HUMAN DEVOLUTION, INFRASTRUCTURE & SOCIETAL COLLAPSE: Massacre In Odessa - Vicious Ukrainian Mob Burn Anti-Government Activists ALIVE! [GRAPHIC PHOTOS+VIDEOS]

May 05, 2014 - UKRAINE - Dozens of people died in flames in Odessa, when radicals set ablaze the local House of Trade Unions with anti-government protesters blocked inside. The city is now in mourning for those who died, suffocated in smoke or had to jump out of windows.

Hell on earth comes to Odessa. (Reuters/Yevgeny Volokin)

Many of the dead had been shot, some through the head execution style. (Reuters/Yevgeny Volokin)

What triggered the tragedy were violent clashes, which erupted on Friday afternoon between two rival rallies in Ukraine's port-city of Odessa.

Around 1,500 supporters of the Kiev authorities, accompanied by aggressive fans of the local football club, Chernomorets, tried to march through the center of the city chanting “Glory to Ukraine,” “Death to enemies,” “Knife the Moskals [derogatory for Russians].” Some of the people in the group were wearing ultra-nationalist Right Sector movement insignia, were armed with chains and bats and carried shields.

Several hundred anti-government activists eventually confronted the procession. Fighting broke out as a result, with members of the rival groups throwing stones, Molotov cocktails and smoke grenades at each other and at police. The pavements were spattered with blood.
The police failed to draw the rival groups apart. As a result, 4 people were killed and 37 wounded in the violence. Police were among the injured.

An elderly woman raped and they set afire…evidence of something more than a political dispute.
(Reuters/Yevgeny Volokin)

Bodies everywhere. (Reuters/Yevgeny Volokin)

This still grabbed on TV images released by INTER, shows a man covering the bloodied body of a man
with an Ukrainian flag during a demonstration on May 2, 2014 in Odessa. (AFP/Inter)

Ukrainian police help an injured colleague during clashes between pro-Russian activists and supporters
of the Kiev government in the streets of Odessa May 2, 2014. (Reuters/Yevgeny Volokin)

People watch as firefighters work at the burned Trade Union building late on May 2, 2014 in Odessa. (AFP Photo)

Street clashes appeared to be only the beginning of the Odessa Friday nightmare, as radicals started to drive anti-government activists back to their tent camp in front of the local House of Trade Unions. Many anti-Kiev protesters eventually hid inside the building.

“Women and children were hiding in the Trade Union’s building,” an eye-witness told RT. “First the armed men set fire to tents, then they started throwing Molotov cocktails and grenades at the building. We heard shots fired and saw smoke,” she added.

The first floor of the Trade Unions building was soon engulfed in flames. The people inside appeared to be trapped.


WATCH: Scenes from the massacre in Odessa.

 


Dozens eventually burnt alive or suffocated to death. To escape the fire and smoke, people were hanging out of windows and sitting on windowsills. In sheer desperation, some of them eventually jumped to the ground.

Many of those who managed to escape the fire were then brutally beaten by armed men, believed to be from the ultra-nationalist Right Sector group, who had the building under siege.

As people were dying in the burning building, some of the pro-Kiev activists jeered on Twitter that “Colorado beetles are being roasted up in Odessa,” using a derogatory term for pro-Russian activists wearing St. George’s ribbons.

About 50 people got to the roof of the burning building and waited for help there. RT managed to speak to one of them, after they were later rescued by police.

(Reuters/Yevgeny Volokin)

People wait to be rescued on the second storey's ledge during a fire at the trade union building in Odessa May 2, 2014.
(Reuters/Yevgeny Volokin)

People wait to be rescued on upper storeys at the trade union building in Odessa May 2, 2014.
(Reuters/Yevgeny Volokin)

Video stills from ustream channel opposition-ru

A protester walks past a burning tent camp and a fire in the trade union building in Odessa May 2, 2014.
(Reuters/Yevgeny Volokin)

Residents of Odessa have since Saturday morning been laying flowers outside the burnt out Trade Union building
(Reuters/Yevgeny Volokin)

“We were hiding there [on the roof] from this angry mob, which forced us inside this building and threw Molotov cocktails and stones at us,” he said. “People were burned alive inside the building, they couldn't get out. We couldn't go down, we were seeing people from other floors being brought down and then those rioters down there attacked them like a pack of wolves. We were escorted from the roof and from the building. We had to step over dead bodies when we were descending the stairs.”

A total of 46 people died in Odessa’s violence on Friday and almost 200 others sustained injuries, Odessa Region prosecutor Igor Borshulyak told journalists on Saturday.

39 of the dead lost their lives in the fire at the Odessa Trade Unions House, according to the Ukrainian emergencies agency, which released a statement saying that “31 of the dead were found inside the building, eight more were found outside by law enforcement officers.”

Odessa announced on Saturday a three-day mourning for the victims of the tragedy.

Later, Ukraine’s acting President Aleksandr Turchinov signed a decree signaling two days of national mourning for those who died in the special military operation in eastern Ukraine and in mass clashes in Odessa.

Residents of Odessa have since Saturday morning been laying flowers outside the burnt out Trade Union building.

Russians have been bringing candles to the Ukrainian embassy in Moscow to commemorate the dead in Odessa. - RT.

ICE AGE: Weather Anomalies - Cold Stagnant Weather Pattern Turns Calgary Into A Winter Wonderland In May!

May 05, 2014 - CALGARY, CANADA -  Calgarians traded in their slickers and umbrellas for parkas and mittens after rain turned to snow overnight, transforming the city into a winter wonderland Saturday morning.

