Wednesday, January 26, 2011

COUNTDOWN TO THE TWELFTH INSIGHT by James Redfield

I personally had the pleasure of conducting a lengthy radio interview with James Redfield, his works and the 12th Insight. I will post that interview at a later time. What is particularly interesting is that there is a similar take on the coming few years between his work and THE WAKING GOD TRILOGY. Despite the economic, political, social and environmental chaos in the world, there may well be a LIGHT at the end of the tunnel.



COUNTDOWN TO THE TWELFTH INSIGHT

by James Redfield

Hi everyone,
Is there a way to move into sync with the spiritual design of the universe, so that our lives go better? Are we discovering how to have more synchronicity, and more accurate intuitions, that can guide us through the challenges of our lives -- before they get bad -- and open up magical opportunities for our best dreams?

I believe a new, very exciting time is beginning in human history. I call it the 12th Insight. The Mayan Calendar calls it the Ninth Wave of Creation.

But whatever it is called, it is a new clarity about the nature of the universe, and how we, as individuals, can put spiritual knowledge into very practical application to find a higher path through life. Think about it. We been pursuing spiritual knowledge in a mass way for decades. And finally we've reached the clarity to put it into action, to live it every day!

The emerging Twelfth Insight represents a spiritual life that the best of every religious tradition has always held true, and that, in fact, points the way toward peace. There has never been a more exciting time to be alive. In spite of all our problems, this new awareness can be contagious, moving from person to person and can resolve everything. We just have to consciously share the truth of what we are doing. Remember, it's not the end times. We're just beginning. It's morning in the world!


I walked out of the airport and jumped into a car, heading for the first meeting with my publisher since The Twelfth Insight had been turned in – and I was feeling mildly anxious. The novel had already been set for publication (February 15, 2011) and they seemed to like the book very much. Still they had questions, and who could blame them?

For one thing, it had been a long time since I had published a new novel, and they wanted to know why it had taken so long.

"Give us a little perspective here," someone had asked me earlier. "The last time we had heard from you, you were slugging your way though LA with the Celestine Prophecy Movie. Did you really call Hollywood, Sodom and Gomorrah?" I had, of course, but it was in the heat of the moment.

Anyway, as I rode along in the New York traffic, I realized the issue over why I had taken so long was the easiest to handle. I could use my stock answer of, "I'm not making this stuff up."

The first three books in the Celestine Series – The Celestine Prophecy, The Tenth Insight, and The Secret of Shambhala—were as much spiritual commentaries as novels. And as such, they were based on real phenomena, what I have called "insights," that I felt were arising in human consciousness as shifts in awareness and understanding. I called them insights because that's how we experience them: as elevations of clarity about our spiritual nature. And over the years, they had been affirmed by millions of people.

In the first three novels I had pointed to eleven of these Insights, and had been waiting all this time, as were others, on what I was sure would be a culminating Twelfth. Yet, understandably, I had to be patient until events and experience corroborated the new insight. I had to see it before I could write about it.

While I waited, the only thing I knew for sure was that the Twelfth would build naturally on the insights that had occurred previously. That's how we know they are really shifts in consciousness. We recognize the upswing in spiritual clarity immediately.

For instance, the previous two insights that have happened, the Tenth and Eleventh, are instructive. The Tenth grew out of the discovery that spirituality was more than just an abstract decision to believe in God or not. (After which most tended to return to the same practical approach to life they'd used before the decision had been reached.)

However, the Tenth Insight confirmed that a step existed beyond mere belief, where one could knock on the door even more and be granted entry into a whole new world of spirituality that energized ordinary life. It was a world of Intuition and Synchronicity and memories of something our soul wanted to do in this life. In other words, it was a prevailing intuition that we come from a heavenly place to this Earth with a mission in our minds that is ours alone, and it's always something we can do to make the world better.

Thus, with the Tenth Insight came a certainty that the Afterlife existed as a real place, where souls weren't sitting on clouds with harps, but were actively pushing forward a plan of destiny for our Earthly culture. That was when interest in Angels and Near Death Experiences exploded in popularity, yielding a flood of books and movies on the subject.

Of course, the occurrence of the Tenth Insight quickly precipitated an Eleventh revelation: namely, that if we all had something important to do here, then the key issue was how exactly were we to get it done. What was the secret of the fulfilled life? The Eleventh addressed that issue—at least in part. We participate by allowing ourselves to be Synchronistically led toward it. To get it done, we had to use certain spiritual principles—principles that concerned "prayer," "attraction," and a power called "faith" that no religion or philosophy had yet described with sufficient clarity.

