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Forthcoming film from author of Fight Club!
It's better to be remembered than liked ... or so says Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk. 'Choke' is the forthcoming film from said writer and it is definitely memorable among other adjectives ... I don't know what it says about me, but I loved the book version and can not wait to see how it adapts to the screen.
Check it out. It's better to be remembered than liked ... or so says Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk. 'Choke' is the forthcoming film from said w... more -
Raising the Dead: the men who created Frankenstein
In 1818, the year Mary Shelley's Victor Frankenstein was in the lab throwing switches and checking gauges amid the lightning flashes, similar actual experiments were underway in a Scottish university. Professor Andrew Ure connected a tube to a battery and shoved it up a corpse's nose. "The tongue moved out to his lips," it was reported. "His eyes opened widely. His head, arms and legs moved." Apparently the body stood up unaided, laborious breathing commenced, and the assembled students screamed out in horror, as well they might. Professor Ure had to stab the creature in the jugular vein to calm it down.
The idea behind Andy Dougan's pleasingly ghoulish Raising the Dead is that Mary Shelley's classic novel was barely fantastical. Eighteenth-century doctors and gentlemen-scholars really were setting corpses grinning, as they sought the origins of life and an understanding of disease.
Luigi Galvani was a physiologist from Bologna who noticed the muscular contractions in the legs of frogs when they were in contact with different metals. Franz Anton Mesmer also examined the nervous systems of dissected frogs - and by placing brass hooks in their spinal columns and leaving them outside in a storm, studied what he termed animal magnetism. From Galvani's thesis of 1791, entitled De Viribus Electricitatis in Motu Musculari Commentarius ("A Commentary on the Effects of Electricity on Muscular Motion"), it was a short step to experiment on human cadavers, to try to "reanimate vital forces". It was a grisly spectacle of spasms and convulsions. Metal rods were inserted into the bodies, electricity created by a friction machine passed through, and the hands of the dead would be raised and legs clenched.
Karl August Weinhold stuck with kittens. He'd decapitate a healthy kitten and, using electrical wires, get the body to twitch and hop.
Read more... In 1818, the year Mary Shelley's Victor Frankenstein was in the lab throwing switches and checking gauges amid the lightning flashes, ... more -
Finnish translation of "The Emperor Wears No Clothes"
History of Cannabis Hemp English version is at: www.jackherer.com
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Shirley Halperin Embraces Pot Culture
It may not surprise you to learn that a book written by two self-avowed stoners has long been in the works. But although Pot Culture has been in the pipeline for a while, its authors have not been sitting idly on their couches, packing bowls to the Simpsons theme (altogether). In 1995 Shirley Halperin began her career by founding Smug magazine and so began a path that has led her to Rolling Stone, Us Weekly and most recently, Entertainment Weekly, where she serves as senior writer. Co-author Steve Bloom has contributed to Rolling Stone and Soho Weekly, while his resume also includes an extended stint as an editor at High Times. Pot Culture is subtitled “The A-Z Guide to Stoner Language & Life” and that it is but such a description fails to capture the spirit and humor of the book, which offers essays on music, television, movies and plenty of celebrity interludes from the likes of Jonah Hill (“How To Make an Apple Pipe”) Rob Thomas (“The Art of Scoring”) and Ray Manzarek (“My First Time”).
A few weeks after the publication of Pot Culture, Halperin and Bloom appeared as presenters at the Jammys. A few weeks after that, Halperin sat down for this conversation, which also touched on a magazine that went awry (Heads), Leslie West’s Rock Band fever at the Jammys and Halperin’s longstanding relationship with the members of Phish, which once resulted in a late night phone call from the band in search of Hebrew lessons…
Pot Culture is quite an all-encompassing endeavor that includes both cultural history and culinary tips. Was that your intent going in?
I wanted it to focus on the slang, that was the original idea. It was an idea I came up with in college. I thought it would be really fun to have a dictionary of stoner slang. That was the original thought, this would be fun, an A to Z dictionary of the ways stoners talk.
