majestic
Majestic is a senior member of the disinformation editorial team based in New York City.
Damon Albarn’s Dr Dee
Sixteenth Century mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, occultist, navigator, imperialist and consultant to Queen Elizabeth I, English magus John Dee devoted his life to the study of alchemy, divination and Hermetic philosophy. He sought to contact angels through Edward Kelley, a “scryer” or crystal-gazer, who would act as an intermediary between Dee and the angels. Dee claimed that angels dictated several books to him this way, some in a special angelic or “Enochian” language, which has been the source of much fascination in more recent times.
One modern Englishman who has caught the Dee bug is musician Damon Albarn (Blur, Gorillaz, etc.), who has just premiered a visionary new opera entitled simply, Dr Dee. Ben Wooley tells more about Dee in this interview, and below is a sample of Albarn’s album:
Maurice Sendak, RIP, On The ‘Book Of His Life’
The creative force behind Where the Wild Things Are is dead at 83, but we remember him here, talking about his masterpiece:
Anonymous Wreaks Revenge On Pirate Bay Censor
Don’t mess with “open and free internets”! Robert Andrews reports on Anonymous’ latest target for Gigaom:
God forbid anyone incur the combined wrath of both The Pirate Bay and Anonymous.
The hacking collective is claiming responsibility for levelling a successful distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack on the websites of Virgin Media.
Virgin became the first UK ISP to block its subscribers’ access to The Pirate Bay last week, following a High Court ruling that the Bay breaches record label copyrights and should be blocked…
Bomber in Plot on U.S. Airliner Said to Be a Double Agent
Fantastic spy novel stuff, but for real (apparently) per this report in the New York Times:
The would-be suicide bomber dispatched by the Yemen branch of Al Qaeda last month to blow up a United States-bound airliner was actually a double agent who infiltrated the terrorist group and volunteered for the suicide mission, American and foreign officials said Tuesday.
In an extraordinary intelligence coup, the agent left Yemen, traveling by way of the United Arab Emirates, and delivered both the innovative bomb designed for his air attack and critical information on the group’s leaders to the C.I.A., Saudi and other foreign intelligence agencies.
After spending weeks at the center of the terrorist network’s most dangerous affiliate, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the agent provided critical information that permitted the C.I.A. to direct the drone strike on Sunday that killed Fahd Mohammed Ahmed al-Quso, the group’s external operations director and a suspect in…
The Dictator Punks Washington
Why are comedians the only people brave (or stupid?) enough to stick it to the politicos in Washington, D.C.? Sacha Baron-Cohen’s latest stunt is reported by Al Kamen in the Washington Post:
Invitations have been arriving in mailboxes around Washington for an event that might raise eyebrows even in this invite-overloaded town.
Below an image of the flag of Zimbabwe, the script on the thick-stock paper reads: “President Robert Mugabe and the Ministry of Education, Sport, Art, and Culture invite you to the Premiere of The Dictator.”
That’s the new Sacha Baron Cohen movie in which the funnyman portrays a despot who rules over the fictional African nation of Wadiya. The name alone probably raised a red flag for savvy recipients, who recalled Cohen’s previous antics: He attempted to seduce Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.) in the movie “Bruno,” and fed cheese to former Rep. Bob Barr — and later informed the Georgia Republican it was made from breast milk — in “Borat”…
Brain Scans Reveal Dogs’ Thoughts
Add one more expensive and unnecessary expenditure to the many made by obsessive dog owners: an MRI scan to reveal their innermost thoughts. Via LiveScience:
Fido’s expressive face, including those longing puppy-dog eyes, may lead owners to wonder what exactly is going on in that doggy’s head. Scientists decided to find out, using brain scans to explore the minds of our canine friends.
The researchers, who detailed their findings May 2 in the open-access journal PLoS ONE, were interested in understanding the human-dog relationship from the four-legged perspective.
“When we saw those first [brain] images, it was unlike anything else,”…
Welcome To The Anthropocene
Planet Under Pressure commissioned a 3-minute animated film showing the last 250 years of our history, from the start of the Industrial Revolution to the Rio+20 Summit. The film charts the growth of humanity into a global force on an equivalent scale to major geological processes. Whether you agree with the filmmakers’ conclusions or not (comment below), I suspect you’ll admit that it’s a pretty cool piece of animation:
Welcome to the Anthropocene
Who’s More Psychedelic: Artists Or Technologists?
