Islamic State Plotting ‘Second Blow’ to U.S. Financial System in Bid to ‘Purify the Earth of Corruption’

From The Blaze.com (Aug. 30):

The Islamic State group revealed over the weekend that at the centerpiece of its goal to bring down America is a concerted effort to weaken the U.S. dollar and replace it with gold currency.

A video posted Saturday warned of the “dawning of a new age” in which replacing the dollar with gold would deliver “the second blow to America’s capitalist financial system of enslavement … casting into ruins their fraudulent dollar note.”

The first blow, it said, was the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center.

The English-language video included archival footage from U.S. news channels, including a 2007 clip of Ron Paul sounding the alarm over the vulnerability of the dollar.

Produced by the Islamic State’s Al Hayat Media, the extremist Sunni group positioned itself as leading the fight against fiat currency by minting caliphate gold, silver and bronze coins. It named them after historical Islamic caliphate coins: the gold dinar, the silver dirham and the bronze fals (or the plural fulus).

Its dedication to gold – and opposition to paper notes – was grounded in the Quran, excerpts of which appeared onscreen in the video. [read more]

I wonder if this is what China is trying to do. Then again they are communists and really don’t embrace the free enterprise system. Well, Iranian gov’t and probably Russian gov’t wouldn’t mind the Islamic State thugs doing this. It would save them the trouble.

Yea, America shouldn’t have gone off the gold standard but we really can’t go back. What America needs is Congress that has self-control when it comes to spending and a strong president that has a back-bone and not appeasing our enemies. You know one that believes in American exceptionalism.

My Take on The Donald

Basically the above cartoons sums up my take.

Donald Trump says during an interview now he is not for universal health care because it wouldn’t work in America.  He should be against it because it is anti-freedom and never will work anywhere. Just ask any Canadian who actually has to use it.

He said he became pro-life on relationships with close personal friends who had children. Their pregnancy experiences, Trump maintains, allowed him to mature on the abortion issue to the point of now opposing abortion. So, he didn’t become pro-life when any of this children was born? Interesting. Then he won’t defund Planned Parenthood unless they abort babies.

Mr. Trump said he was for in the gov’t in the past a wealth tax and a balanced budget amendment to get the national debt down. Now, he is against that idea because the debt is too high and won’t matter anymore. Well, the balanced budget amendment is a good idea, but the former part is what Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders would recommend. And if he becomes president and gets the debt down lower will Mr. Trump then decide a wealth tax is a good idea? He said during the interview with Sean Hannity that a wealth tax is a conservative idea. I beg your pardon. No it is not. The debt isn’t huge because there isn’t enough money coming in, it’s huge because the president and congress has out-of-control spending. No discipline. That’s the problem.

He said in the past he was a democrat but like Ronald Reagan he evolved. The problem with that statement is Ronald Reagan changed over time—that’s what evolution is. Donald Trump seemed to change when he is running for president. Also, President Reagan talked about conservative ideas and how great America is. I don’t hear Donald Trump say those things. He talks about making America great again. America is great. It’s just not realizing its potential. For those of you who remember (like me) Ronald Reagan running for president, the country was in a downturn when Jimmy Carter was in office. But you sensed Reagan’s patriotism. I am not getting that from Donald Trump that much. Not saying Donald Trump isn’t patriotic but he’s always talking about himself and how great he is. Not that everyone running for president should be Ronald Reagan but he did create the template.

Also, when Donald Trump says he is no different from any other businesses man who pays for influence with politicians. Let’s call it for what it is: bribery. If politicians were officers of the court—businessmen would go to jail. But since Congress makes the rules—it’s legal because they benefit from the system too. Trump says this is the way the system works. Well, the system is corrupt. And he has a choice like other business leaders not to play the system. Glenn Beck says he doesn’t play the system and there is pressure put on him to play it. Good for him. I wonder if Mr. Trump, if he ever becomes president, to put a bill before Congress to ban political bribes. Or will he just keep the system in place so he can use it again when he leaves office. The bill might not pass but it would be nice if that was on his platform.

