Kuzushi (breaking opponent's balance)...

"Fiction" from Clif High at halfpasthuman.  Excerpts:

For another four years, in the heat of the lower bowels of New Yawk, Albert also looked inward, way deep....deep enough to see his crushed femur from the 'inside'. These looks inward were where his insatiable lust for the oblivion of alcohol and drugs could not reach. Way deep. Deeper in the soul than the place from which tears spring. Deeper in the soul than pain. Way deep.


It was the inward look that changed Albert. One hot summer day on a street whose number matters not, from a haze of alcoholic depression, he woke, and was Albert no more. From the deep look that had been begun by Albert, someone, something else emerged.

This someone else found himself saddled with a crushed Albert body that did not suit, so it changed it, slowly over time, with clear water, little food, punishing exercise. After a while, though still Albert-like, even the body was someone else. Something else.

Worth the read.  ADD?  Relax;  It's short.

Warming..

Xymphora was sick but now he(?)'s back.  Thankfully, his(?) writing is still as incisive as ever.  Like a bitch slap to your stupid face:

There is a bizarre bi-partisan - for the most part, and I assume by agreement - plan in current American politics to deal with the problem of global warming by simply not talking about it (the old plan of dealing with it by denying all the science and obvious facts on the ground became too silly even for politicians). Global warming simply does not exist as an issue in American political life, despite the immense effect it is having on the fly-over Americans.


Americans have been doing lots of really, really awful things recently, with no obvious effect on the lives of average Americans (although, believe me, the repercussions are coming). The fact that by ignoring global warming they are going to truly and deeply fuck themselves within a few years is almost heartwarming.

He(?)'s not wrong..

Guest Post: When the Weakest Critical Part Fails, the Machine Breaks Down

Zero Hedge.  Excerpts:

Consumer spending is the bedrock of the global economy, and consumer spending depends on expanding debt and leverage. Once that subsystem fails, consumerism and the global economy grind to a halt.


The failure of any critical subsystem in an organism triggers a catastrophic, fatal decline. It doesn't matter if the rest of the critical subsystems are functioning at optimum levels; the failure of even one essential "part" leads to death.

The metaphor is easily extended to machines, where a perfectly sound engine will fail once the oil pump ceases functioning.

The cliche is that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. The conventional wisdom is that the U.S. economy is so large and diverse that the failure of any one part will have only limited consequences on the economy as a whole.

But this belief was undermined by the financial crisis of 2008, in which the apparently "limited" implosion of subprime mortgage debt dominoed into a full-blown global financial crisis.
..
When financialization fails, the consumerist economy dies. This is what is happening in Greece, and is starting to happen in Spain and Italy.


The central banks and Central States are attempting resuscitation by issuing credit that is freed from the constraints of collateral. The basic idea here is that if credit based on collateral has failed, then let's replace it with credit backed by phantom assets, i.e. illusory collateral.

In essence, the financialization system has shifted to the realm of fantasy, where we (taxpayers, people who took out student loans, homeowners continuing to make payments on underwater mortgages, etc.) are paying very real interest on illusory debt backed by nothing.

Once this flimsy con unravels, the credibility of all institutions that participated in the con will be irrevocably destroyed. This includes the European Central Bank (ECB), the Federal Reserve, the E.U., "too big to fail" banks, and so on down the financialization line of dominoes.

Once credit ceases to expand, asset bubbles pop and consumerism grinds to a halt. And since ever-expanding consumption is the bedrock of the global economy, the global economy will also grind to a halt.

The "flimsy con" is almost fully exposed, and the entire process continues to accelerate.

Mars Panorama - Curiosity rover: Martian solar (360 Degrees, Baby..)

Picture is at the link.  You control the panorama.  What else do you need? 

M-A-R-S Mars, bitches..

My Favorite KKK: Krazy Kloset Kase

I only have two favorite KKK's:  Krusty's Komedy Klassics, and Krazy Kloset Kase!  Andrew Shirvell Ordered to Pay Millions for Defaming Gay Student.  You must pay for your douche-baggery, PeeVee..  4.5 million samolians, to be exact!  The Advocate:

The former Michigan assistant attorney general made repeated headlines for his attacks on his alma mater's gay student body president. Now he's paying the price.

The Michigan assistant attorney general who lost his job after tormenting a gay student body president has been ordered to pay $4.5 million in damages, local news media reports.

Andrew Shirvell was fired in 2010 after repeatedly harassing gay University of Michigan student Chris Armstrong via blog postings. He was even accused of stalking him — which led to being temporarily banned from campus.

