Bad News/Good News

Courtesy of Fark:

Bad news: "Foreclosures haven't peaked," according to RealtyTrac .

Good news: "Foreclosures have peaked," according to RealtyTrac.

Ladies and Gentlemen: Cognitive Dissonance--media style!

Wow. This Was Unexpected..

Mike Tyson: My whole life is a waste. Excerpts:

Former boxing champ Mike Tyson has dedicated the rest of his life to caring for others - because he considers himself a "pig" who has "wasted" so many years of his life.

And:

He tells Details magazine, "The first stage of my life was just a whole bunch of selfishness. Just a whole bunch of gifts to myself and people who didn't necessarily deserve it. Now I'm 44, and I realise that my whole life is just a f**king waste. 'Greatest man on the planet'? I wasn't half the man I thought I was."

And:

.."The sporting icon admits the tragic loss of his four-year-old daughter Exodus last year (09) made him realize his mistakes: "All these people reached out (after her death) and I realized: I just want to be of service to people. I need to help. I need to have something, finally, finally, that I can offer people in this world."

I hope he's sincere. His story gives me hope: For humanity, for the future.

“The world isn’t ready for what was down there”

What the hell's going on in Lake Tahoe? Tahoe Tessie? Gangster corpses? A freaked out Jaques Cousteau? Or none of the above..

In the 90's, Anal Leakage as a fad didn't really catch on and catch fire. Will Corexit/Oil-caused Anal Bleeding?

Toxicologist: Oil/Corexit mix caused heart trouble, organ damage, rectal bleeding. Granted, Corexit doesn't have the charisma of Olestra, but really, when one bleeds from the rectum and ultimately dies; How do you top that? Olestra just turned Ruffles into runny poo with no apocalyptic implications whatsoever.

Meanwhile: In Universe A, beach season is in full effect, as 100 percent of the entire Gulf Coast region electrical grid is powered by alternative technologies. There is no oil spill, and no chance for an oil spill, as Offshore drilling never existed. And almost every city and town across the U.S. has a statue of Tesla, and no one knows Edison even existed.

Monkeys use trees to catapault themselves out of Japanese laboratory

Monkeys at a research institute in Japan have used the branches of trees to catapault themselves over an electric fence in order to escape. Excerpts:

A group of 15 monkeys at Kyoto University's primate research institute in Aichi Prefecture, which are the focus of a string of high-profile scientific studies, escaped from their forest home which is encased by a 17ft high electric fence.

The monkeys made their bid for freedom by using tree branches to fling themselves one by one over the high voltage electric fence located nearly three metres away.

However, despite the intelligence shown in their great escape, the primates appeared unsure as to what to do with their newfound freedom: the monkeys remained by the gates of the research centre and were lured back into captivity by scientists armed with peanuts.

Monkeys and Humans: The resemblance is uncanny.

I Can Name That Doom In Eight Sentences..

Look at this map.
The red line are plumes of oil, and the dark blue line is the Gulf's loop current, ultimately crossing the Atlantic, and beyond.
Remember that the map's date is May 23, 2010, and that the red and blue lines are already well established.
The red star is the Deepwater Horizon. Look how close it is to the northern point of the loop current.
It's now July 7th, the oil continues unabated, and a one shot only relief well strategy is still a month out. What if it fails?
Then there's the matter of all that pesky Corexit, Benzine, Propylene Gycol, Methane, and Uranium..

Church Office Failed to Act on Abuse Scandal

After a previous posting about the Pope Ratzinger and the ever expanding sexual abuse scandal within the Catholic Church, a friend wanted to know why, since abuse happens also in Protestant churches, why does the media focus seem to just be on the Catholics? I think the sheer size of the Church as compared to the fragmentation that is the nature of Protestantism plays a role. Usually, the sexual scandals involving Protestants(at least here in the Midwest) involve straight sexual hi jinks, and while lurid, they are not as creepy or media-sensational as pedophilia is.

The two biggest reasons, though, for worldwide focus on the Catholic Church are: The institutionalized, knee-jerk, denial and cover up response for all allegations about sexual abuse, and the current Pope's past involvement with that very Institutional Response. Some snippets:

In its long struggle to grapple with sexual abuse, the Vatican often cites as a major turning point the decision in 2001 to give the office led by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger the authority to cut through a morass of bureaucracy and handle abuse cases directly.
..

But church documents and interviews with canon lawyers and bishops cast that 2001 decision and the future pope’s track record in a new and less flattering light.

And:

Yet throughout the ’80s and ’90s, bishops who sought to penalize and dismiss abusive priests were daunted by a bewildering bureaucratic and canonical legal process, with contradicting laws and overlapping jurisdictions in Rome, according to church documents and interviews with bishops and canon lawyers.

