Economic Crisis- Reflections from an honest journalist,

Here's a reflection of a really honest writer from the N.Y. Times, Edmund Andrews:

My Personal Credit Crisis

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/magazine/17foreclosure-t.html?_r=2&ref=magazine&pagewanted=all

Know your faith!

Impressive!

Know what you believe:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles_of_faith/2009/03/mormon_tv_harva.html

http://vimeo.com/2120177

The power of Women

I received an e-mail recently that had an article on the correlation between the safety/security of women and the relative peacefulness of the nations in which they live.

I quote from the BYU news release:

The researchers spent seven years building a new database that covers 260 factors regarding the treatment of women in 174 countries. Then they used that data to show a statistically significant relationship between the security of women and peacefulness of nations.

This research is available at http://womanstats.org and boasts that is has "the most comprehensive compilation of information on the status of women in the world."

Valerie Hudson is the project's lead.

I further quote from the article:

"We suggest that the root of what we call national security may actually lie in a very unusual or unexpected place, and that is the treatment of women in society," says lead author Valerie Hudson, BYU professor of political science. "We offer what we consider to be fairly strong preliminary empirical evidence based on our new database that this is a viable alternative hypothesis."

The researchers compared their findings regarding the treatment of women with commonly held explanations for peacefulness: levels of democracy, levels of wealth and identity of the civilization. The association with peace was strongest with the treatment of women.

"If you used all four variables to try to predict state peacefulness, the one that would give you the best predictions of the four would be violence against women," Hudson found.

Hudson and her co-authors acknowledge that the relationship they observed can operate in the other direction, that is, state insecurity and violence can exaggerate the insecurity of women. And they say much further research is necessary before their results can be considered authoritative.

Of course this is stating the obvious, but think about it- the nation who values and seeks the security of womanhood is the most peaceful... why would it not be so? Seek the security of women, and the family, and the security of the nation will follow.

So, when we're told to be especially nice to girls, we'd better listen...


But what about the men? What effect do they have on a nation? How about this article, entitled "Bare Branches" compiled by the same team, that is forecasting major problems for China, a nation with a culture that values male children over female. They will apparently be faced with 30 million surplus men in about 10 years...

Chinese leader Hu Jintao, reviews the troops... this will be quite a task in about 10 years...

The Angel "Gabe"

Recent story about a young man who listened to the Spirit in order to help someone in need:

http://www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/56349/Boy-Scout-hero-follows-the-Spirit.html

"It's a wonderful feeling to know that you served the Lord and that you really helped save these people's lives," Gabe said. "It's a feeling like none other. It's a really tremendous feeling."

Grrrilling!

I always check the news every morning or afternoon on-line. First, I was happy to read that the U of U was able to recover the thousands of medical records kept on data tapes that had been stolen (mine included) with the help of the local police department. Second, I ran into a cool article on grilling in the Deseret News. I purchased a smoker grill last year and have used it 4-5 times to grill. I am still a novice, but I am getting better. This February and March we grilled shiskabobs. Here is a delicious photo the second time we made them:

Here is the title and link to the article in the Deseret News:

You go, grill! 10 tips for a better barbecue

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,700239608,00.html

Here's a photo of another grilling event. I have to admit that I am getting a little better at it each time and enjoy using real wood charcoal and also hickory or mesquite wood chunks for flavor. The gentleman in the photo is locally renowned Chef Fei, also known as the "Grilling Master."


Happy Grilling!

Oh yeah- and I read an article recently that recommends not eating burned (carbonized) food. It apparently isn't very safe to eat. Wish I'd known that before our second grilling attempt...