Jun 09

Today’s News 9th June 2018

  • Feeling Isolated?

    Authored by Adam Taggart via PeakProsperity.com,

    • Does anyone else in your life share your concerns for the future?

    • Is there someone you talk with regularly about the unsustainability of our current economic and ecological trajectories?

    • Do you have friends and/or family members who support your efforts to develop a more resilient lifestyle?

    If you answered “no” to these questions, you’re not an outlier. In fact, the #1 most commonly-reported complaint we hear from Peak Prosperity readers is that they feel alone and isolated when it comes to the warnings delivered in The Crash Course.

    The end of economic growth. Declining net energy. Accelerating resource depletion. These are MASSIVE existential threats to our way of life — to our species’ survival, even. Most PPers can’t comprehend why *everyone* isn’t obessively talking about these dangers.

    But very few people are. Truthfully, most don’t want to; for a wide variety of reasons.

    So that leaves us, the conscientious critical thinkers, alone by ourselves to worry and plan.

    Does this sound like you? If so, read on…

    Wired For Connection

    Humans are biologically wired for social connection.

    Until just recently, historically-speaking, humans typically existed in small tribal groups of 30-60 people, where the degree of unity and cohesiveness of the group directly determined its odds of survival. Facing constant adversity from the weather, predators, other tribes, etc — every member of the group had a role and a duty to perform. 

    We’ve delved into this topic deeply in the past, particularly in our podcast with Peabody Award-winning author Sebastian Junger.

    In his book Tribe, Junger observes how far modern life is from the conditions our distant ancestors evolved from. We are so dis-connected from each other now that the lack of community is manifesting in alarming ways in today’s society.

    Junger focuses on the challenges that soldiers, Peace Corps volunteers, war refugees, and others who have similarly banded together under adverse conditions — as our distant ancestors did — face when re-integrating into peaceful, civilian life. Depression, addiction and suicide are all-too common responses as they struggle to find meaning in their daily lives, which now feel unfulfillingly superficial and lonesome compared to the “real-ness” and “alive-ness” they’d experienced before.

    Despite the often-horrible conditions they were subject to, many guiltily admit to Junger that they preferred life under duress — facing threats like bullets, disease, or cancer. What does that reflect about quality of life in our current society?

    In the case of US veterans, they’re committing suicide at the rate of over 20 deaths per day — nearly one every hour. And they’re dying of opioid drug overdoses at twice the rate of the civilian population. While there are many reasons behind this, Junger is convinced from his research that “leaving the tribal closeness of the military and returning to an alienating and bitterly divided modern society” is a root cause.

    An Epidemic Of Loneliness

    This alienation and division isn’t only being felt by veterans.

    In a world of digital devices and social media, our interaction with other humans is becoming increasingly virtual. In the sprawl of suburbia, we live in densly-packed cul-de-sacs yet hardly know our next-door neighbors’ names. The fast-growing wealth gap is forcing the 99% to work harder just to make ends meet, leaving little time left in the week for socializing or family interaction.

    The US is now experiencing an “epidemic” of loneliness, according to a study released by Cigna last month. Perhaps not surprising given that their cohort is the first to grow up with smartphones in hand, those in Generation Z are the worst off:

    Gen Z is the loneliest generation, survey reveals (CNBC)

    Loneliness among Americans has reached “epidemic levels,” according to health service company Cigna’s U.S. Loneliness Index, released Tuesday.

    The index, which surveyed over 20,000 U.S. adults, found that nearly half of survey respondents reported sometimes or always feeling alone (46 percent) or left out (47 percent) and younger generations feel much lonelier than older ones.

    For Cigna’s report, survey respondents were evaluated on their loneliness using the UCLA Loneliness Scale, a 20-item questionnaire that was developed to assess subjective feelings of loneliness and social isolation.

    Gen Z adults surveyed (ages 18 to 22), are the loneliest, according to the report. More than half of Gen Zers identified with 10 of the 11 feelings associated with loneliness, according to the survey, including feeling like people around them are not really with them (69 percent), feeling shy (69 percent) and feeling like no one really knows them well (68 percent).

    “While we know that this is a group that is making life changes, these findings give us a surprising understanding of how this generation perceives themselves,” Douglas Nemecek, M.D., chief medical officer for Behavioral Health at Cigna, tells CNBC Make It in an email. “It’s something that we need to explore to understand how we can address it. And that’s what we’re planning to do.”

    If you’re a parent to any Gen Zers, this photo really hits home:

    The ramifications of living life through the filter of social media are beginning to become clear.

    A recent study by Harvard Business Review confirms what most parents have long suspected: the more we use Facebook, the worse our reported physical health, mental health and life satisfaction. Even top former executives from Facebook have gone public with their fears that it’s “ripping apart society” by “exploiting a vulnernability in human psychology”.

    It’s little wonder why Gen Z feels so crummy.

    But it’s not just the youth suffering. According to former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, at least 40% of all American adults report feeling lonely, with reported loneliness rates doubling since the 1980s:

    There is good reason to be concerned about social connection in our current world. Loneliness is a growing health epidemic. We live in the most technologically connected age in the history of civilization, yet rates of loneliness have doubled since the 1980s. Today, over 40% of adults in America report feeling lonely, and research suggests that the real number may well be higher. Additionally, the number of people who report having a close confidante in their lives has been declining over the past few decades. 

