Category Archives: Of Interest

UFO at Nevado de Toluca in Mexico

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UFO Often Seen Coming And Going From Volcano Mouth In Mexico, Jan 4, 2014, VIDEO, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: January 4, 2014
Location of sighting: Crater of Nevado de Toluca, Mexico
Spanish UFO News States:

A strange spherical object is captured while I was walking in the crater of Nevado de Toluca, excellent recording where you can see a spherical object rising and falling within the crater of the volcano of Toluca on January 4, 2014, know that’s what we shoot, we were at a considerable distance from where the lake was, but fortunate to see at that point to an object very clearly spherical shape, but making very strange movements up and down. Was shifted initially on the surface of the water and then moves up and down inside the crater of Nevado de Toluca. Very strange sighting of a UFO into a volcano in Mexico.

from:    http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/2014/01/ufo-often-seen-coming-and-going-from.html

Flares from Giant Sunspot

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HUGE SUNSPOT, CHANCE OF FLARES: The source of the incoming CME is AR1944, one of the largest sunspots of the current solar cycle. The active region sprawls across more than 200,000 km of solar terrain and contains dozens of dark cores. The largest could swallow Earth three times over. AR1944 is circled in this Jan. 9th snapshot from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory:

As the image shows, the sunspot is almost directly facing Earth. This makes it a threat for geoeffective eruptions. NOAA forecasters estimate an 80% chance of M-class flares and a 50% chance of X-flares on Jan. 9th.

fr/spaceweather.com

NSA Quantum Computer

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NSA Reportedly Building Quantum Computer

Jan 3, 2014 12:25 PM ET // by FoxNews.com

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Such a machine would open the door to cracking the strongest encryption tools in use today.Brooks Kraft/Corbis

The National Security Agency is reportedly racing to build a computer that will be able to break almost every kind of encryption used to protect medical, banking, business and government records around the world.

According to documents provided by NSA whistle blower Edward Snowden, a $79.7 million research program titled “Penetrating Hard Targets” includes a project to build a “cryptologically useful quantum computer” — a machine considerably faster than classic computers, the Washington Post reported Thursday.

The implications of the NSA building a quantum computer are far reaching. Such a machine would open the door to cracking the strongest encryption tools in use today, including a standard known as RSA that scrambles communications and make them impossible to read for anyone except the intended recipient. RSA is commonly used in Web browsers for encrypted emails and secure financial transactions.

The development of such a machine has long been a goal of many in the scientific community, and would have revolutionary implications for fields like medicine as well as for the NSA’s code-breaking mission.

The NSA reportedly sees itself as in a race with European Union and Swiss sponsored quantum computing labs.

Quantum Encryption Goes Mainstream

“The geographic scope has narrowed from a global effort to a discrete focus on the European Union and Switzerland,” one NSA document says, according to the Washington Post.

The Snowden documents also indicate that the NSA has been carrying out a part of its research in large shielded rooms designed to prevent electromagnetic energy from leaking. The rooms are required in order to keep quantum computing experiments running.

from:    http://news.discovery.com/tech/gear-and-gadgets/nsa-reportedly-building-quantum-computer-140103.htm

On the Golden Ratio

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Ancient Origins – The Golden Ratio – A Sacred Number That Links the Past & Present

 

golden-ratioPrecisely, this is the number 1.61803399, represented by the Greek letter Phi, and considered truly unique in its mathematical properties, its prevalence throughout nature, and its ability to achieve a perfect aesthetic composition.

According to astrophysicist Mario Livio:

Some of the greatest mathematical minds of all ages, from Pythagoras and Euclid in ancient Greece, through the medieval Italian mathematician Leonardo of Pisa and the Renaissance astronomer Johannes Kepler, to present-day scientific figures such as Oxford physicist Roger Penrose, have spent endless hours over this simple ratio and its properties. But the fascination with the Golden Ratio is not confined just to mathematicians. Biologists, artists, musicians, historians, architects, psychologists, and even mystics have pondered and debated the basis of its ubiquity and appeal. In fact, it is probably fair to say that the Golden Ratio has inspired thinkers of all disciplines like no other number in the history of mathematics.

