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When Drones Guard the Pipeline: The Militarization of Our Fossil Fuels

2013-06-19T11:07:00.001-04:00

When Drones Guard the Pipeline: The Militarization of Our Fossil Fuels
June 17, 2013 | Alternet | Winona LaDuke with Frank Molley

The militarization of the energy fields is not new. It’s just more apparent when it’s in a first world country.

Someone needs to explain to me why wanting clean drinking water makes you an activist, and why proposing to destroy water with chemical warfare doesn’t make a corporation a terrorist.

I’m in South Dakota today, sort of a ground zero for the XL Keystone Pipeline, that pipeline, owned by a Canadian Corporation which will export tar sands oil to the rest of the world. This is the heart of the North American continent here. Bwaan Akiing is what we call this land-Land of the Lakota. There are no pipelines across it, and beneath it is the Oglalla Aquifer wherein lies the vast majority of the water for this region. The Lakota understand that water is life, and that there is no new water. It turns out, tar sands carrying pipelines (otherwise called “dilbit”) are sixteen times more likely to break than a conventional pipeline, and it seems that some ranchers and Native people, in a new Cowboy and Indian Alliance, are intent upon protecting that water.

This community understands the price of protecting land. And, the use of military force upon a civilian community- carrying an acute memory of the over 133,000 rounds of ammunition fired by the National Guard upon Lakota people forty years ago in the Wounded Knee standoff. That experience is coming home again, this time in Mi’gmaq territory.

Militarization of North American Oil Fields

This past week in New Brunswick, the Canadian military came out to protect oil companies. In this case, seismic testing for potential natural gas reserves by Southwestern Energy Company(SWN), a Texas based company working in the province. It’s an image of extreme energy, and perhaps the times.

SWN exercised it’s permit to conduct preliminary testing to assess resource potential for shale gas exploitation. Canadian constitutional law requires the consultation with First Nations, and this has not occurred. That’s when Elsipogtog Mi’gmaq warrior chief, John Levi, seized a vehicle containing seismic testing equipment owned by SWN. Their claim is that fracking is illegal without their permission on their traditional territory. About 65 protesters, including women and children, seized the truck at a gas station and surrounded the vehicle so that it couldn’t be removed from the parking lot. Levi says that SWN broke the law when they first started fracking “in our traditional hunting grounds, medicine grounds, contaminating our waters.” according to reporter Jane Mundy in on line Lawyers and Settlements publication. This may be just the beginning.

On June 9, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) came out en masse, seemingly to protect SWN seismic exploration crews against peaceful protesters – both native and non-Native, blocking route 126 from seismic thumper trucks. Armed with guns, paddy wagons and twist tie restraints, peaceful protestors were arrested. Four days later the protesting continued, and this time drew the attention of local military personnel. As one Mi’gmag said, “Just who is calling the shots in New Brunswick when the value of the land and water take a backseat to the risks associated with shale gas development?”

The militarization of the energy fields is not new. It’s just more apparent when it’s in a first world country, albeit New Brunswick. New Brunswick is sort of the El Salvador of Canadian provinces, if one looks at the economy, run akin to an oligarchy. New Brunswick’s Irving family empire stretches from oil and gas to media, they are the largest employer in New Brunswick and the primary proponents of the Trans Canada West to East pipeline which will bring tar sands oil to the St. Johns refinery owned by the same family. Irving is the fourth wealthiest family in Canada, the largest employer, land holder and amasses that wealth in the relatively poor province. The Saint John refinery would be a beneficiary of any natural gas fracked in the province. In general, press coverage of Aboriginal issues is sparse there at best.

Fracking proposals have come to their territory with a vengeance, and the perfect political storm has emerged- immense material poverty (seven of the ten poorest postal codes in Canada), a set of starve or sell federal agreements pushed by the Harper administration (on first nations), and extreme energy drives.

Each fracking well will take up to two-million-gallons of pristine water and transform the water into a toxic soup, full of carcinogens. The subsistence economy has been central to the Wabanaki confederacy since time immemorial, and concerns over SWN’s water contamination have come to the province. A recent Arkansas lawsuit against SWN charges the company with widespread toxic contamination of drinking water from their hydro-fracking.

Canada is the home to 75% of the worlds mining corporations, and they have tended to have relative impunity in the Canadian courts. Canadian corporations and their international subsidiaries are being protected by military forces elsewhere, and this concerns many. According to a U.K. Guardian story, a Québec Court of Appeal rejected a suit by citizens of the Democratic Republic of the Congo against Montreal-based Anvil Mining Limited for allegedly providing logistical support to the DRC army as it carried out a massacre, killing as many as 100 people in the town of Kilwa near the company's silver and copper mine. The Supreme Court of Canada later confirmed that Canadian courts had no jurisdiction over the company's actions in the DRC when it rejected the plaintiffs' request to appeal. Kairos Canada, a faith-based organization, concluded that the Supreme Court's ruling would "have broader implications for other victims of human rights abuses committed by Canadian companies and their chances of bringing similar cases to our courts".

In the meantime, back in New Brunswick, a heavily militarized RCMP came out to protect the exploration crews. Opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline has many faces, from ranchers in Nebraska and Texas who reject eminent domain takings of their land for a pipeline right of way, to the Lakota nation which walked out of State Department meetings in May in a show of firm opposition to the pipeline. All of them are facing a pipeline owned by TransCanada, a Canadian Corporation.

On a worldwide scale communities are concerned about their water. In El Salvador, more than 60% of the population relies on a single source of water. In 2009, this came down to choosing between drinking water and mining. In 2009, after immense public pressure, the country chose water. It established a moratorium on metal mining permits. Polls show that a strong majority of Salvadorans would now like a permanent ban. A testament to how things can change even in a politically challenged environment.

Up in Canada’s version of El Salvador, twelve people, both native and non were arrested, some detained and interrogated by investigators by the RCMP forces on June l4, and after a day of the federal military “making their presence” felt, the people of the region have concerns about how far Canada will go to protect fossil fuels.

Here in Bwaan Akiing, I am hoping that people who want to protect the water are treated with respect. And, I also have to hope that those 7,000 plus American owned drones aren’t coming home, omaa akiing, from elsewhere to our territories in the name of Canadian oil interests.

Video by Charles LeBlanc

Winona LaDuke is the Executive Director of Honor the Earth in White Earth Reservation, MN.

How The Solar System is Changing

2013-06-19T09:29:00.000-04:00

How The Solar System is Changing
June 18, 2013 | Suspicious0bservers

Farmers' Market Sues City over 'Pave or Vacate' Mandate

2013-06-18T15:28:00.000-04:00

Farmers' Market Sues City over 'Pave or Vacate' Mandate
June 18, 2013 | Activist Post | Heather Callaghan

A farmers' market in Mount Jackson, Virginia is causing an uproar by saying, "Yes, we're suing the town."

This little market bought an unoccupied former business building in Mount Jackson in an effort to improve the town and provide a fun place for all kinds of vendors. The market performs every year at a financial and emotional loss because they believe it's so important and rewarding to provide a market and a place for local fare. Otherwise, people have to go to the next town over for organic and the town remains more abandoned. They wanted downtown Mount Jackson to be like it was historically - where it's at!

For years, a gravel lot was effectively used for parking and by the owners for activities in and around the building. Plans were made by the market to improve the lot and building but extensions were needed to finish in order to continue the summer market - and because of economic hardship on the facilitators, namely, Gerald Forsburg. See a short news vid here.

Town council required them to have a paved asphalt or concrete lot at great expense - $15,000 - $20,000 - to the market, but the owners asked for an extension and to be able to continue the pending summer market. Council shot that down because of "ordinance" which apparently stems from "aesthetics." So, it was pave or get out.

Oh, where have we heard that gem before? Look up our articles on front yard garden shut-downs.

The market had to cancel summer events and the produce orders because of the requirements, cancel vendor agreements, and are at a loss for a whole year. So how can they ever get ahead at this point to even think about paving? Who runs this town - Mr. Potter of Bedford Falls? I mean just kick them down so they can't ever operate again! Suffocating people with permits, requirements, codes and ordinances is one way to kill fresh food access - and kill your town. The leaders of Mt Jackson are paid to run the town into a barren ground.

And how can this claim be made with any conscience? It gets even crazier...

Mt Jackson city council was caught cherry-picking which businesses to hold to this ordinance for paving and which businesses they'd look away from with unpaved lots. Mt Jackson Farmers' Market reports:

Furthermore, there are businesses in the community that have NOT been required to pave their lots. The Council would likely state that those businesses have "on street" parking. Well, SO DO WE!

The market saw a bigger drop in funds when the council banned them from using sandwich board signs in 2011 to advertise the times and place even though other businesses were allowed.

There's more - this is about the councilman who voted them down:

Yet, earlier this year, Mr. Holtzman demanded a bench decision from the very same Town Council to permit him to operate a newly purchased single family home as two units stating that "after purchasing the property, he found it not feasible to rent out to a single family. The Council was smart enough to send the request to the Planning Commission, who then was able to find a way "legally" to permit Mr. Holtzman's request. The new code implemented an "Overlay District" whereby the Town Council can permit, by special use, the conversion of a single family dwelling into a multi-unit occupancy. Of course, such a request is reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

Thus, exempting businesses is not permissible, nor is permitting extensions of time to meet requirements, but re-writing codes to benefit select businesses is?

So like Orwell's Animal Farm, some are more equal than others... Clearly, there's a bias here.

Why don't they just pave?

There are those in the community who say "Just pave the parking lot - we had to." To be sure, many have been required to pave their lots. However, many of those businesses were either in operation at the time the code was enforced, or given ample time to get their doors open and make a profit before being required to do so.

Check out the declaratory judgment and permanent injunction filed against the town and acting manager Charles Moore. It's not a suit for monetary means, it's to stop the town from prohibiting the market when there's a perfectly good hard surface that's been in use for years. Also read their Letter to the Editor. But the suit also calls for legal fees and this year's losses if the town continues to keep them out over freaking asphalt.

Heather Callaghan is a natural health blogger and food freedom activist. You can see her work at NaturalBlaze.com and ActivistPost.com. Like at Facebook.

Insane timelapse of a rotating supercell looks like an alien spaceship

2013-06-18T12:14:00.000-04:00

© Mike Olbinski/Olbinski Photography
An impressive, gorgeous, powerful
supercell northwest of Booker,
Texas from June 3rd, 2013.

SOTT: Insane timelapse of a rotating supercell looks like an alien spaceship
June 17, 2013 | Universe Today | Nancy Atkinson

Photographer and storm chaser Mike Olbinski has captured some incredible storm footage over the years (such as this apocalyptic haboob in Arizona in 2011.) But his latest timelapse was something he's been chasing down for over four years: a rotating supercell. Mike lives in Arizona, where that type of storm doesn't happen. But he regularly visits the US Central Plains and said on his website that he's been hoping to capture footage of "clouds that rotate and look like alien spacecraft hanging over the Earth."

To quote Mike again, "Boy, did we find it."

On June 3, 2013 he and his team were following storms near Booker, Texas. "We chased this storm from the wrong side (north) and it took us going through hail and torrential rains to burst through on the south side. And when we did...this monster cloud was hanging over Texas and rotating like something out of Close Encounters."

Watch it below:

A supercell near Booker, Texas from Mike Olbinski on Vimeo.
It never turned into a tornado, thankfully.

