Sunspots 718

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

Christianity: He Lives argues that Matthew 18 should not be used for general church discipline.


Computing: Gizmo's Freeware identifies the 27 best web sites for wasting your time.

Gizmodo also reports that there are data hoarders -- people who collect lots and lots of files.

Environment: Earther describes some of the really bad things that global climate change may cause.


Health: NPR reports that changing patient's attitudes helps them to take the medicine, and for it to help them. Attitude changes included having patients interpret bothersome side effects as a signal that the medicine is working.

Gizmodo, and other sources, report on research that indicates that sleeping late on weekends doesn't make up for too little sleep on other nights.

Humor: (and Health) NPR reports on how using Car Talk's diagnostic methods helps doctors diagnose illness.


Politics: Michael Gerson says "The current investigations targeting the Trump administration are not partisan witch-hunts. They are the natural result when a leader surrounds himself with crooks, cronies and conmen."

Joel Anderson has a proposal which should end most or all of the controversy over abortion. But, he says, politicians don't want to solve the abortion issue -- it energizes voters too much.

NPR reports that flood disaster money is distributed in ways that favor the rich. Surprise!

Science: FiveThirtyEight explains why it's hard to show that global climate change really exist -- a politician throwing a snowball is more dramatic, and usually presented with more confidence.


The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, I believe, it is public domain. 

Thanks for looking!

Sunspots 495

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:
Christianity: Threads from Henry's Web, a blog, has some careful thinking on separation of church and state. (Notice that I'm not putting this in Politics, but in Christianity.)
A blog post about Contemporary Christian music, from a worship leader who has moved away from doing 100% of that in worship.
Computing: Relevant reports that there is a real college course, entitled "wasting time on the Internet."
Gizmo's Freeware reports on a free web site that will convert most any file format into something else.
Humor: Tom Magliozzi, co-host, with his brother, Ray, of Car Talk, a long-running National Public Radio show, has passed away. We miss him.
Why it's smart to wear the same outfit every day. (This seems to apply to men, not women, but what do I know?)
Literature: Speculative Faith on The Bible and magic. I hadn't considered that Elsa, from Frozen, is a witch, but I guess she is. The article doesn't condemn Frozen. It does point out specific uses of magic that Christians should avoid.
Science: Wired reports on the winners of a contest on the best photos of microscopic objects.
Sports: Caroline Wozniacki, tennis star (she came in second in this year's US Open) ran in the New York marathon, and did well, in spite of never having run the entire distance at one practice session before. How good would she be if she really practiced?


 Image source (public domain)