Shameless Cuts Seamless Workforce
This year has seen the fall of many comrades. May we remember them all here, in rough order of departure:

Hello!

After 6 months of forgetting the password due to a drunken-password-changing-mishap, I awoke today sober and in a moment of clarity remembered what it was. Lo and behold it worked and now we are up and running again. Check back soon, new articles will appear when I can be arsed to write them.

Sacked
Comiserations to Mr Limes, who was earlier sacked for being 3 weeks late for his first day at work.
If you know somebody who knows how to wear a tie and has no family, pets, or other comittments, please get them to send in an application form.

Resigned
Congratulations to our former editor who is leaving us. Whether or not this message should be going under the previous heading or not is yet to be confirmed. We wish him all the best in starting up his new business ventures, opening up a ski school and an anger management clinic. I'm sure they'll be a raging success.

World Cup Fever
Watch out folks, there's a bit of world cup fever going around. With games clashing with working hours and all, I fear many of us could catch this disease in the coming weeks. Common signs are profuse sweating, hysterical maniacal behaviour, missing teeth, inability to use public transport, and a severe involuntary increase in vocal volume. If you start to develop any of these, stay at home and drink beer until symptoms ease.

Latest episode of Lost

Seems some employees got a little bit lost again on their way home last night, turning a simple journey to South London into a bizzare tour of the entire fucking city. At least they made it into work on time(ish).

Well, today is Friday, so I can see it all happening again. Make sure you memorise this world map in case you fall asleep on the African line and wake up in Zimbabwe again.

Cabinet Reshuffle

Looks like the changes are afoot in Company X. Management are moving upstairs, whilst 2 departments that were once tied very closely together are being moved to separate rooms.

All of this seems hauntingly familiar. I'm sure that, back in those dark University days, whilst asleep or playing Tetris on my mobile, my brain actually absorbed something that would become useful in later life. This didn't happen very often.

Now what was it... ah, here it is!



(click for an enlarged view by the way)

Greetings from your new host!

Hello fellow slaves. What a day!

Not only have I been granted a new office space away from the monkey enclosure, I have also been handed over the reigns to the gossip mongering propaganda machine you are reading now.

Yes, I won the Blog Idol competition, judged by Easyman and Dr. Frankenstein. Thanks guys!

I've got a lot to learn - such as who is Bob? And will I ever be able to get away with calling my manager a slightly gay muppet like the last guy did without fear of retribution? Well management team, you could always arrange for more monthly cheddar to come my way if you want me to be kind...

And Finally...

We must say our goodbyes to Velma Dinkley, who departed last week in search of extra scooby snacks.

A good time was had by all down at The Pilchard, we took over the place and made fools of ourselves just like the good old days, especially the Crazy Prime Minister modelling his kinky baloon lingerie.

We'll miss you around here Velma, and good luck solving those mysteries.
Rooby-rooby-doooooooooo!!!

THE READERS WIVES EDITION

Dear ANL,

My husband Jarin loves reading your magazine and sometimes I take a quick peek myself when he is out of the house at work (which doesn't seem to be that often really) as I find the pictures of naked women really turns me on.

Please find enclosed a picture of myself which I know you probably won't publish as you get millions of these letters every week. (ED - yes but you are so sexy that we have published it - I'm sure your husband will be proud.)

My husband says that most of the stories in the ANL are made up or exaggerated; we both enjoy the stories especially the adventures of Bob.

ANL: Well thank you Mrs Jarin and your cheque for $1000 is in the post - yes that's right, if we use your photo you get $1000. And if you think that the stories are made up or exaggerated then here is one that isn't.

CANCER CURED!

Yes it's true - our very own Dr Brains of the patent department is now just moments away from a groundbreaking cure for cancer.

Dr Brains confided in Bob later this week and told him that Company X does not provide him with enough work - therefore in his spare time he is working on a cure for cancer!

Dr Brains - "It is easy - I know what causes cancer, now I just have to find out how to cure it; all these people working on this already are idiots."

Yes this man is so deluded by his own sense of genius that he has clearly gone quite mad. What is surprising is that this man has been allowed to join a dating agency! Good God what sort of agency is it? But what is even more surprising is that Dr Brains has not figured out why he can't get a girlfriend in the first place.

His father was a diplomat and he was sent to the best schools - "so why has my son got no people skills?' his father asked.

The ANL had bagged an interview with the illustrious Dr Brains in the salubrious surroundings to Chateau De Bullshit.

ANL - So Dr Brains how did you get into this crusade for a cure for cancer?

Dr B - Well I used to train astronauts - excuse me for one moment

(Dr Brains - now quickly runs towards the bedroom and comes out wearing his new white eel skin shoes)

Dr B - You are my first guests so I must wear my new white shoes

ANL - Yes and very nice they are too.

Dr B - would you like some Champagne?

