.".

many here have speculated that we're seeing incremental moves toward "tithing" (of course they would never call it that).

a recent thread (can't find it right now) highlighted that they recently raised the "suggested per publisher donation" at the circuit assembly significantly (tripled it?)..

Petraglyph

@TheListener, you forgot the children's ice-cream money ;)

6

Public talk anyone?

by GodZoo in

was just doing a little research and stumbled across this archive of recorded public talks by co's, do's and governing body members from 1979 up to 2013. a fascinating resource for those who would like to research the doctrinal changes and possible flip flops over the last 30 years... http://printcentralandsigns.com/jwtalks/covisits/docovisits.html.

Petraglyph

You can hear the original recording of Samuel Herd's classic talk "The Value of Our Theocratic Sisters"

The 'fun' really starts at 21:00 ;)

19

So changes were made, but who cares because were so deep into the end, nothing the Organization does, really matters—does it?

by John Aquila in

so i called a few jwdubs that still talk to me, not to try to convince them of anything or wake them up but to try to get a feedback on how they took the big meeting change and other announcements.

generally speaking, all the ones i talked to were not even fazed by the changes.

many of them still didnt even realize the meeting format had changed and thought the layoffs were a normal thing that happens all the time.

Petraglyph

It should be fairly easy then for WT to decree that everyone start to meet in each others' homes and sell off all the Kingdom Halls.

23

TV.JW.ORG - October 2015: Neighborly love is more than just Field Service

by Designer Stubble in

the october 2015 jw broadcast, hosted by gerrit losch is quite positive actually.a lot of focus on "field service" needs to be balanced with other good works - supporting those in need around you - either in the congregation (witnesses) or in your classroom or neighbors (non-witnesses).

visiting and encouraging the sick and elderly is mentioned.

jesus parable of the merciful samaritan is highlighted.

Petraglyph

Sounds like their charitable status has come in for some scrutiny ;)