This Is Most Assuredly Not Awesome..

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.
..
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?

Oh; It's On! Or Not, Not Really, Or Maybe It Is?

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.
...
"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.
..
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.

Forgotten About The Very Real Threat From North Korea?

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?

Well, That Was Quick, Ireland Edition

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.

Opposition Claims Government Understated Debt And Deficit Figures By About 25%

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?

Hubble Ultra Deep Field 3D

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..

Thank You!

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..

The 19 Senators Who Voted To Censor The Internet

From Aletho News:

Patrick J. Leahy — Vermont
Herb Kohl — Wisconsin
Jeff Sessions — Alabama
Dianne Feinstein — California
Orrin G. Hatch — Utah
Russ Feingold — Wisconsin
Chuck Grassley — Iowa
Arlen Specter — Pennsylvania
Jon Kyl — Arizona
Chuck Schumer — New York
Lindsey Graham — South Carolina
Dick Durbin — Illinois
John Cornyn — Texas
Benjamin L. Cardin — Maryland
Tom Coburn — Oklahoma
Sheldon Whitehouse — Rhode Island
Amy Klobuchar — Minnesota
Al Franken — Minnesota
Chris 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).

Seriously, He Couldn't Have Been *That* Surprised. Or, Could He?

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..

.. But You Knew That Already, Didn't You?

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?

Ancient Mars: "The Water Planet"

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 Paris

Minerals 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 deeply
And:
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..

Having Trouble Understanding The Machinations and Implications Of The EU Financial Crisis?

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.

Maps from 1942 of the never-was Nazi invasion of North America

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..

When Is An Earthquake Swarm Much More Than An Earthquake Swarm?

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..

Long Term Silver Prices Can't Be Stopped, But The Chicago Mercantile Exchange Is Still Gonna Try, Baby..

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!

We Reserve The Right To Refuse Service To Anyone, No Matter How Jesusy They May Be..

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?

Spot Silver Price, Tuesday, November 16, 2:02 a.m. CST

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?

Political Double Standard Much?

From Xymphora:

"Imagine if a prominent American politician of Latino descent emerged from an hour long meeting with the President of Mexico to triumphantly announce that he would side with the President of Mexico against the policies of the President of the United States."

The right wing hounds would NEVER stop barking would they? Insert another country, and well.. Do you hear any barking?

This Is The Tipping Point, Or A Contributor Thereof..

Yuan Bets Reined In After ‘Masterful Job’ at G-20: China Credit

Abhisit calls on Asia to use yuan in trade Huh. Thailand's thinking of dropping the Dollar.

Ireland Goes Bust, Irish Bank Run

Obama didn't have any fun at the G20 at all..

Just because you can't hear them doesn't mean massive financial bombs aren't exploding all over the place.

A Little Ominous.

Authorities don't know why thousands of jellyfish packed a three-mile long section of San Francisco's Ocean Beach.

I did not find it odd, either, that CNN didn't mention the "animals as earthquake barometers" angle, not even one bit.