    During my tenure as U.S. surgeon general, I saw firsthand how loneliness affected people of all ages and socioeconomic backgrounds across the country. I met middle and high school students in urban and rural areas who turned to violence, drugs, and gangs to ease the pain of their loneliness. I sat with mothers and fathers who had lost sons and daughters to drug overdoses and were struggling to cope alone because of the unfortunate stigma surrounding addiction. And I met factory workers, doctors, small business owners, and teachers who described feeling alone in their work and on the verge of burnout.

    During my years caring for patients, the most common pathology I saw was not heart disease or diabetes; it was loneliness.

    (Source)

    How concerned should we be about this loneliness epidemic?

    Very.

    Medical research shows a direct and pronounced link between social isolation and early mortality. Here’s a scary set of statistics:

    Living with air pollution increases your odds of dying early by 5%. Living with obesity, 20%. Excessive drinking, 30%. And living with loneliness? It increases our odds of dying early by 45%

    (Source)

    Understanding Loneliness

    In order to improve the situation, it’s important that we understand what our loneliness is trying to tell us.

    Sadly, in our current society, loneliness comes with a lot of shame. That if we’re not popular, if we’re feeling apart from others, then something is wrong with “us” (vs our culture).

    That leaves many of those feeling lonely to suffer in silence and to withdraw further, worsening the situation.

    As popular author and social scientist Brené Brown cautions:

    We feel shame around being lonely (as if feeling lonely means there’s something wrong with us), even when it’s caused by grief, loss, or heartbreak. This isn’t just sad – it’s actually dangerous. We’ve evolved to react to the feeling of being pushed to the social perimeter by going into self-preservation mode: when we feel isolated, disconnected, and lonely, we try to protect ourselves. That means less empathy, more defensiveness, more numbing, and less sleeping. In this state, the brain ramps up the stories we tell ourselves about what’s happening – narratives that often aren’t true and exaggerate our worst fears and insecurities.

    (Source)

    This withdrawal away from the world is exactly what we DON’T need when we experience loneliness, warns University of Chicago neuroscientist John Cacioppo.

    His research supports Junger’s claim that humans are hard-wired for community; that “our neural, hormonal, and genetic makeup support interdependence over independence”.

    To Cacioppo, the feeling of loneliness is simply another way our body tells us we’re becoming deficient in a critical nutrient — just as thirst and hunger do. In his mind, “Denying you feel lonely makes no more sense that denying you feel hunger.”

    So when we feel lonely, we need to recognize that signal for what it is. And just as feeling hungry sends us shuffling off to the pantry, feeling lonely should motivate us to make an effort to engage directly with others. We need to fight past the things that tempt us to retreat inwards —  such as our current culture’s norms of shame and the false sense of connection/relief that digital media offers.

    Creating Connection

    So how can the lonely find connection?

    Well, first, it’s important to understand that when it comes to social connection, quality of relationships matters more than quantity.

    As Susan Pinker details in her book The Village Effect, you don’t have to be a social butterfly to experience the benefits of connection; you just need a few relationships that actually matter. But they have to be face-to-face, in-the-flesh interactions.

    OK, so how does one go about creating these kind of face-to-face interactions?

    Glad you asked. Here are several resources that offer specific guidance for doing just that:

    In addition to the above, Chris and I are continuing to do our best to create opportunities for the like-minded PP crowd to convene in person. Consider coming to our annual Seminar in California next year, or attending one of our 1-day city Summits  — our next one will be in New York City in September (details to be announced on this website soon). Over the years, these gatherings have spawned many great friendships.

    And in the meantime, if you’re feeling weighed down by loneliness, or the angst of being the only one you know who “gets it” when it comes to the material we discuss on this website, we recommend considering seeking the guidance of a professional therapist who understands the Peak Prosperity mindset. We’ve seen it work wonders. If you’re having trouble finding one, here’s a therapist we refer people to (full disclosure: she’s my wife!).

    Lastly, while not “in-the-flesh”, we’ve built a very special online community here at PeakProsperity.com, where truth-seekers and action-oriented people from all over the world gather to exchange ideas and engage constructively with one another. If you’re feeling isolated in your life, lean into this community. Share your thoughts. Reach out.

    We’ll reach back.

  • Information Overload: 7 In 10 Americans Are Overwhelmed By News, More Among Republicans

    n a period in which most Americans feel mentally exhausted by news flow — from Facebook’s trending stories to Twitter’s hashtags to Trump’s spontaneous tweeting — and of course, how could we not forget, the mainstream media’s constant barrage of very fake news, approximately 70 percent of Americans feel “overwhelmed by the amount of news there is,” according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted from Feb. 22 to March 04, 2018.

    Nearly 68 percent of Americans feel mentally exhausted by the high-rate of news in the modern era, compared with just 30 percent of Americans who enjoyed the amount of news they get. Pew said today’s “feelings of information overload” is similar to how Americans felt during the 2016 presidential election.

    While it certainly seems like Americans are consuming too much media, Republicans are experiencing more news fatigue than anyone else. Roughly 77 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents are mentally drained from the constant bombardment of news headlines, compared with just 61 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, said Pew.

    The report detailed that avid news watchers were less likely to experience mental fatigue than those who sparingly read headlines. For those who chase headlines “most of the time,” 62 percent reported psychological exhaustion, meanwhile, 78 percent of those who less frequently get news say they are overwhelmed.

    Americans who regularly criticized the mainstream media as fake news were the most “worn out.” About 80 percent of Americans said the mainstream media were doing “not too well” or “not at all well” in factually covering stories — acknowledged the most exhaustion. Americans who said the news media did “fairly well,” 69 percent reported mental fatigue. Only 48 percent of those who claimed news organizations do “very well” said they were worn out by news flow.

