Local parents 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

So the NSBA has backed down from its accusation that dissenting parents are terrorists. Good. But the U.S. Attorney General has not backed away from ordering the FBI to go after those dissenting parents. Bad. Parents have a right to watch over their kids' school experience and dissent when they see fit.

But are the parents violent? That, of course, would be unlawful. But check out this example in the NSBA letter of "violence" by dissenting parents:

A Loudoun County VA school district parent was called last spring and asked to come to the school about his daughter's "altercation" in the bathroom. It turned out that the police came and escorted the girl to the hospital for a rape exam which produced positive evidence, and the boy involved was charged and later found guilty.

The school board met weeks later to adopt a bathroom policy based on gender identity. The girl's mom and dad objected because the boy who raped their daughter in the bathroom was wearing a skirt. The superintendent flat-out lied that they had never had an assault in a bathroom. The parents were upset. The dad was pinned to the ground by police. 

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That's their example of "violence." The Attorney General should rescind his order to the FBI to target dissenting parents when it's based on examples like this.

from AEI

Local parents 1

(follow-up to Oct. 8 post)

Local school boards across America have their own state associations, and the state associations belong to the National School Boards Association (NSBA). The national association is run by executives and staff, all of whom answer to its own Board of Directors . . and that board made a huge course correction last Friday.

In a September 29 letter to the White House which was written by NSBA executives, parents who protest the policies of their local school boards are compared to violent "domestic terrorists" and the executives wanted the federal government to take action against them.

Parents across the country were understandably shocked and angry.

The course correction came in a letter from NSBA's Board of Directors to all its association members saying they "regret and apologize" for the Sept. 29 letter, and that "there was no justification for some of the language included in the letter.” 

So the corrected position of the National School Board Association is that parents who lift their  voices at local school board meetings are not to be called terrorists. A step back from the brink.

from NYPost

(cont'd tomorrow)

Space mining

No longer is activity in space limited to nations with big budgets. In the U.S., NASA changed their way of operating to a model of cooperation with private businesses (like SpaceX) who do all the building while working with NASA's expertise. 

Rocket launches, though, are not the only thing being done in space by private businesses. For example, harvesting solar power from outside our atmosphere is the goal of some. 

Another idea being considered is to mine asteroids for metals we need on earth. 

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Asteroid 16 Psyche is a large one between Mars and Jupiter, made mostly of metal (like a planet core) rather than the typical rock or ice. It's just right for mining, but far away and still years off. NASA plans a mission simply to orbit and document it by 2026.

Two smaller metal-rich asteroids are much closer and may be a better bet for mining. If it can be done, it could be a game changer for future technology on earth because one of them seems to contain more iron, nickel and cobalt than all earth's reserves.

from Forbes

Dads step up

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

These dads are not experts. They were not trained by experts to handle crises or advise teenagers or counsel other people's kids. They probably don't even have extraordinary wisdom. They are probably ordinary dads who have learned a thing or two in their lives.

So often we don't think we can make a difference because . . we're not experts, we don't have a degree, we don't have a certificate of training, etc. But we can offer what we do have and sometimes it's enough.

Maybe we can find a way to make a difference. John Stonestreet says we should ask ourselves these four questions:

• what good can I celebrate?
• what evil must I oppose?
• what's broken that I can fix?
• what's missing that I can offer?

from Breakpoint

Note: this story and its video (yesterday's post) went viral with 10 million views because it's regular people taking action to address a real problem without despair, without blaming others

Good outcome 2

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, and stepped 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.

from CBS

Noah's boat?

Ararat is the region where Noah's ark came to rest after the Biblical flood (Genesis 8:4). According to one Bible scholar, it happened around 2300 B.C.

So far, no artefact has been positively identified as the ancient boat. But there's a site in that region of Turkey that's being investigated. It seems the right size and shape. The right number of floors (3) have been detected with scanning technology.

