Blessing 2022

Children can be talked out of faith in God and, of course, that goes for adults as well. But you may not have to go very far in life before you see that a purely materialist view of the world is not good enough, that you want to know your Creator.

Christmas is all about the Creator seeking us out. 

When you become a believer, you look forward to God's blessing in your life, in your children's and grandchildren's lives, and in your community. That's what these Christians in the UK are singing about.

We will need the Lord's blessing in the new year. Sing with them and me as you pray for the future of your family and your nation: 

Good parents 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

One of the most popular posts of 2021 was this inspiring story about dads stepping up to do what they know how to do, posted in October:

At a Shreveport LA high school recently, fighting got so bad that arrests were made. Twenty-three students were arrested in just three days. There was violence before the arrests, and before the violence there must have been a lot of offensive behavior.

What tension there must have been, and what a distraction from learning. Who can fix this?

Some fathers stepped up -- right into the school itself to see if they could tamp down the conflicts. Calling themselves "Dads on Duty," they take shifts to greet kids in the morning and do whatever they can to build a positive environment.

Criminal justice experience? No. Counselling degrees? No. How are they qualified to help? They say, "The best people to take care of our kids are . . us!" 

Students feel safer, there's "dad jokes," there's a positive feeling, and "the school is, like, happy!" There hasn't been any fighting. These dads know they can do something, and they're there to do it.

We need you, dads, just doing what you can do. Dads and moms, we need you to speak life into your kids.

Good parents 1

Everybody on earth gets just one childhood. Nobody affects their experience of childhood like the parents. It's a potentially daunting responsibility that some adults don't want to take on, but that most will do. 

Good parenting is not perfect parenting. But do your best to be a good parent (it will often require courage). Today and tomorrow the posts are about parents trying to guide their kids' childhoods toward good outcomes. The stories are from earlier this year. First, from last June:

Two months ago, a dad in New York City wrote a letter to parents of students at his daughter's private school. It voiced the alarmed concern of many of the school's parents. It went viral. 

He objects to the school's empty claim to favor diversity. If it really did, it wouldn't work so hard at indoctrinating students and families to a single mindset.

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He objects to the school's empty claim to favor equity. If it really did, it would cease preferring rich and connected students for admission.

He objects to the school's empty claim to favor inclusiveness. If it really did, its curriculum would not drive every child into one of two classes, oppressors and oppressed.

He objects to the school's support for the Black Lives Matter organization. He objects to the censoring of good books simply because of dated language. He objects to grade inflation and reduced standards for classwork.

He objects to the school teaching racism while it claims to favor anti-racism. Its policies are "misguided, divisive, counterproductive and cancerous." And he calls on other parents to speak up.

from bariweiss

Homeschooled 4

"Researchers at Harvard University just released findings from their new study showing positive outcomes for homeschooled students."

Last year a different Harvard professor was advocating for U.S. law to actually ban homeschooling (see posts dated 04-27-20, 04-28-20, 04-29-20, and 04-30-20). This new study stands in stark contrast to her biased claims.

If you or someone you know is homeschooling, you can expect the children to do better in a number of ways than they would if they were in a public school. If you read these posts and links, you can certainly make the case in favor of homeschooling.

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from FEE

Hardwired

"Are children predisposed to belief in a transcendental being?" A developmental psychologist at Oxford University has been researching that question for years. Now her research and her conclusions are published.

It will be a surprise to many, perhaps, but her research indicates that it's likely that children (of whatever ethnicity) are "hardwired" to believe in God.

Children can be talked out of it. Famous atheist Richard Dawkins tries his best to do that, as do others. Dawkins claims that, rather than being natural for kids, faith in God is like a virus which is caught from the parents.

But, as John Lennox puts it, “Not every statement made by a scientist is a scientific statement.”

You don't have to put your faith in Richard Dawkins' opinion.

from Spectator

From Hillsdale

Hillsdale College's president sent out a little Christmas greeting which you might enjoy.

Merry Christmas to you!

A Special Christmas Message from Hillsdale College from Hillsdale College on Vimeo.

Christmas beauty 2

Christmas has been inspiring composers of music for hundreds of years. The musical results then inspire the rest of us.

Johann Sebastian Bach was himself inspired by the God of the Bible. His music was "the expression of a unitary … world view, in which all beauty … was sacred because God was one, both Creator and Redeemer."

