happy halloween-- SCARY stuff! pumpkins, bugs, Toba eruption

the matrix

you can take the red pill, or the blue pill

vzn

Location: denver,

Bio: software engr born 1970. coding from young age. "digital brain" but with lots of feelings too. writing here mainly to publicize a few key issues, let off some steam, & for the feedback. plz write me comments, very much appreciated!! even on old posts!! helps me gauge reader interest/ reaction & steer direction of new posts.

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This one is no different.; The Man Who Crashed the World -- by Michael Lewis; The New Trough -- The Wall Street bailout looks a lot like Iraq — a "free-fraud zone" where private contractors cash in on the mess they helped create by NAOMI KLEIN; Max Keiser: "Goldman Sachs' crash of markets last year was a false flag operation" [4m video]; The Great American Bubble Machine -- Matt Taibbi on how Goldman Sachs has engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression; Ron Paul Strikes Gold -- Why the oft-marginalized congressman is the greatest threat to Obama’s regulatory plan.; Will the 'Dollar Wars' Kill What's Left of the American Dream?; Bullion and Bandits: The Improbable Rise and Fall of E-Gold; Confessing to the Converted, NYT profile on John Perkins; The Big Takeover The global economic crisis isn't about money - it's about power. How Wall Street insiders are using the bailout to stage a revolution; Shock Doctrine: Naomi Klein on the Rise of Disaster Capitalism; The Quiet Coup by Simon Johnson; John Perkins on "The Secret History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and the Truth about Global Corruption"; Confessions of an Economic Hit Man: How the U.S. Uses Globalization to Cheat Poor Countries Out of Trillions
nanothermite: Congressman Brad Sherman’s office admits explosives found in the World Trade Center dust – “…but not enough to bring down the towers.”; South Tower Smoking Guns by David Chandler [2m video]; Steven E Jones presentation on Nanothermite in Sacramento, California, on April 30th, 2009; Explosive Theory -- Eight years after 9/11, a growing organization of building trades professionals suspect that there was more to the event than the government will admit; South Tower flaming, thrusting nanothermite-coated projectile caught on video! [3m video]; Who Put Super-Thermite in the Twin Towers? By Christopher Bollyn; 29 Structural & Civil Engineers Cite Evidence for Controlled Explosive Demolition in Collapses of All 3 WTC High-Rises on 9/11; Richard Gage on KMPH Fox 26 in Fresno, CA [7m video]; Ask the President about Nanothermite -- vote up; Open Government Dialogue-- New Evidence Re 911 [nanothermite] -- vote up; Jonathan Kay: An evening in Montreal with Richard Gage, 9/11 Truth Movement prophet extraordinaire; Questions to Niels Harrit concerning the study "Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe".; WeAreChange LA Questions VP Biden on 9/11 and Nano-thermite; Study claims 'highly engineered explosive' found in WTC rubble; The Future Doesnt Need Us by Bill Joy, 4-2000 [on societal danger of unconstrained nanotechnology]; Traces of explosives in 9/11 dust, scientists say; A danish scientist Niels Harrit, on nano-thermite in the WTC dust ( Youtube video, 10m, english subtitles ); top 10 connections between NIST and nanothermites by kevin ryan; Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe; Pardon Our Dust, or, Why the World Trade Center Dust Matters
9/11 conspiracy: CIA collusion with “Al Qaeda” financiers and attack planners; The Growing Absurdity and Desperation of Conspiracy Theory Debunkers; Psychology Today Hatchet Job [on Alex Jones] Labels Conspiracy Thinking A Psychotic Illness [pdf]; Forget Van Jones, The Majority Of Americans Question 9/11; Bombshell: Bin Laden worked for US until 9/11; 9/11 FEMA videographer at Ground Zero goes public; Debunking Myths on Conspiracy Theories; AIA Convention, San Francisco. Richard Gage Interviews Architects [video, 48m]; Active and retired top military brass met to discuss what really happened on 9/11; Area man stirs debate on WTC collapse South Bend firm's lab director fired after questioning federal probe; 9/11: Blueprint for Truth - WTC Building 7 - 10 minute Segment from New AE911Truth Companion Edition; deconstruction of NYT hatchet job on 9/11 truthers; Deconstructing Deceit: 9/11, The Media, and Myth Information [35 pg pdf by academics]; 9/11 Commission Counsel: Government Agreed to Lie About 9/11; Translation of Secret BND Report of September 11, 2001; AN ANALYSIS OF THE TERRORIST ATTACKS ON AMERICAN TARGETS ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 WITH APPROPRIATE BACKGROUND INFORMATION; Architects and Engineers for 9/11 truth; 9-11 review; 9-11 research; alex jones InfoWars news; 911 blogger/news
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OCTOBER 30, 2009 12:43AM

