Automated License Plate Reader Cameras

 This blog is ακωλυτως, unhindered. (Acts 28:31) Any subject is fair game. While it is not explicitly a Christian subject, the confidentiality of your personal information is a very important thing you do need to consider.

Governments and the legal systems of countries are usually about ten years behind the rapid developments of science and technology. This causes intense controversy over numerous subjects such as information data centers, artificial intelligence systems, the usage of aborted fetal remains in the treatment of diseases, establishing the age of viability of developing unborn children, and automated license plate reader cameras. 

Flock safety automated license plate reader cameras have sparked a nationwide, bipartisan debate over public safety versus mass surveillance and civil liberties.

Law enforcement agencies insist that the cameras are important in tracking criminal suspects and stolen vehicles, and in locating possibly kidnapped persons.

One argument is this: Automobile license plates and vehicle exteriors are exposed to the public and, so, are in the public domain. Because of this, drivers in public view cannot claim privacy rights about their automobiles or location.

Critics of this view claim that a surveillance state is being created and they present evidence of abuses such as police officers who are accused of inappropriately using the database to track personal movements of persons not involved in criminal investigations. A public backlash against use of the cameras has erupted, including the criminal act of vandalism against the cameras.

Lack of Privacy:

Does everyone carry around a cell phone in their pocket? Every cellphone in the world is locatable using a global positioning system. Why is everyone not concerned about that?

A suggestion:

I worked for almost 50 years in hospital clinical laboratories and we were constantly reminded about patient confidentiality. We had access to extremely personal information about criminal suspects, politicians, celebrities, regular people from our communities, and even our own family members. All of these people deserved to have their personal information securely protected. Those of us who failed in this responsibility were subject to instant dismissal from their jobs.

In 1996, the United States federal government stepped in with the passage of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). After a short time-period which allowed the affected institutions the time necessary for them to put the standards into effect, full enforcement of the law began in April of 2003.

Enforcement against violations of the HIPAA law is totally inflexible. The penalties include total exclusion from any government contracts of any sort, massive monetary fines enacted for each violation, and very long prison terms for each violation. A Basic Metabolic Panel laboratory test usually is comprised of eight components. Release of these results could be seen as eight separate violations.

Access to the collected information should be legally restricted to police and governmental entities only.

If HIPAA level punishments were attached to the misuse of surveillance cameras, the problem might be quickly resolved. And they could still be used for legitimate purposes.

Modern Connections to Ancient Israel

 It has long been recognized that cultural legends very often have some type of real-life historical backgrounds no matter how distorted, exaggerated, embellished, or poorly-remembered they are. There may very well have been a man, or several men, named Hercules/Herakles or he may have originated as an amalgamation of the exploits of several strong-man rulers.

One tradition which was long thought to be merely or mostly legendary is the claim by the African Lemba tribe to have its origins from ancient Israel. The oral tradition of the tribe says that their distant ancestors were seven Jewish men who left Judea about 2,500 years ago and travelled through Yemen. These seven men settled in a place called Senna (possibly Sana/Sanaw, Yemen) before migrating into Africa where they married African women.

The Lemba have always been recognized as different by the local Bantu tribes.

According to modern-day historical theories, the Lemba began as Muslim/Jewish traders who assimilated into the local African Shona culture. It turns out that the story may be a little more complicated than that.

The Lemba tribe consists of about 70,000 to 80,000 persons who are concentrated in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Malawi, and Mozambique. Traditionalist Lembe wear yarmulke skull caps, abide by kosher food restrictions, practice ritual animal sacrifices, observe a weekly holy day, practice male circumcision, and their gravestones feature the Star of David. In modern times, many Lembe have become Muslims or Christians. 

A South-African Protestant missionary named Henri-Alexandre Junod (1863-1934) recorded in 1908 what some Lemba elders told him:

“[We] have come from a very remote place, on the other side of the sea. We were on a big boat. A terrible storm nearly destroyed us all. The boat was broken into two pieces. One half of us reached the shores of this country; the others were taken away with the second half of the boat, and we do not know where they are now. We climbed the mountains and arrived among the Banyai. There we settled, and after a time we moved southwards to the Transvaal; but we are not the Banyai.”

The BaNyai (aka the Nyai) are a Shona-related people who live on or near the Zambezi River. Shona is one of the Bantu languages.