I was convinced even then that the full picture of how to actualize our dreams in this regard was what the Twelfth Insight would bring to us. But there was no way to force it. We would have to wait for the clarity. Maybe we even had to be tested for a while, and let the purely secular approach to life blow up a bit in a financial meltdown of greed and corruption before we could really take seriously the mysterious keys to life.

Suddenly, as my thoughts rolled on, the car in which I was riding swerved slightly and I realized the driver was staring at me in the rear view mirror.

"We are approaching your publisher's building," the driver said. "And I was wondering about your new book. What is it about exactly? How does it fit into all the crazy stuff that's happening right now?"

"Are you reading my mind?" I asked, chuckling.

He shrugged.

I just looked at him for a moment, knowing immediately that his interruption had created a moment of Synchronicity. This was another question the publisher's people were sure to have, and it was good one. How did this book, indeed, fit into the cynical flatness that seemed to be the tenor of the world right now?

Then the answer began to pour out of me. The Twelfth Insight is building on the need we all have to alter what looks like a rapid decline in human culture. Long-standing wars and political tensions didn't seem to be getting any better. Worse, those tensions, in all likelihood, appeared to be sliding toward an inevitable nuclear confrontation.

Just as problematic is the state of individual human relations, with everyday social encounters seemingly degrading to the level of a 24-hour Jerry Springer show. Most disgusting is politics. We had just suffered a double whammy when, after years of extreme greed and unsound economics, we were promised something more enlightened, and transparent, only to watch in horror as politics, especially in the US, degraded into an even worse display of back room shenanigans, corrupt payoffs, and a battle of lies.

Even in the face of tragic shooting of a US Congresswomen, the political left and right could only play the propaganda card, seeking even then to get a political edge—not because they thought their statements were the truth, but because they figured no one would notice they were untrue.

The driver's face was serious in the rear-view mirror as I tried to explain my theory that the level of inauthenticity, psychological manipulation, and transparent corruption has reached a tipping point. There is a unity emerging among a more idealistic center among us, a unity forged out of a shared abhorrence for the lack of integrity and civility.

And just as the lack of integrity is often rationalized by the belief that such behavior is okay because the universe is disordered and meaningless anyway, this growing, unified reaction is based on the perception that the opposite is actually the case—that there is a spiritual dynamic at work in the Universe, one that can be proved to oneself, and thus aligned with.

It is a sentiment that flows from the majority opinion that "what goes around, comes around," and "you reap what you sow," and from the idea that exists in some form in every religious tradition that, if one is honorable over little, one is given much.

What's more, the honoring and sharing of one's best truth, presented as directly as possible, seems to be the first key to unlocking the miraculous potential in the universe. Life is strange. It's almost as if the whole world has had to try the uncivil, manipulative way for a time—just to prove to ourselves how nasty things could get—before we could earnestly commit to the other side of the equation. In the end, living honestly is what triggers the laws of attraction, the power of prayer, and a life full of Synchronistic help.

The car jolted suddenly to a halt in front of the publisher's building and the driver smiled, apparently satisfied with my impromptu answer.

"Good luck," he said.

"Thanks for the practice time," I replied.

Inside, I sat around the table with all the publisher's staff, and discussed the same ideas, only we looked at the book from an even higher perspective, framing the unity against corruption and the emergence of a new spiritual sensibility as a world-wide phenomenon, a kind of "authentic spirituality" emerging from the best of the world's spiritual knowledge—yet respectful of the rich diversity of religious tradition.

"I think what the book needs," my publisher said at one point, nodding her head, "is a Countdown, where for a while before publication, you write something each week about the book to make your case, maybe even release a snippet of the first chapter."

Later, on the way out, someone else said, "You should make these articles off the cuff, just a day in the life of James Redfield—you know, what you're really up to in your life." His smile was contagious.

I thought for a moment about what such an honest, bare-bones screed might look like, then instantly remembered all the thoughts that had poured out of me on the trip across town, in part thanks to my driver.

"Okay," I said. "I can do that. After all, it's the first step into the Twelfth Insight."



