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 ...

These days, of course, [Jesus is] literally everywhere. He's in newspapers and on the covers of magazines. He's on TV and radio. He's on football fields and on the tailgates of SUVs. He's in the great debates of the day—from Iraq to gay marriage, from evolution to the environment. He gets endlessly beaten and tortured in a movie—he gets flayed —and people feel obligated to see it. They ...

In 1977, fish merchant Lee Lantz traveled to Chile and "discovered" the toothfish, a species the locals deemed too oily to eat. Thirty years and a name change later, Chilean sea bass is so popular with American palates that it's almost on the verge of extinction.

After Canadians developed an oil from the rapeseed plant, they still had to deal with the name. So, in 1988, the FDA approved a name change ...

The notion that "the first will be last" doesn't seem to bother some folks. When Apple's revolutionary iPhone hit the market in late June, 2007, it sold for $599. Ten weeks later the price went down to $399—a 33 percent reduction. While many who bought the iPhone at the original price were outraged, others would have paid any price to be among the first to own the new technology.

"If they told ...

As of October 2006, there were three times as many professional tanning parlors in the U.S. as there were Starbucks. Each year, an estimated 2.3 million teenagers enter those parlors, which has helped indoor tanning become a $5 billion-a-year industry. On their own, these numbers may not seem surprising, or even noteworthy. But they become dangerous when placed in the light of a recent medical discovery. ...

A new religion invented by a Massachusetts psychologist has been gaining popularity over recent years. Called "Yoism," this system of beliefs is based on the "open source" principle—where the general public becomes a combined, creative authority and source of truth. One example of the "open source" phenomenon is the successful online encyclopedia known as Wikipedia.

Yoism operates and evolves ...

Winston Churchill was once asked, "Doesn't it thrill you to know that every time you make a speech, the hall is packed to overflowing?"

"It's quite flattering," replied Sir Winston. "But whenever I feel that way, I always remember that if instead of making a political speech I was being hanged, the crowd would be twice as big."

Charlie Chaplin was a huge movie star in the silent-picture era. One of the by-products of his popularity were the look-alike contests that sprung up around the country. Contestants attempted to imitate Chaplin dressed as the “tramp” character he made popular in his films. Even the young up-and-coming actor Bob Hope entered such a contest in Cleveland, Ohio, and won.

Legends have sprung up that Chaplin ...

In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine named the greatest rock 'n' roll song of all time. Their selection, Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone,” was not a huge surprise. Dylan’s opus is at the top of several such lists. It was recorded on June 15, 1965, in Studio A at the headquarters of Columbia Records. A few days later, Dylan and his manager listened to the edited tape and were convinced it would be a hit. ...

One of the most popular bars in the Chinese city of Nanjing sports only a sofa, a few tables, and tissues—a lot of tissues. The AFP news service reports that the city's first "cry bar," where customers can sit and cry for $6 per hour, is growing in popularity. Owner Luo Jun says he opened the bar when clients of his last business said they often wanted to cry but didn't know when or where it would ...