Yearly Archives: 2013

Justice Department Blocking Release of Spy Info

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Justice Department Fights Release of Secret Court Opinion Finding Unconstitutional Surveillance

Government lawyers are trying to keep buried a classified court finding that a domestic spying program went too far.

—By

| Fri Jun. 7, 2013

In the midst of revelations that the government has conducted extensive top-secret surveillance operations to collect domestic phone records and internet communications, the Justice Department was due to file a court motion Friday in its effort to keep secret an 86-page court opinion that determined that the government had violated the spirit of federal surveillance laws and engaged in unconstitutional spying.

This important case—all the more relevant in the wake of this week’s disclosures—was triggered after Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a member of the Senate intelligence committee, started crying foul in 2011 about US government snooping. As a member of the intelligence committee, he had learned about domestic surveillance activity affecting American citizens that he believed was improper. He and Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.), another intelligence committee member, raised only vague warnings about this data collection, because they could not reveal the details of the classified program that concerned them. But in July 2012, Wyden was able to get the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to declassify two statements that he wanted to issue publicly. They were:

* On at least one occasion the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court held that some collection carried out pursuant to the Section 702 minimization procedures used by the government was unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment.

* I believe that the government’s implementation of Section 702 of FISA [the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] has sometimes circumvented the spirit of the law, and on at least one occasion the FISA Court has reached this same conclusion.

For those who follow the secret and often complex world of high-tech government spying, this was an aha moment. The FISA court Wyden referred to oversees the surveillance programs run by the government, authorizing requests for various surveillance activities related to national security, and it does this behind a thick cloak of secrecy. Wyden’s statements led to an obvious conclusion: He had seen a secret FISA court opinion that ruled that one surveillance program was unconstitutional and violated the spirit of the law. But, yet again, Wyden could not publicly identify this program.

“When the government hides court opinions describing unconstitutional government action, America’s national security is harmed,” argues the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Enter the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a public interest group focused on digital rights. It quickly filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Justice Department for any written opinion or order of the FISA court that held government surveillance was improper or unconstitutional. The Justice Department did not respond, and EFF was forced to file a lawsuit a month later.

It took the Justice Department four months to reply. The government’s lawyers noted that they had located records responsive to the request, including a FISA court opinion. But the department was withholding the opinion because it was classified.

EFF pushed ahead with its lawsuit, and in a filing in April, the Justice Department acknowledged that the document in question was an 86-page opinion the FISA court had issued on October 3, 2011. Again, there was no reference to the specific surveillance activity that the court had found improper or unconstitutional. And now the department argued that the opinion was controlled by the FISA court and could only be released by that body, not by the Justice Department or through an order of a federal district court. In other words, leave us alone and take this case to the secret FISA court itself.

This was puzzling to EFF, according to David Sobel, a lawyer for the group. In 2007, the American Civil Liberties Union had asked the FISA court to release an opinion, and the court had informed the ACLU to take the matter up with the Justice Department and work through a district court, if necessary.

So there was a contradiction within the government. “It’s a bizarre catch-22,” Sobel says. On its website, EFF compared this situation to a Kafka plot: “A public trapped between conflicting rules and a secret judicial body, with little transparency or public oversight, seems like a page ripped from The Trial.”

Before EFF could get a ruling on whether this opinion can be declassified and released, it had to first sort out this Alice in Wonderland situation. Consequently, last month, it filed a motion with the FISA court to resolve this aspect of the case. “We want the FISA court to say that if the district court says the opinion should be released, there is noting in its rules that prevents that,” Sobel says. Then EFF can resume its battle with the Justice Department in federal district court for the release of the opinion. The Justice Department was ordered by the FISA court to respond by June 7 to the motion EFF submitted to the FISA court.

Currently, given the conflicting positions of the Justice Department and the FISA court, Sobel notes, “there is no court you can go to to challenge the secrecy” protecting an opinion noting that the government acted unconstitutionally. On its website, EFF observes, “Granted, it’s likely that some of the information contained within FISC opinions should be kept secret; but, when the government hides court opinions describing unconstitutional government action, America’s national security is harmed: not by disclosure of our intelligence capabilities, but through the erosion of our commitment to the rule of law.”

As news reports emerge about the massive phone records and internet surveillance programs—each of which began during the Bush administration and were carried out under congressional oversight and FISA court review—critics on the left and right have accused the government of going too far in sweeping up data, including information related to Americans not suspected of any wrongdoing. There’s no telling if the 86-page FISA court opinion EFF seeks is directly related to either of these two programs, but EFF’s pursuit of this document shows just how difficult it is—perhaps impossible—for the public to pry from the government information about domestic surveillance gone wrong.

from:     http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/06/justice-department-electronic-frontier-foundation-fisa-court-opinion

