It's Official: Stonehenge Stones Were Moved 160 Miles

From National Geographic.  Excerpts:

Some of the volcanic bluestones in the inner ring of Stonehenge officially match an outcrop in Wales that's 160 miles (257 kilometers) from the world-famous site, geologists announced this week.

The discovery leaves two big ideas standing about how the massive pieces of the monument arrived at Salisbury Plain: entirely by human hand, or partly by glacier.
..
The origin of the bluestones, however, has weighed heavy on the hearts of archaeologists. Rocks resembling the material under a microscope haven't been found anywhere relatively near Stonehenge—at least until now.



Pinpointing the stones' origins is crucial to understanding how so many heavy hunks of rock made their way to the open plain where Stonehenge now stands.


"There's no way of explaining how these stones were transported without knowing where they came from," said study co-author Robert Ixer of the University of Leicester in the U.K.
..
As late as two years ago, the pair thought the blocks couldn't have come from the country—no samples from Welsh outcrops matched the Stonehenge blocks.
..
The very first one—a chunk of rock collected in Wales 20 years ago—was a perfect match to the Stonehenge bluestones. The geologists spent the next two years checking a piece of Stonehenge bluestone against other outcrops around Wales.
..
The rocky outcrop fingered by the duo's analysis is called Craig Rhos-y-Felin, which is now located on private land near a sheep farm.



The site is a long, bush-covered set of crags the size of four double-decker buses.
And:
The new find leaves two prominent theories for how the Welsh rocks got to Salisbury.



Humans could have quarried the site and dragged the blocks on wooden rafts. Or a giant glacier may have chiseled off the blocks and ferried them about a hundred miles (160 kilometers) toward Stonehenge, with humans dragging them the rest of the way.

Or..

Oh, Newtiepants..

Newt compares campaign’s Virginia debacle to attack on Pearl Harbor  Really?  The Raw Story.  When I say "Excerpts," I really mean "Ridiculous to follow:"

Certainly no-one will ever accuse Newt Gingrich of having low self-esteem. Talking Points Memo is reporting that Gingrich’s campaign manager Michael Krull has taken to Facebook to vent about the Virginia Republican Party’s judgment that the former Speaker of the House did not qualify to appear on the March 6 primary ballot.



“Newt and I agreed that the analogy is December 1941,” he writes, comparing the campaign’s failure to acquire the 10,000 signatures necessary to compete in the Virginia primary to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. “We have experienced an unexpected set-back, but we will re-group and re-focus with increased determination, commitment and positive action.”


On December 7, 1941, 353 Japanese bombers mounted a raid on American military assets billeted at Pearl Harbor, a Navy base on the island of Hawaii. According to WikiPedia, 2,402 Americans lost their lives, with 1,282 injured. Eight U.S. battleships were damaged, four of them sunk. 188 U.S. aircraft were destroyed, as well as three Navy cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship, and one minelayer.

He's done.

December, 2011 Browser Clean Up

Two from Zero Hedge:

It's Official: US Debt-To-GDP Passes 100%  Excerpts:

With precisely one year left for the world and all of its inhabitants, at least according to the Mayans, not to mention on the day of the Winter Solstice, it is only fitting that US debt, net of all settlements for all already completed bond auctions, is now at precisely $15,182,756,264,288.80. Why is this relevant? Because the latest annualized US GDP, according to the BEA, was $15,180,900,000.00. Which means that, as of today, total US debt to GDP is 100.012%. Congratulations America: you are now in the triple digit "debt to GDP" club!

Mark Faber: "I Am Convinced The Whole Derivatives Market Will Cease To Exist And Will Go To Zero"  Excerpts:

"I am convinced the whole derivatives market will cease to exit. Will become zero. And when it happens I don't know: you can postpone the problems with monetary measures for a long time but you can't solve them... Greece should have defaulted - it would have sent a message that not all derivatives are equal because it depends on the counterparty." And on the long-term future: "I am ultra bearish. I think most people will be lucky if they still have 50% of their money in 5 years time.."

Bárðarbunga: more seismic unrest at another one of Iceland’s large volcanoes  The Extinction Protocol.  Excerpts:

During the night there was an small earthquake swarm in Bárðarbunga volcano. The largest earthquake in this earthquake swarm was ML 3.04 in magnitude. It had the depth of 8.5 km. This might have been a dike intrusion. But it is hard to know that for sure at the moment. This earthquake swarm only lasted for an about 2 to 3 hours before it stopped.

..There are signs that magma is rising at great depth underneath the Bardarbunga volcanic centre.

