Gnomusy (David Caballero), "Footprints On The Sea"
Gnomusy (David Caballero), "Ballerina"
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Be kind to yourself, take a break, relax and enjoy this music.
It'll all still be there when you get back, but you'll feel better...
So, we rise from the rubble...
Wednesday, November 9, 2022
"Ukraine Cannot Escape Its Grim Reality"
Straight Calls with Douglas Macgregor, 11/9/22:
"Ukraine Cannot Escape Its Grim Reality"
"Your home for analysis of breaking news and in-depth discussion of current geopolitical events in the United states and the world. Geopolitics. No ego descriptions. No small talk. Straight to the point. Calls with the relevant analysis only."
Comments here:
"Massive Price Increases At Dollar General! This Is Ridiculous!"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures with Danno, 11/9/22:
"Massive Price Increases At Dollar General! This Is Ridiculous!"
"In today's vlog we are at Dollar General and are noticing massive price increases! We are here to check out skyrocketing prices, and empty shelves everywhere! It's getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products!"
Comments here:
Tuesday, November 8, 2022
"Credit Cards Are Enslaving You, Balances Reach $866 Billion; Prepare For Credit Lines To Be Cut"
Jeremiah Babe, 11/8/22:
"Credit Cards Are Enslaving You, Balances Reach $866 Billion;
Prepare For Credit Lines To Be Cut"
Comments here:
"No One Is Ready for What's Coming and It's All Been Planned"
Full screen recommended.
Redacted, 11/8/22:
"No One Is Ready for What's Coming and It's All Been Planned"
"Biden told the truth out loud about the agenda to create a man-made energy crisis and his team is in damage control mode. The globalist plan to de-populate the planet is all part of this story. When you take away people's energy and food you take away their lives."
Comments here:
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"Clayton Morris is a former Fox News anchor. In Redacted, Clayton and his wife Natali take an in-depth look at the legal, social, financial, and personal issues that matter to you. They want to set the record straight and bring you the stories nobody else is telling. Along with the facts and the full picture, Redacted offers real-world analysis without an agency driven by corporate overloads. With Clayton’s extensive journalism experience, he isn’t afraid to demand the truth from authorities. Redacted is an independent platform, unencumbered by external factors or restrictive policies on which Clayton and Natali Morris bring you quality information, balanced reporting, constructive debate, and thoughtful narratives."
Gerald Celente," Amerika: Vote For The Loser You Hate The Least; The War Machine Always Wins"
Full screen recommended.
Strong language alert!
Gerald Celente, 11/8/22:
"Amerika: Vote For The Loser You Hate The Least;
The War Machine Always Wins"
Comments here:
"Brace Yourself For Significantly Higher Prices On Thousands Of Different Products"
Full screen recommended.
"Brace Yourself For Significantly Higher Prices
On Thousands Of Different Products"
by Epic Economist
"A very scary crisis is hitting our food systems. In recent weeks, many industry insiders kept sounding the alarm about growing imbalances in our supply chains and telling the public to prepare for the worst. Frustrated shoppers are dealing with an almost 15% increase in grocery prices, unpredictable product stockouts, and empty shelves at their favorite supermarkets. Many Americans were expecting shortages would have disappeared by now, but that’s not the case at all. In fact, even the Washington Post is admitting that store shelves are set to be even barer in the next couple of months as shortages get even more extensive.
While there’s still food available in the grocery stores, options are getting more and more limited, and also significantly more expensive, making many hard workers out there unable to afford to buy the staples they need to feed their families. This trend is only likely to accelerate during this year’s holiday season. And today we’re going to expose why experts like Robert Kiyosaki, GasBuddy’s Patrick De Haan, and the CEO of Kraft Heinz are so concerned about the dire state of the nation’s food supply chain and urging the public to stock up while they still can.
