Welcome to Flores Girl, Free eBook Adventure Download

The Free Flores Girl Science Fiction Romantic Adventure ebook begins with Sarah finding herself clinging for life aboard a small boat that is being tossed about by a raging storm in the Flores Sea.

Sarah is an attractive young lady and a leading authority on the study of the great apes but she is questioning her own sanity for having taken this journey. This is one of many trips Sarah has made to assist her academic mentor but this trip takes a decidedly wrong turn when the boat’s engine dies forcing her and her guides to seek shelter on a small, uncharted island in the Flores Sea.

As the guides repair the motor of their stranded boat, Sarah wanders off from the beach, heading to the woods to observe the local bird population. While she is sitting in the woods she suddenly feels as if she is being watched. Sarah is not easily scared, since she has spent many days alone in the wild while observing her beloved chimps and gorillas. But this experience is entirely different to her and she begins to feels a strange presence closing in about her. Then she actually hears the presence! Strange human-like voices, much like the mumbling’s of the damned, begin to fill her ears coming from all directions. Sarah is terrified but paralyzed with fear as they begin to surround her. In the distance Sarah can hear the guides frantically searching for her but they are too late to rescue…

 

Rupert Murdoch's News of the World Folds

After the bad taste following the Casey Anthony trial it has been fairly amusing for me to watch Rupert Murdoch sweat out the News of the World scandal. In case you haven’t heard, and that could only happen you’re a devoted fan of the Fair and Balanced FoxNews channel, one of Rupert Murdoch’s holdings in News Corp, the News of the World scandal rag has done an impressive job of creating its own political scandal that leads all the way to the Royal Family. The charges are that editors knew that staff were utilizing illegal hacked sources and were bribing police officials to get inside scoops on celebrities, dead British soldiers, a dead teenage girl and the Royal Family. Unfortunately, the inside info on the Royal Prince was a little too on the money thereby prompting an official hacking investigation. Of course, as the hacking charges grew in intensity so did the efforts to cover-up. To add to the carnage the British Prime Minster David Cameron hired one of the compromised editors, Andy Coulson, of the New of World as his communication officer compounding the mess.

All of this leads to Murdochs and what did they know of the scandal. Rupert did what he always does when the heat increases he acted boldly and folded the entire newspaper to kill the trail. Even so, the timing couldn’t be worse as Rupert Murdoch was busily acquiring another company to add to his communication empire: the takeover of the hugely profitable BSkyB satellite television operation.

I understand that the Murdoch’s will claim that they don’t have day to day control of their holdings and subsequently they will claim no knowledge of the hacking. That’s an understandable defense but the hacking charges are not new and with their somewhat lackadaisical control over their operations many will simply ask why should they be trusted and rewarded with the acquisition of BSKyB?

More importantly why isn’t FoxNews in the states covering the story? Surely, the folding of News of the World because of the ongoing hacking scandal qualifies as a newsworthy item, particularly because of the impact on the British PM. But no not a single word anywhere on FoxNews nor on their website. Why? Because Rupert Murdoch owns FoxNews and it’s not nice to air the bosses’ dirty laundry so the FoxNews editors got word not to breathe a word of the scandal. Go ahead and look on their web site, all you will see is business blurb regarding the close of New of the World operation. Jeez, I have seen higher journalistic editorial standards at a local high school newspaper. And if Murdoch’s has that type of control over the FoxNews editors it’s hard to believe he did not exert that same measure of control regarding News of the World. Here’s your smoking gun, let’s see if any of the politicians on Rupert Murdoch’s payroll grow a pair and take their chances away from Murdoch. I got to buy me a politician someday you know?

Update: Still nothing this morning on the FoxNews channel but there were more business entries about the scandal at the FoxNews Site. Latest word is there were attempts at getting 9/11 survivors personal information. If you recall a little while back there was neocon backlash agianst the 9/11 widows, the thinking being that the widows were getting too much sympathy and too much money from the terrorist attack that occurred duing George Bush’s watch.

Are Creationists and Tea Baggers Stupid?