Jeff Masters on Record Floods in Europe

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A historic multi-billion dollar flood disaster has killed at least eighteen people in Central Europe after record flooding unprecedented since the Middle Ages hit major rivers in Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland and Slovakia over the past two weeks. The Danube River in Passau, Germany hit the highest level since 1501, and the Saale River in Halle, Germany was the highest in its 400-year period of record. Numerous cities recorded their highest flood waters in more than a century, although in some locations the great flood of 2002 was higher. The Danube is expected to crest in Hungary’s capital city of Budapest on June 10 at the highest flood level on record, 35 cm higher than the record set in 2006. The flooding was caused by torrential rains that fell on already wet soils. In a 2-day period from May 30 – June 1, portions of Austria received the amount of rain that normally falls in two-and-half months: 150 to 200 mm (5.9 to 7.9″), with isolated regions experiencing 250 mm (9.8″). This two-day rain event had a greater than 1-in-100 year recurrence interval, according to the Austrian Meteorological Agency, ZAMG. Prior to the late May rains, Austria had its seventh wettest spring in 150 years, which had resulted in the ground in the region becoming saturated, leading to greater runoff when the rains began.


Figure 1. Aerial view of the flooded Danube River in Deggendorf, Germany on Friday, June 7, 2013. (AP Photo/Armin Wegel)


Figure 2. The Danube River in Mainz, Germany was barely kept in check by a floodwall built by IBS Engineering. Image credit: IBS Engineering.

Floods caused by a blocking high pressure system
The primary cause of the torrential rains over Central Europe during late May and early June was large loop in the jet stream that developed over Europe and got stuck in place. A “blocking high” set up over Northern Europe, forcing two low pressure systems, “Frederik” and “Günther”, to avoid Northern Europe and instead track over Central Europe. The extreme kink in the jet stream ushered in a strong southerly flow of moisture-laden air from the Mediterranean Sea over Central Europe, which met up with colder air flowing from the north due to the stuck jet stream pattern, allowing “Frederik” and “Günther” to dump 1-in-100 year rains. The stuck jet stream pattern also caused record May heat in northern Finland and surrounding regions of Russia and Sweden, where temperatures averaged an astonishing 12°C (21°F) above average for a week at the end of May. All-time May heat records–as high as 87°F–were set at stations north of the Arctic Circle in Finland.


Figure 3. Nine-day rainfall amounts in portions of Southern Germany and Western Austria exceeded 12″ (305 mm.) Image credit: ZAMG.

If it seems like getting two 1-in-100 to 1-in-500 year floods in eleven years is a bit suspicious–well, it is. Those recurrence intervals are based on weather statistics from Earth’s former climate. We are now in a new climate regime with more heat and moisture in the atmosphere, combined with altered jet stream patterns, which makes major flooding disasters more likely in certain parts of the world, like Central Europe. As I discussed in a March 2013 post, “Are atmospheric flow patterns favorable for summer extreme weather increasing?”, research published this year by scientists at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) in German found that extreme summertime jet stream patterns had become twice as common during 2001 – 2012 compared to the previous 22 years. One of these extreme patterns occurred in August 2002, during Central Europe’s last 1-in-100 to 1-in-500 year flood. When the jet stream goes into one of these extreme configurations, it freezes in its tracks for weeks, resulting in an extended period of extreme heat or flooding, depending upon where the high-amplitude part of the jet stream lies. The scientists found that because human-caused global warming is causing the Arctic to heat up more than twice as rapidly as the rest of the planet, a unique resonance pattern capable of causing this behavior was resulting. According to German climate scientist Stefan Rahmstorf, “Planetary wave [jet stream] amplitudes have been very high in the last few weeks; we think this plays a role in the current German flooding event.” More rains are in store for the flood area through Monday, then the blocking pattern responsible for the great 2013 Central European flood is expected to disintegrate, resulting in a return to more typical June weather for the next two weeks.


Figure 4. The northward wind speed (negative values, blue on the map, indicate southward flow) at an altitude of 300 mb in the mid-latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere during July 1980, July 2011, and the last twelve days of May 2013. July of 2011 featured an unusually intense and long-lasting heat wave in the U.S. (the 4th warmest month in U.S. history), and the normally weak and irregular waves (like observed during the relatively normal July of 1980) were replaced by a strong and regular wave pattern. Late May 2013 was also very extreme, resulting the great Central European floods of 2013. Image credit: Vladimir Petoukhov and Stefan Rahmstorf.

Links
Stefan Rahmstorf’s blog (translated from German) on the unusual jet stream patterns that caused the Central European floods of 2013.

NASA has high-resolution MODIS satellite images showing the flooding of the Elbe River in Germany.

My April 2013 post, “Unusually cold spring in Europe and the Southeast U.S. due to the Arctic Oscillation”, has a good summary of recent unusual jet stream patterns and the science behind them.

Video 1. Climate, Ice, and Weather Whiplash: In this June 3, 2013 video by the Yale Climate Forum’s Peter Sinclair, Rutgers’ Jennifer Francis and Weather Underground’s Jeff Masters explore the ‘Why?’ of two years of mirror images of weather across North America.