Five deer were wandering around 90th - Glenmore Landing and Pump Hill area on a snowy May 3.
This one put in the extra effort for a snack.  Alexandra Baker

Heather Smith, a meteorologist with the weather agency, said the snow was being generated by a strong low pressure system in the pacific pushing moisture into the province combined with an arctic high ushering in cold air.

"It's a stagnant weather pattern and not much is changing," Smith said on Saturday. "It will snow on and off for the next few days."

The spring snowstorm forced city officials to cancel the 47th annual pathway and river cleanup event, which had been scheduled for Sunday morning. Approximately 2,900 volunteers had been set to pick up thousands of garbage along 200 kilometres of pathway, the river's edge, and in city parks.

The event has been moved to May 25th.

The city saw 5 to 10 mm of rain Friday and is expecting 5 cm of snow today.  Ted Rhodes, Calgary Herald

Some people took to Twitter to post pictures of snow-covered backyards and branches sagging under the weight of the white stuff, including a few shots of fallen trees on top of vehicles parked outside.

The snow also created challenging driving conditions on some highway roads, with Canmore RCMP warning against travel on Highway 1 due to limited visibility. Highway 1 in the Golden, B.C., area was also closed for avalanche control.

Ward Perrault trudges with his dogs Sadie and Willy through the inches of wet snow at
Nose Hill Park in Calgary on May 3, 2014.  Christina Ryan, Calgary Herald

But in Calgary, city police and EMS said the number of crashes they responded to were relatively typical for a Saturday morning, with three injury collisions and 28 non-injury collisions reported to police between 6 a.m. and noon.

Severe weather can be reported by calling 1-800-239-0484 or emailing storm@ec.gc.ca. Reports over Twitter should include the hashtag #ABStorm. - The Province.

PLAGUES & PESTILENCES: MERS Outbreak - Saudi Arabia MERS Cases Surpass 400, More Than 100 Dead!

May 05, 2014 - SAUDI ARABIA - Some 414 people in Saudi Arabia have fallen victim to the deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus after a further 18 were diagnosed on Monday. One hundred and fifteen people have died so far as a result of the disease.

AFP Photo / Fayez Nureldine

All of the new cases diagnosed in the past 48 hours were concentrated around the country’s capital, Riyadh, along with Jeddah – the main gateway to the Islamic holy city of Mecca, in the country’s west – and both holy cities of Mecca and Medina, according to the Saudi Health Ministry, which reported the cases on its website.

The disease is beginning to pose a severe concern to Saudi Arabia, which will host millions of foreign Muslim pilgrims during Ramadan in July. Millions more are expected in October for the Hajj pigrimage to Mecca. The journey must be completed at least once in every Muslim's lifetime, and is one of the 'Five Pillars' of the faith.

“From mid-March 2014, 111 people have tested positive in the Jeddah area; the biggest single surge in the MERS-CoV outbreak since the new virus was detected in April 2012. Thirty-one persons have died,” the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement released Friday.

Some 115 people have now died from the SARS-like virus, according to the health ministry. A large proportion of the deaths have been foreign health workers.

A further case was reported on Monday in Jordan. The man in question is reportedly related to someone previously diagnosed with MERS, according to Reuters.

Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Tunisia have been among other countries which have documented cases within their borders. Greece has also reported that one of its citizens – a permanent resident of Saudi Arabia – contracted the virus, and last week the US confirmed the case of a man who had recently been to Saudi Arabia.

On Monday, Egypt said it was looking into the possibility of whether a 60-year-old woman had died of MERS.

MERS has spread since it was initially discovered in Saudi Arabia two years ago; incidences have doubled since the beginning of April alone.

MERS has frequently been compared to the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus which swept through Asia in 2003, infecting over 8,000 people and causing some 800 deaths worldwide. MERS is thought to be deadlier but more difficult to transmit. There is no vaccine or treatment for MERS at present. - RT.

ICE AGE NOW: Slow Ice Melt On The Great Lakes Could Lead To Chilly Summer - Domino Effect Could Lead Into Fall And An Early Start To Next, And Beyond!

May 05, 2014 - NORTH AMERICA - The Winter of 2013-14 demands that it be remembered.

A relatively cool spring will give way to a colder-than-usual summer locally, all because of the continuing impacts of the intensely frigid, snowy winter, scientists said. And at least one Great Lakes ice researcher thinks that the domino effect could continue into a chilly fall and an early start to next winter - and beyond.

A freighter makes its way along after passing under the Mackinac Bridge on April 15. The shipping
season is off to a very slow start because of unseasonably heavy ice.Photo: Eric Seals, Detroit Free Press

The reason is the unusually late ice cover that remains on the Great Lakes. Heading into May, the Great Lakes combined remain 26% ice-covered, with Lake Superior still more than half-blanketed in ice. By comparison, at this time last spring the lakes were less than 2% covered with ice.

The remaining levels of ice cover are amazing, said Jia Wang, an ice climatologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Ann Arbor.

"This prolonged winter will affect summer temperatures. This summer will be cold, and then a cooler fall," he said.

In addition to wreaking havoc on the Great Lakes shipping industry and impacting fish and other aquatic species, the miles of ice cover serve as a vast, white reflector.


 WATCH: Ships moving across the Great Lakes.

 

"All that sunlight that would normally heat up the water is just bouncing back up into space," said Jay Austin, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota-Duluth's Large Lakes Observatory, who agrees with Wang about the ice cover's impacts on this summer, but disagrees about its potential impacts on weather beyond that.

