My New Years Resolution is to be more positive and less sarcastic.....

Like I won't screw that up right away.

2013....

Nightstick, check, taking bribes from local gangster, check! Sense of moral superiority over fellow citizens, check! Time to arrest me some peeps!

Surviving Progress

The dominant culture measures itself by the speed of “progress”. But what if this so-called progress is actually driving us full force towards collapse? Surviving Progress shows how past civilisations were destroyed by “progress traps” — alluring technologies and belief systems that serve immediate needs, but ransom the future. As pressure on the environment accelerates and financial elites bankrupt nations, can our globally-entwined civilisation escape a final, catastrophic progress trap?

Surviving Progress

Happy New Year !.....

.....now do yourself a favor....

Destroy All Humans !

Now, Crypto, to ensure this invasion runs smoothly it is imperative we identify the dominant life forms on this world. Those lactating bovoids are likely candidates.

Surely you don't mean those foul-smelling gasbags beyond the fence?

Yes, I'm afraid I do.

But they're covered in nipples!

It's an ambush! Circle the wagons! Throw me a shotgun! Get the womenfolk inside! Oh... I must stop watching human television. Ah, screw it. Destroy them all!

“Thoreau is probably the greatest spokesman of the last two hundred years for the view that we must turn not to the state, not to a God, and not to a society, but to nature for our morality.”

Lazy Sunday...........

Planning....Soon.....

Fertile Ground: Soil Map Gives the Dirt on US

Quick: What's your official state soil? If you're like most Americans, you probably have no idea what you've been standing on all these years — or that you even had an official state soil.

Fertile Grounds

Man Walks All Day to Create Spectacular Snow Patterns

Artist Simon Beck must really love the cold weather! Along the frozen lakes of Savoie, France, he spends days plodding through the snow in raquettes (snowshoes), creating these sensational patterns of snow art. Working for 5-9 hours a day, each final piece is typically the size of three soccer fields! The geometric forms range in mathematical patterns and shapes that create stunning, sometimes 3D, designs when viewed from higher levels.

My Modern Metropolis

Protests Against Arizona Snowbowl Continues As Ski Season Begins

Hardy activists braved single-digit temperatures in Flagstaff on December 21 to protest Arizona Snowbowl, the resort atop the sacred San Francisco Peaks that will soon blanket its slopes with snow made from reclaimed wastewater.

Article

"The Season's Upon Us"

Ministry Guitarist Mike Scaccia Dies After Onstage Collapse

Mike Scaccia, the guitarist for Ministry and Rigor Mortis, died on Saturday night at the age of 47. Scaccia was performing onstage at the Rail Club in Fort Worth, Texas, as part of a 50th birthday celebration for Rigor Mortis singer Bruce Corbitt, when he collapsed. Shortly afterwards, he was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Article

The Spirit of Christmas - A heartwarming tale of seasonal goodwill.

Prometheus And Bob

The underappreciated Ursid meteor shower peaks Saturday

and the moon is looking none too bad either

The Ursids were probably discovered by William F. Denning who observed them for several years around the start of the 20th century.[2] While there were sporadic observations after, the first coordinated studies of shower didn't begin until Dr. A. Bečvář observed an outburst of 169 per hour in 1945.[2] Further observations in the 1970s and ongoing to current have established a relationship with comet 8P/Tuttle.[2] Peter Jenniskens and Esko Lyytinen discovered that outbursts could happen when comet Tuttle was at aphelion because some meteorids get trapped in the 7/6 orbital resonance with Jupiter.

Ursid

Some thoughts have a certain sound, that being the equivalent to a form. Through sound and motion, you will be able to paralyze nerves, shatter bones, set fires, suffocate an enemy or burst his organs. We will kill until no Harkonnen breathes Arakeen air.

“Did you hear? It’s the sound of their world collapsing”

As one Maya era draws to an end, and thousands of Zapatistas silently re-emerge from the dark of night to peacefully occupy the town squares of Chiapas, Subcomandante Marcos of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation released a defiant communiqué from the depths of the Lacandon jungle.

