Friday 31 December 2010

LOWKEY FT. KLASHNEKOFF - BLOOD, SWEAT & TEARS


Brand new track produced by Nutty P taken from the highly anticipated album 'Soundtrack To The Struggle' by Lowkey.
Follow his progress on
www.twitter.com/lowkeymusic1
and
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lowkey/...
Klashnekoff - www.twitter.com/klashnekoff
and
http://www.youtube.com/user/klashvt?f...

www.twitter.com/GlobalFaction
www.twitter.com/BigStoneE9
SixthSenseGuerillaFilms

Top 10 Modern Methods for Mind Control

Nicholas West
Activist Post

The more one researches mind control, the more one will come to the conclusion that there is a coordinated script that has been in place for a very long time with the goal to turn the human race into non-thinking automatons. For as long as man has pursued power over the masses, mind control has been orchestrated by those who study human behavior in order to bend large populations to the will of a small "elite" group. Today, we have entered a perilous phase where mind control has taken on a physical, scientific dimension that threatens to become a permanent state if we do not become aware of the tools at the disposal of the technocratic dictatorship unfolding on a worldwide scale.

Modern mind control is both technological and psychological. Tests show that simply by exposing the methods of mind control, the effects can be reduced or eliminated, at least for mind control advertising and propaganda. More difficult to counter are the physical intrusions, which the military-industrial complex continues to develop and improve upon.

1. Education -- This is the most obvious, yet still remains the most insidious. It has always been a would-be dictator's ultimate fantasy to "educate" naturally impressionable children, thus it has been a central component to Communist and Fascist tyrannies throughout history. No one has been more instrumental in exposing the agenda of modern education than Charlotte Iserbyt -- one can begin research into this area by downloading a free PDF of her book, The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America, which lays bare the role of Globalist foundations in shaping a future intended to produce servile drones lorded over by a fully educated, aware elite class.

2. Advertising and Propaganda -- Edward Bernays has been cited as the inventor of the consumerist culture that was designed primarily to target people's self-image (or lack thereof) in order to turn a want into a need. This was initially envisioned for products such as cigarettes, for example. However, Bernays also noted in his 1928 book, Propaganda, that "propaganda is the executive arm of the invisible government." This can be seen most clearly in the modern police state and the growing citizen snitch culture, wrapped up in the pseudo-patriotic War on Terror. The increasing consolidation of media has enabled the entire corporate structure to merge with government, which now utilizes the concept of propaganda placement. Media; print, movies, television, and cable news can now work seamlessly to integrate an overall message which seems to have the ring of truth because it comes from so many sources, simultaneously. When one becomes attuned to identifying the main "message," one will see this imprinting everywhere. And this is not even to mention subliminal messaging.

3. Predictive Programming -- Many still deny that predictive programming is real. I would invite anyone to examine the range of documentation put together by Alan Watt and come to any other conclusion. Predictive programming has its origins in predominately elitist Hollywood, where the big screen can offer a big vision of where society is headed. Just look back at the books and movies which you thought were far-fetched, or "science fiction" and take a close look around at society today. For a detailed breakdown of specific examples, Vigilant Citizen is a great resource that will probably make you look at "entertainment" in a completely different light.

...MORE HERE...

Thursday 30 December 2010

Snowy Conditions Proving Hazardous For Nation's Idiots


If you know an idiot, please make sure they're safe and not standing naked in a snow embankment on a dare. Onion News Network is coming to IFC on January 21 at 10pm.

Bob Dylan's Old Time New Year Hootenanny

...IT'S XMASSSSS! and it's nearly NEW YEAR!!! so it's time here at the rfsLounge to hand the reigns over to Bob Dylan for a final flight through the best tunes of the holiday in an Old Timey New Year HOOTENANNY!!!...

...featuring - clarence carter - the lewis family - henry fonda - sister rosetta tharpe - huey piano smith and the clowns - the electric prunes - tim dinkins - johnny paycheck - les paul - leadbelly - seasick steve - phil ochs - john peel - sonny boy williamson - debbie reynolds - bill cosby - cliff robertson - the goons - johnny cash - herbert from family guy - henry winkler - jack white - spike jones and his city slickers - asylum street spankers - gene simmons - phil spector - u.s. air force - johnny otis and his orchestra - mae west - mr t - jenny mcarthy and all of us at the lodge...

...another QUATILY NEW YEAR product...

Wednesday 29 December 2010

I Met the Walrus


In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan snuck into John Lennon's hotel room in Toronto and convinced him to do an interview. 38 years later, Levitan, director Josh Raskin and illustrators James Braithwaite and Alex Kurina have collaborated to create an animated short film using the original interview recording as the soundtrack. A spellbinding vessel for Lennon's boundless wit and timeless message, I Met the Walrus was nominated for the 2008 Academy Award for Animated Short and won the 2009 Emmy for 'New Approaches' (making it the first film to win an Emmy on behalf of the internet).

TED Wed - Wired to Share


TEDtalksDirector | 17 December 2010 | likes, 28 dislikes

http://www.ted.com At TEDxSydney, Rachel Botsman says we're "wired to share" -- and shows how websites like Zipcar and Swaptree are changing the rules of human behavior.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore's bogus claims on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on eugenics and the big cull, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/translate. Watch a highlight reel of the Top 10 TEDTalks at http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/top10

Tuesday 28 December 2010

REFLECTION OF THE BEAST


MOLECH =HUMAN SACRIFICE, INNOCENT CHILDREN SACRIFICED TO THE god molech. TECHNOLOGY IS LEADING US INTO DARK REALMS. THE DRAGON DAGON DEVOURS ITS PREY. LINK TO THE BLOODHIVE CHANNEL....we are living in the last days

Monday 27 December 2010

It has never been cooler to be a conspiracy theorist


(And the only people not realizing it are the conspiracy theorists)
by David Rothscum

The situation as it stands is rather simple. Wikileaks released a bunch of documents that basically confirm every allegation that Truthers have made since the beginning of Trutherdom. Truthers reacted by accusing Wikileaks of being a CIA-Mossad-Cointelpro-Zionist-mockingbird-disinfo-agent-troll-provocateur-operation.

Unfortunately for them, evidence has so far been lacking. The only evidence Truthers have so far shown, are allegations of other people. I call it the Wikipedia principle. Someone posts a claim on Wikipedia. Someone else challenges the person to back up his claim. Meanwhile a news reporter reads the article, and accepts it as true and publishes it, without bothering to check for sources. Now the Wikipedia editor cites the news article as a source of his claim, and the circle has become complete. Truthers can do the same. We begin with a man called Wayne Madsen. He gives birth to a rumor.

