Wonder 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

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 relating to 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 that are 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

Wonder 1

All around us is the natural world. We're rightfully busy with our demanding responsibilities, but occasionally we have time and opportunity to pay attention to the natural wonders of our world. It's refreshing to notice some of the common but wonderful things.

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.

photo

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, or 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

Cooping

 Voter fraud was not invented during our own time. 

In American elections of the 19th century, fraud took the form of "cooping," a clumsy but effective way to cheat with paper ballots. In fact, it seems that a famous writer and poet of the time was involved.

Then, as now, the goal was to multiply votes for the favored candidate. Intoxicated people in bars were held in a central location (a "coop") and forced, in their drunken condition, to repeatedly vote. After each trip to the ballot box, they would be dressed in different clothes or otherwise disguised--to obscure their identity--and sent back to vote again.

Edgar Allen Poe, sadly, suffered from alcoholism and depression. Four days before his death, he was found distressed and disoriented near a voting site in Baltimore. He was not wearing his own clothes. He seems to have been a "cooping" victim (image).

Bad actors will do whatever unjust or illegal scheme they can devise to win elections, whether the election is decided by paper ballots or modern computer technology. 

Human corruption continues in our own time. Many oppose a precaution as simple and wholesome as showing identification (ID) when voting. Even people of good will can be deceived into voting against common sense.

from Mind Matters

Poverty 54% to 28%

Two years ago, over half of Argentina's population lived in poverty. Today that's been cut in half. In just two years the poverty rate dropped from 54% to 28%. 

President Milei has held office since December of 2023, a little over two years ago--the same two years. How has Milei accomplished this tremendous turn-around? 

As a former economist, he understood something important: socialism produces poverty. His country had been under socialism for almost a century. Part of his strategy has been to reduce the size of the government. State subsidies along with public sector payrolls were slashed.

Inflation declined from 200% when he took office to 33% two months ago. For the first time in about a century, Argentina had a fiscal surplus in 2025.

A chainsaw is the symbol of his attack on overspending and socialism.

from Washington Post

(cont'd tomorrow)

Artemis 2 quotes

Note: hang in there with me for just one more Artemis-themed post 😉

One day after their return from the moon, NASA Chief Jared introduced the astronauts like this, "Artemis crew, this moment is the result of years of hard work, absolutely immense expertise, and just being all around great human beings."

First of the astronauts to speak was Commander Reid Wiseman: "Twenty-four hours ago the earth was this big [arms apart], we were doing Mach 39, and now we're home! We are bonded forever. No one down here is ever going to know just what we went through."

Pilot Victor Glover: "When this started on April 3, I wanted to thank God in public, and I want to thank God again . . for seeing what we saw, for doing what we did, for who I was with. We are fortunate to be in this agency at this time, together. Thank you also to our Air Operations."

Mission Specialist Christina Koch: "What struck me was not just this little Earth but all the blackness around it. Earth was just this lifeboat hanging un-disturbingly in the universe." She called Earth and its people a "crew," which she described as "beautifully and dutifully linked."

Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen: "The science is there with the things we've learned, and it's incredible. But it's the human experience that is extraordinary for us. I don't think people will ever fully comprehend how well supported and trained we were. There was a lot of joy up there."

Space dreams

It's the dream of a lifetime for NASA's new administrator, Jared Isaacson. 

He knows his life arc is unusual: "You should not be able to drop out of high school at 16, start a company, and wind up an astronaut leading NASA someday. It's why we live in the greatest nation in the world."

Now that he's smack in the middle of America's space industry (image), what does he dream about for our future in space? 

A US base on the Moon, of course, comes first. Helium mining on the Moon. Within a decade, there'll be dozens of flights into space in a year instead of just one every few years. Many international space stations will handle civilian visitors. Space Reactor 1-Freedom, the first-ever nuclear-powered interplanetary spaceship, will go to Mars in Dec. 2028 where it will drop off 3 unmanned space helicopters to go exploring. Our first astronauts will go to Mars in ten years. 

Do his dreams sound starry-eyed? He thinks we can change the world.

from The Free Press

Home to Earth

NASA, America and most of the world joyfully welcomed the astronauts safely back to their home planet last Friday evening. I joined with many who thanked God for their safe return. 

Artemis II was a stunning success for NASA, achieving precise goals per that wonderful descriptor, "Nominal." The term means: as planned, right on target, just as it should be.  (Splashdown is at 3:40 in video.)

Pilot Victor Glover did the last message before they went behind the dark side of the Moon: "As we prepare to go out of radio communication, we're still going to feel your love from Earth. And to all of you down there on Earth and around Earth, we love you, from the Moon. We will see you on the other side."

It was a relief to resume communication with them as they completed their 6 hours on the dark side. Mission Specialist Cristina Koch shared aspirational words as they came back in view of Earth: 

“We will explore. We will build ships. We will visit again. We will build scientific outposts, drive rovers, do radio astronomy and found companies. We will strengthen industry and inspire. But ultimately, we will always choose Earth. We will always choose each other.”

