“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will send forth a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord.”
(Amos 8:11)
Behold The Days Come

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Intellectual TAKEOUT

Breaking Old Habits: Millennials Make the Nun Run

David Lewandowski

August 6, 2019
I was taken aback at the headlining article on ESPN this weekend. It wasn’t about kneeling football players. Instead, one might say it was about a kneeling basketball player: Shelly Pennefather.

Pennefather, a former All-American player for Villanova, turned down a professional basketball career to join the cloistered convent of the Poor Clares. ESPN captured her silver jubilee in which her family was able to hug her for the first time in 25 years.

But while Pennefather’s abandonment of a promising career for the religious life seems strange, it foreshadows a trend happening amongst Millennials.

Patrice Tuohy, who matches young people interested in a religious life with specific religious orders, notes this trend in a Huffington Post article by Eve Fairbanks. Tuohy notes that inquiries about the religious life have soared from 350 a year to 2,600 last year.

And these weren’t casual inquiries either. According to Tuohy, many young women were seeking religious orders which “would force them to wear a habit.”

The Huffington Post article goes on to reference a 2017 survey of American Catholic women. Those in the 18 to 35 age range reinforce the trend toward convents with 13 percent saying they considered becoming a Catholic sister. This is a five percent uptick from the boomer generation.

Another indication of growing interest in the religious life is the age of those entering convents. “The average age for taking the final step into the religious life a decade ago was 40. Today, it’s 24,” The Huffington Post reports.

These numbers are surprising. One would expect the opposite due to the religiously unaffiliated nature of Millennials or the sexual abuse crisis.

What is causing this increased interest of young Catholics towards the religious life?

An interest in conservatism and a more orthodox faith seem to be the answer:

They [Millennial nuns] tend to be far more doctrinally conservative than their predecessors. … They celebrate virginity not as a necessity to free up time to serve God – how some ‘liberal’ sisters see it – but as something in itself holy.

The Huffington Post also describes the life of John Olon, who teaches theology at a “typical Catholic high school,” one where “the incoming freshmen tended to have little to zero interest contemplating the divine.”

That attitude didn’t stop Olon from bringing in priests and religious sisters to give vocational talks, however. For years the presenter’s pitch of trying to be cool bore no fruit. The students saw through the superficiality of these speakers.

By contrast, when Olon brought in a traditional priest who exhorted the class that they are called to holiness and to be saints, the kids responded.

To understand why, it’s important to recognize what the students were going through. One student, Mackenzie, explains: “Nothing was satisfying me. I was aching for something to settle on.” It was taking Olon’s class and learning about the saints and their journey towards virtue that she found something rooted that could satisfy her.

Olon, himself speaks to the existential midlife-esque crises that he observed in many of his students:

‘The level of anxiety and sadness these kids have, I don’t think we can even understand it at this point,’ Olon said. ‘I think there are things these kids are experiencing now that we don’t even have names for.’

Young Millennials appear to be drawn towards a religious life based on that old-time religion. An uncompromising doctrinal orthodoxy that pierces their subjective relativism.

This is confirmed by the author of The Huffington Post article who, while not religious, writes:

In one of my earliest diary entries, at age 8, I confessed a desire to become an Orthodox Jew. I had cousins who were Orthodox. Their dress and rituals were strange to me, but part of me also envied them.

During my teens, I worried a lot about whether what I was doing was right. I liked the idea of saying the shema, a simple Jewish prayer you chanted at meaningful moments. It seemed to give life anchor points.

The image of anchor points is an important one. If you are, or have spent time around Millennials and Zoomers, you’ll notice that all too often that is exactly what is missing. Anchors. Roots. Without them we drift away, succumbing to the newest trend, without any reflection on whether it manifests truth or beauty.

Regardless of your position on Catholicism, the trend highlighted by the article is an important one to ponder. Should we return to speaking about deeply rooted things such as religion, philosophy, and culture? Does the younger generation respond better to these concepts than it was once thought?

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engadget

Cult investigation game 'The Church in the Darkness' is available now

Don't expect the same game twice.

Jon Fingas,

08.04.19

Paranoid Productions/Fellow Traveler

It took years to make, but Paranoid Productions' ambitious The Church in the Darkness is finally ready. The cult investigation title has been released for computers through both GOG and Steam, and the console crowd can play it on PS4, Switch and Xbox One. All versions normally cost $20, although they're down to $16 for the launch week. Whichever version you play, don't expect it to be a one-and-done gameplay experience. Just how the story unfolds can change wildly with each session.

At its heart, you play an investigator sneaking into Freedom Town, a South American commune created by the seemingly cult-like Collective Justice Mission, as you find out what happened to your nephew. However, it's not necessarily going to be a Jonestown-style tragedy. Sometimes the leaders are genuinely compassionate, other times they're brutal. You may not need to rescue Alex in the first place. And how you play varies as well -- you can rely on disguises and stealth or blast your way through. This is ultimately a game about exploring humanity, including your own.

(We are not gamers and do not know anyone who has played this game. We would appreciate any feed back from anyone who knows more about this game. We would guess it is supposed to anesthetize people to the effects of killing Christians. The accompanying photo spells out, “Help Us”.

“But we desire to hear of thee what thou thinkest: for as concerning this sect, [early Christians] we know that every where it is spoken against.” Acts 28:22)

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LifeNews.com

Abortion Was the Leading Cause of Death Worldwide in 2018, Killing 42 Million People

MICAIAH BILGER

December 31, 2018

More human beings died in abortions than any other cause of death in 2018, a new report indicates.

A heartbreaking reminder about the prevalence of abortion, statistics compiled by Worldometers indicate that there were nearly 42 million abortions world-wide in 2018. The independent site collects data from governments and other reputable organizations and then reports the data, along with estimates and projections, based on those numbers.

Breitbart contrasted the abortion numbers to other causes of death, including cancer, HIV/AIDS, traffic accidents and suicide, and found that abortions far outnumbered every other cause.

Here’s more from the report:

As of December 31, 2018, there have been some 41.9 million abortions performed in the course of the year, Worldometers revealed. By contrast, 8.2 million people died from cancer in 2018, 5 million from smoking, and 1.7 million died of HIV/AIDS. …

It also records the total number of abortions in the world, based on the latest statistics on abortions published by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Globally, just under a quarter of all pregnancies (23 percent) were ended by abortion in 2018, and for every 33 live births, ten infants were aborted.

Worldometers estimates about 59 million deaths world-wide in 2018, but that number does not include unborn babies’ abortion deaths. Unborn babies are not recognized as human beings even though biology indicates that they are unique, living human beings from the moment of conception and they die brutal, violent deaths in abortions.

The abortion number is incomprehensible, but each of those 42 million abortions represents a living human being whose life was violently destroyed in their mother’s womb. Each unborn baby already had their own unique DNA, making them distinct from their mother. That DNA indicated if the child was a boy or girl, their eye and hair color, their height, possible genetic disorders and other disabilities, and much more. In most cases, the unborn babies’ hearts are beating when they are aborted, too.

In America, just under 1 million babies are aborted every year. Though abortion rates have been dropping in the past decade, abortion remains the leading cause of death in the United States as well.

