Article: Can A Biologist Fix A Radio?

J. & T.,

You might enjoy this short article by a microbiologist on the difficulties involved in making scientific progress in understanding complex phenomena like apoptosis--or a radio. It's quite readable, takes maybe ten minutes to finish.

Can A Biologist Fix A Radio?

[snip] How would we begin? First, we would secure funds to obtain a large supply of identical functioning radios in order to dissect and compare them to the one that is broken. We would eventually find how to open the radios and will find objects of various shape, color, and size (Fig. 2, see color insert). We would describe and classify them into families according to their appearance. We would describe a family of square metal objects, a family of round brightly colored objects with two legs, round-shaped objects with three legs and so on. Because the objects would vary in color, we will investigate whether changing the colors affects the radio's performance. Although changing the colors would have only attenuating effects (the music is still playing but a trained ear of some people can discern some distortion), this approach will produce many publications and result in a lively debate.

A more successful approach will be to remove components one at a time or to use a variation of the method, in which a radio is shot at a close range with metal particles. In the latter case, radios that malfunction (have a "phenotype") are selected to identify the component whose damage causes the phenotype. Although removing some components will have only an attenuating effect, a lucky postdoc will accidentally find a wire whose deficiency will stop the music completely. The jubilant fellow will name the wire Serendipitously Recovered Component (SRC) and then find that SRC is required because it is the only link between a long extendable object and the rest of the radio. The object will be appropriately named the Most Important Component (MIC) of the radio. A series of studies will definitively establish that MIC should be made of metal and the longer the object is the better, which would provide an evolutionary explanation for the finding that the object is extendable. [snip]

-M.

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"When people are married, instead of trying to get rid of each other, reflect that you have made your choice, and strive to honour and keep it." --Brigham Young

If you're so evil, eat this kitten!

Theory and practice

Jenny,

You might find this article interesting. It's on commercializing a research tool for static analysis of software, and the surprising differences between academic requirements and commercial requirements. The article took me around a half-hour, and the whole thing was worth reading.

-Max

This is the research context. We now describe the commercial context. Our rough view of the technical challenges of commercialization was that given that the tool would regularly handle "large amounts" of "real" code, we needed only a pretty box; the rest was a business issue. This view was naïve. While we include many examples of unexpected obstacles here, they devolve mainly from consequences of two main dynamics:

First, in the research lab a few people check a few code bases; in reality many check many. The problems that show up when thousands of programmers use a tool to check hundreds (or even thousands) of code bases do not show up when you and your co-authors check only a few. The result of summing many independent random variables? A Gaussian distribution, most of it not on the points you saw and adapted to in the lab. Furthermore, Gaussian distributions have tails. As the number of samples grows, so, too, does the absolute number of points several standard deviations from the mean. The unusual starts to occur with increasing frequency.

For code, these features include problematic idioms, the types of false positives encountered, the distance of a dialect from a language standard, and the way the build works. For developers, variations appear in raw ability, knowledge, the amount they care about bugs, false positives, and the types of both. A given company won't deviate in all these features but, given the number of features to choose from, often includes at least one weird oddity. Weird is not good. Tools want expected. Expected you can tune a tool to handle; surprise interacts badly with tuning assumptions.

Second, in the lab the user's values, knowledge, and incentives are those of the tool builder, since the user and the builder are the same person. Deployment leads to severe fission; users often have little understanding of the tool and little interest in helping develop it (for reasons ranging from simple skepticism to perverse reward incentives) and typically label any error message they find confusing as false. A tool that works well under these constraints looks very different from one tool builders design for themselves.

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"When people are married, instead of trying to get rid of each other, reflect that you have made your choice, and strive to honour and keep it." --Brigham Young

If you're so evil, eat this kitten!

The Parable of Bob and the Bill

[letter excerpts]

Posit: Day-old bread is better than nothing. Posit: Nothing is better than chocolate. Conclusion: Day-old bread is better than chocolate.

