The sun seemed to be the theme and on April 24, 2009, came a pattern the scientists interpreted as three monthly phase cycles of the Earth's moon. When the lunar cycle information was combined with the next oilseed rape pattern at Peaks Down near Swindon, perhaps about solar flares and “the apogee and perigee of a full moon," the scientists asked: “What will happen on the sun July 7, 2009?” And a countdown began - Would there be an outstanding solar event on that date?

I think it is stunning that the most intense sunspot activity in nearly three years of an abnormally quiet sun occurred between July 5 and 6 right up to July 7. There was a solar physics meeting in Boulder, Colorado, in mid-June and the hottest topic was why is the sun so quiet and when will it come back alive? Then Sunspot 1024 erupted suddenly on July 5 - each spot the size of Earth, each spot 8,000 miles in diameter. By July 8, the sunspots had grown to the size of Jupiter, 78,000 miles across!

By 1:06 UT July 7, the huge, intense sunspots had projected two large solar flares into space and a large coronal hole also opened up on the sun, releasing increased solar radiation that would reach Earth around July 9.

Perhaps the Spring 2009 oilseed rape crop formations were a test to see who would pay attention. Now, we need a Rosetta Stone for the June 30 Milk Hill “alien symbols,” the June 27 South Field “electrical grids” and beyond! On July 7, I interviewed physicist Mike Reed about his perspective of the sudden, huge and intense Sunspot 1024 forming within forty-eight hours of July 7, 2009. "

NEW YORK (Reuters) --  The vacancy rate for U.S. apartments reached its highest level in more than 20 years in the second quarter and could soon exceed record highs if the recession persists, real estate research firm Reis Inc said.

The national vacancy rate rose to 7.5 percent, the highest since 1987 and an increase of 1.4 percentage points from last year, according to a report Reis released on Wednesday. The record high was 7.8 percent in 1986.

"We are reaching that historic high very quickly," said Victor Calanog, Reis director of research.

The second-quarter vacancy rate was 0.20 percentage point higher than the prior quarter and up from the cyclical low 5.5 percent reached in 2006, Reis said.

Just as predicted months ago. Now for that to expand to include rental housing, especially where I live. *fingers crossed*

But with employment marching ever downwards, there's no way we're close to any real or lasting recovery. But history tells it's own tales. Here's a chart comparing our unemployment with other recessions since WWII.

 

Many readers are writing to ask if this sunspot is going to produce a major solar storm today, July 7th. Such a storm was "predicted" by a set of crop circles in England, and the solar blogosphere has been abuzz with speculation. The answer is "no." A major storm is not in the offing. Sunspot 1024 is relatively large, but it does not have the kind of complex magnetic field that poses a threat for major eruptions. Crop circles, it turns out, are not a useful tool for forecasting solar activity."

"Damn those crop circles! Look what they're doing to our precious scientific public outreach programs!"  
*collective fist shaking at internet*

But wait! There WAS a major solar flare-- it intensified the aurora borealis and australis (southern hemisphere version) and guess when it took place?? On July 7th (barely) at 1:06 Universal Time or 5:06 pm yesterday Pacific Time. So-- only 2 hours off from one of the 2 time periods I found where a solar flare was set to happen! Not too shabby, eh?

Here's the proof: http://sohodata.nascom.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/soho_movie_theater 
 
Directions to view: select the image type LASCO C2 then click SEARCH button.  If you select the start date as 2009-07-06, you can see the big flare come out the right side. Note that it actually takes a few hours to come out completely, so that leaves a little wiggle room for interpretation of the TIME of the flare.

Okay-- so I suppose that was close enough to take serious note of! Considering that the crop circles saying this would happen right around the 6th/7th of July started in APRIL of this year, when there was NO sign of the sun turning active again, let alone this active, this suddenly?-- I would say it's a hit that goes well beyond chance. It was just about exactly on! Enough to cock my eyebrows at and decide to keep paying attention to for sure! And there's still that sunset of today for Britain, so there's a chance of a second pop in 3 to 4 hours from now. If that happens, I'll be truly impressed.

Well-- that was FUN! (Especially since it wasn't the "big bad flare" we were dreading! Ooh, scary monsters!)

This is also a good lesson about how to figure out the whole astronomical messages of these crop circles-- whether human or "Other"-- and where timing of an event can be right on, but-- for longer events like solar flares-- a different interpretation. "They" are timing the event from the APEX of the flare, whereas we time from the BEGINNING of it. Good to know for future reference.

"What a difference 48 hours can make. Only two days ago the sun was blank and calm, displaying the sort of unrelenting quiet we've come to expect from the deepest solar minimum in a century. Then, with startling rapidity, sunspot 1024 burst onto the scene. Unlike other recent "sun-specks", this active region is a full-fledged sunspot group with more than a dozen planet-sized dark cores, crackling with B- and C-class solar flares."  "

Ah, only unexpected if you weren't paying attention to the whole crop circle communiques! LOL! Any regular readers of this LiveJournal know that while I wasn't believing it for sure whole-heartedly, I was certainly aware and paying attention. This aligns well with crop predictions (both human and "other".) It may yet prove to be merely coincidental-- but then tonight shall tell the tale on that definitively.

