Chet Raymo, “Into The Night”

“Into The Night”

by Chet Raymo

“I first became intimate with the night sky on the sleeping porch of my grandmother’s house on Ninth Street in Chattanooga, Tennessee, during the early 1940s. A screened sleeping porch might be found attached to any southern home of a certain vintage and substance, usually on the second story at the back. On sultry summer nights you could move a cot or daybed onto the porch and take advantage of whatever breezes stirred the air. I slept there when I visited because it was the only place to find a spare bed. I was usually alone in that big spooky space, with only a thin wire mesh separating me from the many mysteries of the night.

Far off in the house I could hear the muffled voice of the big Stromberg-Carlson radio in the parlor, where grown-ups listened to news of the war or the boogie-woogie tunes of the Hit Parade. Outside was another kind of music, nearer, louder, pressing against the screen, which seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere, a million scratchy fiddles, out-of-key woodwinds, discordant timpani. These were the cicadas, crickets and tree frogs of the southern summer night, but to me at that time they were the sounds of the night itself, as if darkness had an audible element.

Some nights the distant horizon would be lit with a silent, winking illumination called “heat lightnin’.” And closer, against the dark grass of the badminton court, the scintillations of fireflies- “lightnin’ bugs”- splashed into brightness.

The constellations of fireflies were answered in the sky by stars, which on those evenings when the city’s lights were blacked out for air-raid drills, multiplied alarmingly. I would lie in my cot, eyes glued to the spangled darkness, waiting to hear the drone of enemy aircraft or see the flash of ack-ack. No aircraft appeared, no ack-ack tracers pierced the night, but soon the stars took on their own fierce reality, like vast squadrons of alien rocket ships moving against the inky dark of Flash Gordon space.

In time I came to recognize patterns, although I did not yet know their names: the Scorpion creeping westward, dragging its stinger along the horizon; the teapot of Sagittarius afloat in the white river of the Milky Way; Vega at the zenith; the kite of Cygnus. As the hours passed, the Big Dipper clocked around the Pole. And sometimes, in late summer, I would wake in the predawn hour to find Orion sneaking into the eastern sky, pursuing the teacup of the Pleiades.

One memorable Christmas of my childhood, my father received a star book as a gift: “A Primer for Star-Gazers” by Henry Neely. As he used the book to learn the stars and constellations, he included me in his activities. The book was Santa’s gift to him. The night sky was his gift to me.

That book, now long out of print, is still in my possession. A glance takes me back half a century to evenings on the badminton court in the back yard of our own new home in the Chattanooga suburbs, gazing upwards with my father to a drapery of brilliant stars flung across the gap between tall dark pines. He told me stories of the constellations as he learned them. Of Orion and the Scorpion. Of the lovers Andromeda and Perseus, and the monster Cetus. Of the wood nymph Callisto and her son Arcas, placed by Zeus in the heavens as the Big and Little Bears. No child ever had a better storybook than the ever-changing page of night above our badminton court. My father also taught me the names of stars: Sirius, Arcturus, Polaris, Betelgeuse, and other, stranger names, Zubenelgenubi and Zubeneschamali, the claws of the Scorpion. The words on his tongue were like incantations that opened the enchanted cave of night.

He was a man of insatiable curiosity. His stories of the stars were more than “connect the dots.” He wove into his lessons what he knew of history, science, poetry and myth. And, of course, religion. For my father, the stars were infused with unfathomable mystery, their contemplation a sort of prayer.

That Christmas book of long ago was a satisfactory guide to star lore, but as I look at it today I see that it conveyed little of the intimacy I felt as I stood with my father under the bright canopy of stars. Nor do any of the other more recent star guides that I have seen quite capture the feeling I had as a child of standing at the door of an enchanted universe, speaking incantations. What made the childhood experience so memorable was a total immersion in the mystery of the night- the singing of cicadas, the whisper of the wind in the pines, and, of course, my father’s storehouse of knowledge with which he embellished the stars. He taught me what to see; he also taught me what to imagine.”

- http://www.sciencemusings.com/

"The Only Basic Human Duty..."

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as 

you damn well please.  And with it comes the only basic 

human duty, the duty to take the consequences."

- P. J. O'Rourke

"Get Ready! Something BIG Is Starting And Putin Knows It"

Full screen recommended.

Redacted, 10/19/22:

"Get Ready! 

Something BIG Is Starting And Putin Knows It"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

○

Related:

"Martial Law Declared,

Annexed Ukrainian Regions Under Nuclear Protection, Kremlin Affirms"

The Daily "Near You?"

Streator, Illinois, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"The Ways We Miss Our Lives..."

"A sad fact, of course, about adult life is that you see the very things you'll never adapt to coming toward you on the horizon. You see them as the problems they are, you worry like hell about them, you make provisions, take precautions, fashion adjustments; you tell yourself you'll have to change your way of doing things. Only you don't. You can't. Somehow it's already too late. And maybe it's even worse than that: maybe the thing you see coming from far away is not the real thing, the thing that scares you, but its aftermath. And what you've feared will happen has already taken place. This is similar in spirit to the realization that all the great new advances of medical science will have no benefit for us at all, thought we cheer them on, hope a vaccine might be ready in time, think things could still get better. Only it's too late there too. And in that very way our life gets over before we know it. We miss it. And like the poet said: The ways we miss our lives are life."

- Richard Ford

"I Am Done"

"I Am Done"

by OHMama

"I was born at the end of Gen X and the beginning of the Millennial Generation, and grew up in a middle class town. Life was good. Our home was modest but birthdays and Christmas were always generous, we went on yearly vacations, had 2 cars, and there was enough money for me to take dance classes and art lessons and be in Girl Scouts.

My 1940s born Dad raised me to be patriotic and proud, to love the war bird airplanes of his era as much as he does, and to respect our flag and our country as a sacred thing. I grew up thinking that being an American was the greatest gift a person could have. I grew up thinking that our country was as strong, and honest and true as my Dad. I grew up thinking I was free.

As an adult, I have witnessed the world I grew up in fall to ruin. I have watched as our currency and our economy have been shamelessly corrupted beyond redemption. Since we’ve been married, my husband and I TWICE had our meager investment savings gutted by the market that we were told to invest in, now that pensions no longer exist and we working stiffs are on our own. We will be working until we die, because the Social Security we’ve been forced to pay into has also been robbed from under us.

