BIG BROTHER IN CYBERSPACE

Perhaps it’s no coincidence that George Orwell conceived the idea of 1984, and the total surveillance police state in the United Kingdom…

“British Internet service providers and telecoms are being asked to retain individual user data for a year's time as part of a new move to solidify police crime surveillance. The British government has said the information is needed to keep tabs on criminal and terrorist activities and is not linked to anti-piracy lobbying and such, though opponents see it as a potentially oppressive big-brother move. The plan calls for the tracking of all e-mails, phone calls and Internet use, including visits to social network sites. reports British newspaper.
Originally, Britain's Home Office Secretary Jacqui Smith sought to create a centralized national database, which drew the ire of many critics and was shelved, she announced Monday. "My key priority is to protect the citizens of the UK, and communications data is an essential tool for law enforcement agencies to track murderers and pedophiles, save lives and tackle crime," Smith told British media, including the BBC. "It is essential that the police and other crime-fighting agencies have the tools they need to do their job. However, to be clear, there are absolutely no plans for a single central store."
A state-run database run containing personal data was considered "extreme" and a great intrusion of citizen privacy. The government said with the new plan, its interest lies more in communications rather than content.
Companies such as BT, Virgin Media, O2 and others will be required to keep a customer's personal data with regard to phone and Web usage for up to 12 months. Law enforcement and other security agencies will have to request data from the ISPs and telecoms on a case-by-case basis. "What we are asking the industry will put a burden on them," Smith said, adding companies would be "recompensed" in some manner.
According to the Financial Times, the Home Office will spend 2 billion pounds (about $3 billion) over 10 years to pay for the new plan, which is still in the agreement stage with communications companies. British telecoms already provide data traffic information in some form to assist anti-crime and anti-terror units.”

The secret word is Data
The secret message is 44696420796f75207265616c6c79207468696e6b
20697420776f756c6420626520736f6d65746869
6e6720696d706f7274616e743f

Tom McGrath – RIP

FACECRIME

"It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself--anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face...; was itself a punishable offense. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime..." – George Orwell, 1984

A BAG OF WEED

But it's Saturday, so lets leave the worry and paranoia for Monday. Click here to watch the Family Guy production number “A Bag Of Weed.” (Donated by the good Munz.)

MAYDAY

YESTERDAY...

“I found these rather fantastic photographs from Google’s Life magazine collection. They feature some teenagers at a ‘rave’ on Eel Pie Island at Twickenham on a Wednesday night August 31 1960. There is practically no other information other than the photographs were taken by a Peter Hall (I’m presuming not the theatre impresario who became Sir Peter Hall).”

When I saw the above (and the below) on the excellent Nickel In The Machine site, I suffered a definite pang. 1960 was in my first year in art school, I was a precocious 16 year-old junior beatnik, and such as these were the first girls I ever lusted after. They seem a little more self-invented than today, but, otherwise, what has really changed, except time has long-gone moved on and taken from me the glory of youth?

The secret word is Lost

The message is 5768656e20746865206d75736963e2809973206f
7665722c207475726e206f757420746865206c69
6768742e

WHEN THE WORLD WAS YOUNG

Back when the world was young
Drunk on cheap well whiskey
And confused on mescaline
Walking rattlesnake curves
On sidewalks that refused to lay down
Resisting
Resisting
Resisting all the importunate invasions of reality
Back when the world was young
Searching for the gateway
To the Secret Garden
The Maps to the Labyrinth
And the Silver Key
With a woman in red shoes
Whose name was maybe Dolores
Dolores?
Or perhaps her name was...Laverne?

Back when the world was young
And fear was so perfectly academic
And the scales were so perfectly poised
That I could still pace the razor’s edge
Without cutting my feet or losing any further toes
And I believed
And I believed
And I believed in every fucking drop of rain that fell
Back when the world was young
And you had but to softly ask
The crushed whisper of velvet
The sheer innocence of pure desire
And the requested favor was granted and gratified
So will somebody give?
So will somebody give?
So will somebody please
Give the anarchist a cigarette?

