Sunspots 794

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

Christianity: (and health) In Christianity Today, a preacher reflects on his experience when he apparently caught COVID from the worship leader who was on the platform (and singing and talking) with him.

Christianity Today also reports on a survey that indicates that most Christians, especially those who are well off, don't really give very much to charitable causes.

Christianity Today also has published an article on Christian attitudes during a season of on-line dating.

Computing: Gizmo's Freeware suggests that RadioBox is a good, free program for listening to lots of radio stations.

Gizmo's Freeware also suggests a free alternative to Microsoft Office.

And Gizmo's Freeware points us to over 900 free-to-use fonts.

 

Education: Grammarphobia tells us whether "news" is singular or plural.

Environment: Gizmodo reports that internal government documents state that the proposed border wall is the biggest threat to endangered species in the southwest.

Health: Gizmodo discusses the ins and outs of a vaccine for COVID-19.

Politics: (and Christianity) Relevant discusses the moral misguidedness of each of the major political parties.

Christianity Today discusses Joe Biden's Catholic faith.

FiveThirtyEight discusses the probable impact (or not) of Kamala Harris as a vice-presidential candidate.

Relevant discusses the religious background of Kamala Harris.

Science: Gizmodo reports that invading toads are doing well in Qatar, which is not where you'd expect to see toads flourish.

Gizmodo, and other outlets, report that Death Valley has probably had the highest surface temperature ever recorded, during the past few days.

Sports: FiveThirtyEight tells us why left-handed pitchers often do so well.

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

Thanks for looking!

Sunspots 612

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

Christianity: A Relevant writer says that our prayers probably should be simpler.

In Christianity Today, a short discussion of addiction to pornography, and how prevalent it is.

Morgan Busse repeats some classic, and needed, guidelines on what to say, or not.


Computing: Gizmo's Freeware reports on a Chrome browser extension that searches your Internet cache. In other words, it looks in what you've already looked at, rather than the entire web. Should be a big help in finding things you only partly remember, that you've already seen.

Google has made 819 typefaces available for free. One catch -- you can't download these to your computer, and use them in, say, Word. They are designed to be added to part or all of a web page.

Gizmo's also notes that a new version of Libre Office, a freeware substitute for Microsoft Office, is available for download.

Health: Scientific American reports that the dust mites that you may be allergic to cannot survive in a dry area, like, say, Arizona or Utah.

History: Listverse reports on 10 amazing items (or groups of items) of considerable value found with a metal detector.

Philosophy: Scientific American reports on research that shows that most people think that they are morally superior to others.


Politics: (And the environment) The Guardian reports that a house bill would, if adopted as law, sell a chunk of public land "as large as Connecticut." Please don't.

FiveThirtyEight on how Judge Gorsuch (if confirmed) and additional Supreme Court Justices appointed by President Trump might change previous decisions, such as Roe v. Wade/Doe v. Bolton.

Listverse discusses 10 problems with where and how we get our news. And "fake news" is on the list, but it's not the only problem.

Science: Scientific American discusses "strategic retreat" from rising bodies of water, caused by climate change.


Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 400

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

Science:  He Lives points out that science is not only compatible with Christianity, but with atheism, Buddhism, etc.

 

The Arts: Wired begins a weekly post on "stunning architecture" with a photo of a 3-dimensional (what else?) building that looks 2-dimensional.

Politics: (or something) Columnist DeWayne Wickham reminds us that school children, lots of them, have been killed in other places than Newton, Mass.

 

Computing: Gizmo's Freeware reviews free substitutes for Microsoft Office.

Gizmo's Freeware also describes free music writing software.

Gizmo also has a link to a site that will tell you what cookies a web page wants to put in your computer.

 

Image source (public domain)