Super rich 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Sultan Bolkiah has some expensive hobbies. His 200 polo ponies are comfortable in their air-conditioned stables, and then there are cars . . a lot of cars.

His private collection of 7,000 luxury cars is the biggest in the world, and worth $5 billion. About 600 are Rolls-Royces, 450 are Ferraris, and 380 are Bentleys. For his daughter's wedding in 2007, he acquired a custom "gold coated" Rolls-Royce. In fact, it sounds like several are designed or coated with gold.

Included among his aircraft is a Boeing 747-400, and it's gold plated too. 

Apparently his $30 billion of personal wealth is enough to indulge his extreme extravagance, but some people have even more money than the sultan. The richest man in the world (who created his wealth) has way more money. He doesn't seem to have the same desires, but rather lives in a $50k home in Texas.

from The Economic Times

Super rich 1

Millionaires have money, yes, but they're not "super rich," and they're not that rare. About 58 million of them exist in the world and you probably don't know who they all are in your own city. Surprisingly, it's said that one in 15 Americans is a millionaire.

Today's super rich are billionaires, 3,028 of them globally. We wonder, how do they live? One of them, Elon Musk, bought homes for his children and their mothers, but he lives in a 3-bedroom house valued at $50k in the small community of Boca Chica TX, where SpaceX is located near the border with Mexico.

One of the most lavish lifestyles in the world is that of the Sultan of Brunei, said to be worth $30 billion. He owns the biggest residential palace in the world, Istana Nurul Iman Palace (photo).

It's colossal: 1,788 rooms and two million square meters, with its own mosque that can hold 1,500 people and a banquet hall for 5,000. Commissioned by the Sultan in 1981, it was completed in 1984 so it's relatively modern. That central dome in the photo doesn't just look golden. Gold actually tops it, 22-carat gold.

From Hindustan Times

(cont'd tomorrow)

Butch at home

It turns out that one of those "rescued" astronauts who returned from the ISS via SpaceX is a man of Christian faith. 

He's still getting used to earth's gravity but he's glad to be home. He says, "God is always good."

DOGE and Social Security

Antonio Gracias has been working on the DOGE team, recently looking into Social Security. He comes onstage with Elon to explain to an audience something surprising:

 

"New non-citizen social security numbers" dramatically grew during the last four years under the previous administration, from 270,000 in 2021 to over two million in 2024. That's an explosion, not just growth. About 1.3 million of them are already on Medicaid. Some actually voted in our recent election.

Antonio takes the time to honor the "very good people" working in Social Security who showed him what was going on, at their own risk. 

He says he's "pro legal immigration," and this chart is "not political. This is about the future of America."

Wiki on DOGE

If you wanted to find out what DOGE is, would you go to Wikipedia? Many would, because they think it is neutral and honest in reporting factual information in a non-partisan way. I wish that were the case. 

It has nothing good to say about this heroic effort to trim the federal budget. On the contrary, the reader only learns that DOGE is controversial, it inspires lawsuits, its claims to the discovery of fraud are false, its leader is ambiguous, it cuts good programs, it's a partisan political tool, etc., etc.

In short, Wikipedia's article is a hit job on DOGE and on Elon Musk. It reads like a partisan political tool itself. 

Wikipedia is the product of Katherine Maher's priorities. "Consensus" and "getting things done" come before truth on her priority list. Vital information is missing from the article. There's no effort to acknowledge the legitimate views of the people who support it.

Transparent DOGE

New tasks are accomplished every day at the Department of Government Efficiency, and they're published every day. You can go to the website and check on their progress--every day.

We who respect the responsible management of money are happy about this. We've known in a general way that the federal government was handling that management irresponsibly to some degree, but we discovered that it's much worse than we feared.

Take Social Security for example. Continuing work at DOGE reveals that the 3.7 million checks going out every month to people over the age of 120 (reported in this post) was just the beginning. 

Yesterday the website said that so far a total of 9.9 million people listed as over the age of 120 were receiving checks. Correction has been made, so those people are now listed as deceased, and the checks will stop. Whether that should be called "waste" or "fraud" doesn't matter. All of us should be happy it stopped.

It was unjust. The only people who are unhappy about the stopping of those checks are the cheaters who were cashing them.

