Breakfast of KPA #Champions. I'll soon be a monkey with wings.

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Forget ‘smart’. I’m waiting for ‘brilliant’.

There’s a reason that companies like Apple and Microsoft have been in slumps over the last year or so. There hasn’t been anything to come out that has really impressed us. Sure, there are smartphones and smartwatches, tablets and glasses, but the wow factor hasn’t come along and smacked us on the face in quite a while.

In essence, we’ve grown complacent to “smart” things. We want something brilliant.

Everything was pacing in that direction. The advancements from 2001 through 2006 were impressive with both internet technologies and gadgets galore to add to enhance our lives. The iPhone and subsequent mobile connectivity devices and software ramped up the innovations from 2007 through 2011.

Something happened. It slowed down. Yes, there are more devices coming out, more websites being built, and better software being released, but there hasn’t been anything that has blown our faces off. The Samsung Galaxy 4 and iPhone 5 were nice with interesting new features, but Siri was the only lukewarm addition that had any real play.

What’s next? When does the next generation of super-technology start?

Some would say it will happen in the automotive industry as driverless cars and connected dashboards are starting to really make a move. Others look to the home-based lifestyle changes that companies such as Microsoft are proposing, a world in which mundane acts such as cooking or taking a shower are made elaborate through technology.

Gaming is something that might bring the spark. Sony and Microsoft are bringing out their next generation devices shortly and if they’re nothing like the “innovations” that Nintendo brought to the table with the WiiU, they should be in good shape.

Expansive. All-encompassing. Intuitive. These are the traits of technology that can take us from “smart” to “brilliant” in a short period of time.

The venues and devices are changing. Wearable tech is supposed to be more of a thing, but there are skeptics regarding that possibility. Will people really want to be wearing connected devices all of the time? Will the really enhance the experience or make it more clunky, more tedious?

Perhaps the real jump into the next era of technology will be within the human body itself. Genetics, implants, mind-controlled devices – all of these and more have the potential to emerge in the coming months and have real applications for use in today’s society. Imagine not having to wave your hand or push on the controls to make characters in a game move. Imagine if you simply have to think about it to make it so.

As Facebook and Google push down the road of making the internet more accessible to the rest of the world, are we approaching a tipping point of connectivity that can bring a true artificial intelligence into play? Can enough data and enough opinions collected and sorted appropriately reveal a technology that can think for itself and possibly think for us? It’s been the topic of discussion for decades in science fiction, but it shouldn’t be too far off in the horizon now with the technology that we have at our fingertips.

Regardless of what the “next big thing” is, one thing is certain. It cannot be more of the same. A breakthrough is necessary or we’re just going to get bored. It isn’t just the consumers and the users. It’s the innovators as well. Many are so focused on the next iPhone app that they’re not bothered with working on the next iPhone replacement.

Something needs to come soon. Our attention spans are shortening and nobody is stepping up to impress us. Everyone is putting out technology that is smart. When do we get to see the technology that is brilliant?

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“Technology” image courtesy of Shutterstock.

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This car doesn't get nearly enough attention as an epic classic from the late 60s. I know there's a ton of competition from this amazing era, but I love the 1967 Oldsmobile 442 Convertible.

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Mara Hoffman Fashions Use Strange Symbols

Fashion is often considered to be a harmless representation of how we want to look for the world. It tells of our personality, accentuates our physical qualities, and even describes our particular mood. It can also be an easy way to push symbols that may or may not be understood by the person wearing it.

Buzzfeed, which has been oddly cognizant of bad things happening in the world lately (albeit irreverent towards them, normally), noticed peculiar symbols used in Mara Hoffman’s clothing line during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Spring Show in New York recently. The symbol in particular they focused on was a loose variation of the “all seeing eye” or “eye of providence” that most see every day on the back of the dollar bill.

The eye symbol used in many of Hoffman’s pieces is very likely a negative symbol, though it isn’t a pure variation of either the eye of providence or the eye of Horus. Regardless, eyes like these often have an attachment to secret societies, the Illuminati, and forces of darkness attached to Satan.

Further attachment to satanic symbolism can be seen in the use of two-headed snakes that wrap around the models’ bodies, always meeting face-to-face to complete the circle.

In the video below, you’ll see that there are other questionable symbols used, ones that would require a more in-depth analysis before highlighting, but the snake and eye symbols are clear as you’ll see in the images below.

The image above is from her Miami 2014 show and took the eye symbol even further by having it temporarily placed on the forehead of many of the models.

Intention is never a defense. Whether the designer is unwittingly placing evil symbols on clothing with the hopes that people will buy it or if she’s doing it on purpose is irrelevant. We are charged with arming ourselves with the understanding of what to do and what not to do based upon what the Bible says.

Idols, blasphemies, and the tools of Satan are out there. They have always been and will always be. One does not have to worship a symbol on a garment for it to have a negative effect on them and those around them. One simply has to participate willingly. These fashions are dangerous.

