Positive Changes That Are Occurring

“It was quite simple. All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory. “Reality control,” they called it: in Newspeak, “doublethink.”

George Orwell, from “ 1984

June 8, 2016 – Legalizing Pot Brings Down Drug-related Crime in Colorado

October 16, 2016 - Is Marijuana Responsible for Colorado Crime Increase? - Snopes.com

February 7, 2017 - Might marijuana legalization “be inducing a crime drop” in US states?

An article that I’ve appended below shows us that the serious crime rate in Brunswick, GA dropped 16% last year, part of a larger drop of 40% over the last two years. While the headline of that article reads "City crime rate dropped in 2016, but gangs persist ’. Why don’t they say “City crime rate dropped 16% in 2016”, or “City crime rate dropped 40% in two years’? Why do they omit any percentage in the headline? That’s because printing the percentage would be more impactful, so they protectively hedged by omitting it. And saying “ but gangs persist ” is another hedging qualifier. Can’t you just hear the querulous voice of the finger-wagging old man?

Another article below, also from Georgia, is headlined "Bibb’s serious crime rate drops 7 percent in 2016.” Isn’t that great that they printed the percentage? Well, yes, unless you factor in the burying of this quote farther below in the article: " There was a total of 20 homicides in 2016 – 8 less than in 2015 – a 28 percent drop .” So they’ve hedged, and led with the smaller percentage - the one less-damaging to their agenda.

Last time I was through Georgia, I didn’t notice that weed had been legalized. So why do I read " Might marijuana legalization “be inducing a crime drop” in US states ?”, when it’s plummeting in both states that have legalized, but also in states that have not? That’s because it’s a specious trial-balloon, something thrown up against the wall to see what sticks - a hoped-for plausible-deniability excuse for your ensheepled subconscious to grasp onto, in hopes you don’t notice the larger trend I’m elucidating here down over time. You can tell from the question “ might? "

I don’t know why I natter on like this, as anyone who reads the quotes at the top unmoved is sufficiently programmed that, for this moment, anyway, they are not going to be any further impressed by logic, or reason, or pie charts.

But we all know how the story “ The Emperor’s New Clothes ” turned out, so I’m going to keep at it, here.

March 9, 2016 – Is There A Link Between Crime Increase And Legalization?

June 8, 2016 – Legalizing Pot Brings Down Drug-related Crime in Colorado

October 16, 2016 - Is Marijuana Responsible for Colorado Crime Increase? - Snopes.com

February 5, 2017 – Georgia - City crime rate dropped in 2016 , but gangs persist

Brunswick’s overall crime rate dropped in 2016 for the second straight year , but the persistence of organized crime in the form of street gangs continues to be a big problem in the city, Brunswick Police Chief Kevin Jones said.

The rate of serious crimes Brunswick Police handled in 2016 dropped by 16 percent compared to the 2015 rate of such crimes, which include murder, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, theft and arson. The serious crime rate in 2015 dropped by 25 percent compared to the 2014 rate.

February 6, 2016 – Georgia - Bibb’s serious crime rate drops 7 percent in 2016

The Bibb Sheriff’s Office Crime Analysis Unit released its statistics for 2016 and it shows a decrease in all serious crimes , except for auto theft, according to a news release.

There was a total of 20 homicides in 2016 – 8 less than in 2015 – a 28 percent drop .

February 6, 2017 - NYC crime continued to drop in January, officials say

Following the historic lows of 2016, crime in New York City continues to drop in the first few weeks of the new year.

Several crime categories posted historic lows this January, according to the monthly crime briefing from Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner James O’Neill. Murders are down from 22 in January 2016 to 20 this past January — a drop of 9.1%.

February 7, 2017 - Might marijuana legalization “be inducing a crime drop” in US states?

“To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which canceled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget, whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again, and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself – that was the ultimate subtlety; consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word ‘doublethink’ involved the use of doublethink."

George Orwell, from “ 1984

January 11, 2017 - Bird species vanish from UK due to climate change and habitat loss …

January 18, 2017 – ‘A Waxwing Winter’: Soaring numbers of rare birds invade the UK …

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It’s January, 2017, and Nature is booming and burgeoning to a level not seen in my lifetime. Since that statement directly refutes our State Religion, which holds that “ Poor Mother Gaia is Dying, Crushed by the Virus-Like Burden of Mankind ”, I’ve appended multiple recent examples below to support it.

In the first example, the headline, “With the new year, the number of Red-breasted Geese has increased”, hedges. They have increased, certainly, but why the omission of “considerably”, as seen just below?

And why do they tell us “ Compared with the survey which we conducted on December 17, 2016 the number of wintering geese in Coastal Dobrudzha has grown considerably ”, without any mention of the geese numbers from last year? And why say “ considerably ” - which is general - versus “by X percent”, which is specific? That’s because they are hedging, blowing smoke, fighting a desperate rearguard action, using repetitive, threadbare tactics that I expose here on a daily basis. They finish the hedge-filled paragraph with yet another hedge, yet another quibble: “ although it is still far from the numbers that accumulate here in the last 20-25 years .”

In the second article, the headline, “Bird numbers up”, hedges in the exact same way the first headline did. Yes, the numbers are “up”, but it takes care not to say “up 25% over the six year average”, as that would be much more impactful. The bird-count-head guy says “ we recorded 90 different species, which now happens to be the exact average for the past six years ”. And yet later we learn that “The entire Portland count recorded 117 species.” O.k., how does the total-Portland count stand, this year, vs. the six year average? My guess is that the author of the article took care to select one search that was on the low end, average-species-wise. And even there, if that were the case, they’ve got to cough up “We recorded 14,018 individual birds, an approximately 25 percent increase from the six-year average.”

Another headline reads “Soaring bird numbers spark aviation safety concerns in Lebanon ”, which is a great example of the utterly-formulaic “lead with good numbers, close with defensive hedge” tactic seen almost daily by readers of this thread. The word “ spark ” is harsh, jarring. Soaring, spark, safety… that’s alliteration, and the use of multiple, hissing “S’s”, Preciousss.

In the waxwing story from the U.K., booming waxwing numbers are described both as an invasion and as a vacation .

January 4, 2017 – With the new year, the number of Red-breasted Geese has increased

During the survey we established 6’390 Red-breasted Geese and 16’400 Greater White-fronted Geese. We also watched 90 Graylag geese in Durankulak Lake. Compared with the survey which we conducted on December 17, 2016 the number of wintering geese in Coastal Dobrudzha has grown considerably , although it is still far from the numbers that accumulate here in the last 20-25 years. With the new cold spell coming this weekend, we expect even bigger numbers of geese at their traditional winter roosts.

January 10, 2017 – Clackamas, OR - Bird numbers up ; Christmas counters record 90 species

We recorded 14,018 individual birds, an approximately 25 percent increase from the six-year average , and we recorded 90 different species, which now happens to be the exact average for the past six years," said Dan Strong, who headed up this section of the Portland-area bird count.

The entire Portland count recorded 117 species: unusual finds included Bohemian waxwings, sora, cinnamon teal, eared grebe, burrowing owl, American bittern and the black-throated gray warbler, Strong said.

January 11, 2017 – Soaring bird numbers spark aviation safety concerns in Lebanon

January 11, 2017 - Bird species vanish from UK due to climate change and habitat loss …

January 18, 2017 – ‘A Waxwing Winter’: Soaring numbers of rare birds invade the UK …

An unusual species of bird is enjoying a winter vacation here in the UK, according to the RSPB charity.

So many have been spotted this year, the RSPB has described it as a ‘Waxwing Winter’.

It’s January, 2017, and Nature is booming and burgeoning to a level not seen in my lifetime. Since that statement directly refutes our State Religion, which holds that “ Poor Mother Gaia is Dying, Crushed by the Virus-like Burden of Mankind ”, I’ve appended multiple recent examples below to support it.

The words “ mystery ”, “ baffled ” and “ puzzled ” are memes, used, among numerous similar variants, whenever anyone in the wholly-controlled-and-coopted Political, Academic, Scientific and Media establishments wants to lie about, well, basically anything. One of those variants is “ hard to say ”.

