Landen

To follow up on Thursday's post:  the story of Landen goes on. His parents have another message for all of us who follow it:

“Please continue to pray for complete recovery as we are still healing! We love you!”

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Thankful 4

Did you count your blessings this week? Here are a few good ones you may have missed:

1) "You get to choose your attitude." Sickness, unjust opposition, trouble, may be yours, but "none of this changes the fact that you, and you alone, have the power to choose how you will respond. This might seem like a small thing, but it is one of the greatest powers that any of us has. How you use it will determine the course of your life and the essence of your legacy."

2) "You can read, so you can learn." Since you're reading this, you know that "you can plumb the depths of history’s most inspiring personalities. From Jesus Christ, to Abraham Lincoln, to Mother Theresa, you can read about the attitudes, words, and actions that changed the course of history."

3) "The world is a fascinating place, full of goodness, truth, and beauty. . . Nature is endlessly amazing. People are inherently interesting."

Go here for more.

Thankful 3

Five-year-old Landen nearly died seven months ago. He was picked up and thrown over a railing forty feet high at Mall of America by a murderous stranger. Over the summer he had 15 medical procedures for broken bones, a stomach wound, trauma to his head.

Many have prayed for him in addition to his Christian family. He's now out of the hospital, out of intense therapy, and into kindergarten.

A family friend gives this report on the family's GoFundMe page:

“He loves being back in school and going to kindergarten at the same school his twin brother and sister go to. He gets out of the car every morning happy and blows kisses all the way in!

“He’s a strong, happy boy. When his mommy asks him if she can look at his wound or asks how he’s doing, he always responds with, ‘Mom, I’m healed, you don’t need to ask me anymore.’

“Landen loves life and Jesus! He tells people all the time when they get hurt, ‘Don’t worry, I fell off a cliff, but angels caught me and Jesus loves me. I’m OK and you will be too.’”

Thank God.

Thankful 2

One of my favorite "thankful" stories is this re-post from 2016:

Friday, May 27, 2016

Grateful

Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, surrendered to the armies of the North on April 30, 1975. A man with twelve children watched fear, secrecy and hunger become their life. One day his daughter told him she was leaving.

He begged her to take one of his younger sons. Two days later on a dark night she took her little brother and her 3-year old and became a refugee with no country and no security.

"After eight months in refugee camp, perfect strangers at a church in Knoxville, Tennessee, sponsored her to come to the Dream Land." And that's how this refugee mother with her first child and her brother came to America. She survived it all.

Her second daughter, Adrienne, feels deep gratitude for what her mom did. "From the moment I entered this world as your second baby girl, I have never wanted for anything. Heaven willing, I will never know the hunger and desperation that defined your twenties. . with all the privileges I have as a healthy young woman with a Yale degree, nothing I accomplish can compare to what you’ve done."

Adrienne sums it up this way, "I have grown up so comfortably eating the fruits of your suffering."

Thankful 1

At the age of 17, Seojun escaped North Korea by swimming a river. He had nothing but his clothes and a jacket. Exhausted and lonely, just a teenager, he looked for food and for jobs to keep himself alive.

Courage and grit kept him going til he found a safe house. Watch his story.

Bias framing

One way to influence other people's opinions is to withhold information that would counter your argument. If the picture you paint for others is framed to your advantage, they can be fooled.

Everyone does it - that is, everyone frames the argument the way they see it.

But if you are the audience, make sure you ask some questions. Is anything important being left out of the way they frame it?

Classy tweet

Ford is introducing a new electric vehicle, the Mustang Mach-E. The company tweeted: "Zero gas. Zero emissions. 100% exhilaration. Tap to be among the first to reserve the all-new, all-electric #MustangMachE."

Elon Musk responded with a congratulations message: "Congratulations on the Mach E! Sustainable/electric cars are the future!! Excited to see this announcement from Ford, as it will encourage other carmakers to go electric too."

It was the right sort of response. Competition (with fair play of course) makes better products. Elon genuinely thinks EV's are best for both the environment and people. His response to new competition is civil good sportsmanship.

It's game on, just as he likes it.

Macy's decline

Macy's has a great retail history, but this author now calls it "the poster child for everything that is wrong with mall-based retail."

Same-store sales were down in the third quarter compared with a year ago, in contrast to  Target stores which were up for the same period. It looks like Macy's is losing sales to T.J. Maxx and Marshall's, and their stock is just half of what it was last January.

Retail stores in general have been declining for years. So how is Target increasing? By tweaking their strategies, trying ideas. They get "shoppers in the door to pick up groceries and household items and convince them to shop for apparel while they are there."

