I am adding my best wishes and I am glad you stopped by.
Posts by kaik
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119Get well Grace (Mouthy)
by label licker ina loud get well grace from all of us to you.
everyone, grace has been in and out of the hospital and i'm sure she would love to read your get wells.
we miss you grace:) wish i could post pictures.
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26
Have you reconnected with ex-JW's after you have left the Borg?
by EdenOne inafter reading from another thread, i felt it was worth asking this question.. if you left the borg on your own, have you attempted to meet others whom you used to be connected with while you were "in", but who have also become ex-jw's before or after you have left the wts?
if that's the case, has it remained a friendship, or the connection grew cold?
just curious as to what keeps friendships "stick" [or not] once you no longer have the borg's doctrinal glue.. your experiences are welcome.. eden.
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kaik
Nope. I really do not care, it is past. There maybe two or three individuals who I would not mind to be in contanct, but for the rest, it does not matter. I have met several ex-JWs I knew, and some of them are still emotionally messed up. I do not hang with my ex coworkers, schoolmates, and ex-lovers. It is all in the past.
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100 Years Ago Today: World War I Began - July, 28, 1914
by Oubliette in100 years since world war i07/28/14 07:44 am by timothy noah and johnny simon.
"one hundred years ago today, emperor franz josef of austria-hungary declared war on serbia in retaliation for the assassination one month earlier of his heir apparent, archduke franz ferdinand, by a serbian pan-slavic nationalist.
what might otherwise have remained a regional conflict between the dying hapsburg empire and one of its former holdings instead became, through a tangle of alliances and a global power imbalance, two world wars that began in 1914 and ended in 1945, with a 21-year intermission for the jazz age and the great depression.".
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kaik
G. Princip was one of many assassins that appeared in Europe before 1914 (and after WWI). Empress Sophia was killed by Italian anarchist, as was king of Greece, French President, American, and so on. If there was no G. Princip, there would be another assassin. However, there is a huge difference between Austrian treatment of Serbia and Italy in both cases. When Sophia was stabbed to death, Austria did not declare war on Italy because of this incident. Serbia was isolated after coup of 1903 and relationship between two countries deteriorated. Prior the coup and decimation of Serbian dynasty, the relationship between Belgrade and Vienna was good. Draga Masin was Austrian-Czech heritage, as was Zofie Chotek. Russia was under leadership of weak but aggressive Tzar who wanted score a military victory after being defeted by Japan. It is well known that Russia had infiltrated Austrian War ministry and had knowledge of all miliary planning and defenses in Galicia from the highest circle of the command. Russia felt it was excluded from Balkans and only country it could successfully threaten on the western border was Austria. Romania was allied to Germany as did Bulgaria. Both Balkan states had treaty with Central Powers. Romania switched sides because France promised a chunk of the Hungarian territory. Russia was determinated to break the German control of Balkans it had since 1878. The Austrian shelling of Belgrade gave Russians excuse to attack Austria even without declaration of war. Austria-Hungary declared war on Russia week after it was invaded.
Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia were two different cases and totally different entities, economically, socially, culturally, and politically. Yugoslavia was dominated by Serbia and had all state infrastructure, dynasty, ministries, and international recongition before 1914. The Serbian monarchy extended control into the western Balkans. The Yugoslav state was only held by good will of Tito under duress of Soviet fear. Czechoslovakia was created from the scratch, but it was still a smaller version of Austria-Hungary. The laws, the political system, parties, judicial structure survived 1918 directly from Austrian system until WWII. The criminal law was in effect there from 1852 until 1950. The only difference from the past was the democratic structure of the Czechoslovak presidential republic modeled on American system. First lady was American from Brooklyn. Both countries, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia collapsed in WWII and there was very little will to keep the federative republics together. Slovakia wrestled much of independence in 1968 after Soviet occupation of Prague. Eventually entire generation grew up feeling foreigner to the other entity when Czechoslovakia collapsed in 1992.
