'Since stories have started surfacing more recently, many have wondered, if the rumors are true. Are there really 'continents', or massive floating garbage patches residing in the pacific ocean? Apparently, the rumors are true, and these unsightly patches are reportedly killing marine life and releasing poisons that enter the human food chain, as well. However, before you start imagining a plastic version of Maui, keep in mind that these plastic patches certainly aren'tsolid surfaced islands that you could build a house on! Ocean currents have collected massive amounts of garbage into a sort of plastic "soup" where countless bits of discarded plastic float intertwined just beneath the surface. Indeed, the human race has really made its mark. One enormous plastic patch is estimated to weigh over 3 million tons altogether and cover an area roughly twice the size of Texas.' (Daily Galaxy article).

media-underground.net

'Last month, Lord Martin Rees, the president of Britain's Royal Society and "astronomer to the Queen of England", hosted the National Science Academy's first conference on the possibility of extraterrestrial life, which was attended by such scientific illuminaries as physicist Paul Davies, SETI founder and astrophysicist extraordinaire Frank Drake. And the resulting sound bite of the week is "World-Leading Physicist Says They Could Exist in Forms We Can't Conceive"?

'Really? That's it? That's news? That's what we get from the world's leading thinkers on cosmology?

'Sorry for my tone, but it's about time these guys got caught up with science fiction writers from 50 years ago. Check out a 1959 movie called Invisible Invaders. Or at a minimum, take Carl Sagan's brainchild from the late 70's, Contact (film treatment in 1979, book in 1985, and movie in 1997) featuring a highly advanced extraterrestrial race who can appear to us in any form they want. I'm sure there were many other writers who considered that a civilization advanced enough to cross millions of light years of space, might be advanced enough to learn how to cloak. I certainly pondered that idea as a kid.' (The Universe Solved weblog).

media-underground.net

Here's Doug again, on the latest episode of Charlie Brooker's Newswipe, discussing Jack Cafferty and how no-one really cares what you think. (Voice Of America video stream).

Also, check out Stanhope's YouTube channel here.

media-underground.net

This week on Dangerous Minds, Richard Metzger interviews Dr. James E. Hansen.

Hansen heads the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City, a part of the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, Earth Sciences Division. He has held this position since 1981. He is also an adjunct professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University.

After graduate school, Hansen continued his work with radiative transfer models and attempting to understand the Venusian atmosphere. This naturally led to the same computer codes being used to understand the Earth's atmosphere. He used these codes to study the effects that aerosols and trace gases have on the climate. Hansen has also contributed to the further understanding of the Earth's climate through the development and use of global climate models.

Hansen is best known for his research in the field of climatology, his testimony on climate change to congressional committees in 1988 that helped raise broad awareness of global warming, and his advocacy of action to limit the impacts of climate change. (Dangerous Minds video stream).

Note: I've created an avi file that can be acquired using BitTorrent, however, you'll need an account with our tracker to download it. If you haven't got one then you can sign up for free here. (Torrent Underground download).

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Recorded at Pacific Quay in Glasgow on February 23rd 2010, Mary Ann Kennedy presents a world music extravaganza with the original acid-crofters Shooglenifty.

Shooglenifty are an Edinburgh-based six-piece Celtic fusion band that tours internationally. The band blends Scottish traditional music with influences ranging from electronica to alternative rock. They're also fucking mindblowing live!

Fastforward the BBC iPlayer to 1:00.48 to skip all the other pretentious horseshit that is on the show and go straight to the live recording. (BBC iPlayer audio stream).

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'As the Guardian kicks off a debate about ethics, tell us what standards you think are essential for the common good.

'Can capitalism be ethical? Or do you think we live in such a diverse world that we'll never agree on the common good or what the good life might be? And is religion a help, a hindrance or an irrelevance when it comes to shaping values?' (Guardian feature).

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Wim Hof is a Dutch world record holder, adventurer and daredevil, commonly nicknamed "The Iceman" for his ability to withstand extreme coldness. He holds nine world records including a world record for longest ice bath. In 2007, he attempted, but failed (due to a foot injury), to climb Mount Everest wearing nothing but shorts. Hof has been criticized for his stated justifications for this attempt: "Edmund Hillary's ascent of Mount Everest was a testament to human achievement, my climb of Mount Everest in my shorts will be a monument to the frivolous, decadent nature of modern society."

