Sunspots 696

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

Christianity: Weekend Fisher lets the Gospel of Mark tell us what it is about, and how it is structured.

Michael Gerson, of the Washington Post, attacks the hypocrisy, and political wrong-headedness, of the adulation some evangelical leaders have for President Trump.

Finance: (and health, and politics) NBC News, and other outlets, report that an Associated Press investigation shows that President Trump's claim, in May, that drug prices would be falling in two weeks, was false. Drug prices have been rising, unfortunately.

Science: Gizmodo asks if perfect memory would be a blessing or a handicap.

FiveThirtyEight reports that we are bad at being able to tell whether another person is lying or not.

Scientific American on why nicotine is so addictive.

And Scientific American says that cats aren't really very likely to catch rats.

And Scientific American also reports on the largest birds that ever lived.


Sports: Two women will be (and already have been) broadcasting NFL football games for Amazon.

The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, I believe, it is public domain. I also believe that it was first used in Sunspots, 13 years ago today. Thanks for looking!

Thanks for looking!

Sunspots 368

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

Science: National Public Radio reports that scientists at MIT have developed a computer algorithm that can tell when a smile is fake or genuine, and do so better than humans. Did you know that we smile when we are frustrated?

Wired reports on a chemical crime investigation -- in 1850.

Politics:  I was amazed to read (on PolitiFact, which is generally unbiased) that the rate of increase in US federal spending under President Obama was among the lowest of any president since Eisenhower. Some of the credit goes to Republicans in Congress.

Computing: Wired reports on efforts by orthodox Jews to keep the Internet morally safe. (There are allegations that the hierarchy may be unduly controlling access to information.)

Image source (public domain)