I’m in Granby, Colorado this week for the American Geophysical Union’s Chapman Conference on Climate Change Communication. Many of the talks will be webcast live; you can see a list of the talks (times in MDT) here. My talk, “The Weather Underground Experience,” is scheduled for Monday at 3 pm MDT. I’ll give a 15-minute overview of the history of wunderground, and what I’ve learned about communicating weather and climate change information along the way. My blog updates this week may be somewhat random as a result of the conference, but I’m not seeing anything in the tropics worthy of discussion at this point

from:    http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/show.html

Australia Earthquake

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Very Strong earthquake in a nearly unpopulated region of Australia

Last update: June 9, 2013 at 3:35 pm by By

Update : The earthquake was reasonably close to Yulara (about 100 km) – which had damage through an earthquake in 1989.

Update : These earthquakes are not uncommon in Northern Territory and South Australia with a similar earthquake occurring last year. Click here for more information about historic damaging quakes in Australia (CATDAT).

Update : USGS expects a very strong shaking close to the epicenter as a result of the very shallow depth of only 3,9 km. Luckily, there is no settlement with more than 1000 inhabitants.

A very strong earthquake with Magnitude 5.6 occured in the desert region near the border of South Australia and Northern Territory. This area is nearly unpopulated, so we do not expect any larger damage from this quake.
ShakeMap Australia

Most important Earthquake Data:

Magnitude : 5.5

Local Time (conversion only below land) : 2013-06-09 23:52:13

GMT/UTC Time : 2013-06-09 14:22:13

Depth (Hypocenter)  : 10 km

from:    http://earthquake-report.com/2013/06/09/very-strong-earthquake-northern-territory-australia-on-june-9-2013/

Sunday, 06/09 Chromoscope

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Sunday, June 9:    Periwinkle Blue

It is time to get going on all those projects that assist you in WHO you are.  If you are a crystal worker, then it is time to reintroduce yourself to those crystals and listen for their voices to tell you what it is that needs to be done.  If you work with Nature, then spend some time out there.  Pay attention, honor, and open.  If you are a body worker, open to the healing energies of the Universe.  If you are a psychic, then know that things are shifting, and that a whole new layer of communication is there for you to tap.  All light-workers, however you express your talents, it is time today to honor all that you know, how far you have come, the wonder of you, and be open to receive more light and expansion from All That Is.  This week makers a transition and the energies are starting to awaken those elements that have been marinating for so long.  There is serendipity and synchronicity in the air today.  Open and receive.  You can find some of the joy returning.

On Ascension

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Being Ascended

Kara Schallock
a message from Kara Schallock
Thursday, 6 June, 2013

For this past week I have been sharing how many of us have risen to the next level of Ascension on my Facebook Community Page. What is most important now is to realize and know this by checking within and then stepping up in that Awareness and Truth. Many, however, will continue to play in the old duality. Why? Because it’s what they’re used to, so they keep perpetuating it by continuing to react to circumstances and continuing to act from their old beliefs and patterns. So go beneath the surface to see where you really reside. When you focus on the New, on being Love, on Peace and Unity, etc.  the outer world will eventually reflect that. If you focus on duality, on what’s wrong in life, you hold the old paradigm in place. So, it still is about choice. Gaia is a free will zone, so things don’t just automatically happen; you create everything. That is what is meant by being a spiritually sovereign being; we’re not puppets any longer. The Wizard is us. The Wizard is Divine; we are of Source; there is no separation between us and the Divine.

Those that know the Truth and live from that knowing continue to rise and anchor the New. The next step then is to live it in everyday life. In this way, the energy of Who we are emanates out in waves of high dimensional Christ Consciousness that touches the Earth and all others, creating a rise in people waking up and helps Gaia transform into Her rightful place as a high dimensional planet of Love. We don’t have to rescue, save, or preach to others; all we have to do is Be All That We Are…and that is Love. Love is our essence and from that knowing, we love and are more loving. Love is a noun; and from this, the verb of loving comes forth.

From being ascended comes much Freedom. One does not take things personally, ceases to control their life and others, realizes that we’re all connected as One, is unconditionally loving with boundaries if needed, trusts their Guidance and follows it, puts no-one on a pedestal, even Guides and Angels, has an inner Joy and Peace no matter what is going on, is able to flow with life’s challenges and changes, lets go of trying to figure things out and feels their way through life, rather than analyzing and seeking answers elsewhere. These, of course, are just some of the ways to know that you’ve moved up in your Ascension Path. And, of course, this isn’t an either/or; most are somewhere in the middle, gently letting go of the old and embracing the New and often at the same time.

Know too that your purpose is not necessarily your career. Purpose is essence and is expressed in everything you do. The form of purpose shifts as your consciousness shifts. It is important to drop categories, for that is just creating another box and that is not how energy works; energy flows and expands. In other words, you might consider not labeling yourself in this way: “I am a Lightworker,” “I am a massage therapist,” “I am a Reiki master,” etc. When you do that you stay stuck in that form. Rather, perhaps state, “I AM Love,” “I AM Peace,” “I AM expressing my highest self,” etc. As you shift, so does your consciousness and so does your purpose. By the way, putting I AM before anything empowers it and is a Divine statement of intention in that Moment.

While ascended, you do not cease having challenges or having old energies surface. How you deal with them does change however. Your ascended/New perception sees challenge as opportunity; the opportunity to ascend and expand more into God Consciousness. We don’t just ascend and stop. Ascension is ceaseless and many have ascended over and over throughout lifetimes. This time, however, it’s different. In the past upon ascending, we left the planet. This time we stay in the physical helping others and Gaia ascend as well.

