From August through early November 2008, The Barna Group surveyed 3,012 U.S. adults to see how liberals and conservatives differ on matters of faith. Clck here to see what they discovered.

In Twitter news, more and more folks (researchers, marketers, etc) are using the micro-blogging service to get "an early glimpse into public sentiment - and even help them shape it." So there's something for us to consider: Twitter is a pretty spectacular (and free!) resource for audience analysis.

And now a word about Twitter's competition - Facebook. A recent study by doctoral candidate Aryn Karpinski (Ohio State University) and Adam Duberstein (Ohio Dominican University) found that "college students who use the 200 million?member social network have significantly lower grade-point averages (GPAs) than those who do not."

Did you hear about Doug White - the guy who safely landed an airplane after the real pilot died? Some folks are calling it an "Easter miracle." I'd say that might be going a little too far, but it's still a great story.

Last week, in an op-ed for the New York Times, Nicholas L. Kristof wrote about Humanity Even for Nonhumans. Here's the opening line to whet your appetite: "One of the historical election landmarks last year had nothing to do with race or the presidency. Rather, it had to do with pigs and chickens - and with overarching ideas about the limits of human dominion over other species." (HT: Koinonia, a blog hosted by Walter C. Kaiser Jr.)

In related news: Really, Honda?

Here's a nice story in the midst of all the Debbie Downer stories concerning debt: a Colorado couple was over $46,000 in the hole. Well, they just finished paying it all off. It took them a little over three and a half years to do it, but they did it. When they mailed the final check, they threw a party. I can't say I blame them.

Here's another interesting story concerning money: police recently arrested a Taiwanese man for throwing $30,000 out of taxi windows. He "caused disorder in the streets," officers said. I suspect he would cause disorder in every street in the world given the current economic climate.

And as Mother's Day quickly approaches (May 10), here's a rather sad story.