King of the Conspiracy Theorists Jim Marrs Moves on to the Big Racket in the Sky

August 5, 2017 Markozen.com Paranormal

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Jim Marrs (December 5, 1943 – August 2, 2017) was an American newspaper journalist and New York Times best-selling writer of books and articles on a wide range of alleged cover-ups and conspiracies. Marrs was a prominent figure in the JFK conspiracy press and his book Crossfire was a source for Oliver Stone’s film JFK. He wrote books asserting the existence of government conspiracies regarding aliens, 9/11, telepathy, and secret societies. He was once a news reporter in the Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metroplex and taught a class on the assassination of John F. Kennedy at University of Texas at Arlington for 30 years. Marrs was a member of the Scholars for 9/11 Truth.

According to Stephen E. Ambrose (in an essay generally critical of conspiracy theorists) Marrs wrote in Crossfire that motives for the murder of Kennedy were “Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy’s attack on organized crime (Mafia motive); President Kennedy’s failure to support the Cuban exiles at the Bay of Pigs Invasion (Cuban and C.I.A. motive); the 1963 Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (military–industrial complex, or M.I.C. motive); Kennedy’s plan to withdraw from Vietnam before the end of 1965 (Joint Chiefs of Staff and M.I.C. motive); Kennedy’s talk about taking away the oil-depletion allowance (Texas oil men motive); Kennedy’s monetary policies (international bankers motive); Kennedy’s decision to drop Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson from the ticket in 1964 (L.B.J. motive) and Kennedy’s active civil rights policy (Texas racist billionaires motive).”

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In May 1997, Marrs’ investigation of UFOs, Alien Agenda, was published by HarperCollins Publishers. The paperback edition was released in mid-1998. It has been translated into several foreign languages and become the top-selling UFO book in the world. Publishers Weekly said:
Marrs shows little discrimination, overemphasizing dubious phenonmena like remote viewing and crop circles, and giving nearly equal weight to ludicrous pretenders like Billy Meier (who claimed close encounter with Pleiadians) and sophisticated commentators like Jaques Vallee. Marrs even devotes a chapter to theories that the moon may be a UFO, and he refuses to rule out obvious frauds like the alien autopsy tapes. But if rigorous analysis escapes Marrs, little else does; this is the most entertaining and complete overview of flying saucers and their crew in years.

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Jim Marrs is the perfect example of somebody who makes a good living passing off fiction as non-fiction. This guy promoted every conceivable and ludicrous conspiracy theory out there. His whole life’s work was a lie, and it didn’t seem to bother him one bit.

I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. If you want to be persuaded read “Case Closed” by Gerald Posner.

Nutty Kim Jong-un and his Suckup Apparatchiks

August 5, 2017 Markozen.com Geopolitics

BBC

Why is Kim Jong-un always surrounded by people taking notes?

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There’s a newly released batch of photographs of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on a series of site visits. The dozens of photos all have one curious detail in common – the leader is surrounded by officials and generals making notes in identical notepads, writes Kathryn Westcott.

In the photographs – from the country’s official Central News Agency (KCNA) – Kim Jong-un observes a unit of women conducting a multiple-rocket launching drill. He strides around a fishery station. He gives a pilot on flight training a pep talk. He enjoys the facilities at a renovated youth camp.

But who are those men meticulously taking notes? They’re not journalists, but soldiers, party members or government officials, says Prof James Grayson, Korea expert at the University of Sheffield. What is happening is a demonstration of the leader’s supposed power, knowledge, wisdom and concern, says Grayson. It’s “on-the-spot guidance”, something instigated by his grandfather Kim Il-sung in the 1950s. “It’s part of the image of the great leader offering benevolent guidance,” says Grayson.

At a renovated youth camp

Offering advice at a soon-to-be commissioned fishery

What might that guidance be? Well, if Kim’s anything like his grandfather it could be practical advice. Very specific practical advice. After Kim Il-sung visited a fishery in 1976, KCNA published this: “Watching a truck at work, the president said that its bucket seemed to be small in comparison with its horsepower. He said the problem of carriage would be solved if the bucket was enlarged. Afterwards the truck’s bucket capacity increased to two tons from 800 kg. As a result, 20 trucks were capable of carrying the load to be done by 50 trucks.”

Kim Jong-il carried on the field guidance policy after his father Kim Il-sung died

Despite the fact that tablets are available in the country, paper notebooks remain the favoured medium. “These are pictures that will be broadcast on television and shown in the state media, so those who are there want to be seen recording Kim Jong-un’s every word,” says Grayson. “It’s about presenting him as having broad knowledge – however, it’s ridiculous, he can’t possibly know about all of these different things. It’s important, however, that the apparatchiks that surround him are seen to be hanging on his every word.”

According to Prof Steve Tsang, chair the School of Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Nottingham, the note-takers will be writing extremely carefully. “They wouldn’t want to write down anything that was, say, politically inaccurate, or it might come back to bite them.” The notes are not usually published or available for the public to view, says Tsang. “If anything comes out of them, it would be via the propaganda department. Whether it was what was actually said, or is different to the guidance given at the time, doesn’t matter. No-one will ever question it. If you were at the factory and the advice that was released wasn’t quite what you had in your notebook – what are you going to do about it?”

