| Author |
Message |
iotar
Username: iotar
Registered: 6-2006
| | Posted on Friday, February 27, 2009 - 2:09 pm: | |
"Police hunt 'radioactive teacher'"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7914758. stm |
dan
Username: dan
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Friday, February 27, 2009 - 4:29 pm: | |
I prefer the Daily Mail's version "'Radioactive' paedophile suspect on the run after skipping court":
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1156265/Ra dioactive-paedophile-suspect-run-skipping-court.ht ml
As http://twitter.com/MarkCorrigan said, "Radioactive sex offender? Baddies really have changed since the 80s." |
dave
Username: dave
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Monday, March 02, 2009 - 7:29 pm: | |
Good news guys:
'Consumerism is dead'
http://www.alternet.org/workplace/128920/ |
martin
Username: martin
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 04, 2009 - 5:07 pm: | |
Gordon Brown, addressing Congress today:
"So should we succumb to a race to the bottom?"
What can one say ...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politic s/gordon-brown/4938171/Gordon-Brown-urges-US-to-se ize-the-moment-and-lead-world-out-of-recession.htm l |
martin
Username: martin
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Thursday, March 05, 2009 - 1:28 pm: | |
Words fail me.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/03/2009_07_ wed.shtml
- But perhaps it's just a set of various, glow-in-the-dark signs that say: WHAT YOU'RE DOING IS WRONG ... |
martin
Username: martin
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Friday, March 06, 2009 - 4:10 pm: | |
Yes, it's "The Onion."
But still:
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/obama_outfitt ed_with_238_motion |
iotar
Username: iotar
Registered: 6-2006
| | Posted on Friday, March 06, 2009 - 4:40 pm: | |
On the same page:
"Lovecraftian School Board Member Wants Madness Added To Curriculum"
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/lovecraftian_ school_board_member |
dave
Username: dave
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Monday, March 09, 2009 - 2:26 pm: | |
Yeah, I read that article not too long ago, Io. Pretty funny. |
dave
Username: dave
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Monday, March 09, 2009 - 2:28 pm: | |
Also, happy Monday:
'We Are Breeding Ourselves to Extinction'
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090309_we_ar e_breeding_ourselves_to_extinction |
martin
Username: martin
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 10, 2009 - 12:00 pm: | |
"Scientists Searching for Brain's 'God Spot' Find Belief Circuits"
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/sc ience/sciencenews/4966118/Scientists-searching-for -brains-God-spot-find-belief-circuits.html |
dave
Username: dave
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 10, 2009 - 4:16 pm: | |
"Facebook fasting becoming a popular Lent sacrifice"
http://weblogs.amny.com/entertainment/urbanite/blo g/2009/03/facebook_fasting_becoming_a_po.html
“I went to church, and I thought what would actually bring me closer to God or give me a better sense of self?” said Gehman, 18, of Manhattan, who admits she used to log in about five times a day. “What takes up time in my day? Facebook.” |
dave
Username: dave
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Monday, March 16, 2009 - 2:34 pm: | |
'DARPA to Explore Geoengineering'
http://blogs.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2009/03 /exclusive-milit.html
"More and more prominent climate and energy scientists have expressed support for studies into various geoengineering approaches, such as sequestering carbon in the ocean by growing large swaths of algae."
We haven't learned anything apparently. I just don't think it's a good idea to mess with complex dynamic systems. We aren't that smart, are we? |
martin
Username: martin
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Monday, March 23, 2009 - 9:46 am: | |
"Racist Chav Goes Tits Up"
http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/ |
martin
Username: martin
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Monday, March 23, 2009 - 1:45 pm: | |
"Dwarf Saved by Chihuahua"
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howabou tthat/5037096/Dwarf-saved-by-chihuahua.html |
martin
Username: martin
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 25, 2009 - 4:29 pm: | |
"Megan doesn't go to that school anymore. She's been dead for two months now so it's not surprising her attendance is low."
