A Book of Migrations by Rebecca Solnit - photography by Dave Walsh
Posted by daev at
9:22 PM on September 28, 2011
In all my years as a writer, I've written many book reviews. But I've never before reviewed a book that uses one of my photographs as its cover. I'm talking about The Book of Migrations: Some Passages in Ireland, by Rebecca Solnit, which has been a joy to read, and an honour to become connected with. I was unaware of Solnit's work until May 24th of this year, when I read her insightful article the Strauss-Kahn affair, colonisation and the IMF: Worlds Collide in a Luxury Suite. That afternoon, I received an email from Bob Bhamra, of Verso Books, asking me if he could use my image of the Burren for a new editon of The Book of Migrations. Serendipity. We cut a deal.
| Comments (0)The Lion and Unicorn Amnesty: A Plea for the Safe Return of England
Posted by blather at
5:46 PM on August 10, 2011
Guest writer Oliver Bayliss, gives us his unique take on the London and UK riots which have engulfed the country for the last four days.
Continue reading "The Lion and Unicorn Amnesty: A Plea for the Safe Return of England"
| Comments (1)Curious Georgia: A Curious Little Funky
Posted by ender at
9:00 AM on May 27, 2011
Archaeological batshttery, mumbo jumbo misinformation and outright lunacy based on fringe interpretations of a couple of websites and five minutes research by ill informed amateur web 'journalists'?
It must be Friday, so.
It takes a quare and rare thing to confound the likes of us here at Blather HQ, but every now and then, we get a right doozie. Like this report of Irish prehistoric art turning up in Georgia, USA.
Continue reading "Curious Georgia: A Curious Little Funky"
| Comments (0)Would you rob my grave as quick?
Posted by ender at
4:36 PM on March 11, 2011
The long held and longer respected Irish nocturnal tradition of body snatching is alive and well in the 21st century, it seems. Sort of. Kinda. We're not exactly sure if it officially counts though, if you leave the body back. Kinda. Sort of.
Reports reaching Blather HQ today indicate a corpse has been mysteriously (and illegally) exhumed and reburied in a separate grave under cover of darkness in Co. Limerick in recent times. Limerick (Old Irish: Liabh mé de féic alóne; take mó bhállet) is no stranger to nefarious after-hours activity, but even by its own standards, this counts as a strange one.
No exhumation order was sought, nor were official graveyard authorities present at the 'removal'. It all just kind of happened by itself.
At night. In the dark. With nobody watching.
According to Irish law, a priest, a guard (Police officer) and an environmental officer must be present at any exhumation.
I wonder which one of them does the digging?
Image from Flickr Commons, used under a CC Licence
Report: 97 Minutes in Barentsburg, Svalbard
Posted by daev at
7:26 AM on February 15, 2011
Blather's Dave journeyed to the Arctic outpost of Barentsburg last year. And he finally got off his arse to write about it.
I am staring at a forest, a painting of a forest. They close the door, then walk away.
The forest, or rather the painting of a forest, is in the Russian coal-mining town of Barentsburg, about 1200km from the North Pole, one of three inhabited settlements in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard.
There are no trees in Svalbard. But there are pictures of trees, billboard size, to remind the miners of the forests back home.
My visit to Barentsburg was short, far too short. I only stayed 97 minutes. I am not proud of this. I arrived as a tourist, and didn't want to leave. At least not soon.
I took no time to make new friends, gained no valuable insights into what it is like to live there. I didn't hit the bar, like some of the other visitors, to sample the vodka. I didn't even buy a Putin, Yeltsin, or Gorbachev matryoshka doll.
I did see a metal sunflower, a homemade spaceship, an awful lot of kittiwakes and two men walking out of a painting of a forest.
| Comments (0)A fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy
Posted by ender at
5:42 PM on January 26, 2011
"Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio".
And now, we can too.
The 1700 year old skeletal remains of an African male have been found near Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, by gravediggers archaeologists excavating a Roman cemetery.
Continue reading "A fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy"
| Comments (0)Arizona Shootings Conspiracy Theory Round-Up
Posted by damien at
11:39 AM on January 12, 2011
'Saguaro National Monument', Arizona by Ansel Adams. CC license, via Flickr Commons
Whilst the various screaming heads do their best to make political hay from the shootings carried out by 22-year-old gunman Jared Lee Loughner, others have focused on Loughner's online life - notably his interest in the world of conspiracy theory.
I'll be using this thread to post links to stories about Loughner's online output, looking specifically for the tropes, tricks and syllogisms typical of some recent conspiracist thinking. Check back for updates over the next few days.
