May 30, 2012

Is the Zombie Apocalypse Nigh? - June 24th UPDATE


This year just keeps getting stranger and stranger. After months of odd weather (See: 2012 Disaster Monage), and even odder weather in May including record breaking tropical storms, we are now faced with the unimaginable. A series of separate events has taken place over the last couple of weeks that has people speculating whether the zombie apocalypse is nigh.

It wasn't until May 26th, a mere four days ago, that the list of strange events started grabbing peoples attention. It became something that could not be ignored, something mysterious that had to be figured out. Many people are still on a quest for answers in understanding some of the strangest, most horrific events they have seen hit the news in a while.

On May 26th, 2012 in Miami Florida, a 31 year old man by the name of Rudy Eugene walked across MacArthur Causeway. He began stripping his clothes off, and what came next is something straight out of a horror movie. Rudy Eugene found a homeless man, 65 year old Ronald Poppo on the causeway, and began beating him. Eugene then stripped the lower half of Poppo's clothes off and proceeded to kick, punch, pull and tug at Poppo. And then the unthinkable happened, Eugene began ripping and eating Poppo's face. And eating his nose. And gouging out his eyes out.  A witness in the case, Larry Vega, told Fox 7 news that Eugene refused to stop eating Poppo when police arrived at the scene, instead growling at them with a piece of Poppo's skin hanging from his mouth. The police officer yelled at Eugene to stop but after continuing the officers were forced to shoot. But one shot wasn't enough and Eugene continued to eat Poppo, forcing authorities to pump several shots into him in order to stop him. Eugene died at the scene, Poppo was taken to Ryder Trama center. He was last listed as critical care.

That is not all that happened.  In Hackensack NJ, a 43 year old man by the name of Wayne Carter, stabbed himself in the legs and stomach and then threw pieces of his skin and intestines at police- forcing them to retreat and call a SWAT team in to handle the situation. He is also listed as critical condition. "The scene was a bloody mess," a police official told Cliffview Pilot. "The SWAT team members had to be decontaminated due to the amount of blood."

In a new case coming out of Daytona Beach, Florida officers said that suspect Brandon De Leon was arrested for a disturbance in a local eatery. After being arrest De Leon apparently smashed his head against the plexiglass of the police car saying "I'm going to eat you!" He then growled and grunted like an animal proceeding to try to bite an officers hand, he then had to be placed in a bite mask and leg restraints in order to protect the people around him from hard. Local police in Florida have issued a warning to police to be careful when dealing with the homeless or people who appear to be under the influence of any drugs. -Miami police warn of new drug after grisly attack

And it really doesn't stop there, although I really can't help wanting it to. The following is a breakdown of events that took place over the last couple weeks that have authorities and society baffled.

