this one is awful -- but it's Nobody's Fault!!! Hoorah!!! We don't have to be ashamed!

Top: The volcano Mayon, on the island Luzon, Philippines, photographed from space.

Bottom: Mayon erupting in 2001.

okay several things is happening on Vleeptron and Earth.

i got to get some Serious Work done.

Not that Vleeptron and Vleeptron_Z are not Serious. They contain some of the best writing and journalism I've ever done, or at least of which I'm proudest. Newcomers: HERE is the first 18 months of Vleeptron. Then blogspot.com skrood up my access, so Vleeptron_Z was born.

Bob writes novels, and is cranking out a new one. So probably Vleeptron_Z will slow down a bit, fewer long original posts. We will just filch interesting stuph from hither and yon, and comment briefly on its implications and consequences.

You can find Bob's novels in big public libraries in North America, and on amazon.com and places like that. They are not boring; it is a Sin to chop down forests to publish boring novels, and everyone (like Stephen King and Henry James) who has done that will burn in Hell for all eternity.

Meanwhile I am also spending a lot of time on Vleeptron this week. That's because Earth really bites this week. Earth is having a total collapse of Vision and Leadership, and, as usual, that means enlisted low-rank conscripted/drafted young soldiers will get their snrzqq shot off and blown away.

Also big-ass bombs are dropping from the sky onto the heads of infants, children, women, men, old men, old women, and housepets and zoo animals. If you think I am making jokes, when we all learn The Ultimate Truth about God and Theology (I don't know just when this will be, if ever), I don't think God is going to be any happier about the way we treat the animals whose well-being we were entrusted with than God will be Happy about how humans treat their human neighbors and siblings.

Total collapse of Vision, Leadership, Diplomacy, Politics. Low-rank enlisted conscript soldiers dying and killing all over Asia.

I think The Holy Land is in Asia, is it Asia? Why is this so ambiguous and vague a geography question? It ain't Africa and it ain't Europe, so it's got to be Asia, right? Leave A Comment.

Also, NGO Vleeptron is proceeding with its Plan to make the Holy Land 30 percent Less Holy, immediately. We going to make The Holy Land about as Holy as Pittsburgh or Antwerp. People in Antwerp and Pittsburgh kill each other because God wanted them to, too, but far fewer such Holy Homicides, and the killers are properly placed in locked psychiatric hospitals, rather than elected or appointed to high political office or positions of authority involving weapons and high explosives.

A great deal of what is happening in the Holy Land right now can be very well explained in psychiatric terms and paradigms. It is perfectly possible for 1,830,000 people to become psychiatrically ill at the same time in much the same way, with largely the same symptoms, and to want to do violent things to each other.

One test of this is that psychiatric medicines liberally distributed for free throughout the Holy Land right now would probably have Positive Benefits for community safety and health. A lot of Diazepam. A lot of Bekaa Valley hashish. Prozac where necessary, anti-psychotics. See what happens in two weeks, More Violence, or Less Violence?

If Less Violence, than it wasn't really The Voice of God commanding all this killing, it was probably major mass imbalances in Seratonin. The Holy Land is having a mass community epidemic of violent psychiatric disorders, and Big Pharma and the Bekaa farmers could play important roles in getting this epidemic under control before too many more people and animals suffer.

~ ~ ~

Bob is listening to: Dennis Brain (English horn), soloist, Horn Concertos of Richard Strauss and Paul Hindemith.

~ ~ ~

Now here is a Much Better Thing happening on Earth right now.

Another volcano in the Ring of Fire is blowing its top, this time on the island of Luzon in the Philippines.

Everybody pooping their shorts, thousands fleeing for their lives. Pyroclastic flows. Fear of Lahars!!!

Who is telephoning Reuters to take credit?

"Hello, haha, my associates and I are Evil and we have caused the volcano to erupt! We hate your Freedom!"

Nope. Nobody. It's nobody's fault. Nobody to blame. Death, fear, destruction, innocent victims -- and No Human Being is to blame.

Sometimes you can blame administrators and polticians, like Mike ("helluva job Brownie!") Brown, for screwing up the relief and evacuation plan, and that can kill 400 more people than really had to die.

