Rotundus.com

... manufactured and prepackaged "experiences" are incredibly short-lived. I cannot remember most movies I have seen. For whatever brief moments or even hours that I am wrapped in the cocoon of a space ride at Disneyland or am overwhelmed with intense emotion at a concert, the experience leaves as quickly as it came. However, my most enduring experiences are identified with events in which the goal was something other than having an experience. I will never forget hearing the minister say, "I now pronounce you husband and wife." Just words, right? They are words that change our life. "You have cancer." "We got all of the cancer - you're free and clear." "You're pregnant." "You got the job." Reports grounded in objective facts - outside of us and our experience - are the most significant experience generators in our lives.

Each week, as I join my brothers and sisters in a public confession of sin and our particular sins to God in silence, Christ's ambassador declares that I am forgiven in Christ's name and on the authority of his Word. Regardless of what I feel inside, God's external Word assures me that I have peace with God in his Son. This is not a subjective experience - a peaceful, easy feeling - but an objective announcement. And precisely because of its objectivity - the fact that it is announced to me even when I am not overwhelmed by it emotionally - I get the experience of forgiveness thrown in as well. Living for experiences is like chasing vapors. It is sunsets, not "the sunset experience"; actual expressions of love, not "the love experience"; the Triune God, and not "the worship experience," that turn out to deliver the most important and lasting experiences.

- The Gospel-Driven Life: Being Good News People in a Bad News World, p. 224

More Work, but Less Stress? Why Don't Americans Have Longer Vacations?

"Americans may work longer at the job, but the corollary is they also work less at home. The contrast is most notable for women. Figures from time diary studies in the 1990s reveal that European women worked almost 10 hours more doing housework than their American counterparts ... American families relied instead on paid labor and services to accomplish the domestic tasks that wives still perform in Europe. Add formal and domestic work together, and the differences in total work are much less stark than usually presented."

Kinder Surprise egg seized at U.S. border

"She was warned she could have faced a fine after the customs official found — and seized — her $2 Kinder Surprise egg as illegal contraband. Bird learned U.S. authorities have banned the candy because they come with a plastic toy inside that could, if eaten, choke a small child."

The person in question also noted that they'd received a letter from the U.S. government saying that they've have to pay a $250 storage fee if they wished to contest the seizure and prevent the egg's destruction.

How Big Is Porn?

This Forbes article argues that widely distributed estimates of the spending in this industry, claiming that it exceeds, e.g., all professional sports spending are excessive (although even then there's still a very significant amount of money involved.

Past and Present

"Interesting, too, was the undercurrent to be found in many conversations of interest in the history of economics itself. History of economic thought – or history of science, if you prefer – is a subject that has all but disappeared in the last thirty years as a topic of major research interest or as a subject of courses in top graduate schools – precisely the period of economic triumphalism."

The article goes on to quote James Heckman of the University of Chicago as saying that "People in the past were smart and they made mistakes and had insights,” he said afterwards. “We have sometimes forgotten the insights and we have sometimes repeated the same mistakes." As the saying goes, those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.

You are kidding yourself if you think there is flexibility at a certain level. You don't get to these levels thinking you will get a flexible work schedule.

- Sherri Brillon, Chief Financial Officer at Encana

Source: the Calgary Herald article Men dominate top jobs in energy industry

YWCA drops the word Christian from its historic name to call itself Platform 51

I can't say that I'm surprised that they'd say that this no longer represents what the organization is. I do wonder a little about the organization's new name as it seems a little odd/bland. Is this name change UK-only? "The Young Women’s Christian Association has dropped its historic title after 156 years because ‘it no longer stands for who we are’. Instead the organisation – which is mainly funded by legacies left by Christian supporters over 15 decades – will be known as ‘Platform 51’."

The not-so-great Islamist menace

"Terrorist plots against Europe are on the decline, statistics show, and the majority are not coming from Muslims" - I wonder a little bit if in the author's classification he's only speaking of one successful Islamist related terrorist attack versus the number of attempts. The author does temper his conclusion by noting that "Now, I don't want to overdo the point. Europe has major problems with the integration of its Muslim populations and the threat of Islamist terrorism is real. It's also important to note that the number of attacks does not indicate the full extent of the danger, since Islamists, unlike most terrorists, seek to commit indiscriminate slaughter." One of the things that I was wondering was just how many of these terrorist attacks in Europe actually involved casualties. Still something worth thinking about for a while.

Opting out of marrying same-sex couples unconstitutional: Sask. court rules

Not sure how many Canadian jurisdictions have had courts address this question.

Computers That See You and Keep Watch Over You

I'm a little undecided on just how much I want to have systems like this active in some of the situations they describe. Sometimes it might improve health and safety - but it would be nice not to always have everything you do being monitored.