Vibe shift

Since the U.S. election last November (maybe earlier), we've been experiencing what some are calling a "vibe shift." America voted decisively to turn toward traditional American values, and against the cultural "woke" trend of recent years. 

Maybe it started when X (former Twitter) ended its censoring of non-woke opinions. It continued with Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg blaming their own censoring on government coercion.

It showed up at the Super Bowl. Bud Light's commercial seemed to say that they are not woke anymore. Dancers in red, white and blue formed an image of the flag. "God Bless America" could be heard in the background. Winning quarterback praises God.

Politics, they say, follows art and culture . . and sometimes it goes the other way. Political power in this country massively changed direction, and many cultural influencers got on board. Thank God.

Poor learning

(cont'd from this post)

Our former Secretary of Education has seen the NAEP reports on how well our children are learning in school in recent years, and she is alarmed. Reading and math skills are declining.

 

 "Declines in student performance date back about a decade," exacerbated by Covid measures.

Since 1979 when the U.S. Dept. of Education was created, hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent but students are less proficient (image). They're spending $80 billion per year and achieving no improvement. That's not a worthy return on investment.

Her advice: shut it down.

 from The Free Press

Sleep pods

No doubt, you've heard about DOGE (the Department of Government Efficiency). It officially started operating under the new U.S. administration on Inauguration Day with a mandate to make the federal government more efficient.

Its leader, entrepreneur Elon Musk, is working from the time he wakes up until the time he sleeps, he says. His young staff (age 19-25) may be sleeping at the office, as Musk does.

Founder (photo) and owner of Eight Sleep is apparently a big fan of the concept. He shipped "bed pods" to the office: "I hope this will supercharge @elonmusk and the incredible team to shape the future of America. Let's go."

Wind blades 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

About 3,000 wind turbines have been built in the U.S. each year since 2005. At three blades each over twenty years, that's roughly 180,000 blades so far. 

They're supposed to last 20+ years but are often done in ten years or less. What happens then? Going to landfills around the world, as they do now, is not a sustainable future.

Fiberglass, their main component, is very difficult to break down for recycling. Veolia started making the blades into a product that the cement industry can use, and which can strengthen their end product. 

Beyond that, Canvus is making outdoor furniture out of "fillets" of enormous blades. But they can only do that with about half the blades sent to them. The rest are either too damaged or just too huge. 

To be considered green and sustainable, wind power will have to come up with better solutions for wind blades at the end of their usable life. 

Wind blades 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

According to the Texas naturalist in yesterday's video, there's no good plan for the "end of usable life" for these wind turbine blades. Thousands have piled up in graveyard sites so far. 

DOE (U.S. Dept. of Energy) reports that 500 manufacturing facilities across the country make components of these turbines. They try to improve quality, reliability, cost effectiveness. 

And they work on transportation. Why is that an issue? These blades are enormous and getting even bigger: "an average utility-scale wind turbine [includes] blades up to 100 meters (over 300 feet) in length and towers around 94 meters (308 feet) high, roughly the height of the Statue of Liberty." 

How would you transport (costing $30k-$100k) turbine parts so huge to a local farm? It can take a year's planning and as many as ten loads. This photo will help you grasp the scale:

 

from U.S. Department of Energy

(cont'd tomorrow)

Wind blades

With all that energy in the atmosphere that blows air at us, it would be nice to harness and use it for our own purposes. 

That's the motivation behind building wind farms. It seems like a good idea--but there are big problems with getting our power from wind turbines.

Here's one of the mounting problems.

Better learning

NAEP is the National Assessment of Educational Progress and it calls itself the "Nation's Report Card," a "window into the state of our K-12 education system and what our children are learning."

Compared to public government schools, private schools deliver better results. According to this chart, Catholic schools do a better job of educating than either public or charter.

 

It costs the government about $20,000/year/student to run the public schools. All of that funding comes from taxpayers. But Catholic schools can educate a child for about $5,000-9,000/year/student. You have to wonder how they supply a better education at less cost.

Our education system desperately needs change.

Not earned?

DEI policies were promoted as fairness of outcomes, the idea that all results of any activity should be equal. But the natural "diversity" of human beings makes that impossible. 

Instead of outside force, the solution is still to build virtue among the individuals in community. Rewards must come by merit, by earning the rewards of your work with skill and achievement.

