Global Events: File Under: What You Might Have Missed..

Double volcanic eruption in Kamchatka

Markets get jitters as oil price heads for the sky

Fears that the unrest in North Africa and the Middle East could seriously disrupt oil supplies and throttle the world economy turned to reality yesterday and propelled the price of oil to more than $108 a barrel during trading, the highest since September 2008. It was $85 at the start of the year. The region supplies a third of the world's oil needs.



Analysts said that if the unrest in Libya, a major oil exporter, spread to more important powers such as Iran and Saudi Arabia then "the sky's the limit" for oil prices and $150 a barrel could be reached "without breaking a sweat", with grim implications for economic recovery, inflation and living standards worldwide.

Supposedly quake-proof buildings collapsed

Technically any new structure built in New Zealand has to be able to withstand intense quakes but footage has shown that, although older buildings in Christchurch seem to have been hit the hardest, plenty of newer ones that should have been able to survive a 6.3 quake have also collapsed.

Earthquake Shakes Up Suez Canal as Iran Warships Approach

An earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale shook up residents at the entrance to the Suez Canal early Monday morning, 48 hours before two Iranian ships, a frigate and a supply vessel, are expected to enter the canal.

The National Institute for Astronomical and Geophysical Research reported that tremors from the 3 a.m. quake lasted for 27 minutes, but caused no damage.

The ships had originally been expected to enter the Suez today (Monday), but Egyptian officials announced the delay this morning, without explanation.
And:
Egypt’s agreeing to allow Iranian ships to pass through the Suez is seen by many analysts as a signal that the new regime in Egypt is leaning towards ties with Iran, but Suez Canal officials have pointed out that an international convention requires it allow passage to all ships.  Egypt has reportedly agreed to allow the Iranian boats to pass through the canal en route to Syria. The Obama administration is concerned about “what’s the cargo on board, where is it going, to whom, for what benefit," U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters. Iran has said that the ships are headed for Syria for training, Crowley commented, as laughter was heard in the audience: “My initial response to that would be that we’re highly skeptical of that claim.”

Does a cat's purr hold holistic powers?

Which brings me back to that mystical side of a cat’s purr: it’s been suggested that one of the function of the purr is to enable natural healing of the cat’s own body. Cats purr during both inhalation and exhalation with a consistent pattern and frequency between 25 and 150 Hertz. Various investigators have suggested that sound frequencies in this range can improve bone density and promote healing.

THE DUBAI WASTELAND: 40% Of Buildings Are Vacant And Prices Keep Falling

Forty percent of the buildings in Dubai are vacant, according to Arabian Business.

For comparison only 28 percent of homes are vacant in America's ghost town, Detroit.

Now here's the scary part. Dubai hasn't stopped building:
And:
Real estate values have already fallen by over 60 percent

10 American Cities That Are Dead Forever

A city does not die when its last resident moves away.  Death happens when municipalities lose the industries and vital populations that made them important cities.

The economy has evolved so much since the middle of the 20th Century that many cities that were among the largest and most vibrant in America have  collapsed. Some have lost more than half of their residents. Others have lost the businesses that made them important centers of finance, manufacturing, and commerce.

Global community isolates Gaddafi

EU calls for investigation into possible crimes against humanity while US says "all options" are on the table.

Police, protesters clash again in Greece amid budget strike

Police fired tear gas near the Greek parliament on Wednesday as clashes broke out with protesters throwing stones and firebombs during a demonstration against austerity measures, an AFP reporter said.

The confrontation occurred near the finance ministry on central Syntagma Square with police seeking to block protesters from approaching the building as thousands marched in Athens and other major cities in this year's first general strike against wage and pension cuts.
..
At least 36,000 people according to police demonstrated on Wednesday in Athens, Thessaloniki and the port of Piraeus ..  Union sources put the Athens turnout at over 60,000 people.

Baby dolphins dying along oil-soaked US Gulf Coast

GULFPORT, Mississippi – Baby dolphins are washing up dead along the oil-soaked US Gulf Coast at more than 10 times the normal rate in the first birthing season since the BP disaster, researchers said.

Some 17 baby dolphin corpses have been found along the shorelines of Alabama and Mississippi in the past two weeks, The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies said.

"The average is one or two a month. This year we have 17, and February isn't even over yet," said Moby Solangi, director of the Gulfport, Mississippi-based institute.

"For some reason, they've started aborting or they were dead before they were born."
And:
Adult dolphin deaths tripled last year to 89 from a norm of about 30.

CIA Agent Caught Red-Handed Aiding Pakistani Terrorism?

The U.S. at first falsely claimed that Davis was a diplomat with the State Department and should therefore be granted diplomatic immunity:

But the deeper story is that Davis allegedly actively aided and abetted terrorism.

Oh, By The Way, The Country Of Greece Is On Strike..

Greek strike disrupts flights, cripples services.  Excerpts:

A general strike halted public transportation across Greece on Wednesday and led to the cancellation of more than 100 flights at Athens International Airport, as unions stepped up opposition to the country's austerity measures.


