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21:50
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Cultural Commentary
With all of the evidence out there regarding the dire need for health care reform, I find it extremely distressing that pundits, certain corporate interests, some politicians, and a portion of our misguided public seem to be having their way ...
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18:27
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Cultural Commentary
a href="http://www2.ljworld.com/stories/2010/jan/29/diabetes-kansas-pending-tidal-wave/"Diabetes in Kansas: A pending tidal wave/anbsp; by Christine Metz, Lawrence Journal Worldbr /
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em"The number is so large — $174 billion — that if what Americans spend on diabetes were a country, its economy would rank ...
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18:26
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Cultural Commentary
a href="http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2010/jan/30/saveourschools/"Sending out an S.O.S/a.: Save Our Schools exhibit set up to help prevent New York, Cordley from closure - Lawrence, KSbr /
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Our neighborhood schools are part of our local identities, helping to bind us together - ...
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6:01
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Cultural Commentary
strong"Creation: The good, the bad, and the ugly/strongbr /
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A new movie about Charles Darwin's life and work struggles for distribution in the US, where many refuse to subscribe to the theory of evolutionbr /
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[Published ...
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5:50
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Cultural Commentary
Listen to Fresh Air w/ Terry Gross' show from Jan. 20, "a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122763122"Courting Attention: Covering Calif.'s Marriage Trial/a" for an overview of the federal court case challenging California's Proposition 8.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/22976759-9172735992338451963?l=culturalcommentary.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/tW_SnaQPSPQ92oLBEPGJYZWvmXg/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/tW_SnaQPSPQ92oLBEPGJYZWvmXg/0/di" border="0" ...
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7:10
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Cultural Commentary
In light of what is going on with Proposition 8 in California, a little perspective on the history of marriage is in order. The article I wrote below was originally published in the now defunct Albuquerque Tribune on April 8th, ...
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17:11
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Cultural Commentary
a href="http://www.blackinthecity.net/index.php"BlackintheCity.net/a Commentary (The Murphy Report has been changed to BlackintheCity.net):br /br /-------------------------------------------br /br /A small boy bounces around in his booth at some nameless fast food restaurant that could be anywhere in the US, for that matter anywhere throughout ...
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20:31
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Cultural Commentary
a href="http://www.murphyreport.com/"Murphy Report /aCommentary:br /br /--------------------------------------------------br /br /President Bush and many socially conservative Republicans were at it again this last week, out on the front lines protecting the institution of marriage from renegade activist judges. But the proposed constitutional amendment ...
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20:27
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Cultural Commentary
a href="http://www.murphyreport.com"Murphy Report/a commentary:br /br /------------------------------------------br /br /As if waiting before the very gates of hell, the little preschooler stands rooted in front of the toilet stall in a nameless public restroom that could be anywhere in the states. His ...
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4:32
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Cultural Commentary
Another of my commentaries from the a href="http://www.murphyreport.com/"Murphy Report/a.br /br /div align="center"--------------------------------------------------------/divbr /While only a minor blip on the radar screen of most Americans, there was a major shakeup of about 8.8 in the world of the social sciences last ...
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5:32
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Cultural Commentary
Another of my columns from the a href="http://www.murphyreport.com"Murphy Report/a.br /br /div align="center"--------------------------------------/divbr /Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,br /With the cross of Jesus going on before.br /Christ, the royal Master, leads against the foe;br /Forward into battle see His ...
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4:17
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Cultural Commentary
I recently started writing a column for the a href="http://www.murphyreport.com"Murphy Report/a. The following is the first paragraph from my first column.br /br /The great irony of Intelligent Design is that its success and development as an intellectual tradition can be ...
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12:21
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Cultural Commentary
The following is an Act for Change update. Whether you take any action or not, definitely check out the video of Colbert's performance - it's a biting commentary on the Bush administration and the media's half hearted attempts to hold ...
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21:41
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Cultural Commentary
The April 7th Lawrence Journal-World story entitled “a href="http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2006/apr/07/bill_aims_rid_schools_junk_food_options/?education"Bill aims to rid schools of junk food options/a” discusses the problems of junk food in our nation's schools and the recently introduced federal legislation intended to update the nutrition standards for ...
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13:44
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Cultural Commentary
On the one hand we have a former president for whom impeachment proceedings were instigated as a result of his sexual indiscretion within the walls of the White House. On the other hand we have a sitting president for whom ...
