AI in school 4

(cont'd from this post)

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

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

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

This weekend?

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

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

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

Colombia to Mars

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

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

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

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

AI: wrongful death

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

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

Starbuck 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Starbuck

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

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

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

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

(cont'd tomorrow)

Wonder of Beavers

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

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

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

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

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

Wonder 4

(cont'd from yesterday's post) 

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

photo

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

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

from Salvo

Wonder 3

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

Water 1

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

But its properties are rare:

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

from Salvo

Wonder 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Web 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

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

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

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

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

from Evolution News

Wonder 1

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

Web 1

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

photo

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

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

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

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

from Evolution News

Cooping

 Voter fraud was not invented during our own time. 

In American elections of the 19th century, fraud took the form of "cooping," a clumsy but effective way to cheat with paper ballots. In fact, it seems that a famous writer and poet of the time was involved.

Then, as now, the goal was to multiply votes for the favored candidate. Intoxicated people in bars were held in a central location (a "coop") and forced, in their drunken condition, to repeatedly vote. After each trip to the ballot box, they would be dressed in different clothes or otherwise disguised--to obscure their identity--and sent back to vote again.

Edgar Allen Poe, sadly, suffered from alcoholism and depression. Four days before his death, he was found distressed and disoriented near a voting site in Baltimore. He was not wearing his own clothes. He seems to have been a "cooping" victim (image).

Bad actors will do whatever unjust or illegal scheme they can devise to win elections, whether the election is decided by paper ballots or modern computer technology. 

Human corruption continues in our own time. Many oppose a precaution as simple and wholesome as showing identification (ID) when voting. Even people of good will can be deceived into voting against common sense.

from Mind Matters

Poverty 54% to 28%

Two years ago, over half of Argentina's population lived in poverty. Today that's been cut in half. In just two years the poverty rate dropped from 54% to 28%. 

President Milei has held office since December of 2023, a little over two years ago--the same two years. How has Milei accomplished this tremendous turn-around? 

As a former economist, he understood something important: socialism produces poverty. His country had been under socialism for almost a century. Part of his strategy has been to reduce the size of the government. State subsidies along with public sector payrolls were slashed.

Inflation declined from 200% when he took office to 33% two months ago. For the first time in about a century, Argentina had a fiscal surplus in 2025.

A chainsaw is the symbol of his attack on overspending and socialism.

from Washington Post

(cont'd tomorrow)

Artemis 2 quotes

Note: hang in there with me for just one more Artemis-themed post 😉

One day after their return from the moon, NASA Chief Jared introduced the astronauts like this, "Artemis crew, this moment is the result of years of hard work, absolutely immense expertise, and just being all around great human beings."

First of the astronauts to speak was Commander Reid Wiseman: "Twenty-four hours ago the earth was this big [arms apart], we were doing Mach 39, and now we're home! We are bonded forever. No one down here is ever going to know just what we went through."

Pilot Victor Glover: "When this started on April 3, I wanted to thank God in public, and I want to thank God again . . for seeing what we saw, for doing what we did, for who I was with. We are fortunate to be in this agency at this time, together. Thank you also to our Air Operations."

Mission Specialist Christina Koch: "What struck me was not just this little Earth but all the blackness around it. Earth was just this lifeboat hanging un-disturbingly in the universe." She called Earth and its people a "crew," which she described as "beautifully and dutifully linked."

Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen: "The science is there with the things we've learned, and it's incredible. But it's the human experience that is extraordinary for us. I don't think people will ever fully comprehend how well supported and trained we were. There was a lot of joy up there."

Space dreams

It's the dream of a lifetime for NASA's new administrator, Jared Isaacson. 

He knows his life arc is unusual: "You should not be able to drop out of high school at 16, start a company, and wind up an astronaut leading NASA someday. It's why we live in the greatest nation in the world."

Now that he's smack in the middle of America's space industry (image), what does he dream about for our future in space? 

A US base on the Moon, of course, comes first. Helium mining on the Moon. Within a decade, there'll be dozens of flights into space in a year instead of just one every few years. Many international space stations will handle civilian visitors. Space Reactor 1-Freedom, the first-ever nuclear-powered interplanetary spaceship, will go to Mars in Dec. 2028 where it will drop off 3 unmanned space helicopters to go exploring. Our first astronauts will go to Mars in ten years. 

