Proactive mom

Moms want their kids to have a good education. This immigrant mom was not impressed with what she saw in her local school system.

Watch what happened when she ran for school board in California.

Black education

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

Easy to see why charter schools have waiting lists of hopeful families.  Their student bodies are no richer or whiter than students at NY traditional public schools, but their test scores are significantly better. 

Economist Thomas Sowell says there are a million families all over the country on waiting lists. Why must they wait? Since it's well known which schools are best for student learning, there should be many new charter schools popping up as well as increasing capacity for the ones now operating.

But, no. The frustrated Dr. Sowell says that "dirty tricks" are used to "sabotage" charter schools. Some states put a limit on how many charter schools they will allow, by law. In some cities, empty school buildings are sold to developers with a provision that they will never again be used as a school.

Who is wielding this kind of political power? School boards and teachers' unions financially support willing politicians. Lots of jobs and money would leave the traditional system if those million students got out of it and into charter schools. 

Dr. Sowell thinks minority students are held back not by racism but rather by "plain old selfishness on the part of traditional public school officials and teachers unions protecting their own vested interests."

from "Black Education Matters"

NY schools K-12

Of the 4,422 public schools in the state of New York, 351 of them are charter schools, set up by groups of parents/teachers to achieve specific educational goals as an alternative to the local public system. They can't charge tuition or be religiously affiliated. They're available as a different educational choice, funded by taxpayers just as other public schools are.

Charter schools have the best results by far. Amazingly, 23 of the best 30 public schools in New York are charters based on test scores. Why do they achieve their mission so much more successfully than traditional NY public schools?

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Some say that poverty drags down the performance of traditional public schools. But . . two-thirds of charter student bodies qualify for free or discounted lunches. They're far from rich.

Some say that minorities underperform at traditional public schools because of systemic racism. But . . charters are less white, with 80% of the student bodies being black or Hispanic minorities. Somehow the learning gap disappears for minorities at charter schools.

from WSJ

from NYSED Data

from School Digger

(cont'd tomorrow)

Body defense 2

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

Next, those macrophages (yesterday's post) send parts of the now-dead invaders to a certain kind of T-cell. A few of them will recognize that information about the invader and they reproduce many of their kind to help in this battle.

B-cells have different, amazing roles. They paint invader cells with an antigen that attracts granulocytes and macrophages so they can destroy those bad guys. They also coat invader cells with an antibody that prevents it from attaching to your cells. And . . they record the characteristics of these invaders and remember them in their genes.

All these parts of your immune system operate on the chemical level, with zero direction or even awareness from you.

"Our God-given immune systems are beautiful and powerful. The cells that fight foreign invaders are the true heroes in any pandemic. When we choose . . a lifestyle of health, we give our “troops” everything they need to fight against pandemic diseases and run-of-the-mill infections."

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from Dr. Don Colbert at The Stream

Body defense 1

Without our conscious knowledge, the defense team within us defends us from viruses, bacteria, physical invaders of all kinds. 

Barriers of skin and mucous membrane stop the vast majority of threats from finding entrance into our bodies every day. The skin acts as a wall, while mucous membranes trap pathogens (disease-causing organisms) before they do damage on the inside. If pathogens get beyond these two barriers, they are met by our genius system of protection.

image

Your interior first responder is the granulocyte, a type of white blood cell. It is first on the scene when an invader gets through the skin (ex: a cut or scrape) or mucous membranes. They gather in big numbers and begin to digest the invaders, usually dying at the battle site.

Next to arrive is another type of white blood cell called the macrophage. It identifies the invaders' special characteristics and attacks with cytokines, "uniquely tailored chemicals" that may also give you a fever and sleepiness. These cells then alert other parts of the immune system.

Our elegant and effective system protects us from pandemics . . 

from The Stream

(cont'd tomorrow)

Student wins

When immigrants come to America, they expect more freedoms and more opportunities because the U.S.  constitution (where rights are spelled out) is still strongly defended by law and tradition. You'd think that all citizens would be well aware of that. But no, the protection of these rights is sometimes tested. 

Chike Uzuegbunam was born to parents who came to the U.S. from Nigeria. As a student at Georgia Gwinnett College in 2016, he would talk about his religious faith. He was told he could do that only in the "speech zone" which amounted to 0.0015% of the campus. He complied with the restriction, and then campus police threatened him with discipline if he continued. 

