One woman's story of God intervening when she hit rock bottom

A powerful, inspiring story.

Woman leaves $40,000 at shrine for safekeeping

Great story.

"Why I love liturgy"

An interesting post from a former fundamentalist who discovered the beauty of liturgical worship.

Water boiled in a microwave can suddenly "explode"

It sounds like an urban legend, but this can actually happen! (Snopes notes that it's very rare -- still interesting to read about, though.)

"My Diet Coke conversion story"

Rachel Balducci talks about the huge changes she saw in her life after giving up Diet Coke.

In search of Shackleton's Scotch

The coolest archeological dig ever?

A saint and mother of eight

I enjoyed reading the biography of St. Margaret of Scotland, whose feast day is today. More on Wikipedia.

Beautiful Universe Astronomy Quiz

Fun for astronomy buffs.

Famous world sites done in Legos

Wow, cool!

What to do if you find that you don't enjoy playing with your children

Author Holly Pierlot offers some good advice to a mom who writes in to say that she feels guilty because she doesn't honestly enjoy spending lots of time playing games with her young children. (Scroll down to the comments below the part that says "Struggling with the 4th P." The 4th P refers to Pierlot's recommendation of prioritizing life according to the "5 P's: Prayer, Person, Partner, Parenthood, Providing.)

Grief and joy after the loss of a son

A beautiful column from Mary Ellen Barrett, talking about grief and joy after the loss of her 14-year-old son.

"There was no fast in Advent, so it follows that there can be no feast"

Some interesting thoughts on preparing ourselves for Christmas.

High-tech holy water dispensers

Some Italian Catholic churches now have high-tech holy water dispensers because of swine flu fears.

Two interesting archeological stories

Archeologists may have found an ancient army that was rumored to have been lost in a sandstorm, and the discovery of a sixth-century church and its cemetery gives interesting insights into early Christian culture.

"Where I write"

Pictures of famous sci-fi authors in their creative spaces.

Where did the Japanese come from?

A fascinating article for historical anthropology buffs. An excerpt:

These facts seem to suggest that the Japanese reached Japan only recently from the Asian mainland...But if that were true, you might expect the Japanese language to show close affinities to some mainland language, just as English is obviously closely related to other Germanic languages...How can we resolve this contradiction between Japan's presumably ancient language and the evidence for recent origins?

During the Ice Ages, land bridges connected Japan's main islands to one another and to the mainland, allowing mammals -- including humans -- to arrive on foot. Archeologists have proposed four conflicting theories. Most popular in Japan is the view that the Japanese gradually evolved from ancient Ice Age people who occupied Japan long before 20,000 B.C. Also widespread in Japan is a theory that the Japanese descended from horse-riding Asian nomads who passed through Korea to conquer Japan in the fourth century, but who were themselves -- emphatically -- not Koreans. A theory favored by many Western archeologists and Koreans, and unpopular in some circles in Japan, is that the Japanese are descendants of immigrants from Korea who arrived with rice-paddy agriculture around 400 B.C.

Read the rest here.

via Darwin Catholic

African Desert Rift Confirmed As New Ocean In The Making

Cool geology news.

via Jason Signalness (Twitter)

A silver lining to the American vocations crisis?

Interesting thoughts!

Newborns Cry in Their Native Tongue

Interesting: Newborns cry differently depending on the language their parents speak, indicating that they hear more in the womb than previously thought.

How to Stop a Cold in Just 12 Hours

Some good tips. I thought this part was interesting:

In one lab study from the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, researcher Stephen Rennard, M.D., discovered that his grandmother-in-law's chicken soup recipe might help relieve some of the inflammation behind cold symptoms. In the test tube, the soup inhibited movement of white blood cells called neutrophils by 75 percent; researchers suspect that in your upper respiratory tract, this curtailed movement could translate into a reduction in cold symptoms.

Read the rest here.

Spiritual housekeeping

I like Tienne's analogy of sins being like dirt and clutter in a house.

Feeling beautiful

A touching post by Stephanie Nielson, who is recovering from being badly burned in a plane crash.

Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids

Some amusing and interesting thoughts. An excerpt:

How Many Kids Will You Want When You’re 60?

A. Due to basic biology, human beings usually have all the kids they will ever have during a span of a few years. Also due to basic biology, those are also the years when kids are the most work.

B. My casual observation: People usually stop having children when they feel exhausted. Smart, right?

C. Not really. Your workload will fall as your kids grow up. Eventually, you’ll be bugging them to spend time with you.

D. If you look far enough into the future, every child you have is a chance to have some grandchildren. And people really love grandchildren – after all, as soon as they cease to be fun, you send them home.

E. None of these means that we should ignore the exhaustion we feel as young parents. But basic economics does tell us that when we make a decision that lasts a lifetime, we should balance our interests over the course of our lives – not do whatever feels best at the time.

F. In short, I’m not asking anyone to stop being selfish. I’m asking people to get better at being selfish.

Read the rest here.

Information is beautiful

A blog all about presenting information graphically. Cool.

Amazing paper crafts

Beautiful!

via Faith and Family Live

A great interview about Anne Rice's "reversion" to faith

Anne Rice tells how her evolution of writing about vampires to angels reflected her spiritual journey from atheism to the Catholic faith.