But the volcano blowing its stack? No villain. No Osama. No IDF. No Hezbollah. (How is this correctly spelled in the Roman alphabet? How does Hezbollah spell Hezbollah?) Bush has an alibi. Cheney was off hunting, and Rumsfeld was in Iraq, I think.

Theologically, maybe Satan made the volcano erupt.

Or maybe God. Like when God pulls a little girl out of the path of a speeding PVTA or Peter Pan bus and saves her life. On Tuesdays God cures childhood leukemias, on Wednesdays God surprises Luzon with an erupting volcano.

The Vleepton Theological Truth Agency (VTTA) is still having a little trouble clarifying aspects of the Anthropomorphic God who Loves and Cares and Intervenes in the goings-on on and beneath the surface of Earth.

An alternative is the Spinozan Pantheist God, who is simply equated with Nature. God is the Totality of Nature and the Universe. And therefore is Uninvolved and Nonjudgmental, and shortly after God's fundamental Creation of the Universe (Big Bang), no longer cares what happens to the little girl who wandered in front of the bus. She's on her own, good luck. No Complaint Department. Prayer uneccesary and totally useless, prayers neither heard nor considered nor responded to.

This is almost universally considered to be a Heresy and Blasphemy worthy of being burned at the stake.

So which is it? Check one:

* He created all of us, He loves us, He cares, He intervenes, He is stirring up the Holy Land pot to boiling over, He is responsible for two or three sets of His True Believers to murder each other for a week or two weeks or a month, or maybe ceaselessly. War Without End, Amen.

Or

* He created the Yglem and then the Quarks and Leptons and Hadrons, and that was Enough, He retired then, permanently. Everything that followed is Not His Doing.

Leave A Comment. I can check my e-mail in Ciudad Vleeptron.

And now, back to the volcano. Notice again that the Manila Bulletin is running a Deutsche-Presse Agentur story. That's like sooooooooooooo pathetic. I guess maybe they're a coupon advertising free throwaway. Or maybe they have more important stories to cover than erupting terrifying volcanos. They can't afford the plane or ferry fare to send a reporter to Luzon. There's a Zoning Commission meeting tonight.

I have more trouble understanding newspapers in the Ring of Fire who use wire stories about their erupting neighborhood volcanos than i have trouble understanding the Nature of God. I think the last Hot Volcano, Merapi, the Jakarta newspaper ran the Associated Press story and fotos.

Bad publisher! No Beluga caviar! No mistress tonight!

There is also a Theory that God is Anthropomorphic and Interventionist and Judgmental, but is also a hopeless drunk, or a crazy sick puppy with a vile sense of humor, and enjoys seeing us all run around screaming in fear and suffering. This is all some kind of Sick Joke, and we are perpetually powerless even to say, "That's not funny! Stop that!"

As we might have said in Syllogistic Class:

A. Thousands of human beings are Acting Out in the Holy Land in violent ways of mass psychiatric violence this week.

B. They claim they are doing God's bidding.

C. God created human beings in His image.

Therefore, D: _______________ .

The following passage is a reflection of that Theory, possibly expressed by God Himself:

[1] Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
[2] Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?
[3] Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.
[4] Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.
[5] Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it?
[6] Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof;
[7] When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
[8] Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?
[9] When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddlingband for it,
[10] And brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors,
[11] And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?
[12] Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days; and caused the dayspring to know his place;
[13] That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it?
[14] It is turned as clay to the seal; and they stand as a garment.
[15] And from the wicked their light is withholden, and the high arm shall be broken.
[16] Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea? or hast thou walked in the search of the depth?
[17] Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death?
[18] Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth? declare if thou knowest it all.
[19] Where is the way where light dwelleth? and as for darkness, where is the place thereof,
[20] That thou shouldest take it to the bound thereof, and that thou shouldest know the paths to the house thereof?
[21] Knowest thou it, because thou wast then born? or because the number of thy days is great?
[22] Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail,
[23] Which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?
[24] By what way is the light parted, which scattereth the east wind upon the earth?
[25] Who hath divided a watercourse for the overflowing of waters, or a way for the lightning of thunder;
[26] To cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is; on the wilderness, wherein there is no man;
[27] To satisfy the desolate and waste ground; and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth?
[28] Hath the rain a father? or who hath begotten the drops of dew?
[29] Out of whose womb came the ice? and the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it?
[30] The waters are hid as with a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen.
[31] Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?
[32] Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?
[33] Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?
[34] Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover thee?
[35] Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go, and say unto thee, Here we are?
[36] Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? or who hath given understanding to the heart?
[37] Who can number the clouds in wisdom? or who can stay the bottles of heaven,
[38] When the dust groweth into hardness, and the clods cleave fast together?
[39] Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lion? or fill the appetite of the young lions,
[40] When they couch in their dens, and abide in the covert to lie in wait?
[41] Who provideth for the raven his food? when his young ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat.

