ma No, Congress Can't Fix The Broken US Broadband Market In A Mad Dash During A Pandemic By www.techdirt.com Published On :: Thu, 7 May 2020 11:14:01 PDT COVID-19 has shone a very bright light on the importance of widely available, affordable broadband. Nearly 42 million Americans lack access to any broadband whatsoever--double FCC estimates. And millions more can't afford service thanks to a lack of competition among very powerful, government pampered telecom monopolies. As usual, with political pressure mounting to "do something," DC's solution is going to be to throw more money at the problem: "The plan unveiled Thursday would inject $80 billion over five years into expansion of broadband infrastructure into neglected rural, suburban and urban areas, with an emphasis on communities with high levels of poverty. It includes measures to promote rapid building of internet systems, such as low-interest financing for infrastructure projects." To be clear, subsidies often do help shore up broadband availability at coverage. The problem is that the United States government, largely captured by telecom giants with a vested interest in protecting regional monopolies, utterly sucks at it. Despite ample pretense to the contrary, nobody in the US government actually knows where broadband is currently available. Data supplied by ISPs has never been rigorously fact-checked by a government fearful of upsetting deep-pocketed campaign contributors (and valued NSA partners). As a result, our very expensive ($350 million at last count) FCC broadband coverage map creates a picture of availability and speed that's complete fantasy. It's theater designed to disguise the fact that US broadband is mediocre on every broadband metric that matters. Especially cost. While there has been some effort to fix the mapping problem via recent legislation, the FCC still needs several years (and more money) to do so. And while you'd think this would be more obvious, you can't fix a problem you can't even effectively measure. There's also not much indication that the $80 billion, while potentially well intentioned, would actually get where it needs to go. Especially right now, when federal oversight is effectively nonexistent. You may or may not have noticed this, but US telecom is a corrupt, monopolized mess. Giants like AT&T and Comcast all but own state and federal legislatures and, in many instances, literally write the law. Feckless regulators bend over backward to avoid upsetting deep-pocketed campaign contributors. So when subsidies are doled out, they very often don't end up where regulators and lawmakers intended. There's an endless ocean of examples where these giants took billions in taxpayer subsidies to deploy fiber networks that are never fully delivered. If you were to do meaningful audit (which we've never done because again we're not willing to adequately track the problem or stand up to dominant incumbent corporations) you'd very likely find that American taxpayers already paid for fiber to every home several times over. That's not to say is that there aren't things Congress could do to help the disconnected during COVID-19. Libraries for example have been begging the FCC for the ability to offer expanded WiFi hotspot access (via mobile school buses) to disconnected communities without running afoul of FCC ERate rules. But while the FCC said libraries can leave existing WiFi on without penalty, it has been mute about whether they can extend coverage outside of library property. Why? As a captured agency, the FCC doesn't like anything that could potentially result in Comcast or AT&T making less money. None of this is to say that we shouldn't subsidize broadband deployment once we get a handle on the mapping problem. But it's a fantasy to think we're going to immediately fix a 30 year old problem with an additional $80 billion in a mad dash during a pandemic. US broadband dysfunction was built up over decades. It's the product of corruption and rot that COVID-19 is exposing at every level of the US government. The only way to fix it is to stand up to industry, initiate meaningful reform, adopt policies that drive competition to market, and jettison feckless lawmakers and regulators whose dominant motivation is in protecting AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, and Spectrum revenues. Maybe the pandemic finally provides the incentive to actually do that, but until the US does, these subsidization efforts are largely theater. Full Article
ma Utah Pulls Plug On Surveillance Contractor After CEO's Past As A White Supremacist Surfaces By www.techdirt.com Published On :: Thu, 7 May 2020 13:53:02 PDT A couple of months ago, a records request revealed a private surveillance contractor had access to nearly every piece of surveillance equipment owned and operated by the state of Utah. Banjo was the company with its pens in all of the state's ink. Banjo's algorithm ran on top of Utah's surveillance gear: CCTV systems, 911 services, location data for government vehicles, and thousands of traffic cameras. All of this was run through Banjo's servers, which are conveniently located in Utah government buildings. Banjo's offering is of the predictive policing variety. The CEO claims its software can "find crime" without any collateral damage to privacy. This claim is based on the "anonymization" of harvested data -- a term that is essentially meaningless once enough data is collected. This partnership is now