Found this , Tomgram article. Please take the time to actually read this. Read slowly so that the concepts can sink in.
In it the author Tom Engelhardt very ably lays down the over arching plans put in motion even before 9-11. His analysis of those that were in charge, and those still in charge is spot on. I have been a subscriber to "Tomgrams" for over a year. He and his guest writers are better informed it seems than most blogs out there. And there are some gems if you follow the links.
From this particular article, I only wish Tom had made the next logical jump from a "Greater Middle East" to the forces that are bringing them about.
Washington D.C. through many administrations has shown itself to be firmly in the lap of Israel. Seemingly doing it's bidding to bring about a "Greater Middle East" and for whose benefit? Certainly not the USA. America has become the 'War' wing of the IDF. Why should they fight for their own alleged safety when they can direct gulible American boys and girls to die for them?
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Friday, May 27, 2011
Can't Turn the Spigot Off Blues
Read this. Here are a few shots from the article to give you an idea of the importance of the subject matter.
That blue line down at the bottom heading up from left to right is a support line. It is not a tried and true indicator but generally it is a good barometer of where things should be. Now over towards the end of that line you can see that the actual index has completely crashed through the support line. If you have any excess d011ars, convert them to something tangible. It doesn't have to be precious metals but by all means avoid like the plague anything paper. A CD, for example, is paper. It is only worth what they say it is worth. AND they are the ones holding on to it. People whose wealth only comes in the form of savings accounts, money market, stock market, may soon find those assets locked away while the prices of staples begins to hyper-inflate. Litigation to get your money back? Good luck with that.
The above graph is a good illustration of the value of the d011ar. Most people really don't know what that means and I am not about to try to explain it because I don't totally understand all the implications either. But what I can understand is that as the gov allows trillions upon trillions of paper to be printed they overall value of my paper goes down. Gas, food, precious metals all cost me more with every piece of paper they print.
A typical Hollywood scene shows our hero trapped in a room with water rising around their feet. This is the plight of Americans today. Most are trapped in a room with monetary liquidity rapidly rising around our waist's and no one seems capable or willing to turn off the spigot.
That blue line down at the bottom heading up from left to right is a support line. It is not a tried and true indicator but generally it is a good barometer of where things should be. Now over towards the end of that line you can see that the actual index has completely crashed through the support line. If you have any excess d011ars, convert them to something tangible. It doesn't have to be precious metals but by all means avoid like the plague anything paper. A CD, for example, is paper. It is only worth what they say it is worth. AND they are the ones holding on to it. People whose wealth only comes in the form of savings accounts, money market, stock market, may soon find those assets locked away while the prices of staples begins to hyper-inflate. Litigation to get your money back? Good luck with that.
The above graph is a good illustration of the value of the d011ar. Most people really don't know what that means and I am not about to try to explain it because I don't totally understand all the implications either. But what I can understand is that as the gov allows trillions upon trillions of paper to be printed they overall value of my paper goes down. Gas, food, precious metals all cost me more with every piece of paper they print.
A typical Hollywood scene shows our hero trapped in a room with water rising around their feet. This is the plight of Americans today. Most are trapped in a room with monetary liquidity rapidly rising around our waist's and no one seems capable or willing to turn off the spigot.
Friday, May 13, 2011
Thoughts
I have a feeling that the price of gold is about to go exponential. 'About' being +/- 5 years. Silver has been in the mid to high 30's for a while. Still up a high percentage over 6-12 months ago. And several hundred per cent from 10+ years, so silver is still a good deal and this pullback can get 5 quality oz.'s for around 200 fedbux.
For a real cheap thrill, try buying some Copper bullion. It is dirt cheap but impressive once you feel the coins in your hand. I buy from here,"Provident Metals" Plus they will resume their rightful place as coinage accepted someday right behind silver and gold. As it has always been. Since Ancient times, there has been a metal coinage. It is a fact of civilized society. With all the various catastrophe's over the millenia, society drifts back to safety of metal money. Unlike a paper note, it degrades very slowly and once struck can last for many, many years of service. It has to because there will be relatively few in circulation.