In 2009, Wim completed a full marathon 42.195 kilometres above the polar circle in Finland in temperatures close to -20 degrees celsius. He achieved this feat dressed in nothing but shorts and sandals, and finished in 5 hours, 25 minutes. The challenge was filmed for Channel Four. (4oD video stream).

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'Over a single generation, the Web and digital media have remade nearly every aspect of modern culture, transforming the way we work, learn and connect in ways that we’re only beginning to understand. Frontline producer Rachel Dretzin (Growing Up Online) teams up with one of the leading thinkers of the digital age, Douglas Rushkoff (The Persuaders, Merchants Of Cool), to continue to explore life on the virtual frontier.' (PBS video stream).

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This week on Dangerous Minds, Richard Metzger interviews artist, teacher, and animal rights activist Rachel Rosenthal.

Rosenthal is an interdisciplinary performer who developed a revolutionary performance technique that integrates text, movement, voice, choreography, improvisation, inventive costuming, dramatic lighting and wildly imaginative sets into an unforgettable “total theater” experience. In the last twenty-five years of her performing career she presented over 40 full-scale pieces nationally & internationally. Critics have called her "a monument and a marvel" and Richard Schechner, editor of The Drama Review (TDR), has critically ranked Rosenthal with Robert Wilson, Ping Chong, Richard Foreman, Meredith Monk and Laurie Anderson. (Dangerous Minds video stream).

Note: I've created an avi file that can be acquired using BitTorrent, however, you'll need an account with our tracker to download it. If you haven't got one then you can sign up for free here. (Torrent Underground download).

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'It's January 2009 and David Letterman is making a public apology. The American chat show king is talking about an error of judgment he made years earlier, a mistake, he says, born out of his own feelings of insecurity. He hasn't been caught with his pants down.

'No, the person he's making an apology to is Mary Hicks, the mother of the American stand-up comedian Bill Hicks, whose final performance was controversially cut from the Letterman show, making Hicks one of the first comedy acts to be fully censored on the CBS network. It's a decision that ultimately denied the American public what would turn out to be their final opportunity to see Hicks on mainstream television. Less than six months later, on 26 February 1994, Hicks died from pancreatic cancer at the criminally young age of 32.

'To be fair to Letterman, no one outside Hicks's immediate family knew he was sick. But considering the jokes had been pre-approved several times by the network's standards and practices committee, the decision to drop the routine was devastating for the comedian, who knew what he was facing and just wanted his material to have another shot at penetrating the American mainstream that had ignored him for much of his career. "It was a hard time for all of us. I just need you to know that," Mrs Hicks later told Letterman sternly on that January 2009 show, stunning him into silence. After screening the routine - in which a painfully thin and bearded Hicks takes hilarious sideswipes at the pro-life lobby, mediocre celebrities and peculiarities of religious iconography - Letterman acknowledged how timeless the material seemed and sheepishly wondered: "What was the matter with me?"' (Scotsman article).

media-underground.net

Here's Doug talking some sense regarding the never discussed topic of over-population, on this week's episode of Charlie Brooker's Newswipe. (Voice Of America video stream).

Also, check out Stanhope's YouTube channel here.

media-underground.net

This week on Dangerous Minds, Richard Metzger talks to Don Lattin about his new book, The Harvard Psychedelic Club: How Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Huston Smith, And Andrew Weil Killed The Fifties And Ushered In A New Age For America.

Don Lattin is an award-winning journalist and one of the nation’s leading reporters covering a wide range of religious figures and movements in America. He has written several books. Lattin’s work has appeared in many U.S. magazines and newspapers. He has also worked as a consultant and commentator for several television programs. (Dangerous Minds video stream).

Note: I've created an avi file that can be acquired using BitTorrent, however, you'll need an account with our tracker to download it. If you haven't got one then you can sign up for free here. (Torrent Underground download).

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During the last few years of his life, Philip K. Dick lived in Orange County, a Southern California setting that made the life-battered sci-fi writer something of a stranger in a strange land. This is the sixth and final part of a series where freelance journalist Scott Timberg looks at Dick's final years.

