Saturday, June 26, 2010

WHAT? NO FAVA BEANS AND NO NICE CHIANTI?



















Seemingly no one in authority figured this guy for a psycho. Reuters brings us this story of a fuck-up royale by the French penal system. Aren’t you glad it couldn’t happen here?

“Nicolas Cocaign and Thierry Baudry had a fight when Cocaign asked Baudry to wash his hands after he had used the toilet during the night of January 2, 2007. Cocaign strangled Baudry and cut open his chest with a razor blade. Thinking it was the heart, Cocaign then ripped out a piece of Baudry's lung and ate part of it raw before cooking the rest. "What I did, I liked doing," said Cocaign, 37, who has a shaved head and whose face is covered in tattoos. He will have to serve at least 20 years of his sentence. Aware of his impulses, Cocaign had requested psychiatric help in 1998 and asked to be placed in isolation in 2006. "It's exceptional to see a psychologically disturbed person say: I have to be treated," said defense lawyer Fabien Picchiottino, noting the "failure of the psychiatric, penitentiary and social system.”

Click here for Hank
Click here for Brenda Lee
Click here for Yoakum

The secret word is Cuisine

REMEMBRANCES OF SPAM PAST (Lumberjack Pie)

The redoubtable Boss Goodman used to make something not totally unlike the culinary delight pictured above. Back when the Deviants were starting out, young and hungry, communal meals were often the only tactical means of survival if we had no speed. (We did think, now and then, of eating each others lungs but all the noxious shit we inhaled made the idea less than appetizing.) Boss would labor over a hot stove for what seemed like hours, consuming many joints and a couple of bottle of cheap red wine in the process. Eventually he would emerge with a steaming pot of something akin to the advert. Except, in his variation, the whole mess was covered in a think layer of mashed potato that had been lightly brown. He called the dish “Lumberjack Pie.” It was good, though.

Click for The Deviants

THE FROZDICK FAMILY











When they told Amelia Frozdick she would never fly, she just smiled knowingly.

OVERHEARD IN THE OPIUM DEN












“They say Dick Cheney’s had a heart attack.”
“So who gives a fuck?”

Click here for Jim

SPACE OPERA

A couple of days ago we had dinosaurs and cowboys, now our pal Ray has sent us dinosaur v robot by the great Shigeru Komatsuzaki.

Doc40 came in #45 in the Top 50 Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blogs. Hardly the gold, but at least our little funhouse was on the board and it can only get better. (Farren having a rare and uncharacteristic flash of optimism.)

Click here for Catwomen of the Moon (Get well, Valerie)

Friday, June 25, 2010

2013 IS THE NEW 2012


















Oh dear. Were the Mayans off by one year, or this the new Y2K?

“Concerns about the potential for an unprecedented assault from space were stoked last week by a report in London's Telegraph warning that a super storm could cause "catastrophic consequencies for the world's health, emergency services and national security unless precautions are taken." The warnings focus on the 2012-2013 time frame, because that's when the 11-year solar activity cycle is expected to peak. Back in 2006, solar scientists said the coming peak, known as solar maximum or "solar max," could be 30 to 50 percent stronger than the last one, based on a computer model that looked at how plasma circulates between the sun's equator and its poles. Since then, additional reports have added to the concern: In 2008, a National Academy of Sciences study said a severe geomagnetic storm could cause $2 trillion in damage and require as much as a decade of recovery time. In comparison, the damage estimate for Hurricane Katrina is a mere $80 billion or so. Amid all the hype about a 2012 Maya apocalypse, there's been increasing talk about the potential for a solar superstorm on the scale of 1859's "Carrington event " which shorted out telegraph wires, sparked fires and set off auroral displays as far south as Cuba. The fear is that the damage would be more severe in this world of GPS navigation, satellite communications and mobile devices. The Telegraph's article quoted Richard Fisher, the head of NASA's Heliospheric Division at the space agency's Washington headquarters, as saying that a superstorm would "cause major problems for the world." "It will disrupt communication devices such as satellites and car navigation, air travel, the banking system, our computers, everything that is electronic," he told the Telegraph.” (Click here for the rest.)

Click here for Lou

TOO DUMB FOR THE COMPLICATED STUFF














This story could provoke some sober thought, if we weren’t so feebleminded.

