Category Archives: Media

Mel-ennial madness, from father to son

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Christopher Knowles at the Secret Sun reminds us this week that Mel Gibson’s crazed dad — a reputed Holocaust denier and darling of white nationalist broadcasters — deserves much of the credit for creating Hollywood’s favorite real-life monster.

Knowles calls upon his own experiences, as well, to make the case:

I very much doubt that growing up with a guy like Hutton as your father made for a lot of smiles and sunshine. I wouldn’t be surprised if that belt didn’t come off at the slightest possible infraction. Growing up in a neighborhood with a lot of people raised in the pre-Vatican II church, I got to know the mentality.

via The Secret Sun: Mel-ennium, or The Real Passion.

"Never be apart" from a piece of Lost history

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Profiles in History, the same company that auctioned off Captain Kirk’s conn for $250,000, will soon take bids on everything from Dharma Initiative beer to the wedding band that symbolized everyone’s favorite Lost couple, Sun and Jin.

The inscription inside Jin’s ring reads, in Korean, “We will never be apart.”

Of course the two spent a heck of a lot of time apart. From the item description:

When Locke decides to bring the Oceanic Six back to the Island, Jin begins to have misgivings about letting Sun return to the place of “death.” As a result, he gives Locke his wedding ring to give to Sun. This would tell Sun that he had died and would take away her own reason to return. For his part, Locke keeps his promise. However, after Ben strangles Locke and takes the ring, Ben uses it to his advantage and convinces Sun that Jin is indeed alive and that she should return to the Island.

Profiles in History has not yet published estimated values for its Lost auction items. But if Jin’s ring proves too pricey, you might try your luck with the pearl necklace Sun’s previous lover in Korea offered to her. (Sun refused the gift, which the poor guy held in his hand when he jumped to his death.)

via Jin’s Wedding Ring – Lost Auction Preview – Profiles in History.

Red Ice and Alex Putney talk nanomaterials, colloidal gold and silver

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Photo: Kenna Takahashi/Flickr CC

An important note of clarification fro RIC host Henrik Palmgren, re: colloidal gold and silver, which he discussed with Alex Putney in hour two of the program: “We covered the dangers of monoatomic gold… Electrum water, that contains gold and silver particles is totally different (and natural). — MB

I listened intently to the first hour of Red Ice Creation’s interview with Alex Putney last weekend, while I was hiking in the Berkshire Mountains. The Palmgren brothers have put together a regular head trip of a radio program!

If you are a fan of esoteric topics, you must definitely tune-in. Here’s a description of the Putney interview from the Red Ice website (emphases are mine):

Alex Putney (discusses) his work and theories on standing waves, geometrical relationship between ancient monuments, pyramids, sacred sites, magnetic resonance, Earth’s chakras points, changing energies, 2012, acoustic levitation, Tesla, electrum water, black light and the strange objects found at La Maná in Ecuador that are UV fluorescent. Do not miss these two very interesting hours.

Putney in the first hour of the interview mentions the work of Randell Mills, who has developed a process for chemically releasing energy from water. (My brother, Erik Baard, has covered Mills’ research for Space.com, and others.)

In hour two, Putney, who studied at Boston University and Brandeis University, said he hopes to achieve a “higher (or superior) metabolism,” without the need for ordinary food.

And to get there, it appears Putney is using colloidal gold and silver — a controversial approach, to say the least.

via Red Ice Radio – Alex Putney – Human Resonance, Sacred Sites, Pyramids & Standing Waves.

Faced with legalization, pot growers mull new marketing tactics

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The foodies get it. Pot-laced products bear interesting labels. Photo: Bob With/Flickr CC

More mainstream focus on the impending pot legalization story. In this case, Village Voice Media’s Toke of the Town picks up on an NPR report. — MB

I interviewed a California medical marijuana producer a year ago, and he was already stressing about legalization. (Like many licensed to grow medical marijuana in the state, he also sells pot to non-medical clients.)

“I want to get out of the business before it becomes fully legal,” he said.

But since then, the same grower has started mulling new angles for his business. One is branding: He and a close relative hope to become the Mondavi brothers of weed. He noted in a subsequent interview the allure of small batch beers, and reckoned that pot growers can take a similar approach to marketing their product.

Marijuana growers could compete against the likes of Altria by emphasizing their organic growing methods, for example, or that they are local producers.

The context:

“Greater supply, more competition, and especially the prospect of legalized marijuana — with the issue enjoying majority support and slated to appear on November’s ballot in California — is exerting downward pressure on pot prices…”

via Toke of the Town – Low Pot Prices Create Panic; We Should All Have Such Problems.

Times of London: 712 words to "hotshot" sniper

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Photo: Cory Doctorow/Flickr CC

A British army sniper got lucky in Afghanistan last year, when he plugged two enemy fighters more than one-and-a-half miles away, with his 8.59 mm long range rifle.

The rifle has a 25X scope.

The Times of London, in a piece that furthers the sniper mystique, says the soldier scored his record kills in November of last year, in a piece that reads like something ran today.

