NEWS

Discussions on collapse often turn to signs and signals – The economy, politics and social tensions have become increasingly unstable for many years now, and much like adding more and more weight to a man standing on a frozen lake, eventually the ice is going to break.  The question is, how do we know when that moment will be?   

As cultural systems begins to dissolve due to political clashes and economic decline the real evil tends to slither out of the woodwork.  It happens slowly at (more…)

Authored by Michael Wing via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

There are no iPhone chargers plugged into the stone walls, no microwave ovens, or light switches in the hamlets of Bavona Valley.

(DjemoGraphic/Shutterstock)

It is, and for centuries has been, a daunting lifestyle for those inhabiting a string of lost homes in this Italian-speaking region, here in the southern Swiss Alps. Akin to hobbit dwellings from a Tolkien book or a fairytale town, cave-like abodes permeate under and in between gargantuan stones. Scattered everywhere are the remnants of earth-trembling rockslides.

Harshness aside, the scenery is gorgeous—bordering on magical. How surprising is it anyone would want to live here?

“These days, we just blow up boulders that are in the way,” Flavio Zappa told Houses of Switzerland. “But that wasn’t possible before. So people built their homes underneath them, above them, anywhere they could.”

A historian and medievalist, Mr. Zappa, with his little round glasses and rugged features, has conducted extensive excavations and mapped most of these distinctive rock homes—called splüi by locals—throughout the valley.

A hamlet in Bavona Valley, Switzerland. (Courtesy of Sylvia Michel Photography)

Paths wind into town in the valley. (Courtesy of Sylvia Michel Photography)

A house built under a monolithic boulder. (DjemoGraphic/Shutterstock)

Nested in a pretty trough valley with sheer cliff walls on either side and debris on the valley floor covered in blankets of moss and (more…)

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) criticized federal employees reportedly planning a walkout over America’s support for Israel in its war against Hamas and called for terminating their employment.

“Any government worker who walks off the job to protest U.S. support for our ally Israel is ignoring their responsibility and abusing the trust of taxpayers. They deserve to be fired,” Mr. Johnson said in a Jan. 14 (more…)