Here's an individual (from a post on X) who gets it right:

"DEI has placed an asterisk on the achievements of every black person and woman in a prestigious role. It’s caused those people and the public to reasonably doubt whether they earned their role by merit or agenda. This hurts black people, women, and public trust."

Yes, it does.

Clear cut

Much of northern Michigan is a hardwood or pine forest (photo), so valuable to the state and to the environment. It takes a long time to replace such a forest; estimates run from 40-100 years.

 

You'd think a forest like that would be protected, especially by environmentalists. But there's a proposal to clear 420 acres of it.

This parcel of land may be clear cut for a solar array: solar panels to cut our dependence on fossil fuels, solar panels to help save the environment. 

Pursuant to a law passed by the governor and legislature in 2023, utilities will have to get 80% of their power from clean energy sources by 2035. That's going to be a stretch.

State representatives say they don't like the idea of killing wildlife and trees to set up solar panels.

from The Detroit News

CA in trouble 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

According to yesterday's video, most California wildfires are started by aging power lines (which also caused the 2023 Hawaii fire on Maui). 

Arsonists, too, may have had a hand in the current 2025 fire and there have been arrests. Combined with those power lines, plus the occasional backyard barbecue or fireworks, 95% of fires are attributed to human activity.

 

 

Strong winds spread the fires (photo), at least 29 people died, neighborhood after neighborhood was evacuated, and tens of thousands of homeowners lost their homes. In some cases where a home was damaged but not completely destroyed, looters arrived to take out of them whatever valuable property they could handle. About 40 have been arrested.

CA in trouble 1

Fires have been raging in Los Angeles, California, for weeks. It's not the first time. Here are some of the conditions that put this beautiful state in danger and have been doing so for a long time.

Self aware

Chamath lost millions and millions (billions, he says) in 2022, the tech fortune he created as a young man, and he says it was the best blessing of his life. It changed him. 

He started asking questions of himself and found he was motivated by "stupid, inconsequential things."

It's a fascinating story as he tells it to Tucker Carlson over two hours' time. He has some political comments including the California governor's struggle, which he says is: trying to convince everyone that the fires were not the result of his negligence.

He says Elon Musk has incredible tolerance for pain and drudgery, yet he's "a kind guy."

I didn't finish it, but so far it sure is interesting.

The beginning 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

My sister-in-law used to say, "What a difference it would make if everybody just believed the first verse in Genesis!" She's right. The story of reality begins with God, the Creator of this universe.

After setting the stage with a broad history of earth, as you saw yesterday in the 6-minute video on the first eleven chapters of Genesis, chapters 12-50 focus on a single family. All of that is in this second video wrapping up a summary of Genesis, the first book of the Bible:

The beginning 1

Today in America, we as a culture tend toward a lack of faith in God and especially a lack of knowing and understanding the Bible. It wasn't always like this. Early in our history, public schools actually made it their focus.

Maybe you wish you knew the Bible better. You can read it all in a year on your own if you're disciplined to read about 15 minutes per day. But there are lots of organized and published plans you can follow--and they really help.

"You Version" app gives you access to the whole Bible, and has plans you can use. I'm using a plan that has videos from The Bible Project. They summarize the books of the Bible visually. Play this one to see for yourself what it's like:

We can win

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

She recommends divorce and joint custody of the children. That way, the mother only has to care for her kids every other week; for her ex, zero time in care. She can be alone half the time to pursue independence. 

That could appeal as a temporary break for the mom who's overwhelmed by family problems. But surveys show that, in the long term, married mothers are not losers in the pursuit of happiness (image). A large majority report being very happy or pretty happy in spite of the challenges.

 

Living in close relationships with people you love, creating a meaningful life together, is still a good bet and worth the effort.

No one wins?

"A game no one wins," that's the hopeless view that this woman has of the most normal roles of American women. Her piece was published in the NYT last November.

Why is a married heterosexual mother doomed to be a loser in life? From an analysis in this article, the main problem seems to be that mothers do more homemaking chores than their husbands. 

"A recent Bureau of Labor Statistics survey reported that women spend 47 more minutes per day on housework than their spouses (and this number does not include childcare, grocery shopping, or errands)."

