The Ends Meet; The Circle Is Complete

Awesome political news: Nader: Progressive-libertarian alliance ‘the most exciting new political dynamic’ in US Hell yeah! Excerpts in italics:

Prepare for the rise of libertarian progressives.

That was the message earlier in the week from trends analyst Gerald Celente, who predicted that the rapid acceleration of wealth into the coffers of the ultra-rich would drive a global youth resistance movement in 2011 and reformat long-held political boundaries.

Longtime American politics gadfly Ralph Nader, a man of many ideas almost diametrically opposed by most libertarian conservatives, said Wednesday that he sees a coming convergence of liberals, progressives and libertarian conservatives in the wake of a worsening financial crisis and dogged partisanship that's put the government into gridlock.

Speaking to Fox Business's libertarian host Judge Napolitano, Nader called these shifting alliances "the most exciting new political dynamic" in the US today.
And:
So how will this left-right alliance begin?

Nader suggested that it already has, thanks to the unity of Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), the most conservative and most liberal members of their respective chambers. They've teamed up to propose cuts to the US defense budget, which has long been by far the largest sector of America's annual budget, and to push a more thorough audit of the Federal Reserve, the private central bank which controls America's currency.

And:

"The authentic tea partiers hail from the conservative libertarian wing of the Republican party that has been so disrespected and corporatized by the likes of Bush and Cheney," Nader said. "So here they come into town and they're going to go after a lot of things the Republican establishment is opposed to."

He added that a coming "liberal-conservative connection" will ultimately "draw that distinction between the corporatist and the genuine libertarian conservatives."

And:

"The key thing is when they go after all the bloated corporate welfare subsidies, handouts, give-aways, bailouts -- they're going to alienate all these corporate Republicans, but they don't care," he said. "The one's I'm talking about, in the House and Senate, they operate on principle. They don't care if they're overruled, if they don't get the monuments or the freebies. They operate on principle and they're going to make an alliance with the liberal progressives."

So.. When can you guys start work?

This could be an amazing development. I'm thrilled it's happening. Politicians standing on principle? This is the most hopeful, optimistic story we've had in 2011, and maybe all year. Maybe we can turn this catastrophe around, averting disaster at the last second. Not likely. More likely? We can prepare for this upcoming crash, navigate the simultaneous insanity(s) resulting from such a crash, successfully rebound from said insanity(s), and we can become a stronger nation, and a more perfect union. To paraphrase Clif over at halfpasthuman; Learning to fall can save our lives.

This can be achieved if our best thinkers from the far ends of our spectrum, come together, think objectively, synthesize their best thoughts, and genuinely plan for the welfare of all Americans. And these men and women can do so with equal parts passion and civility. We can achieve much when we work together, without infighting. We are capable; but will we, really? And are we too late?

Epic Flooding: Brazil Edition

Brazil Flood Disaster Kills Hundreds Excerpts:

Torrential rain this week has triggered deadly
flash flooding and landslides in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro, leaving a death toll of at least 348 as of Thursday.
And:
The two hardest-hit cities were Teresopolis and Novo Friburgo, located in the highlands north and northeast of the city of Rio de Janeiro.

Cloudbursts pelting already-saturated ground triggered walls of water that reportedly burst through homes as people slept. Whole families died and hundreds of homes were either swept away or buried beneath earth and rock.

Weather observations from the area show rainfall of 3 to 6 inches,
or 75 to 150 mm, beginning Tuesday. But Metsul, an online weather blog, indicated that rainfall may have reached 12 inches, or 300
mm, within a few hours at both Teresopolis and Novo Friburgo, during the disastrous height of the event.

Brazilian Gallery here: Australian update here: Bonus: Short term economic impact to Australia and its trading partners. Another possible explanation for the continuing and widespread weather weirdness here.

These really are the "interesting times" the cookie spoke of.

Polar Night Ends Early: File Under; What The What?

Original thread from Godlike. Original translation from article at Rsoe. Ominous. Any bets? 2012? Planet X? Global Warming? The arrival of the Antichrist? Excerpts:

Beyond the Arctic Circle, can find the time needed for day and night
depending on latitude up to half a year, the sunrise
something very special - even more so when the always
joyfully anticipated event is just around two days early is taking
place..

According to the KNR Radio Greenland, the sun was in West Greenland Ilulissat on Tuesday (11.1.) at exactly 12:56:57 Clock. Normally the sun goes there until 13 January for the first time after the polar night again. Inhabitants of the third-largest city with 4,500 inhabitants of Greenland, made because of the early sun appeared worried.

"Here in the place the sun comes up until 13 January. There will not be the right one or the other," quoted the Greenlandic radio KNR Holger Sivertsen, a 74-year-old local, in a report on his website.

