Space elevator

An elevator to take people and payload up to space? It sounds totally crazy. But efforts are already underway in Japan and China to build one. And NASA agrees that the basic idea is sound. 

"Colossal" is the word to describe it, intended to go 22,000 feet high into the region where satellites move in synchronous orbit around the earth. 

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Steel is way too heavy to use for the tether that holds it to the ground. But the wondrous newly-available graphene might do the job, if it can somehow be manufactured into a tether that long. 

from NBCNews

Graphene 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

According to the writer at Forbes, this breakthrough process may mean that the whole materials industry is going to be transformed. Amazingly, ounce per ounce, it's 200x stronger than steel yet light weight and stretchable.

Industries are anxious to use it. Ford Motor Co. has been putting it in every vehicle they make since 2020. The cost of using it in manufacturing will go down now that there's a less expensive way to get it.

Cement is responsible for 8% of global carbon emissions. If concrete is produced with just 0.03% of it being graphene, the resulting concrete is 25% stronger. So construction companies could use a quarter less concrete. How much carbon emission would that save? Very much -- an amount equal to the annual emissions of the nation of Brazil.

Medically there are ways to use graphene as well. Here's how Dr. Tour's team created graphene nanoribbons which were used to repair the spinal cord in a rat by enabling nerve cells to reconnect. If you make it through all the chemistry, you'll learn near the end that this method might in the future reconnect optic nerves in the eye.

Graphene 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Dr. Tour's team at Rice University in Texas can make graphene (about a kg/day) from garbage.  A business hopes to scale up production to a ton per day in a year or two. 

Just a "super-hot" flash of electricity aimed at a carbon-containing substance breaks the chemical bonds to re-order the atoms. Other elements in the substance escape as gases, leaving only the one-atom-thick lattice which is graphene. 

Not only garbage, but anything containing carbon can be used for the process. That includes plastic water bottles and worn-out tires. Worthless trash that we struggle to handle now could be turned into something of great value. One more benefit . . carbon from that decomposing trash would now be captured in stable graphene and kept out of the environment.

"Mountains of plastic could be reduced to their component molecules and repurposed into something useful."

What an incredible innovation!

from Forbes

(cont'd tomorrow)

Graphene 1

Graphene was created years ago (2004), a wonderful new innovative material that got science and technology people excited because there are so many ways it could be used. 

How big is an atom? That's how thin it is: a single layer of carbon atoms tightly bonded, "extremely strong, stable, and conductive."

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But discovery is not enough. Methods to produce it must be explored. As you would expect, the cheaper and easier way produces lower quality, while high quality is harder and more expensive. That's why graphene hasn't gone main stream yet, even with its promising features. 

A breakthrough was achieved three years ago. A team led by Dr. James Tour at Rice University published their research in 2020 showing a method that's both cheap and relatively easy, that produces graphene using carbon-based "household refuse." 

Yes, it's a little like alchemy, making gold from garbage.

from Forbes

(cont'd tomorrow)

Silent anyway

Our institutions often look like they're trying to cut a middle path through our darkening culture, trying to stay out of the way of the intimidating woke wave, afraid to take a moral stand against the blaming/shaming pressure.

But most of us don't share the woke values. For instance, when organizations like Target or Bud Light bow to the pressure, they start to discover that they don't have us following them. 

Two European soccer teams demonstrated that idea pretty well last week. Their association refused to observe a moment of silence to remember the lost of October 7. So when the whistle blew to start the game, both teams did . . nothing, observing that moment of silence for themselves.

Thanksgiving 2023

"Envy is the art of counting the other fellow's blessings instead of your own ."

Envy can kill off any thankfulness you might have had, and it can happen right at the Thanksgiving table - or on social media.

Enjoy "Gratitude," performed on the set of The Chosen:

Dinner $ 2023

Dinner for ten on Thanksgiving this year will cost just a bit less than last year . . but much more than three years ago. 

Every year the Farm Bureau figures it out:

Farm Bureau image

Inflation cheapens the value of all our dollars.

Education $ #2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Government is expensive. The State of Minnesota spends billions on worthwhile things . . we suppose. So much money - and the more we learn, the more we are concerned.

Of course, running the state takes a lot. "General Government" takes all of 4% of the budget. 

"Public Safety and Corrections" includes running all the prisons. It uses up 3% of the budget.

"Transportation" includes roads and airports, using 3% of the budget.

All these big and important things need to be done. But that's only 14% of the budget. If they're not using it, where does most of the money go? The biggest portion of the budget goes to "E-12 Education" and that doesn't include university level.

All of that money goes to education in Minnesota. It will help to create the perverse political environment we saw in yesterday's post. 