I have watched as our elected officials enter Congress as ordinary folks and leaves as multi millionaires. I have watched my blue collar husband get up at an ungodly hour every day and come home with an aching back that we pray will hold out long enough to get him to old age in one piece. Outside of shoes, socks and underwear, almost everything my family wears was bought used. We’ve been on one vacation in 12 years.

We don’t have cell phones, or cable, or any sort of streaming services, just a landline and internet. We hardly ever eat out. Our house is 1400 square feet, no air conditioning. I cook from scratch and I can and I garden and I raise chickens for eggs and meat and I moonlight selling things on Etsy. Still it is barely enough to pay the bills that go up every year while service quality and the longevity of goods goes down. What I just described is the life you can live on 60K a year without going into debt.

At last calculation, when you consider all of the federal, state and local taxes plus registration and user fees, Medicare and SS payroll taxes, almost a third of what my family earns is stolen by the govt each year. What’s left doesn’t go far, just enough to cover the basics and save a little for when the wolf howls at the door.

I watched as my family’s health insurance was gutted and destroyed. Our private market insurance, which we had to have because my husband’s employer is too small to have a group plan, was made illegal. We were left with the option of either buying an Obamacare plan with unaffordable deductibles and insanely ridiculous out of pocket maxes, or paying the very gov’t that destroyed our healthcare a fine for not buying the gov’t mandated plan that we cannot afford. We now have short term insurance that isn’t really insurance at all, and I live in fear of one of us getting injured or sick with anything I can’t fix from the medicine cabinet.

I have watched as education, which was already sketchy when I was a kid, became an all out joke of wholly unmathematical math, gold stars for all, and self-loathing anti-Americanism. My family has taken an enormous financial hit as I stay home to home school our child. At least she’ll be able to do old-fashioned math well enough to see how much they are screwing her. A silver lining to every cloud, I guess.

I’ve sat by and held my tongue as I was called deplorable and a bitter clinger and told that I didn’t build that. I’ve been called a racist and a xenophobe and a chump and even an “ugly folk.” I’ve been told that I have privilege, and that I have inherent bias because of my skin color, and that my beloved husband and father are part of a horrible patriarchy. Not one goddamn bit of that is true, but if I dare say anything about it, it will be used as evidence of my racism and white fragility.

Raised to be a Republican, I held my nose and voted for Bush, the Texas-talking blue blood from Connecticut who lied us into 2 wars and gave us the unpatriotic Patriot Act. I voted for McCain, the sociopathic neocon songbird “hero” that torpedoed the attempt to kill the Obamacare that’s killing my family financially. I held it again and voted for Romney, the vulture capitalist skunk that masquerades as a Republican while slithering over to the Democrat camp as often as they’ll tolerate his oily, loathsome presence.

And I voted for Trump, who, if he did nothing else, at least gave a resounding Bronx cheer to the richly deserving smug hypocrites of DC. Thank you for that Mr. President, on behalf of all of us nobodies. God bless you for it.

And now I have watched as people who hate me and mine and call for our destruction blatantly and openly stole the election and then gaslighted us and told us that it was honest and fair. I am watching as the GOP does NOTHING about it. They’re probably relieved that upstart Trump is gone so they can get back to their real jobs of lining their pockets and running interference for their corporate masters. I am watching as the media, in a manner that would make Stalin blush, is silencing anyone who dares question the legitimacy of this farce they call democracy. I know, it’s a republic, but I am so tired of explaining that to people I might as well give in and join them in ignorance.

I will not vote again; they’ve made it abundantly clear that my voice doesn’t matter. Whatever irrational, suicidal lunacy the nanny states thinks is best is what I’ll get. What it decided I need is a geriatric pedophile who shouldn’t be charged with anything more rigorous than choosing between tapioca and rice pudding at the old folks home, and a casting couch skank who rails against racism while being a descendant of slave owners.

I’m free to dismember a baby in my womb and kill it because “my body my choice”, but God help me if I won’t cover my face with a germ laden Linus-worthy security blanket or refuse let them inject genetically altering chemicals into my body or my child’s. I can be doxed, fired, shunned and destroyed for daring to venture that there are only 2 genders as proven by DNA, but a disease with a 99+% survival rate for most humans is a deadly pandemic worth murdering an economy over. Because science. Idiocracy is real, and we are living it. Dr. Lexus would be an improvement over Fauci.

I am done. Don’t ask me to pledge to the flag, or salute the troops, or shoot fireworks on the 4th. It’s a sick, twisted, heartbreaking joke, this bloated, unrecognizable corpse of a republic that once was ours.

I am not alone. Not sure how things continue to function when millions of citizens no longer feel any loyalty to or from the society they live in.

I was raised to be a lady, and ladies don’t curse, but f**k these motherf**kers to hell and back for what they’ve done to me, and mine, and my country. All we Joe Blow Americans ever wanted was a little patch of land to raise a family, a job to pay the bills, and at least some illusion of freedom, and even that was too much for these human parasites. They want it all,  mind, body and soul. Damn them. Damn them all."

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

"He Said, Ze Said: Happy Anti-vernacular Day!"

"He Said, Ze Said:

Happy Anti-vernacular Day!"

by Bill Bonner

"Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling

Calling for me to come home."

~ Will Lamartine Thompson

From a roadside cafe, South Carolina - "Driving down from Maryland to Florida, we stopped for breakfast in a small South Carolina town. At 8 am, it appeared almost deserted. But we found a café in a converted Main Street shop. Its door was so covered with yellow ribbons – recalling the local people who had served in various misbegotten wars – you could barely see through the glass.

“Hello… welcome. C’mon in,” said a portly man at a table. “Hi,” said another bunch at a different table. We looked around; they were talking to us.

The café was tiny. Maybe that made everyone in it look obese. Or maybe they really were obese. But they were friendly. “Where are y’all comin’ from,” they wanted to know. While we were exchanging basic information, we noticed that two of the men in the restaurant were wearing pistols. ‘Open carry,’ they call it. On the walls were several Bible inscriptions and hats for sale that advertised only “Jeremiah 20-11.” Music played old Christian classics. “Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling…”

They served “One Nation Coffee.” “I’m sorry,” said the waitress, “but we’re all out of grits.” Were these people the ‘Christian Nationalists’ we’ve been hearing about… the people who threaten to take over the country? Were they the “White Supremacists” President Biden says are a danger to our democracy?

We don’t know. They seemed nice enough to us. But every revolution needs its enemies – its loyalists, its bourgeois elements, its counter-revolutionaries. In the campaign to reset America into an emission-free paradise, these Trump voters will have to do! And here… we won’t exactly change the subject, but we will come at it from a different direction.

