Connect with us

End Times

With Their New Nest Hub Max, Google Is Able To Conduct 24-Hour Per Day Audio And Video Surveillance Of Everything You Say And Do In Your Own Home

1984: The $230 Google Nest Hub Max offers a glimpse of how this controversial tech will be used in our homes to keep us in a state of constant surveillance.

Published

on

With the new Nest Hub Max, Google is adding an eye to its talking artificial intelligence. When I flash my palm at the device, a camera spots me and immediately pauses my music. Talk to the hand, robot!
SHARE NOW THE END BEGINS:

With the new Nest Hub Max, Google is adding an eye to its talking artificial intelligence. When I flash my palm at the device, a camera spots me and immediately pauses my music. Talk to the hand, robot!

The oldest Christian end times movie I can ever recall watching after I become saved back in 1991 was ‘A Thief In The Night‘, first released in 1972, the original ‘Left Behind’ movie. From there I watched a whole slew of these movies up to and including the great ‘Apocalypse‘ series from the LaLonde brothers featuring the 1999 release of  ‘Revelation‘. In that movie, there is a great scene where they show the Mark of the Beast being administered through VR, virtual reality goggles. Say hello to Google’s new Nest Hub Max.

“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.” Revelation 13:14,15 (KJV)

So here we are in 2019 and guess what? The Mark of the Beast system, while the world waits for the arrival of the Beast, is crazy popular and in right now the homes of untold hundreds of millions of people and growing by the day. Turns out, it wasn’t such a hard sell for them to do after all. In fact, the people demand it, and when the latest and greatest version is rolled out, it is eagerly snapped up. Fun fact, Christians buy just as much of this stuff as non-Christians do. So tell me again, all your post toasties, how brave you would be in the Tribulation, and how much you would stand up to Antichrist while refusing his Mark? 🤔 Yeah, good one.

Google is always listening. Now it’s watching, too, with the Nest Hub Max

FROM GULF TECH NEWS: When I walk by a Hub Max, the Google Assistant greets me on its screen, “Good afternoon, Geoffrey.” This wizardry is made possible by facial recognition. The $230 Nest Hub Max offers a glimpse of how this controversial tech might be used in our homes – if people aren’t too turned off by the privacy implications.

Living with Google’s latest creation for a few days embodied the cognitive dissonance of being a gadget guy in 2019. You can appreciate the fun and wonder of new technology that you also know brings new concerns. I kept wondering: Do any of these camera functions make it worth bringing face surveillance inside my home? Despite some applaudable privacy protections from Google, my family never got to a yes.

The Hub Max is a larger 10-inch version of Google’s popular Nest Hub countertop computer, which people (including me) use as a digital picture frame, speaker, kitchen TV and smart home controller. It’s a solid upgrade for those functions, with a sharp screen and impressive sound for such a small box.

But it’s the addition of a wide-angle camera that everyone will be talking about. When the smaller Hub debuted in 2018, Google crowed about how it didn’t include one – unlike Facebook’s poorly received Portal and Amazon’s Echo Show, which raised eyebrows with a feature that lets you “drop in” via camera any time on select friends. (Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

The Nest Hub Max takes those camera controversies and says, “hold my beer.” Rival Amazon Alexa can recognize different people’s voices, but not faces. What made Google think now was a good time to go there? It’s a sign both that Google thinks it has better privacy protections – and that consumers are, incorrectly in my estimation, more trusting of Google than of other tech giants.

What do you get out of letting Google watch you through a Hub Max?

First, the camera can be used for basic video calls. Say, “OK, Google, video call James,” and it connects via Google’s Duo chat app on a phone, laptop or another Hub Max. Like the Facebook Portal, the Hub Max’s wide-angle camera pans around to track your movements and tries to keep everyone’s faces in the frame.

But that’s just the beginning of Google’s camera story. If you opt in to the Hub Max’s “face match” features, Google asks each family member to briefly scan his or her mug. Then the Hub Max’s camera stays on, ambiently looking for those faces. When the Assistant finds one, it tailors the content on its screen. In the morning, it spotted me and proactively displayed a rundown of my day and commute – I never issued a command. You can also use it to leave reminders that pop up when the intended recipient passes by. Understanding context is one of the biggest challenges for computers, and Google’s face technology opens interesting possibilities for personalization in shared spaces.