The researcher is excited about it - it would be an amazing discovery - though he doesn't claim that it for sure is Noah's ark. Time will tell. Turkey (99% Muslim) has a team of archaeologists who are also involved. The Quran has a story similar to the Bible's.

Anti-aging 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Irreversibly damaged cells that somehow escape normal self-destruct mechanisms continue to build up and cause health problems over the years. Oisin Biotechnologies explains it:

"When cells detect that they have been irreversibly damaged, they enter a non-dividing condition [called] senescence . . . Ideally, they should die by the process known as apoptosis, but as we age, more and more frequently they don’t. They become zombie cells – unable to kill themselves or resume normal function.

"Senescent cells secrete molecules that cause inflammation in an effort to attract immune cells that would usually clear them. But for reasons that are not fully known, as we age, persistently senescent cells accumulate, leading to a vast number of age-related diseases."

So their goal is to improve health and lifespan by targeting senescent cells and destroying them. "Significant" success was achieved, so far, in the testing of their therapy on aged mice. 

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Anti-aging 1

It's hard to watch people we care about lose some of their abilities, decline as they grow older, and eventually succumb to a disease of old age. But we're all resigned to it because it's inevitable.

Well, actually, not all of us are resigned to it. Some are resolved to fight it. An anti-aging movement has been going on among biomedical researchers for many years. ("Fight Aging!" can be an educational resource for you; start with their FAQ.)

image

Damage to our cells that accumulates over the years is the dominant theory to explain why our bodies decline with age. Damaged cells are programmed to self-destruct, a process that produces billions of destroyed cells in our bodies daily. But a small number of damaged cells continue to live on in their damaged state and that causes problems. 

Hope to solve the problem of damaged cells is driving some new start-up businesses. 

from Mind Matters

(cont'd tomorrow)

#Sacrificial

Self-sacrificial love is a real thing. But you won't see the following kind of story anywhere in mainstream media. When missionaries are mentioned in MSM, it tends not to be good.

But there's a lot more to the story.

Re-post:

David and Laurie Vanderpool live in Haiti; they expect to die there. David is a surgeon. They provide clean water, medical care, and food to the poor. They could have air conditioning, fine food, comfort and entertainment in America. But to give their lives to the Haitian poor, they had to give it up. They're Christian missionaries.

They are attacked sometimes by those who practice voodoo. It's a powerful force. "My wife has been held at gunpoint and pistol-whipped. And had a knife to her throat. I know to American ears that sounds sort of, that sounds horrible, you know?" 

Yes, it does.

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Why would anyone live like this when they could have lived a comfortable life? Because they believe God wants them there, and because they think the good they do for the people of Haiti is worth it. 

They see beauty in a life of sacrifice. 

Bond

(cont'd from last Friday's post)

Everyone knows what the James Bond movie franchise thrives on: glamor, guns, suspense, plots, danger, heroism - and they are all there (except, thankfully, for the usual provocative sex) in the new release, "No Time to Die." Last Friday I saw it, and saw something more.

All those regular Bond elements brought people to the theater. But the different element I noticed was one of those beautiful, divine truths mentioned in "Co-Creators 3" and I think I noticed it because I had just published that post. 

The additional element is self-sacrificial love. Everyone who sees the film will feel it. Yes, sacrifice for love's sake is divine, a trait of God himself. It is beautiful and timeless, a virtue that every human heart can recognize but may or may not choose to do when the time comes.

Meaningful art reaches into our human core.

Co-creators 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Like most of us, you have probably been amazed at the unexpected art forms people create which turn up on social media. Human beings can create art out of just about anything (ex: musical instruments out of junkyard trash). Creativity of different kinds is built into us, sort of a family trait from our Creator.

Whether it's a song, a drawing, or landscape design, or a movie, etc., we deeply respond to it when the artist embodies in his own art some reflection of eternal Beauty or Wisdom. His or her love of that wisdom or beauty is what drives it.

