A potentially fascinating discovery:   “What does Mars’ lake mean for the search for life on the Red Planet?  The water body, if confirmed, could potentially harbor microbes”   It seems somehow inappropriate to call it “earth-shattering.”   Along related lines, what about this piece?   “How to Grow Crops on Mars”   ***   And now for something completely different:   “Hunt for dark matter turns to ancient minerals: Kilometres beneath Earth’s surface, some minerals could bear the... Read more

    As we waited in line for the ferry from Mill Bay to Brentwood Bay this afternoon, we watched as an elderly gentleman from the car in line behind us got out and began to pick wild blackberries from the bushes along the road.  After he had a cup full of them, he started to walk past us toward his vehicle.  “Are they sweet?” my wife asked.   Those were pretty much the last words that she spoke for... Read more

    This is the sixth installment of an article that I wrote for Richard C. Martin, et al., eds.,  Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World, 2 vols. (New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2004), on the subject of “Muslim Identity”:   Among the Arabs The Young Ottoman thinker Namik Kemal argued that separatist movements would not arise among the empire’s diverse ethnic groups because they were too intermingled to be able to form viable states.  The only possible exception to... Read more

    We’re just back from several hours of whale watching out of Tofino, on the western coast of Vancouver Island.  There was a fair amount of fog, but we still managed to see otters and a couple of bald eagles.  Mostly, though, we followed a grazing gray whale for a considerable distance, getting several very good views.   That whale watching, followed by an excellent meal at The Schooner in Tofino, is the reason that I’m late in calling... Read more

    Here’s a fifth installment from an article that I wrote for Richard C. Martin, et al., eds.,  Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World, 2 vols. (New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2004), on the subject of “Muslim Identity”:   A disastrous war with Russia nearly ended the Ottoman state in 1877, and the difficult negotiations that ensued continued until 1882.  Ultimately, the Ottomans surrendered large territories to Russia, the Balkan states, and other powers.  These territorial losses, which cost... Read more

    “Doctors and their medicines I regard as a deadly bane to any community. . . . I am not very partial to doctors. . . . I can see no use for them unless it is to raise grain or go to mechanical work.”  (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 4:109 [3 August 1869])   A few days ago, I posted something in which I briefly defended Brigham Young’s negative comments about doctors and medicine, which, I said, made... Read more

    The latest installment of my now bi-weekly column in the Deseret News has appeared.  I’m actually a bit late in calling attention to it — which I regret, because it’s slightly time-sensitive.  But life interferes, sometimes.  Anyway, here’s a link:   “A feast to learn about the Restoration”   I hope that you can make it.   ***   This has, perhaps, not been an especially good day for partisans of the Heartland model of Book of Mormon... Read more

    Here’s a fourth portion of an article that I wrote for Richard C. Martin, et al., eds.,  Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World, 2 vols. (New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2004), on the subject of “Muslim Identity”:   In partial reaction, the Ottoman government attempted to establish “Ottomanism” as the legal basis of the empire—as reflected, for example, in the law of nationality and citizenship promulgated in 1869 and the Constitution of 1876.  The related concept of hubb... Read more

    James Hannam earned a bachelor’s degree in physics at Oxford University and followed that up with a Ph.D. in the history of science from the University of Cambridge.  In his book The Genesis of Science: How the Christian Middle Ages Launched the Scientific Revolution (Washington DC: Henry Regnery, 2011), Dr. Hannam contends that the European Middle Ages, contrary to the views of many and the anti-Christian agendas of some, were not intellectually or scientifically barren and that the Renaissance was not... Read more

    I continue to be struck by a quotation from then-Elder Russell M. Nelson that was, I believe, cited in the September 2014 issue of the Ensign:   “We were born to die and we die to live,” he wrote back in 1992.  “As seedlings of God, we barely blossom on earth; we fully flower in heaven.”   This is one of the great arguments for the desirability of life after death.  Not for its truth, of course — it’s... Read more