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Bored with the same old Korea vs. Korea, Israel vs. Gaza(for now..), Russia vs. Georgia, and U.S. vs. Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts? Foreign Policy has taken the time to compile 2011's new apocalypse all stars line up. Short answer? Most on FP's list lack the firepower to be more than a civil or regional conflict at best. The few breakouts include Tajikistan, Pakistan, and Lebanon, as each country deals with border tensions, proxy nation involvement, and the possibility (or availability by a potential ally or enemy) of escalation involving nuclear weapons.
My guess? Pakistan, drawn into war through a (possibly rogue/possibly government-sanctioned) terror attack, either involving India, the United States, or both.
S Korea: N Korea Builds Up Special Forces Excerpts:
North Korea has faster, more powerful tanks prowling the world's most heavily armed border and 200,000 special forces poised to carry out assassinations and cause havoc in South Korea, a major military review said Thursday.
Seoul's Defense Ministry report, released every two years, signals that the North's military threat has expanded..
The new document says the North intends to rely on its nuclear program, special forces, long-range artillery, submarines and cyber warfare forces as a counterweight to South Korea's high-tech conventional military.
North Korea has 200,000 special operations forces, the report says, an increase from 180,000 in the ministry's last assessment in 2008. Those forces are aimed at carrying out assassinations and infiltrating and disrupting key facilities in South Korea, it said.
So, while nothing has changed and no one has backed down, there seems to be a perception that, since no action has occurred, tension has decreased. I disagree. Looking at this conflict in terms of, say, a puzzle, more pieces keep sliding into place, and with each connected piece, a larger, clearer view of the situation emerges. If a match does indeed drop onto this powderkeg, the explosion will be remarkable.
Including but not limited to two thirds of Missouri, all of Arkansas, and all of Louisiana, and surrounding states.. This forecast comes from weather wunderkind Kevin Martin, so if you live in the affected area, pay attention. This might be nothing, or this might be something, and New Year's Eve is a night when everyone has their guard down. I think Kevin's really intelligent, but I live in the red zone, so I'm really hoping he's wrong. Tornadoes on New Year's Eve? That's some bad juju, huh?
Happy New Year!
Artfully phrased economic Dooooooom! From Gonzalo Lira. Excerpts:
To be sure, there were other important stories in 2010—the Mortgage Mess, Wikileaks, Wayne Rooney. But these three issues—auguries of EMU collapse, successful Fed monetization, and commodity price rises—are the ones that mattered on a macro-economic level this past year.
In 2011, every other financial story will be either a cause or consequence of one of these three issues: Guaranteed.
Europe..
Europe is in deep shit—there’s really no polite way to say it.
All of the EU, really(Germany and France also. Indirectly, at the moment, but they are not insulated from events.) but specifically, Spain..
Not “Spain is in trouble”—that’s obvious, but that’s not my point: Spain is trouble. Trouble for the German banks that own so much of the Spanish debt. Trouble for Germany, which is propping up its insolvent banks (What, you think German politicians are any less craven than American politicians?). Spain is trouble for the European Union, for what a German banking crisis might mean for the EU as a whole and as an institution.
More than anything, Spain is trouble for the European Financial Stability Facility, because Spain is too big to be saved—and there’s really no way to finesse that hard fact.
..
How the EU and the ECB handle an eventual Spanish sovereign debt crisis will determine the very future of the European Union.
Because there will be a Spanish sovereign debt crisis—it’s inevitable. The Spanish balance sheet is not improving fast enough, even with so-called “austerity” measures, because even though the Spanish government might be cutting spending, the comunidades autónomas—roughly analogous to states or regions—are expanding their budgets in order to take up the slack, and thereby increasing the Spanish deficit.
..
So when Spain goes into crisis—which should take place no later than August 2011, and perhaps as early as this coming March—the European Union’s collective and institutional reaction to this crisis event will determine whether a smaller, healthier European Monetary Union continues to exist, or whether the whole concept of EMU is ripped to shreds by events.
Which brings us to the United States..
There is a limit to sympathy: You can feel sorry for someone—but only up to a point. Insofar as the United States’ fiscal situation is concerned, that point has been reached, at least for me: I can no longer feel sorry for the American people.
Americans want more services and entitlements, but with less taxes—and then they’re all surprised when their local, state and Federal governments cross the edge of insolvency, and into the nightmare land of feverishly staving off bankruptcy.
During 2010, the Federal government debt finally crossed the 100% of GDP mark—and continued rising non-stop. Actually, the debt’s growth accelerated. Why? Because the Bush tax cuts of 2001—implemented when there was an expectation of surplus, with clear sunset provisions, and no massive war expenditures—were extended by the mindless Republican Congress and the spineless President, Barack Obama.
And:
In late 2010, we finally started to notice something which has been festering for years, like one of those yucky worms that winds up eating your brains and driving you mad: The financial condition of the U.S. States and municipalities—they’re bankrupt.
For fiscal year 2010, the states’ combined budget shortfall is $191 billion. Of that figure, $68 billion is offset by the Recovery Act—Obama’s stimulus. Currently, the 2011 combined deficit of the States will be in the neighborhood of $160 billion—but that doesn’t seem credible, considering the ongoing unemployment. Regardless, $59 billion of those will be offset by the Recovery Act—which still leaves at least $100 billion up in the air.
