The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    MSNY's picture

    WTF IS GOING ON!

    By MSNY on Thu, 01/06/2011 - 8:10pm |

    (at your service, Mr. Day)

    There is some weird stuff happening.

    First, I saw a story about thousands of birds just dropping out of the sky in Arkansas and I thought, ‘oh, that’s weird.’  But I since I was on vacation, I didn’t give too much thought to it after that.

    Then, I read about 100,000 fish going belly up, also in Arkansas and I thought, ‘wow, that’s a bit of a coincidence, isn’t it?’  But after seeing the report I didn’t hear very about it again and it slipped my mind.

    Not long after, I ran across an article about several hundred dead birds falling from the sky in Louisiana. When I read on, I noticed that the birds were of the same species as the birds that dropped dead a few hundred miles north and I was like. ‘whoa, it can’t just be chance. Something is up.’

    Yesterday I saw this article about 100 tons of dead fish washing up on the shore of a Brasilian town and I gasped.  100 tons?  That’s a lot of fish.  The article said many of the fish were sardines. 100 tons of sardines?  That’s a shitload of sardines.  Sardines are small – a quick google search reveals that the average sardine is about 6 ounces.  That means that there were literally hundreds of thousand dead fish.

    And I just read a story about 2 MILLION dead fish washing up yesterday in Maryland.  2 MILLION!  Something stinks here, and it’s not just the rotting fish!

    While poking around I discovered that in the past few days there have been reports about thousands of crabs washing up dead in England, several thousand fish washing up dead in Florida, hundreds in New Zealand, and dozens of dead birds turning up in Sweden.

    Anyway, I found this chart online detailing the mysterious animal deaths.

    What’s going on?

     

    UPDATE:   It gets weirder.  I just saw this story about hundreds of birds dropping out of the sky in Italy.   I have no idea what to make of this.  I understand what people are saying about the media's drive to find stories like these, but I just have a hard time believing that all this is just freaky happenstance or paranoia.

    HERE is an updated list of similar incidents

     

    originally posted (HERE) AT ONCE UPON A PARADIGM

     

    MSNY 010611

     

    Comments

    Just a thought

    Maybe these birds are like the proverbial Canary in the coal mine

    Life for an actual canary in a coal mine could be described in three words - short but meaningful.

    Now that the birds are gone, whats next??????

    Plagues

    first, Nile becomes blood:   second, frogs:  third, gnats:  fourth, gadflies   fifth, pestilence on livestock:  sixth, boils:   seventh, hail:   eighth, locusts:  ninth, darkness:   tenth, firstborn dies: 

    I wonder what the scoffers and ridiculers said then.. Stufff happens?

    The food supply, the air, the water, all necessary elements to sustain life.  

    Come on mankind show us how powerful you are, turn these events around.

    Throw your fist in the air in an act of defiance, screaming "We don't need these things"  

    Just a thought


    by Resistance on Thu, 01/06/2011 - 11:18pm

    Don't forget the disappearing bumblebees, not to be confused with the all ready MIA honeybees.


    by miguelitoh2o on Thu, 01/06/2011 - 10:23pm

    see above


    by Resistance on Thu, 01/06/2011 - 11:16pm

    Thanks for bringing this over here, MSNY.  Let the conspiracy theories fly!  Seriously, this is one fascinating story.  If the incidents have happened over a year's time it might not be a huge story, but this is unfolding day by day.  Hundreds!  Thousands!  Millions! 

     I'm hooked.


    by Ramona on Thu, 01/06/2011 - 11:21pm

    A magnetic disturbance is what my wife heard. 


    by Resistance on Thu, 01/06/2011 - 11:26pm

    Funny you say that.

    One of the names that the conspiracists have been throwing around as the cause of this weirdness is H.A.A.R.P.  It's some kind of project that involves high power, high frequency transmittions into the Ionosphere.

