The passage of time.. On a dirt path somewhere near an abandoned coal mine in Pennsylvania, my wife and I climbed this.. It was when we first met. There were no trees then. Circa 2004. The earth takes over quickly when the toils of man focus on other absurd things.
Here is what you need to know based off of the few things people actually know: Newsfeeds are going to feature less click bait links.. less “you will never believe what she said” nonsense.. less politics and less divisive uncivil nonsense that clutters the otherwise cluttered newsfeed of the day.
Facebook wants to make it personal. Go back to the roots–family, friends, baby pictures, endless vacation shots from the mountains… You know the drill. 2008 stuff.
I am good with it. I check Facebook much less than before. But when I do, I get annoyed with the stream of news nonsense that is already known.
But there could be an ulterior motive at play here too..
Don’t forget the controversy that Mark Zuckerberg recently found himself in.. The site was stearing readers away from conservative content. But not only that media sin exposed, the bigger was how Facebook’s internal agorithms actually invent news stories and change new cycles–making less important things bigger. Think of it.. how can Chewbacca Mom, for as fun as she was, receive 70 million hits in a few minutes. It’s all in the code, baby. Make it look natural but behind the scenes know it’s not.
I am fine with friends and their status updates.
But what Facebook may have done wrong is wait this long. Maybe after all this time of being force-fed manipulated nonsense-content, people have moved on. Moved on to other platforms.. or just back to reality again? Time will tell.
Friends and families unite!!Facebook won’t bite. But Zuckerberg? He still has that tape overtop of his MIC..
Places like this DO exist.. Some may be alarmed by it becuse, to them, it means the government KNOWS something we don’t. Others may be calmed since we don’t know what the government knows, they are ready. All in your point of view.
But I was amazed that their let this NPR reporter in and that such an in depth report was conducted..
From the NPR story:
A big American flag hangs from the ceiling, and shelves packed with stuff stand so tall that looking up makes me dizzy.
“We have the capability, if something bad happens, that we can intervene in a positive way, but then we don’t ever want to have to do that. So it’s kind of a strange place,” says Burel. “But we would be foolish not to prepare for those events that we could predict might happen.”
The Strategic National Stockpile got its start back in 1999, with a budget of about $50 million. Since then, even though the details aren’t public, it’s clear that it has amassed an incredible array of countermeasures against possible security threats.
The inventory includes millions of doses of vaccines against bioterrorism agents like smallpox, antivirals in case of a deadly flu pandemic, medicines used to treat radiation sickness and burns, chemical agent antidotes, wound care supplies, IV fluids and antibiotics.
That is sort of what would have envisioned .. makes sense to me.. Glad it’s there. Hope we won’t need it.
But … if “we” need it, sufficed to say, not “everyone” will get it.
This article comes from the DAILY BEAST.. It’s weird. The lifestyles of the rich and famous and sex obsessed and just EYES WIDE SHUT kind of creepy..
From the BEAST:
Tickets for most New York parties cost $300 for couples who are Killing Kittens members, a private community for “the world’s discerning sexual elite,” according to its website. The standard entry fee for “single” women is $150, but tickets for festivities in the Hamptons cost $100 more ($400 for couples and $250 for single women)—and with good reason, Lee told me.
Also a hot topic of the orgy conference? Brexit. And how it is effecting their bottom line.
This article comes from the DAILY BEAST.. It’s weird. The lifestyles of the rich and famous and sex obsessed and just EYES WIDE SHUT kind of creepy..
From the BEAST:
Tickets for most New York parties cost $300 for couples who are Killing Kittens members, a private community for “the world’s discerning sexual elite,” according to its website. The standard entry fee for “single” women is $150, but tickets for festivities in the Hamptons cost $100 more ($400 for couples and $250 for single women)—and with good reason, Lee told me.
Also a hot topic of the orgy conference? Brexit. And how it is effecting their bottom line.
Call me a soccer dad. Actually my wife and Iare both soccer parents now. We don’t have the mini van.. we don’t really yet know what we have gotten ourselves into .. we are awash in fundraiser tickets and rule books about coaching.. but we did it. We made the leap.
WE WILL COACH A SOCCER TEAM.
While we are told by all that it’s the pre-K and K level, and that scoring does not matter and don’t even keep it, we know parents will. We know there will be trials and tribulations that come with the game… parents yelling a bit too much, getting a bit too involved in a game that should just be fun for people at a lower level of knowledge. We know that.
And even with the acknowledgement that sometimes it will not be easy to quell our own nerves, it is worth it. Worth it because my son is very enthusiastic knowing mom and dad will be a whistle away..
My wife and I have long believed that it was a good thing to be involved with our son’s education life as much as possible. As he gets older and makes his way through the strange twisted world of Pink Floyd style education at the hands of paid professionals, we will be as involved as we can. PTO meetings.. teacher conferences.. all of that stuff. And yes, soccer.
So we dive deep, head first, into the world of post-5-year-old parenting. There will be scary moments. Last night’s initial soccer meeting was scary for me – but moments that will come with joys and laughter. And memories to last. Don’t get me wrong, though, I will not over romanticize the fact that, at times, we will become tired with 7pm weeknight practices and all day events on Saturdays…
But, dear Watson, this is just the beginning. Along road to hoe indeed.
I started writing a book about parenting four years ago. I wanted to chronicle the first five years of life and how it hits a parent. I did not finish the book–life went so fast I stopped having time to write it. But I am considering finishing it up and making it finalized …
After soccer season I, though… .if Idid not have time before I don’t think I’ve seen anything yet!
The road begins with a tiny soccer jersey and a group of fun kids who have the world ahead of them. The best thing as a coach of such an age group we can do? Encourage them to be kind, laugh, and just enjoy every moment of life.
You know, the things adult forget to get as they age.
150 years later–after the town was formed–a celebration will take place in a nearby town. Centralia does not have a location to house hunderds of people for an event.. Centralia is gone. Wiped off the map by a mine fire that started decades ago. It has become a tourist site, Graffiti Highway is seemingly known worldwide, and horror movies have been based off of the goings on.
