Robotaxi

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Elon is sometimes unrealistically optimistic about when those big goals will happen. But he was right that Tesla's robotaxi would launch finally in Austin, Texas, in June (or just sort of right, because it was limited).

Robotaxi is a driverless ride hailing service that is geofenced, limited by the city to an approved area. 

It's not just Tesla's concept. Waymo has been operating with 100 vehicles in Austin since last year, with a bigger approved area than Tesla has so far. 

Eventually Elon plans that Tesla owners can use their full self-driving cars for this service, and he sees it bringing in huge profit for both owners and for the company. Ark Invest thinks it likely, predicting a possible future trillion dollar enterprise.

This science blogger (video) thinks Tesla's "first trillion" will come from China, where robotaxis are already active.

Elon interview

Big thinker Elon Musk goes after exciting goals. No, that's an understatement. Make that "impossible" or "near-impossible" goals. 

He wants to be inspired. As he's said before, "life can't just be about solving one miserable problem after another." He chuckles a bit as he mentions that he and staff acknowledge a "giggle factor" when they talk about these ideas that make you excited to get up in the morning.

Catching the "biggest flying object ever made" out of the air was one of those goals. Enabling space travel for colonization of Mars will be another (assuming that one is not actually impossible). Starship will need to be fully and rapidly reusable, able to be refueled in space at an orbital re-filling depot.

But there's much more than space. He sees a huge future for Tesla's robotaxi service, Optimus robots, Neuralink, Grok AI. 

Big ideas, all addressed in this video.

 

Tesla Diner

With seating for 250 guests and a retro-futuristic menu, the Tesla Diner opened last week in Hollywood CA. 

Diner food is available, yes, and more than food. On the top floor you can view movies or Starship launches on very big screens, and of course you can charge your EV at the same time. There's an Optimus robot to observe under glass and an Optimus to serve popcorn to you.

"When you recharge your Rivian, does a girl on roller skates deliver free ice cream to you??"

Good vibrations

You've heard of molecular machines? Molecules within the living cell operate like machines to perform different functions that the cell needs. 

Now a certain molecule may be used to destroy cancer cells. At the Tour Lab of Rice University in Texas, a research scientist (photo) has found that these certain molecules can be made to resonate in unison. When stimulated by near-infrared light, their resonance causes the cell membrane of cancerous cells to rupture.

Nanoscientist James Tour, whose lab is doing amazing things, says “It is a whole new generation of molecular machines that we call molecular jackhammers.”

"According to the study published in Nature Chemistry, the method had a 99 percent efficiency against lab cultures of human melanoma cells, and half of the mice with melanoma tumors became cancer-free after treatment."

Exploding cancer cells--a great discovery.

from Rice University

Clarity re: LA

"Civil disobedience" has an honorable reputation as the expression of a sincere conscience.

It could describe the action of Rosa Parks, for instance, who defied a particular unjust local law . .  without violating other laws. Unfortunately, the term is often used today to describe a protest against certain laws while using lawless violence and looting. 

That's different. That's not civil disobedience. To violate the law against destroying your neighbor's property is not justified or legitimate. The Los Angeles rioting supposedly to protest immigration law was in no way civil, and in many cases not even the sincere expression of conscience.

Build things

"America won't exist if we don't build things." This author founded and runs a manufacturing startup, and he says we must restore our country's capacity to "build things," to manufacture. We must re-build our industrial base, in his theory, because every great power rose to prominence "by building the strongest industrial base of their time."

We could lose our strength. It could happen if we get too comfortable with our success and start to off-shore everything. 

Wait . . that sounds like the present day. As an example, we in the U.S. made five ships last year, while China made 1,000 ships. We lead the world in pharmaceutical R&D but we imported 88% of the active ingredients. "Submarine production has slowed drastically," a reflection of our lack of skilled workers (yesterday's post).

Jobs in the trades can yield a good living. Not everyone must go to college or university.

from The Free Press

Trades shortage

Last week Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit brought together leaders in AI, energy and government. 

Mike Rowe ("Dirty Jobs" show), known as an advocate for the skilled trades, was on one of the panels and had plenty to say. Apparently he predicted the trades shortage 17 years ago, and it's really serious now. Yesterday's post showed that affordable housing is harder to find and more expensive because of it.

His points: 

• Taking shop class out of high school was a shortsighted, "harebrained" idea
• "We've been telling kids for 15 years to learn to code. Well, AI is coming for the coders.  It's not coming for the welders or the steamfitters . ."
• "We need 500,000 electricians in the next couple years. Not hyperbole!"
• Companies building nuclear subs for the Navy are short 80k to 90k skilled workers now
• His foundation awards trade school scholarships

"America is lending money [for college] it doesn't have -- to kids who can't pay it back -- to train them for jobs which no longer exist. That's nuts."