DOGE staff

Six young men, quirky computer wizards, may have started this endeavor to make our government more financially sound, but DOGE staff is now professional. Their credentials from the private sector are impressive. Seven of them were interviewed with leader Elon Musk regarding their mission and their methods. 

They are working to take a trillion dollars out of the government's spending this year by eliminating fraud and abuse. Here's an example of fraud: over $300 million in loans was given to people under the age of eleven by the Small Business Administration, and another $300 million to people over the age of 120. 

The loans would have been questioned if the computer systems "talked to each other," that is, if the SBA system had been able to access the ages of those loan applicants in the social security system. It's clear to these DOGE staff what needs to be done: link up the computer systems.

One of these professionals was running his five businesses in Houston when he left to come help. Another is a CEO. Another is a co-founder of Airbnb. They're implementing, in Elon's words, "elementary financial controls." 

Scared of DOGE

Should Americans be scared of what DOGE is doing? There has been an effort to terrify Americans who legitimately depend on the government for entitlements. 

You may have heard some of these things (usually said or implied by politicians), but these fears have simple answers:

 1. "Unelected officials are running the Department of Government Efficiency!" Yes, although the president was elected by the people of the United States, the staff of DOGE were not elected by the people. 

But that should not alarm you. The federal government already had nearly two million unelected people working for it. 

2. "Maybe Elon Musk, the head of DOGE, will steal my social security checks!" He won't do that because he already is the richest person in the world, and he has several companies that are profitable. If he wanted more money, he could spend his time helping his companies.

3. "Entitlements like social security and medicaid will be cut!" The president has said more than once that they will not be cut. 

from Stream

Way too big

Everybody has known it for a long time: the federal government's spending habit has grown too big and needs trimming. Actually, what we need is not a simple trim but a huge haircut.

We spend enormously on education, but outcomes are mediocre; on health care, but outcomes are below standard; on welfare payments, but without prosperity.

All this spending put us so deeply in debt that many think we'll never recover. As you may have heard, the interest we pay on our debt at the national level surpassed the entire U.S. Defense budget last year. That's not sustainable. We need drastic remediation.

Exposed 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

The drive for justice is a reason for our new Department of Government Efficiency. When you and I fund the federal government with our tax dollars, we suppose that it's well-managed. But apparently the federal government is spending our money wildly, making payments that we would not approve--if only we knew about them. We want it stopped. Doge is investigating.

Some expenses are inefficient. The IRS manages about the same number of daily transactions as a bank. Banks budget about $20 million/year for operation and maintenance. The IRS budget for operation is $3.7 billion/year. That's seventeen times more than what a bank spends for about the same amount of work. 

Some payments are fraud. Social Security checks were going out to 3.7 million people who were listed as . . 120+ years old. Somebody was cashing all those checks.

Some payments are waste. $3 million for transparency and accountability in the cotton industry of Uzbekistan.

 from Doge

Exposed 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Wait, do people really want injustice exposed? For some, that depends on who did it. They'd be okay with injustice if it's done by someone on their own side.

Genuine justice calls for perpetrators to be called out, regardless of which political side they're on. Check out this attack on personal property, part of a wave of vandalism directed at Elon Musk's Tesla car company. The man may think he's justified in this crime because (in his opinion) Elon is bad. 

But that's not justice. And, fortunately, he didn't get away with it.

Exposed

All of us have a sense of "justice," a feeling that we should be treated fairly, according to what is right. We are frustrated when wrongdoing is covered up, when it's kept secret, whether it happens to us or to someone we care about. We want it exposed and set right.

(Of course, that drive for justice is much reduced when it comes to our own wrongdoing. We're not anxious for that to be exposed.)

What does God think about it? One appeal of Christianity is that God is going to set things right eventually. Part of Giuseppe Verdi's dramatic and beautiful requiem (1874) deals with God's final judgment:

Nature sickens with dismay,
Death may not retain its prey;
And before the Maker stand
All the creatures of his hand.
The great book shall be unfurled,
Whereby God shall judge the world;
What was distant shall be near,
What was hidden shall be clear.

New life

Some of us Christians became believers by conventional means of a church service, some can't remember a specific point in time when it happened . . and some of us were on a rocky road when we called out to God.

For some in God's family, that road was very rocky. These prisoners (video) were saved to new life in Christ right in the midst of harsh circumstances. What is so compelling as a true and dramatic life story? 