Then it just expanded. I looked into what pot books are out there because there are a lot. Most of them are about growing and they have the Playboy model, big buds and centerfolds for people who drool over that. But people like me really don’t care about that and are much more into the culture and how people interact. That was a lot more interesting to me. I’m never going to grow pot, I don’t know how to grow it and I didn’t particularly want to learn but I do love watching stoner movies and listening to Dark Side of the Moon, stuff like that.
I had the idea but I put it on the backburner for a while. After I tried Heads, that magazine I tried to do, that kind of turned me off to the idea of doing something independently within the hippie stoner movement because it was kind of a bad experience. But after a few years I saw Harold and Kumar was gaining in popularity and when I saw that Weeds was a successful show on cable television, that really kicked this whole thing and made it happen. I said, “Okay, the world is ready for this book,” because it seemed like a mainstream acceptance that hadn’t really been there or at least not in a long time.
So that’s what motivated me but it took years for this idea to marinate. Then I also figured out I could do the celebrity angle with all those celebrity interviews and stuff. That’s something I acquired when I was working at Us Weekly and Rolling Stone. I just got to know a lot more celebrity stoners and they were pretty out about it. I’m pretty out about it, I’m not too secretive about it…except with my parents who didn’t know the book was out until three weeks ago. It may not surprise you to learn that a book written by two self-avowed stoners has long been in the works. But although Pot Culture h... more -
Poor white boys need adventure, say inspectors
White boys from deprived backgrounds need action-packed stories about danger or sport to inspire them in lessons, Ofsted said today.
They do worse at school than any other group, which has fuelled concerns that white, working-class boys are becoming an educational underclass.
Ofsted's research looked at 20 schools where white boys from low-income families had done comparatively well, and scrutinised how this had been achieved.
The education regulator recommended using rigorous monitoring but also teaching boys how to communicate and express their emotions. They needed active involvement in lessons, explicit targets to work towards and approachable teachers, the report said.
It added: “In the most successful literacy activities, teachers took great care to choose texts that interested the boys.
“These tended to focus on action-packed narratives which emphasised sporting prowess, courageous activities in the face of danger and situations - often historical - where the main characters had to overcome challenges.”
The report said schools that successfully raised the attainment of white boys from poor backgrounds had shared features. These included developing boys’ organisational skills, stressing the importance of perseverance, a curriculum structured around individual needs and listening to pupils’ views.
Emotional support was also important so boys could voice their feelings constructively, with one school appointing teaching assistants who kept a “mood watch” on the most vulnerable pupils.
Some schools asked boys to keep diaries on classwork and discuss them with their tutors.
Another school had success with boys, after asking a group that was being rewarded with cakes and soft drinks for doing well, why it was predominantly made up of girls.
One girl said: “It’s not that boys are not clever. They mostly are but they need quick results. You just have to be showing them the cakes.”
The report also recommended a sensitive approach towards problems at home that may interrupt pupils’ schooling - such as arriving late, or unfed - while not accepting these as an excuse for failure.
One primary school head teacher said: “Many of these boys are from single-parent families. Many start school ignoring what adults say.
“For some older boys, there can be a particular problem with their attitude to female staff. We try to overcome this by treating each other with respect and providing good male role models, where possible.”
However this is hard to achieve across many primary schools, where almost all teachers are women. Successful schools also encouraged boys to take part in sports teams and school performances.
A Government-funded report said earlier this year that white boys were making less progress at secondary school than any other group.
It claimed the gap between rich and poor was more polarised among white school children than any other group.
Books on Ofsted's recommended list include:
* Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
* Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
* The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
* The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
* Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo
* Mines of the Minotaur by Julia Golding
* Double or Die by Charlie Higson
* Devil's Breath by David Gilman
* Nightrise by Anthony Horowitz
* I Know You Got Soul by Jeremy Clarkson
Why do you think boys aren't doing as well as girls at school? What do you think should be done to help boys feel more engaged in what's been described as an increasingly 'feminised' curriculum (where physical skills are deprioritised in favour of sitting quietly, reading and writing, and where the majority of teachers are women, especially at primary level)? Were boys and girls so 'different' when you went to school?
