Speaking of food, the West Michigan Whitecaps - a minor league team affiliated with the Detroit Tigers - just added a new item to their ballpark menu: a "4-pound, $20 burger [that] features five beef patties, five slices of cheese, nearly a cup of chili, and liberal doses of salsa and corn chips, all on an 8-inch sesame-seed bun." For those keeping score at home, that adds up to 4,800 calories. Considering that men should average 2,500 calories a day, and women should average 2,000, Whitecaps fans should eat the burger?and then not eat for two days.

You really need to do something illustrative with this whole Twitter phenomenon. Consider these stunning statistics from a recent article on CNN.com: Twitter "saw a 1,374 percent jump in unique visitors between February 2008 and February this year, up to 7 million from only 475,000, according to Nielsen NetView. By comparison, Facebook grew 228 percent, to 65.7 million users, during the same period."

Can Second Life help teach doctors to treat patients? Well, sure. But I'm pretty sure it can't teach them everything. The real world (with its real human beings) is just a wee bit different than a virtual world (with its pixilated population).

Over on the Out of Ur blog, my friend and colleague, Skye Jethani, has started quite a conversation about how some have allowed the government to become a boogeyman of sorts.

This article says the current economic crisis is good for America, because it's laying the groundwork for the end of excess.

Here's another economy-related item: Some believe that desperate times call for adding taxes to just about everything. For example, one Las Vegas Democrat is pushing for a prostitution tax.

Here's an interesting study from the Department of Social Psychology and Behavioral Science Methodology of the University of Granada that examines how "media can subtly induce society to justify violence against women.

And while we're talking research, here are the results from a study on whether or not people think romance can last in long-term relationships.

Thick-skulled = Bad. Thick-brained = Good.