Wednesday 5 January 2011

bird of prey

After a succession of rather mysterious occurrences of birds dropping dead out of the sky in the south eastern United States, it seems that such plagues have unleashed the hounds of augury and conspiracy. Poor birds, and now fish--but no one would question such disturbing behaviour from lemmings. Speculation is ranging from the residuum of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, to the intense cold--which would exact a high toll on sea life, more accustomed to a regulated span of temperature--to New Year's fireworks, emerging disease, escaped vaccines, the bird-rapture, and to secret government testing programs, weather control, acoustic weapons, ionospheric modification to mitigate disruptions from solar flares. Maybe the US military is developing Klingon-style cloaking technology and the unfortunate flocks of birds are slamming against an invisible jet--or the schools of fish (ghotl) the propeller of an invisible submarine. Earthquakes and other natural disasters have likewise garnered these usual suspects, even at the expense of facing the more mundane and equally sinister culprits.
Being in a speculative mood, like the mounting legal footraces big banks are running to minimize damage, from snatching up domain names that could be potential outlet for disgruntled and outraged customers, what could the next big shocker be? From bypassing real estate registrars, instituted centuries ago to prevent kings from easily seizing the lands of his subjects, gambling with the money of others, squandering public treasure, and bald thievery, what could possibly be the gasping news that might make these great houses blush? Months ago, a major credit card company, was shown to practice discriminatory rate hikes based on customers' shopping habits: if a card-holder frequented an establishment that demographically suggested poor credit-worthiness, like discount stores, the card-holder might see his or her interest rates rise. Maybe the banks are doing the same, but taking it a step further and selling one's shopping lists to marketing departments, captured through ubiquitous bank cards. What other depravity and betrayal could be put on full display?