Rededicate

On Sunday, May 17, something like 15,000 people showed up in Washington D.C. to rededicate the United States of America to God on our 250th anniversary.

Millions of Americans (like me) joined that 15k in thanking God for His blessing on us in the past. Eric Metaxas, who is first in the video, recounts two occasions in our history where God took an active part in preserving us.

Francis Scott Keye, composer of our national anthem, calls America "our Heaven-rescued land." The fourth verse declares "In God is our trust." That faith was foundational to the birth of this country, and millions of us still hope and work to continue that trust now.

Actor speech

When it comes to taking the stage in front of thousands of people and giving a performance, who would be a natural to do that? Actors have a talent for it and do it for a living. But we don't expect profundity from actors.

Now and then we can be surprised in the best way. Movie star Matthew McConaughey's commencement address back in 2015 is a commencement speech worth watching. Enjoy:

Pay attention

If anybody understands that young people are often overwhelmed (see yesterday's post) and led 0ff-track by technology, it must be Jonathan Haidt. He wrote the influential book about it (The Anxious Generation).

This month he gave the commencement address at New York University, where he teaches. There was some opposition to his being chosen, maybe because he's known to have said that students come to college "emotionally fragile, never want to be challenged to grow, and therefore enter the rest of their lives set up to fail." Yes, some are sure to take offense at that.

But his message to these graduates was different. He told them to treasure their attention: to value it so highly that they intentionally direct their focus toward the highest value, the best outcomes--and don't squander their attention on distractions. In other words, make a good "choice of what to think about."

"Flourishing" is the title of his favorite class to teach, techniques we all can use to be smarter, emotionally stronger, and more sociable. Why does he teach these things? To "increase the odds of one's success in love and work," which is the path to flourishing. There's some wisdom here.

from After Babel

Boooo!

If we thought artificial intelligence was universally loved by Gen Z, we'll have to think again. Some speakers who mentioned the rising importance of AI at graduation ceremonies this spring were booed instead of cheered.

But, we might think, don't they all use it gladly to cheat on homework? Yes, some do. 

But aren't they all enthusiastically learning how to use it so that they won't be left behind in the job market? Yes, some are. But about one-third in a recent survey said that "the tech makes them feel angry." Almost half say that "the risks of AI in the work force outweigh the benefits."

It might be that students are tired of the pressure placed on their lives by technology in general, hoping to find a simpler, more satisfying life centered on personal relationships.

from Mind Matters

Test flight #12

Starship is still being improved. The latest, brand new iteration (V3) of SpaceX's space transport vehicle took off on its virgin flight last Friday evening, a mostly successful trial.

Ship itself (upper stage) is bigger, and the launch pad (Pad 2) is safer and more durable. The Raptor engine is completely redesigned--with less mass but more thrust, a beautiful re-engineering (on the right in the photo). Find the details of these improvements and many more here.

All of this is to enable human travel in our solar system and beyond. Soon, Starship will have to achieve the ability to re-fuel while in orbit, and then achieve rapid reusability.

As one engineer put it, "A lot of people worked really hard to make it look easy." Of course, passing the test was actually anything but easy. You saw engineers talking about that a couple of weeks ago.

Here is the live launch and flight narrated by SpaceX engineers. Actual launch takes place at about 28 minutes into the video.

Aliens--what if?

Life originating somewhere other than Earth is back in the public conversation again because the federal government is releasing information that they kept secret up until now. Maybe we will get evidence, it is thought, that aliens (image) have come to our planet.

If it turns out that aliens really do exist, will Christians have to change their faith? Here's an answer from one scientist and Christian who says, "I don’t know if ET life exists, but as a Christian, it wouldn’t bother me."

Why is that? Life in all its forms requires a transcendent, intelligent Creator. It is enormously unlikely, probably impossible, to happen by random accident and natural causes. God could have created different life forms on different worlds. The Bible doesn't specifically say He didn't.

A simple answer, and I agree.

from Townhall

Note: we will get back to Starship's launch 

COO G. Shotwell

Starship test flight #12 is due to take off tonight about 6:30 pm CST, barring delays. Here's a little reminder about who calls the shots (pun intended) at SpaceX. 

