With all the current sordid revelations emerging concerning the appalling criminal practices conducted by Rupert Murdoch's News International, I am reminded of an account my late friend and mentor, Gerald Suster, gave about the deceitful way in which a News Of The World "journalist" ruined his career back in 1989.
Suster, who was working at the time as a history teacher at Boarzell College in Sussex, had been approached by a NOTW hack called Chris Blythe about his life-long interests in the occult and, most notably, his book The Legacy Of The Beast - The Life, Work & Influence Of Aleister Crowley (which had just made the front cover of Publisher's Weekly).
What transpired back then is very much comparable to the kind of practices that we are hearing about today, and whilst there were no mobile phones around to get hacked into back then, it is clear that the methods and motivation News International employ to get a sensationalist story have changed very little in the last twenty-odd years.
In the Autumn 1996 edition of Talking Stick magazine, Gerald gave an account of how a News Of The World article cost him his job, home and salary in the blink of an eye.
For those of you who still doubt the level that Murdoch and his ilk will stoop to in order to line their pockets and manipulate public perception, I have scanned in the relevant documentation here for your own scrutiny.
Looking over this material again today, and viewing it in the context of recent events, I am reminded of the final interview that dramatist and playright Dennis Potter gave to Melvyn Bragg just before his death in 1994.
He said: "As a writer, you will know that one of the favourite fantasy plots is where a character is told: you've got three months to live (which is what I was told) - who would you kill? I call my cancer - the main one in the pancreas - Rupert, because Murdoch is the one. I've got too much writing to do, and I haven't got the energy, but I would shoot the bugger if I could. There is no one person more responsible for the pollution of what was already a fairly polluted press, and the pollution of the British press is an important part of the pollution of British political life, and it's an important part of the cynicism and misperception of our realities that is destroying so much of our political discourse."
'After six months under virtual house arrest, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange acknowledged Thursday that his detention is hampering the work of the secret-spilling site. His supporters accused Britain of subjecting him to "excessive and dehumanizing" treatment.
'The 39-year-old Australian is living at a supporter's rural estate as he fights extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over claims of rape and sexual molestation made by two women. Assange's bail conditions require him to observe an overnight curfew, wear an electronic tag and report to police daily.
'His supporters released a video to The Associated Press condemning the conditions. In it, WikiLeaks associate Sarah Harrison accuses authorities of treating Assange "like a caged animal."
'British prosecutors, who initially opposed bail, say the strict conditions are necessary because the claims against Assange are serious and he is a flight risk.
'The video also claims police have set up surveillance cameras near the house to record license plates of visiting cars.' (ABC News article).
'In an interview with Press TV, Charlie Veitch, political activist, elaborates on Queen Elizabeth II's recent comments that she may be the last royal head of state.
'Press TV: When the Queen of England is quoted as saying she's concerned about a UK break-up, what is she referring to?
'Veitch: She's referring to a 304-year-old union called the United Kingdom that was enacted in a document called the Act of the Union.
'The Scottish nobility eventually surrendered by corruption to the English crown. We're seeing a big campaign now in Scotland with the Scottish National Party [SNP] going to run a vote to see if Scotland wants to break away from England. I've just been in Wales over the last week and there's been a resurgent Welsh identity there.
'I think what we're seeing is a spread of the “Arab Spring” revolutions coming to Europe.
'You've just mentioned in your report that Spainish people are camping. Let's not forget that all royal families are a parasite upon natural order and upon natural law because we are all created equal under the eyes of God, the universe, or whatever you believe in.
'We are seeing the Queen, which is very nice, expressing her very rational fears that the slave ship that she and her parents helped create is about to crash into the rocks.' (PressTV article & video stream).
'The First Earth Battalion was the name proposed by Lieutenant Colonel Jim Channon, a U.S. soldier who had served in Vietnam, for his idea of a new military to be organized along New Age lines.
'LTC Channon believes the Army can be the principal moral and ethical basis on which politics can harmonize in the name of the Earth. Since "Earthkind" has grown from pack to village, to tribe, to territory, and then to nation, LTC Channon envisions going from nation to planet next, and thereby declares the First Earth Battalion's primary allegiance to the planet. Making the planet whole requires the ethical use of force based on the collective conscience.
