A hilarious article has appeared in Dagbladet detailing the destruction that occurred on Spasibar's last night. Here's a photo from Dagbladet showing how they trashed the furniture - but even though the business is in a building owned by the art school, it was Spasibar's own furniture, so they were free to do so.

Whether they were free to light a bonfire on stage is another question...

Continue reading Closing Time for Spasibar (part 2)...

She's back in the news! The 'psychic' Norwegian Princess Märtha Louise (pictured above). The controversy this time is that her angel school has begun courses for children.

Continue reading The Innocence of Sleeping Children...

That was Spasibar, which closed down on 30 June.

Continue reading Closing Time for Spasibar...

Tarawatch have issued a press release (through their site and their Facebook/Myspace pages) which picks up on a cited article from Ireland's Mail on Sunday. The article states that archaeologist Jo Ronayne is claiming that the data in her reports was changed to make it look as though her work was supporting the construction of the controversial Tara road building scheme, when her evidence actually did quite the contrary.

'Miss Ronayne, who was an excavation director at the Tara valley site in Co. Meath, claims she was told to 'change interpretations' so as to 'lessen to potential of numbers of sites'. And she says she was excluded from NRA [National Road Association] meetings in which her evidence was altered before reports were passed on to the Government. The damning allegations will shatter the Governments defence that it would not change the Tara route because there is no significant archaeological site on it. And it will lead to disturbing questions about whether ministers - and in turn the public or even the courts - were misled about the archaeological finds.'

Of course this isn't the first time in recent years that questions have arisen as to the professionalism of the NRA, their advice to government and the validity of their assertions.

In 2004, Frank McDonald of The Irish Times reported that as far back as 2000, an NRA report made it clear that the proposed route of the Tara motorway would bring the works within distance of the most 'sensitive' archaeological area and that another route should be chosen. The NRA then chose to ignore the advice of it's own consultants.

Furthermore, The Irish Times (again through McDonald) reported that 'Brian Duffy, chief archaeologist of the Department of the Environment, was appointed to his post even though he has only a general BA degree in archaeology and no track record of archaeological excavations or publications' and that he was chosen over a field of considerably more qualified candidates. Which begs the question - why?

This by the way, is the same Brian Duffy who, in July 2007, disputed the assertion of Dr. Patrick Wallace (Director of the National Museum of Ireland) that a site near Tara which was filled in the middle of the night, was one of "national importance". Which is baffling. If it wasn't of any importance, why was it filled in at four in the morning? And what in the name of all that is holy is someone with a BA doing telling the man who excavated all of Wood Quay and Viking Dublin what is and what is not a feature worthy of study and preservation?

Future

Looking forward things don't seem much better. Maggie Ronayne, from the Archaeology department at NUI Galway recently posted an article to Indymedia, making it clear that the upcoming 6th World Archaeological Conference (being held in Ireland) has effectively refused to debate the increased privatisation of archaeology within Ireland - whereby the excavation, preservation and curation of the nation's material heritage is increasingly been take away from state-appointed organisations and farmed out to private organisations whose primary goal is the acquisition of profit; a goal which is fundamentally at odds with the priorirties of those who have devoted their lives to saving our nation's herirtage.

Several years ago an archaeologist friend claimed to me that the systematic deconstruction of Duchas (the old Irish state Heritage service) was designed to facilitate just this shift - ensuring that those irritating archaeologists stopped getting in the way of national development and progress. Reading these stories, I can't help but think she was right.

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Tarawatch

The Orion Conspiracy (via Strange Attractor)

Norwegian readers be aware! The book I wrote with Blather.net's Dave Walsh and Damien DeBarra is now available to buy in Oslo.

A Load of Blather: Unreal Reports from Ireland and Beyond is the first book by us that anyone has been nuts enough to publish. This 'magnificent tome' is a 'great heaving cavalcade of paranormal events, superstitions, mysterious happenings, conspiracy theories, hordes of rampaging kangaroos in the Dublin hills, and the previously untold story of General Michael Collins' forays into outer space'. Those interested in Norwegian culture will be fascinated to read about the infamous lake monster hunt that Dave Walsh was on in Telemark in 1998, as well as a re-hash of my opinions about the angel woman, Norway's psychic princess.

Available to buy at:
Sound of Mu, Markveien 58, 0550 Oslo. Price 100kr.
Tronsmo, Kr Augustsgate 19, 1064 Oslo. Price 99kr.

Or directly from us for 9.99 euro, via paypal:

"Yeah, that was going to be a masterpiece, a magnum opus. I still think those first two issues are among some of the best comic work of that period" - Alan Moore, in the blather interview.

Only two issues came out, back in the 80s. Buy issue one of Alan Moore's legendarily unfinished Big Numbers. At 13 euro plus postage, it's pretty much the going rate for this rare comic. Pay with paypal.

Only two issues came out and we're selling a rare issue (#1) at the blather store.

This 1995 catalogue for Allen Spiegel Fine Arts was designed by Dave McKean. A collector's item for the McKean-inclined. 10 euro plus postage. Pay with paypal.

