Yen Decline

It is not exactly a collapse of course, but it is certainly a readjustment that properly reflects the collateral position Japan occupies with China and the USA. It is still noteworthy and suggests a strong burst in Japanese growth is now pending. At the same time it is defensive and markets out uncertainty regarding both China's and the USA's financial posture.

In the meantime, Japan is liquidating the tsunami damage in good order although it will require several more years for that to be finished.

Rumors of war are more to do with internal infighting in China than anything else.

Here's What's Behind The Collapse Of The Japanese Yen — The Biggest Economic Story In The World

Joe Weisenthal | Dec. 27, 2012

http://www.businessinsider.com/why-the-yen-has-been-getting-crushed-2012-12

Earlier we joked that lost in all of the Fiscal Cliff shuffle was the fact that the yen has been getting clobbered.

SocGen's FX guru Kit Juckes jokingly responded that far from getting "lost" the yen carnage was actually the only game in town

Indeed this is really the huge story in global markets right now. In addition to being a major shift in one of the world's biggest and strongest currencies, it affects all sorts of manufacturers who do business in yen, or compete with companies that do business in yen.

Here's a three-year chart of the CurrencyShares Japanese Yen Trust, an ETF that's designed to track the yen. As you can see, it's been collapsing, and is now at a level that hasn't been seen in over two years.

what's causing the yen carnage?

There's actually no one thing.

But a few of them are:

-- Shinzo Abe: Japan's new Prime Minister (who took office yesterday) has pledged to force the Bank of Japan into ultra-easy monetary policy, and he's even favored bond purchases for the direct purpose of funding stimulus money.

-- Japan's trade situation also seems to be deteriorating. Whereas previously the country was running big, consistent trade surpluses, it's now in steady trade deficit.

-- The US economy is strengthening. This isn't about the yen, but it does help boost what the yen is being compared to, the dollar. A strengthening economy helps contribute to rising US interest rates, which will help the US dollar.

-- There's a belief that the endgame is in sight for the Fed to start ending its ultra-easy monetary policy. Things aren't going to change overnight, but at the current pace of economic improvement, the Fed's goals could be hit in late 2014, which is earlier than the previous 2015 tightening guidance. A tighter US monetary policy would benefit the dollar against the yen.

-- End of the Eurozone crisis. Japanese assets had been seen as "safe-havens" to flee too during the crisis. With the Eurozone crisis ending, that safe-haven bid begins to deteriorate.

-- Fear of war? Also thanks to Japan's new PM Shinzo Abe, the country is likely to adopt an even more aggressive, militaristic stance towards China. One professor in Australia predicts war. As Matt Yglesias notes, any war (or war preparations) would likely be funded by aggressive money creation. More yen weakening.

-- Japan's economy is bad. In addition to all that, the economic data in Japan is deteriorating again, creating more reason for the Bank of Japan to do new measures.

One interesting trend is that a lot of these developments are fairly new. So there's a confluence of a lot of stuff happening right now.

Two other notes:

One is that this isn't necessarily a bad thing at all. A weaker yen is itself a form of stimulus, and should help the country's domestic manufacturers. Nomura recently upgraded the Japanese automakers specifically on this, and in general the Nikkei has been on a total tear.

The other is that none of the above have anything to do with the typical Japan bear arguments about massive national debt and bond collapse. Those things that people freak out about don't have much to do with things.

Read more:

http://www.businessinsider.com/why-the-yen-has-been-getting-crushed-2012-12#ixzz2GNTvwDH0

Grazing Amazonia

Something as obvious as grazing rotation stabilizes the pasturage and plausibly prevents its elimination. That is very good news for tropical soils everywhere. If they also sustain partial forest cover while they do all this, we may also have natural refertilization underway also. Recall that cattle grazing is minimal on the uptake of nutrients.

This should also lead to groomed forests with a modest investment in effort. What is clearly needed is an ongoing education program for farmers on practical methods used elsewhere.

This also tells us that grazing rotation has been underutilized everywhere. Of course climate modifies all that elsewhere, but we need to think about it still. I recall that in the lower mainland that it is possible to take seven cuttings of alfalfa.

Farming in Brazil’s Amazonas: Preserving the Hands That Feed

A program in Brazil's Amazonas helps farmers generate income while preserving the rainforest

By Ticiane Rossi December 27, 2012

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/world/farming-in-brazil-s-amazonas-preserving-the-hands-that-feed-328943.html

ITATIBA, Brazil—Hit by drought in his hometown of Marilândia do Sul, Brazilian farmer Carlos Roberto Koch decided to move to Apuí in the Amazonas State in 2005, where he could take advantage of the more stable climate and the fertile grounds of the Amazon forest.

He started farming grains once again, and the outlook was optimistic. Having learned a lesson from his first farming experience, however, Koch didn’t take any chances, and started farming cattle and developing pasture land on the side as well.

What started as an alternative means of income gradually became his main source of livelihood, and farming cattle and selling dairy products became his main focus as they proved to be more stable in the long term compered to farming grains.

But it wasn’t long before Koch’s consciousness caught up with him: Like many others farming along the Amazon rainforest, Koch’s profession was contributing to the demise of the world’s largest rainforest; it wasn’t hard to see that he was gradually destroying his own source of income as well.

Besides logging, mining, oil exploration, and construction of infrastructure, cattle farming and expansion of agricultural land along the Amazon rainforest are one of the main factors of deforestation of the Amazon.

According to the Amazon Network for Georeferenced Environmental Information (RAISG), pastures account for over 90 percent of the farmland along the Amazon.

“The issue of deforestation of Amazon is an economic issue,” says Mariana Pavan, a researcher with the Institute for Conservation and Development of the Amazonas (IDESAM), a nongovernmental organization dedicated to preserving the Amazon and promoting the use of sustainable resources.

“The reality is that Amazon deforestation occurs because people need to make a living.”

That is why Pavan and other researchers with IDESAM created a program that, with the contribution from the government and people in Apuí, focuses on maintaining income for the farmers while helping to preserve the rainforest. 

Since the time of its inception in 2005, the program has been tested with five farming families, including Koch’s.

