It seems that the US is facing yet another parasite/pest that has come from open borders (I allude to Africanised bees, which are a real danger here in sunny Florida), and this time it is ticks:

“The tick, the Asian longhorned tick (or Haemaphysalis longicornis), has the potential to transmit an assortment of nasty diseases to humans, including an emerging virus that kills up to 30 percent of victims. So far, the tick hasn’t been found carrying any diseases in the US. It currently poses the largest threat to livestock, pets, and wild animals; the ticks can attack en masse and drain young animals of blood so quickly that they die—an execution method called exsanguination. Key to the tick’s explosive spread and bloody blitzes is that its invasive populations tend to reproduce asexually—that is, without mating. Females drop up to 2,000 eggs over the course of two or three weeks, quickly giving rise to a ravenous army of clones. In one US population studied so far, experts encountered a massive swarm of the ticks in a single paddock, totaling well into the thousands. They speculated that the population might have a ratio of about one male to 400 females. Yesterday, August 7, Maryland became the eighth state to report the presence of the tick. It followed a similar announcement last Friday, August 3, from Pennsylvania. Other affected states include New York, Arkansas, North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia.”
http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/deadly-terminator-tick-spreads-in-america-will-literally-drain-an-animal-dry-of-its-lifes-blood_08102018

     I recently wrote a blog piece discussing the issue of the health threat of microwaves on the heart. To the editor’s surprise, the blog was drawn to the attention of some medical researchers who are at the cutting edge of this research, and they kindly forward a research paper. The paper is: “Cardiovascular disease: Time to identify emerging environmental risk factors,” by  Priyanka Bandara and Steven Weller, published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology 2017, vol. 24(17) 1819–1823. Not having any access to a university library, I could not provide a link for readers. But, we did have provided a useful press release, so, as we are legitimate journalists:

“This paper was prompted by a new Australian study that found an increasing proportion of heart attack patients without the established risk factors: high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes and smoking. Cardiology researchers led by Prof. Gemma Figtree investigated patients reporting with a first-time heart attack at the Royal North Shore Hospital (RNSH), a major Australian tertiary hospital of the University of Sydney. Their research found a clear increase in the percentage of patients from 2006 to 2014 whose heart attacks were poorly explained by the standard risk factors. Based on their own data and complementary data from elsewhere, they emphasised the need to identify new risk factors. The link to RNSH study: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/2047487317720287 Bandara and Weller draw attention to their recent review of experimental studies that have investigated oxidative stress: “In our latest review, 242 RF-EMR studies that investigated experimental endpoints related to oxidative stress (OS)16 were identified.

     Having worked in the building trade, I was amazed to read that vegetables could soon be making buildings stronger. But how?
  https://www.naturalnews.com/2018-08-14-will-future-buildings-be-made-from-vegetables.html
  https://www.alphagalileo.org/en-gb/Item-Display/ItemId/165003?returnurl=https://www.alphagalileo.org/en-gb/Item-Display/ItemId/165003

“It is well known that vegetables are good for people but they could also be the key to making stronger and greener buildings. Engineers at Lancaster University are working with industrial partners at Cellucomp Ltd UK to research how concrete mixtures can be strengthened and made more environmentally friendly by adding ‘nano platelets’ extracted from the fibres of root vegetables. The work, which is being supported with £195,000 by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 funding, will build on findings from early tests that have demonstrated that concrete mixtures including nano platelets from sugar beet or carrot significantly improve the mechanical properties of concrete. These vegetable-composite concretes were also found to out-perform all commercially available cement additives, such as graphene and carbon nanotubes and at a much lower cost. The root vegetable nano platelets work both to increase the amount of calcium silicate hydrate – the main substance that controls the performance of concrete, and stop any cracks that appear in the concrete.

     Tech futurist Robert Tercek is  author of  Vaporized: Solid Strategies for Success in a Dematerialized World, (LifeTree Media, 2015). He addresses a problem which by now is well known to most of us, namely that there is a process of “vaporisation” occurring where former material industries are becoming dematerialised by digitalisation. A good example of this is given in Tercek’s discussion of what happened to Tower Records.:
  https://vaporizedbook.com/what-happened-to-tower-records-7b243736d73a

     Tower Records on Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles was considered to be one of the most famous record shops in the world, and went strong for 36 years. But then the shop, and others in the chain closed in 2006. Other record shops closed soon after, because the physical products that they sold were replaced by MP3 players and the dawn of digital music, of downloadable music and subscription streaming-audio services. An entire industry was “vaporised” or digitalised. This is the thesis of Vaporized:

     For your interest; the possibility of vast alien megastructures blocking the light from the star KIC 8462852:
  https://arxiv.org/abs/1509.03622
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gypAjPp6eps 
  https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/457/4/3988/2589003

