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Chinese villagers 'descended from Roman soldiers' Excerpts:
Tests found that the DNA of some villagers in Liqian, on the fringes of the Gobi Desert in north-western China, was 56 per cent Caucasian in origin.
Many of the villagers have blue or green eyes, long noses and even fair hair, prompting speculation that they have European blood.
A local man, Cai Junnian, is nicknamed by his friends and relatives Cai Luoma, or Cai the Roman, and is one of many villagers convinced that he is descended from the lost legion. (Click the link and look at that picture. That man looks European to me..)
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The genetic tests have leant weight to the theory that Roman legionaries settled in the area in the first century BC after fleeing a disastrous battle.
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Thousands of Romans were slaughtered and Crassus himself was beheaded, but some legionaries were said to have escaped the fighting and marched east to elude the enemy.
They supposedly fought as mercenaries in a war between the Huns and the Chinese in 36BC – Chinese chroniclers refer to the capture of a "fish-scale formation" of troops, a possible reference to the "tortoise" phalanx formation perfected by legionnaries. The wandering Roman soldiers are thought to have been released and to have settled on the steppes of western China.
The theory was first put forward in the 1950s by Homer Dubs, a professor of Chinese history at Oxford University.
We are what we are, but sometimes we discover that we are more or different than we think..
Compelling news story from Houston's ABC affiliate about potentially THE biggest archaeological discovery EVER. If correct, what we think we know of our ancient history all comes up for review.
Hopefully, as more discoveries are made, what we think we know regarding this existence will be obsolete.. And replaced with something much more fantastical and genuine very soon. Here's hoping..
China, Russia quit dollar. Excerpts/Italics:
St. Petersburg, Russia - China and Russia have decided to renounce the US dollar and resort to using their own currencies for bilateral trade, Premier Wen Jiabao and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin announced late on Tuesday.
Chinese experts said the move reflected closer relations between Beijing and Moscow and is not aimed at challenging the dollar, but to protect their domestic economies.
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The yuan has now started trading against the Russian rouble in the Chinese interbank market, while the renminbi will soon be allowed to trade against the rouble in Russia, Putin said.
And:
Wen said Beijing is willing to boost cooperation with Moscow in Northeast Asia, Central Asia and the Asia-Pacific region, as well as in major international organizations and on mechanisms in pursuit of a "fair and reasonable new order" in international politics and the economy.
Sun Zhuangzhi, a senior researcher in Central Asian studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the new mode of trade settlement between China and Russia follows a global trend after the financial crisis exposed the faults of a dollar-dominated world financial system.
Pang Zhongying, who specializes in international politics at Renmin University of China, said the proposal is not challenging the dollar, but aimed at avoiding the risks the dollar represents.
This is some pretty dire news. The systems and relationships propping up the Dollar-as-World-Currency are failing, one by one, and soon, it'll be too big to ignore. But for now, take solace in Bristol Palin flaming out on Dancing With The Stars. No need to think about a plan of action just yet, right?
US Aircraft Carrier Heads for Korean Waters
A U.S. aircraft carrier headed toward the Korean peninsula on Wednesday, a day after North Korea launched dozens of artillery shells on a South Korean island.
The nuclear-powered USS George Washington, which carries 75 warplanes and has a crew of over 6,000, left a naval base south of Tokyo on Wednesday morning and would join exercises with South Korea from Sunday to the following Wednesday, U.S. officials in Seoul said.
"This exercise is defensive in nature," U.S. Forces Korea said in a statement. "While planned well before yesterday's unprovoked artillery attack, it demonstrates the strength of the ROK (South Korea)-U.S. alliance and our commitment to regional stability through deterrence."
China came under heavy pressure to rein in North Korea after its reclusive ally fired dozens of artillery shells at the South Korean island, killing two South Korean soldiers and setting houses ablaze in the heaviest attack on its neighbor since the Korean War ended in 1953.
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"We're in a semi state of war," South Korean coastguard Kim Dong-jin told Reuters in the port city of Incheon where many residents of Yeonpyeong island fled in panic as the bombardment triggered a fire storm.
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South Korea, its armed forces technically superior though about half the size of the North's one-million-plus army, warned of "massive retaliation" if its neighbor attacked again.
Sounds like South Korea has had enough. Two things set this apart from normal North/South squabbling: The heaviest attack since 1953 and on a completely domestic target (they'll count as one), and the particular timing of this event. Any escalation on the Korean peninsula will impact an already fragile, swaying world market. Will China via North Korea pull out one more global Jenga piece? Once events are set in motion, Inertia becomes impossible to stop. We are descending every day into bigger and more Novel situations in all facets of our lives. Maybe that was what The Tipping Point was about.
