Sunspots 1007

 

Gizmodo reports that President Trump praised the launching of an amazing new telescope. The Administration had tried to end the program a couple of times recently.

Gizmodo also discusses a recent attempt to have maps of the earth make Africa as appearing more like its real size. (Current maps make it look too small.) Since Gizmodo mentioned this, I have read, from a source that I can't locate, that the US is against this change.

Gizmodo also reports that lots of people, world-wide, are dying because of second-hand smoke.

And Gizmodo also reports that toilet flushing spreads dangerous microbes. Suggestion: close the lid before flushing the commode.

And another Gizmodo article reports on how the Environmental Protection Agency is working to NOT protect the environment.  This report is on greenhouse gases. Other actions by the Trump administration are removing protection of national parks and endangered species.

NPR considers the possible problems for air traffic, due to Trump's proposed arch.

The Good  News Network, and other sources, report on the discovery of a new South American cat species.

Sunspots 991

 

Ken Schenck has been writing an up-to-date version of C. S. Lewis's Screwtape Letters. Here is the 23rd chapter.

A Conversation writer discusses maps created for her stories by Ursula  K. Le Guin, arguably the most importaant writer of fantastic literature in the past several decades.

The New Republic reports that obese people may not be allowed to get a US Visa.

Sunspots 787

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

Christianity: Relevant reports on a poll on whether people are comfortable with going back to church.

Ken Schenck discusses Inspiration, Infallibility, and Inerrancy.

A Christianity Today writer tells us that, in the Bible, Black Lives Matter.

Education: A collection of interesting maps you've never seen before, such as what language is spoken most commonly in each US state, after English and Spanish.


Health: FiveThirtyEight discusses mask research.

Humor: Gizmo's Freeware reports on on-line jigsaw puzzles.


Politics: FiveThirtyEight has a longish article on the history of race and the Republican party.

Science: Gizmodo reports that sled dogs have been around for about 10,000 years.

Gizmodo also reports on a newly discovered ecosystem, in the ocean off the coast of Greenland.

The Scientist reports that gene editing of human embryos may be dangerous.


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

Thanks for looking!

Sunspots 759

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

Christianity: FiveThirtyEight on the decline in connection with religion among millennials.

Christianity Today reports on a study of sermon length in various Christian churches.
 
Education: (and Humor) Listverse on ten silly English words.

You should look at these maps, in a post from Listverse. They will probably change the way you think about the world.

Environment: (And Christianity) Christianity Today reports on efforts, by the World Evangelical Alliance, to use solar power for churches.

Health: NPR reports that exposure to green light may be a treatment for pain, such as that from migraine headaches.

Politics: According to Relevant, President Trump, in yet another attempt to stop immigration, has issued an executive order prohibiting resettlement, unless local government agrees. An evangelical group has petitioned governors to allow such resettlement. Some governors have agreed.

FiveThirtyEight has a great essay on what's what with the two major political parties. Democrats, it says, are less about identity groups, more about ideology, than they used to be, and Republicans are more about identity groups and less about ideology, than they used to be.

Science: (or something) WHNS-TV reports that a recent flurry of attacks on horses, in the field, were due to wild hogs. Here's an earlier report on the attacks.

The Scientist reports on feather-eating lice -- they've been around a long time, like on dinosaurs.

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

Sunspots 607

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

Christianity: Relevant reports that a Christian is martyred for his/her faith about every six minutes.


Food: Listverse reports on 10 strange ways to make, and/or serve, ice cream.

Health: National Public Radio reports on a study that found that being the mother of a middle-schooler is more stressful than being the mother of a newborn or a teenager.

NPR also has a report on the state of knowledge of Alzheimer's.

NPR on how poor eating habits can impair your ability to think.

History: Listverse posts on 10 beautiful ancient maps.

Politics: Relevant reports that nearly 30,000 people have been the victims of violence in Venezuela this year.

Science: A simple, almost free solution to defrosting a car window quickly.

Listverse reports on 10 amazing inventions, inspired by structures and processes in living things.
Sports:


Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 522

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:
Christianity: A review of Lauren Winner's book, Wearing God, by Relevant. Winner discusses some interesting Biblical metaphors for God in the interview, and the book. Not just Father, or Lord.


Relevant also tells us 5 ways that viewing pornography ruins a marriage.


Computing: National Public Radio reports on how good a job (or not) various traffic and map apps really do.

 
Health: Wired has some suggestions for making the development of effective antibiotics more attractive to drug companies.

Politics: Benjamin L. Corey believes he knows what a truly Bible-based nation would look like. Maybe not like you think.


Science:  Wired tells us about a woman who has deliberately let 200,000 bedbugs bite her.

Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 453

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:
Christianity: Threads from Henry's Web on not saying "This is what the Greek really means ...". (He also mentions that it's strange that so much effort is put into more, or updated, English translations, when there are language groups without the scriptures, or with old translations, or only part of the Bible.)
Computing: Wired reports on how the NSA "almost killed the Internet."
Humor: (and politics, and a lot of other things) A web page with 40 maps. Examples of what is mapped: the most common surnames in Europe, by country; where in the world the metric system is not used; which countries have cars drive on the right; and the occupation of the highest paid public employees in each state of the union.
Politics: Columnist Michael Gerson on liberals, libertarians, and conservatives.
Science: Wired reports on new designs for spacesuits, such as would be needed for an expedition to Mars.
Sports: An orthodox Jewish player for Northwestern wore a yarmulke during a game.


Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 432

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

Christianity: Leaving aside who is right and who is wrong, Charles Haynes, columnist, says, I believe correctly, that public school teachers and curricula are not adequately equipped to "teach the controversy" over origins.

Health: (And life and death) Wired reports on how we don't monitor carbon monoxide very well, with, sometimes, deadly consequences.

Politics: (and science) Four public servants, who served as heads of the Environmental Protection Agency under Republican presidents, for a total of 43 years of service, have combined to chastise all too many Republican legislators for dismissing climate change, and failing to act on it.

The lyrics to "When Did Jesus Become a Republican?"

Science: Wired reports on maps of past data, showing how likely you may be to suffer from floods, tornadoes, etc.



Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 390

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

Science: An astronomical object, 20 million light-years in length -- that's really long -- has been discovered, according to Wired.

Scientists in Italy have been convicted of not giving sufficient warning about an earthquake, according to The Daily Beast.

Dinosaurs probably had feathers, and the feathers may have been colored, perhaps used in courtship displays, according to reports by National Public Radio and the Scientific American. See here and here.

Philosophy: Do plants have rights? Some think that they do. (Some don't!) NPR reports.

Computing: You may think you own books, and other media, that you obtain from Apple, Amazon, and other commercial sources. Not so. Furthermore, Wired reports that all the content you have paid to use may be removed. Whoops.!

Christianity: Project Gutenberg has recently released the public domain Rand-McNally Bible Atlas by Hurlbut, in several versions. There is an abundance of maps and charts. I took the HTML version and went to the large version of a couple dozen maps or so, and saved them for later use. I also took the Windows Snipping tool (any screen capture tool should work) and saved some of the charts, some of which were on subjects I had never thought of, such as how much land each tribe got, under Joshua. I also hope to use the Kindle version. There are more versions.

Image source (public domain)