Mormon apostle condemns use of atomic bomb

On the 65th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, I feel it appropriate to quote Elder J. Reuben Clark, from his October 1946 conference talk:

Now do not forget that all of the nations had prepared before World War II to use aircraft; they had already used submarines in World War I; and we in this area know we were prepared to use poison gases. Then as the crowning savagery of the war, we Americans wiped out hundreds of thousands of civilian population with the atom bomb in Japan, few if any of the ordinary civilians being any more responsible for the war than were we, and perhaps most of them no more aiding Japan in the war than we were aiding America.

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Is Apple a religion?

Jesus. Siddhārtha Gautama. Joseph Smith. Muhammad. Steve Jobs?

Two professors at Texas A&M University argued in a research paper published this month that Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, is effectively the founder of a new religion—the cult of Mac. From Fox News:

“The religious-like behavior and language surrounding Apple devotion/fandom is an example of ‘implicit religion,’” Prof. Heidi Campbell, one of the authors of the study, told FoxNews.com. Implicit religion can happen when the use of, say, technology becomes a substitute for belief and behaviors once attached to religion and religious practice, she said.

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The Location-Aware Web: Freedom Versus Privacy?

With an overwhelming majority of our posts being about religion, I think it is high time we break up the monotony and explore more of our club’s free thinking aspiration.

If you’re reading this blog, you probably have at least one online profile, be it at Facebook, Twitter, Google Buzz, LinkedIn, or any of the myriad social networking web sites. You’re probably also aware that the combination of Web 2.0, geopositioning technology (such as GPS, Wi-Fi location databases, and cell tower triangulation), and the explosive growth of mobile data networks has taken social networking and the location-aware web to new heights. Facebook lets you meet people and make friends with those in your same town. Many Twitter-based services show you if any of your friends are nearby and looking to catch a movie or go to dinner. Google Maps helps you get driving directions and public transit information based on your current location, and Google Latitude even e-mails you when people you know break out of their ordinary routine and are nearby (e.g., friends who have the night off, or family visiting from out of town). LinkedIn helps you get a job in your area through the power of word-of-mouth. There are countless useful applications for a location-aware web, but at what cost?
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