Monday, September 5, 2016
‘Optimism bias’ explains why people remain in denial about the coming collapse
(NaturalNews) Research published in the journal Nature reveals that most humans have what’s called a “pervasive optimism bias.” In other words, most of us are naturally (and arguably illogically) optimistic about things in life. This is in spite of the fact that the evidence suggests otherwise.
For example, roughly 40 to 50 percent of married couples living in the United States will get divorced. However, most people remain optimistic that they will not become just another statistic, although the facts suggest we should all at least be concerned about it.
For example, roughly 40 to 50 percent of married couples living in the United States will get divorced. However, most people remain optimistic that they will not become just another statistic, although the facts suggest we should all at least be concerned about it.
“Humans expect positive events in the future even when there is no evidence to support such expectations,” the study found. People also have the tendency to believe that they will live longer and be healthier than the average person. They “overestimate their prospects for success on the job market,” as well.
Do our brains naturally project unrealistic optimism?
This sort of thinking of course helps explain people’s reluctance to prepare for a catastrophic event, whether that be a natural disaster or an economic collapse.
There are various signs telling us that either of these scenarios is plausible, yet the general public (for the most part) refuses to prepare for the possibility of a cataclysmic event.
Attempting to understand how and why our brains appear to have this built-in sort of optimism, researchers examined how exactly our minds generate pervasive optimism.
The optimism bias is “related specifically to enhanced activation in the amygdala and in the rostral anterior cingulate cortex when imagining positive future events relative to negative ones,” said researchers.
Human emotions and personal experiences may impact positive perceptions, say scientists
This suggests “a key role for areas involved in monitoring emotional salience in mediating the optimism bias.”
Interestingly, they found that these areas of the brain are the same regions that exhibit “irregularities in depression,” which scientists say is related to pessimism.
“Across individuals, activity in the rostral anterior cingulate cortex was correlated with trait optimism,” the study found. Scientists theorize that the “brain may generate the tendency to engage in the projection of positive future events.”
Furthermore, our emotional well-being combined with information about our own experiences supports a positive outlook on life in healthy people, creating a pervasive bias, explain researchers.
Is pervasive optimism a positive or a negative?
It’s difficult to say whether optimism bias in humans is positive or negative. On the one hand, it seems as though positive thinking would allow us to endure difficult times; there’s certainly something refreshing about always seeing the good in things.
But on the other hand, it could lead us into dangerous situations that might have been prevented if we had looked at things more critically.
Either way, more research is needed to better understand the purpose of this tool, as well as to determine whether it’s a gift or a hindrance.
Credit to Common Sense
Did Physicists Just Find Evidence That “Entanglement” Instantly Gives Rise To “The Path Of The Immortals”?
Quantum entanglement is one of the more bizarre theories to come out of the study of quantum mechanics – so strange, in fact, that Albert Einstein famously referred to it as “spooky action at a distance.” Essentially, entanglement involves two particles, each occupying multiple states at once – a condition referred to as superposition.
For example, both particles may simultaneously spin clockwise and counterclockwise. But neither has a definite state until one is measured, causing the other particle to instantly assume a corresponding state.
The resulting correlations between the particles are preserved, even if they reside on opposite ends of the universe. But what enables particles to communicate instantaneously – and seemingly faster than the speed of light – over such vast distances? Earlier this year, physicists proposed an answer in the form of “wormholes,” or gravitational tunnels.
The group showed that by creating two entangled black holes, then pulling them apart, they formed a wormhole – essentially a “shortcut” through the universe – connecting the distant black holes.
