Monday, December 31, 2012

1939

1938 wanted to kid itself that it was going to cruise all the way to 1950 just because full scale global war didn't erupt in 1937.

And here we are. In 1939.

I have had a Stroke | PeterDavid.net

I have had a Stroke | PeterDavid.net

We were on vacation in Florida when I lost control of the right side of my body. I cannot see properly and I cannot move my right arm or leg. We are currently getting the extent of the damage sorted out and will report as further details become clarified.

PAD

***

Whether you like his stuff or not, a stroke is a motherfucker of a way to start a new year. I sincerely pray he makes a full recovery extremely quickly.

Happy New Year!

What a waste of bubbly! (why leave some in the glass?)

Sunday, December 30, 2012

What you’ll see in the rebellion « Bob Owens

What you’ll see in the rebellion

Written By: Bob - Dec• 28•12

Let me explain, gun grabbers, how your confiscatory fantasy plays out. Let us imagine for a moment that a sweeping gun control bill similar to the one currently suggested is passed by the House and Senate, and signed into law by a contemptuous President.

Perhaps 50-100 million firearms currently owned by law-abiding citizens will become contraband with the stroke of a pen. Citizens will either register their firearms, or turn them in to agents of the federal government, or risk becoming criminals themselves. Faced with this choice, millions will indeed register their arms. Perhaps as many will claim they’ve sold their arms, or had them stolen. Suppose that as many as 200-250 million weapons of other types will go unregistered.

Tens of millions of Americans will refuse to comply with an order that is clearly a violation of the explicit intent of the Second Amendment. Among the most ardent opposing these measures will be military veterans, active duty servicemen, and local law enforcement officers. Many of these individuals will refuse to carry out what they view as Constitutionally illegal orders. Perhaps 40-50 million citizens will view such a law as treason. Perhaps ten percent of those, 4-5 million, would support a rebellion in some way, and maybe 40,000-100,000 Americans will form small independently-functioning active resistance cells, or become lone-wolves.

They will be leaderless, stateless, difficult to track, and considering the number of military veterans that would likely be among their number, extremely skilled at sabotage, assassination, and ambush.
After a number of carefully-planned, highly-publicized, and successful raids by the government, one or more will invariably end “badly.” Whether innocents are gunned down, a city block is burned to ash, or especially fierce resistance leads to a disastrously failed raid doesn’t particularly matter. What matters is that when illusion of the government’s invincibility and infallibility is broken, the hunters will become the hunted.

Unnamed citizens and federal agents will be the first to die, and they will die by the dozens and maybe hundreds, but famous politicians will soon join them in a spate of revenge killings, many of which will go unsolved.

Ironically, while the gun grab was intended to keep citizens from preserving their liberties with medium-powered weapons, it completely ignored the longer-ranged rifles perfect for shooting at ranges far beyond what a security detail can protect, and suppressed .22LR weapons proven deadly in urban sniping in Europe and Asia.

While the Secret Service will be able to protect the President in the White House, he will not dare leave his gilded cage except in carefully controlled circumstances. Even then he will be forced to move like a criminal. He will never be seen outdoors in public again. Not in this country.
The 535 members of the House and Senate in both parties that allowed such a law to pass would largely be on their own; the Secret Service is too small to protect all of them and their families, the Capitol Police too unskilled, and competent private security not particularly interested in working against their own best interests at any price. The elites will be steadily whittled down, and if they can not be reached directly, the targets will become their staffers, spouses, children, and grandchildren. Grandstanding media figures loyal to the regime would die in droves, executed as enemies of the Republic.

You can expect congressional staffs to disintegrate with just a few shootings, and expect elected officials themselves to resign well before a quarter of their number are eliminated, leaving us with a boxed-in executive, his cabinet loyalists trapped in the same win, die, or flee the country circumstance, military regime loyalists, and whatever State Governors who desire to risk their necks as well.

Here, the President will doubtlessly order the activation of National Guard units and the regular military to impose martial law, setting the largest and most powerful military in the world against its own people. Unfortunately, the tighter the President clinches his tyrannical fist, the more rebels he makes.

Military commands and federal agencies will be whittled down as servicemen and agents will desert or defect. Some may leave as individuals, others may join the Rebellion in squad and larger-sized units with all their weapons, tactics, skills, and insider intelligence. The regime will be unable to trust its own people, and because they cannot trust them, they will lose more in a vicious cycle of collapse.
Some of these defectors will be true “operators,” with the skills and background to turn ragtag militia cells into the kind of forces that decimate loyalist troops, allowing them no rest and no respite, striking them when they are away from their most potent weapons. Military vehicles are formidable, but they are thirsty beasts, in terms of fuel, ammo, time, and maintenance. Tanks and bombers are formidable only when they have gas, guns, and can be maintained. In a war without a front, logistics are incredibly easy to destroy, and mechanics and supply clerks are not particularly adept at defending themselves.

Eventually, the government will turn upon itself. The President will be captured or perhaps killed by his own protectors. A dictatorship will form in the vacuum.

If we’re lucky, the United States of America, or whatever amalgam results, will again try to rebuild. If we’re very lucky, the victors will reinstate the Constitution as the law of the land. Just as likely though, we’ll face fractious civil wars fought over issues we’ve not begun to fathom, and a much diminished state or states will result, perhaps guided by foreign interests.

It will not be pretty. There will be no “winners,” and perhaps hundreds of thousands to millions of dead.

Yet, this is the future we face if the power-mad among us are not soundly defeated at the ballot box before they affect more “change” than we, the People, are willing to surrender to would-be tyrants.

What You Don’t Know About the Agenda-Driven Journalists in Your Neighborhood | The Rockland County Times

What You Don’t Know About the Agenda-Driven Journalists in Your Neighborhood
Posted December 27th, 2012

Editors at Journal News taking heat from coast to coast for interactive map listing gun permit holders’ names and addresses. First Amendment protects local publication’s war against second amendment

BY DYLAN SKRILOFF
In the wake of the Newtown massacre, the bright lights at Gannet’s The Journal News decided it was high time to criminalize ordinary, law-abiding gun owners in the area.

