Random

✽ Good news: Researchers have discovered that broccoli may kill breast cancer stem cells. Bad news; you'd have to eat so much broccoli that it would kill you. Perhaps they'll be able to extract the sulforaphane and put it into pill form. ~ link

✽ Bananas and citrus were among Costco's top selling items last month. ~ link

✽ Because of the relative isolation Bogota is considered by many linguists as "ground zero for good Spanish." "The fact that a Colombian accent can be understood all over the Spanish-speaking world has helped turn many of the country’s telenovelas, or soap operas, into overseas hits." ~ link

✽ Australia is tightening the screws on the tobbaco industry. The latest wave of restrictions includes a requirement that cigarettes be sold only in plain packaging. ~ link

✽ Another misunderstanding of the separation of church and state concept: "Visitors at a Senior Citizen Center in Georgia were told they couldn’t pray over their meals since the government mostly paid for them." ~ link

✽ Phil Davidson left a comment on yesterday's Random post that I think is worth highlighting because it is really spot on:

...Another consequence of immigration laws is what the laws say not just to immigrants, but to the majority of citizens. I think part of the role of a leader is to prepare the people for what comes next, to teach the people how to think about it so that the people have the right reactions and do the right thing. When times of stress approach, it's important for leaders to help the people with attitude control: thankfulness and trust in God, so that we're ready to please God with the way we extend grace and hospitality. This is true for both political and religious leaders. Politicians can reap support by painting outsiders as enemies; or they can speak to the majority in a such way as to discourage resentment.

✽ Using Google Wave in the foreign language classroom ~ link

✽ If we're serious about crafting the future of the nation we need to focus on working with immigrants and their families now.

The United States population is today one-third non-white, and those groups accounted for 83 percent of national population growth from 2000 to 2008. Immigration continues to fuel our growth, too, and now nearly one-quarter of U.S. children have at least one immigrant parent. This coming-of-age generation, a little over 30 years from now, will stand on the precipice of our transition to a majority non-white nation. Large metropolitan areas will get there first, as their under-18 population had already reached majority non-white status by 2008. ~ State of Metropolitan America: On the Front Lines of Demographic Transformation from the Brookings Institution

✽ "More than 30,000 single moms have deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan." ~ link

✽ So, if a credible researcher brings up a discrepancy on his blog it is not worthattention? But if the "mainstream media" starts talking about the same thing then it is time for action? ~ link

✽ Japan's picturesque Mount Fuji might be preparing for an eruption. ~ link

✽ Competition is good. "When Microsoft launches its latest business and personal software suite Office 2010 on Wednesday in New York, it will introduce a free version, Office Web Apps, to compete with Google." ~ link

✽ Chinese teachers reflect on their experiences of teaching in America ~ link