https://youtu.be/5926nhzyz90.
the jehovah's witness 2023 convention theme is, ''exercise patience''...by looking at the attendance at this tucson, arizona convention, it should be changed to, '' jehovah's witnesses...running out of patience''.
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Interesting. Why not add this to the thread at https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5094102643769344/regional-convention-attendance
We're trying to collect anecdotes about attendances (or lack of them) at various RCs in different parts of the world.
in one form or another i've been a member of this site for almost 10 years.
in the past this was a great place for debate, news and support for ex jws.
i logged on several times a day and posted several times a week.
Oh Syd you are awful....but I like you!(heaves bosom)
Bless you, my child!
original reddit post (removed).
I think when he said there would be "a new twist on the random creation video " he will probably insert himself, again , in that video like he did in the past.
It's a good point. Let's face it, he doesn't have any other options - it's not like there is a huge cast of people lining up to support him these days!
I remember he once had someone write a song which was a parody of one of the Org's "original songs" - about the best life ever, I think it was - which he featured. Again, to be able to do something like that, or to produce a parody skit of one of the Org's videos, he would need more people than are likely to rally round him now.
Or maybe he thinks his own songwriting and singing skills are good enough to have a shot at parodying a Kingdom song. Can you imagine? It will take a lot to make exJWs wish they were listening to a real Kingdom song, but that would be one way to do it!
the "independent scotland" thread got me thinking on this.
there are a lot of brits on this board.
what are your thoughts on brexit?
The luxury of being an island.
It's not only that, it's probably also because of not having been occupied in WWII. Of course, that itself was in part due to Britain being an island, but it was also down to specific choices by Hitler (which, fortunately for the rest of the world, proved to be poor strategic ones) and Britain's responses to them.
Not being subject to occupation and subjugation by the enemy (on the mainland at least) as much of western Europe was, meant that the British felt little need for joining a postwar federation of states, and in turn, meant that Britons were more likely to think that being part of such a union was itself a form of subjugation. The only reason for Britain to do so was purely economic and that's how the Heath government eventually sold it to the voters - that the EEC would be good for jobs, trade and the pound in the pocket.
In reality, that was never the sole extent of the EEC/EC/EU project. It was always intended to become a much closer union, as the Treaty of Rome makes clear and subsequent treaties made that even more apparent. That disconnect between the stated aims and the way it was sold to the British voters was the foundation of that strained relationship and the strong Euro-scepticism, and as the greater aims became clearer, so did the tensions over Europe in the UK.
My personal view is that both the EU and UK are better with the UK outside the EU but being a friendly ally. The problem with the way that Brexit has unravelled so far is that the latter part - "being a friendly ally" - has not worked out yet. But hopefully, with the passage of time, cooler heads will prevail and both sides will settle into a relationship like two friendly next-door neighbours, rather than a household of squabbling flatmates.
in one form or another i've been a member of this site for almost 10 years.
in the past this was a great place for debate, news and support for ex jws.
i logged on several times a day and posted several times a week.
I'm not turned off from this site as much as the Reddit site.
There are just too many kids on there complaining about the meetings...
I completely agree. The Reddit site is a nightmare. There's the occasional genuinely interesting post with a sensible critique of something in WT or a juicy piece of information, but you have to pick through a lot of dross and to find it.
For example, I saw one thread, allegedly by a newly-PIMO elder, complaining about specific issues in his congregation and how he was trying to exit but it looked like it had been written by a 14 year old. Call me a snob, but for me, that instantly reduced the credibility of the writer.
Also, a lot of the questions asked there make me wonder if most of the people there have ever actually paid attention to what they were supposed to be believing. Occasionally we get a question or criticism here from someone that shows they never properly understood what WT teach, but there it seems to be a regular thing. Sure, criticise the theology, but at least try to understand what it is first (I know that can be hard with something like Splane's "overlapping generations", but most of it is a bit more understandable than that!)
yeah, so i've bought this film recently but have never seen it.. i've kinda heard that it's a good film.
i certainly like director nicolas roeg's film don't look now (1973).
roeg also directed this film, the man who fell to earth (1976).. so, i was just wondering if any of you have seen it, and what you thought of it.. er, try not to give spoilers, please ....
So err... you want us to comment on our thoughts about a film but without giving any spoilers?
That limits things a bit.
But yes, I did see it many years ago and I can't remember it in great detail, but it was vaguely interesting. A bit odd but good if you like that sort of thing. It's how you'd imagine a film with 70s-era Bowie in to be. What can I say?
Apparently, Bowie spent most of the time while making the movie on coke (and not the fizzy drink) so he reckoned he couldn't really remember anything about it. That should tell you something about it too!
original reddit post (removed).