State hospital doctors, ambulance drivers, pharmacists, lawyers and tax collectors also joined school teachers, journalists and thousands of small businesses in the 24-hour strike as more middle-class groups took part in the protest than have in the past. Athens' main shopping district was mostly empty, as many small business owners shuttered their stores.
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The strike halted trains, ferries and most public transport across the country, and idled many airlines at the international airport.
And:
The IMF has said some of the frequent demonstrations against the Greek government's reforms were being carried out by groups angry at losing their "unfair advantages and privileges."  (Can you believe someone from the IMF said that, without a trace of irony?  C'mon..  The group controlling All The Money calling the "have nots"/everyone else on anger for losing privileges? Wow..  Wow..)

Global Revolution, meet Greece;  Greece?  Global Revolution..  But you have met before, right?

Christchurch Earthquake: Update, And Eerie Precursors..

From Raw Story via Agence France-Presse.  Excerpts: 

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand – New Zealand declared a national state of emergency Wednesday after one of its worst earthquake disasters left nearly 400 people dead or missing.


Rescuers worked frantically to reach survivors under collapsed buildings in the stricken city centre of Christchurch, after recovering 75 bodies. About 300 people are still missing after Tuesday's 6.3-magnitude quake.
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New Zealand's second city was a scene of "incredible carnage", police said.
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"There is incredible carnage right throughout the city," he told Radio New Zealand. "There are bodies littering the streets, they are trapped in cars and crushed under rubble."
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Prime Minister Key, who has described the disaster as possibly "New Zealand's darkest day", said dozens of aftershocks continued to rock the city, hampering rescue efforts.


"There is no reason that can make sense of this event. No words that can spare our pain," he said. "We are witnessing the havoc caused by a violent and ruthless act of nature."
And:
The quake is the deadliest to hit New Zealand since a 7.8-magnitude tremor killed 256 people in the Hawke's Bay region in 1931.
..
30m tons of ice set loose from glacier by NZ quake 

WELLINGTON: The 6.3-magnitude earthquake that struck New Zealand on Tuesday, killing at least 75 people in Christchurch, also shook loose 30 million tons of ice from the nation’s longest glacier, sending boulders of ice into a nearby lake.

Update coupled with gallery of devastation in the aftermath of the quake.  From the Daily Mail.
Now for some events directly ahead of this quake, noted before the event.

List of Magnitude 4 or higher earthquakes.

A minute by minute description of the quake's first day.

Now the eerie precursors..

This guy got it almost exactly right.  Yeah, he said an 8 magnitude quake, but this 6.3 mimicked an 8, didn't it?  He ties solar flares to an increase in earthquake activity, with the location of the solar flare on the sun's surface effecting areas here on earth that correlate to said location.  His information regarding New Zealand starts at 4:40..

This was an odd, not too realistic bit of news when it broke several days ago.  What to make of it?

107 Pilot whales offed themselves on a New Zealand beach.

SILENCE - do you hear that? At dawn hardly a bird can be heard.  Here's a conspiracy thread from New Zealand started February 17th.

And finally, 9 Members Of US Congress Left Christchurch New Zealand Hours Before Earthquake.  Man!  That was lucky, right?

Iran not behind Mideast protests: Mullen

From SpaceWar. And no, Mike Mullen's no lefty freak Iran apologist.  He's the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  Excerpts:

Iran foments instability in the Middle East but is not behind popular protests in Bahrain and other countries in the region, top US military officer Admiral Mike Mullen said Monday in Qatar.

"Iran, I still believe, is a country that continues to foment instability in the region, take advantage of every opportunity," But "from my perspective that has not been the principal focus of what happened in Egypt or what happened in Bahrain or any of these other countries,"

"Those are by and large internal issues, as opposed to issues fomented by some external forces," Mullen said, although "there's always concerns in this region with Iran and certainly the US has them as well as all the regional players."
..
"As far as Fifth Fleet operations, no, the demonstrations have not had any impact here -- we're continuing to conduct our regular business out here," a spokesman for the Fifth Fleet told AFP on Monday.

In the Qatari capital Doha, Mullen met with Crown Prince Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and army chief of staff General Hamad al-Attiyah.

He's right. Say what you want about Iran, but they didn't provide/provoke the tipping-point influence needed for either uprising in Tunisia or Egypt.  Tunisia fell after years of combination economic hardship, no jobs, a corrupt, nepotistic regime, and no future prospects for its citizens.  Tunisia reached its flash point when a 26 year old self-immolated(who was no revolutionary himself), frustration morphed into rage, and Revolution took hold within the Tunisian collective consciousness.

Egypt's revolution was not only a response to Mubarak's authoritarianism, but it was mostly a food riot extrapolated out to governmental overthrow, brought on by Ben Bernanke.  Thanks Ben!  The Washington Post's analysis is about half right:  Let's do some excerpts:

DOES BEN S. BERNANKE, the Federal Reserve chairman, deserve the blame - or the credit, depending on your point of view - for Hosni Mubarak's plight? Some seem to think so. Last August, Mr. Bernanke announced further Fed asset purchases known colloquially as "quantitative easing II," or "QEII" for short. The goal was to ease monetary conditions in the United States and fuel growth. But cheaper money lowered the costs and raised the rewards of speculating on food and energy, relative to some other investments. The latest rise in commodity prices began around the time of Mr. Bernanke's announcement; expensive food triggered unrest first in Tunisia and then in Egypt. Ergo, Mr. Bernanke undermined Mr. Mubarak - or so the argument goes.