An estimated 60 million unborn babies have been killed in abortions in the U.S. since Roe v. Wade in 1973. In January, pro-life advocates will gather for the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. to remember the anniversary of that infamous decision and call for restored protections for the unborn.

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BREAKINGISRAELNEWS

Israel’s Foreign Minister to Announce Plan for all World Embassies to Move to Jerusalem

July 28, 2019

“Yerushalayim built up, a city knit together” (Psalm 122:3)

Jerusalem (courtesy: Shutterstock)

The Israeli government is preparing an official initiative, including an incentive package, to encourage countries to relocate their embassies to Jerusalem. Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz will soon present a proposal to the Cabinet to designate the transfer of embassies to Jerusalem as a “national, diplomatic and strategic objective of the highest order.”

When Katz began his tenure as foreign minister in February 2019, he learned there were countries that agreed in principle to open embassies in Jerusalem, but sought reciprocal measures from Israel. For example, Honduras and El Salvador have agreed to open embassies in Jerusalem but want Israel to open full diplomatic missions in their respective capitals in return—a move which hasn’t been forthcoming on Israel’s part.

Other countries have requested developmental and economic aid from Israel, while also hoping such a move would open doors in the United Sates and have even asked Israel to help pay for the relocation to Jerusalem. In these cases, too, there has been little to no Israeli follow-up, which has stalled progress on the matter.

In his upcoming presentation to the government, Katz will propose giving countries willing to move their embassies to Jerusalem an aid package worth NIS 50 million (around $14.2 million). Because Israel is preparing for another general election, scheduled for Sept. 17, Katz’s proposal pertains to the 2020 national budget. However, according to his proposal, he would have the authority to divert resources from the current budget to facilitate such an embassy move.

The funds would be earmarked to help finance the relocation of an existing embassy or the launch of a new one; the transfer of ambassadors’ residences to Jerusalem; assisting the Jerusalem Municipality, local authorities and relevant bodies to make the proper accommodations, and to provide cooperation and other aid to the relevant country in accordance with the circumstances. A steering committee headed by Foreign Ministry Director-General Yuval Rotem will decide how the aid packages are allocated among the countries.

Ever since U.S. President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in May 2018, only Guatemala has joined the Americans in relocating its embassy to the city. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has raised the embassy issue in various diplomatic gatherings with foreign leaders, as has Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely on visits to numerous European countries.

Katz told Israeli daily Israel Hayom that “there is nothing more expressive of our return to Zion and the success of Zionism than strengthening the sovereignty of Israel and the Jewish people in Jerusalem. Bolstering Jerusalem’s status in the world is the most important objective I’ve set for myself as foreign minister. Jerusalem was and always will be the beating heart of the Jewish nation.”

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PATTERNS of EVIDENCE

HUGE HIDDEN OLDER CITY EMERGES FROM UNDER BIBLICAL CITY OF GATH

Steve Law

August 2, 2019

And David rose and fled that day from Saul and went to Achish the king of Gath. – 1 Samuel 21:10 (ESV)

Previously Unknown Philistine City Changes Scholars’ Understanding of History

Archaeologists excavating at the ancient Philistine city of Gath this summer have been surprised by an unexpected discovery. As they dug down to older layers beneath the city they had thought was the primary phase of development at Gath, they began to find the remains of a much larger city just below the levels they had previously studied.

“I’ve been digging here for 23 years, and this place still manages to surprise me,” said Aren Maeir, Director of excavations at Gath, in an article in Haaretz. “All along we had this older, giant city that was hiding just a meter under the city we were digging.”

The new finds show that the city of Gath peaked in power much earlier than researchers had believed. This is consistent with evidence found in other locations that connect to the early history of Israel recorded in the Bible. Patterns of Evidence has found that many scholars have grown skeptical of the biblical account because they aren’t looking far enough back in time to recognize the matching evidence.

Gath in History

The ruins of Gath lie inland from the coastal city of Ashkelon about 10-15 miles. Last week we did a story on the discovery of a new site proposed by the excavators to be Ziklag. Today, the story is about Gath, which was a Philistine center next door to the proposed Ziklag site. Gath was also where the giant who David battled – Goliath, came from, and where David (when he was fleeing from Saul) stayed briefly with his 600 men before moving on to Ziklag.

And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. – 1 Samuel 17:4

And David lived with Achish at Gath, he and his men, every man with his household … – 1 Samuel 27:3 (ESV)

The site of Gath is known today as Tel es-Safi. A tel is a mound created by subsequent layers of city that have built over the top of previous cities over the centuries. Cutting down through the layers of the tel exposes older and deeper levels as you go (the oldest coming at the bottom). According to the Haaretz article, finds at Gath range from the 5th millennium BC to a small Arab village destroyed in Israel’s 1948 War of Independence. See a previous update for news of the oldest donkey bit in Israel found at Gath.

As documented at the Tel es-safi website, Gath has been excavated for decades. The city previously thought to be the pinnacle of Gath’s development has been dated to the period known as Iron IIA, normally thought to have begun around 1,000 BC. The more recent city is believed to have existed from the 10th century (900s) BC to the late 9th century (around 830) BC. The 830 BC date is determined by a fiery destruction layer thought to have occurred during the conquest of the city by the Aramean king Hazael, which is mentioned in 2 Kings 12:17.

It is interesting to note that while scholars emphasize the Hazael event as the major destruction marker in the archaeological history of the site, the Bible actually records an ongoing series of conflicts at Gath. There were no less than five such conflicts recorded for Gath over the centuries that included King David and afterward. Hazael’s event was only number four of the five, during the reign of Judah’s 8th king, and no mention of damage is given in the Bible. The fifth event was during the reign of Judah’s 10th king (Uzziah), and the Bible mentions that he broke down the wall of Gath.

Does this indicate that scholars have their layers and dates wrong? A list of the biblical references for these events can be seen in last week’s post on Ziklag. The Bible has the most documentation about Gath in the era of Saul and David when Israel is being attacked by huge Philistine armies. This would be in the 11th century BC on the Bible’s timeline.

In any event, the Iron II level, that was well known by the excavators, featured an estimated population of 5-10,000 over the space of 125 acres. Temples, houses, and massive oil presses were found there.

“This was the largest Philistine city and probably one of the largest in the Iron Age Levant,” Maeir, who is a professor of archaeology at Bar-Ilan University, says. “Larger cities were only found outside the Levant, such as in Egypt and Mesopotamia.”

An Older City of Mammoth Proportions

As the team reached the deeper and older layer of the Iron I period this summer, they began to sense that something big was happening.

While beginning excavation at the 11th century site, “We got the feeling that perhaps this earlier phase is larger and dramatically more impressive than the city that was destroyed by Hazael.” Maeir said in an article in the Times of Israel.

They soon were unearthing unusually massive fortifications that they date to the 11th century BC.

“The fortifications were very large, built with extremely large stones,” Maeir stated. They had huge boulders and very thick walls constructed with well-built, burnt brick, which is much stronger than the sun-dried variety and rarely used in pre-Roman times.

