New Fire Near USS Miami

There was a new fire discovered near the USS Miami (SSN-755) on Saturday, June 16, 2012.

The Navy Times published this:

A Maine shipyard is investigating what caused a small fire outside a nuclear-powered submarine that was severely damaged by another blaze last month.
The fire was reported about 7 p.m. Saturday in the dry dock where the Miami is located, The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard said.
A shipyard employee doused the fire with a portable extinguisher before the shipyard’s fire department arrived, and the ship’s reactor was never in danger, officials said. No one was hurt. The shipyard did not release additional information.
The latest fire was reported less than four weeks after a May 23 fire heavily damaged the submarine while it was in dry dock for an overhaul. That fire damaged the torpedo room, crew quarters, and command and control areas in the front of the submarine, but the nuclear propulsion components at the back of the sub were spared.
The Navy has estimated repair costs at $400 million (see Miami repair estimated at $400M).

For more on the post-May 23rd regulations that were installed, see all of the article here.

The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Fire Department responded to a report of another potential blaze aboard USS Miami on June 6, but it turned out to be a false alarm (see Firefighters respond to false alarm on Miami).

As I noted earlier (see here), the intriguing timing of the original fire of the USS Miami at the Maine shipyard, and the disruptive flights landing in Miami and Maine served as sorts of foreshadowing of some immediate weird incidents. These events were precursors to the wild but brief outbursts of synchromystic cannibal news that began in Miami.

In the wake of cannibals, what might be ahead as we rush to the naturally strange St. John's Day on June 24th, with its fires and Forteana?  

Prometheus and Cannibalism

Coincidences? Synchronicity? A Maryland man was charged with killing another man and eating his heart and portions of his brain. Maryland, Miami, and many, many more, as, literally, cannibals abound. Now, a new movie opens named after a character who had his liver eaten every day. Science fiction becomes reality? Reality becomes science fiction?

The newest "cannibal attack" has occurred in Louisiana, in, yes, Lafayette Parish. (Read more about the powerful name game at the "Fayette Factor.")

What is going on? What myths are being worked out in front of our eyes?

Prometheus (Greek: Προμηθεύς) is a Titan, culture hero, and trickster figure who in Greek mythology is credited with the creation of man from clay.  Prometheus stole fire from Zeus and gave it to the mortals, an act that enabled progress and civilization. He is known for his intelligence, and as a champion of mankind.

The punishment of Prometheus as a consequence of the theft is a major theme of his mythology, and is a popular subject of both ancient and modern art. Zeus, king of the Olympian gods, sentenced the Titan to eternal torment for his transgression. The immortal Prometheus was bound to a rock, where each day an eagle, the emblem of Zeus, was sent to feed on his liver, only to have it grow back to be eaten again the next day. In some stories, Prometheus is freed at last by the hero Heracles (Hercules).

Charlize Theron plays Meredith Vickers

Today, is the date for the June 8th opening in the USA of director Ridley Scott's and producer Tony Scott's Prometheus.

In a review of Prometheus published in The Times of India, Allen O'Brien, TNN, notes one actor above all others, and additionally adds a note tied to our theme here: 

The one standing tall is Noomi Rapace  (Elizabeth Shaw) who has her priorities -- religion versus science -- in place while she is out getting answers to phenomena unexplained. So what if she does not have the muscular frame and steely nerves of Alien's Riley (Remember Sigourney Weaver?); Elizabeth's willpower grows with every situation as she finally stands up to a cannibalistic alien force. Clap! Clap!

"Cannibalistic alien force"? Of course, the aliens aren't eating each other. They are eating humans. The term is being used incorrectly, but that's the way the word "cannibalistic" is employed sometimes.

David (Michael Fassbender) looks in on Dr. Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace)

Sources on linkages and symbolic connections in Blade Runner and Prometheus are to be found in the hundreds throughout the Internet, and specifically include various trivia authored by many contributors to IMDb and the two movies commentary websites. Additionally, Wikipedia has been used throughout, when appropriate, for information that is well-cited and generally known. Please do your own background original research, if you wish, to dig into any specific area of interest to you. 

For more insights on Prometheus, please see also my Twilight Language postings here and here.

Chinese Cannibal (食人魔)

This is a new cannibal story. Due to the apparent blocking of the word "cannibal" (食人魔) by the Chinese government and/or media, the recent news of a cannibal serial killer has taken some time to be disseminated widely. (Revisit my recent overview of cannibals here.)

