Weekend Reads 7/25/15

Astronomers Find a Near-Earth-Size Planet in the Habitable Zone of a Very Sunlike Star

And I think what may be even more important is to see just how diverse Earth-size planets are! Some bigger, some smaller, some hotter, some cooler. The interesting point here is that nature is cooking planets with all sorts of different flavors here, and while looking into the heavens and seeking out one that looks like us is natural, we should also be careful to delight in the varying recipes out there.

Obama on the Hoofbeats of History

When I look at Obama I don't see a President desperately trying to cram legacy achievements into the declining months of his presidency. I see achievements coming to fruition that were usually years in the making but often seemed errant or quixotic and uncertain in their outcome.

It’s not gullibility; it’s malice.

The fake stories Stetzer describes are not being spread in good faith by innocent dupes. They are not innocent and they are not dupes. And the stories are not merely “fake,” but false. The biblical term for what he’s describing is “bearing false witness against your neighbor.”

Obscure Particle Could Keep Iran Honest on Its Nuclear Deal

Because antineutrinos can go right through reactor walls—they’re almost massless and travel nearly the speed of light—an antineutrino detector could do the job “right in the parking lot next to the reactor,” says Patrick Huber, a Virginia Tech physicist who is leading development of a detector.