I have two friends who are best friends. Each was the best man in the other's wedding. They talk every day, sometimes more than once, on their cell phones. They live only a few blocks from each other. Yet recently, one told me that he hadn't seen his best friend in two months—two months! That's more than a hundred phone calls, and countless chances to hop in the car or walk a few blocks to see ...

Once when I was at the University of Notre Dame we had an extraordinary snowstorm. They get a lot of snow in South Bend because it's on the wrong side of the lake—every time a wind blows across Lake Michigan, the moisture gets dumped on South Bend. We were used to snow in the winter. But this particular time, we got thirty-six inches in twelve hours. It literally shut the city down. We couldn't ...

Since becoming an internet juggernaut, Facebook has taken some real hits from folks. That tends to happen when something takes off in popularity. But the next time you wonder if it's of any value at all, especially for the church, you might want to consider the story of Avril Grube—a story that teaches us that the social networking giant can be used for a lot more than just cute status updates ...

In 2008, 5 million people participated in addiction programs because of alcohol or drug abuse. Participants by age:

• 12–17 years old: 5 percent
  
  
• 18–25: 15 percent
  
  
• 26–49: 57 percent
  
  
• 50 and over: 23 percent
  
  

Eighteen hundred years or so of Hebrew history, capped by a full exposition in Jesus Christ, tell us that God's revelation of himself is rejected far more often than it is accepted, is dismissed by far more people than embrace it, and has been either attacked or ignored by every major culture or civilization in which it has given its witness: magnificent Egypt, fierce Assyria, beautiful Babylon, artistic ...

Churches are talking trash. No, not badmouthing other congregations; they're examining ways to reduce the waste they produce. Earth care is in vogue, and many Christians, believing that stewarding creation is a spiritual mandate, are looking to mesh environmentalism with their faith.

One leader in the movement is Joel Hunter, pastor of Northland: A Church Distributed, out of Longwood, Florida. Hunter ...

Researcher Mark Bellis of Liverpool John Moores University in Liverpool, England, collected statistics concerning 1,064 rock stars from the United States and Europe between the 1950s and the present. His conclusions suggest that, statistically, rock stars really do die younger than the general population. The average age at death for American rockers was 42; for Europeans, 35.

Partying, transportation ...

More people remember the ingredients on America's favorite burger than remember the ingredients in America's favorite book, according to the latest study.

In anticipation of the new animated movie release of The Ten Commandments, Kelton Research conducted a poll of 1,000 people to determine basic knowledge of the Ten Commandments. Eighty percent of those polled knew that a Big Mac had two all-beef ...

Google's Zeitgeist is an online resource that tracks the most commonly used Internet search terms every day. In its 2006 Year-End Google Zeitgeist report, the company listed the following as the ten most popularly searched items of the year (in descending order):

1. Paris Hilton

2. Orlando Bloom

3. Cancer

4. Podcasting

5. Hurricane Katrina

6. Bankruptcy

7. Martina Hingis

8. Autism

9. 2006 NFL Draft

10. "Celebrity ...

Thank You For Smoking is about the shameless tactics of pro-cigarette lobbyists and their efforts to both protect and promote the tobacco industry.

Lobbyist Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart) and his 12-year-old son Joey are having a conversation as they walk through a Santa Monica amusement park.

"So, you go to an office, then you go on TV to talk about cigarettes. Then you fly out to L.A. to talk to some ...