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He sued the college, and eventually the Supreme Court issued an opinion in his favor, with eight of the nine judges in agreement. Georgia Gwinnett College must honor the American right to speak freely, and their "offensive speech code" is not allowed to overturn it.

from Becket Law

Just wrong

This man thinks that Facebook's founder rules, in a sense, over two billion people - and he just thinks it's wrong. This is not the opinion of some random guy, but the opinion of the Global Planning lead at Facebook. I hope he has some other career path open to him.

Here is one of the points he makes in the following video. We tend to think that computers have no bias. That's true. But the human beings who write the code that computer programs operate with . . do have bias. For example: if a politician wishes to find racist voters, an algorithm can identify data points which the programmer feels indicate racism such as his/her religious practice, home town, education background. "I can target racist people using just those three things."

He says, "I work for a company that is doing a lot of damage in the world . . . Facebook and Google must be stopped."

You'll see the journalist near the end of this video tell him that she intends to release their conversation "to the American people." She asks him if he would like to go on record to help stop the activity he has condemned. His answer is, "No."

If this interests you and you'd like to see this video, you should probably watch it asap. You know who owns youtube. (Also read the comments.)

Fb's new eye

 (satire from The Babylon Bee)

While fighting scandal for the unauthorized transfer of its users' personal data for political reasons, Facebook mounted a big new "lidless eye of Sauron" (ref: LOTR) on its headquarters. The surveillance device will detect evil thoughts, especially those about Facebook or Mark Zuckerberg. 

"Reading everyone’s profiles and harvesting all their private data is great, but the Lidless Eye will help us be much more efficient in our shady use of people’s personal lives,” Zuckerberg said.

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Big Censors 3

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

Big tech companies seem to think they can get by with forbidding/eliminating/censoring things they don't like: Amazon eliminates books for sale, Facebook shuts down accounts, Twitter bans people from their site - because they are the judge of what's best for you.

Do we hear both sides of controversial issues impartially, or do we completely trust them - the technology billionaires - to feed us their opinion about right and wrong?

We all know that Google and Facebook track our internet activity - so that the ads can help us buy things, of course. But it goes quite a bit further than that.

"[S]ince August of 2019, they’ve been using a tool called “Off-Facebook Activity” to see EXTERNAL browsing activity. In other words, they’re watching everything you do, not just through Facebook. According to this story, “All websites visited and many phone apps send Facebook a user’s digital activity . . "

I remember when fb was just a fun way to keep in touch with friends and family.

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Big censors 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

What does a government anti-trust committee have to do with big tech? Big companies in the late 1800's became huge by buying out their competition. But competition between businesses gave customers a choice in prices and in quality. When the resulting "trusts" held so much power that competition was unfairly eliminated, the government went after them. 

Competition makes businesses serve their market better, because competing businesses offer different product prices and qualities so that customers have more choices. Competition is good for ideas as well as for products. If Google, for example, pretends to do an impartial internet search for you - but gives you only pages they approve/prefer, is that fair or accurate? 

That's why the anti-trust committee investigates big tech. Like very big companies in the past, they may think they can get by with excessive power over all of us who go to them whether it's for products or ideas.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Big censors 1

 Americans have always valued the right of every person to speak their opinion. It's in the foundational document of our republic, the Constitution. 

Today the "town square" or marketplace where ideas are discussed freely is not only your city's public grounds (as it was when the constitution was written), but also social media sites on the internet. Powerful social media companies have taken it upon themselves in some cases to silence people, to forbid ideas they don't like.

The state of Texas may be moving to stop that trend. The governor says, “Texas is standing against big tech political censorship.” A state senator has sponsored legislation to stop a “handful of billionaires in Silicon Valley” from forbidding speech.

Texas state capitol

Voices on the opposite political side from that of the Texas governor also believe that big tech must be reined in. For example, the U.S. congressman chair of the House Judiciary subcommittee on anti-trust activity wants those tech companies broken up.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Moon plan duo

Russia and China plan to build a research station either on, or in orbit of, the moon. It was announced last week as a "memorandum of understanding," and there is no published time frame as yet. But the plan is a joint project.