Continue reading "Arizona Shootings Conspiracy Theory Round-Up"
| Comments (0)Nights with my Demon Lover
Posted by barry at
4:50 PM on January 10, 2011
By Ann D'Artry Delaroche
My lover and I are face to face, and intimate; kissing, laughing, and joyous. We make love, and pillow-talk nonsense. I open my eyes and stare into the dark. I am alone. I close my eyes; the light and his presence are strong. We are two seas and a thousand kilometres apart. This is my initiation into psychic sex.
The Holy Ghost is the most famous incubus, the male supernatural being who visits slumbering women by night. Catholic pre-marriage guidance teaches that the Holy Ghost is the third presence in the marital bedroom but otherwise warns against contact with such beings, citing health risks, even death. Perhaps this is no more than an attempt to colonise the supernatural and corral the infinity of soul within prescribed boundaries.
Continue reading "Nights with my Demon Lover"
| Comments (2)De Vinci Coloured By Numbers. Dan Brown to Bring Out Christmas Colouring Book
Posted by ender at
4:24 PM on December 13, 2010
Continue reading "De Vinci Coloured By Numbers. Dan Brown to Bring Out Christmas Colouring Book"
| Comments (0)Landslide: Brian Conniffe and Suzanne Walsh
Posted by daev at
12:14 PM on November 23, 2010
Here's some new music from Blather.net contributor Suzanne Walsh, along with Brian Conniffe and videomaker Michael Higgins.
Landslide - Music Video - Brian Conniffe and Suzanne Walsh from Michael Higgins on Vimeo.
Brian and Suzanne on Myspace Music »
| Comments (0)Obama Joins The Conspiracy Theory Game
Posted by damien at
12:06 PM on August 24, 2010
Repeated reference to unnamed foreign elements who are undermining the country? Check. Nebulous list of leading questions straight out of the GOP playbook? Check. Vague assertions about shadowy organisations lurking in the wings? Check.
Continue reading "Obama Joins The Conspiracy Theory Game"
| Comments (0)The Spirit Photographs Of William Hope
Posted by damien at
9:00 AM on August 20, 2010
A set of William Hope's 'Spirit Photographs', from the National Media Museum, UK.
Continue reading "The Spirit Photographs Of William Hope"
| Comments (0)The Blather University of the Weird
Posted by birdbath at
12:04 PM on August 18, 2010
Ever wanted to take a course on the paranormal? Join a study group of the weird? Delve into a curriculum of conspiracy theory? Well, now you can. Or you'll be able to when you help us create one.
We're using Hootcourse to throw together a twitter-based reading-list, video play-list and blog roll of the best of the best from the world of weirdness - everything from Alien Big Cats to UFOs and cute, whiskered Zoological oddities.
Join us. Go on. You know you want to.
Continue reading "The Blather University of the Weird"
| Comments (0)My Midsummer Mashing up the Mystic
Posted by barry at
10:33 PM on August 17, 2010
By Clare Taylor.
Crouched on top of Knockninny hill in Fermanagh with a beacon of fire roaring above our heads, a young man from Belfast explains the motivations of heroin use. "It's like, yer skint and ya only need a little at first and it gives ya everything, only problem's when yer tolerance goes up..." I offer him whisky, and he accepts, noting that as an alcoholic he really shouldn't drink and it could interfere with his medication. We chat about his diminished prospects, then break off our conversation and rise as a long line of masked figures dressed in sackcloth and straw, carrying flaming torches and led by a piper move towards us up the slope.
Continue reading "My Midsummer Mashing up the Mystic"
| Comments (0)START Denying the Nuclear Holocaust
Posted by barry at
12:36 AM on April 9, 2010
(picture from this source)
Yesterday in Prague, the U.S. President Barack Obama and the President of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Medvedev, signed START, the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which limits the number of deployed strategic nuclear warheads to 1,550 each. Sounds great, unless you realize what the figure of 1,550 actually means. Our ignorance of the meaning of numbers of deployed strategic nuclear warheads allows politicians to get away with making worthy speeches and nice fluffy agreements without actually changing anything.
Although no-one could criticize both sides for sitting down together with some flowers on the table, wagging those chins and shaking those hands and reducing the amount of deployed strategic nuclear warheads from about 2,126 American and 2,600 Russian to 1,550 each over the next seven years, this is far from being a 'giant step', or even a 'step'. A nuclear doomsday scenario, wiping out all advanced life on Earth, remains possible. Not only the amount of American and Russian nuclear warheads, but their nuclear weapons policies (or 'postures') do not alter the road map to Armageddon. The new START treaty, in terms of the survival of the human species, is flippant and meaningless, and I will explain why.
