Happy 5

(cont'd from this post)

Here's a great story from 2022 about a happy guy who made a good, out-of-the-box decision at his business:

Work 14-hr day

Would there be any appeal in working a super long 14-hour day? When the owner/operator of a Florida Chick-fil-A offered just such a consistent work schedule, over 400 people applied for the job. Oh, and they work only three of those long days per week. That's the appeal.

When Justin Lindsey opened his shop near Miami, Florida, last year, he chose this way of expressing how he wanted to manage it: "One of the things I really set out to do . . was what I called "leading with generosity." This new way of scheduling his workers was well-received.

One of his managers told him that she could never have graduated from University of Central Florida if she had had to work the normal choppy schedule. Another told him that she had visited New York City with the time she had available, not having to take any vacation time.

Overall, there's been improved worker retention, work-life balance, and career growth. 

"I'm so incredibly happy and grateful that Chick-fil-A has given me the opportunity to do this. Because the impact that I'm able to have on my team, honestly, I mean, it's incredible."

from Business Insider

Dawkins flip 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

"Fundamentally decent," that's his description of Christianity as opposed to Islam. He feels at home in the Christian ethos, he loves hymns (what?!) and Christmas carols. He thinks Britain is a Christian country: "If we substituted any alternative religion, that would be truly dreadful!"

photo

He's come to the same point that historian and atheist Tom Holland did, who said, "It took me a long time to realize my morals are not Greek or Roman, but thoroughly, and proudly, Christian." 

Do I attack Richard Dawkins for doing something of a flip-flop? No. He learned there's goodness in Christianity, and that many of the good things he appreciates in his own culture come from that source.  It's good that he's acknowledging the truth he learned.

Dawkins flip 1

Something unexpected has happened in the world of atheism. Richard Dawkins, that relentless enemy of religion, calls himself a "cultural Christian." 😮

It's not that he believes in God now or believes that Jesus rose from the dead. But it appears that he despises the faith a little less than he used to. Let's hear his 4-minute explanation:

(cont'd tomorrow)

Hot Bread 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

No matter how good an idea may be, it may fold because of any number of problems. Somehow Hot Bread Kitchen has overcome the inevitable challenges to continue, and even to grow in its mission.

Starting out in the founder's kitchen, they celebrated a 15th anniversary last year, "creating economic opportunity through careers in food" and funded by $6 million in annual donations.

Through training and support, they claim they've put "1500 individuals on the path to economic mobility" whether as employees or entrepreneurs in the food industry. They like to call their members "Breadwinners." 

Hot Bread 2

 Re-post from 2017

Hot Bread Kitchen is both a bakery and an on-the-job baking school in New York City. They specialize in training immigrant and low-income women for a culinary career.

Helping people learn the skills to sustain themselves--and others as well--is an American value.

(cont'd tomorrow)

It should be

Higher education wasn't always corrupted to the degree that it is today. Universities and colleges earned a genuine, admirable reputation in the past by pursuing worthy goals. Cultural memories of that past keep prestigious schools going today, even though they are changed.

What should a college be? A long-time professor answers that question here:

• diverse opinions are discussed civilly, respectfully, rationally
• virtues like fairness, forgiveness, love, justice are the standard
• crime is not tolerated
• administrators maintain a stable, safe environment
• both administrators and faculty set a good example
• wisdom of the past is passed on to students 
• students are treated like adults, not like irresponsible children

from "What College Should Be: The Question Lurking Behind the Current Wave of Campus Unrest"

Flag upheld

Too many students have swallowed the anti-American Kool-Aid at their universities and colleges. But not all.  

Many current pro-Palestinian protests went so far as to take down the American flag and put up the Palestinian flag in its place. It's outrageous, and even the NYC mayor says it's unacceptable. 

Here is a picture of push-back against the law breaking and violence and hostility of the protestors. When the U.S. flag was brought down last week at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, some fraternity brothers had the courage and conviction to stand against the mob and re-hoist it. 

photo

Well done, men.

Columbia profs

Columbia University in New York is another globally prestigious institution. Founded way back in the 1700's around the founding of America, its good reputation may rightly suffer because antisemitism is being revealed.

"Pro-Palestinian," antisemitic protests on American campuses began after the brutal Hamas attack on Israeli civilians last October and Israel's counterattack in Gaza. Three university presidents couldn't condemn genocide before congress. 

photo

But the protests at Columbia shouldn't be a complete surprise, according to this author and former Columbia student. One professor called Israel a “key actor” in “every dirty treacherous ugly and pernicious act happening in the world.” Professors have "saturated them with an ideological hatred for the Jewish state and university administrators . . have tolerated it for too long. At least some of the student protestors are just acting on what they've been taught.

