Lawyers...

So, I received this lovely email today from some lawyer somewhere who decided to go after Facebook for using people's name and likeness on their advertising without consent.

I should stop here and say that I am not terribly fond of Facebook right now.  They have severely departed from their roots in the quest of monetization of social networking, and in doing so, are destroying the charm and utility that their service provided when I used it back in the college days.

However, this does not constitute the need for a class action lawsuit of which I will inevitably get nothing more than admiration of my friends and peers for being involved in, while greatly profiting whatever law firm is prosecuting this case.

And for your viewing pleasure, I have included the friendly email I received below and my hopefully not too snide response.

The Fall of Greece

I found a curious article in a fashion magazine (of all things).  It provides a boots-on-the-ground look at what is happening with the social and political implications for economic catastrophe and the end of the debt supercycle.

This piece lends some credence to my theory that we have another holocaust in the not-too-distant future, and it will be of the Muslims living in the Western world.

The article was written by Chris Heath. I have copied the article here, but the original can be found at: http://www.gq.com/news-politics/newsmakers/201212/fall-of-greece-gq-december-2012

Live on TV: The Fall of Greece

We already knew about the economic crisis, the mass unemployment, the riots. But this summer we saw the tensions and turmoil of a nation erupt in a single act of startling violence on a morning television program. Within days, it was beamed around the world. Chris Heath uncovers the truth of what happened in that TV studio, a cautionary tale not just for the future of Greece but for the rest of us, too

By Chris Heath

Photographs by Owen Silverwood

December 2012

Crisis of the Middle Class and American Power

I had sent to me an article by John Mauldin, containing a text from Stratfor, Inc. pertaining to a more complete understanding of the current crisis that America faces.  It points out, rather dextrously, that neither the ideologues on the left or the right have a complete understanding of the magnitude of the problem at hand.

It is a very fascinating and thought-provoking read.

The Macroeconomics of Middle Earth: Smaug Fiscal Shock

I found an absolutely epic economic post regarding economic conditions in Middle Earth following the arrival of Smaug.

http://worthwhile.typepad.com/worthwhile_canadian_initi/2012/12/the-macroeco.html

Hopefully, this link remains good for a long duration.

Peace on earth, good will to men

I heard the Bells on Christmas Day

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,

and mild and sweet

The words repeat

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom

Had rolled along

The unbroken song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,

A voice, a chime,

A chant sublime

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,

And with the sound

The carols drowned

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,

And made forlorn

The households born

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;

"For hate is strong,

And mocks the song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;

The Wrong shall fail,

The Right prevail,

With peace on earth, good-will to men."

- -   Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Economics of Demographics

Below is an analytical letter regarding the effects of demographics on our country's economic health and well-being by Gary Halbert.  It is definitely a fascinating read.

  FORECASTS & TRENDS E-LETTER

by Gary D. Halbert
December 18, 2012

US Birth Rate Hits New Low – A Nation of Singles

IN THIS ISSUE:
1. US Birth Rate Falls to Record Low in 2011
2. Birth Rate Needed to Maintain Current Population
3. A Nation of Singles – Implications For the Future
4. How Did We Become a Nation of Singles?
5. Conclusions – How Do We Turn the Trend Around?

Overview

 

One of the issues I have been focused on for the last several years has been the trend in demographics in the US and in developed countries in general. Our populations are getting older – we all know that. But the reasons why our populations are getting older are not widely understood by many Americans. Those reasons include the falling birth rate, the falling fertility rate, the falling marriage rate and the explosion in singles – people who never marry.
The US birth rate fell to a record low in 2011. The marriage rate is tumbling as well. And the number of single Americans is now at a record high. The implications of these developments are troubling, not only for the economy, but also for the investment markets and the continual expansion of the federal government. Government debt has spiraled out of control in recent years, and the demographics suggest that this trend will continue as we care for an aging population.
Today, we will look at some new information on demographic trends in the US and in the West in general that should concern you – and all Americans for that matter. This will be a continuing theme in my E-Letters in the months and years ahead. Let’s get started.

Love and free will

I have heard people asking, "Why did this happen?"  Why, why, why?

Why would a young man walk into a school of children and gun down as many as possible?

Why would God allow this to happen?

The short answer is that God loves Adam Lanza (the shooter) enough to give him free will to not only refuse to follow God, but sufficiently free will to harm other human lives that God loves equally.

Could God have stopped this?

Absolutely.

In doing so, however, He would not only be overturning every ounce of authority that He has granted to human institutions, such as governments, but He would also be violating His very nature of love in the allowance of free will.  He would make impossible, in a singular event, the ability of mankind of choose His way or not.  He would overturn, by precedent, every moral consequence throughout all of human society, effectively eliminating the incentives for humanity to lean towards eternity.  He would be giving humanity a gift that we do not collectively deserve.