When the former chairman and CEO of Macy's was recently "asked which retail stocks he liked, he spoke enthusiastically about buying Walmart, Target and Home Depot."

Adoptive

Adoptive parents freely choose to take on the responsibility for a child's life without guarantees of any kind for the future. Freddie Figgers was abandoned as a baby by his biological parents, but his adoptive parents took their place and gave him a family.

No one knows what innate abilities a baby possesses. But this gifted child built and repaired computers as a teenager, then started a cloudbase in his backyard.

As it turned out, Freddie had the interest, talent and drive to turn his tech ability into a $62 million business before the age of 30.



from this article

Religious freedom 5

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Some churches have stood against the demands of the government, but the people of those churches will pay a price. "Some congregations have been threatened to be blacklisted by the government, meaning that their travels will be restricted and schooling and future employment of their offspring will be impeded . . "

How brave are those believers, when defying the government (refusing to replace the Ten Commandments with communist quotes) could mean their children will suffer. Remember, social surveillance cameras are watching every worship service.

“China is a one-party dictatorship. People are only allowed to obey the Communist Party and be controlled by it. We have no freedom at all,” [one anonymous] believer said helplessly.

Where churches have been destroyed or social pressure oppresses, Christians continue to meet for prayer and worship in unlikely places: cemeteries, on buses, in pigsties - or on the rubble of their church.

Religious freedom 4

China's President Xi Jinping opposes religious freedom. But he doesn't close every Christian church. Instead, the government is forcing elimination of Christian core beliefs. 

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Churches must now remove the Ten Commandments. Other words must replace the word of God . . Xi Jinping quotations. 

The new directive reportedly comes after Three-Self churches were initially told to remove the First Commandment, “You shall have no gods before me,” as Jinping disagreed with it. 

Why does he "disagree" with the first commandment? He demands the pre-eminent position for himself: all loyalty, all power.

from Catholic News Agency

(cont'd tomorrow)

Shanghai giga

The third of Tesla's gigafactories is getting attention now. Located in Shanghai, China, it's about to start production of Model 3 and  Model Y cars, and electric batteries.

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Completion of the plant took just 168 days from start to finish. By the end of this year, Elon Musk predicts, 1000 cars will be rolling out every week. There's a good market in China for electric vehicles (EV's), second only to the U.S. 

Tesla was warmly welcomed to China. Their cars are exempted from the general ten percent sales tax on cars, a perk formerly only enjoyed by Chinese manufacturers of EV's. And there's that fast track new factory. "When they want to, they can push things through very quickly."

from Bloomberg

Giga life 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Yesterday's graphic showed that Tesla's first gigafactory will eventually expand to about ten million square feet. Nevada will have to continue to adapt to the presence of the gigafactory.

It's about trade-offs. Emergency services and shortage of housing have challenged the region, but there are also benefits.

Because Tesla needs a skilled workforce, they're funding science and engineering programs at local schools. A better educated populace is an undeniable benefit.

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One 19-year-old employee from Las Vegas began her job at $14.50/hour but has raised her ambitions. Tesla is paying for technician training for her, and she now aims to be an engineer. She says, "Tesla kind of helped me figure out myself."

Thousands of new jobs (with average pay of $30/hour) have arrived in northern Nevada, and Tesla is helping people learn enough to do them. As for the new load on local government services (roads, emergency calls, etc.), eventually the tax deal Tesla got from the state will run out . . and the state will be taking in millions of tax dollars from their famous new resident business.

Giga life 1

Nevada fought hard for the privilege of being the site of the first Tesla "gigafactory." Eventually they won the competition, offering Tesla a quick turnaround on construction permits and the biggest tax abatement package in the state's history, to the tune of $1.3 billion.

The project moved fast, with operations starting even before it was finished. In fact, five years into construction and half a mile long, it's still not finished. Huge as it is, it will more than double its size in the future. Over 7,000 people are employed there now. 

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It was a big gulp for northern Nevada and there have been problems. About three times per month there's a health/safety incident. OSHA inspectors made 90 visits during the factory's first three years. On average, in 2018 a 911 call was made every day. Local emergency services were beefed up.

Local housing was not adequate. Some employees live in RV's parked at the Walmart or in tents. Elon Musk says this housing shortage is their biggest constraint on growth. They might build some sort of housing compound for employees.

from usatoday

(cont'd tomorrow)

Vegas tunnel

Las Vegas will be the site of Elon Musk's The Boring Company's very first paying customer. Its big convention center is expanding to 200 acres with a two-mile walk to go from one end to the other end.

