We now have a Twitter. Specifically, its a Twitter for our IRC channel (irc.maddshark.net, #discord). Whoever changes the chat topic, changes the Twitter message. Thanks to St. Mae for setting it all up.
All posts by Cain
I’m in ur conspiracy theoriez, doin performance art
The very idea of a 911-TV-Fakery researcher faking their own suicide as a performance art piece is incredibly synchronistic for me given the last year and half’s experience of investigating the mysterious double suicide of conspiratorially minded artists Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake. In that case several folks at the Rigorous Intuition and Dreams End websites and forums were talking about the wild and weird world of Situationist performance art and related artistic movements, some of which seem to involve a lot of parapolitical intrigue that sometimes includes hoaxing, culture-jamming and even the faking of people’s murder or suicide, aka pseudocide. Other discussions centered on the idea of both real-world and online group-stalking and gaslighting of people driving them to perhaps commit suicide. In my interview last year with parapolitical activist, writer and researcher Len Bracken (author of the biography on Situationist movement leader Guy Debord – Revolutionary) I brought up the possible confluence of some of the wilder personalities within the 911 Truth Movement (folks who seem more like performance artists than activists and researchers) and the Situationist and Discordian communities.
Also, a link to the mentioned interview can be found here.
Potentially creepy tech, part 1,492
From AppleInsider:
We’ve already seen the iSight indicator light “disappear” behind the bezel of Apple’s MacBook and iMac computers. A recently published patent application could make the iSight itself not only disappear, but move to the middle of the screen. MacBooks, iMacs, and even iPhones and iPod touches could take advantage of the new technology.
Time to don my tinfoil hat again, I think. A far too frequent reaction to news nowadays. H/t to Triple Zero for the link.
TV Tropes
This is absolutely my favourite site of the moment. For real. I have spent hours, with which I could have done a lot better things, reading it and laughing quite often at the descriptions within.
To quote from the main page:
Tropes are devices and conventions that a writer can reasonably rely on as being present in the audience members’ minds and expectations. On the whole, tropes are not clichés. The word clichéd means “stereotyped and trite”. In other words, dull and uninteresting. We are not looking for dull and uninteresting entries. We are here to recognize tropes and play with them, not to make fun of them.
The wiki is called “TV Tropes” because that is where we started. Over the course of a few years, our scope has crept out to include other media. Tropes transcend television. They exist in life, as we will be quick to tell you. Since a lot of art, especially the popular arts, does its best to reflect life, tropes are likely to show up everywhere. We want ’em all.
As someone who enjoys writing myself, a site like this is incredibly useful. But even for the casual reader or watcher of television, its a really great site and I cannot recommend it enough. If you want to visit, please follow the link.
Craig Murray’s new book detailing UK war crimes in Africa
Craig Murray is a British political activist, former ambassador to Uzbekistan and current Rector of the University of Dundee.
While at the embassy in Tashkent, he accused the Karimov administration of human rights abuses, a step which, he argued, was against the wishes of the British government and the reason for his removal. Murray complained to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in November 2002, January or early February 2003, and in June 2004 that intelligence linking the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan to al-Qaeda, suspected of being gained through torture, was unreliable, immoral, and illegal. He described this as “selling our souls for dross”.
Murray was subsequently removed from his ambassadorial post on October 14, 2004. Since then he has written a number of books, including Murder in Samarkand, detailing Karimov’s human rights abuses, and his most current work, Catholic Orangemen of Togo, which details warcrimes in Africa. Catholic Orangemen was released today, despite attempts by former Colonel Tim Spicer and a very influental legal team attempting to stop the book being published, no doubt due to Spicer’s name cropping up in so many African war crimes.
Murray has set up his ow publishing company and has the book for sale, both via Amazon and his own site. However, to forestall efforts at censorship, either by Spicer or by elements within the British political system, electronic copies of the book have been placed on sites in several dozen jurisdictions all over the world.
To that end, the book has been put on The Pirate Bay, and I suggest anyone who thinks Murray’s topic and work is worthwhile should go to the following link, download the book and then seed it for as long as possible.
Thankyou.
http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4642082/Murray-Catholic_Orangemen_of_Togo(UK_war_crimes_in_Africa)(2009)
Electric Six, how I love thee
I’m sure there are international laws against this kind of thing
The New York Times, in their neverending crusade against common sense and fact based reporting, has decided, in their infinite wisdom, to give a column to Bono. Yes, that Bono. And already, his first article is turning out to be a failure of near epic proportions. Its like Thomas Friedman, on acid. Bad acid.
Fortunately, you can read the condensed version of all future articles at the following link (hat tip to Jean-Lustine d’Hadamard).
Steampunk is hazardous to your health
Radium paint is kickass, no matter what anyone says.
Hat-tip to Warren Ellis.
Subverse social messages in Thomas the Tank Engine
I don’t know who you are, or why you were Googling that, or even why you ended up here (though it does sound like something one of us would write about), but I think I love you, simply for supplying my mind with the possibility of such a thing being true.
More on the Watchmen state of affairs
Reading this open letter from the producers, its looking like the Fox case against Warner, whatever the legal validity, is little more than the result of sour apples. That Warner have taken the risks, put in the work and invested the money, only for the result to be that Fox, who refused to do any of that when given the chance, is nothing short of unbelievable.
Thanks to P3nt on the forums for the link.