We will have some follow up on what this was, as the early end to Polar Night is not normal. This, coupled with the weird astrological news, continuing animal mass deaths, and even the Tampa airport, leads me to believe there is a genuine threat from above. There are varying hypothesis of what is happening, but I think this one sounds close..

Happy first two weeks of 2011!

This Week In Korea Conflict.

South Korea and Japan discuss first-ever military agreements

Pentagon Chief Huddles With Allies About NKorea

U.S. Recruits Japan As Global Military Partner

North Korea Threatens America with Long-Range Missiles

North Korea calls for unconditional talks with South Korea

North Korea's military: a bad hand played well

So, things are pretty much the same: Gigantic powderkeg, no real spark -- yet.

WikiLeaks Etc.. Rupert's Rough Week

WikiLeaks has ‘insurance files’ on News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch, Assange claims Oh Snap! Pronouncement from Julian Assange regarding the Insurance File and at least one of it's subjects is The Rupert Murdoch Media Empire Experience Excerpts from first link:

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said in a recent interview that he is holding back "insurance files" which could embarrass Rupert Murdoch and his international media empire at News Corporation.

The secrets website was also holding of over 500 US State Department cables about one broadcasting organization in particular, he added.

Assange made the disclosure while speaking to New Statesman, saying the files "will be released" if something happens to him or his organization.

"There are 504 US embassy cables on one broadcasting organisation and there are cables on Murdoch and News Corp.," he said.
And:
Appearing on the BBC, Assange's lawyer defended the move. "They need to protect themselves," Mark Stephens said. "This is what they believe to be a thermo-nuclear device effectively in the electronic age."

Do tell.. The other major Murdoch shenanigans this week include the possible demise of myspace, Murdoch's 580 million dollar investment/ albatross. Poor Rupert, I guess he'll have to take comfort in his other billions.. Unless, of course, those cables are what Julian Assange says they are: True Insurance.

In that case, in the future, if the whole WikiLeaks deal goes down twisted, "Poor Rupert" might actually be more appropriate..

Webbots: Yeah; About That Flooding..

Latest from Clif High at halfpasthuman. As Clif is very quick to point out, this could be about any flooding occurring anywhere in the world. But wow, Australia certainly sounds like it fits.. I hope the people of Brisbane stay safe from what approaches.. Excerpts in italics, and my emphasis in bold and color:

Our data sets over the past year have had lots of instance of descriptors for the kinds of flooding activity that is now overwhelming the humans and animals and plants in Australia. The damage has already reached serious and impacting levels. The nasty part of the forecasts from both 2009, and 2010*** relative to [floods in places that NEVER flood], is that we had also seen references within those same data sets for [dams failing]...and also curiously, for a [dam saved]. This last set included specifics going to [at the last minute], and [through (close/detailed) attention].
*** Note: The further back events appear, and continue to appear, without manifestation, the bigger their impact. There are some events that first appeared at least as early as 2005, and when the time comes, they will be felt..

While looking through the most recent immediacy data, i came across several [dam] references that *could be* forecasting future happenings within the chaos of the Australian floods. Noting that our geographic references are right down there in the in-accuracy levels of numbers and are usually discarded as untrustworthy, and further noting that there are several regions of the planet that are experiencing [freakish flooding] at the moment, i still feel compelled to state that the current data sets have a set going to a [dam (nearly) collapses], and a set that is a [dam 'scooting' off its base].
Now.. Pay attention..
Without regard to one or more dams, the data shows in the detail sets that the [dam scooting off its base] is [discovered (prior to the movement)] by [sharp eyes]. So i figured to help out with what descriptors we have available at this point. These details include the [right side] of the dam when facing it from below, and that set also is internally cross linked to [bubbling up]. Within the [bubbling up] set are supporting linguistics for [trees (specifically fruit trees though that can also mean trees of a commercial nature)] that are [snapped/damaged]. These [trees] are either the [cause] of the [bubbling up] due to [root penetration under the dam] or are [pointers to the place of the bubbling up], again, we cannot tell from the data set due to the ambiguity of language. In our referential integrity checks on the data, the timing clues suggest that as of this point of time (early morning, on January 11, 2011 here in Pacific time zone, north america), the [bubbling up], that is the sign of or a contributing factor to the [dam scooting off its base], is in the [initial stages]. Further descriptors include a curious group going to the idea that the [water (bubbling under) the dam] will [become as fog (obscuring)]. Further details include sets for [yielding] and [solid (structure) on weakened base].

