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Greensmith to integrate 4 battery types in 2014 for over 23mW of storage

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Greensmith has announced it is on track to successfully integrate an additional 4 new battery types in 2014, bringing the company's total since inception to 12 using its battery-agnostic technology platform, now in its fourth generation.

With over 23mW of energy storage capacity to be deployed in 2014, Greensmith continues its rapid growth by serving an expanding list of strategic customers and channel partners looking to take full advantage of the company's proven technologies and application expertise, including frequency regulation, grid stability/deferral, renewable integration and commercial/industrial functionality.

Refined over many years of development, innovation and real-world deployment experience, Greensmith's software platform enables the rapid, economic integration of both current and future battery technologies, always selected and configured according to the objectives and requirements of the target application.

Although the company continues to develop and deliver turn-key energy storage systems at scale, a number of customers and partners are choosing to license Greensmith's software and integration technology a-la-carte.

"From the very start, Greensmith believed that the potential for energy storage lay beyond "batteries-in-a-box", and that robust layers of software, integration and optimization were critical to capturing its full value", said John Jung, Greensmith CEO.

"It was also clear that a variety of battery alternatives, suitable for different application needs, would be available over time and therefore need to be easily integrated into a single, resilient technology architecture. So we built and advanced our battery-agnostic technology through multiple cycles of product development and delivery. We're quite pleased to be on pace to successfully integrate our 12th battery type by the end of 2014 - and while it's become fashionable to proclaim battery-agnosticism in the marketplace, it's quite another thing to have actually executed and delivered the goods."

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Greensmith to integrate 4 battery types in 2014 for over 23mW of storage

‘Sox vs Cubs’: Rivalry as an exhibit

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First, a confession: I prefer the Sox, but if the Cubs are having a decent year, I'll root for them too.

I know it's heresy to say so around here, but I'm mostly a fan of good local baseball, no matter whether the uniform is black and the ballpark comfortable or the uniform is blue and the ballpark a testament to the mediocre crowd-management capabilities of our forefathers.

In any event, it doesn't look like there'll be much of an issue this year. The White Sox are playing respectable, scrappy baseball (although less so of late) on the city's South Side. Up north, the Cubs continue to show up for games, at least.

Agnosticism such as mine, of course, is not the regional norm. Pick a team, then live (and die) with them, seems to be the credo. Your blood should run one color or the other, and the easiest time to be cordial to a fan of the other side is when you are both cheering for the Bears.

But it is one thing to know or to live the Cubs-Sox rivalry. It is another to devote an entire museum exhibition to it. The Elmhurst Historical Museum has done so, with a keen eye for telling detail, in the new "Sox vs. Cubs: The Chicago Civil Wars."

It's a three-room homage to a two-team town, to what it means to have had a pair of professional franchises fighting for people's loyalty for more than a century.

Cubs songs and Sox songs find their place here. Harry Caray, announcer for both teams, is prominent. So are replicas of the scoreboards, Wrigley Field's so much more stately. Bats and other tchotchkes given away at the gate decorate many surfaces. Kids can set lineups using magnetized baseball cards.

Even the souvenir shop seems to ask you to proclaim your loyalty. Whose vintage pennant will you buy, which book of team lore? Only the official exhibition souvenir splits the difference, "Sox vs. Cubs" printed on the barrel of a $5 mini baseball bat.

The exhibition does not pick sides, either, although curator Lance Tawzer has cleverly split the rooms whenever possible, Sox stuff on the left, Cubs on the right. It's not a ranking or a political choice, just a reminder of the segregation that exists.

One of his centerpieces is cerebral. It's a data-rich, full-wall chart comparing the teams through their histories. We see all the team logos, all of the uniforms, including ones from the era when the White Sox dressed like a softball team. We see the early team names, including the perhaps surprising one that the Cubs first used: the White Stockings.