She built a "multi-billion-dollar relationship with NASA." She headed up the development of Falcon 9, SpaceX's first reusable rocket. She predicted that Starlink, which was only an idea at this point, would change the world with satellite-based internet access.

Watch Gwynne's TED talk (interview) from eight years ago:

Note: the launch is re-scheduled for tomorrow

China vs God 4

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Many others besides Eza Jin are in prison because, wanting to be authentic Christ-followers, they are tripped up by these laws designed to catch them. 

Jin has something on his side which they don't all have: the determined, effective help of adult daughter Grace (photo) in the US. She too was affected by the suppression. As a small child in school, she was made to stand aside from her class every morning because, said her teacher, her faith was incompatible with the CCP. "If you just say you're no longer a Christian, then you can join in." A law forbad her parents taking her to church.

"She has testified before congress twice, penned op-eds in the WSJ and The Free Press, and traveled the world . . . to advocate for her father's freedom."

Says Grace, "I always feel like I'm not doing enough."

from "China vs. God"

China vs God 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Ezra Jin was at Tiananmen Square in 1989 protesting against the government, but he escaped disaster because he was not there on the day that ~10,000 students were killed. Later he visited a church for a funeral, and unexpectedly it touched his sad heart. 

He saw the contrast between his life and that of the Christians. They felt at home with their God, who offered acceptance and love, contrary to his sense of being lost and homeless. He kept going back and then made his decision.

As a pastor years later, he was able to run his church openly. But in 2018 a wave of new regulations cracked down on religious freedom: it became illegal to sell Bibles on the internet, churches had to fly propaganda banners, and hymns must follow the national anthem. 

Eventually they demanded that Jin put facial-recognition cameras into the church. When he refused, they shut the church down. Last September, a new law made it illegal to disseminate unapproved religious teaching online. Jin was arrested for breaking that law in October.

from "China vs. God"

China vs God 2

(cont'd from last Friday's post)

In Washington D.C., Bill and Grace D. keep a baseball bat next to the front door. They keep a camera on their son's toy in the front yard. 

They've experienced computer hackings and someone slashed the tires on Grace's mom's car in the garage. They think it's the Chinese government because Grace's dad, Ezra Jin, was that pastor in yesterday's post. She says, "[T]hey want to show you that there is no safe place for you anywhere in the world . . ."

Bill says, "They can't tolerate any sense of meaning, of spiritual authority, or moral authority outside of what the party wants."

It's not a new government thrust. I've posted a number of examples in the past which you can read here.

from "China vs. God"

(cont'd tomorrow)

China vs God

Does the title of this post sound like a paranoid Christian exaggeration? It's the title of an article in a secular journal, and there's evidence for it. The Chinese government wants ultimate control of its people, right down to their relationship with God.

Officially, it's Mao Zedong who is exalted to the people. His communist revolution transformed China in the 1960's and 70's. Never mind that his movements produced poverty and famine and chaos, citizens today line up to pay homage to his embalmed body in a clear coffin. They revere his writings and erect statues of him (photo).

The nation and its Communist Party (CCP) must be the object of faith, not God. 

"Our education told us that religion was an opiate, was not real. That God is something you made up in your mind," says Anna, the wife of a pastor. He and three dozen other pastors and church members were arrested last October in the dead of night.

from China vs. God

(to be continued on Monday)

Frexit 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

For many years, France has had a fleet of nuclear power plants which produce most of its energy. Their largest domestic energy source as of 2024 was nuclear. It may be a big reason why les Francais for many years paid a low price for power.

Energy costs are a big aggravation because they pay higher prices now, due to European Union policies. The EU integrates the whole European market for power, including countries like Germany in which power prices are high. The French can't take advantage of their own lower cost power production.

Russia used to provide France with natural gas at a low price. The EU has forbidden that. So, France must now get liquified natural gas from the US at a significantly higher price.

France plans to support the construction and operation of six new nuclear generators. But the EU has opened an "in-depth investigation" into whether that plan complies with their rules. 

There are other issues too, of course. Frexit enthusiasts want their country's freedom to make their own decisions regarding what is best for them. It's sovereignty. Vive la France!