    Pew said white people had a higher probability of feeling fatigued from the news than black or Hispanic people. The report also highlighted women generally feel more tired than men from news headlines.

    In a deeply divided nation, when Republicans religiously follow Fox News and Democrats are mindlessly blasted with very fake news from CNN, it is understood that Americans are living in a stressful period.

    Maybe the echoes of the Strauss–Howe generational theory, the Fourth Turning, is alive and well as the awakening and the unraveling of the empire has flung this country into a full-blown crisis — first observed in news headlines and then reflected among its citizens’ mental fatigue.

    The human brain which created this modern world is just not wired to process the vast amounts of information from news networks and social media. Americans are sleepwalking into a period of too much stimulation in tense periods, which could result in irrational decision making. America is stressed — its people are stressed — and there is just too much damn news. What could go wrong from here?

  • DOJ Reneges On Commitment To Provide Trump Russia Docs To Congress

    Authored by Sara Carter,

    • DOJ officials limit a briefing on new documents to a select few Congressional members

    • The briefing is planned to take place during the first two days of the North Korea Summit in Singapore, when all eyes will be on the negotiations

    • Sources worry the documents provided will be heavily redacted

    • A source says during a May 24 Congressional meeting with DOJ, the department argued with congressional members over who would have access to the documents

    The Department of Justice reneged on a commitment to provide access to documents they promised to congressional lawmakers by Thursday morning. Instead, DOJ issued a press release after midnight suggesting they will only meet with a group of select lawmakers to discuss the matter on the same day the North Korea summit opens in Singapore, according to numerous sources and a DOJ statement.

    Moreover, the Justice Department also issued new stipulations for briefing congressional members and limited the meeting with only the Gang of Eight, which is comprised of eight leaders within Congress who are briefed on classified intelligence matters.

    These sources claim that briefing Gang of Eight lawmakers restricts the dissemination and discussion of the documents that will be taken for review. Although the DOJ contends that the documents are highly sensitive material, in reality, these documents are not considered to contain high-level national security information.

    So while it seems that DOJ is complying, congressional sources say it means that the documents provided may be highly redacted.

    A source familiar with the discussions stated that the documents, “…do not rise to Gang of Eight level material requiring such strict rules that would limit those members to discuss the material with other lawmakers.”

    Lawmakers are also questioning the Justice Department’s decision to provide the documents early next week during the highly anticipated start of the North Korea summit. A senior Justice Department official announced the briefing is, “expected on Monday or Tuesday, depending on members’ schedules.”

    On May 24, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA), Rep. Trey Gowdy, (R-SC) and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), met with DOJ officials and FBI Director Christopher Wray to discuss Nunes’ demand on April 24, for specific classified documents related to the committee’s investigation into the FBI’s handling of the Russia/Trump investigation. According to a source familiar with the discussions, the DOJ pleaded with the members, “not to say anything about the DOJ having brought the documents to the meeting.”

    In last night’s press release, however, the DOJ admitted to having the documents. A senior Justice Department official accused the committee members of not reviewing the documents provided at the May meeting stating, “The Department and FBI will also provide the documents that were available for review but not inspected by the members at the previous briefing along with some additional material.”

    According to sources with knowledge of the May 24 briefing, the DOJ argued with congressional members over who would have access to the documents during the meeting. The DOJ also limited the distribution of the documents to “only those members in the room” and would not allow investigators to review the documents for their ongoing investigation into the FBI’s handling of the alleged Russia/Trump probe.

    “This request for documents is not at the Gang of Eight level,” said a source familiar with the matter.

    “This is yet another line of obfuscation, stonewalling and delay tactics by the DOJ. They were supposed to deliver the documents to Congress Thursday and then at the last second did what they always do: fail to keep their commitment. Now they are waiting until the opening of the North Korea summit in an attempt to bury it from the public.”

    Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fl) told this reporter that the DOJ’s failure to produce documents has put both Congress and the American people in a seemingly never ending predicament that does more harm than good for the nation.

    “It’s the same old games and Congress is facilitating this behavior by continuing this back and forth with the Justice Department,” said DeSantis. The lawmaker noted that Congress has the power of the purse and authority to follow through with the contempt proceedings against DOJ Deputy Attorney General, Rod Rosenstein.

    DeSantis added, “Americans are upset about this and have every reason to be. They could’ve turned these documents over more than eight months ago and answered our questions and we wouldn’t be in the mess that we are in now.”

    A senior Justice Department official said in the press release, “The Department and FBI are prepared to brief members on certain questions specifically raised by the Speaker and other members… The Department and FBI believe it can provide information that is directly responsive to congressional inquiries in a manner that is consistent with its national security and law enforcement responsibilities, and is pleased to do so.”

    The DOJ official said with regard to not providing the documents on Thursday, “Although the Department and FBI would have liked to provide this information as early as this week, officials have taken a little additional time to provide the most fulsome answers to the members’ questions as possible. The Department and FBI take congressional inquiries seriously and believes that the documents provided next week will be valuable to the Gang of Eight.”

  • City Officials Struggle To Fend Off "Unstoppable Juggernaut" Of Chinese Homebuyers

    As we’ve pointed out time and time again, foreign – mainly Chinese – buyers seeking to park their ill-gotten gains beyond the reach of the Communist Party have – in addition to global capitals like New York City and London – favored a handful of cities in the Pacific Northwest, as well as Australia and New Zealand. Many of these cities – for example, Vancouver – have seen property values rise to levels that are unaffordable for local buyers.

