[CNN News]  Google co-founder Sergey Brin on Friday said he’s optimistic that his search engine will not have to pull out of China over hacking and censorship issues.

Brin maintained that his Mountain View, California, company never entered China to make money. He said Google wanted to spread information.

“Perhaps people don’t believe this, but throughout all of the discussions of entering China our focus has really been what’s best for the Chinese people,” he said. “It’s not been about our revenue or profit or whatnot.”

He said the company will not continue to politically censor search results in China, which is one of the world’s largest markets for the Internet. But he did say that Google would agree to censoring pornography and other potentially objectionable material.

This particular story causes us to think about a much bigger issue: that of the unbiased spread of information. The Internet, coupled with search engines such as Google, has radically changed the way news events and other information is consumed by the public.

There are major consequences for this brick and mortar shift. On the one hand, the gatekeepers of the information industry, such as major daily newspapers and network TV anchors, have witnessed a dilution of their power in the delivery of news. On the other hand, this shift has resulted in an “opening of the gates” to a flood of information from any and every source — some trustworthy and some not trustworthy, but all with a bullhorn.

Much has been written about the demise of the major newspapers, which were once the pillars of their respective communities. Using news as their vehicle, they wielded political power that dictated the form and substance of the community. The economic fortunes of the newspaper families are the stuff of which legends are made. Today, those powered elite have been replaced by bloggers and Y-cams. Op-ed pieces have become the flavor of the day in print media, and “news shows” have taken stride to leave the anchor desk in the dust.

The unwary consumer, then, is left to do detailed searches in order to find the truth, because all of the news has become a point of view. The consumer must know whether what she or he is viewing or reading is from the neoconservative, theoconservative, economic conservative, conservative liberal, libertarian, social liberal, or anarcho-liberal point of view!

One of the greatest fears that people have always held was that their government would keep information from them. In a free democracy, the free and honest sharing of information (and news) is a cornerstone upon which the whole democratic system is built. People expect the information they receive to be accurate, objective and universal. The multi-faceted information products of today make it clear that what appears to be absolute truth in news is not, in fact, absolute truth — or news. It is, in fact, filtered through somebody’s point of view.

With the sheer volume of open greed that infests our society, each of us must educate ourselves in order to avoid the criminal and “barely legal” behavior of those who seek to take our wealth and names.  If you live in the U.S., a good place to look for guidelines and advice is your state attorney general’s office.  Our Google search of ten state attorney general offices (“[state] attorney general consumer”) found that each state had a web site full of consumer information.  They provided information on current scams and how to avoid them, accurate information on how to protect against identity theft, guidelines on what rights we have when faced with aggressive businesses, and instructions on what to do if we suspect theft or fraud.  Two of the states we examined, New York and Ohio, also offer free workshops to interested groups, and many counties offer similar programs through their sheriff’s departments.  Most states provide free brochures on a variety of fraud prevention topics.

Please use the information available to you to protect your name and livelihood; a small investment of your time today may make a vast difference in your future.  Please also use what workshops and brochures are available in your area to educate others, particularly the elderly, the poor, and children, so that those who prey upon others will have fewer victims to claim.  An economic crisis tends to bring out both the best and the worst in us.  Let us work together in compassion to limit the damage done by our baser natures during these trying times.

Rescue workers struggled to clear rubble and bodies from the streets of Haiti's "flattened" capital, where a government official said the death toll from the 7.0-magnitude earthquake may exceed 100,000. This tragedy makes my heart go out to all the people who have lost loved ones. As a father and grandfather who has suffered near fatal tragedies, I can empathize with the gutt-wrenching pain and agony these families face. There is a passage in the Old Testament of the Bible -- Jeremiah 31:15 --that says, "There was a voice heard in Rama, Rahel weeping for her children...because they were not." This prophecy, tied to the Christmas season, which we just celebrated, calls us all to honor the least among us and care for the defenseless. When we recognize the poor, the needy and the despised among us, we bring life, healing and hope to the whole of humanity. If we neglect those less powerful, we breed the seeds of our own defeat.

Tiger Woods, on his Web site Friday, admitted to infidelity and said he is taking "an indefinite break" from professional golf to focus on his family. This story is a major "water cooler" conversation. People love to gossip and render opinions about these kinds of situations. I have even heard news commentators suggest that we must "forgive" Tiger for what he has done. This is -- in part -- responding to his statement of contrition. Still, I find it amazing for me to think I have anything to forgive. After all, whatever did or did not happen is really a private matter between him and his wife. Whatever forgiveness there is to be done, must be done between Tiger's family, himself, and his God. I must stay clear of the situation. Too often, we spend an inordinate amount of energy and attention on weighing in on the private struggles of other families. This energy could be better spent in humility, recognizing that whenever a member of the family of humanity is weakened it points to the weakness of us all. My spiritual energy is best spent, therefore, in self-examination: what personal struggles -- spoken or unspoken -- should I be dealing with?

