And you know what the answer is....
Thursday, December 27, 2012
The Barefoot Peckerwood: Zuckerburg: A Modern Day Joseph Goebbels
The Barefoot Peckerwood: Zuckerburg: A Modern Day Joseph Goebbels: via Infowars Facebook is purging accounts that carry pro-second amendment and pro-liberty information in a censorship purge that has ...
The Evolution Of The Batman Logo
Some are simplified illustrations of Batman himself--a few even including his masked mug--while others are stylized versions of the real thing. Some over the years have done double duty as the hero’s nonlethal weapon of choice, the Batarang. Others are decidedly less aerodynamic.
Laver says she drew inspiration from a similar, though less comprehensive image she saw on the web a few years back, as well as a YouTube video showing the icon’s transformation over the years. Her research into the comics and graphic novels turned up a surprising trove of designs, though as she moved into the movie-era and saw Batman becoming an increasingly multifaceted (and consequently diffuse) marketing and merchandise juggernaut, things became thornier. "It was tricky [deciding] which logos to feature as some were on the bat suit and others were the comic and promotional logos," Laver notes. "Quite interesting to see which was used where."
China wants Obama to ban all firearms.
The Communist Party of China demands the U.S. should disarm. According to Chinese officials, the recent school massacre gave all to understand that one should not wait any longer. The country's leaders believe that the brutality of the Connecticut shooter will ensure the widest public support for arms reduction, Infowars.com reports with reference to China's news agency Xinhua.
Xinhua is, in fact, the press service of the current government of China. This organization is responsible for "the work of the State Council and for the reports of the Party on Chinese propaganda and public information services." In other words, Xinhua is a mouthpiece of Chinese leaders.
Thus, the Chinese government calls Obama "to use the tragedy as a reason to promote the law on the control of weapons." According to Chinese officials, now is the best time to act so, since the president has just been elected for a second term.
They also note that although previous similar shootings did not to any serious actions, the most recent tragedy may serve an important impetus to revise the system of arms control."
According to US-based activist and FBI informant Brandon Darby, "the current Chinese government killed from 40 to 70 million people during Mao Zedong's Revolution. Mao himself said that "political power starts in the barrel of a gun."
China and Obama want to remove political power from the American people and subjugate them to the will of Socialists, Communists and Marxists.
Russia considers banning assault teeth as young cannibal kills and eats 11 people to impress his girlfriend
The police of the Volga region are about to complete the investigation of the criminal case, the materials of which can shock even those with nerves of steel. Twenty-three-year-old cannibal Alexander Bychkov is accused of killing at least nine people. The perpetrator was gutting corpses and eating the insides to impress his girlfriend.
The cannibal was killing homeless people. According to investigation, the killings and cannibalistic feasts were taking place presumably in the Penza region. The insane killer buried the remains of half-eaten corpses near the town of Belinsky, in the south-west of the region. To kill the homeless, the murderer used a common kitchen knife.
Human remains were indeed uncovered at places of burial during investigation. "In two cases, after the murder he separated the heart from the body to eat the human heart later," law-enforcement officers said. It was also reported that the perpetrator was eating the livers of his victims too.
The perpetrator "formed a negative attitude towards the people, who abused alcohol and lead a beggary, roguish lifestyle," experts said.
The cannibal would conduct meticulous preparations for his crimes. He carefully scrutinized criminal literature. Alexander Bychkov "developed a criminal plan, prepared a weapon and studied the examples of similar crimes committed by serial killers." He also mastered "various strategies and methods to conceal crime traces, including the bodies of the victims."
In January 2012, Alexander Bychkov broke a window of a hardware store, from which he stole money, kitchen knives and other items in the total sum of about 10,000 rubles ($300). The man was caught; police began to question him about the theft. However, the thief suddenly began to tell officers about the corpses, which he buried behind his house.
The cannibal's diary of crimes was found in his home. The man described all his crimes in detail. According to his records, Alexander Bychkov had killed 11 people, but the remains of two victims have not been found yet.
The cannibal was reading crime novels and watching crime TV shows. He was committing the crimes only during warm months.
Alexander Bychkov grew up in a dysfunctional family and was brought up by single mother. His childhood was difficult. The boy grew up and became a cowardly, but a cruel young man.
Psychologists say that Bychkov was committing atrocities to gain credibility in the eyes of his girlfriend, Svetlana. According to local newspapers, he said that the killings instilled self-confidence in him. He stopped being shy with his girlfriend, who would often criticize him for his softness and call him a doormat.