    While the influx of capital helped fuel an economic recovery in the aftermath of the crisis, home values soon reached crisis levels that demanded action by local officials. Some places have tried to use taxes to deter foreign buyers. In some instances, the taxes worked – at least temporarily.

    But with the flow of buyers refusing to slow despite efforts by the Chinese government to stop money moving offshore, many of these cities are getting desperate. And after years of occasional headlines, it appears the crisis has finally become dire enough for the mainstream press to start paying attention.

    Vancouver

    To wit, government officials in Canada and Australia who spoke with the Wall Street Journal for a story about how Chinese homebuyers expressed concern that widespread foreign ownership has created bubbles in local real-estate markets. Even as Australia and New Zealand and some Canadian cities have raised taxes on foreign buyers, many are worried that home values will continue to climb, foiling policy makers best efforts to control them. Since it passed an 8% foreign buyers tax last summer, Sydney says foreign buying hasn’t let up.

    Jon Ellis, chief executive of Investorist, an online portal for cross-border property transactions, said Chinese property buyers are an “unstoppable juggernaut”. In some markets with large Mandarin-speaking populations, locals can spot real-estate ads in Mandarin at bus stations and benches in the surrounding area. In response, Vancouver imposed a 15% foreign buyers tax back in 2016. When that didn’t work, city officials worked with the province on something more aggressive.

    China

    The Province of British Columbia has also passed laws to discourage the resale of unfinished condo units.

    After the first Vancouver 15% tax failed to put a lid on foreign buyers, Mr. Robertson worked with the province of British Columbia on more aggressive steps. In February, province officials raised the foreign-buyers tax to 20% and expanded coverage well beyond Vancouver. Officials also imposed a new levy – 0.5% of the property value and climbing to 2% next year – on homeowners who don’t pay income tax in Canada.

    In April, British Columbia also announced measures to deter the resale of condo units before construction was completed, to discourage investors from flipping units before they are occupied.

    At the Beijing expo, Florence Chan said she originally wanted to buy a home in Vancouver but changed her mind. “The taxes are too high,” she said, adding that Melbourne is looking better.

    Officials complain that fending off foreign homebuyers is like squeezing a balloon: No matter where you press, the air moves elsewhere. After New Zealand passed a ban on foreign speculators buying homes (a measure the IMF blasted as “discriminatory”) last year, buyers moved back to Canada. And investors are already looking to Malaysia and Thailand as the next markets ripe for foreign buying.

    Foreign capital is now returning to Canada, driving the latest surge in home prices. Buyers from China and the U.S. have found Victoria, the small capital of British Columbia that sits on an island west of Vancouver.

    Victoria was declared the world’s hottest new housing market last year in Christie’s International Real Estate survey, based on a 29% increase in annual sales of million-dollar-plus homes. Single-family homes in the Victoria area hit a record high of about $570,000 in May, up 9% from a year earlier, according to the Victoria Real Estate Board.

    “Victoria is experiencing the same rapid growth in housing prices and sales volumes that have strengthened Toronto and Vancouver in recent years,” Christie’s International said in its survey last month. “If Toronto and Vancouver can be a measure, it is likely Victoria will continue to perform well despite [new] regulations” targeting foreign buyers.

    Attention has already turned to Malaysia and Thailand, which now tops the list for Chinese buyer inquiries, ahead of the U.S. and Australia, according to Juwai.com. Two years ago, Thailand ranked sixth.

    In Australia, Chinese buyers are believed to be responsible for between 10% and 15% of homes under construction. Chinese buyers prefer newer homes, and will demolish old homes to rebuild from scratch. The share is highest in Melbourne and Sydney, where foreign buyers account for a quarter of newly built apartments. At one swanky new development in Melbourne, Chinese buyers are said to be behind 10% of the sales.

    Officially, Chinese citizens are only allowed to move $50,000 worth of yuan offshore every year, but there are many loopholes, including buying expensive watches and exchanging them for cash offshore, or exercising exceptions for having a child studying at college or living abroad. But unless the Chinese government strengthens its crackdown on money moving offshore and disappearing into foreign towers, it’s difficult to imagine how local governments will stop foreign buyers – after all, taxes also make the problem worse for locals. Over the next decade, some analysts predict Chinese investors could spend as much as $1.5 trillion abroad.

     

  • The Political Significance Of LSD: What You're Not Being Told

    Authored by Vikram Zutshi via Open Democracy,

    The shifts in consciousness brought about by psychedelics could help to dissolve our fear of ‘the other’…

    “Microdosing” on psychedelic substances like LSD – ingesting just enough to heighten cognitive faculties, enhance creativity, improve concentration and alleviate depression – is currently back in vogue among people not normally associated with anything remotely ‘countercultural’ in the USA.

    The term psychedelic was coined in 1958 by British psychiatrist Humphrey Osmond and is derived from the Greek words psyche (“soul, mind”) and delein(“to manifest”), hence “soul-manifesting,” the implication being that psychedelics can access the soul and develop unused potentials in the human mind. It’s a contention that’s gaining increased acceptance in mainstream universities.

    New York University, for example, is hosting clinical trials using psilocybin to treat alcohol addiction. The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) has been at the forefront of research in treating patients suffering from chronic treatment-resistant PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) with MDMA, commonly known as ‘Ecstasy. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently designated its MDMA-assisted psychotherapy project as a ‘breakthrough therapy.’ Apart from MDMA, MAPS also advocates the use of Ayahuasca, Ibogaine and medical marijuana for a variety of conditions ranging from bipolar syndrome and drug addiction to autism-related disorders, ADHD and clinical depression.

