Zuckerberg's Metaverse Dream and His Redemption

Today is a good lesson on investing for long-term investors. Shares of META tumbled, despite the company once again had beaten Wall Street estimates on its EPS and revenue. Why? Because Wall Street was more focused instead on Zuckerberg's plan to spend big on AI with META's products.

There's actually nothing wrong with the company's financials to rattle the investors. The Facebook and Instagram parent company META announced its first-quarter profit has more than doubled, boosted by higher advertising revenue and a 6% increase on the average price of ads on its platforms. But its shares dropped sharply in after-hours trading following revenue guidance that spooked investors.

META earned $12.37 billion, or $4.71 per share, in the January-March period. That’s up from $5.71 billion, or $2.20 per share, in the same period a year earlier. Revenue rose 27% to $36.46 billion from $28.65 billion.

Wall Street analysts were expecting earnings of $4.32 per share on revenue of $36.14 billion

META lost $200 billion in value in a single day. 😨

But the bloodbath on its share price gives ample opportunity to its long-term investors. Why the aversion to Zuckerberg's aggressive plan to spend a lot to dominate the generative AI revolution started by ChatGPT?

It was his failure to convince the world with his new vision some three years ago. There was a time before ChatGPT when the tech world was talking about something entirely different. Yes, it was the metaverse.

For a while it dominated tech news. He dreamt and planned a virtual reality world that would be so immersive, so engaging, that we would want to spend part of our lives in it.

Mark Zuckerberg drove the metaverse narrative and, in turn, drove him to obsession. He was so committed that in 2021 he changed Facebook's name to Meta. But two years later his vision of the metaverse is in trouble. His Reality Labs lost a staggering $21 billion. He failed but no one could accuse him of a lack of ambition.

Then along came ChatGPT. The tech world is obsessed with it ever since and started a generative AI revolution. Everyone including META jumped in to join the bandwagon. This AI revolution may well be Zuckerberg's redemption. His metaverse ambition three years ago was a bit premature but with the magic of generative AI, it may finally become a reality. That explains his aggressive attention to AI.

How is AI going to help the metaverse? By creating truly immersive experiences.

AI's ability to understand and replicate real-world physics, emotions, and interactions is pivotal in making the metaverse genuinely immersive. Advanced AI models can simulate realistic weather, infrastructure, conversations, and emotional responses from virtual characters.

This time, Zuckerberg may achieve his almost quixotic ambition and finally deliver another product of his genius like what he did twenty years ago inside his Harvard dorm where he created Facebook. 👍

Hateful Christians of America and There Are Plenty of Them

 It turns out that Republican Congressman Tim Walberg of Michigan, who advocated for the annihilation of innocent Palestinians, including Christians in Gaza, by nuking them similar to Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 to finish them off and get it over quick, is a former evangelical pastor.

He doesn't even want to spend a nickel in humanitarian aid for the starving people of Gaza. How repulsive and completely devoid of Christian values considering his background.

He is in fact a graduate of Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Taylor University in Indiana and Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. All three institutions are evangelical Christian colleges. Wow. 😱

This is the reason why you shouldn't just believe anyone who claims he is a Christian who follows the teachings of Jesus even if he is a certified pastor or whatever.

To be sure, he is not alone among American lawmakers in openly advocating for the extermination of Palestinians. You have Republican Congressman Andy Ogles of Tennessee who said "I think we should kill them all" or Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina who advocated to "level the place." How disgusting. 🥹

Even on the Democratic side, you have lawmakers supported and financed by the powerful Jewish lobby AIPAC and who unquestioningly support Israel even if it is breaking international law, engaging in genocide and very obviously engaging in ethnic cleansing.

I'm very disappointed with Biden and I'm not sure if I will vote this November. Very demoralizing for many progressives in America. I'm hoping things will get better by November.

The Dangers of Religious Fundamentalism In Today's World

 Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders lamented that Israel is "becoming a religious fundamentalist country" under Netanyahu.

