Sunspots 764

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

Christianity: Christianity Today reports that evangelicals are receptive to prison reform, but that most of them haven't done anything to help prisoners.

Relevant reports on a letter from black church leaders, thanking Christianity Today for publishing a recent letter, calling for the removal of President Trump from office. The article says that his support among African-Americans is very low.

Computing: (and Christianity) A plea to pastors and theologians to be careful of what they say on social media -- check sources, and don't merely repeat what others who share your particular prejudices have posted, for example.

Humor: (and romance) Relevant reports on a dating site that requires agreement with a doctrinal statement. (A Calvinist one)


Politics: FiveThirtyEight has done a survey, which indicates that President Trump is less popular than Mike Pence, and almost as unpopular as Sarah Palin.

Pete Enns says that the word, or the country, America, is not in the Bible.

NPR says that there are a lot of border walls in the world, but Trump's wall is most expensive, and indicates why that is so.

Science: Gizmodo reports that a tiny parasite can affect the behavior of mice that are infected, including making them more likely to be caught by cats.

Gizmodo also reports on a flying robot, with wings from those of dead pigeons.

Listverse discusses 10 conspiracy theories put forth by President Donald Trump.

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

Thanks for looking!

Sunspots 642

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

The Arts: (Sort of) SmokyMountans.com has a fall foliage prediction map, for the entire United States. As of September 1, there are only a few regions which are expected to have even minimal color, namely, a part of New England, some of the Rockies, and Michigan's northern Upper Peninsula, and Northern Minnesota.

Christianity: (or, at least, good behavior) A CNN crew stopped what they were doing to rescue some people during the Houston flood.

An article on burdens pastors face, and which they often can't tell anyone about.

Listverse has an article on the excruciating types of suffering induced by crucifixion.


Food: (and hurricanes) FEMA uses the Waffle House Index to measure the impact of large storms. How Waffle House (almost always) keeps open.

Health: Listverse suggests that 10 different types of parasite could be infected me (or you) right now.

Humor: (Or geography!) Relevant reports on a couple who have visited all 645 Cracker Barrel restaurants in the US.
 

Politics: Scientific American details how the Trump administration is acting in ways that damage our National Park System, and National Monuments.

A statement from a retired official of my own church, The Wesleyan Church, on ending DACA, in The Huffington Post.

Science: Listverse reports on 10 strange planets (all outside the solar system).

Wired reports that fire ants have been clumping together and floating around, in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. Scientific American on the same subject.

Listverse reports on strange caterpillars, including one that jumps (video included) and one with hair that looks like that of the current US President.

Scientific American on the many possible "sexes," that is, people with more or less sex chromosomes than most of us, or with various anatomical aberrations, such as indeterminate sex organs, and more.

Sports: (And Christianity) A Southern Baptist minister and denominational official, who is a football fan, warns that football can take the place of God, in Relevant.


Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 584

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

Christianity: “A man cannot live one hour a godly life unless by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Andrew Murray, Absolute Surrender, public domain.

Ken Schenck has a post (which does not refer to any particular person or situation) on the pitfalls that may beset church leaders.

Schenck also has an important post on issues Christians disagree on.

A Relevant writer says that it's no wonder that pastors of mega-churches often fall spectacularly, explains why, and says that it's also the fault of the rest of that church.

Relevant says that more Christians were killed for their faith last year than in any year in modern history.

Education: (And computing) NPR reports that students who use computers (and tablets) in college classrooms get somewhat lower grades on tests. (The test grading was automated, so there wasn't teacher bias during grading.)

Health: Listverse reports on 10 facts about the human skeleton.

Wired reports that experiencing racism threatens health.

History: Archaeologists are learning more about the Philistines (Goliath and Delilah were Philistines), but still don't know where they came from, according to National Public Radio.

Do you think that pink has always been a girl's color? Think again.

Politics: Wired says that some areas are un-paving roads, as a way of saving money, and of making terrible paved roads into not-so-bad un-paved ones.

Relevant says that the new UK Prime Minister is a committed Christian. God help her.



Image source (public domain)