Viva la Vida..... Have you heard it? Are you Living the life?

Coldplay has a new album out, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends. If you like Coldplay, you will love this album. There are some standout tracks like "Yes", "Lovers in Japan", "42", and others. Here is "Violet Hill" with an alternate video "Dancing Politicians"...they include everyone!


Here they are on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart...

Today is the day!!! FactCheck Friday...

More great information from the Factcheck.org team. They are so useful in debunking the claims made from all sides in this election cycle.

Wall-E

What should you do?

I have spoke on this before, but I think that it should be restated. I feel that to follow the counsel of Elder Ballard creating blogs that are only accessible by registered members of the blog are counter productive. One example; I have a friend (ok, the daughter of an instructor from college) anyway we were acquaintances when I was in school. She has a blog where she shares information about her family. Recently her family went through a tragedy. I am not going to go into details, but throughout the process there were many comments of encouragement, sharing of feelings and bearing of testimonies. This was done by people she knew and had seen the tragedy first hand and by those who had stumbled upon her blog and were intrigued by the situation and the process of grieving that the family went through.

What a great way to share the plan of salvation. Let others see how as members of the Church we deal with grief and what we know happens when we die. I was moved by the compassion and love that was shown in this situation. Had this been a private blog, the spirit could not have touched the lives of so many.

I know that there are people that use the internet for evil. They take any opportunity to distort and misuse what they find. But, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven" Matthew 5:16.

Boise, ID...What to do? Where to go?

In the Idaho Statesman I found a great quick guide to things around Boise. Tim Woodward a columnist for the Idaho Statesman put it together. About Tim,

"Tim Woodward was born in Boise and attended Boise schools. He was a communications technician in the Navy and graduated from the University of Idaho in 1971 with a degree in journalism. He went to work at The Idaho Statesman the same year and has been a Statesman columnist since 1975. He is the author of six books, four of which are collections of his columns. He and his wife have three children"- The Idaho Statesman.

Over the years he has written many great columns about Boise, Idaho and this Valley that we call home. This collection is great. Anyone who wants to know about Boise, this is great place to start. The ten locations that he profiles in video are:

• 8th & Idaho
• Anne Frank Memorial
• Basque Block
• Boise Depot
• Boise Foothills Area
• Historical Museum
• MK Nature Center
• Moon's Kitchen
• Old Idaho Penitentiary
• Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area

So take a gander at the videos and be proud of where we live and share it with the world.

A Great Tribute....Tim Russert

I won't say that I watched "Meet the Press" every week or that I even looked to see who was going to be on. But I can tell you that one person that I was looking forward to seeing this election season; Tim Russert. I looked forward to seeing him there with his whiteboard explaining all the scenarios for the next President to win. Here is a video with highlights from the tribute that his colleagues gave for him. (Watch at 7:30 in the video for a great ending to a wonderful experience).

FactCheck Friday!

Another installment of Factcheck Friday with a vidcast from Factcheck.org. This week deals with inaccuracies from statements that Obama made regarding health-care savings.

Information on High Gas Prices

Here is some interesting information on high gas prices and what can be done about it. Contact your Senators and Congressmen to close the Enron loophole.

They did it....and I helped

When Firefox 3 was released they wanted to set a world record for the number of downloads. I downloaded it a few times to help boost the numbers...we have 16 computers in our lab. Look what it got me.

It's here....Firefox 3!

Today is the day! The update to the best browser for the web is here.

Mozilla Releases Firefox 3 and Redefines the Web Experience

Major performance enhancements and revolutionary “Awesome Bar” make Firefox 3 the fastest, smartest, most powerful browser Mozilla has ever released

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF. - June 17, 2008 - Mozilla today released Firefox® 3, a major update to its popular and acclaimed free, open source Web browser. Firefox 3 is the culmination of three years of efforts from thousands of developers, security experts, localization and support communities, and testers from around the globe.

Available today in approximately 50 languages, Firefox 3 is two to three times faster than its predecessor and offers more than 15,000 improvements, including the revolutionary smart location bar, malware protection, and extensive under the hood work to improve the speed and performance of the browser.

“We’re really proud of Firefox 3 and it just shows what a committed, energized global community can do when they work together,” said John Lilly, CEO of Mozilla.

If you have never used Firefox you need to see what the web is really all about. If you have used Firefox, then see what the update has done. I have been using a beta version of Firefox 3 for the past couple months and I love it. It does everything that I want a browser to do. More integrated now with the OS than ever, whether Mac, windows or Linux. Give it a try!