And though the impact of Great Lakes water temperatures on local weather is complex, "the two are connected to some degree," said Steve Colman, director of the Large Lakes Observatory.

"It's going to tend to be cooler," he said. "We'll likely get more fog because of colder water temperatures and warmer air masses."

Tough on shipping

The persistent ice led to "an absolutely crippling start to the shipping season," said Glen Nekvasil, vice president of the Lake Carriers Association, a trade group representing Great Lakes cargo haulers.

Icebreakers are still escorting convoys of barges hauling iron ore, cement and other products through the ice-jammed lakes, making for very slow going, he said.

One iron ore cargo ship that left port in western Lake Superior on March 23 did not deliver its first cargo on southern Lake Michigan until April 23, Nekvasil said.

"In 30 days they normally would have delivered four cargoes," he said.

Iron ore shipments in March were down 43% over last year. The large U.S. Steel plant in Gary, Ind., scaled back production early last month due to its depleted supplies of iron ore.

A normal year has Coast Guard icebreakers logging 3,000 hours breaking channels through the lakes. With at least two more weeks of icebreaking to go, crews have logged 7,000 hours this winter and spring, said Mark Gill, director of vessel traffic services for the Coast Guard at Sault Ste. Marie.

Spring winds are compounding problems. Winds have stacked ice at the vital Duluth, Minn., ports 8-10 feet tall, Gill said.

Some good news came this week when the Coast Guard was able to break through its downbound channel, a preferred, deeper shipping route that allows carriers to haul heavier loads, Gill said.

Because the ice season started so early - the first week in December - and is continuing so late, "we're going to face a real challenge here to rebuild stockpiles," Nekvasil said.

Whitefish will benefit

Winter's impact on the Great Lakes will lead to winners and losers in Great Lakes fish species, said Randy Claramunt, Great Lakes research biologist at the state Department of Natural Resources' Charlevoix

"Some of the native species - such as lake whitefish - we've found cold winters and a long duration of ice cover can actually have a positive impact," he said.

The fish spawn on near-shore, shallow, rocky reefs in the fall, and their eggs incubate all winter long, Claramunt said. Ice cover tends to keep the eggs safe from predators, he said.

Losers can include nonnative, invasive species that aren't used to such cold, harsh climates, such as the round goby and quagga mussels, he said. But "it would take decades of long winters like this to eradicate them," he said.

Biologists will be watching for potential impacts on other species that aren't native but have been around awhile, such as chinook, steelhead, coho salmon, brown trout and the smelt and alewife fish that feed the predators people fish for, Claramunt said.

"Their populations can still be up or down depending on factors such as how fast it warms up," he said.

On smaller, shallower lakes, extensive, persistent ice cover means decomposition on the lake bottom uses up the available oxygen. With less replenishment, fish die-offs can be expected, Claramunt said.

"On a lot of people's small ponds, they are going to see significant kills," he said.

The algae that many aquatic organisms rely on may thrive, said Hunter Carrick, a professor of aquatic ecosystems ecology at Central Michigan University.

"There are diatoms, a certain type of phytoplankton, that seems to grow well around ice," he said. The long winter and slow thaw "could enhance the spring diatom bloom."

With Lake Erie warming slower this spring and summer, its oxygen-starved dead zone could be lessened in intensity this year as well, Carrick said. But a major diatom bloom could counteract that, he said.

Starving waterfowl

The late ice cover took a toll on waterfowl, particularly diving ducks, who couldn't find enough open water for food supplies, said Holly Vaughn, a DNR wildlife outreach technician.

"We've also noted muted swans that have starved to death for similar reasons," she said.

Biologists expect to see reduced clutch sizes as the birds enter breeding season, "fewer eggs being laid because the adults didn't have the nutrition they normally would get in the spring," she said.

The die-offs and breeding impacts, however, are not expected to significantly diminish waterfowl populations, Vaughn said.

This memorable winter and its lingering impacts makes it easy to forget that the long-term trend on lake ice is definitely downward, Colman said.

"It emphasizes the fact that, year-to-year, there is a lot of variation," he said. "It's been an amazing year." - Detroit Free Press.

TERMINATOR NOW: The Age Of Transcendence And The Rise Of The Machines - Report Suggests There Will Be A Robot Uprising And Magazine Reveals That The New Cop On The Beat Will Be A Bot!

May 05, 2014 - TECHNOLOGY - In the movie Transcendence, which opens in theaters on Friday, a sentient computer program embarks on a relentless quest for power, nearly destroying humanity in the process.

The film is science fiction but a computer scientist and entrepreneur Steven Omohundro says that “anti-social” artificial intelligence in the future is not only possible, but probable, unless we start designing AI systems very differently today.

Omohundro’s most recent recent paper, published in the Journal of Experimental & Theoretical Artificial Intelligence, lays out the case.

We think of artificial intelligence programs as somewhat humanlike. In fact, computer systems perceive the world through a narrow lens, the job they were designed to perform.

Microsoft Excel understands the world in terms of numbers entered into cells and rows; autonomous drone pilot systems perceive reality as a bunch calculations and actions that must be performed for the machine to stay in the air and to keep on target. Computer programs think of every decision in terms of how the outcome will help them do more of whatever they are supposed to do. It’s a cost vs. benefit calculation that happens all the time. Economists call it a utility function, but Omohundro says it’s not that different from the sort of math problem going in the human brain whenever we think about how to get more of what we want at the least amount of cost and risk.

For the most part, we want machines to operate exactly this way. The problem, by Omohundro’s logic, is that we can’t appreciate the obsessive devotion of a computer program to the thing it’s programed to do.