And those who have read this website for any given time will know: I was born and raised in the little town that died until my family moved due to the mine fire issue in the 1980s..
This weekend, the town is set to come together once more–the last time for many people in their 70s and 80s to see friends. I expect for a lot of people who I know deep down never got over the death of their town, this will be a nostalgic mix of sadness and laughter..
The summer stopped being fun lately.. Lots of strange roller coaster moments of potential disaster..
Firefighters rescued eight people who got stuck on a roller coaster 100 feet above the ground in Oklahoma city. Rescue is complete at Frontier City with no injuries.
Last month, artist Aaron Chervenak drove from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, Nevada to finally take the love for his smartphone to the next level by marrying it at a small wedding chapel.
The future is coming fast. This may be laughed at.. but in ten years we will be marrying robots .. and a whole new non human rights campaign will be waged..
The Matrix moment.. Ever have one? I did yesterday..
Let me begin by saying this: I recently had a chance to view ‘virtual reality’ in my friend’s headset. It was amazing. I was traveling in a car with Lebron James… I even played basketball with him. The footage inside the headset is unbelievable.. when you take the piece off, your brain so convinced that what it was seeing was real, actually feels a bit bad about being back in the ‘reality’ of this world—you know, the real one?
Yesterday while walking in a hallway at work in the basement level of my building—a location I have seen and traveled to countless times through the years, I had a moment.
A weird moment.. What was floating through my mind was already interesting.. I wondered, as I looked at the monotone colors of the floor and walls, if a retired person I knew came back for a day, how startled she’d be that everything was the same as it was when she left almost a decade ago. And that is when it hit me.. For a brief moment—very brief—the hallway walls became very 3D looking.. the floor looked very, very real. For a moment in time, I felt like I was walking in a virtual reality world, like everything that was “real” was only real virtually..
Yes, indeed. For that brief time—literally seconds of my life—everything was so real and vibrant. Like for the first time in years, my mind noticed I was alive. That things were around me. That or, perhaps, I felt like Truman Burbank from the Truman Show when he discovered that his entire life had been a prop and set for some multiseason television program watched by billions around the world. Of course, I have no delusion of grandeur, I am fully aware that my life has little importance in the big picture scheme of things. But then again, many other reality ‘stars’ lives don’t either but they just don’t realize it.
Anyway, all of that said, it was startling for that time. The Matrix moment, when you finally realize the computer program you’re within … you see the controls, almost. The takeaway, after seeing the virtual reality headset scene, is that the reality of what was in front of me looked so similar and felt the same.
I snapped out of it as quick as I snapped into it. For that moment, that brief time, I was alarmed with how vibrant and almost fake looking the scene in front of me.. And then everything immediatley become dull and flat again. Everything lost that edge, and the portal of awareness I entered in came back to the lifeless walls of depression that office environments to many times exhibit. So now what do I strive for? Another Matrix moment. Perhaps one that lasts longer—the staying power could help me search out more ‘reality’ than what I had just witnessed.
Yes, now, I will be searching for reality. Whatever reality is anyway.
It indeed is a sea change.. Who could have predicted this about 10 years ago.. or heck even five years ago:
U.S. adults spent 10 hours, 39 minutes a day consuming media in the first quarter of 2016. That’s up a full hour from the first quarter of 2015, and it’s thanks to a substantial increase in smartphone and tablet usage, according to Nielsen’s Q1 2016 Total Audience Report.
But for all of these changes, all of this ‘progress,’ are we smarter? More informed? Better off?
You can decide that one.
We just know this: TEEVEEis dead .. long live TEE VEE
Reading this amazing book about autism allied NEOTRIBES by Steve Silberman.. This is my favorite page his far.. I have family with autism who exemplify the descriptions to a tee ..
For those who care or understand, there may soon be an announcement that shreds the old world of information and replaces it with a new one..
“This is by far the most exciting thing that has happened in particle physics over the last three decades. If this hint of new physics is confirmed - something that could happen within just a few weeks, or possibly even within days - it is difficult to state the importance of such a discovery. It would be bigger than the detection of the Higgs boson, which was just confirmation of what was already known. "If the bump is real, we are about to start writing a whole new chapter in the history of fundamental physics. It is impossible to imagine where this could lead.”
The biggest since Higgs? The biggest since Einstein? The biggest ever?
The future is waiting. We are finally catching up.
Love the idea or hate the idea.. We have been talking about it as a future shock possibility for years. A time when robotics have taken over the manufacturing and service economies..
I have a strange and silly notion that the wage floor could actually be quite a positive thing. Maybe that’s the part of me that actually does see glasses half full from time to time..
Imagine a future where your safety net is there.. Where you can produce things you want to? Work where you to? Be who you want to be.. All with a set wage floor.
And where the absence of such a floor wild lead to a revolution, panic on streets, and mass violence and chaos due to an ever changing economic platform that leaves millions (if not more) without work..?
A wage floor vs the ….the possibility .. Which would you prefer?
The park is in my back yard, almost literally..We get there as many times a year as we can. This year, with my son Ayden being 5 and going on 25 in his intelligence, he has finally opened his world up to more there.. The rides. The kfun. The kfanstasy. The kfood? Well he is still a bit picky..
But seriously.. let me just say: Knoebels may be the single happiest, best, and most amazing place on earth.
The little secret 90 years young, tucked away in the mountains of the coal region, is quite possibly the only place on earth where I forget troubles for a bit… where life as it is – out there – is on hold.
You can ride rides. If you want. Play golf. Maybe. Eat food. Whichever.. get soaking wet.. or just drive a slow train into the woods …
Whatever. The floor is yours.
I sort of am half and half… I want to tell the world how amazing Knoebels is. But also , sometimes, just keep it a secret …
But the secret is out.
Knoebels. IT’S THE PLACE TO BE IN THE NEW CENTURY.
There may be a large amount of people who proclaim that Trump cannot win in November. But consider, many of those same people said he would not win the primaries.
In Britain, many voices said that Johnson could not win. And that the Brexit vote would not happen.
