At long last, The Memory Hole, my website devoted (mainly) to digging up official documents, has relaunched. Please check it out, and if you have any feedback about any aspect, do let me know.
Here's the first, introductory post, with a greatest hits recap:
July 2, 2008 — THE suits at Hamptons Jitney weren't amused by "The Hamptons Dictionary," a humorous guide to the local lingo written by local author Miles Jaffe. The Disinformation Company Ltd., which published the book, paid to have it included in the Hamptons Jitney sampler bag, which was handed out to 500 riders last Friday. The satirical guide describes the Jitney as a "cattle car." "Apparently the higher-ups at the Jitney didn't review the contents of the book before putting it in, and they contacted us freaking out about it," said Disinformation head Ralph Bernardo. "We were scheduled to be in for July and August, but they have refunded our money. It seems like they have no sense of humor about it at all." Other useful entries include, "Do you know who I am?" — defined as "a question foreshadowing a temper tantrum."
Here is the book in question (or rather, the questionable book in the Jitney's mind) ...
If you're curious to see what's it in the dictionary, I have a Facebook Application nearly finished. In you're on Facebook and/or would like to be able to read more entries out of the dictionary, please check this out:
Today on Disinfo.com: Science Proves Bad Guys Really Do Get The Girls
Category: News and Politics
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Disinformation® Walkman Newsletter: Weekly Edition Edited by Ralph Bernardo
Today's (Random) Moment in History:Sony Introduces the Walkman TPS-L2 on July 1, 1979
Portable music players are so cheap and ubiquitous today that it's hard to remember when they were luxury items, widely coveted and often stolen. But when the blue and silver Walkman debuted in 1979, no one had ever seen anything quite like it. The $200 player virtually invented the concept of "personal electronics."
The first Walkman (also branded as the Stowaway, the Soundabout, and the Freestyle before the current name stuck) featured a cassette player and the world's first lightweight headphones. Apparently fearful that consumers would consider the Walkman too antisocial, Sony built the first units with two headphone jacks so you could share music with a friend. The company later dropped this feature. Now, more than 25 years and some 330 million units later, nobody wonders why you're walking down the street with headphones on. – Dan Tynan, "The 50 Greatest Gadgets of the Past 50 Years," PC World
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In FAR OUT: 101 Strange Tales From Science's Outer Edge Mark Pilkington charts some of the more curious byways, scenic detours, and inspired failures of scientists, inventors, and, yes, crackpots, over the past few hundred years. Check out the excerpt on Scribd.com and get the entire book on Amazon.
Alien Communications, Death Rays and Free Energy for all! In this episode of Out There Radio we exposes the futuristic vision of Nikola Tesla, one of the greatest inventors of the 20th century. We'll also talk about DARPA insect cyborgs and the ATF's crackdown on ninjas and our civil liberties.
The video blasted across the Internet, drawing political blood from Senator John McCain within a matter of days. Produced here in a cluttered former motel behind the Sony Pictures lot, it juxtaposed harsh statements about Islam made by the Rev. Rod Parsley with statements from Mr. McCain praising Mr. Parsley, a conservative evangelical leader. The montage won notice on network newscasts this spring and ultimately helped lead Mr. McCain, the likely Republican presidential nominee, to reject Mr. Parsley's earlier endorsement.
BUY STUFF YOU DON'T NEED! Featured Books and DVDs from The Disinformation Company Available at the Disinfo Store.
About the Disinformation Newsletter: The Disinformation Newsletter is an opt-in newsletter from www.disinfo.com. General questions, comments, brilliant thoughts? Let us know here.
Nixon: Well, not sure of their analysis, I'm not going to get that involved. Haldeman: No, sir. We don't want you to. Nixon: You call them in. Nixon: Good. Good deal! Play it tough. That's the way they play it and that's the way we are going to play it. Haldeman: O.K. We'll do it. Nixon: Yeah, when I saw that news summary item, I of course knew it was a bunch of crap, but I thought ah, well it's good to have them off on this wild hair thing because when they start bugging us, which they have, we'll know our little boys will not know how to handle it. I hope they will though. You never know. Maybe, you think about it. Good!
