Seven Of Our Posts Are Missing..

There seems to be a certain amount of discrepancy on the part of blogspot as to how many posts have appeared on the PMC. According to our editing page (which you can't see, not that you'd want to!) there are 308 - we did indeed mark the passing of the 300th post the other day with a cuppa soup.

However on this homepage it cites 202 (plus this one) in the archive for 2010, and 81 for 2009. Presumably the posts which appear on the front page aren't included in this figure, but they number 8 at any one time and so that comes to 301 in total (or 302 including this one). So there's a mystery 7 posts somewhere out there..

Maybe it's simply because we don't really count Tim Flowers' offerings as proper posts (by the way he's on his summer break right but promises to have some more inciteful musings on his own genius when he returns!)

Oh well this was an easy exercise in adding one more to the post count, whatever it may be!

Green Shoots Of Recovery

According to my sources, Estonia is no less than in second place in forecast growth in GDP for the 27 EU states in 2010-2011!

The figure stands at about 3.5 per cent (only Poland is higher at 4 per cent). Not quite the figure of the heady days of the early-mid '00s (peaking at 10 per cent in 2006), which may be no bad thing, but a vast improvement of the whopping 14.1 per cent contraction last year. So the belt tightening was the right thing to do all along, hats off to Estonia and its economic restraint!

For the record, neighbours Latvia came in at less than 1 per cent growth, Lithuania much stronger at about 2.6 per cent, the UK, France, Denmark and the Netherlands hovering around the overall EU average of 1.6 per cent and poor old Greece the only one still in the red at about -1.8 per cent.

More On The Lizard Brain..

Another good post on the lizard brain (for an explanation of the phenomenon see this post) from an entrepreneurial perspective.

It also gives it it's proper medical name, the amygdala, no less. Such a tiny little blob being responsible for such a huge amount of suffering and misery:-(

Thought For The Day No. 30 - With The Rabbi Anders Weiss

...psychologist, spiritual guru and arbiter of good taste..

The greatest gifts can be destroyed by idleness.

Michel de Montaigne

Death Of A Nation

What I've been watching these last few days - a thorough, maybe largely accurate and often graphic six part documentary about the war in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

It seems naive and crass now but I remember at the time wondering why all of these terrible things seemed to happen in places which had such idyllic, sylvanian looking scenery.

Seems that many people have forgotten about this conflict already, which I think would be a mistake.

Watch it.

This Month's Revolutionary New Concept - Walt Gleeson

Canfield, Proctor, Nightingale, Zagler, Hill, Robbins, Tracy, Winfrey... step aside please..there's a new success guru in town! Walt Gleeson is a highly successful, internationally renowned author of motivational books and CDs and other products. Starting as a rust repairer on a sewage trawler in international waters, on one cent fifty per month, Walt soon rose to control the entire US fleet, and he never even graduated from High School. His career has spanned over half a decade, during which he has acted as advisor to such alumni as Richard Nixon, Oliver North and Mike Tyson, and he has enthralled readers all over the world, from Alaska to Florida and from Hawaii to Rhode Island, with such titles as You Can Do It!, You Can Do It! Too, Literally Make Your House Work For You, My Lai Was Just a Blip and Become a Billionaire Whilst On The Toilet, Walt is the Puumaja Crew's personal realization and fulfilment coach, whatever that is.

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, so much so that I've given it the personal touch by referring to you as 'reader'.

Would you like to be able to control your mind, like a zen jedi, only much more effectively? Well now you can!

Just for my readers I'm offering this special deal, but hurry, it's going to close in 19 seconds' time!

For just USD 99.99 * you will be able to obtain anything you want, simply by going into my DeepTrance™.
 
What's DeepTrance™? Quite simply, DeepTrance™ is the revolutionary new concept in total mind power which takes the best of the last 4000 years of human spiritual achievement, improves it and distills it into a set of 2x 45 minute CDs which will enable you to achieve your spiritual goals of earning twice as much as your parents, being able to reverse out of your drive much more quickly than your neighbour can, without scraping the car this time, or having the lowest handicap in you local golf club.