Who would trust paper money after a global disaster? We know one is coming. We don't know what yet, but it could be this from the Jet Propulsion Labaratory, "Comet Elenin" or here. It may not be The END, but it should be interesting and that's what you'd expect from a Comet if only because they are so rare in one's lifetime. Like Space putting on a show just for us. Humbling and fascinating. That last link also explains that there is a double whammy for around the same time as the Comet is also to be another Celestial visitor, the Comet Honda. In fact Elenin and Honda cross paths somewhere inside of our orbit around the Sun. I mean this is way more than one could hope for in a single lifetime.
For a real cheap thrill, try buying some Copper bullion. It is dirt cheap but impressive once you feel the coins in your hand. I buy from here,"Provident Metals" Plus they will resume their rightful place as coinage accepted someday right behind silver and gold. As it has always been. Since Ancient times, there has been a metal coinage. It is a fact of civilized society. With all the various catastrophe's over the millenia, society drifts back to safety of metal money. Unlike a paper note, it degrades very slowly and once struck can last for many, many years of service. It has to because there will be relatively few in circulation.
Who would trust paper money after a global disaster? We know one is coming. We don't know what yet, but it could be this from the Jet Propulsion Labaratory, "Comet Elenin" or here. It may not be The END, but it should be interesting and that's what you'd expect from a Comet if only because they are so rare in one's lifetime. Like Space putting on a show just for us. Humbling and fascinating. That last link also explains that there is a double whammy for around the same time as the Comet is also to be another Celestial visitor, the Comet Honda. In fact Elenin and Honda cross paths somewhere inside of our orbit around the Sun. I mean this is way more than one could hope for in a single lifetime.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
On Mother's day
I'm really pleased with the recent developments in the 'family' relationships. So far, from what I've read, I'm relieved that you all turned out to be pretty good kids. Caring for your children as you do. Late in life I decided to raise a young'n.
From the beginning, I followed a variation of the Golden Rule i.e. 'Do Unto Others...' in that I want to be the Dad I wanted as a child. And it seems to be working pretty well, but it has always been true that adults easily remember various stages of Biblical 'Discipline' from their youth.
My advice would be to remember those times from your childhood, and rather than react to situations e.g. spilt milk, broken windows, etc stop and remember if you had a similar incident. If you did/did not like the results, then by all means change it for the next generation. Break the cycle.
But I'm just a man and my opinions may be better kept to myself.
LOL
Happy Mothers day!
From the beginning, I followed a variation of the Golden Rule i.e. 'Do Unto Others...' in that I want to be the Dad I wanted as a child. And it seems to be working pretty well, but it has always been true that adults easily remember various stages of Biblical 'Discipline' from their youth.
My advice would be to remember those times from your childhood, and rather than react to situations e.g. spilt milk, broken windows, etc stop and remember if you had a similar incident. If you did/did not like the results, then by all means change it for the next generation. Break the cycle.
But I'm just a man and my opinions may be better kept to myself.
LOL
Happy Mothers day!
Friday, May 6, 2011
Response to Bob Moriarty
Please read Bob Moriarty's article, titled "Silver Rally".
I, and maybe many others, laugh at these kinds of articles where-in one guru or another tells me what a sucker I am for buying silver, especially in the last few days when the run-up to fifty buck an ounce was, and still is, very profitable to us.
He recounts the usual crash and burn history and inevitably of history repeating itself. That is all well and good and in fact, expected. What he fails to take into account is most of us probably bought gold and especially silver, way back when it was 5,10,15,20 an ounce. So the recent highs and the more recent declines haven't affected me very much at all. Yes I might have missed out on some healthy profits but I am still hundreds of percent above the price I paid for it. Most of us are still way ahead of the game. I cannot think of any other investment where I have made hundreds of percent. Stock Market? Puhleeze. Money Market? No again. T-Bills/bonds? Now you're just being stupid. The only thing that is right up there with silver, is gold. This place, Provident Metals, is making and selling copper bullion. Copper bullion in bars and coins may have been around for a while but it has been well hidden. I have been collecting other PM's for years and had never heard of copper as an investment bullion. No more. I have also begun buying copper. In much the same way I began collecting silver oh so many years ago when people laughed a the idea. Copper may never be considered valuable enough to establish a 'big bank' ETF but when paper is useless real coins will buy that loaf of bread your family needs.