Clif's latest run began just before the new year(scroll down to Another HPH SOTTC), so flooding language within this *immediacy data* run is to be expected, and if you're following the growing destruction, the flooding language is already present, and it's pretty intense.. Excerpt from the "Another HPH SOTTC" article in italics:

"I'm in the state of Queensland, which is basically the top right corner of Australia. The state capital is Brisbane, on the coast in the lower right corner of the state. I'm in Toowoomba, about 90 miles west, inland, from Brisbane. Toowoomba is on top of a range, around 1500' ASL. It has no river, and is the last place on earth I ever expected to see a flood.

But yesterday we had an unprecedentedly heavy downpour for a couple of hours, and our couple of tiny creeks, which I normally literally step over, became 'inland tsunamis', sweeping away cars, people & houses, with death toll about 9 & rising. Locals who've lived here all their lives said they'd never seen anything like it. (Fortunately, I'm still unaffected.) (Bot snippets: " Along with the [flooding] that will impact [unusual places] {ed note: areas not known to flood, ever}" "Other parts of the planet are also not to be immune from [rains beyond understanding], or [excessive rain loads]")
..
The "[destroyed dams]" is more topical than I would've thought. I discovered the water authority here is having to carefully manage Brisbane's main dam, Wivenhoe, right now. It holds 7 Sydney harbourfulls & yesterday was receiving 2 more harbourfulls a day inflow, and was up to 200% of capacity. If it flows over the top of the wall it risks destroying itself (and washing Brisbane right off the map), so they have the dilemma of having to release enough thru the sluice gates to protect the dam, but what they are releasing is only adding to the worst flood for 118 years now rising in Brisbane.

As you can see, some portions of October's report are being fulfilled right now, both from past and present runs. Double-quick, catastrophic, cataclysmic flooding that by no means is over, and so not finished destroying all in its path. 75 percent of Queensland is a disaster zone NOW. Even if Wivenhoe holds, Queensland will not ever be the same; not in our lifetimes, at least..

And the rest of the world watches, helplessly, as the water comes, and continues.

Ashley Turton, Former Hill staffer, found dead in car

Even with the active news period we've been in since the New Year, I'm surprised this story isn't more visible. The whole situation smells like a Ludlum plot, yet the big kids don't seem to be running with it(This is bing's search page-No Ashley Turton videos, so I'm guessing not too many video stories..), only newspapers and the Internet. Excerpts:

A veteran congressional aide who worked most recently as a lobbyist and was married to a senior White House legislative affairs official was found dead in her car Monday behind the couple’s Capitol Hill home following a low-speed car crash and subsequent fire.

Ashley Turton, whose husband, Dan, is the White House’s deputy director of legislative affairs for the U.S. House, died in the early-morning incident in the garage behind 800 A Street SE, friends, her employer and congressional leadership aides said. City fire and police units responded to the vicinity of the home at about 5 a.m. Monday, according to fire department spokesman Pete Piringer.
..
Police have not officially identified the victim, but the White House, congressional leadership aides and Progress Energy Inc., the company where she worked, all confirmed that Ashley Turton died in the car fire.

Ashley Turton worked as an aide to former Rep. Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.) and then as chief of staff to Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.). She later became a lobbyist for Progress Energy, a North Carolina-based utility company.

Dan Turton spent about 10 years as an aide to Gephardt before working for a few years as a lobbyist and then joining the House Rules Committee staff of Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.). He took the White House job when President Barack Obama came into office in 2009.
..
Authorities have not determined the exact cause of the crash or why the car, a 2008 BMW X5 sport utility vehicle, caught fire in a low-speed crash.

“The leading theory is accidental, [that] the car crashed through the garage doors and…was found on fire in the garage area,” Piringer said, adding that the incident is under joint investigation by the fire and police departments. “There were some unusual circumstances – just the way the car was, low-speed, significant fire, things like that….For the most part, the fire was confined to the area of origin.”

Neighbors say Ashley Turton was heading to airport for an early flight.
And:
Progress Energy on Monday announced a merger with Duke Energy that would create the country’s largest utility company, Hughes said. Turton would have played a key role on Capitol Hill discussing the merger,

“She certainly would have had a role in notifying legislative staff,” Hughes said. “She was a regular liaison with staff members.”

I'm sure this has caught the interest of more than a few investigative reporters, and there will be more light shed on this really curious incident, just not immediately, and in the near term, not on any of the cable networks. Which leads me to wonder: Why? As far as news stories go, it's potentially very sensational, yet no television coverage.

Curious.

Group of birds found dead in Mid Missouri

Ruh-Roh. Poorly written article about birds dropping dead .. This time, in mid-Missouri. Excerpts, with smartass comments in italics:

A startling discovery in Cole County Sunday has some residents wondering, 'what’s going on?' (Really? I think just about everyone paying attention to this unfolding of events is a little beyond "What's going on?")

A number of birds were found dead much like they have been found in other parts of the country and world. But it might not be as uncommon as you might think. (I'm freaked out, yet strangely re-assured..)