Too right, dude ...
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1104 477_letter_shock_for_grieving_parents |
dave
Username: dave
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 31, 2009 - 6:45 pm: | |
'Workers angry about job cuts hold managers hostage at French Caterpillar factory'
http://www.app.com/article/20090331/BUSINESS/90331 053/1003
Kind of warms my heart.
How is everybody. Been awfully quiet 'round here lately. |
martin
Username: martin
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 01, 2009 - 3:13 pm: | |
Yo, Dave - been working my socks off here, I'm afraid, but otherwise fine.
How're you? Hitting the mountains again for Easter? |
dave
Username: dave
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 01, 2009 - 3:48 pm: | |
Hi Martin. Glad to hear you're well. Hope work is treating you okay.
I've been busy myself. Working and climbing. It's mud season now, so not too much backpacking or hiking.
I climbed outside for the first time last weekend. Got me really psyched for Spring. My goal is to climb this by the end of the month:
http://www.mountainproject.com/v/new_york/the_gunk s/the_trapps/105798994
Not a tough climb, but super fun and scary. I need to get used to climbing on real rock and dealing with exposure, so that route seems a decent goal. I'm climbing really well for a beginner, but being totally exposed 200 feet off the deck is not something the gym has prepared me for! |
martin
Username: martin
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Monday, April 06, 2009 - 2:42 pm: | |
... of the day. No contest.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/s weden/5112772/Japanese-pop-star-dressed-as-a-pinea pple-robbed-in-Sweden.html
Hi, Dave. You wouldn't get me up there for love nor money: it's all yours and Mike's. I'll be in the bar! |
dave
Username: dave
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Monday, April 06, 2009 - 7:26 pm: | |
No contest indeed.
In other news though, Dylan speaks his mind about Obama:
"He’s got an interesting background. He’s like a fictional character, but he’s real. First off, his mother was a Kansas girl. Never lived in Kansas though, but with deep roots. You know, like Kansas bloody Kansas. John Brown the insurrectionist. Jesse James and Quantrill. Bushwhackers, Guerillas. Wizard of Oz Kansas. I think Barack has Jefferson Davis back there in his ancestry someplace. And then his father. An African intellectual. Bantu, Masai, Griot type heritage - cattle raiders, lion killers. I mean it’s just so incongruous that these two people would meet and fall in love. You kind of get past that though. And then you’re into his story. Like an odyssey except in reverse."
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_an d_entertainment/music/article6043331.ece
Martin, you know what's crazy? When I look at those photos, my palms sweat now that I know I'll be doing that route. But I like it and I think about climbing all the time now. Really weird. Anyway, I'm not going to be leading it.
Speaking of Mike, I'll have to re-read Climbers again after I've been climbing for a while. |
martin
Username: martin
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 07, 2009 - 8:28 am: | |
You see how Dylan writes: pick a subject, free associate - one minute Obama, then Dorothy and the Emerald City, then lions (not Baum's) creep in, along with griots, and it's a love story, like Homer, scattered blood of Africa: could be the best thing Bob Marley never wrote ... then we're into "rambling ghosts" and "I'm more at home in empty lots." An extraordinary, recombinative mind.
Apart from anything else, I think I'm the wrong shape for climbing - too tall. The centre of gravity's wrong. You need basic rock star physique, I think: and much more upper body strength than I've ever been able to build. |
dave
Username: dave
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 07, 2009 - 2:58 pm: | |
Yeah, Dylan is great. I hope his new album is on par with that interview.
Too tall? I'm 6'4" and I find it helpful more often than not. Reachy problems are easier. I'm not too fond of bouldering problems that require me to scrunch up and contort myself though. And climbing is all legs. Rely too much on upper body strength and you pump out and fall.
So there...I guess you'll have to climb now. ;) |
martin
Username: martin
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 07, 2009 - 5:27 pm: | |
At 6'5" myself, I might, I just might.
