Posted: October 22, 2019

When you're waiting for a package, the rumble of a big brown UPS truck can be exciting. Will you get the same feeling at the whirrr of a delivery drone? It is looking more and more likely that drone deliveries will be in your future!

The Wing company, working with Google, began drone delivery last week in a small Virginia city.

Whirrrr! The first delivery was to customers who ordered cough and cold medicine. Whirrr! Another delivery brought a pretty purple winter vest to 81-year-old Susie Sensmier’s front yard. “I didn't think I would live that long or it wouldn't come in my lifetime. I'm thrilled,” she says.

Wing started small. Drones began by flying to customers within four miles of its warehouse in Christiansburg, Virginia. But the little craft are capable of flying 12-miles round trip.

The Federal Aviation Authority makes rules about which aircraft can fly, when, and where. The FAA gave Wing its blessing, and Friday’s flights mark Wing’s first live commercial deliveries in the United States.

Wing chief James Ryan Burgess points out the speed with which drones can make deliveries. People can receive their orders as soon as minutes after placing them. And he notes that drones would reduce the number of vans and trucks on the road.

What’s that sound? Whirrr! Is it a set of Legos for you, a scarf for mom, or a car part for dad coming in for a landing?

(Ms. Sensmier never imagined drone delivery. Do you wonder what God has in store for you? You probably can’t even imagine right now what He is yet to do. But everything is for your good if you love the Lord. “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11)

Posted: October 21, 2019

Simone Biles is headed to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. When people start watching the games, they will be watching for her.

After the last Olympics in Brazil, world famous runner Usain Bolt and swimmer Michael Phelps both retired. This year, Miss Biles will be the face of the games for much of the world.

Miss Biles is a gymnast. She has won so many medals it’s hard to list them! In gymnastics, no one else comes close to her. She won five of the six gold medals at last week’s world championships. She broke the all-time record of 25 medals by any gymnast, male or female.

“She’s just above anything else that we have seen in the sport,” five-time Olympic gold medalist Nadia Comaneci says. Miss Biles always seems to win—and win by a lot. It seems that she has no real competition except herself.

Miss Biles has more than talent. She also has the character of an Olympic star. She focuses intently on her training. Her sense of humor charms fans.

Until October 15, the record for most gymnastics medals was held by Russian gymnast Svetlana Khorkina. She doesn’t think Miss Biles is unbeatable. But she won’t be challenging her at the next Olympics. She said she would . . . if she were 15 years younger.

Olympic athletes often retire young. The stop competing when they are as strong and as healthy as they ever will be. But fans hope Miss Biles will compete a little longer—to the Olympics, and beyond.

While bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. — 1 Timothy 4:8

Posted: October 18, 2019

A brave little penguin traveller was rescued after making an impressive journey from New Zealand, across the Tasman Sea, and all the way to Australia.

The Fiordland penguin travelled 1,553 miles right up to the Kennett River. There, it was discovered, struggling and underweight. The Melbourne Zoo's Marine Response Unit (MRU) rescued the little critter. Caring workers spent three weeks nursing the flightless bird back to health before releasing it back into the wild at an Australian beach.

The reason why the penguin travelled so far was unclear, according to Dr. Michael Lynch, Melbourne Zoo’s Head of Veterinary Services.

“We don't fully understand the factors for a Fiordland swimming to the Victorian coast, but the species’ natural behavior is to forage for food over long distances,” he said.

While the small penguin’s journey is unusual, God designed it to be able to do what it did. 

“It's a tough life out there in the ocean, but we’re hopeful this penguin will find its way back to New Zealand and eventually breed. We've given it every chance to do so,” says Dr. Lynch.

Posted: October 17, 2019

Congratulations to Leonard Urena! He has grown the biggest pumpkin in California.

Mr. Urena took home a $15,000 prize at the World Championship Pumpkin Weigh Off in Half Moon Bay, California, this week. His pumpkin weighed 2,175 pounds.

God designed plants to need four things in order to grow:  air, water, nutrients, and sunlight. Giant pumpkin growers know that. But they also have a few tricks up their sleeves, and they rarely tell the secrets of their successes. But you can be sure of this: No one grows a champion pumpkin by accident. To grow one, you need to set aside a circle of sunny land 40 feet in diameter. Your soil has to be just right—not too wet and not too dry. Add plenty of fertilizer. Find the perfect seed—maybe a Dill’s Atlantic Giant. When your vine grows, pick off any other pumpkins growing on it. This will make the plant’s whole energy go to your prize pumpkin. Remember your pumpkin is seriously thirsty. It may need as much as 500 gallons of water each week.