Under the guise of providing “public information,” the Journal News’ editorial hit squad, led by publisher/hitwoman Janet Hasson, created an interactive digital map on their lohud.com website showing the exact address of every pistol permit holder in Rockland and Westchester County.
A sharp, negative reaction to the map spread across not only Rockland and Westchester Counties, but the entire country. Searching through hundreds of comments on the newspaper’s webpage and other sites, literally no comments in support of the article could be found.

Some supporters of the Journal News editors eventually did materialize, saying they appreciate that the map shows them which neighbors have a gun, so they can prevent their kids from playing at those residences.

Overall, however, it would seem the Journal News editors are playing to an audience that simply does not exist. Even most supporters of strict gun control were offended by a list of their neighbors being published on the Internet, as if they were criminals.

One reader of the Rockland County Times said, “They treat gun owners worse than they treat sex offenders.”

Many readers called for a boycott of the White Plains-based newspaper and some even cancelled their subscriptions and signed up with the Rockland County Times instead.

Stony Point native Steve McErleane said, “Just when I thought that paper couldn’t get any worse.”

Tina Frawley of Wesley Hills called the Journal News map, “A gross invasion of privacy.”

Dave Lundwall echoed a common theme, saying, “Now the criminals know who to stay away from and maybe who to rob.”

Some commented on the Rockland County Times message board that many retired law enforcement are on the list, and having their addresses made public opens them up to harassment by perps they had locked away in the past.

It’s not the first time the Journal News had published names of gun permit holders. They also did so in 2006. A handful of other papers around the country have done this in recent years, as well. News network CNN interviewed The Poynter Institute, a school for journalists, about the story.

“Publishing gun owners’ names makes them targets for theft or public ridicule. It is journalistic arrogance to abuse public record privilege, just as it is to air 911 calls for no reason or to publish the home addresses of police or judges without cause,” Al Tompkins, a Poynter senior faculty member, said in a statement. “Unwarranted publishing of the names of permitted owners just encourages gun owners to skip the permitting.”

A statement was made on the Journal News’ Facebook page from Publisher Janet Hasson defending the action.

Hasson said, “Frequently, the work of journalists is not popular. One of our roles is to report publicly available information on timely issues, even when unpopular. We knew publication of the database (as well as the accompanying article providing context) would be controversial, but we felt sharing information about gun permits in our area was important in the aftermath of the Newtown shootings.” ”

The highest per capita number of gun owners in Rockland County reside in Stony Point. Supervisor Geoff Finn said, “We have a lot of hunters in Stony Point. I do not support the Journal News publication of permit holders’ names and consider it a violation of privacy.”

Legislator and County Executive Candidate Ed Day had this to say, “This action is mind boggling and indefensible. As a law enforcement professional who has seen the human pain and suffering caused by gun violence up close and personal, I join every clear thinking individual who shares the same concerns we all have. However, focusing on and publishing the names and addresses of citizens who are law abiding, have no criminal record, withstood an investigation, and had a judge authorize their authority to possess a handgun defies logic on many levels. All that has been accomplished is that there is now a ready ‘burglar’s menu’ available for criminals to more easily add to the number of illegal guns on the street, as many holders of Rockland full carry gun permits are not allowed to bring that weapon with them to New York City, thus leaving it at the potentially unattended location, or worse still a place where there may be a family with children, as identified by the Journal News. Of course, that burglar is also now likely armed ‘just in case.’”

The map was led into on the front page of Sunday’s Journal News under the provocative headline “What you don’t know about the weapons in your neighborhood.”

The Rockland County Times shares in the community’s frustration with the tactics of the Journal News, particularly the seeming attempt to draw a moral link between law abiding gun owners and the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. The only remedy for this is for the editorial board of the Journal News as well as executives at Gannet to receive a taste of their own medicine.

We are publishing the home addresses of Journal News editors, publishers and the Gannet CEO to make a point; what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. We wish no ill will upon them.
(sources for addresses include www.spokeo.com, www.newrochelletalk.com and christopherfountain.wordpress.com)

Reporter who penned the story:
Dwight R. Worley, 23006 139 Ave
Springfield Gardens, NY 11413
718-527-0832
Visual editor who made the interactive map:
Robert F. Rodriguez
420 Riverside Dr, Apt 7A
New York, NY 10025-7748
212-222-4566

Cynthia R. Lambert (aka CynDee Royle), Executive Editor, The Journal News/LoHud.com. Address: 17 McBride Ave., White Plains, NY 10603 Phone: 914-948-9388, Email: croyle@lohud.com Twitter: @croyle1

Caryn McBride, Rockland Editor of the Journal News. Work number: 845-578-2434, Email: camcbride@lohud.com, Home number: 914-954-3412 (Three addresses listed in Bronxville and Yonkers)

Janet Hasson, Publisher, The Journal News/LoHud.com. Address: 3 Gate House Lane, Mamaroneck, NY, 10543. Phone: 914-694-5204, 248-594-2197, Email: jhasson@lohud.com

Gannett CEO, Gracia C. Martore, Address: 728 Springvale Rd., Great Falls, VA 22066, Phone: 703-759-5954

Quote by Michael Crichton: Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is...

“Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray's case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the "wet streets cause rain" stories. Paper's full of them.
In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.”

― Michael Crichton

Buttersafe – Updated Tuesdays and Thursdays

The Torquewrench Disquisition

"The GOP bet last year Obama would lose reelection. Everything since he
won has been about how the GOP wants to get its ass handed to it."

Without any actual need for that.

This isn't rocket science. Obama and his crew want tax hikes for the rich? Listen, there are a metric fuckton of wealthy blue state interests who are currently enjoying low, low Bush tax rates. TAKE THOSE AWAY FROM THEM.

Propose a plan to bend those folks over and give them the barbed tax cock of Satan right up the squeakhole. Will they squeak about it? You bet!

Here's one. Right now, hedge fund operators get to treat their income as capital gains. I am a hardline, hardcore small government, low tax guy and even I think that is pettifogging bullshit.

And you know who has been the most utterly adamant supporter of this special tax treatment for Hedge Fund Harold types? It has been CHUCK SCHUMER. Because hedge funds operate predominantly out of New York, and Schumer pulls huge campaign contributions from the Hedge Fund Harolds, and because New York's state budget would collapse without the Harolds. Obama gets plenty out of this as well.