ANL - Yes I suppose so

(Dr B now runs off to the kitchen and starts preparing the Champagne)

Dr B - I drink Champagne everyday - and I keep a bottle of non-alcoholic Champagne just in case my good friend Inspector Clouseau comes to my house

ANL - so he never has visited you

Dr B - could you help me move the table, I have just bought some furniture and I cannot move it on my own.

ANL - well yes I suppose so

(We now start lifting this huge piece of glass off a table so Dr Brains can clean it while giving a lecture on the virtues of micro-fibre cloths)

Dr B - now follow me and I will show you the rest of the house.

(The tour begins with the gym and proceeds to the bedroom where I gigantic bed fills the room - adorned with lace and crushed velvet fir for a king)

Dr B - I also keep another bedroom ready just in case any of my family comes to stay

ANL - not much chance of that, is there?!

The interview ends here as the effects of the alcohol kicked in and Dr Brains moved over to his desk to play with himself with the help of the on-line porn chat room.

********

The Importance of being Frank

There has been some talk about the newsletter recently and yes it may go over the top once in a while - but that is the point of it. If you subscribe to the magazine then you have to take your fair share of piss take. Freedom of speech is important - but outright slander is not permitted, this newsletter is extremely careful when it comes to breaking rules - we try to break all of them. You are lucky to live in a society where censorship is at a minimum. One aspect of the ANL is that it focuses on the negative and spreads dissent; all true but again that was the point of it. Does your local newspaper focus only on good news? As an experiment in future editions only good news will be reported.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech


**********

This week other world news.

Pascua Lama

The Alternative Newsletter goes Green & Gold.

Judge for yourself if you want to take action. In the
Valle de San Felix, the purest water in Chile runs
from 2 rivers, fed by 2 glaciers. Water is a most
precious resource, and wars will be fought for it.
Indigenous farmers use the water, there is no
unemployment, and they provide the second largest
source of income for the area. Under the glaciers has
been found a huge deposit of gold, silver and other
minerals. To get at these, it would be necessary to
break and destroy the glaciers - something never
conceived of in the history of the world - and to make
2 huge holes, each as big as a whole mountain, one for
extraction and one for the mine's rubbish tip.

The project is called PASCUA LAMA. The company is
called Barrick Gold. The operation is planned by a
multi-national company, one of whose members is
George Bush Senior (what a surprise eh?) The Chilean
Government has approved the project to start this
year, 2006. The only reason it hasn't started yet is
because the farmers have got a temporary stay of
execution. If they destroy the glaciers, they will
not just destroy the source of specially pure water,
but they will permanently contaminate the 2 rivers so
they will never again be fit for human or animal
consumption because of the use of cyanide and sulphuric
acid in the extraction process Every last gram of
gold will go abroad to the multinational company and
not one will be left with the people whose land it is.
They will only be left with the poisoned water and the
resulting illnesses.

The farmers have been fighting a long time for their
land, but have been forbidden to make a TV appeal by a
ban from the Ministry of the Interior. Their only
hope now of putting brakes on this project is to get
help from international justice. The world must know
what is happening in Chile. The only place to start
changing the world is from here.

******

The e-mail then continues and asks the readers to forward the e-mail and sign a petition.

For a second opinion you can check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascua_Lama

There are also some points on there about the effectiveness of campaigning from you desk...on-line petitions etc.

The Alternative Newsletter replies.

This type of thing typifies the greed of big business and I'm afraid that no matter how many petitions are signed, nine times out of ten this type of project will go ahead.

Every part of the earth at one point was pristine and untouched, but we will not stop until every last part of it has been bled of its resources.

I don't know what I can do?

Eco tourism is all the rage now, but I say the best form of eco tourism is not to go at all.

If no one bought gold - then it would be worthless, but I can't see this happening can you?

If no one drove cars, heated their houses, watched TV, travelled further than their local farmers market and only ate food produced locally and in season, we might stand a chance.

Organic is another buzzword that big business is now attempting to control. Everything is being labelled organic making a mockery of what organic produce is all about. They are turning it into a mass produced industry exactly the same as non organic produce; in fact there is not much difference apart from the label. As chemicals, preservatives and mechanization all form part of its "organic" produce?

Money is to blame for all this, and globalization is the key to understanding how we can reverse the process of our rape and pollution of the earth.

I can't see how anything will change unless we become an anti-global economic society.

Self sustainable local communities are the way forward; but it is going to take a lot of sacrifices to go back in time and rely on horsepower again. Even using wonderful inventions like solar panels maybe damaging as you need factories and infrastructure to supply and make the solar panels.

Can we really see a world without electricity, gold mines, war, pop idol, and war?

Did you buy your mother a bouquet of flowers for Mothers Day? Well they are probably doused in dangerous chemical and pesticides picked by children and low paid slaves.

Small token gestures at recycling are all very nice, but it is going to take some seriously unpopular brave measures by the worlds most powerful nations and their respective elected leaders to change anything.

You are on top of the mountain and you can survey the futile war from afar and see that is pointless; but what can you do to stop it?

Nothing: so you go down to the pub and get pissed instead!