    You should read the wiki I linked to.  The whole program is a little bizarre.  But since you mention magnetic disturbances, here's a relevent line;

    The IRI is used to temporarily excite a limited area of the ionosphere. Other instruments, such as a VHF and a UHF radar, a fluxgate magnetometer, a digisonde and an induction magnetometer, are used to study the physical processes that occur in the excited region.

    It really doesn't take a conspiracist to deduce that they might be using all that equipment designed to detect magnetism because their test produced alot of magnetic energy. 

    Maybe I'm just getting tired.....


    by MSNY on Fri, 01/07/2011 - 12:13am

    The IRI is used to temporarily excite a limited area of the ionosphere

    Oh this is just great. Now we are frickin up the ionosphere.

    This is real sci fi crap, for sure!!


    by Richard Day on Fri, 01/07/2011 - 1:50am

    The God of Science run amok?

    What happened to Atlantis?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDCWnvBk-DI

    @2:14

    And people thought science was the savior of mankind?


    by Resistance on Fri, 01/07/2011 - 2:08am

    Those scientists are sleeping with the devil. The only pertinent question is whether that is a bad thing or are they just having twisted sex with ol' Diablo? All the damned, er, doggone,  word wierdness lets people come up with conspiracy theories when the answer is in the Bible. Someone will no doubt point out the right verse.


    by A Guy Called LULU on Fri, 01/07/2011 - 8:10am

    Do these scriptures help

    (Acts 2:19) 19 And I will give portents in heaven above and signs on earth below, blood and fire and smoke mist. . . 

     (Luke 21:25-28) 25 “Also, there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth anguish of nations, not knowing the way out......................... because of the roaring of the sea and [its] agitation,..................................26 while men become faint out of fear and expectation of the things coming upon the inhabited earth; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27 And then they will see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

    28 But as these things start to occur, raise yourselves erect and lift YOUR heads up, because YOUR deliverance is getting near.”

     (Isaiah 57:20) “But the wicked are like the sea that is being tossed, when it is unable to calm down, the waters of which keep tossing up seaweed and mire." 

    The sea of mankind is agitated, people are dying in the thousands daily.


    by Resistance on Fri, 01/07/2011 - 8:57am

    As regards Acts 2:19 - Isn't the message kinda lost on all those fishes and birds? I mean, I don't know what kind of shit they were up to that pissed the old guy off, but they're dead now. Doesn't that put them pretty well out of reach for remediation and redemption? What's the plan here? Are you sure he's really thought it through?

    As regards Luke 21:25-28: "the Son of Man is coming in a cloud with power and glory." Better tell him to be on the lookout in those clouds for whatever it was that killed all them birds. It'll be a pretty bogus "grand entrance" for the Son of Man if he just drops in on some fool's driveway with a thud, and nothing more.

    And if yahweh wants to send a message, why not fax or IM or something? Doesn't this whole drama queen act get kinda old after a while for all the true believers?

    Aren't there any taliban around that can offer some variation on religious proclamations and proselytizing? This same old stuff in every blog post is getting tiring and is growing old.


    by SleepinJeezus on Fri, 01/07/2011 - 10:31am

    Taliban methods take many forms.

    What is, …. acceptable to you, …..Ayatollah sleepin? 

    It appears you’ve adopted the Taliban method intended to discourage any speech or writings comments, not in line with the teachings of Sleepin or his followers.  

    Taliban methods are first pleas, Your words are getting “old”   then direct personal attacks, stirring up hatred. Followers shunning, then joining in abusive tactics. in order to stifle differing viewpoints or opinions, that differ from the leaderhip. 

    Again. what is acceptable to you, Ayatollah Sleepin?   

    Many times I point out how the hypocrisy of our leaders should be replaced with truth and for this, I am told this is getting old?  