'According to the book The Men Who Stare at Goats by journalist Jon Ronson, Channon spent time in the seventies with many of the people in California credited with starting the human potential movement, and subsequently wrote an operations manual for a First Earth Battalion. This manual was a mixture of drawings, graphs, maps, polemical essays and point-by-point redesigns of every aspect of military life. In LTC Channon's First Earth Battalion, the new battlefield uniform would include pouches for ginseng regulators, divining tools, food stuffs to enhance night vision, and a loud speaker that would automatically emit "indigenous music and words of peace." Warrior monks will carry the best equipment modern technology can produce into the battlefield: lightweight laser stun guns, hallucinogen mortars, acupuncture kits, dowsing rods for locating hidden tunnels and mines, etc. Rather than using bullets and munitions, Channon envisaged how this new force would attempt to first win the hearts and minds of the enemy by: using positive vibrations, carrying "symbolic animals" of peace - such as baby lambs - into hostile countries, greeting them with "sparkly eyes," and then gently place the lambs on the ground and give the enemy "an automatic hug." If these measures were not enough to pacify the enemy, members would employ the use of unconventional but non-lethal weapons to subdue them. Lethal force was to be a last resort. Intuition would be consulted first and foremost by battalion members. A movie based on the book - released in Autumn 2009 - starring George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey, retitled the First Earth Battalion as the New Earth Army.' (YouTube video stream & First Earth Battalion field manual).
'In the end, no one really knows what led Mitchell Heisman, an erudite, wry, handsome 35-year-old, to walk into Harvard Yard on the holiest day in his faith and fire one shot from a silver revolver into his right temple, on the top step of Memorial Church, where hundreds gathered to observe the Jewish Day of Atonement.
'But if the 1,905-page suicide note he left is to be believed - a work he spent five years honing and that his family and others received in a posthumous e-mail after his suicide last Saturday morning on Yom Kippur - Heisman took his life as part of a philosophical exploration he called “an experiment in nihilism.’’
'At the end of his note - a dense, scholarly work with 1,433 footnotes, a 20-page bibliography, and more than 1,700 references to God and 200 references to the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche - Heisman sums up his experiment:
'“Every word, every thought, and every emotion come back to one core problem: life is meaningless,’’ he wrote. “The experiment in nihilism is to seek out and expose every illusion and every myth, wherever it may lead, no matter what, even if it kills us.’’' (Boston Globe article & Suicide Note pdf download).
'Several sources report, with accompanying photographs, that the Swedish ISP and broadband provider hosting WikiLeaks has moved its servers into an underground location first blasted from solid rock in the 1960s, yet recently refurbished and upgraded.
'First reported in a Norwegian paper, but then picked up by Forbes and several other online sources, it now looks like Julian Assange and his WikiLeaks organization are very media-savvy as well as smart and wily.
'The whistle-blowing website is being hosted by Internet Service Provider (ISP) Bahnhof, and they recently moved their servers into an empty Cold War bunker 30 meters (100 feet) deep under the streets of Stockholm. The underground data center is 4,000 square meters large and Bahnhof put much effort into redesigning the old bunker into a modern data center that could easily be featured in a James Bond movie.' (Fotograf panoramic views & Digital Journal article).
'Over the past few years, one of the most important shifts in the digital world has been the move from the wide-open Web to semiclosed platforms that use the Internet for transport but not the browser for display. It’s driven primarily by the rise of the iPhone model of mobile computing, and it’s a world Google can’t crawl, one where HTML doesn’t rule. And it’s the world that consumers are increasingly choosing, not because they’re rejecting the idea of the Web but because these dedicated platforms often just work better or fit better into their lives (the screen comes to them, they don’t have to go to the screen). The fact that it’s easier for companies to make money on these platforms only cements the trend. Producers and consumers agree: The Web is not the culmination of the digital revolution.' (Wired article).
A couple of nights ago I experienced what is commonly known as sleep paralysis. I've had a minor occurrence of it before, but on this occasion I found myself overcome with a feeling of intense terror. This coupled with what looked like a tall dark figure that appeared to be breaking into reality through one of the corners of my room next to the door. The figure was gaunt and somewhat Nospheratu-like in stature with what looked like a wide-brimmed had on it's head. I couldn't make out its features but my ears were filled with a pulsating sound and my body seemed to be vibrating as though I was somehow being phased out of reality, beamed up, or probed by some kind of scanner.
The terror that I felt wasn't so much due to the feeling of an evil presence in the room, but I got the impression that this thing was highly intelligent, had an agenda and that it regarded me as little more than an insect that stood in its way. All the while I couldn't move a single muscle.
