Sunspots 904

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

Computing: Gizmodo reports that Google has a tool that helps you keep your identity from prying eyes.

Environment: Gizmodo reports that leasing off-shore areas to wind power devices gives us more energy than leasing the same areas to oil and gas extraction, and such leasing also yields more taxes.

FiveThirtyEight on the Waffle House storm index -- it's real.

Health: Gizmodo reports on a large study that indicates that coffee (including decaf) is good for you.

Politics: (or something) NPR explains gaslighting,

Science: Gizmodo reports on a company that is using taxpayer dollars to attempt to bring mammoths, tasmanian tigers, and maybe the dodo back from extinction. There are lots of questions about such a project!

Gizmodo tells us that there is an ongoing debate about whether are frozen lakes on Mars.

The Scientist, and other outlets, reports that Svante Pääbo has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the DNA of early humanoids.

Sports:

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

Thanks for reading.

Sunspots 830

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

Environment: An environmental activist, writing in Gizmodo, says that it's time to "kill Earth Day."

Food: (and drink) The Scientist reports that a different species of coffee may be useful as a substitute for the species now commonly grown, which is susceptible to global warming. So susceptible that there's a coffee shortage coming.

Science: NPR reports on an experiment that has been going on for over 140 years.

Gizmodo reports on an Oxygen-generating device that NASA included in a recent Mars landing. The device, or something like it, may make it possible to return to earth from Mars (plus giving Mars scientists Oxygen to breathe.)

Gizmodo also reports that sponges can move.

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

Thanks for looking!

Sunspots 712

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

The Arts: Gizmodo reports that the Mona Lisa doesn't really have the Mona Lisa effect (the eyes follow you, whatever your position relative to the painting) but other paintings do have it.

Christianity: Christianity Today reports on the 50 countries where it's hardest to follow Christ. Only two of these are in the Western Hemisphere. India has risen, if that's the word, to being in the top 10 most dangerous countries.
Ken Schenck presents Biblical (and other) arguments for having women in ministry.


Computing: An article on NPR suggests that parents spend more time on-screen with their children. 
This article lists the top 10 moneymakers on YouTube, for 2017. The highest one was 7 years old at the time. See also this article in Scientific American, which says that technology use doesn't harm teenagers much, or any.

A Gizmodo reporter tried hard to live without Amazon. She found it to be impossible -- Amazon controls so much of the internet.

Google has an on-line phishing quiz -- can you spot attempts to harvest your information?

Finance: Listverse describes 10 jobs where you get paid for doing (almost) nothing.

Food: Earther reports that half, or more, of wild coffee species are likely to go extinct.

The web site for an institution that keeps samples of strains of microorganisms used to make sourdough.

Politics: FiveThirtyEight analyzes the chances, in the primaries, of 17 possible Democratic candidates for President.

FiveThirtyEight also reports on various legal cases involving the President.

S. E. Cupp is not happy that our troops, for the first time ever, are not getting paid during a government shut-down, and she blames the President.

Gizmodo reports that photos of the President, on his official social media accounts, have been edited to make him look better.

Science: A giant disk of ice is floating on a river in Maine, and slowly rotating.

Phys.Org reports that plants that get fresh water from sea water produce more brine than fresh water.


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 647

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

Christianity: Christianity Today has published another essay on reaction to the national anthem and the US flag. (The previous two Sunspots each referred to another such essay.)

A Relevant writer says that pursuing physical fitness can be a form of idolatry.

Another Relevant writer asks whether God really wants us to be happy.

Ed Stetzer, in Christianity Today, writes about hypocrisy, and a couple of prominent current hypocrites.


Computing: Wired reports on how to give robots a sense of touch.

Food: Listverse describes some bad things (including dying) that can happen to contestants in eating contest.

National Public Radio reports on trendy (and expensive) non-alcoholic beverages.

Health: Listverse discusses 10 good things that coffee does for you.

History: Listverse describes some amazing accomplishments of self-taught people.

(and Philosophy) The History Blog discusses the story of what happened to the body and head of philosopher Jeremy Bentham. (Here's the Wikipedia article on Bentham.)

Humor: (or something) Listverse describes 10 really strange government agencies, from more than one country.


Politics: FiveThirtyEight says that gun control is about as polarizing issue as there is in the present USA.

Science: (and politics) Scientific American says that Congress has an anti-scientific attitude, and suggests a fix.

NASA will let you send your name to Mars.

NPR reports that a new weed killer is helping some farmers, but harming others.


Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 646

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

The Arts: A splendid photo of Padar Island, Komodo National Park, Indonesia, from the air, on Flickr.

An amazingly colored bird, also from Southeast Asia, also on Flickr.

From ClassicFM, a photo of a bass drum that broke, when it was used to play the cannon part from Tchiakovsky's 1812 Overture.

Christianity: A commenter, in Christianity Today, on the matter of the NFL and the US flag. (Not the same commenter, or viewpoint, as was mentioned here last week.)

Sojourners reports that a number of high-profile Southern Baptists, and others, have called on President Donald Trump to denounce the alt-right movement.

Heart, Mind, Soul and Strength reminds us that it is important that God is personal, and explains why.