Repeal that specific provision in the House. Make a huge public relations push about how the GOP is "taxing the rich". Which this is! Then dare Schumer to oppose it. Dare Obama not to sign it.

There are plenty of other such tax hike provisions that could be similarly brought into play that Democrats would absolutely abhor.

The GOP are thinking like accountants. Fuck that. Think like Breitbart. Think agitprop and monkeywrenching. Think about how to make Barky stammer and back down in front of the cameras.

-Torquewrench

Saturday, December 29, 2012

"He wouldn't even make bail"

Seth Macfarlane decoded!

Rule of Law » Earth First Journal Assassination Hit List

Rule of Law » Earth First Journal Assassination Hit List

The latest newsletter from the environmentalist group Earth First! Journal contains a curious topic — assassinations.
In fact, the newsletter conveniently provides the names, addresses and phone numbers of the assassination targets. Naturally, none of this is to be taken seriously, the environmentalists tell us. From the newsletter:

Let us say clearly, this is not a call to undertake assassinations of the elite scum who are pillaging the planet and enslaving the populace — but not because we think that is a bad idea. And it’s also not because we think killing CEOs and lobbyists is negative PR either. In fact, most everyone hates these creeps, and many would applaud their demise. Some would even be so enthusiastic as to make a bid on the assassin’s old underwear if given the chance in a government auction, as we found out last year, when the State sold off Ted’s personal belongings to further enrich the family of Unabomber victim Thomas J. Mosser, executive of corporate marketing giants Burson Marsteller.
We are not calling for the assassinations of CEOs and lobbyists primarily because those assholes are disposable and replaced with relative ease. Whereas eco-revolutionaries like us are still far and few between, and someone getting popped on that sort of charge it could pull them out of the game for a long time. So instead, until the police state and prison industrial complex is weakened, thus leveling the battlefield a bit more, we propose a campaign of “prank assassinations.”

And who are the suggested targets of the Earth First! Journal assassination campaign? Members of the productive class, of course, fill the “Hit List.” Aubrey McClendon, CEO of Chesapeake Energy, is listed because his company has developed more efficient methods of developing cheap natural gas.

Aubrey McClendon

Armando Olivera is on the “Hit List” because his company has proposed a new power plant. Russ Girling, the CEO of TransCanada, is “pillaging” tar sands in Alberta and is putting up wind farms in Maine (endangering a couple of lynx). To round out the “Hit List,” Earth First! Journal names conservative blogger Brandon Darby.

Brandon Darby

The radical left loathes Darby because he is a heretic — a former leftist who helped the FBI break up a plot to bomb the 2008 Republican Convention in Minneapolis. That’s why loony publications like Mother Jones refer to him as a “snitch.”

Surely the FBI will find it difficult to track down the origins of these threats, right? Earth First is one of several shadowy fringe environmental groups that engage in the euphemism “direct action” but have no centralized structure. So finding the author of these threats is probably impossible, right?
Except that the author of the assassination list provided contact information:

Earth First! Journal • PO Box 964, Lake Worth, FL 33460 (561) 249-2071

Will the FBI alert the targets on the “hit list”? Will Eric Holder make any inquiry about those publishing threats against utility executives and citizens helping his own FBI save lives?

Clean bowled for 66: BBC Sport - Tony Greig, ex-England captain, dies aged 66 after heart attack

BBC Sport - Tony Greig, ex-England captain, dies aged 66 after heart attack

Tony Greig, ex-England captain, dies aged 66 after heart attack

Former England captain Tony Greig has died aged 66 after suffering a heart attack in Sydney.

The South Africa-born 66-year-old was diagnosed with lung cancer two months ago.
The all-rounder played 58 Tests for England from 1972-77, including 14 as skipper, before giving up the captaincy to join Australian media magnate Kerry Packer's breakaway World Series.
He later became a popular television commentator in Australia.

Tony Greig's career

Major teams: England, Border, Eastern Province, Sussex
Tests: 58
ODIs: 22
Test runs: 3,599 (average 40.43
Test wickets: 141 (average 32.20)
Scored 16,600 runs (average 31.19) and took 856 wickets (average 28.85) in 350 first-class matches

Australian broadcaster Channel Nine, for whom Greig worked, said he died at about 13:45 local time on Saturday, after being rushed from his home to Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital earlier in the day.

He is quoted as having told Channel Nine colleagues last month: "It's not good. The truth is I've got lung cancer. Now it's a case of what they can do."

He had surgery later in November, and in October he tweeted: "Thanks to all of you who have sent me good wishes for a recovery. With your prayers and the help of my family I will give it my best shot."
On Christmas Day he posted the message: "Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year to you all. Would love to be at Test but son Tom and I will be tuned in?"
Greig scored 3,599 runs at an average of 40.43 and took 141 wickets at 32.20 in Tests, and was named one of Wisden's Cricketers of the Year in 1975. He also played 22 one-day internationals.

Friday, December 28, 2012

Exclusive: McConnell Calls Out Obama's Negotiation Charade

Exclusive: McConnell Calls Out Obama's Negotiation Charade

Prior to the failure of "Plan B," House Republicans had offered several plans, starting with Boehner's plan to raise $800 billion in revenues without raising tax rates. All were rejected by the White House and the Senate--which has not even passed a budget for three successive years, contrary to federal law.

Gillard must go. Psalm 109.8

Gillard: Australia's own stuttering clusterfuck of a malignant failure.

Gillard is a classical fabian- childless, intellectually stunted, highly opinionated, psychopathic, relentlessly hostile to normal people and their nuclear families, a tainted monster literally hell bent on a luciferian dominion on earth.

2013 is not just the opportunity to throw this evil bitch out of office, but it must also be the opportunity we take to cleanse the country of fabians, Gramsci-media and their cultural war enablers.

If we don't, we are FUCKED.