It is often said you can’t have a battle of wits with intellectual conscientious objectors.  In fact, many pro-evolutionary elements have advocated that these debates not be held with creationists out of fear of further fanning the flames of righteous ignorance. Yet such a strategy is doomed to failure as Creationists have found support among such kindred spirits as Tea Baggers and neo-conservatives types.   This is fueling recent efforts to legislate the return of creationism into the public classroom albeit under the guise of critical thought.  Don’t see the fit between Tea Baggers and creationists?  Well, that because you’re literate enough to know that Obama isn’t Muslim, right? Moreover; there is no critical thought because creationism withers in the uncompromising light of logic and reason or what scientists call scientific methodology. Kinda of why we call it faith rather than science.  Unfortunately, such nuance is lost on presidential candidates like Mike Huckabee as they pander to the lowest common denominator among the American public.

Here’s a passage from the Sensuous Curmudgeon, a evolutionary advocate that recommends disengaging debate with creationists:

“But critical analysis, as a slogan embraced by the intelligent design movement, turns the scientific method upside-down,” he said. “Proponents start with their conclusion—that evolution alone cannot explain the origins of humanity—and then construct an argument to undermine evolution. They do no formal experiments to test their hypothesis, and so they have no findings to publish in scientific journals. They produce no hard evidence. They discover nothing.”

The real problem is that evolution alone can, of course, explain the origins of humanity, only problem is  that explanation isn’t t to the liking of most creationists.  That said, this has more to do with the hubris and conceit of men rather than any literal word from god.   Many religious types hate that humans are just an elevated hominid —notice I didn’t say ape which is scientifically incorrect— rather than being split off the spiritual evolutionary branch just above the angels. Damn it, we’re special and we even have our own personal god to watch over us as proof of that specialness!  Never mind that god remains elusive save in the passages of three thousand year old bible verses but hey don’t let the facts get in the way of good old religious doctrine!

Believing in the literal interpretation of any document is at best a fool-hardy wistful endeavor.  Tea Baggers often insist on the literal interpretation/originalism of another of their favorite documents: the US Constitution, only to be reminded that the original document precluded the vote of anybody other than a land-owning white male and promulgated the spread of slavery.  But those were addressed by amendments conservatives would counter forgetting that to even think of an amendment requires you to think outside the literal interpretative box in the first place. Now do the founding fathers sound so omnipresent especially after they had to add a Bill of Rights?  Don’t you just hate it when the facts get in the way of literal interpretation  and fundamentalist perception?

Really, are the conservative and fundamentalist types really that stupid?  No, I said this before and to reiterate my point, it would be a mistake to assume that just stupidity and intellectual laziness are at work here for pursuing such faulty logic.  What accounts for this aberrant behavior is that many people will almost always embrace certainty over uncertainty, at any expense, including that of an inconvenient truth such as evolution (sorry Al)! After all, when you embrace a literal bible you can be assured of immortality either in heaven or hell; whereas embrace the theory of evolution you can only look forward to the possible continuation of  your selfish genes and perhaps an unavoidable emptiness upon your demise. Now in light of that reality doesn’t the Bible version looks better and better?

Nah, I always prefer the harsh, coldlight of  truth even when it’s at the expense of my preference for certainty.  Really, I can handle the truth better than I can the empty lies of men who claim to be speaking for their god.

Cheers,

Erik John Bertel,

Author Flores Girl: The Children God Forgot

Spiky Ape Penises and Creationists

Okay, I know the title is a bit sensationalistic but I will quickly show how this all comes together. I saw a CNN article about “How the human penis lost its spikes.” Well I just had to read the article; I mean who can resist reading about the evolution of spiky penises, right? That doesn’t sound right, after all I am straight, really! Let’s face it, it’s difficult to talk seriously about man’s second favorite organ (sorry, the brain is numero uno in my book) while keeping a straight face.

The article in question is about a Sanford University study of human and chimpanzee genome. We share 97% of the same genes yet that 3% difference results in some astonishing differences. Why? Well one gene they discovered actually controls, that is turns on and off the appearance of these kinky spikes. Chimpanzees have the gene and have spiky penises; humans lack the gene and thank god we don’t.