Note: If you were intrigued by "A Great Awakening," here's an interview with the young star

Hotel of Doom

 Enormous, failed projects are found in multiple countries, including North Korea.

How big is their tourist industry, do you think? The better question probably is: who would want to go there?! I'm guessing the answer is: very few.

Yet North Korea set out to create the biggest hotel in the world for the prestige. The 105-story concrete shell has been there for decades but was never finished. It's starting to crumble. There is a bright facade on which political messages are played.

But the Hotel of Doom has never had a single guest.

Billions wasted 1

Years ago, I discovered China's urbanizing drive, their "ghost cities," and their empty towns: staggering amounts of money were invested to develop them, yet almost no one lived there.

Years later, and they haven't changed much. (Here's a recent update on Kangbashi.)

Other countries have their stories of enormous expenditure, followed by emptiness or failure. Check out the gorgeous, expensive Forest City of Malaysia--empty and eerie for the few who do go there:

US poverty? 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

America does not ignore the poor who can't afford housing, food, medical care, etc. A huge 51% of our annual federal spending goes to entitlements. But those benefits are not counted in the poverty statistics you saw yesterday for some reason.

That's the first important point of yesterday's video: the actual percentage of people in the US who lack basic needs is about 3%, not 10-18%. (That means 23 million to 60 million fewer people in the US live that way.) Though their earned income is under the poverty point, government payments lift their lifestyle out of poverty.

We don't want millions of our fellow citizens to lack the necessities, so we're happy to help. That's the motivation behind the American "safety net." 

Unfortunately, there's an unintended consequence of the welfare system, explained very well in yesterday's video. A significant number of people content themselves with dependence rather than using their lives productively. Surprisingly, that includes about 7 million men of working age. Not good for America--devastating for those men.

US poverty? 1

How could America, one of the richest countries in the world, tolerate a crisis of poverty? Claims are published that ~10 to 17.8% of our people are suffering in dire poverty.

If you hear something like this, you have to wonder why the government doesn't lend a hand. But wait, different levels of government have lots of ways to help. If vast numbers of people are barely surviving, why don't they sign up for food stamps? It's confusing. 

What do the numbers mean?

Awakening

Follow up to this post

On Saturday, my husband and I brought friends along and saw that movie I recommended to you last week, "A Great Awakening." 

As expected, the acting, photography, dialog, music, all the production values were good. In fact, it was so good that I hope many of you will choose to see it. 

The story is based on true facts. Ben Franklin was savvy enough in business to take advantage of a trend he saw developing. Though apparently not a Christian, he could see the potential of publishing the schedule and sermons of popular evangelist George Whitefield.

Whitefield represents the message of the Bible very well: Jesus Christ paid the whole price to reconcile us to God. We're not required to clean ourselves up first, but just to trust Him.

Did Franklin eventually turn to God? Maybe. Late in life, at the 1787 Constitutional Convention, he made a famous appeal to the delegates that could have come from Whitefield's influence--and possibly turned around the contentious convention.

Safe in space

At the top of NASA's list of core values is safety.

If safety were the only core value, they could achieve it best by staying out of space. Space is inherently dangerous. But their purpose is to explore space. None of their missions are risk-free. Safety is what they try to achieve in the context of danger.

Taking Artemis 2 astronauts through space in a small life-sustaining room is the task of their spacecraft, Orion. 

What's outside? Just the harshest environment humans have ever faced: "extreme radiation, massive temperature swings, and deep space vacuum."

On its way

After some delays, Artemis 2 launched yesterday. Four astronauts are on their way. Following a swing around Earth, tonight they will break orbit and head for the Moon. (Note: the path of Orion turned out to be a bit different from what's shown in the video below.)

Orion is the crewed spacecraft which will take them there. It launched from Cape Canaveral on the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket. This is only the second mission for Orion. It flew without crew back in 2022 on the mission Artemis 1, that mission which confirmed for NASA that we now have a reliable deep-space transportation system.

But Orion has no landing ability. Landing on the Moon is planned for Artemis 4, which will take place at least two years from now.

Waited too long

Have you heard that it's more exciting to be a glamorous young woman than a married young woman starting a family? Some received that message and kept chasing that vision--until it was too late to realistically expect the other vision to come true, the vision of motherhood.

That particular window of opportunity has an expiration date. The author of this article says she thinks she's past the window and she regrets it.

If statistical data would be convincing to a young woman who wonders which is the happier path, she should consider this: "married mothers ages 22-35 are nearly three times likelier to report being "very happy" than their single childless peers (41% vs 14%)."

She says, "What teenage girls need is honest, hopeful messaging that marriage and family are not obstacles to a meaningful life, but its deepest source."

"If you find the right person in your 20's, don't hesitate. Commit. Build the life that actually fills the soul."

Personally: so glad I did.

from Institute for Family Studies