I had the opportunity to speak in my local congregation today on the topic of "Honoring Motherhood". Below is a transcript of my talk. I invite your feedback. What did I get right? What did I get wrong? What did I miss? Please let me know. Thanks.

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Good morning. The bishopric invited me to speak on honoring motherhood, and I’ve prayerfully considered how I should do that. If you would, think with me for a moment about everyone in the room with us. If you’re comfortable, you might even look around. Some are mothers, some hope to be mothers, some have lost hope to be mothers, some live with our mothers, and some don’t remember our mothers. For some, our mothers are a biological fact, and for some, our mothers are so by adoption, maybe by law or simply in function. Perhaps most challenging, the idea of motherhood may warm our hearts or it may chill our bones. Because our life experiences have been different, we each understand and feel motherhood differently. While honoring these differences, my task today yet remains to speak on honoring motherhood.

Kyle Gregg recently attended the Mormon Transhumanist Association conference and wrote an excellent blog post about the conference and the association, entitled "A Mormon Critique of the Mormon Transhumanism Conference". Kyle says he's not a Mormon Transhumanist, but he's been a Mormon his whole life and has "a firm and examined testimony". In his post, he provided both pros and cons, as he sees them. I don't have anything particular to say about the pros except that I agree with them in general terms. Here are some of my thoughts regarding the cons he identified, with his words in quotes.

PZ Myers is a biologist, a self-described skeptic, and apparently an anti-religious zealot. He recently caught my attention because he spoke about Transhumanism at the Skeptech conference and mentioned Mormon Transhumanism. After gracing me with some "kind" interactions on Twitter, he posted a video of his presentation. Here are some quick observations and thoughts that I wrote while watching.

This is a transcript of my opening presentation at the 2013 Conference of the Mormon Transhumanist Association yesterday, 5 April 2013, in the Salt Lake City Public Library. The conference room filled beyond capacity this year with around 80 in-person attendees and more participating online via the live video stream. The association will soon make available a recording of this presentation, as well as recordings of all other presentations -- including the Mormon Transhumanist Barbershop Sextet! In the mean time, I look forward to your feedback on this transcript.

Science project time came again, and my youngest son wanted to know what DNA looks like. He read some explanations of genetics and DNA for kids. We also found instructions on how to extract DNA from a strawberry, and they were safe and easy enough that he could do all the work himself after I gathered the needed materials. Check out the project and pictures below.