Comment: Signs of the Times is often entertained by the newsletters of "Shorcha Faal," which are prolific and well-put together. In fact, if a person wasn't careful to check the sources, they might be taken in by them.

And that's not to say that there aren't a lot of reliable stories included.

The problem is: they are generally "linked" together by a very shakey lynchpin which, when discovered, makes one very suspicious of everything else.

The above linked article is a case in point. It is the lynchpin for the recent SF newsletter about all the mysterious "booms" going on in the U.S. which are supposed to be indicators of the imminent fracturing of the North American Plate. And certainly, taken together with the dam that has just collapsed in Missouri, and the gas geysers in Oklahoma, things are looking a bit suspicious. (Not to mention the lack of activity on the Western Rim of the Ring of Fire vs. all the activity on the Western Rim.)

"Sorcha Faal" refers to the author of the above linked article as "the United States Terra Research Institute in their report titled “Mystery of 'The Earthquake Boom'.

What's wrong with that? Sounds like a legitimate government agency with real science going on and the voice of a real expert, right?

Well, if you do a bit of a websearch, you will find this interesting tidbit:

Thousands Flee After India Passes Along Sham Warning

Misinformation and chaos filled disaster's breach last week as thousands fled coastal areas of India and Sri Lanka after the Indian government put out a public warning that another earthquake, and subsequent tsunami, was imminent. The basis for the alarm: Readings supposedly taken by a contraption housed in the back of a pickup truck in Oregon. The warning was originally posted to the Web site of Terra Research and Consulting Services. The business's owner, Larry Park, claims to be a computer expert and earthquake forecaster, based on a new type of electromagnetic radiation he's discovered. He has no formal training in geology, and his theories have not been peer-reviewed.

So why did the Indian government act? Indian Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal explained that the U.S. office of the Indian Space Research Organization saw the prediction posted on Park's Web site, contacted Park, and then passed along the dire warning to the government in New Dehli. In retrospect, Sibal called Park's conclusion "unscientific hogwash," but it was the S&T Ministry that passed the warning along to the Home Ministry, which issued the warning. Sibal said he wasn't consulted before that alarm was sounded.

Park has a different version of events. He says he alerted filmmaker Mike McNulty, who passed the warning along to the U.S. embassies of India, Indonesia and Australia. On Dec. 30, McNulty, nominated for an Oscar for his 1998 documentary film "Waco: The Rules of Engagement" about the FBI siege of the Branch Davidians compound, told the AP "the forecast is January 1- —it isn't game over yet."

The deadline passed, of course— - so "game over" for Park's prediction. "There are lots of these charlatans out there, and the more publicity they get the more money they make," Steve Malone of the Pacific Northwest Seismograph Network at the University of Washington told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "There is no way to predict earthquakes ahead of time yet that's proven."

So everything is NOT as Sorcha Faal presents it. And we have caught him/her at it dozens of times. Why, if a person is trying to propagate truth, do they have to fudge their sources? There's no reason to make Larry Park appear to be a gov. scientist. But apparently, Sorcha realizes that most people will NOT click the links, or if they do, they will not then try to verify who is who and what their agenda might be.

And we aren't even saying that there is any nefarious agenda to Mr. Park. But there sure does seem to be a nefarious agenda behind Sorcha Faal.

Nevertheless, we are still left with those interesting "mystery booms" and collapsing dams, gushing gas geysers, and a whole host of fun things going on here on the Big Blue Marble that Sorcha rightly points out as being significant. Click the expandy thinger to read some of them, and let's leave it open for now. For all we know, Larry Park is right. But we strongly urge caution when reading Sorcha Faal - he/she "prestidigitates" information rather often, and we wonder why?