Idaho court: Residency doesn't hinge on immigration status

Associated Press

BOISE -- The Idaho Supreme Court has ruled that an undocumented immigrant who was injured while living in Ada County is entitled to medical indigency assistance from Ada County.

The ruling was handed down Monday morning, with a majority of the justices siding with Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center.

The hospital sued the Board of Ada County Commissioners after they denied an application for medical indigency assistance from Javier Ortega Sandoval.

Sandoval had racked up medical bills of more than $187,000 after he had a stroke while working in the Boise region.

The high court found that undocumented alien status doesn't affect the determination of whether someone is a resident.

In other words, the concept of residency doesn't distinguish between citizens and those who entered the country illegally.

source: http://www.ktvb.com

Very interesting. I bet the detractors will be out in force.

Find out the truth....Search it out

If there is one thing that I like it is being right. Now you can't always be right. But when I am wrong I love that my lovely wife is able to correct me. For us it is like a little competition, who can be right and who can prove the other wrong. To me this is particularly important as there is much disinformation about the LDS church out there. As a member of the LDS faith I feel that it is important that when there is incorrect or false information that I correct the error.

Well, throughout the election cycle there has been a lot of disinformation and outright lies spread about the candidates. Many of these come through emails from good-intentioned people that don't bother to check the facts. (That is why I like Factcheck.org). My lovely wife gets emails like this from time to time and this past week she shared her love of snopes.com as a place to de-bunk rumors. On that note of setting people straight I wanted to share a video I found when a person who was on a local TV news report and shared incorrect information was later corrected and how it can be a friendly exchange not confrontational and that people having the facts is important. How can someone make a decision without all the facts.

Enjoy!
source: Fight the Smears.com

Historical Day...19 June 1978

From Newsroom.LDS.org
It will be 30 years this June, 2008, since The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began ordaining its members of African descent to the priesthood.

It was a pivotal moment in Church history, with implications not only for members in the United States but for the Church worldwide.
The enthusiasm with which the change in practice was greeted by Church members everywhere was widely noted at the time. Ken Woodward, religion writer for Newsweek, wrote in the magazine’s 19 June 1978 edition:

“The revelation caught noontime pedestrians in Salt Lake City by surprise. One man who had turned his portable radio to a church-owned station, called excitedly to knots of workers from the church headquarters: ‘They’ve just announced blacks can get the priesthood!’ James Dawson, one of two black members of the famed Mormon Tabernacle Choir, told fellow Saints: ‘My faith is strengthened, I am very happy.’”

Elsewhere, excited white and black Church members called each other, honked car horns in the street and gathered in groups to discuss the announcement that came so suddenly following a profoundly significant spiritual experience for then-Church President Spencer W. Kimball and his fellow apostles in the Church.

Newsweek’s Woodward went on to predict that the next steps were likely to be the creation of black congregations under the direction of black elders.

Woodward’s prediction is telling. Even in 1978, a decade after the civil rights movement changed the face of America, worshipers in many churches across the land remained, in effect, segregated. Most blacks still worshipped with blacks, and most whites with whites. Few ordained black ministers preached to white congregations and discrimination in other forms still existed years later.

In fact, nothing like that happened in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There was never any policy of segregated congregations. Where Mormons of various racial or ethnic backgrounds have lived as neighbors, they have always worshiped together throughout Church history. Blacks had long before 1978 been baptized as members, preached from the pulpit and offered prayers in largely white congregations — none of which required the member to hold priesthood office.

After announcing the change in June 1978, the Church immediately began ordaining active black male members to priesthood office wherever they attended throughout the world. The first temple in Africa was built in South Africa in 1981 and two more — in Ghana and Nigeria — were dedicated more recently.

The increase in ethnic diversity and international Church growth has been widely commented upon over the years since then. The Washington Post referred in a November 2007 headline to “the new face of global Mormonism.” The New York Times noted in a 2005 article that a new Church building in the city was “one of the most racially integrated congregations in Harlem, with about equal numbers of white and black worshippers.”

Amid the generally favorable media reports, there have been a few exceptions, especially in the heated atmosphere of an election campaign.

Ahmad Corbitt, an African-American who is president of a stake (equivalent to a diocese) in New Jersey, said that occasional charges of racism leveled at the Church should be “seen for what they are.”

“I think everyone understands that people say things for political reasons that just don’t square with the facts,” Corbitt said.

Corbitt leads one of the more diverse stakes in the Church. While membership is largely white, his twelve congregations each embrace people of diverse ethnic backgrounds. Three of his congregations are Spanish speaking, and Corbitt’s own three-member presidency consists of a white counselor and a Tongan counselor.

