Sunspots 948

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

Computing: Zoom, a company which helps a lot of people do some or all of their jobs on-line, believes that people working for them should come in to work, according to Gizmodo.

Environment: Gizmodo publishes the responses, such as they were, of GOP Presidential candidates to global warning, during the recent debate, which Trump did not attend.

Finances: A Conversation writer explains the bail bond system.

Politics: NPR on Rudy Giuliani and RICO crime fighting.

Science: (or something) A Conversation article discusses speed of talking -- how and why some people talk faster (or slower).

Another Conversation writer tells us why our fingers wrinkle when we've been in water a long time.

NPR reports on the discovery of groups of octopi, protecting their eggs, deep down in the ocean.

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

Thanks for reading.

Sunspots 826

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

The Arts: J.  R. R. Tolkien was not only a writer, he was an artist.

Computing: Relevant lets us know whether we've become an internet troll.

Science: Gizmodo reports on research that indicates that octopi may dream.

Gizmodo reports on how easy it is to make people believe they remember something that never happened.

The Scientist reports on a gene transfer from a plant to an insect. It happened a long time ago.

Sports: FiveThirtyEight discusses the lack of black coaches in major college men's basketball.

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

Thanks for looking!

Sunspots 813

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

The Arts: (or humor) School buses performing from the Nutcracker. Really.

Computing: Gizmodo reports on a study that shows that Google searches are biased toward large news outlets, and against smaller local outlets.

Gizmodo also reports on the most read Wikipedia pages of 2020.

Education: Grammarphobia tells us more than we may have wanted to know about the ampersand (&).

Environment: Gizmodo reports on the deaths of large numbers of birds, at least partly because of climate change.

Humor: (or something) Relevant on how some familiar Christmas songs are really strange.

Politics: NPR tells us about some real bipartisanship in Congress!

Science: Gizmodo reports that a previously unknown population of blue whales was found because of their unique songs.

NPR reports that smoke may carry disease germs into the air, where we can inhale them.

(or maybe Humor) NPR reports that octopuses sometimes punch fish.

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

Thanks for looking! 

Sunspots 604

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

Christianity: Benjamin L. Corey tells us that Christmas is not a pagan holiday, nor was it based on one.


Health: (or something) Listverse reports on how hair color influences various aspects of our health.

National Public Radio reports on volunteer (almost always family members) caregivers. They need training, and at least some of them are getting it.

History: Listverse describes 10 mysterious libraries of the past.

Politics: Scientific American has published an open letter to President-elect Trump, urging him to take six actions relative to climate change (none of which are to deny its existence! -- which he may, or may not, have done) from over 800 scientists in climatology and related fields.

Science: (or something) National Public Radio muses on the topic of whether the Neanderthals had a religion.

Todd Wood, a young-earth creationist with impeccable scientific credentials. discusses a fossil of a dinosaur with feathers. (The fossil was preserved in amber, meaning that it's better preserved than most fossils. The feather structure is clearly visible.)

Scientific American discusses the intelligence of octopi.

FiveThirtyEight on the Waffle House index for natural disasters.


Image source (public domain)