In recent weeks large numbers of birds have fallen out of the sky without explanation. (Whoa.. Slow down: I'm overwhelmed with information.. So specific, even..)

The deaths hadn’t hit mid-Missouri, until now. (Dun Dun..
DUH!)
Although we’re not talking about thousands of birds like in
Arkansas. (All right; everyone stay calm..)
..
A KRCG viewer Jennifer Timbers called when she found about 30 dead Starlings in the middle of Rockridge Rd. near Frog Hollow in Cole County.

"No fireworks, we don’t have a hail storm, which I heard that was one of the original theories of this,” Timbers said. “But no, the weather was just an average winter evening." (Jennifer Timbers knows things.)
And:
Of course the deaths of these animals have sparked conspiracy theories, but scientists say the deaths in Arkansas were most likely due to fireworks. (Fireworks? Easily the most ridiculous of all conspiracy theories, a.k.a., "The Official Story.")
However, we still have a mystery on our hands as to why the birds died in mid Missouri. (Screw those pansy 5000 dead blackbirds in pansy ass Ar. Kan. Saw. 30 birds died in Missouri! Won't somebody think of the
children?)

I agree. Too glib. I'll revert back to "Doomtastic" tomorrow..

The Coin Flip.

The shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others today was tragic, and I'll let others fill in the blanks, assign the blame, and decide how to proceed. I'd like to focus on Judge John Roll, his last minute, unplanned visit to Giffords' constituent meeting, and his death due to this seemingly innocent decision.

Federal Judge John Roll went to Mass, as he did every Saturday, and on his way home decided to stop and say ‘hi’ to Giffords, his friend, Dupnik
said.“He was at the wrong place at the wrong time,” Dupnik said. He called Roll a brilliant judge and a fine person.

So Judge Roll gets up Saturday morning, goes to mass, and on his way home, decides to stop by to see Giffords. His appearance was unscheduled and unplanned. And now he's dead.
Let's change the equation:
Judge Roll gets up Saturday morning, goes to mass, and on his way home, decides to stop for brunch or coffee, and is late to the meeting or doesn't see Giffords at all.
Judge Roll gets up Saturday morning, goes to mass, and goes home.
Judge Roll gets up Saturday morning, but doesn't leave his home.

In each of these scenarios, he remains alive. Each choice made or not made in one's life has the power to alter the direction and quality of all future existence. This might seem like an overstatement because of all the little choices made every moment that have no consequence other than what was expected. For example, if I expect to close a window and accomplish that task successfully, no extra thought is given, and that activity is and would continue to be considered safe. What if, though, the window is warped, and by trying to push it down, I put my hand through the glass and sustain a serious of life ending injury? This seemingly innocent and safe activity has become a nexus point at which my life's direction has been altered, maybe drastically, maybe permanently, maybe terminally. Each action can have drastic re-actions even though they don't have to, even if we aren't willing to admit as such.

Our lives could actually be determined by the flip of a coin. But that's only part of the equation. The other involves every other choice chosen throughout your life that leads you to the point you are at this present moment. Think about all the "big" decisions you've made, all the major crossroads leading to the present, and where you might be if you'd chosen differently. Now, think about all the other choices you've made, the "little" decisions you gave no thought to, and think about where they might have led, had, say, other events been "tails" rather than "heads." Like, for instance, deciding, on your way home from mass just to say thank you in person as opposed to calling or sending an email.

Of course this is all conjecture. Maybe free will is illusion. When your time is up, you die, no matter the circumstance or decisions leading up to your last moment. Me personally? I have no idea, but I love the gift of my mind, and the ability consider other hypotheses, where they might have lead, as well as where I'm going on my current trajectory. It's all so much more interesting than American Idol ever could be..

Birds Dying In Italy: Thousands Of Turtle Doves Fall Dead From Sky

This time its Italy, and that the birds happen to be doves gives it even more of an Omen-feel..

On Wednesday, GeaPress reported hundreds -- possibly thousands -- of dead and dying birds in Italy. Countless turtle doves were found scattered in the streets, in flower beds and hanging tragically from trees "like Christmas balls" in the town of Faenza.

Many of the birds that fell dead from the sky were discovered with a mysterious blue stain in their beaks.
The next paragraph lists sights of mass animal deaths in the last week, including Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky, and Sweden, and fish kills in Maryland, Arkansas, New Zealand, and Brazil, along with a mass crab kill in England, but goes on to say:
While the events are likely unrelated, most still remain a mystery. Officials suggest fireworks are likely responsible for many of the bird deaths and that unusually cold weather could be to blame for the strange mass deaths of fish and crabs.