I see WWI as crossroad of several political waves that held Europe for several decades and they crossed and intersected at the same time. It was not coincidence. Polish and Czech population wanted independence as had Hungary since 1867. Extensive national struggles occurred in both territories before 1914. In Poland they had sign of a civil war like in 1863. Bohemia almost had one in 1890's which was avoided by declaration of Marshall Law. It was also possible that after the death of Franz Joseph, Ferdinand would end alliance with Germany. He wanted orientation on France as was the case in the 18th century. If the war did not happened between Germany and France/Germany and Russia; it would be between Germany and Austria as it happened in 1866.
Last year I was at the castle Konopiste on outskirt of Prague. It was a residence of Ferdinandand his wife Sophie before their death. Decades after the 1914 assassination, the relatives of G. Princip and grandchildren of Ferdinand D' Este met there to close a history that changed life of so many people.
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100 Years Ago Today: World War I Began - July, 28, 1914
by Oubliette in100 years since world war i07/28/14 07:44 am by timothy noah and johnny simon.
"one hundred years ago today, emperor franz josef of austria-hungary declared war on serbia in retaliation for the assassination one month earlier of his heir apparent, archduke franz ferdinand, by a serbian pan-slavic nationalist.
what might otherwise have remained a regional conflict between the dying hapsburg empire and one of its former holdings instead became, through a tangle of alliances and a global power imbalance, two world wars that began in 1914 and ended in 1945, with a 21-year intermission for the jazz age and the great depression.".
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kaik
I lost great-grandfather from my father side who died during the siege of Premysl. I think all my male ancestors who were between 18 and 45 fought in WWI. My great-grandfather lost his baby brother there, he was the youngest and were not train for the war. Just regular draftee. My great-grandfather was trained officer and had survival skills. When the WWI started he was almost 40. There was a huge shortage of manpower in A-U and many labor intesive work was done by women like operating trains something that was not heard before. My grandparents were the Gen of 1914 and lived through both wars, they all equally told me that poverty and starvation in WWI was real, but WWII was worse due extremely brutal condition of occupied country. WWII was a combination of a total war and oppression of crazy, brutal, hostile foreigner power that intended to decimate civilians deep in the occupied territory.
Generally the victims of WWI were forgotten with the outbreak of WWII. There was also a huge complain of preferential treamtent of WWI veterans and their families after 1945 from WWII victims, which was probably reason why they were forgotten.
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Scientists Can Now Cut HIV Out of Human DNA
by Dis-Member inhiv is a sneaky virus.
its mo involves integrating its own genes into your dna, so that even as antiretrovirals hold everything in check, hiv lurks quietly inside your cells.
now scientists have found a way to edit the virus straight out of the human genomea potential cure for even latent infections.. genome editing is powerful technique that has really come into its own lately, thanks to a remarkable dna-cutting protein that easily and precisely cuts out a particular dna sequence.
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kaik
I do not believe that cure for HIV is still achievable. I heard about them for past 30 years. We are nowhere near to find cure for it and in 2034 we will read how cure is just about to be find. Sounds so similar.
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100 Years Ago Today: World War I Began - July, 28, 1914
by Oubliette in100 years since world war i07/28/14 07:44 am by timothy noah and johnny simon.
"one hundred years ago today, emperor franz josef of austria-hungary declared war on serbia in retaliation for the assassination one month earlier of his heir apparent, archduke franz ferdinand, by a serbian pan-slavic nationalist.
what might otherwise have remained a regional conflict between the dying hapsburg empire and one of its former holdings instead became, through a tangle of alliances and a global power imbalance, two world wars that began in 1914 and ended in 1945, with a 21-year intermission for the jazz age and the great depression.".
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kaik
Quendi, thank you for kind answer. I do not want to argue, and I appologize if I sound that way. I would only post my view and point on it. My great-grandfather was an officer of Austrian army and thought in Galicia. We have a pics of him in the charge of calvary from the turn of the century. My paternal grandfather was drafted in 1918 as a teen and sent to Italian frontline and from there to the War of Independence lasting till 1920.