It seems our 'friend' might be trying something different. Or at least, he's trying to create renewed interest in his convention reviews. We'll see how that works out for him...
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/05/nato-rapid-reaction-force-counter-russia-ukraine.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2015/02/08/russia-investors-on-war-watch-wednesday/.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/11397924/ukraine-crisis-europe-and-us-debate-how-to-handle-russia-live.html.
Found the footage of Prigozhin delivering his letter to the Russian MoD. Apparently, it was supposed to be his formal 'surrender' of Wagner forces to the Russian military so that their mercenaries could be absorbed into the Russian army, but instead he wrote a rambling letter making various counter-demands to the Russian military and demanding that Wagner take charge of the war in Ukraine!
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/05/nato-rapid-reaction-force-counter-russia-ukraine.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2015/02/08/russia-investors-on-war-watch-wednesday/.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/11397924/ukraine-crisis-europe-and-us-debate-how-to-handle-russia-live.html.
I'm bumping this thread because there has been a lot going on in Russia in the past few weeks (not least Prigozhin's aborted coup-not-coup) but noone has really mentioned it on this site to date.
I also noticed in re-reading this thread that DJS was very prescient in some of the points he made given what we now know has developed in Ukraine and the proxy conflict between Russia and NATO.
On a lighter note, the weird situation between Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner mercenaries, and Putin's Russian authorities continues with the Russians releasing details about their raid on his HQ in St Petersburg. They released photos of what they seized including cash, weapons and hilariously, a set of disguises including wigs, along with alleged selfies of Prigozhin wearing them.
It's likely this is all an attempt to discredit him in the eyes of the Russian public, but it does seem that the more I see of Prigozhin the more bizarre a character he is! First there was the video of him going to the Russian Ministry of Defence to hand over a letter - just like your average person taking a tax form to their local government office - now this! (Unfortunately I can't find the video I saw on Twitter of him handing in the letter now, but it was gloriously mundane and the woman at the counter shuts the window in his face and leaves when she sees his people are filming!)
Alleged selfies of Prigozhin in "disguise" found:
Footage of raid on Prigozhin’s residence
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tihuBay_DTc
according to a new harris poll shared exclusively with fast company, most americans would prefer to live in a simpler era before everyone was obsessed with screens and social media, and this sentiment is especially strong among older millennials and gen xers.. asked whether they would like to return to a time before humanity was “plugged in”—meaning before people had wide access to the internet and smartphones—77% of americans age 35-54 said they would, the highest of any group.. .
what would you consider your ideal level of the internet?
as a gen x'er, i would not want to go back to the per-internet world, but i would like to go back in some specific technologies.
I love the convenience that today's wider internet access, speeds and technologies have brought but I agree that one of the worst aspects is the overreach of social media.
Another huge potential problem that I believe is looming is linked to the global risk to cybersecurity (which also takes in the issue of possible sunspot activity that Beth Sarim mentioned)
Back in the early days of the internet, right through really to only about 10 years or so ago, critical systems still retained manual backups. Banks, emergency services (911 in the USA, 999 in the UK, etc), social security systems and many others were bringing in computerised operations but they still retained some fallback manual systems or alternative means of access for users in case of critical failure.
Today that's more or less gone, or on the way out, which I fear is actually making our increasingly tech-dependent world more vulnerable not less.
We've already had numerous warnings from periods of hacking activity or outages which have affected financial payments, traffic control and other critical systems in different countries at various times. To date, most of these issues have so far been inconvenient rather than catastrophic, but I suspect it's only a matter of time, with how dependent we are becoming on technology and the fact that so many analogue or manual backup systems have been totally removed, that a nation somewhere may suffer a complete meltdown, either accidentally or caused by sabotage.
A related issue is how many governments and corporations have used increased technology to restrict choice. For example, in the early days of electronic payment it was sold as a convenient alternative way to pay for things that increased customer choice. But now, increasingly the 'old' ways of payment (cash, cheque, etc) are being, or have been, completely removed in favour of solely card or online. Many shops won't take cash now, only card and contactless, and where the option to pay cash remains it's being swiftly marginalised - supermarkets increasingly replacing their humans at checkouts with self-service points which at first used to take cash or card, but often are being 'upgraded' to card only ones now.
Ultimately, that's a restriction of customer choice and, linked to my earlier point, makes shopping more vulnerable to future system failure. Imagine the trouble that could be caused if/when all cash payment is gone but a technical failure or cyberattack causes all store checkouts to go down?
And don't get me started with the nonsense of cryptocurrencies and NFTs...
