Illinois Governor Blagovich stands accused of trying to sell Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat to highest bidder. So what does he do? Does he resign? No. He appoints a man than no one in their right mind would fight his appointment, Roland Burris. If he isn't confirmed there will be no other African-American in the Senate. Also he was the first black popularly elected official in the state. Also he was an Attorny General (can we say qualified?). He was one of Blagovich's rivals. He lost one of his bids to become governor to Blagovich. This is a mark in Burris' favor because considering the corruption of that state, Burris must be less corrupt because he lost. To top it off, Burris had been a Black Panther when he was younger! Can you think of a more unassailable candidate? Looks like Blagovich has some serious gall to think that that he can appoint a senator after the mess he's in. Yet he seems to have tried to deflect some of the scrutiny by making a responsible choice and a politically savy choice. No one is gonna wanna block the only Black person from being in the Senate. I read a great article about it on Black Snob's Blog.
Here is a webisode that I thought was really funny. It stars Jerry O'Connell and Rebecca Romijn (who played Mystique in the X-men films). You've got to see this:
Sony has a Playstation Home service accessible with a PS3. It's social networking service so that users can interact with another with animated avatars. Users can chat in forums and buy things in an Online store. There are a list of words that cannot be used in the service. It makes sense that you can't use profanity so that people don't get offended. People are not complaining over that. What some people are complaining is that the words "gay, bisexual, lesbian" cannot be used. Sony is being hammered for "discrimination". My question is: "It is a virtual playground, why would a person's sexual orientation or tastes be an issue or come up considering the kind of service Sony is intending to create?" My answer is that it should not matter. Of course, the writer of the article I read disagrees with me.
Sony has issued a statement:
"'The key message is it's a beta and it's evolving on a daily basis. We've said early on that user behavior and feedback will shape where we go with Home.' In the case of the censored words,Seybold said, Home employed filters to prevent defamation in Home's closed test version. But when the service went public, he said, it should have started allowing those words."
It sound like to me that Sony will cave in under the pressure. I hope they won't. But considering that PS3 is bringing up the rear in the current console war, they can't afford to alienate anyone. Sony is loosing big time against Nintendo and Microsoft. That combined with the global economy means that they have to make every sale count. Personally, I wish I could get a PS3 now myself, but it's too expensive to afford one at the moment. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people in the same boat as I.
One question that many "Christians" run into that trips them up is when people ask "Why does God allow bad things happen to people?" Instead of giving a Biblical answer people say what they think. Thing like "Bad things happen as a punishment by God." This always begs the question, "what about when Christians suffer?" This dialogue has been waged for centuries. It's recently come to light again for me today from reading an article on G4TV's blog. The author is not making a theological argument so I don't know where he stands. He is instead talking about the views of Jack Thompson who sent an e-mail to Dennis McCauley in which he states that the Video game company Take Two stocks plummeted because it was being punished by God. I will post the e-mail exchange as G4TV did, but I need to provide some background so you know who these people are. Jack Thompson is a lawyer who has been crusading against the violence of video games. He was recently disbarred in Florida for the following reasons:
The Florida Bar filed the disbarment proceedings against him over allegations of professional misconduct. Mr. Thompson has a history with others who file claims against him for defamatory, false statements with attempts to humiliate, embarrass, harass or intimidate them.
Here is the e-mail exchange
--------------------------
From: Jack Thompson Sent: Thursday, December 18, 2008 6:44 AM To: Dennis McCauley Subject: Spin this, Strauss...
GOD STRIKES TAKE-TWO DOWN
Take-Two dropped $2.35 to $9.72 in extended trading after the announcement and fell as low as $9.60. The shares... have declined 35 percent this year. The results contrast with comments Zelnick made in an interview on Nov. 3, when he said sales of the company’s video games hadn’t been hurt by the recession...
------------------------- From: Dennis McCauley To: 'Jack Thompson' Sent: Thursday, December 18, 2008 6:52 AM Subject: RE: Spin this, Strauss...
So, if T2’s business reverse was God’s vengeance, does that mean that God struck you down too when you were disbarred?...
-------------------------- From: Jack Thompson Sent: Thursday, December 18, 2008 9:10 AM To: Dennis McCauley Subject: Re: Spin this, Strauss...
...If you had any understanding of the Bible and of God you would understand that persecution comes Christians' way, and we are blessed by it. There is no blessing for Zelnick, who is not a Christian, when he gets what he deserves...
