John Ludi at Work: One Way Train, Part 2.

The song about 1/2 of the way through it's development, otherwise me just being long-winded and acting silly...it's what I do.

Cheap Solar Cooker

Just what it says...a cheap solar cooker you can make for a few bucks. 

Pluto Radio

It suddenly occured to me that I have not represented Pluto Radio on this here blog yet...so here it is:

http://plutoradio.com/

This is an online radio station started by an old friend of mine that is in the classic free form radio style that used to make radio worth listening to back in the 60's through 80's...and what's more, they also are one of the few online radio stations that plays my own music on a pretty regular basis AND the ONLY station where you will here me functioning as a DJ.  The majority of the music you here on there is from independent bands and artists, many of whom display a serious degree of talent.

So tune in and give it a listen...you never know what you'll hear on there...it's pretty much all over the map, as life should be.

Weekly News Update-05/11/2011

A busy week it's been and is going to be.  So here's some stuff I've been following (I have not been keeping tabs of where I got these, so sorry if I've slighted anyone):



ECONOMICS:

 http://blogs.wsj.com/brussels/2011/05/09/luxembourg-lies-on-secret-meeting/

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/how-cbot-comex-and-cftc-coordinated-break-last-silver-price-surge

http://detnews.com/article/20110510/AUTO01/105100408/Former-GM-execs-sue-for-retirement-benefits 

http://www.businessinsider.com/irish-bombshell-government-raids-private-pensions-to-pay-for-jobs-program-2011-5

ENVIRONMENT:

http://www.pnj.com/article/20110508/NEWS01/105080328/Sick-fish-Gulf-alarming-scientists?odyssey=tab|topnews|img|FRONTPAGE

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/09/how-the-mississippi-river-levees-could-fail/?hpt=T2

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13338174

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703864204576317441172666186.html?mod=WSJ_newsreel_world

POLITICS AS USUAL: 

http://www.truth-out.org/koch-brother-buys-right-interfere-faculty-hiring-florida-state-university/1305128548


COLLAPSE:

http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2011/05/10/crack-pipes-often-disguised-as-novelty-items-at-stores/

OUR RADIOACTIVE PLANET:

http://www.naturalnews.com/032303_tritium_nuclear_power_plant.html 


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vivian-norris-de-montaigu/deadly-silence-on-fukushi_b_859241.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/xtcbz/sets/72157626687253144/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dxbm7iJTT8U&feature=player_embedded


INTERESTING DISCOURSE:

http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2011/03/07/this-time-we’re-taking-the-whole-planet-with-us-by-chris-hedges/
 
http://billhicksisdead.blogspot.com/2011/05/peak-exploration-apollo-program-and.html

PARANOIA:

Weekly News Updates-05-03-2011

I'm not going to go on a rant about the whole Bin Laden bit...mainly because I really don't have a side to argue from.  I have been both amused and disappointed by two distinct reactions to the news of the alleged raid:

1-This was a complete sham and a massive PR stunt and if you believe it was for real you are a complete and utter rube and you probably also believe in the tooth fairy...and you suck!

2-This was the pure and unvarnished truth and if you don't believe it you are a crazy conspiracy nut and you believe Elvis crashed at Roswell...and you suck!

Very sad.  Is there no room for REASONED skepticism anymore?  The government has pulled the wool over our eyes so often that I'm surprised we have not run out of sheep...but they don't lie about EVERYTHING.  Just MOSTLY everything.

Like everything else filtered through the funhouse-mirror world of the Internet, before the news was a millisecond old the opinion-factory of the virtual world started spinning like a billion spiders on meth, with only ONE thing in common between the lot of them: practically EVERY purveyor of an angle on this event was ABSOLUTELY SURE they were right and that anyone who didn't buy their worldview 100% was wrong.  Wrong and a gullible sheep ripe for a shearing by The Elites, or wrong and an unpatriotic monster who should be rounded up and gassed to make the planet safe for Democracy.  The insensitivity and vitriol was breathtaking. 