The timelapse was shot on a Canon 5D Mark II with a Rokinon 14mm 2.8 lens.

Mike says:

It's broken up into four parts. The first section ends because it started pouring on us. We should have been further south when we started filming but you never know how long these things will last, so I started the timelapse as soon as I could.

One thing to note early on in the first part is the way the rain is coming down on the right and actually being sucked back into the rotation. Amazing.

This video has gone viral, and unfortunately some sites aren't crediting Mike as the photographer. But just to be clear, this is a Mike Olbinski original!

Read more on his website, and see more of his videos on his Vimeo page.

Fracking Puts Squeeze on Drought-Striken Farmers

2013-06-17T15:55:00.001-04:00

Fracking Puts Squeeze on Drought-Striken Farmers
June 17, 2013 | Common Dreams | Lauren McCauley

Colorado farmer: "There is a new player for water, which is oil and gas. And certainly they are in a position to pay a whole lot more than we are."

The fracking industry is putting the squeeze on water-strapped farmers in the central United States according to a new analysis released Monday by the Associated Press.

Through an examination of industry-compiled fracking data and the US Department of Agriculture's official drought designations, AP reveals that by driving up the price of water and burdening already depleted aquifers and rivers, the high-polluting and water-intensive shale oil and gas removal process is placing an increasing threat on states currently suffering from ongoing drought.

"There is a new player for water, which is oil and gas. And certainly they are in a position to pay a whole lot more than we are," said fourth-generation farmer Kent Pepper of Mead, Colo., who has been forced to leave a number of his corn fields fallow this year because he cannot afford irrigation.

This news follows a recent study which found that nearly half of the country’s fracking wells are located in water-stressed regions and 92 percent of wells located in extremely high-water-stress regions, leading to the inevitable escalation of what Grist refers to as "the West's water wars."

The states highlighted in the study—including Arkansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and Wyoming—fall within regions labeled by the most recent US Drought Monitor as suffering from "extreme" and "exceptional" drought conditions.

"The oil industry is doing the big fracks and pumping a substantial amount of water around here," said Ed Walker, general manager of the Wintergarden Groundwater Conservation District, which manages an aquifer that serves as the main water source for farmers and about 29,000 people in three counties.

"When you have a big problem like the drought and you add other [...] problems to it like all the fracking, then it only makes things worse," he continued.

AP continues:

In a normal year, Peppler said he would pay anywhere from $9 to $100 for an acre-foot of water in auctions held by cities with excess supplies. But these days, energy companies are paying some cities $1,200 to $2,900 per acre-foot. The Denver suburb of Aurora made a $9.5 million, five-year deal last summer to provide the oil company Anadarko 2.4 billion gallons of excess treated sewer water.

In South Texas, where drought has forced cotton farmers to scale back, local water officials said drillers are contributing to a drop in the water table in several areas.

For example, as much as 15,000 acre-feet of water are drawn each year from the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer to frack wells in the southern half of the Eagle Ford Shale, one of the nation's most profitable oil and gas fields.

That's equal to about half of the water recharged annually into the southern portion of the aquifer, which spans five counties that are home to about 330,000 people, said Ron Green, a scientist with the nonprofit Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio.

According to estimates by government and trade associations, the amount of water needed to "frack" a well varies greatly by region. In Texas, for instance, the average well requires up to 6 million gallons of water, while in California each well requires 80,000 to 300,000 gallons.

And depending on state and local water laws, this water is either drawn for free from underground aquifers or rivers, or is bought or leased from water districts, cities and farmers.

GM Salmon Breed with Trout, Create Superfish: Study

2013-06-16T16:29:00.000-04:00

Trout, by The Wild Center

GM Salmon Breed with Trout, Create Superfish: Study
June 16, 2013 | Gaia Health Blog | Heidi Stevenson

Genetically modified salmon are more dangerous than anyone had realized. It’s now proven beyond doubt that they can interbreed with not only wild salmon, but also trout. Worse, the result is offspring that grow even faster than their parents and can outcompete them by a huge amount.

Genetically modified salmon, which the FDA is on the verge of approving, pose an unprecedented risk. As demonstrated by a new study, not only are these supposedly sterile fish capable of breeding, they can produce offspring with trout. The study’s authors wrote:

Through experimental crosses, we demonstrate transmission of a growth hormone transgene via hybridization between a candidate for commercial aquaculture production, GM Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) and closely related wild brown trout (Salmo trutta). Transgenic hybrids were viable and grew more rapidly than transgenic salmon and other non-transgenic crosses in hatchery-like conditions. In stream mesocosms designed to more closely emulate natural conditions, transgenic hybrids appeared to express competitive dominance and suppressed the growth of transgenic and non-transgenic (wild-type) salmon by 82 and 54 per cent, respectively.^[1]

Not only are these supposedly sterile frankenfish capable of breeding, but they can breed with trout to produce offspring that grow even faster than the GM salmon and out-compete natural salmon by an immense margin!

AquaBounty, the company that hopes to sell GM salmon, has claimed that these fish are no risk to the environment. They’ve said that the fish are sterile. That’s obviously untrue, and has been known since the early days of their development. Even if most of these frankenfish were sterile, a small percentage would still add up to millions of viable fish.

Their claim that there’s no risk of escaping into the wild becaue they keep them contained in locations far from oceans is also specious. First, there’s the fact that rivers lead to oceans. Second, they hope to sell these fish, or possibly the roe, to others—and there aren’t even any proposed regulations to limit where they can go. Thus, there is virtually nothing standing in the way of the release of GM salmon into the wild, wth the resultant devastation of the ecological system.

The author of the study, Krista B. Oke, tried to soften her results by saying:

I think currently what AquaBounty is proposing to do, it seems that their safeguards will be sufficient. You know, adequately prevent these kinds of risks. Where I think our work is more important would be if those regulations were weakened, which again I don’t know if anyone’s proposing to do right now, and AquaBounty certainly isn’t proposing to do, at the moment.

Perhaps that was necessary to get her study published—but what regulations is she referring to? Claims by AquaBounty do not equate with regulations!

In point of fact, as reported in the journal Nature^[4]:

Following FDA approval, AquaBounty hopes to sell its salmon eggs to farmers and expand to markets in Argentina, Canada, Chile and China. To sell AquAdvantage fish in the United States, each farm would require separate FDA approval, but because the food safety of the fish has already been vetted, the approval process would require only an environmental evaluation

AquaBounty is in a precarious financial position. Public outcry against their frankenfish has resulted in approval delays, which are threatening their ability to survive. If their frankenfish gains the FDA’s approval, the company will have no choice but to market the eggs to other countries. The potential US income from the fish is simply not enough to keep the company solvent.

Therefore, there can be little question that, if these genetically engineered salmon are approved, they can be expected to escape into the wild. When they do, they’ll interbreed wtih wild trout, creating a hybrid that will outcompete both the native trout and salmon. Ultimately, the result could be an ecological crash.

Wonderful things can be done with science—but it can also be used to produce horrors. Witness Fukushima and the atomic bomb. Witness the utter destruction of Iraq and the killing of civilians with drones. Witness the universal surveillance of virtually everyone by the United States. Witness the destruction of soil and food quality by Agribusiness. Witness the horrors of factory farming. Just because it can be done does not mean it should. AquaBounty’s Frankenfish is one of those things. Our life support, Gaia, simply cannot handle more devastation.

Sources:

Hybridization between genetically modified Atlantic salmon and wild brown trout reveals novel ecological interactions; Proceedings of the Royal Society; Krista B. Oke, Peter A. H. Westley, Darek T. R. Moreau, and Ian A. Fleming; doi: 10.1098/rspb.2013.1047
GM salmon can breed with trout and harm ecosystem, warn scientists
GM salmon in wild might produce bold hybrids
Transgenic salmon nears approval

The Pentagon’s Preparations for War Against Us

2013-06-15T21:12:00.000-04:00

Plastic Jesus (CC BY 2.0)

The Pentagon’s Preparations for War Against Us
June 15, 2013 | Truthdig.org | Alexander Reed Kelly

A score of recent defense department and other official documents warn that climate change, energy shocks and economic crisis could trigger waves of civil unrest. The understanding seems to explain the proliferation of security and surveillance programs over the last decade.

The preparation makes sense from the perspective of governments (four of which—the U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand—appear to have been granted access to data collected by the NSA spying program disclosed in recent weeks, as members of an international intelligence alliance known as “Five Eyes”). The world can unravel in at least three different ways. If and when it does, those in power will want the means to keep their grip. Truthdig columnist Chris Hedges has been warning us about this for a while now.

One legal military document grants extraordinary powers to intervene in a domestic “emergency” or “civil disturbance” outside of White House approval. A 2006 National Security Strategy brief warned that “Environmental destruction, whether caused by human behavior or cataclysmic mega-disasters … may overwhelm the capacity of local authorities to respond, and may even overtax national militaries, requiring a larger international response.”

Two years later, the defense department’s Army Modernization Strategy described a soon-to-arrive “era of persistent conflict” due to competition for “depleting natural resources and overseas markets” fueling “future resource wars over water, food and energy,” and predicting a resurgence of “anti-government and radical ideologies that potentially threaten government stability.”

That same year, a report by the U.S. Army’s Strategic Studies Institute warned that a series of domestic crises could initiate large-scale civil unrest. “Under the most extreme circumstances,” the report showed, Department of Defense action “might include use of military force against hostile groups inside the United States. Further, Dod would be, by necessity, an essential enabling hub for the continuity of political authority in a multi-state or nationwide civil conflict or disturbance.” Around the same time, the Pentagon began developing a force of 20,000 troops who would be on hand to respond to “domestic catastrophes” and civil unrest.

Of course there’s money in this game too. Speaking before employees of Booz Allen Hamilton, the defense contractor that formerly employed NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden, Lt Col. Mark Elfendahl, then chief of the Joint and Army Concepts Division, in 2010 described preparations for fighting in the homeland as a way to legitimize the U.S. military budget.

Also in 2010, the Army’s annual Unified Quest program—a yearly conference to determine how war should be waged in the future—voiced expectations that “ecological disasters and a weak economy” would fuel migration to urban areas, increasing social tensions within the United States and between “resource-starved nations.”

The tragic irony here is that the U.S. government’s foreign and domestic policies have created and continue to create the conditions of violent unrest that both honest social critics and war officials are expecting.

Nafeez Ahmed, the Guardian contributor who deserves great credit for compiling excerpts from these documents for the public, concluded his article on the subject by saying: “The Pentagon knows that environmental, economic and other crises could provoke widespread public anger toward government and corporations in coming years. The revelations on the NSA’s global surveillance programmes are just the latest indication that as business as usual creates instability at home and abroad, and as disillusionment with the status quo escalates, Western publics are being increasingly viewed as potential enemies that must be policed by the state.”

The point is driven home in the examples of the targeting of domestic activist groups, by government and private industry in cooperation, below.

—Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.

The Guardian:

It is therefore not surprising that the increasing privatisation of intelligence has coincided with the proliferation of domestic surveillance operations against political activists, particularly those linked to environmental and social justice protest groups.

Department of Homeland Security documents released in April prove a “systematic effort” by the agency “to surveil and disrupt peaceful demonstrations” linked to Occupy Wall Street, according to the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF).

