Sea landing

Space X has been trying to safely land their rockets after a mission to space so that they can be used again, as you may know. If the rocket can be used again, rather than be destroyed in re-entry, tens of millions of dollars will be saved.

It's all part of CEO Elon Musk's goal to take humans to Mars. The cost must come down, and it must be made safe for those humans. They're making progress.

Their first successful landing was last December. Their second was just recently. It was much harder than the first because it went further and carried more fuel, and because this one landed at sea.

Lead Harriet

Harriet Tubman could be the next person pictured on $20 bills. There's a movement advocating a woman's face, and she is the most popular prospect for the job.

photo: money.cnn.com

Her life was rough as a plantation slave. But instead of being overwhelmed by her circumstances, she grew brave (her mother's example may have set a tone) and boldly escaped to Pennsylvania at about the age of 26. Then she went back - and helped many others escape via the famous "underground railroad" to freedom.

It was no picnic. "Twant me, 'twas the Lord. I always told him, 'I trust to you. I don't know where to go or what to do, but I expect you to lead me,' and He always did."

"As abolitionist Thomas Garrett put it, “I never met with any person of any color who had more confidence in the voice of God, as spoken direct to her soul.”

Summer job

Who could need a totally flexible way to make money more than a student, either working around classes or for the summer? "On Demand" work is perfect for that.

Students make up 25% of the workforce of Instacart ("Groceries delivered in 1 hour") and 10% of the workforce at Eden. Postmates advertises on college campuses.

Two things to keep in mind if you're a student who's interested:

• you'll need to motivate yourself to work in order to bring in the income
• you may need a car and a good driving record

"One big advantage to using students . . is that they like to work on weekends—when demand is high—and stay off the platform during slower weekday times. [There is] a much higher demand for workers during the summer months, which also dovetails with students’ schedule."

Smart source

“There’s not a better source of smart, enthusiastic [workers],"  says  the CEO of  startup Eden which supplies "on demand" office support in San Francisco. His remark refers to students, who make up 10% of their workforce.

"Uber for tech support" is how Eden describes what they do.  "Make something people want" (good advice) is the motto for investor, Y Combinator, and so far it looks like offices are buying it.

Just last November their customer base became other businesses only, and big growth ensued. Big investors are optimistic, putting down $3.3 million. The startup is only a year old.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Happy for them

What is it like when the local economy grows? There are more options for everybody. Shale natural gas development came to Williamsport PA. Then more jobs opened up (about 70% of the positions were taken by local people). Then those with new jobs had more money to support their families. Then local businesses had more business.



Nicole Jacobs says she always thought she'd have to leave home to find a job after college, but now she works in her home town and in her chosen field. She says that they now have the kind of economic opportunity that her grandparents had when the town was booming in the past,

"It's just a wonderful place to live right now." I'm happy for them. If you'd like to be happy for them but don't know if you should be, see yesterday's post re: Yale research.

Fracking

(cont'd from yesterday)

This big supply of oil and natural gas (yesterday's post) has saved considerable money for Americans, especially the poor. According to Pres. Obama, a second big blessing in recent energy development is its environmental impact:  it has "helped drive our carbon pollution to its lowest levels in nearly 20 years."

What brought about this big increase in the supply of oil and natural gas?  Fracking. Though first used decades ago, the last few years have seen tremendous technical innovation which made the process more economical and more competitive - and cleaner (per the president's quote).

More wealth for people and less pollution - that's the cake. The icing on the cake is that Yale University research says fracking does not pollute water.

Tomorrow, people's stories in the locations where fracking takes place.

Savings

An average American family has been saving over $740 per year on energy since 2008 according to the Energy Information Association (EIA). 

Saving energy dollars makes almost everything cost a bit less, so the benefit is spread throughout society. But the poor spend a higher percentage of their income on energy, so they are the most impacted and helped.

Why are people saving money on energy in America? There's a much bigger supply of natural gas and crude oil on the market - and that means lower prices (remember "supply and demand" from high school). 

“For the first time in 18 years, America is poised to produce more of our own oil than we buy from other nations. And today, we produce more natural gas than anybody else. So we're producing energy. And these advances have grown our economy, they've created new jobs, they can't be shipped overseas -- and, by the way, they've also helped drive our carbon pollution to its lowest levels in nearly 20 years. Since 2006, no country on Earth has reduced its total carbon pollution by as much as the United States of America.” –President Obama
(cont'd tomorrow)

Intolerant

"Severe abusers of religious freedom" are the focus of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). 

According to a 1998 law, the U.S. government must designate Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) where there is severe religious intolerance. The USCIRF investigates and recommends countries for this egregious list. For example, North Korea is one of those countries (to no one's surprise).

Two more countries should be added to the list according to the Commission's report this year. Pakistan imprisons or executes "blasphemers" in large numbers. Nigeria suffers from the presence of the "most deadly organization in the world," Boko Haram.