Now, his immigration reform position and my comments:

1. A nation without borders is not a nation. There must be a wall across the southern border. True, and I agree a wall is a good idea.
2. A nation without laws is not a nation. Laws passed in accordance with our Constitutional system of government must be enforced. Pretty much common sense.
3. A nation that does not serve its own citizens is not a nation. Any immigration plan must improve jobs, wages and security for all Americans. Again nothing earth shaking.
4. Make Mexico Pay For The Wall. [I]mpound all remittance payments derived from illegal wages; increase fees on all temporary visas issued to Mexican CEOs and diplomats (and if necessary cancel them); increase fees on all border crossing cards – of which we issue about 1 million to Mexican nationals each year (a major source of visa overstays); increase fees on all NAFTA worker visas from Mexico (another major source of overstays); and increase fees at ports of entry to the United States from Mexico [Tariffs and foreign aid cuts are also options].  We will not be taken advantage of anymore. Sounds good but I wonder if all that will be enough to pay for the wall.
5. Triple the number of ICE officers. Good idea. But you have to give them the power to do their job.
6. Nationwide e-verify. This has been suggested by others. Not a bad idea.
7. Mandatory return of all criminal aliens. It will take a while since there is about 76,000 illegal aliens with criminal records.

The immigration reform plan is not a bad plan. The reader can look at more of it at his website. The most controversial part is ending birthright citizenship since that has to be upheld by the Supreme Court.

If this essay sounds like an attack on Donald Trump. It is not. I am just asking questions. Like is he really a conservative? Does he understand the connection between private property and liberty? Does he understand that political power ought to be kept in the hands of private persons and local institutions? Does he understand the role of the Constitution? Or does he thinks it is a obstacle like Obama and the rest of the Left? Does he get American exceptionalism? I know your rich Mr. Trump. Nothing wrong with that, but you don’t need to mention it every time. It’s getting old.

I believe those who support Donald Trump for president are those who like his passion and bluntness. Those qualities by themselves are not necessary bad. But if a candidate for office doesn’t have good decent principles to start off with then those other qualities don’t mean much. Voters need to look deeper. It’s their future and their children’s future. Not just him but for every candidate running for office. Maybe a candidate that has humility would be a good change for once.

I don’t know. Bill O’Reilly said Donald Trump isn’t a republican but a Trumplican. He could be right. But I think he is more of a populist.

Head of EPA Admits Climate Regulations Will Hit Low-Income Minority Families Hardest

From The Daily Signal.com (Aug. 19):

The chief environmental regulator in the United States had some blunt words of reality regarding the administration’s climate change regulations.

The Clean Power Plan that will require drastic cuts in 47 states’ carbon dioxide emissions – consequently shifting America’s energy economy away from affordable, reliable coal – will adversely impact poor, minority families the most.

When speaking about the higher energy prices caused by the administration’s climate regulations on power plants, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy said, “We know that low-income minority communities would be hardest hit.”

McCarthy downplayed that fact by saying any minimal higher prices would be offset by implementing energy efficiency measures that would save consumers money in the long run. [read more]

This is just another example of the war on the poor. But does the Left care? No because the global warming worship is more important than people. Then again maybe this is all part of the top-down, bottom-up, inside-out chaos that Van Jones was talking about. And Obama wanted to radically transform America. Hillary is no different.

As for saving consumers money in the long run—we’ll see. But I doubt it.

New Video Shows Hillary Meet With Black Lives Matter Activists — and Things Briefly Get Tense

From The Blaze.com (Aug. 17):

Newly-released video shows Hillary Clinton’s meeting with the Boston chapter of the Black Lives Matter movement earlier this month after the activists were initially denied entry to a campaign event.

The video shows Clinton meet backstage in New Hampshire with what appears to be a group of three activists. One of the activists compares the prison system in the U.S. to the plantation system.

“America’s first drug is free black labor. And turning black bodies into profit,” the activist tells Clinton as she nods her head, seemingly agreeing. “The mass incarceration system mirrors an awful lot like the prison. The prison plantation system. It’s a similar thread. And until someone takes that message and speaks that truth to white people in this country, so that we can actually take on anti-blackness as a founding problem in this problem.”

The activist suggested that the mass incarceration of individuals is motivated by money before asking Clinton a question about “what in your heart has changed that is going to change the direction of this country?”

“What in you, not your platform, not what you’re supposed to say, how do you actually feel that is different than you did before?” the activist asked.

