THE PRIEST CLASS OF THE MAGI: The Establishment of the New World Order of the Ages - Vatican Calls for "Supranational Global Authority" and Seeks to Control Jerusalem Religious Sites!

And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. - Revelations 17:1-5, The Bible, KJV.

Several weeks ago, the Vatican Church State, the most prominent front for the Priest Class of the Magi, called for the establishment of a New World Order with a "global public authority" and a "central world bank" to rule over the worldwide financial infrastructure and to prevent the monumental crisis of a another global depression.

The 18-page document, "Towards Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of a Global Public Authority," was at times very specific, calling, for example, for taxation measures on financial transactions. "The economic and financial crisis which the world is going through calls everyone, individuals and peoples, to examine in depth the principles and the cultural and moral values at the basis of social coexistence," it said. It condemned what it called "the idolatry of the market" as well as a "neo-liberal thinking" that it said looked exclusively at technical solutions to economic problems. "In fact, the crisis has revealed behaviors like selfishness, collective greed and hoarding of goods on a great scale," it said, adding that world economics needed an "ethic of solidarity" among rich and poor nations.

"If no solutions are found to the various forms of injustice, the negative effects that will follow on the social, political and economic level will be destined to create a climate of growing hostility and even violence, and ultimately undermine the very foundations of democratic institutions, even the ones considered most solid," it said. It called for the establishment of "a supranational authority" with worldwide scope and "universal jurisdiction" to guide economic policies and decisions. Such an authority should start with the United Nations as its reference point but later become independent and be endowed with the power to see to it that developed countries were not allowed to wield "excessive power over the weaker countries." - CNBC.

Read the full of the Note on financial reform from the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace HERE.

And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. - Revelations 13:1-8, The Bible, KJV.

There is a strong belief in several religious circles, that a second Vatican state will be established in Jerusalem, as part of this "supranational authority" New World Order. An international city representing all Jews, Muslims, Christians, Catholics and all other religions.

“The Old City of Jerusalem will become a “special regime”. It will be an autonomous, self-governing entity. The Chief Administrator will have minimum reliance on the existing regimes and structures”. - The Jerusalem Old City Initiative Policy Proposal.

Further, in documents and speech, the Papacy have been trying to establish the city of Jerusalem as a corpus separatum under a special international regime, administered by the United Nations, with a Trusteeship Council designated to discharge the responsibilities of the Administering Authority on behalf of the United Nations.

Today, in the midst of rising tensions that seems to be ultimately pointing towards a major Middle East conflict, the Vatican is now reiterating demands for control of religious sites in Jerusalem.

Pope Benedict XVI at the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.

“Peace negotiations in the Middle East must tackle the issue of the status of the holy sites of Jerusalem”, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, head of the Vatican’s Council for Interreligious Dialogue, declared several days ago in Rome. The Vatican’s former foreign minister asked to place some Israeli holy places under Vatican authority, alluding to the Cenacle on Mount Zion and the garden of Gethsemane at the foot of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. The first site also houses what is referred to as King David’s tomb. “There will not be peace if the question of the holy sites is not adequately resolved”, Tauran said. “The part of Jerusalem within the walls – with the holy sites of the three religions – is humanity’s heritage. The sacred and unique character of the area must be safeguarded and it can only be done with a special, internationally-guaranteed statute”. The Israeli government and the Vatican are deadlocked in discussions over the status of the religious sites. Vatican officials are now reiterating their demand for control over the religious sites in the ancient and holy city founded by King David as the capital of ancient Israel and now the capital of the reestablished Jewish state. Danny Ayalon, Israel’s deputy foreign minister, declared that Israel might consider giving the Vatican “a greater role” in operating the sites. In the last weeks, the Roman Catholic Church’s authorities increased their political initiatives for Catholic control over some sites in Jerusalem

