Alter Bridge - LIVE at the Astoria, London, 26 Jan 08

Verdict: Awesome gig!

Alter Bridge, Astoria, London - 26 Jan 08

Myles Kennedy

Mark Tremonti

Brian Marshall

Scott Phillips

For more photos and video clips of full LIVE versions of Broken Wings, Buried Alive, Ties That Bind, visit:

http://www.sharenow.com/relations/folders/114/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3fY5J9Twr4
http://alterbridge.sharenow.com/

You can buy tickets for Alter Bridge LIVE at the Carling Brixton Academy, Sat 8 Nov 08!

For other forthcoming Alter Bridge gigs, click here.

Huge rise in traffic to Scientology site

Alexa's Reach, Rank and Page Views stats for scientology.org have all risen steeply

Fueled by the news about Tom Cruise's biography, the 'leaked' video of him, a German historian's bizarre observation about that video, and one or two other things - the result is a huge rise in traffic to the Scientology site. Presumably, people are hearing about these stories, then going to http://www.scientology.org to get the burning question answered that just popped into their head - "What is Scientology?" and to find out for themselves.

The current stats have now surpassed those that resulted from the BBC Panorama story; the one of John Sweeney, totally loosing it in May 2007.

The reach for scientology.org has risen 83% in the last 3 months!

Antidepressants Causing Harm to Many

Mental Health Watchdog Vindicated; New Report Confirms Psychiatric Drug Risks Kept Buried by Vested Interests

Douglas Kennedy exposes in Big Story on Fox News how Big Pharma
leaves out the bad studies and downplays the nasty side effects
of their highly addictive drugs.

LOS ANGELES: After decades of warning the public that vested interests were burying psychiatric drug risks, vehemently denied by the psychiatric/pharmaceutical industires, the international mental health watchdog Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) says new research published 17 Jan 2008 in the New England Journal of Medicine vindicates their demands for full public disclosure.

Citizens Commission on Human Rights International
headquarters on Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles

CCHR has filed Freedom of Information requests to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for adverse reactions reports of antidepressants, helped to orchestrate FDA hearings into the suicidal side effects of antidepressants and filed complaints to government officials and agencies about the conflicts of interest of FDA advisory committee members ignoring the drugs' side effects. In addition, CCHR has issued numerous publications about the cover-up of psychiatric drug side effects and has filed complaints worldwide with licensing boards and other agencies on behalf of people harmed by psychiatric drugs including stimulants, antidepressants and antipsychotics.

Now, a new report in the New England Journal of Medicine entitled, “Selective Publication of Antidepressant Trials and Its Influence on Apparent Efficacy,” has revealed that negative studies on antidepressants are either not being published, or are skewed in a way that makes them appear positive. (See stories running on Fox National News, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal) CCHR says the psychiatric-pharmaceutical cartel is not only misleading the public about the drugs, but also about the disorders for which they are prescribed.

Just this month, U.S. News and World Report confirmed that the American Psychiatric Association (APA) failed to fully disclose the substantial pharmaceutical ties of its task force members, charged with updating and expanding psychiatry’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, comprised of subjective checklists of symptoms which are then used to categorize new “mental disorders” and bill insurance companies. Even high-ranking psychiatrists such as Steven Sharfstein, former president of the APA, have pointed out the financial corruption in their field. In 2006, Sharfstein admitted, “We have allowed ourselves to be corrupted in this marketplace with lucrative consulting to industry, speaker panels, boards of directors and visits from industry representatives bearing gifts.”

For more information on the financial ties between psychiatrists and drug manufacturers, read CCHR’s publication, "Psychiatric Diagnostic Manual Link to Drug Manufacturers".

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights is an international psychiatric watchdog group co-founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and Dr. Thomas Szasz, Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus, to investigate and expose psychiatric violations of human rights.

Citizens Commission on Human Rights International
6616 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90028
USA
+1 800-869-2247 or +1 323-467-4242
humanrights@cchr.org
http://www.cchr.org

See also:

Transcript of the Big Story report
CCHR UK
SSRI Research
SSRI Stories
CCHR Public Service Announcements
Street view of CCHR International's HQ (click the thumbnail image then look right)

That Tom Cruise Scientology video - everybody's talking about it!

So what was it all about?

Well, it actually comes from the 2004 celebration of the International Association of Scientologists (IAS) when Tom Cruise was presented with his Freedom Medal, a humanitarian award.

This annual event focuses on Church-sponsored humanitarian programmes and each year includes the presentation of the Freedom Medal to individual members in recognition of outstanding humanitarian work. To date, 80 individuals have been so recognized and in 2004 Mr. Cruise was honored for his efforts in championing world literacy.

What appears in the video is Mr. Cruise’s acceptance speech before an audience of 5,000 Church parishioners (I was one of them) and their guests, at Saint Hill Manor, East Grinstead, West Sussex - L. Ron Hubbard's former home. While the video can be seen in any Church of Scientology, what has appeared on the Internet is a pirated and edited version of a 3-hour event that further included speeches by several Church officials and two other Freedom Medal award recipients.

But anyway, since everyone seems to be talking about Scientology today, I thought I'd take this opportunity to talk about some of the basic Scientology and Dianetics books and to allow those interested to find out more about them and even purchase them (directly from here) if they wish.