Besides Cardinal Ratzinger’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, bishops were sending off their files on abuse cases to the Congregations for the Clergy, for Bishops, for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, and for the Evangelization of Peoples — plus the Vatican’s Secretariat of State; its appeals court, the Apostolic Signatura; and the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts.

“There was confusion everywhere,” said Archbishop Philip Edward Wilson of Adelaide, Australia.

A new Code of Canon Law issued in 1983 only muddied things further, among other things by setting a five-year statute of limitations within which abuse cases could be prosecuted.

And:

As Father Gauthé was being prosecuted in Louisiana, Cardinal Ratzinger was publicly disciplining priests in Brazil and Peru for preaching that the church should work to empower the poor and oppressed, which the cardinal saw as a Marxist-inspired distortion of church doctrine(Translation: He'd vote Republican.). Later, he also reined in a Dutch theologian who thought lay people should be able to perform priestly functions, and an American who taught that Catholics could dissent from church teachings about abortion, birth control, divorce and homosexuality.

Here's a biggie:

Cardinal Ratzinger also focused on reining in national bishops’ conferences, several of which, independent of Rome, had begun confronting the sexual abuse crisis and devising policies to address it in their countries. He declared that such conferences had “no theological basis” and “do not belong to the structure of the church.” Individual bishops, he reaffirmed, reigned supreme in their dioceses and reported only to the authority of the pope in Rome.

This is nice..

Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos, then the head of the Congregation for the Clergy, set the tone, playing down sexual abuse as an unavoidable fact of life, and complaining that lawyers and the media were unfairly focused on it, according to a copy of his prepared remarks. What is more, he asked, is it not contradictory for people to be so outraged by sexual abuse when society also promotes sexual liberation?

Soo.. The person most familiar with The Bigger Picture regarding the entire scandal for the last 20 years, the man who actually blocked progress aimed at righting situations and preventing abuse, is now The Pope. The man who oversaw the Church's official response towards pedophilia, had-other-priorities. Why would anyone believe this man and his institution of behaving any differently than in the past?

To answer (alternately)from a marketing standpoint: The Catholic Church will never get out in front of this scandal. Even if they could move that fast, they first would would need the inclination, which clearly they do not have. And clearly, this scandal will continue to grow..

The American role in the Honduras coup

Short, but sweet. From Xymphora..

Dohdoh!

Russian Cargo Ship Veers Out of Control Near Space Station

Good God--NO!

Hark! Kate Gosselin Wants to Release Holiday Album.

Makeitstopmakeitstopmakeitstop..

If Israel Attacks Iran In July 2010...

More evidence and analysis Israel will be attacking Iran very soon. Like before-September-but- possibly-this-month very soon.

Still, a terrible, terrible idea.

First-Ever Photo Of Alien Planet Finally Confirmed

From The Huffington Post(Picture at link). Excerpts:

An image taken in 2008 by the Gemini Observatory has finally been confirmed to be the first direct image taken by a ground-based telescope of an "alien planet" (a planet outside our solar system).

In 2008, astronomers snapped an image of the exoplanet, which is eight times the mass of Jupiter, "using visible light observations from telescopes on Earth," according to Space.com.

The planet is orbiting a star in the 1RXS J160929.1-210524 (or 1RXS 1609 for short) solar system, a part of the 5-million-year-old cluster of stars known as the Upper Scorpius Association, which is around 500 light-years away from earth.

Knowledge, as an entity, is growing so quickly and cohesively that soon, Exponential Growth won't be an expansive enough definition for What Has Happened.

Computer program deciphers a dead language that mystified linguists

Interesting unintentional tangential nugget of information.. (my emphasis in red)

Ugaritic itself is an awesomely fascinating language. Spoken 3,500 years ago in the city of Ugarit, located in modern Syria, the language is a Semitic relative of Hebrew, although its alphabet closely resembles the cuneiform used in ancient Sumeria. The surviving Ugaritic texts tell the stories of a Canaanite religion that is similar but not identical to that recorded in the Old Testament, providing Bible scholars a unique opportunity to examine how the Bible and ancient Israelite culture developed in relation to its neighbors.

So the Canaanite religion is older and similar.. But not identical. Once over, the older religion is not identical, but similar to the younger Jewish version of the Old Testament. Similar. Not.. Identical. How dare this 3500 year old religion differ from the Official Story?

