Vegas tunnel

Las Vegas will be the site of Elon Musk's The Boring Company's very first paying customer. Its big convention center is expanding to 200 acres with a two-mile walk to go from one end to the other end.

Two tubes running autonomous electric vehicles and one pedestrian tube will come equipped with WiFi, video surveillance, escalators. They will run underneath Las Vegas Convention Center to make getting around much faster for visitors. 

Digging started when the tunnel boring machine (TBM) arrived on site in October. The whole project should be ready for the Consumer Electronics Show in January of 2021.

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Protecting

A young American woman was in Afghanistan conducting two-week training workshops for nationals who worked for the American Foreign Service during the Bush presidency.

The embassy was attacked by the Taliban one day, and she found herself in the middle of a gunfire battle for four hours. 

She credits the tired young men (19-21 years old) who were protecting the embassy with saving her life and the lives of the others. It's a gratitude she still feels today toward the American veterans who risk their lives to protect and serve.

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Cadets/veterans

Veterans of World War II got to share their stories with an eager audience. 

U.S. Air Force Academy held its 100th Squadron Bomber Historical Symposium last month. Cadets got to meet and interact with some people who were actually there, a group that won't be around forever.

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Zero for Zero

A Florida school compels teachers to give a grade of 50% to students who make zero effort to turn in an assignment.

Diane Mirado was fired in 2018 for refusing to comply. She gave a grade of 0% to the students who made zero effort. 

She left this message for her students when she cleaned out her room:

"Bye kids, Mrs Tirado loves you and wishes you the best in life! I have been fired for refusing to give you a 50 percent for not handing anything in."

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One bad day 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

This author asks, how would psychologist Jordan Peterson analyze Joker, the supervillain?

The fictional Joker feels justified to abandon goodness and embrace evil because he has suffered so much. Eric Harris, one of the real-life murderers at Columbine High School in 1999, had a similar motivation: "I hate you people for leaving me out of so many things . . I HATE PEOPLE and they better . . fear me."

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But Jordan says most people don't degenerate into the "hell of resentment," even in tragedy. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, for example, "had every reason to question the structure of existence when he was imprisoned in a Soviet labour camp . . . He had been arrested, beaten and thrown into prison by his own people. Then he was struck by cancer. He could have become resentful and bitter . . ." 

But Solzhenitsyn would not choose vengeful bitterness. He "encountered people who comported themselves nobly under horrific circumstances," so he tried to do that, to improve himself, and wrote a book to expose the abuses he saw. 

He wasn't overcome by evil, but rather chose to overcome evil with good. The Bible says to do that.

from Foundation for Economic Education

One bad day 1

A 1988 novel influenced the movie "Joker" released last month, according to this author. The Joker character has appeared in other movies/books/comics, but this new movie emphasizes how he was created: an ordinary person turning into a monster.

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The ordinary man, who started out with a normal conscience, was struggling in his career and finances - then things got much worse. "One bad day," an extraordinarily bad day, pushed him over the edge. He abandoned normal morality, gave up making any effort for goodness.

Most of us thankfully don't encounter psychopathic behavior or even think about it. But psychologist Jordan Peterson has invested time and effort into understanding it. It results from the point of view called nihilism .

from Foundation for Economic Education

(cont'd tomorrow)

Q3 surprise 2

Tuesday's post last week reported that Quarter 3 of 2019 was good news for Tesla Motors. But there was also news of a different kind.

For years Elon Musk has been talking about a fleet of "robotaxis," consumer-owned Tesla cars available for taxi service . . without drivers. Because they are fully autonomous, waiting only for government regs to catch up: Level 5, which means no human supervision needed. He claimed they had the "full self-driving" features completed.

But there were no more claims of "full self-driving" (as Tesla calls it) in his earnings call last month. In answer to a question, Elon said that human supervision is still necessary. 

Not only are governmental regulations not in place yet, but cars coming out of production  now still do not have that "level of autonomy that Tesla was claiming for itself three years ago!"

The software for Level 5 just isn't there yet. 

from MindMatters

Forbes 400

Forbes creates a list every year of the four hundred richest Americans. The minimum net worth to be one of the 400 is $2.1 billion. Ernie Garcia III (yesterday's post) is the youngest of those who are on the list for the first time.

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Wealth like that raises the big question: how did they get so rich? In 2014, Forbes started rating each one with a "self made" score of one to ten. One means their money came from someone else, inherited or given, and they had no part in earning it. Ten means that they started out poor or low middle class and raised their own fortune.