Leave A Comment.

And now back to the Volcano. It's nobody's fault, certainly no human being's fault.

What a fucking relief that is! We don't have to be ashamed of this one!

Like skinny-dipping under a cool waterfall on a hot summer day in the rain forest! (Me and some pals did that in a mountain jungle in San Luis Obispo, Mexico one time! Outstanding!)

===============
DON'T GET TOO CLOSE
TO MAYON,
TOURISTS WARNED

by Cet Dematera

LEGAZPI CITY, JULY 20, 2006 (STAR) -- The fiery shower of lava from Mayon volcano’s near-perfect cone may be a spectacle but the man who has been guiding local and foreign tourists up the crater since 1953 has advised them to keep their distance.

Seventy-three-year-old Ricardo Dy, a retired employee of the Office of Civil Defense in the Bicol Region and consultant on disaster to Albay Gov. Fernando Gonzalez, cautioned tourists not to venture into the volcano’s six-kilometer permanent danger zone.

"It is best for the tourists to stay in the elevated areas of Legazpi City and Daraga if they want to view the lava oozing out of the volcano," Dy said.

He explained that at the present rate of lava extrusion, an avalanche of house-size boulders and rocks down the steep upper slopes is imminent.

He noted that the Bonga gully, which is about 300 meters wide and 160 meters deep, was filled up with lava very fast.

"Some of the lava and giant boulders are already tumbling out of the Bonga gully and flow at great speed down the volcano," Dy told The STAR.

"If the gullies are already filled up with lava before pyroclastic flows come out, it is very likely that they would find new paths while cascading down the volcano," he added.

Ed Laguerta, resident volcanologist of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs), confirmed that Mayon had already spewed about 5,000,000 to 10,000,000 cubic meters of lava since Friday.

Dy last climbed the Philippines’ most active volcano in 2002 when he accompanied engineers from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in installing lahar sensors and rain gauge devices.

"Despite my old age, they were confident that I could still guide them to trek the volcano through its safe routes," Dy said.

Mayon’s slopes, which Dy had climbed more than 600 times, have an incline ranging from 15 degrees at the lower slopes to 60 to 90 degrees in the upper slopes.

His exploits in climbing Mt. Mayon had been published in several local and international books, newspapers and magazines and featured in video documentaries. He is also noted for giving Phivolcs important inputs drawn from his observations as a veteran climber.

Dy was the one who tipped off volcanologists on the status of the volcano’s lava dome during a climb with Swiss tourists in 1983. Mayon erupted a year later.

He said his very close contact with Mayon’s slopes allowed him to notice lava flow even in the absence of explosions that usually trigger pyroclastic flows.

More lava flows

Phivolcs said the volcano has resumed exhibiting high-level tremors and the flow of lava has now reached three kilometers from the crater, while rocks and burning fragments were falling about four kilometers away.

Light ashfalls were also experienced in areas beyond the permanent danger zone because of prevailing winds.

"At this stage, Mayon continues its mild eruption with little or no explosions. The sulfur dioxide emission rates are also elevated at about 2157 tons per day, which is expected," Phivolcs said.

Authorities appealed to thousands of farmers and their families yesterday to leave the immediate vicinity of Mayon.

About 7400 people live inside the permanent danger zone, growing vegetables and rice but the government cannot force them out until a mandatory evacuation is ordered. Many farmers are reluctant to leave their livestock and fields.

"This is our worry -- they are tending to their livestock, but when Mayon explodes, the cows are likely to end up roasted," regional disaster relief chief Arnel Capili said.

He said the farmers would be "forcibly removed" from the area if volcanologists determine that an explosive eruption is imminent.

The government of Albay had earlier declared a state of calamity in the cities of Legazpi, Tabaco and Ligao, and the towns of Sto. Domingo, Daraga, Camalig, Guinobatan and Malilipot. The move will enable the local government to quickly release emergency funds.

