Sunspots 825

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

Christianity: Christianity Today has an article exploring the ins and outs of cohabitation before, or instead of, marriage.

A Relevant article reminds us that the default position of Christians shouldn't be outrage.

Computing: (and food) Gizmodo reports that Mars candies is testing a device that rolls along the aisles of grocery stores, trying to get you to buy candy. (There's Mars candy as part of the device.)

Education: Grammarphobia discusses o'clock, and other words with apostrophes.

Ethics: NPR reports that scientists have facilitated cell growth from single cells to a structure that resembles a very early embryo. The article brings out some of the ethical questions about the procedure.

The Scientist gives more lab details on this research.

Health: (or something) Gizmodo asks about hair loss, and how to slow it down.

Politics: FiveThirtyEight analyzes positions of US House members and candidates, and finds that, for both parties, moderate candidates did very well. But there aren't many of them.

Science: The Scientist reports on a study of the giraffe genome. Giraffes have, for one thing, genes that raise their blood pressure, allowing their brains to receive blood.

NPR reports that bonobos seem to be innately more likely to share, and much less likely to kill each other, than chimpanzees.

Gizmodo shows us face mask details, magnified significantly.

Sports: NPR, and other outlets, on disparities between facilities for the men's and women's NCAA basketball tournament. Guess who has the better facilities?

The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, it is free to use like this.

Thanks for looking!

 

Sunspots 755

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:
Computing: ListVerse tells us about 10 popular web sites/apps that started out as something considerably different. (Amazon used to sell books, nothing else, for example.)
National Public Radio reports on some sophisticated on-line scamming techniques.
Gizmo's Freeware describes a free program that easily downloads YouTube videos.
 
Education: Grammarphobia: Should it be Moses's staff, or Moses' staff?

The Panda's Thumb says that the Ohio lower house has passed a bill with some disturbing implications. To quote from the blog post:  House Bill 164, labeled the “Student Religious Liberties Act,” would amend the state’s Education Code to forbid schools from “prohibit[ing] a student from engaging in religious expression in the completion of housework, artwork, or other written or oral assignments.” The blog post points out that this would seem to prevent a teacher from marking an answer like this as wrong: "God told me that the capital of Ohio is Tallahassee."
 
Politics: Relevant says that Stephen Miller, influential White House advisor, has to go. He seems to be the driving force behind President Trump's immigration policies, which, among other things, have drastically cut the number of refugees entering the US, and tried to prevent all Muslims from entering the country.

Relevant also reports that the US detains more of its children in various facilities, than any other country.

Science: The Scientist reports on a study that indicates that very few children are the result of an extra-marital affair.


The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, it is free to use like this.
 
Thanks for looking!

Sunspots 692

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

 Christianity: A Relevant writer discusses the importance of hope.

The family of Mollie Tibbetts, who was murdered, has expressed forgiveness for the probable murderer, according to Relevant.

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, according to Relevant, plans to establish chapters on all US campuses with more than 1,000 students, over the next few years. They say that "about 53 percent of 2,500 schools currently don’t have any known campus ministry. ..."
 
Computing: (and Food) USA Today reports that IBM has patented drones that can fly around work spaces and dispense coffee.

Education: Grammarphobia tells us whether we should use "in Jesus's name," or "in Jesus' name."

Ethics: (or something) Gizmodo reports on an agency in Brazil, which is trying to protect isolated tribes. According to the report, there may be as many as 11 tribes in the rainforest which have never interacted with "modern" man.

Food: Gizmodo reports that the state legislature of Missouri has tried to define "meat." There are questions about cell/tissue cultured products, which aren't available in grocery stores, but which may be in the future.

Health: Scientific American reports that marijuana-derived substances are found in breast milk for 6 days after the last use.

History: National Public Radio reports that there is a drought in some of Europe. That has exposed "hunger stones" in some rivers -- stones with inscriptions telling of previous droughts. One such inscription is in 1417 AD. See also here, for marked stone exposure in a different part of Europe.

Politics: FiveThirtyEight looks at research on the effect of voter identification laws.

National Public Radio reports that the Department of Homeland Security presented a rosier picture of conditions in countries that actually exists there, in order to justify sending refugees back to them. Sigh.

Science: Analysis of data collected by an Indian spacecraft show that there is water on the moon.

USA Today reports that some farmers in Mexico have been growing corn that is associated with Nitrogen-fixing bacteria. (Usually, Nitrogen-fixing bacteria are associated with members of the pea family, such as soybeans. Plants that have such associations need less (or no) Nitrogen in fertilizer, and the plants are a better source of protein building blocks in people that eat them.)

Space.com reports that an asteroid seems to be about 95% metal, which is very unusual, and could be commercially important, if we can get there to mine it. Here's the Wikipedia article on that asteroid, Psyche.

Lifehacker on how to get a cat to like you (or at least act like it does).

Scientific American on how to tell if a comatose patient is conscious.

Scientific American also reports that we can have only up to about 150 real friends -- people we interact with regularly.

Thanks for looking!

Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 620

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

Christianity: Christianity Today interviews an author of a study on cohabitation vs. marriage, which found that marriage is considerably better for the children involved.

It seems that Vice President Pence won't eat a meal alone with a woman other than his wife. Sojourners discusses this, and the reaction to this behavior.

(And Science) A pastor writer in Christianity Today has been in dialog with geneticists who are getting close to the possibility of producing "designer babies." He considers the morality of such activity.


Education: There is a British apostrophizer -- he adds (or deletes) misplaced apostrophes on billboards.



Health: National Public Radio reports that lonely people are more deeply affected by colds.

NPR also reports that the infant death rate has dropped significantly, world-wide, in recent years.

History: Listverse on how socks (the things we wear on our feet) changed history.

Politics: (or something) NPR reports on a man who spent 25 years in prison for crimes that he didn't commit has had his story written by a prominent TV executive. He explains his attitude, in spite of the wrong done to him.

Science: National Public Radio reports that there were far fewer cases of microcephaly, associated with the Zika virus, in Brazil, than were predicted.



Image source (public domain)