The world we live in, as we understand it, is but an instance of many other potential instances.  Forking events, black swans, chance, those are the moments when the dice have been rolled.

..

What if Lake Toba had been created anywhere else? In the middle of the Atlantic. In the middle of North America? Geological formations shaped by chance, chaotic order, destiny?

..

What if Leonid Brezhnev had a better succession plan, erasing Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko, preventing Mikhail Gorbachev and ultimately perestroika?

..

I know this may seem like nothing to you, Roz, but the tiniest decision can shape your whole destiny!

So, which path should I follow?  Sweater? Suit. Sweater? Suit.

Sweater?

..

..

What if…?

Obama congratulates Yanukovych on Ukraine polls win

Not her

(AFP) – 6 hours ago

WASHINGTON — US President Barack Obama on Thursday called Viktor Yanukovych to congratulate him on winning Ukraine’s presidential election, describing the poll as a new step forward for democracy.

Pro-Russian Yanukovych beat Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko by 3.5 percent in Sunday’s vote, but she has not yet conceded and her party has alleged substantial fraud.

International observers and Western states however hailed the vote as fair and clean.

“President Obama called Viktor Yanukovych of Ukraine today to congratulate him on his election and wish him success in carrying out his mandate,” the White House said in a statement.

“This peaceful expression of the political will of Ukrainian voters is another positive step in strengthening democracy in Ukraine.”

The statement said Obama and Yanukovych agreed on the need to continue cooperation on nuclear non-proliferation and wished their respective teams luck in the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, beginning on Friday.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko was seen as more pro-western than Yanukovych, who is seen here as likely to lean closer to Moscow than the European Union and the United States.

The White House statement looked forward to what is likely to be a more uncertain time in US-Ukrainian relations.

“The strategic partnership between the United States and Ukraine is based on shared interests and values,” it said.

“These include expanding democracy and prosperity, protecting security and territorial integrity, strengthening the rule of law, promoting non-proliferation, and supporting reform in Ukraine?s economic and energy sectors.

“The United States looks forward to working with President-elect Yanukovych and continuing to strengthen our cooperation with Ukraine?s government and its Parliamentary leaders.”

Oops…

I am analyzing my options. Unlike your “wing-it” approach, I like to plan a strategy, like a general leading his troops into battle.

(…)

Checkmate, Schwartzkopf.

Germany, Russia furious at Opel blow

Scary…

Germany and Russia reacted furiously to General Motors’ surprise decision this week to abandon the sale of Opel/Vauxhall to Canada’s Magna and Russia’s Sberbank and set the stage for a fresh confrontation between Germany and GM, over whether Berlin would allow Opel to go bankrupt or step in to support GM financially. GM’s decision also divided its European workers, with UK employees celebrating while Germans said they would start strikes on Thursday over proposed factory closures.

In the ‘hood, they call that “being dissed.”

Alex Rodriguez rumored to have centaur portrait over his bed

Alex Rodriguez is rumored to have portraits of himself as a mythic creature called a centaur – half man, half horse – in his home.His ex-fling tells Us Weekly one painting even hangs over his stable, er, bed.

One has to wonder which part of the horse Alex is.

I’m sorry, but I haven’t seen that obvious headline yet (I checked), and it needed to be made…

(Update: Okay, it’s everywhere now)

Copa del Rey – Spanish Cup: Alcorcón 4-0 Real Madrid (Min ’57)

Terremoto en Alcorcón

Real Madrid suffered an astonishing 4-0 defeat at third-tier side Alcorcon in the King’s Cup on Tuesday, humiliated in the first leg by a club with a budget more than 400 times smaller than the La Liga giants.

- It was silly and sad at the same time, you know?
- Firsthand!

Marconi the Misterious

Secret City in South America?

Marconi was the son of a wealthy Italian landowner and an Irish mother When interest in his first transmission in 1895 had not interested Italian authorities, he had gone to Britain. The  Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company was formed in London in 1896 and Marconi made millions off his inventions.

According to Marconi’s followers, Marconi then took his yacht to South America in 1937, after faking his own death.

