Sunspots 722

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

Christianity: resurrecting orthodoxy has a fine review (I haven't read the book, so I think it's a fine review) of John Walton's new book on how people in Bible times understood the Torah. Says resurrecting orthodoxy: "Someone who scoffs at the valuable insights scholars try to give about the Bible is someone who is not serious about understanding the Bible." 

Computing: (and Politics) A Section 230 of a law, passed a number of years ago, which protects on-line publishers, and means, for example, that this blog is not liable for the articles it links to, is now under attack. Gizmodo says that it shouldn't be.

Education: Grammarphobia tells us how to punctuate "yada yada yada," "blah blah blah" etc.

Health: (or something) Relevant reports on a survey that indicates that we are having less sex now than we used to.

(and Politics) Catherine Rampell says that if Republicans develop an alternative to Obamacare, it will look a lot like Obamacare.

Humor: (or something) Listverse tells us 10 interesting things about horses.


Politics: (And Finance) Catherine Rampell is unhappy with the President's choice to fill a vacancy on the Federal Reserve.

FiveThirtyEight has an essay on the differences within the Republican Party.

Relevant has compiled what Democratic candidates for President have said about their faith. (Some haven't said much, some have said quite a bit.)

S. E. Cupp says that all Presidents, and candidates for that office, should be as thoroughly scrutinized as President Trump has been.

Catherine Rampell reminds us that we still haven't seen President Trump's tax returns, and what we might learn if and when we do. She understands that he is not legally bound to let us (or Congress) see them, unless Congress asks for them.

Michael Gerson believes that the President is very wrong in his desire to cut off aid to Central American countries.

Science: Gizmodo reports on a study of the positions animals take when they relax.

NPR reports that up-to-date astronomical discoveries are being translated into Blackfoot, a native American language, by the mother of one of the scientists. She has had to make up words for some scientific terms.


The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, I believe, it is public domain. 

Thanks for looking!

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)

Sunspots 509

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

The Arts: National Public Radio reports that seismic shifts were used as a basis for music from the bell tower on the University of California's Berkeley campus. The tower is 100 years old, and Berkeley is in an area that experiences lots of motion in the earth.
Computing: (Sort of) Wired warns us not to buy a Smart TV yet, because TV manufacturers have ruined them. Translation -- too many ads, and they aren't talking about the ads in the programs.
Education: NPR on why little kids should play with blocks.
Health: National Public Radio reports that a higher percentage of Tanzanians are vaccinated against measles than the percentage in the US.
NPR also reports that cancer patients don't often understand what their doctors are saying about their survival time.
Politics: The Equal Justice Initiative has released a report on lynchings of African-Americans in the South, which report says that the number of lynchings had been under-reported, and that lynching was a form of terrorism.
NPR reports that less than 1% of the US Federal budget is for foreign aid, and that the most of that is for health.
The Washington Post has posted maps of the most gerrymandered congressional districts in the US. Some really strange shapes. (Gerrymandered districts are designed to put a lot of people who vote for your opponents together, making it more likely that you will win in non-gerrymandered districts. It has been practiced by both parties.)
Image source (public domain)