In mathematics and the arts, two quantities are in the golden ratio if their ratio is the same as the ratio of their sum to the larger of the two quantities. When the Golden Mean is conceptualised in two dimensions it is typically presented as a regular spiral that is defined by a series of squares and arcs, each forming “Golden Rectangles”.

This symbolic potential arises because of the way the mean’s spiral shape resembles growth patterns observed in nature and its proportions are reminiscent of those in human bodies. Thus, these simple spirals and rectangles, which served to suggest the presence of a universal order underlying the world, were thereby dubbed “golden” or “divine”.

The Golden Ratio in History

The golden ratio has fascinated Western intellectuals of diverse interests for at least 2,400 years. The earliest known monuments believed to have been built according to this alluring number are the statues of the Parthenon in Greece, dating back between 490 and 430 BC.  However, there are many who have argued that it goes back much further than this and that the Egyptians were well versed in the properties of this unique number.

According to some historians, the Egyptians thought that the golden ratio was sacred.  Therefore, it was very important in their religion.  They used the golden ratio when building temples and places for the dead.  In addition, the Egyptians found the golden ratio to be pleasing to the eye.  They used it in their system of writing and in the arrangement of their temples.  The Egyptians were aware that they were using the golden ratio, but they called it the “sacred ratio.”

The first recorded definition of the golden ratio dates back to the period when Greek mathematician, Euclid (c. 325–c. 265 BC), described what he called the “extreme and mean ratio”. However, the ratio’s unique properties became popularised in the 15th century when aesthetics were a vital component of Renaissance art and geometry served both practical and symbolic purposes.  As the famous mathematician, astronomer, and astrologer, Johannes Kepler (1571 – 1630) wrote:

Geometry has two great treasures: one is the Theorem of Pythagoras, and the other the division of a line into extreme and mean ratio; the first we may compare to a measure of gold, the second we may name a precious jewel.

The Golden Ratio in Architecture

Many artists and architects have proportioned their work to approximate the golden ratio, with the belief that the outcome will be more aesthetically pleasing.  Using any of these ratios, an architect can design a door handle that has a complementary relationship to its door, which in turn has a similar relationship to its enclosing wall, and so on.  But more than this, the golden ratio has been used for the façade of great buildings from the Parthenon to the Great Mosque of Kairouan and all the way through to modern landmarks such as the Sydney Opera House and the National Gallery in London.

The Golden Ratio in Nature

Perhaps what is most surprising about the Golden Ratio is that it can be seen as a naturally occurring phenomenon in nature.   The golden ratio is expressed in the arrangement of branches along the stems of plants and the veins in leaves.   It can be seen in the skeletons of animals and humans and the branching of their veins and nerves.  It can even be seen in the proportions of chemical compounds and the geometry of crystals. Essentially, it is all around us and within us and for this reason, German psychologist Adolf Zeising (1810 – 1876) labelled it a ‘universal law’:

in which is contained the ground-principle of all formative striving for beauty and completeness in the realms of both nature and art, and which permeates, as a paramount spiritual ideal, all structures, forms and proportions, whether cosmic or individual, organic or inorganic, acoustic or optical; which finds its fullest realization, however, in the human form.

As a result of the unique properties of this golden proportion, many view the ratio as sacred or divine and as a door to a deeper understanding of beauty and spirituality in life, unveiling a hidden harmony or connectedness in so much of what we see.

from:    https://decryptedmatrix.com/live/ancient-origins-the-golden-ratio-a-sacred-number-that-links-the-past-present/

Florida PD Officer Harrell Arrested for Peaceful Protest

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In this video Red Pill Philosophy and WeAreChange get an exclusive interview with a Florida police officer who was recently arrested for refusing to take off his Guy Fawkes mask during a protest. Ericson Harrell who’s a 15 year veteran of the florida PD and a military veteran tells us why decided to protest and stand up for his rights by not taking off the V for Vendetta mask.

