How Well Do You Know Rover?

They never did fully explain the nature of The Prisoner's mysterious balloon sentry, but it was certainly feared, respected, effective and quite capable of serving some serious pain.

Do you think you know Rover? Or would you like to know more? Then go take the quiz over at AMC's The Prisoner Blog. (I scored 3 out of 5, but I was just guessing.)

The Prisoner Production Design Sketches

Episode 4, "Free for All." Production sketch by art director Jack Shampan.

The Prisoner 1960s Production Design Sketches

Patrick McGoohan (1928-2009)

Be seeing you...













Patrick McGoohan, creator and star of the cult classic The Prisoner, has died aged 80













R.I.P. Patrick McGoohan, The Prisoner's TV Visionary













Remembering 'The Prisoner' creator/star Patrick McGoohan













Patrick McGoohan, RIP













images via AMC

Watch all 17 episodes of The Prisoner, free and legal

Be seeing you...

No. 6 meets No. 2

The Prisoner

The Prisoner - Episode 1 - Arrival

(watch all 17 episodes, free and legal)

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With the greatest possible respect to Joe Satriani, we have now unfortunately found it necessary to respond publicly to his allegations. If there are any similarities between our two pieces of music, they are entirely coincidental, and just as surprising to us as to him. Joe Satriani is a great musician, but he did not write or have any influence on the song Viva La Vida. We respectfully ask him to accept our assurances of this and wish him well with all future endeavours. Coldplay.

On “The Death of Blogging” A sensible and accurate analysis. (via)

Seth Godin: Warning: The internet is almost full (short and resonant)

Confessions of a Bootlegger “At one point, I was probably responsible for starting up more record labels than David Geffin, Berry Gordy and Suge Knight combined!” (excellent) (via)

Beethoven and the Illuminati How the secret order influenced the great composer.

Shipwreck clues could clear Blackbeard of sinking his ship to swindle his crew For almost 300 years, the British pirate captain has stood accused of deliberately sinking his flagship, Queen Anne's Revenge, so he could swindle his crew out of their share of loot they had plundered. But marine archaeologists, who are conducting a diving expedition on the vessel's presumed wreck, now believe it may have run aground by accident. They have even found evidence suggesting that Blackbeard made repeated attempts to rescue the stricken craft.

So you've been buried alive You may think you're exempt from this horror, but live burial doesn't discriminate. It happens to rich and poor, black and white, young and old. The more you prepare for this event, the greater your chances will be of surviving until that magical day when you're buried appropriately.

William Eggleston interview WE: There's plenty of film out there, and quadrillions of cameras that use film-I don't think it makes much sense not to use it. The thing that's going out is the manufacturing of the paper. Incidentally, all these years my wife has told me that I'm color-blind. (via)

also:
George S. Morrison, Admiral and Singer’s Father, Dies at 89
Interesting list of tourist scams (good to know) (via)
Insane Home Office Set-ups (via)
History of Hookah Smoking
antipodr (Find the other side of the world!) (via)
blört's new 404 (creepy)

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honours the servant and has forgotten the gift. - Albert Einstein (via)

Bohemian Grove

Ronald Reagan, Glenn T. Seaborg and Richard Nixon at the Bohemian Grove (image: Wikipedia)

Is Tricky Dick sporting a 'stache-n-dash?

Bohemian Grove

hat tip: vintagephoto

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George W. Bush: "Awesome!" The president has used "awesome" to describe everything from dead soldiers to the pope. How did a slang word trickle up to the highest office in the land? Let's bring back splendid! I maintain that there is something euphonius in the phonetics of words like awesome, especially curse-words, that is satisfying in a more physical rather than cognitive way. There is always something viscerally appealing in the heartily exclaimed shit, motherfucker or cocksucker. Also, have you ever noticed that expletives rarely go out of style? (via)

'Wizard of Oz' Storm Makes Pigs Fly "The wind picked her about 2½ feet up off the ground — she was swimming like her feet in the air — and it took her about 50 feet or 60 feet around the corner and must have slammed her into the fence, and then she came running back..."

Man With No Arms, Legs Takes Part In Triathlon Wow.

