Gold star

Today, Memorial Day, is an annual holiday in America to honor those who died in the performance of military active duty. Families who have lost someone in this way are called Gold Star Families. 

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For them, it's not just a three-day holiday weekend. It's personal. They have plans for this day:

“I will be walking in Carry the Load. I can talk to people about Jay,” said Beth Strickland Funk, mother of U.S. Army Sgt. Joshua “Jay” Strickland, killed in action in Afghanistan on September 21, 2013."

“Spending memorial day at the New Hampshire Veterans Cemetery visiting not only my brother, but as the NH Survivor Outreach Services Support Coordinator I am visiting the graves of service members whose families are not able to visit that weekend,” said Stephanie Ouellette, sister of U.S. Marine Cpl. Michael Ouellette, killed in action in Afghanistan on March 22, 2009.

“Placing flags on all the gravesites at the Alabama National Cemetery in Montavalo. Laying memorial wreaths at the small ceremony they have honoring all branches of the military and the Gold Star moms. I will be laying the wreath for the Gold Star moms,” said Charon Rivers, mother of U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Thomas Rivers Jr., killed in action in Afghanistan on April 28, 2010. “And of course visiting my son Thomas’ gravesite. Afterwards we will go to the lake because that’s where Thomas would want to be!”

more at The Stream

Scary time

"It's a scary time for the Jewish community," says actor Jonathan Lipnicki (30). He's one of the volunteers who offer their protection to a "community on edge."

Anti-semitic attacks are spiking in Los Angeles. Volunteer Remi Franklin put out a message after the sushi restaurant attack (video below): “If anyone in the Jewish community in greater L.A. is concerned about walking to Shul or home, I’ll walk with you.”

On his first protection shift, Lipnicki was thanked by an older Orthodox man who said, "We appreciate you so much. You're not scared?" Lipnicki replied, “No, you gotta do the right thing, man." His grandfather, an Auschwitz survivor, told him to "always do your part."

from LATimes

CRT polarizes

Maybe you've heard or read, as I have, that Americans have got to stop attacking or accusing each other and make more of an effort to get along - even with those who disagree, who see things differently. Disagreeing with you or me does not make someone our enemy.

A refugee from Communist China, surgeon and author Dr. Ming Wang, warns against such division. “To me, America is so unprecedentedly polarized, it’s deadly . . . And that polarization is defined by the increasing fixation on our differences, rather than appreciating what we have in common."

Rev. C. L. Bryant embraced the racial division of critical race theory (CRT) at one time, living under the segregation of the 1800's-1900's in U.S. southern states, but he's changed his mind. Segregation under the law doesn't exist anymore. So he asks, “Is there anything you can do in America today where the color of your skin would stop you from doing it?”

According to Bryant, “Critical race theory is a tool, a mechanism . . to make young people of all colors think America was founded in slavery and racism."

from The Stream

What is CRT?

Critical Race Theory activists look for racism everywhere and always find it. That's because they believe and assume that racism is the foundation of America. 

What's the most critical, foundational thing about you? According to CRT, it's not your behavior, or your values, or your heart or your choices, but your race. 

Ryan on CRT

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

In addition to his convictions and values, Ryan has a strong sense of who he is.

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"I’m half white and half black. My melanin doesn’t change my worth or my propensity to sin. Yet we live in a culture where we are told that our skin color confers upon us a status that is fixed, assigned by an elite class of humans . . who want us to see everything through the broken lens of “race”—a human construct that has only served to dehumanize us throughout history. As a person with brown skin, I reject my assigned “status” . . ."

He refuses the labels of "oppressed" and "oppressor" used by Critical Race Theory. He refuses the binary identity of guilt or privilege used by CRT: "I wholeheartedly disagree with it because of its dependence on deception and division."

As a Christian, Ryan knows that the sin of racism denies the value and dignity inherent in every human being of every race. We were created in the image of God.

from Christian Post

It's personal

"Unwanted" is a label that Ryan Bomberger rejects. He was conceived by his white biological mother when was she raped by a black man; but, despite the violence, she chose to carry that child and give him life. Ryan was adopted into a multi-racial family that eventually numbered 15. His view of the world is counter-cultural.

His personal story leads him away from the materialism of our culture . . toward the conviction that life has purpose and meaning.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Skeptic 3

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

Since it's a matter of history, the creation of earth's life forms can't be repeated and the original process can't be observed. But evidence can be gathered. 