“Anyone who says the Church is racist isn’t speaking from experience and has no idea of the racial harmony we enjoy as a Church family,” Corbitt said. “Perhaps some members of color have had a negative experience here or there in our 13-million-member church. But in numerous meetings with members and leaders of the Church at every level over the years I have never experienced anything remotely resembling racism.”

Tony Parker, another African-American stake president, oversees nine congregations in the Atlanta area, including one headed by a black bishop. Parker has been a member of the Mormon faith for 25 years.

“I’m a better person now than I was back then,” Parker says. “I feel better about myself. They have been years of personal growth and enrichment.”

Parker says he has a simple answer to critics outside of the Church. “Anyone who thinks the Church is racist just needs to come and see. They can sit in our church on the sidelines and watch, or talk to members.”

Asked if he had ever encountered a prejudicial comment from a fellow Latter-day Saint, Parker said: “My experience has been almost universally positive. Sure, there have been occasional bumps in the road, but nothing to damage my personal convictions.”

Fact Check Friday

Fact Check Friday.....Enjoy

Harriet Peterson 8/25/25 - 06/08/08 Obituary

Harriet E. Peterson
1925 - 2008
Harriet Elizabeth Peterson, 82, of Nampa, died at home on Sunday, June 8, 2008. Funeral services will be held 2 p.m. Friday, June 13, at the Nampa 12th LDS Ward building, 1500 Smith Ave., Nampa. Family will greet relatives and friends at a viewing from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, June 12, at the Zeyer Funeral Chapel, 83 N. Midland Blvd., Nampa, or in the Relief Society Room at the church one hour prior to the funeral services. Harriet was born on Aug. 25, 1925, in Bismarck, North Dakota, to Willard Ransom Porter and Gretta Helena Lindblad. She lived in Peirre, ND, until the age of 13 when the family of three children moved to Nampa. She attended school in Nampa and graduated in 1942 from Nampa High School. After high school she entered nurse's training in Spokane and finished at Mercy Hospital in Nampa. She married Keith Peterson on Oct. 8, 1946, in Twin Falls. In 1948 their oldest son, O'Dell was born. At first she worked for private practice physicians and then went to work at Caldwell Memorial Hospital for about five years. In 1952 a daughter, Gretta Ellen was born and died the next day. Randy was born on July 4, 1954, and Danny on Nov. 2, 1956. Then she worked at Mercy Hospital and continued working in the Recovery Room for the remainder of the time until retirement at the new hospital. Her husband, Keith died in 1987. After retiring from the hospital, she then worked at Nampa Care Center for two years and then substituted as a school nurse for the Nampa School District for three or four years. She continued during retirement to volunteer at Silvercrest I, where she lived, taking blood pressures. She was an active member of the Nampa LDS 12th Ward where she served in the visiting teaching program. When her boys were younger, she was involved in the Cub Scout program, mainly as a Den Mother. She also worked for some time in the Genealogy Library, learning more about her "Family Tree." She kept in contact with many of her relatives over the past 10 to 15 years. She was actively involved in ceramics through Brenda Freeman along with several close friends. Many of her items were entered in the local Fair for which she would bring home ribbons. Much of her work can be found in the homes of her children and grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her parents, her brother Willard in 2002, her husband Keith in 1987, a daughter Gretta Ellen in 1952, a son Danny in 1995, and a granddaughter Catherine in 1985. She is survived by two sons, O'Dell and his family, Clark and Carley, Chris and his wife Tammy and their children Gabe, Selah and Reece; Cort and his wife Emily and their children Gavin and Noah, all of Nampa; son, Randy and his sons; Keith and his wife Alex and their children Bradley and Ethan of Caldwell; Jason and his wife Beth and their sons Nikki and Daniel of Eugene, Ore. She is also survived by a sister, Mrs. Lucile Pate of Lewiston. Published in the Idaho Press Tribune from 6/11/2008 - 6/12/2008. Grandma we'll miss you. Here is a great post Tammy wrote about Grandma Peterson

Harriet Peterson 8/25/25 - 06/08/08

Yesterday we received some heartbreaking news, Grandma Peterson had passed away. She was nearly 83 and had lived a full and happy life. My dad had gone over to check on her as she had not answered her phone when he called and when he arrived he found her. She had apparently passed away in her sleep.

I have many memories of Grandma Peterson from mowing her lawn from the age of 10 to taking a trip with her to the Grand Canyon when I was a sophomore in high school. But the memories that I am thinking of today are more recent. For the past few years on Sunday nights we have been getting together with my dad, my brother and his family and my grandma. So we have been seeing her very regularly. We get together and talk, play games, watch TV, anything really. We always have something good to eat. In fact a couple weeks ago we had Jalapenos stuffed with cheddar cheese and we got grandma to try them and she loved them. It has been a lot of fun getting together letting her see our kids every week and how they are growing.


