Pre-Announcement Media Coverage

[John Smith]

We are seeing so many remarkable pre-announcement pieces showing up, this is a place to post and discuss them. This one for example, is making discoveries sound 'ho hum' which a few months/years ago were heralded as amazing breakthroughs. Today for example: 

"Nearly Every Star Hosts at Least One Alien Planet"

http://news.yahoo.com/nearly-every-star-hosts-least-one-alien-plane...

When a month or so ago they were making a BIG deal about finding one planet in the sweet zone which could possibly support life, son they they say 25% of them could support life! Including mention of red dwarfs, etc. The Zeta predicted evidence continues to build up!

Here is another blog that relates, describing a wobble:

NASA Scientists "Discover" a Wobbly Planet!?

https://poleshift.ning.com/forum/topics/nasa-scientists-discover-a-...

[Mark]

US, European and Asian markets see a huge sell off in shares:

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Steep Sell-Off Spreads Fear to Wall Street

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/10/15/stocks-tumble-on-global-grow...

Waves of nervous selling buffeted the stock market in the United States on Wednesday, after a steep sell-off in Europe. At one point, the Dow Jones industrial average had plunged 460 points, or 2.8 percent, though it later swung higher to close down 1.1 percent, or 173.45 points. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index fell 0.8 percent, or 15.21 points. Since their peak a month ago, American stocks have lost over $2 trillion in value, losses that may ripple through the wider economy.

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http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/10/17/markets-stocks-europe-idUK...

European stocks rose in early trading on Friday, halting the week's sharp drop after Wall Street pared losses as macro data soothed fears about the U.S. economic outlook.

At 0703 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top Europeanshares was up 0.4 percent at 1,250.48 points, after losing 3.7 percent earlier in the week.

But gains looked fragile, and a warning from Rolls-Royce that it would not return to growth next year fuelled worries over corporate profits and sent shares of the Britishengineering group down 7 percent.

The month-long sell-off in European stocks has prompted U.S.-based investors to slash their exposure to Europe, according to data from Thomson Reuters Lipper.

A Lipper poll of 109 U.S.-domiciled funds invested in European stocks, which include exchange-traded funds' (ETFs) holdings, shows net outflows of $1.3 billion in the seven days to Oct 15, the biggest weekly redemptions since Lipper started to monitor the data in 1992.

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http://www.marketwatch.com/story/asian-shares-reverse-selloff-2014-...

A recent selloff in Asia due to global volatility was fading Friday with stocks in Australia edging higher, though shares on China’s mainland fell amid slowdown concerns.

The Shanghai Composite Index SHCOMP, -0.65%  was down 1.3%, ahead of next week’s Fourth Plenum, an annual meeting of China leaders which may offer clues about plans to address a slowing economy.

China also is expected to release third-quarter economic growth figures next Tuesday. Economists expect 7.2% growth from a year earlier, slowing from a 7.5% on year increase in the second quarter.

[casey a]

Michelle Obama dances with turnip and harvests crop

The first lady held a White House harvest this week. She was joined by schoolchildren in the White House Kitchen Garden to harvest lettuce, bell peppers, sweet potatoes and tomatoes.

[Starr DiGiacomo]

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/pentagon-climate-crisis-imm...

The Pentagon, the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, Arlington County, Virginia. 

STAFF

Pentagon: climate crisis an immediate security threat

For all of the many scary aspects of the climate crisis, it’s important not to forget the national security implications.

The Pentagon on Monday released a report asserting decisively that climate change poses an immediate threat to national security, with increased risks from terrorism, infectious disease, global poverty and food shortages. It also predicted rising demand for military disaster responses as extreme weather creates more global humanitarian crises.

 

The report lays out a road map to show how the military will adapt to rising sea levels, more violent storms and widespread droughts. The Defense Department will begin by integrating plans for climate change risks across all of its operations, from war games and strategic military planning situations to a rethinking of the movement of supplies.

“The loss of glaciers will strain water supplies in several areas of our hemisphere,” Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told a group of contemporaries in Peru yesterday. “Destruction and devastation from hurricanes can sow the seeds for instability. Droughts and crop failures can leave millions of people without any lifeline, and trigger waves of mass migration.”

 

The Pentagon’s findings come on the heels of a related report from a leading government-funded military research organization, which found the “accelerating rate of climate change poses a severe risk to national security and acts as a catalyst for global political conflict.”

 

Among the areas of concern are conflicts over natural resources, food scarcity, the effects of rising sea levels, and the potential for refugee crises.

 

Yesterday’s report was, however, a little different. As the New York Times’ report noted, “Before, the Pentagon’s response to climate change focused chiefly on preparing military installations to adapt to its effects, like protecting coastal naval bases from rising sea levels. The new report, however, calls on the military to incorporate climate change into broader strategic thinking about high-risk regions – for example, the ways in which drought and food shortages might set off political unrest in the Middle East and Africa.”

