"The Aboriginal Australians were able to navigate across their harsh and unforgiving land by memorizing and following the Songlines--an intricate series of song cycles that identified the landmarks that one needed to pass to get where one needed to go. These songs described how the features of the land were created and named during the Dreamtime, the timeless era when the giants, heroes and monsters that serve as totems for the Aboriginal tribes walked the earth. By singing the songs in the proper order, the Aborigines could walk across their nation's vast deserts and always know where they were."

quoted from New York Songlines, a great alternative travel guide covering the psycho-geography of New York City by linking to all the little stories on every block.

Look over here: Voidstar explains feeding your RSS and everything you need to know

I already posted some links of the new kind of war toys replacing the cowboys with members of the delta force. There's an article by Krista Foss over at commondreams.org which has a better picture of the controversial Forward Command Post (Age: 8+ years), produced by the Sparkle Industrial Co. Ltd.

Excerpt: "War toys have been around forever, but the problem here is the change in focus. Before such toys were more in line with the ideas of self-defence," said Eric Garris, who is webmaster of the California-based Antiwar.com, which has started a campaign about against the Forward Command Post toy.

"This is not just another war toy -- it's a total paradigm shift in the war toy industry. It's setting up the young people for this new kind of war, where soldiers come into your house and take it over when they need to."

Antiwar.com has been pushing the U.S. department store chain JC Penney to remove Forward Command Post from its on-line catalogue and stores. (Calls to the head office - 972-431-1000 - were not returned.)

Meanwhile, the same is toy is available on-line through eToys, which also offers a choice of Caucasian or a dark-skinned "ethnic" military action figures with weapon-stuffed footlockers. A similar toy, Elite Operations Forward Command Post, is sold on the Toys 'R' Us Web site (but not in Canadian stores)."

"Braindumps. Rants. Mind viruses. Deadly memes. Extreme fashion statements. Direct from the hackers of the CULT OF THE DEAD COW. Taste the 31337 hax0r flavah. W0rd."  

"Actors, pop stars, pro athletes, CEOs, politicians, criminals, average joes -- they're all fair game at TheSmokingGun.com, an insanely popular site that posts salacious and juicy documentation (100% authentic) on people that you won't find anywhere else, online or off. So how the heck does TSG get all this stuff?" story by Chris Turner at shift.com

"Under the Patriot Act, librarians and booksellers are required to open their records to the FBI so the feds can trace a person's Internet activities and the books he's been reading and buying. Since these investigations are conducted in secret, the librarians and booksellers are bound under a gag order not to divulge one word of what the FBI is after, nor, indeed, even mention that they have received a visit from the FBI. Librarians fear criminal prosecution should they talk, although the law actually does not specify penalties.

As a result, nobody knows exactly what's going on. A recent Freedom of Information request to the Justice Department asking it to divulge the number of FBI library visits has been denied by the government. Still, bits and pieces of information leak out. A survey conducted by the University of Illinois last October, sent to 1,505 directors of 5,094 U.S. public libraries, showed that the FBI was busy making visits." ~~ James Ridgeway, "Throwing the Book at Us" in the Village Voice

"This first Frankenstein film was produced by Thomas Alva Edison at the Edison Studios in Orange, New Jersey as a liberal adaptation of the famous 1818 novel by Mary Shelley. Edison's "Frankenstein" is the forefather of thousands of horror and monster films.

Film institutes and Museum Archives believed this classic was lost forever. For years this elusive "creature" has been hunted. Now an original 35mm theatrical print has been found & restored. This is the last known surviving print of Thomas Edison's 1910 Frankenstein!

This landmark 1910 film, considered to be the first horror movie, is also the first incarnation of the Frankenstein Monster on film. This 14 minute reel was all but forgotten until 1963 when a film historian discovered a photo of Edison’s Monster in the Edison archives in West Orange, New Jersey. But no print of the full movie could be found, and in 1980, The American Film Institute had declared Edison’s Frankenstein to be one of the top ten most "culturally and historically significant lost films."