This list will be updated, if necessary. 
  1. 3-08-2012 -  Father Bites Off 6-Year-Old Son’s Penis Before Brave Witnesses Can Stop Him
  2. 3-24-2012 -  Man attacks, growls Miami police who try to help him
  3. 4-03-2012 -  Woman's trip to Phoenix Target ends in bite attack
  4. 4-09-2012 -  James Duckett is jailed for bite attack in Golden Lion pub, Selby
  5. 4-10-2012 -  Woman attacked in home in bitten multiple times
  6. 4-11-2012 -  Baby declared dead wakes up in Argentine morgue
  7. 4-13-2012 -  Mao Sugiyama Cooks, Serves Own Genitals At Banquet In Tokyo
  8. 4-16-2012 -  Toronto sees first case of rabies in more than 80 years
  9. 4-16-2012 -  Brazil 'cannibals turned women into pastries' 5+ People
  10. 4-17-2012 -  Man tried to bite another man, was stun gunned
  11. 4-21-2012 -  Bail denied for man accused of snatching, biting toddler
  12. 4-24-2012 -  Driver takes a bite at another woman's chest
  13. 4-25-2012 -  Man recovers from surgery after face-bite attack at party
  14. 5-02-2012 -  Man bites girlfriends lips off
  15. 5-03-2012 -  Man bites off another mans ear in bar fight
  16. 5-04-2012 -  USDA Quarantines 2 Farms Amid Mad Cow Investigation; Offspring Euthanized
  17. 5-06-2012 -  Man kills wife, eats her forearm and dies
  18. 5-11-2012 -  Necrotizing Fasciitis: Georgia Woman Fights Flesh-Eating Bacteria
  19. 5-11-2012 -  Man pronounced dead at crash leaves hospital alive
  20. 5-11-2012 -  Baby boy declared dead by doctors, found to be alive
  21. 5-11-2012 -  $500,000 in stolen pathology equipment may have hazardous materials
  22. 5-12-2012 -  'Dead' man wakes up at funeral that becomes celebration
  23. 5-16-2012 -  2 Teachers, Students at Hollywood High School Hospitalized After Breaking Out in Rashes - Second floor evacuated, classroom quarantined after rash break out
  24. 5-16-2012 -  Fight evolves into bizarre naked screwdriver, biting attack
  25. 5-17-2012 -  Second Flesh-Eating Victim Reported
  26. 5-18-2012 -  Woman bites mans ear, stabs him with seashell
  27. 5-19-2012 -  Unknown Chemical sends 5 from Florida airport to hospital
  28. 5-21-2012 -  Police: Man bites woman's cheek in Westchester
  29. 5-23-2012 -  Tractor-trailer cargo hazmat leak causes I-285 rush hour shutdown
  30. 5-23-2012 -  U.S. Quarantines 6,000 Hogs Fed Tainted Pet Food
  31. 5-23-2012 -  Cops: Man bites off tip of cousin's nose
  32. 5-23-2012 -  Woman mauled to death: autopsy
  33. 5-24-2012 -  Second Broward school reports mystery rash
  34. 5-24-2012 -  Third Victim Flesh-Eating Disease Lands Man in Same Hospital as Aimee Copeland
  35. 5-25-2012 -  Hazmat Called After Kids Exposed To Pesticide On Bus
  36. 5-25-2012 -  Woman attacked, cut, bitten by six women in Annapolis
  37. 5-25-2012 -  4th Victim Loses Leg to Flesh-Eating Bacteria
  38. 5-25-2012 -  Haitian Declared Dead Wakes Up in Funeral
  39. 5-25-2012 -  American Airlines 'disoriented' passenger detained after flight disruption
  40. 5-26-2012 -  Naked Man Eating Victim’s Face Shot And Killed By Police
  41. 5-27-2012 -  Crazed Florida doctor facing charges for spitting blood on troopers during DUI arrest
  42. 5-27-2012 -  Russian "cannibal" admits to eating hearts & livers of 6+ people
  43. 5-27-2012 -  Contractor bites 2 Lowe's employees, resists arrest
  44. 5-28-2012 -  University of Illinois has hazardous materials accident at the Institute of Genomic Biology
  45. 5-28-2012 -  Woman caught performing sex act on highway tries to bite cops
  46. 5-28-2012 -  Mysterious death of naked man with bites supposedly "dog" related - doesn't add up
  47. 5-29-2012 -  Palm Coast man accused of strangling kitten, biting lips off another
  48. 5-29-2012 -  Police: Hackensack man stabbed himself and threw intestines at officers
  49. 5-30-2012 -  Swedish doctor cuts wife's lips off and ate them
  50. 5-30-2012 -  Chinese cannibal arrested for 20+ murders
