The opinionated fool declareth:

Nothing like watching Natural Born Killers to put you in a really, really weird mood.

Ah, how fun it is, especially during Advent and Christmas to attempt to mock and deny God! Act now and get a free DVD! Rational people will disagree that just by saying the words, "I deny the existence of the Holy Spirit" (oh no, I just said it in my head!) that it is possible to damn your soul to hell - real blasphemy against the Holy Spirit probably requires a lifetime of sin to cement. For whatever reason, I seem to recall that the Church teaches that the ultimate blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is prideful unwillingness to ask for forgiveness rather than a single utterance. Even the holiest person over the course of their life is grossly unworthy to ask for forgiveness, and we use our free will to choose what we desire, forgiveness or self-righteousness... we are unworthy of either. God doesn't prevent us from rejecting him, because how worthwhile would a slave's relationship be? We aren't slaves to God - we're either willing servants of or willing...

I'm not sure how much of each I added, but I made about 3 large glasses-worth of intensely delicious smoothy using: Limeade (from concentrate) Orange juice Strawberries Blueberries Strawberry yogurt Now to shower and go map pwg at school.

I no longer have holes in my walls from the dumbass smoke-detector-installing guy. I do have spackling in my hair though. Dry wall repair for the win!

I am SUCH A HUGE IDIOT. I forgot to feed the fish last night. Oh man, I'm going to be in trouble. Yeah. Good morning.

My hosting service is still MIA. Obviously the things I'm hosting there still are being served (for example, you can see my "The August" picture above, and still download that Iron Maiden song on the right over there), but I can't connect using my FTP client to either download or upload new files. I'm about to grab some food and head back up to the lab - the Northern blot is developing as we speak. Why couldn't I get a strong 5-minute signal? Why the 2-hour exposure shenanigans? Surprisingly, I don't really care about having to go back up to school - work has been more exciting recently, and I really want to see what this Northern is going to tell me.

One of the things the public thinks of scientists is that we do experiments to discover certain things and that these experiments always work. If it turns out one way, we know something. The experiment turns out another way, we know something else. We do this for a few hours each day, then go home. The fact of the matter is that experiments contribute to anxiety and unhappiness through three major pathways: 1.) They don't work. That's right. Most experiments just don't work. You did it all the way you were supposed to, but you forgot to do the voodoo dance, or you didn't understand that when the protocol you're holding says "incubate five minutes at 65 degrees" that actually your boss's copy, or your colleague's copy of the protocol, that line is scratched out and now reads, "incubate at 40 degrees for 6 hours." You didn't know that, and you didn't do it, and your experiment failed. Good luck digging through and finding ou...

Circumcision may decrease HIV transmission rates in males by up to 50% . In other news (but not newsworthy enough to be reported), remaining chaste still has a HIV-prevention rate of close to 100%... (Yes, I realize a good part of the 'African problem' involves women being raped, but still, a crate full of zipped-up zippers would probably help an African nation more than a crate of latex rubbers and bananas to practice on. Well, maybe if they ate the bananas...)

Gotta love it when the boss looks at you and says "Don't fuck this up, man!" before you've started what you're doing. I stifled the first thing that came to mind, which was to reply in kind with a similarly patronizing smirk and say, "OKAY DAN, BE SURE NOT TO CRASH YOUR CAR INTO A BUS ON YOUR WAY HOME! THAT WOULD BE BAD! DON'T FUCK UP YOUR RIDE HOME!" Really, what kind of asshole says something like that? It reminds me of another time probably 2 years ago when Dan gave me a tube with a DNA sample and said, "Don't contaminate this." He wasn't joking, he was absolutely serious. Like he maybe thought I thought I could, or would, or was planning to contaminate the sample... maybe I was about to... by shoving it up his ass! What a smacktard I work for! It's hard to work where your boss has absolutely no regard for you (other than thinking you're going to "fuck this up, man.") At least I'm not the tired and dep...

GetReligion delivers again. This smacktard clown (Reyes) is Chair of the House Intelligence Committee...! He doesn't even know the most basic thing about Al Qaeda! It's a fundamentalist Sunni organization. No wonder we blunder and mess things up "over there." And even worse than him not knowing such a basic question, is the fact that he actually tried to lie, and act like he knew what he was saying. Arrrrrgh!

I read a story like this and I think to myself about how and why they chose 14 days as the limit. Think about it. It's completely arbitrary. Why not 15 days? Or 16? Or 20? Or 30? Or 100? Or how about 270 days? Wait, that's nine months. That would be barbaric! Really, the only thing that changes is the look of the human after conception. Wouldn't want to allow embryos to be farmed at 15 days! Oh, no! That would be bad! Maybe even... murder! Wait, when does it become murder? After it's born? Or wait, maybe right before it's born... hmm... but nothing changes in the 10 minutes it takes to exit the womb... so it's gotta be before that. Well, 6 months it looks too baby-like, like an actual person, and it cries and squirms as it gets ripped apart during abortions... so maybe like 3 months, or 9 weeks... yeah, something like that. Let's go with 14 days, because it's really small then and doesn't have arms or a head yet. Sounds good. W...