Similarly, FBI documents confirmed “a strategic partnership between the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the private sector” designed to produce intelligence on behalf of “the corporate security community.” A PCJF spokesperson remarked that the documents show “federal agencies functioning as a de facto intelligence arm of Wall Street and Corporate America.”

In particular, domestic surveillance has systematically targeted peaceful environment activists including anti-fracking activists across the US, such as the Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition, Rising Tide North America, the People’s Oil & Gas Collaborative, and Greenpeace.

... A University of Bath study ... based on confidential sources, found that a whole range of corporations - such as McDonald’s, Nestle and the oil major Shell, “use covert methods to gather intelligence on activist groups, counter criticism of their strategies and practices, and evade accountability.”

Read more

Bank of America Lied to Homeowners and Rewarded Foreclosures, Former Employees Say

2013-06-15T20:07:00.000-04:00

(Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg)

Bank of America Lied to Homeowners and Rewarded Foreclosures, Former Employees Say
June 15, 2013 | Common Dreams | Paul Kiel

Bank of America employees regularly lied to homeowners seeking loan modifications, denied their applications for made-up reasons, and were rewarded for sending homeowners to foreclosure, according to sworn statements by former bank employees.

The employee statements were filed late last week in federal court in Boston as part of a multi-state class action suit brought on behalf of homeowners who sought to avoid foreclosure through the government's Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) but say they had their cases botched by Bank of America.

In a statement, a Bank of America spokesman said that each of the former employees' statements is "rife with factual inaccuracies" and that the bank will respond more fully in court next month. He said that Bank of America had modified more loans than any other bank and continues to "demonstrate our commitment to assisting customers who are at risk of foreclosure."

Six of the former employees worked for the bank, while one worked for a contractor. They range from former managers to front-line employees, and all dealt with homeowners seeking to avoid foreclosure through the government's program.

When the Obama administration launched HAMP in 2009, Bank of America was by far the largest mortgage servicer in the program. It had twice as many loans eligible as the next largest bank. The former employees say that, in response to this crush of struggling homeowners, the bank often misled them and denied applications for bogus reasons.

Sometimes, homeowners were simply denied en masse in a procedure called a "blitz," said William Wilson, Jr., who worked as an underwriter and manager from 2010 until 2012. As part of the modification applications, homeowners were required to send in documents with their financial information. About twice a month, Wilson said, the bank ordered that all files with documentation 60 or more days old simply be denied. "During a blitz, a single team would decline between 600 and 1,500 modification files at a time," he said in the sworn declaration. To justify the denials, employees produced fictitious reasons, for instance saying the homeowner had not sent in the required documents, when in actuality, they had.

Such mass denials may have occurred at other mortgage servicers. Chris Wyatt, a former employee of Goldman Sachs subsidiary Litton Loan Servicing, told ProPublica in 2012 that the company periodically conducted "denial sweeps" to reduce the backlog of homeowners. A spokesman for Goldman Sachs said at the time that the company disagreed with Wyatt's account but offered no specifics.

Five of the former Bank of America employees stated that they were encouraged to mislead customers. "We were told to lie to customers and claim that Bank of America had not received documents it had requested," said Simone Gordon, who worked at the bank from 2007 until early 2012 as a senior collector. "We were told that admitting that the Bank received documents 2018would open a can of worms,'" she said, since the bank was required to underwrite applications within 30 days of receiving documents and didn't have adequate staff. Wilson said each underwriter commonly had 400 outstanding applications awaiting review.

Anxious homeowners calling in for an update on their application were frequently told that their applications were "under review" when, in fact, nothing had been done in months, or the application had already been denied, four former employees said.

Employees were rewarded for denying applications and referring customers to foreclosure, according to the statements. Gordon said collectors "who placed ten or more accounts into foreclosure in a given month received a $500 bonus." Other rewards included gift cards to retail stores or restaurants, said Gordon and Theresa Terrelonge, who worked as a collector from 2009 until 2010.

This is certainly not the first time the bank has faced such allegations. In 2010, Arizona and Nevada sued Bank of America for mishandling modification applications. Last year, Bank of America settled a lawsuit brought by a former employee of a bank contractor who accused the bank of mishandling HAMP applications.

The bank has also settled two major actions by the federal government related to its foreclosure practices. In early 2012, 49 state attorneys general and the federal government crafted a settlement that, among other things, provided cash payments to Bank of America borrowers who had lost their home to foreclosure. Authorities recently began mailing out those checks of about $1,480 for each homeowner. Earlier this year, federal bank regulators arrived at a settlement that also resulted in payments to affected borrowers, though most received $500 or less.

The law suit with the explosive new declarations from former employees is a consolidation of 29 separate suits against the bank from across the country and is seeking class action certification. It covers homeowners who received a trial modification, made all of their required payments, but who did not get a timely answer from the bank on whether they'd receive a permanent modification. Under HAMP, the trial period was supposed to last three months, but frequently dragged on for much longer, particularly during the height of the foreclosure crisis in 2009 and 2010.

ProPublica began detailing the failures of HAMP from the start of the program in 2009. HAMP turned out to be a perfect storm created by banks that refused to adequately fund their mortgage servicing operations and lax government oversight.

Bank of America was far slower to modify loans than other servicers, as other analyses we've cited have shownspan>. A study last year found that about 800,000 homeowners would have qualified for HAMP if Bank of America and the other largest servicers had done an adequate job of handling homeowner applications.

Monsanto Video Revolt: Global anti-GMO online rally launches

2013-06-15T19:29:00.000-04:00

Monsanto Video Revolt: Global anti-GMO online rally launches
June 15, 2013 | RussiaToday

Organiser Anthony Gucciardi tells RT's The Truthseeker about the Monsanto Video Revolt to bypass the corporate media blackout and bring the issue to world attention - READ MORE http://on.rt.com/t9j2no

Inconstant Radioactive Decay Startles Physicists | Space News

2013-06-15T16:36:00.000-04:00

Inconstant Radioactive Decay Startles Physicists | Space News
June 14, 2013 | ThunderboltsProject

For many years a scientific controversy has been brewing far from the spotlight of mainstream media. How constant are physical constants? For decades the scientific consensus has been that "true constants", such as the speed of light and the gravitational force, remain unchanged over time. But in recent years more and more evidence has challenged this assumption. A telling example is now posed by observed changes in supposedly constant radioactive decay rates in relation to solar flares.

Five Permaculture Tips for a More Sustainable Organic Farm

2013-06-14T18:21:00.000-04:00

Five Permaculture Tips for a More Sustainable Organic Farm
June 13, 2013 | Food Freedom News

Hanging garden beds inside greenhouse

By Lindsay McNamara
Mother Earth News

Nestled deep in the sticks of Schoharie County in upstate New York, lays Raven Crest Botanicals, a 250-acre sanctuary of an organic farm. Over 80 herbs are grown at Raven Crest for a variety of teas, tinctures, elixirs and skin care products. Susanna Raeven, owner of Raven Crest Botanicals, strives to bring “non-toxic, safe and effective, hand-made herbal products, made in small batches with love and intent” to her clients to “help them find balance in their lives with the generous support of the plant kingdom.”

Raven Crest teas, elixirs and tinctures are derived from Mother Earth without harming her, made well for Susanna’s supporters to be well. Ms.Raeven uses a variety of permaculture methods to ensure that each and every one of her products is natural, organic, and pesticide and fertilizer free.

Austrian farmer Sepp Holzer, the “Father of Permaculture,” describes the farming method as an environment where all elements within a system interact with each other; plants and animals working together in harmony. Holzer outlined major themes of permaculture:

Multi-functionality: every element fulfills multiple functions and every function is performed by multiple elements
Use energy practically and efficiently, work with renewables
Use natural resources
Intensive systems in a small area
Utilize and shape natural processes and cycles
Support and use edge effects (creating highly productive small-scale structures)
Diversity instead of monoculture

Keeping the themes of Sepp Holzer in mind, below are five permaculture tips for a more sustainable farm, as used by Susanna Raeven at Raven Crest Botanicals:

Sheet mulching in progress

1. Try Sheet Mulching

“If you don’t have good soil, you got nothing,” Susanna Raeven said. Sheet mulching establishes a great foundation for planting by using different layers of inorganic and organic materials to help the soil build itself. Start with slashed vegetation, and then add a layer of cardboard, a thin layer of manure, a foot of straw, compost, and end with mulch. Organic fertilizer can be added too.

At Raven Crest Botanicals, Ms.Raeven uses Espoma plant-tone, blood meal/dried blood, bone meal, azomite, rock phosphate, and lime for soil amendments. For added trace minerals, kelp or seaweed works well too.

The inorganic cardboard brings the carbon and the manure brings the nitrogen into the system, which are both needed for high quality soil. The key to excellent soil is a healthy ecosystem of microorganisms working the land, and sheet mulching is a way to provide good habitat for them.

2. Build Permaculture Guilds

Permaculture is based on utilizing and shaping natural processes, like those seen in forests. One way to mimic nature is to build a “food forest.” Similar to a natural forest system, food crops and other plants that provide for human needs can be planted together to create multiple layers of vegetation and a diverse environment.
A good start for a long-term food forest is a permaculture guild. A guild is a grouping of plants, animals, insects and other natural elements that work together to survive, grow symbiotically and help one another reach their fullest potential.

At Raven Crest Botanicals, sheet mulching was laid around fruit trees to provide the ground work for other herbs and flowers to be grouped together around the tree, and eventually establish a permaculture guild, when the soil is ready to be planted in.

Typically, monoculture grass and fruit tree root structures lie at a similar depth in the soil, thus creating competition for resources like nutrients and water. By planting herbs and flowers in a guild instead of planting grass, the competition for resources is eliminated and the plants can grow together symbiotically.

To build a strong permaculture guild, companion planting can be used to facilitate the smaller symbiotic relationships that contribute to the functionality of the system as a whole community. Planting different crops that compliment each other can also help with pest control, pollination and increase productivity. Tarragon and eggplant can be planted as companions. A common example of companion planting is the Three Sisters: corn, beans and squash. The stalk from the corn serves as a trellis for the beans to climb, as the beans fix nitrogen to benefit the corn. Squash vines act as “living mulch,” shading emerging weeds and preventing moisture in the soil from evaporating.

Reference the companion planting guide put together by MOTHER EARTH NEWS here.

3. Rethink Your Gardening Space

To save money on soil and to reduce water use, consider building a Hugelkultur raised garden bed. A permaculture concept, a Hugelkultur is simply a raised garden bed filled with wood. At Raven Crest Botanicals, trees, branches and stumps were used to build a raised bed. Then, perennial herbs were planted to keep the soil in place. (See lead photo)

The rotting wood contains high levels of organic material, nutrients and air pockets for the roots of the plants in the bed. With time, the soil becomes rich and loaded with helpful microorganisms. As the wood shrinks, it makes more air pockets; allowing for a little bit of self tilling. The wood also helps keep excess nutrients in the soil, not leak into the groundwater, acting as a self-fertilizer. The water held in the tree stumps and branches allows for very little irrigation. Only a foot or so of soil is needed on top of the rotting wood, so Hugelkultur cuts down on soil costs too.