  51. 5-30-2012 -  Two Cases of Flesh-Eating Bacteria Treated in Los Angeles at the Grossman Burn Center at West Hills Hospital & Medical Center
  52. 5-31-2012 -  Manhunt in Canada for man who dismembered/cannibalized/committed sex acts on another man
  53. 5-31-2012 -  Maryland man charged with killing, eating man's brain, heart 
  54. 5-31-2012 -  Boy attacks, bites school bus driver multiple times
  55. 5-31-2012 -  Two officers suffer bite wounds and bruises while subduing man at Ipswich hospital
  56. 6-01-2012 -  Staten Island Pizza Shop Owner Bites Mans Ear
  57. 6-01-2012 -  Man punches woman's face in road rage attack, she bites him several times
  58. 6-01-2012 -  2 Salisbury women arrested after stabbing during fight, tried to bite officers
  59. 6-02-2012 -  Nigeria: How Female Student Was Killed/Eaten By a Cannibal
  60. 6-02-2012 -  Jason Levert Johns Attacks/Bites On Wife In Rockingham County
  61. 6-02-2012 -  FIFTH victim has emergency surgery as flesh-eating bacteria strikes again
  62. 6-03-2012 -  Hazmat Spill in Scarborough Sends 3 to Hospital
  63. 6-03-2012 -  Man bites Lawrence Walmart employee
  64. 6-04-2012 -  Woman charged after punching, biting police officers
  65. 6-04-2012 -  Miami Man behind bars allegedly growls, tries to bite officer
  66. 6-04-2012 -  2 Workers Taken To Hospital In Hazmat Incident At Naval Research Lab
  67. 6-04-2012 -  Cryptosporidium source sought in Britain
  68. 6-05-2012 -  Firefighters, HazMat team called to Salmon Creek 7-Eleven
  69. 6-05-2012 -  Homicide victim: Homeless man died from ruptured spleen 
  70. 6-05-2012 -  Woman arrested for allegedly scratching, biting cops
  71. 6-05-2012 -  Carl Jacquneaux allegedly bites face of victim in Louisiana assault
  72. 6-06-2012 -  Cops: 'Crazed' woman stole wig, bit shop owner, spit flesh at him 
  73. 6-06-2012 -  'Dead' Brazilian boy 'sits up in coffin at his own funeral and asks for WATER before lying back down lifeless'
  74. 6-07-2012 -  Man attacks co-worker with knife, bites his ear
  75. 6-07-2012 -  Huron implement dealer evacuated after suspicious package
  76. 6-09-2012 -  HAZMAT Team Called into Medical Waste Recycling Plant
  77. 6-11-2012 -  Confirmed: Crook Co. Man Has the Plague
  78. 6-13-2012 -  Plague Rare in U.S., Surfacing in More Affluent Areas
  79. 6-13-2012 -  Sacramento pastor dies from 'flesh-eating bacteria' complications 
  80. 6-14-2012 -  Woman accused of shoplifting bites Wal-Mart employee trying to block her escape
  81. 6-14-2012 -  Neha Afreen, Reshma Banu's Infant, Murdered & Bitten By Father Because 'It Is A Girl'
  82. 6-14-2012 -  N.Y. mom on possible bath-salt bender dies after Tasing
  83. 6-14-2012 -  Hazmat situation sickens one and shuts down ER
  84. 6-14-2012 -   Naked man allegedly abducts 9-year-old from bedroom
  85. 6-15-2012 -  Woman beats deadly flesh eating bacteria
  86. 6-15-2012 -  Man Battling Flesh-Eating Bacteria Could Go Home Soon
  87. 6-17-2012 -  Man 'shouting incoherently,' dies of unknown causes in Texas 
  88. 6-18-2012 -  Commerce Township teen bites dad 
  89. 6-19-2012 -  Sickness in NJ courthouse remains mystery
  90. 6-19-2012 -  Details emerge in rabid skunk attack
  91. 6-19-2012 -  Man bites dog: WPD K9 recovers after attack
  92. 6-19-2012 -  Naples man bites nurse, threatens to 'eat faces,' cops say
  93. 6-20-2012 -  White Plains supermarket encounter, with teeth
  94. 6-21-2012 -  Man under the influence gets naked, bites off chunk of man's arm 
  95. 6-21-2012 -  Monkey bite victim: 'They jumped me, they just jumped me'
  96. 6-22-2012 -  University of East Anglia student suspended after biting bouncer
  97. 6-22-2012 -  Move over zombies: Man left bloodied and screaming in pain after attack by 'bunch of leprechauns'
  98. 6-23-2012 -  Anthony Giancola, Former Principal, Charged In Stabbing Rampage

