Sunspots 934

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

Christianity:  Christianity Today considers "replacement theory," the idea that white people are being replace by people of color in the US.

Computing: Gizmodo tells us that bad people can use the web cameras in children's computers to do bad things.

Finances: A Conversation writer tells us that the cost of going to a prom is not growing as fast as the consumer price index.

Food: A Conversation writer tells us that peanut butter is a liquid, and, as such, may be removed from the material you bring on a flight.

(And Ethics, and finances) A Conversation writer says that the US Supreme Court has considered the question of how much space to give animals raised for meat.

Health: A Conversation writer discusses the dangers of obesity.

(and Computing) Gizmodo reports on a study indicating that internet use helps older people to avoid dementia.

Science: A Conversation writer tells us about clothes moths.

Gizmodo reports that Saturn has 145 moons.

A Conversation writer discusses keeping track of where we've been, and what we are doing, using DNA in skin flakes.

NPR reports on when and why butterflies evolved from moths.

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

Thanks for reading. 

Sunspots 772

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

Christianity: (And Politics) Christianity Today reports on a survey that indicates that most white evangelicals do not like the President's behavior, but do like some of the policies that he has pushed. 

Christianity Today reports that regular church-goers are less likely to perceive the threat of the COVID-19 virus.

Computing: Gizmo's Freeware reports on a site that helps you be really private when on-line.

Listverse tells us about 10 flaws of the Wikipedia. (I still use it)l
 
Health: (or something) Listverse debunks some myths about washing your clothes.

A COVID19 tracker, that gives numbers of those testing positive and negative in each state, and the numbers of deaths.

(and Politics) Relevant reports that Jerry Falwell, head of Liberty University, believes that the recent virus outbreak was caused deliberately by North Korea, and maybe China, or was a politically motivated attempt to bring down President Trump. The Scientist, on the other hand, reports that at least one Chinese official says that the US started the spread of the disease in China. (President Trump has also complained about this action by some part of the Chinese establishment.)

History: Gizmodo reports on recent discoveries related to ritualistic sports, involving a court, and a rubber ball, in Mesomerica.

Relevant reports that Martin Luther had some good advice for communities threatened with a pandemic.

Science: The Scientist reports that some beetle larvae are able to live and grow on polystyrene, a plastic. This may mean that there is hope for getting out from under the load of plastic we are adding to the environment.

The Scientist also reports on the skull of a very tiny dinosaur, preserved in amber.

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

Thanks for looking!

Sunspots 567

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



Christianity: BioLogos reports that almost 100% of scientists believe that humans evolved over time. However, about 50% of white self-reported evangelical Christians who say that they attend church regularly believe that scientists are deeply divided over that question, when they clearly are not so divided.

Computing: From National Public Radio: a wide-ranging interview on cyber-privacy and the government's right to know. It includes a discussion about President Reagan seeing a scary movie.

Politics: (sort of) The New York Times discusses the effects of growing up in a bad neighborhood, and of leaving such a place fairly early in life.

Science: NPR on the unfortunate confusion about the word, theory, in science and elsewhere.

NPR also reports on what non-human primates are thinking.

NPR also reports on a new sort of artificial organism, manufactured from a previous one in nature, by removing genes, one by one, to get to those genes that the organism absolutely has to have, in order to grow and reproduce. We don't know what several dozen of those necessary genes do.

Listverse reports on 10 interesting strategies in the "war" between plants and bugs.

Sports: FiveThirtyEight backs up my guess that Breanna Stewart may be the best player ever, in women's college basketball, with statistics. (She's had lots of help, from Moriah Jefferson, Morgan Tuck and others.)

Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 439

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

Christianity: National Public Radio reports on preachers who handle snakes. There are some of them.

Computing: National Public Radio on how various companies (and perhaps the government) are finding out about us from our on-line activity.

Humor: (or engineering) Wired reports, with photos and a video, on a pen made of magnets. It can do some interesting things, indeed.

Philosophy: The Skeptical Zone has a post considering moral behavior in chimpanzees, or at least in a single chimpanzee.

Politics: ABC News reports that North Carolina government workers can not make use of climate change projections, in planning for the future of the NC coast, because the state legislature has made it illegal to do so. If you don't like the science results, just make outlaw them. Right.



Image source (public domain)

My neighbor: on anonymity

Our neighbor of over four decades passed away (isn't that an interesting idiom?) on Sunday, two days ago. This was not totally unexpected, as he had been hospitalized numerous times within the past couple of years. I was computing away one morning a couple of months ago, and saw an ambulance come to pick him up. He was able to walk to it. However, he never returned to his earthly home. He had respiratory problems, and heart problems.

Some observations:
1) Even though his death was not a total surprise, it surprised, as death always does, by its finality. This man's life is over. He's never returning home.
2) Our neighbor had become a Christian.When we first knew him, he wasn't one. There were times when he didn't act like one, and he didn't talk like one -- his conversation wasn't about Christ, and the Bible, and about his church (he didn't have one). Then, perhaps twenty years ago, all of this changed. He talked about God, he went to church whenever it was open, he read his Bible, and he said that he prayed daily. He was kinder and gentler. He was living testimony to the fact that belief in Christ can change a person's life.
3) Our neighbor was very careful about a number of things, such as how he spent his money, and how his cars, equipment, and house were treated. The most peculiar thing about him, at least that I knew of, was his reaction to junk mail. I took his mail out of the mailbox, and took it to him, or gave it to someone from his church that would see him soon, over the last months, and also before, when he was hospitalized for shorter periods.
How was he peculiar about junk mail? The first thing he would do would be to tear his address off the envelope, shred that with his hands, and then throw the envelope, and the shreds, in the trash. Why? I'm not really sure. It made no sense to me. But I went along with it. I love my neighbor, and respected his wishes. My conclusion is that he was trying to protect his privacy. He somehow thought that having his name and address intact on an envelope in a trash was an invitation to burglars, or to other pests. So he destroyed these bits of evidence that he existed. It didn't stop him from getting junk mail. It didn't make him anonymous -- he was in the phone book. I don't think he had a concept of on-line searches, but, trust me, he could have been found. I just did a Google search for his name, and our town and state. His obituary came up, and there are two companies with ads on the search page that claim to know about him, and tell others. Whitepages.com (which was not one of the advertising companies) gave me his address, his phone number, and his approximate age.
The Bible says that there is one kind of anonymity that my neighbor didn't want, and didn't have:
1 Corinthians 8:3 But if anyone loves God, he is known by God. (ESV, as are other scripture quotations in this post.)

It also says that there is anonymity, even in heaven:

Revelation 2:17 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’ My neighbor has that kind of anonymity. I hope and pray that I achieve the same.

Out of respect for this characteristic, I am not linking to his obituary, or giving his name.

4) He had a loving church family. He, with his wife, who preceded him in death, were faithful church attenders. His church loved him. We saw his pastor, and other church members, visit him. One of his church members, a woman who didn't work outside her home, cleaned his house, and did other chores for him. There were cards and "we miss you" handwork, from his church, on hospital room and nursing home walls. I don't agree with everything his church believes and teaches. They accept only the King James version of the Bible, and, although they don't say so, I think they only accept that if it's bound in black. I think they are wrong in that. But they display the main sign of Christianity. They love one another. (See John 17, and John 13:35)

5) The things he accumulated aren't permanent, and don't matter much. As I said, he loved his church, and they loved him. Even before the funeral, his pastor was taking some of his material possessions for himself, which was my neighbor's wish, and had the consent of his family. My wife, looking out our window, remarked about how impermanent material things are. How little they really matter. How true.

Rest in peace, neighbor.