     If this is evidence of advanced alien life, then they must have solved the problem of how not to destroy themselves. Perhaps they channel their aggression into destroying other civilisations as in this forthcoming movie representation, Predator (2018):

     Attention seeker Arnie Schwarzenegger is suing Big Oil, who supply the fuel for his motor vehicles, for murder, or some such nonsense:
  https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/03/12/arnold-schwarzenegger-sxsw-trump-big-oil-me-too-217345

     Never mind that he and the rest of society are accomplishes to this “murder”, cooperating in producing greenhouse gases by relentless consumption. Movies are an example of the trial waste. By his “logic” everyone is a murderer. That includes cows:
  https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-07-19/meat-dairy-industry-surpass-big-oil-worlds-biggest-polluters

     The Australian electricity market has become a stinking swamp covered with a tangled net of treaties, laws, rules, obligations, prohibitions, targets, taxes and subsidies. The swamp conceals the rubble of demolished coal generators; another plant destined for destruction (Liddell) is gradually sinking in the green ooze. The swamp is slowly claiming paddocks of subsidised solar panels that, at best, only work for six hours per sunny day. The scene is uglified by spec-built regiments of ailing wind turbines that are often idle, but sometimes whirling madly. To distract the gullible media from this mess, big diesel generators charge a gigantic battery which pumps water uphill and then lets it run down again. A garbage dump of dead lithium batteries fills a nearby gully and the swamp is fenced by locked green gates.

     The stagnant water is stirred on sunny days by luxury launches carrying academics-with-models, green media evangelists, climate alarmists, emissions inspectors and power regulators. Speculative sharks constantly patrol the swamp snapping up every smelly subsidy morsel scattered by politicians in posh yachts fishing for votes. Helicopters full of unelected UN officials hover overhead, creating choppy waves of uncertainty. A pleasant hill overlooking the swamp houses the air-conditioned offices of the power regulators. They have no windows to the world and few power engineers; they stare at screens, run models and press buttons. The way out of the energy swamp is to retrace the way we got in.

     Greenies said “You can’t burn coal” – so we sent our coal to China. Then our factories and our smelters closed and followed the coal to China.

     Greenies said “You can’t eat beef” – so we sent our beef to China. Then burger chains and canneries closed and followed the beef to China.

     I have discussed in various articles over the years the threat of EMP  - electromagnetic pulse events – from either high altitude nuclear explosions, or via the sun. There was nearly a catastrophe that would have dragged modern civilisation down the drain in 2012, but fortunately we lucked out, and the super-high energy zap from the sun only fried one unlucky satellite. Society is not prepared for a Carrington Event EMP, the name given to the largest solar storm which hit the Earth in 1859, roasting the telegraph system of the day:
  https://www.naturalnews.com/2018-07-22-9-mind-blowing-effects-of-a-grid-down-emp-scenario.html
  http://empcommission.org/docs/A2473-EMP_Commission-7MB.pdf 
  https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/03/110302-solar-flares-sun-storms-earth-danger-carrington-event-science/ 
  https://www.businessinsider.com.au/massive-1859-solar-storm-telegraph-scientists-2016-9?r=US&IR=T

     Even mainstream sources admit that modern electro-IT civilisation would be devastated. However, the effects are seldom detailed but the natural News.com article goes into some depth about what we could expect:

     I have covered Plan B type material, where things may not go as either we, or our enemies hope, because life is uncertain. Civilisations have collapsed before, and if you accept that the world is older than 4,000 years, 99 percent of species on the planet have faced extinction events. So, It does hit the fan. But, is It about to again? There are many opinions on this, but we little people all lack vital information. The elite, however, are fully cashed up on data, and would do anything to save their butts. One computer expert has already given advice to some of the elites who can see the writing on the wall:
  http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/the-wealthy-elitists-plan-to-survive-the-apocalypse-and-leave-us-behind_07242018
  https://medium.com/s/futurehuman/survival-of-the-richest-9ef6cddd0cc1

“They started out innocuously enough. Ethereum or bitcoin? Is quantum computing a real thing? Slowly but surely, however, they edged into their real topics of concern. Which region will be less impacted by the coming climate crisis: New Zealand or Alaska? Is Google really building Ray Kurzweil a home for his brain, and will his consciousness live through the transition, or will it die and be reborn as a whole new one? Finally, the CEO of a brokerage house explained that he had nearly completed building his own underground bunker system and asked, “How do I maintain authority over my security force after the event?”