See a pattern?
Picture a future state dinner with two men from New York leading their respective nations. Picture them both with intensely bad hair.
The world is going through a monumental sea change in 2016.
James Wan and Peter Safran are producing the ‘Conjuring" spinoff. Miranda Otto has boarded Annabelle 2, New Line’s sequel to its 2014 horror hit.
David Sandberg is directing the spinoff to New Line’s Conjuring franchise that has stewards James Wan and Peter Safran producing.
The script by Gary Dauberman tells of a dollmaker and his wife who, 20 years after the tragic death of their little girl, welcome a nun and several girls from a shuttered orphanage into their home. Soon, however, the nun and the girls become the target of the dollmaker’s possessed creation, Annabelle.
The Supreme Court deadlocked Thursday on President Barack Obama’s immigration plan that sought to shield millions living in the U.S. illegally from deportation, effectively killing the plan for the rest of his presidency.
BERLIN (Reuters) - A masked man with a gun and ammunition belt opened fire in a cinema complex in the small western German town of Viernheim, near Frankfurt, injuring between 20 and 50 people and barricaded himself inside, German media reported on Thursday. Bild daily and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported that elite police were on their way to the scene.
15-year-old Alabama girl had to be rescued by firefighters after she got her head stuck inside a giant Barney costume in a prank gone wrong.
Darby Risner said she wanted to scare her friends with the oversized Barney head when they came downstairs. She managed to scare her friends, but in an unexpected way.
Risner ended up stuck inside the Barney head, she told WVTM-TV
A good history lesson.. June 21 is the day in history when Schuylkill County Pa saw an enormous and horrible scenario develop.. One that changed history.
The area where this occurred is filled with history .. Today is one of those days.
Let me first say I sort of despise tofu.. I have been delved deep into the ‘veg’ diet for some time.. I have turned it into a lifestyle and am partially vegan–partially turkey and chicken eater, along with occasional fish. I have 1 meat day a week. And even with that meat day, I have been weening myself off more and more without much fanfare. The more you stop eating meat the less you’ll want it or need it.
I tried a low carb KETO diet for about three days. I may end it.. I got the KETOSIS FLU. A weak body and low energy level. I felt much better and healthier eating carbs in moderation with high amounts of vegetables, fruits, and good fats.
That all being said, I have really been trying to like tofu. Tofu, after all, is the perfect substitute. If only it didn’t taste like a wet sponge that has been soaking in dishwater, I may actually appreciate it. I envy those who brag that they can eat it, wet, right from the package. Not even preparation needed.. No, just a big sloppy glob of the nastiest material on earth.
But tonight, I made BBQ tofu in the oven, topped with green onions and hot and sweet peppers. It was edible. My wife enjoyed it more than me. My son turned his head in disgust–but he does that with lots of food.
Tofu.
Soy.. That is the problem.
I hear so many adverse things about soy–stop eating it, it will create breasts in men and increase female producing hormones we are told. But tofu, from what I see, is typically eaten by people awful thin and both men and women who seem to not incur the wrath of large breasts from too much estrogen..
I am really really trying to like tofu. I know eventually, say maybe a year from now, I will look back at this post and laugh at how I did not like the ‘Soylent Green’ of the vegan lifestyle. Or not.. Maybe I will just stick to dousing the product in endless amounts of undoubtedly high MSG-leveled BBQ sauce. The only good news is that the BBQ was high fructose free!
But not soy free, ironically. Nor was the plate.. Lurking below the tasty goodness of GMO free barbecue? Flaccid, nasty, gross tofu. Getting to know it is the toughest thing one can do.
Valvani, 44, turned himself in to authorities last week. He was charged with netting about $25 million for an unnamed investment firm using inside information on the pending approval of a generic drug. Valvani had pleaded not guilty.
This case may truly be a perfectly explainable suicide. But it also coincides with a rash of really bizarre banker deaths and suicides over the past 24 or so months. Really weird and creepy stuff.. Big money stuff I assume.
Guns and jewelry. Jewelry, of course, has no waiting period.
Investigators are combing through leads to figure out what exactly Omar Mateen decided to make the purchase.
From the report,
According to ABC News, Mateen made the purchase at a Kay Jewelers on June 6 in Jenson Beach. The store is located near the Lotus Gun Shop where Mateen was turned away after seeking to buy bulk ammunition and heavy-duty body armor.
Signet, which owns the jewelry store, didn’t confirm Mateen’s purchase but did say they were “working closely” with authorities in their investigation into the shooter.
There is no simple answer. The facts run deeper than what we will ever no. Shades of gray abound in this case..
To say that drones and technology are changing everything is STILL an understatement..
This from NBC NEWS:
Europe’s abortion battle was waged in the sky Tuesday as activists used a drone to deliver pills to women in Northern Ireland.
Two women took the pills after the aircraft made the short flight from the Republic of Ireland across the border to land at Northern Ireland’s Narrow Waters Castle. Police were on hand but did not intervene.
The groups who organized the pill drop off are pro-abortion that say anti-abortion laws in Northern Ireland are too harsh.. Only allowing pregnancy termination under certain criteria.
The abortion debate aside, I think this is presenting an even larger picture of the coming future. Drone everything. But.. The future is now. Obviously.
For years I have been laughed at by friends and co workers for placing tape or papers overtop of my computer MIC and camera.. (Tough to do with a smart phone unfortunately, but I try to leave it in other rooms when I have reasons to not be heard or recorded) … IF you closely study yesterday’s Mark Zuckerberg photo celebrating INSTAGRAM, you may notice the king of social media does the same thing. Tape overtop of the camera.. Overtop of the MIC..
He knows the secrets that only a few do. Your computer listens to you. It has been listening to you for years–software from Google was an early offender of privacy rights. Your computer and smart phone are capable of listening to your every conversation.. Recording your movement. And even snapping a photo of you when you don’t want to be seen.
All for Big Brother? Maybe. Some theories claim that is true. Others say the actual nefarious purpose is for advertisers to score big dollars.
