Image via WikipediaRadiation Toxicity Antidotes
What radioactive elements are the threat from Fukushima
Ø What are the specific health risks to you & your family
Ø What the sequence to these threats will be over the next 5 years
Ø What history has taught us
Ø What misinformation are we being told?
Ø What you & your family can easily and effectively do to potentially overcome these risks
NOW!
Radiation: Is the threat real?
Already, Fukushima has released about 160,000 times more radioactive iodine than the Three Mile Island accident, according to the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, a nonprofit nuclear watchdog. And the risk could get worse. The station’s three damaged reactors and four out of control spent fuel pools “contain far more long-lived radioactivity, notably cesium-137, than the Chernobyl reactor,” according to the institute.“While the releases are still considerably below Chernobyl, they have already reached a level that could affect the region around the site for a prolonged period,” said the institute’s president, Arjun Makhijani, in a press release.
Japan: radiation found in groundwater at nuclear plant (VIDEO)
Radiation was found in groundwater just outside Japan's stricken nuclear plant at 10,000 times the normal limit, officials at the plant announced late Thursday.
Samantha Power, the Monster, and the Libyan Intervention.
Their advocacy for the Libyan intervention reunites two very diverse strands in US foreign policy - the liberal interventionist tradition of presidents Wilson and Roosevelt and the neo-conservatives of more recent vintage who advocated for the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. Against them are ranged the isolationists and "realists" who argue that the USA should only get involved in foreign affairs when vital US national security interests are clearly at stake. For the latter two strands, the fate of civilians at the hands of Gaddafi isn't the USA's problem. Many on the US left, including Booman, have joined the isolationist camp in response to the experience of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
Obama has been criticised for not explaining his war aims either to Congress or the American people and is due to make his first major speech on the conflict tonight - 9 days after the military intervention began. Is it regime change as Obama has hinted, or simply an effort to protect civilians as stated in the UN resolution?
( When I think of Bu$hCo omitting to say the US would be in Iraq for years - Rummy's comments about generating uncertainty - from the man who destroyed Iraqi administration and education by dismissing army,police and bureaucracy.....he never lacks for gall. )
Ocean Circulation Plays Important Role in Transporting Heat to Greenland Glaciers
March 30, 2011 — Warmer air is only part of the story when it comes to Greenland's rapidly melting ice sheet. New research highlights the role ocean circulation plays in transporting heat to ... > full story
Satellites Detect Extensive Drought Impact on Amazon Forests
March 29, 2011 — A new study has revealed widespread reductions in the greenness of the forests in the vast Amazon basin in South America caused by the record-breaking drought of ... > full story
Speeding Up Mother Nature's Very Own CO2 Mitigation Process
March 29, 2011 — Using seawater and calcium to remove carbon dioxide in a natural gas power plant's flue stream, and then pumping the resulting calcium bicarbonate in the sea, could be beneficial to the oceans' ... > full story
Raytheon helps U.S. subs stay in touch
By Andrea Shalal-EsaPosted 2011/03/23 at 4:17 pm EDT
APPLIED PHYSICS LABORATORY ICE CAMP, Arctic Ocean, March 23, Mar. 23, 2011 (Reuters) — The signal sounded like crickets chirping, but the encoded message transmitted from the camp atop the frozen Arctic Ocean was music to the ears of the USS New Hampshire submarine crew.
Using a digital "Deep Siren" tactical messaging system and a simpler underwater telephone, officials from the Navy's Arctic Submarine Laboratory at the camp last Saturday were able to help the submarine find a relatively ice-free spot to surface and evacuate a sailor stricken with appendicitis.The alternative could have been a ruptured appendix, or an emergency surgery on the table in the captain's dining room, said a relieved Dan Roberts, a senior chief and corpsman who handles the crew's medical needs. "It would have been rough."
The low-frequency system is built by Raytheon Co, which has been working on it for several years with $5.2 million in initial seed money from the Navy.
Raytheon is the latest player trying to tackle the persistent challenge of communicating with submarines while they are traveling deep under the sea to avoid detection. Past systems have proven too complicated, and too expensive.