Just and True: Ver-nac-ular is an under-appreciated word. It is usually only used to describe how people talk. They use the local ‘vernacular,’ rather than an ‘official’ or ‘academic’ way of speaking. People speak differently in South Carolina, for example, than they do in New Hampshire. They have different ideas, too.

There is also ‘vernacular architecture’ to describe the way people build their houses. They develop local styles and techniques that are suitable to the area. The Swiss chalet, for example, is adapted to heavy snowfall. The adobe houses of the southwest moderate the extreme temperatures of day and night. And the Irish cottage, with its thatched roof, stays warm through long periods of humidity and cold, but it would be miserable in the ‘low country’ near Savannah.

“Common law” is a vernacular system of law. It does not depend on anyone to figure out what the law is… or to write out a law code. It is merely what has evolved, with the help of courts, lawyers, and juries made up of ‘twelve men, good and stout.’ It’s what we accept as just and true. The full body of ‘vernacular law’ develops over time as cases are decided… and then is used by future courts to guide them to just decisions. It is a kind of ‘law’ that comes from the bottom up, rather than handed down from the top.

No committee designs ‘the vernacular.’ Nobody enforces it. Nobody improves it. It’s just what happens – when it is allowed to happen. There’s not even a good word to describe the opposite of vernacular. “Standard’ could be used. Or ‘accepted’ or ‘designed’. There being no sleek word for it, we’ll invent a clumsy one: anti-vernacular.

Crime and Punishment: Imagine you are sitting down with someone in a bar, and letting him tell you what he’s been doing. That’s the vernacular. Anti-vernacular would be reading his resume. He will use different words in person than on his resume. Shorter words. Words with whose meaning is not obscure. “I’m seeking employment that will allow me to utilize my educational attainments in order to reach my full potential,” it will say on the resume. “I want a job that I can do,” he will say in private.

The vernacular is just the result of people going about their business and making their individual decisions. They develop styles, customs, and rules. They invent. They experiment. They innovate. And they say ‘please’ and ‘thank you.’ Nobody requires them to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you.’ But they do.

People don’t murder each other either. And not only because it is against the law. Most people agree, it’s not a good thing to do. The taboo against murder is so strong that murderers are often overcome by guilt. That was the theme of Dostoevsky’s famous book, ‘Crime and Punishment.’ It’s not the police that the killer comes to fear; it is himself.

But there are always some people who want to tell other people what to do. And the vernacular gets in their way. They want to put things down in black and white… to make them clear… to codify the rules… and make people obey them. They want to design things for other people as if they were doing it for themselves. What they do for themselves must be good. So, why not make everyone do it.? Some people even invented a new language – Esperanto; they thought it would make the world a better place.

Anti-vernacular Meddling: Like almost all public policy programs to improve the natural, vernacular world, Esperanto seemed like a good idea. Instead of many different languages – each with its own rules, words, grammar and so forth – there would be just one. This was a way to standardize, simplify, and control. Based on Indo-European tongues, and similar in style to Portuguese or Spanish, it was meant to be easy to learn and easy to use. It was more logical than a natural language. And it could easily be adapted by those in charge to boost their political and social agenda.

For example, many people in the 21st century object to an old ‘rule’ of many Indo-European languages: masculine takes precedence. What it means is that when you use a singular, gender-neutral word as a subject, such as ‘everyone,’ you follow up by referring to “him” in the third person masculine singular, as in: ‘Everyone knows that HE is a fool.’

In English, the world improvers have solved the ‘problem’ by changing the HE to a nonsensical, awkward THEY, which sounds ridiculous. Some people even insist that they be referred to in the third person as “they,” as in, “They went for a walk.” Likewise, when Jefferson wrote that “all men are created equal,” he didn’t need to add “and women too.” Because “men” includes “women.”

In natural, vernacular languages, people say what they want… and the language evolves along with the society it serves. But in an anti-vernacular language, such as Esperanto, a small group can determine the rules for everyone. After all, it’s meant to be controlled by the authorities, whoever they are.

Every revolutionary period brings forth its language improvers. During the French Revolution, the old titles – Monsieur, Mon Pere, Monseigneur, Monsieur Le Compte – were replaced by the great leveler, Citoyen. Likewise, in the Bolshevik Revolution, “comrade” was prescribed for everyone, no matter his sex, rank or social status.

But while you can get away with a lot of anti-vernacular meddling, with little lasting damage, there are some areas where imposing a new order becomes deadly. Economics, for example. People depend on ‘the economy’ to live. As we will see tomorrow, you change the rules… and people die."

Joel’s Note: Speaking of ver-nac-ular, allow us to pause a moment, to take a virtual knee, in recognition of International Pronoun Day. You’ve heard about this pivotal calendar event already, no doubt (surely you’ve already baked the cake, hung the balloons and festooned the porch…), but for those just coming to the party…"International Pronoun Day, according to one website we saw, is meant to raise awareness for men and women human beings with feelings and lived experiences who identify as “non-binary,” that is, who choose not to use he/him, she/her pronouns. (Sooo the last 200,000 years!)

Said humans - although-not-exclusively-human-identifying-organisms -  might choose, instead, to go by they/them or xie/hir (pronounced “here”) or any one of literally dozens of other pronouns, none of which are set in stone, any of which may change without notice at any given moment. (One list we saw carried the helpful caveat: This is NOT an exhaustive list. Any combination is possible!)

So, for example, an individual who chooses to identify as ve/vis on Monday, Wednesday and Friday might decide that on Tuesdays, Thursdays and weekends, they prefer ze/zir. It’s all about feelz, you see? Just don’t get it wrong. In some schools and colleges, “misgendering” a student, even if they don’t formally identify as a snowflake, can lead to termination. So too in the workplace, where Diversity, Inclusivity and Equity (DIE) training means many heads, one thought.

In this context, misgendering they/hir/yo/vir/viz etc., is actually considered an act of violence. And since words have no meaning anymore anyway, that all makes perfect logical sense. If you’re still confused, just remember: according to the new and approved gender ideology, there’s no such thing as a merely “binary world.” There are only binary people, and non-binary people. One or the other. Which, come to think of it… ah, nevermind. Happy Anti-vernacular Day!"

- bonnerprivateresearch@substack.com

○

"Ah, You Miserable Creatures!"

"Ah, you miserable creatures! You who think that you are so great! 

You who judge humanity to be so small! You who wish to reform everything! 

Why don't you reform yourselves? That task would be sufficient enough." 