But some say it’s to teach us. To school us. To prepare us. Preparation for a time when nothing is sacred and nothing is secret. When your ever move is known and your every known movement is stored …
Except for ZUCK, who seemingly is off the grid despite controlling it.
Twitter has launched a standalone app for influential Twitter users where they can only see the analytical performance of their tweets, meaning they won’t see “abusive” responses from “normal” users. The app, called Engage, will only show users the most important interactions they have on Twitter, mentions from users who are verified, and an “understand” tab that provides users with data analysis of their performance on the site.
The latest and final DON’T HUG ME I’M SCARED has finally been released.. And I have some thoughts about it. I plan on writing more after a few more viewings.
But for fans of the series, you really need to watch this. It sort of explains it all.. The damages of what media can do.. The evil forces behind the scenes.. The ways that people can be manipulated .. The ways that so many in society can be hurt by the whole process of life..
Give the video a whirl.. See what you think. I will have some more thoughts once I contemplate them.
But it’s clear that as June 19 moves to June 20, the importance of the entire DON’T HUG ME I’M SCARED series is abundantly evident.
This news in from the great state of Iowa.. Strange encounters with people either dressed in black or the MIBs.. You be the judge.
The Muscatine County Sheriff’s Office has taken notice, posting Monday on its Facebook page, “We have had several reports of ‘men dressed in black’ entering the roadway in rural Muscatine County.” Several people have told KWQC that these same individuals have been spotted walking across homeowners’ yards, although the MCSO Facebook post does not mention sightings on private property. The MCSO is now asking anyone who encounters the individuals to “call 911 immediately.”
The story is now gathering national and global attention, being linked in countless blogs and pages..
I love this article from the Chicago TRIBUNE.. The money quote:
But still the recent pileup of other rare events to explain - some of them, such as the transit of Venus, much rarer than a solstice full moon. Another facet of the improbability principle can help. It’s called “law of combinations,” which Hand illustrates with a classic puzzle regarding shared birthdays: What are the odds that two people will share a birthday in a group of 23? If you’re in the group, the chance that one of the other 22 people will share your birthday is low, but the odds that any pair will match is better than even.
Likewise, there are many ways that different combinations of the sun, moon and planets can align in some interesting pattern. Planetary alignments are always unique, said astronomer Alan MacRobert, an editor at Sky and Telescope. “Whenever there’s an alignment of planets you’ll read that it has not happened in 20,000 years,” he said. But that’s the case of every night sky. “There are an infinite number of configurations of the solar system and every one is rare,” MacRobert observed. The universe is superabundant with possibilities, and that’s part of what makes astronomy fun.
The only constant is change. And lately, weird occurrences.
We knew about this in the 2000s.. But some of the newest generation of onliners don’t seem to know when the Internets can be a threat.
From the article:
The recordings can function as a kind of diary, reminding you of the various places and situations that you and your phone have been in. But it’s also a reminder of just how much information is collected about you, and how intimate that information can be.
You’ll see more if you’ve an Android phone, which can be activated at any time just by saying “OK, Google”. But you may well also have recordings on there whatever devices you’ve interacted with Google using.
But there is hope!
To delete particular files, you can click the check box on the left and then move back to the top of the page and select “delete”. To get rid of everything, you can press the “More” button, select “Delete options” and then “Advanced” and click through.
The easiest way to stop Google recording everything is to turn off the virtual assistant and never to use voice search. But that solution also gets at the central problem of much privacy and data use today – doing so cuts off one of the most useful things about having an Android phone or using Google search.
“Praise be to God, and prayers as well as peace be upon the prophet of God [in Arabic]. I let you know, I’m in Orlando and I did the shootings,” Mateen told a 911 dispatcher during a 50-second phone call at 2:35 a.m. on June 12.
Researchers digging in the desert of southeast Eritrea have uncovered what could be the first footprints that are clearly attributed to Homo erectus, a species of hominid widely considered to be a direct ancestor to modern humans.
Estimated to feature a size 12 foot size, the fossilized footprints were possibly made by tall individuals some 800,000 years ago in sandy sediments along the shores of what was once a large lake surrounded by grasslands.
Today the Aalad-Amo site where the H. erectus’s prints were excavated by a team of the National Museum of Eritrea and Rome’s La Sapienza University is occupied by the semi arid Danakil desert.
The Supreme Court is set this week to begin announcing decisions on roughly a dozen remaining cases, including contentious ones on abortion and immigration.
The rulings will be released from the bench starting Monday, with the high court typically waiting until the last week of June to announce those on the most contentious issues, in a tradition known as “spring flood” and just before the justices go on summer recess.
Rulings on this season’s slate of cases were complicated by the death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia – leaving the bench with four remaining conservative justices and four liberal ones.
I have been looking into this.. Fad/ Dud/ lame excuse for a lifestyle?
The low carb idea sounds interesting.. but I would love to really know if anyone out there has ever been in a constant form of ketosis to be able to tell me what this may actually feel like..?
But it also sort of goes completely against my whole food vegan(ish) diet I have been attempting to adhere to as of late..
So far this year, about 1,800 people have been shot across the city and more than 200 of those wounded have died of their wounds, according to records kept by the Chicago Tribune. A total of 306 people have been killed this year by shooting, stabbing or other means, Tribune records show.
A 3-year-old boy was among the wounded who survived the weekend shootings. Police said he’s in critical condition. The boy was shot in the right shoulder near East 61st Street and South Kimbark Avenue in the Woodlawn neighborhood at 6:15 p.m. Sunday, police said. The boy was in a car seat when an unknown attacker fired shots at the car, police said. People in the vehicle managed to get the boy to University of Chicago Medical Center. He was then transferred to Comer Children’s Hospital in critical condition.
Five people were fatally shot and nine others were hurt between Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. Four of the fatalities occurred in seven hours. The fatalities included a 16-year-old boy who was killed in West Englewood about 9:05 p.m. Friday. He was in the front passenger seat of a car driving through an alley in the 6500 block of South Hamilton Avenue when two males came up and fired shots, according to police.