One of the main elements in IDESAM’s program is the development of a “rotational grazing system.” 

Under this project, an area of around 30 hectares is divided into seven equal segments, and livestock is allowed to feed in each area for a period of seven days, while the grass in the other areas is left to grow and recover. This way, cattle always have good quality grass to feed on, and thanks to the optimized grass recovery system, the number of animals that can feed per unit area has increased three to four times compared to a traditional pasture. This removes the need to deforest new areas of the Amazon to develop more pastureland.

[ why was this not figured out decades ago? - I think we are dealing with human laziness, it costs time to produce fences and to watch and move animals. Arclein ]

IDESAM also has a number of other projects directed at preserving the rainforest, including reforestation of permanent preservation areas along the rivers [ At the Least!! - Arclein], as well as projects directed at maximizing the income of local farmers, including the development of a cattle fattening model, a model for optimizing dairy production, and other initiatives.

Koch, who is also the president of the rural union of Apuí, says the program has been a success, and besides minimizing their environmental impact, he and other farmers in the program have been able to triple the number of their cattle thanks to the savings and optimization achieved through the program.

“Our motto today is forest preservation and maintaining man in the field,” Koch says.

Gabriel Cardoso Carrero, the program coordinator for climate change and environmental services at IDESAM, says the main challenge in implementing IDESAM’s programs is helping people change their habits, and having them become used to continually changing their habits.

“We have good relations with the farmers, thanks to several years of interaction; however, many [farmers] have no confidence that the project will succeed,” Carrero says.

“There had been several projects before IDESAM’s where farmers promised [to implement changes] and nothing happened. But there are also projects that really lead to change.”

He thinks one of the reasons some programs fail is that they are not developed keeping in mind the needs of the farmers.

“I think the government needs to be more realistic in their initiatives because they are not usually very connected with what happens on the field,” he says.

As for Koch, he is satisfied knowing that he can generate income while playing a role in preserving the rainforest at the same time.

He now wants to show to the government that the IDESAM program has been a success, and encourage authorities to improve farming production in existing sites and prevent the development of new areas, so that no more areas of the Amazon have to be deforested.

“The hands that produce are the same that preserve,” says the 49-year-old farmer.

“If you provide living conditions for farmers, they will become guardians of the forest.

Better Barley

 Work like this is always welcome to see. What we need to see is genetic engineering that adapts desert plant strategies into our grassland crops. A thick blade that holds water sounds like a deal maker costing little if any extra plant energy. Such a plant can grab moisture and hold it through a long dry spell. It may even make the blade more palatable and useful to ruminants.

Selection will be helpful, but mostly marginally.

A genetic strategy could be applied across all grains and allow cropping in lands far more arid and make irrigation far more efficient. We know that desert plants can do this quite well.

Now if we could figure out how to produce a plant that happens to absorb moisture out of the atmosphere late at night.

Building better barley

by Staff Writers

Edmonton, Canada (SPX) Dec 18, 2012

http://www.seeddaily.com/reports/Building_better_barley_999.html

As one of the top 10 barley producers in the world, Canada faces a problem of adapting to the 'new normal' of a warmer, drier climate. The 2012 growing season was considered an average year on the Canadian Prairies, "but we still had a summer water deficit, and it is that type of condition we are trying to work with," said Scott Chang, a professor of soil science in the University of Alberta's Department of Renewable Resources in Edmonton, Canada.

Chang teamed with fellow crop scientist Anthony Anyia of Alberta Innovates - Technology Futures in 2006, following a severe drought in 2002 that dropped average crop yield in Alberta by about half.

They are exploring the genetic makeup of barley and how the grain crop-a Canadian staple used for beer malt and animal feed-can be made more efficient in its water use and more productive.

One of their latest studies, published in the journal Theoretical and Applied Genetics, explores how to increase yield in barley crops while using less water.

By studying the carbon isotope compositions of barley plants and their relationship with water-use efficiency, the researchers developed tools that plant breeders can use to improve selection efficiency for more water-efficient varieties.

The latest findings stem from an ongoing collaboration that is ultimately aimed at bringing farmers a more stable breed of the plant that has less reliance on water and is less vulnerable to climate change.

Mag 9 Threat Cascadia and Himalaya

It has long been known that the Cascadia subduction zone is able to deliver a magnitude 9 event having done so three hundred years ago. What we have lacked is meaningful comparisons for folks living in the areas of population concentration. So a few thoughts are in order.

A tsunami will happen, but it is almost no threat around the inland waters of the Salish Sea. On the Pacific side there is plenty of risk but limited outright exposure except around the Columbia river. Otherwise the coastal population is modest but all fatally exposed by and large. I have driven through areas that I thought that they were crazy to build on.

Thus the real damage will be caused by outright shaking of the ground. The houses themselves will stand up very well minimizing the loss of life but otherwise will be mostly wreaked. Recall that a Mag 9 shake will be heavily damped by the coastal mountains on its way to population centers.

The more serious problem in Vancouver will be land slips on the housing covered hillsides. Most will not be large but foundations will be generally destroyed easily were they lack stone bases.

Anther serious risk will be liquid-faction in the Fraser Delta. Fortunately it is all above sea level. Again we will have wreaked foundations.

My own sense is that we are two centuries away and that the damage although severe enough will be readily recovered from at the housing level while most of the rest will ride through surprisingly well.

It has to also be said that good Earthquake standards have been in place for thirty years and every serious renovation has been included. Thus our building stock is likely already mostly up to standard since this city has been building steadily.

Seattle is also cycling out most of their most vulnerable structures and give it another generation and it will all be mostly survivable.

Himalayas and Pacific Northwest could experience major earthquakes, Stanford geophysicists say

by Bjorn Carey for Stanford News
Stanford CA (SPX) Dec 11, 2012

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Himalayas_and_Pacific_Northwest_could_experience_major_earthquakes_Stanford_geophysicists_say_999.html

Stanford geophysicists are well represented at the meeting of the American Geophysical Union this week in San Francisco. Included among the many presentations will be several studies that relate to predicting ­- and preparing for - major earthquakes in the Himalaya Mountains and the Pacific Northwest.