That is, once I get over the naked greed on display here:
http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/20 09/04/07/the-beatles-remastered-albums-due-septemb er-9-2009/
There was a rumour that each cd would be a double, including the original (and better) mono mix. But we reckoned without Apple's now-traditional "your money/our pocket" approach.
Thankfully, I'm not one who feels the need to buy everything BeatlesBand produces. Those poor suckers must already own all these at least 3 times anyway (vinyl, tape, cat's whisker quality cd)- and this new shiny heap of the familiar will cost them - what? £1,000? No wonder McCartney wasn't too worried by Heather's divorce pay-out. She must be kicking herself now with an old joke, etc.
Anyway, they went downhill once Stu Sutcliff left. Next? |
martin
Username: martin
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 08, 2009 - 5:49 pm: | |
And another "no contest" winner:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/neil_mccormick/blog/2 009/04/08/bob_dylan_whats_it_all_about
As Dylan once said: how can I possibly answer that, if you've got the nerve to ask it? |
martin
Username: martin
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Thursday, April 09, 2009 - 2:46 pm: | |
Mind you, too much Dylan can be bad for you.
As A.J. Weberman shows:
>“In the empty” in a place lacking purpose or substance; a meaningless place “lot” that was my misfortune, my lot in life, to have found myself in “where the ladies” where the critics and reporters “play blind man's bluff” grope around in the dark trying to discover someone “with the key chain” while chained to traditional folk music. “Key” as in ‘the pitch of a musical instrument’ and “chain” as in bondage. “And the all night girls” the ones who get to play all night and head the bill “whisper of” sing to a limited audience about “escapades” wild and exciting unlawful undertakings “out on the D train” in New York City rather than in a rural area as they are urban folk singers. “You can hear the night watchman” Dylan who is taking all this insanity in “click” make it become clear; fall into place “his flashlight” with his piercing intellect and “ask himself if it’s him or them that’s insane” ask himself if it the crazy commie folk community or Bob Dylan that is really insane because it has to be one or the other “Louise she’s alright she’s just near” sarcastic: socialism is acceptable, tolerable, as long as she has not arrived “she is delicate” it required tact to be with her since I didn’t want to say anything that was politically incorrect “and seems like the mirror” although she was not a true representation or depiction of things she seemed to be for many “But she just makes it too concise” but Communism expresses much in few words and is therefore a simplistic political philosophy “and too clear” and this easily seen through; transparent making it obvious “that Johanna’s not here” that capitalism, competition is not part of the folk scene. “The ghost” a faint secondary image as in a television screen “of electricity” of intense, contagious emotional excitement that Bob Dylan produced “howls” goes over big “in the bones” in the fundamental plan or design, as of the plot of a book “of her face” of folk music’s public image “Where these visions of Johanna” where Dylan’s visions of capitalism “have now taken my place” have supplanted the former Leftwing positions that I expressed in the poems I wrote in order to become famous.<
Get the picture?
Yes, we see ... |
dave
Username: dave
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Saturday, April 11, 2009 - 4:05 am: | |
I tried to read that. I really did. But, despite moving my eyes across the words, no information was conveyed to my brain.
What the hell was that about? |
martin
Username: martin
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 14, 2009 - 8:50 am: | |
Psychosis, my friend. Pure, undiluted, "I went for a trip 40 years ago and never quite came back" psychosis.
Meanwhile, I'm still getting over this amazing concert, last Thursday:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94RoH3E2Fy8 |
martin
Username: martin
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 15, 2009 - 9:15 am: | |
But, dragging this thread back to topic:
- "Lush Life," Richard Price. Police procedural in hopeless town. Hollywood is waiting.
- "Napoleon Symphony," Anthony Burgess. I'd forgotten how funny this is. Hollywood should have been waiting - Kubrick, with M. McDowell in the lead.
