Random

• YOU'VE GOT TO ADMIT that the perpetual redesigning of US money keeps things interesting -- even if you don't like it. And it keeps people employed. So it's good for the economy, too. ~ link

• KOREAN RESEARCHERS have developed an artificial skin for victims of severe burns or other injuries made from gyul, a small citrus common in Asia. "The gel made from the citrus can also be used as natural gauze in first aid or for cosmetic purposes in the form of mask packs and creams..." ~ link

• RESEARCHERS have accidentally created a strain-specific antibiotic ~ link

• BRIAN McLAREN'S new book A New Kind of Christianity is getting lots of reaction. That was certainly his goal. ~ link

• I WISH that Mark Noll's book The New Shape of World Christianity: How American Experience Reflects Global Faith would get as much attention. The whole postmodern cultural shift discussion that McLaren and the emerging folks want to lead is so insular and so Western -- while so much of what is shaping the church in 2010 is so global.

• CHURCHES SHOULD QUIT trying to be so friendly. ~ link

• ON HER BLOG, The Introvert's Corner: How to live a quiet life in a noisy world, Sophia Dembling has an interview with Adam McHugh, the author of Introverts in the Church. ~ link

• RICK STEVES -- travel-guru and Lutheran pot-head? ~ link

• OVER 30% of Americans never use the internet. A new study seeks to explain why. ~ link

• INTERNET USAGE IN ARIZONA is only slightly higher than the national average -- which is surprising given the strong tech sector and young population here. ~ link

• ARE TOP-TIER UNIVERSITIES and colleges redlining Asian-American applicants? The schools struggle because they want to maintain a diverse environment on campus. Asian-Americans struggle, too, because they don't want to go to a school where everyone looks and thinks like them -- but there are so many qualified applicants coming out of this group of immigrant families. ~ link

• DID JESUS WEAR DESIGNER ROBES? J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu says that the gospel preached in Africa's New Pentecostal Churches ends up leaving the poor more impoverished than ever. ~ link

• BENNY HINN'S WIFE has filed for divorce, after 30 years of marriage. ~ link

• IS THIS TRUE? CNN's coverage of the Austin suicide attack on the IRS was punctuated by a Tax Master's commercial. If so, they're supposed to pull related commercials out of the queue when something like that happens. Somebody may have been asleep at the switch. ~ link

• I WAS CHECKING OUT the African American Lectionary. It looks more like an African American Church calendar or theme collection. A lectionary is a collection of scripture readings that are assigned to particular days. There is scripture involved at the AAL but it's buried in there pretty deeply. Interesting concept, though. ~ link