Links to Your World, Tuesday February 26

John Wilson of CT’s Books and Culture has mixed feelings about the music from Austin’s new resident, Iron and Wine—aka Sam Beam.


Yesterday several of you sent me links to reports on the Pew Forum study highlighting changes to the American religious landscape. Here is the AP report from today's Statesman.


“No” to Slump: This NY Times piece, filed from Austin, points out that the housing slump in other big city markets isn’t impacting cities like Austin.


“Yes” to Slum? “Arthur C. Nelson, director of the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech, forecasts a likely surplus of 22 million large-lot homes (houses built on a sixth of an acre or more) by 2025—that’s roughly 40 percent of the large-lot homes in existence today. For 60 years, Americans have pushed steadily into the suburbs, transforming the landscape and (until recently) leaving cities behind. But today the pendulum is swinging back toward urban living.” (from the Atlantic Monthly’s talked-about piece about the suburbs, “The Next Slum?”)


Here’s more information on Christian comedienne Anita Renfro, at hit at "Women of Faith" conferences, a new face on Good Morning America, but known in YouTube fame as the “William Tell Mom.”


A bank allowed this guy to withdraw $2 million from someone else’s bank account who had the same name.


As you plan to vote, consider Joe Carter’s points in “Why Prolife Presidents Matter.”


Forbes lists “America's Most Sinful Cities.”


Disturbing News: “A new five-year analysis of the nation’s death rates recently released by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the suicide rate among 45-to-54-year-olds increased nearly 20 percent from 1999 to 2004, the latest year studied, far outpacing changes in nearly every other age group” (from the NY Times article, “Midlife Suicide Rises, Puzzling Researchers”)


“An individual does have some control over his destiny in terms of what he can do to improve the probability that not only might he live a long time, but also have good health and good function in those older years.” (“Five Easy Steps to Living Long and Well”)


You’ll burn about 200 calories on a 30 minute walk. Here’s what 200 calories looks like in various food portions.


Is there an evangelical or politician more at ease with the public than Huckabee? Here he is on last week's SNL:



Have you read the previous posts since last Tuesday? They include the “Song of the Week“ (this week, Keller Williams' "Breathe"), a question about your Bible's most important pages, the continuation of my LeaderLines series called "unChristian Christianity," and guidance for reaching our biblically illiterate culture (featured at Eileen Flynn's Statesman blog, Of Sacred and Secular).