on the rocks, thanks to an investigation by Matt Stroud and OneZero. Banjo's CEO, Damien Patton, apparently spent a lot of his formative years hanging around with white supremacists while committing crimes. In grand jury testimony that ultimately led to the conviction of two of his associates, Patton revealed that, as a 17-year-old, he was involved with the Dixie Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. On the evening of June 9, 1990 — a month before Patton turned 18 — Patton and a Klan leader took a semi-automatic TEC-9 pistol and drove to a synagogue in a Nashville suburb. With Patton at the wheel, the Ku Klux Klan member fired onto the synagogue, destroying a street-facing window and spraying bullets and shattered glass near the building’s administrative offices, which were next to that of the congregation’s rabbi. No one was struck or killed in the shooting. Afterward, Patton hid on the grounds of a white supremacist paramilitary training camp under construction before fleeing the state with the help of a second Klan member. If you're wondering where the state of Utah's due diligence is in all of this, there's a partial explanation for this lapse: the feds, who brought Patton in, screwed up on their paperwork. Because Patton’s name was misspelled in the initial affidavit of probable cause filed in Brown’s case — an FBI agent apparently spelled Damien with an “o” rather than an “e” — any search of a federal criminal court database for “Damien Patton” would not have surfaced the affidavit. Now that his past has been exposed, the state of Utah has announced it won't be working with Banjo. The Utah attorney general’s office will suspend use of a massive surveillance system after a news report showed that the founder of the company behind the effort was once an active participant in a white supremacist group and was involved in the shooting of a synagogue. The AG's office can only shut down so much of Banjo's surveillance software. Other government agencies not directly controlled by the state AG are making their own judgment calls. The University of Utah is suspending its contract with Banjo, but the state's Department of Public Safety has only gone so far as to "launch a review" of its partnership with the company. City agencies and a number of police departments who have contracts with Banjo have yet to state whether they will be terminating theirs. And the AG's reaction isn't a ban. The office appears to believe it might be able to work through this. “While we believe Mr. Patton’s remorse is sincere and believe people can change, we feel it’s best to suspend use of Banjo technology by the Utah attorney general’s office while we implement a third-party audit and advisory committee to address issues like data privacy and possible bias,” Piatt said. “We recommend other state agencies do the same.” It's refreshing to hear a prosecutor state that it's possible for former criminals to turn their lives around and become positive additions to their communities, but one gets the feeling this sort of forgiveness is only extended to ex-cons who have something to offer law enforcement agencies. Everyone else is just their rap sheet for forever, no matter how many years it's been since their last arrest. The other problem here is the DA's office's tacit admission it did not take data privacy or possible bias into account before granting Banjo access to the state's surveillance equipment, allowing it to set up servers in government buildings, and giving it free rein to dust everything with its unaudited AI pixie dust. These are all steps that should have taken place before any of this was implemented, even if the state had chosen to do business with a company with a less controversial CEO. This immediate reaction is the right step to take, but a little proactivity now and then would be a welcome change. Full Article
ma Tales From The Quarantine: People Are Selling 'Animal Crossing' Bells For Real Cash After Layoffs By www.techdirt.com Published On :: Fri, 8 May 2020 03:36:27 PDT This seems to be something of a thing. Our last "Tales From the Quarantine" post focused on how television celebrities had taken to offering people help on Twitter with their virtual home decor in the latest Animal Crossing game. This post also involves Animal Crossing, but in a much more direct way. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there are enormous numbers of people who have suddenly found themselves without jobs or regular income. And, so, they've turned to irregular sources of income instead. Ars Technica has an interesting interview with one of many people who have taken to the internet to indirectly sell Animal Crossing's "bells", the currency of the game. In the midst of COVID-19, some New Horizons players are turning to World of Warcraft-style gold farming methods to make ends meet. In early April, Lexy, a 23-year-old recent college grad, created a Twitter account offering up bells (Animal Crossing’s in-game currency) for real-world cash (she requested we refer to her by a nickname to avoid potential reprisal from Nintendo). “I got laid off due to COVID so I'm farming bells in ACNH,” she wrote. “I really need to make rent this month so I'm selling 2 mil bells per $5, please message me if interested, I'll give you a discount the more you buy.” Before setting up this unorthodox income stream, Lexy had been working at a supermarket while developing her animation portfolio. She began exploring