1. The Story of Ian and Larissa

2. Top 10 Most Read Books in the World

3. The Frequent Fliers Who Flew Too Much

There are frequent fliers, and then there are people like Steven Rothstein and Jacques Vroom.

Both men bought tickets that gave them unlimited first-class travel for life on American Airlines. It was almost like owning a fleet of private jets.

Passes in hand, Rothstein and Vroom flew for business. They flew for pleasure. They flew just because they liked being on planes. They bypassed long lines, booked backup itineraries in case the weather turned, and never worried about cancellation fees. Flight crews memorized their names and favorite meals.

Each had paid American more than $350,000 for an unlimited AAirpass and a companion ticket that allowed them to take someone along on their adventures. Both agree it was the best purchase they ever made, one that completely redefined their lives.

4. The Economics of Kidnapping

If the pirate knows for an absolute fact that the hostage's people simply can't raise more than a million dollars then it would be pointless for them to demand two million dollars. Of course there is an issue of information asymmetry in that the hostage's party has much better information on its assets than do the pirates and so the pirates may be skeptical of the hostage's party pleading poverty (especially if the hostage has foolishly told them how much money they can get). We see this at work in the TAL story's point that kidnapping insurance holds the condition that you can't tell anyone you have kidnapping insurance.

5. The Age of Microcelebrity

Microcelebrity is the phenomenon of being extremely well known not to millions but to a small group --- a thousand people, or maybe only a few dozen. As DIY media reach ever deeper into our lives, it's happening to more and more of us. Got
a Facebook account? A whackload of pictures on Flickr? Odds are there are complete strangers who know about you --- and maybe even talk about you.

6. Infograph of the Week: How to Nap

7. Weird News of the Week: Real Life Norman Bates Impersonates Dead Mom for 6 Years

"I held my mother when she was dying and breathed in her last breath, so I am my mother," Parkin told detectives.

In the trial now nearing conclusion in Brooklyn Supreme Court, 51-year-old Parkin is being presented by the prosecution as a kind of Norman Bates for our time, armed not with a knife, but a pen, seeking not blood, but money. Rather than terrorize a rundown motel, Parkin is accused of dressing up like his dead mom, Irene Prusik, to perpetuate an intricate series of frauds over a six-year period involving a $2.2 million Park Slope brownstone and a $990,000 mortgage, as well as $115,000 in Social Security and other government payments.

The evidence against him includes a film made not by Alfred Hitchcock, but by investigators with the Brooklyn D.A.'s office using a buttonhole camera. It was screened on Wednesday before jurors, who seemed greatly entertained as they watched a figure in a red top slumped at the end a sofa wearing an obvious blonde wig, lipstick, blackout sunglasses, and an oxygen mask.

(Via: Neatorama)

8. Boy Scouts now offer badge for "speaking" in Morse Code

Morse Code joins languages like Spanish, French, Italian, German, Japanese, Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Sign Language, and several others as interpreter strips available for wear on Scout uniforms (above the right pocket).

To get a typical interpreter strip, you must carry on a five-minute conversation, translate a two-minute speech, write a letter in the language, and translate 200 words from the written word.

9. Vidal Sassoon, Streetfighter

In 1947, the fascists again began menacing London, this time under the tutelage of Jeffrey Hamm, head of an organization of thugs calling themselves the "Association of British Ex-Servicemen." For Sassoon, this was not a fate to be accepted lying down.

As a response to Hamm's provocations, a gathering of young Jews known as the 43 Group---named for the number of people in the room at their founding---announced that the fight back had begun. Among them was the slender, if wiry, Sassoon. As Hamm's followers gathered on street corners bellowing that "not enough Jews were burned at Belsen," Sassoon and his comrades, armed with knives, coshes, and knuckledusters, set about breaking up fascist meetings. In another interview, Sassoon remembered turning up for work one morning with a black eye. "I just tripped on a hairpin," he explained to the worried customer who had just settled into a barber's chair for a haircut.

10. D. A. Carson on Redeeming the Culture:

Redemption terminology in the NT is so bound up with Christ's work for and in the church that to extend it to whatever good we do in the broader world risks a shift in focus. Not for a moment do I want to deny that we are to serve as salt and light, that exiles may be called to do good in the pagan cities where Providence has appointed them to live (Jer 29), that every square foot of this world is under Christ's universal reign (even though that reign is still being contested), that the nations of the world will bring their "goods" into the Jerusalem that comes down from above. But many of those who speak easily and fluently of redeeming the culture soon focus all their energy shaping fiscal and political policies and the like, and merely assume the gospel. A gospel that is merely assumed, that does no more than perk away in the background while the focus of our attention is on the "redemption" of the culture in which we find ourselves, is lost within a generation or two. At the same time, I worry about Christians who focus their attention so narrowly on getting people "saved" that they care little about doing good to all people, even if especially to the household of God. Getting this right is not easy, and inevitably priorities will shift a little in various parts of the world, under various regimes. Part of the complexity of the discussion, I think, is bound up with what the church as church is responsible for, and what Christians as Christians are responsible for: I have argued that failure to make this distinction tends to lead toward sad conclusions.

11. In Case of Emergency, Eat This Book

Land Rover in the United Arab Emirates printed 5,000 edible copies of a desert survival guide. Twenty-eight pages of potato-based starch paper have a slightly sugary taste from the glycerin-based ink and are bound by a spiral that can be used as skewers. The book comes in a reflective cover that can be used to send help signals.

12. Animal Video of the Week: Cat vs. Automatic Feeder

13. Licorice: The Candy That Fights Diabetes

A new treatment for diabetes may have just been identified from the most unlikely source: the basic ingredient of a candy.

Licorice root, the raw material for licorice candy, has now been hailed as containing substances with an anti-diabetic effect. These molecules reduce blood sugar and possess anti-inflammatory properties.

And even more important: they are extremely well tolerated by the human body.