Economic Illusions

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10 Signs We Live in a False Economy

economic slavery

It’s time to admit that we live in a false economy. Smoke and mirrors are used to make us believe the economy is real, but it’s all an elaborate illusion.

Out of one side of the establishment’s mouth we hear excitement about “green shoots”, and out of the other side comes breathless warnings of fiscal cliffs and the urgent need for unlimited bailouts by the Fed.

We hear the people begging for jobs and the politicians promising them, but politicians can’t create jobs. We see people camped out to buy stuff on Black Friday indicating the consumer economy is seemingly thriving, only to find out everything was bought on credit.

The corporate media does their best to distract us from seeing anything real. We see the media glorify Kim Kardashian who got rich by being famous, and became famous merely by being rich. She got front page coverage on Huffington Post this week because her cat died.  Enough said.

Meanwhile the financial media makes the economy seem complicated and they ban anyone who speaks truthfully about the economy from their airwaves.

Is it any wonder why people are angry and confused about the economy?

Well, hopefully these signs that we live in a false economy will help clear up some of that confusion.

1. Fake Jobs: It’s not just that the “official” unemployment numbers are a fraud, the actual jobs are fake as well. Ask yourself how many professions actually produce something of value? 80% of jobs could disappear tomorrow and it wouldn’t affect basic human survival or happiness in the least. Yes, in our society we need money to survive – and jobs equal money – but that doesn’t mean a “job” has any actual benefit to society.  More on this in the next point…

2. Problems Create Jobs, Not Solutions: We can’t fix real problems, because it would destroy more fake jobs. We can’t end the wars and bring all of the personnel home when the jobless rate is already suffering. We can’t end the War on Drugs because where would the DEA agents, prison guards, the court system, parole officers, and the rest of their support staff work. We can’t simplify the tax code because the bookkeepers, CPAs, accounting professors, and tax attorneys would be unemployed. We cannot reduce the bureaucracy of government or streamline healthcare because paper pushers have few other notable skills. We can’t stop spying on Americans because it now employs millions of people. We can’t restrict the Wall Street casino, or hardly anyone will be left with a job. Finally, what will happen to university jobs when people either realize their product is not worth the cost or they discover they can get the same education online for nearly free? In other words, we need these manufactured problems to create phony employment.

3. Money Has No Value:  Money is the biggest illusion of all. Our money is loaned into existence with arbitrary interest rates by a private monopoly. It is an IOU. It only has value because a law says it has value, and that value fluctuates based on how much supply is in the economy which, again, is controlled by a for-profit monopoly. It’s actual value is zero since it is just a piece of paper with fancy ink on it. The only things with real value to humans are skills (labor), tools and materials, food and water, and energy.

4. The Fed Now Buys 90% of the Nation’s Debt: Speaking of money, the Federal Reserve loans money to the US government who issues bonds to cover their spending. Those bonds are sold on the open market through auctions to investors who believe in the ability of the United States to make good on those bonds. Apparently, the US has no more investors because the Fed is now buying 90% of new Treasury bonds. This is called monetizing debt, or, essentially, monetizing money. That’s what a Ponzi scheme does. This acts to keep interest rates artificially low because they’d have to raise them to attract outside “investors”.  In layman terms, our whole monetary system is a paper tiger, a house of cards, or whatever metaphor you want to use for fake.

5. What is the Value of Anything?  The price discovery mechanism, or the process to determine the value of an asset in the marketplace, has become so convoluted that determining the genuine value of anything has become nearly impossible. Between government subsidies for things like food, fuel, education, housing, insurance and even cars; taxes, regulations and laws; the manipulation of the value of money and interest rates; Wall Street gambling on commodities; what is the real value of something? For example, why does an ounce of marijuana (a weed that can grow anywhere) cost up to $500?  Is that the real value based on labor and materials, and supply and demand? Of course not. Its value is inflated mainly due to laws and regulations.

