Random

✽ Nobody is really questioning whether St Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, destroyed during the collapse of the World Trade Center, has the right to rebuild. The issue there is mostly money (and lack of communication). Who is going to pay for it and how much? ~ USA Today

✽ Of all the people in the world Brits have the fewest visa restrictions. ~ Economist

✽ "Trader Joe's may be one of the few retailers to marry cult appeal with scale. Just don't expect anyone from the company to talk about it." Inside the secret world of Trader Joe's ~ Fortune

✽ "China’s consumers are optimistic, but they continue to be obsessed with saving money rather than spending it, and a main culprit is still fears about health care, according to a new survey." Hoarding can be as lethel as over-spending. But for the Chinese saving is how they invest in the future generations. ~ WSJ

✽ "Why open theism doesn’t even matter (very much)" -- the people who made the stink about it didn't really understand it. ~ Roger Olson

✽ Do Swedes really love eating their rotten fish (surstömming) or do they love the idea of something so culturally distinctive that it needs protection? ~ The Local

✽ Population explosion in the urban areas -- the BBC has a new interactive chart that helps put things in perspective. But places like Phoenix, which is closing in on the 5 million mark, have not even made it onto the chart, yet. ~ link

✽ Gmail and Google Voice coming together to create VoIP integration. Cool. ~ link

✽ Facebook says it owns the rights to the name "book." That's going to be difficult to prove. ~ link

✽ There are some advantages to following common themes and even using common music throughout the church year. Here is a children's signing curriculum from the UK. ~ link

✽ This is significant. "Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale now offers only one service at 10:15 a.m. with, essentially, blended worship – that means no more separation based on age, likes and comfort." ~ CP