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The 10 Leading Theories For Dead Birds And Fish
Nicholas West and Zen Gardner
As the mainstream media attempts to downplay the latest die-off event, which has now gone global, it is worthwhile to keep track of the story lines.
Mainstream Explanations:Lightning, hail, mid-air collision, power lines, and New Year fireworks for the birds . . . but disease for the fish. This is even rolling eyes in the mainstream media. Birds are incredibly sensitive to their environment (think Canary in the coal mine), and the thought that they were caught by surprise, or that they “fowled” up their flight pattern is patently ridiculous. And where are the roasted birds from this lightning strike? And what about fish dying in the same region? Just a “disease” coincidence. One mainstream headline has to be enshrined as the saddest attempt at sensationalism, while revealing an obvious natural conclusion Falling Birds Likely Died From Massive Trauma. Really?
Meteor showers: We are in a period of intense seasonal meteor showers, and several perennial YouTubers reported hearing sonic booms in the area that could have indicated a local shock wave. This would be one non-conspiratorial, natural cause that actually makes sense, but it is hard to connect to both birds and fish, unless it produced a disabling frequency. There were indeed other sound anomalies according to the report highlighted above.
New Madrid Fault Line: An excellent article by The American Dream collated data about the recent earthquake activity along this fault line that runs along the mid-eastern section of the U.S. Combined with gas fracking, the immense geological activity in the region, and the BP oil drilling disaster, which off-gassed the dispersant, Corexit, into the atmosphere, and we should be wondering about any mass deaths in the region. Nevertheless, this has turned into a global event, so the above could be a side effect of something larger, or a direct contributing factor.
Government testing: The long history of government testing has been exposed by manyresearchers. The strange component to this die-off is that only certain species have been affected, but within the entire region. And some reports have indicated that the organs of these birds were liquefied, which could indicate a possible virus. Could this implicate species-specific bio-weapons? It is on record that discussions have taken place about race-specific bio-weapons; perhaps this is a test of delivery capability?
GMO mutation: Mike Adams of Natural News sets forth an interesting theory: this latest event is local, but the die-offs are happening across species as bee populations and bats are also declining. Adams points out that Monsanto has a corporate office in Arkansas. Just wondering. Read more…
Food Shortages Will Become A Global Crisis: 7 Reasons
Food inflation is here and it’s here to stay. We can see it getting worse every time we buy groceries. Basic food commodities like wheat, corn, soybeans, and rice have been skyrocketing since July, 2010 to record highs. These sustained price increases are only expected to continue as food production shortfalls really begin to take their toll this year and beyond.
This summer Russia banned exports of wheat to ensure their nation’s supply, which sparked complaints of protectionism. The U.S. agriculture community is already talking about rationing corn over ethanol mandates versus supply concerns. We’ve seen nothing yet in terms of food protectionism.
Global food shortages have forced emergency meetings at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization where they claim “urgent action” is needed. They point to extreme weather as the main contributing factor to the growing food shortages. However, commodity speculation has also been targeted as one of the culprits.
It seems that the crisis would also present the perfect opportunity and the justification for the large GMO food companies to force their products into skeptical markets like in Europe and Japan, as recently leaked cables suggest. One thing is for sure; food shortages will likely continue to get worse and eventually become a full-scale global food crisis.
Here are seven reasons why food shortages are here to stay on a worldwide scale:
1. Extreme Weather: Extreme weather has been a major problem for global food; from summer droughts and heat waves that devastated Russia’s wheat crop to the ongoing catastrophes from ‘biblical flooding’ in Australia and Pakistan. And it doesn’t end there. An extreme winter cold snap and snow has struck the whole of Europe and the United States. Staple crops are failing in all of these regions making an already fragile harvest in 2010 even more critical into 2011. Based on the recent past, extreme weather conditions are only likely to continue and perhaps worsen in the coming years.
2. Bee Colony Collapse: The Guardian reported this week on the USDA’s study on bee colony decline in the United States: “The abundance of four common species of bumblebee in the US has dropped by 96% in just the past few decades.” It is generally understood that bees pollinate around 90% of the world’s commercial crops. Obviously, if these numbers are remotely close to accurate, then our natural food supply is in serious trouble. Luckily for us, the GMO giants have seeds that don’t require open pollination to bear fruit.
