Twilight Language

Synchrocinema Galore: Dallas in Wonderland

2013-05-18T06:55:00.002-04:00

The 50th anniversary of the JFK hit is fast approaching. November 22, 1963, is a day burned into the memory of anyone who was conscious back then. It will be recalled for most of November, I predict. Expect the television specials, new books, and release of films.

The movie that's getting most of the mainstream buzz is Tom Hanks' production of Parkland, which has a cast including Paul Giamatti, Zac Efron, Marcia Gay Harden, Jacki Weaver, and Billy Bob Thornton.

It may get all the mass media notice, but there's a gem of a movie coming out of this wave that is worthy of your attention.

Dallas in Wonderland is the one that I want to see. 13th Sign Pictures will produce and finance the synchromystic movie, which will include a cameo appearance, perhaps, by the character James Shelby Downard (see "Synchromysticism's Godfather.")

There is a good deal of mystery surrounding some of the actors who will be appearing in Dallas in Wonderland. Stay tuned.

Back in January, here are the good things that Variety said about Dallas in Wonderland:

Maybe it’s because the 50th anniversary of that event is fast approaching, but now there’s another film based around the assassination on its way from Queens of Country writer-director Ryan Page.
Page will write (alongside Adam Parfrey) and direct a conspiracy thriller going by the name of Dallas In Wonderland, which will center around a documentary filmmaker and his producer who are hired by a TV network to do a puff piece for their planned motorcade reenactment that will take place during a televised memorial ceremony. Finding themselves “wrapped up in the network’s plot” to prove that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman, the pair close in on the central narrative surrounding JFK’s assassination, leading to the climax of the event playing out once more on the nation’s television screens.
Page believes that he and Parfrey have come up with “an altogether new kind of thriller, featuring the very latest research done in the JFK assassination case.”

Adam Parfrey (also the coauthor of Ritual America)

“Adam Parfrey and I [have] crafted what feels to us like an altogether new kind of thriller, featuring the very latest research done in the JFK assassination case,” said Page, who will produce with Alastra and Mundo. “This story has not fully been told. It continues to evolve and is rife with the most interesting storylines and fascinating real-life personalities I worked with Joe and Tommy on previous films and when it came time to select our production partner for Dallas in Wonderland, there was never even a debate.” ~ Ryan Page

In the realm of unfortunate title timing, on May 1, 2013, the online publisher eXtasy released a new gay love novel entitled Dallas in Wonderland by Julie Lynn Hayes.

It apparently (?) is part two of 2012's earlier Hayes book of the same name.

Like I say often, each to their own, as they pursue their dreams and passions.

But in the case of the two current Dallas in Wonderland choices, I'm looking forward to critiquing the film Dallas in Wonderland for the 50th anniversary of the assassination.

More Red Dawns in a Dark Summer?

2013-05-16T10:06:00.000-04:00

Bruce Willis brought us a bloody Valentine's Day gift on February 14, 2013.

Did that open a hint of a spring and a summer of red dawns and dark movies?

Are we now Into Darkness?

What selections have opened and remain on the horizon in USA?

What others would you suggest?

Iron Man 3 (May 3, 2013)

Star Trek Into Darkness (May 17, 2013)

The Lone Ranger (July 3, 2013)

Man of Steel, producer Christopher Nolan's dark film (June 14, 2013)

Thor: The Dark World (November 8, 2013)

Dutch Clown Stabs Russian Boy On Crete: UPDATED

2013-05-15T08:35:00.002-04:00

On the island of Crete in Hersonissos, a violent fierce attack by a Dutch hotel clown was made against a Russian family's child.

As you may recall, earlier in 2013, three Dutch clowns beat a boy at the Dutch city of Volendam's clown festivities (which involves over 200 clowns) in January.

In Crete, according to the forensic findings the child, aged 11 years, was stabbed 20 times in the chest, back and left arm. No sexual abuse was found.

Police authorities have arrested a 20-year-old Dutch hotel employee, who allegedly has confessed that he is the perpetrator of the attack on the minor. He was the hotel's clown.

Here are some of the photographs of the suspect from European newspapers. On his back is a tattoo with the words, "Vatos Locos."

Vatos Locos (in English, Crazy Dudes) is a widely used name for a street gang. Gangs using this name are active in several American states. The film Blood in, Blood out (1993) about the life of poet Jimmy Santiago Baca in 1972, was based on the experiences of gang members of Vatos Locos. The video game Call of Juarez: The Cartel features a fictional Vatos Locos gang.

The 11 year-old lost his cellphone and laptop, went searching for them, and then was lost. His parents, who had been looking for their child, did not find him until 3:00 AM in the hotel parking garage.

After a lengthy police interrogation, the young Dutch hotel clown reportedly confessed he stabbed the kid and directed the police to where the knife could be found.

The child is of Russian origin and is with his family in Crete for a holiday.

Hersonissos (Greek: Χερσόνησος, pronounced [xerˈsonisos] - Chersónisos), also transliterated as Chersonisos and Hersónisos, is a town and a municipality in the north of Crete, bordering the Mediterranean/Aegean Sea. The vicinity of Hersonissos is noted for its prehistoric archaeological finds. On the coast approximately one kilometer to the east of Hersonissos was an ancient temple dedicated to the goddess Britomartis.

Britomartis (Βριτόμαρτις) was the Minoan goddess of mountains and hunting. She is among the Minoan goddess figures that passed through the Mycenaeans' culture into classical Greek mythology, with transformations that are unclear in both transferrals. For the Greeks Britomartis (Cretan dialect for "sweet maiden", "sweet virgin") or Diktynna (derived by Hellenistic writers as from diktya, "hunting nets") was a mountain nymph (an oread) whom Greeks recognized also in Artemis and in Aphaea, the "invisible" patroness of Aegina.
Britomartis ("sweet maid") is an epithet that does not reveal the goddess's name, nor her character, for it has the ring of an apotropaic euphemism. The goddess addressed as "Britomartis" was worshipped in Crete as an aspect of Potnia, the "Mistress." The oldest aspect of the Cretan goddess was as Mother of Mountains, who appears on Minoan seals with the demonic features of a Gorgon, accompanied by the double-axes of power and gripping divine snakes. Her terror-inspiring aspect was softened by calling her Britomartis, the "good virgin," a euphemism to allay her dangerous aspect.
Britomart figures in Edmund Spenser's knightly epic The Faerie Queene, where she is an allegorical figure of the virgin Knight of Chastity, representing English virtue—in particular, English military power—through a folk etymology that associated Brit-, as in Briton, with Martis, here thought of as "of Mars," the Roman war god. In Spenser's allegory, Britomart connotes the Virgin Queen, Elizabeth I of England.
In his retelling of the King Arthur legends, Arthur Rex, author Thomas Berger suggests that Queen Guinevere may have become a powerful female knight known as Britomart after the death of the King.
Source.

BTW, media sources are also reporting the attack occurred in the "seaside town of Anissaras" and "in Iraklio, Crete."

"Anissaras" is a hilly area in east Crete just outside of Hersonissos. "Iraklio" is another spelling for Heraklion, or Heraclion, where the famed ruins of Knossos were excavated and restored by Arthur Evans. English usage formerly preferred the classicizing transliterations "Heraklion" or "Heraclion," but the form "Iraklion" is becoming more common.

(Thanks to Thanassis V. for the news account information on this breaking story.)

Dark Knight of Gotham: Sports Illustrated Curse?

2013-05-14T21:20:00.001-04:00

Making the cover of Sports Illustrated is sometimes called a curse. How do you think it might feel to be on the cover and be called The Dark Knight of Gotham? Major League Baseball pitcher for the Mets, Matt Harvey, may be pondering that very fate. He's on the cover of the May 20th issue.

Matthew Edward Harvey was born (March 27, 1989) in New London, Connecticut and grew up in Mystic, Connecticut. He played during his youth for Fitch Senior High School in Groton, Connecticut and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Harvey is an National League MLB right-handed pitcher for the New York Mets, debuting with them on July 26, 2012.

The Staten Island Advocate even published Harvey and Batman next to each other so the comparison would not be lost on its readership. And by doing that, all could clearly see that Harvey's jersey number is 33.

Also, don't forget, Harvey Dent was a major character in the second Dark Knight film.

The name Harvey is of Old English and Old French origin, and derived from the Breton name Haerviu, rooted in the elements haer "battle" and vy "worthy," literally "battle worthy," or in some views, "eager for battle; strong and worthy."

The Sports Illustrated cover curse or jinx is an urban legend that states that individuals or teams who appear on the cover of the Sports Illustrated magazine will subsequently be jinxed or experience bad luck. See here for a long list of incidents causing some to feel the curse has been confirmed.

Hadfield's Space Oddity

2013-05-13T14:31:00.001-04:00

This is the revised version of David Bowie's Space Oddity, recorded by Commander Chris Hadfield on board the International Space Station. (Video below.)

Chris Hadfield OOnt MSC CD (born August 29, 1959, Sarnia, Ontario) is a Canadian astronaut who was the first Canadian to walk in space.

"Hadfield was raised on a corn farm in southern Ontario and became interested in flying at a young age — he came to the idea of being an astronaut when he was nine on the day of Apollo moon landing, which he had seen on TV then," noted Janet Davidson, CBC News, December 7, 2012.

Chris means "servant of Christ."

The name Hadfield, most simply, is a habitational name from a place in Derbyshire, taken from Old English haeð "heathland," "heather" + feld "pasture," "open country."

More elaborately, Hadfield is a

...long-established surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a dialectal variant of the locational name Hatfield, from various places so called in, for example, Essex, recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Hadfelda"; Hertfordshire, also recorded in the Domesday Book as "Hetfelle"; Nottinghamshire, found as "Haytfeld" in the Hundred Rolls of 1275; and in Hereford, recorded as "Hetfelde" in the Domesday Book. The derivation of the placename is from the Olde English pre 7th Century "harth," heather, or other similar plants, with the second element "feld," pasture, except the places in Nottinghamshire and in Yorkshire, whose first element show an influence of the Old Scandinavian "heithr," heath. Source.

Enjoy the gift that Chris Hadfield has sent us all from space, a video revision of David Bowie's Space Oddity.

Waynesville Murders

2013-05-12T15:39:00.000-04:00

Followers of the Dark Knight/Batman might think of "Bruce Wayne," but other associations come to mind when the name "Wayne" is heard.

Within the "weird news" field, it has been a well-known truism that if a criminal has a middle name of "Wayne," no one in the newsroom is surprised he is being charged with murder. The examples are multiple. The most famous case, of course, is John Wayne Gacy.