However God meets you in your own life, your spirit is re-born when you respond to Jesus. Be thrilled with the life change these prisoners have.

Respect them

 I have a movie recommendation for you. "Monuments Men" is currently on Netflix, the story of civilian men recruited during World War II to recover works of art and return them whenever possible. 

Statues and paintings were stolen by Hitler's armies from museums and churches all over Europe. Locations include Belgian cathedrals and Nazi-occupied France. The cast is full of stars whom you'll recognize.

The leader of these men (played by George Clooney) was passionate about finding these art pieces before they were lost or destroyed and explains why: "You can wipe out a generation of people, you can burn their homes to the ground and somehow they'll still come back. But if you destroy their achievements and their history, then it's like they never existed." 

It still happens today. Destroyers want to destroy statues, history, achievements. That's what they do.

Flying home

Follow-up to this post

Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams (along with two others) have returned. Their mission to the International Space Station is finally at an end, having expanded from eight days to about nine months.

SpaceX launched Dragon Freedom spacecraft last Friday on a Falcon 9 rocket; it docked with the ISS on Saturday night, and yesterday it returned to Earth with Crew 9 about 6 pm EDT, with splashdown in the Gulf of America.

It wasn't a record for time served on the ISS. Several U.S. astronauts have spent more time there, up to a record number of 371 days. Butch and Suni were there for 286 days, though of course they weren't planning on it at the beginning. NASA missions are always understood to be a little flexible, depending on conditions. 

Cost of green

"Green" energy producers (solar and wind) and protection of our environment were the subject of three posts last week. An attempt to reduce the world's dependence on fossil fuels is a huge, expensive, global wave that many call the "Energy Transition" toward "green" energy.

Bjorn Lomborg has been trying for years to alert the world that solar and wind power are wholly inadequate solutions to CO2-related climate problems.  

He posted on X a study published by Bloomberg NEF about the actual costs of these green power sources. The cost to the world has not been cheap, but rather enormous:

Stranded?

Follow-up to this post

As you know, two astronauts (photo) have been at the International Space Station for nine months instead of their original assignment of eight days. Now a small controversy has blown up around it because maybe they didn't have to be there all these months.

 

Elon Musk says he made an suggestion to the U.S. government last fall, offering to send SpaceX up to the ISS to get them and bring them home. But the president at that time would not allow it.

Elon speculates that they wouldn't allow it because of the political "optics" of the thing: he was aiding the rival political party during the presidential campaign, and they didn't want him and his company to look like a hero. 

Astronaut Wilmore says they knew nothing about the offer, but he believes it. Another article says ten times that the astronauts never felt "stranded", so they never needed rescuing--so Elon and the current president are spreading false claims.

Almost everything these days is political drama. 

Big turbine

China has the largest wind turbine in the world. It's been operating since 2023, and it produces more electricity than any other. Here's a picture of it among smaller ones in the sea:

But the scale isn't easy to grasp in this photo. You don't readily see that the hub is as tall as a 50-story building. The rotor diameter, that is the width of the circle swept by the rotating blades, is longer than two football fields at 827 feet.

Whenever its usefulness is done, its tough and huge blades will probably be processed into road-building asphalt or concrete. That's what China has started doing to mitigate the problem of recycling wind turbine blades.

from Electrik

Pave paradise

Ten of thousands of acres of Amazon rainforest have been leveled--by the country that is famous for protecting it, Brazil. A big dirt track is carved across the great, green jungle. 

Why would they do such a thing? To build a four-lane highway. And why do they need a highway across the rainforest? Brazil has 50,000 people coming to a big conference next November, so they want to ease the expected traffic.

What kind of conference is behind this environmental destruction? Here's the irony of the thing--it's the United Nations Climate Change Conference, where delegates will try to protect our planet's natural environment. 

from BBC

She let it go 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Larissa wasn't talked into changing her view of the world. No one argued her out of the radically feminist viewpoint. She wasn't talked into embracing genuine differences in women's and men's roles as a practical, workable solution to life.  But that's how she sees the world now.

It happened in a natural way.When she and her boyfriend started living together, they split the bills proportionately and the chores (laundry, housekeeping, etc.) evenly. But things changed when they became parents (image). 

Instead of going back to work, she stayed home and they married: "leaving that soft little creature who fit so snugly into my arms . . felt deeply wrong. I wanted to provide for this baby what he needed, and that was me. To do this, I needed Chris [her husband] far more than a bicycle or anything else."