White boys from deprived backgrounds need action-packed stories about danger or sport to inspire them in lessons, Ofsted said today. ... more -
Mormon gives new life into vampires
Teenagers across the world are anxiously awaiting the next instalment of author Stephenie Meyer's vampiric series of novels. On the eve of her new book, Dan Glaister reports on the woman hailed as the new JK Rowling
Dan Glaister and Sarah Falconer
Sunday July 20, 2008
The Observer
It sounds like the sort of dream you would rather forget: 'I saw two characters talking about the fact that they were in love. He was telling her that his problem was that he wanted to kill her because she smelled so tasty.'
Now that 'cheesy' dream, in the words of dreamer-turned-author Stephenie Meyer, has spawned a series of novels that is dominating bestseller lists around the world. Meyer has joined the illustrious line-up of authors who have tapped into the obsessive adolescent market, by luck or design. Time magazine even included Meyer on its list of '100 most influential people for 2008', alongside George Clooney and the Dalai Lama.
Teenagers across the world are anxiously awaiting the next instalment of author Stephenie Meyer's vampiric series of novels. On the ev... more -
Proposed new law is a nightmare for artists
US Congress is currently debating legislation which will remove the penalty for copyright infringement if the creator of a work, after a diligent search, cannot be located. Libraries and archives are among the groups lobbying for the change to allow copying of so-called “orphan works”. The legislation would allow a rights holder who subsequently emerges to be paid the normal fee, but removes the currently costly statutory damages which rights’ holders can charge.
The term “orphan work” is used to describe situations in which an infringer of copyright decides that he cannot locate the copyright holder—usually the artist in the case of paintings and drawings. In a radical departure from existing law, the US Copyright Office has proposed that Congress grant infringers freedom to ignore the rights of the copyright holder.
The proposal goes far beyond current concepts of fair use, and, as explicitly acknowledged by the Register of Copyrights in a recent congressional hearing, it is not designed to deal with the special situations of non-profit museums, libraries and archives. Rather, it would give carte blanche to infringers even if they wished to exploit an artistic work for commercial advantage.
Under the proposed legislation, if a copyright holder finds out about an infringement after the fact, his only remedy would be to bring a lawsuit in federal court where a judge could order the payment of what he determines would have been paid by “a reasonable willing buyer and reasonable willing seller” before the infringement took place.
This is in sharp contrast to existing law where a copyright holder may obtain a halt to the infringement, the destruction of infringing copies, and damages that may be up to $150,000 for each work of art infringed. This would remove the deterrent that keeps piracy rates at a manageable level.
US Congress is currently debating legislation which will remove the penalty for copyright infringement if the creator of a work, after... more -
YouTube - Bush murder trial book faces media blackout
"CNN's Chris Lawrence reported on a new book by Vincent Bugliosi which says the George W. Bush should be prosecuted for murder. Bugliosi claims that most of the media has been "completely rejected across the board by network and cable."" "CNN's Chris Lawrence reported on a new book by Vincent Bugliosi which says the George W. Bush should be prosecuted for murder. Buglio... more
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Man sentenced for killing 'Curious George' writer
A man convicted of killing "Curious George" collaborator Alan Shalleck in South Florida has been spared the death penalty.
A judge sentenced Vincent Puglisi to life in prison on Wednesday after a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder and robbery with a deadly weapon.
Shalleck suffered 83 blunt force injuries and more than three dozen stab wounds.
Shalleck wrote and directed episodes of "Curious George" and co-wrote books with Margret Rey, who created the mischievous monkey with her husband more than 60 years ago.
... And sometimes horrible things happen to good people...