- "Fat Chance," Simon Gray. Gray's account of S. Fry deserting his play, leaving Rik Mayall in the lurch. Mayall's surprisingly sympathetic, but Fry is every bit the conceited tower of pub-quiz trivia you might imagine.
- "Olivetti Chronicles," John Peel. Late dj's magazine columns, reminding us of the huge gap on the radio. Quality varies - but his acid execution of hippies turned professional tinkers is hilarious, as is the description of Bryan Ferry's dancing: as awkward as Prince Charles's when surrounded by a crowd of penis-sheathed locals, jigging about on some remote coral atoll. |
martin
Username: martin
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 15, 2009 - 11:47 am: | |
That's writing with a hangover for you: should have been posted under "Spring Reading."
Never mind. |
martin
Username: martin
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Thursday, April 16, 2009 - 12:12 pm: | |
"Use Condoms, Or Make Hitler"
http://slate.com/blogs/blogs/xxfactor/archive/2009 /04/14/use-condoms-or-make-hitler.aspx?GT1=38001 |
dave
Username: dave
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Friday, May 01, 2009 - 3:06 pm: | |
Half a month without a post here...
Should I be worried? I'm getting lonely.
I hope everyone's just busy enjoying the spring weather. |
martin
Username: martin
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Monday, May 11, 2009 - 3:33 pm: | |
Yo, Dave! Just finished a big (15,000 words) bit of work for a project here, so I'm feeling vastly relived and ready to enjoy the outside world for the first time in 3 months.
But you're right: this neighbourhood has gone really quiet. Anyone else out there? |
martin
Username: martin
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 13, 2009 - 3:36 pm: | |
"Out the way, big nose."
It might very well have been like that; it might very well ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/8046 278.stm |
alex
Username: alex
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Thursday, May 14, 2009 - 2:18 pm: | |
Here!
"Romantic man awaits sentencing for indecency"
http://www.clarepeople.com/index.php/This-Weeks-Ne ws/romantic-man-awaits-sentencing-for-indecency.ht ml |
martin
Username: martin
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Thursday, June 25, 2009 - 12:34 pm: | |
We seem to have disproved this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law
- perhaps because no one's posting: it could be just me left here in the oxygen tent.
Hello? |
dave
Username: dave
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Thursday, June 25, 2009 - 1:38 pm: | |
Hi Martin. Long time, no post. How's it going?
We do seem to have sidestepped Godwin's Law.
Wonder why this place has been so quiet. |
martin
Username: martin
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Friday, June 26, 2009 - 9:05 am: | |
Everyone's obviously off watching the Jacko story, Dave. How goes it yourself?
Over here, fine: apart from trying to avoid the grieving shoppers (check-out girl at my local supermarket was in tears over Michael) and also trying to work out who's alive and who isn't: Farah Fawcett isn't, but Jeff Goldblum and Harrison Ford seem to be, despite rumours to the contrary.
And WIlliam Burroughs's voice at the back of my head tells me they could keep the London 02 gigs for Michael, and just put a *goddamn coffin* onstage for 50 nights - they'd still sell out ... |
martin
Username: martin
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Friday, June 26, 2009 - 9:53 am: | |
Burroughs continues: this remark, made a couple of months ago by the promoter for the London shows, reads like something from "Naked Lunch" -
“I would trade my body for his tomorrow,” said Phillips, amid reports, furiously denied by Jackson’s advisers, that the singer was suffering from skin cancer.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article65 80748.ece |
dave
Username: dave
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Friday, June 26, 2009 - 1:57 pm: | |
Glad to hear things are going well Martin.
Things are okay here too. Just finished a major months long crunch period at work, so now I get to plan my summer. Climbing & backpacking commence...now!
Have you read anything good recently?
