Archives for November 2010

QR Codes

November 11, 2010 by rickety 2 Comments

Stake Conference Calendar Event QR Code

A QR Code is a matrix barcode readable by mobile phones with a camera, and smartphones. The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on a white background. QR is the acronym for Quick Response, as the code allows its contents to be decoded at high speed.

QR Code Uses

QR Codes can be used to display text to the user, to add a vCard contact to the user’s device, to open a URI or to compose a text message or email. Users can also generate and print their own QR Code for others to scan and use by visiting one of several free QR Code generating sites.

Creating A QR Code

I tried experimenting with QR Codes by creating a QR Code Calendar Event for our Stake Conference General Session. In the top right is the QR code I created using the QR Code Generator from the ZXing Project. I selected a Calendar event, entered the details, and chose a medium (M) barcode size. The screenshot below shows the results. Click on the image to enlarge.

Generate your own QR codes at the ZXing Project.

Nexus One displays data from QR Code scan

Displaying data from a QR Code scan

Reading A QR Code

To read the QR code on my smartphone I used ShopSavvy that I already had installed. I selected “Search for a product”, and held up the camera to my QR Code at the top right of this post. ShopSavvy immediately recognized the code as a Google Calendar Event. To add the event to my calendar I scrolled down and selected “Done.”

The results were less than satisfactory. I found that ShopSavvy did not add the location and the description of the event to Google Calendar. By using Barcode Scanner by ZXing Team I got much better results. As you can see from the Google calendar screenshot below, all the information was captured and saved.

QR Code Readers

Many Android phones come with QR code readers already installed, as do most Nokia phones running S60 3rd Edition or newer. Blackberry phones running Blackberry Messenger 5.0 (or more recent versions) can also scan QR codes using the “Scan A Group Barcode” option in the BBM menu. Both the Android Market and the iTunes App Store offer several free applications that can decode QR matrices. Similar software can be downloaded and installed onto S60 phones.

See if your cell phone camera will recognize my QR code.

Missionary Dan Email #31 from Vancouver, Washington

November 9, 2010 by rickety 2 Comments

We had a fun trip last week to Multnomah Falls. It is a big water fall and water certainly falls there. We hiked to the top and looked over the gorge. My companion and I ran down in half the time it took to get up. My legs were sore till about Saturday from that because of the impact of running downhill. It was well worth it.

Raberta is going to be baptized on November 20th. She is really excited about that and so are we. She is loving everything about church. We are also teaching someone named Hope. Its always a nice joke to say, I hope she’ll be there.

Our week was spent doing some service for a member that was moving and teaching many people that we have been working with for awhile. We are striving to find more people to teach and have been doing more tracking, asking members to help, and talking to people on the street. I always enjoy meeting people on the street and talking to them. I have found that is when people are more open to letting us come to their house. It has been the main source of finding new investigators.

There were two to three members that wanted to feed us for Thanksgiving. It was first come first serve on the sign up sheet. It is crazy that it isn’t that far away. We are going to have Zone Conference the day after and I’m excited about that.

Elder Powell is learning quickly and he took the lead more this week. He is learning the area very well and it has been more of a focus for us this week to teach him all the knowledge I have of the area. I’ve never been in an area this long and it was amazing to see how many people I’ve actually taught, talked to, and know where they live. I have the location of every street in my area memorized and can give step by step instructions to any place from where ever I am.

The investigators we have been working with for a while I can name off their address. It is cool how that kind of thing just comes. Anyhow this is the knowledge that we are working on getting Elder Powell to know so that he can lead his new companion around. It’ll be an exciting month ahead of us.

I hope all is going well, I know that the Book of Mormon is true!

Love, Elder Willoughby

Elder Daniel Willoughby is serving in the Washington Kennewick Mission. If you want to communicate with Daniel, write in the comments or use one of these addresses.

The Scriptures on Religion

November 7, 2010 by rickety Leave a Comment

If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. (James 1:26-27)

And again, the Lord has said that: Ye shall defend your families even unto bloodshed. Therefore for this cause were the Nephites contending with the Lamanites, to defend themselves, and their families, and their lands, their country, and their rights, and their religion. (Alma 43:47)

We believe that religion is instituted of God; and that men are amenable to him, and to him only, for the exercise of it, unless their religious opinions prompt them to infringe upon the rights and liberties of others; but we do not believe that human law has a right to interfere in prescribing rules of worship to bind the consciences of men, nor dictate forms for public or private devotion; that the civil magistrate should restrain crime, but never control conscience; should punish guilt, but never suppress the freedom of the soul. (Doctrine and Covenants 134:4)

Some time in the second year after our removal to Manchester, there was in the place where we lived an unusual excitement on the subject of religion. It commenced with the Methodists, but soon became general among all the sects in that region of country. Indeed, the whole district of country seemed affected by it, and great multitudes united themselves to the different religious parties, which created no small stir and division amongst the people, some crying, “Lo, here!” and others, “Lo, there!” Some were contending for the Methodist faith, some for the Presbyterian, and some for the Baptist. (Joseph Smith — History 1:5)

Behold, we have not come out to battle against you that we might shed your blood for power; neither do we desire to bring any one to the yoke of bondage. But this is the very cause for which ye have come against us; yea, and ye are angry with us because of our religion.