Continue reading "START Denying the Nuclear Holocaust"
| Comments (1)Wikileaks: Surveillance, Suspicion and a Mysterious Video
Posted by barry at
1:58 AM on April 5, 2010
(Photo of Julian Assange of WikiLeaks and its logo: http://edu.npo.eu/news/)
What will be on the video that will be shown in Washington D.C. today?
The website Wikileaks.org is a non-profit organization that publishes countless classified documents, typically 'from corrupt banks, the US detainee system, the Iraq war, China, the UN' and it gets away with it by being based in more than one jurisdiction. So the last few years they have been publishing globally, made possible because each country on this planet has different laws about what one can and can't publish. This is a truly unique situation. It has proven impossible for governments to clamp down on WikiLeaks.
It seems, then, certain governments are thinking of using other methods to prevent material getting onto that site.
Continue reading "Wikileaks: Surveillance, Suspicion and a Mysterious Video"
| Comments (1)Thieves Like Us
Posted by ender at
2:14 PM on March 26, 2010
Ever quick on the draw, Paul Barford beat me to it on the news of today's report in the Irish Times concerning the suspended sentencing of individuals involved in the case of the Strokestown Stroke.
Would it be a little smug if I pointed out the irony (beep beep) to metal detecting enthusiasts across the water that a couple of drug addicted thieves, when confronted and informed of what they had inadvertently thrown away, were civic minded and willing enough to show the police where the priceless items had been dumped? Even later, to visit the said items in the museum, where they are held in trust on behalf of all the people of Ireland?
Yes, I rather think it would.
| Comments (0)Historical Photos of Ireland
Posted by blather at
9:01 AM on March 17, 2010
And a fine St. Patrick's Day to you.
The following is a series of images of Ireland in the late 19th century, found at the Commons on Flickr. The photos are predominantly from the Library of Congress and Smithsonian pools. Whilst most of the photos are of Ireland itself, some of the later ones in the slideshow are of locations in the United States - taken by pioneering Irish photographer Timothy O'Sullivan.
Continue reading "Historical Photos of Ireland"
| Comments (0)Raiders of the Lost Farce
Posted by ender at
8:00 AM on February 23, 2010
According to the latest reports, the site for a new deepwater port at Bremore may be moved north to avoid a pesky neolithic passage tomb complex that would most likely be more trouble then its worth to pay a shed load of money the developer probably doesn't have anymore, in order to get rid of the feckin' thing.
A spokesman for Treasury Holdings, which is planning to develop the new facility in partnership with Drogheda Port, confirmed yesterday that one of the options now being considered was to "shift it off Bremore headland" for archaeological reasons.
He said it had become clear at an early stage that the neolithic complex at Bremore was "very significant", and the developers would be anxious to avoid it by examining alternative locations, such as Gormanstown...
| Comments (0)"Don't Speak With Your Mouth Full of Shite"
Posted by daev at
10:02 AM on February 18, 2010
"Don't Speak With Your Mouth Full of SHITE" - by photographer lurking in the toilets of the George Bernard Shaw, Dublin, last night. It's not often that we post just a photograph as a main blather.net entry, but this just begs to be shared.
From davewalshphoto.com
| Comments (2)The Worst Irish Accents In Cinema History
Posted by damien at
2:37 PM on February 17, 2010
What's the worst Irish accent you've ever heard? Earlier this week, we asked our Facebook bots to make suggestions for a list of the worst Irish accents ever committed to celluloid. That's every 'begob', 'begorrah' and 'divil alive, musha man' ever uttered by an over-paid, perma-tanned Hollywood twat. The following are some of the findings from our extensive survey.
Continue reading "The Worst Irish Accents In Cinema History"
| Comments (8)Turfs up! Early Medieval Brooch turns up in a Kerry Fireplace
Posted by ender at
9:00 AM on February 6, 2010
In what must be one of the strangest discoveries of an archaeological object in recent times, a fantastic early medieval brooch has turned up, quite unexpectedly, in the range of a north Kerry house.
Continue reading "Turfs up! Early Medieval Brooch turns up in a Kerry Fireplace "
| Comments (2)Barah Pal: 12 Castes of Gypsy Artists from New Delhi, India
Posted by damien at
9:00 AM on February 5, 2010
A 30-minute ethnographic documentary about a colony of gypsy artists in New Delhi, India by Jennifer Rosen.