Editor's note: Each week, beginning January 24, a new article and a new excerpt from the Twelfth Insight will be released. Be sure to sign up for James' email alerts. Also hear James on the Steve Maraboli Radio Show each Monday at Noon Eastern (US).

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Transcendent

This review is from: Waking God: Book One: The Journey Begins (Paperback)
Waking God is a deeply emotive experience. This book is technically fiction; it has a dynamic and intelligent plot, but it also reads more as a study in philosophy and religion, an unveiling of the harmful effects of dogma and the necessity of self-exploration in a world that makes it tempting to accept the moral codes handed to us (despite the often-illogical and contradictory rules that are attached). The basic quest here is the search for truth, the mastery of self and all the power each of us uses and misuses and herein, Brian L. Doe and Phillip K. Harris create a wholly engrossing story that will grab a reader and shake her, not telling her to think this or that, not preaching, but asking her what it is she really believes by engaging her in an this intense spiritual story. This is a book that will no doubt evoke a myriad of emotion from any reader, no matter religious belief or spiritual leaning, because it asks universal questions; questions that must be asked, especially in our current time. I say to any reader: buy the book, read it, loan it to a friend, discuss it, and brace yourself for the journey. Some books have the ability to alter a reader's view of the world if only by causing him to think about the human experience in a slightly different way, and this is one of those books. I look forward to the second installment: The Sacred Rota.
Jen Knox, author, MUSICAL CHAIRS

An Anthem For Our Times

This review is from: Waking God: Book One: The Journey Begins (Paperback)
Waking God has some very real people doing some powerful stuff to the universe.... And they are serious..And they are 'pissed.' Their world speaks to us with both the angry voice of prophesy and the ethereal sound of the interceding angels. ...It is biblical and other worldly with universal truths inside these pages applicable to all religions. Where iconoclastic hipsters make war and metaphysical, but non-religious intellects suddenly believe, this Waking God is not what it seems. As a Jew who never did understand what the difference was between--say, a Presbyterian or a Protestant, I initially felt like a cheerleader on the sidelines, but one who didn't understand the game, or whom to really root for. But around mid-way through this extraordinarily woven labyrinthine, I realized Waking God was talking directly to me with the language from the Bible. Though sometimes making argument that may be questionable to orthodox views, Waking God has such a spiritual undertone that, if you ask me, I would call this a moving, deeply religious work. Waking God is ultimately a thrill ride-- spellbinding, passionate and furious. One never knows who is going to survive the chapter. As a writer, I also must add that Harris' prose jumps off the page with visual and poetic clarity. It is a pleasure to read a real craftsman at work on a project he obviously so passionately believes.
Robert Rubenstein, Author:
Ghost Runners

You shall know the truth and it shall set you free

This review is from: Waking God: Book One: The Journey Begins (Paperback)
Waking God was a good read the first time and even better the second time around. Why did I read it twice, because I enjoyed the story and there aren't many stories now-a-days that compel me to read them twice. That's the power of Phil Harris's and Brian Doe's ability to weave a complex metaphysical thriller into a believable and entertaining story that seems more truth than fiction. The universal truths in Waking God must be examined.

Is the book canonical, not necessarily, but then aren't the real truths hidden in some of the uncanonical works? Waking God is a wake up call for all of humanity. It is a philosophical and metaphysical work of fiction that will keep the reader turning pages and hoping for more to come. When you turn the final page you shall know the truth and it shall set you free.

I highly recommend Waking God and look forward to the next book in the series.

Michael Davis

Author, God's Vacation

Sunday, January 16, 2011

OPHIUCHUS




I am by no means an expert in astrology. However, in an entangled universe, it is clear that the inter-connectedness of ‘all’ things, physically, mentally and spiritually, give major credence that all heavenly bodies affect us all. It is of great interest that Ophiuchus appears at this time as a true zodiacal sign. Ahhh, enter the serpent and all of the wisdom that it brings. Religious dogma likes to demonize the serpent and to attribute to it evil qualities. But in mysticism, the serpent is wisdom, Sophia. The issue of the myth of good versus evil is a major topic in the WAKING GOD TRILOGY. Further, as we head towards 2012, it makes sense that the serpent should re-appear in the heavens to lead humanity to its ‘Second Coming.” And, while 12 may be the desired number, remember that 13 is the number that includes the Master. Energies are certainly shifting and the stars have much to tell us. Keep an open mind and embrace the wisdom that may soon manifest-if we choose wisely.

