The Utter Truth of the Worldwide Mad Deadly Gangster Computer God

Long ago, I was active in cassette tape trading circles. One of the more amazing tapes that I received was a tape of what sounded like the writings of a completely insane person read by what sounded like a professional newsreader with library music playing in the background.

I had no idea what the hell this tape was - the person who sent it to me has no idea either, it had been copied and sent so many times. As the years passed, I came to learn that these ramblings of Mr. Francis E. Dec, that were recorded by a disk jockey named Boyd Britton. There are a few places on the web where the curious might find these audio files, but I am delighted to see this page: an amazing cornucopia of info on the late Mr. Dec, with the original audio files, the rants transcribed and illustrated, more rants that were not part of the underground tape and an awful lot of biographical info.

As the content of the rants is a bit on the extreme side, the link is to the opening disclaimer so you can get the full effect of the site. When you get in, head straight to the "rants" section, click on "Rant #3: 'Worldwide Open Secret,'" and as you listen to the sound file imagine what it was like to get that via a cassette tape labelled "Listen to this" that was mailed to you by a complete stranger.

I'm not sure, but I think the music in the background to this particular one is from the soundtrack to Goldfinger, by the way.

Happy Easter!

Because nothing says "Easter" like a crucified duck on a bendy straw.

The first sign of spring

It seems to be the time of year when people who work in their gardens start to worry about potential ant infestations.

Greetings Gardeners! I have no information for you! Good luck with your search!

With grim death gargling at you from every corner.

Enjoy a great scene from one of my favorite films:

I begin the month with an empty threat

This morning NPR greeted me with an attempt at an audio data graph.

The data that they were trying to represent was the relative spending of the various Democratic Presidential Candidates. The method of representation was this: for every million dollars that a candidate raised, they played a second (with corresponding fractions) of the chorus of "Staying Alive" by the Bee Gees.

As I woke up listening to this, it suddenly occurred to me that if I stopped giving money to Public Radio pledge drives, I could afford a subscription to a satellite radio service.

Happy April Fools Day!

I am now spreading disinformation on the internet!

Enjoy!

Breaking Down the Nervous Detectives - Whose side are you on, anyway?

One of the things that can sometimes really throw me when I'm watching film or television from the UK is realizing that I've presumed that the wrong character is driving the car.

It's something that only happens occasionally (which makes sense as there has to be a prolonged scene of two adults sitting in the front of a car.)

I think it is really interesting the way (at least my) brain works in these situations. I've driven a fair amount in England, and have had few problems - I find it's much harder to be a front seat passenger. But the thing is -- as I think about it now, I realize that my brain has taken all my memories of driving there and reworked them so that I am now remembering driving on the right side of the road while sitting on the left side of the car.

Weird.