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Barycenter Blues

"OK, so what is a "barycenter" and why is it more than making a gazillion dollars or getting the Jobs Report this morning?"  Simple enough question and a somewhat complicated answer but possibly significant.  We begin with the diagram at the JPL site of this inbound object 2005 YU55 which is due to visit local space between us and the moon on November 8th-9th.  A NASA press release (March 10, 2011) explains more detail:

Near-Earth asteroid 2005 YU55 will pass within 0.85 lunar distances from the Earth on November 8, 2011. The upcoming close approach by this relatively large 400 meter-sized, C-type asteroid presents an excellent opportunity for synergistic ground-based observations including optical, near infrared and radar data. The attached animated illustration shows the Earth and moon flyby geometry for November 8th and 9th when the object will reach a visual brightness of 11th magnitude and should be easily visible to observers in the northern and southern hemispheres. The closest approach to Earth and the Moon will be respectively 0.00217 AU and 0.00160 AU on 2011 November 8 at 23:28 and November 9 at 07:13 UT

Now, a 400 meter object is big enough to be a real pain should it hit something - since that's 1,312 feet or, because it's early, almost a quarter mile across.

 

BUT the good news is that it will miss Earth and likely miss the moon by a comfortable distance.

 

"OK, so why worry?"

 

Well, there's the tiniest of chances that the Earth's barycenter may be at risk.  Wikipedia offers insight as does this drawing...

"The center of mass plays an important role in astronomy and astrophysics, where it is common referred to as the barycenter. The barycenter is the point between two objects where they balance each other; it is the center of mass where two or more celestial bodies orbit each other. When a moon orbits a planet, or a planet orbits a star, both bodies are actually orbiting around a point that lies outside the center of the primary (the larger body).[26] For example, the moon does not orbit the exact center of the Earth, but a point on a line between the center of the Earth and the Moon, approximately 1,710 km below the surface of the Earth, where their respective masses balance. This is the point about which the Earth and Moon orbit as they travel around the Sun."

So far, so good.  Earth and Moon are in a dance - but YU55 is transient, so no biggie....right?

 

It's here that we come into the realm  of advanced math, gravity wells, impacts of gravitational fields on orbits and what have you. 

 

Our interest is piqued by a 1999 article in "The Astronomical Journal, 117:1086, 1999 February"   where we find (P.3) that indeed, asteroids do have something to do with planet-sized objects, in this case Mars was being discussed, but pay attention to the highlight:

"Asteroid perturbations are the largest source of incompletely modeled perturbations of the planets, especially Mars and the Earth-Moon barycenter. Williams (1984) shows no less than seven asteroids capable of making periodic perturbations of more than a kilometer in MarsÏs position. The largest asteroid, Ceres, has only 0.13% the mass of Mars and is located within the asteroid belt itself. Hence, it and the other asteroids are much more sensitive to the perturbations of the asteroids than are the planets. Thus, to achieve high accuracy, the physical model for the asteroid ephemerides must include perturbations by other asteroids."

About here, if the coffee is strong, you  might be thinking "So YU55 at some very, very low level, could move the Earth-Moon barycenter....which might what....set off earthquakes, or something?"

 

Bingo!  While most people would not directly connect the dots if a large quake were to occur a day or two after the passing of YU55, we find the emphasis on closing down coms and putting the voice of Fearless Leader all over the country next week, while the US Navy is offshore with Pacific Wave 11 (tsunami response drill, eh?) interestingly coincidental.

 

So for about the past 20-hours, I've been trying to find the definitive piece of science that would at least project any change in earthquake probability based on Earth-Moon barycenter perturbations by a passing (quarter-mile sized) object.

 

Haven't found it yet, but that doesn't mean the work hasn't been done.  I'd wager a dime....heck, maybe even a quarter....that someone has run out the numbers and although the EANS Test will likely be quite routine, the timing within 24-hours of YU55's passage is at least notable.

 

How many inches or feet of barycenter would it take to trigger a significant quake this week?  We don't know that as our Cray is in the shop.   Answer that and maybe we find out what the 22½ hours of predictive linguistic release language in a three or four day window which includes the passage through two or three days after, is all about.

 

No point doing further research since the meaningful data is about a week off and we'll be going shopping...just in case.

---

Yes, the spiders are out and yes, another run of the rickety time machine will be released in December (second week maybe).  The good news is that the "data gap" seems to be resolving as almost a "wall" of high immediacy and short-term duration values.  But, the bad news is that the release language that starts in March of 2012 just keeps going and going and going....

 

If you're looking for when the Big Slide into either the undeniable/totally obvious part of the Second Depression becomes visible, or we're off into the Second Dark Age, next spring seems like that will be where the big slide seems likely.  Ask yourself  "What would cause years of release language?"

 

Greater Depression, World War, Aliens show up, or massive Earth changes...something worthy of Cecil B. DeMille cinematography  or Irwin Allen is what we're talking.  The December run will hopefully shed some light, but like YU55, the data is going to show up on it's own anyway, so no point getting too worked up over it.

 

Besides what was going to be a 2½ minute test has been shortened to 30 seconds.  Which is cool because I was wondering how long it takes to say "This is a test...."  My suggested script?

"This is a test of the emergency action notification system.  This is only a test.  In the event of a real emergency, you would be buried in rubble, drowning, or already be powdered by the big blinding flash.  But your government is all safe in bunkers and we wanted to share that with you by showing off our ability to communicate with possible survivors and reassure citizens  that we'll get to helping shortly when the danger is past.   For now: Good luck.  This concludes this test of the emergency action notification system. Have a nice day."

Jobs Report

As expected, green shoots are popping out all over.....kinda, sorta....

Nonfarm payroll employment continued to trend up in October (+80,000), and the unemployment rate was little changed at 9.0 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment in the private sector rose, with modest job growth continuing in professional and businesses services, leisure and hospitality, health care, and mining. Government employment continued to trend down.

Household Survey Data

Both the number of unemployed persons (13.9 million) and the unemployment rate (9.0 percent) changed little over the month. The unemployment rate has remained in a narrow range from 9.0 to 9.2 percent since April.

We see in Table A-1 that the civilian labor force was up by 181-thosuand but the number of unemployed dropped only 95-thousand.  Table 15 (U-6) shows the under and unemployed at 16.2%, somewhat improved.

 

But, in asking why I'm still not clear where the 104 thousand new jobs in construction since February have come from in the CES Birth/Death Model, but I'm slow and it is Friday, after all...

 

Pop Swap

Pepsico is reported swapping its mainland Chinese pop bottling operations for a part of the beverage side of Tingyi Holding (which does noodles and more).

Just our kind of "pop culture" development.

 

Corporate Governance Dept

Say, if you want to get a better sense of where the Security State merger of corporations taking over human government goes, check out the UK Guardian article on how the city of London is an "unaccountable corporation".  Ah, Kafka would be pleased.

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And for a clearer understanding how how corporations run your government these days, you might want to read the Jamie Dupree Washington Insider report over at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution site where he recounts CBS' asking about House Speaker Pelosi and hubby being involved in the Visa IPO deal circa 2008 about when major credit card company legislation was going through the House.  Or, Breitbart has video here...  Oh, and John Boehner gets asked a parallel question about trading in healthcare related trades.

 

But, with the cozy relationship between the [gigantic] lobbying interests and people in office, what about having our "leaders" put everything in savings bonds while they're in office?  Seems to me the quickest road to riches shouldn't run through Washington, know what I mean?

 

Perils of Detroit

Remember I told you we'd be keeping an eye on Detroit, since when we were up there in June, about one building in four in the downtown area was vacant.  Well, comes now a report that about a hundred bus drivers won't be making their runs this morning because they're worried about teen mob attacks.

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Seems to me that OWS is pretty respectable, but coming along in a lot of big cities "feels" like a wave of low-level anarchy...it'll be interesting to see how this all plays out....  miht not help ATF sending guns to drug gangs, either.

 

In a way, it's all reassuring, though.  Yes, the world really is crazy.

 

Speaking of Nuts

Greece is still in turmoil...the referendum on the EU is off, if we follow this right, but only for now.  Markets seem like they will be looking for direction after the nice pop yesterday...oil is firming and that usually means either war coming in the Middle East OR there's a recovery out there somewhere.

 

More after this...

