Tag Archives: future

Re-writing history, canceling culture. How should the church respond?

  • How Should Christians Respond When History Is Being Rewritten or Even Deleted?
  • “Who controls the past controls the future” said George Orwell
  • Arthur Schlesinger, a historian and former confidant to President John F. Kennedy observed: “History is to the nation much as memory is to the individual…
  • Milan Kundera, a well-known Czech writer and historian who opposed the Soviet takeover of Czechoslovakia in 1968 said… ‘The first step in liquidating a people’ he said, ‘is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture and its history. Then have somebody write new books, manufacture a new culture, invent a new history. Before long the nation will forget what it is and what it was’.
  • The secularists are insisting that we turn a corner so that we lose sight of the Judeo-Christian influence of our past, and if we do choose to look back they want us to see our religious history as a blotch, not a blessing. They want us to substitute their worldview in the place of our historic religious roots, knowing that if we lose our history we will lose our future – a future they wish to control.
  • Our calling and privilege is to represent Christ in this turbulent moment in history. This is not a time for us to deny the negative parts of our history and paint a picture that ignores the sins and racism of the past: we can learn from history without having to destroy it. How many children will receive a better education in our schools should monuments be destroyed? These monuments are a part of our history and should serve as teaching opportunities that both warn and instruct us: “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11.3).

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#MeToo effect: Calls flood U.S. sexual assault hotlines

Volunteers on the National Sexual Assault Hotline work both over the phone and via web chat at the offices of the U.S.'s largest anti-sexual violence organization, the Rape Abuse Incest National Network, in Washington, U.S., January 12, 2018.

By Lisa Lambert

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The phones at U.S. sexual assault hotlines have been ringing in record numbers as the #MeToo social movement spurs victims to reach out for help, sending organizations scrambling to keep up.

Calls spiked when the movement began in October, with people waiting up to three hours to talk to someone at the country’s largest one, the National Sexual Assault Hotline.

The number of calls to the hotline operated by the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) surged 25 percent in November from a year earlier, and another 30 percent in December, according to RAINN. Its 209,480 total calls in 2017 were the most for any year since its founding in 1993.

Last fall, actress Alyssa Milano of the television show “Charmed” asked women who had been sexually assaulted or harassed to post “Me Too” in response to allegations made against movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.

Weinstein, accused of sexual abuse by dozens of women, has denied having nonconsensual sexual contact with anyone. Reuters has not been able to independently confirm the accusations.

At the national hotline’s call center, the lights that workers flip on to indicate they are on the phone never seemed to turn off, said Celia Gamboa, a manager at the national hotline. The chat app most callers prefer was flooded with messages, she said. The #MeToo movement almost always came up.

“It wasn’t just a one-time thing,” Gamboa said. “We’re just going to continue to see that type of flow into the future.”

RAINN added 40 employees to its staff of 200 and stepped up volunteer recruiting, said CEO Scott Berkowitz. That has helped chip away at the wait times, he said.

Elsewhere, Network for Victim Recovery of D.C. saw a spike in calls about sexual harassment. Executive Director Bridgette Stumpf said that unfortunately, the center can often only recommend private attorneys for people whose harassment did not include violence, adding such help may be too expensive for many victims.

The DC Rape Crisis Center now sees an average of 70 people a week seeking legal, physical or psychological help, up from 30 to 40 before #MeToo, said Executive Director Indira Henard. It also saw a bump in donations last fall following the #MeToo postings.

“It is for the record books,” Henard said. “I don’t believe there has ever been a time in our history when we talked about sexual violence and its impact this way.”

(Reporting by Lisa Lambert; Editing by Scott Malone and David Gregorio)

Apple sees its mobile devices as platform for artificial intelligence

An Apple employee showcases the augmented reality on an iPhone 8 Plus at the Apple Orchard Shop in Singapore September 22, 2017. REUTERS/Edgar Su

By Jess Macy Yu

TAIPEI (Reuters) – Apple Inc  sees its mobile devices as a major platform for artificial intelligence in the future, Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams said on Monday.

Later this week, Apple is set to begin taking pre-orders for its new smartphone, the iPhone X – which starts at $999 and uses artificial intelligence (AI) features embedded in the company’s latest A11 chips.

The phone promises new facial recognition features such as Face ID that uses a mathematical model of a person’s face to allow the user to sign on to their phones or pay for goods with a steady glance at their phones.

“We think that the frameworks that we’ve got, the ‘neural engines’ we’ve put in the phone, in the watch … we do view that as a huge piece of the future, we believe these frameworks will allow developers to create apps that will do more and more in this space, so we think the phone is a major platform,” Williams said.

He was speaking at top chip manufacturer Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s 30th anniversary celebration in Taipei, which was attended by global tech executives.

Williams said technological innovations, especially involving the cloud and on-device processing, will improve life without sacrificing privacy or security.

“I think we’re at an inflection point, with on-device computing, coupled with the potential of AI, to really change the world,” he said.

He said AI could be used to change the way healthcare is delivered, an industry he sees as “ripe” for change.

Williams said Apple’s integration of artificial intelligence wouldn’t be just limited to mobile phones.

“Some pieces will be done in data centers, some will be on the device, but we are already doing AI in the broader sense of the word, not the ‘machines thinking for themselves’ version of AI,” he said referring to the work of Nvidia Corp, a leader in AI.

Global tech firms such as Facebook, Alphabet Inc, Amazon, and China’s Huawei are spending heavily to develop and offer AI-powered services and products in search of new growth drivers.

Softbank Group Corp, which has significantly invested in artificial intelligence, plans a second Vision Fund that could be about $200 billion in size, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

At Monday’s event, TSMC Chairman Morris Chang described his company’s relationship with Apple as “intense.”