And there is one thing that they also have in common: none of them KNOW shit about the true FACTS of the subject.  I know I don't.  I was not there.  If indeed there WAS a "there".  I personally have my doubts...serious doubts...but that's ALL they are...I lack facts...and for some strange reason I seem to be able to live with this.

But since I also doubt the foundational existence of physical reality as the ultimate base of existence overall, doubt is part and parcel of my every worldly observation...and increasingly I find myself very much alone in that regard.  At a time when I had wished for some sort of an expansion of a multi-layered approach to thinking and perception in the human species, some sort of awakening consciousness that can function in a non-linear mode, even the smart people are turning into narrow-minded little hermit crabs scrabbling around in the flux of the multiverse looking for just the right confining little shell to wedge themselves into.

And I find myself increasingly of the opinion that I do not belong on this planet.


Anyway...here's a start on this week's accumulation...check back for updates throughout the week:


ECONOMICS:

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/a-dollar-collapse-no-way-the-u-s-dollar-rocks-propaganda

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-gets-c-credit-rating-lower-than-mexico-2011-04-28

http://www.oftwominds.com/blogmay11/managed-perception5-11.html

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/and-scene-cme-hikes-silver-margin-third-time-7-days-raises-initial-maintenance-margins-12

(Where PMs go tells you more about the fate of the dollar then most other indicators...ALL currencies are now fiat currencies.  When you see PMs rise the way they have, despite various efforts to suppress them, you know the game is afoot.)

ENVIRONMENT:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42873438/ns/weather/

(h/t to Sue)

POLITICS AS USUAL:

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/05/blackwaters-new-ethics-chief-john-ashcroft/

(h/t to Spin)

COLLAPSE:

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2011/0429/1224295673147.html

OUR RADIOACTIVE PLANET:

http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2011/04/government-adviser-quits-post-to.html?ref=hp

http://www.nuclearfreeplanet.org/where-is-all-that-fukushima-radiation-going-and-why-does-it-matter.html

http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/05/89047.html

INTERESTING DISCOURSE:

http://guymcpherson.com/2011/05/this-must-be-a-nightmare/

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/guest-post-circus-clowns-and-sideshow-freaks

http://kunstler.com/blog/2011/05/lying-is-the-new-normal.html
 
PARANOIA:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/04/CIPAV_Post

A brief note on moral ambiguity.

I posted this on one of my favorite forums, but I thought I'd put it up here too.  I was responding to a spirited back-and-forth regarding the Bin Laden issue.  Some people believe what we were presented with last night and some emphatically don't.  As for myself, the very manner and timing of the presentation itself aroused my suspicions...as did the news this morning that the body was already disposed of...but do I know one way or the other?  Nope.  

I do feel that the reasons why this event could be used as a pretext for any number of things from any number of sectors are sadly obvious:

"The war machine is one of the lynchpins of our current economy (disgustingly enough)...and just like anything else in our growth-driven economic model, there have to be new sources of expansion to keep that machine going. The more enemies we make, the more we can spend on the arms industry, the more we bolster the overall economy and keep utter collapse at bay.

It's probably one of the most horrific catch-22s we have ever created. It's too bad we didn't devote that huge slice of our economic pie to alternative energy, building schools, and growing organic produce...but here we are. The amount of people employed directly and indirectly in that industry is staggeringly huge and that pin can't be pulled without imploding the whole system.

Sad and sick, isn't it? That which keeps us alive does so by killing people.

We are exactly where Eisenhower warned us we would be headed. 

Imagine being infected by a parasite that eventually grows large enough to replace several of the vital organs you require to live. Imagine also that the ultimate fate you await is that that parasite will eventually become so large that it's intake of nutrients will starve you as the host.

What do you do?

And it's the same thing with the TBTF banks: sure they are amoral bastards, a lot of them, but at the same time their sudden absence would tank our economy. And because they have a need to constantly expand, we let them play the games that will ultimately kill our economy anyway.

Bombs and banks: can't live WITH 'em...can't live without 'em.

We are in a global catch-22 and the only way out is down.

Happy birthday."