6. Failure is Rewarded:  You know we live in a false economy when failure is rewarded and success is penalized. Citizens everywhere are being told they need to tighten their belts, work harder so we can bailout the failed government, banks, insurance companies and even car companies. And when we work harder and achieve some success, they tax it heavily to indefinitely pay for these fraudulent institutions. Yet this infinite money creation and taxation is light years from solving the root cause of the problem. The reality is that the banks’ solutions are the problem, enriching the investor class at the expense of the middle class. Global bankers are playing with taxpayer money – and the money of many future generations – in a global casino royale that is destined to fail so they can take the people’s assets. They are all-in; but their money is fake, and our assets put at risk are real.

7. Corporate entities have the same rights as humans, but not the same punishments:  When the Supreme Court ruled that corporations have free-speech rights of people, it was one of the final nails in the coffin of the republic. Monied interests can now openly finance elections and buy the legislation they need to operate with impunity. Corporations may be comprised of humans, but they are not subjected to the same standard of humanity. It was profoundly argued in the article What if BP Were a Human Being? that judged by common standards of morality, decency, and previously agreed-upon definitions of criminality, BP would be judged a psychopathic killer … and immortal. Ditto for the rest leading the predatory corporate pack; the most obvious being defense contractors.  And since these corporations are now joined at the hip with government itself, what does that make government? By changing definitions, they are attempting to change reality. But that still doesn’t make it the truth.

8. People buy things they don’t need with money they don’t have: In a type of trickle-down debt whirlpool, the government’s rampant spending without sufficient assets to back it up is mirrored in the behavior of the American consumer. Despite inflation, rising unemployment, and a continued collapse in real estate, it hasn’t stopped credit spending. The Associated Press just reported that for the month of October:

Americans swiped their credit cards more often in October and borrowed more to attend school and buy cars. The increases drove U.S. consumer debt to an all-time high.

The Federal Reserve said Friday that consumers increased their borrowing by $14.2 billion in October from September. Total borrowing rose to a record $2.75 trillion.

Borrowing in the category that covers autos and student loans increased by $10.8 billion. Borrowing on credit cards rose by $3.4 billion, only the second monthly increase in the past five months. (Source)

Most troubling is the type of borrowing highlighted. The worst possible borrowing would be these negative-return investments such as student loans, credit cards, and cars. It is magical thinking taken to the highest degree.

9. Entrepreneurs are punished: It has become nearly impossible to make a simple living on your own. America has become a land filled with bureaucratic red tape that actively thwarts small business creation and criminalizes independence. There is perhaps no better example of this than the attacks waged against the ultimate entrepreneurial endeavor of self-reliance: the family farm. Through collectivist models such as Agenda 21, long-running family farms are being shut down and supplanted with “protected zones.” In the most recent case, a family oyster farm was shut down based on provably false scientific data that aimed to demonstrate negative environmental and economic impacts. It was completely fake, ending an 80-year local business that generated 50,000 tourists per year and employed 30 full-time local residents. In many of these cases the federally stolen property winds up in the hands of developers who have no interest in a true local economy. It is an inherent part of any false economy to create dependence where none should exist at all. A five-minute video that can be seen here sums up the American economy of illusions and the death of the American Dream.

10. Engineered Slavery: Do you think slavery died in the 1800s?  Think again. Economic hitmen (lenders) have successfully enslaved-by-debt everything from nations, entire industries, state and local governments and nearly every person on the planet. And they bought your servitude with money they never had, they simply created it out of thin air. Even if an individual doesn’t have any bank financing or credit cards, they still pay the private Federal Reserve through inflation and income taxes. As author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, John Perkins, would say: the time has come for the banks to collect their “pound of flesh” from average citizens by way of higher taxes, less social services, and taking your pensions — “austerity.” For an enlightening explanation of how economic hitmen work their dark magic please watch this video.  If you’re still confused, see these 10 signs you might be a slave.  Another, more obvious, form of engineered slavery is prison labor. Laws and regulations are specifically created to add to the prison population which enriches the corporations that own them, while local communities actually become poorer and more dangerous (source).