Gonzalez said provisions in evacuation centers, including comfort rooms, lighting and water facilities, would now be installed in preparation for a possible big eruption.

Early yesterday morning, volcanologists and disaster relief officials flew around Mayon in a helicopter, but the survey was hampered by low clouds that obscured the view of the summit.

— With Sheila Crisostomo, Celso Amo, AP, AFP

Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi

© Copyright, 2006 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
All Rights Reserved.
===============


Big boulders
trapped in Mayon’s
mid-section

by ED DE LEON, JEN JORVINA, FRANCIS T. WAKEFIELD, AARON B. RECUENCO

LEGAZPI CITY -- Boulders as big as houses are seen trapped in the mid-section of Mayon Volcano, which is some four kilometers from the crater or approximately 3,000 meters at elevation and 700 meters above sea level in Bonga gully.

"It is very dangerous for these boulders to stay in the mid-section of the volcano because the lava continues to push the boulders down towards Bonga gully," an official of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said yesterday during an inspection at the Bonga gully.

During inspection with media, Phivolcs said that boulders as big as house and lava fragments have reached farther down the slope of Mayon Volcano about four kilometers and the boulders will be carried down towards Bonga gully when it rains hard.

Philvocs said that all flow and rockfall activities are occurring well within the six-kilometer radius of the permanent danger zone (PDZ), adding that light ashfalls derived mainly from the lava fragments may be experienced over areas beyond the PDZ due to prevailing winds.

Alert Level 3 remains hoisted over Mayon.

As this developed, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Albay district engineering office said that they have necessary equipment to remove boulders blocking highways.

RISING ACTIVITY

Volcanologists said yesterday that seismic activity in Mayon apparently resumed to high levels although this mainly reflects lava extrusion and rockfalls with about 250 tremor events.

"At this stage, Mayon continues its mild eruption with little or no explosions. The Sulfur Dioxide emission rates are also elevated at about 2,157 tons per day which is to be expected from ongoing eruptive activity," Phivolcs added.

Phivolcs, however, reminded the public that explosions are still very possible and the probability of life-threatening pyroclastic flows resulting from explosive eruption remains high.

Experts, however, allayed fears of a massive lahar flow towards the towns situated at the foot of Mayon amid forecast of continuous rains in Albay.

Dr. Renato Solidum, Phivolcs director, said lahar flows would not likely to happen even if heavy downpours occur since there is very little ash deposits on the slopes of Mayon.

"What the volcano released in the past few days were molten rocks or lava," said Solidum, adding that there was only a few reported ash falls since Alert Level 3 was hoisted over the Mayon last week.

"So there is no threat of lahar flow so far," he added.

- 30 -

===========

Schoolchildren scamper
to safety as explosions
rock Mayon

MANILA (dpa / Deutsche-Presse Agentur) -- Hundreds of schoolchildren rushed out of their classrooms on Thursday as loud explosions rocked restive Mayon volcano, but no one was injured, officials said.

Classes were suspended in Bonga Elementary School in Legazpi City, Albay province, 330 kilometres southeast of Manila, one of the communities at the foot of Mayon Volcano which has been belching out lava and ash columns since last week.

Renato Solidum, chief of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs), said the explosions were triggered by secondary pyroclastic flows at the slope of the volcano and was not an explosive eruption.

"There is nothing to worry about," Solidum said. "But we would like to reiterate our warning for people to stay out of the 6-kilometre permanent danger zone to avoid unnecessary casualties."

Albay Governor Fernando Gonzalez said he would order a forced evacuation of some 10,000 people residing within the 6-kilometre danger zone if the residents continued to ignore Phivolcs' warning.

Army troops securing the area have complained that some farmers have even been climbing closer to the summit just to enjoy the view of Mayon's "quiet eruption."

Local and foreign tourists have also flocked to the towns at the foot of the volcano to watch the incandescent lava flows at night.

More than 50,000 people would have to be evacuated if a major eruption occurs, according to disaster relief agencies.

Mayon Volcano, famous for its almost perfect cone, has erupted about 50 times since 1616. It last came to life in a series of eruptions in 2001, forcing some 50,000 people to evacuate.

- 30 -