Monthly Archives: July 2012

Jim Self On Consciousness Falls

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The Story of the Fall of Consciousness – Part 2

Jim Self
a message from Jim Self
Wednesday, 27 June, 2012

The mutations and distortions had a life of their own and the distortions began to interact with each other and weave together. The mutations and distortions began to create and spin off more distortions and more mutations, and more distortions and more mutations. Distortions and mutations have no consciousness. They are like a virus or a machine that continues to duplicate and replicate. In the third dimension, mutations and distortions are vibrations that you know as anger, jealousy, resentment and rudeness; deceit, domination and control; incest, rape and “isms,” as in sexism and racism, etc. All of those ugly feelings and all of those ugly thoughts are the distortions that play within all of our spaces today. They are all wrapped in Fear.

This process has gone on for a very, very long time. There are many places in All-That-Is that have no Light in them at all. I once said to Uriel, “Won’t it be a challenge for this darkness to be brought back into the Light?” I could feel the smile within Uriel. Uriel said, “Those dark patterns and beings who are without Light are not the challenging ones. They will be easy to work with when the appointed time comes. The ones that are most challenging are you. You see, you have free will and you have choice. You hold the single spark of the Creator’s Light within you. You have choice and we will not interfere with your choices. You must choose for yourself. The dark beings have no free will or choice.”

Much was now occurring. As the second Ray was being used, it was discovered that Light could be stepped down and compressed into density. This opened up a completely new realm of creation. The great beings of Light, the Avatars and Elohim, could experience themselves in form. This was both new and a joy. They began to experience themselves in all manner of form, such as rocks, water. air, flowers, and much more.

As creation continued to expand, another remarkable creation came about. Twelve living centers of consciousness were drawn from the Christed aspect of Creator and placed throughout All-That-Is. Each of these centers held the Love of the Creator. The purpose of each of these centers was to reflect this love and the Christed Light back to the beings who inhabited or visited those centers. Consequently, the many new beings in the Archangelic realms, the Avatars, the Elohim, and all the great beings of Light enjoyed these centers of Christed Light. The earth is one of these very special centers of Light. In the course of this Fall of Consciousness, there were many creator gods, and others, that came to this Christed center. Many of these were very consumed with, and focused upon those contaminated, distorted creations. They no longer held much Light of the Creator. The physical creations that were being made on Planet Earth began to hold more distortions and less of Creator’s Love.

Because of this long and intense infiltration of mutations and distortions, Earth could no longer continue to reflect the Christed Consciousness back to those upon her surface. Her inhabitants no longer received her Light and Earth fell from that Christed Consciousness. She fell from the unified field of love into greater and greater density, becoming physical. The Earth fell. One Light center out of the 12 fell. This event created an enormous ripple throughout All-That-Is. Earth had been, until this fall, a very significant passageway available to all.

At that point in time the Archangels, the Elohim, the Lords of Light, and many other great beings, petitioned the Creator to create a floor or limit; a point to stop the fall. If the earth was to fall past that line it would not recover. This creation is known as Metatron’s Cube. It was a very intricate geometric construction of consciousness, light and sound. It created a point where the earth could fall no further. The result was known as “the third dimension.” It was rigid, structured, and very dense. There was no flexibility at the time it was created. It had very specific limitations and could sustain and support very little Light and yet there was consciousness that lived
within this Earth. The Earth existed in this state for a very long time.

Because this great Fall of Consciousness overwhelmed so many of the great Beings of Light, Avatars, Archangels, and many, many others, the Archangelic realm petitioned Creator to change their purpose. They asked that instead of simply watching the creator gods create, it become their primary function to stop the Fall of Consciousness. Their purpose was to reverse the damage caused by the mutations and distortions. and free all who had been affected. The Creator granted their request. Eventually, and over a very long period of time, the remaining consciousness of Earth was able to create enough of a stabilization that the cube structure was removed from the earth. The possibility of the earth falling further into darkness no longer existed.

Long after the cube was removed, the inhabitants begin to create new considerations and new thoughts that were outside of the previous limitations. Where before there was only rigidness and no flexibility, now there began to be possibility. This unfolded very slowly over billions of years and there began to be more awareness and flexibility. Opportunities and different levels of consciousness returned onto the planet. But, the possibility of returning to a Christed Light center was not available to Planet Earth

More aspects of consciousness came to the planet and were able to remain and became anchored. Eventually the possibility of seeding a new species on the planet began to be entertained. This is the point where most of us have an understanding of a “beginning.” This new consciousness was called Lemurian. In the early aspects of Lemuria there were no physical bodies. The inhabitants were simple beings that held Light. Light consciousness began to live more fully on the dense planet Earth. The Lemurians had Light consciousness but they were not you. They were the first aspect of the great experiment.