the idea of turning bells into cash after showing friends just how much in-game income she’d been making. “One of them asked to legitimately buy some for me,” she recalled in a Twitter interview. “I did some research and found some people selling bells on sites such as eBay, but for pretty ridiculous prices.” (Current prices on eBay seem more competitive, with some sellers offering rare gold tools and gold nuggets to sweeten the deal). The threat from Nintendo is probably real. After all, unlike some other games where people do this sort of thing, Nintendo's game doesn't include any method for selling in-game resources for real currency. Nintendo is also notoriously prudish about things like this. And, finally, to make an effective go at this sort of thing, it takes some manipulation of the console in a way that is somewhat controversial with gamers generally. Understandably, Lexy adjusts the clock on her Nintendo Switch to speed up the game’s slow, “natural” money-making cycle of harvesting daily fruit, digging up bells from the ground, and planting a daily “money tree” that can yield big profits. This kind of in-game “time traveling” is controversial practice among casual Animal Crossing players, but it's a practical necessity to maximize real-world bell-farming profits. As for how much money people like Lexy are bringing in, it's in the four figures, but she wasn't any more specific than that. Payments are made through digital apps like PayPal, after which she visits the game islands of others and deposits the bells. That all of this is going on during a global pandemic that has some folks farming bells to make ends meet and others with apparently enough disposable income to be buyers is all, of course, deeply strange. But it's also just yet another way technology is having an impact on our lives during the COVID-19 pandemic. Full Article
ma COVID-19 Is Exposing A Virulent Strain Of Broadband Market Failure Denialism By www.techdirt.com Published On :: Fri, 8 May 2020 06:33:27 PDT A few weeks ago, the US telecom industry began pushing a bullshit narrative through its usual allies. In short, the claim revolves around the argument that the only reason the US internet still works during a pandemic was because the Trump FCC ignored the public, ignored most objective experts, and gutted itself at the behest of telecom industry lobbyists. The argument first popped up over at AEI, then the Trump FCC, then the pages of the Wall Street Journal, and has since been seen in numerous op-eds nationwide. I'd wager that's not a coincidence, and I'd also wager we'll be seeing a lot more of them. All of the pieces try to argue that the only reason the US internet works during a pandemic is because the FCC gutted its authority over telecom as part of its "restoring internet freedom" net neutrality repeal. This repeal, the story goes, drove significant investment in US broadband networks (not remotely true), resulting in telecom Utopia (also not true). The argument also posits that in Europe, where regulators have generally taken a more active role in policing things like industry consolidation and telecom monopolies, the internet all but fell apart (guess what: not true). Usually, like in this op-ed, there's ample insistence that the US broadband sector is largely wonderful while the EU has gone to hell: "Unlike here, European networks are more heavily regulated. This has led to less investment and worse performance for consumers for years. American consumers are being generally well served by the private sector." Anybody who has spent five minutes talking to Comcast customer support -- or tried to get scandal-plagued ISP like Frontier Communications to upgrade rotten DSL lines -- knows this is bullshit. Still, we penned a lengthy post exploring just how full of shit this argument is, and how there's absolutely zero supporting evidence for the claims. The entire house of cards is built on fluff and nonsense, and it's just ethically grotesque to use a disaster to help justify regulatory capture and market failure. While it's true that the US internet, in general, has held up relatively well during a pandemic, the same can't be said of the so called "last mile," or the link from your ISP's network to your home. Yes, the core internet and most primary transit routes, designed to handle massive capacity spikes during events like the Superbowl, has handled the load relatively well. The problem, as Sascha Meinrath correctly notes here, is sluggish speeds on consumer and business lines that, for many, haven't been upgraded in years: "Right now, an international consortium of network scientists is collecting 750,000 U.S. broadband speed tests from internet service provider (ISP) customers each day, and we’ve been tracking a stunning loss of connectivity speeds to people’s homes. According to most ISPs, the core network is handling the extra load. But our data show that the last-mile network infrastructure appears to be falling down on the job." Again, your 5 Mbps DSL line might be ok during normal times, but it's not going to serve you well during a pandemic when your entire family is streaming 4K videos, gaming, and Zooming. And your DSL line isn't upgraded because there's (1) very little competition forcing your ISP to do so, and (2) the US government is filled to the brim with sycophants who prioritize campaign contributions and ISP revenues over the health of the market and consumer welfare. And while there's