Another interesting way to completely eliminate soil expenses is to try straw bale gardening. No need for a big plot of land or soil, straw bales allow for gardening on roof tops, in parking lots, and high density urban areas. The bales are moveable too! To start planting in straw bales, simply add a lot of heavy nitrogen and organic fertilizer for one week, to help aid the decomposition process. Then, spend another week watering the bale. The straw bale will get very hot inside, but once the temperature comes down to 100 degrees, it is time to start planting seedlings. Straw bale gardening makes for an easier harvest too, since roots don’t have to be dug out.

For more information about straw bale gardening, read this article in the New York Times.

4. Go Solar!

Part of the vision of permaculture is to use energy efficiently and work with renewables. At Raven Crest Botanicals, a solar powered irrigation system waters the herbs and flowers with the water from the pond on the farm. Also at Raven Crest is a passive solar, earth-sheltered greenhouse. The greenhouse was built using the plans from The Earth-Sheltered Greenhouse by Mike Oehler, a book featured on Mother Earth News.

The Raven Crest greenhouse is insulated by the Earth and has a cold sink to give cold air a space to settle away from the tender seedlings. The oil-filled pistons of the temperature-sensitive automatic vents allow the greenhouse to regulate its own temperature. The oil in the pistons contracts in the cold (closing the vents) and expands in the heat (opening the vents). There are also ten 55 gallon water drums to help regulate the temperature in the greenhouse.

The hanging beds naturally keep mice away and serve as drying shelves when all of the herbs and flowers have been moved out of the greenhouse, hardened and planted. Although Ms.Raeven has a solar drier to dry her herbs for teas, elixirs and tinctures, the added space from her greenhouse gives her a better chance to dry all her herbs at their peak when they are the most medicinal.

5. Grow the Organic Farming Community – Host a WWOOFer

Susanna Raeven describes her farm as a “single woman operation.” In order to grow her small business and reach more clients, she needs help planting and harvesting her herbs and tending her farm. Because of this, Susanna has become a part of the WWOOF program as a “host farm.”

Worldwide Opportunities in Organic Farming (WWOOF) is an “effort to link visitors with organic farmers, promote an educational exchange, and build a global community conscious of ecological farming practices.” The program connects people who would like to learn more about the organic movement, permaculture and sustainable agriculture, with farmers who want to share their knowledge. No money is exchanged between host farms and “WWOOFers,” just room and board for the volunteers (and amazing food if you are lucky!).
WWOOF is a great way to cultivate the movement for organic, healthy foods and to engage the younger generation in permaculture, farming and the environment. WWOOF creates an atmosphere of trust and respect, with emphasis placed on the value of hard work and integrity. The program shows that living off the land is a way to eat well, be well and wash your spirit clean.

For more information Raven Crest Botanicals, visit www.RavenCrestBotanicals.com. Susanna also offers flexible CSA packages at an affordable price that can be shipped throughout the United States.

Decimating the Community: Shocking Truths about Wal-Mart

2013-06-13T10:10:00.000-04:00

Decimating the Community: Shocking Truths about Wal-Mart
Jan 4, 2013 | breakingtheset

Abby Martin goes over how Wal Mart is swallowing up the world, citing examples of sexual discrimination, environmental pollution, disregard for workers' safety, and costing tax-payers millions of dollars.

Raping Mother Nature: The Scary Side of Synbio Glowing Plants

2013-06-12T16:54:00.000-04:00

The Scary Side of Synbio Glowing Plants
June 12, 2013 | Mother Jones | Tom Philpott

If you're like me, the concept of synthetic biology—the application of engineering techniques to the building blocks of life—is pretty hard to get your head around. I get synthesizing, say, material to make clothes out of. But synthesizing new life forms? Apparently, while I stand slack-jawed, the novel technology is quickly going mainstream. Here's the New York Times:

Hoping to give new meaning to the term "natural light," a small group of biotechnology hobbyists and entrepreneurs has started a project to develop plants that glow, potentially leading the way for trees that can replace electric street lamps and potted flowers luminous enough to read by.

What could be more innocuous than plants that generate useful light? And moreover, the "glowing plants" project isn't the work of a big, bad multinational like Monsanto or a corporate-funded academic lab, the Times notes, but rather a "small group of hobbyist scientists in one of the growing number of communal laboratories springing up around the nation as biotechnology becomes cheap enough to give rise to a do-it-yourself movement."

And they're not financing the project by tapping Wall Street or big banks, but rather the democratic cash-raising method of our age par excellence, the Kickstarter campaign. The project launched April 23 with a goal to raise $65,000; it has already exceeded $480,000 in pledges, aided by glowing—so to speak—reports in Tech Crunch, Fast Company, and Forbes, as well as the promise that anyone who commits at least $40 will "receive seeds to grow a glowing plant at home."

What could possibly go wrong? Well, I don't know much about the science of creating living lamps. But I do think it's important to think out the broader implications of synbio—as the novel technology is known—and ask questions about how its release from the lab into the world is regulated. Which is evidently pretty lightly—this consortium is casually promising to distribute glowing seeds to hundreds of people.

I can't think of a better source for examining the promise and perils of synbio than this much-cited 2007 essay by the eminent physicist—and climate change skeptic—Freeman Dyson. In it, he laid out a rosy vision for what he called the "domestication of biotechnology." Here's Dyson:

There will be do-it-yourself kits for gardeners who will use genetic engineering to breed new varieties of roses and orchids. Also kits for lovers of pigeons and parrots and lizards and snakes to breed new varieties of pets. Breeders of dogs and cats will have their kits too. Domesticated biotechnology, once it gets into the hands of housewives and children, will give us an explosion of diversity of new living creatures, rather than the monoculture crops that the big corporations prefer.

And what about the obvious dangers—what if these God-like "housewives and children" (ugh) turned away from conjuring cuddly creatures and start creating ones designed to bare their fangs, monsters instead of pets? You don't even need to presume malicious intent to find reason for concern: What if some novel beast designed for cuteness escapes, goes rogue, and turns out to have unintended malign powers? Then there are the obvious questions: What if these new life forms behave in ways we can't predict—or mutate in ways we can't predict—altering food chains or larger biosystems? Dyson acknowledged the "real and serious dangers" of synbio, and allowed that "rules and regulations will be needed to make sure that our kids do not endanger themselves and others." But he waved off that task—not his problem. "I leave it to our children and grandchildren to supply the answers," he cheerfully declared.

But regulating novel technologies has proven difficult here in the United States. Genetically modified seeds burst onto US farm fields in the mid-'90s with a notoriously lax regulatory process, as I showed in this post. Still, the process is time-consuming, and it has been known to occasionally at least delay particularly problematic crop varieties, like new ones genetically rigged to withstand not one but two herbicides. Next came nanotechnology, which takes advantage of the fact that common substances like silver behave differently when they're really, really small. Nanotech is now ubiquitous, showing up everywhere from underwear to toothpaste. But as the Pulitzer-winning investigative journalist Andrew Schneider showed in an eye-opening 2010 series, the small stuff poses significant risks, has received little independent testing, and is barely regulated.

The excellent watchdog org ETC Group, which seeks to place novel technologies under democratic oversight, has launched a rival "Kickstopper" campaign to halt such projects until a proper regulatory regime can be put into place.

In the spirit of Professor Dyson, let me offer a prediction for the future. I imagine that synbio's current reputation as a democratic technology dominated by well-meaning amateurs will last just long enough to convince people that it requires little or no regulation. While this laissez-faire regime congeals into a settled fact, big agrichemical, pharmaceutical, and life-sciences firms will quietly take it over, eventually dominating the research and deployment of Dyson's wondrous toys. Monsanto has already bought its way into the space—in January, it bought an R&D lab from and entered a research collaboration with Synthetic Genomics, a company that uses synthetic microbes to "improve crop productivity."

Unless we have a serious national reckoning on synbio, what we risk leaving our children and grandchildren is the knotty problem of trying to convince an entrenched, little-regulated industry that the power of generating life forms should be used for the broad interests of society, not the narrow ones of shareholders.

About the Author

Tom Philpott is the food and ag correspondent for Mother Jones. For more of his stories, click here. To follow him on Twitter, click here. RSS | Twitter

Gigantic line of storms threatens 20 percent of Americans

2013-06-12T14:11:00.000-04:00

Photo from www.spc.ncep.noaa.gov

Gigantic line of storms threatens 20 percent of Americans
June 12, 2013 | RT

A series of severe storms are forecast to rip through the US on Wednesday, bringing tornadoes, lightning, hail and power outages to 20 percent of all Americans.

Meteorologists are warning that a massive derecho could bring devastating weather conditions to 64 million people across 10 states. Cities including Chicago, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and Columbus are expected to experience severe conditions 45 times higher than a normal day in June.

The line of storms will span at least 240 miles, with winds of at least 58 mph. The derecho is a rare weather phenomenon that usually only occurs in the Midwest once a year. Meteorologists say that predicting such a storm system is difficult, but that it is highly likely to occur Wednesday.

“It’s like predicting a large tornado is going to happen,” said MSNBC Meteorologist Bill Karins. “No one can do that. The only thing we can do is say conditions are favorable for one to happen.”

Nick Wiltgen, a meteorologist for The Weather Channel, said conditions are favorable for a derecho, and "maybe more than one", in the US this week.

But if weather conditions are as severe as meteorologists forecast, millions of Americans could experience large hail, dangerous lightning, and destructive winds. Trees may be uprooted, branches may litter the roads, utility poles and wires could be brought down, and power outages could occur across the country.

Bill Bunting, operations chief at the National Weather Service’s Oklahoma-based Storm Prediction Center, told AP that although he does not want Americans to panic, it is important for the to be aware of the risks.

“It’s a pretty high threat,” he said. “We don’t want to scare people, but we want them to be aware.”
Jeff Masters, meteorology director at Weather Underground, told AP that Wednesday’s predicted derecho “might be the worst severe weather outbreak for this part of the country for the year.”

Although the worst of the storm is expected to occur in Midwest, cities including Detroit, Baltimore, Washington, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and Louisville have a risk level of weather 15 times more severe than normal.

And even if a derecho does not form on Wednesday, the region will still experience powerful thunderstorms and destructive weather conditions that could bring down trees.

In 2012, a derecho caused $1 billion in damages across 11 states spanning from Chicago to Washington, D.C. The weather system came with wind gusts as high as 100 mph, Thirteen people were killed, 4 million were left without power, and 34 people died from the heat wave that followed the storm system, AP reports.
In the US, derechos are most likely to occur between May and July. Wednesday’s storms will move quickly, and leave behind days of oppressive heat.

“By the time you see the dark sky and distant thunder you may have only minutes to get to safe shelter,” Bunting warned.

Our Improbable Solar System

2013-06-11T14:03:00.000-04:00

Our Improbable Solar System
June 11, 2013 | ThunderboltsProject

How old and how stable is our solar system? On this question, astronomers have grown more uncertain year by year. The actual history of the planets could be a far cry from anything we learned in school.

23 dead in worst flooding seen across some regions of Europe in 500 years

2013-06-10T20:07:00.000-04:00

23 dead in worst flooding seen across some regions of Europe in 500 years
June 8, 2013 | The Extinction Protocol

CZECH REPUBLIC – Expectations that Central Europe’s flooding would ease this week were put on hold following heavy rainfall over the weekend, as the Vltava and Elbe rivers swelled again to near critical levels in the Czech Republic while the flood wave moving through northern Germany triggered more evacuations.