Be aware of between 7- 9 pm tonight Pacific Time, 8-10 Mountain Time, 9-11 Central Time, and 10- Midnight Eastern Time (depending upon where you live) to see if anything interesting happens. Check Spaceweather.com to see if we get an X-class Solar Flare during that period of time, which should be the LEAST we can expect if there is any real truth to these bizarre crop circle predictions!

And-- um, IF, by any bizarre chance, the electricity suddenly goes out during that time either in some places or across the board, then it may be the CME some have been fearing for a while. To check to see if this is true, find a car made after 1996 and try to start it. If it WON'T start, then that means we've been hit by an EMP or electro-magnetic pulse (which doesn't hurt our bodies but does fry all electronics as well as the power grid). If you have a car or truck made before 1990 and it starts up just fine? Then you have double the confirmation on this. (Older cars didn't have computer brains that could be fried by an EMP. All newer ones do.)

Let's hope that, if true, it's just a run-of-the-mill X-class flare and nothing more traumatic than that-- and all we get is a really pretty Aurora Borealis display!

However, worse case scenario, one group of people will have working electricity, computers, and vehicles: the United States military. Isn't that reassuring?

In the coming years, young people will discover or create fulfilling careers in the fields and professions that connect people to nature; they will become biophilic architects and urban designers, nature therapists, natural play organizers and natural teachers -- and assume careers that have yet to be named.

Despite the current rash of bad news, we may be seeing the emergence of a new landscape: the fading of our society's nature-deficit disorder, and the rise of human restoration through nature. Farfetched? Maybe. But as the poet Emily Dickinson wrote: “Hope is the thing with feathers/That perches in the soul/And sings the tune without the words/And never stops – at all.”

The future: better than it used to be."
 

Yep, it's happening. Society and culture itself is responding to the whole "major recession" thing. Although people are beginning to call it a Depression now-- the terminology is catching on apparently.

Anyway, a lighter view of the grim news can be found on this economic blog-- with it's videos of folk singers performing "Songs of the New Depression."

Enjoy. http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2009/07/songs-for-new-depression.html

And happy Independence Day while I'm at it.

You've GOT to read this article on the DoD (Department of Defense) taking over public schools. It's happening in Chicago, and it looks like it's a test case for more of the same across the country: http://www.alternet.org/story/141034/the_military_invades_u.s._schools%3A_how_military_academies_are_being_used_to_destroy_public_education/

Excerpts:

"For the past four years, I have observed the military occupation of the high school where I teach science. Currently, Chicago's Senn High School houses Rickover Naval Academy (RNA). I use the term "occupation" because part of our building was taken away despite student, parent, teacher and community opposition to RNA's opening.

Senn students are made to feel like second-class citizens inside their own school, due to inequalities. The facilities and resources are better on the RNA side. RNA students are allowed to walk on the Senn side, while Senn students cannot walk on the RNA side. RNA "disenrolls" students and we accept those students who get kicked out if they live within our attendance boundaries. This practice is against Chicago policy, but goes unchecked. All of these things maintain a two-tiered system within the same school building.

This phenomenon is not restricted to Senn. Chicago has more military academies and more students in JROTC than any other city in the US. As the tentacles of school militarization reach beyond Chicago, the process used in this city seems to serve as a model of expansion. "

"It is useful to analyze the rhetoric used to rationalize the Marine Academy. Many of the lies and excuses used to justify school militarization in Chicago and Georgia may well be used in other cities as militarism grows.

Not for Recruiting?

A favorite lie used to defend the expansion of military academies is that they are not used to recruit for the military."

"This is not a recruiting tool, but a way to help students succeed at whatever career they might choose," Mills told the Chicago Tribune.

Yet military academies receive money from the Department of Defense (DoD). The DoD would be derelict in its responsibilities were that money not spent as an investment in future soldiers. Accepting the claim that there is no recruiting in military academies makes about as much sense as allowing gangs to fund and operate within schools, on the assumption that they won't recruit on school grounds.

Moreover, since military academies are staffed with ex-service members (many don't even require valid teaching certificates), students are likely to receive career advice that favors a military path. "

"In addition to these direct tactics, the academies use more insidious approaches. A military culture permeates these schools. Students dress in uniform, receive demerits, and are introduced to the military hierarchy and way of life. For example, I have witnessed students marching with fake rifles. This cultivation of a militarized mind is the best explanation for why 40 percent of all Naval Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program graduates wind up entering military service. This statistic is especially telling, considering that less than one percent of the population has served in the military at any given moment since 1975. "

In addition, they put funding into the military public schools, but deny it to the non-military public schools in the same district, and then tell parents they have a "choice" which one to send their teens to. Most send their kids to the "better" school, to the point the non-military one is "forced" to close, and then the pathetic excuse for a choice is gone.

