Apocalypse now? Mystery bird deaths NOW hit Louisiana

Hundreds of dead birds lie on a road in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, 300 miles south of Beebe, Arkansas, where thouands of blackbirds fell from the sky three days earlier. Photograph: Liz Condo/AP
Birds dropping dead from the skies and rivers flowing with tens of thousands of dead fish sounds like a cheesy Hollywood movie about the Apocalypse. Or the ravings of a Revelation-obsessed street preacher.


But residents of several US states are coping with the reality of mystery mass wildlife deaths, which have left officials scratching their heads and jumpy members of the public joking (nervously) about the end of the world.


Today it emerged that about 500 red-winged blackbirds and starlings had been found dead in Louisiana. Their tiny corpses littered a short stretch of highway near the city of Labarre after apparently falling dead from the sky.


That would be spooky enough. But the Louisiana bird die-off came just a few days after up to 5,000 blackbirds fell to earth in neighbouring Arkansas in the small town of Beebe. Residents there had reported stumbling upon the bodies littering the ground and even being hit by them as they fell. One woman said she was struck while walking a dog. Another avian corpse bounced off a police car.


In even more grim news, anglers and other members of the public reported that more than 80,000 drum fish had suddenly died in the state's Arkansas river, about 100 miles west of Beebe. The silvery bodies of the fish floated in the river and washed up on its sides having died at roughly the same time. In another incident, hundreds of miles away on the Maryland coast of Chesapeake Bay, tens of thousands of dead fish also washed up on the shore.


Not surprisingly the news has startled and alarmed local residents and wildlife lovers across the US. But officials say such mass deaths do occur naturally.


The fish deaths in Arkansas appear to have affected only one species, which suggests the cause was a sudden outbreak of a specific disease. Meanwhile, the Maryland fish die-off was blamed on extreme temperature fluctuations due to cold weather.


The birds' deaths, however, are a deeper mystery. Officials were still collecting bodies in Louisiana but have already examined those from the incident in Arkansas.


They concluded that the birds had suffered internal trauma. That could have happened if a single flock had suddenly got caught in a violent and unusual storm. Or, it has been speculated, a local fireworks display could have startled the birds so badly that they were unable to prevent themselves from flying into trees, pylons and houses.


Bird experts stressed no one should be worried. "Mass bird die-offs can be caused by starvation, storms, disease, pesticide, collision with man-made structures or human disturbance ... Initial findings indicate that these are isolated incidents that were probably caused by disturbance and disorientation," Greg Butcher, director of bird conservation at the Audubon Society, said.


Audubon officials stressed that birds as a whole faced a far greater threat from broader environmental problems than any headline-generating mass death incident. "Far more concerning in the long term are the myriad other threats birds face from widespread habitat destruction and global climate change," Melanie Driscoll, Audubon's director of bird conservation in the Mississippi river region, said.


Louisiana's state wildlife veterinarian said yesterday at least some of an estimated 450 birds that died near Baton Rouge may have flown into a power line.


Jim LaCour said that the grackles, starlings, brown-headed cowbirds and red-winged blackbirds had broken beaks and backs.

Russia-China oil pipeline opens

The first oil pipeline linking the world's biggest oil producer, Russia, and the world's biggest consumer of energy, China, has begun operating.

The pipeline, running between Siberia and the northeastern Chinese city of Daqing, will allow a rapid increase in oil exports between the two countries.

Until now, Russian oil has been transported to China by rail.

Concentrated in western Siberia, Russia's network of pipelines for oil exports has so far run towards Europe.

Russia is expected to export 15m tonnes of oil through the new pipeline each year during the next two decades - about 300,000 barrels a day.

'New phase'

The project cost $25bn ($16bn) and was partly financed by Chinese loans.

Russia overtook Saudi Arabia as the world's largest oil producer in 2009.

China surpassed the US as the world's largest consumer of energy last year.

"The operation of the China-Russia crude oil pipeline is the start of a new phase in China-Russia energy co-operation," said Yao Wei, general manager of Pipeline Branch of Petro China, as he pushed a button near the Russia-China border to start the flow of oil.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said in the past that the pipeline would help Russia diversify its exports.

A second stage of construction on the pipeline is due to be finished by 2014. It will then span a distance of about 4,700 kms (2,900 miles).