They fell into doing the "tasks that made the most sense." Essentially she began to scoff at some feminist principles, like refusing to allow a man to hold a door for her. She gave up on male-coded tasks she had always tried to do.

They found that building a home and family was so hard that each had to do whatever they were good at. They needed each other.

from "How I Became a Wife"

She let it go

Larissa's mom gave her, a sixth-grader at the time, a framed print that said, "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle." She absorbed her mom's view of the world. It seemed to her that wives in general were sad, overwhelmed, repressed, miserable. Conclusion: you have no need of a man (image), so never marry.

Confirming that opinion, every marriage she knew about as a child ended in divorce including her that of her parents. Marriage was a trap and there was little or no important difference between women and men. She read books by feminists "who were busy deconstructing every idea foundational to family life, from gender roles to monogamy . . ."

"Why would girls play at mothers or wives when they could sit on the Supreme Court or fly to the moon?" It seemed "small and backward and insignificant."

But Larissa let it all go, all that training she had received as a child and then a young adult. She became a wife, by choice. How could that happen? Glad you asked.

 from "How I Became a Wife"

 (cont'd tomorrow)

Hail and solar

Serious problems remain to be solved with "green" power producers, wind turbines and solar panels. Both are sometimes deployed in very large "farms" and both are obviously vulnerable to weather. Sometimes the wind doesn't blow and sometimes precipitation falls.

A Texas solar farm of 3,000 acres was hit by baseball-sized hail a year ago resulting in damage to thousands of solar panels. There was enough impact to break the glass, potentially releasing toxic chemicals. 

Experts say that there's no danger to families who live in the area and use the ground water, but residents are uneasy anyway.

Another solar farm was hit by large hail in 2023 in Nebraska. These wide-open areas in central America are well suited for big wind and solar, but they're also subject to hail storms (image).

Flight test #8

Starship's flight test #8 was scrubbed last Monday, but it finally flew yesterday afternoon from Starbase in Texas. 

The ship itself separated from Super Heavy booster successfully. More than 30 cameras on the exterior provided beautiful views, and gave visual information to SpaceX engineers. 

But some of its engines failed over the ocean. It lost attitude control (started tumbling) and ended up in the dreaded RUD, rapid unscheduled disassembly, as it did on the previous test flight. 

Meanwhile, Super Heavy functioned beautifully. Its engines slowed its speed and directed it right into the "chopsticks" arms for a perfect catch seven minutes after launch.

Grandma arrest

Free speech is a human right in America and guaranteed by our constitution. Freedom to speak used to be respected in Europe more than it is today. 

This is one example. A 74-year-old grandmother stood quietly outside a hospital in Scotland holding the sign you see in this picture. She challenged no one.

 

Police handcuffed and arrested her, took her to the police station where she was searched, swabbed for DNA, had a mugshot and fingerprints taken, and then she was released. The process itself is intimidating. She says, "I'm worried about a society that's willing to lock up a 74-year-old grandmother for offering consensual conversation." 

Last month our vice president told European political leaders that it looks like free speech is "in retreat" in Europe. They were "outraged" that he would say such a thing!

from The Free Press

Almost home

Follow-up to this post

Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are test pilots who flew up to the International Space Station last June on ULA's  spacecraft Starliner, its first astronaut-crewed flight. But NASA would not permit Starliner to carry them back home at the end of their one-week mission because they judged the craft unsafe due to technical problems.

Instead of spending a week there, it's been about nine months. They say they want to go home, and that's coming soon. 

SpaceX will launch Crew-10 to the ISS on March 12, and then Butch and Suni will get their ride back to Earth on SpaceX's Dragon craft, returning home next week (weather permitting) . . at last. Suni said in yesterday's news conference that her message to family is that she'll be home soon, so "Don't plan anything without me!"

COO

Space operations used to be the domain of governments only. But now there's a big private sector. In the private, non-government space business, there's no more important name than Gwynne Shotwell, President and Chief Operating Officer of SpaceX.

photo

Super celebrity Elon Musk hired her as an engineer way back in 2002. As Director of Business Development, she successfully negotiated the contract (2008) with NASA to deliver commercial resupply services to the International Space Station. Promotion to the position of president followed. 

