Author: rcragun
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Powerpoints
I’m not sure if anyone will be interested in these, but over the last couple of years I’ve put together a few powerpoint presentations that others may find useful. I’ve uploaded them all to a website that lets others view them online and download them. I’ve prepared presentations on each of the following books: Guns,…
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scientific illiteracy
I’ve had this post sitting around for a while as a draft and finally have a few minutes to develop it into a full post. So, here goes… Periodically you hear about how scientifically illiterate Americans are. A recent Harris Poll found the following: Only 53% of adults know how long it takes for the…
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intriguing news items
I haven’t posted news articles in a while, but these two struck me as noteworthy. First, turns out the regulations of European countries during good economic times seem to have sheltered them from the current economic storm. Huh… I’m sure the greedy capitalist assholes who got us into this mess aren’t very happy about this…
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species-goals
Karl Marx called the primary purpose of human existence “species-being.” What he meant by that is that humans only realize their purpose in life by feeling attached to the products they produce. Of course, Marx was writing in light of capitalism and argued that capitalism alienates workers from their products (particularly proletarians). Regardless of your…
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Debi returns; someone packages my work and sells a book with my name on it
Debi just returned to Florida from a weekend visit to Utah for a baby shower. She very much enjoyed the trip and the shower and loved seeing everyone. Lucky her, she returned when I was about half way through redoing our spare bathroom. We redid our master bathroom over our winter break. The spare bathroom…
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The Boston Globe calling…
I received an email from Michael Paulson, a religion reporter for The Boston Globe, yesterday asking me if I had time to talk about a new study coming out today. The study is the latest wave of the American Religious Identification Survey. Having worked with the principal investigators – Barry Kosmin and Ariela Keysar –…
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belly vs. legs
Our conversation as Debi got out of the shower this morning: Debi: When I look down I can’t see my legs. Ryan: Your legs are gone? Did someone steal your legs? Did they go invisible? Debi: I know they’re there; I’m standing on them. I had to beg Debi to let me post this. She…
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new publication – Fighting Over “Mormon”
An article I co-authored with Michael Nielsen just came out in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. It takes a look at some claims made by the LDS Church concerning the coverage of the FLDS raid in Texas last year. If you’re interested in more details, let me know.
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Tim Minchin, ladies and gentlemen
TimMinchin.com (courtesy of the SGU)
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never underestimate the power of the human libido
As I was walking into my building today, a recurring thought hit me, one that was spurred by the opening scenes to the movie Amelie a few years back: Just how many people are having sex around the world at any given point in time? Yeah, so, I’m weird, big deal! This didn’t occur out…