But unbeknownst to the AFI and most historians, one print of this historic film had survived in the private collection of Mr. Alois Dettlaff of Wisconsin. When Mr. Dettlaff learned of the AFI list, he let it be known that Edison’s Frankenstein had indeed been preserved. But because of copyright concerns, Dettlaf has turned down requests to screen the movie from museums and film distributors the world over, and has only allowed it to be screened theatrically at two small gatherings in his hometown.

This first Frankenstein film is being released on DVD with its original music score for authenticity and with what is known as the first Dracula film, the 1922 version of Nosferatu by Murnau."

Taken from LoewsJersey.Org

38 seconds of the film online for the Real Player

Harry of AICN claims to "have a film called EL SPECTRO ROJO from the late 1890's that is definitely a horror film of similar length." If that’s true, Edison’s film is not the first horror-movie, ok? So, go and scan El Spectro Rojo, man! The Missing Link is a great source for early horror-movies. Good articles, reviews, links, videos to order etc, real player-files

The final preview of Matrix Reloaded has got to be the biggest trailer ever and you will need a lot of bandwidth for this one. But it's supposed to be worth the wait if you're a promotion-junkie.

I didn't really like the original movie since I don't like all this saviour-crap and the digital Jesus didn't really make it, sorry. And I thought the styling was too obvious and the effects were just trying to show off. All this jumping around and stopping in mid-air looked stupid, come on.

But the site for The Matrix was good and it's just been relaunched for the two upcoming sequels. They got trailers, pictures, a game and I just wanted to point to the The Animatrix which is the cartoon-version. They got their own trailers too and the first episodes of this web-series are out there now. They will also be out on dvd. Seven different directors and a mix of full 3D and cel-shade-animation: this one really works much better than most of the other lame sf-crap. If you got a high-speed-connection, you should grab this. There's also a new videogame which looks fun.

"You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, the tallest guy in the NBA is Chinese, the Swiss hold the America's Cup, France is accusing the U.S. of arrogance, Germany doesn't want to go to war, and the three most powerful men in America are named 'Bush', 'Dick', and 'Colon.'"

• Chris Rock

frisch auf'n Tisch aus Deutschl.antville

"Apocalypse Soon - Nutjob Milius hired by Pentagon

John Milius is the macho, gun-obsessed, 
right-winger who wrote the script for 
Apocalypse Now. So it makes perfect sense 
that his current job is... writing 
"future war scenarios" for the Pentagon!

Some John Milius facts:
1. He wrote the line "Go ahead, make my day" 
for Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry.

2. He was the inspiration for the John Goodman 
character in The Big Lebowski 

3. Co-wrote Conan the Barbarian with famous 
lefty Oliver Stone

4. Was rejected by the army because of asthma

5. Insisted that part of his payment for writing
Jeremiah Johnson be in antique weapons."

stolen from popbitch

Well, what kind of "future war scenarios"? I started a little research and I found all these interesting army-backup-pages. You should do the same! The Pentagon is spending a million dollars a year on Hollywood consultants.

"The Pentagon agreed to fund the StoryDrive Engine project at Paramount for about $800,000, and now owns the system. Writers and producers were hired. Working alongside people designing the "Star Trek" Web site (www.startrek.com) in an office on the Paramount lot, Mr. Singer's team spent 18 months in 1998 and 1999 writing and producing.

The chief story writer was Larry Tuch, who has written episodes of "Columbo" and was a "clue writer" on the video game "Where in the World Is Carmen San Diego?" He sketched out various regional crisis scenarios that would take place in 2008: a drought in Mexico that triggers a huge influx of Mexicans into the U.S. Southwest; a Persian Gulf crisis involving the Sixth Fleet; car bombings at U.S. embassies in Tokyo and Russia; and rising tensions between Russia and NATO."

from Paramount Simulation Uses Scripts,Technology to Test Handling of Crisis by John Lipmann, The Wall Street Journal

Why are all the articles at least one year old? Some are from 1999, 2000 or 2001. No recent entries. Do we have that "future war scenario" already?