As George Carlin said, “It’s called the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it.” It would be bad enough if it were contained to only one country, but we are now experiencing a global collective dreaming that fantasizes about a government figuring things out just in the nick of time. However, in the real world, the collapse has begun in earnest. Until we are committed to stop being slaves and counter the 10 points above, we will remain in the grip of an hallucination. However, there are encouraging signs through protests worldwide, alternative currency movements, and myriad creative solutions in the most affected countries like Iceland, Greece, and Spain that people are beginning to shake off their sleep, look in the mirror and realize that the dream economy they have been sold was designed to make them seek solutions in entirely the wrong direction.

Source: “10 Signs We Live in a False Economy,” from activistpost.com

from:    http://theunboundedspirit.com/10-signs-we-live-in-a-false-economy/

Positive Trends for 2014

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10 Hopeful Things That Happened in 2013 to Get You Inspired for What’s to Come

Beyond the headlines of conflict and catastrophe, this year’s top stories offered us some powerful proof that the world can still change—for the better.
posted Dec 27, 2013
2014 photo courtesy of Shutterstock

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

There was something almost apocalyptic about 2013. Typhoon Haiyan slammed into the Philippines, the strongest storm ever recorded on land. It killed more than 6,000 people and affected millions. But it was just one of the 39 weather-related disasters costing $1 billion or more in 2013.

In Australia, record high temperatures forced mapmakers to create a new color on the weather map. Massive wildfires swept through California, historic flooding took out bridges and roadways in Colorado, and tornadoes swept through the Midwest, destroying towns like Moore, Okla. Millions of people are on the move, seeking to escape the effects of climate-related disasters.

CO2 concentrations passed 400 parts per million for the first time this year, and yet governments have done little to curb emissions. Meanwhile, hundreds of millions of dollars—much of it from secret sources—flow to climate-denier think tanks and advocacy groups.

Pop culture often explores a change before politicians do, and 2013 saw a rash of post-apocalyptic movies—from World War Z to Oblivion—and zombie apocalypse role-playing games.

Much happened that was hopeful this year—a new pope focused on inequality, successful minimum wage campaigns spread across the country, and the number of states allowing gay marriage doubled.

But responses to the threat of the climate crisis lead off this year’s top stories as we look at seeds sown this year that could make 2014 transformational.

1. We saw surprising new leadership on the climate issue

In northeast Nebraska, Native Americans and local ranchers formed a new alliance to resist the Keystone XL pipeline. Seven thousand activists gathered in Pittsburgh to press for action on a wide range of environmental justice issues. Students across North America persuaded nine colleges and universities to divest from fossil fuel companies. Hundreds of climate activists walked out of the COP19 climate talks in Poland to hold their own climate talks.

The governors of California, Oregon, Washington, and the Canadian province of British Columbia have committed to taking action on the climate crisis. But Congress remains deadlocked and in denial, and climate scientists—when they let down their careful professional demeanor—express astonishment that world governments have failed to act on what is fast becoming a global emergency.

A new potential ally is coming from an unexpected source. Some investors are beginning to worry that fossil fuel companies may not be a good bet. Investors worry about a “carbon bubble.”

The reserves of oil, gas, and coal counted as assets by the big energy corporations would be enormously destructive to life on Earth if they were allowed to burn. Many believe that new regulation or pricing will keep a large portion of those reserves safely in the ground.

If that happens, the companies’ reserves, and thus their stock, may be worth far less than believed. Savvy investors are placing their bets elsewhere: Warren Buffett, for example, is investing $1 billion in wind energy, which, along with solar energy, is looking better all the time.

2. Native peoples took the lead in the fossil fuel fight

In response to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s attempt to ramp up fossil fuel extraction on Native lands, Idle No More blossomed across Canada this year. First Nations people held flash mob round dances, blockaded roads, and appealed to government at all levels to protect land and water.

And it’s not just Canada. In Washington state, the Lummi Tribe is among those resisting massive new coal transport infrastructure, which would make exported coal cheap to burn in Asia.