Once there was a man named Bob who attended a charity auction. The auctioneer explained that this was a pay-as-you-bid auction, like poker: you pay as you bid, and if you lose you don't get your money back. "That's dumb," thought Bob, "but I guess if it's for charity…" Then the auctioneer unveiled the item up for bid—a twenty-dollar bill. Bob, who considered himself a very rational person, looked around the room at the other thirty-odd people and thought, "If I bid and lose, I lose everything. If I win, I get twenty dollars. I have a one in thirty chance of winning twenty dollars, so the bid is worth $(1/30 * 20) = 67 cents to me." He immediately bid a quarter, hoping to make a profit, and put his quarter out in front of him.

Another bidder bid fifty cents, and someone else bid seventy-five cents. "Going once," said the auctioneer. Bob frowned in thought. "Odd. There's only three of us bidding. That raises my expected value to $6.67, so I can afford to bid a dollar rationally." The other bidders, after some hesitation, matched his bid and soon the price was at $5. Bob shook his head, "Let's end this," and bid $6.67. Further bidding would be irrational. Bob would pocket the $20, and they could all go home.

The third bidder immediately bid $10. "Oops," said Bob, now seeing the flaw in his reasoning. "No matter what the odds are, the payoff for winning is $20, not $6.67, so of course other people will bid above $6.67. My profit is the difference between my winning bid and $20, not between my winning bid and $6.67." So he bid $15, hoping for a 33% profit on his investment. Bidder #2 bid $17, and bidder #3 bid $18. Grumbling, Bob bid $19.99. Bidder #3 sat down abruptly. Bidder #2 hesitated again, then bid $21.

Bob couldn't believe it. "Who would bid $21 for a $20 bill?" he said to himself. Then with a sudden sick shock he got it. "No," he said, "bidder #2 already bid $17. If he loses, he lost $17. If he wins at $21, he lost only $1. Clearly it is rational to bid again to reduce his losses." And with the same sick certainty, Bob knew the same logic applied to himself. Bob bid: $25. Response: $28. "Again," thought Bob, "I have the choice between losing everything, only it's $25 instead of $19.99 this time, or paying $4 for a 50% chance at winning the $20. 50% of $20 is $10, and $4 is less than $10 so clearly the only rational action is to invest another $4." Bob bid $29, hopelessly, while the rest of the audience watched in fascination. This could have gone on for quite a long time but Bob's wife hit him with her purse and told him to stop being a nit. Bidder #2 won at $30. The auctioneer thanked them all, gave $20 to bidder #2, and put their combined bids ($18 + $29 + $30 = $77) in the charity cashbox. Everyone applauded and Bob went to lie down.

Last story for today: my dad went to med school in Louisiana when I was one or two years old. Some of my earliest memories are of Louisiana and Tulane University—going for stroller rides with my mom, playing in the pool, etc. I'm not sure but I think I might even remember the flood that buried the streets in over a foot of water. (Then again, I might be getting it mixed up with the floods from my mission, which I definitely remember, including what it did to our basement rooms: it was like an indoor swimming pool, which is bad news for missionaries. Or an indoor baptismal font, which is good news I suppose.) In particular I remember a large room, which must have been at Tulane, and one wall of the room was covered with transparent glass cubes or jars, stacked one on top of the other. In each jar was yellow liquid, and in the liquid floated a dead baby. I remember two babies in particular. One had a big corkscrew of a belly button that seemed several inches long and reminded me of a screw. The other baby had two heads. I thought that was quite interesting. I don't remember if this was before or after I saw the two-headed snake at the Santa Ana zoo, which was interesting because it was alive, but I think the baby was even more interesting because it was human and had arms and legs and stuff, which snakes do not. Anyway, I don't remember feeling scared at all but I wasn't sure why the liquid was yellow and I think I drew the obvious conclusion for a two-year-old at that—especially a two-year-old familiar with swimming pools and babies—and perhaps that did disturb me a little.

