Lin and Juan, both of whom were under 18 when they first met, became huge fans of massively multiplayer online games. But apparently they still had enough time for other facets of their relationship because they had children - which they ended up treating as a mere commodity. In 2009, authorities say the two came up with a plan to sell their kids because they "did not want to care for them."

Moreover, though, they needed the money to continue to pay for their online game addiction. The two regularly went to Internet cafes and would not only have to pay for their game subscriptions and in-game purchases, but also for the amount of time they spent online in the cafe.

They managed to raise about $10,000 from their child trafficking ring, and may have even gotten away with it but a family member learned of the illegal act and alerted the police.

Lin and Juan reportedly said they were unaware that selling children was illegal.

via TG Daily.

WHEN we think of the qualities we seek in visionary leaders, we think of intelligence, creativity, wisdom and charisma, but also the drive to succeed, a hunger for innovation, a willingness to challenge established ideas and practices. But in fact, the psychological profile of a compelling leader — think of tech pioneers like Jeff Bezos, Larry Ellison and Steven P. Jobs — is also that of the compulsive risk-taker, someone with a high degree of novelty-seeking behavior.  In short, what we seek in leaders is often the same kind of personality type that is found in addicts, whether they are dependent on gambling, alcohol, sex or drugs.

via NYTimes.com.

"The truth is that, like Graham Greene, my faith is sometimes that my faith will return. It's something I struggle with a lot," she revealed. "On any given moment if you asked me [if] I believe in life after death, I think if you polled me regularly through the week, I think I would come down on the side of yes — that I do believe in life after death. [But] it's something that I wrestle with a lot. It preoccupies me a lot, and I think that's very obvious within the books." That, by the author's own acknowledgement, "Harry Potter" deals extensively with Christian themes may be somewhat ironic, considering that many Christian leaders have denounced the series for glamorizing witchcraft. When he was known simply as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Pope himself condemned the books, writing that their "subtle seductions, which act unnoticed ... deeply distort Christianity in the soul before it can grow properly."

For her part, Rowling said she's proud to be on numerous banned-book lists. As for the protests of some believers? Well, she doesn't take them as gospel.

"I go to church myself," she declared. "I don't take any responsibility for the lunatic fringes of my own religion."

via MTV.

Lofton argues that Oprah Winfrey acts as an authoritative guide, someone with a script for living a good life, without condemnation or perceived dogma. Lofton says, “This is a religion for those who don’t want to be religious, but want to feel revelation.”

via Kathryn Lofton on the Religion of Oprah.

“The good news is you! You’re amazing.”

A Roman Catholic diocese made a $50 million cash offer to buy Southern California's financially struggling Crystal Cathedral, officials said Friday. The Catholic Diocese of Orange has joined the bidding to purchase the bankrupt Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Calif.

The Diocese of Orange said its proposal could pull the megachurch, which was founded more than 50 years ago by pioneering televangelist Rev. Robert H. Schuller, out of bankruptcy by the end of the year.

via USATODAY.com.

On April 21, 1884, a 28-year-old researcher in the field now called neuroscience sat down at the cluttered desk of his cramped room in Vienna General Hospital and composed a letter to his fiancée, Martha Bernays, telling her of his recent studies: “I have been reading about cocaine, the effective ingredient of coca leaves,” Sigmund Freud wrote, “which some Indian tribes chew in order to make themselves resistant to privation and fatigue.” Less than a month later, Freud was writing to Bernays about the many self-experiments in which he had swallowed various quantities of the drug, finding it useful in relieving brief episodes of depression and anxiety. Later, he described how “a small dose lifted me to the heights in a wonderful fashion. I am just now busy collecting the literature” — in German, French and English — “for a song of praise to this magical substance.”

That song of praise was “Über Coca,” a monograph published in July 1884...

via An Anatomy of Addiction - NYTimes.com.