Emissions 2020 1

Carbon emissions are being tracked by nation, industry, company, all over the world. The United Nations just released its Emissions Gap Report 2020 earlier this month. It's a summary of emissions by nation, the up/down trends, and a surprising recommendation for America.

With the high standard of living in the United States, it's no surprise that our carbon emissions as a nation are high, 13% of the global total. China comes in highest in total national emissions with 25% of the global total.

National totals are rising each year for China, Russia, and India. Emissions per capita - per person - rising there also. But in the US, per capita emissions are falling each year.

from Forbes

(cont'd tomorrow)

The Blessing

 Churches and Christian groups in the United Kingdom got a big project together last May, and it went viral. Singers and musicians from their homes performed "The Blessing" and sang it for their country. Enjoy.

from Premier Christian News

Fishing feat

 A young fishing guide had an "insane day" last month on a central Minnesota lake. He managed to land two enormous, very heavy muskies within a half hour of each other. Each weighed over 50 pounds.

It's a feat he doesn't expect to experience ever again.

from Star Tribune

Materialist 1

Reuben, a student in the U.K., wrote to Discovery Institute. He said, "your work may have saved my life." No, Discovery doesn't do medical research or emergency rescues. 

Reuben's school system was turning students like him into materialists who deny God, free will, human dignity. He was depressed, but searching. He ran across articles and books from Discovery Institute, which stands up to the materialism paradigm. They take seriously the evidence for an intelligent designer of life and the universe.

Some people prefer a view of reality that tells them that the material universe is all there is, or ever was, or ever will be.  But most people, like Reuben, intuitively know there's more to reality than material stuff. They (we) will never surrender.

Agnus Dei

Agnus Dei is Latin for "Lamb of God" . . the image the Bible holds of Jesus Christ: innocent, given to the world of humankind to redeem us from the darkness.

If you are not a believer, or not yet, here's a question for you. What if you learned that it's all true, that the One True God created and loves the world and you individually? Would you rejoice in this music?

It will resonate in your spirit only if you know the One True God to be both good and true. This is my favorite song for Christmas this year.

Kids' words

 Here's the Christmas story as told by kids in their own words, and acted out by grown-ups. 

Rescue

If you'd like more bad news today (most of us have had enough bad news this year), you'll have to get it somewhere else - because this post is good news. Good news still happens! It just doesn't get much press.

Five high school freshmen were together outside in Middleton, N.J., when they heard screaming: a dad shouting "Hop off! Hop off!" His 8-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son were flying down a hill on an innertube, backward. 

The kids hit an ice patch, shot over a snow bank, and slid into a pond. Kieran Foley (14) jumped in the shallow, freezing water. His four friends formed a chain to pass the boy to the shore and then did the same for the girl. Kieran lost his boots and finished the rescue barefooted.

The dad gave his pants and boots to Kieran, but that's all the boys would take. No money. 

The mom said, “In this day and age when kids don’t really care and all they do is take their phones out and videotape when something happens, these kids did not even hesitate. I just wanted to call their parents and say, ‘you raised some really great kids.'”

from News12, The Stream

Celebrate

Christianity is the biggest religion in the world, so Christmas is celebrated globally. Many European distinctives found their way to America in the great waves of immigration: stocking stuffers, lighted trees, Santa Claus, reindeer.

Conjunction

Tonight I will join many of you watching the early night sky to see the conjunction of planets Jupiter and Saturn. They are of course very far away from each other but appear close together on rare occasions. 

Click on astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez's photo (that he took through a small telescope) to see moons and rings:

Two planets in conjunction is an explanation some give for the "Bethlehem star" that guided kings to the birthplace of Jesus Christ. There was one that took place on June 17 of 2 B.C. with planets Jupiter and Venus.

from The Stream

Case for God

Six years ago, Wall Street Journal published an article on Christmas Day entitled, "Science Increasingly Makes the Case for God," by Eric Metaxas. Surprisingly it was shared on Facebook 600,000 times, far far more than any other article ever in WSJ. 

Back in 1966 Time magazine featured the narrative that faith in God is obsolete. But science has revealed much evidence for His existence since then.

That same year, 1966, astronomer Carl Sagan announced that any given planet could support life if it had the right sort of star and was the right distance from it. The intervening years revealed that at least two hundred parameters are required by a planet to support life. That lowered the odds of finding such a planet to near zero.