All through this unfolding, the Rays of Creation continued to be offered, however, the mutations and distortions continued to expand and grow also. With each new Ray, great creative possibilities unfolded, but they were not successful in permanently stopping the
distortions. This continued for many tens of thousands of years.

from:    http://spiritlibrary.com/jim-self/the-story-of-the-fall-of-consciousness-part-2

Ionization Waves on the Way

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WAVES OF IONIZATION: Sunspot AR1515 is strobing Earth with C- and M-class solar flares. Each pulse of x-rays and extreme UV radiation creates a wave of ionization in our planet’s upper atmosphere. These sudden ionospheric disturbances, also known as “SIDs,” alter the propagation of radio signals around Earth. Yesterday, amateur scientist Roberto Battaiola detected a series of SIDs over Pantigliate, Italy:

“I monitored the radio frequency of 21.75 kHz,” he says.

More SIDs are in the offing as AR1515 continues to crackle with strong solar flares. In fact, a really big SID could occur if, as expected, AR1515 produces an X-class flare before it rotates off the solar disk a few days from now.

fr/spaceweather.com

Mind Control Modalities

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Ten Methods of Modern Mind Control

5th July 2012

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 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.

4. Sports, Politics, Religion – Some might take offense at seeing religion, or even politics, put alongside sports as a method of mind control. The central theme is the same throughout: divide and conquer. The techniques are quite simple: short circuit the natural tendency of people to cooperate for their survival, and teach them to form teams bent on domination and winning. Sports has always had a role as a key distraction that corrals tribal tendencies into a non-important event, which in modern America has reached ridiculous proportions where protests will break out over a sport celebrity leaving their city, but essential human issues such as liberty are giggled away as inconsequential. Political discourse is strictly in a left-right paradigm of easily controlled opposition, while religion is the backdrop of nearly every war throughout history.

5. Food, Water, and Air – Additives, toxins, and other food poisons literally alter brain chemistry to create docility and apathy. Fluoride in drinking water has been proven to lower IQ; Aspartame and MSG are excitotoxins which excite brain cells until they die; and easy access to the fast food that contains these poisons generally has created a population that lacks focus and motivation for any type of active lifestyle. Most of the modern world is perfectly groomed for passive receptiveness — and acceptance — of the dictatorial elite.  And if you choose to diligently watch your diet, they are fully prepared to spray the population from the above.

6. Drugs – This can be any addictive substance, but the mission of mind controllers is to be sure you are addicted to something. One major arm of the modern mind control agenda is psychiatry, which aims to define all people by their disorders, as opposed to their human potential. This was foreshadowed in books such as Brave New World. Today, it has been taken to even further extremes as a medical tyranny has taken hold where nearly everyone has some sort of disorder — particularly those who question authority. The use of nerve drugs in the military has led to record numbers of suicides. Worst of all, the modern drug state now has over 25% of U.S. children on mind-numbing medication.

7. Military testing – The military has a long history as the testing ground for mind control. The military mind is perhaps the most malleable, as those who pursue life in the military generally resonate to the structures of hierarchy, control, and the need for unchallenged obedience to a mission. For the increasing number of military personal questioning their indoctrination, a recent story highlighted DARPA’s plans for transcranial mind control helmets that will keep them focused.

8. Electromagnetic spectrum  – An electromagnetic soup envelops us all, charged by modern devices of convenience which have been shown to have a direct impact on brain function.  In a tacit admission of what is possible, one researcher has been working with a “god helmet” to induce visions by altering the electromagnetic field of the brain. Our modern soup has us passively bathed by potentially mind-altering waves, while a wide range of possibilities such as cell phone towers is now available to the would-be mind controller for more direct intervention.

