Sunspots 913

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

The Arts: NPR reports that Pantone has selected its "color of the year."

Christianity: A Christianity Today article on "The Theological Foundations of Natural Science."

Computing: (and Sports) FiveThirtyEight discusses the high-tech balls being used in the World Cup competition.

Education: Grammarphobia considers three different meanings of the word, "lap."

History: Gizmodo reports on some scribbles in the margin of a medieval manuscript.

Politics: An article in The Conversation says that a federal judge has ruled that it is illegal to prevent domestic abusers from having access to guns.

Science: The Scientist reports that some moths emit noises to avoid being eaten by bats.

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

Thanks for reading. 

Sunspots 630

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

Christianity: Relevant and other sources report that the US Government is rounding up Christians from Iraq and sending them back, which is probably putting them at risk to their lives.

Benjamin L. Corey tells us 5 things that he wishes conservative Christians knew about Muslims.


Food: The Associated Press tells you more than you knew about cucumber sex and edible cucumbers.

Listverse reports on 10 foods, most of which are regularly eaten elsewhere, but are banned in the US, for various reasons.

Health: UnDark reviews a book about the US health care system, and seriously questions the use of "system" and of "care," in describing it.

Statnews.com reports on a study that indicates that even a small amount of regular alcohol consumption causes some brain damage.

History: Listverse tells us about 10 American inventions that changed the world, mostly for good.
 
Politics: Wired reports that President Trump may be taken to court for blocking some users from his Twitter account, because they disagree with him, on free speech grounds. He IS the President, after all, hence his Tweets may be, legally, a public forum. (The courts may rule otherwise.)

Science: According to a review in Scientific American, some fish can solve fairly complex problems, and can use tools.

Scientific American also reports that asking someone for a favor, through e-mail, is not as effective as asking in person.

Listverse tells us how different colors affect our behavior.

Listverse also describes 10 geological oddities, all of them rather large.




Image source (public domain)

Excerpts from Orthodoxy, by Gilbert K. Chesterton, 28

It was as if I had been blundering about since my birth with two huge and unmanageable machines, of different shapes and without apparent connection—the world and the Christian tradition. I had found this hold in the world: the fact that one must somehow find a way of loving the world without trusting it; somehow one must love the world without being worldly. I found this projecting feature of Christian theology, like a sort of hard spike, the dogmatic insistence that God was personal, and had made a world separate from Himself. The spike of dogma fitted exactly into the hold in the world—it had evidently been meant to go there—and then the strange thing began to happen. When once these two parts of the two machines had come together, one after another, all the other parts fitted and fell in with an eerie exactitude. I could hear bolt after bolt over all the machinery falling into its place with a kind of click of relief. Having got one part right, all the other parts were repeating that rectitude, as clock after clock strikes noon. Instinct after instinct was answered by doctrine after doctrine. Or, to vary the metaphor, I was like one who had advanced into a hostile country to take one high fortress. And when that fort had fallen the whole country surrendered and turned solid behind me. The whole land was lit up, as it were, back to the first fields of my childhood. All those blind fancies of boyhood which in the fourth chapter I have tried in vain to trace on the darkness, became suddenly transparent and sane. I was right when I felt that roses were red by some sort of choice: it was the divine choice. I was right when I felt that I would almost rather say that grass was the wrong colour than say it must by necessity have been that colour: it might verily have been any other. My sense that happiness hung on the crazy thread of a condition did mean something when all was said: it meant the whole doctrine of the Fall.

Orthodoxy, first published in 1908, by G. K. Chesterton, is in the public domain, and available from Project Gutenberg. The previous post in this series is here. Thanks for reading! Read Chesterton.

Excerpts from Orthodoxy, by Gilbert K. Chesterton, 16

I have explained that the fairy tales founded in me two convictions; first, that this world is a wild and startling place, which might have been quite different, but which is quite delightful; second, that before this wildness and delight one may well be modest and submit to the queerest limitations of so queer a kindness. But I found the whole modern world running like a high tide against both my tendernesses; and the shock of that collision created two sudden and spontaneous sentiments, which I have had ever since and which, crude as they were, have since hardened into convictions. First, I found the whole modern world talking scientific fatalism; saying that everything is as it must always have been, being unfolded without fault from the beginning. The leaf on the tree is green because it could never have been anything else. Now, the fairy-tale philosopher is glad that the leaf is green precisely because it might have been scarlet. He feels as if it had turned green an instant before he looked at it. He is pleased that snow is white on the strictly reasonable ground that it might have been black. Every colour has in it a bold quality as of choice; the red of garden roses is not only decisive but dramatic, like suddenly spilt blood.

Orthodoxy, first published in 1908, by G. K. Chesterton, is in the public domain, and available from Project Gutenberg. The previous post in this series is here.  Thanks for reading! Read Chesterton.

Sunspots 500

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:
Christianity: A video rendering of John Michael Talbot's "Holy is His Name," which is a modernization of the Magnificat, from Luke 1, sung by a young lady. The lyrics are here.
Relevant names seven prominent Christians who have struggled with doubt. You probably have, too.
Computing: Gizmo's Freeware points us to an on-line Color Scheme Generator. It looks like a fine tool.
Wired points out that "many devices are all but impossible to recycle efficiently." The article points out why this is true, and notes some manufacturers that are making recycling easier.
Science: (And photography) A collection of amazing close-ups of insects and their relatives, collected (but not photographed) by me. To see the individual photos, which, sometimes, have a description of what you are seeing, right-click on the photo and open it in a new tab.
Image source (public domain)