Sure. Unrelated. Check. And yes, it is true animal die-offs do occur, and with more regularity than the public notices. Articles are written, but due to the singular nature of the event (one species kill, usually not too large, obscure, rural areas of the planet, something more sensational happening), no one pays attention. These things do happen. But.. This seems different. The largeness of the kills, the short time period, the diversity of locales, these feel related. And, by the attention paid to this developing situation, I'm not the only one who thinks so.

Will a common denominator be identified?

Researchers Find "Alarming" Decline in Bumblebees

Let's see: No bees=no pollination=no agricultural produce=no food=Well.. extinction. It's all about the bees, babies.. Excerpts:

Four previously abundant species of bumblebee are close to disappearing in the United States, researchers reported on Monday in a study confirming that the agriculturally important bees are being affected worldwide.

They documented a 96 percent decline in the numbers of the four species,
and said their range had shrunk by as much as 87 percent. As with honeybees, a pathogen is partly involved, but the researchers also found evidence the bees are vulnerable to inbreeding caused by habitat loss.

"We provide incontrovertible evidence that multiple Bombus species have experienced sharp population declines at the national level," the researchers reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, calling the findings "alarming."
And:
While no crops are in immediate danger, the results show that experts need to pay attention, Cameron said. Pollinators such as bees and bats often have specific tongue lengths and pollination behaviors that have evolved along with the species of plants they pollinate.
And:
"This is a wake-up call that bumblebee species are declining not only in Europe, not only in Asia, but also in North America," she said.

As I've stated before, this is a serious problem because our systemic(both government and corporate) will be far too slow to prevent the oncoming catastrophe. The "cost to taxpayers" and "fiscal bottom line" will be the excuses used. This mounting horror's symptoms needed to be addressed years earlier, and there's no evidence to suggest the situation or pace will change. Ever the pessimist regarding large, controlling entities moving quickly to avert what could be averted, I'm saying it's already too late. We are doomed.

No Doubt The Jedi Felt This..

South Korea Buries One Million Pigs Alive Creepy, horrifying, and WTF excerpts:

South Korea has been heavily criticised for burying up to one million pigs alive as it grapples with a foot and mouth disease outbreak.

The South Korean government has so far refused to vaccinate pigs against the disease and is now slaughtering them in record numbers despite appeals to stop.

Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) told Sky News Online that South Korea's actions contravene international guidelines.

Joyce D’Silva, Director of Public Affairs for CIWF said: "Compassion in World Farming is appalled that the Republic of Korea is allegedly throwing pigs into pits and burying them alive.

"This is totally contrary to international guidelines on humane culling, which the Korean government endorsed five years ago. "We urge the Korean government to end this horrendous practice at once and to ensure that, if animals are culled, this is done humanely."

For fuck's sake, did no one in South Korea see "No Country For Old Men?" Awful; simply awful.

WikiLeaks: China's Doing What We Thought China's Doing..

Meh. WikiLeaks: China Hiding Military Buildup, Intentions Excerpts:

The public line out of Beijing has always been simple: China's military is for the defense of the homeland.

The reality, however, may be more complicated. Newly released leaked U.S. diplomatic cables claim China is probably hiding both the size of its military buildup, as well as, on occasion, its intentions.

Australia's national intelligence agency conducted a strategic assessment of China's military spending, and concluded that the communist countries military buildup "threatens regional stability," reports the Australian daily The Age.

A leaked cable states that the agency found that China spent $90 billion on its military in 2006 - double the $45 billion budget publicly announced by Beijing, The Age reports.

While this is just a fraction of the nearly $500 billion the U.S. spends annually on its military, it is still noticeable for the fact that they were probably not publicly forthright about their military spending.

Allow me to respond to the four highlighted passages: 1, 2, and 3: Duh: Ya think? And 4: But America is?

C'mon.. If we've learned anything about how large government/ corporations/ entities work, NONE OF THEM are remotely close to transparent! To think the average citizen in the U.S. (as opposed to any other average citizen in any other country)has more knowledge of our military's black ops or secret spending or the second, third, or fourth set of books involved in how the entire operation(any operation) functions is naive, bordering on stupid/insane. I'm not knocking WikiLeaks for releasing this, nor am I knocking the military for operating in this manner; It's just the way things have always been done. Not that that makes current operations all right, but if we don't have a realistic assessment of systems function, we cannot fix given system without crippling it.

Thank you, WikiLeaks, for the confirmation, however un-necessary, and to CBS News: For God's sake, step it up and give me some real news, please..

WikiLeaks: Yeah, Still Happening..

U.S. envoy to Libya ensnared in WikiLeaks uproar
Was government WikiLeaks’s Bank of America source?