Here's where The Post doesn't go far enough..

Still, Mr. Bernanke was probably right to deny that the Fed is "primarily responsible" for the current price run-up. The spike in wheat prices, which determines the price of bread in Cairo, began before QEII, when drought destroyed Russian crops. (Yes, but QEII exacerbated the crisis to boiling point. The absence of a single(or two, for that matter..)crop/commodity, even wheat, won't necessarily throw a society into chaos.  17 percent yearly inflation on people who make 2 dollars a day?  Now the promise of inevitable starvation, that's the kind of thing that freaks societies out.)  Subsequent floods in Australia have destroyed more wheat. As for other foodstuffs and oil, the continuing rapid growth of investment and middle-class consumption in China and India probably explains much recent inflation - just as it will probably drive future price increases in those goods. (Damn China and India for growing.  Just because their economy's are growing does not mean they're eating That Much More food to cause a significant Global agricultural distortion that would cause double digit inflation.  Yes, their populations are growing, but this cause/effect is too rapid for population increase to be a primary factor.).  Ugh.  Not a mention here as to how commodities traders influence global food prices, so when disaster does strike a crop, traders make much more money while doubling the effects of drought or flood on those who couldn't afford prices BEFORE said drought or flood happened..)

Reforming those misbegotten programs(Involving Sugar and Cotton--my clarification) would probably improve global commodity markets more than abolishing QEII, which ends in a few months anyway. (Bullshit.  The damage is done.  After QEII, will prices magically decrease, or will they stay at the same level/continue to rise as they do during inflationary periods?  My Unicorn says prices will decrease.)

Higher food prices do, indeed, hurt the poor. But the focus should be on alleviating their suffering - not on alleged political effects(Overthrowing their corrupt, misery causing governments IS Alleviating Their Suffering, ya big dumb douche!  Put differently:  Focus on the political effects of food inflation again, led to governmental overthrow, thereby alleviating the people's suffering.  Hey!  We ended up in the same place..). Costlier food all by itself is not destabilizing; there are no food riots in democratic India or the Philippines(Yet.  Yet.).  As Egypt and Tunisia prove, it's the combination of misery and tyranny that's combustible(At present.  Let's check back in December).

Bahrain might be the likeliest candidate for Iranian influence, or it might be the Shia majority is sick of the Sunni minority's oppressive rule.  This might be why:

"In Bahrain, you have the majority Shia, who are oppressed, and the minority Sunnis, who have all the money and all the power. That's a pretty volatile combination."



The extent of the economic divide between the Sunni ruling class and the Shiite majority is shocking, said Toby Jones, an assistant professor of history at Rutgers University and an editor at the Middle East Report political journal, who lived in Bahrain for several years in the mid-2000s.

"Nationally, Bahrain is a very poor country and the wealth that does get created is concentrated in the hands of the rulers and the influential," he said. "… I’ve never seen wretched poverty like I’ve seen in Bahrain."

Factors that spurred Libya's current bloodbath?  Inertia, and Gaddafi as mass murderer are two good guesses, for the moment..  Again, Iran just isn't a factor.  Iran's own protests have been squelched for the moment, so whether Revolution Inertia ultimately spread to Tehran remains to be seen. 

Until any credible evidence actually surfaces regarding Iran's influence on any effected country's problems, all narratives regarding factors should be assumed Internal, not due to External pressures from anyone in Iran.  If evidence points otherwise, I'll revisit my stance.  But right now, no such evidence seems to exist.  

 

And They All Got It "Wrong.."

Or they all knew it was bullshit, but did it anyway..
Rumsfeld: WMD issue was "the big one" in deciding to invade Iraq. Rummy must not have been paying attention. Curveball came out Last Week and told the World what we already knew: His claims of Weapons of Mass Destruction was a pack of lies, he knew it when he said it, and said it anyway. For profit, for power, whatever, Curvy. Are you enjoying the blood of hundreds of thousands of innocents on your conscience? Hint: You can NEVER scrub it off. Sweet dreams, bitch.

Weather experts predict major flooding in Midwest

From The Watchers Short answer: North and South Dakota, Minnesota, and residents along the Mississippi south to St. Louis are all at risk after the snow starts melting. The floods probably start early next month. Gentlemen; start your sandbags..

Mid-East Uprising: Libya Edition

"Libya on the brink."