    The therapeutic use of psychedelics isn’t new. Between 1953 and 1973, the US federal government funded over a hundred studies on LSD with more than 1,700 subjects participating. Psychedelics were tested on convicts, substance abusers, people suffering from chronic depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder, schizophrenics and terminal cancer patients. LSD was also tested on artists and scientists to explore its effects on creativity, and on divinity students to examine spirituality from a neuroscientific perspective. The empirical data gathered from these tests was largely positive.

    LSD “truly was an acid, dissolving almost everything with which it came into contact, beginning with the hierarchies of the mind… and going on from there to society’s various structures of authority” says author Michael Pollan in his book How To Change Your Mind: The New Science of Psychedelics. And that’s what makes this subject socially and politically interesting.

    “It is curious to me that what I see as the two greatest threats – environmental crisis and [political] tribalism – these drugs directly address both those mindsets” Pollan told the Guardian in a recent interview.

    “They undermine our tendency to objectify nature, to think of ourselves as separate from it. They undermine tribalism in that people tend to emerge from these experiences thinking that we are all more alike, all more connected.”

    If this is true, then those of us committed to social transformation must start to take the use of psychedelics much more seriously. But what’s the actual or potential connection between LSD and politics?

    It was a Swiss chemist called Albert Hoffman who discovered the drug by accident in 1938. While conducting research on another pharmaceutical compound he absorbed the drug through his skin and staggered home to lie down on his sofa, where, “in a dreamlike state, with eyes closed”, he wrote later, “I perceived an uninterrupted stream of fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes with intense, kaleidoscopic play of colours.” Hoffman felt he had been given the keys to unlocking the mysteries of the universe, “the mystical experience of a deeper, comprehensive reality.”

    A few decades later in August 1960, Timothy Leary, a clinical psychologist from Harvard University, traveled to Cuernavaca in Mexico and ingested psilocybin (‘magic’) mushrooms for the first time, an experience that radically altered the course of his life. In 1965, Leary commented  that he had “learned more about … (his) brain and its possibilities…[and] more about psychology in the five hours after taking these mushrooms than…in the preceding 15 years of studying and doing research in psychology.” Leary became a lifelong evangelist for the therapeutic benefits of psychedelics.

    Theoretical physicist Carlos Rovelli, author of The Order of Time, says his romance with quantum theory and the mysteries of the space-time continuum were sparked by his LSD trips as a student radical at the University of Bologna. “It was an extraordinarily strong experience that touched me also intellectually,” he told the Guardian. “Among the strange phenomena was the sense of time stopping. Things were happening in my mind but the clock was not going ahead; the flow of time was not passing any more. It was a total subversion of the structure of reality. How do I know that the usual perception is right, and this is wrong?”

    Rovelli has spent the better part of his life grappling with the relationship between space, time and consciousness, fundamental concepts that underlie existence and how we simultaneously perceive the world and shape it. “If I observe the microscopic state of things,” he writes, “then the difference between past and future vanishes … in the elementary grammar of things, there is no distinction between ‘cause’ and ‘effect.’” The concept of time, he says, “has lost layers one after another, piece by piece.” We are left with “an empty windswept landscape almost devoid of all trace of temporality…a world stripped to its essence, glittering with an arid and troubling beauty.”

    Large parts of the world are being polarized at a rate rarely seen before, helped in no small measure by social media ‘filter bubbles’ and algorithms that divide people sharply along the lines of nationality or ideology, their underlying human connections rendered increasingly irrelevant. Perhaps such deep hatred and suspicion of the other was always there, but now it has taken center stage and is being used as a potent election strategy by populist and hyper-nationalist leaders the world over. Like herds of cattle, large numbers of people are being programmed and deployed as pawns for a larger agenda.

    Therefore, perhaps real change begins with rewiring our perceptual framework. Psychedelic substances have been ingested sacramentally by indigenous cultures to achieve this goal since the dawn of time, and now they’re being validated by the scientific and medical communities. The shifts in consciousness that can be brought about by psychedelics can help in dissolving the man-made boundaries or fear of the other that are implanted in our collective psyche.

    While Silicon Valley bio-hackers microdosing on LSD to enhance their workplace performance may not be looking to bring about tectonic shifts in collective consciousness, there’s no reason to restrict the use of psychedelics to these groups and purposes. They could also work as a potent catalyst to awaken humankind to the dangers of toxic nationalism and rabid nativism that threaten to engulf us.

  • Here Are The Schools With The Best ROI In Each State

    The average US student today is graduating with $39,400 in student-loan debt, an enormous sum, particularly for liberal arts grads with few reliable employment options allowing them to earn more than $30,000 a year right out of school. The aggregate figure is even more egregious: Nationally, students owe more than $1.4 trillion on their loans, nearly 50% more than all credit card debt in the US. Given this enormous sum, Brookings Institute projects that nearly 40% of student loan borrowers will default by 2023. And yet, most Americans still believe that college is a sound investment.

    But students who bother to conduct an ROI analysis will find that the return on a degree varies widely depending on the school. Which is why, in a recent study, HowMuch.com and Payscale decided to calculate the schools with the best 20-year ROI in each state. Many of the names may not be widely familiar to people – and some might be downright surprising (particularly the winner for Connecticut, where the Coast Guard Academy beat out Yale). Indeed, across the US, technical colleges and military academies appear to outrank big-name schools at every turn.

