Links: 9/8

I promise to return with a few more collected memories from Italy shortly. In the meantime…

1) Money does grow on trees: An amateur experiment involves 100 $1 bills tied to a tree. See what people do.

2) Crazy Pastor: One Florida pastor, Terry Jones, has gained lots of attention for his “Burn a Koran” day. The New York Times blog examines the whole story.

3) Under Pressure for a Baseball Player: Shin-Soo Choo, who plays for the Korean national team, has a lot of pressure on his shoulders. He must lead his team to victory in November’s Asian Games or come back and serve in the army for two years.

4) See Mom, Don’t Worry…About That: NPR has an interesting list about the top five worries parents have and the top five worries they actually should have when it comes to the safety of their children.

5) Tweet to Safety: A Japanese reporter held hostage in Afghanistan was able to trick his captors into letting him tweet. Both messages appeared on his Twitter feed and, coincidentally, he was released the next day.

6) Outer Space: One astronaut’s best shots taken from outer space.

7) Bieber-mania: This is a scary statistic.