"The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul." —J.S. Bach

Here is beauty from his Christmas Oratorio, to glorify God and refresh your soul.

"Merry" mood

We say "happy" holidays, Easter, Thanksgiving, etc., but Merry Christmas is the greeting we use rather than Happy Christmas.  

At First Things, it is suggested that there is a reason to be merry rather than just happy at Christmas.  It has to do with joyous delight in undeserved blessing:

"Happy . . conveys a sober, well-earned enjoyment, the satisfaction resulting from hard work and virtuous living. “Merry Christmas” stirs in us an impulse more primitive and unrestrained: The childlike giddiness of Christmas morning, the rush down the stairs and tearing at paper, the intemperate delight in gifts long hoped-for and wholly undeserved.

"Which phrase conveys a more fitting response to the overwhelming, unearned gift of Christ’s birth? Suffice it to say that when our Lord comes I hope I do not greet him with dignified reserve but instead rush at him with the unguarded, unembarrassed joy of a child at play or man at his cups. Merry Christmas to all!"

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Don't see it

"Silent Night" -- don't be fooled by the peaceful name. This "dark comedy" is about a life-threatening night. A British family is confronted with disaster on Christmas Eve and must decide whether to commit suicide.

I tagged this post with the "virtue" label though there is little virtue and lots of profanity. But the boy's virtue is courage. To decline suicide is brave and there's more - he calls out the fake God-talk of his parents, challenges adults making claims they can't back up, and thinks for himself. He knows and admits that he needs a grown up. 

If you want only a light mood this Christmas season, don't see it. If you can incorporate a somber mood into the season by thinking about real modern fears, go ahead.

from Evolution News

Web 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Different species of spiders make webs of special kinds: collars, trapdoors, tunnels, as well as the familiar net design. But exactly how do they know which kinds of proteins to combine that will give the web its flexibility, its legendary strength, its stickiness? And where to put the anchor points? Spiders don't make conscious choices of biochemistry, geometry, engineering.

Instinct is not an answer. It's a way of saying "we don't know." A credible path to evolutionary development of the biological web-building system would require every necessary gene mutation on that pathway to render a survival advantage of some kind (natural selection). A biologist and spider specialist says it may be impossible to figure it out.

Complex functions and behaviors like this bear a strong resemblance to a human engineering project, a very intentional and rational activity that involves mathematical and chemical formulas. 

Maybe science will someday discover algorithms somehow built into the genome. Coded information doesn't come from random material causes. But it would be consistent with the Creator God hypothesis.

from Evolution News

Web 1

With all the advances of today's amazing science and technology, you'd think we could have reproduced something as simple and ubiquitous as spider silk. But no, it still hasn't(?) been done.

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If you see a typical one in your garden, there's about 65-195 feet of silk in it. The threads may be sticky, spokes, bridge threads, signal threads to inform the spider of captured prey, drag lines to give the spider access.

Signal threads communicate both the angle and the distance of the prey from the web's center. Somehow the intensity of the vibrations sensed through the spider's eight legs tell it where the captured prey is, and it can store three different prey locations.

Proteins in various combinations give the web features like stretchiness, flexibility and toughness. 

"Every set of initial anchor points is different; the number of radii is contingent on opportunity; the beginning of the sticky spiral depends on where the longest several radii turn out to be. In short, each web is a custom production.”

from Evolution News

(cont'd tomorrow)

Emissions 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

One thing that really stands out in yesterday's chart is the striking decline in U.S. emissions. 

A wealthy country with a free market is the kind of place where brave and capable people are able and willing to take a risk on a new idea. That innovative process, a new idea executed successfully, happened in America. "[R]evolutionary technologies of fracking and horizontal drilling . . accessed oceans of previously inaccessible natural gas beneath the ground." 

Coal as an energy source is much less used here now. (China's coal use has more than doubled in 20 years.) Those new technologies are responsible for the big decline in U.S. CO2 emissions because natural gas as a source of power emits far less carbon.

Innovation is possible because human beings of any country are dreamers, creators, problem solvers.

image

Emissions 1

Every year, hundreds of millions of tons of CO2 are emitted into the atmosphere by human activity (farming, manufacturing, etc.). According to scientist Hugh Ross, this activity contributes to the cyclical change in earth's climate which he believes will eventually bring about a new ice age.