 

 

Coping:  Friday at the WuJo

We continue getting reports from readers who are experiencing WuJo-like events....things that happen which seem on the one hand to be real and rational and yet coincidental almost prophetic or woo-woo-like on the other:

Today's Urban Survival brought up some excellent points about heading into a large-scale war. The concept ties together very neatly everything going on in the world today. If you want to get into the esoterics of it - which (the way I'm framing the term "esoteric") is the basis for all of the Shape reports - indicators are overwhelming. Back around 2000 a lot of noise started being made about people constantly seeing the time 11:11 on their clocks. It became such an issue that entire books were published on the subject. For the past week or so I've been inundated with occurrences of glancing at the clock at 11:11. The phenomenon (if you could call it that) was almost invariably attributed to some kind of indicative synchronicity. Only in hind site did it occur to me: what was running through people's minds at the time of the 11:11 display? How would that relate to global warfare breaking out on 11/11/11? How would their current thought train be impacted by global war breaking out?

For those of us in the US of A, t's going to be a lot different this time. We are no longer unreachable and off limits. There will be invasions on our soil from every conceivable corridor - air, land, sea, even space. We will see foreign hostile soldiers on our doorsteps. And there really can't be a plan for handling this. It's going to be one hour at a time, fly by the seat of your pants. Trust the Force, Luke. You can stock up food, and have it taken from you. You can build a shelter and have that invaded. If you're out in the boonies, you'll show up like a red flag on half the satellites out there. Not to mention every survival-related purchase you've made being tracked and added to a nice little database for later round-up. There will be no survival by one's wits, even though we have no real choice except to act logically and responsibly, doing the best we can to stay alive. But ultimately it's strictly us and universe. If it wants us alive, we'll stay alive. If not, we won't. That's all it seems to come down to.

I suspect it's going to get quite interesting....

Seem to be headed down that road, alright.

 

Fuk(?)shima & Timeslip?

Seem's I'm not the only one who remembers Fukishima being spelled with two "i's" and not the currently predominate "Fukushima"...

The reference to the spelling , of a certain , Japanese town , struck me as most peculiar . I too remember the original spelling , which caused me to search archives , to determine exactly when , the aforementioned event occurred . To my chagrin , every arhcive I visited contained the new spelling , including yours . I feel it most important to pinpoint the time this occurred ! The tone in my most egregious tinnitus shifted dramatically @ 11:38 am PST 10-31-2011

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Actually a "time slip" - both my husband and I note that the entire west coast of the U.S. and especially Baja California are NOT the same as when we sat through geography classes in school (me in California and he in Oregon). We both remember quite clearly that Baja looked a lot like a mirror image of Florida - sort of thick-looking, side-to-side, and there was no 'hook' on Baja, either. A lot of both the southern California coast and the Oregon/Washington coasts have seemingly gone underwater - the continental plate you can "see" below ocean level is what the west coast of the U.S. "ought" to look like. I noticed it about 3 or 4 years ago and canNOT shake the absolute certainty, inside, that "they changed things and the coast looks all wrong!" Of course, there is no way to verify it... but we have also experienced a couple different celebrities that died, notices all over the media, and now they are definitively NOT dead. Gets confusing, eh? "What reality are we in THIS week?"

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You are correct about fukushima. Wow. Funny thing, I just watched "the adjustment bureau". And the final comment, I am losing my taste for wine as well. Been having a daily glass or three every day for the last six years up until about a month ago. Same thing with coffee!

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Wow, I was SURE it was Fukishima, with an I.

When I read your comment, I figured you just missed something so I jumped to Google, and wow… you’re right ;)

I would have sworn it was with an i.

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Fuku from fuki does seem different also on sunday 10/30 my wife read sherly temple black was going to be 80 something. We both thought she had passed. I can remember seeing it on the news. Strange feeling.

This is totally fascinating stuff to ponder because there are times when it really seems (sampling a large number of emails I get daily) that 10-20 percent of the population notices "timeslips" with little telltales like the changing of how Fukishima became Fukushima.

 

Of course spellings are the only thing that gets slippery.  Take this reader report out of mid-town Miami:

The other day I parked in a restaurant parking lot and carelessly swung my car door open, hitting and denting the door of an adjacent car. I went inside the restaurant and found the owner of the car door I'd just dented. We both went out to look at the damage, but upon close inspection, found not a scratch. I then fully opened my door to demonstrate how I distinctly recall hitting and denting her door, and lo and behold, I find my fully open door resting about 10 inches away from her door making it impossible to have ever hit her car in the first place. My adult Son was with me and experienced the entire thing too, so I have a reliable witness... to this shared hallucination, or whatever.

Thanks for your writings George, I am so enjoying them.

I do too....it's the reader contributions that are the most amazing part of it, not my little dribs and dabs in between...

 

Appetite for Change

Been getting a lot of emails from people who report their tastes for food and drink are changing, ever since I lost my taste for wine and most of my interest in red meat...  Some examples:

I've recently lost half or more of my healthy appetite and what remains leans towards sugars or fruits and veggies. Meat and alcohol seem particularly unappealing. Unfortunately no loss of weight; in fact, a few pounds of increase strangely enough; usually fairly stable. Was about to schedule a doctor visit until your mention of it...

Is this prep for leaner times? Is it a cosmic cleansing? Delayed thyroid reaction to Fuk-fallout? Why some and not others? Is this in a specific geographic area or global?

Go to the doc anyway...don't ignore those inner feelings!

 

More samples:

I have discovering lately that my tastes for many things have changed. I like the flavor of meat, any kind, but while I’m eating it I am thinking, “how are we ever going to live in a non-dual world where we are The Predators if we continue victimizing other life forms to eat them?” I mean, we talk about so-called aliens harvesting, experimenting, consuming living entities…..hello cuz! I don’t know the solution. I have had to hunt my own food when I lived in the Missouri backwaters, and raise my own chickens and rabbits; talk about teaching respect for life!, but what is the answer? My eyes face forward. I’m a predator meat eater but I don’t want to be a meat eater. Is that realistic for a Predator? Seriously.

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In reading your Nov2 issue on Urban Survival, you asked for readers that were losing their taste for meat and alcohol.

A few weeks ago my 14 year old grandson informed his parents he would no longer be eating meat and was going to eat only a vegetable diet. Since the family is very heavy on the meat, this came as a shock to his parents and they desperately tried to dissuade him from doing this. But to no avail. If they make a meal with meat, he won't eat it.

By the way....he is a straight A student and heavy into sports. He loves football. His grades have been going way up since this change in diet.

I rarely eat meat. Have a freezer full so it will come in handy for meat eaters in my family.

ALSO....my son-in-law who has been a heavy beer drinker for quite a while just suddenly quit last week. Said he doesn't much like it anymore. I personally worried he was an alcoholic but for someone like him to just up and quit, this is pretty remarkable. You'd have to know him to see what I see as being remarkable.

And the very same day my daughter decided to quit smoking! She's been a heavy smoker for many years and figured since her husband quit drinking, she'd quit smoking.

I'm writing this because a whole family suddenly losing their desire for strong habits is pretty unusual, doncha' think? And all within the time period of a couple to 3 weeks. And all recently.

Something is definitely in the wind and a good time for close observations.

----  another -----

...your wujo article about taste changes had me falling over in my chair; l thought that l was the only weirdo who had started to dislike wine and particularly, red meat. My dear husband brought steaks home for dinner last week ( he passes by a great restaurant on his way home from work) and l just stared at that thing like it was raw raccoon hide. l could NOT eat that steak ! l cut it up into little bites and fed it to the dogs. Two nights before, we were at a restaurant in Tyler and a couple next to us sent a bottle of red wine over as a friendly gesture. Not to be rude, l took ONE sip, complimented the "bouquet" and did not have any more. Now, l AM ( or was) a wine drinker- we have a wine cooler in our kitchen and used to buy our favorites by the case. But for the past 4-5 months, no wine for me , thanks. At a Halloween party on Monday night, l was the only one there drinking Sprite. And absolutely NO red meat. Last night at yet another Tyler restaurant, my husband pressured me into ordering a steak, as l have been ( according to the doctor) very anemic. Again, l ate the salad, baked potato and brown bread and had TEA to drink ( l have been craving tea like never before- can't sleep unless there is Lipton's in the house) and put the steak in a doggy bag. Please, please print this so that we can get more feedback on this strange phenomenon !

Not sure what to make of it...but my taste for red meat just ain't what it used to be and my losing interest in red wine could be the last straw that finally breaks the California economy.

 

Friday Follies next...

 

 

Care and Feeding of Engineers

Except for getting kicked out of a physics class for bringing in a handheld calculator (the school was still teaching slipsticks) I would probably have gone the E.E. route instead of MBA.  Still, engineers deserve our undying respect.