The AGU Fall Meeting is the largest worldwide conference in the geophysical sciences, attracting more than 20,000 Earth and space scientists, educators, students, and other leaders. This 45th annual fall meeting is taking place through Dec. 7 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco.

A big one in the Himalayas

The Himalayan range was formed, and remains currently active, due to the collision of the Indian and Asian continental plates. Scientists have known for some time that India is subducting under Asia, and have recently begun studying the complexity of this volatile collision zone in greater detail, particularly the fault that separates the two plates, the Main Himalayan Thrust (MHT).

Previous observations had indicated a relatively uniform fault plane that dipped a few degrees to the north. To produce a clearer picture of the fault, Warren Caldwell, a geophysics doctoral student at Stanford, has analyzed seismic data from 20 seismometers deployed for two years across the Himalayas by colleagues at the National Geophysical Research Institute of India.

The data imaged a thrust dipping a gentle two to four degrees northward, as has been previously inferred, but also revealed a segment of the thrust that dips more steeply (15 degrees downward) for 20 kilometers. Such a ramp has been postulated to be a nucleation point for massive earthquakes in the Himalaya.

Although Caldwell emphasized that his research focuses on imaging the fault, not on predicting earthquakes, he noted that the MHT has historically been responsible for a magnitude 8 to 9 earthquake every several hundred years.

"What we're observing doesn't bear on where we are in the earthquake cycle, but it has implications in predicting earthquake magnitude," Caldwell said. "From our imaging, the ramp location is a bit farther north than has been previously observed, which would create a larger rupture width and a larger magnitude earthquake."

Caldwell will present a poster detailing the research on Tuesday, Dec. 4, from 1:40 p.m. to 6 p.m. in Moscone South, Halls A-C.

Caldwell's adviser, geophysics Professor Simon Klemperer, added that recent detections of magma and water around the MHT indicate which segments of the thrust will rupture during an earthquake.

"We think that the big thrust vault will probably rupture southward to the Earth's surface, but we don't expect significant rupture north of there," Klemperer said. The findings are important for creating risk assessments and disaster plans for the heavily populated cities in the region.

Klemperer spoke about the evolution of geophysical studies of the Himalayas (Dec. 3) from 1:40 p.m. to 3:40 p.m. in Moscone South.

Measuring small tremors in the Pacific Northwest

The Cascadia subduction zone, which stretches from northern California to Vancouver Island, has not experienced a major seismic event since it ruptured in 1700, an 8.7-9.2 magnitude earthquake that shook the region and created a tsunami that reached Japan.

And while many geophysicists believe the fault is due for a similar scale event, the relative lack of any earthquake data in the Pacific Northwest makes it difficult to predict how ground motion from a future event would propagate in the Cascadia area, which runs through Seattle, Portland and Vancouver.

Stanford postdoctoral scholar Annemarie Baltay will present research on how measurements of small seismic tremors in the region can be utilized to determine how ground motion from larger events might behave.

Baltay's research involves measuring low amplitude tectonic tremor that occurs 30 kilometers below Earth's surface, at the intersections of tectonic plates, roughly over the course of a month each year.

By analyzing how the tremor signal decays along and away from the Cascadia subduction zone, Baltay can calculate how ground motion activity from a larger earthquake will dissipate. An important application of the work will be to help inform new construction how best to mitigate damage should a large earthquake strike.

"We can't predict when an earthquake will occur, but we can try to be very prepared for them," Baltay said. "Looking at these episodic tremor events can help us constrain what the ground motion might be like in a certain place during an earthquake."

Though Baltay has focused on the Cascadia subduction zone, she said that the technique could be applied in areas of high earthquake risk around the world, such as Alaska and Japan.

Baltay will present a poster presentation of the research on Wednesday (Dec. 5) from 1:40 p.m. to 5:40 p.m in Moscone South, Halls A-C.

Cascadia quake simulations

The slow slip and tremor events in Cascadia are also being studied by Stanford geophysics Professor Paul Segall, although in an entirely different manner. Segall's group uses computational models of the region to determine whether the cumulative effects of many small events can trigger a major earthquake.

"You have these small events every 15 months or so, and a magnitude 9 earthquake every 500 years. We need to known whether you want to raise an alert every time one of these small events happens," Segall said.

"We're doing sophisticated numerical calculations to simulate these slow events and see whether they do relate to big earthquakes over time. What our calculations have shown is that ultimately these slow events do evolve into the ultimate fast event, and it does this on a pretty short time scale."

Unfortunately, so far Segall's group has not seen any obvious differences in the numerical simulations between the average slow slip event and those that directly precede a big earthquake.

The work is still young, and Segall noted that the model needs refinement to better match actual observations and to possibly identify the signature of the event that triggers a large earthquake.

"We're not so confident in our model that public policy should be based on the output of our calculations, but we're working in that direction," Segall said.

One thing that makes Segall's work difficult is a lack of data from actual earthquakes in the Cascadia region. Earlier this year, however, earthquakes in Mexico and Costa Rica occurred in areas that experience slow slip events similar to those in Cascadia.

Segall plans to speak with geophysicists who have studied the lead-up to those earthquakes to compare the data to his simulations.

How to Live to a Ripe Old Age

This is how it is going to be everywhere. The benefits are plainly obvious and good health at a hundred is plausible and possible. Meat once a week is good enough light alcohol on occasion is fine and beneficial and working a couple hours in your garden is a really good plan. I am not organized for that yet but it is on my list over the next three years.

I must say though that reaching my age, one discovers that all those unhappy people who drink and smoke are no longer about anyway and it be comes really easy to develop sound habits.

And yes, nuts are a great idea as they are just about the only thing that one can eat without preparation or the removal of a wrapper. They even have nutritional benefit.

So install a sack of nuts at your work station to handle those munchies.

How to Live to a Ripe Old Age

Cathy Newman

National Geographic News

Published December 27, 2012

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/12/121227-dan-buettner-health-longevity-100-centenarians-science-blue-zones/

Cento di questi giorni. May you have a hundred birthdays, the Italians say, and some of them do.

