Bungi Bill

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Posts by Bungi Bill

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  44

  When will world realize zero population growth?

  by N.drew in

  1. social
  2. current

  metatron in your opinion do you think the world will see it soon?

  how soon?.

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  Bungi Bill

  I have been hearing about electric cars since the days of the second oil crisis (1979 - 1980), when we were told with confidence that "within two years, the electricians will be making the cars." Older people report that similar predictions about electric cars were being made over 60 years ago. For a time, I worked in the testing laboratory for a major battery manufacturing company (Century Yuasa). At that stage, much research was being carried out into alternative types of batteries, and high hopes were being held for the possibilities of the fuel cell. Twenty odd years down the track, though, it is still the lead-acid cell that proves to be the most practical one - albiet in a more refined form (i.e. maintenance free).

  Battery powered forklifts excepted , I will believe battery powered cars taking over from those with internal combustion engines only when I see it happen.

  (Oh, and I did forget, the buggies used for mobility by some disabled people . I won't be trading my car in for one, though - not just yet!).

  Crystal ball gazing about such matters as alternative energy sources has proven most difficult, and caution is advised (look at New Zealand's much-hyped synthetic fuel project of the early 1980s - sold off by fire sale after being painted white and adorned with a trunk!).

  Bill.

  Bill.
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  44

  When will world realize zero population growth?

  by N.drew in

  1. social
  2. current

  metatron in your opinion do you think the world will see it soon?

  how soon?.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Bungi Bill

  A few cautionary statements need to be included regarding alternative energy sources, particularly that of the nuclear "cold fusion" process.

  Nobody has been able to replicate Pons and Fleischmann's experiment of 1989, leading the scientific community in general to treat the process with deep scepticism - to say the least (with some categorizing it in a class similar to alchemy!). This despite more recent publicity about work being carried out at the University of Bologna, by Andrea Rossi (Nov 3, 2011).

  To date, exploitation of the shale oil deposits has been limited to the drawing off of the natuaral gas pockets which form around the shale - and which release after the rock has been shattered by hydraulic action ("fracked"). This is similar to the extraction of the coal seam gas that is carried out in Australia's Central Queensland Coal Fields;

  - it is a process which leaves the primary source of the energy behind (In the case of the oil shale, this amounts to some 15 - 40% of what potentially could be recovered).

  Many of the popular cliches are also quite true, including the old adage "Necessity is the Mother of Invention." However, care needs to be excercised when presenting something that is just a possibilty:

  - "Could" does not necessarily always add up to "Shall". (More's the pity!)

  Bill.
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  44

  When will world realize zero population growth?

  by N.drew in

  1. social
  2. current

  metatron in your opinion do you think the world will see it soon?

  how soon?.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Bungi Bill

  New agricultural land is still being brought into production in this part of the world.

  I have just returned from a visit to the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island, where land is now being "broken in" that, in my youth, would have been written off as forever useless:

  - semi swamp land, with highly acidic soil and covered mainly in noxious weeds and second growth podocarp forest (known by the Maori word "pakihi.")

  To turn this into productive dairy farming land requires a huge investment - firstly in earthworks (a technique known as "humping and hollowing"), then massive and repeated application of fertilizers for up to ten years in a row.

  Yet, such is the demand for dairy products - both now and anticipated - that investors are prepared to go to these lengths in order to bring new dairy farming land into production.

  Bill.
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  44

  When will world realize zero population growth?

  by N.drew in

  1. social
  2. current

  metatron in your opinion do you think the world will see it soon?

  how soon?.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Bungi Bill
• 
  403

  Atheists..... throwing the baby out with the bath water ?

  by snare&racket in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this saying permeates this forum with higher frequency than most.

  despite being an open atheist amongst lots of religious people in my life, i have never been accused of doing this and i have never heard this saying attributed to my choice... appart from here.. i thought it would be best to clarify why i (and i assume others) decided to leave the bible behind after leaving the wt society.. realising the wt society was wrong desroyed my world, for me it meant so much.

  i had given so much to it too, it just had to be true!