Gwynne is a superstar herself. She led the effort to build the Falcon rocket. Under her leadership, SpaceX was the first private company to successfully launch to orbit and recover a spacecraft and send one to the ISS . . plus all the recent SpaceX achievements. 

Test flight #8 of Starship may take place today, depending on conditions.

US in space

No day goes by without space operations of some kind, even though we don't commonly see them. Consider that roughly 10,000 satellites are in orbit around the world in use for GPS, communication, surveillance, military.

Cyber attacks and the jamming of our satellites are just a couple of threats that our enemies could employ. That's why the U.S. has a military branch dedicated to space operations, in an environment where there's no up or down, no left or right: the United States Space Force.

"We won't just think outside the box. We'll think outside the atmosphere."

Vibe shift 4

Follow-up to these posts

Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos (photo) just made an additional change to the newspaper. In perhaps another example of the "vibe shift," he directed the opinion pages to write in support and defense of two new themes. He calls them "pillars," probably in the sense of American foundational values: personal liberty and free markets.

 

Not everyone is happy about it, so I have to wonder just what they have against personal liberty and free markets (rather than forced or coerced ones). When he asked his opinion pages editor to manage this new direction, the man chose to quit his job instead.

Other subjects will be addressed, but the policy shift is clear. "Viewpoints opposing those pillars," he says, "will be left to be published by others." 

from his X post

We see you, NCAA

XX-XY Athletics launched a video last October to ask Nike to support biological women's sports: "Will you, Nike?"

Now they've launched a new video that includes Riley Gaines: "We see you, NCAA." 

NCAA has linked their definition of who may qualify as female in women's sports to a birth certificate. But that does not yet actually protect women in the view of XX-XY Athletics. Birth certificates can be changed in 44 states.

Bjorn speaks

Continuing a few talks from Alliance for Responsible Leadership (ARC) conference:

Danish author Bjorn Lomborg started his own think tank, Copenhagen Consensus, to research the best ways to get results on solving the world's problems. He addresses issues in economics, climate, energy to tell the world to "Stop the climate doomism!"

• There's no way to improve incomes and lifestyles around the world using less energy
•  Growth everywhere requires cheap and abundant energy
• Climate is a problem, but isn't driving us to catastrophe
•  Solar and wind is not a cheap solution bc we need energy 24/7
• Eliminating fossil fuels ("net zero") is not happening, would be absurdly expensive 
• We will have to adapt to changing climate by innovating improved ways to produce power

Os speaks

Philosopher Os Guinness, now 83 years old, wrote or edited 30 books and has been a voice of influence for decades. He thinks and speaks about us, the people of Western Civilization, and how our culture is shaped by Christianity. 

From his talk last week at ARC's London conference:

• Lots of people are very uncomfortable with talking about religion, but it affects what everyone thinks and does
• A combination of Islamism and cultural Marxism has been trying to replace Christian faith (for over a hundred years)
• It has failed; it isn't good enough to be the foundation of our culture; it doesn't work
• Christianity is indispensable to our way of life, agreeing with Christian Ayaan, atheist R. Dawkins, and atheist T. Holland
• But we need leaders who go beyond mere approval of Christian principles - to genuine, powerful faith
  

 

Konstantin speaks

ARC's (Alliance for Responsible Citizenship) conference in London presented some good people. Last week I mentioned the brave and admirable Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Konstantin Kisin, whose parents brought him to Britain from Russia, is another. He likes to joke about woke thinking.

Some lines from the talk of this combination comedian and clear thinker:

"I love this country, and that is how you know that I still haven't integrated into British culture!"

"DEI, a system of anti-merit discrimination, is being dismantled [in America] and in the global corporate world as well. Once again we can dream that our children will be judged on the content of their character [referencing Martin Luther King] . . and not the color of the square they post on Instagram."

Brutal Hamas

Hamas has been returning some of the hostages it took in their barbarian attack on Israel sixteen months ago. Two children, ages 9 months old and 4 years old (photo) plus their mother, and an elderly man were returned in their coffins.

The handover operation was conducted in a "macabre" manner, according to CNN, as "an opportunity for anti-Israeli propaganda." The UN Secretary-General called the parading of the coffins "abhorrent and appalling."

Even the Grand Mufti of Dubai condemned it: "Hamas has brought shame to Islam on a level never seen before."

 from CNN

Overspent

America's over-spending has gotten us into a dangerous position, so the new administration is taking steps to curtail that spending. Some people are very upset about their funds ending. They can't go on doing things the same way.