On "Chris Armstrong Watch," Shirvell claimed Armstrong pushed a "radical homosexual agenda," called him a Nazi and a representative of Satan(Does that turn you on, PeeVee?).  All of that led to Armstrong's defamation lawsuit in 2011. And The Detroit Free Press reports that a jury in U.S. District Court today ordered Shirvell to pay $4.5 million in damages.

The Associated Press reported before the trial that Shirvell had been offered a deal — apologize and all charges would be dropped. But Shirvell refused and the case went forward.

"C'mon guys;  I don't look like Pee Wee Herman and I'm not a homo!  Just ask my lover Kaptain Karl!"
OR:
I know you are, but what am I?  Really:  What am I?

Psychological projection 

Psychological projection or projection bias is a psychological defense mechanism where a person subconsciously denies his or her own attributes, thoughts, and emotions, which are then ascribed to the outside world, usually to other people. Thus, projection involves imagining or projecting the belief that others originate those feelings.[1]

Projection reduces anxiety by allowing the expression of the unwanted unconscious impulses or desires without letting the conscious mind recognize them.

An example of this behavior might be blaming another for self failure. The mind may avoid the discomfort of consciously admitting personal faults by keeping those feelings unconscious, and by redirecting libidinal satisfaction by attaching, or "projecting," those same faults onto another person or object.

Sad.  Somebody needs a hug and a song.  Here goes!

Feel better now?

Crude Oil Spikes on News That Saudi Arabia Tells Citizens to Leave Lebannon Immediately

Crude oil prices need an excuse to spike anymore?  Reuters, via EX-SKF:

Here's the short snippet from Reuters (8/15/2012):


Saudi Arabia tells citizens to leave Lebanon immediately - SPA

(Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has ordered its citizens to leave Lebanon "immediately", the state news agency reported in an SMS alert on Wednesday.

"The Saudi Arabian embassy in Lebanon calls all Saudi citizens to leave Lebanon immediately," the alert said, without elaborating.

And here's the chart:

Last week, it was the oil refinery fire(Has the oil industry built any new refineries lately?  Lately being the last 20 plus years..  Answer:  No). This week, it's the imminent(Since the last eight years or so) Israeli attack on Iran.  What's next week's excuse going to be?  Oh yeah;  I wonder how much Saudi Arabia profited from this bit of "news?"

Flaming Lips Cut Dark, Spontaneous New Album

One of the five greatest bands working today.  Maybe ever..  Two albums in one year?  That's practically hypersonic speed!  Rolling Stone.  Excerpts:

The process of recording the Flaming Lips' forthcoming album, according to front man Wayne Coyne, was a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the psych-rock band's 15th LP, which the singer is tentatively referring to as The Terror, was created under his ideal circumstances: the album, which he has called "possibly the best Flaming Lips record ever made," was recorded without any knowledge that he and his bandmates were even creating a cohesive collection.


"We kept stumbling upon these little things," Coyne tells Rolling Stone excitedly of the small snippets of in-studio exploration and improvisation that would eventually make up their new release. "When you get freebies like that, it's really great!"

But for all its charm, the album, which the band began piecing together during the recording of their recent collaborative effort, The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends – they touched it up last month in upstate New York and hope to release it this fall – emerged from a decidedly dark period. During its initial creation, longtime bandmember and multi-instrumentalist Steven Drozd was in the throes of a drug addiction.

"It was probably the worst time of his life," Coyne says. "I knew he was really, really struggling. He was in a bad way." During this time, Drozd would seclude himself in a separate studio from his bandmates. Paying frequent visits to Drozd's hideaway, Coyne would discover his friend having penned some "horribly creepy" but exquisite songs. The singer recalls a particularly disturbing tune that Drozd wrote reflecting his inner battle.
.. The centerpiece of the album, in Coyne's mind, is its potential title track. "The Terror," he says, is a "really brutal but lovely song" that, like the entire record, is about "finding the answer. What it hones in on is this idea that you really do have to surrender yourself to something before you get a great reward," he says. "But you also know that it sets you up for this horror. You sit in this dilemma of 'do I live a half-life because I don't want to live in pain?' or ‘do I go all the way in life and then kill myself?' That's the dilemma I saw in Steven at that peak of his pain."