I am slightly offended at Bloody Disgusting.. Not by the name, but by some the content. Actually on a regular basis. For a horror site it pales in comparison to others.. for a mainstream locale for the latest in scary news, it is not the best.
That all being said, an article appearing today is even worse.. they offended one of my favorite childhood toys: The Lester Doll.
Here is what “Mr Disgusting” writes,
As young as I can remember I was mortified of ventriloquist dummies. I’m not anymore, but I still have a reoccurring nightmare I’ve been having since I was 8 years old.
The earliest recollection of the fear I have is of the below 1984 McDonald’s commercial featuring Willie Tyler and his ventriloquist dummy, Lester. Any time that commercial would pop on I would be in my parents bed that night – and I want to go as far as to say my parents were so annoyed they mailed letters of complaint to McDonald’s (like that does any good).
While Tyler is my earliest memory, the one that haunted me the most was spawned by Paul Winchell, who has his own variety show called “The Paul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney Show.” Jerry Mahoney, pictured above left, was the scariest looking doll I had ever seen – so scary to a child that he would haunt my nightmares for 30 years. I’m not exactly sure how I saw this 1950’s show in the 80’s, but clearly it had a profound impact on me.
Ok, I get it.. the doll is a wee bit creepy to some. But for me, as a kid, it provided comfort and solace. It was my friend.
I actually recall two distinct memories of Lester. First, a Christmas when he was under the tree.. I was as sick as a dog, vomiting from Christmas Eve straight through Santa and into the night the next day. Lester was cradled in my arms.. The second memory is another Christmas. The year prior, I cracked his face. And thankfully under the tree was a brand new Lester. Either from the Sears Catalog or Santa . . I have a photo of me somewhere with the doll .. I will try to find it and post it for you to see, as proof that Lester was not scary but quite friendly indeed.
Lester was a fine toy. There were plenty more nasty memories of toys and creepy things from childhood.. Don’t pick on Lester.
You want something really, really scary?
TRY LADY ABERLIN FROM MR. ROGERS.. Now that was creepy.
The ASSOCIATED PRESS reports the following about a sudden and urgent heatwave across the Southwest United States:
Phoenix didn’t reach 120 this weekend as forecasters said was possible, but Yuma, in the southwestern corner of the state, did. Plus, weather service meteorologist Andrew Deemer said he had “no doubt there are places in the Valley that hit 120 or so.”
On social media, residents commiserated by posting photos of boiling temperature readings on car thermometers and cellphones.
Some still ventured outside for quick errands. Kim Leeds, 28, had to take her dog Bo outside in the early afternoon for a bathroom break. The Australian shepherd wears special booties with rubber bottoms.
“He does really well with them. He doesn’t mind walking around,” Leeds said.
Preparing to enter her fourth summer in Phoenix, Leeds also decided to experiment with her car.
“I’m totally reveling in this experience because I’m actually baking cookies in my car,” Leeds said. “I’ve been here long enough that I’ve got to do these things.”
Temperatures aren’t falling soon. California is actually getting abundantly worried about what may occur with its power grid–informing residents to conserve water and electricity.. Easier said than done with a temperature above 120..
Meanwhile……..It’s summer. The solstice upon us, a Strawberry Full Moon behind us.
This is going to fire up the paranormal activity surrounding the newest CONJURING film.. Here is the basic gist:
The incident occurred at the Sri Balasubramaniar Cinema in Tiruvannamalai, a town in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The cinema-goer, from Andhra Pradesh, had complained of chest pains during the film’s climax, and fainted shortly afterwards.
The story gets even weirder in the post-mortem period.. According to several published reports, the dead body and the person in charge of the body BOTH WENT MISSING after the corpse was sent to a medical location for research..
Some are acknowledging that there could be a perfectly rational explanation for the strange set of circumstances. But indeed, given the movie’s subject matter, rumors online are abounding about the possibility that this body and soul could have been devoured by the devil!
There is another video, perhaps you saw it, of a girl supposedly becoming possessed while watching THE CONJURING 2.. I didn’t see it yet. Really not sure if I am interested in it, really..
This whole conjuring CONJURING manure is similar to what happened in the post AMITYVILLE HORROR or EXORCIST screenings of the 1970s–back when claims were made of in theater possessions and heart attacks. All of the reports go to either help or hurt a movie. In the case of horror, anything like missing bodies or deaths during the film will prolong the chances of the movie’s staying power…
I never had a Raggedy Ann doll.. I never wanted to to be honest. When I was younger, it was the one toy that honestly freaked me out. Something was just un-quaint about it.. it was anti-calming, like a piece of folklore got disheveled with paranormal hauntings, made into a doll for you to own.
For that reason, I was most interested in an article appearing on my newsfeed this morning hypothesizing that the origin of Raggedy Ann came from a tragic vaccine injury that led to a girl’s death..
Not long after the creation of the much beloved Raggedy Ann, Gruelle’s only child and 13 year old daughter Marcella died a painful death after receiving a routine small pox vaccination at school, which was given without parental consent.
Reports indicate that after the initial inoculation Marcella had, “… lost her appetite, and became feverish and fatigued.” Amazingly, more inoculations were given despite her negative reaction from the first jab. Predictably Marcella’s health continued to decline to the point where she lost all muscle control, “becoming listless and lifeless like a rag doll.”
While all this was going on at school, her parents knew nothing about it and had never ever given their consent for any vaccinations.
Sadly, Marcella died a slow and agonizing death. The Gruelle’s were convinced beyond any doubt that the vaccination was the culprit behind the death of their only child, even though school authorities and vaccination proponents insisted Marcella had died from a preexisting heart defect.
Ultimately, “Seven leading physicians are called upon to opine about the cause of her death. Six consented it is the result of vaccine induced poisoning and call it malpractice. The seventh, being the head of the school board and a supporter of vaccination, declines to comment.”
If this story is to believed, the doll was created to entertain a child who was slowly dying after being given vaccines that injured her..