Astrophysicists have discovered that the four fundamental forces of the universe were set less than one-millionth of a second after the big bang. Any slight variation of their values would have eliminated the universe. 

Astronomer Fred Hoyle (who coined the term "big bang") said his atheism was shaken by these developments. 

Oxford professor Dr. John Lennox has said “the more we get to know about our universe, the more the hypothesis that there is a Creator . . . gains in credibility as the best explanation of why we are here.”

from the website of Eric Metaxas

Non-materialist

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

Scientists don't have to assume that "the cosmos is all there is, ever was, or ever will be." Evidence from nature does not prove that there is no Creator or that human beings are pond scum.

As a matter of fact, Harvard astrophysicist Howard Smith claims the opposite - that humans are special and that "The universe, far from being a collection of random accidents, appears to be stupendously perfect and fine-tuned for life."

In his view, we should be "grateful for the amazing gifts of life and awareness, and acknowledge the compelling evidence to date that humanity and our home planet, Earth, are rare and cosmically precious."

Speaking as a Christian, I do thank God for life, for consciousness, and for our rare and precious planet home.

(Re-post from 2016)

Materialist

"The human race is just a chemical scum on a moderate-size planet." Science expert and extremely smart guy Stephen Hawking said this, so of course it must be true . . right? Actually, that's not a scientific statement but rather a big philosophical assumption.

Celebrities and experts can be (gasp) wrong, especially when they speak outside their field of expertise. Hawking's claim is that humanity has no transcendent meaning or importance, that there's nothing more to a human being than the chemicals that make up the body.

It's the point of view, the faith, of a materialist. Science icon Carl Sagan said it this way, "The cosmos is all that is, or ever was, or ever will be." His claim is backed by his charisma, his compelling rhetoric, his confident celebrity prestige, stirring photography and stirring music (below). But not by facts.

(Re-post from 2016)

Walter Williams RIP

Economist Walter Williams passed a couple of weeks ago, and he will be missed. As author of ten books and 150 professional articles, plus a winner of many fellowships and awards, Dr. Williams had honors and influence. 

He changed his undergrad major from sociology to economics when he read a book by W.E.B. Du Bois, who said:

"Black people are not going to get very far ahead in our country without understanding economic systems." 

EQ 1

(cont'd from last Thursday's post)

Emotional intelligence (EQ) includes at least two factors: identifying emotions in yourself as well as other people, and managing them effectively. Good leaders need to set the example of some degree of EQ so that their team can grow in this skill.

This author identifies EQ in the leadership of Elon Musk relating to last week's test of the SN8.

A spacecraft in which NASA and SpaceX can confidently send people to Mars . . has not been seen on earth yet. They're using all their resources to produce such a thing, but some questions in the process cannot be answered until it actually flies. Thus, the prototype tests. Expensive tests. SN8 was estimated to be worth $200 million. The ascent went well, the switchover to the header tanks went well, the flap control on descent went well . . but it ended in fire and "rapid unscheduled disassembly" (RUD). 

Musk knew the chance of avoiding RUD would be small, but that wasn't the only goal of the test.  He reacted on twitter by naming the other tests and celebrating their success, rather than focusing on the fiery drama. For all the people who had invested massive effort in this, he re-focused on the bigger goal and congratulated their win. That was emotionally intelligent.

from Inc

Left Google

(cont'd from Dec. 9 post, "Anti-trust 2")

Google is not only under scrutiny from the U.S. Congress, but from some of its own employees. At least four whistleblowers have departed Google recently.

Last year one of them published his story in a British newspaper. Enthusiastic at first about a project he worked on to use artificial intelligence to drive medical advance, he gradually became less so. Eventually his conscience compelled him to reveal that Google was gathering data about millions of Americans -- with the consent of neither the patients nor the doctors, probably breaking the law.

Just weeks ago Dr. Timnit Gebru, an AI ethics researcher, was surprisingly terminated at Google. She had written a paper that seemed to say Google's AI research wasn't doing enough to avoid discrimination, fake news, and more.

Issues are mounting. Will Congress break up Google, as Congressman Cicilline recommends?

SN8

SpaceX has been developing and testing prototypes of their "Starship," the big craft that will take people to the moon and to Mars. The latest (SN8) took off yesterday for another test propelled by three raptor engines. It performed some complex maneuvers and came back to earth -- too fast. It hit hard and exploded.