Where the Lemba story deepens: Y-chromosome DNA studies show that parts of the male Lemba gene pool are of Middle Eastern origin. The Buba, a Lemba priestly clan, test positive for the "Cohen modal haplotype," (CHM) a specific genetic signature found in Jewish priestly lineages (the Kohanim). Read about the CHM in a detailed and highly technical article here https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2771134/

The World Jewish Congress has an interesting article about this subject: https://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/news/lemba-tribe-in-southern-africa-has-jewish-roots-genetic-tests-reveal

 

Subjects in the Labels List Which Begin with the Letters bpa to byz

 

 This blog is ακωλυτως, unhindered. (Acts 28:31) Any subject is fair game. Below is a listing of the LABELS which begin with the letters bpa to byz. All can be searched from the list which follows the last posted article on this page or by typing them into the SEARCH button at the top of the page. Most will call up multiple postings in which they appear.

Braganca, brainwashing, Brazil, bread, breakfast, breaking the fourth wall, Brendon Rexford, bribery, Bride of Christ, British, British Israelism, broccoli, broke, broken glass, Bronx, Brooke Greenberg, brother, Brother Bryan, Brother Lawrence, Bruce Almighty, Brunei, brutality, Bucharest, Buckminster Fuller, Budapest, Buddhism, budget, Bulgaria, bullying, bumper stickers, burial, Burkina Faso, Burma, burqa, business, business meeting, busy work, Butler's Lives of the Saints, butterfly, Byzantine.

Every Doubt is an Opportunity

 The Greek word διακρίνω is sometimes translated into English as doubt. (Strong’s 1252) The word’s usage as doubt carries the ideas of back and forth, hesitation, wavering, misgivings, and vacillating. The second set of scriptural references below are verses which use the word in this way.  

If you have some doubts about your faith or your understanding of it, as we say in an English language idiom, “Join the club!”

Doubt is normal and is not a sin. We all struggle with some aspects of the faith and may even struggle with ourselves being worthy. Guess what, none of us are worthy. We have all sinned. We cannot be good enough. Our salvation in Christ is an unearned gift of his grace, not from anything we have done.

If you are genuinely asking questions of God, that means that you are listening. An unsaved person will not wrestle with this. Instead, they will use their doubts as an excuse to reject the faith. And many of them will contemptuously look down on us as uninformed or simple. Pray for them.

Honest doubt is much better than the pretense that we have it all figured out. God created the universe and can deal with your doubts, even very tough doubts. Just ask him to help. Search in the Bible and listen for the leading of the Holy Spirit. Don’t be afraid or ashamed to ask God to strengthen your faith.

People in the Bible who struggled with faith questions include Moses, David, Gideon, Thomas, and John the Baptist. The Bible shows that many experienced times of spiritual struggle.

If you are not personally struggling but now someone who is, give them encouragement. Never even hint that there is something wrong with them. Honest doubt is normal. Jude 1:22 says, “Show mercy to those whose faith is wavering.”

Metal can be tempered to strengthen and harden it by exposing it to heating and cooling. The same idea applies to us.

Exodus 3 and 4; Judges 6:36–40; Psalm 13; 1 Samuel 27:1; Matthew 11:1–6; Mark 9:24; John 20:24–29; Romans 3:23,28; Acts 17:11; Ephesians 2:8-9; Titus 3:5; Jude 1:22.

       ___________________________________________________________

Matthew 21:21; Mark 11:23; Romans 14:23; Acts 10:20; James 1:6, 2:4.

He Laughs

 In the Bible, names are very important. They have meanings and are not just random sounds. Our modern names are the same. Look up the meanings of your personal name and/or surname. For example, The male personal name Robert is derived from the name Hrodebert which comes from two Germanic words, hrod (glory, fame) and berht (shining, bright). The female personal name Melissa is a direct transliteration of the Greek word μέλισσα (honeybee).

In the story of Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac their names are extremely important.  They show that God is directly and personally involved in history. I believe that, in this biblical account, God shows himself to have a sense of humor and he shows that what he announces and promises will happen. He uses Isaac’s name as a reminder.

God promised to the elderly Abram and his 90+ years-old wife, Sarai, that he would give them a son. They both quietly chuckled to themselves at the seemingly absurd promise, not realizing that God would know that they thought it was funny.

Commenters have pointed out that God directly inserted himself into human history when he changed the names of Abram (Strong’s H87, אַבְרָם) and Sarai (Strong’s H8297, שָׂרַי) to AbraHam (Strong’s H85, אַבְרָהָם) and SaraH (Strong’s H8283, שָׂרָה). Many believe that the H (ה)  reflects the tetragrammaton JHWH (Yahweh, Strong’s H3068, יְהוָֹה), one of God’s names.

God told the couple to name their child Isaac (Strong’s H3327 and H3446, יִצְחָק). The name means he laughs. Some might see this as a sarcastic response to the couple but most commenters say instead that this is a reminder that God can do what he says he will do. Whenever they said their beloved son’s name, they would be reminded that they laughed and doubted but that God fulfilled his promise.

