(cont'd from yesterday's post)
According to this forecast by the International Energy Agency (IEA), China's production of coal in 2024 will increase by 57 million tons (Mt) over its 2021 production.
India's increase over the same time is expected to be 162 million tons (Mt).
Reductions in coal production by other countries won't come close to making up for these huge increases.
Electricity runs most of our world, so how is electricity generated? Coal is the single biggest source used to produce it. Power plants running on coal fuel 37% of global electricity. (Go here to learn the process.)
It's the world's most affordable fuel for that process. But you probably know that the United Nations (UN) has for many years been working to reduce global dependence on coal in order to reduce CO2 emissions.
Some parts of the world are reducing their use of coal and some are not. For over a decade, CO2 emissions resulting from the generation of electricity have been declining rapidly in the U.S. Coal as a fuel is being used less and less, replaced mostly by natural gas.
But India and China, together having close to 10x the population of the U.S., both continue to be very dependent on coal. They are by far the biggest factor in producing global CO2 emissions, and their use of coal is forecast to increase rather than decline by 2024.
from "The Future of Coal Production (2021-2024)"
(cont'd tomorrow)
Fans of "Black Panther" lost their star when he passed in 2020, the irreplaceable Chadwick Boseman. What would the Marvel franchise do for sequels?
It looks like they, to their credit, did not try to replace him. Watch the trailer for the next one, "Wakanda Forever," coming next November.
(cont'd from yesterday's post)
China is quite open about surveillance. The government monitors almost everything people do on the internet or their phones, and local units are putting up hundreds of millions of cameras that use facial recognition artificial intelligence (AI).
Now totalitarian rulers have a new tool to use: "Data and social scientists from the University of Chicago have developed a new algorithm that forecasts crime . . ." Breakthrough! "The model can predict future crimes one week in advance with about 90% accuracy." How convenient.
Similarly, "Scientists at China’s Comprehensive National Science Center in Hefei claim to have developed mind-reading artificial intelligence that measures the loyalty of Chinese Communist Party members."
Mind-reading algorithms? Crime predicting algorithms? What opportunity for abuse. "They will surely be used to falsely imprison political enemies . . to blackmail people for real or imagined misdeeds."
from Mind Matters
Is the government watching us? Lots of Americans believe this and lots more suspect it. In 2013 a similar question was posed to the Director of National Intelligence, who gave an inconclusive answer that seemed to hide something.
A computer intelligence consultant for the government knew the government was in fact using social media and telecommunications companies to collect data about us. He, Edward Snowden, went public about it and there was an uproar.
So what if our government does have some sort of surveillance of us? Other countries certainly do it. But our American traditions don't approve because:
" [A] nation’s citizens should know what their government is doing for them and to them, and because of the hope that governments will serve their citizens better if they know that they are being held accountable."
Technology "has the power to . . suppress dissent . . . Too often, technology is being used to serve the governors [rulers], not the governed."
Other nations may be okay with that.
from Mind Matters
(cont'd tomorrow)
(cont'd from yesterday's post)
No doubt, they've had plenty of challenges. No doubt, they educated themselves not only on invasive species and best methods of controlling them (before starting the business), but also on running a business (afterward).
Being so young didn't scare them off. Some things are best learned by experience.
Over one hundred clients have hired them, and their outdoor property services have grown beyond weed control. One of the three owners says, "If it's hard work and you can name it, we'll do it for you."
Is all this hard work getting them down? Do they want to quit? Apparently not. That owner says:
"All of our full-time employees are lifelong friends, and we spend every day helping Minnesotans enjoy more beautiful properties. I have to be honest with you, it doesn't get any better than this."
Generation Z people are capable of more than the stereotype. Some don't primarily look for safe spaces and an easy life but instead stretch themselves, like this trio of teenagers.
Located in a region of lakeshore homes, they saw opportunity for a service business. Lakeshore property is highly desirable (and expensive), but it comes with the challenge of keeping that shore beautiful so that it can be fully enjoyed.