Below are a few more screenshots followed by the video itself.

Here, we see the designer herself wearing the eye symbol.

Here’s the video from the show itself:

via Judeo Christian Church http://judeochristianchurch.com/mara-hoffman-fashions-use-strange-symbols/

Assume that no personal data is safe from the NSA, GCHQ, and others

Passwords. Encryption. Firewalls. Secure networks. None of these are out of the reach of the US National Security Agency (NSA), their British counterparts at the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), and other government as well as private agencies around the world. Any sense of privacy and security should be dismissed completely in this world.

Assume that you’re data is open to prying eyes. Assume that your private information is an open book. If you put anything on a digital device that has access to the internet, it can no longer be considered private, secure, or safe. The whistleblowing efforts of Edward Snowden as well as investigations by journalists and watchdog groups are showing us every day just how insecure our data really is.

The latest log to throw on the fire comes from reports that the US and British security agencies (and probably other organizations) have “cracked much of the online encryption relied upon by hundreds of millions of people to protect the privacy of their personal data, online transactions and emails.”

If you think your 23-character password with lower-case letters, capital letters, numbers, and special characters will protect you, you’re wrong. These agencies are working from within. They have established vulnerabilities within the coding of websites and services that give them backdoor access regardless of how long your password is. They don’t need to know your mother’s maiden name or the city in which you met your spouse to gain access to your accounts and data.

They probably already have it.

According to Maximum PC:

The most worrying bit, though, is that the agency owes a lot of its eavesdropping capabilities to its success in secretively influencing tech companies to alter their product designs, “insert vulnerabilities into commercial encryption systems” and weaken security standards. All these activities are part of the SIGINT (signals intelligence) Enabling Project, a program the NSA has spent around $800 million on since 2011.

The paranoid ramblings of people (myself included) over the past few years are proving to be barely showing the tip of the NSA security iceberg. Their greatest strength (besides undisclosed and untracked budgets) is time – they’ve been working on these projects for over a decade.

Today, they’ve mastered the science and art of getting into any file, any computer, and any database they want. They’ve also mastered the ability to catalog, sort, and retrieve the data as well.

To those who take the security of their data, their personal information, and their digital lives seriously, there really is only one thing that can be done. If unplugging is impossible, people have to take the necessary steps to keep anything important to them offline completely.* * *”Encryption” image courtesy of Shutterstock.

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The Hebrew Matthew is Different from the Greek Matthew

Over the thousands of years that the books of the Bible have been in existence, they have undergone translation after translation, copy after copy. Considering the scale to which it has gone through these copies and translations, the words themselves have been exceptionally well-maintained. There are, however, challenges.

One of the most pronounced discrepancies between most of the accepted versions of the Bible and the original is the Book of Matthew. There is evidence that it was originally written in Hebrew, translated to Aramaic, and then into the Greek version that permeates the majority of English and other language translations in circulation today. There are clear differences between what many are considering the original Matthew and the accepted version of Matthew.

Nehemia Gordon, a Karaite Jew, explores these differences in great detail. His message regarding the modern day pharisees (Orthodox Rabbis) and the parallels to modern day Catholicism are striking, but the most important message is that there are certain clear differences between what we accept as the Gospel of Matthew and what might actually be the original Gospel of Matthew. This is a long video but it’s worth a watch.

via Judeo Christian Church http://judeochristianchurch.com/the-hebrew-matthew-is-different-from-the-greek-matthew/

Andre the Giant with The Rock as a child

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The Scientific Method Breaks the Theory of Evolution

Faith. Believers of the theory of evolution have had to have faith in the theory since its beginning. It sounds good. It puts us into the same category as animals, meaning that we’re able to live based upon our own desires, our own flaws, and survival of the fittest.

Do what you want as long as you don’t harm others. That’s a common way of breaking down the moral thought process of those who embrace evolution. The cause and effect model with this is often interchangeable; the moral comes from belief in evolution (or more appropriately, disbelief in Creation) in some cases while the belief in evolution comes from the moral value for others.

It’s no coincidence that the concept is very similar to the Wiccan Rede. According to Wikipedia:

The Wiccan Rede /ˈriːd/ is a statement that provides the key moral system in the Neopagan religion of Wicca and certain other related Witchcraft-based faiths. A common form of the Rede is An it harm none, do what ye will.

Check out this video from Evolution versus God. In it, Ray Comfort explains quite a bit about the ideas surrounding evolution. More importantly, it gives us a “street view” of the way that the theory of evolution has permeated throughout our culture.

via Judeo Christian Church http://judeochristianchurch.com/the-scientific-method-breaks-the-theory-of-evolution/

The #gorgeous #SoCal sky right now.

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Carroll Shelby in the 50s, waiting for his Ferrari to be fueled up

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