Sunspots 790

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to

someone else:

Christianity: National Public Radio reports that multi-racial congregations don't really bridge the gaps between the cultures of races.

Christianity Today has an article saying that white churches don't really deal with racism.

Computing: Gizmodo tells us about a single web page that lets you click on a variety of non-keyboard symbols, and then copy them into a document. I tried a few: ∛ ⊗ ↘ π ♫. This works in Word, as well as in my HTML editor.

Education: Gizmo's Freeware tells us about the online etymology dictionary.


Environment: Gizmodo reports that Morgan Stanley has begun keeping track of their investments in fossil fuel development projects.

Health: Gizmodo reports on a government study that recommends no more than one drink (whatever that means) of alcohol per day for all adults.

Politics: Leonard Pitts blames her church, her parents, and a lot of other entities, including traditional news media, for the death of Carsyn Leigh Davis, after she attended a mask-free celebration for teens at her church.

FiveThirtyEight analyzes the data, and finds that Trump has a problem with voter enthusiasm, as does Biden.

FiveThirtyEight also finds that most Republican governors are getting low polling marks for their handling of COVID-19, and most Democratic governors are getting good marks.

Heart, Mind, Soul and Strength looks back at the George Floyd story.


Science: Gizmodo reports on evidence, from preserved dung, that humans came to North America about 14,000 years ago.

Inverse reports that some deep-sea fish have extremely black materials as part of their skin.

Gizmodo reports on a material that can't be cut.


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

Thanks for looking!

Sunspots 680

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

The Arts: (Including pornography -- never mind whether it's art or not!) An article in Speculative Faith warns that thinking you are oblivious to pornography and questionable visual stimuli is not a sign of Christian maturity. For part 1 of this series, see here.

Computing: A primer on typography, for those not expert in the selection and use of typefaces.

UnDark debunks the idea of "technology addiction."

Gizmo's Freeware tells us how to delete the conversations we have with digital assistants, such as Alexa.

Gizmodo considers the question of how many social media users are real, and how many are not.


Education: Scientific American debunks the value of so-called "learning styles."

Health: Gizmodo reports on studies of the effect of dietary supplements on heart health, which found that such supplements did not have a positive effect.

Gizmodo also reports that one-fifth of 20-30's deaths in the US are now caused by opioids.

Politics: (or something) Relevant reports that some Liberty University students and staff are working with a producer who is filming something called The Trump Prophecy. It is claimed that this film won't be political, which is hard to imagine.


Sports: FiveThirtyEight analyzed the loss of the Houston Rockets to the Golden State Warriors in the National Basketball Association's western conference final series, seventh game, where the Rockets, usually a good 3-point shooting team, missed 26 3's in a row.

FiveThirtyEight also discusses Kevin Durant's propensity to lose a shoe during an NBA game.

Thanks for looking!

Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 359

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

Sports: The Boston Globe muses about Tim Tebow's move to the New York Jets, as relates to his faith, and, a little, to football.

The Arts: Albrecht Dürer, who created the widely used "Praying Hands," had some definite ideas on how letters should be shaped.

Politics: (sort of) National Public Radio reports on a US Supreme Court hearing on whether a baby conceived after the death of its father is eligible for survivor's Social Security benefits. In this case, the Obama administration argued for state's rights. (The transcript of oral arguments, including questions by Supreme Court members, is here.)

Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 296

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

Humor: Katherine eats out, with her family, in a restaurant where you can't see anything.

Science: Carl Zimmer tells us that, under certain conditions, a body in a grave can turn into soap.

A study shows that students learn better if the handouts they are given are not in a plain font like this one, or this one, but in a "disfluent" font, like Comic Sans. Interesting, for sure.

Computing: David Pogue, of the New York Times, discusses how our obsession with replacing our electronic gadgets frequently impacts the environment, and what, if anything, to do about this. 

Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 281

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

 

Science: (or Christianity) An excellent, and brief, article on the relationship between science and religion, from the BioLogos Foundation.

Sports: George Blanda, who retired as the oldest pro football player ever, and had an amazing series of clutch wins in 1970, as kicker and quarterback, when he was about 43, passed away.

Computing: Heard that Matthew Carter, who  designed the Verdana, Georgia  and Tahoma typefaces, (and others) was one of several recipients of a MacArthur Foundation grant (aka  genius grants).
Christianity:
The BioLogos Foundation begins a series on the question of whether God's existence can be proved or disproved.



Image source (public domain)