Kim Jong-un visits a flight training centre

“In high school Kim Jong Un starred in a production of the musical ‘Grease.’ That’s also where Kim met his first wife, Olivia Newton Jong.” –Conan O’Brien

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Here he is on a North Korean amphibious assault boat.

Quick Vids

August 5, 2017 Markozen.com Winnipeg

Downtown Winnipeg

Nothing like having a reliable field goal kicker

August 5, 2017August 5, 2017 Markozen.com Sports

OTTAWA – The Winnipeg Blue Bombers rallied late to stun the Ottawa REDBLACKS with a buzzer-beating field goal as Justin Medlock’s kick secured the 33-30 victory for the visitors.

For the second week in a row, the Bombers found magic in the final minutes of the game to come out on top.

Down by seven points with just over five minutes remaining, Ryan Lankford used his speed to get the Bombers into solid field position on the kickoff as they chipped away on yardage. Andrew Harris found a rushing lane for another first down before Avery Ellis halted Nichols with a sack just before the three-minute warning. Winnipeg added a field goal to trail 30-26 with 2:43 remaining. A single on the kickoff cut the deficit to three points.

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Keeping the REDBLACKS from adding to their lead, Matt Nichols and the Bombers got another chance with under two minutes remaining. Brett Maher’s punt sailed out of bounds as the Winnipeg offence entered at midfield. Darvin Adams hauled in a 13-yard pass to enter field goal range and Medlock converted to tie the contest with less than a minute left.

Again, the Bombers defence did not allow the REDBLACKS to make much progress and forced another punt for one final drive. Short yardage plays moved the ball into field goal range and Medlock came through in the clutch, nailing his sixth kick of the game, this one at the buzzer, to get the win.

It’s all in the Name

August 4, 2017 Markozen.com Offbeat

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Never heard of Olivia Wilde.

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Funny Movie Deaths that only Deranged Film Writers could Think up

August 4, 2017 Markozen.com Movies

That mysterious lake in the Clint Eastwood movie High Plains Drifter

August 3, 2017 Markozen.com Movies

High Plains Drifter is a classic Eastwood movie from the early seventies. I think I have seen the movie 7 or 8 times. And every time I watch it I am mesmerized by that beautiful lake.

High Plains Drifter is a 1973 American Western film, directed by and starring Clint Eastwood and produced by Robert Daley for The Malpaso Company and Universal Pictures. Eastwood plays a mysterious gunfighter hired by the residents of a corrupt frontier mining town to defend them against a group of criminals.

The film was shot on location on the shores of Mono Lake, California.

Mono Lake is a large, shallow saline soda lake in Mono County, California, formed at least 760,000 years ago as a terminal lake in a basin that has no outlet to the ocean. The lack of an outlet causes high levels of salts to accumulate in the lake. These salts also make the lake water alkaline.

This desert lake has an unusually productive ecosystem based on brine shrimp that thrive in its waters, and provides critical nesting habitat for two million annual migratory birds that feed on the shrimp.

Mono Lake

Max. length	15 km (9.3 mi)
Max. width	21 km (13 mi)
Surface area	45,133 acres (182.65 km²)
Average depth	17 m (56 ft)
Max. depth	48 m (157 ft)
Water volume	2,970,000 acre·ft (3.66 km³)
Surface elevation	6,383 ft (1,946 m) above sea level

Islands	Two major: Negit Island and Paoha Island; numerous minor outcroppings (including tufa rock formations). The lake’s water level is notably variable.

Clint riding into the town of Lago, on the shore of Mono Lake.

In the movie they paint the town red to try and disorient the killers who are on their way.

The movie set (town of Lago) in the first picture, and the same location with the town gone in the second.

The most unusual feature of Mono Lake are its dramatic tufa towers emerging from the surface. These rock towers form when underwater springs rich in calcium mix with the waters of the lake, which are rich in carbonates. The resulting reaction forms limestone. Over time the buildup of limestone formed towers, and when the water level of the lake dropped the towers became exposed.

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Woody Allen Life Quotes

August 2, 2017 Markozen.com Funny

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Heywood “Woody” Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; December 1, 1935) is an American filmmaker, writer, actor, comedian, and musician whose career spans more than six decades.
He worked as a comedy writer in the 1950s, writing jokes and scripts for television and publishing several books of short humor pieces. In the early 1960s, Allen began performing as a stand-up comedian, emphasizing monologues rather than traditional jokes. As a comedian, he developed the persona of an insecure, intellectual, fretful nebbish, which he maintains is quite different from his real-life personality. In 2004, Comedy Central ranked Allen in fourth place on a list of the 100 greatest stand-up comedians, while a UK survey ranked Allen as the third greatest comedian.

