The stuff I forgot last night...

ITEM:  I think this might be the stupidest conclusion in the history of science, and I have proof.

 Domestic dogs are much more likely to steal food when they think nobody can see them, suggesting for the first time that dogs are capable of understanding a human's point of view.



Dr Juliane Kaminski, of the University of Portsmouth's Department of Psychology, has shown that when a human forbids a dog from taking food, dogs are four times more likely to disobey in a dark room than a lit room, suggesting they take into account what the human can or cannot see.


Taking this step by step, how does stealing food have anything to do with "understanding human's point of view"?  I realize humanity is fallen, but how does a dog being a thief reflect our point of view?
Second step, Of course they can tell when mom or dad aren't paying attention.  Just like any other little kid.  You need a scientific study to figure this out?
Third, we tested Scrappy.  Laurie had a near emptied bowl of potato salad that Scrappy was dying to finish.  But see, Scrappy is trained to sit and wait on a treat when told.  So Laurie told him, "Sit, " and so he did.  And when we turned off all the lights and the TV, he never moved.  For half a minute, he kept up a disinterested facade, not budging in the least until given the command, okay.

Dr. Kaminsky and her doggie, Ambula (named after a single ambulance?).  Either he's just dumb, or you should try TRAINING him.

ITEM:  Lokomotiv took to the ice this morning after the week's break for the Oddset tourney in Sweden, and downed Amur 4-1 on a hat trick for Niklaus Hagman, his 10th, 11th, and 12th of the year.  Two games remain in the regular season- against Nizhnekamsk (the "other" Metallurg) on Friday and Sibir on Sunday.  Three playoff spots remain for the taking.


ITEM:  I finally got tired of all the alcohol and substance abuse links thinking that my cap blog is the place to go to pimp their sites, so I clicked on the link to go complain to them.  The link took me to Diaperspace, which is made up to look like Facebook (right down to the "It's free and always will be."), only for ABDL (which, I learned to my regret, stands for "adult baby diaper lovers").  These people have a lot worse problems than spamming MY blog, friends.

ITEM:  I was thinking about the Papal resignation, and my mind came up with this soliliquy.

1871 was a great year for the office of the Pope and for the Church- although neither the Pope nor the Church saw it that way at the time.  Why?  Because in 1871 the Prussians and their German Confederation allies whupped the French in a war.  You see, the Prussians were using the French as a goad to get the smaller German... Wait a minute, hold the story, because it's going off track.  The French defeat meant that the French troops still in Rome had to come home.  Why were there French troops in Rome?  Because Italy had been in the midst of trying to become a united nation since 1848.  It consisted then of the Austrian territories of Lombardy and Venetia, the duchy of Parma, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont, the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily (Usually going by the silly name of "the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies")- and the Papal States, a chunk of central Italy ruled by the Pope as a king ever since one Pope forged the "donation of Pepin" saying they ruled the area.

But in 1848, the people rose up in favor of a republic, and the French had to conquer Rome to keep the Pope in power.  Those same French were there as most of the rest of Italy was forged into a single unit under the Piedmontese king.  And when they left in 1871, the Italian army marched in and deposed the Pope from his temporal rule.  The Popes didn't care for that, and it wasn't until a deal was reached in 1929 with Mussolini that the Pope regained an independant nation- albeit a nation 1/72,000th the size it was in 1848.

So how was this good for the popes and the church?  Because, without being busy being a king, the succeeding Popes- Leo XIII, Pius X through XII, John XXIII, Paul VI, the two John Pauls, and a pair of Benedicts- the Popes have become Church fathers, leading the flock rather than playing politics.  The result being a succession of saintly men the likes of which the Church had never seen.  The man stepping down is the latest in a group of holy, humble men who have firmly put the Church's needs ahead of their own.  Yep, 1871 was one of the best things that ever happened to the popes- and the church.