-Coming to an Army Near You by Dana Calvo, Los Angeles Times. -Pentagon Looks For High-Tech Help From Film by Andrew Pollack, New York Times, August 18, 1999 -Dramatische Algorithmen-Hollywood und das Pentagon arbeiten eng zusammen, nicht nur ideologisch, sondern vor allem auf technischem Gebiet. Simulation ist alles! von Dietmar Kammerer in der taz

Die Amerikaner bezeichnen sich gegenseitig nur noch als "Anti-Patriots". Die kleine Russin geht nach Hause. Die Engländerin nimmt noch einen Schluck. Der Skandinavier lädt noch irgendwas aus dem Netz. Jimi Hendrix läuft in Bildschirmgröße durch den MediaPlayer. Mit Blogamp kann die ganze Welt sehen, was wir hören. Der Engländer und die Deutsche wechseln das Lokal. Reden wir über Filme.

Adaption. Asymmetrie wird symmetrisch gemacht. Ein großer Bruch im Kino der Selbstreferenz, Königsklasse der Popmoderne. Eine Lungenzelle hasst eine Hirnzelle, how stupid is that? Wäre das nicht die Quintessenz gewesen? Und ähnelt nicht "The Three" dem Plot von "Fight Club"? Würde dann nicht auch die Widmung für David Fincher mehr Sinn machen? Sieht das nicht alles nach dem zweiten Teil einer Trilogie über Identitätskrisen aus? Treffen wir im dritten Teil den echten Malcovicz, der mit dem echten Nicholas Cage in einen Film geht, den sie wirklich zusammen gedreht haben?

Es wird heftig spekuliert. Die Musik ist bei Ramones gelandet. Im Keller wird mit Geschirr geklappert. Ich werfe meinen Anteil für Speis und Trank in den Blechnapf. Komisch, daß man nur noch tschechisches oder polnisches Bier trinkt, wo man Jahre nur die grünen Flaschen kannte. Wir schließen den Kellerclub. Es hat geschneit und man kann nur stehend Rad fahren, was irgendwie sportiv, aber auch doof aussieht. Da wartet man auf den Frühling und dann das.

Im Herzen Kreuzbergs hat sich eine neue Bar unterhalb des Betonmonsters am Verteilerkreisel eingenistet. Eine riesige Leuchtreklame weist den Weg, wenn diese auch noch vom Möbelladen stammt, der die Lokalität einstmals beherrschte. Mit etwas DDR-Tapete (muß!), einer Sorte polnischem Bier (sollte!) und Seventies-Postern der Altstadt von Prag (kann!) macht man hier auf Platte und wirbt sogar mit dem Begriff. Die Platte im Westen. Das Neunziger-Revival ist in vollem Gange. Westliche Spaßvögel recyclen den Ossie-Look der frühen Neunziger. "Als würden sie in München versuchen, eine typisch Berliner Kneipe zu eröffnen", findet meine Begleiterin. Die Stadtzeitung findets total kultig und hat gleich eine Kreuzberg-Coverstory draus gedreht. Wir sind wieder wer, endlich! Es gibt Erdnüsse und aus den Boxen dröhnen Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears und Whitney Houston. Ist irgendwie witzig gemeint und die homosexuelle Fraktion feiert die Musik frenetisch. Trotzdem nervt es kollossal, aber die Pokemon-Kids werden erwachsen und erinnern sich wehmütig an ihre Jugend.