- Frederic Bastiat

How much more evidence do you need to 

realize we as a society have lost our collective minds?

"How It Really Is"

 

"Massive Price Increases At Aldi! This Is Crazy! What's Next!?"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures with Danno, 10/19/22:

"Massive Price Increases At Aldi!

 This Is Crazy! What's Next!?"

"In today's vlog we are at Aldi, and are noticing massive price increases! We are here to check out skyrocketing prices, and a lot of empty shelves! It's getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"An Epic Collapse: The Real Estate Avalanche Has Started"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, iAllegedly 10/19/22:

"An Epic Collapse:

The Real Estate Avalanche Has Started"

"The Economy is just starting to break away from the mountain. Real Estate will continue to crumble. It’s only going to get worse around the globe before it comes crashing down upon all of us."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Gregory Mannarino," Alert! Debt Market Selloff Accelerates! Situation Is Dire!"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 10/19/22:

"Alert! Debt Market Selloff Accelerates! 

Situation Is Dire!"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

“Parasitic Derivatives: $1.5 – 2.4 Quadrillion Dollars, Too Big to Understand”

“Parasitic Derivatives: $1.5 – 2.4 Quadrillion Dollars,

 Too Big to Understand”

By David Hague

“I recently returned from two weeks of ‘high level’ meetings with a group of Bankers [this is code for two weeks of subsidized debauchery with bankers] in Rome. As I sat at my desk, I was hoping to motivate myself to pursue a more chaste and pure existence. Unfortunately the Polar Vortex experienced by North America drained me of my good intentions. The bone chilling cold once again had me reaching for my trusty bottle of Jack Daniels for warmth and inspiration. My time in Rome had not been completely ‘wasted’, so to speak. I had secured a contract from the European Central Bank [ECB] to research the topic of Derivatives. I was to present my findings at the upcoming World Economic Forum in Davos later that month.

One Quadrillion Dollars: Too Big to Understand: Dear Reader, please resist your natural instinct to click away from this commentary at the mere mention of the word ‘Derivatives’. I am acutely aware of the boredom and befuddlement that this word instills in you. At this point I would simply remind you that the derivatives market is estimated to exceed one quadrillion dollars. [This incredibly large number is actually an accurate estimate of the size of the derivatives marketplace]. (In addition, unfunded liabilities, like medical care and pensions, are at least $300 trillion globally. If we add gross derivatives of $1.5 quadrillion, which are likely to turn into real debt as counterparties fail, the total debt and liabilities are above $2 quadrillion. Source - CP) Despite the fact the derivatives market eclipses the market capitalization of the NYSE by an exponential factor, it is not discussed, reported or tracked because it is simply too complicated and opaque. Warren Buffet’s, comment about ‘weapons of mass financial destruction’ seem to be the beginning and end of any discussion on the topic.

Derivatives are a parasitic financial instrument: For those of you who are unschooled on the topic of derivatives, allow me to explain. Derivatives are abstract financial instruments, which, like parasites, can attach themselves to all manner of stocks, bonds, mortgages, commodity, debt obligations, currency exchange, interest rate fluctuations… in short, anything. Derivatives exist in the ‘twilight zone’ of the banking industry. Like black holes, their presence and massive influence are acknowledged yet the true influence on the global economy of this quadrillion dollar ‘event horizon’ is only theoretical. The near catastrophic disasters at Barings, JP Morgan and AIG are small examples of their destructive powers. However I will offer you Investorpedia’s more clinical definition. “A security whose price is dependent upon or derived from one or more underlying assets. The derivative itself is merely a contract between two or more parties.”

You got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em, {Kenny Rogers}: One might think of derivatives as a random game of online poker: you don’t know who your opponents are [your counterparty], you do not know if you will be paid [counterparty risk], you do not know if the game is legitimate, [lack of regulation], and your opponents are probably able to see what cards you are holding, [market domination by large banks]. As well, you are making bets that in many instances neither you nor your opponents fully grasp [complexity of the market]. With each wager you are potentially risking not only your current assets, but your future assets as well. [Leverage]. In some cases you do not know how much you are betting. Imagine as well, that you play this game every day with trillions of dollars that you do not have. This is the global derivatives market.

It is all Greek to me: Alternately, as derivatives are often created as a form of insurance, think of them as an insurance policy in which you:

• Do not know the name, address or any contact information relating to your insurer.

• Do not know if your insurer has the resources to pay a claim.

• Do not understand the insurance contract as it is written in Greek.

• Must rely on a shadowy third party [ISDA] to decide what constitutes a claim. [Credit event]

• Do not know whether your insurer is itself vulnerable to the particular risk you have contracted with it to insure.

His moral lassitude allowed him to excel: Dear Reader, I digress, let me return to my narrative. The aforementioned lucrative contract was secured by two key factors. The first factor was my friendship with Gustavo Laframboise-Pierre, the European Central Bank’s [ECB] Global Director of Statistical Creation. My relationship with such an esteemed member of the ECB traced its roots back to Gustavo’s days as a bookie for Wall Street’s elite. I referred so much business to him we became very good friends. His station in life took a remarkable turn when a senior member of the ECB, while in New York on a ‘fact finding mission’ [this is code for visiting his favorite escort] made an outrageously large and incorrect wager on the outcome of the 2010 World Cup. (Perhaps unsurprisingly, the term ‘derivative’ is commonly used in sports betting!) The only way the debt could be settled was for the banker to offer Gustavo a highly paid sinecure at the ECB. Gustavo became the Global Director of Statistical Creation with the responsibility of making up statistics to support whatever fantastical and deranged policies Central Banks around the world were initiating. Remarkably Gustavo’s aptitude for numbers, coupled with his moral lassitude allowed him to excel at his job. It was Gustavo who invented the term ‘Quantitative Easing’ as a benign euphemism for runaway money printing.

Where ignorance is bliss, ‘tis folly to be wise’: The second factor that secured the contract for me was a chance remark I made as Gustavo and I enjoyed a ‘working lunch’, with several senior executives who represented many of the world’s largest banks. The working lunch was held at Rome’s exclusive Blue Moon Gentleman’s Club. As the featured dancer left the stage I happened to mention to the assorted luminaries that I had read an article on the subject of derivatives. The bankers looked at me with something akin to awe and reverence. Gustavo whispered to me that the topic of derivatives had been discussed in a recent conference call by the world’s bankers. The conclusion reached at that time was that derivatives were too boring and too complicated for bankers to grasp. Despite JP Morgan’s very public, expensive and monumentally stupid 5 billon dollar derivatives trading loss bankers still choose to remain cocooned in a ‘Cloak of Ignorance’ as it relates to derivatives. Thomas Gray’s lament that ‘where ignorance is bliss, ’tis folly to be wise’ could easily be the mission statement of the global banking industry.