According to lawyers, if found sane, Bychkov may well expect a life sentence. Psychiatrist, PhD, Igor Yanushev, told Pravda.Ru:
"Such shocking crimes occur on a regular basis, even in much more socially advantaged countries than Russia. Foreign cannibals can be much more sophisticated in their perverted crimes than Russian ones. In Russia, believe me, cannibalism is much more prosaic, but its scale is more impressive. Every year, police catch several cannibals, and it goes about proved cases only. Usually, cannibals are mentally ill individuals.
"In most cases, cannibals get into medical, rather than penitentiary institutions after verdict. A person, when recognized mentally ill, undergoes compulsory medical treatment until he or she is healed - it doesn't last for life. After treatment, their case is reviewed again, and that's when they can face a criminal punishment.
"I personally know several cases when mental patients were recognized healed and were released to freedom right from the courtroom - the statute of limitations expired. They can be released to freedom, despite the fact that they may commit their hideous crimes in 80 percent of cases."
The Broken American Economy
The future is dystopic because the present is dystopic, we just do not know it yet because of epic manipulation by the fed and media malpractice by the Ministry of Truth American media. When you think about where to invest your money to keep it safe, there is nowhere. Now people who make their money on investing your money will tell you otherwise, but there is no safe haven. Bonds used to be safe, they no longer are, there was a time real estate was safe, it no longer is, the stock market has become a pyramid scheme tantamount to gambling, Gold may be the answer but at the current high rates it is also scary. When you think about it, prepping may be the safest option, you can always use the food, and good clean water will only become more important in the future. It is a scary economic climate the world over.
I love Zero Hedge, here is a recent article on Fed mismanagement:
From Zero Hedge:
Monetary Malpractice: Deceptions, Distortions & Delusions
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/26/2012 - 12:04
By the Deceptive means of Misinformation and Manipulation of economic data the Federal Reserve has set the stage for broad based moral hazard. Through Distortions caused by Malpractice and Malfeasance, a raft of Unintended Consequences have now changed the economic and financial fabric of America likely forever. The Federal Reserve policies of Quantitative Easing and Negative real interest rates, across the entire yield curve, have been allowed to go on so long that Mispricing and Malinvestment has reached the level that markets are effectively Delusional. Markets have become Dysfunctional concerning the pricing of risk and risk adjusted valuations. Fund Managers can no longer use even the Fed's own Valuation Model which is openly acknowledged to be broken.
(you can find a link to zero hedge in my blog list)
I love Zero Hedge, here is a recent article on Fed mismanagement:
From Zero Hedge:
Monetary Malpractice: Deceptions, Distortions & Delusions
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/26/2012 - 12:04
By the Deceptive means of Misinformation and Manipulation of economic data the Federal Reserve has set the stage for broad based moral hazard. Through Distortions caused by Malpractice and Malfeasance, a raft of Unintended Consequences have now changed the economic and financial fabric of America likely forever. The Federal Reserve policies of Quantitative Easing and Negative real interest rates, across the entire yield curve, have been allowed to go on so long that Mispricing and Malinvestment has reached the level that markets are effectively Delusional. Markets have become Dysfunctional concerning the pricing of risk and risk adjusted valuations. Fund Managers can no longer use even the Fed's own Valuation Model which is openly acknowledged to be broken.(you can find a link to zero hedge in my blog list)
Bug Out Location Porn
What would you do if you had a couple million dollars to spare?
If you’re a prepper, than you’d likely be looking to put yourself in a home like this one on the outskirts of Warsaw, Poland. At first glance, you wouldn't think much about it, other than it being a nicely built country home. It’s stylish with the architectural design based on Polish “cube” homes of the 1960′s:
If the world ever goes SHTF/TEOTWAWKI, it quickly transforms into an impenetrable maximum security safe house through the use of sliding walls, a roll-top door and a draw bridge.
The outer cube of the home is constructed with steel and concrete, and has an outer perimeter wall for added security.
Few details have been provided about the home’s interior, but we suspect that anyone who has gone to the trouble of building this ultimate prepper bug-out safe house would also have built a multi-level basement and perhaps even a secret escape tunnel or two. Our thinking is if you’re gonna’ blow a million or two on construction you might as well go full-prepper and throw in all the bells and whistles.
Dare to dream. The possibilities are endless when you have the money and your very own concrete and steel-reinforced survival cube.
