Bungi Bill

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Posts by Bungi Bill

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  30

  Do you have any assembly memories/stories?

  by RisingEagle in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  on an earlier thread about ice cream i remembered a snack that was sold at assemblies and that started me thinking about some of my memories of childhood at conventions/assemblies.

  i guess it was the taste/smell association because even today when i go to various convention halls for home improvement expos, car shows and the like it takes me right back to the past.

  i have many memories wrapped around the conventions and experienced different things because i have lots of elders in the family that were used, literally, for food service, the accounting office, security and dramas.

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  Bungi Bill

  I remember them being about as interesting as watching paint dry!
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  22

  Service experiences

  by former2free in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i know what you may be thinking by the title but bear with me.

  have you ever reflected on past service experiences and think wow if only i had listened to a householder?

  two things come to my mind of personal experience.

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  Bungi Bill

  To be fair, W. Schnell's 30 Years a Watchtower Slave hardly ranks amongst the great works of literature!

  Its style comes over more as that of some wild-eyed fanatic letting forth his pent up feelings. Moreover, those I met "at the doors" who recommended this book seemed to be cast in exactly the same mould (i.e. to use the vernacular of the time, "a screw loose in the head"). As to the those reviewers who described it as a "well written book", I would sure as hell hate to ever see their idea of a badly written one!

  Schnell's main fault was to make all sorts of allegations, but offer no evidence to back it up. This is something all of us ought to take note of in our condemnation of the JWs.

  (While there might be a certain therapeutic benefit in letting fly with ones emotions, if you are trying to get a point across, it is often a different matter).
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  70

  The Reasons for Cart Witnessing

  by Simon in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  whatever we think of it, you have to admit that it's quite "genius".. the door to door ministry as done in western developed countries where the jw quirky religion has probably reached their saturation level was a complete and utter waste of time in terms of the effort expended to recruit people.. at the same time, it was rarely something that anyone enjoyed which led to people being labelled as inactive, being pressured to doing more and maybe ultimately deciding jwism wasn't for them and leaving.. there was also the issue that many jws are actually pretty bad at knowing and articulating their beliefs so were pretty incapable of getting any meaningful message across.. they solved all this with the cart witnessing.

  the real point isn't to recruit, it's to make life easier for jws.

  now they can stand and chat with their friend, have a coffee, not talk to anyone or make eye contact and still act as a walking billboard for jw.org.

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  Bungi Bill

  After relocating to another city in March of this year, I have yet to see an apathy cart anywhere. They must indeed be targeting inconspicuous locations!
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  13

  Are Jehovah’s Witnesses as “Ministers” Teachers?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  all jws are supposed to be “ ministers”.

  i would think that anyone that is considered a minister should have immense knowledge of their religion and should be able to teach anyone who inquires of the teachings.

  my understanding is that most witnesses cannot explain even basic teachings without difficulty.

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  Bungi Bill

  For a short time during the mid-1970s, that description was discarded for JW publishers. Only elders retained the title "Ministers." They even re-labelled the "Kingdom Ministry" the "Kingdom Service", and the "Ministry School" became the "Service School".

  However, that did not last too long - a few years at the most.

  As Zeb has already mentioned, there was much cherry-picking carried out both before changing the name from "Ministry" to "Service", and then when it was restored to "Ministry."

  (I seem to remember Ray Franz's input having something to do with the temporary name change).
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  20

  How did the bible fables get started?

  by Tameria2001 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  today while out running errands, i was flipping through the radio trying to find something to listen to.

  i ended up on some christian type of station, and the guy was talking about the ark, and the flood during noah's time.

  personally i no longer believe this fable, because the facts just don't line up.

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  Bungi Bill

  Those Jewish people who are well versed in the history of their own people would be quick to tell us that the Jewish writers of the Old Testament never intended their writings to be taken literally. Rather, these were folk tales compiled during their exile to Babylon - and written to forge a national identity.

  The point of these myths is not historical accuracy. They bond people together.

  Exactly!

  Why get all bent out of shape over a collection of Middle Eastern fairy tales.
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  32

  'Tactical Contact' - UK Police

  by LoveUniHateExams in

  1. social
  2. current

  take a look at this, fellow forum members .... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5d7eoodv3e .

  f**king brilliant xd.

  thoughts?.

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  Bungi Bill

  Sad to say, but this is the only language that that element understands!
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  19

  The Worst Year to be Alive? Answer: Most likely to be 536 CE

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was a witness, since the early 1950's, to the relentless claims of the wt society (then synonymous with jws) that this was the worst of times to be alive.

  if i had been more questioning and less accepting, i would never have become a shill for these apologists pf the murderous yhwh and his accomplice jesus,.

  so how interesting to see today an opinion in science journal that:- .

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  Bungi Bill

  Hi again, FTS.

  This evening (Australian Eastern Standard Time), I have had opportunity to look at those links you posted. I do miss having access to History Channel, which I used to watch with great interest during the years I worked as a Fly-In / Fly-Out worker (and where the camp had a Satellite TV system, which included History Channel).

  One thing I notice in these discussions is that a number of the innovations talked about actually predated the American Civil War.

  For example, the Minie bullet was used by the British Army in the Crimean War (1853-1856), and also during the Indian Mutiny (1857). During those wars, the British standard infantry weapon was the model 1851 rifled musket ( 24 guage, or .577 inch calibre), which fired the Minie bullet and which was already well blooded by the time the Civil War broke out. The Prussian Army went one better than that, introducing the Dreyse needle rifle in 1841. This was a bolt action, breech loading rifle that got its name from the firing pin, which resembled a needle. The Dreyse rifle played a decisive role in the Prussian victories over Denmark in 1864, and Austria in 1866. As to the use of observation balloons, the French easily beat everybody else with those. They used hydrogen-filled observation balloons as early as 1794, when these played a role in the defeat of the Dutch - Austrian armies at Mauberge.

  Photography, also, was used to effect in the Crimean War, when correspondents of The Times brought home to the British public both the horrors of war and the incompetence of its army commanders. That war, too, saw extensive use of military railways, which saved the British army from starvation. (These were built by civilian contractors, which is the main reason the railway system was successful!).

  Another feature of the Crimean War was the extensive use of earthworks, which again predated the Civil War by almost ten years.

  Of the other Civil War innovations, these were either not used extensively (e.g. repeating rifles), and/or were of very limited success. An example of the latter is the so-called "torpedo" that the first submarine used. This was what today would be called a "Pole Charge" - a quantity of explosive on the end of a piece of timber, whose length is presumably long enough that the person detonating the device is not endangered. Except in the case of the Confederate submarine that sank a Federal warship with one of these devices, that length was not long enough - and it, too went down with its target!

  Similarly, too, with the iron-hulled warship. It was many decades after the Civil War before these became commonplace. (Most British warships of the 1880s were still wooden-hulled, with both sails and steam propulsion).

  While you share the point of view of some historians who consider the American Civil War to be the first Modern War, I have my doubts!
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  19

  The Worst Year to be Alive? Answer: Most likely to be 536 CE

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was a witness, since the early 1950's, to the relentless claims of the wt society (then synonymous with jws) that this was the worst of times to be alive.

  if i had been more questioning and less accepting, i would never have become a shill for these apologists pf the murderous yhwh and his accomplice jesus,.

  so how interesting to see today an opinion in science journal that:- .

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  Bungi Bill

  Hi FTS.

  When it comes to technology, Western Civilisation's supremacy has only come about in recent times. For sure!

  I didn't think, though, that I was changing the conversation in any way when I mentioned war between industrialised countries. My understanding has always been that the definition of "Industrialised Warfare" is "an all out armed conflict between two or more countries whose economies are industrialised ":

  - with an "Industrialised Economy" being one that is based largely on manufacturing, rather than on agriculture.

  what does industrialisation really mean?

