Short Post, not much exciting in the news

First up is an article from Zero Hedge - Portugal Considers Paying Public Workers In Treasury Bills Instead Of Cash. There are a lot of people out there who are willing to talk about how the currencies are being destroyed and other economic news not in the mainstream; but, I differ with most of them in that I am not trying to sell gold and I do not believe we are going to go to a gold backed currency standard. I am not promoting the man's site or the opinions, I did however find the Portuguese possibilities interesting. It is basically the same approach as the FDIC/Bank of England approach, pay people in stock in part. Treasury bonds are basically stock in the government.

South China Morning Post - China looking at direct yuan trade with Australian dollar. Just another country ceasing to rely on the dollar for foreign trade.

Wired - Now Your iPhone Can Read Fingerprints, Scan Irises and ID Your Face. Well, I never saw that coming. Okay, I said it was coming for the past few years. All we need now is a legal case that states that even though the police can freely examine your smart phone, they will not be able to force you to bio-metrically identify yourself to your phone as that would be like being forced to incriminate yourself and that is unconstitutional. Remember, the new phones know when you are looking away and will stop movies or do whatever else you want when you look away.

ars technica - Polynesian DNA mysteriously shows up in a Brazilian tribe. In college, undergraduate, my professors wanted me to go into teaching, they wanted me to join them in the big family of Political Science professors. Getting into Law School was ridiculously easy. Aside from the fact that I was actively invited to a law school, one of my recommendations came from a professor who had been quoted by the Supreme Court. But, all the other professors wanted me to teach and one of them in particular wanted me to be the expert on Polynesian governance and consequences of our intervention.

Part of my fascination with the Polynesians was there ability to travel 1/3rd of the world in canoes. It has always been my contention that the Polynesians must have landed in the Americas; but, traditional anthropologists and archeologists have said that it never occurred. Well, it did. According to the above article Polynesian DNA has been shown in a Brazilian tribe from the other side of Brazil. There was another man named Thor Heyerdahl who had similar beliefs. The article is funny because it turns out even with the genetic evidence, mainstream science does not wish to accept that the Polynesians came to the Americas. It is enough genetic evidence to convict a rapist; but, not enough to prove the obvious. Did you know that they found paintings of elephants in South America even though there is no evidence it ever had elephants?

I like geologists and materials testers. I like geologists because they are science guys with a sense of humor and they are fascinated by rocks. They are like science kids, they like to deal with the tangible. I like the tangible; but, I love philosophy more, I like that which you have to weigh on a moral scale, those are the tough questions and the ones that define who we are and who we want to be. There is a geologist that was asked by Archeologists to determine the age of the Sphinx. He looked at the erosion on the Sphinx and determined it was around 10,000 years B.C. when Archeologists claim it to be around 4,000 years old. He pointed out that the erosion on the Sphinx was due to water and that there had not been water in the area for 12,000 years. The Archeologists attacked him and said he knew nothing about Archeology or Egyptology, he admitted he did not, he just knew about rocks. He had no hidden agenda. That is what I like about Geologists. It is just a rock; but, even the rock tells a story and it cannot make one up.

I gave a sermon a little bit ago, I talked about the coming economic problems. One of the congregation asked me what they should do and I told them that it did not really matter what they did. One of the pastoral staff, after the service, said my sermon didn't quite work. He said he expected me to tell some biblical principal and then tell people how we should act on the principal. He was confused that I had no advice for how to respond to the coming economic problems. Sometimes the answer is just that you should understand what is going on in the world, sometimes it is about being discerning and mentally prepared. I don't ever want my readers to be overly agitated about the changes going on around us, they cannot stop them and neither can I.

The three beliefs that I promote that really upset people are faith, forgiveness and celibacy outside of a lifelong commitment to your partner. I have already said that I do not believe government sanctioned marriage is marriage just because the government sanctioned it. Faith is annoying because it only really exists if we live by what we say we believe. Marriage commitment is annoying because it means that government sanction or not, if you sleep with someone you become one with them. Forgiveness is the hardest for most because we so often treasure our anger and our resentment. We all get angry; but, it becomes an idol when we treasure our anger.

The question is always the same, what agenda have we hidden from ourselves. Why is it so hard to believe that the Polynesians could have come to the Americas. Why is it so heretical to think that the Sphinx may be older than tradition says? What is the answer that we are really afraid of? I shall try and write more often. Have a great week.