Construction skill

We in the U.S. need more workers in the skilled trades. While artificial intelligence certainly will eliminate many office type jobs, it will never eliminate the demand for electricians, plumbers, carpenters, HVAC and other hands-on jobs.

A crisis in the housing sector illustrates the point. Lack of skilled labor is making housing less affordable. In fact, the National Association of Homebuilders (photo) study concluded that this shortage is impacting the single family home building sector by $10.8 billion per year. Time required to build new homes is about two months longer.

The shortage in skilled trades (not just construction) is why Marvin Ellison is investing millions in training for them (yesterday's video).

It's one big factor why first-time home buyers are having a harder time getting into that first home.

from Forbes

$4/hour to CEO

Lowe's CEO and Chairman, Marvin Ellison, has quite a story. His experience should be an inspiration to everybody.

As a $4/hour part-time employee when he began working at Target, an entry level job, he drew attention to himself by taking tough assignments that no one else wanted. He learned how to make himself valuable to his employer and rose through the ranks to the position of Director.

Results - not prestigious education - got him to the executive level at Lowe's. 

His advice: be a problem solver, think through your path to success, and take every opportunity to educate yourself.

Golf #1

What is it like to reach the absolute top in your chosen field? Scottie Scheffler is there, rated the best golfer in the world.  

“Is it great to be able to win tournaments and to accomplish the things I have in the game of golf? Yeah, it brings tears to my eyes just to think about, because I've literally worked my entire life to be good at this sport."

But it lasts just a few minutes. "You win it, you celebrate, get to hug my family, my sister's there, it's such an amazing moment. Then it's like, OK, what are we going to eat for dinner? Life goes on.”

"I love the challenge. I love being able to play this game for a living. It's one of the greatest joys of my life, but does it fill the deepest wants and desires of my heart? Absolutely not.”

He loves his golf career. But it's third priority after faith and family. There's a lot of love in this man's life.

from Golf Week

Brain on AI - 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Those teachers saw it happening. It makes sense. Now we know it's happening and even have an early name for it: cognitive debt – the decline in brain function manifesting in “diminished critical inquiry, increased vulnerability to manipulation,” and “decreased creativity.”

What happens when a significant number of people "farm out their own thinking to machines?"

This could be another deep divide between groups of people, just when we really need to unite in virtue and elevated purpose. It could wind up that one group will think through issues and make decisions; the other will follow whatever looks easy (image), happy to leave the thinking to others and to AI. 

 

No one will be forced into one group or the other. Every person will choose . . while they're young and in school. Will they choose the hard work of learning and understanding and skill-building? Some won't. Some will choose to let AI do it. 

 from "Your Brain on ChatGPT" 

Brain on AI

Yup, many students and employees choose to let AI do their work. You can see the obvious temptation.

A study has been done on the results of this trend. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) compared three groups writing an essay: one group of participants using their own brains, one using a search engine, one using AI to do it. 

Comparisons were made of brain activity with predictable results: "the cohort using AI showed large comparative decreases in neural brainwave activity, linguistic and thought development, and overall learning skills."

Historian and professor Niall Ferguson says: "the shortcuts that ChatGPT offers are a disaster for your neural development! You'll just be dumber."

from The Stream

(cont'd tomorrow)

Slavery legacy?

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

"Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves," and he did that in 1863, 160+ years ago. But issues remained, and still remain today. 

According to our left-wing, America's unique slavery guilt is everlasting and unforgivable, deserving of contempt and punishment. 

This black author (photo) sees it differently. He teaches a course called "Legacy of Slavery" at University of Austin where he informs students--to their surprise--that slavery was never a "white person thing," that it was global and nearly unopposed until a couple centuries ago. It's news to them, and maybe it's news to you.

The experience of slavery throughout the world was never limited to the black race, and was never uniquely perpetrated by the white race. If you have any interest in understanding it, read his article.

To take this position in our current cultural moment shows courage.

from The Free Press

Slave owner

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Yes, some of the American founders owned slaves as well. The author of the Declaration himself, Thomas Jefferson, was passionate about freedom and probably meant every word he wrote. He gave words to the principles of freedom, but he didn't live up to them as the owner of up to 600 slaves. 

We don't give him or the others a free pass on his hypocrisy. He knew it wasn't right and worried about it (image), but he couldn't summon the strength of character to walk away from the privilege he was born into according to the norms of his day.

But he and the other founders did have the courage to call out the right principles for their new nation. They gave us something to work toward. America and the world got better because of that.