(Photos: Aleksander Rutkowski/Robert Konieczny – KWK Promes)
Hat tip Jonny V and Tess Pennington
Mountains of Madness: Scientists Poised to Drill Through Ice and Into Antarctic Gothic Horror
Illustration: Simon Lutrin/Wired
What might lurk beneath Antarctica’s 5 million square miles of ice was the subject of speculation by sci-fi writers in the 1930s. One of the icy products this subgenre of Antarctic Gothic horror spawned is HP Lovecraft’s novella, The Mountains of Madness, in which scientists drill beneath Antarctica’s ice — only to discover horrid things preserved there. Now, scientists are finally enacting Lovecraft’s scenario: Over the next several weeks they are drilling into three subglacial lakes hidden beneath thousands of feet of ice in Antarctica.
What they will find as they sample the lakes and send cameras into their bellies remains to be seen. But one thing is already clear: Lovecraft was actually right about far more than his readers could have realized.
In Lovecraft’s story, a team of researchers from Miskatonic University flies into an unexplored region of Antarctica and bores through the ice. They discover fossil dinosaur bones with disturbing puncture and hacking wounds that cannot be attributed to any predators known to science. Soon after, they uncover the source of some of those wounds: fossils of a leathery-skinned beast with a “five-ridged barrel torso … around the equator, one at [the] central apex of each of the five vertical, stave-like ridges are five … flexible arms or tentacles.” The beast’s body is topped by a “five-pointed starfish-shaped” head.
The fossils aren’t quite dead.
As they thaw in the sun, the beasts reawaken. They slaughter 12 members of the expedition, carefully dissecting one of them and carting away another as a brown-bag lunch.
Two surviving members of the expedition find an ancient city entombed in the Antarctic ice sheet which once belonged to the beasts. There, they discover a disturbing truth: This race of five-armed Elder Ones had arrived from space over 600 million years ago. They spawned all life on Earth, including that destined to evolve into humans … in order to provide a source of food.
Lovecraft wrote Mountains of Madness at a time when Antarctica’s interior remained mostly blank. Airplanes had only just begun to venture inward from the coasts — Robert Byrd made his famous, first-ever flight over the South Pole in 1928 — and Lovecraft’s novella, written in 1931, echoes that expedition. It’s easy to smirk at Lovecraft’s five-armed monsters, described ad nauseam, including precise dimensions in feet and inches. It’s easy to conclude that Lovecraft tried too hard to invent something that was truly alien.
But the ensuing decades have shown that Lovecraft was right on one profound matter: Antarctica’s cold wastes do indeed preserve some very old things, some of them dead — and some, still alive.
Geologists exploring one end of the Transantarctic Mountains (perhaps Lovecraft’s “mountains of madness”) have found shreds of plants, dead for up to 20 million years, protruding from the gravel and fluttering in the wind. These mosses represent the last stand that plants made on the continent before being extinguished by endless winter. The subsequent cold and dry have preserved them from decay. Plop a bit of this moss into a bowl of water and its delicate leaves and stems inflate like soft sponges. The scattered twigs of southern beech trees that are found here still contain enough organic matter that they smolder and smoke if placed over a flame.
Not all of the deep-time holdovers are dead, though. Antarctica’s cold coastal waters preserve an ecosystem like no other Earth. Scientists call it Paleozoic, reminiscent of between 250 and 540 million years ago. It is dominated by echinoderms, the ancient phylum of animals including starfish, sea urchins, sand dollars, and lily-armed crinoids, whose bodies have five-fold symmetry — which brings us back to Lovecraft’s race of five-tentacled Elder Ones mummified beneath the ice.
“They sound like echinoderms to me,” said Richard Aronson, a veteran Antarctic marine biologist at Florida Institute of Technology. “Hilarious.”
Lovecraft points out that his Elder Ones inhabited the deep sea before emerging onto land. He goes to great lengths to describe the holes at the top of their heads, analogous to the water circulation pores in starfish. The author may have been more correct than he ever knew.
Lovecraft wasn’t the first author, or the last, to tell of scary things in Antarctica.
In 1938, several years after Lovecraft wrote Mountains of Madness, John W. Campbell published Who Goes There — a novella that became the basis for two famous movies, The Thing from Another World, and The Thing, released in the 1950s and 1980s, respectively. And a century earlier, in 1838, Edgar Allen Poe published The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. In this book, a ship penetrates deeper into the southern ocean than ever before: The ice eventually gives way to warm seas and subtropical islands, populated by hostile natives reminiscent of those described by early European explorers in the Pacific.