This poem can be found, with accompaniment by Jack Lancaster, Wayne Kramer, and Doug Lunn, on the CD The Deathray Tapes (Alive Records)

MORE TALES OF ARLEN SPECTER (but Elvis?)

Elvis? Yes, Elvis!
Four days before Elvis Presley died, a Philadelphia psychic called Marc Salem wrote a prediction of his death that included pre-quoting the exact headlines from both the Philadelphia Daily News (The King Is Dead) and the Philadelphia Inquirer (The King Dies At 42). Salem wrote out his prediction on slips of paper that he then placed in an empty aspirin bottle, which was, in turn, baked into a pretzel, with orders that it should be broken out and opened if Elvis died. And guess who supervised the entire bizarre process? None other than Arlen Specter, a former Philadelphia DA and a future senator. Such is the measure of man who holds a nation’s fate in his hands.

The secret word is Flummoxed

The secret message is 4e6f206f6e6520686572652067657473206f7574
20616c697665

OUR WHACKY UNCLE BILL

Uncle Bill suits up for his second trip in the alien spacecraft.

SPECTER’S MAGIC BULLET

As Senator Arlen Specter changes side from the Republican to Democrat, and moves President Obama closer to an absolute majority in the Senate, let’s not pretend that Specter is looking out for anyone but Arlen Specter. Specter’s political career was set in motion back in the 1960s when, as an aggressive young staffer on the Warren Commission, he was rewarded for concocting the Magic Bullet Theory of the JFK assassination on which the entire Warren Report depended for the credibility of its “lone gunman” scenario. Who could forget the Magic Bullet – Commission Exhibit CE399 – that went through 15 layers of clothing, 7 layers of skin, and 15 inches of tissue, struck a necktie knot, removed 4 inches of rib, and shattered a radius bone with its copper jacket totally intact, and was then supposedly found, in its near pristine condition, on the stretcher used for Governor Connally, in the corridor at the Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, after the assassination.
And while we’re at it, check out the fine careers of other Warren Commission notables, starting with Gerald Ford who got to be president for his loyalty.
(Click here for more on the Magic Bullet or here for a longer Wikipedia entry.)

The secret word is Labyrinth

The secret message 506172616e6f696120737472696b657320646565
702e20

HELP ME! I’M THREATENED!

The following arrived today with more bad news about our wildlife…

Dear Mick,

In the next few weeks, the U.S. Forest Service plans to reopen a road that runs through the heart of grizzly bear habitat in Wyoming's Sweetwater Valley. With encroaching development on nearby lands, the Sweetwater Valley -- inside the Shoshone National Forest -- has become a secure oasis for threatened and imperiled wildlife. In the eight years that the road has been closed, an abundance of wildlife has thrived here, including grizzly bears, wolves, lynx, cougars and moose. In fact, grizzlies that have just come out of hibernation are grazing right now on grass and other plants found in the valley.
There is no rationale for the Forest Service's proposal to reopen the road, which leads nowhere and has languished for years. Reopening the road would only disturb and threaten the Sweetwater Valley's wilderness and wildlife.
Please urge the Forest Service to leave the road closed. Time is running out, as forest officials plan to reopen the road in the next few weeks.

Sincerely,Frances Beinecke

President Natural Resources Defense Council

Click here to send your protest

This blog is still approved by the Corleone Crime Family

THE ADVENTURES OF MARILYN (Part 2135)

In which, for some days, Marilyn has been followed everywhere by the wholly inane and annoyingly butch drag-queen Jane Russell replicant, who not only shows off her legs and wears identical clothing to Marilyn, but insists on looking at herself in a small mirror at approximately three minute intervals. Marilyn first theorized that the replicant was some kind of infiltrated Apollonian psyops device, but this was rejected out of hand by Dionysian Intelligence. (An oxy-moron, Marilyn thought, if every there was one.) They informed her that the Russell was a model 20 back-up guardian, and that Marilyn was lucky to have such singular personal protection. Realizing that she has no immediate way of ridding herself of the unwelcome presence, she turns her back on the thing and drinks a Coke.