Rise of the Super-Rich Hits a Sobering Wall

by David Leonhardt and Geraldine Fabrikant
Friday, August 21, 2009

provided by

(excerpts)

The rich have been getting richer for so long that the trend has come to seem almost permanent.

They began to pull away from everyone else in the 1970s. By 2006, income was more concentrated at the top than it had been since the late 1920s. The recent news about resurgent Wall Street pay has seemed to suggest that not even the Great Recession could reverse the rise in income inequality.

But economists say — and data is beginning to show — that a significant change may in fact be under way. The rich, as a group, are no longer getting richer. Over the last two years, they have become poorer. And many may not return to their old levels of wealth and income anytime soon.

The relative struggles of the rich may elicit little sympathy from less well-off families who are dealing with the effects of the worst recession in a generation. But the change does raise several broader economic questions. Among them is whether harder times for the rich will ultimately benefit the middle class and the poor, given that the huge recent increase in top incomes coincided with slow income growth for almost every other group. In blunter terms, the question is whether the better metaphor for the economy is a rising tide that can lift all boats — or a zero-sum game.

Just how much poorer the rich will become remains unclear. It will be determined by, among other things, whether the stock market continues its recent rally and what new laws Congress passes in the wake of the financial crisis. At the very least, though, the rich seem unlikely to return to the trajectory they were on.

Bill Gates, Warren E. Buffett, the heirs to the Wal-Mart Stores fortune and the founders of Google each lost billions last year, according to Forbes magazine.

In one stark example, John McAfee, an entrepreneur who founded the antivirus software company that bears his name, is now worth about $4 million, from a peak of more than $100 million. Mr. McAfee will soon auction off his last big property because he needs cash to pay his bills after having been caught off guard by the simultaneous crash in real estate and stocks.

In 2007, Mr. McAfee sold a 10,000-square-foot home in Colorado with a view of Pike’s Peak. He had spent $25 million to buy the property and build the house. He received $5.7 million for it. When Lehman collapsed last fall, its bonds became virtually worthless. Mr. McAfee’s stock investments cost him millions more.

One day, he realized, as he said, “Whoa, my cash is gone.”

His remaining net worth of about $4 million makes him vastly wealthier than most Americans, of course. But he has nonetheless found himself needing cash and desperately trying to reduce his monthly expenses.

The Prayer Guarantee, which is showcased in the sidebar on the right, says this on page 77:

It’s all about value perception. All of our lives we have been

conditioned to place value on material things. We evaluate ourselves

and each other on the basis of material possessions. Look at the

overarching statement that we use to describe the most successful

people in our country. We will say that Mr. X is “worth” four

billion dollars! Our language has betrayed our true feelings…we

have literally said that Mr. X is “worth” the dollar value of his

accumulated assets minus his liabilities. We have not said his worth

is the number of grandchildren he has, or his years of marriage, or

how many smiles he caused on other people’s faces last year, or how

many sick people he has visited the last ten years….Perhaps there

was someone who was ready to commit suicide and he talked to

them and was an instrument in their recovery, but we don’t use that

to measure his worth. Our concrete, definitive way of measuring

people’s value is very clearly based on material assets.

Perhaps these challenging economic times provide all of us with a marvelous opportunity to examine our values. We can continue to hold on to things made of Teflon, or we can try to find something that is really permanent.

What is success? Really…

Yesterday I heard a news story that warmed my heart. It was a story of a lady who provides a life for boys & girls whose parents are incarcerated. There are so many things about life and love that these young people need to experience, and this lady is able to help them have that experience — at least at a secondary level.

Like this lady, we all have gifts to give the universe. So often, though, we hold back, and think only about what the universe will give to us. There is a lot of literature that shows that depression and other health effects can be altered by doing good deeds. So often we see big problems and wish we could have an impact, while we ignore the impact we can have immediately in our everyday lives.

In this day of high unemployment and talk of health care reform, I wonder how  many of us think of what we can do to help somebody else.

I believe that at the root of our economic and social problems is a fundamental attitude of greed and avarice. Yes, the folks on Wall Street are culprits, but we all carry our share of the burden. Our focus in life is always “what can I get”, rather than “what can I give.” How many of us would have agreed to work for our companies for a year without pay? O. K., that’s too radical: How many of us have asked: “What can I do to help generate more revenue for the company”?

For those who are laid off, here is a suggestion:

While you continue your job search activities, why not make yourself the President  of a company? Decide something that you can do that will really help someone or solve some problem in the world. Clearly, you have some skill that you can utilize to help someone; what is it?

Use this web site to post your thoughts. Although you may not have all the answers, someone else may be able to add to your idea. Synergy can result from collective thinking about right thoughts.

Remember: a trip around the world starts with the first step.