Hearts are truely growing colder. This is especially evident when things like this story can happen. Six people were beaten and stabbed to death ... over some stolen clothing and an Xbox game system. When life has gotten so cheap that people are willing to kill over something like this then we cannot possibly deny the truth of Jesus' words in Matthew 24:12, "And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold."
All I can say is that with things like this happening, We're in the spritual deep freeze now for certain and it's getting colder all the time. - - -----
Police: Xbox Theft Spurred Fla. Slayings
Aug 8, 1:29 PM (ET)
By MIKE BRANOM
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) - A man who was angry about a suspected theft recruited three teenagers to stab and beat six people to death with baseball bats in a Florida home, investigators said Sunday after making four arrests.
Remains of the six victims - four men and two women - were found Friday in the blood-spattered home.
All four suspects have been charged with first-degree murder and armed burglary, the Volusia County sheriff's department said. All of the victims had been stabbed, but autopsies determined the cause of death was the beating injuries.
Full Article:
http://apnews1.iwon.com//article/20040808/D84B66380.html?PG=home&SEC=news
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Meanwhile, not only are people's hearts growing colder in this world where iniquity (lawlessness and sin) abound so greatly, many are also decived into believing lies that will send them to Hell. The proponents of evolutionary theory have pushed this deception disguised as fact so hard and so effectively for so long that as a result, many millions of people will face the lake of fire who otherwise would not have.
A recent survey on Iwon.com demonstrated this:
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Survey for Sun, Aug 8, 2004
Creationism vs. Evolution
Do you believe in a higher power?
85% - Yes
6% - No
8% - I'm not sure
0% - I don't care
Do you think a person who believes in a higher power can also believe in the theory of evolution?
68% - Yes
19% - No
12% - I'm not sure
1% - I don't care
Do you think evolution should be taught in science class in our nation's public schools?
66% - Yes
20% - No
13% - I'm not sure
2% - I don't care
Do you believe in creationism or evolution?
27% - I believe in creationism
16% - I believe in evolution
50% - I believe in a combination of both
1% - I believe in neither creationism nor evolution
5% - I'm not sure
1% - I don't care
Survey results page:
http://dsurvey.iwon.com/results.jsp?poll_id=2004-08-08
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I have written quite a bit about RFID chips and how they can and probably will be used in the last days and I'll certainly have more to say about them in the future. I am frequently reminded that there are people (Entirely too many!) who do not really understand what RFID chips are and what they do.
Recently while looking up a story about them, I ran across a very good explanation of that RFID chips are. After reading this explanation, you'll also be interested in the rest of the site where I found it: http://www.boycottgillette.com for a chilling example of how they can be used. Ask yourself, "What if they put RFID chips in tires? or clothing? or you name it?" - - -----
WHAT IS RFID?
RFID stands for Radio Frequency IDentification, a technology that uses tiny computer chips smaller than a grain of sand to track items at a distance. RFID "spy chips" have been hidden in the packaging of Gillette razor products and in other products you might buy at a local Wal-Mart, Target, or Tesco - and they are already being used to spy on people.
Each tiny chip is hooked up to an antenna that picks up electromagnetic energy beamed at it from a reader device. When it picks up the energy, the chip sends back its unique identification number to the reader device, allowing the item to be remotely indentified. Spy chips can beam back information anywhere from a couple of inches to up to 20 or 30 feet away.
Full Article:
http://www.boycottgillette.com/aboutrfid.html
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Speaking of RFID chips, Wal-Mart is already trying out Item-level RFID tags. This means that not just shipping containers or cases, but individual items for sale are being tagged with RFID chips. There is the usual protestations that violations of privacy and ethics is not the aim. That the chips are used to improve inventory control, theft prevention, make checkout easier, Etc.
What they do NOT tell you is that the chips continue to work after you buy the item and leave the store with it. They do NOT get 'turned off' when you check out. The only thing that happens is their computer system notes that chip's number and will allow it past the door's chip reader without setting off the alarm If they recieve the radio signal from a reader, they WILL send back their unique identification number. This can not only be used to track the item (and whoever is carrying / using it!) But it can allow a database to be built of what you buy, where you buy it, how much you paid for it, when you bought it, where you go with it (by noting everytime an RFID scanner detects it's unique ID number.). Do this with enough items and you begin to build a VERY detailed picture of an individuals life. And once again another piece of privacy and freedom dies. - - -----
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 11, 2004
Wal-Mart Tries New PR Spin to Accompany Item-level RFID Tagging "Selling the technology with partial truths is unethical," says CASPIAN
Despite widespread consumer opposition, Wal-Mart began item-level RFID (radio frequency identification) tagging of consumer goods last week as part of a trial in Texas. In an apparent effort to minimize the backlash to its use of RFID tags, Wal-Mart has also begun a public relations campaign to promote the technology that some are calling unethical.