Which is why an Illuminist talking-head shill quoted in one of the articles below says “ it’s very hard to say if this indicates the population segment is definitely turning the corner ” about a Sacramento River sturgeon population that increased 34% since 2011.

He goes on to say “ But my gut feeling is that the adult population is increasing…”

Gut feeling ”? No, Mr. Sturgeon-whisperer, it’s not about gut feelings, it’s about statistics, data, namely:

(Sturgeon numbers are) “ at an all-time high for the survey at more than 30 fish per acre-foot of water volume sampled. That represents a 34 percent increase from the previous high in 2011, which had an index of 3.3 fish per acre-foot sampled .”

Wait…what…34 percent? Let me open up my percentage calculator, which tells me that 3.3 to 30 is an 809% increase. Without using the calculator, I’d say 3 per acre foot to 30 per acre foot would be “increased tenfold”. The only college course I ever failed was Probability and Statistics, and so it’s bizarre to me that I’m the guy leading the charge, here. But I’m not getting where “34%” comes from.

They call the sturgeon increase “ sharp ” in the headline, which creates a feeling of unease in the reader, a much more negative spin than if the headline was written “Survey shows huge increase” or “survey shows impressive increase.” You have to get to the third paragraph to read the real, substantive truth, which is “numbers at an all-time high”. Putting it down below like that is called “ burying ” it. You are supposed to put the whole substance of the article in the headline, which, if honestly written, would read “Survey shows green sturgeon numbers at record-high levels.”

The same neurolinguistic programming technique is used in a later quote, “ Russian fish landings in Europe spike amid currency issues .” In addition to using the repellant meme word “ spike ” - which implies that fish landings have shot up, but will shoot right back down again, forming a “spike” on the graph - the headline also uses the bitter pill on the back end, “ amid currency issues ”, to leave the mind with a negative feeling after reading the sentence.

I need to save all of the posts in this thread on one master, searchable document, so that I can quickly compile a “spike” post, with three years of examples, via a simple keyword search. In the hope that reading three mind-numbing years of “ spike ” examples might wake some subset of the entranced from the Black Magic spell that holds them in thrall, would render them able to conceive that a united body is, yes, Conspiring in the formulaic use of such terms.

I should also create that document in case some person or persons successfully shitcans this forum, as Bad Guy hackers have successfully done in the past.

There’s a ton of other massive-increase percentages below.

August 9, 2016 – Seafood exports could grow 20% in FY17

Seafood exports from India are likely to increase 20 per cent in 2016-17, thanks to renewed global demand and addition of more areas for aquaculture .

August 18, 2016 – Fairfield-Suisun, CA - Survey shows sharp green sturgeon increase

FAIRFIELD — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that the numbers of the threatened green sturgeon are up significantly in the San Joaquin-Sacramento Delta system.

In a published article for the Pacific Southwest Region, the federal agency reported that a June survey at the Red Bluff Diversion Dam showed numbers at an all-time high for the survey at more than 30 fish per acre-foot of water volume sampled.

That represents a 34 percent increase from the previous high in 2011 , which had an index of 3.3 fish per acre-foot sampled, Fish and Wildlife reported.

The green sturgeon (adult) run in the Sacramento River has been surveyed since 2010, and that’s the only real abundance information we have, so it’s very hard to say if this indicates the population segment is definitely turning the corner ,” Joe Heublein, the green sturgeon recovery coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, was quoted as saying in the Fish and Wildlife article.

But my gut feeling is that the adult population is increasing and, being cautiously optimistic , production may also start to increase with improvements to spawning habitat accessibility.”

If the population is in fact increasing as the data suggests , Fish and Wildlife officials noted that it would be one of the few threatened or endangered Delta species – such as the Smelt and winter-run Chinook Salmon – that is making a comeback.

November 26, 2016 – Islamabad, Pakistan - Fish exports increase 14 per cent in four months | Associate Press Of …

ISLAMABAD, Nov 26 (APP): The exports of fish and fish preparations from the country witnessed increase of 13.87 percent during the first four months of the current fiscal year, compared to the corresponding period of last year.

January 8, 2017 – Sulawesi, Indonesia - Southeast Sulawesi records 31% increase in exports

Southeast Sulawesi has recorded a 30 percent rise in exports in 2016 as compared to the previous year . The provincial head of Marine and Fisheries, Akabul Kijo, stated Saturday (Jan. 7) that based on the data from fish quarantine, quality control, and safety of the fishery products station of Kendari City, the total export value of Sulawesi Tenggaras fish and fishery products reached 53.1 billion Rupiah in 2016 . Octopus and shrimp continued to dominate export commodities among certified fishery products . The main export destinations were the US, Japan, Croatia, Vietnam, Thailand, China, and South Korea . Kijo also remarked that the total volume of fishery products exported to Hong Kong, Singapore, and Japan reached 3,298 kilograms, while the exports of octopus to Japan and the US were worth Rp2.8 billion . Southeast Sulawesi has huge potential for fisheries, as it is surrounded by Bone Bay Sea, Banda Sea, and Flores Sea.

January 20, 2017 - Seafood exports to grow by 5% - Economy - Vietnam News | Politics …

January 24, 2017 - Fish yields rise, exports fall | Khmer Times | News Portal Cambodia |

The total export of fish products decreased in 2016 even though fish yields rose , causing …

January 24, 2017 – Russian fish landings in Europe spike amid currency issues | Article …

“If you are the big tree, we are the small axe, sharpened to cut you down (well sharp), ready to cut you down.”

Bob Marley, from “ Small Axe

“It’s become Spain’s most sought-after lunch reservation.” Boom.

“The restaurant has poached staff from luxury hotels.” Boom.

“Celebrity chefs are lining up to cook once a week.” Boom.

“For paying clients, the lunch is fully booked through the end of March.” Boom.

http://www.npr.org/sections/th…s-the-poor

Spain’s ‘Robin Hood Restaurant’ Charges The Rich And Feeds The Poor

January 24, 2017

On a frigid winter night, a man wearing two coats shuffles into a brightly lit brick restaurant in downtown Madrid. Staff greet him warmly; he’s been here many times. The maître d’ stamps his ID card, and the hungry man selects a table with a red tablecloth, under a big brass chandelier.

The man, Luis Gallardo, is homeless — and so are all the diners, every night, at the city’s Robin Hood restaurant. Its mission is to charge the rich and feed the poor. Paying customers at breakfast and lunch foot the bill for the restaurant to serve dinner to homeless people, free of charge.

It’s become Spain’s most sought-after lunch reservation. The restaurant has poached staff from luxury hotels. Celebrity chefs are lining up to cook once a week. For paying clients, the lunch is fully booked through the end of March.

A dinner patron chats with Father Angel (right), who says that he wants homeless people to “eat with the same dignity as any other customer.”

The restaurant opened in early December, and is run by an 80-year-old Catholic priest, Ángel García Rodriguez, whom everyone knows simply as “Padre Ángel.”

“I want them to eat with the same dignity as any other customer,” Father Ángel says. “And the same quality, with glasses made of crystal, not plastic, and in an atmosphere of friendship and conversation.”

Outside, there’s a sign listing the house rules: Patrons are allowed to sing as they please, as long as it doesn’t disturb other customers. They can use the free wifi and borrow a cell phone if they need to make a call. They’re free to bring their own food and order only drinks, if they prefer. Or they can take over the kitchen for a birthday party or other special celebration.

As founder of Messengers of Peace, a local charity, Padre Ángel has also converted an abandoned church nearby into a sort of community center. It’s the only church in Madrid that’s open 24 hours a day — with free coffee, television and places for patrons to sleep. He or a colleague celebrates Mass there daily.

In the night NPR visited, the Robin Hood waiters served mushroom consommé, followed by roast turkey and potatoes. For dessert, there’s a choice of vanilla pudding or yogurt.

