Pharaoh was holding Moses and his people captive, and doing really nasty things to them. God tells Pharaoh to let his people go, but Pharaoh says no. To show Pharaoh that he means business, God retaliates by killing thousands of first born children (and adults that were first borns too I guess).

But an interesting diagnostic that puts the slaughter of the Egyptians’ firstborn into context and perspective. Claims that Pharoah was a bigger badder baby-killer meanie than the Lord was by a factor of 40:1. I so love it when brainy people like this guy do the thinking and maths and exgesis for me. That’s my buzz for the day!

christianthinktank.com

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I know that it’s a rhetorical question but don’t you just love a winner? Be honest now, we all do! Getting behind a top performer is motivating and invigorating. Even leaders love engaging with and learning from other leaders. This understanding is our ninth principle in a series from Samoa.

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I want you to read this – LIES, GREED & SHAME:

The vicar said

“It was easier for the farm to write out one cheque & for the church to distribute money to the workers … some of whom were on visitor’s visas … can’t recall the firm’s name”.

It’s probably called Mr Apple, Vicar.

You do it every year & this year you got caught.

Do you remember what bible says about lies and greed, Vicar?

Makes me sick!

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A continued pattern lacking of integrity and professionalism from mainstream journalism in this case TV3. Granted, it COULD be a co-incidence. Sad though as concept plagiarism from mainstream-to-bloggers happens too often to be chance.

I wonder where they got the story from? —

whaleoil.gotcha.co.nz

‎3News ran a story tonight about dairies sell­ing P-pipes. They even vis­ited the Albany Super­ette and inter­viewed Mr Park. Not a sin­gle men­tion of the source of the story. I think that is just rude. I might send them a bill

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I’m pinching myself. Extraordinary!

I’ve just been given a volcano, yes, given. Comes complete with 400 acres of beautiful bush & views to die for & a caretaker/landowner that wants me to develop it into an eco-tourism thingy.

“Anything you like!” he says.

So we will. Pinch self again. Rent-free, tax-free living in a South Pacific Island Paradise.

Pinch, pinch, pinch.

More details as they develop & the deal firms up.

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Q: Where’s the combined international law enforcement’s race to uncover the source of WikiLeak’s “damning documents”. Not so bothered about where the docs came from, I’m interested in WHY the sources haven’t been tracked down & people arrested & charged with treason or whatever. Maybe Julian Assange is part of a deliberate covert op specifically designed to prepare us for Internet controls? No?! [Rhetorical question]

Founder Says WikiLeaks to Release More Documents

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has pledged to step up the release of secret documents. He made the declaration outside a London court Tuesday, where his lawyers were fighting to prevent his extradition.

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Everyone recognizes design in a glass vase, but many refuse to believe that the flowers in the vase must also have been designed.

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Some people are just Sooooo clever!

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I’m intrigued that Chinese is heralded as the future dominant language of the Internet, closing in on English very quickly.

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L loves the way this little puppy shows a concept foreign to Samoans in power – Facebook and global interconnectedness. I will be printing it off in A3 colour and then laminating it for the PM. They say a picture is worth . . .

Facebook Draws a Map of the Connected World: Tech News «

gigaom.com

When you have almost 600 million users and a “social graph” of the connections between them, you can do a lot with that data — so a Facebook intern plotted the connections between millions of users and came up with a map of the socially connected world.

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Futurologists all agree please: http://www.intac.net/the-internet-in-2020/

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Which visionary said this when talking about a Tipping Point?

“The result should be sufficiently attractive to use that it the information contained would grow past a critical threshold, so that the usefulness the scheme would in turn encourage its increased use.”

The original proposal of the WWW, HTMLized

www.nic.funet.fi

A hand conversion to HTML of the original MacWord (or Word for Mac?) document written in March 1989 and later redistributed unchanged apart from the date added in May 1990. Provided for historical interest only.

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Exposure is a marketer’s aim and successful exposure is represented by increased sales, more bums on seats, higher occupancy levels, increased brand awareness, better reputation and of course an improved bottom-line. Blogs, User-Generated-Content websites such as TripAdvisor and Social Media websites such as Facebook all help generate exposure for a business or an individual, but this can be a two edged sword. [Read more...]

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A week after I returned to the Western world I’m in reverse culture shock. Returning to the world I’ve lived in most of my life, and I find that I’m different. Here are some of the recent challenges. [Read more...]

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If ever there was a way to get my attention then this was it from an aging friend: “This may well be my last Salt Shaker [newsletter]. I am now into my 93rd year. My health is not what it used to be. So here are the two most important things I’d like to say to young, emerging leaders.” [Read more...]

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Years and years ago I heard this. Never thought to look for it but stumbled upon it today again: [Read more...]

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You’d think that it would be Samoa. It’s not – well not yet anyway! Ready for it? It’s Mount Ruapehu. [Read more...]