Forty-four child suicide bombers were used in 2015 by this Islamist terror group, compared to just four in 2014.

USCIRF Chairman Robert P. George says, "“Things are not going in the right direction . . we need the public to get behind this and we need to make religious freedom a top priority.”

Jumbo wind

Wind turbines just got bigger. The world's most powerful windmill is now standing in northern Denmark, capable of powering 4,000 homes. But one of this size will operate offshore, probably never on land.

One blade of the windmill is 80 meters (262 feet) long, "about the entire wingspan of an Airbus A380 jumbo jet," and  a "nightmare" to move over narrow country roads. With the blade vertical, the whole structure is 220 meters (721 feet) high.

What's the point?  Economy of scale. The wind-power industry simply must bring down their costs if they're ever to compete with fossil fuels, minus all the government subsidies.

“The doubling of turbine size this decade will allow wind farms in 2020 to use half the number of turbines compared to 2010,” said Tom Harries, an industry analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. “This means fewer foundations, less cabling and simpler installation -- all key in slashing costs for the industry.” (Note: you will have to click on the picture to get a better idea of the size - not enough room here to do it justice)

Jungle Book

"The Jungle Book," still in movie theaters, is really enjoyable. A mix of live action and animation, the talking animals and jungle background are beautiful and realistic. Jon Favreau ("Iron Man") directed.

Mowgli is the boy who was raised by wolves and a panther in the jungle. He learns that he doesn't have the physical ability to do everything wolves can do, though he tries hard to fit in. Bagheera, his panther guardian, and the wolf pack try to repress his distinctive "tricks."

But Baloo, the bear, finds a way to profit from Mowgli's tricks, which puts them in a different light for the boy. Eventually he embraces his distinct-from-the-animals rationality and uses it to accomplish his own purposes. 

Every work of fiction carries the author's assumptions about the world, about reality. Read one Christian's analysis of "The Jungle Book" worldview here.

Commune

America's earliest colonists started out with a different sort of self-governing system than we have now. It's surprising, but they started out with a socialist commune.

Psalms

Eugene Peterson, retired pastor and "author" (?) of "The Message" Bible is friends with Bono.Together they have done a short film about the Psalms.

Garden city

It's hard to believe that just 50 years ago Singapore was poor, dirty, crime-infested and crowded when it gained independence from Malaysia. Hard to imagine - because now it's green, organized, prosperous, beautiful, and safe.  

Lee Kwan Yew was its visionary prime minister for 31 years, and shaped Singapore (city & nation only about half the size of NYC) into the success it is today (read a short history here).

"The goal of the master plan is to maintain a ratio of at least one acre of green space for each acre of developed land. Strong progress toward this goal is reflected in the myriad of parks and parkways, walkways and bike paths, and large tracts of land still forested despite the rapid development of the city."

When we visited in 2006, there were lush greens and flowers hanging from every highway overpass. They have plans for yet more gardens  .  .  "a city in a garden." 

No regrets

MLB athlete Adam LaRoche was bringing his 14-year-old son to the ball field every day, where son Drake would find ways to be helpful. But the Chicago White Sox decided to demand an end to it. LaRoche doesn't seem to resent their decision, but he says that in about 20 minutes he was thinking about quitting his job - and the $13 million salary that went with it.

It wasn't a rash choice made in the heat of contention. He had already felt drawn to a vision of doing more with his life than playing baseball, though he leaves open the possibility that he might pick up the bat again. 

Last November he and Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Blaine Boyer spent ten days volunteering with an organization in southeast Asia that rescues sex slaves. On their way back, they were struck by the contrast between the significance of that mission and the fact that they were going home to spend their days playing a game. Adam and Blaine are serious Christians.

In Adam's words, “I don't want to be defined by this game. I know there's a lot more to life.”

Predictions

It's really risky to make future predictions. Still, apocalyptic predictions are sometimes made, especially if it's far enough in the future that there will be no price to pay for being wrong.

Earth Day began back in 1970, 46 years ago. There were some spectacular predictions made around that time:

* George Wald, biologist at Harvard, said "civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind"

*Paul Ehrlich said that it was too late to save humanity (in 1970) from massive starvation events killing hundreds of millions of people (The Population Bomb)

*Ehrlich again: "between 1980 and 1989, some 4 billion people, including 65 million Americans, [will] perish in the “Great Die-Off.”

*In January 1970, Life magazine reported, “Scientists have solid experimental and theoretical evidence to support…the following predictions: In a decade, urban dwellers will have to wear gas masks to survive air pollution . . "

Advancing to 2016, people are better fed, better housed, breathe cleaner air.

