If you missed it, please check out the Ozarker's Saturday post over at Conflicted Doomer.
it's called "Your Porch Roof is Collapsing" and she does a wonderful job, yet again, of putting things in perspective. It seems to me, as we end this year and look to 2012, the collapsing porch roof is a metaphor for what is happening here in the United States. It’s easy to look across the ocean and see that Europe’s porch roof is collapsing, but I am stunned at how easily we Americans have ignored our own sagging roof.
Please check out this post on Desdemona Despair. It's kind of mind blowing when you see all of these things together like that.
And also, this must read article from Guy McPherson
According to Mark Twain, “civilization is the limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities.”And for a very thorough wrap up of weekly economic news, be sure to check in or RJ every Friday afternoon! You can find him toiling away at Global Glass Onion.
We can hope western civilization is just about done with the mindless multiplication of anything, much less unnecessary nonsense. And we can, and should, work toward that goal. In light of the likely near-term extinction of Homo sapiens if western civilization maintains its current course, I’m an unapologetic fan of terminating western civilization as quickly as possible.
Japan
SOTT: New Year Despair for Japan's Nuclear Refugees
SOTT: Japan: DIY Cesium Scanning Store May Be 'New Normal'
The tranquil residential city of 406,000 in Chiba Prefecture rarely enters the national spotlight, except when Kashiwa Reysol, the local soccer team, is playing at home.
But on a street just six minutes from JR Kashiwa Station, the Bec-Miru facility that Motohiro Takamatsu opened in October is turning heads by offering residents a chance to scan their own groceries, garden soil and other items for radiation.
Global Conflict
MSNBC: Manhunt for Iraq vet after Rainier ranger killed BusinessInsider: US Civilians Are Now Helping Decide Who To Kill With Military Drones
Zerohedge: Iran Test Fires Second Missile In 24 Hours As Posturing Escalates
LegitGov: 'Iran to expand presence in int'l waters'
CNN: Iran, world powers to hold nuclear talks - Another round of talks between Iran and world powers is expected to be held soon, Iran's ambassador to Germany said.
RawStory: Karzai welcomes Biden’s ‘Taliban not our enemy’ remarks
AFP: Iran 'tests 1st nuclear fuel rod from own uranium'
Atlantic: Should the U.S. Cut Off Aid to the Egyptian Military?
Bloomberg: North Korea Says Ending Shortages of Food, Power Are Biggest Goals in 2012
AFP: Iran defiant as US unleashes new sanctions
Reuters: Iran reports nuclear progress as sanctions loom
LAT: Iran says it has produced its first nuclear fuel rod
Reuters: Eight killed in Syria as Arab body urges monitors out - An Arab League advisory body called for the immediate withdrawal of Arab monitors from Syria, where eight more people were reported killed on Sunday, saying their mission was allowing Damascus to cover up unabated violence and abuses.
NYT: In Afghanistan, a Troubling Resurgence of the Poppy Crop
Reuters: Iran says fires long-range missile in Gulf drill
CNN: Hosni Mubarak's trial resumes in Egypt
ExtinctionProtocol: Captured U.S. drone technology, radar-evading missiles, and nuclear fuel rods: the crisis with Iran just got more dangerous
CNBC: US Imposes Sanctions on Iran, But With Exemptions
NakedCapitalism: Fly your own drone for under $300
The Parrot A.R. Drone costs $299. The Parrot A.R. Drone can maintain stable flight at an altitude of up to 20 feet, and a maximum altitude of up to 160 feet. More sophisticated drones can fly higher and for longer, in a more stable fashion. For example, protesters in Warsaw used a spy drone last month to see what police were doing. As diydrones.com notes: People tend to assume that UAVs will be used by the police to keep watch on us, but as … video, taken by a RoboKopter of riots in Warsaw, shows, they can equally be used by citizens to keep tabs on the police. No need to wait for the local news to send a helicopter to get the aerial scene of a demonstration, just Do It Yourself! Here is the video of the police shot by the Polish protesters:USAToday: South Korea signals willingness to work with Kim Jong Un
UPI: Ultra-conservative Jews adopt Nazi theme
GlobeAndMail: Iran invites world powers to new nuclear talks
SeattleTimes: Fearful, Iraq's Sunnis leave mixed neighborhoods
OWS
LegitGov: Protesters Surge Back Into Zuccotti Park
ABC: 68 Occupy Protesters Arrested in NYC on New Year's
IowaStateDaily: Occupy Iowa protesters set to occupy campaign headquarters
PNHP: Doctors Support Occupy Wall Street Because Wall Street Is Occupying Health Care - Physicians for a National Health Program - We support Occupy Wall Street because the private health insurance industry exemplifies the OWS movement’s central tenet: its unchecked corporate greed tramples human need.
