Sunspots 1002

 

Some things that I have spotted that may be of interest to others:

SpaceDaily reports on an extensive study of the genetics of anxiety. We're a long was from understanding it, but this is a serious first step.

A summary of the evidence for fraud in US elections.

It's been 30 years since Dolly, the sheep, was developed from a cloned cell. Nature reflects on what has happen ed since. (Hint: we don't seem close to cloning a numan.)

You've heard of Leap Years. There are also (or have been) Leap seconds, and now those in charge of such things are considering a leap hour.

MSN and other sources discuss China's attempt to grow a Great Green Wall -- trees: billions of them,  planted in the desert, and whether or not it can help us fight global climate change. 

SpaceDaily reports that zebta stripes may have evolved to cut down on bites from flying insects

Sunspots 852

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

Christianity "Resurrecting Orthodoxy" explains what the Bible says about demons. It's complicated.

(and Computing) Relevant reports that the most-viewed Christian Facebook feeds, so-called, are almost all run by troll farms in Eastern Europe. (For what it's worth, I'd never seen or heard of any of them, except the Guideposts feed, which is apparently not run by such a troll farm.)

Relevant also has an article examining the idea of modesty. It's complicated, and many of us have been operating as if it's simple.

Environment: Gizmodo reports that a bee swarm killed over 60 endangered penguins in South Africa.

Gizmodo also reports that summer 2021 wildfires, mostly in the US and Siberia, emitted more carbon dioxide than the country of India did.:

Politics: An audit of Arizona's fall Presidential election ballots, by a firm picked by the GOP legislators, found that, is anything, President Biden got more votes than were reported in November, according to Fox News and other outlets.

FiveThirtyEight on why bipartisanship in the Senate is so rare.

Science: Gizmodo tells us about tiny parasitic, nearly transparent fish found in the Amazon.

NPR reports that Mars may have been too small to hold its water from gradually escaping Martian gravity.

Gizmodo reports on the creation of new languages -- there have been some such, recently.

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

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

Thanks for reading.

Sunspots 782

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

The Arts: CNN, and other outlets, report that Crayola will be releasing a "Colors of the World" crayon pack, which attempts to show all of the human skin colors.

Christianity: Christianity Today tells us why the Ascension of Christ was and is important.

Ravi Zacharias, India-born world-wide Christian apologist, passed away, from cancer, on May 19, 2020.

Environment: Gizmodo says that the temperature  was more than 80 degrees F above the Arctic Circle.

Finance: FiveThirtyEight on giving financial aid to the states.

Food: (sort of) Gizmodo reports on a device designed to be touched by the tongue. The user has the sensations she would have, if she were actually tasting something.

Politics: NPR reports that President Trump is claiming that absentee ballots encourage fraud, and that fraud is against Republicans. A number of Republicans, who are in charge of the elections in their states, disagree with him.

NPR fact checks a letter from President Trump to the World Health Organization, and finds it is almost all based on misinformation.

FiveThirtyEight discusses misinformation about COVID-19, in social media. Much such misinformation is put out by bots - automated accounts, perhaps funded by Russia, in an attempt to sow discord in the US.

FiveThirtyEight also points out that state polls are really more important than national ones, because of the way the electoral college works, and assesses the accuracy of state polls. They're pretty accurate -- not perfect, though.

Relevant reports on Twitter insinuations by President Trump, that an employee of a media person he doesn't like was murdered by that media person. With no evidence.

Science: NPR reports that scientists have discovered balls of moss, roughly the size of a baseball, on ice in Alaska. They move -- slowly, and in groups, and they can last for years.


Gizmodo reports that some of us are going to be hearing cicadas in these days. Over a million in an acre, the article says.


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

Thanks for looking!

What are evangelicals afraid of losing?

At a recent meeting in the White House, to which a hundred or so supposed evangelical leaders were invited and attended, President Donald Trump said that evangelicals are "one election away from losing everything." Many of those in attendance seemed to agree with him. An article in Christianity Today, with the same title as this post, discusses that, and says that dependence on the results of one election is a serious mistake for Christians, and warns against too cozy a relationship with Mr. Trump (or any other political figure).

