Sunspots 694

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

Education: Grammarphobia tells us about roads and rivers that branch -- both branches are called "forks," not "tines."

Health: (or something) National Public Radio reports that having been sexually abused by a priest can lead to issues with dealing with authority figures (such as bosses) and to financial burdens.

Scientific American asks why we haven't cured the common cold yet.

New Scientist reports that probiotics probably don't do much good, and may do harm, in some conditions. See also here.

Gizmodo reports that hot-air hand dryers are not as good at keeping germs down as paper towels.

NPR reports that Alzheimer's may be caused by some infectious agent.

Politics: Slate, and other news sources, report that the Trump administration is not renewing passports for some Hispanic US citizens.

Science: Gizmodo reports on the discovery that a particular kind of shark is an omnivore. (Eating both plants and animals.)

Scientific American and other outlets report that Jocelyn Bell Burnell has received a $3,000,000 prize for the discovery of pulsars.

Earther reports on the discovery of three previously unknown fish species, found in a deep ocean trench.

Thanks for looking!

Sunspots 587

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

Christianity: (or Religion) Listverse sets forth 10 common misconceptions about Hinduism. (See also the Wikipedia on Hinduism -- the two sources do not agree on every point.)

Listverse also sets forth 10 common misconceptions about Jews.

Computing: National Public Radio reports on storage of information in arrangements of individual atoms. Potentially, our hard discs, thumb drives, etc., could be superseded.

Education: Wikipedia articles (here and here) on the development of a written Cherokee language, in about 1820, by a Native American named Sequoyah. His system of symbols made it easier to teach reading and writing than the symbols most of us use today.

Finance: John Wesley's sermon on "The Use of Money."

Food: National Public Radio reports on the discovery that cockroach milk is very nutritious.

Politics: (Not really. but I don't have a category for this.) Two young women are hitchhiking across Europe with a sofa (!) in an attempt to help refugees.

Wired reports that your political posts on Facebook or Twitter don't change anyone's mind.

Science: Listverse reports on 10 mysteries involving spiders.

And Listverse also reports on 10 amazing things that 10 species of animals can do.

National Public Radio reports on some very old sharks (like more than two centuries, at least.)

NPR alsoreports on why sunflowers follow the sun. ("Follow" means that the flowers turn toward the sun throughout the day).

And NPR reports that earthworms really do enrich soil.





Image source (public domain)

Tapeworms before the Flood? Scientific evidence for that

Todd C. Wood is a firm believer in Young-Earth Creationism. Unlike some Young-Earth Creationists, he is familiar with the scientific literature, and accepts most of it. He also engages with scientists who do not believe like he does.

In a recent post, Wood comments on a report that indicates that there were tapeworm eggs in fossilized shark dung. (Tapeworms are commonly passed on by eggs in dung, which is eaten, accidentally or on purpose. Fossilized dung is fairly common. Such fossils are called coprolites.)

Wood doesn't argue about it, but he does not accept the date of approximately 270 million years ago for the fossil. He believes that this fossil was formed during the flood. Either way, the fossil indicates that tapeworms existed before the flood. If the date given is correct, they must have existed, not only before the flood, but before the Fall. 

If they did, as the evidence indicates, then their must have been parasites before the Fall. This, as Wood well knows, would raise some interesting questions for Young-Earth Creationists. (There are other kinds of Creationists. See here for an example.)

In this post, I speculate on dung, and also about organisms that probably existed before the Fall, such as bacteria and mosquitoes.

Thanks for reading. Read Wood.