"Humans may be incapable of solving the ultimate mysteries of the universe. So says Martin Rees, cosmologist and president of the Royal Society, in an interview with the Sunday Times - a view that the paper treated as headline news. Rees thinks problems such as the existence of parallel universes, the cause of the big bang, or the nature of our own consciousness are just too difficult for our puny brains to resolve. He points out that the discoverers of relativity and quantum mechanics were able to use mathematical models developed by mathematicians decades earlier, whereas the math does not yet exist which could unify the two." (Click here for the rest)

Click here for Bob

Peter Quaife – RIP

A HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE DALEKS

But if we can’t meet the challenges of space and time we may find ourselves exterminated. And Davros is always out there. Click here for the (fab) video.

The secret word is Panic

STICKER SHOCK












Show the turtle murdering bastards they’re not going to get away with it. (And all it takes is a stamped, self-addressed envelope.)

Click here to learn how to get one.

FRANK SINATRA’S DOORBELL

Remember those buttons and t-shirts that used to read “It’s Frank’s World. We Only Live It”? The sign on the buzzer that gained admittance to his estate would seem fully to confirm this.

Click here for Frank

PLACE YOUR BETS

















On whether that cab’s going to stop. (Image lifted from World of Wonder)

Click here for Bob Fosse

Thursday, June 24, 2010

DINOSAUR COWBOYS 2010

When I saw the cover of this new release from Monstrosities Books (out August 15th) I had this feeling that I seen it before. The creator J.P. Carlson told the website io9.com that…

“The cover is by Italian paleo-artist Fabio Pastori, and the interior illustrations are by Marvel and DC comics artist, Jim Calafiore. It's a dinosaur adventure set in the 1800's on the cusp of the industrial revolution. It's unlike anything out there.”

Then I remembered, it was, in fact, uncommonly like the strip called Flesh that appeared in early copies of the Brit comic 2000AD. The Wikipedia entry reads…

“Flesh first appeared as part of 2000AD's opening line up in its first issue in 1977. Written by Pat Mills, the series was set in the age of dinosaurs who were farmed for their meat by cowboys from the future.”

In fact, the cowboys from the future (led by a character called Earl Reagan) killed so many dinosaurs that they caused them to become extinct despite the efforts of a T-Rex called Old On Eye who led the dinosaur resistance. (See the page below lifted from Everything Comes Back To 2000AD.)

Click here for Was

The secret word Jurassic

DINOSAUR COWBOYS 1977

MEANWHILE BACK IN THE GULF…












Mother Jones magazine has reprinted “a seriously scary comment thread at The Oil Drum, a sounding board for, among others, many petroleum geologists and oil professionals. The comment in question is from a seemingly very knowledgable "Doug R." suggests that stopping the gusher may be impossible.

"All the actions and few tid bits of information all lead to one inescapable conclusion. The well pipes below the sea floor are broken and leaking. Now you have some real data of how BP's actions are evidence of that, as well as some murky statement from "BP officials" confirming the same. "To those of us outside the real inside loop, yet still fairly knowledgeable, the failure of Top Kill was a major confirmation of what many feared. That the system below the sea floor has serious failures of varying magnitude in the complicated chain, and it is breaking down and it will continue to. "What does this mean? "It means they will never cap the gusher after the wellhead. They cannot...the more they try and restrict the oil gushing out the bop?...the more it will transfer to the leaks below. Just like a leaky garden hose with a nozzle on it. When you open up the nozzle?...it doesn't leak so bad, you close the nozzle?...it leaks real bad, same dynamics.” Click here for more

THE SOUND OF THE GOD PARTICLE (And it’s not Eric Clapton)














Our pal Wendy sent over this snippet…

"Scientists have simulated the sounds set to be made by sub-atomic particles such as the Higgs boson when they are produced at the Large Hadron Collider. Their aim is to develop a means for physicists at Cern to "listen to the data" and pick out the Higgs particle if and when they finally detect it. Dr Lily Asquith modelled data from the giant Atlas experiment at the LHC. She worked with sound engineers to convert data expected from collisions at the LHC into sounds. "If the energy is close to you, you will hear a low pitch and if it's further away you hear a higher pitch," the particle physicist told BBC News." (Click here for more and an audio clip)

BUT GOD LIKES ATOMS
















(Image from Lost Jimmy)

IT’S AMAZING WHO READS HUXLEY














(Image from HCB)

Click here for The Waitresses

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

TURTLE-MURDERING BASTARDS LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE












“I’m just waiting for the detergent.”