He does this the Sorcha Faal method, but more successful. You come up with a ridiculous story. You first introduce the reader by citing a few remotely related events. You link to random article about these events. Then you claim these events are all interconnected. How do you know? Well, you have "anonymous sources" of course. Anonymous sources can of course claim anything. You might as well cite "the voices in my head" to prove your point. In reality, the "reports from the Kremlin" don't exist. Most likely the "anonymous sources" of Mr. Madsen don't exist either.

And yes, WebsterTarpley bashes Wikileaks as well. Why? All of you fail to realize one thing. You should be very happy about what's going on! After the masses of scandals and internet revolts that happened in the past weeks, it has never been cooler to be a conspiracy theorist! Wikileaks is legitimizing you. English doesn't have a good word for this, but I would argue that after Wikileaks, conspiracy theories have become "salon-fähig" as we call it, meaning that they can be discussed amongst polite company now. The people of world have become far more cynical because of these scandals and are now gradually approaching the epitome of cynicism, the conspiracy theorist.

Why is that? The answer is very simple, the Wikileaks documents have vindicated the conspiratorial weltanschauung. It doesn't even matter as much what Assange thinks, or what our brave martyr Bradley Manning thinks. You, the crazy conspiracy theorist who believed his own government did not have his best interests in mind and actively lied to you to try to keep you from finding out the truth, was right all along!

...MORE HERE...

EFF 2010: Year in 8bit


EFF's new animation chronicling EFF's biggest battles of 2010 in 8bit.

the EFF were formed in July 1990 by John Perry Barlow and Mitch Kapor in response to a series of actions by law enforcement agencies that led them to conclude that the authorities were gravely uninformed about emerging forms of online communication,[4] and that there was a need for increased protection for Internet civil liberties.

In April 1990, Barlow had been visited by a U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation agent in relation to the theft and distribution of the source code for a series of Macintosh ROMs. Barlow described the visit as "complicated by [The Agent's] fairly complete unfamiliarity with computer technology. I realized right away that before I could demonstrate my innocence, I would first have to explain to him what guilt might be." Barlow felt that his experience was symptomatic of a “great paroxysm of governmental confusion during which everyone's liberties would become at risk”.

Barlow posted an account of this experience to The WELL online community and was contacted by Mitch Kapor, who had had a similar experience. The pair agreed that there was a need to defend civil liberties on the internet. Kapor agreed to fund any legal fees associated with such a defense and the pair contacted New York lawyers Rabinowitz, Boudin, Standard, Krinsky and Lieberman about defending several computer hackers from a Harper's magazine forum on computers and freedom who had been the target of Secret Service raids.[4] This generated a large amount of publicity which led to offers of financial support from John Gilmore and Steve Wozniak. Barlow and Kapor continued to research conflicts between the government and technology and in June 1990 Barlow posted online the influential article entitled "Crime & Punishment" in which Barlow announced his and Kapor's plans to create an organization to "raise and disburse funds for education, lobbying, and litigation in the areas relating to digital speech and the extension of the Constitution into Cyberspace."[citation needed]

This generated further reaction and support for the ideas of Barlow and Kapor. In late June, Barlow held a series of dinners in San Francisco with major figures in the computer industry[citation needed] to develop a coherent response to these perceived threats. Barlow considered that: "The actions of the FBI and Secret Service were symptoms of a growing social crisis: Future Shock. America was entering the Information Age with neither laws nor metaphors for the appropriate protection and conveyance of information itself."[5] Barlow felt that to confront this a formal organization would be needed and hired Cathy Cook as press coordinator and began to set up what would become the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation was formally founded on July 10, 1990, by Kapor, John Gilmore and Barlow. Initial funding was provided by Kapor, Steve Wozniak, and an anonymous benefactor.[6][7]

Sunday 26 December 2010

Grandpa Ganja's Handbook


Mieczyslaw420 | RFP brings you Grandpa Ganja's Marijuana Handbook Part 1. An educational video about cannabis, by an experienced stoner.

Eugenics, GMO Foods and the Big Cull


PhilipBrennan.net | 25 December 2010:

Much has been written this year about Rockefeller Foundation annual reports going back decades showing plans on how to sterilise undesirables without them knowing about it, but without connecting the dots no one would believe that they are actually doing it. The time for evidencing the theory is over. It is time to lay out cold the evidence that they are actually doing it now

Therefore, a brief overview of what we already know needs to be done to refresh our memories, as much time has passed since I last wrote a major article on the subject of Eugenics. Of course, Eugenics is an euphemism, and one for something far worse than what the name suggests. To use the most blunt terms possible, what we are talking about is scientific, methodical, medicalised, mass genocide.

It was through Eugenics that Hitler did his T4 programme throughout the Third Reich to get rid of as many disabled people as he possibly could, and this led directly to the Holocaust. It is a logical progression for such sick minds to go from killing the weak and infirm to killing whole groups of people that they don't like, be they Jews, Roma, Slavs, or Russians. During the Holocaust, the Nazis liquidated approximately 6 million Jews, 2 million Roma, 3 million political dissidents, communists, Slavs, and homosexuals, and also, although this is not often written about in the history books, 26 million Russians.

Stalinist Russia at the height of the Soviet tyranny use the Gulag Archipelago system to intern through false diagnosis of mental illness, and eventually liquidate, 40 million Soviet citizens: political dissidents, counter-revolutionaries, poets, philosophers, writers, doctors, or anybody else that Stalinist Russia did not like. This sounds much like the Fixated Threat Assessment Centres over here, and with the new edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, especially with Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), one can see how both of these can be abused if our own government so desires.

...MORE HERE...

Saturday 25 December 2010

Bono vs. Lennon



Cross-posted from the “Arguing the World” blog at Dissent magazine.

Effective celebrity activists use their fame to bring attention and credibility to legitimate representatives of social movements.

That, in a nutshell, is my standard of celebrity activism done right. Ineffective celebrity activists…well, they do all sorts of things wrong. But, most fundamentally, they approach issues without any awareness of or connection to social movements. They might still have noble intentions, but they can end up being a net negative for social change efforts.

Coinciding with the thirtieth anniversary of John Lennon’s death, Bill Easterly has published an interesting article in the Washington Post comparing the ex-Beatle’s antiwar activism with the social engagement of U2’s front man, Bono. Easterly writes:

For so many of my generation, growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, Lennon was a hero, not just for his music but for his fearless activism against the Vietnam War.

Is there a celebrity activist today who matches Lennon’s impact and appeal? The closest counterpart to Lennon now is U2’s Bono, another transcendent musical talent championing another cause: the battle against global poverty. But there is a fundamental difference between Lennon’s activism and Bono’s, and it underscores the sad evolution of celebrity activism in recent years.