Julian Assange has never explicitly said that WikiLeaks's next target is
Bank of America, but fear that it might be was enough to send the bank’s stock
tumbling in November after he hinted a major, damaging disclosure about an
American bank would be forthcoming. (The idea that BoA was the target came from a year-old interview in which he said he had access to a hard drive of a BoA
executive.)
Now The New York Times looks into all the preventive action the
bank is taking just in case, as well as the internal attempts to find the leak.
The going theory, which the Times sets up and then mostly knocks down, is that
the leak was coming from within the House.

Xymphora's neat little round up of the big bombshells here..

And what it all means..

WikiLeaks' Most Terrifying Revelation: Just How Much Our Government Lies to Us

Do you believe that it is in Americans' interest to allow a small group of U.S. leaders to unilaterally murder, maim, imprison and/or torture anyone they choose anywhere in the world, without the knowledge let alone oversight of their citizens or the international community? And, despite their proven record of failure to protect America -- from Indochina to Iran to Iraq -- do you believe they should be permitted to clandestinely expand their war-making without informed public debate? If so, you are betraying the principles upon which America was founded, endangering your nation, and displaying a distinctly "unamerican" subservience to unaccountable authority. But if you oppose autocratic power, you are called to support Wikileaks and others trying to limit U.S. Executive Branch mass murder abroad and failure to protect Americans at home.

WikiLeaks has been forced to take a media back burner at the moment. I'm sure Julian Assange accounted for such a possibility. What will he do to counter this turn of events? What's his next move? Is this a brief pause before another round of whistle blowing fireworks?

While We Were Bird Watching..

North Korea made some peaceful gestures to end the latest Korean crisis, but South Korea's not buying it.. Excerpts:

North Korea called Wednesday for "unconditional and early'' talks with rival South Korea to put an end to months of tensions. Seoul quickly dismissed the offer as insincere and said it's waiting for an apology for two deadly attacks blamed on Pyongyang.
It's rare for North Korea to issue such a statement addressed to South Korea and it came as the U.S. envoy on the North was in the region to discuss the standoff. Earlier in the day, Stephen Bosworth sought to calm fears of conflict on the peninsula.
..
But the North has made some conciliatory moves recently. On New Year's Day, the government issued a lengthy statement calling for warmer ties and the resumption of joint projects with South Korea. Pyongyang, eager for food and fuel assistance, has said it wants stalled international aid-for-nuclear-disarmament talks to restart. Washington and Seoul have said the North must first fulfill past nuclear disarmament commitments.
On Monday, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak vowed to increase his country's defenses but made clear the door was open for talks with Pyongyang and was willing to enhance economic cooperation between the rivals. On Wednesday, North Korean officials responded with their own call for negotiations.
"We are ready to meet anyone anytime and anywhere, letting bygones be bygones, if he or she is willing to go hands in hands with us,'' said a statement carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency. It added that history has shown that such confrontations can only lead to an "armed clash and war.''
South Korea's Unification Ministry immediately rebuffed the overtures late Wednesday.
"We don't consider it as a sincere offer of dialogue,'' ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo said. North Korea first must apologize for the two attacks and take "sincere'' steps toward nuclear disarmament, she said.

It would be a real shame if the final diplomatic straw that starts World War Three is "Your apology wasn't sincere enough." I realize the South is pulling an Alpha bluff, and that it's consistent with their "take no shit" philosophical stance towards the North, but at some point, this will backfire when North decides to not back down. Then, the whole peninsula will light up, and quick. There has to be a better solution to a potentially global nuclear conflict than the equivalent of two bullies staging intermittent pissing contests.

Animal Death Events Continue To Grow..

Whatever "this" turns out to be, it has certainly caught the attention and imagination of my normally inattentive friends, the ones who smirk when I talk of conspiracies or anomalous events..

A poster at my favorite conspiracy site provides this list of the latest die-offs, along with a map of event locations. (This also might be the "WTF Moment" predicted by the webbots, but that's another post at a later date..) And though I wouldn't definitively rule out any cause at the moment, it's starting to look less like a WMD release(The deaths are too widespread for Sorcha's theory, and why just birds and fish?), fireworks(no..), or cloaked UFOs(no, and why now?).

Possible explanations that seem plausible include: BP's Corexit saturation finally starting to manifest world wide(Long shot, but if you fuck with nature, side effects will occur..), Methane "burps,"(possible, but that's a lot of methane burping world wide..), HAARP(What's HAARP? Too short of an answer-man made magnetic disturbance-this one's still a Big maybe..), or Non-man made magnetic disturbance(with all the information available, this seems to be the most sensible). If this is some kind of magnetic disturbance, is it coming from space, or from the earth itself?