     Only click THIS LINK if you have, say, 5 or 10 minutes to look through a bunch of kids absolutely terrified of Santa Claus.      If you don't have time to really enjoy these super hilarious pictures, fuggehdabowditt, eh! PS - How do you make it to where there's a separation between the picture on the left and the text on the right so that the text isn't right next to the picture. I added a "border=30px" but it made the picture have a solid 30pixels of white around it, and 'bordercolor="clear"' didn't work to make it transparent... any help?

You Think I Ain't Worth A Dollar, But I Feel Like A Millionaire. How's your drive-time commute? I need a saga. What's the saga ? It's songs for the deaf - you can't even hear it!

No, not body language. If you email cholterhoff01 -at- sprintpcs -dot- com, I'll get a message. It's one of those things that's pointless but kinda cool. I still want to set up Orb on my PC and start streaming vids to my phone... because that's even more pointless, and way more "hawt," "tubular," or possibly even "righteous."

It looks like Sony is getting (as we say) WTFPWNED . One prediction has them having to sell 30 games per console sold just to break even. "But it's really fast!"

There's an almost impossibly great article written by the dad of a Down-Syndrome baby at the Times Online: LINK . Ostensibly it's about what it's like being the father of a Down Syndrome child, but I think it's really more about being a father to any child. I especially liked the way he framed the imagination of the horrors that would come if they kept the kiddo and the way he contrasts that with his actual reality and experience.

Just remembered my dream last night, it was pretty awesome. I was being chased by two guys, one of whom had a shotgun. My first thought when I woke up was, "Wow, what a good dream." Total-immersion entertainment.

Don't call yourself Rosa Parks when your behavior more closely resembles Louis Farrakhan. As actual truth would have it, it wasn't just a case of "Islamaphobia" that lead to those six Imams delaying and being yanked from a flight last week: they were being stupid assholes. No doubt a calculated attempt to be removed from the flight and then decry the move as racist/ignorant. Well, sadly enough, it worked since they made national headlines last week, and this week now that the truth is out it doesn't seem to be making a splash. And because Islam is associated only with highly peaceful people, isn't it interesting how so many people who were interviewed for this story refused to give their names? Why's that? From another story: But Rabiah Ahmed, spokeswoman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said Muslims "have to walk around on eggshells in public just because we don't want to be misconstrued as suspicious. You have to strike ...

1.) Level up some World of Warcraft toons and win at the internets. 2.) Own some n00bs. 3.) ??? 4.) Profit. (I have no idea if it will sell.)

One of my old elementary/middle/high-school friends shot himself in Kansas last night. Robert O'Conner was an Iraq War veteran, working in Kansas for Army recruiting. He had told one of my other friends that he was feeling a bit down a couple of weeks ago, but talking to his mom on Thanksgiving he said he was feeling better. A lot of his stress was induced from the higher-up brass pushing the grunt-level recruiters to get higher numbers enlisted. He had previously served a tour in Iraq and although he did see some combat, as far as I know, his depression wasn't caused by Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, but the pressure to recruit. Pretty sad all the way around. Never really understood how hollow and empty and pointless suicide is until now. Robert used to be known as the group outsider... always had this dark side. He was very smart, and ended up making up a lot of stories and tall-tales, to which we always rolled our eyes and laughed at his stories. (During one late night IHOP...

Back from Carrollton. I bought and am enjoying Nirvana's "Unplugged" album.

After starting Friday with, shall we say, not feeling very well, the weekend turns out pretty good. I found out about a ridiculously sweet deal through Sprint where I'll get pretty much the same plan as with Cingular (although now I'll be able to use my phone anywhere in the US instead of just the tri-state area), a sweet new phone , and unlimited data use, all for about $14 less than my plan with Cingular now. I'm paying $80 for the phone out-of-pocket, but there are $250 in rebates to mail off, and a $25 referral bonus (thanks to Matt) meaning eventually I'll get a big chunk of money, enough to pay for about a half-year of the phone service. :) The downer is that it's a two-year contract, but I probably won't be making any big life decisions in the next two years anyhow. Can't wait to watch streaming video on my phone. Ha.