    While you seek the applause of others, “Oh that sleepin is one wise dude; good post sleepin”  

    Whereas; I direct attention to over 5000 years of recorded wisdom, by such notables as Solomon;  reported to be one of the wisest of known men. I rely on others too, wiser than you or I, whose knowledge has been proven to be of great benefit to Nations. 

    Wisdom and answers to age old problems;  and for this I am told; “This is old give it a break”  

    Or are you of the high opinion “We don’t need old wisdom to solve our problems, Sleepins got the answers.”

    As to your supercillious comments about the birds.

    No one has established all the facts; although one possibility, is mankind itself may be responsible for the death of thousands of living souls. 

    No remediation  or redemption for the birds and the other Souls, or if you prefer life forms. 

    Justice works for me. Judgement against those responsible. if it is proven life was wantonly destroyed, due to mankinds negligence.   I suppose then you'll say, it was only birds?


    by Resistance on Fri, 01/07/2011 - 2:47pm

    Newsflash:The Old/New Testaments are not authority here.  Find your own streetcorner and rave at the passersby.  You'll have better luck.


    by jollyroger on Fri, 01/07/2011 - 2:50pm

    Newsflash, You're not either.

    Luck has nothing to do with it, some have enough moral sense to listen and investigate.

    Many in our country believe rightfully, the root cause of many of the Worlds problems are because of a lack of moral values.

    Moral values would help eliminate hunger, homelessness, end the wars, end crime, Provide healthcare and compassion to others in need.

    You may have to depend on luck, if you think you can solve the problems, without moral values.


    by Resistance on Fri, 01/07/2011 - 3:22pm

    Your politics are good.  Your eschatology, not so much.


    by jollyroger on Fri, 01/07/2011 - 3:42pm

    As far as the fish are concerned, the red tide could be one answer. This was a major problem in parts of Florida, killing fish in droves. The airborne toxins are also harmful to humans. In my community of 2500 people who were fairly heavily exposed to beaches of dead fish and toxins in the air, about 60 people came down with pneumonia, including me. The theory was that the toxins somehow attracted pathogens in the lungs. Anyone with asthma simply couldn't be around it.


    by Oxy Mora on Fri, 01/07/2011 - 12:12am

    Hmmm...but does the red tide phoenomenon occur in fresh water rivers?  I don't know too much about it.


    by MSNY on Fri, 01/07/2011 - 12:18am

    Notice where it is NOT happening? CHINA!!   Or ... it could be another Evangelical publicity stunt to promote the newest Left Behind novel.   Or .. The first Lemming has been elected King of the Animals and has ordered death panels to make voluntary cut-backs in all species so they can trim the ecological deficit and save social security for the less fortunate and the elderly or disabled penguins.

     


    by MrSmith1 on Fri, 01/07/2011 - 12:27am

    goddamn lazy entitled penguins!


    by MSNY on Fri, 01/07/2011 - 12:58am

    These stories have got me bent out of shape.  I think I may need a media blackout for a spell just to catch my breath.  WTF is right.  Tough getting my mind around all that is happening with our little blue home these days.  We don't seem to be taking very good care of it.  Sad, but it can't be too late.  I'll add just this:  200-400 billion birds didn't fall dead from the sky today.  Somehow I'm comforted by that fact.

    http://www.springerlink.com/content/g462245897502720/


    by kyle flynn on Fri, 01/07/2011 - 12:48am

    I don't know either. I mean Resistance has a point.

    And they still will use a bird to lead them down into some of the mines around the world; that is supposed to assure the miners everything is on the up and up.

    You sure got me looking out for other follow-up or related stories.


    by Richard Day on Fri, 01/07/2011 - 1:17am

    The only unusual part of the recent spate of bird (and fish) die-offs is that people witnessed them....

    http://news.discovery.com/animals/bird-animal-die-offs-110106.html


    by artappraiser on Fri, 01/07/2011 - 1:18am

    The eyewitnesses today will be discredited.  A few years from now, some will be calling the witnesses liars. These witnesses will be acccused of fabricating the account, they will be mocked and ridiculed, as just another group of dupes, who spread lies in support of the idea of some great Apocalypse coming.