    College

    In its analysis, HowMuch and Payscale factored in the cost of tuition, the average student debt, the typical length of time to graduate and the graduation rate. They then compared the 20-year ROI for the school with the 20-year ROI for somebody who skipped college to start a career out of high school.

    Here’s the full list of schools with the highest ROI in each state:

    ROI

    Two

    Three

    ROIFour

  • Earth In Travail: Hawaii Hammered By Over 12,000 Earthquakes In The Last 30 Days

    Authored by Michael Snyder via The American Dream blog,

    We haven’t seen anything like this since Hawaii first became a state back in 1959. Kilauea began erupting on May 3rd, and it hasn’t stopped rumbling yet. In fact, authorities are telling us that Hawaii has been struck by “over 12,000 earthquakes” during the last 30 days.

    That is an extraordinary amount of shaking, and many are now becoming concerned that fundamental physical changes are happening to the islands. As one USGS official has noted, we have never seen earthquakes happen on the Big Island with this sort of frequency ever before…

    While most of the earthquakes have been relatively mild at magnitude 2 or 3, the largest earthquake was a massive 6.9 magnitude tremor on May 4, along with a 5.5 magnitude quake on June 4.

    Brian Shiro, a supervisory geophysicist at the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, said the island was witnessing the highest rate of quakes ever measured at the summit.

    On Wednesday, the biggest quake was a massive 5.6 magnitude earthquake that accompanied an eruption that shot rock and ash 10,000 feet into the sky. The following comes from the Washington Post…

    A magnitude 5.6 earthquake has struck the summit of Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano summit, sending a plume of ash and rock about 10,000 feet into the sky.

    Hawaii County officials said the Wednesday eruption could cause ash to fall over some populated areas, including the towns of Volcano and Pahala.

    The temblor came just hours after U.S. Geological Survey scientist Wendy Stovall said another eruption was imminent.

    Meanwhile, the lava just keeps flowing. There is nothing that authorities can do to redirect or stop the rivers of lava that are coming from the volcano. All they can do is stop and watch the inevitable destruction.

    Over the past few days, lava from the volcano has destroyed hundreds more homes and has completely filled in Kapoho Bay…

    On Sunday, the flow crept toward Kapoho Bay, a roughly 1,000-foot-wide ocean retreat. By Tuesday, the lava flow had completely engulfed the bay and surrounding neighborhoods.

    “Kapoho Bay is gone. Wiped out. Completely filled in with lava,” wrote Hawaii News Now. The outlet reported thathundreds of homes have been destroyed, including the second home of the Big Island’s mayor. Official counts peg the loss at about 200 structures demolished by the volcano since May, according to Reuters, though they will undoubtedly rise.

    You can view aerial images of the devastation right here. Needless to say, many of those that once had oceanfront properties along Kapoho Bay no longer do so.

    But there is some potentially promising news. A rainbow was spotted directly over Kilauea, and some are taking that as a good sign.

    We shall see.

    At the same time, the people of Guatemala are calling the latest eruption of the Fuego volcano “one of the biggest in 500 years”. A colossal avalanche of super-heated mud, rock and ash as hot as 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit caught multitudes of local residents completely off guard. And the volcanic gases coming from the volcano alone were capable of causing rapid asphyxiation. You can see footage of the immense devastation here, and one official is telling the media that they are finding some bodies “totally buried, like you saw in Pompeii”…

    Otto Mazariegos, president of the Association of Municipal and Departmental Firefighters, said that bodies had been buried on inaccessible sites on the volcano’s south side, which overlooks the city of Antigua.

    “We saw bodies totally, totally buried, like you saw in Pompeii,” he said, according to The New York Times.

    There was another huge explosion that followed the initial eruption of the volcano, and at this point the total death toll has reached “at least 99”. The following comes from NPR…

    The death toll from Guatemala’s Fuego volcano rose to at least 99 on Wednesday, with many people still missing, after two strong explosions that scattered ash over a wide area and displaced thousands of residents from their homes.

    The scenes of devastation were accompanied by heartbreaking stories of entire families devastated by the disaster — the biggest eruption from the mountain in four decades.

    Sadly, the death toll will probably end up being much higher.

    Entire families were killed instantly by the mud, ash and rock, and many of the bodies may never be found.

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    The saddest story that I have come across so far is from a woman named Lilian Hernandez. She told reporters that she is missing a total of 36 family members…

    Lilian Hernandez wept as she spoke the names of aunts, uncles, cousins, her grandmother and two great-grandchildren — 36 family members in all — missing and presumed dead in the explosion of Guatemala’s Volcano of Fire.

    “My cousins Ingrid, Yomira, Paola, Jennifer, Michael, Andrea and Silvia, who was just 2-years-old,” the distraught woman said — a litany that brought into sharp relief the scope of a disaster for which the final death toll is far from clear.

    Could you imagine losing 36 members of your family on a single day?

    I couldn’t.

    As I have written about so many times before, something is happening to our planet. Large earthquakes and major volcanic eruptions are happening with increasing frequency, and this could have dramatic implications for our immediate future.

    Despite all of our advanced technology, we are very much at the mercy of these enormous natural disasters, and our best and brightest minds might want to start looking into why our planet is suddenly becoming increasingly unstable.

  • US Suicide Rate Surges 30% Since 1999

    Following the deaths of famous chef, author and TV host Anthony Bourdain  and designer Kate Spade this week, many Americans probably intuitively believe that rates of suicide are increasing. And as it turns out, rates of suicide have climbed by 30% since 1999, with sizable gains seen across age groups and sexes. Furthermore, a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that only about half of people who commit suicide have a diagnosed mental health condition like depression – even though depression was once believed to be the primary cause, NBC News reports.