N. Korea fires artillery onto S. Korean island; one soldier killed This is hours old, and huge. Potential for escalation is great. It's all beginning to happen at once, eh?
Irish PM is forced to agree to dissolve government. Holy Crap! Excerpts in italics:Amid calls for his immediate resignation from at least two MPs in his own Fianna Fail party and the withdrawal of support from coalition partners the Green Party, Prime Minister Brian Cowen was forced on Monday to announce the pending dissolution of his government...The turmoil and political uncertainty following a bailout that was meant to bring stability has done little to calm markets; despite hopes the package would ease Ireland’s debt crisis, borrowing costs barely budged and the euro declined in the markets Monday. This has heightened concerns among European leaders that the rescue has failed and that further bailouts may be needed to prevent a run on Portuguese and Spanish banks and bond markets.Hours after the European Union and the Washington-based International Monetary Fund negotiated an €85-billion bailout-loan package on Sunday, the Green Party, which holds the balance of seats that allows Mr. Cowen’s Fianna Fail to govern, delivered a poison-pill announcement: it will pass the brutal austerity measures required as part of the bailout, but at the cost of killing the government.Green Leader John Gormley, expressing the views of increasingly furious Irish citizens, said he would allow the government to pass a four-year program to slash a further €15-billion from government spending through tax hikes and service cuts in the Dec. 7 budget bill. But he demanded a national election in January in return, a move that will almost certainly end the career of Mr. Cowen and possibly eviscerate his party.And:The allies of the Prime Minister, or Taoiseach, wasted little time in delivering the long knives on Monday, distancing themselves from a leader who has infuriated voters by insisting for weeks that Ireland’s sovereignty would be kept intact – and by keeping Ireland’s low 12.5-per-cent corporate tax in place while raising taxes and slashing welfare.Let the protests begin!And, because it's Ireland, the Real IRA's gonna kick it up a few notches..The speed of this whole process has been so much faster than any "mainstream" analyst dreamed it could be.. Last week, a bailout was proposed and implemented, and yesterday, it failed. And Ireland begins a descent into.. No one knows. And the pace of these events is accelerating..Portugal's next(Oops!). Then Spain. And Italy? And then?Pay close attention: History is being made right before our eyes.
This time; It's Portugal. And Payback. And Twice The VanDamage..(Thanks, Janeane Garafalo)Portugal, it seems, has a different set of problems than Ireland. Here's how: (from the Payback link..)Ireland’s government has money, but its banks are drowning in debt, and the government has vowed to guarantee debts, making the state itself vulnerable. Portugal’s problem is different. Its banks are not especially troubled, but the state itself has high debts and low growth, and the mound of both public and private debt is considerable. The total debt is larger than the annual gross domestic product, some $275 billion of debt in an economy of $232 billion a year, one of the highest ratios in the developed world.And:So the interest rates Portugal would have to pay on the markets, should it have to borrow money now, would be much too high, forcing it to seek money from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. The government here, as in Dublin, hopes the markets will calm down. But other European Union governments are concerned that unless the markets are appeased now, by protecting Ireland and Portugal, the contagion will spread to huge Spain, the fourth largest economy among the countries that use the euro.The more I learn about this crisis, the more I tend to believe the worst possible outcomes will actually occur. There aren't any general answers applicable to more than one country, as economic circumstances will be country wide, but not regional. Solutions that appeal to both France and Germany would financially cripple or kill other EU countries. The solutions will be complex and incredibly painful for the weakest countries, and protests and riots are almost sure to follow. And still, the system will most likely collapse.To drive the point home.. So, if the EU fractures, what sort of effect will it have here in America? Our financial structures And our government are both perilously close to collapse, and locked in tight with all of Europe. How could we possibly absorb the implosion of so many economically interwoven allies? How?
Amazing and humbling video of a scientific "gamble" researchers made by pointing the Hubble Telescope at an "empty" part of space. The resulting pictures and 3D rendering show otherwise. We as humans cannot and will not ever be able to grasp the scale of the Universe, the expanse of Infinite, or the concept of Heaven, as it relates to an Infinite Universe.. These pictures prove that.And we will continue to grasp, struggling.And we will continue to struggle, grasping..
For the first time ever, Sense and Antisense hit 1000 page views this month. For others, this isn't a big milestone, as some sites I visit have over 1000 visitors at that moment. But, for me, this is a really nice first step. So, thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed your stay. Come by again soon, as I'm sure to be freaking out over some thing or another..
