Interesting study about whether sex and violence actually do help sell products. Apparently combining either sex or violence with product placement makes your ad less effective. Despite what Madison Avenue thinks. Will this lead to significant changes in the way ads are done? Perhaps. Although we’ll see. Inertia is a hard thing to kill.

According to the Deseret News:

MHA Best Book Award ($2000): Richard Bushman, Rough Stone Rolling

Smith-Pettit Best First Book Award ($1200): Robert S. Wicks and Fred R. Foister, Junius and Joseph: Presidential Politics and the Assassination of the First Mormon Prophet

Steven F. Christensen Award for Best Documentary/Bibliography ($1000): Devery S. Anderson and Gary James Bergera, Joseph Smith’s Quorum of the Anointed, 1842-1845: A Documentary History and The Nauvoo Endowment Companies, 1845-1846: A Documentary History

Turner-Bergera Award for Best Biography ($1000): Greg Prince and William Wright, David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism (more…)

Today, FARMS announced on its website that it would make two responses to The Bible vs. the Book of Mormon, a 66-minute documentary film produced by ”Living Hope Ministries,” available online in advance of their publication in the FARMS Review of Books. (more…)

Just over a month ago, I noted that USU’s Mountain West Center for Regional Studies, which describes itself as ‘a humanities outreach center in the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences,’” had announced the 2005 winners of its Evans Biography Award and Handcart Award.  The Evans Biography Award went to Richard Bushman’s biography of Joseph Smith, Rough Stone Rolling, and the Handcart Award went to Gregory Prince and Wm. Robert Wright’s biography of David O. McKay, David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism.

This Friday evening, the Mormon History Association will be announcing its 2006 award winners at its annual meeting in Casper, Wyoming, including the MHA Best Book Award, the Smith-Pettit Best First Book Award, the Steven F. Christensen Award for Best Documentary/Bibliography, the Ella Larsen Turner-Ella Ruth Turner Bergera Award for Best Biography, the J. Talmage Jones Awards of Excellence (”[a]warded for the two outstanding published articles on Mormon history”), and the T. Edgar Lyon Award for Best Article of the Year. (more…)

Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor and author of Night, among other works, will be in Utah delivering the Tanner Lecture on Human Values at Snow College in Ephraim tonight, May 22 at 7:00 p.m. (more…)

Well it took too long and was a huge headache, but I managed to do my duty and create this week’s Mormon Archipelago podcast for y’all. It’s my first podcast so don’t be surprised if there are a few technical glitches. But with such good content to pull from I figure of few pops and cracks can be over looked. You can

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. Or subscribe to the iTunes feed here.

This week we have the following posts:

Market, Most Holy by Amri at BCC and read by her co-blogger Elisabeth

Whassup with that “one-third the hosts of heaven” stuff? by Mogget at FPR was on tap but the blog was down when I went to read it. You can check it out online anyway.

God, Agency and Me? by Don at Nine Moons as read by Rusty

Why the idea of permanent judgment is a crock which is my response post at New Cool Thang to Don.

I hope you enjoy!