My old buddy, correspondent Chuck Shepherd, has been a student of this "name game" for years. Here's what Chuck says about it, in an introduction to the topic:

The Classic Middle Name
It only occurred to me in the early 1990s that "Wayne" was a popular middle name among a few of the most heinous murderers of our time, e.g., the clown John Wayne Gacy (who killed almost three dozen boys and young men in the late 1970s and buried most of them beneath the floorboards of his Des Plaines, Ill., home) and Elmer Wayne Henley (sentenced to six consecutive life terms in 1974 in Houston for his role, with ringleader Dean Allen Corll, in the murders of 27 young men). I began to publish periodic lists in 1996, and soon readers made sure I never missed a one that made the news. Source, plus his impressively long list of names.

Now, today, Mother's Day, May 12, 2013, there is a breaking story out of Waynesville, Indiana, in Bartholomew County.

Police are reporting that Saturday night, four dead bodies were discovered in a residence there. The three deceased men (in the front room) and one dead woman (in the bedroom) had been shot.

The victims have been identified as 53-year-old Katherine Burton, 39-year-old Thomas Smith, 41-year-old Aaron Cross and 41-year old Shawn Burton. No suspect is in custody.

Authorities identified the others who were killed as Katheryn Burton's longtime boyfriend, 39-year-old Thomas Smith, who also lived at the home, and two 41-year-old Columbus men, Aaron Cross and Shawn Burton. The coroner said the Columbus men were friends of the couple, but were not related to them. Waynesville is a few miles south of Columbus. Source.

Wayne is an Old English name that means "wagon-wright," "wagon builder," and/or "wagon-driver."

Bartholomew was one of the 12 apostles, sometimes called Nathanael (Mark 3:18). It is a male name, from the Hebrew, meaning "son of Talmai."

Bartholomew County was formed on February 12, 1821 and was named for Lt. Col. Joseph Bartholomew, wounded at the Battle of Tippecanoe. Bartholomew joined the Revolutionary War at the age of 10, and he served as a scout for General “Mad” Anthony Wayne. Bartholomew married Christiana Pickenpaugh in 1788. His daughter Martha and several of his grandchildren were some of the earliest converts to Mormonism and several were baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Of course, it is only a coincidence to note that the town directly south of Waynesville, Indiana, only 11 miles away, is Seymour, Indiana. Fifty-seven miles west of Seymour is Aurora, Indiana.

Year of Lear: Benedict, Thatcher, Ferguson

2013-05-11T10:37:00.000-04:00

This piece is historical and prophetic in a synchromystic fashion we are accustomed to here at Twilight Language.

Today something special: A guest essay from writer Thomas McGrath. He wants to share some insights from across the pond, having watched the United Kingdom experience interesting times.

"Football" in Europe, of course, is what we call "soccer" in America. To say it is popular is an understatement. Football in the UK is taken very seriously, and major changes in leadership are felt on a societal level.

McGrath tackles the resignation of Sir Alex Ferguson, the manager of the well-known and honored team, Manchester United.

Before launching into McGrath's contribution, let me just add a note or two about Alex Ferguson's name, etymologically.

Alexander is derived from the Greek "Αλέξανδρος" (Aléxandros), meaning "defending men" or "protector of men", a compound of the verb "ἀλέξω" (alexō), "to ward off, to avert, to defend" and the noun "ἀνδρός" (andros), genitive of "ἀνήρ" (anēr), "man." Alexander is an example of the widespread motif of Greek (or Indo-European more generally) names expressing "battle-prowess," in this case the ability to withstand or push back an enemy battle line.

Ferguson is a Scottish-Irish surname and given name. The surname is a patronymic form of the personal name Fergus. The name Fergus is derived from the Gaelic elements fear ("man") and gus ("vigor", "force", or "choice"). Thus the name "Ferguson" literally means the "son of a man of force/vigor" (the "male offspring of a strong powerful father").

The combination of the two names make for a powerful mix.

Now the item for your consideration:

Year of Lear: Benedict, Thatcher, Ferguson

In perhaps the most famous opening scene of all, King Lear divests himself of power and divides his kingdom, so that he might “unburdened crawl towards death.”
Didn’t quite work out like that, of course, Lear’s attempt to separate who and what he was. His story, though, is one with plenty of relevance to 2013, which is emerging as a kind of Year of Lear.

First, Pope Benedict XVI retired. Which felt like a kind of paradox. People made sympathetic faces, but beneath these, there was often a little discernible disappointment, and even contempt. It was as if, in the great mystery play of Roman Catholicism, the lead part had simply decided to break character, ruining the illusion for some, and the illusion of the illusion for everyone else. No wonder lightning struck St Peter’s Basilica.
Then there was the death of Thatcher.

In her case, death itself was a kind of afterthought. Her real demise, as is well known, occurred on the Conservative Party’s own Night of the Long Knives in 1990, when it took turns to stab at her political power, a virtual assassination that nonetheless seemed to kill the actual woman, leaving behind a shell whose subsequent longevity sounded less a retirement than a surreal waltz on the border between two worlds.

Unlike a Pope, a Prime Minister is only meant to borrow the robes of office, not take them to the casket. But just as Benedict XVI was unable to go on existing with the burden of his role, Thatcher (more Caesar than Lear) was unable to go on existing without hers.

What, then, of Alex Ferguson – can a mere football manager (those quintessential kings-for-a-day) fit this pattern? Of course, because Ferguson was different.
In recent years, I often thought of Ferguson as an embodiment of humanity's quirky relationship to the grave. It is one thing to see a twenty-five-year-old player roar and raise a trophy high into the air, celebrating a victory dependent upon a vast suspension of disbelief, but the absurdity is always that much more stark when the man with his arms in the air is of an age where, in ancient Japan, you were expected to shave your head and prepare for eternity.
Ferguson, it was clear, was hiding from death in the make-believe world of sport (itself only a diorama of our own, wider world of make believe). He admitted as much himself. Now, this self-made Pope of the Red Devils has retired too, causing at least as much shock (in the UK, anyway) as his Catholic counterpart.
“All perform their tragic play,” Yeats wrote in “Lapis Lazuli,” along with Shakespeare imagining history as unfolding upon a grand stage, “There struts Hamlet, there is Lear.” The players, at present, seem to be shifting. Whoever will be next, I wonder, to take their bow?

Kansas Deaths Are Dark Mirrors

2013-05-09T15:21:00.000-04:00

Still missing, Lana, 18 months old, in the "shades of gray" state of Kansas.

News is coming out of Olathe and Ottawa, Kansas, of the grisly discovery of the bodies of three adults and a missing, presumed dead child of one of the deceased. It appears to be a ghastly reflection - a dark one - of the rescue in Cleveland.

The names in Cleveland - Knight, Berry, and DeJesus - are well-known now.

From Kansas, we may be hearing more about Bailey, Stout, and White soon.

Steven E. White, one of the deceased.

The bodies of Kaylie Kathleen Bailey, 21, Andrew Adam Stout, 30, and Steven Eugene White, 31, were discovered at a farmhouse in Ottawa earlier this week.

(L-R) Andrew Stout, Kaylie Bailey, Steven White

Friends of a man who lives at the home in the 3100 block of Georgia Road called deputies Sunday after smelling a foul odor. They also had been unable to contact their friend recently. But deputies did not find any bodies.

The friends returned Monday and found what they believed to be a woman’s body in a garage. Deputies then returned to the home, got a search warrant and found the men’s bodies. All of the victims were adults.

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2013/05/07/2792530/2-bodies-found-on-farm-in-east.html#storylink=cpy

The first body was found in the farm's garage Monday, May 6, 2013, by friends of Stout's, who investigated the property after not hearing from Stout for several days. They called police after finding Bailey's body in the garage under a tarp. Authorities then launched a full search and found the other two bodies. Bailey's daughter, Lana, was nowhere to be found.

Franklin County Sheriff Jeffrey Richards said at a news conference that the 18-month-old daughter of one of the victims is "presumed dead" although her body has not been found. A 27-year-old man has been arrested in the deaths of these three people, law enforcement officials said Thursday.

Lana Leigh Bailey and Kaylie Bailey.

Earlier in the week, the Wichita Eagle shared the concerns of relatives:

Rachel Helms-Bailey, grandmother of the missing child, said her son, Shawn Bailey, and Kaylie married in 2009 and lived with her for years in Basehor and later Melvern. She said Kaylie never missed a day of work [at an American Eagle Outfitters warehouse], so it’s extremely unusual that Kaylie would miss a week of work without calling.
Kaylie and her baby moved back with Kaylie’s mother in Olathe about six months ago, Helms-Bailey said. Shawn Bailey was sent to prison for theft and forgery convictions in early March, and the couple divorced at the end of March, she said.
Kaylie last was seen about noon Wednesday leaving her mother’s home to visit Andrew Stout, who lives at the Georgia Road home. They worked together as security officers. Stout had at least one roommate who recently had been released from prison, Helms-Bailey said.
Kaylie said she would be back in two hours but never returned, Helms-Bailey said. She missed her overnight shift that night and every shift since. Stout has also not returned to work, Helms-Bailey said.

Police had earlier been looking for two men in connection with the murders: Kyle Flack, 27, and Cyle Mathew Bailey, 22. They are believed to be driving a Toyota Corolla.

The suspect was located in Emporia, about 50 miles southwest of Ottawa, Sheriff Richards said. That suspect is being held at the Franklin County jail on a first-degree murder charge but has yet to be formally charged, according to Richards and Franklin County Attorney Stephen Hunting.

Shawn was arrested with relative Cyle Bailey, 23, who had been imprisoned with Shawn for their role in a 2008 burglary in Franklin County. Cyle Bailey had also initially been sought by police as a “person of interest" in the Ottawa homicide. However, police canceled that request Tuesday after speaking with Cyle. Source.

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2013/05/07/2792530/2-bodies-found-on-farm-in-east.html#storylink=c

Update: Prosecutors are expected to charge Kyle T. Flack, 27, of Ottawa with multiple counts of first-degree murder in the case, Richards said. (Flack is pictured below in recent booking photographs.)

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/05/09/4226917/missing-18-month-old-ottawa-girl.html#storylink=cpy

Update: Prosecutors are expected to charge Kyle Flack, 27, of Ottawa with multiple counts of first-degree murder in the case, Richards said.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/05/09/4226917/missing-18-month-old-ottawa-girl.html#storylink=cpy

The father of the child, Shawn Bailey, is apparently not a suspect. He has been in jail in Missouri since January on burglary charges. It is not known if Cyle Bailey is a relative.