Credit to Skywatchtv.com
The Arch Of Triumph Is Going Up In New York City On September 19th
Do you remember all of the buzz about the arch from the Temple of Baal that was supposed to go up in Times Square back in April? Well, that project was ultimately canceled, but now it has been resurrected in a new form. In April a reproduction of a different arch, the Arch of Triumph, was erected in Trafalgar Square in London, and now another reproduction of that famous arch will be going up in New York City on September 19th. This particular arch is not the same one that once stood directly in front of the Temple of Baal in Syria. Rather, the Arch of Triumph was constructed at a later date by the Romans, and it served to link the main street of the Colonnade with the Temple. So there is still definitely a connection with the Temple of Baal, but it is not as direct as had originally been envisioned.
The organization behind this effort is the Institute for Digital Archaeology. They are extremely excited to be bringing this project to New York next month as you can see from this excerpt which comes from their official website…
There are few cities in the world as much defined by their architecture as New York. The Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge — all symbols of the audacity, strength, technical prowess, diversity and optimism of what Ezra Pound called “the most beautiful city in the world.” It is also a city that has known terrible loss — first and foremost the loss of life, but also the loss of familiar landmarks that helped inform the city’s identity. The Triumphal Arch, a symbol of resilience in the face of loss, will be a fitting tribute to America’s great metropolis. The arch will stand in Manhattan, surrounded by buildings adorned with classical features suggesting the common cultural roots of East and West. We hope that you will visit us this fall to consider the relationship between people and the places they inhabit.
Their website also features a public letter from their executive director which confirms that September 19th is the date when this arch will go up. You can read the public letter for yourself right here…
So we have it directly from the source that September 19th is the official date when the arch will be unveiled.
I find it very interesting that one of the reasons why New York was picked was to remind visitors of “the indomitable human capacity to rebuild what has been lost.” Of course that is a reference to 9/11, and in his book The Harbinger, Jonathan Cahn has pointed out all of the parallels between America’s bold pronouncements to rebuild in the aftermath of 9/11 and Israel’s defiant statements as recorded in Isaiah 9:10…
“The bricks are fallen down,
but we will build with hewn stones;
the sycamores are cut down,
but we will replace them with cedars.”
When a reproduction of the Arch of Triumph was put up in Trafalgar Square back in April, it was also described by a major British news source as “an act of defiance”…
A monumental recreation of the destroyed Arch of Triumph in Palmyra, Syria, has been unveiled in London’s Trafalgar Square.The 1,800-year-old arch was destroyed by Islamic State militants last October and the 6-metre (20ft) model, made in Italy from Egyptian marble, is intended as an act of defiance: to show that restoration of the ancient site is possible if the will is there.
Many people have never heard of the Arch of Triumph, but it is actually a UNESCO World Heritage site. The following is some basic information about it from Wikipedia…
The Monumental Arch, also called the Arch of Triumph(Arabic: قوس النصر) or the Arch of Septimius Severus, was a Roman ornamental archway in Palmyra, Syria. It was built in the 3rd century during the reign of emperor Septimius Severus. Its ruins later became one of the main attractions of Palmyra, until it was destroyed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in October 2015. Most of its stonework still survives and there are plans to rebuild it using anastylosis.
I want to stress that this is not the same arch that once stood directly in front of the Temple of Baal in Palmyra. But according to Wikipedia it did connect the Temple of Baal with “the main street of the Colonnade”…
The Monumental Arch was built sometime during the reign of emperor Septimius Severus, which lasted from 193 to 211 AD; it linked the main street of the Colonnade and the Temple of Bel.[1] The arch was meant to integrate the southern and central parts of the Colonnade as its location marks a change of 30° in the orientation of the street.[2]According to some sources, the structure was built as a triumphal arch to commemorate the Romans’ victories over the Parthians.
Once again, I think that there is something important that I need to point out. The Romans constructed this arch after a victory over Parthia, and in his extraordinary book on the Parthians Stephen M. Collins has shown that the Parthian Empire was largely made up of people that came from the northern tribes of Israel. So the original purpose of this arch was to celebrate victory over Israel.
Is that really something that we want to put up in New York?