From Aletho News:Patrick J. Leahy — VermontHerb Kohl — WisconsinJeff Sessions — AlabamaDianne Feinstein — CaliforniaOrrin G. Hatch — UtahRuss Feingold — WisconsinChuck Grassley — IowaArlen Specter — PennsylvaniaJon Kyl — ArizonaChuck Schumer — New YorkLindsey Graham — South CarolinaDick Durbin — IllinoisJohn Cornyn — TexasBenjamin L. Cardin — MarylandTom Coburn — OklahomaSheldon Whitehouse — Rhode IslandAmy Klobuchar — MinnesotaAl Franken — MinnesotaChris Coons — Delaware Aletho states effectively: This law takes down entire websites based on the government’s say-so. First Amendment protections make clear that if you are going to stop any specific speech, it has to be extremely specific speech. This law has no such restrictions. It’s really quite unfortunate that these 19 US Senators are the first American politicians to publicly vote in favor of censoring speech in America. Ooohhh.. Next stop: Totalitarian dystopia, but no one will know it because those who know won't be around(prison, dead, or exile), or won't be allowed to say anything(prison, dead, exile, or censored).
Man in quiet California town focus of terror hysteria. This article starts off innocently enough(just like Larry Coppello's Friday..)Washington - Larry Copello went to work at his tiny machine shop in a small town nestled in the foothills of California's Sierra Nevada mountains, having no idea Friday would be no ordinary day.The telephone began ringing. Dozens of news organizations in the United States and around the world had questions.Suddenly, Copello found himself at the centre of the terrorism hysteria that began Wednesday in the southern African country of Namibia, swept Thursday through Germany, and eventually led back to his little garage shop in Sonora, a town of 4,000 people near Yosemite National Park.We then find out: ..The scare started with a fake bomb made four years ago at Copello's company by none other than his then 80-year- old mother-in-law, Copello revealed in a telephone interview Friday with the German Press Agency dpa...Copello's company is in the business of making suitcases that contain detonators, batteries and wires that are designed to look like bombs. His firm of three employees makes the devices for government agencies who use the dummies to train security personnel on how to spot suspicious items in X-ray scanners at airports.But when one of his devices was left behind at Namibia's Windhoek airport among luggage bound for Munich, it sparked a terrorism scare. That scare hit hard in Germany, which had already been on high alert over unrelated intelligence warnings that a possible terrorist attack was in the works.And:"I am overwhelmed with all the talking to people about this," he told dpa. "What I don't understand is the power of the Internet and how one little thing can be all over the Earth. That to me is kind of frightening." When Copello, who said he doesn't even use email, was told of one Internet headlines in Germany that read "The mysterious suitcase of Larry Copello," he replied: "Oh, my God."At first, I thought his surprise was in reaction his fake bomb caught up in a terror scare. Are there any real bombs ever used? If there are real bombs involved, it's usually called "terrorism," then, right? But now, it seems to be his shock is purely over global reach of the Internet. I think he had no idea that his company would be so "Globally Outed" (Not to say they were guilty of anything, mind you..) in connection this week's Namibia/Germany scare. Maybe it was a realization that, for a few news cycles maybe, his anonymity is gone, and that a whole lot of people, who he doesn't and can never fully know of, know who he is, where he is, and enough to about him to form an opinion with the little information they have.To a man decoupled enough from technology to not have email (Email, for God's sake!), the awareness that people worldwide were discussing him could be unsettling, off-putting, or full blown terrifying. Larry Copello, meet the Internet; Internet, meet Larry Copello..
Humans do have psychic powers, study claims.. Obsequious, purple, and clairvoyant excerpts in italics:In one experiment, students were given a list of words to memorise which they were later asked to recall, before being given a selection of the words to type out.The volunteers were able to recall some words more easily than others – which tended to be those that they would later be asked to type. (I think the list in question was made up of pre-selected words..)In another experiment, the students were shown an image of two curtains on a computer screen and told to pick the one that concealed an erotic picture. They chose the correct curtain more often than could be explained by coincidence, Prof Bem claims.The position of the picture was randomly determined by a computer after the students made their decision, which Prof Bem views as evidence that the students were influencing future events.(Notice the similarities to properties of quantum physics? Observation/Interaction influences outcome..)Joachim Krueger, a US psychologist, said the claim that humans may have psychic powers is “ridiculous” but admitted that, having examined Prof Bem’s methodology, “frankly, everything seemed to be in good order”.What might we have learned? That Psychic Activity is both innate, and in some way, relate able to quantum physics. Which is cooler: That this potential is within us all, or that the paranormal now has links to avant garde mathematical theory? It's a tie, nerds, but then you knew that too, didn't you?