Ninety-eight scientists were said to have gone to South America where they built a city in an extinct volcanic cater in the southern jungles of Venezuela. In their secret city, financed by the great wealth they had created during their lives, they continued Marconi’s work on solar energy, cosmic energy and antigravity. They worked secretly and apart from the world’s nations, building free-energy motors and ultimately discoid aircraft with a form of gyroscopic anti-gravity. The community is said to be dedicated to universal peace and the common good of all mankind.

Believing the rest of the world to be under the control of energy companies, multi-national bankers and the military-industrial complex, they have remained isolated from the rest of the world, working subversively to foster peace and a clean, ecological technology on the world.

We have information on this astonishing high-tech city from a number of sources. In the South America the story is a common subject among certain metaphysical groups.

[...]According to Genovese, the city is located at the bottom of a crater, is mostly underground and is entirely self-sufficient. The extinct volcano is covered in thick vegetation, is hundreds of miles from any roads, and is at thirteen thousand feet in the jungle mountains of the Amazon.

"Foil Helmet Guy says his dog needs to speak to you."

]]> http://catsnguitars.wordpress.com/2009/10/18/the-high-tech-venezuelan-hidden-city/feed/ 0 cngadmin David Hatcher Childress - Tepuy http://catsnguitars.wordpress.com/2009/10/18/so-this-whole-thing-was-a-scam/ http://catsnguitars.wordpress.com/2009/10/18/so-this-whole-thing-was-a-scam/#comments Sun, 18 Oct 2009 10:37:56 +0000 cngadmin http://catsnguitars.com/?p=412 ]]> TAG

Balloon boy’s father ‘planned weather balloon UFO stunt’

"We did this for the show"

Richard Heene was so obsessed with kick-starting his reality television career that he devised an alien hoax that would be “bigger than Roswell”, according to a confidant.

Robert Thomas, a fellow science enthusiast and former business associate of Mr Heene, sold his story to the gossip website Gawker as police prepare to charge members of the Heene family over the runaway balloon flight that gripped the US on Thursday.

He told Gawker: “Richard said, ‘how much do you want to bet we could facilitate some sort of a media stunt that would be equally profound as Roswell, and we could do so with nothing more than a weather balloon and some controversy?’”

A television show pitch allegedly composed by Mr Thomas based on ideas brainstormed by Mr Heene suggested releasing a homemade, electrically-charged flying saucer to attract other UFOs.

“We will capture the footage on film, and will utilize the media as a means with which to make our presence known to the masses,” it read.

"So this whole thing was a scam!"

"Well, I wouldn't call it a scam. It was just a fake-out."

Smoking bans cut heart attacks for nonsmokers

Bans on smoking in public places and workplaces can sharply reduce the number of heart attacks among both smokers and nonsmokers, according to a new report issued today by the prestigious Institute of Medicine. The report provides strong support for the anti-smoking laws that are now in place in 21 states and the District of Columbia and is likely to bolster efforts to pass such laws elsewhere.

Wondering why it is so hard to quit?

“No. I am choking on something far more dangerous and destructive than a simple sugary treat. It’s a prolific and powerful poison known as:

deception!”

It’s all around us…

Are you choking on your lolly?

So, I guess that’s it then… is it? Could this gentleman be making all this up? Is someone else asking that question? Someone in the position of finding out? Should I be asking it anyway?

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Apollo Astronaut Chats About UFO, Alien Belief

My major knowledge comes from what I call the old-timers, people who were at Roswell and subsequent who wanted to clear the things up and tell somebody credible even though they were under severe threats and things — this was back in the Roswell days. Having gone to the moon and being a local citizen out in the Roswell area some of them thought I would be a safe choice to tell their story to, which they did. Even though the government put real clamps on everybody, it got out anyhow.

Subsequent to that, I did take my story to the Pentagon — not NASA, but the Pentagon — and asked for a meeting with the Intelligence Committee of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and got it. And told them my story and what I know and eventually had that confirmed by the admiral that I spoke with, that indeed what I was saying was true.

Yup, in other words. There was a UFO crash. There was an alien spacecraft. This gentleman tried his damndest to get me in and like so many others in the administration over the last 60 years, since JFK’s time, was unable to. He was told ‘Admiral, you don’t have a need to know, and therefore go get lost,’ essentially.

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