There are more legends about Raggedy Ann and Andy than there is space to recount them. Like any popular phenomenon – especially those for which well-documented information may not be plentiful– legends become a way to explain the unexplainable, fill in the gaps, and make sense of conflicting or confusing data. In interpreting the Raggedys’ 75-plus year history, the facts are extremely important. But, not at the exclusion of the legends. These fanciful accountings not only round out the story of the Raggedys (and shed light on the whimsical heart of their creator, Johnny Gruelle) – they also reveal our own unerring desire for Raggedy Ann and Andy to stay in perpetual possession of the whimsical, magical, make-believe dossiers Johnny Gruelle created for them.”
I want to delve deeper into this–and not only Raggedy Ann, but the origins of some other ‘well meaninged’ toys and symbols of innocence..
Clowns.. bright red noses. Death. Raggedy Ann.. a little doll providing comfort to a sick child before death.. So many things that we have somehow come to accept as symbols of life actually tend to be reminders of peril.
It happens so often.. not a month goes by–or full moon or solstice in this case–where we aren’t worried about end times..
Timothy Halloran, who runs the Rasa Lila Healing YouTube astrology channel, filmed a chilling video in woods in Savannah, Georgia, on Thursday warning that the events around the Pagan-celebrated solstice may not be a calm and spiritual as people imagine.
He spoke of fears of an “increased energy” bringing about “madness, hallucinations and delusions of grandeur” among the population.
Mr Halloran, whose facial expressions and mannerisms have been compared to those of Russell Brand, the British comic turned turned revolutionist, prioduced promotional material for the video, called Full Moon in Sagittarius, June 16 2016 - Psychic Warfare and Crusading.
He urged people to “bite the bullet” to see the “mechanism beneath the surface” rather than becoming “more delusional, even more crazy and even more in denial”.
After another rocky time of eclipses in September, will come peace through the dwarf planet Ceres.
He said: “What is light at the end of the tunnel is Ceres is saying peace and love
"Things will start to calm down going into the future.
"After all the changes, all the awaking, the electro shock, then comes Cancer nurturing time - back into our beloved ones circles, our tribes and empathy for one another.”
The past several weeks have been a whirlwind of tragedy..
We are dealing with the mass shooting terror attack in Orlando.. the major news outlets gave us countless hours of coverage of the gorilla at the zoo being killed. Over the past 24 hours, we have been subjected to endless and tearful reports about the boy in Orlando Florida drug into the water by an alligator and virtually devoured..
It has been endlessly sad.. . cruel and callous.. the world seemingly is a hair trigger away from insanity. And we are going insane watching it all..
This late spring night’s madness is catching up to me a bit.. I ask, cautiously, this question: Do we simply know TOO much?
Gone are the days when news stories took time to circulate the world. Now it’s rapid fire–within moments, seconds.. Social media shared the “Chewbacca mom” and within a few minutes she rose to stardom, even now asking for $20 bucks a pop for autographs at public events. The gorilla being shot was a national obsession.. The alligator, a tragic and awful story, is also becoming a major worldwide news event..
And people are judging. Oh, are they ever. People are saying “those parents should be taken to jail.” It even briefly turned into a mini-race battle on Twitter after each tragic event over the past few weeks…
We are so at each other’s throats anymore, aren’t we? So totally engaged but yet disengaged when it comes to true conversation. Keyboard warriors are battling in basements… the real conversation of humanity has ended. Now we’re virtual. And living in a virtual world, we can get to know too much..
I am not discounting the tragic nature of the adorable and innocent boy being snatched by the alligator.. but I ask, simply, should we all be subjected to a barrage of media coverage about it? Should we, as individual consumers of media, let this eat away at our psyche? Is the 24/7 news stream damaging our actual existence, ruining our creative impulses, and ending our freedom to speak while at the same insane time giving us the amazing platform to say anything?
It is so immensely sad to watch news of the day… So incredibly painful to see grief and strife as it develops around the world. I get why people tune out. I understand why it is a turn off..
Bad news sells. I just simply want to know if bad news is doing our bodies harm.. I am starting to think it is.
Not too many people know this, but one of my favorite movies in M. Night Shyamalan’s LADY IN THE WATER. Fine, laugh if you want. I found the film to be amazingly simple, quiet, and peaceful. Calm when we need it most–innocent to the most degree, and suggestive that humanity can be good.
The film features a character who, quite honestly, I fear I will be one day later in life.
Despite it being one of the lowest rated movies of M. Night Shyamalan’s career, I loved LADY IN THE WATER. There is one character in particular who reminds me of so many people in our current time.. His name was “Mr. Leeds” played by actor Bill Irwin. He is one of the tenants in the apartment building where a magical fairy tale will soon ensue.. but until it does, he is busy daily watching his television set of the latest scenes of chaos, strife, warfare and murder across the planet. Shyamalan presents him as a stoic man, someone who seemingly watches in a silent agony as the chilling news broadcasts play out 24/7 in his living room. And really, isn’t that all of us? The silent majority, not condemning the atrocities across the earth but instead attempting to live our lives as though they aren’t happening? Traveling to work in heavy traffic, consumed by radio interfering with our souls, standing around a water cooler with mindless dribble spewing? That is us.. We are good at heart.. But scared of the consequences of speaking out.
I am going through a period of time where, reflecting on the turmoil if past and present, I am re-evaluating just how often and to what length of time news consumption should occur.. Does watching the repetitive acts of human atrocity almost add to it? Make it continue? Force it into the zeitgeist so much so that we can’t escape its evil clutches? Has the 24/7 news cycle create a pack of vultures.. we scour the headlines for the worst possible matter .. we consume and regurgitate, argue and point fingers.. and then quickly move on to the next carcass in our sight?
Perhaps a time out is needed..Instead of partaking in the less than blissful news cycle, just recoil into your cot and figure out how to concentrate for a bit.. And perhaps reflect on a very famous poem by
Scientists for the first time have found a complex organic molecule in space that bears the same asymmetric structure as molecules that are key to life on Earth.
The researchers said on Tuesday they detected the complex organic molecule called propylene oxide in a giant cloud of gas and dust near the center of the Milky Way galaxy.