The teachings of Moses, Jeremiah, Solomon, Budda, Confucius, Jesus Christ, Marcus Aurelius, Muhammed and others are taken as a whole and thrown altogether in onbe big pot pourri (they all said pretty much the same thing anyway) until we see what comes out at the other end.

With just ten minutes per day or use, you will achieve a higher state of consciousness than any zen master, within one month of starting the program, and your life will be revolutionized.

I'm very excited about this, particularly as my accountant has given me an indication of how much I'm set to make if I sell just one thousand sets. So, don't be an unspiritual pauper, buy it and make sure all your friends buy it to. I promise you you won't regret it, after all, it's your future that I'm asking you to remortgage again!

So, fill out the order right now - and as a special throw in gift, just as I'm that kind of a guy, I'll be giving a free copy of the transcript of a seminar I gave recently in Phoenix, Arizona, entitled "Why People Losing Their Jobs Is A Very Good Thing", but hurry - there's a limited supply!**

 * Per month plus postage, US and Canada only (overseas rates to Canada).
** or simply obtain a recording of any seminar I've given since 1977 when I last made a slight alteration to the patter.

Before There Was Four Lions...

The never disappointing Chris Morris' infiltration of one of those terrible day time discussion programs...culminating in questioning the presenter as to what happened to his formerly grey hair...it was a lot funnier than when the same program, as I remember from a day in the dim and distant past being off sick from school, got invaded by Nation of Islam/black power types, that truly sucked...

60 Years Of The PMC - Ooh I've Done It Again

2010 marks the 60th anniversary of the launch of the PMC. Yes, it's impossible to believe, but that's because it is impossible. To mark this auspicious occasion the PMC will be taking a retrospective of some of the outstanding posts of the past six decades. From Cold War to Coldplay and from Ban the Bomb to Ban the Burka, every decade will be represented, and includes highlights from some of the most talked about of contributors...Bertrand Russell, Hunter S. Thompson, Roman Polanski, Roald Dahl and Limahl from Kajagoogoo, to name but a few - none of them contributed to the PMC's pages (oh, hold on a second, Limahl had a regular section in the early 80s).

1977 saw the introduction of the short lived but much loved series of 'blooper' posts, entitled 'Ooh I've Done It Again..!'

Posted by the never-popular Arthur Goldsberry (who never, apparently, did anything else noteworthy), they were a collection of ill fated posts which started off well, only to fall flat on their metaphorical face because, tee hee hee, people sometimes make mistakes! There were times when somebody burst out laughing, forgot what they were supposed to type, or uttered some kind of double entendre. Here are some of the selected highlights.

Ian Botham has had an extraordinary game today. The young all rounder stepped out at Trent Bridge today to claim his....what, er, what did you say? Oh no - it wasn't Trent Bridge it was at Old Trafford, ha ha ha ha ha  - ooh, I've done it again!

To make a Spanish omelette, take four eggs, crack them open into a large mizing bowl and - oh no, I've dropped the eggs on the floor and they've gone everywhere! - ooh, I've done it again!

Ok here's the start of my post...erm...tssss, ha ha ha! I can't remember what I was supposed to write - don't look at me..no, well you started it, tee hee hee. - ooh, I've done it again!

The Prime Minister today was in Reading for the opening of the dsaki  rj103093 akrkeak 334919e r efehr a reareakk939293929  ,fea..üreüarä - .....///// ..   will someone get that bloody cat off the keyboard?! - ooh, I've done it again!

A woman contacted the PMC today to ask about a big storm she'd heard that was on the way, due to hit the South of England some time tomorrow. We can assure you that no such thing is going to happen. The very next day a force 12 gale hit the country killing thousands, and the PMC was made to look very foolish indeed - ooh, I've done it again!

Not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certain convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots: your fat king..fucking you FUCK FUCK FUCKITY FUCK, OH FUCK IT TO HELL AND BACK; WHAT'S MY MOTIVATION DARLINGS?!? - ooh, I've done it again!

Postscript: Goldsberry tragically died in on the toilet in 1983 after eating a phal curry accompanied by 11 pints of lager - out of respect for him, his regular blogspot was retired (and also because it had quite frankly been done to death).