So do other people in various spots around the world—in Blue Zones, so named by National Geographic Fellow Dan Buettner for the blue ink that outlines these special areas on maps developed over more than a decade. (National Geographic News is part of the National Geographic Society.)

In his second edition of his book The Blue Zones, Buettner writes about a newly identified Blue Zone: the Greek island of Ikaria (map). National Geographic magazine Editor at Large Cathy Newman interviewed him about the art of living long and well. (Watch Buettner talk about how to live to a hundred.)

Q. You've written about Blue Zones in Sardinia, Italy; Loma Linda, California; Nicoa, Costa Rica; and Okinawa, Japan. How did you find your way to Ikaria?

A. Michel Poulain, a demographer on the project, and I are always on the lookout for new Blue Zones. This one popped up in 2008. We got a lead from a Greek foundation looking for biological markers in aging people. The census data showed clusters of villages there with a striking proportion of people 85 or older. (Also see blog: "Secrets of the Happiest Places on Earth.")

In the course of your quest you've been introduced to remarkable individuals like 100-year-old Marge Jetton of Loma Linda, California, who starts the day with a mile-long [0.6-kilometer] walk, 6 to 8 miles [10 to 13 kilometers] on a stationary bike, and weight lifting. Who is the most memorable Blue Zoner you've met?

Without question it's Stamatis Moraitis, who lives in Ikaria. I believe he's 102. He's famous for partying. He makes 400 liters [100 gallons] of wine from his vineyards each year, which he drinks with his friends. His house is the social hot spot of the island. (See "Longevity Genes Found; Predict Chances of Reaching 100.")

He's also the Ikarian who emigrated to the United States, was diagnosed with lung cancer in his 60s, given less then a year to live, and who returned to Ikaria to die. Instead, he recovered.[ he has obviously been trying to drink himself to death ever since on cheap wine – arclein ]

Yes, he never went through chemotherapy or treatment. He just moved back to Ikaria.

Did anyone figure out how he survived?

Nope. He told me he returned to the U.S. ten years after he left to see if the American doctors could explain it. I asked him what happened. "My doctors were all dead," he said.

One of the common factors that seem to link all Blue Zone people you've spoken with is a life of hard work—and sometimes hardship. Your thoughts?

I think we live in a culture that relentlessly pursues comfort. Ease is related to disease. We shouldn't always be fleeing hardship. Hardship also brings people together. We should welcome it.

Sounds like another version of the fable of the grasshopper and the ant?

You rarely get satisfaction sitting in an easy chair. If you work in a garden on the other hand, and it yields beautiful tomatoes, that's a good feeling.

Can you talk about diet? Not all of us have access to goat milk, for example, which you say is typically part of an Ikarian breakfast.

There is nothing exotic about their diet, which is a version of a Mediterranean diet, which emphasizes vegetables, beans, fruit, olive oil, and moderate amounts of alcohol. (Read more about Buettner's work in Ikaria in National Geographic Adventure.)

All things in moderation?

Not all things. Socializing is something we should not do in moderation. The happiest Americans socialize six hours a day.

The people you hang out with help you hang on to life?

Yes, you have to pay attention to your friends. Health habits are contagious. Hanging out with unhappy people who drink and smoke is hazardous to your health.[ our own society, at least here in Vancouver is noticeably changing out bad habits bit by bit. In the meantime that advice is great]

So how has what you've learned influenced your own lifestyle?

One of the big things I've learned is that there's an advantage to regular low-intensity activity. My previous life was setting records on my bike. [Buettner holds three world records in distance cycling.] Now I use my bike to commute. I only eat meat once a week, and I always keep nuts in my office: Those who eat nuts live two to three more years than those who don't.

You also write about having a purpose in life.

Purpose is huge. I know exactly what my values are and what I love to do. That's worth additional years right there. I say no to a lot of stuff that would be easy money but deviates from my meaning of life.

The Japanese you met in Okinawa have a word for that?

Yes. Ikigai: "The reason for which I wake in the morning."

Do you have a non-longevity-enhancing guilty pleasure?

Tequila is my weakness.

And how long would you like to live?

I'd like to live to be 200.

A New Mayan Age Begins

This is a post from the author Graham Hancock on his Face book account. What is useful here is that he lays out the importance of 3114 BC as a calender start point. The Mayans were mathematically driven ans earlier start points may have astronomical significance that locked in other start points, but having a recent start point is natural for a rising civilization. After all we did just that for our start point 2000 years ago.

At the same time one can expect such a start point to be well enough back so as to not foul up the record keeping and normally five hundred years will do it. That is also about as long as most traditions can be sustained against the drift of language.

Thus I would reasonably suspect that the decisions on this calender took place around 2500 BC plus or minus a lot. This of course coincides rather nicely with the dates I have established for the rise of the Atlantean global civilization and the building of the Great Pyramid.

Since we have also discovered that the geological disturbances of 1159 BC were pretty serious in and around the Mayan world, it becomes unsurprising that the bulk of archeological data is all post 1159 BC. I suspect that some coral reefs need to be cored to see if there is foundational stonework to be found.

In the meantime we have zip evidence for an extended Mayan historical period or more properly a Mesoamerican extended historical period although it has been shown that the Mexico city complexes evolved in response to earlier coastal Olmec building and there we have data that takes us to around 1200 BC. Still not as far back as I would like, but certainly close enough to support a thousand year additional prehistory. It is just that I would really like to see a pyramid that is pre 1159 BC. Yet they could well have all been thrown down to be simply torn apart to construct new structures after the Atlantean catastrophe.

It is still remarkably coincidental that we are entering a new calender age just as our own global civilization prepares to reach its apogee which most of my readers will in fact experience even if it is not recognized.

We are about to transition into a new economic order that honors all human life and optimizes the terraforming of this planet. This blog has largely shown the way with minor details to be policed up. Our ultimate active surface population is around 100 billion souls and likely ten times that in terms of sub surface populations. I put these numbers out to remind us just how much real work remains to be done. Yet it all starts now at the beginning of this new age of over 5,000 years.