Noch tanzen gehen. Immer die selbe Diskussion. Die Damen scharen mit den Füßen. Vorher hat man bei einem jungen Mann gemeiert, aber mangels Einigung wurden die Regeln alle zwei Runden verändert. in Regionen, wo das Spiel als Mäxchen oder Lügenmax bekannt ist, pflegt man aggressivere Sonderregeln. Schnell kommt es zum Eklat. Ohne Alkohol kann man eh nicht lustig sein und schon garnicht vernünftig meiern.

Es ist Sonntag und schon spät. Rien ne va plus. Höchstens noch woanders hin. Dann wenigstens den coolen Club. Raus und auf den Sattel. Club ist besser als Kneipe weil intimer und dafür chronisch überfüllt. Ein paar Dutzend Leiber drängt sich um die kleine Theke im vorderen Neu-Kölln. Eine Sängerin, die mit Gekreische zu schwerem Bassdrum-Gepolter ihr Geld verdient, hat sich mit ihrem Hofstaat im ganzen Saale breit gemacht. Der Mann, den alle nur noch Djäi nennen, hat sich eine dumme Schnittwunde zugefügt und blutet alles voll. Im Videospielzimmer stapeln sich die verschüchterten Studenten. Vor dem Klo sitzt der gestrandete Gitarrist einer US-Erfolgsband und versucht ein Mädchen mit "ich kenne übrigens Rancid"-Anekdoten abzuschleppen. Er singt ein paar Takte "White shirt, black hat, tüdelü" und findet dann, daß er selbst ein cooles T-Shirt trägt. "I herz Adidas" steht da drauf. Ein anderer Freak erläutert ihm wie man T-Shirts bleichen kann. Das sähe viel besser aus, findet er. Der DJ bleibt beim Jazz. Was für ein Tor aus 40 Metern Entfernung. Alter Schwede. Und dann der Schuß von Figo im Spiel gegen Manu. Tor des Jahres, ganz eindeutig. Fußball finden jetzt alle gut. Im Alter hat man sich sonst nichts zu erzählen.

Die Bedienung bekreischt jeden Bekannten, der hereinkommt. Sie hält es in ihrem Job hinter der Theke eher mit den repräsentativen Pflichten. Leben auf der Bühne. Bestellungen dauern etwas länger.

Die jungen Leute überwiegen und sie recken keck die Köpfe hervor. Der 1.Mai wird interessant werden. Die ewigen Diskussionen zwischen den beiden alten Lagern wird dann eventuell von einer breiten Masse weggespült, die sich von den Altkadern nicht repräsentiert fühlt. Eine schwierige Sache. Was will der 1.Mai und wer will bei der Linken überhaupt noch mitmachen... Die Demoleitung kam da auf eine gute Idee. Man lud ein paar Industrie-Eintagsfliegen mit Rockstar-Gebärden um während des Umzuges ein wenig Musik am Start zu haben. MIA heißt diese Band und man plant auch gleich vor Ort ein Video für MTV zu drehen. Eine tolle Idee! Hätte man nicht wenigstens Dieter Bohlen fragen können?

Im Club geht das Licht an. "Könnt ihr nicht endlich nach Hause gehen?" Können wir schon, wollen wir aber nicht. Es ist Montag, früher Morgen. Nichts hat noch offen. Verfluchte Provinz. Beim Engländer ist noch Licht. Er ist auf Speed und hat die ganze Nacht am Piano gesessen. Seine Nachbarn müßen ihn schrecklich hassen. Wir rauchen Joints und lassen das Wochenende Revue passieren.

Ich ziehe auf den Prenzlauer Berg, Berlins Studentendistrikt Nummer 1. Dort ist es zur Zeit am wenigsten hip, aber das Getue scheint noch schlimmer. Wenn man jung ist, bedeuten die großen Posen noch Kompetenz und Autorität. Später will man nur noch Rotwein und seine Ruhe.