Antisemitism, left-wing indoctrination, admissions scandals, plagiarism, all are part of the ongoing discovery of wide-spread corruption in our universities. 

from MSN

DEI & Stanford 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Instead of openness to information and different opinions, rewards and punishments enforce the official left-wing ideology. Students and faculty will get the message that there is no "inclusion" for you if you don't see things their way. That's what DEI is for.

image

Investigative journalist Christopher Rufo based his report on the observations of an  undergraduate and journalist on campus. 

"'I’ve observed as students are reported by their peers for constitutionally protected speech,' and professors are denounced and accused of discrimination by other students 'for the crime of not being PC enough in their research or in class,' she says. 'Who fits or doesn’t fit into the DEI caste system determines a student or professor’s summary judgement.'" 

A professor says, "a Trojan horse ideology, labeled DEI, has been introduced, promoted, and institutionalized . . [that] attacks three fundamental values of Western culture: equality before the law, freedom of expression, and due process."

At least 177 full-time DEI bureaucrats carry out their mission at Stanford.

from "DEI Conquers Stanford"

DEI & Stanford

Parents have made some progress in calling local schools back to their values. But higher education institutions don't have the platform of school board meetings where parents can show up. Far left ideologies dominate at that level.

Woke ideology often operates under the banner of DEI, just a euphemism for left-wing racialism. It stands for "diversity, equity, inclusion" as described in a positive sense here. But it displaces merit and intellectual inquiry.

A psychologist and author objects to DEI saying that it: "forces many academics to betray their . . duty to the truth . . ." So he resigned from his professional organization because he would not back down from his duty to speak what he believes to be true.

Prestigious Stanford University, with a global reputation for excellence, is now dominated by DEI. 

from "DEI Conquers Stanford"

(cont'd tomorrow)

Gen Z richer

Despite their lack of a "play-based childhood" (last week's posts), somehow Generation Z has turned out to be better off at their age than millennials or baby-boomers were at the same age.

Globally, youth unemployment is way down. When millennials came of age in the U.S., they faced the economic downturn of a recession with reduced opportunities for jobs and careers. Gen Z youth are starting their careers now in different circumstances. It's more of a workers' market, with many jobs going un-staffed for lack of laborers. 

photo

Hourly pay increases for American youth 16-24 years old recently hit 13% (year over year), compared to just a 6% increase for workers 25-54 years old. 

They pay a little less of their income for housing and education compared to what millennials did at their age, and their home ownership rate is higher.

In short (according to The Economist),"In financial terms, Gen Z is doing extraordinarily well."

from The Economist

Happy 4

(cont'd from this post)

Parents want their children to be happy and to live satisfying lives. Good relationships are critical toward that end. 

So let's hold relationships in high regard. Marriage is statistically a good goal, even in today's cultural climate. Here's the next in this "Happy" series, a re-post from 2018:

Married & Happy

Yale's most popular class, "Psychology and the Good Life," teaches students social skills and gratitude. Good lessons, yes, but studies say that marriage itself is also a predictor of happiness.

"Numerous studies have associated marriage with a lower risk of disease, from diabetes to cardiovascular and respiratory problems – particularly if you are a man. “Married people tend to smoke less, drink less alcohol, and eat more healthily . .

"People who get married and stay married have roughly double the wealth of those who never marry"

"Additionally, married couples who attend church together are more likely to live longer, avoid depression and stay married."

"Studies consistently show that children raised by happy, committed parents are less likely to have behavior problems, drop out of school, be abused, use drugs, commit crime, become pregnant as teenagers, suffer poverty or become sick."

Anxious Gen Z 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

"Right now, children are going off to college and into the workplace without having been given the opportunity to risk, fail, and have the stamina to try again. That, Haidt says, is setting them up for a much deeper and tragic kind of failure," and widespread anxiety.

image

Between 2010 and 2015 childhood went through a great re-wiring when "adolescents traded in their flip phones for smartphones, which were loaded with social media platforms . . "

Author Jonathan Haidt is attempting to start a movement toward "rolling back phone-based childhood and restoring play-based childhood."

from After Babel

Anxious Gen Z 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

All that unsupervised play that children did decades ago actually built some important skills into their lives, like risk-taking and independent decision making and problem solving. 