Bob just doesn't understand that there are people out here who just cannot accept that paper will ever be as valuable as metal. Someday the paper holders will be the laughing stock but on the other hand, they may make a killing selling toilet paper to those of us who can afford to buy it.
I, and maybe many others, laugh at these kinds of articles where-in one guru or another tells me what a sucker I am for buying silver, especially in the last few days when the run-up to fifty buck an ounce was, and still is, very profitable to us.
He recounts the usual crash and burn history and inevitably of history repeating itself. That is all well and good and in fact, expected. What he fails to take into account is most of us probably bought gold and especially silver, way back when it was 5,10,15,20 an ounce. So the recent highs and the more recent declines haven't affected me very much at all. Yes I might have missed out on some healthy profits but I am still hundreds of percent above the price I paid for it. Most of us are still way ahead of the game. I cannot think of any other investment where I have made hundreds of percent. Stock Market? Puhleeze. Money Market? No again. T-Bills/bonds? Now you're just being stupid. The only thing that is right up there with silver, is gold. This place, Provident Metals, is making and selling copper bullion. Copper bullion in bars and coins may have been around for a while but it has been well hidden. I have been collecting other PM's for years and had never heard of copper as an investment bullion. No more. I have also begun buying copper. In much the same way I began collecting silver oh so many years ago when people laughed a the idea. Copper may never be considered valuable enough to establish a 'big bank' ETF but when paper is useless real coins will buy that loaf of bread your family needs.
Bob just doesn't understand that there are people out here who just cannot accept that paper will ever be as valuable as metal. Someday the paper holders will be the laughing stock but on the other hand, they may make a killing selling toilet paper to those of us who can afford to buy it.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Clear sign of OWO vs. NWO
Viewing the series of events since the Egyptian uprising, these are the times that define the Old World Order clinging to the system that keeps them in power and crushes independence and freedom in every imaginable way.
Countries all over the world now are standing up to their governments in peaceful ways yet on many occasions the leaders of some countries are ordering armed repression killing many protesters in the process.
The interesting aspect is that even some countries that we consider 'enemies' are more than willing to keep the status quo power structure. If anything one would think that these so called 'Rogue' States would welcome Global realignment. Apparently not.
With that in mind the West can't begin to gloat about the strife in the Middle East amongst its People's. Because the Powers That Be in the West aren't immune to protest. You can bet they will cling to the Old Way of doing things as tenaciously as those 'Dictators' of the Third World.
People are beginning to see that, though separated by economic and religious ideologies, all governments are cogs in the machine of human oppression.
Welcome to the revolution.
Countries all over the world now are standing up to their governments in peaceful ways yet on many occasions the leaders of some countries are ordering armed repression killing many protesters in the process.
The interesting aspect is that even some countries that we consider 'enemies' are more than willing to keep the status quo power structure. If anything one would think that these so called 'Rogue' States would welcome Global realignment. Apparently not.
With that in mind the West can't begin to gloat about the strife in the Middle East amongst its People's. Because the Powers That Be in the West aren't immune to protest. You can bet they will cling to the Old Way of doing things as tenaciously as those 'Dictators' of the Third World.
People are beginning to see that, though separated by economic and religious ideologies, all governments are cogs in the machine of human oppression.
Welcome to the revolution.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
How To Store Data In Bacteria
Probably the scariest story you will ever read. The implications of this are straight out of zombie land.
You're not kidding! translated this means once it has escaped into the human population (whoops!) it cannot be contained. This means that the germs are impervious to any known anti-biotics.
