#pilfered

“Liar,” trickles off the tongue never soiled, 

     never once knowing sin, in attempt to sear through

          the man who’d known only shades of providence.

Too behold, he, far lesser the “golden,” was to play savior, but a

truth’s still a truth, or a lie for another, either way, he’d not asked an inch;

For it's, this moment, as faithful as chance may be until

     the parody rains humility, the humility ushers vengeance,

           the parallels to which become their precious little child -

Oh the brave old worlds christened, “pious and pilfered.”

And prayed for, the encounters and abandon in lieu of faith.

C.H. (2021)

Germany seizes server hosting pilfered U.S. police files

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BOSTON (AP) – At the behest of the U.S. government, German authorities have seized a computer server that hosted a huge cache of files from scores of U.S. federal, state and local law enforcement agencies obtained in a Houston data breach last month.

The server was being used by a WikiLeaks-like data transparency collective called Distributed Denial of Secrets to share documents – many…

New Post has been published on https://www.crownofcompassion.org/2020/02/23/something-pilfered-our-happiness/

Something pilfered our happiness

” . . . something pilfered our happiness.  It can seem like such a fragile thing, this joy.  Tomorrow scattered by the  winds of a storm.  Still we keep searching for it, this sense of contentment and well-being.”- Max Lucado

In Chapter 1 (“The Unexpected Door to Joy”) of How Happiness Happens: Finding Joy in a World of Comparison, Disappointment, and Unmet Expectations, Max Lucado begins with the story of Johnny Barnes (1923-2016).  For forty years, Johnny greeted morning commuters as he stood on the edge of the Crow Lane roundabout in Hamilton, Bermuda.

Until the age of ninety-two, Johnny arrived at his spot at 4:00 a.m.  For the next six hours, Monday through Friday, Johnny waved, smiled, and shouted his love.  And the people loved him back.  In fact, they called him Mr. Happy Man!  Above all, if a driver missed Johnny’s smile on the first go around, that driver proceeded through the roundabout a second time to catch Johnny’s gaze.  Because, as Johnny himself stated, he possessed a simple philosophy:

“We human beings gotta learn to love one another.  One of the greatest joys that can come to an individual is when you’re doing something and helping others.”

Certainly, everyone craves — and benefits from — happiness.  But few people, Pastor Lucado reports, seem to find it.  According to the Harris Poll Survey of American Happiness, roughly one-third of the people reported they were happy.  Even older people no longer score higher in the areas of contentment and appreciation of life.

So, Max asks, how do we explain this gloom?  Among the varied and complex answers, Pastor Lucado believes one of the answers centers around this idea: we’re using the wrong door.  That’s the door advertising companies describe.  The oft-used front door to happiness.  Yet, that front door fails to deliver on its promise.  As Harvard professor Daniel Gilbert observes:

“We think money will bring happiness for a long time, and actually it brings a little happiness for a short time.”

However, Max concludes, the sign on the lesser-used back door reminds us that happiness happens when you give.

Today’s question: In your opinion, what something pilfered our happiness?  Please share.

Trapped in 99-Million-Year-Old Amber, a Beetle With Pilfered Pollen

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Trilobites

The discovery is among the strongest evidence in the fossil record that the insects pollinated prehistoric cycads, a plant that preceded flowering plants.

A mid-Cretaceous beetle had a cavity filled with hair at the base of its mandibles for collecting pollen from plants known as cycads.CreditChenyang Cai

Bees and butterflies are praised for their pollination…