Historic! HIV Vaccine Approved for Human Clinical Trials  Unicorn Booty.  Excerpts:

The vaccine, developed by researchers at the University of Western Ontario, has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to start being tested in humans in January.



It is the first preventive HIV vaccine approved for clinical trials to use a whole HIV-1 virus, which has been both killed and genetically engineered, to activate immunity. In this way, the new vaccine is much like the killed whole virus vaccines that are successful against polio, rabies and influenza.

Gingrich: I’ll ‘ignore’ any Supreme Court ruling I disagree with  What a wonderful "democratic thinker!"  Idiot.  The Raw Story.  Excerpts:

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is doubling down from Thursday’s Fox News debate on his vow to abolish federal courts if he disagreed with their decision.



According to The Hill, in a conference call with reporters, Gingrich indicated that it was in the president’s power as commander-in-chief to deem any Supreme Court ruling irrelevant if he or she in the White House disagreed.


The former House Speaker used the Supreme Court’s ruling against the Bush administration exceeding its constitutional authority in handling suspected terrorist detainees at Guantanamo Bay in 2008 as a basis for his extreme view.
 
“They just ignored it,” he said. “A commander-in-chief could simply issue instructions to ignore it, and say it’s null and void and I do not accept it because it infringes on my duties as commander-in-chief to protect the country.”
 
I love that Romney and Ron Paul are beating the shit out of this douchebag with negative, but all too true attack ads.  I've been waiting a loooong time to see Herr Gingrich(pronounced "Gin-greck") drown in the political cesspool of his own creation!  Merry Christmas to all!
 
“The FBI Estimates That 80 Percent Of All Mortgage Fraud Involves Collaboration Or Collusion By Industry Insiders”  Washington's Blog.  Excerpts:
 
Fraud By The Big Banks – More Than Anything Done By The Little Guy – Caused The Financial Crisis



The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Thrift Supervision noted last year (page 7):


The FBI estimates that 80 percent of all mortgage fraud involves collaboration
or collusion by industry insiders.


This confirms what one of the country’s top fraud experts has said for years: that it was fraud by the big banks – more than anything done by the little guy – which caused the financial crisis:

Breaking News: Programmer of Fukushima confesses “Fukushima had a cyber attack”  Under-reported, huh?  Fukushima Diary.  Excerpts:

A computer engineer found out operating system of Fukushima plants have been attacked and those attacks were mostly from / via Russia.　This engineer is counted as one of the members of Fukushima 50.
..
Because the system was shut down after black out they could not operate the systems to control the pressure, water injecting, radiation shield etc. and that had to be done by him.



He managed to reboot the system and restart it in manual mode but he encountered series of troubles such as password entry screen did not come out or his password entering was disturbed by compute bug. He sorted it out by formatting the system but it was obvious that someone sent virus to the system.


He tried to send virus backward and it reached to Russia. Someone sent virus from or via Russia.

Every crazy CIA plot you’ve heard of originated with one man  IO9.  Excerpts:

There are stories that have come to light, over the years, that make the Central Intelligence Agency look like a collection of Looney Tunes shorts. The violence, the slapstick, and the over-the-top ridiculousness of the experiments that have been conducted over the years boggle the mind. They came from the (slightly-boggled) mind of one man: Sidney Gottlieb.

Medical Marijuana Laws Shown to Reduce Traffic Fatalities  Popular Science.  I've said it before, and I'll say it again:  Marijuana;  Is there anything it can't do?  Excerpts:

..A new study out of University of Colorado Denver and Montana State University shows that legalizing medical marijuana sales in various states over the past two decades has led to a nearly 10 percent drop in traffic fatalities. What the study really shows--by way of causal chain--is a five percent drop in beer sales, and that has in turn led to fewer fatalities on the road. Put that in your pipe and smoke it (couldn’t resist just one).

Happy holidays, and enjoy this randomly sampled information!

Frequently Asked Questions in "The Shining"

What do the Numbers Mean?   Kubrick uses "The Shining" to warn us of Mayan End of the World happening December 24, 2011, not December 21, 2012. 

Six!  Days 'til Doomsday!  Five!  Leapin' Lizards!  You get the point.

SPIN's Top 50 Albums Of 2011

Huh.  This is the short list.  The list with reviews are here.  So..  Britney finds a home in the Top 50, but Wilco, The Antlers, and The Arctic Monkeys are nowhere to be found?  What sucks:  Destroyer's not here, either.  What's cool:  M83 at 19, and Girls at 5.  Both are fantastic. 

Bonus video from also-ran Destroyer:  Flimsy, nonetheless, an excuse to show this video.

The Shape Of Things To Come..

