Training day done.

Learned a lot. Whether I remember any of it is another matter entirely. But hopefully through use it will recall itself. And the (ab)use starts on Monday, so whee and yay! Or something like that.

An argument for using enhancement to strengthen ourselves because of our weaknesses. Enchancements that may limit us could be good for us, possbily in helpign to design both the unlimited enhancements, and to figure out what the effects and limits of enhancements on things like the psyche are. I'm sure sharpsight will have something to say about it.

A thought or two about beauty being in the eye of the beholder - the Sunday Times says that, as a whole, we're all prettier now, and that perhaps scandals involving old men and young women are motivated more by the looks than by the scandal. Ugly old man scores with young girl - that's "wrong", even more so if he's doing it with another guy's wife or girlfriend. Truth be told, though, most of us have enough sense not to expect a flawless body from ourselves or others, and so we find the gem of personality that captivates us. Or it might be the unique features of each person that holds our eye. Either way, beauty may be skin-deep, but what beauty is in reality is different than the fashion magazines.

An uninformed consequence of the digital, cellular, mobile-powered life: Ringxiety, or the hearing of phantom mobile sounds. A decidedly digital delusion, definitely. Do you suffer?

Crime, in all its myriad forms. Although, sometimes, a six-pack is all you need to discourage a robber. Would that such things might work on elected officials and corporations. For we find today that telecoms have been providing the NSA with the numbers that we have called and that have called us. Nothing admitted, yet, as to whether conversations or transcripts were recorded and also given to the NSA. (some Questions and Answers on the phone record collection program.) While the government claims to not be prying into our lives, with the track record going on here, there's a big question mark hanging around as to how much of that is truth, if it is at all. Especially when the NSA won't grant the Justice Department clearance to investigate them. And through all of this, the President skips happily along, asserting that he has the right to ignore the Constitution and laws that he signs whenever he damn well pleases. Not to mention the newest and most egregious voting machine security hole yet. And nothing on the horizon yet regarding censure, discipline, or impeachment. Such are the benefits of having your party in Congress. There also may be military recruiting abuses, like recruiters going after those who aren't mentally capable of the job. The gang graffiti thing says they're going after anyone who will sign the forms and take their chances they won't be killed.

The President also endorsed his brother as a potential Presidential candidate. It seems a fitting cap to such an angry explosion.

Speaking of explosions, although of a gaseous variety, there's murmurings of pig waste being used for biofuel. Possibly motor biofuel and or car biofuel. No word yet as to whether this is just murmurings or will be squished or will actually go anywhere.

Anyway, that's *zzzzzzzzzzzzz*

Right, then.

Just got pack from seeing the stage show my little brother was in at my old high school. Luckily, I've been out of there long enough that the only people who would recognize me there are the staff.

...heaven help us all if I have to sit through it again. Admittedly, there were two sketches that were reasonably funny, but not because of the acting. It was definitely a high school production, shall we say, and leave it at that. Onward with the linktastic-ness, which is what you're all really here for.

The Semi-colon's Journal of Dreams. See what a little-used punctuation mark has to say for himself.

The Sun is a dangerous, dangerous, thing and should be destroyed!. Much like dihydrogen monoxide.

Did a pornographic novel predict what would happen to Patty Hearst?. Maaaaaaaaaybe. Or maybe things just lined up in a weird coincidence sort of way. You never know, with these things.

If you're feeling down, and just need a random compliment to cheer you up, try Sam's Complimentary Service. He'll give you a personalized, unique compliment that applies specifically to you (do give him some details about what you'd like the compliment to be about).

The government has finally done something that we were wondering about for a long time - The government went hunting for criminals' blood. Nevermind, of course, that this was a hacker, and that he offered alternative for their DNA testing, and even cited what should have been the trump card, potential religious objections to having blood drawn, and yet, the government still wants his blood for their files. Something about this is just slightly off-kilter, don't you think? Must be that he's not one of the recognized religions in the country, which could be anything from Islam to a different synod of Baptist.

Speaking of religion, I think I like the attitude that these street preachers take: Salvation from Proselytization, using the tried and true methods of the people who claim we're all going to hell in a handbasket on the street corners and meeting places and public transport devices. Isn't it nice to have someone on the street who's not going to judge you?

The final triple shot link is all about sex. Well, mostly, anyway. Okay, so maybe there's not so much sex involved, but a lot of talking about sex... okay, talking about the attitudes that some people have towards it, really. The people we're interested in are the types who hold things like Purity Balls, which takes the idea of the "no-sex-until-marriage" virginity vow, and makes it into a public oath-swearing. Guess that the girls just don't have the willpower to say no on their own, and so they have to have a nice group pressure and the potential public humiliation to keep them in line, right? Coupled with the extraordinarily effective sex-education courses they'll be receiving, which rightly espouse the superiority of abstinence and all the evil things that happen when you have sex with someone else, and don't tell you at all about sinful things like contraceptives, then they're going to be happy virgins just waiting for their husband and their wedding day, and not be tempted at all by any sort of earthly or fleshly pleasures.

Psst. It doesn't work. Check out this article on the failure of Purity Balls, which shows that people who make their virginal pledges are quite likely to break them, and that they're not really any better about dangerous things than anyone else. They might even be more inclined to dangerous sex because they haven't been informed about contraceptives and preventing STDs and other such fun things. Also, they may not end up being good lovers even then, with little experience and a mindset that tries very hard to prevent them from enjoying or finding out what sort of sex is good for them. Rather than try to hide the fact, let's just admit that people do have sex, and quite a bit of it outside marriage. From there, let's then inform them on how to have safe, enjoyable, empowering sex so that they're not afraid of it.

Who's to blame for this? The Slacktivist says Origen and Augustine are the culprits, especially since they couldn't keep Neoplationist ideas out of their interpretations of Scriptures. So, the answer to the question "Why do Christians hate sex?", is that it's all their fault. Thanks a bunch, guys.