Article

Native American Ice Cannibal Stories: The Dog and the Windigo Spirit

Two Ojibwa Indians in a canoe had been blown far from shore by a great wind. They had gone far and were hungry and lost. They had little strength left to paddle, so they drifted before the wind.

At last their canoe was blown onto a beach and they were glad, but not for long......

Fact or Fiction ?

PIE

So Now What?

submedia.tv

Happy Dooms Day!!

The Oreo Code?

What’s the story behing the strange markings on an Oreo cookie?

Around the “OREO” centerpiece we find a strange symbol; an oval with a double-bar cross coming out of the top. This is an old alchemical symbol for ‘amalgam’, which is an interesting way to reference the black cookie/white icing mixture that is the crispy/creamy goodness of our beloved snack. The Templars were into alchemy.

There are 90 little hashmarks that make up the cookie edge. In the Memphis-Misraim system there are 90 degrees to be worked. Does the edging of the cookie really carry a coded message about ties to Eyptian Freemasonry or is it just chocolaty calories? Speaking of Egyptian connections, could Nabisco, the makers of Oreo cookies, have something sinister in its name? NABIS-CO? As in, Anubis, the hungry jackal-god of Egyptian mythology? Probably not. It’s a shortened form of NAtional BIScuit COmpany.

What about the twelve cross formée, favored symbol of Knights Templar and their alleged offspring, the Freemasons, which surround the name? Twelve is powerful in numerology, but according to the creator of the cookie’s design, William A. Turnier, there was no Masonic connection, although his father was a Freemason.

That still doesn’t explain the inverted square and compass that sits underneath the Oreo symbol. In fact, the dot/dash pattern around the edge is actually morse code.

E is a single dot A is a dot dash T is a single dash

E-A-T all the way around the cookie. SUBLIMINAL ADVERTISING AT IT’S VERY BEST!

The Lobo ParaMilitary Christmas Special

Feel pretty comfortable with our place atop the food-chain ?

Mont Royal Park, a wooded hilltop located less than a mile from the heart of downtown Montreal, is a popular destination for urban-dwellers looking for an easy escape from the hum of the city. But on a recent outing to that slice of landscaped nature, one family narrowly avoided a tragic reminder that our place atop the food-chain isn't without some competition.

treehugger

When you wish.....

PIE

FLOW - For Love Of Water

thoughtmaybe

His mom used one when she kept him in the attic... it helps him feel at home, especially at Christmas, every year around this time he tries to escape....

All good things must come to and end.....

Koyaanisqatsi

How do you like me now Madagascar !

(insert Maniacal Laughter)

(insert Maniacal Laughter)

(insert Maniacal Laughter)

(insert Maniacal Laughter)

Definition of MANIACAL

:1 affected with or suggestive of madness

:2 characterized by ungovernable excitement or frenzy : frantic

Carlisle Clam and his Christmas Creature

To what lengths will an ingenious young boy go to prove the existence of jolly old Saint Nick?

No matter how great your triumphs or how tragic your defeats -- approximately one billion Chinese couldn't care less....

I Hate Madagascar.......

Health Information: Travelers can check the latest health information with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia. A hotline at 800-CDC-INFO (800-232-4636) and a web site at http://wwwn.cdc.gov/travel/default.aspx give the most recent health advisories, immunization recommendations or requirements, and advice on food and drinking water safety for regions and countries. The CDC publication "Health Information for International Travel" can be found at http://wwwn.cdc.gov/travel/contentYellowBook.aspx.

I was moments away from achieving my goal of destroying Humanity when..... much to my dismay .......MadAFuckinGascar....

The Gavin Strain was well on it's way to total infection....

soon Madagascar......soon....

Pandemic 2

Great Moments in Science

Manure ?

Manure shall be steer manure that has been well composted and unleached, and which has been collected from cattle feeder operations. Manure shall be free of sticks, stones, earth, weed seed, substances injurious or toxic to plant growth and visible amounts of under composted straw or bedding material. Manure shall not contain lumps or any foreign substance that will not pass a 1/2-inch screen and, when specified for lawn use, the material shall be ground or screened so as to pass a 1/4-inch screen.