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'Sox vs Cubs': Rivalry as an exhibit

Outreach, Inc. Releases Church Resources for ‘God’s Not Dead’ Movie

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Outreach, Inc. Releases Church Resources for 'God's Not Dead' Movie

Youth and Adult Bible Studies Based on New Motion Picture Provide Powerful Opportunity for Churches

Contact: Erica Rupp, 719-955-9600 ext 3389,erupp@outreach.com

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.,May 15, 2014 /Christian Newswire/ -- It has grossed more than $57 million in box office sales since its March 21 release and continues to be a success -- and now the hit film "God's Not Dead" has inspired the creation of movie-related Bible studies for youth and adults. Outreach, Inc., the nation's leading provider of church communications resources, is co-publishing the Bible study materials with Pure Flix Entertainment for a June 2014 release.

Both the youth and adult small group studies help answer the question of God's existence and what it really means to stand up for your faith in a culture that often challenges your beliefs. The studies feature video clips from the movie, a study guide with Scripture readings, group discussion points, and a leader's guide. Interested churches, pastors or lay leaders are encouraged to learn more about the "God's Not Dead" campaign resources by visiting Outreach.com/GodsNotDead.

"These 'God's Not Dead' resources create a tremendous opportunity for churches to help their members and community discover what they believe and how to stand for it," said Eric Abel, vice president of marketing for Outreach, Inc. "It's also a chance for them to reach out to the millions of people who have seen the movie and have more questions about the existence of God."

Additional resources for churches are available at Outreach.com, including a "God's Not Dead" Church Kit that includes everything needed to launch a sermon series and small groups for adults and youth.

"God's Not Dead," produced by Pure Flix Entertainment and Red Entertainment, surpassed expectations when it grossed over $8 million dollars in its limited release to fewer than 800 theaters in March on opening weekend. The film continued to gain momentum and has remained in the top 10 films at the box office for 7 weeks and counting. Josh McDowell said of the movie, "God is NOT Dead...is a must. An Incredible, believable plot that causes one to question agnosticism."

Founded in 1996, Outreach, Inc. has become the largest provider of church outreach products and services in the world. With a mission to share God's love and empower the church to share the message of Jesus Christ, Outreach provides cost-effective, proven resources in a variety of forms, including books, media and film, postcard invitations, banners, bulletin covers, curriculum, church campaign materials and more.

For more information, please contact Erica Rupp at 719-955-9600 ext 3389 or erupp@outreach.com.

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Outreach, Inc. Releases Church Resources for 'God's Not Dead' Movie

History of confession is a tale of sexual obsession, exploitation

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THE DARK BOX: A SECRET HISTORY OF CONFESSION By John Cornwell Published by Basic Books, $27.99

John Cornwell may be our most gifted and persistent chronicler of Catholicism in the context of the modern world. In Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII, he raised essential questions about the Vatican's response to the greatest evil of the 20th century. In Newman's Unquiet Grave: The Reluctant Saint, he presents the great English cardinal as a flesh-and-blood person. Now, in The Dark Box: A Secret History of Confession, Cornwell uses his formidable talents to reveal the sacrament in a complete, compelling and original way.

Beginning with childhood recollections that are at once particular and universal, Cornwell recalls the ritual he was required to perform before first Communion, and the rote practice that followed through the rest of his childhood. He describes with real poignancy the boy who felt true sorrow over the idea that a 7-year-old could offend God and the distrust that arose when a priest propositioned him during a confession.

Despite the guilt heaped upon him in childhood, and the predation he was subject to as an adolescent, young Cornwell wanted to be a priest. He devoted seven full years to training for the priesthood. Sex and science, two forces that have undone many vocations, ended his pursuit of ordination. However, after a long time spent hovering "between agnosticism and atheism," his marriage to a devout Catholic woman who raised their children in the faith brought him back to the fold.

His writing is thus informed by faith and unfaith as well as intellect and passion. The combination proves highly effective, as Cornwell explores spiritual and psychological truths even as he reveals the history of a sacrament that has varied greatly over the centuries. Confession may be good for the soul -- at least sometimes -- but it has also been used to evil effect by those who would use the secrecy of the sacrament and the power of the priesthood to exploit the vulnerable.

