COO G. Shotwell

Starship test flight #12 is due to take off tonight about 6:30 pm CST, barring delays. Here's a little reminder about who calls the shots (pun intended) at SpaceX. 

She built a "multi-billion-dollar relationship with NASA." She headed up the development of Falcon 9, SpaceX's first reusable rocket. She predicted that Starlink, which was only an idea at this point, would change the world with satellite-based internet access.

Watch Gwynne's TED talk (interview) from eight years ago:

Note: the launch is re-scheduled for tomorrow

China vs God 4

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Many others besides Eza Jin are in prison because, wanting to be authentic Christ-followers, they are tripped up by these laws designed to catch them. 

Jin has something on his side which they don't all have: the determined, effective help of adult daughter Grace (photo) in the US. She too was affected by the suppression. As a small child in school, she was made to stand aside from her class every morning because, said her teacher, her faith was incompatible with the CCP. "If you just say you're no longer a Christian, then you can join in." A law forbad her parents taking her to church.

"She has testified before congress twice, penned op-eds in the WSJ and The Free Press, and traveled the world . . . to advocate for her father's freedom."

Says Grace, "I always feel like I'm not doing enough."

from "China vs. God"

China vs God 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Ezra Jin was at Tiananmen Square in 1989 protesting against the government, but he escaped disaster because he was not there on the day that ~10,000 students were killed. Later he visited a church for a funeral, and unexpectedly it touched his sad heart. 

He saw the contrast between his life and that of the Christians. They felt at home with their God, who offered acceptance and love, contrary to his sense of being lost and homeless. He kept going back and then made his decision.

As a pastor years later, he was able to run his church openly. But in 2018 a wave of new regulations cracked down on religious freedom: it became illegal to sell Bibles on the internet, churches had to fly propaganda banners, and hymns must follow the national anthem. 

Eventually they demanded that Jin put facial-recognition cameras into the church. When he refused, they shut the church down. Last September, a new law made it illegal to disseminate unapproved religious teaching online. Jin was arrested for breaking that law in October.

from "China vs. God"

China vs God 2

(cont'd from last Friday's post)

In Washington D.C., Bill and Grace D. keep a baseball bat next to the front door. They keep a camera on their son's toy in the front yard. 

They've experienced computer hackings and someone slashed the tires on Grace's mom's car in the garage. They think it's the Chinese government because Grace's dad, Ezra Jin, was that pastor in yesterday's post. She says, "[T]hey want to show you that there is no safe place for you anywhere in the world . . ."

Bill says, "They can't tolerate any sense of meaning, of spiritual authority, or moral authority outside of what the party wants."

It's not a new government thrust. I've posted a number of examples in the past which you can read here.

from "China vs. God"

(cont'd tomorrow)

China vs God

Does the title of this post sound like a paranoid Christian exaggeration? It's the title of an article in a secular journal, and there's evidence for it. The Chinese government wants ultimate control of its people, right down to their relationship with God.

Officially, it's Mao Zedong who is exalted to the people. His communist revolution transformed China in the 1960's and 70's. Never mind that his movements produced poverty and famine and chaos, citizens today line up to pay homage to his embalmed body in a clear coffin. They revere his writings and erect statues of him (photo).

The nation and its Communist Party (CCP) must be the object of faith, not God. 

"Our education told us that religion was an opiate, was not real. That God is something you made up in your mind," says Anna, the wife of a pastor. He and three dozen other pastors and church members were arrested last October in the dead of night.

from China vs. God

(to be continued on Monday)

Frexit 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

For many years, France has had a fleet of nuclear power plants which produce most of its energy. Their largest domestic energy source as of 2024 was nuclear. It may be a big reason why les Francais for many years paid a low price for power.

Energy costs are a big aggravation because they pay higher prices now, due to European Union policies. The EU integrates the whole European market for power, including countries like Germany in which power prices are high. The French can't take advantage of their own lower cost power production.

Russia used to provide France with natural gas at a low price. The EU has forbidden that. So, France must now get liquified natural gas from the US at a significantly higher price.

France plans to support the construction and operation of six new nuclear generators. But the EU has opened an "in-depth investigation" into whether that plan complies with their rules. 

There are other issues too, of course. Frexit enthusiasts want their country's freedom to make their own decisions regarding what is best for them. It's sovereignty. Vive la France!