Akin to a pair of human hands, certain organic molecules including propylene oxide possess mirror-like versions of themselves, a chemical property called chirality. Scientists have long pondered why living things make use of only one version of certain molecules, such as the “right-handed” form of the sugar ribose, which is the backbone of DNA.
I still think we were seeded on earth. By accident. Or on purpose.
Gallup found that just 20 percent have confidence in newspapers, a 10-point drop in 10 years. TV news saw an identical 10-point drop, from 31 percent to 21 percent.
But I don’t think it’s the left vs right issue causing this .. I think it’s a modern age vs old style 20th century style of thought.
Journalism is not dead. Paid journalism may be. And that’s going to be the struggle of modern reporting.
Mateen who according to preliminary reports, had been on a terrorist watchlist, and who still managed to obtain weapons thanks to his various licenses and permits just last week, was employed by one of the world’s largest security companies, where he may have had extensive clearances well above his pay grade, not to mention access to sophisticated military weapons and equipment.
But where it gets more disturbing is that as Judicial Watch reported several days ago, in a post titled, “DHS Quietly Moving, Releasing Vanloads Of Illegal Aliens Away From Border”, border patrol sources said that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was quietly transporting illegal immigrants from the Mexican border to Phoenix and releasing them without proper processing or issuing court appearance documents. As a reminder, the government classifies them as Other Than Mexican (OTM) and this week around 35 were transferred 116 miles north from Tucson to a Phoenix bus station where they went their separate way. Judicial Watch was present when one of the white vans carrying a group of OTMs arrived at the Phoenix Greyhound station on Buckeye Road.
My son paused from games and playing his week to note something to me.. In his innocent five year old voice, he conjectured that ‘there are a lot of bad people on the planet.’
It was a remarkable statement from someone still new to this big hot pale blue mess.
On Friday night he overheard a bit of evening local news describing a small town criminal who killed an infant. I knew he heard it but when I noticed him watching he turned away.
My Tv was glued–a bit–to tragic news of Christina Grimmie being killed and then over 100 being shot at the Pulse night club. It clearly was notice for my son, who had a puzzled looked of sadness on his face when he realized just how many bad guys there were on the planet.
I told him that he was right.. That there were bad people. But I reassured him that there were more good than bad.
Then I secretly pondered how I’d reassure myself of that very sentiment..
Firsthand eyewitness reports indicated the more than one shooter may have been present.. That accomplices were acting ‘together.’ That potentially more suspects are on the loose and that a media blackout is occurring.
A few points. If there are multiple suspects on the loose that could explain the complete strange lack of real a tail concrete facts so far.. But also these investigations take time. This was one of the worst shootings on American soil and is a dramatic escalation of terror on the American home land by ISIS. This is a big deal. Is law enforcement is cautious that makes logical sense..
But I also think, regardless of what facts stem from all of this in the final equation, that this is a new form of fear other nations have seen by America has yet to grow to understand. This is the American Bataclan. And it’s just as big of a deal..
My only enduring question….with smartphones and technology, and all of the modern marvels of CCTV, why haven’t we seen any videos inside? No footage. No Periscopes or snapchats. In not calling it a conspiracy but I’m certainly calling it weird.
After a horrible Sunday.. a terrible weekend.. IT still is a wonderful world. We are stuck on this planet of misery, a planet filled with death and insecurity.. sadness and grief.. hunger and terror.
And fear.
The worst thing a human can have in his or her heart is fear.. fear is the future, the present.. sadness of the past.
But this is still a wonderful world..
Somehow, between all of the pain and heartache, bloodshed and turmoil….The world still is a wonderful experiment by some force of nature beyond our collective imaginations…
According to social media, he is a US citizen, born in 1986, from Port Saint Lucie, FL. and both his parents are from Afghanistan. He was a registered democrat with a security officer and firearms license. The Orlando Mayor says he used an assault rifle, while Florida Congressman Alan Grayson adds that he believes the attack is “more likely than not” ideologically motivated.
CBS added that the FBI is currently checking if he was linked to extremists.
According to BBC, Mateen was not on any terrorism watch list, although as CBS also adds Islamic terrorism is being investigated as one of the possible motives behind the mass shooting.
‘He got angry when he saw two men kissing’: Father of New York-born shooter Omar Mateen, 29, says son responsible for worst mass shooting in US history was homophobic
Suspected Islamic extremist opened fire inside Pulse gay club in Orlando in the early hours of this morning
Law enforcement sources have identified the shooter as US citizen Omar Mateen, from Port St. Lucie in Florida
He killed at least 50 people and injured 53 and took party-goers hostage before being killed by police
Shooter, 29, was carrying a suspicious device, possibly a suicide vest, when he began shooting in the nightclub
Police used an explosive device to distract the gunman and rescue around 30 people who had been taken hostage
Police engaged in gunfire with the man and an officer was shot in the head, but he was saved by his helmet
FBI says gunman may have 'leanings to radical Islamic terrorism’ and it is being investigated as 'an act of terrorism’
Took place four miles from where The Voice singer Christina Grimmie, 22, was shot dead at The Plaza Live on Friday
Police officers in Orlando, Fla., directing people away from a nightclub where they said a gunman opened fire early Sunday. CreditPhelan M. Ebenhack/Associated Press
About 20 people were killed and at least 42 people were wounded when a gunman armed with an assault rifle and a handgun opened fire inside a downtown Orlando nightclub about 2 a.m., Police Chief John Mina said.
The police said they had classified the attack as a “terror incident.” The gunman was not from the Orlando area and was organized and well-prepared, they said.
The gunman was found dead inside the Pulse nightclub, one of the largest in Orlando, about 5 a.m. after a shootout with the police, Chief Mina said.
The chief said it was difficult to assess the number of clubgoers who were killed because, as of 7:15 a.m., many of the bodies had not been removed.
The shooting began inside the club, the chief said, and continued outside when an officer working at Pulse attempted to confront him. The gunman then went back into the club, resumed shooting and took hostages.
