Random Thought #140

I really enjoyed this Youtube video. Its great to see the youth of the church stepping up and sharing their testimonies of the gospel in their own unique way. Hope you enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdt3EbSl9Uk

Random Thought #139

I debated a long time about whether or not I should post this. Its kind of controversial and has a couple of foul words in it but I think its the wake-up call this country needs. I apologize in advance for the foul language but I hope your find this somewhat refreshing

http://youtu.be/ML3qYHWRIZk

Random Thought #138

These images were just too spectacular not to share. I bought a telescope during Black Friday two years ago and haven't used it yet but this is what I would hope to see. Absolutely stunning.

Salt Lake City photographer Royce Bair uses digital cameras and what he describes as a 'copious collection of portable incandescent and flash lighting equipment' to capture his unique views of the night sky over Utah's spectacular canyons. His shots of Wall Street Canyon at Bryce Canyon National Park with the stars of our own galaxy, the Milky Way blazing overhead showcase some of his technique. Bair has been lecturing on night photography for two decades.


A photograph of 'Wall Street' canyon at Bryce Canyon National Park on September 20, 2011 in Utah, showing a view across our own galaxy, the Milky Way


Stunningly beautiful images capture the glory of the Milky Way taken with a digital camera


A photograph of Thor's Hammer at Bryce Canyon National Park on September 20, 2011 in Utah with the Milky Way overhead The photographs of Wall Streeet were taken at Bryce Canyon National Park on September 20, 2011 in Utah.


Bryce Canyon Amphitheater at Bryce Canyon National Park on September 21, 2011 in Utah


Under lighted night exposure at Arches National Park on May 4, 2010 in Utah


Moonrise at Bryce Canyon National Park


The Milky Way over Jackson Lake and Tetons at Grand Teton National Park on August 23, 2011 in Wyoming




Delicate Arch, and Milky Way stars at Arches National Park on October 19, 2011 in Utah


A photograph of a meteor streaking between the Big Dipper and Polaris on January 4, 2012 in Salt Lake City, Utah


Double Arch and Milky Way stars at Arches National Park on October 19, 2011 in Utah


A photograph of a 'hole in the wall' at Arches National Park on October 21, 2011 in Utah

Makes one feel pretty small, doesn't it?

Random Thought #137

My dad sent me this and I found it quite fascinating so thought I would share. I'm always interested in the history behind things that we take for granted each day. It had to start somewhere. Enjoy! HISTORY OF THE CAR RADIO Seems like cars always have had radios, but they didn't. Here's the true story: One evening, in 1929, two young men named William Lear and Elmer Wavering drove their girlfriends to a lookout point high above the Mississippi River town of Quincy, Illinois, to watch the sunset. It was a romantic night to be sure, but one of the women observed that it would be even nicer if they could listen to music in the car. Lear and Wavering liked the idea. Both men had tinkered with radios (Lear had served as a radio operator in the U.S. Navy during World War I) and it wasn't long before they were taking apart a home radio and trying to get it to work in a car. But it wasn't as easy as it sounds: automobiles have ignition switches, generators, spark plugs, and other electrical equipment that generate noisy static interference, making it nearly impossible to listen to the radio when the engine was running. One by one, Lear and Wavering identified and eliminated each source of electrical interference. When they finally got their radio to work, they took it to a radio convention in Chicago. There they met Paul Galvin, owner of Galvin Manufacturing Corporation. He made a product called a "battery eliminator" a device that allowed battery-powered radios to run on household AC current. But as more homes were wired for electricity, more radio manufacturers made AC-powered radios. Galvin needed a new product to manufacture. When he met Lear and Wavering at the radio convention, he found it. He believed that mass-produced, affordable car radios had the potential to become a huge business. Lear and Wavering set up shop in Galvin's factory, and when they perfected their first radio, they installed it in his Studebaker. Then Galvin went to a local banker to apply for a loan. Thinking it might sweeten the deal, he had his men install a radio in the banker's Packard. Good idea, but it didn't work -- Half an hour after the installation, the banker's Packard caught on fire. (They didn't get the loan.) Galvin didn't give up. He drove his Studebaker nearly 800 miles to Atlantic City to show off the radio at the 1930 Radio Manufacturers Association convention. Too broke to afford a booth, he parked the car outside the convention hall and cranked up the radio so that passing conventioneers could hear it. That idea worked -- He got enough orders to put the radio into production. WHAT'S IN A NAME? That first production model was called the 5T71. Galvin decided he needed to come up with something a little catchier. In those days many companies in the phonograph and radio businesses used the suffix "ola" for their names - Radiola, Columbiola, and Victrola were three of the biggest. Galvin decided to do the same thing, and since his radio was intended for use in a motor vehicle, he decided to call it the Motorola. But even with the name change, the radio still had problems: When Motorola went on sale in 1930, it cost about $110 uninstalled, at a time when you could buy a brand-new car for $650, and the country was sliding into the Great Depression. (By that measure, a radio for a new car would cost about $3,000 today.) In 1930, it took two men several days to put in a car radio -- the dashboard had to be taken apart so that the receiver and a single speaker could be installed, and the ceiling had to be cut open to install the antenna. These early radios ran on their own batteries, not on the car battery, so holes had to be cut into the floorboard to accommodate them. The installation manual had eight complete diagrams and 28 pages of instructions. Selling complicated car radios -- that cost 20 percent of the price of a brand-new car -- wouldn't have been easy in the best of times, let alone during the Great Depression. Galvin lost money in 1930 and struggled for a couple of years after that. But things picked up in 1933 when Ford began offering Motorola's pre-installed at the factory. In 1934 they got another boost when Galvin struck a deal with B.F. Goodrich tire company to sell and install them in its chain of tire stores. By then the price of the radio, installation included, had dropped to $55. The Motorola car radio was off and running. (The name of the company would be officially changed from Galvin Manufacturing to "Motorola" in 1947.) In the meantime, Galvin continued to develop new uses for car radios. In 1936, the same year that it introduced push-button tuning, it also introduced the Motorola Police Cruiser, a standard car radio that was factory preset to a single frequency to pick up police broadcasts. In 1940 he developed the first handheld two-way radio -- the Handie-Talkie -- for the U. S. Army. A lot of the communications technologies that we take for granted today were born in Motorola labs in the years that followed World War II. In 1947 they came out with the first television to sell under $200. In 1956 the company introduced the world's first pager; in 1969 it supplied the radio and television equipment that was used to televise Neil Armstrong's first steps on the Moon. In 1973 it invented the world's first handheld cellular phone. Today Motorola is one of the largest cell phone manufacturer in the world -- And it all started with the car radio. WHATEVER HAPPENED TO The two men who installed the first radio in Paul Galvin's car? Elmer Wavering and William Lear ended up taking very different paths in life. Wavering stayed with Motorola. In the 1950s, he helped change the automobile experience again when he developed the first automotive alternator, replacing inefficient and unreliable generators. The invention lead to such luxuries as power windows, power seats, and, eventually, air-conditioning. Lear also continued inventing. He holds more than 150 patents. Remember eight-track tape players? Lear invented that. But what he's really famous for are his contributions to the field of aviation. He invented radio direction finders for planes, aided in the invention of the autopilot, designed the first fully automatic aircraft landing system and, in 1963, introduced his most famous invention of all, the Lear Jet, the world's first mass-produced, affordable business jet. (Not bad for a guy who dropped out of school after the eighth grade.) Sometimes it is fun to find out how some of the many things that we take for granted actually came into being!...and It all started with a woman's suggestion!