The following is basic information about the appearance of Ophiuchus:

The star doctors say Earth is currently in a different spot in relation to the Sun, and its equatorial alignment has changed from 3,000 years ago when the study of astrology began -- back when 12 zodiac signs were assigned to 12 different periods of the year.
Those signs you were born into are different now because the Earth's wobble on its axis has created a one-month bump in the alignment of the stars, according to Kunkle.
"Because of this change of tilt, the Earth is really over here in effect and Sun is in a different constellation than it was 3,000 years ago."
the sun was in Pisces on March 1, 2000 BC but it is in Aquarius on March 1, 2011 AD.”
the earth's axis has increased from the normal 23.5 degree tilt to a current tilt of 49.5 degrees. the website maintains that "It did not slip all at once. It has been a slow change over the past 20 years, but two of the most significant axial shifts occurred between Dec 4 and 6, 2006."

The constellation, Ophiuchus, has been known since ancient times, and is better known as Serpentarius, the Serpent Holder. It  is included in the list of 48 constellations described by Ptolemy. Ophiuchus is depicted as a man handling a serpent; his body dividing the large snake into two parts, giving way to the symbol used today as an Asclepius - the medical staff. Astrologers have not included Ophiuchus in the wheel of Astrological signs because the Sun spends only about nineteen days in this 13th sign of the Mazzaroth. Not that there wasn't a 13th sign in the Heavens, but as far as Astrologers were concerned, the Sun traveled from the constellation 'Scorpius' and then proceeded directly into the sign of Sagittarius. In reality, this was not the case. The Sun, for 19 days of the year, travels through the star constellation 'Ophiuchus' before entering Sagittarius from Scorpius - see chart below. thus  The sign of Ophiuchus is patterned after the original 'Serpent Holder', Enki, a Sumerian god.
The signs of the Zodiac are for the most part, the highway, or path on which the Sun takes it's yearly journey across the heavens -  as it would appear to Earthlings. These signs are actually star constellations occupying space in which the Sun appears to travels in an earth year. The original twelve signs/constellations: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces are quite familiar to everyone, however, the thirteenth sign and constellation, [Ophiuchus], is in fact, not well known.  To acknowledge a 13th sign now would seem awkward for astrologers, who like the tidiness of 12 signs that rule over the 12 houses of the Zodiac. The heavens are alive and they do change after a few thousand years and the astrologer who wants to maintain accuracy must change along with the signs in the heavens.

T
he constellation of Ophiuchus is the only sign of the Zodiac which is linked to a real man. This man lived in ancient Egypt around the 27th century BCE, and his name was Imhotep [again patterned after Enki]. Many of the same attributes of Imhotep can also be found in the Biblical Hebrew man Joseph, son of Jacob - [see comparison chart for these two men in separate article].  Imhotep is credited with many accomplishments including the knowledge and use of medicine.  It is said of Imhotep that he brought the art of healing to mankind. The symbol of a serpent [or snake], which is still widely used today to represent the medical profession, was used to represent Imhotep.  Imhotep was also known as 'Aesclepius' to the ancient Greeks, but by any name the attributes are still all the same. The attributes listed below describe the Serpent Holder, Imhotep, i.e. the Hebrew Joseph, and Aesclepius. The keyword descriptions seen below, originated with Betty Rhodes, and are the attributes for the 13th sign of the Zodiac - Ophiuchus:

LIST OF KEY WORDS DESCRIBING THE SIGN OF OPHIUCHUS
  • interpreter of dreams, vivid premonitions,
  • attracts good luck and fruitful blessings,
  • serpent holder, lofty ideals,
  • a seeker of peace and harmony,
  • doctor of medicine or science, natural-pathic,
  • adds, increases, joins, or gathers together
  • poetical, inventive nature, expanding qualities,
  • seeks higher education and wisdom,
  • overseer, supervisor of work,
  • fame - either grand, or completely misunderstood,
  • longevity, aspirations of healing the ills of man,
  • architect, builder, reaches for the stars, figuratively and literally,
  • tax assessor, or levys taxes,
  • astrological talents, intuitive,
  • large family indicated, but apt to be separated from them when young,
  • the number twelve holds great significance, 
  • foresight and good fortune to benefit from hard times,
  • has secret enemies in family or close associations,
  • many jealous of this subject,
  • notable father, apple of father's eye when young,
  • high position in life expected [depending on aspects] highest fame and legend comes after death
  • feelings of granular, wise, genius mentality,
  • likes to wear clothing of vibrant colors, and plaids in particular,
  • receives the favor of those in authority.