Read the article! For an analysis of what the right and the left are doing wrong politically, see here.

Sunspots 545

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


Christianity: Christianity Today says that churches aren't doing much to prevent divorces in couples who attend.

Christianity Today also has an essay on why complaining hurts us socially.

Computing:  itools is a sort of one-page yellow pages of the Internet, allowing you to find web sites that help you do things.

How to get your WiFi password, if you have forgotten it.

Politics: Republicans are often accused (probably with some justification) for wanting to put barriers to voting in place. But FiveThirtyEight, which is apparently not a right-wing site, argues that Democrats also want to put barriers in place, and that, for them those barriers are having more than one date for the various kinds of elections.

MarketWatch has posted a graphic, showing where US Foreign Aid goes. It's interesting. It does not distinguish between military-type aid, and other kinds, although the accompanying text gives some indication of how much is which, for a few countries.

Science: Wired on the most beautiful caterpillars in the world.

 

Image source (public domain)

God and political victory

David Brat recently beat U. S. House majority leader Eric Cantor in the Republican primary in Virginia. Brat, at his victory celebration, made no secret of his belief that God made this possible. See here for an audio of less than a minute of his speech, backed by photo. If you want to see more of that speech, search for something like "Brat victory speech video" or "Brat victory God video," and there will be plenty of choices, including some mocking Brat, and perhaps, some mocking God -- I haven't seen them all!

Mr. Brat was right to thank God. If there is an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God in the universe (or outside the universe) then He either directed this election result, or allowed it. 

But did God direct this election result, because it's a critical part of His purpose for the US, or the world at large, or did He just allow it? We don't know, but it was probably the latter.

Why say that? I live in South Carolina. There were a number of candidates for office, in the Republican primary that was held on the same day as the Virginia primary, that seem to have held political views very much like those of Mr. Brat. These candidates also made clear that they believed in God during their campaigns. But they didn't win. It would seem that God is not very interested in helping Tea Party politicians win. He's probably no more interested in doing that than, say, in helping politicians who are strong supporters of labor unions, or than helping Mr. Cantor to win. He is much more interested in making you and me, and Mr. Brat, and Mr. Cantor, more like Christ:

Christ says "Give me All. I don't want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don't want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. I don't want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked--the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours." C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity: What One Must Believe to Be a Christian. New York: Macmillan, 1952. p. 167.

Bad things happen to good people. The book of Job reminds us of that. Job was a good man -- God said so. But he lost his children, his possessions, most of his servants, and his good health. This was not because he had sinned, even though his comforters spent several chapters trying to convince Job that it was. It was a demonstration of God's power and love, and of Job's faithfulness under severe trial. (The Bible doesn't actually say that God ever explained that he was a demonstration of this type to Job, by the way.)

There's also Hebrews 11, which describes the heroes and heroines of faith:
35b Others were tortured, not accepting their deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. 36 Others were tried by mocking and scourging, yes, moreover by bonds and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned. They were sawn apart. They were tempted. They were slain with the sword. They went around in sheep skins and in goat skins; being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated 38 (of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts, mountains, caves, and the holes of the earth. (World English Bible, public domain) People can follow God, and have things go horribly wrong, as the world measures success and happiness. Most of the people in the verses above probably didn't get back their possessions, and have replacement children, as Job did. They just suffered and died.

Good people lose elections. Good people win elections, or gain power by other means, and turn bad, yielding to various temptations of power and adulation. Bad people also win elections, or take over by other means. Sometimes, no doubt, God advances certain political leaders (Maybe not always those of good character!). He did that in the case of King David. Perhaps He did it in the case of President Washington, or President Lincoln, or, for all we know, in the original election of Eric Cantor, or even in the primary victory of David Brat or in the election of Brat's Democratic opponent. But most of the time, God has more important plans. Win or lose, God is good, and we should thank Him for His love and care.

It must be really painful to spend your time, your money, and your emotions, trying to win an election, and to end up losing, and, perhaps, have had your character publicly condemned by your opponent(s), and your family's privacy violated. We should be grateful for politicians willing to run, whether they win or lose, whether we agree with their views or not.

Thanks for reading.