Despite its dark subject matter, Coyne says he believes this album is one of the band's most triumphant: he cites a larger emphasis placed upon vocals – the band doused most in reverb - and references a particular tune in which the band employed four-part harmonies. The band also made use of an iPhone app to create otherworldly, almost religious-sounding aural nuggets.
.. Above all, Coyne is most pleased the Lips have not, and don't plan on, sacrificing their creative intuition. "Everybody, if you try hard enough, can sit here and say 'let's put this on there, we'll sound a little bit like Wilco, we'll sound a little like Radiohead. People will love it! It will be great,'" he says, mockingly. "If anybody does that, fuck 'em. The minute you think you have the ability to make it perfect, you're a dumbass."   (whispered)  "The Terror..  The Terror.."  I can't wait.

Bizarre Video Of The Week

CNN Anchor Robin Meade Caught on TV in a Hypnotic Trance (Reptilian Matrix).  With a title like that, you know you want to watch it..  Wow..

Strange episode.  Slowed down, it's more strange.  Curiouser and curiouser..

Another Day, Another Anomaly Over Antarctica..

This time it's a sweet-ass UFO, not a planet.  Or a weather balloon.  Neumayer Station certainly is popular!  The Truth Behind The Scenes:

A video taken of the Antarctic research station Neumayer-Station III appears to show what some are calling a UFO over the South Pole.


The video seems to show a round, blurry object floating above the station on Aug. 10. Speculation has run rampant, with conspiracy theorists and UFO buffs swapping explanations ranging from government collaboration with aliens to a top-secret test of some new cutting-edge secret weapon.

While a definitive explanation has not been found, several elements suggest a prosaic answer. The supposed UFO appears more or less directly over the research station; it also appears to be nearly perfectly round and about the right size for a balloon. Neumayer-Station III, a scientific research station, carries out tests and experiments in a wide variety of areas, including geophysics, meteorology and atmospheric chemistry. Weather balloons are used extensively to study and sample the atmosphere at different times and altitudes above Antarctica.

This sighting has a better than average chance that it is indeed a weather balloon.  But then again, maybe not.  Either way, here you go. 

Stuff It Up Your Sinkhole? Sinkhole Shenanigans? Who's NORM?

Even if this sinkhole doesn't hit a nearby butane cave causing a massive explosion, it's already turning into a clusterfuck for the DNR, local authorities, and oil and gas producers.  Turns out, the parish Sheriff's office wasn't told that the sight could be radioactive.  He and his deputies are not amused..

Turns out, Texas Brine and the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources have been holding out on the locals for quite some time now..

Officials upset by lack of salt dome info.  Also from The Advocate.  Those gays are all over this story, yeah?

Assumption Parish leaders reacted angrily Thursday to revelations that Louisiana Department of Natural Resources and Texas Brine Co. LLC officials had known since January 2011 about possible problems at a salt cavern now suspected as a cause of a large sinkhole in the vicinity of the Napoleonville Dome.


Rep. Karen St. Germain, D-Pierre Part; Sheriff Mike Waguespack; Police Jury President Martin “Marty” Triche; and John Boudreaux, director of the parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, said they were “upset” and “disturbed” to learn about those problems not directly from DNR, but in a news account Thursday.

“I’m very disappointed in DNR not being up-front,” Waguespack said.

A joint command has been addressing the sinkhole and earlier natural gas releases and tremors that have plagued Bayou Corne residents for more than two months. In that command, parish officials have met regularly with state officials, including those from DNR, to discuss what may be happening.

The parish officials said they did not know until Thursday that the Texas Brine salt cavern had failed an integrity test in late 2010, a development that may have pointed to the cavern breaching the outer wall of the massive Napoleonville Dome.

The sinkhole itself is also just a little bigger than officially reported..  Details of sinkhole’s dimensions emerge: 250% size of earlier reports — One area so deep it exceeded length of measuring rope, nearby ‘bubbling’ — Official: May be ‘rabbit holes’ or cracks in earth

[...]

More details have also emerged about the sinkhole’s dimensions.
The surface of the sinkhole remains 375 feet across, according to the latest measurements, but, DNR officials confirmed, that diameter means the surface area is closer 2.5 acres, larger than earlier reports.

Also, while measurements of the sinkhole’s depth have reached 422 feet, Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality officials said Monday that recent water sampling may point to the hole being far shallower except for a few small areas.

Chris Piehler, DEQ Inspection Division administrator, said most places that a water sampler was dropped for testing recently reached just 50 feet deep. He said that in one small area, he was able to reel out the 300-foot long rope attached to the sampler.
[...]
Piehler said the deeper points may be “rabbit holes” or cracks that reach deeper into the earth than the rest of the sinkhole. He noted that the deepest point was also near where some of the bubbling in the sinkhole is occurring.

NORM.  How much NORM could there be in a one mile by three mile dome, anyway?  More important, even:  How big could the BOOM be?  Possibly Big.  BIG.

