Virtually all the numbers you're seeing about the radioactivity coming out of Fukushima are based oniodine-131which only has a half-life of 8 days, not the far more dangerouscesium-137which has a half-life of30 years. So while the mainstream media reports that "radiation levels are falling rapidly" from the 7.5 million times reading taken a few days ago, what they're not telling you is that the cesium-137 radioactivity will take30 yearsjust to fall by 50 percent.
It's the great global cover-up in all this: What happens to all the radioactive cesium being dumped into the ocean right now? It doesn't just burn itself out in a few months like iodine-131. This stuff sticks around forcenturies.
As part of the cover story,the FDAnow says it will test "all importedfoodproducts coming fromJapan" (http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/20...). This claim is, of course, ridiculous on its face. Even without thisFukushimaemergency in the works, theFDAonly tests a tiny fraction of all the food imported into theUSA. This agency has no existing infrastructure under which it could test ALL the food being imported from Japan. The very idea is ludicrous.
As this ABC News story reveals, the FDA says it's "really stretched" just to inspect a meretwo percentof imported food:http://abcnews.go.com/Health/radiat...
Read More: naturalnews.com
Marine radiation monitoring blocked by Japanese government
Since the start of the Fukushima disaster I have been following the worrying developments from a safe distance in Amsterdam, but suddenly, I am on rocking ship getting closer to the disaster area every day.
I joined the Rainbow Warrior a week ago in Keelung, Taiwan. Normally I work for Greenpeace Netherlands as a nuclear campaigner, but my radiation expertise was needed on board to guarantee the safety of the crew.
Now we are getting closer to Fukushima, the Japanese government has begun obstructing our efforts to do independent research. The sparse data published by the government and TEPCO is not enough to understand the real risks of the continuous leakage of radioactive water in the sea.
The Japanese people are in great need of independent information on the radioactive contamination of their seafood supply. Therefore, we are planning to do research on the radioactive contamination of seaweed, fish and shellfish.
Despite this great need for information, the Japanese government today refused a permit to do research within the territorial waters of Japan. We are allowed to conduct research outside this 12 mile zone, but this is not the area where the Japanese catch their fish and collect their seaweed.
This is a critical situation, so we are not giving up. We will continue heading for Fukushima to begin our research at a distance while we pursue further permission to carry out the sampling within the 12 mile limit.
The Japanese government should welcome such independent monitoring, the fact is they can never have enough information about the extent of the contamination, and the public are entitled to the benefit from the scrutiny and pressure that independent monitoring brings.
Approaching Fukushima is not without risks. The reactors are still not fully under control, and there is a continuous risk of further escalation. Another explosion could happen, releasing huge amounts of radiation, or an aftershock could lead to the collapse of the reactor building.
Therefore we have decided to implement various safety measures on the Warrior. We spent most of last week at sea making her ‘radiation proof’ by installing radiation detection equipment on the bridge, ordering special air filters, and building a designated decontamination area.
We devoted much time to briefing the brave crew. It is important that they have some basic understanding of radiation, and can assess the risks before working in a potentially radioactive contamination environment. We practiced decontamination procedures, and gave instructions on special clothing requirements: white Tyvek suits taped to rubber boots and gloves. I’m personally very happy that the crew puts their trust in me and Jacob, the other radiation safety advisor, to be responsible for their safety.
After the first days of inevitable seasickness, I’m now pretty sea-proof and ready to challenge the radiation risks, and any obstruction of our scientific mission by the Japanese government.
Exactly 25 years after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, the Rainbow Warrior is on her way to another disaster that will keep reminding people of the dangers of nuclear power for at least the next 25 years.
Ike Teuling- Nuclear Campaigner and radiation expert for our field radiation team onboard the Rainbow Warrior.
Source: greenpeace.org
RADIATION EXPOSURE DEBATE RAGES INSIDE EPA
RADIATION EXPOSURE DEBATE RAGES INSIDE EPA — Plan to Radically Hike Post-Accident Radiation in Food & Water Sparks Hot Dissent
Washington, DC — A plan awaiting approval by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that would dramatically increase permissible radioactive releases in drinking water, food and soil after “radiological incidents” is drawing vigorous objections from agency experts, according to agency documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). At issue is the acceptable level of public health risk following a radiation release, whether an accidental spill or a “dirty bomb” attack.