George Ure at Urban Survival has put together a fairly compelling argument involving the animal die offs as a precursor to some really major earthquake activity. The article's called Coping: Terra's Biggest Bite To Come? (Mr. Ure doesn't post single items, so scroll down to find it. It's in the January 5th column..) Not so encouraging excerpts:

What ties together all those parts of Arkansas, has been associated with bird kills, and might also be somehow related to Baton Rouge down river? You aren't going to like the answer, but here goes:
New Madrid.
Not only have we had some earthquakes in the central Arkansas area in the past couple of months - and there was a 4.2 in that area back in February of 2005 if memory serves me right. We has a little tiny 1.9 quake, just west of the Arkansas bird kill, too:
..
Let me pop up a map I developed last week for Peoplenomics subscribers and then put forth a wild hypothesis: I drew a great circle line around the globe which very roughly links all the big quakes from the China quake, down through the south Pacific, across the Pacific and Nazca plates to Chile, and let's not forget Argentina last week. (You really should check out the map; the visual helps.)

Now imagine for a moment that nature tends toward symmetry. We notice this line happens to come down through the Middle East very near those anomalous quakes in the Gulf of Aden, and then it comes down where that big Rift is developing in Africa which scientists figure may turn into a new inland sea in the future. And possibly something much bigger - think ocean.

Suppose that with all this activity in the southern hemisphere that some outburst of quakes might come to the northern hemisphere as a result.

If such wild guessing - and it is only that for now - held, then activity might be expected 90-degrees offset from the line - and since nature would likely quake along existing faults instead of creating new ones, maybe the the range would be somewhere in the area of +75 to +105 degrees. Uncertainty due to the bulge of the earth and so forth.
And:
So will my "shadow quake line" generally north of the equator appear?

Mr. Ure theorizes that maybe, just maybe, the entire planet might be in for (or effected by) some sort of global quake event(s), larger than anything we've ever experienced. While this is a horrifying proposition, it does seem to tie most of variables into a working theory. A scary, potentially life, history, and future altering theory.

And then, if this theory is correct, the larger question remains: What would cause a global quake event: Jesus, 2012, or Planet X?

Webbot Update From Clif High

We are just two weeks away from completion of the information flood/Tipping Point forecast by the webbots for the period of November 14, 2010, to January 17th, and to me, it certainly feels like the world is changing..  Yes, no one event has emotionally "blown us all away," but the pace and intensity of events certainly feel like something Major could happen at any moment, from any number of directions, including off planet occurrences..  Excerpts from Clif's latest article.. Parentheses Clif, bolded and colored emphasis me..

In the data sub set that forecast the [logical frank] meme also provides

for our next 'hot date' of January 7th and suggests that 3/three separate
memes will express on that day with some escalation of the release
language already involved; these 3/three are [economic], [terra
(intrusions on human activity)], and [alien wars]. This last is the larger
context extracted from the SpaceGoatFarts entity {ed note: the data sub
set within our work where we put all the [officially denied], [totally
unknown], and [suspected unknowns] that we encounter.} and is
specifically, on this day of the 7th of January, referring to [future
(reality) emergence]. This is to say that whatever 'events' or occurrence
that universe manifests in this archetype on that day will have the msm
(mainstream media - also known as = propaganda press) using future
tense words relative to the meme. Though note that these expressions
may not be on that day, but over this next (upcoming) week.

It is the [great global awakening] that will define the underlying

emotional 'tone' of this year, 2011. From our work, the data seems to be
forecasting 2011 as a year of some significance, that is to say, a year of
recognized, and fundamental, change. The nature of the language
forecasting fundamental change comes from old sub sets that emerged in
the data some years back under the archetype of [monumental]. Now
note that this word, 'monumental' is always representing a past-looking
view...in other words, the view from the point of view of those humans
in the future who will look back and be so damned amazed by what
will manifest, that they will build 'monuments' to us poor bastards about
to 'live through' those events. Make sense? Clear as dark roast at the
bottom of a cuppa? So for us poor bastards, we will look at the times,
while living through them, as being [epic] rather than [monumental].
Descriptors aside, it is just the same linguistic tone, viewed from
differing perspectives in the ever present now.(The last bold is Clif's..)

Clif's style is a bit dense to the uninitiated, but is worth "decoding."  If you aren't familiar with his work, please visit halfpasthuman and familiarize yourself.  His work, his style, and the information contained is beyond interesting, and may be the words that give you comfort and stability during the coming weeks and months, in that, eventually, humanity will live through what is upcoming.  There are many people who don't believe in Clif's work or his motives.  Not me.  I think he's a genius, his motives are pure, and his work worth much consideration.  In this coming year 2011, good luck to you and yours.  I think we're going to need it..

Dead Birds, This Time In Sweden..

Mysterious mortality in the Falkirk  Translation from Google.. Excerpts in italics:

A mysterious mortality in the affected Falkirk.