However you look at it, the States have a huge collective hole in their budgets. And this hole is going to get worse, before it gets any better—just like the Federal government’s massive yearly deficit.
Which brings us to Commodities:
Commodities rose drastically all throughout 2010: Every single commodity class, every single one of them rising by double digit percentage points—at least.
..
I know I have the reputation for being the crazed hyperinflationista—but you don’t have to buy any of my dollar-hyperinflation arguments to acknowledge the fact that, a., commodity prices have experienced a sustained and enormous rise in their prices, and b., this sustained rise in the prices of commodities will inevitably hit consumers at all levels of the economy.
Therefore, I would expect food, heating oil and gas prices to rise considerably over the winter of 2011—that is, now. This will be a knee to the ‘nads of the American economy—indeed, to the world economies.
There’s really not much more to say, about the issue: A sharp rise in consumer spending on essentials would shove the American and world economies firmly back into recession, this time potentially with negative growth.
What happens after that? It depends on the fools at the helm of the good ship S.S. Depression II.
Lira's bottom line?
So bottom line: It’s looking like 2011 is gonna suck. But hey! At least two of these three story-lines are gonna come to their respective climaxes this year—so 2011 might well suck, but at least it’ll be exciting!
I'm wondering how each of these huge economic phenomenons will effect each other. Any one of these three in stronger economic times would influence, drag, or overlap into the other sets of events. With each of these world engines at critical and vulnerable points, what will happen if they all seize up close to the same time? Could the overall effects be so much more than the sum of its monetary parts? The cynic in me says "Of course."
From Canada dot com.. Excerpts:
PORT-AU-PRINCE - The crisis gripping cholera-ridden Haiti in the wake of disputed elections and a debilitating earthquake could devolve into civil war, the nation's former interim leader said Tuesday.
Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council promised a recount of the November 28 election ballots after official results set off charges of fraud and rioting by angry supporters of a losing candidate.
"This electoral process, at this current stage, could lead to civil war. We will all be both responsible for this situation and its victims," warned Boniface Alexandre, who ruled as interim president from 2004 to 2006.
"I have a suggestion: all of the parties — those in power and the opposition — have something in common, and that's Haiti. We must find a solution,"
The world has forgotten Haiti. If the current situation continues devolving, though, the country will be back in the headlines. And, although the blossoming cholera epidemic is terrible, the "sensational video" from Haiti's upcoming, inevitable civil war will be the world's media re-introduction to Haiti in its Top 20 bid for World's Worst Godforsaken Hellhole. Although it might be the worst country in the Western Hemisphere(maybe it's Bolivia..), it isn't the worst in the world..
It's a testament how horrible and shitty other countries are, as Haiti really should be as bad as it gets..
Who is Julian Assange, and who does he work for? That's easy. He's obviously an asset of Israel.
And he's also, obviously, a Nazi.
The mythology of Julian Assange continues to grow in opposite directions. Assange is a fascinating character, but I find the reactions and behavior of the opposing forces he has created equally as fascinating. Palin as Lightning Rod? Fat fuckin' chance. Assange is the one who incites or inspires, and it is what he's created and creating that is the informational/technological/global political zeitgeist of our time, the time directly before our arrival at The Crossroads of Modern History..
By Bruce Sterling for Webstock. Xymphora's comment on Sterling's article is correct; "Bruce Sterling on Assange is worth reading but it isn't anything near as good as it ought to be."
Sterling makes some terrific observations regarding the rapidly morphing monolith in progress Julian Assange, the process of diplomacy, hacker mentality, the real difficulty in his future prosecution, and some other thought provoking perspectives(Like the incompatible notions of transparency and discretion. Sounds simple enough, right? Think about how both are equally valued in our political system. WikiLeaks has forced, sometime in the future, debate about which we value more, or how to more efficiently compromise both these principles to the maximum displeasure of most citizens..) that will effect policy, politics, and technology from here on out.
My problem with Sterling's work is seemingly at first tangential (And can be partially overlooked due to how many word perfect summations he offers), but still, it bothers me. He dismisses Bradley Manning's motivations and technical ability fairly casually, as he has met many other hackers from similar backgrounds(Sterling is from that community, too), applying a general cyber/geek personality (consumed with boredom and a bit unstable) overview to Manning, but I disagree. While his assessment of Assange feels right(Based on everything I've personally seen..), Sterling seems too jaded to acknowledge Manning as "True Believer," (as opposed to simply bored..)and and fundamentally misunderstands why Manning did what he did.(As an aside, it's not hard to find reference to Manning's consistent-since-childhood, unique, moral resolute-ness, which is why Sterling's misfire is so baffling: With a little research, a completely different portrait of Manning appears, less desperate, less awkward, more concerned with the essence(s) of Right and Wrong (I also find it interesting he's a Sagittarius..) than Sterling bothers to admit or convey. Probably Sterling is not familiar with this type(as they probably few in number in his circles of association), he cannot contend with the idea that Bradley Manning believed (as True Believers would be liable to believe) leaking these cables was the morally correct thing to do. While Sterling understands Assange, Manning and his motives eludes him.