"Too many people do not understand that the Israel of today is not the Israel of…20 to 30 years ago. It is a right-wing country, increasingly becoming a religious fundamentalist country where you have some of these guys in office believe that God told them they have a right to control the entire area." He is right. I couldn't agree more. 🥹

Sadly, the same thing is happening in the United States as well. MAGA Christian nationalists including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and the Speaker of the House Mike Johnson as well as those right wing evangelical pastors using Trump as their useful fool are attempting to push the country in that direction. 🥲

It's not just Israel and the United States that's doing it. These populist authoritarian leaders these days found religion quite useful. This is also happening in India with Narendra Modi pushing the biggest democracy in the world into becoming a Hindu fundamentalist country at the expense of non-Hindu Indians, most of them Muslims. 🥶

A deja vu of the 1930s and 1940s with a religious twist. Are we also to expect a religious world war? Is this becoming a true Armageddon? I don't want those religious nuts to be ecstatic for the end of the world and jumping for joy expecting their dreamt rapture into the stratosphere becoming a reality. No way Jose. 😱😁 The Dangers of Religious Fundamentalism

Jewish Thinking On The Afterlife

 Another food for thought after a close call with rapture on yesterday's total solar eclipse. Or so some of us thought will happen as we are reminded of the afterlife. 😉

Most Christian denominations do not subscribe to rapture theology as it was not part of traditional Christianity historically. Only mostly evangelical Christians. The idea of rapture did not even exist until the 1830s in America.

Rapture is not even an end-of-the-world event. It is supposedly a prelude before the second coming of Jesus Christ, before the so-called "tribulation."

Why Paul talked about it and other things in his many epistles in the New Testament is one of the reasons many viewed Paul as the main architect of the theology of Christianity.

Whatever Paul's reasons, whether he was talking about these things to come ("futurism") literally or figuratively, evangelical Christianity took their imaginations to the next level. And it is relatively new. Only in the 1830s.

Personally, I don't really pay too much attention to Christianity's eschatology. Rather, as Christians, we should focus on the here and now, how we live our lives.

Even the Jews themselves don't really deal too much attention with the afterlife. Compared to Christianity and Islam, Judaism is not too focused on the details of heaven or hell. I think we are missing the point that Jesus tried to emphasize.

Many will be surprised to learn that eschatology in Judaism only developed gradually at about the same time that the new Christian religion developed its own during the 3rd and 4th century. Both were influenced by Greek philosophies prevalent in the region at the time including Plato's.

Even one Jewish rabbi and professor lamented: "Why are Jewish notions of the afterlife so indistinct when both Christian and Muslim views of the afterlife, which come originally from Judaism, have attained remarkable specificity?" 🤔

As one Jewish writer put it:

"Ask Jews what happens after death, and many will respond that the Jewish tradition doesn’t say or doesn’t care, that Jews believe life is for the living and that Judaism focuses on what people can and should do in this world.

But not so fast. If anything is less Jewish than belief in heaven and hell, it’s Jews agreeing on an official theological party line. And after 4,000 years of discussion, you’d expect considerable variation. Sure enough...disagreements. As they say: two Jews, three afterlives. "😊 Jewish Thinking On The Afterlife

The Great Maimonides

 

Maimonides also known as Rambam was a 12th century Sephardic Jewish rabbi and philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah scholars of the Middle Ages. Among the greatest Jewish rabbis in history.

At the same time, he was a preeminent astronomer and physician, serving as personal physician to the great Saladin, Sultan of both Egypt and Syria who defeated the Crusaders in 1187 and captured Jerusalem.

Revered by Jewish historians, Maimonides also figures very prominently in the history of Islamic and Arab sciences and he is mentioned extensively in studies. He became a prominent philosopher in both the Jewish and Islamic worlds.

Influenced by Aristotle, he himself was a great influence to other great thinkers including St Thomas Aquinas.

Unlike other Jews and even Christians who think only them can go to heaven, Maimonides believes any non-Jew who lives according to the Seven Laws of Noah is regarded as a righteous gentile, and is assured of a place in the world to come, the final reward of the righteous. I hope many radical and conservative Jews and Christians learn from his teachings. 😉

Born in Spain, he was exiled in Morocco and ended up in Egypt where he served Saladin. He died in Egypt but it was claimed that he was ultimately buried in Tiberias in Israel where a "Tomb of Maimonides" became a tourist attraction.