Lots of slaves

It might surprise a lot of people to know that slavery has been practiced all over the world for thousands of years. Race was not the determining factor, as slaves were regularly made of all colors of captured humans.

Roman armies brought conquered peoples, including whites from northern Europe, to parade through Rome's streets and be sold for private use or the military (think Ben Hur). Plato, the ancient Greek, was at one time a slave.

Slave trading was an economic force in the Middle East, with big markets in Istanbul, Cairo, Baghdad. Barbary pirates of North Africa captured thousands, including American citizens. Indians of both North and South America kept slaves, as did the Chinese. 

Black tribes of Africa made slaves of their conquests. Some on the interior made raids in order to sell their captives to traders on the coast. Others went to the Middle East markets.

from The History of Slavery You Probably Weren't Taught in School

(cont'd tomorrow)

"Join or Die"

As Dr. Aram said in yesterday's video, "Join or Die" (image) was a political cartoon (the first?) created by Ben Franklin in 1754. Originally meant for the time of the French and Indian War, it went "viral" during the time of the Revolutionary War.

Its meaning is clear: if the American colonies would not unite, then they would all die. Only by uniting could they hope to survive.

Many years later in 1944, Judge Learned Hand would speak on "The Spirit of Liberty." He says we must be united by a spirit of liberty living in the hearts of the American people. Laws alone won't keep us free.

We don't seek unbridled liberty to do everything we want, but rather the liberty to seek what's true and good both for ourselves and for each other. As an example: free speech for me and free speech for thee as well.

It's still true. All of us Americans need to unite on this common value, not just seek to win. 

Yes, exceptional

Patriots come in different colors, in different religions, from different regions of the country, and they're even found in different political parties. If you are any sort of American patriot, you will enjoy these two patriots (who both live in the Northeast) talking about America.

First is Bari Weiss whose story you've heard, and then it's Dr. Akhil Amar, a Yale professor who actually loves his country. Listen to him telling the story of how our Declaration got written (it wasn't only Thomas Jefferson), and how those words affected us and our history.

Spoiled

We're only 249 years old officially, but the USA definitely became that game-changer that monarchs of the world feared we would be. Many people were inspired to believe in liberty and self-governance after this dangerous idea spread and went "viral" (by the standards of that day).

Beyond political effects, though, the USA became hugely wealthy by global standards, wealthy beyond what the founders probably pictured. In fact, it may be said that Americans became "spoiled" by our success.

Immigrants think so, according to this black American:

"Black immigrants don't really respect . . people who are traditionally born in America. [Their experience was] to relentlessly eat, sleep, grind, hustle, go and get it, so when they finally get over into America and they see the opportunities that are presented [here], Nigerians, Jamaicans, any kind of immigrant come over here in this country [they] mop the floor with . . specifically black Americans . ."

Here's one of those immigrants, who disdains the "protests": Fayz 

Dangerous idea 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post) 

Most nations were created by war or one impressive individual, for people united in bloodline. But America was created on the basis of an idea stated in the Declaration: all people were created and endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights, and governments exercise rightful power only by the consent of those people.

This is the principle which Rev. Martin Luther King reminded the American people about, and the moral basis for his campaign of equal rights for black people. It's also the basis for the whole human rights movement of the last century in America.

The Declaration, though written by sadly imperfect people, codified the principle into American law. This is the reason and basis for America, not promotion of slavery as claimed by the 1619 Project. It's the principle we go back to all through our history, that people should be free and that they can rightfully oppose government that doesn't help them.

It made America different. Monarchs around the world knew that America could be a dangerous game-changer . . and she was.

Dangerous idea

"Europe was created by history. America was created by philosophy." Margaret Thatcher was right in this, that America was founded on ideas. Our founders didn't invent the ideas, but they organized a whole country based on them.

Here's just one more take on that day (July 4, 1776) when the congress of the United States of America declared itself separate from its colonizer, the British Empire:

"America has always been a dangerous idea." Dangerous to whom?

from The Free Press 

(cont'd tomorrow) 

No saddles

Thomas Jefferson was the primary writer of the Declaration of Independence, that document which told the world that the American people intended to cut their bonds to England and take their place among the sovereign nations. 

An invitation to Washington D.C. to celebrate the signing of that document was sent to him fifty years later, in 1826, but he couldn't go because of ill health. 

It's clear how passionate he still was about the people's liberty and rights in his reply to the invitation, and he's still right about this: human beings are not born with saddles on their backs so that some elites can ride them with spurs and reins.

