Sunspots 657

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

The Arts: Relevant discusses the extraordinary effort put into filming the Battle of Helm's Deep, in The Two Towers.

Christianity: National Public Radio reports that, at the trial of a white policeman, who was convicted of depriving her African-American son of his civil rights (he was shot in the back, and died), the victim's mother told the shooter that she forgave him. (The shooter apparently told her that he was sorry.)

A Relevant contributor discusses that perennial topic, the so-called "war on Christmas."

Relevant also reports on a survey, which indicates that Muslims and Jews give more to their religions than Christians do.


Computing: Developers of artificial intelligence are thinking about some of the ethical questions associated with this technology, according to Wired.

Here's a web site that will tell you if your information, such as Social Security number or financial accounts, has been compromised. Just enter your e-mail address. It doesn't tell you what to do about such problems.

Wired tells us that a lot of e-mail is being tracked -- the sender is informed as to when a message was opened, where the opening was, and on what type of information appliance, and more.
  Finance: Listverse describes some types of money that used to be used in the U. S., but aren't, any more.

Health: National Public Radio reports on the much more frequent deaths of black women, in, or shortly after, giving birth, and points to the stress of being the target of racism as at least one of the causes.

History: Listverse reports on some interesting aspects of life in ancient Egypt.

Politics: FiveThirtyEight reports on the change in attitude toward Israel in Republicans, over the last few decades.

(And Computing) Wired reports on false, or misleading, claims made by the 3 Federal Communications Commissioners who voted to do away with net neutrality.

(And Health) The Centers for Disease Control has been told not to use seven words/phrases, according to the Washington Post and other outlets. One of these is "fetus." (!) Scientific American, and others, are outraged at this directive, and believe that it will have real health consequences, bad ones. Shades of 1984.

Thanks for looking!

Image source (public domain)