10th Article of Faith

10 We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory.

Need for speed

There are lots of bandwidth testers out there but I ran across this one the other day and I really liked how cool it was. Lots of features, great UI and graphics and it saves your results. It's actually usable. So, if you're curious about how fast your connection is check it out.Speedtest.net

Phunny

I ran across this T-shirt today. Very funny. For those of you not 'hip' on Mac stuff, the keystroke under "Apple" is the keystroke for 'new' as in new window or new document etc. Of course 'CTRL-C' is the Windows keystroke for 'Copy'.
They are making fun of the Operating System wars between Apple's OSX and Windows upcoming MUCH MUCH delayed Vista Windows OS. A lot of people are having fun accusing M$ of copying Apple's OS releases and incorporating them in their yet to be released OS.
I don't think it's funny. It's just fact. They've been doing it since the beginning, why would they stop now?
Anyway, I got a kick out of the T-shirt. You can buy it HERE.

Oh, and if you want to see a tongue in cheek hi-tech religious joke T-shirt check it out HERE. The keystroke here is for 'SAVE's.

9th Article of Faith

9 We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.

Measure your geekiness

Geek Test
It's been a long time since I've posted one of these kind of tests. Most of them are pretty stupid. Including this one.
However, this test is extensive and it was fun to see how many boxes I could check. I was actually surprised at how 'low' I ended up on the Geek scale. My score was, 22.28797% or 'Total Geek'.
What kind of Geek are you?

Eco Fads

The next  Prius .

8th Article of Faith

8 We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.

7th Article of Faith

7 We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, and so forth.

Hot Summer Nights

This is for those of you who have been following Global Warming. Whether you believe in it or not it has become a 'thing'. It has become part of our venacular and a day doesn't go by that it doesn't show up in the news in one form or another.
For me, the jury is still out on whether it is a real phenomena or not. Whether it is what 'they' really say it is. The fact that we have only been keeping temperature records for close to a hundred years tells me that there could be larger 'patterns' at work that we don't have data on. Whether you believe it or not something is happening and you cannot dispute that. Here is another example of something that has been going on related to 'Global Warming'.
It has to do with night temperatures in the summer time. Evidently there is overwhelming evidence that for several years now we have had very high summertime nighttime temps. The article explains it a little better than I am.
A couple of weeks ago our local weatherman , Mark Eubank, showed some graphs of how this has been happening locally here in Utah. It shocked me and you could tell he was 'impressed' by the data as well. I wish I could find the charts somewhere so you could see the data. It really was striking how much warmer our summertime nights have become in just the last 5-7 years.
I must admit that the more I see stuff like this and see how striking the change is I get closer to believing that Global Warming is real and that it is not just a 'pattern' or a 'cycle'. Only time will tell I suppose. In the meantime I will crank up the A/C grab a nice cold soda from the fridge turn on my large screen TV crank up the surround sound and watch all the lights go out in LA ;)

CSI ruined America

After reading this article I now think that CSI the television show that deals with tracking down bad guys using forensic science has ruined America. At least ruined being a teenager in America. Some kids in Norco, California toilet papered the house of a family of 8. The Mother used the same tactics that the CSI crew would use to track down the teenagers responsible and their case is now sitting on the District Attorneys desk. One of the perps was an adult and could face jail time. The other 5, juveniles, could face paying restitution. Now, to be fair, in this case the kids deserved to get caught because they caused some damage to the family's property. And truthfully, that is probably the only reason the Mother went to such extraordinary means to track them down. She didn't want them to get away with it.
The larger point I'm trying to make is that even if property damage hadn't been done in an otherwise annoying 'teenage' prank, someone could have tracked you down using technology that just wasn't around when I was a teenager toilet papering the neighborhood during summer sleepovers. Now, I have to warn my kids that if they choose to engage in this type of activity they could end up in front of the District Attorney.
The America of my youth is officially gone.

6th Article of Faith

6 We believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, and so forth.

Nice Guys get results

I found this article that talks about 5 business maxims that have changed or that need to change. I agree with them and I wish corporate America would adopt this 'new' thinking. Unfortunately I see too many that don't think this way and drive themselves and their businesses into the ground trying to implement the old ways.
For example the idea that a business has to keep growing or it will die. I have never understood this way of thinking. Our stock market is driven by this theory. If a business's growth slows or even retracts you can kiss the stock price goodbye. I think this is flawed thinking and I can't see how this thinking will ever change without some kind of complete meltdown of the economy to force people and businesses to 'reboot' and think different.
Of course some growth is necessary to keep a business in 'business'. The linked article has a great example of why this maxim should be changed.

Drunkers Part 2

I found some answers to my question in my last post about Mel Gibson's self destruction.
The article included this statement:

"Dr. Marc Galanter says alcohol can often cause people to say things they normally wouldn't—and doesn't necessarily mean those statements should be taken at face value. "When people are heavily intoxicated, they often say things that relate to issues that may be on their mind, but don't necessarily reflect their true attitudes as they'd express them when sober," says Galanter, director of the alcohol and drug abuse division at New York University Medical Center. "You end up with a person whose judgment is compromised, who has trouble thinking clearly, and whose memory may be affected.""

It's one so called 'experts' expert opinion and it sounds about right to me but I still wonder if it's really true.

Assuming this is true where did the words come from that Mel spewed the other night? There has to be some reason that he would say something like that even if he is drunk and not coherent and in control of his conscious thoughts etc. It makes me wonder what I would say in the same situation. Maybe I should give it a try and see what comes out. Now hold on, before you get all concerned. Whatever I might say I won't be responsible for. Right?

Drunkers

Ok, I have a question. Some of you that read Clariticity, friends and family have gotten 'drunk' before. I'm assuming this is true. Wait a minute, I remember, it is true, I've seen it. Anyway, my personal admission is that I have never before been drunk. There, if you had any doubts now you know. My question is, when you're drunk are you really responsible for anything you might say while intoxicated? I mean do you really even know what you're doing or saying? You can probably guess why I am asking this.
Mel Gibson was recently arrested for DUI and the bigger story is what he said while police were in the process of arresting and booking him. He is getting crucified in the press for what he said about Jews. This has really surprised me. Can he really be held accountable for things he said while in that state? I want to say, "What's the big deal, he was drunk!" But evidently I am off the mark here because people are saying his career is over and that no one will ever work with him again etc.
I'm not condoning what he said. It was wrong. Absolutely. However, my experience with drunk people both here in the US and while I spent 2 years overseas in Japan serving as a missionary is that people in that state have no control over themselves and that they aren't really even 'themselves' while under the 'influence'.
So, I am perplexed by the reaction from Hollywood and the press and the Jewish nation. Were people just waiting to nail Mel and are using this as their chance? Is it because he made a film about Christ and has professed a strong Christian faith? Is it because drunk people let out their 'true' feelings when under the influence and everyone is surprised that a self-professed Christian said such horrible anti-semitic things?
I really want to understand this better. Any thoughts you might have please share.

HungryPod

Just when I thought I had heard of everything. If someone told me that you could make money by offering to load people's CD collections on to their iPods for them I would have laughed. Well, one woman has made it a six figure business and it's growing. Unbelievable.
Makes me wonder what else people will pay for.

5th Article of Faith

5 We believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof.

4th Article of Faith

4 We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.