It's clear Qadafi's regime won't go quietly, and it seems like the tide is turning.. Moammar Gadhafi's son warns of civil war in Libya if father's leadership not recognized Excerpts:

After anti-government unrest spread to the Libyan capital and protesters seized military bases and weapons Sunday, Moammar Gadhafi’s son went on state television to proclaim that his father remained in charge with the army’s backing and would “fight until the last man, the last woman, the last bullet.”
Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, in the regime’s first comments on the six days of demonstrations, warned the protesters that they risked igniting a civil war in which Libya’s oil wealth “will be burned.”
The speech followed a fierce crackdown by security forces who fired on thousands of demonstrators and funeral marchers in the eastern city of Benghazi in a bloody cycle of violence that killed 60 people on Sunday alone, according to a doctor in one city hospital. Since the six days of unrest began, more than 200 people have been killed, according to medical officials, human rights groups and exiled dissidents.
..
Although the elder Gadhafi did not appear, his son has often been put forward as the regime’s face of reform.
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Protesters had seized some military bases, tanks and other weapons, he said, blaming Islamists, the media, thugs, drunks and drug abusers, foreigners — including Egyptians and Tunisians. (It's amazing the feats drug users are capable of, huh?)
He also admitted that the unrest had spread to Tripoli, with people firing in central Green Square before fleeing.
The rebellion by Libyans frustrated with Gadhafi’s more than 40 years of authoritarian rule has spread to more than a half-dozen eastern cities — but also to Tripoli, where secret police were heavily deployed on the streets of the city of 2 million.
And:
In other setbacks for Gadhafi’s regime, a major tribe in Libya was reported to have turned against him and Libya’s representative to the Arab League said he resigned his post to protest the government’s decision to fire on defiant demonstrators in Benghazi, the second-largest city.
Khaled Abu Bakr, a resident of Sabratha, an ancient Roman city to the west, said protesters besieged the local security headquarters, driving out police and setting it on fire. Abu Bakr said residents are in charge, have set up neighborhood committees to secure their city.
The Internet has been largely shut down, residents can no longer make international calls from land lines and journalists cannot work freely, but eyewitness reports trickling out of the country suggested that protesters were fighting back more forcefully against the Middle East’s longest-serving leader.
“We are not afraid. We won’t turn back,” said a teacher who identified herself only as Omneya. ..“If we don’t continue, this vile man would crush us with his tanks and bulldozers. If we don’t, we won’t ever be free,” she said.

The Renaissance of the Arab World?

It's never good when your country's diplomats resign in disgust..

And finally, is global unrest starting to effect China?

Global Unrest Beginning In South America?

Could be bad news for Evo Morales.. Thousands Protest in Bolivia Over Rising Prices. Again with the Reuters "intellectual property" crap, so here we go.. Summary:
Bolivian Unions have been protesting higher food and fuel prices for the last five days. President Evo Morales announced he's going to raise gas by 73 percent and diesel by 83 percent. Even though Morales raised the minimum wage, people are still angry. Bus and taxi drivers and the Workers Union are striking.

Looks like Bolivia's fixin' to go hot. The take-away? Whatever your political affiliation(Morales is a major Populist/Leftist who began his career within the Coca growers Union and usually supported by Unions), when you have to raise prices for Necessary Commodities, people Flip Out. How Morales responds to the increasing pressure from economic setbacks, criticism and action from factions usually aligned with him, and mounting pressure from his political enemies remains to be seen.
Will the unrest seen towards authoritarian regimes in the Mid-East extend to Socialist governments in South America?

I'm sure Hugo Chavez is monitoring and analyzing the events in Bolivia very carefully.

Iranian warships pass through Suez Canal

Nothing's exploded yet, but Israel certainly isn't happy.. Since Reuters regards every word from all their articles as sacred and every other news organization is too lazy to write their own damn version of events, no excerpts are forthcoming. Summary: Iranian State TV said the ships are already through the canal and headed towards a port in Syria. Iranian ships through the Suez? Not since 1979, baby.. Israel's freaked out and will bitch about it for weeks to come.

Diplomatic tensions in the region just ticked upward.. Satisfied, Reuters?

Magnetic field changes activate the trigeminal brainstem complex in a migratory bird

Non-nerds need not apply.. After reading the Abstract, I think my ears are bleeding.. Bottom line: The trigeminal nerve in birds transmit magnetic information to the brain, and magnetic disturbance effects that information. Two pronged thought(s): If this is, in part, an explanation for the mass bird deaths, can the same be said for the fish/amphibian die offs? Might fish have a similar "sonar" navigational system, and/or might their nervous systems be effected by a sudden change in magnetism? As of yesterday, no official explanation for the fish deaths in Ozark, Arkansas(according to this horribly written article--scroll down mid-way) has been identified as the cause.
Solar magnetic activity during the three week apex of animal die-offs was low(Jan.1-21), so could tectonic activity or a pole shift generate enough and varied magnetic disturbance to this end? Or maybe, something else..
Now that Solar flare activity has increased, might we see similar events? If not; why?

Bahrain Massacre: The World Bears Witness In Horror And Disgust..