Forecasters are expecting more thunderstorms in parts of southern Germany, just as recovery efforts were beginning to get under way after the worst flooding seen in some areas in 500 years. And in Hungary, floodwaters were moving southwards after water levels stabilized in Budapest. The situation was worsening along the Elbe in northern Germany, where a dike burst overnight, cutting off high-speed train connections between Berlin and most western German cities. About 40 kilometers (24 miles) north of Magdeburg, about 1,500 residents of the town of Fischbeck were forced to leave their homes after a dike breached with a

50-meter hole at around midnight. Another dike in that area slipped some 30 meters and is threatening to break, and a third near Klein Rosenburg, south of Magdeburg, failed over the weekend. The dike break north of Magdeburg caused the closure of a bridge on the high-speed train route from Berlin to Hannover, the main connection hub between southern and northern Germany by train. ICE trains are being rerouted with delays of up to three hours, and customers are also facing a number of cancellations, according to Deutsche Bahn. High-speed trains from Amsterdam to Berlin are now going no further than Hannover.

Floodwaters are continuing to flow north along the Elbe to Hamburg, and 44,000 people have been evacuated from their homes in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt alone. And there could well be more in store. Early Monday, Czech weather office CHMU released new local flood warnings as rivers, including the Vltava and Elbe, swelled in several parts of the country after heavy thunderstorms and hail over the weekend and early Monday. More rain is expected at least through Tuesday, following localized flash floods on

Sunday, which caused some street rain drains and sewers to overflow in Prague. The German weather service warned of heavy rain in southern Germany Monday, where localized thunderstorms could dump as much as 100 liters a square meter (2.5 gallons a square foot) within 24 hours. The situation in Budapest remained stable, with water levels at the city’s dams and dikes starting to subside after peaking at about three times their normal levels on Sunday night, said Mark Mate Kisdi, spokesman for the Municipal Catastrophe Authority. Attention has now turned to parts of southern Hungary that will be hit by the Danube River’s floodwaters. “Today is the day of shifting focus from the northern part of the country to the southern parts,” said Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. At least 23 people have died across the region, and several more remain missing, while the economic toll is expected to reach or exceed economic damages from similar floods in 2002, which caused $16.5 billion in damages, according to Munich Re.

--WSJ

Easter Island's 'Walking' Stone Heads Stir Debate

2013-06-10T16:21:00.001-04:00

An Easter Island statue being walked into place
CREDIT: Carl Lipo

Easter Island's 'Walking' Stone Heads Stir Debate
June 7, 2013 | Live Science | Tia Ghose

An idea suggesting massive stone statues that encircle Easter Island may have been "walked" into place has run into controversy.

In October 2012, researchers came up with the "walking" theory by creating a 5-ton replica of one of the statues (or "moai"), and actually moving it in an upright position, and have published a more thorough justification in the June issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science. If the statues were walked into place, then the islanders didn't need to cut down the island's palm trees to make way for moving the massive carvings, the researchers argue.

The findings may help dismantle the traditional storyline of Easter Island, or Rapa Nui: that a "crazed maniacal group destroyed their environment," by cutting down trees to transport gigantic statues, said study co-author Carl Lipo, an anthropologist at California State University, Long Beach.

But not everyone in the field is convinced. While some experts find the demonstration persuasive, others think it's unlikely the large statues could have been walked upright on the island's hilly, rough terrain. [Aerial Photos of Mysterious Stone Structures]

Ancient enigma

Rapa Nui's majestic rock statues (also known as Stone Heads of Easter Island) have been a mystery since Europeans first arrived in the 1700s on the island, located in the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of Chile. Though the island was filled with a giant palm forest when Polynesians first arrived in the 13th century, the first European explorers found massive megaliths on a deforested, rock-strewn island with just 3,000 people.

In the past, archaeologists proposed that a lost civilization chopped down all the trees to make paths to roll the megalithic structures horizontally for miles on top of palm trees used as "rolling logs" of sorts, from the quarries where they were created to ceremonial platforms. That transport method would have required many people, and led to deforestation and environmental ruin that would've caused the population to plummet.

Walking statues

But Lipo and his colleagues wondered whether that made sense. For one, other archaeological evidence in villages suggested the island's population was never that large, and the palm trees, essentially hardwood with a soft, foamy material inside, would be crushed by the rolling statues, Lipo said.

Along the road to the platforms are moai whose bases curved so they couldn't stand upright, but instead would topple forward, meaning the ones in transit would have to be modified once they reached the platform. That made the researchers wonder why the statues weren't made to stand upright in the first place if they were meant to be rolled into place, not walked, Lipo said

And the statues found on the roads to the platforms all had wider bases than shoulders, which physical models suggested would help them rock forward in an upright position.

To see whether the statues may have been walked, the team transformed photos of one 10-foot-tall (3 meters) statue into a 3D computer model, and then created a 5-ton concrete replica. Last October, on a NOVA documentary, the team tried walking the replica, using people holding ropes on each side to rock the statue forward and back on a dirt path in Hawaii. [Gallery: See Images of the Easter Island Demonstration]
The statue moved easily.

"It goes from something you can't imagine moving at all, to kind of dancing down the road," Lipo told LiveScience.

The movers walked the replica about 328 feet (100 m) in 40 minutes; from this demonstration and assuming the ancient builders would have been somewhat of experts at their jobs, Lipo suspects they would have moved the Rapa Nui statues about 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) a day, meaning transport would have taken about two weeks.

In the new paper, the team hypothesizes the builders carved the statues' bases so they would lean forward, as it would've been easier to rock a statue with a curved bottom back and forth. Then, the builders would have flattened the bases to stand the statues upright once they reached the ceremonial platforms.

No collapse

The findings suggest that relatively few people were needed to move the statues. As a result, the idea of a massive civilization collapsing because of their craze to build statues needs a rethink, Lipo said.

Instead, Lipo's team believes the population was probably always small and stable.

The Polynesian settlers did cause deforestation, through slashing-and-burning of the forest to make way for sweet potatoes and through the rats inadvertently brought to the island that ate palm nuts before they could sprout into new trees. But that deforestation didn't cause the civilization to die out: The palm trees were probably not economically useful to the islanders anyway, Lipo said.

Controversial conclusion

"It's an entirely plausible hypothesis," said John Terrell, an anthropologist at the Field Museum in Chicago, who was not involved in the study.

The combination of physics, archaeological evidence, satellite imagery of the roads, and human feasibility makes their story compelling, Terrell told LiveScience.
But not everyone is convinced.

The walking hypothesis relies on particular statue geometry; namely, that all the statues had wider bases than shoulders when they were moved, said Jo Anne Van Tilburg, the director of the Easter Island Statues Project, and a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, who was not involved in the study.
Her research of 887 statues on Rapa Nui has found much more variation in this ratio, even in statues found in transit to their ceremonial platforms.

In 1998, Van Tilburg and others from the Easter Island Statues Project used a similar replica to show that moving the statues horizontally along parallel logs could work as well.

"I don't think you have to invent a very awkward, difficult transport method," Van Tilburg told LiveScience.

What's more, Rapa Nui's prepared roads were rough and uneven, and the statues would have been moved over hilly terrain, said Christopher Stevenson, an archaeologist at Virginia Commonwealth University, who was not involved in Lipo's study.

By contrast, "in the NOVA exercise it was like an airport runway," Stevenson said.

And the replica the team moved is on the small side for statues — some of which are up to 40 feet (12 m) tall and weigh 75 tons. It's not clear the method would work for something much larger, Stevenson said.

Follow Tia Ghose on Twitter @tiaghose. Follow LiveScience @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com.

Mega mosquitoes arrive in Central Florida

2013-06-09T10:50:00.001-04:00

Mega mosquitoes arrive in Central Florida
June 9, 2013 | Click Orlando

Oviedo - As predicted, mega mosquitoes, known as gallinippers, have arrived in Central Florida.

Gallinippers, which are 20 times the size of a typical mosquito and pack a painful bite, have been spotted in Seminole County, according to officials.

Entomologists at the University of Florida predicted earlier this year that the mega mosquitoes, about the size of a quarter, would invade the Sunshine State in 2013, a year after being spotted in Florida following drenching rains from Tropical Storm Debbie.

Kelly Deutsch, the director of Seminole County Mosquito Control, said gallinippers, officially known as psorophora ciliate, are treated the same as any other species. Deutsch said recent rains, including the dousing from Tropical Storm Andrea earlier this week, will likely cause a spike in all mosquitoes.

Seminole County began pre-treatment spraying in area swamps several months ago.

UF entomologist Phil Kaufman said the super-sized species is "notoriously aggressive" and the best way to protect against them is to wear bug spray with DEET and cover up as best as possible.

According to Kaufman, gallinippers aren't known to carry any viruses that could be harmful to humans.

Meanwhile, in nearby Volusia County, officials have warned residents of a mosquito invasion after Andrea soaked the region. The county is spraying near storm drains and has asked homeowners to get rid of standing water in their yards to help keep the bug population under control.

Comment: The instigators of this article recommended that you buy a chemical weapon to smear on your body. This is already a very serious problem apparent in our water supplies showing this bioweapon has taken up residence and will be entering your body to do great harm. Under no circumstances should anyone spread deet on their bodies. There are other ways to repel the beasts, and the recommendation is propaganda to support the chemical companies and the corporate hegemonic orgasim of perpetual filth and destruction. Tell them to take their deet and shove it.

The thinking here is that if you use more chemicals everything will be fine, similar to the bioweapons industry who justify raping mother nature for everything she has to offer through genetic modification. However, life will always find a way, and until we learn to live in harmony with earth, the destruction brought on by the heavy use of chemicals to frack what we want out of life is literally killing everything in sight. Don't support their madness.

Floridians Alarmed As Industry Signals Desire To 'Frack' and Drill Populated Areas

2013-06-09T10:28:00.000-04:00

Floridians Alarmed As Industry Signals Desire To 'Frack' and Drill Populated Areas
June 8, 2013 | Green Med Info | Sayer Ji

Collier-Owned Company Leases Populated Area In Collier County for Exploratory Drilling

In what is shaping up to be a move as potentially disastrous for the Collier family name as the Collier county environment, a May 2013 drilling permit application by Dan A. Hughes company describes their intent to drill a 13,900 foot deep exploratory well in close proximity to a relatively densely populated residential area known as Golden Gate.

In an official statement made in April, Dan A. Hughes announced they had "recently entered into a mineral exploration leasing agreement with Collier Resources Company, LLP to explore for oil in Collier County." In fact, Dan A. Hughes has applied for six drilling permits in Collier county in the past six months, four of which are pending and two of which have been approved.

The Collier Resources Company proudly traces its roots to Barron Gift Collier, the founder of Collier County, and the two Collier family owned businesses, Barron Collier Companies and Collier Enterprise, which jointly own it. Additionally, they claim that despite being part of a 69 year history of oil exploration and production in Southwest Florida, they "take pride in our legacy of environmental stewardship."

Disaster Preparedness or Public Relations Disaster?

In late April, local residents living within a square mile of the drilling site, in what is known as Golden Gate estates, were alarmed to receive letters from Total Safety Inc., a company hired on behalf of Dan A. Hughes company, requesting contact information in order to create an emergency evacuation plan in case of an explosion or hazardous hydrogen sulfide gas release. See video.

The area in Golden Gate being drilled is connected to a massive, onshore oil reserve known as the Sunniland Trend, which stretches from Ft. Myers to Miami.