— June 23, 1972: White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman and President Richard M. Nixon propose having the CIA ask the FBI to halt their investigation of the Watergate break-in by claiming that the break-in was a national security operation.
Special Announcements:
Click the caption icon at the bottom of each story to comment on every story on disinfo.com (example here).
In FAR OUT: 101 Strange Tales From Science's Outer Edge Mark Pilkington charts some of the more curious byways, scenic detours, and inspired failures of scientists, inventors, and, yes, crackpots, over the past few hundred years. Check out the excerpt on Scribd.com and get the entire book on Amazon.
Alien Communications, Death Rays and Free Energy for all! In this episode of Out There Radio we exposes the futuristic vision of Nikola Tesla, one of the greatest inventors of the 20th century. We'll also talk about DARPA insect cyborgs and the ATF's crackdown on ninjas and our civil liberties.
The Sea Arrrgh fleet is a gang of scallywag Anonymous that raised anchor on June 14th, and set sail to plunder the landlubbers and yella-belly Scilons! Its members are loosely held together by a code of honor among thieves and is led by whichever Anon knows the best route toward lulz and win. While piracy was initially created for the purpose of stealing booty and blasting the port and starboard cannons, Sea Arrrgh has adapted these age-old traditions and will use non-violent methods to bring down the Church of Scientology!
Top 23 Stories (from 1 to 23) posted to disinfo.com from June 5–21, 2008:
BUY STUFF YOU DON'T NEED! Featured Books and DVDs from The Disinformation Company Available at the Disinfo Store.
About the Disinformation Newsletter: The Disinformation Newsletter is an opt-in newsletter from www.disinfo.com. General questions, comments, brilliant thoughts? Let us know here.
Continuing the Disinformation Summer of Books, Entertainment Weekly has just published its EW 1000 List, amongst which is its list of the 100 best reads from 1983 to 2008.
The top 10 are:
1. The Road, Cormac McCarthy (2006) 2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling (2000) 3. Beloved, Toni Morrison (1987) 4. The Liars' Club, Mary Karr (1995) 5. American Pastoral, Philip Roth (1997) 6. Mystic River, Dennis Lehane (2001) 7. Maus, Art Spiegelman (1986/1991) 8. Selected Stories, Alice Munro (1996) 9. Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier (1997) 10. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami (1997)
Now this is a whole lot more tasteful than the Harris Poll purportedly reporting America's top 10 books of all time that I blogged about a couple of months ago. On the other hand I'm still not convinced that J.K.Rowling should rise as high as number 2. For instance, I'd certainly place William Gibson's Neuromancer above good old Harry, but EW places it only at 26.
Any thoughts? Does EW really know what's going on in American contemporary pop culture, or is it just another out of touch corporate rag trying to sell more magazines as it loses one advertiser after another to Google and the web?
--Gary Baddeley, publisher
PS, highly recommended is Roy Christopher's Summer Reading List. It includes newcomers Daniel Pinchbeck, Steve Aylett, Ian MacKaye, Mike Daily, Paul Saffo, Gareth Branwyn, Rodger Bridges, and Peter Lunenfeld, as well as return contributors Erik Davis, Richard Metzger, Dave Allen, Mark Pesce, Alex Burns, Paul Miller, Brian Tunney, Patrick Barber, Steven Shaviro, Ashley Crawford, Cynthia Connolly, and me.
INFERNAL DEVICE: Machinery of Torture and Execution
Category: Art and Photography
In INFERNAL DEVICE: Machinery of Torture and Execution, Erik Ruhling assembles an unmatched array of torture tools invented exclusively for the infliction of pain and the ending of life, each carefully researched with an accompanying full-color, highly detailed rendering. This beautifully presented book features classics like the Iron Maiden and the Guillotine, as well as more rarified connoisseur's fare such as the Scavenger's Daughter and the Ear Chopper. And if the Tongue Tearer is not to your taste, there's always the Breast Ripper or the Drunkard's Cloak.