Clinton said that it was a “very thoughtful question” that deserved a “thoughtful answer.”

“I can only tell you that I feel very committed to and responsible for doing whatever I can,” she said, before noting she has spent much of her career focused on kids.

. . . .

In a separate clip published online, things briefly got tense after the activist tells Clinton that this has always been a “white problem of violence.”

“There’s not much that we can do to stop the violence against us,” he told Clinton.

The Democratic frontrunner pushed back.

“Respectfully, if that is your position, then I will only talk to white people about how we are going to deal with these very real problems,” she shot back.

“That’s not what I mean,” the activist replied. “But, what you just said was a form of victim blaming. You were saying what the Black Lives Matter movement needs to do to change white hearts is to—.”

Clinton said that she doesn’t believe in changing all hearts, but instead changing laws and allocation of resources. [my emphasis]

“You change the way systems operate,” she said.   [read more]

Hillary Clinton “doesn’t believe in change all hearts, but instead changing laws and allocation of resources”? Hmm. Let’s analyze that statement. Basically what she is saying is she doesn’t have time to persuade people to her beliefs so she is going to bully them to her belief system. It’s just takes too much effort to persuade people to her beliefs so she is going to bully them to her system. After all she (and most of the Left) believes she knows what best for than the common man and so why go through the trouble and try to explain her position. In other words the Left’s elite are shepherds and the rest of the people are sheeple. So, just get in line you sheep and behave! Well, first the Elites will try to trick, bribe and coerce before they force the commoner to their will.

As for the “allocation of resources” part well that sounds like wealth redistribution. Then again I could be wrong.

In other related news, Governor Jeb Bush ended his town hall early when the Black Lives Matter (BLM) thugs activists interrupted his speech. If the gov cannot take confrontation from professional agitators (they are supported by uber rich Leftist George Soros) how is he going to deal with the Islamic State thugs and other Leftist agitators like the BLM group when he is president? When you are president you have groups that will cause you stress and yes, hate you. Just ask your brother W. You have to deal with them and not run away from them.

To be fair, a democratic runner Martin O'Malley was confronted by this group when he said “all lives matter.” They started shouting ‘black lives matter.’ Then he apologized. What?! All lives do matter. What a weenie. Socialist Bernie Sanders was also confronted by this group too. In both cases the group should have been escorted out by the police.

Then again BLM is like most of the Left: They are obsessed with race, gender, income, etc. They see people as part of a group not as an individuals which makes it easier to treat people as sheep.

Shocking New Iranian Video Imagines Islamic Takeover of Jerusalem, Destruction of Israel

From algemeiner.com (Aug. 17):

A newly revealed video produced under the auspices of the Iranian regime in early August threatens and visualizes the destruction of Israel at the hands of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Iranian Middle East proxies, The Investigative Project on Terrorism reported on Monday.

The animated video, produced by the Islamic Revolution Design House, depicts soldiers preparing for battle. One dons the IRGC insignia on his left arm, another the emblem of the Iran-backed Iraqi Shia Badr Organization. Yet a third dons a headband bearing the Lebanese Hezbollah logo, and a fourth is seen clad in Hamas’ characteristic balaclava and the Qassam Brigades green headband.

Each brandishes a weapon, a helmet and a keffiyeh. They are shown poised on a hill overlooking the Israeli capital of Jerusalem, prepared for battle.

The video then pans out showing an ever-growing number of soldiers, presumably all members of Iran’s loyal proxies, like the fighters portrayed at the beginning of the footage.

The clip then transitions to a black screen with Persian script that says “Israel must be obliterated,” or literally, “erased from the annals of history,” a command first issued by Iran’s late Ayatollah Khomeini and famously repeated by former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as well as leaders of Iran’s proxies such as Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. [read more]

And the Obama regime is making a “treaty” with Iran. Really? I know this video shows Iranian soldiers invading Israel not America but two points to consider:

1. Israel is and probably will always be America’s friend. They have consistently voted with us more than any other nation in the UN. Therefore they should always get our support. You don’t turn your back on your loyal friends.
2. According to Iran’s leaders, America is the big Satan and Israel is the little Satan. So, eventually they will attack America unless they get a democratic peaceful regime again. At least one that doesn’t want to cause another holocaust.