Many store shelves across America have been wiped clean, and they’re staying empty as grocers struggle to restock everyday necessities, such as milk, bread, pasta, canned soups, and cleaning products. One of the biggest complaints supermarkets are receiving these days is the lack of basic meat staples and chicken right ahead of the holidays. And shoppers are also noticing that prices are already going through the roof. This year’s meat supply is considerably lower than last year’s. With less supply and roughly the same level of demand, meat prices have reached insane highs. In fact, Labor Department data shows that the prices U.S. consumers paid for meat last month were the highest since 1974. In October, meat prices rose between 17% and 23%, while chicken was 38% more expensive, and frozen turkey jumped between 73% and 112% compared to the same period a year ago.
Food inflation and supply shortfalls are major concerns for Kraft Heinz CEO Miguel Patricio, who notes that these disruptions are impacting the entire food industry and he doesn’t see an end to either issue anytime soon. “Every day we have a new problem. It’s the new normal. At the beginning we thought it was a crisis - now we know it’s a new normal and we have to adapt to that,” he added.
Adding fuel to the fire, a shortage of truckers that’s been slowing down the supply chain and the ability of grocery stores to replenish their shelves quickly in the past couple of years is likely to intensify as diesel prices skyrocket. That has set alarm bells ringing for many experts, who are flagging higher prices for goods and risks to food supply as truckers pay more for fuel.
"TuckerCarlson just reported that diesel supplies are gone,” Robert Kiyosaki wrote on Twitter. “I went to Safeway and bought 5 tuna cans for $1 each. Stock up now,” he urged, saying that diesel feeds the world and soon there will be huge lines at grocery stores. We must face the fact that the price of basic necessities will keep reaching one record high after the other while the value of our money continues to decline. And we also must take Kiyosaki’s warning seriously and stock up now because when things really start going crazy in this country, basic supplies will disappear from the stores very rapidly."
Gregory Mannarino, "Is All Hell About To Break Loose?"
Gregory Mannarino, PM 11/8/22:
"Is All Hell About To Break Loose? IMF Says Again:
"Inflation May be Peaking!" Really? How About NO"
Comments here:
Judge Napolitano, "Col. Doug Macgregor, Ukraine - Russia War"
Full screen recommended.
Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 11/8/22:
"Col. Doug Macgregor, Ukraine - Russia War"
Comments here:
"A Look to the Heavens"
"One of the brightest galaxies in planet Earth's sky is similar in size to our Milky Way Galaxy: big, beautiful Messier 81. Also known as NGC 3031 or Bode's galaxy for its 18th century discoverer, this grand spiral can be found toward the northern constellation of Ursa Major, the Great Bear.
The sharp, detailed telescopic view reveals M81's bright yellow nucleus, blue spiral arms, pinkish starforming regions, and sweeping cosmic dust lanes. Some dust lanes actually run through the galactic disk (left of center), contrary to other prominent spiral features though. The errant dust lanes may be the lingering result of a close encounter between M81 and the nearby galaxy M82 lurking outside of this frame. M81's faint, dwarf irregular satellite galaxy, Holmberg IX, can be seen just below the large spiral. Scrutiny of variable stars in M81 has yielded a well-determined distance for an external galaxy - 11.8 million light-years."
"Remember..."
"Every time you wake up ask yourself what good
things am I going to do today? Remember that when the
sun goes down at sunset it will take a part of your life with it."
- Native American Saying
"Meaningful Warnings..."
“There are meaningful warnings which history gives a threatened or perishing society. Such are, for instance, the decadence of art, or a lack of great statesmen. There are open and evident warnings, too. The center of your democracy and of your culture is left without electric power for a few hours only, and all of a sudden crowds of American citizens start looting and creating havoc. The smooth surface film must be very thin, then, the social system quite unstable and unhealthy. But the fight for our planet, physical and spiritual, a fight of cosmic proportions, is not a vague matter of the future; it has already started. The forces of Evil have begun their offensive; you can feel their pressure, and yet your screens and publications are full of prescribed smiles and raised glasses. What is the joy about?”
