Carol Burnett and Julie Andrews and the Boston Tea Party

This is a hilarious YouTube video of Carol Burnett and Julie Andrews, being funny, and throwing a lot of cake frosting (or aomething) around.

The two of them are pretending to replay the Boston Tea Party (although that event took place several years before the actual Revolutionary War). But it's fun. The video is about 11 minutes long.

Sunspots 915

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

Christianity: (and Politics) A Christianity Today article strongly argues against Christian Nationalism.

Computing: (or Health) Gizmodo reports that Google is developing software to read the handwriting of doctors.

Education: (and Computing) NPR reports on ChatGPT, which will write your papers for you, among other things.

Environment: Coyotes almost never attack adult humans. There is now an explanation for the death of a hiker, by coyotes, on Cape Breton Island, according to Gizmodo.

NPR reports that Louisiana is about to replace land lost to washing away with sediment from the Mississippi River.

NPR reports on a mountain lion in the Los Angeles area, which has been there for about ten years. It was subsequently euthanized.

Humor: (and Weather) NPR reports on how some snow removal equipment is getting goofy names, and is being followed on-line.

Politics: The Conversation on bipartisan bills to upgrade the way elections are counted and reported.

NPR on how Russia has been trying to ingest Ukraine for a century.

Science: According to NPR, some scientists think that time is an illusion.

The Conversation discusses stuttering.

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

Thanks for reading.

 

Sunspots 859

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

The Arts: (and humor) NPR has posted winners of the Comedy Wildlife Photography Award.

Christianity: (and politics) A Relevant writer makes a good case that "the media" are not massively anti-Christian, and warns against taking one issue (such as abortion) and making that the only issue.

A Christianity Today writer reflects on on-line giving of various sorts, as putting money in an offering plate becomes less common.

Another Christianity Today article describes the results of surveys which indicate that committed Christians are less likely to have sexual relations outside of marriage than was true in the recent past.

A blog post says that the term "evangelical" has been hi-jacked, and has come to mean, in many people's eyes, not a group of beliefs, but a certain kind of politics. The article says that there are people who identify themselves as "evangelical" who do not use the Bible as a guide, don't attend church, or who are actually Muslim or Hindu in belief.

Computing: FiveThirtyEight discusses disparities in exposure to environmental problems, such as toxic waste. Minority groups are more concerned about these matters than "average" persons.

Education: FiveThirtyEight reports that predicted teacher shortages didn't happen much (there have been some places where they did), and that teachers have become more vocal about safety and other issues in schools. (There have been serious shortages in bus drivers and other non-professional education staff.)

Finances: Gizmodo discusses the question of why gas prices are so high. It's complicated.

Health: CNN reports on the loss of smell in some people who have had COVID.

History: (and health) NPR goes over the history of vaccination requirements, all the way back to 1818. There have always been objections.

Politics: NPR discusses yet another book on the last days of the Presidency of Donald Trump. Some scary stuff.

I am not making this up. Gizmodo reports that hundreds of QAnon cultists gathered at the site of the assassination of President J. F. Kennedy. Why? They were expecting Kennedy's son (who died in a plane accident several years ago) to appear and announce that Donald Trump is the legitimate President. It didn't happen.

There's an update to the previous article, here, and it's serious.

Science: An anonymous donor (!) gave a large, poisonous spider, with fangs strong enough to pierce a human fingernail, to an Australian animal park.

There are YouTube videos, such as this one, showing the annual crab migration in Australia, which involves millions of red crabs.

Gizmodo tells us about examples of animals from two different species cooperating for the benefit of both.

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 820

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

The Arts: (And archaeology) A 17,000 year old conch shell, apparently modified for producing sound, has been found.

Christianity: Joel Duff examines the reach of the most important young-earth creationist outlets.

Computing: Gizmo's Freeware recommends a site where you can find out about abbreviations and acronyms.

Gizmo's also pointed to HotSymbol, from which lots of symbols and emojis may be easily copied: 🙄

Education: (or something) An 8-year-old complained to National Public Radio, saying that there weren't enough stories about dinosaurs on NPR's "All Things Considered."

Relevant has a post on black history in the US.

Finance: (or something) Amazon has a use for used cardboard boxes, according to Gizmodo.

Humor: (or something) Listverse shows us 10 kitchen gadgets that you don't need.

Politics: FiveThirtyEight on why it is unlikely that there will be a successful third (or fourth) party.

