If there are system allowed people to walk into stores and just take stuff without waiting in line, the time savings would be huge. But the time spent in actually physically swiping a credit card is minimal so even once the glitches are gone, the payoff in convenience is mediocre at best.
Mobile phones + barcode scanners + CCTV + object/facial recognition = convenient shopping experience where you can pick up what you need, scan it, and walk out having paid by phone. CCTV algorithms can flag potential shoplifters or shoppers who forgot to scan certain items. If it can be pulled off then it could mean fewer people working checkout and less spending on bags.
But, on the other hand, even "automated" checkout isn't terribly convenient: the exciting game of multiple scales slows your scanning process to a crawl compared to the checkout line and they still have people standing over and watching to watch for shoplifting and process alcohol purchases.
I worked in a grocery store a while ago and while I understand some needs I still don't get why there hasn't been any real innovation since the adoption of barcode readers. Could anyone please explain why in-store automation is always one step forward two steps back?
To me it's totally unacceptable that my supermarket chain has a line-by-line record of my purchases, which it then happily sells to the highest bidder.
Is the few potential minutes saved really worth the fact that your insurer now may have a detailed record about your booze and junk food purchases?
I don't know how many times people need to repeat this: Fingerprints are usernames, not passwords. I am really not a fan of biometrics as identification at all.
(and)
FDR did not take the US off the gold standard, he outlawed private ownership of gold. Nixon took the US off the gold standard in the early 70s.
1) First since gold was illegal to own, Federal notes were effectively no longer redeemable for gold
2) The dollar was inflated from $20.67/oz to $35/oz
This meant two things; first the dollar was backed in gold by name only since you couldn't actually take advantage of that fact in any quantity. Second the Government was able to change the dollar/gold ratio at its whim. This breach of trust meant that the dollar was not and would never again be as good as actual gold.
So if you buy gold in the US, you are actually renting it from the government or something?
Maybe to get a chip with more storage (These chips are really tiny storage-wise [last I checked] so not really something you could store a virtual wallet on)
Generally speaking I am a big believer that much of the Bible needs to be interpreted, and in general I don't buy into the idea that it is infallible. That said, I don't think I could get a chip implanted in my right hand for payment purposes! It's just so on the nose with what the scripture actually says.
"It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads,so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name."
They ended up concluding that there was no way to avoid plastic credit cards, but if technology ever advanced to the point where payments via subcutaneous microchip that they would reject it. I remember thinking how futuristic and far-off that sounded, but now this is a procedure that can be done today. I personally have left a lot of those beliefs behind, but I don't know if I could ever feel comfortable getting a chip implanted in my hand like the writer did.
Knowing that rfid chips may be and are used not only for advertised transactions but also for tracking (Google around for unauthorized fasttrack readers), I'd like to be able to leave the chip at home.
When I told my family about how much I wanted to get an RFID chip implanted in my hand my grandma flipped. She called me Satan, totally unjokingly.
I learned quickly to just not speak about technology. The top comment on the article proves why (People don't understand it)
There are three main beliefs within Christianity:
Some believe that the rapture will occur before the rise of the Antichrist and the events described in Revelation (note the singular).
Some believe that Christ will call home the faithful midway through the strife.
Some believe that only those who are faithful for the complete event will be called up.
I haven't read the book myself in a while, but I do remember being told about these three schools of thought, as it were.
The Fundamentalists evolved differently from the main European Christianities - think of a small village of practitioners separated from any strong institutional backing. You'll get "telephone game" distortions.
Well, it doesn't really say all Christians get called up before it all goes to heck. Revelations has quite a few stages.
So, any Christians' anxiety about being alive when the end times occur likely comes from crises of faith or ignorance (which I admit to having more than a bit of each myself.) The odds of being alive in human history at the times of the tribulations are slim, but you are told to make yourself ready spiritually for anything to happen at any time. Different Christian sects have sticking points on the order of when prophesy in the bible have already happened/will happen, and that can cause some spirited disagreements. I suppose those varied viewpoints on timelines may affect peoples' anxiety on these subjects as well.
What I find fascinating about the Revelation story is that the spiritual and physical worlds merge at the end of time. All people who ever lived are brought back to life physically on earth only to be immediately judged by God. People who accept Jesus are saved forever, people who reject Him are punished forever.
So it's not like you "go to heaven" in the end, but rather more like "earth is remade/perfected" and God comes to live there physically with his people. Any "heaven" that exists in the meantime is like a paradisaical holding tank where you wait until the end of days. I suppose that this all reflects a more Jewish mystical view than a Greek or European one, and this view seems more grounded/attainable to me than some nebulous cherubs with harps on clouds in heaven or Valhalla of the gods.
I like the Revelation story because it completes the bible in a very mystical and also very human way. It gives answers to a lot of life's questions and questions about God (like why God lets sin and sinners run amok.)
The message I take from Revelation is that no person is really worthy and technically everyone should be judged guilty because we're all sinners, making us incompatible with God. Only out of one's faith in Jesus who is the savior/perfect sin offering, and by God's grace, can you live as a perfected being with God in His holy city forever.
