a couple of interesting reads on them internets…
+ Chuck Swindoll’s radio program (a well-known minister) was dropped by an affiliate for his use of offensive words like “crap” and “heck”. pretty ridiculous. but it opens up a good dialogue about what exactly is a “swear” word these days. I enjoyed this read, which argues the point that cuss words have gone from being excommunicatory (damn, hell, devil) in pre-modern times to bodily-related in modern times (ass, d!ck, piss, sh!t,…) to exclusionary in post-modern times (think of any racial slur or misogynist term degrading women). whether you agree or not, i think you have to conclude that cuss words evolve as our culture evolves. i know some of you reading this almost never cuss. many of you do and wish you didn’t. some of you cuss and don’t really care. good food for thought…
+ in a related story, i found it interesting that the well-respected (and for good reason) pastor and author John Piper said that sometimes “God kicks our ass” at the Passion event earlier this year. He later apologized, saying that he could have chosen a better word, but I’m glad that he didn’t try to make some blanket statement about what words are right and which are wrong to say.
+ This was an interesting NY Times article about how Google works incessantly on tweaking it’s searched to provide the best results for everyone who uses their service. Their goal: that EVERYONE will find exactly what they are looking for. Pretty impressive.
+ Peter King of SportsIllustrated.com is picking the Colts over the Saints in this year’s Super Bowl. Can’t wait for football season.
+ Tiger Woods makes 100 million dollars in endorsements. that’s $100,000,000 dollars. see for yourself.
+ So, the launch date is official. The iPhone arrives on June 29th. Jordan and I saw the commercials last night during the Red Sox game.
I just got myself a Blackjack, so I’ll be sitting this one out. (the $600 price point had something to do with that). My buddy geof is waiting for the second gen, and i’m guessing his hesitancy has to do with the price, the measly 8GB hard drive, and the inevitable bugs that will need to be worked out. Apparently some Apple execs are a bit worried that expectations for the iPhone are TOO high (via the NY Times), and you’ve got to admit that they can’t possibly be higher. Should make for an interesting July. Keep an eye out on eBay for all those unwanted Treos and Blackberries going to the highest bidder.