a contingency of industry-linked folks who try very hard to pretend otherwise, this is a policy failure that's directly tied to mindless deregulation, a lack of competition, and, more importantly, corruption. In short, the complete opposite of the industry's latest talking point. For years we've been noting how US telcos have refused to repair or upgrade aging DSL lines because it's not profitable enough, quickly enough for Wall Street's liking. Facing no competition and no regulatory oversight, there's zero incentive for a giant US broadband provider to try very hard. Similarly, because our lawmakers and regulators are largely of the captured, revolving door variety, they rubber stamp shitty mergers, turn a blind eye to very obvious industry problems, routinely throwing billions in taxpayer money at monopolies in exchange for fiber networks that are usually only partially deployed -- if they're deployed at all. Meanwhile, US telcos that have all but given up on upgrading aging DSL lines have helped cement an even bigger Comcast monopoly across vast swaths of America. It's a problem that the telecom sector, Trump FCC, and various industry apologists will ignore to almost comical effect. Also ignored is the fact that this results in US broadband subscribers paying some of the highest prices for broadband in the developed world: "Numerous studies, including those conducted by the FCC itself, show that broadband pricing is the second-largest barrier to broadband adoption (availability is the first). It’s obvious that if people are being charged a lot for a service, they’re less likely to purchase it. And independent researchers have already documented that poor areas often pay more than rich communities for connectivity. Redlining of minority and rural areas appears to be widespread, and we need accurate pricing data from the FCC to meaningfully address these disparities." Try to find any instance where Ajit Pai, or anybody in this chorus of telecom monopoly apologists, actually admits that the US broadband market isn't competitive and, as a result, is hugely expensive for businesses and consumers alike. You simply won't find it. What you will find are a lot of excuses and straw men arguments like this latest one, designed to distract the press, public, and policymakers from very obvious market failure. Market failure that was a major problem in normal times, and exponentially more so during a pandemic where broadband is an essential lifeline. Full Article
ma Anti-Trump Ad Demonstrates Both The Streisand Effect & Masnick's Impossibility Theorem By www.techdirt.com Published On :: Fri, 8 May 2020 10:53:33 PDT Well, this one hits the sweet spot of topics I keep trying to demonstrate: both a Streisand Effect and Masnick's Impossibility Theorem. As you may have heard, a group of Republican political consultants and strategists, who very much dislike Donald Trump, put together an effort called The Lincoln Project, which is a PAC to campaign against Trump and Trumpian politics. They recently released an anti-Trump campaign ad about his terrible handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, called Mourning in America, which is a reference to Ronald Reagan's famous Morning in America campaign ad for the 1984 Presidential election. The new ad is, well, pretty powerful: And while it's unlikely to convince Trump fans deep into their delusions, it certainly got under the President's skin. He went on one of his famous late night Twitter temper tantrums about the ad, and later lashed out at the Lincoln Project when talking to reporters. He was super, super mad. And what did that do? Well, first it got the ad a ton of views. Earlier this week, one of the Lincoln Project's founders, Rick Wilson, noted that the ad had already received 15 million views across various platforms in the day or so since the ad had been released. Also, it resulted in the Lincoln Project getting a giant boost in funding: The Lincoln Project, which is run by Republican operatives who oppose President Donald Trump, raised $1 million after the president ripped the group on Twitter this week – marking it the super PAC’s biggest day of fundraising yet. Reed Galen, a member of the Lincoln Project’s advisory committee, told CNBC that the total came after the president’s Tuesday morning Twitter tirade in reaction to an ad titled “Mourning in America,” which unloads on Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. It recently aired on Fox News, which Trump often watches and praises. Galen said it was the Lincoln Project’s best single-day fundraising haul Not only that, but it has opened up more opportunity for the Lincoln Project team to get their word out. With so much interest in the ad, it opened up opportunities for the project members to get their message in various mainstream media sources. Reed Galen wrote a piece for NBC: What we accomplished this week was not something to be celebrated. No commercial should have the power to derail the leader of the free world. And another Lincoln Project founder, George Conway (who, of course, is the husband of Trump senior advisor Kellyanne Conway), wrote something similar for the Washington Post: It may strike you as deranged that a sitting president facing a pandemic has busied himself attacking journalists, political opponents, television news hosts and late-night comedians — even deriding a former president who merely boasted that “the ‘Ratings’ of my News Conferences