Gallardo, the man in two coats, says the meal reminds him of Christmases past, before the accounting firm he ran went bankrupt and he had to lay off 60 employees. He shows NPR some photos on his cell phone of a dining table holding a huge spread of sweets and a bottle of French wine. He says the photos were taken two years ago at his home, which he has since had to sell to pay debts.

“We were just like any other family,” says Gallardo, 48, shaking his head. His wife has now left him.

He lives on the street now, sleeping in ATM machine alcoves.

As for his future, he says: “My future is now. I can’t even talk about tomorrow. I’d like to know, but I don’t what it holds.”

Spain’s economy may be out of recession, but its effects are lingering. Unemployment still hovers near 20 percent. The Robin Hood Restaurant feeds more than 100 needy people each night, in two shifts.

Back in the kitchen, the restaurant’s dishwasher has just broken down. A volunteer plunges her hands into the sink and starts washing plates by hand.

“Some of our diners are very educated, and some are a bit ashamed to be here,” says Nieve Cuenca, a retiree who comes to help out in the kitchen once a week.

"I love this work. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done in my life," she says, elbow-deep in soapy water.

https://web.archive.org/web/20170129030422/http://www.ethericwarriors.com/wp-content/sp-resources/forum-image-uploads/jeff/2017/01/Mammoth.jpg?72f680&72f680

It’s January, 2017, and the great artificial drought has been broken by the slow, steady, widespread and ever-increasing distribution of simple, inexpensive orgonite devices in the vicinity of the weather warfare infrastructure that many still mistakenly presume only carries cell phone traffic and weather radar data.

I’ve appended story below to support that assertion, headlined “California’s stormy winter sets snowfall record for Mammoth resorts — over 20 feet in one month.”

The mountain has received 246 inches of snow since Jan. 1, blasting through the old monthly record of 209 inches .”

I credit them for correctly saying “ blasting through ”, but have to note that they carefully avoided telling you the percentage increase, as that would have been even more impactful, so they hedged by omitting it. I did the math, it’s 17.7% more than the previous record. Such records are usually eclipsed by tiny margins. It’s a stunning, epochal increase, a transformation.

The Sierra Nevada snowpack, which provides a third of the state’s water when it melts in the spring and summer, is at nearly 200% of average for this time of year .”

Two hundred percent is double . It’s a stunning, epochal increase, a transformation.

And this is the early, rough part of the transformation, where the general populace is still in denial about the truth of what I’m saying.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/

California’s stormy winter sets snowfall record for Mammoth resorts — over 20 feet in one month

January 26, 2017

A set of atmospheric rivers that brought heavy rains and floods to California also dumped a record amount of snow on Mammoth Mountain in January — 20½ feet, the most in the resort town’s history , local tourist officials announced.

“What a time it is to be at Mammoth,” the announcement said on MammothMountain.com, which represents area resorts. “ Conditions are all-time , get out there and have the ‘best pow day of your life.’”

The mountain has received 246 inches of snow since Jan. 1, blasting through the old monthly record of 209 inches. The resort town has received more than 29 feet of snow since the ski season began last year.

The news underlines what has been a remarkable start to California’s water year, which runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30.

October rains were four times the monthly average in many parts of the state, followed by a strong December and an even better January. The Sierra Nevada snowpack, which provides a third of the state’s water when it melts in the spring and summer, is at nearly 200% of average for this time of year.

Many of the state’s biggest reservoirs are full, and much of the northern half of the state is considered to be out of drought conditions.

More storms are on the way, state climatologists said. For skiers in Mammoth and the rest of California, the wintry wonderland may continue.

“The Ministry of Peace concerns itself with war, the Ministry of Truth with lies, the Ministry of Love with torture and the Ministry of Plenty with starvation. These contradictions are not accidental, nor do they result from from ordinary hypocrisy: they are deliberate exercises in doublethink”

George Orwell, from “ 1984

January 19, 2017 – 2016 Brought Record Crop Yields, Fewer Storms

Jan 20, 2017 - AGRICULTURE: U.S. crop harvests to ‘suffer’ with climate change …

Making up some bullshit, localized plausible-deniability excuse to keep your eye off a bigger phenomenon is such a childishly obvious tactic that it pains me to have to mention it here. It speaks to a level of thinking and cognition exhibited by a baby who is frightened as you drop your head down out of sight behind the crib – the baby thinks you have ‘disappeared’.

But that’s an accurate comparison, as it’s not the conscious mind we’re talking about, it’s the subconscious , which is widely described as “childlike”.

If “ Legalized Marijuana Sales Cause Drop in Alcohol Sales ” in a few states in the U.S., as we read below, why are Alcohol sales down to the same level as 1980 in Norway, where I don’t believe there’s been any legal-weed revolution? Alcohol consumption per resident declined by 7% in Estonia in 2015. What, did some big legal-weed trade just pop up in Estonia?

In Greece, alcohol consumption halved – halved , mind you! – the Fight-Club-member reporter says it was "due to Recession .” The first rule of Fight Club is you don’t talk about Fight Club. Other reporters from other cells in other cities, other countries support with everything but the kitchen sink: “ departure of rideshare ” in Texas…“ crisis ” in Russia…” oil field bust ” back in the U.S…

It’s a propaganda technique called “ compartmentalization .”

This childish, childlike level of complexity and depth has worked for them throughout history. Up until now, anyway. But then no one’s pointed it out in a systematic way, went Pamphleteer on them.

I think the game has changed, I think my rising awareness of the situation is part of a greater, collective rising awareness.

And looking at things from a new perspective can have a transformative effect on the reader.

Remember, "Magic tricks” are all based upon misdirection, sleight-of-hand. And that includes Black magic. Once one “sees through” the illusion, the trick, one won’t ever pay money to go to such a show again. One cannot be fooled in that same way, ever again.

September 3, 2010 – Alcohol drinking in Britain sees sharpest fall since 1948 - Telegraph

November 13, 2014 – Alcohol Consumption in Greece Halved Due to Recession

March 20, 2016 – Bust hits booze sales - Odessa American: Business

Ripples of the oil bust started to hit booze sales in Ector County during … Alcohol sales from August through December dropped 18.8 percent

May 20, 2016 – Alcohol consumption per resident declined by 7% in Estonia in 2015 …

July 13, 2016 – Could departure of rideshare cause alcohol sales to drop ? | Greater …

October 26, 2016 - Russians drinking more beer and less vodka as crisis continues

"Sales of vodka dropped catastrophically ,"

December 9, 2016 – Legalized Marijuana Sales Cause Drop in Alcohol Sales

January 19, 2017 - Alcohol sales are down to the same level as 1980 - Norway Today

It’s January, 2017, and crime rates are dropping precipitously, all over the globe, and have been for over twenty years, now.

Jaunary 3, 2017 – Crime rate drops in North Carolina in 2015

The report says the overall crime rate dropped 3.5% in 2015. This continues a downward trend that started a decade ago.

(Headline omits percentage, goes with softer, hedging “ rate drops ” – ed)

January 19, 2017 – Texas - Colleyville Police see violent crime drop in 2016

Colleyville Police saw a 60-percent reduction in violent crime in 2016 compared to 2015.

(Headline omits percentage, goes with softer, hedging “ crime drop ” – ed)

January 19, 2017 – Queens, NY - Crime continuing to decrease in the 102

Touting just some statistics, Urprasad noted the 102nd saw a 27 percent decrease in robberies and a 54 percent drop in car theft. Though he did not address murder , there were five in 2016, compared to six the year before.

(The Fight-club shill quoted in the article pointedly avoids mentioning murders, at all. And their fellow-Fight-Club-member reporter won’t print that it’s a 16% drop, as that would be more impactful, so they hedged and just went with the numbers - I had to do the math. The first rule of Fight Club is you don’t talk about Fight Club. They published the percentage in the first two cases, and omitted it in the third - the one involving murders. Putting it third is called ‘burying’ it. – ed)

January 25, 2017 – TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - City Commissioners discussed recent crime rates in Tallahassee at their meeting tonight.

According to recent reports their has been a drop in violent crime reports such as murder, robbery, and aggravated assault.