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"When people are married, instead of trying to get rid of each other, reflect that you have made your choice, and strive to honour and keep it." --Brigham Young

If you're so evil, eat this kitten!

Rare earth technologies

According to the article, many new technologies are reliant upon rare earth elements, of which China controls 97% of the world's supply. I'm not sure what the implications are.

As Deng Xiao Ping presciently commented, at a time when electric cars and wind power seemed like ecotopian wet dreams: "Arabia has oil, China has rare earth".

-Max

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If you're so evil, eat this kitten!

"The presentation or 'gift' of the Holy Ghost simply confers upon a man the right to receive at any time, when he is worthy of it and desires it, the power and light of truth of the Holy Ghost, although he may often be left to his own spirit and judgment." --Joseph F. Smith (manual, p. 69)

Science is

Science, in its purest sense, is as much an individual activity as religion. Science means reasoning by means of repeatable, testable hypotheses: science is what you can put in a letter and mail to another scientist and have him verify. Asking a paleontologist if dinosaurs were warm-blooded is not science; studying the papers and the fossils and then forming (and checking) your own opinion is science.

-Max

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If you're so evil, eat this kitten!

"The presentation or 'gift' of the Holy Ghost simply confers upon a man the right to receive at any time, when he is worthy of it and desires it, the power and light of truth of the Holy Ghost, although he may often be left to his own spirit and judgment." --Joseph F. Smith (manual, p. 69)

WMDs

I'm not allowed to discuss politics until 2010, but you should read this:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/12/09/is_climategate_the_new_downing_street_memo_99468.html

I will note parenthetically that I was completedly fooled on Iraq, but had I listened to Greg Cochran's views here (http://www.jerrypournelle.com/archives2/archives2mail/mail227.html) I would have been a lot closer to correct, which is a large part of the reason I'm skeptical of Iran as a threat and trying to be appropriately skeptical of Afghanistan.

The really great thing about Cochran is he's quantitative, cogent, and fact-based. You can disagree with his priorities but you should always hear out people like this.

-Max

P.S. I didn't see this article at the time, but even though the surge in Iraq worked, should we have done it? Cochran discussed an alternative at the time. http://amconmag.com/article/2007/sep/24/00006/

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If you're so evil, eat this kitten!

"The presentation or 'gift' of the Holy Ghost simply confers upon a man the right to receive at any time, when he is worthy of it and desires it, the power and light of truth of the Holy Ghost, although he may often be left to his own spirit and judgment." --Joseph F. Smith (manual, p. 69)

Why Object Oriented Languages Need Tail Calls

According to this argument, object oriented languages that don't require tail call optimization from their compiler(s) don't preserve object-oriented abstractions. I'm not 100% sure I buy the argument, since even if you do tail-call optimizations there are ways to implement the example in such a way that it runs out of stack space anyway--but perhaps his argument is that there's no correct way to implement the example (in the OO paradigm) without tail call optimizations. If that's the argument then I need to think about it some more.

-Max

--
If you're so evil, eat this kitten!

"The presentation or 'gift' of the Holy Ghost simply confers upon a man the right to receive at any time, when he is worthy of it and desires it, the power and light of truth of the Holy Ghost, although he may often be left to his own spirit and judgment." --Joseph F. Smith (manual, p. 69)

Public speaking

Tips on public speaking from Scott Berkun, who presented at work here recently:

 

1. Don't be afraid of the crowd. If necessary, arrive early, acclimate to the room, exercise beforehand. Amygdala.

2. Don't make it look like it's your first time ("nervous surgeon syndrome"). Practice slides, pitches, video manipulation, etc., beforehand until it feels good.

3. Keep a rhythm. ("Turtle on crack") Let people know how long each segment is supposed to take, be consistent. Attention span: 5-10 minutes. "I've got six pieces, five minutes each." May also be useful to give people an outline to follow in case they drift off for a minute.

4. Keep an interesting angle on things. Make it interesting to yourself at minimum. Also study the audience, talk to the audience beforehand about past experiences.

