Sunspots 653

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


Computing: Wired reports that there is now a church, sort of, which more or less worships artificial intelligence. The IRS has granted this "church" tax-exempt status.

Health: Time, and other outlets, report that the Centers for Disease Control say that about 90% of Americans don't eat enough fruit and vegetables. Not a surprise.

Politics: Relevant reports that a game manufacturer is trying to block President Trump's wall by acquiring property on the border.

National Public Radio, and other sources, report that the Keystone Pipeline recently spilled 5,000 barrels of oil. Hardly a surprise, unfortunately.

Wired has compiled an annotated list of things Attorney General Jeff Sessions told Congress that he can't remember.

Science: Listverse describes 10 islands, and their unusual animal populations.

Scientific American reports on a body from outside our solar system that is on its way out of it.

The He Lives blog argues that the Intelligent Design movement isn't about science, although it's usually presented that way.

An illustrated and annotated periodic table.

Thanks for looking!

Sunspots 636

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


The Arts: Speculative Faith complains about the sex in Game of Thrones. (This is one of the reasons, but not the only one, I've never watched it, and that I long ago stopped reading the books.) Relevant also has an article seriously questioning whether Christians should watch Game of Thrones.

Christianity: An article in Relevant, about purity. It also explains why the Jewish Law existed.



Computing: Wired on how to stop receiving notifications of long, and irrelevant, Gmail threads.

Health: FiveThirtyEight tells us that many of us eat too often.

National Public Radio tells us that many drugs are still effective, long after their given expiration dates.

Scientific American argues that increasing taxes on alcohol would reduce violence, including suicide.

Humor: (sort of) Listverse reports on 10 famous entertainers who were told that they had no talent.

(or Science) A video of a song, about the elements of the periodic table.

Politics: Wired tells us that climate change denial threatens our defense capability.

Wired also reports on the Trump for President in 2020 campaign, which has paid (probably legally) over half a million dollars to Trump properties and businesses.

Politifact has a list of fake news sources. It's not all of them!

Christianity Today reports on a survey studying religious practice and belief against gun ownership.

Relevant reports on an evangelical pastor who has been arrested by ICE, for deportation. His wife and two small children are US citizens. Not exactly a "bad hombre."

Science: Listverse describes 10 recently discovered, but unexpected, phenomena in space.



Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 607

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

Christianity: Relevant reports that a Christian is martyred for his/her faith about every six minutes.


Food: Listverse reports on 10 strange ways to make, and/or serve, ice cream.

Health: National Public Radio reports on a study that found that being the mother of a middle-schooler is more stressful than being the mother of a newborn or a teenager.

NPR also has a report on the state of knowledge of Alzheimer's.

NPR on how poor eating habits can impair your ability to think.

History: Listverse posts on 10 beautiful ancient maps.

Politics: Relevant reports that nearly 30,000 people have been the victims of violence in Venezuela this year.

Science: A simple, almost free solution to defrosting a car window quickly.

Listverse reports on 10 amazing inventions, inspired by structures and processes in living things.
Sports:


Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 487

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:
Christianity: R. L. Copple tells us why we are all agnostics.
Computing: Relevant gives some telltale signs that you are on Facebook too much.
Health: Another report, from National Public Radio, on how eating fat isn't as bad for us as we often think it is.
NPR reports that double mastectomies don't really protect against breast cancer any better than other treatments.
Humor: (Not exactly, but I don't have a category for this one) Wired reports on the Crayola Crayon factory.
Science: Wired on what watching movies tells us about how the brain works. The report also mentions experiments on movie watching.
Sports: A two minute, 47 second video of some amazing acrobatic basketball dunks (and juggling).


Image source (public domain)

Animal fat prohibited in Jewish dietary laws

Leviticus 7:22 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 23 “Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘You shall eat no fat, of bull, or sheep, or goat. 24 The fat of that which dies of itself, and the fat of that which is torn of animals, may be used for any other service, but you shall in no way eat of it. 25 For whoever eats the fat of the animal, of which men offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh, even the soul who eats it shall be cut off from his people. 26 You shall not eat any blood, whether it is of bird or of animal, in any of your dwellings. 27 Whoever it is who eats any blood, that soul shall be cut off from his people.’” (World English Bible, public domain)

The Old Testament has many dietary regulations, some still kept by some Jews (and some Christians). See the Wikipedia article on kosher foods.

The text quoted above prohibits the consumption of fat from types of animals which could be offered as a sacrifice. Since the Jews were not allowed to eat any part of most kinds of animals except those listed, they would not have had much fat in their diet. However, an article in the Jewish Encyclopedia says that "The fat of birds or of permitted wild animals is not forbidden."

In my musing on this subject, I note a few things:

1) Fat formed an important part of the sacrifices. Perhaps that's the main, or the only, reason why the prohibition on eating it. It is also possible that the prohibition was so the Israelites wouldn't get too much cholesterol, or be more likely to be overweight.
2) This had to have been symbolic, rather than absolute. Meat usually has fat blended in with the muscle, so that it would have been impossible to remove all the fat from, say, the leg meat of a cow. We can buy hamburger which is 96% lean, but the Jews couldn't have eaten meat that was 100% lean.
Note, also, that the King James Version uses the phrase "fatted calf" to describe an animal to be killed and eaten as part of a celebration, as in the story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15, or in the parable of the wedding feast in Matthew 22.
3) In Acts 15:20, the Jerusalem Council asked Gentile Christians not to eat blood, but there was nothing said about fat. Why? (A search for "fat" turns up over 100 instances in the Old Testament, mostly about dietary laws or sacrifices, but no occurrence at all in the New Testament.)
I would guess, and it's only a guess, that the reason has to do with the symbolism of blood sacrifice. It was Christ's blood that paid for our sin, not his "meat."

Any thoughts? Thanks for reading.

Sunspots 226

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

Science:
Wired reports on a study that says that the tails of Ankylosaurus, a dinosaur, could be used as powerful weapons.

Wired also reports that establishing long-term colonies in spaceships may be difficult. Mice can conceive in space, but the embryos seem to need earth's gravity for normal development. This may also be true of humans.

(Or something) The American Heart Association has recently recommended that many of us cut back on our sugar intake.

Christianity:
Kerry I am makes a suggestion on how to pray.

Leonard Pitts, syndicated columnist, on what really killed Michael Jackson. Pitts doesn't speak of Christianity, or any other religion, but the implications are pretty obvious.


Image source (public domain)