1st time buyer?

Do you know a first-time home buyer who's discouraged by this market? These wannabe home owners have no home that is keeping up with inflated prices, like those who already own their homes. So they bear the full brunt of the uptick. The rest of us have a foothold in the market to leverage when we wish to move.

Some of these first-timers can work remotely from home, so their location options are relatively open. Here is an article (seven months old) suggesting locations where a first-time home buyer would likely find good quality of life and an affordable home.

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The criteria they used: "populations under 100,000 people and within a 30-minutes' drive to a larger metro, strong job markets, easy access to entertainment and affordability rivaling nearby cities and towns."

from National Mortgage News

Tolerant 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

There's a question posed in yesterday's video, a question that provokes strong opinions.

"Any way you answer, someone's views are not going to be tolerated. There is no world in which the answer to this question accommodates and tolerates everyone and everything. The question which divides us is which public behaviors should be tolerated and which should not."

Old intolerance has been replaced with new intolerance. For example, 50 years ago a teacher might be fired for teaching A Communist Manifesto in school. Today a teacher could be fired for teaching the Bible in school. Did the parents of students choose this trade-off?

Should we have any standards at all? Who gets to decide what should be tolerated and what should not? 

Tolerant

Open-minded to everything, open to anything at all. Is that what it means to be tolerant today? That word is used a lot to describe how we all should be, what it takes to be a good person and a good citizen. 

But actually, not one single person is completely open to absolutely every thing. Each one of us is open to some things but not open to everything.

Today's American culture is intolerant of different things than Americans used to be. It's a question of what is good, what standards should we hold up. What things from our traditions should be preserved and what traditions should be changed? We've gone through this before.

Swatted

A new and bizarre crime has been invented, called "swatting," by which you can attack someone you don't like. You call 911 with an emergency of serious crime - not at your own home but at their home. So the police show up, could be the middle of the night, armed and ready. 

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It was targeted at a politician on Wednesday and reported on the facebook page of the police department in Rome, Georgia. 

It's intimidation and bullying. The victim loses a night's sleep trying to deal with the commotion and maybe an alarmed family, perhaps reacting badly. And it's illegal for more  reasons: there could be unnecessary violence and taxpayer money is being wasted.

Why did the perpetrator do it? In this case, it was revealed. He/she called back to 911 saying that he/she was upset with the target's opinion regarding transgender youths. 

Has impact 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Coleman wants to have a conversation with Ibram X. Kendi, whose influential books claim that racism pervades all of America and that every great American thinker has been complicit in it. He offered his own podcast as a platform for the conversation but is willing to have it in a setting of Kendi's choice. So far, no response. Many celebrities have taken that offer to talk, but not Kendi.

Multi-talented, Coleman was also trained as a jazz trombonist at Juilliard, a private performing arts school in New York. Even his musical talent is diverse. He did a rap under the name Coldxman called "Blasphemy," referring to criticism of his opinions:

"Charge me with thinking and put me in prison
Serving a sentence for sentences written
Shoulda known better than havin' opinions"

The point he would probably make to Kendi about our history of slavery and Jim Crow:

"There's a very big difference in learning about - understanding - history and becoming obsessed with it, or becoming personally attached to it in a way that places you in a position of victimhood that is not really yours to claim."

from Free Black Thought

Has impact 1

Forbes magazine publishes a list of thirty people under the age of thirty, "30 Under 30," every year in several different categories. They look for individuals who already are exercising major impact, who are remaking the world.

On the 2021 list of trailblazers and influencers in the category of Media was Coleman Hughes. Still in his 20's, he was already a fellow at a think tank and had published in Wall Street Journal and New York Times. 

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On his podcast he's interviewed celebrities such as Megyn Kelly and skeptic Michael Shermer. He's not afraid to have conversations about issues that would legitimately scare some of us. (People have lost jobs because they dare to speak a non-conforming opinion. Maybe that's why everyone at the DEI training in yesterday's post dutifully called the hapless employee a racist.)

DEI 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) training in the work place can be a good thing for  employees, according to author Angel Eduardo, when it helps them treat all people in an equally respectful manner. It can open their eyes if they treat people of color disrespectfully.

During his own experience with DEI training at his current job, he shared the experience he observed in a previous job (yesterday's post), plus a solution he feels would prevent such a job-related misstep: a regular meet-and-greet for all staff so they could get to know each other better.

image

Sadly, the rest of the DEI attendees rushed to judgment, blaming horrible racism as the motivation behind the office assistant's behavior. Mr. Eduardo thinks this "foregone conclusion" to assume racism leads to no good result. He recommends constructive patience and grace.

"It is possible to counter inhumanity with humanity; to respond to dehumanization and demonization by emphasizing the dignity and individuality of each and every human being, no matter what group they belong to."

from Fair for All

DEI

A new office assistant was tasked with delivering mail to about 150 employees whom, of course, he didn't know yet. One day he delivered a box to a short, slender Korean woman with long black hair who wore glasses. An awkward interaction ensued, because it was the wrong person.