5. Avoid obfuscation of rhetoric: watch your tendency to use big, obscure words to win arguments (because people won't ask what things mean in an argument). Be clear, bring people along. Don't use language to defend yourself from questions. Do not be afraid of questions! (Side note, trying to make arguments strong: there's a difference between the point you want to make, and the arguments you use to support the points. Points must be clear, arguments can be clarified reactively.)

6. Slides serve what you are saying. Huge bulleted lists are often an indication that you have not practiced this, and are planning to use slides as notes. (Back to the audience, feel obligated to cover every point on the slides, etc.) Makes too many demands on visual bandwidth (information density--speaker doesn't know what the point is). Goal of a slide should be to support your points. If you need density, write a report, make a web site, whatever--but don't do a presentation. The acceptable level of density depends upon the presentation goal and the audience--if you're presenting code programming tips it may be okay to have more density than if you're giving tips on dating. When in doubt, rip it out.

 

-Max

 

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If you're so evil, eat this kitten!

 

"The presentation or 'gift' of the Holy Ghost simply confers upon a man the right to receive at any time, when he is worthy of it and desires it, the power and light of truth of the Holy Ghost, although he may often be left to his own spirit and judgment." --Joseph F. Smith (manual, p. 69)

 

Metacognition

I had to dig this up recently:

Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Leads To Inflated Self-Assessments

It turns out that the very thing which prevents you from being good at certain intellectual or social tasks also prevents you from recognizing that you're not any good at it. Fairly poignant stuff if you look at it from a certain perspective, since there may be things you think you do well (sense of humor?) which you're worse at than almost anybody without even realizing it. On the other hand, it may also explain why we we're so hard on ourselves on at stuff we're good at.

-Max

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If you're so evil, eat this kitten!

"The presentation or 'gift' of the Holy Ghost simply confers upon a man the right to receive at any time, when he is worthy of it and desires it, the power and light of truth of the Holy Ghost, although he may often be left to his own spirit and judgment." --Joseph F. Smith (manual, p. 69)

Two-year-old reciting Gettysburg address

Subject: Two-year-old reciting Gettysburg address

Dr. P_____,

If you have two and a half minutes, you will get a kick out of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvlsco7ux4g&feature=related

-Max

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Rock Is Dead. Long Live Scissors!

"The presentation or 'gift' of the Holy Ghost simply confers upon a man the right to receive at any time, when he is worthy of it and desires it, the power and light of truth of the Holy Ghost, although he may often be left to his own spirit and judgment." --Joseph F. Smith (manual, p. 69)

Archaeology

[From Chaos Manor. May be of indirect interest to amateur Book of Mormon archaelogical enthusiasts. -Max]

'A wind arose from the south, strong and deadly, bringing with it vast columns of whirling sand, which entirely covered up the troops and caused them wholly to disappear.'

The supposedly unreliable Herodotus is vindicated yet again:

<http://news.discovery.com/archaeology/
cambyses-army-remains-sahara.html>

-- Roland Dobbins

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Rock Is Dead. Long Live Scissors!

"The presentation or 'gift' of the Holy Ghost simply confers upon a man the right to receive at any time, when he is worthy of it and desires it, the power and light of truth of the Holy Ghost, although he may often be left to his own spirit and judgment." --Joseph F. Smith (manual, p. 69)

Religion from a functional perspective

"Stealth religions": interesting essay on objectivism, atheism, and other non-standard "religions" from a well-defined functional perspective.

http://scienceblogs.com/evolution/2009/10/atheism_as_a_stealth_religion.php

The main purpose of a religion or a stealth religion, however, is not to describe the real world but to motivate a given suite of behaviors. One way to do this is by creating a stylized world without tradeoffs, in which the prescribed behaviors are portrayed as good, good, good for everyone and the prohibited behaviors are portrayed as bad, bad, bad for everyone. Behaviors with mixed effects are absent from the stylized world because they do not clearly tell the believer what to do.