    The CDC also notes that relationship stress, financial troubles, substance abuse and other issues contribute to the trends.

    “From 1999 to 2015, suicide rates increased among both sexes, all racial/ethnic groups, and all urbanization levels,” the CDC researchers wrote in their report.

    As NBC News points out, the high-profile suicides of Anthony Bourdain, Kate Spade and other middle-aged men and women have prompted many to wonder if their age group is at higher risk for suicide. The simple answer is yes.

    “Middle-aged adults had the largest number of suicides and a particularly high increase in suicide rates. These findings are disturbing,” said CDC principal deputy director Dr. Anne Schuchat.

    Interestingly enough, the only age group that is exempt are people over the age of 75. Across the US, nearly 45,000 people died by suicide in 2016. Meanwhile, suicide rates have increased in every state since 1999, with the exception of Nevada, which already had one of the highest rates in the country. Western and Midwestern states like Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Kansas and Oklahoma saw some of the biggest increases in suicide rates.

    Firearms were the most common killing method, used in nearly half of all suicides, and in 55% of suicides where there was no mental health condition diagnosed. Where it could, the CDC dug further to find more data on suicides. Here’s what they found.

    • 42% had a relationship problem

    • 28% had substance abuse issues

    • 16% had job or financial problems

    • 29% had some kind of crisis

    • 22% had a physical health issue

    • 9% had a criminal legal problem

    Infographic: Suicide Rates Have Risen Sharply Across The U.S. | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    The problem, doctors say, is that finding mental health treatment for people can be difficult even for those with health insurance. Even for those who can afford treatment, it can be difficult to find the correct approach. Researchers noted that suicides saw the largest increases during economic downturns.

    “I have been learning as a nation we have seen increases and decreases over time in suicide,” said CDC principal deputy director Dr. Anne Schuchat. “Increases mostly seem to correlate with economic downturns.” The fact that the economic downturn hit rural states the hardest – and that’s where the biggest increases in suicide rates were found – is hardly a coincidence. The social media era – where people do most of their interacting online – is also leading to an increase in isolation that could be playing into rising suicide rates.

  • If You Think The Water Restrictions In California Are Tough, Check Out Cape Town

    Authored by Daisy Luther via The Organic Prepper blog,

    Remember earlier in the year when the news was abuzz about Day Zero in Cape Town, South Africa?  According to the press at the time, the day was looming when the city of 3.74 million people would run completely out of water. First, the date of Day Zero was heralded as April 16th, then May 11th, then June 4th.

    Calculating Day Zero took into account maximum evaporation (based on temperature and wind) and existing patterns in agricultural and urban use – an equation that considered both natural and man-made conditions. (source)

    Now, they’re saying the disaster has been averted for now, but that it could happen in 2019. And if you think the water restrictions in California are tough, wait until you see what they’re doing in Cape Town.

    So how did Cape Town avoid Day Zero?

    Day Zero was delayed by a combination of things. Fortunately, there was some rainfall, and citizens went to great effort to reduce their water usage.  There was a public campaign to basically scare Capetonians into compliance with conservation efforts.

    Late last year, as the South African government faced the prospect of its largest city running out of water, they took an unprecedented gamble.

    The government announced “day zero” – a moment when dam levels would be so low that they would turn off the taps in Cape Town and send people to communal water collection points.

    This apocalyptic notion prompted water stockpiling and panic, caused a drop in tourism bookings, and raised the spectre of civil unrest.

    It also worked. After years of trying to convince residents to conserve, the aggressive campaign jolted people into action. Water use was (and still is) restricted to 50 litres per person per day. (In 2016, average daily per capita use in California was 321 litres.) Households that exceed the limit face hefty fines, or having a meter installed in their home that shuts off their water once they go over. (source)

    Oh, and then there was the public shaming.

    …The city publicly shamed water offenders, with the now former mayor visiting the homes of water wasters and her office publishing a list of the top 100 offenders. (source)

    There’s even a website where you can check the levels of the water supply.

    The water restrictions there make the water restrictions announced last week in California look like a hedonistic luxury vacation to the folks living in Cape Town.

    How people in Cape Town are cutting their water usage

    I got a friendly email from a Jaco, a reader who lives in Cape Town and he told me, basically, we ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Instead of a luxurious 55 gallons per day per person, Capetonians are limited to 13.5 gallons per day per person.

    Welcome to the new norm.  

    Here in Cape Town, we came VERY close to running dry. We are still not out of the woods by any means, the city can still run out of water in 2019 onwards unless we stop relying on just the rain.

    So we are forced to use 50l pppd = 13.2086 gallons per person per day.

    You can use more water, but then these things happen:

    1) You get billed some serious money for the extra water.

    2) If you continue, your flow can be limited with a device to just 50l pppd.

    3) And if you keep on ignoring the above, they can take legal action.

    We are 6 people using 5000l of water consistently (1320.86 gallons) per month for EVERYTHING.

    There are some seriously clever things we were forced to do.

    I now realise the amount of water we, as a city, wasted before.

    So, obviously, I was dying to know the clever things they were forced to do. There are some fantastic lessons for preppers in all this because if you one day live in a world in which all the water you have has to be procured and carried to your home, you’ll want to conserve or you’ll be hauling water non-stop at our current rates of usage.

    Jaco from Cape Town continued with some comparisons to the restrictions recently launched in California:

    To give you an idea:

    – An 8-minute shower uses about 17 gallons of water

    o We are on 90 second showers if you have to shower per day. People are not showering per day anymore.  

    o Catch all the shower water, use if for the toilet.