Our founding

Hillsdale College was asked by the President to help celebrate America's 250th birthday next year by producing a video series about America's founding. It's a great story - worth remembering together.

Here's the president of Hillsdale introducing it. We'll feature those videos in future posts.

Sorry girls!

Girls in college sports have something big to celebrate: they will no longer have to compete against male bodies at University of Pennsylvania. 

A former U Penn student and swimmer says “As a former UPenn swimmer who had to compete against and share a locker room with a male athlete, I am deeply grateful to the . . Administration for refusing to back down on protecting women and girls and restoring our rightful accolades. I am also pleased that my alma mater has finally agreed to take not only the lawful path, but the honorable one."

In negotiations, U Penn agreed to these actions: 

• Formal apologies will go out to the girls who wrongfully lost wins and records. 
• Trans athlete Lia Thomas (photo) will be stripped of his accolades won in girls' sports. 
• U Penn will stop violating Title IX and use biology-based definitions of female and male. 

 from NY Post

Tesla did it

Tesla is celebrating something else in addition to the Fourth of July this week: its first delivery of a new car driven to the purchaser entirely by what they call "full self-driving," meaning no driver even in the car. 

It certainly drove itself completely and you can see it below. (Just not completely sure I understand their definition of FSD yet.)  

This weekend my son rented one, and it took the family home from church unaided by a driver. Looks like we're in a new car era, all right.

Congratulations to Team Tesla!  

Move aside 8

Follow-up to these posts

Welcome to the week of celebrating Independence Day (4th of July). We start with an excellent ruling coming down last week from the Supreme Court: 

Parents are the authority in choosing what is best for their children. Schools cannot take that authority away from them. 

In a post from 2022, I reported that Muslim, Jewish and Christian parents tried to "opt out" their kids from classes promoting LGBTQ. School administrators would not cooperate, saying that parents have no right to "opt out" their kids. The Supreme Court decided with the parents that they do have that right. 

Many schools are trying to subvert the choices of parents, trying to get parents to "move aside" and let them take control (image generated by Grok). With this SC decision, that will end -- or should. When school teachers or administrators in the future try to re-assert dominance, a lawful judge will have to decide with the parents.

Polyface farm 2

(cont'd from yesterdays post)

Re-post from 2017 

Polyface Farm has not applied a chemical since the family bought it in 1961, says Joel Salatin. They don't run things like a "normal" farm does today. Mimicking the pattern of nature, fertilizer and sanitation are supplied by the animals instead of by chemicals and antibiotics. 

The farm is open to visitors and cameras every day, and he claims they have no disease problems like those that plague industrial farms. Cows are moved to fresh pasture every day, chickens follow cows by 3 days, then turkeys. Pasture receives the time it needs to re-grow.

"It’s all a symbiotic, multi-speciated synergistic relationship-dense production model that yields far more per acre than industrial models. And it’s all aromatically and aesthetically romantic." That means it smells good and looks good. We were there last summer, and it's beautiful.

"On our farm we have cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, rabbits, ducks, lambs, fruit, honeybees, forests--it's breathtaking choreography, always dancing," p. 119 of The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs.

Polyface Farm

Re-post from 2017

There's a beautiful farm in the Shenandoah Valley of northern Virginia. The passionate farmer, Joel Salatin, is known all over the world because his message resonates with almost everybody who loves nature, farming, or food . . also because he has oodles of personality and has written twelve books.

Polyface Farm is "the farm of many faces". They grow chickens, pigs, turkeys, cows, all the animals doing what they naturally do - unlike the typical industrial farm, which is a mono-culture of corn or chickens or something else.

Their methods are not ordinary, not like factory farms or CAFO farms. Animals are grown humanely on rich pastures which are sustainable. By the way, these pasture lands capture carbon like no factory farm can. The whole system produces healthy soil, healthy animals, nutritious food, and a beautiful environment.

It's called regenerative farming. 

Ancient 3

Follow-up to this post

An Islamic State man detonated bombs on his own body, killing at least 25 others in the congregation at a Christian church last Sunday and wounding another 63 (video from New York Post). It's a Syrian church in the city of Damascus.

. 

 The bishop of the Syriac Othodox Church says: “There is a lot of fear. The fear is not from this incident. It is from what is coming next."

from Washington Post 

Dig for truth

Christians in America are waking up to a couple of modern facts: our views and our churches don't enjoy near-universal approval anymore, and we need to re-think our response to our culture in light of that.

Modern life is confusing. American culture has been disrupted by people who don't share our values. 

This journalist (below) is a Christian. He challenges both himself and the rest of us to be careful to tell the truth rather than just play for hits and likes on social media, to do things God's way rather than the selfish way. He challenges all of us to respond with restraint and kindness even when confronted with opposition and hate.

