religion

In keeping with Holbrook’s observance that we’re not all about music here’s a short clip from the Dublin’s Atheist Conference

All the best in 2011

Happy New Year

So here on the left coast there’s a fierce madness about Halloween. With very few of the natives comprehending the depth of Samhain and instead relying on what the Irish brought over to the states back in the day. Shite like “Jack O’ Lanterns” which is fine, but really Halloween is far from the bonfires and bangers of my youth. Nowadays its razorblades in apples and sexy/saucy/naughty _insert profession name here_ costumes.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that except the fact that:
” The Gaels believed that the border between this world and the otherworld became thin on Samhain; because so many animals and plants were dying, it thus allowed the dead to reach back through the veil that separated them from the living.”

Watch it!

Happy Halloween

This graphic is by way of introduction to the kind of stuff you’ll find on a great tumblr site called The Geek Hideout all the way from  Auss-trail-ee-aahh I guess there are more coasts than just the left one and the east one?

Here’s an interesting podcast I listened to with Terry Gross interviewing Jane Mayer about the Koch (pronounced ‘coke’ and no relation to former New York mayor Ed Koch) brothers. Apparently they have been funding various politically motivated organisations for decades. They run the second largest privately held firm in the United States (Koch Industries) which produces, amongst many other things, Brawny paper towels. Hence the photo.  Their father (Fred Koch) made his money in crude oil refining and spent some time in the Soviet Union when Stalin was in power.  David Koch was a vice-presidential candidate for the Libertarian Party in the 1980 general election.   He co-owns Koch Industries with his brother Charles.  The company apparently has annual revenues of $98 billion and includes Georgia-Pacific and the Lycra product made by a subsidiary company called Invista.  You can read the original article in The New Yorker here.

Brawny paper towels

Well worth an hour or so’s meander through the enormous catalogue. If only to listen to the Sacco and Vanzetti piece.

The murder trial of Sacco and Vanzetti was one of this century’s most controversial. Sacco and Vanzetti’s story was dramatic; their front-page trial was filled with dubious procedures; and the years of appeals and their eventual execution led to protests around the world. These songs, written and recorded nearly twenty years later, have been carefully remastered from the original acetate discs and are presented with a previously unpublished letter by Guthrie to the judge in the case.

Music of the People by the People for the People

www.folkways.si.edu

Christian Science Monitor reports on the “controversary” around the new iPhone/iPad iJimmy iJoyce app for iUlysses

http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Horizons/2010/0616/Bloomsday-Apple-reverses-course-on-controversial-Ulysses-Seen-iPad-app

Bloomsday revelers, re-Joyce! Apple reps have changed their mind about Ulysses Seen, an iPad application which was previously censored to fit the guidelines of the Apple Store. Ulysses Seen is now available – in its complete, unedited form – and just in time for Bloomsday.