This is not necessarily important to Sterling's narrative, which ultimately describes Julian Assange as: Ray Croc, McDonald's-izing the process of mass distribution of information/leaks, the human embodiment of the Internet, the global diplomatic homewrecker who has forever altered how our State Department proceeds and is seen, and how, despite his cynical expectations, Assange's actions could have a perverting, un-intended consequences effect on the U.S. and global populace regarding State to State interaction. Sterling's understanding of (and empathy for) Assange, clearly stated:
I don’t say these cruel things about Julian Assange because I feel distant from him, but, on the contrary, because I feel close to him. I don’t doubt the two of us would have a lot to talk about. I know hordes of men like him; it’s just that they are programmers, mathematicians, potheads and science fiction fans instead of fiercely committed guys who aspire to topple the international order and replace it with subversive wikipedians.
..
Well… every once in a while, a situation that’s one-in-a-thousand is met by a guy who is one in a million. It may be that Assange is, somehow, up to this situation. Maybe he’s gonna grow in stature by the massive trouble he has caused. Saints, martyrs, dissidents and freaks are always wild-cards, but sometimes they’re the only ones who can clear the general air. Sometimes they become the catalyst for historical events that somehow had to happen. They don’t have to be nice guys; that’s not the point. Julian Assange did this; he direly wanted it to happen. He planned it in nitpicky, obsessive detail. Here it is; a planetary hack.
I don’t have a lot of cheery hope to offer about his all-too-compelling gesture, but I dare to hope he’s everything he thinks he is, and much, much, more.
I have problems with Sterling's assessment because he assigns the future power of the entire WikiLeaks phenomenon to Assange and a cynical legion of hackers just like him, and therefore can't see or factor the serendipitous power of other True Believers, how they will(and have) react(ed), and how the other Bradley Manning's of this unfolding event will influence the global direction of what these two very different men have wrought.
What- Will happen- Next?
Comforting, constructive words from Robert Wilkinson at Aquarius Papers.
Pat Robertson Wants the Devil's Weed Decriminalized. (From Gawker) What's next? Cloverfield monsters running for Office? I thought that would be as likely as last week's announcement. Excerpts:
Whatever happened to the culture warriors? Everyone is either a gay soldier or a black president nowadays. Or perhaps even a pot decriminalizing televangelist? This is old Pat Robertson, now. Pat Robertson is sick of the War on Marijuana.
"We're locking up people that have taken a couple puffs of marijuana and next thing you know they've got 10 years with mandatory sentences," Robertson continued. "These judges just say, they throw up their hands and say nothing we can do with these mandatory sentences. We've got to take a look at what we're considering crimes and that's one of 'em.
"I'm ... I'm not exactly for the use of drugs, don't get me wrong, but I just believe that criminalizing marijuana, criminalizing the possession of a few ounces of pot, that kinda thing it's just, it's costing us a fortune and it's ruining young people. Young people go into prisons, they go in as youths and come out as hardened criminals. That's not a good thing."
I don't fucking know who this guy is. I don't want to complain or jinx this development in any way, but seriously: Who is this?
This turn of events begs more than one question.. How long has Pat Robertson felt this way? Why has he chosen December, 2010 (as opposed to, say, October or November, 2010) to publicly voice his support on restructuring marijuana laws? Will his religious contemporaries agree and follow, or disagree, and totally disavow him?
For most of society, this is a curiosity, a cool turn of events, an "are you fucking kidding me?" event.. But for Social Conservatives and Evangelicals, this is HUGE. I'm sure the denouncements are already beginning, but so are the beginnings of Religious Right Wing (as a voting bloc) support for the ultimate legalization of Marijuana. Robertson's stance will be hotly debated, within many religious and political circles for years to come. This is big.
As despicable the man is, Pat Robertson might ultimately be the man who defeated the War on Marijuana.
By "Dingo," I mean "sinkhole," and by "Ate my baby!" I mean, destroyed a back yard in about five minutes..
Excerpts: About 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Luis Hernandez felt the soil trembling beneath his feet.
..
He heard air coming up, "Whooo, whooo, whooo," Orpha approximated the noise, as if underground air was rushing to the surface.
Luis knows because he looked at the clock on his phone – in just five minutes, a 100-foot wide sinkhole opened in the sand, gulping pots with palm trees and ligustrum hedges and catley guava.
By Friday, they'd rescued all the nursery plants from the one-acre plot, moving them to the adjoining nine acres. But the hole had swelled 20 feet wider, and at 4 p.m. Friday, the circular mouth was an estimated 140 feet across.
"This morning, there was just a little water in it," she said. But by late afternoon, water was three feet deep and rising in the center of the hole.
"We have a pond," she laughed.
This one's stopped growing--for now. But sinkholes are serious business. Just ask the people of Guatemala City.. Sinkhole? More like an entrance to Hell..
Tired of reading about conspiracy theories, the webbots and astrology? Me neither, but I like music, too, so here's a nice sampling of critic's picks for the best of 2010. Great stuff out there, and a lot of these sites have samples! I probably lost close to four hours reading and listening! Take a break: Indulge! The planned vaporization of Korea and upcoming global economic collapse can wait.. It's time for some music..
Big winners (consistently on most lists): Janelle Monae, Kanye West, Flying Lotus, Beach House., Robyn. Deerhunter, Arcade Fire, and Big Boi. I've left out at least 30 other bands, but there's just not enough time..
(Also, each link is from a different site. Represented are: New Music Express, Pop Matters, Rolling Stone, Spin, Pitchfork, and The Onion.