C. S. Lewis (in his fiction, The Great Divorce) describes the motivation of a painter: "When you painted on earth--at least in your earlier days--it was because you caught glimpses of Heaven in the earthly landscape. The success of your painting was that it enabled others to see the glimpses too."

from Deeper Magic: the Theology Behind the Writings of C. S. Lewis 

Special note: If C. S. Lewis interests you, plan to see a new movie that will be shown in some theaters about his life and journey from atheism to Christian faith on November 3. "The Most Reluctant Convert" was filmed in and around Oxford by a British director.

Co-creators 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

God was the first to create, the first artist and first builder. Our race takes after Him, and we create too. In fact, we take the material he provided in the natural world and do something with it to bless and serve our family and neighbors. 

"Someone who loves roses can develop new hybrids with different fragrances or colors. When they do this, they function as an image bearer of God, governing roses. Others govern wood; from a block of wood they can make something beautiful.

"This truth applies not only to the fine arts but to every creative work: an oil painting and a lesson plan, a musical composition and a clean toilet, a literary novel and a tidy home that refreshes a family, an exquisite sculpture and a successful surgery, a pencil sketch and a repaired vehicle, a verse of poetry and a new work process.

J.R.R.Tolkien, Christian and author of Lord of the Rings, says we are sub-creators, continuing and completing the creation of this world begun by The Creator.

from Darrow Miller and Friends

(cont'd tomorrow)

Co-creators 1

Human beings are creators. We imagine things that don't exist yet, and then bring them into the material world. 

We can do that because we were created by, and are like, the Creator himself:

"The Bible describes a God who creates order out of chaos, and sets creatures in it who are capable of understanding and appreciating its harmonies and beauties. When we work with our head and hands to create beautiful and useful things, we are fulfilling our calling as people made in the image of God."  Ruth Bancewicz

(cont'd tomorrow)

Leaving Cali

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Highly taxed and highly regulated, that's the California that some businesses are leaving behind. 

In May of 2020 Elon Musk defied the lockdown of his Tesla factory in Fremont, saying on twitter, "This is the last straw." While that factory will stay in Fremont, the headquarters is going to Texas and a new factory is also being built there.

image

He likens California to a team that used to win a lot, but is now complacent, entitled, and doesn't win championships anymore. 

“It’s worth noting that Tesla is the last car company still manufacturing cars in California,” Musk said. “There used to be over a dozen car plants in California, and California used to be the center of aerospace manufacturing. My companies are the last two left.”

from NYPost

Move to Texas

Big technology companies and thousands of technology start-ups are at home in California's "Silicon Valley," a region at the south end of San Francisco Bay. But California's reputation as the global center of technology innovation may be dimming a bit. Some executives are pulling out and heading to the state of Texas.

Last December Oracle announced the move of their headquarters to Austin, four decades after its 1977 founding in Santa Clara. That same month Hewlett Packard Enterprise announced their move to Houston. 

And just this week, headline-grabber Elon Musk announced that Tesla headquarters is also going to relocate to Austin. The Fremont (California) factory will remain in place, but big growth is the plan and Elon says there's a limit to how much they can scale up in the Bay area.

photo

Yang Tang, chief technology officer at Expedi, has made that move to Texas himself. He believes that he gets it: "I think Texas is positioned to outpace California . . . Houston presents endless opportunities and is a melting pot for new ideas and the spirit of ingenuity."

(cont'd tomorrow)

School board

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Parents are waking up. There is more to wake up to than just Critical Race Theory. One mom checked a book out of her child's school library and read it to the school board. They objected that it was offensive. They tried to turn off her microphone and bully her out of her turn to speak. She tried to continue.

If this book of gay porn is too offensive to be read by adults in public then, by our common values, this book does not belong in the school library. (Why is it there? Because it was recommended by the American Library Association. )

In response to the weaponizing of the FBI against parents, Parents Defending Education say:

"We do not, have not, and will not advocate violence. 

