GarryP

2017 is here.

It's the end of days.

Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies, rivers and seas boiling, forty years of darkness, earthquakes, volcanoes, the dead rising from the grave, human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria, Beoz talking sense.

Repent, repent, for the end is nigh !

BadgeIsBack

It is true that religion is fast losing any credibility but it is part of our civilisation and history. It will end up like we see the Dark Ages now : a curiosity. I think though the Muslim world will keep it afloat a long time.

knockoff nige

Heading off topic but I think everyone should have a responsibility to not put (a) God first. Even if he exists, we need to remove God from our conversations because of the divide it is causing. We already know how to treat each other but we can't seem to accept being wrong about things. And as it's not even the God deniers that are causing the divide, it is even more pathetic that the biggest problems amongst people are caused by those who believe in God of some description.

I'm prepared to believe there is a God but I'm also prepared to believe there isn't one. It makes sense to me that if there is a God, it's not a requirement to believe in him (or her). Otherwise it's a bit like a very linear computer game with huge cut scenes. Little game play and many rules. We don't need to be told that God will judge us if we steel or we will go to hell if we kill. Don't we naturally know to not do those things? The fear of judgement after we die is a bit Orwellian. Use the free will you were given by nature and use instinct to guide you to do the right things. We should have faith in people before we push faith on others to believe in a version of God.

BadgeIsBack

Mate you lost me once you started talking about computer games.

This is what worries me about society : not religion, but the way the service and the knowledge economy reduces everything to Facebook, Sci Fi, computers and geek tabloid stuff....(he he)

At least all the professional singers I know who like churches are cultured...and have had a classic education.
It for this this only reason alone I support the old over the new.

Yes I know I'm in a minority but we tend to survive ...

The meek might inherit the world but the geeks will fail at the final hurdle..

And I see I'm on form today..

Cheers

GarryP

1. Bill Gates -------------- Geek
2. Amancio Ortega ----- Fashion
3. Warren Buffett --------- Finance Geek
4. Carlos Slim ---------- Real Estate
5. Jeff Bezos ------------- Geek
6. Mark Zuckerberg ------- Geek
7. Larry Ellison ------------ Geek
8. Michael Bloomberg --- Finance
9. Charles Koch -------- Evil *****
10. David Koch --------- Evil *****'s brother

Oh I don't know, they seem to be doing pretty well...

BadgeIsBack

No they are geeks who translated their wares to lines of business. You don't have to be a geek to do that. You do . however, get a degree of kudos if you mange both.

All Gates did was fulfill a much needed line of business for the Pc. He did not write WinX all by himself.

Dreamy

Ok.. so geeks will fail unless they're geeks who succeed.

Gotcha.

BadgeIsBack

No Sir:.geekdom is not everything was my point especaily if that knowledge is available and diluted. We are already seeing suppressed remuneration and commodisation of ideas. If you succeed you're doing well like anyone. We still need a class of educated people not just create a global class of Facebook knowledge workers with the same knowledge culled from freely available knowledge to all. In years to come the brightest, what ever language they speak in the global economy will find that other people have the same ideas and knowledge : it's the communicators and savvy etc who will continue to call the shots ..

GarryP

Here's the thing - they got where they are because they understood, really understood, what they were talking about and what the strategic implications were. The key element is to say "this way" rather than "that way" and get it right. Plenty have got it wrong.

You can buy-in communicators at pennies on the dozen, but the right idea, the right understanding - well that's the core of the defensible edge in a knowledge economy.

MBAs always used to say "ideas have no value" - and certainly ideas alone don't cut it. However idea+action = win, and the best response to someone who says "ideas have been commoditised and have no value" is silence...

knockoff nige

This thread has derailed in a way I didn't expect.

Gordon Barlow

A positive trend here (in my Caribbean island) among expat families, at least, is for families to have private burials followed a week or so later by "memorial services" in the nature of a wake. The latter are less sad occasions, and less wearing for everybody.

Beoz

I would lay a pretty strong bet that there's lines of code in Windows 10 that have not changed since Bill Gates first put his fingers to it.

cresta57

Back to funerals:
I've been to a few funerals here in Australia More than I would have liked to attend. To be honest I'm still amazed at just how casual folks are when they show up. Maybe I'm old fashioned but I wore a white collared shirt, black tie, black pants and shoes to the first one. There were blokes dressed in stubbies, singlets & thongs. To me that was a very scruffy look especially as the guy in question was always very smartly turned out.
The second was for an elderly bloke and most did turn up in long pants, shirts and shoes, though there were still a few in boardies and faded T's.
When our mate and fellow forum frequenter died the majority of us in attendance were from the U.K and as far as I could see we were all in black ties, very traditional.

Gordon Barlow

I feel the same, Cresta. It must be an international thing - and not a generational thing, as far as I can tell. Hawaiian shirts, shorts, flip-flops... I - being an old codger - stick to the traditional black tie and suit if it's someone important to me, though I do dress-down to a reefer jacket for others. We're a dying breed, I guess. The last funeral I went to, I had one of about six black ties, of the 200-300 in attendance!

spouse of scouse

I don't think many Aussies would mind if mourners at their funeral didn't wear a suit, tie etc - it's simply too hot much of the time. Undertakers would probably like it though - more business