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News Briefs 23-09-2010

By red pill junkieon

“For my Race, the Spirit shall speak.”

  • The coming Solarpocalypse —right on schedule.
  • Pluto gets 14 new neighbors —Nibiru probably moved to the suburbs.
  • (Audio) Demonic UFOs and the building of a God-fearing police state in America: Mike Clelland interviews Nick Redfern
  • Also, by Redfern: the multiple family of the Chupacabras. (H/T Micah Hanks).
  • The search for hardier crops on a thirstier planet.
  • Me love you long time: Horniest dinosaur ever discovered.
  • Fossilized treasure trove found in California.
  • Mystery of the Yeti finally solved: he was eaten by tigers —or baby snow leopards.
  • Seizing a tiger by its tail; sizing (up) Consciousness by its bits. Which one is hardest?
  • Belief in Reincarnation is growing in America. The Apu effect?
  • Amelia Crater writes/wrote/will write about time slips @ Mysterious Universe.
  • Steering error sank Titanic, author says. Iceberg can now sue for defamation.
  • Against extreme Photoshopping: campaign to keep fashion ads real.
  • Interview with Tim Frick; writer, cryptozoologist, & MiB impersonator —Oh, yeah? well for that you need a neuralizer, Timmy! Like this *flashes* Uh… what’s this I’m writing?
  • MI6 used semen as invisible ink —giving a WHOLE new meaning to the phrase “think of the Queen”.

Thanks, Rick & Kat.

Quote of the Day:

“Goya! Goya!
Cachún cachún ra ra!
Cachún cachún ra ra!
Goya!
Universidad!”

Official cheer of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), founded 100 years ago —by one of my ancestors 🙂

red pill junkie
Agnostic gnostic, walking conundrum & metaphysical oxymoron (with emphasis in the 'moron' part), the mysterious RPJ leaves a double life: By day he serves as Grand Master of the International Sacred Order of Lucha Libre, but at night he pursues his life-long study of everything considered mysterious and/or 'paranormal' --a term he personally detests... When he's not exploring the web looking for his daily fix of Forteana, he can be found blogging, doodling, fooling around and offering his services as news administrator and writer at The Daily Grail. He also regularly participates in other websites and podcasts like Radio Misterioso and Where Did the Road Go? He impatiently awaits for the return of the mothership in Mexico City. absurdbydesign.com
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28 Comments

  1. Solarpocalypse

    Speaking to Channel 4 News, former US government advisor Avi Schnurr, warned that a major solar flare could cause a permanent blackout through out the world.

    Permanent?

    Really?

    Well that sure explains why RPJ’s headline says Solarpocalypse.

        1. Reasons for permanence
          This politician’s claims do sound too alarmist. Almost as if he thinks the solar flare will be so powerful, it will create an EMP that will impede the functioning of all electric gadgets forever and ever.

          Or… he might thing the problem will be the last straw that will trigger a descending spiral of violence. And 100 years from now, nobody will be able to repair all those malfunctioning transformers… because no one will remember what they’re for o_0

          Maybe it’ll be another Y2K fleeting scare. But I admit it: I’m concerned; with just a bunch of middle-class home owners who couldn’t pay their mortgages, the whole world went into recession 2 years ago —imagine if a few transformers explode in some developing countries like Venezuela or Pakistan.

          1. big damage
            Well sure, serious damage might result if we get hit in the wrong spots at the wrong time. But permanent blackout means no power for the rest of forever. Forever is a really long time, it’s hard to predict what happens.

            Y2K type of problems actually will start happening very soon. The internet is running out of free IPv4 addresses, less than 200 million left. That’s enough for less than 300 days. And they won’t make more, because they can’t.

            Since everybody knows that this is going to happen, the situation is as usual:

            A few people and organizations are preparing to switch to bigger addresses (called Ipv6), of which they can make a lot more. And I mean a lot. This isn’t a really big deal, but it does involve some significant work.

            Consequently most companies are ignoring the issue. Because of this typical level of foresight, expect some difficulties starting at the end of next spring. Some stuff won’t be reachable, some stuff will be slower. And some people will try to sell you expensive remedies.

          2. Background on the alarmist

            This politician’s claims do sound too alarmist.

            As one of my email pals said:

            ‘Google Avi Schnurr. He’s a neocon science-flack known for predicting that an Iranian EMP bomb could disable the whole US and therefore the US must bomb Iran first. He’s ex-Northrop Grumman, the Executive Director of Israel’s Missile Defense Association, he’s president of a neocon scare factory called the Electrical Infrastructure Security Council and of something called EMPact America – at both of which he hob-nobs with luminaries from the transatlantic Henry Jackson Society neocon think tank.’