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
"The Web Gallery of Art"
"The Web Gallery of Art"
"The Web Gallery of Art is a virtual museum and searchable database of European painting and sculpture of the Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Neoclassicism, Romanticism and Realism periods (1100-1850), currently containing over 52,800 reproductions. It was started in 1996 as a topical site of the Renaissance art, originated in the Italian city-states of the 14th century and spread to other countries in the 15th and 16th centuries. Intending to present Renaissance art as comprehensively as possible, the scope of the collection was later extended to show its Medieval roots as well as its evolution to Baroque and Rococo via Mannerism. More recently the periods of Neoclassicism and Romanticism were also included.
The collection has some of the characteristics of a virtual museum. The experience of the visitors is enhanced by guided tours helping to understand the artistic and historical relationship between different works and artists, by period music of choice in the background and a free postcard service. At the same time the collection serves the visitors' need for a site where various information on art, artists and history can be found together with corresponding pictorial illustrations. Although not a conventional one, the collection is a searchable database supplemented by a glossary containing articles on art terms, relevant historical events, personages, cities, museums and churches.
The Web Gallery of Art is intended to be a free resource of art history primarily for students and teachers. It is a private initiative not related to any museums or art institutions, and not supported financially by any state or corporate sponsors. However, we do our utmost, using authentic literature and advice from professionals, to ensure the quality and authenticity of the content.
We are convinced that such a collection of digital reproductions, containing a balanced mixture of interlinked visual and textual information, can serve multiple purposes. On one hand it can simply be a source of artistic enjoyment; a convenient alternative to visiting a distant museum, or an incentive to do just that. On the other hand, it can serve as a tool for public education both in schools and at home."
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For those so inclined, this is a treasure trove of material. Enjoy!
"Luminarium"
"Luminarium"
“I have undertaken a labor, a labor out of love for the world, and to comfort noble hearts: those that I hold dear, and the world to which my heart goes out. Not the common world do I mean, of those who (as I have heard) cannot bear grief and desire but to bathe in bliss. (May God then let them dwell in bliss!) Their world and manner of life my tale does not regard: it's life and mine lie apart. Another world do I hold in mind, which bears together in one heart its bitter sweetness and its dear grief, its heart's delight and its pain of longing, dear life and sorrowful death, dear death and sorrowful life. In this world let me have my world, to be damned with it, or to be saved.”
- Gottfried Von Strassburg
"A comprehensive anthology and guide to English literature of the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Seventeenth Century, Restoration and Eighteenth Century. This site combines several sites first created in 1996 to provide a starting point for students and enthusiasts of English Literature. Nothing replaces a quality library, but hopefully this site will help fill the needs of those who have not access to one.
Luminarium is the labor of love of Anniina Jokinen. The site is not affiliated with any institution nor is it sponsored by anyone other than its maintainer and the contributions of its visitors through revenues from book sales via Amazon.com, poster sales via All Posters, and advertising via Google AdSense.
For all materials, authorities in a given subject are consulted. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, The Encyclopaedia Britannica, and The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English are some of the general reference works consulted for accuracy of dates and details. Many of the materials collected here reside elsewhere. Quality and accuracy are concerns, and all materials are checked regularly. However, "Luminarium" cannot be held responsible for materials residing on other sites. Corrections and suggestions for improvements are encouraged from the visitors.
The site started in early 1996. I remember looking for essays to spark an idea for a survey class I was taking at the time. It seemed that finding study materials online was prohibitively difficult and time-consuming - there was no all-encompassing site which could have assisted me in my search. I started the site as a public service, because I myself had to waste so much time as a student, trying to find anything useful or interesting. There were only a handful of sites back then (read: Internet Dark Ages) and I could spend hours on search engines, looking for just a few things. I realized I must not be the only one in the predicament and started a simple one-page site of links to Middle English Literature. That page was soon followed by a Renaissance site.
Gradually it became obvious that the number of resources was ungainly for such a simple design. It was then that the multi-page "Medlit" and "Renlit" pages were created, around July 1996. That structure is still the same today. In September 1996, I started creating the "Sevenlit" site, launched in November. I realized the need to somehow unite all three sites, and that led to the creation of Luminarium. I chose the name, which is Latin for "lantern," because I wanted the site to be a beacon of light in the darkness. It was also befitting for a site containing authors considered "luminaries" of English literature."
