In March of 2009, the police department of Dallas, Texas, joined a growing number of agencies getting rid of complicated codes used in radio calls or signals. Instead, operators and officers now communicate through a plain-language system that relies on ordinary words and phrases.

For example, in the past an officer might have radioed in to say, "I'm approaching a Code 7 on Highland Ave." Now they ...

Quite a Choir I've seen Eric Whitacre's "virtual choir" highlighted all over the internet, but I still stop to watch at least a few minutes every time. If you've not yet seen it, do yourself a favor and take a few minutes to take it all in. It's just unbelievable—185 voices from 12 nations singing the same song. And take a moment to read the translated lyrics below the embedded video screen. ...

In devotional piece for Kyria.com, an evangelical website for women, Christian recording artist Carolyn Arends shared a unique Easter insight, passed along to her from her pastor. She writes:

A couple years ago, during a jubilant Easter service, our pastor said something that stopped me in my mental tracks: "The world offers promises full of emptiness. But Easter offers emptiness full of promise."

Empty ...

In devotional piece for Kyria.com, an evangelical website for women, Christian recording artist Carolyn Arends shared a unique Easter insight, passed along to her from her pastor. She writes:

A couple years ago, during a jubilant Easter service, our pastor said something that stopped me in my mental tracks: "The world offers promises full of emptiness. But Easter offers emptiness full of promise."

Empty ...

When pastor and writer Clark Cothern was five years old, he thought college presidents were powerful, frightening beings. That is, until one stooped low to spend time with him. He writes:

What I saw of college presidents I saw from floor level, as I played on the other side of my mother's desk in the administration building at Grand Canyon College (now University) in Phoenix, Arizona. My Mom was the ...

In early May, 2008, the Gallup Poll research team surveyed 1,017 adults nationwide about issues concerning homosexuality:

• When asked if homosexuality should be considered an acceptable alternative lifestyle, 57 percent indicated it was acceptable (up 9 percent from a 2007 Gallup poll), while 40 percent found it unacceptable (down 6 percent from 2007).
  
  
• When asked if marriages between same-sex couples should be recognized by the law as valid just as traditional marriages are, 40 percent said they should (down 6 percent from a 2007 Gallup poll), while 56 percent said they should not (up three percent from 2007).
  
  

The Waltons was a popular television series in the 1970s that told the story of a large family living in Virginia during the Depression era. In this particular episode, one of the Walton children, John-Boy, aspires to publish his own county newspaper—The Blue Ridge Chronicle. He enlists the help of his younger brother, Ben, and they soon stumble upon their first headline story. The county judge, ...

Forget your Members Only jacket. At Vintage21, a church in Raleigh, North Carolina, it's Owners Only. The church is eliminating the concept of membership entirely in favor of what they believe is a more appropriate description for the body of Christ: ownership.

Gyms and clubs have members. Vintage21 contends that these memberships are "painless to obtain and even easier to discard." Ownership, on the ...

Francis would not allow his resting place to be laid over with covers or garments when he received hospitality, but the bare ground received his bare limbs, with only a tunic between. When at times he refreshed his small body with sleep, he very often slept sitting up, and in no other position, using a piece of wood or a stone as a pillow.

When his appetite for something particular was aroused, as ...

Francis would not allow his resting place to be laid over with covers or garments when he received hospitality, but the bare ground received his bare limbs, with only a tunic between. When at times he refreshed his small body with sleep, he very often slept sitting up, and in no other position, using a piece of wood or a stone as a pillow.

When his appetite for something particular was aroused, as ...