This Michael Jackson stuff is enough to send me into fits of rage. The outpooring of sympathy is pathological. Forgive my bluntness, but he buggered little kids up the ass. I can't imagine what it must be like for his victims to see people on the news weeping in the streets for their abuser. |
dave
Username: dave
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Friday, June 26, 2009 - 2:52 pm: | |
Also, given MJ's death, I wonder who will inherit the title of "World's Whitest Black Man". MJ obviously held the title for so long by clinging to a very literal definition of white, but if we extend the definition to include, say, White Man's Burden, the choice seems obvious.
http://www.truthdig.com/cartoon/item/20090623_prom ises_promises/ |
martin
Username: martin
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Friday, June 26, 2009 - 3:52 pm: | |
Naturally, it's cheap gags ahoy time: this must have been a dreadful party before Elton started singing (and didn't realise you can hear "Sun" as "Son," too - fnarr, fnarr)-
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-11957 17/White-Tie-Tiara-ball-tears-Elton-John-sings-Don t-Let-The-Sun-Go-Down-On-Me-tribute-Jacko.html
I'm not a fan. Behind the schmaltz, at this moment, publishers are racing to sign up the first memoir of abuse from one of those Neverland kids - and McCartney's lawyers must be no less eager in their doorstepping of the estate, demanding to know when Northern Songs will be sold, and for how much. Pathetically, I think once the dust has settled and accounts totted up, we'll find he had less actual money than anyone on this forum.
Reading: Mieville's "City & the City" - but while it's 2/3 brilliant, the last part is clumsy: I wonder if he started writing it without knowing how to end. Also, Buchan's "39 Steps": an object lesson in page-turning. And this - part Hoffmann, part Aickman, and (as with them) you sense some extraordinary private fantasy is being explored:
http://www.munseys.com/book/25318/Doll_Maker,_The |
dave
Username: dave
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Friday, June 26, 2009 - 5:57 pm: | |
City & City is on my list. I've been avoiding reviews and spoilers but hear good things about it. Too bad about the ending though.
The Doll Maker looks good. Already downloaded. Thanks for the suggestion. (By the way, the Munseys site looks cool: free books!)
I read Wolin's Democracy Incorporated recently. It's one of the best things I've read in years. Some of it would be a retread for the iotacism crowd, but Wolin is extremely articulate and systemtic in his thinking (and has clearly spent a lifetime thinking about the topic). Highly recommended.
At the moment, I'm reading another book about Eugene Debs, Democracy's Prisoner. Funny thing, but in high school, they never taught me that an American socialist ran an anti-war presidential campaign from prison. |
martin
Username: martin
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Monday, June 29, 2009 - 4:30 pm: | |
Sarban's "Sound of His Horn" is almost as good: how an Empire Englishman, full of reserve, manages a public probing of his S&M fantasies. It's also the obvious ancestor of Keith Roberts' "Weinachtabend."
Also just finished Edwin Williamson's life of Borges, which sends you straight back to the stories and essays. Low point: his endorsement of Pinochet. Bizarre high point: Borges (blind) meeting Graves (blind and deaf). Not surprisingly, very little of note got said. |
dan
Username: dan
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Thursday, July 16, 2009 - 11:54 am: | |
"Flat blown up in air bed accident"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8153387.st m |
martin
Username: martin
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Thursday, August 13, 2009 - 11:37 am: | |
"Elephant Learns to Play the Harmonica"
What the hell for, etc.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howabou tthat/6020545/Elephant-learns-to-play-the-harmonic a.html |
martin
Username: martin
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Thursday, January 14, 2010 - 5:35 pm: | |
The Haitian earthquake: thousands dead, many more injured, homeless, bereaved, or appallingly traumatised.
Background article on the area from the "Daily Mail," complete with caring headline:
RAPE, MURDER, AND VOODOO ON THE ISLAND OF THE DAMNED
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1243016/AN DREW-MALONE-Rape-murder-voodoo-island-damned.html |
dan
Username: dan
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 16, 2010 - 6:30 am: | |
"German student attacks Hell's Angels with puppy"
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20100615/tsc-oukoe-uk- germany-puppy-1df2b7e.html
("...and then escaping on a stolen bulldozer.") |