Slate’s How Good Is the Washington Monument? is an interesting but brief look at the monuments of the Washington Mall. It’s jam-packed with facts and veers occasionally into Pseuds’ corner, but is an interesting re-evaluation of works that most people take for granted now.
The Power of Nightmares hits the US
Just in case you missed The Power of Nightmares on the BBC last year, Salon is offering a handy summary so that Americans get to know what it was all about. The review’s mainly positive and clarifies the many distortions of Curtis’ arguments that have appeared in the media.
Events
Muso fun
This piece of viral marketing on behalf of Virgin Digital has been doing the rounds, but it’s fun enough that I’m willing to put it here. There are 72 bands in the picture (eg Guns n Roses bottom left). Can you find them all? Click on the picture for the full size version.
UK shows but only on DVD in the US
There are a load of shows that those of us of a certain age and a certain degree of taste remember well. These include 
The Sandbaggers and 
Codename: Icarus. Yet for some reason, the powers that be choose only to release them in the US, not in the UK. Even stranger, these are UK shows getting this treatment, not US networks ignoring the rest of the world. What gives? Why are we not allowed access to our own TV heritage?
Most Haunted isn’t a fraud – because it’s clearly made-up
Despite some of my previous comments, Most Haunted has been officially declared not to be a fraud.
Well almost. Let’s just have a look at that ruling a little closer:
The television watchdog ruled that the show contains “a high degree of showmanship that puts it beyond what we believe to be a generally accepted understanding of what comprises a legitimate investigation”. As such the show should be taken as produced for entertainment purposes, not to definitively inform the public of real incident of paranormal activity.
So, in other words, it’s not a fraud because only a moon calf would be so dim as to believe it’s anything other than cobblers from beginning to end. Completely vindicated then.