End Times
As Amazon’s Alexa Passes 100 Million Units Sold, It Will Now Be Always-On And Always Recording And Storing All Conversations In Your Home
Amazon’s patent application for an always-on feature for Alexa, its popular voice-activated personal assistant, has raised a lot of concern.
Amazon’s patent application for an always-on feature for Alexa, its popular voice-activated personal assistant, has raised a lot of concern.
Understanding of Bible prophecy is a lot like driving into a smog-filled city like Los Angeles, where I lived for a time before getting saved back in the last 1980’s. When you view LA from a distance, it is very obvious that the whole city is ringed with a dark, brownish-gray layer of smog. But as you get closer, a funny thing happens. That same smog that was crystal-clear from a distance virtually disappears as you drive into it, and once inside, is nearly invisible. So it is with Bible prophecy as it gets closer to the time of its fulfillment.
“And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.” Revelation 13:11,13-18 (KJV)
When I got saved and started doing Bible study, prophecy in particular, it seemed to me that nearly all of the Church was acutely aware of things like the coming Mark of the Beast. Writers like Hal Lindsey wrote and warned against the creep of technology, as did many movies of the time. We wondered would our televisions start spying on us, and really had a great awareness of things. Not so in 2019. In our day, billions of us wear and carrying global tracking devices which we call our mobile devices, and millions of us have put spy gear like Alexa and Google into our homes. Gone is the nervousness and apprehension of the One World Government and the Mark of the Beast. Now we openly embrace these things. And yes, our televisions are spying on us.
The reason why this is happening is because in the 28 years since I got saved, we are now right on the very edge of Bible prophecy and its fulfillment. The Pretribulation Rapture of the Church, the event that will kickoff the end times officially, remains as of this writing only a kitten’s whisker away from taking place. An unsaved world is right now wholeheartedly embracing these end times tracking devices, just as they will fervently adopt the Mark of the Beast in the days when Antichrist shall rise and rule. Getting all that, Alexa?
To the computers that now surround us, speech is just another form of data.
FROM BLOOMBERG: “If you’re already freaked out by the privacy implications of smart speakers like Amazon’s Echo,” says Gizmodo, “we have some bad news.” A headline in ScienceAlert is even more direct: “Newly Released Amazon Patent Shows Just How Much Creepier Alexa Can Get.” You get the idea.
But the anxiety is much ado about nothing. An Alexa that’s always listening will likely prove more useful than an Alexa that isn’t; and, in any case, always-on devices are certainly our future.
As of January 2019, Amazon had sold more than 100 million devices that include Alexa. That number is certainly dwarfed by the billions of devices that include Siri and Google Assistant. But the difference is, those features come bundled with your smartphone, which has many other uses. When you purchase an Alexa device, you are choosing to invite Amazon into your home to listen to you.
Even those who have no interest in obtaining an Alexa-linked device know how the thing works, if only from Amazon’s flood of television commercials. You say “Alexa, what’s today’s weather?” — and it tells you. Whenever Alexa hears its “wake word,” the software assumes that the user wants its attention. Thus Alexa “wakes,” listens and processes the words that follow as a command.
The difficulty arises because, in the words of the patent application, a wake word “may not always precede a spoken command, and may sometimes be included in the middle of a spoken command.” The application gives an example: “Play ‘Mother’s Little Helper’ by the Rolling Stones.” As currently configured, the system will respond if the user prefaces the request with “Alexa” (that is, “Alexa, play ‘Mother’s Little Helper’”) but not if the wake word comes at the end (that is, “Play ‘Mother’s Little Helper,’ Alexa”).
Put otherwise, Alexa as currently configured does not match the way people speak. The user must structure each command around a relatively formal grammar. The invention described in the patent application would deformalize the means for addressing the device, thus enabling Alexa to fit more easily and naturally into everyday life.
Here’s Amazon’s solution: Alexa already stores what it hears in a buffer. Under the new configuration, according to the application, once Alexa detects a wake word, “the device will go backwards through the audio in the buffer to determine the start of the utterance that includes the wakeword.” After finding what it scores as the most likely start of the command, Alexa will perform a similar calculation to find the end. The command will then be processed exactly like one that was preceded by the wake word.