Ascension is not a place; it is a consciousness; an Awareness. Many may be fully integrated as an ascended master, shining their humble Light for others without attachment to whether others ascend or not. In fact, detachment to outcome is a hallmark of an ascended master. Being ascended is not without ego. Ego in the ascended master is the mental, emotional and physical expression of Soul. One of the purposes of Ascension is to have the ego dissolve into the Soul and express the Soul’s desires through the mental, emotional and physical bodies. The best way to have this happen is through meditation and merging consciously with Soul. Of course, the Soul’s only desire is to create Heaven on Earth in Oneness, Love, Joy, Peace and all the Soul Essences which are felt within and expressed outwardly; and then all of life is reflected in this Truth. This is being cohesive mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually; all our parts flow as One. The Soul is perfect, Divine, and is whole. There is no hurting the Soul, as there is no hurting Source.

Many, of course, are somewhere in transit, still releasing and yet, still aware that they are completely different than they were even a month ago. There are others who are ascended, but don’t have that Awareness, still acting as if they are in duality. And then others are asleep or resisting the changes that would move them up in consciousness and may still enjoy complaining, drama, chaos and the old 3D world view. They do not realize that if they let go of these 3D aspects, life could be so beautiful. Just know that wherever you are is perfect for your evolution. Life will certainly reflect back to you what your consciousness is within.

We are making all kinds of choices in life. Those choices made from your Heart will flow and bring to you many rewards, even if they don’t seem like it at the time. They will indeed raise you in consciousness. Choices made from the head are all based on the past and most likely on fear. They hold you back in the old. Of course, if that’s where you want to stay, then for sure make choices based on past experiences. There is no judgment in that. Know that when you have to know why, when, where, how and what, you are engaged in the intellect. There is no movement in this. However, if you feel first with your Heart and express it through your intellect, you will have activated your Higher Heart-Higher Mind. You can then express your Heart-feelings through communication, whether writing or speaking or any other expression of communication. Of course, there is no right or wrong way to do anything, we are learning as we go.

When you listen to your Heart’s knowing; your Soul’s Guidance; you continue to move along your Path and whatever that brings into your experience is always to raise you higher. And in that, you become aware, which leads you to more choices based on your more expanded consciousness. When something doesn’t feel right, you may choose to leave it behind. When you feel expanded and energized, it is showing you that you are flowing in the more open direction for your evolution. If it feels wrong or constricted, you have an opportunity to make a different choice. Whatever you choose always takes you in a particular direction.

So, as you continue to ascend, it is always best to keep your vibration high, make Heartfelt, guided choices all the while continuing to release the old fears, shoulds, should nots, and supposed-to’s that are all a part of the old paradigm. Do realize too that we don’t want to create another paradigm, for that is too limiting for us. Rather, be free to expand unfettered and only grounded to your Soul, Source and Gaia’s Crystal Cluster (Her Heart and Soul).

When you feel the old tugging at you, remind yourself that it is done and it is an illusion. It is during these times when surely you are ready for another step in your Ascension. So gracefully let go of the old, release it in the Sacred Rose, if you are guided, and stay focused on Who you are: an ascended and ascending Being of Love.

Continue to know Who you are, follow your Heart and know that We are creating a New Reality and New Earth. Stay balanced and grounded and know you are guided, loved and safe.

Copyright: Feel free to share any portion of the Ascension Notes. I would appreciate being credited.http://www.soulsticerising.com

from:    http://spiritlibrary.com/kara-schallock/being-ascended

Center for All Sorts of Data in Utah

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Behold the NSA’s Dark Star: the Utah Data Center

by

It’s the ultimate machine of what’s become our Paranoid State. Clive Irving on the Orwellian mass-surveillance data center rising in the Utah desert.

Remember the Stasi, the secret police who operated in East Germany when it was a communist state? When the Berlin Wall came down, East Germans discovered they had been living in a society so rotted by paranoia that at least one in three of its adult citizens were spying on the other two.

NSA Phone Records
NSA’s Utah Data Center shown June 6, in Bluffdale, Utah. (Rick Bowmer/AP)

In the case of East Germany, this ended up producing warehouses stuffed with bulging files containing the minutely observed details of the everyday, humdrum lives of millions. The product was both banal and, in its range and results, terrifying (a world caught beautifully in the film The Lives of Others).

In the case of the U.S., the apotheosis of the same mind-set lies in a sprawling complex at Camp Williams, Utah, due to start operating this fall. Billions of dollars have gone into creating this cyberintelligence facility for the National Security Agency.

There’s no official explanation of the Utah Data Center’s real mission, except that it’s the largest of a network of data farms including sites in Colorado, Georgia, and Maryland. But it’s obviously been built to vastly increase the agency’s capacity to suck in, digest, analyze, and store whatever the intelligence community decides to collect. As of this week, we know a lot more about the kind of data that includes.