That said, I trust and hope that God will give special credence to the students who were truly innocent, or the teachers who gave their lives in defense of their classes.  Ultimately though, the ways of God are well beyond even the most meager attempt at understanding that I have presented above, and we have to trust that He will balance this atrocity out, not only in the immediate future but also in eternity.

Lethal Exhibitionism

We had a tragedy occur today.  A gunman named Adam Lanza, familiar with the school's security procedures, walked into an elementary school, shot the principal and others then proceeded to his mother's class, shot her and continued shooting until 27 people died before killing himself.

To continue to pretend that evil does not exist in our world is a lunacy of unfathomable depth.

All people are fundamentally evil.

What we do with this truth defines us as a society and world.  Do we stand up and take adequate measures to protect lives, or do we flail about in a futile attempt to control that which cannot be fully controlled?

If we do nothing, it will happen again; and it will be worse.  Each of these massacre-style shootings carries with it a thread.  Each successive event is an attempt at topping the last news-worthy event with an ever more horrific, shocking, and news-worthy action, and the creativity of mankind is seemingly infinite.  The next event will be worse unless tangible steps are taken to prevent this.

I introduce another truth.  People are afraid of death.  We must use this truth to reduce the likelihood of another event happening, or in the event of preventing it entirely reduce the consequences of such events to provide additional levels of deterrence.

You might argue that Adam Lanza did not fear death, but I will wager that he did.  People who commit these kinds of acts are highly deceived, but Satan will not simply leave it at deception.  He will remove the blinder from you once you are too far gone, leaving such guilt that suicide is the only recourse.

The first, and most obvious answer is more guns in school.  At least one person, preferably who knows how to use it effectively, needs to have a gun at every school.  This will lessen the impulse to become infamous for the next horrific act by providing immediate and tangible defense against a deceived person.  If you can kill the shooter before he can do significant damage, that eliminates, or at least complicates, the exhibitionist factor.  Even the social psychological factor alone will serve as a social deterrent.  This would be extremely similar to having Air Marshals that fly incognito on aircraft.  Every knows that they are there, and the effect of that knowledge produces a stronger deterrent against anyone weighing the success of such an event in terms of exhibitionist thought.

It does not however, address the possibility of the single person with a gun becoming so deceived as to commit a similar act.  As such, a more broad-based social deterrence is necessary.  I would definitely go so far as to recommend that all teachers who wish to should be able to have a 0.38 pistol in their possession at all times under some manner of protection, and the principals and office staff should have access to something of a heavier and more deadly capability, say a shotgun.  If the firearms of sufficient power are equally spread amongst staff, and suitably protected as to prevent unauthorized access, this would provide an incredibly strong and broad-based deterrent against bringing lethal exhibitionism into our educational institutions.

This idea is akin to mutually assured destruction on a more global level.  Taking this step would apply the idea of mutually assured destruction on a broader and more social level.  The only other viable option that I see is to provide more security guards at schools to prevent this.

Either way, we need a significantly increased protection in our public places, and equal firepower in place seems to be the only adequate answer to this continuing problem.

21st Century Microsoft?

I am on a mailing list from Mauldin, that contained a curious article about this company:

This company has a potential development that could change the world.

The company profile quoted below is from Reuters.

