Just In Case the World Doesn't End Tomorrow...

Just in case the world doesn't end tomorrow, September 23, 2017, something big still might happen.

Perhaps a star, for example, might die. There is one that is supposed to blow-up very soon. And it's near to us! However, "Near" is a relative term. Betelgeuse is 'only' 640 light years from Earth. But that means Betelgeuse - as a regular red giant star - could have died years ago and we just haven't learned about it - yet. Or not. But wait. Maybe it's only 430 light years from Earth! Aaagh? Again, probably 'no' on the aaagh. Nor should we cry too much. Seems that when stars like Betelgeuse blow-up, they turn into things like stainless-steel cupcake pans. Eventually, with time and with some help.

In the meantime, we could witness something tomorrow on Earth. Perhaps something at Berkeley. Or at Berklee. Or something involving a reckless regime. Or - well who knows?

Philip J Dick lived “in terms of possibilities rather than in terms of actualities.” He wrote about sensing things. In "philip-k-dick-theorizes-the-matrix-in-1977" it says,

"Dick makes his Matrix point, and makes it very clearly: “we are living in a computer-programmed reality, and the only clue we have to it is when some variable is changed, and some alteration in our reality occurs.” These alterations feel just like déjà vu, says Dick, a sensation that proves that "a variable has been changed" (by whom—note the passive voice—he does not say) and “an alternative world branched off.”

Maybe we'll split in two tomorrow. Or just most of us. Or not.

So if you wake up tomorrow after a strangely familiar dream, remember, "Déjà Vu" on LP sounds a little different from "Déjà Vu" on CD. And either way, "Déjà Vu" - the track - did not feature Jerry Garcia playing steel guitar; that was, "Teach Your Children", and that was track two.

At least in this world.

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detroitmechworks's picture

For my entire life, until the last year, I was under the impression it was the "Berenstein" Bears...

Now, paying attention to it, it was apparently an A the whole time.

Still freaks me out a bit.

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

CS in AZ's picture

@detroitmechworks

The Berenst(E)ain Bears Conspiracy Theory That Has Convinced the Internet There Are Parallel Universes

...Do you remember it being Berenstein with an E, not Berenstain with an A?

If you do, you're not alone. There are many who remember it this way. In fact, there are so many Berenstein believers that people in the know will cite that as proof that this is a glitch in the matrix.
---
The first time someone noticed the bears attempt to warn us was back in 2009 on a dreadlock-dedicated forum. A user by the name of Burke posted in Dreadlock Truth asking why the pronunciation of his favorite childhood books has changed. In these days, no one grasped the issue at hand and the severity of the bears' true message. Other users just offered solutions that the Berenstein name "sounds Jewish" and the change could've been a result of neo-Nazi aggression.

But maybe it's not a glitch in the matrix. There are other very believable explanations.

"At some point between the years 1986 and 2011, someone traveled back in time and inadvertently altered the timeline of human history so that the Berenstein Bears somehow became the Berenstain Bears," he wrote. "This is why everyone remembers the name incorrectly; it was Berenstein when we were kids, but at some point when we weren't paying attention, someone went back in time and rippled our life experience ever so slightly."

Time travel? Glitch in the matrix? Parallel universes?

So many questions... because it was Berenstein Bears. This is fun.

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detroitmechworks's picture

@CS in AZ But EVERYBODY?

The Berenstein Deniers will of course point to government records as proof that it was always the A spelling... but government records are the EASIEST stuff to fake and change... Since it's the first place people would look, anybody making changes would stop there FIRST.

Then there's the "Typo" defense... but you can find child development academic papers that also use the E spelling... They apparently ALL got it wrong too?

It's seriously something that messed with my head.

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

earthling1's picture

@detroitmechworks
them as raccoons.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

k9disc's picture

I never recall anyone putting their hand over their heart for the anthem. That was reserved for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Then, during the Bush Administration, it changed. So many have their hand over their heart, and when I mention that it's weird they look at me all strange and whatnot.

@CS in AZ

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“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

detroitmechworks's picture

@k9disc When you were on a military base as a civilian, you weren't obligated to salute, but you needed to show respect, so the hand over the heart thing was for civilian participation in a military custom.

Yes, It does bother me that it has become a part of general civilian life.

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

@detroitmechworks @detroitmechworks

Fortunately, Boo-boo Bear only had one "A" to his name. And changing his name to "Baa-baa Bear" in an alternative world would have been noticed by somebody - I think.

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Strange that a harp of thousand strings should keep in tune so long

detroitmechworks's picture

@jabney the "Stain" spelling, because it's unusual. It's not the usual stuff that sticks out in your brain, it's when something is unusual that you remember it and take note.

The idea that I would never have noticed it, EVER in my entire childhood, etc... it flies in the face of everything that I know about myself, and the idea that everybody ELSE would also have not noticed it?

It's far too coincidental to ascribe to mere chance.

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

@detroitmechworks

No jokes about not blaming the Bare'n stain Bears because they have to shit in the woods?

That makes it conclusive.