This might be a good working definition for the work of a "false prophet" (see Matthew 24:11).

-Max

--
Rock Is Dead. Long Live Scissors!

"The presentation or 'gift' of the Holy Ghost simply confers upon a man the right to receive at any time, when he is worthy of it and desires it, the power and light of truth of the Holy Ghost, although he may often be left to his own spirit and judgment." --Joseph F. Smith (manual, p. 69)

Cleanshaven Lincoln: true story

Hey you three,

 

Did you know Lincoln was cleanshaven most of his life? He grew out his beard only in 1860, on the advice of an eleven-year-old girl who said she could get her two brothers to vote for him if he would grow out some "whiskers."

 

 

 

Full story at http://home.att.net/~rjnorton/Lincoln50.html.

 

-Max

 

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Rock Is Dead. Long Live Scissors!

 

"The presentation or 'gift' of the Holy Ghost simply confers upon a man the right to receive at any time, when he is worthy of it and desires it, the power and light of truth of the Holy Ghost, although he may often be left to his own spirit and judgment." --Joseph F. Smith (manual, p. 69)

 

High Taxes: a California vs. Texas case study

California ranks 4th in terms of total revenues (including federal subsidies) and Texas ranks 44th. What does California get for all this money? Comparison of public spending in Texas vs. California here:

 

http://www.city-journal.org/2009/19_4_california.html

 

-Max

 

--

Rock Is Dead. Long Live Scissors!

 

"The presentation or 'gift' of the Holy Ghost simply confers upon a man the right to receive at any time, when he is worthy of it and desires it, the power and light of truth of the Holy Ghost, although he may often be left to his own spirit and judgment." --Joseph F. Smith (manual, p. 69)

 

 

Sherman

William T. Sherman is a personal hero of mine, a kindred spirit and a modern-day Moroni. Here are some of my favorite quotes.

 

-Max

 

=====================================

 

If they want eternal war, well and good; we accept the issue, and will dispossess them and put our friends in their place. I know thousands and millions of good people who at simple notice would come to North Alabama and accept the elegant houses and plantations there. If the people of Huntsville think different, let them persist in war three years longer, and then they will not be consulted. Three years ago by a little reflection and patience they could have had a hundred years of peace and prosperity, but they preferred war; very well. Last year they could have saved their slaves, but now it is too late.

 

All the powers of earth cannot restore to them their slaves, any more than their dead grandfathers. Next year their lands will be taken, for in war we can take them, and rightfully, too, and in another year they may beg in vain for their lives. A people who will persevere in war beyond a certain limit ought to know the consequences.

 

-Letter to Major Sawyer, Jan 31, 1864

 

Hold the fort! I am coming!  

 

-Signal to Gen. Corse, Oct 5 1864

 

You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out. I know I had no hand in making this war, and I know I will make more sacrifices to-day than any of you to secure peace. But you cannot have peace and a division of our country. If the United States submits to a division now, it will not stop, but will go on until we reap the fate of Mexico, which is eternal war. The United States does and must assert its authority, wherever it once had power; for, if it relaxes one bit to pressure, it is gone, and I believe that such is the national feeling.

 

-Letter to City Council of Atlanta, Sept 12, 1864

 

Boys, I've been where you are now and I know just how you feel. It's entirely natural that there should beat in the breast of every one of you a hope and desire that some day you can use the skill you have acquired here.

 

Suppress it! You don't know the horrible aspects of war. I've been through two wars and I know. I've seen cities and homes in ashes. I've seen thousands of men lying on the ground, their dead faces looking up at the skies. I tell you, war is hell!

 

-Speech to cadets at Michigan Military Academy, 1879

 

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Rock Is Dead. Long Live Scissors!

 

"The presentation or 'gift' of the Holy Ghost simply confers upon a man the right to receive at any time, when he is worthy of it and desires it, the power and light of truth of the Holy Ghost, although he may often be left to his own spirit and judgment." --Joseph F. Smith (manual, p. 69)

 

 

Conference notes from Sunday

[Priesthood notes not included since I don't have them with me.]

