Nature's great sense of humor

A photo that some Republicans have been circulating shows our President's face photoshopped on an ape with the title Obama's family tree:
Naturally a lot of people are offended by this because in the 1800s and on passed World War II some people suggested blacks could be morally kept down because they weren't as evolved as whites and where closer to apes, so they didn't have to be treated as humans.

There was nothing other than racism to back up this claim that blacks were less human than whites but it still made its way into literature, even Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote it into his land that time forgot series.

This idea had finally been pushed out of the mainstream until recently fringe Republicans have been trying to bring the idea that somehow blacks were less human than whites and Asians. If they paid attention to the latest science they might not be so eager to bring this particular debunked idea back.

When it comes to Irony no one beats mother nature. Scientists have been mapping not only the human genome but the Neanderthal genome as well and made an interesting discovery, Europeans have a lot of Neanderthal DNA. Currently Whites and Asians have 2 to 4% of their DNA coming from Neanderthals and it is believed that in the past that could have been as high as 20%. All humans genetic lines except for Africans have Neanderthal genes in them.

So nature's great sense of humor turns this line of racism on its head and shows that Africans are actually MORE human than Whites and Asians. Nature always gets the last laugh.

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

Breaking News: Birthers are Stupid

Today President Obama released his long form birth certificate. I'm wondering how Fox is going to spin this?

Are they going to use this as an example of how he refuses to compromise?

Are they going talk about his abuse of powers by making the Hawaiian Health Dept release a document they don't normally give out?

Will use the logical fallacy of “Argumentum ad Numerum” and show polls that show 150% of respondents believe that Obama wasn't born in this country. Because so many people believe it, it must be true. Just like 17 quadrillion flies like poop so it must be tasty.

Will they claim that the shadows on the birth certificate aren't parallel so it must have been filmed at a secret sound stage at Area 51? Just because this myth has been debunked doesn't stop them from repeating it.

If all else fails they can go to their old stand by and say by releasing his birth certificate this year, Obama caused the recession, deficit, Iraq war, the Pleistocene extinctions, and Katrina.

As hard as I try I know that somehow Fox News is going to come up with something even sillier than I can think up.
By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

Some one is reading my mind

see more Very Demotivational

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

Sex, Violence, Racism and Child Abuse: The value of critiquing

I belong to a few critique groups and I get more out of them than just having other people look over my work. I learn a lot from seeing other people's mistakes. This makes me look for those mistakes in my own work, and I find them often.

In my latest work MIND THIEF, I had painted myself in to corner as far as starting it. I needed something to hook the reader but the main character was going into see a psychologist, so I was thinking he couldn't have thoughts that would make him a danger to himself or others as that would get him locked away.

I was critiquing someone else's novel and noticed that one of the characters blissfully told the psychologist abouts thoughts of murdering people, which she would have learned not to tell the psychologist. That kind of information would need to slowly pulled out of her in an interview, it wouldn't be volunteered.

As I thought about this I realized my main character would also know not to tell a psychologist about thoughts that would make him a danger to himself or others. Because of that he could think about just about anything and simply not mention it to the shrink.

That makes for a much more exciting start:

Mind Thief

Chapter 1

Howie walked down the street from the parking lot and had a strange sense that there was something wrong. He looked around, there was nothing out of the ordinary about the wide concrete sideway. There were a few more hybird cars parked on the street than he would see back on the college campus, but since he was in front of a medical professional office building their presence wasn't surprising.

In a flash Howie had a memory of this street, it was different. The sidewalk was brick, not concrete and the street was made from cobblestone instead of asphalt. A few Model A's were parked in the street but otherwise the area was deserted. He could hear a bike coming down the sidewalk behind him. A quick glance told him the rider was a red headed boy in his late teens.

As the rider started to pass him, Howie stuck out his arm and clotheslined the boy, knocking him off the bike. Howie stood over the boy who was holding onto his left shoulder in pain. Looking down he screamed, “You micks need to learn your place. The sidewalk is for people walking, you dumb hooligan.”

Howie kicked the injured boy in the ribs. Satisfied that he had done his good deed for the day he continued walking down the street.

Coming back into the real world, Howie stopped dead in his tracks and took a deep breath. Don't tell Dr. Randolph about this day-dream. It might be enough to get you labeled as danger to yourself or others.

Howie tried to push the ugly images out of his mind as he went into the office building for his appointment with the psychologist. Although he couldn't stop wondering, What the hell is a Mick?

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

Fantastic Future Friday: Mars

Ground penetrating radar has unearthed (unmarsed?) a great find. A huge bed of frozen CO2.

Thawing out this bed of CO2 would only double the pressure of the Martian atmosphere, so the majority of the planet would still be unable to have liquid water. But in the lowest depths of the Valles Marineris doubling the air pressure would make it thick enough for liquid water. That would be enough to transport life to the planet and jump start the process of terraforming it to be an Earthlike world.

A second habitable world in the solar system will lead to a fantastic future.

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

Following my own advice

Yesterday I felt like kicking myself in the head, a quick check with my insurance agent informed me that I am not covered for that so I decided against that plan.

What made me feel like inflicting more pain on myself was seeing an obvious problem with my first chapter of my latest book, MIND THIEF.

I had the problem that I was introducing the two main characters in the very beginning, and was looking for ways to quickly unfold their characters which is not my strength. I've been told by a lot of editors that I don't write sympathetic characters, and these two are no exception.

I looked at examples from romance novels to try and get it right and although it helped I had to worry about the problem that I might actually get it right. If I did get that right my audience would be the women who consider TRUE ROMANCE and NATURAL BORN KILLERS to be light romantic comedies. Not a huge audience.