Continue reading "Barah Pal: 12 Castes of Gypsy Artists from New Delhi, India"
| Comments (0)The Republican Party And The Obama Conspiracy Theories
Posted by damien at
8:20 AM on February 4, 2010
(image by David Basanta, used under a CC license)
Little Green Footballs, the American site which tracks (amongst other things) what seems like the increasingly more moonbat trajectory of the American right's thinking, has posted results of a poll of Republicans voters on everything from Obama's motives to the inclusion of Creationism in schools. The results are... well, you can see for yourself. But should we be surprised? Is there anything new here? Or is this just the latest manifestation of a narrative which has been growing and replicating this last sixty years or so, only now brought to a head by the presence of an African-American in the West Wing?
Continue reading "The Republican Party And The Obama Conspiracy Theories"
| Comments (3)The Tea Party: 'The People Who Hate People Party'
Posted by damien at
8:51 AM on February 2, 2010
(image by ragesoss, used under a Creative Commons license)
There's an old joke about Irish politics: that the second item on the agenda of any new political movement's first meeting is the split. The Tea Party, the notional emerging third party of American politics, already seems to be heading in the same direction.
Continue reading "The Tea Party: 'The People Who Hate People Party'"
| Comments (6)The Map Is Not The Territory
Posted by damien at
10:32 AM on January 27, 2010
(image by Thristian, used under a CC license)
If the internet were a town on a map, what would it look like? Alfred Korzybski said that 'the map is not the territory'. That said, sometimes a 'notional map' might help us visualise that which defies classification.
Continue reading "The Map Is Not The Territory"
| Comments (0)The Haiti Conspiracy Theories
Posted by damien at
12:38 PM on January 20, 2010
(image from the UN Development Programme, used under a CC license)
Would-be ethnographers of the web such as ourselves are often advised to try to take a neutral stance on conspiracy theories, seeking to take a position of 'negative capability', resulting in the publication of posts which take a reasonable, balanced and calm approach to the issue at hand.
This is not one of those posts.
Continue reading "The Haiti Conspiracy Theories"
| Comments (13)Fata Morgana: Mirage
Posted by daev at
12:34 AM on January 18, 2010
.... with photographs by Dave Walsh, music by Dacianos.
There is something unnerving about watching reality bend before
one's eyes. There is what one "knows" to be true, and that which
one can see through a telephoto lens or binoculars - with Fata Morgana,
the two are difficult to reconcile. Something is happening on the
horizon. Icebergs twist and change shape, move, disappear, elongate.
Islands rise from the sea. The earth warps.
Continue reading "Fata Morgana: Mirage"
| Comments (1)For Sale: Old Fashioned Skullduggery
Posted by ender at
12:00 PM on January 12, 2010
Secret societies, alleged grave robbing, little black books, Thor, the possible skull of Geronimo, grizzly human remains, shadowy establishment figures, ex-Presidents, conspiracies, the CIA and supreme court judges.
While these may certainly sound like the frustrated ramblings of DeCount O'Blather on a wet-wristed Wednesday wankathon (TM) [don't think we haven't heard those rusty bed springs late at night in Blather HQ, mister], they also happen to be involved in an upcoming lot for sale at Christies which has quite a few people in a bit of a tizzy.
Continue reading "For Sale: Old Fashioned Skullduggery"
| Comments (0)Depeche Mode in the 02 Dublin
Posted by damien at
10:24 AM on January 8, 2010
My favourite band, captured by one of my favourite photographers, Bob Dixon.
Continue reading "Depeche Mode in the 02 Dublin"
| Comments (1)Tracking the Protocols of the Elders of Zion
Posted by damien at
1:59 PM on January 5, 2010
(Henry Ford - one of the Protocols most ardent supporters and publishers)
Continue reading "Tracking the Protocols of the Elders of Zion"
| Comments (2)2000s Jukebox (Part Three)
Posted by barry at
4:49 PM on December 19, 2009
'Die 2000s, die!'
Ok, keep your hair on. This is the third and final part of my personal trawl through the music of the 2000s.
(Thanks by the way to Damien for hammering some of my notional 60-song playlist into a series of actual Grooveshark playlists).