The vulnerable come to mind at many turns in Cornwell's narrative. They appear first as 6-year-olds who, Cornwell reminds the reader, were required throughout much of the 20th century to learn all the different "categories of sins" as well as all "the punishments due for sins in Purgatory and Hell." Many readers will be surprised to learn that prior to 1910, young children were not subjected to this rather terrifying information, because they were deemed incapable of sinning in any meaningful way. For this reason, Catholics didn't begin making confessions until the age of 12. Depending on local custom, some waited past their 18th birthday.

It was Pope Pius X who commanded that youngsters be instructed in the realities of sin and damnation prior to first Communion. He instituted this change as part of his larger campaign against the effects of modernism. As only the second pope to reign after the church lost its territories on the Italian peninsula, Pius had lived through the last years of the Papal States and witnessed the decline of church power. He believed that confession for the very young, as well as more frequent confession by all Catholics, would give them spiritual nourishment and serve as a bulwark against the secular world.

As Cornwell reveals, the piety imposed on early 20th-century Catholics, as hierarchs urged them toward frequent confession, was itself a modern phenomenon. Originating in monasteries during the first millennium, confession was not required of all Catholics until the 13th century. Even then, it was typically practiced just once per year. Cornwell notes that this requirement was imposed, at least in part, by church leaders who expected priests to interrogate penitents and learn if they might be heretics.

Confession and the authority to grant absolution also greatly enhanced the power of the priest. With sins absolved, the believer would gain heaven. Without absolution, death could bring the spiritual pain of purgatory or the eternal damnation of hell.

From the very beginning of confession, practices varied widely among both priests and laypeople. Some clergy emphasized compassion and forgiveness and faithfully kept secret what they heard. Others exploited their power and the information captured during the sacrament. The 11th-century monk Peter Damian famously excoriated clerics for the sexual abuse of minors, which often began with the penitent-confessor relationship. In the later Middle Ages, as Cornwell tells us, "criminality among confessors was widespread and entrenched." Much of the criminality involved sexual assaults and priestly transgressions against the church's sexual mores, which had become enshrined in law.

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History of confession is a tale of sexual obsession, exploitation

Author Pochin Moulds adventure in life comes to an end

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The death notice that appeared in yesterdays Irish Examiner was spare and to the point a bit like the deceased herself.

It reads: "Pochin Mould (Aherla). On April 29, 2014, after a short illness, Daphne Desiree Charlotte, PhD. Body donated to UCC. Rest in peace."

The absence of unnecessary embellishment was typical of Daphne, yet it belies the complexity of a woman whose long and eventful life saw her journey from her birthplace in 1920 in England to Ireland, settling in Aherla, Co Cork.

She also undertook a spiritual journey, from high Anglicanism to agnosticism to devout Catholicism, with a sense of wonder she had exhibited since childhood.

Her spirit of adventure and intellectual curiosity was always evident. !

The tomboy in Daphne lead her to a lifelong interest in mechanics and flying, as well as archaeology, among other varied disciplines.

She studied geology in Edinburgh, receiving a PhD from Edinburgh University in 1946.

Daphne was a photographer, broadcaster, geologist, pilot and Irelands first female flight instructor.

She was an accomplished aerial photographer but most of all, she was a writer and a frequent contributor to the Irish Examiner.

She was, to say the least, prolific as well as informed. She wrote more than two dozen published books, many of them now out of print. A single copy of her 1997 book, =Aran Islands is currently on sale online for almost $2,000.

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Author Pochin Moulds adventure in life comes to an end

Book World: Michael Cunninghams heavenly style rules in The Snow Queen

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Cunninghams premise is almost as old as God, who once confronted Moses in the form of a burning bush. But nowadays such annunciations tap on the door of a culture deeply skeptical of divine theatrics. Signs and wonders are simply misinterpreted natural phenomena or symptoms of psychological illness, arent they? Novelists Alan Lightman and Joshua Max Feldman, among others, have explored the way intimations of spirituality can disrupt the equilibrium of our rational world, but such considerations are rare. As Carlene Bauer writes in the current issue of the Virginia Quarterly Review, The literary novel, current American edition, does not seem to be where we go to work out our relation to the numinous.