'Financial security and widespread acclaim were things Philip K. Dick had spent his career waiting for, always on the verge. He compared himself to the tramps in Beckett’s Waiting For Godot.

'“If it does come for me, will it matter?” Dick wrote in 1976. “Will it make up for 25 years of shivering with fear as to whether, when I get up in the morning, the electricity will still be turned on?”

'During those years, Dick’s health problems continued, sometimes coinciding with money woes. After a 1976 heart attack that sent him to the county hospital and left him with a $2,000 bill, he had only 40 cents to his name. He was only saved from having his utilities turned off by a royalty check from France. “Here I am,” he wrote, “after twenty-five years of professional SF writing, getting notices that they are going to turn off the water and gas and electricity if I don’t pay in three days, and I say, What has it all been for?”' (L.A. Times article).

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Issue six of Paraphilia Magazine is now available to download. This issue includes a fascinating article on the Abbey of Thelema by Nick Louras. (Paraphilia Magazine pdf download).

media-underground.net

During the last few years of his life, Philip K. Dick lived in Orange County, a Southern California setting that made the life-battered sci-fi writer something of a stranger in a strange land. This is the fifth part of a six part series where freelance journalist Scott Timberg looks at Dick's final years.

'Though Philip K. Dick was not, on the surface, a writer of place - he was driven more by sweeping ideas than by locations or even local cultures - his time in Southern California had a profound impact on his work, in sometimes complicated ways. Dick wrote - in a 1973 letter to Polish science-fiction writer Stanislaw Lem - “there is no culture here in California, only trash. And we who grew up here and live here and write here have nothing else to include as elements in our work. The West Coast has no tradition, no dignity, no ethics - this is where that monster Richard Nixon grew up.”' (L.A. Times article).

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Here's Doug again, exposing "the sausage factory of modern celebrity" in the third episode of Charlie Brooker's Newswipe. (Voice Of America video stream).

Note: you can check out Stanhope's YouTube channel right here.

media-underground.net

During the last few years of his life, Philip K. Dick lived in Orange County, a Southern California setting that made the life-battered sci-fi writer something of a stranger in a strange land. This is the forth part of a six part series where freelance journalist Scott Timberg looks at Dick's final years.

'Of course, for all the action of Philip K. Dick’s Orange County years - the marriage, the divorce, the birth of his son Christopher, the suicide attempt, the bouts of depression, the new novels, the development of Blade Runner - the most significant is surely what the author came to call "2-3-74". Those months of 1974 were when Dick either lost his mind completely or was visited, ravishingly, by God.' (L.A. Times article).

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'Any nation which borrows/prints 20% of its GDP every year is essentially a debt addict on welfare.

If you depend on borrowed money which will never be paid back and freshly printed notes for 20% of your expenses, you're on the dole. Since we will never pay it back, the borrowing of the money is just a sham; stripped of deception, it's welfare, a "gift" from future taxpayers to the current beneficiaries of Federal largesse and swag.' (Charles Hugh Smith article).

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My crazy drunk comedian friend Doug Stanhope appears to have a regular slot on the new series of Charlie Brooker's Newswipe.

Newswipe goes out on BBC4 every Tuesday at 10:30 pm but you can check it out on the BBC's iPlayer if you're like me and hate scheduled viewing.

Alternatively you can just check out Stanhope's three minute Voice Of America segments that are being uploaded to YouTube by some kind person with too much time on their hands. (Voice Of America video stream part 1 & part 2).

media-underground.net

On this episode of Dangerous Minds, Richard Metzger talks to film-maker Jon Reiss.

'Jon Reiss has been a pioneer of DIY film-making since the punk era and he shares what he’s learned in his new book, Think Outside The Box Office: The Ultimate Guide To Film Distribution & Marketing For The Digital Era.' (Dangerous Minds video stream).

Note: I've created an avi file that can be acquired using BitTorrent, however, you'll need an account with our tracker to download it. If you haven't got one then you can sign up for free here. (Torrent Underground download).

media-underground.net

During the last few years of his life, Philip K. Dick lived in Orange County, a Southern California setting that made the life-battered sci-fi writer something of a stranger in a strange land. This is the third part of a six part series where freelance journalist Scott Timberg looks at Dick's final years.