NanoViricides, Inc., incorporated on April 1, 2005, is a development-stage company. The Company is a nano-biopharmaceutical (nanomedicine) company whose business goals are to discover, develop and commercialize therapeutics to advance the care of patients suffering from life-threatening viral infections. The Company has several drugs in various stages of early development. The Company’s drugs are based on several patents, patent applications, provisional patent applications, and other property held by TheraCour Pharma, Inc. (TheraCou), to which the Company has exclusive licenses in perpetuity for the treatment of human viral diseases: Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV/AIDS), Influenza including Asian Bird Flu Virus (INF), Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV), Hepatitis C Virus (HCV), Hepatitis B Virus (HBV), and Rabies. As of June 30, 2012, the Company had six drug development programs: Oral FluCideTM, against all Influenzas; a Piggy-back version of Flucide for hospitalized patients; nanoviricide eye drops against adenoviral EKC and herpes keratitis; HIVCide - I against HIV/AIDS; HerpeCide - I skin cream formulation for herpes cold sores and genital warts, and DengueCide, a broad spectrum nanoviricide designed to attack all types of dengue viruses and expected to be effective in the Severe Dengue Disease syndromes including Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHS) and Dengue Shock Syndrome (DSS). As of June 30, 2012, it had engaged in organizational activities, sourcing compounds and materials, developing novel compounds and nanomaterials, and experimentation with studies on cell cultures and animals. In September 2011, NanoViricides Inc's Inno-Haven LLC acquired a light industrial building.
The Company's product development programs are divided into three sectors: commercially important diseases, neglected tropical diseases (NTD’s) and biosecurity/biodefense, and advanced technologies. The Company has collaborations with KARD Scientific, Inc., MA. and Southern Research Institute, AL for influenza viruses; National (Central) Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (NIHE) (Vietnam), for H5N1 avian flu; The Long Island Jewish Medical System, Feinstein Institute of Medical Research (LIJMS), NY and TheVac, LLC. for viral diseases of the eye (adenoviruses, herpesviruses - epidemic kerato-conjunctivitis (EKC), Herpes Keratitis); TheVac, LLC and Northeastern Ohio Medical University (NEOMED) for herpes virus infections; University of California at Berkeley for dengue hemorrhagic fever viruses; Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and National (Central) Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology for rabies virus. The Company has developed lead drug candidates against a number of viral diseases.
The Company had consolidated all of its influenza drug programs into a single pan-influenza FluCide program. It is developing a single drug for all influenzas, whether pandemic, epidemic, seasonal, novel, emerging, human, swine, or avian. It is developing a nanoviricide against adenoviral EKC. The nanoviricide eye drug candidate is formulated as simple eye drops. It is developing an anti-HSV nanoviricide skin cream formulation for direct application to the lesions. It has designed the anti-HIV nanoviricides using rational drug design principles. The ligands it has designed in the case of HIV-1 are thought to be broadly neutralizing. In-silico modeling indicates that its ligands dock to the conserved CD4 binding site of gp120 of HIV-1. The Company is working on developing anti-Dengue therapeutics. Dengue is an important NTD. Its RabiCide program has resulted in candidates that have enabled survival of 20% to 30% of infected animals after disease has set in, using a particular animal model.
The Company competes with Roche, Glaxo SmithKline, BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Gilead, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (BMS), Roche, Boehringer Ingelheim, Merck & Co., Inc. (Merck), Valeant, Schering, Pharmassett, Vertex, Intermune, Achillion and Novartis.

The Post-Election Economy

I am still debating writing up my thoughts on the ObamaCare bill and the other variety of entitlement programs that Congress seems intent on jamming down our throats, but for now, I am just going to post a link that my mother discovered.


http://www.postelectioneconomy.com/ by John Mauldin.

Christ-centered View of Your Job

I can't describe the myriad of experience that I have collected from various individuals in words, so I drew a picture instead.  This diagram heavily relies on experience from: my mother, father, Exceedingly Humble Most Excellent Super Pops, Uncle Darrin, and various friends and coworkers from my past jobs.

The key for Christian workers is to recognize when pride begins to turn to arrogance and to recognize that all of our talents, skills, and ability to learn and adapt is derived from the loving, caring God who created us.  This in turn, should help us to avoid arrogance, remain humble, and continue to thrive and serve God with excellence.

This is not the prophet you are looking for

I found a great story in the Bible, covered by Pastor Lutzer this Sunday.

Elisha Traps Blinded Arameans

⁸ Now the king of Aram was at war with Israel. After conferring with his officers, he said, “I will set up my camp in such and such a place.”

⁹ The man of God sent word to the king of Israel: “Beware of passing that place, because the Arameans are going down there.” ¹⁰ So the king of Israel checked on the place indicated by the man of God. Time and again Elisha warned the king, so that he was on his guard in such places.

¹¹ This enraged the king of Aram. He summoned his officers and demanded of them, “Tell me! Which of us is on the side of the king of Israel?”

¹² “None of us, my lord the king ,” said one of his officers, “but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the very words you speak in your bedroom.”

¹³ “Go, find out where he is,” the king ordered, “so I can send men and capture him.” The report came back: “He is in Dothan.” ¹⁴ Then he sent horses and chariots and a strong force there. They went by night and surrounded the city.

¹⁵ When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?” the servant asked.

¹⁶ “Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”

¹⁷ And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

¹⁸ As the enemy came down toward him, Elisha prayed to the Lord, “Strike this army with blindness.” So he struck them with blindness, as Elisha had asked.

¹⁹ Elisha told them, “This is not the road and this is not the city. Follow me, and I will lead you to the man you are looking for.” And he led them to Samaria.

²⁰ After they entered the city, Elisha said, “Lord, open the eyes of these men so they can see.” Then the Lord opened their eyes and they looked, and there they were, inside Samaria.

²¹ When the king of Israel saw them, he asked Elisha, “Shall I kill them, my father? Shall I kill them?”

²² “Do not kill them,” he answered. “Would you kill those you have captured with your own sword or bow? Set food and water before them so that they may eat and drink and then go back to their master.” ²³ So he prepared a great feast for them, and after they had finished eating and drinking, he sent them away, and they returned to their master. So the bandsfrom Aram stopped raiding Israel’s territory.

~ 2 Kings 6:1-23