sunspots 999

 

Viet Nam Awesome has an article on caves in Viet Nam, including the largest known cave in the world. The Wikipedia article on the cave states that it is so large that a Boeing 747 could fit in it without touching the cave at its sides.

According to Politico, congress apparently has defeated action that would have eliminated the protections of the Endangered Species Act.

Joel Duff keeps publishing great articles, examining the claims of young-earth creationists. In this one, he argues strongly that foxes show that the young-earth claim that many new species arose after a world-wide flood, a few thousand years ago, cannot be supported, using foxes as his evidence.

Live Science reports on the great amounts of fungal networks on earth. 

Lichens are formed from more than one organism, and they are important

lichens, Blowing Rock, North Carolina, USA

Lichens are inconspicuous entities, usually. They don't stand up high. Most of them aren't colorful. They are interesting, and important.

One interesting aspect of lichens is that they are made up of two or more types of organism, I was taught, and taught, that these were a fungus and an alga. The fungus provided structure and protection for the alga, and the alga provided food, from photosynthesis. That's true, but not true of all lichens. Some of them are a combination of an alga, and a yeast and/or a bacterium. 

Since they are more than one type, they can't reproduce as most organisms do -- by producing a copy of themselves. Lichens increase in numbers when a piece of a lichen breaks off.

Lichens are able to grow where other organisms, or groups of organisms, can't. They are capable of growing on bare rock or concrete, perhaps even on metal. For more about that, see here.

Although lichens are small, there are so many of them in some Arctic regions that they furnish much of the food for reindeer populations.

Thanks for reading!

 

Sunspots 596

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

Christianity: Stephen Burnett continues a series about "Christian White Magic," here and here.

Relevant reports that a missionary in Russia has been arrested and fined for holding a religious service in his home, and inviting others to attend.

A Relevant commentator says that Christianity is not just a relationship -- it's a religion.

Finance: Relevant reports that the Mall of America will be closed on Thanksgiving Day.

Health: (and food) A doctor tells why he eats dropped food off of his kitchen floor, even if it's been there more than five seconds.

History: Listverse sets the record straight on Pocohantas. She had a very hard life.

Humor: A Christianity Today contributor prays for certain characteristics of a possible future husband.

Literature: Morgan Busse, Christian writer of fantastic literature, asks "What if Only One Person Reads my Books?"


Politics: The New York Times reports on a study of the political leanings of doctors, and there are several interesting results. Surgeons, for example, are nearly three times more likely to be Republican than infectious disease specialists. Also, doctors in higher-paying specialties are more likely to be Republican.

Science: Scientific American reports that silkworms, fed mulberry leaves sprayed with solutions of certain artificial materials, produce silk which is stronger than normal silk, and such silk can conduct electricity.

Oh, oh. Scientific American reports that the Food and Drug Administration, important scientific journals, and universities exert considerable control over how news from these bodies is reported. One example -- Fox News is not invited to FDA press conferences. The reason for this is not clear.

And Scientific American says that ISIS gets quite a bit of money from agriculture.

Listverse grosses us out with photos and descriptions of the 10 creepiest fungi.

FiveThirtyEight tells us that rocks don't just sit there.






Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 485

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

Christianity: A post in Relevant says that complaining is a spiritual problem.
Education: National Public Radio reports on Turnitin, a service that checks the papers submitted by college students, for plagiarism.
Health: An amazing 3-minute video on what we look like to an ultraviolet camera. The video also shows graphic evidence that we should use sun-screen, aka sunblock, and that glass blocks UV waves. See here for a report on the video, in Slate.
Humor: (Or something) Coffee is now being made from coffee beans eaten, then passed through the gut, of elephants. Really, says National Public Radio.
Science:  Wired reports that city spiders grow bigger than spiders not in urban areas.
NPR reports on using people with Down syndrome as subjects for research into Alzheimer's. It turns out that, if they live long enough, all people with Down syndrome develop Alzheimer's.
Wired also reports on fungi that control the behavior of ants.

Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 381

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

Humor:  Wired reports on vending machines that give people coffee (or some other item) if they, the people, follow instructions, shouted from the machine, or on-screen.

Science: Karl Zimmer, in Discover, on the amazing variety of fungi found in dead logs.

Computing: I'm a twitter member, and I think this post is cross-posted as a twitter feed, but I'm not sure of that, and that's all I know, or do, with Twitter. Maybe your experience/interest is similar. However, there's a web site that lets you enter a subject, and see what, and who, has been recently tweeted about it. No twitter membership needed.

Christianity: A good post by Greg Laurie, reminding us of why we do good.

Image source (public domain)

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As of January 19, 2013, I am prohibiting comments on this post, as it is receiving spam comments too regularly. If you have a comment, please use a different post, and, if necessary, refer to this one, "Sunspots 381," so other readers, and I, will know what you are talking about. Thanks.