By: David Brooks – nytimes.com – January 1, 2018 Imagine three kids running around a maypole, forming a chain with their arms. The innermost kid is holding the pole with one hand. The faster they run, the more centrifugal force there is tearing the chain apart. The tighter they grip, the more centripetal force there is holding the chain together....

By: Bill Chappell – npr.org – January 2, 2018 After publishing images of a visit to Japan’s “suicide forest” that included footage of a dead body, YouTube star Logan Paul is apologizing — and critics are denouncing both the video and Logan’s behavior in it. The video was watched millions of times before he removed it. “I didn’t do it...

by David French –  nationalreview.com – December 27, 2017 If I had to pick one of the most under-appreciated and under-reported stories of 2017, it would be that a post-Christian America is a more vicious America, and that the triumph of secularists is rendering America more polarized, not less. Remove from the public square biblical admonitions such as “love your...

By Solange Reyner – newsmax.com – December 25, 2017 The role of religion in the Christmas holiday is on the decline, according to the latest Pew Research Center survey. Most Americans do not view Christmas as a religious holiday, according to a recent survey conducted by the Pew Research Center. Forty-six percent of Americans say they celebrate Christmas as primarily...

Peter Wehner – nytimes.com – December 25, 2017 The wall we have built between religion and reason is more porous than it seems. Why is it that, according to Jesus, faith is better than proof? That’s a question I’ve struggled to answer ever since I began my pilgrimage of faith as a young man. Sometimes it seemed more pressing, other...

By: Nina Godlewski – ibtimes.com – December 18, 2017 If you take at least three photos of yourself a day and post them to social media, you might have an acute case of selfitis, according to a new study published in the International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction. The study was conducted to try and verify a hoax story...

By Christopher Carbone – foxnews.com – December 18, 2017 Twitter has begun enforcing new rules to combat hateful and abusive content today and a number of well-known far-right organizations and users were suspended. Kurt the ‘CyberGuy’ comments on new services and apps that do. Twitter began enforcing new rules to combat hateful and abusive content Monday and a number of...

From: economist.com – December 7, 2017 The evidence is mixed; it seems clear, however, that they are making us unhappier FOR many it is a reflex as unconscious as breathing. Hit a stumbling-block during an important task (like, say, writing a column)? The hand reaches for the phone and opens the social network of choice. A blur of time passes,...

By: christiancentury.org – November 3, 2017 When women offer their experience as truth, all the maps change,” said novelist Ursula Le Guin. After movie producer Harvey Weinstein was outed as a sexual predator, thanks to the courage of a few actresses who spoke out, a multitude of other women began speaking the truth about their experiences. Women in the film...

By: James Vincent – theverge.com December 11, 2017 Another former Facebook executive has spoken out about the harm the social network is doing to civil society around the world. Chamath Palihapitiya, who joined Facebook in 2007 and became its vice president for user growth, said he feels “tremendous guilt” about the company he helped make. “I think we have created...