From The Daily Galaxy. Excerpts:"We can now say that the planet was altered on a global scale by liquid water about four billion years ago." - John Carter of the University of ParisMinerals in northern Mars craters observed by two NASA orbiters suggest that a phase in Mars' early history with conditions favorable to life occurred globally, not just in the south...In recent years, the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter and NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have found clay minerals that are signatures of a wet environment at thousands of sites in the southern highlands of Mars, where rocks on or near the surface are about four billion years old. Until this week, no sites with those minerals had been reported in the northern lowlands, where younger volcanic activity has buried the older surface more deeplyAnd:CRISM Principal Investigator Scott Murchie of Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, said that the findings aid interpretation of when the wet environments on ancient Mars existed relative to some other important steps in the planet's early history.The prevailing theory for how the northern part of the planet came to have a much lower elevation than the southern highlands is that a giant object slammed obliquely into northern Mars, turning nearly half of the planet's surface into the solar system's largest impact crater. The new findings suggest that the formation of water-related minerals, and thus at least part of the wet period that may have been most favorable to life, occurred between that early giant impact and the later time when younger sediments formed an overlying mantle.With each new discovery, with every advancement in knowledge, those outlandish theories about Mars don't sound as far fetched as they once did..
Gonzalo Lira can help. Why is the EU Crisis important? Globalist financial/banking policy has tangled not only neighboring European countries economies together in a way impossible to decouple without serious turbulence, but the majority of the world's collective economy is also locked in a larger magnification of what currently ails the EU. And, as goes Europe, so goes the Global Financial System. Lira writes simply, directly, distilling complex financial situations into an easy to understand narrative of real-time economic events, and why there are no easy or immediate answers to this rapidly blooming global catastrophe..Lira also thinks the European situation is deteriorating rapidly, even more than he recently predicted. I know, I know.. The economic crisis is no where near as fun as Bristol Palin or even the Royal Engagement, but hopefully a few of you will take the 15 minutes or so required to read both articles. You should, then, have a much better handle on the implications this has for America's immediate financial future. Short answer: Huge, and Terrible.
From IO9 These diagrams from the March 2, 1942 issue of Life detailed the Nazi invasion of America shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Check out such alternate reality battles like the bombing of Detroit and invasion of Norfolk, Virginia.These maps were created as a follow-up to an article about an American defeat in WWII by pioneering science fiction author Philip Wylie, who wrote the proto-superhero novel Gladiator. These maps were made in the early days of US involvement in World War II, so there was a sense that this invasion was a real possibility.Although an American created these plans, it is a little chilling to see the maps and think about the possibility that they probably weren't too far from actual Nazi planning, and implementation and/or success in at least one multiverse..
47 Earthquakes between Mag. 4.3 and 5.2 off the Yemini coast and Gulf of Aden as of 7 p.m. CST November 16.Three thoughts come to mind.. Increased geologic activity(in overall magnitude, not in amount of quakes--note the distinction), not only in this region, but worldwide(including volcanoes)..Man-made tectonic activity. But why would this be? A poster from my favorite conspiracy site (from China, too!) says "There was an article on Veterans Today about the difficulties of a US invasion of Iran and that a possible way in is through the Yemeni port of Gwardar, but it's totally inadequate at the moment.No worries. Cause a buncha earthquakes on land or out in the seabed to cause a tsunami in the area. Next, shout out, "You poor Yemeni victims! Here, let us help and rebuild! No charge for now, pay later! We'll send the Seabees first, and you won't know the place when we're done!"Nice..But my favorite involves Aliens AND Pirates!The beauty of Conspiracy Theory is the divergent interpretive directions each perspective can travel. From the sublime to the insane to the infinitely sinister, they can all co-exist on not only collectively on the web, but within each of our own contradictory natures. To embrace the extremes of thought, to live the dissonance, is part of my wonder of life itself. Information as drug? Yeah; I'm hooked..
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) raises margins on commodities again, Excerpts:The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) is continuing its assault to stem the speculation on commodities that threaten to go parabolic due to the Fed's QE2 and subsequent inflation.Last week, silver took a plunge immediately after the CME raised margin rates 30% from $5000.00 to $6500.00, and it is affecting other commodities such as copper as well.Tyler Durden from ZeroHedge says:Look for a second round of imminent margin hikes in cotton, sugar, coffee and wheat, as the exchanges are suddenly very concerned about what retail margin collapses may mean for the non-existent wealth effect.Change is afoot, friends, and all sectors of our (and the world's) economy are fluid. Watching CNBC will be so much more exciting in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!
Westboro protesters face jeers and slashed tires. I'm sure this incident won't shut them up, and it's not very nice(or legal), but they sure deserve every bit of good will they receive, don't you think?
Silver $25.69
Gold $1360.90
Chart courtesy of UrbanSurvival. Both metals on the rise again after being beat down in the four previous market days. Silver manipulation, anyone?
