Money can make people feel a lot of things. But according to a recent study, the mere act of counting money makes experiences less painful. University students who participated in this psychology study were separated into two groups. One group counted cash, while the other counted sheets of plain paper. Afterwards, both groups were instructed [...]
Posted on August 9th, 2009 by Ryan
Filed under: church, relationships (and money), societal concerns | 1 Comment »
Sometime before kindergarten, I learned the difference between boys and girls. Then, when I was in college, all of my sociology friends told me that my “social constructs” about the differences between boys and girls were incorrect. Not only were the wrong — they were also hurtful.
The very things that my preschool teachers [...]
Posted on June 10th, 2009 by Ryan
Filed under: brazen, societal concerns | 1 Comment »
“Oversized” passengers who cannot fit into their assigned seats will now be paying more on United Airlines flights, according to this NPR report. They’ll need to buy an extra ticket, upgrade, or refund their ticket.
Many folks — like the Canadians, whose airlines provide a free seat because they treat obesity like a medical issue — [...]
Posted on April 16th, 2009 by Ryan
Filed under: societal concerns | No Comments »
Remember that age-old Aesops fable, The Ant and The Grasshopper? The version I was told as a child depicted the Grasshopper singing and dancing during the lazy summer months, while the Ant fastidiously worked and stored away food. When winter came around, the Ant had food but the Grasshopper went hungry. Moral [...]
Posted on February 20th, 2009 by Ryan
Filed under: church, economic theory, societal concerns | No Comments »
Was I the only one surprised when President Obama mentioned nonbelievers in his list of religious “patchwork heritage”? In Obama’s inaugural address, he said,
For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and nonbelievers.
I’m very much accustomed to this [...]
Posted on January 20th, 2009 by Ryan
Filed under: diary worthy, societal concerns | 4 Comments »
Tonight’s conversation at the Ryan-Hayley household, as NPR explains that the current Bush administration has made it tough any Republican candidate and CNN projects Obama as the election winner.
Ryan (resignedly): Poor McCain. Bush has once again prevented him from becoming President.
Hayley (gleefully): What?!? Someone’s gotta be the loser.
Oh well… at least unemployment [...]
Posted on November 4th, 2008 by Ryan
Filed under: diary worthy, societal concerns | No Comments »
Did I ever tell you about my second blog? It’s titled “Ryan’s Tech Notes” and resides in the geeky Linux/Networking end of the blogosphere. I use this Tech Notes blog to jot down easy-to-forget details for work. My most popular posts include fascinating articles like “How to Zone a Brocade SAN Switch” and “How to [...]
Posted on November 4th, 2008 by Ryan
Filed under: brazen, diary worthy, societal concerns | 5 Comments »
The Wall Street Journal published a fascinating article last week, titled “The Mystery Worshipper“. Of course, you’ll need to flip past the doom-and-gloom headlines of the stock market free fall and the collapse Iceland’s financial system (the Icelandic krona ceased trading on the global currency market). This WSJ article takes us away from this global [...]
Posted on October 15th, 2008 by Ryan
Filed under: Christian tradition, church, economic theory, societal concerns | 3 Comments »
There’s a movement among church consultants to treat churches as a business. Personally, I disagree. But, who knows? I might be wrong. What if God intended churches to rival multinational corporations? Who’s to say that that my humble 60-attendee community church, MBCC, shouldn’t be vying for global notoriety like Microsoft, Starbucks, or AIG?
Since I’m not [...]
Posted on October 14th, 2008 by Ryan
Filed under: church, economic theory, societal concerns | 2 Comments »
We humans are capable of a very strange thing: revenge. We seek to inflict harm on others at a great cost to ourselves.
Revenge is a very peculiar behavior. Selfishness makes sense. So does altruism. But why would we choose to harm ourselves just to hurt another? Justice? Hatred? Heat-of-the-moment passion? Can there be a rational [...]
Posted on October 1st, 2008 by Ryan
Filed under: economic theory, societal concerns | 5 Comments »