Archive for Living
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Waiting periods on purchasing…anything
Our current economic recession has taught us one thing—if we screw up bad enough we can cry long enough until Washington will mortgage our futures to bail us out (and yes, both the Bush and Obama administrations are guilty of this). But if there’s one lesson we should have learned (but ...
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Losing half our friends every seven years
Here’s a story sure to cheer you up. Consider who are your closest friends. Got a mental image? Good. Now, consider that half of them will be replaced within the next seven years. No, this isn’t science fiction, but social science instead. Sociologist Gerald Mol...
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Moviegoers Bill of Rights
We all know that going to the theater to see a movie can be a pain these days. From crowded shopping complexes, high ticket prices, and limited parking, one can feel like it’s not even worth it before they get inside. But the true horror, for many, begins once they do venture into the thea...
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A day at the zoo
Growing up, one of my favorite family vacation activities was going to a zoo. We probably visited most of the big ones throughout the Midwest and South, and each offered unique joys with particular animal exhibits. We were a family who loved animals, and a zoo was a sort of Mecca. We...
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The dearth of Christian education among teens
For Christians there’s been an alarming trend in recent years as more and more young people turn away from the church. It isn’t a rapid conversion to Islam, Hinduism, or even lapse of faith to atheism. No, many young people simply leave the church and wander aimlessly with no reli...
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When a film is not safe for show and tell—no Milk for sixth graders
Okay, so there are probably lots of films that aren’t okay for elementary school show and tell. Kids probably shouldn’t be describing scenes from Saw, Silence of the Lambs, or True Romance. But what other content might be unacceptable? How about a film about a gay rights activist? O...
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When being a bigot is acceptable
If you ask why people are bigots, you’ll often get the answer because they are terrible, horrible, no good very bad people. Of course, many very good people are bigoted against a particular group or idea. They may spend most of their days taking meals to the homeless, but still harbor prej...
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Wii Fit versus EA Sports Active
Wii Fit may be far from the darling of the hardcore gaming crowd, but that hasn’t stopped it from being a hugely successful gamble on Nintendo’s part. With over 18 million in sales, Wii Fit has far exceeded anyone’s expectations in just a year on the market. It has essentially turned t...
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In a digital age, do we care about reality?
It’s a question science fiction has been asking for decades. If, at some point, fantasy could mimic reality to a flawless degree, would we care? Should we care? And unlike how much of science fiction predicted this question would come to a head through virtual reality or androids, it is ...
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Facebook, Plato’s Cave, and why I feel normal
There was a time when I resisted the lure of Facebook. I had already used MySpace and found it rather pointless. It was mostly just old high school and college friends wanting to “reconnect” long enough to see how many kids I have, and not much else. What was the point for a non-15-yea...