In Nebraska, the Ponca Tribe is teaming up with local ranchers to resist construction of the Keystone tar sands pipeline. Indigenous peoples in the Amazon, the Andes, Malaysia, the Niger Delta, and elsewhere are also at the front lines of resistance to yet more dangerous fossil fuel extraction. Many are turning to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous peoples and the new Rights of Nature movement for support.

Indigenous peoples developed ways of life that could sustain human life and the natural environment over thousands of years. The rest of the world is starting to recognize the critical importance of these perspectives, and there is growing willingness to listen to the perspectives of indigenous peoples.

3. The middle and lower classes fought for economic justice

Income inequality is reaching levels not seen since the Roaring Twenties. People stuck in long-term unemployment are running out of options, and those who do find work often can’t cover basic living expenses. The issue is now getting attention from mainstream media, becoming one of the defining issues of our time, as President Obama said.

Now a movement is building to create a new economy that can work for all. Voters this year passed minimum wage laws in SeaTac, Wash., ($15 an hour) and the state of New Jersey. An overwhelming majority favors raising the minimum wage to $9 an hour. Domestic workers won the right to a minimum wage after years of organizing.

The message was also clear in the election of Bill de Blasio, a founder of the Working Families Party, as mayor of New York City. Inequality is a top plank of his platform and his public record. At the national level, Senator Elizabeth Warren’s defense of the rights of student borrowers and her proposal to strengthen Social Security (instead of weaken it, as leaders in both party are discussing) is winning widespread support. There is even talk of drafting Warren to run for president.

4. A new economy is in the making

At the grassroots, National People’s Action and the New Economy Institute are leading new conversations about what it takes to build an economy that works for all and can function in harmony with the environment. Thousands of people are taking part.

And a growing cooperatives movement is linking up with unions and social movements. Some are working with large “anchor” institutions, like hospitals and universities, that can provide a steady market for their products and services. Credit unions, too, are proving their value as they keep lending to local businesses and homeowners as Wall Street-owned banks pulled back.

And a new DIY sharing economy is taking off, as people do peer-to-peer car-sharing, fundraising, and skill-sharing, and bring open-source technology to new levels.

5. U.S. military strikes didn’t happen

The big news of the year may be the two wars the United States refused to instigate.

The United States did continue its drone strikes, and the civilian casualties are causing an international uproar, with some calling for an outright ban on drones. And military spending continues to devastate the country’s budget. (The United States spent more on the military in 2013 than China, Russia, the United Kingdom, Japan, France, Saudi Arabia, India, Germany, Italy, and Brazil combined.) Few dared to call for the same fiscal discipline from the military and its many contractors as they expect from schools and services for the poor.

On the other hand, the United States stepped back from the brink of military strikes against Syria and Iran—a step in the right direction.

6. Pope Francis called for care and justice for the poor …

…and for an end to the idolatry of money and consumerism. He also criticized “ideologies which defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation.”

In his “Evangelii Gaudium” he says: “Just as the commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill’ sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say ‘thou shalt not’ to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills.”

This call is provoking outrage from Rush Limbaugh and Fox News commentators, but elsewhere, it’s leading to a new questioning of the moral foundation for a system that concentrates wealth and power while causing widespread poverty.

7. Gays and lesbians got some respect

On June 26, the Supreme Court struck down key provisions of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act. Today, married gay couples are entitled to federal benefits once reserved for straight couples. The year saw a doubling of the number of states allowing gay marriages, and a third of all Americans now live in such states.

Support for gay marriage has flipped from a slight majority opposing it to a majority now supporting the rights of gay and lesbian couples to marry. As a wider range of gender identities has become acceptable, men and women, gay and straight, are freer to shed gender stereotypes without fear of bullying and humiliation.

8. There were new openings for a third party

Just 26 percent of Americans believe the Democratic and Republican parties are doing “an adequate job,” according to an October Gallup poll; 60 percent say a third party is needed. Eighty-five percent disapprove of the job Congress is doing. Even cockroaches (along with zombies, hemorrhoids, and Wall Street) have a higher approval rating according to a recent poll by Public Policy Polling.