I’ve known for years that I was living in a different world from people like the BP corporate hierarchy, but now it seems that we occupy radically different dimensions of reality. While I watch the death of the Gulf and maybe the oceans of our planet, BP turns the clean-up locations into their own corporate police state, buys judges, and – even as their robot submarines fuck up – tries, with a blank self-pity, to convince us that all is just hunky dory. This is double-think taken to criminal extremes, and I would liken it to the mindset of a gulag guard, but I’d risk sounding like Glenn Beck. I wish I didn’t feel these things the way I do. They hurt. This is from The Wall Street Journal, usually the good-buddy of all things corporate…

“Last weekend, Tony Hayward left for a yacht outing two days after a very public crucifixion on Capitol Hill. So was this a sign that he is a born optimist, convinced things can only get better — or simply an admission that he might as well enjoy himself for a couple of days given he’s likely to lose his job over the oil spill disaster in any case? Retaining an upbeat tone, in an email to staff last Friday, Hayward again pledged to “get [BP] through the immediate crisis as a stronger and safer company.” That was after a week that saw a congressional grilling, credit downgrades to just above junk status, a pledge to pay $20 billion into a cleanup and compensation fund and a freeze in dividend payouts for the rest of 2010. But in Planet BP — a BP online, in-house magazine — a “BP reporter” dispatched to Louisiana managed to paint an even rosier picture of the disaster. “There is no reason to hate BP,” one local seafood entrepreneur is quoted as saying, as the region relies on the oil industry for work. Indeed, the April 20 spill on the Deepwater Horizon is being reinvented in Planet BP as a strike of luck. “Much of the region’s [nonfishing boat] businesses — particularly the hotels — have been prospering because so many people have come here from BP and other oil emergency response teams,” another report says. Indeed, one tourist official in a local town makes it clear that “BP has always been a very great partner of ours here…We have always valued the business that BP sent us.” Fortunately the articles — on which BP declined to comment — don’t go as far as praising that new treat: seasonal shrimps in (crude) oil. It ain’t all whistling-along on Planet BP, though. The reports mention consumers being “afraid all seafood might be contaminated” and the uncertainty over the region’s economic future. To be sure, Hayward and BP are right to reassure their staff — they are not aboard the Titanic just yet. The company’s average production of 2.5 million barrels a day in liquids, would make it third in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries if it were a government. Its sales and other operating revenues stood at $239.3 billion in 2009 — larger that the gross domestic product of Nigeria. And BP only has 80,000 mouths to feed. But if Hayward is looking on the bright side of life, it’s only from afar for now. An army of lawyers and regulators are examining whether he was nailed for other people’s sins — or for his own.”

The secret word is Impossible 

Click here for Gulf divers’ videos

Click here the Band

MAYBE BP EXECS ARE ALSO DISEASED












Our pal Elf Hellion sent us the following…

“The most infamous feud in American folklore, the long-running battle between the Hatfields and McCoys, may be partly explained by a rare, inherited disease that can lead to hair-trigger rage and violent outbursts. Dozens of McCoy descendants apparently have the disease, which causes high blood pressure, racing hearts, severe headaches and too much adrenaline and other "fight or flight" stress hormones. No one blames the whole feud on this, but doctors say it could help explain some of the clan's notorious behavior. "This condition can certainly make anybody short-tempered, and if they are prone because of their personality, it can add fuel to the fire," said Dr. Revi Mathew, a Vanderbilt University endocrinologist treating one of the family members. The Hatfields and McCoys have a storied and deadly history dating to Civil War times. Their generations of fighting over land, timber rights and even a pig are the subject of dozens of books, songs and countless jokes. Unfortunately for Appalachia, the feud is one of its greatest sources of fame.” (Click here for more)

Click here for Thin Lizzy

PATRIOTIC INTENT

After 65 days of taking shit for BP, we exile Brits hardly need this. While having absolutely nothing against women with riding crops (or flat hats and tweed jackets) I always wondered why BDSM and erotic flagellation has been traditionally dubbed the “English Vice.” I mean, Sacher-Masoch was Austrian and De Sade was French, so how come this is laid at the door of us Brits. Not that we don’t have our kinks, and some nations don’t have any national perversion all. The French of course are fixatedly connected to all things oral, and I guess, on the level of national sexual stereotyping, I should be grateful I’m not Greek.

