George T. Mortimer is the editor and webmaster of the amazing Media Underground, as well as being the author of The Probationer's Handbook, and The Key of it All. Each week Mort will be teaching you ways of keeping 'The Man' on his toes, and all from the comfort of your home.   Fun With Finances     A few weeks ago the fixed rate on my mortgage ran out resulting in a rather alarming increase in my monthly repayments to the Halifax Bank Of Scotland (soon to be laughably called Lloyds Trustees Savings Halifax Bank Of Scotland - or something as equally ludicrous due to recent bailout plans). Being the ever-vigilant little investor that I am – and realising the implications that the current economic crisis will have on mortgage rates - I decided to schedule an appointment with the bank to negotiate another fix rate mortgage for a few more years.   The offer they presented to me was reasonable, I thought, until I asked if there were any additional charges.   “It’s £999,” remarked the mortgage advisor as calm as you like, “for transferring from a variable rate to a fixed rate for 5 years.”   “A grand!” I exclaimed. “But I’m not transferring to anywhere, I’m already a goddamned existing ...

Taylor Ellwood is the author of Pop Culture Magick, Space/Time Magic, Inner Alchemy, Multi-Media Magic and Kink Magic (co-written with Lupa). Taylor is also the managing non-fiction editor for Immanion Press and a Teacher of experimental magic at the Growing Edge Institute. For more information about Taylor, please visit The Green Wolf or Magical Experiments   The Evolution of Magic   When I get the occasional interview from a podcast or magazine, one misperception I often need to correct is the association people make with my work and chaos magic. I suppose because chaos magic used to be the latest current of magic and one that seemingly represented avant garde magic, people find it easier to lump my work into chaos magic. Admittedly, at one time I briefly identified as a chaote, but in the last five or so years, I came to recognize that Chaos Magic wasn't quite the apt descriptor of what I do. While some of the practices I utilize are derived from Chaos Magic, I also draw much more extensively on Ceremonial and Hermetic practices as well as Far Eastern techniques. Even more importantly, much of my magical practice is now derived from disciplines that have little if any overt ...

Each week we send our Queen of the Weird, Claire Lumiere, into the wilderness of the Internets to find the weirdest reports from the Underground, CounterCulture and the Paranormal mileau! If you have news that you feel demands the attention of the SittingNow community then drop us an email at wwn@sittingnow.co.uk   I’m going to give Kim a shout out for finding this one: A jogger named Michelle in Arizona last Thursday jogged for a mile with a rabid fox clamped to her arm! She said she knew something was immediately wrong when she saw it make eye contact and walked toward her. The brave Michelle managed to pry the fox off her arm and throw it into the trunk before driving to the hospital.   In name changing news, a 19 year old English fellow, originally George from Glastonbury, has decided that Captain Fantastic Faster Than Superman Spiderman Batman Wolverine Hulk And The Flash Combined is more fitting. Captain FFTSSBWHATFC says he changed it online for a $20 fee and as a result, his grandmother is so outraged she refuses to speak to him.   Wired.com reports that in the first analysis of genetic diversity in a modern agricultural commodity has shown results ...

It appears that Obama is so popular in the states right now, even dogs are singing his praises: Roll-over 'Obama-Girl'!

Each week we send our Queen of the Weird, Claire Lumiere, into the wilderness of the Internets to find the weirdest reports from the Underground, CounterCulture and the Paranormal mileau! If you have news that you feel demands the attention of the SittingNow community then drop us an email at wwn@sittingnow.co.uk   Apparently the facts that you mostly vote behind a curtain and are not necessarily at the polls for a very long time does not seem to have sway over Florida nudists who recently have been lobbying for clothing optional polling places. They say it would make it easier for the nudist community to pass their ballots.     Fifty-two cows were struck dead after lightning hit a wire fence they were grazing next to in Uruguay last week recently. In more valiant animal-electrical news,     An octopus menace named Otto at the Sea Star Aquarium in Germany shot out a bright lamp with a precise jet of water and short-circuited the building recently. Spokespeople from the Aquarium say he is the victim of ennui, allegedly having seen him juggle hermit crabs and throwing stones at the tank before.   A French man on a high-speed TGV train in France got his arm stuck in the ...