etc.” were driving “the Lamestream Media . . . CRAZY,” and floated bogus miracle cures, including suggesting that scientists consider injecting humans with household disinfectants such as Clorox. If so, you’re not alone. Tens of thousands of mental-health professionals, testing the bounds of professional ethics, have warned for years about Trump’s unfitness for office. Some people listened; many, including myself, did not, until it was too late. That's the kind of media exposure you can't buy, but which you get when you have a President who appears wholly unfamiliar with the Streisand Effect. And that then takes us to the Impossibility Theorem, regarding the impossibility of doing content moderation at scale well. After Trump's ongoing tirade, Facebook slapped a "Partly False" warning label on the video when posted on Facebook. While the whole situation is ridiculous, it's at least mildly amusing, considering how frequently clueless Trumpkins insist that Facebook censors "conservative" (by which they mean Trumpian) viewpoints. Also, somewhat ironic in all of this: the only reason that Facebook now places such fact check labels on things is because anti-Trump people yelled at how Facebook needed to do more fact checking of political content on its site. So, now you get this. Part of the issue is that Politifact judged one line in the ad as "false." That line was that Trump "bailed out Wall St. but not Main St." Politifact says that since the CARES Act Paycheck Protection Program has given potentially forgivable loans to some small businesses, and because the bill was done by Congress, not the President, that line is "false." And yet, because angry (usually anti-Trump) people demanded that Facebook do more useless fact checking, the end result is that the video now gets a "false" label. Of course, this shows both the impossibility of doing content moderation well and the silliness of betting big on fact checking with a full "true or false" claim. One could argue that that line has misleading elements, but is true in most cases. Tons of small businesses are shuttering. Many businesses have been unable to get PPP loans, and under the current terms of the loans, they're useless for many (especially if they have no work for people to do, since the loans have to be mostly used on payroll over the next couple months). But does that make the entire ad "false"? Of course not. And Rick Wilson is super mad about this. He's right to be mad about Politifact's designation, though it's really a condemnation of the religious focus on "true or false" in fact checking, rather than in focusing on what is misleading or not: But the ad doesn’t actually claim that small businesses received zero help. Rather, it makes the point that Main Street America is still seriously struggling as the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic continues. But Wilson is also mad at Facebook: Speaking exclusively to Mediaite, Wilson called the decision “the typical fuckery we’ve come to expect from both the Trump camp and their tame Facebook allies.” “Facebook is perfectly content to allow content from QAnon lunatics, anti-vaxxers, alt-righters, and every form of Trump/Russian — but I repeat myself — disinformation,” he pointed out. “This is a sign of just how powerfully ‘Mourning In America’ shook Donald Trump and his allies. Their attempt to censor our ad isn’t a setback for us; it’s a declaration of an information war we will win.” Separately, the Lincoln Project also sent out an email to supporters, again blaming Facebook: ... it's no secret that Facebook has stood by and done little to nothing as lie after lie — from the Liar-In-Chief himself — runs wild on their platform. (Oh, and let's also not forget the conspiracy theories, foreign disinformation campaigns and negligence that got Mark Zuckerberg questioned by the United States Congress.) But, this? This is an entirely different and dangerous kind of collusion. And what is Facebook's excuse for playing favorites with its recently-transferred former employees in the Trump campaign? They say a "fact-checker" labeled our claim that "Donald Trump helped bailout Wall Street, not Main Street" was untrue. ....Really? The email goes on to justify the "main street" line with a bunch of links, and then again argues that Facebook is "censoring the truth" to help Trump: Is that "Partly False?" Of course not. We told the truth about Donald Trump... He lost his damn mind over it on Twitter... Attacked us in front of Air Force One... Then sent his spin machine to discredit us... And now his allies at Facebook are doing his damage control by censoring the truth he doesn't like. I get the frustration -- and I find it at least a bit ironic that the whole "fact checking" system was a response to anti-Trump folks mad at Facebook for allowing pro-Trump nonsense to spread -- but this is just another example of the Impossibility Theorem. There is no "good" solution here. We live in a time where everyone's trying to discredit everyone they disagree with, and many of these things depend on your perspective or your interpretation of a broad statement, like whether or not Trump is helping "main street." We can agree that it's silly that Facebook has put this label on the video, but also recognize that it's not "Trump's allies at Facebook" working to "censor the truth he doesn't like." That's just absurd (especially given the reason the fact checking set up was put together in the first place). But, hey, outrage and claims of censorship feed into the narrative (and feed into the Streisand Effect), so perhaps it all is just designed to work together. Full Article
