Jourles

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Posts by Jourles

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  175

  Confirmed! Watchtower Feb 15 08 brings the "generation" change

  by observador in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  friends,.

  i just confirmed the "generation" change from another forum in portuguese.

  the following is the text in portuguese:.

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  Jourles

  When the ranks of the annointed keep swelling further, as they have already started to do, then they will come out with new light about the 144,000 being a symbolic number.

  Why come out with more "new light" when they can simply stop publishing a number? They have committed themselves to believing/teaching that the 144k is literal - since the beginning of their existence. To state the opposite now would invite confusion and mass questioning. Not to mention that it would likely require the retooling of other major doctrines.

  The WTS controls the information that is delivered to the r&f. Now that the anointed number means nothing, they will likely do away with the reporting of it. The constant ~8k figure has been embarrassing. Even I was embarrassed of it when I was 'in.' This may be the last year we see the official count of the anointed. IMO, after the memorial this year, there will no longer be a head count of partakers - in print that is. The only way I can see them continuing to print the count is if it remains steady or drops. If it increases substantially, they will have to drop it.

  On another related note, the anointed count was the other carrot. It was taught for decades that there would be anointed left on earth when the GT came. The dwindling number(ha!) of anointed, in print, was a visual countdown clock for the r&f. We knew that the 80 year generation - combined with the remaining number of anointed - pointed to the closeness of armageddon. Now, the new generation change means nothing to the r&f. The same also holds true to the anointed count. If the number increases(highly likely that it will), that will only serve to visually indicate to the r&f that armageddon is further off than before. Why would it indicate this? Because it has been so ingrained in the r&f that the anointed numbers would decrease the closer we got to armageddon. Why would you decrease employee morale even further by publishing numbers that would only help to disenfranchise more employees? This is why I feel that the number will simply go away. I'll gladly eat my words at the next 'fest if they continue to publish the number.
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  175

  Confirmed! Watchtower Feb 15 08 brings the "generation" change

  by observador in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  friends,.

  i just confirmed the "generation" change from another forum in portuguese.

  the following is the text in portuguese:.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Jourles

  I keep advocating that this information is not really much of a change...if at all. For sure it in no way reverts the GEN teaching back to a lifetime link with 1914 so what difference does it make if the new GEN is just anointed or keeps the GC in?

  You already hit on it. From the GC's perspective, it doesn't affect them AT ALL. If this were a true jw board and all of us posting on it were of the GC, what does this change do for us? Nothing. The carrot on the stick was pulled back in '95 and hasn't been lowered in front of us since. Back prior to '95, the only carrot the GB had was the "generation" teaching. That was my carrot when I was growing up. I do not remember any other incentive during my younger years for looking forward to paradise. It was going to be soon, very soon. That dangling carrot had a few words inscribed on it as well: "Good until the year 2000. It will come without fail."

  Name one current doctrine that the GC has today that gives them the hope of paradise coming very soon - within a decade or so? I can't name one. The GB better come up with something quick, because if the r&f start to lose interest feeling that they may not see paradise within their lifetime, the GB will also lose control. This could very well be the GB's intention. They may be laying out this foundation first - the control aspect - and then they will introduce a new, coming soon, paradise doctrine. They will have to. You cannot control a disgruntled employee. If an employee loses their benefits or incentives, what reason do they have in staying on and working? I wouldn't. I would leave.

  Always remember to look at the WTS and the r&f as an employer/employee relationship. Never as a religious one. If you try to decipher their moves as religiously or biblically based, it will make your head spin. But view it as a business, and everything will become more clear and understandable.
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  175

  Confirmed! Watchtower Feb 15 08 brings the "generation" change

  by observador in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  friends,.

  i just confirmed the "generation" change from another forum in portuguese.

  the following is the text in portuguese:.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Jourles

  This is not an announcement, this is a subsentence in an article.

  Ah, but do you remember how the last change in '95 was presented? Once sentence was all it took to make the change.

  It's interesting that Schroeder suggested this very change and Ray recorded it in CoC. Is he still alive today?

  This is how I still see it ---

  • GB is gradually dying off.
  • To maintain control of the org, the GB must continuously be present on earth.
  • Change anointed doctrine to allow younger ones to become potential GB members.
  • Change generation doctrine to say that the anointed will still be on earth when armageddon comes.