Of course, the U.S. is still far from being the police state that East Germany was. But I do think we need to better understand how this technological juggernaut works, what its scope really is—and particularly we need to appreciate how our political acceptance of this scale of surveillance is shaping the kind of society we are.

The national-security industrial complex is now of the size, power, and influence of the military-industrial complex of the Cold War, which President Eisenhower first defined and warned of. As then, this complex uses the national interest as a reason for having to operate in secrecy, and invokes patriotism—literally in the PATRIOT Act—to create a political consensus.

Nineteen terrorists with minimal technology—box cutters—have enabled the counterterrorism industry to enjoy unbounded reach. White House Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest used the familiar argument to defend the newly disclosed surveillance: it was, he said, “a critical tool in protecting the nation from terror threats as it allows counterterrorism personnel to discover whether known or suspected terrorists have been in contact with other persons who may be engaged in terror activities, particularly people located inside the United States.”

NSA Phone Records
The Utah Data Center is part of “a network of data farms” in the U.S. (Rick Bowmer/AP)

Where is it absolutely essential to violate privacy and where not?

That’s actually a simplification. Surveillance has two fundamental purposes: to track the known and discover the unknown. It’s hard to comprehend the science involved. How, for example, do you cull billions of bytes of data a second in a way that discriminates between the useless and the essential? Only one thing is for sure, and that is that the policy driving the velocity of the NSA’s ever-expanding sweeps is first to make those sweeps as global and indiscriminate as possible and then to apply algorithms able to instantly see the significant from the insignificant. If only it were that simple.

It is patently easy to defend the resources devoted to intelligence gathering by saying that many attacks have been thwarted, without saying what and where they were. Neither the Boston Marathon atrocity nor the London assassination of a British soldier were detected in advance, even though intelligence services in both countries had the perpetrators on their radar.

There is a certain kind of intellectual depravity in trying to have us accept that all surveillance is good for us. Politicians of both parties who now say there is nothing new in what has been revealed, that this was all authorized and kosher, are captives of this depravity, because they don’t really know any more than we do where to draw the line. Where is it absolutely essential to violate privacy and where not?

This is made even worse by the cover of enormous technical complexity. At least the Stasi’s low-tech methods could be seen for what they were, part of a cumbersome and gross bureaucratic machine, essentially human in its systems, allowing culpability to be clearly assigned.

In our case there is the Dark Star factor, like the Utah operation, working on robotic principles, not dependent on putting bugs in chandeliers, leaving no fingerprints, and capable of awesome penetration. We have the ultimate machine of the Paranoid State, an Orwellian apparatus that intoxicates its operators with its efficiency, enthralls its masters with its omniscience, and emasculates its political overseers with its promise of efficacy.

from:    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/06/08/behold-the-nsa-s-dark-star-the-utah-data-center.html

A State of North Colorado

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Colorado secede? Counties weigh exit plan to form state of ‘North Colorado’

Colorado secede? It sounds implausible, but the idea of counties withdrawing from one state to form a new one isn’t impossible. But some big hurdles – like the US Constitution – make it very difficult.

By , Staff writer / June 8, 2013

Colorado state flag. Some rural counties in the state want to secede, forming a new state of ‘North Colorado.’

The idea is rooted in the political rift that many Coloradans – especially rural ones – feel with a Denver-based state legislature that has taken a liberal turn in recent years.

A new state, if it formed, might be called North Colorado.

Would that mean that the rest of the current state would need to become South Colorado? How would the US flag look with 51 stars? Would this give similar ideas to politically restive sections of other states?

It may be too early to ask such questions. The road to forming a new state is a difficult one.

The move would require not just a secession vote showing the counties’ desire to depart. It would also require votes of approval by Colorado’s Legislature and by the US Congress, according to Article 4 of the US Constitution.

“No new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress,” the Constitution says.

According to the National Constitution Center, an organization based in Philadelphia, this process “has been used successfully to create five states: Vermont (from New York, in 1791); Kentucky (from Virginia, in 1792); Tennessee (from North Carolina, in 1796); Maine (from Massachusetts, in 1820); and West Virginia (from Virginia, in 1863).”

So it can be done. And in Colorado, the idea is on the table.

In a Thursday news article, the Coloradan website said the state’s Democrat-controlled Legislature has recently passed laws for stricter gun control, greater reliance on renewable energy in rural areas, and restraints on what was perceived as cruel treatment of livestock.

“Our vision and our morals are no longer represented by the state [Legislature] and the current [governor’s] administration, and we think it’s time that we do take seriously what our options are,” said Douglas Rademacher, a Weld County Commissioner. “This is just one of our options, but we will be moving forward with it.”

In addition to Weld County, other counties weighing the new-state idea are Morgan, Logan, Sedgwick, Phillips, Washington, Yuma, and Kit Carson.

A state of North Colorado containing those counties would not be the smallest US state, in land area, but it would have the smallest population.