Dr. Stephen Meyer (video below) received his Philosophy of Science doctorate from Oxford. He says that "digital information directing the construction of mechanical systems" is what's going on inside living cells. Where did the coded information come from? In our uniform and repeated experience, information always comes from a mind - not a material process.

According to Dr. Jonathan Wells (two Phd's), the appearance of design is overwhelming now that modern science has discovered molecular machines at work within living cells.

Molecular biologist Dr. Doug Axe saw control systems at the molecular level within cells, and recognized that they looked engineered. He finds the random material process explanation unconvincing.

Do they seem ignorant, stupid, or insane? Certainly not.

Skeptic 2

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

"Intelligent Design" is a view that certain features of the universe and life are best explained by a designing intelligence rather than by an undirected, unguided process like natural selection. Books, articles and documentaries by scientists who are not committed to materialism explain the science of these features. 

Christians fit naturally into this paradigm because we believe in the God of the Bible. But the Bible is not the foundation of ID. Empirical scientific evidence is its foundation. 

If you are committed to the view that God doesn't exist or that he didn't create life, you must mentally fight the ubiquitous appearance of design in living systems. As Francis Crick said, "Biologists must constantly keep in mind that what they see was not designed, but rather evolved."

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(cont'd tomorrow)

Skeptic 1

Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins may best be known for his contempt for religion of all kinds. From my point of view as a Christian, every person has been granted free will and moral agency - so Dawkins has the right and the freedom to believe what he chooses.

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Combative, confident, intelligent, arrogant, he's pretty successful at discouraging faith. 

He famously said, "It is absolutely safe to say that if you meet somebody who claims not to believe in evolution, that person is ignorant, stupid or insane . . ." He couldn't mean evolution as simple change over time (like how finch beaks change shape in response to weather change) -  because no one debates that. He is referring to skeptics of the far bigger claim that evolution and natural selection brought about all life forms that have ever existed.

So . . if I or a Christian scientist believe God rather than evolution created all life on earth . . we are ignorant, stupid, or insane. Right?

(cont'd tomorrow)

Lost/won seats 2

 (cont'd from yesterday)

It's said that people and businesses "vote with their feet" when they leave a state and go to another. Reasons for doing so are varied and personal, but some patterns and generalizations can nevertheless be drawn. Here are a few:

For the six states which gained population and gained House seats, the average top individual income tax rate was 4.4% in 2020. Two of those states, Texas and Florida, have no individual income tax. Average income tax rate in the states losing population and House seats was 6.5%.

The overall tax burden (including property tax and sales tax in addition to income tax) in the six gaining states averaged 7.9% compared to an average of 9.5% in the losing states.

In the six gaining states, average price of electricity is 9.4 cents per kilowatt hour. Electricity costs an average of 11.3 cents per kilowatt hour in the losing states.

In the six gaining states, unemployment (2019) averaged 3.4%, while the average among the seven losing states was 4.2%. 

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Americans tend to move "to states that are relatively more economically vibrant, dynamic, and business-friendly, with lower tax and regulatory burdens, lower energy costs, with more economic and job opportunities - from states that are relatively more economically stagnant with higher taxes and more regulations, higher energy costs, and with fewer economic and job opportunities."

from Carpe Diem

Lost/won seats 1

Each U.S. state elects representatives to the United States House of Representatives based on their population. 

In the 2020 election, six states gained Congressional House seats: Texas, North Carolina, Florida, Colorado, Montana, and Oregon. Seven states lost seats: New York, Illinois, California, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan. 

Economist Mark Perry found that there were some interesting differences in the states that lost seats compared to the states which added seats. Click on the chart to magnify.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Lost freedoms 2

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

El Nacional's owner has fled the country for (understandable) fear for his safety. Dozens of media outlets have been driven out of business by courts friendly to Maduro. The Committee to Protect Journalists says, “This is a clear case of judicial harassment against one of the few remaining independent outlets in Venezuela, which has managed to keep reporting against all odds.”

In this particular case, if it does not pay the "astronomical" fee, the newspaper may be seized and sold at auction.

When the economy and government branches are free and separate, they are a protection against tyranny: each can act to restrain excesses in the others. When they are all controlled by Maduro, there is no protection. He can use the courts, the economy, etc., to insulate himself from opposition.

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from Stream

Lost freedoms 1

You know that Venezuela has been in trouble for years if you follow this blog. Go here to see massive lines of people waiting at grocery stores, big migrations to neighboring countries, health care and medical facilities barely functioning.

