i'm just sayin'...

Gary Carpenter
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Apple really needs to do something about this.

Foxconn Chair Calls Employees Animals

Multiple suicides and a threat of mass suicide due to working conditions?

I wonder what the true cost difference would be to make Apple products in the United States or Mexico.

UPDATE: After posting this, I had a long Facebook conversation about this issue with a friend and I am going to turn it into a post in the next couple of days.

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@ChicagoCabbie

Old services meet new media: a tweeting cabbie's growing business

I love seeing people find ways to bring new technology and techniques into old industries. In the end though, it all comes down to serving your customers in the best way you can find.

This guy is working it.

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Thank you Steve. You will be missed.

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I don't own any Apple products, and never have, but it is hard to deny the effect that Steve Jobs has had on things I take for granted.

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A Great Infographic About How we Use Our Cell Phones

This was posted at Online IT Degree, I found it via Chris Brogan.

It's a large graphic - view it after the break.

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Six Megathemes In The Church Today

"In a period of history where image is reality, and life-changing decisions are made on the basis of such images, the Christian Church is in desperate need of a more positive and accessible image. The primary obstacle is not the substance of the principles on which Christianity is based, and therefore the solution is not solely providing an increase in preaching or public relations. The most influential aspect of Christianity in America is how believers do--or do not--implement their faith in public and private."

On December 13, 2010 the Barna Group published an interesting article titled Six Megathemes Emerge from Barna Group Research in 2010.

They have identified six startling trends in the church and about society in general that we would do well to address. The trends are listed after the break.

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President Obama told a youth audience in Shanghai Sunday that he has never used Twitter.

More than 2.6 million people follow President Obama on Twitter -- or so they thought. The president told a youth audience in Shanghai on Sunday that he has never used Twitter.

“I have never used Twitter, but I’m an advocate of technology and not restricting Internet access," Obama said during the town hall. "My thumbs are too clumsy to type in things on the phone."

Then why own a Blackberry?

LA Times story here.

 

Study: Technology makes us more social, not less

I found this via Smart Brief on Social Media.

WASHINGTON — Contrary to popular belief, technology is not leading to social isolation and Americans who use the Internet and mobile phones have larger and more diverse social networks, according to a new study.

"All the evidence points in one direction," said Keith Hampton, lead author of the report by the Pew Internet and American Life Project released Wednesday. "People's social worlds are enhanced by new communication technologies.

The rest of the article is here

 

"Because the Bible Says So" Is Not Good Enough

A Case For More Apologetic Teaching in Today's Church

Let me be clear, I believe that the Bible is to be the ultimate authority in a Christian's life, and EVERY WORD is accurate and inspired by God. Because the Bible says so should be enough for a Christian, but sadly it is not.

The Barna Group has an article out today titled New Research Explores How Different Generations View and Use the Bible. It is at the same time interesting and very sad. It really highlights a problem that I have recently come to see a the root of a lot of the problems we are currently seeing in the modern Church, specifically, a low view of scripture. The Authority of scripture is not emphasized, and Apologetics is rarely taught, if at all.

The survey sited in the article defined four generations. 
  • Mosaic generation - ages 18 to 25
  • Busters are those ages 26 to 44
  • Boomers are 45 to 63
  • Elders are 64-plus.
Researchers found three similarities amoung all four groups.
  1. Over 50% of all four age groups consider the Bible a sacred book.
  2. Right at 25% of all four groups have the “highest” view of the Bible – that it is “the actual word of God and should be taken literally, word for word.” (Mosaics: 27%, Busters: 27%, Boomers: 23%, and one-third of Elders 34%)
  3. 20-25% of all four groups have the "lowest view" of scripture - that "the Bible is not inspired by God." (Mosaics: 25%, Busters: 19%, Boomers: 22%, and Elders: 22%).
The differences between the four groups are more interesting, and show a bad trend towards a lack of belief in the authority of scripture. This is illustrated by the following six areas of belief, or lack of belief.
  • Bible as Sacred: 
    "9 out of 10 Boomers and Elders described the Bible as sacred, which compares to 8 out of 10 Busters (81%) and just 2 out of 3 Mosaics (67%)"
  • Accuracy of the Bible:
    "Just 30% of Mosaics and 39% of Busters firmly believe that the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches, compared with 46% of Boomers and 58% of Elders."
  • Acceptance of Universalism:
    "Among Mosaics, a majority (56%) believes the Bible teaches the same spiritual truths as other sacred texts, which compares with 4 out of 10 Busters and Boomers, and one-third of Elders."
  • Skepticism of Origins of Manuscripts:
    "Young adults are more likely to express skepticism about the original manuscripts of the Bible than is true of older adults."
  • Less engagement with the Bible:
    "Busters and Mosaics are less likely than average to have spent time alone in the last week praying and reading the Bible for at least 15 minutes. Interestingly, none of the four generations were particularly likely to say they aspired to read the Bible more as a means of improving their spiritual lives."
  • Biblical Appetite:
    "Despite the generational decline in many Bible metrics, one departure from the typical pattern is the fact that younger adults, especially Mosaics (19%), express a slightly above-average interest in gaining additional Bible knowledge. This compares with 12% of Boomers and 9% of Elders."

This study gives us a picture of American society that is about 50% accepting of the Bible as sacred, but 30-50% accept universalism and only 30-40% believe in the Bible's complete accuracy.

We live in an age were the average person has more information at their fingertips than ever before, and the younger generations are consuming that information as fast as they can get it, but most of what they hear and read concerning the Bible either negative, or completely false. But if you look at the last point in the study, 19% of our youngest adults "express a slightly above-average interest in gaining additional Bible knowledge." I would bet that if we fed the curiosity of that 19%, a good portion of the rest would then become interested.

We (the Church) are doing a horrible job of teaching the historicity and factual accuracy of the Bible, let alone the spiritual truth of the Bible. We need to equip ourselves and fellow Christians with the knowledge, skill and desire to defend the Bible and all that it teaches to the world. Our young people need to know how to defend what they believe. If they can't even defend the provable history and facts in the Bible, how do we expect them to be willing to share their faith to an increasingly skeptical peer group? Heck, how many of us can defend what we believe to our own kids when the come home from high school and college with their heads filled with all of differing beliefs and philosophies taught by their teachers and professors?

"Because the Bible says so" is no longer good enough. 

 

Broadband access a legal right?

from American Thinker Blog

Finland has become the first country in the world to declare broadband Internet access a legal right. Just wait. The UN is getting involved too.

And you thought our government was insane?

Read the article here.
Broadband access a legal right?

 

BBC Article: What happened to global warming?

Is the BBC now questioning man made global?

What happened to global warming?

By Paul Hudson
Climate correspondent, BBC News

Planet Earth (Nasa)
Average temperatures have not increased for over a decade

This headline may come as a bit of a surprise, so too might that fact that the warmest year recorded globally was not in 2008 or 2007, but in 1998.

But it is true. For the last 11 years we have not observed any increase in global temperatures.

And our climate models did not forecast it, even though man-made carbon dioxide, the gas thought to be responsible for warming our planet, has continued to rise.

So what on Earth is going on?

Read the rest of the article here.

Is main stream media finally starting to understand that the facts are not all in, and that the verdict is not decided? Probably not, but there seems to be a trend towards questioning the claims of the Al Gores of the world.