National Archives Online

According to a recent USAToday article, the National Archives are steadily offering more and more public records in a digital format. The website is still a bit difficult to navigate, but a great place to start is the America's Historical Documents page.

MLK day trip

We took advantage of the holiday to see some sites in downtown DC. On top is the room where Lincoln passed away after being shot. The one on bottom is Ford's Theatre, the site of the assassination attempt by John Wilkes Booth. I never realized before that the surrender of General Lee (April 9, 1865) and the assassination (April 14, 1865) came so close together.

The case for Wii fitness

A blogger recently performed an experiment to see if the Nintendo Wii could really deliver on the claim of better fitness by playing video games. Bottom line results seem to indicate that his 30-minutes a day made a difference as he lost 9 lbs. and 2.5" from his waist in 6 weeks.

This looks like a fun way to exercise. Of course, any decent diet and exercise program must include the disclaimer "actual results may vary".

Home computer protection

If you have little ones, Toddler Keys is a great way to both entertain your child and protect your home computer from curious fingers. It has a fairly intuititve interface and some fun options.

The five dollar lawn

There is a wonderful story about a boy learning the intangible benefits of working hard and doing a job well titled "The Countess and the Impossible" by Richard Thurman. The story appeared in the Reader's Digest in 1958. Apparently, many people have had trouble locating it online. I found it by searching for the term "five dollar lawn" in the Search only Conference Talks box on the search page of lds.org. The result is an address by Elder Vaughn J. Featherstone titled "The Gospel of Jesus Christ Is the Golden Door" in which the story appears to be quoted in full.

You can also view the story quoted in full by clicking on the comments for this post.

Signs in the heavens?

Offbeat news on CNN this morning about the falling sky, but then again we've been promised "great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven. " (Luke 21:11)

Think your information is safe?

Privacy Rights Clearinghouse has posted a chronology of data breaches since 2005. Just another way to help us all realize how insecure our information really is.