(And Christianity) Christianity Today reports on a survey that indicates that quite a few white evangelicals are believers in QAnon.

FiveThirtyEight on the power of Trump loyalists in state and local politics.

Science: Gizmodo on missions to Mars (The UAE, China, and the US are involved, separately), which are so active now, and what these missions hope to accomplish.

Gizmodo also reports on research on pigs that are able to play video games -- and win.

And Gizmodo reports on new types of living things, found under the Antarctic ice.

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

Thanks for looking!

Sunspots 797

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

Christianity: Relevant reports that a study found that about a third of self-proclaimed evangelicals do not believe that Jesus was God.

Relevant also suggests that some of us are misusing Jeremiah 29:11 -- you know "I know the plans I have for you ..."

Education: Grammarphobia on why Smith is such a common name.

Environment: Gizmodo reports that the Trump administration to open up the Arctic to drilling is probably a human rights violation, leaving aside environmental damage.

Gizmodo reports on important climate effects on Greenland and Antarctica.

Politics: FiveThirtyEight discusses the Republican convention, and how it pointed toward one-person rule.

FiveThirtyEight also points out that President Trump has significant support from college-educated whites, Blacks and Hispanics.

Science: The Scientist reports that the singing wild dogs of New Guinea are not extinct, as had been thought.

ListVerse reports on some strange scientific names. Some of them are a bit off-color.

Sports:

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

Thanks for looking!

Sunspots 781

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

Christianity: Christianity Today reports that the Gideons are changing their emphasis from Bible distribution to evangelism.

Christianity Today also reports that Q, a supposedly Christian organization, is promoting non-standard "cures" for COVID-19.

Relevant discusses a survey on how long pastors, and listeners, think a sermon has lasted.

Christianity Today reprints advice from Martin Luther on fleeing from a disaster, such as an epidemic.

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

Education: As of two years ago, the salaries of college graduates, by specialty. Philosophy and Art History weren't so bad.


Environment: Gizmodo reports that the Arctic is experiencing record heat (for the Arctic) which is bad news for the world.

Humor: Under recent circumstances, it's been tempting to do some projects at home. NPR reports on three of them that didn't go quite as expected.


Politics: FactCheck examines President Trump's claim that the US and Germany have the lowest COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 people of any nation in the world, and finds it to be seriously false.

Science: Jupiter's moon, Europa, emits plumes of water from time to time. It, and its sister satellite, Enceladus, may be able to support life as we know it. Report in Gizmodo.

Gizmodo also has posted really old film footage of a Tasmanian Tiger.

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

Thanks for looking!

Sunspots 732

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

Christianity: A Christianity Today writer argues that there should be more humor in worship.

A Relevant writer tells us why we should find hope, no matter what we may be going through.


Computing: Gizmodo reports on an analysis of the Russian Twitter activity, designed to influence the election of 2016.

NPR reports that the Federal Communications Commission may finally be going to do something substantial about robocalls.

Environment: Catherine Rampell wonders why none of the Democratic candidates for President mention a Carbon tax in their plans for the environment. Rampell says that most economists, left- or right-leaning, think a Carbon tax would be a good idea.


Health: ScienceNow reports on a limit to how much energy a marathon runner can utilize. (Pregnancy makes similar energy demands.)

Gizmodo reports on a woman who had a tapeworm egg in her brain.

Humor: (or something) People from Slidell, Louisiana, called 911 when the local Taco Bell ran out of tacos, according to Relevant.


Politics: Relevant has compiled statements from all of the Democratic candidates for President, giving their stance on abortion.

The hard drives of a deceased Republican consultant have been turned over to an organization that is trying to fight gerrymandering. They appear to be a treasure trove of ideas, many carried out, on how to minimize the impact of Democratic voting, says NPR.

South Korea is sending food aid to North Korea, according to NPR. Experts indicate that the food aid may not really help much, because of the way it's distributed. They also say that if the People's Republic of NK can afford nuclear weapons, etc., they could afford food.

Science: Gizmodo discusses slime.

Sports: Dirk Nowitzki, who played for the NBA's Dallas Mavericks longer than any other player's tenure with a team in NBA history, is enjoying retirement.

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

Thanks for looking!