    – A load of laundry uses about 40 gallons of water

    o We use rainwater – about 50l (13gal) per wash.

    o Changed the soap, so we don’t have to use the rinse cycle – that is another 50l.

    o ALL the water is pumped into a drum, used for toilets. Use pool HTH to keep the smell at bay.

    o Some people have changed their washing machines, to use <40l per wash with rinsing.

    – A bathtub holds 80 to 100 gallons of water

    o Those days are gone, no really, forget a bath.

    o If you have to bath, better have a sponge bath.

    o Catch the water for the toilets.

    – A dishwasher uses 6 gallons of water

    o Nope, 2.5-5l per wash. Better swap the dishwasher for a German model that saves water.

    o Or, use rainwater.

    And a lot of things are now completely illegal. For example:

    Illegal to water the gardens. Have had to let plants die, rather get local fauna and flora that can grow In the area.

    Illegal to wash your car.

    Illegal to top up your pool. Pool must have a cover. Use rainwater or order grey water from the council.

    The cost of water has gone up dramatically:

    Because the municipality is now earning substantially less due to less water purchased, the rates per kilolitre went up substantially.

    We used to pay +-R90.00 for 25,000 litres of water.

    We now pay R125.00 ($9.83) for 5,000l of water.

    25,000 litres (6604 gallons) or of water could cost about +-R25 000 ($1965.73) today – if you dare. 

    The key is the reuse of gray water, something that very few places in the United States are doing.

    We found that ALL the grey water we generate, not kitchen grey water, can be used for the toilets.

    That is the biggest saving. Not one drop of clean water goes down toilets, as all the taps feeding the toilets are closed off.

    The trick is, ALL greywater must be used for toilets.

    Without toilets flushing, sickness will enter the equation.

    Do not flush clean water down a toilet, ever.

    Invest in portable pools or water tanks, and use that water for like washing clothes, then to toilets.

    Jaco’s excellent suggestions and information could be very valuable for those facing shortages now or in the future.

    Unsurprisingly there was government mismanagement involved.

    When I asked about the postponement of Day Zero, the answer was something we can all relate to. Some corrupt person or persons had mismanaged the utility and all but bankrupted it. And with all the hubbub about Day Zero, tourists were staying away from Cape Town, making a bad problem even worse. Jaco wrote:

    My take?

    #DAyZero went away because it costed the local economy too much due to less tourist.

    AND, it turns out, the National Department of Water and Sanitation, was mismanaged to the tune of millions of Rands, effectively bankrupt, which was THE biggest problem, bar all missing the warning signs the last few years…

    So instead of losing more income and making the ANC look even worse, the politicians “agreed” to suspend DayZero – for now.

    The problem however, is still very real.

    Dam levels are slowly rising, but if the dams are not full by end of the year, DAYZero is looming in 2019.

    Some schemes are online, but in the end, they will not be enough. Need bigger desalination plants.

    And, we have not reached the set 450mil of water per day for the city as a whole.

    So for now, the new norm is fixed on 13.2086 gallons per person per day.

    So the 50 gallons, yes, you are barking up the wrong tree – it is going to get much worse.

    People HAVE to change, not only preppers.

    A global water crisis isn’t that far of a stretch of the imagination.  Michael Snyder of The Economic Collapse Blog has been warning about it for years.

    For generations, we have been able to take our seemingly endless supplies of fresh water completely for granted, but things have now changed.

    We are heading into a horrendous water crisis unlike anything that the world has ever experienced before, and right now there do not seem to be any large scale solutions capable of addressing this crisis.

    Hundreds of millions of people living in North Africa, the Middle East, India and parts of China already deal with severe water shortages as part of their daily lives.

    But this is just the beginning.

    If nothing is done, the lack of fresh water will eventually be deeply felt by nearly everyone on the entire planet. (source)

    The use of water has quadrupled over the past century and with our growing population, shows no sign of slowing down.

    How do you prepare for a global water shortage?

    This will affect us not only with forced restrictions like we’re seeing in California but with escalating water bills. Obviously, that will be much more of a deterrent to the poor, since the wealthy won’t have a problem paying the high prices. Some projections on a government webpage that is no longer available suggested that we could see our water bills as much as triple over the next 25 years.

    Meanwhile, one must ask whether companies like Nestle will be able to drain our lakes for pennies and sell the water back to us for dollars.

    So what can you do to be better prepared for a situation like this? Not only must you worry about hygiene and personal consumption, but if you have gardens, orchards, and livestock, you’ll need more water for producing food.

    A few things to look into:

    • Rainwater Catchment – Depending on your local regulations, you may want to do it anyway and hide it discreetly skip this if it’s against the law

    • Designing a greywater system – As opposed to sending all that water from laundry and showers uselessly down the drain, look into a system that sends all used water to the toilet. Again, this is not legal in some states so do it on the down-low check your regulations

    • Look into desalination – If you live near the coast, you might want to consider setting up a personal desalination system. It would be well worth the investment and is simply mindblowing that the government isn’t using some of those tax dollars they’re collecting to do this on a large scale. If you consider the fact that many people who sail keep these on board to purify ocean water, you’ll see that the technology exists. They’re not cheap but an incredibly worthwhile investment for those near the ocean.

    • Use well water – Again, we run into the issue of this not being legal in some places, but if you are able to get a well drilled on your property “for agricultural use” it would be a good idea to do it before regulations become even more strict.

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