Posts by GrreatTeacher

41

If you found out TTATT at 80 and spent your entire life at Bethel, what would you do?

by John Aquila in

would you do a ray franz deal and write a book or keep quiet and live out the rest of your life in bethel?.

would you keep reading the watchtower magazine?.

GrreatTeacher

3rdgen, I hadn't heard your story before. You're very brave. I hope you, your husband and your daughter are building a happy new life.

22

Hope y'all in Texas are doing OK !

by Simon in

some terrible flooding happening there.. i never realized that texas was so prone to serious floods and flash-floods because of the geography and weather.

it tops the stats nearly every year for flood fatalities.. stay safe, stay dry if you can and don't take any chances.

water is unbelievably powerful - whatever vehicle you have it can sweep it away like a twig.

Glad you're surviving, Terry. Hailstorms are crazy. We got a good deal on a truck once because a hailstorm had left a few dents on the roof and hood. It was a white work truck, so who cares about a few dents? I'm assuming you don't park your bike outdoors. :)

22

Hope y'all in Texas are doing OK !

by Simon in

some terrible flooding happening there.. i never realized that texas was so prone to serious floods and flash-floods because of the geography and weather.

it tops the stats nearly every year for flood fatalities.. stay safe, stay dry if you can and don't take any chances.

water is unbelievably powerful - whatever vehicle you have it can sweep it away like a twig.

GrreatTeacher

How are you all doing in Texas today? We got terrible thunder and lightening storms rolling through last night. Did you send it all to the East Coast?

20

You could be an ex JW……..

by punkofnice in

if the only song you know by jimi hendrix is.................(fill in the blank).

if you are under the illusion hank marvin can actually play the guitar.. if you think the shadows and prince would make a great super group.. if the time 'half past eight' frightens you because it sounds like apostate!.

if you look around for a spy before wishing a happy birthday.. if you have never seen 'the exorcist' or harry potter movies.. if every time you see 6.07 on a digital clock you think of 5.39.. if you find yourself thinking, 'i must look that up.'.

GrreatTeacher

Just what were you looking for on the package of processed meat? We didn't have that particular quirk here.

20

You could be an ex JW……..

by punkofnice in

if the only song you know by jimi hendrix is.................(fill in the blank).

if you are under the illusion hank marvin can actually play the guitar.. if you think the shadows and prince would make a great super group.. if the time 'half past eight' frightens you because it sounds like apostate!.

if you look around for a spy before wishing a happy birthday.. if you have never seen 'the exorcist' or harry potter movies.. if every time you see 6.07 on a digital clock you think of 5.39.. if you find yourself thinking, 'i must look that up.'.

GrreatTeacher

Unky Punky, you're back!

Glad to hear from you! How's life?

22

Hope y'all in Texas are doing OK !

by Simon in

some terrible flooding happening there.. i never realized that texas was so prone to serious floods and flash-floods because of the geography and weather.

it tops the stats nearly every year for flood fatalities.. stay safe, stay dry if you can and don't take any chances.

water is unbelievably powerful - whatever vehicle you have it can sweep it away like a twig.

GrreatTeacher

Yes, my thoughts are with you all in Texas. I've lived through hurricanes and I know how scary it can be with flooding. Hoping the sun shines again for you soon.

28

Could you ever really relax in a self-driving car?

by Simon in

i love science and technology and we are living in a golden age right now.

the world has changed in so many incredible ways just in the time i've been alive.. my first car was a vauxhall viva.

it was brilliant because it was my first car and represented freedom.

GrreatTeacher

I don't know. On the one hand it is cool, but on tbe other hand, I just don't see how it would work with high volume, bumper to bumper traffic like where I live in the DC, Annapolis, Chesapeake Bay Bridge area. Can the technology deal with traffic moving at 5 mph with other cars suddenly cutting in front of you, then traffic speeding up then slowing down again, then going through the bottleneck of the toll facilities, then a 4 mile bridge with traffic that stops suddenly on a swaying structure? I mean, this is a daily commute here.

Just skeptical, I guess. Remember when cruise control was invented and was supposed to be this great way to improve miles per gallon? Well, I always get better gas mileage than cruise control. And, also, it's only useful in certain circumstances where traffic is not very heavy. That's not useful where I live, either.

