Small nuclear 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent to come up with innovative designs for nuclear power generating plants. Much of this money came from private investors who see "green" energy (no carbon emissions) as important to the growing global need for power.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) partners with these investors to fund research. 

One company working on their own design (a light water reactor) is NuScale in Oregon. About the size of two school buses vertically stacked, one hundred of them could fit in the containment chamber of a large conventional reactor. 

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One of the new safety features is that it can stand in an underground pool of water. If the reactor leaks, heat is slowly diffused into the water.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, understandably, has to approve it. NuScale submitted a long 12,000-page application which is still under review by the Commission. But the good news is that NuScale might start supplying power to western states by 2026.

Small new reactors like this might be the only chance nuclear power generation can survive.

(from Wired)

Small nuclear 1

During the last century, most of America's electricity came from coal. But today coal plays a smaller role, replaced by cleaner natural gas. Over the last several decades, the other major source of our power has been nuclear, coming in at about 20%.

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Nuclear power has no carbon emissions and, unlike wind and solar, doesn't vary its production according to the weather. But new nuclear plants take years to build, with costs running into billions of dollars. And about half our nuclear plants are over 40 years old.

Since so many plants are aging, with only one new one going live since 1996, there's concern that this vital segment of our energy production is in decline.

So . . what if we could build a nuclear power plant that was cheaper, smaller, safer? 

"Dozens of nuclear startups are popping up around the country, aiming to solve the well-known problems with nuclear power . . " 

Cont'd tomorrow - one of those new innovations

Rotunda song

New recording artist Edward Byrd had the experience of filling the U.S. Capitol Rotunda with his song while on tour. He was with a group called "Change." They went to the Capitol to tell lawmakers that a bill to outlaw therapy for homosexuals would only hurt those who want to change.

Kids tell it

Enjoy!

Hallelujah

(re-post from 2014)

"Messiah" by George Handel was performed last week in my city. I listened to the performance on public radio a couple days ago, including comments from the announcer about Handel.

There was chuckling and some cynicism about the composer becoming rich.There was debunking of the "myth" that Handel broke into tears at the beauty of the music.

There was amusement at the old-fashioned audience tradition to stand during the "Hallelujah" chorus.  It was suggested that standing is quite unnecessary, and that very likely some of the audience would think it "silly" and would remain seated.

But for a believing Christian, this music goes beyond beauty. The "Hallelujah" chorus is joyous and appropriate - the spirit soars in praise to the Messiah, Jesus Christ. I don't think I could sit through it even if I wanted to.

Someone who had been at the concert called the radio show later to report that the entire audience stood - "without hesitation" he said - for the "Hallelujah" chorus. The radio announcer's cynicism was not shared by the concert audience. On the contrary, they responded from the heart and the spirit.

The whole work (over 2 hours long) is below; find "Hallelujah" at 1:35:58.

MCGA

Atheists had a billboard campaign for the season a few years ago. Their theme was "Make Christmas great again. Skip church!"

So I wonder how this works. Was Christmas great in the past when God was no part of it? If we all skip church, will Christmas be great again? But there's never been a time when the season was empty of God. Since the beginning, its central core has been the birth of Jesus Christ on earth.

photo: mine

I'm glad if atheists can enjoy decorations and traditions. But the joy of Christmas would not last if God were taken out of the season. Eventually nothing would be left but cynical materialism.

There are lots of  cynics who don't have a merry celebration. The good will and beauty of Christmas are just cloying if there's no meaning in it. 

Lux venit

(re-post from 2016)

Built into us by the Creator is a longing to understand God and eternity, to believe there is really hope for humanity:

"By sword, by flame
In death solemn ages passed,
And voices young grow old & weary
Holding fast - hope for the dawning"

The appeal of the Christian good news is that God sought out humanity by sending Jesus Christ who is light for us:

"Lux venit, Sursum corda." Arise, shine! For your light has come!

Those lyrics are from the song below. It's years old, but "Lux Venit" from this album by Michael W. Smith moves me every time I hear it. Enjoy.

Trees, gifts, etc.

Traditions abound at Christmas. Families have their own, sometimes quirky, traditions that make their celebration of Christmas unique. But many are not unique to families, but have been passed down for generations and centuries.

NFL role model

"How did I make this world better?" National League Football (NFL) players have fame, money, and a platform. Some players use these assets to leave an exceptional legacy of good works.