That's right. I laid down $11.40 + tax to get a double corona Ashton VSG cigar from the Briar Shoppe in the Village. The other two VSG's I've had really delivered. Well, relatively. It's a well-known cigar law that any money you spend over $6.00 sees diminishing returns. Which is to say a $4 cigar isn't very good, a $6 cigar is almost always very good, and a $10 cigar is almost always better than the $6 one, but not enough of an improvement to justify paying extra for it. Oh well, when you're rich like I am, you can afford to spend a little bit extra for luxury items. Ashton VSGs and Nat Sherman Metropolitans are probably the only two cigars that I would consider worth the extra money. There's nothing like taking a delightful selection home from the 5th Avenue Nat Sherman storefront in Manhattan. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a few more things I need to do before burning away my hard-earned $12 up in smoke...

Just like you imagined... Late night/early morning. The chess break at 2am only lasted 30 minutes, and stopped after I let some total newbie capture my queen. Now, for 5 hours of sleep and PROGRESS TOMORROW.

Well, now it turns out that it wasn't the photographer that was lying about his pictures, it was the editors of Time and US News and World Report that changed the captions of photographs of the Hezbollah-Israeli conflict from a few months ago to not only smear the Israeli army, but also not report on clear evidence of Hezbollah collusion with the Lebanese army (the link has a photo of a civilian-disguized "medium range missile" that was the target of the attack in question.) Link . Pretty amazing. Why would Time and USN&WR decide to do this?

As predicted, they didn't post my comment on their blog. Equality, indeed.

Oh, I also posted a response in the latest entry in the FAIR Wisconsin blog , but since the post didn't show up immediately, it seems like they probably have the comment approval feature turned on, meaning they'll have to read it and approve it for being posted, so I don't have high hopes that it will ever actually make it into their comments section.

I heard the day before the election that Republican "robocallers" had been making somewhat sketchy calls to people in highly contested areas... But what I just read about how the pro-homosexual marriage folks were lying and utterly deceiving the people of Wisconsin in order to attempt to trick them into voting down an amendment banning homosexual marriage is absolutely repugnant, and went (so far as I'm aware) completely unreported in the media. The proposed amendment was to ban gay marriage - therefore a YES vote was a vote for the ban, and a NO vote was to reject it. The message tells people to protect their children and families by voting NO to the gay marriage amendment... Go figure: they lost...

That makes me a sad panda.

This article makes me pretty sick. "What do people think has happened in the passage down the birth canal to make it OK to kill the foetus at one end of the birth canal but not the other?" What is truly amazing is that this line, typically used by anti-abortion advocates such as myself, is actually being used by a doctor who advocates that born children need to be killed in some cases. I fail to see the medicinal value of infanticide. I fail to see how the doctor helps the health of the newborn by killing it. (I wonder how they do it, actually. Once it's born, it would be pretty grizzly to shove a vacuum hose up it's neck into the cranium and rip it apart, so I imagine they go with some sort of stiff injection.) Either way, the quote serves its purpose to point out the obvious: that nothing changes before during or after a baby is born that should make it illegal to kill it in one place and not the other. But you see now how allowing one thing leads to another. Y...

I've woken up between 7am and 7:20am without an alarm clock for the last 4 days. This is fantastic.

Christmas lights are up. Dishes are done. Laundry is done, but not folded. Christmas lights have a way of turning any room into a magical wonderland.

Blasting some ORION here in the lab to get me through this last ligation reaction, then I'm home for some quality time.

I bought some flannal pajamas as I ran through Sam's Club yesterday. I can't wait to put them on and go to sleep here in a little bit. Screw this whole "being awake" thing... the Holterhoff needs rest.

I was so tired last night, I think I fell asleep sometime around 8pm. It's so nice and cozy when it gets dark, and it's nice to wake up early and plan to start getting things done. It made me happy to see all the families and children out gathering candy from their neighbors. The neighborhoods just south of campus (and to the west, in the West University borough) are already very ideal and pretty, and to see the kids and families out walking in the nice weather just after sunset reminded me of how much fun I used to have on Halloween. Fact: one year I went dressed as a Three Musketeers candy bar, complete with a full-body length fabric candybar costume. I'll bet mom's still got it packed in a box somewhere here in Texas. :) I also went one year dressed as Ms Piggy.

Oooh, second of the morning. Watch out, Holterhoff's on a roll! I was thinking about something someone said at a Halloween party I was at last Friday. She was talking about having shark fin soup at a wedding she'd been to. You may know, you may not. Shark meat isn't very popular (ie - no demand and no market), however sharks fin is a delicacy in Chinese cuisines. So lost of sharking boats capture sharks, haul them up, perforate and tear off the cartilaginous and meaty fins, then toss the shark back into the water. Of course after this happens, the shark is hardly going to be as agile or mobile (not to mention probably in agony). These sharks usually quickly become victims of predation after leading a short and miserable existence. The dilemma was this: the girl was aware of the - how would I say this - immorality? - inhumanness? associated with this practice and the production of sharks fin meat. But of course the caterers had already bought, received and cooked up...