But Elon Musk appears to be excited since it did everything they wanted it to do except land safely. He had predicted it had a one-in-three chance of landing in one piece. He says he's confident that Starship will take crew to Mars by 2026.

from Space

Anti-trust 2

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

Congressman Cicilline is chair of the House Judiciary's subcommittee on Anti-Trust, Commercial, and Administrative Law. They released a 400+ page report claiming the tech companies violate anti-trust law. 

"Google, for instance, is effectively the only search engine in town, bolstering its own products in searches, downgrading those of competitors, and “extorting” companies that want to get seen by users."

Cicilline's opinion: "Simply put, they have too much power. This power staves off new forms of competition, creativity, and innovation . . Their dominance is killing the small businesses, manufacturing, and overall dynamism that are the engines of the American economy."

His solution: break them up. It remains to be seen whether Congress will agree.

photo

from Brown Alumni Magazine

Anti-trust 1

Rhode Island Congressman David Cicilline grew up seeing the occasional mafia member at his family dinner table. His father was, in plain terms, a "mob lawyer" who represented a crime organization.

He became a lawyer, a public defender, and then a politician who advocated for causes. Back in the 1990's he was a "leading force in an effort to dismantle the system powering the political machine of [his own party]." 

The "culture of corruption" in Rhode Island included cronyism. Lawmakers were allowed to "create commissions and boards tasked with doling out millions of dollars in contracts, and then appoint the members [of] those bodies or even serve on them themselves." The state constitution did not separate powers to prevent conflict of interest.

Now Cicilline has a new cause. The U.S. Congress has been investigating anti-trust violations among tech companies. Last July he took the opportunity during a hearing to blast Google's CEO with this question, "Why does Google steal content from honest businesses?"

from Brown Alumni Magazine

(cont'd tomorrow)

Fateful day

Somebody in Hawaii was ready with a camera early in the morning of December 7, 1941, when the U.S.S. Shaw was hit by enemy fire - a deadly enemy we didn't know we had.

This attack on Pearl Harbor forced America into the second world war 79 years ago today.

Still wears it

 From the snarky Babylon Bee:

"Time Traveler Arrives From 3000 A.D. And Oh No! He's Still Wearing A Mask!"

Changed mind 5b

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

With a degree from Harvard, Gina should have felt confident and optimistic. But no, she felt empty because things she used to care about, meaningful things, had been stripped away from her. Her new viewpoint did not see the world kindly. In her own words, she now felt hate. She hated America.

An accident drew her back home from her chosen exile (as far from America as she could go). She started writing for leftist media, assigned to write articles that she says were anti-men/anti-America/anti-capitalism. Her education prepared her for this.

But then she was "red-pilled" watching Dave Rubin interview Candace Owens. Her curiosity and inner strength drove her to dive deep for the information she craved. She concluded that she had been lied to.

What a story. If you didn't watch her 9-minute video yesterday, you should now.

Changed mind 5a

Gina Florio's mom told her she could do anything she wanted to do with her life, if she got a good education. She did that - at Harvard. But looking back at the experience now, she's not impressed with her education.

She has changed her mind about some things.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Changed Mind 4

This is Brandon Tatum and this is his story. He's changed his mind about some things, he found some heroes. 

He says, "You are an individual person and you have your own mission in life."

No turkey czar

My niece invited the extended family to her apartment for Thanksgiving this year. She created a  Facebook event called "A Very 2020 Thanksgiving." Then she cancelled it because our governor's new covid restrictions forbid multiple household gatherings. Yes, a very 2020 Thanksgiving.

My household had no turkey. But if you did, I think I know how you got it. You didn't order it special from a local shop or farm. You put it in your cart on a normal trip to the grocery store. You knew there would be plenty of reasonably priced turkeys for all who wanted one.

Thousands of people made that happen:

"Poultry farmers, of course, but also the feed distributors, and the truckers who brought it to the farm, not to mention the architect who designed the hatchery, the workmen who built it, and the technicians who keep it running. The bird had to be slaughtered and defeathered and inspected and transported and unloaded and wrapped and priced and displayed. The people who accomplished those tasks were supported in turn by armies of other people accomplishing other tasks — from refining the gasoline that fueled the trucks to manufacturing the plastic in which the meat was packaged."

There is no turkey czar with a master plan, issuing orders, forcing these workers to cooperate. But they do cooperate. They made thousands of smart decisions independently. Why? To create an income and take care of their loved ones. 

