Bad news? We see plenty of it. It's encouraging to see a good report occasionally.
Here's a story of disciplined self-sacrifice on the part of a legal immigrant dad for his family. He didn't go for what's easy, but for what's worth it.
There's a lot of goodness in this story, including the men in the Bible Study.
As a Christian, the good things you do will tend to show others the goodness of God (Matthew 5:16).
"Civil disobedience" has an honorable reputation as the expression of a sincere conscience.
It could describe the action of Rosa Parks, for instance, who defied a particular unjust local law . . without violating other laws. Unfortunately, the term is often used today to describe a protest against certain laws while using lawless violence and looting.
That's different. That's not civil disobedience. To violate the law against destroying your neighbor's property is not justified or legitimate. The Los Angeles rioting supposedly to protest immigration law was in no way civil, and in many cases not even the sincere expression of conscience.
Lowe's CEO and Chairman, Marvin Ellison, has quite a story. His experience should be an inspiration to everybody.
As a $4/hour part-time employee when he began working at Target, an entry level job, he drew attention to himself by taking tough assignments that no one else wanted. He learned how to make himself valuable to his employer and rose through the ranks to the position of Director.
Results - not prestigious education - got him to the executive level at Lowe's.
His advice: be a problem solver, think through your path to success, and take every opportunity to educate yourself.
What is it like to reach the absolute top in your chosen field? Scottie Scheffler is there, rated the best golfer in the world.
“Is it great to be able to win tournaments and to accomplish the things I have in the game of golf? Yeah, it brings tears to my eyes just to think about, because I've literally worked my entire life to be good at this sport."
But it lasts just a few minutes. "You win it, you celebrate, get to hug my family, my sister's there, it's such an amazing moment. Then it's like, OK, what are we going to eat for dinner? Life goes on.”
"I love the challenge. I love being able to play this game for a living. It's one of the greatest joys of my life, but does it fill the deepest wants and desires of my heart? Absolutely not.”
He loves his golf career. But it's third priority after faith and family. There's a lot of love in this man's life.
from Golf Week
(cont'd from yesterday's post)
Those teachers saw it happening. It makes sense. Now we know it's happening and even have an early name for it: cognitive debt – the decline in brain function manifesting in “diminished critical inquiry, increased vulnerability to manipulation,” and “decreased creativity.”
What happens when a significant number of people "farm out their own thinking to machines?"
This could be another deep divide between groups of people, just when we really need to unite in virtue and elevated purpose. It could wind up that one group will think through issues and make decisions; the other will follow whatever looks easy (image), happy to leave the thinking to others and to AI.
No one will be forced into one group or the other. Every person will choose . . while they're young and in school. Will they choose the hard work of learning and understanding and skill-building? Some won't. Some will choose to let AI do it.
Yup, many students and employees choose to let AI do their work. You can see the obvious temptation.
A study has been done on the results of this trend. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) compared three groups writing an essay: one group of participants using their own brains, one using a search engine, one using AI to do it.
Comparisons were made of brain activity with predictable results: "the cohort using AI showed large comparative decreases in neural brainwave activity, linguistic and thought development, and overall learning skills."
Historian and professor Niall Ferguson says: "the shortcuts that ChatGPT offers are a disaster for your neural development! You'll just be dumber."
from The Stream
(cont'd tomorrow)
As Dr. Aram said in yesterday's video, "Join or Die" (image) was a political cartoon (the first?) created by Ben Franklin in 1754. Originally meant for the time of the French and Indian War, it went "viral" during the time of the Revolutionary War.
Its meaning is clear: if the American colonies would not unite, then they would all die. Only by uniting could they hope to survive.
Many years later in 1944, Judge Learned Hand would speak on "The Spirit of Liberty." He says we must be united by a spirit of liberty living in the hearts of the American people. Laws alone won't keep us free.
We don't seek unbridled liberty to do everything we want, but rather the liberty to seek what's true and good both for ourselves and for each other. As an example: free speech for me and free speech for thee as well.
It's still true. All of us Americans need to unite on this common value, not just seek to win.
(cont'd from yesterday's post)
So this author says AI will soon be smarter than us humans. That is still debated among the experts--but if true, then he's right that we will certainly have to lean on and develop the best parts of our human nature.
Smartness has never been the only good thing about humans. It's good to know information and understand it, but as people created in the image of God, there's more.
Materialists who believe nothing exists but physical reality may have to re-think their assumptions. Transcendent qualities like love and honor arise from outside the material world.
These things arise from the immaterial spirit of a person (see Friday's post).
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So many experts in technology sound alarm bells about the danger of artificial intelligence (AI) to the future of humanity. Without a doubt, there are dangerous possibilities.
Other opinions, though, are out there. Naturally, CEO's of companies leading the way in AI are optimistic and enthusiastic. That would include Sam Altman and Larry Ellison.
Altman's OpenAI has a vision for a beneficial role of AI in our future. They see AI elevating all humanity, functioning for our benefit. An AI user and an AI developer say, "This technology can usher in an age of flourishing the likes of which we have never seen."
But they also tell us to prepare for some disorientation as well, because "AI will change what it is to be human." They are certain that AI will exceed human intelligence by 2030 . . a mere five years away. So that means: we won't have intelligence supremacy anymore.