It all makes a great deal of sense. Why then the concern? It seems to me that there are two potential issues.
One is a worry about what happens to the information from the audio buffer. Alexa currently retains recordings for a period of time, helping it model the user’s needs and wants. This feature, which can be partially disabled, has already caused privacy problems. Courts have issued subpoenas for Alexa recordings. And as Bloomberg News has reported, human beings at Amazon already listen to much of what Alexa hears, in an effort to improve the algorithm. But no always-on feature was necessary for those recordings to survive.
- RELATED STORY: Amazon dethrones Google as top global brand
The second concern might be that an Alexa which listens more closely, responding to natural language commands, will soon become an Alexa that fades into the background. The relative formality with which the device must be addressed serves as a reminder that we are addressing just that — a device. The more casually we can speak, the more casual we will likely be about using it. We might, quite literally, forget that Alexa is there. Only the consumer can decide whether that is a feature or a bug.
Amazon says that it has no current plan to change the way Alexa listens, but bear in mind that the always-on feature can be implemented whether or not it is ever patented. In other words, if the notion of a device that is always awake worries you, the fact that a patent application has been filed shouldn’t cause you to worry more. Any device that listens to you can already be made always-on. (Including, by the way, your smartphone.)
We accept that our laptops and smart televisions are recording the choices we make and sending them we know not where. The only reason we imagine that our spoken words are safe is that speech is an older, more instinctive technology. We still think of speech as special, a distinctively human function, and when we are in spaces we consider private, we consider our voice as something heard only by our most intimate and trusted acquaintances.
But to the computers that now surround us, speech is just another form of data. The various voice-commanded devices of today, whether in our homes, smartphones or cars, work just like keyboards or touchscreens. The only difference is that the human input is a voice. And the only way they can get that input is to listen for it.
So let’s calm down. Yes, it can be fun to imagine a future in which our homes are entirely connected and yet we’re able to keep private everything we want to keep private. But that ship sailed long before Amazon decided to seek a patent on a minor and welcome change to Alexa. READ MORE
Amazon Alexa Echo Recorded Conversation And Then Sent To Contact
A woman in Portland, Oregon, says her Amazon Echo secretly recorded her conversation and sent the recording to a contact on her husband’s phone. Amazon said it was the result of an “unlikely” series of events.
Amazon workers reportedly listening to your conversations with Alexa
ROBO Global CIO Bill Studebaker discusses the report that thousands of Amazon employees are listening to people’s conversations with Alexa.
Now The End Begins is your front line defense against the rising tide of darkness in the last days before the Rapture of the Church
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“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJV)
“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB
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End Times
In A Humiliating Setback For The Kingdom, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Is Forced To Drastically Scale Back Plans For The Futuristic City Of NEOM
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia has been forced to scale back its $1.5 trillion plans for NEOM, a 106-mile linear desert megacity, in a humiliating climb down for the kingdom.
You know, it’s hard to be a dystopian end times dictator bent on world domination these days, just as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over in Saudi Arabia now knows. We told you back in 2022 the plans that the Crown Prince had to build his futuristic city called NEOM. NEOM consists of THE LINE, OXAGON, TOJENA and SINDALAH that would all be the premier representation of the 15-minute city that Klaus Schwab and United Nations want us all to live in. But as Adolf Hitler before him found out, building a kingdom is really hard work, and very, very expensive, even of you’re the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.
“For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?” Luke 14:28 (KJB)
But fret not, these cities absolutely are coming, just as everything else we have been threatened with surrounding the United Nations 2030 Agenda is coming. The people who control the technology control the future, and we have already signed on for the technology part. Remember life before the internet? Not so many people do anymore, and besides, as much as we rail against the ‘electronic leash’ of our mobile smart devices, is anyone going to get rid of theirs? No. They are not. We have melded ourselves together with technology, and as we’ve long told you, it’s a 3-step process. First they got us in front of the computer, 1994 – 2007, then they got the computer on us, 2007 – present day, the third and last step according to Revelation 13 will be the computer inside of us. This setback is but a mere ‘blip on the radar’ for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his city of NOEM, his day is coming soon.
