Interesting article about dirt-eating:

“It used to be,” writes William Bryant Logan in Dirt, “that a good farmer could tell a lot about his soil by rolling a lump of it around in his mouth.” Today, apparently, it is harder to find someone who literally eats dirt…

The conservatism of Pixar movies:

Over the years, Pixar has made a number of films which return again and again to the anxiety of familial dissolution. Monsters, Inc. does this through the small family unit of Scully and Boo; Finding Nemo is about a father’s inability to let his son go; in Up, an old man learns to live after his wife’s death. In the (unfortunately) much-malignedCars, the modern world’s loss of small communities (exemplified by Radiator Springs) is a tragedy, and the film (despite the restoration of the community at the end) is mostly a lament for lost values. None of these films may be overtly political, but the moral message is innate: The family (or small community) is central, and it is failing, so we must do what we can to preserve it.

Tullian Tchividjian: All Things New

New, unimaginable changes await all God’s children because God promises a new, unimaginable power.

Because God has given us a new beginning, a new family, a new purpose, and a new power, let us celebrate true newness tonight. And in doing so we will point a watching world to the only One who can “make all things new.”

Brit Hume defends his remarks about why Tiger Woods should embrace the Christian faith:

“It has always been a puzzling thing to me. The Bible even speaks of it, that you speak the name Jesus Christ (and I don’t mean to make a pun here) but all hell breaks loose. And it has always been thus. It is explosive. I didn’t even say the name in that way. I spoke of the Christian faith, but that was enough to trigger this reaction. It triggers a very powerful reaction in people who do not share the faith and who do not believe in it. Always has.”