Sunspots 993

 

Gizmodo discusses the history of the domestication (sort of) of cats.

NPR (and other outlets) discuss the evolution of kissing.

Gizmodo reports that astronomers may have found an exomoon. (A satellite of a star which is not in our solar system.)

Heart, Mind, Soul and Strength tells us how to stay happily married.

Ken Schenck on how the New Testament doesn't always interpret the Old Testament in context.

Sunspots 930

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

Christianity: The Natural Historian considers LeBron James in light of Psalm 139:13 ("For you formed my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother’s womb."

Computing: (and the Arts)  The Conversation reports on the use of 3-D printing in producing buildings, and architecture.

Education: Grammarphobia discusses laundry lists.

Environment: Gizmodo reports that it's not just oceans that are rising. It's also groundwater, and that is causing big problems.

Gizmodo also reports that cats have hunted several animal species to extinction.

Health: Gizmodo reports that we are running out of effective antibiotics, as bacteria have quickly adapted.

Science: The Conversation presents a discussion on the relationship between tornadoes and global warming.

Another Conversation writer tells us why snails and slugs are so slow.

Thanks for reading. 

Sunspots 893

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

The Arts: NPR reports that Mary Badham, who played Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird, is now playing one of the Finch's neighbors in a theater production of the story.

Christianity: (and politics) A Christianity Today writer, along with others, believes that the US is headed for a time of political violence, and in fact is already in one. She says that Christians, of whatever political persuasion, should not participate, following the example of Jesus.

Education: Grammarphobia discusses the expression "weak in the knees."

Environment: Gizmodo tells us that European bison are being re-introduced to the United Kingdom, where they have not been (in the wild, at least) for thousands of years.

Finances: (or something) Gizmodo discusses mishandled air luggage.

Health: Fox News (and other outlets) reports on a study that says that those under 40 years old should not drink alcohol.

A Conversation writer tells us why drug names are so complicated, and explains some of how they are named.

History: (or something) ListVerse shows us some amazing bridges.

Humor: (or something) a cat escaped from a carrier, in the Boston airport, and was finally caught, after three weeks, according to NPR.

Politics: (or something) A Conversation writer says that the Shinto religion (and the Unification Church) influences the assassination of Shinzo Abe.

Science: (or something) The Conversation discusses love (by which the discussion mostly means physical attraction.)

Gizmodo reports that the Webb telescope has been damaged by a micrometeorite. It should still function, almost as well as before the damage.

Gizmodo also reports that NASAs martian explorer devices have photographed what looks like a tangle of string. The article has a link to a previous finding -- something that looks like a door.

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

Thanks for reading.

 

What did the animals on Noah's Ark look like?

An article published by Answers in Genesis complains about illustrations of the animals on Noah's Ark, often found in children's books, and elsewhere. (It complains about other things, but I'll try to stick to a discussion of what the animals on the ark looked like.)

Here is a quotation from the article:

Zebras, Clydesdales, and donkeys are all part of the horse kind and came to look like they do today since the Flood as part of the one horse kind. Species and the biblical kind are not necessarily the same things. The original horse kind likely had features resembling each of these. They diversified into what we have today through natural selection in the wild and artificial selection for man’s benefit. The same is true with the cat kind. Domestic cats, lions, bobcats, tigers, and so on, are all varieties in the one cat kind that have developed through variation since the Flood. It is better to draw generic representatives of each kind ...

Let's re-state that section of the article. The author, speaking for Answers in Genesis (AiG), claims that the animals on the Ark did not look a lot like the animals of today. Why is that claim made? The main reasons are that AiG believes that there was a world-wide flood, about 2348 BC, and that all land animals descended from creatures that were rescued on the Ark. AiG also believes that there would not have been room for each species of animal (and food needed to keep them alive) on that vessel, so that there were, instead, founders of each kind, which, since the Flood, diversified rapidly into the multitude of species that live on earth now. (Apparently this sort of belief has not been around for very long in AiG circles, but it is strongly held now.) In other words, the quotation says, there were no tigers or lions, etc., on the Ark, just a pair of cat family ancestors - generic representatives. So how did approximately 40 living species of cats come about? (And some additional extinct ones -- AiG belief is that extinct animals became extinct after the Flood.) AiG's answer is that there was rapid evolution (although they seldom use that word) after the Flood, and that all of these, living and extinct, are descendants of the pair of cat ancestors that were on the Ark. AiG thinks that distinguishing features didn't arise until after the animals came off of the ark -- the cat ancestors probably didn't have stripes, a mane, spots, cheetah-like speed, the ability to climb trees, and other features now found in one or a few species of the cat family, but not the entire family.