Do his dreams sound starry-eyed? He thinks we can change the world.

from The Free Press

Home to Earth

NASA, America and most of the world joyfully welcomed the astronauts safely back to their home planet last Friday evening. I joined with many who thanked God for their safe return. 

Artemis II was a stunning success for NASA, achieving precise goals per that wonderful descriptor, "Nominal." The term means: as planned, right on target, just as it should be.  (Splashdown is at 3:40 in video.)

Pilot Victor Glover did the last message before they went behind the dark side of the Moon: "As we prepare to go out of radio communication, we're still going to feel your love from Earth. And to all of you down there on Earth and around Earth, we love you, from the Moon. We will see you on the other side."

It was a relief to resume communication with them as they completed their 6 hours on the dark side. Mission Specialist Cristina Koch shared aspirational words as they came back in view of Earth: 

“We will explore. We will build ships. We will visit again. We will build scientific outposts, drive rovers, do radio astronomy and found companies. We will strengthen industry and inspire. But ultimately, we will always choose Earth. We will always choose each other.”

Note: If you were intrigued by "A Great Awakening," here's an interview with the young star

Hotel of Doom

 Enormous, failed projects are found in multiple countries, including North Korea.

How big is their tourist industry, do you think? The better question probably is: who would want to go there?! I'm guessing the answer is: very few.

Yet North Korea set out to create the biggest hotel in the world for the prestige. The 105-story concrete shell has been there for decades but was never finished. It's starting to crumble. There is a bright facade on which political messages are played.

But the Hotel of Doom has never had a single guest.

Billions wasted 1

Years ago, I discovered China's urbanizing drive, their "ghost cities," and their empty towns: staggering amounts of money were invested to develop them, yet almost no one lived there.

Years later, and they haven't changed much. (Here's a recent update on Kangbashi.)

Other countries have their stories of enormous expenditure, followed by emptiness or failure. Check out the gorgeous, expensive Forest City of Malaysia--empty and eerie for the few who do go there:

US poverty? 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

America does not ignore the poor who can't afford housing, food, medical care, etc. A huge 51% of our annual federal spending goes to entitlements. But those benefits are not counted in the poverty statistics you saw yesterday for some reason.

That's the first important point of yesterday's video: the actual percentage of people in the US who lack basic needs is about 3%, not 10-18%. (That means 23 million to 60 million fewer people in the US live that way.) Though their earned income is under the poverty point, government payments lift their lifestyle out of poverty.

We don't want millions of our fellow citizens to lack the necessities, so we're happy to help. That's the motivation behind the American "safety net." 

Unfortunately, there's an unintended consequence of the welfare system, explained very well in yesterday's video. A significant number of people content themselves with dependence rather than using their lives productively. Surprisingly, that includes about 7 million men of working age. Not good for America--devastating for those men.

US poverty? 1

How could America, one of the richest countries in the world, tolerate a crisis of poverty? Claims are published that ~10 to 17.8% of our people are suffering in dire poverty.

If you hear something like this, you have to wonder why the government doesn't lend a hand. But wait, different levels of government have lots of ways to help. If vast numbers of people are barely surviving, why don't they sign up for food stamps? It's confusing. 

What do the numbers mean?

Awakening

Follow up to this post

On Saturday, my husband and I brought friends along and saw that movie I recommended to you last week, "A Great Awakening." 

As expected, the acting, photography, dialog, music, all the production values were good. In fact, it was so good that I hope many of you will choose to see it. 

The story is based on true facts. Ben Franklin was savvy enough in business to take advantage of a trend he saw developing. Though apparently not a Christian, he could see the potential of publishing the schedule and sermons of popular evangelist George Whitefield.

Whitefield represents the message of the Bible very well: Jesus Christ paid the whole price to reconcile us to God. We're not required to clean ourselves up first, but just to trust Him.

Did Franklin eventually turn to God? Maybe. Late in life, at the 1787 Constitutional Convention, he made a famous appeal to the delegates that could have come from Whitefield's influence--and possibly turned around the contentious convention.

Safe in space

At the top of NASA's list of core values is safety.

If safety were the only core value, they could achieve it best by staying out of space. Space is inherently dangerous. But their purpose is to explore space. None of their missions are risk-free. Safety is what they try to achieve in the context of danger.

Taking Artemis 2 astronauts through space in a small life-sustaining room is the task of their spacecraft, Orion. 

What's outside? Just the harshest environment humans have ever faced: "extreme radiation, massive temperature swings, and deep space vacuum."