According to the Washington Post, on May 27, 2012, an arrest of 56-year-old Zhang Yongming in southwestern China occurred. He was accused of killing 11 people and dismembering, burning and burying their bodies to destroy the evidence. He allegedly attacked male victims walking on the quiet road near his home in Jinning county. The word "cannibal" was not used in the American story.

Details were graphically being given elsewhere (as per the photograph above).

An article in the Daily Telegraph said it all in their headline: "China's 'Cannibal Monster' Detained."

One critical sentence, tied to the headline, was this one:

Zhang, a loner who never talked to his neighbours, had previously served almost 20 years in jail for murder and was known in the village as the "cannibal monster."

Other details emerged in the story:

The man is believed to have chopped up their bodies and sold the flesh to unsuspecting consumers.
Police made the gruesome discovery during an investigation into the disappearances of male teenagers in Yunnan province in recent years, according to reports in Hong Kong and Chinese media…
…residents…had seen green plastic bags hanging from his home, with what appeared to be white bones protruding from the top.
Hong Kong newspaper The Standard said police discovered human eyeballs preserved inside wine bottles - "like snake wine" - and pieces of what appeared to be human flesh hanging up to dry when they entered Zhang's home.
Police feared that Zhang had fed human flesh to his three dogs, while selling other parts on the market, calling it "ostrich meat"...
Cannibalism is a particularly sensitive subject in China, where it was practised as a survival tactic during periods of mass starvation, for example in the wake of a failed industrialisation drive launched in the late 1950s.
Individual cases of cannibalism were also recorded during the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976, when it was carried out as a symbolic act against perceived enemies of the communist cause.

Synchromystic Cannibals?

by Loren Coleman ©2012

Kessel le Vieux Jan van (1626-1679) Peinture sur cuivre

Cannibals are in the news this week. Why? Miami, Montreal, Maryland. Did you also hear about Manitoba, as well? Synchromystic cannibals? Synchronicity? Copycat media?


Cannibalism

The word "cannibalism" originated from caníbales, the Spanish name for the Carib people, a West Indies ethnic social group formerly well known for their practice of cannibalism. Cannibalism, also called anthropophagy, is defined as the act or practice of humans (Homo sapiens) eating the flesh of other human beings, although prehistorically Neandertals eating CroMagnons and CroMagnons eating Neandertals has been called cannibalism. Humans eating Homo floresiensis, the so-called little people, the Hobbits of Flores Island may have taken place, and I'm sure that would be called cannibalism, as well. 

A person who practices cannibalism is called a cannibal. They aren't zombies. They aren't vampires. Both of those are mostly fictionalized characterizations. Cannibals are real. The folktale/fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel is, at its core, about cannibalism. The account about Jeffrey Dahmer, who killed and ate men and boys between 1978 and 1991 in Wisconsin, is a true tale of cannibalism.

In the last week, the news has been filled with cannibals. Despite attempts to avoid the news, how can we? Cannibals are in the news. Why?


Miami Cannibal
First, we have 31-year-old Rudy Eugene (in box below) videotaped devouring Ronald Poppo, homeless man (face first) during an unprovoked attack Saturday (May 26, 2012) afternoon, which started near the Miami Herald building, and ended on the Mac­Arthur Causeway in Miami, Florida. When Eugene ignored orders to stop, police shot him dead. 

Above Top Secret already detailed, as I often do here, the synchromystic name game. What is to be found is intriguing.


Rudy = Rudolph = Rudolf = from Germanic Hrudolf = hrod/"fame" + wulf/"wolf"
Eugene = "well-born"


Ronald = "ruler's counselor"
Poppo = this has been the name of various religious figures, like Popes.


So, "Rudy Eugene" is a well-born, famous wolf?  A werewolf? And "Ronald Poppo" is to be understood as having some relationship to ruler's decisions, power, Popes, and father figures (poppo - poppy - pop - Popes).

Ronald Poppo, 65, (left) is still alive and in a hospital. A surprising twist in the story is his sister, Antoinette Poppo, thought her brother had killed himself years ago.

As is often heard, friends and neighbors of the attacker did not understand this kind of behavior from the person they knew. Rudy Eugene's girlfriend said the attack could only be explained by Eugene being drugged or the victim of a Voodoo curse, she said.


Montreal Cannibal

Meanwhile, in Montreal, police were seeking Luka Rocco Magnotta (above), a gay porn star in relation to the discovery on Tuesday (May 29, 2012) of a male torso in Montreal and a hand and foot from the torso mailed to Ottawa. Magnotta, 29, fled after a Chinese male associate was chopped up and eaten in Canada. Officials feared Magnotta might be heading back to London.