Plant A Tree To Fight Climate Change?

 

It's another record-breaking heat last year and even this year. Scientists confirmed that year 2023 was the warmest year since global records began in 1850. The ten warmest years in the 174-year record have all occurred during the last decade (2014–2023). Don't expect 2024 to be any different. 🥹

Many Asians including Filipinos complain of the unbearable heat this summer. Climate crisis is the new norm and so what do we expect? Everyone is reminded to plant a tree instead. 😊

Sadly, trees don't grow fully overnight. Not even a year or two. What we are experiencing at the moment is the cumulative effect of climate crisis, and the solutions are always long term just as the problem that started it all was also long term.

Of course, planting trees will help in the long term. The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.

But let's be realistic. We will suffer for the next five to ten years, that's for sure. There's nothing we can do about it. The damage has been done. Man now reaps what he sowed.

Planting trees is just one solution. Cutting down on carbon emissions is even more important. The key to solving our climate crisis is not even in the hands of the Filipinos. It is in the hands of the major polluting nations of the world.

The irony is countries like the Philippines and Bangladesh even the small island nation of Vanuatu in the Pacific will suffer the most for what the major polluters did. The Filipinos can only add their voices in demanding accountability from these polluters. Unfortunately, we all live in the same planet. No man is an island. 🥲

Southeast Asia's Sinking Cities And What's Being Done About Them

 All my friends and relatives back in the Philippines are complaining of the terrible heat waves for quite sometime now.

Even some schools consider going back to remote learning like what they did during the pandemic as the heat is so unbearable. That's how bad it is.

Heat indices as high as 46 C or around 115 F are recorded. 😰

The bad news is this is going to be the new normal in the years to come. Those climate crisis skeptics in the Philippines (and I'm sure the country has its share of them too) will finally have their rude awakening. 😱

Sadly, the Philippines is among the countries predicted by many climate scientists to suffer the most from the impact of climate crisis, thanks to the major greenhouse gas emitters of the world like China, United States, EU, India and Russia. 🥲

And it's not just heat waves. Sea levels are also fast rising. Another new normal are super-typhoons and longer and severe droughts. Water resource becomes a major problem.

Many cities especially in Asia are sinking with rising sea levels. At least, Widodo of Indonesia is doing something about it. He is actually building a new Indonesian capital named Nusantara and is being built inside the jungles of Kalimantan in Borneo with the initial phase set to be inaugurated by August of 2024. The whole new city is projected to be completed by 2045.

There are many expected challenges ahead for the Indonesian government, that's for sure. But what about Manila?

Manila is among the fastest sinking cities on the planet, sinking at around 10 centimeters per year. Anong plano ng gobyerno? 🥹

I feel sick in my stomach just thinking about what's waiting in the future for the next generation.🥲

Why Many Evangelicals Hate Muslims

 The hatred against Muslims felt by many evangelical Christians in America (not all, mind you) is so sad when you consider that the religion of Jesus Christ is based on love. Where's the love? 😢

And it's not made up by liberal left-wingers, as they often claim. The evangelical pastor from Texas in this video confirms it himself.

All these hateful talking points from hateful white supremacists and Christian nationalists among mostly evangelicals are so venomous and corrosive.

To these people, even good hearted Jews who condemn the evil done by Israel against the Palestinians in Gaza like US Senators Bernie Sanders and Chuck Schumer are branded antisemitic and not Jewish enough. As if they are more Jewish than the Jews themselves.

To these people, anything Muslim or Islamic is already evil. They readily see the evil done by Islamic fundamentalists but don't see the evil done by Christian fundamentalists aka themselves.

To these people, ALL Palestinians are guilty of the crimes committed by those Islamic fundamentalist Hamas. Hence, killing all of them, children and women included, is justified in their eyes. How so Christian or so they think. I would rather call myself an atheist.

Even if thousands upon thousands of those Palestinian kids and women are killed or starved to death, this people don't see them as humans anyways so they don't feel any guilt at all just like those Israelites in the Old Testament who claim they were told by their God to massacre all Amalekites and the other tribes in Canaan.