“Tom Irwin, a director of Accuracy International, the British manufacturer of the L115A3 rifle, said: ‘It is still fairly accurate beyond 4,921ft, but at that distance luck plays as much of a part as anything.’”

via Hotshot sniper in one-and-a-half mile double kill – Times Online.

via I am Military on Twitter.

Copycat killers use knives, where guns are scarce

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Consumerism doesn't work for everyone. Photo: Ernie/Flickr CC

The latest attacks suggest that middle-aged men are struggling to cope in capitalist China. — MB

Loren Coleman suspects the wave of school killings by older males that horrified the Chinese in April, hasn’t ended:

“I have pointed out that in China and Japan, due to their strict firearms laws, such countries tend to manifest their ‘copycat school violence’ in terms of ‘stabbing’ series. Will this current stabbing spree spread to Japan or other Asian nations?”

The attacks, as Coleman suggests (noting what precipitated the attacks, and how they ended), probably reflect an increase suicidal behavior amongst Chinese men, many of whom are struggling to get ahead within their new, ruthless, economy.

Japan and South Korea already lead much of the world in suicides.

Alas, the most recent World Health Organization data for China is 11 years old.

In 1999, the suicide rate for men over 65 was four-to-five times higher than for their middle-aged cohorts. My bet is that the 40-something set has been closing that gap.

via Twilight Language: 3 Days, 3 Attacks.

Forteans, esotericists: New book will make you crazy for Maine

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Image: Via Loren Coleman's Cryptomundo

Loren Coleman calls a new book by Strange Maine blogger and esotericist, Michelle Souilere, “a great and significant addition to the growing regional literature on the unknown…”

Coleman also notes that a 1-2 month estimated wait at Amazon.com, for the book, is likely incorrect.

Don’t despair, writes Coleman:

“…you can stop by the Green Hand Bookshop in Portland, Maine, and pick up a copy directly from the author, today. She’ll even autograph it. Or, if you are far away from Maine, you probably can order it from Amazon or your local bookstore, and have it next week, not next month!”

via Cryptomundo.

“Strange Maine: True Tales from the Pine Tree State This book is a great and significant addition to the growing regional literature on the unknown by new authors who are out there digging up new and old information overlooked by previous writers, investigators, and historians.”

What happens at a Rainbow gathering?

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Nine bucks to Flux will buy you some answers. — MB

Previous gathering. Photo: Alexander Konovalenko/Flickr CC

Journalist and videographer Flux Rostrum, whose work has appeared on Democracy Now and at other prominent outlets, operates the NOmadjik Media Bus — the green grease-burning rig that’s brought us stories from coal country and NOLA, to just about everywhere else that real news is happening.

This summer, Flux will be working with the Petrol-Free Gypsy Carnival Tour, and reporting from the anarchic Rainbow Gathering — a be-in with roots in the 1960′s, which is now threatened by police activity in US national parks.

Reporters such as those from Flux’s Mobile Broadcast News protect our freedom to congregate in our publicly-owned lands.

I’ve just added my $9 to the pool. Please join me!

“Donations will be used to subsidize the NOmadjik Media Bus which will be providing media assistance this summer to the Petrol Free Gypsy Tour in May and vital off grid media distribution infrastructure on the ground at the National Rainbow Gathering in June & July.”

via Mobile Broadcast News | Flux Rostrum’s Fundraiser on Crowdrise.

Zorgy Awards: Put Tim Binnall over the top

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I just picked Tim Binnall’s podcast, Binnall of America, for the Best Paranormal Podcast of 2009.

Loren Coleman gets my vote for top paranormal researcher.

Both are on my list of Ten New England Esotericists to Watch in 2010.

From The Other Side of Truth, which hosts the Zorgy Awards (only a few days to go):

“Voting begins… now!

The polls will close on March 7, 2010, at 11 pm AST.

via The Other Side of Truth: The 2009 Zorgy Awards – Voting Begins.

EC journo presents at esoteric-themed conference

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Emmanuel College journo MacKenzie Peltier (a psychology major) filed a post from the SXSW of scholarly conferences, recently.

The conference, SWTX (for the the Southwest Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Association) was chockablock with analyses of spooky fiction:

“…panels, papers and lectures on everything vampire, especially Twilight-themed vampires. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Area extensively examined books, television shows and movies for themes of power, sex and violence, while the implications of such pop-culture trends on society were endless explored.”

Peltier is a genius-level undergrad, majoring in psychology. She was at the conference in February, actually, to present a paper of her own.

The topic for Peltier’s paper is a timely one: “Beautiful on the Inside? Thematic Analysis of Pseudo-Fat Acceptance on
Reality TV.”

Given the conference’s “alien” (i.e., “otherness”) theme, I wish I could been there.

Peltier had me sold on the conference, too, from the moment she showed me its program cover (above).

You can find a PDF link to the SWTX program, here.

via MacKenzie Peltier « The Tack.