The New Shape Of Things To Come/Webbot Report is out.  Never a dull word.  Buy it here.  Summarized:  Serious, SERIOUS Weirdness Just Ahead.  From there, everything shifts, and we enter New Territories, our perceptions, our realities, forever altered. 

Nothing is what it seems.  Nothing is ever, or has ever been, what it seems.  We are all about to learn that, together.  The Test begins shortly.  As always:  Buckle Up, and don't forget to Breathe!

The New Webbot Report Is Out Again, So..

I am reading.  Get it here.  And:  Surprise!  There's some good(?)/interesting developments afoot..

Amazing huge cloaked UFO next to Mercury – Dec 1, 2011

From The Truth Behind The Scenes.  Watch the video.  Compelling.  I haven't seen any reasonable explanation yet, but that's not saying there isn't one...

Pretty! Want To Touch!

 Extraordinary Toroidal Vortices  From You Tube.  Found it on Lunatic Outpost.  Cool, babies..

Man arrested at Large Hadron Collider claims he's from the future

A love story for the ages!  Beautiful! From Crave.  Excerpts:

A would-be saboteur arrested today at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland made the bizarre claim that he was from the future. Eloi Cole, a strangely dressed young man, said that he had travelled back in time to prevent the LHC from destroying the world.



The LHC successfully collided particles at record force earlier this week, a milestone Mr Cole was attempting to disrupt by stopping supplies of Mountain Dew to the experiment's vending machines. He also claimed responsibility for the infamous baguette sabotage in November last year.


Mr Cole was seized by Swiss police after CERN security guards spotted him rooting around in bins. He explained that he was looking for fuel for his 'time machine power unit', a device that resembled a kitchen blender.


Police said Mr Cole, who was wearing a bow tie and rather too much tweed for his age, would not reveal his country of origin. "Countries do not exist where I am from. The discovery of the Higgs boson led to limitless power, the elimination of poverty and Kit-Kats for everyone. It is a communist chocolate hellhole and I'm here to stop it ever happening."

And OOhh!  Twilight Zone/Outer Limits twist..

Mr Cole was taken to a secure mental health facility in Geneva but later disappeared from his cell. Police are baffled, but not that bothered.

After a brief consultation with John Titor, Cole will return again to finish the job, clothed this time in either 100% cotton or some kind of poly cotton blends..  Good luck and Godspeed, Mr. Cole.  I too, hate fucking Kit Kats..

Former GOP Sheriff of the Year Busted in Gay Sex-for-Meth Deal

From Gawker.  Excerpts: 


Patrick J. Sullivan Jr. was the beloved Republican sheriff of Arapahoe County, Colo., for nearly 20 years before he retired in 2002. In 2001, he was named national Sheriff of the Year. Yesterday he was arrested by the department he used to run for offering a man meth in exchange for sex.


I really do feel some degree of sympathy for this very conflicted man.  His Inner-Demons - Crazy Screaming Volume Control must be stuck on 11 and he can't turn it down..  So many instincts repressed and channeled elsewhere..  His tensions, now refined, made even more taut by his choice of occupation(with all accompanying  knowledge of Crime and Punishment and Societal Decay..  How far will we/he sink?).  A heretofore classic example of the extremes of duality one persona can assume:  The relentless crime fighter yin balanced by the meth smoking sodomite yang..  His inner dialogue; Chaos.  The last paragraph of Gawker's story is devastating in its irony: 

It's not clear whether Sullivan's love of meth-sex may have predated his retirement. He was booked into that Arapahoe County Jail, which also goes by the name Patrick J. Sullivan Jr. Detention Facility.

Here stands a man in shambles:  His law enforcement achievements forever overshadowed by the hypocrisy of his actions, a joke for late night comedians and lovers of schadenfreude everywhere.  A cautionary tale of repression and addiction.  A goddamned shame that his sexual orientation so shamed the man that he could only act upon his desires through the use of methamphetamines..

It's too bad his gay guilt drove his life to ruin..  Can you imagine the headline had he chosen otherwise?  "Nation's first gay National Sheriff Of The Year recounts his obstacles to the top."
   
Can you imagine the positive impact this man could have had had he just told the homophobes with their shame issues poisoning his mind to simply Fuck Off?  I hope this man finds peace.  I hope this man can rebuild his shattered foundations, rising to the task of making sense of the destruction his inner demons and behavior have caused.  It really is ok to be gay.  Hopefully, he can now understand and respond accordingly..  Good luck, Sheriff Sullivan.  Your near-term future will not be easy.

Oklahoma Continues To Rumble..