3. Collapsing Dollar: Commodity speculation has resulted in massive food inflation that is already creating crisis levels in poor regions in the world. Food commodity prices have soared to record highs mainly because they trade in the ever-weakening dollar. Traders will point to the circumstances described in this article to justify their gambles, but also that food represents a tangible investment in an era of worthless paper. Because the debt problems in the United States are only getting worse, and nations such as China and Russia are dropping the dollar as their trade vehicle, the dollar will continue to weaken, further driving all commodity prices higher.
4. Regulatory Crackdown: Even before the FDA was given broad new powers to regulate food in the recent Food Safety Modernization Act, small farms were being raided and regulated out of business. Now, the new food bill essentially puts food safety under the direction of the Department of Homeland Security where the food cartel uses the government to further consolidate their control over the industry. Militant police action is taken against farmers suspected of falling short on quality regulations. It is the power to intimidate innocent small farmers out of the business.
5. Rising oil prices: In 2008, record oil prices that topped $147 per barrel drove food prices to new highs. Rice tripled in 6 months during the surge of oil prices, along with other food commodities. The price of oil affects food on multiple levels; from plowing fields, fertilizers and pesticides, to harvesting and hauling. Flash forward to 2011: many experts are predicting that oil may reach upwards of $150-$200 per barrel in the months ahead. As oil closed out 2010 at its 2-year highs of $95/bbl, it is likely on pace to continue climbing. Again, a weakening dollar will also play its part in driving oil prices, and consequently, food prices to crisis levels.6. Increased Soil Pollution: Geo-engineering has been taking place on a grand scale in the United States for decades now. Previously known in conspiracy circles as ‘chemtrailing,’ the government has now admitted to these experiments claiming they are plan “B” to combat global warming. The patents involved in this spraying are heavy in aluminum. This mass aluminum contamination is killing plants and trees and making the soil sterile to most crops. In an astonishing coincidence, GMO companies have patented aluminum-resistant seeds to save the day.
The equation is actually quite simple: food is a relatively inelastic commodity in terms of demand. In other words, people need to eat no matter how bad the economy gets. Thus, demand can be basically measured by the size of the population. Therefore, as demand remains steady while the 7 supply pressures outlined above continue to worsen, food prices will have only one place to go — up, up, and up.
As international agencies scramble to find “solutions,” their energy may be just as well spent on questioning if this famine scenario is being purposely manipulated for profits. Regardless, the average person would be very wise to stock up on food staples as an investment, and frankly to survive the worsening food crisis
Future Of Food For 9 Billion? Edible Insects
Insects produce much smaller quantities of greenhouse gases per kilogram of meat than cattle and pigs. This is the conclusion of scientists at Wageningen University who have joined forces with government and industry to investigate whether the rearing of insects could contribute to more sustainable protein production. Insect meat could therefore form an alternative to more conventional types of meat.
Credit: Wageningen University and Research Centre
Cattle farming worldwide is a major producer of greenhouse gases. For the assessment of the sustainability of insect meat, the researchers at Wageningen University quantified the production of greenhouse gases of several edible insect species. The results of the study were published in the renowned online journal PLoS ONE on 29 December.
The research team has for the first time quantified the greenhouse gases produced per kilogram of insect product. The gases concerned were methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O). The results demonstrate that insects produce much smaller quantities of greenhouse gases than conventional livestock such as cattle and pigs. For example, a pig produces between ten and a hundred times as much greenhouse gases per kilogram compared with mealworms.
Emissions of ammonia (which causes the acidification and eutrophication of groundwater) also appear to be significantly lower. A pig produces between eight and twelve times as much ammonia per kilogram of growth compared to crickets, and up to fifty times more than locusts. An additional advantage of insects over mammals is that they convert their food into meat quicker.
Alternative
The study indicates that proteins originating from insects in principle form an environmentally-friendly alternative to proteins from meat originating from conventional livestock. Further research is required to ascertain whether the production of a kilogram of insect protein is also more environmentally friendly than conventional animal protein when the entire production chain is taken into account.
Contacts and sources:
Wageningen University and Research Centre
Full bibliographic information
Dennis Oonincx, Joost van Itterbeeck, Marcel Heetkamp, Henry van den Brand, Joop van Loon, Arnold van Huis. An Exploration on Greenhouse Gas and Ammonia Production by Insect Species Suitable for Animal or Human Consumption. PLoS ONE 29 December 2010. See http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0014445
Vaccine/ Autism Link is Not Fraud
Do You Know What You’re Injecting into Your Child?