And even though this arch did not stand directly in front of the Temple of Baal in Syria, it was part of the overall complex. In a previous article, I pointed out the similarities between the child sacrifice that would be done to honor Baal in ancient times and what is taking place in America today. This is what Jeremiah 10:4-6 says…
4 Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents;5 They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind:6 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter.
Needless to say, we have killed far more of our own sons and daughters than the Baal worshippers of the ancient world ever did. Since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, more than 58 million children have been murdered in this country.
Another parallel between ancient Baal worship and what is going on in America today is the public exhibition of sexual acts. While sacrifices to Baal were being conducted, there would be wild bisexual orgies around the altars, and often large numbers of people would gather to watch. Just yesterday, I wrote about the crazy sexual orgies that are going on at Burning Man right now, and we have become a nation that is absolutely addicted with watching other people have sex. According to one study that is regularly quoted by Charisma News, an astounding 68 percent of all Christian men watch pornography on a regular basis.
So it somehow seems appropriate that this arch is going up in the heart of our most important city. We have so much in common with the ancient pagan world, and so it makes sense that we would want to celebrate their culture.
Unless something dramatically changes at the last minute, this arch is going to be put up in New York City on September 19th.
Unfortunately, most New Yorkers are not going to have any idea what the real story behind this arch really is.
Credit to Endofthe Americandream.com
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/confirmed-the-arch-of-triumph-is-going-up-in-new-york-city-on-september-19th
Is Putin planning for nuclear war? Russian leader has invested in top-secret reinforced bunkers across Moscow
Russian leader Vladimir Putin has invested in top-secret reinforced bunkers across Moscow, according to reports.
It has been claimed the Russian hardman has invested heavily in the structures around the capital city in the event of war with the West.
In reports that first emerged last month Russia began building 'dozens' of underground bunkers across the country several years ago, according to US officials
Russia is getting ready for a big war which they assume will go nuclear, with them launching the first attacks,' Mark Schneider, a former Pentagon nuclear policy official told the Washington Free Beacon. 'We are not serious about preparing for a big war, much less a nuclear war.'
Few details about the new nuclear bunkers have been released, but Russian state-run media says they are being built in Moscow as part of a new national security strategy.
Russia has also constructed a large-scale bunker near Mount Yamantau in the Urals.
The relationship between the West and Russia has soured in recent years since the annexation of Crimea and the ongoing conflict in Syria.
Tensions have also been raised at NATO drills in the Baltic states in eastern Europe.
It has been claimed the Russian hardman has invested heavily in the structures around the capital city (pictured) in the event of war with the West
In reports that first emerged last month Russia began building 'dozens' of underground bunkers across the country several years ago, according to US officials
A US-led exercise in June involved around 6,000 troops, 50 ships, 60 aircraft and one submarine.
Earlier this year reports emerged of Russia preparing to test a nuclear missile which is so advanced it could get past NATO defences and decimate a large slice of Europe within seconds of launching.
The RS-28 Sarmat missile, dubbed Satan 2, has a top speed of seven kilometres (4.3 miles) per second and has been designed to outfox anti-missile shield systems.
The Sarmat missile could deliver a warhead of 40 megatons - 2,000 times as powerful as the atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
Zvezda reported the missile could destroy an area the size of France or Texas.
The Sarmat missile could deliver a warhead of 40 megatons - 2,000 times as powerful as the atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 (pictured)
It is expected to have a range of 10,000 km (6,213 miles), which would allow Moscow to attack London and other European cities as well as reaching cities on America's west and east coasts.
Dr Loren Thompson, a top defence expert from the US think-tank Lexington Institute, told The National Interest: 'The possibility of nuclear war between America and Russia not only still exists, but is probably growing.
'And the place where it is most likely to begin is in a future military confrontation over three small Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
'History may one day record that the greatest strategic blunder in history was the failure of U.S. leaders to take the possibility of nuclear war between America and Russia seriously once the Cold War ended.'