ma Twitter Making It Easier To Study The Public Discussions Around COVID-19 By www.techdirt.com Published On :: Fri, 8 May 2020 19:39:00 PDT There has been a lot of talk about how this moment in history is going to be remembered -- and as Professor Jay Rosen has been saying, a key part is going to be an effort by the many people who failed to respond properly to rewrite the history of everything that happened: There is going to be a campaign to prevent Americans from understanding what happened within the Trump government during the critical months of January to April, 2020. Many times Donald Trump told the nation that it has nothing to worry about because he and his people have the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus well in hand. They did not. He misled the country about that. “It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control,” he told CNBC on January 22. “We pretty much shut it down coming in from China,” he told Sean Hannity on February 2. On February 24, Trump tweeted that “the Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA.” He misled the country. This basic fact is so damning, the evidence for it so mountainous, and the mountain of evidence so public — and so personally attached to Donald Trump — that the only option is to create confusion about these events, and about the pandemic generally, in hopes that people give up and conclude that the public record does not speak clearly and everything is propaganda. The battle over rewriting history is going to take many forms in many different ways -- and so it's good to see a company like Twitter making it easier for researchers to look at the actual history of the public conversation during these months. To further support Twitter’s ongoing efforts to protect the public conversation, and help people find authoritative health information around COVID-19, we’re releasing a new endpoint into Twitter Developer Labs to enable approved developers and researchers to study the public conversation about COVID-19 in real-time. This is a unique dataset that covers many tens of millions of Tweets daily and offers insight into the evolving global public conversation surrounding an unprecedented crisis. Making this access available for free is one of the most unique and valuable things Twitter can do as the world comes together to protect our communities and seek answers to pressing challenges. It would be interesting to see if others (cough Facebook cough) would do the same thing as well. How the history of these times is written is going to be important in seeing how we deal with the next such crisis. Full Article
ma What is the unforgivable sin in Matthew 12:31-32 By redeeminggod.com Published On :: 2020-02-20T22:02:14Z There is great confusion among Christians about the unforgivable sin. Jesus talks about it in Matthew 12:31-32. This brief study summarizes what the unforgivable sin is, and how you can know you have not committed it. This study is an excerpt from my Gospel Dictionary online course. Full Article One Verse Redeeming Scripture z forgiven forgiveness forgiveness of sins Matthew 12:31-32 unforgiveable sin unpardonable sin
ma What is the good fruit of Matthew 3:8-10? Is it good works? By redeeminggod.com Published On :: 2020-03-27T03:35:31Z In Matthew 3:8-10, John the Baptist invites his audience to bear fruit worthy of repentance. Is he talking about good works? No, the context indicates that the good fruit does not refer to good works, but to good words that are in alignment with Scripture. This is important for properly understanding the gospel. Full Article One Verse Redeeming Scripture Redeeming Theology z
ma Can we use good works to determine if a person is a Christian? (Matthew 7:15-19) By redeeminggod.com Published On :: 2020-04-16T17:00:02Z In Matthew 7:15-19, Jesus tells His disciples how to tell good teachers from bad teachers. He tells them to look at the fruit. Is Jesus telling people to look at the lives of other teachers to see if they have good works? No! Not at all. Listen to the study to see what Jesus IS teaching and why this is important for properly understanding the gospel. Full Article One Verse Redeeming Scripture Redeeming Theology z false teachers good fruit good works Matthew 7:15-19 Matthew 7:18
ma Good Fruit, Bad Fruit, and the Unforgivable Sin (Matthew 12:33-37) By redeeminggod.com Published On :: 2020-04-23T17:00:21Z In Matthew 12:33-37, in the context of warning the religious leaders about the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, Jesus talks about good fruit and bad fruit. Is Jesus telling people to look at the lives of other teachers to see if they have good works? No! Not at all. Listen to the study to see what Jesus IS teaching and why this is important for properly understanding the gospel. Full Article One Verse Redeeming Scripture Redeeming Theology z blasphemy against the Holy Spirit false teachers good fruit good words good works heresy Luke 6:43-45 Matthew 12:33-37 Unforgivable Sin