Continue reading "2000s Jukebox (Part Three)"
| Comments (0)Nicking the Bones of St. Nick
Posted by ender at
12:00 PM on December 16, 2009
It seems a Norman Family, relocating to Kilkenny brought more then just their suitcases of French perfumes, fine wines and strings of garlic. Apparently the French penchant for durty, cheating, va va vooom, thievery has a long historical precedent, as evidenced by their alleged translation of the relics of St. Nicholas to Ireland sometime during the 12th century after having nicked them from the 'Holy Land'.
As previously reported here at Blather
Continue reading "Nicking the Bones of St. Nick"
| Comments (2)2000s Jukebox (Part Two)
Posted by barry at
6:42 PM on December 13, 2009
A personal journey through the music of the 2000s continues. Presenting part two of the informative, whimsical playlist that temporarily turns back the clock and turns on the sound. Something to listen to before commencing that long-planned retirement from hearing anything at all ever again. Silence will rule in 2010 - and the concept of decades will be gone by 2019.
Continue reading "2000s Jukebox (Part Two)"
| Comments (0)2000s Jukebox (Part One)
Posted by barry at
2:47 PM on December 9, 2009
As usual at the end of a decade I am slightly taken aback by the retrospectives of the music of the previous ten years. 'Was it really like that?' I think to myself, pondering the crappy early gig by the crappy Libertines I had the misfortune to attend. But let us not dwell on the negative. Let us be more thoughtful. Here is my personal playlist covering the last ten years, based on the music that I experienced first hand (first ear?). For each part of this three-part series I will select 20 songs. Forgive me. Being involved with a band (Dacianos) and a music venue (Sound of Mu) and other violations of normal life have obviously given me access to certain musical worlds, most particularly Norwegian stuff, so there are some obscure offerings and about a third of the musical selections will be Norwegian, but you can always ignore them if you're allergic. But don't ignore good stuff when it's good. I'll provide as many links as possible to where the songs can be heard online.
Continue reading "2000s Jukebox (Part One)"
| Comments (2)2012 And The New Wave Of Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theory
Posted by damien at
3:02 PM on November 26, 2009
(image by spike55151, used under a Creative Commons license)
The Birthers, Truthers and Teabaggers may be getting the headlines, but for pure unadulterated lunacy they don't hold a candle to the new wave of anti-semitic conspiracy theorists. Don't believe us? Take a gander at this...
Continue reading "2012 And The New Wave Of Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theory"
| Comments (0)Blather, Rinse, Repeat: An Ethnography of Conspiracy Theory
Posted by damien at
10:11 AM on November 12, 2009
(image by Aaron Escobar, used under a Creative Commons license)
This is the video of the talk I did at the Dublin Paracon 2009 on the subject of 9/11 and conspiracy theories. This talk resulted from a course called Digital Cultures, part of the MsC. in e-learning at the University of Edinburgh, where we were encouraged to carry out a 'virtual ethnography' on a community of our choice. I chose, for reasons passing understanding, the 9/11 conspiracy theorists, choosing some of the recent 9/11 films as a field site.
Continue reading "Blather, Rinse, Repeat: An Ethnography of Conspiracy Theory"
| Comments (10)Blather.net at Dublin Paracon 2009
Posted by damien at
4:23 PM on October 21, 2009
The 2nd Dublin Paracon will take place at the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel, Golden Lane, Dublin 8 on Saturday November the 7th 2009. I'll be there giving a talk entitled 'Blather, Rinse, Repeat: An Ethnography of Conspiracy Theory'.
Update: online scrapbook from the talk added.
Continue reading "Blather.net at Dublin Paracon 2009"
| Comments (1)Climate change in Ireland: The need to move beyond skepticism
Posted by Marie-Catherine at
1:59 PM on October 15, 2009
Photo: Dave Walsh. More about this image here...
Suffering from global warming fatigue? Considering the 30 percent drop in attendance rate at the Irish Skeptics talk on climate change in April, some might. Understandably so. Not only because of this feeling of having heard it all before... but also, living in Ireland even if you're one of the most environmentally concerned citizens, you might still find it hard to be really upset about the temperatures getting warmer. Rightly so? Well, this was actually the question addressed by Professor John Sweeney from the Department of Geography, NUI Maynooth in his talk "Climate change in Ireland: The need to move beyond skepticism".
Continue reading "Climate change in Ireland: The need to move beyond skepticism"
| Comments (1)What do the Bremore Passage Tomb Complex (A National Treasure), National Treasury Management Agency and Treasury Holdings, all have in common?
Posted by ender at
8:00 AM on September 3, 2009
Yaaaar...