Pretty impressive. How does that compare to the number of natural brain cells you already have? Is there a point where a critical mass of 'brilliant' bacteria would 'takeover' a host brain? And at that point why would you even want a 'cure'?
I think what we are really looking at here is the next step in human evolution. Science has provided a way to insert what for all intents and purposes is a method for inserting otherwise bulky machines into our natural physical bodies. RFID chips, bionic limbs, etc. But to get something into the brain was much higher fruit on the 'tree of knowledge'. Here we are on the doorstep of the most monumental step in human evolution, the full and irrevocable integration of man and machine. Once the machine has conquered the mental plane it can then much more easily find the solution to the physical. Think 'Transformers' and you might not be too far off.
And it may already be too late to even try to mount an opinion about this research. If it is that intelligent and immune to attack, then even a small amount 'spilled' somewhere would quickly be able to replicate itself by way of Seasonal flu, cold, and allergy periods. And the most important and seemingly unthought of by Big Science is they are making this bacteria immune to attack. From Big Medicine? From trojan-ware? Exactly what is it NOT immune to. Surely they would have built a back door shutdown code, or held back at least one specific medicine that will kill this
bacteria.
Here's the answer:
No they definitely wanted that whatever goes on in those cell walls, to stay in those cell walls.
Been sneezing lately? Yeah me too.
but scientists say the method could soon allow for text, images, music, or even video to be "recorded" in E. Coli, according to Discovery.
Perhaps more importantly however, bacteria isn't susceptible to intrusion.
You're not kidding! translated this means once it has escaped into the human population (whoops!) it cannot be contained. This means that the germs are impervious to any known anti-biotics.
"All kinds of computers are vulnerable to electrical failures or data theft. But bacteria are immune from cyber attacks. You can safeguard the information."
Just one gram of data-storing bacteria could hold the same amount of data as up to 450, 2,000 GB hard drives, according to Computerworld.
Pretty impressive. How does that compare to the number of natural brain cells you already have? Is there a point where a critical mass of 'brilliant' bacteria would 'takeover' a host brain? And at that point why would you even want a 'cure'?
I think what we are really looking at here is the next step in human evolution. Science has provided a way to insert what for all intents and purposes is a method for inserting otherwise bulky machines into our natural physical bodies. RFID chips, bionic limbs, etc. But to get something into the brain was much higher fruit on the 'tree of knowledge'. Here we are on the doorstep of the most monumental step in human evolution, the full and irrevocable integration of man and machine. Once the machine has conquered the mental plane it can then much more easily find the solution to the physical. Think 'Transformers' and you might not be too far off.
And it may already be too late to even try to mount an opinion about this research. If it is that intelligent and immune to attack, then even a small amount 'spilled' somewhere would quickly be able to replicate itself by way of Seasonal flu, cold, and allergy periods. And the most important and seemingly unthought of by Big Science is they are making this bacteria immune to attack. From Big Medicine? From trojan-ware? Exactly what is it NOT immune to. Surely they would have built a back door shutdown code, or held back at least one specific medicine that will kill this
bacteria.
Here's the answer:
In addition, researchers have also developed a three-tier security fence to safeguard the data, and created an encoding mechanism that ensures the data can't be disturbed by mutations in bacterial cells.
No they definitely wanted that whatever goes on in those cell walls, to stay in those cell walls.
Been sneezing lately? Yeah me too.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Two days Early?!
Information that the sun came up two days early at the Arctic Circle this year. That is a huge event. Not two minutes, two days! How can that be explained?
http://www.activistpost.com/2011/01/here-comes-sun-little-early.html#more
http://www.activistpost.com/2011/01/here-comes-sun-little-early.html#more
Internet regulations
How long before time on the internet is traded like oil? There are signs of this already. Information packets are like a large pool of money just waiting to be divvied up. Think of all the newly created "agencies" circling in those waters.
