Raising the Wind

or, Diddling Considered as One of the Exact Sciences by Edgar Allan Poe [Editor’s Note: Poe’s hilarious essay – on the subject of cons and con men –  shows that the master of the macabre had an understanding of human nature rivaling Mencken’s. ] Hey, diddle diddle, The cat and the fiddle SINCE THE world began there have been two Continue Reading →

“Psychics” at the Pentagon?

by M.P. Shiel ACCORDING to Wired magazine, the Pentagon just spent $4,000,000 to learn how to read our minds. (Er, I mean read “the enemy’s” minds! And we do seem to have a lot of enemies these days.) Leaving aside the question of just why anyone who could truly read minds would have any need of something so crude as Continue Reading →