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POPSUS war on the Future: From Alvin Toffler to Sarah Palin This is a must read commentary by Adam Greenfield. "What you get when you swallow too much change too quickly isn’t a mass outbreak of twitching, hebephrenic breakdown, nor some neo-Amish wave of technological renunciation. You wanna know what it looks like? A hockey mom and former beauty queen with an upswept ‘do and a pregnant daughter in high school. Sarah Palin is future shock personified."
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POPSWhat the Amish Are Teaching America Meanwhile, the United States culture from which the Amish are isolated is moving in the other direction -- increasingly exacting revenge for crimes and punishing violence with more violence.
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POPSUnusual facts Eskimos use refrigerators to keep their food from freezing. *Birmingham(UK) has 22 more miles of canals than Venice. *If an Amish man has a beard,hes married. *Mexico once had three presidents in one day. *The Coca-Cola company is the largest consumer of vanilla in the world. *Millions of trees are accidentaly planted by squirrels that bury their nuts and then forget where they left them. *9 out of every 10 living thing lives in the ocean. *Lipstick contains fish scales. *Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite. *Cows give more milk when they listen to music. *'Puffs' tissues didnt sell well in Germany because 'Puff' in German means brothel. *Parsley is the most widely used herb in the world. *There is 200 times more gold in the world's oceans than has ever been mined. *The Wright brother's first flight was shorter than the wingspan of a 747. *The Sanskrit word for 'War' means 'Desire for more cows'. *Monaco's national orchestra is bi
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POPSTorah Borntrager on "how I escaped the Amish" A young woman who was raised Amish, but who left the community at age 15, tells her story. This is an interview by Tim Ferris (the time-management guru) -- not what I expected to see at his blog at all, but I assume it's genuine.
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POPSTechnology worship ""There are people on the extremes who can afford to do that. If you're extremely rich you can have an assistant, or if you live off the grid somewhere you might have little need for these technologies," he said. "But the vast majority of people have responsibilities that require them to be connected."
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POPSGray Haired Women are Sexy I always find that a youngish woman who doesn't spend a fortune in time and money on painting herself etc to have the sexiest of all things, a powerful mind in a confident soul.
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POPSLesson of the Day: How Our Country Should Live More Like the Amish “In Amish life: principles of compassion, empathy, generosity and selflessness are central. When they run their community this way, it is admirable. When we try to solve our country's problems in much the same way, it is degraded and thought despicable.” “As children we are taught to take turns, to share & to treat others as we would want to be treated. These are basic principles that few people would deny are essential to being a kind, compassionate, moral person, whether a child or adult.” “We apply these principles to our personal lives, but when it comes to our country, our government and our communities, we start hearing things about "no free rides" and about how we mustn't become a welfare state.” "What we teach our children, what we challenge ourselves with spiritually, what we know is right in any other context...it all suddenly no longer applies.”
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POPSAmish Romance Novels Are A Hot New Genre
The explosion of Amish fiction has drawn mixed reactions within Amish communities. Emma Smoker, 39, who was selling homemade pies -- apple, blueberry and shoofly -- in front of Rachel's, said the books don't interest her. "I live the Amish life -- I don't need to read about it," said Mrs. Smoker, who is the sister of store owner Rachel Esh. From what her friends tell her, she added, the books "aren't quite true to life." While there are no religious strictures against contemporary novels, the church has traditionally viewed fiction as distracting and deceitful, says Donald Kraybill, a senior fellow at the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, a religious studies center at Elizabethtown College. Some Amish have nevertheless become avid fans. An Amish woman in Lancaster told Ms. Lewis that "all the women in our church district are reading your books under the covers, literally," Ms. Lewis said. Ms. Brunstetter, who lives in Tacoma, Wash., said several Amish families
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POPS Killer was 'angry at life, angry at God' This whole thing is just totally crazy. I know others have clipped stories on this. Lancaster is not far from me and with other Amish and Mennonites in my community and knowing what a kind and respectable peopel they are, it just seems our society has gone completly insane. I guess this qoute from the article makes one think. "The grave is hand dug in an Amish church district cemetery. There will be only a simple tombstone to mark the spot, much like all the other tombstones in the cemetery -- in death as in life, we are all equal and do not elevate one person above another."