It's not a 10% reduction in weight. The whole thing originally weighed a 16oz then you added in the 30g of syrup. so that's a little more than 17oz. So when it drops from 30g to 26g that's not reflective of a 10% drop in mass because the scale was set to show only the difference over 16oz, remember? So the difference is actually much less than 10% - something like a little over 0.5%. I find this very believable and easily attributable to evaporation of some of the liquid owing to the heating in the microwave and exacerbated by the agitation of the hot liquid due to stirring.
Island Man
JoinedPosts by Island Man
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25
A baffling physics question
by FatFreek 2005 infor several weeks i've been treating myself to a hot chocolate milk (well, soymilk) before bedtime.
some 16 oz soymilk which i heat on high in our microwave oven.
this is just enough time where the liquid begins to bubble along the top edge.. i then take it out of the microwave and place it on my kitchen gram scale, stir it good enough to redistribute the heat, then reset the scale to zero grams.. next, i squeeze in the hershey's sytup, "special dark mildly sweet chocolate" (fat free) into the warmed soymilk till the scale reads some 30 grams.
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58
Just a quick Poll...Do you think the GB is sincere?
by NikL ini've been thinking about this the past few days and curious what the honest consensus is here just for fun.. show of hands,.
is the governing body.... a: completely sincere.
they really do believe what they teach.. b: somewhat sincere.
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Island Man
D: It's a mix.
They are sincere about their belief in Jehovah and the bible and much of the more sobre, "mainstream" JW teachings. But they are insincere about their tactics of manipulation and some of the more crazy Watchtower teachings. They have deceived themselves into thinking that their manipulative tactics, policies and crazy teachings somehow serve as a protection to the organization and the rank and file JWs whom they oversee. They subscribe to the philosophy of "the ends justify the means" so they feel justified in lying to the rank and file and the public to serve the greater ends of protecting and preserving "Jehovah's Organization".
If you look at first JW broadcast that Samuel Herd did, you'll notice what he said about the accusation that JWs use brainwashing. He didn't deny the accusation. Instead, he sought to put a positive spin on their use of brainwashing by saying JWs minds are washed from the filth of the world. This is a perfect illustration of how they subscribe to the philosophy that "the ends justify the means".
A part of them also enjoys the prominence and authority they have and they will resort to vulgar and unethical means to preserve and protect it - like declaring that they alone are the faithful and discreet slave. But they will rationalize such actions by deceiving themselves and saying that it's not their status they're protecting but the organization. The spanking new headquarters with amenities and living quarters that they will enjoy - is all for Jehovah, you see...
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Marc & Cora on YouTube causing unnecessary divisions
by jambon1 inwhat is it with this pair?
why do they have to constantly have a bitch about guys like john cedars?
a very recent video of them shows them calling him a 'village idiot' and making other disparaging claims.
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Island Man
That is one thing Wt has got over apostates. They have a united front. It may be faked, forced or phoney but Wt is united. Apostates are just to fragmented.
I disagree. True unity is the ability to work together despite having differences and while respecting others's differences. Watchtower does not have that. Watchtower has a stifling, dystopian, enforced conformity.
They foolishly think that disagreement is a bad thing. It's not. An environment in which disagreement is permitted and respected, is an environment that is friendly to new ideas - an environment that fosters creativity and innovation. An environment with enforced conformity is one of intellectual stagnation where needed changes and innovation come very, very, very slowly - perhaps too late.
I personally don't think banning is the solution. Mandatory public education in critical thinking, the dangers of coercive persuasion and cults in general, is.
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Marc & Cora on YouTube causing unnecessary divisions
by jambon1 inwhat is it with this pair?
why do they have to constantly have a bitch about guys like john cedars?
a very recent video of them shows them calling him a 'village idiot' and making other disparaging claims.
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Island Man
Respectful and peaceful disagreement is something that ex-JWs never learned from their time in Watchtower. They were indoctrinated to believe that there can be no harmony and unity unless all have the same beliefs. They were indoctrinated to believe that there is one correct way and those disagreeing with it are divisive troublemakers. They equate disagreement with division and rebellion and strife. They see those disagreeing with them as being bad.
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"There is evidence of a Creator if you just look for it"
by unsure in(for the record, i’m agnostic who is earnestly seeking an objective, honest and concrete hope for something greater).