Frexit 1

Vive la France! That was the cry from a square in Paris last weekend. It's far from a new cry, but it has additional meaning for some of les Francais. They want their country to exercise its own sovereignty, and to remove itself from the domination of the European Union.

Last Saturday was "Europe Day", the celebration of the 1950 declaration that led to the European Union. Supporters of the EU celebrate this integration of European countries which they say led to more peace, cooperation, and prosperity among them. That integration was in the form of a bureaucracy laid over and on top of the sovereignty of each nation.

While Europe Day was going on, French patriots held another rally in Paris, led by a political party dedicated to ending their membership in the EU. They do not like the fact that France cannot choose its own path but must submit to EU policies across a number of issues.

The United Kingdom was the first in Europe to make that very decision. You've heard of the "Brexit" movement which resulted in Britain's exit from the EU in 2020. Now the "Frexit" movement (image) is growing for France. 

(cont'd tomorrow)

Next test flight

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Starship V3, the third generation including new ship/booster/engine, will launch for the first time very soon. Starship test flight #12 is in pre-launch prep and will deploy no earlier than May 19.

Because this particular version is brand new, mission goals don't sound dramatic like, say, another booster catch. The main point of the test is to affirm that everything works together correctly. Even the launch pad which will be used at Starbase TX is new ("Pad 2").

Even its flight path is new compared to previous Starship test flights, a narrower corridor over the Gulf of America and between countries. The video below explains why it's changing for the sake of safety and for the benefit of future missions. 

New Starship V3

"Three years since the first flight of Starship, the next generation is here. New ship. New booster. New engines. New pad and new test site." It's Version 3.

They're trying to accomplish a "space dream" in the real world--a transportation system to take humans throughout our galaxy. Nobody knows how to do that yet. The engineers at SpaceX spend every day trying to figure it out. 

They're passionate and driven. I have no technical aptitude, but they inspire me. Meet some of them in SpaceX's video below telling how they got this far. There's Bill (VP/Starship Engineering), Charlie (Director/Starship Engineering), Jenna (Sr. Manager/Starship Operations), Joe (another VP/Starship Engineering).

from SpaceX

Neighbors 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

So, it looks like there are people among your neighbors and mine (particularly younger neighbors) who may fear prying and personal questions. On the other hand, loneliness is a problem in modern life, especially in that younger generation.

Can I make a suggestion? Feeling invisible and isolated is not a good thing, so don't ignore him or her when you randomly run into a neighbor. A smile and a little small talk can break the icy wall between us (don't get personal 😉).

Do we need a "Good Neighbor Day"? We have one and it's coming soon--May 16. Friendlier American neighborhoods could help counter the isolating, suspicious, lonely, "tribalist" trend. You could be that influence in your neighborhood.

Neighbors

Would it be a good thing to know your neighbors? Sure, but in the last decade the percentage of us who do has fallen.

In fact, for about two-thirds of Americans, the top priority in being a good neighbor is maintaining distance and privacy. 

Young adults may feel more isolated from neighbors than others do: "Since 2012, the percentage of young adults who talk to their neighbors at least a few times per week dropped from 51% to 25%. Among seniors, the decline was only seven points."

from AEI

(cont'd tomorrow)

Classical ed 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

When children are young in this system, much information is absorbed because they take to it so well. In the next stage, they learn logic, how to analyze opinions and evaluate values based on their information. Finally, at the high school level, they form opinions and make reasonable arguments for them.

Standardized tests demonstrate that these students know their subjects. They perform in the upper 13% on the ACT, and the upper 17% of the nation's students on the SAT. But even better, they learn how to think deeply and how to learn. They develop respect for other people, including those who have opposing beliefs and values.

As she says, if all our citizens had such an education, we as a people would: really know our own history so as to avoid past mistakes, make our decisions on the basis of reason and knowledge rather than emotion only, and resist deceit and manipulation.

Classical ed

Something needs to be done about our education system in the US. Parents discovered that their local teachers and administrators may think their authority exceeds the parents' regarding their kids. Some discovered that their school is indoctrinating their kids in undesirable values. 

Parents look for better options. They want a school that will point their children in the right direction. Many are drawn to something called a "classical education," which seeks to address both the mind and the soul of the child.