(The Fight-Club-member reporter hedged and went with “ discussed crime rates ”, versus the honest “discussed dropping crime rates”. The first rule of Fight Club is you don’t talk about Fight Club. The article provides no data at all on the size of the drop - not numbers, not percentages - nothing but “has been a drop” – ed)

Check out how the helpful propaganda piece, below, entitled “SeaWorld San Diego ending killer whale show” describes whales forced to do tricks via trauma-based programming as “ cavorting ”. Oh, and they say the whales are cavorting with trainers, vs. being forced to do things by trainers.

The propagandist writing the article calls the triggers the trainers use to remind the whales of the trauma used to imprint the conditioning as “ cues from trainers ”.

So they’re going to stop the shows, because of the outcry about the whales being forced to do things they wouldn’t ordinarily do, but they’re going to go right on using the trauma-based programming to make the whales do things they wouldn’t normally do:

" You will still see a whale leaping out of the water ,"

These guys are unbelievable, aren’t they? No quit in them. And perhaps the public will swallow this, and allow it.

Or perhaps not, we shall see.

http://komonews.com/news/enter…-154908526

SeaWorld San Diego ending killer whale show

January 8, 2016

SAN DIEGO (AP) — SeaWorld San Diego is ending its long-running killer whale show after years of outcry and falling attendance prompted it to renounce theatrical orca displays.

The show that featured killer whales cavorting with trainers and leaping high out of the Shamu Stadium pool will have its final performances on Sunday.

This summer, the park will unveil a new attraction in the revamped pool. Orca Encounter is being billed as an educational experience that will show how killer whales eat, communicate and navigate.

The animals will still receive cues from trainers, however.

"You will still see a whale leaping out of the water," Al Garver, a former orca trainer and vice president of zoological operations, told the San Diego Union-Tribune. “We want to be able to demonstrate behaviors people would see in the wild with the killer whales and their abilities as a top predator in the sea. The vast majority of behaviors people have seen in our shows will be very suitable for demonstrating that.”

The park has 11 orcas, ranging in age from 2 to 52 years old.

Under pressure from activists and faced with declining ticket sales , SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. announced last year it was ending its theatrical orca shows and breeding program.

Parks in Orlando and San Antonio will end their shows by 2019.

“Doublethink is the acceptance of or mental capacity to accept contrary opinions or beliefs at the same time, especially as a result of political indoctrination.”

George Orwell, from “ 1984

January 13, 2013 – Polar bear populations in certain areas have reached their “carrying capacity” — the maximum environmentally sustainable population size.

May 31, 2015 – Global polar bear population size is about 26,000 (20,000-32,000), despite PBSG waffling

Here is an updated graph of polar bear population numbers that undo the “subtractions” of the IUCN Polar Bear Specialist Group between 2001 & 2013, giving a final global estimate of about 26,000

January 9, 2016 - Without action on climate change, say goodbye to polar bears

It’s January, 2017, and the great artificial drought has been broken by the slow, steady, widespread and ever-increasing distribution of simple, inexpensive Orgonite devices in the vicinity of the weather warfare infrastructure that many still mistakenly presume only carries cell phone traffic and weather radar data.

http://www.denverpost.com/2017…ea-closed/

Monarch Mountain one of 3 Colorado ski areas shuttered because of heavy snow

January 10, 2016

Monarch’s closure marked the second day a Colorado mountain resort was forced to close because of the rare , potent storm dropping feet of powder in the high country.

Monarch Mountain will not open on Tuesday, the Chaffee County ski area says, because of problems created by the more than a foot and a half of snow that has fallen there in the past 24 hours.

It marks the second day a Colorado mountain resort was forced to close because of the rare , potent storm dropping more than a foot of powder in the high country. Arapahoe Basin was also shuttered on Tuesday because of avalanche danger on Loveland Pass.

“The good news: it snowed all day and night yesterday (18″!),” Monarch said in a Facebook post Tuesday morning. “The bad news: Monarch will not open today. Monarch Pass is has been closed all night for avalanche control, preventing Monarch Mountain maintenance, food service, and grooming crews from reaching the mountain.”

U.S. 50 was closed by the Colorado Department on Transportation at about 2:15 p.m. Monday. The route, which takes motorists from Salida to Gunnison over Monarch Pass, remained closed as of 8 a.m. — some 15 hours later.

The resort said as of 7 a.m. Monday, 20 inches of snow had fallen in the past 24 hours, and 28 inches of snow in the past 48 hours. In the past week, Monarch has seen 68 inches of snow.

Monarch Mountain also closed last week because of a U.S. 50 closure.

Monarch Mountain told its patrons to stay tuned for information on opening status and conditions for Wednesday.

On Monday afternoon, Crested Butte Mountain Resort closed after more than a foot of snow fell throughout the day. Last week saw Crested Butte Mountain Resort harvest a state-leading 47 inches from a hydrological hammerdrop.

The resort’s powder-cam snow stake on Monday was buried beyond its 18-inch top by midday and the resort, struggling with a windy, damp and bountiful storm, made the very rare call of closing early.

Crested Butte reopened on Tuesday, but said it was working to get its terrain ready for skiers and boarders as soon as possible.

It’s January, 2017, and the great artificial drought has been broken by the slow, steady, widespread and ever-increasing distribution of simple, inexpensive Orgonite devices in the vicinity of the weather warfare infrastructure that many still mistakenly presume only carries cell phone traffic and weather radar data.

The article that I’ve appended below supports that assertion.

One propaganda technique I’d like to call out is the use of a fictitious, hypothetical negative prior to delivering an actual positive. That technique is used twice in the article, first here:

The rain and snow could shut off, as happened three years ago in January , although the reservoirs now are so full in many areas there wouldn’t be water shortages for several years.”

And again here:

California is a dry state and probably always will be in most years , but we certainly don’t have a statewide drought right now,”

Could shut off. Probably always will be.

In the following sentence, they’ve truncated the good news, so you can’t read it as easily:

“more precipitation has fallen across the key watersheds of Northern California — eight areas from Lake Tahoe to Mount Shasta that feed many of the state’s largest reservoirs — so far this winter than any time since 1922.”

They put that chunk in the middle, which I’ve italicized for emphasis, because they wanted to avoid at all costs writing the more impactful sentence, which would read: “more precipitation has fallen across the key watersheds of Northern California so far this winter than any time since 1922.”

And, even there, they added " so far " as another hedge. The accurate sentence would read “more precipitation has fallen across the key watersheds of Northern California this winter than any time since 1922.”

In the quote that follows, you see hedging, you see the refusal to state the truth, that the drought has ended, at least in Nor Cal:

“They sent roughly 350 billion gallons of water pouring into California’s biggest reservoirs… all but ending the five-year drought across much of Northern California, even though it remains in the south.”

Not “ending the five year drought”, but rather “ all but ending the five year drought.” With the bonus “ even though it remains in the south” at the end, as another hedge.

If the official water studier guy quoted in the article says “we certainly don’t have a statewide drought right now,” how on Earth could the person writing the article say “ all but ending the five year drought?”

Another telling comment from the official water studier guy: “We have to be careful about crying wolf here,” he said. “You have to maintain credibility with the public when there are critically dry years, so you have to call it like it is when conditions improve.”

Then can spin it, but they can’t stop it. And the Boy Who Cried Wolf got in a lot, and I mean a lot of trouble with the people in his village that he lied serially to. There’s a reason that story’s been told down through the ages, and why it’s referenced here in this article.

These people are done, toast, put a fork in them, they’re done.

http://www.mercurynews.com/201…eservoirs/

California storms add 350 billion gallons to parched reservoirs

January 10, 2017

The powerful storms that soaked Northern California over the past week did more than trigger power outages, mudslides and flash floods.

They sent roughly 350 billion gallons of water pouring into California’s biggest reservoirs — boosting their storage to levels not seen in years , forcing dam operators to release water to reduce flood risks and all but ending the five-year drought across much of Northern California, even though it remains in the south , experts said Monday.