Lennon was a rebel. Bono is a twat.

Given our age of commodified dissent, I’m not interested in trying to determine who counts as truly rebellious and who doesn’t. But I think Easterly makes some important points.

First, he notes that Lennon paid a real price for his antiwar stances. The FBI tracked his activities, and he fought for years with immigration officials in the Nixon administration who were set on deporting him from the United States. Bono, on the other hand, has turned up to dine in the White House, schmoozing with elites even while encouraging them to do more for the poor. In other words, his activism hasn’t cost him much, but has earned him millions, along with his "charity" buddy Geldof.

...MORE HERE...

Your Brain on Music


By Sharon Burch

In past generations, singing and playing instruments was an integral part of family life. A great way to express and entertain yourself and others. We did not realize it, but we were also exercising our brain while we played, causing us to be creative, more vibrant, smarter, etc. In our current generation, we tend to be passive listeners and consumers as a society, and as a result, shorting our mental development and our children the opportunity to reach their mental potential.

Humans are "wired" for music. Until recently, scientists did not know how music affected the brain. The advancement in technology allows scientists to actually "see" brain activity via PET scans and MRI imaging scanning the blood flow in the brain. Our brains are "wired" with neural pathways. Most activities only cause a portion of the brain to "light up" with activity; thus, the saying, right brain/left brain, etc. But there are actually four parts to the brain and music makes ALL of the areas "light up" and create new neural pathways as a person is learning and playing an instrument. Those neural pathways remain in tact and can be used for other things besides music.

Norman Doidge, in his book, The Brain That Changes Itself, shares case after case of people forcing their brain to change and adapt either voluntarily with discipline, or involuntarily due to odd incidences. Studies confirm that our brain has plasticity. "You can't teach an old dog new tricks" is proven to be a case of "can't want to," rather than too old to change.

...MORE HERE...

Friday 24 December 2010

The Golem - Payday Monsanto feat Luca & Trillion


taken from the new Payday Monsanto LP - out early 2011.
download links coming soon...

www.paydaymonsanto.com

Old Saint Nick's Shrink-Wrapped RemiXmasS



......join the party with the many guises of old saint nick, confused in the psychiatrists chair, worried by his historical schizophrenia and his hysterical pretenders, as we get a potted bio of the one and only amanita-cloaked shaman in the xmass sky, sit back and learn how to fly with the reindeers...

Andy Williams - It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year (a Shrift remix)
Bing Crosby - Winter Wonderland (Bent remix)
Jimmy McGriff - The Christmas Song (Tonal remix)
Joe Williams - Jingle Bells (Bombay Dub Orchestra remix)
Count Basie - Good Morning Blues (Real Tuesday Weld Clerkenwell remix)
Bing Crosby - Happy Holiday (Beef Wellington remix)
Johnny Mercer and the Pied Pipers - Santa Claus is Coming to Town (Q-Burns Abstract Message remix)
Dean Martin - Baby, It's Cold Outside (Arp remix)
Billie Holliday - I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm (Yesking remix)
Louie Armstrong - 'Zat You Santa Claus (the Heavy remix)
Rosemary Clooney - Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (MNO remix)
Charles Brown - Merry Christmas, Baby (MNO remix)
Charlie Parker - White Christmas - (King Kooba remix)
Charles Brown - I'll Be Home for Christmas (Ohmega Watts remix)
Dinah Washington - Silent Night (Brazilian Girls remix)
Mel Torme - the Christmas Song (Sonny J remix & Michael Kessler Open Fire remix)
Nina Simone - Chilly Winds (Fink remix)

...anotherQUATILYXMASSproduct..

Doctor Diane - Let's Get Oiled


Doctor Diane shows you how to make an infused olive oil with marijuana leaf. This oil is perfect for baking edible treats for medicinal use. Warren Sanford co-hosts.

Vatican Bank Scandal...Again




Investigators are closing in on the Pope's bank, dissatisfied by claims that it will change its ways By Victor Simpson and Nicole Winfield

This is no ordinary bank. The ATMs are in Latin, priests use a private entrance, and a life-sized portrait of Pope Benedict XVI hangs on the wall. Nevertheless, l'Istituto per le Opere di Religione (the Institute for Religious Works) is a bank, and it is under harsh new scrutiny, including money-laundering allegations that led police to seize €23m (£19.5m) in Vatican assets in September. Critics say the case shows that the "Vatican Bank" has never shed its penchant for secrecy and scandal.

The Vatican calls the seizure of assets a "misunderstanding" and expresses optimism that it will be cleared up quickly. But court documents show that prosecutors say the Vatican Bank deliberately flouted anti-laundering laws "with the aim of hiding the ownership, destination and origin of the capital". The documents also reveal investigators' suspicions that clergy may have acted as fronts for corrupt businessmen and the Mafia. The documents pinpoint two transactions that have not been reported: one in 2009 involving the use of a false name, and another in 2010 in which the Vatican Bank withdrew €650,000 from an Italian bank account but ignored bank requests to disclose where the money was headed.

The new allegations of financial impropriety could not have come at a worse time for the Vatican, already hit by revelations that it sheltered paedophile priests. The corruption probe has also given new hope to Holocaust survivors who tried unsuccessfully to sue the Vatican in the US, alleging that Nazi loot was stored in the bank.

Yet the scandal is hardly the first for the centuries-old bank. In 1986, a Vatican financial adviser died after drinking cyanide-laced coffee in prison. Another was found dangling from a rope under London's Blackfriars Bridge in 1982, his pockets stuffed with money and stones. The incidents blackened the bank's reputation, raised suspicions of ties with the Mafia, and cost the Vatican hundreds of millions of dollars in legal clashes with Italian authorities.

...MORE HERE...

Sinead Questions Pope


By MOLLY MULDOON
IrishCentral.com
December 23, 2010

READ MORE – Sinead O’Connor rips into Irish Catholic Church again on child-abuse scandal

The outspoken music star, Sinead O’Connor has composed a letter to Pope Benedict XVI in which she launched a scathing attack on the pontiff for his remarks that pedophilia was theorized in the 1970s as being “fully in conformity with man and even with children”.

In the open letter the Irish singer urged Pope Benedict to detail who exactly in the Catholic Church supported such a belief. (BUT, when the age of consent in the Vatican State is STILL 12, that makes pedophilia the norm in the Holy See, THAT's what's hidden between the lines)

Ms O’Connor has been a critic of the Catholic Church since the early nineties when she famously tore up a picture of the then Pope John Paul II during a television appearance.

