Sunspots 975

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

Gizmodo reports on diamond batteries, which would hold a charge for hundreds of years, and not have the dangers of lithium batteries.

Science Alert reports on evidence for high intelligence in Cephalopods (relatives of octopi).

SciTechDaily discusses the prevalence of saber teeth in animals of the past, and why they arose in more than one lineage, and why they disappeared from the fossil record.

Northern cardinal males are known for their bright red plumage. However, as Popular Science and other outlets report, occasionally they are yellow, not red.

Thanks for reading!

Geology and a world-wide flood (or not)

 I am not a geologist, but a recent article, written by a geologist, presents abundant geological evidence that the arrangement of rocks and fossils does not support the Young-Earth Creationist belief in a world-wide flood.

Thanks for reading.

Sunspots 933

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

Christianity: Christianity Today reports that an important source of congregational songs, especially in Southern Baptist churches, is ceasing to publish.

Environment:  NPR discusses those Canadian wildfires.

A Conversation article on how important rip currents are. (They aid the ocean's ecology.)

Another Conversation article examines recycling in depth. We aren't doing very well at it.

Food: (and finances) Fortune tells us why hamburgers are relatively cheap, compared to salads.

Health: A Conversation article discusses the dangers of exposure to heat.

Science: Gizmodo reports that two new species of sabertooth cats have been discovered.

The Smithsonian reports that we discover a new species of dinosaur nearly every two weeks.

An article in the Conversation tells us about huge freshwater fish, some weighing 500 pounds or more.

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

Thanks for reading.

Sunspots 875

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

Environment: (and politics) Gizmodo reports on a strange coal-favoring speech by the governor of West Virginia, whose family owns some coal mines. Among other things, he cast doubt on the idea of climate change, but said that God would give us time to alleviate it. Let's hope so.

Finances: Gizmodo explains the price of oil and gas.

Health: Gizmodo reports that regular alcohol use, even in small quantities, is associated with shrinking of the brain.

Humor: (or something) ListVerse tells us some interesting facts about the "rock, paper, scissors" game.

Politics: (or something) Gizmodo reports that smart guns (which require some sort of ID before they can be used) are becoming more acceptable.

NPR reports that Congress has passed legislation that would strengthen the postal service, in bipartisan fashion.

Science: Gizmodo reports on a way to stop murder hornets from migrating away from where they are now: attract the males into traps, using insect sex hormones.

The Scientist reports that some mongolian rodents can, and do, modify their environment, making them more safe.

Gizmodo reports on a fossil mammal from the San Diego area that had saber teeth, but wasn't a member of the cat family.

Sports: FiveThirtyEight analyzes the effect of moving the 3-point line back, in women's college basketball.

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 848

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

Christianity: Relevant reports that a majority of self-identified Christians under 40 think that Christ isn't the only way to salvation.

Relevant also reports that a significant portion of guitar sales are for church worship purposes.

(and Politics) FiveThirtyEight on why white evangelicals have such a low COVID vaccination rate.

(and Politics) Relevant on what the Bible says about how to treat refugees. Christianity Today on the same subject.

Education: Grammarphobia explains why "duck" has so many meanings.

Environment: Gizmodo reports that, for the first time ever known, it rained in the heart of Greenland's ice sheet.

Gizmodo also reports that (surprise!) Texas isn't requiring big petroleum companies to follow practices that are supposed to be required, and would cut down on climate change effects.

Health: Gizmodo reports on a study indicating that the number of people with hypertension (high blood pressure), worldwide, has risen a lot in the past 30 years.

Science: Gizmodo reports on a study of types of rhinoceros, and their ancestry. The five species now alive are all in danger, from poaching or habitat destruction.

Gizmodo also reports that some paper wasps make fluorescent nests. Their function is unclear at present.

Gizmodo also has a good article on how fossils are dated.

Sports: FiveThirtyEight on how the NCAA treats women's sports poorly.

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 822

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

The Arts: Some Gizmodo writers discuss the question of why music moves us emotionally.

Christianity: Relevant has a disturbing article on the pervasiveness of pornography, and its effects (people who watch pornography are more likely to divorce, for one). The pervasiveness seems to be as 

Education: Grammarphobia on the history of the words grid and gridiron.

Finance: (or something) Gizmodo reports on an analysis which says that Texans have paid 28 billion dollars more for power, over the last few years, than they would have if their grid had been regulated like other grids.

Politics: Gizmodo reports on congressional hearings aimed to cut down on misinformation. It's an interesting read, pointing out more than one side's misinformation, but no conclusions were found.