The radiation arm of EPA, called the Office of Radiation and Indoor Air (ORIA), has prepared an update of the 1992 “Protective Action Guides” (PAG) governing radiation protection decisions for both short-term and long-term cleanup standards. Other divisions within EPA contend the ORIA plan geometrically raises allowable exposure to the public. For example, as Charles Openchowski of EPA’s Office of General Counsel wrote in a January 23, 2009 e-mail to ORIA:
“[T]his guidance would allow cleanup levels that exceed MCLs [Maximum Contamination Limits under the Safe Drinking Water Act] by a factor of 100, 1000, and in two instances 7 million and there is nothing to prevent those levels from being the final cleanup achieved (i.e., it’s not confined to immediate response of emergency phase).”Another EPA official, Stuart Walker of the Office of Superfund Remediation and Technology Innovation, explains what the proposed new radiation limits in drinking water would mean:
“It also appears that drinking water at the PAG concentrations…may lead to subchronic (acute) effects following exposures of a day or a week. In a population, one should see some express acute effects…that is vomiting, fever, etc.”“This critical debate is taking place entirely behind closed doors because this plan is ‘guidance’ and does not require public notice as a regulation would,” stated PEER Counsel Christine Erickson. Today, PEER sent EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson a letter calling for a more open and broader examination of the proposed radiation guidance. “We all deserve to know why some in the agency want to legitimize exposing the public to radiation at levels vastly higher than what EPA officially considers dangerous.”
The internal documents show that under the updated PAG a single glass of water could give a lifetime’s permissible exposure. In addition, it would allow long-term cleanup limits thousands of times more lax than anything EPA has ever before accepted. These new limits would cause a cancer in as much as every fourth person exposed.
PEER obtained the internal e-mails after filing a lawsuit this past fall under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) but the EPA has yet to turn over thousands more communications. “EPA touts its new transparency but when it comes to matters of controversy the agency still puts up a wall,” added Erickson, who filed the FOIA suit. “Besides the months of stonewalling, we are seeing them pull stunts such as ORIA giving us rebuttals to other EPA documents they have yet to release.”
Source: PEER
Radiation in Japan's Fish Raise Concerns all Over World
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it will require seafood imported from Japan to be checked for radiation before it enters the food supply. But even with the new screenings, no one in the U.S. government is saying "stop eating tuna."
More specifically, an FDA spokesperson told ABC News that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement "is screening everything from Japan." However, screening does not entail testing all the seafood. all the testing of the seafood. In fact, the FDA inspects less than 2 percent of seafood, according to Winona Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch.
"FDA couldn't possibly with existing staff test all of the food that's being imported," Hauter said. "They inspect less than 2 percent of seafood. Their resources are really stretched."
So far, the FDA said that every piece of seafood that has been imported to the United States is safe.
Offshore from the Fukushima plant, the seawater is now testing at levels off the charts -- 7.5 million times more radioactive than the legal limit.
A fisherman said it was a "bad rumor" that the fish was unsafe to eat.
"The fish are totally fine, I believe," he said.
Even though radiation levels become diluted in large bodies of water, officials tested a sample of sand lance fish, often used for bait, and found that the species contained nearly double the levels of iodine 131 and cesium 137. The new regulation caps fish radiation levels at the same amount as vegetables—up to 2,000 bequerels of iodine 131 per kilogram.
Source: ABCNews
Source: ABCNews
Japan’s radiation contamination spread across Northern Hemisphere
Japan’s crippled Daiichi nuclear facility near Fukushima, hit hard by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, has released radioactive materials that have traveled across the entire Northern Hemisphere, a nuclear monitoring watchdog has reported.
The Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Treaty Organization (CTBTO) reported on Thursday that within nine days after the accident, the radioactive cloud had crossed North America, and
Three days later when a station in Iceland picked up radioactive materials, it was clear that the cloud had reached Europe.
The report notes that dangers from some radioactive particles decrease with distance, due to atmospheric dispersion rates and precipitation, and a limited half-life of days or weeks, which reduces radioactivity over time. However, other radioactive substances such as Plutonium can linger for thousands of years.
