Carborendum

I did read them. And what I understood was the expansion of the point I made. But your post provided the proper term: Covenant People (not just the House of Israel). "Missionary work" prior to Christ was only done to the covenant people. I believe that prior to the flood, the covenant people included all of the human race except for the land of Canaan (which at the time were the people of Cain - IIRC). After Christ, "missionary work" was primarily towards the unconverted Jew of the era (covenant people). Even after Peter's "unclean" vision, the gentiles were not heavily proselyted until Paul's conversion. And I believe that The Lord's response to Peter was telling: It appears that something happened that cause God to cleanse the gentiles. I suspect it had to do with the scattering of Israel and the blood of Israel was infused into the entire population. But there was still some "on switch" that was required even after all the conditions had been set. That "on switch" was the resurrection. Verse 18 was particularly telling: Did they not have the gift of repentance prior to that?

Yes, to the House of Israel. Nephites and Lamanites satisfy that criterion. I said "The House of Israel." It would imply that I was talking about the time period when the House of Israel actually existed. The period of time before that, there was no distinction. So, it was obviously not an issue.

So, I spoke with my bishop about fine-tuning our return-to-church plans. The plans now include splitting the ward into 7 groups. Each week only two or three groups will meet at the same time on rotation, mixing with all the other groups over the course of three to four week cycles. Through the rotation, we will eventually get to see everyone in the ward over the course of three months. He mentioned that it took six weeks for the Area presidency to put together this idea. And they're taking a few more weeks to implement it on the ward level because there is a lot to balance -- especially in a ward our size. Combine that with the announcement this week that October Conference will be virtual only, it looks like we're not going to see normal church activity until Thanksgiving or Christmas at the earliest. I'm betting on the beginning of the year. But it could be as late as April Conference.

Thanks for that article. Up until now I hadn't even heard of any conservative news source depicting any type of conservative concern that the riots and protests would cause a problem with spreading COVID. I only saw reports from conservative sources saying essentially "liberal sources warn of COVID spike due to protests.

I wouldn't be surprised either. But it would probably depend on the job. I think Mormons would make lousy spies. But my two brothers-in-law work for government contractors. They say that there is a HUGE percentage of Saints working on pretty much every project they win -- along with many other contractors. If memory serves, their estimates were around 30% in a state that only had about a 5% LDS presence. My stake president at the time also worked for one of these government contractors. He confirmed the estimated LDS presence. And he specifically said that "the LDS lifestyle tends to be conducive to the requirements of employment with contracts that require clearance for Top Secret clearance. He mentioned: stable marriage, no gambling or criminal backgrounds. no drug or alcohol problems, life experience beyond college life... And it makes sense. We also need to point out that although this is disproportionately in favor of LDS employees, 2/3 of them were still non-LDS.

I thought I'd share this: Many plants in the cucurbit family (melons, squashes, cucumbers...) go through this stage where they are shaped something like a pear. I hadn't noticed previous plants producing any melons with this shape. But apparently melons do this as well. One of my two big ones maintained the bi-diameter shape until very recently. It is still a little bit lopsided. But I think I'm the only one who notices it because I've been keeping an eye on it. Not all of them do this. Most have had the "capsule" shape throughout their development. We'll see how this one develops.

One bit of advice I'd offer is that unless you are a student, I'd avoid Provo. Go for Springville or MAYbe Orem. Try somewhere on the outskirts away from student housing. The reason is that if you're a renter in those areas, it is much more profitable, dependable, and secure to rent to students. If they're renting to non-students, I'd wonder why.

Yes, and they are pretty smart for recognizing all that. But as I mentioned, I found these other guys pretty stupid for taking their own position.

