Sunspots 922

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

Christianity (and Sports): According to KMBC News, Patrick Mahones, Kansas City quarterback, is not shy about his Christian faith.

Environment: Gizmodo reports that the court system might finally hold oil companies accountable for knowing that use increased climate temperature, but denying that.

Food: (and Science) A Conversation writer tells us a lot about the processing of chocolate.

Politics: FiveThirtyEight analyzes the current congressional  Republicans.

FiveThirtyEight also discusses the effectiveness of gun laws. We don't know much about this because government was forbidden to study some of these, until recently.

NPR on why we didn't hear about 4 other incursions by Chinese balloons.

Science: Gizmodo reports that Neanderthals hunted what would today be supersized elephants, several thousands of years ago, in Europe.

NPR reports that artificial intelligence programs are a dismal failure at planning for a rocket launch.

NPR also reports that commuting may make working life less stressful.

Gizmodo reports that Jupiter has 92 verified moons, which is more than Saturn has, but searches for more around Saturn are continuing.

The Scientist reports that structures made from human brain cells respond to visual stimuli when placed in rat brains.

Todd Wood on Neanderthal hunting of giant elephants.

Sports: (and Finances) FiveThirtyEight shows, graphically, how the NFL has captured the attention of the US over the past several years.

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

Thanks for reading.

Sunspots 861

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

Christianity: Relevant tells us that Christmas was not largely stolen from pagan celebrations.

Computing: Gizmodo reports that Microsoft is making progress on storing information in DNA, rather than on tape or in other ways usually used in computers.

Environment: The Biden administration is approving fossil fuel leases at a higher rate than the Trump administration did, according to Gizmodo.

Health: (and Politics) NPR reports that counties that were strongly pro-Trump in the last election have "far higher death rates. [from COVID]"

Politics: FiveThirtyEight tells us what Americans really think about abortion.

Science: Gizmodo reports on a study that indicates that dog breeds are highly inbred.

Gizmodo reports that four states experienced record high temperatures for December.

Gizmodo also reports on bees that survived a volcanic eruption.

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

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

Thanks for reading.

Sunspots 790

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to

someone else:

Christianity: National Public Radio reports that multi-racial congregations don't really bridge the gaps between the cultures of races.

Christianity Today has an article saying that white churches don't really deal with racism.

Computing: Gizmodo tells us about a single web page that lets you click on a variety of non-keyboard symbols, and then copy them into a document. I tried a few: ∛ ⊗ ↘ π ♫. This works in Word, as well as in my HTML editor.

Education: Gizmo's Freeware tells us about the online etymology dictionary.


Environment: Gizmodo reports that Morgan Stanley has begun keeping track of their investments in fossil fuel development projects.

Health: Gizmodo reports on a government study that recommends no more than one drink (whatever that means) of alcohol per day for all adults.

Politics: Leonard Pitts blames her church, her parents, and a lot of other entities, including traditional news media, for the death of Carsyn Leigh Davis, after she attended a mask-free celebration for teens at her church.

FiveThirtyEight analyzes the data, and finds that Trump has a problem with voter enthusiasm, as does Biden.

FiveThirtyEight also finds that most Republican governors are getting low polling marks for their handling of COVID-19, and most Democratic governors are getting good marks.

Heart, Mind, Soul and Strength looks back at the George Floyd story.


Science: Gizmodo reports on evidence, from preserved dung, that humans came to North America about 14,000 years ago.

Inverse reports that some deep-sea fish have extremely black materials as part of their skin.

Gizmodo reports on a material that can't be cut.


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

Thanks for looking!