The United States Must Stop Resisting The Orderly Decline Of The Dollar, The Coming Global Currency And The New World Order

George Soros 

In the video you are about to see, George Soros talks about "the creation of a New World Order", he discusses the need for a "managed decline" of the U.S. dollar and he talks at length of the global need for a true world currency. So just who is George Soros? Well, he is a billionaire "philanthropist" who came to be known as "the Man Who Broke the Bank of England" when he raked in a staggering one billion dollars during the 1992 "Black Wednesday" currency crisis. These days Soros is most famous for being perhaps the most "politically active" (at least openly) billionaire in the world. His Open Society Institute is in more than 60 countries and it spends approximately $600 million a year promoting the ideals that Soros wants promoted. Soros and his pet organizations have played a key role in quite a few "revolutions" around the globe over the last several decades, but these days the main goal of George Soros is to bring political change to the United States.

So exactly what is it that George Soros is trying to accomplish? Well, in a nutshell, what he wants is a Big Brother-style one world government based on extreme European-style socialism, strict population control and the radical green agenda. It would be a world where the state tightly regulates everything that we do for the greater benefit of the environment and of society as a whole.

However, Soros is not the "mastermind of the New World Order" that some have tried to make him out to be.  The truth is that to those in the international banking elite, Soros is considered to be something of a "black sheep" and an "outsider".  Much of what Soros is trying to accomplish lines up with the goals of the international banking elite, but what they don't like is that Soros won't stop publicly talking about a global currency and a "New World Order".  Of course the international banking elite very much want a global currency and a "New World Order", but what they don't need is a "squeaky wheel" like Soros running around drawing unneeded attention to those goals.

Also, Soros does not seem to understand that both sides of the political spectrum in the United States are deeply influenced by the international banking elite.  Sadly, the truth is that the same handful of elitist organizations has dominated the cabinets of every single president that we have had since World War II.  If you doubt this, just check out how many members of each presidential administration over the last 40 years have belonged to either the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission or the Bilderberg Group.  If you have never looked into this before, you will be absolutely shocked.  No matter what president we elect, it is always the exact same organizations that always dominate their cabinets.

But Soros still seems very much trapped within the left/right paradigm and he seems absolutely obsessed with destroying the Republican Party.  For example, Soros spent an insane amount of money attempting to defeat George W. Bush back in 2004.  According to the Center for Responsive Politics, George Soros donated $23,581,000 during that election cycle to political organizations that were trying to keep Bush from being reelected.

Soros has also been a tremendous backer of Barack Obama, although lately Soros seems a bit disenchanted with him.  Through organizations such as the Center for American Progress and MoveOn.org, Soros is constantly trying to influence the state of American politics.

So what is George Soros thinking about these days?  Well, in the video posted below you will see Soros discussing "an orderly decline" of the U.S. dollar, the coming global currency and the importance of the New World Order....

Did you noticed how uncomfortable Soros was when he was saying the term "New World Order"?

The truth is that he knows exactly what that phrase means.  He knows that it is a phrase that he probably shouldn't say and that will get a lot of attention.

But he said it anyway.

Soros also seemed a bit uncomfortable as he discussed "an orderly decline" of the U.S. dollar.

Soros has been saying the the U.S. dollar needs to go down for quite a while now, and he speaks of the coming fall of the dollar as if it is inevitable.

The only thing that Soros seems to fear is that the "managed decline" of the dollar could "get out of hand" and could lead to global financial chaos.

Soros even had the gall to say that having the dollar be the reserve currency of the world is not in our national interest and that a move to a global currency is "a healthy, if painful, adjustment" that we are just going to have to endure for the greater good of the world economy.

But shouldn't the American people have something to say about all of this?

Perhaps the American people do not want a "managed decline" of the U.S. dollar.

Perhaps the American people do not want any part of a new "global currency".

Perhaps the American people do not want any part of a "New World Order".

But to men like George Soros, it doesn't really matter what "the little people" think.  In the world that Soros lives in, those with overwhelming amounts of money and power know what is best for the rest of us, and if "the little people" don't seem to want to go along initially then public opinion can be bought if you just spend enough money.

The sad truth is that we already live in a global economy.  Just go into just about any store across the United States and start picking up products to see where they were made.  Very few of the things we buy are still made in the United States.

Today, labor is a global commodity.  American workers must now directly compete for jobs with those making slave labor wages in China and India.  The fact that millions of U.S. jobs are being offshored and outsourced does not bother advocates of globalism at all because it is supposedly a beneficial thing for the overall global economy.

And most Americans have little to no idea just how much influence international organizations such as the United Nations, the World Bank, the IMF and the WTO have over our daily lives.

The truth is that we already live in a world that has been deeply, deeply integrated.  As this continues, at some point it will only seem "natural" for America to agree to a true global currency and full global political integration.