The cumulative effects of the hundreds of atmospheric nuclear tests released such vast amounts of radioactivity that the overall level of radioactivity in the Earth’s atmosphere increased to levels that even dwarfed the Chernobyl disaster. Radioactive isotopes could be traced in baby teeth of children born even at great distances from the test sites in these decades.
A wide range of emission sources can be detected by the CTBTO’s radionuclide stations, among them Iodine-131 and Caesium-137, and by determining ratios between the various radioactive isotopes, can pinpoint the source of radioactive emissions.
So sensitive are these monitoring stations that a rooftop detector at CTBTO’s Vienna headquarters still records trace emissions from Russia’s 1986 disaster at Chernobyl.
Read More: Digitaljournal
The Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Treaty Organization (CTBTO) reported on Thursday that within nine days after the accident, the radioactive cloud had crossed North America, and
Three days later when a station in Iceland picked up radioactive materials, it was clear that the cloud had reached Europe.
The report notes that dangers from some radioactive particles decrease with distance, due to atmospheric dispersion rates and precipitation, and a limited half-life of days or weeks, which reduces radioactivity over time. However, other radioactive substances such as Plutonium can linger for thousands of years.
The cumulative effects of the hundreds of atmospheric nuclear tests released such vast amounts of radioactivity that the overall level of radioactivity in the Earth’s atmosphere increased to levels that even dwarfed the Chernobyl disaster. Radioactive isotopes could be traced in baby teeth of children born even at great distances from the test sites in these decades.
A wide range of emission sources can be detected by the CTBTO’s radionuclide stations, among them Iodine-131 and Caesium-137, and by determining ratios between the various radioactive isotopes, can pinpoint the source of radioactive emissions.
So sensitive are these monitoring stations that a rooftop detector at CTBTO’s Vienna headquarters still records trace emissions from Russia’s 1986 disaster at Chernobyl.
Read More: Digitaljournal
Hanford News : 2011
High radiation levels found at Ohio nuclear plant
This story was published Thursday April 28th 2011
By Meghan Barr, Associated Press
CLEVELAND (AP) -- High radiation levels recorded at a nuclear reactor in northeast Ohio have prompted a special inspection by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The NRC says workers at the Perry Nuclear Power Plant immediately evacuated it April 22 when radiation levels rose while it was shutting down for a refueling outage. The commission says the plant is safe and officials don't believe workers were exposed to radiation levels "in excess of NRC limits."
The commission says radiation levels rose when workers were removing a monitor that measures nuclear reactions during start-up and shutdown.
The nuclear reactor is owned by Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. It's located about 35 miles northeast of Cleveland.
A FirstEnergy spokesman says the highest radiation exposure to any of the four workers involved was about the equivalent to two or three chest X-rays
Source: Hanfordnews
This story was published Thursday April 28th 2011
By Meghan Barr, Associated Press
CLEVELAND (AP) -- High radiation levels recorded at a nuclear reactor in northeast Ohio have prompted a special inspection by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The NRC says workers at the Perry Nuclear Power Plant immediately evacuated it April 22 when radiation levels rose while it was shutting down for a refueling outage. The commission says the plant is safe and officials don't believe workers were exposed to radiation levels "in excess of NRC limits."
The commission says radiation levels rose when workers were removing a monitor that measures nuclear reactions during start-up and shutdown.
The nuclear reactor is owned by Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. It's located about 35 miles northeast of Cleveland.
A FirstEnergy spokesman says the highest radiation exposure to any of the four workers involved was about the equivalent to two or three chest X-rays
Source: Hanfordnews
Storms knock out TVA nuclear units, power lines
A nuclear power plant in Alabama that lost power after violent thunderstorms and tornadoes on Wednesday will be down for days and possibly weeks but the backup power systems worked as designed to prevent a partial meltdown like the disaster in Japan.
Severe storms and tornadoes moving through the Southeast dealt a severe blow to the Tennessee Valley Authority on Wednesday, causing three nuclear reactors in Alabama to shut and knocking out 11 high-voltage power lines, the utility and regulators said.
All three units at TVA's 3,274-megawatt Browns Ferry nuclear plant in Alabama tripped about 5:30 EDT (2230 GMT) after losing outside power to the plant, a spokesman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Agency said.
