1 Peter 5:6 "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time."

This amazing image is "a very young and powerful pulsar, known as PSR B1509-58, or B1509 for short. The pulsar is a rapidly spinning neutron star which is spewing energy out into the space around it to create complex and intriguing structures, including one that resembles a large cosmic hand." 

(http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/multimedia/photo09-025.html)

There is obviously some scientific explanation for things like this, but I am more inclined to share the opinion of Alma, the early american continent prophet who said, "All things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator" (Alma 30:44).

So this morning I was doing some work and looked out the window and saw several cops blocking off our parking lot.  What is going on, I thought to myself!? Some co-workers and I went down and then knew something big was happening... there were about 30 police cars, a life flight helicopter landing and cops taping off a huge area.  As it turns out, the police captain pulled someone over just before 9 am (I had got to work about 15 minutes before that).  For some reason, she opens fire, hitting the police captain in the head.  Other officers who were just arriving on the scene engaged the woman in a firefight where she was fatally gunned down.  So when me and my co-workers go out to the gas station just north of our parking lot, theres a dead lady in the road and a cop being put into a life flight helicopter.  Whaaaaaaaat!?  I am seriously in dis-belief still.  What would possess this lady to shoot a cop for getting pulled over!?  There must be some more to this story, drugs, alchohol or something... I will be watching the news tonight for sure.   It was kind of surreal to have the police officers scouring our building looking for witnesses and looking for clues to where some of the rounds may have hit! 

I found this very interesting.  There is an article in the news today about a man with hyperthymestic syndrome, which is the ability to remember pretty much everything you do and experience.  This man can remember everything he has done and everything that has happened in his life.  You can ask what were you doing the morning of June 15, 1979 and he could answer without hardly thinking. 

At first, I thought I would love to have this!  It would be so amazing to be able to remember everything!  (Then I thought - actually there are some things I am probably grateful I have forgotten! :))  Anyways, as I learned more about it, it was amazing that his normal memory and ability to learn something and remember is actually average, it is just the one part of his memory that is out of this world. 

Currently, universities are studying his brain to try to unlock some mysteries into how memory works.

I have been hating gas prices lately, especially since I am now filling up my car at least once a week now that I commute up to Lehi.  Anyways, as I was filling up my car the other day, I decided once and for all I had to know how the pump knows when the tank is full.  (I always had some ideas, but I wanted to know for sure)

Howitworks.com says this:

This mechanism has been around for a long time, so it is safe to say there is not a miniature camera inside the nozzle hooked to a microprocessor. It's purely mechanical -- and ingenious.

Near the tip of the nozzle is a small hole, and a small pipe leads back from the hole into the handle. Suction is applied to this pipe using a venturi. When the tank is not full, air is being drawn through the hole by the vacuum, and the air flows easily. When gasoline in the tank rises high enough to block the hole, a mechanical linkage in the handle senses the change in suction and flips the nozzle off.

Here's a way to think about it -- you've got a small pipe with suction being applied at one end and air flowing through the pipe easily. If you stick the free end of the pipe in a glass of water, much more suction is needed, so a vacuum develops in the middle of the pipe. That vacuum can be used to flip a lever that cuts off the nozzle.

The next time you fill up your tank, look for this hole either on the inside or the outside of the tip.

Sometimes I am fascinated by some of the rare diseases out there.  This man had a simple cut from riding a bicycle as a youth and ended up with a rare condition where warts grow like trees all over his body.  Local doctors couldn\'t help him, so the condition worsened while he lost his job, his wife, and ended up in a traveling freak show to earn money to survive. 

So far, 4 lbs of warts have been removed, and he can now use his hands and feet again.  He was overjoyed to be able to wear flip flops and walk without pain, and is loving using his hands to do Soduku puzzles!  Soon he will have some skin grafts to cover damaged skin and hopes he will be able to return to a somewhat normal life.

For more on this story, with videos, click here.