Sunspots 750

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

The Arts: The History Blog reports that a painting by Agnolo Bronzini is being shown publicly for the first time in about five centuries.

Christianity: Christians can disagree, but they should observe these principles.

Todd Wood reflects on the forbidden fruit.

A Relevant writer tells us why Christians should care for the environment, even though the present earth may be drastically changed.


Education: Grammarphobia discusses the matter of being hoist by one's own petard.

Finance: Catherine Rampell points out that the deficit is getting much larger.

Politics: Relevant reports that a recent Fox news poll indicates that white evangelicals support for impeachment of President Trump is growing.

Relevant also reports that a female Kurdish official, who supported Kurdish Christians, has been executed by forces allied with the Turks.

FiveThirtyEight analyzes loss of Republican support for President Richard Nixon.

NPR has posted a timeline of events, some of which you probably didn't know about, related to Ukraine, Rudy Giuliani, and other matters related to the impeachment inquiry.

Joe Biden, and his son, or others, may or may not have been involved in corruption of some sort. But President Trump's record on corruption isn't exactly a great one, say reports by NPR, here and here.

FiveThirtyEight on where to find anti-Trump Republicans.


Science: Science News and other outlets tell us about the discovery of lots of new, small moons orbiting Saturn.

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

Sunspots 708

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

Christianity: Michael Gerson on why all of us should care how prisoners are treated.

Christianity Today says that we should keep the X in Christmas/Xmas.

Education: Merriam-Webster has chosen its word of the year, based on use by the public. It's Justice.

Health: NPR reports on why some drug prices are so high in the US.

Humor: A Louisiana woman has placed large inflatable dragons on her lawn for Christmas. Not everyone was happy about that, says Relevant. So she added some more.


(or something) Think the US celebrates Christmas too much? NPR reports that the Philippines celebrates it for four months.



Politics: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, newly elected to the US House, has proposed a Green Deal -- aspirations on how we want to deal with the environment. A majority of people of all political affiliations like the idea, according to Earther.

Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross appears to have had as many, or more, shady dealings as some ex-members of the Trump administration.

(And Science) NPR reports that North Korean scientists may be learning how to produce weapons because of seemingly ordinary cooperation with scientists from other countries, especially China.

Science: NPR reports on a new largest prime number, a very large one, indeed.

NPR also reports on a study, published in the British Medical Journal, which showed, sort of, that jumping out of an airplane with a backpack is as safe as jumping out with a parachute. The study also shows some deeper truths about medical research.

The Trump administration is trying to open the last large chunk of undeveloped land in the US to oil and gas interests, without much concern for the environment, according to Earther. Sigh.


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

Thanks for looking!

Sunspots 621

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

The Arts: (And Christianity) A Relevant writer argues that marketers effectively isolated Contemporary Christian Music artists from the world at large, when they might have appealed to that world. The writer says that "Christian" film-makers are being steered in the same direction, when they shouldn't be.

Christianity: Christianity Today on the awful consequences of corruption, mostly (but not entirely) in other countries, where, in some, it's "normal."


Computing: Gizmo's Freeware tells us about an on-line audible pronunciation tool, which works in several languages.

Gizmo's also points to a source of music that can be used as background, etc., without violating copyright.


Education: The New York Times considers the question of whether pre-school teachers need college degrees.

History: Listverse reports on 10 ancient businesses. (Mostly from a thousand or more years ago.)

Listverse also reports on 10 islands in the Atlantic Ocean that you've probably never heard of. (I had heard of one of them.)
 
Science: Scientific American has posted a video, under 90 seconds, of a badger burying a dead cow. Really. (It took the badger longer than that.

Wired explains why it is so hard (or impossible) to prevent the production of sarin gas (the kind recently used in Syria).

Scientific American reports on a study about how couples can continue to be attracted to each other.

Scientific American also tells us that an asteroid is going to come pretty close to the earth on April 19.

Listverse describes 10 kinds of rocks that smell bad (or stink).


Image source (public domain)