Sunday morning.

Sister Ann M. Dibb: (Collapsed bridge story) Get a grip, hold to the rod.

Elder Nelson: communication w/ heaven, conversion, discernment. Revelation facilitated by proper reverence for Deity. May be incremental, those who heed are given more line upon line.

Pres. Monson: Dr. Jack McConnell's father, every day at dinner, "And what did you do for someone today?" He who loses his life for my sake shall find it. Kindness. Ideal gift, "Find someone who is having a hard time, or is ill, or lonely, and do something for them." Received dozens of cards recording service rendered.

Sunday evening.

Elder Holland. Protection against personal calamity, vs. the mist of darkness. Hold to the rod. Mist of darkness descends on ALL, successful travellers resist all distractions. Divinity of the Book of Mormon. Joseph & Hyrum, Ether 12, "Thou shalt be made strong even unto the sitting down in the place which has been prepared for you in the mansions of my Father." Apostolic witness of the divinity of the book and the prophetic calling of Joseph Smith. Great-grandfather: "No wicked man could write such a book as this, and no good man would write it, unless he were commanded of God to do so." Like Christ himself, it is a stone of stumbling, a rock of offense, a barrier in the path of those who wish to disbelieve this work.

Elder Cook. Stewardships, we believe we are our brother's keeper. Story: Jewish visitors to temple square & welfare square. "Obedience to the unenforceable." Faithful stewardship exercises righteous dominion, looks to his own, cares for the poor and needy. Story: clear spring at grandfather's ranch, when not protected eventually became polluted. Was then returned to original purity and beauty. Rationalization: "The ship must sail. You can't explain to the ocean." "What happens in Vegas" vs. "What happens in Severe County, you can share with your friends." Provide family with physical security and spiritual nourishment. From abundance, impart portion unto the poor and needy. Story: as new bishop, "some will respond to every suggestion, even at great sacrifice." (Sarah on top of a ladder, at age 80, cleaning out neighbor's raingutters.) Be prudent, but also diligent.

Elder Brent H. Nielson. To rising generation: go ye therefore, and teach all nations, every young man prepare to serve an honorable mission. Story: Finnland (Vipori/Freiburg, praying to open the Soviet Union for the gospel, fulfilled unknowingly by son 32 years later). Jacob 5, "[labor because] this is the last time that I will prune my vineyard."

Elder [not sure]. Heart transplants, need constant attention lest rejection occur. Tendency of the natural man is to reject the changed heart and allow it to harden. Ammonites, "as many as were converted... never did fall away." How? Zeal towards God and men, perfectly upright and honest, held covenants sacred. Story: purposefully late home to skip church for a nap. Discovered he had become casual about prayers and scriptures because of schedule, heart had begun to change back to stone. Do not risk forfeiting the fruits of the ultimate operation.

Elder Michael T. Ringwood. Story, grandfather Ephraim K. Hanks heard that his brother had gone off with the Mormons, went off to retrieve him, ended up getting baptized. Lamoni's father, soft heart that that was willing to change, willing to give up both sins and kingdom. Self-reflection will times when we found it easier to believe the word of God, perhaps especially childhood. Sometimes we are like Naaman, "some great thing." Easiness and willingness to believe, soft hearts, will come from obedience to simple things.

Elder Joseph W. Sitati. Marvelous work. Last dispensation, keys of revelation, no respecter of persons. Dispensations: Enoch, Noah, Babel, Brother of Jared, Nephites, Abraham, lesser covenant under Moses, the Savior's ministry, mission to the Gentiles, last dispensation. Elder Sitati has lived to see the fulfillment of the prophecy of Xenos, all nations partaking of the gospel. Blessings he has seen at home in Africa--celestial culture is developing in homes. Able to break free from the shackles that restrict the use of agency. Singled out dowry as a specific example of one shackle.

