Random

> Martin Marty will be speaking at a symposium exploring the historical relationship between the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Evangelical Covenant Church. It's so hard to explain the Covenant to people. If I tell them that historically we are just simple Lutheran pietists with a strong missional bent they glaze over pretty quickly. ~ link

> Practice your English with Alice. She's pretty amazing -- for a bot. ~ link

> The dark side of chocolate -- industry abuses ~ link

> Until yesterday we were having a bit of dry spell when it comes to adding new contests to Sweeplee.com... until yesterday. These are the best and most engaging of the online promotional games and sweepstakes.

> "Should parents raise their children bilingually – teaching them two languages from a very young age? It’s a thorny subject, but as UCLA linguist Jared Diamond writes in an editorial in the journal Science, knowing more than one language could improve your multitasking skills from infancy and delay the onset of Alzheimer’s in old age." ~ LA Times

> "Background noise affects taste of foods, research shows" -- I'm sure it affects a lot more than that. ~ BBC