 

For example, I'm sure there's a reason why some cars have the gas filler on the left side, convenient to the driver, while others have their gas filler caps on the right but I've never met anyone in the auto industry who could tell me why some cars are one way while others are the opposite.  If you know how this fundamental decision is made, please share!

 

Also, without engineers. we wouldn't have huge public works which, in turn, require taxes, which in turn means government, bond issues, and the list goes on and on.

 

Engineers are also at the forefront of many industries which wrongly fail to appreciate the crucial role of excessive engineering.  I recently spent two hours trying to get a USB cable out of a shoplifting-proof carton.  Scissors, jack-hammer, and finally a bit of C4 to get it open.

 

So with this kind of "value engineering" (along with 28" pitch sairline seats which insure even the world's smallest midgets travel in discomfort), we're pleased to share the following insights into understanding engineers:

Understanding Engineers #1 Two engineering students were biking across a university campus when one said, "Where did you get such a great bike?" The second engineer replied, "Well, I was walking along yesterday, minding my own business, when a beautiful woman rode up on this bike, threw it to the ground, took off all her clothes and said, "Take what you want". The first engineer nodded approvingly and said, "Good choice: The clothes probably wouldn't have fit you anyway".

Understanding Engineers #2 To the optimist, the glass is half-full. To the pessimist, the glass is half-empty. To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

Understanding Engineers #3 A priest, a doctor, and an engineer were waiting one morning for a particularly slow group of golfers. The engineer fumed, "What's with those guys? We must have been waiting for fifteen minutes!" The doctor chimed in, "I don't know, but I've never seen such inept golf!" The priest said, "Here comes the green-keeper. Let's have a word with him." He said, "Hello, George. What's wrong with that group ahead of us? They're rather slow, aren't they?" The green-keeper replied,"Oh, yes. That's a group of blind firemen. They lost their sight saving our clubhouse from a fire last year, so we always let them play for free anytime." The group fell silent for a moment. The priest said, "That's so sad. I think I will say a special prayer for them tonight." The doctor said, "Good idea. I'm going to contact my ophthalmologist colleague and see if there's anything she can do for them." The engineer said, "Why can't they play at night?"

Understanding Engineers #4 What is the difference between mechanical engineers and civil engineers ? Mechanical engineers build weapons. Civil engineers build targets.

Understanding Engineers #5 The graduate with a science degree asks, "Why does it work?" The graduate with an engineering degree asks, "How does it work?" The graduate with an accounting degree asks, "How much will it cost?" The graduate with an arts degree asks, "Do you want fries with that?"

Understanding Engineers #6 Normal people believe that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Engineers believe that if it ain't broke, it doesn't have enough features yet.

I'd tell my favorite engineering joke, about how God is not a very good engineer...after all, in designing humans, who would put a playground next to a sewage treatment facility....but that might jeopardize our hard-fought PG-13 rating.

 

Easy come, easy go....but come back Monday for more exciting play-by-play here at the end of the world.  Cue our closing theme, would'ja?  After the commercial, then?  Fine....

 

More for subscribers tomorrow at www.peoplenomics.com.

 

 

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Riding the "News Wave"

Anyone who has been reading this column, or Clif's Shape of Things to Come reports is has no doubt figured that what we've called the "{Global Mind F***}" certainly bears at least an initial resemblance to the dying 900 pound gorilla MF Global.  If you figured that out without coaching and coffee, award yourself a gold star and take an extra 10-minutes at lunch, although admittedly, initial coincidences like this happen frequently around here.  We're only pausing briefly on the economic mountainside though and then we ought to be hitting the slopes again.  A fine time, indeed, to be clearing the decks and making sure of what?  Last minute preps, of course! First up, though, our usual assortment of charts and wry commentary as in this morning's report you get to peak over the news editor's shoulder and look at "news" decision-making in progress...

 

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Taming Cookies

Computer cookies have a purpose in life - they facilitate things like online banking and stock trading.  But there's a vicious side to them:  They can be used to track your web use without you even knowing about it.  And even more dangerous are the 'cross site' cookies which can install malware on your computer without you ever knowing it.

 

The answer?  Maxa Cookie Manager, MCM.

 

Take it for a free test drive by clicking here - and it you like it, activation is easily done. If you're a heavy web user (who ain't?) you may find like I do that you've accumulating a hundred or more cookies per day.  Only a handful need to be white-listed, like your brokerage account or your bank.  The rest?  Software designed to spy on you that robs you of computer performance.   Been using it for several years and pleased as the Dickens with it.

 

The "Do Drop Inn"

Amazing gardens in about 2 square feet of floor space: www.mygroponics.com.  And remember our saying at MyGroPonics:  It's OK to be a vegetable... 

 

Strange Dreams?

Post your weird dreams to help our research along into what goes on at night in people's heads: www.nationaldreamcenter.com

 

"Live on $10,000" A Year

Having a hard time making ends meet?  (Like who isn't, right?)  A good starting point to better match up income with outgo is our $10 e-book "How to Live on $10,000 a Year...or less!"

 

 

 

It's an automatic download.  It's written in an information dense style: The whole thing runs about 65 pages, but it gives you a vision of how to not only live on the cheap, but also how to migrate up the economic foodchain if you have a little hustle left.  A bonus section called "How to Build Anything" should instill confidence if you've never taken on a home improvement/home creation project before, too.....  Click here for the index and details.

 

Pass It On

Please pass along word of this site to your friends by simply clicking here to send 'em a short email.  - Thanks!

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Last week's report is always here.

 

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Thursday November 3, 2011

Iran War Notebook

What does the world need about now?  What with MF Global going down and a lot of embarrassing questions about how segregated funds became part of a gambling pool while regulators were out to lunch (putting it politely as I can) the need for a decent-sized war has almost never been greater, other than the late summer of 2001 when the whole world was about to see a global depression in the wake of the internet bubble bursting and trillions in retirement accounts trashed.

 

We're there again now, maybe.

 

So we begin our coverage with a suggestion to read up on how the "UK military steps up plans for Iran attack amid fresh nuclear fears" which pumps up the idea that Iran already has nukes and might be inclined to use them.

 

One of our trusted sources on military matters has been sharing some first-class thinking on this overs the past few days:

The above article dovetails neatly with what I'm hearing. We have not seen a military operation telegraphed quite like this since "Operation Desert Storm" (2 August 1990 - 28 February 1991). Here are several theories as to why:

- Like Op. Desert Storm, the U.S. (and by default, Israel) needs to build a solid coalition of support for any action taken against Iran. Building such a coalition covertly is impossible in today's media saturated world, and doing so requires public support. Controlled telegraphing of information by concerned parties helps to raise public awareness. In the U.S., this facilitates quicker congressional approval of the commitment of U.S. forces.

- If the U.S. and the U.K. do openly ally with Israel, no Islamic nation would ever 'officially' join the coalition. This prospect leaves out two regional power houses . . . Turkey and Saudi Arabia, and risks alienating Syria and possibly Egypt. However, Turkey and the Saudis may well have already agreed to tacitly 'stand by,' complaining a bit from the sidelines but taking no discernable military actions. By agreeing to do so, they will no doubt gain regional influence.

- The 'telegraphing' may simply be a measured psyops, pointed deterrence, a 'warning shot across the bow' to Iranian theocrats, politicos and key businessmen that if they continue along their current path, action will be taken.

Wild cards in all of this are China and Russia, both heavily invested in Iranian military and nuclear endeavors. Will they stand-by, or visibly ally themselves with the ancient Persians so as to maintain a viable 'presence' in the Persian Gulf?

During the Cold War stand-off between the Soviet Warsaw Pact and U.S. led NATO, strategy and policy geeks (like me) called the super power situation a 'bi-polar' world. Today, that term has a double entendre -- and many would term it a 'bi-polar disorder.' After the Soviet Union collapsed upon itself, the U.S. was left as the lone military super power in a 'mono-polar' world. The U.S. economy and military have since waned, and Russia and China, among others, may plan to 'fill the void.'

The Persian Gulf developments noticeably harkens back to Cold War regional proxy wars, with those same decided risks of military escalation. The problem being, all the veteran Cold War diplomats and military strategists from both sides are either long gone or flatly ignored. Without their acumen and discretion, things could quickly spiral into unanticipated territory.

It goes without saying -- this situation 'bears' watching!

---

This JPost article seems to be mostly bluff:

I would not expect Israeli censors to permit even idle speculation about any ensuing attack against Iran. So the above article may well be part of a concerted propaganda effort either trying to prevent war or pave the way leading up to it.