There's so much more out there, but I'll let you do the work, as it's not really "work." Enjoy!
The store has a "no returns" policy, but don't worry -- You won't need it -- It's Awesome! Thank you, Sisters of Sorcha Faal! Tantalizing tidbits in italics:
A peculiar report prepared for Prime Minister Putin by Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) circulating in the Kremlin today states that German Chancellor Angela Merkel has become the latest in a growing line of Western leaders to make a ‘surprise’ visit to Afghanistan this month and follows visits by United States President Obama (December 3rd), British Prime Minister David Cameron (December 7th) and French President Nicolas Sarkozy (December 8th).
Only Sarkozy’s trip, this report says, was concealed as he was already in India on a state visit when ‘rushed’ by a US Military aircraft to the Afghan war zone.
What caused the sudden rush of these most powerful leaders of the Western World to go to Afghanistan, this report continues, was to directly view the discovery by US Military scientists of what is described as a “Vimāna” entrapped in a “Time Well” that has already caused the “disappearance” of at least 8 American Soldiers trying to remove it from the cave it has been hidden in for the past estimated 5,000 years.
Beautiful! Time Wells, multiple Heads of State, Zoroastrianism.. It's all here, blended together, fully cooked for your consumption. Enjoy!
Interesting analysis into the astrological motivations behind Julian Assange and his creation, WikiLeaks, from Dark Star Astrology. The article focuses on the planet Eris, the mythological Goddess of Strife/Dischord. Excerpts:
..I think personally his efforts to expose the corruption of governments are something to be applauded and am not surprised that Uranus should feature strongly in his chart. Jamie’s interpretation of Sun square Uranus describes him pretty well.“Their need to express their distinctive ego through their personality and career can often cause conflict with others because it can come across as abrupt, rebellious or just weird. There is no doubt however, that the tension of the square aspects pushes these people to achieve brilliance in creative self expression…of a different kind.”
But there is a Plutonic edge to him also, the uncovering the festering toxicity of the elite makes him an activist. He is not simply a rebel without a cause which can be one of the failings of the Uranus square. It goes much deeper.
What makes him stand out from other Uranian weirdo’s is the fact his Sun is caught in a T square between Uranus opposing a Eris/Chiron conjunction of just 44’
..
I really do see the archetype of Eris very strongly in him. Eris is the Goddess of discord. Even her discovery caused ructions as there was a dispute over what name to call her and then further controversy over the reclassification of planets leading to Pluto’s demotion. All very fitting for her birth into the collective consciousness.
..
Eris is all about exposing vanity and petty one-upmanship.. (Diplomatic Cables, no?)
So in a chart Eris is where you are made the scapegoat, it’s the ugly duckling that doesn’t fit into the “Cool” gang It’s where you throw eggs at politicians, where you scream “The Emperor has no clothes!”. Uranus doesn’t give a monkeys if he doesn’t fit in. If fact most of the time he is blissfully unaware that he is experienced as bonkers. Eris on the other hand cares very much. Her attitude is “One day I’ll show you”. She wants payback on all the playground teasing, she wants divine retribution. Conversely where Uranus is sometimes self-conscious, awkward and uncomfortable in social situations, Eris relishes in her “outlaw” status, milking it for all its worth. Unfortunately this bravado only serves to alienate her even more.
Eris’s general attitude is one of “If you can’t join them, beat them!”. She can be jealous and vengeful also, just as Ereshkigal was towards her sister Innana in the Mesopotamian version of the Persephone myth. Innana being the Venus/Aphrodite archetype. Eris is the shadow, like Pluto. She seems to be a cross between Pluto and Uranus, but dipped in Martian red warpaint. She is a Dark Goddess, but with less of the Neptune mysticism of Lilith. She is far more upfront and bolshy. Lilith is more seductive and bewitching, while Eris is ruthless predator when it comes to ensnaring her man.
And:
Eris.. takes the law into her own hands and is extremely ambitious. Like Anne Boleyn she wants to be Queen and could never be content with being a mere mistress. She will fight for the underdog and see that justice is done. She wants fairness and cannot abide hypocrisy. She is the ultimate Warrior Queen. Being a Goddess she does not do things in the normal linear masculine way, she challenges the concept of power, she encourages you to stand up to the bullies and turn the tables. She is the only match for Pluto because she can play him at his own game, twisting it to suit her own agenda. She ducks and dives, stealing Pluto’s invisible helmet at times. There she bides her time waiting for the optimum moment to shock her audience. The she will suddenly rip off her disguise to reveal flaming red tresses and her fearsome fiery whistle-blowing breath.
And:
Right now Julian has Tr Saturn opposing his Eris/Chiron conjunction. This is seriously blocking his ability as a warrior and maverick. Corrected by precession, Saturn is has only just made this aspect. It was exact on the 29th of November. By the end of December he should get his mojo back again..
MSNBC's take is a bit ambiguous, but this could be a really big deal.. Excerpts:
The Vatican abandoned plans to join an international Holocaust remembrance body amid tensions over the role of the war-time pope, a newspaper reported citing a U.S. diplomatic cable obtained by WikiLeaks.
..
It says there are 16 million documents from the papacy of Pope Pius XII, who the Guardian described as a "a controversial figure for his failure publicly to denounce the Holocaust in 1941 or 1942, when the Vatican was first informed of what was going on."