          3. The Grim Recession

            …with just a bunch of middle-class home owners who couldn’t pay their mortgages, the whole world went into recession 2 years ago…

            Middle-class homeowners??? They aren’t the ones who sucked – and continue to suck – all the air money out of the world. With my bold – on the pertinent statistic…

            Poverty Is Through the Roof, and Billionaires Are Getting Pissy About Not Enough Profits
            Instead of showing their outrage about the spread of poverty in the richest nation on Earth, the super-rich want us to pity them?

            The ranks of the working-age poor in the United States climbed to the highest level since the 1960s as the recession threw millions of people out of work last year, leaving one in seven Americans in poverty. The overall poverty rate climbed to 14.3 per cent, or 43.6 million people, the Census Bureau said yesterday in its annual report on the economic well-being of US households. Gulfnews.com

            While 43.6 million Americans live in poverty, the richest men of finance sure are getting pissy. First Steve Schwartzman, head of the Blackrock private equity company, compares the Obama administration’s effort to close billionaires’ tax loopholes to “the Nazi invasion of Poland.” Then hedge fund mogul David Loeb announces that he’s abandoning the Democrats because they’re violating “this country’s core founding principles” — including “non-punitive taxation, Constitutionally-guaranteed protections against persecution of the minority, and an inexorable right of self-determination.” Instead of showing their outrage about the spread of poverty in the richest nation on Earth, the super-rich want us to pity them?

            Why are Wall Street’s billionaires so whiny? Is it really possible to make $900,000 an hour (not a typo — that’s what the top ten hedge fund managers take in), and still feel aggrieved about the way government is treating you? After you’ve been bailed out by the federal government to the tune of $10 trillion (also not a typo) in loans, asset swaps, liquidity and other guarantees, can you really still feel like an oppressed minority? …
            .
            .
            $900,000 an hour for each of the top 10 hedge fund managers… No wonder Matt Taibbi dubbed the banksters the great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity.

            So where’s all that money going?

            For centuries, Switzerland has been the sanctuary of choice for wealthy people seeking to evade taxes. Now the rich are flocking to Singapore and Hong Kong.

            Also, I hope you don’t actually believe that the thousands of tons of cocaine being hauled up from South America by the drug cartels are being soaked up by the US’s poverty-striken ghetto dwellers. Only those with serious money can afford to put that much blow up their noses on a regular basis. And it is blow we’re talking about, not crack, because the US’s ‘official crime’* rate, including burglaries, has been falling for the past several years.

            (* As opposed to the unofficial crimes mentioned/linked above.)

          4. investment decisions
            [quote]
            . Only those with serious money can afford to put that much blow up their noses on a regular basis
            [/quote]
            That may be a bigger part of the problem than people think.

            While I have no data on this other than some anecdotal stuff, I think it is entirely possible that the actions of some high level investors are influences by drugs. These people often act hectic, overconfident to the point of recklessness. With bad judgement based mainly on emotions. That fits the coke head profile pretty well.

            So perhaps in addition to all those nice regulatory changes enacted by our protective and caring governments, we should have investment bankers drug tested on a regular basis. For other professions this is not unusual. It is illegal to drive under the influence of drugs, or to operate heavy machinery. Operating investment services that affect the lives of billions carries just as much responsibility.

          5. Clarification
            My comment was not meant to put the blame on those middle-class homeowners who lost their house. Neither I tried to oversimplify the problem; just to make the point that the mortgage crisis was one of the key pieces that started a Domino effect world-wide —regardless of WHO placed the pieces there in the first place.

            My point was simply this: The world has shrunk and become heavily interconnected. There are NO domestic problems anymore.

          6. world smaller than previously thought
            [quote]
            My point was simply this: The world has shrunk and become heavily interconnected. There are NO domestic problems anymore.
            [/quote]
            Indeed.

            One thing that gets me is that the financially well-off think they are immune to all these problems. And related to that, companies think that lowering salaries of the labor force will necessarily improve profits.

            The world is shrinking to the point that your labor force is your customer base. If you push your labor force into poverty, your customer base can’t buy your products. This will cut into profits eventually.

            In the last two or three decades industries tried to get out of that by producing cheaply in different markets than the ones they sell in. That only works for a little while.

    1. cute
      really cute. They eat your grain, but they are very cute 🙂

      Of course it immediately struck me that we found those really responsible for the crop circles. Right under our noses.

    2. Is cuteness measured infinitly?
      My God! This reminds me of a Spongebob episode(sorry for the reference) where he witnesses the funniest thing he has ever seen and laughs so hard that he couldn’t laugh at anything funny anymore. Well I hope that doesn’t work for cuteness cause damn that is as cute as cute gets.

      edit: My favorite is the one with the young mouse hanging by the other kiddy mice tails.