The walls of the fortifications in the lower city are about 13 feet wide, almost twice as large as in the later period. The length of the individual stones were also markedly greater: 1-2 meters (3.2-6.5 feet) in length compared to a half meter in the Iron II city.

“Up until now we thought that the city from the Iron IIA, the one that was destroyed by Hazael, was the largest and most important period in Gath,” Maeir told Haaretz. “This year we got a different story… It’s as if the site of Gath in the early Iron Age dwarfed the later city.”

Other sites in the region from this earlier period are also revealing to researchers unexpected size and complexity, such Khirbet Qeiyafa in the valley of David and Goliath.

The Origins of the David and Goliath Story?

Maier is actually somewhat moderate on the scale of beliefs about biblical history. Maximalists hold that every event recorded in the Bible happened as recorded, while Minimalists doubt the historical accuracy of the Bible. Most mainstream scholars tend fairly heavily toward the minimalist side of the spectrum when it comes to the early history of Israel.

The reason for this inclination is the apparent lack of evidence for these stories and the common belief that the early history in the Bible was not written down until many centuries after the events. While the Bible claims that Moses wrote its first books (in the 1,400s BC) and authors such as David were writing before the year 1,000 BC, the majority view among scholars is that the books of the Old Testament were first written between about 630 BC (during the reign of King Josiah) and 250 BC. For evidence supporting the Bible’s view of authorship, see the film, Patterns of Evidence: The Moses Controversy.

For minimalists, the Bible is a collection of myths manufactured for theological and political motives. In this view, the biblical accounts may contain some faded traditions that have a few germs of true history, but they can’t be trusted.

Maier believes there was a real David, but also thinks the huge walls of Iron I Gath may have inspired the biblical story of Goliath and other giants. “Many of the biblical texts must be understood as allegory,” notes Maeir. Perhaps the authors of the Bible saw the remains of the outsized 11th century building on the ground, speculated Maeir, and thought to themselves, “Enormous stones? Who could move such things? Only giants could move it.”

“Maybe there’s a family of large people we haven’t found, but it’s more likely to say that a mythical story developed over time based on the size of the architecture,” Maier concluded.

Professor Maier is an accomplished archeologist, but I find it ironic that he is basing his skepticism of the David vs. Goliath account on not finding the particular remains of a few large individuals, while standing on the remains of an entire huge city that has escaped recognition after 23 years of excavation at the site. The evidence at his site continues to fit the Bible, but he has trouble moving beyond the mainstream paradigm.

City of Gath and the Bible’s Account

So far, only small sections of the impressive Iron Age I city have been unearthed and plans are to expand this area in the upcoming seasons. The question could be asked, ‘What lies beneath this layer?’

“You excavate a site for so long that you think you understand it,” said Maeir. “But every turn of the trowel can bring a new and unexpected find.”

Scholars had believed Gath was most powerful in 9th century BC. They have needed to shift their view for this peak to a time centuries earlier. This matches the fact that the Bible puts the most active and powerful era for Gath in earlier periods. Once again, looking earlier than expected led to evidence more in line with the Bible. Perhaps the reason for scholars’ surprise is that they are not treating the Bible as an accurate source of historical information.

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ACTIVIST POST

Scientists Announce They Can Manipulate Brain Cells with Smartphone-controlled Implant

By B.N. Frank

August 5, 2019

Research has determined that smartphone notifications can make brains go “completely haywire.” It has also already proven that exposure to all sources of cell phone and wirelessWiFi radiation can disrupt the blood brain barrier which can cause it to leak. This can also kill brain cells. Research also indicates it can cause irreversible damage on brains and kids are more affected. Research has also determined that it can reduce impulse control which can lead to violence and homicide.

So can it really be a big surprise to these scientists that a wireless implant controlled by a smartphone can manipulate brain cells? It’s bad enough that they have already been testing these on defenseless mice. Have they considered any or all of the risks associated with implanting these in people, including the potential for hacking these implants?

“This revolutionary device is the fruit of advanced electronics design and powerful micro and nanoscale engineering,” said Jae-Woong Jeong, a professor of electrical engineering at KAIST. “We are interested in further developing this technology to make a brain implant for clinical applications.”

Michael Bruchas, a professor of anesthesiology and pain medicine and pharmacology at the University of Washington School of Medicine, said this technology will help researchers in many ways.

“It allows us to better dissect the neural circuit basis of behaviour, and how specific neuromodulators in the brain tune behaviour in various ways,” he said. “We are also eager to use the device for complex pharmacological studies, which could help us develop new therapeutics for pain, addiction, and emotional disorders.”

Who else votes for them testing these implants on each other before testing them on anybody else?

Desperately sick people sometimes take desperate measures to feel better. Before you decide to allow anyone to implant anything like this in your brain or into the brain of someone you love, you may want to consider all of the risks associated with their technology and also watch the 2004 film,The Manchurian Candidate

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CE

5G Is The Ultimate Directed Energy Weapon System, Says Particle Physicist

Richard Enos

July 31, 2019

July 31, 201 Dr. Katherine Horton sees the current rollout of the 5G network in a way that is different from mainstream perception. And for good reason.

To begin with, she is a particle physicist with a PhD from prestigious Oxford University. She worked as a high energy physicist on the particle collider at the German Electronsynchrotron DESY in Hamburg, Germany, and on the infamous Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland.

At Oxford, Dr. Horton worked as a research fellow at St John’s College, a position that allowed her to expand her research from particle physics into medical physics and the physics of complex human systems. As part of the latter, she conducted systems analysis research of the English legal system, economies, the financial system, currencies, as well as white collar crime and organised crime.

In other words, she has the credentials to be public enemy number one to a global elite that are trying to deceptively use technology as a key cog in their plan to enslave humanity under a totalitarian world government.

A Targeted Individual

During her childhood in Romania, Dr. Horton alleges that she and her family experienced intimidation and terrorism because they were highly educated and refused to take part in the snitching and informant criminality being promoted by mob networks there.

Dr. Horton says that stalking and other such activities ramped up in November 2011, as she was attending a High Court case in London as part of her systems analysis research into the English legal system. She says she was openly being stalked on her way home from court and started noticing a thug waiting for her outside her home every morning to follow her to the train station.

Attempts to face these forces head-on, through the courts and through activism, have lead to a rise in these attacks upon her which include not only human intimidation but torture through Directed Energy Weapons. You can read more details about her experiences on her Stop 007 website, which among other things offers support and legal guidance for Targeted Individuals.

Trying To Contextualize The 5G Network

In the extensive interview below hosted by Alfred Lambremont Webre, Dr. Horton attempts to bring to bear her vast knowledge of the capabilities of energy weapons, and awaken us to the fact that these are the true modern weapons of warfare of today, not the ballistic weapons that we still see portrayed in movies and talked about in geopolitical conflicts.