But we have to put a lid on the spending, so choices are being made about what to restrict or end altogether. 

Watch this bitter man be outraged when his wife's organization is targeted for cutbacks. He says the money just "stopped. Doesn't matter if you had a contract;" they expected "another million" and then the money just stopped. Wait . . millions? For what?

The man and his wife are British, and she is shown teaching Afghani peasants about Western deviant art. We don't feel sorry for them. It's not as if they have a right to millions of American taxpayers' dollars.

Ayaan speaks

Ayaan Hirsi Ali fled Somalia because she was forced into a Muslim marriage that she didn't want. From there, she went to Europe, becoming a member of the House of Representatives in The Netherlands. There she was a soft-spoken but courageous critic of Islam, speaking out against forced marriage and Muslim practices.

Since her move to America, she's continued speaking and writing on these themes, notably in London last weekend. She spoke at the conference for Jordan Peterson's organization, Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC). 

As a relatively new Christian, she said: "My message here to you today is to stress that responsible citizenship in the West is inseparable from Christian morality."

She has discovered, as Tom Holland did, that the things of Western Civilization that we admire come from its foundation in Christianity.

 

Atheism 👎2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Influencers who now express approval of Christianity or religion also include Tom Holland and Richard Dawkins (both are still atheists to my knowledge). It's good to see the tone of our culture pull back from hostility to God. It means less pressure against young people who want to believe.

Intellectuals who have actually converted to Christianity from atheism include Ayaan Hirsi Ali  and her husband, historian Niall Ferguson, formerly British but now in America. They and their two sons were baptized in the Anglican Church in 2023.

"Though Ferguson sees profoundly the crisis of our times . . brought about by the abandonment of Christianity, this is not primarily a political conversion. 

"He is, in his own words, a lapsed atheist. Much more important, he's a believing Christian. . . It’s a deeply personal and deliberate turn to faith by a man who was formerly a lifelong atheist . . ."

Here's a video of Dr. Ferguson from 2019:

Atheism 👎

It's just not enough to claim that there's no God. That's atheism and materialism. It makes the claim that nothing except the material world exists, that our world and everything on it came into existence by natural laws, natural selection, random variations.

Human beings need more. Non-material things like love, purpose, and goodness drive our lives. Society needs more, too. The "vibe shift" in our country may includes not only political and attitude changes, but also a growing desire to look for God👍

As a New York Times and The Free Press writer reports, "If there is not yet a true religious revival in the Western world, there is clearly a desire for one . . the rising generation appears more religious than its predecessors."

 

Podcaster Joe Rogan (photo)used to mock Christianity, but just a year ago he said "We need Jesus." Last summer Elon Musk said "I'm actually a big believer in the principles of Christianity" and called for believers to bravely stand up for what is fair and right.

from "How Intellectuals Found God" 

(cont'd tomorrow)

Stargate

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Excitement in the tech industry over the new administration may be due to a huge wave of investment and development coming for AI (artificial intelligence). The president announced it from the oval office in the company of some tech titans.

AI infrastructure (hardware and software) will require a colossal buildout of data centers . . which will require the energy industry to grow in order to supply the required electricity.  The president appointed David Sacks his new AI and Crypto Czar (photo).

 

OpenAI will take operational responsibilities, collaborating with Oracle and Nvidia. Softbank will take financial responsibilities. Stargate is the new company's name, and here is OpenAI's statement:

"All of us look forward to continuing to build and develop AI—and in particular AGI—for the benefit of all of humanity. We believe that this new step is critical on the path, and will enable creative people to figure out how to use AI to elevate humanity."

Vibe shift 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Business owners and managers don't need ill will from those who hold power. It's already challenging to produce some kind of product which people want and will pay for, while keeping expenses low.  

So big business will try to make peace with the powers that be. That includes tech companies that have leaned left politically. America has a new sheriff in town.

Google donated $1 million to the new president's inauguration in January. OpenAI donated a million. Meta donated a million. Microsoft donated a million. Apple's CEO donated a million.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman acknowledges the "vibe shift," and calls the new administration "a breath of fresh air." He says there is huge excitement in the U.S. tech industry: “Maybe we can go figure out how to get good at semiconductor fab again, get good at robotic factories, to make data centers again, get good at building new energy.” 

