Sunspots 819

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

Christianity: (and politics) Relevant reports that the current President of the Southern Baptist Convention has attempted to stop some SBC pastors from calling Vice-President Kamala Harris a "Jezebel."

Christianity Today reports on congressional prayer meetings.

Computing: Gizmodo reports that iPhones are likely to prevent users from getting any meaningful results when their searches include the word "Asian." This was presumably done to prevent viewing pornography, but it also prevents looking for "Asian restaurant near me," and much more innocent material.

Education: (also health, science, and more) Gizmo's Freeware tells us about a site that connects to every kind of calculator you can think of.

Environment: Gizmodo reports on a book about various ways of engineering our way out of what we have done to the environment. (Example - speeding up evolution in corals, so they can survive in hotter ocean water.)

Food: Gizmodo reports on why food sticks to non-stick pans.

Listverse reports on 10 sausages that you've probably never eaten (and probably wouldn't want to).

Health: NPR reports that the infections from COVID-19 have probably been seriously undercounted.

NPR also reports on a patient who had COVID variants develop in his body, over a fairly short time.

And NPR discusses the question of whether it's safe to visit older relatives, if they have been vaccinated. Maybe, maybe not.

Science: The Scientist reports that Naked Mole Rats, which were interesting enough without this late study, have sound "dialects" different from other colonies of the animals.

The Scientist also reports that a mutation in fish activates other genes that cause the animals to add more bones to their fin structure.

And The Scientist (and other outlets) report that a WHO investigation indicates that the COVID-19 virus did not originate in a lab in China.

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

Thanks for looking!

Sunspots 389

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

Science: Thekidshouldseethis.com is a blog of cool videos, related to science, that, as the title indicates, the kids (and probably you) should see.

Todd's blog reports that changing a protein slightly doesn't necessarily mean that it won't function -- in other words, all mutations are not bad. Furthermore, there is evidence, in the experiments he reports on, that a protein can take on a new function. (Note -- Todd is a Young-Earth Creationist.)

Politics:  Wired has a page that lets you check on who is contributing to political candidates. (Some contributions are anonymous.) I discovered that my Congressperson's largest named contributor was something called the American Crystal Sugar Company Political Action Committee.

The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association has removed Mormons (Latter-Day Saints) from their list of cults, apparently for political purposes.

Christianity: Heart, Mind, Soul and Strength asks why Christ gave the Great Commission, and how it should be treated.

Image source (public domain)

Information theory and genetics

I am no expert in information theory. A scientist who says that he is such an expert has recently dealt with claims that genetic mutations and other genetic changes cannot add information to the previously existing genome, and says that such processes can, indeed, add information.

Thanks for reading.