Breaking item:  Israeli security is looking into recent Iran sneak attack leaks.

Israeli diesel-electric subs, special forces and probably stealth drones and aircraft would likely comprise the leading edge of any Jewish first strike, not the massive waves of conventional aircraft the JPost article presupposes.

Bunker-buster bombs are pretty much a given in this operation -- either the 100+ 500-pound GBU-28s already shipped to Israel or, if the U.S. of A. gets involved overtly or covertly, the Massive Ordinance Penetrator , which is able to penetrate in excess of 100' of bedrock and packs a sizeable whollop.

As discussed in a past rendition of this exercise, one cannot rule out either Israel or the U.S. employing small yield Earth penetrating nukes in conjunction with the MoP or GBU-28. Detonation of these devices in sequence well below the surface would shatter underground facilities due to the bedrock earthquake 'wave' effect. The earth world contain the bulk of produced radioactive gasses and fallout from a small yield nuke. Any residual radioactivity that might be detected above ground could be blamed on the destruction of Iranian Uranium refinement devices and fissionable material storage areas.

I recall a year or so ago that Clif elicited strong indications of POTUS angst, potentially related to an Iranian/Israeli decision. The pieces of the puzzle seem to be lining-up -- the global economy is in the pooper, the planet is overcrowded, and Saudi Arabia has essentially provided Israel with a big 'green light' to stop Iran with claims of Iranian assassination plots and terror plans against the royal family. Meanwhile, Israel is surrounded by a blooming weed garden of Arab Springs. Netanyahu must quickly show resolve or risk losing all due to perceived and fatal weaknesses.

My fingers are all crossed that this will eventually be defused, but with the current leadership in Iran (religious and secular), I don't hold out much hope.

The timing couldn't be better for the USA:  Massive test of the Emergency Action Notification System next week, US Navy out for Pacific Wave 11 drills, and Europe taking far too much space above the fold for the continued comfort of the monied class.  Sadly, war fills the bill as a huge distraction and gives the US reason to be out of Iraq, so as not to get steam-rolled by the huge Iranian army as payback.  Gives us pieces to move around in theater, too.

 

Not that  it would be all bad...since from an investment standpoint, it would make the pending crash and burn of the global stock markets something which could be blamed on "Them Iranians."  Thus, preserving the role of banksters and commodity fraudsters for future mischief.

 

Oh, and forget I mentioned defense sector ETF's might be something to keep an eye on, OK?   Wars are ultimately about money, aren't they?  But we'll just keep between us for now.

 

Yes, the Shape of Things to Come may have been right about November...just called it a year early perhaps...but as outputs from the rickety time machine go, the more lead time we get, the BIGGER the events seem to be, so if this is the "Israeli mistake" in the linguistics, it's likely to be a whopper.

 

Oh, and Britain's chief rabbi opening the Wednesday US Senate session is purely coincidental, I'm sure.

 

You might want to scrub your tourism plans for Tehran this weekend, eh?

 

The  C.F.T....What???

This is a morning of prodigious reader's writes...like this one:

Hi ..Just was checking in..I am aware that you all are looking into what a Swap means and I know this will take SOME time..I have a quick question here ..How long before you guys can figure out WHAT SEGREGATED FUNDS MEAN…...2 WEEKS ???.. 2 MONTHS??... 2 YEARS ???. Enquiring minds would like to know..Please feel free to ask your friends over at the SEC as well..Also hearing that papers may have been MISTAKENLY SHREDDED by MF GLOBAL…please look into what MISTAKENLY SHREDDED MEANS .. the over under is 2 weeks in Vegas for that one.…THANKS FOR WATCHING OUR BACKS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BEST TO ALL OF YOU THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

Dude...Get a Grip:  Government drags shit on endlessly so they can add body count and empire build...don'tcha get that yet?  Good gravy man!  Deal!

---

One of Elaine's boys is finding this out first hand, dealing with a severe shoulder injury.  The state agency which has his rehab case has dicked around with it for going on nine months now...and he just wants to be trained in something new and get on with life.  Can it happen?  Nope.  Months more in the paperwork "process" on decisions which you or I could make in about 5-minutes.

 

Game in government:  Make a 5 minute matter sit in the inbox for four weeks to show how "busy" you are.  Go to workload management meetings, yada, yada, yada...DSOE  (drag stuff out endlessly).

 

But, you see, efficiency doesn't build empires does it?  So why would regulators and officialdumb be different at any level?  They're not.  Some are just more serious-like about it and use (what we B-school jocks call) positional power to run amuck.  Now, speaking of which...

 

Bed Bugs and Programming Dept.

Yes, the Department of Homeland Security is partnering up with Holiday Inns and other national hoteliers to show 15 second "If you see something, say something..." public service announcements.

---

Far be it from me to make cynical observations, but seems to me that the biggest risks of hotel stays might be better addressed with bed bug prevention, an awareness campaign on sexually transmitted diseases, or perhaps a similar awareness drive with Planned Parenthood.

 

I mean if someone were to ask me "Did you SEE something suspicious?" I can answer honestly most of the people I run into in elevators look kinda shifty....hell that includes....me!

 

Government Layoffs?

Say, here's a bright-eyed reader for you:

Other than the loss of jobs, I felt my jaw drop open when I read this.....laying off 9,000 workers and building out a drone base in Tucson?

 

"The U.S. military needs to conduct an environmental impact and noise report regarding the F-35 and Luke. Reports today said the impact report would be completed next summer instead of early in the year."

 

The reason my jaw dropped open is how much of an environmental impact is there when we blow someplace or someone to hell?

Shhh!!!   Don't ask, don't tell....remember? Wanna buy some Persian carpet futures?

 

Our Favorite Two-Edged Sword

Productivity numbers are always fun to talk with conventional economists about.  They wax and wane endless about how higher productivity is a good thing, until you ask how that could possibly be, since if productivity was perfect no one would have a job, right?  Capital would own everything, labor would get nothing and.....  At this point, I get angry stares for pointing out the obvious.

 

So it's with this  "It's good till it's bad" firmly in mind, we size up the follow press release from the Labor Department this morning:

Nonfarm business sector labor productivity increased at a 3.1 percent annual rate during the third quarter of 2011, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today, with output and hours worked rising 3.8 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively. (All quarterly percent changes in this release are seasonally adjusted annual rates.) From the third quarter of 2010 to the third quarter of 2011, output increased 2.5 percent as hours rose 1.4 percent, resulting in a 1.1 percent increase in productivity. (See tables A and 2.)

Labor productivity, or output per hour, is calculated by dividing an index of real output by an index of hours worked of all persons, including employees, proprietors, and unpaid family workers.

Unit labor costs in nonfarm businesses fell 2.4 percent in the third quarter of 2011 as the 3.1 percent increase in output per hour outpaced a 0.6 percent rise in hourly compensation. Unit labor costs rose 1.2 percent over the last four quarters, because the increase in hourly compensation was greater than the increase in output per hour. (See tables A and 2.)

BLS defines unit labor costs as the ratio of hourly compensation to labor productivity; increases in hourly compensation tend to increase unit labor costs and increases in output per hour tend to reduce them.

Manufacturing sector productivity grew 5.4 percent in the third quarter of 2011, as output rose 4.7 percent and hours decreased 0.8 percent. Productivity jumped 9.9 percent in the durable goods sector and increased 0.7 percent in the nondurable goods sector. (See tables A, 3, 4, and 5.) From the third quarter of 2010 to the third quarter of 2011, manufacturing sector productivity increased 3.0 percent. Unit labor costs in manufacturing fell 4.6 percent in the third quarter of 2011 and decreased 0.5 percent over the last four quarters.

I don't suppose I need to point out that laying off people helps productivity look better, do I?

 

And on point, the weekly unemployment report is out this morning...

In the week ending October 29, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 397,000, a decrease of 9,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 406,000. The 4-week moving average was 404,500, a decrease of 2,000 from the previous week's revised average of 406,500.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.9 percent for the week ending October 22, unchanged from the prior week's unrevised rate.

The biggie is tomorrow's unemployment rate, which I'm guessing will come in at 9 percent or maybe even 8.9 percent, depending on how many people can be statistically lost from the workforce to gin the number up a bit higher...

 

Coping: My "Balancing Bands" Experiment

I had just finished the final adjustment of our new experiment - a "balance band" that Elaine had picked up at the local pharmacy when we'd gone in to pick up my eye drops when the familiar sound of a Harley drifted up to my office. 

 

Sure enough, Oilman3 had come by for a discussion of flying, and since it was well past work hours, a single libation followed, and stories and adventures continued. 

