Five Myths About the Rapture

An interesting piece from former fundamentalist Carl Olson.

How to find a book's word count

Very helpful information (if you're a total writing nerd who is curious about how many words various books have).

Hidden messages in the Sistine Chapel?

Interesting.

via CMR

Two-time cancer survivor with one lung summits Everest

Very inspiring.

What every 18-year-old should know

A thought-provoking list.

Three key words for anyone who wants to be published

All aspiring writers should read this.

100-year-old doctor still delivering babies

Inspiring story.

Catholic Family Community Toolbar

Very cool idea for a product. (This is not an ad -- just something I thought looked useful.)

Incredibly elaborate kids' clubhouses

Really cool pictures.

Amazing egg shell art

Wow.

God and the Fibonacci sequence

Light and Darkness: or an autobiographical interlude

Anne Kennedy shares some fascinating stories from life without electricity when she lived in Africa. An excerpt:

In the afternoon, it is too hot to go anywhere or do anything. And in the evening, the twilight period, the time between full sun and complete black, is only about 20 minutes. If you haven't filled the lamps in the morning or waning afternoon, you are racing against the light to fill them enough to carry you through the evening, and to light them. Once darkness has fallen, the deep quiet and deep darkness restrict movement and work.

But it was, and is, always my favorite time of day.

Read the rest here.

Raquel Welch takes an honest look at contraceptive culture, sees something amiss

An interesting article. Best line: "Seriously, folks, if an aging sex symbol like me starts waving the red flag of caution over how low moral standards have plummeted, you know it's gotta be pretty bad."

Trouble sleeping? Maybe it's your iPad

How one sleep-deprived man found rest by turning off all electronics when the sun set.

A race car driver who knows the course well!

via My Three Sons

Quote to ponder: the role of the preacher

"The preacher beats the bushes but the confessor catches the birds."

- St. John Eudes

The virtue of affability

A great post about this underappreciated virtue that is "a debt to decency."

National Geographic's 100 greatest adventure books of all time

A great list.

How to encourage your kids to be fearless eaters

Some great tips.

"My favorite cleaning products"

A helpful list!

Listening to (and Saving) the World’s Languages

A fascinating article about near-extinct languages:

The chances of overhearing a conversation in Vlashki, a variant of Istro-Romanian, are greater in Queens than in the remote mountain villages in Croatia that immigrants now living in New York left years ago.

At a Roman Catholic Church in the Morrisania section of the Bronx, Mass is said once a month in Garifuna, an Arawakan language that originated with descendants of African slaves shipwrecked near St. Vincent in the Caribbean and later exiled to Central America. Today, Garifuna is virtually as common in the Bronx and in Brooklyn as in Honduras and Belize.

And Rego Park, Queens, is home to Husni Husain, who, as far he knows, is the only person in New York who speaks Mamuju, the Austronesian language he learned growing up in the Indonesian province of West Sulawesi.

Read the rest here.

James 3: a video

Oof!



via Pursuing Titus 2