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Wal-Mart fires man for religious expression

Wal-Mart employee fired for his "non-discriminatory" view toward any religions and more specifically his attire:
"He says he was fired last week upon reporting for duty in his priest's shirt with Roman collar, an Arab headdress and six crosses."
Also:
"But Lorenz, 20, ignored requests to shed the shirt and collar — the main bones of contention — claiming they reflect his unique spiritual beliefs.
" "I told them that would be like turning my back on God, and I couldn't do that," said the Pipe Creek man whose religious fervor was fueled by a 2001 trip to Turkey, Syria, Jordan and Egypt.
"There, Lorenz first donned a kaffiyeh, an Arab headdress of folded cloth that's held on by a cord. Rounding out his unorthodox look are patches on his hip pack bearing the anarchy symbol and the words "vampire" and "ninja." "
Lorenz apparently taped all the conversations with his bosses and he's now preparing to sue them over discrimination.
I like the idea of unified religion, but this guy sounds a bit whacky:
" "I don't believe in any one religion," Lorenz said in his EEOC complaint. "I do believe in God, but I don't attend any one church. There is no title to my religion other than a universal belief system."
"Lorenz's ponytail and fuzzy chin reflect his belief that hair should not be cut because he is only "borrowing" his body. He won't date or marry, because all humans are family, he said, and that would make it incest."

Shiny new link

Stephen VanDyke analyzes how news travels on the Internet. He uses a nifty graphic that resembles a kabbalah diagram. (In the process of doing this, VanDyke's post becomes a textbook example of how news travel. He posted it (source), Fark posted a link (metanews), and then I, and probably many others, link to it (lesser blogosphere). He gets to test his theory instantly!)

Finding the funny

Forager dissects The Funny Problem. He uses Broken Lizard's two movies for comparison: Super Troopers (funny) vs. Club Dread (not funny).

A resource

Since I've been stealing so many links from them today, I want to remind readers to check out The Anomalist. They've got great weird links updated everyday.

Find your coven

Feeling magickal and social? Maybe you need to join an esoteric group. Luckily, Llewellyn Journal is there for you.

"An esoteric group is any gathering of people working toward a goal of mastering techniques that will raise the consciousness of individual group members. Groups provide collective security for people walking the esoteric path. People in the esoteric world are mostly what writer Colin Wilson dubbed “outsiders,” meaning that they are not in the mainstream of society. They are unusual people with extraordinary belief patterns. By coming together, they are reassured by the fact there are others like them. They feel this proves that they are not as weird as they thought. "

Jellyfish of the sky.

Consider the possibility: UFOs aren't alien machines, they're animals living in our atmosphere.

The giant squid menace

A skull found in Gastineau Channel in Juneau, Alaska, is bringing back stories of a man who may or may not have been killed by a giant squid.

You're not getting any smarter

Scientists reveals the myth of people only using 10 percent of their brains.
"The look of disappointment that usually follows when I say it isn't so strongly suggests that the 10-percent myth is one of those hopeful shibboleths that refuses to die simply because it would be so darn nice if it were true."

Unidentified objects on Mars

Scientists are examining a photo of the Beagle 2 Mars Lander, which crashed to Mars back in December. The image seems to show four bright spots, dubbed the "string of pearls." Scientists are wondering if these objects might hold the answers to what happened.