Low scores

(Note: these studies are a few years old but probably not far off the mark today)

Americans tend to think their child's school is good, but that public schools in general are poor. Compared to school systems in other nations, our schools score about average or below. Sounds like we in the U.S. may think our own schools are better than they really are.

Compared to 34 other OECD countries, our overall proficiency in math ranked #27.  But . . we spend more than most of them on education. 

“The big picture of U.S. performance on the 2012 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is straightforward and stark: It is a picture of educational stagnation…. Fifteen-year olds in the U.S. today are average in science and reading literacy, and below average in mathematics, compared to their counterparts in [other industrialized] countries.”

We are not getting a good return on our investment of education dollars.

Warsaw memory

Poland has another 20th century story of fighting oppression in the twentieth century.

Soon after Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939, the 400,000 Jews of Warsaw were confined to an area about a mile square. A year later thousands were dying every month from starvation and disease. Thousands were sent to death camps.

In January 1943 some of them ambushed soldiers coming to take away another group.  In April Heinrich Himmler (head of Nazi SS) sent tanks and heavy artillery. Jewish fighters held them off for over three weeks, but in the end about 7,000 Jews died and 50,000 more went to the camps.

On April 19 of every year, Poland still honors the heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. The German Foreign Minister laid a wreath at the memorial yesterday in this photo.

Agrihood

Maybe this story is another example of "experiential marketing." But instead of ride-sharing, it's real estate business. Some developers are creating neighborhoods with a farm-like experience. It's called an "agrihood."

With a farm or at least a big garden being central to the community, a "locavore" can get very local food indeed.  Another part of the appeal is the opportunity for neighborliness that some have tried to find by moving to a city neighborhood.

"American builders have a long history of bulldozing farms to make way for housing developments." Now they're building farms to attract homeowners. Depending on how it's organized, residents may want to work in the fields, or buy a bushel of farm products every month, or just buy their farm's berries and vegetables at the local stand. 

Experiential

Uber is successful. Lots and lots of people use it for rides (1+ million per day) or to drive for income (15k new ones per month). There are other ride-sharing options out there, Lyft for example. But this author says Uber resonates with their market uniquely, using experiential marketing.

NYC customers in 2012 had the chance to enjoy their ride in 1920's era cars with uniformed drivers, per HBO show Boardwalk Empire.

In 2014 Uber partnered with Red Bull in connection with the PGA tour opening in Phoenix.

That year they also partnered with Paramount Pictures and GM. Dallas, LA, and Phoenix passengers rode in an "Optimus Prime" truck when the movie "Transformers 4" opened.

Gigafactory

(cont'd)

Tesla's production goal is to turn out half a million cars per year by 2020. To turn out electric cars (EV's) at that rate, they need a big--very big--battery factory. Construction on it started a year ago in Nevada.

"In order to produce half a million cars a year, we would basically need to absorb the entire world's lithium ion production. That is why we are building the Gigafactory. This is a vital element," CEO Elon Musk said last month at the Model 3 event."

Giga probably refers to big. This factory will have the world's largest building footprint, 10,000,000 square feet. It will use only wind, solar, geothermal power; no diesel generators, natural gas, or fossil fuels of any kind.

CEO Elon Musk's talk at the Model 3 unveiling (below) demonstrates a reason why many are such Musk fans. From his point of view, he's saving the earth and humanity. It's the heart of the branding of all his companies, and he's taken immense risks to advance his cause.

Model 3

Tesla Motors had a master plan. They would start with making a high-end Roadster, then add a bit more moderately priced model, then a car priced for the mass market. That last item, the Model 3, was unveiled just two weeks ago.

In only two days, orders were taken for 276,000 (update: now 325k) of the Model 3 though they won't start rolling out of the factory til late 2017. It fits the definition of mass market with a price as low as $35,000. 

Here at greentechmedia, they're really enthusiastic: "The Model 3 will likely go down in history as a product as important or even more important than Ford’s Model T, first offered in 1908."

A little over the top? There's simply no doubt that Tesla generates big excitement for the whole concept of electric vehicles. Tesla is disruptive. And Elon Musk has infused Tesla with a cause (tomorrow's post).

(cont'd)

No car?

(cont'd)

So Uber has great value as an alternative to the taxi industry (yesterday's post). But investor Bill Gurley sees the company playing a bigger economic role than that.

It turns out that a significant segment of the potential new-car market would rather use Uber than own a car. 

If you had to guess, what segment of the population do you think might make this choice? Right, age 18-32. According to Gurley, "[Millennials] view cars as a utility, not as a social statement."

"Uber is . . replacing or at least reducing how many cars people own. That's the real game-changer," Gurley says.

They're doing well over a million rides per day. It may be disruptive to the car manufacturing industry.

Uber efficient

Uber is of course an alternative to the taxi industry with lots of advantages - income for drivers, low cost rides for customers, and efficiency for the economy, to name a few. Striving for more efficiency is their business strategy.

