Xanthippe

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Posts by Xanthippe

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  40

  Heroes

  by done4good in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in jw land having such was verboten.

  who are some of yours and why?.

  1. nikola tesla - greatest inventor ever, and the only one i know of who was a true scientist as well.. 2. elon musk - there is a reason he chose the great inventor's name for his masterpiece work...also has a serious pair.... 3. jim morrison - brilliant and mad poet.. 4. mike krzyzewski - the epitome of success.. 5. maya angelou - brilliant humanistic poet and writer.. 6. albert einstein - do i actually have to qualify this?.

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  Xanthippe

  prologos7 hours agoXanthippe Marie Curie 2. Emily Hobhouse 3.Lady Mary Montagu Eglantyne Jebb--
  these are not Heroes,-- Sheroes.

  I've not heard that expression before Prologos. Hero is either male or gender-neutral surely. Well I've learnt something. Yes it's strange isn't it that Save the Children is part of the Disasters Emergency Committee in the UK and always on the ground where there is a war zone or human suffering but no one knows Eglantyne Jebb's name.
  

  The same with Mary Montagu, her enthusiasm and influence as an ambassador's wife which got the royal family interested in inoculation added to the effort to eradicate smallpox. Seems sad that no one has heard of her either but only of Edward Jenner.
  

  As for Emily Hobhouse I'm not surprised that she's been swept under the carpet. Who knew the British invented concentration camps. Shameful.
  

  Who says history hasn't been edited eh?
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  40

  Heroes

  by done4good in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in jw land having such was verboten.

  who are some of yours and why?.

  1. nikola tesla - greatest inventor ever, and the only one i know of who was a true scientist as well.. 2. elon musk - there is a reason he chose the great inventor's name for his masterpiece work...also has a serious pair.... 3. jim morrison - brilliant and mad poet.. 4. mike krzyzewski - the epitome of success.. 5. maya angelou - brilliant humanistic poet and writer.. 6. albert einstein - do i actually have to qualify this?.

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  Xanthippe

  Too often individuals do something noteworthy but then start banging their own drum in attention getting behavior that to my mind detracts from the great good they do.

  Yes this is often true. The ones who do the most for us we can't remember their names. There's a guy who makes artificial limbs for ex-service men and women plus civilians who have lost limbs from land mines. He recycles plastic bottles to make the limbs. Amazing guy, saw a documentary about him, but nobody knows his name.

  There's another guy who invented a syringe that collapses after one use so that in under developed countries where people used to steal the syringes from medic's sharps bins for drug use they can no longer use them. It is helping prevent the spread of AIDS through sharing syringes. Again I don't remember his name.
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  372

  On respect for the belief of others. Sorry for the long post

  by StarTrekAngel in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i am inclined to start this thread in response to some comments made in other threads.

  i have been coming around these forum for quite some time now so whatever you find in here is not just related to something someone may have said this week.

  it can go months back as well.. i have seen many who claim to respect the belief of others but when it comes down to applying it into practice, things take a whole different tune.

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  Xanthippe

  StarTekAngel I like your OP. I think it's natural for people to get annoyed and frustrated at beliefs that are very similar to the beliefs that ruined their lives. Who wouldn't!

  It's the debaters that bore me, playing word games rather than engaging with the content of posts but I think it might be because everyone has their 'subject' don't they?

  Whether it's biology, physics, computing, theology. They are well versed in that subject but if someone introduces something they don't know about they can resort to less than respectful tactics to divert attention from their lack of knowledge.

  I like all your analogies about real life because although this is a forum where people often debate religion it's also where people come to in recovery from a cult. These are real life experiences that these people are bringing, with huge amounts of pain. I wouldn't want them to be put off this place of refuge from the cult. I think it's probably a good idea to keep beliefs to yourself however, if you can't prove them. Why cause yourself the stress of ridicule.

  As for those who ridicule beliefs, as I said it's totally understandable given what beliefs have done to all our lives.

  Personally I don't ridicule but I don't accept anything that anyone says at face value.
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  40

  Heroes

  by done4good in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in jw land having such was verboten.

  who are some of yours and why?.

  1. nikola tesla - greatest inventor ever, and the only one i know of who was a true scientist as well.. 2. elon musk - there is a reason he chose the great inventor's name for his masterpiece work...also has a serious pair.... 3. jim morrison - brilliant and mad poet.. 4. mike krzyzewski - the epitome of success.. 5. maya angelou - brilliant humanistic poet and writer.. 6. albert einstein - do i actually have to qualify this?.

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  Xanthippe

  Dariokehl, Marie Curie is one of my heroes too. The first woman to win a Nobel prize and the first person and only woman to win two Nobels. She won a joint Nobel with her husband for physics and a Nobel in chemistry on her own. An amazing person.
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  40

  Heroes

  by done4good in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in jw land having such was verboten.

  who are some of yours and why?.

  1. nikola tesla - greatest inventor ever, and the only one i know of who was a true scientist as well.. 2. elon musk - there is a reason he chose the great inventor's name for his masterpiece work...also has a serious pair.... 3. jim morrison - brilliant and mad poet.. 4. mike krzyzewski - the epitome of success.. 5. maya angelou - brilliant humanistic poet and writer.. 6. albert einstein - do i actually have to qualify this?.

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  Xanthippe

  1. William Wilberforce who led the campaign to abolish slavery in the British Empire and died three days after the act was passed in parliament.

  2. Emily Hobhouse who visited and drew attention to the 45 British concentration camps in South Africa where men, women and children were being starved by British forces during the second Boer War. She battled against the authority of Lord Kitchener and started a fund to feed those starving people.

  3.Lady Mary Montagu who while living in the Ottoman Empire discovered the local practice of variolation against smallpox which she brought back to England. After she recovered from smallpox herself she had her children protected with this method while in Turkey. She enthusiastically recommended it in England but met with much resistance. Edward Jenner built on her knowledge and developed the vaccination thirty years after her death.

  4. Eglantyne Jebb who founded Save the Children in 1919 to feed the starving children of the people who lost the war in Germany and Austria.
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  120

  What history have you seen in the makeing???

  by karter in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i saw:.

  neil armstrong say those famous words...this is one small step for a man........... muhammad ali win and loose the world title 3 times.. the 1st women prime minster of the uk..

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  Xanthippe

  The big freeze of 1962-3, the year the higher Thames froze. It started snowing on Boxing Day I remember and the snow lay on the ground for months. I was four but I can remember running outside with my brother and sisters because it was snowing.

  My dad took us to school in January, I remember having to step in his foot prints because the snow was so high. Being a child and in the Midlands it was only years later I found out part of the Thames froze over. It happened a lot in the 18th and 19th centuries. They used to have fairs on the frozen river, but I don't think it's happened since '63.

  http://www.thamesweb.co.uk/windsor/windsorhistory/freeze63.html
  
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  24

  Introduction

  by shattered_origins in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i joined the forum yesterday and made 2 angry posts which received encouraging replies.

  i spent a good chunk of time today browsing various posts, and i can't get enough!

  i'm doing things backwards now and taking a moment to introduce myself.

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  Xanthippe

  Welcome shattered_origins. I pioneered too but it was a long time ago. Glad you've got your sister with you. Wishing you well for your fade.
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  48

  Your thoughts on Halloween , yes, no or maybe ?

  by Finkelstein in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  well its that time again when the ghouls come out to play.

  i personally think halloween is a bit irresponsible and inappropriate from a sociological perspective.. there's something about the intent of frightening young impressionable children minds with frightening objests.

  and feeding them candy which most likely cause tooth decay and stomachs is irresponsible activity conducted by adults.

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  Xanthippe

  Gawd nothing frightened my daughter when she was a kid. She loved Halloween, Lord of the Rings films, Harry Potter, Buffy. Now she loves Game of Thrones. Kids are very tough and they enjoy scary things. I'm glad I didn't have to stop her dressing up and going to parties at this time of year.
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  212

  Why Do You No Longer Believe in God?

  by Tenacious in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i know this question has popped up from time to time but i really would like to know how you guys, those that no longer believe, came to that conclusion?

  was it the wts and all its crap?

  was it something you read?

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  Xanthippe

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    Viviane6 hours ago

    Viviane you still haven't answered bohm's reply to your challenge to name an evolving computer program.

    Yes, I did. And it wasn't a challenge, it was a request for proof of EoMs claim (which bohm was also unable to answer).

    Flag Dislike Like+0 / -1
  • You still haven't answered bohm. I don't know why anyone thinks this woman is an intellectual. She ignores people who answer her with facts and plays debating tricks with words. I seriously worry about anyone who values her intellectual prowess.
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  212

  Why Do You No Longer Believe in God?

  by Tenacious in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i know this question has popped up from time to time but i really would like to know how you guys, those that no longer believe, came to that conclusion?

  was it the wts and all its crap?

  was it something you read?

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  Xanthippe

  • 

    bohm. a day ago

    EOM: Computer programs absolutely can evolve!
    VIV: Awesome, name a computer program that evolved on it's own.

    This is fairly easy. You can find many examples of evolving computer program within the field of evolutionary computing. To start you can go to google scholar and search for "genetic algorithm" (1.9mio hits), or if you prefer an ordering by application domain and specific programs check out the list on wikipedia:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_genetic_algorithm_applications

    if you prefer a single current example you can check out evolino, an application where neural architechtures are evolved for control tasks: http://people.idsia.ch/~juergen/evolino.html

    I notice you appended "on it's own" to EOM's statement. This would (strictly speaking!) make your statement true since a computer program "on it's own" presumably would be a computer program without a medium to run it, however this would clearly also be a strawman.
    
    

    Flag Dislike Like
    
    Viviane you still haven't answered bohm's reply to your challenge to name an evolving computer program. Debating tactics are quite fun but when you use them rather than replying to a valid answer it points to a lack of knowledge of the subject in hand.