(Pic supplied by Valerie)

(THE ADVENTURES OF MARILYN NOW HAS IT’S OWN PAGE SO THE WHOLE THING CAN BE READ WITHOUT SCROLLING. CLICK HERE)

WANT A DRUGLESS HALLUCINATION?

As a longtime connoisseur of hallucinations, I can totally assure you that this works really well, despite the somewhat lame music. Click here and follow the instructions.

OR WOULD YOU PREFER A BIZARRE RELIGIOUS ILLUSION?

As in the face of Jesus in the wafer of a Kit Kat. (Image supplied by Wendy)

The secret word is Worship
The secret message is 47616262612d67616262612068657921 (If you need the decoding instructions, just shout.)

SWINE FLU AND PUPPIES GLOWED IN THE DARK

Did someone say creepy, or maybe our just desserts? As the media panics about a swine flu pandemic, the following was sent by our friend Diva. Is humanity stone crazy now? Goddamn

“A cloned beagle named Ruppy – short for Ruby Puppy – is the world's first transgenic dog. She and four other beagles all produce a fluorescent protein that glows red under ultraviolet light. A team led by Byeong-Chun Lee of Seoul National University in South Korea created the dogs by cloning fibroblast cells that express a red fluorescent gene produced by sea anemones. Lee and researcher Woo Suk Hwang were part of a team that created the first cloned dog, Snuppy, in 2005. Much of Hwang's work on human cells turned out to be fraudulent, but Snuppy was not, an investigation later concluded.” (Click here for more.)

WILD ONE

WILD TWO

WILD THREE

WILD FOUR

WILD MORE

The secret word is Rebellion

The secret message is 576174746120796f7520676f743f

THEY'RE BACK...

I was sitting down to write some piece of Saturday cynical amusement and then, with dire synchronicity, I received this link from our good pal Jimmy, and also a breaking-news email that the WHO fears swine flu could become a pandemic. And, of course, should the Third Horseman really show up with all his droogs, the USA doesn’t have a healthcare system worth shit. But the good news is that an infestation of venture capitalist swine will make beaucoup bucks from the plague, and they are very fucking happy.

“LOS ANGELES, April 24 (Reuters) - The swine flu outbreak is likely to benefit one of the most prolific and successful venture capital firms in the United States: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Thomson Reuters Private Equity Week reported on Friday.
Shares of the two public companies in the firm's portfolio of eight Pandemic and Bio Defense companies -- BioCryst Pharmaceuticals and Novavax – jumped Friday on news that the swine flu killed a reported 60 people in Mexico and has infected people in the United States. The World Health Organization said the virus appears to be susceptible to Roche's flu drug Tamiflu, also known as oseltamivir, but not to older flu drugs such as amantadine. (Click here for the whole story)”

Can we hang them now, please? From lampposts? (And isn’t there something very dubious about Tamiflu? I can’t quite remember the conspiracy theory.)

The secret word is plainly Pestilence

The secret message is 4920746f6c6420796f752049207761736e277420
6665656c696e672077656c6c2e

…OR IS HANGING TOO GOOD FOR CAPITALISTS?

This is from 1914. Sadly little changes unless forced to.

PROLETARIAT PINUP Saturday Special -- Jane Fonda

"No great idea in its beginning can ever be within the law. How can it be within the law? The law is stationary. The law is fixed. The law is a chariot wheel which binds us all regardless of conditions or place or time." – Emma Goldman

THE HEAT COOLED DOWN

The heatwave has passed and I'm back. Without irony or sarcasm, I’m touched by how, when I don’t post anything on Doc40 for a few days, some of you worry that I have died, burned out, been held for ransom or otherwise become incapacitated. Thanks for all the enquires and good wishes. I really appreciate them, but do remember that now and again I have to take time off to maintain my health, sanity, and also earn a living, which is a huge obstacle in itself through these troubled times.