Put simply, robots are utility function junkies.

Even the smallest input that indicates that they’re performing their primary function better, faster, and at greater scale is enough to prompt them to keep doing more of that regardless of virtually every other consideration. That’s fine when you are talking about a simple program like Excel but becomes a problem when AI entities capable of rudimentary logic take over weapons, utilities or other dangerous or valuable assets. In such situations, better performance will bring more resources and power to fulfill that primary function more fully, faster, and at greater scale. More importantly, these systems don’t worry about costs in terms of relationships, discomfort to others, etc., unless those costs present clear barriers to more primary function. This sort of computer behavior is anti-social, not fully logical, but not entirely illogical either.

Omohundro calls this approximate rationality and argues that it’s a faulty notion of design at the core of much contemporary AI development.

“We show that these systems are likely to behave in anti-social and harmful ways unless they are very carefully designed. Designers will be motivated to create systems that act approximately rationally and rational systems exhibit universal drives towards self-protection, resource acquisition, replication and efficiency. The current computing infrastructure would be vulnerable to unconstrained systems with these drives,” he writes.

The math that explains why that is Omohundro calls the formula for optimal rational decision making. It speaks to the way that any rational being will make decisions in order to maximize rewards and lowest possible cost. It looks like this:

In the above model, A is an action and S is a stimulus that results from that action. In the case of utility function, action and stimulus form a sort of feedback loop. Actions that produce stimuli consistent with fulfilling the program’s primary goal will result in more of that sort of behavior. That will include gaining more resources to do it.

For a sufficiently complex or empowered system, that decision-making would include not allowing itself to be turned off, take, for example, a robot with the primary goal of playing chess.

“When roboticists are asked by nervous onlookers about safety, a common answer is ‘We can always unplug it!’ But imagine this outcome from the chess robot’s point of view,” writes Omohundro. “A future in which it is unplugged is a future in which it cannot play or win any games of chess. This has very low utility and so expected utility maximisation will cause the creation of the instrumental subgoal of preventing itself from being unplugged. If the system believes the roboticist will persist in trying to unplug it, it will be motivated to develop the subgoal of permanently stopping the roboticist,” he writes.

In other words, the more logical the robot, the more likely it is to fight you to the death.

The problem of an artificial intelligence relentlessly pursuing its own goals to the obvious exclusion of every human consideration is sometimes called runaway AI.

The best solution, he says, is to slow down in our building and designing of AI systems, take a layered approach, similar to the way that ancient builders used wood scaffolds to support arches under construction and only remove the scaffold when the arch is complete.

That approach is not characteristic of the one we are taking today, putting more and more resources and responsibility under the control of increasingly autonomous systems. That’s especially true of the U.S. military, which is looking to deploy larger numbers of lethal autonomous systems, or L.A.Rs into more contested environments. Without better safeguards to prevent these sorts of systems from, one day, acting rationally, we are going to have an increasingly difficult time turning them off. - Defense One.

The New Cop On The Beat May Be A Bot

Knightscope K5 promises enhanced policing capabilities, courts controversy

Have we as a species learned nothing from Robocop?

A Silicon Valley company called Knightscope is currently testing a prototype robot designed to detect and monitor criminal activity, much the way a police officer or a security guard would.


WATCH: Meet the crime-fighting R2-D2.

The Knightscope K5 is a five-foot-tall autonomous robot (one presumes that its resemblance to a Dalek is merely coincidental) that roams around your neighborhood, observing and gathering data and trying to predict where and when criminal activity will occur.

It carries no weaponry, but it has a pretty complete sensor package that includes thermal imaging, license plate reading and facial recognition.

This takes public surveillance a step beyond stationary cameras, and the challenges to personal privacy are clear. The K5 could do a whole lot of good by deterring crime, especially in neighborhoods that lack the resources to field an adequate police presence.

But where do you draw the line? - TIME.

FIRE IN THE SKY: Meteor Sighting - Bright Light Seen Streaking Across The Skies Over Southern Ontario, Canada; Also Seen Over Western New York! [VIDEOS]

May 05, 2014 - ONTARIO, CANADA - Dozens of Ontario residents say they think they saw a meteor streak across the sky Sunday afternoon, and an expert says there is little doubt that is what they spotted.

Laurence/Twitter

Peter Brown, a professor at the University of Western Ontario who studies meteors and meteorites, says the widespread eyewitness reports and images are consistent with a meteor.

Many Ontarians took to social media or contacted the American Meteor Society to report either a flash of light or a loud rumble.

The reports came in from various southern Ontario communities and parts of the United States.

Unconfirmed reports indicate loud blast over Peterborough and GTA was result of a meteor. Stay tuned for updates.

-
The Weather Network (@weathernetwork) May 04, 2014

Meteor just went over cobourg/porthope and broke the sound barrier. Just heard the sonic boom #meteor

-
Lily Garner (@Lily_garner) May 04, 2014

Looks like a meteor exploded over Toronto/Peterborough today. Raptors were just eliminated - coincidence? #dinoRock

-
Jeff/e/ (@JeffSmalley) May 04, 2014

The meteor society posted a comment from a person who said he was from Toronto and that the flash was brighter than a lightening bolt.

Dana Petrillo, of Colbourg, Ont., tweeted that her house vibrated and that she first thought there had been an earthquake or explosion.

"It was a really low rumble that just reverberated through the walls. It really wasn't a shaking, like in an earthquake, but more like a wave. It really did feel like an explosion," she said in an email.

