nearerthemoon

http://www.disinfo.com/2009/11/in-prisoner-twisted-whimsy-flirts-with-new-fears/

http://www.disinfo.com/?p=14587

From NPR:

At the height of the Cold War, British actor Patrick McGoohan conceived a television series that was so subversive and enigmatic, it lasted just 17 episodes.

The program was called The Prisoner.

For decades, filmmakers and actors including Mel Gibson have wanted to remake the series. AMC has finally done it, but if you’re expecting a faithful re-creation of the British series, actor Jim Caviezel says you’ll be disappointed.

In the original series, McGoohan played a British intelligence officer who mysteriously resigned on principle — we never find out why. The opening credits take a full two minutes and set up the series’ premise. They start with McGoohan racing through the streets of London before stalking angrily into the office of the head (presumably) of MI6, Britain’s external intelligence agency.

Shortly after, McGoohan is exposed to vapors that send him into a deep sleep. When he wakes up, he finds himself in a pastel-colored compound of cheery houses and landscaped gardens.

He has arrived in the “Village,” a place where maverick intelligence operatives from all sides of the Iron Curtain are held. McGoohan is handed a new identity, “Number Six.” His main captor is an ever-changing character known as the “New Number Two.”

Over the original 17 episodes, we never find out why Number Six was sent away or much about any of the other captives in the Village. But as the series unfolds, it becomes clear that The Prisoner is an allegorical tale. It’s about individualism versus collectivism, freedom versus controlled democracy, and principle versus cynicism…

[continues in a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120367805">NPR</a>]

http://www.disinfo.com/2009/11/restless-vagina-syndrome-big-pharmas-newest-fake-disease/

http://www.disinfo.com/?p=14583

From Alternet:

It’s not your fault, ladies (and certainly not your partner’s), that you don’t orgasm every time you have intercourse, or that you lack the libido of a 17-year-old boy. You have a disease: female sexual dysfunction (FSD), and the pharmaceutical industry wants to help.

You are among the “43 percent of American women [who] experience some degree of impaired sexual function,” according to a Journal of the American Medical Association article. The FDA’s evolving definition of FSD includes decreased desire or arousal, sexual pain and orgasm difficulties — but only if the woman feels “personal distress” about it.

So, convincing women to feel distress is a key component of the drug company strategy to market a multi-billion-dollar pill that will cure billions of women of what may not ail them.

By promoting the belief that “normal” women have explosive sex all the time, BigPharma helped launch the disease. However, the FDA has yet to approve a treatment for women who fall short. Until then, they could try the Orgasmatron: a dial-a-delight spinal implant that rarely works — and risks infection and paralysis. Or, for $60/month, pop LexaFem pills — containing (how-could-it-not-work) “horny goat weed extract” in order to “feel like a real woman today.” Its website promises, “You won’t ever feel unhappy again with LexaFem in your arsenal.”

[Read more at Alternet]

http://www.disinfo.com/2009/11/britains-last-wwi-veteran-shuns-remembrance-day/

http://www.disinfo.com/?p=14580

From Yahoo News:

Britain’s last surviving World War I veteran shunned Remembrance Day commemorations Wednesday because he was against the glorification of war, his family was reported as saying.Claude Choules, 108, lives in a nursing home in Perth, Australia and in July became Britain’s sole survivor from the 1914-1918 war, following the death of fellow veteran Harry Patch, aged 111.

Choules served on HMS Revenge during a 41-year naval career that spanned both world wars, witnessing the surrender of the German Imperial Navy in 1918 and the scuttling of the fleet in Scapa Flow.

But his daughter Daphne Edinger said Choules had been scarred by his experiences and chose not to celebrate the Armistice or other veterans’ days.

[Read more at Yahoo News]

http://www.disinfo.com/2009/11/afghanistan-and-the-other-vietnam-war/

http://www.disinfo.com/?p=14577

From Truthout:

When discussing the Vietnam War or comparing it to America’s other conflicts, such as the current one in Afghanistan, the “other” Vietnam War is rarely mentioned. This is very unfortunate, because it might be just the correct path to pursue in seeking a peaceful solution.

And much like President Barack Obama, who inherited the hostilities in Afghanistan, then-President Johnson inherited the Vietnam War. As the war dragged on, some personal aides claimed Johnson was never more ecstatic over Vietnam than when pledging to send billions of dollars to help toward construction and agricultural projects and the economic growth of Southeast Asia and the Mekong River region.

[Read more at Truthout]

http://www.disinfo.com/2009/11/cat-registered-as-hypnotherapist/

http://www.disinfo.com/?p=14574

From BBC:

The regulation of hypnotherapists in the UK is so lax that even a cat can become accredited, the BBC has found.

Chris Jackson, presenter of Inside Out in the North East and Cumbria, registered pet George with three industry bodies.

Each one accepted a certificate from the non-existent Society of Certified Advanced Mind Therapists as proof of George’s credentials.

It follows a similar investigation by an American clinical psychologist.

Dr Steve Eichel suspected industry bodies in the US were not running checks on their members.

