Sunspots 1006

 

Things I have spotted that may be of interest to you.

The Evidence is Plain blog examines what the Bible actually says about the Fall. The scripture does not claim that animal death, animal predation, and some other phenomena were caused by the Fall of Adam and Eve.

Heart, Mind, Soul, and Strength: Essential verses on payment of earned wages, as a topic of justice

ProPublica reports that we, the taxpayers, spent over 300 million on a weapons system that didn't work.

Gizmodo lists the richest people in the eorld, and their political donations.

NPR reports that NASA is scheduled to launch a powerful telescope tomorrow.

Women of the Bible: the Queen of Sheba

2 Chronicles 9:1 When the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to prove Solomon with hard questions at Jerusalem, with a very great train, and camels that bore spices, and gold in abundance, and precious stones: and when she had come to Solomon, she talked with him of all that was in her heart. 9:2 Solomon told her all her questions; and there was not anything hidden from Solomon which he didn’t tell her. 9:3 When the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon, and the house that he had built, 9:4 and the food of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their clothing, his cup bearers also, and their clothing, and his ascent by which he went up to the house of Yahweh; there was no more spirit in her.

9:5 She said to the king, “It was a true report that I heard in my own land of your acts, and of your wisdom. 9:6 However I didn’t believe their words, until I came, and my eyes had seen it; and behold, the half of the greatness of your wisdom was not told me: you exceed the fame that I heard. 9:7 Happy are your men, and happy are these your servants, who stand continually before you, and hear your wisdom. 9:8 Blessed be Yahweh your God, who delighted in you, to set you on his throne, to be king for Yahweh your God: because your God loved Israel, to establish them forever, therefore made he you king over them, to do justice and righteousness.”

9:9 She gave the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold, and spices in great abundance, and precious stones: neither was there any such spice as the queen of Sheba gave to king Solomon.

Note that the Queen honored Solomon's God, perhaps better than Solomon did.

 

Sunspots 609

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


Christianity: Relevant reports that Christians are the most persecuted people in the world.

Sojourners has extracted excerpts from speeches from soon-to-be-ex-president Obama, on his faith.

Benjamin L. Corey points out that God didn't demand the death penalty for the murder of Abel. (I don't always approve of Mr. Corey's language, but his posts are always thought-provoking.)

Corey also points out that, even if you don't believe in Christianity, it's wrong to dismiss the Bible as a fairy tale.


Education: Listverse points out some troubling facts and trends in higher education.

Finance: The Associated Press reports that eight men are, in combination, as rich as half of the people in the world.

Health: Apparently, President-elect Trump is listening to the anti-vaccine movement, in spite of the lack of scientific evidence that vaccination is linked to autism, and may be going to do something about what he hears, according to Scientific American.

Scientific American also reports on warnings against cleaning out your earwax.

History: I don't expect this will change any holocaust denier's mind, but ListVerse has 10 facts that prove that the holocaust really happened.

Humor: (or something) Listverse reports on 10 surprising lost objects, including a city, a spaceship, and thousands of shipping containers.

An amazing construction of marbles, and other items. (Video, about 2 minutes.)


Politics: FiveThirtyEight points out that, barring unforeseen events, soon-to-be-ex-vice-president Joe Biden will be the only veep who served for two terms, and never cast a tie-breaking vote.

Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 580

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

The Arts: Wired on how neon signs are made.

Christianity: Relevant tells us why men shouldn't refer to their spouses as "smokin' hot wives," and analyzes the Song of Songs (aka Song of Solomon) in the process.

Relevant muses about prayer being (sometimes) boring.

Ken Schenck closes a fine series on the Ten Commandments with some thoughts on "Thou shalt not covet."

Computing: Gizmo's Freeware has an annotated list of Android apps that serve as reminders and calendars.

Gizmo's also recommends running VirusTotal on any Android devices you have.

Health: Listverse on 10 feats of human endurance, such as staying awake, or going without food and water, for a very long time.

History: Listverse reports on the 10 richest men (no women listed) in history.

Politics: Politifact finds, after thorough research, that the US does not have the highest personal tax rate  in the world, although perhaps it has the highest corporate tax rate in the world.

Wired tells us that people are modifying existing guns to make their own semi-automatic weapons.

Relevant says that racism is alive and well in the US, even in Christians, and, probably, in you and me, and tells us what we can do about it.

Science: Listverse points out 10 things that one or more species of animals can do, that we can't.

Gizmodo reports that the Caribbean basin makes a very low-pitched sound.


Image source (public domain)  

Excerpts from Orthodoxy, by G. K. Chesterton, 44

Is there any answer to the proposition that those who have had the best opportunities will probably be our best guides? Is there any answer to the argument that those who have breathed clean air had better decide for those who have breathed foul? As far as I know, there is only one answer, and that answer is Christianity. Only the Christian Church can offer any rational objection to a complete confidence in the rich. For she has maintained from the beginning that the danger was not in man’s environment, but in man. Further, she has maintained that if we come to talk of a dangerous environment, the most dangerous environment of all is the commodious environment.