Last year for Christmas we made her a book out of the pictures of the great-grandkids that we had taken at the cabin and other places. She seemed to really like it.


My grandma was a nurse for many years in the recovery room at Mercy Medical Center in Nampa. Each month she would go to lunch with some of the ladies who were nurses with her there.


She will be missed.

FactCheck Friday....

This weeks installment of FactCheck Friday covers the Top eight Most Notable Primary Misleads. There are claims made by conservative and liberal sources alike. They are all interesting but the most is the #1 about the erroneous and false claims made about Barack Obama. This is particularly interesting because email falsifications travel like wildfire. Thank goodness there are sites like Factcheck.org and Snopes.com to debunk the lies.

Why do people make up such erroneous lies? Because they are afraid of the truth. The early Latter-Day Saints faced this type of opposition when they were forced from their homes in Missouri, Navoo and eventually ended up in Utah. It is ironic to me that members of the church who have such persecution, misleads, and defamation in their past would want to continue this aggression toward others. I have received many emails from members and heard from members the same misleading information that Emi Kolawole talks about in the FactCheck.org "Just the Facts". It is important to take the time to learn the truth and then make an informed decision. not just a rush to judgment based on error.


Enjoy "Just the facts"

Technology and Church

I couldn't not share this as I get grief for having my Treo with me at church. And yes I have texted my counselors while in church.

source: http://www.deseretnews.com/cn/view/1,1721,500006410,00.html

Technology defines Internet generation

Cell phones, social networks connect young single adults

---

May 24, 2008

By Sarah Jane Weaver
Church News staff writer

One Sunday, Bishop Robert McKinley of the Vista 6th (YSA) Ward determined he needed the help of a ward clerk. He asked another member of the ward to locate a clerk who was available.

Texting from a cell phone is such a popular form of communication for young single adults that many use an abbreviated text language. Photo by Rod Boam

But the ward member didn't move from his seat. The bishop waited and waited. After what seemed like a very long time, he gave the young man a gentle reminder. "Will you find me a ward clerk?"
The young man looked at his bishop. "I sent a text message," he said. "He is on the way."
That is an example of the effectiveness of a techno-savvy generation, said Bishop McKinley, calling technology an opportunity for young single adults to connect and mobilize.
This week, in the last article in a series on young single adults in the Church, the Church News examines the helps and hindrances of technology in the lives of single Latter-day Saints, ages 18 to 30.
Text messaging and social networking have in many ways connected this generation of Latter-day Saints, truly the first Internet generation. But because technology can be used without interpersonal communication, texting and social networking have also made this a "generation of isolation," where young adults meet online instead of in person, said Dan Gray, a licensed clinical social worker and director of the LifeSTAR Network.
Social networking is the mall or local hangout of past generations, said Peter Ferioli, director of Net Nanny Operations for Content Watch Internet Protection. "They meet each other in the virtual world," he said.
Facebook, for example, is a social networking Web site where users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region to connect and interact with other people. People can add friends and send messages, and update a personal profile to notify friends about themselves.
Facebook, said Mr. Ferioli, is the fastest growing social network in the world right now. The technology keeps people connected in such a way that associations can become like extended family. Technology has also created a culture so influential that many users now type an abbreviated Internet language.
The ability of a generation raised with the Internet to use it as a resource is astonishing, said Jack Sunderlage, president of Content Watch Internet Protection, who works with the young single adults in his ward. Research on the Internet cannot be underestimated, he said. Business networking on the Internet is now becoming essential.
"There are 50 billion pages on the surface Internet," he said. "It is a tremendous resource for information. ... The Internet is a great tool, but there is definitely a dark side to it."
The Internet era has radically changed the landscape socially for young adults — who are now the fastest growing consumers of pornography, said Jill C. Manning, a licensed marriage and family therapist who testified before a U.S. Senate subcommittee on the harms of pornography and is author of the book, What's the Big Deal about Pornography: A Guide for the Internet Generation.
In 1993 — the year pornography went public on the Internet — there was no longer a barrier between the home/work/school environment and pornography. "There was no longer a barrier between that generation and the sex industry," she said.
More disturbing, she said, is an escalation in the graphic and deviant themes in pornography not seen by past generations. It is "far more degrading and distorting and vile than pornography of past generations," she said.
In an informal Church News survey, the vast majority of 80 respondents said they know someone who regularly views pornography. More disturbing is research that says that young adults in the United States are more tolerant of pornography than ever before. A BYU study, for example, found that college women are more accepting of pornography than their fathers.
"Even in the absence of personal use, it seems young women's attitudes are being influenced by the proliferation of pornography," said the study's lead researcher Jason Carroll, an associate professor at BYU who studies the transition to adulthood. "These women are part of a rising generation that is deeming pornography as more acceptable and more mainstream."
The study, conducted with college students and their parents from six schools across the country (BYU was not included) — found actual use of pornography to be more prevalent among male students, with 48 percent of men reporting viewing pornography at least weekly, compared to 3 percent of women. In addition, the study found that one in five young adult men view pornography every day or nearly every day.