14. Health Tip of the Week: Soothe Sore Throats by Eating a Few Marshmallows

15. An 'evil' clown who stalks and threatens kids is being hired by parents as a birthday treat

Dominic Deville stalks young victims for a week, sending chilling texts, making prank phone calls and setting traps in letterboxes. He posts notes warning children they are being watched, telling them they will be attacked. But Deville is not an escaped lunatic or some demonic monster. He is a birthday treat, hired by mum and dad, and the 'attack' involves being splatted in the face with a cake.

16. Study of the Week: 42% of American adults will be obese by 2030

17. Blind dog gets his own guide dog

It was a rough life for Tanner, a blind Golden Retriever suffering from epilepsy --- until he found a four-legged friend to be his eyes.

Blair, a 1-year-old Black Labrador with a troubled past, grabs hold of Tanner's leash and leads him around the Tulsa, Okla. animal hospital they call home, staff there told the Daily News on Monday.

(Via: Neatorama)

18. The 10 Most Economically Powerful Cities in the World

19. If You Find Bigfoot in Texas, You Can Legally Kill Him

An exotic animal is an animal that is non-indigenous to Texas. Unless the exotic is an endangered species then exotics may be hunted on private property with landowner consent. A hunting license is required. This does not include the dangerous wild animals that have been held in captivity and released for the purpose of hunting, which is commonly referred to as a "canned hunt".

(Via: Neatorama)

20. When signs don't work:

"Children at play" signs and the like are absolutely ineffective in changing a driver's behavior, and studies of drivers through school zones show they were driving much faster than they remember. It's been argued that signs allow us to basically stop thinking, and in certain places experiments have been done in which they've been removed, with no negative safety effects.

21. How full-grown trees are dug up and transplanted

22. What Would Happen If You Put Your Hand In the Large Hadron Collier?

23. Put Away The Bell Curve: Most Of Us Aren't 'Average'

The bell curve powerfully shapes how we think of human performance: If lots of students or employees happen to show up as extreme outliers --- they're either very good or very bad --- we assume they must represent a skewed sample, because only a few people in a truly random sample are supposed to be outliers.

New research suggests, however, that rather than describe how humans perform, the bell curve may actually be constraining how people perform. Minus such constraints, a new paper argues, lots of people are actually outliers.

24. 9 Things You Didn't Know About Benjamin Franklin

25. Hindus want to take back yoga

A Hindu organization is fighting to take back yoga, saying that America's version of the practice has lost its meaningful roots.

The Hindu American Foundation launched the "Take Back Yoga" campaign not to convert Westerners to Hinduism or urge them to cease practicing it altogether, but to remind people that yoga is rooted in Hindu philosophy.

26. How Much Sleep Do You Really Need?

27. The Last Traffic Jam

The average U.S. citizen completely ignores the regularity with which the automobile kills him, maims him, embroils him with the law and provides mobile shelter for rakes intent on seducing his daughters. He takes it into his garage as fondly as an Arab leading a prize mare into his tent. He woos it with Simoniz, Prestone, Ethyl and rich lubricants---and goes broke trading it in on something flashier an hour after he has made the last payment on the old one.

To a great mass of Americans, the automobile not only represents the keystone of happiness and the hallmark of success but is the only unshifting goal in a baffling world. Millions who live unscarred through the jalopy or adolescent stage of life toil for decades to progress from Ford to Pontiac, from Pontiac to Buick, and cannot die happy unless guaranteed delivery to the grave in a Packard or Cadillac hearse.

Packard? Yep. This familiar rant is from a Time magazine article dated December 15, 1947.

28. How-To of the Week: Read a patent in 60 seconds

29. How many stamps does it take to mail a child?

After parcel post service was introduced in 1913, at least two children were sent by the service. With stamps attached to their clothing, the children rode with railway and city carriers to their destination. The Postmaster General quickly issued a regulation forbidding the sending of children in the mail after hearing of those examples.

30. 20 rules to live by for cheapskates

31. Jesus' Method of Leadership Training

Jesus did not give his students a leadership template to follow, he gave them a mission to complete His final leadership instruction was to "Go make disciples". He left the how, where, when completely up to them

32. Top 10 Literary Works in the Comic Book Medium

33. How to Survive a Robot Uprising

Articles you need to know about, summarized in 60 seconds (or less).

The Article: What the Evangelicals Give the Jews

The Source: Commentary (May 2012)

The Author: Michael Medved, a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host

The Gist: Medved considers the question, "Should Jews view our born-again fellow citizens as natural allies or inevitable adversaries?"

The Excerpt:

 In which areas, exactly, can committed Jews identify irreconcilable differences with serious Christians when it comes to most significant questions of morals, ethics, and righteous behavior? Does anyone suppose that our Baptist neighbors cherish the centrality of the family less passionately than we do, or display a weaker commitment to acts of compassion for the poor, or express a more feeble determination to repair a broken world in the tradition of tikkun olam? Anyone who honestly believes that born-again believers neglect their obligation to "love your neighbor as yourself" hasn't visited their churches and schools and service organizations to witness the prodigious acts of loving kindness that sometimes put our communal efforts to shame. Aside from such impressionistic evidence, there's a wealth of data in Arthur C. Brooks's indispensable 2006 book, Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism, which shows that evangelicals honor the great Jewish tradition of tzedakah at least as well as we do.

The Bottom Line: Medved, an Orthodox Jew, dispels many of the myths about evangelicals: we aren't trying to install a theocracy, we don't support Israel only because we are expecting the Armageddon, and we aren't particularly successful in converting Jews to Christianity. As Medved notes, less than half of 1 percent of the Jews alter their religious identity to join a Protestant denomination commonly counted as "evangelical" (such as Southern Baptist).

