Author Archive | Nick Margerrison

There’s Someone Who Nose How to Sniff Out a Problem

By on December 15, 2012 in News 3

Picture: CDC (PD)

“There was a programme on our TV sets called ‘Dogs with jobs’, right? Dogs with jobs?  And they used to put it on at 11.30 in the morning, right? I was unemployed at that time and I resented a programme called ‘Dogs with jobs’ being put on telly when they knew unemployed people would be watching. [...] Oh f—ing hell, even the dogs have got jobs!!”

- Russell Brand

There’s a doggy which has been trained to sniff out patients who have the ‘superbug’ C.difficile. It can clear an entire hospital ward in minutes with a recorded 80 per cent success rate, The Telegraph reports:

The dog, a beagle named Cliff, can sniff out the potentially deadly infection on samples taken from patients and even just from walking around the ward sniffing the air, according to a report published online in the British Medical Journal.

Dogs have been trained to sniff out a variety of diseases, warn epileptics of impending fits and can be trained to assist disabled people, but this is thought to be the first time one has been found to able to detect Clostridium difficile.

… Read the rest

Continue Reading · 3

The New World in 2030 – “You’ll Need Good Global Management”

By on December 13, 2012 in News 11

Picture: Струјајое (CC)

“The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy.”

- Oscar Wilde

Every few years US intelligence agencies release a report outlining how they think the world will look in our near future. The most recent is an attempt to project forwards into 2030. In a nutshell the power of the US is going to continue to decline as China’s rises. One of the more interesting factors outlined in the report is the acknowledgment of the increasing power of the individual in relation to governments. The idea of a third world war is seen as being unlikely and the Mayan calendar doesn’t even get a mention!

According to NPR the intelligence agencies appear to be concluding that there is a pressing need for an overall global authority to help contain the problems they foresee.

NPR reports:

NPR has the fuller story here:

By the year 2030, for the first time in history, a majority of the world’s population will be out of poverty.

… Read the rest

Continue Reading · 11

The Gangnam Fella Issues Heartfelt Apology For His Rubbish Music

By on December 10, 2012 in News 25

It's thought he dropped the "Kill those f–king Yankees" bit from his act during this performance

That man who sings the novelty pop song “Gangnam Style” has issued a full and frank apology according to The Daily Dot:

“As a proud South Korean who was educated in the United States and lived there for a very significant part of my life, I understand the sacrifices American servicemen and women have made to protect freedom and democracy in my country and around the world. The song I featured on in question from eight years ago –- was part of a deeply emotional reaction to the war in Iraq and the killing of two Korean schoolgirls that was part of the overall antiwar sentiment shared by others around the world at that time.”

Perhaps I should have made this more clear. He’s not yet apologised for his song, “Gangnam style”. Instead he’s crapping his pants over a song he sang years ago demanding people murder the “f–king Yankees”.… Read the rest

Continue Reading · 25

European City of Amsterdam Announces Plans to Concentrate ‘Scum’ Into Camps

By on December 10, 2012 in News 10

“People (Germans) use to frighten their children, ‘If you do not behave, you will surely end up at Dachau.’”

 - Theodore Haas

As the European federalists continue trying ruthlessly to construct their would-be superstate, with unquestioning support from the “left wing” throughout the nation states involved, disturbing news emerges from Amsterdam. The Guardian reports:

the Dutch capital may lose its reputation for tolerance over plans to dispatch nuisance neighbours to “scum villages” made from shipping containers.

The mayor, Eberhard van der Laan, insists his controversial new £810,000 policy to tackle antisocial behaviour is to protect victims of abuse and homophobia from harassment.

The camps where antisocial tenants will be rehoused for three to six months have been called “scum villages” because the policy echoes proposals from Geert Wilders, the far-right populist, who last year demanded that “repeat offenders” be “sent to a village for scum”.

But Bartho Boer, a spokesman for the mayor, denies that the plans are illiberal.

… Read the rest

Continue Reading · 10

Could the UK Also be About to Decriminalise Cannabis?

By on December 9, 2012 in News 2

Curious synchronistic rumblings from the British press seem to suggest a change in the UK’s laws on recreational drugs might be in the offing, after the US cannabis lobby’s recent successes. The bad news first, it won’t be until at least 2015 and the current official stance on the matter, reported by The Daily Mail, is predictably inane:

Last night, a government spokesperson said: ‘Drugs are illegal because they are harmful – they destroy lives and blight communities.

‘Our current laws draw on the best available evidence[1] and as such we have no intention of downgrading or declassifying cannabis.

‘A Royal Commission on drugs is simply not necessary. Our cross-government approach is working.

‘Drug usage is at its lowest level since records began and people going into treatment today are far more likely to free themselves from dependency than ever before.

‘We will respond to the report more fully in due course.’