OzOzOz

Olathe, Ottawa, Emporia. We are in Kansas. Oz incarnate. The state has a Wizard of Oz Museum, a Yellow Brick Road, a Munchkin Mall, and other Oz-linked roadside attractions. Olathe, where Kaylie Bailey lived, is literally "beautiful."

Olathe was founded by Dr. John T. Barton in the spring of 1857. He rode to the center of Johnson County, Kansas, and staked two quarter sections of land as the town site. He later described his ride to friends: "...the prairie was covered with verbena and other wild flowers. I kept thinking the land was beautiful and that I should name the town Beautiful." Purportedly, Barton asked a Shawnee interpreter how to say "Beautiful" in his native language. The interpreter responded, "Olathe." Source.

Other highlights summarized from Wikipedia:

This area of Kansas was involved in the pre-Civil War bloody battles between pro- and anti-slavery factions. Confederate guerrillas from Missouri led by William Quantrill surprised the residents and raided the city on September 7, 1862, killing a half dozen men, robbing numerous businesses and private homes, and destroying most of the city. Quantrill launched the raid because the people of Olathe were known for their abolitionism.

Ottawa is a city situated along the Marais des Cygnes River (which use to flood often) in the central part of Franklin County, Kansas. Beginning in 1943, Ottawa served as a branch camp for Nazi prisoners of war.

Emporia, Kansas, located on upland prairie, was founded on February 20, 1857, drawing its name from ancient Carthaginian Africa. The 1987 CBS miniseries Murder Ordained was filmed in Emporia. The program was the dramatization of an actual event in Emporia involving the 1983 death of Sandra Bird. Her husband, Reverend Tom Bird, was convicted of first-degree murder in her death and served 20 years in prison. On Sunday, March 6, 1988, a heavily armed gunman walked into the Calvary Baptist Church during services and opened fire. The 29-year-old gunman, Cheunphon Ji, shot randomly, killing 1 person and injuring 4 others.

"No matter how dreary and gray our homes are, we people of flesh and blood would rather live there than in any other country, be it ever so beautiful. There is no place like home." ~ Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz.

The Real Angel of Cleveland

2013-05-09T09:54:00.000-04:00

A less dynamic, non-English speaker may be one of the forgotten heroes of the Cleveland rescue. The focus of the viral interview of Charles Ramsey is beginning to crumble around the edges. But will any of this be remembered beyond today, in the wake of stories of chains, five pregnancies, torture, and other sickening violence? (The graphic breaking details from reporter Michael Baldwin's interviews are spreading today, and sweeping away initial "discovery" details.)

The English-speaking media darling of the Cleveland rescue is only a human being.

The highlighting of the melodramatic Ramsey interview on video, of McDonald's and visual imagery, may be ignoring the reality of what happened. First off, Charles Ramsey's newly revealed criminal record is not doing him any good. As Smoking Gun and other sources are noting, in January 2003, Ramsey allegedly was arrested for the second time for domestic violence and served time in the Lorain, Ohio, Correctional Institution. Yes, Lorain.

Lorain Correctional mugshot of Charles Ramsey.

Ramsey had been incarcerated in Lorain, also in the early 1990s for drug abuse and other minor crimes. Lorain Avenue, as previously noted, was the site of the Knight, Berry, and DeJesus kidnappings.

There is "profiling" that needs to take place sometimes - of patterns in kidnappings, in appearances, in name links, in location overlaps. Not all "profiling" is inappropriate, of course.

Michelle Knight (note headband)

Gina DeJesus (note headband)

Amanda Berry (note headband)

It appears another man - Angel Cordero - may have actually and initially been the one to have noticed Amanda Berry's shouts, to have arranged her escape, and to have handed her a cellphone for that dramatic oft-heard 911 call. Listening closely to Ramsey's interviews, you will note he says "we," but never named Cordero.

Angel Cordero's name is literally an angelic name game.

Angel (from the Greek ἄγγελος - ángelos) is a supernatural being or spirit, usually humanoid in form, found in various religions and mythologies.

Cordero derives from the Latin cordus meaning "young" plus "aries" - the ram, and the translation is "the little lamb" or the "young ram," or even possibly the "son of the ram." There are claims that the name is a descriptive metonymic for a shepherd, and this is a possibility, except that usually shepherds look after all the sheep, not just the young lambs as suggested by the name.

Cordero-named individuals have, within their name, an acknowledgement of shepherding the young innocents, metaphorically, the lambs. Add "angel" and that's is a rather powerful name.

"I kicked the door at the bottom because I was trying to get it open because it was too hard so I got it at the bottom and that's when Amanda ran out of the house," said Angel Cordero through a translator.

Fox 8 noted:

"I was the first person who broke the door,” said Angel Cordero, 32.
In Spanish, Cordero said he was the first person to break down the door to rescue the three missing women from the home on Seymour Avenue Monday afternoon.
Cordero said he was at a friend’s house right across the street when he heard Amanda Berry, 27, screaming for help and trying to escape.
“I crossed the street and I asked the girl what was happening and she told me that she’s been kidnapped for 10 years. We tried together to open the door but it was locked with a chain and the door didn’t open much so I kicked the door open,” Cordero explained.
Cordero says he, Charles Ramsey and other neighbors helped the women escape from the house, then got Berry to a phone so she could call police.

But Cordero is one who is not upset that Ramsey is getting most of the credit. He doesn't feel like a hero.

“I feel normal. I did something I needed to do. A big, important favor,” said Cordero to Fox 8.

Angel Cordero (pictured) says that he does not harbor any resentment or jealousy toward Charles Ramsey, as long as the women he helped rescue from the home are okay.

WPTV reported on Cordero and the involvement of another man, Wintel Tejeda:

“Ramsey arrived after she was outside with the girl,” Cordero said. “But the truth who arrived there, who crossed the street, who came and broke the door, it was me.”
Wintel Tejeda, who lives across the street from the suspect’s house, said others helped and when Berry came out, they gave her a phone.
“She was able to call police from my house,” Tejeda said in Spanish.
Now with Ramsey’s interview making headlines, both men said they’re not jealous.
“I did what had to be done. I helped her,” Cordero said. “They have their daughter, daughters are safe over there.”

The names Tejeda, Tejada are derivatives of "Tejado" meaning tile, and originally meant the place of the tile roofs, or the place where tiles were made. "Teja" means "(roof) tile" or "lime tree."

Hat tips to Dave McM + RPJ.

Blake's Vision of the Apocalypse, Iron Man 3, and the News

2013-05-08T23:38:00.001-04:00

"When London surrounds Primrose Hill, the streets of the Metropolis

will run with blood." ~ Mother Shipton.

Greenberry Hill, Primrose Hill, Rose Hill

I heard the news of the rescue of Knight, Berry, and DeJesus in Cleveland, followed by news of Grammy-winning singer Lauryn Hill going to prison, with a Browne (Sylvia) being part of the Cleveland backstory. I immediately thought of the three-named "coincidence" mentioned in Magnolia - Green, Berry, and Hill.

In the opening narration of the film Magnolia, we find these words:

In the New York Herald, November 26, year 1911, there is an account of the hanging of three men. They died for the murder of Sir Edmund William Godfrey; Husband, Father, Pharmacist and all around gentle-man resident of: Greenberry Hill, London. He was murdered by three vagrants whose motive was simple robbery. They were identified as: Joseph Green, Stanley Berry, and Daniel Hill. Green, Berry, Hill. And I would like to think this was only a matter of chance. ~ Magnolia, 1999.

Of course, Magnolia is a fiction film, and takes some license with the story of Greenberry Hill and Green, Berry, and Hill. But the basics are there, and they make for an intriguing story.

But the movie's affection for syncs did leave out the subtle fact that the real Green, Berry, and Hill were framed for Sir Edmund Godfrey's murder - ah, a false flag, perhaps - and their names are most remembered with being hung on Primrose Hill. Due to their execution, Primrose Hill, next to Regent's Park, in London, has been known, at times, as Greenberry Hill.

On October 12, 1678, Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey did not return home and was found dead in a ditch on Primrose Hill on October 17th. Here's a summary of the elements of the Green, Berry, and Hill drama, after the murder of Godfrey:

On 21 December [1678], Miles Prance, Catholic servant-in-ordinary to England's Catholic Queen consort, Catherine of Braganza, was arrested and taken to Newgate prison. His lodger (who was in debt to Prance), John Wren, testified that he had been away for the four nights before Godfrey's body was discovered. Bedloe claimed to recognize him.
On 23 – 24 December, Prance announced that he had had a part in the murder but that the main instigators were some Catholic priests. Three of the priests would have witnessed the murder in the courtyard of Somerset House where Godfrey had been lured. Godfrey would have been strangled and body taken to Hampstead. Prance named three men, Robert Green, Henry Berry and Lawrence Hill, who were arrested.
Prance later recanted his confession before the king and the council and was thrown back to prison: he was threatened with torture, and nearly froze to death. As a result he recanted his recantation and recanted two more times, ending up verifying his original story. At the trial he was a highly credible witness, although Hill's wife rightly prophesied "we shall see him recant after, when it is too late." The three men were sentenced to death 5 February 1679 and hanged at Primrose Hill. For a time this was known as "Greenberry Hill," because of the hangings of Green, Berry and Hill.
Prance's story was later discredited and he pleaded guilty to perjury. Because the three men were executed on false evidence, and historians accept their complete innocence, the murder remains officially unsolved. Source.

The history of Primrose Hill involves more that Green, Berry, and Hill - and

Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey.

John Nash and the Prince Regent developed Regents Park which provided a reason for developers to venture the one and a half miles north of the Town. Once the developers had reached the southern edge of Primrose Hill alongside Regents Park the pressure to build over it was enormous. From 1837 to 1839 owners tried to exclude the public but this was stopped by lawyers. A Bill of Parliament to convert the whole area into a cemetery was narrowly prevented from becoming an Act of Parliament. Source.

Mother Shipton's worries about Primrose Hill resulted in her quote, at the beginning of this essay.

William Blake in his Chapter II of Jerusalem in 1804-1818 penned:

The fields of Islington and Marybone.
To Primrose Hill and Saint John's Wood.
Were builded over with pillars of gold.
And there Jerusalem's pillars stood

Peter Ackroyd in his 1995 book, Blake, comments that the poet was working in South Molton Street at the time of the construction of Regent Street and Park Crescent to the north, and watched it closely. The result was his poem, noted above, which Ackroyd said was Blake's "own vision of the apocalypse," as the building gangs moved northwards.

It also alludes to the use of the Hill by Druids, according to commentaries, a practice which has continued to the present day.