And:
Elan Steinberg, vice president of American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants, said in an emailed statement last month that Benedict's comments (In defense of the war time Pope's actions)"fill us with pain and sadness and cast a menacing shadow on Vatican-Jewish relations."
If Pius became a saint, that would create an "unfathomable breach" in Catholic-Jewish relations, Steinberg added. "Pius' silence during the Holocaust was a profound moral failure," he said.
Let's see: Elements of WikiLeaks, The Vatican, The Pope, The Jews, and The Holocaust, all in one story. Boring.. Stop boring me with your boring, beginning to be validated conspiracy theories..
From Io9 via Nature dot com.. Excerpts from both articles:
A single finger bone found in this Siberian cave led to an amazing discovery. Early humans and Neanderthals co-existed with another humanoid species called Denisovans. And many present-day humans carry genes that prove our ancestors had children with Denisovans, too.(Io9)
The ice-age world is starting to look cosmopolitan. While Neanderthals held sway in Europe and modern humans were beginning to populate the globe, another ancient human relative lived in Asia, according to a genome sequence recovered from a finger bone in a cave in southern Siberia. A comparative analysis of the genome with those of modern humans suggests that a trace of this poorly understood strand of hominin lineage survives today, but only in the genes of some Papuans and Pacific islanders.
Named after the cave that yielded the 30,000–50,000-year-old bone, the Denisova nuclear genome follows publication of the same individual's mitochondrial genome in March1. From that sequence, Svante Pääbo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and his colleagues could tell little, except that the individual, now known to be female, was part of a population long diverged from humans and Neanderthals.(Nature)
The picture of early human life that emerges is a lot messier than what we believed even just twenty years ago, when many anthropologists believed humans diverged from Neanderthals and the two species never interbred again. Now it seems that humans had many cousin species - at least two that we know of - and that we separated from them only to rejoin them later, forming families and creating lineages that persist to the present day. (Io9)
When the ancient genome was compared to a spectrum of modern human populations, a striking relationship emerged. Unlike most groups, Melanesians — inhabitants of Papua New Guinea and islands northeast of Australia — seem to have inherited as much as one-twentieth of their DNA from Denisovan roots. This suggests that after the ancestors of today's Papuans split from other human populations and migrated east, they interbred with Denisovans, but precisely when, where and to what extent is unclear. (Nature)
Regardless of whether the Denisovans were another species, or just distant cousins, they are proof that humans have not always been alone among the primates. Within the last 50 thousand years, we shared the planet with other intelligent hominids who weren't quite human.
If we want to know what humanity might look like 50 thousand years from now, after we've colonized space and spent millennia evolving in dramatically different environments, we should look back to the Denisovans' humble cave in Siberia. There, three very different types of human beings met after a long time apart. And formed a community together. (Io9)
Isn't this exciting? The major discoveries in so many areas of our world, our life, are happening so quickly now, that it's hard to add each new finding into our canon of knowledge and fit it properly into a more accurate local cosmology. The level of informational noise distracts away from these bombshells, and with the worldwide explosion of information(both accurate and inaccurate), it will take awhile for the impacts of this period to be understood in proper context.
And that also poses another question: Will we ever be able to fully understand the implications of this quantitative hyperleap of data, or is society too specialized or too stupid or too close-minded to care? Also: Will the pace ever slow down?
In case you're interested, here are pictures of present day Denisovans, the Melanesians.. I can't believe more models aren't Melanesian.. Oh, that look..!
WikiLeaks cables: US suspected Allen Stanford long before ECB deal
..US diplomats were so concerned about rumours of "bribery, money-laundering and political manipulation" surrounding Allen Stanford that they avoided contacting him or being photographed with him.
The extent of the widespread concern among embassy staff in Bridgetown, Barbados, where Stanford invested millions of dollars in Caribbean cricket before his empire came crashing down after being accused of an $8bn fraud of "shocking magnitude" and arrested by the FBI, will raise fresh questions about the wisdom of the England and Wales Cricket Board in getting into bed with him in June 2008.
The concerns are revealed in a cable dated 3 May 2006.. Emphasising the chance nature of the encounter, the cable notes: "Allen Stanford is a controversial Texan billionaire who has made significant investments in offshore finance, aviation, and property development in Antigua and throughout the region. His companies are rumoured to engage in bribery, money-laundering and political manipulation."
Who's Allen Stanford? Well, pre-prison, he was a corrupt Texas billionaire. He's changed careers now, but is unhappy with his status as penitentiary punching bag.. I guess I'd have more sympathy for him if he wasn't such a gigantic, horrible asshole. But, such is life, right?
WikiLeaks cables: Bulgarian nuclear project 'dogged by safety concerns' Because nuclear energy is the best industry for shoddy, half assed workmanship..
The cables claim that despite its due diligence, RWE's confidence had turned to "buyer's remorse" within weeks. In the cable, the US ambassador cited local contacts as saying there was a rush to start construction so that the project would keep RWE on board. RWE had reportedly said that it would not provide funding until it sees the "first concrete poured", signalling the start of construction. Belene project experts privately expressed "serious concerns" that if safety practices continued to be ignored "it could pose a huge risk". RWE's partner, the state-owned Bulgarian electricity company, NEC, which held 51% of the project, declined to comment on any of the allegations.
Is Apple scared, or looking for a fight?
