By Stan Friedman

CHICAGO, IL (January 16, 2015) — Many Covenanters routinely share links to social media articles and videos with one another that Covenant News Service believes may be of interest to others. Each Friday we post five of them. Following is a sample of those submissions—their inclusion does not represent an endorsement by the Covenant of any views expressed.

Ode on a Stethoscope

A number of prominent medical journals, including the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), are now including poetry amid their technical, hyper-rational papers based on scientific studies. This is a fascinating article, which includes snippets of some of the poetry, such as a meditation on a man who helps a woman with multiple sclerosis dance and an anesthesiologist recalling a mistake he made while helping a patient in trouble. One editor comments, “You think a patient is going to be like a well-organized essay, but what you really get is a poem. You’re not sure what they mean, and they don’t tell you everything all at once, up front.”

Facebook Doesn’t Know You’re Faking It

Speaking of studies, you may have heard about the one released this week that says Facebook is better at knowing your personality than your closest friends are. The article’s writer isn’t buying it though. She says the findings are based on “a doozy of an assumption.” Facebook may be better at knowing how we want to be known.

Florida Teen Saves Life of Fort Lauderdale Police Officer as He Is Being Arrested

When an officer collapsed, the handcuffed 17-year-old saved his life. The story includes a video of the incident.

Oscar Voters: Racial and Gender Percentages Make You Wonder

There are always Oscar snubs, but there seem to be a lot this year, and no snub is getting more commentary than the multiple non-nominations for Selma. To read why this matters, here is an excellent piece in Forbes.

Certainly there is no singular reason for the omissions, but the fact that this year it’s a foregone conclusion that the winners for best director, best actor, and best actress will be white makes you wonder how much these demographics played a role. Yes, black actors, directors, and racially focused movies have won in the past, but still….

Tamar Adler, in Praise of Small Decisions

This is a thought-provoking interview with the author of An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace—even if you haven’t read her book. I’m not sure whether I agree with the following quote, but I won’t be surprised if I’m mulling it over the next time I have a big decision to make.

“But I feel like we try to make these big decisions, and really we only have to make small decisions, in all moments. I don’t understand the big decision thing. What are you deciding? In fact, you can’t make the big decisions. You do not have the power to.… I only make small decisions. But what that means is that I’m making actual decisions, not imaginary decisions. I think that probably what happens is we make a lot of imaginary decisions, and then because we’re distracted making those, we don’t make the small ones—the real ones.”