Are you ready for the end? Or perhaps a new beginning?
Either way, buckle up, because today marks the one-month countdown until the 2012 Mayan Apocalypse, set for Dec. 21. That date corresponds to the end of the 13th b'ak'tun, or 144,000-day cycle, on the Maya Long Count calendar, marking a full cycle of creation, according to the ancient Maya.
This milestone has triggered both fear and excitement in some subcultures, particularly online. Some believers see the day as a true doomsday, when the Earth will be destroyed in a planetary collision or other major disaster. Others see it as a day marking a new dawn of peace and unity. [LIVESCIENCE]
Wild weather is taking a toll on roads, airports, railways and transit systems across the country.
That's leaving states and cities searching for ways to brace for more catastrophes like Superstorm Sandy that are straining the nation's transportation lifelines beyond what their builders imagined.
Despite their concerns about intense rain, historic floods and record heat waves, some transportation planners find it too politically sensitive to say aloud a source of their weather worries: climate change. [LA]
Superstorm Sandy brought mental anguish to millions. But she also left behind a surge of victims suffering from physical injuries — rashes, asthma, and even lung infections, linked to those living on the devastated South Shore — from the Rockaways to Babylon.
Homeowners in Long Island’s flood zones have been taking precautions, using protective suits, masks, gloves and boots as they warily clear muck, sewage and mold-infested wallboard. Hundreds of residents have been seeking medical attention, among them members of the Livolsi family.
“It is a major concern for both myself and my family. My nephew has a cough … put on steroids. No one has given us any information on what it could do long term, even short term,” Connie Livolsi told CBS 2’s Jennifer McLogan on Wednesday.
If some fringe theorists have their way, Earth has just over a month to live.
The Mayan Apocalypse is coming, after all — The Maya Long Count calendar ends on Dec. 21, 2012, leading to rumors of the end of the world. Scholars of Mayan culture have repeatedly pointed out that the end of the calendar wouldn't have been seen as an apocalypse to the Maya, but a good doomsday story is hard to keep down.
While rumors fly online about the Dec. 21 date, Mayan apocalypse believers are hardly the first to imagine the world ending. Here are some of the inventive and terrifying post-apocalyptic futures ever portrayed in literature and film. [LS]
Militaries around the world 'very excited' about replacing soldiers with robots that can act idependently
U.S. leads the way with automated weapons systems, but drones still need remote control operator authorisation to open fire
Human Rights Watch calls for worldwide ban on autonomous killing machines before governments start using them
Fully autonomous robots that decide for themselves when to kill could be developed within 20 to 30 years, or 'even sooner', a report has warned.
Militaries across the world are said to be 'very excited' about machines that could deployed alone in battle, sparing human troops from dangerous situations.
The U.S. is leading development in such 'killer robots', notably unmanned drones often used to attack suspected militants in Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere.
Destroying a dangerous asteroid with a nuclear bomb is a well-worn trope of science fiction, but it could become reality soon enough.
Scientists are developing a mission concept that would blow apart an Earth-threatening asteroid with a nuclear explosion, just like Bruce Willis and his oilmen-turned-astronaut crew did in the 1998 film "Armageddon."
But unlike in the movie, the spacecraft under development — known as the Hypervelocity Asteroid Intercept Vehicle, or HAIV — would be unmanned. It would hit the space rock twice in quick succession, with the non-nuclear first blow blasting out a crater for the nuclear bomb to explode inside, thus magnifying its asteroid-shattering power. [MSNBC]
The TSA has officially acknowledged the Infowars Opt Out And Film week protest, and warned that despite the fact it is not prohibited to film at TSA checkpoints, local laws may allow police to intervene and prevent such activity.
On it’s official blog, TSA official Bob Burns notes:
“TSA has given passengers the option of opting out of imaging technology. If you choose to opt out, simply let the officer know you would like to opt out of the body scanner, and you will receive a pat-down instead.”
The sun unleashed a monster eruption of super-hot plasma Friday (Nov. 16) in back-to-back solar storms captured on camera by a NASA spacecraft.
The giant sun eruption, called a solar prominence, occurred at 1 a.m. EST (0600 GMT), with another event flaring up four hours later. The prominences was so large, it expanded beyond the camera view of NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), which captured high-definition video of the solar eruption.
In the video, a colossal loop of glowing red plasma erupts from the lower left of the sun, arcing up and out of frame as it blasts away from the star.
FEMA, the federal agency who’s responsible for responding to natural disasters and emergencies, apparently can’t figure out how to respond to anything. Over a week after Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast, the agency is still having trouble providing basic emergency supplies and shelter to the affected area.