But it’s not the Tea Party that Americans are looking to as the alternative. Support for the Tea Party has fallen: In an October NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, only 21 percent of respondents had a favorable view of the party.

New space has opened for independent political work. The Working Family Party (see #3 above) is an especially interesting model.

9. Alternatives to Obamacare are in the works

Democratic leadership believed that the big profits the Affordable Care Act guaranteed to private insurance companies would make the act popular with conservatives.

But the resulting system, with all its complications and expenses—and requirements—is frustrating millions. There are features that benefit ordinary people, but it compares poorly to the simpler and more cost-effective systems that exists in most of the developed world. Canadian-style single-payer health care, for example, had the support of a majority of Americans. Some jurisdictions are still looking for alternatives. Cooperative health insurance is available in some states and others are working to establish statewide single-payer healthcare.

10. An education uprising began

The momentum behind the education reform agendas of Presidents Bush (No Child Left Behind) and Obama (Race to the Top) is stalling. The combination of austerity budgets, an ethic of blame directed at teachers, high-stakes testing, and private charter schools has stressed teachers and students—but it has not resulted in improved performance.

Seattle’s Garfield High School teachers, students, and parents launched an open rebellion last spring, joining a handful of others in refusing to administer required standardized tests. The movement is spreading around the country, with more rebellions expected in the spring of 2014 (stay tuned for an in-depth report in the Spring issue of YES!)

We live in interesting times, indeed. The growing climate emergency could eclipse all the other issues, and the sooner we get on it, the more we can use the transition for innovations that have other positive spin-offs.

There’s not a moment to lose.

Sarah van Gelder newSarah van Gelder wrote this article for YES! Magazine, a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas and practical actions. Sarah is co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of YES!

from:    http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/10-things-that-happened-in-2013

Chualar Crop Circles

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Mysterious crop circles found on Chualar farm

UPDATED 9:44 PM PST Dec 30, 2013

Julie Belanger shot this photo of the Chualar crop circles from a helicopter Monday morning. (Dec. 30, 2013)

Julie Belanger / 111th Aerial & Architectural Photography & Video

CHUALAR, Calif. —Cue “The X-Files” song. Mysterious, giant crop circles have appeared on a Chualar farm and startled observers into wondering if aliens landed in the Salinas Valley.

VIDEO: Locals wonder who — or what — created Chualar farm crop circles

Two friends were driving on Chualar Canyon Road south of Salinas just before dawn Sunday when they witnessed strange bursts of green light flashing on the horizon. The duo turned on a video camera, pulled over, hopped a barbed-wire fence, and walked toward the lights.

“Dude, are you seeing this?” one friend said. “Dude, this is a crop circle.”

PHOTOS: Intricate crop circles in Chualar

The friends investigated the field until they panicked and sprinted away. The duo wanted to remain anonymous, and they uploaded a video of their experience on YouTube under the name Cannot Say.

“Needless to say, pretty wild. But we slipped away and it’s too good not to share,” Cannot Say wrote.

No one realized how intricate the crop circles were until professional photographer Julie Belanger took a helicopter ride Monday morning. Belanger had not heard about the circles and she flew in a helicopter over the farm by coincidence.

Belanger said her first immediate thought was, “What is it?”

“It was beautiful. Quite beautiful,” Belanger told KSBW. “I believe it’s possible that aliens exist, but I don’t know if they would bother making a crop circle to give us a message.”

Curious onlookers grew in number Monday afternoon as word of the crop circles spread. People stood on top of vehicles and fences to get a better view, and security guards kept gawkers from entering the field.

“I’m always willing to believe. It looks like aliens to me,” Manuel Madrid of Gonzales said.

While alien believers marveled, skeptics sounded off to debunk any extraterrestrial Chualar theories.

KSBW.com reader Russell Martin commented, “The Ancient Chualarians have always been known to be a bunch of merry pranksters.”

Michael Myers commented, “Yes they mastered Intergalactic travel and can’t make a perfect circle.”