Another AiG source says this: "Recent studies estimate the total number of living and extinct kinds of land animals and flying creatures to be about 1,500. With our “worst-case” scenario approach to calculating the number of animals on the Ark, this would mean that Noah cared for approximately 7,000 animals." [pairs or sevens of each kind]

That seems like a lot, but according to my calculations, there are over 31,000 species of animals alive on earth today, to say nothing of extinct ones. That would mean that each of the kinds on the Ark would, on average, have diversified into about 20 species each, all within less than 4600 years.

That's preposterous, of course. Such rapid and extensive speciation, in vertebrates, has not been observed. Biologists generally believe that new species can't develop unless isolated from others in the same line in some way, either by being geographically separated, by mating at different times, or other behavioral differences, or by hybrid sterility. Cave art does not seem to indicate that early humans saw animals that were substantially different than those we see today. Although the Bible does not describe vertebrate animals in any detail, the behavior described (lions as predators, for example) does not suggest that lions, in Bible times, were much, if any, different from those that live today. Samson and David had interactions with lions. Jacob's blessing on his son Judah includes this: Genesis 49:9 "Judah is a lion’s cub. From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down, he crouched as a lion, as a lioness. Who will rouse him up?" Jacob died in about 2000 BC. Samson lived at about 100 years before David, who lived at about 1000 BC. (For my post, indicating all the mentions of lions in the Bible, see here.) As I indicated, the Bible does not describe animals definitively, but it sounds like, by the time of Jacob, as well as Samson and David, lions were like those alive today. If they hyperevolved somehow, from an ancestral cat type, this would have happened in less than 400 years, using AiG's timeline.

It seems to me that it makes a lot more sense to suppose that the Flood was not world-wide, and that cats, and other animals, diverged over a much longer period of time.

For an expanded discussion of these ideas, see my post here.

It seems to me that it's OK to put lions, tigers, bears, donkeys, giraffes, etc., in illustrations of Noah's Ark. We don't really know if there was a world-wide Flood, and the proposal that children's Bible story art be based on unproven, even false, ideas is dangerous.

Sidelight 1: By the time of Zechariah, about 500 BC, horses, mules and donkeys must have diverged, although, even today, they haven't completely diverged, as mules are the offspring of a donkey-horse mating. According to AiG, that divergence took place after the ark. According to all sorts of other evidence, it took place over a much longer time.

Zechariah 14:15 "So will be the plague of the horse, of the mule, of the camel, and of the donkey, and of all the animals that will be in those camps, as that plague." The Masoretic Text uses three different names for the members of the horse family named in this verse, indicating that there were three different animals, all horse-like. (The King James uses "ass" instead of donkey.) The use of these words goes back way before Zachariah -- for example, Pharaoh's army included horse-drawn chariots.

Sidelight 2: The author of the quotation at the beginning of this post, and AiG, should be commended for at least one thing. The author says that artists often portray Adam and Eve as white, or white, blue-eyed blondes, and states that this is most likely not the way that they really looked.

Thanks for reading.

*Added November 6, 2023: The article from AiG also includes this complaint (and over a dozen others): "Not including dinosaurs and pterodactyls (e.g., dragons) on the Ark"

Sunspots 832

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

The Arts: (and Christianity) A Relevant writer analyzes the theology of Star Wars.

Christianity: (and Politics) A Christianity Today writer presents data, comparing most of the countries of the world, indicating that the more Christianity becomes entangled with the government, the weaker it becomes.

A Relevant writer says that, too often, we assume that the woman described in Proverbs 31 is what a woman should be like. The writer points out that none of the women in the Bible seem to have held up that ideal.

Environment: Gizmodo has yet another warning about rising temperatures and Antarctica.

Health: The Scientist reports that COVID vaccination does protect against the most common variant strains.