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Worms Turn Metal Into Semiconductors | LiveScience

Common earthworms can become factories for semiconductors, according to research published Dec. 23, 2012 in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.
CREDIT: Zeljko Radojko, Shutterstock

View full size image

Worms are useful in the garden and great for fish bait, but one of their talents has remained hidden — until now. Scientists have discovered that worms can manufacture tiny semiconductors.
At King's College in London, researchers fed an ordinary red worm, Lumbricus rubellus, soil laced with metals. The worm produced quantum dots, nano-sized semiconductors that are used in imaging, LED technologies and solar cells. The experiment was published in the Dec. 23 issue of the journal Nature Nanotechnology.
The worms created these electronic components because of their ability to detoxify their body tissue. When worms ingest the metals, proteins in their body shuttle these "toxins" to tissues called chloragogen cells that are similar to a liver in mammals. In the case of cadmium, a molecule called metallothionein attaches to it to take it away. Through several chemical steps the worm separates the metals from the organic molecules they are attached to and stores them in tiny cavities its body, but not forever: eventually whatever toxic metals the worm eats are excreted.

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Fan Fiction from the era when the original show was cancelled makes its final and triumphant appearance in 2005 era Doctor Who... And Americans seem to like it: ‘Doctor Who’ 2012 Christmas Special Review – Who is Clara?

‘Doctor Who’ 2012 Christmas Special Review – Who is Clara?

It’s that time of year again for the Doctor Who Christmas special. After much anticipation, the Doctor’s new companion is revealed in a snowy tale from long ago. But still, the question remains: Who is Clara?

When a relationship between a boy and his snowman turns into an attempt to take over the Earth, the Doctor, who has now spent a long time in the shadows, is coaxed into saving the world by a mysterious woman, Clara, who bears a striking resemblance to someone from the Time Lord’s past. But as Clara’s curiosity continues to draw her toward the Doctor, taking her on a grand holiday adventure, it’s the Doctor’s curiosity which is piqued, and the legend of the “Girl Who Twice Died” is born.

In this year’s Christmas special, a holiday-oriented story is traded in for a fantastical and compelling adventure into the legend that is the Doctor, sending both audiences and Clara into the depths of what it means to be a friend of the universe’s protector. Furthermore, the special breathes new life into one of television’s greatest series while putting a twist on the familiar companion introduction and building anticipation for the tales that lie ahead.

The actual title of the episode, “The Snowmen,” is somewhat used as a veil to hide the true focus of this year’s story, Clara Oswin Oswald: The Girl Who Twice Died. While the actual story of the Snowmen is interesting enough, and Ian McClellan does an admirable job playing the part of an enemy who never really felt all that imposing, watching Clara delve into the Doctor’s world turned out to be one of the most successful introductions of a companion in the history of the series. Even without the inclusion of a timey-wimey twist in the character’s tale, watching someone new seek out the Doctor’s help (and companionship) has never been so enjoyable.

As the story of the Snowmen unfolds, largely only returning to the forefront when it’s absolutely required to progress the plot, Clara’s journey with the Doctor begins by leading her up an invisible staircase, high above the city, to the Doctor’s TARDIS. The next step in Clara’s journey finds her abilities as a potential companion put to the test, as a long, beautifully written scene of single-word responses to questions asked by the Doctor’s friends once again reveals Steven Moffat’s masterful ability to make the simplest, smallest things extraordinary. Although Clara’s use of the word “pond” never really made sense during her “test,” the Doctor’s response to hearing it was entertaining enough to simply ignore its non-connection.

When Clara first made her appearance in the Doctor Who season 7 premiere, “Asylum of the Daleks,” it was difficult to judge her as a character, thanks to her completely inclusive storyline. Without having any other character to physically play off of, audience’s first impressions of “Clara” were based on what could be considered a radio play between her and the Doctor. But now that “Clara” still exists, an explanation of sorts was always going to be necessary. Fortunately, in true Moffat fashion, one was provided.

The Girl Who Twice Died, as Clara Oswin Oswald is now known, does not exist in a single timeline. Oswin Oswald is dead. Clara Oswin Oswald is dead. Yet, no matter how many times it happens, she still “pops up.” The mystery surrounding the new companion is that we’ve yet to truly meet the new companion, just an ancestor and descendant. However, whether or not that element will be played out is not yet to be revealed, but if the legend of The Girl Who Twice Died even slightly touches upon the potential that this type of story arc can bring to the series, the Doctor will undoubtedly have some thoroughly enjoyable adventures with his new traveler – no matter “when” it happens.

Posted by Unknown at 10:00 PM Comments

Gerry Anderson dead. Doctor Who and Anderson programmes alternated in the imagination throughout the late 1960s and through the 1970s... Childhood's End.

Gerry Anderson, the creator of hit TV shows including Thunderbirds, Stingray and Joe 90, has died at the age of 83.

He also created Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons and his puppet superheroes fired the imaginations of millions of young viewers in the 1960s and '70s.

Thunderbirds, a science-fiction fantasy about a daring rescue squad, ran from 1965 and was his most famous show.

Anderson had suffered from Alzheimer's since 2010 and the disease had worsened in recent months, his son Jamie said.

Jamie Anderson announced the news on his website, saying his father died peacefully in his sleep at noon on Wednesday.

"Gerry was diagnosed with mixed dementia two years ago and his condition worsened quite dramatically over the past six months," he wrote.

Gerry Anderson talked about the onset of the disease in June 2012.

Speaking on BBC Berkshire he said: "I don't think I realised at all. It was my wife Mary who began to notice that I would do something quite daft like putting the kettle in the sink and waiting for it to boil."

His other creations included UFO, Space: 1999, Supercar and Fireball XL5.

Actor Brian Blessed, who worked with Anderson on shows including The Day After Tomorrow and Space 1999, told BBC News: "I think a light has gone out in the universe.

"He had a great sense of humour. He wasn't childish but child-like and he had a tremendous love of the universe and astronomy and scientists.

"He got their latest theories, which he would expand on. He was always galvanised and full of energy."

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

So what do the next 27,000 years hold for us?

Take a look back to see what's ahead.

At the beginning of the previous aeon, both dinosaurs and a primitive hominid coexisted quite happily.

However just around the corner was an event- still unclear- which set the tone for the whole 27,000 year spree.