Sunspots 706

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to

someone else:


Christianity: Comedian Stephen Colbert on how he found his faith again, through a New Testament (Gideon?) given to him on the street.
A BioLogos writer discusses how evil can be in the world, in spite of God's existence and power.
(And politics) Relevant reports on Pastor Tim Keller points out the dangers of nationalism, applying the book of Jonah.


Computing: Gizmodo reports on 22 apps for Android devices that drain batteries rapidly, and may contain malware.

Education: Grammarphobia explains the use of "clear" and "clearly."

Health: (And politics) Michael Gerson on the anti-vaccination movement in Italy (and the U.S.).

Humor: One of my Flickr contacts has been imagining really big helpings of several kinds of food.


Politics: Scientific American reports that the Department of Interior is not protecting the environment -- quite the opposite.

FiveThirtyEight asks whether the Republican Party has given up on attracting black voters, and discusses the history of the question.

Science: Relevant reports on studies that show that almost all old ice in the Arctic is gone.


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

Thanks for looking!

Sunspots 667

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

Christianity: Weekend Fisher has a good meditation on competition, from a Christian perspective, posted during Lent, and, as she notes, between the Winter Olympics and March Madness.


Education: National Public Radio reports that Dolly Parton has spearheaded a long effort, which, so far, has resulted in 100 million books being made available to children.

Finance: (and politics) An article in Bloomberg examines what US companies are doing with their tax savings. Not very much is going to employees. About twice as much is going to stockholders as to investment in upgrades, research, and such.

Food: Relevant reports on the fanciest McDonald's in the US.

Health: National Public Radio says that North Americans put their backs at risk because of their postures when bending over.

(and/or politics) Gizmodo, and other outlets, report on a study that says there are fewer gun injuries while the National Rifle Association convention is being held, presumably because the attendees aren't using their guns during that time.

History: Gizmodo reports that a 131-year-old message in a bottle has been found.

Humor: (and politics) National Public Radio reports on the annual Gridiron Dinner, giving many of the jokes, by President Trump and others.


Politics: A Pew Research poll shows that white evangelicals want more gun control, too.

Scientific American on how the Trump administration is letting public lands be exploited, and wilderness destroyed.

Science: According to The Atlantic, over half of the genes of common fruit flies have analogs in humans.

Gizmodo reports that termites have been placed in the same group of insects as cockroaches.

Christianity Today (!) reports that many environmental scientists are experiencing sadness and depression, because of the accelerating damage to the environment, caused by humans.

Thanks for looking!

Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 665

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

The Arts: Gizmodo reports that Crayola is coming out with a pen that turns pieces of crayons into ink that will write on any surface.

Christianity: (Or, at least, outstanding generosity) Listverse tells 10 heartwarming stories of unselfishness, around the world.


Food: (and maybe Finance) Listverse tells us, and shows us, some really expensive desserts, such as a $1,685 Krispy Kreme doughnut.

Health: (and, maybe, humor) National Public Radio posts a poem about a woman who (really) had 14 roundworms in her eye.

Politics: Russian entities began sowing discord soon after the Florida school shooting, according to National Public Radio.

Science: (or something) Gizmodo reports that a California woman is suing her state for Bigfoot Denial.

Listverse has 10 facts about the Andromeda Galaxy. Gizmodo also has a post on this group of stars.

Gizmodo, and other outlets, report that some ants administer medical care to their wounded sisters.

Gizmodo also reports that we don't know when rabbits (some of them) became domesticated.

Sports: FiveThirtyEight examines what would happen if men and women skiers competed against each other.

Thanks for looking!

Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 583

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

Christianity: Ken Schenck reminds us that we must work out our salvation with fear and trembling.

Computing: Gizmo's Freeware reports on a program that lets you listen to radio over the internet, and record it.

Health: The New York Times reports that major causes of death are still around, but that they are striking later in people's lives, and we aren't sure why.

Humor: 19 jokes for intelligent people, mostly chemistry-oriented.

Politics: FiveThirtyEight examines the data on shootings of people by the police, and concludes that the likelihood of being so shot has not gone down, in spite of recent widely publicized cases.

Science: FiveThirtyEight discusses very loud sounds.

Listverse tells us about 10 things that our brains do for us, more or less automatically.