Most of the equipment the university has to track meteors was not in operation Sunday afternoon, but a series of microphones the university has in place did detect a shockwave, Brown said.

Based on the data and the eyewitness reports it appears the shockwave occurred in the area of Peterborough, Ont., and its characteristics allowed for an estimate of the size of the meteor, said Brown.

"The energy is somewhere in the order of a few tens of tons of TNT explosive equivalent," he said in an interview Sunday night. "That would translate into something on the order of half to one metre in diameter and that's going to be a mass of ....a few metric tons."


WATCH: Meteor seen in the skies over Ontario

 


It's possible some fragments hit the ground, Brown added.

"This clearly was a pretty massive event, lots of mass, so on that basis alone I think we have a pretty good chance that meteorites would make it to the ground," he said.

The odds of fragments hitting the ground depend on how fast the meteor was travelling - a relatively slow moving fireball would make it more likely that some meteorites may be found.

"It would not surprise me if meteorites are found," Brown said.

Taken in Port Hope, ON at 4:20 pm. Looked like meteor exploding. Heard BOOM. Then rumble. Ground shook #meteor http://t.co/RQfZ7r55Do -
DC-Photography (@DCPhotographyON) May 05, 2014

Huge cloud of smoke from meteor ! Oshawa/Courtice http://t.co/YuPdYCrz9M -
stephanie lupton (@Slupton89) May 04, 2014

#meteor, #Peterborough http://t.co/bG1nLrU8ct -
Lawrence (@lhaddlesey) May 04, 2014

Here's the photo of the #meteor contrail over GTA and Durham! Saw this from Whitby.... Seeing this made my day http://t.co/gINzrFeMc9 -
Veronica (@iVeronica) May 04, 2014

@13WHAM All I have is smoke trail of the #ROC #Meteor http://t.co/r5xI9pE7TI -
Jesse Jordan (@jessejordan06) May 04, 2014

@13WHAM from the meteor I saw in Greece ny http://t.co/D2b4a2pFg4 -
justin muench (@JustinTiim3) May 04, 2014

Note the small circular cloud. It's well high up. That my friends was a meteorite methinks http://t.co/DdMbYS6C6y -
Rich Wigmore (@Ricwi) May 04, 2014

Source: Canadian Press

- National Post.


People across Western New York and Ontario Canada reported seeing an extremely bright daylight fireball.

Several people caught images of the bright object appearing to explode on dashboard cameras in their cars.

It happened Sunday at about 4:16 p.m. and people said the object had a brightness rivaling the sun.

A purported meteor falls vertically (centre or image) in a video taken on Ingram Drive in North York,
Ont and posted to YouTube on Sunday in Sunday May 4, 2014.
The Canadian Press/YouTube, Sam Singh

The American Meteor Society is investigating the incident.

People also reported hearing a loud boom. No impact zone has been located so its unclear if any part of the object made it all the way down to the Earth's surface.

This incident came a day before the Eta Aquarid meteor shower. NASA says the annual springtime event happens as the earth passes through the debris trail from Halley's Comet. It takes place May 5 and 6th. - MYFOXNY.

OMEN: Blood Red River In Switzerland - Writer Suggest Mysterious Global Phenomena Are Signs Of An Imminent Geological Pole Shift?! [PHOTOS]

May 05, 2014 - SWITZERLAND - On Wednesday, the 30th of April 2014, in Bern, Switzerland, the river Lotzwil turned blood red, and scientists say they have absolutely no explanation for it. Could this be a sign of the approaching Pole Shift? Are blood red waters a sign you can use as a guide to countdown to the coming Pole Shift? You bet!

This is not an isolated incident. Not only blood red waters, but also red dust and fiery red skies are all precursors of the coming Pole Shift, which by the way, is a natural occurrence that happens approximately every 3,652 years.

Revelation 16:4 – And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.

Judging by the list below, it would seem that the third angel has been busy.

This is not the first time (nor will it be the last time) that the waters of Earth have turned blood red. Just ask people living in Sri Lanka, India, the UK, "Arkansas," Slovakia, Australia, China, France, Beirut, Lebanon, and even Texas, to name a few. They've had their own experiences with blood red water, blood red rain, and red dust.

• Feb 2014: Blood red water in a pond in Wichita, Kansas. The water took on a pinkish color in the morning and within a few hours it had turned blood red.
• Jan 2014: A stream in North Hampshire in the United Kingdom turned blood red. By the way, Hampshire is located in SE England, where there have been a lot other “bizarre things” happening of late.
• Dec 2013: A river near a small village in Slovakia turned blood red.
• Dec 2013: Red dust blanketed SE Texas as massive tail of Planet X blew toward Earth
• Dec 2012: A stream in Arkansas turned blood red.
• Nov 2012: Tourists in Australia fled Bondi Beach when the sea turned blood red.
• Nov 17, 2012, a never-before experienced red rain fell heavily in Sri Lanka for more than 60 days. In some places a red frost covered the ground. The alien cells examined from the red rain were found to be replicating without DNA (VIDEO)
• Sept 2012: A section of the Yangtze River in Chongqing, China turned blood red
• Aug 2012: A lake in in the Rhone Delta of southern France turned blood red.
• Jul 2012: Blood red rain fell in Kannur, Kerala, India when heavy downpours of red rain fell sporadically on the southern Indian state staining clothes pink.
• Feb 2012: In Beirut, Lenbanon, the Beirut River and canals turned blood red.

What’s really happening? Scientists struggle with explanations as they attempt to rationalize this “blood red” phenomenon – dye in the river, dust from some far off desert, pollution - but for the most part, they are at a loss to explain red waters and red dust, as well as blood red skies in the dark of night.