ACLU.org: WTF? (What the Fawkes?) - Rosa Luxemburg famously said that those who do not move cannot feel their chains.
WarIsACrime: Arrests at White House Over NDAA Military Detention of Americans, Occupy Wall Street Joins Fight.
MSNBC: Rose Parade disrupters face fines, jail time
Hacker News
RawStory: Computer hackers plan to protect the internet by launching own satellites
PCMag: Proposed Hacker Satellite System Would Fight Web Censorship
Financial News
CharlesHughSmith: MF Global: When Belief in the System Fades
BlacklistedNews: New Asian Union Means The Fall Of The Dollar
BusinessInsider: EURO-MESS: Your Complete Guide To All Of Those Euro Crisis Acronyms And Abbreviations
BusinessInsider: The CEO Of Israel's Largest Bank Is Retiring After 16 Years At The Helm
NYT: Austerity Reigns Over Euro Zone as Crisis Deepens
Krugman: Nobody Understands Debt
NoahpinionBlog: Is debt a burden on future generations? Depends
NakedCapitalism: More Bank Chicanery: Double Charging on Escrow Fees
NYT: In Euro Zone, Austerity Seems to Hit Its Limits - Europe’s leaders braced their nations for a turbulent year, with their beleaguered economies facing a threat on two fronts: widening deficits that force more borrowing but increasing austerity measures that put growth further out of reach.
Zerohedge: Spain Releases Another Stunner: Deficit Could Be Greater Than 8% Of GDP
Wired: Dream of Universal Currency Just Won't Die
CalculatedRisk: 2012 "more difficult than 2011"
Wired: Why Black Market Entrepreneurs Matter to the World Economy
CharlesHughSmith: MF Global: When Belief in the System Fades
Reuters: You thought 2011 was tough?
Slate: Happy Days Are Here Again! - Don’t believe the naysayers: An economic recovery is right around the corner.
Guardian: Economics in 2012: no gain, just pain as austerity brings misery to allWith the eurozone on the brink of a new recession, this will be the year when millions of people bear the brunt
UPI: EU leaders: Economic turmoil not over
NYT: Austerity Reigns Over Euro Zone as Crisis Deepens
Peak oil and Energy News
BigPictureAgriculture: Why are we Depleting and Polluting the Ogallala Aquifer to Manufacture Ethanol?
TheOilDrum: Drumbeat: December 30, 2011
TheOilDrum: Tech Talk - Some Thoughts on Current and Perceived Oil and Natural Gas Supply
BBC: Nigeria fury as fuel prices double after subsidy ends
WashingtonPost: America’s top export in 2011 was . . . fuel? - Fuel is now the top U.S. export. The Associated Press reports that America is on pace to ship out more gasoline, diesel and jet fuel than anything else in 2011. (Aircraft, motor vehicles, vacuum tubes and telecom equipment were next on the list of top exports.)
Reuters: UPDATE 1-Russia 2011 oil output at new post-Soviet record high
Commodities/Metals
Mineweb: Could gold confiscation become a reality? - There is increasing worry that The U.S. and other governments may confiscate citizens' gold holdings and use them to help mitigate the Global Financial Crisis. Julian Phillips discusses.
Environmental News
Is a super-volcano just 390 miles from London about to erupt?