A TVA spokeswoman said the plant's output had reduced power earlier due to transmission line damage from a line of severe storms that spawned a number of tornadoes as it moved through Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee.
The NRC spokesman said early information indicated the units shut normally and the plant's diesel generators started up to supply power for the plant's safety system.
Why Investors Are Buying Silver As If There Is No Tomorrow
The price of silver has been absolutely exploding lately. It has reached heights not seen since the Hunt Brothers attempted to corner the silver market over three decades ago. But this time there are no Hunt Brothers to blame for the stunning rise in the price of silver. So exactly why are investors buying silver as if there is no tomorrow right now? Well, the truth is that there are a lot of reasons. Investors have been flocking to precious metals such as gold and silver as the value of paper currencies has declined. The euro is incredibly weak right now and the U.S. dollar appears to be on the verge of a major collapse. In fact, the entire financial system is highly unstable right now. In such an environment, investors seek some place safe to park their money, and right now gold and silver are seen as safe harbors. But gold and silver have not been going up in price at the same pace. So why is silver outperforming gold so significantly?
The price of silver has increased by more than 150% over the past 12 months. But the price of gold has only gone up about 30%.
If you invested $100 in the S&P 500 ten years ago it would be worth about $107.48 today.
If you invested $100 in gold ten years ago it would be worth about $569 today.
If you invested $100 in silver ten years ago it would be worth about $1037 today.
Clearly something is going on with silver.
Many people are convinced that this is part of a correction that is long overdue. Geologists tell us that there is approximately 17.5 times as much silver in the crust of the earth as there is gold. But today the price of an ounce of gold is about 30 times higher than the price of an ounce of silver.
That would seem to indicate that the price of silver still has a lot of room to grow relative to the price of gold.
In addition, silver is a key industrial commodity and it is constantly being used up. Today, silver is used in a vast array of products and medicines. The following is an excerpt from an official U.S. government report that describes just some of the ways silver is used in society today....
Silver’s traditional use categories include coins and medals, industrial applications, jewelry and silverware, and photography. The physical properties of silver include ductility, electrical conductivity, malleability, and reflectivity. The demand for silver in industrial applications continues to increase and includes use of silver in bandages for wound care, batteries, brazing and soldering, in catalytic converters in automobiles, in cell phone covers to reduce the spread of bacteria, in clothing to minimize odor, electronics and circuit boards, electroplating, hardening bearings, inks, mirrors, solar cells, water purification, and wood treatment to resist mold. Silver was used for miniature antennas in Radio Frequency Identification Devices (RFIDs) that were used in casino chips, freeway toll transponders, gasoline speed purchase devices, passports, and on packages to keep track of inventory shipments. Mercury and silver, the main components of dental amalgam, are biocides and their use in amalgam inhibits recurrent decay.
Estimates vary, but many experts are now projecting that at current consumption rates we will run out of silver at some point during this century.
On the other hand, we are not facing a similar problem with gold. Gold, because it has traditionally been so expensive, is not used in many products at all. The total amount of gold on earth just continues to increase each year.
Silver is also considered to be a lot more accessible for smaller investors. Not many average Americans can afford to do much investing in gold because it is so expensive. But just about anyone can afford a few ounces of silver.
As investors around the globe have watched the Federal Reserve create endless amounts of money and as they have watched the U.S. government borrow endless amounts of money the hunger for precious metals has grown.
The following is what John Browne had to say about the current situation in a recent commentary....
Today, with the Federal Reserve treating the greenback as a never ending lottery ticket for deficit spending politicians, many investors feel the U.S. dollar is good for nothing. As a result there is an increasing international pressure to remove the U.S. dollar’s reserve status. Given that there is no widely accepted alternative to the dollar (the euro has many problems of its own), this is creating fears of an international currency crisis, which has fueled interest in precious metals.
As the U.S. dollar and other paper currencies continue to decline, the demand for precious metals such as gold and silver is only going to increase.
Most investors are not stupid. They know that the European debt crisis is approaching a meltdown. They know that U.S. government debt is not sustainable. They know that all of the paper currencies around the world that are backed by nothing will continue to decline in value just like they always have. All of the major central banks have been recklessly printing money. In such an environment it only makes sense to put your wealth into hard assets.
