Memorization

Justin Snider, a college professor and former high school English teacher has a blog post on the value of learning things by heart. He has some good insights that are clearly applicable to studying, memorizing or meditating on Scripture.

Eminem's seriousness about his work

Can you think of 5 words that rhyme with "orange?" Eminem can.

I'm not a fan of his work. And you may get some comments if you cite him. But, as I was listening to a "60 Minutes" podcast this morning, I found that he takes what he does pretty seriously. He's constantly writing down and cataloging words that can be used in his rap lyrics (not all of them 4-letter words).

If you want to track it down, check the "60 Minutes" podcast for October 10, 2010 and listen in around the 36-minute mark for what he calls, "stacking ammo."

Misplaced Spending Priorities

Nicolas Kristof of the NY Times is a liberal columnist who often has some very common-sense things to say. This article is not to minimize the crushing poverty in many parts of the world, but it can give us another picture of the slavery of sin. I may save this article for class.

A quick summary of Moonshine or the Kids?: Even in desperately poor conditions, kids could go to school and many cases of malaria could be prevented if their fathers spent more on the needs of their families and less on alcohol, cigarettes and prostitution.

(No room for finger-pointing here; we all need to examine our own priorities.)

Self-discipline Counts More Than IQ

At least that seems to be true for eighth grade academics. This University of Pennsylvania study gives the details.