New credit 2

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

Millennials generally hate credit cards, or so it is said. But Affirm's founders had an insight into the specific things they don't like about credit cards. 

It wasn't debt and high interest rates that they reject. Affirm's interest rate can range from 0% to as high as 30%, based on the buyer's credit rating. So their interest rate can be as high as any other.

But there are no hidden fees. If you choose Affirm at check-out, you will be told exactly what you will wind up paying for your purchase over the time period you choose. If you pay with an ordinary credit card on which you carry a balance, you wind up paying interest on everything you buy until you're caught up. People get confused.

Two more things about Affirm apparently appeal to millennials: no big bank, and never any late fees.

Max Levchin claims that his system is more honest. Here's an interview he did:

from Forbes

(cont'd next Friday)

New credit 1

Max Levchin was ten years old and living 90 miles away from Chernobyl when the worst-ever nuclear disaster happened. His mother understood the danger and sent him to live with his grandmother, eventually moving the family to Chicago five years later.

It was an adjustment. "Part of the experience coming to the U.S. from a socialist country is that I just wasn’t prepared for a lot of the things . . I got my first credit card a couple years after coming to America and promptly destroyed my credit . . ."

photo

His tells this part of his story because it directly relates to what he does for a living. Now 45, he is CEO of the company he co-founded, Affirm Holdings. It went public in January, the stock doubled in value, and his stake in it is worth $2.5 billion. So he's a billionaire.

Conventional wisdom says that millennials hate credit cards. But Max and his partners figured out that they still want to "buy now, pay later." So he gives them options.

(cont'd tomorrow)

from Forbes

Statues 2

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

A statue of George Washington was toppled last summer too, more of what the French call "out-of-control woke leftism." A flawed human being, he too owned slaves. Slavery was practiced all over the world and outlawed nowhere in his time. 

But like growing numbers of conscientious people in England and in America, he was troubled by it. He says in a letter in 1786, "I hope it will not be conceived . . that it is my wish to hold the unhappy people who are the subject of this letter in slavery. I can only say that there is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do to see a plan adopted for the abolition of it."

His will gave orders to free all his slaves after his wife Martha's death. He also left orders to his heirs that they care for sick or old slaves, educate their children, and not sell a single one of them or take them out of state.

None of us can live outside the world into which we were born. George Washington's statues and birthday (this week) can and should be honored.

from Stream

Statues

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

Last summer in the U.S. we were horrified to see statues of historical figures - including Thomas Jefferson - torn down and defaced. The French saw it too, and the rest of the world. 

Thomas Jefferson was without doubt a flawed man. He did own slaves at the same time that he and other founders tried to reduce or eliminate slavery. The rational way to address his faults does not include destruction or violence.

The French president addressed the subject in a televised talk to his country last June. He promised he would be "uncompromising in the face of racism, anti-Semitism and discrimination.” And, he  said, France “will not erase any trace, or any name, from its history ... it will not take down any statue. We should look at all of our history together with lucidity” including relations with Africa, with a goal of “truth” instead of “denying who we are.”

from 13abc

Not woke

France is reacting against what the Minister of Education calls "an intellectual matrix from American universities." It's the same thing that much of America is alarmed about, the wave of wokeness engulfing education and media across the U.S.

photo

The French president takes a strong stand against importing "certain social science theories" coming from progressive ideas about race, gender, and post-colonialism. They consider it "out-of-control woke leftism."

A French social scientist says that race has become a "bulldozer" crushing other subjects.

from NY Times

(cont'd tomorrow)

We choose

Many thousands of people celebrated when the Mars rover Perseverance landed safely on Mars yesterday. 

photo: nasa.gov

Success was not a given. It required independent people to work together for the common goal, and we all know that's not easy. Every team had to recover from setbacks and failures, solve problems, and move forward. It required perseverance.

Back in 1962, Americans were challenged by Pres. Kennedy to make the massive effort to get to the moon. His words still resonate:

"We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."

Landing day

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

If successful today (about 3:55 pm EST), this will be the ninth time that the U.S. has landed on Mars. 

Yesterday NASA scientists answered media questions in a live format. They stressed the sheer complexity of the landing. Two million lines of software will be running, and 70 pyrotechnic devices. A hundred scientists will be working from their homes to manage it.

