" Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.
"
-- Proverbs 29:18, King James Bible (KJV)
Happy New Year 2017 !To keep things on our planet in perspective for the New Year 2017, a terrestrial "Earth" year can be compared to a "Galactic" year -- as Caleb A. Scharf has done in his Life, Unbounded
posting at the Scientific American Blog Network in
Another 1/230,000,000th of a Galactic Orbit
.
Scharf suggests there: " As the solar year ends, let's try to stop being so parochial
".
Our comment is, " hear, hear !!
"As written at the Wikipedia for the entry " Galactic Year
": "The galactic year
, also known as a cosmic year
, is the duration of time required for the Solar System to orbit once around the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. Estimates of the length of one orbit range from 225 to 250 million terrestrial years. The Solar System is traveling at an average speed of 828,000 km/h (230 km/s) or 514,000 mph (143 mi/s) within its trajectory around the galactic center, a speed at which an object could circumnavigate the Earth's equator in 2 minutes and 54 seconds; that speed corresponds to approximately one 1300th of the speed of light."
We are, galactically seen, part of a much larger
"picture", so to speak.The word "scharf" in German means "sharp" and a sharp intelligence indeed is at work in writing perspicaciously about the present New Year as Another 1/230,000,000th of a Galactic Orbit
.
Take a look there for some outstanding insights about life on our planet.In the meantime, Scharf might consider applying his own wisdom further, perhaps depart from the blindered parochial focus that marks the mainstream, and look at our "galactic" (if archaeological-anthropological-historical) decipherments of Stonehenge and Avebury in our previous postings -- from a broad historical-astronomical point of view, of course....
We posted our opinion already in August that the declared Facebook collection of WhatsApp data
appeared to be illegal. See Facebook WhatsApp Privacy Invasion Promotes Anger and Likely Violates a 2012 Agreement with the FTC
.Already in September, Germany ordered Facebook to stop collecting WhatsApp user data as violating data protection laws
. Facebook had to delete all WhatsApp data gathered by Facebook about German users up to that point.In November 2016, Facebook had to stop collecting WhatsApp user data in Europe
after pressure by governments. Now, a December 20, 2016 press release from the European Commission of the European Union
alleges that Facebook provided misleading information about its WhatsApp takeover
.
As stated in that press release: " Facebook now has now until 31 January 2017 to respond to the Statement of Objections. If the Commission's preliminary concerns in this case were confirmed, the Commission could, impose a fine of up to 1% of Facebook's turnover
(under Article 14(1) of the EU Merger Regulation).
" [emphasis added] That's a lot of money, folks.
screenshot photograph clip by LawPundit
Meredith Ballard, Staff Writer at The Campbell Law Observer had a piece in October about WhatsApp’s legal challenges illustrate the stark difference in U.S. and EU internet privacy laws
-- and we can second that ! -- where she wrote, inter alia:" The legal disputes facing WhatsApp and Facebook arise at a time when privacy law in the United States is still developing. Currently, the law in the European Union has a reputation for being more consumer-oriented, with greater monitoring and privacy protections for app users outside of the U.S. In the U.S., Internet companies, such as Facebook and Google, are overseen by the FTC.
"The FTC has proven itself thus far to be a virtually do-nothing "paper tiger" in terms of enforcement. See Facebook’s Plan for WhatsApp to Get Close Look from FTC
.In our opinion, the clearly interlocking-endangered merger of Facebook and WhatsApp should never have been permitted because it was destined to lead to these kinds of nefarious privacy abuses.