Similar to the show "Shark Tank," a competition of business concepts was held at their high school. They researched the problem, came up with a business plan, and submitted the winning entry. Then they actually did it. Clear Shores LLC was created in 2021.
To combat a weed-choked shoreline, it's best to avoid chemicals or mechanical chopping. If the weed stays in the water, dead, then it decays there. The best solution is to manually pull out the weed along with its roots.
That's their plan. They put on wet suits, pull weeds by hand, and bring them to a mulching business where weeds are put to good use.
(cont'd tomorrow)
(cont'd from yesterday's post)
In the Twitter context, bots are fake accounts in that they don't represent a real person. But their messages may be automated to appear as if they come from a real person.
Why would real people of real companies or organizations create them? For multiple purposes.
They can generate messages that make a cause look like it is more supported (by real people) than it really is, thus swaying public opinion about the cause. They can also be used as a vehicle for advertising or to lure real people into a scam.
People don't like being deceived, but will overlook it if they believe that fake accounts make up a very small percentage of message traffic. Twitter claims that only about 5% of their traffic is bots. But Elon Musk claims it might be much higher, say 20%. The higher it really is, the lower real people may value the social media company.
Advertising companies who purchase Twitter ads also do not like being deceived. If they are being deceived about the size of their real-people-audience, they will want to pay less.
Both of these factors stand to reduce the true value of the company if bots are way more numerous than is disclosed. That's why Elon questions the number of bots, and why this issue is relevant in fighting his original high bid.
from Finance at Yahoo
Twitter & Musk, it's the show that goes on and on.
Elon offered $44 billion to buy Twitter. Directors and employees there did not like the idea. He questioned the number of bot accounts. Then he didn't want to buy it. Then directors/employees claimed he had to buy it. Now they're suing to make him buy it.
If Twitter wins in court, Elon might be forced to buy it or pay a $1 billion breakup fee, or negotiate some other fees. But of course he doesn't want to pay the original offer. It was $54/share, and now Twitter stock is going for $36/share. Big tech stock is generally down.
And what are "bot" accounts?
from Mind Matters
(cont'd tomorrow)
You know you should think for yourself. You try to do that to maintain your faith, but it's discouraging. Maybe hopeless. We're flooded with movies, tv shows, books, websites, lectures, professors, journalists, etc., etc., saying that all reasonable people know science has disproved God.
(Case in point: Capt. Jean-Luc Picard of "Star Trek" himself openly scorned belief in a supernatural being. For the record, Star Trek was one of my all-time favorites and I love Capt. Picard.)
But modern science actually tells a different story. Dr. Stephen Meyer explains three important discoveries over the last century which support rather than destroy faith in God:
from Newsweek
(cont'd from yesterday's post)
Maybe the country could have tolerated the rule of the Rajapaksha family for many more years. But all the issues came to a head when a foolish law wrecked the economy.
Farms were forced to transition to organic immediately, and synthetic fertilizer was banned. Organic fertilizer, such as manure, couldn't even begin to take up the slack. Five to seven times more than the existing amount would have been required.
Crops were devastated. No longer self-sufficient in rice, they had to import it . . and the retail cost of rice went up 50%. Their biggest export, tea, was a farm product too, so that was another blow to their economy.
"Human costs have been even greater. Prior to the pandemic’s outbreak, the country had proudly achieved upper-middle-income status. Today, half a million people have sunk back into poverty."
from Foreign Policy
Well, maybe we can really believe it. NASA says we are going back to the Moon!
(cont'd from yesterday's post)
NASA adopted (during the previous administration) the goal of returning a human presence to our Moon for long-term research and exploration: the Artemis project.
A series of missions will get us there, and the first one is coming soon. After a successful fueling test of its SLS rocket last month, the window which has been targeted for Artemis 1 is August 23-September 6.
Without crew, this first mission will test how NASA's deep space exploration systems work together: the Orion spacecraft, Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, and the ground systems at Kennedy Space Center.
