Sunspots 17

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

There are hints of a possible connection between obesity and brain function.

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In The Philosopher's Magazine, a discussion of the right to life as an entitlement of whales.

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Screwtape, C. S. Lewis's fictional devil, has written a letter about how to tempt Christians who blog. (If you haven't read The Screwtape Letters, you should, and the Enemy is God.) At least one Screwtape essay by Lewis has been posted (possibly in violation of copyright).

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Interview with the producer of the current Battlestar Galactica, on the religious beliefs of the Cylons.

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Sara Christensen announces her first pregnancy.

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Speaking of pregnancy, Louise Joy Brown was born on July 25, 1978. She is the world's first so-called test tube baby.

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The most recent update of my page on the science and ethics of stem cells involved checking all the links. As of July 26, 2005, they all worked. I remain grateful to the former student, now graduated, who worked with me on this. I don't generally identify others, unless they have identified themselves, in this blog. My page, giving links to free computer resources of many types, including graphics, alternatives to Office, and others, was redone similarly on July 16th.

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Google lets you personalize a Google homepage for yourself, adding URLs, and content from various sources. I haven't figured out if there's a simple way to sort the URLs I added, and I haven't checked to see if I can enter any HTML into such a homepage. It's in Beta.

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Flickr now allows you to pick a more or less sensible URL for your photos, and your profile. This is my photo URL: http://www.flickr.com/photos/martinlabar/. The Flickr profile URL is established at the same time, so mine is now: http://www.flickr.com/people/martinlabar/.

My profile indicates that two individuals I do not know, one from the Netherlands, and one from Japan, were kind enough to reciprocate when I added them to my photo contacts. Both of them have some excellent photos of plants and arthropods. Five individuals I do know have also reciprocated in this way. Thanks, friends! It's good to see your Flickr icons, all of which, like mine, are a thumbnail of your heads. I'm looking forward to seeing more photos from you!

We plan to do some serious travel next month, and I will probably not blog, but will post photos.

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Jason has recently been posting about useful or interesting Internet goodies.

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This week's Christian Carnival is here.