The Vatican’s former arcibishop in Jerusalem, Michel Sabbah, just promoted an appeal to the European Union and United States to “stop the Hebraization of Jerusalem”. Two weeks ago Msgr. David-Maria Jaeger, who was recently appointed by Pope Benedict XVI to the Vatican’s highest court, talked in Washington about a current U.S. Supreme Court case over whether an American boy born in Jerusalem should add Israel after the name of the historic city on his U.S. passport. Jaeger said that the question about Jerusalem is not “whether it is the capital of Israel, it is a question of whether it is a part of a national territory”. A few days earlier, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Fouad Twal, gave a speech to greet the bishops of Europe and North America during their annual pilgrimage in Israel, in which Twal denounced “the Israeli right wing invading more and more of Jerusalem and trying to transform it into an only Hebrew-Jewish city, excluding the other faiths”. Claudette Habesch, the Caritas general-secretary in Jerusalem, a Vatican NGO that works in social activities, just released an interview to Zenit news agency, in which he “christianized” the Palestinian Intifada against “what we call the Checkpoint of Humiliation”. In September, Patriarch of Jerusalem Twal was at the White House for a meeting with the American administration as well as to support the PA statehood bid at the UN. Twal repeated Benedict XVI’s speech of May 13, 2009 in the Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem, one of the most political speeches ever pronounced by Ratzinger during his pontificate. It was given in front of the most eloquent symbol of the conflict: the security wall between Israel and the PA areas. On that day the Pope spoke specifically of an “independent Palestinian state”.

The Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi, the Vatican’s powerful agency for worldwide pilgrimages, just organized a “marathon for peace” in Jerusalem to protest against the security fence near Bethlehem and to support "Palestinian political rights". The march began on the Mount of Olives, “where the Last Supper took place”. On December 1st, several Christian and Muslim dignitaries met in Beit Sahour for a conference on “How to live together in a future Palestinian state?”. Patriarch Emeritus of Jerusalem Michel Sabbah and Sheikh Muhammad Ahmad Hussein, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, also attended the event organized by Al-Liqa, a Vatican ecumenical center based in Bethlehem. Sabbah said that “recourse to the UN for a Palestinian state is a step toward peace”. Last summer, Latin Patriarch Twal took part in a meeting in London with Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury, in which the Vatican envoy denounced the “more than 550.000 Israelis living in East Jerusalem and the West Bank” and “the demography of Jerusalem changing rapidly with the sacred space being threatened”. In 2006, then Israel’s Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni, negotiated to give away the “holy basin” to the Vatican. At the time, President Moshe Katzav, in the face of increasing public pressure, was forced to deny any plans to sign away the King David’s complex in Jerusalem. It now appears that this option has once again surfaced. A major voice for the Vatican’s plan is Hanna Siniora, the elder statesman of Palestinian 'peace' activists, whose office is in the Vatican’s Tantur Institute for Ecumenical Studies in Jerusalem. The site known as King David’s Tomb is the major target in the Vatican’s plan. It’s a complex of buildings of some 100,000 square feet where David and Solomon, and kings of Judea, are said to be buried, although this is disputed by historians.

The Upper Room, or Cenacle, as it is known, is on the second floor of the Crusader-era building. During his visit to Israel in 2000, Pope John Paul II held Mass there. The Roman Catholic Church has been fighting for more than 450 years to win back control over the sanctuary, which was seized from Franciscan monks during the Ottoman Empire's rule around 1551. The building was granted to the Diaspora Yeshiva over 40 years ago, and yeshiva heads fear that the Vatican wishes to turn it into a pilgrimage site for hundreds of thousands of Catholics and hold religious services there. The Vatican wants Israel relinquishing sovereignty at the Western Wall and the Temple Mount. The Holy See uses the expression “Holy Basin”, which refers to the area of the Temple Mount, the Mount of Olives, Mount Zion and a variety of Christian holy sites which the administration of former U.S. President Bill Clinton began reccomending be administered under a “special regime”. The Obama plan also calls for resolving the two thorniest issues in the conflict by sharing Jerusalem and settling Arab refugees in Arab countries or a future Palestinian state, but not in Israel. According to Obama, the Old City of Jerusalem would be designated an “international zone”. Israel’s President Shimon Peres, who has no authority, also agreed to hand over to the Vatican the sovereignty of the holy sites. Any Vatican claim to a seat at the negotiating table is undermined by the complicity of the Vatican between 1948 and 1967. During the Jordanian occupation, Judaism’s holiest sites were desecrated and Jews were barred from visiting these shrines. The Jordanians built a hotel and a road through the Jewish cemetery on Mount of Olives and they used the broken headstones to build the latrines in the construction of the Intercontintental Hotel, which likely rests on burial grounds. As was its practice during the Holocaust under Pius XII, the Vatican then turned a deaf ear to these gross violations of Jewish human rights. If Israel would cede Jewish sovereignty on the holy sites, it would mean returning to a time when Jerusalem was separated by a seven-kilometer wall, barbed wire, minefields and bunkers. A tourist visiting the holy city would have found signs warning “Danger - Frontier ahead!”, “Snipers nearby” and “shetah hahefker”, which in Hebrew means: No-Man’s Land. It would be Sarajevo, not the Holy City of Jerusalem. - Israel National News.