"Free human beings freely interact, and the result is an array of goods and services more immense than the human mind can comprehend. No dictator, no bureaucracy, no supercomputer plans it in advance." 

Adam Smith called it the "invisible hand" of the free marketplace.

from the Boston Globe

Eye thanks

Trying to find something to be thankful for? Your eye is a masterpiece of design. Your Creator gave you the exquisite sensitivity of your vision, linking you to the natural world and to other people and much more.

Thanksgiving 2020

We're almost at the four hundredth anniversary of the first Thanksgiving in America. Those who came to North America on the Mayflower (and were still alive) thanked God that they had a harvest. So they invited their neighbors to a feast.

Enjoy this art, representing the earliest days, by Jean Louis Gerome Ferris (American painter, 1863-1930).

Dinner cost 2

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

The average cost of Thanksgiving dinner for ten people across America this year is $46.90 in today's dollars, based on average prices for the menu items listed yesterday. 

To get a handle on how that compares to Thanksgivings in the past, it's necessary to use a measurement tool that made sense in past years and still does in 2020. 

Here's the solution: find the average American's wages for the year you want to compare it to, and then figure out how many hours the average American must work to buy the components of that dinner. Economist Mark Perry did that, and here are the results:

Generally speaking, Americans in 2020 can purchase this meal with fewer hours of labor than Americans in any other year since 1986. 

Dinner cost 1

The American Farm Bureau Federation is a voluntary organization dedicated to the well-being of farmers and ranchers. It's non-governmental and non-partisan. Like health care workers and small business owners, they want us to know that they're here for us in the day of covid.

Farmers, ranchers, all food providers fall into the "essential" category, obviously. Every autumn since 1986 they survey the cost of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner for ten (because Americans like to celebrate the holiday with family and friends) to get a sense of how affordable that meal is from year to year.

Volunteers all over the country survey prices on the same traditional foods: turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, rolls with butter, peas, cranberries, a vegetable tray, pumpkin pie, whipped cream, milk and coffee. Despite the pandemic, they found that supplies were more than adequate. But are these feast elements affordable?

(cont'd tomorrow)

Big solar

The American state of Texas, known for oil wells, also produces the most wind power in the U.S. Now it's going to be the site of America's largest solar array. 

Invenergy, a global green energy developer, announced the project last week. They say that the cost to install big utility-scale solar projects like this one has dropped more than 70% in the last ten years. When it's complete in 2023, it will produce enough energy to power almost 300,000 homes.

from Electrek

Against the Tide

Today a very worthwhile movie comes out. It's based on the "lovable Irish grandpa" who loves to interact with people who see the world differently from his view, retired Oxford professor of mathematics Dr. John Lennox.

Theatres are closed by order of the governor where I live. But if they're open for you, go.

Less divorce 2

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

Sounds like stronger marriages might be trending - right in the middle of a pandemic. It could happen as a result of other positive trends:

• Husbands and wives sharing more household responsibilities because they're both home
• Husbands and wives engaging together more, i.e. listening, talking, problem solving
• Both moms and dads interacting more with the kids, hearing/understanding their kids
• A re-discovered "productive household"

That last one needs some description.

Up until the last century, family homes were socially and economically the center of society with sharing of meals, labor, recreation, worship, education. Most of that in the 21st century can be and is purchased rather than created at home, which may reduce the home to just bunk space and fridge.

A backyard garden, cooking together, a bonfire, home improvements, garage cleaning--if a more productive household produces stronger family bonds during the pandemic, that's good news to be thankful for.

from Breakpoint

Less divorce 1

No one will be sad to see 2020 in the review mirror this winter. Stress is almost universal: job losses, money trouble, kids schooled at home, health worries, horrible politics, city rioting, business failures, little socializing and little entertainment. 

More stress on families could have led to more divorces . . but the number of divorces in America is down 10-20%.

In a family survey last year, 40% of married Americans said their marriage was in trouble - compared to only 29% this year. Over half of them this year said their appreciation for their spouse increased during the pandemic.

Maybe divorces are being deferred until court time opens up, or finances are restored. But if the trend is real, some good things are coming out of this difficult year. 

from Breakpoint

(cont'd tomorrow)

Crew-1 to ISS

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

Victor Glover is the pilot on Crew-1 Mission. As a test pilot, he had been as high as 64,000 feet, but in space he's now a rookie. He says he is surrounded with love and support - from his wife and kids, his parents/grandparents, and the thousands of people whose work enables him and his astronaut colleagues to go into space.