Check out the book below (in full color!) or on Scribd.com.
What Books Are On Your Summer Reading List?
Category: Writing and Poetry
A few weeks ago I blogged about the Harris Interactive poll that purported to show Americans' top 10 favorite books of all time. With two Dan Brown books on the list I felt it was ridiculous and encouraged our MySpace friends to submit their own lists. We've received more than 1,000 responses and my colleague Ralph Bernardo is compiling the results for publication.
Meanwhile, CNN's Sci-Tech Blog has just issued it's Summer Reading list. What do you all make of this? Better than the Harris poll, in my opinion, but still not necessarily what I'll be reading this summer.
Currently on my reading table aside from our own Disinformation books:
Watchmen by Alan Moore. Need I explain? One of Time Mag's Top 100 Novels of all time (yet another best books list!). We're going to be releasing a fantastic documentary film about Alan at the end of September so I thought I'd better brush up on my Moore publications. Never disappointing!
The Secret History of the World by Mark Booth. Mark is the editor at Random House UK who works with Disinformation authors Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval. I've only just started the book but if it lives up to the promise of its introduction it's going to be amazing.
The Terminal Spy by Alan S. Cowell. This one's not yet published but it should be in stores in August. All about the Polonium poisoning murder in London.
There are lots of others in the queue, but these are the ones I'm actually reading right now.
What are you going to be reading this summer?
— Gary Baddeley, publisher
Currently
reading
:
Watchmen
By
Alan Moore
Release date: 1995-04-01
Larry King Discusses the ’Peeping Tom’ Alien Video and More on Disinfo.com!
Category: News and Politics
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Disinformation® Lousy Supreme Court Decisions Newsletter: Special Bi-Weekly Edition Edited by Ralph Bernardo
Today's (Random) Moment in History:
Under the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, the United States Congress may ban the use of cannabis even where states approve its use for medicinal purposes.
— Gonzales v. Raich, a U.S. Supreme Court decision of 6–3, decided on June 6, 2005
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A Devil's Dictionary for the modern age, THE HAMPTONS DICTIONARY is a wicked social satire and hysterical lexical send-up of the rich and famous who flock to the Hamptons each summer and the locals who count the minutes until Labor Day when they leave. While Eastern Long Island, New York's swanky beach community, is the inspiration for Miles Jaffe's hilariously scathing look at the misadventures of the overloaded. Check on Scribd and get the entire book on Amazon.
In this final episode of Out There Radio, Jim Marrs joins us for an hour-long interview about JFK, the new world order and his new book. Austin Gandy returns with an outrageous segment from the Invisible College. Raymond and Joe give their final goodbyes, play listener-submitted clips and announce their plans for the future. Recorded in front of a live studio audience!
Shocking! Scientists have given brain implants to two lab monkeys allowing them to control robotic arms with only their minds. Next: a robotic monkey army?
Top 23 Stories (from 1 to 23) posted to disinfo.com from May 24–June 4, 2008:
BUY STUFF YOU DON'T NEED! Featured Books and DVDs from The Disinformation Company Available at the Disinfo Store.
About the Disinformation Newsletter: The Disinformation Newsletter is an opt-in newsletter from www.disinfo.com. General questions, comments, brilliant thoughts? Let us know here.
In FAR OUT: 101 Strange Tales From Science's Outer Edge Mark Pilkington charts some of the more curious byways, scenic detours, and inspired failures of scientists, inventors, and, yes, crackpots, over the past few hundred years.