But now, ye behold that the Lord is with us; and ye behold that he has delivered you into our hands. And now I would that ye should understand that this is done unto us because of our religion and our faith in Christ. And now ye see that ye cannot destroy this our faith.

Now ye see that this is the true faith of God; yea, ye see that God will support, and keep, and preserve us, so long as we are faithful unto him, and unto our faith, and our religion; and never will the Lord suffer that we shall be destroyed except we should fall into transgression and deny our faith. (Alma 44:2-4)

Spiral Jetty At Rozel Point

November 5, 2010 by rickety 7 Comments

Spiral Jetty is an earthwork sculpture constructed in 1970 by American sculptor Robert Smithson. This is a view of the Jetty from the dirt road.

Last Tuesday afternoon found Paul and I heading north to visit Spiral Jetty at Rozal Point. It was a warm day for Northern Utah in November. We drove past the Golden Spike Visitors Center and followed the signs to Spiral Jetty. The dirt road was being graded in places as we traveled closer to the northern shore of the Great Salt Lake. Google Maps on my Nexus didn’t know about Spiral Jetty but responded to Rozel Point.

I took several photographs of our visit. Click on the images to enlarge.

In 2008 it was announced that there were plans for exploratory oil drilling approximately five miles from the jetty. The news was met with strong resistance from artists, and the state of Utah received more than 3,000 e-mails about the plan, most opposing the drilling. Shown here are the remains of prior exploration just a few hundred feet from the Spiral.

Spiral Jetty forms a 1,500-foot-long, 15-foot-wide counterclockwise coil jutting from the shore of the lake which is only visible when the level of the Great Salt Lake falls below an elevation of 4,197.8 feet. Paul stands by the Spiral entrance to give you some perspective on its size.

Due to a drought, the jetty re-emerged in 2004 and was completely exposed for almost a year. The lake level rose again during the spring of 2005 because of a near record-setting snowpack in the mountains and partially submerged the Jetty again. Here are the ruins of a building right by the Jetty. Whether it was built by the pioneers or was used for oil exploration, I know not.

Videos

Notice how sand has filled in the spaces between the rocks. The current exposure of the jetty to the elements has led to a controversy over the preservation of the sculpture. There is a proposal to restore the original colors with the addition of more rocks, noting that the Spiral will be submerged again once the drought is over.

I did a 360 degree video at the top of the hill overlooking the Spiral. The issue of preservation has been complicated by ambiguous statements by Smithson, who expressed an admiration for entropy in that he intended his works to mimic earthly attributes in that they remain in a state of arrested disruption and not be kept from destruction.

I shot this on our return. It was a smooth ride once we were a few miles from Spiral Jetty. The wipers quit working so the windshield had to stay dirty.

The Spiral is built entirely of mud, salt crystals, basalt rocks, earth, and water. This is the end of the long arm of the Spiral as it makes its first curve.

At the time of its construction in 1970, the water level of the lake was unusually low because of a drought. Within a few years, the water level returned to normal and submerged the Jetty for the next three decades. Seen here is Paul standing on the innermost spiral.

Lake levels have receeded and, as of fall 2010, the Jetty is again walkable and visible. Originally black basalt rock against ruddy water, it is now largely white against pink due to salt encrustation and lower water levels.

The Spiral was financed in part by a $9,000 grant from the Virginia Dwan Gallery of New York. A 20-year lease for the site was granted for $100 annually.

The only other visitors were a couple walking south of the Spiral towards the waterfront.

Paul stands by a relic of some past exploration activity.

To move the rock into the lake, Smithson hired contractor Whitaker Construction's Bob Phillips of nearby Ogden, Utah, who used two dump trucks, a large tractor, and a front end loader to haul the 6,550 tons of rock and earth into the Lake. The Lake edge is currently several hundred feet from the Spiral.

Smithson began work on the jetty in April 1970. Construction took six days. Smithson died in a plane crash in Texas three years after finishing the Jetty.

The sculpture is currently owned by the Dia Art Foundation of New York, acquired as a gift from the Estate of the artist in 1999.

Paul on Politics: Silly Sophistry of Consensus

November 4, 2010 by paul w 14 Comments

President Hoover addresses joint session of Congress at bicentennial ceremony commemorating the 200th anniversary of the birth of George Washington.