California is a dry state and probably always will be in most years , but we certainly don’t have a statewide drought right now ,” said Jay Lund, a professor of engineering and director of the Center for Watershed Sciences at UC Davis.

“We have to be careful about crying wolf here,” he said. “ You have to maintain credibility with the public when there are critically dry years, so you have to call it like it is when conditions improve .”

On Monday much of the state began drying out from the weekend drenching that caused at least three fatalities and triggered flooding in Morgan Hill, Sonoma County, Yosemite and parts of the Sacramento Valley, even as forecasters said another storm system was coming in Tuesday.

That new storm system should bring 1 to 2 inches of rain around much of the Bay Area, and up to 6 inches in the Santa Cruz Mountains and Big Sur, with more rain in the North Bay, tapering off Wednesday.

“It’s not going to be as heavy,” National Weather Service forecaster Steve Anderson said. “But even though the amount of rainfall will be less, the impact will still be there.”

Despite concerns that the weekend storm’s warmer temperatures would significantly deplete the Sierra Nevada snowpack , it grew significantly . Last Monday, it was 70 percent of historic average. This Monday, it had grown to a staggering 126 percent for this time of the year.

In fact, since Oct. 1, more precipitation has fallen across the key watersheds of Northern California — eight areas from Lake Tahoe to Mount Shasta that feed many of the state’s largest reservoirs — so far this winter than any time since 1922 , according to state totals.

In a typical year, that “Northern Sierra eight-station index” receives 50 inches of precipitation. As of Monday it was already at 40 inches — 199 percent of the historic average for this date — and running slightly above 1982-83 and 1997-98, both of which were marked by severe El Niño flooding.

The rain and snow could shut off, as happened three years ago in January , although the reservoirs now are so full in many areas there wouldn’t be water shortages for several years.

Officially, California’s drought won’t end until Gov. Jerry Brown rescinds or revises the emergency drought declaration he signed in January 2014.

Lund, of UC Davis, said that because other parts of the state — particularly Santa Barbara and other parts of Southern California — are still well short of rain and suffering from low reservoir levels, Brown should issue an updated drought declaration that reflects the regional differences.

That is one of the options he is considering, said Nancy Vogel, a spokeswoman for the state Natural Resources Agency. But a decision may not be made until the end of the winter snow and rain season, she said.

“It’s early and the precipitation patterns could dry up at any time,” she said. “We’ll see where we are in March or April.”

Rain from Sunday’s storm fell in sheets at time, flooded roads and storm drains, and toppled trees. It fell most forcefully in the Big Sur area of Monterey County, dumping more than 12 1/2 inches over a 72-hour period. More than 9 3/4 inches fell in the Lexington Hills in Santa Clara County and more than 6 inches soaked areas of San Mateo County.

In Contra Costa County, 4 1/2 inches of rain fell atop Mount Diablo, and 3 1/4 inches fell in Orinda. San Francisco and parts of Oakland saw 2 1/2 inches of rain. Only 1.03 inches fell at Mineta San Jose International Airport, but that still set a record for Jan. 8.

More importantly, the recent storms have sent reservoirs swelling.

The 154 largest reservoirs tracked by the state Department of Water Resources added 1.1 million acre feet of water from Jan. 1 to Monday , boosting their capacity to 97 percent of historic average , said Maury Roos, longtime state hydrologist.

“It’s excellent news,” said Roos. “I don’t make the decision on the official drought, but from the Bay Area north we are in good shape for this time of the season.”

Specifically, Loch Lomond, the main reservoir serving Santa Cruz, filled to capacity . All seven reservoirs that serve the Marin Municipal Water District were 100 percent full . Pardee Reservoir, the main reservoir that provides water to 1.3 million people in Alameda and Contra Costa County, spilled on Monday.

Lexington Reservoir, near Los Gatos, has gone up 31 feet since New Year’s Day, surging to 93 percent full from 42 percent full a week ago.

Perhaps most dramatic was San Luis Reservoir, California’s fifth largest, located between Gilroy and Los Banos. Sitting at 10 percent full in August, it now is 66 percent full, having risen 134 feet. At current rates, it may fill to the top for the first time since 2011, said Roger George of Fresno, a professional guide who leads fishing trips for striped bass there.

“Back in August, it was scary. I was beginning to wonder if we were going to have a die-off of the fish,” he said. “ Now it looks like an ocean .”

Similarly, the state’s second-largest reservoir, Oroville in Butte County, has risen 35 feet since New Year’s Day. It added 250,000 acre-feet of water over the weekend, enough for 1.3 million people’s needs for a year. It now stands at 64 percent full, or 102 percent of historic average.

On Monday, officials at Yosemite National Park announced they would reopen Yosemite Valley Tuesday morning. The park suffered some damage when the Merced River jumped its banks , but the flood levels were only two or three feet above flood stage, less than had been earlier feared.

The storm unleashed mud and rock slides throughout the Santa Cruz Mountains early Monday, halting traffic during the morning commute on Highway 17. A slide just north of Scotts Valley shut down northbound lanes and traffic was detoured onto the southbound side.

In Gilroy, two people were rescued Sunday night from the second story of their home after water surrounding the residence rose to about four feet. The San Jose Fire Department’s Urban Search and Rescue team had to use a boat to help the people out of the home, according to Cal Fire spokeswoman Pam Temmermand.

At least three people were killed in the weekend storm, including 57-year-old Jarnail Singh, whom police said lost control of a white cab he was driving and crashed into an estuary near the Oakland International Airport on Sunday morning.

An unidentified motorist also died in a crash on Interstate 880 in Fremont.

A San Ramon woman died Saturday after a tree fell on her at a golf course in San Ramon. Deborah McKeown, 56, was taking a walk when high winds knocked over a tree that landed on her. McKeown, a freelance writer for the Bay Area News Group who wrote under the pseudonym Kathleen Ford, was taken to a hospital from the Canyon Lakes Golf Course on Bollinger Canyon Way.

“O ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose, not only the tyranny, but the tyrant, stand forth!” Thomas Paine

It’s January, 2017, and Nature is booming and burgeoning to a level not seen in my lifetime. Since that statement directly refutes our State Religion, which holds that “ Poor Mother Gaia is Dying, Crushed by the Virus-like Burden of Mankind ”, I’ve appended multiple recent examples below to support it.

August 22, 2016 – Record crops should strain grain storage this fall

November 3, 2016 – Doubled nut sales needed to sell record 2016 pistachio crop

November 9, 2016 – California’s record walnut crop - The Mercury News

November 11, 2016 – Whatcom County, WA - Raspberry crop breaks records

December 1, 2016 – Manitoba Potato Producers Store Record Crop

December 20, 2016 – Australia – Record crop production lifts farmers

High winter rainfall has seen an increase in crop production across all states for the first time in nine years.

January 8, 2017 – Australia - National cotton crop second-largest on record as new growers join industry

January 9, 2017 – Bittersweet harvest as Tunisian orange farmers swamped by record crop

January 10, 2017 - Brazil 's government grain agency CONAB raised its estimates Tuesday for record bumper crops of soybeans and grains.

It’s January, 2017, and Nature is booming and burgeoning to a level not seen in my lifetime. Since that statement directly refutes our State Religion, which holds that “ Poor Mother Gaia is Dying, Crushed by the Virus-like Burden of Mankind" , I’ve appended multiple recent examples below to support it.

In response to this great resurgence of life, what we euphemistically call “ secret agents ” are engaged in ongoing animal-killing operations around the globe at the direction of the barely-closeted Death worshippers they work for.

The words “ mystery ”, “ baffled ” and “ puzzled ” are memes, used, among numerous similar variants, whenever anyone in the wholly-controlled-and-coopted Political, Academic, Scientific and Media establishments wants to lie about, well, basically anything.

Those two preceding paragraphs are why one story below says “ Increase in dead seals due to fishing nets and cannibalism ”, and another says “ Hundreds of horseshoe crabs mysteriously die in Kita-Kyushu ”.

Cannibalism is and always has been a major part of the dark religion of the folks in charge, so that first example is particularly humorous to them.