Since It's Already Music Night..

I can't believe this song is 27 years old.  Kate Bush has always made music apart and away from whatever else is happening in contemporary music.  This song remains timeless.  If she'd never recorded anything else before or after "Running Up That Hill," I'd still consider her a genius.  But, of course, she has.  If you are unfamiliar, here's a sampling:

Stream Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti's Mature Themes

Follow up to Pink's fucking amazing "Before Today."  Here's the Pitchfork link, which seems to be temperamental.  Here's The Guardian's streaming link, which worked for me.  

In a year of super awesome new albums, "Mature Themes" will probably end up near or at the top of my Best Of list.  Enjoy!

Mitt Romney’s Coma

This would explain a lot.  A Lot.  From Disinformation.  Read the whole thing.  He really doesn't blink that much, does he?

How to Spot – and Defeat – Disruption on the Internet

The 15 Rules of Web Disruption  Found it on Washington's Blog.  Retain a copy for yourself, especially if you frequent and post on just about any forums..  The explanations are longer, but I'll give you at least the first sentence of each.  How many light bulbs went off?  Excerpts:

David Martin’s Thirteen Rules for Truth Suppression, H. Michael Sweeney’s 25 Rules of Disinformation (and now Brandon Smith’s Disinformation: How It Works) are classic lessons on how to spot disruption and disinformation tactics.


We’ve seen a number of tactics come and go over the years. Here are the ones we see a lot of currently.

1.  Start a partisan divide-and-conquer fight or otherwise push emotional buttons to sew discord and ensure that cooperation is thwarted. 

2.  Pretend it’s hopeless because we’ll be squashed if we try.

3.  Demand complete, fool-proof and guaranteed solutions to the problems being discussed. 

4. Suggest extreme, over-the-top, counter-productive solutions which will hurt more than help, or which are wholly disproportionate to what is being discussed. 

5.  Pretend that alternative media – such as blogs written by the top experts in their fields, without any middleman – are untrustworthy or are motivated solely by money.

6.  Coordinate with a couple of others to “shout down” reasonable comments. 

7.  Use an army of sock puppets. 

8. Censor social media, so that the hardest-hitting information is buried.


9. When the powers-that-be cut corners and take criminally reckless gambles with our lives and our livelihoods, protect them by pretending that the inevitable result - nuclear accidents, financial crises, terrorist attacks or other disasters – were “unforeseeable” and that “no could have known”.
10.  Protect the rich and powerful by labeling any allegations of criminal activity as being a “conspiracy theory”. 

11. Become incredulous and indignant. Avoid discussing key issues and instead focus on side issues which can be used show the topic as being critical of some otherwise sacrosanct group or theme. This is also known as the “How dare you!” gambit.


12. Use a straw man. Find or create a seeming element of your opponent’s argument which you can easily knock down to make yourself look good and the opponent to look bad. Either make up an issue you may safely imply exists based on your interpretation of the opponent/opponent arguments/situation, or select the weakest aspect of the weakest charges. Amplify their significance and destroy them in a way which appears to debunk all the charges, real and fabricated alike, while actually avoiding discussion of the real issues.

13. Hit and Run. In any public forum, make a brief attack of your opponent or the opponent position and then scamper off before an answer can be fielded, or simply ignore any answer.   14. Question motives. Twist or amplify any fact which could so taken to imply that the opponent operates out of a hidden personal agenda or other bias.   15. Associate opponent charges with old news.

 

Postscript: Over a number of years, we’ve found that the most effective way to fight disruption and disinformation is to link to a post such as this one which rounds up disruption techniques, and then to cite the disinfo technique you think is being used.

Specifically, we’ve found the following format to be highly effective in educating people in a non-confrontational manner about what the disrupting person is doing:

Good Number 1!
Or:
Thanks for that textbook example of Number 7!

(include the link so people can see what you’re referring to.)

The reason this is effective is that other readers will learn about the specific disruption tactic being used … in context, like seeing wildlife while holding a wildlife guide, so that one learns what it looks like “in the field”. At the same time, you come across as humorous and light-hearted instead of heavy-handed or overly-intense.

NIBIRU 2ND SUN IN SKY LOOK 08/12/2012

So, you tell me:  What is this?

I love this dude's expletive-laden commentary..  That UPS guy could not be bothered! 

I have it on good authority that the Annunaki love trance music.

Good God!  Is this Melancholia?

June, 2011, Neumeyer Station, Antarctica.  Maybe?  Maybe not?

C'mon now, ya big jerk of a hidden planet!  Show yourself!