First discovered to contain oil by Humble Oil (now known as Exxon) in 1943, a large part is located within the Big Cypress National Preserve, which was created in 1974. According to the Collier Resources Company website, "The Collier family conveyed more than 159,000 acres for the establishment and expansion of the Preserve but maintained private ownership of the mineral rights." Also, because the environmental protection standard that Congress mandated when creating the Preserve allows "...reasonable use and enjoyment of privately owned oil and gas interests," they maintain the right to explore and drill for oil and gas within this "protected" wildlife area.

Why the densely populated and relatively poorer area (14.1% below poverty line) known as Golden Gate was singled out for exploratory drilling is unknown, but when juxtaposed to the generally wealthy Naples-Marco Island area of Collier County, the public relations fallout may be hard to recover from.

Heightened Awareness of the Dangers of Oil & Gas Companies

One reason local residents are distrustful, and many up in arms, is because of the heightened awareness of the unintended, adverse environmental and health effects of oil exploration and drilling that followed the 2010 BP oil disaster, which roiled local environmentalists and tourism and hospitality interests alike, and left a lasting legacy of toxicity within the Gulf of Mexico, which the recent record deaths of manatees, ostensibly "caused by Red Tide," may be connected to.

Another is the growing concern over the thousands of hydraulic fracking wells that have popped up around the country, which have now been documented to cause the serious harms to water quality and human and environmental health in afflicted areas. Florida, in fact, has seen a flurry of fracking-related bills move through the state legislature in the past year, which environmental groups warn will open the state to natural gas drilling. [i] See a description of fracking process and its harms.

One such bill, the Fracturing Chemical Usage Disclosure Act, which opponents say is pro-fracking and could have been written by oil and gas industry lobbyists, was passed by the State of Florida, House of Representatives on April 24^th. An article published in the Fort Myers News-Press in late 2012 titled, "Exclusive: Fracking Confronts Florida," revealed that emails obtained from the Department of Environmental Protection shows discussions had been taking place about the possibility of fracking in Florida.[ii]

Local Group Mobilizes To Stop the Drilling/Fracking

A local group of residents are mobilizing and organizing under the name Preserve Our Paradise, and are fighting back against what one organizer, Joe D. Mule, described as a David and Goliath fight. Mr. Mule acknowledges that while the official drilling permit does not explicitly describe activity consistent with hydraulic fracturing, many of the same chemicals used to drill a conventional oil well are identical (and still mostly undisclosed by the manufacturers as "trade secrets") to those used in hydraulic fracturing. The result will be the same: poisoning of the local aquifer, soil, agriculture and overall environment.

Here is how his organization describes the history leading up to this event, and how they are organizing against it:

HISTORY

In 1911 the New York advertising magnate, Barron Collier, began buying up large tracts of Southwest Florida, eventually owning over 1,000,000 acres. After his death, the land passed to his sons and family, through the Barron Collier companies.

After Collier's death in 1939, oil was discovered on the Barron Collier lands. Between 1943 and the early 1980′s some 100 million barrels of crude oil were pumped from the oil field in Southwest Florida known as the "Sunniland Trend". The wells ran dry, and the oil fields were sold off for housing developments. The people came. New drilling technologies, like "fracking", that could squeeze more oil out of dry fields were invented. Now the Barron Collier companies want to resume major drilling in the Sunniland. But this time, there are people in their oil fields.

HERE AND NOW

In May 2013 a drilling permit was submitted to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and related agencies. On May 30 a public hearing was held on the permit. Over 200 area residents turned out. Only perhaps two-thirds of the citizens had an opportunity to speak. Many questions were left unanswered. Citizens at that meeting have organized Preserve Our Paradise and this website to extend that public hearing.

Our present position is that there are many serious health, safety, environmental, procedural, and community problems with the specific well being permitted, as well as with the general prospect of reopening the Sunniland field for exploration and production. At a minimum, we demand the period of public comment on the present permit be extended until these problems can be resolved.

Learn how they are taking action, and how you can join the fight here: Take Action.

Please sign their petition on Change.org.

[i] Florida Center for Investigative Reporting, "Florida Fracking Bills Moving Through Legislature," April 24, 2013 http://fcir.org/2013/04/24/florida-fracking-bills-moving-through-legislature/

[ii] Newspress.com, Exclusive: Fracking Confronts Florida, Oct 8^th, 2012.

About the Author

Sayer Ji is an author, researcher, lecturer, and advisory board member of the National Health Federation.

He founded Greenmedinfo.com in 2008 in order to provide the world an open access, evidence-based resource supporting natural and integrative modalities. It is internationally recognized as the largest and most widely referenced health resource of its kind.

Compassionless Humanity: The Reality Detached American

2013-06-08T15:25:00.000-04:00

Compassionless Humanity: The Reality Detached American
June 8, 2013 | SGTbull07

Naomi Klein: 'Anti-Shock Doctrines' Show the Way to Resist

2013-06-07T19:28:00.000-04:00

Naomi Klein (Photo: Jonathan Dy/cc/flickr)

Naomi Klein: 'Anti-Shock Doctrines' Show the Way to Resist
June 7, 2013 | Common Dreams | Andrea Germanos

While media portray alternatives to austerity as "apocalypse," we must say no, but also "show the yes," said Klein

In the midst of the current "final colonial pillage" for natural resources and a bombardment of "there is no alternative" to austerity messages, Shock Doctrine author Naomi Klein urged the left to seize this "crucial moment" to build real resistance movements that offer a "message of critical hope."

Speaking this week at the Vio.Me worker-run factory in Thessaloniki, Greece, Klein, who is in the country doing research for a book and film, said the building materials factory was the perfect place to be speaking as it is "known in resistance movements around the world" and provides an example of what she said is "the anti-Shock doctrine"—a situation where rather than bowing down to the forces at hand, the crisis has put a fast-forward on coming up with creative alternatives, where workers "refused to have their lives and livelihoods sacrificed on the altar of economic crisis, and instead found reserves of power and ingenuity."
Describing Vio.Me, economist Marjolein van der Veen explained:

In May 2011 when the owners could no longer pay their bills and walked away, the workers decided to occupy the factory. By February 2013, after raising enough funds and community support, the workers started democratically running the company on their own. (They do not intend to buy out the owners, since the company owed the workers a significant amount of money when it abandoned the factory.) They established a worker board, controlled by workers’ general assemblies and subject to recall, to manage the factory. They also changed the business model, shifting to different suppliers, improving environmental practices, and finding new markets. Greek law currently does not allow factory occupations, so the workers are seeking the creation of a legal framework for the recuperated factory, which may enable more such efforts in the future. Vio.Me has received support from SYRIZA and the Greek Green party, from workers at recuperated factories in Argentina, as well as from academics and political activists worldwide.

In Greece, Klein said, "alternatives to austerity are presented by media as apocalypse."

But the Vio.Me factory is an example of an alternative "that must be known, must be disseminated .. because many factories are now being closed as the crisis unfolds, and workers are not being given the opportunity to reshape the ownership, when in fact the workers should be the first ones asked if they want to be the creditors and run the factories themselves."

Klein slammed the Greek media for "not doing its job" in letting the people know an such alternatives do exist, instead repeating the mantra: there is no alternative (TINA), showing that "Margaret Thatcher is alive and well and living in Greece and working for the mainstream media."

In addition to the toll austerity has taken on people and communities, nature is on the chopping block as well. "It's not only people who are being attacked," said Klein, "it's also the natural systems on which we all depend."

The Skouries forest in Halkidiki preparing for
"growth." (Photo: Iosifsk Team/cc/flickr)

"Our environment is under vicious attack," she said.

Case in point: Canadian company ElDorado Gold's mining plans in the Halkidiki region of Greece.
Such projects are portrayed as necessary during crises; nature must take a back seat to "growth," Klein explained, so that nature and natural resources can be sold to the highest bidder.

"We really are in the midst of what I've come to think of as a final colonial pillage for the hardest to reach natural resources in some of the most beautiful protected parts of the world using some of the most dangerous and damaging extractive practices."

It is in this context that projects like the Eldorado mine should be seen, one that allows economic growth to trump entire communities' needs.

This is the same logic that sacrifices human lives in the name of austerity, she continued.

Sharing observations from time she just spent in Halkidiki, an area she said was so militarized and filled with checkpoints it reminded her of Gaza, Klein noticed the juxtaposition of two models—one of taker, the other of caretaker.

In the "extractivist point of view," it takes an outside force to create "wealth"—wealth from extracting natural resources even at the expense of water and other essential resources, essentially "mining for money."

This kind of system is so violent, Klein said, "it needs the repression of the state to back it up." In contrast, the other model in Halkidiki looks inward, at wealth that is not created, but is already there—in soil, water, even people's hands. This is truly "the wealth of life," she said.

To confront this assault is to confront not just the mine but the mindset that there is no alternative.

What we need, Klein said, is an "interweaving of resistance" movements—seen in moments like when the farmers from Halkidiki sell at the market in Thessaloniki—building a bridge between those in the city and those more rooted in the land.

Importantly, resistance "now can't just be about saying no, no to austerity, no to privatization." Those who have accepted it have been "terrorized" into doing so by fear, and it has made people feel "utterly powerless."
Now "is a crucial moment for the left."

What we must offer, she said, is a "message of critical hope". We must say no, but also "show the yes."

We must counter the "hypnosis" performed by the TINA pushers "with an array" of other options for people.

"Only when the alternatives look tangible, look real, look credible and inspiring will the fear of saying no, of standing up to the troika begin to fade." Moving forward, we must reach for real transformation, and not let the crises be decided for us.

We need to have our ideas ready to move forward in a new way, she said.

It's time to build.

* * *

Videos of Klein speaking in Thessaloniki were posted by Youtube user teacherdude and can be seen below:

Nikola Tesla: Calling All Freethinkers!

2013-06-07T12:00:00.000-04:00

Nikola Tesla: Calling All Freethinkers!
June 7, 2013 | Activist Post | Rand Clifford

Humanity’s horizons glowed from the brilliance of Nikola Tesla. But to our horrible misfortune, the glow was much too bright for the Power Status Quo (PSQ). Money means power, and Tesla cost tycoons a lot of money by slaying with alternating current (AC) the dead-end direct current (DC) power distribution system of Thomas Edison (financed by J.P Morgan). More than forty of Tesla’s patents from 1888 cover the entire system of “polyphase” AC that, virtually unchanged, powers civilization to this day—a monumental lifetime achievement for any man.

But polyphase AC didn’t lead directly to the PSQ’s campaign of erasing Tesla from history. It was “Tesla’s Coil”, key to unlocking “Aether” and harnessing “Radiant Electricity”. The ultimate forbidden technology, Aether and Radiant Electricity was a primary focus of Tesla’s last forty years on Earth.

By tapping the Aether, by touching “...the wheelwork of nature”, Tesla illuminated visions of humanity freed from domination by the likes of Rothschild, Morgan, Rockefeller...the entire global tyranny machine powered largely by fossil energy, private central banking, war.

One man found an antidote for pathocracy, humanity’s premier poison. [1] His name was Nikola Tesla; that remains one of the few things about the man that has not been altered by the PSQ. The name survives, but little else about Tesla has not been violated. His crime, or “sin” was competition tycoons couldn’t control.