The new system could revolutionize how military commanders stay in touch with submarines all over the world, allowing them to alert a submarine about an enemy ship on the surface or a new mission, without it needing to surface to periscope level, or 60 feet, where it could be detected by potential enemies.
At present, submarines use an underwater phone to communicate with associates on top of the ice or with other submarines, but those devices are little more than tin cans on a string and work only at shorter distances. Submarines can also trail an antenna once they surface to periscope depth, or around 60 feet, but that makes them easier to detect.
Closing old atom plants poses safety challenge: IAEA
plans for nuclear power program development moved faster than the establishment of the necessary regulatory and safety infrastructure and capacity."
Fukushima "should be a wake-up call to re-evaluate and strengthen the role of the IAEA" in boosting nuclear safety.
Amano's safety report for last year noted that of the 441 reactors now in operation around the world, many were built in the 1970s and 1980s, with an average lifespan of about 35 years. The Fukushima plant also dates back to the 1970s."Their decommissioning peak will occur from 2020 to 2030 which will present a major managerial, technological, safety and environmental challenge to those states engaged in nuclear decommissioning," it said.
"The need for national and international mechanisms for early planning, adequate funding and long-term strategies applies not only to decommissioning, but also to radioactive waste management and spent fuel management.
Hate Speech, Political Islam and the Madrassa
Fundamentalists are men who emulate the looks and actions of the Prophet Mohammed. They claim to be speaking in the name of Allah and acting like the Prophet, yet, they give the Prophet and Islam a bad name. They perpetuate, and even add to, the Western perception that Islam was won by force or the sword - - not by conviction. They try to thwart any positive action for peace, not only by undermining it, but by trying to kill those who oppose them, the better to create their vision of a totalitarian theocracy that will allow no free exchange of ideas, no development of thinking such as ijtihad [critical questioning], and no free speech.The golden age of Islam was built on an efflorescence of ideas that helped it prosper and give so much to the world -- it even kept and preserved philosophy.
But under new forces, the Islamic world is being led into the Dark Ages instead of the Renaissance and beyond, where discovery, science and even technology have flourished.
Among the strengths of the Muslim world have been two types of shared power: one secular, led by the governing Caliph or Sultan, and the other religious, led by the Ulama or the religious faction. The two balanced each other out: one cared for the body, the other for the soul.
In a fully secular world, whether socialist, communist or capitalist, there can an absence of religious principles or of God; it is believed that man knows best.
In a theocracy, however, men speak in the name of God; people become ruled over by men who believe they have all the answers, or by men who believe they speak for God -- without any constraints. A despotic type of governance results and the people suffer. The despotic types of governance hinder those who know the difference between personal faith and politics.
Military's top cop gets more clout in aftermath of Afghan prisoner scandal
The changes will see all military police report directly to the Canadian Forces provost marshal in a shuffle that critics say should have been done long ago and could have prevented the Afghan prisoner controversy from becoming a scandal.At the heart of the abuse debate was the question of whether military police should have investigated reports that Afghan jailers might have tortured prisoners handed over by Canadian troops.
Critics said repeatedly throughout public hearings into the abuse allegations that military police in Afghanistan, who reported to the local commander, were in a conflict of interest and should have had more independence.
There were also complaints that the provost marshal did not have the overall authority to direct all military cops.
Changes were ordered by Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Walt Natynczyk last summer. All military police will now report to the provost marshal, instead of a local commander.
"What it will do is allow us a bit more oversight on general policing duties in a place like Kandahar Airfield or Kabul to identify something that is more serious that needs to be examined and reach in with a bit more agility," said Col. Tim Grubb, the current provost marshal.
This is reminiscent of changes made to military structure in the U.S., where trained interrogators were not assigned to Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo - and untrained amateurs were encouraged to 'get creative' in eliciting confessions - with predictable and horrendous results . The TV show '24' sold the fallacious 'Ticking Time Bomb' scenario...never seen in real life and not the way to get the desired information in any case.
The General’s Report
How Antonio Taguba, who investigated the Abu Ghraib scandal, became one of its casualties.
by Seymour M. Hersh June 25, 2007
Noam Chomsky (2011.03.13) - Amsterdam == EGYPT,TUNISIA,SAUDI,BAHRAIN,US,IMPERIALISM & FAKE
April Fools! 5 Fake Scientific Breakthroughs
Health costs killing cities
Health care is killing Boston. It’s killing virtually every city and town across this Commonwealth. It’s killing small businesses. It’s killing families.
You don’t believe me? Let’s go to the numbers. A reputable group known as the Boston Municipal Research Bureau reported this week that the city of Boston cut 1,050 jobs in the past two years, yet payroll still increased. Why? There are a few small reasons and one big one: health care costs.
From 2008 to 2011, with markedly fewer workers, the city increased its health care spending by more than $40 million a year, and it’s projected to go up another $20 million next year. This means that Boston has fewer workers offering fewer services to residents and businesses paying rising taxes, all because health costs are out of control.
Put another way, Boston now spends more annually on health care, $301.5 million, than it does on policing ,$270.8 million. The projected rise next year of $20 million is bigger than the city’s $16 million parks budget.
Ohio Union Law - Video
Ohio Union Bill Signed Into Law By John Kasich
limit on the collective bargaining rights of 350,000 public workers prevents unions from negotiating wages but not health care, sick time or pension benefits. It also eliminates automatic pay increases and bans strikes. It applies to teachers, nurses and many other government workers, including police and firefighters, who were exempt in the Wisconsin measure. The bill signing comes two days after a House labor committee added GOP-backed revisions that make it more difficult for unions to collect certain fees.
( No problem. This is the party that won't collect taxes from those who can afford to pay them...but they're 'businessmen' ? I make the net effect of this operation a cut in the tax base and sabotage of the economy : a 'two-fer'. )
Jamie Dimon Worries That Financial Regulation Will Doom Banks, Forever
as Kevin Drum points out
It's only been two years since the Great Collapse, and finance industry profits have already rebounded to their bubble-era levels. That's a strong sign that finance industry leverage is also returning to its bubble-era levels, which in turn means the industry is about as dangerous as it's ever been. And Dodd-Frank is a notably weak piece of regulation, about as weak as any bill could be and still be called regulatory reform in the first place. Wall Street got off easy, and Dimon knows it.
The Financial Times surmises that opposition to financial regulatory reform is really starting to ramp up now that we're years from the crisis and "anger at the financial industry" is on the wane.
( That's their story and they're sticking to it )
Missouri Unemployment Benefits Extension To Be Dropped
When eligibility ends Saturday, Missouri will become the only state to voluntarily quit a federal stimulus program that offers extended benefits. Michigan, Arkansas and Florida also recently took steps to cut back on money going to the unemployed, although they targeted state benefits instead.
( Class War, anyone ? )
Robert Reich
The Economic Truth That Nobody Will Admit: We're Heading Back Toward a Double-Dip
Consumers are 70 percent of the American economy, and consumer confidence is plummeting. It's weaker today on average than at the lowest point of the Great Recession.The Reuters/University of Michigan survey shows a 10 point decline in March -- the tenth largest drop on record. Part of that drop is attributable to rising fuel and food prices. A separate Conference Board's index of consumer confidence, just released, shows consumer confidence at a five-month low -- and a large part is due to expectations of fewer jobs and lower wages in the months ahead.
Pessimistic consumers buy less. And fewer sales spells economic trouble ahead.
What about the 192,000 jobs added in February? (We'll know more Friday about how many jobs were added in March.) It's peanuts compared to what's needed. Remember, 125,000 new jobs are necessary just to keep up with a growing number of Americans eligible for employment. And the nation has lost so many jobs over the last three years that even at a rate of 200,000 a month we wouldn't get back to 6 percent unemployment until 2016.
But isn't the economy growing again -- by an estimated 2.5 to 2.9 percent this year? Yes, but that's even less than peanuts. The deeper the economic hole, the faster the growth needed to get back on track. By this point in the so-called recovery we'd expect growth of 4 to 6 percent.