Images of blood red rivers across the globe:

Where does this blood red color come from? Per the Zetas of ZetaTalk, it's coming from the tail of Planet X (Nibiru).

The Zetas say red dust was collected from the asteroid belt as Planet X (Nibiru) passed through that zone in the past. Planet X (Nibiru)'s debris tail is composed of moons, space trash, and iron oxide dust gathered during its transit of the solar system. As this debris tail wafts toward earth, it can turn oceans, lakes, rivers, and other objects a blood red color. Objects spun off from this debris tail are seen as green fireballs flashing across the skies with more and more frequency.

According to the Zetas, red dust from Planet X (Nibiru)’s wafting tail is now sweeping over Earth . . . and there are no parts of the globe that escape the red dust, which is probably more extreme on the side of the globe facing Planet X (Nibiru). They also say . . a countdown sign is an unmistakable, fine red dust that cannot be confused with any other natural occurrence.

In his book “Worlds in Collision,” Velikovsky also wrote of a fine red dust:

"One of the first visible signs of this encounter was the reddening of the earth's surface by a fine dust of rusty pigment. In sea, lake, and river this pigment gave a bloody coloring to the water. Because of these particles of ferruginous or other soluble pigment, the world turned red."

This is not the time to hide your head in the sand and hope that what you don't see or know won't hurt you. Instead, expect a lot more of these so-called “bizarre blood-red incidents” as Planet X (Nibiru) closes the gap between itself and Planet Earth.

The truth is there for those with eyes to see and ears to hear. - Examiner.

PLANETARY TREMORS: Strong 6.3 Magnitude Earthquake Shakes Northern Thailand And Myanmar - Tremor Cracked Roads And Walls, And Smashed Windows; No Casualties Reported! [PHOTOS+MAPS+ESTIMATES+TECTONIC SUMMARY]

May 05, 2014 - THAILAND - A strong earthquake shook northern Thailand and Myanmar on Monday evening, smashing windows, cracking walls and roads and damaging Buddhist temples. No casualties were reported.

A man looks at a huge crack on a damaged road following a strong earthquake in Phan district.  (Photo: AP)

The airport in Chiang Rai, a northern Thai city near the epicenter of the 6.3-magnitude temblor, evacuated people from its terminal, where display signs and pieces of the ceiling fell. There was no damage to the runway or flight disruptions, airport General Manager Damrong Klongakara said.

A well-known temple in the city, the all-white Wat Rongkhun, was closed due to safety concerns after the earthquake.

USGS earthquake location map.

"The spire of the main building came off and the tiles on the roof fell off," Chalermchai Kositpiphat, the artist who designed the temple, told Nation TV. "I still don't know how we can sleep tonight. ... It was shaking the whole time and then aftershocks followed four to five times. It will bring more damages each time an aftershock happens, I'm afraid.

"The murals are also damaged because the pillars were shaken badly," Chalermchai said. "I don't know how many years it will take me to fix it. ... It was tumbling like the earth was going to explode."

The head of a Buddha statue fell at the Udomwaree Temple in Chiang Rai, according to monk Phra Pathompong. A residential building at the temple also had exterior cracks and ceiling damage, and residents reported only minor damage in their homes, he said.

Medical personnel evacuate patients from a hospital in Chiang Rai province.  (Photo: Chaichan Chaimun, epa)

The earthquake toppled goods off shelves at a market in Chiang Rai province.  (Photo: AP)

A wall of a hotel was damaged by the earthquake.  (Photo: AP)

A woman looks at a damaged home following an earthquake on May 5 in Chiang Rai province, northern Thailand.
A strong 6.0-magnitude earthquake shook northern Thailand and Burma, causing minimal damage.  (Photo: AP)

In Chiang Rai's Phan district, one road was split by multiple cracks, the worst a waist-high gash about the length of three vehicles.

People ran down stairs in office buildings in Myanmar's largest city, Yangon, and severe shaking also was felt in Chiang Mai, Thailand's second-largest city. Window curtains briefly swayed in the Thai capital, Bangkok.

No casualties have been reported and damage was reported only to roads and buildings, said Anusorn Kaewkangwan, deputy director-general at the Interior Ministry.

Thailand's Meteorological Department said the quake was 6.3 magnitude. The U.S. Geological Survey measured it at 6.0 and said the epicenter was 9 kilometers (6 miles) south of Mae Lao and 27 kilometers (17 miles) southwest of Chiang Rai. Its depth was a relatively shallow 7.4 kilometers (4.6 miles). Shallow quakes are generally felt more widely.

USGS earthquake shakemap intensity

Southeast Asia is seismically active and quakes are often felt in surrounding nations. Thailand has several faults, though in recent times quakes centered in the country have been less severe than those in other Southeast Asian nations such as Myanmar and Indonesia.

The 9.1-magnitude earthquake off Indonesia's Sumatra island on Dec. 26, 2004, triggered an Indian Ocean tsunami that killed more than 8,000 people in Thailand's coastal areas, among its overall death toll of 240,000.

The last quake in Thailand approaching a similar size to Monday's was one of 5.1 magnitude on Dec. 13, 2006, in the northern province of Chiang Mai. - ABC News.

GLOBAL VOLCANISM: A New Submarine Eruption In The Northern Marianna Islands!

May 05, 2014 - MARIANNA ISLANDS - During the past week, we have been keeping a close watch on the Northern Mariana Islands (NMI), as seismometers on the islands record high levels of seismicity from an undersea volcano near the island of Farallon de Pajaros.