Miscellaneous Thoughts Part 36

• I wonder if the medical examiner said “Elvis has left his body” when declaring Elvis Presley dead. Probably not.
• Why do teachers need unions? I mean who is oppressing them? The students? The parents?
• If you are running for POTUS and won’t give your plan, your agenda, or your platform for the country because you are concerned that an opponent will steal your ideas then you are only thinking of yourself and not of the well-being of the country. What’s more important? Your ego or the country?
• For the Left insanity loves company.
• For OCBs measure 10X cut once.
• A salad a day keeps constipation at bay.
• I think there is inverse relationship between ego and intelligence. The higher your ego, the more you think you know-it-all and thus you stop learning.
• Evil thrives on social chaos.
• Maybe Congressional leaderships should be voted on every two years by members of the respective party. The incumbent can re-run if he/she wants to.
• What Donald Trump should have said about John McCain is that yes, he is a war hero but it didn’t matter to the voter. He still lost the presidential election.

Obama collecting personal data for a secret race database

From NYPost.com (July 18):

A key part of President Obama’s legacy will be the fed’s unprecedented collection of sensitive data on Americans by race. The government is prying into our most personal information at the most local levels, all for the purpose of “racial and economic justice.”

Unbeknown to most Americans, Obama’s racial bean counters are furiously mining data on their health, home loans, credit cards, places of work, neighborhoods, even how their kids are disciplined in school — all to document “inequalities” between minorities and whites.

This Orwellian-style stockpile of statistics includes a vast and permanent network of discrimination databases, which Obama already is using to make “disparate impact” cases against: banks that don’t make enough prime loans to minorities; schools that suspend too many blacks; cities that don’t offer enough Section 8 and other low-income housing for minorities; and employers who turn down African-Americans for jobs due to criminal backgrounds.

Big Brother Barack wants the databases operational before he leaves office, and much of the data in them will be posted online.  [read more]

Great more databases that hackers can break into. You know those databases won’t be secure. If you didn’t catch it, I said databases. According to the article, there are five collection of databases all related to race: Housing, mortgage, credit-card transactions, employment and finally school. Yes, that’s right big brother wants to know about your kids.

What? No database about guns? I guess the regime doesn’t care if minorities have guns or not. Notice that the databases don’t include stats about gender. Hmm…

These databases just like any created bureaucracy will still be in existence long after the Emperor is out of office.

Obama’s Newest Gun Control Scheme Involves Social Security Benefits

From The LaTimes.com (July 18):

Seeking tighter controls over firearm purchases, the Obama administration is pushing to ban Social Security beneficiaries from owning guns if they lack the mental capacity to manage their own affairs, a move that could affect millions whose monthly disability payments are handled by others.

The push is intended to bring the Social Security Administration in line with laws regulating who gets reported to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS, which is used to prevent gun sales to felons, drug addicts, immigrants in the country illegally and others.

A potentially large group within Social Security are people who, in the language of federal gun laws, are unable to manage their own affairs due to "marked subnormal intelligence, or mental illness, incompetency, condition, or disease."  [read more]

Well, Congress can’t manage the financial affairs of the country (they can’t control their spending), and Obama can’t manage foreign affairs maybe they shouldn't be allowed to own guns either. This is just a war on the disabled and veterans.

The Safety Truck Could Revolutionize Road Safety

From global.Samsungtomorrow.com (June 18):

Have you ever found yourself driving behind a semi-trailer truck? If you’re on a single-lane highway or road, it can be a nightmare. Even though the truck is driving relatively slowly, you cannot overtake it due to its size, and because you cannot see what is happening in front of the truck.

However, Samsung has developed a solution that may make this problem a thing of the past.

How Does it Work?

The Safety Truck consists of a wireless camera attached to the front of the truck, which is connected to a video wall made out of four exterior monitors located on the back of the truck. The monitors give drivers behind the truck a view of what is going on ahead, even in the dark of night.  [read more]

Cool. Hope it does prevent accidents. But how would the truck driver open up the back of the truck without breaking the monitors unless they are really durable. Probably made of some tough plastic material.

'Mini ice age' coming in next fifteen years

From Independent.co.UK (July 12):

There will be a "mini ice age" in 2030, solar scientists have said.