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Education $ #1

New laws passed this year mandate changes to education standards in the state of Minnesota. No, the standards are not going to improve the declining quality of our schools, except in the opinion of woke ideologues. 

As the governor says, they will produce a "miracle" with emphasis on "equity," not academics. Teaching licenses now require teachers: to affirm different sexual identities, to "understand" white supremacy, to "empower" (read: train) students to become agents of social change.

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Why these disputed, divisive ideas? Because, as the state licensure board says, "a teacher must have a foundational understanding of how race and racism are embedded in our institutions and everyday life." 

That pernicious view is pushed, not by most people, but by one segment of one of our political parties. Now, children must be formally trained in it, and they'll believe it. We know what that portends for the future.

from Thinking Minnesota, "License to Woke"

(cont'd tomorrow)

Oops

 😕Today's post came up yesterday

Happy anyway

 Here's one person's thoughts on happiness. He's had a lot to deal with.

Sam is happy. He knows how to keep being happy, he's figured out some important things, and he'd like all of us to learn how to do the same in spite of our challenges.

Sam is challenged by the normal things of life, but especially by a disease that afflicts only 350 kids in the world: progeria.

Here he is explaining "My philosophy for a happy life."

Outcomes 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post) 

"[S]ound reason and scientific research—including the very latest discoveries—consistently support, rather than erode, confidence in the truth of the Bible and faith in the personal, transcendent God revealed in both Scripture and nature."

Reasons to Believe makes this claim in their mission statement. Since the Creator gave us both the universe and the Bible, the facts of nature and the Bible's narrative will be consistent and accurate. So they aim for "constructive integration of God’s revelation (in Scripture and nature)" and they aim to communicate "those reasons with gentleness, respect, and a clear conscience." Not a harsh, combative argument.

A scientist from Florida got excited about this message. Here's his story:

Outcomes 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

But that could be a dilemma for parents who don't believe in God or religion, yet who want their children to be well adjusted. What should they do?

Komisar's advice: lie to them. 

It's a pragmatic solution. If you think there's no God, no life after death, no cosmic purpose, no meaning, nothing more than the material universe--don't tell your kids! Lie to them, tell them God loves them so as to increase the odds that they will be happy.

But wait, there's something better. Instead . . you could take the big questions of life seriously, and investigate God for yourself rather than simply swallow secular conventional wisdom. Possibly you have missed something. How great would it be to find out that the truth is also just what your family needs.

Here's a suggestion to get started. Go to Reasons to Believe. Astrophysicist Dr. Hugh Ross started this organization to show evidence from science that the omnipotent, personal God of the Bible does exist. Nobody's asking you to believe without reasons.

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(cont'd tomorrow)

Outcomes 1

A therapist who has experience helping kids has a counter-cultural suggestion for their well-being: they will do better if they go to church!

Therapist Erica Komisar is often asked to help depressed or anxious children. She offers her view on why it's so common:

"One of the most important explanations—and perhaps the most neglected—is declining interest in religion. This cultural shift already has proved disastrous for millions of vulnerable young people."

Studies have shown for years that people of faith tend to be happier in comparison to most people. So her view on this point is mainstream:

“Children or teens who reported attending a religious service at least once per week scored higher on psychological well-being measurements and had lower risks of mental illness. Weekly attendance was associated with higher rates of volunteering, a sense of mission, forgiveness, and lower probabilities of drug use and early sexual initiation,” she noted of the latest studies on the impact of religion on the mental health of children and teenagers.

from WSJ
(cont'd tomorrow)

Veterans Day 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Officially, the Treaty of Versailles ended World War I (WWI) in 1919. But hostilities actually stopped at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. Technically it was just an "armistice," a temporary truce, but the fighting didn't resume and the truce became permanent.

That's the original reason for the U.S. holiday of "Armistice Day" on November 11: to remember and honor the end of the disaster that was World War I. Under President Eisenhower the holiday's name was changed in 1954 to "Veterans Day" in order to honor all our veterans.

To all our veterans, "Thank you for your service."

Veterans Day 1

Veterans Day is coming up on November 11, a national holiday. It began as a celebration of the end of the first world war a century ago (1914-1918): 

Austria-Hungary's heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, was murdered in the summer of 1914. That event started the ball rolling for the disaster that became World War I (WWI).

Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, then drew in its ally Germany. Eventually most other European countries and their colonies around the world also joined the war. That's how it became more or less global.

This global disaster resulted in at least 9 million military deaths and 5 million civilian deaths (mostly due to famine and disease). 

