Knowing tells the story of John Koestler (Nicholas Cage), a professor who discovers a cryptic document that was hidden in a time capsule in 1958. A scene early in the film shows the depth of Koestler's existential wrestling—a struggle that has been going on long before the strange document makes an appearance.

The scene begins with a wide angle shot of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ...

Top cosmetic surgeries in 2008:

• Breast augmentation: 355,671
• Liposuction: 341,144
• Eyelid surgery: 195,104
• Nose reshaping: 152,434
• Tummy tuck: 147,392

I was in line at the grocery checkout. A few feet in front of me, a mother guided her toddler ahead, anchored her baby on her hip, and elbowed her checkbook open to pay the clerk. In what seemed like one single gesture, she retrieved her toddler's hand from the candy rack, tore the check from her book and offered it to the clerk while placing a comforting smooch atop her baby's head. The baby drooled ...

The 2009 economic crisis brought an interesting phrase into the headlines: toxic assets. Toxic assets are one of the factors contributing to the trouble that banks are in now. The assets are loans. Somebody owes the banks money. Normally banks want people to owe them money and pay them interest on the principal. But as the economy now stands, especially with the mortgage foreclosure crisis, many of ...

If, as Jesus said, we cannot know the hour or the day [of his return], yet we also see the signs, how are we to be both ready to go and resigned to wait?

According to the apostle Peter, the scoffers say: "Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation. … Where is this 'coming' he promised?" (2 Peter 3:4; all Scripture quotations from the NIV). But he ...

In a 2008 article for Psychology Today magazine, Hara Marano writes about the constant pressure girls face concerning their image. Deprived of an internal compass, girls compete to be "hottest," turning colleges into incubators for eating disorders and numerous unrealistic, self-imposed expectations.

But why?

Marano cites Courtney Martin, author of Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters. Martin believes ...

When Michelle Attaway moved in with her boyfriend, Jay, for a life of drugs and partying, she assumed Jay's parents would turn their back on them in disgust. So it was a bit shocking when Jay and Michelle were instead invited over for dinner. She writes about the events that followed:

I was incredulous because I knew that Jay's parents were "normal" people, the type that crossed to the other side ...

A story from Malcolm Gladwell's Blink forces you to wrestle with this critical question: what keeps us from seeing people as they truly are?

Blink is a book about "the power of thinking without thinking." It's a look at how choices made in an instant aren't as simple as they seem. In one of his many examples in the book, Gladwell shows how the classical music world realized that their system for auditioning ...

A 2008 Fitness magazine poll of 1,000 women found that women are willing to take drastic steps to reach their ideal weight:

• Twenty-three percent would spend a week in jail.

• Twenty-three percent would shave their head.

• Twenty-two percent would wear a bikini on TV.

• Twenty-one percent would trade ten years of their life.

To John Barrier, it wasn't the 60 cents, it was the principle. Barrier walked into his bank to cash a $100 check and then asked the receptionist to validate his parking ticket. Even after mentioning that he was a "substantial depositor," Barrier's request was refused. The receptionist explained that validation was only given for transactions involving a deposit.

Barrier felt his appearance—dirty construction ...