Random

~ Links to pictures and stories from the PIBC graduation last night.

~ The newspaper business is BOOMING -- in India. This is a very healthy sign of the growing influence of democracy. However, will the industry be able to sustain itself once the digital wave hits there, as it soon will?

~ David Fitch has an excellent article called "How not to make justice into another program at your local church." It's a call for a more local and holistically integrated understanding/practice of justice. A bonus in the article is his very fine summary of the "new perspective on Paul."

~ Morse Code blog -- in German. Okay -- I thought I was a bit cryptic at times.

~ "Is your PC virus-free? Get it infected here!" People actually click on the spoof ad. I suppose they believe the offer is too good to pass up.

~ There is another tropical depression forming about 300 miles south of Guam. We may catch the edges of it as it spins westward -- perhaps on the way to becoming a tropical storm or typhoon. It is not very probable that it will pick up enough steam to do much damage until after it passes our neighborhood.

~ Why is it that almost every Christian leader commenting on the death of Jerry Falwell includes in their statements something to the effect, "I didn't always agree with him but..."? Glenn Palmberg, the president of the Evangelical Covenant Church, a man who disagreed with Jerry Falwell vehemently on more than just a few things, is one of the few leaders who put out a statement without a disclaimer. Maybe it was so obvious that it wasn't necessary to say it. Graciousness.

~ A television station in Hawaii has this artwork of Jerry Falwell -- makes him look like a blimp. I wonder if there wasn't some extra photo-shopping.

~ Guayule -- Arizona's upcoming boom crop? Back when I was a stringer writing for the Mesa Tribune (now East Valley Tribune) I remember writing a story on some people who were trying to turn jojoba into Arizona's next big agricultural wave. There is still jojoba being grown commercially in Arizona but it didn't really take off the way it was predicted. And then there was all that emu hype in the 80's and early 90's -- the lean alternative that was going to replace beef. I couldn't find an emu burger on Guam if my life depended on it.

It's okay. We need agricultural visionaries. Not every new idea will bear fruit. Not every new idea has to.

~ It appears that the Pope has signed the paperwork which gives universal permission for Roman Catholic priests to once again celebrate the mass in Latin.

~ John Michael Talbot has a blog. (via) As best I can tell he has not said anything about producing his next album in Latin.