Did I mention god? What’s the reason for two related primates having totally different penises? Well, the hooks in the article could be useful for removing a previous sexual partner’s sperm. Chimps go into heat and they kind of have a free for all. Cats also have a similarly adorned spiky penis and some biologist believe the spikes help to stimulate ovulation in the female. Could the same apply to chimps?

Who knows but the bigger question is so why did human’s lose their spiky penis. One answer maybe the somewhat monogamous nature of humans; that is we do tend to settle for a single partner excluding, of course, the denizens of the Jersey Shore. Sex is an important social lubricant in the pair bond, optimally we like to do it a lot and it’s pleasurable for both men and women, barring certain fundamentalist cults. Spiky penises have a certain edge to them in terms of pleasure, if you’re a woman its probably not going to be something you’re into. Also, women don’t go into heat like other primates, at least none of the ones I know af so using the spikes to stimulate ovulation is unnecessary. Again we must exclude the cast of the Jersey Shore, I don’t what the hell is in the water they drink.

So are these the ultimate answers for this prurient bit of human evolution? Not necessarily but these are reasonable evolutionary theories until something better comes along. Unless you’re a fundamentalist creationist nut, then this whole conversation is blasphemous. I read the article and I then went to the comments from the public which including some juvenile humor regarding being ribbed and one lone solitary rant from a creationist freak. It went like this:

“It’s hard to measure the enormous damage inflicted by Darwinian evolution, the teaching that life arose from a spontaneous spark in a pond of primordial ooze. The amazing thing is that influential scientists themselves are now denying Darwin’s theory as impossible. Yet its destructive effects remain.

For instance, if man is an accident of nature, then there is no fixed standard of right and wrong. So what the Bible calls sexual perversion is now a “lifestyle.” And a human life can be readily destroyed, whether in the womb or partially delivered.

Worst of all, evolution has helped destroy belief in God for millions. Denying biblical creation, evolutionists have “changed the truth of God into a lie” (Romans 1:25)”

It’ the usual line of crap from creationists that man is so perfect god had to create man, Darwin and evolution are all part of some great liberal humanist conspiracy (think tea baggers), scientists don’t believe in evolution anymore (well were not talking about the credible ones obviously) and yak, yak, yak.

Now why am I sensitive to these rants of these intellectual midgets? Because they annoying, they love to harass my Flores Girl Novel and often leave me totally unintelligible comments. Here’s the one from Amazon about my Flores Girl: The Children God Forgot: “GOD dose (sic) not forget any of his kids so too me it is just lame and u can tell the person who made this book.” You can almost smell the crayon sharpening in the background. So while scientists play god with with Dino Chickens and spiky penis genes the creationists continue their denial fest and remind everyone that god did it.

Many Darwinians say we should not argue with such morons and its true you can’t win a debate with this crowd. It’s almost as if we are talking two different languages; ones a conversation about scientific fact versus the creationist’s argument that god did it and are you one of us by the way? I say the opposite, I know we can’t win a debate with these intellectual conscientious objectors but you can win the hearts and minds of those listening into the conversation! I also want the idiot Republican politicians that pander to these fundamentalist nitwits to know there will be cost at the voting booth!

Wait for it, wait for it, here’s the plug for my novel:

There have been over 250,000 downloads of Flores Girl: The Children God Forgot free ebook and podcast. What are you waiting for? Try here for the free Flores Girl novel download for the iPad, Kindle, Sony, BlackBerry, iPhone ebook Readers: Flores Girl: The Children God Forgot Free eBook Download.

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Spiky Ape Penises and Creationists

Okay, I know the title is a bit sensationalistic but I will quickly show how this all comes together. I saw a CNN article about “How the human penis lost its spikes.” Well I just had to read the article; I mean who can resist reading about the evolution of spiky penises, right? That doesn’t sound right, after all I am straight, really! Let’s face it, it’s difficult to talk seriously about man’s second favorite organ (sorry, the brain is numero uno in my book) while keeping a straight face.