The Irish Times had an enlightening article yesterday which illustrates the wonderful shitehawk shenanigans, smoke and mirror style hoop jumping, and outright obfuscation involved in modern Irish planning applications.
| Comments (1)Polar Bear: Late Night With Nanuk
Posted by daev at
7:15 PM on August 14, 2009
This was first posted as a blog on the Greenpeace Climate blog - with with my pal Nick Cobbings excellent photographs. I'm currently the blogger and press officer on board the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise, off the coast of Greenland as part of a four month expedition investigating climate impacts in the Arctic.
It's five minutes past midnight on board the Arctic Sunrise. The sun never sets at this time of year; instead it casts long late shadows on the ice, and turns the sea water and icebergs buttery yellows and infinite blues.
Some of us should be asleep, but few of us are - we're pulled up beside a stunning iceberg, which has become known as 'The Donut', thanks to the circular hole formed by an exquisite archway of glacier ice. I'm on the starboard bridge wing, looking at the Sunrise's shadow play on the 'berg, then reflection of that shadow in the water. Out of the corner of my eye I catch something yellow galloping along the pockmarked sea ice that stretches from the iceberg to the nearby coastal cliffs. "POLAR BEAR, POLAR BEAR" I shout into the bridge.Continue reading "Polar Bear: Late Night With Nanuk"
| Comments (2)Irish Round Towers Go Radio Gah Gah
Posted by ender at
12:00 PM on June 26, 2009
Every now and then, the Internet brings forth startling discoveries and staggering examples of original research bordering on such genius that they leave one completely gob-smacked, boggle-eyed, in need of a lie-down and perhaps even, a tiny little yellow stained leakage in one's summery cotton y-fronts, as one grapples with the ramifications of what has just been 'revealed'.
The following is not one of those times. Though it may leave you with a profound appreciation of Darwinian evolution, chimpanzee typists, and/or the long term effects of hallucinogenic substances on the human mind.
Continue reading "Irish Round Towers Go Radio Gah Gah"
| Comments (2)Psychic Piracy [Part 4]
Posted by davidluke at
4:22 PM on June 8, 2009
(image by Lazlo-photo, used under a Creative Commons sharealike license)
In this, the fourth of the series, Dr. David Luke explores the extraordinary realm of 'dream psi' and how the counter-culture experiments of the 1960's are coming back with a sexy vengeance. Or something.
Continue reading "Psychic Piracy [Part 4]"
| Comments (0)Psychic Piracy [Part 3]
Posted by davidluke at
10:05 AM on May 26, 2009
(image by Lazlo-photo, used under a Creative Commons sharealike license)
Gyrarr. Yarrr. Etc. Etc. Dr. David Luke returns with the third part in his exploration of psychic piracy. This week the venerable doctor examines 'the unconscious reservoir of psychic information'. Oh yes.
Continue reading "Psychic Piracy [Part 3]"
| Comments (1)Psychic Piracy [Part 2]
Posted by davidluke at
8:26 AM on May 15, 2009
(image by Lazlo-photo, used under a Creative Commons sharealike license)
Yaaaar! We be back with more brain piracy, psychic mularkey and general cerebral oddity. This week, Dr. Dave looks at (amongst other things) the rather curious history of EEG, why certain tribes survived that Tsunami and several women through a telescope.
Continue reading "Psychic Piracy [Part 2]"
| Comments (1)Psychic Piracy [Part 1]
Posted by davidluke at
7:07 AM on May 8, 2009
(image by Lazlo-photo, used under a Creative Commons sharealike license)
In the first of a new series of articles, long-term Blather.net collaborator (we've been collectively barred from every pub in Hackney) Dr. David Luke gives us the skinny on the extraordinary abilities that may lie just within our cerebral reach. So, sit yourselves down, strap yourselves in and get ready to have your third-eye squeegeed clean...
Continue reading "Psychic Piracy [Part 1]"
| Comments (0)Gardai recover stroked Bronze Age jewellery from Strokestown
Posted by ender at
2:51 PM on April 8, 2009
Hats and Fedoras off to the Gardai in Roscommon and Dublin, who (obviously having had their morning Weetabix last week) noticed something fishy about a haul of stolen goods they had recovered from a Dublin house.
Continue reading "Gardai recover stroked Bronze Age jewellery from Strokestown"
| Comments (9)Depeche Mode's 'Sounds of the Universe'
Posted by damien at
11:18 AM on April 7, 2009
Depeche Mode's eagerly-anticipated 12th studio album 'Sounds of the Universe' has been dividing fans and reviewers alike. A good deal of criticism has focused on Ben Hillier's production, with the album provoking extreme reactions, with some maintaining that this is the final nail in the DM coffin and others declaring it a work of seminal genius. And we can see why; it's a radical departure from the stadium-filling rock band who gave us 'Personal Jesus'. But is it any good? Well, having now listened to the album obsessively over a four-day period whilst travelling across the UK and Ireland I can cheerfully report that this is, without any question, Depeche Mode's best album in 20 years.