What should we do to prepare? More of what we are best at doing. We have value way beyond mere intelligence (see tomorrow's post).
from The Free Press
(My image is Grok-generated)
(cont'd tomorrow)
Legacy ("old") media has lost the trust of many Americans, demonstrated by declining subscribers and declining influence. Some are trying to face that fact, to "right the ship," and to regain trust. Surging in the gap is "new media," including podcasts and X and independent videos/reports.
For example, there were hundreds of authentic videos (like yesterday's) published on X of real conditions last fall after Hurricane Helene created chaos in western North Carolina. They challenged some misleading legacy media reports in newspapers and on TV.
We learned not to trust "old" media's version of reality. Now there's an alternative that seems more trustworthy. As Konstantin Kisin says, "what could go wrong?"
Hopefully, new media will prove more reliable. But it will still be produced by flawed human beings, like the "old."
(cont'd from yesterday's post)
Bat Cave NC and Chimney Rock NC, where Amish volunteers from Pennsylvania are working, are in Hickory Nut Gorge. The flooded river scoured out landscape and buildings resulting from Hurricane Helene last fall.
One young man says (yesterday's video), "It fills my heart with joy watching people get their life back again."
Someone commented: "Absolutely incredible. While career politicians hold press conferences and fundraisers, the Amish are out here swinging hammers, rebuilding a town brick by brick, no spotlight, no selfies, just service. God bless the Amish, the backbone of real America, showing us what it means to love thy neighbor."
Drone footage clearly shows the scar:
Hurricane Helene is long gone from the headlines, but flood victims in North Carolina are still struggling to return to their homes and the normal life they lived before Helene.
From their own home hundreds of miles away, two thousand Amish volunteered to come and work to restore homes and businesses:
On this last day of the year 2024, there are probably many lists of 2024's memorable events and they will differ wildly depending on whose point of view was used. Here are a few events from a list I like:
from Stream
Aerospace company Boeing is the largest in that sector, with a workforce of over 170,000. Their new CEO as of August has multiple problems to solve, including a huge backlog of of $500 billion. A two-month strike by machinists just ended this month.
Quality and safety failures have damaged its hundred-year reputation. Their spacecraft Starliner carried astronauts to the ISS for the first time last June, but NASA judged it unsafe to return those astronauts, so it came back to Earth empty.
Last January a panel broke away from a Boeing airplane at 16,000 feet shortly after the Alaska Airlines commercial flight took off. No one was seriously hurt, though the plane (photo) also lost a cushion from the seat immediately next to the blown-out section of fuselage😮
(cont'd from yesterday's post)
How important is internet access to us all for communication, news, banking, etc.--and it was lost for a while in hard-hit regions. Starlink is internet access operated by SpaceX, a "crucial lifeline in parts of southern Appalachia that were devastated by Hurricane Helene." It was donated and delivered freely to hundreds of survivors as you may have seen in yesterday's videos.
Satellite-powered, it works even in remote and devastated communities if there's a good view of the sky. Instructions for making it work are pretty basic: "Plug it in and point to sky."
Another difference maker is Samaritan's Purse, a Christian international relief organization of 1600 employees run by the family of evangelist Billy Graham. "At our sites across North Carolina, we are doing tree work, mudding out homes, removing debris, and tarping roofs. Heavy equipment is being used to clear private driveways and private roads. In some areas, we are also offering water and potable water to the community."
(cont'd from yesterday's post)
If you aren't seeing local videos of hurricane relief on your own X account, I'd like to show you some of what I've seen on mine:
* volunteers from New York NYPD and FDNY bring supplies
* working through the night to create bridges from fallen trees and telephone poles
* citizens organizing recovery without FEMA or any government help, helicopter pilots rescuing victims while paying for their own gasoline
* team finds a woman living alone has no food, no water, no power, no transport
* completed 67 helicopter missions (as of Oct 6) bringing fuel, generators, Starlink, more
Ordinary, regular, everyday Americans mobilize their bike clubs, churches, friends, etc., to come to the mountains of western North Carolina and bring help.
(cont'd tomorrow, groups making a difference)
Re-post from 2021, "Robbie" George's choice for integrity
(cont'd from yesterday's post)
So Princeton Professor of Law Robert P. George has made up his mind in advance of the testing he thinks will come. When/if powers in our culture demand that he affirm what he does not believe, he will not do it. Not in public, not in private, not to save career or friendship.
A re-post from 2021, well worth seeing again
Corruption in our national life is distressing. People of integrity will have to decide whether to cave under pressure, or take a stand against the corruption.
Robert P. George posted the following on Facebook.
"A time of testing is coming--indeed, for some it has already come. We are each going to have to decide. As for myself:
A surgeon in Texas watched his profession change during the covid pandemic. Health care professionals who used to adhere to evidence and truth in the past became intimidated by ideology. Dissent of any kind was not tolerated.
It was just the beginning.
After telling the public that they had stopped surgically transitioning minors, Texas Children's Hospital continued the practice. Within closed doors, they would talk about their methods as well as how to keep secrets from parents.
The surgeon's conscience compelled him to go public with that information. Dr. Eithan Haim became a whistle-blower. The federal government is now taking him to trial.
Watch as much as you can of his interview with psychologist Dr. Jordan Peterson:
(cont'd from yesterday's post)
As a boy in school, Ben was called "Dummy," and he agreed with them, says he was a horrible student. Poverty and racial discrimination pervaded his neighborhood. He expected he would die before his mid-20's.
But his mother believed in him. She stood in the way of disaster, when no one would have predicted his spectacular destiny.
His story should inspire everyone, so I'm putting up one more post, this time in his own words:
