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  • This makes Julia Child that much more awesome...

     from http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,403443,00.html

    WASHINGTON —  Famed chef Julia Child shared a secret with Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg and Chicago White Sox catcher Moe Berg at a time when the Nazis threatened the world.

    They served in an international spy ring managed by the Office of Strategic Services, an early version of the CIA created in World War II by President Franklin Roosevelt.

    The secret comes out Thursday — all of the names and previously classified files identifying nearly 24,000 spies who formed the first centralized intelligence effort by the United States. The National Archives, which this week released a list of the names found in the records, will make available for the first time all 750,000 pages identifying the vast spy network of military and civilian operatives.

    They were soldiers, actors, historians, lawyers, athletes, professors, reporters. But for several years during World War II, they were known simply as the OSS. They studied military plans, created propaganda, infiltrated enemy ranks and stirred resistance among foreign troops.

    Among the more than 35,000 OSS personnel files are applications, commendations and handwritten notes identifying young recruits who, like Child, Goldberg and Berg, earned greater acclaim in other fields — Arthur Schlesinger Jr., a historian and special assistant to President Kennedy; Sterling Hayden, a film and television actor whose work included a role in "The Godfather"; and Thomas Braden, an author whose "Eight Is Enough" book inspired the 1970s television series. /**/ var adsonar_placementId="1307847",adsonar_pid="144757",adsonar_ps="-1",adsonar_zw=190;adsonar_zh=200,adsonar_jv="ads.adsonar.com"; qas_writeAd(); /**/

    Other notables identified in the files include John Hemingway, son of author Ernest Hemingway; Quentin and Kermit Roosevelt, sons of President Theodore Roosevelt, and Miles Copeland, father of Stewart Copeland, drummer for the band The Police.

    The release of the OSS personnel files uncloaks one of the last secrets from the short-lived wartime intelligence agency, which for the most part later was folded into the CIA after President Truman disbanded it in 1945.

    "I think it's terrific," said Elizabeth McIntosh, 93, a former OSS agent now living in Woodbridge, Va. "They've finally, after all these years, they've gotten the names out. All of these people had been told never to mention they were with the OSS."

    The CIA had resisted releasing OSS records for decades. But former CIA Director William Casey, himself an OSS veteran, cleared the way for transfer of millions of OSS documents to the National Archives when he took over the agency in 1981. The personnel files are the latest to be made public.

    Information about OSS involvement was so guarded that relatives often couldn't confirm a family member's work with the group.

    Walter Mess, who handled covert OSS operations in Poland and North Africa, said he kept quiet for more than 50 years, only recently telling his wife of 62 years about his OSS activity.

    "I was told to keep my mouth shut," said Mess, now 93 and living in Falls Church, Va.

    The files will offer new information even for those most familiar with the agency. Charles Pinck, president of the OSS Society created by former OSS agents and their relatives, said the nearly 24,000 employees included in the archives far exceeds previous estimates of 13,000.

    The newly released documents will clarify these and other issues, said William Cunliffe, an archivist who has worked extensively with the OSS records at the National Archives.

    "We're saying the OSS was a lot bigger than they were saying," Cunliffe said.

  • Old-school internet...

    I miss the way the internet was around 1995. This was before youtube, before myspace, before google. This was the internet I knew in the classroom of my Gifted/Talented program, where the terminal was hooked up to a mainframe no one was allowed to touch and a mess of wires. I miss when hamsterdance.com was the most useless thing on the net we could get our hands on, and we were endlessly mesmerized by those simple turns and swirls. This was the time when getting your own webpage was the ultimate in coolness. It's not that I don't appreciate all the technological advancements, I mean, come on, I use xanga, facebook, and myspace as major means of internet-based expression. I need somewhere to text completely nonsensical phrases at three in the morning and have them posted for the public to view. I just think that, in a way, we've gotten ahead of ourselves. And I don't really know where to begin to explaining.

    http://www.angelfire.com/ny3/wasteofspace/map.htm
    http://www.crazythoughts.com/
    http://www.davesweboflies.com/index.cgi
    http://drspeedbump.8m.com/
    http://thepointless.com/

  • Deathmetal Reviews

    Current mood:jedi

    I had a sudden craving to feed my dark side last night, and so I checked out some deathmetal bands on the myspace music sites. This style of music was something I did not have access to as a child, and so I loved it all the more. Now, as I'm older, I'm not as mesmerised by it, just because I realize that so much of it either sucks or sounds like every other band. So I went through and researched the music of a few bands (which means that I picked two songs at random on their playlist and listened to the first verse and chorus) and judged a sample of the music based on certain criteria: musicality, the images evoked, whether or not the band was feeding into their own darksides or if they were just trying to shock their audience, and whether or not the music had that element of sex and danger.

    Obscurity (Sweden) - Guitar and Drums don't match beats or rhythm.
    Necrophobic (Sweden) - The screamer growls the lyrics. Awesome.
    Bathory (Sweden) - Very old school. Nice. The song "Blood Fire Death" starts out with a choral piece, throwback to the 11th century.
    Anhaguama (Brazil) - Tries too hard to be industrial. Doesn't quite work. No melody, not much of a bass line.
    Vital Remains (United States) - I hate their faces. Doucherock for the teenage shock junkie.
    Naglfar (Sweden) - Sounds like a gothic torture chamber, much like deathmeatal should sound.
    Morhbius (Brazil) - A bit too grindcore. Screamer makes gorilla noises I don't understand.
    Graveworm (Italy) - Would have loved them two years ago if I hadn't heard the band "Eyes Set To Kill" first. I do, however, want the lead guitarist's sex in the worst way.
    Dissection (Sweden) - I had to close my eyes to fully experience their song "God of Forbidden Light". Love them.
    Acheron (United States) - They're the newbie style of band that only knows three chords, but, keeping that in mind, they kind of rock.
    Obituary (United States) - I would shoot a very graphic death scene to their music, but only because they have a good sense of rhythm. Other than that, they don't really impress me.
    Vile (United States) - Very tight, very climactic, very calculated music. Leaves me with a slightly chilled feeling.
    Absu (United States) - I swear I heard a whip crack somewhere during "The Gold Torques of Ulaid".
    Sadus (United States) - Slow but disturbing and awesome. This is probably what turning a Judas Priest album backwards should have sounded like, just to fuck with everyone.
    Korgull The Exterminator (Spain) - Discordant and noisy, but not in a good way.
    Igereth (Sweden) - Tight yet hardhitting. No screamer in the one song they offered on their site, just instruments, which kind of made me like it more.
    Cryptopsy (Canada) - Good musically, but kind of had a doucherock edge I wasn't into at all.
    Dol Guldur (Germany) - This made me imagine a large monster in a mad scientist's lair playing an organ. Didn't hate it at all.
    Baalmoral (Germany) - Was not impressed. Trying too hard. One redeeming quality: I would have been able to understand the lyrics for once, you know, if I actually spoke German.
    Mutilated Remains (Germany) - Deliberately tight. Very clean rhythms. Kind of disturbing in that respect.
    Malign Prophecy (United States) - Doucherock. Doucherock Doucherock. Doucherock.
    Black Flame (Italy) - Something wrong, but can't quite put my finger on it. Otherwise, a decent band.

  • 1 a.m. rant, Number Four in the Series

    Current mood:pissed off

    Ignorance and intolerance are two things that piss me off really really really badly. But they should anger pretty much anyone with a soul. Hate based on lack of understanding? What the fuck? It's not that hard to keep an open mind. People are put into stereotypical categories because for some reason it's easier to label than to actually figure out that everyone is a complex individual that can't be broken down into a faceless conglomeration if others really took time to know them. This is also a rant based on something that happened to me, but I had to wait a couple of days so that I wouldn't do what I originally threatened, which was to pull a Tyler Durden and rubber band the guy's balls in the middle of my parents' hallway and scream over him "Yeah? Are you proud of that tattoo? You want to die in your hatred, bastard, minus your testicles, or are you going to get up and find out what the Nazis are really all about, and fucking grow a soul?" Or maybe ignorance is bliss for some, after all.

  • Moving to A Hooverville

    Say, say, tonight we're gonna party like it's nineteen twenty nine...

    So, we're in a recession. Not a good thing. Prices are going up on everything, even simple items like milk and bread. The gas prices are INSANE. People are losing jobs, losing homes, losing their minds, it seems. But does it really help to be reminded over and over again to the point of hysteria? Seriously? Every news program covers the recession, but at least they talk about ways that people are fighting it, with stores moving to local produce where they can and people finding ingeneous ways for saving money (There was one lady who was able to use coupons and sales to feed a family of six for ten dollars a week. I can barely afford to feed myself that on ham sandwiches and apple juice.) But everyone this summer has been talking about it. Car insurance companies, department stores, (that weight loss thing called nutrisystem has started claiming that their meals are cheaper than making them yourself in an attempt to sell them, since they haven't proven yet that their product does anything besides keep a person under strict portion and calorie control) all have been pitching the idea that if you buy their product and save money, you won't be hit as hard when doomsday approaches. Because doomsday is how they are treating it.(Looking at you, freecreditreport.com, with your smiling homeless street performers singing about economic downturn with guitars). They're feeding on hardship and turning it into fear for fun and profit. And it pisses me off.

