Codeword Golden Fleece by Dennis Wheatley

I’ve said it before and i’ll say it again Dennis Wheatley is an amazing writer and i don’t think i’ve read a bad book, in fact even a mediocre one. I’ve lost count at how many books i read by him now but i know i’ve still got a load more which pleases me immensely. Anyway back to the book at hand.

Codeword Golden fleece begins with the start of the Second World War. The Duke de Richleau and his friends Simon Aron, Rex van Ryn and Richard Eaton find themselves before the outbreak of hostilities involved in a conspiracy which could change how quickly the war could be won. The group of friends are carried along in a desperate attempt to sabotage Hitler’s war economy and force Germany to ask for peace before she can muster her full might for an assault on Western Europe.

Here is some information relating to the the book via a Dennis Wheatley website:

(1963 Arrow): It can now be revealed that the plot of Codeword–Golden Fleece is based on fact. Actually, it was given to Dennis Wheatley when he was a member of the Joint Planning Staff of the War Cabinet by a Foreign Office colleague there. On behalf of the Allied governments a French nobleman did actually succeed in acquiring a controlling interest in the Danube oil barges and their tugs. The Germans failed with the Vichy government in an action for its return and half the Fleet had been got out to Turkish waters. Supplies of fuel for the Luftwaffe were seriously crippled by this ingenious secret stroke.

This was a great book and one that i immensely enjoyed. I really can’t sing Dennis Wheatley’s praises enough and to think the only reason why i started reading his books was because i found one in a bargain bin of a charity shop. His writing is very descriptive and drags you in to his world till the very end. A great writer and a great book.

8/10

Love & Security

Now here at idiot youth we just love to see our namesake characters – namely young folk being stupid. And here we have the case in point. Take some naked guys, fire extinguishers full of paint and a train yard somewhere in Germany and combine them all together. What do you get? You’ll just have to watch the video above to find out…

Now i’m hardly condoning vandalism (well that’s not entirely true) but I particularly like the silly dances they do at some point. Classic.

When i’m 69

So what’s it going to be like when i’m 69 or closer to the truth 70 +? And i’m not talking about flying cars and the like but what will my body feel like after all those years roaming around the earth. Well the people at the Evangelical Geriatrics Centre in Germany have found out, the Age Man Suit is designed to force a younger person to experience the physical limitations that many elderly people cope with. The 10-kilogram suit also muffles hearing; includes a yellow visor to restrict vision; includes padded gloves to dull the sense of touch; and also chucks in some knee and elbow pads to restrict full body movement.

I once saw a knee joint which had arthiritis which was really disconcerting at a Gunther von Hagens lecture and i can tell you you don’t want that when your older. That said although this isn’t my exact idea of fun i would definitely give it a go.

Via Gizmodo

Amazing Sculptures by Cedric Laquieze

These sculptures by Cedric Laquieze are absolutely stunning. I love the use of various animal parts like bones and wings, my only question is where do you actually get all the bits needed to create such wondrous creations. From Cedric himself:

My name is Cedric Laquieze welcome to my blog! i’ve been a sculptor fascinated with creatures as far as i can remember,i’ve done many exhibitions in the past in Paris Belgium, Italy, Germany and of course Holland. I Graduated from the Rietveld academy last year where i met many people with the same fascination for organic materials and esthetic shapes. I would like to use this opportunity to share my fairies flower creatures and goddesses with the rest of you.

Via Cedric Laquieze Blog

They used dark forces by Dennis Wheatley

‘They used dark forces’ is another brilliant Dennis wheatley book – there i’ve said it. I have to say he is fast becoming one of my favourite authors the more i read his books, any thats no mean feat. Usually the more you read of an author the less exciting the books seem to be as they come to read much like the last.