Modern technology adapts easily into the active and mobile lifestyle of young single adults, such as Caresa Alexander, who can communicate with friends worldwide from her wireless computer in the comfort of her living room. Photo by Rod Boam

Experts predict that as Internet cell phones become more accessible, that more and more people will have access to pornography. Currently, said Brother Sunderlage, there is no Internet filter for a cell phone.
Sister Manning said the dangers of the Internet are far greater than just pornography, noting that sexual predators, bullying and the rumor mill are prevalent on the Internet. And, unlike rumors sent by word of mouth, cyber rumors are much harder to erase.
In addition, because a person can misrepresent themselves online as something they are not, Sister Manning encourages young single adults to meet people in real life and then utilize the good in technology to nurture those friendships.
Of the 80 young single adults who responded to a Church News survey, 53 listed cell phones or texting as their primary form of communication. The rest listed e-mail, instant messaging or social networking. Some reported sending more than 2,000 text messages a month; however, the majority of respondents said they sent fewer than 500 texts per month.
Laura Padilla-Walker, a BYU family life professor, said being connected is what enables this generation to accomplish so much good. "It is a time when you have some great opportunity to do positive things," she said.
David L. Buckner, president of the New York New York Stake, said technology has enabled young single adults to mobilize — as a result of text messages and social networking — better than any other group in the Church. "In terms of building the kingdom there is so much potential."
A 25-year old Church News survey respondent explained, "We're a well-connected generation through social networks (Facebook), e-mail and texting. When we have to contact someone to give information that's pertaining to our calling, it's common for us to say, 'Facebook me or I'll Facebook you the information.' It's standard to get reminders to ward activities via text or stake activities via e-mail. Because of communication technology, it's easy for my LDS friends and me to keep in touch with other LDS members from different parts of the world."

Lost is what Alias could have been…

Many of you know that I am a pretty big fan of the show Alias. Alias was created and was produced by JJ Abrams. Lost was created and is produced by JJ Abrams. Alias contains elements of science-fiction/ fantasy and is a drama. As is Lost. Alias has been off the air for two years now. There are a few factors that lead to the end of Alias, Network interference and schedule changes. Now these are not the only reasons that the show ended, but compared to Lost (which has not faced theses challenges) these two are significant.
Alias premiered in 2001, just after the attacks on 9/11. As a spy-fi drama the series thrived in an atmosphere of espionage and covert activity. The first season and part of the second season dealt with Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) working to bring down a terrorist organization; SD-6. In the DVD special features there are interviews with the producers where they state that the network (ABC) wanted this story line to arc sooner than the writers had anticipated and as such the plot line changed. This lead to the writers not creating the stories in the manner they had envisioned. They had to rush some of the storylines that they were preparing to use.
This happens quite often, as networks are concerned with ad revenue for the shows they purchase/ produce and they want to continue to draw the target demographics in the same high number of viewers. The real killer of a TV series is schedule. Alias had multiple changes to the time that it was aired. First on Sunday nights then moved to Wednesdays and then finally to Thursday nights. Another issue was that twice the series went on hiatus. Once was to be able to go continuously without repeat episodes for the fourth season and then during Jennifer Garners maternity leave. While this sounds good for the fans, it makes it difficult to attract new viewers as they are never sure when the next episode is airing. Also, when the show that replaces you in the timeslot is a hit, then it makes it even harder for people to remember the first show.
This happened to Alias, Desperate Housewives was the show. It took the Sunday timeslot in fall 2004 and when Alias was to return in January 2005 it was moved to another timeslot. Lost on the other hand when they took their hiatus to come back with no repeats was blessed with the writers’ strike. So when the episodes aired there was not too much original programming out there. This was a good thing because it allowed the fans to watch as well as new viewers to get caught up.
Lost is a great program I started watching it this year. I am a fan. But I can’t help but wonder what it would have been like had Alias premiered second and Lost first. Would things have been different or was the five year journey what was meant to happen? Who knows. But, I will always have time to pop in an Alias DVD and catch up with Sydney Bristow, her father and the CIA.