Below is one mom's inspiring story of how they resolved their search for the right school: she and her husband actually started a new "classical" school in their area. 

(cont'd tomorrow)

AI in school 4

(cont'd from this post)

Teachers are struggling to teach and to evaluate learning these days. Students turn in assignments which were done for them by artificial intelligence. As one teacher said, she got fed up with grading essays that the students did not do. There's no point.

Some teachers have found a simple way to test what the students have learned: essays and tests can be done right there in class, where they can be monitored for integrity. Maybe this means that writing in cursive will become relevant again. Oral exams could also take on renewed importance. Maybe that will require a new focus on speaking in public.

AI is not going to go away. How to use it rightly, for the best outcomes, is the question that both teachers and even students themselves are asking.

This weekend?

Have some free time this weekend? There's a movie I can recommend to you, The Story of Everything, a beautifully made film that explores a universal question: did a supernatural Intelligence make the world, or was it all a big accident? Is there any evidence in nature that there's a design, a mind behind it all?

It's based on the book, Return of the God Hypothesis. Author Stephen Meyer started asking if anything in his life really mattered--as a 14-year-old. Yes, teenagers do wonder about life's meaning. 

Even if science is not your thing, it's not just about you anymore. People in your life, like your kids and grandkids, are deeply affected by the public opinions of scientists. Maybe they'd like to see some information and a view of the world which they never learned in public school.

Colombia to Mars

Like the Starbuck family from Cuba, Diana Trujillo from Colombia sought opportunity by coming to the United States of America. She made her move at the tender age of 17. 

Not even able to speak English, she managed to get and hold a job as a maid, eventually putting herself through community college. Undoubtedly, it was difficult. But, as she says, "nothing that's worth it is easy." 

She studied aerospace engineering at the university, applied to NASA academy, and was hired by NASA. Today she is Mission Lead for the Mars Curiosity Rover.

Her virtues got her there: resilience, courage, determination, willingness to work hard--all of these enabled her drive to pursue her dream. She didn't choose an easy path. She needed everything she had.

AI: wrongful death

Are AI platforms or their owning companies responsible if they produce terrible outcomes? The Starbuck suit (yesterday's post) against Google may help define this question. But it's not the only lawsuit trying to hold AI accountable.

A 16-year-old boy committed suicide last year, and his family is suing Open AI for wrongful death.

Starbuck 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Robby's effectiveness in changing corporate minds about DEI caught the attention of the NYT, which did a story on "how to handle the Robby Starbuck problem in corporate America." Large sums of money were spent on "oppo" research to find something negative that could be used as leverage against him.

Even worse, Google's AI started reporting very bad things about him when a search on his name was done. Most of us routinely believe answers from artificial intelligence, right? So, these accusations were injected into public opinion and were a direct threat to his reputation.

But the accusations (child rapist, financial cheater, convicted of sexual assault, etc.) were all made up by AI and completely untrue. When asked to verify these charges, Google's AI invented both fake police reports and fake articles written by real journalists. That is, it made up both the lie and the documentation of it.

Google's AI (Gemini), when questioned, "admitted that it was deliberately engineered to damage the reputation of individuals with whom Google executives disagree politically, including Mr. Starbuck."

Robby filed a lawsuit against Google last January. Google's response is that their AI was just hallucinating, apparently not a big deal to them, and they've done nothing to fix it.

Bret Weinstein makes some chilling remarks about the danger of AI misleading its readers and ruining people's reputations at about 4:45 and following in video below.

Starbuck

Robby Starbuck's family lost everything when communism took over in Cuba, so they fled to the United States. As the son of immigrants, he absorbed their vivid memories of growing tyranny in their homeland and the relief of finding freedom in the US. He learned to be alert to early signs that tyranny could threaten our American values . . because if America falls, there's no place to run to.

Producing Hollywood films was his career goal. While pursuing it in California, he ditched that goal to do something more meaningful to him: he saw this country going the wrong way and decided to put all his effort into getting it back on track. 