To manage family relationships as he leaves earth for half a year, he tries to keep things simple, flexible, and low stress. His oldest child will graduate from high school next spring, and he hopes to be there for her; but they all know he might have to watch from space. 

Victor's favorite aircraft so far is the F-18. But he says that flying the brand new Crew Dragon spacecraft is a test pilot's dream. 

All four astronauts - Victor Glover, Shannon Walker, Soichi Naguchi, Mike Hopkins - are interviewed here:

a

Crew-1 Mission

Four astronauts were carried into low earth orbit yesterday about 7:37 p.m. from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Tonight about 11 p.m. they will dock with the International Space Station (ISS) and begin six months of duty.

They flew in SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule, launched on top of a Falcon 9 rocket. After SpaceX carried two Americans to the ISS last May, NASA certified them to perform crewed missions. This one, Crew-1, is the first of several that are planned.

Here is NASA TV's highlights of flight day. 

(cont'd tomorrow)

Surprise bill 2

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

Tim Regan needed more information at the hospital. At the very least, he needed to know what all those procedures were going to cost before they were done to him. 

A new rule just came out of U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services that will go far toward correcting this situation. Private sector insurance must now reveal real-time price information including cost-sharing. Transparency of costs will help patients make their choices.

The HHS secretary says, “We want every American to be able to work with their doctor to decide on the healthcare that makes sense for them, and those conversations can’t take place in a shadowy system where prices are hidden. With more than 70 percent of the most costly healthcare services being shoppable, Americans will have vastly more control over their care."

photo

Transparency is better than "shadowy" in the healthcare market.  Now patients will have better information. That means more peace of mind.

from HHS

Surprise bill

When you go to a store to shop, you expect to make your buying choices based on the features, the quality, and the price that's going to work for you and your family. There's no way you would leave the store with something you don't want, having no idea of its cost. 

But, in effect, that's what happened to Tim Regan. He had covid symptoms, so he went to ER to get a covid test. Somehow the hospital made different decisions . . and Tim left with random unrelated tests done on him but without the covid test he needed. 

Then he got a bill in the mail for $3200. His insurance would not cover what was actually done at the hospital, but would have covered a covid test if he had gotten it. What??

(cont'd tomorrow)

Honor brothers

 On 9-11 this year, you read about combat veteran Beau Wise and his passion to remember and honor his two brothers, Navy Seal Jeremy and Army Green Beret Benjamin. There's more to his story.

Both brothers were killed in the Middle East, 2009-2011. Beau is the only armed services member in America to lose two brothers in the war in Afghanistan. He was pulled from any additional combat duty. 

After the death of his second brother, Beau considered ending his own life. Thankfully, his walk with God helped him pull through that. It's in his book which will come out January 5. 

 Pray for our active service members and veterans today, America's Veterans Day.

from The Stream

Chinese racism

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

African citizens living in China have told their stories of discrimination on social media. They say the Chinese government imposes covid-related hardships on Africans which are more severe than those placed on other non-Chinese. 

Maybe the most blatant discrimination was a public order in Guangzhou to refuse business to anyone who looks African. An order so general and vague inevitably affected black Americans there as well. So the United States Embassy published a security alert warning.

photo

Chinese racism?

 African countries have received infrastructure projects, loans and treaties from the government of China for years, so they've been growing closer.

But during the pandemic, there has been stress due to reports of China discriminating against Africans who live in China, especially the southern province of Guangdong. Some have been evicted from their homes. Some public places, like supermarkets and public transport, are denied to Africans according to the reports.

Level Four 2

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

GM's Cruise describes itself as "a self-driving service designed for the cities we love." They've completed two million miles of testing self-driving cars with a backup driver, and now San Francisco has given them permission to test cars having no driver at all in certain areas. That's level 4, at the testing stage.

Cruise wants to deploy their commercial self-driving service delivering goods or freight, as well as transporting people, all over the world. There's a market for more affordable and accessible transportation, and Cruise believes those consumers will buy their product (the self-driving service) eventually -- when they trust that it's safe.

from MindMattersAI

Level Four 1

A completely automated car that can drive itself anywhere, anytime, is the dream of drivers and manufacturers. It's called Level 5 on the self-driving scale, and you could take a nap in the back seat because no human attention is required. Artificial intelligence would control the car's operation, probably better than a human driver - no steering wheel needed.

