Strange and Dangerous Dreams - Geoff Powter

Crowley completists should note that the Beast is one of the adventurers profiled in a new book called Strange and Dangerous Dreams by one Geoff Powter. There is a decent review in the Lewisville, Kentucky, Courier Journal. I have not yet read this book, but it seems to focus on Crowley's mountaineering, which would make it rather interesting.

A couple of quotes from the review:

With the exception of Meriwether Lewis, none of the characters profiledin Geoff Powter's book "Strange and Dangerous Dreams: The Fine LineBetween Adventure and Madness" (Mountaineers Books, 256 pages,hardback, $22.95) are folks I'd care to camp with.

...

Others chronicled here include Solomon Andrée, who tried to pilot aballoon to the North Pole, sailor-of-sorts Donald Crowhurst, polarexplorer John Franklin, aviator Jean Batten, Aleister Crowley, would-bemountaineer Claudio Corti, Mount Everest dreamer Earl Denman and thetragic trio of Guy, Johnny and Bill Waterman.

Venice Beach - I think - 1991

Venice Beach - I think - 1991
Originally uploaded by Alhazred.

"Woo Hoo!" news - Babylon 5 to return

Best entertainment related news that I have read in a while:
During last weekend's San Diego Comic Con...at a panel that (evidently) didn't enjoy the "in your face" notoriety of, say, TRANSFORMERS or SPIDERMAN 3... producer/writer/director J. Michael Straczynski (JMS, or "Joe") made an announcement regarding the future of this little concept he has called BABYLON 5.
The thrust of the news is this: straight-to-video BABYLON 5 adventures...involving B5 characters in an anthology format...should arrive late next year. Written and directed by JMS.

Territorial conflicts

Foreignpolicy.com has an interesting list of 'The World's Forgotten Territorial Disputes,' with a short analysis of each. Disputed areas covered are:

• The area between Bolivia and the Pacific Coast (disputed with Chile.)
• The Spratly Islands (China, Phillipines, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam)
• Hans Island (Canada and Denmark)
• An area along the China-India border
• The Ethiopia-Eritrea border

New species of giant peccary

All the details are available at Cryptomundo.
And the Homeresque first reader comment is a gem.

Space impact and Tutankhamun gem

An article from the BBC reports that the one of the gems in a necklace of Tutankhamun may have come about as a result of a space impact. The gem was found upon analysis to be made from an usual green glass, which may have been produced when a comet hit Egypt. Thinking of the Tunguska strike,
Wasson wondered if a similar aerial burst could have produced enough heat to turn the ground to glass in the Egyptian desert.
The first atomic bomb detonation, at the Trinity site in New Mexico in 1945, created a thin layer of glass on the sand. But the area of glass in the Egyptian desert is vastly bigger.
Whatever happened in Egypt must have been much more powerful than an atomic bomb.

Good days for eschatologists

Now that war is brewing in the middle east, expect a spike in end of the world predictions. Here's one group that is preparing for Armageddon.