Uber investor Bill Gurley says in his blog, "It is hard to imagine a world where Uber riders do not want faster pick up times and lower price points. Uber is 100% committed to leveraging its scale and volume to deliver ever lower prices for consumers."

The more people they can serve in a given amount of time, the lower their costs of providing the service, and the more they can save their customers by dropping the price per ride. 

They're adding 15,000 drivers per month.

(cont'd tomorrow)

2x greener

Electricity can be produced a number of ways - nuclear, coal burning, hydroelectric, wind, solar, and more. Burning coal is the dirtiest. "The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates 71 percent of America’s CO2 emissions from electricity in 2015 were produced by coal . ."

Coal as a source of power is declining in the U.S., but hundreds of new coal plants are springing up around the world,  most of them in China and India.

With global dependence on coal increasing, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has good news. They are going to publish research on May 1  about a new innovation which "could lead to a 50 to 60 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions per unit of electricity produced."

Could it make a difference for American coal miners who've been impacted by the anti-coal campaign? "The “coal country” of Appalachia [in America] has been economically devastated and has very few job options for unemployed workers." 

Commute

Writer and visiting non-resident June Cheng had a meeting at 10 a.m. on the other side of Beijing from where she was staying.

She says, "My host recommended I take public transportation, as the roads would be jammed on a Monday morning, and that I leave her house at 7 a.m. in order to make my meeting on time. I acquiesced, but thought to myself: There is no way the journey will take three hours."

But it took more than three hours. This photo (commuters waiting for their bus) will give you  an idea of the congestion.

Beijing commutes average 52 minutes, but some can take hours. To become a bit more thankful for your shorter commute, read the story of her adventure here

(from worldmag.com,, "Beijing Bustle")

Kangbashi

Back in 2013 I wrote about China's aggressive project to move 250 million people from the countryside into cities. To accomplish this, some cities were built from scratch before they had occupants - called the "ghost cities."

The largest of these is Kangbashi in northern China. Built for a million people about ten years ago, it's inhabited only by about a tenth of that number.

A French photographer has produced a book about the big, empty buildings of the city surrounded by desert, called Ordos - A Failed Utopia. See some of the photos here.

(note - links corrected)

Syrian relatives

Syrian-American Marlo and her parents are U.S. citizens in Pittsburgh. They keep trying to bring their extended family to the U.S. from Syria, but they're frustrated in this effort. She explains how dangerous it is to be Christian in Syria now:

“What people don’t understand is, to ISIS, Christians are the scum of the Earth,” Marlo explains. "ISIS believes Christians “need to be exterminated, they are the infidels. They are a targeted group that is easy to access in Syria: They live in small communities [with] fellow Christians, they worship at the same churches. If we don’t help them, we are assisting in ISIS’s agenda, and we will have blood on our hands.”

But Marlo and her parents do feel safe here in the U.S., correct?

She writes for the Pitt News, a student newspaper, but her parents "[warn] me about writing about ISIS, Islam or sexism in the Middle East. The most “extreme” topic I’ve written about is actually sexism in the Middle East, but I made sure not to mention Islam directly at any point so that my family doesn’t fear for me."

There are, after all, radical Islamic extremists right here in America - as well as over there.

Target is 2%

Pakistan is only 2% Christian, but apparently that tiny number is intolerable to Islamic extremists in the Pakistani Taliban. A group has claimed credit for killing 74 people and injuring 362 on Easter, "saying it had targeted Christians"  (in the process killing and injuring many others).

At least 24 of the murdered were children. Christian father Sohail had brought four of his kids and his wife to the park for the day, and was buying ride tickets when the suicide bomber detonated. "My six-year-old is in critical condition and is in surgery," he said.

They can, yes

Passionate words from African Bishop Rucyahana in Rwanda:

"Entrepreneurship should become something that is the language and the life of our people. We are working now, partnering with Bridge to Rwanda, to put up a technical university to be able to train people in construction, hospitality, health management, ICT, mechanics, entrepreneurship. 

"And to be disciples of God in transforming their own nation. Instead of training job seekers, we train job makers. We need to be able to move from aid to production, from existing to living.

"It's high time we stopped telling our people they can't do it.They can, yes! We shall do it. In the name of God." 

To love

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

"When I came to America, my lungs filled with the breath of freedom. I didn't know it was happening, but it was." Ismael Hernandez experienced the freedom to change his life, to experience rewards that he had earned through his own merit.

What he was studying at university included the Federalist Papers written by American founders. It explained his own experience to him - and hate turned into love.

Mr. Hernandez received a master's degree in political science, worked for a poverty-fighting organization, then founded the Freedom and Virtue Institute.

He says, "America has taught me that I am an individual person made in the image and likeness of God. I have rationality and will. I am my own man."