We're not there yet. In fact, many experts think Level 5 may be impossible because it's orders of magnitude harder than Levels 1-4.

A Level 4 self-driving car can handle everything - but only under certain conditions and in certain locations. A possible example might be a taxi only serving a particular route. A fundamental moral shift takes place at Level 4: the manufacturer is responsible for the car at this point, not the driver.

It's Level 4 that shows big progress. Daimler, Waymo, and GM are advancing the technology. 

from MindMattersAI

(cont'd tomorrow)

Kidnap drama

American citizen Phillip Walton, 27,  was living with his wife and child in the western African nation of Niger when he was kidnapped on October 26. Each day of captivity brings greater danger of loss or death to a kidnap victim. Ultimately the kidnappers are after ransom money.

With governments of the U.S., Niger, and Nigeria working together, Walton was rescued by Navy Seals on October 31. 

photo

Says a retired Navy Seal, "Men in these top-tier special forces units train their entire adult lives to be ready when called upon, hostage rescue operations are inherently dangerous. Those men put someone else's life above their own, they do so selflessly....it's an illustration of utter commitment."

Phillip Walton is safe and in the care of the US State Department. No military personnel gave their lives on this mission. Thank God.

from ABC News

CO2 reduction

You're well aware of the global movement to reduce CO2 emissions. Here is a study by the BP Statistical Reiew of World Energy in 2019, completed this year:

Two nations obviously stand out: America, with the biggest reduction of emissions, and China, with the biggest increase of emissions.

Platforms 2

 (cont'd from October 5 post)

Politicians are not trusted much. Campaign ads may be just spin and may even be lies. Go to the party platforms for more revealing information. 

This party's official platform is 91 pages long and few will read it. Here are a few big-issue promises:

• require federal health plans to fund gender surgery p.34
• restore federal funding for Planned Parenthood p.32
• colleges/universities tuition-free for families under $125k income p.70
• build 500,000 public charging stations for electric vehicles p.17
• end sexual assault and domestic abuse p. 47

The other party's platform is substantially unchanged since 2016. A few big-issue promises:

• defend the rights of conscience and religion against government control p.10
• oppose the forced funding of political candidates through union dues p. 12
• defend the unborn citizen's right to life p.13
• support parents' choice of schools for their children p.34
• secure national borders and enforce immigration law p. 42

These are just a few points. There's much, much more in the platforms. 

Social wreckage 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Chenyuan grew up under the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) in China. Social power is in the hands of government people who control the economy. Buying, selling and managing decisions are made by the socialist government, and total obedience is required. 

She says this kind of power always corrupts, that it inevitably produces abuse because no checks and balances are built into the system to restrain it. Government elites at every level use intimidation and threats to protect their power. Her father said they had to live like dogs with their tail tucked behind their legs. 

photo

But Chenyuan noticed a big social difference when she came to the U.S. in 1989. She saw courtesy and mutual respect between people, which she believes comes from a system that values human freedom.

She begs Americans to continue to choose freedom over socialism.

from The Stream

Social wreckage 1

At the age of ~4 years, she woke up one night to a loudspeaker commanding all adults to get dressed and come out to the public square. Her parents suddenly left her and she started screaming along with the other abandoned children. 

They came back the next day but she still feels the trauma decades later. Her family lived in just one small room, though her father was a professor, and she picked up their fear and uncertainty. They used extreme caution in words and actions because any misstep could bring catastrophe.

Chenyuan grew up during the Cultural Revolution in China (1966-1976) with an unfocused sense of dread that went beyond the authorities. They had to fear their neighbors because friends commonly reported friends to the government for favor and benefits.

China's authoritarian socialism ruined their economy by 1976. But Chenyuan's lived experience tells her that it also devastated human relationships.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Dumb thieves

Owner Annabelle Brett's phone sounded the alarm when her Tesla Model 3 was stolen from her garage early one morning as she was getting ready for work as a radio host in Australia. She kept her head, used her Tesla apps, and now has a great story.

She was able to track her Model 3 and, after calling police, follow it in a friend's car. Sentry Mode already had photos. “My phone app has the ability to slow down the car and also mess with it a bit, so I was able to put the windows down, beep the horn and basically screw with them as they were driving it,” explained Brett.