On an earlier blog here, Sibyl Hunter said:

Regarding the Primrose Hill mentioned in Blake's poem, the city of Rose Hill, TN figures prominently in the new Iron Man 3 movie as a place from which human amputees were recruited. Rose Hill is also located near Corinth and Tupelo, MS where Paul (the guy who was originally accused of sending the poison letters) lives and where he accused a local hospital of trafficking in human limbs.

In the new movie, Iron Man 3, which opened on May 3rd, Rose Hill appears in twin roles. In reality, major parts of the motion picture were filmed in Rose Hill, North Carolina, but a central fictional town, as Sibyl Hunter mentions, is Rose Hill, Tennessee.

Iron Man 3 is a movie that allows much pondering, of apparent "random" terrorism explosions and amputees (shades of Boston).

Tony Stark's house (above, under attack) is modeled after various creations of John Lautner (shown below), as has been noted in media interviews about the Iron Man series. Lautner was a student of Frank Lloyd Wright, and the links to further syncs is clear via that connection.

Then there is the fact that Iron Man 3's director Shane Black played "Rick Dawkins" in Predator (1987), the first one to die from Alan "Dutch" Schaefer's (Arnold Schwarzenegger's) private military team.

"Predator, which I feel certain will stand forever in history as the only film to feature not one but two future governors of major American states." ~ William Bradley (Source of this quote is full of spoilers, so don't read if you haven't seen Iron Man 3).

Communications officer, Sergeant Rick Hawkins (Shane Black)

Iron Man 3 is a movie built on the conspiracy culture of false flag attacks and actors playing roles in a melodrama that drifts back and forth between fact and fiction. In a world that gave us, during six months last year, media mania from a massacre in a theater to another one of little children in a school, where does the reality begin and the wall-to-wall melodrama end?

A scene set from Iron Man 3, of a "suicide bomber site" in "Rose Hill, Tennessee."

"The streets of the Metropolis will run with blood." It almost sounds like Mother Shipton was talking about another movie, like Superman in the Man of Steel. Or about London and Primrose Hill, it's Star Trek Into Darkness. Regent's Park, the Zoo, and Primrose Hill. What's going on? Why all of this imagery of terror on the screen?

Black Joker Hits Tower, Many Killed

2013-05-08T21:42:00.000-04:00

The port tower of Genoa was hit by a ship named the "Jolly Nero," which has the nickname of the "Black Joker." Reports of several killed are being noted by media accounts.

John Hooper in Rome
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 8 May 2013 08.59 EDT

The container ship smashed into the 170 ft (50 meter) tall tower of Genoa, bringing it crashing down and killing up to 10 dead. Four people, including a pilot and two coast guards, are confirmed drowned. On Wednesday morning, the death toll was reported to have climbed to seven. Another three people were missing.

Various theories are being developed for why the accident occurred.

John Hopper writing for the Guardian noted:

According to other accounts, however, it was the stern of the vessel a 40,594-tonne container ship that brought down the tower. The ship involved in the collision was the Jolly Nero ("Black Joker"), belonging to Ignazio Messina & C.
Stefano Messina, the managing director, said: "We are very upset more than that. It is something that has never happened before. We are distraught."
The head of the port authority, Luigi Merlo, said the ship was coming out of the port when it struck the tower. There was no obvious explanation for the disaster, he said. "It was a perfect evening. The sea was calm. There was no wind. Visibility was perfect." But he added: "The manoeuvre ought not to have been carried out in that area."
One theory voiced on Wednesday was that one of the Jolly Nero's two engines might have jammed, making the ship impossible to control.
The coast guards operating from Genoa's imposing port tower were responsible for the northern sector of the Tyrrhenian sea. Radar installed in the operations room at the top of the tower could detect ships up to 40 nautical miles away. The tower hosted the offices of the coast guard and the pilots who guided ships in and out of the port.

Genoa = Genua was a city of the ancient Ligurians. Its name may derive from the Latin word meaning "knee" (genu; plural, genua), i.e. "angle," from its geographical position at the center of the Ligurian coastal arch, or it could derive from the Celtic root genu-, genawa (pl. genowe), meaning "mouth," i.e., estuary; thus akin to the name of Geneva.
"The Dark Knight/Joker name game continues to play out," writes BG, who contributed this news.

Charles Ramsey Name Game

2013-05-08T11:18:00.003-04:00

Charles Ramsey is the name of the man whose actions resulted in

the rescue of Amanda Berry, Michelle Knight, and Gina DeJesus.

Illustration by David Rappoccio.

(Used with permission.)

There is an interesting history to the name Charles ("free man") + Ramsey. Ramsey has origins in English for "garlic island"; in Scottish, it is from the name Hræm's Island, which is from the Old English elements hræm(n) (raven) and ég, íg (island); from Ram's Island, which is from the Old English ramm (a ram) and ég, íg (island); or from Ramm's Island, which derives its name from the Old Norse elements rammr (strong) and ey (island).

Ramesses II was regarded as the greatest, most celebrated, and most powerful pharaoh of the Egyptian Empire. Baron de Ramsey, title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, was created in 1887. Ramsey, Isle of Man, is the third-largest town on the island. Ramsey Island is located off the coast of the St David's peninsula in Pembrokeshire, Wales. Various towns are named Ramsey, including a village in Fayette County, Illinois.

Because Cleveland's Charles Ramsey was eating a Big Mac before his rescue of Amanda Berry, a major corporation has found a name and a hero they like too.

But as Judas Disney points out to me, we have met a Philadelphia "Charles Ramsey" before - and his name was linked to Aurora and The Dark Knight Rises:

Source.

Knight, Berry, and DeJesus: Twilight Language in Cleveland

2013-05-07T11:53:00.000-04:00

The face of evil? Suspect Ariel Castro.

"I was eating my McDonald's. I come outside and see this girl going nuts trying to get out of the house. I go on the porch and she says, 'Help me.'" ~ So begins the interview with neighborhood hero Charles Ramsey, as he tells the rescue story of Amanda Berry's escape from Hell in Cleveland, Ohio.

Hell had an address: 2207 Seymour Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio.

[Proofs of the famous mathematical result that the rational number 22/7

is greater than π (pi) date back to antiquity.]

But the three are free. And the questions begin.

Amanda Berry, at the hospital, on the right, with her sister.

Lorain Ave.

Clark Ave.

The suspected abductor Ariel Castro, 52, was arrested at a nearby McDonald's. Perhaps it was this McDonald's at 10710 Lorain Avenue, Westown Square Shopping Center, Cleveland, Ohio? Or apparently, more likely, at 3211 Clark Avenue, Cleveland?

Lorain Ave.

Amanda Berry was last seen in April 21, 2003, when she called her sister to say she was getting a ride home from work at this Burger King on West 110th Street and Lorain Avenue (at 14205 Lorain Avenue). Berry was set to turn 17 the day after her disappearance.

On April 2, 2004, 14-year-old Georgina "Gina" DeJesus went missing while walking home from Wilbur Wright Middle School. She was last seen around West 105 Street and Lorain Avenue.

Michelle Knight, 20, was last seen leaving her cousin’s house near West 106th Street and Lorain Avenue (shown), on August 23, 2002.

Lorain Avenue was the common denominator in these abductions.

The name "Lorain" originates from "Lothar = famous army." The Lorraine region is in eastern France, from Medieval Latin Lotharingia, literally "Lothar's Realm," name later given to the northern portion of the lands assigned by the Treaty of Verdun (843 C.E.) to Lothair I in the first division of the Carolingian empire. His empire stretched from the North Sea to the Mediterranean. Before his death (855 C.E.), Lothair subdivided his lands among his three sons. His son, Lothair (for whom the region is named), was given Lotharingia as his kingdom.

Joan of Arc came from Lorraine. The name also may be possibly derived from Laura (Latin) "laurel" = "victory."

Michelle Knight (note headband)

DeJesus (note headband)

Berry (note headband)

The known rescued victims, to date, have been identified as Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Georgina DeJesus. Their names allude to a mounted man-at-arms, a fleshy fruit produced from a single ovary, and a worker of the earth (farmer) linked to Jesus. They were taken from Lorain (= famous army). and brought to a location, Seymour (= Saint-Maur, Maur = Dark Skinned). A Holy Crusade?

For more on the name "Charles Ramsey," see here.

"Green, Berry, Hill. And I would like to think this was only a matter of chance."

~ Magnolia, 1999.

What profiling was the abductors doing? What name game were they playing, knowingly or unknowingly? What melodrama of horror was scripted here?

In the midst of all of the celebration of the escape of Knight, Berry, and DeJesus, one of dark side of this news issues from a Browne.

Amanda Berry's mother Louwanna Miller appeared in 2004, on the The Montel Williams Show, to ask self-described psychic Sylvia Browne if she could get any information on how her missing daughter was doing. Browne said that Amanda Berry was dead. Browne's "answer" is being discussed online in relationship to Miller's death on March 2, 2006. Browne was wrong.

Browne

In general, telling a family that a relative is dead is irresponsible, and has little to do with being a psychic. That has everything to do with, allegedly, theater, money, and infamy.

Of course, the darkness actually begins with the three Castro brothers. More will be revealed about their crimes against humanity, soon enough. Not to taint others who enjoy the same music, but what is being shared now is that Ariel Castro is reportedly a Puerto Rican fan of del merengue music. This music is well-known for its overly sexualized album covers.

The Unholy

The Facebook face of Ariel Castro.

May 8th Update: Ariel is being charged with the kidnapping of four and the rape of three. His two brothers, below, are not being charged with any involvement with his crimes, based on the testimony of Knight, Berry, and DeJesus - and Ariel.

Suspect Onil Castro

Suspect Pedro Castro

"The fields of Islington and Marybone.

To Primrose Hill and Saint John's Wood.

Were builded over with pillars of gold.

And there Jerusalem's pillars stood."

~ William Blake, Chapter II, Jerusalem in 1804-1818.

Into Darkness

2013-05-05T14:31:00.000-04:00

"Darkness is coming" ~ John Harrison.

Update: I enjoyed one of only 300 early screenings in the USA, only one in Maine, on May 15th. It is an incredible film that is not as dark as the promotional material would have you expect. Still, this movie, along with Iron Man 3, certainly start off another "dark" summer of motion pictures, a growing trend.

Near the beginning, there is an explosion in a big city. Sound familiar?

Star Trek Into Darkness really gets going with a terrorist attack in London.

Movie openings, film legacies, and violent incidents have gone hand in hand, of late.

Dark Knight opened July 23, 2008, in Belguim; Heath Ledger died January 22, 2009, in New York City; nursery attack (3 killed, 12 injured) occurred on January 23, 2009, allegedly by the Dendermonde Joker in Belguim.