The Poet: Robinson Jeffers, “Be Angry at the Sun”
“Be Angry at the Sun”
“That public men publish falsehoods
Is nothing new. That America must accept,
Like the historical republics corruption and empire
Has been known for years.
Be angry at the sun for setting
If these things anger you.
Watch the wheel slope and turn,
They are all bound on the wheel, these people,
Those warriors,
This republic, Europe, Asia.
Observe them gesticulating,
Observe them going down. The gang serves lies,
the passionate Man plays his part;
the cold passion for truth
Hunts in no pack.
You are not Catullus, you know,
To lampoon these crude sketches of Caesar. You are far
From Dante’s feet, but even farther from his dirty
Political hatreds.
Let boys want pleasure, and men
Struggle for power, and women perhaps for fame,
And the servile to serve a Leader and dupes
to be duped.
Yours is not theirs.”
Yours is not theirs.”
- Robinson Jeffers, 1941
"I Assure You..."
"You may wonder about long-term solutions. I assure you, there are none. All wounds are mortal. Take what's given. You sometimes get a little slack in the rope but the rope always has an end. So what? Bless the slack and don't waste your breath cursing the drop. A grateful heart knows that in the end we all swing."
- Stephen King
"I Am An Invisible Man..."
"I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allan Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids - and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. Like the bodiless heads you see sometimes in circus sideshows, it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass. When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination - indeed, everything and anything except me."
- Ralph Ellison, "Prologue to Invisible Man"
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“Complexity Theory: the Avalanche and the Snowflake”
“Complexity Theory: the Avalanche and the Snowflake”
by James Rickards
“One of my favorites is what I call ‘the avalanche and the snowflake’. It’s a metaphor for the way the science actually works, but I should be clear: it’s not just a metaphor. The science, the mathematics and the dynamics are actually the same as those that exist in financial markets.
Imagine you’re on a mountainside. You can see a snowpack building up on the ridgeline while it continues snowing. You can tell just by looking at the scene that there’s danger of an avalanche. It’s windswept… it’s unstable… and if you’re an expert, you know it’s going to collapse and kill skiers and wipe out the village below. You see a snowflake fall from the sky onto the snowpack. It disturbs a few other snowflakes that lie there. Then, the snow starts to spread… then it starts to slide… then it gains momentum until, finally, it comes loose and the whole mountain comes down and buries the village.
Question: What do you blame? Do you blame the snowflake, or do you blame the unstable pack of snow? I say the snowflake’s irrelevant. If it wasn’t the one snowflake that caused the avalanche, it could have been the one before, or the one after, or the one tomorrow. The instability of the system as a whole was the problem. So when I think about the risks in the financial system, I don’t focus on the ‘snowflake’ that will cause problems. The trigger doesn’t matter.
A snowflake that falls harmlessly – the vast majority of all snowflakes – technically fails to start a chain reaction. Once a chain reaction begins, it expands exponentially, can ‘go critical’ (as in an atomic bomb) and release enough energy to destroy a city. However, most neutrons do not start nuclear chain reactions, just as most snowflakes do not start avalanches.
In the end, it’s not about the snowflakes or neutrons. It’s about the initial critical state conditions that allow the possibility of a chain reaction or an avalanche. These can be hypothesized and observed at large scale, but the exact moment the chain reaction begins cannot be observed. That’s because it happens on a minute scale relative to the system. This is why some people refer to these snowflakes as ‘black swans’, because they are unexpected and come by surprise. But they’re actually not a surprise if you understand the system’s dynamics and can estimate the system scale.
It’s a metaphor, but really the mathematics behind it are the same. Financial markets today are huge, unstable mountains of snow waiting to collapse. You see it in the gross notional value of derivatives. There is $700 trillion worth of swaps. ($2.5 Quadrillion by other reputable estimates. – CP) These are derivatives off balance sheet, hidden liabilities in the banking system of the world. These numbers are not made up. Just go to the IS annual report and it’s right there in the footnote.