buy the book, read it, loan it to a friend, discuss it,

Waking God is a deeply emotive experience. This book is technically fiction; it has a dynamic and intelligent plot, but it also reads more as a study in philosophy and religion, an unveiling of the harmful effects of dogma and the necessity of self-exploration in a world that makes it tempting to accept the moral codes handed to us (despite the often-illogical and contradictory rules that are attached). The basic quest here is the search for truth, the mastery of self and all the power each of us uses and misuses and herein, Brian L. Doe and Philip F. Harris create a wholly engrossing story that will grab a reader and shake her, not telling her to think this or that, not preaching, but asking her what it is she really believes by engaging her in an this intense spiritual story. This is a book that will no doubt evoke a myriad of emotion from any reader, no matter religious belief or spiritual leaning, because it asks universal questions; questions that must be asked, especially in our current time. I say to any reader: buy the book, read it, loan it to a friend, discuss it, and brace yourself for the journey. Some books have the ability to alter a reader’s view of the world if only by causing him to think about the human experience in a slightly different way, and this is one of those books. I look forward to the second installment: The Sacred Rota.
Jen KnoxAuthor of Musical Chairs
San Antonio College English Professor

AVAILABLE FROM ALL THINGS THAT MATTER PRESS ON 1/19/11

Friday, January 14, 2011

"the book refuses to be put in a box"

Waking God is the first novel in a trilogy by  Philip F. Harris and Brian L. Doe, reissued in its third edition by All Things That Matter Press. Though it is a thriller that can simply be read for its faced-paced story and non-stop action, still one would be remiss to call it a page-turner, merely.  For it’s also a fantasy, a book of religious, or is it anti-religious, or is it anti-religious religious, theology?  There’s the rub—the book refuses to be put in a box.  It keeps jumping out at you.
It’s also a story of love and friendship and trust on many levels, a story of jealously, insanity and international intrigue that moves across the globe, and told in a dizzying series of camera angles and cuts.  It’s a book of prophesy in the truest Old Testament sense. That is, it does not predict, or claim to predict, the future any more than Jeremiah or Elijah do. Rather, it allegorically suggests, as the prophets of old did, “keep on doing as you are doing and you just might end up in the sort of mayhem you seem to be headed for,” leaving the “there, I told you so” to the future.  Ultimately it is a book of idealism and misplaced hope.
It’s a book in which your grandma’s common-place theology is turned on its head and shaken like her old salt-cellar, just to see what falls out.  And what does?  Angels who may or may not be demons and demons who may be the ones wearing white hats and werewolves and old ideas that, like that old, caked salt in grandma’s old shaker, may have stuck together in the wrong way after all these years of unexamined religion and unaware life.
--Review by Sandy Cohen, author of Revelations: A Novel, The Viper’s Son, Norman Mailer’s Novels, Bernard Malamud and the Trial by Love, and Professor of Literature   
"Waking God takes the reader on a spiritual journey to a higher good that tends to break the barriers of dogmas that have kept people in the dark for ages.  Waking God by Philip Harris and Brian Doe will give Dan Brown fans a new idol.  This book shatters philosophical dogmas that the Church of Rome will be pressed to once again defend itself for philosophical deceit.

Waking God is enlightening.  It does not attempt to destroy ones faith in God, but rather provides credence to a higher power - the supernatural powers of the universe.  The forces of good -vs- evil is presented with credibility shrouded in mystery. Threats of violence together with intrigue for the developing hero and heroine keeps the reader wanting to know what happens next.

I encourage the reader to take this mystical journey that unfolds with carefully researched historical facts with a supernatural twist.  You will enjoy this journey to a higher realm of being and understanding.

If you liked “The Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons or The Lost Symbol, by Dan Brown, you will thoroughly enjoy Waking God.  It is destined to be a Number One Bestseller. "

Abe March, author of THEY PLOTTED REVENGE AGAINST AMERICA


THE THIRD EDITION OF BOOK I WILL BE RELEASED 0N THE FULL MOON, 1/19/2011 BY ALL THINGS THAT MATTER PRESS!

More reviews coming!