    Nearly 70 dead bats found in Tucson

    http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/12/28/20101228tucson-70-dead-bats-found.html

     


    by Resistance on Fri, 01/07/2011 - 1:46am

    No, "they're" going to check it out and study them even though they suspect it's all natural. That happens to be what a lot of biologists and environmental scientists do for a living . They do it when other people see it and report it, but the rest of the time they also go out and try to find such things even when it's not reported. Those in the fields represented are probably loving the P.R. attention, they don't often get it. Normally it's like, oh, "hey everyone I found evidence of reptile population dropping" and "woodland vernal pools are disappearing" and nobody wants to hear it outside their field except the ladies in the garden club who need a lecturer that week.

    P.S. Example: there was no cover up of West Nile virus People were seeing birds dying then and they didn't just chalk it up to "natural causes" but took it seriously, investigated and didn't rule anything out.


    by artappraiser on Fri, 01/07/2011 - 2:13am

    Your pretty sharp AA, Is How the same as Why?


    by Resistance on Fri, 01/07/2011 - 2:38am

    After you, you first. Explain to me why god smote our bananas with blight. I've got time, because I don't think we are going to get the answers right away on the reasons for all the bird/fiish/bat events people are digging up and reporting on right now (to which they normally wouldn't pay attention.) Much as many people, it seems, would like to see this as a sign of something, I think chances are high that they are all different problems which will involve individual studies over time and which will result in reports a year down the road at different times that no one will read, having lost interest in "Aflockalypse" theory mania. But I'll be glad to talk about the "why" when the individual reports trickle in if someone has access to and reads all the related speciality publications.

    But they've already figured out the why of the banana problem, so it's your turn on that one. Why doesn't god want us to have Cavenish bananas?

    P.S. "End of Days" bird kill just a fraction of real death toll

    ....these deaths represent just a fraction of the true impact humans have on birdlife.

    “There are many human-related causes of bird mortality including buildings, outdoor cats, pesticides, communication towers, automobiles, wind farms, and lead poisoning from spent ammunition and lost fishing tackle." said American Bird Conservancy Vice President, Mike Parr. "But because most of the deaths from those sources often occur in ones or twos, they often go unnoticed or unreported.”

    In total, says Parr, studies have estimated that up to one billion birds may be killed annually due to collisions with buildings. Another billion fall prey to domestic cats. Up to 50 million birds are killed each year after hitting communications towers, and pesticide poisoning has been linked to the deaths of up to 15 million birds each year.

    In addition to all these hazards, the increasing presence of wind turbines is a threat to many birds, especially when they're built in the path of migration routes.....


    by artappraiser on Fri, 01/07/2011 - 4:27pm

    Thanks AA, I hadn't heard of this blight. I will post this comment to reserve this spot til I research and get you an answer.

    Aflockalypse, how funnny.

    I think it is important to not put so much emphasis on only one aspect of an Apocalypse precursor, but instead look at a complete picture of the composite sign.

    I have been meditating on, "Why the apocalypse?

    Does it ever reach a point in mankinds existence, that mankind itself reaches the point of No return, and the only saving grace for mankinds continued existance, is intervention?   

    Many have attributed to god the bad conditions and why hasn't he intervened so far. 

    Maybe he can't on the large scale Earthwide, for fear of being called a meddler in mans affairs.