When Bahrain's al-Khalifa royal family is overthrown, I hope the trial is broadcast internationally. Their response to their people's peaceful demonstrations have sealed their fate, and their subjects have shown more courage than the royal family could ever muster. Bahrain protesters didn't run away. They faced the bullets head-on. Excerpts, doubling as future testimony at the World Court:

"Massacre – it's a massacre," the doctors were shouting. Three dead. Four dead. One man was carried past me on a stretcher in the emergency room, blood spurting on to the floor from a massive bullet wound in his thigh.
A few feet away, six nurses were fighting for the life of a pale-faced, bearded man with blood oozing out of his chest. "I have to take him to theatre now," a doctor screamed. "There is no time – he's dying!"
..
Eyewitness testimony from a hospital orderly at the demonstration..
"We decided to walk to the hospital because we knew there was a demonstration. Some of us were carrying tree branches as a token of peace which we wanted to give to the soldiers near the square, and we were shouting 'peace, peace. There was no provocation – nothing against the government. Then suddenly the soldiers started shooting. One was firing a machine gun from the top of a personnel carrier. There were police but they just left as the soldiers shot at us. But you know, the people in Bahrain have changed. They didn't want to run away. They faced the bullets with their bodies."
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The demonstration at the hospital had already drawn thousands of Shia protesters – including hundreds of doctors and nurses from all over Manama, still in their white gowns – to demand the resignation of the Bahraini Minister of Health, Faisal Mohamed al-Homor, for refusing to allow ambulances to fetch the dead and injured from Thursday morning's police attack on the Pearl Square demonstrators.

But their fury turned to near-hysteria when the first wounded were brought in yesterday. Up to 100 doctors crowded into the emergency rooms, shouting and cursing their King and their government as paramedics fought to push trolleys loaded with the latest victims through screaming crowds.
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Five ambulances sent to the street – yesterday's victims were shot down opposite a fire station close to Pearl Square – were stopped by the army. Moments later, the hospital discovered that all their mobile phones had been switched off. Inside the hospital was a doctor, Sadeq al-Aberi, who was himself badly hurt by the police when he went to help the wounded on Thursday morning.
..
Why has the royal family of Bahrain allowed its soldiers to open fire at peaceful demonstrators? To turn on Bahraini civilians with live fire within 24 hours of the earlier killings seems like an act of lunacy.

But the heavy hand of Saudi Arabia may not be far away. The Saudis are fearful that the demonstrations in Manama and the towns of Bahrain will light equally provocative fires in the east of their kingdom, where a substantial Shia minority lives around Dhahran and other towns close to the Kuwaiti border. Their desire to see the Shia of Bahrain crushed as quickly as possible was made very clear at Thursday's Gulf summit here, with all the sheikhs and princes agreeing that there would be no Egyptian-style revolution in a kingdom which has a Shia majority of perhaps 70 per cent and a small Sunni minority which includes the royal family.
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And the stakes here are high. This is the first serious insurrection in the wealthy Gulf states – more dangerous to the Saudis than the Islamists who took over the centre of Mecca more than 30 years ago – and Bahrain's al-Khalifa family realise just how fraught the coming days will be for them. A source which has always proved reliable over many years told me that late on Wednesday night, a member of the al-Khalifa family – said to be the Crown Prince – held a series of telephone conversations with a prominent Shia cleric, the Wifaq Shia party leader, Ali Salman, who was camping in Pearl Square. The Prince apparently offered a series of reforms and government changes which he thought the cleric had approved. But the demonstrators stayed in the square. They demanded the dissolution of parliament. Then came the police.
..
A doctor who gave his name as Hussein stopped me leaving the emergency room because he wanted to explain his anger. "The Israelis do this sort of thing to the Palestinians – but these are Arabs shooting at Arabs,".. "This is the Bahraini government doing this to their own people. I was in Egypt two weeks ago, working at the Qasr el-Aini hospital – but things are much more fucked up here."

The Shia make up 70% of Bahrain's population, controlled by the Sunni Royal Family. As you can see by this 2009 article, Shia dominated Iran has an affinity for Shia-majority-but-ruled-by-minority-Sunni Bahrain. Now that Iran has ships cruising the Suez Canal, is it beyond the scope of possibility that Iran might come to the aid of the Bahrainis and do a little ass kickin' on the Bahraini military, if the opportunity arises? How would the Saudis' react to such provocation, or more accurately, how quickly would this crisis escalate to a regional inferno? Note: Bahrain is also home to America's 5th Fleet, so the U.S. is involved with this uprising whether we like it or not. "On the one hand, Bahrain is a flash point between the United States and Iran," he told CNN. On the other, it's "a flash point between Saudi Arabia and Iran."

The potential for more bloodshed is almost assured. It's really a matter of how this plays out, and how the three outside interests proceed. This very well could be the country that turns this regional unrest into something much, much bigger. And the actions of the bloodthirsty thugs who(for now) rule Bahrain have inflamed their people and won't be forgotten.

Silver's At 30 Year Highs-What's In Store Next Week?

Kitco's Silver Chart at the end of trading, February 18, 2011.
After sifting through several wonky-ass, for-members-only worded articles on what the implications of Silver's rise actually means, I'll distill it for you like this: Silver's demand is at least twice its availability. Silver will continue to rise, despite JP Morgan's every effort to manipulate the price downward. JP Morgan will eventually be destroyed by its huge amount of Shorts(betting against Silver). The two guys at the end of Trading Places will be JP Morgan.