New thing!!! A music group from Norway: Röyksopp . I've got a couple of their albums through questionable (illegal) means, and if it holds up, I'll be buying these albums. Down-tempo beats, some good synth work, it's like... part Interpol mixed with part Basement Jaxx, with maybe some new-age synth swells in some tracks, department store/elevator music and trance bass underneath it all. It's just... man, it's good. :) Good, good stuff. Good late highway music, it seems. EDIT/UPDATE: Most of the videos they have on their website are in RealPlayer format (gag me). Youtube to the rescue! A good smattering of Röyksopp: Remind Me - Totally fascinating music video. At once, rather beautiful and depressing. Probably my favorite song and video from them I've seen. Poor Leno What Else Is There Only This Moment - the 2nd best video here... I dig the whole transcendental 60s-Europe thing.

I maybe just posted the same post 7 times. Apologies, Blogger is having problems.

Cold Front - by Pavel Chichikov Phosphorescent floating buffalo. Flanks of livid platinum, silver bellies Dazzling the eyes turned up to see them, Grazing eastward in migration Trees whip round their red and yellow thatch, Supple necks, their knuckled trunks Twist and bow, these falling forests Underneath the stamping northern winds Silent winds except for these Gold ecstatic roaring trees ------- I love that last stanza: Silent winds except for these Gold ecstatic roaring trees I could read that over and over: Silent winds except for these Gold ecstatic roaring trees Silent winds except for these Gold ecstatic roaring trees Silent winds except for these Gold ecstatic roaring trees Silent winds except for these Gold ecstatic roaring trees Silent winds except for these Gold ecstatic roaring trees Silent winds except for these Gold ecstatic roaring trees Iambic... heptameter? Iambic heptameter is cool. :)

Which is good. But also means its worky time. Party tonight @ The Howlette's.

Honey bee genome is "completed." NOW GET WORKING ON ZEBRAFISH !!!

...apparently didn't take his Parkinsin's medications before going to a Senate hearing on human embryonic stem cell research in order to exaggerate the symptoms of the disease. The idea being that human embryonic stem cells are a sure cache chocked full of cures for every disease... If you have to lie to support what you advocate... maybe you're advocating lies?

A zinger of a commentary that ultimately should make you uncomfortable. Gazing upon the ruins of Timgad in North Africa, a city founded as Thamugas by the emperor Trajan in 100 a.d., and destroyed by the Vandals after it had lost its cultural balance, Hilaire Belloc wrote: “We sit by and watch the Barbarian, we tolerate him; in the long stretches of peace we are not afraid. We are tickled by his irreverence, his comic inversion of our old certitudes and our fixed creeds refreshes us; we laugh. But as we laugh we are watched by large and awful faces from beyond: and on these faces there is no smile.” (The "Massachusetts Senator" in question is Gerry Eastman Studds , a gay, Democratic Senator for 24 years, reelected even after it was found he'd had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old Senate page in '73. He died recently, and I, too, noted the factual error that the articles written about him containing the words, "his husband.") Or maybe it shouldn'...

One of my favorite books is being released as a blockbuster movie - The Gates of Thermopylae . The movie will be called 300 - the supposed number of Spartans who held the narrow pass of Mt. Thermopylae for a number of days knowing they would eventually be smashed and killed to the last man, giving the Greek civilization a time to amass an organized defence from the well nigh million-strong marching force of Persians seething into the region. It's said that the events at Thermopolae were a hinge on which human history itself turned on for a day. Greek thought, very much a part of our foundation as Westerners - rationalism and belief that man is a logical being and can recognize the Truth through correct use of his noodle - survived the attempted murder by superstitious barbarism. You can read up on the Battle of Thermopylae here . It's probably one of the most inspiring stories I know. Told the Persian archers numbered so many that their arrows would blot out the sun, a so...

Headlines along the lines of "Plane hijacked to protest Pope's trip to Turky" were given top billing at all the major news outlets. As soon as new information came out suggesting that the hijackers were actually Christians seeking asylum from an oppressive Muslim government - news coverage quickly dried-up. So, let's review: bad things happening in the world that can be ostensibly traced back to the Pope? Headlines news. Christians trying to escape persecution from Muslims because of their beliefs? Practically ignored. Finally, who started the (false) rumor that the hijacker was protesting Pope Benedict's trip to Turkey? It seems to have originated from Turkish telivision stations, who were interviewing the head of Turkish airlines as well as several high-ranked Turkish officials (including the Istanbul vice governor Vedat Muftuoglu who told CNN-Turk "They [the hijackers] said their action was to protest the pope’s visit."). So where did ...

Now it's the time of year where I publicly announce how astounded I am that my finances are in such good order for being on a Federally-funded student stipend. I think I'll go out and make an impulsive purchase.