Many times, the animal-killing operations aren’t covert, at all: “Colorado To Spend $4.5 Million To Kill Mountain Lions And Bears .”

The propaganda techniques to hedge and defray against the great positive transformation that’s underway are formulaic, obvious and repetitive: “ Hope For The Tiger: Population Increase Boosts Chances For A Rebound”, “Nepal’s Efforts to Rebound Tiger Population Seem to be Working”.

But the great positive changes are increasing in speed and magnitude, while the propaganda is unchanging. So it’s only a matter of time until the sand castle is washed away by the rising tide.

January 10, 2016 – Manatee Population Has Rebounded 500 Percent , No Longer Endangered

January 27, 2016 – New Jersey - bald eagles rebound from a single pair to a thriving population

April 11, 2016 – Hope For The Tiger: Population Increase Boosts Chances For A Rebound

August 14, 2016 – Nepal’s Efforts to Rebound Tiger Population Seem to be Working …

September 4, 2016 – Giant pandas rebound off endangered list - BBC News - BBC.com

September 14, 2016 – Japan - Hundreds of horseshoe crabs mysteriously die in Kita-Kyushu

October 13, 2016 – Colorado big horn sheep rebound after disease decimated herds

October 17, 2016 – New UNH Bobcat Research Aims to Understand Why Wildcats Are Rebounding

November 2, 2016 – Colder winters helping moose populations rebound - Atikokan …

’real Northern winters’ the past few years has helped the moose population rebound.

November 26, 2016 – Fish quotas in Estonia’s border lakes to increase for 2017 | News | ERR

December 17, 2017 – Increase in dead seals due to fishing nets and cannibalism

December 21, 2016 – Colorado To Spend $4.5 Million To Kill Mountain Lions And Bears

January 2, 2017 – Eastern Idaho - December snowfall hits record numbers

January 5, 2017 – Chesapeake Bay’s health rebounding , report says - The Morning Call

Janaury 5, 2017 – Bald eagle population rebounds in Colorado | KGNU News

January 5, 2017 – Norway - Increase in people professionally fishing for the first time in 14 years …

January 10, 2017 – 2017: A good year for fish | Khmer Times | News Portal Cambodia |

adding that higher water levels will encourage fish to breed, increasing the population in lakes …

https://web.archive.org/web/20170118081553/http://www.ethericwarriors.com/wp-content/sp-resources/forum-image-uploads/jeff/2017/01/Anacostia.jpg?72f680

Click the attached pic of Maryland’s Anacostia river and see if you think it’s a “ filthy, degraded river ”, a “ bedraggled ghost of its former self ”, as earnestly claimed by the article that follows.

The gal the article is about, who’s doing what she can to make the river better, says “The only thing I’d ever heard about the Anacostia was that it was a filthy, degraded, hopeless situation, and I found out in one kayak ride how wrong that impression had been.”

You can see how the image of the river is being spun, tortuously, to the negative. And that’s not to say that there are not actual negatives. However, the great news being that things are better than we’ve been led to believe, much better.

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matte…stia-river

The once hopelessly polluted Anacostia River is making a comeback

January 3, 2017

Among the many rivers that course through the United States, there’s one that flows right into our nation’s capital as it joins the Potomac River. Yet despite the prestigious location, it has been nicknamed “the forgotten river.”

The Anacostia River has endured centuries of abuse. It runs 8.7 miles from Bladensburg, Maryland, to the District of Columbia. From the time that Europeans first arrived, development has cleared its wetlands, clogged its banks and poured sediment, agricultural waste, industrial pollution and raw sewage into the water.

Once teeming with fish and clear water, the river is but a bedraggled ghost of its former self. But it’s a ghost with the potential to come back to life.

Though centuries of neglect have altered it, mere decades of dedicated work may bring it back to the sparkling, life-giving river it once was.

To encourage this conservation and document the complexity of the task, photographer Krista Schlyer has brought her talent for visual storytelling to the front lines. In the process, she reaffirms the importance of looking at one’s own backyard for ways to make a big difference through environmental stewardship.

Schlyer lived a couple miles from the Anacostia for more than a decade before she understood the potential of solving the problem. It was while on an assignment with the International League of Conservation Photographers that she first began to understand this backyard river.

During a morning paddle with an advocate who had been working on the Anacostia River for a long time, Schlyer literally ran into one of the river’s residents.

“There was a really loud thud on my kayak,” Schlyer recounts. “This beaver poked his head up and stared at me. I think he was kind of sleeping just under the water’s surface and I ran into him. I got the beaver’s tail slap on the water and he disappeared, but it was a moment of surprise and awe at this place. The only thing I’d ever heard about the Anacostia was that it was a filthy, degraded, hopeless situation, and I found out in one kayak ride how wrong that impression had been.”

There’s good reason for the impression that the Anacostia is a filthy, degraded river — because it is, on many levels.

There are three primary challenges facing the river’s future: trash running from the streets into storm drains and then into the river; the antiquated sewage system of D.C. that allows raw sewage to wash into the river during heavy rains; and the long-lasting toxins mixed into the sediment that were poured into the river before the Clean Water Act and which still wash into the river from old industrial development, roads and other sources.

Though significant, the challenges are surmountable. Progress is already being made.

“Bag bans and bottle bans, it’s incredible how much of a difference these policies make. People push back on them, but they make an enormous difference,” says Schlyer.

According to the Department of Energy and Environment, “The District’s Bag Law is the first of its kind in the U.S. Since the law took effect on January 1, 2010, District businesses have seen a drastic reduction in bag usage, and environmental clean-up groups witnessed fewer bags polluting D.C. waterways.”

Meanwhile, to deal with the sewage situation, Washington, D.C., is already investing significant funding in a large-scale plan to create huge tunnels that will prevent sewage overflows during storms. The infrastructure initiative — called the Anacostia River Tunnel Project under the Clean Rivers Project — will help to remove nearly all the sewage entering the river within a matter of years.

“The Clean Rivers Project will reduce [combined sewer overflows] annually by 96 percent throughout the system and by 98 percent for the Anacostia River alone,” D.C.'s Water and Sewage Authority reports.

Perhaps the most complex problem to solve is that of the legacy toxins.

“It’s moving forward in D.C., but it is a pretty big, pretty expensive puzzle to have to solve,” says Schlyer. “All the toxins from oil, gas and other chemicals from yards runs off the streets, through bridges and goes straight into the Anacostia. The big push is to try and get green infrastructure put in throughout the watershed so that the water running off the streets doesn’t run into the river but runs into bio-fills, rain gardens, etc.”

To assist with drumming up that support, Schlyer has aimed her camera at the river, its flora and fauna, and the people who live alongside it.

“My role here is hopefully to help people see it with new eyes like I did, and to highlight the stories of the people who have been working so hard over the past three decades to clean up the river.”

Schlyer began the Anacostia Project six years ago and has been documenting the conservation work, researching the issues and learning how to tell the stories of the river. Now, she begins the work of getting the stories out to a broader audience and building support for the efforts that will bring the river back to its former glory.

Not only does her photography aim to bring attention to the river’s issues, but Schlyer also wants to send another message to everyone worried about an environmental issue at home.

“No ecosystem is really at the point where we should give up on it. For a long time that’s exactly what happened with the Anacostia," says Schlyer.

“People have a tendency to write off landscapes as being beyond redemption, and in a way we do that because we ourselves have this sense that we are beyond redemption. I just don’t think that’s the case. There’s something very beautiful about a place like the Anacostia that’s been so abused and so forgotten for so long [yet now is] seeing this groundswell of love. It really does have the potential to redeem us and this place together, and I think that’s a powerful notion in terms of where we are right now as a species. We’ve made so many mistakes but we can still turn things around. The Anacostia is a great example of that.”

Schlyer’s work on the Anacostia Project also underscores how much we as individuals can do for our local habitats. We don’t have to travel far to work on an important conservation issue: We can look in our very own backyards.