He should have delivered it to the right person, who also fit that description. A simple mistake by a new employee, right? Of course not, because the "mistake" was deeply racist. That's the default go-to interpretation of today's work place. 

He knew what it meant in that environment, and he was ashamed. After apologizing, he shuffled away, face bright red - a very bad moment for him and everyone else because it openly identified him as one of the racially guilty.

An employee of a different minority race who observed it saw the event in a different light. He wrote this account of it and sent it to the organization known as FAIR, the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism. 

image

from Fair for All

(cont'd tomorrow)

Artist 2

Bernie Mitchell is an artist. But maybe he didn't know it for a long time - because he only developed his ability while working as a professional drywaller, putting up drywall and mudding the joints.

Use your imagination to picture him starting to discover his ability while on the job.

Enjoy watching him create this piece.

re-post from 2016

Starlink 2

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

SpaceX expects $30 billion in customer sales from Starlink by 2025, compared to just $5 billion revenue from launches. If all approvals go through, they may eventually put 42,000 satellites in low earth orbit (LEO). It's going to be a big business . . if all the problems are solved.

NASA and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are a bit concerned about the large number of satellites of all kinds in LEO already. There have been some near misses between spacecraft.

Then there is the matter of competition for bandwidth frequencies. Starlink has requested the FCC to authorize more for them. Dish Network wants more as well.  

And astronomers don't approve of cluttering the night sky with more and more bright lights.

from Mind Matters

Starlink 1

Months of Russian bombing destroyed or damaged roads and buildings and services in Ukraine. Starlink satellites restored internet service for both civilians and the military (Monday's video).

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As a division of SpaceX, Starlink provides "high-speed, low-latency broadband internet in remote and rural locations across the globe." 

Latency refers to the lag "between the sending of a given piece information and the corresponding response,"  the gap of time before you get the action that you wanted. Low latency is not optional but a requisite in applications like autonomous driving, factory robots, virtual reality. 

While 80 milliseconds (thousandths of a second) is considered good, Starlink claims a latency as small as 20 ms.

(cont'd tomorrow)

War continues

European Union nation members are considering a new sanction (definition #5) to punish Russia for its war on Ukraine.

Twenty-two European nations have abolished controls (like passports) over their mutual borders, so citizens move freely across those borders. It's called the Schengen Area. These partner countries and the European Union are considering a ban on Russian tourists.

It's not a clearcut issue. The German chancellor wants to keep escape routes open across borders for Russian citizens who want to flee Putin's rule.  Other leaders want the ban to go into effect.

The Finnish prime minister speaks for Europeans who can't close their eyes to the crisis. She says, “I think it’s not right that Russian citizens can travel, enter Europe, enter the Schengen area, be tourists, see the sights while Russia is killing people in Ukraine. It’s wrong."

Meanwhile, eastern Ukraine endures more Russian shelling. Even so, many hesitate to escape by way of a free train ride. It's hard to leave the homeland.

from CNN

Ukraine access

President Zelensky asked the West to help Ukraine defend and protect itself after the Russian invasion last February. Help has flowed to this country from governments and individuals.

He specifically asked Elon Musk to help by enabling internet access despite all Russia's destruction and damage to the country. 

In response, Elon provided Starlink satellites.

Meta spying

Social media learns information about us as we use it. We see the results when an ad shows up which seems to address a need we've talked about. What else do they know about us?  

If you live and play in the Metaverse, you're handing over quite a bit more information about yourself, like your real physical attributes, your gender, your wealth. Ads will be more personalized: "A lot of people think metaverse ads mean billboards. Actually, it could be something far, far more immersive than that . . ."

And beyond making our data available to their customers who want to advertise to us, we're sure that they will sell our data to . . someone . . for some unknown purpose.

A study published last month demonstrates how easy it is to gather data from virtual reality (VR) users. They created a simple VR game and learned over 20 data points about those users in about five minutes:

from Forbes

Yabacon 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Nigerians, especially, are able to shop for many goods online, pay on their phone, and get their stuff at home. This American sort of convenience isn't common in Africa, where most adults don't have a bank account or a street address.

But e-commerce happens in Nigeria partly because of all the tech start-ups. Jumia takes those orders and ships them. It was the first African startup to be valued at a billion dollars in 2019, and still is working to change consumer behavior to an online model.

Jumia package delivery in Nairobi, Kenya

Yaba (the suburb of Lagos with the tech startups) has some challenges that Silicon Valley did not have, such as a lack of infrastructure. But "Yabacon Valley" is on its way.

from Mercatornet

Yabacon 1

A financial technology (fintech) business, Flutterwave, started up in 2016 and was valued at a billion dollars by 2021. Among its customers are a couple of global giants, Uber and Microsoft. Sounds like a story from America's legendary Silicon Valley, but it is not.

