Robert Bast

NASA Data: 2012 Solar Superstorm Really Happened

I have long speculated that one of the two possible purposes of the ancient Mayan Long Count calendar was the prediction of a massive solar storm.

(the other was the return of a long period comet)

Basically, by noting the occurrences of auroras at low latitudes, future solar superstorms may have been predicted. This is complicated by the Sun rotating, meaning most superstorms would miss us. Even so, the discovery of a pattern could be discovered just from the auroras – it just means that most of the predictions would fail to be proven until now.

Like many things associated with the 2012 meme, this is a big if. However, it is conceivable that a destructive solar storm was predicted by the Maya for 2012. And it actually happened!

We haven’t had the technology for spotting solar storms not aimed at us for long. But the first one we have been aware of since the Carrington Event happened to be in the year 2012. It was bad enough to wipe out electricity grids globally:

Earth dodged a huge magnetic bullet from the sun on July 23, 2012.

According to University of California, Berkeley, and Chinese researchers, a rapid succession of coronal mass ejections — the most intense eruptions on the sun — sent a pulse of magnetized plasma barreling into space and through Earth’s orbit. Had the eruption come nine days earlier, it would have hit Earth, potentially wreaking havoc with the electrical grid, disabling satellites and GPS, and disrupting our increasingly electronic lives.

…”The authors believe this extreme event was due to the interaction of two CMEs separated by only 10 to 15 minutes,” said Joe Gurman, the project scientist for STEREO at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

The STEREO spacecraft were launched in 2006. There is no statistically relevant way of interpreting the timing of the two Carrington-level storms so far observed. But a layman could see it this way:

After 6 years, one such event was observed
The last event that struck earth was roughly 150 years ago
That equals 25 events every 150 years, with one aimed at us

I don’t know how wide these storms are. But it feels like we will suffer a direct hit before too long. The Carrington Event was not a one-off. They happen on a regular basis, and in due course we will be in the firing line.

Prepare.

NASA (funded study) predicts doomsday!

I’m generally a debunker, and what I can’t debunk I tend to be outspoken about. This one is easy to debunk, but I still am very wary of the end-of-world-as-we-know-it.

Here’s the lead paragraph of an article that has appeared in newspapers around the globe today:

Modern civilisation is heading for collapse within a matter of decades because of growing economic instability and pressure on the planet’s resources, according to a scientific study funded by Nasa.

I find it bizarre that every newspaper copied it as Nasa, when the organisation is properly known as NASA, something many young children could point out. No need to check something if it was published elsewhere, I guess. Lazy!

The source is a blog post on the Guardian website, as opposed to an article published in their newspaper – so perhaps that is why it escaped the Guardian editors, even though it ended up in print elsewhere.

Anyway, about the story itself…

Sponsored by Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Center – why? Nothing to do with space!

Noting that warnings of ‘collapse’ are often seen to be fringe or controversial, the study attempts to make sense of compelling historical data showing that “the process of rise-and-collapse is actually a recurrent cycle found throughout history.” “The fall of the Roman Empire, and the equally (if not more) advanced Han, Mauryan, and Gupta Empires, as well as so many advanced Mesopotamian Empires, are all testimony to the fact that advanced, sophisticated, complex, and creative civilizations can be both fragile and impermanent.” – that would be a pre-technological history in which the poor and down-trodden had no idea what was happening until the situation became untenable. And presumably the wealthy were unaware or dismissive of the plights of the poor. Neither are applicable today.

Oh yeah, and no mention of any connection between those historical collapses and economic resources or planetary resources.

The two key solutions are to reduce economic inequality so as to ensure fairer distribution of resources, and to dramatically reduce resource consumption by relying on less intensive renewable resources and reducing population growth:

“Collapse can be avoided and population can reach equilibrium if the per capita rate of depletion of nature is reduced to a sustainable level, and if resources are distributed in a reasonably equitable fashion.” – Neither of these will occur. Natural resources will be used more, and the elite will get richer. But that doesn’t necessarily mean doomsday. In all the previous empirical collapses, economies were based solely on natural resources. Today the situation is much different and more complicated. Results are exponentially harder to predict.

——-

To put things in perspective, this is the opinion of a mostly anonymous group who have a presumed priority of getting doctorates or whatever. The head of this study is Safa Motesharri, a graduate student in applied mathematics – so you have to wonder who the rest are… He/she is not a doctor or professor, and there is no mention of social or historical studies. The collapse of civilisations is a multi-disciplinary study, and I would suggest not to be tackled by mathematicians.

One of the cited collapses is that of the Maurya empire. The relevant Wikipedia article makes it clear that the possible reasons for the collapse are many, and none are related to our modern situations. Same goes for the collapse of the Gupta empire.

There are many ways our societies can collapse, and I urge people to prepare for the worst. But the idea that the 1% will use up resources needed by the 99% doesn’t make much sense. There is a limit to how much rice someone can eat, and how many miles they can drive.

Great Explanation of the 4th Dimension

DIY Bio-Hazards Coming Soon!

Welcome to the future.

It isn’t too surprising to learn that scientists have sequenced the DNA of polio, the 1918 flu virus and more recently the “type H” botulinum toxin. And then created synthetic versions of them. Rightly so they are keeping that last one under lock and key because:

It is the most deadly substance ever discovered: 2 billionths of a gram is enough to kill one person. One reason it’s been published is because DNA synthesisers, machines that can take lines of DNA and turn it into molecules, are also surprisingly easy to get hold of. You can buy one for a few thousand dollars on eBay. With DNA code and a synthesiser, you too may be able to make some DNA of your own. [via The Telegraph]

Generally speaking, when science works out how to something, it tends to be done – from nuclear bombs to particle accelerators – regardless of the inherent risks. While I have no doubt that American scientists will do the right thing, it won’t be long before such information and technology falls into the wrong hands. Terrorists and/or governments will be able to create a lot of havoc cheaply and undetected. Sounds like it will become as easy as making a bunch of counterfeit Lego blocks.

This is another example of why being away from large crowds or populations is safest. The chances of a toxic substance being deliberately released where I live (near a small town in rural Australia) are slim to none.

Giant Underwater Pyramids Hoax

I usually just ignore this types of stories – the ones that tell of amazing discoveries which have no legitimate source (like a real newspaper or academic journal). However, this time Graham Hancock was asked about a story so many times he felt compelled to write a Facebook post concerning it:

HOAX WARNING re stories about “giant underwater pyramids made of thick glass found in the center of the Bermuda triangle.” I can’t even count how many good well intentioned people have written to me in recent days asking if stories like this one (http://www.utaot.com/2012/09/27/two-giant-underwater-pyramids-made-of-thick-glass-found-in-the-center-of-the-bermuda-triangle/) are true. These stories are NOT true! “Meyer Verlag”, the name of the alleged “oceanographer” in the story linked above means Meyer Publishing House in German; in some other stories (quite a few are going around) he’s referred to as Verlag Meyer — i.e. Publishing House Meyer. This is an obvious hoax that has been in circulation since at least 2012 if not before with no resolution. I don’t understand why people put crap like this about but I’m concerned that the effect will be to harm the work of genuine alternative historical researchers.

More at his Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Author.GrahamHancock

Orang Pendek – Beast Man of Sumatra

I think there is a lot to still be discovered in and around Indonesia. This where we can find the Komodo Dragon, where we have found the “hobbit” hominids, where you can see a step pyramid that is eerily similar to those of the Americas (Candi Sukuh), and where perhaps another cousin of humankind still exists!

I hadn’t heard of the Orang Pendek until I saw a show on National Geographic channel called Beast Man. The reason these hominids are not accepted by modern science is down to a lack of evidence – which means witness testimony is about all we can go on. Ordinarily I wouldn’t give much credence to eye-witness accounts because that would place these creatures in the same category as the Loch Ness monster and space aliens. Not particularly probable.

In this documentary the two key witnesses were of high enough quality to pay attention. Both are experts in the cryptozoology field, and both have devoted years of their life to proving the existence of the Orang Pendek – because they have encountered them in person.

Orang Pendek (Indonesian for “short person”) is the most common name given to a cryptid, or cryptozoological animal, that reportedly inhabits remote, mountainous forests on the island of Sumatra.

The animal has allegedly been seen and documented for at least one hundred years by forest tribes, local villagers, Dutch colonists and Western scientists and travellers. Consensus among witnesses is that the animal is a ground-dwelling, bipedal primate that is covered in short fur and stands between 80 and 150 cm (30 and 60 in) tall.

…From 2001 to 2003, scientists analyzed hairs and casts of a foot print found by three British men—Adam Davies, Andrew Sanderson and Keith Townley—while traveling in Kerinci. Dr. David Chivers, a primate biologist from the University of Cambridge, compared the cast with those from other known primates and local animals and stated:

…the cast of the footprint taken was definitely an ape with a unique blend of features from gibbon, orangutan, chimpanzee, and human. From further examination the print did not match any known primate species and I can conclude that this points towards there being a large unknown primate in the forests of Sumatra.

[Wikipedia]

Debbie Martyr has been in Sumatra for 15 years, and it appears she has remained there to prove the existence of the Orang Pendek. However she has also discovered a species of deer that was thought to be extinct, so she certainly isn’t some publicity-seeking weirdo. And she is the team leader for a project to save the Sumatran tiger for the wonderful Fauna and Flora International.