Rather than being a threat to their religion, Medved claims that Jewish faith is frequently strengthened because "conservative Christians raise serious issues of faith and morality in the public square, and normalize activities such as communal worship and Bible study. . ." Medved concludes that, "The stronger argument insists that evangelical Christians deserve our friendship and cooperation because they aren't just good for Israel; they're good for America."

The Story: South Korean customs officials seized thousands of smuggled drug capsules filled with powdered human flesh.

The Background: According to the Associated Press report, the capsules were made in northeastern China from dead babies whose bodies were chopped into small pieces and dried on stoves before being turned into powder, a statement from the Korea Customs Service said.

Customs officials refused to disclose where the babies came from or who made the capsules, citing possible diplomatic friction with Beijing. Chinese officials have been cracking down on the production of such capsules since last year.

The grim trade is being run from China, notes the Daily Mail, where corrupt medical staff are said to be tipping off medical companies when babies are aborted or delivered stillborn.

The tiny corpses are then bought, stored in household refrigerators in homes of those involved in the trade before they are removed and taken to clinics where they are placed in medical drying microwaves.

Once the skin is tinder dry, it is pummeled into powder and then processed into capsules along with herbs to disguise the true ingredients from health investigators and customs officers.

According to customs agents, 35 smuggling attempts have been made since August last year involving more than 17,000 capsules disguised as 'stamina boosters'.

The San Francisco Times reported that tests carried out on the pills confirmed they were made up of 99.7 per cent human remains.

What It Means: Why exactly should anyone have a problem with eating powdered fetus?

While the question is macabre, the answer is not as obvious as it might appear. Sadly, for too many people---including some Christians---their revulsion is aesthetic rather than moral: they are more disturbed by the consumption than they are in how the human being died. In fact, the Chinese using powered remains of babies for health benefits is considerably more moral than some similar practices supported by Christians in America.

In the case mentioned above, the human beings were already dead when their remains were used to make pharmaceuticals of questionable valuable. We rightly find that disturbing, yet almost a third of evangelicals support a procedure in which a human being is actively killed in order to use their remains for medical research of questionable utility.

Polls taken in the mid-2000s found that almost 40% of evangelicals supported harvesting the cells of embryos for medical research---even though the procedure ended a human life. Fortunately, the debate about embryonic stem cell research has largely subsided since the lies, exaggerations, and wishful thinking proffered by the research's supporters has been proven to be---as the critics always claimed---nothing more than lies, exaggerations, and wishful thinking.

Similarly, some of the same Christians who recoil in horror at the idea of a dead fetus being microwaved in a clinic in China show no concern for the "spare" embryos they created being left to thaw in an IVF clinic in America.

Our moral intuitions are justified---we should be disgusted by the cannibalistic customs of our pagan neighbors in the East. But we should wonder why our discernment fails us when, in the name of advancing science, curing disease, or alleviating infertility, we turn a blind eye to the Satanic practices supported by our Christian neighbors in the West.

We're like vegetarian butchers at Moloch's feast. We think we are somehow morally superior because we draw the line at eating the children we kill. But whether the blood is on our mouths or only on our hands, the stain of the slaughter seeps into our souls.

Articles you need to know about, summarized in 60 seconds (or less).

The Article: John Stott, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien: Why American Evangelicals Love the British

The Source: Religion & Politics

The Author: Molly Worthen

The Gist: Worthen, a professor of religious history at the University of Toronto, considers why American Evangelicals have such an affinity for Christian thinkers, writers, and theologians who hail from Britain.

The Excerpt:

American Evangelicals' fondness for Stott is part of a larger pattern, a special affection for Christian gurus of British extraction. Droves of American evangelicals stock their shelves with books by British Christian scholars such as N.T. Wright, a professor of New Testament and the former bishop of Durham, and J.I. Packer, a British-born theologian at Regent College in Vancouver. Despite ancient hostility toward Roman Catholicism, American evangelicals lionize the British Catholic writer G.K. Chesterton and raise their children on Catholic J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy. Since the mid-1960s---when the release of Tolkien's books in U.S. paperback edition infected America with Frodo fever---evangelicals have enthusiastically joined in Middle Earth-inspired role-playing festivals and Tolkien appreciation societies, publishing books with titles like Finding God in the Lord of the Rings and Walking With Frodo: A Devotional Journey Through Lord of the Rings. I once attended an evangelical conference panel devoted to parsing Tolkien's veiled Christian allegories. One speaker expounded at length on the Christology of Tom Bombadil---uncovering hidden religious symbols that might have surprised Tolkien himself.

The Bottom Line: Worthen raises an intriguing question---why do we American Evangelicals have such a fondness for the British?---but provides an unsatisfactory answer. Her claim that American Evangelicals have an "intellectual inferiority complex" isn't completely unwarranted, but it's a dated and clichéd critique. (Mark Noll's The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind was published 17 years ago. A lot has changed since then.)

I suspect a more likely explanation for why American Evangelicals love the Brits is related to the reason we love the Jews: We believe that we share with these groups a historical and theological imagination. Modern Jews might sneer at the presumptuous nature of the connection, but it is a truism that we Evangelicals consider ourselves to be the other "People of the Book." Because our theological history is traced back to the Old Testament, we view ourselves as the intellectual descendants of the Hebrew people. Similarly, to a lesser extent, our shared English language leads us to make a connection with the British that they might view as peculiar.

Few British Evangelicals would consider themselves to be Americans, but many English-speaking American Evangelicals think that we are, in an intellectual sense, from the U.K. This is likely not limited to the British, of course. I suspect that Evangelicals of Dutch ancestry have a simliar affinity for thinkers like Abraham Kuyper, German-American Evangelicals for Martin Luther, etc., because of the Old World connection. Because our country---and our brand of evangelicalism---is relatively young, we American Evangelicals must look to our cousins across the sea to help us find deeper soil for our religious roots.

YSK Rating: Despite offering an unsatisfactory response to the titular question, Worthen's article is worth reading and pondering.