Rest in Peace A man convicted of killing "Curious George" collaborator Alan Shalleck in South Florida has been spared the death penalty. ... more -
Secret Red Cross report of C.I.A. torture of Qaeda captives
Red Cross investigators concluded last year in a secret report that the Central Intelligence Agency’s interrogation methods for high-level Qaeda prisoners constituted torture and could make the Bush administration officials who approved them guilty of war crimes, according to a new book on counterterrorism efforts since 2001. The book says that the International Committee of the Red Cross declared in the report, given to the C.I.A. last year, that the methods used on Abu Zubaydah, the first major Qaeda figure the United States captured, were "categorically" torture, which is illegal under both American and international law. The book says Abu Zubaydah was confined in a box "so small ... he had to double up his limbs in the fetal position" and was one of several prisoners to be "slammed against the walls," according to the Red Cross report. The C.I.A. has admitted that Abu Zubaydah and two other prisoners were waterboarded, a practice in which water is poured in the nose and mouth to [cause near] suffocation and drowning. The book, The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals, by Jane Mayer ... offers new details of the agency’s secret detention program, as well as the bitter debates in the administration over interrogation methods. Citing unnamed "sources familiar with the report," Ms. Mayer wrote that the Red Cross document "warned that the abuse constituted war crimes, placing the highest officials in the U.S. government in jeopardy of being prosecuted." Red Cross investigators concluded last year in a secret report that the Central Intelligence Agency’s interrogation methods for high-l... more
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Fairytales Stamped With Safety Warnings
TEACHERS are being urged to give children safety messages after reading them fairytales warning not to copy characters such as Little Red Riding Hood, Goldilocks and Hansel and Gretel.
A new child protection curriculum being implemented by the Education Department also requires teachers to refer to children's "sexual parts" and use their correct anatomical names with children as young as three. TEACHERS are being urged to give children safety messages after reading them fairytales warning not to copy characters such as Little ... more -
'The global food market is neither free nor fair'
IN APRIL, Haiti's prime minister became one of the first political
casualties of the global food crisis, when he was forced to stand down in
the aftermath of violent food riots. Around the world, people are beginning
to fear that such events are a harbinger of things to come. Skyrocketing
prices for many of the world's food staples have triggered social unrest in
more than 32 countries, and a global summit of world leaders met last month
in Rome, Italy, to hash out an emergency response.
Both The End of Food and Eat Your Heart Out went to press before the present
crisis made headlines, yet their dissections of our global food system help
explain why there is mounting hunger despite the fact that the planet
produces enough food to make us all chubby. Think the food crisis is due to
bad weather in Australia or flooding in the US Midwest? Read these books.
Both authors describe a food system that has been shaped not by a "random and inevitable process" but by "one of the most powerful and brutally efficient of all human forces - the market," as Roberts says. This is not the market ripped from the pages of an economics textbook, though. It is neither free nor fair. Instead, the market for food
is distorted by powerful players, creating an "increasingly centralised, uniform and concentrated" system in which a handful of companies control much of the food supply for the world.
Some of these players are more familiar than others. Cargill, for instance, may not be a household name, but as one of the world's largest agribusinesses its fingerprints can be found on most foods at the supermarket. Lawrence quotes a Cargill brochure: "We are the flour in your bread, the salt on your fries, the chicken you eat for dinner, the cotton in your clothing."
IN APRIL, Haiti's prime minister became one of the first political ... more -
Soul Wisdom is profound wisdom!
For those seeking spiritual remedies to health related issues, and/or those looking to advance in their soul's journey, may I recommend a new book released this month? It is the updated and revised edition of Soul Wisdom: Practical Soul Treasures to Transform Your Life by New York Times best-selling author, Dr. and spiritual Master Zhi Gang Sha. This very unique book contains powerful healing blessings and a beautiful CD to support your brain function and spinal column. It has helped me tremendously and I am gifting a copy to each of my special loved ones!
Three other recommended books by Dr. Sha are Power Healing, Soul Mind Body Medicine and Soul Communication. Do enjoy!