Their Super Bowl commercial for ChatGPT:

Vibe shift 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Not long ago, you probably heard the word "Christian" used negatively as a pejorative by some public figures, as in "Christian nationalist." But our recent vibe shift went so far as to result in a Christian recording artist singing at the Super Bowl, probably America's biggest stage.

During the woke years, schools and universities often trained students to consider their own country hopelessly racist and contemptible. But this year's Super Bowl featured a five-minute video narrated by actor Brad Pitt which movingly celebrated the good things about America.

You don't have to be Christian to appreciate these things. Everybody should. 

Vibe shift

Since the U.S. election last November (maybe earlier), we've been experiencing what some are calling a "vibe shift." America voted decisively to turn toward traditional American values, and against the cultural "woke" trend of recent years. 

Maybe it started when X (former Twitter) ended its censoring of non-woke opinions. It continued with Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg blaming their own censoring on government coercion.

It showed up at the Super Bowl. Bud Light's commercial seemed to say that they are not woke anymore. Dancers in red, white and blue formed an image of the flag. "God Bless America" could be heard in the background. Winning quarterback praises God.

Politics, they say, follows art and culture . . and sometimes it goes the other way. Political power in this country massively changed direction, and many cultural influencers got on board. Thank God.

Poor learning

(cont'd from this post)

Our former Secretary of Education has seen the NAEP reports on how well our children are learning in school in recent years, and she is alarmed. Reading and math skills are declining.

 

 "Declines in student performance date back about a decade," exacerbated by Covid measures.

Since 1979 when the U.S. Dept. of Education was created, hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent but students are less proficient (image). They're spending $80 billion per year and achieving no improvement. That's not a worthy return on investment.

Her advice: shut it down.

 from The Free Press

Sleep pods

No doubt, you've heard about DOGE (the Department of Government Efficiency). It officially started operating under the new U.S. administration on Inauguration Day with a mandate to make the federal government more efficient.

Its leader, entrepreneur Elon Musk, is working from the time he wakes up until the time he sleeps, he says. His young staff (age 19-25) may be sleeping at the office, as Musk does.

Founder (photo) and owner of Eight Sleep is apparently a big fan of the concept. He shipped "bed pods" to the office: "I hope this will supercharge @elonmusk and the incredible team to shape the future of America. Let's go."

Wind blades 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

About 3,000 wind turbines have been built in the U.S. each year since 2005. At three blades each over twenty years, that's roughly 180,000 blades so far. 

They're supposed to last 20+ years but are often done in ten years or less. What happens then? Going to landfills around the world, as they do now, is not a sustainable future.

Fiberglass, their main component, is very difficult to break down for recycling. Veolia started making the blades into a product that the cement industry can use, and which can strengthen their end product. 

Beyond that, Canvus is making outdoor furniture out of "fillets" of enormous blades. But they can only do that with about half the blades sent to them. The rest are either too damaged or just too huge. 

To be considered green and sustainable, wind power will have to come up with better solutions for wind blades at the end of their usable life. 

Wind blades 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

According to the Texas naturalist in yesterday's video, there's no good plan for the "end of usable life" for these wind turbine blades. Thousands have piled up in graveyard sites so far. 

DOE (U.S. Dept. of Energy) reports that 500 manufacturing facilities across the country make components of these turbines. They try to improve quality, reliability, cost effectiveness. 

And they work on transportation. Why is that an issue? These blades are enormous and getting even bigger: "an average utility-scale wind turbine [includes] blades up to 100 meters (over 300 feet) in length and towers around 94 meters (308 feet) high, roughly the height of the Statue of Liberty." 

How would you transport (costing $30k-$100k) turbine parts so huge to a local farm? It can take a year's planning and as many as ten loads. This photo will help you grasp the scale:

 

from U.S. Department of Energy

(cont'd tomorrow)

Wind blades

With all that energy in the atmosphere that blows air at us, it would be nice to harness and use it for our own purposes. 

That's the motivation behind building wind farms. It seems like a good idea--but there are big problems with getting our power from wind turbines.

Here's one of the mounting problems.

Better learning

NAEP is the National Assessment of Educational Progress and it calls itself the "Nation's Report Card," a "window into the state of our K-12 education system and what our children are learning."