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I’ve observed a pattern in regards to sin (i.e. doing something wrong) and it’s consequences. There’s always a starting point; a clearly identifiable time and place in ones’ life when it started. [Read more...]

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The other day while travelling somewhere in the car I asked a guy who works for me up here if had any understanding of the Global Economy. I may as well have been speaking Swahili! [Read more...]

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As 2009, comes to a close, I am preparing to depart from the country of my birth and the land I’ve called home for more than five decades. The following message is a reflective personal encouragement for my friends and readers to focus on their building and keeping relationships, for life is all about relationships. [Read more...]

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This is sad. I have this morning received a series of spam emails from Brendan Battles*, one of which is even addressed to himself! Someone really ought to stop this guy – if nothing other than for his own sake. [Read more...]

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This is a public warning to my friends and colleagues with assets and involvement with XO Ltd, Ozone NZ, Barterzone & Ormita. [Read more...]

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It was Sue Bradford’s last day in parliament today. She’ll always be remembered for S59. A recent referendum in New Zealand returned a whopping 87.4% vote in favour of decriminalising smacking. The Prime Minister John Key ignored the result – worse than that, he actually determined before the vote results were in, that he wouldn’t change the law. Here’s the background to why, and what the 87.4% can do to get him to change the law and an assessment of the real role that Sue played in the “smacking debate”. [Read more...]

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I dispatched three stories this week from Samoa for New Zealand Christian newspaper Challenge Weekly. Here they are with pictures: [Read more...]

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Samoa is a land of contrasts: the haves (people in positions of influence) and the have nots, Tsunami victims and those who escaped what they call locally “The Wave”. It has devastated their tourism industry but after falling in love with them following a recent holiday there, I have a vision for this tiny South Pacific nation. [Read more...]

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Prolific New Zealand author Rachel McAlpine shows a good understanding of the way things work on the web with her recent email promo. [Read more...]

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In biblical speak, the mark of the beast is represented by the number 666. There is however another 6-6-6 that can help business people understand the natural growth phases of a new business. 6 months, 6 months, 6 months. Here is a chart I developed in 2005 to eplain the phenomenon that I’d seen in my own and others’ business ventures. [Read more...]

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There are two ways to tackle a big project – Go for broke, or Fai fai lemu (take it easy). It impacts on Web Development work but also on life in general. [Read more...]

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In 1999 I was approached by a gentleman active in the Pro-Life movement who wanted help and guidance in developing a website. I took a senior role in a large project spanning four years, eventually writing half a million words, 1,000 pages and raising $150,000.00 in the process. Here are 40 lessons I learned from spearheading this project. [Read more...]

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OK, OK, I know what you’re thinking . . . “Pas possible!“, but it was a pleasure to meet an intelligent Investment Advisor last week, in Christchurch of all places. [Read more...]

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I recently heard of a business deal where a couple of mates from high school days helped each other out in business. Now that’s what mates are for! We should all learn from this one. [Read more...]

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If there’s one thing that cheeses me right off about Godzone, it is that nasty little evil beast lurking beneath the surface of all true-blooded kiwis, just waiting top rear its ugly face in a nano second – The Tall Poppy Syndrome. [Read more...]

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FUM is a word (more accurately an Acronym) that I developed to describe the three reasons why Search Engines love blogs. I say that “Search Engines love FUM” – Fresh, Unique, Meaningful content. [Read more...]

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A problem is a solution waiting to be found. Put another way; a problem is just an answer upside down or in disguise. The bigger the problem; the bigger the opportunity, and every opportunity can be a business. [Read more...]

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Gossip has now been confirmed regarding notorious spammer Brendan Battles and bankrupt 2Talk reseller Mike Hart. I can confirm that both these dudes are definitely under investigation by the appropriate authories. [Read more...]

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As a self-confessed conspiracy theorist, I often wonder when the majority of the population will wake up and smell the roses. At what point will others realise that the mainstream media are pawns in a game of BS, lies and dishonesty to scare monger us into the New World Order submission. Last Sunday’s “documentary” presented by John Hudson contained enough bias to cause me to make a formal complaint to TVNZ – the first time ever. [Read more...]

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On the order of impact, personal experience beats words by a long shot, but words are a still a powerful way to convey the meaning from out of our experiences. I recently established that a young American web developer I was talking to about emmigrating to New Zealand had a sense of humour – he burst out laughing when I used the phrase “has a personality of a paper bag” in conversation. [Read more...]

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Which came first? The chicken or the web?

It’s settled. The chicken definitely came long before the web, but my oh my, how things have been changing while the roosters have been crowing . . . the web now always comes first and everything else follows. Or it should, if you want to stay in business! [Read more...]

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A story about Brendan Battles (Computerworld) caught my attention recently and if it is true (which is quite possible), is quite sad. Apparently Brendan is up to his old tricks again and has been involved in spamming – this time using SMS – text spam. [Read more...]

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