Sunspots 994

 

The BBC reports that there were some significant gains in environmental and endangered species protection in 2025.

Duke law school has posted a listing of creations of many types that become public domain -- you or I can edit them or copy them without violating copyright -- on January 1, 2026.

Gizmodo reports that many US dams are in danger of failing, with, of course, catastrophic results.

National Public Radio reports that scientists have found 20 or more animal species, in several groups, that are new to science.

Weekend Fisher has posted a thorough discussion on the question of how ancient Jewish scholars viewed scripture passages on the Messiah.

Thanks for looking!

Sunspots 483

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

Computing: National Public Radio reports on robots made of paper, which folds into a functioning robot. (There's a brief video of this process.)
NPR also reports on the case of a monkey who took a photo of herself. Who owns the copyright?
Humor: (or something) National Public Radio reports on how to market snacks derived from insects.
Science: Wired reports on whether dogs can tell time, perhaps by smell.
Wired also reports on the microbes found in cheeses. There have been some surprises.
And Wired tells us that the white sands of Hawaiian beaches are mostly fish poop.
National Public Radio reports on the importance of mosses. Who knew?
Sports: Congratulations to Becky Hammon, who has been hired as the first full-time female assistant coach by the San Antonio Spurs, the NBA champions. She is the first full-time female coach ever hired by a major sports team in North America. See also yesterday's full-page article in USA Today.

Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 474

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

Christianity: The Huffington Post has an article telling us that we may be using "I've been blessed" entirely too much.
Computing: (or something) One of my photos was used by a Fox News web page, without my permission. Hardly a shock, and it could have been some other web site (and has been, sometimes.) Here's the original photo. They didn't spell my name correctly, but that happens a lot. Oh, well.
Education: (Or history, or politics) Robert Krulwich posts on people who had a parent, or grandparent, who remembered things from over a century ago -- human wormholes. Interesting.

Politics: (Sort of) National Public Radio reports on the death of the last of the Navajo Code Talkers, who used their own language to communicate secrets for the US military, in World War II. Navajo is so complex, and was so obscure to the Japanese, that they were unable to decipher the communications of the Code Talkers.
Science: Fox News reports on evidence that the moon and the earth have always been separate, but collided a long time ago.
The New York Times on a new procedure -- testing for all the DNA in a diseased person's body, and checking that DNA against all known disease-causing organisms, including parasites.
National Public Radio reports that spiders tune their webs, much like violinists tune their violins, although not for the same reasons.
  Image source (public domain)