Pathocracy
Vitally important info. Definitions and goals;
http://www.activistpost.com/2011/01/pathocracy-tyranny-at-hand-of.html
And another;
http://www.psychopath-research.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/734/site_id/1#import
http://www.activistpost.com/2011/01/pathocracy-tyranny-at-hand-of.html
The war on US citizens is prosecuted around the clock with assaults on many fronts, including a deliberate effort to dumb down the educational system, debasing health through contamination of foods (hormones, pesticides, GMOs, chemically adulterated water, cancerous additives such as aspartame), then protecting food cartels that provide fewer food choices while controlling your right to grow food. Healthcare choices are restricted by legal protection of pharmaceutical cartels marketing drug and medical procedures responsible for hundreds of thousands of needless deaths each year. The government directly attacks the individual immune system by mandating and promoting criminally contaminated vaccines -- immune system damaging vaccines that may also cause long term brain dysfunction or damage, or result in delayed cancer.
It is time that humanity faces what it already knows: Historic suffering throughout the ages is related to the evil of the psychopath. We must never consent to being disarmed. Thomas Jefferson said: "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."
And another;
A grade 'A' investment for the average American (aside from food) is silver; silver is the currency of the little man -- it is the silver bullet against the vampire of psychopathic government.
http://www.psychopath-research.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/734/site_id/1#import
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
"One Poor Harvest Away From Chaos"
The precipice is so near. The scary part is how so many are so unprepared. The signs that have been there for, what seems like, so long are still viewed upon with suspicion as conspiracy theory territory.
Geoffrey Lean
'One poor harvest away from chaos'
Millions of the world’s poorest people and the state of the global economy are threatened by the food price rises, writes Geoffrey Lean.
Hunger pains: millions of the world?s poorest people and the state of the global economy are threatened by the food price rises
Hunger pains Photo: Getty Images
By Geoffrey Lean 7:19PM GMT 07 Jan 2011
87 Comments
'Within a decade," promised the top representative of the world's mightiest country, "no man, woman or child will go to bed hungry."
Dr Henry Kissinger, at the height of his powers as US Secretary of State, was speaking to the landmark 1974 World Food Conference. Since then, the number of hungry people worldwide has almost exactly doubled: from 460 million to 925 million.
And this week the airwaves have been full of warnings that the formidable figure could be about to increase further, as a new food crisis takes hold. Some experts warned that the world could be on the verge of a "nightmare scenario" of cut‑throat competition for the control of shrinking supplies.
The cause of such alarm? On Wednesday, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) reported that global food prices had hit a record high and were likely to go on rising, entering what Abdolreza Abbassian, its senior grains economist, called "danger territory".
That is bad enough for Britain, adding to the inflationary pressures from the soaring cost of oil and other commodities, not to mention the VAT increase. But for the world's poor, who have to spend 80 per cent of their income on food, it could be catastrophic.
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Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank, warns that the rising prices are "a threat to global growth and social stability", and Nicolas Sarkozy has identified them as a priority for the G20, which he chairs this year.
Already they are higher than in 2008, when they drove the tally of the malnourished briefly above a billion for the first time in history, and caused riots in countries as far apart as Indonesia, Cameroon and Mexico. That ended nearly two decades during which the number of hungry people had stayed the same, while the world population grew by 1.2 billion, so that the proportion of an increasing humanity without enough to eat steadily fell.
But the crisis of two years ago, and the one that may be unfolding now, are polar opposites of the one behind the World Food Conference. Then, bad harvests had produced a real shortage. Now, we have bumper crops: the past three years have produced the biggest harvests ever. The issue is not one of supply, but of demand.
The mushrooming middle classes of India and China helped cause
the 2008 price hike by eating more meat, which, in turn, mops up grain: it can take, for example, 8lb of cereals to produce one of beef. And cars contributed as well as cows. Biofuels transferred over 100 million tons of cereals from plates to petrol tanks: to fill a 4 x 4 tank requires enough grain to feed a poor person for a year. Speculation, too, helped drive prices up.