The letter reads: An open letter to Pope Benedict from Sinead O’Connor:

Sir, Some burning questions arise from the following statement you made in your Christmas address to your cardinals on December 20 regarding how it came to pass that the house of the Holy Spirit became a haven for criminals of a sexual nature.

‘In the 1970s pedophilia was theorized [by the church] as something fully in conformity with man and even with children.’

Please deign to respond to this letter directly and personally and put aside all the pomp and titles and so-called ‘proper channels’ all of which belong not in the 21st century but the 12th and are unbecoming of Christ.

Exactly who held the theory that pedophilia was fully in conformity with man and with children? Please give us their names.

Exactly when did they hold this theory? Exactly when if ever did they cease holding the theory?

Why was this information not given to victims?

Why was it never given to any commissions of enquiry or civil authorities?

Why in all the years since these scandals broke out was yesterday the first mention of this information?

It is highly disrespectful of the victims that you would throw this out as an aside remark and not present yourself for questioning on such a very serious piece of information which would be key in the potential recovery of the church.

The Holy Spirit requires you to familiarize yourself with honesty and respect if you retain any desire to salvage the remains of the church which has been ruined by its being allowed to live by its own laws and not God’s.

READ MORE – Sinead O’Connor rips into Irish Catholic Church again on child-abuse scandal

...Good Luck With That!


by the Daily Bell

It began as a technological highway created by the Pentagon's DARPA to link together military researchers with university libraries, etc. The email facility helped expand the system. Then two Steves in a garage created the personal computer and the facility exploded. It was never meant to be what it became. It is a perfect example of the unintended consequences illustrated in free-market economist FA Hayek's spontaneous order. It has given the modern-day Anglo-American elite fits. Senator Jay Rockefeller said in open session that it might have been better if it were never invented. Better for whom?

The elite would take it down if it could. Alternatively, those who have the most to lose (or have lost the most) will try to control and it explain it. They might as well try to rake the wind instead of the leaves. Here's an example of the ups and downs of the Gutenberg press in Britain, to which we have often compared the Internet. There was no real way to contain it at the time, though the powers-that-be surely tried:

English newspapers were among the first in the world to use headlines to attract readers and woodcuts to illustrate stories. English newspapers also set new business standards. They hired women as reporters, printed advertisements as a source of revenue, and paid newsboys, or more commonly newsgirls, to sell papers in the streets.

The fledgling English press faced censorship throughout much of the 17th century. Early newspapers called diurnals – the predecessors of the today's dailies – featured news from all over Europe and occasionally America or Asia. However, government officials discouraged reporting on local matters. In addition, the government tightly regulated print shops. In England, as in most other European countries, the government required printers to have licences to print the news. Printers could lose their licences if they published anything offensive to authorities.

The first major change in this arrangement came in the years before the outbreak of the English Civil War (1642-1648). As Parliament, under the leadership of Oliver Cromwell, struggled with King Charles I, national news assumed a new importance ... The first English newspaper to attempt to report on national news was The Heads of Several Proceedings in This Present Parliament, a weekly that appeared in 1641. The public's appetite for domestic news grew steadily, and soon a number of papers covered national politics and other previously censored topics ...

After the monarchy was restored under King Charles II in 1660, the government gradually ended licensing provisions and other restrictions. The English press published in an atmosphere of considerable freedom – as long as it did not criticize the government. During the upheaval of the Glorious Revolution in 1688 (when Parliament deposed King James II in favour of William of Orange) the English press burst free of nearly all government restrictions. The law that required printers to obtain licences lapsed in 1695. Belief in the right of the press to question and criticize government eventually took hold in England and migrated to its American colonies. (Newspapers, Encarta Encyclopedia)

...MORE HERE...

Thursday 23 December 2010

Controlling the Internet...?


Eliott Edge

During the last few days a sneak-mission on Capitol Hill passed "fake net neutrality"--a significantly compromised version of actual net neutrality. Although the Obama administration is calling it a victory for net neutrality, the new rules allow corporations to regulate the Internet in such a way that by 2011, you might not even recognize it at all. These new rules:

  1. They enshrine different rules for wired and wireless Internet -- allowing big corporations to slow down or block websites and applications on your mobile phone.
  2. They allow Internet service providers to set up tollbooths online, stifling new innovators who can't pay the fees the big corporations can.
  3. For the first time, they embrace a tiered Internet -- a public Internet with publishing access for regular people vs. a private one controlled by major corporations, where they will shift future dollars for investment and innovation. In the new net, participation will based on the ability to pay corporate gatekeepers and not threatening their business interests. It will spell the end of the Internet as we know it.

Al Franken dropped everything this holiday season to help spread awareness on this issue:

Franken: “[new rules] Will make it easier for large media conglomerates like Comcast to do nothing short of controlling the Internet. The chairmen of the FCC is calling this a net neutrality proposal but lets be clear this is not real net neutrality…The internet was not created by corporations. It was created using tax payer dollars and it has dramatically altered our daily lives in more ways than any of us could ever have dreamed...This is the first time the FCC has ever allowed discrimination on the Internet. Let me give you an example maybe you like Google Maps – well tough. If the FCC passes this weak rule Verizon will be able to cut off access to Google Maps to the Google Maps Apps on your phone and force you to use their own mapping program Version Navigator even if its not as good even if they charge money…”

Without an open Internet we have no future. We only have “their” future.

Franken: “Net neutrality the First Amendment issue of our time… if we don’t protect Net Neutrality now how do think it will take before Comcast NBC Universal or Verizon CBS Viacom or ATT&T ABC DirecTV or BP Halliburton Wal-Mart Fox Dominos Pizza starts favoring its content over everyone else’s…If you want to protect the free flow of information in this country you have to help me fight this.

A tried and true course of action in fighting these sorts of sorties is AN AVATAR-LINK AWARENESS CAMPAIGN, or simply a forced meme war. One changes their avatar to something relative to the problem. Type the words “internet censorship” into Google Images and then comb for a new avatar.You can also help make the issue a trend on Twitter. Link up with Save the Internet for other ideas about spreading awareness.

Though many of us romance over ending genocide, starvation, disease, ecocide, and other of the world’s problems, without a free and open Internet our ability to tackle these global issues as a community will return to the Victorian Age.