At 5 a.m., Chief Mina said, the police decided to rescue the hostages, detonating a “controlled explosion” to help clear the club. At least nine officers were involved in the shooting with the gunman. One of them was slightly injured, the authorities said.
The police called it a “mass casualty” event. The wounded were taken to three area hospitals.
”
- THE NEW YORK TIMES DESCRIBING THE INITIAL AFTERMATH OF THE ORLANDO TERROR NIGHTCLUB SHOOTING
Investors believing they need to have gold in their portfolio as a hedge against the outcome of easy central bank policies and for other safety reasons are fueling a run in the metal. Some analysts say gold could easily climb above $1,300 an ounce.
“I think that the you’ve got ‘Brexit’ coming at you. You have a Spanish election coming at you in a week and a half and that is terribly confusing. It looks like the left is going to win. You have rising nationalism in France. You have the strike in France. You have one thing after another,” said Dennis Gartman, publisher of The Gartman letter. Other worries include rising tensions with China in the South China Sea, and Nigeria where militants have shut down oil production.
It will be fascinating to see if England votes to leave the EU.. right now polls put the anti EU ahead by 10 points.. Still some time before the referendum but all eyes will be watching.
This is quite sad actually.. a beautiful sky and vast array of starlit nights dead because of pollution on the planet earth.
From the LA TIMES (LA, being no stranger to light pollution)
Across the globe, light pollution is making the night sky lighter and the stars harder to see, according to a new study.
In a paper published Friday in Science Advances, researchers reveal that 1 in 3 people worldwide are unable to see the Milky Way when they gaze at the heavens in their hometown. In addition, a whopping 83% of the world’s population lives under light-polluted skies.
In Singapore – the country with the most light pollution in the world – the skies never go dark, the authors write. Even at 1 a.m. the sky more closely resembles the warm glow of twilight then the inky blackness of a true night.
Get this!
In the U.S. and Europe, 99% of people live under light-polluted skies..
Scientists have found dangerous drug-resistant “super bacteria” off beaches in Rio de Janeiro that will host Olympic swimming events and in a lagoon where rowing and canoe athletes will compete when the Games start on Aug. 5.
The findings from two unpublished academic studies seen by Reuters concern Rio’s most popular spots for tourists and greatly increase the areas known to be infected by the microbes normally found only in hospitals.
They also heighten concerns that Rio’s sewage-infested waterways are unsafe.
ZIKA. Super bacteria .. political strife.
The real gold medal may have to go to the person who survives Rio 16..
Kerri Little was going to address the assembly about bullying. Feeling censored by her school, she skipped the whole thing and caused waved in Pennsylvania media by doing so.
She also had a tremendous and well thought out statement she posted to Facebook.
“A Lego block … just lifted itself out of the box and hurled itself across the room at me. There would be the most icy draft come past you as if someone had opened the freezer door. It was all too deep, too slurred and too consistent for the kids to make it up.”
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All of these words from reporter Michael Hellicar about his experience in the CONJURING 2 (REAL) house ..
New Line’s Conjuring 2 is beating its projections from earlier in the week with a No. 1 take of $37.1M at 3,343 theaters. It’s down 11% from its 2013 predecessor’s $41.9M opening ..
That is actually a good opening for a sequel in the box office world – sequelitis is a very real thing.
Even TMNT2 was less than projected earlier..
But CONJURING is beating the predictions a bit..
It is also one of the few movies right now on ROTTEN TOMATOES with a decent score from both critics and viewers..
A shock story was sent across news wires last night..
VOICE star shot to death at her own concert, blazed headlines..
More information came to light moments afterwards..
Singer Christina Grimmie, who starred in NBC’s “The Voice,” died early Saturday after a gunman shot her following a performance in Florida, authorities said. According to what s known so far: A man armed with two guns walked up to the 22-year-old singer as she was signing autographs late Friday night and opened fire, Orlando Police spokeswoman Wanda Ford said. The gunman fatally shot himself after Grimmie’s brother tackled him, according to authorities.
Grimmie was not alone on stage during the show that proceeded her death. The singer had performed at The Plaza Live theater Friday night, along with the band Before You Exit..
BEFORE YOU EXIT.. A strange and bizarre name given the circumstances of what happened after the show.
The singer had a large social media following–and those fans are saddened by the news of the singer’s untimely demise. Even for those who are not fans, it’s shocking to hear.. It’s actually quite revolting.
Muhammad Ali died Friday at age 74, according to a statement from the family. He was hospitalized in the Phoenix area with respiratory problems earlier this week, and his children had flown in from around the country.
Doin’t be too shocked by what they are.. You may actually realize they match what makes a good STORY or movie in general.
Nonetheless, Jakarta Post figured it was breaking news worthy enough of posting a link.. and I will share too since it has to do with James Wan.
The list, as follows:
Characters that people care about. The cases should be relatable to the audience. The sound design. (Just like IT FOLLOWS, one of the best.) Atmosphere. And good story.
Think of your favorite films or TV shows. They all have the above. Even comedies.
Fears an American werewolf on the prowl - in HULL: A strange story from the UK EXPRRESS.. The Hull creature with glowing eyes and sharp claws.. Prowling late at night under the moonlight sky. A paranormal tale that some believe and now even more are taking about thanks to the story running across the world..
A few days after it was revealed the persons who carried a gun to the White House and was shot by secret service was from Ashland PA, now this news of the syndicated program filming in the coal region is released..
Awful notoriety. We used to be famous for halupkies, block parties, and Centralia. Those were the days.
The 3,340-meter Turrialba Volcano is located in Cartago Province of central Costa Rica, only 30 km from the country’s capital, San José. The volcanic activity started Wednesday and the first eruptions were recorded Friday, according to local media.
Pictures are circulating online of the enormous smokestack and scene of ‘hell’ ..
Photos taken on Sunday showed evidence of pyroclastic flows — a fast-moving cloud of hot volcanic gases, rocks and ash — in the village. Dead and injured animals were lying on the ground, around them scorched homes and smoky vegetation. Soldiers were setting up roadblocks and people were carrying their belongings and leading farm animals to safety.