Corporations went political a few years back. Ideas like DEI racism and transgenderism found their way into boardrooms of big corporations and into their policies. When Robby tried to change executives' policies, they would ask him, "ok what organization must I donate to in order to get you off my case?" They seemed to respect it when he refused that money. He's had success with Target and others. A committed, woke activist who was head of Harley Davidson (motorcycles) could not be persuaded to change, and he is now gone.

Robby wants to fight for what he believes to be right, and he's been effective. He's also paid a price for being in the public eye.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Wonder of Beavers

Elements of Earth's natural order, like spiders and our water system, are wonderful when you know more about them. But the whole system is wonderful in itself. Natural elements are balanced for a healthy ecosystem. 

Beavers were a traditional, natural element of the landscape of Scotland. Then they completely disappeared due to over-hunting . . 

Until this century. They're back after going extinct 400 years ago. In only 15 years, their resumed presence in the landscape made welcome and wonderful changes to Scotland's rivers. Flooding declined. Clarity improved and wildlife returned. Droughts were less destructive.

"Beavers re-built the living fabric of the river."

More: dam-building is instinctual. If the sound of running water is played in a dry environment, a beaver will pile sticks on it. Where does instinct come from? Maybe an algorithm built into the brain.

Wonder 4

(cont'd from yesterday's post) 

• Life requires minerals that are bound in our planet's rock. In the course of earth's water cycle, those minerals are dissolved and distributed all over the world. Water dissolves without destroying lots of things we need, while not dissolving necessary things.
• Water's heat capacity helps us stay temperature-stable within a narrow range. 
• Normally the frozen state of a liquid would contract and get denser. If frozen water got denser, it would sink. Lakes and rivers would be frozen from top to bottom, killing all aquatic life. But floating ice actually insulates and preserves the liquid state of the water beneath it.

photo

"Water is the driving force of all nature," said Leonardo DaVinci. He didn't know what the last several hundred of years of science has discovered, but his intuition was correct.

The fine-tuning of water, and of nature in general, make possible the existence of complex beings such as ourselves, according to Michael Denton. 

from Salvo

Wonder 3

 Even common water is a wonder, when you know more about it.

Water 1

Water is known to be an essential element of the planetary environment which can sustain life. One of the most common substances on earth, it's simple: two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. 

But its properties are rare:

• it's an almost universal solvent
• it holds a lot of heat
• ice floats!

from Salvo

Wonder 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Web 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Different species of spiders make webs of special kinds: collars, trapdoors, tunnels, as well as the familiar net design. But exactly how do they know which kinds of proteins to combine that will give the web its flexibility, its legendary strength, its stickiness? And where to put the anchor points? Spiders don't make conscious choices relating to biochemistry, geometry, engineering.

Instinct is not an answer. It's a way of saying "we don't know." A credible path to evolutionary development of the biological web-building system would require every necessary gene mutation on that pathway to render a survival advantage of some kind (natural selection). A biologist and spider specialist says it may be impossible to figure it out.

Complex functions and behaviors like this bear a strong resemblance to a human engineering project, a very intentional and rational activity that involves mathematical and chemical formulas. 

Maybe science will someday discover algorithms that are somehow built into the genome. Coded information doesn't come from random material causes. But it would be consistent with the Creator God hypothesis.

from Evolution News

Wonder 1

All around us is the natural world. We're rightfully busy with our demanding responsibilities, but occasionally we have time and opportunity to pay attention to the natural wonders of our world. It's refreshing to notice some of the common but wonderful things.

Web 1

With all the advances of today's amazing science and technology, you'd think we could have reproduced something as simple and ubiquitous as spider silk. But no, it still hasn't(?) been done.

photo

If you see a typical one in your garden, there's about 65-195 feet of silk in it. The threads may be sticky, spokes, bridge threads, signal threads to inform the spider of captured prey, or drag lines to give the spider access.

Signal threads communicate both the angle and the distance of the prey from the web's center. Somehow the intensity of the vibrations sensed through the spider's eight legs tell it where the captured prey is, and it can store three different prey locations.

Proteins in various combinations give the web features like stretchiness, flexibility and toughness. 

"Every set of initial anchor points is different; the number of radii is contingent on opportunity; the beginning of the sticky spiral depends on where the longest several radii turn out to be. In short, each web is a custom production.”

from Evolution News