Sunspots 727

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

The Arts: Peter Mayhew, who played Chewbacca in the Star Wars films, has died. He was over seven feet tall. 

The History Blog reports that Maurice Sendak, of Where the Wild Things Are fame, also worked on stage design, for operas.

Christianity: National Public Radio reports on a fairly rare couple -- they were both virgins when they were married.


Computing: Gizmodo tells us how to delete voice recordings from Google Home.

Finance: Catherine Rampell on why Stephen Moore should not be nominated to the Federal Reserve Board by President Trump. The Hill says that Lindsay Graham and other Republican senators also are doubtful about Moore. Eventually, his name was withdrawn.

Health: Gizmodo reports on the variety of things men will try, in order (they hope) to grow taller.

NPR on why it's so hard to lose weight.

(and politics) Catherine Rampell reports that Attorney General Barr has joined legal challenges to the Affordable Care Act. If these challenges succeed, millions of people will lose health insurance, and other popular provisions of the ACA will be null and void.

Politics: Michael Gerson complains about Attorney General Barr's belief in the expansion of the power of the President.

Science: Gizmodo asks if there will ever be new colors that humans can see.

Gizmodo reports that Chinese scientists, and others, claim that the recent gene-changing procedure, using the CRISPR system to alter the genes of two girls, was unnecessary, and that the whole procedure was flawed.

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

Thanks for looking!

Sunspots 535

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


Christianity: Relevant tells us that private communion shouldn't be a chore, and makes some suggestions to make it more interesting. They suggest communion through food, among other things.

Stephen L. Corey points out that God created, or at least allowed, people who are not exactly male or female.

Computing: Gizmo's Freeware on privacy (or not -- some leaks can be fixed) in Windows 10.

Education: National Public Radio reports on how public schools in the US are neglecting the smartest kids.

Science: National Public Radio reports on research linking our leanness, or lack thereof, to our gut bacteria.

NPR also reports on very low-frequency communication sounds made by elephants.

Wired reports that Pluto's atmosphere seems to be being renewed. Its gravity is too weak to hold it as well as the earth holds ours.

Wired also explains why water gets stale when left out overnight.

Wired also reports on an on-line database of mathematical sequences, and the man who has maintained this database for 50 years. (Examples: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34 . . ., the Fibonacci sequence, or 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29 . . ., the prime numbers.) There are many, many more of these sequences in the database.


Image source (public domain)