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8:42
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Cultural Commentary
And again we have a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/04/060404090204.htm"more research results /ademonstrating differing brain operations between men and women. UC Irvine researchers have reported findings that show the amygdala, a part of the brain "involved in processing emotionally influenced memories," behaves differently in ...
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20:36
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Cultural Commentary
a href="http://www.livescience.com/"Livescience/a has a sobering a href="http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/060405_virtual_pandemic.html"summary of a US avian flu pandemic simulation /athat has the flu infecting the entire continental US after only 90 days (starting with 10 highly infectious influenza cases in Los Angeles). In addition to ...
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20:43
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Cultural Commentary
As a sequel to my earlier March 11 post, a href="http://culturalcommentary.blogspot.com/2006/03/toilets-of-terror.html"emToilets of Terror/em/a, I noticed that today's Sunday Comics (April 2) has Opus facing a seemingly possessed public toilet with an automatic flush valve. The majority of the frames depict ...
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7:26
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Cultural Commentary
"See a need. Fill a need."br /br /This was a catch phrase from the hit animated movie emRobots/em, referring to what inventors do at their most basic level. And this is precisely what Sanford Ponder, founder of a href="http://www.icosavillage.net/"Icosa Village ...
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21:54
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Cultural Commentary
"I'm also not very analytical. You know, I don't spend a lot of time thinking about myself, about why I do things."br /br / - emGeorge W. Bush aboard Air Force One; June 4, 2003/embr /br /I received one of ...
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9:28
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Cultural Commentary
With only two months to go before a hurricane season that the director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami has a href="http://www.livescience.com/forcesofnature/060330_ap_strong_hurricane.html"said will likely be stronger than average/a, the a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/30/AR2006033001912.html?nav=rss_email/components"Bush administration is now saying/a there may not be ...
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6:17
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Cultural Commentary
Mayo clinic researcher Dr James Levine has come up with what I think is a brilliantly clever strategy for fighting childhood obesity - designing an a href="http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2006/mar/29/fidgeting_tested_fitness_tool/?education"experimental classroom/a in Rochester, MN to take advantage of a child's seemingly "natural state" ...
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21:10
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Cultural Commentary
A while back I got into a discussion with a few archaeologists as to what other general terms could be used in place of the phrase "built environment." These particular archaeologists (myself included) subscribe to one of the discipline's multitude ...
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21:38
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Cultural Commentary
Kevin Phillips is making the media rounds promoting his book "American Theocracy" and you can hear one of his stops with Terry Gross a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5290373"here/a. I have yet to read it, but I've put this expose of "radical religion, oil, ...
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6:54
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Cultural Commentary
As an anthropologist, engineer, and all around geek, it doesn't get a lot better than this:br /br /a href="http://www.livescience.com/history/060324_cathedral_tool.html"Yoda Helps Unlock Cathedral Mysteries/abr /br /Here we have the use of computer animation and structural analysis to 1) de-mystify certain design/construction ...
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14:34
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Cultural Commentary
The carrying of concealed guns will now be legal in the state of Kansas after the a href="http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2006/mar/24/concealed_guns_approved/?kansas_legislature"House and Senate both overrode Governor Sebelius' veto/a. Though I'm not an anti-gun activist, I tend to be critical of our nation's love ...
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13:17
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Cultural Commentary
The Associated Press a href="http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2006/mar/23/opposition_dropping_gay_marriage/?politics"reports/a that the American public's opposition to gay marriage is dropping. It's inevitable that the definition of marriage will change over time, as this is the norm for cultural phenomena.br /br /See an earlier post of ...
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5:15
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Cultural Commentary
"Present policies are set to damage a whole generation of young research workers, and the negative impact on recruitment of the next generation of scientists will be seen for years to come."br /br /This is the last line out the ...
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20:29
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Cultural Commentary
Our illustrious Kansas State Board of Education is at it again - that is, the socially conservative, ideologically driven majority members. On Wednesday (3/15/06), the majority approved a requirement that schools would need to obtain parental permission before receiving any ...
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20:08
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Cultural Commentary
I knew the welcome would come, but it was still a heart pounding surprise nonetheless. After moving back to Kansas three months ago (after an absence of about 13 years), I was awaiting with some trepidation the greeting I would ...
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16:25
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Cultural Commentary
My four year old is afraid of toilets with automatic flush valves - you know those little black cylindrical pieces of technology attached to toilets and urinals that are SUPPOSE to sense when you back away a certain distance and ...