6th earthquake in 4 days recorded in Oklahoma  Yahoo News.  Excerpts:

Another small earthquake has been reported in Oklahoma.



The U.S. Geological Survey says a 3.2 magnitude quake struck just before 6 a.m. Sunday about 27 miles northeast of Oklahoma City. The Logan County Sheriff's Office says no damage was reported


On Saturday, a 2.4 magnitude tremor was recorded at about 7 a.m. about 50 miles northeast of Oklahoma City near Sparks.


Sunday's earthquake is the sixth in the area since Thursday, when a 3.7 magnitude quake was recorded near Prague. Three more were recorded Friday.

Chinese TV Host Says Regime Nearly Bankrupt

The Epoch Times.  Holy shit; This guy's as good as dead.  Excerpts:

China’s economy has a reputation for being strong and prosperous, but according to a well-known Chinese television personality the country’s Gross Domestic Product is going in reverse.



Larry Lang, chair professor of Finance at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said in a lecture that he didn’t think was being recorded that the Chinese regime is in a serious economic crisis—on the brink of bankruptcy. In his memorable formulation: every province in China is Greece.


The restrictions Lang placed on the Oct. 22 speech in Shenyang City, in northern China’s Liaoning Province, included no audio or video recording, and no media. He can be heard saying that people should not post his speech online, or “everyone will look bad,” in the audio that is now on Youtube.

In the unusual, closed-door lecture, Lang gave a frank analysis of the Chinese economy and the censorship that is placed on intellectuals and public figures. “What I’m about to say is all true. But under this system, we are not allowed to speak the truth,” he said.
And:
Lang’s assessment that the regime is bankrupt was based on five conjectures.


Firstly, that the regime’s debt sits at about 36 trillion yuan (US$5.68 trillion). This calculation is arrived at by adding up Chinese local government debt (between 16 trillion and 19.5 trillion yuan, or US$2.5 trillion and US$3 trillion), and the debt owed by state-owned enterprises (another 16 trillion, he said). But with interest of two trillion per year, he thinks things will unravel quickly.


Secondly, that the regime’s officially published inflation rate of 6.2 percent is fabricated. The real inflation rate is 16 percent, according to Lang.


Thirdly, that there is serious excess capacity in the economy, and that private consumption is only 30 percent of economic activity. Lang said that beginning this July, the Purchasing Managers Index, a measure of the manufacturing industry, plunged to a new low of 50.7. This is an indication, in his view, that China’s economy is in recession.


Fourthly, that the regime’s officially published GDP of 9 percent is also fabricated. According to Lang’s data, China’s GDP has decreased 10 percent. He said that the bloated figures come from the dramatic increase in infrastructure construction, including real estate development, railways, and highways each year (accounting for up to 70 percent of GDP in 2010).


Fifthly, that taxes are too high. Last year, the taxes on Chinese businesses (including direct and indirect taxes) were at 70 percent of earnings. The individual tax rate sits at 81.6 percent, Lang said.

Once the “economic tsunami” starts, the regime will lose credibility and China will become the poorest country in the world, Lang said.

It looks like the Global Economic Collapse will now just come down to sequence:  Who collapses when, and Who starts the process.  Oh, and Who has it worse. 

Sunday Night News Dump/Browser Clean Up..

My browser has 25 windows open at the moment, which is far too many.  In no particular order..

Rick Perry: Best Little Whore in Texas  Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone, October 28.  Obsolete
..
By the time Perry shows up, I'm jazzed and ready for history. You always want to remember the first time you see the possible next president in person. But as every young person knows, the first time is not always a pleasant experience. Perry lumbers onstage looking exceedingly well-groomed, but also ashen and exhausted, like a funeral director with a hangover.



In a voice so subdued and halting that I think he must be sick, he launches into his speech, which consists of the following elements: a halfhearted football joke about Texas A&M that would have embarrassed a true fan like George W. Bush, worn bromides about liberals creating a nanny state, a few lines about jobs in Texas, and a promise to repeal "as much of Obamacare as I can" on his first day in the White House.


"I will try," he says, "to make Washington, D.C., as inconsequential in your life as I can."


Then he waves and walks offstage. The whole thing has taken barely 10 minutes.


I can't believe it, and neither can the assembled crowd of Georgia conservatives, who hesitate before breaking into polite applause. I feel like a high school cheerleader who just had her leg jizzed on in the back of a convertible. That's it? It's over? That was Rick Perry's stump speech?


"Low energy, low substance," sighs Justin Ryan, one of the conference attendees. "That's sort of the candidate in general."


But this is America, remember, where one should never underestimate shallow. And Rick Perry brings shallow to a new level. He is very gifted in that regard. He could be the Adolf Hitler of shallow.