It begs the question: if time spent in housework were perfectly equal for both husband and wife, would wives have a chance of a happy life?

from Substack

(cont'd tomorrow)

Bullet speed x2

If a huge object, say 250 tons, were free-falling from the sky onto earth, how fast would it be traveling? Elon Musk answered that question on X this week. Before Super Heavy booster was caught on SpaceX's launch tower, it was moving this fast:

"Atmospheric reentry speed is more than twice as fast as a bullet from an assault rifle . .

When Super Heavy is stacked with Starship, it's about 403 feet tall, ". . and this is the largest flying object ever made." 

If you've ever watched re-runs of the 1950's tv show Superman, you remember the words "faster than a speeding bullet."

Test flight #7

Yesterday was the seventh test flight of Starship and its booster Super Heavy rocket. A lot of modifications were tried (including a 25% increase in propellant volume and an additional 6.5' of length for "Ship") with some success and some failure.

Super Heavy performed beautifully, the megazilla "chopsticks" catching it out of the air just as they did in flight test #5. A thrilling success.

Starship ("Ship") didn't fare as well. There was a rapid unplanned disassembly (SpaceX term for explosion) over the Atlantic ocean, and a beautiful sky show as the debris streaked to earth.

There may be as many as 25 test flights of Starship this calendar year, every one being an opportunity to get more things right.

Same old

Follow-up to this post

Stiff opposition to dictator Victor Maduro's regime in Venezuela has died for the present. His power to overwhelm his challengers has landed him a victory, in spite of big protests and in spite of the opinion of global leaders that he stole last summer's election.

"Maduro was sworn in [1-12-25] as president of Venezuela for a third term, declaring victory in a stolen election. Though Venezuelans protested the fraud--thronging Caracas and other cities--the regime crushed the uprising and threw 2,000 opponents in jail. Venezuelans seem doomed to live under a regime that has brought them nothing but inflation, repression and despair."

Stop hiding

A widespread, public discussion about immigration is urgently needed across the United Kingdom and the West. Despite that vote (yesterday's post) against investigation in Parliament, grooming gang crimes should no longer be hidden (photo) in Britain.

Konstantin Kisin names a basic issue that should be talked about openly, civilly, honestly, without censorship and without fear of reprisal:

"Western countries won't stop suffering terrorist attack after terrorist attack until they let go of their most cherished belief: that all people are equal and that all cultures are the same."

A crime is a crime in Britain and everywhere, whether it's committed by natives of your country or by immigrants to your country. 

UK still hides it

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

All the evidence, all the stories, all the first-person testimony "shamed" the United Kingdom Parliament into considering a new, thorough investigation into the ongoing rape gang crimes. 

Are the crimes of these rape gangs being covered up?

So members of Parliament (MP's) voted on whether they should do an investigation of this outrage. They voted about 2 to 1 against it. In other words, the authorities decided not to investigate whether the authorities are covering up the crimes of rape gangs.

UK Prime Minister (photo) was too busy to be present for the vote, but he instructed the MP's of his party to vote against it.

Rape gangs 3

(cont'd from last Friday's post)

Yes, authorities knew about the rape gangs and chose to ignore them. Many acknowledge it.

For decades in the West in general, students have been taught that no society or culture is any better than any other (multicultularism) as I saw for myself in my son's history text book. In Britain, many don't dare to complain or even mention that the gangs are largely immigrants from Pakistan who prey on white, working-class girls. They, including police, are silenced and terrified of being called "racist."

All this is open now because a few outraged people are talking about it. Elon Musk has been posting evidence on X (former Twitter) to his enormous global audience:

 

Well-known psychologist Jordan Peterson is outspoken (48.00-49.30) in this interview. It's sickening, he says, to watch the UK ignore these crimes and then gaslight people who try to tell the truth.

Rape gangs 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post) 

Were the authorities in the dark about the scope of these gangs? No, they knew, and there have been a few prosecutions like the example in yesterday's post which is now 12 years old. Then why has it continued for many years? Because the crimes were ignored, the story buried.

"It's the biggest crime--and cover-up--in British history. . . Thousands of young girls, mostly children, were systematically groomed and raped by immigrant gangs across the UK over a period of decades. Police turned the girls away. Detectives were discouraged from investigating. Politicians and prosecutors did their best to sweep it under the rug. Journalists skipped the biggest story of their lives."

Different levels of fear motivated the silence according to Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Police feared that they might be called racist. Politicians could lose important votes from immigrant communities. Neighbors and journalists feared violence from Muslim men.