Each of the 32 football teams nominates one of their players to win the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award based on what they do on the field and what they do in their communities.

Kyle Rudolph of the Minnesota Vikings is one of these nominees in 2019. Families thanking Kyle for the difference he made for their children is here. The Vikings won't allow me to embed it, but seriously you should watch it.

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(Btw, I have re-named the "Character" label. Starting today those posts which would have been labeled Character will now bear the "Virtue" label.)

Reasons

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

"[S]ound reason and scientific research—including the very latest discoveries—consistently support, rather than erode, confidence in the truth of the Bible and faith in the personal, transcendent God revealed in both Scripture and nature."

Reasons to Believe makes this claim in their mission statement. Since the Creator gave us both the universe and the Bible, the facts of nature and the Bible's narrative will be consistent and accurate. So they aim for "constructive integration of God’s revelation (in Scripture and nature)" and they aim to communicate "those reasons with gentleness, respect, and a clear conscience." Not a harsh, combative argument.

A scientist from Florida got excited about this message. Here's his story:



Find other stories here.

"Lie" to them

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

But that could be a dilemma for parents who don't believe in God or religion, yet who want their children to be well adjusted. What should they do?

Komisar's advice: lie to them. 

It's a pragmatic solution. If you think there's no God, no life after death, no cosmic purpose, no meaning, nothing more than the material universe--don't tell your kids! Lie to them, tell them God loves them so as to increase the odds that they will be happy.

But wait, there's something better. Instead . . you could take the big questions of life seriously, and investigate God for yourself rather than simply swallow secular conventional wisdom. Possibly you have missed something. How great would it be to find out that the truth is also just what your family needs.

Here's a suggestion to get started. Go to Reasons to Believe. Astrophysicist Dr. Hugh Ross started this organization to show evidence from science that the omnipotent, personal God of the Bible does exist. Nobody's asking you to believe without reasons.

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(cont'd tomorrow)

Depressed kids

Therapist Erica Komisar is often asked to help depressed or anxious children. She offers her view on why it's so common:

"One of the most important explanations—and perhaps the most neglected—is declining interest in religion. This cultural shift already has proved disastrous for millions of vulnerable young people."

Studies have shown for years that people of faith tend to be happier in comparison to most people. So her view on this point is mainstream:

“Children or teens who reported attending a religious service at least once per week scored higher on psychological well-being measurements and had lower risks of mental illness. Weekly attendance was associated with higher rates of volunteering, a sense of mission, forgiveness, and lower probabilities of drug use and early sexual initiation,” she noted of the latest studies on the impact of religion on the mental health of children and teenagers.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Merry Christmas

It's time to say with abandon, "Merry Christmas!" There's no reason that saying it needs to offend anybody.

Tech & defense 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Jeff Bezos' Amazon was competing recently with Microsoft for a $10 billion contract from the U.S. Dept. of Defense, and Microsoft got the deal in November. 

They will build out cloud infrastructure for the Pentagon over ten years under the project name, "Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure" (JEDI).

Unlike Google, Microsoft will do business with America's military. Their CEO puts it this way: "We made a principled decision that we’re not going to withhold technology from institutions that we have elected in democracies to protect the freedoms we enjoy.”

In Bezos' words, "“I know it’s complicated, but do you want a strong national defense or don’t you . . I think you do, so we have to support that.” He says (video below) that the U.S. Military has earned the trust and respect of Americans by doing hard things well for decades.

Tech & defense

Google, enormously rich and influential tech company, will not work for the Department of Defense of the United States. It sounds like a decision based on the moral disapproval of several thousand employees, a judgment of an ethical nature.

But Google does similar work (relating to artificial intelligence) for the military of China. 

Is working to aid the Chinese military okay, but working for the American military is not?

Jeff Bezos has an opinion: big tech should not turn its back on America's defense.



(cont'd tomorrow)

France closing 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

The second reason it was the right time last year for us to go to Europe was to see and experience some of the European cathedrals. I felt that they were in danger.

So we attended services at Christ Church Cathedral while in Oxford, England. We listened to the bells chime on the plaza in front of the cathedral in Bayeux, France. 

And . . (thank God) we were blessed to personally experience Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Only six months later, Notre Dame was in flames, this world treasure and icon of European Christianity from the middle ages (built 1163-1345 A.D.).

