CHICAGO, IL (August 5, 2016) — Covenanters routinely share links to social media articles and videos 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.

The Giant Benches That Make Adults Feel Like Children

The chief of design for BMW decided that he no longer wanted to make vehicles for the wealthy that moved with precision, so he decided to build something that anyone could enjoy while parked.

From the article:
“The idea is lovely because you really feel like you become part of the landscape, which is something that doesn’t normally happen. Sitting up here you ask yourself, ‘Why am I so small and out of proportion?’ You know it should be that way but you often take things for granted and think that you drive everything. Up here in this context you question this, and have to admit that you are actually less significant.”

Crashing, Burning Planes Don’t Stop Passengers from Grabbing Their Luggage

Clinginess, materialism, and irrationality trump safety in a burning world… er… plane.

From the article: “Flight attendants have said they have had to physically grab bags from people and throw them into the galley to get them away from the evacuation,” said Sara Nelson, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA. “There’s a lot of problems with those bags.” Click here for video of passengers after plane crashes.

What Babies Know About Physics and Foreign Languages

It would appear that imitation is the best form of education—for better or worse.

From the article: “Parents and policy makers have become obsessed with getting young children to learn more, faster. But the picture of early learning that drives them is exactly the opposite of the one that emerges from developmental science.”

Why Your Texts Sound Angry When You Add a Period

You might want to think twice about adding that period at the end of your text. The little dot can carry a whole lot of mistaken meaning in such a short message. It’s so abrupt. Or if you want to convey that you are angry, you might want to make sure you include it. There are other rules you might want to follow when texting that would be cursed by your English teacher or editor were you to use them in any other form of writing.

From the article: “Though periods can still signal the end of a sentence in a text message, many users will omit them (especially if the message is only one sentence long). This tendency now subtly influences how we interpret them.”

Can Myth Busters Like Snopes.com Keep Up in a Post-truth Era?

False “facts” and myths are so prevalent and spread so quickly these days, even if unintentionally. Those we expect to help us separate fact from fiction are feeling overwhelmed.

From the article: “(Snopes.com owner David) Mikkelson sighs at perennial rumours such as the US government planning internment camps or gun confiscations, or signing away national parks to the United Nations. ‘It gets tiresome having to do the same thing over and over. Most of the stuff we debunk is so distorted from its source it’s hard to think it’s done accidentally.’ ”