     The Green-ants said “You can’t burn coal” – so we sent our coal to China. Then our factories and our smelters closed and followed the coal to China.
     The Green-ants said “You can’t eat beef” – so we sent our beef to China. Then burger chains and canneries closed and followed the beef to China.
     The Green-ants said “Protect the trees” – so our grasslands went to weeds. Then China’s wool cheques disappeared and graziers went on welfare.
     The Green-ants said “Don’t mention nukes” – so we shipped those fuels to China. Then Chinese power costs fell while ours just kept on soaring.
     The Green-ants said “You can’t frack gas” – so we sent our drills to China. Then geologists and engineers were fired and followed the rigs to China.

     Then blackouts came and jobs got scarce, so our kids chased jobs in China.

     Being a Right winger fringe dweller, I pride myself in believing in all conspiracies that don’t involve harm to people. Take the alleged moon landings. Sure, I too saw it on black and white TV back in the prehistoric era when I was a teenybopper. It looked fake then, with the US flag blowing in the breeze, or even standing up. Look, you can go onto the mainstream media, like YouTube and find material criticising it. Even on Facebook, so the truth must be out there. And, there is a motive too, the US wanting to spit in the eye of the communist monster. Hell, why didn’t the Russians fake a moon landing back? Or, why didn’t the Russians expose it at the time? After all, most Russians are like me, and just don’t believe:
  https://www.rt.com/politics/434419-russians-nasa-lunar-fake/

“Over a half of all Russians believe that US astronauts have never been on the Moon and that the US authorities and NASA covered up this fact by forging proof of moon landings, a new poll shows. In the recent survey titled “Science and society: authority and trust” experts of the Russian state-run public opinion research center VTSIOM wrote that 57 percent of Russians currently think that the US claims of successful manned Moon missions are lies and that the documented proof of these missions was forged. Only 24 percent of respondents said that they believed that the manned Moon missions were real. Researchers also specified that 65 percent of those who think that the US authorities are lying about the moon landings have secondary education.

     Australia’s bee industry has been free of colony collapse disorder, which is devastating bees across the world. While there are many theories about the cause of the death of bees, including the use of various insecticides and herbicides, one co-factor may be the presence of varroa mite:
  http://amp.abc.net.au/article/9923972

“The potentially devastating varroa mite, which could wipe out the Australian beekeeping industry, has been detected in Victoria. A bee colony infested with the varroa mite was detected on Wednesday at the Port of Melbourne on a ship from the United States. A colony was found in a wooden crate and tests revealed some bees were infested with varroa mite, but the exact variety of the varroa mite is yet to be determined. Australia is one of the last remaining countries in the world to be free of the blood-sucking varroa destructor, which has already devastated bee colonies in New Zealand, the United States, and Europe. Varroa destructor is the breed of mite that affects European honey bees, which agriculture industries around the world rely on for pollination. However, north Queensland has had recent incursions of the less dangerous varroa jacobsoni, which only infects Asian honey bees. Agriculture Victoria chief health plant officer Nigel Ainsworth said the master of the ship reported seeing dead bees on the ship, which was immediately investigated by Agriculture Victoria and the Commonwealth Department of Agriculture and Water Resources (DAWR) upon docking at the Port of Melbourne. Mr Ainsworth said the colony had been destroyed and Agriculture Victoria was “confident” the situation was contained to the single colony.’

     Tony Abbott is right – Australia should quit the Paris Climate Treaty. China, India, Russia, Brazil, South Africa and Indonesia will ignore Paris. USA has already quit and Japan even withdrew from the Kyoto Treaty. Germany will fail to meet its obligations and Poland will not try very hard. France relies heavily on nuclear power and naturally supports imposing Paris handicaps on competitors. Australia has huge coal, gas, oil and uranium resources. To export these, while we hobble our industries with windmill power, is insane.
  Viv Forbes, Washpool, Qld Australia

     All my life I have believed in the coming ice age, whether there was evidence for it or not. Shivers,   most global warming freaks believe in their myth without evidence or understanding the science, so why can’t I be able to do the same? Anyway things are cool, and getting cooler in some parts of the world, so how can such coldness be found in a world which is supposed to be melting? You tell me?
  http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/06/30/scientists-observe-coldest-temperatures-ever-on-earths-surface/

“Researchers released a report this week revealing “ultralow surface temperatures” in East Antarctica that surpass the coldest temperatures ever recorded on the earth’s surface. The lowest measured air temperature on earth is −89.2 °C (−129 F) on 23 July 1983, observed at Vostok Station in Antarctica, but new data published in Geophysical Research Letters this week, has found that some 100 different locations on the East Antarctic Plateau reached temperatures of -98° C (-144° F) during the Antarctic polar night between 2004–2016. A team from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado Boulder have identified the East Antarctic Plateau — a massive, empty expanse the size of Australia that begins near the South Pole — as the coldest place on the planet. The East Antarctic Plateau sits some 3,500 m (11,500 ft) above sea level and the air over the Plateau is extremely still, dry and thin, providing an ideal environment for extreme cold.”