Bathymetric maps showing the islands and seamounts that make up the Mariana volcanic island arc (left) and the
area of Ahyi seamount in the northern part of the arc (right). Susan Merle of NOAA’s Earth-Ocean
Interaction Program created these maps. Susan Merle/NOAA

The seismic signals almost certainly herald an eruption. In fact, submarine explosions were heard by scuba divers who are conducting coral reef research in the area. The divers even felt the shock waves from the explosions, and one of the most powerful ones reverberated through the hull of the NOAA base ship, Hi'ialakai, leading the crew to think something had happened to the ship. Shipboard personnel also reported a large sulfur slick on the southeast coastline of Farallon de Pajaros.

Unfortunately, the ship had to leave the area under threat of an advancing typhoon. If they can get back to the vicinity soon, they may be able to investigate the source of the explosions with great caution, keeping in close contact with U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and CNMI emergency management personnel, who are monitoring the seismicity.

The CNMI emergency management office and the volcano observatories of the USGS have been working together for over 30 years to establish volcano monitoring networks and assess volcanic hazards in the Mariana Islands.

The most likely source of the current activity is Ahyi seamount, about 20 km southeast of Farallon de Pajaros. Ahyi rises to within 64 m (210 ft) of the ocean surface and is associated with several reports of possible eruptions in historical times, the most recent in 2001.

Interspersed among the volcanoes that rise above sea level to form the NMI are many submarine volcanoes. Together, the islands and submarine volcanoes form the Mariana arc, a classic example of an island arc. These arcs, such as the Aleutians and the Japanese archipelago, are formed at subduction zones - boundaries where one tectonic plate plunges beneath another.

Reports of discolored water throughout the Mariana arc are common, indicating that the NMI may experience frequent submarine eruptions. A dramatic, recent example is the 2010 eruption of South Sarigan seamount, which sent an eruption plume up to 12 km (40,000 ft) above sea level.

The plume intersected many commercial air traffic routes, raising concern that the abrasive ash fragments could damage aircraft or even stall their engines. In addition, the eruption posed a potential hazard to ocean-going vessels, as it produced a large area of discolored water, possibly including a raft of pumice - a type of rock that can be produced in explosive volcanic eruptions. A recent submarine eruption of Havre seamount north of New Zealand in 2012 created a 20,000 square-kilometer (7,700 sq-mi) raft of pumice - about twice the area of the island of Hawai'i! - that eventually spread to about 4 million square-kilometers (1.5 million sq-mi) as it broke up.

Pumice can float because it's basically a type of foam - filled with gas bubbles encased in quickly cooled lava - which makes it less dense than the ocean water.

It's possible, but not certain, that the current unrest near Ahyi seamount will escalate into a vigorous eruption, with the creation of pumice rafts, and even an explosive eruption column rising above sea level. If this happens, there are further possible threats of local disturbances of the water column that could result in local tsunami and ash fallout from the eruption plume.

Long-time readers of this column may be wondering about the possible outcomes of the seismic unrest that we sometimes report on from our own submarine volcano, Lō'ihi, off the south coast of Hawai'i Island. The most recent confirmed eruption there, in 1996, created a large collapse pit at the summit. Deposits formed during that eruption and numerous previous eruptions, sampled by submersible vehicles, attest to frequent episodes of explosive volcanism at Lō'ihi.

While there is no doubt that Lō'ihi is a very active volcano, the pressure of the approximately 1,000 m (3,300 ft) of water between the top of the volcano and the surface makes it highly unlikely that even the most vigorous of eruptions of Lō'ihi will have significant impact at the ocean surface during our lifetimes. - Hawaii 24/7.

PLANETARY TREMORS: Strong 6.0 Magnitude Tremor Rocks Tokyo, Japan - The Strongest Seismic Intensity Level Since The Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011! [MAPS+ESTIMATES+TECTONIC SUMMARY]

May 05, 2014 - JAPAN - A strong earthquake, with an estimated magnitude of 6.0, jolted central Tokyo on Monday morning.

USGS earthquake location map.

The quake, which struck at about 5:18 a.m., measured lower 5 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7 in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo.

According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, the focus was about 162 kilometers below the seafloor off Izu Oshima island. A tsunami was unlikely, it said.

The quake registered an intensity of 4 in other areas of Tokyo and some areas in Chiba, Gunma, Kanagawa, Saitama and Tochigi prefectures.

An electronic signboard informs passengers of the suspension of train services at
Tokyo Station on Monday morning. The Yomiuri Shimbun

The earthquake created the strongest seismic intensity level measured in central Tokyo since the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011.

According to the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry’s Fire and Disaster Management Agency, 16 people were injured in Tokyo and Chiba, Kanagawa and Saitama prefectures as of 10 a.m. Eight of them, including a woman in her 60s, were injured from falls at home and other places.

The secretariat of the Nuclear Regulation Authority said the quake caused no problems at nuclear plants in Fukushima, Ibaraki and Niigata prefectures.

USGS earthquake shakemap intensity map.

Yohei Hasegawa, a Japan Meteorological Agency official in charge of monitoring earthquakes and tsunami, said at a news conference: “The earthquake is believed to have occurred inside the Pacific plate and it doesn’t seem to be related to an earthquake that could occur directly beneath Tokyo, which would have a different mechanism. It is unlikely to be followed by active aftershocks, but people should take precautions for the next several days.”

According to East Japan Railway Co., the Joetsu Shinkansen line operated at low speed between Omiya and Kumagaya stations after the earthquake and was delayed by up to 15 minutes.