The article in question is about a Sanford University study of human and chimpanzee genome. We share 97% of the same genes yet that 3% difference results in some astonishing differences. Why? Well one gene they discovered actually controls, that is turns on and off the appearance of these kinky spikes. Chimpanzees have the gene and have spiky penises; humans lack the gene and thank god we don’t.

Did I mention god? What’s the reason for two related primates having totally different penises? Well, the hooks in the article could be useful for removing a previous sexual partner’s sperm. Chimps go into heat and they kind of have a free for all. Cats also have a similarly adorned spiky penis and some biologist believe the spikes help to stimulate ovulation in the female. Could the same apply to chimps?

Who knows but the bigger question is so why did human’s lose their spiky penis. One answer maybe the somewhat monogamous nature of humans; that is we do tend to settle for a single partner excluding, of course, the denizens of the Jersey Shore. Sex is an important social lubricant in the pair bond, optimally we like to do it a lot and it’s pleasurable for both men and women, barring certain fundamentalist cults. Spiky penises have a certain edge to them in terms of pleasure, if you’re a woman its probably not going to be something you’re into. Also, women don’t go into heat like other primates, at least none of the ones I know af so using the spikes to stimulate ovulation is unnecessary. Again we must exclude the cast of the Jersey Shore, I don’t what the hell is in the water they drink.

So are these the ultimate answers for this prurient bit of human evolution? Not necessarily but these are reasonable evolutionary theories until something better comes along. Unless you’re a fundamentalist creationist nut, then this whole conversation is blasphemous. I read the article and I then went to the comments from the public which including some juvenile humor regarding being ribbed and one lone solitary rant from a creationist freak. It went like this:

“It’s hard to measure the enormous damage inflicted by Darwinian evolution, the teaching that life arose from a spontaneous spark in a pond of primordial ooze. The amazing thing is that influential scientists themselves are now denying Darwin’s theory as impossible. Yet its destructive effects remain.

For instance, if man is an accident of nature, then there is no fixed standard of right and wrong. So what the Bible calls sexual perversion is now a “lifestyle.” And a human life can be readily destroyed, whether in the womb or partially delivered.

Worst of all, evolution has helped destroy belief in God for millions. Denying biblical creation, evolutionists have “changed the truth of God into a lie” (Romans 1:25)”

It’ the usual line of crap from creationists that man is so perfect god had to create man, Darwin and evolution are all part of some great liberal humanist conspiracy (think tea baggers), scientists don’t believe in evolution anymore (well were not talking about the credible ones obviously) and yak, yak, yak.

Now why am I sensitive to these rants of these intellectual midgets? Because they annoying, they love to harass my Flores Girl Novel and often leave me totally unintelligible comments. Here’s the one from Amazon about my Flores Girl: The Children God Forgot: “GOD dose (sic) not forget any of his kids so too me it is just lame and u can tell the person who made this book.” You can almost smell the crayon sharpening in the background. So while scientists play god with with Dino Chickens and spiky penis genes the creationists continue their denial fest and remind everyone that god did it.

Many Darwinians say we should not argue with such morons and its true you can’t win a debate with this crowd. It’s almost as if we are talking two different languages; ones a conversation about scientific fact versus the creationist’s argument that god did it and are you one of us by the way? I say the opposite, I know we can’t win a debate with these intellectual conscientious objectors but you can win the hearts and minds of those listening into the conversation! I also want the idiot Republican politicians that pander to these fundamentalist nitwits to know there will be cost at the voting booth!

Wait for it, wait for it, here’s the plug for my novel:

There have been over 250,000 downloads of Flores Girl: The Children God Forgot free ebook and podcast. What are you waiting for? Try here for the free Flores Girl novel download for the iPad, Kindle, Sony, BlackBerry, iPhone ebook Readers: Flores Girl: The Children God Forgot Free eBook Download.