And now to add insult to injury, FEMA has actually had to shut down emergency relief shelters due to a snow storm that just hit the area.
Is this really what America voted for? We spend billions of dollars a year on this agency and they can’t even handle the one thing their supposed to be able to do; respond to an emergency situation. [OGS]
A survey commissioned by Infowars and conducted by Harris Interactive has found that 35% of American adults would be willing to wear an electric shock bracelet in order to fly, another startling example of how many Americans are willing to give up their rights in the name of safety.
The idea of mandating travelers wear an electric shock bracelet sounds like something out of a dystopian sci-fi movie, but the proposal was seriously considered and very nearly implemented by the Department of Homeland Security back in 2008.
As the video below highlights, not only would the bracelets have been used to deliver incapacitating electric shocks to suspected terrorists, they would also have contained tracking technology to spy on the wearer.
Nine out of ten people we've met who expressed an interest in being a survivalist or prepper, frankly, did not know their own mind. Like at the poker table, to win you must either be all in, or don't bother playing. You can't get to home plate if you keep one foot on third base.
The War on Americanism is moving forward again, not on some foreign battlefield, but in quiet neighborhoods in cities across the nation.
The City of Orlando is demanding that Jason Helvingston eradicate the vegetable garden planted in his front yard so that it can meet their code, which WKMG Local 6 says requires a “finished appearance,” in other words, a plain lawn covered in ordinary grass.It is a matter of perceived property value versus that of property rights, the latter of which is clearly under attack.
Helvingston hasn’t given up. He told the city, ‘You’ll take my house before you take my vegetable garden.
Reports are already coming in that gun sales are booming after the re-election of Barack Obama, with gun manufacturers seeing their stocks soar as the Obama administration moves to ramp up gun control efforts via the United Nations.
ABC 57 visited a gun store in Indiana the day after Obama’s victory and reported a “very busy post-election day” at Midwest Gun Exchange, adding that “business is booming” due to fears that Obama will use his lame duck term to ban certain types of weapons.
“Throughout the industry, other dealers are talking about having sales increases because of people mindful and kind of wondering what will happen, if it is going to happen,” said employee Rocco Rigsby, adding, “They are fearing things are going to get banned, so they are coming in and taking a look to see what their options are and to see what is available.”
The nor'easter that interrupted recovery efforts from Superstorm Sandy is pulling away from New York and New Jersey, and is making its way into New England.
In its wake is a blanket of thick, wet snow that snapped storm-weakened trees and downed power lines from Brooklyn to storm-battered sections of the Jersey shore and Connecticut.
Households that waited for days without power because of Sandy were plunged back into darkness in temperatures near freezing. However, roads in New Jersey are clear for the morning commute, and rail lines into New York City are running smoothly so far.
They fly into disaster areas, but flee from raindrops.
FEMA disaster recovery centers in Hurricane Sandy-ravaged sections of the city that were supposed to provide assistance to hurricane victims went MIA Wednesday morning, posting signs saying that they were closed due to the approaching Nor'easter.
The temporary shuttering of the facilities, which help victims register for disaster relief, as well as city food distribution centers come even as many of those still reeling from the monster storm were not told that they had to leave the battered areas.
A 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck off the Pacific coast of Guatemala on Wednesday morning, killing at least 39 people, according to the country's president.
Otto Pérez Molina told a news conference not all the deaths had been confirmed, but witnesses reported seeing people buried in some of the 30 houses that collapsed in the town of San Marcos, near the north-western border with Mexico, where most of the damage was reported.
The quake, which was about 20 miles deep and centred 15 miles off the coastal town of Champerico and about 100 miles south-west of Guatemala City, shook buildings as far away as Mexico City and El Salvador.
On a day when the Dow Jones Industrial Average has plummeted by over 200 points, gun stocks have bucked the trend and are surging as fears over an Obama lame duck second term eviscerating second amendment rights take hold. Both Smith & Wesson and Ruger saw their stock price shoot up this morning when virtually everyone else was in the red. [INFOWARS]
As of early Wednesday morning, roughly 676,000 were still without power in the Northeast. This is a remarkable drop from the peak of roughly 8.6 million one week ago. Sadly, 112 have been confirmed dead from Sandy in the U.S., including Puerto Rico.
Now, Winter Storm Athena, a nor'easter, is poised to bring yet more high winds, rain, coastal flooding, even snow to parts of the Northeast. Mandatory evacuations have been issued for sections of Brick Township in New Jersey - residents living low lying waterfront areas are asked to take shelter by 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 6.