We 're all going to have to "dig for truth" in this environment. Think things through.

Hopeful AI 3

Are you using artificial intelligence yet at work, at school, or for personal questions? If not, it's a good idea to get familiar with it. As you have probably heard, it's only going to grow and have huge impact.

Here's a suggestion for you. Get started. Grok, as well as other AI's, can be used for free (so far, anyway). I asked it this question: "Should I remove a second stem which has started to grow on my 6-foot spruce tree?" It answered thoroughly:

"For a young 6-foot spruce tree with an additional stem or trunk (often called a double leader or co-dominant stem), it’s generally recommended to remove one of the stems to promote the tree’s long-term health and structural stability. Here’s why and how to approach it:

"Why Remove One Stem?
1. **Structural Integrity**: Two competing stems can create a weak crotch (the point where they join), increasing the risk of splitting under wind, snow, or ice, especially as the tree grows taller.
2. **Aesthetic Shape**: Spruce trees typically have a single, straight leader for their characteristic conical shape. A double leader can lead to an unbalanced or irregular form.
3. **Resource Competition**: Two stems compete for nutrients, water, and sunlight, potentially weakening the tree’s overall growth."

There was much more, including detail about the method. The answer was practical and helpful. This is the most basic use of AI, and probably reliable. 

Space econ

Space came back to the headlines in America when SpaceX started a new era.

Cost was the huge deterrent to exploration. When SpaceX began to produce rockets that could be re-used, the enormous cost of getting out of earth's atmosphere was cut spectacularly.  

Other space companies followed, and space was no longer un-reachable. What else could we do out there?  

Materials - including water - exist on the Moon and Mars and beyond. When we get there, we'll apply intellect and knowledge and turn some of those materials into resources for humanity. A Hillsboro professor explains:

U.S. Army 1775

Relations were already tense in 1775 when British "redcoats" marched on an ammunition depot which their American colonists had stocked in Concord, Massachusetts. Civilian colonists took their firearms and stood to defend it (here and in nearby Lexington) against the foremost military of world. 

Who shot first is debated, but it's been called "the shot heard round the world" because the ensuing revolutionary war freed the colony to become the United States of America.

Just two months later, on June 14, the Continental Congress created its army to fill its need for a "united fighting force with a clear chain of command." George Washington was then selected to be its general, and a new chapter in world history began.

 Our Secretary of Defense tells the story of the formation of the U.S. Army:

Army's 250th

Under the previous administration in 2024, the United States Army was granted a permit to have a parade on the occasion of its 250th anniversary. That celebration took place last Saturday, June 14, in Washington D.C. 

Notice that the Vice President and his wife brought their three children.

Paid protester 2

Was that "paid protester" really offered money to protest, to play the part of an innocent demonstrator trying to change American policy out of sincere beliefs? Or did he make that up?

It wasn't just him. Someone published a craigslist ad seeking people to demonstrate in Seattle last Saturday for a pay check of $500/day. 

As this writer says:

"In case you believed the mainstream media when it said the anti-ICE protests aimed at frustrating the enforcement of just, democratically enacted, bipartisan U.S. immigration laws are spontaneous reactions from local communities to heavy-handed enforcement … well, just don’t."

Education crisis 1

Everybody seems to agrees that our education system is in crisis. Various opinions describe it as being teacher shortages, poor reading skills, student mental health, too much bureaucracy, and they're all right and there's more problems than these--they affect every educational level from K-12 right up to the college level.

Administrators and other non-teaching staff have grown by 7x the number of teachers in the last several decades. "Both students and staff are chewed up by a bureaucratic machine that favors ever larger budgets . . ." The cost keeps rising, yet test scores rise little or not at all.

Almost 100 Yale professors signed an open letter to its president, opposing the growth of non-teaching staff which now amounts to double the number there a couple of decades ago. 

This Brown University student testified before Congress that he found enormous, wasteful spending bloat at the university level: 

Paid protester

In the past, protests in America were mostly people caring passionately about some cause enough to go out on the streets and demonstrate for their opinion. Today many protesters are not moved by conviction but for pay. 

They may carry a sign, shout, obstruct the right of way for their neighbors, destroy public property, destroy private property (photo), attack the police, throw bricks--crimes. 

Here is a young man who was offered $150/day to protest in Los Angeles. He doesn't really care much about the point of it which is to protest ICE officers deporting illegal immigrants, but he needed the money so he took the job.