1. An Apologetic Duel in Poetry

(Via: Thabiti Anyabwile)

2. 14 Essential Talking Points for the Constitution Enthusiast

3. Could eating chocolate really kill your dog?

Most dog owners go into a panic if their pet makes a lunge for the candy bowl --- but is this worry really necessary?

Theobromine, a bitter chemical found in cocoa beans, is the molecule in chocolate tied to illnesses in canines. But how much theobromine is there in most chocolate? And how much theobromine would it take to kill household pets? It turns out, you might be more likely to die by chocolate than your dog.

4. The 2012 Forbes List of the 15 Richest Fictional Characters

5. The Downside of Cohabiting Before Marriage

Researchers originally attributed the cohabitation effect to selection, or the idea that cohabitors were less conventional about marriage and thus more open to divorce. As cohabitation has become a norm, however, studies have shown that the effect is not entirely explained by individual characteristics like religion, education or politics. Research suggests that at least some of the risks may lie in cohabitation itself.

6. Why Christians Should Read Fiction

7. Weird News of the Week: Why You Shouldn't Walk and Text: A Wild Bear Appeared!

I got up this morning from helicopter noise and I was trying to see what was going on," Terdandenyan told KTLA.

"I was texting my boss that I would be late for work because something is going on, and I'm coming down the stairs and I see the bear coming up the stairs toward me."

"I turned back and I ran for my life. I guess running for a marathon came in handy because I was in shape to run away!"

8. Six Rules for Dining Out

9. Steve Jobs Wanted to Be Willy Wonka For a Day

Steve's idea was to do a Willy Wonka with it. Just as Wonka did in the movie, Steve wanted to put a golden certificate representing the millionth iMac inside the box of one iMac, and publicize that fact. Whoever opened the lucky iMac box would be refunded the purchase price and be flown to Cupertino, where he or she (and, presumably, the accompanying family) would be taken on a tour of the Apple campus.

Steve had already instructed his internal creative group to design a prototype golden certificate, which he shared with us. But the killer was that Steve wanted to go all out on this. He wanted to meet the lucky winner in full Willy Wonka garb. Yes, complete with top hat and tails.

10. Lit2Go's 200 Free (and Teacher-Friendly) Audio Books: Ready for Downloads

11. World's deadliest golf course boasts land mines and man-bear-pigs

Along the DMZ, golf is not a sport for the faint of heart. The golf course at Camp Bonifas, just south of the Korean demilitarized zone, boasts just one hole, but what it lacks in quantity it more than makes up for in hazards. Live land mines line the course, and bizarre animals stumble out from the woods.

12. Animal Video of the Week: Puppy and Parrot Fight Over Yogurt

13. Sears - where America shopped

"Sears was so powerful and so successful at one time that they could build the tallest building in the world that they did not need," says James Schrager, a professor of entrepreneurship and strategy at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business. "The Sears Tower stands as a monument to how quickly fortunes can change in retailing, and as a very graphic example of what can go wrong if you don't 'watch the store' every minute of every day."

14. Stop Wasting Paper Towels with the Shake and Fold Technique

15. The Texting and Driving Test

16. Keep an Emergency Photo Album in Your Phone to Quickly Provide Important Information in a Crisis

17. Chewing gum can mess with your mind

Teachers who make classes stop chewing gum might be right --- it can mess with your mind, research suggests. As it turns out, walking and chewing gum at the same time might be more difficult than we ever suspected.

18. Top 10 Highly-Desired Skills You Can Teach Yourself

19. The Civil War's Rip Van Winkle

Hayes didn't sleep through the opening of the Civil War, but he might as well have. The Pennsylvania native had instead spent 15 of the most important months in American history --- from July 1860 to October 1861 --- looking for the North Pole between and above Greenland and Canada.

Because telegraphs and mail didn't run that far north, Hayes had no idea that the United States had been torn in two during his absence. He heard rumors of the conflict on his way home, but it wasn't until he finally anchored in Boston Harbor in late October 1861 that the war's terrible realness stopped him cold. Within moments of stepping ashore, Hayes realized that "the country which I had known before could be the same no more." Quoting the Book of Exodus but also presaging the title of Robert A. Heinlein's sci-fi classic, he wrote, "I felt like a stranger in a strange land, and yet every object which I passed was familiar."

20. 33 Films That Take Faith Seriously

21. Millennials: The Greatest Generation or the Most Narcissistic?

With representative samples comparing three generations at the same age, this was the best data available to settle the Me vs. We question - and these items had never been analyzed in their entirety before.

So we dug into the data. The results for civic engagement were clear: Millennials were less likely than Boomers and even GenXers to say they thought about social problems, to be interested in politics and government, to contact public officials, or to work for a political campaign. They were less likely to say they trusted the government to do what's right, and less likely to say they were interested in government and current events. It was a far cry from Howe and Strauss' prediction of Millennials as "The Next Great Generation" in civic involvement.

22. HistoricalLOL of the Week

23. How Researchers---and Prisoners---Came Up With Nutrition Requirements

We require calories and nutrients -- 40 to 50 separate substances that our bodies cannot make, we must get from food. Because these interact, studying one at a time gives results that may well be misleading.

Early nutrition scientists got "volunteers"-- in quotes because study subjects often were prisoners -- to consume diets depleted in vitamin C, for example. They waited until the subjects began to develop scurvy, a sign of vitamin C deficiency. Then they fed the subjects the smallest amount of vitamin C that would eliminate symptoms.

Because individuals vary in nutrient requirements, scientists used this data to estimate the range of nutrient intake that would meet the needs of practically everyone.

24. 10 Things Your Commencement Speaker Won't Tell You

25. How the Blind Are Reinventing the iPhone

For the visually impaired community, the introduction of the iPhone in 2007 seemed at first like a disaster -- the standard-bearer of a new generation of smartphones was based on touch screens that had no physical differentiation. It was a flat piece of glass. But soon enough, word started to spread: The iPhone came with a built-in accessibility feature. Still, members of the community were hesitant.