(cont'd tomorrow)

Indoctrinated 3

Follow-up to this post

Students in our academic systems are being trained to look at things in perverse ways: condemning whole races and groups of people as irredeemably bad. This wave takes over America after decades of civil rights work, reversing all progress.

Now there's evidence that the perverse wave is not driven by academics only. This anti-America, anti-Israel woke wave is an opportunity for an "influence campaign" by certain foreign countries to push their own views on American students, and they can buy their way in.

Network Contagion Research Institute released a study finding, among other things, that:

"[A]t least 200 American colleges and universities illegally withheld information on approximately $13 billion in undisclosed contributions from foreign regimes, many of which are authoritarian."

Correlation is not causation, as this author reminds us, which means that this does not prove wrongdoing. But these colleges kept large amounts of money hidden from the government.

It would be hard to believe "that these countries give nine- and ten-figure gifts to universities expecting nothing in return." Yes, it's hard to believe that. They expect something. What?

from Free Press

Not woke 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Maher lists "individual liberties, scientific inquiry, rule of law, religious freedom, women's rights, human rights, democracy, trial by jury, freedom of speech" - all these ideals can be found in today's Israel and "virtually nowhere else in the Middle East."

As for the claim that Israel is a colonizer for existing, he says the state was established by the United Nations. "Gaza wasn't seized by Israel, like India or Kenya was by the British Empire, and the partitioning of the region wasn't decided by Jews, but by a vote of the United Nations. But apparently they don't teach this at drag-queen story hour anymore."

The clip is full of his signature killer lines.

He asks a great question for anti-American, anti-Western political and academic activists: "Why is it that every other culture gets a pass, but the West is exclusively the sum of the worst things it has ever done?"

"Hey hey ho ho Western Civ has got to go" (1987)

Not woke 2

If you listen to Bill Maher, it won't take long to notice that he shows no sign of being a man of faith. But it doesn't take Christian faith to believe in things that most Americans value. So we have some things in common. He posted a clip on X with some observations about Israel that should resonate with Americans. 

He starts out with this, "For all the progressives and academics who refer to Israel as an outpost of Western civilization, like it's a bad thing, please note: Western Civilization is what gave the world pretty much every [deleted] liberal precept that liberals are supposed to adore." 

True statement. As atheist and historian Tom Holland affirms, those precepts are based on the worldview that built Western Civilization, which is Christianity.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Indoctrinated 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

A 21-year-old student at Stanford University says that she understands why about half of her peers support Hamas in the shooting, raping and beheading of families in Israel. 

Most students probably have parents who decry the attack (yesterday's post). But they've been "carefully taught" in school to condemn groups of people based on ethnicity, race, gender, religion.

"In high school, my homeroom had an exercise where we made a T-chart dividing various ethnicities, religions, and other identities into the categories of 'oppressor' and 'oppressed' Women: oppressed. Straight people: oppressor. Black people: oppressed." It condemns whole categories of people, including Jews in some cases. You're irredeemable if you're white or male. Children are learning this. 

"I had a nonacademic weekly homeroom class in which we learned that every white person is racist, and all men are evil. It took me a long time to shake off a hatred of men. It wasn’t socially acceptable to disagree, and no one really tried."

from Free Press

Indoctrinated 1

Since Hamas invaded Israel with the accompanying barbaric atrocities on October 7, America's government has condemned the assault and promised help to Israel. 

U.S. voting citizens are solidly and massively in agreement. According to the Harvard/Harris Poll performed twelve days later, about 86% of us call it terrorism. Most of us see genocide of Jews as the purpose of Hamas behind the attack.

All of the horror we feel for what was done to innocent women, children and the elderly stands in contrast to widely reported protests of some Harvard students. A letter justifying Hamas and blaming Israel was signed by 31 student groups. Other campuses are similar.

Jewish student in her junior year at Stanford says she's not surprised at student support for the attack. Though most of those students have parents who brought them up to abhor extreme violence, their education has indoctrinated them to align themselves with a completely different mindset.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Hero

Andrew Carnegie must have realized how important it is to recognize people for doing good. In 1904 he started the Carnegie Hero Fund with his own money to recognize "individuals in the United States or Canada who risk death or serious physical injury to an extraordinary degree saving or attempting to save the lives of others."

Nick Bostic, 25-year-old pizza delivery guy, repeatedly ran into a burning house in 2022 to rescue five who were sleeping in the house. Read the details here. 

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In a way, his own life was saved in the process. Nick had attempted suicide three times in his life, but he now has plans and hope for his future. He says everything has changed: "It really opened some doors and dreams of mine that now I can actually pursue and I see the light on the other side that I see is obtainable." 

“It’s in my blood to defend and protect and it’s kind of my job in life.