Received in email from Andrew, the ENGINEwear guy:

I have been notified by my local post office that a regional mail truck caught fire some time last week and a number of ENGINEwear shipments were “lost”. “Lost” in this context means “incinerated.” I have a partial list of the ones that were destroyed (and a lot of damaged t-shirts), but I may not have gotten all of them. If you ordered ENGINEwear prior to 30 November and have not received your shirts, please email me (info@tshirtcannon.us) and I’ll rectify the situation right away.

In the dense central forests of Borneo, a conservation group has found what appears to be a new species of mammal.

WWF caught two images of the animal, which is bigger than a domestic cat, dark red, and has a long muscular tail. Local people, the WWF says, had not seen the species before, and researchers say it looks to be new. The creature, believed to be carnivorous, was spotted in the Kayan Mentarang National Park, which lies in Indonesian territory on Borneo…

You can still listen to this superb documentary by David Quantick on its BBC Radio page via Realplayer: but, something like 18 months ago, I found that someone had successfully ripped it to mp3. Each chunk is about 60 MB, but I’m telling you, you should really listen to it. Even if you think you don’t particularly like psychedelia. I found it quite riveting. Part One, and Part Two, which of course you can also stream here through the magic of PlayTagger.

NEXTWAVE: January 2006, art by Stuart Immonen.

BUSAN, South Korea — U.S. President George W. Bush shakes hands with “Albert Hubo,” a 54-inch-tall, two-legged robot topped with a head modeled after Albert Einstein, as Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, right, looks on as leaders of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum tours South Korea’s hi-tech exhibition. (11/22/05 AP photo)

On the banks of Siletz Bay in Lincoln City, Oregon, officials dedicated a memorial last week to one of America’s worst calamities: a huge earthquake and tsunami that killed thousands of Native Americans 300 years ago. But the memorial’s main job is not to commemorate the disaster, which has only just come to light, but to warn local people that similar devastation could strike at any time.

The area sits over massive fault lines whose dangers have been highlighted by a startling new scientific discipline that combines Earth science studies and analysis of ancient legends. This is geomythology, and it is transforming our knowledge of earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis, says the journal Science.

According to the discipline’s proponents, violent geological upheavals may be more frequent than was previously suspected. Apart from the ‘lost’ Seattle earthquake, geomythology has recently revealed that a volcano in Fiji, thought to be dormant, is active, a discovery that followed geologists’ decision to follow up legends of a mountain appearing overnight.

Geologists have found that Middle Eastern flooding myths, including the story of Noah, could be traced to the sudden inundation of the Black Sea 7,600 years ago. The Oracle at Delphi has been found to lie over a geological fault through which seeped hallucinogenic gases. These could account for the trances and utterances of the oracle’s mystics.

‘Myths can tell us a great deal about what happened in the past and were important in establishing what happened here 300 years ago,’ said Brian Atwater, of the US Geological Survey in Seattle.

Along the Oregon and Washington coast, there are Native American stories about boulders, called a’yahos, which can shake to death anyone who stares at them. In addition, Ruth Ludwin, a seismologist in Seattle, discovered tales of villages being washed away and of whales and thunderbirds locked in fights…

(Note to readers who follow my comics work: I found this today, and started writing the forthcoming BLACKGAS months ago.)

The donor whose features were used for the world’s first face transplant had committed suicide just hours before the operation…

Slavoj Zizek, from 2003:

According to a possible Roman Catholic counter-argument, the true danger is that, in engaging in biogenetics, we forget that we have immortal souls. This argument only displaces the problem, however. If this were the case, Catholic believers would be the ideal people to engage in biogenetic manipulation, since they would be aware that they were dealing only with the material aspect of human existence, not with the spiritual kernel. Their faith would protect them from reductionism. If we have an autonomous spiritual dimension, there is no need to fear biogenetic manipulation.

(Note: souls are bullshit. But it’s an interesting avenue of attack.)

“All in all, my nuts are just about destroyed.”

Patton Oswalt
on Christmas cheer

“You’ve got to help me share all this Christmas cheer with the rest of the world!” you’ll gurgle. Then I’m going to cut you open and make entrail angels all over the floor!

Graphicnovelist Svetlana Chmakova, looking for tramps to set on fire while wearing the snow camouflage ENGINEwear hoodie.

It occurs to me that not everyone here has seen Natasha Allegri’s NORMAL LIFE. And you should. So click on that link and just keep using the “earlier” link at the bottom of each page.

Or look at this one. And this one is good. And this one is like my life distilled into two panels.

A giant straw goat erected every year in a Swedish town to mark the festive season has been burned down – again.

Police in the town of Gavle said the 13-metre (43 ft) high billy goat has been set on fire so often it has almost become a Christmas ritual. It was the 22nd time it has gone up in smoke since the town, north of Stockholm, began the tradition in 1966.

Two men were seen running from the blaze, one of whom was disguised as Father Christmas…

somewhere inside: Edward Woodward

A former San Diego counselor for autistic children was convicted Wednesday of 51 criminal counts for molesting youngsters and having them pose for pornographic photos that were posted on the Internet, according to a published report.

Paul Whitmore, 47, faces more than 400 years to life in prison when sentenced February 3, 2006.

Whitmore was involved in a huge international child porn ring in the United States and Europe. Investigators found more than 750,000 total images when they busted the ring.

The judge offered the jurors free counseling, commenting on the nature of the evidence they viewed during the month-long trial…

Rain, I need you to explain this photo to me.

Ukraine has declared a state of emergency in the Crimea peninsula as it seeks to halt the country’s first outbreak of bird flu.

Five villages have been placed under quarantine and all poultry in the affected regions will be slaughtered. Health experts investigating the death of 1,600 domestic birds in the area earlier confirmed the presence of a strain of the H5 virus…

I’m listening to something called “Milk Thistle” by Three Month Sunset (streaming-only), and it is the ambientpostrock space between Windy & Carl and midperiod Godspeed! You Black Emperor. Good for days like today, winter days that get dark early.

Bryan Lee O’Malley
on new music

I don’t know what the hell I’m listening to. I downloaded this Kate Bush album that people are talking about and she just keeps saying ‘washing machine’.

The Apparat Programme broadcast at ninety-six kilobits per second in broadband 8: no rhyme, no reason no future, no hope, merry fucking xmas

(34.01 mins) (23.4MB) (direct download)
Pick up The Apparat Programme automatically via podcasty thing or iTunes using this address: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Apparat

All music was donated directly to the Programme by the artists. The running order for Programme 8 is:

Elephant Thursday – “Miss A and the Dinosaurs” (3:29)
The Goddamn Shame – “Delinquent Frequencies” (4:04)
Jeremy Warmsley – “5 Verses” (3:33)
Spit – “Down In The Meadow” (2:24)
MISS – “Shelley” (1:05)
Fractal – “Steppin’ Razor” (1:09)
cntr – “It Was Like Having His Own Private Sky” (3:50)
Infinite Number of Sounds – “The Red Human Headed Bull” (5:10)
JahFurry & Klezska – “Tradition” (9:17)

Audience stats for the Apparat Programme:
1 – 3462 listeners | 2 – 2688 | 3 – 2316 | 4 – 2365 | 5 – 2253 | 6 – 2085 | 7 – 1642

Direct downloads of previous Programmes: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Please please please: if you enjoyed the Apparat Programme, please spread the word, linking back to this post. Just one line in your blog and a link would help. Feel free to hotlink the Apparat stamp.

I need new music. If you want your music to be included in an Apparat Programme, email your mp3 files directly to warrenellis@gmail.com.