The world's coolest nationalities: Where do you rank?

From CNN Go Spoiler alert: The United States is fifth, behind Mongolia, Jamaica, Singapore, and Brazil. And yes, Brazil does make sense when you stop and think about it..

Epic Flooding: Brazil Edition

Brazil Flood Disaster Kills Hundreds Excerpts:

Torrential rain this week has triggered deadly
flash flooding and landslides in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro, leaving a death toll of at least 348 as of Thursday.
And:
The two hardest-hit cities were Teresopolis and Novo Friburgo, located in the highlands north and northeast of the city of Rio de Janeiro.

Cloudbursts pelting already-saturated ground triggered walls of water that reportedly burst through homes as people slept. Whole families died and hundreds of homes were either swept away or buried beneath earth and rock.

Weather observations from the area show rainfall of 3 to 6 inches,
or 75 to 150 mm, beginning Tuesday. But Metsul, an online weather blog, indicated that rainfall may have reached 12 inches, or 300
mm, within a few hours at both Teresopolis and Novo Friburgo, during the disastrous height of the event.

Brazilian Gallery here: Australian update here: Bonus: Short term economic impact to Australia and its trading partners. Another possible explanation for the continuing and widespread weather weirdness here.

These really are the "interesting times" the cookie spoke of.

Dead Animals: Epidemic, Or Meme?

This week's animal double die off in Arkansas seems to have caught the public imagination/pushed the national "freakout" button.  Are these events related?  What's the root cause for either event?  And then, what about these new events?

Mysterious killing of fish in coastal  Translated from the original Portuguese article from Brazil.. Excerpts:

A survey conducted by the Federation of Fishermen's Colony of Paraná, Paranaguá on the coast of the state, indicates that at least 100 tons of fish (sardine, croaker and catfish) have turned up dead since last Thursday off the coast of Parana.

Apart from Paranagua, Ferreira said the dead fish are starting to appear in other coastal towns. "The dead fish are going to Antonina, and Guaraqueçaba Pontal do Paraná. We need an urgent solution to this, "he warns.

Captain Edson Oliveira Avila, regional coordinator of Civil Defense in the Paraná region, believes there are three hypotheses for the death of fish. "We will wait to see what happened, but speculations suggest that fish may have died due to an environmental imbalance, dropping a fishing boat or leakage of chemicals," he says.

Or maybe there's a fourth hypothesis..

Japan on alert after finding dead birds

Recent discovery of several dead migratory birds in Japan has raised concerns about H5NI avian influenza, avian experts said.

Bird sanctuaries, poultry farms and zoos were put on high alert last month after the migratory birds in some region were found dead, The New York Times reported Monday.  Times article here..

Hundreds of dead fish found at Goytre Wharf

A possible reason is a 30cm drop in the water level at the marina caused by work upstream, but the cold weather, ice and a lack of oxygen are more likely to have killed the fish.

Smaller fish were found alive in the marina and initial tests showed there was no pollution.
(This event is probably a "natural" die off that is more common, but is included because it occurred during the same time frame..)

Uh-Oh..  Mayrbe it is bird flu..

10,000s of Birds found dead in Manitoba

Local reports have circulated that an extremely virulent strain of bird flu has infected both wild and farm birds. At the same time an extremely aggressive winter flu has hit Canada sometime in December and mortality rates are expected to rise alarmingly in vulnerable populations.
(Note:  All of this is more than unsubstantiated at the moment, so don't go freakin' out just yet..)

Hundreds of DEAD Black Birds Found In Louisiana

500 dead birds have been found near New Roads Louisiana just days after thousands of birds turned up dead in Arkansas and at least ten identical birds were reported dead in Kentucky!

Is God mad?

Or possibly this person is correct--Are these fish and bird die offs a false flag?

Something, my friends, is afoot.  More follow ups shortly..

File Under: Drug Lord Man Crush, Or "Bieberlicious."

Druglord Loves Justin Bieber (Fantastic Outsider art mural picture included..)

Justin Bieber has groupies where you'd least expect them. An army of Brazilian cops raided the Rio headquarters of one of the country's most notorious drug gangs.


According to Perez Hilton, it appeared to be a typical seizure. 11 tons of marijuana, a “small arsenal” of weapons and… a gigantic mural of Justin Bieber?

I wonder what 2 a.m., any night, pre-bust at the casa was like?  Who would film such a scene:  David Lynch, Quentin Tarantino, or Brian DePalma? 

Side note:  Three years ago, Justin Bieber could still be confused for a "normal" kid.