Countries get together and tell each other how they're trying to reduce their CO2 emissions. This year the U.S. president was disappointed that Russia and China "basically didn’t show up in terms of any commitments to deal with climate change."

Here's a chart showing how 20 different countries did from 2010 to 2020: the ten countries which reduced their CO2 emissions the most, and the ten countries which increased them the most. (Multiply the numbers by a million to get the actual number of tons reduced or increased in each country.)

image

from Carpe Diem

(cont'd tomorrow)

U-Haul LA to TX

Prices in a mostly free market system like ours (U.S.) are determined, as you know, by "demand" and "supply." If high demand (lots of people want it) combines with low supply (there's not enough of it to go around), the price for the product or service goes up. 

Why? Because it's very valuable to the people who want it most, so they pay more to get it first.

U-Haul has a situation like that. Demand for truck rental going one way from California cities to Dallas TX is very high. 

Looking at the price of this one-way haul, the desire of people wanting to move their goods by U-Haul from California to Texas seems to be very, very high. Compare to the price of the rental one way from Dallas to California. Especially for San Francisco.

image (analysis published 11/29/2021)

Not enough 2

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

Falling birth rates in countries all over the world is well-established information that I've been posting for you since 2013. Elon Musk and Jack Ma have both talked about it.

Virtually all countries in the West have birth rates which are below replacement rate, and have been so for many years. A steady population requires an average of 2.1 babies per woman. Germany's rate of 1.6 births/woman is typical in the European Union. It's been said that 1.5 is the point of no return.

Unless this changes drastically and soon, society itself will change. There will be fewer children and then fewer young adults in the prime of life. There will be fewer working adults to support a larger number of retired folks who are no longer financially productive.

image

Global population will keep climbing for a while, though, because of African and Middle Eastern countries. Many of them still experience birth rates/woman of 3-6 babies.

from AEI

Not enough 1

Celebrities - often wrong, sometimes right! 

As always, the important question is not "who says this". . but rather "is it true?" Looks like Elon Musk got his information from a fact-based source, like Hans Rosling did. 

In a talk last week, Musk commented that  "so many people, including smart people, think that there are too many people in the world and think that the population is growing out of control. It's completely the opposite. Please look at the numbers — if people don't have more children, civilization is going to crumble, mark my words."

from Yahoo

(cont'd tomorrow)

Artemis

Next year, 2022, will be the 50th anniversary since men were last on the moon. That's fifty years, achieved by people with 50-year-old technology. We can do it again, and that's the goal. Under the previous administration, NASA made plans to return with international and private partners and establish the first long-term presence. 

Why do that? For the scientific discovery, the economic benefits, and the inspiration. "While maintaining American leadership in exploration, we will build a global alliance and explore deep space for the benefit of all."

from NASA

NASA attraction

Kennedy Space Center on the Atlantic coast of Florida will open a new 50,000 square foot attraction next March. NASA calls it "Gateway: The Deep Space Launch Complex."

New goals for space travel were set during the last administration, including missions both to the moon and to Mars. With attention again on space travel, the new Gateway will simulate what that's going to be like with multiple guest experiences.

At "Spaceport KSC" you'll enter a galactic airport of the future. You'll hear atmospheric airport chatter, watch launches and landings through the windows, and view destination promo videos. You can then board a spaceship (2-story 4D flying theater) for one of four different journeys.

On the second floor you'll get up close to an actual (SpaceX) Falcon 9 rocket booster which launched a satellite in 2016 and was a side booster on the first Falcon Heavy launch in 2018. Watch its arrival on site:

"Featuring a comprehensive collection of modern-day spacecraft, Gateway will offer the opportunity to explore the future of space travel in a way never before possible."

from Space

Media 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

American culture and media is dominated by secular, materialistic views often marketed by celebrities. Are you buying? If you like a celebrity from sports or movies and you see him/her selling a product or an attitude over and over again, it makes an impression. Never mind if  they are in no way qualified to tell you what to think. There's been some pushback against that.

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It's not possible to live isolated from today's secular cultural messaging. Just be aware that that's exactly what you're getting. On drip. It could be accurate or not, but it comes with a slant toward a political or philosophical point of view. (Example: this black ex-cop participated in a forum about police issues. When the forum was posted, his views that didn't match the agenda were deleted. Message? That the politically correct view was confirmed by the whole panel.)