Click here for Yamoto Drummers

UUUM…YEAH… OKAY





Is this the same man who used to come round my house at 4.00AM and make himself fish-finger and salad-cream sandwiches? (Image lifted from Dangerous Minds)

Click here for a Scandinavian cover of a Farren/Kilmister tune

BUT NOW IT’S TIME TO DRY MY HAIR

















Rube Goldberg image lifted from Hangfire Books

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

IS BP BURNING SEA TURTLES ALIVE?












I can’t pose the question more bluntly than that, or contain my fury if they are – and I have no reason to disbelieve this report…

“A rare and endangered species of sea turtle is being burned alive in BP's controlled burns of the oil swirling around the Gulf of Mexico, and a boat captain tasked with saving them says the company has blocked rescue efforts. Mike Ellis, a boat captain involved in a three-week effort to rescue as many sea turtles from unfolding disaster as possible, says BP effectively shut down the operation by preventing boats from coming out to rescue the turtles. "They ran us out of there and then they shut us down, they would not let us get back in there," Ellis said in an interview with conservation biologist Catherine Craig. Part of BP's efforts to contain the oil spill are controlled burns. Fire-resistant booms are used to corral an area of oil, then the area within the boom is lit on fire, burning off the oil and whatever marine life may have been inside. "Once the turtles get in there they can't get out," Ellis said. Dr. Brian Stacey of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration told NPR last week that, although there are five different species of sea turtle in the Gulf of Mexico, the majority of the ones found affected by the oil spill are Kemp's Ridleys, "the rarest of them all." Ellis confirmed that he's mostly been seeing Kemp's Ridleys. Mike Michael at Gather.com reports that Kemp's Ridleys are listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Harming or killing one "carries stiff fines and civil penalties ($500-$25,000) assessed for each violation. Criminal penalties include possible prison time and fines from $25,000-$50,000." Michael suggests that, given the size of the fines BP could face as a result of the turtle deaths, the company may be happy to let turtles burn, as it would make it impossible to calculate exactly how many turtles died. He notes that the bodies of dead animals are being kept as evidence to determine how much in fines BP will be liable for. "Is BP destroying evidence to keep their liability down?" he asks. "Is anyone going to stop them?" (Click here for more and a video.)

The secret words are Murdering Bastards
Since we can’t actually form a lynch mob, shall we attempt to cool off?

Click here for Bo

VISIT THE SCI-FI AIRSHOW

This is just glorious…

“The SCI-FI AIR SHOW's purpose is to preserve and promote the rich and varied history of Sci-Fi/fantasy vehicles. Through display and education we seek to celebrate the classic design and beauty of these ships and the rich imaginations that created them. When the cameras stopped rolling, many of these proud old ships were lost and forgotten. Please join us in working to keep these rare and beautiful birds soaring!”

Click here

THE FROZDICK FAMILY











There was much debate inside the family about how exactly Franz-Joseph Frozdick perceived the world.

POSTED WITHOUT COMMENT



















Click here for Stevie Winwood

Monday, June 21, 2010

THIS IS JOE BARTON – JOE BARTON IS DUMB POND SCUM



















But he’s bought-and-paid-for, corporate-lackey, Republican-dumb, pond scum, and I guess that makes all the difference.

“Joe Barton is really, really sorry. The Texas congressman made headlines today for publicly apologizing to oil giant BP for what he called a government “shakedown” against the company; the government is asking BP to pay into a fund for those harmed by the disastrous Gulf oil spill. “I’m not speaking for anyone else, but I apologize,” he said. But his campaign of contrition for corporate wrongdoing didn’t stop there. Barton went for a “two-fer” today, firing off a letter with fellow apologist Cliff Stearns of Florida demanding a hearing about the inquiry launched today at the Federal Communications Commission into how the agency should regulate broadband networks. While not as blatant as his mea culpa to BP, if you read between the lines, the message is the same. Sorry, AT&T, that the FCC is bothering you. Sorry, Comcast, you can’t block legal content. Sorry, Verizon, I really tried to kill off Net Neutrality when I was in charge.” (Click here for more)

Click here for Lennon

The secret word is Deposit

MONDAY MINDFUCK



















Quickly scroll up and down for optimum optical fun.