This is the country which has more reserves of oil than any other country in the world. Under leader Maduro, the people live in desperate poverty. Somehow he manages to hold on to power.

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With the legislative (law-making) and judicial (courts) branches of government under Maduro, the nation  lacks what we in the U.S. call "separation of powers." His executive branch of government will freely use all powers to maintain his control.

Amnesty International published a report last year enumerating the ongoing loss of civil liberties:

• excessive use of force
• unlawful killings
• torture
• criminalization
• unfair trials

Hardly any news outlet is willing to go out on a limb to report any of this. But the newspaper El Nacional was such a one. Its end may be near. It reported that Maduro's second-in-power, Cabella, was being investigated by the U.S. for ties to drug trafficking. For that, Cabella sued. The courts have now issued a decision that the paper will pay a fine which they cannot possibly pay.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Mary Slessor 2

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

Reports that those remote villages were unsafe were quite true. Male missionaries had been killed, but possibly a single woman would not be perceived as a threat. She learned the language and adopted many local customs and was allowed to live.

But she took a stand against other customs. Twins were considered the offspring of demons and  routinely abandoned to death. Women and slaves were killed at the death of the husband/owner so that they could continue to serve him in the afterlife. 

In the spirit of imago dei, she saved hundreds of lives. Against the advice of her agency, she adopted nine of those children as her own. She grew in the community's respect even to the point of settling disputes. When the British empire wanted to set up a court system, she became the first female magistrate in the empire.

"Mary was known for her disdain towards murder, but she always transformed the village through the love of God, not through force like the British. Mary protected Nigerian tribes from the British force and imperialism, by transforming their culture rather than abolishing it."

Mary Slessor 1

Missionaries are ordinary people, which means they are imperfect and they all have their differences. Actually, they are ordinary Christians (imperfect but forgiven by God) who are motivated to do something about it.

Despite the narrative you may have heard, they were/are not all arrogant colonizers. 

Mary Slessor grew up in Scotland, heard the gospel and received the Christian message for herself. On hearing that famous missionary David Livingstone had died, she was inspired to go to Africa as a single missionary. 

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Her bold personality and faith convictions resulted in some unusual behaviors for 19th century missionaries. She cut her hair, abandoned Victorian dress while in country, and ate local food. She wanted to reach remote villages considered unsafe and eventually managed to do it. 

from Breakpoint

(cont'd tomorrow)

Not optional

 You probably can name a few things in life that you consider "not optional." I wonder if you've considered the importance of beauty. 

Psychologist Jordan Peterson and screenwriter Randall Wallace talk about the significance of beauty in this video. They both tell a story of an encounter with someone who was deeply touched by beauty which made a difference in their lives.

Space debris

Last week a Chinese rocket launched the first module for the space station they plan to build. But now the temporarily-orbiting rocket is coming down slowly . . uncontrolled. No one can tell where it will land.

"Why the Chinese rocket is coming down uncontrolled is not at all clear. U.S. rockets (and most others) routinely fire their engines to target re-entries over the southern Pacific to ensure debris can't land on populated areas." 

U.S. Space Command is tracking it but won't be able to project a landing location until just hours before it happens. It's in orbit, but is gradually slowing and is going to fall to earth somewhere.

from CBS News

SN15 did it

SpaceX accomplished it at last, launching the new version of Starship (SN15) six miles up and returning it to the ground in a soft landing. All the previous prototypes ended in "rud" - rapid unplanned disassembly, i.e. explosion.

As you know, Starship is being developed by the private corporation SpaceX for NASA to use on its crewed mission to the moon, perhaps by 2024. SpaceX also plans to use this craft for its own commercial flights.

The two other companies that were considered by NASA for the job were Blue Origin and Dynetics. They lost the bid to SpaceX. Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin has filed a complaint with the government. So, for now, NASA is unable to give SpaceX any money for the job. If it isn't settled quickly, that moon mission goal may well be delayed. In fact, the 2024 goal is expected to slide under the current administration anyway.

from Space website

AI in Moldova

Full self-driving may ultimately be too hard to achieve. Human intelligence is not totally understood. Some think it's inevitable that AI will grow way past humans, but maybe it's not even possible, let alone inevitable, that it will get there. 

AI is simply computational. A human programmer instructs it to answer questions or problems with certain answers, given the input of certain data. AI never challenges the programmer's assumptions or values, or thinks of questions the programmer should have asked. 