The Snow Queen takes its title from one of Hans Christian Andersens fairy tales, which might suggest Cunninghams regard for the substance of things not seen. And yet a spirit of agnosticism or at least pitiful tolerance allows the mystery of what Barrett saw to float over this story. Like any intelligent 21st-century man, Barrett knows all about satellites and cortical migraines and the aurora borealis, but he also knows what he felt in Central Park: As surely as he was looking up at the light, the light was looking back down at him. No. Not looking. Apprehending. . . . He felt the lights attention.

Cunningham has created a small group of sophisticated New Yorkers thirsty for a miracle. Barretts latest humiliating breakup arrives as hes climbing down the ladder of success. Though allegedly brilliant, he has been reduced to selling clothing and living with his brother, Tyler, in a burned-out neighborhood where even the criminals have lost their ambition. Tyler, meanwhile, is a musician a bartender, really whos determined to give up cocaine after just one more hit. Hes rushing to write the perfect wedding song for his fiancee, Beth, whos dying of cancer. More depressing: George W. Bush is about to be reelected.

Whos to say that God wouldnt give this sad little family a hint of benediction? After all, revelation is offered only to those too poor and lowly to be considered candidates. Barrett sees it in the sky. Tyler feels it one morning while standing naked at the window looking down on the street:

Outside, the snow shifts with a shift in the wind, and it seems as if some benign force, some vast invisible watcher, has known what Tyler wanted, the moment before he knew it himself a sudden animation, a change, the gentle steady snowfall taken up and turned into fluttering sheets, an airy map of the wind currents; and yes are you ready, Tyler? its time to release the pigeons, five of them, from the liquor store roof, time to set them aflight and then (are you watching?) turn them, silvered by earthly light, counter to the windblown flakes, sail them effortlessly west into the agitated air thats blowing the snow toward the East River (where barges will be plowing, whitened like ships of ice, through the choppy water); and yes, right, a moment later its time to turn the streetlights off and, simultaneously, bring a truck around the corner of Rock Street, its headlights still on and its flat silver top blinking little warning lights, garnet and ruby, thats perfect, thats amazing, thank you.

Regardless of your theological position on signs and wonders, that voice, Cunninghams inimitable style, is the real miracle of The Snow Queen. Sentence by sentence and thats just one of them above he moves across the surface of these pages like some suave, literary god. Behold how he swoops in and out of Tylers point of view, breaks the fourth wall, drops ironical quips, mocks and comforts in the same phrase.

Its remarkable, yes, but is it enough to offer salvation to this languid plot? Like good Calvinists, readers will have to take that on faith. The vicissitudes of Barretts love life and the high-stakes fluctuations of Beths health offer a little movement, but Cunningham seems determined to make sure that every momentous action takes place between the chapters rather than during them. Again and again, were let in only after the drama is over.

Such reservations sound sacrilegious given Cunninghams lovely style and flashes of psychological discernment. He writes so wisely about the cruel taunting of remission and the way illness both deepens and frays romantic relationships, endowing the dying with a kind of security and purpose that healthy people crave. His portrayal of the once-blessed Meeks brothers, raised in expectation of fame and riches theyll never attain not even close is full of affecting pathos.

But whats gained by having another dim-witted Adonis wander around this novel with his frank and uncaring beauty . . . his heedlessly perfect body? This is the same pinup boy-toy we saw in Cunninghams previous novel, By Nightfall, though he was more central to that plot. Here, as one of Barrett and Tylers pretty acquaintances, hes just a catalogue hunk, and even the sexual energy inscribed on these pages looks like the faint impression left under eight sheets of carbon paper.

Thematically, too, The Snow Queen eventually reveals itself to be insufficiently ambitious. How many times have we already heard the depressing sermon about overeducated, underemployed New Yorkers bumping up against the disappointing limits of their lives? For all his stylistic elegance, Cunningham doesnt offer the theological sophistication and spiritual insight that, say, Marilynne Robinson might bring to the existential questions this novel poses. And so The Snow Queen struggles to rise higher than its characters grasping efforts to reach the divine. Were left with beautifully articulated ironies and sighs.

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Book World: Michael Cunninghams heavenly style rules in The Snow Queen

Meet Miriam – the woman who keeps Nick Clegg on his toes

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The piece provoked much mirth in political circles, with one writer noting: No wonder Cleggy looks so pasty and frayed. It is almost as if he lives in terror of Miriams fingertips clicking like castanets and summoning him to his housework.