 

In a political context, it’s worth acknowledging that congressional Republicans not only oppose such “broader strategic thinking,” they’ve also taken deliberate steps to prevent the Pentagon from even considering such concerns.

 

Kate Sheppard reported in May that House Republicans “passed an amendment to the National Defense Authorization bill … that would bar the Department of Defense from using funds to assess climate change and its implications for national security.”

 

Rep. David McKinley (R-W.Va.), the sponsor of the measure, argued at the time, “The climate is obviously changing; it has always been changing. With all the unrest around the [world], why should Congress divert funds from the mission of our military and national security to support a political ideology?”

 

The answer, as we discussed at the time, is that climate change and national security, whether the right chooses to acknowledge this or not, are inextricably linked. Telling U.S. military leaders they must bury their heads in the sand because congressional Republicans say so won’t help.

 

Among those voting for the measure: Reps. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.)*. All five of these far-right representatives voted to prevent the Pentagon from considering the national security implications of global warming, and all five are poised for promotions to the U.S. Senate.

 

* Correction/Update: It looks like I missed one. As Eric Edlund reminds me, Rep. Steve Daines (R) of Montana also voted to block the Defense Department on this, and he’s also poised to get a promotion to the Senate.

10/14/14 11:11 AM—UPDATED 10/14/14 01:58 PM

[Mark]

CITING TERRORISM AS A REASON, CHINA ARMS ITS POLICE FORCE WITH LITTLE OR NO TRAINING

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/after-china-gives-...

LUOKAN VILLAGE, China — Invoking the threat of terrorism, Chinese police for the first time in years have started carrying guns and, with little training, using them.

The fatal effects have rippled across the country, reaching even this tiny mountain village.

China’s removal of a ban on police guns came in response to a gruesome attack on a train station several hundred miles from here, but it has given the police almost blanket authority to shoot whenever they see fit.

More than a decade into America’s war on terror, China is launching its own. And experts worry that the flood of newly armed police — combined with poor training and the government’s take-no-prisoners attitude — could become as fearful a problem as the terrorism it is intended to combat.

In the latest police-related violence, at least 40 people died Sunday in China’s restive Xinjiang region, according to state-run news media, which attributed the incident to terrorists and identified the deceased as “rioters” shot by police or killed in explosions.

By contrast, the sleepy village of Luokan is about as remote and unlikely a place for terrorism as can be found. Yet when police fatally shot a man recently in the middle of a busy market here, they declared him a terrorist as well and abruptly closed the case.

“But everyone knows this is a lie,” said one villager in a hushed midnight interview inside his home.

“There are no terrorists here,” said another beside him. “The only ones we’re afraid of are the police.”

While police shootings are often viewed with suspicion worldwide — most notably in the death last month of an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Mo. — there are few countries where local authorities have as much power as they do in China to suppress all evidence afterward.

No one knows how many people die here from gun violence each year, much less from police shootings, because of government secrecy.

Among the killings publicly reported in the past five months, since the policy change: A man with a history of mental illness shot by police in Sichuan province. An allegedly drunk officer in Luoping county who quarreled with one man and then killed another who was trying to intervene, according to reports quickly taken down by censors.

And at a gun-safety demonstration in front of kindergartners in Henan province, an officer fired a loaded gun, thinking it was empty, and sent a child and several parents to the hospital.

At a recent training session in Shandong province, one detective said, several officers — not aware of the recoil force that comes with shooting — gripped their guns improperly and broke their thumbs.

Some police officers have been issued licenses without visiting the firing range, because their departments are fudging paperwork, according to officers who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

“Most of us haven’t shot a gun in years,” said the detective. “A lot of cops are afraid to even hold one.”

[Mark]

Governor Sam Brownback declares October “Zombie preparedness month” as he unveils plans to protect the city from the living dead

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11121755...

Sam Brownback, the state’s Republican governor, has decided that October is to be “zombie preparedness month”.

He will sign a formal declaration on Friday to encourage Kansans to prepare for all disasters including an invasion of the undead.

Kansans are told to ready themselves for the zombie invasion in much the same way as typhoons, floods and other natural disasters.

Requirements include three days food and a home emergency kit.

"You want to make sure you have all the food and water you need," Devan Tucking, the state's Deputy Emergency Operations manager told the Telegraph.

"You need to work on your zombie alerts. Of course if you look like a zombie you may be able to escape from them.

"Good cardio fitness is useful if you want to run away and have good running shows. Ladies should get rid of their high heels.

"If you hear a strange sound, don't go their on your own, use a buddie system. If you do run away, don't look back and get some good maps and make sure you know your area.

"You may want to avoid cemeteries.

“If you are prepared for a zombie apocalypse, you are prepared for anything.”