Three book weekend

I just finished three very different books this weekend: Harvey Pekar's "American Splendor" collection, Roger Zelazny's "Damnation Alley," and Nicholson Baker's "Vox."
Pekar's graphic novel was released as part of the publicity for the "American Splendor" movie. For $16, it's a great bargain. And it's a great book. Pekar captures the details of everyday life, yet is never boring. It helps that he knows interesting people. The only problem I have with the book is that Pekar sometimes lets words run away with him. He will have pages where images of his face are buried under huge word balloons. It makes me wonder why he doesn't write prose. In his best stuff, he lets the pictures tell the story and he concentrates on the dialogue.
The Zelazny book was a lot of fun. It was recently rereleased by iBooks in mass market paperback. It's about a post-holocaust future in which the plague has stricken the nation of Boston. The nation of California offers Hell Tanner, a former Hell's Angel, a pardon for his crimes if he can cross Damnation Alley (the bombed out center of the country) to bring a vaccine to Boston. As an adventure novel, it works great. There's giant monsters, cataclysmic weather, biker gangs and all kinds of other problems Tanner must face. Plus, he has the coolest "car" ever. It's a mini-tank covered in weapons, a flame thrower and grenade launcher among them. It's strange because the novel wasn't what I was expecting. Zelazny is known as one of the New Wave science fiction writers of the '60s. So I was expecting a deep thinking, incredibly inventive experimental novel. Nope. It was a fun, pulpy adventure novel (outside of a couple of wild chapters near the end). And there's nothing wrong with that.
By the way, "Damnation Alley" was made into a TV movie. I've never seen it, but the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction calls it a "travesty" and says they've changed all the characters and didn't come through with many of the scenes from the book. So beware of that.
"American Splendor," the movie, however, was terrific. Rent at soon as you can.
The third book, "Vox," is about a conversation between two people on a phone sex line. The whole book is told in dialogue. It's sexy and it's smart.

Good new reading on the way

It looks like China Mieville's next novel, "Iron Council" is coming out in July. It's set in New Crobuzon, the city of "Perdido Street Station" and "The Scar."
(Link found at Goblindegook.)

Live forever!

Scientist says its possible to reverse aging, allowing people to live for centuries. Kind of weird. I'm reading a science fiction story right now, "Dio" by Damon Knight, in which people are immortal, but they remain in a perpetual state of adolescence. In the real world, we're already in a perpetual state of adolescence, so bring on the eternal life! It's kind of strange the way this guy talks about "resetting" cells. Makes us all sound like machines.

Mothra!

Man thinks he has a mouse in his barn, until he sees its wings.

Three-headed frog

Three-headed frog found in England. It's got three perfectly formed frog heads and six legs. (There's a pic at that link.) It might be a sign of environmental problems. Or it's protecting a lesser gate of Hades

Family relations

New branch of human ancestors discovered. The ardipithecus ramidus kadabba was thought to be an ape species, but scientists now believe it is the earliest version of human beings.

Wanted: 1 monster fish

Classified ad for a snakehead fish scares Omaha anglers. They're worried the fish will be passed on to the local ponds and lakes. And they're right to worry. This is the fish that kills everything in a body of water, then walks on land to the next body of water where it kills everything there.

Submerged mountain

Undersea mountain in the ocean off Alaska. The mountain is 10,000 feet tall.

Judge takes a stand

Judge finds a typo-prone lawyer guilty of bad writing. I'm glad to see a judge do this. Legalese is bad enough, lawyers should be able to use correctly what little English they do use.

Why is Hollywood so screwed up?

Neil Gaiman sets the record straight as to what's going on with "Constantine" as it pertains to Alan Moore. It's interesting to find out that Moore was really upset over Larry Cohen's ridiculous suit, which basically said that Moore created the comic book "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" so Fox could rip Cohen off. But Moore's response to this is rather odd, but typical of him. Rather than coming back against Cohen, he just gives up all credit and money for movies based on his work.
As for "Constantine," a movie based on the comic book "Hellblazer," it's going to be royally screwed up. Well, there's a chance it might be good, but the weather still looks pretty hot in Hades to me. "Hellblazer" is a comic book about a Brit sorceror of sorts. Being British is not just a small detail, a little character background, it's essential to his character. He's also blond. So what does Hollywood do in its infinite wisdom? Cast Keanu Reeves. If that's the starting point of this movie, where can it go from there? Unless it gets screamingly good reviews, I'm going to stay far away from the movie.