But no more. For its fans and advocates in the visually-impaired community, the iPhone has turned out to be one of the most revolutionary developments since the invention of Braille. That the iPhone and its world of apps have transformed the lives of its visually impaired users may seem counter-intuitive -- but their impact is striking

26. A Math-Free Guide to the Math of Alice in Wonderland

27. Lifting Light Weights Is Just as Good at Building Muscle as Heavy Weights

Lifting less weight more times is just as effective at building muscle as training with heavy weights, a finding by McMaster researchers that turns conventional wisdom on its head.

28. How-To of the Week: Become a Backyard Astronomer

29. Guide dogs for the mind to fight dementia

They already guide blind and disabled people; now dogs are to be trained to help people with dementia. The duties of these "guide dogs for the mind" will include reminding their owners to take medication, as well as encouraging them to eat, drink and sleep at regular intervals.

30. 15 Tips on Blogging from John Newton

31. Have Poor Eyesight? Maybe You Should Have Played Outside More

Why can't we see? I've always assumed that, in my case, it's because my parents both have bad eyes. But according to a new paper in The Lancet, genetic factors can't explain why increasing numbers of people need glasses. Studies in places like Singapore of people of a variety of backgrounds---Chinese, Malay, India, in this case---show that genetic heritage doesn't impact rates of near-sightedness. It's impossible to explain the boom in bad eyes without looking at how people spend their time.

32. Ten Things You Probably Didn't Know About DNA

33. Just How Small is an Atom?

The Story: A church pastor in Pennsylvania could face felony charges for staging a fake kidnapping of youth group students in order to teach them about religious persecution, reports ABC News.

The Background: According to the news report, teenagers attending a youth group meeting at the Glad Tidings Assembly of God Church in Middletown, Pennsylvania were ambushed by what seemed to be real kidnappers.

Several adults, including an off-duty cop, brandished real weapons and put bags over the heads of the children, ages 13 through 18, and forced them into a church van. The church leaders who organized the fake hostage situation later told law enforcement that the event was meant to be a lesson to the children on how Christians are persecuted in places around the world, but the "educational" event may actually constitute a crime, said Dauphin County District Attorney Fran Chardo.

"We are conducting an investigation. False imprisonment of a child is a felony offense, and carries up to 10 years in prison," Chardo said. "We are still in the investigative phase, trying to find out what happened."

Why It Matters: Is it necessary to point out that staging a fake kidnapping and terrorizing children is something that should never, ever, ever be done? Apparently so. Even after facing felony charges Pastor John Lanza says that in the future 'I would find a way that we could continue to keep the shock value, but I would find a way to inform the parents (beforehand)'"

Although such activities are not common in evangelical churches, many unbelieving parents will rightly be leery of allowing their children to attend youth groups for fear of subjecting them to such trauma. We should pray that Pastor Lanza's fellow brothers and sisters in Christ in Middletown will explain to him that such demonic tactics are unfitting of a minister of the Gospel.

Such actions are not only despicable and unloving, but they also fail to teach the intended lesson. "True religious persecution is not something that can be simulated---attempting to do so only cheapens our understanding of persecution and does little to prepare us for it," says youth pastor Drew Dixon. As Dixon notes,

Biblically speaking, the way one prepares for persecution is to be "sober-minded and watchful" and setting our "hope fully on the grace that will be brought to [us] at the revelation of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 1:13). The only preparation that will do any young Christian any good, is to meditate on the gospel, to look to Christ-the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross" (Hebrews 12:2).

[Note: "Debatable" is a new feature in which we briefly summarize debates within the evangelical community.]

The Issue: At the recent Christian conference Q, a panel discussion on the best ways to reduce abortions in the church suggested that churches should advocate for contraceptives for the single people in their midst. An instant poll of the attendees on the question, "Do you believe churches should advocate contraception for their single twentysomethings?" found that upward of 60 percent of the attendees responded in the affirmative.

Position #1 - On Christianity Today's website, Matthew Lee Anderson---author of Earthen Vessels---argues that while reducing abortion is a noble goal, pushing contraceptives on unmarried people is the wrong approach:

In encouraging our single people who are sexually active to pursue contraception, we offer them a technological remedy to what is functionally a discipleship and community shortcoming. At its heart, this is little more than a tacit rejection of the power of the gospel to transform lives and bring people to a repentance that is genuine and genuinely holistic. Rather than building them up to maturity in Christ, the decision to pursue contraception so as to continue to be sexually active only reinforces their infantile faith.

In Romans 3:8, Paul establishes a standard that we ought not do evil in order to bring about good. Sin must be taken out at their root, and part of the reason why we fail in our sexual lives is that we have not yet seen that because of the indwelling Spirit resistance is no longer futile. The fellow who buys a condom or the woman who takes the pill does so for a specific reason: they do not trust themselves to remain chaste when presented with the opportunity. They presumably have good reason for their doubt, if they have failed in the past. But the purchase of contraception reinforces their self-perception of their own captivity to their sexual desires and their own inability to remain continent. Rather than fleeing temptations, the purchase of contraception engenders the conditions where such temptations can be enjoyed without the distinct and difficult (though always welcome, and potentially redemptive) effect of procreation. Contraceptives, in other words, among the sexually active can tend to become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Position #2 -- Jenell Paris, author of The End of Sexual Identity, was on the Q abortion panel. She responds to Anderson in an article on CT's website:

Advocating contraception for unmarried churchgoers certainly is a compromise, but consider what that really means. Com- means with, and promise means to agree, or to make a pact. To compromise is to work toward agreement or commitment with another. Like compassion, community, or companion, com- is about being in relationship with others. Unipromise isn't even a word; without compromise, you're just alone, speaking your ideal into thin air. It's fine to have ideals, and to proclaim them with perfect phrases in perfectly planned church services. Contemplating perfection is a holy exercise that lifts our aspirations. Lived experience, however, is far from perfect; when I consider ideal parenting, ideal marriage, or ideal teaching, my life pales in comparison. I count on my gracious children, husband, and students to make daily compromises---as I do for them---as part of healthy relationships in the real world.