Williams said the relationship started in 2010, the year Apple launched the iPhone 4, with both parties taking on substantial risk.

He credited Chang for TSMC’s “huge” capital investment to ramp up faster than the pace the industry was used to at the time. Apple decided to have 100 percent of its new iPhone and new iPad chips for application processors sourced at TSMC, and TSMC invested $9 billion to bring up its Tainan fab in a record 11 months, he said.

 

(Reporting by Jess Macy Yu, additional reporting by Eric Auchard, Editing by Miyoung Kim and Adrian Croft)

 

For the Future of America, Friends of Jim Bakker Speak Out!

The time is short before this historical election comes to an end, and the future of the United States of America hangs in the balance.  The fight to make our country strong will begin as each voter arrives at their polling place stands up for the morals that, as Christians, we have watched rapidly deteriorate.  The safety of this nation and the future nation that we leave for our children is on the line.  As a whole, we have passively trusted our government.

NOW is the time for us to show that as believers our votes count!

Please watch this video  of some of the most influential Christian teachers in America and friends of  The Jim Bakker Show and hear what they have to say about this election!  

Please be praying for God’s blessings as we fight for what is right at the polls!  

PLEASE VOTE!!!

Millions of S.E. Asian jobs may be lost to automation

Humanoid robots work side by side with employees in the assembly line at a factory of Glory Ltd., a manufacturer of automatic change dispensers, in Kazo, north of Tokyo, Japan,

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – More than half of workers in five Southeast Asian countries are at high risk of losing their jobs to automation in the next two decades, an International Labour Organization study found, with those in the garments industry particularly vulnerable.

About 137 million workers or 56 percent of the salaried workforce from Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, fall under the high-risk category, the study showed.

“Countries that compete on low-wage labor need to reposition themselves. Price advantage is no longer enough,”  said Deborah France-Massin, director for the ILO’s bureau for employers’ activities. The report said workers have to be trained to work effectively alongside digitalized machines.

Southeast Asia is home to more than 630 million people and is a hub for several manufacturing sectors, including textiles, vehicles and hard disk drives.

Of the 9 million people working in the region’s textiles, clothing and footwear industry, 64 percent of Indonesian workers are at high risk of losing their jobs to automation, 86 percent in Vietnam, and 88 percent in Cambodia.

Garment manufacturers in Cambodia, who take orders from  retailers such as Adidas, Marks and Spencer and Wal-Mart Stores Inc, employ about 600,000 people.

Neighboring Vietnam is seeing record investment in its footwear and textiles industries, due to new free-trade pacts with major markets, including the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership. It is the second-largest garment supplier behind China to the United States.

The United Nations agency said technologies including 3D printing, wearable technology, nanotechnology and robotic automation could disrupt the sector.

“Robots are becoming better at assembly, cheaper and increasingly able to collaborate with people,” the ILO said.

The textiles, clothing and footwear sector is at the highest risk of automation out of five industries analyzed in the study, including automotive and auto parts, electrical and electronics, business process outsourcing and retail.

In the automotive and auto parts industry, more than 60 percent of salaried workers in Indonesia, and over 70 percent of those in Thailand face the risk of their jobs being displaced.

Southeast Asia’s automotive sector, the seventh-largest producer of vehicles in 2015 globally, employs more than 800,000 workers, the report said.

Known as the “Detroit of Southeast Asia”, Thailand is a regional production and export hub for the world’s top carmakers. The auto sector accounts for around 10 percent of Thai GDP and employs a 10th of its workers in manufacturing.

(Reporting by Aradhana Aravindan; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)

Becoming a Hope Craftswoman (Pt. 3)

That afternoon at the Dream Center, I looked out at the women and saw brown faces, black faces, and white faces.  The color of their skin varied, but the pain in their eyes was the same.  Hard living had aged many of them beyond their years:  a girl grows up way too fast in the ghetto.  They were listening intently, and I knew they understood my sorrow when I admitted that my bad choices far from ended with my decision to marry Jesse.

As I shared even more of my life story with the women at the Dream Center, I could tell that many of them related to the deep personal pain that stemmed from my bad choices.  Some of them were sobbing openly; many had tears in their eyes.  The joy is that I was able to share not just the pain and brokenness but the fact that God had loved me back to wholeness.

“God can only heal what you are willing to reveal,” I told the audience.  When I gave an invitation to come forward for prayer, the response was overwhelming.  Most of these women had already committed their lives to Christ, but there were still so many deep hurts that needed healing.  One woman who wanted prayer shared with me that she had had five abortions.  She was praying and sobbing to the point of having dry heaves.  Some of the other ladies were afraid she was going to throw up and wanted to help her, but I asked them to leave her alone.  It doesn’t happen that often, but sometimes a woman’s grief can be so intense that she gets physically sick.  In that case, it’s actually best to let her get that out.

As I had sensed in my spirit, God did something powerful that day for these women.  I was honored that He would use me as his chosen vessel.

Over the years, God has presented the opportunity over and over again to share my story with hurting women.  While His healing power has worked in my life to restore me to wholeness, there are many still suffering.

I share my story because it makes Jesus real to others who are hurting.

My story isn’t pretty – it isn’t easy to hear.  I am not proud of it – but it’s my TESTIMONY and it is holy unto God.

What I brag about today is not the past – but the future in Christ that I now have and others can have through the loving, forgiving, healing, covering Blood of Jesus!

HE took my sin to that Cross at Calvary so long ago.

HE will take yours too!  Receive Christ today as your Savior!

Love,

~ Lori

Becoming a Hope Craftswoman – Part 1
Becoming a Hope Craftswoman – Part 2