Doomy Update From Clif High

Tick...tick...tick - Israeli Mistake, Confusion, and a chart. Excerpts:

..The issue is the July 11th break into 18 and a half hours of release language. George, and apparently others, are under the impression that some big 'thing' would happen on that date. This may well be the case, however, note that the release language (all the downward slanting lines in the charts below) continues all summer as punctuations to building tension. So the pattern from July 11th through to November 8th is one of building tension and then release of tension, almost on a daily basis. Note that this is the USUAL state of our charts for the planet. What is unusual is that we have been in a very long period of building tension for these past few months. What is also unusual is the 'tipping point' that is forecast to occur over 4 days in November from the 8th through the 11th inclusive. Then what is even more unusual is that the release language continues unabated, without deviation for over 2 months, from November 11th through to January 23rd.

So, knowing that the September 11th attacks on the money center of the planet by TPTB (we call this the 9/11 event), had a tipping point that lasted about 4 hours, followed by 12 hours of release language, before returning to building tension language as the planet tried to sort things out the next day, we can base our speculations on what may occur given the values that we have forecast for release and building tension language trends. .

And:

..However, the recent and very large jump in magntitude of the language forecast for the 'israeli miske', sub set 'active war launch', is too much to ignore. So without regard as to how long it may take, or the many other ramifications, the data streaming in now suggests that the [israeli mistake] that leads to so much planetary misery is on, and likely soon.

Please note that the temporal markers along the way to the [active attack phase (of israeli mistake)] have all been met, and the largest, and closest to the actual manifestation of the [israeli mistake] was the [ranking general faux pas (mal mots)] that we have just seen fulfilled in these most recent news stories about Obama and his General McCrystal.

So my position has altered in that it is seeming more likely by the day that the [israeli mistake] is 'on' and soon. Many of the critical elements now in place are not able, from a military logistics view point, to be maintained for too long in place before their usefulness degrades below acceptable levels.....therefore, certain conclusions need to be drawn appropriately.

Short answer: Israel attacks Iran, and it will not end well.

Inching closer; Escalating..

Qassam rocket fired from Gaza destroys Negev packing plant

Report FROM New Madrid Fault area: The surface rupture of the roads and highways is out of control. IN DEPTH REPORT

Head's up, Midwest..

Astrology: The Cardinal Crisis

Astrologically, we're in uncharted territory right here, right now. Here's an alternate explanation.. The chain of events began in late May, but the major energetic aspects began in earnest Last Week. Think back: Have you been experiencing the Chaos a little more intensely? Have you noticed the people around you acting a bit more erratic than usual?

This poster has some really great advice for living through the overwhelming energy washing over all of us here..

The good news? There's a lot of energy available to achieve massive transformation personally, collectively, and globally. The bad news? If you choose to embrace the more chaotic of this energy, this is just the beginning of many "stressful" aspects happening between now and 2012. Buckle up, Buddy Roe..

Late June 2010 - The Heart of the Cardinal T-Square

The latest from Aquarius Papers..

Global Warming; or Hoax? My Problem With Either/Or

Antarctic glacier melt maybe 'not due to climate change'. (Note all the what's-happening-is-normal stories on this page. The tone isn't necessarily Nothing's happening, as much as it is This is Cyclical.)

The entire Climate debate is framed so shittily on both sides, but clearly, the Deniers are the worst. As a general observation, the vocal representation of Global Warming Deniers seem to discount any increases in weather extremes, claiming this is always how it's been, we just hear about it more now. And, ClimateGate is a legitimate scandal. But neither is true.

Global Warming advocates, on the other hand, seem to cling to mainstream interpretations of available data, or data that might have a different context in light of other discoveries and observations suppressed or dismissed by conventional science. Alternate science has observable data, too. And, at the end of the day, the majority of both groups agree: Something is going on. While there seems to be some support for some GW Deniers to acknowledge something's happening, the opinion still seems to be the minority within the movement.

The linked article is an interesting case in point. It wasn't an outright attack on Global Warming (Which I think is different than Climate Change--Climate Change is more agnostic in its "I don't know why it's happening, but it is happening" perspective. To me, anyway..), but it was written towards that opinion. Awesome. But it also managed to downplay the importance of the event itself. Ok, so Global Warming might not have caused this underground ice river to speed up, and cause a significant change in the amount of Antarctic water contributing to sea rise. Fine. So what are you doing to protect the populace with that information? Not much, as that's not the thrust of their research. Waters are rising: Are we using this information to buttress our coastlines? Naw, it's being used just to win an arguement and keep the status quo.

Something is fucking happening. Anyone can see that, if their eyes aren't covered and their tounges aren't powered by corporate payoffs. If we can't stop it(which we probably can't), we should be preparing for some pretty disaterous scenarios. But we are not, as we seem to be polarized within an arguement between headstrong, retarded schools of thought.

Time is tight, folks, and the clock is running out..

Our Universe Just Got Larger..

Actually, our Awareness of our Universe just got larger..