The actual build out will take around five centuries though. This is more than enough to complete our surface work and expand the population. For those who do not understand this blog's core concept, it is that terraforming is done through application of the model farm that is operationally self sufficient and ecologically balanced and neutral in terms of inputs and outputs.

Graham Hancock

Tomorrow is the first day of the new year, a time for resolutions, a time for hope, a time to turn over a fresh page. Since the Mayan calendar is cyclical, it's appropriate to remember that 21 December 2012 marked the end of a great cycle of the human story -- in the Mayan view of things -- and that we are now embarked upon a new cycle or epoch. The last 13 Baktuns of the Long Count began in 3114 BC, which is 5126 years ago. It is interesting that these five millennia have seen the rise of the big centralised hierarchical state, big, centralised, hierarchical religions and gigantic global corporations. I think everyone is aware that the system based on those institutions is broken and that these vast, impersonal bureaucracies have had their day -- so in a way the Mayan calendar is right. Something new will have to emerge, something more human, something with more respect for individual sovereignty, something -- hopefully -- that will be built on love rather than on hatred, fear and suspicion. With individual sovereignty comes individual responsibility so I guess what we make of our world in the next 5126 years is very much up to us. Happy New Year!

Immaculate Conception to Genetic Deception

The fundamental problem with spiritual guidance is that there is generally no guidance. You are asked to go figure it out for yourself and what is provided anyway is far too unwittingly self serving. On your own it is way to easy to read personal prejudices into spiritual texts long before it is possible to grasp a different state of being. You must not only read the words but at the same time shift your perspective. Good luck when I can attest that there is little that is more difficult.

I crafted a manuscript titled Paradigms Shift in which I change the intellectual framework for a number of topics. What I observed from my readers was that they were quite all right when on ground in which they had scant knowledge, yet on ground in which they had gone through appropriate course work their resistance rose exponentially. I want you to think about that. Your brain will resist new knowledge and you must faithfully massage new ideas until they become easy and obvious. This will not happen unless an authority tells you to.

Read this item. What this will do is instruct that spiritual consciousness exists and that its proper nurturing entails learning a completely different mindset until it becomes natural. Accessing the spiritual realm is difficult, but it can be done by everyone who works at it. What Jesus demonstrated is that it can even to a degree unsuspected be also applied directly like a tool.

This gift was provided us in GOD's dispensation to humanity upon been tasked with Terra-forming the Earth. If we ever fully knew how to use it, the knowledge has been largely lost or ignored out of ignorance. That is my new insufferable idea for the day.

From I

December 24, 2012

http://www.wakingtimes.com/2012/12/24/from-immaculate-conception-to-genetic-deception/

The Christ consciousness with which humanity is endowed, and which took physical form in Jesus Christ some 2,000 years ago, is a revolutionary gift. It has the power to transform, to heal and to penetrate the darkness with light.  However, it is a gift which still remains largely sealed away from human consciousness, covered over by the cult of consumption and religious orthodoxy

What this great prophet of 2,000 years past was able to teach and to demonstrate was that such a state of (higher) consciousness ‘exists’ and has always existed; and that it is freely available to us all, being an incontrovertible part of our very DNA and of every cell and corpuscle of our bodies.

I have chosen to use the expression ‘Christ Consciousness’ not because it is any more significant than other high prophetic teachings, but because a significant portion of Western society’s spiritual inheritance is founded on the words and works of the prophet Jesus Christ. Such teaching has the role of passing-on in the earthly plain of existence that which originates in the great cosmic plain of existence, of which we and our planet are an integral part. However it has seldom succeeded in this role, largely due to the fact that ‘religious orthodoxy’ has contrived to take control of the spiritual realm, claiming unto itself ‘the moral high ground’ and giving itself the authority to censor the revolutionary quality of the original message.

Every culture has its shamans, gurus, saints and spiritual masters. Shiva, Buddha, Krishna, Mohamed and Abraham, to name just a few. All their teachings have a common theme: ‘mankind is created in the image of God’ and the realisation and manifestation of this Godly state is the true goal and purpose of humanity’s existence here on earth. They also all state that love and compassion are central attributes of the human condition.

That is why I started by saying that we are endowed with a revolutionary gift.

But when this Godly gift is disassociated from its human expression and consigned instead to being the sole attribute of our Creator – then the teachings of Jesus Christ and other great prophets, become fundamentally subverted. The revolutionary ‘divine soul seed’ which we are called upon to nurture into its fullness of being is instead carefully sanitized and locked away from the light.

Having so disposed of our birthright, we seem to feel liberated, as though we have rid ourselves of some odious burden. But all we have succeeded in doing is to wrap ourselves in a state of profound self deceptionand call it ‘freedom’. In denying the divine inheritance – which is encoded in our genes – we effectively shut off the lines of communication with our Creator and set off down the road of genetic deception. Genetic deception, quite literally meaning: ‘an attempt to deceive our genes’.

Within the Divine Creation Plan homo sapiens has been endowed with the ability to decide his own destiny: we have ‘free will’.  Thus we humans have evolved into the unique position of being able to reflect on our state of being as well as use our intellectual capacity to reason, compare and take considered action. The fact that we are born in the image of our Creator and yet are endowed with this precious gift of ‘free will’ (having control over our destinies) gives us a very special responsibility. A responsibility to nurture our Godly gift into a proper flowering and to direct the fruits of this flowering into the amelioration of our society and natural environment, so that they come to reflect our state of being. But it is precisely here that we face the greatest challenge and greatest danger.

What happens, if, in utilising this gift of free will, we decide that we prefer not to recognise and honour its source?

What happens if we find that the intellectual power of the mind, stripped of its birthplace in the soul, appears to be an adequate tool for dealing with our worldly concerns?

What happens if we put love and compassion on the back burner, rationalising that they hamper our competitive instincts, material drives and personal ambitions?

The answer can be found by looking around us and into our history. A wilful mind, divorced from its marriage with the compassionate soul, runs amok, bequeathing itself special powers and high degrees of self importance. It becomes interested in splitting the atoms of its origin and irreversibly  altering the genetic pool of nature of which it is part.

It starts to proclaim its superiority over all other life forms as well as over fellow humans.