China National Space Administration and Russia's federal space agency, ROSCOSMOS, will cooperate together on the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) to "promote humanity’s exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purpose[s]." 

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For both the ILRS and NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO, see yesterday's post), the mission is to facilitate research. America will no longer be the only nation with a long-term lunar presence when Russia and China accomplish their plan.

America's Artemis program, to send the first woman and next man to the moon by 2024, still stands at this time. But "some space policy experts have said they expect that target date to slip under [the current administration]." It wouldn't be the first time that political change has quashed goals relating to space exploration, because those goals require long-term financial commitment that holds beyond elections. 

Moonscapes

"The moon remembers everything in the last four-and-a-half billion years," says Noah Petro, Project Scientist for NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). Without wind, water, or molten rock to erase geologic history, everything that hits the moon leaves a mark.

Noah explains the significance of some of the craters in this 3-minute video.

As a scientist, he appreciates the data - but he appreciates the beauty of the images as well.

For a beautiful combination, this video combines moonscapes with the famous "Clair de Lune" (English translation, "Moonlight") by French composer Claude Debussy.

Evidential 3

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

As he read the gospels in the Bible (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John), he noticed that the authors claimed to be eye-witnesses who were telling what they saw and heard. Their accounts were not intended as fiction. Genuine claims of history and location were made, claims which could be verified by archaeology.

painting

Again, Wallace applied his knowledge of criminal investigations and trials. Eye-witnesses are considered reliable if:

1.  They were really present to see what they report
2.  Other evidence can corroborate their report
3. They've been honest and accurate over time
4. There's no personal motive or bias to lie about it

He says, "When we apply this investigative template to the authors of the Gospels . .  they survive remarkably as reliable witnesses, especially when compared to other accurate historians of antiquity."

J. Warner Wallace became convinced that Christianity's claims are true. Then he became one. He wrote the book Cold-Case Christianity about all this material.

from Cold-Case Christianity, his website

Evidential 2

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

Wallace had no interest in God or Christianity, but he went to church to please his wife when they had kids. He heard things about Jesus Christ that he believed to be false, but he bought a Bible to read so he could check it out for himself. 

Narrative - the story telling which he discovered - surprised him because he had thought the Bible would be all about platitudes. Not so. The narratives contained events, people, details, statements that were either true or false. He automatically read the gospels along the lines of his special training: looking for evidence of deception.

He didn't find that. What he found looked to him like eye-witness accounts, eye-witnesses who were telling the truth. 

 He liked what he read in Luke 7. John the Baptist sent his followers to Jesus with a question: are you the one we've been waiting for? Jesus could have said, "You should have more faith!" But instead of that, he told them to go back to John with the evidence of the things they had seen him do and say. Wallace says that Jesus is evidential.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Evidential 1

Sometimes crimes go un-solved by the police. Sometimes, for example, a murderer is never found and the family's longing for justice is never satisfied. The trail of evidence may be meager to start with, and then it grows cold over the years.

J. Warner Wallace was a detective in Los Angeles. He took a closer look at old evidence and old statements by people who may not even be alive anymore. 

Sometimes, though, he was able to interview the same people who gave testimony to investigators originally. Time may have dulled their memory, but he looked for more than memories. 

A witness or suspect would write an account of his observations or activities. Using a technique called Forensic Statement Analysis, Wallace would look for signs of deception to give him clues regarding the truth or falsehood of the testimony.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Change

Jordan Peterson's challenge, "Fix yourself," does not mean "Grovel in submission to a bad situation." Rather, there is room for you to grow more like the person you wish you were. Look for some wisdom here. To know that you can change is empowering.

EV is backup

Texas was unexpectedly hit hard with bitterly cold temperatures last month. Intense winter weather happens here in Minnesota too. But since we get it every single winter, we're always ready with routine snow removal and emergency plans. 

It's a little different in Texas. Their largest electricity provider warned that there would be power outages. Record-setting demand for power far out-stripped what the utility companies could do. Over four million customers lost all power. Some had no heat, no water, no lights for hours or for days. And no hot food. 

This is where electric vehicles (EV) came to the rescue for some. 

Tesla owners in San Antonio had charged their car to 90% just the day before the storm. They charged their phones and slept in their Model S:

"When the temperature inside the house dipped below 50F, my wife and I put our six cats in their carriers and stacked them in the back seat . . .

