I won’t call this feature a Random Mess, like I usually do, lest this blog become known only for messes. Which would be fair, really. 

First link is to my own latest post: Is Homeschooling a Hot Mess? I think it ought to be!

From Postcards from the Age of Reason, my friend Tor thinks (and I’m always happy to think as he does, as he’s much smarter than me) that the AI bubble is the bubbliest of all bubbles. It is a vapor. Don’t give it a dollar.

Little guys are about to take an enforced haircut on this, (above images stolen from this link) and I am very sorry about that. I am really enjoying the linked Substack, called Gold and Geopolitics. Give it a look, if you like that sort of thing.

I’ve always cringed when people call Jesus “Yeshua”. It always felt to me like people who don’t really like Jesus as we’ve known him, and would really like to put a sheen of coolness over His image. I thought they just needed to grow up in the faith a little bit and get more comfortable with Christianity. Newcomers often start throwing elbows at the old guard when they convert. Happens with homeschooling, too. Turns out, it’s probably worse than that in this case, and a deliberate subversion. His name is powerful. Enemies are scared of it:

“Conspiracy” enthusiasts have always had a bee in their (our) bonnets about Nikola Tesla. Here’s an interesting video on his last interview.

Vox has a post quoting what I think is the most interesting part:

…in private letters to Arthur Matthews, Tesla described what he had found beneath Notre-Dame: copper grounding systems embedded directly into the cathedral’s foundation blocks — not modern restorations added during 19th-century repairs, but original construction. Deliberately insulated with natural resins. Geometrically arranged in radial patterns extending outward from the central nave. Still conductive after six centuries.

Tesla called them earth batteries — passive electrical storage systems using the compression of stone, the mineralization of groundwater, and the conductivity of copper to create standing charges that could be drawn upon without fuel, without generation, without metering.

I think I’m going to buy some of those copper pyramids for my asparagus beds now.

And finally, I wish I could remember where I saw this first so I could give credit where it’s due:

We examine how fertility expectations influence financial risk-taking using nationally representative data from three countries. Our results indicate that childless adults who do not expect children are 21-36% more likely to invest in stocks than those who expect children, controlling for personal characteristics. This effect persists also when medical infertility instruments expectations. We find no similar effects for other savings categories, nor differences in self-reported risk tolerance. Households expecting children report shorter financial planning horizons, which may explain their lower risk-taking. These results suggest declining fertility can increase young adults’ stock market participation through childbearing expectations.

No wonder they try to suppress birthrates. Messes with their net worth. And they try to suppress homeschooling because it doesn’t turn out cogs for their machine.

Besides investing their current funds in children during their growing years instead of the stock market, there’s not a hill of beans of difference between the financial behaviors of childless and child-oriented families. As I said before, in defense of our “irresponsible” choice to make people instead of money:

Of the large Christian families that I know personally, some are wealthy, and some are decidedly not. They are all, however, fed, clothed, and lacking nothing essential. Maybe they don’t have anything fancy, or their shoes are a bit scuffed, but they are taken care of. I also know families with two kids, or none, who are in dire financial straits.

I’ve been angry for some time at the idea that my children are everybody else’s retirement plan. While parents put their hard work and money and love into raising their children, the childless put theirs into betting that our children will be worth something. What if they’re not? You’re taking a big chance, Childless, letting everybody else determine what kind of people will be there when you get old. One of the biggest annoyances in my life right now, something I endure on almost a weekly basis, is a Boomer who is always “joking” about how my young people need to get good jobs so he can stay retired.

Enough of that talk, though. As I said before today, what can’t continue, won’t.

Don’t forget to check out my hubby’s book on Amazon. It’s really good.:

Leave your links in the comments, friends, and I’ll link to them next Friday, as long as they’re family-friendly and from real people. No spam, of course.