I know that the most modern manufacture has been really occupied in trying to produce an abnormally large needle. I know that the most recent biologists have been chiefly anxious to discover a very small camel. But if we diminish the camel to his smallest, or open the eye of the needle to its largest—if, in short, we assume the words of Christ to have meant the very least that they could mean, His words must at the very least mean this—that rich men are not very likely to be morally trustworthy. Christianity even when watered down is hot enough to boil all modern society to rags. The mere minimum of the Church would be a deadly ultimatum to the world. For the whole modern world is absolutely based on the assumption, not that the rich are necessary (which is tenable), but that the rich are trustworthy, which (for a Christian) is not tenable. You will hear everlastingly, in all discussions about newspapers, companies, aristocracies, or party politics, this argument that the rich man cannot be bribed. The fact is, of course, that the rich man is bribed; he has been bribed already. That is why he is a rich man. The whole case for Christianity is that a man who is dependent upon the luxuries of this life is a corrupt man, spiritually corrupt, politically corrupt, financially corrupt. There is one thing that Christ and all the Christian saints have said with a sort of savage monotony. They have said simply that to be rich is to be in peculiar danger of moral wreck. It is not demonstrably un-Christian to kill the rich as violators of definable justice. It is not demonstrably un-Christian to crown the rich as convenient rulers of society. It is not certainly un-Christian to rebel against the rich or to submit to the rich. But it is quite certainly un-Christian to trust the rich, to regard the rich as more morally safe than the poor. A Christian may consistently say, “I respect that man’s rank, although he takes bribes.” But a Christian cannot say, as all modern men are saying at lunch and breakfast, “a man of that rank would not take bribes.” For it is a part of Christian dogma that any man in any rank may take bribes. It is a part of Christian dogma; it also happens by a curious coincidence that it is a part of obvious human history. When people say that man “in that position” would be incorruptible, there is no need to bring Christianity into the discussion. Was Lord Bacon a bootblack? Was the Duke of Marlborough a crossing sweeper? In the best Utopia, I must be prepared for the moral fall of any man in any position at any moment; especially for my fall from my position at this moment.

Orthodoxy, first published in 1908, by G. K. Chesterton, is in the public domain, and available from Project Gutenberg. The previous post in this series is here. Thanks for reading! Read Chesterton.

Sunspots 493

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

Computing: National Public Radio says that Facebook won't let you have an account, if you are 100 or older, and give your real age.

Humor: (or something) NPR reports on corn-picking contests. No machinery, just the person.

Politics: (sort of) NPR reports on the reluctance to accept that Ebola is not an air-borne virus.

Relevant reports that, if you have $3,650, or more, after debt is figured in, you have more money than half of the people on earth. (That's $10 a day, by the way.)

Science:  NPR reports that we might have been better off living in villages with about 150 people, than living with the type and number of social interactions that most of us have.

Wired reports on new techniques to determine if there really is awareness in a person in a coma, or an apparent persistent vegetative state. Apparently, sometimes, there is.
 



Sports: from USA Today, and other media: Lauren Hill, college freshman basketball player, hopes to enter her first game on November 2, provided she hasn't been incapacitated completely by an inoperable brain tumor by that time. There are videos of this, from CBS, and ABC.
Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 436

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:
Computing: Time, National Public Radio, and many other news outlets report on Internet neutrality. Can, say, Charter, make, say, Netflix download more slowly, because they want to promote their own competing service? There's a court case.
Education: The Atlantic tells us why we should ignore the U. S. News & World Report annual college rankings.
Health: Fecal transplants are becoming an accepted treatment for some intestinal problems, says the Voice of America. Yes, inserting someone else's poop into your gut.
Politics: It's true -- the wealthiest are getting wealthier, and the rest of us are not, reports NPR. That's the wealthiest, as a group.
Science: Some great stuff this week. Wired has an article, with photos, about zombie ants, ants which are infected by fungi, which enter their brains and then alter the behavior of the ants.
National Public Radio tells us about insects that have gears that mesh -- see the photos and videos, if you don't believe this.
NPR has an article on how gelada baboons are closer to using speech than other primates. There's a "Listen to the Story" link, which you should use, on this page.

Image source (public domain)

Being poor can be a blessing

Things come to the poor that can't get in at the door of the rich. Their money somehow blocks it up. It is a great privilege to be poor, Peter - one that no man ever coveted, and but a very few have sought to retain, but one that yet many have learned to prize. You must not mistake, however, and imagine it a virtue; it is but a privilege, and one also that, like other privileges, may be terribly misused. Had you been rich, my Peter, you would not have been so good as some rich men I know.

The Princess and Curdie, 1883, Public Domain, Chapter 7. (Available from Project Gutenberg)
The Princess and Curdie is a pretty good story, as story, but MacDonald's writing is also full of gems like the above, which stand alone.

Thanks for reading. Read MacDonald.