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From: Dennis McCauley To: 'Jack Thompson' Sent: Monday, December 29, 2008 6:54 AM Subject: in relation to your Take-Two shareholder revolt...
...Are you saying that problems for Christians are blessings, while problems for non-Christians are vengeance from the Almighty? Also, how do you know what Zelnick’s religion is?
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From: Jack Thompson Sent: Monday, December 29, 2008 7:11 AM To: Dennis McCauley Subject: Re: in relation to your Take-Two shareholder revolt...
Here's another passage of Scripture that you don't understand and never read: "All things work to the good for those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose." That group would include me and not Zelnick. Zelnick is not a believer in the Gospel. How do I know? Because the man who got us together [secretly in Manhatten in 2007] is a Christian, with a massive ministry in Hollywood and the rest of the entertainment industry. It was because of the spiritual aspect of this struggle that he got the two of us together, and Zelnick failed the test.
If you knew anything about the Gospel, you would understand further that Paul, whose writings are considered part of the canon, tells Christians, not unbelievers, that we are to "count it all joy" when trials and tribulations come our way.
I have been persecuted for my faith, not because I did anything wrong, by those committed to evil. Glad to clear it up for you. And as it now stands, Mr. Zelnick's problems at Take-Two are minuscule [sic] compared to the eternity of punishment that is coming his way unless he repents and accepts Christ as I did 32 years ago this month. You might do well to read the Gospel of John yourself. Come to think of it, I'll write Strauss about all this and send you a copy...
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I don't know if Jack Thompson was rightfully disbarred or not. What I do know is that you can't talk about suffering is such simplistic terms. He in-effect says that if Christians suffer it's persecution and if non-Christians suffer it is the Judgment of God for the sins they commit. I agree with him that God's promises are for his people and not everyone else, but you can't say someone else isn't or is or will never be one of His people. It embarrasses Christians and the Gospel we are supposed to spread by giving such a non-answer. What I know for sure is that such an explanation does not explain Job's experience in the Book of Job. Job was perfect. God said so. Yet he suffered and it had nothing to do with what he did or said. The book of Job is the best apologetic to explain suffering. Of course, no human being really likes the answer God gives us but we do have an answer. There is no formula to explain it. There is no chance of "calling God down to the Carpet" and expect him to answer to us for the circumstances we find ourselves in. Besides for about 90% of the crap we find ourselves in is self-inflicted anyway.
As for Thompson's views on video games. I disagree. I agree with Adam Sessler when he said that violence in video games can not be fully correlated with violence in the real world. I mean there was horrendous violence well before movies, television, and video games. Face it, video games are violent because the world is violent
Here is a video from G4TV's show X-Play that explain how the show views Thompson. In order to reach people we have to provide better answers by rooting what we say in Scripture.
Today I came across a relatively new class of computer called a Netbook. The difference between a Netbook and a Notebook is that a Netbook is more "stripped down". It has the bare minimum hardware to run. Wikipedia has great article defining what a Netbook is and I like this line:
Netbooks trade features, processing power[1] and the ability to run resource-intensive operating systems — to achieve their small form factor, low weight and affordability.
It think it sums up the difference between the two kinds of computers in a single sentence. This trade off is not neccessarily being cheated out of anything. The truth is that not everyone in world needs a lot of processing power or a lot of features. I think the majority of the world today needs low weight, affordability, long battery-life, and small energy consumption. I'm realizing that I did hear about this computer a few years ago when people were talking about the One-laptop-per-child program in poorer countries so that we can bridge the economic and "digital divide". Net computers would be perfect.
Turns out that several computer manufacturers see the value for many other people too. Everyone agrees that they want computers with long battery-life, low weight, and consume less energy, but what about the fewer features? Today, if you are not doing heavy calculations or a lot of graphics and multimedia you could probably get away with a Netbook. Face it, majority of time on computers at home is spent reading and composing e-mail, surfing the internet, interacting on social networking sites, playing online games, and watching movies. Not much hardware is needed for that. Just 2 or 3 USB ports, a reasonably fast processor, and a stable operating system and web browser.
I'd suggest several USB ports because netbooks don't have a lot of hard drive space. So it would be great to be able to use a usb hard drive or flash drives to make up for lack of storage. This is one of the trade offs for lighter weight and less energy needed to extend battery life. The reason why many of the newer netbooks can pull off these feats is because they are not using traditional hard drives (HHD). They use "solid-state" hard drives (SSD). They have almost no mechanical parts, use less energy, and very, very light-weight. Traditional HHDs have a magnetic disk spinning inside, being read by a lazer! A lot can go wrong. In contrast SSDs use the miracles of quantum physics to store and retrieve information (I'll do some research and post on that later).