Luka Rocco Magnotta was born July 24, 1982 in Scarborough, Ontario, as Eric Clinton Newman but also known as Vladimir Romanov or Mattia Del Santo.

The National Post noted: 

On the web, which is where the alleged killer variously known as Luka Magnotta and Eric Clinton Newman and Vladmir Romanov was if not born then certainly nourished, he was identified five days ago as the possible maker of the 1 Lunatic 1 Ice Pick video.For the record, the video, whether it is faked or real, whether or not it is ultimately tied to the discoveries in Ottawa and Montreal of a dismembered foot (mailed to Conservative Party headquarters), a dismembered hand (caught by Canada Post) and a torso in a suitcase (discovered by a janitor) is sick-making.

Luka = "Man from Lucania"

Rocco = "battle cry"

Magnotta = diminutive of Magna, a feminine form of Magno, "fat"


Update: See here for more information on the real Russian individual named "Vladmir Romanov" who owns the Scottish football (soccer) team named Hearts. (Thanks, aferrismoon.)

Magnotta's victim has been identified as Lin Jun (above), a 33-year-old Chinese man studying at Concordia University in Montreal. He apparently was killed on May 24th or 25th.

Magnotta is believed to be on the run in France, and reported to be obsessed by the Eiffel Tour.


Update: Magnotta has been arrested. Click here for more details.

Maryland Cannibal
On Thursday (May 31, 2012), at the 21-year-old college student Alexander Kinyua’s bail review, a judge denied him bail. But the suspect, who was arrested on Wednesday, remained calm. He said very little other than he was originally from Nairobi, Kenya, and had strong community ties to Maryland after living here for nine years. But details behind this stunning crime remain a mystery. Investigators say Kinyua killed his Morgan State University roommate 37-year-old Kujoe Bonsafo Agyei-Kodie, and then ate his heart and parts of his brain. He cut off his victim’s head and hands and stored them in his family’s townhouse on Terrapin Terrace in Joppatowne, Maryland.

Alexander Kinyua, left, and Kujoe Bonsafo Agyei-Kodie, right.

Kinyua was due to be expelled from university after beating a fellow student with a baseball bat days earlier. That student was left blind in one eye by the apparently random attack.

Agyei-Kodie, a Ghanaian national, was also dismissed from Morgan after receiving a conviction for a fourth-degree sex offense, harassment and stalking in 2008.

I have been unable to find what exact tribal groups these men are from, or what translations there are for their names. 

Update: As a reader notes (under comments), the Kenyan's name is Kikuyu and the meaning of "Kinyua" appears to be Kiswahili for "drinker."

The Kikuyu group is culturally tied to reports of cannibalism. Furthermore, the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya occurred between 1952 and 1960, and involved the Kikuyu-dominated anti-colonial group called Mau Mau. British soldiers developed mythic racist rumors that the Mau Mau were "wild, bloodthirsty and cannibal black terrorists."

Manitoba Cannibal

Missed by most is the precursor news event to these recent cannibal stories, the one that appeared on May 22, 2012. CBC revisited the Manitoba Greyhound bus decapitation and cannibalism incident of July 30, 2008. As Andrew Griffith of Red Dirt Report pointed out to me, the news story put out across Canada during May 2012 was about Vince Weiguang Li (shown above as prisoner), who beheaded and ate a fellow passenger aboard a bus in Manitoba nearly four years ago. Li "believed he was chosen by God to save people from an alien attack."

Vince Li's victim, 22-year-old Tim McLean.

Chinese Cannibal
For more on a Chinese serial killer recently arrested, who is being called a "cannibal," click here.


Cannibals' Name Game

The similar sounding names Poppo, Rocco, and Joppatowne in these three recent stories pop into the mind's eye.

Geographical Groups of Historical Cannibals

The traditional locations of cannibalism have been specific to certain areas of the world, although individual incidents of humans eating humans are known globally. Cannibalism was widespread in the past among humans in many parts of the world, continuing into the 19th century in some isolated South Pacific cultures, and to the present day in parts of tropical Africa. In a few cases in insular Melanesia, indigenous flesh-markets existed. Fiji was once known as the "Cannibal Isles." Cannibalism has been well documented around the world, from Fiji to the Amazon, from the Congo to Māori New Zealand. Today, the Korowai cultural group is one of very few tribes still believed to eat human flesh as a ritual practice.

Menschenfresserin by Leonhard Kern, 1650