Well, how do you put $700 trillion into perspective? It’s ten times global GDP. Take all the goods and services in the entire world for an entire year. That’s about $70 trillion when you add it all up. Well, take ten times that, and that’s how big the snow pile is. And that’s the avalanche that’s waiting to come down.”
"The Real Estate Market is Getting Worse"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 11/8/22:
"The Real Estate Market is Getting Worse"
"Homeowners have lost over $1.5 trillion in equity this year alone. The stock market is in complete shambles and inflation is running rampant."
Comments here:
"Stock Up Now At Meijer! Massive Holiday Sale! Don't Miss This!"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures with Danno, 11/8/22:
"Stock Up Now At Meijer!
Massive Holiday Sale! Don't Miss This!"
"In today's vlog we are at Meijer, and are noticing that they are having a huge sale on holiday baking items this month! We are stocking up, and showing the best deals as we take you shopping with us. It's getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products!"
Comments here:
Gregory Mannarino, "The Current Global Economic Collapse And Financial System Meltdown Will Accelerate"
Gregory Mannarino, AM 11/8/22:
"The Current Global Economic Collapse
And Financial System Meltdown Will Accelerate"
Comments here:
Monday, November 7, 2022
Canadian Prepper, "Alert! US Nuclear Chief: 'The Big One Is Coming'"
Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 11/7/22:
"Alert! US Nuclear Chief: 'The Big One Is Coming'"
"In a major development Putins top cleric has given the greenlight to the use of Nuclear weapons, the Commander of US STRATCOM (Strategic command of nuclear forces) said that "Ukraine is just a warm up for whats coming and that we need to prepare for the big one". Worlds largest nuclear submarine makes its way towards the warzone. The conditions are being set for an apocalyptic famine to unfold in Africa and skyrocketing food prices in the rest of the world next year, as the developed world hoards grain. The UN chief says "We're on a highway to hell."
Comments here:
"20 Facts That Food Shortages Will Get A Lot Worse As Fears Of A Dark Winter Rising"
Full screen recommended.
"20 Facts That Food Shortages Will Get A
Lot Worse As Fears Of A Dark Winter Rising"
by Epic Economist
"The pain never stops. If you think that the empty shelves we're seeing are quite distressing and that food prices are extremely expensive right now, just wait until the winter begins. The food crisis that is unfolding before our eyes is getting worse by the day. Global food supplies were already tight in the past few years, but the food that wasn't produced in 2022 means that we're going to be hit by even harder challenges in the next few months. At this point, worldwide fertilizer prices have quadrupled, several countries started banning exports of essential commodities, tens of millions of chickens and turkeys have disappeared from the system, our domestic beef cattle herd has dramatically shrunk, and crazy weather patterns have resulted in the destruction of millions of acres of crops all over the planet.
While rich countries will continue to face shortages and higher food prices, in more vulnerable countries, people are going to get desperate. "Fields are not being planted," emphasized Theo de Jager, the president of the World Farmers' Organisation. "I"m not so sure it's possible to avoid a food crisis. Farmers need peace," de Jager said.
We haven’t even seen the worst of food shortages and price increases yet, but America’s food banks are already reaching a breaking point. All over the country, food banks are struggling to keep up with the increased demand they’re experiencing. Feeding America, one of the nation’s largest charities, with over 200 food banks and 60,000 food pantries, reported 85 percent of their food banks saw increased demand for food assistance. Their President and Chief Operating Officer Katie Fitzgerald says the organization is already dipping into emergency reserves, switching to cheaper products, limiting how often people can visit or how much food they can get, and "stretching their inventory to be able to meet more people's needs.
"Our experience is that this rise in food and fuel costs are creating just as precarious a situation for people who are trying to feed their families as was the case during the pandemic. Inflation is devastating to the budgets of families, seniors, and people just barely getting by, driving more and more of them to food banks and food pantries,” Fitzgerald says. “The problem we’re seeing is that food banks are not immune to these inflationary pressures. So, while they’re dealing with longer lines at distributions, they face soaring costs and other challenges to their operations,” she added. A Feeding America survey found that inflation and supply chain issues are greatly affecting food banks, with 70% of their members reporting donations of food have decreased while operating costs have risen 95%.