So is this the beginning of the zombie apocalypse? No one can say for sure to be honest- and there are already instances of "zombie-like" disease plaguing areas of the world today. Whether it's the krokodil drug epidemic that Russia has been battling for well over a year. A nasty drug that if injected wrong rots the skin (making it look like crocodile skin) and eventually exposing bone- making it's victims look like walking skeletons. (Google krokodil for videos on what it does to the body)



Or the mysterious nodding disease affecting many Ugandan children-
a disease that greatly affects the brain turning it's victims into nodding, aggressive zombie like people.



Ironically, an article posted in National Geographic in 2010 quoted Samita Andreansky- a virologist working at the University of Miami in Florida. Coincidental or not? She is quoted as saying:
"Sure, I could imagine a scenario where you mix rabies with a flu virus to get airborne transmission, a measles virus to get personality changes, the encephalitis virus to cook your brain with fever"—and thus increase aggression even further—"and throw in the ebola virus to cause you to bleed from your guts. Combine all these things, and you'll [get] something like a zombie virus." - "Zombie Virus" Possible via Rabies-Flu Hybrid - NATGEO



Also in 2010 George Dvorsky posted on the Institute for Ethics & Emerging Technologies a very interesting article that visits not only pop culture zombification techniques but also real life examples of present day zombies- like the malaria virus and it's affect on the mosquitoes it infects or the chemicals making grasshoppers commit suicide. That article can be viewed here: How to Engineer a Zombie Virus

Regardless of what the outcome of these situations are I feel that it is imperative that we as a society stop basing what zombies actually are by examples on television and movies. The "double-tap" and "awakened after death" are simply movie plots- and not reality.

Earlier in April Forbes stated this about Vladimir Putin's Zombie Gun: "The more insidious design–just one among the list proposed by Seryukov–is a weapon that could theoretically render someone pliable or even drive them insane by directly attacking the brain.  This is the weapon most appropriately described as a “zombie gun” for obvious reasons.  If the weapon can short-circuit the executive function capacity of the brain, then it’s plausible that the target would become silly putty, or possibly revert to a primal state and eat someone else’s brain (too early to tell)." - Are We Ready for the Russian Zombie Gun?

After all, zombies do exist.
It's just a matter of how you define them.

*CalTech researchers reportedly created a 'zombie-like' virus that was effective in mice, and 'perhaps' humans in the summer of 2011. The article for that can be found here: CalTech


According to an article posted on BusinessInsider.com the doctor spitting blood at police and the mystery rash that has been plaguing Florida are related, they posted this today: "Elsewhere, Gawker reports that health officials and hazmat teams have been unable to identify the source of a "mysterious rash" that has broken out across parts of Florida. In one incident, 41-year-old Zachary Bird went on a rampage after being pulled over. He spit blood into a trooper's eyes and banged his head on the cop's car several times. His demeanor was described as "extremely agitated and enraged."  The plot thickens.