“there is evidence of a creator if you just look for it”.
many of us have heard similar sentences from believers regarding proof of creator, proof that their religion is the correct one, proof that their particular sect is the right one, proof that their individual sects interpretation of a certain religious text is the right one, proof that their own personal interpretation of a certain religious text is the right one; the list goes on.. in one of my previous posts, i shared the following thought of mine:.
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Island Man
There is also much "evidence" for ghosts, for those who look for them. lol.
One can find
confirmation bias"evidence" for just about anything that one is looking for. -
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Russia - JWs Counterclaim
by Listener inthe witnesses lodged a counterclaim against their lawsuit on the 30 march, 2017.their argument is that the actions of the ministry of justice against them are 'political repressions'.the following link states "in the lawsuit numerous instances are cited testifying to the fact that prosecution of jehovah's witnesses is politically motivated."http://www2.stetson.edu/~psteeves/relnews/170402a.html.
it is a contradiction to what they have written in their "political neutrality' leaflet which states.
jehovah’s witnesses do not involve themselves in political issues or governmental affairs.
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Island Man
Apart from the issue of political neutrality, JWs have also stated that being "no part of the world" means not meddling in the social and other controversies. Well isn't the Russian govts' crackdown on religious extremism a controversy of sorts? Aren't JWs involving themselves in this controversy by writing Russian govt. officials on the issue?
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You can defeat lies with truth. But you can only suppress truth with censorship.
by Island Man inwatchtower bans jws from visiting apostate sites and reading apostate literature.
banning is the tool of the weak and the cowardly, those lacking the courage and/or strength to defeat the enemy face to face.
we ban - quarantine - infected ebola patients from the rest of the population because it's a strong disease and we lack a cure for it.
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Island Man
Watchtower bans JWs from visiting apostate sites and reading apostate literature. Banning is the tool of the weak and the cowardly, those lacking the courage and/or strength to defeat the enemy face to face. We ban - quarantine - infected ebola patients from the rest of the population because it's a strong disease and we lack a cure for it. Banning a religion only makes it seem strong, and the one doing the banning - a weak coward. But isn't the Watchtower religion actually very weak. Yes, it's a strong and smooth talker but it is weak, lacking in substance. It is built on lies - 607 BCE, 1914, 1919 FDS appointment, etc. In the fight between truth and lies, the lie is the weak coward and the truth is the invincible, courageous fighter.
What chance does a weak coward stand in a fight with an invincible courageous fighter? None. His only option is to run and hide from the invincible fighter. Provable truth is the invincible courageous warrior and lies fostered by ignorance is the weak coward. Thus, Watchtower, on the side of the weak coward, runs and hides from those on the side of truth - the apostates. How? By censorship. By banning apostate information. It's the only workable option they have because they can't directly refute the truths exposed by apostates. Because provable truth always defeats lies fostered by ignorance, hands down.
But if the weak coward is running and hiding how is the invincible fighter to defeat him? The invincible, courageous fighter must find the weak coward in order to defeat him. Imagine if the invincible fighter thought he could defeat the coward by refusing to fight him and instead gets a restraining order to prevent the coward from coming within 100 feet of him. What would people think? 'Oh, I guess that so-called invincible fighter is worried that he can't win in a fight with that so-called coward, huh. Maybe that so-called weak coward is actually a badass in chicken's feathers ...'. That's analogous to what the Russian government is doing. By outlawing the JWs the government is actually drawing more curiosity and interest in the religion than the JWs themselves are able to do by their own preaching efforts - you know what they say about forbidden fruits...
It's a battle between truth and lies, strength and weakness, knowledge and ignorance. Banning promotes/fosters/continues ignorance and thus serves the side of the lie. Openness promotes the flow of information - paving the roadway for truth to walk up and face the lie square on and fight him. So banning is not the solution. Openness is. The Russian government - all governments - need to deal with religious cults by being more open with the population as a whole. How? There needs to be greater emphasis in schools on the subject of critical thinking and identifying logical fallacies. There also needs to be rigorous education campaigns sensitizing the public about the subject of cults and coercive persuasion. That's fighting the cults head on by inoculating minds (Inoculating vulnerable populations with an ebola vaccine is so much better at fighting the disease, than quarantining victims after infection, don't you think? Isn't that how polio was almost eradicated?) Make it illegal for parents to not send their children to state accredited schools, and make education on critical thinking and cult tactics mandatory subjects in all schools with state accreditation. All cults will be defeated this way - without having to ban anyone; without having to single out any cult by name and making them feel like special martyrs.