Revealed: Texas officials covered up dangerously radioactive tap water for years Disgusting excerpts in italics:Texas officials charged with protecting the environment and public health have for years made arbitrary subtractions to the measured levels of radiation delivered by water utilities across the state, according to a series of investigative reports out of Houston.Those subtractions, based on the test results' margin of error, made all the difference for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ): without the reduction, demonstrated levels of dangerous radiation would have been in excess of federal limits for years.This was being done in direct contravention of an order by the US Environmental Protection Agency, which told state regulators in 2000 to stop subtracting the margin of error.This is nice..Confronted by reporter Mark Greenblatt, TCEQ staffer Linda Brookins claimed that the radiation was "natural" and people shouldn't be concerned. She also refused to read on camera the EPA's order to stop subtracting margins of error from radiation test results.andThanks to the TCEQ's under-reporting of radioactive content, one particular water provider in Harris County was able to skirt needed maintenance for years, even though uncensored tests showed radiation was almost always above legal limits.What did we learn today? Regulation with corrupt Oversight is worse than no Regulation at all. Sleep well, my Texan friends.. It's probably not a tumor..
Or essentially carrying on with the same policies of your predecessor.. ‘I’d have endorsed Obama if they’d asked me,’ Bush reportedly said.After this week of Bush's return to the world's stage, I really wish he would have shown up October 1st. People would have "remembered," and the election would have been waaaay different.
Silver $27.58
Gold $1396.90
Kitco chart from Urban Survival. Silver and Gold both dipped after new highs($29.38/Silver, and $1425.50/Gold), but are recovering losses from today's bottom($26.43/$1381.70).
Tomorrow is another day..
Town in ‘Erin Brockovich’ suffers as groundwater grows even more toxic. Excerpts:A tiny desert town whose plight was made famous by the movie "Erin Brockovich" has seen a dramatic increase in the size of a toxic plume of chromium as it has spread to multiple groundwater wells.Water regulators earlier this year discovered a well with increasing concentrations of the cancer-causing pollutant and now even more wells have been uncovered with elevated levels, said Lauri Kemper, assistant executive officer of the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control board.The water board on Monday ordered Pacific Gas & Electric to do additional groundwater monitoring at the site near Hinkley, about 120 miles northeast of Los Angeles."The more dispersed chromium continues to move," Kemper told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "Because of the widespread nature of the lower concentration chromium, it's difficult to capture the contamination."The contamination was first publicized during a 1996 court case in which PG&E settled with more than 600 Hinkley residents for $333 million. Many sick residents blamed the contaminated water for their crippling health problems that included Hodgkin's disease and breast cancer.No mention of prosecution for this most recent contamination.. PG&E to Hinkley, California? Screw you; Maybe we'll do some more testing.. Doesn't really matter, though, does it? After all, it's not YOUR little town in peril..
Rich Vail Fund Manager Hits Cyclist And Runs, Gets Off Because Charges Might "Jeopardize His Job" With "Are you f/n kidding me?" excerpts in italics..The rich are different from you and me; they get to hit and run, almost killing a cyclist, but get off without serious charges because it is hard to be money manager for Smith Barney if you have a record. District Attorney Mark Hurlbert is not charging Martin Joel Erzinger with a felony, because "Felony convictions have some pretty serious job implications for someone in Mr. Erzinger's profession," which is managing billions for rich people.Dr. Steven Milo, the victim, is not impressed. Mr. Erzinger struck me, fled and left me for dead on the highway," Milo wrote. "Neither his financial prominence nor my financial situation should be factors in your prosecution of this case."Milo was bicycling eastbound on Highway 6 just east of Miller Ranch Road, when Erzinger allegedly hit him with the black 2010 Mercedes Benz sedan he was driving. Erzinger fled the scene and was arrested later, police say. Erzinger allegedly veered onto the side of the road and hit Milo from behind. Milo was thrown to the pavement, while Erzinger struck a culvert and kept driving, according to court documents.Erzinger drove all the way through Avon, the town's roundabouts, under I-70 and stopped in the Pizza Hut parking lot where he called the Mercedes auto assistance service to report damage to his vehicle, and asked that his car be towed, records show. He did not ask for law enforcement assistance, according to court records.Vomitous, or Goddamned disgusting, if you prefer..Xymphora(Thanks for the link!) says it perfectly.."Back in the day, there was one law which governed the royals and the nobility (which is to say no law at all), and another law for everybody else. Then there were some revolutions and stuff, and there was supposed to be one law for all. With the victory of the counter-revolution of the plutocrats, American prosecutors are no longer even pretending that the rich are subject to the law."And the "Haves" wonder why the "Have Nots" are angry..