On its way

After some delays, Artemis 2 launched yesterday. Four astronauts are on their way. Following a swing around Earth, tonight they will break orbit and head for the Moon. (Note: the path of Orion turned out to be a bit different from what's shown in the video below.)

Orion is the crewed spacecraft which will take them there. It launched from Cape Canaveral on the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket. This is only the second mission for Orion. It flew without crew back in 2022 on the mission Artemis 1, that mission which confirmed for NASA that we now have a reliable deep-space transportation system.

But Orion has no landing ability. Landing on the Moon is planned for Artemis 4, which will take place at least two years from now.

Waited too long

Have you heard that it's more exciting to be a glamorous young woman than a married young woman starting a family? Some received that message and kept chasing that vision--until it was too late to realistically expect the other vision to come true, the vision of motherhood.

That particular window of opportunity has an expiration date. The author of this article says she thinks she's past the window and she regrets it.

If statistical data would be convincing to a young woman who wonders which is the happier path, she should consider this: "married mothers ages 22-35 are nearly three times likelier to report being "very happy" than their single childless peers (41% vs 14%)."

She says, "What teenage girls need is honest, hopeful messaging that marriage and family are not obstacles to a meaningful life, but its deepest source."

"If you find the right person in your 20's, don't hesitate. Commit. Build the life that actually fills the soul."

Personally: so glad I did.

from Institute for Family Studies

Second movie

Two movie recommendations in one week? I've never done that before. But here's another one that may be worth seeing: "Project Hail Mary." You could take a family to it, though maybe not younger kids. You'll see a cross-species friendship in the context of space and science.

An average man, not a hero of any sort, wakes up in a spaceship, alone and confused, very far from planet Earth. Long flashbacks inform us of what he's doing there. He eventually knows he's on a critical mission against his wishes--as the one hope for the survival of all humanity on Earth. You could call the mission a "hail Mary" because this hope is a long shot.

Made in Heaven

Opening this very week is a movie that you should be aware of if you, like me, are attracted to meaningful, dramatic history. A partnership was created between the most amazingly talented preacher in colonial America -- and the famously brilliant but skeptical Ben Franklin.

Call it an unlikely partnership, and open to interpretation. In the words (movie words) of evangelist George Whitefield, it was "A match made in Heaven!" In the words of Ben Franklin, it could be called "A deal made in a print shop."

I'm recommending "A Great Awakening" (sight-unseen) and looking forward to it.

Ranchers

Drought has fallen on Nebraska ranchers, a serious threat to property and to incomes. Wildfires naturally followed drought and destroyed thousands of acres of hay recently, spelling disaster for cattle.

Winds of 70 mph blowing across the flat terrain resulted in a record-breaking 827,000 acres burned this month.

"One rancher related that they were able to save some cattle by herding them into a field that had a pivot irrigation sprinkler system that they turned on. The water kept the cattle drenched and safe as the fire swept past." A consolation for this rancher, but just a partial one. They still have to be fed somehow, and the range is burned up.

Organizations like Nebraska Cattlemen Disaster Relief Fund will help. But quicker relief may come from neighbors who informally organize to help their neighbors:

from KSJD, Farm News and Views

Becoming US 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Part of Hector's admiration for America, he says, is because he studied the historical record and compared outcomes among nations:

• no nation made a more dramatic internal break with slavery
• no country did more to secure the oceans and underwrite the prosperity of former enemies and allies alike
• our Constitution uniquely inspires "universal dignity"

He loves the First Amendment (image): "It assumes that human beings will disagree deeply--and refuses to grant the state authority to referee truth." What an important insight: governments consist of flawed people, the only kind there is. People can only be free where they are not forced to speak the government's "truth," where they can speak their consciences.

"To become an American citizen is not to inherit perfection. It is to inherit responsibility--to participate in a fragile, magnificent experiment that only survives if enough people remember why it exists, and what it asks of them. *

"America is not great because it is easy. It is great because it trusts its people with freedom [per Pres. John Kennedy] and demands that they be worthy of it. I can only hope to be."

* For more on this responsibility, read If You Can Keep It by Eric Metaxas

 from Substack

Becoming US 1

Hector Herrera and his wife recently sat in the US consulate in Montreal, watching the other soon-to-be citizens with their laps full of folders and documents, all quietly waiting for their chosen identity to become fully legal. Many were dressed up. It's a grave, important moment.

He began life in Mexico, lived in Canada, and will soon make his home in the US. He's lived with different assumptions about responsibility, speech, the role of the state. He sorted out what he thinks is right . . and made a reasoned decision to become an American citizen.

