Friday Free-for-All: January 28

Good morning! Time for a few Friday links to get the day rolling:

• Protests against the president in Egypt are heating up — and so is the pushback from the government and police. There are reports now of Internet and cell connections being cut off (social media sites being one of the only reliable ways to organize and spread news on the ground).
• NASA commemorates the 25th anniversary of the Challenger explosion today. People in their 30s may particularly remember that day, as many students watched the tragedy unfold on live TV during school. Do you remember where you were when it happened?

Orthodox. Faithful. Free.

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• A big milestone in e-publishing: Kindle e-book sales have officially passed paperback sales on Amazon.
• Good news for Brian and his Colt 45: In addition to making you live longer, alcohol doesn’t actually kill brain cells.
• The strangest buildings in the world. I’ll take one of those low-impact woodland homes…
• Ralph McInerny, one of the original founders of Crisis Magazine, passed away a year ago tomorrow. Christopher Kaczor remembers his professor.
• I am an unabashed fan of the NPR program This American Life; Ira Glass (and company) can make stories on just about anything endlessly fascinating. Now, in a four-part video series, Glass breaks down the art of storytelling. In part one below, he explains the basic building blocks of a good story — and how they aren’t what you learned in school.