These guys obviously never finished grade-school: "Let's hijack a plane to show how peaceful we are and how wrong the Pope was to bring up Islam's connection with terrorism." link

The following are a couple things that I posted in an online forum that Matt and I have been following since way back when we were into Unreal Tournament gaming (1999!)... anyhow, the board eventually morphed into a bunch of people who knew each other from gaming together, into a group of people from America and Europe who talk, bicker, laugh, etc., about current events since UT is no longer played very much. Anyhow, there was recently a topic started ( here - warning, pg13 language, etc) that soon became a discussion about torture, and how Bush may sign into law a Bill to allow non-adherence to the Geneva Convention in some cases, presumably to allow for "torture." Anyway, here are a couple of my responses which sum up my feelings on the issue. I've tried to kind of edit out some things so you can just read them as stand alone statements of mine without having to read the discussion. Warning: this is just my opinion. You might think its naive, or trite, or stupid, or...

1.) Yes, I'm still alive. Been out of communication with a lot of people, so - sorry! It's kind of funny when you receive 4 or 5 things from people saying "are you still alive?" within the span of a couple days, you realize maybe you've gotten behind on social aspects... 2.) I was also told I haven't been blogging enough recently. So here (and then the next post to come (which will be above this post as you read this) are some solid updatzorz. 3.) I fed my snake. It will eat thawed, frozen, pre-killed mice, so... which is better (less gross): the fact that I won't have to go and buy mice at the store every other week to feed my snake, or that I now have a tub of dead mice (each in a baggy, the baggies in a sealable container) in my freezer? That was a hungry snake. I dangled the thawed mouse right outside the igloo-hole from the snake's hidebox... and WHAM! not a tenth of a second later, the mouse was gone. I lifted up the hide box (which momen...

Nothing like some good old-fashioned common sense to save the day.

Nothing like some good old-fashioned common sense to save the day.

"Suppose that the eminent English biologist Richard Dawkins delivered a speech at the University of Regensburg in which he attacked supporters of Creationism and Intelligent Design theory as 'ignorant boobs' -- words that he has already applied in them in a written article. "Now, let us imagine that Christian fundamentalists all over the United States, outraged by this inflammatory language, went on a violent rampage. Suppose that they lynched an elderly professor of biology, and attacked biology departments at several universities. Suppose that teachers of high school biology went about in fear of their lives, while many simply quit their jobs. "What kind of article would [the Guardian's] Madeleine Bunting write about such a hypothetical incident? (...) Would Madeleine Bunting refer to Dawkins' speech as illustrating professorial stupidity? Would she imply that he was personally responsible for the death of the elderly American professor of biology, and ...

Pack a gun in your suitcase the next time you go to the airport: not only do they require your suitcase be locked (as it stands right now, locks are prohibited, to allow for bag searches - allowing TSA/airport personnel to take things from your bag) but they have another level of bag-tracking for baggage containing a declared weapons, making most unlikely your bags will be separated from you. Link.

Sub-title from CNN.com news article: "Authorities today were trying to pinpoint the cause of death for three children an investigator says were found decomposing inside the washer and dryer of their apartment, hours after a woman was accused of killing their pregnant mother and her fetus." Her fetus?

WHO GIVES A CRAP ABOUT THE WHOLE SPINACH DEAL?

You must read this. Best quote from the short article written by a wheelchair-bound former embryonic stem cell research supporter: When I read Reeve's testimony I almost fell out of my wheelchair. I could not believe that he would intentionally mislead the Senate or the American People regarding grave matters of public health. Either someone had lied to Reeve — had used him to mislead the Senate — was using him to mislead the public, or Reeve had said what he thought was the truth without bothering to check. I suspect he was misled. I have the use of my hands and arms, so I can sit for endless hours and search Pubmed. [Pubmed is an online comprehensive database maintained by the Nat'l Library of Medicine of peer-reviewed journal articles. -Chris] Reeve could not. He was at the mercy of 'experts.' Thus the Senate was misled concerning research issues that could effect whether I walked again, whether my neighbor with Parkinson's has a hope to recover, whether a frien...

Major Update: My snake molted. How awesome.

I need a name for my snake. What is a good name for a snake?

Theme song for today's battle: Megadeth's "Crush 'Em" Enter the arena and hit the lights Step up now you're in for a ride This is war, ain't no fun and games We get up, you go down in flames. Last one standing wins the fight Hear us scream and shout all night Down on the floor and eat the grit This is gonna hurt a little bit Heads I win, tails you lose Out of my way, I'm coming through Roll the dice, dont think twice And we crush - crush 'em!! Stir the war machines! Notch arrow to sinew and go forth to meet thy fate, Christopher...