France closed 1

Fourteen months ago I was a tourist in France with my niece. The weather was beautiful, we moved around Paris by boat on the River Seine, and we stayed near the Eiffel Tower. 

It seemed then like the right time to go, and for two reasons I think it was the right time. One reason: just a month after we returned home, civil unrest began with the "yellow vests" in Paris and other cities. Now huge strikes are crippling air travel, train, and public services.

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Eurostar, the high-speed train under the English Channel, has canceled ~100 runs recently. Air France grounded at least one-third of its domestic flights. As of last Thursday, the Eiffel Tower was "ferme" (closed). Cafes and restaurants along the route of marches in Paris were ordered to close for the day by police in case of violence on the edges of the demonstrations.

In addition to tourism-related closures, there are strikes of medical workers, police officers, teachers, garbage collectors, etc. The issues for the disruption are financial - the government plans to reform pensions. 

Eleven of the 16 Paris subway lines were closed last week. Tourists in France right now will have to be extra resourceful.

taken from Forbes

(cont'd tomorrow)

Ford v. Ferrari

"Ford v. Ferrari" is just about the perfect film - according to this author. He's confident that the movie gets the 1960's culture at Ford just right . . because his dad was one of Ford's junior executives at the time.

Ford cars were getting boring in the 60's and Henry Ford II wanted to shake things up. So he hired Carroll Shelby to help them build a race car, specifically to beat Ferrari at Le Mans.

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Shelby and his friend/racing driver, Ken Miles, were not exactly models of Ford Men. They clashed with the executives. In one memorable scene, Shelby educates Henry Ford II about race car drivers. (I enjoyed that, as I received a similar education from my son.)

"Ford v. Ferrari is the ultimate popcorn movie, an old-fashioned thriller with blinding speed scenes filmed in-camera, instead of mocked up via CGI. The result is a satisfying melange of buddy film, corporate intrigue yarn, international jet-set glimpse, and good ol’ American ingenuity."

Safety theater 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

One of Uber's self-driving test cars struck and killed a pedestrian in March of 2018. A "safety driver" was in the driver seat, as required, but he was not paying attention. It was the first time a pedestrian was ever killed by a self-driving car.

It happened just five days after Robbie Miller (yesterday's post) emailed other Uber executives with a safety warning. He was alarmed that the company’s self-driving test cars were “routinely in accidents resulting in damage” and that collisions occurred “every 15,000 miles.”

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Some claim that hundreds of millions of miles of test-driving must be done before we have reliable data about whether self-driving cars are safer than human-driven cars. Yet this kind of testing has only been going on for a few years, amounting to just a few million miles.

One of the best automotive blogs says:

"Automakers have begun leveling with us about vehicular autonomy. After years of promises that self-driving cars were just around the corner, the vision rollback has begun. Testing has taken longer than anticipated and nobody is as close to unleashing a commercial product as they hoped to be."

Safety theater 1

Self-driving cars are coming soon and they're much safer for humans. So goes the current narrative.

It's not just relatively new companies like Uber and Tesla that tell this story. Even General Motors CEO Mary Barra says self-driving cars can significantly avoid accidents and crashes caused by human behavior, and eventually lead to safer transportation. All the big car companies are heavily invested and working hard on this.

Almost all of us welcome the story, want to believe it. Who wouldn't want to take a nap or read a book while the car gets us safely to our destination. And yet, this far into the movement, there's a counter narrative. 

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Robbie Miller— the former Uber executive who, just days before an autonomous Uber struck and killed a pedestrian, warned the company of problems with their self-driving cars—says that the industry has “propelled us into the realm of safety theater—meaning creating the illusion of safety instead of actually delivering on safety.”

(cont'd tomorrow)

Students & God

Will Witt asks good questions, the kind we think about but don't ask:  Do students believe in God? Does religion help make a person happy?

Will is at Arizona State University in this video, presenting these personal questions to college students. He found both believers and non-believers. I was a little surprised by the students who do believe in God and how they expressed it.

Thankful 5

Since complaining seems to come easier for us than "thanksgiving," we might have to make gratitude a conscious, intentional choice. 

It's the Monday after Thanksgiving holiday, so now we learn to practice it during our non-holiday lives. 

I want to notice all the good things before I work on fixing the rest.