 

One thing led to another and pretty quick, we were down at the range and I was pointing out how nicely finished it was - target frame in place and the various measurement stakes in and printed neatly with distances in both feet and meters.

 

At the 100 foot marker 30+ meters, Oilman3 says "Got to show ou my pea shooter...": and out comes the smallest little .22 five-shot revolver I've ever seen.  "Watch this..."

 

He popped three rounds into a 10" group which, if you shoot tiny guns much, was a remarkable feat at a hundred feet.  "Let me try?"  I asked...and sure enough, my rounds went into the same tight group.

 

About here, I was thinking "Damn!  This new balance band thing must have something to do with me coming down with a case of dead-eye."

 

In fact, both of us were shooting so well neither one of us could really believe it...so we walked back down to the target and yep, there it was - match grade shooting.

 

We wandered back up to the office with me totally convinced the "balancing band" I had just adjusted was the reason for my abnormally good shooting with an unfamiliar gun.  I mean, I could see it with my Glock, or Ruger 9's, but with a pea shooter that would barely make a bulge in a shirt pocket?  Never!

---

Afternoon wore on...another libation...Oilman3 did a fine job of flying my flight simulator over to Shreveport (we're gonna take the ladies there, one of these days), and I didn't rattle him much by giving idiotic directions as "real life ATC"  [fly into that thunderhead] will sometimes do.  He handled it really well.

 

Along about dark, Elaine and Panama got back from an adventure up to Tyler so we gathered at the house for more chit-chat, a "what's going on in the neighborhood" - which considering the lack of people out here should have been a 2-minute discussion, but we dragged it out into a half-hour, or longer.

 

By then, O3 was getting hungry, and I was on the verge of flameout myself, so we wandered out the screen porch door and over to the stairs which lead off toward the carport where the hog was parked.

 

Some how, I had managed to forget that there was some stuff on the deck that I failed to see in the dark and....you guessed it....Mr. Ure took a header off the deck and landed on his back about five feet down.  Smooth, huh?

 

Oilman3 came over...as did Elaine (who had the good sense to use the stairs) and with the wind knocked out of me, I was looking at the "balance band" on my wrist...in the dark....kinda shaking my head.

 

Elaine, being no one's fool (except for she'd bought the band and look who she married) immediately took it off me and handed it to Oilman3, explained what it was supposed to be about, and asked him to throw it way somewhere way off in the deep East Texas Piney Woods on the way back over to his place.

 

I hadn't made a big deal about my balance band experiment, but faced with the puddle of lard on the ground in front of him, OM3 spent the next several minutes doubled-over in roaring laughter as my "balance band" was being thoroughly explained.

 

As I hobbled back into the house, I heard the hog going down the road which I hope means that the cursed balance band is gone for good.

 

Near as I have it figured, they have little - if any - effect on local gravity.  This morning my neck and shoulders hurt like I'd been dropped out a window or have been doing stand-in work as a tackling dummy in the NFL...and I'm revising my List Of Sh** To Do (LOSTD file) to include finishing the railings around the decks.

 

My experiments with the $20 "balancing band" have been decisively concluded.

 

Thanks Sears, Costco

I don't need to own a calendar, seems.  A Sears email this morning informed me that we're now in the "last 3 days" of the Craftsman tool club's Pre-Holiday Sale.  I think this means on Sunday retailers will flip over into Thanksgiving sales...which means there oughta be turkeys showing up to replace the pumpkins at retailers.

 

Thanks to the Sear email and the timely arrival of bills, I don't really need to use a calendar much, anymore. 

 

More evidence needed that a change of retailing seasons is at hand?  A Costco email this morning says "Offers ending Sunday...shop now for the Holidays..."  Be nice if both could include a header like "Dear George, today is Thursday...then I could get more more widget off my desktop.

 

GlobalRev Reference

Hmmm... a Reality Sandwich article pointed out by a reader has a familiar ring to it.. "Global Revolution Underway."  Naw...really?

 

Simple Explanations

Language can be confusing sometimes, but a reader has figured a lot of it out in this report:

"I became confused when I heard the word 'service' used with these agencies.

• Internal Revenue 'Service'

• Postal 'Service'

• Telephone 'Service'

• Cable TV 'Service'

• Civil 'Service'

• City, Provincial & Public 'Service'

• Financial Planning 'Service'

This is not what I thought 'service' meant.

But today, I overheard two farmers talking, and one of them said he had hired a bull to 'service' his cows. BAM !!! It all came into focus. Now I understand what all those agencies are doing to us. "

Quantum Humor

Who says people in the UK don't have a sense of humor?  Why, look who they put in office!  And look at the kind of jokes they send in...

It’s been around a while in Europe:-

“The barman says “I’m sorry we don’t serve Neutrinos here”.

This Neutrino walks into a bar.

Like the Rocky Picture Horror Show said, let's do the time warp again...maybe tomorrow?

 

---

Wednesday November 2, 2011

Wednesday reports are for subscribers to www.peoplenomics.com: $40/year

Just posted:

Riding the "News Wave"

Anyone who has been reading this column, or Clif's Shape of Things to Come reports is has no doubt figured that what we've called the "{Global Mind F***}" certainly bears at least an initial resemblance to the dying 900 pound gorilla MF Global.  If you figured that out without coaching and coffee, award yourself a gold star and take an extra 10-minutes at lunch, although admittedly, initial coincidences like this happen frequently around here.  We're only pausing briefly on the economic mountainside though and then we ought to be hitting the slopes again.  A fine time, indeed, to be clearing the decks and making sure of what?  Last minute preps, of course! First up, though, our usual assortment of charts and wry commentary as in this morning's report you get to peak over the news editor's shoulder and look at "news" decision-making in progress...

 

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We'll be back here with our usual gunpowder and grins in time for Thursday's breakfast...cheerio till then...enjoy the rally today.

 

---

Tuesday November 1, 2011

The Contented Bear

It doesn't make me happy, but there's a sense of....oh not to put on too much "I told you so!" too early here, except, of course to note that the Shape of Things to Come report did mention the week of euphoria and then stuff would be hitting the fan....so, watch the market today for hints; but things are now going to get really, really interesting. Compared to what's ahead, the nearly 500 point drop in China's Hang Seng was a barely discernable blip.  Japan down 1.7%?  Who cares?

 

No, if you want to talk high impact stuff think about how much the bailout of MF Global is going to be - yep, we'll be put on the hook to bail that one out too, since it will be labeled too big to fail - take that to the bank, lol.

 

Besides, Germany is down more than 5% this morning, the Unemployment Kingdom is down more than 3% and the Athex Composite was down almost 6% when I checked earlier.

 

So, as one reader summed up the situation, just like 2008 we're in for more "You cannot question what we do, and no court has jurisdiction...."  But, of course OWS is the other side saying "NO MORE!!!"

 

Until this time, of course.

 

MF as in Hot Water

Regulators are wondering where hundreds of millions of dollar have gone from MF Global which we're betting will be tagged a too big to fail just about any minute.  Seems to me this was the outfit that picked up Refco a couple of years back...seems they were doing a roll-up on retail commodity outfits.

 

With this going on - and now the other PIIGS countries wanting the same sweet deal as Greece, don't be surprised if we see a drop of another 300 points today.

 

YU55 Approaches

The headlines make the story really short:  "Stargazing: No Armageddon, but asteroid will come close" one puts it.

 

All of which makes the national emergency broadcast system test along with the Navy's Pacific Wave 11 tsunami drill more interesting to watch.

 

Snow Relief

Connecticut aid programs have been announced by FEMA, speaking of which.

 

March to the Police State

Don't think those killer drones are something only used in foreign countries, unless, of course, you think of Houston Texas as a foreign land.

 

How many times have I told you?  The Security State is an economic stimulus designed to reinforce the power held by those in control.  Pretty simple, and once again, in true "frogs boiled slowly don't notice" fashion, no one is going to call bullshit on excessive government intrusion.

 

Who would have thought 19 Saudis could have been a multi-trillion dollar economic recovery program?  Genius-level, huh?

 

Farmers Pushing Back

In North Dakota, farmers are pushing for a constitutional amendment that would prevent out of state groups to telling farmers how to farm.

 

Of course, anyone who has studied America history closely remembers there's supposedly a doctrine that "Powers not specifically delegated are reserved to the State" but we see quite plainly how closely that has been followed.

 

Inflation in the Peanut Gallery

Word is that Planter's Peanuts are about to be smacked with a 40% price increase due to a "shortage" of peanuts.  Wonder if Pay Day bars will perform as good as gold?