The amount of time that kids daily spend with friends is sharply down from twenty years ago (US Bureau of Labor Statistics). It was replaced with screen time, of course. 

Instant gratification grows from screen time, but not self-control or independence or self-reliance or people skills. Generation Z seem to have more social stressors on them today, coupled with fewer strengths and learned virtues to handle them.

Anxiety, depression, loneliness are more common to this generation than to previous ones. Yesterday's author, Jonathan Haidt, put his explanation in his book.

What's a parent to do? "For parents, raising healthy kids doesn’t just mean limiting screen time, but encouraging their freedom. They must practice becoming independent so they can more easily transition into adulthood when the time comes."

from Mind Matters

(cont'd tomorrow)

Anxious Gen Z

My neighborhood has children, but I rarely see or hear them. Maybe you remember, as I do, long summer days "playing outside" with friends or by yourself, making up games and discovering things and riding bikes. My neighborhood is quiet even in the summer.

But there are lots of kids at a nearby park where grownups organize sports, and the kids wear uniforms. Other than that, they're at home watching some screen on some device. Are they missing something? Lots of voices today say that they are. One of them wrote this book:

 

image

Last month Haidt's book came out and is getting a lot of attention. Partially that's because he's an expert😉-- and partially it's because many of us adults already feel that something's wrong when kids don't go outside to play.

The theme is that we've "drastically overprotected children in the real world and woefully under-protected them in the virtual world." This social psychologist has lots of company in his worry about Generation Z (born 1996-2013).

from Mind Matters

(cont'd tomorrow)

Unlikely

Iran attacked Israel directly for the very first time nine days ago. This unprecedented full-scale military assault included hundreds of bomb-carrying drones as well as more destructive ballistic missiles. Global leaders were quick to condemn it as a possible trigger of regional war.

Israel's air defense system, the Iron Dome, is designed to defend against this type of attack and has historically been very effective. It's a complex combination of strategies. But this time, its effectiveness is being called miraculous.

A physics professor and expert on the defense industry says, "When I look at what happened on Motzai Shabbat, on a scientific level - it simply cannot happen!! Statistically." Almost all (99%) of the bombs were intercepted.

"What happened is that everyone, but everyone - the pilots, the systems operators and the technology operators - acted as one man, at one moment in total unity. If this is not an act of G-d, then I no longer know what a miracle is."

from this X (Twitter) post

Happy 3

(cont'd from this post)

Re-post from 2017

So Shermer says, "if you believe the hype of apocalyptic popularizers you might conclude that climate change, runaway overpopulation, poverty, hunger, and disease will ruin the Earth and leave humanity's only hope for survival on Mars . . .

"It's easy to think this way, given that newspapers, books, television shows and documentary films are built around pessimistic thinking." But the truth is:

Poverty?  "it will reach zero by around 2035"
Pollution?  "air and water in our cities is the cleanest it’s been in centuries"
Health?  "those born today will be healthier, live longer and have more opportunities than anyone in history"

Michael Shermer is scornful of God, scornful of faith, and I don't share his worldview. But he's clear-eyed about this: global living conditions have been rising dramatically for 40 years - so don't fall for panicky pessimism.

His conclusion is, "We should be grateful for the blessings we have today, optimistic about the future, and continue to work toward a better tomorrow because none of this progress was inevitable. It was the result of people taking action to solve our most pressing problems."

So true! We are all blessed when other people use their God-given abilities to solve problems and manage the earth for good results.

from Business Insider

Anti-aging 3

 Follow up to these posts

Last fall the conference called COSM hosted a discussion about anti-aging technologies. Hopeful CEO's of companies researching these technologies, as well as a neuroscientist, defined their goals. 

They believe it will be possible to mitigate age-related decline, maybe to the point that death could be "elective." 

Here's what drives their work forward:

• They're making "genetic medicines for health and longevity" which disassemble damaged cells when they don't self-destruct as they're supposed to ("senescent").
• "Instead of making a drug and injecting it, we program [the patient's] own cells to produce remedies inside them, trying to build an app store for the human body."

from Mind Matters

Men adrift 7

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Creating the beautiful story of his life is all about a man's choices. 

If he's resigned to a boring life without decisions and risk, he will have a life without the joy of growth that comes with taking responsibility for a career, for a family, for a community. "Today’s depressed couch potato scrolling YouTube and watching porn" is building nothing, creating nothing.