Lots of people will then laugh at JP Morgan's misfortune. Long live Physical Silver!

Bahrain Funeral Draws Protesters as Violence in Libya Spreads

From Bloomberg Business

Protesters in Bahrain gathered for the funeral of two men killed by security forces, calling for democracy and the fall of the government as unrest in the Middle East spread to Libya where 20 were reported dead in clashes.
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Yesterday’s deaths came after the army fired teargas, buckshot and rubber bullets at a crowd of protesters gathered at the Pearl Roundabout in Manama calling for a constitutional monarchy and a change of government in the Shiite-majority country ruled by Sunni royals. Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, the focus of the demonstrators’ demands, has held the office for four decades.
..
“They started firing from the bridge without any warning, then they started firing from their cars,” said Hussein Ali, 42, who was at a rally site at 3 a.m. yesterday when security forces arrived. “There were women and children in tents. I saw cars running over tents. It was terrifying, a nightmare. Small children and women were falling over.”
And:
Demonstrators in Libya, ruled by Muammar Qaddafi for more than 40 years, yesterday demanded the government’s overthrow. At least 20 people were reported killed in confrontations with security forces as violence broke out during marches yesterday in five Libyan cities, according to the Associated Press, which cited an opposition website and an anti-Qaddafi activist.

The deaths were in the second- and third-largest cities, Benghazi and Beyida, according to Al Arabiya television. There is an absence of independent reporting due to Libya’s tight press restrictions and activists used the Internet and social media to call for yesterday’s “Day of Anger” rally. Qaddafi has ruled since 1969 while tolerating no dissent.

The anger intensifies within the region, in each country, and in the hearts of every oppressed individual. When all is said and done, Egypt and Tunisia will seem completely bloodless in comparison. No one seems done, here. No one..

File Under: Cyber War: This Could Be Big, or Dry Run?..

Foreign hackers attack Canadian government Excerpts:
An unprecedented cyberattack on the Canadian government from China has given foreign hackers access to highly classified federal information, and forced at least two key departments off the Internet, CBC News has learned.
..
Highly placed sources tell CBC News the cyberattacks were traced back to computer servers in China.
But they caution there is no way of knowing whether the hackers are Chinese, or some other nationality routing their cybercrimes through China to cover their tracks.
And:
..Sources have confirmed the attackers successfully penetrated the computer systems at the federal government’s two main economic nerve centres, the Finance Department and Treasury Board.
The hackers apparently managed to take control of computers in the offices of senior government executives as part of a scheme to steal the key passwords that unlock entire government data systems.
And:
For years, experts including the federal auditor general have been warning that security on the government’s networks is woefully inadequate and open to cyberattack. (This is why it will be disastrous for many, many governments and organizations is some full scale cyber war does erupt..)

For a trial run, this was pretty successful, as the next several attacks on slow-to-non-responsive governments or organizations targeted by these hackers will be. I'm guessing the next attack will be larger in scope, "show-ier," and more widely covered in the press. This is not to say that this attack won't be heavily covered in the press: It's fairly new, and has not completed one news cycle yet, but having said that, each time these hackers strike, the impact will be larger than the time before..

The World Saw The Egypt Uprising End February 11th, But It Actually Ended January 30th

Mubarak ordered Tienanmen-style massacre of demonstrators, Army refused. This was a really interesting day without this context, but now it all makes sense.. Excerpts:

Buried in this Robert Fisk report for The Independent is a startling account of the Egyptian army refusing to move with tanks against the Tahrir Square protesters on January 30.
..(This is an excerpt from Fisk's report)But the critical moment came on the evening of 30 January when, it is now clear, Mubarak ordered the Egyptian Third Army to crush the demonstrators in Tahrir Square with their tanks after flying F-16 fighter bombers at low level over the protesters.
Many of the senior tank commanders could be seen tearing off their headsets – over which they had received the fatal orders – to use their mobile phones. They were, it now transpires, calling their own military families for advice. Fathers who had spent their lives serving the Egyptian army told their sons to disobey, that they must never kill their own people.
..
.. when General Hassan al-Rawani told the massive crowds yesterday evening that "everything you want will be realised – all your demands will be met", the people cried back: "The army and the people stand together – the army and the people are united. The army and the people belong to one hand." (It's like they knew..)

Mubarak, indeed, behaved the only way he knew how: Crush any opposition with brutal force. He was stopped by the collective integrity within his military ranks, those moral enough to realize the inequality of one man's power, and how he would so freely use that power against their countrymen, their friends, their family.. And they said "No."
But Mubarak tried. Again, he had no choice. He is mentally inflexible, and knew no other way to behave.

Also: Is Mubarak dead, hoax dead, or just much more close?

New 'Montauk Monster' Washes Ashore On Long Island

From Natural Plane. Creepy, monsteresque, carcassy photos included. Like the post says, it could be a dog(but it's got five toes), but with that area's previous.. encounters, this new case should be noted.

