Every astronaut since 1969 landings has seen strange "flashing lights" while approaching the Moon

Every astronaut since 1969 landings has seen strange "flashing lights" while approaching the Moon:

Strangely, every astronaut since the first Apollo 11 Moon landings in 1969 has reported seeing the mysterious flashes - whether their eyes are open or not.

C-SPAN’s Trump Tower Elevatorcam, and the Meaning of Life

C-SPAN’s Trump Tower Elevatorcam, and the Meaning of Life:

Vanity Fair has a good description of the strange new world of watching the elevator at the Trump tower for tea leaves of the future..

The whole spectacle was very updated, digital counterpart to the Cold War days when Western analysts actually studied wall posters in what was then Peking, now Beijing. They looked for signs of who was up, who was down in the government.“It’s like a modern (and less entertaining) version of Grand Hotel,” says Jon Maas, a Hollywood writer-producer: “Always the same. People come. People go. Nothing ever happens.”

“You guys just wait all day?,” you could hear a disembodied voice ask, probably a pool cameraman or one of the nearby producers and reporters, all seeking morsels. And, this being the age of video, there were the tourists taking photos of the pool camera itself, in one case blurting out, “Say cheese, everyone!”

Oh and yes… the Naked Cowboy was there as well..

Suddenly a divided election is leading to a period of hope and...

Suddenly a divided election is leading to a period of hope and change in the coming year... Americans are optimistic in challenging times. It’s one of the best qualities about this nation..

Incidentally, I will start keeping track of the number of positive stories CNN now that Trump has initiated very tense meetings with media officials that he, to their faces, calls liars..

Tests raise hopes for radical new therapy for phobias and PTSD

Tests raise hopes for radical new therapy for phobias and PTSD :

Scientists have raised hopes for a radical new therapy for phobias and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with a procedure that can dampen down fears linked to painful memories.

The advance holds particular promise for patients because in early tests, researchers found they could reduce anxieties triggered by specific memories without asking people to think about them consciously.

Very interesting article .. shock therapy .. be afraid and even more afraid and then be calm..

A traffic jam is seen as people evacuate after tsunami...

A traffic jam is seen as people evacuate after tsunami advisories were issued following an earthquake, in Iwaki, Fukushima prefecture, Japan, in this photo taken by Kyodo November 22, 2016. Kyodo/via
REUTERS

Fukushima reactor cooling system stops following quake & tsunami!!

Fukushima reactor cooling system stops following quake & tsunami!!:

The cooling system of the third reactor at the Fukushima nuclear power plant has stopped circulating water following a powerful 7.3 offshore earthquake.

TEPCO said it managed to restart the system some 90 minutes after the failure.

Tsunami waves have been visible along the coast..

Teenager films 'meteorite' burning across sky following Japanese earthquake

Teenager films 'meteorite' burning across sky following Japanese earthquake :

The teen, known as Asuka, 16, from Japan, filmed the extraordinary sight trailing across the evening sky this evening.

A rough translation of her Tweet accompanying the video says: “A movie I took while preparing to die.

No word from Fukushima if we need to buy up salt with iodine yet..

Donald Trump’s media summit was a ‘f—ing firing squad’

Donald Trump’s media summit was a ‘f—ing firing squad’ :

Trump kept saying, ‘We’re in a room of liars, the deceitful dishonest media who got it all wrong. He addressed everyone in the room calling the media dishonest, deceitful liars. He called out Jeff Zucker by name and said everyone at CNN was a liar, and CNN was network of liars.

“Trump didn’t say Katy Tur by name, but talked about an NBC female correspondent who got it wrong, then he referred to a horrible network correspondent who cried when Hillary lost who hosted a debate – which was Martha Raddatz who was also in the room.

This is wild ..
by the way Kellyanne Conway said the meeting went well..

I think it’s a harbinger of the next four years of the press relationship with Donald Trump..

7.3 magnitude quake hits Japan, Fukushima residents urged to flee

7.3 magnitude quake hits Japan, Fukushima residents urged to flee:

REUTERS REPORTING:
There were no immediate reports of damage or injury, which struck at 5:59 a.m. (3.59 p.m. ET).
Tokyo Electric Power Co was checking its nuclear plants in Fukushima for damage, public broadcaster NHK said. The utility could not immediately be reached by Reuters.

