I can't really comment in any informed way on societies in the East, except to point to the Chinese slave workers who produce mountains of plastic crap for Western nations to use and then dump in the ground and oceans; the Middle East's role as a bombing target, 'terrorist' recruiting ground and civil war factory for Western warmongers, and South East Asia and Africa as a block of new 'nations' born out of the 'white man's burden' to civilize their people via brutal colonization and then grant them 'independence' in the form of never-ending debt to Western banks.

In the West, on the other hand, where I live, I can say with confidence that our modern society, its political and social conventions, customs and morality, has passed its expiry date and is well and truly moribund. If I were a political or social cartoonist, the image would be a giant rotting corpse plastered in thick make up and doused in cheap perfume with a greedy banker's hand up its ass making it move and talk to fool the public into thinking that they actually have a future to look forward to.

Leading the cast in this tragicomedy (heavy on the tragi) we find our psychopathic leaders and their media whores trying extra hard to convince us that everything is just fine. But that smell, that stench of lies and the screaming contradiction between what they say and what we can all see (if we look) is making it increasingly hard to believe them, and even our own wishful thinking.

Are you watching the Winter Olympics? Or are you boycotting them like the morally righteous US, UK and French leaders, who are disgusted that Putin won't promote pedophilia?

Will the most expensive Olympic Games ever be a triumph for Russian peace over Western war, or will a CIA/Saudi-directed terror attack attempt to poke the Bear into a violent reaction before the world's watching media?

What's really happening next door in Ukraine? Will the people there soon be liberated from the 'yolk of Putinism' and be free to join the glorious future envisioned by the EU? Or is it too just another CIA-led revolution? And what about the real revolution in France, why is no one reporting on that?

This week on SOTT Talk Radio we discussed all this and more, not least the weird weather. What could be causing wildfires in Alaska while it snows in Georgia? Or prolonged drought and raging wildfires in Arctic Norway while hurricane force storms drown Britain for months on end?

Running Time: 02:25:00

Download: MP3

---

The first in a new monthly series, the following video compiles footage of 'signs of the times' from around the world during the past month. From 'strange lights' in the skies to extreme weather events, from geological upheaval in the form of volcanic eruptions, sinkholes, landslides and earthquakes to loud booms rattling communities and meteor fireballs turning night into day, the Big Blue Marble is rocking and rolling!

High Strangeness

Some of the highlights in January 2014 include bizarre apparitions of 'UFOs'. Many explain away strange lights in the sky as 'Chinese lanterns' or 'optical illusions' from refractions of man-made or natural light sources in the atmosphere. Some of these apparitions may well be down to such things, but are all of them? Certainly, people making hoax videos with free CGI software have far too much time on their hands, but not everyone is able or willing to do that.

Fire in the Sky

Then there's that other subset of 'strange lights in the sky': meteor fireballs. Distinct in appearance from the largely stationary 'UFO lights', fireballs generally leave a brief 'flash' and trail in the night sky, illuminating the ground for miles around. But as you'll see, several in January appeared to move very slowly, and some were filmed during the daytime. Depending on the size, trajectory and other variables of an incoming space rock, its fragmentation in the upper atmosphere may also produce an audible boom, or series of booms. Something else to keep in mind, however, is that many of these 'mystery booms' being reported across the U.S. and elsewhere may be related to increased seismic activity...

Earth Changes

...which brings us to 'Earth Changes'. More 'long-dormant' volcanoes woke up along the Pacific Ring of Fire last month, another strong earthquake hit New Zealand, wildfires raged in record-breaking heat across Australia and a sinkhole swallowed a whole neighbourhood in Brazil. In the northern hemisphere, it was so cold in Norway that seawater froze, trapping shoals of fish inside the frozen ice... and yet it was apparently also so 'hot' that wildfires broke out near the Arctic Circle. While a succession of hurricane-force storms drenched the UK and Western Europe with giant waves and record flooding, cold temperature and snowfall records over 100 years old were broken across the U.S. as a 'polar vortex' gripped the entire Eastern half of the nation in ice age conditions.

