These developments, if they continue, could be very interesting and could have large consequences:   http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21719438-about-change-findings-medical-research-are-disseminated-too   I was struck, too, by this particular passage in the article, referring to the open publishing procedure at arXiv:   It does not provide formal peer review, but physicists are not shy of criticising the work of others, so a lot of informal (and un-anonymous) feedback can accumulate rapidly. This potential flak is a deterrent to publishing half-baked work.   Some... Read more

    “It is almost impossible to write fiction about the Mormons, for the reason that Mormon institutions and Mormon society are so peculiar that they call for constant explanation.”  Wallace Stegner, Mormon Country       Read more

    Last night, I finished reading a nice collection of accounts, edited by Janiece Johnson and Jenny Reeder, titled The Witness of Women.  It’s an enjoyable book, containing testimonies and accounts from Mormon women, mostly of the nineteenth century.  These are voices that are often overlooked but shouldn’t be.  (It’s astonishing, by the way, that I hold that view, since, according to several anonymous online critics, I’m profoundly misogynistic.  I’ll leave that paradox for others to figure out, I... Read more

    A few of the people who comment on my blog (particularly via my Facebook page) seem quite often, frankly, to be consumed with fear, anger, and/or even hatred.  It can be more than a little bit discouraging.   Having noticed that, I think, Doug Ealy kindly brought this helpful, hopeful, little essay to my attention:   http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/choosing-good-news?__prclt=YGbEdfto     Read more

        Five years ago this morning, I received the shocking and utterly unexpected news that my brother — strictly speaking, my half-brother — my only sibling, to whom I was very close, had died.   I was devastated.  I still think of him, and I still miss him.  Every day.   I’ve made it my practice, on this blog, to post something about him (typically, as here, my hastily composed and inadequate remarks at his funeral in South Pasadena,... Read more

    A radicalized British-born Muslim attacks people on or near Westminster Bridge in London, killing three of them and being himself killed by police.   According to at least one of my readers, this confirms the need for much more extensive vetting of refugees, if not outright barring them from entry, and demonstrates that Muslims in general pose a serious threat to all Americans.   I quote from one article about the tragic incident:   Labour Party lawmaker Khalid Mahmood,... Read more

    The title of the article to which I link below points to a fact with considerable ramifications for the integrity of psychology in particular and, perhaps, that of science more generally.   There has been considerable controversy over recent years about the realization that too many psychological and other research findings can’t be replicated — which likely means that their methodology was flawed, that their analysis was sloppy, or, even, that their data or results were forged.  ... Read more

    This brings it home a bit, makes it personal:  One of the four people killed by the assailant was a Utah man, Kurt Cochran, who was in London with his wife to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary and to visit her parents, who have been serving as missionaries in England for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865676257/Utah-man-killed-wife-injured-in-London-terror-attack.html   By the way, another of the victims was a mother by the name of Aysha Frade,... Read more

    Another typically hateful, ad hominem screed.  My newest Deseret News column is up:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865676233/Remembering-the-First-Vision.html       Read more

    One of my very favorite people passed away early yesterday afternoon.  He was in his ninety-eighth year.   George Bennion was — is — a true original.  Bluntly honest.  Tough but kind.  Cynically believing.  Funny.  Opinionated.  Widely read and always interesting.  Without a trace of pretense or fakery.  A wonderful writer.  Owner of a refreshingly spare prose.  A marvelous conversationalist.  A college literature teacher, a skilled craftsman, a hardworking construction worker, a fan of the ancient Greeks.  Slave to... Read more