 

Two things about this story are of interest:  First, since my daughter Denise is so sensitive to peanut allergies that she's giving blood for allergy research, no doubt she'd find this an interesting twist.

 

The other is that I got to looking at the Crop Report on peanuts and here's what it said:

Peanuts Harvested - Selected States

[These 8 States harvested 98% of the 2010 peanut acreage]

------------------------------------------------------------------------

                :               Week ending               :            

                :-----------------------------------------:            

      State     : October 30, : October 23, : October 30, :  2006-2010 

                :    2010     :    2011     :    2011     :   Average  

------------------------------------------------------------------------

                :                        percent                       

                :                                                      

Alabama ........:     67            54            65            55     

Florida ........:       92            75            89            83     

Georgia ........:      75            60            77            66     

North Carolina .:  75            58            76            84     

Oklahoma .......:    78            16            49            58     

South Carolina .:   96            58            70            86     

Texas ..........:         76            59            60            57     

Virginia .......:         70            47            55            78     

                :                                                      

8 States .......:         77            59            73            67     

------------------------------------------------------------------------

So what does this mean?  Well, since the acreage is down 2% but the harvest is going along above average, I have no clue except for the obvious two facts:  peanut price may not stay high or (2)  George is nuts.

 

Goodbye Tokyo, Redux

While we're waiting to see what happens at cooling pond #4, which, if I follow things could result in places as far away as Tokyo becoming uninhabitable, we're passing the time rereading the report that the "Fuskushima plant released record amount of radiation into ocean..."

"Hot" tuna, anyone?

 

Dumb George

OK, so how can Japan has a strong currency?  Fukushima?  Shutting down industry, BOJ loses $281 million from buying ETF's...and footing their own earthquake recovery?  So WTF - why the strong yen?

 

Reader's Writes

A good letter from Thailand this morning, which I goofed up on in the Monday column (lack of coffee) and failed to note the PM there is a she, not a he...as this reader points out while sharing a whole bunch of useful background...

Hi George,

" If he cracks the gravity and viscosity formulas in a meaningful way, we'll break back in with a bulletin." - PM is a she, but could be forgiven in the land known for Katoeys (Lady boys).

Anyhow, just wanted to put keyboard to email to suggest that, as in many countries, this is a two party system. There's the Red shirts in the poor North where the majority of rice farmers are (and have been underwater for 2-3 months), and the Yellows who are the city folk, and just now getting their Christian Louboutins wet. PM Yingluk is the political novice and sister of the much favoured (by the poor farmers in the North - "I'll pay you $10 if you vote for me") Redshirt leader Thaksin who is currently in exile and running the country by proxy.

Let me say this year, that next year when the water subsides a little, that the Reds will be angry that the Yellows in the south put up the sand bag equivalant of the great wall of China to keep the water from reaching them, which destroyed most of the crops in the north & central (flood) plains, which inevitably failed and the city got soaked. The Yellows will be angry at the incompetent bickering of the Red leaders from those dumb farmers up North, and there'll be more riots. I just want to say told you so next year :o/

The US Navy had a vessel in the area a couple of weeks back and they offered assistance, with one side saying yes please, and the other saying no. They have enormous arrogance about accepting assistance from foreigners as they don't want 'broken face'. US Navy said "okay we're out of here, got better things to do". When offered money though all parties said yes.

They are not effective planners, but they do have a capacity to deal with adversity. Deposits being taken for future developments in the new Venice of Asia. Should be complete in a couple of decades.

By then, we'll all be beating each other with sticks in the wake of social collapse, but I've made a note that if I reach 85, it'll be on my tourism destination list.

 

Coping:  Was there a Timeline Slip?

I don't know whether it's the hit from half a kilogram of caffeine hitting my system all at once, but I think we may have just been through another "time slip."

 

I say this because during the nuclear disaster in Japan, I swear the place was spelled Fukishima - with an "i".  This morning, it's like that spelling has disappeared and has been replaced with Fukushima.  In the past when I have noticed little tweaks like this (like when some celeb, or other I just solidly remember as being dead turns up being very much alive, it seems to indicate a "timeline jump".

 

Not everyone notices on something like this...only 10-20% of the population when asked.  But let me know if this spelling jumps out at you today as somehow "different."

 

A doc/friend of mine in Chicago and I have talked about this in the past and I promised I would note the next big case of this came along.  Not often, but when they do show up, very interesting.  Kind of like  The Adjustment Bureau, except of course for the little detail called "real."

 

Phony History, Part 2

So far, no one has showed up at the house to burn me in effigy in the front yard, although we're far enough off the beaten track that unless you follow a mailman, you'd never likely to find the place....it sort of like a Twilight Zone episode that we even got here....

 

To even contemplate that Anatoly Fomenko is onto something when he claims that most history as claimed by Western Europeans was "made up" if it's prior to 900 AM or so, and that Jesus was a contemporary (1053-1086 AD) fellow is a bit much to take in a single bite.

 

But are there other excuses (besides hiding our extraterrestrial "planting here") that might explains the apparent rush to make humanity seem much older (by as much as a couple of thousand years?  A reader offers this...

"Hello George, Sorry to read that you are under the weather, no doubt you will soon return to your usual chipper self. In terms of history, we know quite well that most modern history is bunk, thus why do we find it so incomprehensible that the same would hold true for ancient history?

 

Oh sure, there are plenty of people who will rise to the defense of the status quo, yet virulence has never been a substitute for truth, eh?

 

You ask, why would a civilization wish to portray itself as older?

 

George, it is not just about age, its about the concept of continuity, exceptionalism, and pedigree.

 

Western civ. has always been obsessed with tracing its lineage to a more enlightened and capable time, its "golden age".

 

The intent here is nothing short of claiming legitimacy. I'm certain you can draw your own conclusions as to why a civ. would want to associate itself with great feats of intellect, of art, of religion-why it is nothing less than divine, now is it?

 

If it turns out that the truth is that Europeans lived a primitive, hunting-gathering existence for mellinnia, and only emerged from this state as various pressures exhausted their resources, then it is pretty clear that civilization is hardly a forward step in human evolution, rather it is a desperate backward move.

 

This point can be supported in that, to this day, civilizations are obsessed with resources-so obsessed, that intricate webs of lies and false flag events are invented to cover the brutality with which civ.'s seek to secure them.

 

Ultimately, the argument here is really not about the age of Homo sapiens, but of the age of artifacts and documents. If we abandon the notion that civilization is somehow "progress", then we loose all attachment with the mania of having to prove this supposition.

Be well,

One of the odd thoughts that went through my head - and this was a seriously odd one, indeed, was that what IF Fomenko is right and that Jesus was a Middle Ages figure?  What IF Mohamed was from a similar (or earlier) period, since the Moors were heavily into Spain (going from memory, light on the coffee here...) from before 1,200 AD?

 

Would is be possible that the Scaligerian version of history was cooked up as a very keen marketing program?  In other words, if you have two competing belief system, and they seem to use similar sources, and yet one "builds out" a religion with a Church/royals connection, while the other "builds out" a "church runs everything" model, wouldn't back-dating the Church/royals business model make a lot of marketing sense?

 

Why, follow that up with attacks on every two and settlement you can find, toss in reports of Alexandria burning to nix the "show me - I want documents challenge" and that might actually hang together.

 

Still reader but the number of possibilities is really mind-expanding to think about.

 

Tuesday At the WuJo:

Case of the Backwards Battery

This one caught my eye - and no doubt it will become a subject of discussion among some of the local ham radio operators (like me) since it sort of flies in the face of conventional wisdom on how batteries work:

Hi George,

Sometimes when a small battery-powered device stops working, I take the batteries out and measure each one. In many cases only one of the batteries is really dead, the others are just low. So I discard the dead batteries and keep the low batteries for small electrical hobby experiments.

A few days ago I noticed that a small battery-powered temperature sensor that sits on my desk had gone dead. It had been running normally for the last several weeks. So this morning I did my usual routine and took out the three standard alkaline AA batteries to measure each one with the multi-meter. I measured the first battery and the meter showed +1.2V (a full AA battery should read +1.5V or better). I measured the second battery and it showed -1.0V. The negative reading made me think that I had put the probes on backwards, so I double checked, but I did not have the probes on backwards. The voltage polarity on this battery was completely reversed. The third battery was around +1.25V.

The temperature sensor can operate for quite a while on low batteries, so I decided to try an experiment. I put the same three batteries back in the sensor, but I intentionally put the second battery in backwards. Sure enough, it turned on and worked normally. While it’s not impossible to reverse the polarity of a battery, I have to say it’s the first time I’ve seen a battery sufficiently reversed that it can power a device.