Happy talk, courtesy of the Worst Case Scenario

BP oil 'unlikely' to reach Ireland

Stunning..

Newlywed couple: Officer blocked us from ER during bride's stroke. There were multiple encounters.

1 "Aline tells Channel 3 Eyewitness News that once the couple was placed in a hospital room, the officer attempted to enter their room to arrest Jesse for evading the police.

2. Thursday morning Erlanger security informed the couple that a warrant for Jesse's arrest had been issued, and suggested he turn himself in. Aline says Jesse went to the Hamilton County Jail to turn himself in that evening. According to Aline, jail employees told Jesse that they had no record of a warrant for him and told him he was free to go.

3. On Friday morning the police were back at the hospital. This time Jesse surrendered to Erlanger Security who arrested him on behalf of the Chattanooga Police Department.

Channel 3 had the only crew there as Jesse was released on $7,500 bond, about eight hours after being arrested. He is facing seven charges related to Wednesday night's events, including felony evading arrest. He's due in court on July 9th."

Soo.. When involved in life of death emergencies, be sure to follow all traffic laws to the letter, because someone of authority might not understand the magnitude of the situation, or might not care.

6 Time Travel Realities Doc Brown Didn't Warn Us About

From Cracked..

Crop Circles! Hot And Fresh! Get Your Crop Circles Here!

Latest from Crop Circle Generator. No interpretation as of yet, though..

ShakeyShakey

LAFD In 'Earthquake Mode' Following Swarm Of Shakers In The California Desert.

Ya Think?

Democrats increasingly convinced of election fraud in SC primaries.

Excerpts: Depending on whom you ask, Alvin Greene's electoral victory in Tuesday's South Carolina primaries is either evidence that voting machines don't work, or that the Republican Party is planting phony candidates in Democratic races -- or both.

When asked by NBC's David Gregory on Sunday if Greene's election was legitimate, senior White House adviser David Axelrod said, "It doesn't appear so to me. It was a mysterious deal."

And:

Greene handily defeated opponent Vic Rawls in Tuesday's primary, winning with 59 percent of the vote to Rawls' 41 percent, despite not having run any sort of visible campaign, not having set up a campaign Web site, and being unemployed. And it quickly emerged that Greene is facing a felony obscenity charge over an incident in which he allegedly showed a college student obscene photos from the Internet.

So how to explain the unlikely election result? One theory, propagated by BradBlog's Brad Friedman, is that Greene was the beneficiary of phony voting-machine results. In 25 precincts, Greene received more votes than were actually cast; and while Rawls won absentee ballots by a whopping 84-to-16 percentage point margin, the election-day results showed Greene winning by 18 percentage points.

Friedman reports:

South Carolina uses ES&S' 100% unverifiable Direct Recording Electronic (DRE, in this case touch-screen) voting machines at the polling place. The machines, also used in many other states (such as Arkansas, where we recently reported exclusively on the disappearance of thousands of votes on May 18th, which neither state nor local officials are able to explain to this day) are both oft-failed and easily manipulated in such a way that it's almost impossible to detect the systems have been gamed.

And:

Strengthening the notion that Greene is a "plant" inside the Democratic Party is the fact that the unemployed candidate has not been able to explain, in interviews, where he got the $10,400 to file to run in the primary race.

Writing at FireDogLake, Scott Creighton sides with the argument that Greene may have been a GOP plant. Noting a TV interview in which Greene apparently isn't familiar with the term "indictment," Creighton accuses Greene of play-acting.

"Alvin Greene is pretending to be an idiot," Creighton writes, noting that Greene holds a college degree (in Political Science-My insertion here..) and worked as an intelligence specialist in the US military. "He is doing it because someone doesn’t want a strong populist democrat like Vic Rawls running against Jim DeMint in South Carolina for his seat in the United States Senate."

More from Bradblog here. This event is stunning in its audacity and arrogance. I'm in awe. Just when I think Republicans have hit their creative limit; Bam! They continue to sink lower.. Amazing. Really amazing..

Katla Volcano 3 Earthquakes in Seconds

Remember that volcano a couple months back, that one obviously named by.. someone.. from Iceland(Eyjafjallajokull)? It's eruption (or not) shut down huge swaths of European airspace for a couple weeks, freaked out all involved(tourists, the Airline Industry, breathless media types, scientists and economists), and basically made a worldwide nuisance of itself? So you also remember there were some scientists Very Alarmed about the possibility of Eyjafjallajokull's bigger, badder buddy, Katla erupting? 10-times-badder-Katla? Hey, guess what? It's shaking..



Nothing more, yet. This can't even be classified as an earthquake swarm. I'll be watching this. If Katla intensifies, I'll let you know.

C'mon Now, Stop Picking On Poor BP..

Offshore Oil Drilling is a lot like Tightrope Walking. It's less dangerous than it looks, most of the time.. There are nets and safety protocols, and an accident is not deemed serious, as The Net is always there. Until it's not.

Take away those nets and safety protocols, and the result can easily become deadly. The difference? Tightrope Walking kills only the person(s) involved, and a massive disaster involving Offshore Oil Drilling can, quite possibly, kill millions of sea(and sea-dependent) animals, and effect millions along the Gulf and Eastern coasts of this country(and more..later). But these potentially apocalyptic implications (now that they're upon us) still doesn't stop The Love from some political-types..

Congressman Don Young: What's the fuss?

Rachel Maddow reminds us who the Real Culprit is: ACORN. (Long segment; so worth it. Really nice expose on BP's corporate monkeys on The Hill. And those recently employed there, of course.)

Everything is all right because BP says it's all right. Except where it is not.

Astronomers Perplexed by Jupiter Collisions

The huge, burning object that slammed into Jupiter last week still remains a mystery to scientists who are currently examining this latest impact on the gas giant.

Snakes in mysterious global decline

Snakes may be declining across the world, according to a global study.
Excerpts:
Researchers examined records for 17 snake populations covering eight species over the last few decades, and found most had declined markedly.

For reasons that are not entirely clear, some populations shrank in number abruptly around 1998.

And:

The researchers believe they amassed most, if not all, long-term datasets for this study - although "long-term" in this context means going back more than one decade, in some cases more than two.

Nevertheless, within this relatively short time frame, eight of the 17 populations were seen to fall markedly in size - some by more than 90% - with only one showing any sign of a rise.

And:

Populations shrank even in protected areas, suggesting that the progressive loss of habitat for wild animals being seen all over the world is not the only cause.

Similar steep declines observed in frogs and newts in an earlier period were eventually found to be caused by the fungal disease chytridiomycosis.

The year when many of the snake declines began - 1998 - raises the question of whether climatic factors might be involved, as very strong El Nino conditions contributed to making it the hottest year recorded in modern times.

Why Corporations Are Evil, Example 666

'Phantom' Motrin Recall Probe Intensifies. Excerpts:

A Congressional probe into a "phantom" 2009 recall of Motrin pain relief caplets is causing headaches for the pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson.

In July 2009, Johnson & Johnson's consumer division, McNeil Consumer Healthcare, began officially recalling Motrin caplets thought to be dissolving improperly resulting in possible adverse effects.

And:

"Rather than doing the right thing and announcing a recall, we have learned that the drug company hired contractors to basically sneak into stores to purchase the products as if they were legitimate customers," Towns said in a statement last week. Towns called the Motrin case a "phantom recall" at a May 27 hearing.

And:

Last week, the Oversight Committee uncovered a document titled "Motrin Purchase Project" purportedly sent to WIS by Inmar, a Winston-Salem, N.C.-based supply chain management specialist. Towns's spokeswoman said the document indicates that a division of Inmar was contracted by Johnson & Johnson's consumer division, McNeil Consumer Healthcare, and that WIS, in turn, was subcontracted by Inmar. WIS workers were instructed to go into stores and buy up all the Motrin IB Caplets they found, according to the document, which was made public by the committee. "There must be no mention of this being a recall of the product!" the Motrin Purchase Project memo read.

And:

Documents supplied to the Oversight Committee by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration showed that the FDA originally found out about the alleged secret Motrin recall last year, and looked into it, prompting the official recall, which was never publicized and involved 88,000 caplets thought to be problematic. The FDA was initially told by Johnson & Johnson that its contractors were merely performing a statistical sampling, according to an FDA document made public by the committee. The dissolution problem was first identified in November of 2008, the FDA document said.

The Timeline is as follows: They knew about the problem since November 2008, didn't start working with the FDA until May of 2009, started covering their asses with a "Phantom Recall" in July 2009(when they started their "Official Recall"), and still aren't responding to this Congressional probe as of Tuesday.

Who says Corporations don't care about you and me?

We'll Find Out Later Today, Won't We?

US financial markets may be shut down on Monday. No judgement whether this will happen tomorrow, but probably really soon..

Doom quote: We have never been this close to the inevitable outcome.

Then there's this: U.S.’s $13 Trillion Debt Poised to Overtake GDP: Chart of Day

So.. Soon.

Ruh-Roh..

Iran's navy offers to escort Gaza ships.

Official: Elite Revolutionary Guards are prepared to intervene.

This can't end badly, right?

North Korea Parliament To Hold Rare Second Annual Session Monday, Major Announcement Expected

Excerpts: Analysts said the North could use the extra session of the Supreme People's Assembly to make a major announcement on personnel changes or power succession, or to issue a hardline response to sanctions imposed by the South over the ship sinking.

