The philosopher Jeremy Bentham suggested that if people were held in an institution, he called a panoptigon, where all their actions were observable then recidivist behaviour would be suppressed.

There are three big stories in the media at the moment. For the sake of the mods I wont go into one, but see today’s Daily Mail front page to know what I am talking about. The second is the Panama Papers, in my view a genuinely good piece of investigative journalism, that has already led to a few changes. In both cases, thanks to the Web and social media, suppressed information is slowly bleeding out.

The third is the murder case in Hartlepool. As revealed by the BBC here, thanks to a “Twitter lynch mob”, the judge scrapped the original court case and feared that the accused would not receive a fair retrial unless all MSM references to the case were retracted. Obviously the MSM saw this as censorship and successfully appealed so that the trial could be reported but with all webpage comment facilities switched off.

Now that the girls have been found guilty, the judge has decided they should remain anonymous. In the days of » Continue Reading.

In the comments

Wow, it sounds like this story is going to be in the news for weeks. Apart from the usual corrupt suspects, it seems the Iceland Prime Minister has resigned due undeclared banking investments. It looks like several UK politicians are on their lists too.

Just picked one up from my local Morrisons because Alex Turner was on the cover.

Jeez has the former flagship for music journalism come to this? It is completely anodyne PR copy, no different to the “magazine” that used to be given away in HMV.

I ask you in all seriousness: where has all the proper, informed music writing gone to nowadays?

Everything about it screams a song I should hate: slick good looking boys, tinny 80s overproduction, crap video, even. And yet I love it. I think maybe it is the guy’s voice and the fact that they are called Halo Jones that wins me over.

Anyone else got songs they love and are at a loss to explain why?

F U NE X?

Best European footballer in our lives?

I do love a squim-in-the-seat interviews.

I just caught up with last week’s Mayo-Kermode Radio 5 podcast this morning. They were interviewing Charlie Kaufman, the left field auteur beloved by arty critics. Surely the man who wrote films like Being John Malkovich and The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind would be right up their street? Wrong.

Listening in, my immediate instinct was to side with the always sunny Brits. But thinking about it , the initial Inside Out comments by Mayo are pretty crass. After being whopped at all the awards, Kaufman and Johnson’s spiky comments are at least an honest human response. Ditto Kaufman’s comments on crowd funding. Or is he just a pompous pretentious arse? Judging by comments later in the podcast, Mayo thought so. Actually even if he is, does it matter?

I don’t know why I am posting this really, other than it is interesting and – as illustrated by Kaufman’s fascinating comments on the structure of The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – people don’t have to get on for an interview to be successful.

If I take a more scenic route from Sheffield to Manchester airport I pass through a Cheshire village called Pott Shrigley – surely Royston Vasey must be up the road? Today, I flew over a place in western India I had previously visited: The Great Rann of Kutch, obviously named after a rival wizard to Oz. And, I grew up in Cardiff close to an area called Splot – isn’t that a lyrical moniker?

Striking names for real places. Anymore?

Although I am a self-confessed leftist social libertarian, I agree with just about all of this very good polemic – written by a Algerian journalist – in the New York Times that discusses the corrosive attitude to sex found around the Middle East.

As a comment below the article says these viewpoints -which are not entirely restricted to Islam – are evidence of religion as organised ignorance.

http://nyti.ms/1mx1mBi

With so many high profile deaths, the passing of the sixth man on the Moon has pretty much happened under the radar. We are now down to 7 people who have walked on another world. Not long before all extraterrestrial Terrans will be gone. When I was a kid I thought we would be on Mars by now.

Coincidentally, my last post was on UFOs. Mitchell was a Believer and accused NASA and the rest of Military-Industrial Complex of covering up evidence for the existence of Visitors

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-35506000

Anyone seen a UFO? Or at least got a FOAF story?

A long while ago I worked with a very sober RE teacher who assured me that in the 1970s he saw one hovering over Stonehenge giving out a bright orange light that dazzled his eyes as he drove passed. He reported it to the police. Next day, he assured me, he woke up with sunburn all over his face and received a visit from the Men in Black, who said they worked for the MoD – although he felt they didn’t. They asked him if he had any missing time, when he said no, they left and were never seen again.

Actually, this is Just as an excuse to post this lovely bit of pop psychedelia by Jim Sullivan – whose mysterious disappearance was due to an (alleged) alien abducted.

Warning: some of these are creepy. Since seeing it for the first time, the cover of The Miracle at My House has giving me nightmares.

http://sobadsogood.com/2016/01/26/21-most-tragic-and-cringeworthy-christian-music-covers-youll-ever-see/

Scarface: the cat’s story.

Just come downstairs to find one of my cats dazed and confused, literally rolling around in what appeared to be two ounces of cheeba, occasionally stopping to lick it off the floor with an ecstatic purr. Turns out he had found a box of catnip on the top shelf in our pantry, knocked it off the shelf, ripped open the cardboard box and plastic packaging, and then lost it completely.

He is sleeping it off now, legs akimbo and belly in the air. Wonder if I should intervene and send him to counseling.

Anyone else got pets that have got up to gangsta-style mischief?

Apart from “Knock, Knock” this must be the most popular set up for a joke. Heard one last week that is suitably Afterword :

Q: How many sound engineers does it take to change a light bulb?

A: 1,2….1,2…..1,2

Got any more?

Genuinely one of my favorite albums is Seu Jorge’s LP of Bowie covers. Anyone got any other suggestions?

Jeff for me.I reckon he is is the AW guy.