Next, the camera powers gesture commands. While it’s looking for faces, the Hub Max is also keeping an eye out for your hands, which can serve as nonverbal, non-touchscreen commands – in other words, sign language. For now, these are limited to “play” and “pause” music by flashing a palm, but Google says it’s exploring more.

Finally, the Hub Max can serve as a security camera, letting you peek in on a stream of what’s going on at home. And like other Google Nest cameras, you can opt in to having the Hub Max send alerts when it identifies familiar faces. With this, you could always know exactly what time the kids got home . . . until they figure this out and unplug the darn thing.

Is all of that cool, or just creepy? The Hub Max reminded me, at times, of a baby HAL 9000 from “2001: A Space Odyssey.” The extra step of the Assistant knowing you’re there even when you don’t interact with it shifts the power balance in a subtle but important way.

Why should we trust Google with any of this? First, all of the camera-sensing features are optional – you can still use the Hub Max with only your voice to play music and watch TV without turning the camera on. And Google Assistant has better default settings for voice privacy than Amazon’s Alexa. Google also built some visual cues and controls for the camera. There’s a physical button you can press to cut the camera. A green light turns on whenever the security camera is live broadcasting, though not while the other camera-sensing features are running.

For the face-matching functions, which require the camera to be always looking, Google borrowed a page from the Apple playbook. All the processing to match your face happens on the device itself. Those images are deleted immediately, and Google says it does not keep a record of when it identifies faces. (This is similar to how Face ID works on an iPhone – your face never leaves the iPhone.) Google has also pledged to “keep your video footage, audio recordings, and home environment sensor readings separate from advertising.”

As a privacy guy, I’m glad Google is taking those steps. Keeping face data local makes it less likely to be stolen or misused by police, marketers or data spies – if you trust Google to maintain its data standards and security precautions.

But with Google, it’s always important to ask what the company is getting out of the deal. Your face matches may stay on the Hub Max, but any interaction with the Assistant (like tapping on the screen or issuing a voice command) gets added to your Google profile which can, by default, be used to target you with ads. The Hub Max also gets you to use more Google services, like YouTube, search and Duo, all of which also add to its valuable profile of you.

The concerns only multiply from here. Today the face features are only accessible by Google, but what happens when it begins letting other apps and services access your face? Or when the tech also detects emotion in a face?

Ultimately, the Hub Max suffers from the same affliction as many new Google products: It’s frighteningly advanced technology that hasn’t identified the problem in our lives that needs solving. None of the camera functions the Hub Max offers today make it worth bringing surveillance inside my house. Google and all the other companies pushing face tech are going to have to keep working on uses that cross the chasm from creepy to can’t-live-without-it. READ MORE

Google Nest Hub Max presentation at the Google IO

Google Nest Hub Max | Unboxing & Full Features Tour

Unboxing the Google Nest Hub Max, including setup and a full tour/review of the best features. We explore the new wide-angle camera, sound quality, Google Assistant features and every inch of this 10-inch smart home display.

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

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. Even all the way to South Africa. We even restarted our weekly radio Bible study on Sunday nights again, 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.

nteb-gospel-tracts-street-preaching-end-time-last-days-bible-prophecy-dl-moody

CLICK IMAGE TO ORDER YOUR BOX OF NTEB GOSPEL TRACTS

But whatever you do, don’t do nothing. Time is short and we need your help right now. If every one of the 13,131 people on our daily mailing list gave $4.50, we would reach our goal immediately. If every one of our 151,781 followers on Facebook gave $1.00 each, we would reach 300% of our goal. The same goes for our 14,500 followers on Twitter. But sadly, many will not give, so we need the ones who can and who will give to be generous. As generous as possible.