My guest writer today is my uncle Paul.

Notion of Consensus

Today’s conventional wisdom touts consensus as the ideal for a congress or legislators to seek. However, conventional wisdom isn’t always right or wise, nor is consensus necessarily a noble goal. Consider this:

Consensus means average. Do you want our ambitions to be just average? In addition, the authors of our Constitution constructed Federal law as a system of checks and balances on government — not as a consensus building document. Our founder’s design for legislating dictated that concepts are to be brought before the separate chambers of Congress where discussion about elements described in bills occurs.

After receiving the bills, Congressional members make their most persuasive arguments for or against the bill. After all members that want to have had their say, the vote for supremacy follows. Based upon the vote, the bill is either accepted or rejected by the Congress. The agreed upon bills are referred to the President for his concurrence and signature before succeeding to become law.

No Requirement for Consensus

The foregoing is a simplification of the process but illustrates that there is no requirement for consensus at all. Attempting consensus connotes horse trading which leads to corruption. In the vernacular the products are called earmarks among other appellations.

Slavishly striving for consensus as a goal rather than good government is an aberration of Constitutional intent. Poor law deserves no confirmation. Why would a legislator agree to bad law for the sake of being recognized as one who grants concessions searching for affability, or worse — corruption? If there is merit to the bill and enough voting members are sufficiently convinced, then the bill becomes law. Otherwise the bill is rejected and good riddance. Compromise rather than rewriting the bill or rejecting it leads to bad law. Further, the collusion of legislators who engage in passing laws strictly to appropriate funds for special interests whom they are dependent upon for campaign contributions is an abomination on the noble act of making laws for a free people.

A Shoddy Rationalization for Corruption

“Bringing home the bacon” is a popular misconception about governing. What if the bacon isn’t needed and who pays for the bacon? For example, what is the public good of forcing the Armed Services to accept weapons systems because some legislator is skillful at under the table deals? Who can justify taking money from a struggling family and giving it to someone for purchasing services we don’t need? It follows the “bacon” is a shoddy rationalization for corruption. Thankfully that notion is being challenged by the Tea Parties. Moreover, our Constitution doesn’t require compromise or dirty dealing to pass laws. Law making simply requires a vote. Our Constitution is not designed to make passing laws easy. Passing bad law is supposed to be hard to do.

Experience show us that Legislators are conditioned to fear being labeled an obstructionist if they don’t compromise. My experience is that if one takes a principled stand he loses some votes and gains others. Then there is the oily legislator that refuses to take any stand fearing voters on both sides of the proposition. Where is the dignity arising from being mendacious?

Collision Between Parties

Where has consensus gotten us? Consensus got us into a national debt for one thing. After the Republican drubbing during the 2008 election, all the talk afterwards was that Republicans needed to be more like Democrats if they were to regain power — that is a false premise.

Getting along, loosely tabulated, since 1939, is what kept Republicans in the minority for thirty years. Republicans have held both houses of Congress only 14 years while Democrats count 68 years.

Best government depends upon Collision between parties. Without collision, we suffer collusion. On a collusive basis, why have parties at all? We don’t all agree about everything nor should a vibrant nation be a Johnny-one-note. Parties help us to avoid open civil warfare.

Photo Credit: Library of Congress

Missionary Dan Email #30 from Vancouver, Washington

November 3, 2010 by rickety Leave a Comment

We went to the Halloween trunk or treat. Raberta came and showed off her costume. I decided to turn my suit jacket inside out. It definitely is awesome. Yes, there are dragons on my bright gold yellow inside of suit. It is my favorite. We’ve been working with Raberta more and more and she is progressing well.

We have also worked a lot with Keelin. He is 10 years old and understands very well. We were teaching him about the baptismal covenant and were saying that we can renew it when we partake of the sacrament. He added in, “Yeah and doesn’t the bread represent his body and the water represent his blood?” We were taken back a little as we aren’t used to investigators saying things like that — even though it is common knowledge. He is simply a very smart kid and taught a bit by his member grandma.

The candy was great. Thanks for sending the shirt as well. We stayed at our apartment for Halloween because President told us to. We have been working and recently found some new investigators which always brightens what will come. It is awesome to have served for 2 years. It is somewhat strange to still be serving, but at the same time I am very grateful. There is no better way to spend the time I have.

I’ll see if someone in the ward can measure me for my tux. I’m sure that they can work with measurements I get. It sounds like the wedding plans are working out quite nicely. Happy Halloween. Today we are going on a hike with our Zone. So it is exciting! Thanks for all the support.

Love, Elder Willoughby

Elder Daniel Willoughby is serving in the Washington Kennewick Mission. If you want to communicate with Daniel, write in the comments or use one of these addresses.