Sunspots 746

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to

someone else:

Christianity: Relevant on the most neglected spiritual discipline. (You should be able to figure out what that is.)


Computing: Gizmo's Freeware evaluates a browser add-in that extracts text from photos, .PDF files, and other on-line stuff.

Education: Grammarphobia discusses the use of the word "scrub." (Note: that word is used in computing, as well as in floor care.)

Environment: (or something) Listverse tells us about 10 beautiful and bizarre natural features.

Catherine Rampell attacks the Trump administration's recent roll=back of clean water regulations, and questions the supposed growth-causing effect of the general roll-back of regulations, and also points out that at least some industries don't want environmental regulations affecting them rolled back.

Earther asks, and answers the question: "when will we run out of water?"
 
Finance: (or something) Changes are coming to the Amish in Pennsylvania, says NPR.

History: Michael Gerson says that the Founders, like Jefferson should have known that slavery was wrong -- there were those that spoke out against it in their time.

Politics: Relevant reports that President Trump accidentally insulted the pastor of a church in Kentucky. The pastor responded, saying that "Your heart must be in a dangerous place to have such a consistent flow of defamation and disrespect towards so many." He also suggested that Trump exercise more self-control, and that he try to be humble and apologize more.

FiveThirtyEight charts the most recent Democratic debate.


Science: Catherine Rampell tells us about some of the ways that the Trump administration is trying to downplay the importance of measurable facts. The recent flap over a weather report is just one such episode.

The Scientist, and other outlets, report that an electric eel, packing a walloping 860 Volts, has been discovered.

Sports: High tech in baseball: FiveThirtyEight discusses how being able to measure the spin of a thrown or batted ball may be affecting home run frequency.

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

Thanks for looking!

Sunspots 611

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:
Christianity: Sojourners is not happy with efforts to slow down, or restrict, the entry of refugees to the US. Christianity Today has a related post and another one.

And Benjamin L. Corey reminds us, with scripture, that being hospitable to strangers (including refugees) is a heaven or hell issue.


Computing: Gizmo's Freeware has published an annotated list of the best free software to protect your system.

Food: Listverse reports on 10 foods made from poop, vomit or spit.

History: Scientific American gives brief biographies of the three African-American women that the current movie, Hidden Figures, is mostly about.

Listverse tells us about ways in which colors had (and still do) significance.

Humor: (sort of) Listverse tells us the answers to questions we might have had about 10 movies.

Politics: Scientific American reports that the National Park Service is resisting efforts by the Trump administration to stop its communications through social media. Other government agencies related to science have also been silenced, or have been asked to be less communicative.

Science: National Public Radio has an essay on science and facts.

Scientific American reports on why and how LSD works.



Image source (public domain)

Losing our moral compass and elementary education

An eye-opening essay from a college philosophy professor with a second-grade child makes an interesting claim. That claim is that second-graders, and others, are taught that there are two mutually exclusive things: facts and opinions. (Also known as facts and beliefs.) Furthermore, they are taught that value claims are opinions. But classroom rules, such as "you shouldn't copy someone else's work" are value claims. So there is a logical mess imposed on children by their teachers, and the educational system, that most teachers don't perceive. And, says the author, it's no wonder that college students think that there are no moral absolutes -- they are all opinions.

The article gives examples of ideas that are both facts and opinions, and his examples are easy to understand, and convincing.

I think the man is on to something.

I'm not an expert on the Common Core, and I don't think the author is, either. He says that the Common Core standards impose this dangerous distinction. No doubt they do, but my understanding is that elementary students were taught such distinctions before the Common Core was ever thought of. It is important to understand when someone is stating an opinion which is not based on truth, such as, unfortunately, most of the advertisements on TV, for example.

The author teaches philosophy of religion at a public college. He says nothing about Judaeo-Christian beliefs, as such, in his article. Which, by the way, appeared on an opinion page in the New York Times.

Thanks for reading. Read the article.

Theories, facts, laws and doubting the truth of natural selection

In my small way, I have argued for many years that part of the disagreements over origins are because terms haven't been well defined. I was thinking principally of the term, "evolution," which, to some, is mostly about, say, the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, while to others is about the origin of living things by exclusively random, purposeless processes.

I'm right about that. There is some muddy thinking about the meaning of evolution, some of it purposefully muddy, probably. Such muddiness has led to some unnecessary and avoidable disagreements on the topic of origins. However, I haven't gone far enough. There is also disagreement, or misunderstanding, about such important terms as fact, theory, law, and hypothesis, as they are used by scientists, and by the public at large. Again, such misunderstanding has led to some unnecessary and avoidable disagreement about origins, especially in statements such as "evolution is just a theory, so it doesn't need to be taken seriously." A recent article has attempted to clarify these matters.

The author, T. Ryan Gregory, writes that "Theories explain facts and are tested by generating hypotheses. No matter how much information accrues, hypotheses never become theories, and theories never graduate into laws. These terms describe three distinct aspects of science." ("Evolution as Fact, Theory and Path," Evo. Edu. Outreach (2008) 1:46–52, November 20, 2007. Quote is from p. 48.) He explains his reasoning carefully, and I believe that most all scientists, whatever their beliefs about origins, would agree with it. I also believe that non-scientists can read and understand his reasoning.

He also says:
That evolution is a theory in the proper scientific sense means that there is both a fact of evolution to be explained and a well-supported mechanistic framework to account for it. To claim that evolution is “just a theory” is to reveal both a profound ignorance of modern biological knowledge and a deep misunderstanding of the basic nature of science. (p. 50)

Gregory also points out that there is an opposite error sometimes made, namely that evidence of common descent is taken as evidence for natural selection, which, he says, does not necessarily follow.

Thanks for reading!