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

YOU NEED TO READ WAKING GOD

Now, more than ever, you need to read the WAKING GOD TRILOGY. Look at this list:

*December 30 - fish started washing up along the sides of the Arkansas River resulting in and estimated 100,000 total.
*December 30 - over 100 tons of dead fish, sardines, croakers, and cat fish wash ashore in Rio De Janerio.
*December 31 - Bebe, Arkansas saw thousands of dead birds,  red winged black birds.
*January 1 - Kentucky hundreds of dead birds near Murray State University.
*January 4 -Point Coupee Parish, Louisiana, 500 dead birds, red wing black birds, found along highway.
*January 4 - hundreds of dead fish wash up on the shores of St Clair River Sania, Ontario, Canada.
*January 4 - Orange, Florida, thousands of dead fish on the banks of Spruce Creek.
*January 5 - 2 million dead fish in Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.
*January 5 - 200 dead birds in Tyler Texas.
*January 5 - Wilson, Tennessee, 150 dead birds.
* January 5 - Falkoeping, West Sweden, 50 - 100 dead birds, crows, found on a street in that city.
*January 5 - Kent England, 40,000 dead crabs, velvet swimming crabs, was ashore.
*January 5 - New Zealand, hundreds of red snapper was ashore.
This is an up to date list of the dead bird and dead fish events from around the world. One incident listed here is the dead crabs that washed ashore. This list is from information found on the website National Post where these locations are all pinpointed on a map of the world.

The above was as of 1/7/11. More has happened including:
Over 100 birds were found dead along a California highway this past weekend, and thousands of dead fish were reported along Chicago's lakefront prior to that. A smaller incident of around 30 dead birds was also reported in Missouri.

Trying to downplay these incidents, we have seen all kinds of dumb reasons about the phenomena from fireworks and hail to this is nothing new.

Clearly, something is happening. A confluence of events is happening that will change the world forever. Not way off in the future, but now.

Book I of the WAKING GOD TRILOGY is being re-released  in a few weeks. Book II will follow in February and Book III in March. In order not to be the victim of current events, it would be in your interest to gain a better understanding of what is happening; why it's happening and choices you can make to prevent it happening to you. The Trilogy is not a how to book, but it will take you on a journey that will enable you to create a new reality bereft of "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune."

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

DEAD BIRDS, FISH, ECONOMY?

 The WAKING GOD TRILOGY DESCRIBES A NEAR FUTURE WORLD The story of WAKING GOD has become more prophecy than fiction. Are we destined to experience the worst of the Mayan, Nostradamus, Hopi, DaVinci prophecies? Choices will have to be made-now. Look for the re-release of the Trilogy beginning later in January!



Here are some recent headline stories:

Thousands of dead birds and fish in Arkansas leave many scratching heads

Maybe the Mayans were on to something?
That's surely what students of the famed Mayan 2012 prophecy for the end of the world had to be thinking with the news of recent eerie wildlife die-offs in Arkansas. Just as the calendar nudged a year closer to that fateful date, birds began falling from the sky in Arkansas and  a massive fish kill occurred some 125 miles to the west.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110103/ts_yblog_thelookout/massive-bird-fish-kills-in-arkansas-leave-many-scratching-heads


Dead Birds Fall From Sky AGAIN


Around 500 dead birds have fallen from the sky in Louisiana, found scattered along a quarter-mile portion of highway in Point Coupee Parish, the AP reports. The discovery is approximately 300 miles south of Beebe, Arkansas, where just days earlier thousands of the same species of birds also fell from the sky.
Initial tests conducted by biologists on the red-winged blackbirds and starlings found in Arkansas revealed that the birds suffered internal injuries that formed deadly blood clots. Countless explanations have been speculated, from intense high-altitude weather like lightning or hail to disturbance from fireworks. Disease and poison were determined to be far less likely causes, though full test results won't rule them out until next week.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/04/birds-fall-from-sky-louisiana_n_804196.html?utm_campaign=010411&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Alert-green&utm_content=FullStory

Full Catastrophe Banking in 2011

With a $4.7 trillion bailout under their belts and no harm done to their billion-dollar bonuses, don't expect Wall Street bankers to be chastened by the 2008 financial crisis. Below we list eight things to watch out for in 2011 that threaten to rock the financial system and undermine any recovery.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mary-bottari/full-catastrophe-banking_b_803622.html?utm_source=DailyBrief&utm_campaign=010411&utm_medium=email&utm_content=BlogEntry&utm_term=Daily+Brief