Soul and Spirit

“Disseminating Fantasies”

Gorbachev dispels ‘closet Christian’ rumours; says he is atheist

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev made clear this past weekend that he is an atheist after European news agencies last week claimed that he had confirmed his Christian faith during a visit to the tomb of St Francis of Assisi in Italy.

Gorbachev, the last communist leader of the Soviet Union, confronted speculations that he had been a closeted Christian during an interview with the Russian news agency Interfax.

“Over the last few days some media have been disseminating fantasies – I can’t use any other word – about my secret Catholicism, citing my visit to the Sacro Convento friary, where the remains of St. Francis of Assisi lie,” Gorbachev said, according to an Interfax article posted Friday.

“To sum up and avoid any misunderstandings, let me say that I have been and remain an atheist,” he stated.

So I should have filed my original post on this subject under Suspension of Disbelief as well.

Fine. At least I asked some good questions.

But tell me, why do you think I filed this one under Lessons for Living?

Parents, Guard That Door!

I confess I’m amazed this in in the New York Times:

The Undercover Parent

Not long ago, friends of mine confessed over dinner that they had put spyware on their 15-year-old son’s computer so they could monitor all he did online. At first I was repelled at this invasion of privacy. Now, after doing a fair amount of research, I get it.

Make no mistake: If you put spyware on your computer, you have the ability to log every keystroke your child makes and thus a good portion of his or her private world. That’s what spyware is — at least the parental monitoring kind. You don’t have to be an expert to put it on your computer. You just download the software from a vendor and you will receive reports — weekly, daily, whatever — showing you everything your child is doing on the machine.

Scary. But a good idea. Most parents won’t even consider it.

[…]

Some will say that you should simply trust your child, that if he is old enough to go on the Internet he is old enough to know the dangers. Trust is one thing, but surrendering parental responsibility to a machine that allows the entire world access to your home borders on negligence.

Some will say that it’s better just to use parental blocks that deny access to risky sites. I have found that they don’t work. Children know how to get around them. But more than that — and this is where it gets tough — I want to know what’s being said in e-mail and instant messages and in chat rooms.

There are two reasons for this. First, we’ve all read about the young boy unknowingly conversing with a pedophile or the girl who was cyberbullied to the point where she committed suicide. Would a watchful eye have helped? We rely in the real world on teachers and parents to guard against bullies — do we just dismiss bullying on the Internet and all it entails because we are entering difficult ethical ground?

Second, everything your child types can already be seen by the world — teachers, potential employers, friends, neighbors, future dates. Shouldn’t he learn now that the Internet is not a haven of privacy?

Parent or child or not, you really ought to read the full article. Thanks to Harrison Scott Key over at WorldMagBlog for calling my attention to it.

I think I’ll print it out for my teens to read. And I’ll also see what’s available for parental monitoring software.

OK, I just did a quick search and found this site right away: http://www.monitoringsoftwarereviews.org.

And here’s some software available via Amazon:


PC Pandora [NEW - Version 5.0]     Sentry at Home

eBlaster 5.0     Spector Pro 6.0

Another Security Lapse

This time at Facebook — Security Lapse Exposes Photos:

A security lapse made it possible for unwelcome strangers to peruse personal photos posted on Facebook Inc.’s popular online hangout, circumventing a recent upgrade to the Web site’s privacy controls.

The Associated Press verified the loophole Monday after receiving a tip from a Byron Ng, a Vancouver, Canada computer technician. Ng began looking for security weaknesses last week after Facebook unveiled more ways for 67 million members to restrict access to their personal profiles.

But the added protections weren’t enough to prevent Ng from pulling up the most recent pictures posted by Facebook members and their friends, even if the privacy settings were set to restrict the audience to a select few.

After being alerted Monday afternoon, Facebook spokeswoman Brandee Barker said the Palo Alto-based company fixed the bug within an hour.

So how many millions of lines of code does it take to run Facebook? And how many more bugs might there be, waiting to be discovered?

Here are a few more paragraphs from the above story:

The latest lapse serves as another reminder of the perils of sharing sensitive photos and personal information online, even when Web sites pledge to shield the information from prying eyes.

Before the fix, Ng’s computer-coding trick enabled him to find private pictures of Paris Hilton at the Emmy awards and of her brother Barron Nicholas drinking a beer with friends and photos of many other people who hadn’t granted access to Ng.

[…]

Despite the risks, more people than ever — especially teenagers and young adults — are publishing personal photos and other intimate details about their lives on the Internet.

News Corp.’s MySpace.com, the only online social network larger than Facebook, suffered a security breach that exposed its members’ private photos earlier this year.

And don’t forget about the security breach an Gmail. And plenty of other sites. (I wonder how long till we hear of a breach at Carbonite or some other online storage site.)