Some interesting ideas for discussion raised by Douglas Rushkoff, relating to computers, technology, programming, psychedelics, art and artists:
Happy World Laughter Day
Make sure you enjoy a long laugh today: Laughter is good for you and it’s officially World Laughter Day. If you want to know about the health benefits of laughing, check out Albert Nerenberg’s serious, but fun, documentary Laughology.
The founder of laughter yoga and the man who started the worldwide craze, Dr. Madan Kataria, has this message for you:
My Dear Laughter Friends,
World Laughter Day is customarily celebrated on the first Sunday of May every year. This year on 1st of May, thousands of people in more than 70 countries will laugh together to promote peace and harmony in the midst of natural disasters, global unrest, violence and terrorism, all of which has disrupted the tranquility of our planet – mother earth. It is also a day committed to spread the message of good health and joy through laughter.
Every year millions of dollars are being spent on maintaining health as stress levels…
Are The Rich Worth A Damn?
A vigorous case for the super rich is argued by Edward Conard of Bain Capital in an interview with Adam Davidson for the New York Times Magazine:
Ever since the financial crisis started, we’ve heard plenty from the 1 percent. We’ve heard them giving defensive testimony in Congressional hearings or issuing anodyne statements flanked by lawyers and image consultants. They typically repeat platitudes about investment, risk-taking and job creation with the veiled contempt that the nation doesn’t understand their contribution. You get the sense that they’re afraid to say what they really believe. What do the superrich say when the cameras aren’t there?
With that in mind, I recently met Edward Conard on 57th Street and Madison Avenue, just outside his office at Bain Capital, the private-equity firm he helped build into a multibillion-dollar business by buying, fixing up and selling off companies at a profit. Conard, who retired a few years…
RIP Adam Yauch (AKA Beastie Boys’ MCA)
The bad news via Global Grind:
Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys has passed away at the age of 47. GlobalGrind has confirmed this very sad news.
One of our heroes, Adam Yauch aka MCA of the Beastie Boys, passed away this morning after a long bout with cancer.
Yauch was a member of the groundbreaking, incredibly innovative and creative group, The Beastie Boys, with his two friends, Mike D and Ad-Roc, which changed our culture forever…
[continues at Global Grind]
For those who’d like to remember MCA in his prime, here’s Fight For Your Right (Revisited):
Mouth Spray Makes You Instantly Drunk
The bizarre part about this story, for me anyway, is that the spray was designed by Phillippe Starck, the French designer of expensive boutique hotels, furniture and all sorts of other bits and bobs. From the Daily Mail:
A new gadget is designed to get people drunk INSTANTLY.
The makers claim, however, that the ‘harm’ is limited, because you sober up equally rapidly.
The alcohol is delivered via an aerosol spray, so people feel briefly drunk, then sober up.
But however quickly people might recover, drunkenness can lead to accidents – and it’s also unclear how the device could be misused by alcoholics.
Two American scientists designed the device – a small spray that gives you that instant drunk sensation from less than a drop of alcohol.
The feeling lasts just seconds – but when it fades, you are sober and able to carry on with your day.
The ‘Wahh Quantum Sensations’ delivers just a miniscule dose…
Energy And Sports Drinks Destroy Teeth
Photo: Jeff Taylor (CC)
Mikaela Conley reports for ABC News:
Sugar may rot your teeth, but the acid in energy and sports drinks will also do some irreversible damage to those (not so) pearly whites, say researchers.
A new study published in the journal General Dentistry found that energy and sports drinks contain so much acid that they start destroying teeth after only five days of consistent use. Thirty to 50 percent of American teens use energy drinks, the paper says, and up to 62 percent drink sports drinks at least once a day.
Damage to enamel can cause teeth to become sensitive to touch and temperature changes, and be more susceptible to cavities and decay.
“Young adults consume these drinks assuming that they will improve their sports performance and energy levels and that they are ‘better’ for them than soda,” said Poonam Jain, lead author of the study. “Most of these patients are shocked…
The Bin Laden Papers
So that’s what he was thinking! Pam Benson and Joe Sterling report on the release of Osama’s seized papers for CNN:
The United States published several documents online Thursday that it seized during the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan last year.
