If Google went bad...

What does Google know about you?

Yesterday Google was announced as the world's number 1 brand and an increasing number of people are using the increasing number of Google services. Depending on the Google applications and tools you access, Google has the capacity to:

- know what you search on the internet (Google search, Web History and Notebook)
- know what map locations you search for (Google Maps)
- know what you have documented (Google Docs and Spreadsheets)
- know the popularity of your web-site (Google Analytics)
- know what you're interested in (Google Home)
- know what feeds you subscribe to (Google Reader)
- know who your contacts are (Gmail)
- know the content of e-mails you send and receive (Gmail)
- know your schedule (Google Calendar)
- know your opinion (Blogger and Gmail)
- know the images you own (Picasa)
- know the videos you like and own (YouTube)

And this list could easily continue (what have I left off?). Whilst I have no reason to believe that Google has or will use this information maliciously, I do think there is cause for concern when so much information is stored with one organisation.

In the past, I might have used Hotmail for my e-mail, Outlook for my calendar, Microsoft Office for my documents and spreadsheets etc. Today, I can use the Google version of these commonly used programs for free. It's an attractive proposition.

I would love to work for Google. Not only is Google the world's number 1 brand, but it is also the world's number 1 employer. Google has enormous capacity to do good and improve the way we work, communicate, travel and be entertained.

Yet ponder what could be done with all this information if Google decided to use it for ill purposes, or if their databases were hacked and others obtained it. It's an advertisers dream, but I imagine leaves the rest of us feeling a little uneasy.

Pain in the eye

This is the x-ray of a Melbourne teenager's skull after a chair leg was lodged in his eye socket. According to proceedings in court, "the leg of the chair penetrated Mr Fahkri's left eye socket, moved his eyeball to the side and continued into his neck". You would assume that this kind of injury would leave him permanently blind, assuming that he even survived the incident.

In fact, he has already received 95% of his sight back. Incredible. Read the full story here.

I was reflecting that when something goes wrong in our lives, or when we see some of the terrible things that take place in our world, we are quick to question God, or get angry with God, or doubt the presence, power or goodness of God. I include myself in this group.

However, when things go well - in this case, the miracle that Mr Fahkri survived, I wonder how many of us would be prompted to thank God for sparing his life and not leaving him permanently blind.

It is not my intention to explore suffering and the nature of God (at least not in this post anyway!) but I am intrigued by our responses to life's tragedies and joys. In the former we question God, in the latter we completely ignore him.

Angelina Jolie = beauty?

This is the last time I will mention Angelina Jolie on my blog. Twice in two posts is totally unnecessary I know. However, the first mention was only in passing (she's married to Brad) and this second mention has a strong link to my second post - Define: beauty.

You might remember in that post I questioned what beauty is, and if there is a generic definition of beauty that most people unconsciously subscribe to. News just in has revealed that there is, and the modern definition of beauty is Angelina Jolie - read full article.

In the Sydney Morning Herald article I read that according to a leading Hollywood surgeon "Angelina Jolie is the gold standard of beauty among women seeking cosmetic surgery". According to this surgeon Jolie "has the most requested look - exaggerated, almost cartoonish lips, eyes and cheek bones".

Professor Jane Ussher from Sydney entered the conversation in an attempt to introduce some common sense, explaining that Jolie is "arguably a human representation of a cartoon character, similar to those Bratz dolls, and virtually no-one looks like that. If you buy into the idea that that (look) is perfect then you'll never feel good about yourself because you'll never attain it."

I think it's amazing that so many people are unsatisfied with the way that they look, and so eager to look like someone else. This reminds me of an advertisement I saw on tv the other day for an anti-wrinkle cream. At the end of the commercial the model remarked "my wrinkles are filled, my life is too."

If the surgeon and commercial are anything to go by, the key to satisfaction and fulfillment are looking like Angelina and using the right wrinkle cream. Thankfully, I know better.

Greed, Branjelina style

Cruising the Sydney Morning Herald web-site I came across this headline:

"Brad buys $325 million boat"

Did I read correctly? $325 MILLION?

I assumed my eyes weren't playing tricks and read on - "Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are treating themselves to an Italian luxury yacht fitted with a swimming pool, a heliport and a submarine."

If the article is true (this is the second assumption I made) then we are witnessing greed on a mind-blowing scale. It staggers me that anyone can a) have this amount of money, and b) spend it on something so trivial and self-gratifying.

What else could you do with $325 million dollars? You could hook up with World Vision, Compassion or one of the other child support charities and based on the $1 a day, $30 a month model, support over 902,000 children for a year. Or, support 90,000 children for 10 years. I'm sure $325 million would also go a long way in finding a cure for aids, ridding the world of malaria or improving access to clean water.

Yet in writing this I'm forced to look at myself. Sure, $325 million is a lot of money in anyone's language. But our greed is all relative to our means. Whoever we are, it is very easy to use our financial resources for our own self-gratifying purposes. We can be sucked into the lie that by accumulating more we will be happier, our lives will be more enjoyable and we will feel more fulfilled.

We fail to look at the world around us and see the critical need and more importantly, our capacity to do something about it. You and I might not have $325 million but I'm betting that we both have money that could be directed away from ourselves and used for the benefit of others in much greater need.

It's very easy to point the finger and explain how the world would be a much better place if other people picked up their game. It's much harder for me to look at myself and see that this is an area where I need to pick up my game too.

The God Debate

"On a cloudy California day, the atheist Sam Harris sat down with the Christian pastor Rick Warren to hash out Life's Biggest Question — Is God real? A NEWSWEEK exclusive."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17889148/site/newsweek/

I hope to give my reflections on this article at a later date. Thanks Dom for bringing this article to my attention.

'Australia's biggest ever golf sale'

As I was driving past a nearby golf store the other day I saw a sign - 'Australia's biggest ever golf sale'. Wow! This is an extraordinary sign because they are claiming:

• that in all of Australia, out of every golf store in the country, this is the biggest sale; and
  
• that in the entire history of Australia (ok, 200+ years), there has never been a bigger golf sale.
  

I'm surprised that a sale of this magnitude didn't make headlines in all newspapers and the evening news, or even the Guinness Book of Records!

I wonder what kind of evidence is required to make such amazing claims. Had this store examined all golf outlets across the country and conducted a historical review to come to the conclusion that their sale would, in fact, be the biggest ever? Looks to me like lazy advertising.

I encountered a similar situation on a recent trip to Sydney. I wanted a coffee, and was looking for a cafe when I saw a cafe advertising 'Sydney's best coffee'. Who could pass up drinking the best coffee in Sydney, or risk drinking anything less than the best?! It might be lazy advertising, but I'm evidence that it works!

Why truth hurts

I was having a conversation with a friend of a friend and we got onto the topic of truth. I was trying to establish that we can know some things to be absolutely true. Post-modernism has introduced the concept of relative truth - what's true for you isn't necessarily true for me, and this has come at the cost of absolute truth - something being true for everyone.

In this conversation we were discussing truth as it relates to god. Here, relative truth rears its illogical head all too often. For example, you might believe there are many gods, and I believe there is one god. Relative truth allows us to both be correct. Logic shows that one of us is wrong - either there are many gods, or there is only one god, but both 'truths' cannot co-exist.

This line of thinking wasn't well received, so I tried to explain the concept in other terms. I used the example that the car in the carpark next to us has four wheels - this is an absolute truth. Even this concept was argued on the basis that there is no way that we can actually know how many wheels the car has, or even if there really is a car at all.

This might sound like a ludicrous argument, however my conversation partner was arguing these points seriously and I can now understand in some part where they were coming from.

It is much easier to believe that there is no absolute truth, than to believe that there is both absolute and relative truth. To accept that there is absolute truth is to challenge my thinking and put the responsibility on me to investigate and discover what is true, and what is false. It means that I realise that I am not the determiner of truth but instead need to ask questions, for example, on what basis can I determine what is true and what is false?

This is a much more difficult approach, but ultimately more satisfying. After all, surely everyone wants to know what is true and what is false, especially if that has consequences for life now, and into the future.

For example, one person believes that after death is nothing - it's like turning off a switch. Another person (e.g. me) believes that after death is judgement - God will bring us to account for the life we have lived, and the way we have responded to him.

Both scenarios can't be true. The true reality should greatly influence the way we live our life right now. If after death there is nothing, then we will live for the moment - why wouldn't we, there is no reason not to. Yet if we can expect judgement then we should endeavour to ensure we are in right relationship with God.

Let's talk. Let's engage. Let's not agree to disagree but instead strive to discover what is true and shape our lives accordingly.