Desert to green

Here's a take on "climate change" that I've never heard before.  Scientist Allan Savory says that the biggest problem relating to climate change is desert-ification:  about two-thirds of the globe is becoming desert.  He has a solution that does not focus on replacing fossil fuels.

He's been using his theory on land that's become dry and unproductive and shows pictures of the land renewed and re-greened.  His solution involving animals actually turns things around.

Arrested again

Meriam Ibrahim (see yesterday's post) was freed when the court overturned her sentence of death.  But she was again arrested and the charge has been changed to having improper travel documents.  One wonders whether the government of Sudan was simply determined to punish her and had to go at the goal from another direction after the appeal succeeded in freeing her.

photo: theguardian.co.uk

Persecution is a very old story.  Here is an article that compares Meriam's terrifying situation with that of two young African Christian mothers martyred in the third century.

Please pray for Meriam and her family.

Update :  Her brother was behind the the government's claims against her.  But "international outrage" has helped Meriam's plight.  She, her American husband and her children have all taken refuge at the U.S. embassy in Khartoum - hopefully in safety at last.

Not out yet

Meriam Ibrahim of Sudan was sentenced to death ("Apostasy punishment", June 13) because she would not renounce Christianity.  Then an appeals court overturned that sentence.  The family reunited and was at the airport leaving for America when . . she was detained by the government again.

Online MOOC's

Before Udacity there was Khan Academy, started 2006 when Salman Khan posted videos of himself tutoring some of his relatives.  It incorporated as a non-profit in 2008 and received big grants from Google and the Gates Foundation in 2010.

Khan's vision is free education for all the world through massive online open courses (MOOC's), a leveling force for opportunity.  Courses are free, and for a sense of achievement (probably important) there are "badges" to earn.  Parents, coaches and teachers can track, measure and verify those achievements.

Watch this TED Talk in which Khan explains that, "If Isaac Newton had done youtube videos on calculus, I wouldn't have to!"  Bill Gates has some comments at the end, and calls it "the future of education."

Online courses

With all the potential, with all the hopeful vision, online courses had serious setbacks.  

Sebastian Thrun, tenured professor at Stanford, offered his artificial intelligence course online in 2011  -  and 160,000 students signed up.  It was a paradigm shift for Thrun.  Inspired, he started Udacity to provide online courses. 

photo: businessweek.com

Fortunately, Thrun understands that new concepts always need tweaking.  

So Udacity has been working with big employers like AT&T in science/technology fields to tweak the model, and they are now introducing something they call "nanodegrees."  It seems that online courses work especially well in a job context to increase skill.  The companies work with Udacity to teach and, importantly, to set up evaluation and confer qualification in certain areas.

Creativity, passion, persistence, Thrun needs them all in this challenging new market.  So what does he look for in people to help him turn his vision into reality? "I look for people who are enthusiastic and humble."  Don't we all.

Online learning

The big advantage of online education for society and for individuals is improved accessibility.  More people can learn, more people can improve their skills.

photo: openculture.com

Individuals can grow their abilities without a heavy investment of money and time. Obviously, with increased abilities comes increased potential to improve their lives.

The more people increase their abilities, the more that business and society reap the benefits of a more capable, better educated populace.  I saw a teacher ranting about how wrong online education is, but I see enormous advantages.

Is education on the way to becoming free?  That could be very exciting.

Tomorrow, the early leaders.

Schools & faith

Schools vs. Faith - there's lots of stories about conflict.  But that doesn't have to be the whole story.

Your church can have a positive relationship with your local government schools.  John Stonestreet suggests several ways your church can build that friendship here.  Let them get to know you.

Why be happy?

Is it selfish to want to be happy?  Dennis Prager in this video says No, it's not selfish.  On the contrary, "our happiness affects others profoundly."  So therefore - we have a moral obligation to be and behave as happy as we can.  He makes an excellent case!

Iraqi refugees

"Estimates are that a half million residents fled Mosul in under 24 hours starting June 10, as Iraqi army units refused to protect residents against the advancing ISIS contingents . . 

"One family that made it to Erbil, the capital of Kurdistan, said it took them 13 hours to complete what’s normally a one-hour drive. They left Mosul with their children after RPG fire hit two adjacent houses, setting them on fire. “We left the food and ran,” the wife and mother told World Watch Monitor. “We didn’t even stop for our shoes, we fled in our sandals! We just made sure to take our IDs and important papers. The children were very scared.”