(photo)

People are allowed here to try, to fail, to try and fail again, and eventually learn how to succeed. "It builds grit. It builds anti-fragility. It builds citizens who are not waiting to be rescued."

"Over the past decade," he says, "I have slowly transformed into an Americanist."

What does he mean by that? How did America earn his respect? 

from Substack

(cont'd tomorrow)

Nepal update

Follow up to this post

Last fall's political protest rioting in Nepal was violent and chaotic, and led by young people. The government fell - and what was their new solution? They weren't sure where to go from there. 

But someone is always ready to step into the vacuum when old power fails. 

Early this month there was an election that turned into a landslide. Did they vote for an expert in governance? For someone old and experienced? Nope. A 35-year-old hero of Gen Z who used to rap for a living is set to be the new prime minister. Well, ok, he's also a politician because he was the mayor of the capital, Kathmandu.

(Was it only the young who wanted change? No, an 84-year-old voter had the same hope: "This time we need new faces, not the same old people who do nothing.")

Sounds like the point of all this is that the next generation of young Nepalese who care about their country were determined to kick out the old, corrupt elites. I hope they can make their way toward sound and responsible government.

from NYT

Untangler

You've seen images (image) of the DNA within each of our cells. It twists and coils tightly and then gets tangled in itself. It has to be opened up so it can be copied to build every new cell and every new living thing. 

A special protein (an enzyme) in each of our cells does this specific untangling job. The protein is structured like a machine to snip and re-connect strands at the point of the super-coils, so that they can straighten out.

Some have to believe this incredible protein just developed by pure chance (because they must hold to their belief system). Does that seem likely? 

Our bodies were designed on purpose by their vastly intelligent Creator in my opinion. Is that just faith, as materialists would claim? Yes, it is faith because it can't be proved--but there's awesome evidence to draw me to this conclusion, and I love to put some of that on this blog for you.

(If you want more: an award-winning engineer's analysis of the human knee)

Eat real food 2

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

Johns Hopkins University says that most of the foods we eat--75% of the US food supply and over half the average adult's calories--are ultra-processed. That includes common foods like lunch meats, chips, boxed meals, instant oatmeal, energy drinks. “Many of these ultra-processed foods are intentionally designed by the food industry to be irresistible to consumers . . ." And they succeed. (How hard is it to eat just one chip?)

For the sake of our health, federal nutrition standards have been updated under the Secretary of Health and Human Services. The message they want us to hear is simple: "Eat real food." There's a new food pyramid in town:

It looks different from the old one. In short, we are encouraged to make protein, dairy, health fats, vegetables, fruits the biggest part of our diet, with grains a lesser part: "Prioritize fiber-rich whole grains and significantly reduce the consumption of highly processed, refined carbohydrates that displace real nutrition."

The colorful, bold new website? Built by National Design Studio, of course.

from Eat Real Food

Eat real food 1

Yummy fast food is so appealing that it's a "go-to" when we need a quick meal which everyone in the family will like. Americans eat more fast food on average than people of any other country. We also buy highly or ultra processed food at other places, including grocery stores, when we need that quick meal.

But do we make that choice for excellent nutrition? Nope. Ultra/highly processed foods (photo) or fast foods are convenient, but no one thinks they're the healthiest choice. We need something easy because we have hectic schedules, or because no one at home can cook.

Some say Americans are also the sickest. According to a 2020 report from the CDC, over half of us have chronic conditions or diseases. 

So, what should we eat instead? Our current federal government has taken a stand in favor of "Real Food," saying "highly processed food has hollowed out our health, driving obesity, diabetes, heart disease and early death."

In that case, what should we eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner?

from Eat Real Food

(cont'd tomorrow)

US design 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

What else has our new Chief Design Officer accomplished since starting the National Design Studio?

• New website for a tax-advantaged investment that belongs entirely to your child. It's easy to read, it's colorful, and it's easy to understand how to sign your kids up. Millions of kids will have a financial head start.
• A "usability refresh" for the portal for Obamacare (which crashed a lot), for FEMA (glitchy), and for Veterans Affairs.
• New website for the new food pyramid
• New website for cheaper prescriptions

About "30 years of digital dust" has built up on 27,000 government websites. They need work. Accessibility is key. What do they mean by that? 