It goes to war and murders with cool impunity. It creates abstract ideas, denatured versions of ‘progress’ and tunnel vision theories and practices. In short, it steers its deluded self into a blind alley from which the only escape is collapse and dissolution.

This seems to be where a significant portion of humanity finds itself today; in an advanced state of alienation and fragmentation. Divided into a thousand parts and no longer able to see the whole or remember its true identity – who we are.

And yet for many, when confronted by the arrival of a newborn baby on our planet, this loss of memory is suddenly reversed. The immediate reaction is to coo at its shining innocence, its wide staring eyes and curious smile. This baby seems to stir our memory – and what we are reminded of is that we are looking at ourselves; witnessing ourselves as an integrated whole – without the fragmentation. We can say of this little being that he or she is indeed an ‘immaculate conception’; born in the image of the Creator.  At this unguarded moment we are reminded that our own wholeness and innocence is buried somewhere within and is crying to come out. The little spark of genius that stares us in the face – exudes that same spark which we pushed to one side – because it failed to match the pact we made with the status quo: the pact of mediocrity, conformity and godlessness.

All that is wrong with life today starts here.

In separating ourselves from ourselves we establish a dangerous, abstract and virtual reality world. A world which quickly becomes recognised as ‘the norm’ to be upheld as the politically correct mode of behaviour for ‘civilised society’. In clinical terms, it amounts to a state of paranoid schizophrenia and represents the underlying malaise of modern man and post industrial society in general. In this state of alienation, ‘scientists’ tinker with the building blocks of life and biochemists attempt to re-engineer the plant and animal kingdom, ultimately foisting their deluded experiments on mankind as a whole thereby turning our world into a vast and chaotic laboratory. Politicians look on and applaud. This is, after all ‘scientific advancement’ and therefore not only perfectly acceptable – but desirable. And even when it is considered possible that the motives are more aligned with the lust for profit, power and control, the re-engineering of the sacred seed is still given the go-ahead.

Most important political and corporate decisions are made by those suffering from this psychologically impaired and ‘alienated’ condition. In fact wherever a top-down, corporate led hierarchy holds the reins of power. However, the fact that such hierarchies are allowed to establish such a controlling influence is strong proof of our own complicity and passivity. It is we who give these schizoid individuals such powers, therefore it is we who must be held responsible for the outcome. It is here where one finds the most conspicuous levels of denial; so many amongst us seem determined to avoid recognising their role in delivering the state of play we find around us.

Those wishing to represent their fellow human beings in high office should of course, in a good working democracy, exhibit a fair degree of wisdom and balance. They should act diligently and responsibly in carrying out actions that affect all citizens within their arena. They should know how to balance head and heart, so as not to be arrogant or domineering in their actions. They should be strong in rejecting that which is harmful to people and the environment – and strong in pursuing and promoting that which encourages goodness and diversity. Above all, they should be seen to ‘practice what they preach.’ But as we see, the realities of 21st century society are very different.

Does this description fit any one you know in the world of politics, big business or even in academia?

What has become of responsible leadership in our time?

Why are so many of us willing to turn a blind eye on the abject failings of others and thereby accept the unopposed misrule of our Countries? And where is the voice of the church in all this?

It appears that those who seek to fill positions in society which give them access to the levers of State can only get these positions by agreeing to sell their souls to a largely unseen and shadowy ruling cabal. It is this cabal which pulls the strings of the puppet politicians and senators whom we elect, and it is this cabal that sets the ‘real’ agenda: culminating in their dream of a top down, autocratic ‘new world order’. In the European context a “United States of Europe”.

The conclusion one draws from all this, is that it is the denial of the divine in man which inevitably leads to the corruption and degradation of the human condition – and therefore of society as a whole.

It is within this setting that nature’s seeds are themselves corrupted, as if to symbolise the alienated state of humanity. We see this all too clearly in deteriorating human health, closely aligned with a chemically corrupted and genetically modified food chain. Once vigorous human reproductive energy is increasingly becoming devoid of life and is unable to achieve normal patterns of procreation.

When our true reality is denied ‘virtual reality’ replaces it. Virtual reality becomes the new normal, embracing a world of deception, distortion and alienation. The simple practical values of yesteryear are lost to a whole host of up to the minute cyber distractions; just as the good robust foods that once filled our plates are lost to laboratory inspired mixtures of chemical preservatives, colours and altered genes. In the brave new world ofmass food production, even nanotech inventions are on the menu; while real foods have to be irradiated (USA) and rendered inert because they might contain living bacteria. Life itself is thus reduced to a sterile, denatured package, offered up for auction in the sanitized isles of hypermarket shopping malls.

So what about us humans?

There are those who foresee gene processing laboratories replacing the mother’s womb. Laboratory colour charts allowing parents to select the colour of the eyes and bioengineering  deciding the shape of the mouth and nose; even the desired emotional range could be programmed into the design. Under such a regime ‘eugenics’ would be put right back onto the map of ‘human advancement’. Already male infertility is running high in the United States and growing in Europe. Is it a coincidence that the spread of genetically engineered foods almost exactly matches the rapid rise in human infertility?

While the spark of a higher purpose has briefly illuminated various phases of human evolution, we appear to have failed to nurture this spark into the transformational fire which would bring forth the Godly in us – and keep it there.

And yet, 2,000 years ago, an outstanding prophet helped us to understand that homo sapiens is created in the image of the Supreme Consciousness (God) and that we have the potential to realise and manifest this divinity which lies within every one of our 13 billion cells and which is etched into our very DNA. But we chose to downgrade our divinity and to compromise our greatness, preferring the safety of mediocrity to the risks of genius. What price will we have to pay for such cowardice? What price our Faustian pact with the masters of deception?

A great price.

Yet, because Real Life is a sentient, coherent whole and not the fragmented and insentient state that it appears to be, there is always the potential for a positive resolution, even to the worst crisis. Behind thepropaganda fuelled veil of Maya lies an Omnipotent reality which is the source of our divinity and the fecund pool of our creativity. We have only to access this divinity and we will be guided along the path of deeper destiny and beyond the reach of the masters of darkness.