We are now able to predict solar cycles with far greater accuracy than ever before thanks to a new model which shows irregularities in the sun’s 11-year heartbeat.

The model shows that solar activity will fall by 60 per cent between 2030 and 2040 causing a "mini ice age".

The conditions predicted have not been experienced since the last "mini ice age" which lasted from 1645 to 1715, called the Maunder Minimum. [read more]

What happened to global warming or its new name ‘climate change?’ Oh, that’s right. It’s a hoax. I mean if climate change computer models never use the sun as a factor to calculate global temperature something is not right. I mean the sun is the main factor in the equation! Or it should be. Look at the dwarf (shouldn’t that be little person?) planet Pluto. Since it is farthest from the sun it can be as cold as -387 degrees Fahrenheit. The warmest it can be is -369 degrees Fahrenheit when it’s closest to the sun. Oh by the way, Pluto has methane (a green-house gas) in its atmosphere. Someone tell Al Gore so he can lecture the Plutonians about creating Plutonian-made climate change.

So, a ten year range is now considered ‘mini?’ That’s seems more like major or semi-major to me. And the Left will still find a way to blame people using too much green-house gases for the ice age.

I always thought the sun has a role in any global climate. It just makes sense.

The New Totalitarians Are Here

From The Federalist.com (July 6):

There’s a basic difference in the traditions of political science between “authoritarians” and “totalitarians.” People throw both of these words around, but as is so often the case, they’re using words they may not always understand. They have real meaning, however, and the difference between them is important.

Simply put, authoritarians merely want obedience, while totalitarians, whose rule is rooted in an ideology, want obedience and conversion. Authoritarians are a dime a dozen; totalitarians are rare.  The authoritarians are the guys in charge who want to stay in charge, and don’t much care about you, or what you’re doing, so long as you stay out of their way. They are the jefe and his thugs in a brutal regime that want you to shut up, go to work, and look the other way when your loudmouthed neighbor gets his lights punched out by goons in black jackets. Live or die. It’s all the same to the regime.

Totalitarians are a different breed. These are the people who have a plan, who think they see the future more clearly than you or who are convinced they grasp reality in a way that you do not. They don’t serve themselves—or, they don’t serve themselves exclusively—they serve History, or The People, or The Idea, or some other ideological totem that justifies their actions. [read more]

In the past the totalitarians, were the Communists, the Fascists,and the Nazis. Kings and emperors were for the most part authoritarians.

Now, you have the far Left ideology and Muslim theocracies like Iran. Although the Ottoman Empire was a Muslim theocracy in the past. It’s basically what ISIS wants to recreate.

Socialists have always been around.

Cults are totalitarians in principle.

The big difference between authoritarians and totalitarians is the latter have manifestos to spell out their grand vision and philosophy of life. Marx, Mao, and Hitler had manifestos. Cult leaders have manifestos. Jim Jones was a Communist. The Progressives manifesto is the Humanist Manifesto. It’s the manifesto that the totalitarians want people to believe with their hearts and minds. In certain totalitarian societies the leader wants to be omnipotent and omniscience. In other words, God-like.

New Alzheimer’s treatment fully restores memory function

From Science Alert.com (Mar. 18):

Australian researchers have come up with a non-invasive ultrasound technology that clears the brain of neurotoxic amyloid plaques - structures that are responsible for memory loss and a decline in cognitive function in Alzheimer’s patients.

If a person has Alzheimer’s disease, it’s usually the result of a build-up of two types of lesions - amyloid plaques, and neurofibrillary tangles. Amyloid plaques sit between the neurons and end up as dense clusters of beta-amyloid molecules, a sticky type of protein that clumps together and forms plaques.

Neurofibrillary tangles are found inside the neurons of the brain, and they’re caused by defective tau proteins that clump up into a thick, insoluble mass. This causes tiny filaments called microtubules to get all twisted, which disrupts the transportation of essential materials such as nutrients and organelles along them, just like when you twist up the vacuum cleaner tube. [read more]

Sounds promising. The article states that of the mice that received the treatment, 75 percent got their memory function back. That’s quite a bit.

Progressive Educational Philosophy

For John Dewey, there are three aspects to human nature: instinct, habit, and intelligence.

