WickedThought

(And, as usual, it’s teh wommenz who get the benefit.)

A dominant male mouse does not just turn a female on – he makes her brain grow. Just a whiff of his odour is enough to make her brain sprout new neurons, and this growth drives her to want to mate with him, new research has found.

Samuel Weiss at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, and his colleagues exposed 8- to 10-week-old female mice to soiled bedding from males of the same age.

Two weeks later they found that the brains of females exposed to dominant male pheromones had grown significantly more new neurons in two key regions of the brain than those exposed to subordinate pheromones and control odours.

What is more, these females would then pick the dominant male over the subordinate when presented with a choice of mates. Females that had not grown new brain cells did not.

The researchers think the new neurons encode trace memories of dominant males. The two brain regions in which the growth took place were the olfactory bulb, which processes smell, and the hippocampus, which is involved in memory.

These have been hailed as main sites for neurogenesis across many species, but the two had not been linked to the same stimulus before, says Weiss.

(thanks to )

The reports are beginning to come in. Alleged details.

It appears Benoit strangled his wife, smothered his son, then hung himself.

This horrible act–from a man regarded by fans and workers in the industry as a Good Man–is stunning. I can’t defend any of these actions. “Saddened” isn’t even close to what I’m feeling right now.

As a fan, I’ve respected and admired Chris Benoit for 14 years. By every single report, he was kind, generous and respectful. The Last Honest Man in wrestling.

But in the last three years, he has changed. Threats of physical violence against his wife and children have surfaced.

This is like finding out your favorite uncle…

I’ve had experience with steroids in the past. When I was suffering from chronic back pain, the doctor gave me huge pills. They changed my behavior, made me lose my temper at friends, say things I did not mean. I lost a friend because he was on the juice. Turned him into an awful, ugly person.

Chris Benoit is responsible for the crimes he comitted. But if these crimes–I will not call the incident a “tragedy”–are not answered by authorities, if law enforcement officials and the WWE don’t finally address this ongoing problem…

I stopped watching wrestling years ago. I started watching again only because I had the ability to do so at my new place.

I don’t think I’ll ever watch it again.

Chris Benoit, wife Nancy and son found dead in home.

Possible suicide, double homicide.

Their bodies were found one hour before RAW went on the air. Jerry Lawler looks like someone kicked him in the groin. Jim Ross can barely speak.

One of the best performers in professional wrestling–and without argument, one of its finest men–is dead.

Right now, at this moment, approximately 931,551,498 little boys and 875,646,416 little girls live in the world today. Children. Under the age of 15.

That’s a grand total of 1,807,197,914 children. 

One billion eight hundred seven million one hundred ninety-seven thousand nine hundred and fourteen.

Under the age of 15.

Almost two billion. Two billion. A number so large, our human minds can’t even begin to comprehend it.

Two billion children murdered. Hitler murdered eight million Jews. God is going to murder two billion children.

Two billion children.

And it’s a comedy.

Jessie is my supervisor here at my new Arizona job. The guy who used to sit at my station (and is now working in a different part of the building) recently sent this. The 101 Things Jessie Gets mad at.