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Swedish Danseband hilarious album covers from 1970

August 2, 2017 Markozen.com Music, Offbeat

You have got to love the outrageous clothing and hair styles from the 1970’s. Jump suits and bell bottoms.

Dansband (“dance band”) is a Swedish term for a band that plays dansbandsmusik (“dance band music”). Dansbandsmusik is often danced to in pairs. Jitterbug and foxtrot music are often included in this category. The music is primarily inspired by swing, schlager, country, jazz, and rock. The main influence for rock-oriented bands is the rock music of the 1950s and 1960s.

The terms dansband and dansbandsmusik were coined around 1970, when Swedish popular music developed a signature style. The genre developed primarily in Sweden, but has spread to neighboring countries Denmark, Norway and the Swedish speaking regions of Finland. When the music came to Norway it was first called “Svensktoppar” (from the Swedish radio music chart Svensktoppen, which was a major arena for dansband music before its rules changed in January 2003).

How many people work on a Hollywood film?

August 2, 2017August 2, 2017 Markozen.com Movies

I watched a movie the other day and when ‘The End’ text appeared a really catchy song started. So I listened to the song and began watching the credits. It seemed to never end, credit after credit with name after name. A question arose in my head; how many people are in a crew for a Hollywood film?

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By Stephen Follows

Last week I ran a course in Malaysia for the Met Film School and the Malaysian Government. Malaysia is set to be a popular destination for Hollywood projects, thanks mostly to the 30% tax break and the brand new Pinewood Studio complex. The studio is not officially open yet but already ‘Marco Polo’ has set up shop and is hiring. The Malaysian government is funding courses to prepare locals for work on huge Hollywood productions and my course last week was for would-be Production Assistants.

In order to give the students a sense of the scale of these productions I asked them to guess how many people worked on the movie ‘Avatar’. Guesses ranged from a few hundred up to a thousand. The actual figure (according to IMDb) is 2,984.

This got me thinking about what the number of crew members could tell us about a production. There are few caveats to this approach which I’ve laid out at the bottom of this article, but nonetheless it’s quite a revealing process. I took the 50 highest grossing films of each of the past 20 years (giving me 1,000 films to study) and looked at the number of people credited on IMDb. In summary…

Iron Man 3 credits 3,310 crew members
The average number of crew credits in the top 1,000 films between 1994 and 2013 was 588.
Over half of the top films had under 500 people in their crew
On average the top films of the past two decades have each had 3.5 writers, 7 producers, 55 people in the art department, 32 in sound, 55 in camera / electrical and 156 in visual effects.
The Butler had 39 producers – 5 producers, 17 executive producers, 6 co-executive producers, 4 co-producers and 7 associate producers
A third of the workers on Love Actually were in the art department
Crew credits suggest that Peter Jackson favours special effects over visual effects more than the industry average.
Now You See Me has six times the average number of people in the camera department
23% of the people who worked on ‘Pokemon: The First Movie’ were in the music department

The largest crew on a Hollywood film

The biggest crews are rather staggering, with 3,310 people receiving a credit on Iron Man 3.

FILMS WITH LARGEST CREWS (1994-2013)
Iron Man 3	3,310
Avatar	2,984
Marvel’s The Avengers	2,718
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey	2,709
Chronicles of Narnia: Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe	2,622
Man of Steel	2,543
Captain America: The First Avenger	2,536
Thor	2,384
Transformers: Dark of the Moon	2,376
His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass	2,235

Overall, the average number of crew credits was 588, with the top 25% of films accounting for half of all credits. Out of my list of 1,000 films…

Only 1 film had over 3,000 credits
13 films credited between 2,000 – 2,999 people
133 films credited between 1,000 – 1,999 people
287 films credited between 500 – 999 people
566 films credited under 500 people

Visual Effects

Avatar just pips Iron Man 3 to the Oscar for ‘Most People Credited in the Visual Effects Department’. Interestingly, The Golden Compass is the only Hollywood film in the top 20 of this visual effect chart which was not released in 3D.

FILMS WITH LARGEST VISUAL EFFECTS DEPARTMENT (1994-2013)
Avatar	1,844
Iron Man 3	1,834
Marvel’s The Avengers	1,514
Man of Steel	1,445
The Golden Compass	1,252

For 57 of my 1,000 films, the Visual Effects Department made up over 50% of all crew members. If you meet someone in a pub who says they worked on Harry Potter there is a 62% chance they worked in visual effects. Similar numbers are true for Gravity, Pacific Rim, Avatar and Total Recall. In fact, the VFX department of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II made up a larger percentage of the total crew than Avatar (62.0% versus 61.8%). This is surprising as Harry Potter appears to be an almost exclusively live action film whereas Avatar is largely CGI animation.

Special Effects

Special effects include on-set physical, mechanical and in-camera effects and should not be confused with digital / visual effects. Hollywood films by Peter Jackson take up four out of the top five places, revealing his love of real-world, on set trickery.

FILMS WITH LARGEST SPECIAL EFFECTS DEPARTMENTS (1994-2013)
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey	225
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring	217
Avatar	212
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King	211
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers	195