This is a confluence of many disasters hitting our food supply chains all at once, and the most worrying part is that experts say we haven't seen the worst of it yet. This winter is going to be exceedingly difficult for all of us. In this video, we compiled signs that show us just how bad things are about to get. "
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Related:
"We're On The Brink Of A Financial Apocalypse; Used Car Prices Crashing, Housing Market Next"
Full screen recommended.
Jeremiah Babe, 11/7/22:
"We're On The Brink Of A Financial Apocalypse;
Used Car Prices Crashing, Housing Market Next"
Comments here:
Musical Interlude: 2002, "Falling Through Time"
Full screen recommended.
2002, "Falling Through Time"
"A Look to the Heavens"
"The W-shaped ridge of emission featured in this vivid skyscape is known as the Cygnus Wall. Part of a larger emission nebula with a distinctive outline popularly called The North America Nebula, the cosmic ridge spans about 20 light-years. Constructed using narrowband data to highlight the telltale reddish glow from ionized hydrogen atoms recombining with electrons, the two frame mosaic image follows an ionization front with fine details of dark, dusty forms in silhouette.
Sculpted by energetic radiation from the region's young, hot, massive stars, the dark shapes inhabiting the view are clouds of cool gas and dust with stars likely forming within. The North America Nebula itself, NGC 7000, is about 1,500 light-years away.”
“The Last Night of the World”
“The Last Night of the World”
Originally published in the February 1951 issue of Esquire.
by Ray Bradbury
“What would you do if you knew this was the last night of the world?”
“What would I do; you mean, seriously?”
“Yes, seriously.”
“I don’t know – I hadn’t thought.” She turned the handle of the silver coffeepot toward him and placed the two cups in their saucers. He poured some coffee. In the background, the two small girls were playing blocks on the parlor rug in the light of the green hurricane lamps. There was an easy, clean aroma of brewed coffee in the evening air.
“Well, better start thinking about it,” he said.
“You don’t mean it?” said his wife.
He nodded.
“A war?”
He shook his head.
“Not the hydrogen or atom bomb?”
“No.”
“Or germ warfare?”
“None of those at all,” he said, stirring his coffee slowly and staring into its black depths. “But just the closing of a book, let’s say.”
“I don’t think I understand.”
“No, nor do I really. It’s jut a feeling; sometimes it frightens me, sometimes I’m not frightened at all – but peaceful.” He glanced in at the girls and their yellow hair shining in the bright lamplight, and lowered his voice. “I didn’t say anything to you. It first happened about four nights ago.”
“What?”
“A dream I had. I dreamt that it was all going to be over and a voice said it was; not any kind of voice I can remember, but a voice anyway, and it said things would stop here on Earth. I didn’t think too much about it when I awoke the next morning, but then I went to work and the feeling as with me all day. I caught Stan Willis looking out the window in the middle of the afternoon and I said, ‘Penny for your thoughts, Stan,’ and he said, ‘I had a dream last night,’ and before he even told me the dream, I knew what it was. I could have told him, but he told me and I listened to him.”
“It was the same dream?”
“Yes. I told Stan I had dreamed it, too. He didn’t seem surprised. He relaxed, in fact. Then we started walking through offices, for the hell of it. It wasn’t planned. We didn’t say, let’s walk around. We just walked on our own, and everywhere we saw people looking at their desks or their hands or out the windows and not seeing what was in front of their eyes. I talked to a few of them; so did Stan.”
“And all of them had dreamed?”
“All of them. The same dream, with no difference.”
“Do you believe in the dream?”
“Yes. I’ve never been more certain.”
“And when will it stop? The world, I mean.”
“Sometime during the night for us, and then, as the night goes on around the world, those advancing portions will go, too. It’ll take twenty-four hours for it all to go.”
They sat awhile not touching their coffee. Then they lifted it slowly and drank, looking at each other.