I had read a complete article, I was a ‘de facto expert’: Dear reader, I am not being rude and offensive in my remarks about JP Morgan. Surely you would agree with me that any large bank that loses $5 billion in derivatives trading is ignorant of the properties and risks of derivatives? The fact that I had actually read a complete article on the subject made me a de facto expert on the topic. Gustavo, in an act of kindness, seized the opportunity on my behalf and pressed his colleagues to retain me to research the topic and make a presentation at the upcoming World Economic Forum in Davos. Thus I found myself preparing to dazzle the world’s financial elite with my insights into the risks and opportunities presented by the global derivatives market. In a rush to complete the deal before the next dancer took the stage it was agreed that I would receive the standard banker’s honorarium of $5,000/hour up to a maximum of ‘whatever it takes’.

At $5,000/hr., you would surely not expect me to be brief: I sat at my desk, sipping ‘Gentleman Jack‘ while I looked out at the bleak weather that made Brooklyn so depressing in the winter. My TV was tuned to CNBC, as I waited for Wall Street to open. I put my crack pipe in its case. Dear reader like many of you [especially those of you who work in the banking industry], I have learned all too well, the dangers of mixing crack cocaine with whiskey on an empty stomach. [Have we not all indulged, to our regret, that particular venial sin at least once?] I collected my thoughts and began to write my lengthy tome on the derivatives market. Dear reader at $5,000/hr., you would surely not expect me to be brief.

Lions and Tigers and Bears [and derivatives] Oh My!: I do not want to frighten you. However I will share with you some facts about derivatives that will have you reacting as nervously as Dorothy did in the Wizard of OZ when confronted with the thought of Lions and Tigers and Bears. ‘Derivatives, Oh My’, will I suspect be the words that escape your lips.

• Size of the derivatives market: 1.5 – 2.4 QUADRILLION dollars

• Size of Global Stock and bond markets: 175 trillion dollars

• Who regulates the Derivatives market? LOL, Regulation is a ‘work in progress’ dominated by the big banks.

How dangerous are derivatives? They almost destroyed the world’s largest insurance company, AIG, as well as the global economy. Seriously, you don’t remember? Just Google the words AIG and collapse. Alternately you might call Jamie Dimon at JP Morgan and ask him if Derivatives are dangerous. Have recent regulatory changes made the world economy less likely to implode from a derivative fuelled explosion? Actually as one might expect, thanks to regulatory enhancements that had to run the gauntlet of bank lobbyists prior to their approval, the world’s economy is in more danger than ever from a derivatives inspired meltdown.

‘Duck Dynasty’ and ‘Real Housewives’ to the rescue: How much attention does the Main Street pay to the world’s largest and riskiest casino? [AKA: the Derivatives market]. If one were to Google the word derivatives, one will get 34 million ‘hits’. Alternately, if one does a similar search for the words stocks bonds and markets one will get 400 million ‘hits’. The 34 million ‘hits’ generated by a Google search of the word derivatives compares unfavorably with the 37 million ‘hits’ generated by a search of the term ‘Real Housewives of Atlanta’, the 209 million ‘hits’ generated by a search of the term ‘Duck Dynasty’ or the 713 million ‘hits’ generated by searching the word ‘Sex’. One must conclude that only when derivatives are discussed by one of the ‘Real Housewives of Atlanta’ posing nude in bed with one of the cast members of ‘Duck Dynasty’ will derivatives receive the attention they deserve.

Reality bites: Derivatives can only be discussed as ‘Fake News’: Where can one find insights and coverage of the Derivatives Market in the mainstream media? Is Fox News or CNN my best choice? Sadly Dear reader your best choice would have been The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Despite the calamitous risk and obvious importance of this topic only Mr. Stewart and his team dared to share information with the general public. Given the outlandish and frightening risks derivatives constitute to the Global Economy, perhaps Mr. Stewart was correct that it can only be discussed in the ‘Fake News’ format.

Derivatives: better suited for Ripley’s Believe it or not than the Wall Street Journal: How bizarre is the derivatives market? How is the concept of money for nothing propagated by the derivatives market? What is the difference between a chump and a champion in the derivatives market? I will leave it to Shah Gilani in his excellent post in “Wall Street: Insights and Indictments“ to explain. Suffice to say that one is able to buy insurance in the derivatives market. One can then cause the insured event to occur by collaborating with a third party. All that remains is to collect the insurance proceeds. [To be clear the proceeds are usually in the tens of millions of dollars.] The derivatives market makes the Ponzi-like money printing of the Central banks look like ‘Amateur Hour’.

Who needs ‘Crack’? Dear reader, usually I needed a little help from my friend Mr. Crack to feel as paranoid and euphoric as I did at this moment. Paranoid, because it was clear to me that the derivatives market was truly a weapon of mass financial destruction. Euphoric because I knew that my research would make my ‘Derivatives’ presentation at the World Economic Forum a groundbreaking ‘tour de force’ that would vault me to the forefront of ‘talking heads’ that pass for experts on mainstream media. Fame, fortune, a book deal and perhaps that elusive Nobel Prize would surely follow. My twenty minutes of painstaking research, had made me one of the world’s foremost experts on this complex subject. [BTW Dear Reader by reaching this point in my commentary, you surely now know more about derivatives than most bankers and traders on Wall Street. You should be quite pleased.]

David, you are an imbecile: I decided to reach out to my pal Gustavo and share some of my findings. I knew that it was 3:30 in the afternoon in Paris so I would be able to catch Gustavo just as he arrived for another day of work. “Gustavo”, I intoned, breathless with excitement. “I have uncovered some startling, controversial, and frightening information about derivatives. The luminaries and leading lights who attend my presentation in Davos will be utterly gobsmacked by my revelations. The media will undoubtedly ensure that my findings go viral. The topic of derivatives will no longer exist only in the dark shadows of the banking industry. The danger that derivatives pose to the global economy will permeate the consciousness of Main Street.” Gustavo sighed, “David, I do not know if you are stupid or naïve. Every September when you bet $1,000 that the perennially atrocious Toronto Maple Leafs will win the Stanley Cup, I assumed you were simply ingenuous. Your comments today have convinced me that you are an imbecile. Let me assure you that those will not be the findings that you present at the World Economic Forum. Rather you will inform the world that derivatives are a financial instrument that is being used by brilliant and prudent financial professionals to mitigate risk and make the world a safer place.”