Paige Penrose chimed in, “That looks really neat, regardless of who did it! Great design.”

As of Monday night, no one had stepped forward to claim responsibility for the crop circles.

Read more: http://www.ksbw.com/news/central-california/salinas/crop-circles-found-on-chualar-farm/-/5738906/23699074/-/bsa87o/-/index.html#ixzz2pGgrvDl0

 

US Border Guards Checking/Copying Laptop Files

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U.S. border guards may check, copy laptop files

Jan. 1, 2014 at 12:30 AM   |   1 comments
NEW YORK,    Jan. 1 (UPI) — U.S. border guards have a right to inspect and copy files from travelers’ laptops and other devices without reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing, a judge ruled.

Such searches are rare, with “about a 10 in a million chance” of happening, so “there is not a substantial risk” someone’s laptop, cellphone or other device will be searched and seized at the nation’s borders, including at airports and on trains, U.S. District Judge Edward R. Korman wrote.

But for people whose devices do get searched, the government doesn’t need reasonable suspicion to examine or confiscate them, he wrote, citing case law that holds “searches at our borders without probable cause and without a warrant are nonetheless ‘reasonable.'”

In making his ruling, Korman, of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn, dismissed a lawsuit by graduate student Pascal Abidor, an Islamic studies scholar and a dual French-U.S. citizen, who had his laptop inspected and taken by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in May 2010 while he was on an Amtrak train from Montreal to New York.

The officers also handcuffed him, placed him in a cell and questioned him for several hours, the New York Times said.

The law enforcement agency, part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, returned the laptop 11 days later.

Abidor could prove no legal injury from the laptop’s confiscation, the Washington Post said.

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the National Press Photographers Association joined Abidor in the case, arguing their members travel with confidential information that should be protected from government scrutiny.

Represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, they all alleged the policy violated their rights to privacy and free speech.

“While it is true that laptops may make overseas work more convenient, the precautions plaintiffs may choose to take to ‘mitigate’ the alleged harm associated with the remote possibility of a border search are simply among the many inconveniences associated with international travel,” wrote Korman, who is also a visiting judge on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in California.

That court ruled in March extensive “forensic” searches required reasonable suspicion of criminal activity, but simple checks of photos and other files did not. Korman was not one of the judges in that case.

The ACLU said it was considering an appeal.

Catherine Crump, the ACLU attorney who argued the case in July 2011, said in a statement the searches Korman’s ruling addressed were “part of a broader pattern of aggressive government surveillance that collects information on too many innocent people, under lax standards and without adequate oversight.”

Homeland Security spokesman Peter Boogaard said, “These checks are essential to enforcing the law, and protecting national security and public safety, always with the shared goals of protecting the American people while respecting civil rights and civil liberties.”

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2014/01/01/US-border-guards-may-check-copy-laptop-files/UPI-57721388554200/#ixzz2pBIvIANL

Pope Francis Calls for Peace, Justice in the New Year

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Pope Francis, in New Year’s address, calls for peace and justice

Jan. 1, 2014 at 10:13 AM
Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square, the Vatican, March 19, 2013. UPI/Stefano Spaziani

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VATICAN CITY, Jan. 1 (UPI) — Pope Francis, during his New Year’s address Wednesday to tens of thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square, called on people to build a more just world.The pope said he hopes the new year will bring peace, justice and liberty to the world, Vatican Radio reported.

“Peace requires the force of meekness, the force of nonviolence of truth and of love,” he said.

He noted the church is celebrating the feast of Mary and the World Day of Peace Wednesday.

He called for people to acknowledge violence and to work toward building a just society during his address, titled “Fraternity: the Foundation and Pathway to Peace.”

The pope deviated from his prepared speech and commented on a letter he recently received, the report said. He said the writer wanted to know: “What has happened in the hearts of men, in the heart of humanity? It is time to stop. It is time to stop.”

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2014/01/01/Pope-Francis-in-New-Years-address-calls-for-peace-and-justice/UPI-18701388589190/#ixzz2pBICDJD0