Mr. Urena started growing monster pumpkins in 2000. He does give a little peek into how he raises his champions. He says he always tells his pumpkins he’s proud of them and he encourages them to keep growing.

Posted: October 16, 2019

The worst of Typhoon Hagibis had already passed. So Kazuo Saito went to bed.

He woke a few times in the night to check for flooding. By the time he woke for good on Sunday morning, he barely recognized what he saw out his window. A huge river flowed in front of him!

Typhoon Hagibis made landfall near Mr. Saito’s home in Kawagoe City, Japan, late Saturday. It dumped record amounts of rain. Rivers overflowed their banks. Neighborhoods turned into swamps.

Crews were working across central and northern Japan on Monday. They dug through mudslides and searched riverbanks for people missing because of the storm. Hagibis was a super-sized typhoon. People died in its wind and rain. Around 30,000 people had to flee to evacuation centers. Then all that rain made more than 200 rivers overflow.

After the storm, Mr. Saito and his wife waited for the water to subside. On Monday, they could finally go downstairs again in their house. Floodwaters had nearly reached the ceiling of their garage. Mr. Saito says he has never seen a storm this bad.

Hisako Satake, 87, was evacuated from a nursing home. Floodwaters had seeped into the ground floor there. She was brought to a nearby elementary school for shelter.

“It was a bit of surprise,” she said, sitting on a folded futon mattress on the school gymnasium floor. “So we prayed, and that helped us to stay calm.”

Typhoons and hurricanes are the same thing. But they get different names depending on where they happen. Typhoons happen in the Northwest Pacific, where Japan is. Check out How Hurricanes Happen.

Posted: October 15, 2019

Fifty-four years ago, Alexei Leonov became the first human to walk in space. He died in Moscow, Russia, last week. He was 85.

Mr. Leonov was born in 1934. He belonged to a large peasant family in Siberia—one of the coldest places on Earth to live. Life was hard for them. His father was shipped off to prison camps during the rule of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. 

As a young person, Mr. Leonov loved to make art. He thought about going to art school. He ended up becoming a pilot instead. But Mr. Leonov did not give up sketching—even when he flew into space. He took colored pencils with him on the Apollo-Soyuz flight in 1975. That was the first mission the United States and the Soviet Union worked on together.

But Mr. Leonov made history long before that mission. He became the first spacewalker in 1965. He stepped out of his Voskhod 2 capsule into space. A tether kept him from floating away.

“I stepped into that void and I didn’t fall in,” he said years later. The stars amazed him. “They were everywhere,” he said, “up above, down below, to the left, to the right. I can still hear my breath and my heartbeat in that silence.”

Spacewalking is always dangerous. But Mr. Leonov’s walk was extra nerve-wracking. When he stepped into space, his suit inflated too much. He couldn’t get back into the spacecraft! He opened a valve in his suit. He let oxygen leak out until he could fit through the hatch again. Altogether, Mr. Leonov walked in space for 12 minutes. The first U.S. spacewalk happened less than three months later.  

Today, Russian and American astronauts work together on the International Space Station (ISS). When Mr. Leonov turned 85 this spring, two Russian ISS crewmembers did a spacewalk. They were carrying Mr. Leonov’s picture with them. They said “Happy Birthday!” to Mr. Leonov. Then they opened the hatch and ventured out. Mr. Leonov tuned in from Earth.

Mr. Leonov was a legend. People from all over the world expressed their sadness when they heard he had died. 

“One of the finest people I have ever known,” former Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield tweeted on Friday. “Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov, artist, leader, spacewalker, and friend, I salute you.”

Mr. Leonov will be buried today outside Moscow. He is survived by his wife, a daughter, and two grandchildren. 

Space travel has changed a lot since Mr. Leonov’s first spacewalk. How? Find out in The Final Frontiersmen. 

Posted: October 14, 2019

Where does the sky stop and space start?

Answer: the ionosphere. 

On Thursday night, NASA scientists launched a satellite to explore that mysterious spot. 

The satellite is called Icon. That’s short for Ionospheric Connection Explorer. Icon dropped from a plane flying over the Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast. Scientists watched the fridge-sized craft fall. Then—five, four, three, two, one—the attached rocket ignited. Icon was on its way up! 