Uh......hmmm... let us know how long it works with the battery in backwards?  Oh, and don't try this unless you are willing to sacrifice a piece of equipment in case you get things wrong.  Oftentimes, small, cheap electronics - as a cost saving measure - doesn't include the polarity-reversal protection (simply an inline diode) so if you screw this up you can break things. 

 

Don't tell me we didn't warn you.

 

Wining in the WuJo

A surprising number of readers have noticed in the past month that their tastes for meat and alcoholic beverages are changing.  Besides me several other readers, like this here dude, have written in noticing the same thing...

George,

Just read your article today and was shocked to hear your comment about not liking wine anymore. I have been an avid red wine drinker for years and rarely a day has gone by without my wife and I sharing a bottle. Recently we moved to Saudi Arabia, which bans any form of alcohol, and for the last 6 months I have been looking forward to coming back to the US just so I could drink wine with reckless abandon. Well that time finally came last week so imagine my surprise as I greedily downed my first glass of wine and found it almost undrinkable. It was my standard brand and wasn't corked and every day since then I have tried drinking every different varietal of wine from all my favorite wineries with the same results. What is going on?? Can you make me a time filter so I can reclaim my taste for wine?

Sad and wine free,

Or, this fellow...

George,

I was stunned when I read that you seem to be losing your taste for red wine and red meat. I noticed the same thing about myself a month or so ago. Seem to prefer more fruits and veggies. Rather than every night, I now have wine with supper only once or twice a week.

I'll be interested to read whether or not other readers are going through this same change.

Strangely, the voracious appetite and sponge-like ability to over-indulge in stuff is just (poof) going, going, going.....     More interesting?  Dropping weight, mental acuity seems improved and not sure what-else.

 

Even more strange?  I find myself getting reacquainted with my sweet-tooth.  Having a 7-Up over ice seems just as enjoyable as a triple shot of vodka with water, though the gout is kicking up, since as some personal experimenting seems to show, gout is somehow tied in sugar levels.

 

Like of carrot sticks, broccoli and chicken or fish?  What happened to the steak & lobster/wine slurping guy?  Have I been abducted, or something?

 

"Half Around America" Trip

Part 1 - We're Planning "What???"

A reader asked that I continue posting our occasional airplane adventures...but if you don't like travel and adventuring, you can skip this note.

 

Being on the mend from the world's nastiest sinus infection, I decided to go down to the hangar and wash the airplane Tuesday.  It was sunny, 75º plus and I needed more exercise than redundant index finger clicking provides.

 

This weekend, with Panama Bates protecting the perimeter here, Elaine and I are going to head up to Branson, Missouri for a little "down time".  With school back in, the crowds are down but the entertainment just as good and between a few restaurants and shows...well, looks like a fine time will be had.  Plus, gives me a chance to see how well our new Radenna ADS-B receiver plays with the iFlyGPS.  Anxious to see if we will get weather and traffic, or weather only.

---

All this leads up to a massive - and I mean massive - adventure/trip in a couple of weeks.  I have a new client out in California which has a remarkable new product and since I've known the founder since we were both 16 (back in the day, eh?) I've committed to handling the national sales force build out.  The 7-figure payday potential had nothing to do with it... ;-)

 

Then, I have some other business travels to plug in:  Have business contacts to visit in Nevada, California, Utah, Oregon, and need to spend a couple of days with Clif, and then we need some strategy time with Gaye & Survivalhubby...so we thought "Why don't we make this just one big trip?"

 

So we got to penciling it out and in all, looks like 23-days on the road...or more rightly "in the sky" to make all these stops, not to mention pop-ins like refueling in Prescott, AZ so we can pick JB's brain a bit and so forth.

 

The engine's new chrome cylinders are breaking in nicely, and besides a sore toe and residual cough, I'm up for it. We're not going to push the weather envelope and we'll stay in cheap motels for the most part.

 

Always been on my List Of Sh** to DO - and depending on how this one goes, I've got a standing threat to head up to Connecticut to spend some time with co-author Howard Hill, but since the Ice Age arrived up there, the West Coast seems an easier choice for the moment.

 

Long term?  Well...if you must know, if I do get the (large dollar figure) payoff in a couple of years, I'd like to get a better plane (C-182 with STOL kit) and fly from Texas to France.  Set it up to video and photo the whole thing and turn it into a coffee table book.

 

How would I do that?  Simple:  Up to Alaska, cross the Bering, (Kotzebue or bust!) and then head down the eastern side of Siberia, Mongolia (have some expert assistance on tap for that part) and then west into Europe through the "back door."

 

Don't know how close we'll get to this one, but Life's for living and people without big dreams and big plans can be well-described by the word "boring".

 

I don't want to  ever write a blog with content like "Got up this morning, combed my hair, brushed my teeth...."  though, strangely, there does seem to be a huge market for that.

 

We're just pondering this "Half Around America" tour as a starter and we'll see how it goes...I still have to turn Elaine into an autopilot along the way...I'd want her to be comfortable as a blonde, voice-controlled STEC-55.

 

Send in Humor!

Normally, we'd present a clever bit of life coping skills or humor here, but seems like nothing is funny today.

 

---

Monday October 31, 2011

Georgeslist:  Global Camel Seeks Straw

The news this morning just screams to be written up as a series of ads of the sort you'd find on Craigslist.  I call it Georgeslist.   For example, how would this one work?

 

"GLOBAL CAMEL SEEKS STRAW:  Must be a good, strong camel with recent corrective surgery using paper products to mask serious internal injuries and reduced vitality. Ideal camel would be global in scope, multinational in order to avoid single-party accountability...."  Yes, this morning's report could be entirely done with want ads.

 

It was while writing up this ad for Craigslist that in popped word from a worried reader about the potential bankruptcy of MF Global Sources...

Oh great, international commodities in a shell and pea game "Oh so sorry your wheat/oil/greasy wool contracts got lost/transferred/repoed and we can't deliver because we're bankrupt". Say it ain't so, Please say it ain't so, not in front of a "legendary" winter. Would/could they TPTB be so low, say it aint so. Have a nice day.

No worries (yet) since the US trades are likely covered by....lemme think here...taxpayers!  Government doesn't just make up money, does it?

 

Most of the major indices in Asia were down overnight while in Europe this morning losses in the big players were one percent and more.

 

Pile on being the way finance is played...sorry "momentum"... we should see a decline in the US market today, and yes, I still doggedly hold to my short position.

 

New War Partners Ad

"PARANOID SUPERPOWER SEEKS WAR PARTNER:  We're a large once-peaceful nation which has discovered that the only way to keep our economy intact and to prevent a much higher unemployment rate is to artificially create wars that justify massive spending domestically.  We offer wars from 6-days to 10-years in length.  Benefits include eventual corporate ownership, massive reconstruction funding, advanced weapons systems and financial haven status.  Prefer partner with drug crops, petroleum, or large ag outputs.  If interested, send photos, listing of assets, and number of Muslims in country."

 

This ad is the only way I can think to explain the NY Times headlines that the "U.S. Planning Troop Buildup in Gulf after Exit from Iraq.

 

Thrill of the Grill

"WAR NEEDED:  I'm  a leader of a Middle Eastern country known for carpets and purchases of Russian-made air defense radars and missiles.  Urgently need wat to get the mullahs questioning me about fraud off of my back....."

 

Dude!  See previous ad.  No relations\ to that Iranian guy being grilled, are you?

 

Oil Prices

"NEEDED: HIGHER OIL PRICES:  We're an oil-rich country in the Middle East with two nukes from our Pakistani friends which is looking at financial disaster due to low oil prices.  Will consider all offers and trades for very limited war, serious oil threats, and rising global tensions which will help our oil prices.  Fax proposals to country code 966 -...."

 

And resemblance between this and the report (for real) that a "Saudi royal offers bounty on Israeli soldiers" is purely coincidental.  Or, nearly so.

 

Dirty Business Ad

"POLITICAL CANDIDATES SEEK DIRT:  We're a bunch of republicorps wannabes for the White House and we need to gather as much dirt on one another as we possibly can.  If you have any political dirt on anyone running for office, we offer a large one-time payout, book deal, 20-centy press tour, and national notoriety.  If interested, send asking price an details to slimeballs@areyoufrickingkiddingme.com ..."

 

Oh-oh...already have a reply to this one:  "Cain denies report of sexual harassment."  More to come - and you can take that to the bank.