NPR reports that Russian diplomats and their families left North Korea by way of a manually pushed rail handcart.

Science: Gizmodo reports that there are a lot of double stars in our galaxy, meaning that, on many planets, there would often be two sun shadows of the same object, or person.

Gizmodo also reports on studies of fossil dinosaurs. There aren't many fossils of medium-sized dinosaurs, and the reason seems to be that the young of Tyrannosaurus rex and similar forms out-competed them.

Gizmodo also reports on the development of flying drones, the size of a cicada.

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

Thanks for looking!

Sunspots 805

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

Christianity: Christianity Today examines the status of women, as shown by the Bible's text.

Christianity Today also has an article on "Why Evangelicals Disagree on the President"

Computing: Gizmodo reports that a camera, using artificial intelligence, confused a referee's bald head with the soccer ball that it was supposed to be tracking.

Ethics: (Or something) Relevant reports that Jerry Falwell, Jr., is suing Liberty University over his forced resignation.

Science: A new coral reef has been discovered, off of Australia, according to Gizmodo and other outlets.

NPR reports on cells, in our brains, that help us recall events in proper sequence.

Listverse has a photo essay on amazing happenings from long ago, captured by fossils.

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

Thanks for looking!

Sunspots 779

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

Environment: Gizmodo reports that deep-sea mining damages the ocean floor ecosystem for years, maybe decades, to come.

Health: FiveThirtyEight tells us why scientists don't believe that the current dangerous virus came from a lab in Wuhan, China.

Politics: FiveThirtyEight says that Mr. Biden probably won't announce his running mate for quite a while.

President Trump's favorability ratings, among white evangelical Christians, took a plunge in April, according to Relevant.

FiveThirtyEight discusses the "Never Trump" (Republicans, or former Republicans) voters, who are unhappy with Mr. Trump.

Science: Fossil bones of a number of giant sloths (about the size of an elephant!) have been found in Ecuador.

Gizmodo tells us about giant hornets, which, among other things, feed on honeybees they have killed.

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

Thanks for looking!

Sunspots 704

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

The Arts: NPR reports on Antonin Dvořák's influence on American music, and how he tried to incorporate African-American music into mainstream classical music. Dvořák was a Czech, and he wrote the "New World" symphony.
  Ethics: A Chinese scientist claims to have altered the DNA of twin girls, so that they are less likely to succumb to AIDS, if they are ever exposed to it. Scientists and ethicists have had an almost entirely negative reaction to this news, for more than one reason, and there has been some skepticism that the result was as claimed. See here and here.

Health: (or something) Listverse describes 10 creepy things that bodies do after a person has died.

Humor: (or something) Gizmodo reports that it takes about 42 hours for an adult male who has swallowed a LEGO head to pass it through the gut. Really.

Science: Gizmodo reports that an elephant-sized mammal-like creature lived during the time when dinosaurs also lived.

Scientific American on the redefinition of the kilogram, and the likely redefinition of other measures, including the mole, the Ampere, and degrees Kelvin. This gets pretty geeky . . .


The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, I believe, it is public domain.
Thanks for looking!

Sunspots 696

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

Christianity: Weekend Fisher lets the Gospel of Mark tell us what it is about, and how it is structured.

Michael Gerson, of the Washington Post, attacks the hypocrisy, and political wrong-headedness, of the adulation some evangelical leaders have for President Trump.

Finance: (and health, and politics) NBC News, and other outlets, report that an Associated Press investigation shows that President Trump's claim, in May, that drug prices would be falling in two weeks, was false. Drug prices have been rising, unfortunately.

Science: Gizmodo asks if perfect memory would be a blessing or a handicap.

FiveThirtyEight reports that we are bad at being able to tell whether another person is lying or not.

Scientific American on why nicotine is so addictive.

And Scientific American says that cats aren't really very likely to catch rats.

And Scientific American also reports on the largest birds that ever lived.


Sports: Two women will be (and already have been) broadcasting NFL football games for Amazon.

The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, I believe, it is public domain. I also believe that it was first used in Sunspots, 13 years ago today. Thanks for looking!

Thanks for looking!

Sunspots 627

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

Christianity: Benjamin L. Corey argues that a Christian pacifist, and/or a Christian who refuses to use a gun on others, is not, therefore, a coward.

FiveThirtyEight reports on a study that says that as much as 25% of the US population may be atheists, although most of them don't identify themselves as such.