The same factors are at work again, though fortunately the hungry are not yet as badly hit. This is partly because the price of rice, which feeds almost half of humanity, has remained relatively stable; and partly because it is mainly the higher-quality wheat and maize – eaten by the better off – that has got much more expensive.
But things remain volatile, since the world has heavily run down its grain stocks over the past decade, and much of what remains is in China, which does not readily release them even when prices are high. So the present abrupt rises have been brought about by a harvest that is only 1.4 per cent down on last year, and prices remain unusually hostage to the weather.
So if it is all so precarious at times of bumper harvests, what will happen if – or rather, when – we get a really bad one? That is what is worrying Lester Brown, president of the Washingtion-based Earth Policy Institute, whom I first met at the 1974 conference. A former champion tomato-grower – then an enthusiast for the Green Revolution, now a leading prophet of danger and one of the first to forecast the present situation – he is publishing a book on the issue on Wednesday.
"The reality," he says, "is that the world is only one poor harvest away from chaos. We are so close to the edge that politically destabilising food prices could come at any time."
Imagine, he says, if last year's Moscow heatwave – which sent average temperatures 14F above normal, and contributed to this year's smaller harvest – next hit Chicago and the Midwestern bread basket. The US harvest could slump by 40 per cent, sending prices "off the chart" and cause "the global economy to start to unravel". As the climate changes, such extremes are likely to be more common.
Back in 1974, Kissinger spoke of the "thin edge between hope and hunger". A generation on, it is time to take it seriously.
India’s leopards go out on the town
It was about as long as a small leopard, the biggest of its species ever recorded in Britain. The 4ft predator, which gobbled down a family cat in middle-class Maidstone for its Boxing Day dinner, ended quite a year for the urban fox. In October, one killed 11 penguins in London Zoo; in August, two invaded bedrooms in Folkestone and Fulham to kill a kitten and bite a lawyer; in June, yet another attacked twin nine-month-old girls as they slept in Hackney,
Worried? It could be worse. In India, the role of Britain’s streetfighter foxes is increasingly being filled by, well, leopards. Driven from their natural habitat by its destruction, drawn by the easy pickings of urban life, the big cats are now constantly spotted in the subcontinent’s towns and cities. Stray dogs are a staple diet, but the leopards also regularly kill people. Indeed, in June one even took on the Indian Army itself, injuring 12 adults and children near the gate of the military academy at Dehra Dun.
Both foxes and leopards are aggressive, adaptable animals, and both are thriving. There are now thought to be 34,000 urban foxes in Britain, visiting more than a third of the country’s urban gardens at least once a month. And the leopard – which is also increasingly invading South African cities – has avoided the fate of, say, the endangered tiger: by one estimate more than half a million of them are at large. Could their motto be: “If you can’t beat them, eat them”?
Geoffrey Lean
'One poor harvest away from chaos'
Millions of the world’s poorest people and the state of the global economy are threatened by the food price rises, writes Geoffrey Lean.
Hunger pains: millions of the world?s poorest people and the state of the global economy are threatened by the food price rises
Hunger pains Photo: Getty Images
By Geoffrey Lean 7:19PM GMT 07 Jan 2011
87 Comments
'Within a decade," promised the top representative of the world's mightiest country, "no man, woman or child will go to bed hungry."
Dr Henry Kissinger, at the height of his powers as US Secretary of State, was speaking to the landmark 1974 World Food Conference. Since then, the number of hungry people worldwide has almost exactly doubled: from 460 million to 925 million.
And this week the airwaves have been full of warnings that the formidable figure could be about to increase further, as a new food crisis takes hold. Some experts warned that the world could be on the verge of a "nightmare scenario" of cut‑throat competition for the control of shrinking supplies.
The cause of such alarm? On Wednesday, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) reported that global food prices had hit a record high and were likely to go on rising, entering what Abdolreza Abbassian, its senior grains economist, called "danger territory".
That is bad enough for Britain, adding to the inflationary pressures from the soaring cost of oil and other commodities, not to mention the VAT increase. But for the world's poor, who have to spend 80 per cent of their income on food, it could be catastrophic.
