I’m so embarrassed.  Here, I thought that I was posting from Honolulu.  But now I begin to wonder whether I’m actually in Nome, Alaska, or in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Siberia.  (It’s really difficult to tell them apart these days, a decade after the debut of An Inconvenient Truth.)   http://dailycaller.com/2016/05/03/an-inconvenient-review-after-10-years-al-gores-film-is-still-alarmingly-inaccurate/   Posted from Honolulu, Hawaii?     Read more

    The odds are pretty good that you haven’t heard about this devastating humanitarian crisis:   http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/07/10/536440875/suspected-cholera-cases-pass-300-000-in-yemen-red-cross-says   See also “Yemen: War in the time of cholera.”   If you want to help, donations to the organizations mentioned in the articles (e.g., the Red Cross and UNICEF) would not be amiss.   And donations to LDS Charities are always appropriate.  I can’t tell if they’re active right now in Yemen or not, but they do a lot of good... Read more

    The gay-rights activist Fred Karger continues to pursue his rather bizarre vendetta against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.   This time, he’s doing it in Hawaii, and he’s enlisted the aid of Dawn Wasson, who appears to be a nominally-LDS Hawaiian nationalist of some sort, a militant activist for Hawaiian independence from the United States:   http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/35863952/new-hawaii-commercial-targets-mormon-church-asks-for-tips-of-potential-tax-fraud   Posted from Honolulu, Hawaii     Read more

    Technology typically follows science.  In many cases, though — such as this one — new technology makes new scientific advances possible:   https://www.space.com/37448-superdense-extraterrestrial-ice-formed-laser-flash.html   Posted from Honolulu, Hawaii     Read more

    Nobody who’s paid much attention to this blog for any length of time will mistake me for an enthusiastic fan of Donald J. Trump.  I am, as I’ve been at pains to point out, a serious political conservative with libertarian leanings, and he’s . . .  well, let’s leave it at that.   But I also don’t suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome.   For instance, I really like his Supreme Court appointment, Judge Gorsuch.  And Mr. Trump has recruited,... Read more

    “How much time he gains who does not look to see what his neighbour says or does or thinks, but only at what he does himself, to make it just and holy.”  Marcus Aurelius, Meditations   Posted from Honolulu, Hawaii     Read more

    A few days ago, somebody threw the study referred to here in my face, as further proof of the evils of religion:   http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/11/09/skewed-study-claims-atheist-children-altruistic-religious-children/   Since the sudden, premature death of Andrew Breitbart, which led to the eventual emergence of Breitbart News as the Trumpist equivalent of L’Osservatore Romano, I haven’t exactly been a fan.  But Dr. Thomas Williams shouldn’t necessarily be held responsible for the sins of Steve Bannon and the alt-right.   And, anyway, see also this little... Read more

    There is genuinely very much to think about regarding our new, atomized, technologically-facilitated world:   http://www.tmatt.net/columns/2017/7/5/a-decade-later-the-omnipresent-iphone-shapes-lives-families-and-even-souls   The iPhone and its like have brought a great deal of good to us, and I wouldn’t want to do without such things, but  . . .   Posted from Honolulu, Hawaii     Read more

    I’ve been to Ireland, but, alas, I’ve never been to Newgrange:   http://www.cnn.com/travel/article/newgrange-ireland-stone-age/?iid=ob_homepage_deskrecommended_pool   It’s on my bucket list, though.  Even if I don’t manage to land one of those sixty special tickets.  It’s a must-see that I haven’t seen.             Read more

    I’ve been to Ireland, but, alas, I’ve never been to Newgrange:   http://www.cnn.com/travel/article/newgrange-ireland-stone-age/?iid=ob_homepage_deskrecommended_pool   It’s on my bucket list, though.  Even if I don’t manage to land one of those sixty special tickets.  It’s a must-see that I haven’t seen.   Posted from Honolulu, Hawaii     Read more