    3. Suspicius little fella

      That little fella looks really strong for its small size, like it would be able to bend the stems of the plant with its little paws.

      Hmmm…. I wonder…

      😉

    1. Well that’s what my momma told me 🙂
      She told me that Justo Sierra, the founder of Mexico’s National University, was my great-grandfather’s sister’s husband —so he’s like my great-granduncle or something? never been good with family trees.

      But it also seems that despite his many virtues as a liberal thinker and intellectual, the man couldn’t escape being something of a dick —or a phallus, as they surely were called back in the XIXth century 😉

      She named one of his daughters —my granny’s cousin— Milburga, which is a very good contender for the fugliest name in the whole Spanish language! The story goes that Milburga was sent to the capital to study; and when she arrived to the school, free of her family’s vigilance, she changed her name to something, you know, normal.

      But one day his father decided to go and make a surprise visit to her daughter, and imagine his shock when he was told there wasn’t any Milburga Sierra registered, but another girl with a different first name. Well, the story goes that the man went furious and demanded the whole of the alumnae, teachers & staff to be present at the schoolyard; being the important man that he was, they obeyed in a hurry.

      When everybody was standing at the schoolyard, Sierra stood up in front of her daughter, and yelled “I want you all to know, that this girl’s name is Milburga!”. Dude was apparently very proud of this uncommon name he had come up for her child, but the poor girl became the laughing stock of the school from that day on! All the students tormented constantly twisting her name to hurting nicknames.

      My mom says Milburga never forgave his father after that; so I guess there’s a moral in this little story concerning public fame, and the private behavior that’s always expunged from the historic records 🙂

      1. Strange Names
        Strange names for children seems to have been something of a pastime in the 19th century. The more obscure the reference, the more intelligent the parent thought they came off at the next social occasion.

        Any chance she was born on February 23rd? That’s Feast Day for St. Milburga.

        Often we tend to forget that children are people of their own, not receptacles for the parents personal dreams, failed ambitions, egos, or even just silly whims. When you compound that with a powerful personality, things get even worse.

          1. Chastity
            Yes, that’s a classic. It may hold the record for adverse reaction – becoming a fat guy and growing a mustache!!!

            Just ask Chaz Bono.

        2. St Milburga
          LOL I had NO idea there was a saint with such a name.

          Lemme guess: She died a martyr, right? 😉

          Now, the other end of the spectrum is that I read the other day some famous guy will let his child picks its own name when it turns 13 or something. Although I kinda like the idea of letting your kid have certain freedoms —how about letting them choose their own religion?— I don’t know if freedom of name would be among them; for starters, what do you call the child until then? Youthere? 😉

          2. Good girls and bad girls
            Actually, St. Milburga died of natural causes. The rather brief bios I’ve found say she built (she was a princess) and ran an abbey in England in the 8th century. She is associated with ministering to the poor and needy, communicating with birds, and levitating!

            Letting the kid name themself works fine until your daughter tells you she wants to be Pussy Galore and your head explodes.

          3. That’s it
            Oooh, levitating! Now that’s a cool way to attain sainthood.

            Letting the kid name themself works fine until your daughter tells you she wants to be Pussy Galore and your head explodes.

            *Sigh* agreed. But then, some parents are no better when it comes to picking a name. I wanted to write about this at my blog, but —did you know there’s a law initiative in Mexico to persuade parents *not* to give their kids weird names?

            There’s been idiots who have gone to the Civilian Registry Service, and explicitly ask the judge to name their kid Robocop González, or some equally baffling name —no, I’m not exaggerating here.

            But it then becomes a very complex issue. Like, who gets to decide WHAT constitutes a suitable name for a person? on what ground?

            And there’s also the famous German laws that forbid citizens to EVER name their kids Adolf. Or Judas.

            It inadvertently opens a huge ethical can of worms regarding the extent of a parent’s domain over the life of their child.

  5. Good Post!
    Red Pill,

    These were interesting news items!

    Predictably, my favorite was “Search For Hardier Crops”. We should have been searching for hardier crops for over 30 years; because, we have known that we would need to develop hardier crops since atleast the late 1970s. The late 1970s is when we finally figured out the consequences of global warming due to corporate and goverenment neglegence. Who says that we can’t control the environment? We can either destroy the environment or start taking steps to improve the environment any time that we want to!

    The article about Titanic illustrates another example of corporate manipulation. Ismay the Head of White Star and an American got off of Titanic along with a number of very wealthy men. White Star was an American Company and Titanic was about 95% American owned.

    I enjoyed reading all of the news items!

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