When the birds sing

Seal of the Demon BORGES

BORGES grants conversation with the dead, and aids in the navigation of Libraries and Labyrinths. BORGES will also give knowledge of fictional locations, and books that have not been written, have yet to be written, and will not be written.

(Blame Klint.)

I always feel like somebody's watching me...

I don't usually mind followers (the joys of Web 2.0), since if I haven't insulted or bored you to death, I'm glad to have you around. But when I was checking my Tumblr dashboard (which I usually don't since the way they implement following means dumping everything in my stream, and if you've got a Tumblr, I've probably followed your RSS, so it pops up in Reader anyway), I saw there was a follower section.

Now, Oxfam doesn't realize there's a reason I post so many disaster articles.

Tony? Take it away...

"I don't believe in 'supernatural' magic," he says. "I believe in 'supernormal' magic, meaning that when certain frequencies are sent out into the ether they affect the human subconscious in much the same way that certain circus tunes make elephants march." LaVey then runs through a medley of "rain songs" - "Singin' in the Rain," "Let a Smile Be Your Umbrella," a dozen more.

"Putting this leitmotif together is magical because I'm the only one who knows it. It sets up a Jungian gestalt. It's called magical superimposition. It's like five characters waiting for a play: I provide the play." LaVey then heightens and sharpens secret magical tonal patterns that he has discovered through years of trial and error. "You get a lot of rain songs together, and imagine all the creative energy, amalgamated creative energy, that went into those songs. Combine that with the emotional energy I produce in playing it. If the audience is right, like the other night in the bar, I can do something very magical because of ego-circuitry."

Proof that magic works? LaVey knew Hatfield the Rainmaker! He saw it work! What is magic today will be science tomorrow, he says, when the effect of biochemical energy is finally understood. He sees proof of magic everywhere. Not just in the return to romantic tunes and nostalgic fashion, but in parking spaces conjured up on the street and good tables appearing suddenly at restaurants, not to mention the San Diego McDonald's massacre and the Mexican earthquake that resulted accidentally after LaVey vented some anger on the keys. He is like a faith healer who has seen too many miracles to doubt. "It's truly frightening," he says.

And now, something different:

Blue Oyster Cult - Les Invisibles

  BLUE OYSTER CULT lyrics - Les Invisibles

Along the world axis
The Empress lay sleeping
To the rhyme of the, of the, of the star clock
Seven sleepers
Seven sages
Seven ladders to the, to the
Seventh heaven

Seven stars
Had Ursa Major
Tables turning, turning
And rain maker
While the seven
The visitors
All went, all went
A drumming

Dance a Don Pedro
Do the Don Pedro
Games after death
Night dances 'round
Samedi and Petre
In Alchemy

Salute the Four Quarters
Before I leave your eyes
Twinned in the mirror
Les Mesteres come
End me adoration
Before I leave your eyes
World in the mirror
Waters of amnesia come

Do you know (do you know), do you know (do you know)
Do you know (do you know), do you know (do you know)
The court of Eve
Beneath the Polar Mountain
Rose cross and crosser there
Symbols of the swan
Aerial races
In rotation over
The magical casement
Visions of a parallel world

Dance a Don Pedro
Do the Don Pedro
Games after death
Night dances 'round
Samedi and Petre
In Alchemy

Let me get this straight...

(Dr. Scott) Denton said he did not believe there was evidence that the shot had been fired at close range – that is, less than 18 to 24 inches. Denton said he saw nothing obvious to suggest close-range firing but he did not run tests on Mr. Carrington's clothing to see if there was soot or gunpowder residue on them.

A Forensic Pathologist says there's no evidence to support something, because he didn't test for it?

Rietz said her review of the report was for the sole purpose of determining if there is sufficient evidence to warrant criminal charges, not to determine if there are grounds for a civil lawsuit or if Champaign police violated any of their own departmental policies.

Well, the Escalation of Force is Unarmed > Baton > Mace/Taser > Firearm,  but apparently if you have pockets it skips to Firearm.

Glock 45, which was in good working condition, fired, the bullet

I know you have to clear away the malfunction defense, but generally speaking, if it fired the bullet, the gun is in working condition.

Of course, I still feel a tickle in my hate-gland on account of her handling of the Edgar Heap-of-Birds incident:

Mark Nepermann, 21, a May graduate in fine and applied arts from Batavia, was arraigned Thursday on a single count of misdemeanor theft alleging he stole signs valued at less than $300 from the UI and Edgar Heap of Birds on Saturday.