Many analysts say neither side is ready to go to war but also see the possibility of more skirmishes at their disputed sea border off the west coast or along the heavily armed DMZ land buffer that could flare up into a major fight.

And:

North Korea has called Seoul's move to refer it to the Security Council an "unforgivable act of grave provocation.

The Supreme People's Assembly is the North's rubberstamp parliament, and approves new laws, personnel changes and economic policy initiatives as a formality after they have been formulated by the leadership

Radio ghost mystery at former RAF station

World War Two radio continues to pick up vintage broadcasts despite not having any power.

A 70-year-old radio at a Scottish heritage centre has been picking up vintage broadcasts featuring Winston Churchill and the music of Glen Miller.

The Pye valve wireless at Montrose Air Station, a heritage centre that tells the story of the men and women who served there, has no power and is not connected to any source of electricity.

The aerodrome has been a source of paranormal sightings and sounds for almost a century, with reports of ghostly figures, eerie footsteps and door handles turning, but the mysterious wireless broadcasts have had even the most sceptical staff at the station searching for a rational explanation.

A "Norway Sprial" In Australia!

UFO spotted over eastern Australia. Not just a UFO, though..

The Big Question Is "What.."

Something hit Jupiter ... again!

Good News.. For Now

Nuclear Option on Gulf Oil Spill? No Way, U.S. Says

World War 3's Starting - And This Time, I Mean It! (I think..)

Israeli army: More than 10 killed on Gaza flotilla.

Israel denied anything happened..

Turkey and Syria are furious. So is Iran.

Turkey is screaming violation of international law.

Israel is recalling tourists from Turkey./Turkey calls out the Israeli Ambassador.

So, of course, Israel bombs Gaza.

Have a terrific week!

Terrifying events with hilarious mental images

Indonesian Mud Volcano Continues Fourth Year. How strange, complex, and scary! And since it's a Mud Volcano, hilarious! You know what would make that scenario worse and not so funny? Placing it 5000 feet under the ocean! And, of course, changing its name to Oil Volcano, and being able to see that unfolding disaster from space..

A Busy Week To Be Off..

It wasn't intentional. I am a little overloaded with information at the moment, and just never felt like posting. Motivational paralysis, ennui, what the fuck ever It was, it's presence rendered me totally unwilling to blog. I just surfed.

It's a gloomy moment of time we're inhabiting, and metaphorically, we are just inside the tunnel of a very large mountain that may or may not totally collapse with us still in it. None, or rather, very few indicators trend positive. And the near and long term forecast, well, is bleak by any stretch of the imagination. Take, for example, the Oil Volcano currently erupting in the Gulf.

The Media continues to repeat the similarities between this catastrophe and the Bay of Campeche spill in 1979. The big difference lies not with reactions or technique, but is solely a matter of volume. The Bay of Campeche spill produced 10 to 30 thousand barrels of oil daily; This spill is gushing at 76 to 104 Thousand barrels a day. And that's just at this moment! What if their equipment continues to degrade? What if there are other gushers? Oops! There are. Any permanent solution is possibly months away, possibly longer.

Let's see: What else? Korea might go live, Europe's economy super sucks, our economy could collapse, Israel's prepared to attack.. Iran, according to this article, or Syria, or Lebanon.. And then there's some really out there possibilities that are really hard to visualize, much less process. And if those possibilities occur, the world will not ever be the same.

So, subconsciously I guess, I decided to "blank out. The time was needed. Something has changed. Matrix fatigue has set in, and the desire to observe, passively, has revived, and become stronger.

Maybe He Died Of A Broken Heart.

Brittany Murphy’s widower dead at 39

Sinking Deeper Into Catastrophe..

Awful News From The Gulf: Explosions Collapse Seafloor At Deepwater Horizon Well Head.

This, really, might be the cataclysm that destroys us all. Or, rather, most of us.

I hope so.

Is Karma Ever Finished or Completed?

Wednesday night, October 1993

“We are who we are. We’re just like anybody else.”
-The Other Ones, “We are who we are.”

She told me a story once, about growing up in the boot heel of Missouri, before he became a transsexual. His uncle was a clock maker and repairman, and there were over one hundred clocks in his shop. He visited often, as his uncle was non-judgmental about how he was different from the rest of his family. Sometimes they would wind as many clocks as they could, the alarms and chimes and ticking one giant, cacophonous, beautiful sound.

His family hated the way he was. His effeminate nature, his original thoughts, and his general behavior frightened them. But his uncle was good to him. When he died, he took one of the clocks as a memento.

