MonthDecember 2007

Hear Voices? It May Be an Ad

An A&E Billboard ‘Whispers’ a Spooky Message Audible Only in Your Head in Push to Promote Its New ‘Paranormal’ Program

New Yorker Alison Wilson was walking down Prince Street in SoHo last week when she heard a woman’s voice right in her ear asking, ‘Who’s there? Who’s there?’ She looked around to find no one in her immediate surroundings. Then the voice said, ‘It’s not your imagination.’

Indeed it isn’t. It’s an ad for ‘Paranormal State,’ a ghost-themed series premiering on A&E this week. The billboard uses technology manufactured by Holosonic that transmits an ‘audio spotlight’ from a rooftop speaker so that the sound is contained within your cranium. The technology, ideal for museums and libraries or environments that require a quiet atmosphere for isolated audio slideshows, has rarely been used on such a scale before. For random passersby and residents who have to walk unwittingly through the area where the voice will penetrate their inner peace, it’s another story.

Full Story: Commercial Alert.

Bad neuroscience coverage in newspapers criticized

On Wednesday, a second piece of spurious, brain-based punditry made its way into the opinion pages of a major newspaper. This time it’s an essay in the Los Angeles Times from psychiatrist and self-help guru Daniel G. Amen, a medical maverick who runs a chain of private brain-scanning facilities across the country. Amen doesn’t want to read the minds of swing voters; he wants to study the candidates themselves.

[…]

The proposal is doubly outlandish: first, for asserting that it’s possible to distinguish a tyrant from a peacemaker-or a philanderer from a loving spouse-on the basis of a few single photon emission computed tomography scans; and second, for suggesting that we might want to use this putative ability to make a priori judgments about anyone. (What if one of our presidential candidates turned out to have a Hitler brain-would we throw him in precautionary lockup?) Amen isn’t indulging in Swiftian irony, either. He truly believes that brain scans can predict behavior and that it’s a good idea to screen the general population for neuropathology: “I’m just always looking for the perfect brain,” he recently told the Sacramento Bee. “If I date someone long enough, they get scanned.”

Full Story: Slate.

Previous coverage on Slate.

(all via Hit and Run).

Hindu gods get court summons

An Indian judge has summoned two Hindu gods to help resolve a 20-year-old property dispute.

Sunil Kumar Singh has placed notices in newspapers in the coal mining town of Dhanbad, in the eastern state of Jharkhand, asking gods Ram and Hanuman to appear in his court next week to present their arguments.

[…]

The dispute is over ownership of a 1.4-acre plot in Dhanbad which adjoins a temple dedicated to Ram and another one dedicated to the monkey god Hanuman. Worshippers claim the land belongs to the gods but the priest, Manmohan Patnaik, insists that it is his.

Full Story: The Telegraph.

(via Hit and Run).

Led Zeppelin Reunion

I finally succumbed to all the hullaboo about this reunion, because in fact Jimmy Page was not only my guitar hero, but a major influence on my interest in magick and occultism. The clips are starting to pour in, but I could only find a few that weren’t just bits and pieces of the show. I decided to post a few links before YouTube and others are threatened to remove them. Click here and here and here.

Video for Peter “Sleazey” Christopherson’s first post-Coil project: The Threshold HouseBoys Choir “A Time of Happening”

(Thanks Trevor!)

Anti-gay Boy Scouts leader arrested for molesting boys

A scout leader who once sued the City of Berkeley for challenging a national Boy Scout ban on members who are gay or atheist has been arrested on felony charges that for at least five years he sexually abused young males in the troops he led.

[…]

Mr. Evans sued the city in his role as a leader of the Sea Scouts, an affiliate program of the Boy Scouts. The city, after providing free berthing for a Sea Scouts boat for 60 years, said in 1998 that a Boy Scout policy barring gay scouts and atheists violated Berkeley’s rules against discrimination. The city said the Scouts would have to leave the berth or pay $500 a month rent.

Mr. Evans sued for discrimination and for violating the Scouts’ First Amendment rights. The California Supreme Court ruled in favor of Berkeley.

Full Story: New York Times.

(via Wonkette).

links for 2007-12-10

“God Hates Goths”

WTF?!! Just saw this on another site. According to this moronic wacko, not only does “God hate Goths”, but “God hates retards, women, and Harry Potter”! Love the claim about being a “Peaceful Christian Organization”… Have fun posting on this one, folks!

“Welcome to the GodHatesGoths.com. The Official Website of the ‘Parents Against Goth’ Organisation. A Peaceful Christian Organisation set-up to warn Parents and Children about the dangers of getting involved in the sinister and violent Gothic subculture. This website is the result of 10 long years of painstaking research and investigation into teen Satanism, Self-harming, Wicca, and the twisted and disturbing world of Goth. This is an exciting time for all at PAG, This year marks our tenth anniversary, and what better way to celebrate a decade of speaking out against Satanism, helping children escape from Cults, lecturing in schools and Churches about the dangers of teen satanic culture, heavy metal, Wicca and Goth, than by firmly establishing our online presence. What we offer is ten year of experience in educating young people about the dangers of the Gothic subculture, and the role that heavy satanic music plays in destroying lives (and brain-cells).”

(God Hates Goths)

Really bad tattoos

scribble tattoo

I actually kinda like this one, but there are some pretty bad ones here. Some pics are NSFW.

See more: Type Brighter.

(Thanks Jessica!)

Is it time for impeachment yet?

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