Continue reading "Depeche Mode's 'Sounds of the Universe'"
| Comments (13)Forbidden Fruit
Posted by Marie-Catherine at
10:26 AM on March 16, 2009
(image by killer turnip, used under a creative commons license)
What was happening to him? He regretted his knowledge. He regretted having ever tasted the fruit. It appeared that knowledge was as much a burden as a gift. Maybe he had to share this burden to make it lighter and more enjoyable. That might be it; he needed some creature like himself conscious and curious of the world to challenge his thoughts and ideas and stimulate his mind.
Continue reading "Forbidden Fruit"
| Comments (0)Diary of a Frenchwoman in Dublin
Posted by Marie-Catherine at
7:00 AM on February 10, 2009
Ha'penny Bridge, Dublin,by Dave Walsh Photography
As every French person knows, Paris is a woman, impudent and provocative. Paris the beautiful, the magical, the enchanting. Predictably, as soon as I returned there a few weeks ago, her magic enveloped me again - from her lights to her majestic buildings and bridges, her magnificent cathedral, her many different quartiers, each with their own charm, her immense Louvre, sheltering one of the greatest art collections in the world, and of course her twinkling Eiffel tower. Nothing compares to Paris.
Continue reading "Diary of a Frenchwoman in Dublin"
| Comments (1)The Audacity of Despair
Posted by barry at
5:14 AM on December 1, 2008
(Picture: Daytona Beach News-Journal, reproduced at pierretristam.com).
"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time" - Barack Obama.
'U.S. policy is not about one individual, and no matter how much faith people place in President-elect Barack Obama, the policies he enacts will be fruit of a tree with many roots...the best immediate indicator of what an Obama administration might look like can be found in the people he surrounds himself with and who he appoints to his Cabinet. And, frankly, when it comes to foreign policy, it is not looking good. Obama has a momentous opportunity to do what he repeatedly promised over the course of his campaign: bring actual change. But the more we learn about who Obama is considering for top positions in his administration...' - Jeremy Scahill.
Continue reading "The Audacity of Despair"
| Comments (2)Hug an American
Posted by damien at
10:21 PM on November 5, 2008
(photo by DigitalKatie)
On the occasion of the election of Barack Obama to the office of President of the United States of America, this is a Message from Blather.net High Command to our European brethern: it's time to let the Americans out of the shit-house. 8 years. 8 agonizing years we've been giving Americans abuse. But no more. We hereby announce the commencement of Blather.net's Hug an American Campaign.
Go find an American. Any American. Hug them. Say thanks. Go home and sleep properly for the first time since 2001.
Photographic evidence and reports of American Hugging can be posted in the comments below. That is all.
| Comments (11)Black Market Nukes! Part five: Naming Names in Pictures
Posted by barry at
8:51 PM on November 3, 2008
[photo: the Brad Blog]
Those of you who have been following this series will know that Sibel Edmonds (pictured) had her FBI contract terminated when she discovered evidence of wrongdoing in her workplace. The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) at the US Department of Justice later investigated, and concluded that 'many of Edmonds's core allegations relating to the co-worker had some basis in fact and were supported by either documentary evidence or witnesses other than Edmonds' [1]. I'm quoting there from an unclassified summary, but the actual OIG report remains classified. Also there is a State Secret Priveleges gag order on Sibel Edmonds to prevent her speaking about her work at the FBI (on national security grounds), but she says it's not so much national security that is being protected as corrupt U.S. officials she has overheard on wiretaps, who are in the business of stealing and selling American nuclear secrets and technology.
Who are these officials?
Continue reading "Black Market Nukes! Part five: Naming Names in Pictures"
| Comments (0)Black Market Nukes! Part four: The Tinner Circle
Posted by barry at
4:42 PM on October 30, 2008
[passport of Urs Tinner, picture released by the Malaysian police]
Previously in this series, Friedrich Tinner and his sons Urs and Marco, a family of engineers, were mentioned as part of the A.Q. Khan nuclear proliferation network. The Tinners had a factory in Malaysia producing centrifuge parts [1]. When A.Q. Khan's international activities were exposed in 2003, so were the Tinners, who were based in Switzerland. They were taken into custody there, and expected to (eventually) stand trial. But the Swiss President made a rather shocking announcement on 23 May 2008...