ma Will all True Christians produce good fruit? (Matthew 13:22-24) By redeeminggod.com Published On :: 2020-04-30T17:00:38Z In Matthew 13:22-24, Jesus talk about he fourth soil in the Parable of the Four Soils, and says that only this fourth soil produces good fruit. Does this parable show us how to tell true Christians from false Christians, or how to know who truly has eternal life? No! Not at all. Listen to the study to see what Jesus IS teaching and why this is important for properly understanding the gospel. Full Article One Verse Redeeming Scripture Redeeming Theology z gospel dictionary kingdom of god kingdom of heaven Luke 8:4-15 Matthew 13:22-23 Matthew 13:24-40 Parable of the Four Soils salvation saved
ma One man deserves the blame By nielsenhayden.com Published On :: 2019-03-07T22:22:38-05:00 Pretty sure we’ve all heard Tom Lehrer’s “Lobachevsky,” right? A song about plagiarism where all the bits of melody are... Full Article
ma Three Paper Thursday: Adversarial Machine Learning, Humans and everything in between By www.lightbluetouchpaper.org Published On :: Thu, 16 Apr 2020 14:41:35 +0000 Recent advancements in Machine Learning (ML) have taught us two main lessons: a large proportion of things that humans do can actually be automated, and that a substantial part of this automation can be done with minimal human supervision. One no longer needs to select features for models to use; in many cases people are … Continue reading Three Paper Thursday: Adversarial Machine Learning, Humans and everything in between → Full Article Three Paper Thursday
ma #440998 - Grandmas Tabouleh Recipe By www.tastespotting.com Published On :: Grandma's tabouleh recipe has it all -- crunch, seasoning, freshness, and a whole lotta family love! Eat it as a side or a main or an afternoon snack! | Taboulehcraving more? check out TasteSpotting Full Article
ma #441017 - Tomato Bruschetta Recipe By www.tastespotting.com Published On :: This perfect summer starter combines crispy white bread with a lemony aromatic tomato salsa and creamy burrata cheese.craving more? check out TasteSpotting Full Article
ma The iMac at 22: How the computer 'too odd to succeed' changed everything ... for Apple, at least By go.theregister.co.uk Published On :: Wed, 06 May 2020 22:10:10 GMT Very '90s kit was everywhere – and it saved Apple's ass too On this day in 1998, Steve Jobs took to the stage of the Moscone Center in San Francisco for a product launch that would indelibly change the face of computing and arguably save the firm he founded almost 22 years earlier.… Full Article
ma Non-human Microsoft Office users get their own special licences By go.theregister.co.uk Published On :: Thu, 07 May 2020 07:35:08 GMT Automated operators can pay up like anyone – or anything – else Microsoft has detailed a new form of software licence it offers to non-human users.… Full Article
ma BT suspends shareholder payments as folk forgo pricey sports TV deals for matches that won't happen anyway By go.theregister.co.uk Published On :: Thu, 07 May 2020 16:00:06 GMT We all need to tighten our belts For the first time in over three decades, BT has suspended its dividend scheme as the former state-owned teleco grapples with the fallout from the novel coronavirus pandemic, and the financial uncertainty that'll inevitably ensue.… Full Article
ma FYI: Your browser can pick up ultrasonic signals you can't hear, and that sounds like a privacy nightmare to some By go.theregister.co.uk Published On :: Thu, 07 May 2020 21:24:21 GMT High-frequency audio could be used to stealthily track netizens Technical folks looking to improve web privacy haven't been able to decide whether sound beyond the range of human hearing poses enough of a privacy risk to merit restriction.… Full Article
ma Apple owes us big time for bungled display-killing cable design in MacBook Pro kit, lawsuit claims By go.theregister.co.uk Published On :: Fri, 08 May 2020 14:04:05 GMT iGiant not only screwed up the wiring, it knew it was shipping dodgy gear, it is claimed Apple is potentially facing a class-action lawsuit over the failure of displays on its MacBook Pro line.… Full Article
ma Backup and restore on AWS is a nightmare – is there a way to speed it up? By go.theregister.co.uk Published On :: Fri, 08 May 2020 17:00:13 GMT Apparently. But we’re so incredulous, we’re gonna test those claims on live internet TV… Webcast “The journey to cloud” echoes through all organisations. It’s a Bildungsroman – a story of empowerment and betterment. A shiny, towering cityscape of gleaming edifices and elegant spires. It’s like an ascension into the actual clouds. Like dying and waking up in heaven.… Full Article
ma One malicious MMS is all it takes to pwn a Samsung smartphone: Bug squashed amid Android patch batch By go.theregister.co.uk Published On :: Fri, 08 May 2020 23:42:33 GMT Zero-click remote-code exec hole found by Googler, updates emitted Samsung has patched a serious security hole in its smartphones that can be exploited by maliciously crafted text messages to hijack devices.… Full Article
ma 6/08/14 - No matter how much you want it By www.tinyghosts.com Published On :: Mon, 09 Jun 2014 Full Article
ma 8/03/14 - The purpose of human life By www.tinyghosts.com Published On :: Mon, 04 Aug 2014 Full Article
ma 01/03/16 - We were all just humans By www.tinyghosts.com Published On :: Monday, 4 Jan 2016 Full Article
ma 10/22/17 - All the things making me miserable By www.tinyghosts.com Published On :: Monday, 23 Oct 2017 Full Article
ma 3/18/18 - Instantly make you happy By www.tinyghosts.com Published On :: Monday, 19 Mar 2018 Full Article
ma 7/29/18 - It made me a star By www.tinyghosts.com Published On :: Monday, 30 Jul 2018 Full Article