You've got me under your skin Reading fiction is good for us, Liam Durcan says, not because it teaches life lessons, but because it immerses us in other minds and other experiences (via)

also:
Artifacts from the Future (all of the now discontinued Found images from Wired)
8 Insane Nuclear Explosions (via)
10 More Unsolved Mysteries of the World
Gillian Anderson Interview
Q&A: Chris Carter
Words Of Wisdom From Tom Waits (via)
Worlds largest selection of Turntables (via)
Convert Your Basement Into A Subwoofer (via)

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A quarter of planet to be online by 2012, and able to understand each's other's language

New Chernobyl Video Report

When Spies Don’t Play Well With Their Allies As they complete their training at “The Farm,” the Central Intelligence Agency’s base in the Virginia tidewater, young agency recruits are taught a lesson they are expected never to forget during assignments overseas: there is no such thing as a friendly intelligence service.... But most C.I.A. veterans agree that no relationship between the spy agency and a foreign intelligence service is quite as byzantine, or as maddening, as that between the C.I.A. and Pakistan’s Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, or I.S.I. (via)

Britain on alert for deadly new knife with exploding tip that freezes victims' organs It's for real, and I'd wager that sales are exploding. (via)

Lost in Space There are those who believe that somewhere in the vast blackness of space, about nine billion miles from the Sun, the first human is about to cross the boundary of our Solar System into interstellar space. His body, perfectly preserved, is frozen at –270 degrees C (–454ºF); his tiny capsule has been silently sailing away from the Earth at 18,000 mph (29,000km/h) for the last 45 years. He is the original lost cosmonaut, whose rocket went up and, instead of coming back down, just kept on going. (via)

5 Ways Travelers Can Avoid Being Caught With Drugs Many foreigners arrested on drug charges believe they were wrongly convicted. Learn how you can avoid being a victim.

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Planning smart for your food supply Why store? The world we live in today is fast moving, ever changing and full of surprises. On top of this, there has never been a time when the average family has had less food in their homes than now. A hundred years ago, people generally didn’t go to the store very often. As a rule, America was much more agrarian than it is today, with people growing the majority of the plants and animals they ate. Today, many of us would be at our rope’s end after just a couple of days of not being able to go to the grocery store. (via)

Balloons carried gun away in Red Lobster executive's 'CSI'-like suicide "This was apparently an elaborate attempt to make it look like he was murdered..." (via)

Man claims to know source of 'Phoenix Lights' UFO sighting Dr. James R. Bartzen said he has indisputable proof that the so-called "Phoenix Lights" were a product of secret man-made technology being shielded from the public. (via)

Blurred Out: 51 Things You Aren't Allowed to See on Google Maps Most of these are understandable, but William Hurt's home in Paris? What's going on over there? Maybe he complained like the Borings. (via)

also:
Umberto Eco interview (via)
China Miéville interview (via)
Restoring Renaissance Frescoes (via)
Disturbing bound feet photos (via)

factoid: After studying it for 47 days, the New York Museum of Modern Art discovered that the Matisse painting Le Bateau was hanging upside down. (link) (via)

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The Forthcoming War with Iran Bruce Sterling: (((I've been reading Frank Gaffney's outpourings for years now. They're always of keen interest to me. He's a Pentagon Beltway bandit and infallibly pro-war with pretty much any potential "adversary" except Israel. The most interesting thing about the grand Gaffney strategy for war with Iran is the glaring likelihood that Iran would *win* this kind of war.))) Sterling's triple parentheses always create an echo effect in my head. But to the matter at hand-- We heard this sort of talk before both Gulf Wars and the U.S. military shocked the world by decidedly and brutally smoking the supposedly formidable Iraqi army, twice. I still think that war with Iran would be an unthinkably stupid move, but the U.S. military with its exhaustive tonnage of precision guided munitions and lead spraying capability and with its superior technology and mobility, would also smoke the Iranian army, with one hand tied behind its back. The consequences and aftermath would be the disastrous part, just like in Iraq. The military-industrial complex likes to talk this talk to keep themselves from getting to cocky. This essay is pure psy-ops.

