Links to Your World, Tuesday March 18

Have Sawyer from Lost fame give you a nickname at this “Sawyer Nickname Generator.” Diane’s is “Picasso.”


Baylor Basketball is back in the big dance after 20 years. See, “Revival: Baylor's Drew brings team back after years of struggle.”


It’s college baseball season! So take a look at “Baseball Pitches Illustrated.”


Fascinating 5 minute video of undersea creatures. Wait for the octopus at the end! (HT: Michael)


“Over its four days, SXSW, as the festival is called, is like Myspace moved to the physical realm: more music than anyone could possibly hear, freely available and clamoring to be heard.” (The NY Times take on Austin’s South-by-Southwest festival.)


“Honey Bees Give Clue on Virus Spread.” These subjects have fascinated me since ninth grade when I thought of becoming a geneticist. Back then I even had newspaper clippings of early plans to map the Human Genome tacked to my wall next to my desk (the project has been discussed since the mid-70s though it didn't get underway until 1990). Yes, I am a geek--but I also had a Farah Fawcett poster on my wall, so does that mitigate the geekiness?


Inside the Mind of the Boy Dating Your Daughter.


Every Child a Wanted Child? “’I wouldn't have had an abortion, but there are women out there who experience really big disappointment,’ said Jolene Sodano, a stay-at-home mother in Nazareth, Pa., whose daughter was mistakenly identified as a boy. ‘They really want to give their husbands the little boy they want, or a little girl, and they will abort based on these results.’” (from an LA Times article about home testing kits for gender identity)


“Many churches have practiced an evangelistic strategy that doesn't expect to reach young men until they return with wife and kid in tow. If this was ever a wise strategy, surely now it is bound to fail.” (Collin Hansen’s response to the City Journal article on “child-men” I referred to in a previous “Links to Your World”)


“We in the United States are not and never have been the villains that some of the world and some of our citizens make us out to be, but that we are a confection of normal (greedy, lustful, duplicitous, corrupt, inspired--in short, human) individuals living under a spectacularly effective compact called the Constitution, and lucky to get it.” (David Mamet is no longer a “brain dead liberal.” He veers into some language I don’t use, but people will be talking about his article.)


“An analysis by the Pew Research Center found that 55 percent of white evangelicals ages 18 to 29 identified themselves as Republican in 2001. By 2007, that figure had dropped to 40 percent. This generation is not turning into liberal Democrats -- it is more pro-life, for example, than an older generation of evangelicals -- but it has become more loosely moored to the GOP. These trends highlight a simple fact: Many evangelicals are center-right voters who respond to a message of social justice and community values, not only to a message of rugged individualism and unrestricted markets. Over the years, religious conservatives have made common cause with movement conservatives within the Republican Party -- but they are not identical to movement conservatives.” (“Faith Without a Home,” by Michael Gerson)


Southern Baptists Back a Shift on Climate Change.


"Tithing is Biblical," says Ken Hemphill in a response to the CBS News report questioning the biblical command to tithe.


How Pornography Hurts Your Relationships.


5 Deadly Animals That Might Just Save Your Life.


Have you read the previous posts since last Tuesday? They include the “Song of the Week“ (this week, for your Holy Week meditation, Jars of Clay's "O Come and Mourn with Me Awhile"), comments and photos from our trip to Israel, a surprise about Katherine Heigl, and the continuation of my LeaderLines series called "unChristian Christianity."