Real toughness:  going against the chain of command when you're an atheist

Funny, first time in a while I saw an article I felt I should link.

The sad part is, his beliefs don't affect how he does his job.  Nor does he proselytize his atheism.  Far from it:  he just wants to live and let live.  It's the other soldiers who call him names and hound him.

Typical irrationalist behavior, in my opinion.  After all, religion has been behind much of the conflict in human history, including the Bush War.

Well, it's been quite a while since I've posted anything.

I've found work, for UL (Underwriters Laboratories).  They'll determine the actual position when our class of five are done with training, but it'll be in customer service.  Should be an interesting company to work for.

Observation:

Hillary Clinton should take lessons from her husband on smiling naturally.  Every time she smiles, she reminds me of Beaker from "The Muppets."

Oil may back off for a while, same with other commodities, but longer-term the price will be going up, because the so-called "developing world" is finally, actually developing, and because at the same time, the world's supplies of easy-to-get, high-quality crude oil are going bye-bye.

I think the Democrats are counting their chickens too early if they think they're guaranteed a win in November.  Remember, Bush had four years of proven incompetence* behind him in 2004, and he still won.

I'm watching less and less TV.  I'm on my computer more and more.  Books take up about the same amount of time they always have.  I suppose that is a trend that has been going on for a while and will continue, unless some shows come on that truly interest me.  There are hardly any shows I TiVo that I really consider "must-watch."  I still enjoy a few, including "Top Gear," "Mythbusters," "Numb3rs," "CSI," and "The Simpsons," but I don't really miss them when there's not a new episode on.

*Presidential incompetence that is.  I'm not including the proven incompetence he showed throughout his life.

Now get out there and vote!

This is the day that makes everything else work, so let's do our part.  Even if there aren't a lot of great things to vote on this year, do it anyway.

Science has largely decoded the feline gene code

That's good news.  As the number of decoded sequences becomes larger, our chances of finding cures for many human diseases grows.

Cats came a bit late in the order, because they aren't quite as common as a laboratory animal and they aren't quite as close to us as some animals.

Still, it's a nice step.

Or was the Nobel Peace Prize given to Al Gore, in good part, a "scuh-rew you!" to George Bush?

Why this so-called President hasn't been impeached is beyond me.

Incan children were fattened up for a year, drugged, and died of exposure at the height of a religious festival

Fascinating article.  They can tell what the children were fed using much the same technique that allows us to examine hair and tell whether someone used drugs within the last year.

Barbaric customs, to be sure.  Modern irrationalists, of course, kill mostly those who don't believe in their particular brand of irrationality.  And then they call themselves civilized.  And better yet, they don't do the killing themselves--much easier to let others do the killing for them.  As long as the media can stay focused on nonissues like Britney's kids, it can stay culpable as a hand-in-hand partner in the slaughter.

Ford sales drop 21% from last year

And some are seeing this as good news, in the coulda-been-worse way.

High oil and gas prices are here to stay, friends.  And the auto industry is finally waking up to the fact that there really aren't enough refineries to keep up with demand, nor is the world keeping up with crude oil exploration compared to discoveries.

This year may be the first time since the mid-80s that more oil has been discovered than was used by the world.  This is because the high prices make it more feasible to undergo exploration.  Yet this bright spot is somewhat dimmed when you realize that the oil discovered is more and more often in hard-to-reach places or countries with horrible political situations.  The low-hanging fruit has been plucked.  Guess what?  The remaining oil costs more to extract.  Even if prices did fall, it wouldn't be for long, because the new discoveries wouldn't turn into oil wells then, and prices would bounce right back up.

The earth does not have a rich, gooey oil (or nougat) center.  While it may not ever run out in the absolute sense, it absolutely will run out as far as oil that can be extracted and brought to market in a reasonably economic way.  The sooner we act on this realization, the better off we will be--financially and ecologically.

Turns out velociraptor had feathers (AP)

Time to crank up the old CGI machines and make the 'raptors even cooler.

Ah, what the hell, blame it on Jurassic Park's frog DNA.

Anyway, as one of the types of dinosaurs close to the link to birds, it wasn't too surprising for scientists to find this, but it was rather difficult--you have to find a specimen in good enough shape to still be able to have the bones' quill knobs in evidence.

While velociraptor wasn't even close to being able to fly, it may as the article states have been used in courtship, to control the raptor's body temperature or the temperature of its nests, or to aid in turning at full speed.  Or combinations of some or all of the above, of course.

More than ever, the deadly critter "looks more like a giant turkey."

The Internet just got a little weirder.  No, I'm not talking about O.J. Simpson's arrest for robbery.  It's the "two months of Halloween on" I-Mockery.

Check it out.

Teen hacks iPhone, makes it usable on T-Mobile

While I think that's interesting, his technique requires about two hours and skills in both soldering and coding.  And it only opens it up to T-Mobile; other providers use different signals that apparently aren't usable at all.

Frankly, it's not going to change things a lot.  Even if you really wanted T-Mobile, you'd have to buy an iPhone and trust either your skills or the skills of some hacker you hire to change it.  And talk about voiding a warranty!

Meh.