GLOBAL ECONOMIC CONTAGION: Eurozone Crisis - IMF Chief Warns That the World is on the Verge of 1930s' Great Depression; as Fitch Cut its Ratings on 8 of the World's Biggest Banks, Including Barclays, Bank of America, and Deutsche Bank!

Christine Lagarde calls for global unity to tackle financial crisis as French launch verbal broadsides at David Cameron and UK. The world risks sliding into a 1930s-style slump unless countries settle their differences and work together to tackle Europe's deepening debt crisis, the head of the International Monetary Fund has warned.

On a day that saw an escalation in the tit-for-tat trade battle between China and the United States and a deepening of the diplomatic rift between Britain and France, Christine Lagarde issued her strongest warning yet about the health of the global economy and said if the international community failed to co-operate the risk was of "retraction, rising protectionism, isolation". She added: "This is exactly the description of what happened in the 1930s, and what followed is not something we are looking forward to." The IMF managing director's call came amid growing concern that 2012 will see Europe slide into a double-dip recession, with knock-on effects for the rest of the global economy. "The world economic outlook at the moment is not particularly rosy. It is quite gloomy," she said. Since arriving in Washington in the summer, Lagarde has been forced to cut her organisation's forecasts for global growth next year and is now putting pressure on countries outside the eurozone – including Britain – to play their part in containing Europe's sovereign debt crisis. An IMF plan, agreed at the Brussels summit last week, involves obtaining €200bn (£168bn) from European countries and then asking the rest of the world to contribute. Beijing has so far proved reluctant to join in a rescue of the eurozone and has said it is up to Europe to sort out its own problems.

Speaking at the State Department in Washington, Lagarde said: "There is no economy in the world, whether low-income countries, emerging markets, middle-income countries or super-advanced economies, that will be immune to the crisis that we see not only unfolding but escalating. "It is not a crisis that will be resolved by one group of countries taking action. It is going to be hopefully resolved by all countries, all regions, all categories of countries actually taking some action." Lagarde said that the scale of the eurozone crisis, and its implications for other countries, meant that Europe's governments could not tackle it alone. "It is going to require efforts, it is going to require adjustment; and clearly it is going to have to start from the core of the crisis at the moment, which is obviously the European countries, and in particular the countries of the eurozone," Lagarde said. As Lagarde called for unity, there were strong attacks on Britain from both the French finance minister, Francois Baroin, and the governor of the French central bank, Christian Noyer, in what appeared to be a concerted attempt by Paris to escalate a war of words with London in the wake of Britain's decision to veto a new EU treaty. Noyer, speaking amid financial market speculation that the Standard & Poor's ratings agency was about to strip France of its coveted AAA rating, said Britain's credit rating should be downgraded first.