    There are those who will claim "we didn't need you, stay out of it"

    He'll just wait, till man kind proves to itself, it failed, it's going to die

    Come save us, from ourselves

    This was just quick thoughts, I have to do some work. But by reserving this position I can come back and edit this response, I will see if I can find the answers to the question you posed.


    by Resistance on Fri, 01/07/2011 - 5:06pm

    Tattered Wings: Bats Grounded by White-Nose Syndrome’s Lethal Effects on Life-Support Functions of Wings Released: 12/15/2010

    ....This imbalance may be to blame for the more than 1 million deaths of bats due to WNS thus far, proposes Carol Meteyer, a pathologist with the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center and a lead author of the research published in BMC Biology.....

    http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=2664

    Also here is where the government does NOT ridicule those serious about reporting such things:

    New and Ongoing Wildlife Mortality Events Nationwide

    http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/mortality_events/ongoing.jsp

    you can hang out there all you want and see what mass die offs of wildlife are being reported, and report them yourself, all you want! There is obviously clear intent to share information and reports with anyone and everyone, not hide it nor ignore it.

    I do suggest, though, that they might indeed ridicule any suggestions that events are prophetic signs sent from a greater spirit. At the same time, I'm sure they sometimes wish it was that easy.

    Knowing from the general news the  negative opinion that many in Arizona government have about the Federal government, I wouldn't be surprised, though, if the Arizona Wildlife service doesn't avail itself of information to and from  USGS, and just puts things like those dead bats in a drawer and forgets about them. I'd love to have someone from Arizona convince me that my prejudices here aren't true, and that they are working with USGS on the bat case, to see if the WNS has spread or it is something else, rather than letting people think it is part of a message from angry angels or whatever.


    by artappraiser on Fri, 01/07/2011 - 9:24pm

     

    How could I resist ?


    by jollyroger on Fri, 01/07/2011 - 1:27am

    BTW, this interface rocks, what with recent comments and easy editing...are you listening Josh?


    by jollyroger on Fri, 01/07/2011 - 1:29am

    And also, too

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110107/ap_on_sc/us_sci_dead_wildlife_fact_c...


    by wabby on Fri, 01/07/2011 - 7:14am

    Although, I still want to blame BP and the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.


    by wabby on Fri, 01/07/2011 - 7:16am

    Trust me; these are not portents?  

    From the link flowerchild included

    Famed Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson say’s; 

    "Not to worry, these are not portents that the world is about to come to an end."

    Well what a relief;.............. Mr. Wilson assures us.

    Is this E.O Wilson ready to bet your life on it?

    Do you think he’ll say oops, never mind I was wrong, when the water is above your heads? 

    It is true, you can, find any old teacher to tickle your ears; that’ll tell you what you want to hear. 

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5M_Ttstbgs&feature=related


    by Resistance on Fri, 01/07/2011 - 8:31am

    This was in our local paper this AM: http://www.thesunnews.com/2011/01/07/1907320/cold-blamed-for-menhaden-ki... We've been coming down to the Carolina coast for several winters now, and we've seen these die-offs a few times. (Though not in the numbers we're seeing now.)

    We've seen starfish littering the beaches at times, and it's always in January when the water is colder. And usually after a big storm. (On the Gulf coast in Alabama one year it was baby stingrays.)

    It seemed to be a natural thing, attributed to getting knocked around by shore waves, etc., but the numbers we're seeing now are pretty hard to ignore.


    by Ramona on Fri, 01/07/2011 - 9:08am

    I understand that this may well be a form of hysteria; that we may only be talking about these occurances because we are so plugged in to instant information, and that we are hyper aware that they are even happening.  

    That understanding goes farther to make me believe that all this is a natural phoenomenon than the  weak attempts offered to explain what happened.   I don't automatically jump to conspiracy mode when some birds drop out of the sky somehwere - I wonder what the heck is going on, but I don't send the family down to the bunker, so-to-speak.  But, for example, the fireworks explanation in Arkansas is doesn't hold water.  I don't buy that some fireworks forced tens of thousands of birds to fly into buildings, trees and hills.  And how would the fireworks explain the fact that several thousand more dropped out of the sky a few hundred miles south of the fireworks?

