Sunspots 677

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

Christianity: Paige Patterson, President of a Southern Baptist seminary, has apologized for some of his past remarks which were less than encouraging to women, according to Christianity Today. (Last week's Sunspots had related links.)

Relevant reports on the question of which year of a marriage is the most difficult.


Computing: (and history) Listverse tells us about 10 pre-1976 hackers, including, among others, Steve Jobs.
  Food: National Public Radio reports on a study that indicates that people from certain regions like dishes from those regions more, when they are reminded of the places first.

Humor: (or something) A truck carrying liquid chocolate spilled the stuff on a highway in Poland, says NPR. (There's a video.)


Politics: FiveThirtyEight discusses the possibility of a Presidential pardon for Michael Cohen.

FiveThirtyEight also discusses the end of Temporary Protection status for immigrants from several countries. About 300,000 people are going to lose this protection, and thousands of their children, who are US citizens, may also be forced to leave the US.

The US Interior Department is considering re-introducing grizzly bears in some parts of the West. Not everyone is happy about this.

Science: Gizmodo points out that our, er, butts, are unique among animals, and asks several experts to tell us why this is so.

Sports: Pau Gasol, National Basketball Association future hall of famer, on why the NBA should hire women head coaches. (As of this writing, Becky Hammon, assistant coach of the San Antonio Spurs, is under consideration for such a job. Gasol has been on her team for a few years.)

Thanks for looking!

Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 419

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:
Christianity: Ken Schenck, on "Going to Heaven." Schenck says that, in spite of popular Christian belief, the dominant New Testament view is that what should be emphasized is becoming part of the Kingdom, not getting to heaven, and that heaven will be on earth. (A re-booted earth!)
Computing: Wired reports that Google has been working with giant neural networks, and that artificial intelligence is a lot closer to really understanding some things (whatever understanding means!).
Health: National Public Radio reports on a robot therapist (well, not exactly a robot, but automated, and not exactly a therapist) being developed to help diagnose potential suicides in the military.
Humor: (Not exactly, but I don't have a category for this one!) Wired has kindly posted a video of what a grizzly's mouth looks like as it eats something, in this case, a camera.
Politics: In spite of thousands killed by leaks or explosions of various kinds of chemical plants, and billions of dollars of damages paid by the industry, little has been done to protect the public, or the employees, reports National Public Radio. The report includes this quote: "Chemical plants are really pre-positioned weapons of mass destruction . . ."


Image source (public domain)