Humiliation for Saudi Arabia as it’s ‘forced to scale back $1.5trillion plans for 106-mile-long city The Line to just 1.5miles with workers already being laid off at desert construction site’
FROM THE DAILY MAIL UK: The Line – part of the country’s audacious and futuristic NEOM project – was meant to be home to around 1.5 million residents by the end of the decade, with plans to ultimately increase its full capacity to nine million people.
Now, according to people familiar with the project, the development will only stretch 1.5 miles and house fewer than 300,000 residents by 2030, according to a new report from Bloomberg citing sources close to the project and documents.
As a result of the reduction to the construction of The Line, at least one contractor has started dismissing workers it employs on the site, the publication has said.
Stunning concept images released by the kingdom in 2022 showed a vast, mirrored structure cutting through the desert near crystal blue ocean waters. It is one of fifteen developments that form the country’s NEOM project – which also includes an industrial city, ports and tourism developments – that have been gradually announced by the kingdom since 2021.
But The Line was the jewel in Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s ‘Vision 2030’ project, which was set in motion to diversify his country’s oil dependent economy, as well as its society and culture, and improve the image it projects on the world stage.
The Kingdom said the project, which is expected to cost $1.5 trillion, would be an ‘unprecedented living experience’ that preserves ‘surrounding nature’. The megacity was to feature two parallel skyscrapers extending across a swathe of desert and mountain terrain, with mirrored facades on the outside.
Saudi officials said it would be built in stages, and would eventually cover a 106-mile stretch of desert along the coast in the western Tabuk province – with its Western tip pointing out over the Red Sea towards Egypt. However, Bloomberg reports that these plans have now been dramatically scaled back – with the 106 mile structure being reduced to just 1.5 miles – a more than 98 percent decrease in size. READ MORE
NEOM and THE LINE in Progress – February 2024
Now The End Begins is your front line defense against the rising tide of darkness in the last Days before the Rapture of the Church
- HOW TO DONATE: Click here to view our WayGiver Funding page
When you contribute to this fundraising effort, you are helping us to do what the Lord called us to do. The money you send in goes primarily to the overall daily operations of this site. When people ask for Bibles, we send them out at no charge. When people write in and say how much they would like gospel tracts but cannot afford them, we send them a box at no cost to them for either the tracts or the shipping, no matter where they are in the world. We have a Gospel Billboard program. We are now broadcasting Bible studies, Podcasts and a Sunday Service 5 times a week, thanks to your generous donations. All this is possible because YOU pray for us, YOU support us, and YOU give so we can continue growing.
But whatever you do, don’t do nothing. Time is short and we need your help right now. The Lord has given us an open door with a tremendous ‘course’ for us to fulfill that will create an excellent experience at the Judgement Seat of Christ. Please pray for our efforts, and if the Lord leads you to donate, be as generous as possible. The war is REAL, the battle HOT and the time is SHORT…TO THE FIGHT!!!
“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJB)
“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB
End Times
In An Amazing Coincidence, The Pentagon Declassifies And Releases Documents Of A Nuclear Attack Very Much Like The Ending Of New Obama Civil War Movie
The day of nuclear Armageddon: Newly declassified documents reveal in macabre minute-by-minute detail what the end of the world would like, just like in Obama movie ‘Leave The World Behind’
In the closing scene of Barack Obama’s civil war movie ‘Leave The World Behind’, there are two things taking place. The first and main thing is we see 2 of the movie’s characters standing in the woods of Long Island at the water’s edge, watching nuclear bombs exploding over New York City. Bombs launched by the US military on the American people. The second and more arcane thing is we watch a young girl in the safe room of an abandoned mansion watching the last episode of ‘Friends’ on DVD. Took me quite a little while to puzzle that one through, but I think I got it.
“And Jesus said unto him, Friend, wherefore art thou come? Then came they, and laid hands on Jesus, and took him.” Matthew 26:50 (KJB)
In the movie, produced and co-written by former 2-term president of the United States, (and current president from the basement) Barack Hussein Obama, we are watching civil war conducted by the American government against its citizens, you and me. The movie leaves us with the little girl watching the last episode of ‘Friends’ to tell you that the bombs were dropped by our ‘friends’ in the government we elected to keep us safe. Civil War III. This is predictive programming at its razor-sharp best, and yes, the joke is on you. Ba-boom!