"As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods" as Shakespeare put it, and eventually after several minutes my girlfriend shook me out of it because I was "howling like a terrified animal," she said.
It happened twice more that night but on the last two occasions I managed to get myself out of it by realising that this was merely sleep paralysis. After each occasion my waking perceptions were filled with mild hallucinations and the experience instantly made me think that these symptoms could be synonymous with the alien abduction experience.
Now, I don't for one minute think that this was anything other than an exceptional case of sleep paralysis as defined by modern psychology, however, the archetypes of the Shadow People and, in particular, "The Hat Man" intrigues me considerably.
Here's an interesting ten part interview with Professor David J. Hufford, author of the provocative study The Terror That Comes In The Night. (YouTube video stream).
'Robert Anton Wilson was perhaps the first to popularize the observation that during the history of human civilization, power and money has always moved west. From the beginnings of civility in Sumer to modern day China, there has always been a westward flow of technology, money, power and manufacturing capacity. In the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution, we witnessed the flow of influence from the Vatican to Britain, an empire on which it was said that the sun never set. As Britain's power waned in the early 20th century, so the flow moved westwards to America. Now in the 21st century we have witnessed a further flow westwards towards East Asia. While America still holds most of the cards as the world's richest economy, the focal point of industry and manufacture has long left its shores.
'It is an absolute mystery as to why this trend has continued without exception for nearly four millenia. Yet this trend isn't so powerful as to rend all countries utterly powerless before it. America is still the richest country in the world. It still possesses a near monopoly on the flow of culture, entertainment and ideas. It has the most powerful military industrial machine in all of human history, and the biggest financial and global corporate institutions are based there. So where is the decline? The answer to that lies not in GDP figures or Wall Street or the towering heights of financial markets, but in other social and economic factors. A fair measure on which to base America is by its own declaration as the 'land of the free'. Taking that freedom in both a political and economic context, we have a basis on which to judge America's decline.' (Helium article).
Jim Elvidge is, in my opinion, a goddamned genius. Here's his latest weblog entry. Whilst you're there go buy his wonderful book on programmed reality. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
'One of the keys to understanding our reality is found in a very unusual and anomalous experiment done over 200 years ago by Thomas Young. The philosophical debate that resulted from this experiment and its successors during the quantum era of the 20th century may hold the key to understanding everything - from bona fide scientific anomalies to cold fusion and bigfoot sightings.
'If you are unfamiliar with this experiment, please watch the Doctor Quantum cartoon on the Double Slit Experiment. It provides a good explanation of two paradoxes that have puzzled scientists for many years. In summary, here is the conundrum:
'1. If you fire electrons at a screen through a single slit in an otherwise impenetrable barrier, there will be a resulting pattern on the screen as you might expect - a single band of points.
'2. If you fire electrons at a screen through a barrier with two slits, the pattern that will build up on the screen is not one of two bands of points, but rather an entire interference pattern, as if the electrons were actually waves instead of particles.
'This is one paradox - that electrons (and all other particles) have dual personalities in that they can act like both waves and particles. Further, the personality that emerges matches the type of experiment that you are doing. If you are testing to see if the electron acts like a particle, it will. If you are testing to see if the electron acts like a wave, it will.
'3. Even if the electrons are fired one at a time, eliminating the possibility of electrons interfering with each other, over time, the same pattern emerges.
'4. If you put a measuring device at the slit, thereby observing which slit each electron passes through, the interference pattern disappears.
'This is the more mysterious paradox - that the mere act of observation changes the result of the experiment. The implications of this are huge because they imply that our conscious actions create or modify reality.' (The Universe Solved weblog & Doctor Quantum cartoon).
This is undoubtedly the best TV drama series I've seen in a long time. Written by Howard Overman, Misfits follows five outsiders on community service who get struck by a flash storm and lumbered with special powers. In other words, it's like The Breakfast Club meets Being Human meets Grant Morrison's The Invisibles.
Here's the synopsis...
'Misfits follows five teenagers on community service who get struck by lightning and are given special powers. Kelly (Lauren Socha) becomes telepathic, Curtis (Nathan Stewart Jarrett) can rewind time, Alisha (Antonia Thomas) can send people into a sexual frenzy when they touch her skin, and Simon (Iwan Rheon) can make himself invisible. Seemingly left unaffected is smart alec Nathan (Robert Sheehan), although his power is revealed in the sixth episode.' (4OD video streams or Isohunt torrent download).
