Life In Hell

Reading a Robert Anton Wilson classic.

A. I’m reading Robert Anton Wilson’s classic play Wilhelm Reich In Hell which Hilaritas Press has kindly reissued. (I interviewed RAW in 1995 for Perth’s former REVelation Magazine which is now a film festival.) In his introduction RAW talks about the New Inquisition that arose in the 1980s in the United States from a range of ideologically motivated stances. This often involves absolutistic (Milton Rokeach) and totalistic (Robert Jay Lifton) forms or structures of cognition. Here is a 1999 video-taped performance of Wilhelm Reich In Hell:

B. The renowned primatologist Jane Goodall has passed away. Here is a National Geographic documentary on her environmental activism:

Here is also a TED talk by Goodall:

C. Ransomware attacks are growing in many industry sectors - driving the reciprocal, dyadic need for cybersecurity experts and information security knowledge. Max Smeets’ recent book Ransomware: How Cyber Crime Became a Threat to National Security (London: Hurst Publishers, 2025) is a very good overview of why malign actors undertake ransomware. Here is Smeets talking with the Hague’s International Program on Cybersecurity:

Also a related Smeets talk with the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime:

D. Today’s MIT OCW free course is on Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing.

E. The Astronaut is a new, scary-looking film. Its trailer: