Sunspots 910

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to others*:

The Arts: or something) Gizmodo reports on the tallest Lego model ever, of the Eiffel Tower.

Christianity: Christianity Today on the 200 millionth Operation Christmas Child gift box.

Computing: Gizmodo tells us how to make our phones less distracting.

Environment: Gizmodo reports on a study that found that honeybees are not living as long as they
used to.

Food: NPR reports on cultured meat (grown in vats). It's coming, like the idea or not.

(and computing) Subway has installed an automated food dispenser, including the AI-enabled ability to respond, on a college campus.

Health: NPR reports that the number of premature babies has been increasing.

Politics: (or something) Gizmodo reports that about 250 Texas prisoners died because of lack of air conditioning, over the last 20 years.

Science: A child has been treated with a normal gene, replacing one that produces an  enzyme that doesn't work properly, before her birth, according to The Scientist.

The Scientist also reports on progress in healing spinal cord injuries.

*I try not to include items that require a password or fee to view.

Thanks for reading.

Sunspots 692

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

 Christianity: A Relevant writer discusses the importance of hope.

The family of Mollie Tibbetts, who was murdered, has expressed forgiveness for the probable murderer, according to Relevant.

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, according to Relevant, plans to establish chapters on all US campuses with more than 1,000 students, over the next few years. They say that "about 53 percent of 2,500 schools currently don’t have any known campus ministry. ..."
 
Computing: (and Food) USA Today reports that IBM has patented drones that can fly around work spaces and dispense coffee.

Education: Grammarphobia tells us whether we should use "in Jesus's name," or "in Jesus' name."

Ethics: (or something) Gizmodo reports on an agency in Brazil, which is trying to protect isolated tribes. According to the report, there may be as many as 11 tribes in the rainforest which have never interacted with "modern" man.

Food: Gizmodo reports that the state legislature of Missouri has tried to define "meat." There are questions about cell/tissue cultured products, which aren't available in grocery stores, but which may be in the future.

Health: Scientific American reports that marijuana-derived substances are found in breast milk for 6 days after the last use.

History: National Public Radio reports that there is a drought in some of Europe. That has exposed "hunger stones" in some rivers -- stones with inscriptions telling of previous droughts. One such inscription is in 1417 AD. See also here, for marked stone exposure in a different part of Europe.

Politics: FiveThirtyEight looks at research on the effect of voter identification laws.

National Public Radio reports that the Department of Homeland Security presented a rosier picture of conditions in countries that actually exists there, in order to justify sending refugees back to them. Sigh.

Science: Analysis of data collected by an Indian spacecraft show that there is water on the moon.

USA Today reports that some farmers in Mexico have been growing corn that is associated with Nitrogen-fixing bacteria. (Usually, Nitrogen-fixing bacteria are associated with members of the pea family, such as soybeans. Plants that have such associations need less (or no) Nitrogen in fertilizer, and the plants are a better source of protein building blocks in people that eat them.)

Space.com reports that an asteroid seems to be about 95% metal, which is very unusual, and could be commercially important, if we can get there to mine it. Here's the Wikipedia article on that asteroid, Psyche.

Lifehacker on how to get a cat to like you (or at least act like it does).

Scientific American on how to tell if a comatose patient is conscious.

Scientific American also reports that we can have only up to about 150 real friends -- people we interact with regularly.

Thanks for looking!

Image source (public domain)