Sunspots 677

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

Christianity: Paige Patterson, President of a Southern Baptist seminary, has apologized for some of his past remarks which were less than encouraging to women, according to Christianity Today. (Last week's Sunspots had related links.)

Relevant reports on the question of which year of a marriage is the most difficult.


Computing: (and history) Listverse tells us about 10 pre-1976 hackers, including, among others, Steve Jobs.
  Food: National Public Radio reports on a study that indicates that people from certain regions like dishes from those regions more, when they are reminded of the places first.

Humor: (or something) A truck carrying liquid chocolate spilled the stuff on a highway in Poland, says NPR. (There's a video.)


Politics: FiveThirtyEight discusses the possibility of a Presidential pardon for Michael Cohen.

FiveThirtyEight also discusses the end of Temporary Protection status for immigrants from several countries. About 300,000 people are going to lose this protection, and thousands of their children, who are US citizens, may also be forced to leave the US.

The US Interior Department is considering re-introducing grizzly bears in some parts of the West. Not everyone is happy about this.

Science: Gizmodo points out that our, er, butts, are unique among animals, and asks several experts to tell us why this is so.

Sports: Pau Gasol, National Basketball Association future hall of famer, on why the NBA should hire women head coaches. (As of this writing, Becky Hammon, assistant coach of the San Antonio Spurs, is under consideration for such a job. Gasol has been on her team for a few years.)

Thanks for looking!

Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 674

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

Christianity: Relevant cites polls which show that most people in the US, who claim to be Christians, don't read the Bible.

Relevant talks to the head of the Evangelical Environment Network, who has some suggestions as to how to get Christians to see that climate change is real, and is potentially disastrous.

History: FiveThirtyEight considers the questions: "who built the first house?" "what is a house?"

Humor: (not exactly) National Public Radio reports that tumbleweeds have piled up as high as 7 feet in Victorville, California, and it has been difficult to remove them.

Relevant reports that someone decided to make a playable record (the kind that goes round and round) out of breakfast cereal.


Politics: Many former intelligence officers, including those with the highest rank, have petitioned the US Supreme Court to strike down the Trump travel ban, on the grounds that it decreases national security, according to NPR.

Science: Gizmodo reports on a newly-discovered enzyme that breaks down some plastics.

NPR reports on studies that show that tiny ocean animals can cause significant movement of ocean water, and the things that that water carries.

Scientific American (and other outlets) report on a study that indicates that prehistoric humans caused the extinction of many species of large mammals.

Gizmodo reports on ants that break open (and die) to attack invading insects with the goop that comes from their bodies.

And Gizmodo asks some experts "which animal kills the most humans?"

Sports: With the death of head coach Gregg Popovich's wife, and his absence, assistant coach Becky Hammon moved from behind the San Antonio Spurs bench to the front row thereof, and joined acting head coach Ettore Messina, and another assistant coach, in huddles during time-outs. I'm pretty sure that this is a first for women in men's professional sports in the US.

Thanks for looking!

Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 483

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

Computing: National Public Radio reports on robots made of paper, which folds into a functioning robot. (There's a brief video of this process.)
NPR also reports on the case of a monkey who took a photo of herself. Who owns the copyright?
Humor: (or something) National Public Radio reports on how to market snacks derived from insects.
Science: Wired reports on whether dogs can tell time, perhaps by smell.
Wired also reports on the microbes found in cheeses. There have been some surprises.
And Wired tells us that the white sands of Hawaiian beaches are mostly fish poop.
National Public Radio reports on the importance of mosses. Who knew?
Sports: Congratulations to Becky Hammon, who has been hired as the first full-time female assistant coach by the San Antonio Spurs, the NBA champions. She is the first full-time female coach ever hired by a major sports team in North America. See also yesterday's full-page article in USA Today.

Image source (public domain)

Good for Becky Hammon!

Becky Hammon is a US women's basketball player, born in South Dakota, currently on the roster of the San Antonio Silver Stars of the Women's National Basketball Association, where she is the second leading scorer, and leads in assists. Hammon has recently received some criticism for playing for the Russian team in the Olympics.

That's right, the Russian team.

Why? Well, she didn't make the US women's Olympics team, which is no shame, as that group is an extremely talented one, with Sue Bird and Kara Lawson as its point guards -- Hammon's position. (As I write this, they are destroying the team from the Czech Republic by 40 points.) Hammon has played professionally in Russia. Most of the WNBA players have played in more than one country, one reason being that they don't get nearly as high salaries as NBA players.*

I saw Craig Sager interview Hammon a few minutes ago on USA cable TV, as part of its game coverage. He asked about the criticism, and, among other things, Hammon said that she was playing for God first, then country. This web page quotes her as saying much the same thing. Great! Country loyalty is fine, but loyalty to God should come first, whether you are a talented basketball player or not.

Thanks for reading.

*A commenter points out, correctly, that there was some serious financial incentive for Hammon to play for Russia, too, perhaps as much as a couple of million dollars -- it wasn't just for love of the game, and probably not just from a desire to play for someone in the Olympics. The money involved does not, of course, approach the outlandish salaries of some NBA players, but that's another story.