1) May not watch ‘South Park’ when I’m supposed to be working
3) May not threaten anyone with black magic
4) May not challenge anyone’s disbelief of black magic by asking for hair
6) May not play ‘Pulp Fiction’ with a suction-cup dart pistol and any supervisor
7) May not add ‘In accordance with the prophecy’ to the end of answers I give to a question an supervisor asks me
8) May not add pictures of supervisors I don’t like to War Criminal posters
10) Not allowed to purchase anyone’s soul on company time
11) Not allowed to join the communist party
12) Not allowed to join any militia
13) Not allowed to form any militia
14) Not allowed out of my cube when the brass visits
16) Must get a haircut even if it tampers with my ‘Sampson like powers’
17) God may not contradict any of my orders
18) May no longer perform my now (in)famous ‘Barbie Girl Dance’ while on logged in
19) May not call any supervisors immoral, untrustworthy, lying slime, even if I’m right
20) Must not taunt the French any more
21) Must attempt to not antagonize MOD’s
22) Must never call an MOD a ‘Wanker’
23) Must never ask anyone who outranks me if they’ve been smoking crack.
24) Must not tell any supervisor that I am smarter than they are, especially if it’s true 
31) Not allowed to let sock puppets take responsibility for any of my actions
32) Not allowed to let sock puppets take control of a call
33) Not allowed to chew gum on a call, unless I brought enough for everybody.
34) (Next day) Not allowed to chew gum even if I *did* bring enough for everybody.
35) Not allowed to sing ‘I’m just a gigilo’ while on hold with a doctor
36) Can’t have flashbacks to wars I was not in. (The Spanish-American War isn’t over)
39) Not allowed to ask for the day off due to religious purposes, on the basis that the world is going to end, more than once.
40) I do not have super-powers.
42) Not allowed to attempt to appeal to mankind’s baser instincts in recruitment.
44) I am not the atheist chaplain
46) I am not authorized to fire supervisors
47) I am not a citizen of Texas, and those other, forty-nine, lesser states
48) I may not use public masturbation as a tool to demonstrate a flaw in a command decision
49) Not allowed to trade company equipment for ‘magic beans’
50) Not allowed to sell magic beans during hours
51) Not allowed to quote ‘Dr Seuss’ on a call
58) The following words and phrases may not be used on a call:

· Budding sexuality
· Necrophilia
· I hate everyone in this helpdesk and wish they were dead
· Sexual lubrication
· Black earth mother
· All marines are latent homosexuals
· Tantric yoga
· Gotterdammerung
· Korean hooker
· Eskimo Nell
· We’ve all got jackboots now
· Slut puppy
· Any references to squid.

59) May not make posters depicting the leadership failings of my chain of command.
60) `The Giant Space Ants’ are not at the top of my chain of command.
62) “It is better to beg forgiveness than to ask permission” no longer applies to Helpdesk tech DBabbitt.
63) Command decisions do *not* need to be ratified by a 2/3 majority. 
65) There are no evil clowns living under my bed.
67) I am not the Psychological Physician for the company
68) I may not line my headset with tin foil to `Block out the space mind control lasers’
69) May not pretend to be a fascist stormtrooper, while on a call.
70) I am not authorized to prescribe any form of medication.
71) I must not flaunt my deviances in front of a supervisor.
72) May not wear gimp mask while on duty. 
75) May not conduct psychological experiments on my supervisors.
77) The Security desk is not an Imperial Stormtrooper roadblock, so I should not tell them “You don’t need to see my identification, these are not the droids you are looking for.”
78) I may not call block my supervisor.
79) I am neither the king nor queen of cheese. 
81) May not bring a drag queen to any company parties.
82) May not form any press gangs.
86) May not challenge supervisor to the `field of honor’
87) If the thought of something makes me giggle for longer than 15 seconds, I am to assume that I am not allowed to do it. 
91) I am not authorized to initiate Jihad.
94) Crucifixes do not ward off supervisors, and I should not test that.
95) I am not in need of a more suitable host body.
97) Gozer does not dwell in my refrigerator.

Other Cultures
The ven never mention other cultures, but we do know they co-existed with the early Atlanteans, Lemurians and Hyperborians. These cultures were in their infancy, still little more than orks, but they do exist.

Like I said, these alien cultures never appear in any ven literature. Given the auspiciousness of such a meeting, we’d expect even a casual mention of Atlantean magicians, Lemurian mystics or even Hyperborian warlords. But, unfortunately, there is nothing.

__

And here’s the answer to The Vach Question.

Yes, Vach, you can play an Atlantean. I know the game is about the ven, but yes, you can play something that isn’t that.

Character creation is pretty easy.

You have no Virtues.
You have one aspect: “Ork.”
You have webbed feet and hands.
And, you can make two sounds: high pitched noises and low pitched noises.

Have fun.

The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets have a new album! The Shadow out of Tim is now available here at Amazon.com.

I’ve ordered mine. Why haven’t you ordered yours? Sucker!