Jeff Bezos is #1 on the Forbes 400, with a fortune of over one hundred billion dollars. His ex-wife is on the list for the first time, after receiving a divorce settlement of one-quarter of Jeff's Amazon stock.

Surprising fact: a total of 221 American billionaires failed to make the list.

from The Forbes 400

Carvana 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Ernie Garcia's dad made a good point - that people are skeptical about used cars, that they want to see and drive it before buying. But Carvana is changing that. They make the process reliable, convenient, and fun. They are disrupting the used car business.

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Only one in ten cars (that they look at) joins the 22,000+ inventory on their website. Each one gets "fine-tuned" by their staff. When a buyer makes a choice, the car is delivered, or it can be picked up at a vending machine. There's a 7-day window to return it if you change your mind.

Some think it sounds too good to be true: "One customer even had 20 co-workers waiting with him when his car was delivered. They had a bet on if Carvana was real and if the car would even show up."

from "Disrupting the Auto Industry Customer Experiene with Carvana"

Carvana 1

"I wasn't sure people would buy a used car online without seeing it," said Ernest Garcia II. Sounds like a reasonable doubt. But his son, Ernest Garcia III, thought differently. 

The dad already owned used car dealerships across America. The son wanted to sell those cars online. He got started with his business idea in 2012.

You've seen the gimmicky commercials with cars in a huge vending machine. That's for real. The business is Carvana, and it does almost $2 billion in sales. Their stock has doubled in value since January of this year.

Ernie (III) says, “Our mission is to remove the stress and anxiety from the car-buying experience and make the process fun and exciting."

(cont'd tomorrow)

Q3 surprise

Tesla's third quarter of 2019 surprised both its investors and its "haters" (distractors) because they all expected a poor showing. It was a good surprise.

Tesla built and delivered about 95,000+ cars in Q3, a record number. For the year to date, that's ~255k, and Elon Musk promises a total of about 360,000 by year end. The more built, the more sold, so investors are happy.

After missing various over-optimistic deadlines in the past, there was more good news: the gigafactory in Shanghai, China, is ahead of schedule. Very soon it will be making both batteries and cars for the Asia market. That's going to save a lot of shipping costs.

Coming events include the unveiling of a new pickup truck and the new Model Y crossover.

Tesla's stock went up about 20%.

from Digital Trends

Religious freedom 3

Note: Sorry about the delay! This post was planned for Friday, then my laptop died.

(cont'd from Thursday's post) 

Stark contrast stands between China's denial of religious freedom and America's protection of religious freedom. In China, the people exist for the government. In America, the government exists for the people.

The U.S. Attorney General made the case for religious freedom at Notre Dame University earlier this month. In short, something must restrain the dark side of human nature so that evil and violence don't run roughshod over society.

America's founders knew that voluntary, free religious faith should shape morality . . or government would have to do it by laws that grow increasingly tyrannical.

 So less genuine faith = more government control. That's how the Chinese political class sees it, and the Chinese Communist Party is all in on that movement.

China's government destroys churches, mosques, and free religious expression - while at the same time setting up 600,000,000 cameras to watch and judge every citizen's actions. 

Even here in America, as the influence of Christian faith declines, the size and power of the government grows. 

Our founders were right.

Religious freedom 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

China is persecuting Muslims in more ways than forcing some into "re-education camp" prisons. Domes and minarets have been torn down. Mosques have been padlocked or destroyed. Arabic signage has been banned. Imams are threatened.

China is also persecuting Christians. Children are banned from going to church. Thousands of crosses have been torn down. Government cameras keep watch in sanctuaries. And, churches have been destroyed.



Just this past weekend, a 3000-seat Christian church was destroyed in Funan (though it was government-approved) . . during a worship service.

The Communist Party of China and its "president-for-life," Xi Jinping, attack religious thought and practice to force unchallenged loyalty to the communist government. 

This is the opposite of "religious freedom."

(cont'd tomorrow)

Religious freedom 1

“I was very much afraid to sign,” Sauytbay recalls. “It said there that if I did not fulfill my task, or if I did not obey the rules, I would get the death penalty. The document stated that it was forbidden to speak with the prisoners, forbidden to laugh, forbidden to cry and forbidden to answer questions from anyone."