$28.09/Silver
1411.30 Gold
Source: Kitco chart via Urban Survival
Silver increased in price $1.35 in less than 24 hours. Clif said that silver first increase by a dollar a day, then to five dollars a day, and then.. Change is just around the corner..
$26.76 From Kitco.com. I don't have a screen shot, and Silver is likely to change in price once the market opens. This is just for documentation. $26.76 at the open of Monday's market..
Tucked in the second paragraph of the already politically *Major* article Lords stunned by Tory peer's IRA funding claim is this MegaBlast: Lord James of Blackheath also claims that he is in touch with a secret organisation which he called Foundation X, with vast sums of money at its disposal, which is prepared to lend billions to the British government, interest free, to help reduce the deficit, but he has been unable to get ministers to believe him. His claims were ridiculed as coming from a man who has lost touch with reality when he voiced them in the House of Lords this week, but a government minister, Lord Sassoon, said that they had been the subject of "detailed discussions".Don't get me wrong.. Admitting to laundering money for multiple terrorist organizations(the biggest being the IRA) is a pretty big revelation in itself..Lord James told peers: "I have had one of the biggest experiences in the laundering of terrorist money and funny money that anyone has had in the City. I have handled billions of pounds of terrorist money. My biggest client was the IRA and I am pleased to say that I managed to write off more than £1bn of its money. I have also had extensive connections with North African terrorists, but that was of a far nastier nature, and I do not want to talk about that because it is still a security issue. I hasten to add that it is no good getting the police in, because I shall immediately call the Bank of England as my defence witness, given that it put me in to deal with these problems."But Foundation X.. That's.. Something.He told peers that he was approached for or five months ago by a City firm, on behalf of "a strange organisation which wishes to make a great deal of money available to assist the recovery of the economy". Later, Lord James gave a figure of £75bn. He said: "I have come to the absolute conclusion that Foundation X is completely genuine and sincere and that it directly wishes to make the United Kingdom one of the principal points that it will use to disseminate its extraordinarily great wealth as part of an attempt to seek the recovery of the global economy." He said that he had arranged for a representative of Foundation X to meet the leader of the House of lords, Lord Strathclyde, but that the meeting went so badly that" neither of them ended up by inviting the other out for a coffee or drink at the end of the evening, and they did not exchange telephone numbers".Of course there are critics..Lord Strathclyde later told Lord James that the claims made about Foundation X could not be true, because all of their wealth is supposedly backed by gold bullion, which would imply they held more bullion than had been mined in the history of the world. Lord James, who is 72, said the total amount of bullion in the world may have been miscalculated, because "the total value of the Vatican bank reserves would claim to be more than the entire value of gold ever mined".Lord James' credentials:As a businessman, David James had a reputation as a "company doctor" who was called in to take over enterprises that were on the brink of failure, including the Millennium Dome. In preparation for the 2001 general election, he was a member of an exclusive club of businessmen each of whom donated at least £10,000 a year to the Conservatives. Michael Howard, David Cameron's predecessor, sent for him in 2004 to hold a review into how a Tory government might save £35bn a year by cutting Whitehall waste. The James Review of Taxpayer Value was praised by George Osborne as a "valuable exercise in identifying poor value for money". At Mr Howard's request, David Cameron arranged for James to be rewarded with a life peerage, as a working peer, in 2006.So.. Who or What is Foundation X? The nuns known as Sorcha Faal have an answer of course, and the conspiracy includes John Stewart. Awesome. Come to think of it, that might explain Tim Geithner meeting with Stewart earlier this year, which was odd.. Or, more like "weird."
"On 11-11, 2010, one million people across the globe will mentally project a unified vision of a new paradigm for our species... a new reality. The very real physics that connects human consciousness with molecular structure will be harnessed en masse during the largest scale simultaneous manifestation transmission in recorded history."
Actually, this is an 11 day event, culminating on the 11th, so it's happening now. If you're interested, link up and pass it on..
What's left of the "Right/Left"-paradigm-believer in me was a little depressed as to how today's election results would play out. For me, it's not so much the transfer of power (It's cyclical, and spiraling tighter..), it's the sheer obvious-ness of America's massive and collective Attention Deficit Disorder and catastrophic lack of fundamental and recent history, political, economic, and otherwise. It's the dark, murky cynicism shown in the more aggressive of political ads, not only for the opponent, but towards the voting populace. You will believe anything I say if the accompanying soundtrack is scary enough.. It's the chasm between what was promised and what (and in what form) was delivered. I'm immersed and obsessed and disgusted by the entire process.