Similar ideas have sprung up in other US states. But again, since 1863, secession to form a new state hasn’t actually happened.

from:    http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2013/0608/Colorado-secede-Counties-weigh-exit-plan-to-form-state-of-North-Colorado

On Prana, Chakras, & Meditation

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Navel Gazing 101 - a Mini-Meditation Seminar

Navel Gazing 101 – a Mini-Meditation Seminar

Story by: Norma Gentile with Archangel Michael

The Navel Chakra – a quick primer
The primary way that the body generates its own prana (energy or chi) is through the navel chakra and your breath.  As you breathe in there are two vortexes located at your physical navel; one in front and in back. With each breath prana is drawn through the back and front vortexes of the navel chakra into the core of your body.  To the extent that the navel chakra (both front and back vortexes) are tuned to your soul and body accurately you generate prana that is usable by your body now.

Just like any of the multitude of major and minor chakras in our body, our navel chakra is probably somewhat out of tune with our soul’s journey in our body. One of the most common causes of not having enough ‘get up and go’ or ‘seeing it through to the end’ is having the navel chakra not tuned to your body, to your soul, or tuned into this moment in time.  Too often our navel chakra still reflects the umbilical cord connection to our mother or our family.  It can also be tuned to generate energy for our body as it existed during another period of our life.  Or even be tuned to generate life force for a spouse or other person we deem more needful or more important than our self.

As the navel vortexes, both in back and in front, are tuned to your body and soul in this moment now, energy is generated that is usable by your entire chakra system. This energy is often referred to as prana or chi. Great Masters of various spiritual traditions have the ability to generate large amounts of prana within their body.  This amassing of prana allows them to relate to the physical world without being bound by all of the physical world’s rules.  They can, at times, choose to use this prana as a means of moving outside of the rules dictated by our physical universe.

Prana exists all around us.  Our personal prana, tuned specifically to our bodies, exists within the pranic tube (running up and down in the center of our bodies) and in pranic spheres located in and around our body. We have the ability to store prana that our body can use within pranic spheres located in our head, heart, and navel. There appear to be other spheres of pranic energy above and below the physical body as well.  At the present moment I am seeing the three pranic spheres within the body as being the most active.
The pranic sphere related to the body center lies deep within the body at or just under the navel chakra.  Its center point varies from person to person. I see it either directly behind the physical navel or hovering an inch or two lower in the body. This lower position is the most common; where the upper part of the pranic sphere intersects with center of the navel chakra.
photo NavelPranicTube_zpsb300a328.jpg
The pranic sphere located at your navel is the equivalent of your magic ball. It is the basis of the prana within your pranic tube and hence the entire chakra system.  It is from this sphere that prana (energy, chi) is distributed to every major chakra in your body through the pranic tube.  Sometimes a depletion of energy in your life or body stems from an inability to generate sufficient prana at the navel chakra.

Each of the major chakras has its center within the pranic tube.  Each chakra is supplied with prana from the central channel or pranic tube.  Each chakra then collects its own appropriate energies by drawing additional energy or prana from the outside into the core of the chakra through the webbing of the vortex that make up each chakra. The prana provided in the pranic tube mixes with the prana drawn in and tuned by the vortex of the chakra. This prana, unique to each chakra, is then dispersed from the chakra’s core into the pranic tube to other chakras and to layers of the aura surrounding and interpenetrating the physical body.  In this fashion the prana generated at the navel chakra becomes the basis of all prana available to your body.

If there is a lack of this most basic navel prana, the entire process of creating energies for the body to use at each of the chakras is greatly diminished. In my private practice I am routinely finding that it is not individual chakra issues we are addressing now, but overall issues related to simply not generating enough navel chakra prana in our daily living.

As a singer I am fortunate because I can set aside time to sing each day.  As I sing I naturally breathe deeply and generate prana.  When I do yoga or swim I am also generating prana.  But how often do we give ourselves permission to do something that has us actively engaged in conscious breathing?  For most people the answer is never.

Breathing Practice to Build Prana
Let’s change that with a simple conscious breathing practice you can do on your own.  This is especially good to do when needing to move out of boredom or stagnation.  Don’t do this while driving as it might make you light-headed or distract you.  Do try this while seated and in a location where you feel comfortable.

Find your navel chakra.  You may need to put your hand on your body to do this.  Now imagine or feel where your navel’s pranic sphere might be.  You don’t have to know this exactly or even be sure of it.  Just let yourself explore the possibility that there is a sphere of energy within your body at or slightly below your physical navel.

Breathe out all the way.  Feel the muscles of your abdomen and lower torso move inward.  You may feel the upper abdomen directly below your ribs move inward and also upward a bit.  This is the diaphragm moving upward and expelling air out from your lungs.

Now relax and allow the air to move back into all of the areas of your body that it just moved out of.  While our intake of air is of course limited to our lungs, the process of breathing can involve almost every muscle of our body.  For now, let’s focus on our torso, and allowing all the areas that want to move with the breath to be free to move.

Start with a slow count of two.

One – Two breathe out.

One – Two breathe in.

Repeat four times

Now go to a count of three.

One – Two –Three breathe out.

One – Two – Three breathe in.

Repeat four times

Now do the same on a count of four.

One – Two –Three – Four breathe out.

One – Two – Three – Four breathe in.

Repeat four times.  You may continue this pattern of breathing as long as you feel you want to, up to ten minutes.