“For the LORD of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?” Isaiah 14:27. The obviously expected answer here is no one.

Genesis 17:5, 17:15-19, 18:10-14; Isaiah 14:27.

Calcol/Chalcol and KRKR

 There are thousands of extrabiblical literary and archeological corroborations of the Bible. New evidences of persons and places mentioned in the Bible continue to be discovered every year.

There have been suggestions that Chalcol/Calcol, one of David’s wise men mentioned in the Bible, and Kerker (KRKR), who is mentioned in the Megiddo Ivories, may be connected. KRKR can be transliterated as Kulkul.

Calcol/Chalcol was one of David’s wise men and was a brother of Heman, a wise man and musician who was the king’s “seer in the words of God to lift up the horn.” Because Chalcol/Calcol was a brother of Heman, many believe that he was also a musician. David appointed more than 4000 Levite royal musicians and singers.

Artifact A22269 is an Egyptian-style ivory plaque from the Megiddo ivories collection, featuring hieroglyphic inscriptions with prayers for an Egyptian singer named Kerker. This is one of the almost 400 ivories discovered at the site in the 1930’s.

A22269 features Egyptian hieroglyphs with a prayer reading: “[… for the spirit of the singer of] Ptah, south of his wall, [Lord of] 'The Life of Two Lands,' Kerker, the justified”. Kerker appears to have been a female singer who worked in the Temple of the Egyptian deity, Ptah, during the time period of ca 1350-1150 BC/BCE. Her name is spelled out phonetically as KRKR with the symbols for k and r. KRKR can be transliterated as Kulkul.

The plaque was found at the Megiddo archeological site in modern Israel during excavations of the treasury room of a Late Bronze Age palace, from the 12^th Century BC/BCE.

https://isac-idb.uchicago.edu/id/af86a18e-7b0c-40c6-bec4-43f513b7f052 shows an image and description of the plaque. You can click on the image to enlarge it. The plaque is held in the collection of the University of Chicago Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures.

Because of the similarity of the pronunciations of the names of Chalcol/Calcol and KRKR some have suggested that there may have been some sort of familial connection with Chalcol/Calcol being an honorific, serving in a similar way to a modern surname. There are problems with this idea and most commenters believe that there is no connection other than similar sounding names and being therefore totally coincidental.

1. 1. KRKR was a female pagan singer in the Temple of Ptah while Chalcol/Calcol was a male member of the tribe of Judah.

2. 2. KRKR lived in the ca 1350-ca 1150 BC/BCE time period, while Chalcol/Calcol served during the lifetime of King David ca 1000-931 BC/BCE.

1 Chronicles 2:6, 6:33, chapter 25, especially verse 5; 1 Kings 4:31; Psalm 88.

A Few Internet Safety Tips

 

This blog is ακωλυτως, unhindered. (Acts 28:31) Any subject is fair game. Since you are reading this post, you are using the internet. While it is not explicitly a Christian subject, internet safety is a very important thing you need to understand. There are many wolves out there who basically see you as food. They would love to drain any of your bank accounts and use your credit card numbers as their very own piggybank. Some may even be stalking you personally. 

Matthew 10:16 warns us to be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves. Jesus was speaking to the Twelve, and as a first-century Jew, he knew nothing of the internet but his words are applicable to our modern concerns. We really are surrounded by dangerous predators.

Some unknown person wants you to open an unknown link. Opening the link, or sometimes, even calling the sending number, installs malware in your devices, giving that person access to all of your personal and financial accounts, probably not a very good idea.  

Here are some useful internet safety tips:

 Be highly skeptical of unsolicited emails.

R    Restrict your accounts so that only people whom you choose can view your posts and photos.

Tu  If a phone call comes from someone not on your contacts list, send it to voice mail.

 Make sure your social media profiles are set to private.

Use complex passwords and have a totally different password for each online account. If you are like me, you will need to keep a small notebook to remember them all.

4.      Add a second layer of security (like a time-sensitive code sent to your phone or authenticator app) for banking, email, and social media. This is Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA).

5.      Never Share any access codes with anyone else. Delete them from your phone after you use them.

6.      Turn on automatic updates for your operating system, browsers, and applications to patch any newly discovered security vulnerabilities.

7.      Always use a VPN on public Wi-Fi. If you can, avoid public Wi-Fi entirely.

8.      Be highly skeptical of unexpected messages claiming you won a sweepstakes or have been hacked. 

R      Turn off any location services. They do not need to know where you are.

D    Do not post your schedule of when you will be at home alone, and especially, do not tell them when you will not be at home.

R    Remember that anything that is posted online will be online forever.