Flutterwave was founded by Nigerians on the African continent, in a suburb (Yaba) of Nigeria's largest city, Lagos. 

image

Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, is home to five of the continent's seven "unicorns." Lagos itself, with 27 million people, is Africa's largest city and quickly becoming a major technology center.

from Mercatornet

(cont'd tomorrow)

Another hero

There are well-publicized stories of police officers doing evil. But stories of the right sort abound, the sort who do good in the course of their ordinary work day. You've probably seen a few of those stories. Here's another one.

Officer Beaudette found a house burning, called the fire department, and kicked down the door to see if anyone was in danger. 

Four young kids were scared and hiding inside.

Police deaths

Police officers are less respected, it seems, less trusted today. So it's not surprising that there are fewer of them in Minneapolis and elsewhere, given the trend to take local funding away from their departments.

Now it's less safe to be one, too, than it used to be. Statistics coming out last month list police work as the eleventh most likely full-time work in the U.S. to result in death. 

The 129 deaths in the line of duty during 2021 was a 29% increase over 2020. 

Of those 129, 73 of them were felonious, that is done purposely during ordinary duties like traffic stops or investigations. That was a 25-year high number.

The hunting and fishing industry had the highest rate of on-the-job deaths in 2020.

Industries by fatalities per 100,000 full-time employees

from USA Facts

Mpls post-2020 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Starbucks changed after a 2018 incident in Philadelphia. Someone was made to leave the store because they wouldn't buy anything. So the company decided to make their stores a "safe" place for all, probably meaning they felt pressured to operate like a public city shelter instead of a business. There's a big difference. Stores closed around the country. Of course they did.

After the George Floyd killing in 2020, after the summer riots, after the looting and burning, things continued to decline in Minneapolis. The city council determined to pull funding and dismantle the police department. 

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A year later violent crime including murder, assault, arson, carjackings, was still high. So city voters turned out (in the biggest numbers for 45 years) to reject the idea. Today the police department still exists, though with a reduced presence on the streets due to fewer officers.

Crime is still an issue in 2022 as it spills into the suburbs.

Mpls post-2020

Minneapolis people used to be optimistic about their downtown. New restaurants and coffee shops created buzz and it was fun to be there. But things were changing before the crises of 2020, and then 2020 brought optimism to a halt.

This man used to visit his favorite Starbucks shop downtown twice a day where, he says, the staff were always professional and courteous. Then in March of 2018 the culture of the company took a turn. Employees were given new marching orders, per company policy. (See tomorrow's post.)

He describes what it was like to visit the shop afterwards. About half the seats were occupied by non-paying customers with complimentary water. "Many of these people were pleasant. But many were not. I saw arguments. I saw fights. I saw paying customers pestered for money. I saw people helping themselves to food without paying. I saw people . . blaring their music out, whether anyone else wanted to hear it or not. I saw groups of people disappearing into the bathroom together."

Steps were taken: a security camera by the bathroom, seats removed, a security guard hired. But eventually that shop was closed. So this man started going to another location. After looting broke out in 2020 and the shop was trashed, it too closed.

from American Experiment

(cont'd tomorrow)

Which half

His mother was from Brazil, his father from the state of Minnesota in the U.S. He spent time in both, has relatives in both, likes both soccer and football, feels at home in both (though currently living here in the U.S.).

In an America obsessed these days with identity, he wonders who he is. He looks like a white male, “arguably the most privileged and simultaneously the most demonized group in America. As a result of this, I am considered implicitly and irredeemably racist. I am both a beneficiary and an abettor of white privilege. I am at the very top of the oppressor . . scale."

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Or maybe he's Latino or Hispanic. When he applied to medical school, should he have used  modern terms to claim membership in an "under-represented minority" to get some kind of advantage? 

It just didn't occur to him. He's always believed that "all people are of equal worth, regardless of their sex, race, gender, or other immutable characteristics." That's how he was brought up, and how he raises his own kids. 

People should not be judged on characteristics of their birth.

from his story at FAIRforall

We are going 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

We're half way through 2022 . .  and NASA still loudly claims its goal is to get to the Moon by 2024. That will be a stretch. It sorta looks like they're trying to convince doubters like me.

Below is the best PR video I've seen about the Moon mission. Sounds like William Shatner is narrating.

Part of the plan is to use resources they find along the way. For example, it turns out that there is water ice on the moon which we can use. Unexpected, but good to know - like the stable thermal pockets of 63 degrees (yesterday's post).

In case you haven't gotten the message yet, they repeat 5x "We are going!"

We are going 2

Space is not life-friendly for human beings. But NASA, it seems, is determined to build a base on the Moon by 2024. They'll have to figure out how to provide air to breathe, water to drink, food to eat, tolerable pressure, temperatures that don't freeze us or fry us. A lunar day in the sun can be hot enough to boil water. A lunar night is brutally cold.

But, surprisingly, a stable temperature environment has been discovered on the Moon's surface:

"NASA-funded scientists have discovered shaded locations within pits on the Moon that always hover around a comfortable 63 F . . ." That's human-friendly.

from NASA

(cont'd tomorrow)