Media "catechism" dominates American culture. It will dominate you unless you make some effort to think things through, to think for yourself. That's what it's going to take - an effort.

Media 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Historic Christian thought occupies a fraction of the space it used to in America's public life. Imagine how unlikely it would be today that public schools would excuse students two hours/week to attend catechism class at their church, as some of you remember from your childhood.

Take this article which I cited last week as a small example. It's a report by a reputable public resource (WebMd) on a study done by the University of Washington School of Medicine which predicts the peak of world population.

The study doesn't just report on world population. It issues warnings and recommends policies that come from secular values.

Historic Christian thought and policy tends to be based on the inherent sacred value of human life (Genesis 1:27) and therefore opposes abortion on demand. The UW study supports abortion on demand, with the warning "women's reproductive rights must not be compromised."

The study also warns that U.S. immigration rates may fall dangerously low, when the actual number of foreign-born persons living in the U.S. last year had climbed to 13.7%, almost triple the percentage that lived in the U.S. in 1970. It's a non-fact and a claim based on . . what, a political agenda or an ideological narrative?

image

(cont'd tomorrow)

Media 1

Some of you went to "catechism" class at your church as a child where you and your friends had lessons about Christianity. Those two hours per week instructed you to think in a Christian way about life, God, and values.

Then you graduated and catechism stopped. No more instruction in how or what to think. You might still learn a bit about the Christian worldview now from church sermons. Or not. 

You may or may not hear Christian teaching today, but there's no doubt that you get instructed in secular culture. Catechism of the secular variety is almost in the air we breathe. Do you watch streaming shows? Read your Google feed headlines? Social platforms? You're learning intolerance of any sexual restraint, and that religion in general is nonsense, just to mention a couple of lessons. 

200 streaming services

Every single day media brings you lessons in how to think like the cultural elite. In the absence of biblical teaching, Christians will learn “not from churches, but from the media they consume, or rather the media that consumes them.”

(cont'd tomorrow)

Less ignorant 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Hans made three points while surveying his audience in the TED talk regarding girls' education, natural disaster survival, and decline of abject poverty, all global in scope.  His fourth point was that people in general are ignorant of the good news about the first three points.

Here's an hour-long documentary demonstrating all of that. See the progress for one Mozambique family: "It's so great seeing Olivia and Andrea pedaling their way out of extreme poverty!" Their newly purchased bicycle eliminates hours of walking to sell their crops, bring water, and go to literacy class.

A vivid illustration shows why global population will decline after peaking in only a few decades. Global population is expected to peak at 9.7 billion around 2064. After that, it will decline. And there will be more old people than young people.

Less ignorant 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Hans started "Gapminder" to help people develop a view of the world that is based on facts, that is, information that represents reality.  I think it's a worthy labor. As he says in the talk, we need "to know about the present" in order to think clearly about the future. 

There's good news that should be told. About a billion people have risen out of abject poverty over the last ~30 years. Why don't people know it? Maybe because they get their news from the world of entertainment (you know the standard, "if it bleeds it leads").

We discover that, contrary to conventional wisdom,  most girls in the world are educated, natural disasters kill far fewer people, and there are far fewer in desperate poverty today than just a few years ago.

Perhaps the reporting of news is somewhat agenda-driven. Maybe it serves some ideology to emphasize the bad news and under-report the improvements, the good news.

Gapminder's bubble charts look like this:

Have fun with them here.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Less ignorant 1

 Here is that charismatic, number-crunching Swede, Hans Rosling, determined to make us all "less ignorant about the world." As usual, his audience loves it.

Apparently we have incorrect impressions about the world. Hans gives us data-based evidence so we can correct our impressions.

Answer his survey questions at the beginning of the video for yourself and see how you compare to other audiences including Swedes, Americans, and chimpanzees.

Fats & carbs 2

Do you rely on government to inform your daily choices? Maybe all of us should do a little more of our own thinking because the government is not always right.

As our food choices over the last ~60 years have gradually conformed to the government-sponsored food pyramid, we as a people have become sicker and more overweight. It's not what we wanted.

Clarify

Conversation is a pleasure for me and probably for you too. Maybe you enjoyed some good ones with family or friends over Thanksgiving weekend. Or maybe your conversations included some that should have been pleasant and meaningful but were frustrating and unpleasant.

In this day of polarizing points of view, making civil connections with people may require a little more effort so that anger and contempt don't wreck the relationship. 