And as a professional project, working in your own town has its benefits. Of this photography project, Schlyer notes: “It’s allowed me to dig a lot deeper than I could ever do on any other project. It’s different when it’s your own backyard and it’s your neighbors that are experiencing this with you — your wild neighbors and your human neighbors. It affords a level of intimacy and understanding you can’t get in any other way."

Working locally also allows Schlyer to see the fruits of her labor on a daily basis. "With the Anacostia, because it is so local, I feel like if I work hard I can actually play a part in what’s happening here. That’s pretty gratifying."

Now that Schlyer has taken thousands of images that show the people, wildlife and seasons of the Anacostia, she’s starting the next phase of telling the stories through exhibits, a book and other community-oriented outlets.

“We all can play a part in our local watershed’s health and on our local biodiversity, whether in the city or out in the country," says Schlyer. "I hope that as a nation and as a planet we are coming to a point where everyone is taking some responsibility for the watershed they live in and for the role we play in that watershed’s health.”

She’s certainly leading by example. To learn more and stay up to date as exhibits and events are scheduled, visit Schlyer’s Anacostia Project.

“And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed – if all records told the same tale – then the lie passed into history and became truth. ‘Who controls the past,’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’ And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered. Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting. It was quite simple. All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory. ‘Reality control,’ they called it: in Newspeak, ‘doublethink.’ “

George Orwell, from “ 1984

October 10, 2016 – Brexit will hurt UK investment and growth, Britain’s Nobel Prize-winning economist Oliver Hart says

January 11, 2017 - UK industry ‘booms back to life’ as manufacturing drives growth

U.K. industry “boomed back to life” towards the end of last year, putting the economy on course to maintain the strong pace of growth enjoyed in the aftermath of the Brexit vote.

https://web.archive.org/web/20170118081553/http://www.ethericwarriors.com/wp-content/sp-resources/forum-image-uploads/jeff/2017/01/Anacostia.jpg?72f680

Click the attached pic of Maryland’s Anacostia river and see if you think it’s a “ filthy, degraded river ”, a “ bedraggled ghost of its former self ”, as earnestly claimed by the article that follows.

The gal the article is about, who’s doing what she can to make the river better, says “The only thing I’d ever heard about the Anacostia was that it was a filthy, degraded, hopeless situation, and I found out in one kayak ride how wrong that impression had been.”

You can see how the image of the river is being spun, tortuously, to the negative. And that’s not to say that there are not actual negatives. However, the great news being that things are better than we’ve been led to believe, much better.

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matte…stia-river

The once hopelessly polluted Anacostia River is making a comeback

January 3, 2017

Among the many rivers that course through the United States, there’s one that flows right into our nation’s capital as it joins the Potomac River. Yet despite the prestigious location, it has been nicknamed “the forgotten river.”

The Anacostia River has endured centuries of abuse. It runs 8.7 miles from Bladensburg, Maryland, to the District of Columbia. From the time that Europeans first arrived, development has cleared its wetlands, clogged its banks and poured sediment, agricultural waste, industrial pollution and raw sewage into the water.

Once teeming with fish and clear water, the river is but a bedraggled ghost of its former self. But it’s a ghost with the potential to come back to life.

Though centuries of neglect have altered it, mere decades of dedicated work may bring it back to the sparkling, life-giving river it once was.

To encourage this conservation and document the complexity of the task, photographer Krista Schlyer has brought her talent for visual storytelling to the front lines. In the process, she reaffirms the importance of looking at one’s own backyard for ways to make a big difference through environmental stewardship.

Schlyer lived a couple miles from the Anacostia for more than a decade before she understood the potential of solving the problem. It was while on an assignment with the International League of Conservation Photographers that she first began to understand this backyard river.

During a morning paddle with an advocate who had been working on the Anacostia River for a long time, Schlyer literally ran into one of the river’s residents.

“There was a really loud thud on my kayak,” Schlyer recounts. “This beaver poked his head up and stared at me. I think he was kind of sleeping just under the water’s surface and I ran into him. I got the beaver’s tail slap on the water and he disappeared, but it was a moment of surprise and awe at this place. The only thing I’d ever heard about the Anacostia was that it was a filthy, degraded, hopeless situation, and I found out in one kayak ride how wrong that impression had been.”

There’s good reason for the impression that the Anacostia is a filthy, degraded river — because it is, on many levels.

There are three primary challenges facing the river’s future: trash running from the streets into storm drains and then into the river; the antiquated sewage system of D.C. that allows raw sewage to wash into the river during heavy rains; and the long-lasting toxins mixed into the sediment that were poured into the river before the Clean Water Act and which still wash into the river from old industrial development, roads and other sources.

Though significant, the challenges are surmountable. Progress is already being made.

“Bag bans and bottle bans, it’s incredible how much of a difference these policies make. People push back on them, but they make an enormous difference,” says Schlyer.

According to the Department of Energy and Environment, “The District’s Bag Law is the first of its kind in the U.S. Since the law took effect on January 1, 2010, District businesses have seen a drastic reduction in bag usage, and environmental clean-up groups witnessed fewer bags polluting D.C. waterways.”

Meanwhile, to deal with the sewage situation, Washington, D.C., is already investing significant funding in a large-scale plan to create huge tunnels that will prevent sewage overflows during storms. The infrastructure initiative — called the Anacostia River Tunnel Project under the Clean Rivers Project — will help to remove nearly all the sewage entering the river within a matter of years.

“The Clean Rivers Project will reduce [combined sewer overflows] annually by 96 percent throughout the system and by 98 percent for the Anacostia River alone,” D.C.'s Water and Sewage Authority reports.

Perhaps the most complex problem to solve is that of the legacy toxins.

“It’s moving forward in D.C., but it is a pretty big, pretty expensive puzzle to have to solve,” says Schlyer. “All the toxins from oil, gas and other chemicals from yards runs off the streets, through bridges and goes straight into the Anacostia. The big push is to try and get green infrastructure put in throughout the watershed so that the water running off the streets doesn’t run into the river but runs into bio-fills, rain gardens, etc.”

To assist with drumming up that support, Schlyer has aimed her camera at the river, its flora and fauna, and the people who live alongside it.

“My role here is hopefully to help people see it with new eyes like I did, and to highlight the stories of the people who have been working so hard over the past three decades to clean up the river.”

Schlyer began the Anacostia Project six years ago and has been documenting the conservation work, researching the issues and learning how to tell the stories of the river. Now, she begins the work of getting the stories out to a broader audience and building support for the efforts that will bring the river back to its former glory.

Not only does her photography aim to bring attention to the river’s issues, but Schlyer also wants to send another message to everyone worried about an environmental issue at home.

“No ecosystem is really at the point where we should give up on it. For a long time that’s exactly what happened with the Anacostia," says Schlyer.

“People have a tendency to write off landscapes as being beyond redemption, and in a way we do that because we ourselves have this sense that we are beyond redemption. I just don’t think that’s the case. There’s something very beautiful about a place like the Anacostia that’s been so abused and so forgotten for so long [yet now is] seeing this groundswell of love. It really does have the potential to redeem us and this place together, and I think that’s a powerful notion in terms of where we are right now as a species. We’ve made so many mistakes but we can still turn things around. The Anacostia is a great example of that.”

Schlyer’s work on the Anacostia Project also underscores how much we as individuals can do for our local habitats. We don’t have to travel far to work on an important conservation issue: We can look in our very own backyards.

And as a professional project, working in your own town has its benefits. Of this photography project, Schlyer notes: “It’s allowed me to dig a lot deeper than I could ever do on any other project. It’s different when it’s your own backyard and it’s your neighbors that are experiencing this with you — your wild neighbors and your human neighbors. It affords a level of intimacy and understanding you can’t get in any other way."

Working locally also allows Schlyer to see the fruits of her labor on a daily basis. "With the Anacostia, because it is so local, I feel like if I work hard I can actually play a part in what’s happening here. That’s pretty gratifying."

Now that Schlyer has taken thousands of images that show the people, wildlife and seasons of the Anacostia, she’s starting the next phase of telling the stories through exhibits, a book and other community-oriented outlets.

