Sunspots 715

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

 
Christianity: Unfortunately, there are many allegations of sexual abuse by ministers from the Southern Baptist church.

Environment: NPR tells us what's what about plastic waste and recycling (or not).

Health: NPR reports that many people in metropolitan areas around the Great Lakes can't afford to have water in their homes.

Catherine Rampell tells us that people are taking better care of their hearts than they used to, and that's saving us money.

Politics: Scientific American asks if a woman can sound presidential.

National Public Radio reports that the so-called Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is continuing to remove regulations aimed at protecting people who get loans from payday lenders.

FiveThirtyEight compares former Presidential candidates by previous office (not many mayors have been elected, for example).


Science: Listverse reports on 10 different animals (all but one of them mammals) that humans have tried to domesticate, but failed to do so.


The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, I believe, it is public domain.

Thanks for looking!

Sunspots 625

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

Christianity: An article on the National Association of Evangelical's web site, indicating that almost 90% of "evangelical leaders" don't believe that pastors should endorse politicians from the pulpit. This survey was taken before President Trump's executive order of last week on (more or less) this subject. Christianity Today discusses the executive order, and says, among other things, that only a small minority of churchgoers believe that pastors should endorse politicians from the pulpit.


Computing: (or something) Elon Musk wants to attach our brains to the internet. We're a long way from being able to do this, but, if we could, there are all kinds of issues. "Could I be hacked?," for example.

Benjamin L. Corey asks "How many people in your local community does your church provide comprehensive medical care for?"

Finance: Listverse reports on the hidden costs of shopping at dollar stores.

Humor: (Not exactly) Listverse describes how people survived 10 different bear attacks. (In most or all cases, the bear was surprised. Normally, they don't go around looking for people to attack.)

(Also not exactly) Scientific American reports that all the TVs in the US Food and Drug Administration have been set to show only the Fox News channel.


Politics: NPR reports that President Trump doesn't like compromising, and claims that he hasn't done so.

NPR also informs us that, as of May 6, there are 129 people officially in the race for President of the USA in 2020. Plus some more who may end up running.

Science: Scientific American reports that, contrary to dogma, nerve cells in a single organism do not have identical DNA.

FiveThirtyEight reports on how many insects there are in the world. The answer? A lot, but not as many as there used to be.

Scientific American has a historical essay on our obsession with lawns.

Listverse reports on 10 strange objects in space, including an asteroid, planets, and galaxies.

Sports: (and finance) National Public Radio reports on the shockingly low pay of minor league baseball players.


Image source (public domain)