Those Israelites claim they were strictly told by God to kill ALL men, women, elderly, children even the animals of Amalek. And they can have their virgin women for themselves too.

So strict was the instruction for genocide that when the prophet Samuel learned that Saul spared the king's life, the prophet beheaded King Agag himself right before Saul and his court. Really? Wow. 😱

In fact, Netanyahu in present-day Israel often uses the example of the Amalekites as an inspiration of the IDF to kill their enemies in Gaza.

These Christian nationalists, most of them evangelical Christians, are truly living up to the expectations of Jesus or so they think...how truly loving people in the spirit of Christ...again, or so they think. 😭

It is for the same reason that Donald Trump pander to the hatred of these evangelicals to get their support by pretending to be one of them and went as far as selling Bibles or claims that he loves the Bible even if he knows nothing about it or claims that Christianity is under attack in America the way many evangelicals (and only them) see it.

This is the sad state of evangelical Christianity in America today.

Watch this video from a truly enlightened evangelical pastor and fully understand what it means to be a true Christian. 😍

On Christianity, Islam and Judaism With Their Overlaps and Contradictions

 

Another food for thought.

My response to a friend from down under who criticized me for admiring Maimonides, a famous 12th century Jewish rabbi, while at the same time accusing me of "mocking" the Old Testament. I have my reasons. Let me share them with the rest of you. ✌️

Yes, it's true that, as Christian, I don't believe the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible should be on equal footing with the New Testament just as Paul correctly stated that Christians are no longer bound to the Mosaic law of his own childhood faith.

In my opinion, putting the OT and NT together in the Christian Bible is the reason many believers are confused about their faith especially many evangelicals who still think the Jews are God's chosen people who need to go back to Zion in order for the so-called rapture and other end-times events they believe will happen will materialize.

From that perspective alone, we can now understand why many evangelicals want the Jews to run the whole of Palestine by hook or by crook in order for the end-times to happen. I know it's a bit weird.

Supposedly, based on our faith, that should not be the case anymore as Christians are considered the new chosen people of God, not the Jews. At least, that's what we are told to believe.

The OT serves only as historical reference for Christians being the faith of Jesus and his disciples. I saw Judaism as the faith of the Jewish people who historically were quite parochial in their view of their God and themselves and very tribal in the belief that their God is theirs alone. And quite violent too.

Violence has no place in the Christian faith. But many Christians are confused about it and still behave like their Judaism cousins. Very tribal and parochial.

Jesus himself corrected the Jews of his time on their wrong understanding of their faith when he expounded to them the issues of anger, adultery, divorce, oaths, retaliation, and love of enemy. These are the so-called six antheses which appear to be opposite of what Moses taught. Actually, they are not. He simply corrected their misconceptions.

But, like other religions including Christianity and Islam, Judaism as an institution is hardly static. It, too, grew over the centuries both in theology and philosophy. In fact, their specific eschatology only developed rapidly at around the same time as Christianity in the 3rd and 4th century CE considering that it was around for thousands of years before that.

I respect and admire Maimonides as a person in general just like I respect and admire Gautama Buddha. He was a 12th century Sephardic Jewish rabbi who singlehandedly reordered, reorganized, humanized and summarized the written laws of his faith for the benefit of the other faithful. That's on top of his being a philosopher, astronomer and physician admired by both Jews and Muslims alike in his time.

That's why many Jews look up to him. Of course, like most Jews, he did not believe Jesus, another Jew himself, met the criteria of what their faith is expecting for the long-awaited messiah.

I don't have to share the faith of the people I admire the most as a person. I'm open-minded enough to recognize that God revealed himself in many religious traditions. But their traditions may retain much human flaws, which is quite normal.

For one, I cannot reconcile myself with the faith of the Jews based on the very parochial view of a God willing to commit genocides against other nations and expect me to believe that it is the same God Christians believe as an all-loving deity who loves ALL of humanity. That's too contradictory.