Orion is the spacecraft designed for human crew. On this mission, it will fly 280,000 miles (thousands of miles beyond the moon) over a period of 4-6 weeks.
Artemis 1's mission manager says, “It will blaze a trail that people will follow on the next Orion flight, pushing the edges of the envelope to prepare for that mission.”
from NASA
Men landed on the Moon fifty years ago, on April 16, 1972. Three American astronauts launched into earth orbit from Launchpad 39A at Kennedy Space Center on the big Saturn V rocket. A second engine burn of 5+ minutes sent them coasting to the Moon.
After three days of coasting at the speed of 24,229 miles per hour, they went into orbit around the moon and then the lunar module took them to the Moon's surface on April 21.
Adding to Chicago's violent, lawless trend, a mass shooting took place in a suburb of the city on Independence Day. Seven individuals were murdered and many wounded. A suspect was arrested and hopefully justice will prevail.
Another mass shooting was planned for that day in a different city, Richmond, Virginia. But, thank God, this one didn't happen.
Someone overheard a conversation between two men talking about the attack, and phoned the police. Officers followed up on the tip and found weapons at their residence. Pending further investigation, the two have initially been charged with possession of a firearm as non-U.S. citizens. Both are illegally in this country and came from Guatemala.
Police Chief Smith gave credit to the anonymous citizen who called with the information:
“There is no telling how many lives this hero citizen saved . . . It is the responsibility of law enforcement that if we hear something, that we do something, and that is the message I would like to get out there — that ‘see something, say something’ works.”
"I find it really interesting that the people that are the most passionate about America are immigrants. It's like the people who live here are so ungrateful . . ."
Why are Americans ungrateful? Dr. Sheila Nazarian thinks it's because they don't know the alternative.
She does know, by her own and her family's experience.
After coming to America as a child, and with difficulty, she now describes herself as a mom of three, an entrepreneur, a plastic surgeon, a philanthropist - and most recently an activist.
As she puts it, "I will not be able to sleep at night if I don't say anything." Though afraid of cancel culture, she thought "who am I if I can't speak to my core values? . . I'm not going to let what happened in Iran happen in the United States."
So far, my fellow Americans, we still live in a free country. Freedom to govern ourselves is a gift from the founders who built a government-by-the-people . . and figured out a way for that to succeed where many others had failed.
"America's founding was brilliant, a work of unsurpassed political wisdom. Where do we think that brilliance came from? Clean air and lots of trees? Rugged independence? The “American spirit”? No. The Founders were students. They knew their Bible, for starters, and that includes men like Jefferson who didn’t believe all of it. They knew their Hobbes and their Rousseau, their Locke and their Burke. They knew the Magna Carta, their English common law, and their European history."
Instead of the freedom to live a life of foolish consumption, we treasure the freedom to make life decisions according to our conscience - to pursue goodness, truth, and beauty. Don't take it for granted. It could go away.
Freedom requires effort. Determine to make yourself a part of the solution instead of the problem. Read to educate yourself in the God-given freedom we have. I'll try to help.
When someone wants to describe America, the word that comes to mind is often "freedom." The founders worked to establish a nation where its citizens would be free to . . free to do what exactly? Free to govern ourselves.
Have you ever noticed these particular lyrics?
"May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness.
"God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law.
"God shed his grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood.
America has never been perfect. But we had good principles, the right ideals. It's a prayer asking God to help us, to mend our flaws and add brotherhood to the good start that we made.
Happy Independence Day.
One hundred fifty-nine years ago today, one of the most famous of all American battles began at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The confederate South fought for the right to secede, to exit from the United States in order to retain its slavery-based way of life. The North fought to retain the country's union. Massive casualties on both sides resulted.
President Abraham Lincoln was determined to preserve the country as a whole, and to end slavery in America. He was also horrified at the human cost and wanted to end the war as soon as possible.
Victory for the Union (North) ensued. A few days later the president told a general that his anxiety about the battle had turned to peace after he prayed about it:
