[Rod_Cloutier]

It seems in the last several months that there has been a marked absence of news stories of substance. In the event that I've missed them, perhaps this thread could be devoted to the exposition of news items that are either missed or ignored by the mainstream media.

Even John Michael Greer has spent the last several weeks talking about gardening, vs his more interesting social and political commentary that he was providing previously. Oil prices are stable in the mid-70 dollar range, nothing new there. The banks are stable (or the bailouts continue to create the illusion of stability). Nothing new there. The economy shows signs of bottoming out, with sporatic good news here and there, although in the absence of double digit growth unemployment will remain high for a decade or more.

2010 will be remember as a year of disasters both natural and man made; the Haiti, Chile, and New Zealand earthquakes, the Iceland volcano, the floods in the horn of Africa and Pakistan. Also the human disasters, the deepwater horizion disaster, ongoing climate change, China exceeding Japan in terms of resource consumption, the Russian heatwave and others.

I can't watch the mainstream media rant along about deficits, tax cuts, this or that minor cultural issue. As if gay marriage is still going to be a issue in 10 years when food and energy are scarce and hard to come by. I feel like a rat in the cage of a sinking ship, unable to escape. I attended a sales seminar at work where a roomfull of salespeople were talking about increasing points of markup by reducing costs, thinking the whole time 'Wow are these people ever going to have a wake up call once peak oil hits home'.

All in all, business as usual has resumed. Nothing of signifigance is happening, and nothing of substance has changed. I'm waiting for 'Interesting times' to resume.

[Carlhole]

Sometimes we will have these lulls as we rocket towards the technological singularity.

[efarmer]

Big ass lulls with their own zip codes even.

[peripato]

Sometimes we will have these lulls as we rocket towards the technological singularity.

[peripato]

Big ass lulls with their own zip codes even.

You know guys I was thinking just the same thing coming back from work today; "Oh bollocks, things are just so boring at the moment, when's it all gonna finish, huh?"

[Sixstrings]

I think this a case of us all being ahead of the news curve and we finally hit a wall with how far out you can go. I'm interested to see how this money printing shell game between the Fed, Treasury, and the banks plays out. It could take 10-20 years, of course -- that's how long Japan played their QE game.

We've also just about covered all the possible topics of discussion -- seems like nothing new really happens, just the same old stuff again; oil leak here, an earthquake there, some European country releases a peak oil report but nothing we didn't already know, Greece in trouble again, will Katla erupt, "global banks will collapse by ____ date," foodstamp news, social security under attack, offshoring, immigration, the latest Obama outrage, etc. etc. etc.

So I dunno. Maybe no news is good news and we all need a break.

[Kristen]

Since you asked, the world has a 30 year supply of helium left (The gas that makes baloons float). The ironic part is in 1996 the Helium Prvatitization Act ordered all of the U.S. helium suppy to be sold by 2020.

This helium that is due to expire is used also for cooling medical equitment that screens for cancer and other diseases. Without such a coolant I imagine they would overheat and be deemed worthless. Add an aging population into the mix and you can paint an ugly picture. Although perhaps a substitute is possible.

What's more ironic (and sort of humorous) is 19 percent of the universes gas is helium or something, but not the kind we need.

[efarmer]

There is only one cure that I can see. We have to get Al Qaeda, North Korea, Washington, Nascar, the NFL, and Hollywood on Twitter and start getting more quality tweets on the news.

Osama: "Paris, how is rehab coming along you immoral apostate wretch?"

Paris: "Chill out cave boy, if it wasn't for me you wouldn't have a vicarious life, jihad wank."

Sean: "Paris, ask Osama where he's at, get me an interview, we'll pump your comeback babe."

BillyJoePlumBob: "I think I seen Osamer working the pit crew for the Total #32 car last weekend."

Barack: "Chris, do I still give you a thrill that runs up your leg?"

Chris: "No Mr. O I found out O'Reily's hack was backstage putting a taser on my lapel mic cable."

Paris: "I am going to the Cheesecake Factory guys, I only talk about food and potty on Facebook
so everyone switch from Twitter."

Vladmir: "Do Vee has Cheesecake Factory in Moscow yet?"

MitchMc: "I believe that after November the cheesecake supply will ease up in New York."

[Expatriot]

We're being managed right until the end.

To the guy with the Data icon -

It's not boring for me. It's like the silence before the tiger attack. Boring only if I can forget a Tiger is in the elephant grass. And I can't forget.

So I'm on edge, with moments of relaxation scattered in here and there.

And we'll wake up one of these days and the news will be out - whatever it is - war, FF terror, whatever.

And you'll never be bored again.

[efarmer]

The news goes dead because we handle everything with one strategy: wait until it is an immediate and dire emergency. Take a hint from hurricanes, we show spinning icons for a few days and then an idiot
with a mic stands with the roaring surf and a backdrop and gets the piss knocked out of him while he yells at the camera: "It is really coming in now! You can't see it at home folks, but my buttocks is clenched onto a 12 foot rod driven into the sand to keep me upright at this time. Back to you New York"

We wait until everything becomes an emergency, and then we pull a crisis response out of our fanny pack and see if we can't get a twofer for a corporation out of a response of some sort.

James Howard Kunstler called this scenario long ago. And then he was called a dirty Jew, and all sorts of other things for telling the truth. We don't like our emergencies belittled like that.

Don't worry, you will not be cheated out of breath taking emergencies, we wait for them and then we jump on for the exciting ride. Then we beat our gums as to what conspiracy caused the emergency, and argue about if the emergency is over until we get us a fresh one.

[Sixstrings]

There is only one cure that I can see. We have to get Al Qaeda, North Korea, Washington, Nascar, the NFL, and Hollywood on Twitter and start getting more quality tweets on the news.

