Thursday, August 19, 2010

Best Headline of 2010 So Far

Baboon Makes Ass of St. Louis -- Now Updated.

"The undersea plumes that BP and the feds denied are still there."

BP’s 22-Mile-Long Monster. Excerpts:

"What they found was like dipping a drinking cup repeatedly into Loch Ness and coming up with enough body parts to infer the existence of a monster: there is a continuous, unbroken plume of hydrocarbons about 3,300 feet down, stretching southwest from the well for some 22 miles. The scientists suspect it is even longer, but they had to stop sampling when Hurricane Alex blew in. Still, said Camilli, “we’ve shown conclusively not only that a plume exists, but also defined its origin and ... structure. Until now, these have been treated as a theoretical matter”—especially by BP and even the government, which for weeks denied the existence of the plumes. (In late June and again in late July, however, the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration released results of subsurface monitoring by several of its research vessels, finding a “cloud of diffuse oil at depths of 3,300 to 4,600 feet near the wellhead.”)"
And:
The plume has “persisted for months without substantial biodegradation,” the scientists report in an account of their discovery in tomorrow’s issue of the journal Science. The plume measured 650 feet high and, in certain places, more than 1.2 miles wide.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Why Isn't Pakistan's Great Flood Newsworthy?

This catastrophe is beyond huge. If Florida or some other predominantly white, U.S. or U.K. aligned country were to disappear underwater, you KNOW there'd be a stink..

Make no mistake, in a year(so far..) filled with big-ass disasters, this one is Top 3, for sure, behind Haiti, and maybe more significant than the oil spill. Later, these floods may prove to be much deadlier than Haiti. Watch this video too. The intensity of this flood is really scary, as it's not only water coming at you, (the full force of this monster is really bad enough), but debris carried in this torrent(from completely scouring previously neighboring towns) is thick, sharp, dense, heavy, and mostly unseen. Sadly, many more people will die.

I'm shocked this isn't everyone's Top Story for weeks to come. Blago? 9/11 mosque vs. The First Amendment? Dina Lohan?

Pakistan is drowning and no one cares.

Seriously, This Is One Sad, Sad Individual..

Meet the Fake Steven Slater Who Pretends to Be a Hero for Free Beer at Parties. 2010 is turning really strange. And it's almost two thirds over. And accelerating..

Friday, August 13, 2010

Four Deformations of the Apocalypse

Damning column from David Stockman on how the Republicans "destroyed" the economy. A pretty good analysis of the article here. Who's David Stockman? Only the man called "The Architect" of Reagan's Supply Side Economics Mega-Disaster that's presently collapsing around our ears. No one, really..

To sum up: Republicans presided over the four economic deformations that combined to position us exactly where we are today: Dead, but still walking. The man who helped author and drove United States Economic Policy in the direction it has ultimately headed(although he still says while Supply Side's original tax-cuts-in-some-circumstances philosophy was good, .."But when you make it a religion, when you make it a catechism and you say you cut taxes no matter what the circumstance, what the season, what the condition, then I think the whole idea has been perverted."), now says his party has destroyed the economy.

Food for thought there, "Fiscal Conservatives." THE economic advisor to your HERO says the current Republicans are wrong about Economics. Wrong. Wrong. Wroooooooong.

Haven't seen too much of this story in that "Liberal Media," have you?

Having Trouble Visualizing The Scope Of The Flooding In Pakistan? This Should Help..

Asia Flooding Is Now Massive Humanitarian Crisis.

Floods Have Affected Over 13M People, More Than 2004 Tsunami, 2005 Kashmir Quake and 2010 Haiti Quake Combined.

Pictures of Pakistan here.

Pictures of China here.

But, as always, there's nothing wrong with the weather..

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Having Trouble Visualizing The Scope Of The Russian Wildfires? This Should Help..

From englishrussia.com. Couple the fires with the major drought that preceeded it, factor in food and economic concerns and the threat to nuclear plants by said fires, the Russians have a pretty serious situation on their hands, exploding in multiple directions, powerfully, all at once..

Friday, August 6, 2010

And Now We're Back To "Terrorist Attack."

Japanese tanker, M.Star, leaves Fujairah Port after hull damage repair: UAE source

WAM Abu Dhabi, Aug. 2010 (WAM) -- The Japanese tanker M. Star left the Port of Fujairah today after repairing damage to its starboard side incurred when it was the target of a terrorist attack while passing through international waters near the Strait of Hormuz at midnight on Wednesday 28 July 2010.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Doom Freakout Roundup - World Edition, August 6, 2010

Moscow, baked and smoked. This sounds fun: In the first five days of August, four record high temperatures have been registered in Moscow; in July, ten. This, in a city where entire summers slip by unnoticed as such, with interludes of eighty-degree days followed by cool showery weeks, if without much snow. Come to think of it, I've seen it snow here in June. Russians take justifiable pride in how they face the rigors of their extreme climate -- but every extreme they know relates to cold, not heat. A Siberian adage has it that, "Forty degrees below zero is not a frost, and forty-proof vodka is not real vodka." But is forty-degree-centigrade (104 Fahrenheit) heat not real heat? No one has bothered to devise a proverb for it, because in northern or central Russia it almost never happens. Heat waves and even smoke from wildfires (often from burning peat bogs) have engulfed the city before, but never like this.