The exciting thing is that there is a new solution for the user who wants the portability, long battery life, and power conservation of a netbook but the storage of a traditional hard dive. MSI announced that they will be selling the world's first "hybrid" laptop. It will be able to use both kinds of hard drives. You can read the following articles: The World First Hybrid Laptop and MSI Unveils The World's First Hybrid-Storage Netbook: The U115
Addendum: 12-31-08
I forgot to make the point that although netbooks do not have enough memory to handle many everyday memory-intensive software like Microsoft Office, there is a solution: Google to the rescue! Google has a free office suite that is entirely online. Write documents. Make presentations. Make Spreadsheets. The product is referred to as Google Documents. All you need to use them is a Google account and an internet connection (oh and a computer). It even allow you to easily collaborate with others. I really like it, personally, however I still use Microsoft Office. Also, there are many online storage sites that allow you to securely store files. Some of them are even free.
The weekend I came across a video on YouTube called "Barack - The Magic Negro" but I haven't had time to look into its origins until today. Considering the pervasive racism and stupidity in the United States, I wasn't surprised to find such a thing. What I'm finding more amazing is the thought that is being put forth as satire. Rush Limbaugh and other "conservatives" are amazed that some people would be racially offended. I mean the writer of this song has managed to insult, Obama and Al Sharpton and other black Americans in one fell swoop. Here is the song set to a video montage:
This was discussed on MSNBC and Kate Obenshain attempted to defend the song by saying that it was against Al Sharpton and not Barack Obama. I'm glad the African-American woman conducting the interview would not let her get away with it. You can read an article about it and I posted the Here is what Rush had to say about it:
Well, here is a trailer for the new movie coming out next year in 2009. It's called Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li. I'm going to give it a chance. From the looks of the trailer it seems better than Dragonball movie and nearly infinitely better than Van Damm's Street Fighter movie from 1994. I guess we will just have to wait and see. The bar has not been set very high for video games to live-action film adaptions.
If I had an Iphone this game would be something I'd download quicker than almost anything else. A quality Iron man game with great graphics. Almost makes me wanna run out and buy an Iphone. Here is Marvel Comic announcement at the following article.
I ran across the following article about Child Maid Trafficking. Being a descendant of people who went through what the young lady in the article went through, gives me a very negative view of the practice. It seems to be part of Carribbean and African culture. It bothers me because it seems akin to slavery. The thing is not all the circumstances are as exploitative as the young woman's experience in the article. Not all the children are denied treatment as human being or education. Shiyama's treatment was horrible in my estimation because I think a child's childhood should be full of play not of labor. I would not want my daughter treated the way she was: living in a dark garage. According to the article, Shiyama's parents thought that she had it great because she was living high according to Egyptian standard for poor people. And the couple's defense that Shiyama was part of the family seems like a lie. They didn't treat their own children the way they treated her. Not allowing her to wash her clothes with the family's or sit on the furniture and the verbal abuse makes me think they treated her like a dog - a beast of burden - a slave. I don't care if it is their culture or not or that Shiyama's standard of living was better than back at Egypt. Shiyama was not being treated as full member of the household or a person. No wonder she's angry and cut ties to her family whom I'm sure she resents for putting her in those conditions. It's truly catch-22 because her parents only wanted to give her better opportunities. I don't think that there are any easy answers. When I look into my own heart, it just does not sit well with me. I'm not far enough removed from slavery and the truth is that in my opinion we will never be. For those people who are part of that culture, I only wanna know if you would put your child into servitude and would be fine with him or her being treated the way Shiyma was treated?
Japanese Scientists have managed to figure out how to capture images from a person's mind and reconstruct them into a form that is recognizeable on a computer screen. The article I read has the following:
...by using a functional magnetic resonance imaging machine the researchers were able to map blood flow changes within a human brain's cerebral visual cortex when exposed to specific control images. Subjects were shown 400 random 10 x 10 pixel black-and-white images for a period of 12 seconds each, which allowed the scientists to map the changes associated with images, essentially calibrating the machine. Then, when the test subjects were shown a completely new set of images, such as the letters N-E-U-R-O-N, the machine was able to recognize and reconstruct the images in a recognizable, all be it low-res image.