'It is very easy for a comic - or anyone I guess - to get bogged down in hate and cynicism.
'I am guilty of that most hours of the day. It has nothing to do with money or career or all the other trivia. While some of my bitterness could be attributed to excessive drink, it is mostly rooted in the idiocy that surrounds me and the shit people will accept as good or correct or real, etc, without any question whatsoever.
'Regardless, it is still hate and whatever angst I can't immediately turn into comedy proceeds to ruin my daily life. So I try to limit my exposure to it, recognize it for what it is and move on.
'Try something new. Travel someplace I've never been. Try food I've never tasted. Listen to music I've never heard. And hate all of it.
'It's important - especially in my business - to have a very deep well of hatred.
'One thing though that I've hated since even my youngest, hope-filled days as a comic - worse than bad comedy, hack comedy or even joke thieves - are people who teach stand-up comedy classes.' (Doug Stanhope article).
Apparently the UK's ConDem Government "is committed to restoring and defending your freedom" and they want us to participate. Yeah right!
Their website states:
'We're working to create a more open and less intrusive society through our Programme for Government. We want to restore Britain’s traditions of freedom and fairness, and free our society of unnecessary laws and regulations – both for individuals and businesses.
'This site gives you the chance to submit, comment on, or vote for ideas about how we can do this. Your ideas will inform government policy and some of your proposals could end up making it into bills we bring before Parliament to change the law.
'So if there are any laws or regulations you'd like us to do away with, then submit your idea. If you see ideas here already that you like the look of, then rate them and get them moved up the list. And if there’s more you’d like to say, then talk to others in the comments section for each proposal.'
Who knows though, maybe it's the only slither of power Clegg and his cronies have under oppressive Torie rule, therefore, I think I might submit the idea of abolishing politics and politicians for good.
So, sign up, have some fun, and lets see how far these gormless parasites are willing to go. (HM Government's Your Freedom website).
'Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the future. Please wipe your feet on the way in and take a glass of space juice from the replicator. If you look above you, you'll see what we are all here for. Hovering over your heads is the Martin Jetpack, the world's first commercially available personal flying machine.
'The Martin Jetpack is a personal helicopter. Its tradename calls it a "jetpack", but it is neither jet or rocket-powered. It has been developed by the Martin Aircraft Company of New Zealand, and was unveiled on July 29, 2008 at the Experimental Aircraft Association's 2008 AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, USA. It is classified by the Federal Aviation Administration as an experimental ultralight airplane.
'Unlike earlier devices called "jetpacks", the Martin Jetpack is the first to be considered a practical device. It has been under development for over 27 years and uses a gasoline (premium) engine with two ducted fans to provide lift. Theoretically it can reach a speed of 60 miles per hour, an altitude of 8,000 feet, and fly for about 30 minutes on a full fuel tank. It costs $86,000. Martin Aircraft plans to deliver the first jetpacks to ten customers in early 2010.' (Martin Jetpack website).
Check out the customer reviews for the Bic Cristal Ballpoint Pen. Here's a couple of excerpts...
'Received Bic Cristal a short while back and initially was very pleased with the product but after a couple of weeks usage it stopped working. There was no instruction manual, leads or power supply and didn't seem to be any way of charging it back up. I then decided to called the customer helpline regarding its warranty and to see if they would repair or replace it but the girl who answered my call just laughed and put the phone down on me. Very shoddy. Be warned.' - J.R. Hartley.
'My pen of choice when writing death threats and begging letters... especially the blood red version.' - Alan Smith.
'Whilst perfect as a general day to day writing implement, as I have many Pen Pals across the globe, I am wondering if it comes in any other languages? My foreign friends would be simply delighted to receive a missive from me in their native tongue and, not least, pretty damn impressed. If anyone can let me know that would be great.' - P. Day. (Amazon product listing).
'This is a handbook for direct action. It's not the only one. There are thousands: every gardener's guide is a direct action handbook, as is every cookbook. Any action that side-steps regulations, representatives, and authorities to accomplish goals is direct action. In a society in which political power, economic capital, and social control are centralized in the hands of an elite, certain forms of direct action are discouraged, to say the least. This book is for anyone who wants to take control of her life and accept responsibility for her part in determining the fat of humanity.