Billions of tons of ash and magma would be ejected
Southern England would be covered in ash
DesdemonaDespair: East Africa famine: Somali prime minister denies food shortage
Today: Great Lakes winter storm warning issued
ExtinctionProtocol: 20 tons of dead fish wash up on Norway beaches- cause of massive fishkill unknown
PShannon: Northeast Ohio rocked by 11th earthquake linked to Youngstown injection wells
CNN: Official: 4 Ohio fluid-injection wells cannot open in wake of quake WSJ: Quake Shakes Tokyo But Causes No Damage
ExtinctionProtocol: Sudden ionospheric disturbance reported over Europe as Sun unleashes more flares
Sott: US: Thousands of Blackbirds Fall to Their Death in Arkansas Town for Second New Year's Eve In a Row
DeclineoftheEmpire: Nothing Changes On New Year's Day
SOTT: New Year's Fireball
NYT: Hunt for Gas Hits Fragile Soil, and South Africans Fear Risks
When a drought dried up their wells last year, hundreds of farmers and their families flocked to local fairgrounds here to pray for rain, and a call went out on the regional radio station imploring South Africans to donate bottled water. Covering much of the roughly 800 miles between Johannesburg and Cape Town, this arid expanse — its name means “thirsty land” — sees less rain in some parts than the Mojave Desert. Even so, Shell and several other large energy companies hope to drill thousands of natural gas1 wells in the region, using a new drilling technology that can require a million gallons of water or more for each well.ExtinctionProtocol: Norway’s time in the disaster zone- massive landslide, storm strikes and regional power outages
Yahoo: Bugs may be resistant to genetically modified corn - One of the nation's most widely planted crops — a genetically engineered corn plant that makes its own insecticide — may be losing its effectiveness because a major pest appears to be developing resistance more quickly than scientists expected.
ABC: Mt. Rainier Ranger Shot to Death, Gunman Sought
TreeHugger: Man Busted Trying to Get 247 Snakes & Other Animals on a Plane
America in Decline
CNN: Hospital: Smokers need not apply
CNN: Police: Arizona parents duct tape kids, post photos on Facebook - An Arizona couple remained in custody Saturday morning after police said they duct taped the wrists, ankles and mouths of their two children
RitHoltz: Obama Signs Bill Allowing Indefinite Detention of Americans
DeclineoftheEmpire: Closing Out 2011 — Six Graphs
MSNBC: Video: 40000 new laws for the new year
SOTT: 3.5 Million Homeless and 18.5 Million Vacant Homes in the US
BusinessInsider: A Gut Wrenching Look Inside Lakewood New Jersey's Homeless 'Tent City'
LAT: LA arson wave grows to about 40 fires; most since 1992 riots
NYT: Four Attacks in Queens With Homemade Firebombs
MSNBC: Cops investigate firebomb attacks on NYC Muslims
BlacklistedNews: Obama: Indefinitely Detaining Americans Is Wrong... But Executing Americans Without Trial is A-OK
CNBC: Medicare Debate in 2012 Is All About Baby Boomers - Baby boomers take note: Medicare as your parents have known it is headed for big changes no matter who wins the White House in 2012.
RawStory: Indiana bill would outlaw singing national anthem ‘inappropriately’
ABCNews: DHS Creates Accounts Solely to Monitor Social Networks
AngryBearBlog: The Peltzman Effect: Why Economic Growth Has Slowed in the US Over Time - In recent years, there have been a number of studies showing that generational income mobility is particularly low in the US.
Food and Water
ExtinctionProtocol: Why the green revolution under the microscope will fail to feed the world’s billions - Now that 94 percent of the soy and 70 percent of the corn grown in the U.S. are genetically modified, Monsanto — one of the companies that dominates the GMO seed market — might look to some like it’s winning. But if we look a little closer, I’d say they’re holding on by a thread.
SOTT: Edible Mushrooms: Nature's Most Researched Anti-Cancer Agent
NYT: Stigmatizing Food Stamps - Five years ago, New York State stopped requiring that all applicants for food stamps be electronically fingerprinted. Recently, California and Texas ended their requirement, leaving New York City and Arizona the only jurisdictions to continue the stigmatizing requirement.
BigPictureAgriculture: Agriculture News January 2, 2012
USAToday: Farming practices threaten widely grown corn crop
MSNBC: Farmers seeking high profits add acreage, harvest 'rottenest' land 'One day it's grassland, and the next day it's black dirt,' conservationist says
Science and Technology
Reddit: New research is showing that belief in the paranormal arises from the same brain mechanisms that shape most human thought.
CNET: China aims to put astronauts on moon
MSNBC: Apocalypse not now: 2012 doomsday predictions debunked by NASA
MSNBC: Twin NASA probes start new year entering lunar orbit
MSNBC: 12 must-see skywatching events in 2012 - Venus transit and solar eclipses and meteor showers ... oh, my!