Captain America opened July 22, 2011 in USA; Anders Behring Breivik on July 22, 2011, set off a car bomb in Oslo, shown above (killed 8, injured 209) and attacked youth camp on Utøya island, Norway (killed 69, injured 110).

Dark Knight Rises opened midnight July 20, 2012; James Holmes allegedly targeted Dark Knight Rises while dressed as Bane with Joker underneath (allegedly killed 12, allegedly injured 58), July 20, 2012, Aurora, Colorado, to Newtown, Connecticut, where on December 14, 2012, Adam Lanza killed his mother, then went to the Sandy Hook Elementary School and killed 20 children and 6 adult staff (total 27).

What have the major studios learned from these recent events? Don't open a blockbuster movie in 2013 on July 20, 21, 22, and 23. This year, on the closest Fridays, you will note that Red 2 is due to open on July 19, and The Wolverine on July 26. These are not movies in the same darker mold as Man of Steel (June 14), The Lone Ranger (July 5), and Star Trek Into Darkness (May 17) this year.

Star Trek Into Darkness opens in Britain on May 9, 2013, and in the United States on May 17, 2013, the 12th film in the Star Trek franchise that was created about 50 years ago by Gene Roddenberry and led to six TV series.

May 9th is a date called Victory Day throughout most countries in the old Soviet Union, for victory over Nazi Germany was achieved by the Soviet Union on that date. Parades and other celebrations are sometimes still held. Chechen president Akhmad Kadyrov and 23 other people were killed in a bombing in the capital Grozny, during a World War II memorial victory parade in 2004. In Kaspiysk, Russia, a remote-controlled bomb exploded during a holiday parade killing 43 and injuring at least 130, in 2002.

And Star Trek Into Darkness, relatively speaking, opens with a boom....

Let us hope the only darkness is on the screen this time.

But let's not forget....

Boston Marathon Bombing - Three killed, 299 injured

Boston (above and below)

London (below)

Star Trek Into Darkness opens midnight the evening May 16th, in some US locations.

Darkness can be evil personified.

More Arrests In Boston Bombing

2013-05-01T11:31:00.000-04:00

Arrests: Is there more to the Boston Marathon Bombing that remains to be learned?

Are there others linked to the events?

New people developments were confirmed on Wednesday, May 1st.

A conservative blog created the above image. Is there anything to it?

Or is it just a name game play on Dzhokhar sounding like "Joker"? Image source.

Updated Breaking News...

Tweet from Boston Police:

@Boston_Police: Three additional suspects taken into custody in Marathon bombing case. Details to follow.

Boston Globe says the three are college students. Two were said to be roommates of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

Source.

Reuters is noting, "The third person taken into custody on Wednesday was a U.S. citizen, and all three were being investigated for actions taken after the bombings, the U.S. law enforcement source said."

CNN is says that the third suspect has been confirmed to be Robel Phillipos, an American.

USA Today notes:

Phillipos, a U.S. citizen, lives with his mother, who is from Ethiopia and works with refugees, WHDH-TV reported. Their Cambridge apartment is next to the gas station where the Tsarnaev brothers carjacked a vehicle before getting into the shootout with police in which 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed.

The Atlantic reports:

NBC's Pete Williams reports that the three suspects were all roommates of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and may have removed items, possibly a backpack, from their dorm on his behalf. CNN's Susan Candiotti says the items included fireworks backed in backpacks. (Over the weekend, police searched a Boston-area landfill in search of a missing laptop and more explosives.) They were under surveillance by the FBI for several days, and any crimes that may be charged with likely took place after the bombing, making them accessories after the fact. It appears there's no indication at this time that the suspectes were aware of the bombing plot or helped in anyway before it took place. They are also accused of lying to investigators during interviews.Earlier today, two men that previously been connected to Tsarnaev appeared in court on a visa violation hearing. The men, Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev, both from Kazakhstan, were arrested more than a week ago on the visa charge and appeared at the hearing via video conference. It's been reported, but ~~not confirmed~~, that those two men might have been among today's arrests. One of the students' lawyers confirmed the two men are suspects and will be charged in federal court later today, but has already denied any wrong doing int he case. The third roommate, who is American, was arrested this morning, per Pete Williams.

Earlier today...

Breaking News from the BBC:

Boston police have taken into custody three additional suspects in the 15 April bombing of the Boston Marathon.The police department has released no further details of the suspects' identity or alleged role in the attack.Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a 19-year-old immigrant student, has been charged over the bombing. His elder brother Tamerlan was killed in a shootout with police.Two bombs at the finishing line killed three people and injured more than 260.

All together five people died in the week of violence and 299 were injured, some very badly.

An Assassin In Rome

2013-04-28T14:52:00.000-04:00

Gunfire was heard in Rome on Sunday, April 28, 2013. The targets for the assassination attempts were politicians. The victims were police officers. The suspect appears to have been a self-styled "warrior."

As ministers in Italy's new left-right coalition cabinet were being sworn in, a lone gunman attempted to get to the politicians to shoot them. Frustrated in his efforts, the shooter turned the gun on law enforcement officials, the Carabinieri. One officer was wounded in the leg, and another in the neck. A pregnant woman passerby was grazed by a bullet. None were seriously injured, apparently.

The ''desperate" gunman had ''lost work, had lost everything" ...[and] "wanted to shoot politicians, but given that he couldn't reach any, he shot the Carabinieri" police at the edge of Chigi Square. News Observer.

The rightwing mayor of Rome, Gianni Alemanno, said: "We shouldn't be surprised at a time when people are inveighing continually against the establishment."
Though he denied that it was aimed at any one group, Alemanno's remark was widely seen as a reference to the maverick Five Star Movement (M5S), which has bitterly attacked Italy's mainstream parties. Beppe Grillo, the ex-comedian who leads the M5S, condemned the shooting.
The suspected gunman was wrestled to the ground and disarmed by Carabinieri as he tried to flee. He was named as Luigi Preiti, a man in his late 40s from the mafia-ridden town of Rosarno, in Calabria.
He was initially described by the authorities as mentally disturbed, but his brother, Arcangelo Preiti, said: "Until yesterday morning, Luigi was a lucid and go-ahead person."
He said his brother, who has a son, had returned to Calabria from the north after losing his job and separating from his wife.
Preiti, who was dressed in a jacket, collar and tie, was said not to have any links with organised crime. Forensic officers reportedly found seven bullet casings in the broad, paved square in front of the prime minister's official residence. Guardian.

The suspect's name Luigi Preiti has an intriguing literal translation. The meaning of Luigi is "famous warrior." Preiti is a name, usually of Indian/Hindi origin, which means "switch." Nothing has been noted about his ethnicity, and he is being discussed merely as "from Calabria."

The swearing in was occurring in the Palazzo Chigi, the prime minister's official residence, and is acknowledged as the seat of the Italian government. The Palazzo Chigi is a palace or noble residence in Rome, overlooking the Piazza Colonna and the Via del Corso. In 1659 it was purchased by the Chigi family.

Palazzo Chigi, etching by Giuseppe Vasi, 18th century

XIX century print, Piazza Colonna

Palazzo Chigi was begun in 1562 by Giacomo della Porta. A courtyard was built that is decorated with a fountain, designed by Giacomo della Porta. The fountain has been copied in many sites in Rome and other Italian cities. This Chigi's fountain is called the Fontana di Piazza Colonna. Why was the piazza given this name?

The name of this piazza comes from Marcus Aurelius's column still standing where it was erected in ancient Rome and reminding us of the topographical changes made in the city over the centuries. In Imperial times, there used to be a temple dedicated to the Emperor on part of what is now the piazza.
Colonnades bounded two sides, with houses and shops on the Via del Corso side. The column was erected in 180 AD in the center of the temple's piazza.
The reliefs narrate the imperial campaigns of the era of Marcus Aurelius and, for the first time, they were the works of actual Roman artists. Even if they are less refined than those on Trajan's column, they are nevertheless more expressive.
In the Middle Ages, the piazza was at the intersection of the two most important pilgrim itineraries: one went from Piazza del Popolo to the Campidoglio and then on to San Giovanni in Laterano; the other left from Via Salaria towards Porte Sant'Angelo and on to St. Peter's.
After the Renaissance when restoration work was done on the column, the piazza began to take on its present appearance. The small medieval dwellings gave way to palaces for noble families. Bars and cafés became important meeting places for citizens and, especially, intellectuals involved in city politics. Source.

Where this attempted assassination took place today was designed, as noted, in 1562, by a significant historical individual. Giacomo della Porta (c. 1533 – 1602) was an Italian architect and sculptor, who was influenced by and collaborated with Michelangelo, and Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola, his teacher of architecture. After the death of Vignola in 1573, Giacomo della Porta continued the construction of Il Gesù, the mother church of the Jesuit order, and in 1584 modified its façade after his own designs. From 1573 he was in charge of the ongoing construction of St. Peter's Basilica, and later, in collaboration with Domenico Fontana, completed Michelangelo's dome between 1588-1590.

In Dan Brown's 2000 book about some of the twilight language of Rome, Angels and Demons includes a mystery murder at Giacomo della Porta's Piazza Campitelli (1589).

In terms of the day, RS sends along notes on April 28th, involving three assassinations (one involving an Aurora, please note) and two shooting sprees (the infamous Port Arthur massacre and another a week after Columbine) on this date.

1192 – Assassination of Conrad of Montferrat (Conrad I), King of Jerusalem, in Tyre, two days after his title to the throne is confirmed by election. The killing is carried out by Hashshashin.

1949 – Former First Lady of the Philippines Aurora Quezon, 61, is assassinated while en route to dedicate a hospital in memory of her late husband; her daughter and 10 others are also killed.

1978 – President of Afghanistan, Mohammed Daoud Khan, is overthrown and assassinated in a coup led by pro-communist rebels.

1996 – In Port Arthur, Tasmania, Australia, Martin Bryant goes on a shooting spree, killing 35 people and seriously injuring 21 more.

1999 – In Tabor, Alberta, Canada, 14-year-old Todd Cameron Smith fires upon three students, killing one and wounding another in the W. R. Myers High School shooting.

TL Reader Discovers: "You Accurately Predicted This In 2005"

2013-04-26T18:43:00.002-04:00

Patriots' Day. The Boston Marathon. I foresaw this, it appears.

As many of you recall, on September 17, 2012, Dangerous Minds published "Copycat Effect: Meet The Man Who Predicted The Aurora Shooting" by British writer Thomas McGrath. You may wish to read it, if you haven't yet. I detailed a bit of the background to McGrath's article in my piece, "The Man Who Predicted The Aurora Shooting."