So far, the system can only recognize simple, black and white images, but scientists are confident the technology will advance so much in the next 10 years that reading a person's mind with some degree of accuracy will be possible. This technology could be used in the fields art and design; imagine being able to see the images inside an artists head! It could also be used to treat mental conditions that exhibit hallucinations, allowing doctors to see exact what their patients think they're seeing. ATR chief researcher Yukiyasu Kamitani says, “This technology can also be applied to senses other than vision. In the future, it may also become possible to read feelings and complicated emotional states.”
My take? It's a small step from reading minds to implanting thoughts and images into them. It's a technology like anything else: not evil or good by nature. It is how it is used at to whether it's good or bad.
I found a video on GodTube trying to tie Barack Obama to the prophecies in Daniel 11. Okay,I'll wait until you are done laughing....done? Good. Numerology is using number in the Bible to find information. I'm not sure what to actually say about numerology. One thing for sure is that number are important and God has used many numbers over and over again like 2, 12, 24, and 40. Not to mention the number that show up in nature. Factors of 2, 3 and Pi show up everywhere when you try to mathematically model the world. Does this mean anything? I'm not sure. It could be just God signing his creation. Some people think the numbers in the Bible is God sending secret messages to us. Some even believe we can figure out the time the world will end, or the identity of the antichrist, or future events. I have found that many people who study numerology in an attempt to unravel mysteries, often miss the plain truths of scripture. Watch this to see what I mean:
Bill Maher has been very clear as to what he believes "religion" is. He is wrong. I can't speak for other faiths but I can categorically assert Christianity is not about embracing the end of the world or wishing for death. It's about embracing and hanging on to life the only way possible: Jesus Christ. All the evils of the world montaged at end of Maher's movie can be traced to only one source: sin. If you want to be free of it faith in Jesus is the only way. Maher expresses the exact opposite of what the Bible says. Trust in God is the answer not doubt. Faith is not equivalent to shutting off your brain and not thinking. God has given us enough evidence that your faith can be based on reason. His and Christopher Hitchen's definition of faith is wrong. The Bible does not give us all the answers, just enough so that we can put our faith in the right place. I disagree with the following video in more ways that I can count. None of his arguments stand up to any kind of scrutiny.
One of the most important problem I see that Maher has is that he believes that he is angry that it appears that Christians believe that we have the answers. He thinks that we think we are better than those who confess that they don't know. To be honest, we know that we are not better than anyone else. It's only because of God's grace and mercy that we know what we do. We know what happens when someone dies only because God told humanity what happens. So much of what the Bible teaches can substantiate by archeology, history, and science. As for everything else it cannot be refuted.
On James White's Blog, he made the following brilliant observation:
I noticed some of the websites/blogs I read regularly were complaining about this banner that has been hung in Nazareth:
I have not the slightest complaint about Muslims hanging this banner. This is Surah 112, Al-Ikhlaas, "the Purity." It is as close as you can get to a creedal statement in the Qur'an. I have referenced it often on this blog and in my YouTube videos. As such, if I were a Muslim, I would want Christians to know what the Qur'an says about Isa (Jesus), and hanging a sign with that text on it would be just as valid as my hanging a sign outside an Islamic event with a text such as the Carmen Christi (Phil. 2:5-11) or John 1:1 and 18, or something like this. I would, however, like to point out a few rather obvious things. First, the hanging of the banner once again reminds us of the fundamental nature of Islamic theology: at its core it is defined by its opposition to the central assertions of Christianity. Though Islam has promoted its own mythology about how all the prophets were Muslims and Jesus and the apostles were Muslims, etc., the fact is Islam comes six hundred years after Christianity, and as such, had to fight to define itself as the "newcomer." Its scriptures give witness to this battle. Notice, for example, Surah 5:116-117:
And behold! Allah will say: "O Jesus the son of Mary! Didst thou say unto men, worship me and my mother as gods in derogation of Allah'?" He will say: "Glory to Thee! never could I say what I had no right (to say). Had I said such a thing, thou wo uldst indeed have known it. Thou knowest what is in my heart, though I know not what is in Thine. For Thou knowest in full all that is hidden. Never said I to them aught except what Thou didst command me to say, to wit, 'worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord'; and I was a witness over them whilst I dwelt amongst them; when Thou didst take me up Thou wast the Watcher over them, and Thou art a witness to all things.