9. Television, Computer, and “flicker rate”– It’s bad enough that what is “programmed” on your TV (accessed via remote “control”) is engineered; it is all made easier by literally lulling you to sleep, making it a psycho-social weapon.  Flicker rate tests show that alpha brain waves are altered, producing a type of hypnosis — which doesn’t portend well for the latest revelation that lights can transmit coded Internet data by “flickering faster than the eye can see.” The computer’s flicker rate is less, but through video games, social networks, and a basic structure which overloads the brain with information, the rapid pace of modern communication induces an ADHD state. A study of video games revealed that extended play can result in lower blood flow to the brain, sapping emotional control. Furthermore, role-playing games of lifelike war and police state scenarios serve to desensitize a connection to reality. One look at the WikiLeaks video Collateral Murder should be familiar to anyone who has seen a game like Call of Duty.

10. Nanobots – From science fiction horror, directly to the modern brain; the nanobots are on the way. Direct brain modification already has been packaged as “neuroengineering.” A  Wired article from early 2009 highlighted that direct brain manipulation via fiber optics is a bit messy, but once installed “it could make someone happy with the press of a button.”  Nanobots take the process to an automated level, rewiring the brain molecule by molecule.  Worse, these mini droids can self-replicate, forcing one to wonder how this genie would ever get back in the bottle once unleashed. Expected date of arrival?  Early 2020s.

A concerted effort is underway to manage and predict human behavior so that the social scientists and the dictatorial elite can control the masses and protect themselves from the fallout of a fully awake free humanity. Only by waking up to their attempts to put us to sleep do we stand a chance of preserving our free will.

Article Source – Activist Post

from:    http://wakeup-world.com/2012/07/05/ten-methods-of-modern-mind-control/

CME Incoming 7/7

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INCOMING CME: On July 4th, sunspot AR1515 hurled at least four minor CMEs into space. Most flew south of the ecliptic plane (the orbital plane of the planets), on track to miss everything. One of them, however, appears to be heading toward Earth. Click to view an animated forecast track of the incoming cloud:

According to analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab, who prepared the forecast, the cloud will reach Earth on July 7th around 0600 UT. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras on that date.

fr/spaceweather.com

Jeff Brown on Being Sacred Purpose

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YOU ARE SACRED PURPOSE

By Jeff Brown

You are Sacred Purpose.

You are not your shame, your fears, your addictions, your games, your guilt, the internalized remnants of negative messaging… You are not your resistance to your true path … You are not your self-doubt… You are not your self-distraction patterns. You are not your escape hatches… you are not your pessimism about a life of meaning and purpose. You are not here merely to survive and endure.

You are Sacred Purpose.

No matter what others have mistakenly told you about who you are, no matter what mistakes you may have made in the past, you are here with a sacred purpose living at the core of your being. If that weren’t true you never would have made it down the birth canal. You never would have overcome what you have already overcome in your life.

You are Sacred Purpose.

Whatever your ways of distracting, postponing, delaying, armouring, avoiding, altering, feigning, artificializing, externalizing, superficializing your life… I encourage you to STOP IT NOW. This really is no game, this is completely real, this sacred purpose that courses through your soul veins crying out to be heard from below the surface of our avoidance. I cannot say this with enough assertiveness… To the extent that you identify and honour your true path in this lifetime, you will know genuine satisfaction, real peace in your skin.. You will be infused with vitality and a clarified focus, new pathways of possibility appear where before there were obstacles. You will know a peace that will buffer you against the madness of the world, a clarity of direction that will carry you from one satisfaction to another… Life will still have its challenges, but you will interface with them differently, coated in an authenticity of purpose that sees through the veils to what really matters. To the extent, that you avoid the quest for purpose, you will live frustrated, a half-life.. your avoidance manifest in all manner of illness, perpetual dissatisfaction, emotional problems, depression, addictive patterns, ALL REFLECTIONS OF YOUR own alienation from the purposeful root of your being.. You see, there really is no escape from reality, all there is, is postponement. you should be more afraid of avoiding your path than walking it.

You are Sacred Purpose.