He said a downgrade for France (which would drive up the interest Paris pays to borrow, and make loans in the wider economy more expensive) "doesn't strike me as justified based on economic fundamentals. "If it is, they should start by downgrading the UK, which has a bigger deficit, as much debt, more inflation, weaker growth, and where bank lending is collapsing." In strikingly similar language, Baroin poked fun at David Cameron in a speech to the French parliament. "Great Britain is in a very difficult economic situation: a deficit close to the level of Greece, debt equivalent to our own, much higher inflation prospects, and growth forecasts well under the eurozone average. It is an audacious choice the UK government has made." Downing Street responded with restraint. Cameron's official spokesman said: "We have put in place a credible plan for dealing with our deficit, and the credibility of that plan can be seen in what has happened to bond yields in this country." Privately, officials said it was a "strange thing" for Noyer to speak as he did, but there was no desire in London to inflame the situation.

In another sign the financial crisis was deepening last night, Fitch cut its ratings on eight of the world's biggest banks, including Barclays, Bank of America, and Deutsche Bank. It warned that they all faced "increased challenges", with potential losses hard to calculate. John Bryson, the US commerce secretary, signaled that Washington would retaliate against Beijing's decision to put tariffs on high-performance US cars imported into China. "The United States has reached a point where we cannot quietly accept China ignoring many of the trade rules. China still substantially subsidises its own companies, discriminates against foreign companies, and has poor intellectual property protections," he said. Britain has been given observer status on a working group set up by the Economic and Financial Committee of the EU to carry out technical work ahead of the full-blown negotiations on the treaty, boosting Cameron's claim that Britain has not been marginalized by his move last week. On Thursday Hungary and the Czech Republic raised doubts about the proposed agreement, saying they would not sign the new treaty if they had to give up their right to decide tax policy. Downing Street denied that Cameron was attempting to foment opposition to the treaty, and said that the prime minister was talking to all sides. But by Thursday the only eurozone leader he had spoken to was Enda Kenny, the Irish prime minister. - Guardian.

WATCH: IMF Chief warns that global economic outlook is 'gloomy'.

CELESTIAL CONVERGENCE: Comet LoveJoy Survives - Massive Sungrazing Comet Emerges Intact From Perihelion With The Sun!

According to Space Weather,  Comet Lovejoy has survived its perilous journey close to the sun.

COMET LOVEJOY SURVIVES: Incredibly, sungrazing Comet Lovejoy appears to have survived its close encounter with the sun. Lovejoy flew only 140,000 km over the stellar surface during the early hours of Dec. 16th. Experts expected the icy sundiver to be destroyed. Instead, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory caught the comet emerging from perihelion (closest approach) at least partially intact.

SDO also recorded Comet Lovejoy's entry into the sun's atmosphere. Comet Lovejoy began the week as a chunk of dusty, rocky ice some 200 meters in diameter. No one can say how much of the comet's core remains intact or how long it will hang together after the searing heat of perihelion. New images received on Dec. 16th from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory confirm that Comet Lovejoy survived perihelion and is now receding from the sun:

Curiously, the comet seems to have lost its tail in transit through the sun's hot corona. A decapitated remnant tail can still be seen tracing Comet Lovejoy's path into the sun, but the exiting comet has no obvious trail of dust behind it. One possibility has to do with geometry: The comet's tail might be pointing away from Earth, temporarily invisible due to foreshortening. Another possibility: The comet's store of volatile materials was "baked-out" by the fiery transit and now the comet is not jetting much dust and gas into space.

Discovered on Dec. 2nd by amateur astronomer Terry Lovejoy of Australia, the comet is an unusually large member of the Kreutz family. Kreutz sungrazers are fragments of a single giant comet (probably the Great Comet of 1106) that broke apart back in the 12th century. SOHO sees one plunging into the sun every few days, but most are small, no more than 10 meters wide. Comet Lovejoy is at least ten times larger than usual.- Space Weather.

WATCH: Lovejoy Survived its Close Encounter with the Sun.

WATCH: Lovejoy Heading Back-Out into Deep Space.

RATTLE & HUM: Mysterious Noise Phenomena - Weird Signal Knocks Out Power to 40 Garage Doors in Arvada, Colorado!

Something in Arvada produced a frequency signal strong enough to knock out power to 40 garage doors in a tiny community.

