Sunspots 379

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

Science: Wired reports on a study that shows that social connectedness as a teenager is much more important than academic achievement in adult happiness.

Sports: Syndicated columnist George F. Will says that football has gotten too big and too dangerous for the players.

The Arts: Rebecca Luella Miller, of Speculative Faith, tells us why fantasy is so appealing to so-called young adults.

Politics: (or something) National Public Radio reports that a book on Thomas Jefferson, by David Barton, has been pulled from their offerings, because of errors of fact.

Computing: Fox News reports that the bad guys use suddenly popular searches (related to some scandal, for example) as a way to mess up our computers.

Christianity: From the BioLogos Foundation, a brief summary of the history of how Darwin was received by Christians, in his own time. By no means all Christians were hostile. (Some were.)

Image source (public domain)

National Public Radio on David Barton's view of US history

National Public Radio has done some fact-checking about claims made by David Barton, whose view of history is so congenial to the right wing. He has made numerous false claims, according to NPR's research. Other authorities have also questioned his scholarship.

The truth speaks for itself. It doesn't need to be defended with inaccuracies or distortions, and such are generally counter-productive.

Update, August 14: Evangelical scholars have also criticized Barton's methods and conclusions. See here.

Thanks for reading.

Sunspots 318

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

Science: NASA has posted a video, and a still photo, of a recent spectacular solar flare.

Wired reports on how some plant parts can fold and unfold, depending on the humidity, after they have fallen off of the plant.

A David Barton, who is apparently a figure I should know about, but didn't, is on video, claiming that the Founding Fathers had discussed the matter of evolution fairly thoroughly. They couldn't have. Darwin was born at about that time.

  

Image source (public domain)