Sunspots 799

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

Christianity: Relevant reports on a Barna study, which indicates that white Christians are less motivated to do something about racial injustice than they were a year ago.

Christianity Today tells us how we might commit one of the seven deadly sins in this political season.

Computing: Gizmo's Freeware recommends two bridge-building games, for iOS and Android.

Education: Grammarphobia tells us about the history and usage of "status quo."

Environment: Gizmodo reports that international plans to cut plastic pollution of the oceans just aren't good enough.

Gizmodo also reports on how the Trump administration is threatening wildlife, and indigenous peoples, across the US border.

Ethics: Gizmodo tells us how captive tigers are mistreated, and how most of them are  not really contributing to tiger conservation.

NPR interviews the author of a book on the finances of President Trump.

History: (and ornithology) Gizmodo reports on reflections on the life of John  James Audubon, who wasn't exactly a role model, scientifically, and in other ways.

Politics: (or something) Listverse tells us about the 10 safest large cities in the US.

FiveThirtyEight analyzes the Supreme Court situation, after Ginsburg's death.

FiveThirtyEight also analyzes the rural skew of the US Senate.

Science: Gizmodo reports that giraffes may be vulnerable to lightning strikes.

(or something) The Fall Foliage prediction map.

ListVerse has an essay on 10 gross things about the human body.

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

Thanks for looking!

Sunspots 740

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

Christianity: A Relevant writer points out that worship isn't about church music.
Deborah Haarsma, of BioLogos, discusses the implications for Christians, if there is intelligent life elsewhere, or if there isn't.


Computing: Christianity Today reports on a study that indicates that we trust big technical companies less than we used to. And churches more. 

Education:  Grammarphobia discusses can not, cannot and can't.

Gizmo's Freeware tells about a phone app that uses your camera to solve math problems.

Environment: Gizmodo reports that climate change may have reached a tipping point for the Arctic.


Ethics: The Scientist tells us that a Chinese team is developing human-monkey chimeras.

Finance: Catherine Rampell is concerned about what President Trump might do to US fiscal policy.

Health: (and finance, and politics) Catherine Rampell points out that medicare-for-all plans have ignored how much we pay providers, particularly doctors. We pay about twice as much to these as Canada.

National Public Radio reports on the use of the CRISPR genetic engineering system to treat a woman with sickle-cell anemia.

Politics: FiveThirtyEight analyzes the second round of debates -- who spoke most, etc.

Relevant reports that over 50 people were shot in Chicago last weekend.

NPR has posted graphs, comparing gun death frequency in the US with that in many other countries.

FiveThirtyEight says that Republican politicians are much more resistant to gun control measures than GOP voters are.

Science: NPR reports on a study that indicates that children prefer men without beards, up until the child reaches puberty. (Note: I have a beard.)

Gizmodo reports that Japanese scientists may try to grow human pancreases, for transplant to people who need them, in pigs.

In 2006, there were 1411 tigers in India. NPR reports that the population was up to 2967 in 2018, a little more than doubling, thanks to serious steps taken by the Indian government.

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

Sunspots 669

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


Christianity: He Lives has a brief post on the importance of the resurrection.

Computing: ZDNet reports that Microsoft claims that its artificially intelligent language translators have become as good as expert human translators, in changing sentences in news reports from Chinese to English.

Gizmodo on how to use Facebook, but make as little information as possible available to others while doing so.

Health: Gizmodo reports on a study of how a virus spreads between passengers in an airplane.

History: Sojourners tells us some interesting facts (or not) about St. Patrick.

Politics: A Relevant writer says that some white evangelicals seem to have a double standard on Presidential morality.

An annotated list of people and things that President Trump has insulted on Twitter, as of January 3, 2018. (It's a long list!)

Science: Scientific American reports on experiments that suggest that people are less likely to return favors, as time increases since the first favor.

Gizmodo on why our faces change shape as we get older.

Gizmodo reports on really black, and really white materials, including paint.

Gizmodo also reports on the bone structure, and possible flight behavior, of Archaeopteryx.

Scientific American reports on a study that showed that having tigers around farms in Bhutan increased farm profitability. Reason: the tigers kept some other predators away.


Thanks for looking!

Image source (public domain)