'You killed our future'


Romania's Parliament cancelled a no-confidence vote on Thursday after a father whose payments for his disabled child had been cut by the Romanian government leapt from a balcony in the parliament in protest against the decision. He was not seriously injured. A loud thud reverberated in the chamber after the man, Adrian Sobaru - identified by the country's public television station as one of its engineers - hit the benches shortly after Prime Minister Emil Boc greeted the lawmakers. As he jumped, he could be heard shouting: 'Boc, you've taken away the rights of our children'. Mr Sobaru, who suffered fractures to the face, and other non life-threatening injuries, was able to get into the parliament because he works as an electrician for the national television station. He then shouted "Liberty and Justice" as he was taken to hospital. He was also wearing a T-shirt with the slogan 'You've killed our future', according to reports.

Sweet Baby Ruth


Sweet Baby Ruth shows you how to make a cannabis infused butter,perfect for baking cookies , brownies, etc. The tools of the trade are a coffee grinder and crock pot. Co-producer Warren Sanford lends a hand in the kitchen.

Culture Manifesto: The Increasing Importance of Art as an Engine of Change


When the going gets tough, the tough make art.

It is through the arts that we are likely to make the broadest impact. You can't hum a piece of legislation, but a song can process complex ideas in eight bars. A film or television show can either reflect our experience back on us or distort it -- either way, to an effect more powerful than a pundit's quip can deliver. A spoken-word piece, be it rap or poetry, can name a dilemma in a stanza -- the same dilemma a wonk takes pages to illustrate. There's often more truth told in a work of fiction than there is on the nightly news.

In most successful movements for social change, artists are in the vanguard. In many cases it is their soundtrack, their visual sensibilities, their literature that comes to define a particular movement in the popular imagination. Think of the civil rights movement and the role played by music. Recall the anti-war movement of the 1960s, propelled by rock 'n' roll and psychedelic art. Remember the controversy stirred by artist Judy Chicago's art installation, The Dinner Party, which told the story of the women's movement with provocative imagery.

But the work of artist-activists is just one half of the equation. The other entails the ways in which popular culture absorbs and reflects the tensions of our age, and represents us as Americans. Those works demand the attention of the critical progressive mind.

Going forward, you will find more media criticism, such as Don Hazen's look at bad behavior by men of "Mad Men," the popular AMC series. You'll also find analyses of culture industries, like Culture editor Julianne Escobedo Shepherd's take-down of monopolies in the music business.

And we want to hear from you. What music are you listening to? What films are you watching? What fiction are you reading? Is there a video about to go viral that you think we should know about? Please let us know, using AlterNet's "site feedback" button.

As we head into a new year, let's renew our spirits with a injection of creativity. As Emma Goldman told us, a revolution without dancing is not worth having.

Sign up for AlterNet's new culture newsletter.

Mini Ice Age pt2

Editor's Note: Please pay special attention to the links I put at the end of this article...

In a devastating new book a top climatologist exposes the idiocy of global-warming zealots – and reveals why Britain is set to freeze for decades to come.

Jane Warren | The Daily Express | 21 December 2010:

he Met Office was wrong. There was no barbecue summer, no mild winter. Instead came the big freeze of 2009/10, the coldest in almost 50 years.

Rivers became skating rinks and hillsides a paradise. The novelty soon wore off though as significant amounts of snow continued to fall.

Less than a year later the country is once again in the grip of dramatic Arctic weather and Siberian winds and the chaos that accompanies them. Wales is now colder than Greenland and we are experiencing the earliest widespread snow across the UK for 17 years.

No one could have predicted that we would once again be plunged into a second record-breaking winter so soon after the last. Or could they?

According to a new book this big freeze is only the beginning. By interviewing leading experts in the UK, author and climatologist Gavin Cooke has set out the most controversial weather forecast ever.

“Forget about global warming – what most forecasters have failed to acknowledge is that Britain is on the cusp of a mini ice age,” he says.

This is a fact accepted by many climatologists but one that the Government prefers to keep quiet by cutting funding for some academics who dare to publish their findings. Yet, according to these scientists, the worrying truth is that we are facing another 30 frozen years, each one colder than the last.

Click here for the full article...

Further Research:

Infinite Unknown | Life on this Earth Just Changed: The North Atlantic Current is Gone

MrGlasgowTruther | UK Winter/Gulf Stream update 15TH Dec 2010 – UK to get Snow till February!

RTOFS (Atlantic) Graphic Nowcasts/Forecasts | Latest Surface Horizontal Current

RTOFS (Atlantic) Graphic Nowcasts/Forecasts | Latest Surface Temperature

Will Net Neutrality Save the Internet?


Advocates say that "Net Neutrality" will "save the Internet."

But does the Internet need saving?

Net Neutrality is a proposed set of regulatory powers that would grant the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) the ability to control how Internet service providers (ISPs) package their services. Proponents argue that such rules are necessary to ensure that ISPs treat all data on the Internet equally and don't slow or even restrict access to various websites and other parts of the Internet.

However well-intentioned, the practical effect will be to limit consumer choice and grant the federal government unprecedented power over the Internet, all in the name of fixing a problem that doesn't exist in any meaningful way (http://reason.com/blog/2010/02/24/recen­tly-at-reasontv-net-neutr). Indeed, examples of the behavior that Net Neutrality will combat are few and far between.

Approximately 4 minutes. Produced and animated by Austin Bragg. Written by Zach Weissmueller.

Scroll down for downloadable versions and subscribe to Reason.tv's YouTube channel to receive automatic notification when new material goes live.

Related videos: "Net Neutrality for Dummies" (http://reason.com/blog/2010/02/24/recen­tly-at-reasontv-net-neutr) and "Nick Gillespie Talks Net Neutrality, Teen Mags, & More" (http://reason.com/blog/2010/12/11/nick-­gillespie-on-techcrunchtv).

Wednesday 22 December 2010

Pope: It's a Fair Cop, but "Society" is to Blame


The worldwide “humiliation” that the church has experienced as a result of the scandal must serve as a spur to reform, Benedict XVI told his cardinals gathered in Rome.

However, the pontiff argued that the abuse crisis must be seen in its social “context”, suggesting maybe that part of the blame lay with permissive attitudes in western society dating from the 1970s, or more likely in the social context of the Vatican State where the age of consent is still 12.

Survivors of clerical sex abuse condemned the Pope’s statement as another attempt by Church authorities to evade responsibility for the scandal.

The Pope was speaking in his annual Christmas address to bishops and cardinals, assembled in the frescoed Sala Regia of the Vatican's apostolic palace. It was seen as evidence of the seriousness with which the Pope views the issue that he chose tackling child sex abuse as the major theme for one of his highest profile set-piece speeches of the year.

While stressing that most priests were careful, Pope Benedict said revelations of abuse in 2010 had reached “an unimaginable dimension” that required the church to accept the “humiliation” as a call for renewal.