AND It doesn’t matter what anyone tells you about who you are. There is so much of that. This is your journey. Even those with the best of intentions, cannot know the path you are here to walk. The REAL journey is not one of adapting ourselves to someone else’s vision, but instead, shaping who we are with our own two hands. The unique clay we work with lives deep inside our soul bones, awaiting our own detection & expression. You are the sculptor of your own reality- don’t hand your tools to anyone else. Only you can know the path u r here to walk.. it’s a personal decision, and it doesn’t have to be grandiose. Your purpose can be as simple as learning how to listen better, how to enjoy the moment without getting in your own way.. wherever the growing is, wherever you find genuine peace with path, wherever you feel unmasked and genuinely real.. in the survivalist world that we are coming from, we defined ourselves by what GOT US through the day, whatever masks got food on the table, whatever way of being endured this challenging life.. but we are at the beginning of a new way, a way of being that is sourced in who we REALLY ARE, not our egoic face, not our survivalist face, not the false face of our hidden power, but the real face, the real path, the no bullshit no hype no pretence expression of WHO u REALLY ARE and a life that fully and deeply expresses the magnificence that lives within you.. Your sacred purpose may be covered in dust, it may be HIDDEN FROM VIEW, but its still in there, sparkling with infinite possibility..

You are Sacred Purpose.

This is a call to action. A call to authenticity. A call to dig yourself out from below the bushel of shame and self-doubt that has plagued humanity. A call to get off the dime and do the real work to call yourself on your distraction patterns and excavate your own purpose in this lifetime. What are you here to learn? What are you here to overcome? What are you here to express? What does your authentic face look like? Who are you, above and beyond all the noise and haste.. this is not about money, or bullshit ideas of abundance, or gratifying your ego, this is about the real thing, the real deal, the vulnerable and courageous truth about who you are and why you are here. I ENCOURAGE you to take the question of sacred purpose seriously… to not postpone it for another hour, or week, or till you retire, until the next lifetime, til you finish school, or end your relationship, but to take it seriously now… To work like a dog to find out what lives inside of you, what you are here to express, what you are here to manifest and express, what you are here to give, to share, to learn, to create, to dance, to art, to walk…. You don’t know how long you have, it may be 60 years, it may be 60 seconds, you may not make it to retirement, you may not make it to tomorrow morning, at least if you are questing for your purpose, living your truth, you will not suffer when its time to leave your body in this lifetime, you will be living in your authenticity, this is no small achievement in this distracted world, where the unconscious media and manipulative marketers try to turn us generic and frightened so we will be locked into their script., fuck that. You are already have a script and it lives deep inside you…that script is your purpose, what you are here to express, to learn, to embody, to humanifest… So u decide which script to read- the fictional novel written by those who do not SEE u, or the HOLY BOOK written by your glorious spirit. When you walk through the gateway of purpose, you walk into yourself. You are sacred purpose, you are sacred purpose, you are sacred purpose. Don’t stop until you find it.

Jeff Brown

from:    http://www.spiritofmaat.com/jul12/you_are_sacred_purpose.html

Leon Lewis on Your Earth Calling

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ANCIENT LEGACY

By Leon Lewis

Each of us, whether we are aware of it or not, has a unique, sacred Earth calling via which we discover, assimilate and express aspects of Earth’s legacy that we have come to explore, both individually and collectively. Life is offering each of us the opportunity to rediscover our original promise that was made on a soul level. This calling and the power to bring it forth, is available for each of us to explore by paying conscious attention to the relationship we have with our environment and the messages we receive from it.

Having lived in Southern Africa for all of this lifetime, my attention has to a considerable extent been focused on the Earth legacy of this part of the world. Ever since I can remember I have had a deep respect for the First Peoples of our planet and the magical aspects of their relationship with the environment. An alternative term to describe these First Peoples might be ‘the people of nature’.

Many correlations between groupings around the world can be found within the context of the expression of Earth wisdom. There are also distinct differences, specific to each particular group, which define their unique contribution to the tapestry of our human experience. The correlations unite and bond not only all of the World’s First Peoples around the common aspects of their wisdom and legacy, but also incorporate the peoples of contemporary society – who might be described as ‘the people of technology’. Some, from within this context, have been exploring the various indigenous legacies, from the ancient as well as the contemporary viewpoint.

If we regard Mother Earth as a living being and teacher, then it stands to reason that we acknowledge her many ways of communicating to each living entity its encoded purpose, which has been held in safe keeping, to be released as and when the time is right. The earth is guardian to a fragile and exquisite legacy that records the sum total of all experience since her primordial beginnings; a legacy which each of us has helped to create and which contains many clues that we left for ourselves as markers along life’s ancient road. These serve as stepping stones to greater awareness, to be gathered up as ‘pieces of the puzzle’ and put together to create a more expanded picture.