"Muslims and Christians fled together, but it will be harder for Christians to go back. Upon entering Mosul ISIS fighters declared that all women must be veiled and preferably not leave their homes. Hairdressers and any liquor stores were closed. Christian graves and ancient Assyrian artifacts (many dating from the first century) are to be destroyed, they announced. And as they have imposed in areas captured in Syria, Christians must pay a special tax if they will not convert."

from World Magazine

Chaotic Iraq

Extremists have taken over Iraq's second biggest city, Mosul, as you probably well know.  But you may not have heard that Mosul is actually ancient Nineveh - yes, the city in the Bible to which God sent the prophet Jonah.

It's chaotic.  When the police give up, and the army runs, what will the people do?  They flee the city in huge numbers, 150,000 on June 10.

"A representative for U.S.-based watchdog Open Doors in Iraq reported that 200 families found shelter at Mar Matti, [a] fourth-century hillside monastery . . Surrounding Mosul is Nineveh Plains, an area of scattered Christian villages, and several schools there became sanctuaries for the fleeing Christian families."

The  BBC reports here on a "transit camp" set up for refugees.

Who is this extremist group bringing suffering to the Iraqis?  Here's a 60-second description of "ISIS"  :

Vicar of Baghdad

Remember the "wacky evangelical believing Anglican priest" in Baghdad (May 21 & 22 posts)?  Iraq and its people are in greater distress and danger than ever.  

photo:  yorkpress.co.uk

The vicar blogs about conditions here:  "Things are so bad now in Iraq, the worst they have ever been . . The army have even fled.

"ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria Group), a group that does not even see Al Qaida as extreme enough, has moved into Mosul, which is Nineveh. It has totally taken control, destroyed all government departments. Allowed all prisoners out of the prisons. Killed countless numbers of people. There are bodies over the streets 

"The area is the heartland of the Christian community . . the Christian centre of Iraq has been totally ransacked. The tanks are moving into the Christian villages destroying them . . "

Apostasy punishment

Sudan is a majority-Muslim country in Africa where you can be killed for an offense against Islam.  That's the situation of Meriam Ibrahim.

"When she refused to renounce her Christian faith, the judges sentenced Meriam to death by hanging. Meriam has also been sentenced to 100 lashes for being married to a Christian man."

"The fact that a woman has been sentenced to death for her religious choice, and to flogging for being married to a man of an allegedly different religion is appalling and abhorrent," Manar Idriss, Amnesty International's Sudan researcher, said in a statement."

She has a 20-month-old son with her, and she just gave birth in prison to a baby girl.  Her husband is in England working to save her life.  He's not allowed to take care of his little son because Sudan considers the child Muslim.

If you are Christian, will you pray for Mariam and her family?

Nuclear reliable

Another scholar (see May 8 and May 9 posts) wants states to recognize that nuclear power has many advantages the world needs, and he warns against going the way of Germany (they are phasing out nuclear plants since the Fukushima earthquake).

Thirty states have mandated that renewable (primarily solar and wind) make up some percentage of energy produced (nuclear has not been placed in this category).  But wind and solar have a "fatal flaw - intermittency", because they depend on the weather.  There is no battery technology to adequately store energy when the wind stops or the sun doesn't shine, in other words, to cover the gaps.

"The Energy Information Administration forecasts a 28% increase in U.S. power demand through 2040. Those who claim that solar and wind can meet all of our electricity needs by then are engaged in fantasy . . 

"Nuclear power is our zero-emission energy workhorse"

"Transatomic"

Leslie and Mark had just gotten their PHD's in nuclear engineering from MIT in 2010.  They figured that they would fix nuclear energy for their next project.  You know what the problems are:  meltdown and radioactive waste scare people.

photo: xcelenergy.com

A 1950's technique using spent fuel seemed promising, so they are working on that under the name Transatomic Power and have attracted some funding despite the wait time.  They won't be able to actually build reactors - assuming they get the technology right - for years, hence investors will have to wait quite a while for a return on their investment.

Bill Gates has invested millions in just this kind of thing with a different company working on the same idea.  With so much of the world wanting to lower carbon emissions, there's potential in clean nuclear energy that doesn't scare people.

