Sunspots 978

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

SciTech Daily reports that fish can recognize and react to human divers.

Naturalis Historia concludes a series on the Bible and the geology of the Dead Sea,

ZDNet describes 10 on-line sites that carry free, or inexpensive digital books.

NPR and other outlets report on progress towards bringing live mammoths back, Their work has involved changing the genes of mice, so that they have long, fuzzy hair, and are able to use fat efficiently to keep warm.

Neuroscience News reports that detecting pain and itch is accomplished with two different sets of neurons.

NPR tries to keep track of President Trump's tariffs.

Thanks for reading!

Sunspots 745

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

Christianity: Relevant takes on the Prosperity Gospel.

Finance: Catherine Rampell discusses the effects of the Trump administration rolling back regulations, and the President's remarks about businesses that are hurt by his tariffs really suffering from bad management.

Politics: FiveThirtyEight has studied crowd size at political events, and found that polls are a better predictor than crowd size.

NPR reports that the Department of Education has been making it almost impossible for teachers to get the loan forgiveness they were promised, if they went into teaching.

NPR analyzes the likely results of the Electoral College in the 2020 presidential election.

Catherine Rampell tells us that the Trump administration has been, and is, waging a war on children, and gives us details.

Gizmodo reports on yet another survey that indicates that all Americans, including gun owners, are in favor of stricter background checks, red flag laws, and the like.

Science: Ars Technica reports that a company that genetically engineered a bull so that he wouldn't have horns also, unwittingly, placed some bacterial and plasmid genes in the bull. Thanks to one of my brothers for the information on this.

Gizmodo reports on research about what causes someone to be left-handed.

The Scientist reports on research into how bar-headed geese can fly over Everest, in spite of the low oxygen at such a high altitude.

Sports: FiveThirtyEight thinks that the NFL pre-season should be eliminated, or seriously changed.

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

Sunspots 723

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

 
Christianity: The He Lives blog on what theistic evolution (aka evolutionary creationism) is, and is not.


Finance: Catherine Rampell hopes that President Trump does not appoint Herman Cain to the Federal Reserve.

Food: The Trump administration is being sued by some states, because of roll-backs in standards for school lunches.

Health: FiveThirtyEight discusses the unfairness of the organ donation system.

Politics: S. E. Cupp says that Democrats have repeatedly made errors in reacting to President Trump, and they are doing it again on the Muller Report.

The Associated Press on the recent shake-up at the Department of Homeland Security.

The Associated Press has fact-checked many of President Donald Trump's recent utterances. He has gotten a lot wrong, including where his father was born (!). And he also has been far from the truth on immigration, healthcare, hurricane aid for Puerto Rico, and other issues.

Science: Scientific American reports that cats recognize their names (although the reaction is often not what the owner wants.)

Gizmodo reports that gorillas may grieve for their dead.

Sports: (and race) Kyle Korver, long-time NBA player, who is white, has written an essay on racism.

Sports Illustrated on the struggles, and triumph, of the NCAA women's champion basketball team, Baylor.

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

Thanks for looking!

Sunspots 717

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

Christianity: USA Today reports on what Southern Baptist leaders want done to stop their sexual abuse crisis.

Threads from Henry's Web has a solid post on how Christians should respond to the Pledge of Allegiance, and related matters.

Christianity Today on how parents should deal with their children's doubts.


Computing: Gizmodo reports that Facebook employees who are supposed to weed out conspiracy theories, violent posts, and the like, are underpaid, and that their jobs affect their mental health adversely. They apparently joke about committing suicide and engage in sexual activity on breaks, as ways of coping.

Education: NPR reports on the large discrepancy between funding of mostly white school districts vs. mostly non-white ones, and explains the reasons for this.

Environment: National Geographic reports that a mammalian species has gone extinct, because of climate change.

Food: A Relevant article says that leftover pizza may make a better breakfast, nutrition-wise, than some cereals. Hmmm.

(And politics) Gizmodo reports that a "soda tax" seems to have worked, in Berkeley, CA. That is, taxing carbonated and sweetened drinks did change people's behavior.

Health: Scientific American reports that listing all the side effects of a drug may actually make it more desirable to listeners, viewers or readers.

WalletHub has studied us, and ranks the most sinful to least sinful states. The methodology is given, too. Nevada is the most sinful. It was the highest state in Greed, 3rd highest in Jealousy, and 6th highest in Lust. Vermont was the least sinful state.

NPR reports that growing up with access to green areas contributes to a healthier life.

Gizmodo reports that the death rate from drug overdoses is considerably higher in the US than in other nations.

Politics: Surprise (or not)! The Trump administration is apparently going to appoint a climate-change denier (who is not trained in climate science) to chair a committee to study global climate change, according to Earther.

Catherine Rampell on President Tariff Man, er, Trump.


Science: NPR reports that an Italian lab is experimenting with a gene drive system that might stamp out African mosquitoes. For more on gene drives, see here.

Gizmodo reports that it is easy to fool people with a disguise.

Gizmodo also reports on the re-discovery of a giant bee, from Indonesia.

NPR reports on locusts, as in plagues of locusts. It turns out that they are common grasshoppers that change appearance and behavior, under stress.

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