The problem started two days ago in the 7000 block of Torrey Court. It encompasses a half mile radius. "It's really weird," said Gina, who lives in the area. She did not want to provide her last name. "No one knows what it is." Gina thought she was alone, until she learned of other neighbors dealing with the same problem.


"I think it's amazing," Colin Cooper, another neighbor, said. "What if it's a UFO?" he joked. Experts say anything with a wireless signal could affect garage doors. "Like Christmas lights, coffee makers, appliances," Gina said. The pros told Gina and other neighbors small items couldn't have caused this big of a problem. So whatever it is, it is rather large. "I wish we knew," Gina said. For now, it remains a mystery. The 40 people who live on Torrey Court have to find a way to fix their garage doors. - 9 News.

WATCH: Mystery signal in Arvada.

MASS ANIMAL DIE-OFF: Flu Virus Identified in "Unusual" Seal Deaths - 146 Harbor Seals Along the New England Coast Since September!

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is stepping up an investigation into the cause of 146 harbor seal deaths along the New England coast since September after influenza A virus was identified in five of the seals.

On Nov. 4, NOAA announced it had declared the seal deaths an "unusual mortality event," which authorizes the federal agency to mobilize additional resources in the investigation. The declaration followed a consultation with the Working Group on Marine Mammal Unusual Mortality Events, a panel of international experts established under the Marine Mammal Protection Act to monitor and investigate marine mammal health concerns. Between Sept. 1 and Nov. 3, 146 seal strandings were reported in Maine, New Hampshire, and northern Massachusetts—more than three times the average number of strandings for that time of year. Most of the animals were harbor seals less than a year old.

Samples from five seals analyzed at the New England Aquarium tested positive for influenza A virus. Test results for several other viral pathogens and biotoxins were negative. Additional evaluations were under way to determine whether the influenza virus has played a role in the deaths. An investigation team of marine mammal experts will work closely with NOAA, New England Stranding Network partners, and the Working Group on Marine Mammal Unusual Mortality Events to identify and characterize the specific type of influenza A virus found in these animals. People were being advised not to allow their dogs to approach stranded seals, as seals and dogs can infect each other with diseases, NOAA noted. - AVMA.

The Age of Obama and the End of America: United States Constitution Overthrown - Obama to Sign Bill Authorizing Military to Arrest and Detain American Citizens, as a Global Surveillance System is Established!

"By signing this defense spending bill, President Obama will go down in history as the president who enshrined indefinite detention without trial in U.S. law," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch.

In a what appears to be a monumental move towards the establishment of a global surveillance infrastructure, a prison planet, President Obama has broken his promise and will sign a bill enabling the arrest and detention of American citizens by the military.

The White House is signing off on a controversial new law that would authorize the U.S. military to arrest and indefinitely detain alleged al Qaeda members or other terrorist operatives captured on American soil. As the bill neared final passage in the House of Representatives and the Senate on Wednesday, the Obama administration announced it would support passage of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which contains slightly watered-down provisions giving the military a front line role in domestic terrorism cases. The administration abandoned its long-held veto threat due to changes in the final version of the bill, namely that in its view, the military custody mandate has been "softened." The bill now gives the President the immediate power to issue a waiver of the military custody requirement, instead of the Defense Secretary, and gives the President discretion in implementing these new provisions. "We have concluded that the language does not challenge or constrain the President's ability to collect intelligence, incapacitate dangerous terrorists, and protect the American people, and the President's senior advisors will not recommend a veto," the White House statement said. The detainee provisions are just one part of the annual NDAA authorizing $662 billion in federal defense spending next year. While the bill never expanded the authority to detain American citizens indefinitely without charges, proponents said the legislation would codify court decisions finding the President does have the authority to declare "enemy combatants," as commander-in-chief and under the post-9/11 Authorization for Use of Military Force against al Qaeda and its allies. The administration, which has pledged not to use this power, believes the bill leaves this legal issue unresolved. "By signing this defense spending bill, President Obama will go down in history as the president who enshrined indefinite detention without trial in U.S. law," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "In the past, Obama has lauded the importance of being on the right side of history, but today he is definitely on the wrong side."

