Sunspots 965

Things I have spotted that may be of interest to others:

Scientific American discusses tattoo ink. We don't really know what's in it. 

Scientific American also discusses the discovery of irrational numbers. We don't know that history very well.

Science Friday and other outlets report that elephants have names for other elephants.

NPR reports that some woodpeckers peck on metal to make a lot of noise, and explains why they do this.

Sunspots 950

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to others*

Environment: A Conversation writer discusses making forests less susceptible to fires.

Health: (Or something) Gizmodo reports that the US is running low on laxatives, probably, in part, because of TikTok influencers. Really.

TheScientist discusses chronic itch -- lasting for months, maybe years.

NPR reports on populations that live for a long time, and why.

A Conversation article tells us why fevers are (usually) good for us.

Science: Gizmodo reports that some Italian scientists say that they have produced a human embryo, from stem cells, not from a normal fertilized egg. They say that this is an ethical procedure. No doubt there will be questions about that.

TheScientist reports on a study that describes what makes mouse hairs turn gray with age.

ScienceAlert reports that elephants may name each other with sound patterns.

*I try not to include items that require a password or fee to view

Thanks for reading.

Sunspots 590

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

Christianity: A Florida State football player ate lunch with an autistic boy who was eating alone in his school cafeteria, says Relevant.

A blogger has posted some stupid phrases, or good phrases used stupidly, for people in crisis.

Benjamin L. Corey says that Christian parents should be celebrating Colin Kaepernick's refusal to stand during the National Anthem.


Computing: Bloomberg warns us that our new refrigerators may be watching us (and sending information to others.)

Education: National Public Radio reports on a study that indicates that when a child in school is exposed to violence in the home, it affects the entire class.

Health: Wired says that too many of us still aren't wearing seat belts.

Scientific American, and many other news outlets, on why the ingredients in many antibacterial soaps have been banned. (Regular soap is just as good!)

History: ListVerse on 10 people who rescued others, who were on the other side, during World War II.

Politics: FiveThirtyEight discusses facts about immigration, based on real data. (Example: Hispanic immigrants learn English as well as, or better than, German immigrants did in the past.)

Science: Wired has posted a graphic, showing how rapidly climate has changed over the past 160 years or so.

FiveThirtyEight discusses what starlight tells us about the universe. As the post says, pretty much everything we know.

Scientific American discusses the matter of calling family members by some other family member's name.

Scientific American also discusses the subject of communicating with aliens -- how could we learn their language (or the reverse)? (There's a movie about that coming out soon.)

NPR reports that some lizards are starving to death, because it is too hot for them to forage during most of the day.



Image source (public domain)

I'm thankful for language

I’m thankful for language. With it we can think, as well as speak (although sometimes we don’t do enough thinking before we speak). Thinking includes imagining things as they might have been, as they might become, and even impossible things. We couldn’t do that without language. We can read and write. God chose to communicate the truth to us mostly through language. There are other species that can communicate, but none come close to the complexity and sophistication of human language. It’s not only complex and sophisticated, but ambiguous, and that makes for interesting puns, and, sometimes, miscommunication.

Thanks for reading this short essay, which used language.

I guess this applies to texting, e-mailing, social networking, and blogging

Proverbs 10:19 When words are many, transgression is not lacking,
but whoever restrains his lips is prudent. (ESV)

Enough said.