This is a rare book about Shinto religion by Sir Ernest Satow (1843-1929), published in New York in October 2002 by Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-7103-0750-0. This is not one of the cloth-bound volumes (currently valued at 135 euro) but the hardback. At 98 euro plus postage, we are not selling this for a higher price than other book dealers. Pay with paypal.

This story from the Independent.

Link here

Blather

More on Chinese Kongming Lantern UFOs.

Read the story on the BBC site

Anyway, I suspect that Carlin would probably hate the mourning which will rightly follow. Possibly better to remember him the way he would have wanted - by laughing. Press play.

George Carlin

"Tribal guardian admits the Amazon Indians' existence was already known, but he hoped the publicity would lift the threat of logging."

Read the story in the Observer.

Special report in the Independent on Sunday

Junichi Sato is not only a whale activist in Japan (and there ain't many people who can put THAT on their business card), he's also a blogger. And he's been arrested for the crime of exposing the truth.

AFP reported "Sato, writing on his blog shortly before his arrest, appealed for a continued probe into the alleged whale meat embezzlement.

"I just want to appeal to the hearts of people involved in the whale embezzlement case: 'Do you think it's alright to remain silent?'" Sato wrote.

"If Japan wants to take the lead as an environmentally advanced country, please, conduct diplomacy that can turn international friction into cooperation."

Junichi is a prominent anti-whaling voice in the media in Japan, and his arrest, along with colleague Toru Suzuki, on the eve of the International Whaling Commission meeting is probably not a coincidence. Some media in Japan are saying that the arrest, covered on television, was a warning to other activist groups that as the G8 approaches, voices of dissent in Japan will not be tolerated.

Read more here »
- includes instructions on blogging, digging, etc. this story.

Take Action:

'ONE EXPLANATION advanced for the rejection of the Lisbon Treaty is a disconnect between voters and their Oireachtas representatives.'

And this in Brian Cowen's speech to his lords and masters in the EU Council:

'Expression of a "disconnect" between the citizens and Europe, its institutions and procedures, is also not unique to Ireland.'

Now, the word 'disconnect' is a verb. The OED states that it is the verb to 'break the connection of (things, ideas, etc.)' and to 'put (an electrical device) out of action by disconnecting the parts, esp. by pulling out the plug'. That's what the word means. There is no such thing as 'a' disconnect, or 'the' disconnect, or 'her' disconnect, or 'his' disconnect. It is a verb.The only reason the seemingly ill-educated elite (academics, politicians, journalists, chimpanzees) use it as a noun is because they don't know about...

'Disconnection'. Yes, disconnection. What obscure vocabulary I'm using! Have you ever seen that word before? Let me guide you. It is a noun, meaning 'the act or an instance of disconnecting; the state of being disconnected'.

GET. THAT. THROUGH. YOUR. THICK. FUCKING. SKULLS.

If I was the editor of the Irish Times and saw that, I'd sack the whole damn staff!

Literacy, people, literacy.

[This has been emailed to lettersed@irish-times.ie]

Story in the Irish Independent

Yes, that's right. Brian Cowen has been strangled with piano wire in Brussels and the rulers of Europe have replaced him with a man who knows how to get the "right answer" from a referendum. Robert Mugabe has been appointed the new Taoiseach of Ireland.

Andrea Merkel: "Ireland needs its own fuhrher, ja? A kind of Quisling. Ze Irish pigs must haff zere own Vichy government, to obey, ja ja ja. Zis time ve vill not fail! Seig Heil!"

The Irish will be voting on Lisbon II in the coming week.

Read the editorial in the Guardian.

Story from The Independent

Two of my Greenpeace Japan colleagues, activists, Junichi and Toru, have been arrested for exposing the stolen whale meat scandal which led to the ongoing investigation by the Tokyo Public Prosecutor of the government's Southern Ocean whale hunt.

They're being investigated for allegedly stealing a box of whale meat - yet they delivered the meat to the public prosecutor a month ago, as evidence of a systematic whale meat smuggling operation. The activists had tracked the box, along with many others like it, after it had been smuggled off the Nisshin Maru, following its return from the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. They then followed the shipment to a depot in Tokyo, where they intercepted one of four boxes destined for the same private address, in order to verify the contents, and establish the fraud being carried out against the taxpayer.

Read more here Outrage: Greenpeace whale meat scandal whistleblowers arrested in Japan »

or

Greenpeace activists arrested for exposing Japan's whale meat scandal »

Take Action - tell the Japanese government to release them! »

Created using Google Maps, exported to Google Earth. Screen capture by Fraps. Compression work by Vikesh Tailor. Music is 'Cloud Cuckoo' from the album 'AirDrawnDagger' by Sasha.

Continue reading Musikkfest Oslo and Other Adventures (with poetic licence)...

'On May 30, Leduc picked Victoria up from school, where she's enrolled in an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) class with several boys around the same age. When Leduc returned home, there was an urgent call asking her to return to the Livingstone Street East school.

Frightened, Leduc rushed back to the school. She and Victoria entered a room where they were met by the principal, the vice-principal and the teacher.

Leduc said they advised her that Victoria's educational assistant (EA) had visited a psychic, who said a youngster whose name started with "V" was being sexually abused by a man between 23 and 26 years old. Leduc was also handed a list of recent behaviours exhibited by her daughter. '

More here