Elder Christofferson. Story, James E. Faust in OCS. Does not battle justify relaxed standards? "In the end I simply said, 'I do not believe there is a double standard of morality.'" "This was one of the critical crossroads of my life." Moral agency must be accompanied by moral discipline, self-discipline based on moral standards. To choose the right when it is right, even when it is hard. Society: because there is no discipline, must be imposed by external control. Once gentlemanly behavior protected women from coarse behavior, now we rely on sexual harrassment laws. Recession, partly because of widespread dishonest and unethical conduct. There can never be enough rules so finely crafted as to anticipate and cover every situation, and even if there were enforcement would be impossibly expensive and burdensome. This approach leads to diminished freedom for everyone. We would not accept the yoke of Christ, so now we must tremble at the yoke of Caesar. Moral discipline. We stand with those who demonstrate virtue in their own lives and inculcate virtue in the rising generation. Teaching children: "'Then they will have gained a strength from what they are, not merely from what they know.'" Intelligent use of agency requires knowledge of the truth, knowledge of things as they really are. Satan does not promote objectivity, but is a vigorous multi- media advocate of sin. Story: candy bar. "My mother's love and discipline put an early and abrupt end to my life of crime." We do not have to yield simply because a temptation surfaces. "'Don't you want to?' The question intrigued me because it was so utterly beside the point. Mere wanting... [missed the rest of the quotation]" We cannot presume that the future will resemble the past--politically, economically, etc.--but moral discipline will be immense help to us, whatever challenges may come.

Pres. Monson. Time of permissiveness, we often find ourselves swimming against the current. Ye cannot cross this great deep, save I prepare you against the waves of the sea... and the floods which shall come. If we heed his words we will survive this time of permissiveness. He is ever mindful of us and will bless us as we do what is right. We are all in this together and every man, woman, and child has a part to play.

--
Rock Is Dead. Long Live Scissors!

"The presentation or 'gift' of the Holy Ghost simply confers upon a man the right to receive at any time, when he is worthy of it and desires it, the power and light of truth of the Holy Ghost, although he may often be left to his own spirit and judgment." --Joseph F. Smith (manual, p. 69)

A privilege that could not be denied her

[Cc'ing Brother L______ in case I have your address wrong]

Sister L______,

Here is the quote I was thinking of. I couldn't find a copy of Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith so I couldn't verify whether it's in that book, but I found it in another source.

"He [Joseph Smith] also said many would awake on the morning of the resurrection sadly disappointed; for they, by transgression, would have neither wives nor children, for they surely would be taken from them and given to those who should prove themselves worthy. Again he said, a woman would have her choice; this was a privilege that could not be denied her." (Lucy Walker Kimball, as quoted in They Knew The Prophet, p. 136.)

-Max

--
Rock Is Dead. Long Live Scissors!

"The presentation or 'gift' of the Holy Ghost simply confers upon a
man the right to receive at any time, when he is worthy of it and
desires it, the power and light of truth of the Holy Ghost, although
he may often be left to his own spirit and judgment." --Joseph F.
Smith (manual, p. 69)

RE: Church Question

P.S. If you find all that confusing, let me try again: it is not true that there is only one God. As you originally observed, Jesus and his Father and the Holy Ghost are all Gods, and they are three different people. When Jesus told the Jews he was the Son of God, they accused him of blasphemy, and he said, basically, "In your own scriptures it says you are all gods. How can you say I'm blaspheming then because I say I am the Son of God?"

 

John 10:31-36:

 31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.

 32 Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?

 33 The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.

 34 Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?

 35 If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken;

 36 Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?

 

He's referring back to Psalm 82:6, "I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High." So anyway, the simplest and most basic true answer to your question is, "It is not true that there is only one God. That is an old sectarian notion and is false."

 

-Max

 

--

Rock Is Dead. Long Live Scissors!