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*
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*
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*
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Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank, warns that the rising prices are "a threat to global growth and social stability", and Nicolas Sarkozy has identified them as a priority for the G20, which he chairs this year.
Already they are higher than in 2008, when they drove the tally of the malnourished briefly above a billion for the first time in history, and caused riots in countries as far apart as Indonesia, Cameroon and Mexico. That ended nearly two decades during which the number of hungry people had stayed the same, while the world population grew by 1.2 billion, so that the proportion of an increasing humanity without enough to eat steadily fell.
But the crisis of two years ago, and the one that may be unfolding now, are polar opposites of the one behind the World Food Conference. Then, bad harvests had produced a real shortage. Now, we have bumper crops: the past three years have produced the biggest harvests ever. The issue is not one of supply, but of demand.
The mushrooming middle classes of India and China helped cause
the 2008 price hike by eating more meat, which, in turn, mops up grain: it can take, for example, 8lb of cereals to produce one of beef. And cars contributed as well as cows. Biofuels transferred over 100 million tons of cereals from plates to petrol tanks: to fill a 4 x 4 tank requires enough grain to feed a poor person for a year. Speculation, too, helped drive prices up.
The same factors are at work again, though fortunately the hungry are not yet as badly hit. This is partly because the price of rice, which feeds almost half of humanity, has remained relatively stable; and partly because it is mainly the higher-quality wheat and maize – eaten by the better off – that has got much more expensive.
But things remain volatile, since the world has heavily run down its grain stocks over the past decade, and much of what remains is in China, which does not readily release them even when prices are high. So the present abrupt rises have been brought about by a harvest that is only 1.4 per cent down on last year, and prices remain unusually hostage to the weather.
So if it is all so precarious at times of bumper harvests, what will happen if – or rather, when – we get a really bad one? That is what is worrying Lester Brown, president of the Washingtion-based Earth Policy Institute, whom I first met at the 1974 conference. A former champion tomato-grower – then an enthusiast for the Green Revolution, now a leading prophet of danger and one of the first to forecast the present situation – he is publishing a book on the issue on Wednesday.
"The reality," he says, "is that the world is only one poor harvest away from chaos. We are so close to the edge that politically destabilising food prices could come at any time."
Imagine, he says, if last year's Moscow heatwave – which sent average temperatures 14F above normal, and contributed to this year's smaller harvest – next hit Chicago and the Midwestern bread basket. The US harvest could slump by 40 per cent, sending prices "off the chart" and cause "the global economy to start to unravel". As the climate changes, such extremes are likely to be more common.
Back in 1974, Kissinger spoke of the "thin edge between hope and hunger". A generation on, it is time to take it seriously.
India’s leopards go out on the town
It was about as long as a small leopard, the biggest of its species ever recorded in Britain. The 4ft predator, which gobbled down a family cat in middle-class Maidstone for its Boxing Day dinner, ended quite a year for the urban fox. In October, one killed 11 penguins in London Zoo; in August, two invaded bedrooms in Folkestone and Fulham to kill a kitten and bite a lawyer; in June, yet another attacked twin nine-month-old girls as they slept in Hackney,
Worried? It could be worse. In India, the role of Britain’s streetfighter foxes is increasingly being filled by, well, leopards. Driven from their natural habitat by its destruction, drawn by the easy pickings of urban life, the big cats are now constantly spotted in the subcontinent’s towns and cities. Stray dogs are a staple diet, but the leopards also regularly kill people. Indeed, in June one even took on the Indian Army itself, injuring 12 adults and children near the gate of the military academy at Dehra Dun.
Both foxes and leopards are aggressive, adaptable animals, and both are thriving. There are now thought to be 34,000 urban foxes in Britain, visiting more than a third of the country’s urban gardens at least once a month. And the leopard – which is also increasingly invading South African cities – has avoided the fate of, say, the endangered tiger: by one estimate more than half a million of them are at large. Could their motto be: “If you can’t beat them, eat them”?
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