The secret word is Stress

The secret message is 50656f706c652061726520737472616e67652077
68656e20796f75e280997265206120737472616e
6765722e

THE GUITARPLAYER'S BRAIN

Munz sent over this story from multi-instrumentalist Chris Darrow. We’ll ignore the obvious jokes.

“New German research indicates that when musicians play together, they think together as well.
Study author Ulman Lindenberger of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin and his co-investigators looked at electrical activity in the brains of eight pairs of guitarists. They monitored patterns of brain waves as the musicians played a short jazz-fusion melody together up to 60 times, and published their findings in the journal BMC Neuroscience.
The study reported that the frontal and central regions of the guitarists’ brains synchronized to a high degree. But, more surprisingly, the temporal and parietal regions also showed significant synchronization in more than half of the pairs. These regions may be involved in simply enjoying the music, researchers suggested.To my mind, this study highlights one of the great joys of playing music, one voiced by many musicians: a sense of self-transcendence. Playing music together creates a rare chance to step outside of ourselves and our small concerns and join our minds wholeheartedly with others in creating something no individual could make alone. Seen in this light, creating beautiful music is simply a wonderful byproduct of a larger reward – connecting deeply with other human beings.”

OUR WHACKY UNCLE BILL

Uncle Bill is convinced the typewriter moved and he waits for it to move again.

THE HEAT AND THE HANGOVER

As cynics surmised, it did take me a couple of days to get over Friday night’s Hawkwind tribute. At events of that kind, I do rather feel obliged to address the alcohol and other stimulants with some rigor, if only to show the young people how it’s done. Then, just complicate matters, a 95F heat wave dropped on the city out of nowhere, leaving my brain limp and unusable, and my liver feeling like it attacked Akabar by land, plus generally demonstrating that I am not made of sterner stuff. Doubtless I will write more as it cools off.

THE BLACK LEATHER JACKET

Back in the 20th century I wrote an excellent book called The Black Leather Jacket which latter became a Channel 4/PBS documentary narrated by Dennis Hopper. Confirming that nothing ever really goes away, although the documentary isn’t be seen on TV too often these days, it has appeared on YouTube chopped into a bunch of multiple episodes. (Click here for the first.)

J.G. Ballard – RIP

SPACE OPERA

Seems like I’ll be gracing the stage at the LA Knitting Factory tomorrow, performing at a Hawkwind tribute, at the invitation of our pal Tommy Grenas . I’ll be reading Bob Calvert’s Sonic Attack and I hope a good time will be had by all. If you happen to be in Hollywood, the grand finale, of which I’ll be a part, as will master guitarist Andy Colquhoun, should launch at about half past midnight.

The secret word is Space

The secret message is 546970207468652062617274656e6465722e

MORE SPACE OPERA

I have a well reasoned rant about Grey Aliens posted on the L.O.W.F.I. website. (That’s League of Western Fortean Intermediatists, to you, pilgrim.) Click here to read it.

ULTIMATE SPACE

Our pal Elf Hellion has sent us a link to an amazing piece of archive material – a 1975 Rolling Stone interview with Philip K. Dick, by Paul Williams, and in full facsimile form. (Click here to grok the fullness.)