Let us hope that day never arrives.  Or at least let us hope that the American people wake up enough to not just go passively into a "New World Order".

A global economy is bad for America and a global government would be really bad for America.

But perhaps you disagree.  Perhaps you believe that integrating our economy, our currency and our government with the rest of the world would be a wonderful thing.  If that is the case, please feel free to leave a comment explaining exactly why globalism is such a wonderful thing for all of us....

Thousands of birds fall from the sky in Beebe

Just before folks in Beebe rang in the New Year, many witnessed an uncanny resemblance to the Hitchcock movie "The Birds." About 2,000 black birds fell from the sky off Windwood Drive, leaving quite the mess to clean up.

Folks Today's THV spoke with initially thought the birds were poisoned because they are what they call a nuisance around this time every year, but they are surprised to hear it is more of a mystery.

Stephen Bryant recalls, "Millions, millions fly over every night. You look up at the sky and it's just black and then last night at about 10:30 I came out here and saw a bird drop."

In a matter of hours on New Years Eve thousands of birds fell from the sky to their death.

Melissa Weatherly says, "I immediately called mom because I had to go to work, I said you have to come get the kids and get the dog because I don't know what's going on." She continues, "It was horrible; you could not even get down the road without running over hundreds. It was that bad."

The mystery is unraveling like scenes from a movie, dozens of U.S. Environmental Services crews spent the day picking up the birds, walking between homes and climbing on roofs with protective hazmat suits and breathing masks,.

Charles Boldrey stands outside watching the crews, "Nobody knows, I asked these guys who are out here picking them up and they don't seem to know anything. Nobody seems to know anything. It just kind of freaked everybody out."

Officials with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission flew over the area and determined it's a one mile stretch. There are a variety of dead black birds, mostly red winged and a duck was also found.

No one has been evacuated because the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) air test came back clean for toxins.

Weatherly is skeptical, "They're walking around in masks and I'm wondering do we need the same thing because what makes that happen for them to drop out of the sky like that."

Katherina Yancy with Today's THV found one bird still living. It was confused, injured, continuously walked in circles and didn't make a sound or attempt to fly.

Officials will confirm their findings when they get the test results, until then they are giving these possible scenarios: lightning, stress, high altitude hail or startled by fireworks, but neighbors just want answers.

Bryant says, "Something out of a movie and Hazmat people are walking around not telling us anything."

Boldrey adds, "I'd like to know. Kind of spooky, you never know what's going to happen."

The birds should be cleaned up by Sunday. Game and Fish Commission's Karen Rowe says poisoning doesn't appear to be the case and strange events similar to this have occurred across the globe a number of times.

The City of Beebe held an emergency city council meeting Saturday morning to approve paying the U.S. Environmental Services to clean the neighborhood.

Sixty-five dead birds have been sent to off for testing.

Arkansas Game and Fish Press Release:

BEEBE, Ark.-- Friday night, ringing in the New Year took on a whole different meaning for the citizens of Beebe. Around 11:30 p.m., enforcement officers with Arkansas Game and Fish Commission began getting reports of dead black birds falling from the sky in the city limits of Beebe.

Officers estimated that over 1,000 birds had fallen out of the sky over the city before midnight. Most of the birds were dead, but some were still alive when officers arrived. The blackbirds fell over a one-mile area in the city. AGFC wildlife officer Robby King responded to the reports and found hundreds of birds. "Shortly after I arrived there were still birds falling from the sky," King said. King collected about 65 dead birds that will be sent to the Arkansas Livestock and Poultry Commission lab and the National Wildlife Health Center lab in Madison, Wis.

The AGFC has flown over the area to gauge the scope of the event. There were no other birds found outside of the initial area.

AGFC ornithologist Karen Rowe said that strange events similar to this one have occurred a number of times across the globe. "Test results usually were inconclusive, but the birds showed physical trauma and that the flock could have been hit by lightning or high-altitude hail," Rowe said.

Another scenario may have been that New Year's Eve revelers shooting off fireworks in the area may have startled the birds from their roost. The birds may have died from stress.

Rowe said that it didn't appear as though the birds died of any poisoning or other event. "Since it only involved a flock of blackbirds and only involved them falling out of the sky it is unlikely they were poisoned, but a necropsy is the only way to determine if the birds died from trauma or toxin," she said. Testing will begin on Monday.

The City of Beebe has hired U.S. Environmental Services to begin the cleanup and dispose of the dead birds. The environmental firm will go door-to-door to pick up the birds that are still in yards and on roof tops.