Category: news item

  • E-mail that costs you a billion dollars

    As far as slip ups with technology go, this one is pretty major. A lawyer for drug manufacturer Eli Lilly thought she was sending an email to her co-counselor on a billion dollar case.

    Unfortunately, her co-counselor shared the same last name as a person doing a story on the matter with the New York Times. He already knew about the deal but didn’t have enough sources confirming the story to make it public. That is, until he received the mistaken e-mail.

    The story exposed details of a billion dollar private settlement that would have otherwise remained confidential.

    Here’s the story.

    What’s the lesson here for your personal email, business email, and super-duper-uber private messages?

    HT to NPR

  • Dear Detroit Media: Leave Kwame Alone!

    kwame kilpatrickThe last 3-4 days the local news in Detroit has not left the mayor alone. There are some allegations about him surrounding whether or not he lied about an affair he had with a staff member a few years back.

    And the Detroit media is having a field day. It’s completely disgusting that they have nothing better to do than stalk this guy 24 hours per day. Television stations have sunk to new lows by flying their traffic helicopters over his house to see if his car is there. They are giving updates on his families movements, and virtually any other disgusting detail they can reveal.

    I have some advice for the Detroit media: Go back to covering lost dogs and stalled cars on the freeway. And don’t forget about your helpful segments, helping single moms get free cars or tracking down bad contractors to shame them. Those are things you are good at. Treating the nightly news like it is Access Hollywood is disgusting? Cut it out.

    Sure, he is a public figure. But this is too far. This story is not worth 24 hour coverage. It’s simply not news the people of this city want to hear.

  • Yes, we are having church on Sunday

    Unless something dramatically changes, (such as there is a state of emergency) we are having church tomorrow. And not to sound trite, but unless you have a very good reason, we expect to see everyone.

    For those Michiganers who let a little snow scare you into the house instead of gathering for church… why not see just how easy you have it right now and spend some time at Voice of the Martyrs?

    Here’s a story from Iraq that should put the shovel in your hand:

    Living in the atmosphere of Iraq, those who are controlled by the spirit of fear forced many churches to close their doors and told their members, ‘We will call you when the circumstances get better.’ When churches started to close their doors, people immigrated to Northern Iraq and some to Syria and Jordan. Many Christians did not find an open church to go to.

    This isn’t meant as a guilt trip. This is a friendly reminder that thousands of men and women have given their lives for our freedom to meet and worship. Snow schmow. In the words of Todd Porter, suck it up cream puff.

    By the way, we’ve got a great service planned.

  • The RIAA is killing itself

    RIAAI don’t think I’ve ever met a person who actually thinks that artists shouldn’t get paid for their work. But the RIAA has clearly lost touch. The idea that consumers can’t share, edit, or even make archival copies of the stuff that they buy is seriously out of touch.

    The RIAA has told a court that ripping your CDs to MP3 format is “unauthorized” and illegal, in a brief filed with the Arizona US District Court where Atlantic Records is suing Jeffrey and Pamela Howell. The last time this issue came up, in the Grokster Supreme Court case, the RIAA’s lawyer said that ripping CDs was not illegal and was implicitly authorized by the record labels. Story

    The internet has changed the ownership game. Consumers have taken the right to edit, share, customize what they buy and they aren’t going to give it back. It won’t be long before the Supreme Court will have to revisit copyright laws for the internet age because we just don’t have a clue how these old laws work in today’s society. Is the RIAA going to sue every person in the country with a computer and an internet connection?

    When the Supreme Court finally comes to its senses and puts this lobby out to pasture, the RIAA will quickly bankrupt itself. Particularly when the major labels start to bolt for a new, better way.

    I predict a new organization will become recognized  by the recording industry that gets the desires of consumers (Who ultimately fund things like the RIAA) and make sure artists are paid fairly for their work.

    At the same time, we need to be responsible consumers and actually buy music instead of stealing it. Artists deserve to be paid, make sure you aren’t part of the problem.

  • Praise God for Jeanne Assam

    Jeanne AssamNo matter what you think of having an armed security detail at a church, Jeanne Assam was at the right place at the right time. Praise God for her actions.

    I hope others see it in this news report… but God’s hand was all over protecting New Life on Sunday. It’s a miracle that the shooter didn’t do more damage.

    Read the news account

    Here are some statements that impressed me from her statement.

    “did not think for a minute to run away”
    “It seemed like it was me, the gunman and God,”
    “Boyd said Assam was the one who suggested the church beef up its security Sunday following the Arvada shooting, which it did. The pastor credited the security plan and the extra security for preventing further bloodshed.”
    Assam said she was ending three days of fasting on Sunday when fate put her in the path of the gunman.

    “I was praying to God that he direct me” in what to do in life, Assam said. “God made me strong.”

    Amazing stuff there. Sometimes God calls us to do things for Him that make no logical sense. I praise God this woman took action to hear God’s direction and was bold enough to act on it. I hope she is an example for Christians everywhere in that regard.

