The "Web Bots" and the November 2010 "Tipping Point"

It was November 6th, only a few weeks ago. My mother, also a full-time RVer, had her check in hand. We were waiting in line at the bank branch in the local grocery store. We couldn't tell at first that something was up, but as we slowly got closer to the counter, we heard a bank clerk say something to a customer about the systems having gone down earlier that day.

What!?!

That's certainly not what we wanted to hear while waiting to cash a check. Moments later, a branch manager made the announcement that because the system had gone down earlier that day, some transactions wouldn't go through. He then made his way through the line, talking with each customer individually. When he got to us, I asked him about what was happening with their system. He told us that there was an outage earlier that day and that since then, some transactions would go through without a problem but others would fail. The whole country, he said, was experiencing the problem - and not just this bank but all the major banks.

Let me tell you, the hairs on the back of my neck couldn't have raised any higher without detaching from the skin!

You see, we were in the middle of the "web bot" predicted "tipping point". If you don't know what a "web bot" is, go google it. It's something I've been watching out of the corner of my eye for years now. The predicted "tipping point", originally forecasted to occur between November 8th and 11th, had me on edge for the week leading up to the 8th-11th window. What's more, I had just learned the day before that the window had been amended to start on the 6th and end on the 14th. Was this the beginning of a bank holiday and the accompanying SHTF scenarios?

We left only $40 in my bank account. Everything else went with us in cash to buy food, water and gas. Better safe than sorry, right?

Upon returning home that day, there was no mention of it in the news. Wish I could say it didn't surprise me, but it did. Silly me, I guess I still hold on to the notion that there is a real media to covering events like this. What was even more astonishing, however, was that I didn't see any mention of it in the alternative media sites. It's like it was a non-event.

When Monday arrived and there was no bank holiday, I breathed a highly cautioned sigh of relief. The world wasn't changing overnight - at least not yet. In fact, Monday seemed fairly uneventful at first glance. The only thing I really noticed was an increase in the tensions over the whole TSA body scanners deal. Nothing truly extraordinary other than the continued surge in gold and silver, with gold breaching $1400/oz and silver moving toward $30/oz in a hurry.

But later on Monday, something awfully amazing took place. The media was reporting a mysterious missile launch off the coast of California! "Wow!" is all I could think.

Is THIS the beginning of the SHTF scenarios?

Days later and still nothing. The California missile launch was being written off as just a jet with accompanying contrail. Nothing to see here folks. Move along.

Then there was news of a big NASA announcement scheduled for the 15th dealing with an "exceptional object". "That has to be it," I thought. It's perfect - the "web bot" had predicted a plateau period between the 6th and 14th, with a sudden shift to "release language" on the morning of the 14th. Maybe it was off by a day, right?

Turns out it was just the discovery of a black hole "relatively" close to us - merely 50 million light years away.

And again, nothing to see here folks.

It'd be easy to write this all off as a failed prediction. Normal daily life 1 - Web Bots 0. Nothing huge and/or catastrophic happened. However, looking back, there was a definite shift in the paradigm during that week.

Prior to November 6th, very few Americans had anything to say about those TSA body scanners. Since the 14th, however, it's been non-stop, front-page mainstream fodder. From breast cancer survivors having their prosthetics inspected to old men being covered in urine, to little girls crying about being touched in all the wrong places. It's been all about the overstepping of boundaries, the disease spreading potential, and the harmful radiation. This country went from being effectively silent on issues of privacy, freedom and liberty to screaming at the tops of their lungs about a tyrannical government bent on destroying our last few freedoms in a mere week.

The snowball definitely started there. The student protests all over Europe continued, but were getting more and more violent with each passing day. The European bank run, scheduled for Decemeber 7th, was sparked by Eric Cantona's YouTube video right about the same time. Also, during the same time frame, the "Crash JP Morgan, Buy Silver" campaign began. All these coincident occurrences - it can't be a coincidence.

Anywho, I'm set to sit back and watch the "tipping point" evolve, for better or worse. Lesson learned: most big events don't just happen, they build up over time. Should be an interesting few months at the very least.

An Exercise in Futility

A long time ago, a young boy drove his new car to a gas pump. The numbers on the sign read "1.49 9/10".

Many years later, he drove his now beat-up old car to the same gas pump. This time, the numbers on the sign read "2.49 9/10".

The boy, not so young anymore, dug deep into his wallet looking for the extra $25 he needed to fill his gas tank and realized he didn't have it. He spent that extra $25 on rent.

After all, the landlord had raised the rent by another $100 that month.

The boy sadly filled his tank only half way, knowing that he'd be back at that gas pump sooner than he'd like.

But a strange thing happened that day. The company the boy worked for, where he'd spent every day for the last 7 years producing wingnuts, announced it was closing and moving all production to China.

After all, the Chinese can produce wingnuts at 20% cost.

So the boy, now freshly unemployed and worried about next month's rent, returned to his apartment and opened the classified section of the local paper. With a pen handy to circle worthy candidates, he began scanning through the "Help Wanted" section. Ad after ad for "Work From Home" and "Senior Care" were skipped over as he searched for something in the field of producing wingnuts. It didn't take long to finish scanning through the section.

After all, there were only enough ads to cover half the page.

The boy grabbed a beer from the fridge and sat in front of the TV. He flipped through miscellaneous channels, looking for something to take his mind off the situation at hand. He settled on cartoons while he drank his beer. He knew that he'd be ok because the government had just extended unemployment benefits.

After all, his anti-depressant was in the driver's seat, not him.