Sunspots 849

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

Christianity: Relevant asks why God wants us to be patient.

Computing: Gizmodo reports on a ransomware attack on a university. On-line classes were suspended, at least for a time.

Health: Gizmodo reports on a study indicating that wearing masks really do help against COVID.

Politics: (and computing) The committee investigating the January 6 insurrection has asked a number of communication companies to preserve records of accused participants. House minority leader Kevin McCarthy has threatened to shut down such companies that cooperate with the committee, according to Gizmodo.

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

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

Thanks for reading.

Sunspots 833

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

Computing: Gizmodo reports that Colonial Pipeline had posted a job opening for a cybersecurity manager, a week or so before the ransomware attack that cut gasoline supplies down.

NPR interviews a company that helps negotiate with criminals after a ransomware attack.

Environment: Gizmodo reports on how ineffective the Environmental Protection Agency has been, during the Trump administration, and before.

Health: NPR reports that a dozen people are responsible for most of the anti-vaccination disinformation available on social networks. These people have, and will, contribute to COVID (and other diseases) deaths.

(and Computing) NPR reports on likely links between social media use and depression, among children and youth.

Science: The Scientist reports that children with severe combined immunodeficiency have been successfully treated with gene therapy, with a virus placing a normal gene in them. Treatment helps for at least a few years, and, we hope, for life.

Gizmodo reports that a system for generating characters by thought alone (in a paralyzed man) is quite effective, and surprisingly rapid. In other words, he's typing with his brain. See also report in The Scientist.

Gizmodo also reports on spectacular recently published photos of  Jupiter.

ScienceAlert reports that we would need several years to deflect an asteroid headed for earth.

Gizmodo seeks answers to the question of why birds and insects are often vividly colored, while mammals are not. (Did you ever see a blue one?)

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

Thanks for looking!

Sunspots 831

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

Computing: Gizmodo reports that a number of entities are calling for a national strategy on fighting ransomware.

Education: A ListVerse writer tells us about 10 subjects that used to be taught in public schools, but aren't any more, and, says the writer, should be.

I am presently a member of a Wesleyan church. The Wesleyan Church has 5 institutions of higher learning in North America. An African-American has been selected as President of one of them, for the first time.

Health: Gizmodo on home smell training to help recover from loss of the sense of smell due to COVID.

And Gizmodo on why our skin itches, sometimes (or, in some of us, all the time).

FiveThirtyEight analyzes the likelihood of getting COVID from un-vaccinated children.

The Scientist reports that the risk of blood clots is higher in those infected by COVID than the risk of such in those who have been vaccinated.

Humor: (and Christianity) A Relevant writer has ranked worship instruments in order of their expense and/or complexity, or something.

Science: Scientists are trying to sequence the DNA of all animals with backbones, according to NPR.

Gizmodo reports on glacier melting, caused by climate change.

The Scientist reports that single-celled organisms, or single cells in higher organisms, may be capable of learning.

Sports: FiveThirtyEight says that you can't really tell how good an NFL team's draft picks were.

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

Thanks for looking!

Sunspots 589

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

The Arts: (Sort of) National Public Radio tells us that Nigeria has the best Scrabble players in the world.

Christianity: Speculative Faith points out that some Christians use magic spells.
 
Weekend Fisher has posted a fine essay on confessing sin.


Computing: Trend Micro is offering free tools for recovery from ransomware.

Education: A Wired columnist says that college won't train you for a job, but that's OK.

Humor: (or something) Relevant has posted a short video of a Lego construction that makes shadows that look like three different objects, depending on how the construction is rotated. Perhaps the coolest Lego creation I've ever seen.


Politics: FiveThirtyEight details the changes in the US welfare system (actually, it's now 50 systems) since the welfare reforms put in place while Bill Clinton was President. You will probably be surprised by what has happened.

Science: Space.com, and many other outlets, report that a nearby star has a planet that may be suitable for life.

Listverse reports on 10 discoveries of things preserved in amber, and what they tell us about the past.

Sports:





Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 586

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

Christianity: An article in Christianity Today tells us that the Lord's Supper should be a (wedding) rehearsal dinner for believers.

Computing: Gizmo's Freeware describes a web site that will help you get your files back, for free, if you are a victim of ransomware.

Listverse reports on 10 things that drones are being used for, now.

Education: 1 Corinthians 13 for teachers.

NPR has an opinion piece on the subject of whether college students should be allowed to bring information appliances into a lecture class.