"The temperature in the garage was 33F. We ran the heater for eight hours in Camp mode one night and we were able to sleep in comfort at 69 degrees. We only used 17% of the battery charge for those eight hours. We did this for three nights on one charge. We were able to keep our phones charged which allowed us to keep in contact with our families. Thank God for the Tesla."

New credit 3

 (cont'd from last Friday's post)

Max Levchin, that billionaire at Affirm, had some things going for him that helped him succeed.

His mother had to learn computer coding when they lived in the Ukraine, so she insisted that he learn too. He readily grasped the skill, was good at it, and loved it. Coding was central to the companies he started. Then the family moved to America where there's more opportunity to innovate and develop dreams.

But skill and opportunity alone were not enough. They were just raw material. More than skill and opportunity were needed to develop entrepreneurial success. Max had more.

As a college student, he tried to start four businesses. They all failed. Most of us - because I'm afraid that includes me - would have figured it's over, not doing that again. But Max kept trying things. He often failed to convince people with money to invest in his ideas. But he didn't go the pity party route. He kept trying.

It's called Perseverance. It's a virtue.

from Startups

Help the poor 2

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

Entitlements are not sufficient to raise the living standard of the poor. It happens in a context, in a favorable environment where "more things are more affordable to more people." And who makes that happen? Business and science innovators. As explained by Thomas Sowell:

"That’s what a man named Sam Walton did when he created Wal-Mart, a boon to people with modest incomes . . . In the process, Sam Walton became rich. Was that the “greed” that you have heard your college classmates and professors denounce so smugly? If so, it has been such “greed” that has repeatedly brought prices down and thereby brought the American standard of living up.

"It was Thomas Edison who brought us electricity, not the Sierra Club . . . It was Henry Ford who ended the isolation of millions of Americans by making the automobile affordable, not Ralph Nader.

"Those who have helped the poor the most have not been those who have gone around loudly expressing 'compassion' for the poor, but those who found ways to make industry more productive and distribution more efficient so that the poor of today can afford things that the affluent of yesterday could only dream about."

from Carpe Diem

Help the poor 1

America and nations around the world claim they want to help the poor, and in most cases really intend to. There is some disagreement with how that can happen. 

Enormous sums of money are directed to that end. Food stamps and many helping programs are available from U.S. levels of government, including social workers who help guide folks through the system.

But the programs which work best - and accomplish the most help to the poor - operate in "rich" countries where a lot of "wealth" exists to (as they say) "spread around." Entitlement programs do not stand alone. 

Thomas Sowell, one of our most admired intellectuals, understands this. He gets what makes a society richer:

"Would you like to see more things become more affordable to more people? Then figure out more efficient ways of producing things or more efficient ways of getting those things from the producers to the consumers at a lower cost."

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How does that work? 

from Carpe Diem

(cont'd tomorrow)

Space solar 2

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

Space-based solar power (SBSP) could help supply earth with renewable energy. Captured solar radiation could travel a laser or microwave beam down to the planet's surface where it would be transformed into electricity and relayed to an electrical grid.

Potential is there. The technology to make this idea feasible is not yet. According to a policy analyst speaking last fall, SBSP "is probably a couple of generations away from being hooked into the terrestrial power grid."

But innovators and scientists are working toward solutions. In fact, China plans to build a space-based power station by 2035.

  

The analyst urged the United States to accelerate the effort, to "think about the kind of benefits that will fall to those who master the technology of wireless transmission of huge amounts of power over long distances."

from Interesting Engineering

Space solar 1

Solar arrays power the International Space Station and satellites. That technology, the ability to deploy solar panels in space, exists and is used right now. What if that power, at a much bigger volume, could be transferred to the surface of earth? 

Nasa

Potentially it could solve surface-based solar collection problems, improve human lives, and reduce the need for fossil fuels.

Panels on earth are subject to weather, air-born dirt, and lack of sunlight at night and on cloudy days. Arrays could be placed in space such that they always operate in light; earth weather and dirt would also not be a factor above the atmosphere.

On the other hand, different challenges would apply: primarily, how to transmit enormous amounts of solar-collected energy over very long distances.

(cont'd tomorrow)