“We know of the particular gravity of this sin committed by priests and our corresponding responsibility,” he said. “We must ask ourselves what we can do to repair as much as possible the injustices that occurred.

“We must ask ourselves what was wrong in our message, in our entire way of configuring the Christian being, that allowed such a thing to occur.”

However, Benedict said the fault lay not only with the Church but also with the “context of our times”, in which child pornography, drug use, sexual trafficking were to some degree considered permissible.

“There exists a market of pornography regarding children that seems to be increasingly accepted as normal by the Papal See, but abhorrent to the masses” he said.

...MORE HERE...

HEADS UP: The Real Terrorists are Upping Their Chatter


Eric Blair | Activist Post | 21 December 2010:

Remember the buzzword chatter? When our criminal government kept the sheeple on the razor's edge of fear because they'd say that chatter levels coming from Al-Qaeda were increasing?

Well, today, in this article, I'm going to openly fear monger to you, because the chatter by the real terrorists, the ruling elite, is getting louder and more urgent -- prompting me to warn you that it seems like a terror attack is coming soon.

All the signs are here. Clearly desperate for public approval and budget justifications, the government has recently made several bogus terror arrests of entrapped FBI patsies. Perhaps they thought the public would give them some political props for thwarting their own staged events. However, they're beginning to realize that the general public has a bad case of "boy who cried wolf" syndrome where these glorious victories in the ongoing war on terror don't carry much effect anymore with people struggling to pay bills. Therefore, the regular folks must be reminded that the wolf can still bite.

Of course, the establishment always uses the example of "anti-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen believed to be hiding in Yemen" as a claim that "Americans" are indeed seeking to strike the United States. This terror ring-leader of patsies has been exposed as a Pentagon insider by Fox News, yet he's still being used justify the surveillance-industrial complex, the snitch culture, and the clampdown on freedoms in the name of fighting "domestic terrorism by American citizens."

So, we've gone from a threat with no credible or specific information, to being on alert for car bombs and small arms attacks with the purpose of inflicting maximum psychological impact, to our chief law enforcer saying we must prepare for potentially bad news.

Besides seeking a psychological reaction from the sheep, the real terrorists also desperately need to muffle the truth movement before it grows too big to control. As the masses become more aware of the criminal actions by the government and its corporate cartel partners, the more they need a distraction. Even Geraldo Rivera has seen through the bogus terror plots, and said so on national TV.

This all says to me that something is coming because time is running out on their lies. Be afraid, be very afraid, but not of the coming attack, rather for the establishment's response to it.

...MORE HERE...

...UPDATE - Anti-terror police arrest 12 people in nationwide raids...

Editor's Note: The timing of this is really suspicious. Why now? Que Bono? What are the government really up to, and what anti-freedom laws are they trying to get passed that they need such a convenient distraction right before Christmas? Are they trying to hide the fact that much of the Royal Navy Fleet are on route to the Yellow Sea for the start of World War Three? Something smells seriously suspect here...

Anti-terror police arrested twelve men on Monday morning in a large-scale counter terrorism operation spanning from the Midlands to Wales.

Peter Hutchison | The Telegraph | 20 December 2010:

The men – five from Cardiff, four from Stoke and three from London – were detained on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism in Britain.

Aged between 17 and 28, the suspects were detained by unarmed officers at approximately 5am.

Police believe the plotters were planning to set off a number of bombs in "multiple locations", according to Sky News.

Theresa May, the Home Secretary, was fully briefed on the raids before they took place.

All the arrested men were held at or near their home addresses, with the exception of one suspect from Stoke who was at a domestic property in Birmingham.

Click here for the full article...

An Eclipse Kiss like No Other by VerDarLuz


The Eclipses of late 2010 and 2011 will affect the Galactic Center, preparing us for embarking on a "Galactocentric Consciousness." The Lunar Eclipse not only kisses the Galactic Center, but it aspects every other planet in the Solar system, while occurring on the Winter Solstice. If that weren’t enough, this massive dynamo of an eclipse will be visible throughout the Northern Hemisphere beginning at 10pm Pacific time. This phenomenon is special to behold since as the earth obscures the Sun, the full white moon shapeshifts its glow into an eerie amber red. The last time I witnessed this was the first night at Burning Man 2007, the night some rogue lunatic warrior torched the wooden Man.

I will speak at length about the nature of eclipses and the potency of this one in particular as well as to communicate some very important information about the The Dragons’ Head and Tail, and the mythology of the Galactic Center.

The Purpose of Eclipses: The Dragon's Head and Tail

Technically, the nodes of the moon are the place where the Moon’s orbit intersects the path of the Sun. Where the Moon crosses the Sun going upward is the ascending point called the North Node, while the Moon descending is moving south of the Sun, and so is called the South Node. Because the Sun is the heart of the solar system and our personal vitality and life force, and the Moon is the waxing and waning of our emotions and our instinctual reactions and needs, the darkening of one of these primary luminaries has always foretold major personal and collective transformations.

As many of us are aware, the heroic quest culminates with the mythical "slaying of the dragon." In astrology, the dragon is associated with Rahu and Ketu, the nodes of the Moon, which are the dragon's head and tail. In Alchemy, the "slaying of the Dragon" was a metaphor for the Great Work: the shaman-alchemist’s heroic battle with the slippery serpentine forces of the unconscious. One's heroic duty involves confronting the shadow forces and transcending their vicious-circle tendencies.

...MORE HERE...

Bing Crosby and Bob Hope presents...

...it's XMASSS!!! here at rfp, and what a treat we have for you as we re-unite Bing and Bob in a christmas command performance with a host of special guests from the rat pack to the war department, let the drums roll...

...roll call
intro - bob hope
bing crosby - snow
peggy lee - i like a sleighride
dean martin - rudolph the red nosed reindeer
brenda lee - marshmallow world
ray conniff - white christmas
frank sinatra - i believe
steve lawrence and edie gorme - happy holidays
bing crosby and family
burl ives - holly jolly christmas
harry belafonte - christmas is coming
sammy davis jr - christmas time all over the world
bing and the andrews sisters - mele kilikimaka
nat king cole - the christmas song
bing and family
ella fitzgerald - have yourself a merry little christmas
louis armstrong - zat you santa claus?
eartha kitt - santa baby
doris day - ol' saint nick
bing and the andrews sisters - here comes santa claus
loretta lynn - to heck with ol' santa claus
bela fleck - white christmas
glenn miller orchestra - in the christmas mood
roland kirk - we free kings

...another QUATILY product...

