Scrolling around...July 9th, 2012

The Terrible Management Technique That Cost Microsoft Its Creativity
Vanity Fair has an article in its August issue that tells the story of how Microsoft “since 2000 . . . has fallen flat in every area it entered: e-books, music, search, social networking, etc., etc.”...

Ernest Borgnine dies at 95; won Oscar for 'Marty,' showed comic side in sitcom
The stocky, gap-toothed Connecticut native won an Academy Award for his portrayal of a lonely Bronx butcher looking for love in the 1955 drama 'Marty.' He also starred in the popular TV show 'McHale's Navy.'

A Letter to the Hotel Industry

Last week, I joined Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, one of our nation’s most brilliant public intellectuals and a leading scholar and teacher of the Islamic tradition, in a letter to the chief executive officers of America’s largest hotel chains asking them to stop offering pornography in their hotel rooms. We wrote as a Muslim and a Christian, but we appealed to the executives “not on the basis of truths revealed in our scriptures but on the basis of a commitment that should be shared by all people of reason and goodwill: a commitment to human dignity and the common good.” We noted that “as teachers and as parents, we seek a society in which young people are encouraged to respect others and themselves—treating no one as an impersonal object or thing.”...

Feds: Airlines Must Let Passengers Fly With Pigs for 'Emotional Support'
Pot-bellied pigs must be granted passage on airplanes if they are used for “emotional support” by their owners, states the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) draft manual on equity for the disabled in air travel...

Pastor Faces Suit for Calling a Man 'Gay' and his Marriage a 'Sham'
A state appeals court is allowing the suit to go forward, the Courthouse News Service reported...

Before Air-Conditioning
...Given the heat, people smelled, of course, but some smelled a lot worse than others. One cutter in my father’s shop was a horse in this respect, and my father, who normally had no sense of smell—no one understood why—claimed that he could smell this man and would address him only from a distance...

Thirty-Six Couples Wait for Every One Baby Who is Adopted
A recent article asked, “Why do more people choose abortion over adoption?” The author, Kristi Brown, commented:

Countless women in the U.S. choose abortion over adoption for their unborn babies every year. When I sat in on counseling sessions at a pregnancy center, I learned that women are often very closed to the idea of adoption. They either want to keep their baby themselves or get rid of the baby now. Adoption statistics are hard to track, since states are not necessarily required to report domestic adoptions. However, the numbers are grim, and much of it is owing to abortion.

 
Family Christian Stores Releases Its Own Tablet
Capitalizing on the booming e-book market, Family Christian Stores (FCS) has released its own tablet. Edifi is comparable, but a bit smaller—although same screen size—than Barnes & Noble's Nook Color and Nook Tablet and Amazon's Kindle Fire...