XIAM007

Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World

Tuesday 25 June 2013

17 Signs That Most Americans Will Be Wiped Out By The Coming Economic Collapse -


17 Signs That Most Americans Will Be Wiped Out By The Coming Economic Collapse - 



The vast majority of Americans are going to be absolutely blindsided by what is coming.  They don't understand how our financial system works, they don't understand how vulnerable it is, and most of them blindly trust that our leaders know exactly what they are doing and that they will be able to fix our problems.  As a result, most Americans are simply not prepared for the massive storm that is heading our way.  Most American families are living paycheck to paycheck, most of them are not storing up emergency food and supplies, and only a very small percentage of them are buying gold and silver for investment purposes.   They seem to have forgotten what happened back in 2008. 

When the financial markets crashed, millions of Americans lost their jobs.  Because most of them were living on the financial edge, millions of them also lost their homes.  Unfortunately, most Americans seem convinced that it will not happen again.  Right now we seem to be living in a "hope bubble" and people have become very complacent.  For a while there, being a "prepper" was very trendy, but now concern about a coming economic crisis seems to have subsided.  What a tragic mistake.  As I pointed out yesterday, our entire financial system is a giant Ponzi scheme, and there are already signs that our financial markets are about to implode once again. 

Those that have not made any preparations for what is coming are going to regret it bitterly.  The following are 17 signs that most Americans will be wiped out by the coming economic collapse...

#1 According to a survey that was just released, 76 percent of all Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.  But most Americans are acting as if their jobs will always be there.  But the truth is that mass layoffs can occur at any time.  In fact, it just happened at one of the largest law firms in New York City.

#2 27 percent of all Americans do not have even a single penny saved up.

#3 46 percent of all Americans have $800 or less saved up.

#4 Less than one out of every four Americans has enough money stored away to cover six months of expenses.

#5 Wages continue to fall even as the cost of living continues to go up.  Today, the average income for the bottom 90 percent of all income earners in America is just $31,244.  An increasing percentage of American families are just trying to find a way to survive from month to month.

#6 62 percent of all middle class Americans say that they have had to reduce household spending over the past year.

#7 Small business is becoming an endangered species in America.  In fact, only about 7 percent of all non-farm workers in the United States are self-employed at this point.  That means that the vast majority of Americans are depending on someone else to provide them with an income.  But what is going to happen as those jobs disappear?

#8 In 1989, the debt to income ratio of the average American family was about 58 percent.  Today it is up to 154 percent.

#9 Today, a higher percentage of Americans are dependent on the government than ever before.  In fact, according to the U.S. Census Bureau 49 percent of all Americans live in a home that gets direct monetary benefits from the federal government.  So what is going to happen when the government handout gravy train comes to an end?

#10 Back in the 1970s, about one out of every 50 Americans was on food stamps.  Today, about one out of every 6.5 Americans is on food stamps.

#11 It is estimated that less than 10 percent of the U.S. population owns any gold or silver for investment purposes.

#12 It has been estimated that there are approximately 3 million "preppers" in the United States.  But that means that almost everyone else is not prepping.

#13 44 percent of all Americans do not have first-aid kits in their homes.

#14 48 percent of all Americans do not have any emergency supplies stored up.

#15 53 percent of all Americans do not have a 3 day supply of nonperishable food and water in their homes.

#16 One survey asked Americans how long they thought they would survive if the electrical grid went down for an extended period of time.  Incredibly, 21 percent said that they would survive for less than a week, an additional 28 percent said that they would survive for less than two weeks, and nearly 75 percent said that they would be dead before the two month mark.

#17 According to a survey conducted by the Adelphi University Center for Health Innovation, 55 percent of Americans believe that the government will come to their rescue when disaster strikes.

Just because you are living a comfortable middle class lifestyle today does not mean that it will always be that way.

If you doubt this, take a look at what is going on in Greece.  Many formerly middle class parents in Greece have become so impoverished that they are actually dumping their children at orphanages so that they won't starve...