Austrian monarchy was failing because it did not react on changing demographics. The war only speed up disintegration process that started in 1866. However, it is crucial to say that WWI was waged with modern technology under napoleonic leadership. Most of the men in Austrian military command were in their 80's and witnessed last war in 1866. Austria considered Lombardy and Venetia as own historical land which was lost in 1856-9. Europe in 1914 was ripe for larger war, and the war was already happening in the Balkans among Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, and Albania. These Balkan conflicts were extremely brutal and eventually had spilled out to the rest of the Europe. I would recommend movie Dust from Milcho Manchevski describing this conflict. WWI did not happened in vaccum, the stress among European alliances were there. France in 1914 wanted payback for its defeat in 1870. Russia for Crimean and Japanese wars. Polish population wanted independence. WWI happened in the crossroad of various conflicts. Similar crossroad happened with 30 Years War (religion), 7 Years War (for resources), and Napoleonic Wars. Napoleonic Wars had more important battles shaping the future of the human race than had WWI.
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100 Years Ago Today: World War I Began - July, 28, 1914
by Oubliette in100 years since world war i07/28/14 07:44 am by timothy noah and johnny simon.
"one hundred years ago today, emperor franz josef of austria-hungary declared war on serbia in retaliation for the assassination one month earlier of his heir apparent, archduke franz ferdinand, by a serbian pan-slavic nationalist.
what might otherwise have remained a regional conflict between the dying hapsburg empire and one of its former holdings instead became, through a tangle of alliances and a global power imbalance, two world wars that began in 1914 and ended in 1945, with a 21-year intermission for the jazz age and the great depression.".
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kaik
Quendi, I disagree that WWI was watershed event in the 20th century. Only one battle of WWI is considered as top 25 battles of humanity by military analysts, and this is I. battle of Marne. No other battles of WWI achieved such prominence. WWII was a watershed of the 20th century. For many countries WWI was indirect. No city between Rhine and Carpathian range witnessed a war. War affected four areas of Europe like Belgium and France, Venetia, Balkans, and Baltics to Black sea region. Iberian and Scandinavian penninsulas were not affected by war. USA lost about 40,000 people in the war, much less than in Vietnam war. Political structure on local level survived the war, even in countries like Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Austria. The rulling dynasties were gone, but much of the political, economic, and cultural system survived well until 1945.
WWI is seen as limit what is called a Long Century. It started with the defeat of Napoleon and establishment of Quadruple alliances, and survived with minor changes until 1914. WWI was also an answer on changed demographic in Europe especially in the Central Europe dominated by Vienna. Austria-Hungary was after Russia the biggest European country and second most populous until 1900 ahead of continental UK and France. At the turn of the century it was replaced by unified Germany. German influence within Austrian monarchy wanned from dominant force around 1850 into minority where only 1/4 of population considered themselves as a German speaker. Disintegration of Austrian monarchy was inevitable and the monarchy only held by strong persona of Franz Joseph who rule the monarchy for 68 years from 1848 till 1916. After his death, there was no any leader that was capable managing this state and by 1918 Germans were afraid of ethnic instability from Bohemia to Balkans as bigger threat than American entrance into war. In 1918 Germans defeated Russia and occupied most of Ukraine, Baltics, and Balkans; Italy was decimated, and they were standing deep in Belgian and French territory. WWI was pretty much stalemate and had not achieved its orginal goal. Germany did not occupy Paris, and French-British alliance did not inflict significant defeat to German's hegemony in Europe. This all happened 25 years later.
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100 Years Ago Today: World War I Began - July, 28, 1914
by Oubliette in100 years since world war i07/28/14 07:44 am by timothy noah and johnny simon.
"one hundred years ago today, emperor franz josef of austria-hungary declared war on serbia in retaliation for the assassination one month earlier of his heir apparent, archduke franz ferdinand, by a serbian pan-slavic nationalist.
what might otherwise have remained a regional conflict between the dying hapsburg empire and one of its former holdings instead became, through a tangle of alliances and a global power imbalance, two world wars that began in 1914 and ended in 1945, with a 21-year intermission for the jazz age and the great depression.".
