Sunspots 920

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

Christianity: A Christianity Today writer says that the American church should celebrate diversity, not shun it.

Computing: The US State Department is changing fonts/typefaces, and not everyone is happy about it.

Gizmodo gives us a primer on ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence tool.

Education: (and computing) a Gizmodo author argues that teachers should adapt to writing generated by artificial intelligence, rather than trying to stamp that out.

Finances: NPR tells us why the price of eggs has gone up so much.

Politics: A writer for The Conversation analyzes Florida Governor DeSantis's injustice denial.

Science: Gizmodo reports that the amount of artificial light at night is rapidly making it more difficult to see stars.

NPR reports that we may be choosing the wrong kinds of stones to skip across water.

According to the MIT Technology Review, an alligator gene has been added to catfish, making them more resistant to infections. (Lots of catfish are eaten in the US).

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

Thanks for reading.

Sunspots 632

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

Christianity: Relevant and Sojourners report that many evangelical organizations are calling for prison and sentencing reform -- there are too many people in prison for too long, and too many of them are African-American. Attorney General Sessions, on the other hand, seems to want to put as many people behind bars as possible, for as long as possible.

An article in Christianity Today argues that most evangelical Christians have either mostly ignored social injustices, or ignored Biblical principles about sex and family matters.


Computing: The Wikipedia is has competition various right-wing on-line encyclopedias, according to Wired.

(sort of) National Public Radio reports that a man has been fined $120,000,000 for placing millions of robocalls, including some to emergency numbers and hospitals.

Education: "Why teachers suck."

History: Listverse discusses 10 things about our history that most of us get wrong.

Politics: Sojourners reports that a broad coalition of Christians is expressing united opposition to the President's budget, and to the House's health-care bill, and warning against what they believe to be coming in the Senate version of this bill. Their chief complaint is that help for the poor would be cut drastically. (Note - budgets submitted by Presidents rarely, if ever, are approved without significant changes.)

Relevant says that it's time for the church to address gun violence.

National Public Radio reports on a survey, which indicates that more than 80% of Americans believe people with mental illness should not be allowed to have guns; background checks should be done for private sales and gun shows; and guns should not be sold to people on no-fly or terror watch lists.

Science: The Anchorage Daily News reports on how killer whales are interfering with fishermen, apparently communicating with each other, and teaching their young in interference techniques.

National Public Radio reports on why different bird species have eggs with different shapes.




Image source (public domain)