I wouldn't count on quality tweets anytime soon. According to a story Drudge linked, Twitter has to devote entire servers to just "Justin Bieber" tweets.

http://www.politico.com/click/stories/1 ... fever.html

[Pops]

Wholesale milk prices are up (dairies sold their cows) so...
Feeder steers (same story) so beef's going up too...
The hot new commodity to invest in, is, wait for it...
Farmland, here and in Africa too.

Just some stuff I read lately.

What you need is a good news feed for Reader, I could spend most of the day reading blogs and news links.

I think you can find my reader links here...

[Sixstrings]

Wholesale milk prices are up (dairies sold their cows) so...
Feeder steers (same story) so beef's going up too...
The hot new commodity to invest in, is, wait for it...

Seems like commodities will be a good invest in the future. I think I read coffee is up 1/3 for the year.

[DoomersUnite]

The most important news story of the century has gone unnoticed. Petroleum production peaked, reaching its highest yearly level ever and then declined. This in spite of record high $147 oil prices and assurances from the "swing producer" Saudi Arabia, that it would pump to maintain prices at a $20-$40 level.

The "Greatest Recession" is the consequence. It is not a news story because folks would rather muddle around in the dark then face reality. So sad.

Reality currently says there is no muddling around in the dark required.

Peak oil happened years ago, and when the previously claimed consequences didn't materialize (shortages, rationing, plastic pumpkin stoppage for lack of fuel for transoceanic shipping, dieoff and what have you) new ones had to be invented on the fly. Based on the coincidental timing of the recession, it apparently won the straw poll to be blamed on peak oil when all the first order effects didn't show up.

And now....we have a dearth of stories on the topic. Perhaps frequency is a measure of relevance?

[yeahbut]

The news goes dead because we handle everything with one strategy: wait until it is an immediate and dire emergency. Take a hint from hurricanes, we show spinning icons for a few days and then an idiot
with a mic stands with the roaring surf and a backdrop and gets the piss knocked out of him while he yells at the camera: "It is really coming in now! You can't see it at home folks, but my buttocks is clenched onto a 12 foot rod driven into the sand to keep me upright at this time. Back to you New York"

That really is the stupidest, funniest trend in news I reckon. The places tv reporters send in their reports from get more ridiculous all the time, I LMAO everytime I see a half-frozen, sodden sack of misery with their hair flailing in the horizontal rain telling me that the weather is pretty bad where they are
It's only a matter of time before we have our first live primetime decapitation as a piece of roofing iron confirms that the winds are indeed quite strong today...

As for the abscence of doomy news- fine by me! It's springtime here, my tomatoes are coming along nicely, broadbeans are cranking, figs and grapes covered in delicate new leaves, peaches and apricots flush with blossom, passionfruit and raspberries have woken up and I went barefoot for the first time in nearly four months today. I look forward with keen anticipation to another slow news day tomorrow

[Rod_Cloutier]

We've also just about covered all the possible topics of discussion -- seems like nothing new really happens, just the same old stuff again; oil leak here, an earthquake there, some European country releases a peak oil report but nothing we didn't already know, Greece in trouble again, will Katla erupt, "global banks will collapse by ____ date," foodstamp news, social security under attack, offshoring, immigration, the latest Obama outrage, etc. etc. etc.

Thread bump...

Seems were in a news dearth period right now again. Nothing in the news at all. Nelson Mandela was 95 years old, who didn't see this day coming? Even the conspiracy sites are quiet; stormcloudsgathering just did a piece yesterday about the volatility of bitcoin. (Bitcoin requires a minimum investment of $100,000 to join- this is about wealth preservation for the super rich only).

I don't know that no news, is good news? Something interesting should be happening somewhere...?

[SeaGypsy]

A month or so ago the biggest strongest storm to make landfall killed thousands, made millions homeless and destitute. Radical Islam is becoming a serious menace in many parts of the world. Wars are being fought under a 'no prisoners- no mercy' approach. Every day there are blood curdling massacres going on, millions of people are enslaved. The world economy is effectively permanently on the brink. No News? Depends where you look. Our pathetic MSM is more focused on a few stupid people's butt shapes than anything of consequence.

This week we are all called to celebrate- mourn the tragic death of a 95 year old ex terrorist and ignore the estimated 68,000 murdered Afrikaners since the end of apartheid. The world has truly gone nuts.

[Pops]

The news goes dead because we handle everything with one strategy: wait until it is an immediate and dire emergency. Take a hint from hurricanes, we show spinning icons for a few days and then an idiot
with a mic stands with the roaring surf and a backdrop and gets the piss knocked out of him while he yells at the camera: "It is really coming in now! You can't see it at home folks, but my buttocks is clenched onto a 12 foot rod driven into the sand to keep me upright at this time. Back to you New York"

I miss efarmer.

As illustrated, the breathless gush of excitement gets ratings and ratings get dollars, "If it bleeds, it leads."

Anyone else use a news reader? Now that Googles' Reader is kaput I've been reading less, which is probably a good thing, lol, but I do miss it. I'm trying NetNewsWire (mac).

[Newfie]

Just this week I sent a hand written letter to my NPR affiliate telling them I was not contributing any more because their reporting had become irrelevant to the real world.

For a very long time I have used Excite (yeah, Dino)as my home page because I get text news. Not good, but better than the MSNBC ipad app.with soooo many images.

Pops, I'd like to hear some more on good news sites, if you have recommendations. I check: BBC, CSMONITOR, CBC.CA frequently. Desdemona despair too.

Actually, I kinda rely upon PO and another site to be my "early warning system" in event of a collapse event.