    We shall see...


    by MSNY on Fri, 01/07/2011 - 11:11am

    FACT CHECK: Mass bird, fish deaths occur regularly

    (AP) – 1 day ago

    ....The reality, say biologists, is that these mass die-offs happen all the time and usually are unrelated.

    Federal records show they happen on average every other day somewhere in North America. Usually, we don't notice them and don't try to link them to each other.

    "They generally fly under the radar," said ornithologist John Wiens, chief scientist at the California research institution PRBO Conservation Science.

    Since the 1970s, the U.S. Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center in Wisconsin has tracked mass deaths among birds, fish and other critters, said wildlife disease specialist LeAnn White. At times the sky and the streams just turn deadly. Sometimes it's disease, sometimes pollution. Other times it's just a mystery.

    In the past eight months, the USGS has logged 95 mass wildlife die-offs in North America and that's probably a dramatic undercount, White said. The list includes 900 some turkey vultures that seemed to drown and starve in the Florida Keys, 4,300 ducks killed by parasites in Minnesota, 1,500 salamanders done in by a virus in Idaho, 2,000 bats that died of rabies in Texas, and the still mysterious death of 2,750 sea birds in California.

    On average, 163 such events are reported to the federal government each year, according to USGS records. And there have been much larger die-offs than the 3,000 blackbirds in Arkansas. Twice in the summer of 1996, more than 100,000 ducks died of botulism in Canada.

    "Depending on the species, these things don't even get reported," White said.

    Weather — cold and wet weather like in Arkansas New Year's Eve when the birds fell out of the sky — is often associated with mass bird deaths, ornithologists say. Pollution, parasites and disease also cause mass deaths. Some are even blaming fireworks for the blackbird deaths.

    So what's happening this time?

    Blame technology, says famed Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson. With the Internet, cell phones and worldwide communications, people are noticing events, connecting the dots more.....


    by artappraiser on Fri, 01/07/2011 - 8:44pm

    Check it out, folks

    USGS National Wildlife Health Center
    http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/

    They have "spotlights" at top including
    Blackbird Die Off Investigation
    Damage to bat wings from the fungus associated with white-nose syndrome (WNS)
    Deformed Beaks May Signal a Greater Environmental Problem
    and, ta-da:
    View Recent Mortality Events

    Tabs to entire categories include
    Avian Botulism
    Avian Influenza
    Chronic Wasting Disease
    Lead Poisoning
    Slamonellosis
    Sylvatic Plague
    West Nile Virus
    White-Nose Syndrome

    "Hot Topics" (wow!) include:
    # Bulletin: Newcastle Disease Summary 2010
    # News Release: Comments sought on WNS National Plan
    # 2010 Q2 NWHC Quarterly Wildlife Mortality Report
    # Bulletin: Virulent Newcastle Disease Virus Found in Double-Crested Cormorants

    The question is, to paraphrase the famous Jack Nicholson character: can the hysterical newbie cherry pickers of wildlife death reports handle the truth?

    Or does that ruin all  the Aflockaplypse fun?


    by artappraiser on Fri, 01/07/2011 - 9:07pm

     DEEP IMPACT…..E.L.E  Extinction Level Event

    The movie Deep Impact with Morgan Freeman 1998

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Impact_(film)

    The link you provided is for 2010 only.

    Let me guess, the agency in charge of keeping the records of these flockalyptic events, started in 1998?

    As DD would say,  HA!

    You’re use of the similarities found in the movie A Few Good Men  1992 complement the conspiracy of coverup.

    With Jack Nicholson as as Col. Nathan R. Jessep, he is forced to reveal a secret, a cover up. When pressed as to why the secrecy,  the famous “You can’t handle the Truth” is his defense.

    The government cover up, of the recent deaths of thousands of birds and other sea life, unless forced to reveal somethings up, a coverup. Because just like Jessop, National Security will tell the American people “You can’t handle the truth”

     Ha !  Just kidding  


    by Resistance on Fri, 01/07/2011 - 10:34pm