A Comic Of Questionable Taste

And now for the "Hut" aficionados........

The word good has many meanings. For example, if a man were to shoot his grandmother at a range of five hundred yards, I should call him a good shot, but not necessarily a good man ...

Holiday Greetings......(let's get this out of the way)

I’d like to take advantage of this early opportunity to wish all of you an enjoyable Christmas season and a happy New Year filled with good fortune. Of course I realize this can’t happen for everyone. Some of you are going to die next year, and others will be crippled and maimed in accidents, perhaps even completely paralyzed. Still others will be stricken with diseases that can’t be cured, or will be horribly scarred in fires. And lets not forget the robberies and rapes – there’ll be lots of them. Therefore many of you will not be able to enjoy the happy and fortunate New Year I’m wishing for you. So just try and do the best you can.

George Carlin

It's A Bad Brains Christmas, Charlie Brown from Tad Was Here on Vimeo.

Something to think about.....

I don't belive in staying a step ahead. ONE step is enough for someone to kick your ass. I like to keep myself a nice distance of five steps. That way if I hear anyone behind me I can turn around and stab the motherfucker.

Charles Marshall

Plastic.....

“We’re so self-important. Everybody’s going to save something now. “Save the trees, save the bees, save the whales, save those snails.” And the greatest arrogance of all: save the planet. Save the planet, we don’t even know how to take care of ourselves yet. I’m tired of this shit.

I’m tired of f-ing Earth Day. I’m tired of these self-righteous environmentalists, these white, bourgeois liberals who think the only thing wrong with this country is that there aren’t enough bicycle paths. People trying to make the world safe for Volvos. Besides, environmentalists don’t give a shit about the planet. Not in the abstract they don’t. You know what they’re interested in? A clean place to live. Their own habitat. They’re worried that some day in the future they might be personally inconvenienced. Narrow, unenlightened self-interest doesn’t impress me.

The planet has been through a lot worse than us. Been through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drift, solar flares, sun spots, magnetic storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles … hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets and asteroids and meteors, worldwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays, recurring ice ages … And we think some plastic bags and some aluminum cans are going to make a difference? The planet isn’t going anywhere. WE are!

We’re going away. Pack your shit, folks. We’re going away. And we won’t leave much of a trace, either. Maybe a little Styrofoam … The planet’ll be here and we’ll be long gone. Just another failed mutation. Just another closed-end biological mistake. An evolutionary cul-de-sac. The planet’ll shake us off like a bad case of fleas.

The planet will be here for a long, long, LONG time after we’re gone, and it will heal itself, it will cleanse itself, ’cause that’s what it does. It’s a self-correcting system. The air and the water will recover, the earth will be renewed. And if it’s true that plastic is not degradable, well, the planet will simply incorporate plastic into a new paradigm: the earth plus plastic. The earth doesn’t share our prejudice toward plastic.

Plastic came out of the earth. The earth probably sees plastic as just another one of its children. Could be the only reason the earth allowed us to be spawned from it in the first place. It wanted plastic for itself. Didn’t know how to make it. Needed us. Could be the answer to our age-old egocentric philosophical question, “Why are we here?”

Plastic… asshole.”

Earth’s most threatened tribe

Many Awá are still uncontacted, and they are running for their lives. ‘One man has the power to stop the loggers: Brazil’s Minister of Justice. But it’s just not his priority. Let’s push it up his list.’

‘If you destroy the forest, you destroy us too.’