Image source (public domain)

Excerpts from Orthodoxy, by G. K. Chesterton, 48

Remember how the most earnest medieval art was full of light and fluttering draperies, of quick and capering feet. It was the one thing that the modern Pre-raphaelites could not imitate in the real Pre-raphaelites. Burne-Jones could never recover the deep levity of the Middle Ages. In the old Christian pictures the sky over every figure is like a blue or gold parachute. Every figure seems ready to fly up and float about in the heavens. The tattered cloak of the beggar will bear him up like the rayed plumes of the angels. But the kings in their heavy gold and the proud in their robes of purple will all of their nature sink downwards, for pride cannot rise to levity or levitation. Pride is the downward drag of all things into an easy solemnity. One “settles down” into a sort of selfish seriousness; but one has to rise to a gay self-forgetfulness. A man “falls” into a brown study; he reaches up at a blue sky. Seriousness is not a virtue. It would be a heresy, but a much more sensible heresy, to say that seriousness is a vice. It is really a natural trend or lapse into taking one’s self gravely, because it is the easiest thing to do. It is much easier to write a good Times leading article than a good joke in Punch. For solemnity flows out of men naturally; but laughter is a leap. It is easy to be heavy: hard to be light. Satan fell by the force of gravity.

Orthodoxy, first published in 1908, by G. K. Chesterton, is in the public domain, and available from Project Gutenberg. The previous post in this series is here. Thanks for reading! Read Chesterton.

Sunspots 530

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


Christianity: Relevant asks whether God really has a special relationship with the USA. Answer: No, and to think that He does is dangerous.
 
Relevant also asks if our bodies make a difference to our spiritual lives.
 
An article in something called Western Journalism, which says that considerably less than 50% of marriages end in divorce, and that the failure rate among churchgoers is significantly less. I can't verify this, but I hope it's true.
 
Ken Schenck believes that the New Testament does not establish any one form of church government, but that there are some features that good church government should have.
 
Computing: The Google URL shortener will shorten URLs for you. (The URL for this is 5 letters and 1 period in length!)
 
Humor: Information on the Clerihew, a humorous poem, named after the first known user of the form, Edmund Clerihew Bentley, where, usually, the first line is someone's name. For example:
    George the Third
    Ought never to have occurred.
    One can only wonder
    At so grotesque a blunder
There are a number of web sites with other examples. I like this one, dedicated to philosophy. Even I know why some of them are funny.

Politics: Cal Thomas, right-wing evangelical, syndicated columnist, and occasional Fox News commentator, argues that evangelical Christians shouldn't have been trying to change the world through politics. It's never worked, and it wasn't the way of Christ or the early church.

Science: Charles Krauthammer, usually a staunchly right-wing commentator, uses his column to explain why the mission to Pluto is important, and inspiring, in some fine writing.

In a 2 minute, 50 second video, a close-up look at some corals.

Some interesting ocean facts. Lots of them.


Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 514

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to

someone else:

Christianity (and Mathematics): He Lives has addressed the question, posed by some, about 1 Kings 7:23, which implies that the Israelites thought that the circumference of a circle was 3 times its diameter, not pi (3.14159...) times its diameter.
Computing: Gizmo's Freeware gives an annotated list of 18 free Android games that have been downloaded more than 100 million times each.
Education: Relevant reports on a study that says that US Millennials "aren't very skilled."
First Things has a short essay on why studying the humanities in college is important, and how university officials, who say that, aren't really being specific enough.
 
History: King Richard III of England is to be re-buried. He died in 1485. Read more at the History Blog.
Humor: "The 50 Funniest Puns in the History of Funny Puns." Sample: A plateau is the highest form of flattery. Thanks to a niece for drawing my attention to this web site.


Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 512

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:
Christianity: (sort of) Google has a map of present-day Israel, and surrounding countries, with information on sites of historical interest also marked.
Computing: OneTab is a browser add-on that converts all your browser's tabs to links, which can save clutter, and release some of your computer's resources. It can also be used to restore any or all such to tabs. (The web site apparently automatically recognizes which browser you are using.)
Health: National Public Radio says that we are spending a lot less, proportionally, on food than our grandparents did.
Humor: Addam Schwartz, of the Philadelphia Inquirer, pokes fun at recent studies that claim sitting is bad for our health.
There's a YouTube video, less than 2 minutes long, that says that you and I have been eating bagels incorrectly.
NPR reports on the fairly long history of knock-knock jokes.
Science: NPR reports that it may snow in the northern tier of states, but there are dust storms in parts of Africa, and they can be worse than snow.
Wired praises the aluminum can.

Marketplace reports that FEMA has a Waffle House Index, which tells them how bad things are after a storm. Really.

Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 506

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:
 
Christianity: Speculative Faith has a blog post about The Walking Dead, and how we deal with death generally. The author closes by saying: ". . . the reality is the absence of sex, gore, cussing, and violence doesn’t make a book Christian-compatible. How it handles death, however, determines how in sync with the Gospel a book is."
 
Speculative Faith also has a blog post by E. Stephen Burnett, which discusses six myths about heaven, which are common among believers, and others.
 
Relevant names the most important idol worshiped by Christians.

Humor: The funniest video I've ever seen on TV that didn't star an animal or a baby -- a 5+ minute interview of Anne Hathaway, by Jon Stewart, on the Daily Show. They crack each other up, uncontrollably, and apparently without really meaning to, about 2 minutes in, and never fully recover. The live audience was definitely amused. (Unlike some Daily Show scenes, there was no reason to bleep anything out, and there was no mention of politics of any kind.)
 
Science:  A 2 minute plus YouTube video on how large astronomical objects are (and how small the earth is!).
 
Wired reports on the Rosetta spacecraft's exploration of a comet.
 
FiveThirtyEight analyzes recent snowstorms in New York city, and finds that it doesn't snow as often now as it used to, but, when it does, it snows more.

Sports: Congratulations to the Gasol brothers, from Spain, who are the first brothers ever selected as NBA all-stars. (They will be on opposing teams.) Congratulations to their parents, too, I guess.
Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 473

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

The Arts: Rebecca LuElla Miller points out that The Wizard of Oz is not Christian literature (and the movie isn't Christian, either).
Computing: Gizmo's Freeware recommends a quick and easy text editor, Jovial, which produces files in Rich Text Format. It's easy to enter some commonly used non-keyboard characters.
Gizmo's Freeware also has an annotated list of on-line sites for seeing if some of that stuff on the Internet is really true.
Wired says that Facebook is (I am not making this up) going to listen to the TV you are watching, and then keep track of what you watch. Hmmm.
Humor: How to stop children from sneaking into the candy supply.
Politics: The Veteran's Administration and Military Health Care aren't the same thing, National Public Radio tells us. Both are important, and both have their problems. (The recent publicity has involved the VA.)

Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 463

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


Christianity: An article on Speculative Faith, by me, based on a post, some years ago, in this blog, on how Christianity shows up in a novel by Juliet Marillier, a self-acknowledged Druid.
Computing: Are your passwords safe enough? Check them with the Microsoft Password Checker.
Humor: Audra McDonald sings the "best answers" to some Yahoo! questions for Tonight's Jimmy Fallon, in a 3 minute 42 second YouTube video.
Science: Wired reports that insects have become resistant to defenses built into corn crops, mostly because seed companies and farmers ignored the recommendations of independent scientists, and even denied the scientists access to the particular type of corn. Corporate greed strikes again.
Wired also reports on tardigrades, microscopic animals also called water bears. They have amazing resistance to most everything, including temperatures near absolute zero, and above boiling. There are photos.
National Public Radio reports on the 25th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez disaster. Scientists have discovered that the oil spill caused more damage, over a longer time, than they had originally supposed.


Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 454

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to

someone else:
The Arts: An elegant gown, constructed, according to the site, from the covers of discarded Golden Books. I remember Golden Books from my childhood. I think they are still being published.
Computing: Windows Secrets has published a good guide for routine computer maintenance.
Wired reports on a phone that's supposed to deliver scents to the person on the other end of the line. Really.
Humor: (And child-rearing) A stay-at-home dad leaves post-it notes.
A great Guy Noir segment (audio) from A Prairie Home Companion.
Science: USA Today reports on why birds fly in a V formation.
National Public Radio reports that old trees grow faster than young ones, and, therefore, remove more Carbon Dioxide from the atmosphere.
Sports: Sports Illustrated, and many others, reported on the heat wave in Australia, during the Australian Open.

Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 395

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

Humor:  The Onion has named Kim Jong-Un, of North Korea, the sexiest man alive. The Chinese People's Daily took them seriously.

(Not exactly humor . . .) The Huffington Post has a slideshow on signs that celebrity marriages were doomed from the start.

Science:  Wired reports that microbes have been found in a body of water in Antarctica, 65 feet under the ice.

Business Line (!) speculates that planets around other stars may be "more habitable than earth."

From Flickr, a photo of a turtle's face, close-up.

 Image source (public domain)