Tesla always knew he would triumph. In his own words, regarding tycoons such as J.P. Morgan:

I am unwilling to accord to some small-minded and jealous individuals the satisfaction of having thwarted my efforts. These men are to me nothing more than microbes of a nasty disease. My project was retarded by laws of nature. The world was not prepared for it. It was too far ahead of time, but the same laws will prevail in the end and make it a triumphal success.

Tesla’s “...triumphal success” has the power to unwind tyranny. All we need is for enough humans to awaken from the PSQ’s spell. Tesla obviously thought awakening was possible even while insisting that, “No free energy device will ever be allowed to reach the market.” Tesla knew that mass awakening was the wildcard. If we let him down, we let humanity down.

Tycoons throw enormous wealth at protecting people from reality by keeping them asleep. But waking up is free, the only ticket to freedom of development of the human potential.

Freedom...a gorgeous concept increasingly hollowed-out by the PSQ. Try to imagine what humanity might achieve without being kicked in the face by the psychopathic elite.

George Orwell said in his novel, 1984, “If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever.”

If we have any chance at proving Orwell wrong, Tesla might be our best hope. So he gets the boot. But they haven’t stamped out Tesla’s spirit. His ultimate technology is still alive not only in Black-Ops, but in laboratories of valiant researchers cheating death-by-truth.

The PSQ’s perpetual fouling of Tesla accents his elevation of what it means to be human. That most salient testament to Tesla’s brilliance, his suppression by the PSQ—it’s all around us, hidden in plain sight.

Style of the PSQ exhibits fear of people thinking for themselves. As long as pockets of human intelligence resist brainwashing, and independent thoughts fly around uncontrolled, that means the PSQ’s choke hold on power is not “safe”. Similar alarm flourished in America’s top Rothschild agent, J.P. Morgan. [2] He knew monopolistic fortunes were not safe with Tesla a funded free spirit. Morgan and other tycoons stung by the “War of the Currents” [3] went into a defensive blitz. And when Tesla denied Morgan control of Radiant Electricity, Morgan had Tesla’s laboratories burned down. Works of genius were destroyed, but not the man. Morgan also instructed the four publishers of school textbooks to never mention Nikola Tesla; ditto for the Smithsonian—Nikola Tesla was an unperson. Morgan stamped like a professional on truth about Tesla. And the money boot keeps stamping with help from public ignorance, fear of the unknown, trust in “authority”....

Creativity...humans working outside “the box”—writers, inventors, scientists and researchers and free spirits soaring above dogma embody what the PSQ fears in humanity. Nikola Tesla is a stellar example of what the PSQ fears most.

Tesla revered nature, not money. That got Tesla the electrical wizard off to a bad start with the PSQ—a moral eminence compounded by Tesla’s public declaration: “Science is but a perversion of itself unless it has as its ultimate goal the betterment of humanity.”

Those were fighting words to the tycoons—especially the part about, “...betterment of humanity.” Tycoons seek “arrested human development”, conspire to fit humanity with cement overshoes. Tesla’s treasures remain difficult to fathom with the PSQ so good at not only mangling and suppressing them, but misrepresenting many as works of Edison, Marconi and others.

On his deathbed, Edison said his biggest mistake had been in trying to develop direct current, rather than the superior alternating current system that Tesla had put within his grasp.

Tesla’s reply about Marconi’s work in radio: “Marconi is a good fellow. Let him continue. He is using 17 of my patents.”

If Tesla doesn’t terrify the PSQ, why their obsession with polluting his accomplishments? Why did they ban Tesla in textbooks and at the Smithsonian, choke off his funding and conjure him into a bogeyman?

Standard indoctrination coddles third graders along in this video of an “Awesome! ‘Tesla Coil’” (don’t miss Alex Jones growling in the wings). [4]

Here’s an encouraging story of spunky third graders with a great teacher, and their letter-writing campaign focused on getting Tesla acknowledged in the Smithsonian. [5]

Among Tesla’s most noble contributions to humanity and the cause of freedom...his intimate disclosure of PSQ’s will to protect their power at the complete disregard of humanity. Tesla revealed what it means to be psychopathic, and elite, showing humanity what inhumanity we are up against. Destruction of competition is a martial situation where, as the PSQ likes to frame it: “No options are off the table”.

The Internet has made progress against common public sentiment regarding Tesla being derivatives of: “I heard Tesla was kind of a crackpot.” Big money manipulates this idea from off in the wings, but when it comes to truth about Tesla, austerity takes center stage.

A nurtured “...then how come?” variety of popular ignorance clings to the idea: “If Tesla was so great, then how come we’re not utilizing his so-called ultimate technology?” The PSQ religiously stamping out competition is “how come”. And once again, when it comes to protecting their monopolies, “...nothing is off the table”.

Accurate information about Tesla still haunts the Internet. People can even learn about Eric Dollard. [6] But the PSQ’s “Internet problem” seems merely a speed bump, considering the PSQ’s record of successfully controlling whatever they want to control, if given enough time. Where would the PSQ be without it’s enablers, us?

A great quote from Eric Dollard:

Tesla scared the central bankers senseless. They knew what his plan meant. Energy independence meant an almost complete loss of control of the people.

Tesla fought in the trenches, pulling back curtains on the PSQ—on humanity versus tyranny, freedom versus slavery. Profit from death and destruction—perpetual war fueled by fossil energy. Private central banking’s “...continuous consolidation of wealth and power into higher, tighter and righter hands” (GHW Bush quote). Continuous consolidation of wealth in the fewest hands drives debt slavery, genocide, looting of the future, the “New World Order”.

“If we don’t exploit every resource with alacrity and no mercy, our competitors will”—that’s the apparent creed of the PSQ. Sugary platitudes regarding people yet to be born seem vulgar in light of the PSQ twisting future generations into competitors. First come, first served. A penny stolen is a penny earned.

Imagine “free” energy.

Imagine no contrived shortages and price gouging. No ”gas” tanks, power lines, meters, power bills, wars for oil and pipeline routes, Alberta tar and Keystone XL kinds of high-pressure DilBit arteries of death—imagine some of the PSQ’s worst nightmares. Toss in no climate-changing hydrocarbon pollution, no more churning out mountains of radioactive waste to attack the human genome for thousands of generations, no psychopathic domination by an invisible elite controlling what billions of people need to survive. Imagine modern warfare obsolete. [7] Tesla offered salvation from survival of the wickedest.

The wicked panicked....

Truth is the antidote for diseased wealth and propaganda smothering and mangling the best of Tesla. A rare step in the right direction would be millions of people realizing that Tesla really did not dedicate the second half of his life to making bigger and ever-more-“Awesome!” sparks—but rather, he was absolutely dedicated to freedom of humanity. Tesla’s greatest invention being reduced to a toy for “...entertainment and educational displays”—that’s very potent PSQ mind venom. They even tagged Tesla the “God of Lightning”. Can’t beat lightning for “Awesome!” sparks. Can’t beat the PSQ for...perhaps W.C. Fields said it best: “There comes a time in the affairs of man, when we must take the bull by the tail, and face the situation.” The “bull” in this case is the PSQ; the situation is what blasts from under the bull’s tail to foul humanity, and our nest.

Do we still have, if we ever did have, the mettle to wake up and rub the PSQ’s nose in their foulness? The stakes have never been higher.

The Sin of Competition

A quote variously attributed to both J.D. Rockefeller and J.P. Morgan set the stage for maniacal fouling of Tesla: “Competition is a sin.” [8]

Chutzpah of these two “tycoons’” implies that monopoly is divine—especially monopoly on energy, money, food, fresh water, and war; a “royal flush” in this Earthly game of poker.

Consider our nightmare of perpetual war in terms of this quote from Aldous Huxley, author of the novel, Brave New World:

The propagandist's purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human.

Lies are the foundation of the PSQ’s reaction to Nikola Tesla. It’s paramount to humanity that freethinkers survive the elite and witness epiphany of this wisdom from Buddha:

The lie tastes sweet at the beginning, but bitter at the end. The truth tastes bitter at the beginning, but sweet at the end.

“Tesla’s Coil” Versus “The Tesla Coil”

The jungle of confusion and suppression of Tesla’s masterpiece might be easier to navigate if we distinguish between “Tesla’s Coil”, and the “Tesla Coil”. The former could be the epitome of human invention, the latter is its neutered caricature. For elaboration on this distinction, let’s check in with Zionist propaganda, the richest kind.

Wikipedia is hailed by Zionist Israel as “...the major source of information in the world.” They even advertise, with standard Zionist chutzpah, that Wikipedia is “...under constant, paid review of Zionist assets.” [9]

Below is Wikipedia’s first three paragraphs (underlining added) for their listing: “Tesla Coil” (as opposed to “Tesla’s Coil”):

A Tesla coil is an electrical resonant transformer circuit invented by Nikola Tesla around 1891. It is used to produce high-voltage, low-current, high frequency alternating-current electricity.

Tesla coils can produce higher voltages than other artificial sources of high-voltage discharges, electrostatic machines. Tesla experimented with a number of different configurations consisting of two, or sometimes three, coupled resonant electric circuits.

Tesla used these coils to conduct innovative experiments in electrical lighting, phosphorescence, x-ray generation, high frequency alternating current phenomena, electrotherapy, and the transmission of electrical energy without wires. Tesla coil circuits were used commercially in sparkgap radio transmitters for wireless telegraphy until the 1920s, and in pseudomedical equipment such as electrotherapy and violet ray devices. Today their main use is for entertainment and educational displays.

Please note the use of “high-voltage, low-current, high frequency alternating-current electricity”, and, “high frequency alternating current phenomena”, topped off with, “Today their main use is for entertainment and educational displays.” In terms of what Tesla actually achieved—in terms of transcendent capabilities of “Tesla’s Coil”, Wikipedia’s “Tesla Coil” definition could not be more misleading if Wikipedia’s goal was to mislead.

Smell a rat? Tesla has offered to show us that rats don’t always win.

Regarding Wikipedia’s, “Today their main use is for entertainment and educational displays”...this is a naked example of Wikipedia’s Zionist-propaganda roots, and propagation of twisted truth.

Frank Zappa characterized America’s educational system as a mechanism designed to create “...functional ignorance.”

Disguised as an educational system, America’s youth indoctrination system also gets a nod in Wikipedia’s line about the “Tesla Coil” being for “...entertainment and educational displays”.

Entertainment, surely, but educational? Entertainment and indoctrination are more accurate here; the “Tesla Coil” is hailed while “Tesla’s Coil” is...what, “conspiracy theory”?

We suffer severe multi-generational distress when “education” is largely indoctrination aimed at inhibiting independent thinking. Students memorize dogma sanctioned by the PSQ so they can pass standardized tests sanctioned by the PSQ. Students learning to think for themselves, learning how to distinguish truth from dogma—this will not do. The PSQ wants young minds regurgitating hive thinking in preparation for becoming obedient workers in thrall of authority, wingless and weighed-down by leaden dogma planted in their minds by PSQ ovipositors.

Tesla’s “Wheelwork of Nature”

While the primary function of the contrived “Tesla Coil” is to disengage Tesla’s masterpiece from reality, the primary function of “Tesla’s Coil” is to disengage voltage from current—disengage “the true electricity” (Aether) from the flow of massive electrons. Only when zero current is achieved in “Tesla’s Coil” will Aether flow freely and the “Tesla Effect” be realized. Any flow of electrons chokes off the Aether. It’s no coincidence that the awesome-spark-toy “Tesla Coil” has popularly replaced “Tesla’s Coil” to choke off Tesla’s threat to the PSQ.