As we grow in the profound realization that we are here to seek and become the harmony between heaven and earth – between the world of energy and matter, or between masculine and feminine aspects – we discover a simple truth, namely that the five elements of Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Ether have to be in balance within our lives. We establish this balance through the medium of all of our relationships.

The First People of Southern Africa lived in harmony with the elements for thousands of years. Their descendants generally refer to themselves by the collective names of “Bushmen” or “San”. As with many of the First Nations upon our planet, who nowadays mostly constitute minority groups in the lands of their origins, the cultural traditions of the Bushmen are greatly threatened. Dispossessed of most of the land that nurtured their forefathers for countless generations, and destabilized as a result of westernization, the few Bushmen groups who have to some extent remained connected to the natural ways of their ancestors struggle to thrive. Most have moved off the land, to nearby towns and villages, and have thus become assimilated into relatively westernized communities. Some still remember the old ways, but many have forgotten.

In times gone by, their respect for the land equaled their respect for the Great Spiritual source, and it was understood by all that Spirit lives in everything. The spirit within sang in worship of the trees, the sky, the wind, the animals, fire and rain. They were a nation of great story-tellers, hunters, rainmakers and healers. Each individual had a sacred calling, a special gift. One person could see into the future, another could communicate with the spiritual realms and ancestors; some could communicate with the animals and, through this communion of souls, hunt food for the people. There were those who were gifted in the magical ways of the trance dance, in which the Shaman would experience entry into spiritual dimensions and from this perspective assist in healing the sick. Sometimes the healer would ‘become’ the animal by assuming particular qualities of its being. This special gift, sometimes referred to as ‘shape shifting’, has often been depicted in the numerous examples of Bushman rock art to be found throughout Southern Africa, as therianthropic beings (part human, part animal). Still others were blessed with intuitive knowledge about herbs and plant medicines.

These gifts were all understood to have come from the spiritual realms and were intended to maintain the ‘love connection’ they had with the Creator. The healing dance – the dance of the ancient consciousness of the land – has always been the dance of community, the dance that invokes the life-giving legacy of nature. Thus it was that the First Peoples of Southern Africa lived in peace with Mother Earth, sharing all that they had with one another. Their love connection – the simple communion with the animal and plant spirits, the sun, the moon, the stars and the ancestors – was their natural way to balance and share energy in order to live in harmony with all life everywhere. They always understood this essential interconnectedness of all life – that one member of the group is diminished by the lack of the other.

It is the Oneness of all of life which forms a common thread and establishes a bridge, from the spiritual perspective, between individuals and between countries – beyond borders and boundaries. If this Oneness is held as the common guiding principle in all that we do, think and say, it has the power to help us unite more deeply within our search for harmony, truth and light.

In order to embrace Oneness as inhabitants of Mother Earth, we are now challenged to recall the ancient memory, which is beyond language. The experience of the First Peoples suggests to us that collective memory be accessed via the feeling nature, by consciously acknowledging our pain and our joy (past and present), and then expressing this primal experience in symbolic ways that are meaningful to us. The sum total of a multi-dimensional inner journey of this nature is too vast and too intricate to be effectively conveyed between people solely by means of the intellect. If communicated via the heart and heart connections, we might authentically share with each other and with Spirit, who it is that we are.

The shared results of this re-awakening, sensed in the energies and feelings that form part of the experience (including feelings of love), have the power to bring about an acknowledgement in each individual of the fundamental nature of being human upon our planet – ‘god-man, god-woman’, with the potential for conscious awareness, within the context of the microcosmic and macrocosmic aspects of our universe.

As we recognise the significance and power of sacred sites associated with the ancients, we have the opportunity to honour these places as pilgrims. Furthermore, we are encouraged to become re-acquainted with natural medicines and to revive our intrinsic respect for natural law, thus regaining the knowledge that is necessary to thrive and live in harmony with the land.

As we remember, we release ourselves from time – from ‘the beginning and the end’ – and return to our essence. Resonating more harmoniously with the song of Mother Earth, we become more familiar with the intimate dance of relationship with our higher and lower nature, as well as with others around us. In honoring the Oneness of humanity, nature and Spirit, we begin to radiate creative vitality and the wisdom of the ages, which has always been our birthright.