Christianity Today analyzes the influence of theologian Reinhold Niebuhr on James Comey, the recently fired head of the FBI, and on other prominent public figures.


Computing: Pro Publica reports that some Trump properties, including Mar-a-Lago, used by the President and other important figures, have networks that could easily be hacked. Wired has more on this.

Open Broadcaster Software is a free tool for recording and live streaming video.

The Conversation argues that banning laptops on airplanes would do little to increase security.

Listverse discusses the origin of 10 fonts currently in use.

Politics: Scientific American reports that the Republican governors of Vermont and Massachusetts are seriously concerned about the current and future effects of global warming, and are urging the Trump administration to continue trying to slow it down.

FiveThirtyEight gives a thorough analysis of the likelihood of President Trump being removed from office by the Congress.

Science: The History Blog reports on a fossil Nodosaur.

Scientific American reports that plants may be able to hear.

Scientific American also reports on an apple-picking robot. (With video)


Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 616

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

The Arts: (and Sports) National Public Radio reports on how to practice effectively.

Christianity: A Relevant writer tells us that worship may be personal, but it isn't private.


Computing: Gizmo's Freeware has posted about a utility which can find deleted files.

Ethics: National Public Radio reports that scientists have been able to culture human embryos for 14 days or more, and discusses the ethical implications of this.

Food: A Relevant writer says that 40% of the food in the US is thrown away, and that's a stewardship problem.

Health: NPR says that, if you wonder what happened to a supposed miracle cure of some kind, wonder no more. About half of news stories about medical breakthroughs are about items that are found not to really help us.

Politics: (sort of) Listverse discusses alternative facts.

Wired on Mr. Trump's accusation of illegal wiretaps by the Obama administration.

Science: Scientific American says that the District of Columbia cherry trees will probably bloom earlier this year than they ever have.

National Public Radio reports on possible finding of the oldest fossils ever found.



Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 604

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

Christianity: Benjamin L. Corey tells us that Christmas is not a pagan holiday, nor was it based on one.


Health: (or something) Listverse reports on how hair color influences various aspects of our health.

National Public Radio reports on volunteer (almost always family members) caregivers. They need training, and at least some of them are getting it.

History: Listverse describes 10 mysterious libraries of the past.

Politics: Scientific American has published an open letter to President-elect Trump, urging him to take six actions relative to climate change (none of which are to deny its existence! -- which he may, or may not, have done) from over 800 scientists in climatology and related fields.

Science: (or something) National Public Radio muses on the topic of whether the Neanderthals had a religion.

Todd Wood, a young-earth creationist with impeccable scientific credentials. discusses a fossil of a dinosaur with feathers. (The fossil was preserved in amber, meaning that it's better preserved than most fossils. The feather structure is clearly visible.)

Scientific American discusses the intelligence of octopi.

FiveThirtyEight on the Waffle House index for natural disasters.


Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 578

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


Christianity: An articulate former atheist describes her process of coming to belief, in Christianity Today.

Ken Schenck on what the Bible says about bearing false witness.

The Environment: National Public Radio reports on a study of light pollution. 80% of North Americans can't see the Milky Way, because of so much light at night. We can't see it from our home. Can you?

Finance: Relevant and other sources report that HBO's John Oliver purchased (he says it's easy to do it) $15,000,000 "worth" of medical debt for about $60,000, and forgave all the debtors.

Health: The New York Times reports that the US is about 25th in the world in infant care.

Politics: Sojourners reports that Russell Moore, an important Southern Baptist, believes that Donald Trump is a lost soul, who should repent.

A woman writes, in Christianity Today, about being refused the use of women's restrooms, and other facilities.

Science: National Public Radio reports on our relationship with dogs. We may have domesticated dogs twice, or perhaps they domesticated us twice.

Listverse describes 10 groups of organisms that have been extinct for a long time. Like Trilobites, and lesser known creatures.

Science News reports that it may be possible to produce fully pluripotent stem cells from adult cells, thus making the use of embryonic cells unnecessary.

Sports: USA Today says that the first 14 LPGA golf tournaments of 2016 were won by young women -- under 23, until a week or so ago. The most recent one, a major tournament, which finished on June 13, was won by the youngest player ever to win a that major, in a playoff with another player who would also have been the youngest. Both are still teenagers.