From that basic furry human stock came neanderthal, cro magnon, alien-interfered point heads, and the whole real tree of the human race from faerie to pixie to halfling to human to ogre to troll to giant.

Then came the cataclysms- three in that span of time- to burn, flood and destroy with wild animals all that had been.

And here we are right at the start of the same carnage all over again!

Enjoy.

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Superior Spider-Man remains as Doc Octopus in Spider-Man's body. Other than as wish fulfillment for the current morbidly obese writers of this shit, what is the fucking point? X-men Supreme: Amazing Spider-Man #700 and UN-Amazing Spoilers

X-men Supreme: Amazing Spider-Man #700 and UN-Amazing Spoilers

Amazing Spider-Man #700 and UN-Amazing Spoilers
I did it once and I pissed a few people off in the process. So I'm doing it again because I'm a drunk and I stop giving a shit after a certain number of shots! I'm going to spoil another landmark issue of Amazing Spider-Man that has Marvel has been billing as the biggest Spider-Man milestone since Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's last simultaneous fart together. Amazing Spider-Man #700 isn't just billed as this huge milestone for a comic. It's supposed to set the stage for a big relaunch called Superior Spider-Man. I'm not sure how he's supposed to be superior. Early indications seem to imply that he's meaner, tougher, and more of an overall asshole. Shit, if that's superior, then my high school gym teacher was practically a god. But it's still speculation at this point.

For now, we know that Doctor Octopus swapped minds with Peter Parker. So for a while now Doc Ock has been parading around in Peter's body, playing the part of a hero, and boning all his women. It's basically the ultimate "fuck you" from a villain. Peter, now stuck in Doc Ock's body, is trying to fight back by getting his body back before Doc Ock fucks his reputation, ruins his relationships, or gets him one too many STDs. Amazing Spider-Man #700 is supposed to show how it all ends. Well until now, we could only speculate. Then the fine folks at 4chan leaked images online and since I'm such a generous guy, I'm going to share them here on this blog! First off, a clear warning. If you scroll down further, you will see some very spoilerific images!

SPOILER WARNING

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THIS

IS

YOUR

LAST

WARNING

HERE

YOU

GO!

I know the image quality is pretty shitty. It's the best I can do. But if it helps, here are a few more images that break down the final pages.

Hint, that's not Doc Ock that's lying dead in the street...not entirely anyways.

This confirms one rumor, namely about Spider-Man being more of an asshole. It's like giving my old gym teacher super-powers. No good can come of it.

Just some casual boasting to end it all. It's the kind of boasting that is not the mark of a hero or anyone who preaches shit like power and responsibility, but I guess Marvel just thinks that shit isn't cool.

So there you have it. This is the new Superior Spider-Man. I'm not going to go too deep into my opinions while I'm this drunk, but I will make one important note to those hardcore Spider-Man fans that I know will be outraged. This is EXACTLY what Marvel wants. They figured out back during One More Day, Ultimatum, Avengers vs. X-men, Disassembled, and the Clone Saga that no matter how outraged fans get, they still buy their shit. I'm not sure they understand it. I don't think they give three tenths of a shit anyways. But for some reason, outraged fans still buy their shit. Marvel doesn't fear pissing off their fans anymore. They only fear their fans getting apathetic. That's the biggest weapon against comics. Apathy. The day fans become apathetic is the day Marvel knows they made a huge mistake. And because of outrage, this book will sell and they won't care how pissed off the people buying it are. So from one fanboy to many others, we've no one to blame but ourselves for this shit. It's not Marvel. It's us. We're terrible. I'm an adult. I know how to deal with it. And when I can't, I drink. It's a perfect solution! Nuff said.

Posted by Unknown at 11:03 PM Comments

Superhero Cafe - all the clips! :)

This Is Insane: Coordinates for Sandy Hook Targeted in Batman Dark Knight Movie :

SHADE the Motion Picture - An Ambellas & Bermas Film — Watch Trailer HERE

theintelhub.com
December 18, 2012
For the conspiracy theorists out there, a tie in with the Sandy Hook shooting has been found in the movie Batman: The Dark Knight Rises.

In addition to references to ‘Aurora’ within SKYFALL, which was the city in which James Holmes opened fire on a theater full of people on the night of the Batman movie opening, it appears that a map coincidentally identifying “Sandy Hook” as a target of criminals in the movie loosely foretells of an event to unfold at that location.

Curiously, the map contains no other legible references save the “Sandy Hook” identifier, which is specifically pointed out in one of the movie’s scenes.

“Get a GPS on it so we can start to figure out how to bring it down…”

Coincidence? Or another Hollywood foretelling of events to come?

Merry Christmas from Tony and Margie Abbott

Dear Australians,

Christmas is a great time of year.

In our family, like yours, Christmas is a time to come together, share stories, exchange gifts, enjoy a wonderful meal and be grateful for what we have.

It is a time of joy and anticipation. But for some, for whatever reason, Christmas can be difficult time – it’s up to all of us, to remember everyone who’s doing it tough.

All of us as Australians have much to be thankful for – we are an open, decent and generous people, who live free of the turmoil and bitter divisions that have gripped other nations.

From our family to your family – we wish you a happy Christmas – may it be an enjoyable, peaceful and safe time for everyone.

Merry Christmas.

Tony and Margie Abbott

Blog: Obama Has to Fib Even at a Funeral

Yes, everything is about Barack Obama. From the beginning, he has built his career on his own personal story, and the funeral service of former Hawaiian Senator Daniel Inouye at the National Cathedral on Friday apparently struck him as an opportune time to remind the world what that story was. In his 1,600-word oration, Obama even managed to work in the fact, as though someone in the universe might not have heard, that he had "a white mom [and] a black father" "and was raised in Indonesia and Hawaii."

The problem, however, is not just that Obama used the word "my" 21 times, "me" 12 times, and "I" 30 times in the course of telling his story, but rather that even at a funeral, he could not keep the story straight.

Obama's oration dealt to a large degree with how he came to understand what a U.S. senator is. "Now, even though my mother and grandparents took great pride that they had voted for him," said Barack Obama of Inouye, "I confess that I wasn't paying much attention to the United States Senate at the age of four or five or six. It wasn't until I was 11 years old that I recall even learning what a U.S. senator was, or it registering, at least. It was during my summer vacation with my family -- my first trip to what those of us in Hawaii call the Mainland."