But to where? The ionosphere is the charged part of Earth’s upper atmosphere—the edge of the sky. It goes several hundred miles up. When Earth’s seasons change, winds in the ionosphere change. They also change as Earth heats and cools throughout the day. Hurricanes, tornadoes, and other extreme weather conditions add energy to the spot. Plus, it’s affected by bursts of radiation from the Sun. 

“It’s a remarkable physics laboratory,” says scientist Thomas Immel, who is overseeing the mission. “Icon goes where the action is.” 

Radio communications and GPS signals travel in the ionosphere. Wild weather there can interrupt them. That’s part of the reason scientists want to know all about the action in the ionosphere. You want them to know about it too . . . if you want your GPS to work!

Posted: October 11, 2019

Do you keep important things in your basement? Does it leak? If it rains hard, you might have to move your toys. At least you don’t have to move ancient statues! 

The largest art museum in the world needed a place to keep its art safe from its leaky basements. The Seine River in Paris, France, floods often. Its waters have seeped into the Louvre’s 5-story underground storage areas. Floods in 2016 and 2018 forced the Louvre museum to rescue artworks and close exhibits.  So it has now opened a new art conservation center far from the river. The new facility also has space to hold classes and study historic objects.
The Louvre is used to transforming. It was first built as a fortress, and then turned into a beautiful palace, and finally, in 1793, it opened as a museum. The Louvre has had a lot of time to collect artwork!
Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, marble statues from ancient Greece and Egypt, and colorful Impressionist paintings by Monet and Renoir are just a few of the famous works in the halls of the world’s biggest museum.

How big is “biggest”? The museum has 620,694 pieces in its collection. To see all of that in a year, you’d have to look at 70 pieces of art an hour. That’s every day, with no breaks for sleeping or eating! (Don’t worry, only 35,000 artworks are on display. The rest are in storage.)

Exodus 35:5 says, “He has filled them with skill to do every sort of work done by an engraver or by a designer or by an embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, or by a weaver—by any sort of workman or skilled designer.” 

God has blessed people with all sorts of different skills and talents. Some use their creativity to glorify God, others do not. Perhaps you'll visit the Louvre some day. In a museum that large no one will like everything they see. But everyone will find something to enjoy.

Posted: October 10, 2019

Quick! Which planet has the most moons? Did you say, “Jupiter”? Nope.

“Saturn is the true moon king,” says Dr. Scott Sheppard. He is part of a team of astronomers at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C. It used the Subaru telescope on Maunakea in Hawaii and computer data gathered between 2004 and 2007. The team counted 20 new mini moons around Saturn! Its moon count now totals 82. 

Jupiter has 79 moons. But our solar system’s biggest planet still has the biggest moon. Ganymede is almost half the size of Earth. Saturn’s new moons are tiny. Each is about three miles in diameter. Scientists believe there may be about 100 even tinier moons orbiting Saturn. Astronomers will need much larger telescopes to be certain. Saturn is so much farther away from Earth than Jupiter.

Seventeen of Saturn’s new moons orbit the planet in the retrograde (backward) direction. That is opposite of the way the planet and the other three of its newly discovered moons rotate. 

All the new moons are far from Saturn. They take two to three years to complete a single orbit. They appear to be grouped into three distinct clusters. Scientists think they are smashed parts of larger moons or an asteroid. 

The Carnegie Institution has a naming contest for Saturn’s new moons. The names must be after giants mentioned in Norse, Gallic (French), or Inuit mythology.

The heavens declare the glory of God, the sky above proclaims His handiwork. — Psalm 19:1

Posted: October 9, 2019

When their drivers call, these cars answer! Using Tesla's Smart Summon feature, the high-tech electric cars can self-drive through parking lots. Talk about hassle-free parking! A software update made this latest self-driving Tesla feature possible. Pretty neat! But hold on. There are a few problems. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is gathering information on reported malfunctions. Should the agency slam the brakes on Tesla's come-when-you-call feature? 

Cars equipped with Smart Summon can drive their way through a parking lot with no one at the wheel. Curbside pickup by your own car could be convenient. Or would it be weird to watch your own car drive through a parking lot to find you? A video posted on the Tesla website shows a self-driving car steering through a row of parked cars. Wow! Except that the car is driving the wrong way in the lot! 

“Here, car! Come here, car!” It’s kind of like calling a puppy. You call the puppy and it runs straight to you. Or does it? Puppies can be unpredictable. Apparently, cars can be too!

Problems keep popping up. One Tesla owner claimed his car ran into the side of his garage—on its own! Another owner videoed his car barely missing a crash with oncoming traffic. How will the smart cars cope with not-so-smart drivers taking shortcuts across parking rows?