3 Reasons the FCC Shouldn't "Touch" the Internets


Last spring, Reason.tv released this video after the Federal Communication Commission chairman Julius Genachowski announced his agency's attention to use a "light touch" approach to the Internet. As the FCC pushes ahead with Net Neutrality rules that would regulate many aspects of the Internet, such a move deserves closer and closer scrutiny.

We're happy to re-release this video, which originally went live June 18, 2010.

From the original writeup:

The FCC has just taken initial steps to regulate the Internet service providers the same way it regulates telephone companies. Although Chairman Julius Genachowski has said he would use any regulatory powers with a "light touch," having the FCC control any aspect of the Internet is a really bad idea for at least three reasons.

Written and produced by Meredith Bragg and Nick Gillespie (who also hosts). Approximately 2.15 minutes.

Go to http://reason.tv for downloadable versions of all our videos. Subscribe to Reason.tv's YouTube channel for automatic notification when new material goes live.

Tuesday 21 December 2010

Charts for the Epoch-Eclipse

Winter Solstice
21st Dec 23:39 UT/GMT in UK


Click on chart to enlarge

Winter Solstice finds Mercury in Sagittarius conjunct the Sun with a large ‘stellium’ of planets in Capricorn – Pallas Athene, Moon’s North Node, Pluto and Mars. All this, with a Total Lunar Eclipse earlier that morning at 08:13 UT/GMT and the Full Moon forming a Grand Cross for several hours, will make for a highly intense and focussed Solstice.

A Lunar Eclipse Grand Cross

Lunar Eclipse maximum at 08:13 UT/GMT
Click on chart to enlarge

The Grand Cross is formed by the South Node Lunar Eclipse in opposition to Mercury, Sun, Pallas Athene, Moon’s North Node and Pluto; on the other axis, Juno is in opposition to the Jupiter – Uranus conjunction. The Grand Cross lasts from around 18:00 UT/GMT on 20th December, until around midday on 21st

The South Node Lunar Eclipse means that this is about letting go of our past mental (Moon in Gemini) and emotional attachments (S. Node is in Cancer), so that we can being to review the details of how we are going to move forward (Retrograde Mercury & Sun in Sagittarius), and then put them into action with clarity, purpose and resolve (Pallas, N. Node & Pluto in Capricorn). Holding the balance in all this is the opposition from Juno to Jupiter and Uranus; we cannot put the plans for our new vision into action until we have healed and moved into Right Relationship with our past. This is an essential part of the major healing process that was triggered last February by the Chiron – Neptune conjunction, and will be on-going until 2012 and beyond.

The Solstice

By the time that the Solstice occurs (23:39 UT), the Grand Cross will have disappeared, but the recently eclipsed Moon will continue with the process of emotional release of our old patterns, comfort zones and deeply held emotional attachments that are no longer serving our best interests. The more we can let go, the more profound will be the rebirth, after the Winter Solstice.

The ‘stellium’ of planets with the Sun are bringing the combination of the rational and intuitive mind, combining with the personal and spiritual will in order to focus on our spiritual purpose, so that we may clearly, pragmatically and uncompromisingly see our way forward, and act on it.

...MORE HERE...

mini ice age coming

There's a mini ice age coming, says man who beats weather experts

Why did the Met Office forecast a "mild winter"?

Do you remember? They said it would be mild and damp, and between one degree and one and a half degrees warmer than average. Well, I am now 46 and that means I have seen more winters than most people on this planet, and I can tell you that this one is a corker.

Never mind the record low attained in Northern Ireland this weekend. I can't remember a time when so much snow has lain so thickly on the ground, and we haven't even reached Christmas. And this is the third tough winter in a row. Is it really true that no one saw this coming?

Actually, they did. Allow me to introduce readers to Piers Corbyn, meteorologist and brother of my old chum, bearded leftie MP Jeremy. Piers Corbyn works in an undistinguished office in Borough High Street. He has no telescope or supercomputer. Armed only with a laptop, huge quantities of publicly available data and a first-class degree in astrophysics, he gets it right again and again.

Back in November, when the Met Office was still doing its "mild winter" schtick, Corbyn said it would be the coldest for 100 years. Indeed, it was back in May that he first predicted a snowy December, and he put his own money on a white Christmas about a month before the Met Office made any such forecast. He said that the Met Office would be wrong about last year's mythical "barbecue summer", and he was vindicated. He was closer to the truth about last winter, too.

He seems to get it right about 85 per cent of the time and serious business people - notably in farming - are starting to invest in his forecasts. In the eyes of many punters, he puts the taxpayer-funded Met Office to shame. How on earth does he do it? He studies the Sun.

Here for the rest


Greg Palast Busted by BP in Azerbaijan

Greg Palast

"Here in Azerbaijan we believe in human rights. PLEASE GIVE US YOUR FILM."

Oh, no, no, not good.

The enforcers here come in three colors: the military police still wearing their old Russian puke-green uniforms, the MSN (the dictator's secret police) in windbreakers without ID, and BP's own corporate police force in black tunics, sashes and full hats who look like toy soldiers from the Nutcracker ballet. They weren't dancing.

I showed all three flavors of police our press credentials in both English and Azeri, neither of which could be read by the officers. (The dictator had suddenly changed the Azeri alphabet, making most of the nation illiterate overnight.)

The dictator made everyone call him, "Baba," Grandpa.


I told the dumbest-looking one, "Look here: This paper says your so-called President is a weasel's rectum," which our 'fixer' translated as, "This letter from Foreign Ministry is authorization to make a documentary for the British Television."

We'd been surreptitiously filming BP's cancer-making machine, the giant pipeline terminal near Baku, the capital, that sends the Azeri's Caspian Sea oil westward to light Europe's Christmas trees.

Now, it looked like I'd be spending Christmas in Baba's dungeon licking rats for breakfast. My clown-show antics bought the crew the precious minutes needed to switch the film in the camera to blanks. Our cameraman told a BP cop, with mime: "Hadn't begun filming yet, Old Bean."

We would now. I clicked on my hidden micro-cam.

A black SUV arrived on the remote desert track and unloaded its impressive cargo, a colonel sprinkled with medals from the recent war Azerbaijan lost to Armenia. The colonel said, "British Petroleum drives this country," and as a "British" journalist, he thought I'd be as proud of that fact as he is.

"I know," I said. "Believe me, I know."

There is an awful lot of evidence that BP and Britain's MI6 had their hands in Baba's 1993 coup d'état which overthrew the nation's elected president. Within months of taking power, Baba signed "The Contract of the Century" giving BP monopoly control of Azerbaijan's Caspian reserves.

Baba headed the KGB when this Islamic land was an occupied "republic" of the Soviet Union, the good old days of relative peace, freedom and prosperity.

