CO2

Carbon dioxide gets only bad press these days, but there's a more benign story to be told. Actually, carbon dioxide is essential to life.

Balance out the story of CO2 in this quick 4-minute overview of the beneficent side of carbon dioxide:

Model Ryan

Professional football players make millions of dollars. Many then go bankrupt after their pro athlete days are done. But Ryan Broyles, receiver for the Detroit Lions, is an exception to the rule.

Making over a million per year, "he still owns the 2005 Trailblazer he drove in college."  Ryan and his wife reportedly live on about $60,000 per year - and put the rest of his earnings into investments and savings.

"Broyles wanted to make sure his NFL career, however long it lasts, really did set him up for life." Because . . he knows his pro football days will not last forever.

New school

Since IS started taking territory a little over a year ago, about 2.5 million people have been driven from their homes. They're now called "IDP's", internally displaced persons, with about a quarter of this number being children age 6-17.

photo: servantgroup.org

At Kahnke IDP camp in Iraq, the opening of a school is a rare piece of good news for refugees whose future is just unknown. Iraqi Christian pastor Yousif Matty spoke at the opening of the Shivani Medes School.

“The soldiers fight with guns, but you are fighting with pens and with your mind,” Matty told those gathered for the dedication. In a world of sectarian and religiously driven violence his ministry crosses those lines: There he stood, a Christian Arab addressing Yazidis, Kurds, Muslim officials, and a few Americans . ." at the dedication.

IS taking more

When Islamic State conquered the ancient city of Mosul, Iraq, their videos trumpeted destruction of important works of art. Now they have conquered the city of Palmyra, Syria, and again they destroy. This time it's an ancient temple that's blown up.

They control over half of Syria's territory, and now have also taken the city of Ramadi, Iraq, which has surprised American advisors.

They have so much money that they're planning to buy a nuclear bomb. Pres. Obama promises to send ground troops if that happens.

NYC #2

(cont'd)

While in New York we went to a Broadway musical. It was the first for both of us and we loved it. "Amazing Grace" is the story of John Newton who progressed from callous slave trader of the 1700's  . .  to repentance . .  to Christian priest working to end the slave trade in England.

The musical opened last October in Chicago. Now it's on Broadway and I'm glad it's done very well. 

Next time you hear the hymn, picture Newton's mindset as he wrote it because now you know the choices he made.

NYC #1

Here's the trip report I promised:

In the category of glad-I-did-this, we stayed at a B&B in Harlem. The photo isn't our street, but it looks a lot like it.

Here's what we saw in New York City:

• neighborhood - people quietly sitting on their steps and hanging out with their neighbors, and we joined them at Lulu's Taquilleria, Maison Harlem, and Hungarian Pastry Shop
• racial diversity - black, Hispanic, white, Asian, Indian, anything
• energy - my niece, energy on wheels, loved it and contributed to it
• bad behavior - verbal abuse in the subway so threatening that the police came down
• food fight - angry adults at a food cart on the street, my niece called 911
• language diversity - I could only identify French, Spanish, Chinese
• subways - we went all over Manhattan in them
• food - markets and restaurants just everywhere!

In short, those New York cliches came to life - including the electric feeling after dark in Times Square.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Come back

We got back from New York last night, and I'll be posting next Monday and Tuesday about the experience.

Come back on Monday when normal-ness resumes!

Break

The third annual August break is coming up next week, so no new blog posts will appear here until Monday, August 24.

This year I'll be in New York City with my niece for sightseeing, museums, theater, exploring neighborhoods and restaurants.

As a camping/outdoor/forest/farm/garden lover, this is not my typical vacation - but it will be good, and I'll share something about it when we get back.

IS hackers

Islamic State (IS) has a "hacking division" that has become more serious  and threatening. U.S. military and embassy staff have been warned to take precautions with social media, where they or their families might reveal too much information.

That "hacking division" has announced that they have a hit list of U.S. personnel and intend some kind of attack using the personal information they've found.

from CBSNews

Slavery

(cont'd)

What happens to those victims kidnapped by IS (Islamic State)? They wind up as slaves. A United Nations official got hold of an IS pamphlet that listed prices for the women and children they had captured.