U.S. issues Israel travel warning in wake of Eilat rocket attack

You ever get the feeling the rest of the world gets a way different current-events storyline?

Another fish kill fuels debate over what's causing wildlife deaths

Dong Feng 21D, Chinese Missile, Could Shift Pacific Power Balance Nothing projects U.S. global air and sea power more vividly than supercarriers. Bristling with fighter jets that can reach deep into even landlocked trouble zones, America's virtually invincible carrier fleet has long enforced its dominance of the high seas.

China may soon put an end to that.

Speaking of China.. Three Gorges Dam is in a new, interesting, but not at all nice situation. The BIG questions? Will it work and will it hold?

Obama's Top Economic Advisor Resigns. I wonder in what country she'll end up?


Pakistan floods: 'By the time I had got the children, the water was waist high' Red Cross says 2.5 million people affected as death toll rises to 1,500

Lebanese and Israeli troops clash on border "in the most serious clashes since a fierce war four years ago, authorities said."

The Oil Spill's all better, right?

For your visiting pleasure, Peru offers not only Pneumonic, but Bubonic plage, also.. Book your hospital holiday now!

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Big Bot Hit In The Works?

First, the actual event, then the prediction.

Event: From Spaceweather.com.. Excerpts:

"On August 1st at 0855 UT, Earth orbiting satellites detected a C3-class solar flare. The origin of the blast was sunspot 1092. At about the same time, an enormous magnetic filament stretching across the sun's northern hemisphere erupted.
..
The timing of these events suggest they are connected, and a review of SDO movies strengthens that conclusion. Despite the ~400,000 km distance between them, the sunspot and filament seem to erupt together; they are probably connected by long-range magnetic fields. In this movie (171 Å), a shadowy shock wave (a "solar tsunami") can be seen emerging from the flare site and rippling across the northern hemisphere into the filament's eruption zone. That may have helped propel the filament into space.

In short, we have just witnessed a complex global eruption involving almost the entire Earth-facing side of the sun.

A coronal mass ejection (CME) produced by the event is heading directly for Earth: SOHO movie. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras when it arrives on or about August 3rd."

The Prediction: From Urban Survival, Tuesday, July 27, 2010(Scroll waaay down..).

"In case you missed Clif, chief time monk, High's appearances on CoastToCoast last night during the show's first hour, the most important thing he had to say (very near term) was a heads up for the West Coast over the possibility based on predictive linguistics of a major quake toward the end of this week or maybe into the weekend.

"Within the immediacy data sets there are clear indications of a major [damaging] earthquake on west coast of America (MOST likely north America due to angular momentum issues of planetary alignment) and more probably than not, in the PNW perhaps down to mid CA. This quake shows as being completed with problems, *such as yet more [wedding interruptions] by August 3, however the data accretion patterns point to the last two days of July as the point of impact and largest number of after shocks. Damages are indicated to include [roadways] and [bridges] such that [transportation/movement] is [restricted (in some places)] for months afterward. Water flows are also to be affected and even altered for long time (months/years) which is how i found it. By noting the odd number of longer term indicators for [water pathways change] in the data accretion patterns for November and onward in 2010. A significant majority of these traced back to something in the immediacy data that turned out to be this pending earthquake in very late July. "

This just fell out' from the processing of the long term data set values which should result in a longer view of the data...out to beyond the end of this year. The expectation is that there will be a new report available sometime around the August 10-period. But, the reason for mentioning this now is that there is still plenty of time to get the stored water checked, food, first aid kits, and such on the West Coast. "

The Aftermath: From halfpasthuman.com

Soooo...i was wrong about the earthquake, and instead we had a global, solar quake and a ????something new??? that will hit earth on August 3rd. This is likely the 'event' that will trigger the [water way changes] showing as being [repaired (in some locales)] by late March of 2011. Of course, now that we know it is a solar event, and that the energies are headed toward earth, we can expect a whole series of earthquakes over these next (likely 2/two) weeks. See Space Weather for the verbiage attached to this solar global ?quake?.
Also..

"DELAY in Shape 7....due to recent events here at HPH we will NOT be able to deliver the next report as projected. No expected publication date can be determined just yet."

I think he thinks this is serious, and that's a little worrisome.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Awesome Narritive Twist! Plus: Bonus Reportage Timeline!

Freak wave hits Japanese oil tanker near Oman. Soo.. A 3.4 earthquake triggered a freak wave that damaged an oil tanker in such a way that others might assume "explosion," and "attack,?" Awesome.. Wait; what?