Early in our marriage, when James and I worked in urban ministry together, I wondered whether our efforts made any difference at all. Even after years in our church and ministry, girls still got pregnant, and boys still went to jail. "True," James said, "but maybe they'll be better teen moms than they otherwise would have been." My either-or mentality cast chastity as the ideal, and premarital sex as failure. James reminded me that compromise can be sacred, even purifying us of our illusions of controlling others through well-intended religious influence.

Follow-up Response to #2: On his blog, Mere Orthodoxy, Anderson responds to Paris:

There is a strong pragmatic streak that runs through evangelicalism, an ideology that postures as a rejection or marginalization of ideas and theology. You can hear it every Sunday, as pastors seek to make their sermons "relevant" and "practical" because good theology and rigorous thinking simply doesn't sell. Closer to the point, you see it most clearly in our appropriation of technology, in our video sermons and our online church. Whatever it takes to reach the lost, whatever it takes to "be effective," principles and ideals of Biblical anthropology notwithstanding.

Unlike video sermons, however, contraception as a pragmatic concession actually contributes to the conditions where Christians can sin without consequences for themselves or their community. Paris suggests that "abstinence absolutism" simply has not worked. Which is to say, unmarried Christians are still having sex and sex (surprise!) still makes babies. The implication is that the proclamation of abstinence in our churches has been tried and found wanting, when in fact it has not yet been properly tried at all, either from our pulpits or throughout our communal structures.

Scoring the Debate: In her recent book (which was favorably reviewed here on TGC), Paris says, "I'm a 'sex only within marriage between a man and a woman' kind of Christian." Unfortunately, such a standard is undermined by her willingness to "compromise" in order to protect those who do not wish to give up their sexual sins. While Paris' argument appears well-meaning and compassionate, she relies on a worldly pragmatism that sabotages our Gospel witness. Anderson's response provides a strong, Biblically based rationale for why we should not make excuses for behavior that falls short of God's standards. [Full disclosure: Anderson is a close personal friend.]

Anderson is right to challenge the reigning paradigm of pragmatism. The consistent and loving message of our churches should be that when it comes to sin, we can forgive but not accommodate. There can be no "sacred compromise" that involved recommending condoms for single Christians. When it comes to pre-marital sex, the only true prophylactic against the unwanted consequences sin is the grace of Jesus.

Related on TGC: Trevin Wax, "Both Chastity and Contraception: A Scandalous Capitulation"

The Story: As many as 100 high school students walked out of a national journalism conference after Dan Savage, a homosexual activist and anti-bullying speaker began cursing, attacked the Bible, and used a homosexual slur to refer to those who refused to listen to his message.

The Background: Savage was invited to deliver the keynote address during the National High School Journalism Conference sponsored by the Journalism Education Association and the National Scholastic Press Association. Instead of giving the expected talk about bullying,  CitizenLink notes, the students got "an earful about birth control, sex, and Savage's opinions on the Bible."

"The first thing he told the audience was, 'I hope you're all using birth control,'" a student told CitizenLink. "He said there are people using the Bible as an excuse for gay bullying, because it says in Leviticus and Romans that being gay is wrong. Right after that, he said we can ignore all the (expletive deleted) in the Bible." In the video of the incident, Salvage heckles the teenagers who walked out of his rant.

Why It Matters: Despite being an "anti-bullying activist," Savage has a reputation for being a reprehensible bully who uses some of most disgusting tactics imaginable against people he hates. In 2001, during the Republican primary in 2000, Savage traveled to Iowa and became a campaign volunteer for Gary Bauer. During the trip, Savage became sick---"I had the flu in a big way"---and decided to use his illness as a bioweapon against Bauer and his staff. He boasts that he,

. . . started licking doorknobs. The front door, office doors, even a bathroom door. When that was done, I started in on the staplers, phones and computer keyboards. Then I stood in the kitchen and licked the rims of all the clean coffee cups drying in the rack.

Unfortunately, that is not the worst of Savage's dirty tricks against his ideological enemies. You would quite literally retch if I were to describe the details of his crusade against former Senator Rick Santorum.

Despite his long history of despicable behavior and an embarrassing ignorance of human sexuality, Savage has managed to syndicate his sex-advice column internationally and build a readership of millions.

In 2010, he garnered widespread acclaim for his "It Gets Better" campaign, an effort to prevent suicide among gay youth by having LGBT adults convey the message that the lives of these teens will eventually improve if they embrace their sexuality. The effort has been supported by dozens of influential politicians (Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton), celebrities (Justin Bieber, Tom Hanks) and corporations (Google, Apple). The message is a worthy one---no young person should be bullied, much less be driven to suicidal angst over it---but the inescapable fact is that for those who follow Savage's advice, heterosexual or homosexual, it won't "get better."

"Our bodies are our own," he has said, "they're ours to use, abuse, and since we're all going to die one day, they're ours to use up." Savage's message to teens and young adults is that before they end their lives they need first to experience diseases, divorces, and drug overdoses. Your bodies are still young and supple, he implies, it would be a waste to shuffle off this mortal coil before you have a chance to trash it.

What is most depressing is not Savage's message---that is standard hedonist propaganda---but rather the respect he is given despite being an amoral cretin. Savage is no longer just a guy who writes for the weekly tabloids. Now he's taken seriously by political leaders, business executives, actors, and pastors. His influence extends from Hollywood to the White House.

What message is it sending young people when the chief executive of the most powerful nation on earth endorses a man who believes that men and woman should not be expected to be monogamous---even when they are married?

