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Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Links to Your World, Tuesday June 16

"An Israeli woman mistakenly threw out a mattress with $1 million inside, setting off a frantic search through tons of garbage at a number of landfill sites, Israeli media reported Wednesday.” (USA Today)


Indian village where children as young as two are taught to be snake charmers:



“‘We all have to go to status-update charm school,’ jokes Hal Niedzviecki. ‘Just one in every million status updates is worth reading.’” (From the USA Today article, “There's an art to writing on Facebook or Twitter – really”)


Father’s Day is Sunday:

The GeekDad Father’s Day Gift Guide. (And here’s Part 2 and Part 3)


Of course, I like the Pizza Boss 3000, a pizza slicer that looks like a power saw.


For your Father’s Day, RD has a few “Funny Dads Caught on Tape.” I particularly liked “Not Your Traditional Father Daughter Dance.”


4Truth.net is an Interfaith Evangelism and Apologetics web site that focuses on the religious and philosophical views of people groups in North America, providing practical information for engaging in intelligent discussions of faith and worldviews.


The IRS wants to tax your company cell phone.


“Iran is very religious, but no one would call it ‘tolerant.’ Likewise, Scandinavian countries are very tolerant but no one would call them ‘religiously fervent.’ So why is America both?” (Charles Colson suggests an answer)


“The president's astonishing risk-taking satisfies the yearning of a presidency-fixated nation for a great man to solve its problems. But as Coolidge said, "It is a great advantage to a president, and a major source of safety to the country, for him to know that he is not a great man." What the country needs today in order to shrink its problems is not presidential greatness. Rather, it needs individuals to do what they know they ought to do, and government to stop doing what it should know causes or prolongs problems.” (George Will)


“This is the day I learn I have cancer.” The beginning of Laura Shook’s blog post May 29. Diane and I knew Mark and Laura Shook in our high school and college days. Mark is the pastor of Community of Faith in the Houston area.


“Chronic, inadequate sleep raises the risk of cardiovascular disease, depression, diabetes and obesity. It impairs cognitive function, memory and the immune system and causes more than 100,000 motor-vehicle accidents a year. Sleep deprivation also changes the body's metabolism, making people eat more and feel less satisfied. Studies presented at the American Association of Sleep Medicine's annual meeting in Seattle this week also found that inadequate sleep is associated with lower GPAs among college students and with elevated levels of visfatin, a hormone secreted by belly fat that is associated with insulin resistance.” (WSJ)


“Megachurch-goers volunteer less and give less money than other churchgoers,” according to a survey covered by USA Today. “‘The ethos of the megachurch is to say ‘You can't just sit there and spectate, that's not enough, you've got to do this or do that,’ said study co-director Scott Thumma, a sociologist at the Hartford Institute for Religion Research. ‘But a lot of people said 'I'm perfectly happy coming here and doing that.’” The study also found that “just three-quarters described the megachurch they were attending as their ‘home’ church, and many said they were attending more than one church.”


From the Austin City Limits blog: “I'm often in the throes of guitar lust, but can't afford anything even approaching high-end. But what about renting the guitar of your dreams for a day or a week? That's the premise of Guitar Affair, which is sort of an expensive guitar escort service. Check it out here.”


Here’s a Car Accident Checklist to keep in your car.


“A significant humanitarian crisis is inevitable.” Crop scientists fear they will not be able to stop a fungus that could wipe out more than 80% of the worldwide wheat crops.


"Although the terms may mean different things to different people, Americans readily peg themselves, politically, into one of five categories along the conservative-to-liberal spectrum. At present, large minorities describe their views as either moderate or conservative -- with conservatives the larger group -- whereas only about one in five consider themselves liberal.
While these figures have shown little change over the past decade, the nation appears to be slightly more polarized than it was in the early 1990s. Compared with the 1992-1994 period, the percentage of moderates has declined from 42% to 35%, while the percentages of conservatives and liberals are up slightly -- from 38% to 40% for conservatives and a larger 17% to 21% movement for liberals." (from the Gallup website)

This will be the last “Links to Your World” for a while. It’s one of the more popular weekly posts at Get Anchored, but I won’t be able to keep up with it while I’m in Africa.

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