The story of the trip set up the punch line. He told Inouye's mourners that "my mother that summer would turn on the TV every night during this vacation and watch the Watergate hearings," and he was forced to watch, too. Of course, the senator who "fascinated" him most was "this man of Japanese descent with one arm, speaking in this courtly baritone, full of dignity and grace."

This story would work only if Obama had toured the United States during the summer of the Watergate hearings, 1973, when he was eleven years old going on twelve, but in his memoir Dreams from My Father, he tells another story -- a much more specific one. Yes, he made the same trip, but he did so "during the summer after my father's visit to Hawaii, before my eleventh birthday." This would have been 1972, when Watergate was still a third-rate burglary that had gotten little media traction.

In Dreams, Obama mentioned a Kansas City stop along the way, and Madelyn's youngest brother in suburban KC would later provide photographic evidence of the same. He confirmed the year as 1972. This disparity did not stop Obama from relating in Dreams how in that elusive summer he "watched the Watergate hearings every night before going to bed." There was no mention of Senator Inouye. He was apparently trying to make some other point.

This is hardly the most egregious concoction in the Obama canon. Pulitzer Prize-winner David Maraniss condemned his 2012 biography, Barack Obama, the Story, to the clearance racks by daring to suggest that Dreams was full of concoctions, some more critical than others. Obama fans wanted to hear no such thing.

Kudos to Ben Smith for daring to chronicle the obvious. "I counted 38 instances in which [Maraniss] convincingly disputes significant elements of Obama's own story of his life and his family history," wrote Smith in Buzzfeed, and even Maraniss was pulling his punches.

Post-re-election, reporters allow Obama to spin with impunity. They no longer seem worried that someone of the right will scoop them. They are confident that their media pals would ignore the scoop as well. They know that as long as they control the headlines, there can be no new Watergate -- and Obama is beginning to sense it, too.

France is Hexagonal: The Adventures of Tintin and Nat: OPERATION CERBERUS

The Adventures of Tintin and Nat: OPERATION CERBERUS

The Adventures of Tintin and Nat: OPERATION CERBERUS, originally uploaded by Nat Hansen.

A Tintin cover, featuring me (firing the Oerlikon cannon), as imagined and executed by my dad.

The description on the back of the painting reads:

Operation Cerberus, 2009
Gouache + ink on canvas

"Operation Cerberus" was the codename for the German squadron of ships which broke out of Brest to Germany via the English Channel. Also called the "Channel Dash".

Tintin pilots the Vosper MTB while Nat fires the 20mm Oerlikon at one of Gallano's famed "Yellow Noses". Captain Haddock brings another 60-round drum magazine to Nat.

Scharnhorst, Prinz Eugen and a destroyer evade the onslaught of the MTB.

Homage to Hergé and Nat.

(Compare the water in Operation Cerberus to the water on The Red Sea Sharks.)

A couple of years ago, he asked me for a list of potential custom Tintin scenarios to illustrate. Here is the list I generated:

1. Climbing up side of a Mosquito in flight suit, or running across an airfield towards some 1950s British jet fighter, or a souped-up Hawker Tempest or Sea Fury

2. Pushing through a secret door in a big library (like in the Black Island), revealing a storeroom full of crates of ammo and Schmeissers (or equivalent)

3. Firing a Bofors on the deck of a sub or destroyer, with the spider-web like gun sight, with big shell casings all over the deck

4. Being chased by a tank while driving an MG or an Austin-Healy

5. Driving a LRDG Land Rover with a bunch of Vickers machineguns,
maybe firing one with one hand at a runway full of parked Ju-88s

'Doctor Who' will take over television in 2013, says Steven Moffat - Doctor Who News - Cult - Digital Spy

Published Wednesday, Dec 19 2012, 11:30pm EST | By Morgan Jeffery |33 comments

Steven Moffat has promised that Doctor Who will "take over television" in 2013.

However, the showrunner - speaking at a screening of this year's Christmas special 'The Snowmen' - remained tight-lipped about any specific plans for the 50th anniversary year.

"They are immense, they are considerable," he promised. "[The episodes] will be full of tremendous surprises. But they wouldn't be surprises if I accidentally said them now, would they?

"But I promise you, we're going to take over television. Trust me."

> Doctor Who Christmas special 'The Snowmen' - Spoiler free preview

Jenna-Louise Coleman will make her debut as Clara in 'The Snowmen', with Moffat also addressing the mysterious link between the new companion and Oswin Oswald - the character that Coleman played in the episode 'Asylum of the Daleks'.

Doctor Who: The Snowmen - Christmas special

The Doctor Who Christmas special: The Snowmen

1 of 15

"You will know [what the link is between the two] eventually," he promised. "You are going to get the answer but as ever on Doctor Who, we make you wait a little bit longer."

'The Snowmen' will air on BBC One on December 25 at 5.15pm, with eight more Doctor Who episodes confirmed to follow in 2013.

Matt Smith and Jenna-Louise Coleman on the set of 'Doctor Who' - June 2012

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Lapdog Media: the aeon has changed, and your time is up.

BBC News - Kate hoax: CPS considers possible offences

The Crown Prosecution Service is to consider whether any offences were committed when a hoax call was made to the London hospital where the Duchess of Cambridge was receiving treatment.

A nurse fooled by the call, made by two Australian radio presenters, was later found hanged in hospital accommodation.

Jacintha Saldanha had transferred the call to a colleague who then described Kate's condition in detail.

Doctor Who and the Cave Monsters with some Doctor Who and the Invasion of the Dinosaurs. Without Doctor Who. Note the dates.