Warning: Habits May Be Good for You A few years ago, a self-described “militant liberal” named Val Curtis decided that it was time to save millions of children from death and disease. So Dr. Curtis, an anthropologist then living in the African nation of Burkina Faso, contacted some of the largest multinational corporations and asked them, in effect, to teach her how to manipulate consumer habits worldwide. (via)

Did da Vinci really sketch a primitive version of the car? Yeah, I guess he did. (Oops, spoiler!) I was also attracted to a video on the page concerning Da Vinci's mirrored handwriting, which had almost nothing to do with his handwriting, but brought to mind the real reason why he wrote backward, from right to left. Da Vinci was left handed. So am I. I know from experience, and you lefties out there will almost certainly know this, that when you write, your hand follows the work. The result is often an ink stain on the side of your hand and often smeared work, if you're not careful. This result will vary depending on how one holds their pen, for me it's a big stain and lots of smears, if I'm not careful. This can be a pain in the ass and in the days when ink and paper were very expensive, it was probably a big problem. To put it plainly, he wrote backwards to save money and time. No mystical code or conspiracy, just pure utility. I stand by this to be true.

Lose Your Wikipedia Crutch: 100 Places to Go for Good Answers Online Let's not be too rash or knee-jerk in bashing Wikipedia. It may not always be accurate, but it is generally the most comprehensive and easy to use information source for the beginner or the casual browser. I always look for more sources to link on various topics for my posts, but I often find that Wikipedia is the best way to get the general idea across without too much fuss. If I find something better, I always post it. It's not necessarily a crutch when it's really useful. Still, it's always good to be armed with as many information sources as possible. (via)

PBR is now America's beer...sort of I don't drink that much beer anymore, but I maintain that, as far as crap American McBeer goes, PBR has the best taste and the most character. Kicks Budweiser's ass, anyways.

The Dude Abides Blog Several years ago Roshi Bernie Glassman met Jeff Bridges and thus began a long-term friendship. Bernie said to Jeff, "You know, a lot of folks consider the Dude a Zen Master." Jeff replied, "What are you talking about … Zen?" Bernie said that quite a few people had approached him wanting to chat about the Dude's Zen wisdom. Jeff said that he had never heard of that. Here is a blog to let that conversation go on with those interested in the Dude. Bernie has started a koan study using the Big Lebowski as source material and featuring Koans by the Coens. These koans will be posted on this blog with comments by Bernie and the Dude Himself. Before I left New Orleans, there were some kids that hung out at the same coffee shop that I did and they used to call me The Dude. They meant it with maximum respect and I secretly considered it to be an honor. (via)

The Prisoner Remake Jim Caviezel and Ian McKellen are to star in a reinterpretation of the 1960s cult classic, The Prisoner. AMC is co-producing the six-part mini-series with ITV Productions and Granada International, slated to be premiered in 2009. Caviezel will play Number Two, McKellen, Number Six. I'm surprised it took this long. Let's hope it doesn't suck. (via)

How rich are you? Every year we gaze enviously at the lists of the richest people in world. Wondering what it would be like to have that sort of cash. But where would you sit on one of those lists? Here's your chance to find out. (via)

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Did the “Hyper” Gene Benefit Our Nomadic Ancestors?; How Sarcasm Works; How to Recycle Electronics and Get Cash Back; Teens use technology to party in strangers' pools. I think they might be doing that near here, too.

Lagniappe: GOOD Guide: to the Shadowy Organizations That Rule the World (keyword: debunk) (reality = rudderless); Check and see who is really linking to you (via); One of the funniest posts I've read in a while.

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Putin continues to rule Russia; Roz Savage continues her row across the Pacific and she's blogging it; video game critics really have no clue; (via) and Bohemian Grove actually has a membership list, though I'm not really sure who compiled it. (via)

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There's more than you'd ever want to know about the Pink Floyd pig, (via) (prev) the Fermilab Code was broken even before Bruce Schneier had a chance to blog about it, there's a new Theory for the Formation of Large Agrarian Empires and, um, a government insider says that George Bush authorized the 9-11 attacks. (via)

Some Saturday Morning Heavy: Alan Moore - Perception

I'm not on board with everything he says here, but he does have some thought-provoking observations.


YouTube page
via The Practical Heretic