Links to Your World, Tuesday April 11

NPR interviews “Soul Surfer” Bethany Hamilton.

 

“So there is a debate about whether Christians are obsessed with homosexuality and abortion. Well, some people seem to be obsessed with homosexuality and abortion, but is it Christians?” Robert P. George suggests a good answer.

 

“Setting the Right Tone with Your Cell Phone”--Your ringtone, voice message, and cell-phone etiquette say a lot about you.

 

“America’s population of white children, a majority now, will be in the minority during this decade, sooner than previously expected, according to a new report” So, can we kill affirmative action? (NYT article here).

 

All about those who run on 3-5 hours of sleep, known as “short sleepers”—and those who only think they are.

 

“In general, if a pastime is not classy, those who love it are ‘addicted.’ Opera and poetry buffs are ‘passionate.’” Virginia Heffernan has a well-written challenge to worries over Internet “addiction.”

 

Slate has a slide-show essay about some of the most enigmatic cryptographs that still elude the code breakers

 

Are the foundations of moral value natural or supernatural? At the University of Notre Dame last week, William Lane Craig and Sam Harris debate the topic: Is Good From God? For video of the debate, go here. Full Debate MP3 Audio here. (HT: Apologetics 315)

 

“Considering the expense, precision and difficulty of manufacturing computer chips, you would think the engineers designing them are pretty serious people. But it’s not all business inside a chip fab, as these microscope photos reveal. In fact, the designers of microchips frequently hide tiny cartoons, drawings and even messages alongside the super-tiny circuits and semiconductors they create.” (Wired has a gallery)

 

When did “disinterested” (originally meaning “impartial”) start to mean the same thing as “uninterested”? And how long do you continue to use a word for its original meaning when what it means to people is undergoing change? Ben Yagoda suggests an algorithm.

 

 

“It’s time to redefine the meaning of the word “failure.” On the road to invention, failures are just problems that have yet to be solved.” (Sir James Dyson, inventor of the Dyson cyclone vacuum technology, in a Wired article in praise of failure.

 

Posts at “Get Anchored” since last Tuesday:

“They would be ‘less likely to hire’ a person they knew to be an evangelical”

 

LeaderLines: Volunteers Needed!

 

“Arise, O Lord, fulfill thy grace, while I thy glory sing”

 

Winning Ways: Think F-A-S-T!