Tesla’s inspiration regarding the decoupling of voltage and current grew during his brief employment by Thomas Edison.

Edison’s DC power distribution system was so inefficient that power-line resistance would cause voltage to fade within several city blocks. Voltage was cranked up very high at the main generators, and “pumping stations” were required every half mile to boost sagging voltage and current.

When a main switch was thrown to hit transmission lines with cranked-up voltage right off the main generators, a blast of blue and purple spikes and stinging, shocking sensations radiated in all directions from the transmission lines before electrons (current) flowed in the lines. This instantaneous phenomenon actually killed some linesmen. Engineers considered these bursts of magnified electrostatic potential a nuisance to be eliminated. Tesla saw them as a powerful, mysterious form of energy to be explored.

In Part Two:

— Tesla and the Earth (his laboratory)
— “Tesla’s Coil” (the real thing)
— The “Tesla Effect”
— Aether’s “whitefire” fountains and “mass-free cold electricity”
— Wardenclyffe without propaganda
— Tesla allowed a cameo appearance in the Smithsonian
— Eric Dollard’s eight destroyed laboratories, and why a most profound and honorable way to help humanity, Earth, and generations to come is also the most dangerous

References:

[1] http://www.ponerology.com/evil_2b.html
[2] https://www.google.com/search?q=J.P.+Morgan+Rothschild+agent&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
[3] https://www.google.com/search?q=%22war+of+the+currents%22&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
[4] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6iGXBZuVPQ
[5] http://www.think-aboutit.com/Misc/nikola_tesla.htm
[6] http://www.jinnwe.com/quest.php?id=1002
[7] http://www.cheniere.org/books/part1/starting%20pages.htm
[8] https://www.google.com/search?q=quote%3A+competition+is+a+sin+JP+Morgan&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
[9] http://www.ascertainthetruth.com/att/index.php/the-media/who-controls-the-media/429-zionist-control-of-wikipedia

About the Author

Rand Clifford lives in Spokane, Washington. His novels, CASTLING, TIMING, Priest Lake Cathedral, and many earlier essays are published by StarChief Press. Contact for Rand Clifford: randoc@live.com

Illinois’ Flawed Fracking Law Is Everyone’s Problem, Ecologist Says

2013-06-06T19:33:00.000-04:00

Illinois’ Flawed Fracking Law Is Everyone’s Problem, Ecologist Says
June 4, 2013 | Yes Magazine | Jeff Biggers, Ben Evans

The backroom negotiations behind the midwestern state’s new fracking regulations may be a taste of what’s to come in other places.

What happens in Illinois, doesn't stay in Illinois. That was the message last week of acclaimed scientist and author Sandra Steingraber, who joined the growing local uprising’s last ditch effort to pass a moratorium on the controversial hydraulic gas drilling operations until the state could conduct a comprehensive scientific and health assessment.

The Illinois House and Senate passed a regulatory bill last Friday, which had been brokered in a backroom deal by Illinois Democrats, gas industry and labor representatives, and a small cadre of environmental groups but—to the consternation of Steingraber and grassroot activists—without any independent scientists, health experts, or impacted downstate residents at the negotiating table.

Continue reading..

22 Signs That Global Weather Patterns Are Going Absolutely Crazy

2013-06-06T18:19:00.001-04:00

22 Signs That Global Weather Patterns Are Going Absolutely Crazy
June 4, 2013 | The American Dream | Michael Synder

Global weather patterns seem to get stranger and stranger with each passing year. Almost every day now, the news is telling us about some bizarre weather event that hasn’t happened “in 100 years” going on in some area of the globe. All over the planet, we are seeing torrential rainfalls, unprecedented flooding, extreme drought, nightmarish wildfires, record setting tornadoes and very unusual blizzards. Record high temperatures and record low temperatures are set so frequently now that nobody really seems to even notice anymore. So exactly what in the world is going on here? Why does our weather seem to be going absolutely crazy?

Perhaps even more important – can we expect our weather patterns to become even more erratic? Some meteorologists are suggesting that these unusual weather events are just an “anomaly” and that things will get back to normal soon. But what if they don’t?

I noted that natural disasters seem to be increasing in both frequency and severity in my recent article entitled “Are We Entering The Worst Period For Natural Disasters In U.S. History?“ But it isn’t just the ground under our feet that seems to be becoming more unstable. The weather patterns that we all take for granted and that society depends upon seem to be rapidly changing.

The following are 22 signs that global weather patterns are going absolutely crazy…

1. Right now, central Europe is experiencing the worst flooding that it has seen in at least 70 years.

2. On Memorial Day weekend, a vicious winter storm dumped up to 36 inches of snow on parts of upstate New York.

3. Back in mid-May, on one single day some parts of the UK had a couple of inches of snow, some parts of the UK had a month’s worth of rainfall on a single day, and some parts of the UK were hammered by winds of up to 65 miles per hour.

4. The month of April was so cold across the northern United States that one meteorologist said that it was “like something out of the Twilight Zone“…

April has been a freakishly cold month across much of the northern USA, bringing misery to millions of sun-starved and winter-weary residents from the Rockies to the Midwest. “The weather map … looks like something out of The Twilight Zone,” Minneapolis meteorologist Paul Douglas of WeatherNation TV wrote on his blog last week. Record cold and snow has been reported in dozens of cities, with the worst of the chill in the Rockies, upper Midwest and northern Plains. Several baseball games have been snowed out in both Denver and Minneapolis. Cities such as Rapid City, S.D.; Duluth, Minn.; and Boulder, Colo., have all endured their snowiest month ever recorded. (In all three locations, weather records go back more than 100 years.) In fact, more than 1,100 snowfall records and 3,400 cold records have been set across the nation so far in April, according to the National Climatic Data Center.

5. This year Saskatchewan had the coolest spring that it has experienced in 100 years.

6. Moscow just experienced the snowiest winter that it has seen in 100 years.

7. Snow is falling in Russia in places where it should not be falling this time of the year. On Sunday, residents of Kemerovo were stunned to see that a thin layer of snow had fallen on their city overnight.

8. This spring, there was a record amount of ice on the Baltic Sea due to very cold weather…

“Since record keeping began in the sixties, we’ve never encountered anything like this before,” ice breaker Ulf Gulldne told the local newspaper Örnsköldsviks Allehanda.

On March 29th, 176,000 square kilometers of the Baltic Sea was covered in ice, a record for the time of year. On a map, it means about half of the central and northern parts are frozen over. Far north, the ice is both thick and difficult to break through.

9. The city of Anchorage, Alaska set a record for the longest snow season that it has ever experienced this year.

10. In February, hail the size of “boulders” pounded one poor city in southern India…

Hailstones the size of boulders have rained down on villages in southern India.
At least nine people were killed when the violent weather hit several villages in the state of Andhra Pradesh.

The hailstorm which lasted for almost 20 minutes, destroyed crops, houses and live stock, causing devastating financial implications for residents.

11. The tornado that touched down near Oklahoma City on Friday was the widest tornado ever recorded. It was an EF5 tornado that was 2.6 miles wide at one point with winds of up to 295 miles an hour.

12. The tornado that did such devastating damage to Moore, Oklahoma recently was about 2 miles wide and it sat on the ground for an astounding 40 minutes.

13. During the month of February, Peru, Chile and Bolivia were all hit by unprecedented flooding.

14. At the end of May, more than a foot of rainfall in 24 hours caused nightmarish flooding in San Antonio, Texas.

15. A few weeks ago, unusual levels of rainfall caused the Mississippi River to rise to near record levels.

16. This year the state of Georgia experienced the wettest February ever recorded.

17. Chicago just had the wettest April ever recorded.

18. Scientists are projecting that the nightmarish drought that is taking place in the western half of the United States will “intensify” this year.

19. Overall, hundreds of thousands of trees died throughout the United States during 2012 due to horrible drought conditions.

20. This past January, part of Australia experienced record setting high temperatures that were absolutely unprecedented. Keep in mind that the following temperatures are in Celsius…

Sydney endured its hottest ever day on Friday, with records smashed across the city and thousands of people suffering from the heat. The mercury topped 45.8 at Sydney’s Observatory Hill at 2.55pm, breaking the previous record set in 1939 by half a degree. The city’s highest temperature was a scorching 46.5 degrees, recorded in Penrith at 2.15pm, while Camden, Richmond and Sydney Airport all reached 46.4 degrees.

21. Over the weekend, extremely dry conditions were making it difficult for firefighters to battle a very intense wildfire in California that had already burned more than 20,000 acres…

By Sunday night, the Powerhouse Fire around the Angeles National Forest in Southern California engulfed about 22,400 acres, endangering some 1,000 homes in the Lake Elizabeth and Lake Hughes area.

Nearly 2,100 firefighters struggled to contain the fire, which more than tripled in size from Saturday to Sunday. Nearly 3,000 people have been evacuated and the blaze has already destroyed at least six homes by Sunday night.

22. About 30 percent of all honeybees are dying each year in the United States, and nobody seems to know exactly why this is happening. If this continues, it threatens to absolutely cripple U.S. agriculture…

US honey bees have been dying by the tens of millions, with annual death rates of about 30 percent. With fewer bees to pollinate fruits and vegetables each year, ‘beemageddon’ may soon cause the collapse of the agriculture industry.

Honey bees pollinate more than 100 US crops, including apples, zucchinis, avocados and plums, that are worth more than $200 billion a year. Since 2006, about 10 million bee hives at an average value of $200 each have been lost in what scientists call the Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), according to a new report by the US Department of Agriculture.

We certainly don’t need any more bad news about our agriculture. Global food supplies are currently at their lowest level in 40 years, and most people in the general public are absolutely clueless about what is going on.

Unfortunately, our weather has not just been unusual for the past few months. This is a trend that has been developing for quite some time.

For example, the planet experienced some truly unusual weather last winter. The following comes from a New York Times article from last January…

Around the world, extreme has become the new commonplace.

Especially lately. China is enduring its coldest winter in nearly 30 years. Brazil is in the grip of a dreadful heat spell. Eastern Russia is so freezing — minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit, and counting — that the traffic lights recently stopped working in the city of Yakutsk.

Bush fires are raging across Australia, fueled by a record-shattering heat wave. Pakistan was inundated by unexpected flooding in September. A vicious storm bringing rain, snow and floods just struck the Middle East. And in the United States, scientists confirmed this week what people could have figured out simply by going outside: last year was the hottest since records began.

Indeed, “extreme has become the new commonplace” as far as our weather is concerned.

So will our weather get back to “normal” soon or are even greater changes ahead?

And what in the world is causing all of this?

Please feel free to express your opinion by posting a comment below…

BILL NICHOLS: Electric Earth, Electric Weather | EU 2013 (Youtube)

2013-06-06T16:45:00.002-04:00

BILL NICHOLS: Electric Earth, Electric Weather | EU 2013 (Youtube)
Mar 21, 2013 | Laura-Knight-Jadczyk.com

Interesting.

Atmospheric scientist Bill Nichols offers a refreshing reconsideration of climate issues, with emphasis on the electrodynamic environment of the Earth, largely overlooked in the polarized debates on climate change.