Continue reading "Black Market Nukes! Part four: The Tinner Circle"
| Comments (1)Black Market Nukes! Part three: Couldn't You Keep That To Yourself?
Posted by barry at
12:02 AM on October 16, 2008
Let me sli - ide down along the side of this picture here and get into position to welcome you our readers back once again to Blather's very convoluted yet very informative 5-part series Black Market Nukes! To kick off this, the third part, which in one respect involves Valerie Plame (pictured), I should remind you of the main point of part one of this series. I wrote of how an ex-FBI employee, Sibel Edmonds, revealed that she worked on a project in which she listened to wiretaps and translated them. She listened to phone traffic between the Turkish embassy and the Turkish lobby group the American Turkish Council (ATC), involving dealings in the nuclear black market. But this FBI investigation she was working on was shut down, and her contract was terminated. It seems the FBI team went too deep, got too close to an uncomfortable truth...
Continue reading "Black Market Nukes! Part three: Couldn't You Keep That To Yourself?"
Black Market Nukes! Part two: The Path of Khan
Posted by barry at
12:38 AM on October 9, 2008
In part one, ex-FBI employee Sibel Edmonds listened to wiretaps of Turkish agents in the USA, who were stealing American nuclear secrets and selling them on the black market. The FBI investigation was surprisingly shut down, and US Attorney General John Ashcroft slapped a State Secret Priveleges gag order on Edmonds to prevent her from speaking out about it when she blew the whistle. But she's recently defied that gag order.
She claims that one of the buyers of these stolen nuclear secrets was Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan's intelligence agency [1], who were working with Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, the man responsible for Pakistan's nuclear bomb. Part two of this series follows the trail of A.Q. Khan and his nuclear black market network.
Continue reading "Black Market Nukes! Part two: The Path of Khan"
| Comments (0)Haunted Dublin book - Chilling accounts of the supernatural
Posted by daev at
6:42 PM on October 5, 2008
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Only €14.99 + P&P!
AVAILABLE NOW!
By Dave Walsh
Introduction by Barry Kavanagh
Paperback: 93 pages, including 40 photographs by Dave Walsh
Published by Nonsuch Ireland
Published October 2008
Haunted Dublin, by author and journalist Dave Walsh, gathers together in one succinct volume, well-known legends with rare and chilling accounts of the supernatural in the city. With poltergeists and apparitions, lore, myth and the downright scary, this fascinating work will delight and unsettle those brave enough to explore this hidden world.
LAUNCH PARTY! From 6pm on October 30th, Halloween Launch Party at the Dice Bar, Queen St. Dublin 7.
Booze, books, costumes and mayhem! Outlandish outfits recommended!
Blather Google Map showing location »
Continue reading "Haunted Dublin book - Chilling accounts of the supernatural"
| Comments (5)Black Market Nukes! Part one: Found in Translation
Posted by barry at
8:12 PM on October 1, 2008
Who's that riding around with a nuclear bomb in his motorcycle sidecar? This is the first in a projected 5-part series of articles for Blather.net on the subject of black market nukes. As you may or may not know, there is an international network of people selling blueprints and material for nuclear weapons on the black market. If you follow the news keenly, you may stumble across a report from time to time, but it seems this issue is not as much in the media spotlight as it should be. I'm going to try to draw various strands of the story together for you. I'll be writing about A.Q. Khan, the father of the Pakistani bomb and 'the merchant of menace'; Khan's associates the Tinner family in Switzerland; 'certain Turkish entities', as George W. Bush called them; the CIA front-company connected to the outed agent Valerie Plame; and first and foremost, the story of the FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds (pictured), the subject of this first part.
Continue reading "Black Market Nukes! Part one: Found in Translation"
| Comments (0)Blather Gets 'Lively'
Posted by damien at
12:51 PM on July 26, 2008
Ahoy hoy. Have a rummage around our virtual Blather HQ. Bejaysus, you can even see Daev's bed.
(Google account required). Built with Google's Lively.
| Comments (11)Blather meets Fred Einaudi
Posted by damien at
1:20 PM on July 24, 2008
Blather.net sat down with mercurial artist Fred Einaudi to get the skinny on his provocative and apocalyptic art, the finer points of using oil on canvas and a plan to annihilate loud motorbike drivers.
Continue reading "Blather meets Fred Einaudi"
| Comments (3)