What kind of things do humans do that AI will never do? Bill Dembski has one unique answer:

A friend of his who traveled in Moldova was amazed that the drivers there didn't hit each other more often, since they don't have clear rules about when to move forward or stay put. When he asked his guide how drivers stay out of accidents, the Moldovan answered, "Eye contact." That was his answer - they read the intentions of other drivers in their eyes 😏

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Like Bill says, maybe we "have no clue of what capabilities AI actually needs to achieve to truly match what humans can do."

from Mind Matters

Tesla AI claims

 For several years now Tesla has been assuring us that "full self-driving" was right around the corner. Back in 2016, an optimistic Elon Musk thought that by 2018 you would be able to summon your (Tesla) car from across the country, and it would navigate any road safely on its way to you including charging itself at stations. 

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Later that year he claimed that their hardware was complete which would enable Level 5 self driving -  which means you can sleep in the back seat because the car is totally autonomous, that they were only waiting for regulations to catch up. 

Now, not so much. Current claims are more realistic and less exciting.

A report Tesla gave to the SEC recently says that they are "developing self-driving and driver assist technologies" that they cannot guarantee will work. Those former over-optimistic claims are being walked back.

Unintended 3c

Higher retail customer demand, along with reduced efficiency in the transport side of the business, is putting a lot of pressure on those container shipping companies (here and here). Some suggest that safety standards have been stretched in the big effort to get merchandise where it needs to go.

The weight of a loaded container ship seems enormous when you try to get a sense of scale. The new, bigger ships are huge and look top-heavy and vulnerable to big ocean waves. The biggest loss of containers ever in one incident happened just last November.

During a storm in the Pacific, 1900 containers were lost over the side or damaged on the One Apus. That's more than the average number of containers lost in a whole year by all container ships. 

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Wave height combined with distance between the waves (~equal to the length of the ship) can produce  violent instability, a phenomenon known as parametric rolling. The accident investigation to come may identify that as the cause.

from Old Salt Blog

Unintended 5

When bureaucrats and politicians consider what policy option will best serve the people, they must ask this question: "What will happen if we choose this policy?"

Disease experts were consulted when the coronavirus became an epidemic. They said, "Shut down everything." Were child and family experts asked what would happen if everything was locked down? Were business and economics experts asked the question? Were environmentalists asked? Or was the decision knee-jerk, with too many unintended consequences?

In March of 2020 the government of Kenya restricted travel as a pandemic measure. Tourism was wiped out (9% of their economy) and lots of jobs were lost. Poor and hungry locals are killing giraffes to survive. 

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About a hundred million people around the world were pushed back into extreme poverty by measures taken to deal with the pandemic. That's real human suffering.  And even the environment will suffer. People must survive before they can work on preserving their natural environment. 

Studies will be done to analyze whether massive lockdowns were the best strategy to preserve life and mitigate suffering. Maybe some things (like schools) should have been left open. Hopefully something has been learned for the next time.

Unintended 4

Lockdowns of businesses, churches, schools started over a year ago and have been in reversal for  only a couple of months. Many children have been living without their friends and teachers, more alone with their computer screens than is good for them. The global rise in childhood mental health issues is another unintended consequence of radical lockdowns.

A pediatric hospital in Paris reports a doubling of kids needing care after suicide attempts since last September. Other alarming behavior includes running into traffic, covering themselves with disinfectant gel, scrubbing their hands raw, obsessing about infection, slowly starving, panic attacks. 

Pablo was weakened by months of barely eating and drinking when his parents rushed him to that Paris hospital - another "child coming apart amid the tumult of the coronavirus crisis." A year is a very, very long time for young children. They may not have the context or optimism to expect a happy ending any time soon.

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An ER doctor in northern England said, "This is an international epidemic and we are not recognizing it." Pablo's father sums it up this way, "It is a real nightmare to have a child who is destroying himself."

from AP News

Dislike ideas . .

There will always be people who see things differently from how I see things, who disagree with me. But I don't have to dislike them personally. Even if I don't like their idea, I might find something else about them to like.

Mac Hammond says, "Dislike ideas, not people."

Unintended 3b

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

The bottleneck is creating delays for customers waiting to get their purchase. To ease customer disappointment, exercise equipment company Peloton plans to spend $100 million just on transportation including air shipments in the first half of this year. Expenses like these may raise retail prices. Small retailers can't afford air shipments.

Average size of these container ships is also growing bigger, so they carry more containers. The ship below is the largest on the seas, a quarter-mile long and capable of carrying up to 21,000 containers each of which is about 20' by 8' by 8.5' in size. Each of those boxes in the photo is about the size of a twenty-foot room.

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Picture a ship like this in a storm at sea.

Unintended 3a

Business slowed during the pandemic lockdowns; retail shops often closed; people stayed home and they stopped buying things. Wait . . no, they didn't exactly stop buying everything. Overall they spent less, yes, but not nothing.

Exercise equipment for home use actually saw more sales. No surprise there, since most people had much more home time for one reason or another. Sales of electronics also rose, plus equipment of all kinds for home offices. 

A lot of that merchandise is brought into the U.S. by container ship. So there's another unintended, unforeseen consequence of the lockdown:  big logjam. Thirty container ships per day have sat at anchor waiting to be unloaded just off Los Angeles, while the normal number is zero or one (says the Executive Director of the Los Angeles Port, in video below).

Seaboard imports started surging in the U.S. last summer as retailers tried to re-stock depleted inventories. Last fall there were 57 more cargo ships than normal. Ships backed up, too, because many workers in the transport system (trains, trucks, terminals, etc.) were sick or at home due to contact tracing.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Lunar lander 2

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

If the time line works out as planned, SpaceX's spacecraft Starship will put two astronauts on the moon by 2024. That's 52 years after the last time we put people on the moon. 

NASA's Artemis mission to the moon will begin paving the way to permanent habitations and an orbiting space station. The moon will be our best bet for launching missions to Mars. Elon Musk wants to build a thousand Starships to transport people and cargo for the purpose of  establishing a colony there. Both Starship and its Super Heavy rocket will be fully reusable.

Watch an animation of what it will look like when Starship is launched to orbit while its booster (Super Heavy) turns around and heads back to earth for a safe landing:

 

Meanwhile, routine business continues. Today at 5:49 a.m. SpaceX launched four astronauts from Kennedy Space Center on a flight to the International Space Station. The pilot, Megan MacArthur, is the wife of Bob Behnke who flew SpaceX's very first crewed mission last year. They will dock with the ISS Saturday morning.

Watch the launch from pre-dawn Florida here.

from Business Insider

Lunar lander 1

Under the previous U.S. president, a goal of 2024 was set to go back to the moon. Last week NASA chose SpaceX to accomplish this goal.

Starship, the same new spacecraft being developed and tested at Boca Chica TX, will be NASA's lunar lander for its Artemis mission.

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SpaceX was chosen over two other competitors (Blue Origin and Dynetics) because in addition to being highly rated in both management and technical categories, SpaceX was also the lowest bidder. 

They bid to do the job for NASA for $2.9 billion, and to assume about the same financial risk for themselves to cover the cost of development and testing because they will also use Starship for their private commercial activities.

from Business Insider

(cont'd tomorrow)

Asylum 3

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

Compassion motivated social reformer Dorothea Dix in the 1800's to campaign for big, safe, therapeutic mental asylums. Compassion motivated mid-1900's reformers to eliminate them. Compassion today urgently calls for a better system than rotating the mentally ill between the streets, jails, and hospital ER's.

Olympia WA mitigation site

Two Olympia police officers on their morning rounds find a shirtless man lying half-way into the street. They politely wake him. He manically throws metal into a cart, screaming about zombies and a mob coming to kill them. It is "Angry Marty," and they will find him again the next morning suffering through another drug-induced terror, and they will have to leave him to fend for himself - until he commits a crime, and then he can go to jail.

"Under the weight of a cultural revolution against the asylums and civil rights lawsuits against involuntary commitment, a prison sentence has become the easiest option. The mentally ill get subsumed into the criminal class."

from City Journal

Asylum 2

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

Victims of mental illness have not ceased to exist, especially with commonly available psychosis-inducing drugs. Instead of big asylum institutions, they cycle through what this author calls the "invisible asylum" of the jail, the street, and the emergency room.

He got a close look at how the city of Olympia, Washington, handles a growing population of the addicted, the mentally ill, and the homeless. They opened a publicly-funded "mitigation site" with 150 tents for shelter and access to services. But it's more of an open-air asylum, with less protection than the old asylums.

A city employee who helps manage the site estimates that almost all of them have both substance-abuse and mental illness to deal with. Police call it the "Thunderdome" because of the raucous nights with shouting, assaults, overdoses.

At Olympia Municipal Jail, officers see the same faces again and again. One of them is Hannah, a meth user and bi-polar, who sometimes lives with her abusive boyfriend at the mitigation site. Her mother once came for her, then left saying that Hannah is her boyfriend's responsibility.

(cont'd tomorrow)

from City Journal