Fulness of Times

In the Book of Mormon, one of the signs given to the people of the Americas regarding the birth of the Savior was that there would be a day and a night and a day "which should be as one day as if there was no night" (3 Nephi 1:8). What would cause the night sky to be bright enough that it would not get dark? Some have suggested a supernova as the explanation for the bright new star. It would certainly add additional light at night, but this is most likely not why the night became light, at least in the Americas. A supernova would also last for more than one night. The other day I was listening, and watching, a presentation on solar events and what the speaker said struck me as the answer. September 1, 1859, amateur astronomer Richard Carrington noted some enormous dark spots on the surface of the sun during his observations, along with “two patches of intensely bright and white light” that were erupting from them (https://www.history.com/news/a-perfect-sola...

A year or so ago, I got on an email list for Mauldin Economics. They had a free geo-political analysis that I was interested in reading. Anyway, I never unsubscribed so every once in a while, among dozens of other emails trying to get me to buy some program or product, is something actually useful. Today's email was a link to a report title, "The Perfect Financial Storm? What to Expect in the Next 1-5 Years." We are entering record-long territory for the longest running bull market. Here are some quotes from the report: "By late August, the bull market in stocks that followed the 2008 crisis will be the longest ever. But it’s not the length of this bull run that is a problem. What is more concerning are the forces that have driven markets so high." "Unlike past bull markets, this run was created by an unprecedented level of central bank intervention." The last statement reminded me of one of the prophesies attributed to John Koyle about the ...

In 2017 the Utah legislature passed a state funded clinical study into Marijuana's effects. The move was seen as an effort to placate medical marijuana advocates and conservatives, but the medical marijuana pushers balked and blamed the legislature for dragging their feet and kicking the can down the legislative road. It was from that move that the medical marijuana initiative, that will be on November's ballots, took off. The proponents of medical marijuana decided the vote needed to be put to the voters, and take it out of the hands of the elected representatives. The problem is while there appears to be some valid medical use for parts of the marijuana plant, there does not appear to be adequate evidence supporting the use for the entire plant. "The Utah Medical Association has opposed the initiative in part because it says there is not enough reliable research into the medical benefits of the whole marijuana plant, what side effects are associated, what types o...