In the past missionaries have traveled to far countries with the message of the gospel - with great hardship and often with the loss of life. In contrast we can reach millions instantly from the comfort of our homes by merely hitting the 'send' button on our computers or with iPads or phones.

But despite the universality of URLs we often forget that they're not just a handy way to address network resources. They're also valuable communication tools.

As everyone in Louisiana knows there was often no communication or coordination between the state and federal government in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Ideology and communication more often than not run into each other rather than complement each other. Principle and communication work together. Ideology and communication often work apart.

There are two barriers that often prevent communication between the young and their elders. The first is middle-aged forgetfulness of the fact that they themselves are no longer young. The second is youthful ignorance of the fact that the middle aged are still alive.

The two words 'information' and 'communication' are often used interchangeably but they signify quite different things. Information is giving out communication is getting through.

What creates freedom? A revolution in the streets? Mass protest? Civil war? A change of government? The ousting of the old guard and its replacement by the new? History more often than not shows that hopes raised by such events are often dashed sooner rather than later.

From year to year environmental changes are incremental and often barely register in our lives but from evolutionary or geological perspectives what is happening is explosive change.

As man sows so shall he reap. In works of fiction such men are sometimes converted. More often in real life they do not change their natures until they are converted into dust.

Human memory is a marvelous but fallacious instrument. The memories which lie within us are not carved in stone not only do they tend to become erased as the years go by but often they change or even increase by incorporating extraneous features.