Here are a few links to go with your morning coffee:1. The Daily Scribe points to Jewschool post “Scientists Discover Why Torah Learning is So Friggin’ Great” which points to USC article “Thirst for knowledge may be opium craving: The brain's reward for getting a concept is a shot of natural opiates” (follow that trail, heh). Anyway, here’s the first couple graphs of the USC piece: “Neuroscientists have proposed a simple explanation for the pleasure of grasping a new concept: The brain is getting its fix. The ‘click’ of comprehension triggers a biochemical cascade that rewards the brain with a shot of natural opium-like substances, said Irving Biederman of the University of Southern California. He presents his theory in an invited article in the latest issue of American Scientist. ‘While you're trying to understand a difficult theorem, it's not fun,’ said Biederman, professor of neuroscience in the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. ‘But once you get it, you just feel fabulous.’” So does that mean smart people are just addicts of another sort? Get the rest here.
2. It wasn’t a good week for news coming out of Sudan. The Telegraph looked at the arming of children, and UPI reports that Chad, Sudan accused of aiding of aiding marauders. Sigh. For more on the crisis in Sudan, visit Coalition for Darfur or see here.
3. GetReligion’s Mollie Ziegler takes a look at that LA Times’ End Times story that ran last week—and sets the record straight. I love these guys. I usually just sit and sputter when I read articles like this (though sometimes I actually put my fingers to the keyboard), but these guys are usually great on the uptake.
4. And if you are member of NY Times Select (which I am not), you can read Kristof’s op-ed “Keeping Faith in China” which focuses on the underground house-church movement.
(Image: by Mike D on flickr.com)