The essence of Islam as a denial of Christian belief cannot be ignored. Which leads us to my second observation. In the large portion of the world's nations Christians would not be granted the freedom to hang a sign similar to this one. Surely in no Muslim nation would they be allowed to, and in many Western nations today, a riot could quite possibly break out if it happened. Some places in France, or in England, would be very inhospitable places were a Christian to engage in such an act. Yet, if a Muslim chose to show up, say, outside one of our events with a sign bearing Al-Ikhlaas, how would we respond? We'd go witness to him! We would want him to know the Gospel, and we would make sure he realized that the sign he was carrying shows that his prophet contradicted himself! We would proclaim the biblical truth of the relationship of the Father and the Son, and make sure he realized what we really believed. But no true Christian would ever threaten the man, would never wish ill upon the man. We would pray for him and for his salvation. So at this Christmas season, pray that the Gospel would go forth with great power into the hearts and minds of the Muslim people. Oh Lord of the harvest, save these precious people! Reveal the glory of Christ to them, and bring them to yourself!
I thought it was important to post the whole thing. What is important to remember is that we can't silence Muslims just because we don't agree with them. That is what many try to do to us. Dr White is correct. Instead of crying foul because a Muslim challenges our faith, we should be able to stand up to them and explain what we believe and why we believe it. Anyone who honestly investigate the Bible will have to agree that it is unassailable. The Quran...not so much. If we stand for the truth, God will not let us down.
I found the video on YouTube. On Christmas 1968, the crew of Apollo 8 celebrated Christmas as they orbited the moon. They read the book of Genesis. What better way to celebrate Christmas?
I found a video on YouTube and it was funny....in a way. I felt sorry for the poor woman doing the presentation too. Apparently during a demonstration of human-sized, two-legged robot, the robot failed to walk up stairs. It walked across the stage just fine however. It's in Japanese but trust me you don't need to understand the narration to appreciate this. Take a look.
I noticed that the stage had the Honda logo. Could it be that Honda may shift gears to Robotics Research and Development? Considering the way the automobile industry is going in the United States, focusing on Robots my not be a bad idea.
It's been announced that Tyler Perry's newest movie will be released February 20, 2009. It's called Madea Goes To Jail which is based on the play of the same name. Is it going to be exactly like the play? I don't know. I liked the play. Tyler Perry's work is wildly popular among Christians especially black Christians. A lot of Christians believe that it's wholesome entertainment because of the morality being taught and the fact that Christ is looked to as the answer for life's problems. I agree. You can completely see that when you see the plays. However, the movies are a little different. Perry has had to tone down the religious truths in the movies to give them more mass market appeal. I'm not really willing to "throw him under the bus" because of this. The movies still have good moral and Christian values. There is somethings that can't be ignored. God says in his word that men should not dress like women and women should not dress like men in order to pass as the other gender. Deuteronomy 22:5 says:
The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God.
This is the bottom line. Based on this I'm not sure if I can, in good conscience, condone this movie. It's something I will be praying about. Here is the trailer:
Marvel.com has released new clips from the new DVD this January. I'm really excited about it. I'm re-posting two of the clips. I think they represent what will be final on the DVD. I'm amazed about the violence and ferocity of the Wolverine chapter but being familiar with the characters leads to the realization that it could be nothing else. Only criticism I have is that the Hulk's blood is green not red. And I'm not sure if Wolverine could really take that much punishment without being turned into jell-o. Here is a clip from the Wolverine chapter:
Here is a trailer for one of the characters in Street Fighter IV named Gouken. Gouken is interesting because I have never seen him before in a game. He is huge and he is the one who taught Street Fighter staple characters Ken and Ryu all of their moves. Fighting Gouken will never get old.
Street Fighter II is the seminal video game of my life. Without it,I would not have gotten into video games or engineering. It was the first game of its kind. There had been other head-to-head fighting games but I bet that most people would agree that Street Fighter was the tipping point for that genre of video gaming. Combining large characters, 6 buttons and a control stick, great music and graphics, with interesting characters made the game series a success. This success lead to all the other great fighting game franchises. Thankfully, Capcom followed up Street Fighter II with more games in the series. The lastest is Street Fighter IV and to be honest I'm excited. Makes me wanna run out and buy a PS3 right now (I won't). In terms of a legacy, I think Street Fighter may be one of reasons I am so attracted to MUGEN. Much of MUGEN is based on the look and feel found in Street Fighter II. Well, while I wait for the opportunity to own Street Fighter IV, let-alone play the game, I can enjoy the earlier versions of the game I do own and enjoying MUGEN.
