Flotsam and jetsam (4/30)

Good Reads

• Why Fiction Is Good for You (Boston.com): Studies show that when we read nonfiction, we read with our shields up. We are critical and skeptical. But when we are absorbed in a story, we drop our intellectual guard. We are moved emotionally, and this seems to make us rubbery and easy to shape.

• Pastors: Keep Your ‘Gray” Areas Off the Stage: when you hold up “gray” areas as if they’re black-and-white, right-or-wrong issues, you needlessly alienate people.

• The Digital Gender Divide: Girls may not run the world, but they dominate on the web.

• Three Types of Christian Scholarship: While most of us will see ourselves as more of one than the others…, we need to be careful. Of course we need to recognize the dangers in our own leanings and listen to the critiques of the others, but more than that, we need to be continually committed to finding balance

Other Info

• Chewing gum may cause short-term memory loss

• Let’s Do Lunch: it’s time for america to embrace the long, leisurely lunch break.

• Study of the Day: Even the Religious Lose Faith When They Think Critically

 Just for Fun     

• And, if you need some way of telling You Tube how you really feel, here’s “Buffering,” a love song tribute to You Tube.