She had stayed relatively quiet on the subject until last week, and will doubtless have been encouraged by the more positive reaction. Sites such as Mumsnet lit up with praise, The Guardian hailed her as the Michelle Obama of the Coalition, the woman with a sense of purpose bold enough to ignore the constraints of convention, while Telegraph commentator Dina Rickman declared: I had only one thought: could we replace Nick Clegg with her?

A nice idea, although it is doubtful that Miriam could take the pay cut. She earns a reported 500,000 a year four times as much as her husband with Dechert, an American-owned law firm that specialises in complex corporate and property cases. The salary discrepancy, matched by the perception of Miriams weighty intellect, has compounded the impression that she runs Casa Clegg, the familys home in Putney, south-west London, with a rod of iron.

The power dynamic, according to those who know the Cleggs, is rather more complicated. For all Miriams talk of equality, it is clear that her preferences tend to prevail. Only Spanish is spoken in the house, and despite the Deputy PMs declarations of agnosticism, the children are being raised in Miriams Roman Catholic faith. Shes number one in the kitchen, too, recently telling a Spanish magazine: Nick is forbidden from doing any cooking on health-and-safety grounds, but he does pretty much everything else. He compensates. He is an appalling cook.

Yet she supports, in a subtly effective fashion, his political career, embracing the Lib Dem agenda, illuminating its fringes, wearing sharp-but-non-threateningly-ethical outfits (being spotted emerging from the fabled royal corsetires, Rigby & Peller, was a rare slip), and dutifully insisting that she looks forward to the day the scent of her jamn y croquetas wafts into Downing Street.

The Cleggs met in the early Nineties in Bruges, where both were taking degrees at the College of Europe, a kind of Sandhurst for aspiring Eurocrats, and both were already passionate about the continents federal future. Soon they were equally passionate about each other. According to Miriam, her British suitor wooed her during Sevillian dancing sessions and over sizzling Spanish omelettes. Their romance, she once cryptically explained, was like taking a train that passes you in the night. This may have been because Clegg could barely understand a word she said. He nevertheless thought she was magnificent.

The magnificence first saw the light in May 1968, in Valladolid, a city somewhat tainted by its pro-Franco associations. Miriam grew up in the suburb of Olmedo, where her father, a teacher, was the conservative mayor. I am not a stranger to politics, she has said. I was delivering leaflets when I was eight years old. After university she went to Belgium, staying for several years to work for the EU. The Cleggs married in 2000.

The British remain faintly wary of exoticism, and Seora Clegg, with her raven tresses, and overtones of Carmen-like feistiness, has attracted some suspicion. During the last election, she gave a mangled explanation of why she wouldnt be on the campaign trail, implying it was because she couldnt afford to take the time off work. What she was trying to say was that she was different from other political wives because, well, she was different from all of us, and that rather than trying to make her husband look good on a stage, she preferred to knock him into shape beforehand.

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Meet Miriam - the woman who keeps Nick Clegg on his toes

WorldReligionNews.com Featured Contributor Series Continues with ‘Finding Noah,’ Scientology, Hinduism and Religious …

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San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) April 24, 2014

WorldReligionNews.com continues its featured contributor series with 4 articles from a diverse group of authors representing either official religion or organizations.

This round of 'Featured Contributor' articles includes; Tracie Parker, representing the Church Of Scientology and writing about volunteerism, Margaret Rose Becker, human rights advocate, writing about religious freedom, the Council of Europe, and human rights, Rajan Zed, representing the Universal Society of Hinduism, writing about President Obama mentioning Hindu's in his Easter address and Brent Baum, director, representing the forth coming documentary 'Finding Noah.'

Read these 'Featured Contributor' articles and more here.

WorldReligionNews.com has established its "Featured Contributor" program to offer both writers officially affiliated with all faiths and belief systems, as well as independent writers and authors of note, a public platform from which to publish religion focused articles that will reach not only WRN visitors but also appear via syndication partners on sites like CNN, FOX, New York Daily News and others.