Tohoku Electric Power Co said there was no damage to its Onagawa nuclear plant.

Television footage showed ships moving out to sea from Fukushima harbors, as the meteorological agency warned of a tsunami of 3 meters (10 feet) for Fukushima, where Tepco’s Daiichi nuclear plant was devastated in a March 2011 quake and tsunami.

You are being a bad friend!! So says a new article posted in...

You are being a bad friend!!

So says a new article posted in the NEW YORK POST, all about how our constant reliance on social media is creating a terrible person out of everyone.

And I believe it.
We are getting winded by the steady stream of 24/7 junk. This election had consequences, too.. we just delved deeper into a pile of excrement on a daily basis of politics..

Real friendships aren’t online. Real friendships can be aided by social media.. but just quicky skimming through a feed and casually liking things and forgetting ten seconds later what you saw is the most repugnant form of friendship one can find.. and it’s very ‘BLACK MIRROR'ish to be perfectly honest..

I went back to my 2015 year in review and 2016 predictions. I actually am going to toot a horn. One prediction was that social media would wane, and that we would all find real ways to connect to people again. I sense that is happening.

I think the quicker it happens, the better it will be..

scarystoriestouploadinthedark: It was just a normal day for...

scarystoriestouploadinthedark:

It was just a normal day for Melissa Kurtz, 48, who was driving on a highway in the Maitland area of Florida, near Orlando, to take her 13-year-old daughter, Harper, to a beauty pageant. Harper wasn’t wearing a seat belt, which was normal for her, and taking selfies to pass the time.

And then when she saw the picture days later she realized she saw someone behind her … she was alone in the car at the time the selfie was snapped.

Kurtz decided to do some research on the road they were driving on that day and discovered that there had been an accident on that same road and the day her and Harper were driving on it happened to be the anniversary of the death that occurred because of it

The UK DAILY MAIL interviewed her.. Kurtz said that she thinks the (potential) ghost in the photo was a warning to wear seat belts.. 

For your consumption.. and decision. 

This comes from the same person that has also said to have had a number of paranormal events happen to her and her family.. in situations like this, when you decide what is real, take into consideration between someone who wants attention vs someone who received ghostly attention.

IS ANYONE READ FOR THIS!?

IS ANYONE READ FOR THIS!?

I neglected to upload this photo last week.. but it was the...

I neglected to upload this photo last week.. but it was the super moon over Ashland PA about a week ago in November.. great shot down Walnut Street..

bonniekristian: If “did not vote” was a candidate, it would...

bonniekristian:

If “did not vote” was a candidate, it would have won by a landslide. 

A perfect summation to the year in politics from @bonniekristian

Black Mirror mania: I love this show

I love this show.. I have avidly watched it since the program’s inception onto NETFLIX.. The pigs.. The tech… The lessons of morality and the consequences of people’s dirty deeds online. The future is now. Evident in this program: The cautionary tales of horror that can happen when tech goes wrong and the virtue of an honest life..

The newest season of Black Mirror was loaded onto Netflix around Halloween. Due to a lack of time, I have yet to watch about 1 and a half more episodes. But the pure joy I have in doing so makes me actually want to take it slow.

I recall quickly moving through the entire series of STRANGER THINGS. By the time it was done, I wanted to go back and start from the beginning.

Black Mirror is a bit different. Each program makes you ponder more than the next.. Each show has twists and turns that throw your mind into a loop of madness. Each program makes you feel like it’s real and, equally so, feel a sense of dread for our collective Internet-driven future.

The far best episode in the entire series thus far (my opinion of course) is ‘Hated in the Nation.’ Some others only call this episode solid but 'unremarkable’ but I think it is brilliant.

It takes into account a dwindling bee population and how our society may delve into tech to save the planet, and terrorism, hacking , assassination, murder, and espionage. Along with a lot of fun grammatical uses of the F and C word for emphasis. The show was pure joy.. It was over an hour long and could have easily been a successful box office hit. But thankfully because of Black Mirror and Netflix, we can have the show beamed right to our electronic devices.