Many of these same politicians and pastors wouldn't want their sons or daughters to date someone influenced by Savage. Yet they seem to be unconcerned about other people's children, who will be affected by their tacit endorsement of Savage's ethics.

Perhaps the best counter to Savage's message is Savage's own life. He is a symbol of what happens when vice is embraced and virtue is abandoned. Rather than maturing into a happy, healthy, well-adjusted adult, he's devolved into a man so filled with hate that he'll bully teenagers and lick doorknobs to spite his enemies.

Savage's counsel of hedonistic sex speaks of hope but leads only to despair. We must counter it with the Gospel truth about love and fidelity. We need to send a message of true hope to the young people of America: When you seek Christ-like virtue, it really does get better.

[Note: Parts of this post have been adapted from my article, "The Doorknob Chronicles of Dan Savage."]

1. First grader wins national handwriting award---despite being born without hands

2. Ten Narnia Resources

3. Talking With Your Fingers

We think of the elegant letters even modestly educated Civil War soldiers wrote and wonder how we got from "I know I shall be thinking all the time 'If it was just my darling Loulie how different it would be' " to "C U later."

Yet the brevity, improvisation and in-the-moment quality of e-mails and texts are those grand old defining qualities of spoken language. Keyboard technology, allowing us to produce and receive written communication with unprecedented speed, allows something hitherto unknown to humanity: written conversation. In this sense, they are not "writing" in the sense we are accustomed to. They are fingered speech.

4. How to Be a Better Flosser

5. How Much Money You Need To Realistically Recreate The Scrooge McDuck 'Gold Coin Swim'

In most money circles (insider tip: "money circles" is a term used by only the most elite investors), wealth is measured exclusively by how closely one can recreate this famed animation. It has come to represent success in America and anything less than doing the backstroke amongst a sea of Earth's rarest metal should be considered an abject failure. A main problem of this measure, however, is that there is no agreed-upon Scrooge McDuck quantity of gold. In order to give the young investor a goal to shoot for, and to clear up this age-old question once and for all, the following is a precise judgment of exactly how money you need to be successful.

6. Can You Make Yourself Smarter?

7. Weird News of the Week: Naples man charged with felony, accused of not paying for soda at McDonald's

After filling a courtesy cup with soda Thursday at the McDonald's soda fountain and then leaving the restaurant, Mark Abaire, 52, of the 500 block of 14th Street North, was arrested by Collier deputies and now faces a felony theft charge, a sheriff's report shows.

A manager told sheriff's deputies that Abaire entered the store and asked for a glass of water around 10 p.m. Although the employee told him the cup was for water, Abaire filled it with soda at a fountain machine and sat outside the restaurant, according to an arrest report.

(Via: Neatorama)

8. 101 Spectacular Nonfiction Stories

9. It was the best of tomes ... the quintessential Charles Dickens novel

Charles Dickens's novels are all about the characters. From Stage villain to Beatific virgin, from Devious lawyer to Ludicrous spinster, they are powered by archetypes that have seeped off the page and into our collective consciousness. But where to begin if you haven't yet encountered them between soft covers? Our fans' guide shows which of his novels assemble the strongest casts - the perfect start for a Dickensian voyage of discovery

10. Cocaine Rots Your Brain: Seriously, Heavy Users Lose More Gray Matter

11. How to Become an Expert Tightrope Walker

Life is a constant balancing act, especially if you're a tightrope walker. The best athletes make treading a circus high wire or a low-hanging slackline look effortless, but they're actually juggling complex challenges of perception and motor control. Now researchers have constructed a mathematical explanation of how such nimble acrobats remain upright. Their calculations point to a theoretical "sweet spot," or optimal conditions for a person to balance on a line with minimal effort. Such a model may help scientists better understand how the brain and body work together to pull off difficult tasks.

(Via: Neatormama)

12. Ye Olde Explanation Of Where "Ye Olde" Comes From

(Via: Geekosystem)

13. Food's Biggest Scam: The Great Kobe Beef Lie

I will state this as clearly as possible:
You cannot buy Japanese Kobe beef in this country. Not in stores, not by mail, and certainly not in restaurants. No matter how much you have spent, how fancy a steakhouse you went to, or which of the many celebrity chefs who regularly feature "Kobe beef" on their menus you believed, you were duped. I'm really sorry to have to be the one telling you this, but no matter how much you would like to believe you have tasted it, if it wasn't in Asia you almost certainly have never had Japan's famous Kobe beef.

14. 10 Secrets from the Wonderful World of Disney

15. The scientific myth that soda will dissolve your teeth

Will soda dissolve your teeth? The short answer is 'no,' and the longer answer is, 'no, of course not.' And yet there is a rumor, and has been for decades, that a nail dropped in coca cola will be dissolved in a few days --- which led to the widespread idea that the soda would dissolve teeth, too. The truly weird part is that there is a scientific underpinning to this myth.

16. Animal Video of the Week: Mr. Frog, sitting on a bench, patiently waiting for a bus

17. Why Did Missing Children Start Showing Up on Milk Cartons?

It all started with a few pamphlets. In the 1970s, many police departments were hesitant to intervene when noncustodial parents made off with their children. They viewed the incidents as domestic disagreements rather than as true kidnappings. Frustrated custodial parents launched a movement to combat the problem, giving the crime a name: child snatching. Advocacy groups distributed pamphlets containing pictures of snatched children to principals and schoolteachers, because the noncustodial parent often enrolled the child in a new school under a different name.

18. A Video Game Designed to Treat Depression Worked Better Than Counseling

Researchers from the University of Auckland in New Zealand just published promising results of a study comparing a video game they designed to help treat depression in teenage kids against traditional face-to-face counseling. Called SPARX, the game guides the players through a number of challenges that help practice handling various life situations and emotions that come with them.