Two other factors are involved: multiculturalism and elite disdain for working class girls.

from The Free Press

To be continued

Rape gangs 1

A journalist spent six months investigating a crime in Britain for NBC : the "organized sexual exploitation of girls as young as 13." He called it a "grueling" experience which gave him nightmares: 

"Graphic accounts of rape and sexual abuse are not easy to put out of mind, especially not when the victims are barely pubescent."

Nine men were convicted of those crimes in 2012. This is old news. But the crimes continued and the number of victims kept multiplying, right up to the present. I've seen estimates that  hundreds of thousands of girls have been assaulted in perhaps fifty cities, some girls murdered.

How is it possible that thousands of these brutal crimes could continue over so many years in so many cities without authorities taking enough action to stop it? That question is suddenly convulsing British politics and capturing worldwide attention.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Freer FB

"Destroyed trust." Head of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, says that his former policies of content moderation and fact-checker censors have destroyed the public's trust. Maybe he was actually sincere last September when he seemed to regret the censorship that Facebook has practiced.

It sounds like the message that Jeff Bezos delivered to Washington Post. It could be a trend, a good one. Many Americans have had enough of media efforts to force their own views down our throats. As they both said, we don't trust them anymore.

Zuckerberg says that Facebook is going to adopt something like X's community notes to function in place of fact-checkers.

Skeptical people think he's just kissing up to the new administration. Whether he is or not, Facebook will be a freer platform . . and that's a good thing.

Canadian

An idea was floated in December: the nation of Canada should become the 51st state of the U.S.A. I thought it was a joke. Maybe it wasn't serious, but I was surprised to find out that the idea is far from new, and is supported today by some.

According to Canadian Kevin O'Leary (businessman, investor, and star of "Shark Tank"), about half of all Canadians are not laughing. They'd like to hear more.

Why might the idea be attractive? According to our president-elect, they'd pay far less in taxes, American goods would be tariff-free, and they'd have more security. That sounds pretty good to some Canadians, possibly the same ones who are real happy about the resignation of their left-wing prime minister.

Nouvel an 3

Follow-up to this post

New Year 2025 must have been fun and festive for many in France, but the annual car burning continued as well, for a national total of 874 cars (photo) destroyed. The government (interior ministry) still wants to point out that it could have been worse: for comparison, 2019 saw 1316 cars torched. 

Gendarmes, security personnel and firefighters (95,000) were mobilized for duty on New Year's Eve.

Another wet blanket may have toned down the festivity that night. Face masks have been made compulsory again, to combat another variant of Covid-19. People (779) were fined for not wearing one when they went out.

from The Business Standard

Robo taxi 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Complete, fully automated self-driving (Level 5) cars are still a remote dream. But Level 4 technology is now in use for "robo taxis." 

"A Level 4 self-driving car can handle everything - but only under certain conditions and in certain locations." Robo taxis can and do operate now under these restrictions, partly because a finite area can be mapped right down to the very small details.

General Motors acquired the startup Cruise in 2016 to pursue GM's position in this market, but they announced last month their intention to kill off the robo taxi idea.

Tesla (photo) is still very much pursuing the goal. It's called Cybercab: "affordable and fast individualized point-to-point transport" that they claim will also be safe and sustainable.

Waymo (yesterday's video) is the most successful so far, operating in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, with plans for Atlanta, Miami and Austin.

Robo taxi

Would you like to put your health and safety in the "hands" of a robotic car, a car with no human driver? Many are already doing that. "Robo taxis" are no longer just a cool theory. They are operating in a number of big cities. 

Two young millennial women recorded their experience renting and riding in a Waymo robo taxi for the first time in the video below for Kia-Hyundai. They called for the taxi on a phone app. 

It's not just a matter of telling the taxi where to go. Some features they discovered that helped or surprised them:

• real time ETA (expected time of arrival) of when the requested taxi would come 
•  an app button to unlock the doors when the taxi arrived
•  a digital display map of their location in both front and back seats
• an app button command option was available to "pull over"
• choice of music

Blessing 2025

Every year since 2020 I sing this blessing along with the recording of these Christians of various churches in the United Kingdom.

God's attitude toward us is that He is for us. A verse not quoted in this particular song but in sync with the revelation of God's good intentions is this one:

"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope."