breakfast of champions

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Posts by breakfast of champions

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  180

  Languages, Dialects, Accents

  by LoveUniHateExams in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  just though i'd start a thread devoted to languages, dialects/sociolects and accents, with the idea being that posters can comment on any language, or dialect or accent of any language, on this thread.. any phrases, expressions or idioms that you find interesting are also welcome.

  first, the subject of english accents came up on another thread.. the british isles have many different types of accent (although many of the dialects may be dying out), and if i start to take a closer look, i can't help but see 'patterns' .... in received pronunciation of standard english, the letter r is pronounced initially, between vowels, and after consonants, e.g.

  red, arrow, break.

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  breakfast of champions

  I thought this paper (by my advisor) might be relevant to the thread.

  https://psyarxiv.com/a4tkn/download?format=pdf

  It is quite technical but has to do with how listeners deal with speaker variability, including dialect.

  Abstract

  One of the persistent puzzles in understanding human speech perception is how listeners cope with talker variability. One thing that might help listeners is structure in talker variability: rather than varying randomly, talkers of the same gender, dialect, age, etc. tend to produce language in similar ways. Listeners are sensitive to this covariation between linguistic variation and socio-indexical variables. In this paper I present new techniques based on ideal observer models to quantify 1) the amount and type of structure in talker variation (informativity of a grouping variable), and 2) how useful such structure can be for robust speech recognition in the face of talker variability (the utility of a grouping variable). I demonstrate these techniques in two phonetic domains—word-initial stop voicing and vowel identity—and show that these domains have different amounts and types of talker variability, consistent with previous, impressionistic findings. An R package (phondisttools) accompanies this paper, and the source and data are available from osf.io/zv6e3.
  
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  6

  Incest victim turned lawyer speaks out on reporting violence and sexual abuse

  by Tenacious in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  after enduring years of secrecy and betrayal, shelly rose braieoux finally dug deep within herself and picked up the phone.. key points:.

  shelly braieoux said jehovah's witnesses elders failed to face up to her abuse allegations.

  she said she felt like god would strike her down when she cut ties with the church.

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  breakfast of champions

  Amazing!!!!
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  129

  Climate Change - True Believer or Skeptic?

  by Simon in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  climate change ... who doesn't believe it?

  crazy fools and science deniers ... right?.

  it seems like it's become the new religion, the new orthodoxy, that must be accepted and believed as gospel and preached to all.. is it ok to be skeptical?.

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  breakfast of champions

  I do not automatically believe anything that the media says about science of any type. Science reporting is pretty awful, generally speaking.

  I certainly don't believe what any politician says about science or anything else for that matter.

  I also don't buy the "But there's a PhD in Belgium who thinks the opposite of X" argument. Complete nonsense. I'll have a PhD in a few years -- if I tell you the sky is made of pumpernickel bread, please don't believe me.
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  79

  Ending Bible Study

  by Maria Nieves in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i have been studying with jehovah's witnesses for approximately two years.

  initially, i liked the studies and felt that i was growing closer to god.

  however, as the studies progressed, they seemed to become increasingly negative and i did not like what i was being taught.

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  breakfast of champions

  Congratulations Maria! Using your own conscience and some critical thinking skills, you've just dodged a bullet.

  You were almost recruited by a fundamentalist doomsday cult.
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  61

  Michael Cohen... sleazebag or patriot?

  by Queequeg in

  1. social
  2. current

  so, what do you think?

  .

  fwiw, i say sleazebag....

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  breakfast of champions

  Whoever you believe, whatever you think. . . It was some pretty damn interesting television!
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  42

  Ignorance of Watchtower doctrine among young JW's

  by nicolaou in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i've been having a conversation with a young jw on twitter and have, once again, come up against beliefs that do not match up with official watchtower doctrine.

  if you like you can read the full thread here (you'll need to click on some comments to open it all up).. anyway the upshot is that this jw, and many like her, believe that only truly wicked people will be killed at armageddon - not innocent babies and children or anyone who "didn't know better" perhaps because they didn't get a witness.

  it's as though they cannot accept the obvious injustice of jehovah's morality.. this jw teenager believes that all these non-jw's who survive armageddon will get their chance to prove their loyalty during the 1000 year reign of christ - again, not a watchtower teaching.. i don't really have a question to ask, this is just an observation.

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  breakfast of champions

  Yeah I wouldn't claim that it's just the yaaang waaaans. . . . it's most JWs.

  Another good one to try on them is "Did you know Jesus is not your mediator?"
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  43

  Who would you like to be the next President of USA?

  by Iamallcool in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  any takers?.

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  breakfast of champions

  Not Corey Booker.
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  9

  New Elders Manual Released . Can anyone confirm ?

  by Not_Culty in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  https://old.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/an4bnp/new_elders_manual_released/.

  post text.. "announcements for february say, in part:.

  shepherd and shepherd addendum: we are pleased to inform you that “shepherd the flock of god”—1 peter 5:2 has been completely revised.

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  breakfast of champions

  WATCH TOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY OF REPUBLIC OF KOREA, INCORPORATED ASSOCIATION

  What in the actual fuck is this all about? A legal loophole? "I'm sorry your honor, but that instruction to hide pedos comes directly from the WTBTS of Republic of Korea. We're WTBTS of NY. . .. Keep trying. . . "
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  23

  Are the younger generation taking on roles in the Cong?

  by purrpurr in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i notice that several of the congs i've been to seem to have a majority of the male roles performed by older men.

  very few young men are wanting to be ms or elders etc.

  it also seems like very few young people are being pioneers either.. would you agree with this?

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  breakfast of champions

  I heard that during the last CO visit, he "encouraged" more young men to "step up to the plate" as far as congregation responsibilities. He noted that out of the 8 elders on the elder body, only one is under 50 (he's in his 40s). From what I know about my former cong., the prospects for new, young elders is pretty slim.

  As mentioned above, the first problem they have is only 1/3 of all JW kids stay.

  On top of that, we're talking about male roles in the cong. (e.g., MS, elder). So cut that 1/3 into 1/6 or less.

  Then say that half of that 1/6 never went to school and have low-paying jobs and families to support. Just from a time perspective, even if these were spiritual giants, serving in the congregation is a huge sacrifice, if not impossible from a time perspective.

  Then consider the 1/12 who are left who maybe got a little schooling, have a pretty decent job, etc. They all know that becoming an elder not only entails giving up your personal time, but puts you and your entire family in the congregation "spotlight of judgement." So it's not just a matter of you deciding to become an elder -- your whole family is now "Brother So-and-so's family -- and he's an elder!"

  I think the upshot here is that the Society -- with their endless rules and requirements (including no women in congregation "roles"); their culture of surveillance and judgement; and their endless assault on education -- have set themselves up to ultimately fail. They are literally going to die out.

  'Not with a bang, but a whimper.'
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  17

  "Never stop your enemy when he's making a mistake" - Napoleon

  by JeffT in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  so yesterday when i went to the library there were three older gentlemen in suits standing around the front door.

  i spotted the stand with the magazines a second or two later.

  they were talking among themselves, totally ignoring everybody walking past them.

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  breakfast of champions

  I didn't want my words to goad them into some kind of actual activity.

  Haha. . . This is great.