“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

 


 

 

Artificial Intelligence

Please Give A Hearty End Times Welcome To ‘Thermonator’, The World’s First Flamethrower-Wielding Robot Attack Dog Straight Out Of Revelation

Published

on

thermonator-flamethrow-wielding-robot-dog-robots-last-days-throwflame-black-mirror-revelation
SHARE NOW THE END BEGINS:

While it may sound like an episode of Black Mirror, Americans can now purchase a flamethrower-wielding robot dog online from Throwflame called Thermonator.

Have you ever spent a hot, summer afternoon at a water park? I have, and it’s one of my favorite things to do. There is this curious moment that takes place after you enter into the water, right before the thundering force of the jets carry you forward. In that brief, little space, you are calm and peaceful, luxuriously basking in the cool water. Then you reach the main current and woosh!! you go at what feels like a million miles per hour. This is where we are right now with the incoming tide of AI and robot technology, in that brief little moment before the avalanche sweeps us inexorably forward into only God knows what’s coming next.

“Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you.” Habakkuk 1:5 (KJB)

The opening years of the 20th century was an overwhelming outpouring of information and global travel and exploration, exactly as Daniel had foreseen in chapter 12 of his book. In America, so many new things were being invented that we felt that nothing was out of our reach, and that we were on the verge of create a thousand year reign of peace and prosperity. Many of the Christian scholars were amillennial, secure in their thinking that we were ‘bringing in the kingdom’. Then WWI hit, and the world watch as all that technology we had just invented was now being used to wage war as never seen before in entire annals of human history. Soldiers literally went insane watching the ‘benefits of modern technology’ helping them to live a ‘better and more prosperous life’. Now here in 2024 we have flamethrower-wielding robot dogs named Thermonator here to meet all our flamethrowing needs as Hell continues to enlarge itself. Check your watch, Christian, it’s later than you think.

nteb-bible-believers-christian-bookstore-saint-augustine-florida-king-james-commentaries-peter-ruckman-dispensational-truth-777

Meet the Thermonator: First ever flamethrowing robot dog that shoots jets of fire up to 30 feet hits US market

FROM THE DAILY MAIL UK: Ohio-based Throwflame opened sales for its ‘Thermonator’ Tuesday, selling its 37-pound quadruped machine for $9,420 that is legal in all US states except Maryland. A demonstration video shows a Thermonator creeping and jumping through a forest before torching its surroundings with a 30-foot jet of fire spewing from a flame thrower on its back. Throwflame, based in Cleveland, claims to be the oldest flamethrower manufacturer in the US.

The company released the first-ever full-sized, commercially available flamethrower in 2015, which shoots flames up to 50 feet. ‘This unregulated flamethrower sparked a significant media response relating to legality,’ Throwflame shared on its website. ‘However, flamethrowers remain federally unregulated. This means anyone can buy one without background checks or a waiting period.’

Thermonator appears to be designed like most quadruped robots but has one of Throwflame’s devices attached to its back. The robot dog boasts a variety of cameras and sensors, allowing it to autonomously move throughout its surroundings and find targets to set ablaze. The machine is remotely operated – the demonstration video shows a handler controlling it with a smartphone.

Social media users have weighed in on the machine, comparing it to an episode in the fourth season of Black Mirror titled ‘Metalhead.’

The episode explores what could happen if these machines turned on us, revealing the terrifying quest for survival in a world where robo-dogs can outrun and outsmart humans. X user Rob Sheepe posted: ‘Some real-life Black Mirror ‘Metalhead’ terror right here. How is this legal?’

However, Maryland is the only US state that bans flamethrowers – California requires a permit to own one. Possessing or using a flamethrower in Maryland is punishable by a $250,000 fine and up to 25 years imprisonment.  In 2015, Congress introduced a bill that would treat flamethrowers like machine guns, but was stalled and later dismissed. 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

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 SHORTTO 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

Continue Reading

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

Published

on

saudi-arabia-crown-prince-mohammed-bin-salman-scales-back-line-city-NEOM-end-times-dystopia
SHARE NOW THE END BEGINS:

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

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 SHORTTO 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

Continue Reading

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

Published

on

pentagon-releases-general-nuclear-attack-civil-war-documents-like-obama-movie-leave-the-world-behind
SHARE NOW THE END BEGINS:

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

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 SHORTTO 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

Continue Reading

Trending