She also employs her knowledge and personal experience of the ‘Targeted Individuals’ phenomena, as well as her run-ins with the shadow government and their military and intelligence tentacles to create a broad context for what the 5G network really is:

I think the average person struggles so much understanding what all this is about and that’s what they [Global Elite] are banking on. So they are banking on the fact that, for example, there is a very simple con hidden in this marketing ploy that is 5G. For example when they brought up 3G and 4G, everybody assumes that 5G is just a better 3 and 4G so what’s all this fuss about? Is it just Luddites who are just, you know, they just, they are scared, and they are tree-huggers, and they just don’t really enjoy watching happy kitten videos super-fast on their phone? But that’s not what it is. So 5G is a fundamentally different system.

I think what I would like to do is to take all the people who are maybe even more overwhelmed than I am, you know, I want to pick them up where they’re at, maybe, and then bring them up to speed and tell them everything I know, so by the end of the show they at least know what I think and what I know, so that they can make up their own mind what they think. And there’s several discoveries I had, trying to research the subject, and I should say that my main focus is not even 5G or 5G campaigning. My main focus is campaigning to have all the Directed Energy Weapons systems shut down, which includes also satellite weaponry, weaponry hidden in cars, weapons carried by gangstalkers in rucksacks, and all this sort of stuff and out of all that, 5G is, if you like, the state system. It encapsulates everything. It can do a bit of everything and it will be everywhere.

So your 5G system is like a gangstalker with a Directed Energy Weapon in his rucksack who shoots you in the face as you’re walking behind him, you know, on the pavement for example. But it will not be a gangstalker, they can do away with those, if they just have these 5G antennas every 50 or 100 meters. So the 5G system will do everything that the current global weapons systems can do and, it can also, I strongly believe, it can also instantly kill. Ok?

So in other words, if you want to cut to the chase, my view of the 5G system, and I’ll show you why I think that’s the case, the 5G system should be best imagined as the government, or this shadowy group that has infested the government, taking over every city on the planet and every village and even the smallest town and even the, you know, the forest, where you think there is nothing, and putting up hidden machine guns that follow you and your family pointing right at you and these are, you know, set sharp so that they can shoot you dead at the speed of light if somebody so wishes. Ok? So that is the best description of the 5G system that I have.

A Complex System With Grisly Motives

The above description and much of her explanation in the video may strain credulity for many readers. It certainly challenges the mainstream worldview that our elected leaders are the flawed but ultimately legitimate authorities of our world, that wars and killing are conducted for justifiable reasons, that intelligence agencies protect us and will not try to harm us, or that we are not in some way victims of complex social engineering designed to turn us all into obedient slaves. But here at CE we have been poking holes in mainstream perception since our beginnings a decade ago, and today the longstanding hidden plans for mass surveillance, enslavement and depopulation are coming ever more clearly into view.

How clearly is the depopulation agenda coming into view? In the interview Dr. Horton points us to the website deagel.com, a website that monitors the sale and distributions of military weapon technology all over the world. She shows us that plans for genocide are actually reflected in published estimates of depopulation within the next decade. The population of the United States is predicted to be 100 million by 2025, down from 327 million in 2017.
For Dr. Horton, this insidious decline in the American population over the next few years is likely contingent upon a successful implementation of the 5G network in the US. But this does not mean her overall message is one of doom and gloom, meant to evoke fear and hopelessness. Rather, as someone who has fought against this authority for the better part of her life, she believes that this rush to roll out 5G is a desperate attempt on the part of the global elite, the ‘criminal cartel’ as she calls it, to hold on to the power they have held since Biblical times:

I want to show what the 5G system really looks like in practice, then I want to show, you know, how the industry is actually gloating with it, they know that this is a weapon, they’re gloating, they’re jeering at us, and they’re making fun of us and then I will show you what this weapon is planned to be used for and is already being used for right now.

So what I’m talking about is not just, oh, it’s five years in the future, no, this system is killing people right now. And now, the only question is: the time lag between us ‘realizing,’ accumulating a critical mass, and shutting this system down, and arresting the criminals–whoever thought of putting this into the mange, knowing full well [the consequences]–now that time delay pretty much maps out how many people are going to die, ok?

And this crime cartel…they know what they’re doing, and their goal is to kill as many people as they possibly can, and that is because they realize that with the population growing and the Internet coming in, they cannot hold the same type of control on humanity–it is mathematically impossible to hold the same type of control on humanity–that they used to have, you know, back in the 1980s, even the 1990s and the control they had up until the 1990s was pretty much the control they had going back to Biblical times, and Babylonian times and before.

Dr. Horton reviews some of the presentations that the technical companies have put into the public domain about 5G and shows many instances where these companies seem to be mocking us at our expense, putting in plain sight, with thinly-veiled images and symbols in their drawings, their plans to roll out a weapons system that can target any individual they choose.

It is perhaps this hubris of the ruling class that will be the main cause of their downfall, as they are just helping to accelerate human awakening. For Dr. Horton, the most important thing is that those who receive her message spread it far and wide, because we are actually the ones who will determine how long the time window is before we reach a critical mass and are able to stop the operations of this criminal cartel altogether. From her own personal experience of being a Targeted Individual, her collaborations with other victims, and her research, Dr. Horton truly believes that the more quickly we awaken to these truths and take our power back, the more quickly we end the needless suffering and killing of innocent people.

The Takeaway

While some things are uncertain in these times, there can be no doubt that as a collective, humanity is beginning to awaken to what has actually been going in the world. Zbigniew Brzezinski noted this in 2008, and it was a sage warning to his global elite partners:

For the first time in human history almost all of humanity is politically activated, politically conscious and politically interactive. There are only a few pockets of humanity left in the remotest corners of the world that are not politically alert and engaged with the political turmoil and stirrings that are so widespread today around the world. The resulting global political activism is generating a surge in the quest for personal dignity, cultural respect and economic opportunity in a world painfully scarred by memories of centuries-long alien colonial or imperial domination.

As was discussed in a CE article by Claire Edwards a few days ago entitled ‘The 5G Paradox: How The 5G Control Grid Can Lead Us To Freedom,” the frantic attempts to roll out 5G networks across the globe may come to backfire on the global elite. I say may, since the involvement of awakened citizens around the world is not guaranteed. The only way that a critical mass of people powerful enough to change humanity’s trajectory can be reached will be if those of us who are in a position to do so make the effort to speak and act in ways that raise the awareness of others to the agenda and dangers of 5G.

Shepherds Heart
Secret World of Neuro-Modified Human Weaponized Biological Assassins

POSTED : CELESTE B., DATE : August 8, 2019

Article

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Zero Hedge

"You're Not Losing Your Mind... Everyone Else Is"

By Tyler Durden

August 6, 2019

Authored by Michael Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

– Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

You’re not losing your mind, everybody else is. Things are crazy and getting crazier. Something must be done. Somebody, please do something.

If paying attention to global events overwhelms and results in a combined sense of dread, concern and bewilderment, you’re not alone. It’s not simply because humans have more access to more information than ever before that you feel this way, there does appear to be a quickening in the pace of the unfolding of humanity’s latest chapter. Things are genuinely falling apart, but things are always falling apart. Likewise, things are always being built and created. Governments come and governments go, as do global empires and monetary systems. Everything is dying and being born all at once, constantly and forever. This will not change.