Also; is Plum Island a monster factory? Anyone else hungry?

Astrology: The Beginning of A Widespread 21st Century Revolution

From Aquarius Papers. Robert Wilkinson breaks down the astrological energies in place during the initial events that sparked the revolutionary movement taking hold in the Mid-East, which began in Tunisia as an altercation between a street vendor and a policeman. Wilkinson uses Dane Rudyhar's Sabian symbols to illustrate more clearly the meaning of not only the house location of individual planets, but the different aspects those planets make to each other, fully fleshing out the implications and meaning of the astrological forces at work. Excerpts:

It is generally known that the beginning of the revolutionary spark began in Tunisia, when police seized a fruit and vegetable cart run by a vendor who then set himself on fire. After that, within 48 hours of the initial incident, crowds gathered, riots broke out, things got out of hand, and a revolution broke out in short order.
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What follows is an examination of the astrological factors in play during the critical moments the morning of December 17 that set up a spark that lit a revolution.
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The initial confrontation occurred "less than an hour" before his self-immolation at 11:30 am. At 10:45 am we see 19 Aquarius (the "forest fire"!) on the Ascendant, so we can assume that the Ascendant of the initial incident was somewhere between 17 and 22 Aquarius.
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The act of self-immolation at 11:30 am shows us 4 Pisces on the Ascendant and 15 Sagittarius on the MC. The ruler of the Ascendant is Jupiter in the 1st conjunct revolutionary Uranus. Jupiter also rules the Sun in the 10th at 26 Sagittarius, a degree of "the flag bearer," a symbol of selfless dedication to a greater collective ideal.
..the Solar degree is where things of "enduring significance... overshadow the more immediate interests or wholely selfish concerns of man, and the emphasis... on the natural supremacy of common ideals over mere individual ambitions." He says this degrees "is the call for a high self-sacrifice... (to) permit the self to realize its transcendental aspirations." The keyword is NOBILITY, and he states "the degree is spiritual exaltation through some dramatic or vital service to all."
..One major revolutionary indicator is the Sun just off the square to Jupiter while still forming one to Uranus. This would definitely indicate things evolving at breakneck speed, where change can happen in a heartbeat.
And:
It's interesting to note that at the inception of this revolution, Mercury was retrograde at 2 Capricorn, a degree of seeing how violence or wrong use of force damages compassion. This was certainly the case with the policewoman who confiscated the vendor's food, spit on him, and insulted his dead father.
And:
He goes on to say that 8 Taurus is about "using knowledge and skill" to meet a future event, and "independence of the will of the self from outer circumstances," and the "power to mould life upon the pioneer's prophetic vision." 9 Taurus is a "symbol of the promise which outer life offers to the pure in heart; of immortality through giving of self to the race." We are told it offers us the chance to create "inner happiness in dark hours" through sounding a counter-tone to harshness or barrenness in the outer world. Sounds like Tunisia before and during these events!

And no, Wilkinson is not implying that astrological forces caused the unrest or the revolution in the Mid-East, these were the energies in place at the time of the initial event in Tunisia. They could have been just as easily not acted upon. After all, Free Will is still the most important factor in human events. These energies are part of the Cardinal Crisis and Grand Irrationality, subtle planetary forces that have been around for several years now. This is simply his analysis of those energies at work in relation to recent events, through the event's ending in 2012. Remember, the forces that facillitate great change can also cause great instability. What we just witnessed were examples of both.. Welcome to the birth pangs of the Age of Aquarius!

A "New" Planet Hiding Under Our Galactic Nose?

Tyche, Giant Hidden Planet, May Exist In Our Solar System From the Independent. Excerpts:

If you grew up thinking there were nine planets and were shocked when Pluto was demoted five years ago, get ready for another surprise. There may be nine after all, and Jupiter may not be the largest.
The hunt is on for a gas giant up to four times the mass of Jupiter thought to be lurking in the outer Oort Cloud, the most remote region of the solar system. The orbit of Tyche (pronounced ty-kee), would be 15,000 times farther from the Sun than the Earth's, and 375 times farther than Pluto's, which is why it hasn't been seen so far. But scientists now believe the proof of its existence has already been gathered by a Nasa space telescope, Wise, and is just waiting to be analysed.

Our knowledge of not only deep space, but our "galactic neighborhood" continues to grow at an astounding rate.

Egypt: Having Trouble Visualizing The Connections And Influence Of The Internet On The Egyptian Revolution?

This should help.. And in the spirit of a connected 'Net, I found this from Xymphora, who found it on Mondoweiss, who linked to it from its creator, Kovas Boguta. Super fascinating. (Checking out his connectivity map is essential for understanding, so go there first!) Excerpts:
The map is arranged to place individuals near the individuals they influence, and factions near the factions they influence. The color is based on the language they tweet in..
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(Wael Ghonim).. is prominently located near the bottom of the network, straddling two factions as well as two languages. The size of his node reflects his influence on the entire network.