The ‘Truth Will Out’: “Gustavo”, I groaned, “that would be a lie. I cannot in good conscience, sacrifice my integrity, my honor, my core beliefs and my good name simply to placate Wall Street and the Central Banks. I have a responsibility to my readers on Main Street to inform them, to warn them, to prepare them for the likely financial chaos that derivatives will cause”. “Gustavo”, I said with iron willed determination, “the Truth Will Out”. “David”, Gustavo snarled, “If you change the tenor of your presentation and indicate that derivatives are the most benign form of financial instrument, somewhat akin to Treasury bills, we will double your fee”.

Move along nothing to see here: Dear Reader, in summary let me say that derivatives are the most benign form of financial instrument, somewhat akin to treasury bills. Gustavo’s immutable logic and persuasive argument was instrumental in helping me reach the correct conclusion regarding the risks to the Global economy posed by derivatives. So Dear Reader, move along, there is nothing to see here.”

- http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article43990.html

MUST WATCH! Greg Hunter, "$2 QUADRILLION Derivatives: Weeks Away From Whole Sh*thouse Coming Down"

"$2 QUADRILLION Derivatives:

Weeks Away From Whole Sh*thouse Coming Down"

by Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

"Precious metals expert and financial writer Bill Holter said in June it was “game over, they’re pulling the plug.” The Fed went on an aggressive interest rate raising policy and is still raising rates. Now, the economy is staggering. Holter explains, “For sure, we are already in a recession. We are now in the third quarter of negative growth. I think it is laughable that people put odds on whether or not we are going to go into a recession because it is obvious–we are already in a recession. Rates rising have absolutely frozen the real estate market. If you own a property, who is going to buy it? Rates have gone from 3.25% to more than 7%. I am on the record that once we saw a 3% yield on the 10-Year Treasury, you would start to see a tightness in credit. Now, we are over 4%. What few people are talking about is what has this already done to the derivatives market? Think about how big the derivatives market is. Total credit worldwide is $350 trillion, but you have derivatives pushing $2 quadrillion. I have said this all along, derivatives will blow up. Warren Buffett has called them financial weapons of mass destruction. They are far bigger than central banks can fix.”

Holter goes on to say, “The real economy runs on credit. Everything you look at, everything you touch and everything you do every day has many uses of credit to get to the final product or situation. So, once credit freezes up, it’s completely game over. In a past interview, I said they are pulling the plug. They have to pull the plug because, mathematically, the debt cannot be paid. The derivatives cannot perform. So, they have to pull the plug. They also have to do one other thing, and that is they have to kick the table over. What will the false flag event be? I have no idea. They have to kick the table over so they can say our policies were working, but whatever this event will be stopped them.”

Holter thinks the odds of having the midterm election is “less than even.” The Democrats are so far behind because of their disastrous economy.

Holter says, “If you think the inflation over the last two years is bad, just wait. Along with that, you are going to have a huge wave that will last many years, but the initial destruction will probably happen in a three-day period of time. You are going to see massive deflation, deflation of asset prices. It will be inflation of the things you need and deflation of the things you have.”

Holter says, “From a math standpoint, the situation is so bad, liquidity is so tight, the whole sh*thouse is about to come down, and when it does, you will count your wealth in ounces and not dollars, yen or euros. When all is said and done, it’s about how many ounces do you own.”

In closing, Holter warns, “The action you are seeing now is exactly what you saw in 1987, and this is what you saw in August and September of 1929. This is what happens prior to crashes. It’s massive volatility both ways, people are losing both ways. The longs get stopped out on the downside, and the shorts get stopped out on the upside. Then, the whole floor gives way, and that’s where we are. We are right on the doorstep of a crash that will make 1987 and 1929 blush. Many people are going to lose everything overnight.” There is a lot more in the 39-minute interview."

- https://usawatchdog.com/

Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he goes One-on-One with 

financial writer and precious metals expert Bill Holter:

- https://rumble.com/

○

Related:

"The Truth About The 2.5 QUADRILLION Derivatives Bubble"

Canadian Prepper, "Warning: They're Planning Something Big This Week"

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper, 10/18/22:

"Warning: They're Planning Something Big This Week"

"Things are getting out of control on the eastern front, and that means the risk of escalation is at an all time high. What happens next could change the world forever."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Gerald Celente, "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest"

Strong language alert!

Gerald Celente, 10/18/22:

"One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest"

"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present Facts and Truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for What’s Next in these increasingly turbulent times."

- https://trendsresearch.com/

"20 Signs That America Is Being Economically Destroyed By China"

Full screen recommended.

"20 Signs That America Is Being 

Economically Destroyed By China"

by Epic Economist

"We have to face it: The Chinese economy is beating the living daylights out of the U.S. economy. Whether you want to call it a rout, a defeat, or a massacre, the reality is that China is completely embarrassing America on the global economic stage. While the eastern superpower continues to report extraordinary growth, even amid a global slowdown, things in the U.S. have already gone from bad to ugly, and now they're starting to go from ugly to catastrophic. It almost feels like the Chinese are playing economic chess while the Americans are playing economic checkers.

China is now set to overtake the United States and become the largest economy in the world by the end of this decade. Economists forecast that the Chinese economy can actually become three times larger than the U.S. economy by mid-century. That's a clear sign that the era of U.S. economic supremacy is coming to an end, and it seems like most Americans don't even know this is happening.

It all started when numerous corporations in America realized that they could make a lot more money if they shipped their production overseas. When that shift happened, the U.S. had such a strong and dominant position that it didn't really matter who was in second place. At the same time, when we started importing loads of products that were made in China, the American people were thrilled by the fact that prices were lower and they could buy more goods than they used to. Businesses loved it because profit margins increased and foreign nations also benefited because we were helping them develop their economies and get richer. At that time, everyone was making money and everyone was happy.

But then the trickle of jobs and factories leaving the country started to become a massive flood. Then it became an overwhelming deluge. The number of "middle-class jobs" in the U.S. started to drop by the thousands. Suddenly, Americans started to notice that the vast majority of jobs available were low-paying jobs. Even though the prices of the goods in the stores were still low, the average American family was getting increasingly squeezed so they were forced to take on more and more debt in order to maintain the same standard of living. That has kept fueling the growth of the consumer debt bubble over the years.