19. Keeping Secrets Can Make You Physically Weaker

You've likely heard that keeping secrets is a burden emotionally, but new research in the Journal of Experimental Psychology suggests it may also be a physical encumbrance. The research suggests that when you're holding onto a secret you can't judge spatial distance and you rate physical tasks more difficult than they really are.

20. Want to Feel Fuller After Breakfast and Lunch? Toss Some Almonds in Your Cereal

21. The Inflation of Everything

Price inflation remains relatively subdued in the rich world, even though central banks are busily printing money. But other types of inflation are rampant. This "panflation" needs to be recognised for the plague it has become.

Take the grossly underreported problem of "size inflation", where clothes of any particular labelled size have steadily expanded over time. Estimates by The Economist suggest that the average British size 14 pair of women's trousers is now more than four inches wider at the waist than it was in the 1970s. In other words, today's size 14 is really what used to be labelled a size 18; a size 10 is really a size 14.

22. HistoricalLOL of the Week

23. What truths does "truth serum" sodium pentothal actually reveal?

The famed chemical sodium pentothal, which is commonly known as truth serum, has been a mainstay of spy flicks for decades. In real life, scientists have tested it on spies, psychiatric patients, pregnant women, and suspected criminals. They all talked, but did they say something meaningful? Or was it just what the people around them wanted to hear?

24. 6 Geographical Terms With Shortest Names in the World

25. Can Classical Music Bring You Closer to God?

The performance of sacred music in concert halls has become so common that we rarely pause to reflect on what is lost in translation. Outside its intended context, church music, like a Madonna displayed on a museum wall, loses its ritual power. What was conceived as an act of communal worship - a mass for the dead, a re-enactment of the Passion - becomes a professional spectacle offered up for the edification of a passive audience.

26. I Learned to Speak Four Languages in a Few Years: Here's How

27. The Kindle Index: What City Buys the Most E-Readers?

If the self-appointed "elite" members of society avidly read, then the "elite of the elite" must avidly e-read, right? Who are these people and where do they live? That city must surely be the most elite and cultured city in America. As a company based in San Francisco, we naturally assumed that the most literate, cultured and forward-thinking people live here. Of course there are philistines who prefer less cerebral pastimes, but they probably live in unseemly places like the South, Midwest, and Portland.

It turns out all of our preconceived notions about e-reader adoption was wrong. When you dig into the data about where Kindles are actually bought and sold, the most "cosmopolitan" cities in America are soundly beaten by mid-sized cities in the Midwest and South. Moreover, our data suggests that dedicated e-readers aren't very popular devices anywhere. In the landscape of consumer electronics, e-readers barely register.

28. How-To of the Week: Prepare a Salad to Last All Week for Just a Few Dollars

29. The 13 Most Useless Majors, From Philosophy to Journalism

30. Sea-Monkeys and X-Ray Spex: Collecting the Bizarre Stuff Sold in the Back of Comic Books

31. Cause of Brain Freeze Revealed

32. The first ever vending machine stopped people from stealing holy water

This device was designed to prevent temple denizens from taking more holy water than they had purchased. Today, we use vending machines to acquire a never ending supply of mid-afternoon snacks, while Heron's holy water device along with several other "miraculous" inventions still amaze two-thousand years later.

33. Why Do Old Books Smell?

(Via: 22 Words)

[Note: Need material for your e-reader? In a new recurring feature on YSK, I'll highlight free or inexpensive (less that $9) ebooks by Christian publishers. These deals rarely last more than a few days, so be sure to act quickly. Send recommendations for this feature to joe.carter@thegospelcoalition.com.]

The Great Tradition of Christian Thinking: A Student's Guide by David S. Dockery and Timothy George (Crossway) [Kindle - $5.63]

A college education becomes truly meaningful when faith affects what happens in the classroom every day. Thus David Dockery and Timothy George have written this compelling case for the role of the Christian intellectual tradition in a serious liberal arts education. Surveying the long-standing history of Christian thinkers---ranging from the Apostles to the Reformers to the 21st century's greatest theologians---this book introduces readers to the distinctive way that Christians through the years have read the Bible, formulated doctrine, provided education, and engaged the culture.

Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God by Francis Chan (David C. Cook) [Kindle - $2.24 | Nook - $4.99]

God is love. Crazy, relentless, all-powerful love. Have you ever wondered if we're missing it? It's crazy, if you think about it. The God of the universe---the Creator of nitrogen and pine needles, galaxies and E-minor---loves us with a radical, unconditional, self-sacrificing love. And what is our typical response? We go to church, sing songs, and try not to cuss. Whether you've verbalized it yet or not, we all know something's wrong.

For the City: Proclaiming and Living Out the Gospel by Darrin Patrick and Matt Carter (Zondervan) [Kindle - $2.99 | Nook - $2.99]

Within ten years, nine out of ten people will claim 'no religious affiliation.' Many of these people will live in urban areas. Church leaders must learn how to effectively engage in ministry with this urban core, a group that includes both the poor and marginalized as well as the wealthy and influential. This book will guide you in developing a philosophy of ministry that can lead to restoration and renewal in your city. Matt Carter and Darrin Patrick explain the biblical, theological, and historical foundations of ministry within the urban core, and how to plant churches where the gospel is not only faithfully preached and shared but also brings substantial benefits to those living in the community.

Summary of Christian Doctrine by Louis Berkohf (Eerdmans) [Kindle - $2.99 | Nook - $2.99]

The Nature of Religion The Bible informs us that man was created in the image of God. When he fell in sin, he did not entirely cease to be the image-bearer of the Most High. The seed of religion is still present in all men, though their sinful nature constantly reacts against it. Missionaries testify to the presence of religion in some form or other among all the nations and tribes of the earth. It is one of the greatest blessings of mankind, though many denounce it as a curse. Not only does it touch the deepest springs of man's life, but it also controls his thoughts and feelings and desires.