If you are an officially affiliated spokesperson/writer who would like to be considered for a "Featured Contributor" article placement on WRN, contact us here: http://www.worldreligionnews.com/contact-us/.

About WorldReligionNews.com WRN exists to cover the news generated by ALL major world religions, A to Z, from Agnosticism to Wicca and all in between, in ways that will inspire, challenge, enlighten, entertain & engage within a framework wired for a connected and distracted world. http://www.WorldReligionNews.com/.

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WorldReligionNews.com Featured Contributor Series Continues with 'Finding Noah,' Scientology, Hinduism and Religious ...

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney responds to anti-religion group’s complaint

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Clemson head football coach Dabo Swinney is responding to a complaint filed by the Wisconsin-based organization Freedom From Religion Foundation.

The organization filed a complaint with Clemson University citing "serious constitutional concerns about how the public university's football program is entangled with religion."

Swinney released this statement on Wednesday:

"Over the past week or two, there has been a lot of discussion of my faith. We have three rules in our program that everybody must follow: (1) players must go to class, (2) they must give a good effort and (3) they must be good citizens. It is as simple as that. I have recruited and coached players of many different faiths. Players of any faith or no faith at all are welcome in our program. All we require in the recruitment of any player is that he must be a great player at his position, meet the academic requirements, and have good character. Recruiting is very personal. Recruits and their families want and deserve to know who you are as a person, not just what kind of coach you are. I try to be a good example to others, and I work hard to live my life according to my faith. I am proud of the great success we have had in developing good players and good men at Clemson. We win at the highest level and we graduate players who excel on the field and in life because of their time in Death Valley. I want to thank Clemson University and all the people who have reached out to offer their support and encouragement over the past few weeks."

The Freedom From Religion Foundation touts itself as the largest national organization advocating for non-theists, and says its mission is to promote separation of church and state and educate the public on matters relating to atheism, agnosticism and nontheism.

Clemsons football program is the organizations most recent target, but in the past it has successfully fought against nativity displays on city hall properties. In 2008, the FFRF filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government over the statute establishing the National Day of Prayer, among other actions. In March, the FFRF joined 19 other plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the U.S. Treasury Department and other government officials in March demanding that the phrase In God We Trust be removed from the nations currency.

Last Thursday, FFRF sent a letter of complaint to Clemson after having filed an open records request with the university in February.

"Christian worship seems interwoven into Clemsons football program," wrote FFRF Staff Attorney Patrick Elliott. "We are concerned that this commingling of religion and athletics results, not from student initiative, but rather from the attitudes and unconstitutional behaviors of the coaching staff."

The FFRF complaint says coach Dabo Swinney invited James Trapp to become team chaplain, which they say did not follow procedure that allows student groups to select their chaplain. It says Trapp is allowed access to the whole team between drills for Bible study. It also accused Swinney of showing preference to players who believe as he does, creating a culture of religious coercion.

The FFRF also complains that there are Bible quotes displayed and sessions on being baptized held in the athletic building. They also dislike that Trapp, as a paid university employee, refers to himself as a minister, promotes religion, and serves as a Fellowship of Christian Athletes representative, and keeps Bibles in his office for distribution.

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Clemson coach Dabo Swinney responds to anti-religion group's complaint

NJ school sued after atheists object to ‘Under God’ in the Pledge of Allegiance

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Pledge of Allegiance

An atheist family is suing the Matawan-Aberdeen Regional School District for having classroom recitations of the Pledge of Allegiance. The Pledge contains the words "under God," which the New Jersey family finds offensive.

Identifying themselves only as John Doe, Jane Doe, and Doechild, the family retained the American Humanist Association (AHA) for representation in the religious discrimination lawsuit.

The AHA works to advance a humanist viewpoint encompassing atheism, agnosticism, secularism, naturalism, rationalism, and other "nontheistic views," according to their website.

The Does' lawsuit states that each school day, Doechild recites the Pledge of Allegiance as part of a "flag-salute exercise."

According to the lawsuit,the AHA maintains that "by affirming that the United States is one nation 'under God,' the daily classroom Pledge recitation directly contradicts the religious beliefs and principles of the plaintiffs."