Shoppers at seven Dallas-Ft. Worth area Wal-Mart stores can walk into the consumer electronics department and find Hewlett-Packard products for sale with live RFID tags attached. Wal-Mart's public statements appear to leave open the possibility that other goods could be tagged with RFID as well.
The giant retailer's decision to tag individual items on the store floor violates a call for a moratorium on such tagging issued last November by over 40 of the world's most respected privacy and civil liberties organizations. The move has sparked sharp criticism by the privacy community.
Full Article:
http://www.spychips.com/press-releases/wal-mart-texas.html
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If anyone should doubt the impact of RFID and it's potential use as the technology behind the Mark of the Beast, Here's another item about Humans getting "Chipped". - - -----
Japan: Schoolkids to be tagged with RFID chips
By Jo Best, Special to CNETAsia
12/7/2004
Japanese authorities decide tracking is best way to protect kids
The rights and wrongs of RFID-chipping human beings have been debated since the tracking tags reached the technological mainstream. Now, school authorities in the Japanese city of Osaka have decided the benefits outweigh the disadvantages and will now be chipping children in one primary school.
The tags will be read by readers installed in school gates and other key locations to track the kids' movements.
The chips will be put onto kids' schoolbags, name tags or clothing in one Wakayama prefecture school. Denmark's Legoland introduced a similar scheme last month to stop young children going astray.
RFID is more commonly found in supermarket and other retailers' supply chains, however, companies are now seeking more innovative ways to derive value from the tracking technology. US airline Delta recently announced it would be using RFID to track travellers' luggage.
Article Page:
http://asia.cnet.com/newstech/systems/0,39001153,39186467,00.htm
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RFID is not the only danger to our privacy and freedom. Email is suffering as the next victim in the war against the invasion of our right to privacy.
It cannot be stressed enough. Email is nothing more than text. Even if you compose in HTML or "Rich Text" (A practice that should be STRONGLY discouraged!), it is still nothing more than text that has the addition of formatting and markup codes, html, javascript, Etc. What your email program sends to the mail server is nothing but text. Even binary attachments (programs, archives or pictures & sound files) have been converted into a text based code so that it can be sent via a text delivery system. This text can be read, copied, deleted or even edited at any point along the route that it takes on the way to its destination.
The situation can best be summed up by saying that if you want privacy, then you need to learn how to use software like PGP to encrypt things that you don't want seen by anyone but the intended recipient. A comment I saw on alt.privacy recently is appropriate to quote here:
> My employer provides its own ISP service to about 60,000 people and I > help maintain the systems that provide that service. As we tell our > users over and over and over again: do not send anything via email > that you wouldn't want the entire world to see unless you encrypt it.
Important Definition:
Eviscerate - take away a vital or essential part of, remove the contents
of, surgically remove a part of a structure or an organ, remove the
entrails of, to disembowell
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June 29, 2004
Online Privacy "Eviscerated" by First Circuit Decision
The First Circuit Court of Appeals dealt a grave blow to the privacy of Internet communications with its decision today in the case of U.S. v. Councilman. The court held that it was not a violation of criminal wiretap laws for the provider of an email service to monitor the content of users' incoming messages without their consent. The defendant in the case is a seller of rare and used books who offered email service to customers. The defendant had configured the mail processing software so that all incoming email sent from Amazon.com, the defendant's competitor, was copied and sent to the defendant's mailbox as well as to the intended recipient's. As the court itself admitted, "it may well be that the protections of the Wiretap Act have been eviscerated as technology advances."
"By interpreting the Wiretap Act's privacy protections very narrowly, this court has effectively given Internet communications providers free rein to invade the privacy of their users for any reason and at any time," says Kevin Bankston, EFF attorney and Equal Justice Works fellow. "This decision makes clear that the law has failed to adapt to the realities of Internet communications and must be updated to protect online privacy."
Decision in U.S. v. Councilman (PDF file).
http://www.ca1.uscourts.gov/pdf.opinions/03-1383-01A.pdf
Posted at 04:43 PM
Article page:
http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2004_06.php
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