From the Aquatic Ape Hypothesis to zero-point energy, via the Hieronymous Machine and Phlogiston, FAR OUT tells the stories that are all too often ignored, lost, or simply forgotten by conventional science books. Some of them are perhaps best left languishing in the margins of history, but others may yet change our future. Entries cover physics, chemistry, biology, archaeology, parapsychology, psychology, and other areas yet to be inducted into mainstream science, including radionics, keranography, erotoxin, and remote viewing.
Deviant Literature (Hopefully) Coming to a Store Near You!
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities
I just returned from Los Angeles where Ralph Bernardo, our COO, and I spent a very productive few days. Last Wednesday we spent a couple of hours with Robert Greenwald and the gang at Brave New Films; stay tuned for some new projects from Disinformation and Brave New Films soon!
We also spent a day working with the Disinformation Company's Director of Visual Media, Nimrod Erez. Nimrod is based in LA and has his own film development company, N.E. Thing Films. He's directing our 2012 documentary and it's looking really good. It's also going to sound great: composer Adam Peters, who did all the music for the Disinformation TV Series (available on DVD) is composing an original score for the film and he invited us to his studio where we listened to some amazing new music written and recorded especially for us. Look out for the film later this year — you'll read it here first when we finally unveil it.
The remaining three days were spent at the Los Angeles Convention Center for Book Expo America (BEA), the annual book trade show. It's bigger and busier in its usual home in New York, but we didn't stop meeting and talking with people the whole time, so it was well worth making the effort to come our west. Thanks to everyone who visited our stand, especially Disinformation contributors Michael Cremo and Cletus Nelson, neither of whom we'd met in person previously.
Highlights included the visit of Sticker Nation author and guru Srini Kumar, who handed our promotional stickers to anyone within reach and really worked hard to make sure that booksellers and gift store owners everywhere know about Sticker Nation 2, coming this November. The first volume is sold out and we're not planning to reprint it, so if you see one anywhere, grab it — it's a collector's item.
We loved visiting La Luz de Jesus, Billy Shire's art gallery in the back of his Soapland/Wacko store in Silverlake. Aimee Mann was signing copies of her new CD and the artist whose painting is on the cover, Gary Taxali, debuted a show of his work. The store is amazing and we were delighted to see many of our books on display. Several of them had their own shelf with the label "Deviant Literature" on it, which I thought was brilliant:
The Disinformation Book Shelf at La Luz de Jesus in LA
Deviant Literature shelf
Much respect to LA's hippest gallerist, Billy Shire.
The night before we left we chatted with Jim Milliott from the book trade's journal of record, Publisher's Weekly. Jim was very interested in our Top 10 Books poll amongst our MySpace friends and asked us to tally the results for him. Needless to say we'll share the results with everyone as soon as we've totted up all your favorites. It's not too late to add your favorite books; cut off is June 3rd — click here to view the original blog post and add your list. It'll be published in Publisher's Weekly (we think).
Thanks — now it's back to work in NYC. We've got five films coming out in four months and there's much to do.
Disinformation Has NOT Been Deleted!
Category: MySpace
Due to the number of emails I have received on this, we'll try to get out the word via blog and bulletin.
We have NOT been deleted, I'm not sure why many are getting this impression, but I can use that the number of our friends is lowered ... is anyone else having this experience?
Thanks for the feedback, Disinfo on MySpace is alive and kicking!
If you live in the Los Angeles area, BookExpo America takes place this year at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Disinformation will be exhibiting, come by and say hello if you're in town!
Here's the show days and hours:
Friday, May 30: 9 AM–5 PM
Saturday, May 31: 9 AM–5 PM
Sunday, June 1: 9 AM–4 PM
This is a great place to not only see Disinformation, but many book publishers from around the world. A great place to pick up free reads, and for us to meet very enthusiastic Disinformation fans:
Also, don't forget to check out the latest Disinformation Newsletter here on MySpace and to sign up for the weekly email newsletter go here.