If at any time you feel you are getting out of breath and need to breathe more quickly do so, and start the breathing pattern over again at One – Two. As you practice this you will find that you can slow down the counting more and more.  This type of breathing, inhaling and exhaling at the same speed and amount, generates a lovely quality of balance in the overall energy field of your body. It creates prana that is tuned to your own body’s balance. This breathing pattern done daily will help to supply your body with its own source of well refined prana.

After you finish breathing, or even during the process, you may notice that the pranic sphere appears to be growing larger or brighter. For those who do not see energies, your body may feel fuller or warmer around your navel. This indicates you are successfully generating more of your own prana as you breathe.

You may also notice discomfort in your body or a sense of unease.  As you are filling the navel sphere and your pranic tube with your own prana there is less space for energies that are not in tune with your body and soul.  As a result these energies are pushed up into your conscious.  They are often interpreted as odd or repeating thoughts, relatively sudden emotions or emotionally charged memories, heaviness or quickly arising body aches.  These are all interpretations  made by your body, mind and heart of energies that no longer fit you and your life.

Ask each thought, emotion, memory and body ache if it is really yours.  Is it really yours now, in this moment?  I find it best to keep as much of your attention as possible on the breathing process and ask the questions silently as the sensations arise. These questions coming from your consciousness indicate to the energy behind the thought, emotion or physical sensation that you are ready to release it onto its own journey now.  There is no need to follow it as it leaves, and most of the time there is no need to know what it is.

If there is something more you need to know please trust that you will get it from within spontaneously or from the Universe at a later point in time.  This process of breathing is meant to bring you out of your head and into your body…so stay in the body with the process as much as possible.

Why Build Prana Consciously?  

To hear your Spiritual Helpers more clearly.
As you breathe you generate more and more energy that perfectly supports your body.  This pranic energy acts as a medium that fills the space between your body, your guides and angels, and your soul.  The more this space is filled with your pranic energy, the easier it is for you to hear the messages that are coming to you from your soul, your guides and your angels.

I am sure you have had the experience of being faced with a decision.  And as you are presented with the possibilities, one jumps out immediately as being the appropriate choice for you.  It feels like a fit to you, and often there is a sense of relaxation or expansion when you are presented with this option.  As you build more prana throughout your lifetime your soul’s connection into your body is enhanced.  The sensation of what fits and what doesn’t fit is magnified by the presence of this prana, tuned to your body.

What doesn’t fit for you eventually doesn’t fit literally within your body or your aura.  For myself, I experience options that don’t fit me as a twisting sensation in my gut.  Those situations and choices that do fit me feel comfortable, even though they might appear to be physically difficult to undertake.  There is an innate expansion in my auric field when I consider a choice that is appropriate to my soul and body. Acting upon this choice results in my creating more of this same quality of prana to fill my aura.

When we are considering different choices, it is our navel chakra that experiences each of the options first.  The pattern of each choice is tested within the navel chakra, and our body tells us the resulting ‘yes’ or ‘no’.  We can do this while being presented with the choices (by someone speaking to us, for example “Do you want to go see a movie tonight?”), as well as while we are in a meditative state and holding each option within our mind as a thought or mind’s eye as a picture.  For most people feeling their navel chakra and body response to different choices is at first a very subtle art, best done in meditation.

Ideally when we sit quietly and breathe we are generating prana which is accurately tuned to our bodies.  Then, as we are faced with a decision, enough prana is present in the various layers of our energy field so that we can feel which option fits best.  Without sufficient prana, a means to generate it, and an ability to sit quietly, there is no medium to carry the communication between our body, our guides and angels, and our soul.

Sitting in deep stillness and focusing on our breath is one of the ways we build prana.  While it seems to be the simplest, the art of meditating on the breath is quite vast.

In our culture we are seldom exhorted to enter into meditation or a conscious state of deep stillness. We are seldom expected to notice how our buttocks are interacting with the chair or surface upon which we are sitting.  In fact, we are seldom praised for being consciously within our bodies much at all, especially that part of ourselves below our waists!

As you breathe while consciously aware of stillness, your heart chakras open more.  As your upper thymus gland and traditional heart chakras both open, each breath generates prana, tuned to your soul’s journey, which in turn allows a greater ability for you to be connected from your heart with all that surrounds you.

With this meditation you have linked your heart to your body center.  You are beginning to regain the conscious awareness of your body that you had as an infant.  This awareness of the physical body ceased as you lived within your culture, but it can be regained.  As you do regain it you open into numerous possibilities of sensing and feeling connections to others and to all that surrounds you, both in form and not in form.

Validate the changes you have made…this process will continue!