Bonus Timeline:

Blast on oil tanker near Iran(Written 14 hours previous in relation to the original linked article..). Excerpts: There were differing theories about the cause of the blast - which did not cause any serious injuries or an oil spill - ranging from a terrorist attack to an explosion of gases. Port officials in the neighbouring United Arab Emirates even said the ship was hit by a tremor-triggered wave..

Japan's transport ministry suspected an attack on the tanker.

"Since one of the crew saw a flash on the horizon immediately before the blast, the company suspects it was highly likely an attack," the ministry said, adding that the immediate area was not known for piracy."

Mysterious blast hits Japan oil tanker near Iran(11 hours)

Supertanker damage raises alarm in Persian Gulf(Nine hours. Still mentions a scenario of, "an explosion in a possible attack in the Persian Gulf..")

Japanese oil ship hit by freak wave.(Six hours. Aha! A change in theory - explanation - events!)

Supertanker blast scare blamed on "freak wave" . (Six hours. Kind of a combo-platter of explanations and contradictions..)

Excerpts from the last article:

Japan's transport ministry said there was an "explosion" at around 00:30 a.m (10:30 p.m. BST. local time and cited the possibility of an attack on the ship, but port officials said there was no evidence.

"A Japanese supertanker, which stirred fears of an attack in the Strait of Hormuz, diverted to a UAE port on Wednesday where officials said the damage was caused by a freak wave.(Awkward wording for Yahoo UK and Ireland..)
...
Japan's transport ministry said there was an "explosion" at around 00:30 a.m (10:30 p.m. BST. local time and cited the possibility of an attack on the ship, but port officials said there was no evidence.
...
"The cause of the incident was a freak wave and there is damage in the upper accommodation decks of the ship," he said.

Oman's coastguard cited "a tremor" as the cause of the incident, while an official from the Omani transport ministry said it was "business as usual" in the Strait.
...
A seismologist in Iran, which with the United Arab Emirates and Oman borders the Strait, said there had been an earthquake in the region, although the U.S. Geological Survey said it had no record of a tremor.
...
Captains of other ships near the incident also mentioned an earthquake, Attollah Sadr, head of Iran's Ports and Maritime Organisation, was quoted as saying by Mehr news agency. (But none were quoted within this article. Me.)
...
"A crew member saw light on the horizon just before the explosion, so (Mitsui O.S.K.) believes there is a possibility it was caused by an outside attack," Japan's ministry said in a statement.

The U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet based in Bahrain issued a statement saying the cause of the incident was unknown. (At the moment, nothing else seems to fit, anyway..)

"Initial damage assessment from the ship's owner, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd, Japan, is that one life boat was blown off the ship and there is some damage to the starboard hatches," it said.
Then:
Any impact on the Asian spot crude market would be negligible and the tanker would have taken three weeks to arrive in Japan, traders said." (So it doesn't really matter what happened: Move along, now.)

Why was there no mention of a tremor before the explosion? This story was 14 hours into its genesis and only after eight hours was the "wave angle" introduced as the "official explanation." Not that a wave couldn't cause this scenario, I find it terribly odd, though that a magnitude 3.4 quake could cause a wave that would, in turn, rock a SUPERTANKER and subsequently, cause an explosion. Any explosion. Any. Explosion.

And another thing: Wouldn't seamen Know what a freak wave feels like? Really; shouldn't that almost have to be mentioned more in the initial reports? I am no expert on anything naval, oceanographic, or seismological, but this just doesn't sound(or feel) right..



Monday, July 26, 2010

Wikileaks done blew it all up, at least on the Internet..

Tens of thousands of alleged Afghan war documents go online. Since this is, as one conspiracy site points out, a national security issue, I won't link to Wikileaks or reproduce the content. If you want it bad enough, you can look it up.

Make no mistake, if the majority of these documents are accurate, it will undoubtedly alter our foundational perception of anything connected to the entire region. Pakistan and the Taliban working together? Of course. Massively underreported civillain causalties? Yes. From here on out, our collective understanding of the last 10 years should begin to change..

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Tragic..

I never really thought out any scenario involving mass panic and the Love Parade(especially the original festival in Germany), but tragically, Saturday, they connected. One of the biggest Utopian festivals on the planet fell victim and died to the negative forces its participants strived so hard to rise above. What a terrible (and so unexpected!) way to die, not knowing why the crowd has turned, only that everything got horrible, quickly. While other current events might be bigger or more tragic, this really shakes me up. The Love Parade. The last place on Earth one would expect anyone to die..

I imagine the festival is dead now, too. This celebration of that amazing spirit of the late 80's, the fall of Communism, the technological threshold of The Future, the Potential of the Near Future were all seeded by ecstatic German twentysomethings dancing nonstop to techno music. God love those post WW2 Germans: They're always capable of the most unexpected behavior..