Tesla’s website reminds drivers that they are responsible for their car—even if they aren’t sitting behind the steering wheel. Can a car really watch out for unpredictable pedestrians? Or steer clear of loose shopping carts? Drivers can stop the cars remotely. But is that enough? It’s too soon to tell if Teslas are smart enough for parking lots! 

Posted: October 8, 2019

Oak and chestnut forests dot Samothraki, Greece. A rugged coastline and many waterfalls add to its beauty. But nearly 50,000 hungry goats threaten this island’s landscape. 

Goats outnumber humans by fifteen to one. They have munched stretches of Samothraki into a moonscape. Residents have spent decades trying to solve the goat problem. Now they are trying 21st century ways to save their island’s ecology and economy.

Goats can be spotted on rooftops, in trees, and on top of cars as they scour the land looking for anything to eat. Their overgrazing has caused vast soil erosion. No trees or grass remain on barren hillsides. “Nothing stops mudslides when rains come. It is a big problem,” says George Maskalidis. “The mud will come down on our heads.”

Only 3,000 people live on this island. Many of them raise herds of goats for wool, leather, meat, or milk. But most of the island’s 45,000 goats are too scrawny to be used for meat. Animal feed is too expensive. Farmers cannot earn enough to feed their families. Prices for goat products have dropped. “Most of us are ready to give up,” says Yiannis Vavouras. Raising goats “doesn’t make enough to buy you coffee,” he adds.

However, there may be hope for this island. Fiercely independent livestock farmers pool their resources to establish a brand for the island. A group works with researchers from Europe and elsewhere to create a herd management app. Some solutions to the goat problem might even mean fewer goats.

Resident Carlota Maranon says, “To live off the land, you have to keep it alive.” And that is what God commanded Adam to do!

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. —Genesis 2:15

Posted: October 7, 2019

A lander on Mars sent sounds back to earth. Whoooosshhh. What was that? The wind? No, it came from the planet’s surface. NASA's InSight lander recorded rumblings in the ground of the Red Planet. It was not an earthquake. It was a “marsquake”!

Scientists put the audio online so people could listen to it. But they had to turn it way up so the human ear could hear the sounds.

NASA’s InSight landed on Mars last November, and recorded its first seismic rumbling in April. The sensor on the lander is called a “seismometer.” It is designed to record shaking in the ground. The sensor detected more than 100 events. Of those, 21 might be marsquakes. 

The lander’s equipment is so sensitive it can hear everything happening around the device. That includes the Martian wind, movements by the lander's robot arm, and other mechanical "dinks and donks, " as the NASA team calls them.

Mars’ surface is very quiet. This is why the lander can hear small rumblings. Earth is noisy. Oceans, weather, cars, and crowds make the ground shake. If the lander sat on the street here, it never would have heard the small rumbling that it heard on Mars.

"It's been exciting, especially in the beginning, hearing the first vibrations from the lander," says Constantine, a technician who helped with the audio recordings. "You're imagining what's really happening on Mars as InSight sits on the open landscape," he added.

What mysteries of God’s creation the heaven’s hold! Scientists hope recordings will help solve a few of them, like what kinds of rocks make up the center of Mars.

Posted: October 4, 2019

The Netherlands is a low-lying country in Europe. Rivers crisscross it. The sea is its western border. The Dutch people know how to keep water out. But their work is never done. “The Netherlands is currently the safest delta in the world,” says the Dutch government. “We want to keep it that way.”

The country’s latest project is to strengthen the Afsluitdijk [AHF-schloot-dike]. This is a narrow dam that stretches for twenty miles. It has separated water from the Wadden Sea and Ijsselmeer inland sea for 87 years.

Engineers are working on a plan that will take three years to complete. They have raised parts of the dam. They have laid thousands of custom-made concrete blocks. And they have improved the highway that runs over the dam.

But the cutting edge of the design work for strengthening is not being done at a beach. It is being done in a long wave tank known as “the flume” in the city of Delft.

Engineers built a scale model of a cross section of the Afsluitdijk in the tank. They are pounding it with waves like those that should happen only once in thousands of years. The goal is to make sure the new design is able to withstand the power of the strongest storms.

The kind of care needed to maintain the Netherland’s thousands of miles of dikes and levees has a high cost. The government has set aside nearly $20 billion to fund projects like this one.