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kaik
Why 1914? It could be 1815 with the birth of the modern, industrial Europe, or 1648 which created a system of non-interference in European affairs which lasted till 1940?. Communist dictatorship was already considred by anarchists in the 19th century. WWI ended a system that was established in Europe afer Vienna Congress and paving a way for long century. However, Europe was still in occassional wars like Crimean, Italian Indepence war, Balkan wars, Pruss-Austrian and Franco-Austrian wars. Aerial bombardment were tested in American Civil War from baloons. Chemical warfare existed since Roman and Persian wars where chemical compounds to smoke and kill opponents were used extensively by Persians against invading Roman army. WWI was not only war among imperial families but also involved second most powerful republic after USA, which was France. Italy and Romania stayed out of the conflict and later switched the alliances. WWI only changed world history from one single point, it eliminated European states as the most dominant force on the glove as they were since 1500. Europe for 400 years was the most powerful civilization that world had ever seen until 1914 and there was no state in the world that could defy their military power. This changed in 1918 and definitelly after 1945 when two largely non-european powers (USA as non European, and USSR as non Western) dominated the world for next 45 years.
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The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Bad
by God_Delusion inhi guys and gals!.
i've just put the finishing touches to my latest article, which talks about the tree of the knowledge of good and bad.. you see, i've always been fascinated with the tree of knowledge and the tree of life.
both are incredibly weird stories.
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kaik
Tree of knowledge means different things to different people. Since medieval times there were circulating stories taken from Judaism, that the tree of knowledge was Adam's penis, and fruit was Eve's breast. These stories are in existence since 1300's and also portraited in Renaissance. Other philosophers under influence of Judaism think that tree of knowledge was the sexual act between Adam and Eve. It was driven by lust, not by love. The lust entered both of them and destroyed their innocence. Kabbalah considers the Tree of Knowledge as opposite of Tree of Live and is sometimes referred as a Tree of Death. Eve wanted to achive this knowledge in order to create and destroy life and if she possess the knowledge, it would make human too dangeours because they would be the creator of life.
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100 Years Ago Today: World War I Began - July, 28, 1914
by Oubliette in100 years since world war i07/28/14 07:44 am by timothy noah and johnny simon.
"one hundred years ago today, emperor franz josef of austria-hungary declared war on serbia in retaliation for the assassination one month earlier of his heir apparent, archduke franz ferdinand, by a serbian pan-slavic nationalist.
what might otherwise have remained a regional conflict between the dying hapsburg empire and one of its former holdings instead became, through a tangle of alliances and a global power imbalance, two world wars that began in 1914 and ended in 1945, with a 21-year intermission for the jazz age and the great depression.".
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kaik
I was born not too far from chateau which was owned by Sophie (or in Czech called Žofie Chotkova). I met also couple very old people who used to work there as servants. War between Serbia and A-U was predicted for at least five years. War in the Balkans was raging for several years and teared up Ottoman holding there among several states. It was a matter of time before the war spill into larger neighbors like AU. Russian invasion of A-U is sometimes hard to detect, because of the confusion on the Eastern front. Some sources from AU newspapers indicates that border shelling from Russia into Austrian held Galicia started in July 30 where Russia even did not bothered to declare a war on the Austrian monarchy. AU was competely unprepared on the war with Russia.
However, it is foolish to consider that WWI was break event in the European politics. III. French Republic survived the Great War until 1940. Descendants of the A-U monarchy had continued much of the political system until WWII and byond. Political parties, judicial and business laws, and taxes survived the WWI pretty much everwhere there. The criminal law remained in the effect there till 1950. Yugoslavia and Romania continued with their established monarchies until communist takeover in the 1940's. As much WT claims that 1914 was mother of all wars, it was far from reality. This war was quickly forgotten with the outbreak of WWII and is considered as a Forgotten War.