Sayragul Sauytbay was forced into one of the "re-education camps" China has built in its northwestern region. She is Muslim, like many citizens in this region, and China claims that it has clamped down here because of terrorist incidents in the past. She eventually escaped the camp and fled to Sweden where she reported her experiences to a journalist.

Her job was to teach Communist Party songs and propaganda slogans: "I love Xi-Jinping [the president]. I am Chinese. Thank you to the Communist Party." Punishment, torture, and squalid conditions filled daily life.

She says, "I cannot forget the eyes of the prisoners, expecting me to do something for them. They are innocent. I have to tell their story, to tell about the darkness they are in, about their suffering. The world must find a solution so that my people can live in peace. The democratic governments must do all they can to make China stop doing what it is doing in Xinjiang.”

(cont'd tomorrow)

Blockchain 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Money can be digital. There are 700 crypto currencies, bitcoin being just one of them. 

A young entrepreneur explains here that these currencies have no central control. Up til recently, all money transactions had to go through a central control of some kind, like a bank or credit card. But digital money doesn't.

Transactions flow freely between individuals who choose to participate in this open network, very like email, and tamper-proof blockchain is its ledger. That's what this young "digital  native" says:

Blockchain 1

Is trust important in friendship? Of course. Don't give sensitive information to someone you can't trust. 

A business must also be trustworthy. Clients or customers will go to the business that they think they can trust: "Trust is the fundamental currency of commerce." You want to interact with people and businesses that will tell you the truth.

According to this TED speaker, that's the essence of "blockchain" - it ensures that you can be certain of receiving truthful information.



(cont'd tomorrow)

The Suffering Q

This man is a "pure mathematician," a professor of mathematics at Oxford University - and  he describes himself as a kind and friendly Irishman. 

Since childhood, he's been curious about how other people think. He welcomes dialog with people who think differently than he does. His Christian parents gave him The Communist Manifesto to read when he was 13 years old, and he doesn't shy away from hard questions.

At about 9 minutes in the video below, he says, "I believe in evidence-based faith . . and if my faith cannot meet objections, it's not worth believing in . . ."

Here he speaks to a group at Harvard Medical School in America on the topic, "Where is God in Suffering?" 

WI Lighthouse

He bought the old lighthouse without seeing it, for $159,000, and he's going to restore it.

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After five tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq, this former Army Ranger now works in San Francisco for a tech company. 

He's never owned a property before, but he's been searching for ten years to find a lighthouse to buy. 

It will be his own getaway, and he may rent it as a writer's retreat. His architectural consultant says, “A good roof and somebody in the building are the two most important things you can do for an old building."

from MPR News

Materialism 7

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

How can Carl Sagan be sure that the "cosmos is all there is, or ever was, or ever will be"? He can't. But he agreed with Richard Lewontin, a Harvard scientist, who made his view of reality and science very clear:

Evolutionists ... have a prior commitment, a commitment to materialism. It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counter-intuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.

At the end of each ScienceUprising video in my Materialism 1-6 posts, the voice over said:

"We are not materialists. We see the human soul. We experience love. We live with purpose. We fight for justice. We are the quiet majority, and we will be quiet no longer." Many people, Christian or not, stand here. Materialists will not allow "a Divine Foot in the door." But when we see evidence for the Creator in nature, we welcome it.

Materialism 6

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Evolutionary theory (neo-Darwinism) claims that random genetic mutations account for inherited differences. No one doubts that. Mutations that are beneficial get passed along to later generations of that species. No one doubts that. It's called "micro-evolution."

But neo-Darwinism also claims that huge numbers of those beneficial mutations over the whole history of life gradually produced all the species on earth. Have there been enough beneficial mutations to build amazing features like wings and  eyes?

Dr. Michael Behe of Lehigh University in Pennsylvania says, "No."


(cont'd tomorrow)

Materialism #5

(cont'd from last week)

Origin of life research, trying to answer the question of how the very first living cell began, has been going on for at least fifty years. Instead of finding the answer, the more science discovers about the living cell, the worse the complications get.

It's like a "factory that contains an elaborate network of interlocking assembly lines, each of which is composed of a set of large protein machines.” 

But the cell goes far beyond the function of a factory. Cells replicate themselves.

Fats & carbs

Much more is known about nutrition today than, say, 60 years ago. But . . more people are overweight now than in the 1950's.

Why is that, when people eat much less fat today? Something's not right.

Materialism 4

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

"There is no evidence of design or purpose to our universe," according to Lawrence Krauss.