Leon Lewis

from:    http://www.spiritofmaat.com/jul12/ancient_legacy.html

New Words for Wednesday

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Wednesday Words: Czarinas, Derecho Storms and More

NewsFeed’s weekly highlight of our vocabulary includes useful, new, hilarious and surprising words (as well as some that are just fun to roll off the old tongue).
By Katy Steinmetz | @katysteinmetz | July 4, 2012
David McGlynn

David McGlynn

czarina (n.): a chic Russian female who has gained attention as a customer, designer, etc., of high fashion. The New York Times‘ Eric Wilson writes of the czarinas’ return to the haute scene, describing them as “a pack of fabulous-looking young women” more striking than Vladimir Putin in a zoot suit. Compare to: gallerinas, the fabulous ladies of the American art scene; and princelings, arguably less aesthetically pleasing but plenty powerful players in Chinese institutions.

banksterism (n.): financial practices that are pejoratively likened to the behavior of gangsters. A member of British Parliament got some attention this week when he used this word in the House of Commons. “The public believe that Parliament and parties have indulged the banksterism that is now all too apparent,” Mark Durkan quipped. Some reporters thought he was the first, but the term has been around since the Great Depression, when Americans were similarly disillusioned with Wall Street. A Montana Senator leveled the label during the Pecora hearings of 1932, when bankers were grilled over their potential role in the collapse. “The best way to restore confidence in the banks,” he said, “would be to take these crooked presidents out … and treat them the same way we treated Al Capone when he failed to pay his income tax.” Zing!

derecho (n.): a large cluster of thunderstorms that produces widespread wind damage. This term spread as news outlets rushed to explain exactly what hit residents with extreme winds and power outages along the East Coast on June 29. “An ordinary thunderstorm produces a swath of damaging winds usually only a mile or two wide and a few miles long,” the Weather Channel said in a post last month, “but derechoes can produce damage swaths tens of miles wide and several hundred miles long.” The word means straight in Spanish, a reference to the long lines of wind damage the storms can leave behind. (On a lighter note, derecho–deh-REH-choh–also seems like a fine term for disappointingly low-quality nachos.

skeuomorph (n.): an object or feature which imitates the design of a similar artifact in another material. The Brooklyn Brainery, a community teaching organization, recently delved into a dire foodie mystery: why do so many maple syrup canisters have “tiny, useless handles”? (See their article and picture here.) Their answer was that this ostentation used to be practical–when the jars and handles were bigger–and is now a mere skeuomorph. This history bears further investigation, but the word is excellent regardless–much like the vision of a world in which maple syrup is only consumed from five-gallon containers. Just think of the pancakes.

scrub (n.): a lout, a failure, a dirty or unpleasant person or thing. Flavorwire did a fun roundup of slang-that’s-older-than-you’d-think, and one of their words is scrub. As in “Girl, you know I don’t want none.” Writer Emily Temple dates the term back to 1580s with an online etymology dictionary; Green’s Dictionary of Slang, from which this definition comes, dates their first entry at 1698. Other scrubby terms from Green’s include scrub turkey, an itinerant who moves around the Australian bush; and scrubbado, “a general term of abuse.” As in, “Scrubbado you meddling kids, and your dog, too!”

Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/07/04/wednesday-words-czarinas-derecho-storms-and-more/#ixzz1zfzP8Jqd

Hidden Portals in Earth’s Magnetic Field

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Hidden Portals in Earth’s Magnetic Field

07.02.12
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A NASA-sponsored researcher at the University of Iowa has developed a way for spacecraft to hunt down hidden magnetic portals in the vicinity of Earth. These gateways link the magnetic field of our planet to that of the sun, setting the stage for stormy space weather. The Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission will study these portals. Credit: Science@NASA

A favorite theme of science fiction is “the portal”–an extraordinary opening in space or time that connects travelers to distant realms. A good portal is a shortcut, a guide, a door into the unknown. If only they actually existed….

It turns out that they do, sort of, and a NASA-funded researcher at the University of Iowa has figured out how to find them.

“We call them X-points or electron diffusion regions,” explains plasma physicist Jack Scudder of the University of Iowa. “They’re places where the magnetic field of Earth connects to the magnetic field of the Sun, creating an uninterrupted path leading from our own planet to the sun’s atmosphere 93 million miles away.”

Observations by NASA’s THEMIS spacecraft and Europe’s Cluster probes suggest that these magnetic portals open and close dozens of times each day. They’re typically located a few tens of thousands of kilometers from Earth where the geomagnetic field meets the onrushing solar wind. Most portals are small and short-lived; others are yawning, vast, and sustained. Tons of energetic particles can flow through the openings, heating Earth’s upper atmosphere, sparking geomagnetic storms, and igniting bright polar auroras.

