Have you had one of these days?

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I’ve had too many of them.

While it’s true that it’s been some months since I last received an installment of Gimli/Bill slash with a hopeful “Can you give me your thoughts on this?” cover note, it was part four of six, and I employ the use of a mail drop for screening purposes for damn good reason. An angry Bill/Gimli slash writer is not someone I particularly want to face at the best of times, and when I haven’t responded to the last three installments OR when I have, saying exactly what’s on my mind; well, these are not exactly the best of times.

Imagine my surprise when I found a comic which perfectly illustrated my feelings. No need to reply personally to those invariably hand-scrawled tomes; simply return to sender, with this attached.

From Monkey Fluids, via Vicus.

The editor's dilemma

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Mystery pedophile suspect on the run

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Canadian Christopher Paul Neil, a 32-year-old English teacher who has taught in South Korea and Vietnam, is being sought in the infamous case of a serial pedophile who extensively photographed himself raping Thai boys as young as six, uploading the 200 + pictures to the Internet, but digitally altering the photographs to hide his own identity (although not those of the victims).

Christopher Paul Neil digitized

His whereabouts are currently unknown, and it is believed that he is attempting to evade capture.

German experts attempted to uncover an identifiable picture of the suspect by undoing the manipulations, giving the above final image. This was enough to get an ID on a suspect, Christopher Paul Neil, who has posted on the Korean Job Discussion Board using the name Peter Jackson.

Christopher Paul Neil

a current picture of Christopher Paul Neil at Bangkok Airport

Among other things, his posts mentioned how he got around the mandatory criminal records check for English teachers.

Police checks are NOT needed to get a visa. Public schools will want one but you should be able to stall them. Often they want teachers SO quickly that they will “wait” for some things. I never gave a police check for my last public school job. I was in Vietnam at the time and getting one wasn’t easy. I delayed and never heard about it again.

and how to hide things from inspectors:

[I]’ve never heard of porn been a problem in Korea. On my first trip there in 2000 I remember reading the customs declaration form while on the plane. I was SO nervous for the remaining hours on the plane because I happened to have a couple Penthouse magazines in my bag. I ended up tossing them in the bin at the airport washroom, only to find out that no one would have found them anyway.

In terms of computers, if you’re worried about any “content” there are several ways to encrypt your drive. A friend has highly recommended Truecrypt, which you can download.

If you want to get rid of old files so no one will see, then simply deleting them will not work. You’ll have to get a program like Jetico’s BC Wipe and “delete with wiping”.

He worked in Wonsam (near Yongin) and then Gwangju in Jeollanamdo, and wasn’t beloved by co-workers, it appears:

I knew him as a pretty normal guy, as far as ESL teachers go. I didn’t work with him (his former school has been informed, and if they know anything, they’re not telling at this point.) To be perfectly honest, I perceived him as the kind of guy who didn’t have much luck with girls and would be comfortable purchasing sex (just based on his overall presentation and some comments he made regarding working girls in Thailand.) I wouldn’t have been surprised if he had had a fake degree or passport– but I would never ever have guessed that he was sexually into children. We didn’t discuss it, and I never saw him around children.

A standard Zeta male.

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The Fortress of the Assassins, DESTROYED!

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Married To The Sea
marriedtothesea.com

The tragic destruction of the Fortress of Alamut, stronghold of the Assassins, expressed as a charming historical engraving/ironically juxtaposed caption mashup, for your viewing pleasure.

Background, from DamnInteresting:

The story of the Hashshashin, or Assassins, is cloaked in mystery, and much of the truth about them was long ago lost to war and time. Their influence, however, changed the course of history and spawned the very word we use today to describe calculated, politically-motivated murder.

The Hashshashin were formed by Hassan-i-Sabah, a follower of the Isma’ili sect of Shi’ite Islam. Hassan left his home in Cairo over a succession dispute between two heirs to the Fatimid Caliphate. After choosing the wrong heir to support, Hassan found himself escaping to Persia after spending a short period in a political prison. Determined to avenge himself upon the Fatimids while also wiping out his traditional Sunni enemies, Hassan sought and found the ideal stronghold: the fortress of Alamut, also known as “The Eagle’s Nest.” Located northwest of Tehran, just south of the Caspian Sea, Alamut was an imposing sight. Nestled atop a 2,100m mountain with only one near-vertical approach to the fortress, the Eagle’s Nest was nearly impregnable.

Nearly.

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Remember: the MadV call to action

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He’s back.

What do you want the world to remember?

On the 5th of November you are invited to post a video about what encompasses you as a person, what inspires you, what brings you hope, and most importantly those little things that you may have forgotten.

You may choose any topic, any idea, any person, event or place that you feel people need reminding of. You can use any style and any method (talking, writing, photos, metaphor) to get your message of remembrance across.

The aim of this project is to gather together people from all over the world on one unique day to celebrate the important things that we forget, and to remind each other of what we need to keep ideas alive.

Get ready, be creative – but please don’t post until the 5th November.

Remember, remember
Chin up,
MadV

you can never step into the same River Street twice

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Rollin' down the River Street

Behold the magnificence which is Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan’s River Street.

Often has it been said that Canadians are too literal-minded; most particularly often it has been said to my face, although there’s nothing about my face in particular or in whole which is literal-minded, and indeed quite often the parts migrate at will or vanish altogether and I’ll end up all ears, ferinstance.

Quite embarrassing, especially when they see me writing down everything they say.

But that is neither here nor there. And it’s certainly not in Moose Jaw, which is not all that far from everyone’s favorite Canadian place name: Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo-Jump.

So…have you been to Moose Jaw? Have you seen it? It’s not Paris, let me tell you. So, when the city fathers/mothers/foster parents put their heads together and wanted to do something uniquely Moose Jawian, they quite naturally phoned Germany and brought over artist Edgar Muller and his team to turn River Street into a painting of a river, reportedly the world’s largest 3-dimensional painting.

How proud they must be, eh?

So they not only paved Paradise: they gravened themselves an image of it and now walk all over it.