Really, Dr. Krauss? No evidence that our universe is finely tuned? No hints that our planet is not just habitable for humans but that it's actually hospitable to humans?

He's unable to think outside his materialist box. Because if you're open to the possibility, there's a lot of evidence for the hand of a designer. But if you're determined to not see the evidence, then you won't see the evidence.



"Science Uprising" videos will continue next week.

Materialism 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

All the varieties of life, including all plants and animals, have their own DNA code. Does all of this develop from DNA-copying errors? Or does it require a programmer?



(cont'd tomorrow)

Materialism 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Human beings do consist of material things: blood, bone, muscle, fat, etc. But most of us believe we are more than material. We have dreams, values, choices, loves, convictions - in short, we have a mind that goes beyond the physics and chemistry of our brain.

You are not just a collection of body parts. You are more.



(cont'd tomorrow)

Materialism 1

Back in the 1970's, popular scientist Carl Sagan was speaking with conviction to millions of people on tv, standing in a place of breathtaking beauty, when he famously said:

"The cosmos is all that is, or ever was, and or ever will be." 

But most people don't really believe the material cosmos (universe) is all there is. "It's the point of view - the faith - of a materialist. . . His claim is backed by charisma, rhetoric, and celebrity prestige. But not by facts."

How much of reality does that point of view leave out? A lot - the conviction and experience of millions of people throughout history, as the 6-minute video below explains.

(cont'd tomorrow)

SpaceX Mk-1

SpaceX has been developing its 100-passenger"Starship" for years, the vehicle that will help humans colonize Mars. The first small prototype, Starhopper, was a stubby version used for testing purposes and retired in August. More prototypes (Mk-2, Mk-3, Mk-4) will follow.

Last Saturday Elon Musk revealed the very first full-size (165 feet tall) Starship prototype, Mk-1. Its test mission will be an uncrewed launch within two months, reaching about twelve vertical miles.

Elon's comment: "This is the most inspiring thing that I've ever seen."

Cambodia 4

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Freer market reforms during the 1990's opened the door to optimism. Mr. Lim's parents had no hope for a better future, but his own generation saw that grinding poverty as rice farmers was no longer the only option: they saw freedom to improve their lives.

From 1995 to 2017 Cambodia's economy grew at an average rate of 7.7% per year. (To compare, good growth in the U.S. is about 3%/year.) In 2007 the poverty rate was still about 47%, but by 2014 it was at 14%.

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What does Cambodia look like now? This author recently visited Mr. Lim and reports:

"Mr. Lim works in tourism. He drives a Lexus SUV on paved roads. He buys groceries from a thriving local market, and his daughters go to school. His brother owns a pharmacy in Phnom Penh. Another brother is a nurse at a major hospital . . There are entrepreneurs everywhere . . I witnessed family-owned coffee shops, restaurants, general stores, and roadside markets."

In one generation the grim poverty was turned around. Mr. Lim says it came because of: "Peace, education, technology, and the entrepreneurial spirit of Cambodian people.”

from "Entrepreneurship Lifts Cambodia from the Clutches of Extreme Poverty in a Single Generation"

Cambodia 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Pol Pot's hideous regime (Khmer Rouge) was ended by Vietnam, which captured and plundered the capital (Phnom Penh) in January of 1979. The ruined nation of Cambodia became the "People's Republic of Kampuchea" (the PRK) and remained a communist state.

"Under Vietnamese control, the PRK was established in the wake of the total destruction of the country's institutions, infrastructure and intelligentsia wreaked by Khmer Rouge rule."

Lim Pengkhun was born to rice farmers in 1980. "For the first 15 years of [his] life, Cambodia was a command economy controlled by communist and socialist policies and remained one of the most impoverished nations in the world."

But things changed in 1989 when the last Vietnamese occupiers left Cambodia, and reforms started transitioning their economy from "command" to free market. New private property rights turned state-owned enterprises into person-owned enterprises. The U.N. invested in education, infrastructure, and health.

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(cont'd tomorrow) 

Cambodia 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

About two million is the number of Cambodian people murdered by their own government during the "killing fields" period between 1975 and 1979. That's 20-25% of the total population, but the suffering went even further than the appalling number of deaths..

A boy of five or six lived through it and tells his memories as an adult in the video below. He lost his whole family:




A woman soldier in the Khmer Rouge army now grieves her own participation in the brutal war of the government against the people here.

(cont'd tomorrow)