About 40 dead birds covered the ground last night at an intersection.


- It was a horrible sight, "said a resident who discovered the birds on their evening walk.
 
Bird Death in Falkirk was late in the night remains a mystery. The police did not know what the mass death could depend on.



- We received the alarm about 40 dead birds in a small space, "said Johan Ljung, duty officer in Västra Götaland.
 
This might be a natural die off, and it's not a mass kill, but we'll keep it in the "information pile" for the meantime.  This looks to be a pretty big jigsaw puzzle, still with no clear picture..
 
Possibly related:  Birds flying north over St. Louis (Video-view at 480 only, or you won't be able to see them..)  Are they bugging out, or scrambled because of an electro-magnetic disturbance?

And Now, A Word From Our Favorite Conspiracy Nuns..

I knew this event was tailor made for a weigh in from the Sisters of Sorcha Faal..  Excerpts in italics:

A shocking report prepared for Prime Minister Putin by the Foreign Military Intelligence Directorate (GRU) states that one of the United States top experts in biological and chemical weapons was brutally murdered after he threatened to expose a US Military test of poison gas that killed hundreds of thousands of animals in Arkansas this past week.

According to this report, John P. Wheeler III, Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Air Force, Washington, D.C. from 2005-2008, when he became the Special Assistant to the Acting Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Installations, Logistics and Environment, was found brutally murdered and dumped in a landfill..
..
Wheeler’s military career included writing one of the most important manuals on the effectiveness of biological and chemical weapons which led to his being hired in 2009 as a consultant to the Mitre Corporation, whose aviation system development department, the GRU reports, is at the forefront of creating the computer command and control systems used by the US Air Force in their fleet of aerial spraying planes.

These aerial spraying planes, this report continues, are based at the Little Rock Air Force Base in Arkansas that over the past few months have been involved with ‘test dispersants’ of poisonous gasses in the Afghanistan War Theater using chemical weapons stocks obtained from Iraq and held at the Pine Bluff Arsenal, also located in Arkansas.
..
According to this report, the US relocated from Iraq to the Pine Bluff Arsenal an estimated 63,000 metric tonnes of the poisonous gas Phosgene that is described as one of the most feared chemical weapons ever used due to its ability to literally cause the lungs and respiratory system to explode.

Nearly immediately after Russia accused the US this past summer of not fully destroying Iraq’s Phosgene poisonous gas stockpile the Pine Bluff Arsenal began an ‘accelerated’ disposal programme injecting it deep into the ground in central Arkansas, but which, unfortunately, since this past September, has caused over 500 minor earthquakes to occur raising the concerns of their local population.  (They tied in the earthquake swarm, too--If this weren't such a potentially serious situation, it would be major-conspiracy-sweet..)

The problems I have with this "report"?  This theory still doesn't answer why just the blackbirds and fish were effected, not dogs, cats, wild animals, and people.  If Phosgene were to blame, wouldn't there be more evidence?  Official reports on the birds cause of death have one strange aspect:  blood clots in the lungs, accompanied by trauma and internal bleeding.  While the blunt force trauma seems to be mentioned frequently, reports of clots are not.  That bothers me. 

The Wheeler tie-in is really troubling, as this angle feels accurate in a cloak and dagger kind of way, and may cause some other journalists to pursue this direction.  But the earthquake swarm?  Arkansas is a seismic zone, albeit a quieter one than California or Alaska, but I'm not sure about chemical dumping causing this recent activity.. 

Also:  Blackbirds don't normally fly at night.  Why this peculiar behavior?  That leads me back to some kind of electro-magnetic disturbance, but again, at this stage, anything is possible.

Every additional piece of information seems to breed more questions.  At this point, anyone claiming to have definitive answers cannot be correct.  There are far too many circumstances with unanswered questions, but God love Sorcha Faal for trying..

Gerry Rafferty, R.I.P.

Baker Street singer Gerry Rafferty dies in hospital.  Liver failure. 

To tell you the truth, I thought he died several years ago, as that seemed to be the general consensus.  I guess I missed the follow-up..

While mostly forgotten within the music industry, Rafferty was well known in the 70's and into the 80's for Stuck In The Middle With You(Stealer's Wheel), Baker Street(Maybe the best saxophone hook in rock music..), and a few other hits, including Right Down The Line, Get It Right Next Time, and Home and Dry.

And, evidently, he wrestled with alcohol most of his adult life, and in the end, alcohol, or its after effects, won out.  To you, Mr. Rafferty;  I hope you've found peace and an end to your suffering.  I'm sorry your end of life became so difficult and painful..  Thank you for providing some great, great tracks for my personal, teenage soundtrack.  I enjoyed them all..