'For the civilian born in captivity and raised on spectatorship and submission, direct action changes everything. The morning she arises to put a plan into motion, she awakens under a different sun - if she has been able to sleep at all, that is - and in a different body, attuned to every detail of the world around her and possessed of the power to change it. She finds her companions endowed with tremendous courage and resourcefulness, equal to monumental challenges and worthy of passionate love. Together, they enter a foreign land where outcomes are uncertain but anything is possible and every minute counts.' (Internet Archive pdf download).
Note: to download the full ebook, right click and select "Save As".
Sing along as the "War on Terror" kicks off and tyranny gets a free lunch. Twelve Funky Rockin' Soulful tracks of New World Order madness. (YouTube video stream).
Well, as I'm sure many of you will already know, it's General Election time here in the UK and all these useless little cunts that you've never seen or heard from since the last General Election are out blazing the campaign trail, presenting us with fake sentiments, fabricated promises and counterfeit smiles.
At least over here the campaign trail only lasts for a few weeks. I couldn't imagine living in the States where the bastards are kissing babies and spouting horseshit for months on end.
God, I hate politicians almost as much as I despise Barry Manilow.
So much so, in fact, that I have been at a complete loss as to who I should vote for. Last time, for example, I voted for the Scottish National Party (SNP). Not because I believe in nationalism you understand, but I like the idea of a more localised government and the dicks at Westminster needed a serious rocket up their arses to scare them shitless.
I won't be voting SNP this time, however. Not since I watched their embarrassing party political broadcast on TV depicting some fuckwit with a faraway stare in his [too close together] eyes, leaving his council flat to go climb a mountain and shout "Scoatlaaand!" at the top of his voice. It is cringeworthy beyond all belief. Check it out here. Even postmen, hot chicks and outdoor knobbers give this dick a pat on the back.
Woooft!
Where's my rifle?
Learn how to pronounce the country you stay in first before you start yelling it from the top of mountains you granny-featured little turd!
This is what is called "the Braveheart vote" which is the last thing this country should be trying to promote. Why the fuck don't they just go the whole hog and put "sponsored by Buckfast" at the bottom of the screen for christsakes?
So the other day, whilst scanning the election feature in my local newspaper, I happened to spy some zoomer at the very bottom of the page who looked a little like Ming the Merciless. I read his caption, realised that he'd probably get about 4 votes and subsequently pledged my allegiance to the Landless Peasant Party.
Unfortunately this party are not running in the Dunfermline and West Fife constituency, but I am going to spoil my ballot for the peasants as suggested in their video section and maybe even join the party just for the hell of it. Also, check out the video of their candidate Deek Jackson on the Campaign Trail. Top entertainment.
Darth Benedict XVI has been given a lot of flack lately, but in all of this it's important not to forget that when the man is not buggering the rectums of small children (or covering up such crimes) he is actually incredibly good at looking absolutely terrifying.
Here's a selection of some of Pope Palpatine's greatest hits. Check out Photo No 6. Humorously enough, he looks most innocent when wearing a Nazi uniform. (Buzzfeed photo gallery).
Alright you twisted freaks! I had to jump through hoops of fire to try get hold of this stuff. Here's the low-down:
Swamptrash were a Scottish bluegrass/psychobilly band formed in 1987 in Edinburgh. They split in 1990 when several of the members went on to form the wonderful Shooglenifty.
Swamptrash only released one album and a six-track EP during their short career. Fronted by vocalist and banjo player Harry Horse (real name Richard Horne), the band came up with an innovative way to bypass all the bureaucracy of having to phone or send tapes to clubs and pubs in order to get bookings. Basically they spun a wonderful yarn about them all being brothers from Missouri, and Horse - who was really from Coventary and a successful political illustrator for many major UK broadsheets - fitted into the hillbilly role impeccably by turning up at venues under the name Billie Joe and asking them to "pass the hat round". As the routine proved to be quite successful it began to get incorporated into their performances and it wasn't long before Horse was drawling on between songs about "daddy getting his leg bitten off by a gator" or "how mamma had gotten sunk in the swamp".
After Swamptrash split, Horse continued his career as a successful political cartoonist. As well as having his work appear in books as diverse as a centenary edition of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde and children's book Magus The Lollipop Man, his illustrations would also regularly appear in The Observer, The Independent and The Sunday Herald. In 1993 he wrote a cult computer game for Time Warner called Drowned God - a graphical adventure game with a plot involving human history and the belief that "everything you know is wrong".