The suit goes on to compare the Does' plight to that of all non-Christians in America.

"Just as America's Jews, Hindus, and Muslims would feel excluded, marginalized and stigmatized if they were told by their government on a daily basis that the United States is one nation 'under Jesus,'" the suit reads, "so do the Does feel about their government affirming to them through a regular public school exercise that their country is 'under God.'"

School district attorney David Rubin stated that students do not have to participate in the Pledge, but New Jersey state law requires schools to have a daily recitation.

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NJ school sued after atheists object to 'Under God' in the Pledge of Allegiance

Ambiquity a New Life Perspective

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It's time we developed a new "life perspective" how humans understand where life begins, what happens when life ends and what humans should do in between to gain a meaningful existence.

Like the Model T, the sextant and the typewriter, current life perspectives are out of date because they haven't kept pace with the evolution of human thought.

Some perspectives include Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Taoism, Hinduism, agnosticism, atheism and tribalism, though there are others.

In the new life perspective, the archaic tenets from the old life perspectives are discarded or modified.

For example, the tenet of sin in which a human is automatically born with imperfections needing forgiveness will be chucked in favor of a new tenet called "A-OK," which assumes that humans are born good and can continue as such.

Another tenet, that of an afterlife, will be reformed.

No longer will humans be judged at death as to whether their soul will proceed to a blissful place or purgatory. Instead, this tenet will merge reincarnation with chemistry to explain that humans perpetually extend their physical presence after their death, because their bodies break down into molecules that disperse across the universe.

Another tenet, the concept of guilt and its associated feeling of regret, will be sent packing. It will be replaced with the tenet of personal comfort, which states that if humans behave badly, then they can still be comfortable with themselves because they are learning from their mistakes instead of feeling badly about themselves.

And a final tenet, that people must pledge their devotion to a higher authority, will be tossed.

No longer will the higher authority be an intangible entity residing somewhere up above. The new authority receiving devotion will be a more powerful entity: one's self, right here on earth.

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Ambiquity a New Life Perspective

The New Safety Umbrella for school children

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Magnasoft Northstar is a provider of comprehensive, integrated child and school bus tracking and monitoring solution. The services enable children's safety and security when they travel to and from school.

During the beta phase, Magnasoft Northstar hosted and managed dedicated hardware on its own. But this had its own set of challenges in terms of increasing capex and inability to scale, which led to the adoption of cloud. The human resource thus freed were put to efficient use on advancing business and providing better quality of service and agility to customers at lower prices and become a force to reckon with amongst competition.

TECH DUE DILIGENCE

Before evaluating the solutions by different vendors, MagnaSoft NorthStar team laid down some parameters aimed at zeroing on the right and best solution available in the market. In the end it took the cloud plunge. It also created a roadmap and listed its expectations from the cloud roll out. The key considerations were:

THE EUREKA MOMENT

After screening various solutions, the management identified that Amazon Web Services (AWS) as the right solution. According to company sources, the key considerations for choosing AWS were pricing, support, reliability, and technology agnosticism. AWS won on all parameters, with the cost-effective plan and a huge set of AMIs that helped to pick the right technology platform with ease.

"Moving to the AWS cloud platform, we have experienced savings of 40% versus renting or purchasing dedicated hardware and hosting it ourselves. We were also able to go to market 60% faster with our roll-outs. It enabled us to push out our new releases in a matter of a few hours down from three days," adds Kunal Ashar, Head of Product Development Division, Magnasoft Northstar. He further adds, "As we continue to add over 100GB of new data every week, using Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) has helped us save 70% in new RAID hardware."

With this, Magnasoft Northstar can provide updates to customers from 85% (on-premise hosting) to 100%. However, with AWS, the deployment, management, and monitoring of very large infrastructure is handled and maintained by just a fraction of the human resources required as compared to a traditional box & wire' data center-based infrastructure. This is because a significant amount of automation is enabled by the likes of monitoring services offered by Amazon CloudWatch which aims to build auto-scaling triggers into the application layer itself.

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The New Safety Umbrella for school children


  1. Agnosticism