Sunspots 736

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

Christianity: A Relevant writer warns of the dangers of patriotism, for Christians.

Kaiser Health News reports that small churches can wipe out millions of dollars in other people's medical debts. 

A Relevant writer on why the Bible is trustworthy.

Computing: Gizmo's Freeware on what you can do with the Function keys (F1, F2, etc.) in Windows, and Office.

Education:  Listverse tells us some things we probably didn't know about newborn babies.

Health: NPR on how to pick a doctor, or how to change doctors.

Politics: Catherine Rampell on incriminating, or nearly such, e-mails between a Republican gerrymandering expert and a Census Bureau employee, a few years ago, about adding a question about citizenship to the census. There's also a discussion of the effect of adding such a question.

Relevant reports that when Russell Moore, an official of the Southern Baptist Convention, was one of many Christian leaders who decried conditions for immigrant children, Jerry Falwell, Jr., attacked Moore.

FiveThirtyEight posted "The First Democratic Debate in Five Charts." (The report combines the two nights of the debate.)

NPR reports that President Trump recently portrayed himself as helping the environment a lot.

Michael Gerson says that the President celebrated military victories, but not the character of the US.

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

Sunspots 735

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

 
Christianity: Christianity Today reports that men who attend church regularly are much less likely to watch pornography than others.

Relevant asks if Christians should own nice things.

(and politics) Relevant reports on a study that shows that the number of people who are refugees because of their faith, and let into the US, has dropped drastically.

Michael Gerson points out the dangers, to evangelicals, of continuing to praise President Donald Trump.

Computing: Gizmodo on whether your smart devices (such as a smart TV) can be attacked by a virus.

Education:  Grammarphobia on the use of "pee" for urination, and on related matters.

Health: A writer attempting to cover a national anti-vaccination conference describes that movement, and how she (and other reporters) was or have been kicked out.

Gizmodo reports that sitting and watching TV is worse for your health than other kinds of sitting.
 
Politics: Catherine Rampell on incriminating, or nearly such, e-mails between a Republican gerrymandering expert and a Census Bureau employee, a few years ago, about adding a question about citizenship to the census. There's also a discussion of the effect of adding such a question.

Relevant reports that when Russell Moore, an official of the Southern Baptist Convention, was one of many Christian leaders who decried conditions for immigrant children, Jerry Falwell, Jr., attacked Moore.

FiveThirtyEight posted "The First Democratic Debate in Five Charts." (The report combines the two nights of the debate.)

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

Sunspots 725

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

Christianity:  A Sojourners writer points out that churches for African Americans in Louisiana, burned recently, were just as sacred as Notre Dame. 

Finance: Catherine Rampell reports that multinational financial institutions have quickly gotten over their outrage at the death of Jamal Khashoggi.

Food: (and politics?) NBC News, and other outlets, report that the government is planning to stop regulating how many cherries are in frozen cherry pies. Seriously.

Health: (or something) Gizmodo reports that some entity poured lots of wet concrete into the London sewer system. Bad idea.

Politics: Catherine Rampell doesn't want a question on citizenship included in the 2020 census.

On the Mueller report: NPR reports that, based on Mueller's work, there were several people, associates of the President, but did not carry out his orders to do questionable things. Good for them!

Science: Gizmodo reports on the discovery of an ancient, and very large predatory mammal.

Scientific American uses an experiment which found some cell function in pig brains, a few hours after the brains had been removed, to ask questions about when, and if, to harvest organs for transplant.

Scientific American also reports that "bubble boy" disease (a non-functioning immune system) can be fixed, by correcting mistakes in the child's own DNA.

Gizmodo reports that the US Department of Agriculture is undercutting the system of peer review of scientific reports, which system has been in place for several decades, and works.
 
The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, I believe, it is public domain. 

Thanks for looking!

Counting the people

2 Samuel 24:2 The king said to Joab the captain of the army, who was with him, “Now go back and forth through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, and count the people, that I may know the sum of the people.”

3 Joab said to the king, “Now may Yahweh your God add to the people, however many they may be, one hundred times; and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king delight in this thing?”

4 Notwithstanding, the king’s word prevailed against Joab, and against the captains of the army. Joab and the captains of the army went out from the presence of the king to count the people of Israel.
10 David’s heart struck him after he had counted the people. David said to Yahweh, “I have sinned greatly in that which I have done. But now, Yahweh, put away, I beg you, the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly.”


10-13. David's heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. And David said unto the Lord, I have sinned--The act of numbering the people was not in itself sinful; for Moses did it by the express authority of God. But David acted not only independently of such order or sanction, but from motives unworthy of the delegated king of Israel; from pride and vainglory; from self-confidence and distrust of God; and, above all, from ambitious designs of conquest, in furtherance of which he was determined to force the people into military service, and to ascertain whether he could muster an army sufficient for the magnitude of the enterprises he contemplated. (Excerpt from commentary on 2 Samuel 24, by Robert Jamieson, public domain. Source is here.)