Takeaways
- Not all vaccines are thimerosal-free.
- The ingredients may concern pro-lifers, vegetarians, and vegans.
- Vaccines contain chemicals recognized as hazardous and poisonous.
Are you thinking about vaccination? The debate over childhood vaccinations rages on parenting forums everywhere. Should you vax, or shouldn’t you? We all have our own opinions on whether to inoculate babies and children. When making the decision, it is important that you educate yourself rather than relying on the doctors and nurses to take the time to do it. There is so much to consider when choosing whether to vaccinate your child or not. It is surprising how little those who are for inoculations know about their ingredients. When I did my research on the ingredients of vaccines, what I found was shocking!General Electric Bankrupt 2011
The numbers are staggering! Over $660 Billion in debt. That is almost the entire US federal bail out package that was passed during the financial crisis last year. All for one, albeit very large, company. That company is General Electric. GE has over 300,000 employees and operates in more than 100 countries. Can it really go bankrupt? The answer is yes!
GE seems to have a history of building debt obligations. GE’s long-term asset base grew $200 billion (or 30%) between 2003 and 2008 when prices were at their highest. Now GE is attempting to sell off many of those assets (when prices are low, but they are desperate for cash so they are forced to sell). In the near term GE has to repay or refinance $240 Billion before the end of 2011.
In March of last year GE lost their prized AAA credit rating from Standard and Poor rating agency. Other agencies have them ranked much lower. John Atkins, a fixed-income analyst at IDEAGlobal.com, said “it remained unclear what the impact will be on GE’s borrowing costs. Even with the ‘AAA’ credit rating, the cost of insuring debt of GE Capital had been in distressed territory recently.” This is a dramatic understatement. In fact, last year, the U.S. government had to guarantee $500 billion in GE’s debt. GE’s interest on its debts are about to soar.
As Porter Stansberry said in November of 2009, with the guarantee, GE only spent roughly $17 billion last year to service its $660+ Billion in debt. That’s an annualized interest rate of 2.5%. This is not sustainable. Sooner or later, GE is going to have to pay a market interest rate. The government guarantee expires in 2011 and that is when you can expect costs to soar.
Currently, the yield on high-yield corporate debt is around 10%. GE is now rated two slots above “junk” by Egan Jones. Assuming that GE could still qualify as an investment-grade credit – (since there is some discrepancy between ratings agencies) GE would pay something like 8% on its debt in a free market.
That would cost more than $52 billion a year. Last year, GE earned $11 billion before interest and taxes – in total. That’s not nearly enough money to pay the interest on its debts – whether they’re backed by the government or not.
Check back tomorrow and I’ll show you one way to play General Electric that has already earned 40% returns in just 2 weeks, but has much more to go.
Ross Williams
WikiLeaks: China Hiding Military Build Up
AUSTRALIA’S intelligence agencies believe China is hiding the extent of a huge military build-up that goes beyond national defence and poses a serious threat to regional stability.
A strategic assessment by the agencies found China’s military spending for 2006 was $90 billion – double the $45 billion announced publicly by Beijing.
Australia’s peak intelligence agency, the Office of National Assessments, as well as the Defence Intelligence Organisation and the Defence and Foreign Affairs departments concluded that China was building a military capability well beyond its priorities of self-defence and preventing Taiwan’s independence.
”China’s longer-term agenda is to develop ‘comprehensive national power’, including a strong military, that is in keeping with its view of itself as a great power,” says a copy of the secret assessment provided by Foreign Affairs officials to the US embassy in Canberra.
”We agree that the trend of China’s military modernisation is beyond the scope of what would be required for a conflict over Taiwan. Arguably China already poses a credible threat to modern militaries operating in the region and will present an even more formidable challenge as its modernisation continues.”
Details of the 2006 intelligence assessment are contained in a US embassy cable obtained by WikiLeaks and provided exclusively to the Herald.
The Australian document goes on to warn that the pace of China’s military build-up and ”the opacity of Beijing’s intentions and programs” was ”already altering the balance of power in Asia and could be a destabilising influence”.
”There is the potential for possible misconceptions which could lead to a serious miscalculation or crisis,” it says.
The Australian intelligence agencies suggest China could overestimate its own capabilities with a significant risk of strategic miscalculation and instability.
