How many of you like using a laser pointer to play with your cat? Show of hands.

You can get up to all kinds of mischief with those things. Whether it’s messing with a guest speaker at orientation or confusing passing pedestrians we can all agree its just good clean adolescent fun . . . or a felony.

According to the FBI “lasering” or shining high powered lasers at a plane’s cockpit has become a disturbingly popular pastime. Though there have been no casualties as of yet, lasering can temporarily blind pilots and cause permanent damage.

The problem is, that tiny dot that makes your cat go nuts expands to a circle six feet in diameter at a distance of a mile. This swath fills the cabin with highly focused green light, leaving the crew disoriented.

Incidents of lasering have jumped from 1,484 in 2009 to 2,836 the following year. So the FBI would like everyone to know, if you’re outside with a laser and nothing to do don’t shine it at an airplane cause it could cost you up to $250,000 and no more than 20 years in prison.

Ever wish you could get paid for doing what you’re supposed to do?

Enter the Speed Camera Lottery, where you could hit the jackpot for driving safely.

The Speed Camera Lottery is a winner of The Fun Theory, an initiative by Volkswagen that suggests people will do good things if it’s fun.

What do you think? Is it a valid theory or just a clever marketing ploy?

P.S. We also recommend checking out Piano Staircase, another winner of The Fun Theory. Do you have any fun theories of your own?

John 5:1-18 (NIV)

¹ Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. ² Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. ³ Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed—and they waited for the moving of the waters. From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease they had.  ⁵ One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

⁷ “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

⁸ Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” ⁹ At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, ¹⁰ and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”

¹¹ But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”

¹² So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”

¹³ The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

¹⁴ Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” ¹⁵ The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.

¹⁶ So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. ¹⁷ In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” ¹⁸ For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

Reflection:

Why couldn’t Jesus have come just a day earlier or a day later?  Why did He have to heal the crippled man on the Sabbath and get the Pharisees all upset?  While the Pharisees tried hard to maintain their sense of order and righteousness through their rules and regulations, it seemed as if Jesus was intentionally rocking their “boat” trying to pick a fight.  We too, like the Pharisees, want a sense of order over our surrounding circumstances.  We feel threatened when our world gets “rocked,” we regulate our needs, and we maintain control by creating our own rules to avoid problems, embarrassment or even inconvenience.  But, Jesus is not like that.  Because Jesus knows our deeper need for salvation and healing, He breaks down all the barriers for our sake.  He sees us as more important than rules or regulations.  He works and heals undeterred by time, convenience or opposition, in order to give us the true, everlasting rest that comes only from Him.  God is at work all the time.

Response:

Even with our pharisaic tendencies to create and control our own order, how wonderful it is to know that Jesus knows our real need and is always at work for us.  How truly amazing it is to believe that He loves to heal us, restore us and give us rest.  Let’s take a moment to search our hearts and confess our sinful tendencies to the Lord.  May we surrender our hearts to the Lord and welcome the Holy Spirit to heal and restore our hearts.

How to Raise Capital in Maryland

Art Jacoby
Managing Partner, Maryland Cyber Investment Partners

4:00pm Tuesday 27 September 2011

Courtyard Meeting Room
Maryland Clean Energy TechnologyIncubator (CETI)
UMBC Sounth Campus

Capital is the fuel your business needs to drive growth but raising it will be one of the most daunting challenges you will face as a CEO with a promising venture. Since not all capital is created equal so it’s essential to learn what types of capital you need, the right sources to get it from and how to work out a reasonable agreement so that you can succeed. Learn the best practices and whatnot to say so that the check will be “on the table".

• The right type of Capital
• The right source of Capital
• Creating the Capital Raise Plan
• Reasonable Expectations
• Selling it!
• Deal Killers
• … and much more!

Art Jacoby is a Managing Partner of Maryland Cyber Investment Partners which provides business guidance, business connections and growth capital to Cyber Security companies. Art is a well-known Maryland business advisor and investor who has mentored and motivated many small IT business entrepreneurs across the region. He serves on the Board of the Technology Council of Maryland and is active in the Chesapeake Regional Technology Council. Art has advised Maryland DBED on cyber security investment and strategic issues and also is on the Board of Maryland’s IT Political Action Committee. His early career at Dayton Hudson, Carlson Companies and Tonka Toys engaged in Corporate M&A, financial and strategic planning gave him a deep understanding of how great businesses operate. He has spent most of his career helping small IT entrepreneurs develop and execute practical, affordable strategies and tactics to achieve sustainable competitive advantage and earnings growth. Art and MCIP are here to serve Maryland’s IT entrepreneurs.

Sponsors: Whiteford Taylor Preston and Baltimore County

Please RSVP to Dr. Bjorn Frogner, Sorry, you need javascript to view this email address.