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Christian Nation Pew Research Center, Data Trends 11/1/06 Subscribe or Forward to a Friend
Reality Better? CR Online 11/9/06 Key Consumer Cultural Distinctives Target marketing 11/06 Less Certain CR Online 11/6/06 College Education Pays AP 10/26/06 India Newspapers Media Daily News 11/2/06 Market Research Advertising Age 7/17/06 Teen Childbearing USA Today 10/29/06 Virtual Love
Christiannet.com 10/06 Presidential Devos
From The Publishers Desk 10/06 God Talks
Religion News Service 10/24/06 Amazon Power
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We try to look smarter or more successful or more spiritual than we are. We try to answer questions we don’t understand. But it is a heavy burden, trying to be Superman when we’re grown up.
67% of Americans characterize the U.S. a Christian nation, down slightly from 71% in 3/06. In ’96, only 60% held this view. 
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A Parents Television Council (PTC) study finds reality shows are among the cleanest options on TV for children, in that many scripted shows contain high levels of sex, violence, and profanity. PTC labeled 6 of the top 20 shows “most suitable”: Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, NBC Sunday Night Football, Deal or No Deal, American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, and American Inventor. Rankings are based on the frequency and explicitness of foul language, sexual content, and violence along with consideration of time slot, target audience, themes, and plotlines. 
Consumers expect to control access to content (Internet) and play a bigger role in the development and sharing of information (MySpace). Yet their desire to be unique goes hand in hand with their need to be part of a community. 30 is the new 20: 30-somethings spent their 20s finding out what they want to spend their life doing. They’ve redefined the traditional process into adulthood. They’ve delayed marriage and childbearing, but it doesn’t mean they won’t do both. Retirement: Defied: Most boomers consider themselves 7 years younger than their true age. This group set out to change the world, so they do not expect to give up the driver’s seat just because they’re aging. 
The Harris poll finds an increase in Americans between ’03 and ’06 who are not “absolutely certain” God exists, from 34 % to 42 %. Those who are certain include 93% of born again Christians, 76% of Protestants, 64% of Catholics, and 30% of Jews. Just under a third, including more than half of born-agains, believe God has control over events on earth. 
A bachelor’s degree is worth about $23,000 a year, finds a Census Bureau report. College grad earnings averaged $51,554 in ‘04, the most recent data available, vs. $28,645 for adults with high school diplomas. High school dropouts earned just $19,169 and those with advanced degrees brought in $78,093. 
While U.S. publishing struggles for growth, it is astonishingly vibrant in India. According to a National Readership Studies Council survey, 203.6 million people there read a newspaper every day, up 6% this year. 
Want to know what consumers think? Go online. Internet-based questionnaires will account for nearly 33% of ’06 U.S. spending on market-research surveys, according to Inside Research. Marketers get their results quicker and cheaper. Because two-thirds of Americans age 15 and older now use the internet and the rapid adoption of broadband, there is a shift away from phone and mail research. Marketers have been able to cut costs 15%-20% by moving mail surveys online and about 30% by shifting from phone surveys to online.
Teen Childbearing has declined since the early 90s, but still cost U.S. taxpayers $9.1 billion in ‘04. Children of teen moms have higher health care, foster care, and incarceration costs than those of older parents, claims a National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy report. Teen births declined from 62 per 1,000 in ‘91 to 41 in ’04, primarily due to abstinence and contraception. The abortion rate dropped from 37 per 1,000 teen girls in ‘91 to 22 in ‘02, the most recent data available. Still, the U.S. teen birth rate is 4 to 5 times the rate in much of Europe and more than twice that of Canada. Compared with women who have a first child at 20 or 21, teen girls are more than twice as likely to have a child placed in foster care, to be reported for child abuse or neglect, and to have a son sent to prison. Their kids are far more likely to drop out of high school and their daughters to become teen mothers themselves. 
60% of respondents to a ChristiaNet.com poll said they would marry someone they met through a Christian singles site, if they knew it was the right person.
According to John Lind, President of the Presidential Prayer Team, President George W. Bush uses Experiencing God Day-by-Day by Henry and Richard Blackaby, B&H, for his personal daily devotions at the White House.
A new Beliefnet/Spiritual Cinema Circle survey finds 97% of people talk to God and 91% say God talks back in ways like the sound of their thoughts to mystical signs and revelations; from angelic visitations to visits with friends.
Jeff Bezos wants Amazon to run your business, at least the technical and logistical parts, using the technologies and operations that power the online store. He aims to transform Amazon into a kind of 21st century digital utility. It’s as if Wal-Mart decided to offer its supply chain and logistics systems to outsiders. Amazon is starting to rent out just about everything it uses to run its own business, from rack space in its 10 million square feet of warehouses to spare computing capacity, and data storage on its disk drives.