CHICAGO, IL (September 1, 2017) — 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 Tater Tot Is American Ingenuity at Its Finest
Some brothers with an agriculture food company realized there was a lot of waste going into cow feed or being otherwise discarded. They decided that what was considered unusable could be transformed into something wonderful. There is a sermon illustration in there somewhere.
From the article: “So they got creative, smashed those bits together with some new machinery, blanched, formed, cooked in oil, and froze what would become their company’s namesake. The original plan, according to Grigg’s papers, was for the tots to be fried, but later home chefs realized they tasted just as good baked, and Ore-Ida changed its branding. Some brilliant man on the research committee—who according to Nephi’s notes ‘traveled the markets playing a ukelele and demonstrating our product’ but whose name is lost to history—came up with the name with the help of a thesaurus and an affinity for alliteration, and the Tater Tot was off to the races.
Playing Board Games Can Make You a Better Person
This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of Gen Con, an annual gaming conference held in Indianapolis each summer, and one of the big draws is board games. It turns out that board games not only may make you a better person, they just might be able to help heal the soul.
From the article: “Another significant feature of board games is that they require several people to sit down in the same room together and concentrate on a shared experience in real time. That is becoming increasingly rare in a world in which we often see our friends and loved ones more on social media than in real life.”
I Can’t Watch Football Anymore
The number of people who say they can no longer watch football with a clean conscience is rapidly increasing. This columnist says there are good reasons Russian roulette never became a mass spectator sport.
From the article: “Remaining a fan means trying to forget that some of the players I watch will become demented and die prematurely simply because they played. It means acting as though my entertainment is worth the sacrifice of their fragile brains.”
Is Minimum Wage a Good Thing?
Proponents on either side of the minimum wage debate like to vilify those who disagree with them. This article makes clear how complicated the issue really is. Discerning truth can be difficult. The process can either bring people together or tear them apart.
From the article: “Wading through assessments of the impact of the minimum wage is a dizzying experience. For every study by respected economists that clearly shows harmful effects, there is another that shows the exact opposite. In the case of the recent Seattle study, there was another study that came out around the same time that suggested the increase didn’t impact employment at all. All economists seem to agree on is that there is some limit to how high the minimum wage can go without causing serious damage—besides that, it’s hard to know what to believe.”
Selling or Importing Plastic Bags in Kenya Could Cost You Your Freedom
Kenya has instituted one of the world’s toughest bans on plastic bags. Violating the ban could cost you up to $19,000 in fines and four years in jail.
From the article: “Worldwide, plastic bags contribute to eight million tons of plastic that leak into the ocean every year, according to the United Nations Environment Program. ‘At current rates, by 2050, there will be more plastic in the oceans than fish, wreaking havoc on marine fisheries, wildlife and tourism,’ the program said in a statement when Kenya’s ban was announced in March.”