Two tubes running autonomous electric vehicles and one pedestrian tube will come equipped with WiFi, video surveillance, escalators. They will run underneath Las Vegas Convention Center to make getting around much faster for visitors. 

Digging started when the tunnel boring machine (TBM) arrived on site in October. The whole project should be ready for the Consumer Electronics Show in January of 2021.

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Protecting

A young American woman was in Afghanistan conducting two-week training workshops for nationals who worked for the American Foreign Service during the Bush presidency.

The embassy was attacked by the Taliban one day, and she found herself in the middle of a gunfire battle for four hours. 

She credits the tired young men (19-21 years old) who were protecting the embassy with saving her life and the lives of the others. It's a gratitude she still feels today toward the American veterans who risk their lives to protect and serve.

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Cadets/veterans

Veterans of World War II got to share their stories with an eager audience. 

U.S. Air Force Academy held its 100th Squadron Bomber Historical Symposium last month. Cadets got to meet and interact with some people who were actually there, a group that won't be around forever.

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Zero for Zero

A Florida school compels teachers to give a grade of 50% to students who make zero effort to turn in an assignment.

Diane Mirado was fired in 2018 for refusing to comply. She gave a grade of 0% to the students who made zero effort. 

She left this message for her students when she cleaned out her room:

"Bye kids, Mrs Tirado loves you and wishes you the best in life! I have been fired for refusing to give you a 50 percent for not handing anything in."

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One bad day 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

This author asks, how would psychologist Jordan Peterson analyze Joker, the supervillain?

The fictional Joker feels justified to abandon goodness and embrace evil because he has suffered so much. Eric Harris, one of the real-life murderers at Columbine High School in 1999, had a similar motivation: "I hate you people for leaving me out of so many things . . I HATE PEOPLE and they better . . fear me."

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But Jordan says most people don't degenerate into the "hell of resentment," even in tragedy. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, for example, "had every reason to question the structure of existence when he was imprisoned in a Soviet labour camp . . . He had been arrested, beaten and thrown into prison by his own people. Then he was struck by cancer. He could have become resentful and bitter . . ." 

But Solzhenitsyn would not choose vengeful bitterness. He "encountered people who comported themselves nobly under horrific circumstances," so he tried to do that, to improve himself, and wrote a book to expose the abuses he saw. 

He wasn't overcome by evil, but rather chose to overcome evil with good. The Bible says to do that.

from Foundation for Economic Education

One bad day 1

A 1988 novel influenced the movie "Joker" released last month, according to this author. The Joker character has appeared in other movies/books/comics, but this new movie emphasizes how he was created: an ordinary person turning into a monster.

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The ordinary man, who started out with a normal conscience, was struggling in his career and finances - then things got much worse. "One bad day," an extraordinarily bad day, pushed him over the edge. He abandoned normal morality, gave up making any effort for goodness.

Most of us thankfully don't encounter psychopathic behavior or even think about it. But psychologist Jordan Peterson has invested time and effort into understanding it. It results from the point of view called nihilism .

from Foundation for Economic Education

(cont'd tomorrow)

Q3 surprise 2

Tuesday's post last week reported that Quarter 3 of 2019 was good news for Tesla Motors. But there was also news of a different kind.

For years Elon Musk has been talking about a fleet of "robotaxis," consumer-owned Tesla cars available for taxi service . . without drivers. Because they are fully autonomous, waiting only for government regs to catch up: Level 5, which means no human supervision needed. He claimed they had the "full self-driving" features completed.

But there were no more claims of "full self-driving" (as Tesla calls it) in his earnings call last month. In answer to a question, Elon said that human supervision is still necessary. 

Not only are governmental regulations not in place yet, but cars coming out of production  now still do not have that "level of autonomy that Tesla was claiming for itself three years ago!"

The software for Level 5 just isn't there yet. 

from MindMatters

Forbes 400

Forbes creates a list every year of the four hundred richest Americans. The minimum net worth to be one of the 400 is $2.1 billion. Ernie Garcia III (yesterday's post) is the youngest of those who are on the list for the first time.

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Wealth like that raises the big question: how did they get so rich? In 2014, Forbes started rating each one with a "self made" score of one to ten. One means their money came from someone else, inherited or given, and they had no part in earning it. Ten means that they started out poor or low middle class and raised their own fortune.

Jeff Bezos is #1 on the Forbes 400, with a fortune of over one hundred billion dollars. His ex-wife is on the list for the first time, after receiving a divorce settlement of one-quarter of Jeff's Amazon stock.

Surprising fact: a total of 221 American billionaires failed to make the list.

from The Forbes 400