Rate: 4 Flag

hi all, I was thinking of leaving my last post standing as this my blog contribution to halloween for this year, but other stuff popped up that I cant resist & deserves a new post -- and anyway the law of unintended consequences has sort of erupted over in that other corner of cyberspace.. the hoodlums have gotten out of control.... maybe this will distract them for awhile....

[a] amazing virtuoso pumpkin carving

http://lifestyle.msn.com/your-home/martha-stewart/staticslideshow.aspx?cp-documentid=21771196

this is #14-- its totally phenomenal, it looks like a poster. most nuanced pumpkin carving Ive ever seen.

[b] bug photos by Thomas Shahan

these are some of the most vivid insect photos Ive ever seen, possibly the best in the world Id say.. check em out in hidef, they look like they could leap right out of the tv. happy halloween & watch out for the monsters-- some in real life!

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/33445823/from/ET/?beginSlide=1#

Ive got my eyes on you!!

hey, heres a great idea. instead of stupid "lolcats" (most of which Im sure are propagated by females...or at least gays...) maybe "we" can create ridiculous captions for the insects. maybe that would be an effective countertrend/reactionary force huh?

this is Shahan's flickr stream, well worth visiting
http://www.flickr.com/photos/opoterser

[c] the 74,000 year old toba eruption

this is one of the coolest scientific stories of all time, but still somewhat obscure, few people have heard of it, and the scientific theories backing it are all still pretty young.

basically about 74K years ago, a *super* volcano in what is now Toba lake in indonesa/southeast asia erupted. one of the largest eruptions ever, and it was probably 1000x larger than any monster eruption in recorded history such as vesuvius, mt st helens, etcetera.

independent scientific research into DNA mitochondria divergence suggests that probably only a few thousand human families survived!! this is one of the most incredible population bottlenecks that has ever existed in human history, and perhaps across many species also.

to put it simply, humanity was driven within millimeters of total extinction/annhilation during this period. I am not making this up. did you read about this in school? probably not, because much of the scientific evidence is less than two decades old. the books are being rewritten as we speak, its a real kuhnian revolution in play right in front of our eyes. I admit, not all scientists accept this as fact.

but anyway, can you imagine that if the entire human race just consisted of people/families in your own neighborhood/suburb? it is not known yet if they were scattered all over the world or were localized geographically. the Toba event is considered to have happened when humanity had spread out of africa.

or heck-- maybe this was close to about the current population of Open Salon. can you imagine if *poof* everyone in the entire world vanished except for those of us who post on open salon? hmmm oh yeah theres a real quality gene pool for sure, wink -- yeah we've got a real fighting chance now....horrors!! Ill be having nightmares tonite for sure with that thought....

heres a recent meandering/funky/interesting/excellent/mindbending article that ties in this event with intelligence augmentation and the singularity, a topic of my last post. it suggests that intelligence augmentation will get us through the next "squeeze", basically the mass climate change triggered by global warming-- which the toba eruption almost makes look like childs play.

Get Smarter
Pandemics. Global warming. Food shortages. No more fossil fuels. What are humans to do? The same thing the species has done before: evolve to meet the challenge. But this time we don’t have to rely on natural evolution to make us smart enough to survive. We can do it ourselves, right now, by harnessing technology and pharmacology to boost our intelligence. Is Google actually making us smarter?
by Jamais Cascio
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/print/200907/intelligence

global warming can be a scary thing, and its staggering implications on humanity are not to be downplayed or diminished, but humans have probably gone through several population "squeezes" in the history of humanity (but not recorded history).

it seems to me & others one such semi-recorded squeeze may have been a massive flood; anthropologists argue that it is recorded in many disparate/indpendent cultures/civilizations. there would probably be several others outside the several-millenia range of recorded history.

there is a great Nova video dvd documentary on this that can be found on Netflix, I just watched it last weekend. unfortunately it doesnt get into the one of the most intense parts of it all, the DNA/mitochondria/human "bottleneck" link. hoping to find some other documentary that does.. if you know of one, let me know. here are some articles on their web site. (theres another Nova documentary on the glacier dam in Wyoming breaking, they go well together.)

