As evidenced by the flood of AI movies hitting Twitter over the past couple of weeks, Google’s Veo 3 recently made another leap with AI video generation, adding sound and better consistency. It still has its issues (as can be seen below), but in the hands of a skilled prompter with some credits to burn it can create some fun meme-level, eight-second clips. We’re starting to see some moves towards serious artists creating longer films with AI beyond the famous Coca-Cola commercial. For exa...| Times & Seasons
I’m in the midst of pushing to finish a draft of my biography of Zerah Pulsipher and thought it would be fun to share a few items here and there that I found interesting or funny while I’m working on it. Today’s post is about the laborious journey across Iowa in the spring of 1846, concluding with a humorous story about Brigham Young claiming things were first-rate before trying to pull out a handkerchief and realizing that the pocket was full of water.| Times & Seasons
This talk, delivered to the Döbling Ward in Vienna, Austria, explores environmental stewardship and the biodiversity crisis from a Latter-day Saint perspective. The author, a sustainability student, argues that the health of planet Earth, specifically its biodiversity, is vital to the long-term sustainability of the faith community, connecting it to spiritual well-being as evidenced by scripture, temple architecture, and personal spiritual experiences.| Times & Seasons
The vulgarity and low character of Donald Trump are famously at odds with the values and teachings promoted by the Church, but another area of conflict has been less apparent despite its impact. For the Church, the Trump presidency is an apocalyptic catastrophe in the technical sense: at least a postponement and potentially a mortal blow to the eschaton we thought we were approaching.| Times & Seasons
We could argue that section 76 of the Doctrine and Covenants has had more impact on Church members than any other section in the D&C. Prior to the vision described in the revelation, Church members, and Christianity in general, had one of two conceptions of the next life; either a dualistic heaven and hell, or the universalistic idea that everyone would be saved in heaven. “The Vision”, as it was called, changed the Latter-day Saint understanding of the next life, and in the process, of h...| Times & Seasons
When I teach my occasional sociology class every once in a while race and sports get brought up. It’s one of those things that people tiptoe around and have their own opinions about but don’t really take the time to investigate or discuss. | Times & Seasons
I‘ve been going back and forth about how much to share about my background in what caused my mental illness and some of what it has been like. I wanted to skip this part because I’d rather talk in generalities, but stories matter, so here is a little bit of mine.| Times & Seasons
I really appreciate the ways in which Rosalynde Welch approaches scriptures and interpretation of scriptures. I’ve mentioned this in my review of Seven Visions of Christ in the Doctrine and Covenants, but Rosalynde also shared some of her insights in a recent interview at the Latter-day Saint history site, From the Desk. What follows here is a copost to the full interview.| Times & Seasons
In the next few weeks we pass through a series of commemorations and holidays that deal with freedom. We’ve already had Flag Day. Juneteenth followed five days later. Tomorrow is the anniversary of Joseph and Hyrum Smith’s martyrdom. In the U.S. Independence Day is just 8 days later. In France Bastille Day is on July 14th, and in Utah Pioneer Day is on July 24th. In just about six weeks the contested idea of freedom is presented to us six times, asking different questions each time.| Times & Seasons