Zurück am Tisch. 5er-Box Maria Callas für 4,99 geschossen. Schreibe einen Spot für einen Behinderten-Verband, der dann in 3D umgesetzt werden soll. Zehn Charaktere für "Stadt in Angst" warten auf die Wiederbelebung. Projekt "Another Country" ist angelaufen (September wird als Release gehandelt). Viel zu tun und immer noch kein echtes Tageslicht.

Ich möchte darauf hinweisen, daß ich als Hohepriester der Church of Elvis seit vielen Jahren natürlich auch selbst der Messias sein könnte. Nur so zu Eurer Information!

Elvis lebt und Erobique hat ihn auch gesehen.

Did you know that Elvis and Jesus are the same

Create a dramatic gesture and claim every word you're saying is nothing but the truth. Tell the world that people in Iraq destroy the old symbols. Just stage the fall of a small statue with hundreds of cameras pointing at a G.I. covering Hussein's bronze-face with an american flag. Give'em an image and everyone thinks the war is over.

Donald Rumsfeld compared today's pictures on TV with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War. Historic day, bla-bla. Everything has to be dramatic. Cheney made fun of the armchair-generals and we're only missing a confetti-parade like in the finals of Episode One. See you next war, man.

So, boys, you've had your fun, you destroyed the infrastructure of an entire country and it looks like you killed enough people now. But, by the way, this campaign was against the laws we had agreed on and here's the way to the international court for war criminals. That's the way it should work, but it doesn't.

We understand. You even killed a few members of the international media to prove your point. Strongest one there is, ok. For some folks this means withdrawing from the action.

The rest of us is ready to go on. We're expecting your orders. What do you want the media to promote next? It's okay. We're not gonna say a word. You have conquered reality with the weapons of entertainment and we love it. We always loved it. Let's create a new image for the new führer, eh, King George II. No more kissy lips. It simply looks stupid. Can't he learn from Henry Kissinger? He's a war criminal and he received the nobel-price for peace at the same time. Let's go back in time all the way. Who's gonna play McCarthy?

published by Marvel Comics Group

Writer/Editor: Roy Thomas Illustrators: Frank Robbins & Frank Springer

Why it matters:

"The Greatest Superheroes of World War II" were created by Roy Thomas in 1975. The Invaders is the essential title of Marvel's Retro-Fourties. The series ran until September 1979 (41 issues, one annual and a Giant Size Special) The title revived various Golden Age heroes for the modern age. Among them were the original Human Torch, created by Carl Burgos and Namor, the Submariner who was created by Bill Everett. Both made their debut in the legendary Marvel Comics#1 (October 1939, the title was called Marvel Mystery from #2 on). In the 1940s, Timely, the predecessor of Marvel, produced an enormous number of costumed heroes in a short time. Some lasted only for a few months while others are still around. Captain America and his sidekick Bucky Barnes started in march 1941 before the US joined the war. The character, created by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon, became America's most popular piece of propaganda.

The original title Captain America Comics was cancelled in 1954, but the character returned in the pages of The Avengers in December 1963. Looks like Captain America was revamped exactly one month after John F.Kennedy was shot. The return of the ultimate propaganda icon was the first reaction within the world of popular entertainment. That's interesting if you look at Marvels quick treatment of 9-11.

After sharing Tales of Suspense with Iron Man and some other heroes, the star spangled avenger got a new title on his own again in 1968.
The war era was not just a background for Captain America . It provided a mystical battlefield very much like the fictional world of the Wild West. Cap still fought his arch-enemy The Red Skull and the fight never stopped.

The Red Skull represented the Third Reich, but when the Silver Age started in the Sixties he was just a small fry among all those guys who wanted to conquer the world on a daily base.

The art of Jack Kirby was totally unleashed. Marvel's "human touch" had started a renaissance of fantasy-superheroes with Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Hulk or titles like Silver Surfer and Dr.Strange. They were living in a world on their own and they were not just a simple vehicle for propaganda anymore. The Invaders included Captain America, Bucky, the Submariner, Toro and the original Human Torch. The team was created around thirty years after WW II "to battle the Axis Powers to the death, in the name of freedom!"

