7 Useful Financial Management Capabilities

In these crazy economic times, all of us are thinking more about what we spend and how. Here is a great site with some great tools to use that will help. Click ont he image for another.

Manage Your Money

Monday Money

The 7 Most Useful Online Applications for Managing your Money

Today is Monday and the business of the week commences. I am afraid Wall Street's wild gyrations will never calm down in spite of the economic packages being used world wide. There's just a lot of foolishness out there right now and a fortunate few are cashing in on all of it. Nevertheless, the rest of us have some money and we need to manage as best we can. Here is a site to help with that. Enjoy!

http://blog.lendingclub.com/2008/10/07/the-7-most-useful-and-free-online-apps-for-managing-your-money/

Money Myths

With all the worries about the economy right now, people are more concerned than ever about their money and what is going to happen. First, let me remind all of us that money is just so much trash and we can't take it with us when we go. As long as we don't forget that, then we can maintain the proper perspective. Second, that being said, this world runs on money and we need it to live and to spread the Gospel. So it behooves us as Christians to be careful and wise with the blessings God gives us. We don't want to be throwing money away. With that in mind, check out this article for a different perspective on some top money myths. Have a great day!

http://www.torontobankruptcytrustee.com/top-10-money-myths.html

I found this article at ICR.org It's worth reading and it falls in line with my interest in green technology and sustainable alternative fuels. While I am not sure that biotech is the best way to go, it is definitely something to be further pursued. Enjoy and visit ICR for more great articles.

The Finest Food, Feed, Fiber, and Fuel for the Future: Plant Biotechnology

by Brian Thomas, M.S.*

According to the Dominion Mandate issued to Adam and Eve in the Garden¹ and repeated to Noah² about 1,657 years later, we are to be good stewards of the earth. One aspect of stewardship is the proper management of earth’s organisms. The first recorded instance of genetic modification is in Genesis 30, where Jacob’s sheep husbandry is described. We still use artificial selection in a similar fashion today, but more precise techniques are also now used.

Is biotechnology biblical? Read on.

In artificial selection (and natural selection, for that matter), whole organisms are selected for a particular trait. A deficiency of this procedure is that the selected individual often retains undesirable traits. A subcategory of genetic modification (GM, or GMO for “genetically modified organism”) is genetic engineering, or biotechnology. Typically, however, “GM” is most often used to refer to organisms that are actually genetically engineered. Instead of selecting whole organisms, this method involves the transfer of discrete genes from one organism to another, such that the recipient organism benefits from its new gene product. In this manner, for example, natural pesticides can be manufactured by GM corn, eliminating the need for artificial pesticide spraying.

Reporting in the May issue of BioScience, Lorena Miller and Kan Wang summarize genetic engineering. They report that “the biotech generation of crops has resulted in a 15.3% net reduction in environmental impact on GE [genetically engineered] crop farming land since 1996, owing in great measure to significant reductions in the application of herbicides and insecticides worldwide.”³ It seems that the resistance capabilities already found in different plants are being harnessed and directed for use in agriculture, to the benefit of mankind and our environment. Now, that is good stewardship of the earth.

The report further describes that “genetic engineering has provided the world with successfully commercialized insect-resistant and herbicide-tolerant crops, benefiting corn, soybean, and cotton growers around the globe.”³ Though these new technologies are often resisted, there are very few practical detractors to biotech products as they are currently manifested. Many have speculated on the potential ills of widespread use of GMOs, and nobody can be sure that all biotech applications will turn out rosy. So far, though, it has been successful.

However, like nuclear technology could be used either for nuclear power or nuclear war, biotechnology has both good and evil potential. That potential is not inherent in the technology, but in the intent of the people using it. In this, as in our other technological endeavors, we must be good stewards.

References

1. Genesis 1:28.
2. Genesis 9.
3. Moeller, L. and Ken Wang. 2008. Engineering with Precision: Tools for the New Generation of Transgenic Crops. BioScience. 58 (5): 391.

* Mr. Thomas is Science Writer.