That said, there are periods in history when the entire paradigm you’ve been accustomed to living under changes rather abruptly and for good. A change of this nature alters the entire game on a global basis and happens perhaps once in a lifetime. The last such shift happened during World War 2 and we’re living in the next one. How big of a change this will represent in the context of human history remains unknown, but we know it’s big. Really, really big.

The most significant challenge most of us face when confronted with such a moment is to remain focused and emotionally stable during the transition. This doesn’t suggest apathy, but it does mean staying grounded and not giving in to the constant news and pundit cycle of incensed outrage and anger about every single event that unfolds. After all, it’s important to recognize that almost everything you see in the news is a symptom of something far bigger happening in the background. Namely, that the global order most of the planet has known in the post-WW2 period is coming apart at the seams. If you don’t stay focused on the big picture, you’ll be easily and hopelessly manipulated without even knowing it.

The primary shift that’s occurring is the U.S. empire has lost its ability to dictate all terms to all countries at all times. This capacity to dictate has been enforced via a two-pronged approach for decades. The prongs are global military dominance and control of the financial system.

The first is threatened by the fact we’ve already entered a world in which it’s easier to frustrate global empire than it is to maintain it. We’ve seen this manifest in numerous places over the course of the 21st century. The war in Afghanistan is an ongoing failure despite it being the longest conflict in U.S. history, and the Iraq war (based on fake news) resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands and merely strengthened Iran’s position in the region. Meanwhile, U.S. regime change plans in Syria were thwarted despite the empire’s best efforts, and Trump’s deranged crew of neocons still can’t even get rid of Maduro in Venezuela. Deny it all you want, but the geopolitical map has fundamentally changed.

Meanwhile, the financial system itself (a tremendous source of U.S. imperial power) is also fundamentally broken. The first major failure in this regard happened back on August 15, 1971 when Richard Nixon closed the gold window. Whether you believe this was a primary contributor to many of the negative trends that emerged afterwards likely depends on your personal ideology, but it’s undeniable that shortly after this event we started to see a major ramp up in the financialization of everything as well as a stagnation in median wage growth. A global buildup of financialization and fraud-based financial products played a key role in bringing us to where we are today, and also culminated in the second major failure of the global financial system in 2008.

That was the moment when serious reform and severe consequences for the criminal perpetrators of economic collapse could’ve reset the system and brought the world back to a sustainable path, but we all know that’s not what happened. Instead, the “elites” in charge of addressing the situation decided instead to temporarily prop up a broken system while ensuring they’d be the primary beneficiaries of the specific polices that supposedly “saved the economy.” In fact, nothing was saved. A dead system was put on life support while our self-proclaimed heroic elite grabbed everything not nailed down. A stealth crime spree that is ongoing to this day.

The consequences of past actions and the imminent failure of a global paradigm that’s dominated human existence for decades can no longer be delayed. They’re coming to the fore as I write this and yet all the media and most people can focus on are the symptoms of failure. Past events lead to future events and there are in fact consequences for irresponsible actions. The various things people panic about on a daily basis are typically symptoms that can be traced back to a macro system failure, but nobody wants to talk about that. It’s too big, too daunting and seemingly impossible to fix absent collapse.

Yet outrage, anger and a cry to “do something” about symptoms of a much bigger problem will only result in an even more entrenched surveillance state going forward. Focusing on symptoms is not just short-sighted and a waste of energy, but it’s also likely to lead toward more authoritarian solutions and tendencies over time. Misdiagnosing a disease can be as deadly for a civilization as it can be for an individual.

Unfortunately, we’re misdiagnosing things all over the place as we’re incessantly bombarded with myriad things to be outraged about while lacking proper context. That context is that the global paradigm we’ve been living under for decades has failed and is now entering its death throes. Such shifts are never easy, safe or rational. I don’t expect this one to be any different.

Which brings me to the main point of this piece. It’s imperative those of us who can see the bigger picture stay as focused and as humane as possible while things fall apart. It’s possible to fight for what’s right without dehumanizing other people. We must resist all efforts by the media, pundits and even those around us to suck us into the collective insanity vortex infecting people across the political spectrum. After all, if we don’t, who will?

Things falling apart is never fun or safe; it never has been. Something else will surely replace that which is going away, and the best we can do is try to ensure the world of the future builds upon the best of what came before, while discarding the destructive and unethical. It means being honest about what’s good about the current system and what’s rotten to the core. It’s not all bad, but it wasn’t the end of history either. Yes, we’re entering a period of increased turmoil on a global basis, but the future is still ours to make. Let’s make it a good one.

(You can see how the world has been prepared to accept a man who would seem to have the solutions to bring the world out of the horrendous problems it faces today.

“And the devil answered and said to the Lord, Skin for skin, all that a man has will he give as a ransom for his life.” Job 2:4)

***

The Big Wobble

A climate catastrophe that can not be stopped by human means! Russian fires now bigger than Denmark: 13 million hectares gone

August 6, 2019

Picture credit NASA Worldview

• Siberian forests, called the ‘lungs of Europe’ due to their major role in soaking up emissions, have been devastated by raging wildfires during this year’s hot summer.

• A climate catastrophe that can not be stopped by human means, Greenpeace

• Fires have transformed into an ecological disaster

A Greenpeace Russia team is documenting wildfires in the taiga forest, in the Krasnoyarsk region of Siberia.
Despite statements by Russian authorities, the intensity of forest fires in Siberia is, rather dramatically increasing.
The 4.3 million hectare fire - an area now larger than Denmark - is contributing significantly to climate change.
Since the beginning of the year, a total of 13.1 million hectares has burned.
Fires have been raging every year, but this summer's blazes have reached unprecedented size and strength.
The Siberian fires are emitting more than 166 Mt CO2 - nearly as much as 36 million cars emit per year.
Fires in Siberian forests are especially dangerous for the climate as they are the source of black carbon that settles on the Arctic ice and accelerates its melting.
"These fires should have been put out at the very beginning but were ignored due to weak policies. Now it has grown into a climate catastrophe that can not be stopped by human means," said Greenpeace Russia wildland fire expert and volunteer firefighter Anton Beneslavskiy.
"Russia should increase efforts in forest protection and provide sufficient funding for firefighting and fire prevention.
The problem of wildfires should be addressed at the international level in the global climate agreements to keep global warming below 1.5°C."
Greenpeace Russia experts warn that the situation will most likely remain catastrophic in the coming two weeks due to weather conditions.
While smoke has blown away from the major Siberian cities, it still envelops settlements in remote forest areas, according to Greenpeace Russia reports from the Krasnoyarsk region.
More than 90% of forest fires in Russia are burning in the so-called control zones, remote areas where authorities are not obliged to fight fires.
Greenpeace Russia demands a review of the control zones to prevent fire disaster from happening next year.
Many of the fires in control zones this year could have been extinguished at an early stage, which would significantly reduce the area covered by the fire, the smoke of settlements and CO2 emissions into the atmosphere.

***

RT

57 people dead, 18,000 hospitalized due to Japan’s unrelenting heatwave

Published time: 6 Aug, 2019 16:50

© Reuters / Issei Kato

Fifty-seven people have died and more than 18,000 have sought hospital treatment since July 29, when Japan was blanketed by an extreme and unrelenting heatwave. The government announced the startling figures on Tuesday, revealing that the number of people hospitalized has tripled from the previous week.

