Random

✽ On a whole pastors still think that seminary education is valuable. ~ link

✽ The Japanese are losing their taste for fish. ~ link

✽ More fishy news -- "A Gilbert salon and spa owner wants to bring back the feel of fish on customers' feet as they nibble off dead skin during treatments. But a Maricopa County Superior Court judge will begin deciding on Monday whether the Arizona Board of Cosmetology's order to ban the practice holds water...." ~ link

✽ Church related traffic not good news for neighbors in San Diego. ~ link

✽ "An amateur astronomer has made a 'major astronomical discovery' while accessing a telescope in Hawaii over the internet while at work in the UK." ~ link

✽ Hong Kong has MAJOR smog alert ~ link

✽ World Water Day -- "More people die from polluted water every year than from all forms of violence, including war, the UN said in a report Monday that highlights the need for clean drinking water..." ~ link

✽ Virtually happy cows? ~ link

✽ Vog from Iceland's volcanoes could lead to global cooling. ~ link

✽ "Twitterers mostly consume news, MySpace users want games and entertainment, Facebookers are into both news and community and Digg’s audience has a mixed bag of interests." ~ link

✽ It seems that every week or so someone in Arizona is attacked by Africanized honey bees. (We didn't have this problem when I lived here 30 years ago.) So, I should probably learn the safety protocols. I guess jumping in a pool doesn't work too well. ~ link

✽ Google has done an end-run around the Chinese government. As Mike Elgan writes,

Despite spectacular economic growth, the Chinese government is in fact a backward authoritarian one-party regime, more akin to Cuba, Burma or pre-invasion Iraq than to the group of leading democracies it pretends equality with or superiority to. Google's redirect move lays that truth bare for all to see, especially inside China.~ link

I think Mike can kiss his China travel visa good-bye.