Skimmer

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Posts by Skimmer

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  10

  A couple of comparisons: the WT of today vs the early 1970s

  by Skimmer in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  the other day i happened to make my monthly stop at the local fast food joint when i usually borrow one of the community newspapers for an afternoon read.

  this time around i see a couple of wt magazines.

  as always, my concerns for my fellow man caused me to grab these toxic items for a later meal -- a meal fed to my cross cut shredder at home.

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  Skimmer

  With the advent of the Potemkin/KoolAid split, I expect a few changes apart from the partition of study vs general interest articles.
  
  The Potemkin (public) edition will retain full color printing and may indeed have physical production quality increased; e.g., larger page size, glossy paper, and higher resolution printing. On the other hand, the KoolAid (private) edition may see a reversion to monochrome printing and cheaper paper (if such exists). The basic idea here is that the WTBTS wants to maximize cash input, so they're not going so expend any resources on an edition intended only for cheap JWs.
  
  Also, with the coming of the Potemkin WT edition, I doubt that the Awake rag is going to be around too much longer. Likewise, the Kingdom Ministry will also disappear with the KoolAid WT edition taking up the slack.
  
  Isn't amazing that all "new light" regarding organizational changes can be explained by that love of money that is the root of all evil?
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  5

  Chuckie Russell would have loved this

  by Skimmer in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  why settle for a two meter high pyramid cemetery monument when you can have one a couple of hundred times taller?

  see: http://www.thegreatpyramid.org/ .

  chuckie might not have wanted to share his space, though.

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  Skimmer

  Why settle for a two meter high pyramid cemetery monument when you can have one a couple of hundred times taller?
  
  See: http://www.thegreatpyramid.org/
  
  Chuckie might not have wanted to share his space, though. Or maybe they wouldn't have allowed him engravings like "The Laodician Messenger" or the WTBTS Cross and Crown seal.
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  10

  A couple of comparisons: the WT of today vs the early 1970s

  by Skimmer in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  the other day i happened to make my monthly stop at the local fast food joint when i usually borrow one of the community newspapers for an afternoon read.

  this time around i see a couple of wt magazines.

  as always, my concerns for my fellow man caused me to grab these toxic items for a later meal -- a meal fed to my cross cut shredder at home.

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  Skimmer

  I distinctly recall that the word "destroyed" appeared in what looked like a boiler plate forward in the upper half of the inside front cover. The WT issue date was mid 2006.
  
  The sixth grade reading level of today is not much different than that of the mid 1970s. I don't think that, in general, the average reading skill level has changed that much. But the WT target level has certainly dropped a few notches.
  
  I'm pretty sure that the US$0.50 number came from some WTBTS suggested contribution list. Also, I think it was the price before the WTBTS-assisted Jimmy Swaggart tax avoidance case was lost.
  
  And if the money isn't important, why doesn't the WTBTS make all their literature available for free via download or email distribution lists?
  
  -----
  
  Hey, the WT magazine is supposed to be from God's Only True Channel(tm) and its "scholarly" contents (supposedly) provide the equivalent of a college education. (Uh, maybe the Awake rag is needed for this as well.) These periodicals are reported (by themselves) to come from the only people who have Divine Spirit Directed(tm) knowledge of the Deep Things(tm) of God. Can't we expect something that's at least as good as the local (and free) television listings newspaper supplement?
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  10

  A couple of comparisons: the WT of today vs the early 1970s

  by Skimmer in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  the other day i happened to make my monthly stop at the local fast food joint when i usually borrow one of the community newspapers for an afternoon read.

  this time around i see a couple of wt magazines.

  as always, my concerns for my fellow man caused me to grab these toxic items for a later meal -- a meal fed to my cross cut shredder at home.

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  2. 
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• 

  Skimmer

  The other day I happened to make my monthly stop at the local fast food joint when I usually borrow one of the community newspapers for an afternoon read. This time around I see a couple of WT magazines. As always, my concerns for my fellow man caused me to grab these toxic items for a later meal -- a meal fed to my cross cut shredder at home.
  
  Once home and while I was ripping the magazines apart, I couldn't help but notice a few things; specifically, comparing the latest cultist sewage with their predecessors of some thirty plus years ago. Yes, way back when I turned in a grand total of three months of Field Disservice reports.
  
  1) The forward obviously has no more mention of 1914. But it does have (paraphrased from memory) "the hope that this wicked system will soon be DESTROYED" (emphasis is mine). I don't remember any DESTROYED from back in the early 1970s. The WTBTS is a religion of hate and at least it's honest enough to have that in every magazine. Alas, it's not honest enough to admit it's been saying "soon" for a dozen decades and counting.
  
  2) The text is a pale shadow of that seen in the earlier screeds. Using metrics like total distinct vocabulary, average word length, average word count per sentence, etc., the current target educational reading level must be at least three years less than that expected in the early 1970s.
  
