The routine that so many Christians are headed for

In the "Wish I Would Have Preached It First" category, Francis Chan contemplates life on the balance beam, and the scoring Christians might receive from the judge. An incredibly challenging message delivered at the 2006 Challenge Conference! Anyone know where I can get the entire message?

Pixar does it again - and does something else again, too

My friend and former colleague John Carney posted a short review of "Up" which he saw this week. I haven't seen it yet, but it reminded me that I hadn't posted the link to this insightful post - Pixar's Gender Problem - which calls Pixar out for failing in it's first 12 films to have a significant female lead character. The whole post is worth reading, as are many of the comments.

Demanding to be lied to

As a former journalist for the Shelbyville Times-Gazette, the decline of print journalism intrigues me, particularly the unwillingness of some of the executives at the biggest papers to adapt and accept changes brought on by the Internet. Clay Shirky posts some excellent insights along these lines, including one post called "Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable."

Shirky says:

When someone demands to know how we are going to replace newspapers, they are really demanding to be told that we are not living through a revolution. They are demanding to be told that old systems won’t break before new systems are in place. They are demanding to be told that ancient social bargains aren’t in peril, that core institutions will be spared, that new methods of spreading information will improve previous practice rather than upending it. They are demanding to be lied to. There are fewer and fewer people who can convincingly tell such a lie.

I'm struck by how the above quote could also apply, with just a few swapped words, to one of the debates going on within the American Church today.

On greatness

Two standout quotes from the recent rematch between Bill Simmons and Malcolm Gladwell at espn.com:

~You can become great without the help of someone else, but you can't stay great without someone pushing you. (Bill Simmons)

~I wonder if the kind of passion necessary for greatness inevitably limits someone's time at the top. (Malcolm Gladwell)

Saved from Hannah Montana

Josh Jackson, editor of Paste, miraculously found the cure which saved his daughters from Disney. A modern day miracle, for sure!

Revealing episode

Nicholas White spent 41 hours trapped in an elevator. The New Yorker account of the episode, written by Nick Paumgarten, surely tells readers more than they've ever known about how elevators work. But the article's most intriguing element is the description of the downward spiral which White's life took, beginning with the first few hours trapped.

Truth: Your problem is not your problem. Your reaction to your problem is your problem.

UPDATE: The New Yorker also made available the security tape footage of White's experience.

Monopoly no more?

A Wired article a few months back profiled this German board game which has aspirations of overtaking Monopoly as the world's most popular. Sounds crazy, but then again, surely Monopoly can't last forever!