Brazil stares down the US on Libya
Argentina and Uruguay likewise have voiced strong disapproval of the intervention. On one level, this censure reflects Latin America's commitment to the ideal of non-intervention and absolute sovereignty. But on another, less elevated and more commonsensical level, it reflects a belief that the diplomatic community needs to return to a standard in which war is the last rather than the first response to crisis."This attack [on Libya] implies a setback in the current international order," IPS reports Uruguayan President José Mujica as saying. "The remedy is much worse than the illness. This business of saving lives by bombing is an inexplicable contradiction."
| Gates: US should not train Libyan rebels |
The comments underscore the intensity of the debate in Washington about what to do next in Libya. Gates stressed the limits of US military action, saying no US troops would deploy in Libya while he was in the job and that ousting Gaddafi was not part of the mission. "I am preoccupied with avoiding mission creep and avoiding having an open-ended, very large-scale American commitment," Gates said. He also played down any major US role in a post-Gaddafi Libya, saying "the last thing this country needs is another enterprise in nation-building." ( That's clear enough, then. It's o.k. to destroy governments...and leave a power vacuum which itself collapses a country back to a 'failed state'...rather like Somalia...or Iraq less Kurdistan, which found there were worse situations than having a strong but cruel ruler. BTW They both can thank the U.S. for that. ) |
| Mexico Attorney General resigns |
Mexican Attorney General Arturo Chavez has resigned from his key post in the fight against drug trafficking. In nominating Marisela Morales, Calderon said the current head of the organised crime special investigations unit "enjoys prestige inside and outside the country." As head of the organized crime unit, Morales made more public appearances in the capture of major drug lords than her boss. Polygamy: More Common Than You ThinkCanada's anti-polygamy statute, which dates to 1890, is being put to the test in a so-called "reference case." In effect, the government is seeking an opinion from the court on whether the statute is valid. Opponents say that it violates the country's commitment to religious freedom. "Consenting adults have the right—the Charter protected right—to form the families that they want to form," Monique Pongracic-Speier of the Civil Liberties Association has said.Supporters of the statute say that it's not about persecuting religious outliers or maintaining a traditional definition of family for its own sake. Rather, it is about protecting human rights. The case has begun to inflame passions far from the rural communities of small Mormon breakaway groups.Polygamy—or more specifically polygyny, the marriage of one man to more than one woman—has been widespread in human history. And it is becoming increasingly common, particularly in Muslim enclaves—including in Paris, London and New York. A 2006 report by the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights reported that approximately 180,000 people were living in polygamous households in France. For decades, France allowed entrance to polygamous immigrants from about 50 countries where the practice was legal. When the French government banned polygamy in 1993, it tried to support the decohabitation of such couples if a wife wanted to move into her own apartment with her children.In Britain, where immigration laws have banned the practice for longer, there appear to be about a thousand valid polygamous marriages, mostly among immigrants who married elsewhere, such as in Pakistan. Such families are allowed to collect social security benefits for each wife, although the government has apparently not counted how many are doing so. In the United States, where numbers are more difficult to come by, anecdotal reports indicate underground communities of polygamists in New York City, particularly among immigrant communities from West Africa. American Justice by digby If the Tea Party truly adhered to the founders' suspicion of government, they could easily find common ground with liberals on issues like this: A bitterly divided Supreme Court on Tuesday tossed out a jury verdict won by a New Orleans man who spent 14 years on death row and came within weeks of execution because prosecutors had hidden a blood test and other evidence that would have proven his innocence. The 5-4 decision delivered by Justice Clarence Thomas shielded the New Orleans district attorney's office from being held liable for the mistakes of its prosecutors. The evidence of their misconduct did not prove "deliberate indifference" on the part of then-Dist. Atty. Harry Connick Sr., Thomas said. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg emphasized her disapproval by reading her dissent in the courtroom, saying the court was shielding a city and its prosecutors from "flagrant" misconduct that nearly cost an innocent man his life. "John Thompson spent 14 years isolated on death row before the truth came to light," she said. He was innocent of the crimes that sent him to prison and prosecutors had "dishonored" their obligation to present the true facts to the jury, she said. ..... nobody who isn't rich or powerful is held accountable for much of anything in this country. It could make a person cynical after a while. |
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