When the thieves knew they were beaten, they abandoned the car . . but left a driver license in it.

from Teslarati

Preferred 2

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

Guidelines for construction of new federal buildings were set in 1961 by Daniel Patrick Moynihan. An optimal balance of environmental, societal and human benefits with cost is the goal. 

But maybe the 60-year-old guidelines should be updated. Americans don't like the almost exclusive modern, brutalist style that has dominated federal architecture for decades. A recent  executive order proposed that new federal office buildings in Washington, D.C., be of classical design.

American Institute of Architects objected to the proposed change, even though its own 2007 poll showed that Americans would enjoy it. 

It's time for the architectural elites to let the people's sense of architectural style be reflected in their own government buildings.

Preferred 1

The Harris Poll surveyed 2,000 Americans to find out whether they prefer modern or traditional architectural designs for federal buildings. The results were the same for similar surveys in the past. A comparison example is below:

If you prefer the National Archives Building on the right, you have lots of company: four out of five picked it. Overall, abut 72% of all people surveyed preferred classical or traditional to a modern style. That generally held true across political parties, genders, incomes, races, etc. 

So, most federal buildings must be in the classical/traditional style since it's clear that the people like that, right? No. Of the 78 federal buildings constructed since 1994, 72 of them were modern and only 6 traditional.  Explain that.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Taken 2

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

According to Rabbi Cooper and his co-author, the extremists are a small segment of the huge tribe of seventeen million Fulani. There were at least 47 attacks on churches or Christians in the first half of this year, with a sum of >12,000 Christians killed over the last five years.

Christians are not alone in being threatened by religious tensions and violence, kidnapping and criminality. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF)  reports that religious freedom in general is poor in Nigeria. Minority Shi'a Muslims, too, are persecuted by the government.

Co-authors Cooper and Moore hope that American churches will "adopt" Nigerian churches (photo) as a way to bring global attention to their vulnerability. The rabbi says, “Nigerians feel like they’ve been totally forgotten. . . Speaking as a Jew, I think American Christians are the sleeping giant here who can help halt this violence.”

from The Stream

Taken for ransom

Last December another Nigerian Christian was abducted while traveling to her family for Christmas. Her pastor received a phone call during a church service from her kidnapper demanding enormous ransom. Shaken, he called the police to give them phone numbers, but they did nothing.

Seminary training didn't cover negotiation, but the pastor negotiated for this woman. He wound up selling his car/clothes/house to raise money, and the small congregation managed to come up with enough. She was returned unharmed though some Christian men with her were killed on the spot.

A Jewish Orthodox rabbi and a Christian met with her last February and tell her story in their new book, The Next Jihad. Rabbi Cooper, director for social global action at Simon Wiesenthal Center, has spent fifty years standing for human rights and against genocide.

from The Stream

(cont'd tomorrow)

NASA contracts

Nokia's contract to build a lunar cellular network part is just one of many that NASA has selected. 

Fourteen privately held companies are now partnering with NASA in the effort to put Americans on the moon again by 2024. The total dollar sum divided between the companies is $370 million.

America's presence in space will be sustainably long-term. Rockets and other space craft will need the ability to re-fuel in orbit, thus more than two-thirds of the money relates to management of cryogenic fluids like liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.

For example, SpaceX will get $53 million for an in-space demonstration transferring 11 tons of liquid oxygen between tanks on one of its starships.

For other companies awarded contracts, see NASA.

from Space

Nokia on the moon

 NASA has awarded a $14 million contract to Nokia to put a 4G cellular network on the moon. It's part of the overall plan to first send people to the moon by 2024, and then to establish a lunar base by 2028. They'll need to communicate with each other.

As the first LTE/4G communications system in space, it will also support wireless operation of lunar rovers and streaming video. The network will be designed for extreme temperatures, radiation, and vacuum conditions.

from Mashable

Existence

God's existence cannot be mathematically or scientifically proved. But neither can it be proved that He does not exist, no matter what any dogmatic atheist would like to claim. Both beliefs are a matter of choice based on evidence that a person thinks important.

People have been making that choice one way or another throughout history. The debate continues.

Here is an argument that is new to me, hinging on the meaning of "contingent." It was explained by mathematician and natural philosopher Gottfried Leibniz at the end of the 17th century. 

Free speech 7

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

Lewis was a professor at Magdalen College in Oxford when someone else started the Socratic Club and asked him to be its first president in 1942. Its purpose was to apply the Socratic  principle to one specific matter: the pros and cons of Christianity.