The Invaders recreated the style of the Golden Age at a time when the american soul suffered from not being able to win the war in Vietnam. But the series is too cheesy to be taken serious and it's completely far out. Roy Thomas must have written those while taking a shit in the morning.

There were more communists in the offices of Marvel Comics at this time than the Pravda had on it's subscribers-list, Mike Benton once said. Denny O'Neill wrote his great run on Green Lantern/Green Arrow for DC, introducing social problems to the superhero-world in 1970.

Adolf Hitler became a mild caricature of the dictator in The Invaders. His mindless stooges were the best sort of cannon fodder a war comic could ask for, but guys like Dr.Doom or Galactus appeared to be more evil. Hitler was a man of the past. Since showing concentration camps and the true horror of war didn't seem to be appropiate, the stories ended up being plain superhero plots set in 1944.

The storyline in #18-21 is a little cofusing. Captain America tries to rescue some soldier and all Invaders get caught by the Nazis. Adolf Hitler tries to make Warrior Woman ("a Seven-Foot Female Blitzkrieg") and Master Man marry and breed an Übermensch. Captain America meets a new version of the Destroyer, who was Stan Lee's first super hero creation. The Destroyer is a ruthless warrior who show no mercy. He's like an early Punisher with a ridiculous costume.

Issue#19 is called "War comes to the Wilhelmstrasse" it also features the Englishman called Union Jack who has a way cooler costume than his american Allies. I'm missing #20, but I also got #21 with the final "Battle of Berlin".

Toro dies, but he gets revamped in #22. Nobody dies in wars like that! Hitler jumps out of a plane with a parachute, but he's back after a while and then he escapes again and so on.

Villains have to escape or they can't return a month later. The war goes on and on and on.

THE INVADERS

#19 - see full page (423 kb)

#21 - see full page (423 kb)

more: Mad-Science.Net - Capt.Savage and his Leatherneck Raiders

The Invaders-entry from A Guide To Marvel's Golden Age Characters
The Golden Age of Timely Comics - Links
Marvel's Lost Generation

"The Captain America complex is a bipolar form of civil religion that periodically blesses crusades against evil enemies, often adding the stamp of biblical authority, in the pursuit of peace. Since Captain America must always take the law into his own hands to rid the world of evil, this civil religion produces acute conflicts between the impulse for holy crusades and a commitment to the rule of law.

The Captain America complex was evident in our World War I experience, when President Wilson demonized Germany's Kaiser in "the fight to make the world safe for democracy" while working for the League of Nations that America refused to join. The complex was also apparent during the Cold War, when we worked to build treaty organizations like NATO and SEATO, at the same time that we were fighting secret wars that LBJ and Nixon hid from the American people. The signs of this bipolar disorder are manifest now in fervent U.S. appeals for other nations to build international institutions that will help us fight terrorists—at the very moment that we are withdrawing from treaties that would compel U.S. accountability to international rules.

(...)

The Appeal of Superheroism for American Leaders

While we do not know about President Bush's viewing experience with these exciting films, we know something about his liking for superheroes from an incident this year in Germany. To accompany a very dismissive "Masters of the Universe" article on the Bush administration's crusade against evil, Germany's news magazine Der Spiegel created a satirical cover depicting each national security player in the role of a zealous destroyer from American popular culture. George W. Bush, surrounded by his advisers, received a muscular Rambo body holding an automatic weapon and ammunition belts.

Daniel Coats, U.S. Ambassador to Germany, visited Der Spiegel's editorial offices—not to protest the caricature or the article's viewpoint about reckless unilateralism—but to report that "the president was flattered," whereupon he ordered thirty-three poster-size renditions of the cover for the White House. Each policy maker on the cover reportedly wanted a copy."