As a child I was told more than once not to get my hopes up, which meant that I should expect defeat in the things that interested me. It was confusing. Why be interested in anything then? We need our young men to get a better message than that.

"Make men interested again! Interested people are interesting people." What is there to be interested in? Not much, except "woodworking, art, politics, science, creative writing, naval warfare, cooking, water polo, ornithology, engineering," aviation, trains, law, friendships, management, teaching, hunting, farming-- the ideas are endless.

Let's tell them that it's great to pursue their interests.

photo

from "Make Men Interested Again 

Men adrift 6

Follow up to these posts

"[T]he men aren't all right," and now honest scholars are admitting it. Compared to what used to be typical, fewer men go to college or trade school, fewer get married, and fewer even have jobs. 

Aspiration is good, the hope of achieving something. When too many of our men in the prime of life don't aspire to anything, it's a downward spiral. 

Too many young men in the West "are settling for resignation, a sense that because a man is no longer needed or appreciated in society, the obvious thing to do is to abstain from participation." Sociologists have documented "a trending loss of life satisfaction."

 One financial expert calls it "a crisis of the American male." The Barbie movie character "Ken" isn't a healthy role model. 

from Salvo

(cont'd tomorrow)

Neom

 Follow up to this post

In this post about The Line, I remarked that the Saudi prince was prepared to spend "billions and billions" on the city. Clarification: he plans to spend US$1.5 trillion, an enormous amount of money, on the Neom development (of which The Line is the biggest part).

Goals for the city have been scaled back. Instead of one-and-a-half million residents in the city by 2030, they now expect 300,000 or less. The long-range city length of 170 kilometers (105 miles) is still in place, but by 2030 they only expect to complete 2.4 kilometers (1-1/2 miles) of it. The sides of The Line will still be the height of the Empire State Building.

Another part of Neom will be the Trojena resort, which is "set to host the Asian Winter Games in 2029." Yes, the winter games . . in the desert of the Arabian Peninsula. You may wonder, can they really do that? Something like that on a smaller scale does exist. My son has skied in Dubai.

image

Neom is a grandiose vision. 

from Bloomberg

Happy 2

(cont'd from this post)

Re-post from 2017

Dystopia is the theme of books and movies, i.e. Hunger Games, The 100, Divergence, etc. Some people have the feeling that doom and disaster are coming for the world, whether through poverty or disease or aliens or climate change or . . something.

Materialists, those who believe in nothing but the material universe, tend to believe in a coming doomsday.  But Michael Shermer, editor of Skeptic magazine, is a materialist - and he definitely does not think the world is getting worse.

photo: businessinsider.com

Shermer thinks we're fortunate to be living in the "most peaceful, most prosperous" time in human history. He says, "There is no period in history when it would have been better to be alive than today."

Maybe we're listening too much to fear mongers. Mainstream and social media both tell us that we lurch from crisis to crisis. A steady diet of fear and crisis will give us a skewed view of reality.

(cont'd next week)

"Toxic war" 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Nobody considers mass murder to be traditionally masculine. But that phrase, "toxic masculinity," has become a "catchall explanation for male sexism, dominance, and violence. Men today feel discouraged, devalued, and demoralized."

Cadets at West Point were asked to describe the traits of a "good man." They easily identified "honor, duty, integrity, sacrifice, be responsible, do the right thing, be a protector and provider." The hero of yesterday's story was using his traits to save lives.

Masculine traits are not inherently toxic; they are good when directed to good ends, as the hero showed. 

Then they were asked to describe a "real man." Their answer was "Oh, that's completely different! Tough, strong, win at all costs, get rich, get laid, never show weakness." That's the tension we feel in today's culture, that a real man is not a good man.  

The Washington Post ran this article by a college professor: "Why Can't We Hate Men?"

from The Toxic War on Masculinity

(cont'd next week, how did we get to this point?)

"Toxic war" 1

It's almost as if there's a war being waged on men these days. "Toxic masculinity" seems to say that the male personality is inherently defective. Maybe it's bad to expect men to "be a real man!" Or maybe our culture is confused about what a "real man" is.

In 2018 a young man walked into a bar on designated college night, threw grenades to create confusion, and started shooting his pistol. He managed to kill twelve people, then killed himself. 

A 20-year-old student acted quickly when the shooting started, pushing people under a table. He and seven other friends piled their bodies over them as a shield from the gunfire. While the shooter re-loaded, they threw chairs out the back windows of the bar and repeatedly guided people outside.