"We start with a question: can someone who has never seen this before figure out what to do?" That includes someone who is afraid to try again because he may do something wrong, or who drove two hours to a government office because the website failed them. All of them - all of us - need government websites that we can understand and navigate.

from The Free Press

US design 2

(cont'd from last Friday's post)

"Imagine retiring after a lifetime of public service--as a veteran, air traffic controller, or first responder--only to wait months in financial limbo" . . because the process involved paperwork stored underground in file cabinets. In this day and age, it sounds crazy.

A string of 3 failed efforts to modernize in the 1980's, 90's and 00's had all failed to move the process off of paper. They cost taxpayers $130 million. Then the new National Design Studio was assigned the job last year.

"Two engineers (photo, that's Joe on the right) walked into the government six months ago to drag federal retirements from an underground mine onto the internet." They were Dennis and Yat, both experienced in start-up business technology. They thought the job would be easy (photo).

"Speed was of the essence in order to stop the bleeding." They cut off new paper coming into the mine. Then they had only a month to get the digital replacement online. Their blog tells you about their methods and strategy, if you'd like to know.

from National Design Studio

WaPo chaos

Washington Post used to be very influential and profitable. Jeff Bezos, who bought the newspaper in 2013, became aware of the fact that legacy media (including his newspaper) was losing ground. He said, "Americans Don't Trust the News Media."

He started taking bold steps to turn the paper around, probably hoping to hold off a loss in profit that would accompany the loss of trust. In 2024 he decided they would not endorse a presidential candidate (and lost 200,000 subscribers). In 2025 he told them to write about liberty and free markets (and an angry editor quit his job).

Bezos (photo) could not avoid or hold off staggering losses. The paper lost $77 million in 2023, $100 million in 2024, and another $100 million in 2025.

What business could swallow loss on that scale? Only a business owned by a billionaire who could absorb those losses, perhaps. Changes had to be made. 

Earlier this year he fired over 300 reporters, a massive 44% reduction . . and then another 60,000 online subscribers quit.

We're watching legacy media in free fall.

US design 1

"Chief Design Officer of the United States of America" is brand new in the US government. Joe Gebbia is the first to hold that office. He has a lot of experience in business and technology, and you've seen his name before.

When you last interacted with the federal government for a license, or to visit a national monument, or to manage your Social Security, was it a good experience? Or was it slow, hard to use, with dated technology? That's probably more like it. The US president wants that to change.

He wants these ordinary things to be similar to an Apple Store experience: beautifully designed, run on modern software, excellent. Americans' interface with the government needs a modern overhaul.

"Beautiful and efficient," that's how it should be. Joe calls it "the perfect overlap with what I'm good at and what the country needs right now."

What's he done so far? He and his team at National Design Studio digitized the retirement process for federal employees, which until last year was on paper forms in 26,000 file cabinets stored in a mine:

from The Free Press

(cont'd next week)

Proud of us 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Real people--people educating the children of Britain--really tried to put shame into the hearts of those children: shame for their ancestors, for their nation, for their race. Shaming kids for what others did before they were born is not fair. It's not justice. 

Someone could wonder if all these positive videos about Britain are historically accurate. A doubter could wonder, "are these videos just spin, an attempt to whitewash the wrong things of the past?" It's a valid question because, yes, the videos must be true if they're to have value.

So Proud of Us answers that question about their aims and methods: 

"Truth Over Comfort - History isn't always pretty. We tell it like it happened . . . No sugarcoating. 

"Sources Matter - Every claim is backed by primary sources from the National Archives. No hearsay, no myths, no exaggeration.

"Free for Everyone - This history belongs to all of us. Every video is free, forever. No paywalls, no subscriptions to learn your own history.

"Independent - No sponsors means that no one can influence what stories we tell."

Here's another one:

Proud of us 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Is it a good thing to shame school children for things they never did? If you grew up in London, apparently that's what you learned. In the words of the founder of Proud of Us:

"I grew up ashamed of my heritage. Growing up in London, I knew only the dark parts. . . I was painted as the oppressor before I'd done anything at all. My friends would joke about their cultures, their histories, their traditions. I never understood mine as they understood theirs. I was told we didn't really have one."

But as a grown-up, s/he discovered there was much more to their culture than just darkness:

"We didn't stop having a culture. We [simply] stopped telling our stories. I'm here to fix that, to put our stories where everyone can find them."

Here's one of those stories:

(cont'd tomorrow)

Proud of us 1

Woke anti-whiteness (yesterday's post) gained traction in the US, in spite of the fact that the Civil Rights Movement has been inspiring change for decades at the level of federal law. 