The $120 Million Scream
Photo: Sotheby's
Is any painting worth $120,000,000? If you believe that auctions set the fair value of art, then the answer would appear to be yes, as reported below by AP via San Jose Mercury News. (As an aside, there’s an interesting piece at VICE UK entitled ‘I’m Sick Of Pretending: I Don’t “Get” Art’.)
It’s a scream that’s still reverberating around the world.
One of the most iconic images in art history—Edvard Munch’s “The Scream”—has become the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction.
During an intense 12 minutes, the 1895 artwork—a modern symbol of human anxiety—was sold at Sotheby’s in New York City on Wednesday for a record $119,922,500. Neither the buyer’s name nor any details about the buyer was released.
The previous record for an artwork sold at auction was $106.5 million for Picasso’s “Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust,” sold by Christie’s in 2010.
Munch’s image of a man holding his head and screaming…
UK Govt. Committee Finds Murdoch ‘Not A Fit Person’ To Lead Company
Rupert Murdoch receives the pie in the face he was about to experience before Tiger Mom wife Wendy Deng saved him last year, and this one is going to hurt a whole lot more. Via the Guardian:
Rupert Murdoch is “not a fit person” to exercise stewardship of a major international company, a committee of MPs has concluded, in a report highly critical of the mogul and his son James’s role in the News of the World phone-hacking affair.
The Commons culture, media and sport select committee also concluded that James Murdoch showed “wilful ignorance” of the extent of phone hacking during 2009 and 2010 – in a highly charged document that saw MPs split on party lines as regards the two Murdochs.
Labour MPs and the sole Liberal Democrat on the committee, Adrian Sanders, voted together in a bloc of six against the five Conservatives to insert the criticisms of Rupert Murdoch and…
Stephen King: Tax Me, For Fuck’s Sake!
Stephen King is so rich and so famous that he can say whatever he likes and it won’t matter a bit to him or his readers … so he does, in the Daily Beast:
Chris Christie may be fat, but he ain’t Santa Claus. In fact, he seems unable to decide if he is New Jersey’s governor or its caporegime, and it may be a comment on the coarsening of American discourse that his brash rudeness is often taken for charm. In February, while discussing New Jersey’s newly amended income-tax law, which allows the rich to pay less (proportionally) than the middle class, Christie was asked about Warren Buffett’s observation that he paid less federal income taxes than his personal secretary, and that wasn’t fair. “He should just write a check and shut up,” Christie responded, with his typical verve. “I’m tired of hearing about it. If he wants to give…
New York Banks Receive May Day Letters With White Powder
Reminiscent of the 2001 anthrax letters, several banks received letters with notes telling the recipients “You have 10 seconds to stop working,” “You are not in control” and “Fuck the banks,” reports CBS New York:
Envelopes containing white powder turned up at multiple banks in Manhattan on Monday, police told 1010 WINS.
Five of the envelopes were sent to Wells Fargo banks, one was sent to JP Morgan Chase headquarters and another was sent to Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Office and ended up in a mailroom on Gold Street.
The powder was determined to be cornstarch, police said.
Hazmat teams and detectives were dispatched to banks all afternoon checking for possible threats, 1010 WINS’ Sonia Rincon reported. The envelopes also contained notes that were nearly identical, containing references to “May Day,” …
Eating Less Meat Is World’s Best Chance For Timely Climate Change
According to some “experts,” as reported by Michelle Maisto in Forbes:
Shifting the world’s reliance on fossil fuels to renewable energy sources is important, certainly. But the world’s best chance for achieving timely, disaster-averting climate change may actually be a vegetarian diet eating less meat, according to a recent report in World Watch Magazine. (While I’d happily nudge the world toward a vegetarian diet, the report authors are more measured and simply suggest diets containing less meat.)
“The entire goal of today’s international climate objectives can be achieved by replacing just one-fourth of today’s least eco-friendly food products with better alternatives,” co-author Robert Goodland, a former World Bank Group environmental advisor wrote in an April 18 blog post on the report.
A widely cited 2006 report estimated that 18% of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions were attributable to cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats, camels, pigs and poultry. However, analysis performed by Goodland, with co-writer Jeff Anhang, an environmental…