On the other hand, digging back into my distant youth, everyone around me (why it turned into a major and frequent joke, I've no idea, but it was all over for freaking years) always remembered a television ad as stating that 'Mikey likes everything' and quoted this frequently - which made no sense as the premise of the commercial (which I did eventually see) was that picky Mikey astoundingly ate and liked the cereal or whatever it was, to the great astonishment of the other actors, who then presumably decided that everyone must love this whatever-the-fuck-it-was, thereby convincing the audience to buy the damn stuff.

Yet that saying was a byword which everyone recognized and repeated. That being the only example of its kind that I can recall, and which flummoxed me on both points, although amused by the ad having backfired so oddly, despite that one line having stuck in people's minds - without the product itself apparently doing so.

Berenstein would be mentally more expected, which can affect what one sees and/or remembers.

So, weird as this seems, personally, I've no idea which way to take it, bearing in mind the distortion of perception to which media campaigns have subjected so many over the years and the influx of neurotoxins in which we're all saturated.

Although the Berenstein Bears do sound familiar even to me, and Berenstain Bears would have stood out because I would have been making bad jokes about it.

Freaky...

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Creosote.'s picture

@Ellen North

and so prooved that even his own assessment was wrong, and that the cereal company's was irrefutable.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Mikey
From the same source: "The commercial can been seen on one of four TV screens shown at the end of the film Network (1976)."
A lesson in how conformity sells!

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@Creosote.

Exactly - and yet a number of people in at least one area perceived the opposite without even considering the fact that it failed to make sense.

Still, that rather silly ad evidently lives on in memory years afterward, for at least some of us, whether rightly or wrongly perceived, which is kinda interesting in itself, especially in those of us who've watched very little TV for a couple of decades or so now.

In my case, I'd assume that this was due to the rather amusing confusion mentioned making it stand out, as there are very few ads that I'd remember at all and this had nothing intentionally/directly amusing to make it memorable - but the misconception and quoting of this as such continued for years as well. And I kinda resent advertising raking up brain space which is limited in some cases, (meaning mine, lol) because it therefore has that capacity.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

WaterLily's picture

@detroitmechworks My whole lifetime, I believed it was "E." I know it was "E!"

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mimi's picture

Capitalism: the Nightmare
Cassiodorus has covered this in his essay Capitalism as Scheduled Disaster: Paul Street's newest.

So, we have an international oligarchy possessing nuclear power and the power of the internet to spread their power and enslave every human being in the world (blessed are those who never touched the internet). Without the internet technology that total and complete enslavement could not have happened. Without the nuclear power threats, the enslavement through the internet couldn't have happened.

As you play on the same platform with the same tool as the international oligarchy does, there is no way you can beat and fight against it and end the international oligarchy.
Therefore the world will end tomorrow. Guaranteed. Have fun dying.

Oh, and btw. you can take me seriously. I am dead serious, just to let you know.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@mimi Would you suggest we shut down the site? I'm sure JtC could find other things to do with his time.

As far as our powerlessness goes, nobody born after 1976 has any responsibility for it, since from 1994 on, our political system has been captured by these psychopaths, and since 1996 our media has as well.

The time we could have done something about this coup runs (depending on when you think the coup began) either from around 1963 or around 1972 to around 1992-1996. Roughly.

What we can do is join together to try to keep a reasonable and kind version of civilization alive for as long as possible. This will improve our lives, draw a certain amount of energy away from the corrupt establishment, and allow us to live more by our values than we would otherwise. It will also maintain a space for the truth, as long as we are here.

Most of these things will take a lot of not at all glamorous work which people haven't much energy or motivation to do. So we are doing the one that takes the least energy: maintaining a space for the truth. That is valuable, in that I consider the maintenance of such a space to be an absolute good--something I say rarely.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

mimi's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal
and I pray Joe and gjohnsit and lookout won't give up. I continue to support the site with my very tiny little money. I just don't want to talk anymore.

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@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

a space for the truth

I don't think so, but we do have an obligation to keep the lamp burning as best we can. (imo)

"Can I get a reach-around? " - Spirit of Truth

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Steven D's picture

My birthday's on Sunday and I was really hoping to celebrate it appropriately (what that means I leave to your imagination).

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"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott

@Steven D
Happy birthday!

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Strange that a harp of thousand strings should keep in tune so long

enhydra lutris's picture

@Steven D

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

@Steven D

Happy B-Day! And please, have an extra drunken orgy for those of us leading more restricted lives at the moment!

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

enhydra lutris's picture

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

WaterLily's picture

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earthling1's picture

And happy appropriate celebration too.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Lookout's picture

but in doing a search I see it is a biblical thing. Since I'm not religious I won't be effected. So let me say farewell to the believers among us. Enjoy the rapture.
http://www.faithwire.com/2017/09/05/will-the-world-end-on-september-23-h...

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

mimi's picture

@Lookout
Yes 3

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@mimi

Hey, cool - me, too! And my roommates and the dog and cat, too.

Let this be a proverbial lesson to us to never believe in the claims of religious fanatics, lol.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.