Environmental upheaval, signs in the heavens, wars and rumors of wars, social revolution... it's nothing the planet hasn't seen before, but it's also something new to modern civilization. As the ancient Chinese put it, we certainly appear to be living in 'interesting times'...

---

The Missing Times: News Media Complicity in the UFO Cover-Up is a book written by independent journalist Terry Hansen in 2000. Having seen it referenced in several books on UFOs from the last decade or so and recommended by several experts in the field, I decided to check it out. As our regular readers will know, we at Sott.net like to keep up to date on the various oddities, anomalies, and instances of 'high strangeness' that pop into our reality on a regular basis. And, being an alternative news website that analyzes and comments on mainstream media coverage (i.e., propaganda) of everything from weather to warfare, the book's focus on the inner workings of media coverage on the topic suggested it might be right up our alley, so to speak. As it turns out, The Missing Times is a great resource for information on censorship and propaganda in general, not just UFOs and media, and it has some far-ranging applications, as we'll see.

First of all, a bit of an overview of the book itself: it begins with a short introduction on the way news media has covered (or not covered) big UFO stories, particularly the 1975 Malmstrom Air Force Base UFO/ICBM encounters. Widely reported in the local and regional press, it took a full two years for these highly sensational (i.e., newsworthy) events to reach the national news.

Hansen observes that there are two realities in media: the official reality, represented by major national news corporations (which reflect official government views), and folk reality, which is often represented in local or regional, 'small-town' reporting. UFO stories, in particular, often make it into the local press, where they're reported fairly accurately, but rarely if ever do they get serious coverage in the national press. And when they do, it's usually because the story has already become so large that they need to cover it or risk looking like they are censoring it. Even then, their reporting is rarely if ever serious or objective. Rather, it's loaded with 'spin', name-calling, and 'wink-and-nod' levity. What's the reason?

Earlier today I posted a comment on this BBC article. It was one of those comment boxes where you submit your name, location, ph. number and email address and it gets sent off to the BBC's department of censorship for rejection.

My comment went something like: "It's nice to finally see some official recognition that sugar is involved in cancer. Governments should redirect the funds they allocate to anti-smoking campaigns towards a campaign to inform people about the dangers of a high-carb diet and to promote a Paleo diet, as a way to prevent the spread of cancer".

The strange thing is, right now there are no comments at all under that article, and there is no longer any option to comment, so I was wondering what actually happens to them and what the point of asking for comments is.

A while ago I found out. A nice program researcher from the BBC called me and referred to my comment and asked me if I would like to take part in a BBC radio show that is to discuss the 'tidal wave' of cancer that is bearing down on us all. The researcher asked me what the Paleo diet was and how I found out about it and, after I explained the basics to her, she said would email me back and let me know if they wanted to talk to me. Well, the radio show is airing as I write this, and I haven't heard back from the nice researcher lady, so I guess they didn't like what I had to say. So I'll just say it here.

This week we're talking with Dr. Philippe Guillem, top expert on Hidradenitis Suppurativa (Verneuil's Disease), a 'rare' condition that may in fact be very prevalent. Dr. Guillem has spent almost twenty years as a surgeon, and last year received special recognition, together with French non-profit organization 'Solidarité Verneuil', for the high-quality care he provides his patients.

Typically developing in stages, Hidradenitis Suppurativa (HS) is a chronic skin condition affecting the apocrine sweat glands, and leads to inflammation, infections, and constant pain. Often misdiagnosed and misunderstood by doctors, HS also leaves sufferers feeling shameful, in part thanks to the common misconception that lack of hygiene or obesity are to blame.

We'll also be talking about rare diseases in general, the lack of medical attention they receive, and why it's important for people to be informed and seek out the right care. If you suspect that you or a loved one might have HS, or any other condition you are afraid to speak of, then we hope you'll join us from 2-4pm EST (8-10pm CET). You are not alone.