So I didn't watch. I got a few updates from the net, watched Modern Family episodes, The Nanny Marathon, and surfed the net. And I feel much more peaceful than I would have subjecting myself to the non-stop poison disguised as "political discorse" that dominates the MSM. And, whatever the result, I didn't want tonight's results to remove focus from November's(and beyond) considerations. According to many sources, the Shit Is Coming, possibly within one week. Here are just a few.. "considerations" to file underneath the umbrella term "Global Tipping Point."
Earth changes: Iceland and Indonesia(!!) getting ready to blow.. Literally.
Stuxnet and the new cyber-warfare:
From Urban Survival.. Coping: Fears of Stuxnet - the Anagram & Heysham /Italics:
Although we've covered the possibility that "Son of Stuxnet" could be the kind of problem that sets off our 'tipping point' next week, the prospect had actually been a ways down my list of 'suspects' since I hadn't previously spent much time figuring out what a massive disruption to the internet would do to everyday life.
But, upon inspection, the impacts of an attack, directed at key machine hardware in high level internet router equipment could be HUGE. And that's putting it mildly.
To start with, a colleague of mine - a high level academic - called on Monday to say that one of his colleagues who was one of the 'early draft picks' to be involved with the cybersecurity efforts against terrorism was a bit freaked out over the possibility.
"Seems that the design of the Stuxnet virus was really head and shoulders above what the cyber warfare people had been anticipating," he began. "This was a very sophisticated virus which would have taken dozens of people years to create..."
We chatted a bit more and I idly started to list some of the impacts of a Stux-type attack if it were directed against the whole internet via the high-level routers that are in place.
*Finances would seize up. Not more online stock trading.
*No more ATM - few if any credit cards would work.
*AC power systems could fail because much of the admin traffic to run the SCADA systems transits the physical transport layers of 'the net'
*And along with that, much of the public switched telephone network would go down for the same reason - PSTN packets transit them, too.
Then there are wire transfers, orders for things like warehouse reorder levels and so on...
I stopped jotting down the impacts, because it was just the kind of thing that could account for a) Clif's "data gap" that we've been nattering on about for what, a year now? If you're new, the rickety time machine project which uses conversations on the whole of the internet (less emails and private traffic of course) to figure out likely futures - and sometimes, it's been really very much on target. Here next week, we come into what we expect, based on language shift, to be a huge 'tipping point' which will last at least under mid-January of 2011. It would also, b), account for the curious language shift around this 'tipping point' - really the only major one globally since 9/11, which is the first one we caught back in mid 2001.
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As usual, if I have any question about anything having to do with computers, I get on the phone to Clif and ask him for an assessment of Stuxnet - and his answers were anything but reassuring... a couple of notes and ponder points follow which I've written down best I can recall them from a guy who captured a chucnk of stuxnet and took it apart to see what's in it, using some of the old-school tools like the EXE to BIN converters that still run on W98 machines......
Stuxnet was a very complex piece of code. But complex not so much in the sense that it carried a lot of libraries on board, but because it was many 'open calls' deep in the code that were, best I can decrypt our conversation, designed to go out and look for local libraries and local devices.
These 'open calls' mean that Stuxnet could be looking for more than a single device class. Oh, sure, the Siemens PLC (programmable logic controllers) were the first device-specifics, but seems that the 'freak out' at the academic level is that there may be other devices on its shopping list.
The virus is huge as viruses go. Guys like Clif are mighty proud of being able to write compact code, and some of the versions of his Vortex Reader software (originally written for screen display of individual words - in flicker-fashion to provide for high speed reading - was extremely small - under 40 kilobytes. Stuxnet, by comparison is over a megabyte and it doesn't carry big libraries around.
This leads - at least to a programmer of some competence - to the idea that the libraries which are called by the sections of Stuxnet that haven't 'gone active' may have been previously 'positioned'.
Evidence that the Sun is becoming.. energetically unstable..
Again with all the fuckin' warlike behavior..
What if the US Dollar collapses and dies, almost overnight?
Not to mention food, water, and employment shortages..
Some of the woo-woo predictors include the webbots (radio interview through here), Timewave Zero (theory here), Bulgarian prophet Baba Vanga, the Federal Reserve, Astrological influences..
And then there's this nagging, persistent.. foreknowledge that these circumstances just.. can't.. remain.. the.. same. It feels like we all have a ringside seat for the manifestation of the meeting of immovable object versus irresistable force.. And the results of that confrontation will alter all of us from here on out. A feeling, but a very specific feeling, and I am definitely not alone in feeling this way..
Be back tomorrow.
It all starts soon.
Whatever it is, is almost manifest.
Whatever it turns out to be will change Everything.
Here we go..