Today’s news is full of warnings about climate changing and the oceans rising. But we should be careful not to begin thinking that God no longer has control of the seas. “You set a boundary that [the waters] may not pass, so that they might not again cover the Earth.” (Psalm 104:9)

Posted: October 3, 2019

He promises rides to the moon and trips back and forth to Mars. He wants to make space travel as easy as hopping on a plane. Elon Musk has made some big talk about what his company, SpaceX plans to do. Its newest spacecraft, Starship sounds too good to be true. On Saturday, Mr. Musk used Starship’s big reveal event as an opportunity to spill the beans on his out-of-this-world plans for space travel. 

Starship is an enormous, powerful, stainless steel vehicle. It is designed to carry up to 100 people at a time to Mars and beyond. It is the first ever re-usable passenger rocket. Promoters claim it could be ready at a moment’s notice to blast off into space. Imagine taking a trip anywhere in the solar system! 

In a live-streamed speech Mr. Musk pumped up his new product. He still hopes his company will launch humans into space in 2020. “I do think things are going to move very fast,” said Mr. Musk.

Things havemoved fast for Mr. Musk and SpaceX. Eleven years ago their first rocket reached orbit. Since then, the company has designed re-usable boosters, launched government spy missions. SpaceX has even sent a Tesla Roadster through the Earth’s atmosphere aboard a Falcon Heavy rocket into outer space. 

SpaceX’s projects are extravagant. So are Mr. Musk’s big promises. But there are too many unanswered questions. Is there a life support system on board Starship? Why doesn’t it have a launch abort system? Is it wise to promise rides as early as 2020? How much will a trip into space cost? And what happens if SpaceX goes bankrupt?

Putting on a show and getting attention is part of how Mr. Musk keeps people interested in his projects. Should we follow his example? Or should we be careful about making ourselves sound important and promising too much? The Bible has something to say about that. For example, Proverbs 25:14 says, “Like clouds and wind without rain is a man who boasts of a gift he does not give.”

Posted: October 2, 2019

People in southeastern Pennsylvania have declared war. The enemy is the spotted lanternfly. Residents have employed all sorts of methods to get rid of these pests. They use fly swatters and vacuums, dish soap and sticky tape. They stomp and spray and zap the bugs. Yet the relentless planthoppers hang on.

Large and colorful lanternflies arrived from Southeast Asia about five years ago. They suck sap from trees and vines. They leave a sticky waste behind. They fly into people’s faces and land on their clothing. “It’s disgusting,” says Lori Beatrice of Phoenixville. “It’s like waking up in a nightmare.”

The insects threaten tree fruit, timber, and hops. Blackened trunks of grape vines fill vineyards. Dead insects are everywhere. Farmers spray insecticide. But the lanternflies return.

Females now are laying their eggs. Officials encourage homeowners to scrape the mud-like egg masses from trees, cars, and lawn furniture. Every scraped egg mass gets rid of 30 to 60 insects that might hatch out next year.

Removing a tree that is host to the pests is one step that has been taken by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Many in Pennsylvania fear their state will lose the battle against lanternflies. And that is not good news to officials in Delaware, New Jersey, and Virginia. The bug has expanded its range into those states.

Posted: October 1, 2019

Can a country with hard to reach places help everyone vote? Officials in Afghanistan have an answer. Yes! Use donkeys! Remote polling centers across the country needed voting equipment. Trucks were loaded with election materials like ballot boxes. So were donkeys. When a truck couldn’t make it up the narrow hillside paths, the donkeys trekked on. They had an important job to do. They delivered election ballots for voters to mark. Donkeys made voting possible in the most remote parts of Afghanistan this weekend. 

Voting is important. It gives people the opportunity to choose their own leaders. In the U.S., elections are free, fair, and organized. Officials make it easy for Americans to cast their vote. Election results are announced within hours of voting. 

In Afghanistan, the election process is challenging. The country is torn by war. Some voters risk their lives to vote. Many live on steep mountains in very remote areas. Voters are hard to reach. Some villages don’t even have roads! But no matter how far away people live, they still have a right to vote. 

The Presidential elections took place on Saturday, September 28. Sadly, attacks by rebel Taliban fighters kept 468 polling centers from opening. But in the Panjshir province, donkeys made voting possible. The pack animals helped its polling station open.

It’ll be weeks before the election results are announced. Ballots must be counted and then re-counted. It will take 40 days to find out who was elected President of Afghanistan. (Can you figure out the date of the final tally?) If there is no clear winner, then a second round of voting will be held. That means donkeys might be back on the election trail.