[Read more at BBC]

http://www.disinfo.com/2009/11/first-u-s-marijuana-cafe-opens-in-portland/

http://www.disinfo.com/?p=14571

From Reuters:

The United States’ first marijuana cafe opened on Friday, posing an early test of the Obama administration’s move to relax policing of medical use of the drug.The Cannabis Cafe in Portland, Oregon, is the first to give certified medical marijuana users a place to get hold of the drug and smoke it — as long as they are out of public view — despite a federal ban.

“This club represents personal freedom, finally, for our members,” said Madeline Martinez, Oregon’s executive director of NORML, a group pushing for marijuana legalization.

“Our plans go beyond serving food and marijuana,” said Martinez. “We hope to have classes, seminars, even a Cannabis Community College, based here to help people learn about growing and other uses for cannabis.”

The cafe — in a two-story building which formerly housed a speak-easy and adult erotic club Rumpspankers — is technically a private club, but is open to any Oregon residents who are NORML members and hold an official medical marijuana card.

Members pay $25 per month to use the 100-person capacity cafe. They don’t buy marijuana, but get it free over the counter from “budtenders”. Open 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., it serves food but has no liquor license.

There are about 21,000 patients registered to use marijuana for medical purposes in Oregon. Doctors have prescribed marijuana for a host of illnesses, including Alzheimer’s, diabetes, multiple sclerosis and Tourette’s syndrome.

[Read more at Reuters]

http://www.disinfo.com/2009/11/are-algae-mass-murderers/

http://www.disinfo.com/?p=14567

David Biello writes in Scientific American:

Algae seem harmless enough. These precursors to plants thrive throughout the world’s waters. But these single-celled plants have global consequences. We can thank them for oxygen in the atmosphere, oil in the lithosphere as well as dead zones in the oceans and now even a dead horse in France.

That’s right. The fumes from decomposing algae on a French beach killed a horse and rendered its rider unconscious this past summer. And poisonous tides caused by algal blooms make eating shellfish dicey at times as well as causing mass die-offs of fish, birds and even sea-going mammals. Plus, according to a new theory, that might just be a small taste of the plants’ killing ability.

James Castle and John Rodgers of Clemson University think that such algal blooms—triggered by warming water or an increase in nutrients — might be behind the five largest mass extinctions in Earth’s history.

Image: Algal bloom in village river taken in a small village in mountains near Chengdu, Sichuan, China in December 2005 (via Wikimedia Commons).

Listen to the 60-Second Earth podcast on Scientific American

11.13 Paris @ Casino de Paris
11.15 Amsterdam @ Melkweg
11.16 Tumhout @ de Warande
11.17 Gent @ Vooruit
11.19 Katowice @ Festival Ars Cameralis
11.21 Madrid @ Joy Eslava
11.23 Valencia @ Palau de la Musica
11.24 Barcelona @ Sala Apolo
12.08 Champaign, IL @ Foellinger Auditorium at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
12.10 Minneapolis, MN @ St Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral
12.11 Minneapolis, MN @ St Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral
12.15 Chicago, IL @ Fourth Presbyterian Church
12.16 Chicago, IL @ Fourth Presbyterian Church
12.17 Chicago, IL @ Fourth Presbyterian Church
12.30 Marion Bay, AS @ The Falls Music & Arts Festival
12.31 Lorne, AS @ The Falls Music & Arts Festival
01.01 Melbourne, AS @ The Hi-Fi
01.03 Sydney, AS @ Sydney Opera House
01.07 Brisbane, AS @ Sunset Sounds
01.09 Busselton, AS @ Southbound
01.26 Singapore @ Esplanade
01.27 Hong Kong @ Grappa’s Cellar
01.29 Shanghai @ Zhijiang Dream Factory
01.30 Beijing @ Mao Live House
02.03 Tokyo @ Club Quattro
02.06 Honolulu, HI @ Pipeline Café
02.20 Los Angeles, CA @ Bovard Auditorium at the University of Southern California

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This post is dedicated to peacefulscream since the man has prevented them for being able to join us today.

http://www.disinfo.com/2009/11/does-jesus-save-aliens/

http://www.disinfo.com/?p=14562

Hannah Devlin writes in the Times:

Four hundred years after Renaissance philosopher Giordano Bruno was burnt at the stake for his belief in the “plurality of worlds” (aliens), scientists and religious leaders gathered this week at a seemingly more open-minded Vatican for a conference on astrobiology (aliens).

The meeting focussed on current science, rather than the theological quandaries thrown up by the possibility of other life forms beyond this planet. But that hasn’t stopped debate spilling over outside the conference.

Yesterday I spoke to Paul Davies, a cosmologist from Arizona State University, just after he addressed the conference. In his view, the possibility of other civilisations — potentially more intelligent than our own — puts Christians “in a real bind”. Specifically, he says that nobody’s satisfactorily addressed the question of whether aliens get saved. “The Catholic church offers a very species specific brand of salvation. Noone says that Jesus came to save the dolphins and certainly not little green men,” he said.

The possibility of extraterrestrial life does not pose the same problems for Eastern religions, which tend to be less Earth-centric, or Islam, which speaks explicitly of life beyond Earth, he said.

More on the Times