10 easy arithmetic tips

Kinda cool.

The Cologne Cathedral

Some interesting info:

Construction began in 1248, but by 1560, political changes had taken place, and funds dried up. So all construction stopped until 1842.

There was a massive wooden crane on top of the south tower, that had already sat there for 150 years, when construction stopped. So the crane remained there until 1842. This crane became the symbol of Cologne and it dominated its skyline for 400 years. The timescales are mind-boggling. Entire generations lived and died, for four centuries, looking up at an idle construction relic from, even for them, ancient times.

Read the rest (and see pictures) here.

Replacing "should" with "could"

A powerful little tip.

Cleaning for a Reason

A great idea for a charity: a free cleaning service for people undergoing chemotherapy.

One of the darkest places on earth

This article introduced me to the concept of a Dark-Sky Park. Interesting.

10 Rules of Engagement for Catholics on the Internet

This is excellent.

Top 10 Unsolved Mysteries - this time with the right link

Oops! I posted the wrong link last time. Here's the right one. Great stuff.

9 surprising energy drains

A good list.

A cupcake rosary

Impressive (and very yummy looking)!

via Margaret in Minnesota

5 Ways To Create A Calm Home

Some good tips.

Do you have offline stress disorder?

Interesting.

via Mike Elgan (Twitter)

A futuristic fan with no blades

Cool.

Implanted defibrillator saves soccer player after heart attack

Wow!

Mature audience: Woman describes performing abortion while pregnant herself

A horrifying but illuminating read. (Warning: graphic descriptions of an abortion.)

Self-control and obedience: the important difference

This is one of the best posts I've read in a while, written by a Catholic mom struggling with fear in the midst of hyperemesis gravidarum.

You're hanging out with your kids...but are you really present?

Some good, challenging thoughts. An excerpt:

According to Ms. Brody, too many parents today are literally ignoring their infant and toddler-aged children, even though they may be walking or standing right beside them. How?

She reports seeing mothers and nannies all over her neighborhood tuning into their cell phones, Blackberrys and iPods. Though they might be technically spending "time" with their children, they're clearly distracted -- and missing out on a golden opportunity to nurture and invest in the young lives of those they love.

Read the rest here.

Pope holds up 12th century monk as model for Christians in a frenetic world

An inspiring message.

A glimpse inside ultra-luxury airline travel

Wow.

Cold vs. flu

A chart explaining the differences between colds and the flu. Here's a handy flowchart as well.

On OB/GYN converts her practice to NFP-only

An inspiring story of an OB/GYN who decided to change her practice to reflect her values -- even at the risk of losing business.

Taking the week off

I'll be offline all week. Have a great week, everyone!

Couple's Love Survives Iron Curtain

A neat love story.

Video footage of Anne Frank found

Neat.

Miniature earth

A fascinating video about what global demographic trends would look like if the earth only contained 100 people.

via Czech Chat

Are you rich?

Type your income into this form and find out. The results might surprise you.

Man with metal detector hits archeological jackpot

Lucky guy!

Pictures of fast food

Not very appetizing.

What would a holy version of you look like?

Some good food for thought.

The Nun Run

One woman's clever idea to raise money to pay off her student loan debt so that she can enter a convent.

Write like a pirate

Translate your words into pirate-speak.

Mother has to give up baby after being impregnated with wrong embryos

A tragic story that sounds like something out of a sci-fi saga.

Sex, Shame and Self-Control

This is a very interesting read. Lots of thoughts to ponder.

Tips for raising children who are introverts

I thought this had some good ideas.

How to write a novel using the web

A great list of technical resources to help writers with their projects.

What's your color style?

A fun quiz to help you figure out which colors you would most enjoy having in your home. (I was Earthy Casual.)

via 4 Reluctant Entertainers

Cat takes mysterious 2,400-mile overseas trip before being reunited with owner

Neat story.

Do lies make you weak?

I have no idea if this is backed up by science, but the first excerpt in this post is fascinating.

Learn the Faith online

The Family Catechism is a great interactive site for families to learn about their faith together. Very well done.

How long will your favorite foods keep?

Find out through this website!

Extreme Pogo Stick Tricks

"Where is the Body of Christ?"

An interesting point made by a missionary in Africa after a hard day of caring for starving children on the brink of death:

According to several differnt resources, there are an average of 147 million orphaned children in the world today (this statistic includes children who have lost only one parent as well), 11 million children starve to death each year or die from preventable, treatable illness. 8.5 million children work as child slaves, prostitutes, or in other horrific conditions (making things like that cute baby Gap dress Jane wore today...) 2.3 million children world wide are living with HIV.

That is 168.8 million needy children like Michael and Patricia. Seems like a big number, huh? It shouldn't, because there are 2.1 BILLION people on this earth who profess to be Christians. Jesus followers. Servants. Gospel live-ers. And id only 8 percent of those Christians would care for just ONE of these needy children, they would all be taken care of.

Read the rest here.

via Small Treasures

Sun quiz

How much do you know about the sun?

Clarifying discernment

Some great, practical tips for discernment -- especially those four bullet points at the bottom of the post.

Coldest, Driest, Calmest Place on Earth Found

And they're thinking about building an observatory there.