Dinosaur War Izenborg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dinosaurs reappearing on Earth, stronger and more intelligent than before, led by Dinosaur Satan Gottes, and this time they are back to rule earth once more and wipe out humankind. They are alive and even thriving, in an underground Empire they built. In 1986, Ururu, the leader of dinosaurs, declares war against humanity. In an attempt to reclaim the Earth's surface, some of the dinosaurs evolve into deadly monsters, and start wreaking havoc on the human population centers around the globe. Story revolves around the D Force (D戦隊 D Sentai), and its two members, a brother and sister team of Tachibana Ai (立花愛) and Tachibana Zen (立花善), the Special OPs force, whose mission is to combat monsterized dinosaurs and protecting the humanity at all cost. However, early in the series the siblings suffered a near fatal injury from the massive explosion during the test of a prototype super-tank, "predecessor to Izenborg". However they survived, barely clinging to life. But in order to keep them alive they needed to receive a cybernetic body parts and other implants so they could function normally within the society, and to synchronize with their combat vehicle and form Aizenborg (Ai + Zen + Cyborg) (called Gemini in the US movie) and fight the Dino-Army.

A few episodes were released in the US a decade later in a compilation movie called Attack of the Supermonsters.

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Eagle Bowl empty, about to be refilled: What the Mayan Elders are Saying About 2012 by Carlos Barrios

What the Mayan Elders are Saying About 2012 by Carlos Barrios

At sunrise on December 21, 2012 for the first time in 26,000 years the Sun rises to conjunct the intersection of the Milky Way and the plane of the ecliptic. This cosmic cross is considered to be an embodiment of the Sacred Tree, The Tree of Life, a tree remembered in all the world's spiritual traditions.

Pistol purchased by ATF agent found at alleged cartel crime scene in Mexico - Political Eye - CBS News

China Exclusive: Scientists find new use for cells in human urine - Xinhua | English.news.cn

GUANGZHOU, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- Chinese scientists have found a new, innovative way to use cells found in human urine that could aid in the treatment of a range of neurodegenerative disorders.

The scientists have discovered a new technique for reprogramming cells shed in human urine into neural progenitor cells (NPCs) that can grow into multi-functional neuronal subtypes and glial cells.
The technique is expected to be used in the study and treatment of neural disorders such as Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders.

Their findings were published online on Dec. 9 in a research report in the journal Nature Methods, a monthly publication covering novel findings in life sciences.

Pei Duanqing, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health, said his research team has combined an episomal system to deliver reprogramming factors with a chemically defined culture medium to reprogram kidney epithelial cells naturally shed in urine into NPCs.

These NPCs, normally only found in the human brain, were later proven to be transgene-free and self-renewing, he said.

"These neurons and glial cells can survive for up to one month when transplanted into the brain of a newborn rat," said Pei.

He said his team is working hard to understand why their experimental condition allowed the urine cells to become NPCs so as to improve the technique and make it more efficient.

Scientists have long sought to treat and study neural disorders by obtaining and transplanting neural stem cells. However, the previous method of isolating and using cells from either fetal or adult human tissue remain challenging due to ethical concerns and immune system rejections, he said.

Pei hopes the discovery will be used to generate NPCs from patients with neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease. "These NPCs from patients may help us discover new drugs for these diseases."

"It is a remarkable advance in the stem cell field," said Fred Gage, professor with the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

They reprogrammed somatic cells with a non-integrating virus and epithelial-like cells from human urine, a novel, safe and abundant source of cells, he said.

The results and methods derived from this study will be of great value and significance to the field, he said.

Don't let the hate get in the way of true story | The Australian

Don't let the hate get in the way of true story

by: Cameron Stewart
From: The Australian
December 20, 2012 12:00AM
39 comments

THREE years ago I found myself caught in a perfect storm after I broke a story for The Australian about the country's second largest counter terror investigation, Operation Neath.

To cut a long story short, Victoria's Office of Police Integrity launched an investigation to try to find my source for the story.
This should have been the usual journalist-police charade whereby they haul me in and I refuse to discuss a confidential source as my ethics require.
But in this case there was a nasty sting in the tail. When the OPI hauled me in I learned that a minor source for the story, a Victoria Police detective called Simon Artz, had chosen to voluntarily release me to give evidence to the OPI, a position which he later reconfirmed.
This act upturned the normal journalist-source relationship, robbing me of the moral and ethical high ground which a journalist needs to justify a refusal to give evidence under oath.
As far as I knew this situation was unique in Australia, so I went to the journalists union, the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, which administers our code of ethics and asked for advice.
The MEAA told me the only ethical option under the code was to give evidence, no matter how painful that might be.
So when the OPI subpoenaed me for questioning, I had no choice but to sign a statement, an unspeakably hard act.
This all happened under strict secrecy because OPI secrecy provisions prevent people involved in the investigation to discuss it.
Not long afterwards, a former journalist turned academic, Margaret Simons, heard that I had given evidence about a source but was not told of the existence of the Deed of Release. Several other journalists also learned, thanks partly to OPI leaks, that I had given evidence but they were not told of the Deed of Release.
These journalists smelled a rat, knowing that neither I nor any reporter would dream of giving evidence about a source unless in extraordinary circumstances.
They did not yet know what those circumstances were, so they withheld judgment and waited for the full story to emerge.
Not so Simons. She thought she had a cracker story on her hands: a senior journalist at the national newspaper breaks the most fundamental rule of journalism, selling out a confidential source after a big scoop.
It was a narrative which sat neatly with her broader antagonism towards the Murdoch media.
The fact that I was legally gagged and could not tell her my story, even on background, did not give her pause for thought.
As a writer for the online website Crikey she had her own pulpit from which to preach her barbed assumption, which she did repeatedly during 2010, knowing I was unable to defend myself. Time and time again she implied that I had broken the code of ethics which guides our profession.
Simons went even further, making claims that I had been criticised in a draft OPI report into the Neath story and that Federal Court documents showed I was concerned the report could cause me "reputational damage." This was all completely untrue.
By this stage Simons had got a head of steam about all aspects of the story. She tried to disqualify it from the Walkley Awards. She accused the paper of risking lives because some copies inadvertently came out before the police raids. And she claimed there was no public interest in readers learning about a potential terror plot on Australian soil.
Only once did I speak to her briefly on background when she called. I told her that I was legally muzzled but that there was a "major twist in the tail" and that she should not jump to conclusions.
She ignored me and continued to write her own version of history. I did not speak to her again.
In June 2010, the head of the MEAA Chris Warren told Simons directly that my actions had been entirely consistent with the code of ethics and yet she refused to believe him, implying once again in a piece written in September that year that I had breached the code.
So one can only imagine Simons's shock when she belatedly learned the truth last year about the existence of the Deed of Release.
Or when the MEAA issued a unequivocal statement saying that my actions were at all times consistent with the code of ethics.
Overnight, her typewriter fell silent. So silent that she has never sought to apologise to me or to my family. I say my family because my son wants to become a journalist and is looking at places to study in Melbourne.
I'd like for him to be mentored by those who love journalism as it should be; factual, balanced and ethical.
Sadly my alma mater, the University of Melbourne, won't be high on his list given that it is also the home for the Centre for Advanced Journalism, run by Margaret Simons.
Cameron Stewart is The Australian's Associate Editor and a former winner of the Graham Perkin Award for Australian Journalist of the Year.