But let ourselves be ruled by the false gods who masquerade as the great and the all knowing – and we will remain locked into a covert pact with the forces of darkness. We will remain slaves to the technocrat financiers, genetic engineers and corporate gangsters, and no sign will there be that we were born in the image of our Creator.

However, should we find the courage to speak out and to challenge these false gods; to challenge those religious proclamations of the church which continue to repress the revolutionary message of the great prophets -  then the new dawn will come rushing out to greet us, holding wide its arms in welcoming joy.

Suddenly, as the light pours in, we can see so clearly the falsities that surround us. We can recognise where the truth is spoken and where the words are shrouded in deceit. We can ‘see through’ the gamesmanship of political figureheads, phony academics, and false messiahs. A new world of possibilities emerges in front of our eyes and a new sense of self empowerment rises in our souls. At that moment we can rejoice and set sail on the seas of a higher calling, in the knowledge that the angels are guiding our voyage and that Luciferian guile can no longer win our souls or control our minds.

This time has surely come. A time foretold in testaments of old, through stories of searing light and apocalyptic darkness. Who will now deny that such apocalyptic times are with us? The virus of greed, deceit, ulterior motive and repression has reached epidemic proportions, manifesting as a pandemic on our planet. And no one can stand aside from some level of complicity in the shaping of these events.

Yet 2,000 years ago Jesus proclaimed “The Truth shall set you free”.

Now the time has come to act on this proclamation and do away with our complicity with all that drags life down. There is but one overriding necessity at hand: to shake off the chains of illusion and cease to hide from the Truth. Now is the time to move forward and upward and to find the courage to confront and to remove those obstacles that are placed in our path. We each have the joyous task of laying the stepping stones that will reach beyond the Fall. We have this power –  and we owe it to our Creator to act on it: for we are offspring of the divine sparks of immaculate conception and not the sterile clones of genetic deception.

About the Author

Julian Rose is a British pioneer organic farmer, writer and activist. He is currently president of the ‘International Coalition to Protect the Polish Countryside’ which is leading the fight against GMO in Poland. He is author of “Changing Course for Life – Loc

Ball Lightening Clarified

This actually works. Such a mass of heavy ions would have a natural channel to follow down to the ground generated by the lightening stroke itself and this would even draw it down and likely shape its dimensionality.

We have all naturally presumed that ball lightening consisted of a blob of electrons but that never made any sense at all. Mass confinement is certainly sufficient to allow a twenty second dwell time.

This problem has been kicking around forever and every high school physics student knows of its existence. Bravo!

Goodness, Gracious, Great Balls of Lightning!

Oct. 18, 2012 — Australian scientists have unveiled a new theory which explains the mysterious phenomenon known as ball lightning.

Sightings of balls of lightning have been made for centuries around the world -- usually the size of a grapefruit and lasting up to twenty seconds -- but no explanation of how it occurs has been universally accepted by science

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121019102800.htm

Sightings of balls of lightning have been made for centuries around the world -- usually the size of a grapefruit and lasting up to twenty seconds -- but no explanation of how it occurs has been universally accepted by science. Even more mysterious are sightings of balls of lightning forming on glass and appearing in homes and in airplanes.

CSIRO scientist John Lowke has been studying ball lightning since the sixties. He's never seen it, but has spoken to eye witnesses and in a new scientific paper, he gives the first mathematical solution explaining the birth of ball lightning -- and how it can pass through glass.

Previous theories have cited microwave radiation from thunderclouds, oxidizing aerosols, nuclear energy, dark matter, antimatter, and even black holes as possible causes. Lowke disputes these theories.

He proposes ball lightning is caused when leftover ions (electric energy), which are very dense, are swept to the ground following a lightning strike. As for how they pass through glass, he says this is a result of a stream of ions accumulating on the outside of a glass window and the resulting electric field on the other side excites air molecules to form a ball discharge.

According to Lowke ball lightning is rare, but it has been witnessed in Australia many times. People just don't realize what it is when they see it.

Record Numbers of Raptors

I read this story quite differently. The fact is that the recovery of raptor populations over the past forty years has been remarkable. Some may want to claim this is because of the demise in use of DDT, but I am way more inclined to assign causation to the effective end of utterly irresponsible hunting by teenage farm boys. Not only do we have less said farm boys, but they all know better.

Growing up in Mid Western Ontario back in the sixties, all game was scant. Yet I was out every day with a rifle in hand patrolling our fifty hectares of country side with a dog on hand to flush game. This was common and in the two decades that we covered, I saw a deer once, grouse once and multiple foxes and no end of groundhogs and rabbits. I was looking and catching little.

All that has now changed, not least because it is no longer fifty hectares but assembled into 500 hectares and the farm boys have been told off on hunting raptors and most game. Thus the deer are all crowding back as well as everything else. In the end, it will need management protocols to control their populations if not so already.

Record numbers of owls at a refuge in the Fraser Delta suggests record populations up country. Snowy owls are Arctic adapted to start with and more reasonably, they are expanding their range.

In any case, Vancouver has large populations of raptors because it is the focus of migrants from Alaska and BC. It is not unusual to see flocks of several dozen eagles here.

Record number of owls and other raptors needing help in Lower Mainland

10 snowy owls among the 485 birds treated at Delta rehabilitation centre

By Larry Pynn, Vancouver Sun December 27, 2012

http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Record+number+owls+other+raptors+needing+help+Lower+Mainland/7750111/story.html#ixzz2GNBNzBH4

A record 485 raptors, including emaciated snowy owls from the Arctic, have been brought to the two-hectare OWL rehabilitation centre in south Delta so far this year.

“We’ve never broken 400 before,” OWL founder Bev Day said in an interview Thursday. “It tells you how bad the birds are doing.”

Loss of habitat due to development, including port expansion and the South Fraser Perimeter Road, as well as conversion of traditional farmland to blueberry production have resulted in less prey to go around, Day said.

A total of 10 snowy owls — most of them starving, but also one that flew into a power line — have been brought to the centre, not just from Delta, but from as far afield as Prince George, Pemberton, and Hope. Only one has survived.

Snowy owls are so desperate for food they have been spotted as far south as California, Day said.