“We all can play a part in our local watershed’s health and on our local biodiversity, whether in the city or out in the country," says Schlyer. "I hope that as a nation and as a planet we are coming to a point where everyone is taking some responsibility for the watershed they live in and for the role we play in that watershed’s health.”

She’s certainly leading by example. To learn more and stay up to date as exhibits and events are scheduled, visit Schlyer’s Anacostia Project.

“And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed – if all records told the same tale – then the lie passed into history and became truth. ‘Who controls the past,’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’ And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered. Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting. It was quite simple. All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory. ‘Reality control,’ they called it: in Newspeak, ‘doublethink.’ “

George Orwell, from “ 1984

October 10, 2016 – Brexit will hurt UK investment and growth, Britain’s Nobel Prize-winning economist Oliver Hart says

January 11, 2017 - UK industry ‘booms back to life’ as manufacturing drives growth

U.K. industry “boomed back to life” towards the end of last year, putting the economy on course to maintain the strong pace of growth enjoyed in the aftermath of the Brexit vote.

https://web.archive.org/web/20170118081553/http://www.ethericwarriors.com/wp-content/sp-resources/forum-image-uploads/jeff/2017/01/Anacostia.jpg?72f680

Click the attached pic of Maryland’s Anacostia river and see if you think it’s a “ filthy, degraded river ”, a “ bedraggled ghost of its former self ”, as earnestly claimed by the article that follows.

The gal the article is about, who’s doing what she can to make the river better, says “The only thing I’d ever heard about the Anacostia was that it was a filthy, degraded, hopeless situation, and I found out in one kayak ride how wrong that impression had been.”

You can see how the image of the river is being spun, tortuously, to the negative. And that’s not to say that there are not actual negatives. However, the great news being that things are better than we’ve been led to believe, much better.

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matte…stia-river

The once hopelessly polluted Anacostia River is making a comeback

January 3, 2017

Among the many rivers that course through the United States, there’s one that flows right into our nation’s capital as it joins the Potomac River. Yet despite the prestigious location, it has been nicknamed “the forgotten river.”

The Anacostia River has endured centuries of abuse. It runs 8.7 miles from Bladensburg, Maryland, to the District of Columbia. From the time that Europeans first arrived, development has cleared its wetlands, clogged its banks and poured sediment, agricultural waste, industrial pollution and raw sewage into the water.

Once teeming with fish and clear water, the river is but a bedraggled ghost of its former self. But it’s a ghost with the potential to come back to life.

Though centuries of neglect have altered it, mere decades of dedicated work may bring it back to the sparkling, life-giving river it once was.

To encourage this conservation and document the complexity of the task, photographer Krista Schlyer has brought her talent for visual storytelling to the front lines. In the process, she reaffirms the importance of looking at one’s own backyard for ways to make a big difference through environmental stewardship.

Schlyer lived a couple miles from the Anacostia for more than a decade before she understood the potential of solving the problem. It was while on an assignment with the International League of Conservation Photographers that she first began to understand this backyard river.

During a morning paddle with an advocate who had been working on the Anacostia River for a long time, Schlyer literally ran into one of the river’s residents.

“There was a really loud thud on my kayak,” Schlyer recounts. “This beaver poked his head up and stared at me. I think he was kind of sleeping just under the water’s surface and I ran into him. I got the beaver’s tail slap on the water and he disappeared, but it was a moment of surprise and awe at this place. The only thing I’d ever heard about the Anacostia was that it was a filthy, degraded, hopeless situation, and I found out in one kayak ride how wrong that impression had been.”

There’s good reason for the impression that the Anacostia is a filthy, degraded river — because it is, on many levels.

There are three primary challenges facing the river’s future: trash running from the streets into storm drains and then into the river; the antiquated sewage system of D.C. that allows raw sewage to wash into the river during heavy rains; and the long-lasting toxins mixed into the sediment that were poured into the river before the Clean Water Act and which still wash into the river from old industrial development, roads and other sources.

Though significant, the challenges are surmountable. Progress is already being made.

“Bag bans and bottle bans, it’s incredible how much of a difference these policies make. People push back on them, but they make an enormous difference,” says Schlyer.

According to the Department of Energy and Environment, “The District’s Bag Law is the first of its kind in the U.S. Since the law took effect on January 1, 2010, District businesses have seen a drastic reduction in bag usage, and environmental clean-up groups witnessed fewer bags polluting D.C. waterways.”

Meanwhile, to deal with the sewage situation, Washington, D.C., is already investing significant funding in a large-scale plan to create huge tunnels that will prevent sewage overflows during storms. The infrastructure initiative — called the Anacostia River Tunnel Project under the Clean Rivers Project — will help to remove nearly all the sewage entering the river within a matter of years.

“The Clean Rivers Project will reduce [combined sewer overflows] annually by 96 percent throughout the system and by 98 percent for the Anacostia River alone,” D.C.'s Water and Sewage Authority reports.

Perhaps the most complex problem to solve is that of the legacy toxins.

“It’s moving forward in D.C., but it is a pretty big, pretty expensive puzzle to have to solve,” says Schlyer. “All the toxins from oil, gas and other chemicals from yards runs off the streets, through bridges and goes straight into the Anacostia. The big push is to try and get green infrastructure put in throughout the watershed so that the water running off the streets doesn’t run into the river but runs into bio-fills, rain gardens, etc.”

To assist with drumming up that support, Schlyer has aimed her camera at the river, its flora and fauna, and the people who live alongside it.

“My role here is hopefully to help people see it with new eyes like I did, and to highlight the stories of the people who have been working so hard over the past three decades to clean up the river.”

Schlyer began the Anacostia Project six years ago and has been documenting the conservation work, researching the issues and learning how to tell the stories of the river. Now, she begins the work of getting the stories out to a broader audience and building support for the efforts that will bring the river back to its former glory.

Not only does her photography aim to bring attention to the river’s issues, but Schlyer also wants to send another message to everyone worried about an environmental issue at home.

“No ecosystem is really at the point where we should give up on it. For a long time that’s exactly what happened with the Anacostia," says Schlyer.

“People have a tendency to write off landscapes as being beyond redemption, and in a way we do that because we ourselves have this sense that we are beyond redemption. I just don’t think that’s the case. There’s something very beautiful about a place like the Anacostia that’s been so abused and so forgotten for so long [yet now is] seeing this groundswell of love. It really does have the potential to redeem us and this place together, and I think that’s a powerful notion in terms of where we are right now as a species. We’ve made so many mistakes but we can still turn things around. The Anacostia is a great example of that.”

Schlyer’s work on the Anacostia Project also underscores how much we as individuals can do for our local habitats. We don’t have to travel far to work on an important conservation issue: We can look in our very own backyards.

And as a professional project, working in your own town has its benefits. Of this photography project, Schlyer notes: “It’s allowed me to dig a lot deeper than I could ever do on any other project. It’s different when it’s your own backyard and it’s your neighbors that are experiencing this with you — your wild neighbors and your human neighbors. It affords a level of intimacy and understanding you can’t get in any other way."

Working locally also allows Schlyer to see the fruits of her labor on a daily basis. "With the Anacostia, because it is so local, I feel like if I work hard I can actually play a part in what’s happening here. That’s pretty gratifying."

Now that Schlyer has taken thousands of images that show the people, wildlife and seasons of the Anacostia, she’s starting the next phase of telling the stories through exhibits, a book and other community-oriented outlets.

“We all can play a part in our local watershed’s health and on our local biodiversity, whether in the city or out in the country," says Schlyer. "I hope that as a nation and as a planet we are coming to a point where everyone is taking some responsibility for the watershed they live in and for the role we play in that watershed’s health.”

She’s certainly leading by example. To learn more and stay up to date as exhibits and events are scheduled, visit Schlyer’s Anacostia Project.

“And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed – if all records told the same tale – then the lie passed into history and became truth. ‘Who controls the past,’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’ And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered. Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting. It was quite simple. All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory. ‘Reality control,’ they called it: in Newspeak, ‘doublethink.’ “

George Orwell, from “ 1984

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