Politics: FiveThirtyEight finds that our political views largely determine how we think the economy is doing, rather than the reverse.

Science: A Gizmodo report indicates that cats like to sit in squares, even illusory squares.

NPR reports on a fish, seven feet long, and probably 100 years old or more, that was caught and released by scientists.

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

Thanks for looking!

 

Sunspots 777

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

Christianity: He Lives argues that there are only two kinds of  God's laws.

Christianity Today argues that gullibility is not a spiritual gift, and notes that evangelical Christians are more likely to fall for conspiracy theories than the population at large.

GeoChristian reviews a book about the interaction/discussion between a young-earth creationist, Todd Wood, and an evolutionary creationist, Darrel Falk. They learned to respect each other as Christians.

Relevant has an essay on how Ecclesiastes resonates with the current pandemic.

Environment: NPR reports on a study that shows that outdoor cats have a big impact on birds and small quadrupeds.

Humor: Gizmodo reports that we are living in the golden age of crossword puzzles.
 
Politics: (or something) The US Postal Service is in financial trouble, and some people are suggesting that we buy stamps, as a way of helping it, according to NPR.

FiveThirtyEight discusses what happens if a presidential candidate dies or can't run for office for other reasons. (We have the two oldest candidates ever, running.)

Science: Gizmodo on "Why is it so hard to figure out if the Corona virus is airborne?"

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 692

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

 Christianity: A Relevant writer discusses the importance of hope.

The family of Mollie Tibbetts, who was murdered, has expressed forgiveness for the probable murderer, according to Relevant.

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, according to Relevant, plans to establish chapters on all US campuses with more than 1,000 students, over the next few years. They say that "about 53 percent of 2,500 schools currently don’t have any known campus ministry. ..."
 
Computing: (and Food) USA Today reports that IBM has patented drones that can fly around work spaces and dispense coffee.

Education: Grammarphobia tells us whether we should use "in Jesus's name," or "in Jesus' name."

Ethics: (or something) Gizmodo reports on an agency in Brazil, which is trying to protect isolated tribes. According to the report, there may be as many as 11 tribes in the rainforest which have never interacted with "modern" man.

Food: Gizmodo reports that the state legislature of Missouri has tried to define "meat." There are questions about cell/tissue cultured products, which aren't available in grocery stores, but which may be in the future.

Health: Scientific American reports that marijuana-derived substances are found in breast milk for 6 days after the last use.

History: National Public Radio reports that there is a drought in some of Europe. That has exposed "hunger stones" in some rivers -- stones with inscriptions telling of previous droughts. One such inscription is in 1417 AD. See also here, for marked stone exposure in a different part of Europe.

Politics: FiveThirtyEight looks at research on the effect of voter identification laws.

National Public Radio reports that the Department of Homeland Security presented a rosier picture of conditions in countries that actually exists there, in order to justify sending refugees back to them. Sigh.

Science: Analysis of data collected by an Indian spacecraft show that there is water on the moon.

USA Today reports that some farmers in Mexico have been growing corn that is associated with Nitrogen-fixing bacteria. (Usually, Nitrogen-fixing bacteria are associated with members of the pea family, such as soybeans. Plants that have such associations need less (or no) Nitrogen in fertilizer, and the plants are a better source of protein building blocks in people that eat them.)

Space.com reports that an asteroid seems to be about 95% metal, which is very unusual, and could be commercially important, if we can get there to mine it. Here's the Wikipedia article on that asteroid, Psyche.

Lifehacker on how to get a cat to like you (or at least act like it does).

Scientific American on how to tell if a comatose patient is conscious.

Scientific American also reports that we can have only up to about 150 real friends -- people we interact with regularly.

Thanks for looking!

Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 661

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

Christianity: A Relevant writer says that your relationship with God is what is most important in defining who you are.

Relevant also has an article debunking myths about charitable giving.


Computing: Wired on how Android apps track us. The article suggests an app source as an alternative to the Google Play store. (The article doesn't consider iOs systems much, but indicates that there are similar problems with Apple devices, too.)

Health: Wired tells us what's in Tide pods.


Politics:  National Public Radio reports that almost all of the National Park Service advisory board has resigned.

And Scientific American reports that dismissing scientific advice has become a hallmark of the Trump administration.