John Dewey believed that education is the deliberate process by which human beings take responsibility for their future.

John Dewey argued that it is not possible for principles or ideals to attain eternal and unchanging authority.

In the Progressive educational program, the social and political ideal is both cause and effect of what takes place in the classroom.

Historicism posits that any understanding of the true and the good is a product of prevailing circumstances.

Dr. Fennell notes that in the Progressive school, teachers leave education to chance.

The success of the Progressive school consists explicitly in the extinction of the conservative [my emphasis] mind.

William Kilpatrick, a protégé of John Dewey, believed that mathematics education should focus on direct practical value.

According to Dr. Treloar, the new math movement never grounded itself in concrete mathematics at an early grade.

Grammar is considered impractical according to the Progressive philosophy of education.

One problem with grammar instruction today is that grammar is taught implicitly and quickly.

Modern education policy views the study of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) as a pathway to jobs for the 21st century.

Source: A Proper Understanding of K-12 Education: Theory and Practice online course from Hillsdale College.

Classical Education Philosophy

Reading instruction begins as soon as a child is born.

Cursive writing instruction is beneficial to the student in that it improves fine motor skills, increases writing speed, and gives the student a chance to create something beautiful.

Dr. Coupland notes that if a child has had a wonderful language-rich experience, they should be ready to learn how to read by the time they get to kindergarten.

Dr. Calvert argues that, first and foremost, parents should be teaching students the stories of the past.

Classical education values knowledge for its own sake.

The study of science should be placed in historical context because it's a human endeavor.

Learning about science is part of what elevates students to self-government.

When science is studied properly, students begin to see that the universe is orderly, complicated, and intelligible.

Since antiquity, grammar has been viewed as one of the foundational liberal arts.

Dr. Jackson notes that teaching literature properly will shape a student’s habit of mind.

When students open a great book and study it seriously, they will grapple with philosophical ideas, learn something about themselves, encounter theological ideas.

In order to teach literature well, teachers must dedicate themselves to reading the texts along with their students.

To read well, students must be able to employ both listening and contemplation.

The fundamentals of writing include logic, organization, and focus.

After returning graded papers, teachers should help guide students in reflecting on grading comments.

To improve writing, teachers should help students find a crux for their papers.

Teachers should remember that the main goal of writing education is to get students to undertake the writing process.

Dr. Garnjobst notes that the chief reason for studying Latin is to engage in a conversation with the great thinkers of the Western tradition.

Source: A Proper Understanding of K–12 Education: Theory and Practice online course by Hillsdale College.

Happy Birthday, America!

So, then, to every man his chance -- to every man, regardless of his birth, his shining golden opportunity -- to every man his right to live, to work, to be himself, to become whatever his manhood and his vision can combine to make him -- this, seeker, is the promise of America.
        - Thomas Wolfe

The American Trinity by Dennis Prager. The American Trinity is: E Pluribus Unum, In God We Trust, and Liberty.

Driven from every other corner of the earth, freedom of thought and the right of private judgment in matters of conscience, direct their course to this happy country as their last asylum. – Samuel Adams

May the foundation of our new constitution, be justice, Truth and Righteousness. Like the wise Mans house may it be founded upon those Rocks and then neither storms or tempests will overthrow it. – Abigail Adams

I have said that the Declaration of Independence is the ring-bolt to the chain of your nation’s destiny; so, indeed, I regard it. The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost. - Frederick Douglass

The happy union of these states is a wonder; their Constitution a miracle; their example the hope of liberty throughout the world.  - James Madison

Scientists Develop Self-Healing Airplane Wing

From IFLScience.com (June 25):

We’ve already had self-healing concrete, now welcome to the world of self-healing airplane wings. After having worked quietly on the project for the past three years, a team of British scientists has now announced a new carbon fiber technology that, when damaged, can fix itself.

Drawing inspiration from how the body heals wounds, the idea started as all good ones do: as a doodle on the back on an envelope. Since then, the team of researchers at the University of Bristol has been working with aerospace engineers to develop the material. The product they've come up with is able to patch over small, almost undetectable cracks in the wings of planes. The new technology represents an important step in self-healing products becoming more commonplace, with possible uses in bike frames, sports equipment, and even cracked smartphone screens.