How can any cult fight this? They can't take their children out of the schools to prevent them from being educated in critical thinking and the dangers of cult tactics because then they would be breaking the law and will be liable to having the state take custody of their children. They can't set up their own cult schools that refuse to teach critical thinking and the dangers of cults because they will lack state accreditation and the parents who send their children there will be breaking the law that says your child must be educated in a state accredited school.
Make it impossible or extremely difficult for cult members to avoid information on critical thinking and cult awareness. Make it an essential subject in schools like Math and English. This is the weak coward being actively engaged by the invincible warrior and having nowhere to run and hide. This is how governments can defeat the JWs and all cults.
Seems like the Russian govt. has bought into the JWs lie of "The Truth" and thus they're resorting to the tactic of censorship
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Mathematically Measuring Evolution.
by towerwatchman inmathematically measuring evolution.. when judging relationships in terms of morphological characteristics we will always be bound by the subjective.
morphologically one cannot exactly measure the distance between two organisms strictly in mathematical terms.
using the standard method of taxonomy we cannot quantify the difference between a horse and a mouse, or know which is closer mouse to cat, or mouse to fish.
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Island Man
Ignorance + intellectual dishonesty = Creationists
Ignorance + intellectual dishonesty + fallacious reasoning = Creationists
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The Pagan Origins of the Memorial Observed by Jehovah’s Witnesses
by David_Jay in“we don’t celebrate holidays because god doesn’t approve of any celebration that is rooted in pagan customs and manmade traditions.” (see here for a similar jw response.).
if you were once an ex-jw like me, you have probably said something like this out in field service to someone who asked the question: why don’t you people celebrate holidays?
as the witnesses' official website states in an faq about not celebrating easter:.
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Island Man
One thing I will say is that the use of wine at the passover is a human tradition, which, does not comport with the JW self-righteous mindset. How so?
- The Mosaic Law stipulated that the passover bread be unleavened.
- Leaven is used to symbolize sin.
- Wine is a "leavened" drink.
- Therefore, according to the JW self-righteous mindset, abstaining from leavened bread on the passover would also mean, in principle, abstaining from alcohol.
But the Jews started the tradition of drinking wine at the passover and Jesus, instead of being like a good self-righteous JW and condemning this tradition, co-opts it and uses the wine in his own memorial ritual. Thus it is shown that Jesus is very much not a JW and his willingness to use wine at his memorial celebration implicitly exposes the self-righteous nature of JW reasoning.
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Scriptures that now have such a different meaning?!
by stuckinarut2 init struck me that so many of the scriptures that the society uses to condemn others, can actually apply to them!.
when we read them without the application that the society enforces, they can make you have that "ah-ha!
" moment.... for instance, how about:.
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Island Man
JWs gloating and boasting about their organization, saying there is none like it in the world, is tantamount to worship - idolatry - according to this verse:
"...and they worshipped the wild beast with the words: “Who is like the wild beast, and who can do battle with it?" - Revelation 13:4
JWs regularly point to their "powerful works" such as preaching in many lands, and having their literature translated in many languages, as proof that they have Jehovah and Jesus' approval. This isn't much different to the attitude of those that Jesus will reject according to this verse:
"Many will say to me in that day: ‘Lord, Lord,+ did we not prophesy in your name, and expel demons in your name, and perform many powerful works in your name?’+ 23 And then I will declare to them: ‘I never knew you! Get away from me, you workers of lawlessness!’" - Matthew 7:22,23
JWs love to make a big deal about the origins and meanings of words in their efforts to find fault with, and proudly separate themselves from, the rest of christendom. They use such things to exalt themselves as having special knowledge that others lack and to draw away disaffected members of christendom. Think of the big fuss they make over the original meaning of the word stauros while they conveniently ignore the later usages that it acquired by Jesus' day. This attitude and the ugly fruits it produces is mentioned in this scripture:
"he is puffed up with pride and does not understand anything.+ He is obsessed* with arguments and debates about words.+ These things give rise to envy, strife, slander,* wicked suspicions, 5 constant disputes about minor matters by men who are corrupted in mind+ and deprived of the truth, thinking that godly devotion is a means of gain." - 1 Timothy 6:4,5