NPR reports that Irish immigrants are being deported, too, not just Hispanics.

Science: NPR reports that scientists are beginning to study the left- and right-paw preferences of cats.


Thanks for looking!

Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 521

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

The Arts: Left Behind is going to be available through Netflix. E. Stephen Burnett does not recommend it, from any source.

Christianity: The New English Translation of the Bible, which can be downloaded free, in various formats. It is not public domain.

A Christianity Today columnist has begun wearing the same outfit to work all week. (In this case, the columnist is a female.)

Computing: Metaflop is a web site that lets you create your own fonts by modifying a pre-existing one.

Wired says that Coolors is a web site that lets you create your own color palettes, easily. It works. I plan to post a poster, with colors selected from that site, tomorrow.

Gizmo's Freeware has a Free Windows Desktop Software Security list, annotated.

The History Blog tells us about the first selfie, taken in 1839.

Health: Christianity Today reviews a book that claims that Christians, historically, have embraced advancements in medicine, and should continue to do so.

Politics: Benjamin L. Corey gives statistics on how much (or little) Christians actually give that goes to help the poor, and says that his support of government assistance isn't because he is a socialist, but because, if the church isn't coming anywhere close to meeting needs, then government should, by default.

Science: Time reports on a baby, conceived in vitro, with mitochondria, taken from the mother, and inserted into the egg.

National Public Radio reports on miscarriages. They are more common than you think, and the most common cause is a chromosomal abnormality. In other words, miscarriage prevents births of severely abnormal babies.

Wired on why, and how, cats purr.

Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 496

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

Education: A former University of North Carolina football player has filed suit, claiming that the university did not provide him with the substantial education that he was promised when recruited. (The university apparently let some students "take" classes that they didn't even attend.)
Health: (or not) We're running out of chocolate, according to The Washington Post and other outlets.
Science: Wired reports on how a study of the cat genome sheds some light on how domestic cats are genetically different from their wild relatives.

National Public Radio has a fine series on color. One post is about how our perception plays tricks on us when we are considering color. Another is about how animals get color from what they eat, partly -- flamingos are an example -- and how rare blue coloring in animals is.
Wired also reports on nudibranches, sea slugs, who eat defensive mechanisms from other creatures, and use them to defend themselves. They are also spectacularly colored -- some are blue.

 Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 494

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to

someone else:

Health: The University of Southampton (in the UK) has reported on a study of near-death phenomena, based on hospital reports.

Science: Ants can regulate their falls from heights, so that they land where they want to. (Report from Wired.)

Wired also reports on how to understand cat behavior. You really can.

From the BBC: flocks of over a million starlings perform what looks like a dance, or an animated sculpture.

Sports: From USA Today - Steve Nash, a long-time spectacular and hard-working NBA player, may finally have to retire, due to injury.


 Image source (public domain)

The Underneath by Kathi Appelt

I recently read Kathi Appelt's The Underneath, a first novel with cats, snakes, mythological beings, a bad man, and an alligator, all capable of thought. The book was good enough to win a Newbery Honor medal (not the top award, but a high honor). It also won other awards. The book was published in 2008 by Atheneum (New York).

What made this a good book?

The point of view was one notable feature. That shifts between characters, and parts of the book are told from the point of view of at least eight of them, including the trees. The number of chapters is also remarkable -- there are 123 of them, averaging less than 3 pages per chapter. One reason for that is to make changes of point of view. There are good illustrations.

The setting is unusual. It is the swampy area between Texas and Lousiana. So is the time frame, which is a thousand years, more or less. Some of Appelt's trees live that long. So does a very large (a hundred feet) alligator. So does a being who is a lamia, who can appear as a very large water moccasin, or as a human being. The Caddo Indians, who lived in the area long ago, play a part.

I was pleased with the surprise ending. Let me leave it as a surprise, except to say that unselfish love triumphs in the end, and comes from an unexpected source.

The story has its dark moments, including deaths of some of the characters. But it also has cute kittens and a faithful hound. Here's Appelt on purring:
Purring is not so different from praying. To a tree, a cat's purr is one of the purest of all prayers, for in it lies a whole mixture of gratitude and longing, the twin ingredients of every prayer. (201)

Thanks for reading. Read Appelt.