Frexit 1

Vive la France! That was the cry from a square in Paris last weekend. It's far from a new cry, but it has additional meaning for some of les Francais. They want their country to exercise its own sovereignty, and to remove itself from the domination of the European Union.

Last Saturday was "Europe Day", the celebration of the 1950 declaration that led to the European Union. Supporters of the EU celebrate this integration of European countries which they say led to more peace, cooperation, and prosperity among them. That integration was in the form of a bureaucracy laid over and on top of the sovereignty of each nation.

While Europe Day was going on, French patriots held another rally in Paris, led by a political party dedicated to ending their membership in the EU. They do not like the fact that France cannot choose its own path but must submit to EU policies across a number of issues.

The United Kingdom was the first in Europe to make that very decision. You've heard of the "Brexit" movement which resulted in Britain's exit from the EU in 2020. Now the "Frexit" movement (image) is growing for France. 

(cont'd tomorrow)

Next test flight

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Starship V3, the third generation including new ship/booster/engine, will launch for the first time very soon. Starship test flight #12 is in pre-launch prep and will deploy no earlier than May 19.

Because this particular version is brand new, mission goals don't sound dramatic like, say, another booster catch. The main point of the test is to affirm that everything works together correctly. Even the launch pad which will be used at Starbase TX is new ("Pad 2").

Even its flight path is new compared to previous Starship test flights, a narrower corridor over the Gulf of America and between countries. The video below explains why it's changing for the sake of safety and for the benefit of future missions. 

New Starship V3

"Three years since the first flight of Starship, the next generation is here. New ship. New booster. New engines. New pad and new test site." It's Version 3.

They're trying to accomplish a "space dream" in the real world--a transportation system to take humans throughout our galaxy. Nobody knows how to do that yet. The engineers at SpaceX spend every day trying to figure it out. 

They're passionate and driven. I have no technical aptitude, but they inspire me. Meet some of them in SpaceX's video below telling how they got this far. There's Bill (VP/Starship Engineering), Charlie (Director/Starship Engineering), Jenna (Sr. Manager/Starship Operations), Joe (another VP/Starship Engineering).

from SpaceX

Neighbors 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

So, it looks like there are people among your neighbors and mine (particularly younger neighbors) who may fear prying and personal questions. On the other hand, loneliness is a problem in modern life, especially in that younger generation.

Can I make a suggestion? Feeling invisible and isolated is not a good thing, so don't ignore him or her when you randomly run into a neighbor. A smile and a little small talk can break the icy wall between us (don't get personal 😉).

Do we need a "Good Neighbor Day"? We have one and it's coming soon--May 16. Friendlier American neighborhoods could help counter the isolating, suspicious, lonely, "tribalist" trend. You could be that influence in your neighborhood.

Neighbors

Would it be a good thing to know your neighbors? Sure, but in the last decade the percentage of us who do has fallen.

In fact, for about two-thirds of Americans, the top priority in being a good neighbor is maintaining distance and privacy. 

Young adults may feel more isolated from neighbors than others do: "Since 2012, the percentage of young adults who talk to their neighbors at least a few times per week dropped from 51% to 25%. Among seniors, the decline was only seven points."

from AEI

(cont'd tomorrow)

Classical ed 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

When children are young in this system, much information is absorbed because they take to it so well. In the next stage, they learn logic, how to analyze opinions and evaluate values based on their information. Finally, at the high school level, they form opinions and make reasonable arguments for them.

Standardized tests demonstrate that these students know their subjects. They perform in the upper 13% on the ACT, and the upper 17% of the nation's students on the SAT. But even better, they learn how to think deeply and how to learn. They develop respect for other people, including those who have opposing beliefs and values.

As she says, if all our citizens had such an education, we as a people would: really know our own history so as to avoid past mistakes, make our decisions on the basis of reason and knowledge rather than emotion only, and resist deceit and manipulation.

Classical ed

Something needs to be done about our education system in the US. Parents discovered that their local teachers and administrators may think their authority exceeds the parents' regarding their kids. Some discovered that their school is indoctrinating their kids in undesirable values. 

Parents look for better options. They want a school that will point their children in the right direction. Many are drawn to something called a "classical education," which seeks to address both the mind and the soul of the child.

Below is one mom's inspiring story of how they resolved their search for the right school: she and her husband actually started a new "classical" school in their area. 

(cont'd tomorrow)

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.