Monday's Odds and Ends - The End of the World as we Know It

The End To Occupy Chapel Hill - North Carolina's liberal bastion of academia and open mindedness aka Chapel Hill, put an end to a poorly conceived "Occupy" off-shoot.



According to the Daily Tar Heel protesters occupying the former Chrysler building at 419 W. Franklin St. were arrested by law enforcement officers Sunday evening.

A Chapel Hill Police Department press release stated that police sent a tactical team to break up the protest after learning that known anarchists were present. According to the release, the group had people stationed on the roof and had obstructed the building’s windows.

Based on the risks, police entered and secured the building, arresting eight people for misdemeanor breaking and entering. Those arrested were transported to appear before a magistrate in Hillsborough.

Occupiers said despite rumors that police might ask them to leave, they didn’t expect what they called a “raid.”



Cedars Take: Watch for the bus Chapel Hill Police used. Ironically the bus has a Wachovia is changing to Wells Fargo Ad with the tag line "when you have places to go" on the side. The "Occupy" movement may have some valid points, however occupying an a vacant and not abandoned building wasn't a bright move.

Was the show of force needed? It might seem like overkill but if you have unknowns who have taken over a building and you can't see what is going on that is the tactic you use. So props to Chapel Hill for shutting down these wack jobs.

The Video is also here.

Panthers' World Collapses - Actually they did show up, but it is clear that they spent the bye week thinking it was "Bo Time" as they looked slow, lazy and over fed. The only flashes of brilliance wearing Panther colors came from the Cheerleaders. Even when Cam Newton was on target and connected yellow flags rained on his parade. Effectively the season is over, even the fans began to clear out at the end of the 3rd quarter.

Occupy Charlotte Gears Up For Confrontation - In a recent posting on the Examiner Charlotte's Robert Tifford expands on a Charlotte Biz Journal's story "Occupy Charlotte protest costs and CMPD's intel gathering". The full article is here.

Tifford Notes: "Occupy Charlotte protesters know this is going on and are conducting in some cases elaborate counterintelligence operations that include monitoring police broadcasts and media reports.

Some of the protesters are ex-military, security guards and private investigators. They run the entire gambit of people in society. You also have some civil rights attorneys, pastors and Christians involved in the Occupy Charlotte movement. On the other end of that, you have computer hackers, and suspected members of the autonomous collective Anonymous."

The posting points readers to suggested methods of subverting Police should they try to remove the Occupy Charlotte protesters.

Direct action includes the use of padlocks and chains, which can be put on gates to cause confusion and may hold up work, while they run around looking for the keys and then bolt croppers. Superglue or liquid metal in their padlocks means that they have to cut off their own locks and keep buying new ones. Bicycle D-locks are a classic direct action tool. They fit neatly around pieces of machinery, gates and your neck. It is worth working in pairs when trying to lock on. The person locking on carries the U shaped section, and loops it around both a suitable fixed piece of machine/gate and their neck. Then their "buddy", carrying lock barrel and key, secures the lock, and hides, or runs off with the key.

The entire Pratical Protest flyer is here.

The Battle of Seccesionville - Re-enactors from up and down the East Coast converged on Boone Hall Plantation in Mount Pleasant South Carolinaon for the annual Battle of Secessionville re-enactment.


On the right is South Carolina State Senate President Glenn McConnell. McConnell is an avid volunteer with the Marion Light Artillery re-enactment group and the cannon belongs to him.

More Photos from this weekend's battle can be found here.

Famous Last Words - A story about solar flares that might pose an existential threat to the earth made the rounds last week.

NASA officials said Friday that an upcoming solar flare does not pose an existential threat to the earth. This was in response to reports that sun, which is slated to peak in its 11-year cycle in 2012, would launch a solar flare the size of multiple earths, possibly stripping large portions of the earth’s atmosphere.

"There simply isn’t enough energy in the sun to send a killer fireball 93 million miles to destroy Earth", NASA heliophysicist Alex Young said. More here.

Cedar's Take: I'm not sure what epic disaster film that line is from but it didn't turn out so well.