Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
Politics and Religion
Monday Miscellany, 3/16/26

Monday Miscellany, 3/16/26

Last updated on: March 16, 2026 at 10:05 am by Gene Veith

0 Comments

Monday Miscellany, 3/16/26 2026-03-16T10:05:12-04:00 Gene Veith

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The biggest oil crisis since the 1970’s. Public school corruption watch. And teenagers make $1 billion using AI to simulate consumers.

The Biggest Oil Crisis Since the 1970’s

Those of you who are Fogey-Americans like me will remember the oil crises of the 1970s, when the U.S. was cut off from oil from the Middle East, first because we supported Israel in the Yom Kippur War (1973) and then because the Iranian revolution overthrew the Shah (1979).

You will have fond memories of gasoline shortages, with sky-rocketing prices, service stations with “out of gas” signs, and cars lined up for blocks at stations that had some.

Now that wars in the Middle East and tumult in Iran are back, we are having another oil supply crisis. The International Energy Association says the world is currently enduring the “largest disruption to crude supplies in the history of the global oil market.”

So reports Chris Price in his article for the UK Telegraph entitled Oil shock ‘worse than the 1970s’. Back then, during the Arab oil embargo, the world’s supply dropped by 4 million barrels per day. Today, the loss is 20 million barrels per day. Back then, production dropped by 5 million barrels per day. Today, though the major Arab producers want to pump oil, because they can’t ship it out, their storage tanks are full, leading to cutbacks of 10 million barrels today. Also, Iranian drone attacks have shut down major processing facilities in Bahrain, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar (which provides 70% of Europe’s supply of natural gas).

Though Iran is being pounded by American and Israeli aerial bombardment, the country has managed to mostly close the Straits of Hormuz, the 21 mile-wide passage between Iran and the United Arab Emirates that is the only outlet from the Persian Gulf to the open sea, through which sails 20% of the world’s oil supply.

Iran has fired missiles and drones at 20 ships, throughout the Persian Gulf, including two trying to go through the straits. Ships are an easy target. Anti-ship missiles can be fired from mobile units, which are more difficult for U.S. planes to attack than conventional launchers. And now Iran is mining the strait, which means that the supply line problems will continue even after the war ends.

It isn’t just actual attacks that have shut down traffic in the strait. Shipping companies, which are flagged from around the world, have just stopped trying to sail through, due to the potential danger. Crews are refusing to work on ships headed for a perilous journey. Insurance premiums for ships in war zones have soared out of sight. The Trump administration is trying to offer some kind of insurance subsidy, but few companies will even sell policies for war zones. The U.S. is also promising naval escorts through the straits, but it is taking time for enough ships to do that to arrive. And even then, navy ships cannot always defend against Exocet missiles and will themselves be in danger.

Iran, of course, is letting its own oil get through to China. And another U.S. adversary is profiting from the high prices, as President Trump pauses Russian sanctions to increase supply.

It’s hard to imagine the fuel shortages of the 1970s repeated today. The U.S. is much less dependent on Middle East oil that it was back then. But prices are set by worldwide supply and demand, so we can expect the cost of fuel to go even higher.

Public School Corruption Watch

The legal definition of corruption is “the dishonest, fraudulent, or criminal use of entrusted authority or power for personal gain or other unlawful or unethical benefits.”

What else would you call what is going on in, for example, Chicago public schools? School choice activist Corey A. DeAngelis posted this on X:

Chicago has a public school with space for 912 kids, yet only 28 students are enrolled.

The school is 97% empty.

It spends $93,787 per student.

Its staff to student ratio is 1:1.

ZERO of the kids are proficient in reading.

He goes on to post a chart, based on Chicago Public School statistics, that adds the additional detail that this school’s principal makes $171,173.

Let that sink in. The school has one teacher for every student. Plus the principal. Taxpayers pay $93,787 for each student. Nevertheless, none of them can read!

And this school is not alone. The next three schools have no one who can read either. Of all twenty listed, the percentage of students who can read is 11%

Here is the chart, from the researchers at Wirepoints:

Teenagers Make $1 Billion Using AI to Simulate Consumers

Here is a heart-warming story about three teenagers–aged 15, 18, and 19–who started an AI company two years ago that today is valued at $1 billion.
Suzanne Vranica has written them up in article for the Wall Street Journal entitled The Billion-Dollar AI Startup That Was Founded by Teenagers, with the deck, “The team behind Aaru is attracting brands including McDonald’s and EY by betting AI bots can predict human behavior better than humans can.”

What interests me even more than three teenagers striking it rich is what their company, named Aaru, does. I’ll let Vranica explain it:

Instead of paying humans to join focus groups and complete surveys, Aaru uses thousands of AI agents, or bots, to simulate human responses. It feeds demographic and psychographic information into its models to create human profiles that match clients’ needs, and the results those bots spit out are being used for product development, pricing, identifying new customers and political polling.

Most of us hate opinion polls and customer surveys, to the point that many companies will pay people to participate, setting up focus groups that the company then interviews about how they like or don’t like their product.

What these three lads–Cameron Fink, Ned Koh, and John Kessler–have done is set up a way to gather information about a company’s customers so that AI can answer the surveys for them. That way, no actual human beings will be inconvenienced by annoying surveys! And companies will know what consumers want without ever having to consult them!

Not only that, companies are also turning to AI to replace call centers. The public is being freed from awkward interactions with callers whom they can’t understand!

Win-win for both companies and consumers! Give those kids another billion dollars! What we’ll have, though, is one AI surveying another AI.

One machine will tell the other machine what we consumers want, and the other machine will tell the company what to produce. No actual human being will have any input.

This reminds me of what is happening with Facebook, which is offering the option of letting the embedded AI write your post for you. That site started as a forum for personal interaction with your “friends.” Now, you have “friends” you have never met, and many of them are turning out to be AI-generated creations.

So on Facebook, you can host AI-generated conversations with AI-generated friends. One AI interacting with another AI.

You are thus freed from the burden of sharing your thoughts, experiences, and feelings! And you don’t have to worry about your “friend” getting mad at what you say and “unfriending” you! Thus removing the “social” from “social media.”

Previous Post

March 13, 2026

AI Watch, Part 2

Next Post

March 17, 2026 "Disrupting the Very Fabric of Society" to be American

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"Turns out, she wasn’t the right tool for the job."

1another

Luther on Tools

"You may have just given me my next sermon opening line."

1another

Luther on Tools

"So Katie Zacharia lasted only a demiScaramucci as press secretary......"

reg

Luther on Tools

"Apropos to the post on Gen Z a couple days ago: "If you want the ..."

Steve Bauer

Luther on Tools

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category America Apologetics Art baseball Bible Blog Christ Church crime Culture Economics Education Ethics Family Food Football Government History Holidays Holy Week Humor International Islam Language Law Life Issues Literature Media Medicine Movies Music Nature News Personal Philosophy Politics psychology Reformation Religions Sacraments Science sex Social Science Sports technology television terrorism Theology Uncategorized Vocation war

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What guards the Garden of Eden?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Cherubim Serpents Lions Eagles

Books by This Author Books by Gene Veith

See All Titles »