  • 300 Hours

    Life can be measured in milestones. I measure everything in anniversaries and pivotal moments. And so I had to think about this today as I noticed that my cell phone hit the 300 hour mark on the lifetimer sometime today. I've had the damn thing for over two years now, so it doesn't seem like much, but I just happen to be someone who, not too awfully long ago, had sworn to keep away from such technological conveniences. But here I am anyway. And those 300 hours were, on some level, well spent. I discussed many an artistic idea, talked a friend through her pregnancy, kept in touch with many people who would have otherwise fallen by the wayside in my life, gotten out of emergencies and uncomfortable situations, fought oppression, and, uh, brought pleasure to strange men through my voice, and, uh, yeah....

  • It’s not one in the morning, I’m just ranting.

    Current mood:aroused

    Paid security personnel piss me off too. Especially when they're paid to protect someone in the entertainment industry. They just tend to get in the way of communicating with fans. Now, I can see this if it were for a superstar or heartthrob, which will be the topic of another rant entirely, but when it is a respectable band with a modest fan base, it's just unnecessary.
    I only say this because the security at the Apocalyptica concert pulled the beautiful Finnish thrash metal cello players of dark European manliness away just before I could get my boobs, uh, I mean my over-21 bracelet autographed, but this is still a legitimate bout of indignation.

  • Black Nailpolish

    I don't know why, but this stuff makes my hands move differently. Like, more delicately. Even now that it's been on here for three days and it's chipped and ragged. But painting my nails black seems to be the one thing that seems to be the most out of character for me, even though it is a very insignificant act. I am underground, I am the resistance, but only so far. I wear black paint-splotched t-shirts, but I'm still approachable to polite society. One small thing and it feels like I've crossed some sort of line.

    A friend of mine had a house burn a couple of nights ago. She and her husband were in the process of moving, so only a few things got torched so it was no big deal to them. This made me think about the fact that my non-materialist Bohemianism is a blessing/curse deal. I don't have much in the way of possessions, but the things that I find near and dear are either books or one-of-a-kind pieces of art either done by me or someone close to me, and highly flammable.

    Setting up impossible standards for humanity is my new hobby. For instance, it will now be an unwritten rule that for a person to be allowed in my presence for an extended period of time, they must own a soul. And an open mind. I'll let you know later how this turns out...

    I have the sudden urge to make a pot of decaf coffee with vanilla and cinnamon. Rain has this effect on my psyche and my ability to resist my own crazy whims.

    There was a really disturbing article in USA Weekend about how 10-14 year old girls affect the spending habits of the entire nation. *Shivers*

  • 1 a.m. rant, Number Three in the Series

    You know what else pisses me off? Traffic. I really have no right to say anything about traffic, since I don't own a car, but I'm still pissed about it. Traffic is a flow, a machine, and any little delay spells disaster. Plus there's crowds and drama. I believe that the way a person drives is a reflection on who they are and how they interact with others. Impulsiveness, recklessness, selfishness, dumbassishness, all show themselves on the road. I guess the real reason traffic pisses me off is the fact that it works like some metaphor for humanity in my brain, and it makes me all the more cynical.

  • 1 A.M. Rant, Number Two in the Series

    Relationships piss me off too. I'm trying my damnedest to stay out of one, and I've been successful so far. I see too many people, both men and women, lead themselves into the abyss in exchange for... something. I have no idea. Loneliness is just the human condition, so companionship will always be left incomplete. I'd be more inclined to believe that most people intentionally seek out an other that will complicate their lives, just so they have something to complain about. Then again, it is possible to have a good relationship, one that won't wind up killing your soul. But those are rare.
    Now let's talk about my problems, since I'm ranting. I am far too idealistic for any run-of-the-mill relationship. To me a relationship is two people who are together but can still be individuals, who take care of each other mutually, and fit together in passionate compatibleness. But for this to be accomplished, both parties have to be stable and "in love" with each other but not clingy. In any case, I keep guys at arm's length and only that close because I'm scared shitless. For many reasons. I don't know what the hell I'm doing when it comes to relationships, and I can't emote as quickly as some starry-eyed man-boy would hope. I don't want to be the girl that complicates some guys life. I don't want to be "that girl" and I've only been me for 24 years, so I'm afraid of becoming "that girl". Because I've only been me for this long, I don't know what some guy will find when he gets inside my head. I don't know if I can take someone prying me apart, or how much of me will be lost in the process. And I can only fake normalcy for so long. This weekend I actually used the last sentence as an excuse when someone asked me if I had a boyfriend. Then they spent the next twenty minutes trying to prove to me that I'm not that weird at all.