Because one of the final questions McGrath asked was about other predictions, I addressed his inquiry by posting "Ten Predictions: Ten Hits."

Now, as it turns out, thanks to an alert reader of this blog, I've been reminded that, indeed, I, Loren Coleman, did foretell the Patriots' Day Boston Marathon terrorist bombing - eight years ago.

I didn't go looking for this, so you can imagine my surprise when I found someone had "discovered" in my past writings that I had "predicted" the Marathon bombings. I had literally forgotten that I had written what was pointed out to me.

On April 25th, I began receiving messages from a reader, Carol J., saying "I decided to randomly browse posts from past years and see that you accurately 'predicted' this [Boston Marathon event] in 2005."

I asked her a little more about how this happened and Carol J. shared, "It was very eerie when I came across it. I felt like I wanted to read something from the past to get my mind off the present and my finger was hovering over 2006 and then it was almost like my finger felt kind of 'pulled' to 2005....For real! Synchromysticism and following intuition at its best."

What Carol J. had found was a long posting I had written on September 10, 2005. In that blog entry, I wrote of the importance of being aware of the special significance of numbers, dates, and special days, in relationship to future acts of terrorism. I penned these words:

...what about the dates? This Bush administration's little known badly named Patriot Day (9/11) may or may not be that important to al Qaeda, as I think they have their own number, date, and name game agenda. They might wish to go for the real Patriots Day, in April, in Maine, or the Patriots Day in Massachusetts, at the Boston Marathon, for example. Thousands of people there. Of course, this is not an invitation, but we have to see that we might not see what they see....

And...

Well, then, truth be told, I live in Portland, Maine, where 9/11 all began for Mohammed Atta, who picked Flight 11, so needless to say, I'm not letting my guard down on 9/11/05. Or 11/9/05. Or 11/11 (Veteran's Day). Or on next April's Patriots Day 2006, 2007, 2008, and so forth. Atta, the leader of the operations wing of 9/11, historically, was tied into those elevens. Afterall, the first mastermind of the 1993 Twin Towers attack was Ramzi Yousef, and he used parts of Bonjinka, a plan to place bombs on 11 planes in the Phillippines, for the eventual 9/11 attacks. Yousef's test run for Bonjinka occurred on, you guessed it, another eleven, December 11, 1994. Sometime, look up the 1970 origins of the naming of the group 'Black September,' whose kidnapping of Israeli athletes attending the Munich Olympics (which was scheduled to end on September 11, 1972), ended in the death of 11 of those athletes. Certainly, 9/11 hits very close to home. And lives on. Mysteries remain that may be hidden in numbers and places.

Clearly, the combination of Patriots Day and the Boston Marathon was too tempting for the terrorists who would conduct the first major attack at a public event, post-9/11.

The scope of the Boston Marathon bombing is enormous. Five deaths resulted: three people from the April 15th bombing, one police officer from the firefight on April 18th, and one suspect from shooting on April 19th. A total of 299 people were injured, with 282 of them from the initial bombs on April 15th, 16 police officers from the firefight on April 19th, and one suspect from shooting on April 19th. The injuries to the victims of the bombings were severe, involving limbs lost at the bomb sites or due to amputations to save their lives.

It was a terrible and horrible series of events in Boston on Patriots' Day. Let us wish and pray that other terrorists will not see what occurred in Boston as a roadmap for future copycat incidents. That is certainly my fear, based on what I know of behavior contagion. It does make me sad to be able to "see" this coming. I take no delight in being close in my predictions.

My hope is that someday, somewhen, predicting behavior patterning is developed to such a level that violent and fatal events can be prevented.

My ideas and insights about "predicting" such events are in my 2004 book,

a work that the media never wants you to read.

The Copycat Effect

(NY: Simon and Schuster, 2004)

Never forget, remember...

New Copycats: Pressure Cookers and Sporting Events

2013-04-24T09:57:00.003-04:00

What will be the result of the Boston bombings?

Has one outcome been a cookbook for future disasters?

The following images were spread all over the papers, Internet, and cable television news - wall to wall. I am purposefully making the images so small so that the instructions for "how to make a bomb" will not be readable, as they have been since April 15th.

In 1989, when Simon and Schuster published my Suicide Clusters, no one believed that phenomenon existed. In 2004, when my book The Copycat Effect was released, only one newspaper in North America reviewed it. The Boston Globe ran a skeptical critique. The media wanted my book to be ignored.

Today, it is rather firmly established that the "copycat effect" is part of the way that future events are being programmed.

What do you think will be the legacy of the Boston bombings? At sporting events? And large gatherings? Using what instrument of mass destruction?

Changes Coming In Sporting Events

Certainly the loss of life and the massive injuries to the individuals during the Boston Marathon bombings have to be addressed as now copycats will sadly probably occur.

Moves in the direction of future prevention are in the works.

The Kentucky Derby will ban backpacks during the running races held in conjunction with the horse race:

Officials with the Kentucky Derby announced that backpacks would be banned at the Marathon and miniMarathon held in conjunction with the Derby itself, in an effort to tighten security.
The Louisville Courier-Journal is reporting that festival president Mike Berry and vice president Matt Gibson made the announcement during a press conference held on Tuesday. Other banned items include duffel bags, purses taller or wider than 12 inches, luggage, tents, coolers and weapons.
Instead of backpacks, runners will have to bring any necessities in transparent bags.

* * *

According to Churchill Downs, backpacks had been previously banned from the Kentucky Derby and Oaks themselves in 2012. Coolers, noisemakers, pepper spray, fireworks and purses larger than 12 inches were recently added to this year’s list of prohibited items. Also banned are cameras with detachable lenses, cameras equipped with lenses more than six inches in length, and tripods of any kind. Source.

Major League Baseball is thinking about making similar refinements.

Stadium operations officials from the 30 big league baseball teams will meet this week and are expected to discuss whether to make any security changes in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings…Among the security topics that could be discussed are backpacks that fans bring into ballparks.

The Dark Knight Chechen

2013-04-21T21:45:00.000-04:00

Manuel F. writes:

Loren,
Don't know if anyone left you with this sync, but here goes...
Yesterday I was thinking about this "dark night" period we're living in. Then my mind jumped to Dark Knight and something was connected.
You saw the infamous Dark Knight movie (the one with Heath Ledger). Remember the scene where the Joker burns the mountain of money?
The gangster he double crosses is called "The Chechen."
The Joker says he will retrieve their money from the money launderer and then burns it and feed "The Chechen" to the "pooches."
Seems like the fountain of syncs never gets dry with the Batman trilogy. You do more dot connecting (you're good at it)! I just wanted to leave this idea.
Greetings

Enki writes:

Tsarnaev contains the root tsar (also spelled czar, csar, or tzar) - a Russian emperor. A villain in the Batman universe, Mr. Hammer, has a tattoo which reads: "Joker The Tzar" in Russian.

Mister Hammer and his brother Sickle were conjoined, orphan twins who performed in a russian circus, developing a reputaton for brutality which attracted the attention of the Joker. Joker sent his cohort Harley Quinn to recruit the twins, but the circus manager refused, however he subsequently turned up with a Glasglow smile carved into his face, and the twins were recruited into Joker's gang. During a fight between the Abramovici's and Batman, Joker had an ingenius idea to separate the brothers, and acquired the help of Dr. Thomas Elliot to perform the surgery and cut the twins in two. After the surgery was completed, Joker favorably chose Mr. Hammer to be his "right-hand man" and left Sickle for the Penguin, who hired the twin to be apart of his gang. Ever since, the Abramovici's operated alone in Gotham, and later Arkham City, however Sickle always had a disliking for Joker for separating him from his brother. Source.
Here we have twins again, as well as the theme of brothers separated violently.
Also, in Batman Confidential, Batman works to prevent a massacre by a bomb-packing villain called The Tsar. Source.

The site Merovee mentions a further link to the Dark Knight and Aurora, beyond the early one widely noted that "Dzhokhar" sounds like "Joker." That site points out that the the Boston police released the number plate of a car connected with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev – 116 GC7.

Merovee writes that "116 is a number which is closely connected with The Joker – Century 16 (116) at Aurora, as well as being a mirror of 911. As well, there is the compulsory 7/7. G=7. 116 7 C 7."

(Personally, I don't understand the "7" numerology being "compulsory.")

Century 16 in Aurora, Colorado.

Aurora building, Shanghai, in Skyfall.

There are stories of coincidence and chance, of intersections and strange things told, and which is which and who only knows? And we generally say, "Well, if that was in a movie, I wouldn't believe it." Someone's so-and-so met someone else's so-and-so and so on. And it is in the humble opinion of this narrator that strange things happen all the time. And so it goes, and so it goes. And the book says, "We may be through with the past, but the past ain't through with us." ~ Magnolia, 1999.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was named after Dzhokhar Musayevich Dudaev (Chechen: Dudin Musa-khant Dʒouxar/Дудин Муса-кIант Жовхар; Russian: Джохар Мусаевич Дудаев), who was a Soviet Air Force general and Chechen leader, the first President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. He was born February 15, 1944, and reportedly killed by "two laser-guided missiles when he was using a satellite phone, after his location was detected by a Russian reconnaissance aircraft, which intercepted his phone call," on April 21, 1996.

Recent postings of the Boston Marathon/Patriots' Day Bombings and aftermath are:

* The Dark Knight Chechen

* Name Game: The Brothers Tsarnaev

* "Terrorists": Suspect #1 Has Been Killed; Suspect #2 At Large

* What Logos Are On Boston Marathon Suspects' Caps?

* Mapping The Tragedy: Boston Bombs Set On Symbolic Sites

* Targeting Patriots' Day Is Significant for Boston Marathon Bombing

Name Game: The Brothers Tsarnaev

2013-04-20T09:22:00.002-04:00

Inland, on the traditional Patriots' Day, the Boston Marathon bombing manhunt ended in Watertown when the suspect crawled out of a boat, in which the final suspect had been hiding. The sychronmystic symbolism of that event's finale may be dissected for years.

The boat was behind this house on 67 Franklin Street in Watertown.

But for now, let's look at the "name game" harmonics of Suspect #1's and Suspect #2's names.

The Brothers Tsarnaev

Two brothers were identified by the FBI and other law enforcement organizations as the primary suspects, with the last name Tsarnaev.

While the Tsarnaevs may have identified as ethnic Chechens, they are not from Chechnya. The Tsarnaev brothers were born in Russia (Tamerlan) and Kyrgyzstan (Dzhokhar). The Tsarnaevs' father was working in Chechnya when he fled, reportedly, living briefly in Kyrgyzstan and the Dagestan region of Russia, before finding political asylum in the USA. Tamerlan was 15 and Dzhokhar was only 8, when they came to Cambridge, Massachusetts to live.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev

Suspect #1

Tamerlan, 26, was killed early Friday (April 19, 2013) morning in a shootout with law enforcement officers in Watertown.