Consider this. The first civil war ever fought in America happened in 1776, what we call the Revolutionary War. Yes, Americans fought against the British, but those British were our blood brothers and sisters. It was the Loyalists against the Patriots from the same families who were divided, America was an English colony. Benjamin Franklin worked for the American Patriots, his son William, a Loyalist for the Crown, fought and killed Americans. How crazy is that? America’s second Civil War happened in 1861 between the North and the South. Ever notice how God does things in three’s? I have, and you can bet your bottom dollar the third American Civil War is not only ‘on deck’, but walking to the stage as you read this.
A nuclear strike on the Pentagon is just the beginning of a scenario the finality of which will be the end of civilization as we know it.
FROM THE DAILY MAIL UK: This story, of what the moments after a nuclear missile launch could look like, is based on facts sourced from exclusive interviews with presidential advisers, cabinet members, nuclear weapons engineers, scientists, soldiers, airmen, special operators, Secret Service, emergency management experts, intelligence analysts, civil servants and others who have worked on these macabre scenarios over decades.
As the plans for General Nuclear War are among the most classified secrets held by the US government, the scenario postulated here takes the reader up to the razor’s edge of what can legally be known. Declassified documents, obfuscated for decades, fill in the details with terrifying clarity.
Because the Pentagon is a top target for a strike by America’s nuclear-armed enemies, in the scenario that follows, Washington DC gets hit first with a one megaton thermo-nuclear bomb. ‘A “Bolt out of the Blue” attack against DC is what everyone in DC fears most,’ says Andrew Weber, former assistant secretary of defence for nuclear, chemical and biological defence programmes. ‘Bolt out of the Blue’ is how US Nuclear Command and Control refers to an ‘unwarned large [nuclear] attack’.
This strike on DC initiates the beginning of an Armageddon-like nuclear war that will almost certainly follow. ‘There is no such thing as a small nuclear war,’ is an oft repeated phrase in Washington.
This is the reality of the world in which we live. The nuclear war scenario proposed in this book could happen tomorrow. Or later today. ‘The world could end in the next couple of hours,’ warns General Robert Kehler, the former commander of the United States Strategic Command. A one megaton thermonuclear weapon detonation begins with a flash of light and heat so tremendous it is impossible for the human mind to comprehend.
One hundred and eighty million degrees Fahrenheit is four or five times hotter than the temperature at the centre the Sun.
In the first fraction of a milli-second after the bomb strikes the Pentagon outside Washington DC, there is light. Soft X-ray light with a very short wavelength. The light superheats the surrounding air to millions of degrees, creating a massive fireball that expands at millions of miles per hour.
Within a few seconds the fireball has increased to a diameter of a little more than a mile, its heat so intense that concrete explodes, metal melts or evaporates, stone shatters and people instantaneously convert into combusting carbon. The five-story, five-sided structure of the Pentagon, and everything inside its 6.5 million sq ft of office space, explodes into superheated dust, all the walls shattering with the near-simultaneous arrival of a shockwave. All 27,000 employees perish instantly. Not a single thing in the fireball remains. Nothing. Ground zero is zeroed. READ MORE
Now The End Begins is your front line defense against the rising tide of darkness in the last Days before the Rapture of the Church
- HOW TO DONATE: Click here to view our WayGiver Funding page
When you contribute to this fundraising effort, you are helping us to do what the Lord called us to do. The money you send in goes primarily to the overall daily operations of this site. When people ask for Bibles, we send them out at no charge. When people write in and say how much they would like gospel tracts but cannot afford them, we send them a box at no cost to them for either the tracts or the shipping, no matter where they are in the world. We have a Gospel Billboard program. We are now broadcasting Bible studies, Podcasts and a Sunday Service 5 times a week, thanks to your generous donations. All this is possible because YOU pray for us, YOU support us, and YOU give so we can continue growing.
But whatever you do, don’t do nothing. Time is short and we need your help right now. The Lord has given us an open door with a tremendous ‘course’ for us to fulfill that will create an excellent experience at the Judgement Seat of Christ. Please pray for our efforts, and if the Lord leads you to donate, be as generous as possible. The war is REAL, the battle HOT and the time is SHORT…TO THE FIGHT!!!
