Sunspots 756

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

The Arts: The Scientist has posted photos of art made by placing microorganisms on a culture dish. 

Christianity: (and politics) Christianity Today reports on the favorite verses of the Democratic candidates for President.

Christianity Today also reviews a book on Christianity being compatible with socialism.

Relevant reports on an interview with Pete Buttigieg, about the Bible.

Relevant also has a tribute to Fred Rogers, of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.
Computing: (And politics) Rolling Stone has an article about how Russians really operate in the social media universe. (It's probably not the way you think.)

Politics: Five Thirty Eight analyzes the reaction to the November 20th debate between Democratic candidates for President.

(or something) A Utah woman has been charged with a crime because she took her shirt off in her own home, according to NPR.

Science: Gizmodo tells us how bees escape when they fall into water.

Mosquitoes are being infected with bacteria, then released, as a way to combat some mosquito-borne virus diseases, according to NPR.

Gizmodo reports on research on brain function in persons who have had half of their brains removed. Function was remarkably good.


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

Sexual slavery in Hollywood

Some recent articles refer to sex in Hollywood (aka the US entertainment industry) productions, and claim that some of this amounts to sexual slavery.

One of these articles, by E. Stephen Burnett, refers mostly to the HBO series "Game of Thrones," which is based on George R. R. Martin's series of novels, collectively called "A Song of Ice and Fire." See here and here for my reaction to the books -- I did not finish the series, for reasons I explain in the posts. My second post discusses and refers to some reaction to Martin's work by Christianity Today and by award-winning author of fantastic literature Elizabeth Moon.

Burnett claims that the HBO series includes pornography. He says that "naked people who act out sexual scenarios in public media in order to get money is porn." He also refers to John Piper, who says, in a post on "Game of Thrones:" "God calls women to adorn themselves in respectable apparel with modesty and self-control (1 Timothy 2:9). When we pursue or receive or embrace nudity in our entertainment, we are implicitly endorsing the sin of the women who sell themselves to this way and are, therefore, uncaring about their souls."

Piper also says that violence on-screen is not real -- no one gets killed. But nudity is real. People really expose their bodies. Further, he says that it is not ever necessary to have nude actresses in order to tell a story.

Piper dealt almost entirely with nakedness in women. There is, of course, also nudity by men on-screen. I don't know the frequency of occurrence of one versus the other.

A Cap Stewart has written two posts, here and here, in which he claims, with some anecdotes to back them up, that women are sometimes coerced into becoming sex objects. He says, with some justification, that some of them are a sort of sex slave.

None of the three authors (all of them wrote about "Game of Thrones," and other things) discussed the pornography film industry. My guess is that there might be some actual full-time sex slavery in that industry, but I have no facts to back that up. None of the authors discussed homosexual sexual activity.

Thanks for reading. Be careful what you watch. Since this post concerns pornography, I expect that it will get more views than most of my blog does, which, in itself, tells us something.