Sandstones of the Utah-Arizona Borderlands

About 50 years ago, W. Rex Brown was amazed by evocative patterns and “pictures” he noticed in sandstone near his hometown of Kanab, Utah. As many have observed since, the designs seem to mimic the landscape all around Kanab, which is the famed red-rock country of the Colorado Plateau along the Utah-Arizona border. The region is home to such national parks and monuments as Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce Canyon and Grand Staircase-Escalante – all within striking distance of Kanab. When cut into slabs large and small, the images on the quarried stone evoke Colorado Plateau landscapes that appear to be decorated with ridges, buttes, pinnacles, valleys and eroded swirls (top photo). Brown and a partner subsequently formed Western Hills Rock & Gem Inc. to market “nature’s most beautiful paintings” as “Kanab Wonderstone,” “Kanab Goldenstone” and “Arizona Sierra,” quarried in both Utah and Arizona. The photo at bottom shows the natural design of a cut boulder outside of the shop. Large pieces of sandstone are mounted on walls in the Kanab shop. Some are framed. Smaller stones have been transformed into clocks, paperweights, picture frames and figurines, such as howling coyotes. Occasionally slabs are painted by artists, who may insert barns, roads and fence lines, adding a pastoral effect to Nature’s gritty canvas. For most of the artful stones, what you see is what you get, but in a few cases, as with Arizona Sierra, the rock is treated with heat to bring out richer, terra cotta tints.

According to postings in the Western Hills Shop, picture sandstone is actually part of the Shinarump Formation, laid down 180 million to 220 million years ago by water and wind. The U.S. Geological Survey describes the Shinarump as a basal conglomerate and pebbly sandstone member of the more extensive Chinle Formation, formed during the Late Triassic. The colors and designs within the rock are created by iron oxides, which filtered into the porous rock from mineral springs. Photo taken on November 7, 2012. Photo details: TOP - Camera Maker: NIKON CORPORATION; Camera Model: NIKON D60; Focal Length: 35.0mm; Aperture: f/5.3; Exposure Time: 0.033 s (1/30); ISO equiv: 400; Exposure Bias: none; Metering Mode: Matrix; Flash Fired: No (enforced); Orientation: Normal; Color Space: sRGB; Software: QuickTime 7.6.4. Bottom - Same except Focal Length: 20.0mm; Aperture: f/9.0; Exposure Time: 0.013 s (1/80); ISO equiv: 200.

Earth Science Picture of The Day

The End of THEIR World

submedia.tv

Speaking of Pandemics.....

Genome reveals evidence for Antique Bubonic Plague pandemic

In a comparison of more than 300 contemporary strains of Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes bubonic plague, with ancient bacterial DNA isolated from victims of the Black Death (1347 – 1351), a team led by researchers at University of Tuebingen obtained evidence suggestive of a bubonic plague outbreak in the late antique period (8th to 10th centuries AD).

Link

What DNA actually looks like

Researchers at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia strung a molecule between two nano-towers and subjected it to transmission electron microscopy at extreme magnification. Until last week the double helix model had been an indirect inference, albeit an extremely robust one, from techniques like crystallography. The new paper, in Nano Letters, is just the thing for those who like to see evidence with their own eyes.

Scientific American

I did not vote this year.....

"I have solved this political dilemma in a very direct way: I don't vote. On Election Day, I stay home.

I firmly believe that if you vote, you have no right to complain. Now, some people like to twist that around. They say, 'If you don't vote, you have no right to complain,' but where's the logic in that?

If you vote, and you elect dishonest, incompetent politicians, and they get into office and screw everything up, you are responsible for what they have done.

You voted them in. You caused the problem. You have no right to complain.

I, on the other hand, who did not vote -- who did not even leave the house on Election Day -- am in no way responsible for what these politicians have done and have every right to complain about the mess that you created."

Table and Chairs.....

The horses in this photo really do look like they are miniature, but they are normal size. The pretty ponies are standing under a gigantic wooden table and two chairs while grazing in a meadow near Doellstaedt, central Germany on Nov. 1. According to the Associated Press, the huge garden furniture was installed by local wood designer Jens Braun as a shelter for his horses.

Thinksquad

THE MADNESS OF A LOST SOCIETY

The Cult of the Dead Fish

Tar Sands Oil Boom Drives Push for A Northern Pipeline

The rapid development of Alberta’s tar sands has spawned a new proposal for a 731-mile pipeline that would transport oil to the British Columbia coast. The project is strongly opposed by conservationists and First Nations leaders, who fear the environmental risks it would bring.

Yale Enviroment 360