Those aged 65 and older accounted for 54 percent of the total, and of the 18,347 people that sought treatment, 729 had severe symptoms that required more than three weeks of inpatient care. Tokyo had the highest amount of people hospitalized with 1,857 patients, followed by Aichi and Saitama prefectures.

SPUTNIK

UK Cannot Use Strait of Hormuz If Iran Has No Access to Gibraltar – President Rouhani
August 6, 2019

August 6, 2019<?P>

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The United Kingdom cannot use the Strait of Hormuz as long as Iran cannot pass through the Strait of Gibraltar, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday.

"Security for security, peace for peace, strait for strait. The Strait of Hormuz cannot be opened for you [the United Kingdom] while Gibraltar is closed to us," Rouhani said during a meeting with representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Rouhani remarked that "British tankers in the past didn’t take into account our warnings considering the movement in the Persian Gulf, but now the situation is completely different."

UK-Iran tensions around the Strait of Hormuz, which accounts for up to one-third of the world’s daily sea-bound supplies from oil-rich nations of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iran, peaked this month after an incident on the other side of the continent, off the coast of Gibraltar.

On 4 July, Royal Marine commandos boarded and seized the Grace 1, a Panamanian-flagged oil tanker loaded with Iranian oil. London alleged that the ship was headed for an oil processing terminal in Syria, in violation of European Union sanctions against the war-torn country, while Iran has denied the claims.

In turn, Iran detained the UK-flagged tanker Stena Impero in the Strait of Hormuz last month for an alleged violation of shipping laws.

Following the incidents, the UK announced plans to put together a European-led coalition separate from a similar US initiative to patrol the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz in a bid to “protect” commercial vessels. Germany, France, Denmark, and Italy have reportedly backed London’s idea.

End Of The American Dream

CHINA JUST WENT NUCLEAR IN THE TRADE WAR, AND THERE IS NO TURNING BACK NOW

It looks like this trade war could be the spark that plunges the global economy into utter chaos

Michael Snyder AUGUST 6, 2019

IMAGE CREDITS: STR/AFP/GETTY IMAGES.

When will Americans start to wake up and realize what is happening?

At the end of last week, President Trump announced that the U.S. would be imposing a 10 percent tariff on 300 billion dollars worth of Chinese imports, and that marked a dramatic escalation in our trade war with China. This move by Trump came as a total shock to Chinese officials, and global financial markets were thrown into a state of turmoil. Since that announcement, we have been waiting for the other shoe to drop, because we knew that the Chinese would retaliate. But honestly, very few of the experts expected something like this. On Monday, China announced that it is going to completely stop buying U.S. agricultural products…

China confirmed reports that it was pulling out of U.S. agriculture as a weapon in the ongoing trade war.

A spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said Chinese companies have stopped purchasing U.S. agricultural products in response to President Trump’s new 10% tariffs on $300 billion of Chinese goods.

This is essentially a trade war equivalent of a nuclear bomb.

If the Chinese would have slapped U.S. agricultural products with tariffs, that would have been a proportional response. But to quit buying them entirely is an unprecedented escalation in a trade war that is really starting to spiral out of control.

And it is also clearly a political attack on President Trump. The Chinese know that Trump is highly popular in rural areas, and this ban on U.S. agricultural products is going to severely hurt farmers in rural areas all across the United States.

U.S. voters tend to be more influenced by their bank accounts than by anything else, and so this is a smart strategic move by the Chinese if they would like to see a Democrat get elected in 2020.

In 2017, the Chinese bought 19.5 billion dollars worth of U.S. agricultural products, and that number dropped to just 9.1 billion dollars in 2018.

Now that number is going to zero, and according to Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall this latest move by China is going to be “a body blow to thousands of farmers and ranchers who are already struggling to get by.”

Please say a prayer for our farmers, because they really need it.

In addition to ending purchases of U.S. agricultural products, the Chinese also allowed the value of the yuan to decline dramatically on Monday. This really rattled global financial markets, and shortly thereafter U.S. Treasury officials formally designated China as a “currency manipulator”. The following comes directly from the official website of the Treasury Department…

The Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 requires the Secretary of the Treasury to analyze the exchange rate policies of other countries. Under Section 3004 of the Act, the Secretary must “consider whether countries manipulate the rate of exchange between their currency and the United States dollar for purposes of preventing effective balance of payments adjustments or gaining unfair competitive advantage in international trade.” Secretary Mnuchin, under the auspices of President Trump, has today determined that China is a Currency Manipulator.

As a result of this determination, Secretary Mnuchin will engage with the International Monetary Fund to eliminate the unfair competitive advantage created by China’s latest actions.

This is the first time since the 1990s that the Treasury Department has used this designation on any of our trading partners, and it is the kind of move that would not be made unless all hopes for a trade deal were completely gone.

Of course the Chinese wouldn’t have made the moves that they made either if they were still holding out hope for a negotiated solution. According to one market analyst that was quoted by CNBC, the Chinese are “signalling that they have lost confidence that they can reach an agreement with Trump.”

So what this means is that in the short-term things are going to get bad for the global economy.

Really bad.

In the longer term, the structure of the entire global economic system could change dramatically, and this will especially be true if Donald Trump emerges triumphant in 2020. According to economist Neil Shearing, we could literally be looking at “the end of the world as we know it”…

Among the implications for more deterioration in the global picture that Shearing cites are the “disintegration of the rules-based system” that has governed international commerce since the end of the World War II, and a potential “Balkanization” of the world economy as the U.S. and China develop their own standards, tech platforms and payment systems.

“It’s too soon to say exactly how events will pan out, but this casts the escalation in the US-China trade war over the past year in an altogether more ominous light. We may be witnessing the end of the world as we know it,” he wrote.

It is difficult to imagine a world in which there is no trade between the United States and China, and many would argue that we would be far better off today if we had never gone down that road in the first place.

But now that our two economies are so deeply integrated, trying to decouple is going to be an exceedingly painful process.

If you are familiar with my work, than you already know that I am not a fan of the Chinese government at all. Something needed to be done about China, because they have been brazenly taking advantage of us and flouting the rules for decades.

Having said that, it is imperative that the American people understand that a messy breakup with China is going to cause an extraordinary amount of pain for us, for them and for the whole world.

It looks like this trade war could be the spark that plunges the global economy into utter chaos, and right now very few Americans seem to understand the true scope of the economic nightmare that appears to be headed our way.

Zero Hedge

Kashmir On Lockdown: India Strips Muslim-Majority Region Of Autonomy, Troops Move In

By Tyler Durden

August 5, 2019
In a dramatic escalation following a worsening crisis, which over the weekend saw intensive shelling along the Line of Control (LoC) that separates Indian-controlled and Pakistani-controlled parts of Kashmir, New Delhi has revoked the key constitutional article which gives Indian-administered Kashmir special status.