They "scoured Who's Who" to invite well-qualified atheists to come and present their arguments. They wanted to listen - to hear not the weakest, but rather the best arguments that the other side had to offer. The case in favor of Christianity would also be heard.

Magdalen College, Oxford

Inaccurate misunderstandings may drive bitter division between the two sides, especially (Lewis said) in a "large and talkative community" like the university. This format would produce clarity. Some say that religion is too sacred to be debated publicly. Lewis said that it absolutely must be talked about.

In controversial issues, both sides think themselves right and the other side wrong. Let's not silence the other side, but hear and answer it. Civilly and respectfully.

We are spiritual beings. We want to know the truth.

from God in the Dock, pp 126-128

Free speech 6

Atheist C. S. Lewis experienced what Jesus Christ called being "born again" and became a believer in 1931. Because of his influential writing and speaking, he's now called the greatest Christian apologist of the 20th century. That does not mean he apologized for Christianity, but rather that he explained why it is true.

As an Oxford professor in the UK, he also served as president of the Oxford Socratic Club from 1942 until 1954. The Club's inspiration was Socrates' principle to bravely follow an argument or a claim wherever the evidence leads, even though it may point to an idea you don't like. 

Why would someone do that? Because they want to know the truth, even if it doesn't confirm their own opinion. The Club applied that principle, pursue the truth bravely, to Christianity.

from God in the Dock, pp. 126-128

(cont'd tomorrow)

Rivian

Amazon revealed its brand new line of electric delivery vans last week. Their fleet total is expected to reach 10,000 in 2022 and 100,000 by 2030. Alexa will be giving hands-free help with navigation and weather forecasts, of course. 

But the vans are not from Tesla (Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are famously not friends). Rivian is the company making them. They've taken a low public profile for about eleven years, but have big investors.

A round of investment last July included Amazon and T. Rowe Price and amounted to $2.5 billion. Ford itself chipped in $500 million and will eventually sell the Rivian.

from The Verge

Build, not burn

 So many business owners of color suffered destruction of their dreams this summer. Looting and burning followed months of little or no income. How long can they stay positive, how long before their efforts reward them again? Despair tempts.

"Shark Tank" investor Daymond John wants to head off that urge o give up. From his point of view as a business owner, he thinks they need "support from industry peers, honest conversations about Black business and, during a time of heightened emotional stress, quality entertainment."

October 24 will be the first Black Entrepreneurs Day offering some of that online, featuring one-on-one conversations with black business leaders (like Shaq O'Neal). John will share his own struggles and failures.

He says, “You see people out there burning businesses when they should be building them.”

from Forbes

USS Cole

 Twenty years ago today, 17 American Navy sailors were killed on their ship. Al Qaeda attacked the USS Cole, not during any war, resulting in those seventeen deaths and the injury of 39 others. The photo below is a memorial service held five years after the attack.

Commanding Officer on the ship commended his crew: "No one panicked. They set about dividing into three groups: damage control to save the ship, triage to say their shipmates, and security to prevent what could be another attack."

Response from the President at that time: 

“To those who attacked them we say, you will not find a safe harbor. We will find you and justice will prevail. America will not stop standing guard for peace or freedom or stability in the Middle East and around the world.”

Free speech 5

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

Restricting speech is a path to coercion. It's shortsighted. At some point you will strongly disagree with some point of political correctness and the force of restricted speech will come down on your own point of view. 

As a professor at Cornell University says, "There is no alternative to free speech, because every controversial topic has a substantial group of people who view it as hate speech."

Free speech respects the dignity of other people, and your own. Free speech enables us to pursue the truth. Those are advantages. The disadvantage is that voices we don't like will also be heard. But free speech is worth it.

Evolutionary biologist and militant atheist Richard Dawkins speaks and writes books to convince the world that all life on earth resulted from random chance and natural selection. Philosopher Paul Nelson believes that all life shows evidence of intelligent design. Their opinions are far apart.

Normally welcome on any college campus, Dawkins was disinvited from speaking at Trinity College, Dublin, because of politically incorrect comments he recently made. Was Nelson happy to hear of the cancellation? No. He signed a petition to uphold the original invitation, though he objects to Dawkins' message.

Nelson says, "I think Dawkins is wrong about a great many things, but cancel culture destroys truth-seeking." Like me, Paul Nelson believes speech must be free. It's worth it.