  You cannot leapfrog in these steps. C&P from prior post:

  In my view, this new generation change is simply for the GB's benefit. For the r&f, this doctrinal change means nothing. It serves no purpose, has no benefit, or gives the r&f any hope of seeing armageddon come any quicker than before. Prior to this, the carrot on the stick was using the original idea of the generation to keep the r&f on their toes looking forward to paradise coming "soon." But once 1995 came and went, morale took a turn for the worst. The GB was caught in a catch-22 on the 1995 change. On one hand, they had to alter it because of their interpretation of a generation consisting of roughly 80 years. 1914 to 1995 was 81 years long - roughly the span of their idea of a "generation." But on the other hand, they risked losing some members and alienating others with the change. Which was more important from their perspective? They had to maintain that they were still God's special channel dispensing the proper food at the right time. To let the old understanding of the generation continue on, they risked an even greater danger - mass questioning and confusion. By nipping it sooner rather than later, they kept hold of their control over the r&f.

  Now the question on every r&f's mind is, who are these new guys that are becoming GB members and why are they so young? Again, placing a date on a doctrine is a tricky matter, especially when it turns out you're on the wrong end of it. The WTS set 1935 up for itself. 72 years later, I'm sure they would be hard pressed to find a competent brother of that age or older to offer any cohesive ideas and actually bring them to the table. So what can they do to get around this issue and to bring in some young blood without being questioned over it? Let's change the doctrine again! If the generation now points towards the anointed ones, and that generation will see armageddon come, the GB has just now solved their problem in regards to its future leadership. 1935 will go away. It must go away - it carries no relevance to this new thinking.

  The GB stays in control. Fairly simple. The r&f can talk about it all they want and what it means for them, but in the end it is just another talking point in the WT and future book study publications. It is not a significant change whatsoever for the r&f - no matter how they disect it or read into it.

  I gotta hand it to the GB. I knew they would eventually have to get rid of 1935 and I always thought that the "replacement" idea was kind of weak, but changing the idea of the generation, yet again, was a good business move. It keeps the men at the top in power indefinitely. I mean really, how many elderly anointed ones do you know that fall away due to unfaithfulness? I never knew one or even heard of one.
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  177

  Barbara Anderson is on NBC Nightly News Tonight 11/21/07

  by AndersonsInfo in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  a producer with nbc in new york called within the past hour to tell me that the segment i interviewed for (once in nashville, tn in august and once in washington, dc in october) is set to air tonight on nbc nightly news with brian williams, that is, if no huge calamity takes place to bump the feature.

  this piece will be two minutes and 45 seconds long, the longest slot nightly news has for topics of interest, and will feature a discussion about the court documents that are found on the cd i recently produced, "secrets of pedophilia in an american religion, jehovah's witnesses in crisis.

  in addition, nbc's internet site, msn, will follow with a detailed story.

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  Jourles

  If I didn't know better, the KH sign and backdrop appears as if NBC made a special trip to the Alpine, CA hall up on Victoria Dr. Who are the elders in the hall these days? Is Harris, Walterhouse, Fisher, Houston, Tate, et al still running things? It's been a while since I was in that congo. They must have used that particular hall because of Freddy McLean.
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  43

  HDR photography anyone? (pics inside)

  by Jourles in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  does anyone employ hdr(high dynamic range) photography in their bag of tricks?

  in a nutshell, you take several photos of the same scene but at different exposures - from dark to very light(your aperture needs to remain exactly the same).

  you then merge them together.

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  Jourles

  the majority seemed to look awful with over-saturated, over-processed, grainy/noisy, and an almost painted/colorized appearance.

  It all depends on what the photographer wantsyou to see. When I see heavily post-processed, exteme grain/noise, etc in a picture, the first thing that comes to mind is - did they did it intentionally?(most likely, yes) You really have to ask the photographer what they had in mind when they took the shot. Regarding the cathedral photo just above, to me it looks impressive. It has a video game look to it. Sure it may not look *real* to some people, but to others it is just another form of art and expression. The photographer may have 5 different versions of that same picture. One of those versions might appeal to some, but not others.

  Would you mind if I asked your opinion on this photo?
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  13

  world's shortest political quiz

  by Hortensia in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this was interesting - it says i am a liberal libertarian.

  might just be for the usa, though.

  http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz.html.

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  Jourles

  Not too surprised...