Foxes and Reptiles: Psychopathy and the Financial Meltdown  Reality Sandwich.  Excerpts:

The present financial meltdown  may only be the latest example of the incalculable harm done to civilization, and countless individual lives, by psychopaths, a subspecies of Homo sapiens.  The purpose of this essay is twofold. First, I will provide a brief tour of the psychopath subspecies so that you understand who they are and how they operate. You probably already know psychopaths, and it is overwhelmingly likely that at some point in your life a psychopath that you encounter personally will try to harm you. Second, I will draw the correlative between psychopathy and the present financial meltdown and provide a suggestion of a relatively simple change that could decrease the likelihood of the sort of abuses that could lead to future meltdowns.

Awakened: Sun’s convulsive behavior dismays scientists across the globe  The Extinction Protocol.  Excerpts:

November 13, 2011 – REMARKABLE SOLAR ACTIVITY – There haven’t been any strong solar flares in days. Nevertheless, some impressive activity is underway on the Sun.
..
 A dark filament of magnetism is snaking more than halfway around the entire Sun. See SDO images below. From end to end, it stretches more than a million km or about three times the distance between Earth and the Moon. If the filament becomes unstable, as solar filaments are prone to do, it could collapse and hit the stellar surface below, triggering a Hyder flare. 

Hundreds Of Giant Aliens Unearthed Near African Village  Pakalert Press.  You'd think archaeologists would  have better cameras..

Ruh-Roh..  Goldman Sachs International Advisor Mario Monti Is Italy's New Prime Minister

But on the political fringes there are already those portraying Mr Monti – who is listed by Goldman Sachs, the investment bank, on its board of international advisers – as a tool of the “masters of the universe”, along with Mario Draghi, head of the European Central Bank and former Goldman Sachs executive.



“This is the band of criminals who brought us this financial disaster. It is like asking arsonists to put out the fire,” commented Alessandro Sallusti, editor of Il Giornale, a Milan daily owned by the Berlusconi family.

Why Iceland Should Be in the News, But Is Not  The South African Civil Society Information Service.  Excerpts:

What happened next was extraordinary. The belief that citizens had to pay for the mistakes of a financial monopoly, that an entire nation must be taxed to pay off private debts was shattered, transforming the relationship between citizens and their political institutions and eventually driving Iceland’s leaders to the side of their constituents. The Head of State, Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, refused to ratify the law that would have made Iceland’s citizens responsible for its bankers’ debts, and accepted calls for a referendum.



Of course the international community only increased the pressure on Iceland. Great Britain and Holland threatened dire reprisals that would isolate the country. As Icelanders went to vote, foreign bankers threatened to block any aid from the IMF. The British government threatened to freeze Icelander savings and checking accounts. As Grimsson said: “We were told that if we refused the international community’s conditions, we would become the Cuba of the North. But if we had accepted, we would have become the Haiti of the North.” (How many times have I written that when Cubans see the dire state of their neighbor, Haiti, they count themselves lucky.)


In the March 2010 referendum, 93% voted against repayment of the debt. The IMF immediately froze its loan. But the revolution (though not televised in the United States), would not be intimidated. With the support of a furious citizenry, the government launched civil and penal investigations into those responsible for the financial crisis. Interpol put out an international arrest warrant for the ex-president of Kaupthing, Sigurdur Einarsson, as the other bankers implicated in the crash fled the country.

The Herman Cain Sex Scandal Is Going To Reveal If Character Still Matters To The Republican Party

Common sense(plus some gratuitous talking points) from conservative blogger Domas Jefferson.  Excerpts:

Does character still matter to the Republican Party?  We are about to find out.  Today, a woman named Sharon Bialek fundamentally altered the race for the Republican nomination in 2012.  The Herman Cain sex scandal is not going away, and either Herman Cain is lying or all of these women that are accusing Cain of sexual misconduct are lying.  Normally, I would not write about unproven sex scandal rumors.  And it is very important to note that the charges against Herman Cain have not been proven yet.
..
More importantly, will Republican voters demand the truth or will they just allow this whole thing to be brushed under the rug?  Back during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Republicans insisted over and over that “character still matters” when it comes to selecting our leaders.  Well, now that a candidate that millions of Republicans have fallen in love with has been accused of sexual misconduct we will see what Republicans actually do believe about character. (C'mon now..  Republicans only care about "public character," not "actual character..")
..
..Millions of Republicans have been put in a position where they will clearly be tremendous hypocrites if they continue to support Cain if these charges are proven true.



Let me be perfectly clear.