Then there's the parachute. At 70 feet in diameter, it must open in  0.6 seconds while traveling through the Mars atmosphere at Mach 2.

image

Watch live coverage today at NASA Live starting at 2:15 p.m. EST.

(cont'd tomorrow)

USA to Mars

America's rover, "Perseverance," will land on Mars tomorrow. 

Its predecessor, "Curiosity," landed on the planet in 2012 with the goal of determining whether Mars could ever have supported life, and the answer was yes. The main purpose of Perseverance is to actually look for evidence of ancient life.

It will land in Jezero Crater and spend two years exploring it. Billions of years ago this was the site of a river delta and a lake, so it will look for signs of organic compounds and fossils of microbial life. Perseverance will also practice turning the air's carbon dioxide into oxygen, a potentially important skill for future human missions.

New technology will enable Perseverance to pick a relatively safe landing site. It's in the video below.

(cont'd tomorrow)

China to Mars

Like the UAE, this is China's first attempt to go to Mars. But unlike the UAE, China is experienced in both earth orbit and lunar missions.

Tienwen-1 ("Quest for Heavenly Truth") entered Mars orbit last Wednesday, where it will stay for three months. In May their landing platform will descend on the ancient impact crater, Utopia Planitia. This unique and difficult landing from orbit is being called "Seven Minutes of Terror." A ramp will then deploy so the rover can come down. 

Solar powered, it will look for water-ice underground, study the composition of rocks, and send back pictures. Other planned activities were not disclosed. 

Europe, too, had planned to send a rover to Mars during this window of reduced distance, but problems led to a delay. The new plan is to launch in 2022.

from Forbes

UAE to Mars

If it takes seven months to travel to Mars, and if three countries launched last July - yes, spacecraft of three different nations will arrive this month at Mars. The planet will not be this close again for another two years.

The first is already there, in orbit since last Tuesday. It's the first interplanetary venture of the United Arab Emirates (website), launched from a space center in Japan on July 20. 

Their 2-4-year mission is to study the global atmosphere of Mars from orbit, in keeping with goals identified by the Mars Exploration Program Advisory Group. 

Beyond getting valuable information, however, "Hope Probe" is meant to inspire a generation of Arab scientists. On their website: "From our pursuit to find extra-terrestrial life to someday expand human civilization to other planets, Mars serves as a long-term and collaborative project for the entire human race."

photo

Lincoln's BD 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

So America was on the path to the end of slavery, paying a high price for it. Well over 600,000 soldiers died in the Civil War, more than in any other war in our history. Americans, including the president, were heartsick. 

Lincoln was re-elected in 1864 and gave his second inaugural address the following March. In these famous words, he seemed to say that the disastrous war was God's just (fair) retribution for the sin of slavery:

"[W]e pray that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword . . "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

John Wilkes Booth murdered the president just 41 days later.

Lincoln's BD 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

But slavery states did withdraw into their own alternative government, and Lincoln had vowed to preserve the United States of America under its constitution. So civil war began less than one hundred years after the nation was founded.

After almost two years of war, on the first day of 1863 the president issued the Emancipation Proclamation: 

"I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free . . ."

"And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God."

image

In March of 1863 the president followed up this move toward ending slavery with a designated day of prayer and fasting. He asked Americans to pray that God would forgive their national sins so that the nation could be restored to unity and peace.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Lincoln's BD 1

Many Americans name Abraham Lincoln as their favorite president. His years in the White House were full of trouble, but his words and actions earn respect.

Soldiers were there to protect him as the president's carriage arrived on March 4, 1861, for the inauguration. Some in the 25,000 who attended said later they were relieved that no one took a shot at him. It was well known that he would defend the nation from being torn apart by southern slave states.

Lincoln identified the issue that was poised to do it: "One section of our country believes slavery is right, and ought to be extended, while the other believes it is wrong, and ought not to be extended. This is the only substantial dispute."

He asked the South to re-consider secession: "In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors . . . I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection."

(cont'd tomorrow)

NFL to farm 2

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

Jason Brown played center for several years in the NFL, the highest paid center at one point. When he was replaced as starter at his position, it motivated him to go and do as he thought God was leading him to - that is, begin farming a thousand acres in North Carolina and giving away the produce.