The name Tamerlan is directly linked to a 14th century Turkic warlord, Timur. The origins of his name, Timur is related to its meaning, "iron." Timur was a devout Muslim who referred to himself as the Sword of Islam. Find more here.

AWG shares:

Tamerlane is an epic poem by Edgar Allan Poe, first published in the 1827 collection Tamerlane and Other Poems. That collection, with only 50 copies printed, was not credited with the author's real name but by "A Bostonian." The poem's original version was 403 lines but trimmed down to 223 lines for its inclusion in Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems.

Forensic facial reconstruction of Timur by M. Gerasimov. 1941

Tamerlane is the Latinized name of a 14th-century historical figure, Timur Lenk.

The poem itself follows a Turkic conqueror named Tamerlane. The name is a Latinized version of Timur Lenk, the 14th century warlord, though the poem is not historically accurate.
Tamerlane ignores the young love he has for a peasant in order to achieve power. On his deathbed, he regrets this decision to create "a kingdom [in exchange] for a broken-heart." The peasant is named Ada in most of Poe's original version of the poem, though it is removed and re-added throughout its many revised versions. The name "Ada" is likely a reference to Ada Lovelace, the daughter of Lord Byron, a renowned poet whom Poe admired. In fact, the line "I reach'd my home -- my home no more" echoes a line in Byron's work Don Juan. Source.

CK notes:

Amir Timur (a/k/a Tamerlane) is remembered as a vicious conqueror, who razed ancient cities to the ground and put entire populations to the sword. On the other hand, he is also known as a great patron of the arts, literature, and architecture. One of his signal achievements is his capital at the beautiful city of Samarkand, in modern-day Uzbekistan. Source.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

Suspect #2.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's name is pronounced Joe-HARR tsar-NAH-yev, although early commentators pointed out that "Dzhokhar" can sound like "Joker."

The origins of the first name Dzhokhar is Russian/Chechen.

In Russian, "Grozny" means "fearsome," "awesome" or "redoubtable". During the existence of the separatist republic, the city was renamed Dzokhar-Ghala in 1996, and Chechen separatists sometimes continue to refer to the city as Dzhokhar or Djohar (Chechen: Джовхар-ГIала, Dƶovxar-Ġala); it was named so after Dzhokhar Dudaev, the first president of the separatist Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. As of December 2005, the Chechen parliament voted to rename the city Akhmadkala after Akhmad Kadyrov, a proposition which was rejected by his son Ramzan Kadyrov, the prime minister and later president of the republic. Source.

Nineteen year old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's Twitter handle J_tsar and nickname is Jahar.

++++++

#WANTED: Police seeking MA Plate: 116-GC7, ’99 Honda Sedan, Color - Green. Possible suspect car. Do not approach. pic.twitter.com/IVCPtmVwRT

2:09 E.M. - 19 april 2013

+++

Dzhokhar tweeted the following two pictures of a "friend's" car on his Twitter account J_tsar.

Here's is a closer look at the front plate:

The two men arrested last night (April 19th) in connection with the Boston Marathon bombings drive a car with the licence plate that reads: ‘Terrorista #1’

The students, named be neighbours by their first names Azmat and Diaz, drive a black BMW 330XI with the personalised plate and a sticker on the back which reads: ‘F*** you, you f****** f****’.

They are thought to be from Kazakhstan and had not been seen since the bombings until last night when their ground floor apartment in New Bedford, MA, was raided by a dozen FBI agents at gunpoint.

Two women and one man, both of whom appeared to be college-aged, were apprehended for questioning from the Hidden Brook Apartments on Carriage Drive in New Bedford. Source.

"Terrorists": Suspect #1 Has Been Killed; Suspect #2 At Large

2013-04-19T04:25:00.002-04:00

Dzhokhar = The Joker?

Above is a new official Boston Police photo of Suspect #2, taken during the earlier incidents overnight.

Just in, via Twitter:

The surname of the brothers are Tsarnaez. The suspect at-large is Dzhokar Tsarnaez, reports @PeteWilliamsNBC

"Dzhokhar Tsarnaev received a City Scholarship in Cambridge, MA in 2011," when he was a senior at at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School and others to pursue higher education. Spelling has been corrected from "z" to "v" in Tsarnaev.

"The dead Boston Marathon bombing suspect has been identified as Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and the one still being sought is his younger brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, several sources said Friday," CNN reports.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev became an American citizen on September 11, 2012. He is the individual shown above, during his attempt to rob a 7-11 on April 19, 2013.

The two suspects involved in the Boston Marathon bombing were involved in violent incidents at MIT and Watertown last night and this morning. The Patriots' Day Suspect #1 is reportedly dead and Suspect #2 is at large in Watertown, according to a breaking news conference held by Boston Police. (Reportedly, Suspect #1 died at 1:35 a.m.)

One or two pressure cooker bombs were used against the police, during the Watertown firefight. One MIT Police officer was killed earlier.

Reports are being shared that the two suspects are "foreign-born" military-style individuals who have been in the USA for about a year with the purpose to "kill people."

MSNBC is now reporting the Tsarnaev brothers were born in Russia (older brother?) and Kyrgyzstan (younger brother, who is still at large?). As early as the 7th century, Turkic traders introduced Islam to Central Asia, including what is now Kyrgyzstan, through doing business with Arabic people. Reportedly, their parents sought refuge in the USA as long ago as ten or eleven years ago, because the Tsarnaev father (who was working in Chechnya) needed political asylum.

More info is being developed on the two. Here is from a profile of the older brother:

Tamerlan, who studies at Bunker Hill Community College in Boston and wants to become an engineer, took the semester off from school to train for the competition.

Tamerlan fled Chechnya with his family because of the conflict in the early 90s, and lived for years in Kazakhstan before getting to the United States as a refugee.

Originally from Chechnya, but living in the United States since five years, Tamerlan says: "I don't have a single American friend, I don't understand them." Source.

The Wolf Of The Caucasus: The flag of the Chechen rebel youth.

Here is a little about the country in which they lived, before they came to the United States:

"Kyrgyz" is believed to have been derived from the Turkic word for "forty," in reference to the forty clans of Manas, a legendary hero who united forty regional clans against the Uyghurs. Literally it means We are forty. At the time, in the early 9th century AD, the Uyghurs dominated much of Central Asia (including Kyrgyzstan), Mongolia, and parts of Russia and China.

The 40-ray sun on the flag of Kyrgyzstan is a reference to those same forty tribes and the graphical element in the sun's center depicts the wooden crown of a yurt – a portable dwelling traditionally used by nomads in the steppes of Central Asia. Source.

A summary of the last decade's major terrorist activities out of Chechnya was compiled by the Associated Press:

In the past, insurgents from Chechnya and neighboring restive provinces in the Caucasus have been involved in terror attacks in Moscow and other places in Russia.
Those raids included a raid in Moscow in October 2002 in which a group of Chechen militants took 800 people hostage and held them for two days before special forces stormed the building, killing all 41 Chechen hostage-takers. Also killed were 129 hostages, mostly from effects of narcotic gas Russian forces used to subdue the attackers.
Chechen insurgents also launched a 2004 hostage-taking raid in the southern Russian town of Beslan, where they took hundreds of hostages. The siege ended in a bloodbath two days later, with more than 330 people, about half of them children, killed.
Insurgents from Chechnya and other regions also have launched a long series of bombings in Moscow and other cities in Russia. An explosion at the international arrivals hall at Moscow's Domodedovo airport in January 2011 killed at least 31 people and wounded more than 140.

But please be aware, media reports have often been premature in these breaking news situations.

++++

The earlier above video of a suspect being taken into custody after being told to disrobe appears to have been an unrelated individual being swept up and reportedly later released. See also here.

Earlier tweets and images:

"32"

A suspect appears may be dead after one or two MIT campus officers were shot and killed, in a fierce night of activity in Cambridge and Watertown, Massachusetts. Officials and media are definitely seeing a strong link between these incidents and the Boston Marathon bombings. During the exchange between law enforcement officers and the suspects in Watertown, eyewitnesses said they saw a pressure cooker device being used against the police.

Several media sources have been all over this story. The following is an early summary from the Boston Herald:

An MIT police officer was shot dead late last night on the MIT campus and an MBTA officer was wounded early this morning in a second encounter in Watertown in a wild scene that involved explosives as well as gunfire, police said.
State police spokesman David Procopio said police were investigating whether there was a connection between the shootings and the Marathon bombings. By 2:30 a.m., Procopio said that two suspects were in custody in Watertown, but police were still actively searching for more suspects.
"We don't know how many suspects there are," Procopio said.
He later corrected that to say one suspect was in custody, and that at least one was being sought. Television footage from the scene showed a muscular man with short, dark hair, entirely naked and handcuffed, being walked to a cruiser.
Dozens of police who had converged on the MIT scene near Kendall Square after the shooting there around 10:48 p.m. raced toward Watertown shortly before 1 a.m. this mornin,g toward an armed standoff with suspects in the Arsenal Street area, where heavily armed SWAT teams and uniformed cops with their handguns drawn were actively searching for suspects.

Police in Watertown were shouting warnings that the suspects were “throwing explosives, and warned about “unexploded ordinance.” They later shouted that one suspect was in custody and another was still at large.

Procopio said the MIT and Watertown incidents were believed to be related, and the watertown situation began as part of the search for suspects in the MIT officer's killing.
“We tried to stop a vehicle in Watertown. There was another officer shot in Watertown,” Procopio said.
At least one FBI agent was on scene. The initial incident began with gunshots reported at 10:48 p.m. at Building 32, Stata Building, on Vassar Street near Main Street, off Kendall Square.

A Massachusetts Institute of Technology email alert described the situation as “active and extremely dangerous.”

It was unclear what kind of situation preceded or precipitated the shooting.

Cambridge police said in a statement: “An MIT campus police officer responding to a report of a disturbance in the area of Vassar and Main streets was reportedly shot. According to authorities, the officer was found evidencing multiple gunshot wounds. He was transported to the hospital and pronounced deceased.

“Authorities launched an immediate investigation into the circumstances of the shooting.

“There are no other victims. No arrests have been made. The investigation remains ongoing.”

MIT students and staff were advised in a subsequent email alert to stay indoors and to stay away from Building 32.

Police sealed off several blocks around the building last night.

MIT later reported by email: “MIT Police have determined that the suspect in this evening’s shooting is no longer on campus. It is now safe to resume normal activities.”