“Do we deserve this?” she said.
“It’s not a matter of deserving, it’s just that things didn’t work out. I notice you didn’t even argue about this. Why not?”
“I guess I have a reason,” she said.
“The same reason everyone at the office had?”
She nodded. “I didn’t want to say anything. It happened last night. And the women on the block are talking about it, just among themselves.” She picked up the evening paper and held it toward him. “There’s nothing in the news about it.”
“No, everyone knows, so what’s the need?” He took the paper and sat back in his chair, looking at the girls and then at her. “Are you afraid?”
“No. Not even for the children. I always thought I would be frightened to death, but I’m not.”
“Where’s that spirit of self-preservation the scientists talk about so much?”
“I don’t know. You don’t get too excited when you feel things are logical. This is logical. Nothing else but this could have happened from the way we’ve lived.”
“We haven’t been too bad, have we?”
“No, nor enormously good. I suppose that’s the trouble. We haven’t been very much of anything except us, while a big part of the world was busy being lots of quite awful things.”
The girls were laughing in the parlor as they waved their hands and tumbled down their house of blocks.
“I always imagined people would be screaming in the streets at a time like this.”
“I guess not. You don’t scream about the real thing.”
“Do you know, I won’t miss anything but you and the girls. I never liked cities or autos or factories or my work or anything except you three. I won’t miss a thing except my family and perhaps the change in the weather and a glass of cool water when the weather’s hot, or the luxury of sleeping. Just little things, really. How can we sit here and talk this way?”
“Because there’s nothing else to do.”
“That’s it, of course, for if there were, we’d be doing it. I suppose this is the first time in the history of the world that everyone has really known just what they were going to be doing during the last night.”
“I wonder what everyone else will do now, this evening, for the next few hours.”
“Go to a show, listen to the radio, watch the TV, play cards, put the children to bed, get to bed themselves, like always.”
“In a way that’s something to be proud of – like always.”
“We’re not all bad.”
They sat a moment and then he poured more coffee. “Why do you suppose it’s tonight?”
“Because.”
“Why not some night in the past ten years of in the last century, or five centuries ago or ten?”
“Maybe it’s because it was never February 30, 1951, ever before in history, and now it is and that’s it, because this date means more than any other date ever meant and because it’s the year when things are as they are all over the world and that’s why it’s the end.”
“There are bombers on their course both ways across the ocean tonight that’ll never see land again.”
“That’s part of the reason why.”
“Well,” he said. “What shall it be? Wash the dishes?”
They washed the dishes carefully and stacked them away with especial neatness. At eight-thirty the girls were put to bed and kissed good night and the little lights by their beds turned on and the door left a trifle open.
“I wonder,” said the husband, coming out and looking back, standing there with his pipe for a moment.”
“What?”
“If the door should be shut all the way or if it should be left just a little ajar so we can hear them if they call.”
“I wonder if the children know – if anyone mentioned anything to them?”
“No, of course not. They’d have asked us about it.”
They sat and read the papers and talked and listened to some radio music and then sat together by the fireplace looking at the charcoal embers as the clock struck ten-thirty and eleven and eleven-thirty. They thought of all the other people in the world who had spent their evening, each in their own special way.
“Well,” he said at last. He kissed his wife for a long time.
“We’ve been good for each other, anyway.”
“Do you want to cry?” he asked.
“I don’t think so.”
They went through the house and turned out the lights and locked the doors, and went into the bedroom and stood in the night cool darkness undressing. She took the spread from the bed and folded it carefully over a chair, as always, and pushed back the covers. “The sheets are so cool and clean and nice,” she said.
“I’m tired.”
“We’re both tired.”
They got into bed and lay back.
“Wait a moment,” she said.
He heard her get up and go out into the back of the house, and then he heard the soft shuffling of a swinging door. A moment later she was back. “I left the water running in the kitchen,” she said. “I turned the faucet off.”
Something about this was so funny that he had to laugh. She laughed with him, knowing what it was that she had done that was so funny. They stopped laughing at last and lay in their cool night bed, their hands clasped, their heads together.