  Libertarian
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  43

  HDR photography anyone? (pics inside)

  by Jourles in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  does anyone employ hdr(high dynamic range) photography in their bag of tricks?

  in a nutshell, you take several photos of the same scene but at different exposures - from dark to very light(your aperture needs to remain exactly the same).

  you then merge them together.

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  2. 
  3. 
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  Jourles

  What program do you use to layer them together? In Photoshop, the higher and lower exposure just cancel each other out, giving me an image with the same dynamic range as the middle term. Is there a setting that gets those kind of results

  Corel's PSP Photo X2 - it has an HDR merge feature. I recently noticed that CompUSA is selling it for $50 instead of $100. I believe Photoshop didn't include an HDR feature until CS2.
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  13

  Six Congos Not Merging But Splitting Expenses

  by Clam in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  http://www.syracuse.com/articles/news/index.ssf?/base/news-12/1195466329169760.xml&coll=1.

  jehovah's witnesses to share city site .

  former brigadier hall in syracuse will serve six county congregations.

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  Jourles

  It would be fun to show r&f jws posts from this board from years ago. They would probably just think Satan is behind all of it.

  Kingdom Hall for Sale - In larger cities, if the KH is not already being used by 3 or more congregations, think about consolidating the region/area to do so. Dedicated publishers will drive a little extra to be at the meetings. Real estate is where the money is at. KH's, with property, can be sold for $200-300k in most areas. If the money crunch really comes, then do as other religions do - meet in people's homes. Book study groups could remain the same for all meetings. A new meeting format would need to be created if this were to happen. If congregations are instructed to sell off their KH's, then that will be the sign of the end for the WTS.

  once the WTS feels the cash crunch, they will have to start selling KH's to stay afloat(this isn't just a guess - it is going to happen eventually). It could be that this announcement is primarily for larger cities where there are several congregations colocated in a reachable geographic area. In other words, if a city(including suburbs) has 10 congregations and 5 KH's, the WTS can sell at least 2 KH's and force the congregations to merge or share the remaining KH's...

  But it wouldn't surprise me to see or hear reports of KH's being sold more frequently. I would also assume that the WTS will try to keep it fairly quiet.

  I'm really getting tired of us not getting a consultancy fee for pitching these ideas to the WTS. With the money they are saving by stealing our business plans, they should at least kick back a few Canadian dollars to Simon for board upkeep.
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  43

  HDR photography anyone? (pics inside)

  by Jourles in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  does anyone employ hdr(high dynamic range) photography in their bag of tricks?

  in a nutshell, you take several photos of the same scene but at different exposures - from dark to very light(your aperture needs to remain exactly the same).

  you then merge them together.

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  2. 
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  Jourles

  taking 8 photos at each exposure level, to average them out when they are stacked.

  As long as your ISO is low, the camera is stable, you're shooting in RAW, WB is properly set and you have somewhat decent glass attached, noise shouldn't be an issue. Stacking photos carries just as much room for error as does merging them.

  In that city scene, there is quite a bit of noise on the bridge pillars(and even throughout the water - not the foam bubbles). Very obvious. The water statue appears to have jpg artifacts from the file compression - understandable for web viewing.

  All of my shots were taken at ISO200. The only perceived noise that I can see is the intentionally introduced distortion I manipulated in Jesus #2. But then again, he wouldn't look as scary if I didn't make him out to be so dark and evil.
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  43

  HDR photography anyone? (pics inside)

  by Jourles in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  does anyone employ hdr(high dynamic range) photography in their bag of tricks?

  in a nutshell, you take several photos of the same scene but at different exposures - from dark to very light(your aperture needs to remain exactly the same).

  you then merge them together.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Jourles

  I have just started to experiment with image stacking mainly to reduce noise and bring out detail

  Are you using a point-and-shoot or a (d)slr? Are you letting the camera determine its own ISO? If you can, lower the ISO to less than 600-800. The lower the better and the less noise you'll see in the photo. Shooting night or dimly lit shots is tricky - especially if you want them to turn out good. In this area, good glass will help you go far. Compensating by increasing your camera's sensitivity(ISO) helps give you that low light boost but also introduces noise. That's the thing with photography, there are so many tradeoffs you have to put up with. An image stabilized lens or camera body also helps give you those few extra stops of light. White balance is probably one of the most important aspects in getting good shots. Most cameras do a good job these days with choosing the right WB according to the situation you're in, but if you can, it's always best to manually set it up if you have the right accessories handy.