NASA is planning a mission called “MMS,” short for Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission, due to launch in 2014, to study the phenomenon. Bristling with energetic particle detectors and magnetic sensors, the four spacecraft of MMS will spread out in Earth’s magnetosphere and surround the portals to observe how they work.

Just one problem: Finding them. Magnetic portals are invisible, unstable, and elusive. They open and close without warning “and there are no signposts to guide us in,” notes Scudder.

Actually, there are signposts, and Scudder has found them.

Portals form via the process of magnetic reconnection. Mingling lines of magnetic force from the sun and Earth criss-cross and join to create the openings. “X-points” are where the criss-cross takes place. The sudden joining of magnetic fields can propel jets of charged particles from the X-point, creating an “electron diffusion region.”

To learn how to pinpoint these events, Scudder looked at data from a space probe that orbited Earth more than 10 years ago.

“In the late 1990s, NASA’s Polar spacecraft spent years in Earth’s magnetosphere,” explains Scudder, “and it encountered many X-points during its mission.”

Data from NASA's Polar spacecraft, circa 1998, provided crucial clues to finding magnetic X-points. › View larger
Data from NASA’s Polar spacecraft, circa 1998, provided crucial clues to finding magnetic X-points. Credit: NASA Because Polar carried sensors similar to those of MMS, Scudder decided to see how an X-point looked to Polar. “Using Polar data, we have found five simple combinations of magnetic field and energetic particle measurements that tell us when we’ve come across an X-point or an electron diffusion region. A single spacecraft, properly instrumented, can make these measurements.”

This means that single member of the MMS constellation using the diagnostics can find a portal and alert other members of the constellation. Mission planners long thought that MMS might have to spend a year or so learning to find portals before it could study them. Scudder’s work short cuts the process, allowing MMS to get to work without delay.

It’s a shortcut worthy of the best portals of fiction, only this time the portals are real. And with the new “signposts” we know how to find them.

from:    http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/mag-portals.html

Army Developing Lightning Weapons

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Army Looks to Strike Foes with Lightning Weapon

InnovationNewsDaily Staff
Date: 22 June 2012
Laser-induced Plasma Channel
A guided lightning bolt travels horizontally, then hits a car when it finds the lower resistance path to ground in a U.S. Army test.
CREDIT: U.S. Army | Picatinny Arsenal

Today’s military lasers can blind spy satellites or burn enemy vehicles, but tomorrow’s could guide lightning bolts to strike and destroy battlefield targets.

A U.S. Army lab is testing how lasers can create an energized plasma channel in the air — an invisible pathway for electricity to follow. The laser-guided lightning weapon could precisely hit targets such as enemy tanks or unexploded roadside bombs, because such targets represent better conductors for electricity than the ground.

“We never got tired of the lightning bolts zapping our simulated (targets),” said George Fischer, lead scientist on the project at the U.S. Army’s Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center at Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey.Today’s military lasers can blind spy satellites or burn enemy vehicles, but tomorrow’s could guide lightning bolts to strike and destroy battlefield targets.

The weapon idea mimics the way that lightning leaps from thunderclouds to strike the ground — the electricity follows the path of least resistance, Fischer explained.

Army researchers used an “ultra-short-pulse laser of modest energy” that keeps the laser beam focused through its own intensity. The laser’s electro-magnetic field can harvest electrons from air molecules to create the plasma pathway for electricity to follow.

“During the duration of the laser pulse, it can be putting out more power than a large city needs, but the pulse only lasts for two-trillionths of a second,” Fischer said.

Such a “laser-induced plasma channel” could also direct high-powered microwave pulses as well as electricity, according to a 2009 Wired article. Microwave pulses have already become weapons in Air Force missiles used to burn out the electronic systems of air defense centers, military jets or drones.

Army soldiers may not get to target enemies with Zeus-like lightning bolts anytime soon — the technology remains a lab prototype. But the idea joins a growing arsenal of possible futuristic weapons such as the Navy’s railgun superweapon capable of hurling hypersonic projectiles over 50 to 100 miles, or the Army’s hypersonic weapon for striking targets anywhere on Earth within an hour.

from:   http://www.livescience.com/21128-army-strike-lightning-weapon.html