Although a tiny bit on the long side, this is a fascinating article, both on a human level and for the science and scientific history that can be learned from it:   http://mentalfloss.com/article/94569/clair-patterson-scientist-who-determined-age-earth-and-then-saved-it   It suggests — and, I suspect, was designed to suggest — certain obvious parallels to debates about contemporary issues such as anthropogenic global warming.  Of course, the science involved in such debates must be evaluated on its own merits, but the story told in this piece offers... Read more

    This short essay was written for the Huffington Post by Safi Kaskas, whom it was my privilege to meet and to help host for a few days when he and his wife Eman visited Utah earlier this year.  (See the blog entry that I wrote not long after their departure.)   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/59318216e4b00573ab57a2b5   Among other things, Safi Kaskas suggests that both Muslims and Christians have a bit more to learn about Islam.     Read more

    http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865681247/National-Geographic-posts-photo-essay-featuring-Mormon-life-in-Italy.html   Here’s the actual photo-essay itself:   “Mormoni d’Italia”   It’s refreshing and just a bit novel to have a piece like this come out of Europe that isn’t overwhelmingly cynical and sneering about the Saints and their beliefs.     Read more

    An article in the Deseret News from that newspaper’s extremely interesting young writer on film history:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865681071/From-6Wonder-Woman7-to-6Wonder-Woman7-Female-superhero-movies-and-TV-shows-through-the-decades.html   So far, Wonder Woman has been getting very good reviews from both critics and the public.  We’ll see whether that trend holds up.   There’ve been some really amusing other responses, too.  One of my sons tells me, for instance, that some have complained that Gal Gadot simply isn’t credible as a warrior.  After all, she’s an Israeli model.... Read more

      “In my many years, I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress.” Attributed to John Adams, second president of the United States                                   Read more

    Today, for the 254th consecutive week of its 255.5 weeks of existence, the Interpreter Foundation has published a new article in Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/understanding-jacobs-teachings-about-plural-marriage-from-a-law-of-moses-context/   Not bad, really.   And these articles, like virtually everything else that the Interpreter Foundation does, are prepared, published, and made available at no cost.   With that in mind . . .   I blush to mention it, but, well, despite the fact that the almost all of... Read more

    Rather dramatic:   “Enes Kanter’s Impossible Situation: ‘I Have No Choice but to Stand Up'”   I absolutely hate to see Turkey, a country for which I have great affection, going through this.     Read more

    Oy veh.  Thanks, I guess, to Nicol Sorenson-Legakis for alerting me to this:   Feminist researcher supports ‘combining intersectionality and quantum physics’   I think that I’m going to write an article about the Thai civil war of 1703-1709 tomorrow.   I know absolutely nothing about Thai history (though I do really like Thai food).  Heck, I don’t even know whether there was ever a Thai civil war.  Nor, if there was, when it happened.  (I made those... Read more

    http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865681185/African-Latter-day-Saints-witnessing-historic-moments.html     Read more

    This could be very useful to bishops and stake presidents and to various counselors and mental health professionals:   http://www.ldsliving.com/Groundbreaking-Study-Seeks-to-Support-Mormons-Experiencing-Same-Sex-Attraction/s/84662   I believe that it was Anne Palmieri who kindly brought it to my attention.     Read more