Multiple episodes of sexual harassment (if proven) should disqualify anyone from being president of the United States.


Multiple attempts to cheat on your wife (if proven) should disqualify anyone from being president of the United States.


Lying to the American people about incidents of sexual misconduct (if proven) should disqualify anyone from being president of the United States.


There are many that would disagree with those statements, but character still matters to me.


So did Herman Cain actually do these things?


Let’s take a look at the evidence that has emerged so far.


At this point we know that the National Restaurant Association paid money to two women to settle sexual harassment claims back in the 1990s.


One woman received a financial settlement of $35,000 and another received a financial settlement of $45,000.


Would the National Restaurant Association have paid out money to these women if their claims were totally baseless?


That is a legitimate question.


In addition, last week a third woman reported to the Associated Press that she also thought about filing a sexual harassment complaint against Herman Cain.


But none of those first three women have come forward publicly yet.


Bialek is the fourth woman to allege that Herman Cain is guilty of sexual misconduct, and she changed everything when she came forward publicly with her charges.  (Not to mention the fact that Bialek seems to be a Republican!)
..
Hmmm…..someone is obviously not telling the truth.



So is it the four women that have charged him with sexual misconduct or is it Herman Cain?


More importantly, will the Republican Party even care?


According to a recent Gallup poll, just 53 percent of all Republicans say that they would rule out voting for a candidate if sexual harassment charges against that candidate were proven.


That is a very frightening number.


Look, if you use your power to try to force women to have sex with you, that should automatically disqualify you to be president.


Anyone that believes otherwise is not a real conservative.
..
Even if Herman Cain is completely and totally innocent of these charges, there is still no way that the Republican Party should nominate him.



As I wrote about the other day, the Federal Reserve is at the very heart of our economic problems and has greatly contributed to the financial bubbles that we have seen in recent years. We need to take the power to issue our currency away from the Federal Reserve and return it to the federal government, which is what the U.S. Constitution requires.


But Herman Cain would not do that. Herman Cain was once the chairman of the Kansas City Federal Reserve Board, and he sees no problems with the Federal Reserve at all. (To extrapolate this thought out:  Cain is NOT a "Political Outsider."  He is an entrenched part of the Financial Machine that is the main reason for our global economic crisis!)


The following is what Herman Cain once had to say about the need for an audit of the Federal Reserve….

Some people say that we ought to audit the Fed. Here’s what I do know. The Federal Reserve already has so many internal audits it’s ridiculous. I don’t know why people think we’re gonna learn this great amount of information by auditing the Federal Reserve.

I think a lot of people are calling for this audit of the Federal Reserve because they don’t know enough about it. There’s no hidden secrets going on in the Federal Reserve to my knowledge.  (Shill-tastic, no?)

The article continues on about Cain's dumbassery regarding his stupid 999 plan and not knowing China has nukes(He really is that fucking stupid--over the top dumb--like, Palin dumb!  I'd like to know how he ended up with the KC Fed gig, although with like minded staffing throughout the Fed, that would explain how we ended up in our current economic cluster fuck..)
Not a bad article, yet the author fails to mention the real reason Herman Cain shouldn't and won't ever be President:  He's already broken(Allegedly..) campaign finance laws, and this whole sexual shenanigans bullshit obscures the major problems he has yet, but will surely, have to face, sooner, rather than later..

Pay no attention to his defiant bluster:  Herman Cain is in serious trouble, and only collective pressure from a majority of Republicans will push him from the race.  Me?  I'd looooove for him to still be a distracting, destructive force all the way to the Republican convention.  But that's just me:  I love to laugh, and next to Perry, Cain's the biggest clown around.  Bless you PizzaFed;  Thanks for all the good times to come..

Suck It, Kasich.

Ohio election results: Voters repeal John Kasich’s collective bargaining law  The State Column.  Excerpts:

Ohio voters have repealed Governor John Kasich’s collective bargaining law, the latest blow to supporters of the measure.



With 19 percent of the precincts reporting, The Associated Press has declared Issue 2 — the ballot referendum to decide the future of Senate Bill 5 — rejected with 63 percent voting no and just 37 percent voting yes. (Final: 61 percent no, 39 percent yes)

Mr. (Governor) Kasich, a prominent Republican who had championed the law as a tool for cities to cut costs (Not really--It's really about Union busting..), spent much of the 2011 election campaigning on behalf of the measure. The vote likely reignites the debate over limiting collective bargaining rights for public-sector labor unions in Ohio, where supporters of repealing the law have sought to build support in recent months.