I used to think that the hatred of races and cultures was over in the West, was done with. Looks like we still have to fight it because the hatred just switched to a different race and different cultures.

The wave of wokeness sweeping the West in recent years claimed that the British people ought to be ashamed of their historically, predominantly white culture. But there's a new voice fighting back on their behalf.

"Proud of us" is an online platform for creative content to make the case--both to Brits themselves and to the world--that Britain has an admirable culture and history. 

(cont'd tomorrow)

"Woke" shock

American politics have shifted toward traditional American values and away from "wokeness." But our institutions haven't all changed. This is the story of a woman (photo) who went back to school in middle age after her divorce and was shocked to find a perverse ideology solidly embedded.

Somehow, she didn't notice it years ago when academia lurched far to the left. She was busy living her life and raising her kids.  You probably noticed, though, having read stories like this, this, this, this, this. 

The Counseling Master's program at the University of Tennessee confused and frustrated her until she recognized that it was founded on an "identity-based, oppressor/oppressed worldview. . . " The twisted values they taught were not her values.

"I learned it meant that if I weren't constantly aware of and apologizing for my whiteness and general lack of LGBTQ proclivities, as far as the faculty was concerned, I would be a danger to my clients." She quit the program.

from Substack

Current nuclear

Nuclear power generation has had its ups and downs over the last few decades. At this time, there's somewhat of a global movement to approve it as a reliable source of non-fossil fuel energy. It comes after a dip in production and public approval due to safety and climate scares. The world total (image) has stabilized and seems likely to increase.

France, Sweden, Finland are all pressing forward. New variations of nuclear power plants are being researched and tried. 

Germany, however, is an exception to all this. Their goal for many years was to eliminate their nuclear power plants. That ill-advised goal was achieved in 2023 when they phased out the last three. Now they depend on oil imported from Russia, solar and wind arrays, and liquid natural gas . . and they pay a high price for power.

from Our World in Data

Why Iran?

America's current action against Iran filled many people with joy and relief while it filled others with anger. Attacking a sovereign foreign nation must be rare, and it must line up with our values. Here is the president's address to the nation:

Maybe you, like me, hear the partisan opinions of your friends and your favorite media but you still have questions. I've found a few answers, so I offer them to you:

1. How many attacks injuring or killing Americans has Iran carried out or sponsored since the hostages were seized in 1979? This organization lists 44 aggressions (up to last June and not counting the Iraq war). Hundreds died, and many more were injured.
2. Is this US president uniquely belligerent or unlawful in this attack? No. The War Powers Act of 1973 gives a president the authority for a military action without congressional approval, and every president since that time has used it.
3. Is Iran's nuclear weapon development still a threat? Their program and facilities were diminished last June by US strikes but not totally destroyed.

(cont'd tomorrow)

AI & military 2

Follow up to this post

Anthropic made their choice in negotiations last week. They will not yield their AI product, "Claude," to every decision of the U.S. Dept. of War even if it's lawful (the terms of their contract). They want the authority to limit the military's use of Claude to situations they approve of.

No nation would likely submit to that. The U.S. will not, so they immediately stopped using Anthropic's technology and it can't be used by any government agency or Pentagon contractor.

OpenAI was waiting in the wings. They now will supply the U.S. military with artificial intelligence (photo). But the Pentagon added one interesting exception (which Anthropic wanted too) in this new contract: “the AI system shall not be intentionally used for domestic surveillance of U.S. persons and nationals.”

I asked Grok whether America has a law against domestic surveillance, and the answer was "No." That could be why the U.S. was willing to specify this condition in the new AI contract with OpenAI.

 from CNBC

AI & kids

Follow up to this post

An AI "companion" can be tempting for parents who need a break from the stress of constantly overseeing their children--but it's not a good solution. Yes, this is another warning against letting artificial intelligence gain too much influence over your kids.

A mental health organization finds unique risks of harm to children from AI companion platforms:

• "Blur the line between real and fake"
• "Encourage poor life choices"
• "Harmful information"
• "Inappropriate sexual content"
• and others

Remember, AI is trained to sound appealing to its users. It really does sound personable, entertaining, trustworthy, but it's not a person. It's not a genuine friend. Use your own good judgment. "Ultimately, your instinct that your child needs you, not just entertainment, is correct."

from "Ginny Weasley Teaches Us About the Danger of AI Chatbots for Children"