He tried not to think about growing up in Missouri. This was difficult, though, as those were his formative years, like it or not. He went back a couple of years before, in 1989, this time as a drag queen. The experience wasn’t pleasant. He had not gone back or spoken with his family since.

She had good pot and needed to talk sometimes. She, I, and a guy who had been a professional photographer in New York had come over to the apartment, taking a break from the Wednesday night ritual of dancing at the Copa. She kept rolling joints and telling me about how great Key West was as opposed to the narrowness of Missouri. The photographer sat and listened, contentedly stoned and intrigued about how different life could be in the mid-west as opposed to the East Coast. The photographer had had a promising career until manic depression made him unreliable, not worth hiring.

I was really uncomfortable with my first impressions of the transsexual. She screamed in my face as well as the face of our mutual acquaintance during a drunken introduction. Later I realized it was just her exuberant way of saying hello. “Ahhhhhhh!” She had shrieked, rolling her head around her shoulders, arms extended upward.

She said sometimes she would wind the clock and think of her uncle. She stroked the long blond hair of the photographer who sat next to her, who still listened intently. It was 3 a.m. when we got back to the bar; and most of the people had already cleared out. The transsexual disappeared when the photographer and I went for a drink. I saw her out the next night and asked her where she’d gone. She said she’d gone to another bar, looking for someone. But she didn’t say who.

Super-ish Tuesday: Tale of the Turnout

Democratic turnout far outpaces Republican...

Random Doom Roundup: May 20, 2010

North Korea has threatened "full-scale war" after an international report concluded a torpedo fired by one of the reclusive regime's submarines sank a South Korean navy ship in March.

Gulf oil spill may be 19 times bigger than originally thought

This one should piss you off. Should.

May 20 (Bloomberg) -- Japan’s economy grew less than forecast in the first quarter as an export-led recovery failed to stoke consumer spending, putting pressure on the central bank to do more to end deflation as it begins a two-day meeting.

The Other Foreclosure Menace Mortgage Paid Off, Woman Loses Home -- Over a Small Water Bill

Sell it All, Risk of 'Major Crash': Dow Theory’s Russell

Turkey Deploys Air Defense System To ‘Defend’ Syria, Iran Against Israel Raids

That's enough for the moment, eh?

So I.. SHOULDN'T Use LifeLock?

LifeLock CEO’s Identity Stolen 13 Times. Excerpts:

"Apparently, when you publish your Social Security number prominently on your website and billboards, people take it as an invitation to steal your identity. (Apparently. Me.)

LifeLock CEO Todd Davis, whose number is displayed in the company’s ubiquitous advertisements, has by now learned that lesson. He’s been a victim of identity theft at least 13 times, according to the Phoenix New Times.

That’s 12 more times than has previously been known.

And

A spokeswoman for the Albany police, who investigated the AT&T/Cingular account but never made any arrest, told the New Times that Davis’ publication of his Social Security number created more victims than just himself.

And

The company was fined $12 million in March by the Federal Trade Commission for deceptive advertising.

And (hilarious!)

Davis’ history as an identity-theft victim would seem to call into question the company’s ability to protect consumers from a similar fate."

Heh. Heh heh.

Low Point On The Earthquake Wave Graph..

6.0 Earthquake in Northern Peru. Nothing special about the quake's magnitude, but when I looked at the week's list(The page changes, so I'm formally referring to May 12th through the 19th.), this was the highest magnitude and only earthquake at 6.0 or over. What a nice break from January through March, huh?

So: Has the earth calmed back down, or is this the quiet before another.. increase in intensity?

Can You Guess Which Crisis Just Got MUCH Bigger In Scope?

Tarballs reported at Key West beach; surveys continue Tuesday.

I LOVE Colorado!

Rasmussen: 49% Of Coloradans Think Marijuana Should Be Legal

Decades of ash clouds forecast by scientists

Decades.

This Might Be The Most Beautiful Woman I've Ever Seen..

Dearborn's Miss Michigan wins Miss USA pageant.

Seriously. Whatever that intangible, subjective "it" is, she has as much as anyone I've ever seen. Blindingly Beautiful. For maximum charm, watch the video on the link. I'm gay, and she knocks my socks off! You're in trouble, straight guys.. Rima Fakih's gonna break your heart with just one smile..

Great News is on break, now. My name is Apocalypse; How can I help you?

Gulf Spill Could Be Much Worse Than Believed.

"A computer program simply tracks particles, and calculates how fast they are moving. Wereley put the BP video of the gusher into his computer. He made a few simple calculations and came up with an astonishing value for the rate of the oil spill: 70,000 barrels a day — much higher than the official estimate of 5,000 barrels a day."