But there is another layer to all of this. Many now view investing in precious metals as a way to rebel against the Federal Reserve and other central banks. All over the globe people are waking up to how unjust the banking system is. Since central banks such as the Federal Reserve are almost completely unaccountable politically, many individuals have sought other ways to protest the system. Getting out of 'Federal Reserve Notes' and into precious metals is one small way to do that.
In any event, what is clear is that the price of silver is likely to continue to go up over the long-term. Silver is used in thousands of products and we are slowly running out of it. Meanwhile, the central banks of the world are absolutely flooding the globe with paper currency. What all of that adds up to is a much higher price for silver.
So what do all the rest of you think about the price of silver? Please feel free to leave a comment with your opinion below....
Yes Means Yes
Please don’t ask my permission to re-use my work. YOU ALREADY HAVE PERMISSION. Please copy, share, re-use, redistribute, edit, modify, sell, etc.
Asking permission wastes your time, and mine. You might not mind wasting your time. Many people think asking for permission is a “sign of respect.” But what about my time?
Information (including all of my work) is not scarce. Attention (time) is.
Emails get lost in spam filters. They get lost amid the hundreds of other emails in my inbox. I’ve been known to take vacations and actually get away from my computer for a few days – something I should be doing more often. So what happens if you don’t get any response to your permission request? Do you not reuse the work? A work that has been explicitly made Free, in the hope that you will reuse it? Not reusing the work harms the work, and harming a work is disrespectful. Delaying reusing the work likewise harms the work, in smaller increments.
Suppose a “respectful” email asking for permission which has already been explicitly granted doesn’t get caught in a spam filter or lost in some other glitch. Suppose it actualy makes it into my inbox. Now I am obligated to respond – the requester essentially said, “I’m not going to use this work unless you respond.” As “respectful” as this sounds, it places an unfair burden on me. The work, and any use of the work, should not be held hostage pending my checking and responding to email.
It is not “respectful” to make me do more, unnecessary work.
More importantly, asking permission is bad for the work itself. If you refuse to reuse the work unless I send you an email, you are blocking an expression or distribution of the work. How many days or weeks or months are you willing to put it off pending my ability to process email? Or worse, someone thinks it’s “respectful” to require me to sign papers and mail them back. Yes, this happens. I have such paperwork sitting right here, telling me that unless I sign it and mail it back, they won’t use the work they already have explicit permission to use. How is it “respectful” to make me jump through more hoops before they redistribute or remix a work I’ve made explicitly Free?
If you want to show respect, please send me something like this instead:
Dear Nina,
I thought you might like to know I’ve reused _________________ in _________________. Check it out at (insert URL here). Thanks for making the work Free!
Love,
Someone Who Understands Yes means Yes
Asking permission wastes your time, and mine. You might not mind wasting your time. Many people think asking for permission is a “sign of respect.” But what about my time?
Information (including all of my work) is not scarce. Attention (time) is.
Emails get lost in spam filters. They get lost amid the hundreds of other emails in my inbox. I’ve been known to take vacations and actually get away from my computer for a few days – something I should be doing more often. So what happens if you don’t get any response to your permission request? Do you not reuse the work? A work that has been explicitly made Free, in the hope that you will reuse it? Not reusing the work harms the work, and harming a work is disrespectful. Delaying reusing the work likewise harms the work, in smaller increments.
Suppose a “respectful” email asking for permission which has already been explicitly granted doesn’t get caught in a spam filter or lost in some other glitch. Suppose it actualy makes it into my inbox. Now I am obligated to respond – the requester essentially said, “I’m not going to use this work unless you respond.” As “respectful” as this sounds, it places an unfair burden on me. The work, and any use of the work, should not be held hostage pending my checking and responding to email.
It is not “respectful” to make me do more, unnecessary work.
More importantly, asking permission is bad for the work itself. If you refuse to reuse the work unless I send you an email, you are blocking an expression or distribution of the work. How many days or weeks or months are you willing to put it off pending my ability to process email? Or worse, someone thinks it’s “respectful” to require me to sign papers and mail them back. Yes, this happens. I have such paperwork sitting right here, telling me that unless I sign it and mail it back, they won’t use the work they already have explicit permission to use. How is it “respectful” to make me jump through more hoops before they redistribute or remix a work I’ve made explicitly Free?