 

Ships Ahoy

"WANTED: FLOATION DEVICES:  We're a mid-sized Asian country which is trying to explain that we're not really sinking into the sea and that our recent flooding has nothing to do with child sex workers, loose drug laws, gambling and other national problems.  We're not allowing use of terms like "subsidence" or "global coastal event".  Still, we need flotation devices in any quantity...."

 

Thailand's prime minister hope flood drainage can be sped up.  If he cracks the gravity and viscosity formulas in a meaningful way, we'll break back in with a bulletin.

 

Here the Bills

"UTILITY BILL HELP:  We're a mid-sized oil-rich country in North Africa with a big-ass aquifer and we just lost our independence to the West after our 40-year leader blew out relations.  With the Western "victory" we will soon be getting higher energy and water bills to pay for the war against us in addition to thinner margins on our oil sales.  Send assistance details to...."

 

Hmmm...seems the head of NATO is in Libya as 7-months of bombing comes to an end.  Wonder if he'll be mailing out the first batch of higher utility bills?

 

Snowed

"LOST: HEADLESS HORSEMAN:  I've been a headless horseman since Sleepy Hollow, but with Halloween tonight I'm lost in this heavy snowfall which has obscured all my usual landmarks.  I need help.  My GPS coordinates are 41.69678 N by 73.44277 W but nothing looks right...Tweet me at....."

 

Don't feel bad, pard: Up to 3-million homes have been without power since the Great White Dump this weekend.  Still, mental health officials are hopeful the reduced number of people reading this column will set the stage for economic recovery.  Yeah.....right.......

 

Denial?

"GLOBAL WARMING IS REAL:  Forget the snow in the northeast...it's only a distraction!  Get with us - support the war on warming.  For details visit our website at....."

 

Hmmm...."Skeptic finds he now agrees global warming is real."  Figure the fellow doesn't live in Connecticut.  Wonder if the Koch Bros. whose foundation anted up 25% of this report cost will pass it along to Tea Partiers?

 

IQ Problem

"WORLDWIDE TUTORING OPPORTUNITY:  We're the residents of a small planet called Ureth which is facing resource depletion, bad leadership, and environmental collapse due to greed, financial manipulations for an unelected elite, and endless wars.  We need a special tutor because we don't seem to be able to connect the dots between population growth and human conflict.  Drop by our UN office with proposals...

 

How stupid are these Urethlings be to celebrate 7-billion people being born on this here rock, 6,999,999,999 of which are after your job or gonna eat your food, suck out your oxygen, or....is this depressing yet?

----

If I didn't know better, I'd say Georgeslist ads will appear now and then...since they seem to convey reality better via "truth in advertising" than we get globally in what's assumed to be "truth in news". 

 

Who-dah thought?  Scary on....

 

Coping: With Phony History

How would you feel if you were sitting around with a good book on history and a few pages into it, the author were to drop a small bombshell on you by saying, in so many words..

• About 1,200 years of recent human history has just been "made up"?

That's where I found myself this weekend.  Stuck in bed with a terrible sinus cold (beaten back, but still red-eyed and not in flying shape yet, there I was with History: Fiction or Science? Dating methods as offered by mathematical statistics. Eclipses and zodiacs. Chronology Vol.I  ($10 Amazon).

 

That was bad enough, but Fomenko (Vol. 1) also goes into some other major problems:

• Lots of writings attributed to the Greeks and earlier seem to have just "appeared" in the XIII century and later.

• Some of those revered cathedrals in Europe?  The biggest part of their construction is only 200 year old...offering mortar tests to show the middle ages portion was most small single-story structures.

• Supposed old coinage from Greek & Roman times?  Has the same minting errors of Middle Ages coinage.  So why would minting errors be cloned, hmmm?

• Many historical character in two distinct periods of history:  Middle Ages and classical periods...

• Oh, and lots of classical characters, such as Plato, were likely fabrications of based on then-current icons, like Pleton/Pletho.

This last link is of particular interest. since the Western view is that Pletho/Pleton simply "rediscovered" Plato.  Lemme see...that would make his name Pleton/Plethon/Pletho one of the grandest coincidences in history.

 

So what gives?

 

Well, the mind does boggle a bit, but seems that the clergy went to great lengths in the middle ages to wipe out any trace of how short our actual "history" is. 

 

Which gets us around to a very interesting problem which Clif (he's in Vol. 3 already) and I have been kicking around.  It does down to this ponder:

"Why would a culture need to "make up" that it is much older than it probably is?"

This gives way to a whole rising up of questions:  Did the Christian/Judeo religions have a marketing issue that demanded they "get older"?  Was there no Library at Alexandria...hence no documents for much of claimed antiquity - which may explain why so many "old documents" just "appeared" in the middle ages?

 

The mind reels...all those "hidden past" things come welling up:  This would make 2012 a sham (no worries, I expect to be around in 2013 anyway) not to mention bringing lots of fresh questions about the linkage between governments and Churchianity into question going back at least 1,000 years.

 

The troublesome part is that Fomenko didn't distill his claims down into an pocketbook.  This is four serious academic volumes and he's just one of an emerging group of authors who are re-thinking our claimed history.  The discussion of carbon-14 errors in volume 1 is impressive, and near I can follow, right.

 

As to who was behind a lot of this?  Joseph Justus Scaliger, for one (1540-1609), among others.

 

As Fomenko explains, the timeline of history is incredibly imprecise and the Scaligarian timeline adopted "officially" by the PTB seems to add anywhere from 700 to 1,200 years, depending on how you look at it.

 

So what would if mean, if Fomenko is correct, when he asserts, for example that Jesus was born in 1053 A.D. and died in 1086 A.D.

 

Which gets Clif and me wondering one of those motivation questions which we hate because they are so damn difficult to "prove":  Why would wars be fought, cities burned, and much of a "made up history" be sold as a cornerstone of thought? 

"What's wrong with being a young race of people who just show up here?"

Except that gets us to the even murkier question:  Did we spontaneously arise or were we planted?  More ponderings as I get into Vol. 2.

 

Another Great Novel Plot

Every time I see one of these earthquakes, like the 6.0 shaker 90-miles from Amchitka, Alaska overnight, I get to wondering:  Why the hell did the US government select Amchitka Island to set off a bunch of nuclear explosions there, the largest of which was the 5-megaton Cannikin blast set off underground in 1971?

 

Say, how about a plotline that says a dark, evil force decides to set off the meganuke there in order to cause a massive shift of the earth's tectonics which will rattle forward in time and lead to....the cracking of the Pacific Plate?

 

And prominently featured in the novel would be the governments Exercise Pacific Wave 11, which as explained here in this little UNESCO 57-page "exercise manual" is a tsunami warning and communication exercise.

 

The quake in the Aleutians certainly fits in with the Pacific Wave 11 test, which we read:

5. EXERCISE SCENARIO

Exercise Pacific Wave 11 will be held on 9 and 10 November 2011, and will involve multiple scenarios, played out in real time, to allow all Pacific countries to select and exercise a regional/local source tsunami event. Countries are recommended to choose only one scenario to exercise. However, countries may exercise more than one scenario simultaneously, if they wish. The exercise scenarios include major tsunamis generated by great earthquakes in the following areas:

• Kamchatka (Kuril–Kamchatka Trench)

• Ryukyu Islands (Nansei–Shoto Trench)

• Philippines–South China Sea (Manila Trench)

• Philippines–Pacific Ocean (Philippines Trench)

• Vanuatu (New Hebrides Trench)

• Tonga (Tonga Trench)

• Northern Chile (Peru–Chile Trench)

• Ecuador (Colombia–Ecuador Trench)

• Central America (Middle America Trench)

• Aleutian Islands (Aleutian Trench)

Maybe the scenario ius just warming up:  6.0 in the Aleutians and this weekend's activity off Chile.....

 

Seedy Deal

Our friends at Everlasting Seeds have a special going on their MaxiPacks.  This is a whole bunch of seeds...in one storable, sealed 3 1/2 Gallon bucket.  Details are over here.  Remember: store all your seeds somewhere cool...like your basement...or in Connecticut.

 

Don't Try this Tax Return

Still, it's an interesting list:

They sent my Tax Return back! AGAIN!!! In response to the question:

"List all dependents?" I replied -

"12 million illegal immigrants;

"3 million crack heads;

"42 million unemployable people on food stamps,

"2 million people in over 243 prisons; and

"535 fools in the U.S. House and Senate.”

No, I won't be trying it, either...still....certain ring of truth to it.  Leaves out all the occupied country, though...and foreign aid and.....