But he started realizing that he was involved in destroying the community. They told him to go to certain streets where he found pallets of bricks to use (in destroying the community). Later he saw a pallet of molotov cocktails and thought, "Man, should I really be doing this? Like, this is bad news." He didn't care about the city of Los Angeles, but he thought "But I'm American, after all, like, this is not good." This man's conscience kicked in.

"I got to thinking, whoever is funding this must really hate this country." Yup, I believe he's right. 

from X post 

Burn cars≠fun

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

If you followed a link on yesterday's post, you heard an ABC reporter telling people what he thinks is happening at the riots in Los Angeles: "just a bunch of people having fun watching cars burning".

"Fun"?? This is from a used-to-be-trusted legacy media news outlet. To the degree that anyone agrees with this deluded view of a violent situation, we have a genuine crisis going on in this country.

Peaceful?

Have you heard reports that the Los Angeles riots protesting federal ICE officers have been peaceful? 

One way or another, people are still finding ways to report true conditions (photo), a fruit of the freedom of speech we still have. 

Suggestion: if you heard that the protests are peaceful, a little suspicion would be appropriate in your future trust of that source. 

from Stream

AI in school 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Studying and learning are hard work. What if you, as a student, could delegate writing  assignments to artificial intelligence? That would mean less work, more free time, and it's super tempting. So students do it all the time . . even in writing classes.

A 20-year veteran of teaching gave it up because of that fact of life. Many students will do whatever they can to spare themselves the discomfort of difficult work. Thinking things through and communicating that through your own carefully constructed writing can be difficult. 

She was trying to teach writing at the college level, which includes reading and returning feedback to the student. Sadly, she discovered that most of her instructive feedback was a total waste because it was directed toward the AI that "wrote" it. So she quit.

If a student doesn't discipline himself to learn how to think and write, he's going to be at a disadvantage for the rest of his life to people who did learn it. 

How is our education system going to handle this?

from Time

AI in school 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Hannah would assign her students to write a paragraph, or five sentences, or an essay. Many were not able to do it, or complained that it was too hard, or questioned the value of doing the work . . and of course, many completed assignments were written by ChatGPT or another large language model (there's technology to determine that).

Some students saw no value in learning how to write a resume or a cover letter if they could simply make AI do it.

Are these kids learning how to write (photo)? Will their new employer be surprised with the low level of skill these students can execute when they need to think and write in the job environment? 

The problem is not only that turning in a writing assignment that the lazy student did not do is dishonest. It is dishonest, but there's more. Writing well requires a degree of clear thinking, often of making a reasonable argument. If this student ever has to recommend a certain decision to other people, in work or in the community, she will have to think through the options and make a case for the best one. She needs to build that communication skill.

 

AI in school

Teachers have been fleeing the profession in higher numbers for a while now, frequently citing poor behavior. Since ChatGPT came out in fall of 2022, it use and the widespread use of "large language models" (LLM's) like it have made teaching even harder, in the opinion of some.

Here's one of them, a high school teacher for three years. She thinks technology should be kept from students until college.

Europe ≠USA 4

(cont'd from this post)

A Harvard graduate, author, and columnist came to speak on a Hillsdale College stage in April. He came to say that, yes, the U.S. vice president was correct about EU leaders departing from the values they used to share with us . . like democracy. It's not very democratic if Europeans have voted for 50 years to reduce immigration but their leaders keep giving them more.

Regarding the annulled election in Romania, he added information. When the "populist" candidate beat the established elite candidate last November, authorities cancelled the election while claiming Russian disinformation interference. (Sound familiar?) Voters were told they must just believe it, without evidence.

When it was obvious that the populist was going to win the re-scheduled election too, he was arrested and banned from the vote.

Regarding Germany, the leftist establishment say that they had to keep the anti-immigration AfG out of legislative functions to which they are constitutionally entitled as the largest opposition party. Why? If they allowed them into power, they would risk going back to Nazi horrors! 

"Then the federal office of constitutional protection declared that AfD would be placed under heightened surveillance because they're a “threat to human dignity.” 

Troubling signs from the European Union (image).

 

from Imprimis

MB in France

All governments try to prevent "leaks" because they all keep secrets from citizens. A report on the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood in France was recently leaked to a "newspaper of record," Le Figaro.

Intended only for top government officials, the report claims "that the Muslim Brotherhood has built an extensive ideological infrastructure in France--not through violence, but through schools, charities, mosques, and soft power."  Its goal is to infiltrate civil society "under the guise of religious and educational activities." (Image)

 

The Brotherhood's French network includes 21 private schools (3 are state-funded), 815 Quranic schools ("66,000 minors are taught to see themselves as part of a global Muslim community in moral and cultural opposition to Western secularism"), and hundreds of mosques. A core concept is the hatred of Jews. 