'While in Orange County, Dick often fell back on the reflexes of Bay Area types who move to Southern California. He joked often about the artificiality of it all, the local slang. “He kept comparing Southern California to Disneyland,” remembered wife Tessa Dick, “and said it was plastic, wasn’t real. He was used to real cities like Berkeley and San Francisco and Vancouver.” To a writer whose primary subject was the slippage between the real and constructed, the place surely also fascinated him as well.' (L.A. Times article).

media-underground.net

During the last few years of his life, Philip K. Dick lived in Orange County, a Southern California setting that made the life-battered sci-fi writer something of a stranger in a strange land. This is the second part of a six part series where freelance journalist Scott Timberg looks at Dick's final years.

'Philip K. Dick arrived in Orange County in 1972 by flying to LAX, where he showed up in a sport coat he’d outgrown, hauling the Jehovah’s Witness translation of the Bible and a cardboard box, doubling as a suitcase, tied closed with an extension cord. Dick - who has been described, alternately, as paranoid, hilariously funny, childish and deeply empathetic - was in some of the weirdest shape of his life.' (L.A. Times article).

media-underground.net

During the last few years of his life, Philip K. Dick lived in Orange County, a Southern California setting that made the life-battered sci-fi writer something of a stranger in a strange land. In this six part series, freelance journalist Scott Timberg looks at Dick's final years.

'When author Philip K. Dick called Tim Powers to ask him to come by his Fullerton apartment for a drink one evening, the Cal State student expected the kind of night he and other aspiring writers often spent with the science-fiction titan. That is, a wide-ranging bull session about religion, philosophy and the glories of Beethoven - along with some incongruous chatter about car repair - over wine and beer.' (L.A. Times article).

media-underground.net

At the time of writing this, Google News lists exactly 620 articles telling us that the UK is out of recession.

And what amazing figures does the Office of National Statistics have to back up this claim?

0.1%

Yeah, that’s right folks. It’s over! Woo hoo! Pop open the champagne and go back to spending like there’s no tomorrow, because according to some boring old fart called Joe Grice from the ONS, the GDP is up point one of a percent, meaning that all the billions of pounds the tax payer has forked out in bailing out this fucked up system, 0.1% clearly indicates an amazing economic recovery.

Let’s put this in perspective people. If my boss came to me tomorrow and told me I was getting a 0.1% pay rise, I’d tell him to shove it up his arse or put it in the charity box for children with bloated head syndrome or something.

How about another analogy? If someone told you there was a 0.1% chance that you’d die tomorrow, would you be overly concerned about smoking that last fag or drinking another pint of bitter before dinner?

What utter bollocks! Here’s what I think of the ONS and their spastic statistics.

media-underground.net

'Police are to use unmanned spy drones to monitor anti-social motorists, protesters, agricultural thieves and flytippers.

'BAE Systems, which produces a unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for war zones, are developing the military-style planes for a consortium of government agencies led by Kent Police. Similar aerial devices have been used in the war in Afghanistan. Using the same techniques in the UK will undoubtedly raise concerns about the expansion of covert state surveillance.

'Documents from the South Coast Partnership, a Home Office-backed project, have revealed that the police are developing the drone plan with BAE. The documents have come to light under the Freedom of Information Act. They reveal that the partnership intends to use the drone in time for the 2012 Olympics. They also suggest that the police have talked about selling the surveillance data to private companies.' (Scotsman article).

media-underground.net

'Here comes the great global fight for democracy. Who's in charge, banks or elected governments? President Obama puts up his fists and every other democracy had better stand with him. He is taking a colossal risk, as Goldman Sachs and the rest thumb their noses at mere governments. Someone had to take on the bully power of money – and only America has the clout. The world's economy depends on it, so Europe must stop pussy-footing and back his plans to dismantle "too big to fail" banks.