Compared to public government schools, private schools deliver better results. According to this chart, Catholic schools do a better job of educating than either public or charter.

 

It costs the government about $20,000/year/student to run the public schools. All of that funding comes from taxpayers. But Catholic schools can educate a child for about $5,000-9,000/year/student. You have to wonder how they supply a better education at less cost.

Our education system desperately needs change.

Not earned?

DEI policies were promoted as fairness of outcomes, the idea that all results of any activity should be equal. But the natural "diversity" of human beings makes that impossible. 

Instead of outside force, the solution is still to build virtue among the individuals in community. Rewards must come by merit, by earning the rewards of your work with skill and achievement.

Here's an individual (from a post on X) who gets it right:

"DEI has placed an asterisk on the achievements of every black person and woman in a prestigious role. It’s caused those people and the public to reasonably doubt whether they earned their role by merit or agenda. This hurts black people, women, and public trust."

Yes, it does.

Clear cut

Much of northern Michigan is a hardwood or pine forest (photo), so valuable to the state and to the environment. It takes a long time to replace such a forest; estimates run from 40-100 years.

 

You'd think a forest like that would be protected, especially by environmentalists. But there's a proposal to clear 420 acres of it.

This parcel of land may be clear cut for a solar array: solar panels to cut our dependence on fossil fuels, solar panels to help save the environment. 

Pursuant to a law passed by the governor and legislature in 2023, utilities will have to get 80% of their power from clean energy sources by 2035. That's going to be a stretch.

State representatives say they don't like the idea of killing wildlife and trees to set up solar panels.

from The Detroit News

CA in trouble 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

According to yesterday's video, most California wildfires are started by aging power lines (which also caused the 2023 Hawaii fire on Maui). 

Arsonists, too, may have had a hand in the current 2025 fire and there have been arrests. Combined with those power lines, plus the occasional backyard barbecue or fireworks, 95% of fires are attributed to human activity.

 

 

Strong winds spread the fires (photo), at least 29 people died, neighborhood after neighborhood was evacuated, and tens of thousands of homeowners lost their homes. In some cases where a home was damaged but not completely destroyed, looters arrived to take out of them whatever valuable property they could handle. About 40 have been arrested.

CA in trouble 1

Fires have been raging in Los Angeles, California, for weeks. It's not the first time. Here are some of the conditions that put this beautiful state in danger and have been doing so for a long time.

Self aware

Chamath lost millions and millions (billions, he says) in 2022, the tech fortune he created as a young man, and he says it was the best blessing of his life. It changed him. 

He started asking questions of himself and found he was motivated by "stupid, inconsequential things."

It's a fascinating story as he tells it to Tucker Carlson over two hours' time. He has some political comments including the California governor's struggle, which he says is: trying to convince everyone that the fires were not the result of his negligence.

He says Elon Musk has incredible tolerance for pain and drudgery, yet he's "a kind guy."

I didn't finish it, but so far it sure is interesting.

The beginning 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

My sister-in-law used to say, "What a difference it would make if everybody just believed the first verse in Genesis!" She's right. The story of reality begins with God, the Creator of this universe.

After setting the stage with a broad history of earth, as you saw yesterday in the 6-minute video on the first eleven chapters of Genesis, chapters 12-50 focus on a single family. All of that is in this second video wrapping up a summary of Genesis, the first book of the Bible:

The beginning 1

Today in America, we as a culture tend toward a lack of faith in God and especially a lack of knowing and understanding the Bible. It wasn't always like this. Early in our history, public schools actually made it their focus.

Maybe you wish you knew the Bible better. You can read it all in a year on your own if you're disciplined to read about 15 minutes per day. But there are lots of organized and published plans you can follow--and they really help.

"You Version" app gives you access to the whole Bible, and has plans you can use. I'm using a plan that has videos from The Bible Project. They summarize the books of the Bible visually. Play this one to see for yourself what it's like:

We can win

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

She recommends divorce and joint custody of the children. That way, the mother only has to care for her kids every other week; for her ex, zero time in care. She can be alone half the time to pursue independence. 

That could appeal as a temporary break for the mom who's overwhelmed by family problems. But surveys show that, in the long term, married mothers are not losers in the pursuit of happiness (image). A large majority report being very happy or pretty happy in spite of the challenges.

 

Living in close relationships with people you love, creating a meaningful life together, is still a good bet and worth the effort.