Image source (public domain)  

Sunspots 498

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:
Christianity: Relevant on redefining gratitude. (On being grateful for things we usually aren't grateful for.)
Computing: National Public Radio reports that major retailers have done little or nothing to prevent massive data misuse, as in the Target and Home Depot incidents. Why not? Because the credit card companies are picking up the tab. (So, of course, are consumers.)
NPR also reports on the potential (and actual) power of tech giants to control the news that we see and hear.
Health: National Public Radio tells us that our adult siblings may be quite important to our health.
Politics: (and Science) Fox News reports that some Google engineers claim that so-called green energy sources, by themselves, won't stop climate change. The article also mentions that Google is heavily invested in alternative energy sources.
Science: Capital OTC reports that a fossil ancestor of rhinos, hippos and horses has been found in India. Geologists believe that most of India was once a separate island.
Sports: You've probably seen it five times, but, just in case, here's the three-finger catch of a football, for a touchdown, by one Odell Beckham, of the New York Giants.

 Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 367

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

Science: (or something) Internet information about a very large crocodile, recently killed in Africa, has most likely been exaggerated. However, there was a very large crocodile killed there. This link includes a photo.

National Geographic reports on the successful launch of a commercial spaceflight, which apparently contained cremated remains of James Doohan (Montgomery Scott, aka "Scotty" of the original Star Trek) and Astronaut Gordon Cooper.

National Geographic also reports on recovery of ink from the ink sacs of a fossil squid-like creature, said to be 160 million years old. The ink is similar to that of the modern cuttlefish.

The Arts: (or manufacturing) Wired reports (including a video of just over 2 minutes) on a machine designed to bend wire in most any way, resulting in 2 or 3 dimensional objects.

E. Stephen Burnett tells us what stories should be all about.

Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 282

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

Science: Wired reports on a fossil penguin, which stood about 5 feet (1.6 meters) in height. I was surprised to find out that there is evidence of the color of the feathers, and at least some of the bird's feathers were red.

Wired also reports on experiments in group behavior. Groups that did better on the tests administered did not have the most intelligent individuals, but the most socially aware individuals -- and women are more socially aware than men.

National Public Radio has a conversation with a behavioral scientist who has studied how we interact with dentists. It turns out that, the more we trust our dentists, the more they are likely to administer expensive, or unnecessary, treatments.

Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 242

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

Science: The Panda's Thumb presents some photos of skulls, and asks us if they are of apes, or humans.

The New York Times has an article on "How to Train the Aging Brain."

Music:
(The arts, really) heard, by way of CNN, that Patrick Stewart, who played Star Trek Captain Jean-Luc Picard, among many other roles, was to have been knighted on January 1st.


Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 212

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

Humor:
(or art) Wired says that a Swedish artist has been sending all sorts of strange items through the European postal system -- unwrapped.

Science:
(sort of) Wired on the association between Peanuts, the comic strip, and NASA.

The Panda's Thumb reports on a newly discovered fossil primate. It's not nearly as important as the hype over it has indicated.

CSI, NCIS, etc., notwithstanding, much forensics, such as fingerprint analysis, is not really backed by solid scientific research, reports the New York Times .

Politics:
(sort of) Wired tells us that the Federal Communications Commission can search your house or business without a warrant.

Image source (public domain)

Young-Earth Creationism and fossils

A post in the Panda's Thumb refers to a 1995 article by Kurt Wise, and labels him an "honest creationist." (The Panda's Thumb post indicates how to access the article by Wise.) The Wikipedia article on him indicates that he is an important and influential young-earth creationist. He has more than adequate scientific credentials, having taken a Ph. D. in paleontology at Harvard under the late Stephen Jay Gould.

Wise says, in the indicated article, at least two interesting and important things:

". . . there is no sense in which creationist paleontology at this point is capable of addressing the traditional transitional forms issue in any rigorous sense." CEN Tech J., vol 9, no. 2, 1995, p. 216.

"Evidence for not just one but for all three of the species level and above types of stratomorphic intermediates expected by macroevolutionary theory is surely strong evidence for macroevolutionary theory. Creationists therefore need to accept this fact. It certainly CANNOT said that traditional creation theory expected (predicted) any of these fossil finds." p. 219 (emphasis in original)

Wise is not about to give up young-earth creationism, and he makes that clear. He believes that explanations compatible with young-earth creationism can be found eventually. However, he argues, in this article, that young-earth creationist scientists should be concentrating on fields other than fossil transitional forms.

Even though this article is nearly 15 years old, I know no evidence that young-earth creationist paleontology has changed enough in the meantime to negate what Wise said in 1995. In other words, the fossil record can be taken as providing evidence which supports mainstream evolutionary theory.

Thanks for reading.