     The climate alarm media, the bureaucracy and the Green Energy industry follow an agenda which is served by inflating any short-term weather event into a climate calamity. They should take a long-term view. Earth’s climate is never still – it is always changing, with long-term trends, medium-term reversals and minor oscillations. Humanity is best served by those who use good science to study geology, astronomy and climate history searching for clues to climate drivers and the underlying natural cycles and trends hidden in short-term weather fluctuations. For the last 10,000 years Earth has basked in the Holocene Interglacial which is the latest of many warm cycles within the Pleistocene Ice Age. There are small warm and cool cycles within the Holocene. Today we enjoy the Modern Warm Cycle (which started about calendar 1900) following the Little Ice Age which bottomed in about 1750. What does the future hold? The past gives clues to the future.
     To view the whole article plus images click:
  http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/waves-and-tides.pdf

     The common theme to all writers here is a complete scepticism about centralised power, for we all believe that power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Thus, we would be happiest with a radical decentralisation of all power, social, political, economic and especially financial. Social credit embraces this philosophy as well, seeing centralised money power as crushing individual freedom, and much, much else.

     Fine, but what would happen if a society actually followed what we advocate? Would it be a failed social experiment, at the opposite end of the spectrum from socialism? In fact, the results will be splendid, for this social experiment actually works!
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-07-02/mexican-town-overthrew-their-local-government-and-things-are-going-great

     I just love plastic, and collect all sorts of plastic objects, such as broken toys, pieces of random junk, and of course bottles, which I sell to keep this vast journalistic operation afloat. Now I have been told by the UN, personally, of all people, that soon there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish, probably because of my white privilege:
http://www.collapse.news/2018-07-03-by-2050-our-oceans-will-have-more-plastic-than-fish.html
https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/world-environment-day-un-plastic-pollution-waste-ban-bags-recycling-a8384311.html

“Plastic has been highlighted as one of the biggest environmental threats facing the world by the UN in a call to action issued to mark World Environment Day. While emphasising the success of many international efforts to tackle plastic waste, the organisation described how the “scourge of plastic” has reached every corner of the Earth. In a report billed as the most comprehensive yet to examine global government strategies against the “scourge”, UN experts called for concerted action to “beat plastic pollution”. Levies and bans – of the kind already being rolled out for some plastic products in the UK – were found to be among the most effective strategies for dealing with the problem. Presenting case studies from more than 60 countries, the UN analysis explored the different strategies being implemented and suggested measures that policymakers can take to curb the problem.”

     I found this phenomenon, of extreme parasitism in the insect kingdom, illuminating:
  https://www.livescience.com/62986-alien-wasp-parasitoid-xenomorph.html?utm_source=ls-newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20180705-ls
  https://jhr.pensoft.net/articles.php?id=25219

“Imagine you are a caterpillar. You’re sitting down for a nice picnic lunch with your caterpillar buddies in the shade of a eucalyptus tree, munching on the tasty leaves and joking about caterpillar things (“Why did the butterfly get kicked out of the dance? Because it was a mothball! LOLOLOL”), when suddenly, you feel it — a stabbing pain in your stomach. Your whole body starts to quake. You feel heavy inside, like something is trying to break free. Then, something does. One bite at a time, dozens of black larval wasps gnaw their way through your body. Your buddies freak out until they are silenced by the same fate — each one split open by a brood of black alien babies. Needless to say, this is not the picnic you hoped for. Unfortunately for caterpillars, similar incidents happen all over the world, all the time. This is the grim calling card of Microgastrinae, a subfamily of parasitoid wasps that reproduce by injecting their eggs into caterpillars and then allowing their young to literally eat their way through the host bug’s body.

     Let’s suppose that I knew something about rockets, and built one, and in my folly fired it into the sky. Suppose too, that it was a powerful rocket, that went high up into the sky, and had a trajectory over a major capital city. Then the rocket crashes into the main shopping mall killing thousands. Do you think I would get the key to the city, or a prison cell? Then again, I am not China, and things are different when you are king of the castle.
  https://www.livescience.com/62077-tiangong-re-entry-date.html

     China’s space station is about to fall to earth. The scientist say that the probability of it hitting anybody is so small that we should not worry about it. Yes, but if it was Trump’s space junk, I suppose the probability would radically alter then. Anyway, if you find any space junk, apart from it being toxic and killing you, it is illegal to touch, being property of China, and apparently our authorities will throw you in gaol, for the Chinese.