Credit to Dailymail.com
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3773491/Is-Putin-planning-nuclear-war-Russian-leader-invested-secret-reinforced-bunkers-Moscow-say-experts.html#ixzz4JK0hl6lZ
Central Banker 'Experimentation' Has "Created Conditions For The Mother Of All Crises"
It is the silver and gold lining of the dismal and imploding economy.
The longer that central banks force negative interest rates – and wipe out the value of savings, pensions, and insurance accounts by denying them return on investment – the more attractive gold and other commodities become as a safe haven for maintaining flexibility.
Moreover, the closer the system comes to unraveling altogether, gold and silver remain attractive as a means of holding onto money with ready, liquid exchange value.
If hyperinflation were to make the dollar virtually worthless overnight, or if cash controls were imposed to limit people to a paltry daily allowance from ATMs and prevent bank runs, physical commodities can still be used.
Financial analyst John Rubino, of DollarCollapse.com discusses the importance of physical holdings in this interview with Greg Hunter of USAWatchdog.com:
via Greg Hunter:
John Rubino, who was a former Wall Street analyst, says negative interest rates will be good for gold and silver. Rubino explains, “It used to be that if you were going to buy gold and store it in a vault, you would have to pay maybe 1% a year. You wouldn’t generate any cash flow from it.Meanwhile, a portfolio of Treasury bonds might yield you 6% a year. So, there was a big gap in cash flow between financial assets and real assets. That’s gone now in a world of negative interest rates. It actually costs you money to own Japanese or German bonds, whereas gold is still what it always was. It sits there and retains its value while your bond portfolio actually loses value. You pay rather than receive interest.So, this is a phenomenally good environment for precious metals, and that ought to play out over time. In other words, money ought to flow into those sectors, gold and silver, as the next few years progress. They are tiny little sectors compared to financial assets, in general. If just 1% of investable assets flowed into precious metals, it would send them through the roof. There is so much more paper out there than gold and silver.”
While the system flirts with total disaster, there is actually opportunity for gold and other commodities. Storage fees are now cheap compared with the loss of funds that negative rates are costing financial market investors.
John Rubino sums it up this way:
“The money bubble is basically the big bubble, the one from which all other bubbles have come and gone. And the money bubble is about money, and government debt and financial instruments in general. It’s a global bubble that’s bigger than anyone before it, and that’s part of the reason that it has gone on so long, because everybody is participating; every central bank is armed with an unlimited printing press and it allows them to fool people by manipulating interest rates and lately buying equities and unlimited numbers of bonds. And that fools people into thinking the world is basically normal, when it’s not normal because debt is soaring, and financial leverage in every other aspect is going through the roof.”“We’re creating conditions, really, for the mother of all crises. It has taken longer than it seemed a few years ago, but it is starting to happen. The QE programs of the last few years, which were wildly experimental and really shocking to economists and everyone else, turned out not to work…. The system is either getting ready to breakdown shortly, or to go on to a new level of experiments that are going to be even more dangerous and set the stage for an even bigger crisis in the future. So that’s the question, when does this blow up? Either way, the current system is toast.The investment thesis of getting into precious metals and other real assets, rather than financial assets, stands. And it’s going to work eventually.”
While huge tectonic movements are in fateful action, and central banks are printing us into a nightmare, individuals can hold relatively steady by simply being prepared, and taking advantage of the foresight they have gained by paying attention.
Prepare enough food, supplies, medical equipment and self-defense measures to ensure your physical survival, and consider commodities and alternate currencies in that strategy.
Consider how much you want to hedge in precious metals, and how you plan to store it, and access it in the event of a collapse or other crisis. Small units may be more tradable; silver holds that advantage, but will take up more space, and is a heavier currency to carry.
The future of currency and central banks is uncertain at best, and likely yields an eventual precipice from which we cannot return, but which we can easily fall over into the abyss. Stay vigilant!
Credit to Zero Hedge
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