Tuesday 26 February 2008

Before the main course, some sites for your delectation

Before I launch headlong into possibly the most horrendous and devastating story of greed, corruption and crimes against humanity I have ever come across (you can look forward to that light-hearted reading tomorrow... 10 points to who can guess what it is from this clue: An ongoing, 40 year occupation resulting in 200'000 deaths and fully supported, to this day, by the US and UK (no, not palestine)) I feel i should share with you some of the great things i have found in the last year. Sure, i can inform you of interesting and important shit... but its much better to have the tools to do it for oneself.

www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv
This site is the absolute dogs bollocks. Hosted by the George Washington University, this marvellous group of people have numerous lawsuits currently ongoing with the US government regarding the release of declassified documents and fulfilling the freedom of information act. Its chock full of declassified documents on all sorts of fascinating topics, such as the informant 'curveball'... the conman who duped US authorities (that is, unless they knew all along) into believing all sorts of crap about the mountains of WMD's Saddam had under his bed. This site seeks to collect all the declassified stuff it possibly can, analyse it and post it on the web for all to see... free of charge. Believe me, if this site gets pulled, it will signal a dark day for democracy.

www.thedossier.ukonline.co.uk
This little gem of a site is a haven for those seeking suhversive documentaries (all free to stream/download), documents, news articles, maps etc from people concerned about getting you the truth...straight from the horses mouth. Not full blown conspiracy theorists, they weed out the sensational to leave you with a wonderful collections of works from the likes of John Pilger, Adam Curtis and Evan Williams. I highly highly recommend the Power of Nightmares trilodgy of films by Adam Curtis. Some of the finest documentary making i have ever seen.

Skeptics Guide to the Universe
This podcast available from iTunes has had me hooked for most of the last year. They weened my interest away from matters of psuedo-science and planted my feet firmly back on the ground. Covering news sotries and quacks from around the world, they educate and inform in a funny and witty style, shooting down those that dare exploit people for their own personal gain (mystics, phsycics etc), telling you the inside knowledge and innoculating your mind against frivolty.

www.indymedia.org.uk/
I've included this site in particular (there are others similar) because of the amount of laughs it has given me. Many times the authorities have tried to sue Indymedia, never quite realising that it is an open medium, free for anyone to write. Its a notice board for activists to record and publicise direct action, be it against Arms manufacturers or Coca-Cola. Ive included this because I do not think that the people of this country have the slightest idea simply how much direct action goes on in the UK every single day. It brightens up my day to see yet another young mind chaining themselves by the neck to a gate somewhere. Keep up the good work!

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