Defector danger

". . North Koreans know little to nothing about the world we live in. Most are unaware that there is an alternative to repressive tyranny. We are helping to change that," says Human Rights Foundation president Thor Halversson.  The HRF partnered with defector Park Sang Hak's balloon effort (yesterday's post).

As he lives his life in Seoul, South Korea, Park has security guards.  He needs them because "he receives regular death threats . ."

A trap was set for him three years ago:  "a fellow defector called, offering to broker a meeting with a supporter who could provide funding for launches. The South Korean National Intelligence Service told him it was a trap and ended up capturing four men at the rendezvous point, a subway station in Seoul. One of them, a defector known only as Ahn, had served in the North Korean special forces and was carrying an arsenal of assassination gadgets, including a miniature flashlight that fired bullets, a pen that shot steel darts, and another containing a needle that delivered a lethal toxin.

"Ahn later admitted to having been paid $12,000 by the North Koreans to murder Park. They had threatened to harm his family if he didn’t go through with it."

Defector passion

To be on North Korea's hit list would be pretty intimidating.  Park Sang Hak, defector since 1999, is number one on that list.

He uses a no-tech  method to undermine the government.   Balloons, of all things, are launched from across the border in South Korea. They're loaded with leaflets "light as tissue paper but waterproof" which inform people of North Korea about the freer life that exists outside of their country.

photo:  humanrightsfoundation.org

Park says, "North Korea is surrounded by an iron curtain, so information can't get in . . But this way, using the sky, it can't be stopped."  

Those balloons are "double-walled greenhouse plastic", "very cheap and very sturdy," says Park, "I should get a patent."  Their messages include leaflets insulting "Dear Leader" Kim Jong Il, whom he hopes will some day be overthrown by the people.

In 2008, the death threats started.  

Sleepy church

Christianity is certainly declining in Britain, as the bishop said in yesterday's post, and there's multiple reasons.

Immigration since World War II has brought in large numbers of other religions, notably Islam, so that's one factor.

Author Rodney Stark has another theory that he's mentioned in a couple of his books.  He thinks that a state-supported church (such as the Church of England) is a problem, just as it was in France and Spain a few hundred years ago.

His argument is that the clergy are un-ambitious or sleepy when they have a monopoly.  In a religious free market like America's, churches have always had to "work" for their membership.

Twilight Church

A Catholic bishop from England says that:  

"[B]efore the end of this decade Christianity – once the faith of the great majority of British people – will become the faith of a significant minority. If most English people no longer identify themselves as Christians it will surely be one of the most momentous changes in our history since missionaries sent by Pope Gregory arrived on the coast of Kent in the year 597 AD."

He thinks that's not all bad, because it will tend to have a purifying effect on the church.  Sure.  But , as Rod Dreher says:

"I see what he’s getting at, but [it's] like finding something positive to say about the firebombing of Dresden because it hastened urban renewal."

Great graphene

Researchers have been working on graphene for years - because they have great expectations for it.

"Researchers claim that their discovery could unlock the next era of consumer electronic technology"

"[E]xceptional properties  . .   It is super conductive, absorbs all aspects of the light spectrum and it’s tougher than diamond yet remains remarkably stretchable."

"Its flexibility means that it could potentially be used for flexible or wearable devices."

Graphene was originally created in the U.K. by scientists who received the Nobel prize for it.

Graphene

Samsung has 210 patents applied for in which graphene plays a part.  They are determined to find ways to bring this exciting new technology to market.

Graphene is "composed of a single layer of carbon atoms tightly bonded," really thin and transparent, which will be perfect for the touch screen of future handheld electronics.

photo:  telegraph.co.uk

"[T]he world’s biggest electronics makers are turning to researchers such as Hong Byung Hee, a professor at Seoul National University, who’s developed a patent for mass-producing graphene-based displays . . "

Addiction psychiatry

Dr. Christian Thurstone does research on addiction & adolescent psychiatry in Colorado.  Go to his website for data on marijuana use: 

"Simply put, this website offers information about child mental health — particularly as it relates to substance use, abuse and addiction.

"We’re big believers in evidence-based medicine that has practical, real-world applications — meaning science that has been subjected to the rigorous review of reputable scholars and can be used at home and throughout a community.

"That doesn’t mean we have all the answers — but it does mean the information you find here is trustworthy enough to guide your search for them responsibly."