And don't forget that half of the population of Earth in infected with toxoplamosa gondii a parasite found commonly in rats and cats. As Technovelgy says: "Half of the world's human population is infected with Toxoplasma. Parasites in the body - and the brain. Remember that. Toxoplasma gondii is a common parasite found in the gut of cats; it sheds eggs that are picked up by rats and other animals that are eaten by cats. Toxoplasma forms cysts in the bodies of the intermediate rat hosts, including the brain. Since cats don't want to eat dead, decaying prey, Toxoplasma takes the evolutionarily sound course of being a "good" parasite, leaving the rats perfectly healthy. Or are they? Oxford scientists discovered that the minds of the infected rats have been subtly altered. In a series of experiments, they demonstrated that healthy rats will prudently avoid areas that have been doused with cat urine. In fact, when scientists test anti-anxiety drugs on rats, they use a whiff of cat urine to induce neurochemical panic. However, it turns out that Toxoplasma-ridden rats show no such reaction. In fact, some of the infected rats actually seek out the cat urine-marked areas again and again. The parasite alters the mind (and thus the behavior) of the rat for its own benefit. If the parasite can alter rat behavior, does it have any effect on humans? Dr. E. Fuller Torrey (Associate Director for Laboratory Research at the Stanley Medical Research Institute) noticed links between Toxoplasma and schizophrenia in human beings, approximately three billion of whom are infected with T. gondii:
  • Toxoplasma infection is associated with damage to astrocytes, glial cells which surround and support neurons. Schizophrenia is also associated with damage to astrocytes.
  • Pregnant women with high levels of antibodies to Toxoplasma are more likely to give birth to children who will develop schizophrenia.
  • Human cells raised in petri dishes, and infected with Toxoplasma, will respond to drugs like haloperidol; the growth of the parasite stops. Haloperidol is an antipsychotic, used to treat schizophrenia."
The CDC sent an email to the Huffington Post today stating: "CDC does not know of a virus or condition that would reanimate the dead (or one that would present zombie-like symptoms)," wrote agency spokesman David Daigle. I find the word chose a bit odd- for instance why not "knows it does not exist" instead of "does not know"? Especially after they openly admitted that they were baffled by the nodding disease in Africa/Uganda. Nodding disease baffles expertsCDC Nodding Syndrome . Of course this is purely speculation as they deny knowing anything about a disease.

xoxo disaster girl

Purely for amusement purposes only:
Zombie Interactive Survival Map 

May 27, 2012

Disaster Girls Hurricane Cheat Sheet

xoxo disaster girl

Atlantic Tropical Final Update - Post Tropical Storm Beryl 5/30/2012 17:00

Tropical depression Beryl made landfall as a Tropical Storm at
Jackonville Beach Florida at 12 AM on 5/28/2012
Local Storm Report for Jacksonville Area

- An estimated 24,000 people without power
- First storm to make landfall in May in over 100 years
- Strongest storm in May in over 100 years

xoxo disaster girl

The Other Earth Out There - Kepler 22B





Another Earth is a wonderful Sci-Fi-esque movie that Sundance put out in 2011. In the movie, humans on Earth discover another planet just like Earth- in fact they actually discover that Earth has replicated several times. The wonderful idea of another Earth, another you- free from the mistakes that you have made, free from the reality that has become your own- was destroyed by a twisted yet surprisingly boring I-killed-your-family-now-let's-have-sex typical Hollywood plot. It really pissed me off to be honest- being someone who actually really loved the whole concept of movie. After seeing it I was less than thrilled with the movie, but infatuated with the science and astrophysics behind it. Another Earth? Such a novel idea.

In our observable universe there are between 80 and 100 billion galaxies, packed with 100 billion to a trillion stars each. Science has stipulated that for every star there is least one planet. That's a theorized amount of 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 planets in the observable universe, or a hundred sextillion planets. And really who knows what's beyond that? With a number like a hundred sextillion, isn't it more than possible if not entirely realistic that somewhere along the way life formed elsewhere? Are we really naive enough as a species to think that we are 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000?

The human species is entrenched in the belief that we are the best, that we are the most special. Millions of years of evolution have created a species capable of reason- a species capable of formulating ideals and remarkable theories. Our strongest suit is our thinking brain- more importantly in that brain- our speculative nature. Aristotle once said, "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." To hear an idea, but not believe- to logically reason and apply your own knowledge to conceive your own opinions, that's what separates us from the rest.