This essay comes out of thoughts and meditations shared during a recent live channeling. The meditative channeling itself is available as a free podcast #37 Breathing Stillness, Generating  at Norma’s podcast page www.healingchants.com/podcasts

Norma Gentile with Archangel Michael Norma Gentile
Sound shaman, is a natural intuitive and channel for Mary, Archangel Michael and the Hathors. She trained as both a professional singer and energy worker.

from:    http://spiritofmaat.com/magazine/june-2013-midsummer-solstice-issue/navel-gazing-101-a-mini-meditation-seminar/

Nepal Landslide

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First monsoon landslide in Nepal leaves 12 dead

Last update: June 8, 2013 at 1:07 pm by By Armand Vervaeck

Nepal landslide Update (June 8 -08:42 UTC)

The death toll of the Taplejung landslide in Nepal has risen to 12. Besides the already 9 reported dead the day before yesterday, the police has stopped searching for the 3 missing which brings the total fatalities to 12.
This is the first major incident after the start of the monsoon. Monsoon rains are triggering many deadly landslides each year in the Himalayas.

Nepal landslide kills 9 people (June 6 -15:42 UTC)
Nine people including eight members of one family were perished in a landslide at Thukima VDC-6 in Taplejungdistrict on Wednesday night. Three others have gone missing. According to DSP Govinda Acharya, the landslide triggered by incessant rainfall buried their houses killing Asta Bahadur Siwa, 60, his wife, son Salman Siwa, 40, daughter-in-law Manmaya Siwa, 34, and grandchildren Naniran, 14, Naina Ram and Khagendra 12 and ten-year-old Nina of Tej Bahadur Siwa. One Sukumaya was rescued from the mudslide but she breathed her last as she was brought to the district headquarters for treatment.

from:     http://earthquake-report.com/2013/06/01/worldwide-landslide-report/

Rains on the East Coast

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Tropical Storm Andrea is rapidly losing its tropical characteristics as it barrels northeastwards at 27 mph up the U.S. East Coast, but it still has plenty of tropical moisture that is feeding very heavy rains. Rains of 2 – 4″ are expected along a swath from South Carolina to New England from Andrea over the next two days. Pine Ridge, NC has received 6.5″ of rain from Andrea, and New River MCAS, North Carolina picked up 2″ of rain as of 9 am EDT this morning, along with a wind gust of 47 mph at 3:18 am. The same band of heavy thunderstorms spawned a possible tornado near Hubert, North Carolina at 4:45 am EDT. Andrea has spawned a preliminary count of eleven tornadoes, which is a respectable number for a landfalling June tropical storm, but not a record. According to TWC’s severe weather expert Dr. Greg Forbes, there have been two other June tropical storms since the year 2000 that spawned far more tornadoes–Tropical Storm Bill during June 29 – July 3, 2003 (32 tornadoes in FL, GA, LA, AL, MS, SC, NC, NJ), and Tropical Storm Allison of June 7 – 17 2001 (28 tornadoes in FL, AL, GA, LA, MS, SC, VA, MA, ME.) Only one of Andrea’s tornadoes caused an injury, a tornado that hit The Acreage in Palm Beach County at 6:45 am EDT. The highest storm surge from Andrea was 4.55′ at Cedar Key, Florida.


Figure 1. Yummy’s cafe in Gulfport, Florida was hit Thursday morning by a waterspout that moved ashore and became a tornado.(LAUREN CARROLL/Tampa Bay Times)


Figure 2. Predicted rainfall for the 48-hour period from 8 am EDT Friday, June 7, to 8 am EDT Sunday, June 8, 2013. Image credit: NOAA.

Video 1. NASA animation of Andrea satellite images. More cool NASA images of Andrea are here.

The Atlantic hurricane season is getting longer
Andrea’s formation in June continues a pattern of an unusually large number of early-season Atlantic named storms we’ve seen in recent years. Climatologically, June is the second quietest month of the Atlantic hurricane season, behind November. During the period 1870 – 2012, we averaged one named storm every two years in June, and 0.7 named storms per year during May and June. In the nineteen years since the current active hurricane period began in 1995, there have been fifteen June named storms (if we include 2013’s Tropical Storm Andrea.) June activity has nearly doubled since 1995, and May activity has more than doubled (there were seventeen May storms in the 75-year period 1870 – 1994, compared to 6 in the 19-year period 1995 – 2013.) Some of this difference can be attributed to observation gaps, due to the lack of satellite data before 1966. However, even during the satellite era, we have seen an increase in both early season (May – June) and late season (November – December) Atlantic tropical storms. Dr. Jim Kossin of the University of Wisconsin looked at the reasons for this in a 2008 paper titled, “Is the North Atlantic hurricane season getting longer?” He concluded that there is a “apparent tendency toward more common early- and late-season storms that correlates with warming Sea Surface Temperature but the uncertainty in these relationships is high.” He found that hurricane season for both the period 1950-2007 and 1980-2007 got longer by 5 to 10 days per decade (see my blog post on the paper.)

Invest 92L in the Central Atlantic no threat to develop
Satellite images show that disorganized tropical wave is in the Central Atlantic, about a two-day journey from the Lesser Antilles Islands. NHC designated this system 92L Thursday afternoon. High wind shear of 30 – 40 knots is ripping up the thunderstorms in 92L as they form, and wind shear is predicted to remain 30 – 40 knots for the next five days, making development unlikely. The wave will likely bring heavy rain showers and gusty winds to the northern Lesser Antilles Islands beginning on Sunday night. None of the reliable computer models is showing development of a tropical cyclone in the Atlantic over the next seven days.

from:    http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/show.html