Ain't Complicated

Facebook to Track and Target?

Facebook to target ads based on users’ trail

Facebook has laid the ground for a new system that would track its users’ behaviour as they visit other sites around the internet, using the information to deliver highly targeted advertisements to them on the social networking site.

So-called “behavioural targeting” is widely used by companies such as Google but, on Facebook.com, the move is likely to provoke a new round of criticism over incursions into users’ privacy.

[…]

The move would mark a departure for Facebook which, until now, has targeted ads based only on the personal information in a user’s profile – such as location, age, gender and relationship status. An announcement on the system is expected on Wednesday, at Facebook’s annual F8 conference in San Francisco.

I report; you decide.

Well, wait. I have one observation:

F8 😯

Whose fate?

Cows and Pre-Apples

All creatures, great and small.

The black calf is very skittish and curious.

Apples in the making!

Such pretty apple blossoms!

Down our drive

Cows are such curious creatures!

Little and delicate vs big and hardy

The Lord God made them all.

Census Senses

This afternoon, I finally got the US 2010 Census completed. Well, mostly so, anyway.

Since my answers are quite understandable, they don’t need to call.

If I provide my birthdate, why do I need to also provide my age on April 1, 2010? 🙄

White is not a race. Neither are some of the other race cards they play.

I was tempted — sorely so — to put Human in the “Some other race” section.

About sometimes living or staying somewhere else, what’s with that? I answered in the negative, but also considered marking “For another reason” because sometimes I go visiting for overnight or overweek. But then I thought someone might not understand that and want to give me a call. I’m not a phone person.

In an unrelated development, today we got our new Spy Meters. 😯 😉 😆

Harmony in the World

Well, Harmony on World, anyway.

Or maybe this should be titled “Headings for World”?

Her name is Harmony

I know that girl! She’s the daughter of one of my babyhood friends and good buddies, Darrell. (We grew up in Mexico together.)

Many WORLD readers nominated compassionate ministries for this year’s Hope Award for Effective Compassion contest. Charity expert Jill Lacey and I researched and assessed the entries and then sent a reporter and a photographer out on the road to see firsthand what groups are doing.

The first fruits of this exploration are on the pages that follow. We chose three finalists—Christ Clinic in Spokane, Youth Horizons in Wichita, and New Horizons in Colorado—and in San Diego late last month announced the champion: New Horizons.

Source: Effective compassion

Wow! Congratulations to New Horizons. God bless them in their service. And Harmony and other nannies also.

Read it all

Survival: USA, President Obama, Israel

Can they all survive these perilous times?

I got to pondering that question on Tuesday of this week (ie April 6, 2010).

My conclusions?

I do not see how President Obama can survive to complete his first term in office.
Nor do I see how the United States can survive almost three more years of what it has experienced in the first year plus of the Obama Presidency.
About Israel, well, take man’s measuring rod and she’s doomed also.

I should remind you at this point that I am a two-separate-kingdoms Christian. I am apolitical and my comments are likewise.

I believe we are in a period of intense peril for the USA, for President Obama, and for Israel. I believe this great peril exceeds anything any of those three have experienced before (at least if we limit the scope of that comment to the modern nation-state of Israel and not historical Israel).

The course presently charted for the US will hasten its collapse or at least the collapse of her system of government (which would be catastrophic enough). I will not elaborate on why I think that.

President Obama surely has more than the usual potential assassins plotting his destruction. Again, I’ll not take the time to elaborate. I don’t see how the Secret Service can keep him safe.

Israel need only look at the radical change this week in the American nuclear posture to doubt her own survivability. The US has just declared it has taken a nuclear counterstrike off the table as a response to a non-nuclear WMD attack. If the US will not retaliate that way to such an attack on itself, why should Israel think the US will stick its neck out for her when she’s attacked with chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons? Couple that with other developments of late, and Israel appears dangerously alone.

Well, I have taxes to do. And a Sunday School class to prepare to teach in the morning. And missionary reports from Mexico to get ready for tomorrow afternoon’s Mission Board meeting. And other pressing matters pressing me. I already spent too much time on this. I shall have to forego the pleasure of expanding my points.

In closing, these points:

As I understand the Scriptures, Israel survives, thanks only to dramatic divine intervention.
About the United States and about President Obama, I don’t know. I’m not that kind of prophet.
I just don’t see how they survive another three years.
I pray they do.

I call on God’s faithful people to pray that way as well.

PS: Am I going off the deep end?

PS, Jr: I’m not fearful nor paranoid. Nor am I a kook. 😉

Kyrgyzstan: Did You Know?

Will religious freedom increase with new Kyrgyz government?

While Kyrgyzstan’s President Bakiyev refused to resign, an interim government has been established, headed by Former Foreign Minister Roza Otunbayeva.

Wednesday’s coup has left many in the country in fear, says Sergey Rakhuba, vice president of Russian Ministries.

[…]

Rakhuba is hoping the coup also means a repeal of restrictive religion laws.

[…]

That could happen as Otunabayeva wants the new government to draft a new constitution and hold new elections in the next six months.

In the meantime, reports indicate Bakiyev is trying to rally supporters in the southern portion of the country, which could mean additional bloodshed.