In other words, the American Dream was purchased with borrowed money, and that's why now we're up to our necks with consumer and government debt after sending unprecedented amounts of wealth over to China while they sent us massive piles of cheaply made products. This was supposed to be a good deal for both sides. But in the end, it turns out it was a pretty great deal for them and a terrible deal for us. For that reason, in today's list, we're going to expose the true proportions of the mess the world's wealthiest country has fallen into. Here are 20 Facts That Prove The Chinese Economy Is Beating The Living Daylights Out Of The US."

- https://www.epiceconomist.com/

"The Food Crisis Of 2023 Is Going To Be Far Worse Than Most People Would Dare To Imagine"

"The Food Crisis Of 2023 Is Going To Be Far 

Worse Than Most People Would Dare To Imagine"

by Michael Snyder

"I am trying to sound the alarm about this as loudly as I can. The global food crisis just continues to intensify, and things are going to get really bad in 2023. As you will see below, two-thirds of European fertilizer production has already been shut down, currency problems are causing massive headaches for poor nations that need to import food, global weather patterns continue to be completely crazy, and the bird flu is killing millions upon millions of chickens and turkeys all over the planet. On top of everything else, the war in Ukraine is going to restrict the flow of agricultural and fertilizer exports from that part of the world for a long time to come, because there is no end to the war in sight. In essence, we are facing a “perfect storm” for global food production, and that “perfect storm” is only going to get worse in the months ahead.

Global hunger has been on the rise for years, and the UN World Food Program is warning that we are heading for “yet another year of record hunger”… "The world is at risk of yet another year of record hunger as the global food crisis continues to drive yet more people into worsening levels of severe hunger, warns the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) in a call for urgent action to address the root causes of today’s crisis ahead of World Food Day on October 16.

The global food crisis is a confluence of competing crises – caused by climate shocks, conflict and economic pressures – that has pushed the number of severely hungry people around the world from 282 million to 345 million in just the first months of 2022. The U.N. World Food Programme scaled up food assistance targets to reach a record 153 million people in 2022, and by mid-year had already delivered assistance to 111.2 million people."

But as I have consistently warned, this is only just the beginning. Eventually, there will be billions of people that don’t have enough to eat on a regular basis. In all my years, I have never seen hunger spread so rapidly. In fact, there are large numbers of people that are now facing starvation in the backyard of the United States…"The United Nations is warning that hunger in one of Haiti’s biggest slums is at catastrophic levels, as gang violence and economic crises push the country to “breaking point”. Nearly 20,000 people in the capital’s impoverished Cité Soleil area have dangerously little access to food and could face starvation, the UN says, "Across Haiti, almost five million are struggling with malnutrition. “Haiti is facing a humanitarian catastrophe,” a top UN official said."

But most people in the western world won’t care until they are going hungry themselves. Unfortunately, that day may be a lot closer than a lot of people ever imagined. Right now, a whopping two-thirds of all fertilizer production capacity in Europe has already been shut down because of the skyrocketing price of natural gas…"Europe’s fertilizer crunch is deepening with more than two-thirds of production capacity halted by soaring gas costs, threatening farmers and consumers far beyond the region’s borders. Russia’s squeeze on gas shipments in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine is hurting industries across Europe. But fertilizer companies are being especially affected because gas is both a key feedstock and a source of power for the sector."

There simply will not be enough fertilizer for European farmers in 2023. And there won’t be enough for everyone else that depends on fertilizer production from Europe. This is a really big deal, because without fertilizer we would only be able to feed approximately half the planet. Do you want to volunteer to be among those that don’t get enough food?

Meanwhile, the surging U.S. dollar is causing immense headaches for food importers all over the world…"In Ghana, importers are warning about shortages in the run up to Christmas. Thousands of containers loaded with food recently piled up at ports in Pakistan, while private bakers in Egypt raised bread prices after some flour mills ran out of wheat because it was stranded at customs.

Around the world, countries that rely on food imports are grappling with a destructive combination of high interest rates, a soaring dollar and elevated commodity prices, eroding their power to pay for goods that are typically priced in the greenback. Dwindling foreign-currency reserves in many cases has reduced access to dollars, and banks are slow in releasing payments."

The value of the U.S. dollar has been spiking because the Federal Reserve has been raising interest rates. When the value of the dollar goes up, poor countries have to pay a lot more for food in their own local currencies. So the Federal Reserve is actually making the global food crisis worse by hiking rates. But they are going to keep doing it anyway.

At the same time, global weather patterns continue to go completely haywire. This summer we witnessed the worst drought in Chinese history, Europe endured the worst drought in 500 years, and the western U.S. continued to suffer through the worst multi-year megadrought in at least 1,200 years.

Needless to say, all of this drought is absolutely devastating agricultural production. According to the Washington Post, “more than 80 percent of the U.S. is facing troubling dry conditions” right now. In the middle of the country, this has caused a horrific crisis for barge traffic along the Mississippi River…"The barge industry is quite important. It’s crucial for moving aluminum, petroleum, fertilizer and coal, particularly on the Mississippi River and its tributaries. About 60% of the grain and 54% of the soybeans for U.S. export are moved via the noble barge. Barges touch more than a third of our exported coal as well."'

Right now the barge industry - and all of us who depend on its wares - is mired in a crisis. Water levels on the Mississippi River Basin are at its lowest point in more than a decade. Last week, approximately 2,000 barges were struck at one point. Sadly, very dry conditions are expected “over the next several weeks”, and so things are not likely to get better any time soon…"Low water levels and dredging shuttered barge traffic heading north and south on the Mississippi last week. At one point, more than 100 towboats and 2,000 barges were stuck waiting. The blocked-off section of the river, between Louisiana and Mississippi, reopened Monday. Traffic is limited to one way, according to Petty Officer Jose Hernandez of the U.S. Coast Guard."

That’s certainly better than zero-way traffic, but the Mississippi is still expected to become even more parched. Lisa Parker, a representative of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, told FreightWaves that drier conditions are expected over the next several weeks. The river is slurping up water reserves right now, Parker added, but those reserves will eventually run out.

As a result of this crisis, rates to move goods by barge have gone through the roof, and we could ultimately see massive amounts of agricultural produce rot before it can get to consumers…"Since many barges are stuck and cannot move at all, barge prices are reportedly hyperinflating. As of this writing, the highest USD per ton price shown is $90.44. Prior to the massive spike, it was under $10 to move a ton of goods." The vast majority of the now-stranded bean piles and other farm goods were intended for major export terminals in the Gulf of Mexico. While at least some of them appear to be covered and ventilated, how long will they really last before spoiling?