He Lives points out that God is omni-holy. He isn't omni-merciful, or omni-just, though.


Computing: (and Politics) National Public Radio reports that Republican Senator James Lankford is saying that Russian trolls have injected themselves into the current debate over racial treatment and the national anthem, on both sides, in an attempt to divide the US citizenry.

A Wired contributor suggests that we delete Facebook, etc., from our smartphones, and use them only from a computer, and gives reasons for suggesting this. (I did that myself, a couple of years ago, and have not gone back to Facebooking on our smartphone.)
  Finance: Wired analyzes the consumer protection now offered by Equifax.

Food: Scientific American on the science of brewing coffee.

History: Listverse reports on the ways that Christ's disciples died. They were all painful and humiliating.

Humor: (or something) Listverse also reports on 10 famous quotes, and how we don't attribute them correctly.
 

Politics: (and Sports) FiveThirtyEight has analyzed the political preferences of the fan base of all of the National Football League teams. All of them have substantial support from people leaning in both political directions, but some have more of one than the other. Fans of NASCAR are mostly Republican, fans of the NBA are mostly Democratic.

FiveThirtyEight also tries to explain President Donald Trump's behavior.

Science: Scientific American reports on a giant rat species, new to science, from the Solomon Islands. (It was known to the local inhabitants.)

Sports: Phil Mickelson, golfer, took a selfie of himself, with former presidents Clinton, Obama and George W. Bush, but mostly cut himself out of the photo. (In CBS Sports and many other sources.)


Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 592

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

Christianity:A Christianity Today article on the pervasive role of coffee in many churches.

Christianity Today also has an article on reasons why we can't afford not to pray for each other.

A writer for Relevant points out three lies that churches often teach about dating.

A Christianity Today interviewee wants us to stop reading the Bible in little pieces.


Computing: Gizmo's Freeware points to a helpful article on how to sort, and how to find most anything in your gmail.

Education: A Scientific American contributor weighs in on whether tablet devices are a good teaching tool.
 
Politics: A Relevant writer says that "we" are not in a holy war with ISIS.

Science: Scientific American reports that people react differently to moral dilemmas when they hear about them in a language other than their native tongue.

Scientific American also reports that a bipartisan group of military leaders is urging action to prepare for climate change. (The Republican-controlled Congress has specifically barred the military from doing so!)

And, says Scientific American, there is an almost unknown group of soil microorganisms, the Cercozoans, that occur in immense numbers, and astonishing variety, and are important in soil ecology.


Sports: (or something) The Associated Press reports that an 800-plus pound alligator has been caught in South Carolina.

Congratulations to In Gee Chun (aka Chun, In-Gee) on arguably achieving the best score ever in a major tournament, by a golfer of either sex, in the recent Evian Championship. (ESPN; Wikipedia)





Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 485

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

Christianity: A post in Relevant says that complaining is a spiritual problem.
Education: National Public Radio reports on Turnitin, a service that checks the papers submitted by college students, for plagiarism.
Health: An amazing 3-minute video on what we look like to an ultraviolet camera. The video also shows graphic evidence that we should use sun-screen, aka sunblock, and that glass blocks UV waves. See here for a report on the video, in Slate.
Humor: (Or something) Coffee is now being made from coffee beans eaten, then passed through the gut, of elephants. Really, says National Public Radio.
Science:  Wired reports that city spiders grow bigger than spiders not in urban areas.
NPR reports on using people with Down syndrome as subjects for research into Alzheimer's. It turns out that, if they live long enough, all people with Down syndrome develop Alzheimer's.
Wired also reports on fungi that control the behavior of ants.

Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 417

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

Christianity: The latest issue of Answers Research Journal features three responses to a previous paper, which argued that the dominion mandate of Genesis 1 no longer applies. The responders disagree. The author of the original paper responds.

Computing: PC Image editor, a free photo editor for Windows machines.

Science: Considering its importance to us, you'd think we would know more about the genetics of coffee than we do.

National Public Radio reports on an organization that is studying the biology of coffee, and why it's important.

This isn't exactly science, but I'll put it here. NPR (which had a coffee week) also reports on the influence of coffee on history.

NPR also reports on tiny, really tiny, devices that can be placed in the body, and grab little bits of tissue for assessing, say, whether there's a cancer. Really tiny devices.

A study of cliff swallows, which seems to show a change in wing shape, over about thirty years, as a response to selection imposed by automobiles.


Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 416

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

 

Computing: PC Image editor, a free photo editor for Windows machines.

Science: Considering its importance to some of us, you'd think we would know more about the genetics of coffee than we do. National Public Radio reports on an organization that is studying the biology of coffee, and why it's important.
This isn't exactly science, but I'll put it here. NPR (which had a coffee week) also reports on the influence of coffee on history.
NPR also reports on tiny, really tiny, devices that can be placed in the body, and grab little bits of tissue for assessing, say, whether there's a cancer. Really tiny devices.
A study of cliff swallows, which seems to show a change in wing shape, over about thirty years, as a response to selection imposed by automobile traffic.
Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 231

Maybe some of you don't want to know, but Wired has an article on the chemicals found in a cup of coffee, and their significance to the human body.

I'm having a blogging hiatus, God willing.