Much more to see-- please do click the link and check it out.

America is already the most militarized nation on the face of the earth, except maybe North Korea. This expanding of the influence of the military into civilian life is more than worrisome-- given that this looks to be a program set to expand all across the country, it's downright alarming.

Again, the mainstream media isn't even touching on this stuff!! And the networks wonder why we don't watch THEIR news??!? Who are they fucking kidding? They don't report on the fucking news that we really want to know about, they harp on celebrity deaths and shit.
 

Ah, summer--!  Warm to hot sun, green leaves blowing in the wind, skimpy clothes, vacations, and... the height of "moving season!"  This year is no exception to the rule, yet there are differences from years of recent past.

Due to prolonged unemployment and various home foreclosures, etc., people are beginning to be forced to move in with relatives and friends or face homelessness altogether. I greatly sympathize with this circumstance, as the last several years forced us to deal with much the same thing. Having your own home and being wholly under your own power is something you take for granted until it's taken away and you're forced to compromise yourself and who knows what else in order to get along with people you might quite cheerfully advise to go to hell...!

The greater impact upon the community of all this moving in together, however, is that it's leaving many homes vacant. This moving season is seeing a lot more moving OUT than moving IN to rentals. Our apartment complex is currently seeing 2 families moving out for every 1 family moving in. We've never had more than a handful of empties before this season-- but I'm certain it's a part of the new reality for awhile. All over town, where once a person might find 1 or 2 rental signs out every several blocks this time of the year, I'm seeing at least 2 to 4 rental signs every single block. FOR RENT. FOR RENT. FOR RENT. It's a more numerous sign than "Stop", "Yard Sale", and "Lost Pet" signs all put together!

This is the first step to my long-predicted and highly anticipated rental price crash. First, landlords face empty rentals, then competition from other empty rentals, then they have to compete for renters, and so they lower the price, and then more and more landlords do that... and -- well, you get the idea. It's a cascading domino effect. The lower a few rents go, the lower they ALL go-- because with so many empties to choose from, renters who can afford to rent can also afford to be choosy. Dogs and cats and aquariums and water beds will also become more acceptable as a part of the competetion for renters. Also incentives like first months' rent free or no deposit down with a signed lease.

Another sign that things are worse than anyone thought? A lot of the people moving out of our apartments are NEW renters who only moved in 2 to 5 months ago. A month to month rental agreement costs almost TWICE as much as a year's lease, so few people agree to it, and a 6 month lease isn't much better. Which means people are jumping lease! (In fact, we've spoken to neighbors and overheard people talking to management in the office-- and yes, lease jumpers are quite the rage these days despite the consequences of such a choice. Especially now that for the same money, people can get a private HOUSE-- and that's now, very early in the rental crash, just imagine what it'll be like this time next year...)

This is astonishing in more ways than one... http://www.alternet.org/environment/140629/intriguing_plan_in_michael_moore%27s_home_town%3A_bulldoze_the_ghost_%27burbs%2C_return_them_to_nature/

Mr Kildee said he will concentrate on 50 cities, identified in a recent study by the Brookings Institution, an influential Washington think-tank, as potentially needing to shrink substantially to cope with their declining fortunes. Most are former industrial cities in the "rust belt" of America's Mid-West and North East. They include Detroit, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Memphis. "

So the once unthinkable is gaining enthusiasm and momentum. Mainly because of the cost of providing services to large sprawling urban areas. Right now, every state, county, and town is cash-strapped-- can you even imagine what it must be like for the rust-belt?

"The exodus from these areas – particularly of young people – coupled with the consequent collapse in property prices, has left street after street in sections of the city almost entirely abandoned.

Regarded as a model city in the motor industry's boom years, Flint may once again be emulated, though for very different reasons. But Mr Kildee, who has lived there nearly all his life, said he had first to overcome a deeply ingrained American cultural mindset that "big is good" and that cities should sprawl – Flint covers 34 square miles. He said: "The obsession with growth is sadly a very American thing. Across the US, there's an assumption that all development is good, that if communities are growing they are successful. If they're shrinking, they're failing."

I feel like I've waited my whole life to hear sanity like this. I'm still reeling to think some good, solid SENSE is finally starting to reach politicians and policy-makers. Let's hope this is one idea that will not be short-lived, but a normal way of things for shrinking communities.

You may be asking how they will induce people to move out of mostly abandoned neighborhoods and closer in to the center. Well, they've decided they're not going to force people out, or even coerce them-- instead, they're going for bribery. It's not as hard as you might think. City and county governments are buying nicer, larger homes closer in for cheap (many of those have been abandoned, too) and refurbishing them. Then they offer them super cheap to home owners living in the outskirts (who have shown they're willing to trade up in similar scenarios played out already.) IF there are a few hold outs, the city works around them, making sure they understand services will be cut to outer areas. The few houses left "out" will end up surrounded by scrub land and maybe some urban farmers who are enticed out there by cheap land and the growing 'small & local' organic farming movement.

Imagine it!