Sunspots 973

Things I have spotted that might be of interest to others.

Scientific American points out that war is a major source of substances that lead to climate change.

A  Conversation writer tells us that the biggest danger from Tik Tok is not acquisition of data, but something more fundamental.

Another Conversation writer compares the speed of the Supreme Court's reaction to the current situation with the speed of responding to Nixon's events.

... and another Conversation writer discusses the complaints against TikTok, and points out that these problems existed well before TikTok was available. (I am not a TikTok subscriber.)

NPR tells us about dreaming.

Scientific American reports on research on the evolution of new species of cuckoos, adapted to their  parasitic life style.

Sunspots 897

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

The Arts: NPR has posted photos of lots of fireflies in action.

Politics: A Conversation writer discusses access to White House documents.

Another Conversation writer tells about partisan news consumption. (In other words, getting news from one side of the political divide.)

Yet another Conversation post discusses political activity by members of the military.

Science: Gizmodo reports that a newly discovered species of isopods (aka pill bugs, wood lice, roly polys, and more) can grow up to a half meter or so in length.

The Scientist reports on why doing work that requires thinking makes you feel tired.

The Scientist also has an article about dreaming in animals, and its possible ethical implications.

A Conversation article tells us why animals have tails.

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

Thanks for reading.

Sunspots 826

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

The Arts: J.  R. R. Tolkien was not only a writer, he was an artist.

Computing: Relevant lets us know whether we've become an internet troll.

Science: Gizmodo reports on research that indicates that octopi may dream.

Gizmodo reports on how easy it is to make people believe they remember something that never happened.

The Scientist reports on a gene transfer from a plant to an insect. It happened a long time ago.

Sports: FiveThirtyEight discusses the lack of black coaches in major college men's basketball.

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

Thanks for looking!

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!