sunspots 821

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

Christianity: Relevant tells us why Lent matters.

Education: Listverse tells us about three-dimensional shapes.

Politics: Politico describes some case studies of QAnon believers.

Relevant debunks conspiracy theorists who claim that the snow in Texas was fake. (And that Bill Gates was responsible for it.)

Science: The Scientist reports that researchers in four countries have been able to communicate (in both directions) with subjects who are asleep and dreaming.

The Scientist also reports on experiments that show that dogs have awareness of their own bodies. This seems obvious, but isn't really.

DNA from a cave bear, about 360,000 years old, has been recovered, and usable sequence information has been found, according to Gizmodo. The cave was not in permafrost, from which much older DNA has been recovered.

The AP reports that an almost extinct ferret species has been given more potential genetic variety by a clone of an animal dead for a few decades.

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

Thanks for looking!

Sunspots 791

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

Christianity: A sobering essay in Christianity Today, on how the political story we adhere to shapes our actions and attitudes more than our religious background does.

Eugene Cho on why (and how) he prayed for President Obama, and why he prays for President Trump.

Relevant has an article on Bible verses often taken out of context.

Environment: A new report, on Gizmodo, indicates that climate change may be going to be worse than we had thought, which was bad enough.

Health: (and politics) FiveThirtyEight on partisan differences in belief and behavior concerning COVID-19. The differences aren't as wide as they could be.

Science: A Gizmodo writer discusses the intelligence (or not) of dogs.

LifeHacker tells us why we can smell a fart through a mask.

Gizmodo reports that some supposedly inactive ingredients of medications may not be inactive.

Earther discusses the re-introduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park.

NPR reports on how a boy's life is much better than it would have been, because of gene therapy.


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

Thanks for looking!

Sunspots 638

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

Christianity: A Christianity Today article argues that Christians usually have no business watching rape, as depicted in visual media. Duh!


Computing: Wired considers the question of how to interact with intelligent robots -- not those of the future, but those of the present, for example in our homes, and which are nearly ready.

Ethics: You have probably heard that scientists have recently changed genes in human embryos. There are analyses in Wired, and two, here and here, in Scientific American.

Health: A Wired writer tells us how many time we need to click a mouse, so as to burn one calorie. A lot.

Scientific American reports that remaining friends with someone, after he/she develops dementia, is helpful to both.

History: Listverse has an interesting post about 10 important events in history, which are looked on differently by different countries. (Sample: how the UK and the US see the Revolutionary War.)
Scientific American on strawberries and politics. (The article says little or nothing about 21st Century politics.)

Humor: (or something) The US Government is auctioning off lighthouses, and they won't be very expensive.

A writer for FiveThirtyEight analyzed the contents of over 1000 "Chinese" fortune cookies, and found some interesting things.

Listverse describes 10 unusual places where people have lived, or still live. (Sample: a two-room burrow in a city park.)


Politics: Wired reports that a recently proposed immigration bill wouldn't help US productivity very much, if it were passed, and that Canada is getting a considerably higher portion of its skilled workers from immigration that the US is. (I have since heard other commentators on this bill, on radio, including one from Fox News, who agree that the main thing this proposal does is cut down seriously on the number of immigrants, and that it won't really add much, if any, to the number of skilled workers who immigrate.)

Wired reports that employees of the US Department of Agriculture have been ordered not to use "climate change" and related terms in their reports.


Science: Scientific American reports on a study of dog facial expressions.

Government scientists have produced a report on climate change, not yet released. It's not good. See here and here.



Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 482

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:
Christianity: Some advice for Christian teachers in public schools.
A comparison of the Harry Potter and Left Behind series.
Computing: National Public Radio on Google's attempt to create an alphabet/typeface for all languages.
Humor: (and pathos) A little girl doesn't want her baby brother to grow up. (Brief video)
Science: Wired reports on whether dogs can tell time, perhaps by smell.
Wired also reports on the microbes found in cheeses. There have been some surprises.
National Public Radio reports on the importance of mosses. Who knew?

Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 452

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to

someone else:

Philosophy: A post on The Skeptical Zone, by an atheist, claims that science cannot disprove that there was an Intelligent Designer. My own opinion is that this is correct, and that science can't prove that there was, either. Hebrews 11:3.
Science: Fox News reports that dogs try to align their bodies with the earth's magnetic field when they relieve themselves. What!
Fox News also reports that Saturn's rings are billions of years old.
Space.com has a fine gallery of photos of Saturn.
National Public Radio reports that the language we speak influences the way we think about the world in unexpected ways.
Wired reports on the pink fairy armadillo.


Image source (public domain)