followed by some wikipedia articles on the subject, so you know its definitely for real. =)

The Next Big One by Peter Tyson
What could we expect if a supereruption were to occur today? http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/megavolcano/bigone.html

Why Toba Matters
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/megavolcano/shindell.html

wikpedia -- Toba eruption
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toba_eruption

Toba catastrophe theory
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toba_catastrophe_theory

[d] "scariest halloween costume ever"

this video is making the "viral" rounds and some tasteless friend of mine sent it [I know that phrase might sound redundant to some... but more ironically, he works at an elite fortune 500 company...] -- and it shows, there really is a good reason they call this stuff viral. ewwwww!! so of course, perfect for the open salon crowd.... have you seen it???

ok its so tasteless that as a concession, Im not gonna embed the video. you've been warned. NSFW. for those of you women that cringe at this, note that clearly the guy got maced for his creative/artistic/twisted sense of humor!! I wonder what country this happened in!! do you think the women were actors?! it seems awfully realistic.... and by the way, if you pass this on, dont tell 'em I found this.

Scariest halloween costume ever!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYjj-qzUWWA

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That's exactly why I avoid public restrooms

Spin Doctor

October 30, 2009 10:30 AM

Da Vincvi nis know for his pumpkin carving. His best one was called "The Mona Lisa."

john blumenthal

October 30, 2009 12:03 PM

thanks guys =)
looks like I managed to scare the females completely away. so I guess its boys club only around here. sometime, Ill have to try to think of a reason that would be a bad thing...

vzn

October 30, 2009 09:04 PM

WHOA! R-R-R-Rated, with a scare factor of one mini-googleplex! Been away fer a coupla moons, but now that the rogue AIs that had kidnapped me have agreed to my release on condition that I say only nice things about 'em...I iz bak!

Caracalla's Amanuensis

November 01, 2009 12:35 PM

Woah!!! You've just cured my ego problem!!!! Thanks for the cure!!!! Reading others is blowing me away. I've been reading my sisters, Just Cathy and MaryTKelly for a while now and Mary's been bugging me to write as well. I've read for years from Dostoyevsky to Dickens and Austen to Camus, but never came across anyone like you. You da bomb!

Joan Wilder

November 01, 2009 08:23 PM

hey joan, thanks for dropping by, if it werent for newbies like you, Id probably have no audience at all. virtually everyone else on OS has enough sense to avoid me =)
Ive read dostoyevsky and camus, and probably austin too [cant remember.. forget.. did she write pride & prejudice?] but it was forced in my AP english classes.. does that count? Id think youd have to be insane to do it voluntarily :p ..
your family seems very talented & literary. very impressive.
ps you arent any relation to gene wilder are you? loved that frankenstein movie..
j/k :p

vzn

November 02, 2009 01:01 AM

On the subject of Toba...

Toba is one of a handful of what are called "Supervolcanoes". Yellowstone, Toba, Krakatoa, Edinburgh... I can't remember the name of the one in Africa or the one on the Mongolian Plain at the moment BUT they are horrifyingly fascinating.

Did you know that the Caldera at Yellowstone is growing and has been for several years?

MrsRaptor

November 03, 2009 11:11 PM

yep, the study of supervolcanoes is very young, because they were discovered only relatively recently. they are all over the world, probably dozens at least, and some undiscovered. there are known volcanoes that are not known to be supervolcanoes, but might be candidates. apparently it takes very careful/extended study to determine if a volcano is a supervolcano and likely not all have been discovered yet.

looking at wikipedia, the last yellowstone eruption was 70K years ago. (which is not that far away from the toba eruption!)
here is an interesting factoid they mention in the movie:
"Yellowstone has gone off roughly once every 600,000 years. Its last eruption was 640,000 years ago.
The next explosion is already overdue. "
however, I suspect that is kind of a statistical inaccuracy to say that it is "overdue" because the eruptions are only that far apart on average-- its not like a really accurate clock inside the volcano. (I dont know the deviation, that would take a lot more googling...)

but anyway, it does give new meaning to the phrase "old faithful" huh!!

vzn

November 04, 2009 10:22 PM

The bugs were so damn cool it almost brought tear to my eyes.

--Shelob