Health: FiveThirtyEight asks, and tries to answer, five important questions about the Zika virus.

Wired reports on a program which releases male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes (which carry the Zika virus), infected by a bacterium that makes any females they mate with sterile.

Wired also suggests that we continue to use dental floss, in spite of some recent report that indicate that the effectiveness of flossing is not proven.

Politics: Christianity Today has a careful discussion on political correctness.

Science: National Public Radio reports that a whale species not previously known has been discovered.

Sports: NPR, and many other sources, report that a skydiver jumped from a plane, 25,000 feet above the ground, with no parachute, and landed safely.

Wired explains the physics of this event.

Relevant on a Syrian refugee who is competing as a refugee in the Olympics, and helped to keep a number of other refugees from drowning.

Christianity Today has assembled the testimonies of several Christian Olympians.


Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 574

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

The Arts: Listverse reports on 10 amazing objects made from ice -- some small, some quite large.

Christianity: Philosopher Alvin Plantinga on why science does not rule out miracles.

Sojourners reports that Southern Baptists, Jews, Sikhs, and Hari Krishna worshipers have come out against a zoning ruling that a mosque couldn't be built.

Computing: Gizmo's Freeware points to a free web-based video studio.

Wired says that ransomware -- making a computer or network unusable, then demanding money to reverse this -- is becoming the most common type of Internet attack. The article discusses ways to avoid this.

Politics: Some reactions from important Christians to Mr. Trump: Sojourners reports on a "called to resist bigotry" statement, signed by sixty important religious leaders. The report includes a long excerpt from an article by Russell Moore, an important official of the Southern Baptist Convention, who signed the statement. Here's the Moore article.

Science: Listverse tells us about 10 organisms (not all are animals!) that may be as or more intelligent than we are.

Sports: Congratulations to Tim Duncan. His team, the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association, did not win the championship this year. (They have in the past.) But Duncan has won more games with the same team than any player in the history of the NBA.

Image source (public domain)  

Sunspots 569

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



Christianity: Relevant thinks that so-called Christian movies are usually pretty bad, and that it's not because of a giant anti-Christian conspiracy to call them bad. How to fix this? The article says to tell stories like Jesus did.

Relevant also points out that most churches don't serve -- in fact may hurt -- people with mental illnesses.

I am a member of The Wesleyan Church. David Drury has written a brief essay on "What are Wesleyans for?" (as opposed to what, if anything, they might be against.)

Computing: Gizmo's Freeware reports on an on-line utility that can convert most any file format to any other reasonable format. This includes audio formats, as well as document formats.

Gizmo's has also found a free ransomware protection program. I installed it.

And Gizmo's has advice on how to recover your wireless password.

Wired reports on the progress, and imperfectness, of computer transcription of human speech -- there's still about an 8% error rate. (Humans doing the transcribing have about a 4% error rate.)

Health: Wired reports that only about 3% of US adult inhabitants have a truly healthy lifestyle, and that eating healthy, exercising, etc., doesn't guarantee that you will remain well.

History: Listverse tells us about 10 important African-American cowboys.

Politics: (And religion) Relevant has pointed out that some of President Obama's speeches sounded like Christian preaching.

FiveThirtyEight examines the salaries of state legislators (in New Mexico, they don't get a salary), and finds that state legislatures seem to do better work when better paid.

FiveThirtyEight also analyzes the Republican race for President, and finds that Donald Trump is doing worse than any other front-runner in the last few decades.

Science: Wired reports that nuclear power plants are actually very safe, but that they don't produce electricity as cheaply as other means, so they aren't getting built.

Wired also posted some photos of magnified peacock feathers, which are just amazing.

Listverse posts 10 facts about cancer cells from the late Henrietta Lacks, which cells have been critical to cancer research. For more about Mrs. Lacks, see here.

Sports: FiveThirtyEight on whether the Chicago Cubs will actually do something important in baseball this year.

Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 476

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:
Christianity: The BioLogos Forum has a post on "Christ, Trinity, and Creation."

Computing: Relevant reports that Google is trying to discourage Internet pornography. I'm glad they are, but good luck with that.

Gizmo's Freeware has information on anti-ransomware tools for Android information appliances.

Wired discusses the new Amazon phone.

Humor: Columnist Leonard Pitts is getting older, and forgetting things.

Science: Space.com tells us about Ceres, a dwarf planet that may have quite a bit of water.

Sports: The ball used in this year's World Cup is not the same as the one used in 2010.

Image source (public domain)