Ask an average American what they think of the chances of us being the only planet that harbors life in the 100 billion galaxies that we know about today. Most people will tilt their heads to the side a bit, pause for a second, and say "I have no idea.". Ask a scientist, and your answer will be far more substantial and salted with philosophical skepticism. But when was the last time you had an astrophysicist hanging around answering questions? The problem here is there aren't enough scientists, astrophysicists, astronomers, and physicists available to tickle the vast majority of our one common need as a species, to understand all that is unknown. Ask a college student why those majors aren't their own and a common answer is "It's just too hard.". Since the dawn of the computer age, the humans of Earth have largely decided that they no longer wanted to speculate themselves- but instead wanted others to-allowing them to be receivers of the end data.

Now we just swim through an endless stream of information, missing any picture that that information is trying to paint. Stuck in the details, the muck, and the grime of the internet are stories that should be known. Scientific discoveries that literally hold our precious views of reality in their clutches- waiting to inform, to enlighten, to expand your mind's boundaries. Boundaries like whether life exists elsewhere, because questioning that forces us to reevaluate our merit as a species. If we find a planet like our own, and it harbors life- will that life be better than ours? Will we suddenly have found a new enemy that we in no way understand? Does answering the question that life exists elsewhere create the answers we need as a species, or does it simply create new questions beyond our own fathomabilty?

Kepler 22b was confirmed by NASA in December of 2011, you may have heard about it- but most people did not. In fact, the birth of Earth 2 went largely unnoticed by the mass audiences of the world. A planet floating perfectly in the 'Goldilocks zone', Kepler 22b is just right for life. It features an average temperature of 72 degrees fahrenheit, is 2.4 times the radius of the Earth itself, and is in the habitable zone where land and water can be formed. It is similar to Earth in other ways too, like the orbit of its sun- 290 days next to our 365. Or the fact that it is orbiting a G-class star just like us- just a little smaller, less brighter, and less hotter than our own. Kepler 22b is a breakthrough in a long and tedious search that astronomers and astrophysicists have grappled over for quite some time. They answered the first question that everyone wanted to know: is the existence of a planet in the habitable zone a singular event or does happen elsewhere? The interesting part is what comes next.

Kepler 22b isn't alone too, in fact scientists have found at least two thousand other planets that also are in the habitable zone surrounding their stars. Eventually as they slowly get confirmed we may even find out that there are many more out there. Once the fact that other planets exist just like ours is accepted, we can then begin to try to find out whether life exists on them. It is not until we are ready to carry the weight of that knowledge though that we will even begin that journey, and as a species we are nowhere near that capability.

For now it remains a distant dream.. our alternate reality.


xoxo disaster girl

P.F.S. Links for the Curious
NASA Kepler Mission Website
NASA's Kepler Mission Confirms Its First Planet in Habitable Zone of Sun-like Star
NASA Telescope Confirms Alien Planet in Habitable Zone

May 20, 2012

See the Solar Eclipse Live Feed Photos/Video Here - Ring Of Fire Eclipse 2012


"Ring Of Fire" Solar Eclipse 2012 Photos

Tonight something special is happening in the sky yet again. After weeks of Venus and Jupiter dancing, and a huge supermoon- we are now going to witness a rare "ring of fire" solar eclipse. Due to the fact that the moon is at its farthest orbit, it will look smaller than the sun- allowing the West Coast to see a magnificent ring of fire in the sky!


LIVE FEED PHOTOS










*It is important to note that it is very damaging for your eyes to physically view the Eclipse without proper eye gear on.


How to make a Shoebox Solar Eclipse Viewer 

xoxo disaster girl

May 19, 2012

Atlantic Hurricane Season Sneaks Up On East Coast - 5/22/12 Final Update

Tropical Depression Alberto

The Atlantic hurricane season started almost three weeks before schedule this year, with the average date of the first storm of the season being around the 8th of June. Alberto also took a much different path then we typically see and originated off the coast of South Carolina rather than off the African Coast as seen more commonly in the Atlantic. The storm also made significant strides today going from a low percentage chance of a storm, to a decently organized tropical storm border lining hurricane strengths and pressures in a few hours.