Who buys them? IS fighters and wealthy Middle Easterners. Young children fetch the highest prices.

Defeated communities are enslaved by IS as long as they are not Sunni Muslim: Yazidis and Christians would be examples subject to slavery.

from Bloomberg

Postscript: An article appeared today (Aug. 13) in NYTimes confirming that sex slavery is now formally part of the Islamic State organization. Rules and procedures are codified and Yazidis appear to be targeted.

Taken

IS (Islamic State) is still in the business of kidnapping, assault, etc. This time it's in Syria. They took about 250 Christians from 11 families when IS conquered the city of Palmyra, opposed by Syrian Pres. al-Assad's forces.

www.britannica.com

Hundreds of both Christians and Muslims are missing. Some of the Christians taken were names on a "most wanted" list.

(cont'd tomorrow)

CA coping

California's drought is in its fourth year and it's a big problem. Farmers are restricted in how much surface water they can use, but they are free to drill water from underground. A cotton farmer has drilled five wells, each the vertical length of two Empire State Buildings.

Agriculture is being hit hard, so there's lots of tapping those water aquifers underground. But, big as they are, they are shrinking and people are plenty concerned and looking for solutions.

One is to cut back on less profitable crops like cotton and corn, and switch to tomatoes, vineyards, orchards, which give a higher return for their investment of resources.

Another is to figure out some way to easily trade or sell water rights, so that water can "flow"to places of greatest need. It involves water basins, streams and rivers, irrigation districts, and very old laws dating back to the nineteenth century gold rush.

In short, it's complicated.

from Bloomberg

Car ins drop

"Driverless cars" apparently are on the way to becoming real. Insurance companies are thinking about how the lack of a human driver is going to affect the way they do business.

Google's Sebastian Thrun has a personal motivation to develop the concept. At 18, he lost his friend to a car accident and his goal is to develop a self-driving car in order to save lives.

"Sensors, cameras, and computers can react to all kinds of driving situations." Google has already done testing on more than a million miles of roads.

The insurance companies are taking this seriously. They anticipate a future in which driverless cars make car travel much more safe, resulting in lower premiums.

"Premiums consumers pay could drop as much as 60 percent in 15 years as self-driving cars hit the roads."

Sean Little

Like Tony Evans (yesterday's post), Sean Little felt his personal identity being rebuilt by God after circumstances had wounded him.

Both Tony and Sean sensed that their old identity - built on what other people thought of them - was inadequate. Sean describes his old identity in urban hip hop culture as cold, hard, self-consumed. Let him explain what happened:

Tony Evans

Tony experienced racism in Baltimore. He has a unique response to the contempt he felt coming from other people - based on his Christian faith. Here's a little bit of his personal story of overcoming:

Only electric

Are electric cars going to replace traditional cars some day? A bureaucrat in California is doing everything she can to make sure that happens ASAP in her state. Mary Nichols "is pushing regula­tions today that could by midcentury all but banish the internal combustion engine from California’s famous highways."

"California’s goals for the adoption of elec­tric vehicle technology are the most strin­gent in the nation, but Nichols thinks they need to be even tougher . . [she] wants 100 percent of the new vehicles sold to be zero- or almost-zero-emissions by 2030."

The guy running Fiat Chrysler hopes no one in California buys his electric Fiat (which he sells in CA only because state law requires it) - since every sale costs his company $14,000.

You already know, or can guess, what car company likes the CA policy. Yup, Tesla.

Non-tech

Something is happening in the tech business world that may or may not surprise you (according to this article). The massive wave of technology companies over recent decades triggered a great need for technically trained people, but there's also a complementary need now for non-tech people.

Those Silicon Valley companies need educators, account reps, people who can "connect with end users and figure out what they want." 

"The more that audacious coders dream of changing the world, the more they need to fill their companies with social alchemists who can connect with customers–and make progress seem pleasant."