So then I ran across some advice I had given on this site:
RULE #1: The story comes first.
RULE #2: The story comes first.
RULE #3: If in doubt refer to Rules 1 and 2.

With that in mind I wrote a few paragraphs that show what my main character has to deal with throughout the book.

******

Mind Thief

Chapter 1

Howie put his left hand on the door handle to the office and couldn't help but be impressed, it was made of solid aluminum. “Even with the drop in price for Aluminum it still must have cost a pretty penny,” he thought.

He looked down and noticed his lack of shadow, surprised he looked to see how they had arranged the Edison Bulbs to create that effect. He was amazed to see that the hallway was lit by large mercury vapor lamps in the ceiling that must have cost a fortune.

He took a deep breath and looked back at the very common door handle and wondered why he thought aluminum was a semi-precious metal and how he could be surprised by cheap florescent lights. “Just one more thing to talk to the doc about,” he thought.

*****

Hopefully this new opening will make the reader want to know more about the weird thoughts that are going through Howie's mind so they will stick with me long enough to have the story play out. It also brings it out of the romance area so the murders, tortures, and leaving of “Love Stains” in the bad guy's car aren't as much of a shock to the readers.

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

A little character quiz for writers

How well do you know your characters, This 5 question quiz should help you find out.
5 questions.

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

Latest Writing Wednesday

My latest Writing Wednesday is up:

Check it out.

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

Not so Fantastic Friday

I won't be posting much as I got a crippling injury, I broke my finger.

I'd like to report it happened while battling the Alien/Industrial Complex, but in reality I slammed it in the car door.

Unless I can only post using letters found on the left side of the keyboard, which would be a huge accomplishment in itself, I won't be posting much.

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

Forrest Trump

News analysis, even good ones, are stumped by Donald Trump's running for President. Speculating if he is just in there for attention, to elevate the Trump brand or what?

The answer is a lot simpler, Money.

Although Wisconsin's Governor Walker is one of the most transparently legally bribed politician, giving the Koch Brothers millions in tax cuts for a few hundred thousand in campaign contributions and giving the Builder Association's president's son a $80,000 a year job for $100,000 in campaign contributions, most US politicians accept legal bribes they just cover their tracks better.

Bribing a politician has a tremendous return on investment, a few thousand dollars can get someone a few million in government contracts and tax breaks. Someone like Donald Trump is already doing this but even he has to go through some lobbyists to get access.

By running for President he can start his own PAC and meet with lots of politicians, so in the future he can avoid the middle man. That is how the Koch Brothers did it.

The Donald's new business venture is an old one, get free taxpayer money by legally bribing politicians. It's easy money and Trump has always looked to get easy money.

That being said, he is doing some good while running. By appealing to the nuttiest section of the GOP the Birther/Teabaggers he is shining a light on them and their “ideas”, turning off people that have an IQ greater than a glass of water from their “cause”.

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

Writing Wednesday: Reading my first draft

My latest Writing Wednesday is up: Take a peek

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

New Book Review up.

On my writing blog I review ZOMBIES DON'T QUERY by Rusty Fischer. It is a must read for anyone who wants to become a writer BOOK REVIEW: ZOMBIES DON'T QUERY

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

Shut-up Stupid Sunday: Cutting Immunizations

One of the stupidest cuts that the GOP want to but in the budget is a $156 million cut from the CDC's immunization program. I would love to say that this is penny wise and pound foolish except it isn't even penny wise.

The way immunizations work is they make it harder for the body to catch a disease, not impossible. They also make it so the body can fight the disease easier so that person spreads the disease for a shorter amount of time.

One person getting immunized doesn't do much to slow down the spread of a disease, it doesn't even make that person much safer as they are exposed to lots of people that have the disease. What makes immunizations work is a thing known as “Herd Immunity”.

Basically when 75% of a group is immunized, if one person gets the disease 3 out of 4 people they come in contact with will be resistant to catching the disease. That leaves just one of four that they can easily spread the disease to. The three others act as a buffer slowing the spread of the disease down to a crawl. It means that even unimmunized people have a greater chance of getting a very weakened form of the disease making them immunize themselves.

When less than 75% of a group is immunized people are exposed to the disease from multiple sources and it has a chance to mutate. This means even those that immunized have a greater chance of running into a mutated form of the disease that can make them sick. Naturally the lower percentage of a group that is immunized the faster a disease can spread.

By cutting the budget to the CDC's immunization program that targets the poorest 20% of families, it turns the poor neighborhoods into breeding grounds for nasty diseases. Even if our society didn't have a moral responsibility to take care of these people and let them die on the street it would still effect the rest of society as no group is completely cut off from every other group.

The working poor, who would become the breeding ground for nasty diseases, are the people who clean up the offices of the rich, they serve the meals in restaurants, take care the children, ect. Cutting immunizations spreads the nasty diseases everywhere and effects everyone, not just the poor.

So to those people who want to try and cut immunizations in this country, I say, “Shut-up Stupid, diseases don't care what type of car you drive, how much money is in your bank account, what social circles you belong to. They only care about spreading and to you they are just a convenient host. So cutting immunizations hurts you as well.”

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

Fantastic Future Friday: Extra Strength Placebos

In an astounding breakthrough a researcher has discovered a Placebo that is twice as effective as regular Placebos and 4 times as effective as the Generic Placebos. Read the Study.

Breakthroughs like this will lead to better and better Placebos and lead to a Fantastic Future.

Happy April Fools Day, everyone.

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE