Blather.net Comments

Comment on "The Thierry Henry Song"

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:36:28 +0000

Hah, excellent.

- O'Reilly

Comment on "John Keel RIP"

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:09:59 +0000

good article as usual!

- forex robot

Comment on "Blather, Rinse, Repeat: An Ethnography of Conspiracy Theory"

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:25:56 +0000

Well done man. Very well done indeed.
Nice software too.

- Bobby

Comment on "Why is UFO activity on the increase?"

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:56:17 +0000

If you are looking for the worlds expert on photographic
matters it would be an American named Dr. Bruce Macaby. Not sure of the spelling of his last name. But if anybodies been doing their homework on the subject they would know that he is the worlds expert at evaluating photo's for authentisity.

- larryx

Comment on "Blather, Rinse, Repeat: An Ethnography of Conspiracy Theory"

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 18:59:23 +0000

Thanks Joe. A good read?

- Damien

Comment on "Blather, Rinse, Repeat: An Ethnography of Conspiracy Theory"

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 16:38:11 +0000

"VALLEY OF THE SQUINTING WINDOWS" is a book by Brinsley MacNamara published in 1918 about colloquial gossip in rural Ireland.

- JOE UMAN

Comment on "Wilfred - the Pot Smoking Dog"

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 12:56:25 +0000

Now I'm going have to watch them all!

- O'Reilly

Comment on "Blather, Rinse, Repeat: An Ethnography of Conspiracy Theory"

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 12:37:27 +0000

Nice one, will check it out.

- O'Reilly

Comment on "'...a type of hell...'"

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 01:07:19 +0000

i am for the afghan woman.they need some freedom.they need to be educated.they need to be respected.we need to help them if they want our help.sister Debbie muslimtoysanddolls.com

- Debbie Al-Harbi

Comment on "Blather, Rinse, Repeat: An Ethnography of Conspiracy Theory"

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:22:40 +0000

prezi.com Very slick little tool. Free too.

- Damien

Comment on "Blather, Rinse, Repeat: An Ethnography of Conspiracy Theory"

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:16:44 +0000

Excellent Damien.
What software did you use for the presentation?

- O'Reilly

Comment on "Mammoth Hunt: The Giant Elephants of Nepal"

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:12:10 +0000

Mammoth Hunt was an exhilarating ride which took me back to the time when I was a child and would visit Bardia. During one of my many trips we were driving down a jungle route deep in bardia, and suddenly the guide shouted "Stop"!! We stopped and jumped out wondering what was going on and he pointed and on the other side of the river we saw two amazing sights. Raja Gaj and Kancha Gaj taking an evening strol!!
I hope to go back to Bardia soon, specially since Raja Gaj has been sighted again!!

- Paul Ramble

Comment on "Blather, Rinse, Repeat: An Ethnography of Conspiracy Theory"

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 03:57:38 +0000

Very very good Damien. Very much in the middle and you stood a very diplomatic ground. You agreed with some facts and disagreed with others, not bringing any personal agenda in it. You did leave out a lot of other things to do with conspiracies but you cannot expect to fill everyone is without boring the arse off everyone.

Blather, Rise and Repeat can be said about ANY stance to be honest, not just conspiracies, it's human behavior really. I have watched every 9/11 video and read and watched even more things explaining why it was not a conspiracy and I am the same as you, I have no idea! Because I don't care, does not concern me, it's the American government's self-made problem to do with the way they see and treat the world.

One thing I know, is that if someone comes along and tells you 'this is how it is', they are wrong.....everything is intangible

- Davitt

Comment on "Blather, Rinse, Repeat: An Ethnography of Conspiracy Theory"

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:16:14 +0000

Well done Damien! How polite you were.

On the subject of film-making and persuasive arguments, it's very interesting what you said about critical thinking. In fact, I am never really satisfied with any documentary, and if it's interesting I usually try to read an actual book about the subject, e.g. before watching 'Century of the Self' by Adam Curtis I was glad I had already read a book by Sigmund Freud, and I made sure afterwards that I read an actual book by Marcuse rather than go with the few lines of summary that the documentary offered.

Film is an image-based medium and communicates to the part of the brain that decodes images, whereas a book is aimed at the linguistic, more logical side of the brain. In a book there is also always going to be more information, and space to examine the subject more in-depth. Although books too can, of course, be misleading, I know which technology I prefer of the two. I'm suspicious about the whole method by which movies/TV give information, with, as you said, emotional music.

I saw an art film on DVD that seemed more than aware of all this. It was called 'Dial H-IS-T-OR-Y' made by Johan Grimonprez around 1999 or 2000, and by a massive coincidence it presented a history of footage of plane hijacks, with interviews with plane hijackers from the time (they were almost like movie stars in the past, with media people shoving cameras and microphones into their faces, asking 'why did you do it?') and the film was framed with quotes from Don de Lillo, commenting on hyper-reality, one quote being along the lines of you thinking of a scene from your own life with the thought 'what music should be playing? and who will play me in the movie?'

So, certain people (known as - or dismissed as - 'truthers' by the antiwar movement, I believe) wanted me to watch this or that documentary, and I watched Loose Change and that's all I could be bothered with. Instead I read books on the immediate background of 9/11: CIA, FBI, NSA, the presence of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and the rise of fundamentalist Islam itself. I believe this is the best approach because I will never become a structural engineer or an expert in plane crashes, and for those conspiracy theories to be true, the human story about the hijackers and the journalistic research in the books I've listed below, would all have to be false. Once, when I was sitting reading 'Perfect Soldiers', the biography of the 9/11 hijackers, extremely well-researched by LA Times journalist Terry McDermott, I was surprised to experience a friend asking me if I was reading 'a conspiracy book'. I infer from that that it is MORE NORMAL TO READ A CONSPIRACY BOOK THAN A HISTORY BOOK! I'm sure these books have not sold 100,000,000 copies.

You seemed hazy during the talk about the 'CIA passing something to the FBI' but I can say from my reading that the three organizations CIA, FBI and NSA were intense rivals, so nothing substantial was passed between them, so none of them on their own had 'foreknowledge'. Their isolated pieces of the jigsaw were not enough.

Lawrence Wright: The Looming Tower (weaves the story from various different angles, all culminating in 9/11)
Steve Coll: Ghost Wars (history of the CIA and Bin Laden in Afghanistan up to 9/11)
Robert Dreyfuss: Devil's Game (the rise of fundamentalist Islam and the American role in that)
James Bamford: The Shadow Factory (the NSA's role prior to and after 9/11)
Terry McDermott: Perfect Soldiers
Peter Dale Scott: The Road to 9/11 (mentions some players the other books don't)

- barry

Comment on "Blather, Rinse, Repeat: An Ethnography of Conspiracy Theory"

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:29:23 +0000

nice one, damo!

- neil

Comment on "Kat Penny Dramarama (updated)"

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:24:59 +0000

Here's the same fella giving it to Union leaders.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DD2VpesAt2I

- O'Reilly

Comment on "The War at Home: the story of Zachary Bowen and Addie Hall"

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:27:10 +0000

i was a friend of his exwife who 10yrs older than Zach-i was close to both and babysat both their boy and girl-i know the truth-it hurts-only me,lana ana my best friend and doc i confided in what i knew
THIS WAS NOT HIM-I KNEW HIM FOR OVER 10 YEARS

- kathy

Comment on "Hardy Bucks: As sick as a plane to Lourdes"

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:05:37 +0000

Yeah, I've watched them all - great stuff.

"It's a dirty puddle that won't cool a hot iron"

- O'Reilly

Comment on "A Load of Blather: The book launch and the Lisbon Treaty"

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:46:41 +0000

Many congratulations on the book, Dave and colleagues. I'm off to the local bookstore tomorrow to hunt it down.

- Paul Rowley

Comment on "The Hellfire Club Tunnels and Caves, West Wycombe"

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 12:49:05 +0000

Hello Folks, yeah i loved the place ,went for the first time the other month, can you get access into the grounds of the mausoleaum? it would be great to get a proper look around in there.

- Tim Wykes

Comment on "Karzai's Smack-dealing Brother Works for... "

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:23:29 +0000

For those who wish to read more:

In the northeast:
Taliban take over Afghan province, 29 October 2009.

In the southeast:
In one province, Taliban revive, 24 October 2009.

And:
Copter Crashes Reveal Achilles’ Heel of Afghan War, 26 October 2009.

- barry

Comment on "Karzai's Smack-dealing Brother Works for... "

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 07:15:58 +0000

In reference to an article "Posted by barry at October 29, 2009 3:49 PM” Barry your 'assumption' that the US military has withdrawn from Nuristan province is completely inaccurate as I'm currently serving in that same province in Nurgaram district. If you were referring to Keating, that was a disaster granted, however, long before that attack the US military was already in the process of moving out and closing that facility anyways. It was not closed due to the attack…
R/
David C. Charnley, SCPO USN
PRT Nuristan S2
FOB Kalagush AFG
SVOIP: 318 8312204

- SCPO Charnley, USN

Comment on "Karzai's Smack-dealing Brother Works for... "

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:38:15 +0000

Mr. Baryy,
Thanks for your comments on Afghanistan, it shows how informed your are about Afghanistan. It is off course tragic to see the junkies around your streets, but those junkies are there for a very long time, before Afghanistan came in picture. Where did the heroin came from ten years ago? For sure not from Afghanistan. And Hamid Karzai is an elected president of a free country. The country which fought for its freedom three decades. So before posting such rubbish on internet it is better for you to think twice.

A free afghan from a free Afghanistan

- free afghan

Comment on "The Irish Hellfire Club: No Smoke Without Fire"

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:57:55 +0000

I went back to the hellfire last Sunday and noticed a granite stone just to the North West of the Club and it has a carving in memory of a man who died in 2002. Aged about 60. David, can't remember his surname, but dedicated by family and someone called "Pug". Anyone know anything about this? Interesting to know the dead man's attachment to the place and the significance of having the stone there.

- dave

Comment on "Neapolis, Greece: Another Atlantis?"

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:59:41 +0000

FFS, how many times do I have to keep posting this link, you Ireland-hating imperialist low-integrity cocktrader of the worst kind?

http://www.mythicalireland.com/ancientsites/tara/tara-atlantis.php

- barry

Comment on "Donegal Democrat = Ireland's Daily Mail?"

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:01:05 +0000

You'd think they'd be more joyful.

- Dave

Comment on "Total Victory for the Israel Lobby's Espionage Activities: Rosen-Weissman Case Dropped"

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:10:59 +0000

Always thought that your blog is one of the best in my bookmarks, and once again saw this

- macafee

Comment on "The Return of the Dalkey Baby"

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:37:30 +0000

The Inquest did identify the infant (Noeleen Murphy) and her mother (Cynthia Owen). It may have been obvious back in 1973 how the baby died and an inquest was to be held back in 1973 but postposed and re-opened which lead to the Inquest Findings above. The Inquest is held to formally confirm the cause of death, etc.

- Anonymous

Comment on "The Return of the Dalkey Baby"

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 01:55:55 +0000

the purpose of the inquest was 2 identy the infant and it mother ..that still has not been done..they knew back in 1973 how the infant died..and cause of death..

- catherine stevenson

Comment on "The Return of the Dalkey Baby"

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:49:27 +0000

You'd like to know who appointed the coroner judge and jury????

Do you not understand the point of an Inquest?

The Coroner's purpose is to estblish how someone died. In Cynthia's baby's case he did just that. He estblished that the baby died as a result of stab wounds in your family home.

The 5 family members you refer too, three died of causes unrelated to the case and the other two committed suicide because of the abuse they had suffered. That in itself is back up to Cynthia's story.

- Anonymous