Posts by kaik

150

Start A Butterfly Garden!

by Bonsai in

jw
friends

time to take a break from debating religion.

take in a breath of fresh air and be healed by the wonders of nature around you.. how many of you have a garden?

how many have a nice flower patch to go with your vegetable garden?

kaik

Summersweet Ruby Spice from backyard. They are also very pleasantly fragrant and in the fall the leaves turn yellow gold.

150

Start A Butterfly Garden!

by Bonsai in

jw
friends

time to take a break from debating religion.

take in a breath of fresh air and be healed by the wonders of nature around you.. how many of you have a garden?

how many have a nice flower patch to go with your vegetable garden?

Do you know if these butterfly nest work? I know my neighbor got bumblebee nest, but they decided to live in my shed and her hives are empty. They build a nest just above the ground, and when I am in the shed, I could hear them "playing a concert". One issue with loss of bees are people who destroying their nests because they are afraid to get stung. I have a nest of yellow jacket bees, and for all these years I was never stung.

Vitex or chaste tree is considered invasive in Texas. I like the chaste trees I seen them all over southern Europe, but I do not see many of them around in my neighborhood in USA. I planted chaste tree, and it grows very fast and attracts a lot of butterflies and bumblebees. I do not have issue to be self-seeding. On the other hand, hibiscus I have is very invasive, I would like to cut it down, but my spouse is against it. So I tolerate it on the backyard.

I noticed butterflies are also attracted to my yarrows, and butterfly milkweed. I have also three summersweet shrubs Ruby Spice. They are planted on the side of the house which gets sun whole day and plus they are dense enough to create privacy from neighbor. One advantage of summersweet is that they bloom in peak of the summer heat till September, when most shrubs except myrtle are done with blooming. They also attract bees and butterflies. My yellow jacket moved to my backyard year after I plant these, and they have nest just two three feet from them.

4

What Are We Now?

by David_Jay in

how do we rate after leaving the watchtower?

are we very different people after we have walked out our last meeting at the kingdom hall?

or are we essentially a "mad-lib" version of what we claim we once were, that we have merely "filled in the blanks" with our latest set of convictions and still think we have the truth, are right and others wrong, and feel we must promote our new "truth"?.

kaik

I do not care about religion and faith. I do not have a need to ridicule and disprove anyone faith and religion as many ex-JW do. Whatever people believe, it is their business, but I will oppose anyone who will try impose religious conviction upon me.

150

Start A Butterfly Garden!

by Bonsai in

jw
friends

time to take a break from debating religion.

take in a breath of fresh air and be healed by the wonders of nature around you.. how many of you have a garden?

how many have a nice flower patch to go with your vegetable garden?

kaik

I have snow on the ground, so I do not even know the damage I have from the winter storm. I live in subtropical climate, and I have many subtropical evergreens (gardenias, camellias, and crape myrtles). I generally did not experienced issue with snow to kill a plant, just breaking it under the weight. Sudden deep late season freeze like last year caused a loss of six well established gardenias. My first step for the start of the season generally begins with pruning that I do in February. By end of the month I usually get early spring bulbs out like crocus and muscari.

I had issue with one flower that previous owners planted and became invasive, and on top if it causes allergies. My mom develops severe rashes from them, so I eventually had to use chemical warfare and indiscriminately sprayed herbicide to get rid of them. Otherwise I am avoiding using chemicals, because I am cancer cautious.

I see a big problem in the environment is a loss of bees. I am thinking about building a beehive, but it is bureaucratic issue (because of mites). I even have a place where to put it on the backyard. I have on my backyard a nest of wild bumblebees and yellow jackets. My goal is to have a yard blooming from frost to frost and have bees feed on it through the year. I see sometimes wild bees sitting on my blooming flowers even at the beginning of December.

I find crape myrtle, french hydrangea, and chaste trees attracting butterflies. I was not very successful in growing butterfly shrubs (buddleia) and over the years I lost every single of them. I also have hummingbirds but they seem to be more attracted on my neighbor backyard. My ideal garden is French Provence with wine, gardenia, hydrangea and lavender, but I also love camellias. I got some of them through catalog and so far I was very successful with them. My grandmother was vivid gardener. She lived in the warmest part of the country where she had almond and peach trees on courtyard around the well and house surrounded by vineyards. Everywhere she had marigolds, lavenders, and many to me unknown flowers. She had geraniums in the windows. My uncle had beehive there and further up was mile long orchard with apricots. However, I am hesitant to plant any fruit trees, because I do not want to attract any rats.

66

What Should the Minimum Wage Be (USA)?

by Village Idiot in

during the gop debates donald trump said that american’s “wages [are] too high” and later said “that having a low minimum wage is not a bad thing for this country” (7:25)..

do you agree and if so why?.

my two cents on this issue; do the math.

kaik

titch, many CEO think that people should work for free, exactly as did Roman Senators who owned majority of the production and living in Roman Empire. I think this is inherited into the USA business elite thinking as result of southern plantation, slave ownership, where people are just tools, not a fellow member of economic class.

15

Babylonians Discovered Calculus

by cofty in

it had been assumed that rudimentary calculus was developed in europe in the 14th century but now it turns out that the babylonians worked it out more than 2000 years ago.. researchers have deciphered a detail on a cuneiform tablet held at the british museum and revealed that it describes the movement of jupiter.. babylonians believed that jupiter's position was integral to predicting the weather, the price of goods, and the fluctuating river levels throughout the year.. "the now-decoded 'text a' describes a procedure for calculating jupiter’s displacement across the ecliptic plane.. by tracking jupiter’s speed as a function of time and determining the area under a time-velocity curve.".

kaik

Calculus was also known to Greeks and Egyptians, but really, it was European universities in the 13th and 14th century got focused on mathematics beyond geometry and algebra. Modern calculus was not established until 17th and 18th century.