Scores of children have been put in orphanages and care homes for economic reasons; one charity said 80 of the 100 children in its residential centres were there because their families can no longer provide for them.
Ten percent of Greek children are said to be at risk of hunger. Teachers talk of cancelling PE lessons because children are underfed and of seeing pupils pick through bins for food.
If the U.S. economy crashes and you lose your job, how will you and your family survive?

Will you and your family end up homeless and totally dependent on the government for your survival?

Get prepared while there is still time.  If you do not know how to get prepared, my article entitled "25 Things That You Should Do To Get Prepared For The Coming Economic Collapse" has some basic tips, and there are dozens of excellent websites out there that teach people advanced prepping techniques for free.

So there is no excuse.  You can trust that Ben Bernanke and Barack Obama have everything under control, but as for me and my family we are going to prepare for the giant economic storm that is coming.

I hope that you will be getting prepared too.

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Mexican Amusement Park Offers Fake Border Crossing Attraction -


Mexican Amusement Park Offers Fake Border Crossing Attraction - 



An unusual amusement park attraction in the central Mexican state of Hidalgo offers visitors the thrills and chills of an illegal border crossing. The attraction takes visitors through a fake United States-Mexico border, complete with fake smugglers and fake border patrol agents.

The aim is to dissuade would be migrants from making the trip. The coyote, or smuggler, leading this simulated illegal border crossing used the name Simon and wore a face mask. Before setting off, he addressed his charges that evening, about 40 students from a private school in Mexico City.

"Tonight we're going to talk about migration," Simon said in Spanish. "But for us it isn't just something rhetorical, but rather the opposite. Because we have endured, we have suffered, of hunger, thirst, injustice, heat, cold, we have suffered from everything."

Then, under the cover of night, Simon herded them into the woods, toward the fake frontera.

The actual U.S.-Mexico border is nearly 800 miles away from the Parque EcoAlberto. The park is part of the indigenous HñaHñu community. Tourist can enjoy other recreational attractions like hot springs and rappelling, in addition to the recently added fake border crossing.

But for those who want to simulate the experience of fleeing across the border, without the real danger, the latter attraction is for you. For three hours, tourist groups endure sirens, dogs, chases and the fake border patrol yelling threats.

Maribel Garcia works as an administrator for the park. She says the purpose of the Night Walk is simple.

"Our objective is to stop the immigration that exists amongst our citizens, principally from the state of Mexico to the U.S.," Garcia said in Spanish.

Garcia says traditionally this region subsisted on agriculture, but that wasn't bringing the community what it needed.

"Because we didn't have sewer systems, light, telephone, roads," she said.

So people went north. The HñaHñu community has lost about 80 percent of its population to the U.S., Garcia estimates, mainly to Arizona and Nevada. Garcia says it was the HñaHñu youth returning home after crossing the real border who thought up this tourist attraction as a way to create income for the community and encourage others to stay in Mexico.

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New Social Network for Pets - Yummypets: New social 'petwork' for your dog or cat -


New Social Network for Pets - Yummypets: New social 'petwork' for your dog or cat - 



There's a new social network in town and it's for pet-lovers only. Don't be alarmed by its name; it's not a gathering of people who love to eat pets. Yummypets aims to bring pet owners together and become the social network, or "petwork," for pets.
Launched in the UK in May this year, Yummypets was founded in France in January 2012 and now boasts more than 150,000 French members and some 20,000 in the UK, with 600 brands and organizations interacting on the site. With an anticipated launch in the U.S., Canada and Brazil in the next 12 months, Yummypets expects to bring features like partnerships with local merchants and vets to the rest of the world.
Until that happens though, users from all over the Internet are welcome to set up profiles and start using existing free functions like free classified pet ads, missing pet notices, memorial pages and "Yummy Or Not." The site also has a mobile app for iOS and Android users to stay connected on-the-go.
We went hands-on with Yummypets to see if it was better than setting up a Facebook account for your furry friend.
Setup Process
The setup process is simple enough. You can choose to use your Facebook account to login or set up a brand new Yummypets account (also simple and relatively hassle-free).
Setting up via Facebook didn't result in any unnecessary posts on our timeline, and we were brought to the page to set up a profile for our pets. Yummypets is clearly designed for the informed pet-owner, and the form to create a pet profile has 15 fields for owners to fill up, with questions ranging from whether it is neutered, to "What is its favorite toy?" and "What is its funniest habit?" 
Most of the questions are optional, and only three basic questions - name, type of animal and sex, need to be filled out. If you're a pet aficionado though, you will love the lists of different breeds of animals in the "Breed" field.
Once you create a pet profile, you're done! Pretty simple. 