Nibiru expert and author Zecharia Sitchin passed away this month. The family did a good job of keeping Sitchin's death quiet until early last week, in fact it's a little odd.. From the post/Italics:"It appears that many (including some who actually knew him) are surprised to hear of Zechariah Sitchin's passing in such an odd manner. It is certainly a mystery to me why no obituary or press release went out about this great man at the time just after his actual passing or why no mention was made until weeks after his funeral...and only then through an obscure PR website".I don't see a conspiracy afoot in the news delay of Sitchin's death; After all, what would it be? Estate/Inheritance related and family infighting scenarios, maybe, but the information of his passing serves no larger purpose that I can see. So.. Sad circumstances and an odd obituary situation, but nothing more.. Sitchin's site.
Letter: BP, Halliburton knew of flaws in cement in Gulf oil spill well. Friggin' ridiculous excerpts in italics:Oil giant BP and contractor Halliburton knew of potential flaws in the cement slurry used to reinforce the oil well below the Deepwater Horizon rig before it exploded in April, according to a letter Thursday from the lead investigator for a federal probe of the Gulf oil disaster.The letter from Fred Bartlit Jr. to the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling said that tests in February on a cement slurry similar to what was used on the Macondo well showed instability -- and that both companies had the data..."Halliburton and BP both had results in March showing that a very similar foam slurry design to the one actually pumped at the Macondo well would be unstable, but neither acted upon that data," the letter said.""Halliburton (and perhaps BP) should have considered redesigning the foam slurry before pumping it at the Macondo well," the letter continued.The news caused Halliburton stock to drop in value by almost 8 percent by the end of trading Thursday, to $31.68 a share. U.S. Rep. Edward Markey, D-Massachusetts, called for the oil spill commission to get full subpoena power, and for BP CEO Bob Dudley to agree to testify before Congress."The fact that BP and Halliburton knew this cement job could fail only solidifies their liability and responsibility for this disaster," Markey said in a written statement. "This is like building a car when you know the brakes could fail, but you sell the cars anyway."
Hey look! The perfect example of the failure of Government de-regulation regarding corporate safety practices, and all it took was a catastrophic environmental disaster that is far from over, far from "capped." Rather, the consequences of this disaster are just beginning to bloom. And there are no doubts this fruit will be poisonous..
Not literally, people; come on.. Failure Shuts Down Squadron of Nuclear Missiles. Excerpts/Italics:President Obama was briefed this morning on an engineering power failure at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming that took 50 nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), one-ninth of the U.S. missile stockpile, temporarily offline on Saturday.The base is a main locus of the United States’ strategic nuclear forces. The 90th Missile Wing, headquartered there, controls 150 Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic nuclear missiles. They’re on full-time alert and are housed in a variety of bunkers across the base.....engineers believe that a launch control center computer (LCC), responsible for a package of five missiles, began to “ping” out of sequence, resulting in a surge of “noise” through the system. The LCCs interrogate each missile in sequence, so if they begin to send signals out when they’re not supposed to, receivers on the missiles themselves will notice this and send out error codes.Since LCCs ping out of sequence on occasion, missileers tried quick fixes. But as more and more missiles began to display error settings, they decided to take off-line all five LCCs that the malfunctioning center was connected to. That left 50 missiles in the dark. The missileers then restarted one of the LCCs, which began to normally interrogate the missile transceiver. Three other LCCs were successfully restarted. The suspect LCC remains off-line.And:The defense official said that there had not been a power failure, though the official acknowledged that that explanation had made its way through public affairs channels. “We’ve never had something as big as this happen,” a military officer who was briefed on the incident said. Occasionally, one or two might blink out, the officer said, and several warheads are routinely out of service for maintenance. At an extreme, “[w]e can deal with maybe 5, 6, or 7 at a time, but we’ve never lost complete command and control and functionality of 50 ICBMs.” The Military says this happened previously in 1998 to two bases in North Dakota and Montana, and the same piece of hardware is blamed, too(see article linked), but I find the timing and magnitude of this incident particularly disturbing. I can't imagine the same programming/system problem that happened twelve years ago happened again because they couldn't isolate the bugs. 1998 was the Stone Age in cybertime, so no progress finding a fix? Really? Rating: Highly Suspect to Unadulterated Bullshit.So.. What caused it? How did the Military lose command and control of one ninth our ballistic missiles? Escalating tensions between North and South Korea, China and Japan, Israel and Iran, Russia and Georgia, stealth cyber warriors everywhere and nowhere at once, and something locks up our nukes? And what if something were to actually take control of those nukes and turn them inward?Have you noticed no one's talking about Stuxnet anymore? It must have just dissolved and gone away overnight..
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