66

What Should the Minimum Wage Be (USA)?

by Village Idiot in

during the gop debates donald trump said that american’s “wages [are] too high” and later said “that having a low minimum wage is not a bad thing for this country” (7:25)..

do you agree and if so why?.

my two cents on this issue; do the math.

kaik

It is hard to put arbitrary number on minimum wage, but there labor cost are much less percentage of doing business than was 20-30 years ago. Even in retail where majority of these people are employed. However, low minimum wage ties to low productivity. Higher wages increases productivity, because businesses would replace them with automation and robotization. For example in Czech Republic, the minimum wage were kept frozen under right-wing pro business government for seven years and productivity barely grew. Slovakia on the other hands continued to increase minimum wage on yearly basis, and enjoys today not only higher wages, but also productivity. Similar trend was observed in Slovenia, Estonia, where labor productivity continued to increase with minimum wages. Countries that have stagnant or depressed minimum wage, there was just little push for investment and technology, because it could be supplemented by cheap labor.

This is not a new. Roman Empire had cheap labor, which prevented increase of productivity, innovation, and technology. Europe until 1350 had similar issue, cheap, plentiful labor, and low productivity. Once Black Death decimated labor, productivity had to increase so did wages. Europeans in 1450 enjoyed much higher living standard, lower cost of production, cheaper goods than did generations before. The sudden rise of living standard at the end of the Medieval era was so profound that government in Europe attempted to regulate wages and spending, but they were not successful.

9

Orthodox Jews Recognize Christianity as 'Willed By God' as Catholics Call Jewish Covenant "Irrevocable"

by David_Jay in

to date, over 50 jewish rabbis from around the world have added their names to an historical statement in response to ongoing jewish and catholic relations which have proved successful since the vatican released nostre aetate some 50 years ago...and the number is growing.. in the first days of december of 2015, about 24 orthodox rabbis signed a "statement on christianity" released by the israel's center for jewish-christian understanding and cooperation, with the vatican releasing its own document entitled "the gifts and the calling of god are irrevocable" just one week later.

both statements recognize each other's religion as divine, from the same source, and part of the same (albeit mysterious) providential economy of redemption from god.. while not totally new, especially since the papacy of st. pope john paul ii, the vatican document is a substantial culmination of formal statements and studies that came before over the last half century.

especially from the largely ignored but striking significance of the pontifical "the jewish people and their sacred scriptures in the christian bible," the new 2015 document is a reiteration of all that has come before in one place, resounding the previous scripture-study statement that the church holds that the jews are still the covenant people of god, that the covenant has never been revoked, and.... "in the past, the break between the jewish people and the church of christ jesus could sometimes, in certain times and places, give the impression of being complete.

kaik

Judaism and Christianity is incompatible. Totally different concept of beliefs. I am married to Jew and the post does not make much sense. (BTW I shared it and just got unbelieving grin).

28

Christian Family Gets 5 Children Taken Away by Gov't for Teaching God Punishes Sin

by GodZoo in

child welfare services in norway have reportedly removed five christian children from their parents' home and placed them into foster care after the parents were accused of radicalizing and indoctrinating their children with christianity.. according to the british-based christian institute, norway's child protection services, known as the barnevernet, seized the three sons and two daughters of ruth and marius bodnariu in mid-november.. .

although the family wasn't quite sure at the time why their children were being taken away from them, their lawyer discovered that the parents were being charged with christian indoctrination.http://www.christianpost.com/news/christian-family-gets-5-children-taken-away-by-govt-for-teaching-god-punishes-sin-151693/.

kaik

First: I responded to the obviously false claim that the children was taken away because of "religious indoctrination", which have let to all this hysteria and demonstration from Christians.

Considering the Czech Republic is one the most secular and atheistic countries, I do not know where do you get that it is hysteria and demonstration from Christians. Anti-norwegian demonstrations attracted people from diverse social and economic background, not from religious.

That's Norwegian law. Children are to be kept safe from abuse, regardless of nationality.

Foreign nationals cannot be taken for adoption against wishes of the country they have citizenship. It also violates a diplomatic relationship that Norway signed with Czech Republic. It is the same if Czech Republic decides to size Norwegian underage citizens due suspicion of incest among Norwegians. Incest in Czech Republic is felony. Than would put these underage for adoption and prevent Norwegian family to have whatsoever contact with them. Czech Republic would ignore there diplomatic notes from Norway and would continue interfere into internal matter of Norway through some money-laundering multi-culti funds like Norway tried in Hungary.

And I do not think you know the case in detail either, do you?

Yes, I do not know the detail, but I follow it for two years. It is one the most documented and presented case in the Czech media causing it that Norway became one the most hated country there. On top of it, Norwegian ambassador lied to the face of the Czech president in front of national TV and she should be expelled. Czechs lived in German-Nazi propaganda, and Russo-Communist propaganda, and to not take lying easily. They despise the Scandinavian arrogance.

The law on ratification of the Haag convention of 1996 has been announced (sept. 2015), but is awaiting the final approval

So, finally one person gave me a credit that this country is dragging its feet on this matter.

Have a good day!

19

My wife made a very wordly comment the other night

by Clambake in

my wife who is currently on maternity leave made a comment about luck she was to leave in canada because we get 52 weeks maternity at basically 40,000 per year.

she is not originally from canada coming from a country with basically no maternity leave.

i told her to make sure she doesn't say anything like that at kh.

kaik

double post