“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” (James 1:27, ESV)
Christianity, Monday, December 05, 2005
Did you know it is illegal to hand out food to the homeless?
First Baptist, Church on the Hill Junior High Minisitry decided we would bake some goodies and sell the to the congregation. The proceeds would be used to purchase lunch food that we would pass out to the homeless. It was quite an effort. We spent an evening baking, a Sunday morning selling the items, and a Sunday morning assembling the lunches. When we arrive at the park, a police officer promptly greeted us and told us we could not pass out lunches to the homeless in James Park downtown San Jose.
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News, Wednesday, November 30, 2005
A new study shows that people, and particularly men, who work in a noisy environment have a mild to moderately increased risk of heart attack. If you?re a man with many other factors working against you, then your risk is even higher. For example, overweight, with high blood pressure, stressed, and working in a noisy environment. Read the complete article on WebMD
Technology, Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Companies offfer telephone through the Internet but they don’t have reliable 911 service.
The FCC gave a deadline for providing reliable 911 access through the Internet Phone Service, however, many companies did not make the deadline. The Internet Telephones allow you to make calls through your internet connection, however, if you need 911 service, the 911 dispatcher needs to know the location of your call. This is a Federal requirement. FCC declared that if they cannot get reliable 911 service to their customers, they will have to disconnect existing customers and deny new customers.
SunRocket is one of the companies that are succeeding in this race. Read more in this article.
News, Monday, November 28, 2005
Walmart take the low-road model and Costco take the high-road. Costco is much better for our society and Walmart is destructive.
A recent editorial in Seattle times outlines the “low-road” model and the “high-road” model. Walmart, taking the low-road, aims to make prices the lowest by paying employees the least possible and paying the least possible for the products that they sell. Everything is taken on the low road. Costco, on the other hand, pays much more for their employees, with health packages and higher hourly rates, and they support unions for their employees. Costco takes the high road.
Costco is seeing employees stay much longer and Costco actually experiences higher profits per employee. Read more in an editorial column in Seattle Times.
Indeed, a Business Week analysis shows Costco’s average hourly wage is $15.97, far above the Wal-Mart (Sam’s Club) $11.52 figure (even excluding the 25 percent of Wal-Mart workers who are low-paid part-timers). The yearly employer contributions to health care ? Costco, $5,735; Wal-Mart, $3,500. Of Costco employees, 82 percent are covered by the health plan; Wal-Mart, 47 percent. Employee turnover at Wal-Mart is three times higher than Costco’s.
And then comes the clincher, suggesting the low-road approach may not be so clever after all: Costco’s profit per employee is $13,647; Wal-Mart’s, $11,039.
Family, Saturday, November 26, 2005
Thanksgiving day, we saw an RollsRoyce with the license tag SF 80. A very big African American was driving. Guess what happened on our way back home in the evening.
The same Rolls Royce passes us on the freeway. Wow, we were all floored. So we caught up with the Rolls Royce and eventually came along side. Of course, our Chevy Tahoe probably looked like any of the hundreds of Chevy Tahoes on the freeway. He had no idea that he was side by side with us early in the day.
We continued our way home and thought that we had gone different ways when the Roll Royce passed us for the third time. Morgan Hill has some very wealthy communities, so we thought for sure it was going to Morgan Hill. Our exit was coming up and it seemed that the Rolls Royce was getting off at our same exit. To our suprise, he took the same exit as us! Where in our middle class neighborhood would a 49’er in a Rolls Royce live?
We had considered following the Rolls Royce to see where a supposed SF 49’er football player might live. My dad joked that he wanted me to let him out so that he can continue the pursuit on foot. We continued on our way home so that we can see the special two hourse of Donald Trump’s The Apprentice.