Weekly News Updates-04/25/2011

When I have time, I will be trying to put up the various news items and blog posts by others that I want to pass on, on a weekly basis (hopefully on Mondays).  Currently my main concern is still the Japanese situation, and the MSM has done with THAT issue what they usually do with major news events: BIG HEADLINES...then slow the news down to a trickle and dazzle us with trivia like royal weddings and Charlie Sheen...but it is still in play and could get MUCH uglier. 

But other things at play in the world are the skyrocketing commodity prices, a looming global food shortage, the death of the dollar as a reserve currency (read: hyperinflation STRONG possibility), and a plethora of other issues, each of which would be greatly troubling, but combined are a part of the Death by a Thousand Cuts that will pretty much be the end of our civilization.  One can also add to the level of insanity by the response of our leadership to the nuclear crisis: let's build more nuke plants!  (Which seems to be the same response they have to the BP calamity: it didn't work the last time...let's do more of it!)  Are they evil, stupid, barking mad or a quality blend of all three of those flavors?  Well, it probably doesn't matter if the end result is all the same...

On the MUCH brighter side, I got together with 3 of my old bandmates from the group Soft War http://softwartheband.com/ for a trip down memory lane that was such a positive experience that we may be working together again in the near future.  I've been pretty much a solo recording artist (with the occasional acoustic show) for the past 15 or so years, so playing in a full band contest was incredibly gratifying...especially when playing with people I both like and admire AND who have such a high degree of musical aptitude that I never have to worry about much of anything.


Anyway...here's a bunch of stuff to make you happy (which I will be updating over the course of this week).

Economics:

http://www.dailyfx.com/forex/market_alert/2011/04/27/FOMC_US_Dollar_Loses.html

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/guest-post-economic-abyss

http://kunstler.com/blog/2011/04/the-banana-peel-of-destiny.html

http://www.oftwominds.com/blogapril11/oil-USD4-11.html

(King World News has GREAT audio interviews that you can download as MP3s...I recommend that you do so as I think Eric King and his guests probably have the best bead on things of any of the Alternative Economics shows out there)

http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2011/4/20_James_Turk_-_We_Live_on_the_Edge_of_Chaos,_Dollar_to_Plummet.html

http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2011/4/20_Embry_-_JP_Morgan_Massive_Short_Position_Causing_Silver_Spike.html

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/gold-opens-1520-silver-over-50-everywhere-comes-few-more-minutes

(I'm not a huge PM investor...I have SOME, but not piles of the stuff...I prefer preps, ammo, and heirloom seeds...but I have been gobsmacked by how fast and how far silver has broken out...my net worth keeps climbing while I sit back and twiddle my thumbs.  Considering that the rise in PMs is symptomatic of a collapse of the global economic system, I'm not too thrilled about it though.)

http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2011/04/22/banks-spending-2011/

(Dodd/Frank was a lameass bill, but it's amusing how even THAT slap on the wrist is getting pushback.)

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/pimcos-observations-us-reaches-keynesian-endpoint-qe2-ponzi-scheme-nothing-profit-illusion

Japan:

http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com/2011/04/april-20-2011-fukushima-review-of-ines.html

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/04/201142317359479927.html 

Politics as Usual:

http://www.alternet.org/story/150724/wikileaks:_shocking_revelations_in_guantanamo_files?akid=6881.200602.L60KRs&rd=1&t=5

http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2011/04/27/scotus-nukes-consumers/ 

(H/T to Joan and Satori)

Environment:

http://www.skepticalscience.com/Wakening_the_Kraken.html

(Hat tip to Tim/Jon/Sue on FB.)

http://www.fastcompany.com/1749695/monsanto-now-allowed-to-police-itself

(Hat tip to Syn.)

Insightful Commentary:

http://guymcpherson.com/2011/04/partial-understanding-on-planet-easter-island/

Primitive ritualistic behavior observed in the activities of homicidal mutant chimpanzee species (the Royal Wedding):

http://www.boingboing.net/2011/04/26/tom-the-dancing-bug-46.html

(Hat tip to Scott)

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/apr/25/royal-wedding-bells-fall-on-deaf-ears/?page=1



MUCH more to come...looks like a heavy news week (which always seems to happen when I travel, even just overnight.)