  • Don’t Watch the Weather

    winter weatherI am continually surprised to see people pre-decide that the weather is too bad for an activity. They watch the weather on the local news and believe the hype that we’re going to have a blizzard or that it’s going to be bad out there… so they pre-decide tonot go to work, school, or church.

    You hear them say “It’s going to be bad out there.”  Then they stay home.

    This leads to a two-part thing that I don’t like about living in Michigan.

    1. People born and raised in Michigan are wimps about winter weather. They live in a state surrounded by water and Canada on 3 directions and are surprised to see winter weather.  Instead of being like Wisconsin or Minnesota or Northern New York and taking  “bring it on, nothing will stop us” attitude they wimp out and pretend to be surprised when winter weather comes.
    2. People born and raised in Michigan tend to lack the hardiness to overcome weather adversity. I think it took us moving to the West Coast to really see this. There are people who won’t let anything stand in the way of their going to work, school, or church and then there are people who just look for an excuse to not come. We had people in California tell us they skipped church because it was below 40 F and might freeze. Some Michigan people are the same way. They look for any excuse to call out to work, school, or church. It’s not worth the trouble they say.

    A lot of people want to blame the governor or the auto industry for the poor economic state of things in Michigan. I think residents would be wise to examine their work ethic. If something as simple as a snow storm or even a rumor of a winter storm is enough to negatively impact our economy… I think we need to examine these cultural things. (After all, this is reality we are talking about. We’re talking about attitudes.)

    You know it’s coming. Adam’s annual rant about dirt roads is coming. 

  • Snow is heavy in Romeo

    It’s November 26th and the snow is coming down heavy in Romeo. It’s one of those pretty snows too, the kind that is hard to hate.

    That isn’t really newsworthy, but it is always good to record the first heavy snowfall of the year. Though technically we got 2 inches on Thanksgiving… it didn’t happen in plain sight and we woke up to it. 

    My prediction: It will be 55 and warm on Christmas day.

  • Thank God for Good Neighbors

    Check out this story.

    Just because you use something for a long time doesn’t make you the owner of it.

    Not only is the rich and powerful former mayor of Boulder stealing land, he’s asking the owner to pay him to take it.

    On October 17, 2007, Boulder District Court Judge James C. Klein ordered the Kirlins to give 1/3 of their lot to McLean and Stevens. Yesterday, the Colorado Supreme Court’s Attorney Regulation Counsel rejected the Kirlins’ request to conduct an ethical misconduct probe into the matter. In addition, Stevens and McClean have asked the judge to force the Kirlin’s to pay their legal fees.

  • Facebook and Microsoft Deal Makes Unreal Math

    Microsoftlogo
    Microsoft Corp. found a friend in Facebook on Wednesday, paying $240
    million for a small slice of the rapidly growing social networking Web
    site.

    The deal, for which Microsoft reportedly beat archrival Google,
    expands the Redmond company’s advertising relationship with Facebook
    and gives it an ownership stake in one of the hottest online properties.

    Facebook
    But the companies were immediately questioned about the $15 billion
    value that the deal places on Facebook, which puts Microsoft’s
    ownership interest at 1.6 percent. Earlier reports of that figure
    raised concerns about possible overvaluation of Facebook and other "Web
    2.0" sites.

    "Obviously, $15 billion is a pretty big number for Facebook," said
    analyst Brad Reback of CIBC World Markets, in the first question of a
    conference call in which the companies discussed the agreement. He
    noted that Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer was recently quoted
    commenting on the "faddish nature" of social networking Web sites.     News

    Just doing a little quick math. $15 billion means that each account as of October 24th is now worth $300. When you start thinking… how is Microsoft going to monetize my account to be worth more than $300 to them (because profit was obviously the motive of this deal) than you start to see why I predict Facebook will die among students the way MySpace has.

    Trebek2
    If you think that is some crazy math…
    With the United States military preparing to spend $200 billion in Iraq in 2008… that works out to about $1 million per soldier. (200,000 deployed) Something tells me the soldiers aren’t getting $1 million worth of stuff.

    I’m not saying we should leave Iraq or anything about the war itself. Just… that’s crazy math.

  • Situation in Oroville

    New Story

    Obviously, Kristen and I were in shock to hear about the events at Las Plumas High School in Oroville today. I won’t say that I am surprised as there is always something strange happening on that campus, but I am just glad it has ended peacefully.

    Please pray for Shawn Hayse at the Oroville Church of the Nazarene as the church is directly across the street from LP and I have no doubt he’ll be helping many students there. Maybe even drop him an email to let him know you are praying for him and his wife Amy.

    Oroville
    Update:     As I suspected in this post yesterday, Shawn and his church were literally right in the middle of this event. The church was used as a place families came together to wait for news. Likewise, media and police used the church parking lot for staging. News story