’Out There Radio’ Series Finale with Jim Marrs, and More Great Stuff on Disinfo.com
Category: News and Politics
To sign up for the weekly Disinformation newsletter, go to www.disinfo.com.
Disinformation® Telegraph Newsletter, Weekly Edition Edited by Ralph Bernardo
Today's Random Quote:
What hath God wrought? (Numbers 23:23)
— Sent via telegraph by Samuel F. B. Morse from the Old Supreme Court Chamber in the U.S. Capitol to his assistant, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore, MD on May 24, 1844
Special Announcements:
Keep the story comments going, just click the caption link at the bottom of each story to join the fun (Example here).
A Devil's Dictionary for the modern age, THE HAMPTONS DICTIONARY is a wicked social satire and hysterical lexical send-up of the rich and famous who flock to the Hamptons each summer and the locals who count the minutes until Labor Day when they leave. While Eastern Long Island, New York's swanky beach community, is the inspiration for Miles Jaffe's hilariously scathing look at the misadventures of the overloaded. Check on Scribd and get the entire book on Amazon.
In this final episode of Out There Radio, Jim Marrs joins us for an hour-long interview about JFK, the new world order and his new book. Austin Gandy returns with an outrageous segment from the Invisible College. Raymond and Joe give their final goodbyes, play listener-submitted clips and announce their plans for the future. Recorded in front of a live studio audience!
On Gizmodo: We had to double check that this wasn't a story about Second Life, but rather is an actual event in actual meatspace occurring this past weekend in Moscow. As former chess champion Garry Kasparov was giving a speech to unite opposition political forces, a radio-controlled penis flew across the room to some applause and laughter. The fun was ended when a dour-faced man smashed the penis out of the air. That's always the case, isn't it? Some guy's having fun with a flying penis when someone joker just has to ruin the party.
Top 12 + 1 Stories (from 1 to 13) posted to disinfo.com from May 14–May 23, 2008:
BUY STUFF YOU DON'T NEED! Featured Books and DVDs from The Disinformation Company Available at the Disinfo Store.
About the Disinformation Newsletter: The Disinformation Newsletter is an opt-in newsletter from www.disinfo.com. General questions, comments, brilliant thoughts? Let us know here.
No Progressives in HI, ND, OK or WV? Hard to Believe...
Category: News and Politics
So I just got this message from Josh Bolotsky of Living Liberally and find it interesting in the five years since they started their organization, they don't have chapters in Hawaii, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and West Virginia ... are those states missing lots of progressives? Hard to believe...
I personally try to keep my mind open for BS on the Left and the Right in America, but since I'm in New York City, could be a chance for me to get free beer ... regardless if you are conservative or liberal, who doesn't support free beer? If if you know anyone in these states, and like what Living Liberally does and is interested in starting a chapter, shoot an email to Josh at info@livingliberally.org. And please let 'em know you heard about this on the Disinformation MySpace Blog.
So keep in mind those of you in these 4 states: this is a chance to help the Disinformation staff in NYC get free beer! Free beer! We'll be sure to exchange the favor someday. : )
Take it easy, for those of you in America, enjoy the long weekend.
Josh Bolotsky sent a message to the members of Drinking Liberally — Rudy's on 9th Ave.
Subject: We Need YOUR Help.
On May 29th, Drinking Liberally, turns 5, and we're going to celebrate at the NYC dive bar where it all started, Rudy's in Hell's Kitchen. With one week left to go, we have Living Liberally chapters in 46 states. The only four missing? Hawaii, North Dakota, Oklahoma and West Virginia.
We're aiming to reach chapters in all 50 states by our anniversary day. So much so that, if we do indeed reach 50 states by May 29th, then everyone at our 5th anniversary celebration bash in NYC gets a free beer. The round's on the house. Paid for.
If you are a progressive, or know any progressives, in HI, ND, OK or WV, please please PLEASE contact us at info@livingliberally.org with any leads.
Best, Josh Bolotsky National Program Associate, Living Liberally
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