AN UGLY WIND

The sign read “AMERICAN TAXPAYERS ARE THE JEWS FOR OBAMA’S OVENS.” At first I laughed in disbelief. The Republican Party, just as I predicted back in January, moves closer and closer to becoming “a rump fragment of the GOP – the Raving Looney Shotgun Hillbilly Jesus Party who would, if lucky, constitute some 15% of the electorate and never manage to be more than a noisy nuisance the rest of us could tune out.” The only problem is that cable news in general, and Fox in particular refuses to tune them out. Even when only dozens instead of thousands turn out for the absurd – and unfortunately named – teabag tax protest, Fox goes on trumpeting as a “grassroots revolution.”
Unfortunately all this nonsense unwittingly backs the Raving Looney Shotgun Hillbilly Jesus Party in the direction of the White Supremist/armed militia/neo-Nazis fringe. A ugly wind blows through a ravaged middle American landscape, and lacking any appreciable philosophy, or even a pragmatic core of belief, conservatives follow the prime directive of protecting the rich and corporate, and fob off their benighted rank and file with nothing more than an irrationally venomous and sometimes racist personal hatred of Barack Obama. Earlier this week a report leaked from the Department of Homeland Security indicated that the extreme right was growing and on the move.

“If you think the conservative "Tea Party" movement is daunting, take a look at a new report issued by the Department of Homeland Security that says right-wing extremism is on the rise throughout the country. In the report (a full copy of which is below), officials warn that right-wing extremists could use the bad state of the U.S. economy and the election of the country's first black president to recruit new members to their cause.” (Click here for the whole thing)

I trust Homeland Security about as much as I trust Rush Limbaugh, but I did find it amusing that Limbaugh, Hannity, Malkin, Glenn Beck and the rest started screaming bloody murder about how conservatives were victims of an Obama police state, forgetting, perhaps, how gung ho they were when the DHS was hunting terrorists through the libraries of the land, and the NSA was tapping our phones. Back then they were prone to snarl how patriots who hadn’t done anything had nothing to fear, and that we should be willing to give up our liberty if we wanted to be safe. Bob Cesca notes in HuffPo…

“But back to that "fascist" accusation. I'm not convinced that tea baggers like Michelle Malkin understand that fascism is, in fact, a form of right wing extremism. Because for the last 24 hours or so, Malkin, Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and the usual band of apoplectic brainiacs appear to have been vigorously defending "right wing extremism" after having previously accused the president of being on the same flank of the ideological spectrum.” (Click here for the whole thing.)

Essentially if someone doesn’t shut the fuck up, it could all turn very ugly. The extreme right are not posturing media shills. They have guns and very bad attitudes.

The secret weapon is MAC10

The secret message is 546f206b6e6f772068696d20697320746f206c6f
76652068696d2e

FROM THE ABSURD TO THE UNBELIEVEABLE

Munz forwarded this and we swear that it’s real, and reproduced about as intact as we can make it.

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Rachelle Spector

To: undisclosed-recipients:;Date: Wed, 15 Apr 2009 03:50:52 -0700Subject:

Calling on ALL family, friends, acquaintances---I'M CRYING FOR HELP!!!!

FREE PHIL SPECTOR--NOW!!!!

Phil Spector, my husband, needs YOUR help now more than ever!!!!

A grave mis-carriage of justice has taken place and another innocent man has gone to jail for something he clearly and scientifically did NOT do.

Please help FREE PHIL SPECTOR!!!

Please do as many interviews as possible with regard to this case because NOW the gag order is OVER....we are ALL free to talk to whomever we wish!Do interviews for as many TV, radio and internet sites as possible; write letters to the president, the governor of California, councilmen/women...to everyone and anyone that will listen!!!

WE NEED TO EXPOSE JUDGE FIDLER. WE NEED TO GET OUT ANY AND ALL INFORMATION ABOUT LANA CLARKSON THAT THE JUDGE WOULD NOT LET IN.

This is a matter of life and death people!!!!!! Any thoughts, ideas, plans....PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO TALK TO ME....BUT LETS GET OUR BUTTS MOVING.....