Running Time: 01:41:00

Download: MP3

It was in June of 1990, Florence, Italy, when I formulated my Quantum Future Project. The project, with details, can be found here. Later on, in 1999, I consulted with my usually well-informed, albeit sometimes enigmatic and careful-about-what-to-share-and-what-not, sources about the status of quantum theory. The Questions and Answers run as follows:

Q: (A) Now, there are claims, more or less, shared by many scientists, that quantum theory is necessary to model or understand consciousness. From what was said before, it seems that quantum theory is not necessary, that it is sufficient to have the right geometric model of extended gravity.

A: No, not extended, expanded.

Q: (A) Does that mean that quantum theory is irrelevant for understanding the modelling of consciousness?

A: Quantum first needs to be graduated from the realm of theory.

Q: (C) It means it needs to be proved, right?

A: No. Proving is a concept we should now be moving beyond.

Q: (C) When you say 'graduated from the realm of theory,' I assumed that meant that it needed to be proven. So how does it get graduated? What is the next realm after theory?

A: No, my dear, you are missing the point. The currently imposed protocol for "proving" theories is a bit passe, we think. Can you imagine trying to fly a plane if you must first prove that there is a sky?

Q: (C) So, don't try to prove quantum theory, just go ahead and use it, I guess.

A: Pretty close.

Q: (A) Are you laughing at quantum theory?

A: No. We are laughing at 3rd density scientific protocol!

"Just go ahead and use it?" Easy to say, but use in which way? My original idea behind the Quantum Future Project was to understand the nature of Free Will, to construct a 'Free Will Detector and Amplifier'. Later on I understood that, perhaps, no one would buy such a device. Most people are probably better off giving up their free will, leaving decisions to others and to the wind. (At least they must think so since they do it all the time.)

Yet there are other possible uses of quantum theory; some of which I was not aware of until recently when I stumbled upon the publications of Louisiana State University theoretical physicist Jonathan P. Dowling. What I read is important, which is why I want to share the part that concerns our Quantum Future - yours, mine and everyone else's.

We recently interviewed author and SOTT.net founder Laura Knight-Jadczyk on SOTT Talk Radio. Laura shared some stories from her past, explained how her life's work came into being, discussed her current research interests and answered listeners questions about the state of the world and what's on the horizon for humanity.

Running Time: 02:02:00

Download: MP3

---

The following SOTT.net video looks back at some of the environmental upheaval from around the world in 2013.

Seemingly more destructive, chaotic and turbulent than ever before, last year we witnessed extreme temperatures, widespread flooding, tornadoes appearing when and where they shouldn't, countless volcanic eruptions, superstorms, sinkholes swallowing cars, homes and people, record snowfalls, ongoing mass animal deaths...

...and more and more such events seem to be taking place with each passing month. The frequency and intensity of these weather and geological anomalies strongly suggest that major changes are afoot on our planet.

The question is: what is it all leading up to?

For years, SOTT.net has been sharing information about how Ice Ages begin, and what typically happens beforehand. The message coming through these 'signs' seems pretty loud and clear to us: 'Winter is coming'... perhaps even sometime this year.

---

It was Andrew Lobaczewski, author of Political Ponerology: A Science on the Nature of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes, who first presented the concept that, throughout history, pathological personalities have taken over societies and caused unimaginable destruction. Needless wars have caused untold millions of needless deaths and trillions of dollars in destruction. He characterized this process as political and macro-social evil in a scientifically measurable way.

Lobaczewski presented a process that begins with visionaries whose ideas are corrupted by a cascade of personalities, all deficient in character, ending in psychopaths taking the helm and guiding the society to war, destruction, and eventual collapse. Most of us think of psychopaths as being mostly criminals who end up in jail, but Lobaczewski shows that they actually are capable of leading us, at least when they are born into privilege.

Lobaczewski also describes how the rest of society largely goes along with this, and this is the subject of this article.