'In Britain this comes to lift the spirits after a week that saw a government powerless against malign market forces - forces it has too often extolled. The hostile takeover of Cadbury by Kraft, financed by RBS, is a deal that stands to be a loser for all but the deal-makers. Not even Kraft's biggest shareholder, Warren Buffett, could stop what he called "a bad deal", as financiers creamed off $390m in fees. Cadbury's CEO cried crocodile tears and flaked out for £12m. Mergers and acquisitions mania is back, despite ­voluminous evidence that takeovers often fail and only benefit the fixers. Think Sir Fred Goodwin crashing RBS with his macho capture of ABN Amro.' (Guardian article).

media-underground.net

Personally, I think she's utter shit. However, the internet does seem to be awash with references to her use of occult symbolism.

Is it just me or is the cover of her latest studio album reminicent of the Great Beast himself?

She also appears to be using this image on a limited edition t-shirt with all the proceeds supporting relief efforts in Haiti. Perhaps this isn't the best way to quell those “pact with the devil” rumours that are being spread by the lunatic Christian right.

media-underground.net

When the hell are we gonna rid the world of these despicable God Squad, Jesus Jumping morons? For the love of fuck, would someone stick a 9 mm to the back of this little cunt's head and give human evolution a fighting chance.

And while you're at it, do the same to Pat Robertson, Simon Cowell, Peter Mandelson and Dick Cheney...

'A Surrey pastor has found himself in hot water over comments he made at the weekend about the earthquake tragedy in Haiti. Justin Dennison, lead pastor at Johnston Heights Church in Surrey [British Columbia], said Wednesday that comments he made after a sermon on Sunday don’t accurately reflect what he was trying to say.

'Following Sunday’s weekly sermon, Dennison moved on to the topic of Haiti: “Haiti is infamous for its voodoo spiritual darkness,” he said in comments tape-recorded by a parishioner. “I can't help think that maybe God has shaken them, shaken them against the kingdom of darkness.”' (Province article).

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'While campaigning for donations on television after the disastrous earthquakes that ended the lives of tens of thousands of people in Haiti, Pat Robertson, a leading conservative Protestant pastor, suggested that the islanders had it coming. According to him, Haitians who suffered under harsh colonial rule by the French “swore a pact to the devil” that they would worship him in return for their freedom.

'“Ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other,” Robertson said. Although they got independence as a result of the contract, according to him, they roused the wrath of God and have now been driven into a hell on earth.

'Hidden behind his improper remark is the prejudice of the Western people against the voodoo religion.

'From the time Christopher Columbus discovered Haiti, a lot of black Africans were taken to the New World as slaves. Together with them, the African native religion that worshipped one god and many spirits called “loa” came over to the continent. While they resisted the demands of the whites to convert to Christianity, black slaves deceived the watchful eyes of their masters by substituting their god as the Christian God and their spirits as Christian saints.

'Thus the African native religion and Christianity were mixed together to give birth to a new fusion religion, voodoo.' (JoongAng Daily article).

media-underground.net

'Coded references to New Testament Bible passages about Jesus Christ are inscribed on high-powered rifle sights provided to the United States military by a Michigan company, an ABC News investigation has found.

'The sights are used by U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and in the training of Iraqi and Afghan soldiers. The maker of the sights, Trijicon, has a $660 million multi-year contract to provide up to 800,000 sights to the Marine Corps, and additional contracts to provide sights to the U.S. Army.

'U.S. military rules specifically prohibit the proselytizing of any religion in Iraq or Afghanistan and were drawn up in order to prevent criticism that the U.S. was embarked on a religious "Crusade" in its war against Al Qaeda and Iraqi insurgents.

'One of the citations on the gun sights, 2COR4:6, is an apparent reference to Second Corinthians 4:6 of the New Testament, which reads: "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

'Other references include citations from the books of Revelation, Matthew and John dealing with Jesus as "the light of the world." John 8:12, referred to on the gun sights as JN8:12, reads, "Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

'Trijicon confirmed to ABCNews.com that it adds the biblical codes to the sights sold to the U.S. military. Tom Munson, director of sales and marketing for Trijicon, which is based in Wixom, Michigan, said the inscriptions "have always been there" and said there was nothing wrong or illegal with adding them. Munson said the issue was being raised by a group that is "not Christian." The company has said the practice began under its founder, Glyn Bindon, a devout Christian from South Africa who was killed in a 2003 plane crash.' (ABC News article).

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