Next up:  Kasich's own Recall challenge.  It won't be a traditional Recall, rather action taken from a Citizen's initiative process.  Governor Kasich;  You got your ass spanked in a fight you shouldn't have picked.  How 'bout that?  The worm turned all right, just not the way you expected.  Enjoy your new found status!

Laws of physics 'are different' depending on where you are in the universe

The more we learn, the less we "know."  Evidently, it's all relative!  From the Daily Mail.  Excerpts:

The laws of physics may not be as set in stone as previously imagined.


One of the laws of nature seems to vary depending on where in the universe you are, research suggests.
..
The 'constancy' of physics is one of the most cherished principles in science - but the scientists say that the 'laws' we know may be the galactic equivalent of 'local by-laws' and things may work quite differently elsewhere.



The discovery - if true - violates one of the underlying principles of Einstein's theory of General Relativity, and has profound implications for our understanding of space and time.


The findings could mean that the universe is far bigger than we thought - possibly even infinite.

It also means that in other parts of the universe, the laws of physics might be hostile to life - whereas in our small part of it, they seem fine-tuned to supporting it.
And:
The researchers looked at 300 distant galaxies. The experiment found that the atoms in space behaved differently from ones on earth.



'The results astonished us,' said Professor Webb. 'In one direction - from our location in the Universe - alpha gets gradually weaker, yet in the opposite direction it gets gradually stronger.'


'The discovery, if confirmed, has profound implications for our understanding of space and time and violates one of the fundamental principles underlying Einstein's General Relativity theory,' Dr King added.

This is Big News.  It is now apparent that our entire institutional cosmological perspective is much, much narrower than previously thought.  Astonishingly so.  By making this great leap forward, we must also understand that, as much as we think we know, we don't know shit.  It is imperative that as many people possible globally keep their minds open, as wide as they can, beginning now.  Everything everywhere is changing, rapidly, Science and Spirit included.  Adapt, and prepare for a vast expansion of your, and our, consciousness.

Fukushima Update: Long Overdue November Edition..

Short answer?  The slow motion nightmare continues to unfold.  Have you noticed an uptick of "allergies," "colds," "I feel like shit!," "I don't know what this is, but I just don't feel right" creeping up in your everyday conversations?  I have.  If you haven't been paying attention; start.  The minor precursor effects have already started..

TEPCO: Reactor may have gone critical  NHK.  Excerpts:

The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says it found in the facility's No.2 reactor radioactive substances that could have resulted from continuous nuclear fission.



The Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, said on Wednesday that it detected xenon-133 and xenon-135 in gas taken from the reactor's containment vessel on the previous day. The substances were reportedly in concentrations of 6 to more than 10 parts per million becquerels per cubic centimeter.


Xenon-135 was also detected in gas samples collected on Wednesday.


Radioactive xenon is produced during nuclear fission.


The half-life of xenon-133 is 5 days, and that of xenon-135 is 9 hours.
 
Children and the elderly will begin to show effects first..
Smaller increase in children's weight in Fukushima  NHK.  Excerpts:
 
A survey shows that some children in Fukushima Prefecture have smaller average weight gains this year compared to the year before. A pediatrician says the results indicate the negative effects of the nuclear plant accident in March.



Doctor Shintaro Kikuchi tracked the weights of 245 children aged from 4 to 6 in 2 kindergartens in Koriyama City, Fukushima Prefecture. The results show an average weight increase of 0.81 kilograms over the past year through June. The increase for children in the same age group the previous year was 3.1 kilograms.


The average increase for children aged 5 to 6 in the survey was 0.84 kilograms. But a nationwide health ministry survey conducted last year for children of the same age group showed an average gain of 1.8 kilograms.

Shilling has its price..  From Ex-SKF.  Excerpts:

No, not in a young child in a high radiation spot that is often talked about on Twitter. A 63-year-old TV newscaster has been diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia and is now hospitalized, getting ready for chemo. He felt a strange lump in his neck on October 28, he says. (Various news sources including: Zakzak 11/7/2011, Yomiuri Shinbun 11/6/2011)



In his morning program on Fuji TV he's been promoting Fukushima produce by eating them in the show. He also happened to be in Fukushima in March 15. Just a coincidence. Never mind that ALL is predominant in small children, and an adult case is one in 100,000 annually in Japan.

JP Gov officially admitted that Japanese food is harmful  Fukushima Diary.  Excerpts plus bonus follow up information regarding the previous newscaster in question.  Bonus bonus:  Now chilling photos of newscaster eating irradiated food.  I bet the other news gals are a bit freaked out right now..

Since 311, every time it turned out a kind of food is contaminated, they made “safety” limit, such as 500 Bq/Kg for vegetables, and allowed them to distribute.