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Coat made of Human Chest Hair is the worst thing of the day -


Coat made of Human Chest Hair is the worst thing of the day - 



One million strands of (gag) chest hairs (double-gag) used to create gag-inducing gag-coat.

Never mind that nice summer coat you’ve been coveting. How about a coat made from chest hair? Mmmmm . . . imagine running your hands down that bad boy. Nice. Until you have to run away and barf.
Also: it looks like something that was never washed after a huge dog slept on it for 10 years. The coat/jacket/abomination can be yours for $3,900.
According to Oddity Central, it took “English designers” (who I’m guessing aren’t eager to have their names known) some 200 hours to weave one million chest hairs together. All for the sake of jokey (but-is-it-really?) advertising.
The Daily Mail says the garment was commissioned “by (chocolate) milk drink for men, Wing-Co, as a protest against the widespread ‘manning-down’ of British men, typified by clean-shaven chests and emasculating fashion.”
I know, I know, I know. You all miss the days when men didn’t get hassled by the femi-nazis about being blustering bleep-holes and demanding pork chops for dinner every night. Those were the extra-good times. Except, of course, for everyone else.

Weirdly, there’s no information on who exactly had to shave their chests and, presumably, emasculate themselves to contribute to this Yeti disgrace. Is there somewhere, on a British field, hundreds of shivering, formerly manly men, huddling together to shield themselves from the cold while pinching their waxed chests, shouting, “Why did you take my masculinity? Why?”
Oddity quotes a spokesperson (let’s hope it’s a man’s man manly man-like man-man) as saying, “We commissioned the Man-Fur Coat as a wake-up call for the nation’s gents. A way to encourage them to readopt the values of assured ‘men’s men’ from yesteryear who would laugh nonchalantly in the face of adversity and be proud of their abundant manliness.”
That may be hilarious marketing (spoiler alert: it’s not), but what it makes me think of is a big, cold glass of chocolate milk. Packed to the brim with hair. Must run now . . .

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Surge in 'digital dementia' - so reliant on devices can no longer remember everyday details like phone numbers -


Surge in 'digital dementia' - so reliant on devices can no longer remember everyday details like phone numbers - 



South Korea is one of the most digitally connected nations in the world and the problem of internet addiction among both adults and children was recognised as far back as the late 1990s.
That is now developing into the early onset of digital dementia – a term coined in South Korea – meaning a deterioration in cognitive abilities that is more commonly seen in people who have suffered a head injury or psychiatric illness.
"Over-use of smartphones and game devices hampers the balanced development of the brain," Byun Gi-won, a doctor at the Balance Brain Centre in Seoul, told the JoongAng Daily newspaper.
"Heavy users are likely to develop the left side of their brains, leaving the right side untapped or underdeveloped," he said.
The right side of the brain is linked with concentration and its failure to develop will affect attention and memory span, which could in as many as 15 per cent of cases lead to the early onset of dementia.

Sufferers are also reported to suffer emotional underdevelopment, with children more at risk than adults because their brains are still growing.
The situation appears to be worsening, doctors report, with the percentage of people aged between 10 and 19 who use their smartphones for more than seven hours every day leaping to 18.4 per cent, an increase of seven per cent from last year.
More than 67 per cent of South Koreans have a smartphone, the highest in the world, with that figure standing at more than 64 per cent in teenagers, up from 21.4 per cent in 2011, according to the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning.
Dr Manfred Spitzer, a German neuroscientist, published a book titled "Digital Dementia" in 2012 that warned parents and teachers of the dangers of allowing children to spend too much time on a laptop, mobile phone or other electronic devices.
Dr Spitzer warned that the deficits in brain development are irreversible and called for digital media to be banned from German classrooms before children become "addicted."

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