This book’s main character is Gregory Sallust who on a night in June 1943 parachutes into Nazi Germany. His objective is to find information on Hitlers new secret weapon the “V” rockets. But before he can find out anything he meets Ibrahim Malacou hypnotist, astrologer and satanist. Gregory does not yet know that Malacou and himself will have a long a difficult partnership lasting to the very end of the war. Sustained by their hatred of the Nazis Malacou and Gregory cross paths a number of times in the ultimate goal of defeating the Nazis ending with Hitlers final days and the fall of Berlin. The only trouble is, was Gregory’s decision to use occult forces to destroy Hitler the correct one or will it destroy him first.

This book is like all the other Dennis Wheatley books that i’ve read and that is simply –  a great read.

8/10

Here are some audio clips by and about Dennis Wheatley from the BBC including his letter of “Posterity”.

Free T-Shirts Given to Neo-Nazis Revealed a Secret Message After Being Washed

Now this is just absolutely brilliant. What a clever way to give a big old fuck you whilst also making people think:

Neo-Nazis in Germany were given free T-shirts at a recent right-wing extremist rock concert. The black shirt, complete with skulls and bones, said “Hardcore Rebels: National and Free”. Too bad for them, there was a secret message hidden inside the shirt.

After the free shirt gets washed, it rids itself of that “hardcore” logo and displays a new message, one that tries to convince the Neo-Nazis to change. It says: “If your T-shirt can do it, so can you. We’ll help free you from right-wing extremism.” It’s a ‘Trojan T-shirt’ of sorts, giving clueless skinheads free ‘hardcore’ T-shirts only to blindside them with contact information on how to leave Neo-Nazism. I like it.

The clever initiative was started by a group called Exit Deutschland and was meant to target younger Neo Nazi members who haven’t fully converted into extremism. The shirt is working in the short term in the sense that the Neo-Nazi members are having discussions over it. In the long term, Exit Deutschland hopes that a few Neo-Nazi members will remember them when they’re ready to flip back.

Via Gizmodo

How to spraypaint a moving train in one fell swoop

Now here is some next level stuff! Instead of having to go out in a massive group to spray up the side of trains this little tinker has come up with a way to do it all by himself. What will they think of next!

From Colossal:

So many train cars, so little time. The Morphogenetic Field Device Little Boy by Berlin-based street artist Dtagno is a vertical pole of 22 spraycans meant to thoroughly zebra-stripe any passing vehicle. Dtagno has created similar devices before including this sucker that makes multi-stream spraycan writing that looks like this. I’ll let you decide where this falls on the vandalism/art spectrum, but if you like this also check out 500 gallons of paint being poured on the streets of Berlin. (via rebel:art)

Via Colossal

Kackel Dackel

Esworp sez, “Please draw your attention to the German game Kackel Dackel. Rolling the dice determines how far the ‘food’ advances down the dog’s noisy digestive track. The goal is to collect neon-yellow ‘poops’. be sure to check out the noises it makes, too! Fun fact: the company hosted a giveaway at a park, but you had to go pick up a doggy poo to claim a free prize! Woof!”

Taken from Boing Boing

Baptism of Blood!

I have to say I’m quite enjoying this book review bit. Usually i’ll just finish a book and then pick up another one straight away but this allows a little more thought about what i’ve just read. As you can see from the cover this cost the princely sum of £1 – and was a pound well spent in my view.

I have just finished Baptism of Blood by K.N Kostov and thought it was a pretty reasonable read. The story involves a disgraced Colonel who is called on to defend Moscow from the invading Nazi’s by taking a punishment battalion (made up of men who had been in prison/gulag that  ‘volunteered’ for the battalion. These were mainly pimps, murderers, traitors and general bad lads) and defending some key positions near the Volga river. You can only imagine the hell that would have been the Russian front during the freezing winter of 1941 with the might of the German Army continaully providing the soundtrack of artillery shells and machine gun fire. It’s an action packed story with a couple of notable characters – all of whom are a bit messed up. You just know that some of them are going to die in particularly nasty ways but i suppose that’s half the fun of a fiction book about war. They fight, freeze, loot and die in what must have been largely intolerable conditions but they are a rough ragtag bunch and get on with the job at hand (after considerable threats).  I think the blurb on the back sums it up pretty well…

7/10

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