  Usually understood to mean "the process by which an economy progresses from one based on agriculture to one based on manufacturing."

  However, I am happy to be corrected!

  what is progress?

  Bloody good point!
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  19

  The Worst Year to be Alive? Answer: Most likely to be 536 CE

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was a witness, since the early 1950's, to the relentless claims of the wt society (then synonymous with jws) that this was the worst of times to be alive.

  if i had been more questioning and less accepting, i would never have become a shill for these apologists pf the murderous yhwh and his accomplice jesus,.

  so how interesting to see today an opinion in science journal that:- .

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  Bungi Bill

  Hi FTS,

  I could readily understand the American Civil War being a turning-point in warfare.

  However, World War One was he first time in which modern industrialised countries went to war with one another.

  Although the North had some industry, the USA of 1861 was still largely an agricultural country. (That all changed rapidly during the following decades, of course. For example, by 1890, the USA was producing more steel than anybody else).

  Likewise during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. While Prussian technology largely won the day at the decisive Battle of Sedan, Germany's industrialisation took place after its unification. (e.g. regarding Bismarck's famous "Blut und Eisen" speech, many commentators have remarked that it should have been more accurately rendered "Coal and Iron"!).

  Even during the South African War of 1899-1902, the two Boer republics were agricultural countries, even bordering on frontier societies (albeit financed by the gold mines of the Witwatersrand).

  By 1914, though, at least three of the belligerents - Britain, France and Germany - were industrial countries. To that extent, WWI was the first time industrialised countries fought each other in all out warfare (rather than by selling their weapons to another party to fight on their behalf!)
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  19

  The Worst Year to be Alive? Answer: Most likely to be 536 CE

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was a witness, since the early 1950's, to the relentless claims of the wt society (then synonymous with jws) that this was the worst of times to be alive.

  if i had been more questioning and less accepting, i would never have become a shill for these apologists pf the murderous yhwh and his accomplice jesus,.

  so how interesting to see today an opinion in science journal that:- .

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Bungi Bill

  FTS

  We could get into considerable debate on this one, in which firearms buffs (such as myself) would be in their element!

  Between the American Civil War and the outbreak of WWI, weapons technology took a quantum leap. During the Civil War, the standard weapon on both sides was still the muzzle-loading percussion rifle (although the Confederacy entered the conflict armed with the even older flintlock muskets). Machine guns were not used in the Civil War. Gatling developed his hand-cranked gun during that war, but it never saw service until afterwards. Even then, the world's first truly automatic machine gun was still 20 years away (Hiram Maxim's invention). The problem with the Gatling, Gardner, Nordenfelt, Mitrailluese and other hand cranked weapons was that in the heat of battle, the operator often panicked and started cranking the weapon too quickly. This resulted in its jamming. Another issue was the propellant used in the cartridges - still the charcoal / sulphur / saltpetre blend of gunpowder. That added to the jamming issues, and obscured the battle field in a great fog of gunsmoke. This same problem delayed the world's armies from adopting magazine fed rifles until the 1890s, when smokeless powders were developed.

  Artillery, also, took quantum leaps during the latter part of the 19th Century, thanks to the arms race initiated by the German manufacturer, Krupp.

  Likewise for naval development. Naval warfare was revolutionised in 1906 by the launching of HMS Dreadnought, which rendered all other battle ships obsolete. That set going a massive arms race - principally between Germany and Britain - which was in full swing by 1914.

  Add to the list aircraft (invented 1903), poison gas, submarines, torpedoes and mines (both of which changed the balance of naval warfare), depth charges, sonar, sound-ranging equipment, tanks, armoured cars etc, and you come up with a lot of things never used previously in an all out conflict between major powers. It is true that a number of these weapons (but by no means all) had been experimented with previously in small scale Colonial wars. However, in those days before Satellite TV and the like, it would have been a case of "out of site, out of mind". World War One brought home the horrors of a modern, industrialised war to the heartland of Europe.