Capgras Delusion: Seeing Impostors: When Loved Ones Suddenly Aren't : NPR

Seeing Impostors: When Loved Ones Suddenly Aren't : NPR

In the classic 1956 film Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the residents of a fictional town in California are beset by the feeling that their friends and family have been replaced by impostors. In the movie, this apparent delusion is not delusional at all: The townspeople are in fact being replaced — by aliens, no less.

Numerous sci-fi films since have capitalized on our fear of being surrounded by duplicates — replicas who look just like our loved ones but are not. And while there have so far been no confirmed cases of a human being replaced by an alien or any other life-form, the feeling that your loved one has been replaced by someone else can be very real.

Consider these two true stories:

A 37-year-old woman came into the office of Carol Berman, a psychiatrist at New York University Medical Center, with a strange complaint. She had returned to her house recently to find a man sitting on her couch. He was familiar, sort of, and he was wearing her husband's clothes. But something didn't feel right to this woman. She felt a strange kind of emptiness when she looked at him. She was struck by the very deep sense that her husband had somehow been replaced by this strange man.
A student at the University of California, San Diego was severely injured in a car accident. After several weeks in a coma, he regained consciousness and seemed to be doing fine. But according to V.S. Ramachandran, a neuroscientist at the university, when the patient's mother came to see him, he exclaimed, "Who is this woman? She looks just like my mother, but she's an impostor! She's some other woman pretending to be my mother."

Rare Delusional Disorder
Both patients, it turns out, were suffering from a rare delusional disorder, called Capgras. Capgras delusion can be brought about by a variety of conditions — changes in brain chemistry associated with different mental illnesses, or physical trauma to the brain — but the delusion always involves the distinct feeling that the people around you have been replaced by impostors. While they may look and act just like the real person, some essence of the person is missing, almost as though "the soul of the person isn't in there," Berman says.

Capgras delusion was first identified by French psychiatrist Joseph Capgras. In a 1923 paper, he wrote about a patient, "Madame M," who for 10 years had been "transforming everyone in her entourage, even those closest to her, such as her husband and daughter, into various and numerous doubles."

Currently, no one is certain of the underlying cause of Capgras, and there are different ways of explaining what is happening to these people. According to Berman, Capgras might be caused by psychological dissonance. There are usually things about the people close to us that we don't like. Normally, we combine these things with the parts we do like and develop a general emotional response to the whole person. But in some extreme cases, a change in character or a newly noticed behavior can just be too difficult to accept, to integrate into the whole. And so, rather than reframing our sense of who that person is, our brain just says: "That must not really be him."

Ramachandran thinks that Capgras can be better explained by a structural problem in the brain. According to Ramachandran, when we see someone we know, a part of our brain called the fusiform gyrus identifies the face: "That looks like mom!" That message is then sent to the amygdala, the part of our brains that activates the emotions we associate with that person. In patients experiencing Capgras, Ramachandran says, the connection between visual recognition and emotional recognition is severed. Thus the patient is left with a convincing face — "That looks like mom!" — but none of the accompanying feelings about his mother.

That's Not My Mother
Ramachandran holds that we are so dependent on our emotional reactions to the world around us, that the emotional feeling "that's not my mother" wins out over the visual perception that it is. The compromise worked out by the brain is that your mother was somehow replaced, and this impostor is part of a malevolent scheme.

Ramachandran thinks there's good evidence for this explanation of Capgras, in part because of an odd quirk in his patient's behavior. When his mother calls him on the phone and he hears her voice, he instantly recognizes her. Yet if she walks in the room after that call, he is again convinced that she is an impostor.

Why? Ramachandran says that our visual system and auditory system have different connections to the amygdala, so while the auditory recognition triggers an emotional response in his patient, visual recognition does not.

Treating The Illness
Capgras is very rare, and little is known about how to treat it. Those who have been afflicted with Capgras due to physical brain trauma may eventually re-establish the connection between perception and emotion. (Ramachandran's patient, for example, eventually recovered from his delusion.) And patients who experience Capgras alongside other mental disorders may be helped by medication. But for many Capgras patients, there is no treatment, and no amount of talk or reasoning can cure them.
While the feeling that the people around you have been replaced by impostors is certainly terrifying to imagine, the effect on the supposed impostor can be devastating, too. Carol Berman's husband began suffering Capgras after the onset of a particular kind of dementia in which neural transmission between different parts of the brain decays. Some days he knows that Berman is his wife. But other days, the woman who walks through the door is an impostor.

"I hope he's recognizing me," says Berman, "but you never know what you're going to get when you get back home."

Produced by Soren Wheeler

Monday, December 31, 2012

WHY WE FIGHT

"Everything is quiet. There is no trouble here. There will be no war. I wish to return."

Fredrick Remington, writing his employer William Randolph Hearst from Havana in 1897

"Please remain. You furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war."

William Randolph Hearst's response to Remington regarding what became known as the Spanish-American War.'

(Source: Citizen Hearst, W.A. Swanberg, 1963)

"representative government cannot be worked successfully, no matter what the basis of election, unless there is an independent, expert organization for making the unseen facts [of the new world] intelligible to those who have to make the decisions."'

In a 1937 work, Harold Lasswell, one of the fathers of modern communication theory, made a similar and more explicit suggestion:

"Propaganda must be coordinated with information and espionage services which can supply material to the propagandists and report progress of propaganda work."