Dozens of state police, local police and K-9 units were initially at the MIT scene, as well as local media and national media that came over from Boston, where they were covering the marathon bombings, before most police, followed by the media, headed toward Watertown.

What Logos Are On Boston Marathon Suspects' Caps?

2013-04-18T18:15:00.000-04:00

The FBI released images of the two primary suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings.

See also the FBI-released video. View on a mirror site (e.g. Globe and Mail), as FBI.gov is crashing. See here.

Do you recognize the logos on the front of the black cap, and the front of the backward turned white baseball-style cap?

Tim W's suggestion: black one, Bridgestone golf cap. Appears to be a hit.

A photograph taken by a Boston Marathon spectator shows the Suspect #1 as he walked past the Forum restaurant on Boylston Street (where the second explosion occurred). That image shows that the back of the man’s cap contained four white figures, likely "B330." The black Bridgestone cap does those numbers, a reference to the company’s B330 golf ball.

It is intriguing that Suspect #1 appears to have a cap on that contains two 3s and Suspect #2's hat has a 3 on it. (see down below).

Screen shot of the front of the reversed white cap on Suspect #2.

The cap being worn by Suspect #2 may be a Ralph Lauren Polo baseball cap.

Why does Ralph Lauren put a #3 on their cap? "The embroidered number on Ralph Lauren Big Pony pieces traces its heritage to the traditional uniform of professional polo players. The players are assigned a position, which is designated by the numbers from one to four and displayed on team jerseys during a match. The player in position number three is usually the most experienced player on the team."

Newly discovered photo of Suspect #2 leaving the Boston Marathon area after a bomb goes off. He is in the red rectangle. With no backpack.

Some speculation was that the individual in the yellow rectangle was Suspect #1, but that appears to be incorrect.

Rounding the corner of Fairfield Street, off Boylston.

Near Waco Anniversary, Near Waco Explosion

2013-04-18T08:22:00.000-04:00

There has been a massive explosion at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas, just north of Waco.

The photograph above was taken of the mushroom cloud coming from the explosion. Enki writes: "Note the Sonic Drive-In sign to the left. Recall that Blaec Lammers, the would-be Twilight shooter, was apprehended at a Sonic Drive-in."

Since fertilizer was one of the compounds of the Murrah Building/Oklahoma City bombing, this event has brought to mind many links. As Enki also notes, "The explosion took place at 1471 Jerry Mashek Drive. Mashek means descendant of Thomas (twin). Elvis Presley had a twin brother who died at birth, and the suspect in the mailing of ricin-laced letters to Senator Wicker, Paul Kevin Curtis, was in an Elvis tribute act with his brother."

Images above are from Waco, Texas, 1993.

Tomorrow, April 19th, is the 20th anniversary of the end of the siege at the Waco, Texas compound of the Branch Davidians. The Waco siege began on February 28, 1993, when the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms attempted to execute a search warrant at the Branch Davidian ranch at Mount Carmel, a property located nine miles east-northeast of Waco, Texas. An exchange of gunfire resulted in the deaths of four agents and six followers of David Koresh. A subsequent 51-day siege by the FBI ended on April 19th when fire destroyed the compound. Seventy-six people (24 of them British nationals) died in the fire, including more than 20 children, two pregnant women, and Koresh himself.

Images above are from West, Texas, 2013.

The fertilizer plant explosion, origins unknown, has killed between five and 15 people, according to Sgt. William Patrick Swanton of the nearby Waco Police Department. The death toll is predicted to increase, as reportedly over 60 people are missing.

"160 injured in West, Texas. 168 killed in OKC bombing," emails editor Andrew W. Griffin, Red Dirt Report.

The massive new blast has forced the evacuation of about half of the small town of West.

Houses and apartment houses were destroyed.

The Wednesday night blast shook houses 50 miles away and measured as a 2.1-magnitude seismic event, according to the United States Geological Survey.

Another Texas explosion anniversary was remembered, as well:

The force of the French freighter S.S. Grandcamp explosion, coupled with flying debris produced by the blast and a surge of water pushed from the harbor, left this scene of destruction throughout Texas City, Texas on April 16, 1947. The explosion killed at least 576 people and injured 5,000 making it the nation's worst industrial disaster. (Moore Memorial Public Library/Houston Chronicle via AP)

Thanks for alerts from the following folks regarding this news:

Enki, Darren, and Daniel.

Photo at top, credit Andy Bartee.

Ricin Wicker Man

2013-04-16T20:00:00.000-04:00

The name game demons have been released.

On Tuesday, April 16, 2013, the anniversary of the VA Tech massacre and the day after the Patriots' Day Boston Marathon bombing, the spotlight focused on "Wicker."

The U.S. Senate office of Senator Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) received a letter with a substance that has tested positive for Ricin, it was noted today by media and law enforcement sources. No date has been shared as to when the letter was received. The substance underwent three tests to make certain there was no error in the Ricin results.

"Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said members were briefed that the substance had been found in a letter and a suspect has been identified. McCaskill said the letter came from an individual who frequently writes to lawmakers. She wouldn’t identify the person but confirmed officials had identified someone. McCaskill said state offices have been told what to look for if there are more letters containing the toxic substance," said the news service Politico.

"Americans are going to wake up Thursday morning with Puerto Rico well on its way to becoming the 51st state, and they're going to ask why weren't we informed?" — Roger Wicker, a few years ago, in one of the few quotes his legacy has left on the Internet.

The Wicker Man is a highly symbolic Pagan image.

The Wicker Man is set on fire to pay tribute to the gods. The sacrifice of the humans inside is part of a religious ritual to increase fertility, crops, commerce, or merely to re-ignite the chances that bad times will disappear.

According to Julius Caesar in his Commentarii de Bello Gallico (Commentary on the Gallic Wars), the Wicker Man was a large wicker statue of a human used by the ancient Druids (priests of Celtic paganism) for human sacrifice by burning it in effigy. Other records talk of people being placed inside.

It appears to go beyond coincidence to find the moniker of Wicker turning up during incidents from 1976-1977's Son of Sam killings ("The Wicked King Wicker") to 2008's Chicago's Wicker Park accounts of "Phantom Clowns" and near-abductions of children.

The Son of Sam events, btw, took place in the Pelham Bay area of New York City's northernmost borough, the Bronx.

The Hotel Pelham (above) existed from 1857 to 1916, on Boylston Street, at the corner of Tremont Street, Boston, Massachusetts, very close to being across the street from the first bomb explosion at the end of the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013.

For more on the Wicker Man, see my 2009 essay on the topic here.

Cinematically, the doomed law enforcement "Wicker Men" have all strangely grimaced as their fate was decided by the Pagans. You know, sort of like the Joker's smile.

Mapping The Tragedy: Boston Bombs Set On Symbolic Street

2013-04-16T13:40:00.001-04:00

“We shall pick up an existence by its frogs.” ― Charles Fort, Lo!

And its Masonic Taverns.

The Patriots' Day explosions at the end of the Boston Marathon were placed on Boylston Street. So far, 176 were injured and three have died, caused by two pressure cooker-style bombs in black duffel bag, left concealed near the race's end stretch.

There will be discussions of many aspects of this sad tragedy. Here we look at the twilight language. Yesterday, I examined parts of the hidden and forgotten history of the date.

The first bomb was placed in front of LensCrafters, 699 Boylston St, Boston, MA 02116, near the end of the Boston Marathon, next to a shop called Marathon Place, to the side of a reviewing stand. The white ash of the bomb is visible above. The second bomb (below) was across from the Lenox Hotel.

The location of the second bomb seems to have been in front of the Forum in the 700 block of Boylston Street.

What do we know about the general but specific site? The location? If we dig more deeply into the toponymy (the study of place names) of this event, what do we find?

Detail of a 1723 map of Boston

The White Horse Tavern stood on Newbury (later Washington Street), near Frogg Lane (later Boylston Street).

Detail of an 1883 map of Boston. The location of the Masonic Temple is clearly visible.

Boylston Street is the name of a major east-west thoroughfare in the city of Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston street was known as Frog Lane (or Frogg Lane) in the early 18th century and was later known as Common Street. The street stretches from the Fenway neighborhood to Copley Square and the Boston Common.

In 1749 and 1750, it is known that the Third Lodge of Freemasonry in Boston was held at the White Horse Tavern on the first and third Wednesday in every month.

This one section of Boston has some of the most important old Masonic landmarks and sites of anyplace in America. This area housed many taverns which served as Masonic Meeting Houses, including the Greyhound Tavern (Washington & Warren Sts), British Coffee House (King St, now State St), George, later called King's Arm Tavern (Boston Neck), White Horse Tavern (Frog Lane, now Boylston St), and the two most famous Masonic taverns, the Green-Dragon Tavern (Hanover & Union Sts) and Brunch-of-Grapes Tavern (King St, now State St).

Masonic Temple, corner of Tremont and Boylston Street.

Frog (or Frogg) Lane was later again renamed for Ward Nicholas Boylston (1747–1828), a man of wealth and refinement, an officer of the Crown, and philanthropist.

Wikipedia notes the background of the man who would lend his name to this street:

Ward Nicholas Boylston (1747-1828; born Ward Hallowell), a descendent of the physician Zabdiel Boylston, was a man of wealth and refinement, a merchant, a philanthropist and a great benefactor of Harvard University. He was a brother of Admiral Sir Benjamin Hallowell Carew, one of Nelson's Band of Brothers, and a nephew of Governor Moses Gill.
He was born in Boston and spent much of his life in it. His father, Benjamin Hallowell, Esq., was the Commissioner of Customs, and the family lived in the Jamaica Plain end of what was then the town of Roxbury, just south of Boston. His mother, Mrs. Mary (Boylston) Hallowell, was the daughter of Thomas Boylston, and a first cousin of Susanna Boylston, the mother of the 2nd President of the United States, John Adams, and grandmother of the 6th President, John Quincy Adams.
Ward received his early education in the free public schools of Boston. In 1770 at the request of his uncle Nicholas Boylston, he dropped his surname of Hallowell and changed it to his uncle's name, Boylston, who promised to leave him certain large estates in his will.

In 1773, Boylston left Boston for an extended journey through Europe and Asia. In 1775 he arrived in London, living there for twenty-five years and in various aspects of trade.

In 1800 he returned to Boston.

Old maps often do not match the parallel nature of the current street names, as in the following new maps. It is to be assumed that shifts in street placements and names have occurred over time.

The area of the bombings on Boylston Street are graphically shown above.

This is a significant symbolic site that was picked for a reason.

That motivation remains to be discovered.