ma 6/16/19 - Made the right choice By www.tinyghosts.com Published On :: Monday, 17 Jun 2019 Full Article
ma Medical consultancy NovaMed inks deal as mask supplier By jamaica-gleaner.com Published On :: Sat, 09 May 2020 12:39:18 -0500 One-year-old company NovaMed has inked a deal with Hong Kong-based DHB Global that will see the start-up medical consultancy transitioning to a producer of healthcare personal protective equipment, or PPE. Under the deal finalised earlier this... Full Article
ma Новые 13-дюймовые MacBook Pro поддерживают мощную зарядку 87 Вт, но в ней нет смысла By www.iphones.ru Published On :: Thu, 07 May 2020 05:17:13 +0000 Она вам ничего не даст. Full Article Новости MacBook MacBook Pro Аккумуляторы и зарядки
ma Появились обзоры нового MacBook Pro 13. Почти всем нравится By www.iphones.ru Published On :: Thu, 07 May 2020 13:57:30 +0000 Всем нравится новая клавиатура и процессоры Intel 10-го поколения. Full Article Mac Новости MacBook MacBook Pro
ma Новый 13-дюймовый MacBook Pro на 16,5% быстрее старого By www.iphones.ru Published On :: Thu, 07 May 2020 15:31:52 +0000 Всё благодаря процессору Intel 10-го поколения. Full Article Mac Новости MacBook Pro ноутбуки
ma Клавиатуру Magic Keyboard для iPad Pro поместили под рентген и нашли много интересных деталей By www.iphones.ru Published On :: Thu, 07 May 2020 17:56:02 +0000 Клавиатуру не стали разбирать. Full Article iPad Новости iPad Pro клавиатура
ma DXOMARK: фронтальная камера iPhone 11 хуже, чем у топовых Android-смартфонов By www.iphones.ru Published On :: Fri, 08 May 2020 05:59:08 +0000 И хуже, чем фронталка iPhone 11 Pro Max. Full Article iPhone Новости iPhone 11 камера
ma Как включить видео в режиме «картинка в картинке» на любом сайте в macOS By www.iphones.ru Published On :: Fri, 08 May 2020 12:03:17 +0000 Полезная и незаметная функция Safari. Full Article Mac macOS macOS Catalina Safari фишки Это интересно
ma На Apple подали в суд из-за поломок дисплеев MacBook Pro By www.iphones.ru Published On :: Fri, 08 May 2020 16:19:16 +0000 Истцы требуют компенсации за ремонт. Full Article Mac MacBook Pro иски и суды
ma У меня никогда не было MacBook. Как живется с игровым Windows-ноутбуком By www.iphones.ru Published On :: Sat, 09 May 2020 15:00:05 +0000 Этот вопрос показался мне странным, потому что ответить на него я могу легко и одним словом: ЗАШИБИСЬ! Сразу хочу отметить – для сайта с таким названием это несколько необычно, но я никогда не отличался каким-либо особым пиететом по отношению к технике Apple и никогда не понимал квазирелигиозного культа, сложившегося вокруг нее. У меня в свое... Full Article Mac macOS Статьи MacBook windows сравнение Это интересно
ma Maybe not dead By www.gamemp3s.net Published On :: Sat, 16 Nov 2019 04:45:19 +0000 Hi everyone, Maybe we aren’t *completely* dead. Stay tuned. Full Article general
ma Review of The Battle of Chickamauga (Atari 8-bit) By www.mobygames.com Published On :: Fri, 24 Apr 2020 11:28:52 +0000 A review by ALLEN HALL (6). Excellently showcased what a computer could offer a gamer over a board game Full Article
ma Codemasters анонсировала DiRT 5 — смелый раллийный симулятор нового поколения с сюжетом By gagadget.com Published On :: Fri, 08 May 2020 12:08:32 +0300 Codemasters готовят одиночную кампанию, восемь режимов гонок, события и мультиплеер. Full Article Игры для ПК PlayStation 5 Xbox Series X PlayStation 5 Xbox One
ma Huawei представила в Европе смартфон P Smart 2020: с сервисами Google и ценником €200 By gagadget.com Published On :: Sat, 09 May 2020 11:20:15 +0300 Благодаря чипу Kirin 710F смартфон получил предустановленные чипы Google. Full Article
ma Live cricket match takes fan into the world of real cricket spirit By www.kimvazquez.com Published On :: Sun, 29 Dec 2019 06:58:12 +0000 Every cricket follower fervently needs to watch real-time cricket suit. Nothing can change the excitement, delights and excitement of real-time cricket suit. Live cricket suit is of much worry for a fan during any recurring series or competitions. Every cricket… Continue Reading → Full Article Sports
ma Make your restaurant decorative with finest interior design By www.kimvazquez.com Published On :: Mon, 30 Dec 2019 07:36:28 +0000 Interior decoration is a tremendously crucial element of any kind of dining establishment. If you are in the planning stages of opening up a dining establishment, if you already own one and also are thinking about making adjustments, you will… Continue Reading → Full Article General
ma Recognizing energy efficient ceiling fans on the market By www.kimvazquez.com Published On :: Sat, 04 Jan 2020 06:14:40 +0000 Power reliable ceiling followers are a wonderful method to make your home much more inviting, visually pleasing and also, as an added bonus offer, reduced your overall house power air conditioning bill if you currently have a home cooling system.… Continue Reading → Full Article Shopping
ma Life's a Biotech - Marketing Dictionary for Newbies By www.labspaces.net Published On :: Fri, 30 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0500 As more and more of my academic scientist friends become disillusioned with their prospects for a balanced life or financial freedom, moving to industry seems the logical choice. If you really want to make the big dollars, you'll want to move out of the lab and try out marketing or sales. Now, you won't be able to go directly to a marketing position from the lab without some marketing experience o; (read more) Source: Suzy - Discipline: BioTech Full Article