The American Psychological Association says that traditional masculinity is harmful. But wait . . who is the traditionally masculine man in this story? It's not the shooter.

from The Toxic War on Masculinity

(cont'd tomorrow)

Fired

A couple weeks ago, I advised caution about truth telling: "If you haven't bowed to the wokeness, please speak up. But maybe not at work . . I don't want you to be fired for thinking things through." Maybe you thought "that doesn't happen." Well, I wish it didn't.

But it really does. A snowboarding coach at a Vermont high school was chatting with students, and agreed with one of them, adding that biological sex is the basis for significant physical differences and should apply to sports.

"The next day, Bloch learned the school district had fired him over the matter and barred him from ever being hired again." 

Not only did this coach tell the truth as he sees it in a respectful manner, but he then had the courage to initiate a lawsuit. The school district and the state Agency of Education admitted that he was wrongfully fired. This man had the courage to speak up even in a job and justice prevailed, thank God.

Eclipse🔆

Our moon covers the sun perfectly in a total solar eclipse, which can be seen in a path 115 miles wide across the U.S. today. In the shadow of the moon (that is, from a position within that path) all you can see (through the proper filter of course) is the corona of the sun. 

Doesn't it seem unlikely that our little moon would ever perfectly cover the huge sun which is 93,000,000 miles away? Yes it does, what a coincidence. 

image: NationalEclipse.com

Here's the explanation. The sun is about 400x bigger than our small moon--but it's also about 400x further away. From our point of view on earth's surface, the moon matches the size and shape of the sun. A total eclipse isn't visible in any other place in our solar system, and it doesn't matter because there are no observers to see it.

Keys to understanding space and light have been discovered because scientists on earth were able to observe total eclipses (discoveries explained here).

"So the best place to view total solar eclipses in our solar system is just where there are observers to see them. Let that sink in a minute." 

"The universe seems to be designed not just for life but also for discovery."

from The Stream

Helium 2🎈

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Pulsar Helium is now engaged in a serious investigation to make sure they can extract the gas and distribute it. The latest measurement indicates an even higher concentration than 12.4%. So far, all very good news. 

photo

There's a billion-dollar market for helium. Since the global supply is shrinking, this discovery has global significance, according to the CEO in yesterday's video. It's the only element on the planet that is completely non-renewable.

As the "safest and most effective coolant around" in liquid form, and unreactive, it's critically important for industries relating to the study of materials. 

 

Minnesota's Dept. of Natural Resources will have to write new regulations from scratch - because they've never had to oversee helium mines before. 

Helium 1🎈

Though abundant in the universe, helium is scarce on earth. It only forms as a product of nuclear fusion and through radioactive decay of uranium and thorium. To be considered for commercial extraction, its concentration must be above 0.3%. 

So the folks at Pulsar Helium, Inc., were excited when in February they announced discovery of a new deposit in northern Minnesota: its concentration is extraordinary at 12.4%, and it might be the biggest reserve in North America.

Beyond filling balloons, helium is "a crucial cooling component in rockets, nuclear reactors, superconductors and medical diagnostic equipment, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines." 

from Live Science

(cont'd tomorrow)

All seeing eye

Back in 2018, the Chinese President Xi's "social credit system" was rolling out. It's a way to control behavior, thoughts, relationships, status of Chinese citizens without actually resorting to coercive violence on them. (Read posts here, here, here, here, here, here.)

Government-owned cameras are spying everywhere, providing data which result in approval or disapproval. Ordinary life is a lot harder on people with a low social credit score.

This immigrant was there but fled to America for freedom. He warns that we're starting to see similar things in the West. For instance, parents who don't like what their kids are learning at school were labeled domestic terrorists, and our government pressured banks not to give loans to disfavored businesses.

He says it was okay at the beginning: "These things always are."

Ghost towns

From empty homes to empty towns . . 

photo

A community of 260 mansions was begun 400 miles north of Beijing in 2010. Intended for the Chinese elite class, these palatial homes are empty. Not one has been bought by the rich. Cattle wander among the arched verandas, and garages serve for hay storage. Inside are what looks like marble floors and crystal chandeliers. Nearby are a complex of ~15-story apartment buildings that will probably never be finished. 

China is in the midst of its own real estate crisis. Its biggest residential real estate developer declared bankruptcy last August. They had pre-sold 1.2 million units, but 800,000 of them will not be finished.

An aging population is part of the problem along with other reasons like the Covid pandemic. Maybe the world is starting to suffer from the effects of falling birth rates.

from Architectural Digest