Sunspots 980

 

Some things I have spotted that may be of interest:

Earth.com reports on the estimated number of ants living on earth. Lots and lots of them!

Quanta tells us that mammal (including human) and bird brains are significantly different, but both support intelligence.

You may have heard of the supposed feat of bringing extinct dire wolves back to life from ancient DNA. Todd Wood says that they didn't produce dire wolves.

Popular Mechanics tells us that there is no purple color.

NPR reports on experiments that show that crows can distinguish geometric shapes.

Sunspots 768

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

Christianity: Christianity Today discusses the matter of celibacy in priests, in an article with links to several related articles, some from quite some time back.

(and Politics) Relevant has an article which attempts to explain white evangelicals' support for President Trump. The author rejects anti-abortion as being too simple an explanation. For one thing, there were several candidates for President in 2016 who were anti-abortion. For another, recent polls show that terrorism, immigration and health care, not abortion, are the current top 3 issues for white evangelicals. There are other reasons given, that indicate that abortion isn't the main issue. The author concludes that "white evangelicals are ready for someone who punches back on their behalf," and that they feel marginalized by society.


Computing: (and more, including medical ethics) BioLogos has a fine, and thoughtful, article on transhumanism, from the viewpoint of a Christian thinker. Transhumanism is, for example, making our eyes more able to focus at long distances than they naturally can.

Environment: Numerous outlets report that Antarctica has recently had its highest temperature ever recorded.
Health: (and Politics) In the Trump budget proposal, funds to help other countries detect new outbreaks of infectious diseases has been drastically cut.

Politics: Relevant, and other outlets, report on past racist and sexist comments, and probably attitudes, of Michael Bloomberg.

Gizmodo/Earther criticizes a plan to plant a trillion trees. There are other, more effective, things we should do, like cutting back on fossil fuel consumption.

Science: National Public Radio reports on findings that suggest that long-ago humans must have mated with a hitherto unknown human-like species, in Africa. There is already good evidence that many of us have some Neanderthal DNA, and people from Oceania may have DNA from Denisovans, another group, also long extinct. More on this story, from The Scientist, which has links to related material.

From Listverse: 10 amazing scientific phenomena caught on video.

The Scientist reports on composting human remains.


Sports: (and Health) Gizmodo reports on a study showing brain impairment (perhaps temporary) in soccer players who hit the ball with their heads.

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

Thanks for looking!

Sunspots 622

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

Christianity: Christianity Today discusses the significant role played by single women missionaries in translating the Bible.

Sojourners reminds us that the Resurrection of Christ was first revealed to women, and women were the first to tell others about it. (The article says that the men were in hiding).


Ethics: Sojourners examines the recent bombing of an airfield in Syria, and concludes that the action was not justifiable under Just War Theory, mostly because, they say, Mr. Trump did not have "right intentions." (Some of the criteria for a Just War were met.)

Humor: (Sort of) Nature tells us why and how our shoelace knots fail.

(and, again, sort of) Listverse tells us a lot about the history of the design of playing cards, both artistically and structurally.


Politics: FiveThirtyEight tells us that Mr. Trump is hardly the first US President to become more hawkish soon after installation in office, and tells us why this is so.

Scientific American discusses some of the challenges to building a border wall (and some of the kinds of damage such a wall would do.)

Science: Listverse discusses 10 extinct species that some scientists want to bring back to life.

Listverse also discusses the 10 most important scientific discoveries of the past 10 years.

The New York Times reports that climate change has re-routed an Alaskan river.

The Washington Post reports on a specimen of a giant worm-like mollusc. (Molluscs are the phylum to which clams, oysters, snails and slugs belong.)



Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 546

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


Christianity: (in action, maybe in name) A police officer in Iowa noted that a car had six children with no car seats. Instead of writing them a ticket, he bought them six car seats and helped install them.

Relevant muses on Christianity in Peanuts.

I'm glad that I missed it, but there has been a lot of chatter about Starbucks having Christmas-colored cups without "Christmas" on them. Christianity Today and Relevant say that Christians should back off of complaining about this.

Ken Schenck tells us that "We must not let any other thing take God's place in our life."

The Environment: Wired discusses the possibility of resurrecting recently extinct species. By no means everybody is sure that we should do that, even if we could.

Health: (and Computing) FiveThirtyEight discusses the problems of making health records electronic. There are several.

Politics: Senator Ben Sasse, freshman Republican from Nebraska, pointed out what's wrong with the US Senate, in his maiden speech. (Which is not a partisan speech, but a well-thought-out criticism of the way things are.) "No one in this body thinks the Senate is laser-focused on the most pressing issues facing the nation. No one."

Science: NASA thinks that Phobos, one of the two small moons of Mars, may be coming apart.


Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 412

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

Christianity: R. C. Sproul's The Truth of the Cross (Orlando: Reformation Trust Publishing, 2008) "I wonder whether Jesus was even aware of the nails and the thorns. He was overwhelmed by the outer darkness. On the cross, He was in hell, totally bereft of the grace and the presence of God, utterly separated from all blessedness of the Father. He became a curse for us so that we one day will be able to see the face of God." 

Health: The New York Times reports on a Centers for Disease Control recommendation that babies should not be fed solid food until they are six months old.
 
Politics: (and maybe computing) A CNN opinion piece, arguing that unlocking your cell phone should not be a crime. (It is!)
 
Science: Wired discusses the possibility, and the sense, or lack thereof, of reviving the extinct Passenger Pigeon, using some tricks with DNA.

Image source (public domain)