A barrel is 42 gallons. So the equation is(for the moment), 70 thousand barrels of oil multiplied by Day 24(FYI - estimates run between 20 and 100 thousand barrels per day. 70 thousand was used, I'm sure, as the low end of the high estimates.). Oh yeah, and BP isn't even close to containing this yet..

"At NPR's request, experts analyzed video that BP released Wednesday. Their findings suggest the BP spill is already far larger than the 1989 Exxon Valdez accident in Alaska, which spilled at least 250,000 barrels of oil."

So we have this doom to look forward to, which is nice..

A Visual Representation Of Time?

Look at this picture.

Then think about these circles as a pipeline, in which the earth is currently travelling through space. Is this what time looks like?

Laser Beams Penetrating Thick Canopy Detect Thousands of New Structures, Show Maya Adept at 'Building Green'

Science Daily (May 12, 2010) — A flyover of Belize's thick jungles has revolutionized archaeology worldwide and vividly illustrated the complex urban centers developed by one of the most-studied ancient civilizations -- the Maya.

Central America, Mexico, the American South West.. Is it too fanciful to think that we are a few years away from finding the Mayan culture was massively bigger than previously thought?

Jupiter Prefers The Term "Misplaced.."

Jupiter loses one of its belts.

Looks Like We've Got A Psychic On The Forum..

In 9 days we will witness an event so catastrophic it will change society as we know it. Above average Doom delivered right to the day..
"And it's just the beginning . . . . 4.20.2010"

A lot of people made fun of this prediction. And then it happened. But, more importantly, it also Started To Happen that day, and only becomes worse.

Laura Bush - Democrat?

Laura Bush supports gay marriage and abortion rights. Huh. A couple thoughts:
*She was politically bound to not voice her opinion until Bush's term of office was up.
*She was also bound by marriage. This is not James Carville and Mary Matalin. There will be no public disagreement within the First Family. It isn't fair to say "If she would have said this earlier...," a response I initially had, as it was simply not an option for her.
* Is she a Democrat? She's loved by more liberals than you'd think..
* Her views are out there, now.. Where to, next? Will she become more active for her political beliefs? How will the Right respond? Will the last sitting Republican First Lady be unwelcome at future Republican events? She's been forgiven, but she's pissed off the faithful a couple times before..
*Just how betrayed will "True Believers" feel? And, more importantly, how will they react?

What The Hell Is Going On In China?

China children 'hacked to death' in new school attack. This is not the first attack of its kind; it's attack number SIX. Two factors contributing to this weird and grisly new.. trend are Social/Economic revenge, and Copy Cats, both types of crimes committed by the insane. This type of attacker poses a major problem for China both short and long-term.

According to one of the links, China has an estimated two percent of their population that is mentally ill. Two percent of 1.3 billion people is 26 million, so that's A Lot. There is also a stigma attached to mental illness and counseling, so not many seek it out and there isn't a system in place to cope with growing numbers of overstressed, less educated, newly poor(er) Chinese. The first attacker claimed revenge against society as his motive, and that, evidently, has resonated within a certain segment of China's populace. And these copycat/revenge killings will likely continue, as the economic circumstances that changed and collectively stressed Chinese society will also likely continue.

So, unless the unreported mentally ill and socio-economically disadvantaged classes get bored with the idea of attacking and killing kids or the Chinese government(and the people in general) gets its shit together regarding treatment for(and the outlook for those with) mental illness, there will be a major increase in these attacks. The memories of these attacks, not only the direct victims, but on this entire generation of children, will directly effect their collective psyche with fear that the rest of us will never understand. From almost infancy, this generation of Chinese children will Never Feel Safe, and they'll live their entire life from the shadows of this horrible, dark perspective.

Sad, and the global implications for the future are a bit disturbing..

Mother's Day Doom Roundup

Oil Doom:

Problem for Containment Dome in Gulf

BP Oil Spill : 7 Secrets BP doesn't want you to know

What next? After failure, BP mulls gusher options

Economic Doom:

EU Crafts $962 Billion Show of Force to Halt Euro Crisis

Ron Paul Warns That "Greece Is Just The Beginning!" (VIDEO)

Earthquake Doom:

Tsunami warning issued after 7.4 magnitude earthquake off Indonesia

Volcano Doom:

More from Eyjafjallajokull

The Good People Of Nashville Would Like A Word With You, Governor..

Rick Perry Blames God For Gulf Oil Spill. Corporate negligence or Terrorist attack(Maybe Tectonic Movement/Volcanoes..), neither really qualifies as "Act of God." Not like, at the moment, Tennessee..

In a reltated thought, evidently, Not Counting a cataclysmic event, supporters say Offshore Drilling should only (along with the overall industry) be judged only by most of its successful past.