The unprecedented move signals India is willing to take greater military action in the disputed border region, which is virtually guaranteed to not only spark severe local unrest, but put India and Pakistan on a direct collision course for war. Specifically, Article 370 is legally and historically what assured a high degree autonomy for Indian administered Muslim-majority state, enshrined in the constitution, which the majority of inhabitants there see as justifying remaining part of India.

The Indian administered side of Kashmir, called Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), was granted its status in the 1950s, which included maintaining its own state constitution, as well as law making bodies, making it the most independent of all Indian states. But starting Monday this will all be revoked, following a resolution introduced on Monday by Home Minister Amit Shah and quickly put into law by President Ram Nath Kovind.

Ultimately, as the BBC reports, "the BJP [the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata, India's largest political party] has irrevocably changed Delhi's relationship with the region." Currently, there's reported to be a lockdown across J&K, with some phone and internet services reported cut. According to CNN:

Indian-controlled Kashmir was in lockdown Monday, with tens of thousands of new troops deployed into what is already one of the most militarized places in the world, as a number of prominent politicians were placed under house arrest and New Delhi announced contentious changes to the way the territory is administered.

CNN continued to described a military imposed "blackout" on the restive region, with some outraged local politicians immediately placed under house arrest:

A broad communications blackout left many people without access to the internet and phone services across the territory, with measures also in place to prevent public meetings.

The politicians under house arrest include at least two former chief ministers of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, according to CNN affiliate CNN-News18.

Pakistan was swift to condemn the drastic alteration to the status quo, saying it will "exercise all possible options" to counter it. "India is playing a dangerous game which will have serious consequences for regional peace and stability," said Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi.

Reports say Indian government sources have countered by claiming neither the Line of Control nor Kashmiri boundaries had been altered.

Going back to WWII, the nuclear armed rivals have fought two wars related to the hotly disputed region. An Indian insurgency has also been active and intensifying of late as well, which New Delhi claims is focused against Pakistan-backed Islamic militants.

***

PRESSTV

UAE withdrawing from Yemen because Abu Dhabi believes Saudi-led war is unwinnable: NYT

August 2, 2019

The aftermath of a missile attack launched by Yemeni armed forces on a Saudi-led coalition military parade in Aden, Yemen on August 1, 2019. (Photo by Reuters)

A report sheds light on the motive behind a surprise decision by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) — a key member of a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia — to pull its troops out of Yemen, saying Abu Dhabi has come to the conclusion that the war being waged on Yemen is “unwinnable.”

“In background briefings last month for Western analysts, the Emiratis said they were pulling back because the war appeared unwinnable,” the New York Times revealed on Thursday.

Abu Dhabi has publicly been saying for more than a month that they have begun a phased withdrawal of forces participating in the Saudi-led campaign against Yemen.

According to earlier reports, Abu Dhabi had previously attributed the troop withdrawal to a handful of different reasons, including domestic security concerns and support for UN-led peace efforts.

Following heightened tensions in the Persian Gulf between Iran and the United States earlier this year, Emirati officials had claimed the troop pullout had been because Abu Dhabi wanted to have forces and equipment "on hand" if needed.

Emirati officials have also at times been quoted as saying that the withdrawal of troops has been for “tactical reasons” or as being a shift towards a “peace-first” strategy.

However, last month, about the same time the NYT’s Thursday article claimed that Emirati officials had briefed Western analysts about the Saudi-led conflict appearing “unwinnable,” the newspaper had originally published a report claiming saying that the withdrawal was a “belated recognition” that the war was “no longer winnable.”

NYT didn’t attribute the observation to Abu Dhabi officials, however.

The piece, nonetheless, cited an unnamed Emirati official saying that the withdrawal was done to “support a shaky United Nations-brokered cease-fire in Hudaydah.”

The same article also said that several people briefed by the Emiratis on the matter had claimed that UAE officials had avoided announcing the withdrawal decision publicly “in part to minimize the unhappiness of the Saudis.”

However, the Emirati move has reportedly greatly upset Riyadh.

According to reports, Saudi Arabia relied greatly on Emirati forces in advancing its war in Yemen, with Abu Dhabi maintaining a fragile network of mercenaries and tribal militia to fight for the coalition.

Observers believe the tribal militia alliance may disintegrate due to a lack of Emirati oversight.

Saudi Arabia and its allies started the war on the Yemeni nation in March 2015 to reinstall former president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, who resigned from presidency and fled to Riyadh in January 2015 amid popular outcry over corruption and mismanagement of the economy.

Resistance by Yemen’s armed forces, led by the Houthi Ansarullah movement, has, however, pushed the Saudi war to a stalemate, with Yemeni forces increasingly using sophisticated weaponry in retaliatory attacks against the coalition.

***

MailOnline

Jeffrey Epstein told guards weeks before he hanged himself that someone tried to KILL HIM: Questions mount over why billionaire pedophile was taken off suicide watch just as sex slave lawsuit named powerful friends including Prince Andrew

• Jeffrey Epstein was found hanged in his prison cell at Metropolitan Correctional Center on Saturday morning

• Source who'd seen Epstein recently told DailyMail.com 'there was no indication he might try to take own life'

• Insider further claims pedophile had told prison guards and other inmates he feared someone tried to kill him

• Epstein, 66, was briefly hospitalized on July 24 after being found semi-conscious on the floor of his jail cell

• Billionaire was not on suicide watch at the time of his death, sparking outrage from top Washington figures

• AG Will Barr has ordered both the FBI and the Inspector General to open investigations into death

• Suicide comes 24 hours after court documents were unsealed implicating powerful men in sex scandals

By CHRIS SPARGO and ANDREW COURT FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

PUBLISHED: 19:30, 10 August 2019 | UPDATED: 03:40, 11 August 2019

A black bag believed to contain Epstein's body was pictured being taken out of New York Presbyterian-Lower Manhattan hospital on Saturday afternoon

Article

***

The Atlantic

The Endless, Invisible Persuasion Tactics of the Internet

Online shopping turns your brain against you, but you can fight back.

SIDNEY FUSSELL

August 2, 2019

Even the cheesiest, most cloyingly overearnest romance movies lack the pathos of the pop-up notifications you get when you cancel an online subscription. “If you leave us now, you’ll take away the biggest part of us” is a message I’d expect to receive from a spouse upon being served divorce papers. It’s actually Spotify’s farewell message, spelled out by the song titles included in the playlist it shows after users cancel their subscription. The billion-dollar company isn’t ready to say goodbye.

“Where did we go wrong?” Hulu asks in the mandatory seven-step questionnaire that appears when you try to end your subscription. Earlier versions of its cancellation process embedded an autoplaying Simpsonssupercut, edited so that Lisa, the show’s youngest speaking character, says, “Please don’t do this … Are you really, really sure?” Until last year, any users who tried to deactivate Facebook were met with photos of their friends above the caption “[Friend’s name] will miss you.”

Some sites employ other forms of guilt as a means of maintaining loyalty. When given the choice of subscribing to the Women’s Health newsletter, a user who’s not interested does not click “No,” but rather “No thanks, I don’t need to work out.” At the popular food blog Delish, to decline the newsletter offer, users must click “No thanks, I’ll have microwave dinner tonight.”