In Hated in the Nation, a technology company invents a high tech drone bee to pollinate the planet. During a hack attack, someone gets the chance to control the bee population to use it for murder. A 'hash tag’ battle begins on social media. And the person most hated in the nation becomes a victim. That is just the beginning. It weaves itself into a moral play and a final act of redemption during the post-modem and Mortem.

You just have to watch it to understand what I am talking about.. It has quickly become of the best shows/movies/things I have ever watched.

I have grown to despise so many vast portions of social media while… Of course… Using it as well. Hashtags and red flags abound … I just can’t stomach seeing the 'trending’ words of the day. I hate myself for often looking.. But it’s how we get news. Opinions. Statements. Hell, it’s how we picked a president in 2016!

Social media.
And antisocial disorder. They go together so well.

Black Mirror’s HATED IN THE NATION is a must watch for those nervous about social media’s power, or for those who think they can act on devices without consequence.
There are consequences.
Perhaps in the future, the consequences will be fatal and final.

No more fake news. Long live fake news.

For people lacking a connection to the world over the past week, take note: There has been consternation, division, anger.. regret.. vitriolic rage. The election of 2016 has left charred corpses along the political battle lines. Whether it’s the purge of Chris Christie confidants within the transition team or the rioting on several city blocks across America, things have been tense. The other night, Donald Trump had the nerve and gumption to ditch the press and go for a steak dinner with family alone. You’d think world war three was declared with the reaction.


All of this political fervor, hopefully, will subside by the time the cold months of winter hit. But there will be a longer and more far reaching event…


The media world has been up in arms over the Trump victory. Though their actions most likely led to increased coverage and potentially aided in a Trump primary victory during the early onset of this year, the made a choice mid-way through 2016 to take on the Republican nominee more ferociously than Hillary Clinton. As a result, alt-right sites and other ‘media’ blogs started popping up on Facebook and Twitter. By the time the election had come in November, I had enough of all of it. I turned away from Facebook and other social media sites because it all became mentally too much to handle. It was an overload of information . But sadly so often that information lacked one important thing: Truth.


Since the election, collective soul searching has apparently forced Google and Facebook, including Twitter, to react. And now, a 1984 style removal process seemingly has begun. The ‘fake news’ sites have been getting deleted, or Google ads have been taken from them, or Facebook has been actively working on having users report sites for misleading information.

….and this is where some of my own fears begin.
Let me first say this: One of the most offensive social media sins—common on Facebook mostly—is the clickbait nonsense of fakery and eye-grabbing headlines that don’t amount to anything except false information and websites packed with ads just to make pennies on a dollar off of your click. It’s a cheap and tacky thing, to link such sites, on your own newsfeed. You need to proceed with caution. If your information is true, you can lead yourself into hateful debate. If your information is false, someone will “Snopes” you and you will forever look like a fool who fell for it.
That said, there is also a certain amount of first amendment fear in my heart. Yes, fake news is out there. But what fake news? Who determines that?

The problems of a polarized nation are constantly multiplying.


This year, after Trump won the election, a fan of his commented to me that, “maybe now he could do something about the media.” I asked pressing questions of the person about this. What resulted with some inane banter about how Trump should ban the New York Times and other media outlets from reporting ‘lies.’


While that opinion is frightening in itself, the mainstream media may argue that press freedom and constitutional rights should not apply to ‘bloggers’ and other non-media people. But who determines that?


Alex Jones and Matt Drudge may have been the two most important people in the year 2016. If TIME magazine was honest, they would name the alternative media as the person of the year.


And that has created a backlash from the mainstream. The Donald Trump press-less steak dinner episode is just the beginning of a tumultuous relationship.


Private companies have the right to do as they please when it comes to private affairs of business. So if Google blocks ads on pages, there may be no legal issue—unless of course the situation devolves into class action or civil litigation.
But there is a long term problem taking place, and the crackdown on ‘fake news’ may highlight that.