THE ART OF MOSCOSO

BO DIDDLEY IS A WHITE HOUSE DOG

I had frankly grown bored with the Obama’s new dog. The First Puppy was taking far too long to arrive and had even developed its own politically correct political strings. But then I learned that the Portuguese water mutt had been named after Bo Diddley and I had to stop and think. That the White House Dog is named for the late lamented Bo has to be some kind of mildly significant symbol, even if Obama is flakey about legalizing dope.

And while you’re thinking about it click here for some Bo.

The secret word is Woof!

The secret message is 57686f20646f20796f75206c6f76653f

GENE VINCENT WILL NEVER HAVE A WHITE HOUSE DOG NAMED AFTER HIM

But this is the way we like to remember rock & roll’s first psycho. (Thanks Tom.)

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING TO WORRY ABOUT

(I notice the giant germs are only carrying off the women.)

Our pal Tim has more than his fair share of family troubles. Doc40 offers him all possible comfort.

PHILLIP GOES DOWN

I guess this is the fall of the Wall of Sound…

"LOS ANGELES - Rock music producer Phil Spector was convicted Monday of second-degree murder in the shooting death of actress Lana Clarkson at his mansion six years ago, a verdict that will send him to prison for at least 18 years barring a successful appeal. A Superior Court jury returned the verdict after about 30 hours of deliberations. The jury had the option of choosing involuntary manslaughter, but did not do so. The panel also found Spector guilty of using a firearm in committing a crime."

The secret word is Loaded

The secret message is 596f75e280997665206c6f73742074686174206c
6f76696e67206665656c696e672e

OUR WHACKY UNCLE BILL

Uncle Bill falls asleep at the dream machine.

And HCB has coincidentally sent us this review by Jason Anderson of the documentary FlicKeR, directed by Nik Sheehan.

“Toronto director Nik Sheehan’s biodoc on visionary painter and writer Brion Gysin doubles as a cogent yet appropriately trippy primer on how the activities of a few freaks who drifted between Paris and Tangier in the ’50s came to have a vast cultural influence. It was Gysin who led the Beats to Morocco after the British-born, Alberta-bred artist first joined Paul Bowles there in 1950. And it was Gysin who pioneered the literary cut-up technique that would be popularized by his pal William S. Burroughs. What interests Sheehan most of all in FLicKeR is another of Gysin’s innovations, the Dream Machine. This mysterious contraption offered the prospect of a drugless high. Though Sheehan has his own custom-made, the film also shows how low-cost versions can be jimmied up with a light bulb, some construction paper and a record player. (An additional record player may also be employed to spin Pink Floyd’s “Echoes” or the astral music of your choice.) Iggy Pop, Marianne Faithfull and Genesis P-Orridge are just three of the countercultural icons we see experiencing the machine’s effects on camera — alas, none report having visions of Karl Rove being sodomized by a mountain goat. In any case, Sheehan succeeds at renewing interest in an artist whose influence far outweighs his fame.”

SPACE OPERA

This is not the Jetex spaceship referred to in yesterday’s post. But it’s close.

HAPPY EASTER

These are your brains on religion.

SPACE OPERA

"But you're not a pig."

"Seek bacon elsewhere, Earthman."

WHAT THE HELL IS JETEX?

Jetex was crucial in the development of my pre-teen personality, and thus, when I discovered an actual print ad for the Jetex motor on my favorite website I was both surprised and uplifted. The Jetex motor was a cheap, solid-fuel burning, rocket-propulsion unit for toy planes, cars, and boats.
My first encounter was with a Jetex powered car that was supposed to run on a line – at quite alarming speed – in circles around a central tether. Although it was my car, my stepfather insisted on setting the thing up and lighting the Jetex fuse. And, needless to say, he fucked up. The car was being run on a very uneven patio. It hit a bump, went straight up on the air for some distance and then came back down again, scared the dog, and pretty much wrecked itself, although the Jetex motor was still intact.