The seas surrounding Antarctica were little known when Poe published his book. But by the time Lovecraft wrote his novella, multiple visits had been made to the continent, forcing the monsters to retreat into the poorly mapped interior, and under the ice. It may be time for the monsters to retreat once more.
Image: NASA
A combination of ice-penetrating radar, seismic sensing, and laser altimetry has revealed well over 100 subglacial lakes hidden beneath Antarctic’s ice. Between now and the end of January, teams from the United States, Russia, and Britain are drilling into three of them.
The British team is preparing to drill into Lake Ellsworth, which sits beneath 10,000 feet of ice and has not seen the light of day for millions of years.
This week, a convoy of tractors will depart from the American-run base McMurdo Station. Those 13 tractors, towing 24 massive sleds of equipment and fuel exceeding half a million pounds, will cross 900 miles of ice before stopping at a nondescript spot 370 miles from the South Pole. There, almost in sight of Lovecraft’s “mountains of madness,” beneath 2,500 feet of ice, sits Lake Whillans, which has not seen daylight for 500,000 to a million years. Two kerosene-fueled generators, totaling nearly half a megawatt, will power a hot-water drill. Once activated in mid-January, that drill could bore an 18-inch-diameter hole into the lake within as little as one day.
At the same time, the Russians are drilling just above Lake Vostok, which sits under 12,350 feet of ice and has remained isolated from the outside world for up to 30 million years. The drillers at Vostok will extract fresh bits of ice, frozen lake water that gushed into the bottom of the borehole when the lake was first punctured last February.
The light that these explorations shed on Antarctica’s sunless waters will drive the monsters further underground.
The subglacial lakes will probably be found to harbor microbes, but much more. Finding those organisms will reveal plenty about life’s limits, particularly, about the ability of ecosystems to survive in places with minimal nutrients and without sunlight as an energy source. This will provide clues to what life, if any, could survive in liquid oceans that lurk beneath many miles of ice in other parts of the solar system, on Jupiter’s moon Europa or Saturn’s moon Enceladus.
The teams are sterilizing drill equipment to avoid contaminating the pristine subglacial ecosystems, using a combination of ultraviolet light, hydrogen peroxide, and water filtration. But their work is still bound to have impacts on the ecosystem of fictitious monsters.
Aspiring sci-fi horror writers needn’t necessarily forsake Antarctica altogether, says Reed Scherer, a paleontologist from Northern Illinois University, who is part of the team drilling into Lake Whillans. But monsters capable of ripping heads off or chasing down frightened geologists as they flee on snowmobiles will require more carefully though-out habitats. That kind of stuff requires a speedy metabolism. “In order for something to have a high enough metabolic rate that it would be scary to us, it would have to have heat,” says Scherer. Volcanoes sealed under the ice sheet could provide one possible niche, he says. “There’s lots of water and a heat source for things to have a high metabolic rate.” Aerial surveys of irregularities in the Earth’s gravitational and magnetic fields have revealed a handful of possible volcanoes beneath the ice of West Antarctica.
Monsters of the Lovecraft variety — the kind that will butcher a tenured university professor and take him along as camping provisions — might also find credible habitats on Europa or Enceladus, at least until space probes can disprove their existence.
But even as scientific insight banishes bone-crunching monsters from Antarctica, it could also lay the groundwork for new ones. Even just a little new information from the lakes could fuel a new generation of science fiction, points out Brent Christner, a microbiologist with Louisiana State University who will help to identify and culture whatever microbes are found in Lake Whillans this year.
Microbes could turn out to be the ultimate monsters in this scenario.
Jemma Wadham, a researcher at the University of Bristol in Britain, has determined that a large reservoir of methane may sit under Antarctica’s ice sheets, produced by microbes that have gnawed in the darkness for eons on the organic matter of dead ecosystems that were plowed under by glaciers. As warming causes those glaciers to thin, methane, a potent greenhouse gas, could seep up through the ice — billions of tons of carbon that could accelerate global warming in ways that models haven’t anticipated.
Drilling into Lakes Vostok, Ellsworth, and Whillans and measuring the gases, minerals, and microbes present there will help to test predictions of methane. Sci-fi writers inspired by the exploration of subglacial lakes may well make a new round of predictions about what Antarctica might conceal beneath its ice.
Some of those predictions will be wrong — others, like Lovecraft’s echinoderms, might one day turn out to be right.
- 12.27.12
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)