 The comedy part is each sign is appraised and insured at $10, 000, as works of art, but he was charged their material and fabrication costs, which neatly avoids a felony charge. Unlike say,

CHAMPAIGN – Champaign County State's Attorney Julia Rietz said she expects to charge a Champaign woman who allegedly encouraged her teen-age daughter to fight another teen with a felony.

 Tell your daughter to fight someone on YouTube? Felony.

– Official misconduct, a Class 3 felony, alleging that on Nov. 13, 2006, he used a health district credit card to buy a personal meal.

Use the wrong credit card to pay for lunch? Felony.

Steal $20, 000 worth of art? Misdemeanor.

I guess it sounds like I'm being overly critical and getting on my soapbox for no good reason...

In the primary, Urbana attorney Alfred Ivy III criticized Rietz's office for a lack of consistency in the charges it files for various crimes. He said they were overly harsh in many cases, involving both youths and adults, particularly minorities, creating disparities in whom the county prosecutes and how.

Oh. I guess I'm not.

(All quotes taken from News-Gazette archives.)

My rates are vey reasonable

IT'S NOT OIL: No one in the area can recall seeing anything like it before.

It's thick and dark and "gooey" and is drifting for miles in the cold Arctic waters,

"It's certainly biological," Hasenauer said. "It's definitely not an oil product of any kind. It has no characteristics of an oil, or a hazardous substance, for that matter.

Something else: No one in Barrow or Wainwright can remember seeing anything like this before, Brower said.

"If it was something we'd seen before, we'd be able to say something about it. But we haven't ...which prompted concerns from the local hunters and whaling captains."

The stuff is "gooey" and looks dark against the bright white ice floating in the Arctic Ocean, Brower said.

"It's pitch black when it hits ice and it kind of discolors the ice and hangs off of it," Brower said. He saw some jellyfish tangled up in the stuff, and someone turned in what was left of a dead goose -- just bones and feathers -- to the borough's wildlife department.

"It kind of has an odor; I can't describe it," he said.

"From the air it looks brownish with some sheen, but when you get close and put it up on the ice and in the bucket, it's kind of blackish stuff ... (and) has hairy strands on it."

For the most part, the mystery substance seems to have stayed away from shore.

Huge blob of Arctic goo floats past Slope communities

Grandad isn't a Ray Bradbury fan

So I went across the street to do some laundry, and found out Grandad's been using my scythe to cut weeds.

In totally unrelated news, apologies to alt.karl.malden.nose, and Mrs. Slocombe.

Tropical Storm Andras?

This will work out great!

• He can give advice on how to kill, and he can escalate quarrels and discord.
• His Office is to sow Discords. If the Exorcist have not a care, he will slay both him and his fellows.
• He can give advice on how to kill, and he can escalate quarrels and discord.

Thanks to ABC for pronouncing it out loud, and Delirium's Realm, for helping lazy Daemonologists everywhere.

Twelve years late, but I support the effort

I'm trying to coin the expression "triple-yew", meaning the WWW at the start of web addresses, currently we are reduced to saying "double-yew double-yew double-yew" which seems ridiculously long. 
Clifford Marcus, Oxford, UK

via BBC, on the advent of the millionth word.

This happens all the time

So, while linksurfing, I came upon The Slow Down.

Slow Down is a sound recorded on May 19, 1997, in the Equatorial Pacific ocean by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The source of the sound remains unknown.

Now, most people are familiar with the Bloop (50° 0′ 0″ S, 100° 0′ 0″ W), since it got some decent publicity. A lot of fan-boys said it was R'lyeh, it's been used as a promotion for Cloverfield, etc.

Well, I looked at where the Slow Down was pinpointed (15° 0′ 0″ S, 115° 0′ 0″ W ). 

Now back in 1992, I was fresh off Magick in Theory and Practice,  and all-ready to open my mind up to whatever wanted to sign it out for  a while. If there had been any good books about Austin Osmond Spare at the time, I probably wouldn't have tried automatic writing as the method of communication.

So, I sat down with a paper and pencil, relaxed, put on some Talking Heads, and waited for things to start out.

By the time Side B of Stop Making Sense kicked in, I woke back up. I had drawn on three sheets of paper. The first was an angular hand, holding a brazier in three fingers, standing in a cavern, surrounded by hooded figures. The second was a mass of scratches, and numbers in the middle of it. Being one year sort of the internet, I tried plugging the numbers in the Map application (Damn you System 7. I might not have realized otherwise.) Somewhere off South America. 

The third was an Illustration of Zoth-Ommog, and some co-ordinates in Germany. Completely Meaningless.

Should've watched out for those owls, Major Briggs.