"Over the past year, thousands of Americans have petitioned their elected officials for a redress of grievances – as is their right, guaranteed by the First Amendment – and they will continue to do so. 

"We ask that the Department of Justice discontinue this effort – which leverages the muscle of the federal law enforcement community – to browbeat its fellow Americans into silence."

CRT & school

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

Alarmingly, the U.S. government has taken a side against . . parents . . who object to what they've discovered their kids are learning at school.

It's in response to the National School Boards Association's letter to the U.S. president claiming that local boards are under "immediate threats" of violence and intimidation that may be too much for local law enforcement to handle. The feds must step in. 

Quick to respond, the U.S. Attorney General ordered the FBI to target and investigate protests toward local school boards and to potentially prosecute them. Dissenters are likened to domestic terrorists.

photo

What's going on? Violence against school board members would be immoral and unlawful. Everyone agrees on that. But dissent and protest is an obvious and court-approved right in America and must not be targeted by the government. 

Parents Defending Education says, "Concerned parents are not domestic terrorists!"

(cont'd tomorrow)

CRT in school

After living through real and terrible oppression, Yeonmi Park was shocked to find Columbia University teaching that their free and relatively wealthy students are oppressed in America. 

This dad stood up to fight CRT at his Chicago school. This dad withdrew his child from a private New York school, and spelled out exactly why in an open letter to all the other parents of students. Parents are waking up to pervasive "critical theory" ideology in their kids' schools, and doing their best to stop it. Will they be successful? Unknown. 

Do parents still have authority for decisions on behalf of their kids? Dad and mom can no longer assume the school represents their values. They must look into what's being taught and find out. 

Illinois, Wisconsin, Texas, Arizona and North Carolina have either passed or are considering legislation to make school boards more responsible to parents or to publicly post a list of materials they use. 

Parents want a clear look into their kids' classrooms. They demand transparency.

photo

(cont'd tomorrow)

EV sales 2020

Overall car sales in the U.S. slumped in 2020 ( what didn't slump?) by 16%. Electric vehicle (EV) sales, a subset of the overall car market, slumped only 2% - a stronger showing than conventional cars, taking an increased share of the market.

Estimated sales by brand and model in the first six months of 2020:

image

Tesla Motors models unsurprisingly took most of the EV market with positions 1, 2, 3, and 5 in this comparison chart. But the other car makers are committed to getting on the bandwagon.

GM plans to go all electric by 2035 with 30 electric vehicles to launch by the mid-2020's. Their Chevy Bolt (launched in 2016) is the only model to out-sell any Tesla in the chart.

Sold out

Car manufacturers, according to this Electrek article, are still underestimating public demand for electric vehicles (EV), in spite of all the media excitement, and notwithstanding the big companies' EV programs that have been in place for years. 

As you're well aware, Tesla certainly leads in the EV industry. But other companies have not been standing still.

Cadillac's EV "Lyriq" will not roll out of the factories until 2023. But on September 18 (two weeks ago) they started taking reservations for it at 1:00 p.m. They were sold out of expected 2023 production just nineteen minutes later.

Electrek gives a thumbs up to the car's luxury, specs, and price. 

Cadillac's promo video:

Sewbot

Twenty billion T-shirts are made yearly, mostly outside the U.S. It's a simple, repetitive job. Or is it that simple? At least two companies have been trying to automate the process with robots, and it's not going very well yet.

If they can set up automated factories in the U.S., it would eliminate the inefficient over-seas transport for this product to save time and cost. Right now it's worth the transport because labor to make the garment is so much cheaper in China (1/3 U.S. labor cost) or Guatemala (1/5 U.S. labor cost).

What is pretty simple for human hands to do is not simple for robots. Bottom line: maybe we underestimate what humans can do. All this AI experimentation should help us define human abilities better.

 

from Wired