Interesting thread from Godlike Productions. Check out the video. Best comment comes second hand from You Tube..
I think you may have found an area in time-space that perhaps folds to create 3D and 4D reality, a visual anomalies that be that of a prism like effect or this could be a manipulation in the data by those not wanting us to understand our true reality, maybe the area of the cropped images splices together to create this effect . Either way excellent pick up and nice video presentation.
Any thoughts?
S.Korea army to hold largest ever live-fire drill. This isn't Monday's news, either. This one's scheduled for Thursday.. Excerpt:
The drill, involving artillery, fighter jets and the largest number of personnel in a peace-time exercise, comes after the South's live-fire artillery exercise on Monday on the island near the tensely guarded sea border and is likely to infuriate Pyongyang.
Adding to the strangeness/tension of this unfolding crisis, Jesus jumped into the fray.. From South Korean troops prepare for possible North Korean attack..
Troops also were on alert at the border where the South turned on the lights of a 100-foot-tall (30-meter-tall) steel Christmas tree that would be visible to North Koreans living near the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas.
South Korea had stopped the longtime practice of lighting the huge Christmas tree — seen by secular North Korea as a propaganda move — years ago when it halted routine propaganda campaigns during a period of warming ties.
But today the lights will go on again at the western mountain peak known as Aegibong for the first time in seven years, officials said.
Looks like South Korea fooled both Bill Richardson AND Wolf Blitzer!
And: Is it a problem of translation, disdain, or disgust?
Example one: A caption for a picture of the Christmas tree states, "A fairy-light tower on Aegibong Peak in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province, on the western frontier, is switched back on Tuesday for the first time in seven years."
Also:
The South Korean military remains on high alert as a floodlight tower on Aegibong Peak in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province, only 3 km from North Korea, was switched back on Tuesday.
Heh. Fairy-light tower. North Koreans are funny with their disrespect.
Kinda short answer regarding Thursday's military exercises? No matter what anyone says, there is no de-escalation of tension.
Shorter answer? Doom back on.
Uh-Oh! From Tyler Durden at Zero Hedge:
Bank of America just fired the preemptive escalation shot in its duel with Wikileaks. Late on Friday, America's biggest mortgage lender, and the firm that is now getting sued left and right for various mortgage transgressions, announced it is joining MasterCard, Paypal and Visa in ceasing transactions for Wikileaks. While this decision will certainly not improve Operation Anonymous' empathy toward the North Carolina bank, it may just precipitate overt retaliation by Assange, who is now rumored to be in possession of data that could prove harmful to BAC. Which is why this sudden escalation out of left field by the bank strikes as surprisingly odd: BofA's upside is very limited while its downside could be 100% - even if Wikileaks is bluffing, why provoke them. And as expected, Wikileaks has already retaliated: in two sequential tweets it advised its 568,117 (and very rapidly growing) subscribers to pull their money out of Bank of America, and also to close all their accounts with the firm, urging them to put their money "somewhere safer." What is curious is to see whether this sudden escalation, in what has now become synonymous with a quest for preserving the first amendment for a substantial deal of people (and freedom of speech globally), will have a far broader impact than the comparable "Pull Your Money" out of the Big Banks venture that was attempted by Huffington Post over a year ago, with unsatisfactory results. If people suddenly personify Bank of America with a First Amendment threat, arguably the one freedom most cherished in America, which is precisely what Assange is trying to do, all bets for the Countrywide acquirer may soon be off.
The seeds were also sown earlier this month in France with Eric Cantona's December 7th Bank Run fail. I think history will look at Cantona's efforts more as a template than in judgement for the non-starter event its first attempt (But certainly not last)proved to be. We seem to be at a point in history where random variable people and events could expand or escalate local-to-global situations beyond expectations ever supposed even in the recent past, through the viral, random, and variable nature of the Internet itself.
One last thought from Clif High at Half Past Human(Which deserves a more detailed comment at a later time) regarding the upcoming WikiLeaks/BofA bloodbath.. And there will be blood.. *But* It might not be Bank of America at all, or it might be BofA AND the New York Fed..
The rumors of the next round of Wikileaks 'releases' (hint hint on language)...include not only the promise of deep banking secrets which many people speculate to be centered on Bank of America, while others, perhaps more in the know, are thinking it is actually to be 30/thirty plus years worth of 'secrets' to be revealed about the NY Federal Reserve Bank. The ramifications of either are severe for the banking system which is already stressed to levels never before encountered as it stumbles headlong into the upcoming currency collapse. Note that leverage and derivatives are now being piled upon each other as the fraud of the global 'reserve' banking system comes undone as a direct result of its nature (criminal) being taken to its logical extreme by those persons trapped in the myth of acquisition (e.g. where the 'ego/i' thinks that if it acquires more, and continues to acquire, then everlasting life (for the ego) shall result).
I think people are beginning to understand, with the help of these concrete, but fast developing examples, how information knowledge is power, and how that power is tearing apart the collective perceptions of this reality, thereby altering the course of what would have been Our Future, into a new course of what Our Future will be.
And hopefully, that future contains the total destruction of corporate systems and structures, new types of energy, and aliens, lots of friendly aliens..
Great summary from Before It's News.. Short answer? Higher magnitude earthquakes are increasing, especially those in the magnitude seven range. If this activity is a trend rather than anomalous, next year will hold more of the same, only more shake-tacular..