Again, the quirkiness of our many religious traditions reflects our human side. It is not all divinely perfect as it has its human imperfections as well. Even Christianity has its share of imperfections. But we can all transcend beyond those imperfections and appreciate the universal God that holds all of humanity together. It is for this reason that I remain respectful to other faiths and expect others to respect mine too.

Between Ashkenazi Jews and Palestinians

Those Ashkenazi Jews like Netanyahu who love to deny the rights of Palestinians over the land of Palestine and claim that only Israeli Jews are descendants of the Israelites and the Jews of Biblical Israel will be forced to eat their words when shown scientific DNA evidence that their hated Palestinian brothers are probably closer to their Israelite lineage than them. 😉

A 2020 study found that Ashkenazi Jews and modern Levantine
Arabic-speaking peoples like the Palestinians share common ancestry, but Ashkenazi Jews have a higher European-related component (41%). There's a substantial genetic overlap between them.

Most Palestinians descended from local inhabitants who converted after the Islamic conquest in the seventh century CE. The most genetically native groups to the land are the Samaritans and Palestinian Christians. They are far more native than Ashkenazi Jews.

The Khazar hypothesis of Ashkenazi ancestry postulated that they are largely descended from the Khazars, Turcic people from the Caucasus region of central Asia.

Regardless, I agree with Noam Chomsky, the great American intellectual famous for his work in linguistics, cognitive science, political activism and analytic philosophy when he said it really doesn't matter whether Ashkenazi Jews are closer to their Levantine roots than their eastern European and central Asian roots or vice-versa.

He added that we are a product of our cultural heritage more than our DNAs. We live in a world of cultural traditions. Whether the Moses of history truly exist or not, it doesn't matter. Chomsky himself is an Ashkenazi Jew like Netanyahu.

I agree with Chomsky. Even us Filipinos, we defined and redefined our being Filipinos, a product of our own cultural tradition.

Originally, the natives or "indios" were NOT considered Filipinos. Filipinos back then were Spaniards or at least mestizo Spaniards born in the Philippines. They were considered "insulares" as opposed to full-blooded Spaniards born in Spain called "peninsulares."

Later, half Chinese locals or chinoys who became the nouveau riche in Philippine society were accorded the right to be called Filipinos. I believe this is where Jose Rizal acquired his being Filipino long before the word applies to every native in the Philippines.

It doesn't really matter if your family's roots were Malays, highland Austronesians or lowland Austronesians, Chinese or Spaniards who lived in the Philippines for a very long time, you are Filipinos not because of your DNAs but because of your family's cultural heritage.

The Democrats' Biggest Mistake Over Biden

 As I've been saying all along, this is the biggest mistake of the Democratic leadership in many years for failing to listen to its base.

They cannot push Biden down their throats with threats of the alternative (Trump) being far too worse. The argument of "the lesser of two evil" will not cut anymore. The leadership has always have the option of finding another candidate. It doesn't have to be Biden, whom the students now see as a moral failure.

This younger generation is correct about the US today being like how it was during the Vietnam War. Just like in the 1960s and 1970s, a wide generational gap exists.

They cannot believe their own government is supporting an Israeli government engaged in genocidal war and is not being able to stop it. Ironclad and unconditional support even in the face of war crimes being committed by your ally? Seriously?

Even the expansion of the conflict into a regional war with Iran directly involved, everyone knows that Netanyahu wants it badly to stay in power. He knew that's going to happen when he allowed the bombing of the Iranian embassy in Syria. Netanyahu trapped Biden into this wider regional war.

Then you have AIPAC, the powerful Jewish lobby, and many influential conservative Jewish Americans attacking in schools, universities, workplace, politics, labor unions and just about everywhere else those ordinary Americans who supported the Palestinians in their struggle to survive from this genocide including the intentional starvation they are being subjected to. They want to silence them.

These Jews and their MAGA allies in Congress are the reason why there's a rise of antisemitism in America today at the expense of the rest of the Jewish American community who feel strongly against Netanyahu's far-right government. It's not fair to the latter.

Where are the Democrats who are supposed to defend the rights and freedoms of ordinary Americans?

If the Democrats will lose the White House in November, they only have themselves to blame. 🥹🥶

Of Mice and Men, Netanyahu and Trump

 These calculated and limited retaliatory strikes by both Iran and Israel are more like posturing than anything. It is custom-made for their intended audiences and for each other to send a clear message.

It's saber-rattling rather than a serious attack and counter-attack. In the Philippines, we call it "moro-moro." In the West, we call it "wag the dog." It's all theatrics and sound effects.😆

Now that the message has been sent, anything more than that will turn the conflict into a real regional war. It is apparent that both Iran and the United States don't want it but Netanyahu is keen on making it a wider conflict to keep himself in power.

He will do anything to prevent an early election in Israel because he knows he will soon be kicked out and face the criminal charges he is avoiding. 🥹

Trump is not alone. Netanyahu and Trump are on the same boat and use similar strategies.

Trump used the election campaign and his useful idiots, those MAGA fanatics, as his strategy to achieve his goal.

Netanyahu, on the other hand, used the Gaza war as his perfect excuse. Thanks to Hamas, believe it or not. Their brutality became his political lifeline.😁

Both are trying their best to avoid facing the music, that is, a ruined career and possible jail time for their alleged crimes.

Netanyahu with his corruption cases while Trump with his myriad of criminal and civil cases ranging from "hush-money" to election interference to business fraud to inciting insurrection. A total of 91 criminal counts in four separate prosecutions. Impressive. 😆

Nice try, guys, but you cannot run from justice forever. Justice will eventually prevail. 👍

Human Rights in America

When it comes to human rights, Jimmy Carter is likely to be disappointed that America upholds them in words only. As his fellow US president, George H W Bush, once infamously said: "read my lips."

When the going gets tough, the US commitment to human rights is there is really NO commitment to human rights.

The US response to the 9/11 attacks clearly settled this old question.

America is happy to preach to others about human rights. Especially the Chinese and the Russians and the Iranians. But, when the Americans themselves came under attack, they would do just about anything to wipe out the threat.

Before human rights became an advocacy for America under Jimmy Carter, we violated many of them during the tumultuous years of the Vietnam War and Civil Rights movement.

After Carter, we did it again post-9/11 when we intimidated our fellow Americans in the academia to silence them.

Then we did it again to them since October last year when the Gaza War started.

Presidents of multiple universities have been questioned by the Republican-majority House, inquisition-style, over reported rise in antisemitism on college campuses, never mind the simultaneous rise of Islamophobia as well. Both presidents of Harvard and University of Pennsylvania later resigned.

Recently, the president of Columbia University in New York capitulated to the demands of the same lawmakers in Washington, DC and started cracking down on protesting students, arresting a hundred of them.

At Yale University in Connecticut, police also arrested 50 protesting students.

The same thing happened to University of Southern California when it decided to cancel the valedictorian speech of Asna Tabassum, a Muslim student known to support the Palestinians in Gaza.

What freedom of speech? What human rights? What a shame. 😪

The Power of AIPAC Over Americans

 The Squad is about to fight for its political life. The war in Gaza has set the stage for a huge primary battle in 2024.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee or AIPAC, the powerful Jewish lobby, has set its sights on progressive candidates like the Squad who dare to criticize Israel or its leaders, funding negative attack ads during their primaries.

The group is expected to spend about $100 million on the efforts. Lobbyists like them hold American democracy at the palm of their hands. They make a mockery out of American democracy. They become America's kingmaker.

They can even make US lawmakers go after their perceived enemies like the Squad today and punish them or make their lives not easy. Ask those university presidents from Harvard and U Penn who were forced to resign.

Lobbying (which, honestly in today's political reality, is tantamount to legalized bribery) should banned. Trying to differentiate lobbying from bribery is simply splitting hairs. They are siblings from the same mother.

Along with lobbying, dismantling the electoral college will get America closer to an ideal democracy. A 2023 Pew Research Center survey found that 65% of Americans support changing the way presidents are elected so that the winner of the popular vote nationwide wins the presidency. It only makes sense if you want the people's voice to prevail. 👍

It's about time to get rid of the ridiculous electoral college, which was a compromise by the founding fathers and become disastrous over the centuries. It's also about time to get rid of lobbying, which is nothing but legalized bribery. 🥶