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H.S. Biology Teachers Advocate Creationism in Class

Wonder why our American kids are getting are asses kicked by Chinese and Indian students? Look no farther than their dopey science teachers. The majority of high-school biology teachers don’t take a solid stance on evolution with their students, mostly to avoid conflicts, and fewer than 30 percent of teachers take an adamant pro-evolutionary stance on the topic, a new study finds. Also, 13 percent of these teachers advocate creationism in their classrooms according a Penn State survey. About 60 percent of the teachers polled didn’t take a direct stance on the subject, dubbed by the authors as the “cautious 60 percent.”

So can I ask a question of the 13%?  Why the hell are you teaching science?

Here’s the link:

http://www.livescience.com/culture/biology-teachers-avoid-evolution-stance-with-students-110127.html

Think Keywords for Your Resume

This post has nothing to do with nothing associated with Flores Girl and the free ebook offer but I have a number of friends who have been job hunting so I always find myself always giving away resume pointers.  So here are some key resume pointers that I have learned after working at several Fortune 100 companies:

  1. When you post your resumes to the major job boards make sure you consider the usage and the number of keywords in your resume. Keywords refer to Search Engine Optimization techniques that apply to the job boards as well as to web sites. For example, if you are into IM then add words like SERP. SEO, page rank etc. Many of the recruiters do their searches based on keywords alone. Phrases like “sales grew at a 10% plus CAGR compared to an industry standard 6% CAGR with a 500 basis points improvement in margin” is like…eh, well like honey to many recruiters.  Of course, I’m not saying to you to make crap up but you get the idea! Use keywords so that  hiring managers using electronic scanners to rank candidates based on a keyword search of applications can find your resume.  Pepper keywords from the job posting into your resume as they apply to your experience. The terms employers search for most often are:
    • problem-solving and decision-making skills (50 percent)
    • oral and written communications (44 percent)
    • customer service or retention (34 percent)
    • performance and productivity improvement (32 percent)
    • leadership (30 percent)
    • technology (27 percent)
    • team-building (26 percent)
    • project management (20 percent)
    • bilingual (14 percent)
  2. Brevity is not necessarily good; if you have had multiple positions and job functions but two page is almost always sufficient.
  3. If you are old or young no dates! Keep them guessing as to your age!  It’s none of their business.
  4. Also, create flavors of your resume for targeting different positions and vary the keywords accordingly.
  5. Use power words as well like budget, direct reports, P&L responsibilities, dotted line, etc. Know the jargon of your target industry at least as well as the recruiter does.
  6. Go back to the boards every couple of weeks and update and save your resume. Recruiters often narrow their searches to recent resume activity.
  7. I estimate that it takes ten opportunities to get one good job offer for a newbie so that means multiple irons in the fire! Finding a job is almost a full time job in itself so if you aren’t spending hours searching that means you are planning on being lucky. I never had much luck other than what I made for myself.
  8. Add all appropriate certifications but nix the unimportant ones.
  9. Really, nobody gives a shit about your hobbies until you get past the recruiter then the social touches such as being a golfer or your into triathlons work.
  10. However, social networks such as Linked-In are useful! Get into a network after all everybody has at least one friend that seems successful and he or she can open doors or at least give you visibility.
  11. And that’s your main goal: get past the recruiter who usually knows less about the job than you do to get that interview!
  12. Practice the interview questions on the boards and know how to answer the tough ones such as why are you looking or why did you get laid off.
  13. Exercise to keep your mind fresh!
  14. Oh yeah and do a Homer and Google yourself! If you find some incriminating Facebook pages well clean your act up and remove those old photos with the stripper!
  15. Check your finances and your credit score out with one of the free agencies. Big firms want to know if you are in trouble nowadays and they will ask your permission to to check your background! And by all means say no but just be prepared to continue your job search.
  16. Sober up and stop taking drugs.  Many companies will ask you to urinate in a cup! Party after you get the damn job.

Wow I got carried away! Remember, work the job boards, recruiters and social network sites as you go job hunting.  You never know where the next opportunity will come from but working multiple leads in a depressed job market is always your best bet!

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Real Fan's Review of Flores Girl

Every so often you get a fan’s review that brings a smile to a jaded author’s face:

After laying off pleasure reading for 20 years, your book Flores Girl has reignited that spark, thank you so much for a peek into the mind of another excellent writer.