From RelapsedCatholic: Fabrizio Quattrocchi, a 36-year-old security guard kidnapped in Iraq, undermined the terrorists with his defiance. In contrast to Kenneth Bigley, the British hostage who never let up begging Prime Minister Tony Blair for his life, Quattrocchi refused to be humiliated. "I will show you how an Italian dies!" he declared in the second before terrorists murdered him. Rather than kneel before his grave, he rose in defiance. Canadian columnist Mark Steyn observed, He ruined the movie for his killers. As a snuff video and recruitment tool, it was all but useless, so much so that the Arabic TV stations declined to show it." (Emphasis mine.) AlJazeera makes me sick. What's even more disgusting is that AlJazeera has plans to make a US 24-hour news channel.

Over the counter Plan B is the perfect fix for our generation's ills. What's more, the "next step" as described by what my mockingly be called "women's advocacy" groups is to remove the age restriction of 18 years on purchases of the Plan B pills. The mind-blowing hypocrisy of trying to arrange things thusly would result in them not being old enough to score a pack of Marlboroughs at the gas station for that post-coital buzz. So, the drinking and smoking following high school football games will still be illegal. But at least the emergency contraceptives that these super-responsible high school freshman will use will be legitimately purchased. I mean, really, why worry about a twelve year old purchasing Plan B?

Interesting possibilities for extraction of embryonic stem cells without actually killing the embryos. ( Here's the link .) Gotta love the bonus cheap shot taken at "relgious types" at the end. What's most stupid about it is the fact that the quote from the token idiot religious guy is disengenuously used by the author of this article. The guy wasn't even commenting on the science, but on the fact that after they got done extracting the blastomere, they discarded the human embryos. But do you think that stopped him from attempting to make the "religious type" look like he was dismissing the entirety of the discussion? Course not. Learn to separate disparate arguments, moron. Oh wait, nevermind - the author doesn't think human embryos are human (what are they? fish embryos?) and so has a vested interest in continuing to mock those who disagree with him. So it's obvious enough what happened. The sad fact, though, is that pop-science Wired...

Everybody congratulate Matthew and Lindsey - they're engaged. :) Which means, you know, besides the fact that they'll get married, that there'll be a reception. And you know what happens at receptions, right? That's right: FREE EATS! And possibly free drinks! Also, they've asked me to be their Best Man, and on top of being honored, I'm relieved, because I think that means that I'm for-sure going to be allowed to go to the wedding reception and get some free eats as well as a swank bouquet (spelling?) pinned on my suit and get to look all important. In all seriousness, I'm happy for you guys! :) Here's to thousands of years of happiness ahead of you both! YEEEHAW!!

GIVEMEFUEL GIVEMEFIRE GIVEMETHATWHICHIDISIRE!!!

Want to be slapped by something unexpected? Start downloading and listening to this song (11.6mb). It's Iron Maiden from the mid-90s. I used to love Iron Maiden. Back in high school, I remember rambunctuous (sp?) trips to the movie theaters packed in either my old truck, or one of my friends' cars, with ye old Maiden going full volume hot. I used to think I was "hot shit" picking up some of the older Iron Maiden albums in the used and collectible music stores. Afterall, Eddie (Iron Maiden's "mascot") is this mummified, undead zombie guy, and the album covers always had him either sitting in an electric chair, holding a bag full of flaming skulls, shooting some kind of sci-fi ray gun or flying some sort of Gothic spaceship shooting out flames (for actual examples, look here ), which is really super-cool and hardcore if you're in high school, I guess. Anyway, I loved Iron Maiden back in high school just because of it's connotation - rowdy, wil...

I think my new favorite book is CS Lewis' The Abolition of Man . It's amazing how CS Lewis had the foresight that he did. I'd recommend it to just about anyone - it's a short read, but parts of it get a bit deep, and he makes some connected points, which means if you read it in 15 minute chunks you miss a lot of what he's saying because you forget about the context he's bring it up in. I had to reread a bunch of it for this, but yowza, is it worthwhile...

You have to laugh out loud when you see some of this stuff , but then you realize that world opinion is based largely on the pictures and bulleted headlines coming out of Lebanon, and then you maybe you frown and say, "Oh..."

Only cream and bastards rise.

Speaking of the English (from down below), here's some new info from there: link for 2005 British abortion stats . 186,416 total abortions in one year in a population of 50 million people will make a dent. 66% of those abortions were performed before 9 weeks. Well, that's pretty young so it's probably (nay, let us say definately - afterall, we're killing something, which means there is no doubt, right?) not human anyway.

My snake does not yet have a name. Any ideas? pic1 2 3 4 5 6 :) How about Luther? Ack ack ack!

Apparently 25% of Muslims in England think the 7/7/05 London bus bombings were justified! Moreover, 45% (almost half?!?!) think the US or Israel or both was behind the 9/11 attacks. A third said they would rather have Islamofasciest Shiriah tribunals running the legal system rather than British law... LINK ... Given the hard data about childbirth in the UK (liberalized and selfish Englishmen and women not having kids, Islamic immigrants having tons of kids) can it be anything other than a matter of time before they get their way, destroying the democracy ironically with their own majority? Odd how a hyper-sexualized society like the one in England can have such a problem. (Oh, yeah, I guess the problem isn't that they don't create their children, the problem is that they abort them...)

and another one.

More fake photography in Lebanon.

What the hell are you doing drinking from the Whites-only water fountain? Dhimmitude.

Well, that'll pump a little epinephrine into the blood. GO, BABY, GO!!!

The Raving Athiest continues ask really interesting questions. In this case he responds to a reader's comment about how personality can be altered by neurochemistry. Where will it lead the Raving Athiest (whom many believe is falling ill with a terrible case of "Belief"? And will his athiest readership die from choking on all that frothing in the mouth as the Raving Athiest... well, as he puts it, "will continue to believe in you as something more than the sum of your quarks. I have never seen your bodies but I know you by your thoughts. The words transmitted to my computer, seen through a screen darkly, are sufficient evidence of your existence. You will never convince me that you are just sparks emanating from gray matter; I would no more equate you with that than I would equate you with the sparks which transmit your words through my computer's memory. You may try to convince me otherwise, but your efforts will only further prove my point." What's r...

"Disgusting" doesn't even come close to describing this guy: LA Times op-ed piece on the Girls Gone Wild founder/producer Joe Francis . If you've got the 10 minutes, read it. It's pretty much thoroughly disgusting.

As an update from a post a while ago on the staged photos showing the victims in Lebanon of Israeli attacks (a girl is first shown dead, being loaded into an ambulance, then later being carried from rubble, then later somewhere else, with conflicting timestamps on the photos) - theres a lot still going on in terms of falsified photographic evidence and stories coming out of Lebanon. Here are some of the recent highlights: Reuters admits to altering a photo 1 2 and 3

Proud new owner of a ball python. :)

All you hear about on the news is how hot it is, and about Mel Gibson. Is it news that it gets really hot in the summer and that moviestars are morons.

Oh GOD! Ohhhhhh! You need to watch this if you can. In the name of Allah, all praise and glory be to Him, Allah, and his Prophet, Muhammad (Peace be upon him).

Some of the photos of "all the Lebanese killed nere Qana" which the media have been going crazy on (as an example of Israel's horribleness), may have been faked: For example, the Web site draws attention to a photo by AP’s Lefteris Pitarakis time stamped 7:21 a.m., showing a dead girl in an ambulance. Another picture, stamped 10:25 a.m. and taken by AP’s Mohammed Zaatari, shows the same girl being loaded onto the ambulance. In a third, by AP photographer Nasser Nasser and stamped 10:44 a.m., a rescue worker carries the girl with no ambulance nearby. Linkzorz.

Who wants to come to the KMFDM concernt in mid-October? It's going to be flat out killer.

I think Donahue might have a point .

I awoke this morning to find that I had amassed in ethereal and concentrated form in the South West tropics overnight, manifesting my awesome powers as Tropical Stome Chris . PH34R M3!!!

Ecumenism marches on: Methodist leaders sign the 1999 Catholic-Lutheran agreement on Justification . Cool.

We need Peeeerrrry Maaaaasoooooon!! ...I'm just sayin'... That's it for now. (Some here will get it.)

One of the overlooked benefits of drive-through Taco Cabana is that they'll throw in 4-5 little containers of pico de gallo and salsa in the bag as you drive off. When it gets to be 2am and you're still trying to catch up on work (because you're a dumb ox) these little containers become known as "delicious bites of rejuvenation." You pop the lid off, and throw the tomatoy-oniony-cilantroey-jalapenoey goodness down the esophagus... you feel the cool, juicy goodness sink down into your stomache. Mmmm.

Last night was spent at the range with Galindo and his old man. The plan originally was to snatch up the private side of the shooting range for some dynamic shooting drills, but some incapable (by the looks of it, a poor grey-haired 40-year-old) police officer was getting some kind of private instruction since she'd apparently failed her marksmanship exam with the force. Given how pathetic I've heard the shooting requirements are... yikes. Doesn't inspire much confidence in the local protectors, if you know what I mean. At any rate, we were shooting in the lanes for a while, but then we got a chance to set up some targets and cover spots for some timed drills over on the private side afterall. I have to say, it's a completely different (and really, really fun) way to do train. It's a completely different form of control. I surprised myself with how well I did on some of the set ups, and how, um, inadequate I did on some of the other shots. Galindo's got ...

Because this song is so righteously awesome, you must go listen to it. You can either grab it from the link below, or as always, from the link over on the right bar. Sometimes it's just good to fling names at society. Nihilistic mystics Apostolic alcoholics Messianic manics Cataclysmic and prolific In the age of super-boredom Hype and mediocrity Celebrate relentlessness Menace to society Refuse is our inspiration Terrorism our trade Sabotage and piracy Chaos our mental state Mesmerizing festering Intended for the faint of heart Cultish and anthemic Untill death us do part Like a fiendish tropic virus Spitting bile at all you whores Razor-sharp tongue-in-cheek Poking in your open sores A wolf in sheep's clothing The ultimate disgrace Wrapped up as a gift of god Exploding in your face This is counter culture from the underground Eternal revolution this is our sound. Megalomaniac - by KMFDM (Full link to a Google-cached lyrics' site: Kosher, virus-free link. )

From the guy's own blog : 'Yes, I know, I know: ESCR offers the "best hope" for new treatments. "The scientists" keep saying it again, and again. The only trouble is, the actual science reported to date seems to tell a different story.' Story. 'STEM cells taken from human fat can be transformed into smooth muscle cells, offering a way to treat many kinds of heart disease, gastrointestinal and bladder ills, US researchers reported today.'

UN post bombed by Israel was known to be used by Hezbollah for cover. "the Canadian peacekeeper killed there had previously emailed Mackenzie telling him that Hizballah was using their post as cover." The correct thing in that situation is try to abscond without getting blown to bits by either side that are blowing rockets towards each other. The incorrect thing to do would be to stay where you are, get killed, then have the UN grow angry with Israel for "deliberately" targeting your station.

I accidentally archived my ClustR map for this site, so in effect it kind of started over. You can click on the map picture and it will take you to the list of past maps if you want. Ah well.

Hmmm. ...the lead plaintiffs in the Massachusetts same-sex marriage case three years ago, Julie and Hillary Goodridge are splitting up...

Roughly one-third of the male fish in British rivers are developing female characteristics, in a frightening trend that could severely upset the ecological balance of the waterways. What's more, the trend could affect humans, with a devastating effect on fertility. The problem is apparently caused by certain chemicals used in pest-control treatment, which cannot be removed by existing methods of sewage treatment. Environmentalists are urgently calling for a ban on those pesticides. Oh, wait. That's not right. The first part of the story is true. Male fish are developing female traits , and the implications -- for fish and for humans -- are indeed frightening. And the problem is caused by chemicals that sewage-treatment plants cannot remove. But those chemicals aren't used by farmers as pesticides. The culprits are estrogens, used by millions of women in birth-control pills. Needless to say, environmentalists are not calling for a ban on the use of the Pill. Everyone knows t...

The brand-new 1998 Ford Taurus is road-worthy . Which is to say: awesome. I could get used to comfy seats, an unstained interior that doesn't smell, alarm system, power everything... and air-conditioning. The car doesn't even shake when you go over 65MPH... you know that's quality. Thanks Justin. I owe you.

Bombs launched by Hezbollah falling in/near residential parts of Israel (apparently Haifa) . Just can't imagine what that would be like if it started raining rockets here in Houston... Scary stuff. Prayers needed.

Brain Age ™ is pretty awesome.

Perhaps you heard last week that researchers were able to create (in mice) sperm from embryonic stem cells. What this means is that they reall first created an embryo from an adult cell (via somatic cell nuclear transfer , or some derivative of that technique), thus cloning the first mouse, but then after dismembering the new cloned mouse embryo for its cells, they direct the cells, through some delicate treatments and culturing techniques, to mature into germ cells (the cells that eventually go on to form gametes - sperm and eggs) and then into sperm. You see, vertebrates specify their germ cells very, very early in development. In zebrafish, primordial germ cells containing high levels of RNA coding for a special gene called vasa are known to exist within the first 13 cycles of cell division, this is before even the three basic cell layers have been established (endo- meso- and ecto-derm), thus making it one of the first major cell specification events currently known. In mice, ...

It remains to be seen what effect this drug would have on human brain, but in rats, it seems to encourage the production of new neurons in the part of the brain affected by Parkinson's Disease. It's just another example of something else that might work in lieu of, say, cells from unborn children being injected into your face. [Edit: forgot the Link. ]

...sooner or later, God'll cut you down... I'm up early to get some stuff done before meeting with the boss man later this morning, but I just have to tell you guys a few things. First: the last Johnny Cash album, "American V: A Hundred Highways" is... great stuff! The man wrote it as he was dying - he and his son and a recording engineer did most of the voice recordings in his hospice bed. It's replete with broken and old Johnny Cash breaking his cackling voice, struggling to sing along with haunting melodies and some good gospel-ish and roots rock music. Man, it breaks your heart to listen to it, because he was basically singing out his last message: Lord, help me smile Another smile, just one more smile; You know I just can't make it on my own. I never thought I needed help before; I thought that I could get by - by myself. Now I know I just can't take it any more. With a humble heart, on bended knee, I'm beggin' You, please, help me. Come ...