I look forward to Google’s Zeitgeist video every year. It is an annual mashup of footage of the most searched items in the Google search engine. It is a window into human interest for the last year (at least those humans dwelling in socio-economic realities that allow them to search the internet). I’ve noticed that the annual videos tend toward uplift. Perhaps that’s the reason that this year’s video has no trace of Miley Cyrus in it. In any case, here it is. See also: Google Zeitgeist 2012 Google Zeitgeist 2011

(HT: Danny Akin)

Albert Mohler encourages Christian readers to take a realistic view of Nelson Mandela’s legacy. While Mohler recognizes the achievements that led to Mandela’s Nobel Peace Prize, he also includes a provocative question about Mandela’s early career: When you think of Nelson Mandela and reflect on his life, and now on his death, there are many worldview issues that are immediately implicated. One of them has to do with the fact that Nelson Mandela was, by any honest analysis, a terrorist. That immediately raises a deep moral issue. How can someone be so honored who had at any point resorted to terrorism in order to achieve a political objective? Mohler follows…

There’s a proverb that says “Like one who grabs a stray dog by the ears is someone who rushes into a quarrel not their own” (Proverbs 26:17). So I may regret wading into the recent controversy about CBS News’ Lara Logan. Nevertheless, ever since I read that CBS News has put her on a leave of absence, I haven’t been able to get one aspect of this story off my mind. Last month on “60 Minutes,” Lara Logan reported a story about the 2012 Benghazi attacks that left four Americans dead. Relying heavily on a single source, her report indicated that the U.S. government was derelict in its response during…

The story of the Doolittle Raiders is one for the ages. After Japan succeeded in a vicious attack on American forces at Pearl Harbor, the United States hatched a plan for an immediate retaliation. The plan called for pilots to fly a secret mission over Tokyo to drop bombs on strategic targets. The only problem was that in those days bombers could take off from the carrier but they could not land. It would be a one way mission in which pilots would have to drop their payload in Tokyo and then try to land in China and escape to safety. It was high stakes and very dangerous. The mission…

As you no doubt have heard, Blockbuster video is calling it quits. There is no business model to support bricks-and-mortar stores that supply movie rentals. The delivery systems for media consumption have changed so radically over the last decade, and Blockbuster has failed to keep up. The reasons for its demise are obvious. But still, it’s remarkable that it’s gone. Blockbuster was once so ubiquitous in America. It was the 800 pound gorilla gobbling up all the mom and pop rental stores around the country. It was unstoppable. Until it got stopped. And now it is no more. There has to be some kind of a life-lesson here—certainly a sermon…

Have you ever had the experience of finding a Chicken Nugget on the floor board of your car that had been sitting there for weeks (or maybe months)? If you have kids, this has probably happened to you at some point. The striking thing about finding an old Nugget is that it looks just the same as it did when it was dropped onto the floor. The other striking thing is that it never emitted an odor like a real piece of chicken would after it begins to rot. I have had this experience, and it doesn’t take a scientific study to conclude that something is amiss with fast-food Chicken…