Twin 7.3 Earthquakes, Sea Of Okhotsk, Russia

And..  We're back.  I would swear not three minutes ago, there were Two 7.3 earthquakes listed on USGS, not one, as the current status asserts.  Two.  Like the headline I had just finished typing, actually containing the word "twin."  Huh.  Link to USGS.  I must have imagined the phantom quake being 100 miles south of the listed quake. 

Odd where my mind takes me..

More New Wujo..

Clif has another podcast.  Here's the free download.  56 minutes.  More good stuff.  You got the time?  Take the time and listen.

The Calm Before The Tectonic Storm?

Have you noticed a lack of 7.0 + magnitude earthquakes recently?  According to this poster at GLP,  the planet averages at least one earthquake a month that strong or stronger, and the USGS hasn't listed a 7 or higher eq since April 11.  Have we cured earthquakes? 

Maybe the plates are locked..  Maybe that's not such a good thing.  What event will change this static dynamic, and how explosive will it be?

14 μSv/h from the yellow substance on the roof in Kashiwa Chiba

Awesome.  Wait, no:  Scary!  Fukushima Diary.  Excerpts:

Japanese person measured highly contaminated substance on the roof of her house. The house is located in Kashiwa city Chiba, where is known to be a hotspot. (cf. 192.5 Bq/Kg of cesium from citron in Kashiwa city Chiba)


On 8/9/2012, she blogged like this below,

Around the end of July, I had the professional cleaners wash the roof of our house.

The roof was covered with something like this yellow moss. It was 0.7 μSv/h on its surface.

I took 20g of it by a kitchen knife. Radiation meter indicated it was red zone, 1.2 μSv/h.

I haven’t measured 1.2μSv/h from merely 20g of sample even around here known to be hotspot.

It was totally washed off after cleaning, radiation level was decreased a little bit, 0.4 μSv/h on the surface, but the yellow substance was still with mud in the rain gutter.

I took 3.6 kg of it with the perfect protective clothing (tyvek, gas mask, goggles, plastic gloves).

I packed the clothing soon after taking off the sample, had shower to clean eyes, ears, nostrils carefully.

This is very dangerous, please don’t do it. I can’t take a responsibility if something happened to you.

The radiation level was 14 μSv/h. I haven’t measured higher than 10 μSv/h before. It makes sense why the radiation level is high on the second floor.

We were living with such a thing on our roof..
When I stepped on the roof, I saw the roofs of other houses, most of them were covered with the same yellow substance. Probably the radiation level is high as well.

As reference, in March. 2011, yellow power remained on the street or rain gutters after rain and they measured quite high level of radiation as well. (cf. 2.16 μSv/h from yellow powder)

It is not known what the yellow powder was.

The connection between the yellow powder and this yellow substance is not known either.

Looks like I was right the first time:  Awesome!

Belgian National Bank Governor Gets It: Bailing Out Spain "Makes No Sense"

 No one in charge will listen, but it's good that someone finally said something.  Zero Hedge.  Excerpts:

A week ago we explained quite clearly why instead of encouraging self-defeating, short-termist behavior by promising to save Europe's insolvent countries if and when needed, which does nothing to resolves Europe's problems and make it worse in exchange for a brief respite from bond selling, the ECB should be doing precisely the opposite: encouraging local governments to understand that there is no magic bazooka from the central banks. Specifically we said that "this Catch 22 of confounding cause and event can continue seemingly indefinitely, although in reality it can't. Because fundamentally what the bond market does is keep sovereigns "honest" - just as Schauble said a week ago, Spanish yields at 7% are not the end of the world - instead what they are is a signal to the country to get its spending in control in order to reduce its deficit, and fundamentally get its house in order - yes, that means getting government spending to a sustainable level and firing hundreds of thousands of workers, as well as probably raising taxes even more. It also means pain all around, but the pain is inevitable and will only be worse the longer reality is denied." This logic is so clear that only a lifelong economist, PhD or Goldman apparatchik can not grasp it: sadly that accounts for most of the people "in charge."


Which is why we were delighted to read that at least one person "gets it" - Belgian national bank governor Luc Coene, the same Belgium that is also the clogged heart of the Burtonian bureaucratic labyrinth known as the EU, who told Belgium's two largest newspaper that "buying the bonds of these countries would only serve to weaken the ECB and do nothing to resolve underlying issues of competitiveness. “It makes no sense for the ECB to start financing those countries,” said Mr Coene, “It would only lead to the ECB taking on the whole public debt of Spain and Italy onto its balance sheet." Bingo.