FBI Director Robert Mueller, testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, said the provisions still could create confusion among counter-terrorism professionals. "My concern is that you don't want FBI agents and the military showing up at the same time, with some uncertainty" as to who has control, Mueller said, and raised this hypothetical example: "A case that we're investigating on three individuals, two of whom are American citizens and would not go to military custody and the third is not an American citizen and could go to military custody?" Mueller was joined earlier in the detainee debate by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper in opposing the military custody provision, because they said it might inhibit flexibility by counter-terrorism professionals, restrain federal, state, and local law enforcement authorities, and risk losing the cooperation of terror arrestees. "If President Obama signs this bill, it will damage both his legacy and American's reputation for upholding the rule of law," said Laura Murphy, director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. "The last time Congress passed indefinite detention legislation was during the McCarthy era, and President Truman had the courage to veto that bill." Bill opponents have noted that in the decade since the 9/11, the government has successfully convicted over 300 people for terrorism-related crimes, including thwarted plots to bomb passenger jets, subway lines, and landmarks such as Times Square and the Sears Tower. By comparison, the military justice system, although stymied by constitutional challenges, has completed only six cases in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where 170 detainees remain. - CBS News.

JAPAN MEGA-DISASTERS: The Never-ending Crisis - First Debris from Japanese Earthquake/Tsunami Reaches the American West Coast!

The first piece of debris that could be identified as washing up on the West Coast from the March 11 tsunami in Japan — a large black float — was found on a Neah Bay beach two weeks ago, Seattle oceanographers Curtis Ebbesmeyer and Jim Ingraham said Tuesday night.

Since then, the two researchers, known as DriftBusters Inc. — who have used flotsam to track wind and water currents in the Pacific since 1970 — have learned that the black, 55-gallon drum-sized floats also have been found on Vancouver Island. Ebbesmeyer and Ingraham spoke to more than 100 people at Peninsula College and brought the float with them, along with examples of other items that may be showing up on beaches in the next year. Tons of debris washed out to sea when a tsunami struck northern Japan after a massive magnitude-9.0 earthquake March 11. About a quarter of the 100 million tons of debris from Japan is expected to make landfall on beaches from southern Alaska to California, possibly in volumes large enough to clog ports, Ebbesmeyer said.

Using models from a historic shipwreck that occurred 20 miles off Neah Bay, Ebbesmeyer and Ingraham have determined the path of debris that comes into that area off the Washington coast. They said debris will be snagged by currents leading into the Strait of Juan de Fuca and that a large portion of it will end up on beaches from the mouth of the Elwha River to Port Townsend. Many ocean models have shown that the massive congregation of flotsam that washed away from devastated Japanese coastal cities is in the middle of the Pacific and won’t make landfall in the U.S. for another year or two. Most of it is exactly where those models predicted, but those models don’t take into account wind and flotsam with large areas exposed to the wind, said Ebbesmeyer, who became famous for his and Ingraham’s ocean research into currents after large spills of Nike shoes and bath toys from container ships in the 1990s. Flotsam in a current travels an average of seven miles per hour, but it can move as much as 20 mph if it has a large area exposed to the wind, he said. The float that was found in Neah Bay sits well above the water, has a very shallow draft and is lightweight, exactly what Ingraham’s computer model said would show up first.

Oceanographer Jim Ingraham answers questions about the islands of debris from the March 11 Japan
tsunami that are slowly floating toward the Pacific Northwest. Behind him is a float, found east of
Neah Bay, that is believed to be the first identified piece of wreckage to arrive via ocean currents.