Full story in The Daily Mail

However the above is taken from an article with the heading: “Treat addicts, don’t lock them up: MPs pave way to legalise drugs as they admit prison sentences are failing to deter offenders“.… Read the rest

Continue Reading · 2

PBS to Screen Magical Mystery Tour

By on December 7, 2012 in News 1

Christian science monitor reports:

It’s not easy to find an unexplored corner of Beatlemania, but PBS brings viewers inside Magical Mystery Tour, the 1967 British TV film behind the album from the Fab Four by the same name. The show interviews Beatles as well as Martin Scorsese, Peter Fonda, and a slew of British personalities about the impact of the film. Full of veiled references to psychedelic drugs and anarchy, it never aired in the United States, but now “Great Performances offers Magical Mystery Tour Revisited Dec. 14 at 9 p.m., followed by the film itself at 10 p.m.

That The Beatles’ shambolic Magical Mystery Tour film never even aired in the US explains a lot to me. Their career appears to be divided into two distinct parts, with Sgt Pepper being the dividing line. I have a lot of difficulty explaining to friends of mine, who agree with my more alternative musical preferences, why I love The Beatles.… Read the rest

Continue Reading · 1

More Than Half the US Supports Legalisation of Cannabis

By on December 7, 2012 in News 19

Picture: NARA (PD)

“Some of my finest hours have been spent on my back veranda, observing as far as my red eyes can see toking on a big fat f–king bong! Yeah, that’s right you f–kers in the future, suck it up. I smoked weed like a motherf–ker! Go Google it!”

- Thomas Jefferson[1]

The legalisation of cannabis meme seems to be reaching its tipping point. The Volokh Conspiracy reports:

A recent poll conducted by Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling indicates that 58% of Americans support the legalization of marijuana. This is consistent with other recent survey data showing that public opinion is moving in a pro-legalization direction. In 2011, a Gallup poll showed 50% support for legalization for the first time. As with other recent surveys, the PPP polls finds that support for legalization is highest among younger people. But this is a generational effect in which each generation is more supportive of legalization than the one that came before, rather than a cohort effect in which the young are pro-legalization, but quickly turn against it once they get older.

… Read the rest

Continue Reading · 19

Introducing Alan Watts?

By on December 5, 2012 in News 11


It’s unlikely this will be an introduction for most Disnfonaughts but as the community grows it’s worth welcoming newcomers with a few of the basics. Trust me when I say he’ll be useful to you if you’re unaware of his work[1].

Open Culture has highlighted the arrival of the complete 1959 series of television shows which helped to make his name in the US.

If you’re familliar with his work you’ll have skipped this, prepared yourself a good fat tasty portion of Zen and already be watching the master weave some ‘classic’ spells.

Open culture writes:

The British-born interpreter and popularizer of East Asian Buddhist thought generated most of his media in the San Francisco of the 1950s and 1960s, and his televised lectures, produced for local public station KQED, must have offered many a San Franciscan their very first glimpse of Zen. Now that episodes of his series Eastern Wisdom and Modern Life have made it to YouTube (season one, season two), you can see for yourself that Watts’ then-cutting-edge delivery of this ancient wisdom remains entertaining, informative, and striking in its clarity. Begin with the introductory episode above, “Man and Nature,” in which Watts calmly lays out his observations of the ill effects of Westerners’ having grown to distrust their human instincts.

FULL STORY HERE.

[1] Early rumours surrounding The Discordian Holy text “Principia Discordia” placed him as its author. This speaks to the clout he had in the US spiritual counter culture.

Nick Margerrison

Continue Reading · 11

A Beginner’s Guide to Sigil Craft

By on December 4, 2012 in News 38

“Magick has many aspects, but primarily it acts as a dramatized system of psychology”

- “Pope Bob”, Robert Anton Wilson

Part 4, Essays for the Discordian Occultist: the sigil.

Here’s one way of making a sigil. It’s partly cribbed from a talk given by Grant Morrison at the Disinformation conference[1] with slight personal additional details provided by my own experiences. Sigils are a low-magick technique which will not fail to get you exactly what you need. It can become a high-magick technique but for the moment we’ll just stick to the basics[2].

One important thing to note is that sigils always appear to work. The distinction being; if I kicked in a window, I’d feel I knew who’d done it. If I cast a sigil which asked for that window to be broken and then discovered a few days later it was now broken, no one can prove a causal relationship between the sigil and the broken window.… Read the rest

Continue Reading · 38

Idiot Sets Fire to Stage Magician’s Head

By on December 2, 2012 in News 20

Picture: Wayne Houchin (C)

“I’d like to beat the living s–t out of that coward that did this to Wayne. Sorry but I am disgusted beyond words and equally angered. I hope that justice will be served. Get better soon, Wayne. We are all thinking of you”

- Conjurer77, YouTube commentor.

The American stage magician Wayne Houchin, currently one of the stars and hosts of Breaking Magic (Discovery), has suffered severe burns to his face and head after a lunatic poured burning liquid over him in an unprovoked and unexpected attack during the taping of a TV show. The YouTube video (posted at bottom of this article) is going viral and fans of the magician are more than a little annoyed. According to The Telegraph:

[Wayne]was in the Dominican Republic to promote his Curiosidades show when he suffered severe burns after a TV chat show host poured burning cologne over his head.

… Read the rest

Continue Reading · 20