Interesting Facts About Alberto
  • First tropical storm in the Atlantic in 2012, formed 13 days before season officially started
  • Earliest-forming tropical storm in Atlantic since Ana in 2003
  • First time tropical storms formed in both basins before the official start of the East Pacific and Atlantic hurricane season
  • First named storm usually arrives around the 9th of July  (51 days early)
  • First area of interest usually forms by the 8th of June (20 days early)
  • Originated from an area that is not highly common for forming tropical storms
  • 23rd pre-June named storm, only one (Able, 1951) became a major hurricane

As always you can follow here, or use any one of the resources listed in the Resources tab.
Updates will be added as they come in from the NHC.

xoxo disaster girl

May 18, 2012

Disaster Girl Widget!


You can have one too!

May 15, 2012

Featured Photographer: Jiri Vanek - Ghost Town Series - Post-Apocalyptic World | Fukushima Daichii & Chernobyl

I am an instagramer at heart [@sardonicallyme], it's one of my favorite apps and one of the many things I like to do in my free time. Instagram was just a place for random pictures, and where I posted my countless photos of nature and the sky- they can be viewed and purchased here: http://instacanv.as/sardonicallyme. It wasn't until I came across Jiri Vanek's instagram that I really felt like the pictures I was seeing needed to be shared. He opened up a world to me that I thought I had already opened myself, catastrophe. My articles may speak to people and they may enlighten people about the world we currently live in, but nothing speaks to people like a visual image. So I now bring you a special feature with a guest artist, the photos I have included below are from his Ghost Town Series. An inside look at modern day post apocalyptic towns and the conditions in which they currently stand. Some of them are from Pryp'yat & Chernobyl, an area devastated by a horrific nuclear accident in 1986.

For those of you who don't know already as the media does tend to black it out of the mainstream news, Fukushima Daichii is our current day Chernobyl on a level most people didn't even think could happen. Areas Japan will eventually become desolate wastelands, and many other things may drastically change because of it. The radiation and nuclear waste that continues, at this very moment as you read this, to leak out is petrifying. The scariest part being that most people simply don't know. They don't know, and it's facts like these that need to be known, need to be addressed. Warlords like Joesph Kony make the news quite frequently nowadays with the help of citizen reporters spreading the news like wildfire- the real shame in this is that things that should, have to, and need to be covered- are not.

So I ask you, with my limited budget and without any high tech equipment to make a fancy movie to prove this to you, to enlighten yourself and spread the word.
Make these photos and the tragedy that is happening in Japan viral.
We cannot afford let it sit.

Larger photos of Jiri Vanek's photography can be viewed by visiting http://blog.jirivanek.eu/.
CURRENT FUKUSHIMA NEWS
PBS FRONTLINE - Fukushima Reactor Damage May Be Worse Than Previously Thought 3/30/12
RT NEWS - Tons of radioactive water spill from Fukushima nuclear plant 4/5/12
ABC NEWCASTLE - Radioactive water leaks from Fukushima plant 4/5/12
KURZWEIL NEWS - Fukushima fuel pool is urgent national security issue for America, ‘top threat facing humanity’ 5/7/12
INFORWARS NEWS - Cesium in Fukushima Prefecture 122 Times Higher than in Belarus Evacuation Zone 5/10/12

xoxo disaster girl

Hurricane Season 2012 Has Begun!

May 14, 2012

Afterthoughts On Gaia

Interesting point of view on what the human species purpose here on Earth is from comedian Joe Rogan.

Perhaps that view explains The Georgia Guidestones commandment "Be not a cancer on the Earth".

xoxo disaster girl

Opening Your Mind Finale - The Gaia Hypothesis

When I was younger I watched this movie called Osmosis Jones. Pretty good kids movie, and an honestly original movie concept. It stars a main human character (Bill Murray) and the rest of the movie was a cartoon version of what was going on inside his body after he gets sick and the cells in his body have to fight back. You can actually watch it for free on youtube- but here's an overview so you can get a basic idea.