Annoying little B-list celebrity brat, Peaches Geldof, daughter of scruffy 'Live-Aid' organiser Bob Geldof, has apparently taken a shine to 'The Great Beast 666' himself, Aleister Crowley.   That pillar of journalism, The Daily Star, reports:   We can reveal Peaches, 19, has become fascinated by Crowley – who filed his teeth into fangs and started his own religion – since picking up his book Magick Without Tears.  And she ditched musician Faris Rotter, 22, after discovering Chester French singer Drummey, 23, was also a student of Crowley’s dark works. Last night a source close to the couple said: “Peaches is obsessed with Crowley’s books and is completely taken by his teachings.  “Most of her mates think she’s nuts for getting into it all – they just think it’s too weird – but she found a kindred spirit when she met Max. “Peaches feels he’s the only one who understands her. He even has the Crowley quote ‘Quo stet olympus’ or ‘Where the gods and angels live’ tattooed below his neck.”   I know that Crowley's public profile is increasing, and I guess this was an inevitable side-effect of that, but come on!!!....Peaches....Geldof???   In other celebrity news, Jeremy Kyle has been spotted with Israel Regardie's 'The Golden Dawn' and Jade Goody is said to have ...

  The amazing Fortean Times are throwing their annual meeting of the strange this weekend in London. The Uncon, which has been running since 1994, is always one of the better Fortean get-togethers of the year, and normally boasts some really interesting guests, exhibits and workshops.    This years spooky-speakers include: Gail-Nina Anderson, Jan Bondeson, David Clarke, Mike Dash, Jon Downes, Patrick Huyghe, Kittie Klaw, Theo Paijmans Mark Pilkington & John Lundberg, Andy Roberts and Ian Simmons Of course, our roving reporters Ken Eakins and Mark Foster will be attending and hopefully getting enough material for a UnCon/Sittingnow podcast episode. We will also be writing up coverage of the event as well as getting some feedback from the attendees!   As far as we are aware there are still tickets available for the event, which can be obtained via We Got Tickets. Or follow links on www.forteantimes.com for more details.

  Raymond Wiley and Joe McFall, formerly of OutThere Radio, launched their new show 'The DisInfoCast' today. Raymond, you'll probably be familiar with from many of our shows, and Joe from episode 1.    To kick off events, the dynamic-duo interview Sphinx-obsessed Robert Bauval, who just recently released his latest opus 'The Egypt Code' earlier this month.  The new show, released monthly, is complimented by a weekly news rundown 'DisInfo World-News' which will feature Ken and Claire of this very site, as well as our latest guest Austin Gandy. We'll be joining the fray in November presenting the latest DisInfo news with a European slant.   Subscribers to Out There can get the first few episodes of the show via the old feed before it totally migrates accross to the new Disinfo.com page.    The crew here at SittingNow are excited to hear some new material from the guys, and wish them all the best for the show...break a leg guys!

  Millennium, arguably one of the best TV shows of the last decade, is set for a possible reboot at the hands of a mass-online campaign by its hardcore fan base.    The show, which lasted for three seasons, stared Lance Henrikson as criminal profiler Frank Black. It begun its episodic routine with a 'monster of the week' theme, similar to its sister show The X-Files. However, once in the hands of Morgan and Wong of Willard fame, the show took a more 'mythology' theme with the 'Millenniun Group' taking on the role of a shadowy occult group. Season three saw the show returning to the hands of Chris (I killed the X-Files forever) Carter, and took a less conspiracy-based turn.    Sadly, as with anything good on TV these days it seems, the show ended three years young. However, this wasn't the last time Frank Black would grace our screens. Yes folks, in what should have been the cross-over show of the 90's, Henrikson's Frank Black made a one-off appearance in the X-Files. Unfortunately for us, however, the show...well...kind of sucked. Barely any tangible connection to the original Millennium show was present and Frank Black and Fox Mulder end up fighting zombies in a basement. ...

Each week we send our Queen of the Weird, Claire Lumiere, into the wilderness of the Internets to find the weirdest reports from the Underground, CounterCulture and the Paranormal mileau! If you have news that you feel demands the attention of the SittingNow community then drop us an email at wwn@sittingnow.co.uk    The BBC reports that a large study on near-death experiences is soon to be carried out on cardiac arrest survivors. The study, coordinated by Southampton University will take about three years and is going to investigate whether people without brain activity or heartbeat can have ìout of body experiences.î Head of the study, Doctor Sam Parnia, says, "If you can demonstrate that consciousness continues after the brain switches off, it allows for the possibility that the consciousness is a separate entity.   Within just ten years, Australia's other favorite marsupial might be extinct. Researchers say that Tasmanian devils are plagued with a facial cancer that their bodies simply don't recognize. Zoos are being turned to for breeding while scientists are working on a vaccine to prevent the cancer. If interested, on the zoo's website is a link to donate to the conservation of the species.   On a similar note ...