Van Helsing I Presume

"It seems that the fictional character Van Helsing had a historical basis in fact. According to this photo essay from Pravda. Not a wooden stake amongst all the items."

CIA Stole Dr. Zhivago for Publication:Pasternak Won Nobel

"CIA and British Intelligence agents forced a passenger plane to land in Malta in 1957, to go on board and steal the manuscript of the banned Russian novel ‘Dr Zhivago’, which was subsequently published and awarded a Nobel Prize. "In 1957, the Cold War and its psyops...

What Kind of Genius Are You?

"A new theory suggests that creativity comes in two distinct types – quick and dramatic, or careful and quiet. In the fall of 1972, when David Galenson was a senior economics major at Harvard, he took what he describes as a “gut” course in 17th-century Dutch art. On the...

Scientists link weight to gut bacteria

"Maybe it's germs that are making you fat. Researchers found a strong connection between obesity and the levels of certain types of bacteria in the gut. That could mean that someday there will be novel new ways of treating obesity that go beyond the standard advice of diet...

Sunday Sermon 2

" Jack London The Iron Heel It is a great novel. A form of science fiction in the alternative hsitory/ future vien. Written in 1908. Yet it predicts WWI and the real reasons for it. "

Award goes to 23 year old for child soldier tale

"A brutal but surprisingly poetic novel about an African child soldier has won this year's John Llewellyn Rhys prize. Beasts of No Nation is a first novel by Uzodinma Iweala who, at 23 years old, is one of the youngest winners of the prize for young writers, which has an...

Literature Is Theft

"On the literary Dow Jones, glittering prizes go together with charges of plagiarism like bull markets and the Serious Fraud Office. Ian McEwan, the most successful novelist of his generation, has been dogged by imputations of fraudulence. He is not alone. In the past several...

FBI taps cell phone mic as eavesdropping tool

"update The FBI appears to have begun using a novel form of electronic surveillance in criminal investigations: remotely activating a mobile phone's microphone and using it to eavesdrop on nearby conversations. The technique is called a "roving bug," and was approved by top...

Debut novelist Iain Hollingshead wins Bad Sex prize

"First-time author Iain Hollingshead scooped a dubious literary honour last night, winning the Literary Review's Bad Sex in Fiction award for his novel Twenty Something. Hollingshead beat established writers including Irvine Welsh, Will Self, David Mitchell and American...

2 Days Left to Finish your Masterpiece and Submit it to National Novel Writin...

We all need a challenge once in a while. Participating in National Novel Writing Month is kinda like taking part in the New York Marathon, a learning experience. Just completing it is an achievement in itself. Have you?

Who Will Kill The Pope In Istanbul?

"The novel is about a conspiracy to kill the pope involving the ultra-conservative Roman Catholic society Opus Dei, the notorious P-2 Masonic lodge and U.S. intelligence services to prepare the ground for a U.S. attack on Iran. The cover of the book, sub-titled Who will...

Liberty Think [blog]

GOVERNMENT / VIETNAM / ANTHRAX / MILITARY / CIA

Pynchon fans eager to feast on new novel (AP)

" NEW YORK - Zak Smith is a painter, a rebel and an Ivy Leaguer, a Yale University graduate with a green mohawk, an apartment of wall-to-wall illustrations and a passion for comics, classic novels — and Thomas Pynchon. About 10 years ago, Smith had a feeling that he...

Doctors Report Success With Heart Failure Treatment

" In the procedure, the bloated heart is shrunk with drugs while an artificial pump temporarily takes over the workload. Doctors are reporting surprising early success with a novel treatment they hope will one day cure congestive heart failure in thousands of dying patients:...