It works in a similar way to the aforementioned concrete, with the carbon fiber material being infused with microbeads so small they look like dust to the human eye. But rather than filling the spheres with microbes, they contain a liquid healing agent which, when released during damage, reacts with a catalyst and consequently hardens. How long the setting process takes, however, depends on temperature. So cracks in the wing of a plane in Dubai might harden in hours compared to one in Reykjavik that could take days, according to the researchers.  [read more]

Interesting. If scientists can do this on airplanes why not cars? If a car gets scratched then it can make the scratch go away. Maybe even make small dents disappear too.

Didn’t evil androids on the Terminator movie have this ability?

Supreme Court: Marriage is between ‘two persons’

From WorldMag.com (June 26):

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Supreme Court today legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in a sweeping, moralizing opinion written by Justice Anthony Kennedy. He delivered the ruling softly and without much expression, but outside the courtroom, huge crowds swarmed the Supreme Court plaza in celebration, singing the national anthem.

As anticipated since the high court first took up the case, the ruling was 5-4, with Kennedy joining the court’s liberals: Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan. The dissenters—Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel Alito—each penned separate dissents, an expression of profound frustration. Scalia opened his apoplectic dissent, concurring with Roberts’ dissent, by saying, “I write separately to call attention to this court’s threat to American democracy.”

“Just who do we think we are?” Roberts asked in the courtroom. “This is a court, not a legislature.”  [read more]

Is this what Obama meant by radically transforming the country?

Here are a couple more questions I have:

Do all religions institutions (like Islam) have to marry gay couples if it is against their religious beliefs? Or is this only for Christian churches?

What about group marriage, triads, polygamy (which devote Muslims like), and polyandry? If you redefine what marriage is then basically any kind of adult relationship can be made legal. The Supreme Court didn’t exempt any of the above groups. I wouldn’t be surprised if the above groups don’t start making their case. After all triads just love each other too and want to be happy.  And if you don’t believe in these alternative forms of marriage then you are a bigot.

If this age where a white woman can identify as a black woman and be considered normal why don’t one of the gay partners identify as a member of the opposite sex. Problem solved. The gay couple then can identify as a male-female marriage. Okay, that was a joke.

Will your self-driving car be programmed to kill you if it means saving more strangers?

From ScienceDaily.com (June 15):

Imagine you are in charge of the switch on a trolley track. The express is due any minute; but as you glance down the line you see a school bus, filled with children, stalled at the level crossing. No problem; that's why you have this switch. But on the alternate track there's more trouble: Your child, who has come to work with you, has fallen down on the rails and can't get up. That switch can save your child or a bus-full of others, but not both. What do you do?

Death in the driver's seat

So should your self-driving car be programmed to kill you in order to save others? There are two philosophical approaches to this type of question, Barghi says. "Utilitarianism tells us that we should always do what will produce the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people," he explained. In other words, if it comes down to a choice between sending you into a concrete wall or swerving into the path of an oncoming bus, your car should be programmed to do the former.

Deontology, on the other hand, argues that "some values are simply categorically always true," Barghi continued. "For example, murder is always wrong, and we should never do it." Going back to the trolley problem, "even if shifting the trolley will save five lives, we shouldn't do it because we would be actively killing one," Barghi said. And, despite the odds, a self-driving car shouldn't be programmed to choose to sacrifice its driver to keep others out of harm's way.

Every variation of the trolley problem -- and there are many: What if the one person is your child? Your only child? What if the five people are murderers? -- simply "asks the user to pick whether he has chosen to stick with deontology or utilitarianism," Barghi continued. If the answer is utilitarianism, then there is another decision to be made, Barghi adds: rule or act utilitarianism.  [read more]

Something to think about. Keep in mind with self-driving cars the “driver” (I put driver in quotes because is he/she actually driving if the car is self-autonomous? Isn’t the person actually a passenger? Anyway…) isn’t making the decisions. It’s the programmer who wrote the code who works for the car manufacturer that makes the decisions. It’s his/her ethics the car will follow. And if the programmer has to follow gov’t regulations from National Highway Traffic Safety Admin. then who knows what will happen.