Read the full article by Robert Jewett and John Shelton Lawrence

57 pages of funny pictures on the ever popular subject If Hitler had won the war... Some really great shit over there. Found via DEKAF-Deutsch Kalifornische Freundschaft

Wars have an official logo and merchandising now.

Topps is the mayor company producing little pieces of cardboard also known as Baseball Cards. Topps also released a series of "Operation Enduring Freedom Trading Cards". Each pack contains only seven cards and one sticker.

What a rip-off! They made you pay for propaganda!

This is nothing new since the company has already produced Cards for the war in Korea and they
"...made three series of Topps Desert Storm Picture Cards which were extremely well-received by consumers and highly praised by military leaders for their informative content.."

This is what it say on the back of the package:

"An encyclopedic record of America’s war against terrorism. Cards contain biographical information on civilian and military leaders entrusted to guide us through this fight, statistical data, and photos of military hardware."

The website explained it a little bit better:

"Kids need to understand that the President (and his team) will keep them safe and that evil-doers will be punished. Our cards deliver the details in a medium with which they are familiar and comfortable. ...All it should be... and nothing that it shouldn’t.

...Not included are the disturbing images shown repeatedly on national newscasts. Instead, Topps has chosen to focus on America's strengths—its elected leaders, the security of its military, its worldwide support… and the courage and unity of its people."

Well, collect 'em all!

This was taken from the site for Operation Enduring Freedom Trading Cards from Topps. I'm just wondering, is this link dead or what? What happened? You're not selling those, Topps? Come on, I already ordered a hundred packs!

Here's a really good article written after the Desert Storm Trading Cards came out :
Picture Perfect War: Desert Storm Trading Cards and Media Coverage of the Persian Gulf War by Jim Neilson in Mid-Atlantick Alamack 1992, page 61-79.

Another comment on the new cards:
"WAR, PROPAGANDA, AND TOPPS TRADING CARD" by Neal Shaffer

Bwah-ha! Some people have already produced a handful of parody-cards at fark.com more action cards found by Andreas of Dekaf

No more need to check ebay every day to get the last card for your complete set of Friendly Dictators Trading Cards since some guy has posted all pictures, biographies and some nice comments on the web.

The set was put out in 1989 by Eclipse Comics. It spots some great artwork by Bill Sienkiewicz who also did a great graphic novel about Nicaragua and thirty years of drug smuggling. It's called "Brought to Light" and it's really worthwhile hunting for it. But check out the friendly dictators from South America

Ganz, ganz schlimm! Aber das wird jawohl hoffentlich niemand kaufen!

Great article I found via Inform.antville.org

"Nerds aren't losers. They're just playing a different game, and a game much closer to the one played in the real world. Adults know this. It's hard to find successful adults now who don't claim to have been nerds in high school. It's important for nerds to realize, too, that school is not life. School is a strange, artificial thing, half sterile and half feral. It's all-encompassing, like life, but it isn't the real thing. It's only temporary, and if you look you can see beyond it even while you're still in it. If life seems awful to kids, it's neither because hormones are turning you all into monsters (as your parents believe), nor because life actually is awful (as you believe). It's because the adults, who no longer have any economic use for you, have abandoned you to spend years cooped up together with nothing real to do. Any society of that type is awful to live in."

-taken from "Why Nerds are unpopular" by Paul Graham

"The IRAQWAR.RU analytical center was created recently by a group of journalists and military experts from Russia to provide accurate and up-to-date news and analysis of the war against Iraq."

The latest (April 6) English-language version of the Russian military intelligence report on the situation in Iraq published by Iraqwar.Ru is available here.

IRAQWAR.RU - (English Edition) War in Iraq - better coalition performance

English.Pravda.Ru is worthwhile visiting as well if you're a news junkie.

Lots of providers have made sure that you can't contact them and armies of nasty software-pieces tried to help them out. But the mighty grand old network gave them a hand and now they're back online. The English version of Al Jazeera is here. Check out their cartoon section.