The one I didn't get because I was Asian was before such laws were in place. The interviewer took one look at me and questioned my name because it was a German name. How could I have such a name and such a face. When I informed him that I was adopted and that was indeed my name, he abruptly pushed all the papers together and said,"well, it appears we've already filled the position." Then as I walked out, I heard the name of the guy being called out of the waiting room. He and I had been speaking for a bit when we learned we were there for the same position. The LDS ones were a little more subtle. I was in the interview process when they got to the part in my resume where my education came up (BYU). I remember two of them clearly. I don't clearly remember the third one, so I can't tell you the details of that one. But I remember it being the exact same feeling as the other two. Essentially, when BYU came up in the discussion people started sounding nervous. Their eyes literally shifted as if hiding something. They tripped over words a bit. Questions were no longer technical, but about how I would get along with people. Apparently they had forgotten that they already covered that in the first interview. You have to understand that in my line of work, they cover everything in the first interview. If you make it past that, then you're either on a very short list or you're already chosen and it is just a formality for the higher ups to get a look at you. Why didn't I sue? I don't care to work with people who don't want to work with me. I actually support THE RIGHT to be wrong in a free society. They were definitely wrong. And you know what? I really was the best for the position. And if they're going to hold my faith against me, it's their loss. I did find other jobs. It didn't hurt me one bit. But I can tell you that they were worse off for not having hired me. Who do you think was better off afterward? Their choices caused their own consequences. For some reason, people see this as some major affront. I think it just shows how stupid they are. They're willing to let someone's religion obscure the professional skills I could have used to help them produce more quality work. If they really want to hold on to bigotry over real, meaningful criteria, they've earned their reward.

Yes, that occurred to me as well. But that was what the host said. And Musk didn't correct him, so the interview went on.

I've been spending some time thinking about the whole idea of "defunding" the police. First, to be clear, there are two mentalities regarding what "defunding" means. Literally get rid of police departments completely. Reduce the scope of police mission statements to only handle things that no one else can do. Then do other (less lethal) methods to cover most of the (let's say non-violent) police calls. I am certainly against option one (for the most part -- see below). But there are actually people out there saying that they are very much for it. But I'm wondering about how option two would be implemented. The libertarian/constitutionalist side of me is reminded that there is only ONE LEO that is established by the Constitution: The Sheriff. All others were established by executive action or by legislation. It would then make sense to go with option 2 -- IF, it is done right, IF the sheriff's office is kept. Since this would be a completely different approach, it would be premature to up and say exactly what would and would not be included. This has to take some thought. The reason the sheriff's office is different is the nature of the way sheriffs run things. While some other LEOs also have elections for the heads, the elections sure help.

Is this what you're talking about? https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/187346-nasa-tests-impossible-no-fuel-quantum-space-engine-and-it-actually-works Or maybe: https://www.hilarispublisher.com/proceedings/gas-core-nuclear-rocket-engine-for-interstellar-space-travel-21796.html

This is the real question, isn't it? As an atheist, you refuse to believe in God because he is not "provable." Right? Then how do you believe in this that is equally unprovable? (doesn't show up in statistics). I do admit that being of any race is fundamentally different in two different ways: The ways you speak of are so small and infrequent that it simply cannot be justifiably called "systemic". They simply don't happen that often. Notice that is not a denial it happens. But a disagrement on the level and frequency. The ways conservatives tend to speak of it are much more common and can be considered systemic. And they are more easily addressed from an internal approach rather than an external approach. This comes from the mentality that Man tries to take the poor man out of the gutter, and he goes right back in. Christ takes the gutter out of the man, and he takes himself out of the gutter. The liberal approach is to tell the black man that there's nothing wrong with having the gutter inside you, others need to keep telling you it is ok. Then they wonder why they never get out of the gutter. I've actually seen these scenarios play out far too often when I work with the poor. And it isn't just black people. I've worked with plenty of poor white people. And there really is not much difference in the mentality between black and white when it comes to the "poor" mentality. It is not that "bad things happened to them". Bad things happen to everyone. Granted, some worse than others. But the fact is that "the middle class mentality" will tend to bounce back more easily from "bad things" than "poor" mentality no matter how "bad" those things are. And I've seen very bad things happen to both black and white, poor and middle class. And the class and race had nothing to do with who bounced back and who didn't. The one quality that came close to being a constant was the mentality that got them through it; not just to survive, but to thrive; not in spite of the trial, but because of the trial. The "sellout" mentality is the "gutter in the man" in the black community. The white community's gutter is "woe is me". They are both about the same, but just a different take and supposedly different reasons. But knowing people's stories by working with them for months at a time, it is all about "I can't do it." Both are just as debilitating when it comes to facing trials. Middle class mentality is "I have to do it. For wealthy, I have to create two mentalities: If you were born into a wealthy family, sometimes you can have the middle class mentality of "I have to do it." They're afraid of losing what they have just as much as the middle class person. Some who were born into it, and most people who achieved wealth have the mentality of "I'm going to do it." And regardless of the obstacles, they make it happen. It may take time. But they believe time is on their side. Always. I can't do it. I have to do it. I'm going to do it. Change the mentality and they will change their condition themselves.

Pretty simple. The questions and comments I got in that meeting were idiotic and didn't consider the realities of the sun or of constructability. They wanted a 26 gage flat panel (no flutes). I had to point out that a 26 gage flat sheet is difficult to work with because it would flop around during construction. And it would likely sag in the middle of the frame. They also thought (I kid you not) that the sun would be north at noon (because it is summer). This would be less desirable. Sometimes it is done for practicality of construction/access, but is is workable. The reason is that during winter months, the sun being further south would cause "the partial shadow" problem. If you're wearing sunglasses, then your eyes cannot as easily discern a field of vision with multiple levels of light. Your eyes adjust to the brighter areas, and cannot see the darker areas. So if the sun is partially shading the panel, you have to do a lot of shifting your body to cover/uncover the areas of the panel that you're looking at. If, instead, the shade/light of the panel area is constant, your eyes can adjust more easily.

I'd agree with that, but... I can certainly understand that. Sometimes I feel the same way about Republicans. I don't know if we really "deny" it is different. It is just that every individual varies just as much as any category differs. In other words life always gives you difficult things to work with. And in today's world of affirmative action, opportunities abound for minorities. I certainly don't deny that racism exists. But I just see it differently than you do. Race exists. That's a simple fact. Racism exists. Simple fact. But if the issue is very complex, then we can't simply boil it down to "Blacks have it worse than everyone else." That's way too simplistic. BTW, I was once denied a job because I was Asian. But I was denied jobs multiple times because I was a "Mormon". Now that I've admitted racism exists, can you at least admit that the "sellout mentality" also exists? *************************** I'd really ask you to consider the story of Chris Gardner (Pursuit of Happyness -- Will Smith movie, and autobiographical book). Chris was asked about the race issue. Was that an impediment. He said. Here was a man who was flat broke. In a homeless shelter with a baby (in real life it was a baby that couldn't even walk yet -- the movie used a young Jayden Smith because... movies). But he didn't ever cry "woe is me". He simply made it through force of will or he wasn't going to make it. Now, I'd ask you: Which is more crippling? The dearth of the right connections? Or the mentality that the world will never allow me to succeed because I'm being held down by "the man". I'd argue that the fatalist attitude is what kills opportunity more than having no connections. I'd also argue that because of this "sellout culture" blacks put more limitations on themselves today than blacks had put on them by society in the 70s (in general. Obviously parts of the country had pockets of "old school" racism that were still pretty bad) back in the 70s. Yup. You know, I really was surprised when he said that. It was only then that I realized that for all the things he said that inflamed racial tensions, he never actually participated in cancel culture. I actually got to appreciate that quality about him.

If all the supposedly bad stuff can be blamed on racism, and NOT on the destruction of the families of black people, then what would you say about: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14911/scandinavia-crime And Scandanavia is supposed to be the Liberal/socialist model for the world. Is this also not about racism? If you believe the Gates Institute is too conservative, then what about Wikipedia? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_Sweden Why were such statistics requests denied? Could there be an agenda? And just to disillusion the Scandanavian myths: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/05/scandinavian-miracle-denmark-finland-iceland-norway-sweden

Sometimes it is. Remember that Cato is not Conservative either. It is libertarian. And while they have their conservative and liberal wings, they are first and foremost very negative when it comes to government (incl police). In this case, I believe I showed that it was more sensationalism than facts. Then you'll be looking a long time. So, you don't blame Trump for this? Most liberals do. The reason I brought it up is that you can't laugh at honor and be shocked to find traitors in your midst. It doesn't occur to you that the very basis of the Democrat platform is for us to consider race before we make any decisions about a person? You may think that means we're supposed to be nicer to minorities, but that isn't how the human mind works. https://www.nycpba.org/press-releases/2018/pba-endorsements/ See below: Only one republican endorsement out of 16. Every endorsement is approved by the executives as well as the membership at large. Based on this statement and the ones preceeding, I'm finding it difficult to find any other conclusion than: You believe most of the racists in the Democrat party are the police and other government officials. I would agree in part. I think that it is impossible to be a Democrat and not be racist. It is the party platform to have race be a big issue. Any intersectionality be an issue. If you aren't aware of it, then you can't be a Democrat -- so says the cancel culture. I'm aware. What perspective am I supposed to get from it? We may not have those statistics. But we do have other statistics that are in direct contradiction to the assumptions that you've made here. We've already discussed those on this and other recent threads. I'm not going to go over them again. You probably just disbelieve them anyway. Confirmation bias.

So there is a private industry market for his services. Huzzah!!!

Like what?

I just had to explain something to the project manager of a very large project at work. I thought it would be a great exercise for this thread. Here is the problem: There is an electrical control panel (3'x3') mounted on a pole in the middle of an industrial plant. It is set with the top at about 5'-6" for easy use by someone of average height. The panel has two doors -- one opening in each direction (right and left). There is a roof shelter about 4' x 4' above it. Supporting the roof shelter, is a frame around the perimeter of the 4'x4' projected area. Question1: Which direction should the panel doors face for the user to minimize the user seeing the sun while using the panel? Question2: What would you use for the roof material to be placed on a 4' square frame? Flat steel plate 1/4" thk or corrugated steel sheets (26 guage)? NOTE: corrugations are at 9" on center.

So, in the midst of all the protests and riots, I had forgotten that we just saw the SpaceX launch. It was a great achievement of modern engineering and entrepreneurship. I remember watching some late night talk show where Elon Musk made an appearance. The host made the comment: I thought that was indeed pretty impressive. Someone made the comment that he was a multi-millionaire. It takes those resources to do this. How did he become a multi-millionaire. Musk's response: It made me wonder what NASA thought about SpaceX. I called my cousin who works there. I ended up being rather disappointed. I thought that from the "3 parties" remark, that his space venture was entirely private sector. Nope. Essentially, SpaceX is just another government contractor. The entrepreneurial accomplishment was that he's pretty much the first "big player" in space contracting in a VERY long time. He's also on a short list of contractors that work with both NASA and the military as prime contractors on multi-billion dollar programs. This would also be the short list to work on the Space Force. Technologically, this latest launch was essentially the replacement for the Space Shuttle. The shuttle was retired at G.W. Bush's mandate due to safety concerns. After the last explosion, he was told that there was no way to protect against the design flaw that caused the last explosion (leading edge wing damage during re-entry). This vehicle incorporates part of the shuttle design philosophy and the Apollo program design philosophy. And they created the drone ship design for retrieval. That was kind of impressive. It seems we learned from our mistakes. And we now have the means to go back and forth much more easily than before. I would have hoped that a private sector solution to getting satellites in place for various communications would be marketable. But, no, we're still dilluting the cost through government taxation. Regardless, I thought it would be nice to talk about some really cool, really good thing amidst the misery we keep hearing on the news these days.

Bleah. You did pick a different subject, right?

Thanks, JAG. I know you meant to respond to Jim. But this actually helps me understand this position much better than the ideas I had when I posted the original post. If we look at it through this lens, there is the danger of making the powers of God more of a sideshow than the miracles they really are.

This has been true for many years now. I don't remember what year it was. But there was a huge racial event -- it may have been Rodney King -- which really divided races. Ever since that event, most police have been more reticent to pull the trigger against a black man precisely because they were afraid of being considered racist. The fact is that the numbers went the other way prior to that event. So, this was certainly an improvement. But it should be obvious that the problem is not as bad as people would have us believe. It is better. The "systemic" effect is the opposite of what human nature would normally present.

No, why?