This is just one of many tactics retailers use to manipulate consumers. Dark patterns are the often unseen web-design choices that trick users into handing over more time, money, or attention than they realize. A team of Princeton researchers is cataloging these deceptive techniques, using data pulled from 11,000 shopping sites, to identify 15 ways sites subtly game our cognition to control us.

The research builds on the work of Harry Brignull, a London-based cognitive scientist who coined the term dark pattern in 2010, and the authors Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, whose work on “nudges” explores how default options influence behavior. Just over one in 10 websites contain at least one type of dark pattern, the Princeton research finds. The more popular the site, the more likely it has at least one.

The most common dark pattern is scarcity bias: Put an item in your cart, and you’ll be served a message claiming “Only eight left in stock!” thereby urging you to buy immediately before the item is gone. But by analyzing webpages’ scripts and plug-ins, the researchers found that in many cases, these numbers are either generated randomly or set to decrease according to a schedule.

This theater of numbers is also key to the second most popular dark pattern: the flash sale. Major fashion retailers often tease a sudden, temporary drop in prices, crowning a page with a banner reading “Sale ends soon!” and a countdown timer. The “urgency” creates anxiety and uncertainty, pushing us to take advantage of lower prices immediately. But again, researchers found instances when the sales continued even after the timer had expired.

It’s not just the numbers that are fake—the shoppers are, too. The third most frequent pattern, “social proof,” has to do with the pop-up messages displayed on the sidebar of some sites: “90 people have viewed this item!”; “Joanne from Florida just saved on a sweater!” The tactic harnesses the power of both bandwagon thinking (This is popular, so I should get it) and scarcity (If I don’tget it, someone else will). But after analyzing the sites, researchers again found that the pop-ups come from random number generators and selections of stock messages. You don’t have to buy the sweater if you don’t want to. Joanne isn’t real; she’s just a few lines of code, and code doesn’t wear sweaters.

I’m certainly not immune to dark patterns. My personal weakness is limited to free trials—to Audible, to Starz, to Amazon Prime. I’ve been burned enough to know better, but I’m still sure every time that I will remember to delete my account before the cutoff date and avoid being charged. Essentially, I have more confidence in my future self than in my present self. That assurance that we can outwit the dark pattern is, naturally, a dark pattern of its own.

“People have excessive faith in their own memories or their own ability to come through and do something in the future,” says Don Moore, the Lorraine Tyson Mitchell Chair in Leadership and Communication at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, who is not involved in the research. Moore studies how confidence influences economic behavior. “Consumers are often a little bit too reluctant to contest their own failings, limitations, or errors. And so we aren’t sufficiently anxious about the potential for manipulation. It’s common for people to say, ‘Oh, I meant to do that,’ when in fact they were manipulated.”

This overconfidence can actually make us more vulnerable to exploitation, because we underestimate the power of dark patterns. Returning to the example of the free trial, companies are, of course, prepared for all our future selves. The cancellation process is often far more complicated than registration, a dark pattern called obstruction. The few times I’ve remembered to end a trial, I was confronted with a lengthy multistep process, and crawled away, defeated, until I could summon the strength to spend minutes or hours wrestling with an unsympathetic user interface. Princeton’s researchers termed this the “hidden subscription” dark pattern, but it’s earned a more evocative nickname in UX circles: the roach motel. Easy to get in, nearly impossible to get out.

For his part, Moore cautions against dismissing influential design wholesale. Nudges are inescapable, but some can be beneficial. Citing Sunstein and Thaler, Moore argues that the nudge can be pro-social. Automatic voter registration for 18-year-olds, for example, is a nudge. As is automatic organ donation, or even just putting fruit in front of junk food in your refrigerator.

Pro-social nudges are having a moment right now. A helpful browserextension, Icebox, freezes webpages in the checkout stage; users can return to them after a certain amount of time has passed, if they choose to return at all. A New Yorker piece on the attention economy recommends StayFocusd, which limits time spent on any site. I use Block Site and IFTTT’s reminder system, which immediately schedules reminders a given number of days after you sign up for a free trial.

Ultimately, no space, Moore argues, is entirely absent of nudges. Search results are ranked for convenience. Cafeterias have to order their offerings somehow, and that order reveals something about what’s most convenient for them—and maybe something about how they prefer customers to act. Countering the effects of dark patterns requires more than awareness. People want to feel as though they are in control of their choices, even as they admit to being tricked.

Colin Gray is an assistant professor at Purdue University in the department of computer-graphics technology. When he surveys the public about online behavior, he says, respondents routinely blame themselves for falling prey to dark patterns.

“We ran a survey study and then followed up with a number of interviews both in the United States and in China,” he says. “And we found very similar sorts of patterns in both cultural contexts, where manipulation is part of these users’ everyday life but they don’t feel like they can do a lot about it.”

Gray has recently begun studying Reddit groups that call out exploitative design, from anti-homeless “hostile architecture” to autoplaying ads and deceptive retail spaces. In one example, a sign declares that oranges are “on sale” for only 99 cents. Remove the sign, however, and the original price is revealed: 99 cents. The “sale” is a fiction to get people to buy more. The project is still in its early days, but Gray is optimistic that in studying how people recognize, respond to, and communicate with dark patterns, we may become more aware of the endless coaxing of life online while also maintaining an internal locus of control.

“What we’re finding is really complex strands of ethical reasoning,” he says. “But I don’t see that that sort of awareness is traveling down to the general public.”

What would change if it did? Absent dark patterns, online shopping is still a tangled knot of vanity, necessity, bias, and distraction. The best we can hope for is a higher degree of awareness of our actions online and what’s influencing us. It’s unlikely that good nudges will totally overpower bad ones anytime soon, but there seems to be some progress. In the 10 years since Brignull coined the term dark patterns, new papers pointing them out in different contexts have popped up regularly; lawmakers are now taking notice, too. If we can’t opt out of influences on our behavior, maybe we can at least opt in to better influences.

***

MailOnline

'Thirsty' elephant is caught opening a tap with its trunk to drink water from a sink in Botswana camp

By SOPHIE LAW FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 21:12, 2 August 2019 | UPDATED: 23:55, 2 August 2019

An incredibly thirsty elephant was caught red-handed drinking water from a sink at a camp in Botswana.

Footage captured the cheeky animal using its long trunk to slurp water before splashing it into its mouth.

Tourists, who had been using the shower, were surprised when they discovered the large elephant blocking their exit from the bathroom.

They witnessed the clever animal twist the tap open before helping itself to plenty of drinking water.

The tourists, from South Africa, said they waited almost two hours for the elephant to leave before daring to make a move.

They said: 'A friend and I went to shower, as we were on our way out to head back to camp again, the elephant was blocking our exit at the bathroom.

They witnessed the clever animal twist the tap open before helping itself to plenty of drinking water

'We almost waited 2 hours for the elephant to finish drinking so that we could leave.

'He knew exactly how to open the tap, there are watering holes but it seems they prefer drinking from the tap'.

The clip was captured on July 8.

***

Until next week...keep on believing.
Almondtree Productions

“Do thou thoroughly know the number of thy flock, and pay attention to thine herds.”
(Proverbs 29:23)