Each cell of the human body contains organelles called mitochondria. Mitochondria were probably originally parasitic bacteria. Through evolution they became symbiotic with human cells, and finally an integral part of the cell. They help cells use oxygen. The DNA in mitochondria is separate from the DNA in the nucleus of the cell. The DNA in the…
Author: Justin Durand
Lohengrin
The original Knight of the Swan was Lohengrin. LOHENGRIN (lō’en-grin), the hero of an old High German poem, written in the end of the 13th century. He was the son of Parzival, and a knight of the Grail. At King Arthur’s command he was taken by a swan through the air to Mainz, where he fought…
Siberian Lore
The Buriats of Siberia regarded the eagle as their ancestral father and the swan as their ancestral mother. Kartaga In a Tatar poem, the hero Kartaga struggled with a swan-woman. The contest went on for years, but Kartaga could not defeat her because her soul was not in her body. Instead, her soul inhabited the…
Diary of Wilford Woodruff
Excerpts from the Diary of Wilford Woodruff, LDS Apostle and President of the Church. Wilford Woodruff (1807-1898) was an early convert to the LDS church. He was responsible for converting the Luce family to Mormonism and led their party of 53 people in 10 wagons from Maine to Nauvoo in 1838. He became an Apostle…
Order of St. John
Early History The Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem was founded sometime before 1099 — perhaps as early as 1020 — as a hospice in Jerusalem to aid pilgrims to the Holy Land. The beginning of the First Crusade in 1099 began to change the character of the hospice. In 1113 Pope Pascal II…