Click here for a track from when I was young and foolish

PALIN SMOKED DOPE














I guess this kinda negates the idea that smoking marijuana can in any way make you a better person. Sarah Palin has admitted to smoking when it was legal for personal use in Alaska, saying she "can't...say that I never inhaled." The state recriminalized the drug in 2006.

“Former Alaska GOP Gov. Sarah Palin said Wednesday night that law enforcement should not focus its energy on the “minimal problem” of marijuana. Palin made the comment during an appearance on the Fox Business Network with Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas). The libertarian Paul said enforcing marijuana restrictions specifically and the war on drugs more generally is a “useless battle,” a point Palin somewhat agreed with, though she was clear that she does not support legalization. "If we're talking about pot, I'm not for the legalization of pot,” Palin said. “I think that would just encourage our young people to think that it was OK to go ahead and use it.” “However, I think we need to prioritize our law enforcement efforts,” Palin added. “If somebody's gonna smoke a joint in their house and not do anybody any harm, then perhaps there are other things our cops should be looking at to engage in and try to clean up some of the other problems we have in society.” Palin then urged law enforcement to “not concentrate on such a, relatively speaking, minimal problem we have in the country.”

She totally ignores, of course, the fact that some 80% of those incarcerated in the US are in the joint for drug related crime. Hardly a minimal problem.

Click here if you want to be a bird

IS ICELAND THE NEW SWEDEN?












"REYKJAVIK — Iceland is becoming an offshore safe haven for information, an insider with whistleblower website WikiLeaks said Friday. Iceland's parliament, the Altingi, voted Tuesday to task government with finding ways to increase information freedom and to provide stronger protections for media sources and whistleblowers to make Iceland a leader in freedom of expression. The Icelandic Modern Media Initiative, or IMMI "aims to create an offshore safe haven for information, to add to transparency," said Kristinn Hrafnsson, an investigative journalist with public broadcaster RUV, who has co-operated with Wikileaks. Even before the passing of the initiative, which was in part drafted by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, work on the project had created a secure environment for revealing sensitive information, he told AFP." (Click here for more)

ON DOC40 CUTE IS SEVERELY RATIONED















“I don’t want to see any more posts about bacon.”

Click here for more Dr Feelgood

Sunday, June 20, 2010

SUNDAY BREAKFAST


















Oh man, bacon pancakes. And I guess you stub out that first cigarette, just smother the suckers maple syrup and whipped butter, pop a 12oz Coke, and chow down until your poor abused heart explodes – which can be a trip but also carries a hard and terrible hangover in is much as you may be dead. Tasty, though.

Click here for Rubber Biscuit

BUT, WHILE YOU’RE UP, GRAB ME A BEER












Why is Sunday so often the optimum day for such blatantly cheap fantasies?

Click here for Teenage Head

THE VATICAN LOVES JAKE AND ELWOOD













TAORMINA, Sicily (Hollywood Reporter) – When Jake and Elwood Blues, the protagonists in John Landis' cult classic The Blues Brothers, claimed they were on a mission from God, the Catholic Church apparently took them at their word.

"On the 30th anniversary of the film's release, L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's official newspaper, called the film a "Catholic classic" and said it should be recommended viewing for Catholics everywhere. The film is based on a skit from Saturday Night Live. In the story, Jake and Elwood -- played by John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, respectively -- embark on an unlikely road trip featuring concerts, car chases, clashes with the police and neo-Nazi groups, and attempts at revenge from a spurned lover, all, ostensibly, to raise money for the church-run orphanage where they grew up. But aside from a brief appearance from Kathleen Freeman as a wrist-slapping nun referred to as "The Penguin" and the brothers' periodic claim that they were on a mission from God, spirituality does not play a significant role in the film."

Click here for the Memphis Jug Band

MARILYN SEZ...












“Buy a book today so the poor authors of this world don’t simply starve. To click here would be a good start.”

SPACE OPERA



















Click here for Bud & Lou