My urgent advice: Use the Internet (Web, email, chat, IM, storage, etc) as though it weren’t private and secure.

Attention, Adults!

Over at WorldMagBlog, Andrée Seu writes:

It was not quite 8 a.m. and as I was walking with Spider down streets still devoid of people, a little boy I don’t know called out to me heartily from his front porch: “Today’s my birthday!”

[…]

Remember the days when you didn’t need context to bring up a subject? All thoughts important to you were instantly relevant. Your friends, to their undying credit, didn’t think you weird but were on board without missing a beat, and ready to go with the flow.

Remember the days when you could expect that something that was good news to you would of course be good news to everyone? Even some strange middle-aged lady walking her dog?

Parents, you especially should read the whole piece. It’s not that long.

Grandparents, you should as well.

And teenagers.

And the rest of you.

Well, what are you waiting on?!

Gorbachev a Christian?

Admits, huh?

I wonder if that word choice is supposed to be significant. As in, The Telegraph has suspected it for quite a while and now, finally, Mikhail owns up to the error of his ways. (Or something like that.)

Whatever the case, here are some excerpts from their story:

Mikhail Gorbachev admits he is a Christian

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Communist leader of the Soviet Union, has acknowledged his Christian faith for the first time, paying a surprise visit to pray at the tomb of St Francis of Assisi.

Accompanied by his daughter Irina, Mr Gorbachev spent half an hour on his knees in silent prayer at the tomb.

[…]

Mr Gorbachev’s surprise visit confirmed decades of rumours that, although he was forced to publicly pronounce himself an atheist, he was in fact a Christian, and casts a meeting with Pope John Paul II in 1989 in a new light.

Mr Gorbachev, 77, was baptised into the Russian Orthodox Church and his parents were Christians.

In addition, the parents of his wife Raisa were deeply religious and were killed during the Second World War for having religious icons in their home.

Oh, is that what he thinks makes him a Christian?!

Here’s a bit more from the story:

Ronald Reagan, the former United States president, allegedly told his close aides on a number of occasions that he felt his opponent during the Cold War was a “closet believer”.

Mr Reagan held deep religious convictions himself. However, until now Mr Gorbachev has allowed himself to express only pantheistic views, saying in one interview “nature is my god”.

Well, that sounds very suspect to me.

Mr. Gorbachev, what makes you a Christian?

Tipping at Restaurants

I learned something yesterday while reading a blog rant. I learned that many (most?) waitresses and waiters are paid around $3 an hour by the restaurant for which they work.

Three dollars an hour!

Well, I didn’t want to believe it just because I read it on someone’s blog. So this morning I researched the matter a bit.

And at the US Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics’ site I found this little gem:

Tipped employees are those who customarily and regularly receive more than $30 a month in tips. The employer may consider tips as part of wages, but the employer must pay at least $2.13 an hour in direct wages.

I had no idea!

Would you take a job with that kind of direct wages?

Especially if you had to rely on tippers like you to make up the difference?

So don’t be stingy!

Especially if you’re a Christian!

When you go into that eating joint that employs servers (aka waitresses and waiters), you are buying the food and hiring the serve staff.

Make sure that server earns a just wage while he’s working for you.

After writing all of the above, I came across the following:

Christian Odyssey: Confessions of a waitress

Unfortunately, the “after-church” Sunday lunch customers are some of the rudest and most demanding people I wait on.

[…]

But here’s a tip for you—free of charge: If you go out to eat, remember to leave your server a 20 percent tip. If they made you laugh, smile, or gave exceptional service (even if things didn’t go exactly as planned otherwise), leave them a little extra. Remember the things that are out of their control, and remember that they are still doing their best to serve you in spite of those things.

Jesus’ example of servanthood couldn’t be truer than in a restaurant. Yes, wait-staff are there to serve you. But by treating your wait-staff with dignity and empathy, you’re showing them the respect they deserve. They have feelings, and they are simply trying to earn a living—sometimes two.

Your generosity and politeness is a service to them. Somehow I think if Jesus were a customer at a restaurant, he’d be gracious, polite and generous.

“And, The labourer is worthy of his reward” (1 Timothy 5:18).

“Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal; knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven” (Colossians 4:1).

Sugar

Sugar . . .

  • tastes good and can be enjoyable to eat
  • gives an energy boost followed by a low
  • not enough can make some food unpleasant until you get used to it
  • doing without it usually isn’t deadly
  • has little or no nutritional value
  • tears down the immune system
  • can have an addictive effect
  • some people tolerate it better than others do
  • may not be a poison but it can be deadly

Scroll down for a shift in subject!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Does that also describe my music?

Above all, love God!