http://arstechnica.com/science/2015/10/could-dino-killing-asteroid-have-pumped-up-giant-volcanoes/   Posted from New York City     Read more

    The Smith family’s trust in Joseph came at a very high price. They moved with him from New York to Ohio to Missouri to Illinois, chased by mobs. Hyrum Smith, the Prophet’s older brother, followed him faithfully to a violent death at Carthage Jail. Lucy Mack Smith gives some sense of the sorrow that the family endured in her account of the day that the bodies of Joseph and Hyrum were brought back from Carthage to Nauvoo: After... Read more

    http://lds.net/blog/life/mormon-culture/service/lds-church-increases-aid-refugees-europe/?utm_source=lds.net+users&utm_campaign=572604ccb2-Week_43_Newsletter_Oct_01_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_608611419d-572604ccb2-86348953   Posted from New York City     Read more

      New York now leads the world’s great cities in the number of people around whom you shouldn’t make a sudden move. David Letterman   Posted from New York City   Read more

      Some of you are familiar with The World Table.   I’ve been slightly involved with it for some time now, on the periphery, and I actually announced it a few years ago at a FairMormon conference.   The World Table had a test rollout soon after that, but the unethical and hostile behavior and the personal malice of some of the posters — to say nothing of their unprincipled cunning — was far worse than the principal designers... Read more

    An interesting interview:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865637915/President-Nelson-reflects-on-being-an-Apostle-of-the-Lord-discusses-possible-announcement-of-3-new.html?pg=1   Posted from Rochester, New York   Read more

    This week’s Thursday Deseret News column is up:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865637975/Did-Joseph-Smith-take-the-easy-path.html   Posted from Victor, New York     Read more

    I’ve heard the claim, many times, that it’s Warren Jeffs and his FLDS church (and similar such offshoots) that have preserved the true legacy of nineteenth century Mormonism, whereas the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has “sold out.”  Such folks, it’s said, are the true heirs of Mormonism’s founders.   The polygamists themselves make that claim, of course, but I hear it most commonly from hostile unbelievers — who intend, by it, not to praise the... Read more

    Tensions continue to mount between resolutely Sunni Saudi Arabia and militantly Shi‘i Iran:   http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/30/middleeast/hajj-deaths-saudi-iran-yemen/index.html   This is not good, and, if nuclear weapons sprout up in the region, it will be very bad indeed.   Posted from Victor, New York     Read more

    Another indication of the Prophet’s sincerity is the striking fact that his own family manifestly believed him.[1] “The parents and all living brothers and sisters of Joseph Smith believed his account of his visions. In fact, the two grandparents still alive in 1830 also believed.”[2] For example, Joseph Smith Sr., the Prophet’s father, traveled two hundred miles—a significant and taxing journey in the frontier America of that period—to carry a copy of the Book of Mormon to his... Read more