For those seeking spiritual remedies to health related issues, and/or those looking to advance in their soul's journey, may I recommen... more -
Nicole Richie’s Book Being Made into a TV Series
Nicole Richie, mother of 6 month old Harlow, seems to have a lot going on these days. In 2005, Nicole wrote the book The Truth About Diamonds and now it is going to be made into a TV series. Nicole Richie, mother of 6 month old Harlow, seems to have a lot going on these days. In 2005, Nicole wrote the book The Truth About D... more
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Could Google monopolize knowledge?
Should a single company be left in charge of putting all of the world's books online?
An impressive list of world-class libraries and book publishers don't seem to mind. In 2004, they signed on as partners with Google, the Internet search and advertising colossus based in Mountain View, Calif.
Yet some observers have strong concerns about Google Book Search and how the collected thinking of human history will be accessed in the future.
Those anxieties rose late last month when Microsoft announced that it was withdrawing from a rival book-scanning project headed by the nonprofit Internet Archive (archive.org).
Internet access to books is becoming more important, some observers say, as portable book readers, such as Amazon's Kindle, become more common and as more people expect to find all their reading needs online.
"I wouldn't say Google is 100 percent of the digital book world, but it's getting near 90 percent," says Siva Vaidhyanathan, a cultural historian and media scholar at the University of Virginia, who writes a blog called "The Googlization of Everything."
(ABC News) Should a single company be left in charge of putting all of the world's books online? ... more -
Has the web killed the joy of reading a good book?
I have to admit it: I barely read books anymore. Not nearly like I used to, anyway. Not for a long, long time. And chances are, if you're at all addicted to the new media vortex, neither do you.
It's become a social conundrum, a cultural sore spot, a morose sign of the times. The question has been posed by agents and writers and a confused, hyperconsolidating publishing industry: What happened to all the readers? What happened to the culture of books? And the hint of fatalism, just underneath: If few truly read anymore, what of the state of the American mind? How much more dumbing down can we possibly stand? I have to admit it: I barely read books anymore. Not nearly like I used to, anyway. Not for a long, long time. And chances are, if you... more -
Sex every day of the year: could you handle it?
The Daily Mail today reports on a woman whose birthday gift to her husband was the promise of sex every day for a year, and who (how convenient!) has happened to write a book about it.
Now, there are *just too many* issues to rant about here, but I think I'll start with:
"Charla is the most unlikely sex guru... She admits to being 'sturdily built' and is on the wrong side of 40."
Nothing like making the meaty and the mature of us feel great, Daily Mail.
Or perhaps...
"'When my girlfriends ask if it's healthy to do it once a week, three times a week or whatever, I just tell them to do it twice as often as they are doing it at the moment. Their husbands will love them for it, and they might just find that they love themselves that little bit more, too. If they let themselves.'"
*Hurrrrrl*
But dodgy Daily Mail-isms aside, could you promise your partner to have sex every day? And should you?
The Daily Mail today reports on a woman whose birthday gift to her husband was the promise of sex every day for a year, and who (how c... more -
Salman Rushdie wins 'Best of Booker' Prize
Midnight's children, the bestselling 1981 novel by the recently Knighted Indian-British novelist Salman Rushdie has been awarded the 'Best of the Booker' prize. The award, voted for by the public, was to find the most popular winner in the Booker Prize's 40 year history. The book centres around events in India before and after the independence and partition of the country, which took place at midnight on 15 August 1947.
Rushdie attracted controversy from the Muslim community for his 1988 novel 'The Satanic Verses', which was inspired in part by the life of Muhammad. He was subsequently forced into hiding after the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, then Supreme Leader of Iran, issued a fatwa on Rushdie, which invited Muslims to kill him for their religion.
Midnight's children, the bestselling 1981 novel by the recently Knighted Indian-British novelist Salman Rushdie has been awarded the '... more -
Omdurman
The very artistic paintings found on iron doors in Omdurman's market. (Sudan)
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Bertuzzi Valley
The magical atmosphere of the Po's delta , crowned with the mystery of a new language .
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