None of this is illegal. It's a patient, gradual takeover which takes years. Will the French ultimately comply? 

That depends. How do they feel about being colonized?

from "How the Muslim Brotherhood is Capturing Europe"

Tech exit 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Social media is addicting. In fact, this author calls it "maximally addicting." When you think about it, social media companies have to be as addicting as possible for maximum profit and power (if they're not also and equally driven by a moral conscience).

Are they not aware of the bad effects on kids? She says they are aware of it, but they choose to do nothing. Snapchat, for example, gets 10,000 complaints about "sextortion" every month. How many are unreported? Parental controls are just a myth.

“It’s possible to reset a child’s brain,” says the author. "Despite how bad tech addiction can get for a child, it is possible for the brain to heal and reform itself."

Parents can agree with all this, but what should they really do about it? That's the focus of her book, how to replace screens with real world relationships and responsibilities. Hint: parents will have to be more intentional and more engaged, probably enlisting the support of other families.

 

Tech exit

Parents were put on alert to the harmful effect of smart phones on their children last year when The Anxious Generation came out. Many already suspected it, school administrators and teachers saw it, but that book really woke up the public.

Bringing phones to school was blocked in some districts, and parents have tried to figure out how to limit their kids' use of tech. But a new author says that screens are "digital fentanyl" and inherently harmful. So what's actually needed is a "Tech Exit."

Even adults know they can easily get addicted to their phones. Children don't have all the skills or discipline or wisdom to be self-sufficient--they need their parents to parent.

Seattle battle

A Christian organization submitted a request for a permit to hold an outdoor event in Seattle. Their application specified a venue request for Pike Place Market. The city denied that request and directed them to Cal Anderson Park. 

So they complied and held it there on May 24. Maybe that was a mistake. 

The park is "in the heart of the Queer community," according to a group called "Radical Women Seattle" which turned up to protest against "fascist family values."

 

Many hundreds of protesters tried to disrupt the event with bullhorns, shouting, signs, heckling. Police made 22 arrests.

It turned out that the mayor of the city is solidly behind the protesters.  He made a public statement:

"Seattle is proud of our reputation as a welcoming, inclusive city for LGBTQ+ . . . Today's far-right rally was held here for this very reason – to provoke a reaction by promoting beliefs that are inherently opposed to our city's values, in the heart of Seattle's most prominent LGBTQ+ neighborhood."

Somebody is lying about the choice of this park, and it should be easy to verify. The FBI is looking into it.

from CBN

Ancient 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Natural disaster or economic collapse may motivate large groups to emigrate out of their homeland. But what drove hundreds of thousands of Syrian Christians to leave was something else. 

Civil war broke out in 2011 and everything changed. The previous tolerant Muslim regime fell last December and militant factions (including ISIS) are in power.

"In village after village . . Christians were kidnapped, tortured, sometimes ransomed, and often executed. Monasteries were turned into battle stations. Churches were bombed. In Maaloula, jihadists entered homes and demanded that families convert to Islam or die. Some were killed in their doorways for refusing. 

"ISIS went further, targeting Assyrian villages in the northeast, executing men, enslaving women, and erasing churches that had stood since the fifth century."

While millions of refugees (photo) fled the country, it also became "a targeted campaign of cultural and religious cleansing," and the rest of the world let it happen according to this Middle Eastern writer.

from "The Vanishing Light"

Ancient 1

"The Christian golden age of Syria has ended . . . And it will not return."

Did you know that the nation of Syria had a Christian golden age? Me neither. Christian culture in this place has 2,000 years of history, but today we Westerners know almost nothing about it. 

Paul the Apostle was confronted by Jesus on the way to Damascus (the country's capital today). That means it goes way, way back. As one of the "original heartlands of Christianity," there were bishops, theologians, martyrs, and three actual popes.

About 300,000 Christian Syrians (photo) are still there, compared to over 1.5 million at one time. Their presence "was not a minor thread in the nation’s tapestry, but was woven into every aspect of culture, language, and national identity" along with other threads including Islam.

But most are gone now. "The Christian families that once ran shops in Aleppo, taught in schools in Homs, and prayed in the ancient basilicas of Damascus are now rebuilding their lives in Berlin, Detroit, and Melbourne."

from "The Vanishing Light"

(cont'd tomorrow) 

Test flight #9

Starship test flight #9 finally got off the ground (after some delays in FAA approval) yesterday.

After the first stage booster separated to leave Ship (second stage) in space, its engines shut down and then did a "boost back burn" to turn and come back to the launch site. A landing burn to slow it down would have been next, but control was lost. It was the first re-use of a Super Heavy booster, and some vital data was gained before its end in the Gulf.

Ship's engines ignited at separation and burned for a couple of minutes to propel Ship toward orbit. Then they stopped at SECO (ship engine cutoff). The SpaceX narrators seemed very relieved at the achievement of this important milestone.

One of the goals of this flight was to push Starship to its limits. One hundred heat shield tiles were intentionally removed over critical areas in order to see what would happen during re-entry. Unfortunately it didn't make it to re-entry.

So both stages eventually failed, but vital data was gathered.

Quits Harvard

Harvard University has lost its credibility among American taxpayers. As the federal government removes billions of dollars of public funding, they counter with the claim that they can do whatever they want to do under the umbrella of free speech and academic freedom. 

Yes, they have free speech but we don't have to pay them billions for misleading students and breaking civil rights law. 

 

A psychiatrist who taught in their medical school felt compelled to break away a year ago. He explained his understandable reasons:

"I stopped teaching at Harvard last year [2024] primarily because of its anti-truth-seeking culture, radical left-wing bias, racial and gender discrimination, and prevailing anti-intellectualism . .  Harvard has strayed from its foundational mission of unbiased truth-seeking . . ."

He doesn't hold back: "Harvard remains in denial of its own radicalism. It sneers and looks down on most of America and on American values like color-blind equality, meritocracy, free speech, hard work, and individual responsibility." 

from "Harvard Insider Blows Whistle: This Place is Totally Corrupted"

Memorial Day 2025

Re-post from 2015,  just "in case you thought it was National BBQ Day"

Memorial Day is set aside to honor and remember those who gave their lives in the service of their country. "[T]ime and time again brave men and women have been willing to fight for the freedoms we all too often take for granted.

To be more specific, let's honor those 1335 Americans who were killed in Ramadi, Anbar Province, Iraq, in 2004-2007. Some people are acutely aware of the sacrifice - like family of the fallen - since Ramadi was overtaken by ISIS this month.

While the U.S. State Department thinks it was a major blow to the fight against ISIS, Gen. Dempsey remarked that Ramadi was not that important. The mom of the first Navy Seal to die there put a personal face on it in her letter:

“You, sir, owe an apology to the families whose loved ones’ blood was shed in Ramadi. Ramadi matters to us and is very symbolic to us. You need to apologize to our troops whose bodies were blown to pieces from IEDs and bullet holes leaving parts and pieces behind. Ramadi matters to them. "

Brain≠Mind 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

If you literally are your brain, like some say, what hope would there be for a girl born with only half of a brain? A brain surgeon in the video below told her parents that there was little hope for her. But twenty years later, she is a vibrant young woman, functioning normally.

The neurosurgeon was at that time a materialist, like so many. It's not that he made a conscious choice, but rather that worldview dominates in our culture and you just pick it up from school and media. Over his professional experience of doing 7,000 surgeries, he changed his mind.

He believes we have souls or immaterial minds, and that they use the brain. As Neil DeGrasse Tyson says, mapping of the brain shows that the brain does control movement, sensory perception, emotion, and memory. But no part of the brain has been shown to control abstract thought (like doing math or understanding history) or your free will.

Brain≠Mind

If someone denies the existence of God and everything supernatural, if he claims nothing exists but the natural world or universe, he or she is an atheist or materialist. Of course, that person must also believe that human beings have no immaterial soul.

One believer in this worldview is the well-known astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. He ably articulates the materialist opinion against a soul: "What I do know is, everything you are derives from electro-chemical synapses running in your brain." He also gives evidence for that view.

So, you're just your material, physical brain (image) which is located in your skull. He thinks that is everything you are including thoughts, feelings, decisions, etc.

Christians hold a different view, taken from the Bible. God Almighty created human beings with a likeness to himself, whose immaterial soul or spirit will live beyond the life of their physical, material bodies. 

Here's a good question: is there scientific evidence for the Chistian view? Yes.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Gen Z & church

Polling in America has told us for decades that the number of people claiming no religious affiliation (the "nones") is rising. But that's leveled off. Bible sales are increasing and Christian entertainment has grown.

Generation Z (born 1997-2012) is a significant part of this trend. They generally seem to be curious about Christianity and are looking for hope.

 

It's especially interesting that young men lead the trend. Gen Z men go to church more than Gen Z women. 

Similarly, the Bible Society in partnership with a research team in Britain says:

"We found that the Church is in a period of rapid growth, driven by young adults and in particular young men . . . [Y]oung adults are more spiritually engaged than any other living generation, with Bible reading and belief in God on the rise."

from USA Today