LINKS FROM AROUND THE INTERNET:
Don’t Leave Your Husband for Her
You stand at the edge of the cliff, friend. By the day’s end, you may fall into this woman’s embrace. If you do, it speaks not to your “love” for this woman, or to hers for you, or to your personal integrity in coming out as gay. No, friend. Adultery reveals disdain for your God. If your Christian best is only offering the obedience that the flesh allows, you trample on the blood of your Savior.
As Christians we must be different. We must be people who honour those made in the image of God, by speaking, listening and giving full attention just as our God does to us. If even having the phone on the table gives the wrong signal, let’s leave them aside. If having it buzz leaves us itching to look, lets practice turning them off, or leaving them in the car when we meet people.
In a world of dying conversation and disconnectedness, the church has something glorious to give (as well as the gospel!)—fellowship. Let’s make sure our churches are places not just of vertical connectedness, but of horizontal connectedness too, where real conversations are had, and real listening takes place.
Sean Parker: Facebook takes advantage of “vulnerability in human psychology”
“The thought process that went into building these applications, Facebook being the first of them, … was all about: ‘How do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible?'” he said. “And that means that we need to sort of give you a little dopamine hit every once in awhile, because someone liked or commented on a photo or a post or whatever.”
Net States Rule the World; We Need to Recognize Their Power
Regardless of their differences in size and raison d’etre, net-states of all stripes share three key qualities: They exist largely online, enjoy international devotees, and advance belief-driven agendas that they pursue separate from, and at times, above, the law.
Facebook translates ‘good morning’ into ‘attack them’, leading to arrest
Facebook has apologised after an error in its machine-translation service saw Israeli police arrest a Palestinian man for posting “good morning” on his social media profile.
Use of Spanish declines among Latinos in major U.S. metros
More than 37 million Latinos in the U.S. speak Spanish at home, making it the country’s most common non-English language. But while the number of Latinos who speak Spanish at home continues to increase due to the overall growth of the Latino population, the share of Latinos who speak the language has declined over the past decade or so: 73% of Latinos spoke Spanish at home in 2015, down from 78% in 2006, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of Census Bureau data.
Undoing the Dis-Education of Millennials
So, here are three ground rules for the rest of the semester.
1. The only “ism” I ever want to come out your mouth is a syllogism. If I catch you using an “ism” or its analogous “ist” — racist, classist, etc. — then you will not be permitted to continue speaking until you have first identified which “ism” you are guilty of at that very moment. You are not allowed to fault others for being biased or privileged until you have first identified and examined your own biases and privileges.
2. If I catch you this semester using the words “fair,” “diversity,” or “equality,” or a variation on those terms, and you do not stop immediately to explain what you mean, you will lose your privilege to express any further opinions in class until you first demonstrate that you understand three things about the view that you are criticizing.
3. If you ever begin a statement with the words “I feel,” before continuing you must cluck like a chicken or make some other suitable animal sound.
Injured Texas woman who refused treatment agrees after police promise her ‘Big Red’ soda
According to the Tyler Police Department, one of the paramedics at the scene said the woman had no life-threatening injuries, but still encouraged her to go to the hospital.
She refused and said, “All I want is a Big Red to drink and I will be fine.”That’s when one of the officers, Sergeant Noble, promised to buy her a Big Red if she went to the hospital. The comprise worked.
“I thought he was bluffing so that she would agree to go to the hospital,” a paramedic at the scene told Tyler police. “I could hardly believe it when Sergeant Noble arrived minutes later at the hospital with an ice cold Big Red for her.”