World Tidbits

       “I don’t know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We’ve had an earthquake; we’ve had a hurricane. He said, ‘Are you going to start listening to me here?’ Listen to the American people because the American people are roaring right now.”   A warning from God or else! Perhaps in jest or perhaps in search for leverage from sympathetic voters, this is what presidential candidate Michele Bachmann said during a campaign stop in Florida.

          While Representative Bachmann received criticism for this statement, hers is but an echo of our general attitude towards divine providence when faced with trials and tragedies.   When the disastrous effects of Katrina settled down in New Orleans, not a few people said it was punishment by God for a sinful city.  When Haiti was hit by an earthquake, one time presidential candidate Pat Robertson said it was punishment for voodooism. When our love ones die, we say God has taken them away.  Even now the old saying, “God giveth and God taketh away” has become a cliche in funeral discourses. But really is God to blame?  How can a God merciful and gracious and abundant in loving kindness cause us to be unhappy?  Fact is he couldn’t and he wouldn’t.  We find it easy to blame God, but we forget about random events or unforeseen circumstances.  We also tend not  to blame ourselves for our actions, our schemes and personal as well as aggregate choices.  Most of all, we forget about the original sin that threw us and our children out of a fulfilled life under God’s favor and protection.

         God never left us, but we left him and so we suffer the consequences.  Interestingly, the very book that presidents-elect lay their hands on during inauguration day says in James 1:13:  “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.” (KJV) The NWT puts it more in perspective: “When under trial, let no one say: ‘I am being tried by God.’ For with evil things God cannot be tried nor does he himself try anyone.”

         So Ms. Bachmann, God does not inflict our woes,  tempt or take our happiness away.  Sure he can remedy human errors and prevent death.  He can also manipulate earthquakes and hurricanes, but God who has the power to restore everything  allows these to run their natural course so that through pain and want we can strengthen our faith and move towards reconciliation with him.

          
       Computer-game developer Jane McGonigal said that about 20 hours a week should be spent  playing computer games.   Beyond that, one can get impacted negatively.   Her concern is that reality and the game can be blurred to the gamer who plays excessively so that he may not be able to tell the difference.

         Computer games can be so addictive that some participants  get profoundly absorbed. When this happens, social isolation occurs and the moral and spiritual bonds between family and friends start to deteriorate. Also, pure  imaginative thinking achieved only through peaceful meditation fails to take root.  On the physical side, some develop  impairments such as obesity and diabetes for sitting down too long or body aches for doing prolonged repetitive motion.  More troubling is the psychological impact of online interactive games to those who lose their sense of reality.  Some lose their joy and excitement in real life.  In extreme cases, some  get so attached with the characters of the game  or get depressed within the workings of the game that they commit suicide.

          McGonigal is the creator of  Evoke, the number one online game sponsored by the World Bank Institute designed to change the world by teaching participants social entrepreneurship.

          I’ve been peddling health products and job opportunities all over the internet in the past few days.  You might be wondering how much I  earned. Well, none so far.   I haven’t gotten any replies from my target customers other than some delivery failures, lots of them.  That is how I found out that my e-mail was pirated and used by spammers.  The experience was vexing, not to mention the inconvenience I went through because my e-mail address was also my login username for some of my accounts. Nonetheless, I wondered how much these spammers make.  I did a quick research and  came out with the following from Wired Magazine:

          Chris Kanich and his colleagues at the University of California San Diego asked the same question and purposely set up their own network that diverted spam customers to their site instead of to the spammer’s website.  Kanich’s network of course did not cash in on the credit cards but counted the clicks. Using an equation created for this purpose, Kanich’s team came to the conclusion that spammers gross approximately $7000 a day.  Read more…
  “Equation: How Much Money Do Spammers Rake In?” by Julie Rehmeyer, Wired Magazine, February 2011.

      
           You probably enjoy the convenience of paying with credit cards in restaurants.  You may also relish the convenience of handing over your credit card to the waitress who whisks it away for a few minutes to swipe at the cash register.  While you are enjoying the last morsel of your dessert, your pretend waitress also swipes it in a  skimmer which is a secret  mini machine that can be clasped in one hand.  Your credit card information is now effectively stolen. This is one of the  modus operandi of credit card thieves.  Beware.

          In his 1860 lecture on the “Chemical History of a Candle,”  Michael Faraday asked, “what diamond can shine like a flame?”   Today, after 151 years, he gets an answer; not one or two but lots and lots of them.  One and a  half million nano particles of diamonds, to be precise, burn up in a candle flame.

          Prof. Wuzong Zhou, lead researcher from Scotland’s University of St. Andrews,  who discovered this process said that when hydrocarbon molecules combust at the base of a candle flame, diamonds and other forms of carbon materialize at the center of the flame before dispersing into carbon dioxide.

          It is said that diamonds are a girl’s best friend, but now we can also add candlelight at dinner time.