The Japan Road Traffic Information Center said lower speed regulations were applied on the Kanetsu, Tohoku and Tomei expressways immediately after the earthquake, but were later lifted as safety was confirmed. The restrictions did not cause major traffic jams. - Japan News.

Tectonic Summary - Seismotectonics of Japan and Vicinity

Japan and the surrounding islands straddle four major tectonic plates: Pacific plate; North America plate; Eurasia plate; and Philippine Sea plate. The Pacific plate is subducted into the mantle, beneath Hokkaido and northern Honshu, along the eastern margin of the Okhotsk microplate, a proposed subdivision of the North America plate. Farther south, the Pacific plate is subducted beneath volcanic islands along the eastern margin of the Philippine Sea plate. This 2,200 km-long zone of subduction of the Pacific plate is responsible for the creation of the deep offshore Ogasawara and Japan trenches as well as parallel chains of islands and volcanoes, typical of Circumpacific island arcs. Similarly, the Philippine Sea plate is itself subducting under the Eurasia plate along a zone, extending from Taiwan to southern Honshu that comprises the Ryukyu Islands and the Nansei-Shoto trench.

USGS plate tectonics for the region.

Subduction zones at the Japanese island arcs are geologically complex and produce numerous earthquakes from multiple sources. Deformation of the overriding plates generates shallow crustal earthquakes, whereas slip at the interface of the plates generates interplate earthquakes that extend from near the base of the trench to depths of 40 to 60 km. At greater depths, Japanese arc earthquakes occur within the subducting Pacific and Philippine Sea plates and can reach depths of nearly 700 km. Since 1900, three great earthquakes occurred off Japan and three north of Hokkaido. They are the M8.4 1933 Sanriku-oki earthquake, the M8.3 2003 Tokachi-oki earthquake, the M9.0 2011 Tohoku earthquake, the M8.4 1958 Etorofu earthquake, the M8.5 1963 Kuril earthquake, and the M8.3 1994 Shikotan earthquake. - USGS.

ANIMAL BEHAVIOR: Disaster Precursors - Rare NONMIGRATORY Arctic Bird Seen On Point Peninsula, New York?!

May 05, 2014 - NEW YORK, UNITED STATES - Carloads of birders from across the region have visited the shore of Lake Ontario, near Watertown, over the last few days hoping to glimpse a rare avian visitor from the Arctic tundra.

A Willow Ptarmigan along eastern Lake Ontario. The sighting this week is a first for New York State. Jeff Bolsinger.

Late last week, Eugene Nichols was birding near Point Peninsula and found an all white bird that didn't belong in northern New York.

Nichols contacted Jeff Bolsinger, a bird biologist at Fort Drum, who confirmed that it's a Willow Ptarmigan. Bolsinger says the bird normally lives only in northern Canada and Alaska. He says the sighting this week is the first documented sighting of a Willow Ptarmigan in New York State, and the second recorded in the lower 48 states in a century.


WATCH:  Sighting of a Willow Ptarmigan.

 


Bolsinger told Todd Moe he's not sure how the bird ended up this far south, but it's become an instant celebrity in the birding community. - NCPR.

EXTREME WEATHER: Massive Wildfire And Powerful Winds Triggers Mass Evacuation Near Los Angeles!

May 05, 2014 - CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES - A rapidly spreading wildfire in Southern California forced the evacuation of more than 1,600 homes Wednesday, as powerful winds drove it closer and closer to a city just east of Los Angeles.

Smoke rises from a charred landscape as a wildfire driven by fierce Santa Ana winds
spreads in Rancho Cucamonga, California, April 30, 2014.Reuters/David McNew

The fire initially began around 8 a.m. Wednesday morning in the Etiwanda Preserve of the San Bernardino National Forest. Although it started off covering only about 20 acres of forest, strong and unpredictable gusts of wind from the neighboring mountains quickly spread the fire through 200 acres in a span of two hours.

By the middle of the day, the fire had scorched through more than 1,000 acres of land, buoyed by winds up to 80 miles per hour. According to the Los Angeles Times, the fire had only been 10 percent contained by Thursday morning.

With smoke promptly making its way to the edges of Rancho Cucamonga - a city with a population of 165,000 people - the US Forest Service employed a mandatory evacuation, forcing residents from 1,650 homes due to the instability of the fire. Local schools were also evacuated.

"Any time they tell me it's time to go, I can get out of here. I don't want to be in anyone's way," said local resident Barbora Konecna to the LA Times in a separate report. "With the wind going the way it is, you just don't know."

According to KTTV Los Angeles, the mandatory evacuation had been lifted by 6 p.m. Wednesday, though a voluntary evacuation remains in place. Damage has been reported to one home in Rancho Cucamonga, with residents on alert in case changing wind patterns necessitate further action.

Speaking with CNN affiliate KCBS on Wednesday, Bob Poole of the US Forestry Service said the conditions were too risky to use aircraft to battle the flames.


 WATCH: No sign of containment of Etiwanda fire.

 


"The big challenge on these fires is the wind and the unpredictability, and with winds like this we can't put up aircraft. It's just too dangerous," he said. "So we try and figure out where it's going to end up and put our resources there."

With hundreds of firefighters and dozens of trucks involved and hoping to make gains against the fire, the National Weather Service's Miguel Miller said there was mixed news coming in for Thursday's efforts.

"The bad news is, we're going to have some tough, hot, dry, windy conditions to fight that fire, and in case any other fire gets started, it's going to spread quickly," he said. "The good news is, conditions will improve this afternoon." - RT.