My second Jetex experience was with something called the Dan Dare Jetex Space Rocket that was launched from a spring-loaded ramp, supposedly released a parachute after it had achieved what Werner von Braun called brenschluss, and floated gently to earth. It came in kit form. My grandfather and I took almost a full month of one summer to complete the asbestos-lined, balsa wood construction. But we miss-timed the first launch, and the rocket fell off the ramp before the motor ignited, and then it lay on its side, burning grass and spewing smoke until the fuel burned out.
The second launch of the Dan Dare Jetex Space Rocket was much more successful. The rocket went up a hundred feet or more before the fuel was spent. Unfortunately the chute didn’t deploy until far too late in the fall to stop it ploughing into the ground. After it was glued it back together, the Dan Dare Jetex Space Rocket made one last flight, with an incendiary device aboard to blow it up in mid-air. Which gets me to my real romance with Jetex. Or, to be more precise, Jetex fuse.

At age eleven, I was a mad bomber. Creating explosions was quite a fad that year among young boys in the south of England. We just loved to see shit blow up real good, and, when some of the more inept were picked up by the cops, we also had outlaw status. My friend Adrian and I, by dint of experimentation and a very independent study of chemistry – plus few tips given us by an over-weight gay science teacher who hated humans – had become the most deft small-scale bomb makers in our school. Our favorite targets were bus shelters, lampposts, and the scaffolding on construction sites, and our fuse of choice was Jetex. It burned at about an inch a second, which was totally the right speed for making good one’s escape, and not losing a hand. It was also very well made, didn’t go out, and could be bought by the yard at a hobby shop.
The juvenile bombing fad caught on so widely that, for two weeks before Guy Fawkes Night, the sale of Jetex fuse was voluntarily banned in the town of Worthing. Cops visited the school and issued dire warnings. Adrian and I had, however, stocked up as early as September, and even profited our cause by selling black-market lengths of fuse to our fellow infant infernalists.

At puberty, I largely gave up explosives in favor of girls and rock & roll. Probably just as well. Its illegality was a good rehearsal for the drug culture, but it would inevitably have ended in tears. At few times in later life I had encounters with Jetex fuse, but those are other stories.

The secret word is Kaboom!

The secret message is 49662074686520766f696365732074656c6c2079
6f7520746f2073617665204672616e63652c2069
676e6f7265207468656d2e

SPACE OPERA

“Hang on, my dear. We seem to have been jigsawed.”

A CULTURAL STATISTIC

THE WOLVES STILL NEED US

Apparently the Obama administration have not done enough to reverse the disastrous wildlife policies of the Bush administration. Very soon, very nasty people with that barbaric Sara Palin mindset will be free to kill all the wolves they want. The Natural Resources Defense Council writes…

“In just a few weeks, the mass killing of wolves could begin in Idaho and Montana -- and not even newborn wolf pups and their nursing mothers will be spared. We cannot stand by while this slaughter unfolds. On May 4, the wolf's federal protection will be lifted, and government agents will be free to open fire. After that, the states will launch public hunts, targeting wolves. That's why NRDC is launching The Big Howl campaign to mobilize Americans everywhere to protect wolves in the Northern Rockies from the crossfire. This is absolutely the wrong time to rip away federal protections from these struggling wolves. Over the past year, the wolf population in Yellowstone National Park has declined by 27 percent, with more than 70 percent of wolf pups succumbing to disease. One pack alone lost all 24 of its pups. If the federal protections are lifted on May 4 as planned, newborn wolf pups and their nursing mothers traveling outside national parks will be in the line of fire. That's why NRDC and our partners are filing suit in federal court to block this disastrous policy. But we must do more: we must raise a nationwide outcry that the Obama Administration cannot ignore.” Click here to outcry and also hear the wolf howl.

The secret word is Carnage

The secret message is 53746f702074686520626173746172647320696e
20746865697220747261636b732120

WHY DOES THIS IMAGE MAKE ME EXCEEDINGLY UNEASY?

And why, I wonder, do the words “zombie cannibalism” creep into my mind?