However, at today’s meeting of the Lower House Budget Committee, Edano former chief cabinet secretary, current minister of Economy, Trade and Industry admitted that it is harmful for your health if you keep having it for one year.


Edano former chief cabinet secretary is famous for his trade mark phrase, “In short term,it is not harmful”.


He was even called “Short term fraud” by some people.


It is not a small number of people who trusted his word and didn’t evacuate or kept eating food under the “safety limit”. (In other words, LOTS of people trusted him.)


At today’s meeting of the Lower House Budget Committee, he “explained”.


He held 39 press conferences in the first 2 weeks after 311.


BUT he said “In short term, it is not harmful” ONLY 7 times.


OF those, 5 “In short term, it is not harmful”s were for food and drink.


By this he “meant”, you will be sick if you keep having it for one year, but if you have it once or twice, it doesn’t hurt your body.

Japanese emperor to be admitted to the hospital on bronchitis fears  Radiation cares not of your position in life..  The China Post.  Excerpts:

Japanese Emperor Akihito is due to be hospitalized on Sunday with a cold, fever and symptoms of bronchitis, Kyodo news agency reported, citing the Imperial Household Agency.

Akihito, who will turn 78 next month, will be admitted to the University of Tokyo Hospital as a precaution because the fever worsened the bronchitis symptoms and he appeared fatigued and has lost some resistance to fight his illness, Kyodo said.
And:
Five days after the devastating earthquake and tsunami struck Japan's northeast, Akihito made a rare public televised address and in April traveled to the disaster-struck area with Empress Michiko, 77.
 
Still think this is a Japanese problem?  California nuke plant detected 4,000% more iodine-131 than UC Berkeley during Fukushima peak
 
Highest detection of iodine-131 was March 23, 2011 @ 4.3e-06 Bq/liter (0.0000043 Bq/liter of iodine-131) -Source



The Diablo Canyon iodine-131 peak was 0.000188 Bq/liter of iodine-131, or 43.7 times higher than the 0.0000043 Bq/liter peak observed by UC Berkeley.

This was MARCH 23.  November 11 marks Eight Months of essentially non-stop nuclear disbursement.  I wonder what those levels are now?

Look after yourself  Fukushima Diary.  Short answer?  Start taking Calcium and Magnesium.  Especially Calcium.

Scientist Marco Kaltofen Presents Data Confirming Hot Particles  Latest video from Arnie Gundersen and Fairewinds.  Don't have six minutes?  Here's the beef:

Now Mr. Kaltofen did not just look at Japan. He set up monitoring stations in the United States as well. Two of the three monitoring stations in the United States did show hot particles in the air in April. Since then, there have not been any hot particles. But in April, it is clear that, at the worst of the accident, hot particles were wafted across the Pacific and deposited in Seattle and in Boston at least. There is also data that indicates contamination on the ground in the Cascades, which are a mountain range right up against the Pacific Ocean.



So I think we have two problems here. In Japan, there is a personal health issue and what that means is that individuals have received enough radiation that there is going to be a statistically meaningful increase in cancers in Tokyo and especially in Fukushima Prefecture.

In the United States, it is a different story. It is a public health issue and not a personal health issue. What that means is that we will never know who is the individual who got cancer from Fukushima. But we can be sure that the radiation did reach here and that there will be an increase in cancers, especially on the West Coast where the Rocky Mountains stopped most of the radiation and deposited it on the ground.

The costly fallout of tatemae and Japan's culture of deceit  Japan Times.  Excerpts:

There is an axiom in Japanese: uso mo hōben — "lying is also a means to an end." It sums up the general attitude in Japan of tolerance of — even justification for — not telling the truth.

First — defining "telling the truth" as divulging the truth (not a lie), the whole truth (full disclosure) and nothing but the truth (uncompounded with lies) — consider how lies are deployed in everyday personal interactions.



Let's start with good old tatemae (charitably translated as "pretense"). By basically saying something you think the listener wants to hear, tatemae is, essentially, lying. That becomes clearer when the term is contrasted with its antonym, honne, one's "true feelings and intentions."
..
Now extrapolate. What becomes of a society that sees lying as a justifiably institutionalized practice? Things break down. If everyone is expected to lie, who or what can you trust?
And:
..Radiation has no media cycle. It lingers and poisons the land and food chain. Statistics may be obfuscated or suppressed as usual. But radiation's half-life is longer than the typical attention span or sustainable degree of public outrage.



As the public — possibly worldwide — sickens over time, the truth will leak out.

Our near-term and long-term future?  Bleak.