Die englische Website von Al Jazeera wurde bzw. wird von diversen Providern blockiert. Wer das wohl in Auftrag gegeben hat? Darf man das?

- Viele wichtige DNS-Server (z.B. der von T-Online) kennen Al Jazeera gar nicht - Die primären DNS-Server (die bei der whois-Anfrage herauskommen) kennen Al Jazeera zwar, verweisen aber auf eine falsche Seite (mit Anti-AlJazeera-Inhalt) - Die tatsächlichen Web-Server von Al Jazeera, über ihre IP-Nummern angesprochen, sind auch nicht erreichbar (sei es, weil diverse Router sie sperren, oder sei es, weil die Server selbst unter permanenten DoS-Attacken stehen) -IRAQ, das Irakische TV Auslandsprogramm ist z.Z. auch schwarz

->Wirbel um Website von Al Jazeera-Forum bei Heise

Wirbel um die Website von Al Jazeera-Teil 2-noch ein duftes Forum bei Heise

The final poster is here. Why are there no skeletons on the poster? I mean, who wants to see Johnny Depp?

The trailer (5.6 MB) is here. This is an adaption of the classic ride in Uncle Walt's theme-park. I love pirate-skeletons chopping off heads!
The next thing will be movies based on popular candy-bars ("Milky Way-The Movie!") or Kellogs-charakters. I can see Robin Wiliams as Tony the Tiger. Download the first teaser-trailer with a click to the right! Watch out, it has 12.9 MB! Exklusives Interview mit Johnny Depp bei der Edition PANEL

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican leaders attacked Democratic presidential contender John Kerry on Thursday for saying "regime change" was needed in not just Iraq but also the White House, drawing a sharp rebuttal from the Massachusetts senator.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, House Republican leader Tom DeLay and Republican Party Chairman Marc Racicot said Kerry's remarks in the crucial presidential primary state of New Hampshire on Wednesday undercut the troops and President Bush's role as commander in chief.

At a campaign stop in Peterborough, Kerry had said relations with our allies had become so damaged in the run-up to the war in Iraq that only a new president could repair them."

full story by John Whitesides in the Washington Post

If you stand for peace and justice, you can sign a petition and have your name displayed with loads of V.I.P.s

Some people claim that iraqwar.ru has some sort of access to US signals intelligence (SIGNET). The site had quite a few updates on critical intelligence before major US networks over the past days. via diepunyhumans.com

The Museum of Hoaxes presents the best pranks ever. It's unbelievable how much time people put into making others believe that the Yeti is real or that little, furry creatures are out there to conquer the world any time.

"Gazeta.Ru has obtained sensational evidence proving the involvement of a group of former Soviet generals in preparing the Iraqi army for war against the United States. The generals in question refused to discuss their degree of involvement, but admitted that just before the beginning of the US-led campaign against Iraq they received state awards from the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. "

Sounds like the plot of some stupid action movie!

full story

" For such a pivotal character in recent history, Al Hubbard is remarkably little known. He is the unsung man who almost single-handedly introduced the world to LSD, as well as (to a lesser degree) mescaline and psilocybin. Albert Hoffman may have invented LSD, but Hubbard is the one who, in the very early years, gave it away like candy to some of the most influential people on the planet."

There are some news on the links between Al Hubbard and MK ULTRA, the CIA program that researched behavior modification using LSD and other substances and techniques. Russ Kick and Todd Brendan Fahey have found, scanned and uploaded the legendary Documents on Al Hubbard

Here's a "Mondo 2000" interview with Fahey by RU Sirius about the ongoing research on Hubbard

If you look at this, I'd say "Big Brother" and "American Idol" were invented by MK Ultra too. I'm gonna update this entry whenever I find time to sort out all the material I have collected already (most stuff I found looks like Cointelpro was busy building a lot conspiracy theory-sites during the Nineties.)

via Friends of Liberty

Jetzt geht's los!