Preparing for a zombie invasion appears to be one of the few things uniting Democrats and Republicans with President Barack Obama’s administration drawing up its own strategy in a 31-page document to deal with the threat.

“It is our way of telling people that even if the severe weather season is over, the winter is coming up,” a spokesman for Governor Brownback said.

To drum up interest in the zombie threat, the state is even holding a “fun lurch” over the weekend with a “disaster on the go” pack being handed out to the first 300 people – alive or undead – who show up.

[Shaun Kazuck]

NBC News preparing people for the more widespread gas line breaks that will occur now that the wobble will increase the bowing pressure in the months ahead.

http://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/aging-network-underground-gas-p...

[casey a]

Things are brewing...

At UN, Obama to Urge Nations to Go Big on Climate.

More than 120 world leaders are heading to the United Nations in New York for the event. Obama will be meeting several world leaders

UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon has "invited leaders from government, business, finance and civil society".

Absent from the meeting will be Chinese President Xi Jinping & Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

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Jinping & Modi instead met to settle the ongoing border dispute.

The Indian Army and the Chinese army are currently locked in a stand-off with border disputes.

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In other news, Former Obama Official: Climate Change Not 'Settled' Science.

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U.S. Congress takes a seven-week recess, one week after a 5-week recess ended in august.

Congress Heads Home After Exhausting Eight Days of Work.

[The 5-month recess during the summer may have probably occurred as a result of a "bait & switch" maneuver, re: announcement. It coincided with the huge jump in CEO retirements in July.]

[casey a]

This report is from a month ago, in the wake of the Ferguson protest (mid august).....

The Pentagon gave nearly half a billion dollars of military gear to...

The program provides things like office equipment, tents, generators, pick-up trucks and ATVs,  But law enforcement agencies can also use it to obtain military aircraft, weapons (including grenade launchers), and heavily armored tactical vehicles.

However, Rep Alan Grayson had introduced an amendment in June to prevent local police forces from getting free military equipment, through this weapons program.

The house voted it down 355 to 62.

The program was meant for the DOD to transfer excess or used equipment to local police forces. However, the american civil liberties union says in 36 % of the cases, the equipment is new.

[Mark]

CONTINUING THE MILITARIZATION OF PUBLIC BODIES IN THE US - NOW SCHOOL DISTRICTS ARE BEING GIVEN MILITARY SUPPLIES

http://www.autoblog.com/2014/09/16/san-diego-school-district-acquir...

San Diego Unified School District aquires a a Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle, more commonly known as an MRAP, or the US military's answer to the improvised explosive devices (IEDs) so favored by insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Now, you might be asking, are the officers of the San Diego Unified School District Police (sidebar: is it normal nowadays for school districts to have police departments?) regularly subject to ambushes and/or IEDs? It seems unlikely.

Instead, the district says the vehicle will be used for search and rescue, according to KPBS, the local public broadcaster.

"Our idea is: How can we get in and pull out a classroom at a time of kids if the...? If there's a fire [or] if there's an earthquake, can we rip down a wall? Stuff like that," Captain Joe Florentino told KBPS

"It's not police militarizing schools," he told KBPS. "There will be medical supplies in the vehicle. There will be teddy bears in the vehicle. There will be trauma kits in the vehicle in the event any student is injured, and our officers are trained to give first aid and CPR."

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These are the schools around the country with military supplies

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/17/school-military-supplies_n...

Pinellas County School District in Pinellas County, Florida, is one of over 20 districts around the country with a police force or public safety department in possession of former military supplies, thanks to the Department of Defense's Excess Property Program, or 1033 program. Since 1997, the initiative has provided excess military equipment to state agencies like local and public university police forces, but it has come under renewed scrutiny in the weeks following the Ferguson demonstrations.

The 1033 program provides supplies ranging from extreme weapons, like grenade launchers, to everyday materials, like laptops. State agencies must apply in order to receive extra materials from the military, and all the equipment is on indefinite loan. In Pinellas County School District, the district's police department received almost two dozen M16 rifles.

"Our hope is that our officers never have a need to use this equipment," Melanie Marquez Parra, the district's public information officer, told The Huffington Post. "These are items we acquired so they could have equipment for worst-case scenario situations."

https://mapsengine.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=zyWftC5wFr9A.kdWImo...

[Ryan X]

Expect the Unexpected: More 9.0 Megaquakes Are Coming, Study Says

Interesting that more and more now, the media is hinting at things to come without much explanation other than their own theories based on past quakes- in this case the message is "expect the unexpected"  big quakes are coming inevitably and likely sooner and more frequent than we thought.  

Vidale said the bottom line from the latest research is that "we know less than we claim about how big different earthquakes can be in different parts of the world."

That means the traditional way of designing structures to be earthquake-proof may have to change. In the wake of 2011's Japan earthquake and the Fukushima nuclear disaster, experts and regulators are already coming around to the concept of "expecting the unexpected."