The survival rate for all 485 raptors brought in this year, including eagles, hawks, owls, and falcons, is about 70 per cent.

People are phoning to report snowy owls on their house roofs, but Day said people should not be concerned unless the birds are seen on the ground and in distress. Photographers looking for the perfect shot are urged not to harass the birds by approaching too close.

Wet weather can also make it more difficult to for the birds to access prey, Day said, adding that raptors with weakened immune systems are also at risk of contracting aspergillosis, a lung disease.

She noted that development of the South Fraser Perimeter Road includes some good mitigation measures, but they are no substitute for the 90 hectares of farmland removed for the $1.2-billion development. “It doesn’t replace everything, but they are working on it,” she said.

Among the mitigation measures are wildlife tunnels and the creation of marsh habitat.

The conversion of traditional farmland to blueberry production also eliminates habitat in which the raptors might otherwise find prey, Day said. Agricultural pesticides — a poisoning risk — are also an issue.

Formed 37 years ago, OWL (owlcanada.ca) receives no direct government funding and is struggling to make ends meet given the large volume of raptors. Cash donations are appreciated, as well as contributions of wild game and fish, but not commercially processed poultry or other meats.

Pat Wagar of the Mountainaire Avian Rescue Society in Courtenay said the facility has received six emaciated snowy owls, of which only one survived. Among the other birds brought in for treatment are a long-eared owl, short-eared owl, and a brown pelican.

Vampire Pterosaurs

 Suddenly we have plausible fossil evidence for the gargoyle cum Chupacabra. My reason for not considering such an evolutionary path other than extending the bat lineage was zero fossil evidence. That just disappeared and we now have a convincing start point.

We have even retrieved reports in which this creature ha been eyeballed. That it is part of the pterosaur lineage solves all sorts of difficulties. Even the fur evidence conforms nicely.

Of interest is the second sketch which explains wing handling.

We already knew that there is evidence of extant pterosaurs who hunt at night and avoid us. The large ones are able to span the globe and have been spotted in North America.

They also represent the best and likeliest explanation for cattle mutilation deaths.

Was there really a vampire who fed on dinosaur blood?

http://io9.com/5887411/was-there-really-a-vampire-dinosaur

Prepare to be confronted with something scarier (and cuter) than Jurassic Park's raptors. In the mid to late Jurassic, the world was full of furry, flying vampire pterosaurs who fed on dino blood.

The Jeholopterus was a small pterosaur who was found in Northeastern China. Though originally identified as an insect-eater, an odd mystery about the animal eventually led one researcher to suggest the creature was actually feeding on the blood of nearby sauropods. Let's take a look at the discovery of Jeholopterus, and what spurred great debate over whether it was a blood-sucker.

The top image is artist Maija Karala's interpretation of Jeholopterus.

Soaring over China in the Jurassic

Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences published the journal article A nearly complete articulated rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur with exceptionally well-preserved wing membranes and "hairs" from Inner Mongolia, Northeast China. The paper recorded the discovery of a new pterosaur,Jeholopterus ninchengensis.

The researchers named the pterosaur for the area of its discovery, Ningcheng County of Inner Mongolia. The wingspan ofJeholopterus is a little less than three feet and the pterosaur likely weighed in around five to ten pounds - a little smaller than the average Barn Owl. Several fibers of "hair" are seen among the wings and body in the specimen, along with imprints from a large amount of soft tissue. The skull of the fossil is crushed, limiting interpretation of the head.

The authors placed Jeholopterus within the Anurognathidae group – a group of small pterosaurs known for feeding on insects. But Jeholopterus, unlike most pterosaurs, does not have a long beak. This absence played into speculation about Jeholopterus' interactions with dinosaurs.

The Vampire Theory

In the 2003 article The Chinese vampire and other overlooked pterosaur ptreasures published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, David Peters observed a couple of unusual features in Jeholopterus separating it from the average Jurassic pterosaur.

Peters is not a practicing archaeologist, but an art director and natural history writer with several peer reviewed journal articles under his belt. Peters did his work using a scanned and enlarged image of the Jeholopterus fossil uncovered by the researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Using imaging techniques and Photoshop, Peters created tracings of theJeholopterus specimen in order to elaborate on the soft tissue features of the pterosaur and the skull, as the one in the fossil is crushed. It is important to note Peters did not examine the fossil itself, only images of the fossil.

In this analysis, Peters reconstructed the skull, observing elongated teeth akin to like pliers, a fortified palate able Jeholopterus to deliver a swift blow and powerful blow, a possible mechanism by which the teeth could be locked into place after a strike. Additionally, Peters observed a horse-like tail possibly used to swat away small insects.

The pterosaur seemed to have the ability to deliver a strong blow, plus it had fangs — and a method to lock the fangs into another animal after striking. All these features led Peters to suggest Jeholopterus latched onto the backs of sauropods and lapped up blood from fang wounds. Peters doesn't offer any reasons for vampiric behavior — he simply offers it as a physiological possibility.

Backlash from the Paleontology Community

Not all paleontologists are fans of Peters' methods. Christopher Bennett, a Professor at Fort Hays State University, assails Peters' conclusions in the article Pterosaur Science or Pterosaur Fantasy? Bennett points out that several fellow paleontologists are unable to independently repeat the imaging techniques leading to evidence for vampirism.

Additionally, Bennet notes several paleontologists are uncomfortable with Peters' separation from the fossils themselves, as Peters performs most of his work without observing the fossils in person. The inability for other paleontologists to reproduce Peters' findings using the same techniques calls the vampirism into question.

Can we Prove That Jeholopterus Slurped Vital Fluids?

Honestly, without a living Jeholopterus to observe, we really cannot be sure of its unique attributes. That said, I would certainly feel more comfortable about accepting the vampireJeholopterus view if a number of other interested parties reproduced Peters' results.

What is interesting in this situation is the use of non-traditional imaging techniques by someone outside of the world of traditional paleontology to inform the world of academia, regardless of widespread acceptance. Think of it as citizen science on an extreme level - David Peters is making important contributions, even if he's succeeding only in rattling the cage of the academic mainstream.