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  Bungi Bill

  One thing that the JWs did get right is the statement that 'Religion is a Snare and a Racket."

  Of course, as somebody has already pointed out, J.F. Rutherord was either unable or unwilling to realize that this applied just as much to his religion as it did to all others.

  Bill.
• 
  403

  Atheists..... throwing the baby out with the bath water ?

  by snare&racket in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this saying permeates this forum with higher frequency than most.

  despite being an open atheist amongst lots of religious people in my life, i have never been accused of doing this and i have never heard this saying attributed to my choice... appart from here.. i thought it would be best to clarify why i (and i assume others) decided to leave the bible behind after leaving the wt society.. realising the wt society was wrong desroyed my world, for me it meant so much.

  i had given so much to it too, it just had to be true!

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
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  Bungi Bill

  Metatron,

  This is an extremely interesting subject to expand on, and also a matter of critical importance. However, it is something properly for discussion on another thread, not on this one (lest we get accused by snare&racket of "bumping"!).

  Bill.
• 
  403

  Atheists..... throwing the baby out with the bath water ?

  by snare&racket in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this saying permeates this forum with higher frequency than most.

  despite being an open atheist amongst lots of religious people in my life, i have never been accused of doing this and i have never heard this saying attributed to my choice... appart from here.. i thought it would be best to clarify why i (and i assume others) decided to leave the bible behind after leaving the wt society.. realising the wt society was wrong desroyed my world, for me it meant so much.

  i had given so much to it too, it just had to be true!

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Bungi Bill

  The matter of energy sources is completely off-topic, and deserves a thread of its own.

  Suffice, though, to quote a common saying in Western Colorado (the site of major deposits of oil shale) "Oil shale is the fuel of the future - and always will be."

  As for controlled nuclear fusion, this had already been achieved before I started high school (which wasn't exactly yesterday!). The problem was then - and still is now - that the process used more energy than it released. (Uncontrolled nuclear fusion, in the form of the Hydrogen Bomb, has of course been around since the early 1950s).

  No more of this, though, unless somebody wants to kick off a separate thread on the topic of energy sources!

  Bill.
• 
  100

  Kingdom Hall Spankings

  by JH in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  most meetings i went to, children were brought to the washrooms in the back to be disciplined.

  often i could hear a child yell or cry due to the spanking given by the parent.

  people in the hall would have that look on their face meaning that it was alright to discipline a child by spanking him.

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  Bungi Bill

  It is a big enough ask to expect an adult to sit still for two hours through one of their mind-numbing meetings. To demand that small children do the same is as inhumane as it is just plain bloody stupid!

  Yet they still had the gall to print a book in the late 1970s entitled "Making your Family Life Happy."

  I suddenly feel very sick - got to hastily leave my PC now and make a bee line for the bathroom!

  Bill.

  PS: Puke!
• 
  403

  Atheists..... throwing the baby out with the bath water ?

  by snare&racket in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this saying permeates this forum with higher frequency than most.

  despite being an open atheist amongst lots of religious people in my life, i have never been accused of doing this and i have never heard this saying attributed to my choice... appart from here.. i thought it would be best to clarify why i (and i assume others) decided to leave the bible behind after leaving the wt society.. realising the wt society was wrong desroyed my world, for me it meant so much.

  i had given so much to it too, it just had to be true!

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Bungi Bill

  snare&racket,

  Your whole experience - and the conclusions that you arrived at - are very similar to mine on this matter. The only major difference was in the order that those conclusions were arrived at;

  i.e. Before contact with the JWs, I had seriously questioned the relevance of religion, but thought that the Witnesses were somehow different.

  Bill.
• 
  41

  Why is it that serious /important topics seem to be overlooked and fluffy inconsequential topics get all the attention

  by smiddy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  just curious .

  smiddy.

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  Bungi Bill

  The same thing also applies to the media:

  - which is why I seldom watch the TV news, and long ago gave up reading newspapers.

  Bill.