It was found by Surfrider beach cleanup crews working on a Makah-owned beach on the strait, a few miles east of Neah Bay, Ebbesmeyer said. The black floats are seen in the middle of the Pacific by the hundreds, and are not something that has been seen on Eastern Pacific beaches before, he said. The floats are included in masses of black blobs supporting huge rafts of debris that include fishing boats, houses and possibly human bodies, Ebbesmeyer said. Many of those bodies and parts of bodies will likely begin washing up in about a year, some simply as feet in athletic shoes, similar to those found in Puget Sound over the last decade, he said. Ebbesmeyer has done extensive research on those feet, and said that many more may be found in coming years. Athletic shoes make the perfect floats to preserve parts of bodies, Ebbesmeyer said, and there are still thousands of people missing from tsunami-stricken areas of Japan. Shoes with remains or other possibly human remains found on beaches should be reported to the appropriate authorities, either police, sheriff’s deputies or park rangers, he said. If the debris has any kind of identifiable marking, such as numbers or Japanese writing, it may be traceable, Ebbesmeyer said. “All debris should be treated with a great reverence and respect,” he said.

Families in Japan are waiting to hear of any items that may have been associated with their loved ones and may travel to the U.S. to meet those who found these mementos, he added. Items that wash up may include portions of houses, boats, ships, furniture, portions of cars and just about anything else that floats, he said. The rafts of debris include whole houses which may still contain many personal items, and the Japanese are known for storing important personal mementos in walls, Ebbesmeyer said. Even the smallest of traceable items may be the only thing associated with one of those people who were lost during the disaster, he said. Contact Ebbesmeyer at CurtisEbbesmeyer@comcast.net for assistance in translation and to track tsunami debris back to its Japanese origins. “I have a translator to read things in Japanese,” he said. Large items still in the water should be reported to the Coast Guard, as they may represent a hazard to boats and ships, he said. Some shipping lanes have already been rerouted to avoid the worst of the debris, he said. People should also be aware of the possibility of radiation contamination, he said. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant leaked a large amount of radiation into the water in the wake of the tsunami, and no one knows what levels of contamination there are in the currents, and the items being carried in those currents, he said. Ebbesmeyer suggested local police take steps to have sensitive Geiger counters available to scan items — just to be safe. The event was unprecedented, and no one knows yet what levels of radiation, if any, items have picked up, he said. - Peninsula Daily News.

WATCH: Japanese Tsunami Debris Heading Towards USA Faster Than Expected. 

MASS BIRD DIE-OFF: Bloomfield Highway Dotted With Dead Birds - Dozens of Dead Birds Found in Northwest, New Mexico!

Even Edgar Allan Poe may have gasped at the morbidity along Bloomfield Highway on Thursday. At lunchtime on Thursday, 40 to 50 dead European starlings were scattered in a 50-foot circle across U.S. 64 in Bloomfield. Some were lying on their backs with their small feet sticking up in the air, and at least one of them was missing its head.

About 30 dead birds were north of the highway just east of Murph's Complete Automotive Service, at 6658 U.S. Highway 64. About 20 additional piles of flattened feathers were on the highway. John Kendall, a wildlife biologist for the Bureau of Land Management, investigated the cluster and identified the species of bird. The starlings likely roosted in shrubs north of the highway Wednesday night and died when they flew into the side of a large vehicle driving the highway late Wednesday or early Thursday morning, he said. "It certainly is unusual," Kendall said. "Usually birds are smarter than that." European starling are non-native birds and are considered to be an invasive species, according to the United States Department of Agriculture's website. They were introduced to America as part of a plan to bring all the birds mentioned in Shakespearean literature to the country.

The birds form huge colonies of hundreds or even thousands of starlings, Kendall said. "They're pretty fun to watch because they're a big blob of birds that bobs and weaves," he said. But their massive flock size also increases the chances a group of a few dozen birds could break off and kill themselves, Kendall said. A large die-off of any animal species can signal a health concern because the animals could have been poisoned. In the past, flocks of birds would sometimes die if they came into contact with open pits at natural gas wells, Kendall said. Those circumstances are rare now because of industry regulations, he said. Kendall said it is unlikely the Bloomfield birds died from environmental causes because the animals were so close together when they died. The San Juan County Public Works Department removes large animal carcasses such as deer from roads and takes the dead animals to the regional landfill. The county will not remove the dead birds because the tiny animals won't threaten passing vehicles, said Nick Blasingame, a public works manager for the county. "Some predator will get them," he said. - Daily Times.