Random

✽ Grace Johnson, 13, soaking wet from a water fight, displays a beautiful king snake that was captured in her backyard Saturday during her brother's 18th birthday party. I'm sure the snake wasn't too happy but they released him a few minutes after the picture. Most of the other women locked themselves in the house until the snake was long gone. Grace knows no fear.

✽ The CDC says that "American high school students today take significantly fewer health risks than did their counterparts in the early 1990s." I don't think the report mentioned anything about snake handling. ~ Freakonomics

✽ The Canadians are hanging up their phone books. ~ The Globe and Mail

✽ "North Korea has developed a 'super drink' that, it says, can multiply brain cells and stop skin ageing." Don't even think about making a snarky comment. It's unnecessary and besides, it's just sad. ~ BBC News

✽ "...only dead fish swim with the stream.” ~ Malcolm Muggeridge

✽ "Online College Accreditation 101" gets it mostly right -- although I'd quibble with the inference that ATS accreditation is not as rigorous as regional accreditation. Almost all ATS schools have regional accreditation. The ATS accredition is beyond that, with standards that are a bar above regional. The same is true with AACSB and ABET. I'd also suggest that the rigor level in agencies such as DETC and ABHE are rising. As someone who has worked with the TRACS system I'd say that the jury is still out on them but I'm somewhat hopeful that they can pull it together. ~ link

✽ Megachurches --

• Bill Kinnon has a few questions about Jesus and megachurch pastors ~ link
  
  
• ...No, the megachurches are not going to disappear. But as they transition from the world of inevitable success to re-participation in a world of partial success, setbacks, disappointments, and frustrations, now is a good time to see what about them can be appropriate in the lives of so many other kinds of churches and synagogues, which have much to learn, and only sometimes are themselves eager to change. All kinds of religious institutions are in this – whatever this is – together. Forget the Schadenfreude. ~ Martin Marty, Sightings
  
  
• About 160 people showed up for the soft launch of Ted Haggard's new St James Church in Colorado Springs. ~ The Gazette

✽ "The extreme drought in Hawaii approaches one year" ~ Hawaii 24/7

✽ Two dailies, the Honolulu Advertiser & the Honolulu Star Bulletin, have merged to form the Honolulu Star Advertiser. It looks like the new paper has more continuity with the Star Bulletin than the Advertiser. ~ Star Advertiser

✽ Students in China are taking college entrance exams this week. Lots of stress. ~ Wall Street Journal

✽ .net is more popular than .com? ~ The Economist

✽ It may not be such a smart thing to sign that petition to put the measure to repeal SB1070 on the ballot -- even if you'd like to get rid of 1070. "..the danger in that is that if voters ratify the measure anyway, it becomes a permanent part of state law that could be repealed only by taking the issue back to the ballot." ~ East Valley Tribune

The cleanest way for this to be repealed is through the legislative process itself. The next best thing is through court action. Voter action, however, just adds another layer of complexity to an already over-complex issue. (Voter initiatives almost always have unintended consequences and are more difficult to reverse even when it makes sense to do so.) Instead of putting this measure on the ballot, the better strategy is to elect legislators that support your position.

✽ Border Patrol agents rescued two unauthorized Mexican citizens trying to cross the Southern Arizona desert. The men were desperate for water when they intentionally activated a stationary rescue beacon to summon assistance. ~ ABC15