6 things you need to know about virtual reality (from the guy who’s doing it right)

From Ideas.Ted.com (June 12):

For all the hoo-hah and fanfare around next-generation technologies like Oculus Rift and Google Cardboard, it’s still early days for virtual reality. Sure, we’ve come a long way from clunky simulators (even ones with wind machines that blew back your hair), but the field is still pretty much open for all comers. Filmmaker Chris Milk (TED Talk: How virtual reality can create the ultimate empathy machine) is bullish about the possibilities. Here, the man who melted the Internet with “have you seen it yet?” projects blending technology and music for the likes of Arcade Fire and Johnny Cash mulls the possibilities of the medium he’s betting on in a big way.

The key to VR? It’s the sound. When you think of virtual reality, you probably picture it: a 360-degree environment full of immersive vistas. But it’s the sound that makes it real, Milk says. He first grasped this while watching Hunger in Los Angeles, an early VR film by Nonny de la Peña, which places the audience in the middle of a street scene. It grabbed him immediately, but not for the reasons he expected: “The visuals were not photorealistic; she’d recreated the scene with blocky CGI characters,” he says. “But what really affected me the most was the audio, because it was real. Basically, she’d recorded a food bank line where somebody had a diabetic seizure and everybody was talking. You could walk around the characters and the scene, and it was really affecting.”

The old rules don’t apply. Like many VR pioneers, Milk has brought years of filmmaking experience to his work inside the goggles — and now he’s setting it all aside. “As a director, the main tools I use are framing, performance and editing,” Milk explains. “Through framing I show you exactly what I want you to see in the screen; I capture the performances using different angles of framing, and then I edit it all together into something. Those tools go completely out the window with virtual reality.” One by one, all the long-held rules of filmmaking fall away. “Everything’s a total experiment,” he says.  [read more]

Interesting article.

The New Congressional Plan to Repeal and Replace Obamacare

From Daily Signal.com (June 5):

A group of House Republicans unveiled a 192-page health care plan that fully repeals Obamacare and replaces it with “patient-centered reforms” and “free-market solutions.”

Lawmakers released the plan Thursday as the GOP-led Congress prepares to attack the Affordable Care Act. Both houses of Congress have already signaled their intentions to repeal Obamacare by a simple majority vote using the reconciliation process—just as the law was passed in 2010.

The new GOP plan, American Health Care Reform Act, was written by Reps. Phil Roe of Tennessee and Austin Scott of Georgia. It has the backing of the Republican Study Committee, a caucus made up of nearly 170 members of the House of Representatives.

The American Health Care Reform Act covers four broad areas:

1. Encouraging Competition in the Health Care Market. The proposed legislation addresses this issue by allowing Americans to purchase health insurance products across state lines. Small businesses also are permitted to merge together to coordinate better rates.
2. Improving Access for Vulnerable Americans. Under the bill, premiums would be capped at 200 percent of the state’s premium average. Additionally, those with pre-existing conditions can alternate between health insurance markets, provided they maintain “continuous coverage.”
3. Supporting Medical Breakthroughs. The bill provides funding for an eight-year, $15 billion Medical Breakthrough Fund at the National Institutes of Health to develop cures for the top five causes of death in the United States: heart disease, cancer, strokes, Alzheimer’s, and diabetes. These conditions kill more than 1.5 million people each year.
4. Reforming Medical Liability Laws. Solutions include requiring review by an independent panel prior to malpractice discovery and a “voluntary right of removal to federal court so long as there is a federal payer or a federal statute.” Barr said that this reform increases the quality of care by establishing national guidelines for physicians to follow and helps reduce “frivolous lawsuits.”

[read more]

Well, it’s a good start. The lawmakers could add that if a person wants he/she can pay out-of-pocket their medical bills. Especially if the patient is rich, then they don’t need to or even want to purchase insurance. 

Buy why 192 pages? That’s still less than the 1,000 page boondoggle knows as Obamacare. Couldn’t the lawmakers get it down to 20 – 50 pages?

The question is if the bill passes Congress will Obama veto it? Probably. Obamacare is his baby and he doesn’t want his baby to go away. That’s why we really need a president that will sign into law this bill or a bill similar to it.

By the way, the pdf  link on the Daily Signal website is just a 9-page summary of the bill. The pdf link on this page is the full text.