I vaguely remember scouring the internet in my early teens looking for "Are my cells people?" results. Never turned up much.

It wasn't until I turned 19 that I actually googled the correct questions: Where does life begin, and where does it end? And if some living things are known for their size- where do those limits begin and end? Are they infinite? And furthermore, who can accurately answer any one of those questions, no one. As humans it is common knowledge that life can range in size, from whales to bacteria and viruses, life’s sizes can be pretty astonishing. Very few people correctly know to what scale that actuality is, for instance what the largest living thing or the smallest living thing is to date. Some argue that the Pando Tree System is the largest, or the Humongous Fungus, or General Sherman's Tree, or the Blue Whale, or the Great Barrier Reef. The smallest being a list twice as long. It always falls on what you're actually measuring, or more accurately when you think you should stop.

By definition an ORGANISM is defined as:
1. a form of life composed of mutually interdependent parts that maintain various vital processes.
2. a form of life considered as an entity; an animal, plant, fungus, protistan, or moneran.

Theoretically speaking if you can have something that's living be so small you can't see it with your own eyes, isn't it the least bit plausible that something could be so big we couldn't see it either? And if it fits the qualifications of being a living thing, should a size beyond our own comprehension be excluded simply because we can not fathom it?

Earth as a whole is a living creature, a group of systems working together to maintain stability. Her name is Gaia, after the Greek Goddess of Earth- and she was named by a very interesting man. She regulates massive amounts of systems continuously, and you can see many examples of it if you take the time to look at things a little closer, or rather larger than your current size perception.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Comparisons

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Now before I completely discredit myself..
The Gaia Hypothesis - Is Earth Alive?

So is she a living being? The Gaia hypothesis stipulates that all living organisms as well as their organic and inorganic environments are all part of a much larger, single, self-regulating system- all working to maintain the conditions of habitability for life on Planet Earth. Dr. James Lovelock proposed that because Earth's biosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere and pedosphere were all working together that the aim was for a self-regulating system- all working at a continuity plan for life on Earth. The vast majority of the processes that go on on the surface of the Earth are all very important to maintain life on this planet. Interactions with living life forms, notably microorganism with inorganic compounds in the Earth, are a wonderful example of this. Processes such as these create a world wide system that controls and regulates Earth's temperatures, air composition, and sea salt levels.

Much like the cells in our bodies that are working tirelessly to continue our own life, the organisms and living things on Earth are all working towards one goal. Trekking on- the ability to experience living, for as long as it is possible. A question like "Is Earth alive?" isn't really the main problem or reason why theories like this are largely overlooked by the scientific community. It's the harder questions, the ones deeply affected by religion, dogma, and previously proven 'facts' that allow theories like this one to go unnoticed. (Always good to note that even once a hypothesis is deemed a scientific fact, the science of the world is always advancing and for every 'fact' that there is in science there are thousands of people working daily to prove it wrong. I.E. Einstein's Theory Of Relativity) For once you ask yourself "Is Earth Alive?", you have to ask yourself- "Is Earth Conscious?", "Are we a negative or a positive here?", and "If all of the life that we really accurately know exists, exists here on Earth, are we searching in the wrong directions?". Should we be looking down, instead of up?


The above video is Part 1 of 6, the remaining parts can be found here.


xoxo disaster girl

May 12, 2012

Opening Your Mind Part Three: Carl Sagan's 'The Pale Blue Dot'



"From this distant vantage point the Earth might not seem of any particular interest, but for us it’s different.
Consider again that dot- That’s here. That’s home. That’s us.

On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate, our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every supreme leader, every superstar, every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors, so that in glory and triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.

Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturing’s, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known."

-Carl Sagan

xoxo disaster girl

May 9, 2012

Opening Your Mind Part One: Kymatica Documentary

"Due to this void in spiritual wisdom honest and moral people who are simply trying to understand their place in this world become the prime consumer market for those who wish to exploit this vulnerability."



Part Two arriving later this week...
xoxo disaster girl