I was here in the desert to investigate a tip-off I'd had that BP had a near-disaster at its Caspian offshore rig that was extraordinarily similar to the Deepwater Horizon blow-out. But BP covered it up.

Read Full Article

DNA is the Word


By Grazyna Fosar and Franz Bludorf

DNA Can Be Influenced And Reprogrammed By Words And Frequencies Russian DNA Discoveries

The human DNA is a biological Internet and superior in many aspects to the artificial one. The latest Russian scientific research directly or indirectly explains phenomena such as clairvoyance, intuition, spontaneous and remote acts of healing, self healing, affirmation techniques, unusual light/auras around people (namely spiritual masters), the mind’s influence on weather patterns and much more.

In addition, there is evidence for a whole new type of medicine in which DNA can be influenced and reprogrammed by words and frequencies WITHOUT cutting out and replacing single genes.

Only 10% of our DNA is being used for building proteins. It is this subset of DNA that is of interest to western researchers and is being examined and categorized. The other 90% are considered "junk DNA. The Russian researchers, however, convinced that nature was not dumb, joined linguists and geneticists in a venture to explore those 90% of "junk DNA". Their results, findings and conclusions are simply revolutionary!

According to them, our DNA is not only responsible for the construction of our body but also serves as data storage and communication. The Russian linguists found that the genetic code, especially in the apparently useless 90%, follows the same rules as all our human languages. To this end they compared the rules of syntax (the way in which words are put together to form phrases and sentences), semantics (the study of meaning in language forms) and the basic rules of grammar.

They found that the alkalines of our DNA follow regular grammar and do have set rules just like our languages. So human languages did not appear coincidentally but are a reflection of our inherent DNA.

...MORE HERE...

2010 Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse Time-lapse


This was my first time tracking something in space so cut me some slack on the jumpiness. Plus, it was shot on a camera zoomed in 37x not a telescope. It's also the 1st video on the new computer with Windows 7, which I'm still learning.

It was amazing to watch with just binoculars, I can't wait to get my telescope.

Monday 20 December 2010

Solstice-Eclipse First in 456 years


Rebecca Lindell
Montreal Gazette

This year’s winter solstice will coincide with a full lunar eclipse in a union that hasn’t been seen in 456 years.

The celestial eccentricity holds special significance for spiritualities that tap into the energy of the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year and a time that is associated with the rebirth of the sun.

“It’s a ritual of transformation from darkness into light,” says Nicole Cooper, a high priestess at Toronto’s Wiccan Church of Canada. “It’s the idea that when things seem really bleak, (it) is often our biggest opportunity for personal transformation.

“The idea that the sun and the moon are almost at their darkest at this point in time really only further goes to hammer that home.”

Cooper said Wiccans also see great significance in the unique coupling of the masculine energy of the sun and the feminine energy of the moon — transformative energies that she plans to incorporate into the church’s winter-solstice rituals.

Since the last time an eclipse and the winter solstice happened simultaneously was just under five centuries years ago, Cooper said she wasn’t familiar with any superstitions or mythologies associated with it.

Instead, she said, they can only be interpreted personally.

“Wiccans don’t think of things as being good or evil — they just are. Our experience of them makes them positive or negative for us.”

The winter solstice also played an important role in Greco-Roman rituals.

“It’s seen as a time of rebirth or renewal because, astrologically, it’s a time where the light comes back,” said Shane Hawkins, a professor of Greek and Roman studies at Carleton University in Ottawa.

For the ancient Romans, it was also a time of great feasting and debauchery.

“If (the eclipse) happened on the 21st, they might well have been drunk,” he said.

A lunar eclipse taking place during the solstice is not an event Hawkins has seen in research, but he said it would have been viewed as something special.

“Eclipses could be taken either way,” he said. “Certainly it would have been an omen, but it would have been up to the interpretation of specialists of whether it was good or bad.”

And that interpretation would likely be based on whatever was happening at the time.

The last time the two celestial events happened at the same time was in AD 1554, according to NASA.

An otherwise seemingly unexceptionable year in recorded history, the darkened moon happened during a bleak year for Tudor England.

Lady Jane Grey was beheaded for treason that year, while Princess Elizabeth was imprisoned in the Tower of London. Mary of Guise — the mother of Mary, Queen of Scots — became regent of Scotland.

Scientifically, however, it’s just a coincidence of natural cycles.

“It’s quite rare, but there’s no profound significance. It’s luck of the draw; you got dealt four aces,” said Robert Dick, an astronomy instructor at Carleton.

...OR 632 YEARS...

according to Andrew Fazekas

for National Geographic News

Published December 17, 2010

In 2010, for the first time since 1378, a total lunar eclipse of a full moon falls on the winter solstice—a stargazing event almost anyone in North America will be able to see tonight, weather permitting.

Occurring at 6:38 p.m. ET Tuesday, the 2010 winter solstice marks the official beginning of winter in the Northern Hemisphere. The shortest day of the year boasts the year's longest shadows and fewest daylight hours.

It's all due to the Northern Hemisphere being tilted farther from the sun than at any other point during the year. As a result, the sun follows its lowest arc of the year across the sky. (Get more winter solstice facts.)

In the early morning hours of the winter solstice day, many sky-watchers will see the first shadings of a total lunar eclipse.

The entire lunar eclipse will be best seen from North America and western South America. In most of Europe and Africa, the moon will dip below the horizon in mid-eclipse.

Unlike, say, last week's Geminid meteor shower (pictures), a lunar eclipse represents "one of the few times that an astronomical event is easily visible from even the heavily light polluted cities," said Raminder Singh Samra, resident astronomer at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre in Vancouver, Canada.

"Lunar eclipses are special, in a way, as the observer that is always in the city or too busy to get away can see this from his or her own backyard."

That assumes, of course, that you're in the right place at the right time.

Clouds, for example, can spoil any sky-watcher's night. And the lunar eclipse will be completely invisible to observers in southern and eastern Africa, the Middle East, or southern Asia.

Lunar Eclipse 101

A lunar eclipse occurs when the moon, Earth, and the sun all line up, with Earth in the middle.

During the eclipse, Earth's shadow is cast onto the full moon, dimming—but not completely obscuring—its surface. Unlike solar eclipses, the lunar varieties are safe to view without any special eyewear.

Lunar eclipses occur twice a year. The previous one fell on June 26, 2010. (See "Lunar Eclipse Saturday to Appear Red?") But the June event was only a partial lunar eclipse.

The winter solstice lunar eclipse will be the first total eclipse of the moon in nearly three years, the last one being on February 20, 2008, according to Singh.

(See solstice pictures: fire rites, druids, and more.)

...MORE HERE...