Medical and Health
PopSci: How Mollusk Blood Could Cure Cancer
LAT: Two abortion doctors charged with murder
M&C: Suspected case of bird flu reported in Chinese man
M&C: Hong Kong bans China poultry imports after bird flu death
Time: Could the H5N1 Bird Flu Virus Strike Again?
Atlantic: 12 Hangover Cures From Famous Heavy Drinkers
Yahoo: Uninsured turn to daily deal sites for health care - The last time Mark Stella went to the dentist he didn't need an insurance card. Instead, he pulled out a Groupon.
MSNBC: WHO 'deeply concerned' by deadly flu research Scientists altered a deadly virus to make it even more contagious
MSNBC: FDA approves computer chip for humans Devices could help doctors with stored medical information
SFGate: Prescription drug shortage crisis hits hard
NYT: F.D.A. Finds Short Supply of Attention Deficit Drugs
TheChart: Shrinking brains and 'silent strokes' studied
DigitalLife: Remembering Arfa: Seizure threatens life of 16-year-old computer prodigy
Doomsteading, Gardening, Urban Farming
BusinessInsider: Check Out These Futuristic Homes Made From Shipping Materials
CanadianDoomer: Norpro Grain Grinder
ModernSurvivalBlog: Preps For 2012
PermacultureMag: Free Downloads, Useful Sites and Inspiration for 2012
CityFarmer: In 1797 Food Gardens Help the Poor Stay out of the Workhouse
MNN: Forever foods: 10 cooking staples that can outlast you
Other News
CNN: Follower says he was expelled from FLDS for violating Warren Jeffs' sex ban
CNN: 35 Southern California fires rock cities
DailyMail: The Tortured Child Bride: Horrific Ordeal of Afghan Girl, 15, Rescued From Toilet Prison After Husband's Family Mutilated Her For Refusing to Work As a Prostitute
CNN: Karzai orders probe in torture of 15-year-old Afghan girl
SOTT: Seven-year-old sacrificed to the gods for good harvest in India
Cryptogon: Twelve Triggers for World Government
MSNBC: Passer-by shoots out window to help rescue children from icy river crash
NewYorkDaily: Ten people jump into icy Utah river to rescue three kids
CalculatedRisk: Vehicle Miles Driven Decline: A possible contributing factor - Earlier this week I noted that vehicle miles driven had declined in October. Most of the decline is probably due to high gasoline prices and the sluggish economy, but reader Dave sent me this article by Lisa Hymas: Driving has lost its cool for young Americans
PoliticsCNN: 35 Southern California fires rock cities
DailyMail: The Tortured Child Bride: Horrific Ordeal of Afghan Girl, 15, Rescued From Toilet Prison After Husband's Family Mutilated Her For Refusing to Work As a Prostitute
CNN: Karzai orders probe in torture of 15-year-old Afghan girl
SOTT: Seven-year-old sacrificed to the gods for good harvest in India
Cryptogon: Twelve Triggers for World Government
MSNBC: Passer-by shoots out window to help rescue children from icy river crash
NewYorkDaily: Ten people jump into icy Utah river to rescue three kids
CalculatedRisk: Vehicle Miles Driven Decline: A possible contributing factor - Earlier this week I noted that vehicle miles driven had declined in October. Most of the decline is probably due to high gasoline prices and the sluggish economy, but reader Dave sent me this article by Lisa Hymas: Driving has lost its cool for young Americans
Fox: Virginia Lawmaker Criticizes GOP for Requiring Primary Loyalty Oath
RawStory: Ron Paul: Racist newsletters had ‘some very bad sentences’
CBS: The overhyped, unrepresentative Iowa caucuses
The Forums
TinfoilPalace: Analyzing Stuxnet
TinfoilPalace: Apocalypse Not Now: 2012 Doomsday Predictions Debunked by NASA
TheOilAge: Obama signs NDAA late on New Year's Eve
TheOilAge: H5N1 Outbreak Fears Thread
HubbertsArms: Ralph Nader’s grand alliance (he finds hope in Ron Paul)
HubbertsArms: What if Jensen were a woman?
SilentCountry: It's guns galore as US bites the bullet
SilentCountry: Oppose the Feds and lose your citizenship?
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