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Alan Schlemon puts a lot of effort into good conversations. Misunderstanding each other can put us off track quickly, so he recommends this tactic: find out what they mean before you react to what they say.

It's a simple thing. Ask, "what do you mean by that?" Or put it in your own words. You want to give them the opportunity to explain their thought. It shows respect. Understanding will grow.

from str

Dinner cost '21

An unprecedented lockdown of business and public life like we had in 2020 affects us all in ways that are inevitable. One of those effects is higher prices of goods throughout the economy. You've seen this where you live. In groceries? Sure.

Every fall the U.S. Farm Bureau analyzes food prices to tell us how much a typical Thanksgiving dinner costs us compared to previous years. That number often falls, but not this year. Their survey finds that our holiday dinner for ten in 2021 costs $53.31, a 14% uptick from 2020. 

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On the other hand, wages (blue collar hourly wages) have gone up too, so the work-time cost has gone up less than 14%. 

Compared to the year 1986, the cost in work-time based on wages is way lower.

Thanksgiving '21

In a recent conversation with a friend, I was surprised to discover that he doesn't admire thankfulness. His image of gratitude is more like servile groveling. 

Is gratitude politically incorrect now? Has it been replaced by a sense of entitlement? Maybe it has. But he probably appreciates a "thank you" when he gives a thoughtful gift. 

“When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.”

Gratitude is a virtue. It's good to cultivate it. 

Fair for all 4

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Here's another video from FAIR's "Fairstory" curriculum that I want to post for you.  FAIR makes the case for ethical behavior, but not from the Christian perspective that is my view. 

They try to make the case for morality, for beneficence, for fair and just behavior toward other people - from a materialist (no God) point of view. The explanation is that caring for other individuals in your species is an elevated evolutionary achievement that simply evolved among humans, ants and bees.

A question might occur to you: "why does she cast approving attention on a non-Christian view?" Glad you asked. As a Christian, I will stand with this organization for what is good . .  even though I believe the Creator of this universe (God) is the author of right and wrong, not elevated evolution.

Moral truth is a thing. 

from FAIR

to be continued sometime

Fair for all 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Historical facts are taught within the value system of the teacher or author.  Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts. The factual distortions of the "1619 Project" don't convince us of its claim that America is hopelessly racist.

FAIR developed a curriculum to:  "empower students to confront racism and bigotry which depend on a dehumanizing emphasis on racial difference . . . FAIRstory presents an honest account of the past and present, teaching students to think for themselves by engaging deeply with original sources, multiple perspectives, and opposing viewpoints on important events."

The first video in its series lays an overview of slavery's global history:

from FAIR

(cont'd tomorrow)

Fair for all 2

To demonize any race and all its members - in America or anywhere else in the world - is unfair.  Beyond unfairness, it is also dangerous because it could be your race that is demonized next. Instead of revenge against whiteness, the right goal is to be fair to all. That's the goal of FAIR, Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism. 

In case you missed it, here's a re-post from last July. Please watch this multi-racial founder explain why he thinks we should all be pro-human.

Fair for All

Opposition to CRT, or "critical theory," or whatever it will be called next, is not confined to one race or tribe or gender or political party. Recently on this blog you've seen parents and a teacher and people of three different races speaking up. Today's post features a fourth race.

We (include me) take a stand against demonizing any race and turning Americans into enemies of each other -- against telling kids they must affirm stories they don't believe, telling them that their neighbors hold them back, shaming them for sins they did not commit.

To affirm a pro-human stand on these issues, the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism was recently organized. 

Learn to hate 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

The 1619 Project was written for a purpose, with an agenda. Its author wanted to "re-frame" American history such that the evil of slavery is its heart - not freedom or religious liberty, nothing worthy of respect, so that white citizens are ashamed of their skin and will pay large sums to wash away their guilt. 

To convince us all of this, she uses distorted interpretations and falsified stories, per the historians' assessments. 

To modify the Revolutionary War expert's summary in yesterday's post ("We all want justice but not at the expense of truth"), I would say some of us want justice. But it's wrong to make up your own facts/stories to get there. 

New classroom curriculums are available that try to address slavery accurately. Fact-based curriculums.

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(cont'd next week)

Learn to hate 2

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

Power-holders at the influential New York Times are in sync with Howard Zinn's textbook.