 

"The presentation or 'gift' of the Holy Ghost simply confers upon a man the right to receive at any time, when he is worthy of it and desires it, the power and light of truth of the Holy Ghost, although he may often be left to his own spirit and judgment." --Joseph F. Smith (manual, p. 69)

 

To us there is but one God...

[In answer to the question, "I was studding Egyptian Religion, when I got thinking, we are suppose to believe in one God. Yet dont we believe in the father and the son, and dont we believe that they are both gods, so wouldnt that make two gods that we believe in?  Then there is the holy ghost, which doesnt that make three deities?  Then where does the devil play into it all.  We belive he is our brother, he is collecting an army of his own to fight agianst us, is he not a god in his own right? Would he not compare to anciant religions form of the god of the underworld?" I wrote the following]

 

When I read the scriptures, the impression I get is that when it talks about there being "one God," it's as a contrast to the many idolatrous gods of the Egyptians and the Babylonians, etc. They had a god of rain and a good of the river and a god of fertility and a god of the sun and on and on--and none of those gods were real or able to do the slightest thing, they were just blocks of wood or stone. It's offensive to see the children of God worshipping things that aren't even real, instead of a real being who actually has power to help them and advise them. Anyway, that's the feeling I get from e.g. Exodus 3:13-14. Moses asks, when they ask me which God sent me, what shall I tell them? And the Lord basically says, "The real one."

 

So when the Lord says, "There is no God else beside me; a just God and a Savior; there is none beside me" (Isa 45:21), I don't think he is any way intending to exclude his Father from consideration. He's just saying, "None of the gods YOU think are god actually are. Baal is not a God, nor Isis, nor Horus."

 

I suppose from a mythological viewpoint you could view any powerful being with a following as a god, and that would make Satan a god from that perspective. (In fact, Satan is referred to in scripture at least once as the "god of this world," i.e. he whom Babylon worships.) Ultimately, though, he is weak and no more a god than any other thing which has no power in the eternities, and is not a God at all.

 

That's my take on it anyway. What's yours?

 

-Max

 

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Rock Is Dead. Long Live Scissors!

 

"The presentation or 'gift' of the Holy Ghost simply confers upon a man the right to receive at any time, when he is worthy of it and desires it, the power and light of truth of the Holy Ghost, although he may often be left to his own spirit and judgment." --Joseph F. Smith (manual, p. 69)

 

 

Health care solution

I sent the following note to both my Senators and my Congressman:

 

Subject: You can have my vote if...

 

I'm a conservative-leaning independent, but I think the Democrats could instantly get my support for the public plan (even at a $1 trillion price tag over ten years) on one condition: hospitals must be required to let me pay cash for medical services at the same rate they would charge the public plan. One problem as I understand it with the health care industry is, if you took the same money you want to spend on health insurance and simply self-insured (i.e. invested it in bonds or CDs), when you actually needed health care you'd find that the hospitals charge you more for a given service than they charge health insurance companies, because of economies of scale and business leverage. I see that as a problem because it means you're forced into the insurance industry, you can't buy health care out of pocket, so the health CARE industry automatically inherits all the problems of the health INSURANCE industry. By letting me pay cash at the same rate as at least one insurance company (the public plan), it brings market forces back into play and, assuming that the public plan negotiates rates that are not foolishly high, gives health INSURANCE companies their most important competitor--not the public plan but me as an individual--and I don't have to be afraid if the public plan does happen to put the other health care providers out of business, even if there _were_ "death panels," since I could just buy care myself if the public plan won't provide it. Basically I'm using the government as a proxy to negotiate my rates for me.

 

Anyway, if you enable individuals to compete you'll have my vote even if I end up paying for something I'd rather not (the public plan) to get it. Fixing the structural problems in the system is worth it.

 

-Max

--
Rock Is Dead. Long Live Scissors!

"The presentation or 'gift' of the Holy Ghost simply confers upon a man the right to receive at any time, when he is worthy of it and desires it, the power and light of truth of the Holy Ghost, although he may often be left to his own spirit and judgment." --Joseph F. Smith (manual, p. 69)