The lump on the left is dominated by journalists, NGO and foreign policy types; it seems nearly grafted on, and goes through an intermediary buffer layer before making contact with the true Egyptian activists on the ground. However, this process of translation and aggregation is key; it is how those in Egypt are finally getting a voice in Western society, and an insurance policy against regime violence.
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Some protesters only spoke Arabic but..others make an effort to be visible to the rest of the world on purpose. They want to reach out, and connect with, the rest of the global society.
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In a case of ironic symbolism, the far left-most satellites are the Whitehouse, State Department, and Wael Ghonim's employer, Eric Schmidt, who is merely a speck on the map. (In other words, they had no idea what was happening on the street, and absolutely no influence on the unfolding events..)And that's probably how everyone in the rest of the network would like this future to look.

I'm doing a bit of paragraph reshuffling here, but a sentence from Boguta's opening statement is the perfect summation:
The Egyptians use of Twitter captures.. the freedom of expression and association that is possible in that medium, and which is representative of a new collective consciousness taking form.

Already, the data is being compiled and analyzed. What didn't work has been noted, and what worked is being modified to fit other country's specific circumstances. We have seen minor examples (in comparison) of the Internet's power of expression and organization, but what happened in Egypt has tapped that potential and shown the world, tangibly, the power of information, and the speed of which it can(and will)be disseminated and acted upon.

What we saw was not just the overthrow of an authoritarian regime or the creation of a new political dynamic in the Middle East, but the fledgling steps of that global collective consciousness and its burgeoning self awareness. Connectivity and expression doesn't rely on power, money, and influence. Mubarak's billions and iron fisted control couldn't put down the 'Net or keep him in power. Global thought just took a great leap forward, and while recent events are hugely important in what will be our documented History, the beginnings of the awareness of What Can Be began not only on the streets, but also on the servers, of Cairo.

Walter Cronkite Reports On UFO Flap Of 1966

Video courtesy of BeforeIt'sNews.

Oppressive Regimes To People: If Everyone Else Was Overthrowing Their Governments, Would You?

To which Algeria and Yemen reply: Why, yes! At the moment, Algerian protests have been stifled by the police, but the desperation is just as palpable as it was in Egypt.

''They can't kill us because we are already dead,'' said jobless Bilal Boudamous, 29. ''At 30 we are unemployed, we live with our parents, and we have no future.''

Algerians didn't really buy the token concessions from their government, so the regime shut down Facebook and the Internet, and gave the hackneyed Ike Turner response: If things turn violent, it's all your fault. Damn it baby, you made me hurt you..

Meanwhile, in Yemen, the dynamic seems to be playing out a bit differently. For now, the protests are still smaller, but the clashes between pro and anti-government protesters are already marred by violence, as both sides(not counting the police) are fighting with sticks and knives.

Also, 23 million Yemenis are hooked on Qat, so demonstrations fizzle out by the afternoon so everyone can get high. It'll be interesting to see if The People can give up the HappyHappy for a few weeks in order to rid themselves of a soul crushing regime. We shall see.

Chile: The Magnitude 6 Quakes Keep Coming..

Over the last four days, there has been at least one Mag 6+ quake off the coast of Chile each day. This might not mean anything, but here's a mental bookmark, just in case..

Bank of America website exposes customer accounts, data

High incompetence from America's Bank. Blurg.. From Jalopnik Excerpts:

Bank of America's account websites are experiencing an unprecedented online security breach and isn't rectifying the problem. That's right, your online account data and full account access may be in the hands of someone else.
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The person I spoke with immediately called Bank of America, and was told that although they knew of the problem, they didn't they yet know what was causing the problem, and despite having known about it for over a half an hour, they had not shut down online access. One hour later, my source tells me she still has access to the other party's account information.

There you have it. If you've got an account with BofA, enjoy your Sunday! Maybe the people who hold your money will get around to fixing a problem that allows others to steal said money: Or not.. The level of indifference BofA has shown towards their clients is astonishing, even for these clowns.

Egypt: If A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words, These Two Are Worth Much, Much More..

Two 'Revolutions': Egypt 2011 v. Iraq 2003 Thank you, Bradblog! (Be sure to read the comments..) Great comparison/contrast regarding a fake, corporate media/ foreign government-manipulated "revolutionary movement," and the real thing we just witnessed. Xymphora echoes this sentiment..

When was the last time we've seen a successful bottom-up revolution? Lots of fake ones bought by the Americans - easily distinguished from the real thing - but no real ones.
This is a serious precedent, not only for the Middle East. People around the world can see what is possible even in the face of what seems like overwhelming forces of evil.

Now that Mubarak has been removed, Egyptians face the equally impossible task of walking the political tightrope of establishing a new political order, sorting out useful and harmful alliances and policies, and fixing the economy. All the while, they must shield themselves from the manipulations of external forces and agents provocateurs, be they individuals, organizations, regime holdovers, or former allied governments. Good luck.

Whether you like it or not, your country has become The Standard by which others will look to for guidance and strategy in what will assuredly be repeated the world over, near and long term. Continue to choose wisely, please, and execute your plans with the political grace historians will document and celebrate, years upon years into the future..