“Good night,” he said, after a moment.
“Good night,” she said, adding softly, “dear…”
"Are We Headed Into Another Ice Age?
"Are We Headed Into Another Ice Age?" (Excerpt)
by Martin Armstrong
Excerpt: "Our model has projected we are entering another “grand-minimum,” which will overtake the sun beginning in 2020 and will last through the 2050s, resulting in diminished magnetism, infrequent sunspot production, and less ultraviolet (UV) radiation reaching Earth. This all means we are facing a global cooling period in the planet that may span 31 to 43 years. The last grand-minimum event produced the mini-Ice Age in the mid-17th century. Known as the Maunder Minimum, it occurred between 1645 and 1715, during a longer span of time when parts of the world became so cold that the period was called the Little Ice Age, which lasted from about 1300 to 1850."
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"You Can Never Tell..."
"You can never tell what people have inside them
until you start taking it away, one hope at a time."
- Gregory David Roberts
"The World As I See It: Albert Einstein's Thoughts on the Meaning of Life”
"The World As I See It:
Albert Einstein's Thoughts on the Meaning of Life”
by Paul Ratner
“Albert Einstein was one of the world’s most brilliant thinkers, influencing scientific thought immeasurably. He was also not shy about sharing his wisdom about other topics, writing essays, articles, letters, giving interviews and speeches. His opinions on social and intellectual issues that do not come from the world of physics give an insight into the spiritual and moral vision of the scientist, offering much to take to heart.
The collection of essays and ideas “The World As I See It”* gathers Einstein’s thoughts from before 1935, when he was as the preface says “at the height of his scientific powers but not yet known as the sage of the atomic age”.
In the book, Einstein comes back to the question of the purpose of life on several occasions. In one passage, he links it to a sense of religiosity. “What is the meaning of human life, or, for that matter, of the life of any creature? To know an answer to this question means to be religious. You ask: Does it many any sense, then, to pose this question? I answer: The man who regards his own life and that of his fellow creatures as meaningless is not merely unhappy but hardly fit for life,” wrote Einstein.
Was Einstein himself religious? Raised by secular Jewish parents, he had complex and evolving spiritual thoughts. He generally seemed to be open to the possibility of the scientific impulse and religious thoughts coexisting. "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind," said Einstein in his 1954 essay on science and religion.
Some (including the scientist himself) have called Einstein’s spiritual views as pantheism, largely influenced by the philosophy of Baruch Spinoza. Pantheists see God as existing but abstract, equating all of reality with divinity. They also reject a specific personal God or a god that is somehow endowed with human attributes.
Himself a famous atheist, Richard Dawkins calls Einstein's pantheism a “sexed-up atheism,” but other scholars point to the fact that Einstein did seem to believe in a supernatural intelligence that’s beyond the physical world. He referred to it in his writings as “a superior spirit,” “a superior mind” and a “spirit vastly superior to men”. Einstein was possibly a deist, although he was quite familiar with various religious teachings, including a strong knowledge of Jewish religious texts.
In another passage from 1934, Einstein talks about the value of a human being, reflecting a Buddhist-like approach: “The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained liberation from the self.”
This theme of liberating the self is also echoed by Einstein later in life, in a 1950 letter to console a grieving father Robert S. Marcus: “A human being is a part of the whole, called by us "Universe," a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest- a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. The striving to free oneself from this delusion is the one issue of true religion. Not to nourish it but to try to overcome it is the way to reach the attainable measure of peace of mind.”
In case you are wondering whether Einstein saw value in material pursuits, here’s him talking about accumulating wealth in 1934, as part of the “The World As I See It”: “I am absolutely convinced that no wealth in the world can help humanity forward, even in the hands of the most devoted worker in this cause. The example of great and pure characters is the only thing that can lead us to noble thoughts and deeds. Money only appeals to selfishness and irresistibly invites abuse. Can anyone imagine Moses, Jesus or Gandhi armed with the money-bags of Carnegie?”
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Freely download "The World As I See It", by Albert Einstein, here:
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