Over the past 15 or so years, the populace has dumbed down faster than a dial up internet connection. We have gone from reading newspaper reports written at a 7th grade level to only reading headlines written on a 1st grade level. We click on the bait and then we replicate. We don’t know much of anything except what some misleading headline told us. Social media has also given us an excuse to actually be dumb! We can pick our news feed. We want to be comfortable and calm when we read.. we don’t want alternative viewpoints. If we are liberal, we will Raw Story it up. If we are conservative, we only check World Net Daily. Living in a comfort zone is the cruelest thing we can do to our brains…


And sadly, the mainstream media has become more biased.. it is no lie to say FOX has a conservative bent and that MSNBC cries when it uses the words “Trump” and “President-Elect” in the same sentence. CNN has just become horrid, filled with nonsense in between Wolf Blitzer screaming out states and numbers.


Earthquakes persist… war zones are intolerable.. people across the world are having real issues. And American has plunged into a red-vs-blue disgusting array of garbage. Nothing we argue about is real. Nothing we ponder and conjure means anything in the final analysis. We fell for it. Congratulations.


Sadly, this crackdown on fake news will end up hurting people who actually tell us real news.


This morning, the INTERCEPT broke a REAL news story about a building in New York City with 29 floors being the home of ‘Project X.’ The INCERCEPT reports that this building, also with an AT&T office, is the location for a very important national security surveillance site. The NSA uses the location to tap into phone calls, faxes and the internet. I can easily picture a future where someone will chime in that ‘fake news’ includes anything that compromises national security. That fake news is anything which…well…is real.
The next few years are going to be very trying for people with common sense. And sadly, some will fall by the wayside… The debate over nonsensical political events and purposely contrived news stories will be the front and center topic on nightly news. And dinner tables.


Recall during the Iraq war 2 when the Pentagon got into the business of news reporting. It was propaganda purporting to be reporting. And hell if I know how, but it worked. I can envision the same thing… Donald Trump is a master of media manipulation. At the same time, clickbait headlines are creating constant false narratives. The conflict is there..
New media vs old media is one thing. But real news vs fake is another.


The only judge and jury, and decider of what is real and fake is the consumer. And consumption of fake news is high.

…..and we create the next 1984. Someone needs to start writing “2084” now.. Will the next George Orwell please stand up…

Mystery flight circles over Denver; Officials have few answers

Mystery flight circles over Denver; Officials have few answers :

7news in Denver was among the stations covering the weird event.. The flight path was an oval over Denver .. The plane then apparently left the city limits and flew to Oklahoma City..

From the report:

When contacting the military, including both U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) and United States Strategic Command (STRATCOM), neither organization could confirm the identity of the plane, or even locate it. 

The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) also investigated the flight, however they couldn’t locate the flight or confirm its existence. When asked if the flight might have been a high-profile person, officials said the only high-profile flights in the air were in New York and Indiana. 

The long-term side effects tattoo ink has on your health

The long-term side effects tattoo ink has on your health:

I was always told to ‘think before you ink.’ All the more important given the many awful chemical components that you can find in the ink being carved into your body..

Google, Facebook move to restrict ads on fake news sites | Reuters

Google, Facebook move to restrict ads on fake news sites | Reuters:

I hate click bait.
I hate fake news sites..
But we need to be careful about what we say is fake.. and we also need to frame this debate in an honest way as we step down into the removal of ads from ‘fake sites’..

For prime example, the question to Google “who won the popular vote” has brought people to a site called 70news.wordpress.com, which reported that Trump won the popular vote.. despite losing by 700,000. Their argument was if you discount about three million votes cast by 'illegals’ then Trump clinched it.. False representation of the truth. Of course. But to say it would be right for Google to pulls its ads from 70news.wordpress.com is also not true—GOOGLE does not permit ads on free Wordpress sites to begin with. And 70news when I visited actually has no ads and 521 likes on Facebook.

There are two possible reactions about to occur.. 1) We are going to finally rid social media of nonsense fakery. Or 2) The mainstream is going to use this chance to think big and attack its competitors: Independent publishers and reporters.

We have to think 'bigly’ about this .. and actually do the intellectually honest thing instead of just going with an emotion…

This is a screen shot from a YouTube video portending to show a...

This is a screen shot from a YouTube video portending to show a UFO crossing by a supermoon in Surprise Arizona on Saturday.. the user described the type of camera he was using.. other users have reacted…
And the rest is UFO history.