”The nature of the [People’s Liberation Army] and the regime means that transparency will continue to be viewed as a potential vulnerability. This contributes to the likelihood of strategic misperceptions,” the document says.
”The rapid improvements in PLA capabilities, coupled with a lack of operational experience and faith in asymmetric strategies, could lead to China overestimating its military capability. These factors, coupled with rising nationalism, heightened expectations of China’s status, China’s historical predilection for strategic deception, difficulties with Japan, and the Taiwan issue mean that miscalculations and minor events could quickly escalate.”
Although successive Australian governments have called on China to be more transparent about its military spending, ministers and diplomats have studiously avoided public reference to the scale of the discrepancy between Beijing’s published figures and the likely reality behind the scenes.
The Australian estimate of a 2006 military budget of $US70 billion ($90 billion at the September 2006 exchange rate), has not been revealed previously – though it is consistent with academic and published US government estimates of China’s growing military spending.
The secret Australian assessment is also much sharper than the language later employed in the Rudd government’s 2009 Defence white paper, which said China was on the way to becoming Asia’s strongest military power ”by a considerable margin” and warned that the pace and scope of its growth could give its neighbours cause for concern if not properly explained.
The Rudd government publicly played down reports of a hostile Chinese reaction to the white paper when it was published, but secretly briefed the US that Beijing had threatened that Australia would ”suffer the consequences” if references to China’s growing military capabilities were not watered down.
The Defence Chief, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, and the then defence minister, Joel Fitzgibbon, insisted that China had no problem with the white paper. But other leaked US embassy cables report that the then deputy secretary for Defence, Mike Pezzullo, briefed US diplomats that he had been ”dressed down” by Chinese officials who had a ”look of cold fury” at the references to China in the white paper.
In the September 2006 briefing of the US embassy, Foreign Affairs officials advised that Australia hoped to use its defence relationship with China to promote increased transparency in that country’s military development plans.
”We remain focused on deepening the Australia-China defence relationship in areas such as peacekeeping, counter-terrorism and junior leadership exchanges, while remaining cautious to avoid practical co-operation that might help the PLA to fill capability gaps,” the Australian paper presented to the embassy concluded.
The Royal Australian Navy and the Chinese navy held their first joint exercise involving firing of live ammunition in September last year.
Last month the Defence Department secretary, Ian Watt, and Air Chief Marshal Houston attended the 13th annual Australia-China Defence Strategic Dialogue, which was hosted in China by General Chen Bingde, the chief of the PLA General Staff.
Dr Watt said that the dialogue was ”an integral component of Australia’s defence engagement with China, and provided the opportunity to have frank and open conversations and to exchange views on areas of common interest”.
Dr Watt and Air Chief Marshal Houston also met the vice-president and deputy chairman of China’s Central Military Commission, Xi Jinping.
Air Chief Marshal Houston said: ”We committed to continuing to develop our military relationship and practical cooperation together.”
EU Debt bought up by China
Published: January 6, 2011 07:46 ET in Asia
China has been increasing its holdings of European government debt, including that issued by Spain, amid the euro-zone crisis, Chinese Vice Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng was quoted as saying on Thursday.
The Spanish daily El Pais on Thursday cited Spanish government sources as saying China has committed to buy about 6 billion euros ($7.89 billion) worth of Spanish sovereign debt.
In a statement on the ministry’s website, Gao also said that China was confident in Spanish and European financial markets and confident that they would be able to overcome Europe’s debt crisis, the Wall Street Journal reported.
“We will continue to buy debt and work together with Spain,” said Gao, who is accompanying Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang on a visit to Spain and other European countries.
Both officials have expressed confidence that Spain will recover from its economic crisis despite market fears of an Irish-style bailout.
El Pais published an article written by Vice Premier Li, titled, “China and Spain: A brighter future through win-win cooperation.”
Political and corporate leaders increasingly see China as a source of capital. China’s foreign-exchange reserves are by far the world’s largest, totaling $2.648 trillion at the end of September.
In the meantime, the economic mood in Europe ended 2010 on a high note, a key indicator released Thursday showed.
The European Commission’s closely watched business and consumer survey for the members of the euro currency bloc rose from 105.2 in November to a more-than-forecast 106.2 last month. The consensus among economists was that the index would nudge up to 105.5.
Ben May, European economist with the research group Capital Economics, told Monstersandcritics.com the data suggested that, “the improving global economic outlook is offsetting the ongoing troubles in the periphery.”
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