I guess I would just like a chance to try to "break" the ttechnology. Those mirrors that sense if a car is getting too close? Fun to drive too close on the highway and deliberately set them off! Then people ignore them just like I ignore the Seatbelt light because it goes off when I put my big old purse on the passenger seat. If technology is too sensitive and not adaptive to real life contingencies, then it gets ignored. You override the technology, in which case, why pay extra for it?

20

How do I get the COBE to pay back the money he and his ripped off from my ex-wife, he's the guy who claims he make's Pedophiles Holy by YHWH's power!

by PhilsWager2 in

the cobe of the local kingdom hall never paid my ex-wife for the work done because they promised they would use "trade" to reimburse close to $5000 worth of work.

as you can imagine nobody here would like him because he believes all the pedophiles can change their ways after the child sex offenders have proved their humility by bowing before the judicial committees.

this is how honest jehovah's witnesses are, they changed her work from a 1200 sq.

GrreatTeacher

Your COBE sounds like a real piece of work. Call the county tax assessor's office and let them deal with him. Don't worry about getting him in trouble with the organization. He's exactly the type of man the org wants now and they will likely defend him. Sad but true.

10

An excellent (and funny) example of Cognitive Bias

by Slave4_38y in

i saw this and immediately thought about how this relates to us.

once you've learned how to ride the ttatt-bicycle it's almost impossible to ride the "truth"-bicycle again.

https://youtu.be/mfzdabzbll0.

GrreatTeacher

Hey, Oubliette, I just realized that my first sentence is completely unclear. Too many commas and not enough clarity. I need to go back and proofread before I post.

The motor skills learning is NOT an example of cognitive bias. Cognitive biases are logic-deficient thought processes that can cause one to come to faulty conclusions.

I also thought the "welders are smarter than engineers" comment was ridiculous. Also annoying was the scripture reference at the end of the video. It was Proverbs something or other flashed on the screen without an actual quote.

My neuroscience information came from a book by Norman Doidge, MD entitled "The Brain's Way of Healing; Remarkable Discoveries and Recoveries from the Frontiers of Neuroplasticity."

...

I just proofread and am now posting!

10

An excellent (and funny) example of Cognitive Bias

by Slave4_38y in

i saw this and immediately thought about how this relates to us.

once you've learned how to ride the ttatt-bicycle it's almost impossible to ride the "truth"-bicycle again.

https://youtu.be/mfzdabzbll0.

GrreatTeacher

This is not really an example of cognitive bias, which is about making irrational judgement, and more about learning, which is affected by neurons that fire together (or don't. )

Neuroscience, which is the study of brain cells (called neurons) can help us understand how we learn. "Neurons that fire together wire together" is the concept that once we learn a skill, like riding a bike, the neurons wire together and pull that pattern up whenever we attempt to ride a bike again. Hence the belief that you can never forget how to ride a bike.

However, neuroplasticity is the idea that our neurons are flexible. When we first try to ride the backwards bike, our brains call up the bike riding formula. When it doesn't work, it takes awhile, but we can learn the new skill. Our neurons now fire together in this new way and this becomes the new "how to ride a bike" skill set.

"Use it or lose it" is another concept in neurology. Once those neurons start firing in this new pattern, the old pattern becomes increasingly difficult to access. The brain is undergoing "differentiation" in which the old patterns unwire.

The interesting thing, though, was that he was able to access the original pattern (or algorithm as he calls it) after only 20 minutes. It is still there! He had replaced the "how to ride a bike meme" with the "how to ride a backwards bike" meme. Anything that looked like a bike, then, would pull up the new algorithm. The question is whether he could differentiate the 2 algorithms and pull them up at will to represent the bike at hand.

I would like to see this experiment continue and see if his brain could continue to differentiate to the point that both algorithms are there and he could seamlessly switch between the 2 immediately after getting on a bike and noticing whether it was a regular bike or a backward bike. Neuroplasticity says he could do it!

So, the bad news about our brains on "the truth": our brains wire in specific patterns.

The good news: we can learn new patterns which can become just as automatic as the old. It just takes practice.