Sculpture on the head of a pin

Since I am so uncoordinated and my hands shake, I really appreciate people who can do very small things that require a lot of manual dexterity. Here is a modern example of the old tradition of minature sculptures. Link to sculpture gallery.

The artist is Willard Wigan. His work can be seen at the My Little Eye Gallery in London, across from the British Museum.

The Ninth Temple -- A Light in the Desert

The ninth temple: A light in the desert Mesa, Arizona, 1927 to 2002, seventy-five years by Evan T Peterson



A really good history of the Mesa, Arizona Temple.

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If I had a favorite...

It would include:



Not that it matters to anyone but me.

Collection of online resources for astronomers

Cnet News Webware had a recent article outlining several online resources aimed at the amateur astronomer (their characterization). In fact, there are a huge number of online resources, some of which can hardly be called amateur.

Interestingly, the list did not refer you to Astronomy.com, the Website for the Astronomy magazine. This site has news, video, blogs, podcasts, forums and a store. It also has a full star chart both free and a paid-for advanced.

The Astronomy Picture of the Day, from NASA. The site indicates that you can "Link to our main NASA site: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html. This main site is the first to update and the most likely to be up-to-date. (Here is an automatic backgrounder program for Windows that accesses the main site.)"

What about Sky and Telescope, another online Website from an old astronomy magazine.

The list could go on and on and probably will in future posts.

Fully 100% of Mormons Believe in God

A survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life about members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, found that, "Fully 100% [of Mormons] say they believe in God or a supreme being, which is higher than among any other religious group. Moreover, nine-in-ten Mormons (90%) are absolutely certain in this belief. A similar proportion (91%) sees God as a person with whom one can have a relationship. These numbers are considerably higher among Mormons than among the general population."

Some of the findings of the survey may be surprising. The above chart shows that more than "eight-in-ten (83%) Mormons say religion is very important in their lives, compared with 56% of the general population. On this measure, Mormons are similar to members of evangelical (79%) and historically black (85%) Protestant churches and Jehovah's Witnesses (86%)."

Another section of the survey showed that, "Almost all Mormons say they believe in life after death and that miracles still occur today as in ancient times (98% and 96%, respectively). Just as striking is the intensity with which they embrace these beliefs: 88% are absolutely certain of an afterlife, and 80% completely believe in miracles."

In typical fashion, the news media took an entirely different approach to the survey. In an article in the Deseret News, they said, "A new survey shows members of the LDS Church feel more threatened by Hollywood than do members of other faiths."

Another look at the survey also shows what we as Mormons all know, "Mormons are widely known for having large families and, indeed, about half of all Mormons (49%) have children under age 18 living at home, with one-in-five (21%) saying they have three or more children at home. Only Muslims are similarly likely to have large families: 47% of Muslims have at least one child living at home and 15% have three or more. Among the population overall, by contrast, only about a third (35%) have children who are minors living at home and just 9% have three or more."

Mormon Channel now on Facebook and Twitter

The Mormon Channel is now on Facebook and Twitter. You can receive the latest updates and share your thoughts and ideas with them.

The Feynman Lectures on Microsoft Research

Seven famous lectures given by Richard Feynman at Cornell University in 1964 are now completely available on the Microsoft Research Website as part of Project Tuva. Richard Feynman "was an American physicist known for the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics and the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, as well as work in particle physics (he proposed the parton model). For his contributions to the development of quantum electrodynamics, Feynman received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965, together with Julian Schwinger and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga." Wikipedia.

Project Tuva is an enhanced video player platform initially built by Microsoft Research to host The Messenger Lectures given at Cornell University by Richard Feynman in 1964 and recorded by the BBC. This was a collaborative effort between Bill Gates and Microsoft Research which is designed to demonstrate the abilities of enhanced video to teach people about the "core scientific concepts" of Feynman's lectures using interactive media. Wikipedia.