I could have been very happy as a geologist, I think.  The landscapes of places such as Hawaii and the American Southwest absolutely fascinate me, particularly reading them as (natural) history.     En route to Moab, we stopped off for a look over the Colorado River from Dead Horse Point.   Magnificent.  Breathtaking.   There weren’t many Americans there.  In my experience, Europeans love this sort of landscape.  We always run into Italians, Germans, British, French, and... Read more

    Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.  (Desmond Tutu)   Posted from Moab, Utah       Read more

    I have a niece who studies engineering at Duke University.   This summer, she and some of her fellow volunteers are serving in the Philippines on a project that they themselves designed, with Duke’s support and endorsement.  (Her mother is Filipina.)   I’m proud of her for doing this, and very pleased that she’s having this remarkable experience.  It won’t always be — it isn’t always — an entirely pleasant or comfortable one, but she’ll learn and profit from... Read more

    I got a kick out of Elder Ballard’s expression of gratitude to Sister Packer, at the funeral, for her role in convincing Elder Packer not to call his fellow apostles at 5 AM.   For the link, see here.   That suggests that my experience of getting a really early morning phone call from him wasn’t out of (his) character or unusual:   http://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson/2015/07/personal-encounters-with-elder-packer-part-3.html     Read more

    I regret that I was unable to attend or watch the funeral services for President Boyd K. Packer on Friday.  He has been a titanic presence in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for my entire adult life.   Fortunately, those services are online, and I intend to watch them when I get the chance.   Here’s another reminiscence of him:   The process of bringing what was then called the Foundation for Ancient Research and... Read more

    “Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.” Nelson Mandela Read more

    This is a really interesting topic, and a really interesting question:   https://medium.com/starts-with-a-bang/ask-ethan-96-is-the-multiverse-science-ecceb24fa2af     Read more

    This isn’t even remotely surprising — except perhaps in the lightning fast manner with which it’s occurring:   http://www.nationalreview.com/article/421025/religious-freedom-state-legislature   I had expected perhaps a few weeks of truce.   I was naïve.     Read more

    His is a truly great story:   http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/01/europe/nicholas-winton-obituary/index.html     Read more

    I enjoyed spending almost all of the day today up in the Park City area with an interesting little group that featured, among several others, Melissa Wei-Tsing Inouye, Charles Randall Paul, Scot and Maurine Proctor, Kristine Haglund, Terryl and Fiona Givens, Brian Birch, Matthew Bowman, Ralph Hancock, Juliann Reynolds, Phil Barlow, Neylan McBaine, Paul Reeve, and at least one of the Sistas in Zion.   Good people.  Good discussions.  A good day.  And it was in the mountains, too!     Read more