Jeremy Holden is a professional wildlife photographer who has found proof of other species in Asia that were not known to currently exist. For example, he has recently photographed the Myanmar snub-nosed monkey. Watch him describe seeing the Orang Pendek here.

From watching their interviews (and noting that they are professional conservationists), I feel convinced that they are believable when they say they have each witnessed the mysterious Sumatran primate.

We have:

a general location where other branches of the human species have existed in relatively recent times
historical sightings
recent sightings by experts, and a footprint that seems like good evidence
jungle that makes their elusiveness very believable

I am quite confident that this species will be confirmed in due course. I do, however, hate to think what would then happen to it 🙁

In the long-term I expect that enough recent species of human will be discovered to prove that a global cataclysm circa 10,000 BC drove evolution. I believe that another human species, who I have dubbed the mysterious elders, who helped build societies and pyramids worldwide, might still be hiding somewhere.

Power Grid Attack in California

It is hard to tell if this is just vandalism, anarchists or terrorists… but with so many poorly-guarded facilities, it would make sense to have some practices before the day you really want to wreak havoc. Imagine if 20 substations were attacked at once, in conjunction with other terror activities? They could certainly create panic.

The FBI is investigating how an unknown group penetrated a San Jose, California power substation earlier this year [April 2013], strategically cutting fiber cables and then firing over 100 rounds of ammunition into ten transformers.

The attack happened on April 16, but until now the FBI had dismissed the event as an act of vandalism, even though early FBI reports suggested the “military style” attack may have been linked to the Boston Marathon bombing that happened a day earlier.

PG&E, the company that runs the compromised power substation, disagreed with the FBI’s initial claims of vandalism, and said the attack was “not amateurs taking potshots” and then suggested the attack was more likely a “dress rehearsal” for future attacks.

Not an Isolated incident.

According to the New York Times, the FBI is also investigating a series of attacks in Arkansas where high-voltage power lines were deliberately severed in at least three separate attacks. Utility officials have asked the public to stay alert, and are also investigating whether a September 29^th fire at an electrical substation in Arkansas is somehow connected with the power line attacks.

[More at OffGridSurvival.com]

Still In The News

I love the amazing resource that Vice.com is (as well as their TV show), and my 2012 story is back there again today. This time I caught up with British academic Joseph Gelfer who asked me a few questions about my post-2012 world. Some might be surprised to find out that I don’t actually have a bunker:

We’ve got a bunker, but it’s a golf course bunker right next door to our house, which is kind of ironic because I decided not to build an actual bunker. I’ve talked myself out of bunkers and told other people that you don’t need them in Australia.

Otherwise I talk about death threats, my dislike of talkback radio, the double-edged nature of being wrong about the end of the world (so far), and how my kids are still totally unaware of what 2012 was all about.

And for the what next? question I touched on antibiotic failure, Big Brother surveillance and the idea that we live in a simulation.

Full interview at Vice.com

Water Tank Treatment

In rural NZ and Australia, water tanks are commonplace. They are quite large (1000 litres plus) and fed from roofs or sometimes spring/bore water.

In a post-SHTF situation, you might come across a vacant refuge that comes with a full tank of rain water. Of course you will have various ways of making water drinkable, but wouldn’t it be marvellous if you could treat the entire water tank at once?

GeoSIL (aka Pour N Go) is a unique and powerful disinfectant developed in Switzerland, and is used extensively for water treatment in Europe, the United Kingdom, and recently North & South America. It controls bacteria, viruses, algae and fungi and significantly reduces biofilm. Its intensive formula also helps to reduce your environmental footprint by eliminating harmful toxins expelled into the environment. GeoSIL water treatment technology is trusted worldwide.

Basically you just pour it into the rainwater tank. Couldn’t be easier! Worth packing, costs $50 or so in Australia (Masters sell it)

Other Robert Basts

I chose the name Robert Bast for writing on topics that could negatively affect my family or career, had I stuck with my real name. However because I chose it pre-Internet, it was impossible for me to tell if the name was unique. With just a single Bast surname in the Auckland White Pages I figured I wouldn’t be stepping on anyone’s toes.

Turns out there are at least two prominent people with the same name:

Robert C. Bast, Jr., M.D – Vice President for Translational Research, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

Professor Robert Bast (University of Tennessee, Knoxville), who studies Christian culture in medieval and early modern Europe, with special interests in late-medieval and Reformation Germany.

My apologies! Hijacking your name was never my intention.

But why Bast? Well when I chose it (in my twenties) my favourite authors included J.G Ballard, Richard Bach & Clive Barker. Because I was planning on writing fiction as well, I had hoped to one day appear directly beside them on the shelves of bookstores. And because I was interested in ancient Egypt, and my favourite animal was my cat Topsy, I chose Bast – the ancient Egyptian goddess of protection and cats.