The materials of Dianetics and Scientology comprise the largest body of information ever assembled on the mind, spirit and life, rigorously refined and codified by L. Ron Hubbard through five decades of research, investigation and development. The results of that work are contained in hundreds of books and more than 3,000 recorded lectures.

Here are details on 8 of the 18 basic books:

Basic Books on the Theory and Practice of Dianetics & Scientology

Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought

"You may have been taught that the mind, spirit and life are very difficult things to know about. This is the first principle of Scientology:

"It is possible to know about the mind, the spirit and life."

— L. Ron Hubbard

Equipped with this book alone, you can begin a practice and perform seeming miracle changes in the states of well-being, ability and intelligence of people.

Bring ORDER and UNDERSTANDING to life's confusions

The Problems of Work contains the senior principles and laws which apply to every endeavor, every problem of work.

For they are the discoveries which lay bare the core of these problems and explain the very fabric of life itself.

Life is composed of seven-tenths work, one-tenth familial, one-tenth political and one-tenth relaxation. Here, then, is Scientology applied to that seven-tenths of existence including the answers to Exhaustion and the "Secret" of Efficiency

Dianetics: The Evolution of a Science

The HIDDEN SOURCE of your worries, upsets and insecurity... REVEALED
Originally written for a national magazine — published to coincide with the release of Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health — it started a wildfire movement virtually overnight upon that book's publication.

Here then are both the fundamentals of Dianetics as well as the only account of Mr. Hubbard's two-decade journey of discovery and how he applied scientific methodology to the problems of the human mind.

Do you really KNOW yourself?

Self Analysis

The barriers of life are really just shadows. Learn to know yourself — not just a shadow of yourself.

This book will take you through your past, your potentials, your life.

The FIRST BREAKTHROUGHS unlocking the secrets of the mind

Dianetics: The Original Thesis is L. Ron Hubbard's first description of Dianetics. Originally circulated in manuscript form to a few friends, it was soon copied and passed hand-to-hand until it literally circled the globe.

Here are the bedrock discoveries and equations of Dianetics, including the Laws of Returning — the explanation of how and why auditing works.

Wisdom for Use in Life

Scientology: A New Slant on Life

Here, then, is Scientology: A New Slant on Life, containing a timeless selection of Ron's discoveries drawn from the full wealth of his writings and each one presenting a broad, yet comprehensive overview of Scientology applied to a specific aspect of existence.

The Way to HAPPINESS — A common sense guide to better living

The Way to Happiness

True joy and happiness are valuable. If one does not survive, no joy and no happiness are obtainable. Trying to survive in a chaotic, dishonest and generally immoral society is difficult.While no one can guarantee that anyone else can be happy, their chances of survival and happiness can be improved. And with theirs, yours will be.

It is in your power to point the way to a less dangerous and happier life.

It is possible to buy all these hardbacked books individually if you really want to, but the 18 are available at a special packaged price of £296 (395 Euros). These books unlock the gates to your future enternity - not bad for only £296! If you would like to place an order, simply click here.

Hey All You Swedes Out There, Vote for Nina in TV3's (SPAMALOT) West End Star!

Nina, I'd vote for you if I could

'West End Star' finalist, Nina Söderquist

West End Star, the Saturday night talent show on Sweden's TV3 channel, will find the replacement for the Diva in Monty Python's SPAMALOT - now playing at London's Palace Theatre in Cambridge Circus. The Diva (The Lady of the Lake) is currently being played by the brilliant Hannah Waddingham, who will soon take over that role in the Broadway production of the show (played until recently by Marin Mazzie).

Peter Davison, Spamalot's King Arthur. Hannah Waddingham and
Marin Mazzie - Spamalot's current West End and Broadway Ladies
of the Lake and the 5 finalists (Nina third from right).

There now remain 5 Swedish finalists. Each week (starting tonight), one will be eliminated by phone vote, leaving the winner (on 2 Feb 07) to take over from Hannah in London on 11 Feb 07.

Being a long-time serious Python and (recently) Spamalot fan (seen the show 3 times already! - see previous blogs), I have been following this competition for a while via both http://www.pythonline.com/ and http://www.tv3.se/ (warning - no subtitles) , and ... no offence to the other contestants, but for me, the clear winner is the rock singer, Nina Söderquist.

You can see she is already tuned in to the Python 'thing', she has the power in her voice needed for this role, her stage presence is huge (another rather essential prerequisitttttte), I love hearing her sing and she is also great fun. (Watch her auditions in some of the previous shows via the above links and you'll see what I mean. What did it for me was her own 'Python' version of Gloria Gaynor's 'I Will Survive'. It was excellent!)

All we need now is for the Swedish-Saturday-night-TV3-viewing public, who own a phone, to see the bleeding obvious. Please don't make me have to fly over there just to make 5000 phone votes from my hotel room, all on my own!

OK guys, we're sorry about the Swedish Chef thing, so please now just VOTE for NINA!

Nina's phone-vote number is 099 40 301 and the show is on at 9pm Swedish time.

Related links:

Nina is in the final!
- SvD - En av dem blir stjärna i London
- Holmgren & Söderquist Vie for Lady of the Lake in UK 'Spamalot'

- ITN
- BBC TV
- What's On Stage
- Broadway World
- Channel 4 News
- Broadway.com
- Stage News
- Daily Telegraph

- Nina's MySpace page
- Nina's AllEars page
- TV3.se
- Silverback (West End Show's production company)
- Pythonline.com
- My previous Spamalot blog entries 1, 2, 3 and 4