South Korea went ahead and held live fire exercises.. And North Korea still states that they'll retaliate on their timetable, not anyone else's.. And they'll also allow UN Inspectors back in the country.
No one blinked. The strategic ball belongs to North Korea, at the moment. This comment from Godlike is correct:
"You seriously think that just because the drill has ended then that is it? With all the meetings and concerns over this, I feel there is unfortunately a lot more to come. This is only the start of it."
North Korea will very likely retaliate in some fashion.
It is just a question of when and how much.
Quoting: Anonymous Coward 1197780
Indeed, this is a chess game not paintball and it is now their move.
Monday, December 20, 2010, the Korean Peninsula remains on the brink of war. Chips are falling, right now. Where said Chips end up and what that ultimately means remains to be seen.
Striking similarities to Deepwater Horizon, eighteen months later. Same kinda boom, same kinda glug glug, same kinda secrecy.. I'm super-glad they learned from their mistakes. Idiocy, Neglect, or Evil? The apparatus at the top is still in place, so does it even matter what the underlying corporate rationale is, much less why?
BP is greedy and sucks, and they don't care who knows.
Sunday morning at 11 a.m EST. The tension is still building, Excerpts:
Russia's U.N. ambassador says Moscow called for an emergency Security Council meeting because of escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula.
Vitaly Churkin said the Russian government believes the Security Council must send "a restraining signal" to North Korea and help launch diplomatic actions to resolve all disputes between North Korea and South Korea.
From Bloomberg/Business Week South Korea to Hold Drill This Week; Security Council to Meet
..
The artillery exercises will take place on Dec. 20 or Dec. 21, a spokesman at the Joint Chiefs of Staff who declined to be named, citing military policy, said today by telephone in Seoul. North Korea warned it will retaliate if the exercise takes place.
Shelling by South Korea “would make it impossible to prevent the situation on the Korean peninsula from exploding,” North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency cited the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as saying in a statement yesterday. South Korea sees no reason for abandoning the drill just because other countries say it shouldn’t happen, the South Korean military spokesman said today.
The Security Council meets later today, and neither side will budge. It's not good, but there's your update.
Son of Stuxnet? With, "Everyone ready to revisit the 1880's again?" excerpts in italics:
Stuxnet, the first known weaponized software designed to destroy a specific industrial process, could soon be modified to target an array of industrial systems in the US and abroad, cyber experts told US senators Wednesday.
The Stuxnet malware, discovered this summer, was apparently designed to strike one target – Iran's nuclear-fuel centrifuge facilities, researchers now say. But Stuxnet's "digital warhead," they caution, could be copied and altered by others to wreak havoc on a much grander scale.
Variants of Stuxnet could target a host of critical infrastructure, from the power grid and water supplies to transportation systems, four cybersecurity experts told the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
This is what most people don't understand, and what the media has failed to report:
"The concern for the future of Stuxnet is that the underlying code could be adapted to target a broader range of control systems in any number of critical infrastructure sectors," said Sean McGurk, acting director of the National Cyber-security and Communications Integration Center at the US Department of Homeland Security.
Stuxnet infiltrated and targeted an industrial control system software that is widely used in US infrastructure and industry, meaning the nation is vulnerable to future Stuxnet-like attacks, he said. "While we do not know which process was the intended target [of Stuxnet], it is important to note that the combination of Windows operating software and Siemens hardware can be used in control systems across critical infrastructure sectors – from automobile assembly lines to mixing baby formula to processing chemicals," said Mr. McGurk.
"Stuxnet is, at the very least, an important wake-up call for digitally enhanced and reliant countries – at its worst, a blueprint for future attackers," (Michael Assante, president of the National Board of Information Security Examiners) said. It is a "good example of a cyberthreat thought to be hypothetically possible, but not considered probable by many." Its sophistication "should disturb security professionals, engineers, businessmen, and government leaders alike."
Of the many realms of existence on this planet, the cyber/technosphere is among the fastest in overlapping and overall levels of development. When an entity comes along that alters the course and future of its descendants, variations of that entity will occur, and those variants will undoubtedly be aimed at "perfecting" or "streamlining" traits in previous incarnations that are viewed as inefficient, or imperfect. Of course, descendants of Stuxnet will be more powerful, more effective, and more destructive than Stuxnet itself. The prototype is still fucking up the Iranian nuclear program. What will Stuxnet's dirty little black market second generation offshoot going to do, and who will it target? And then the third generation, and and the fourth, and then..
As with everything Internet; Once it's out there, it's out there. The only recourse against Stuxnet and its techno-offspring is focused determination and action geared towards defense against this new breed of cyber barbarians at the gate.. Even though the general public is not aware yet, the rules of cyberspace have most definitely changed..
North Korea warns it will bomb South Korea if it goes ahead with military drills on Yeonpyeong
NORTH Korea yesterday vowed to bomb South Korea if it goes ahead with a fresh wave of artillery drills.
And it warned the ferocity of the strikes “will be more serious” than November’s attacks on Yeonpyeong island which killed four people.
I understood these drills to begin on Friday. My mistake. They take place Saturday through Tuesday, and should begin shortly or currently be in progress.
As a cliched movie fantasy, I see North and South Korea as two intensely handsome criminals, standing in a crowded restaurant pointing automatic weapons at each other, both sweating profusely. No one is speaking out, but everyone involved waits for someone, anyone to say "All right: Everybody be cool.. Everybody breathe.." While outside, two other groups prepare for the restaurant's destruction.
Wik-Bee Leaks: EPA Document Shows It Knowingly Allowed Pesticide That Kills Honey Bees With "This is how the government and corporations are killing you" excerpts in italics:
The world honey bee population has plunged in recent years, worrying beekeepers and farmers who know how critical bee pollination is for many crops. A number of theories have popped up as to why the North American honey bee population has declined--electromagnetic radiation, malnutrition, and climate change have all been pinpointed. Now a leaked EPA document reveals that the agency allowed the widespread use of a bee-toxic pesticide, despite warnings from EPA scientists.
The document, which was leaked to a Colorado beekeeper, shows that the EPA has ignored warnings about the use of clothianidin, a pesticide produced by Bayer that mainly is used to pre-treat corn seeds. The pesticide scooped up $262 million in sales in 2009 by farmers, who also use the substance on canola, soy, sugar beets, sunflowers, and wheat, according to Grist.
The leaked document (PDF) was put out in response to Bayer's request to approve use of the pesticide on cotton and mustard. The document invalidates a prior Bayer study that justified the registration of clothianidin on the basis of its safety to honeybees:
Clothianidin’s major risk concern is to nontarget insects (that is, honey bees). Clothianidin is a neonicotinoid insecticide that is both persistent and systemic. Acute toxicity studies to honey bees show that clothianidin is highly toxic on both a contact and an oral basis. Although EFED does not conduct RQ based risk assessments on non-target insects, information from standard tests and field studies, as well as incident reports involving other neonicotinoids insecticides (e.g., imidacloprid) suggest the potential for long-term toxic risk to honey bees and other beneficial insects.
And:
Clothianidin has already been banned by Germany, France, Italy, and Slovenia for its toxic effects. So why won't the EPA follow? The answer probably has something to do with the American affinity for corn products. But without honey bees, our entire food supply is in trouble.
From: Timeline of a Bee Massacre: EPA Still Allowing Hive-Killing Pesticide
Beekeepers across the U.S. are reporting record low honey crops as their bees fail to make it through the winter. One-third of American agriculture, which relies on bee pollination, is at stake. And the problem may be at least partially attributable to clothianidin, a Bayer-branded pesticide used on corn and other crops.
But as we revealed last week, the EPA knew that clothianidin could be toxic when the product came on the market in 2003. So why is it still on the market?
The bee-toxic pesticide problem can be traced back to 1994, when the first neonicotinoid pesticide (Imidacloprid) was released. Neonicotinoids like imidacloprid and clothianidin disrupt the central nervous system of pest insects, and are supposed to be relatively non-toxic to other animals. But there's a problem: The neonicotinoids coat plant seeds, releasing insecticides permanently into the plant. The toxins are then released in pollen and nectar--where they may cause bees to become disoriented and die.
And:
The EPA first brought up the link between clothianidin and bees before the pesticide's release in February 2003. The agency originally planned to withhold registration of the pesticide because of concerns about toxicity in bees, going so far as to suggest that the product come with a warning label (PDF): "This compound is toxic to honey bees. The persistence of residues and the expression clothianidin in nectar and pollen suggest the possibility of chronic toxic risk to honey bee larvae and the eventual stability of the hive."
But in April 2003, the EPA decided to give Bayer conditional registration. Bayer could sell the product and seed processors could freely use it, with the proviso that Bayer complete a life cycle study of clothianidin on corn by December 2004. Bayer was granted an extension until May 2005 (and permission to use canola instead of corn in its tests), but didn't complete the study until August 2007. The EPA continued to allow the sale of clothianidin, and once the Bayer study finally came out, it was flawed.
In a statement to the Pesticide Action Network, beekeeper Jeff Anderson explains:
"The Bayer study is fatally flawed. It was an open field study with control and test plots of about 2 acres each. Bees typically forage at least 2 miles out from the hive, so it is likely they didn’t ingest much of the treated crops. And corn, not canola, is the major pollen-producing crop that bees rely on for winter nutrition.
"This is a critical point because we see hive losses mainly after over-wintering, so there is something going on in these winter cycles. It’s as if they designed the study to avoid seeing clothianidin’s effects on hive health." [Emphasis ours]
And:
The new study, unearthed by Colorado beekeeper Tom Theobald, invalidates Bayer's previous study, claiming that "after another review of this field study in light of additional information, deficiencies were identified that render the study supplemental. It does not satisfy the guideline 850.3040, and another field study is needed to evaluate the effects of clothianidin on bees through contaminated pollen and nectar." The study also warns that clothiandin is highly toxic to bees on both a contact and oral basis.
And yet, the EPA is continuing to allow the sale of clothiandin, even though the study that the agency based its decision on proved to be invalid. "It's a matter of perspective," says Frazier. "If the core study to judge registration is no longer considered a valid core study, do you allow continued use of something without good scientific data behind it? That's the choice that's been left to be made by the EPA."
With the EPA's stellar performance record, do you think clothiandin will be taken off the market anytime soon? Why won't the Environmental Protection Agency even pretend to protect the environment? Will American society even pretend to care?
Welcome to 2010: We gladly kill what would save us.
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