  3) Comparing the physical characteristics: the new has more color than the old along with much more photographic and drawn artwork. But the magazine is smaller and much flimsier -- I don't see how they could make it any more cheaply and still have it hold together. Are they really asking for a (suggested) US$0.50 per issue? I've seen better production values in the free advertising supplements in local papers and also in junk mail.
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  36

  "Playing Chess is evil, not for Witnesses" -Awake 1973

  by Witness 007 in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  awake 73 3/22 p.12 "....the spirit of competition between players can lead to unpleasant circumstances, as the new york times reported: most families manage to keep the conflicts that arise in games to the chess board.

  but in some homes tensions linger long past checkmate.

  chess has been a game of war since it was originated 1,400 years ago....the games connections with war are obvious...a play-substitute for the art of war.

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  Skimmer

  The WTBTS article implies that playing chess invariably leads to all kinds of nasty thoughts. Does this mean that the WTBTS believes that a computer program that plays chess is capable of thought? Or, it the article just more fetid steam emanating from the WTBTS corporate ass? Oh, and I've written strong chess programs: my name's in this list (but I won't say which entry): http://www.taccl.org/2007PresPart.html
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  8

  Folding@home - help find cures!

  by daystar in

  1. social
  2. current

  i don't know if this has ever been mentioned here, but there is this project.. well... it's probably best i just copy what their site says.... this is a project of stanford university.

  if you want to jump to what sort of results have been achieved thus far with this project - http://folding.stanford.edu/results.html.

  i have already set up a jwd team there.

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  Skimmer

  I joined a long time ago, and am now in the top three percent of individual contributors. Oh, I already have my own team.
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  11

  Spoilers for _Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_

  by Skimmer in

  1. social
  2. entertainment

  spoilers for _harry potter and the deathly hallows_: do not click on the following link unless you really, really want to see the spoilers about who dies and who lives.

  http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=251717&cid=19896869 .

  i've verified the above information; it's not based on fan fiction.

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  Skimmer

  There is a religious angle in the book, and in a couple of the previous books; the topic of surviving death. In the Hogwarts mythos there were hints of this with the talking portraits of deceased headmasters, and then even more references in the Ministry of Magic's Department of Mysteries. Without giving away any details, I'll say that this topic is further explored in HP7. (Big Hint: consider the character Gandalf in _Lord of the Rings_ and how he gives his life for his friends and is then granted a resurrection of sorts to help further in even a greater way.)
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  11

  Spoilers for _Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_

  by Skimmer in

  1. social
  2. entertainment

  spoilers for _harry potter and the deathly hallows_: do not click on the following link unless you really, really want to see the spoilers about who dies and who lives.

  http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=251717&cid=19896869 .

  i've verified the above information; it's not based on fan fiction.

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  Skimmer

  And don't even think of looking at: http://harrypotter7spoilers.blogspot.com/
• 
  11

  Spoilers for _Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_

  by Skimmer in

  1. social
  2. entertainment

  spoilers for _harry potter and the deathly hallows_: do not click on the following link unless you really, really want to see the spoilers about who dies and who lives.

  http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=251717&cid=19896869 .

  i've verified the above information; it's not based on fan fiction.

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  Skimmer

  Spoilers for _Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_: Do not click on the following link unless you really, really want to see the spoilers about who dies and who lives.
  
  http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=251717&cid=19896869
  
  I've verified the above information; it's not based on fan fiction.
• 
  81

  Information Release

  by JWD Temp in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  note to admins: this jwd account may be deleted after this post.

  i have created this temp account as a further attempt to remain anonymous with this posting.

  an internal resource has revealed that the following has been discussed at jw hq: .

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• 

  Skimmer

  "Is there a mathematician in the house?"
  
  Yes, there is.
  
  The canary trap system has seen a lot of use over the years. The first time I heard of it was a few decades ago when the British government used it in hard copy press releases that had embargo dates. If a press release was leaked early, the government wanted to know who leaked photocopies and so provided slightly different copies to each recipient. Interestingly, the text on each release was the same, but the word breaks at the end of each line were altered. (Remember, this was in the days before word processing was common.)
  
  A more recent and more widespread use of a canary trap is found in the DRM content protection system used in both BluRay and HD-DVD disks. I won't go into the technical details here, but suffice it to say that it can be used to help identify rogue disk producers who have once had a valid license but had it revoked.
  
  Can the slimeball WTBTS employ canary traps? Certainly. But there are ways of detecting and evading such use. Perhaps the simplest way is to procure two or more documents from disparate sources and examine the contents for differences. But beware, as some of these traps can be very subtle.
  
  There are more sophisticated ways to detect and defeat canary traps, particularly with electronic documents. I will not describe these in an open forum, but perhaps this topic could be further explored in the closed campaign tactics forum. (I need an invitation first.)