On another note, we continue to see crabs die off at a staggering rate. In fact, it is now being reported that the winter harvest of snow crab in Alaska has been suspended because the crab population has experienced a catastrophic decline…"Alaska officials have canceled several crab harvests in a conservation effort that sent shock waves through the crabbing industry in the region. Officials canceled the fall Bristol Bay red king crab harvest and, for the first time on record, are also holding off on the winter harvest of snow crab, according to multiple reports.

The decision comes after stark recent population declines of the animals. Data from an NOAA eastern Bering Sea survey shows a 92% decline in overall snow crab abundance from 2018 to 2021, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game confirmed to USA TODAY. An 83% decline occurred from 2018 to 2022, as some small crab entered the population in 2022, according to the department’s Division of Commercial Fisheries."

And thanks to the global bird flu pandemic, birds continue to die in staggering numbers as well. If you can believe it, nearly 100 million chickens and turkeys have already been wiped out during this pandemic in the United States and Europe alone, and experts are warning that this pandemic will only intensify now that cold weather is arriving.

Those of you that have been to the grocery store lately already know that egg prices, chicken prices and turkey prices have surged to absolutely crazy levels. At this point, prices are so high that one recent survey found that one out of every four Americans plans to skip Thanksgiving this year in order to save money…"One in five Americans are unsure if they will be able to cover the costs of Thanksgiving this year, and one in four plan to skip it to save money, a recent Personal Capital survey found."

The state of economic affairs in President Joe Biden’s America is affecting Americans’ holiday plans. According to the survey, one quarter of Americans are planning to skip Thanksgiving this year to save money, and one in five “doubted they would have enough money to cover the costs of Thanksgiving this year.” More specifically, one-third expect their 2022 Thanksgiving dinner to be “smaller,” and 45 percent, overall, said they are “finically stressed” by Thanksgiving.

Yes, things are already that bad. But according to Joe Biden, everything is just fine. In fact, he says that “our economy is strong as hell”…"The comment came during a conversation with a reporter at a Baskin Robbins in Portland, Oregon, who asked the president if he had any worry about the strength of the U.S. dollar amid rising inflation. With a chocolate chip ice cream cone in his hand, Biden answered: “I’m not concerned about the strength of the dollar. I’m concerned about the rest of the world. Our economy is strong as hell.”

You believe him, don’t you? Our leaders would have us believe that all of the problems that we are facing right now are just temporary and that a golden new age of peace and prosperity is just around the corner. But if that is true, why are they so eager to have us eat bugs?

A tremendous amount of time, energy and resources is being put behind a campaign to promote insects as one of the solutions to the rapidly growing global food crisis. But I don’t plan to eat bugs, and I am sure that you don’t either. Unfortunately, there isn’t going to be nearly enough food for everyone on the planet in 2023, and millions upon millions of deeply suffering individuals will soon be desperately hungry.

They can push bug eating all they want, but that isn’t going to fix our problems. Right now, they have absolutely no solutions that will prevent large numbers of people from starving to death during the difficult years that are in front of us.

🇳🇱 WEF agenda in full force: Hundreds of schools in The Netherlands have started a campaign introducing 10-12 y/o kids to mealworms & insects as a ‘sustainable’ meat substitute. The goal is to bring about “behavioral changes through unprejudiced children”

pic.twitter.com/jiQTbvzTFZ

— Eva Vlaardingerbroek (@EvaVlaar) October 15, 2022

- http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

"Loaning Money To Family And Friends, You Will Own Nothing; Global Collapse"

Jeremiah Babe, 10/18/22:

"Loaning Money To Family And Friends, 

You Will Own Nothing; Global Collapse"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Gregory Mannarino, "Prepare Yourselves Now! Central Banks Are Deliberately Breaking The Global Economy"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 10/18/22:

"Prepare Yourselves Now! Central Banks Are

 Deliberately Breaking The Global Economy"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

○

Related:

"The Feds Choice is Hyperinflation or Destroy the Economy"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“What makes this spiral galaxy so long? Measuring over 700,000 light years across from top to bottom, NGC 6872, also known as the Condor galaxy, is one of the most elongated barred spiral galaxies known. 

The galaxy's protracted shape likely results from its continuing collision with the smaller galaxy IC 4970, visible just above center. Of particular interest is NGC 6872's spiral arm on the upper left, as pictured here, which exhibits an unusually high amount of blue star forming regions. The light we see today left these colliding giants before the days of the dinosaurs, about 300 million years ago. NGC 6872 is visible with a small telescope toward the constellation of the Peacock (Pavo).”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160426.html

Chet Raymo, "Exile "

"Exile"

by Chet Raymo

 "Are we truly alone

With our physics and myths,

The stars no more

Than glittering dust,

With no one there

To hear our choral odes?"

"This is the ultimate question, the only question, asked here by the Northern Irish poet Derek Mahon. It is a poem of exile, from the ancient familiar, from the sustaining myth of rootedness, of centrality. A poem that the naturalist can relate to, we pilgrims of infinite spaces, of the overarching blank pages on which we write our own stories, our own scriptures, having none of divine pedigree.

Yes, we feel the ache of exile, we who grew up with the sustaining myths of immortality only to see them stripped away by the needy hands of fact. We scribble our choral odes. Who listens? We speak to each other. Is that enough? Having left the home we grew up in, we make do with where we find ourselves, gathering to ourselves the glittering dust of the here and now. Are we truly alone? Mahon again:

 "If so, we can start

To ignore the silence

Of infinite space

And concentrate instead

on the infinity

Under our very noses -

The cry at the heart

Of the artichoke,

The gaiety of atoms."

Better to leave the blank page blank than fill it with sentimental hankerings for home, with those prayers of our childhood we repeated over and over until they became a hard, fast crust on the page. Incline our ear instead to the faint cry that issues from the world under our very noses, from there, the tomato plant on the window sill, the ink-dark crow that paces the grass beyond the panes, the clouds that heap on the horizon - the dizzy, ditzy dance of atoms and the glitterings of stars."

- http://blog.sciencemusings.com/

○

"I like the stars. It's the illusion of permanence, I think. I mean, they're always flaring up and caving in and going out. But from here I can pretend... I can pretend that things last. I can pretend that lives last longer than moments. Gods come and Gods go. Mortals flicker and flash and fade. Worlds don't last; and stars and galaxies are transient, fleeting things that twinkle like fireflies and vanish into cold and dust. But I can pretend...

- Olethros, in "Sandman"