Dan Murphy

Go to  the Flores Girl Download Page to get your free copy!

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Those wacky creationists are still alive and kicking. The following article is from Panda’s Thumb at http://pandasthumb.org/archives/2010/05/modern-humans-m.html about modern humans inheriting Neanderthal genome:

“The news doesn’t surprise young-earth creationists, who predicted overlap between modern human and Neanderthal genomes. Based on Scripture, creationists consider Neanderthals to have been fully human, descendants of Adam and Eve (through Noah), and therefore they would have lived in the same time and place as other humans. But factors related to both the dispersion at Babel and environmental pressures afterward resulted in people groups with different physical characteristics, including humans with “Neanderthal” characteristics.

Liberty University cell biologist (and creationist) David DeWitt called the research an “amazing feat” of science that supports creationist expectations. “Finding Neanderthal DNA in humans was not expected by evolutionists, but it was predicted from a creation standpoint because we have said all along that Neanderthals were fully human: descendants of Adam and Eve, just like us,” he told News to Note.

DeWitt also pointed to research on mitochondrial DNA several years earlier that had boldly claimed that Neanderthals were not our ancestors, based on the genetic results at that time. “We really have to be careful with scientific conclusions and data,” DeWitt explained. “Now, with a more thorough analysis, we have the exact opposite conclusions.”

While Neanderthals remain something of a mystery even to creationists, the new research reminds us of the reality of what the Bible teaches: Neanderthals were neither ape-men nor inferior to other humans. Rather, as with all humans, Neanderthals were part of the one blood of humankind (Acts 17:26), and therefore carried the image of God (Genesis 1:27).

Really?

* As to why the percentage of Neanderthal DNA found in modern humans is relatively small, we note the following. Neanderthal fossils are from individuals who have been dead for hundreds to thousands of years. Since that time, there have been selection pressure, genetic drift, and population bottlenecks (such as the bubonic plague that struck Europe, episodes of “ethnic cleansing,” etc.). These all have impacts on the gene pool, as does relative population size. Humans alive today have come through that, while the Neanderthals did not.

Note: Of course creationists account for all hominid fossils by stating that were just small variations on the human species.  This bit of mental gymnastics is even used to describe the three-foot dwarfs called Homo floresiensis that were found on Flores Island. Doesn’t matter if you were three tall or built like a short, powerful body builder like the Neanderthals every hominid ancestor fits under the umbrella of being human according to the creationists.  Talking about embracing diversity!  Oh, why red headed step-kids?  Recent review of some the surviving Neanderthal genome indicated that there were markers for red hair.

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WinDoze fans have to got love the latest line of arrogance from Apple’s Steve Jobs. According to Mac Rumors, Jobs recently responded to an e-mail from a Mac Mini owner asking when the company will finally embrace the technology. Jobs response: “Bluray [sic] is looking more and more like one of the high end audio formats that appeared as the successor to the CD–like it will be beaten by Internet downloadable formats.”

The Mac Mini managed to get one more e-mail from the CEO, who stated,

“No, free, instant gratification and convenience (likely in that order) is what made the downloadable formats take off. And the downloadable movie business is rapidly moving to free (Hulu) or rentals (iTunes) so storing purchased movies or TV shows is not an issue. I think you may be wrong–we may see a fast broad move to streamed free and rental content at sufficient quality (at least 720p) to win almost everyone over.”

I don’t know about you but I have a Blue-Ray player and the 1080i picture is demonstrable better than any in-home experience I have viewed to date and 720i just doesn’t cut it. Do you know how long it takes to download a single 30 GBof high resolution movie?  Of course Steve knows best for Apple fans what they want.  Frankly, Jobs better get with it because his arrogance is getting tough to stomach. First it was the no Flash on the iPad, then the fiasco and lies regarding the iPhone 4 “Deathgrip” antenna design and now this moronic Blue-Ray dictate.  Ever since Apple overtook Microsoft in market cap size they have proven themselves to truly be a market bully and are not to be trusted no matter what the Mac fantard or fanboys claim.

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