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Calling it investigative journalism, they published (2019) The 1619 Project. The project's author, Nikole Hannah-Jones, doesn't want to teach history with it, but to force "white people to give up whiteness," to repudiate their own race.  Or, if that can't be accomplished, then they should just pay money to black people (reparations).

It's not good history, as many historians have stepped up to say. A leading historian of the American Revolution says that The 1619 Project is a "displacement of historical understanding by ideology." 

Hannah-Jones claims that the Revolutionary War (1776-5-1783) was not fought to win freedom, but to protect slavery. However, that historian says, when her facts are wrong and her interpretations are perverse and distorted, the project has no credibility: "Far from preserving slavery the North saw the Revolution as an opportunity to abolish the institution . . . We all want justice, but not at the expense of truth."

None of this kept the school systems of Chicago, Buffalo NY, and others from adopting the project as school curriculum.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Learn to hate 1

Maybe you wonder - whether you live here or anywhere else in the world - what's happened to the U.S. Years ago, both immigrants and Americans loved America. Love for this country now is just tolerated, and in some parts of the country it might be dangerous to fly the flag. 

What's really surprising is that anyone still loves America. School children for decades have been indoctrinated by the book of a man full of hate.

No degree 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Yesterday's blogger, Hope, is glad she didn't pay the price to get a college degree. She doesn't stand alone in her opinion. She's part of a trend that includes some big names and big companies.

Tim Cook (Apple CEO) agrees. Only about half of all employees of Apple in 2018 had four-year degrees. And of course, the company's famous founder Steve Jobs never got one.

A list of other companies that don't require them from their workers includes Google, IBM, Bank of America, and more. 

"Exceptional ability" is not proved with a degree according to Elon Musk. He says college is  more for having fun than for learning. He likes to ask applicants this question: what problems have you solved?

Peter Thiel believes higher education is both corrupt and overpriced: "There's been an incredible escalation in price without corresponding improvements in the product, and yet people still believe that college is just something that you have to do. Whenever something is overvalued and intensely believed, that's a sign of a bubble."

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No degree

This weekend I met a bright young woman who really thought things through after high school, and decided to opt out of college. It's a counter-cultural choice to forego something that many high school girls think is a must-have.

But Hope says, "The degree is dead. It’s time to burn your resume." An employer wants to know just this: "can you do the job excellently, and are you willing to grow? If you can, and you have a great attitude, I couldn’t care less whether you went to Harvard or not."

Your new employer will learn that from your "value signaling" -- how you demonstrate to him/her that you will do an excellent job and that you will grow in the job. 

Before Hope had experience and a track record to help her show her value, she sent a video pitch. According to the hiring manager, that video was the reason she got the interview.

from Hope's blog

(cont'd tomorrow)

Navy SEAL Rob

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

No U.S. troops are on the ground in Afghanistan for the first time in 21 years. That's the longest lasting war we've ever been in. Over 800,000 total were deployed there, 2400 died there, and another 20,000 were wounded there - physically. There's no count of how many came home with invisible wounds. 

Navy SEAL Rob Sarver served nine years, twice deployed to combat in Afghanistan. One of his best friends in BUD/S training as well as in two deployments to Iraq, Brendan, was killed there at the age of 29.

Rob is no longer in the service. As a veteran, here are his Veterans' Day thoughts:

"For me personally, I am thankful for those who served before me, my family included, whose sacrifices were greater than mine. I am honored to have carried forward their sacrifice . . in the service of each other to honor those before us and support each other to accomplish the mission: to defend the Constitution."

When he retired in 2013, he left behind an intense brotherhood. The invisible wounds he carried home with him are feelings of grief and the loss of bonds he can't re-create in civilian life.

from Stream

Choose to live

Today is the specially designated day in the U.S. when we thank our military veterans for their service. 

We also find that, in addition to thanks, they may need encouragement. Veterans are committing suicide at a rate half-again as big as the non-vet rate. And among non-veterans, the rate is 33% bigger than 20 years ago. Something chilling is happening to us that squeezes the hope out of people.

"Don't die for a lie." Choose to live. That's the message of a music video released today, Veterans' Day. Your life means something. Don't cast away your hope.

from Stream

(cont'd tomorrow)

500M installs

"You Version" was one of the first 200 free apps in the App Store back in 2008. It gives you the Bible online.

Today they're celebrating 500 million installs. Why celebrate? From their website:

"We wholeheartedly believe a daily rhythm of seeking intimacy with God has the power to transform lives. Our hope is that each person in our community is on an active journey to become who God made them to be, abiding in Him, and drawing closer every day."

 

"There's a power in believing and lining yourself up with God's word," says Dr. Bernice A. King, daughter of Martin Luther King.

Andy Mineo says, "God can handle our outbursts, our emotions . . I want the truth of the Bible to live in me . . ."

from You Version

FB Deepface 2

So Facebook "will no longer deploy facial recognition technologies on its platform." Good to know, since people today are uneasy about what could happen to their private information in the hands of public entities.

But Meta (fb's parent company) is not making that promise. 

image

They are going to keep and use Deepface, the algorithm that powered fb's photo-tagging feature by linking user photos with facial pattern templates. A spokesperson for Meta says they think they can continue to work with it for "positive" uses.

That's not all. Meta "aims to build a virtual, internet-based simulation where people can interact as avatars." So they need ways to identify individuals. They're exploring "biometrics" for that purpose, body measurements that can be used like facial recognition templates. Other examples that can be used in addition to the human face are fingerprints, DNA, iris or retina recognition, and more. Biometrics to control access and verify identity are already being used by countries listed here. 

What could go wrong? It's not as if someone would ever use our identities for some bad purpose.

FB & DeepFace

Is Facebook eliminating facial recognition? Yes. No. Both answers are true, and neither of them reveal the whole picture. Sometimes a media headline leaves out something significant.

First, the "yes" details. Jerome Presenti, VP of artificial intelligence at Meta (fb's parent company), says: 'Meta will shut down the Face Recognition system on Facebook . . people who have opted in to our Face Recognition setting will no longer be automatically recognized in photos and videos, and we will delete the facial recognition template used to identify them."

That will amount to "more than 1 billion people’s individual facial recognition templates." A billion is a lot of people, considering that U.S. population is 330 million, and the population of the whole world is 7.8 billion.

Did they all trust Facebook to create a digitally recognizable visual of their own face? That could identify them in any picture or video posted in the world forever? That's a lot of trust. 

But no worries, because now all that visual personal ID is going to be destroyed . . right?

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(cont'd tomorrow)

Vertical farm 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Controlled environment agriculture (CEA) can yield crops at 100x the per-square-foot productivity of a flatland farm by scaling vertically. They use much less water, no pesticides, and the crops don't have to adapt to weather in any way. 

But light is available to traditional farmland for free in the form of sunlight. Not so for vertical trays or towers of lettuce indoors. Light, in fact, is expensive. Recent advances in LED lighting (a doubling of its efficiency coupled with a big drop in its cost) have cut the operational expenses of these farms to the point where they can now provide about 5% of all our produce.

In a mostly-free market like ours, individual customers choose which businesses will survive. They pick the product which serves their needs best and which is offered at a price they are willing to pay. That's the sweet spot these farmer-entrepreneurs want to find.

Vertical farm 1

Over 330 million people in the United States are fed by our efficient, productive agricultural system. But the system has been changing as entrepreneurs figure out how to make it better. 

"Vertical farming" breaks traditional farming methods by going vertical (up) instead of horizontal (across the flat ground). These "farms" are located in city buildings where compact plants grow in high stacks of trays or in vertical towers.  

City stores and customers have access to produce that's much fresher than regular produce often coming from hundreds or thousands of miles away. A supply chain that long drains 45% of the produce's nutritional value.

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Water usage is an issue: global agriculture uses 70% of the world's fresh water. But vertical farms need much less, up to 95% less water than farms growing produce in the ground. That's a significant difference.

But vertical farming doesn't solve every problem. Trade-offs must be figured in if they are to survive.

(cont'd tomorrow)

from Inc.

Not de-funded

Yesterday was election day in Minneapolis and there's good news - the city still has a police department. With 94% of the precincts reporting, about 56% of the votes went against replacing it with a department of "public safety."

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Since the city protests after the killing of George Floyd (summer of 2020), the City Council has been pushing to de-fund the police. The plan was criticized for its vagueness and how much responsibility would have been given to the current mayor and council to organize the new department.

from Forbes

Note: Today is opening day at some theaters for "The Most Reluctant Convert," the life and journey of C.S. Lewis from cynical materialism to Christianity