Purchasing their dream farm was an answer to prayer. Their first crop posed a big new challenge: how would they dig up, harvest, and distribute 100,000 pounds of sweet potatoes?? That was another answer to prayer. And there's much more.

As of 2018, the year this video was posted, Jason and his family were still giving away not just the first fruits of the farm, but all the fruits of the farm. 

If you could use some inspiration today, here it is:

NFL to farm

To play in the NFL is to live an intense life. Tampa Bay quarterback Tom Brady appeared in his first Super Bowl nineteen years ago, and won his seventh Super Bowl ring yesterday. At 43, he has stayed healthy, fit, and focused - and on top of his game - for a long time.

Years ago another NFL player quit the game much sooner. He had different goals.

Repost:

1st Fruits farm

"When I think about a life of greatness, I think about a life of service," says Jason Brown.

At the age of 29 he quit playing NFL football for the Rams (and also quit earning millions) to be a farmer in North Carolina.  He knew nothing about farming.  He learned how to farm on  . . youtube.

This year he gave 100,000 pounds of sweet potatoes to food pantries.  That's the plan for every year, to give away the "first fruits" of his harvest, and he sounds excited about it.

Black History

Since February is "Black History Month," I checked a few news websites (USA Today, CNN, Forbes) to see what they're covering. I found no headlines on the subject. Too late in the month or too early?

History and journalism are alike in this way, that they are written by human beings who have a lens through which they see the world. Their own views will inevitably get into their reporting. As Hugh Hewitt says, "There is no neutrality. There is only transparency." 

Some writers try to be neutral as they report on various opinions, but even then neutrality can't be done. They must still choose a topic out of potentially thousands. They choose one, based on  their worldview, to bring to your attention. 

Did you know about any of the black achievers posted this week? Me neither. David Barton has an opinion on why we don't know much African American history. About twelve minutes in, he mentions a black judge who was elected in 1775 and served forty years. Surprising? 

Black preacher 2

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

In 1775 a man by the name of Garrettson freed his own slaves and began to preach that all slaveholders should do the same. Plantation owner Stokley Sturgis in Delaware heard the message, and agreed - slaveholding was sinful. He gave his slaves an opportunity to buy their freedom, and Richard Allen did just that in 1780.

photo

Though a Methodist like Harry Hoosier and Bishop Asbury, he didn't choose to travel like them. Instead, he became a preacher in 1786 at St. George's Methodist Episcopal Church of Philadelphia. But prayer and worship was racially segregated. 

Allen and another preacher led their congregants out of that church. They started the Free African Society and bought a lot for a new church building, the oldest property in America which has been held continuously by African Americans. In 1799 Bishop Asbury ordained him as the first black American Episcopal priest.

For 34 years, Richard and Sarah Allen operated a station on the underground railroad until he died in 1831.

from Wikipedia

Black preacher

Before recorded voice and electronic media, talented orators were celebrities. Harry Hoosier, a former slave who gained his freedom, was called by a signer of the Declaration of Independence (Dr. Benjamin Rush) the greatest orator of his time.

About 1780,  Harry met Bishop Francis Asbury of the American Methodist Church and started working for him. Though illiterate, he had a talent for memorizing. The bishop read the Bible to him aloud while they traveled together, and then they were preaching sermons together - to audiences of both whites and blacks. 

Dr. Rush heard Hoosier's first sermon and called it the best he'd ever heard. Hoosier became an "itinerant" preacher traveling on horseback throughout Appalachia and into the Indiana territory of today. Some say that the "Hoosiers" nickname of Indianans referred at first to people influenced by this great evangelist.

from Wikipedia

Black inventor 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Elijah had generous parents. Runaway slaves who returned to the American North, they were poor - but saved enough to send their son to Scotland for training in his obvious talent, mechanical engineering. He couldn't have succeeded there without some basic virtues, like diligence and delayed gratification (sticking it out through the difficult times far from home).

photo

Born free in the 1800's, Elijah McCoy developed skills and virtues within his chosen profession in order to make his unique contribution to society. As an important part of the drive for railroad innovation, he earned 57 patents, a reputation for quality, and a good living as an entrepreneur . . all while others of his race were enslaved in the South.

He built a good name for himself that lasted a hundred years in the English lexicon, "the real McCoy."

Black inventor

 Elijah McCoy's name became synonymous with unmatched quality. Here's some highlights to his productive life.