For Harry Horse the story ends tragically and somewhat mysteriously with the peculiar circumstances surrounding his death and that of his terminally ill wife Mandy in 2007. What was originally reported as a Romeo & Juliet style suicide pact later turned out to be something more grisly with Horse allegedly stabbing his wife over 30 times before turning the knife on himself and subsequently bleeding to death from multiple slash wounds.
Clearly distraught by his wife's rather aggressive form of multiple sclerosis, it is assumed that the incredible stress Horse was under manifested itself in bouts of deep depression and disturbing fits of rage.
Today, the recorded work of Swamptrash is exceptionally rare and difficult to come by, however, here at the Media Underground Nerve Centre I've managed to get hold of both their album and EP in mp3 format. Whilst I would love to acquire higher bitrate versions of this material, these recordings are available nowhere else on the internet. Appreciation and thanks go to Lesley Robertson for sending me this stuff and for going to the trouble of asking former Swamptrash members for their permission to do so.
Note: To download these mp3s you'll need an account with our BitTorrent tracker. If you haven't got one yet, you can sign up for free here.
Swamptrash - Bone (torrent).
Swamptrash - It Don't Make No Never Mind (torrent).
'Sometimes, you meet people who simply seem to "get" life better than the rest of us, who act as a reminder that being alive is more than simply continuing to breathe.
'They negotiate it like skilful acrobats on a high wire, exhilarated yet instinctively balanced, undaunted by the inevitable wobbles, and the remarkable thing is that their innate confidence is usually its own sure-footed reward.
'They are often achievers, yet somehow achievement is only a by-product of the way they live. It's their dreams that single them out. They scale the mountain of those dreams, reaching distant pinnacles, while the rest us stand muttering in the foothills that it's all right for them but we have responsibilities and proper jobs to get on with.
'Mark Beaumont is 27. Already he has set the record for cycling round the world (knocking 81 days off the previous time) and has just returned from a nine-month cycle across the Americas, from Alaska in the north to Argentina in the south. His route took him 13,000 miles through the Rockies and the Andes, stopping off to climb the two highest mountain peaks: Mount McKinley in the north and Aconcagua in the south. He also made a BBC documentary of his journey, the camera becoming his confidante during periods of intense isolation on remote roads and among Spanish-speaking communities.' (Scotsman interview).
'Touted in their day as the next Stooges, Death came to an abrupt end after refusing to change their name. But renewed interest in the proto-punks is ensuring their incendiary legacy lives on.
'The once-flawless credentials of Detroit's late-60s garage-rock scene took a considerable dent recently thanks to Iggy Pop's badly timed car insurance advert. And let's not forget the readiness of MC5's surviving members to exchange their manifesto of "dope, guns and fucking in the streets" for casual denimwear a few years back. However, one power trio from the city can claim 35 years without selling out - a feat made considerably easier by the fact that Death's debut album was nixed by the Man before it even made it to the pressing plant.' (Guardian article & Isohunt torrent download).
'A major diplomatic and political scandal is erupting that could have significant import for French-American relations. It involves new research into the mysterious outbreak of “mass insanity” in a village in southern France that affected some 500 people and resulted in five deaths.
'According to reliable US sources, the US State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research has been given a confidential inquiry from the office of Erard Corbin de Mangoux, head of the French intelligence agency DSGE (Directorate General for External Security).
'According to the report the inquiry regards a recently-published account of U.S. government complicity in a mysterious 1951 incident of mass insanity in France in the village of Pont-Saint-Esprit in southern France.
'The strange outbreak severely affected nearly five hundred people, causing the deaths of at least five, two by suicide. For nearly 60 years the Pont-St.-Esprit incident has been attributed either to ergot poisoning, meaning that villagers consumed bread infected with a psychedelic mold or to organic mercury poisoning.
'Scientists with the highly respected British Medical Journal were quickly drawn in September 1951 to what it dubbed the “outbreak of poisoning.” After initial thoughts that the cause was bread infection, they concluded that mold could not explain the event or the afflictions that struck hundreds of people in the village.
'Scientists dispatched to the scene from the Sandoz Chemical company in nearby Basle, Switzerland also stated that the mold was the cause, but many other experts disagreed with them.
'Over time the mystery of the outbreak only deepened and no answers were found to be satisfactory. A 2008 book about the history of bread published in France by Professor Steven Kaplan emphasizes that the “mystery remains unsolved” and at the time, still continued to perplex scientists.' (War And Peace article & Rule Of Law Radio podcast).
'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).
'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).
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).
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).
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).
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).
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).