“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJB)
“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB
Earthquakes
A Very Rare Earthquake Rocked New Jersey And The Tri-State Area Right Before We Started Today’s Podcast About The Crazy End Times We Live In
A rare earthquake rocked the New Jersey and New York City area Friday morning, swaying buildings and sending terrified residents into the streets, the strongest temblor to hit the Big Apple in 130 years.
If you are still counting along with us, today is Day 1,481 of 15 Days To Flatten The Curve, and each day brings a new appreciation of the end times we live in. As I was preparing today’s Podcast on the possible coming Bird Flu pandemic, news came of a very rare and powerful earthquake rocked New Jersey, and it was felt in New York City and all the boroughs as well. My good friend and brother in the Lord, Pastor Dave, texted me while we were on-air and said this “I’ve never felt anything like that before went on for a good 20 seconds here at work the whole building shook, sounded like a explosion or freight train coming through. Crazy!” I can’t think of a better way to describe it than that. Crazy.
“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.” 2 Timothy 3:1 (KJB)
Christian, are you still on the sidelines after all this time, what are you waiting for? As the never-ending torrent of bad news continues to assault people’s minds and spirit on a daily basis, we who are saved have been charged with being a witness of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Why don’t you purchase a dozen copies of the excellent witnessing tool “What Must I Do To Be Saved?” by end times author Dr. Bill Grady, and hand them out where you live. You have been called to the fight, so let’s get to it!
Magnitude-4.8 earthquake rocks New Jersey, NYC, tri-state area
FROM THE NY POST: City officials quickly warned people of the danger of potential aftershocks — which already began in the early afternoon in New Jersey, a report said. The preliminary 4.8-magnitude earthquake struck near Lebanon, NJ, around 10:23 a.m., the first time a major tremor hit the area since 2011, according to the US Geological Survey.
“I was doing my morning reporting, and this safe in my office, that’s a ton, starts shaking. The whole room is shaking,” said Monique Horton, who works at the Balmain store on Madison Avenue in Manhattan. “I was just freaked out. Scary, really scary. I’m a New Yorker, my whole life, 36 years, never seen anything like it.”
At the United Nations in Midtown Manhattan, a Security Council address on the Israel-Gaza conflict was interrupted as cameras began shuddering.
The Federal Aviation Administration told airlines to expect flight delays in and out of the Big Apple because of the quake. Some flights bound for New York had already diverted to other airports, according to FlightAware.
US Geological Survey figures indicate the quake might have been felt by a staggering 42 million people.
“This is one of the largest earthquakes on the East Coast in the last century,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said.
The last time an earthquake with a magnitude close to, or above, 5 struck near New York City was back in 1884, the USGS said. That quake appeared to have been centered in Brooklyn. READ MORE
Earthquake rattles New Jersey, New York City and surrounding areas
Now The End Begins is your front line defense against the rising tide of darkness in the last Days before the Rapture of the Church
- HOW TO DONATE: Click here to view our WayGiver Funding page
When you contribute to this fundraising effort, you are helping us to do what the Lord called us to do. The money you send in goes primarily to the overall daily operations of this site. When people ask for Bibles, we send them out at no charge. When people write in and say how much they would like gospel tracts but cannot afford them, we send them a box at no cost to them for either the tracts or the shipping, no matter where they are in the world. We have a Gospel Billboard program. We are now broadcasting Bible studies, Podcasts and a Sunday Service 5 times a week, thanks to your generous donations. All this is possible because YOU pray for us, YOU support us, and YOU give so we can continue growing.
But whatever you do, don’t do nothing. Time is short and we need your help right now. The Lord has given us an open door with a tremendous ‘course’ for us to fulfill that will create an excellent experience at the Judgement Seat of Christ. Please pray for our efforts, and if the Lord leads you to donate, be as generous as possible. The war is REAL, the battle HOT and the time is SHORT…TO THE FIGHT!!!
“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJB)
“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB
THE BIG STORY
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END TIMES
CHRISLAM
FALSE TEACHERS
THE METAVERSE
REAL UFOS
ISRAEL
THE MOTB
CATHOLIC CHURCH
FAKE NEWS
ABORTION
THE THIRD TEMPLE
BILL GATES
GEORGE SOROS
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