If you want to show respect, please send me something like this instead:
Dear Nina,
I thought you might like to know I’ve reused _________________ in _________________. Check it out at (insert URL here). Thanks for making the work Free!
Love,
Someone Who Understands Yes means Yes
Ahh, lovely. Thank you!
A complaint I hear often is that nowadays, thanks to the inerwebs, not only do artists “have to give their work away for free” but they also “have to be businessmen.” HA! One goal of freeing my work is to free me of paperwork, contracts, and the role of manager – and what is having to oversee and administrate every re-use but management? In the “Intellectual Property” model, artists either have to do much more negotiating and managing and paperwork, or they have to pay someone else to do it for them. They have to be businessmen, or hire businessmen. And hiring businessmen (agents, lawyers, etc.) still requires much paperwork, negotiating, and contracts.
Some still insist that I’ve “maintained more control” over Sita Sings the Blues. The point is I have maintained no control over it, and that benefits me. The point is I don’t have to be a business(wo)man. The point is that other people, the crowd, distribute the work, and cost me nothing.
As long as they don’t ask for permission.
A complaint I hear often is that nowadays, thanks to the inerwebs, not only do artists “have to give their work away for free” but they also “have to be businessmen.” HA! One goal of freeing my work is to free me of paperwork, contracts, and the role of manager – and what is having to oversee and administrate every re-use but management? In the “Intellectual Property” model, artists either have to do much more negotiating and managing and paperwork, or they have to pay someone else to do it for them. They have to be businessmen, or hire businessmen. And hiring businessmen (agents, lawyers, etc.) still requires much paperwork, negotiating, and contracts.
Some still insist that I’ve “maintained more control” over Sita Sings the Blues. The point is I have maintained no control over it, and that benefits me. The point is I don’t have to be a business(wo)man. The point is that other people, the crowd, distribute the work, and cost me nothing.
As long as they don’t ask for permission.
Letter from the President to Congressional Leadership Regarding Oil Subsidies
Dear Speaker Boehner, Senator Reid, Senator McConnell, and Representative Pelosi:
I am writing to urge you to take immediate action to eliminate unwarranted tax breaks for the oil and gas industry, and to use those dollars to invest in clean energy to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.
High oil and gasoline prices are weighing on the minds and pocketbooks of every American family. While our economy has begun to recover, with 1.8 million private sector jobs created over the last 13 months, too many Americans are still struggling to find a job or simply just to pay the bills. The recent steep increase in gas prices, driven by increased global demand and compounded by unrest and supply disruptions in the Middle East, has only added to those struggles. If sustained, these high prices have the potential to slow down the pace of our economy’s growth at precisely the moment when we need to be accelerating it.
While there is no silver bullet to address rising gas prices in the short term, there are steps we can take to ensure the American people don’t fall victim to skyrocketing gas prices over the long term. One of those steps is to eliminate unwarranted tax breaks to the oil and gas industry and invest that revenue into clean energy to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Our outdated tax laws currently provide the oil and gas industry more than $4 billion per year in these subsidies, even though oil prices are high and the industry is projected to report outsized profits this quarter. In fact, in the past CEO’s of the major oil companies made it clear that high oil prices provide more than enough profit motive to invest in domestic exploration and production without special tax breaks. As we work together to reduce our deficits, we simply can’t afford these wasteful subsidies, and that is why I proposed to eliminate them in my FY11 and FY12 budgets.
I was heartened that Speaker Boehner yesterday expressed openness to eliminating these tax subsidies for the oil and gas industry. Our political system has for too long avoided and ignored this important step, and I hope we can come together in a bipartisan manner to get it done.
In addition, we need to get to work immediately on the longer term goal of reducing our dependence on foreign oil, and our vulnerability to price fluctuations this dependence creates. Without a comprehensive energy strategy for the future we will stay stuck in the same old pattern of heated political rhetoric when prices rise and apathy and neglect when they fall again.
I recently laid out my approach to a comprehensive strategy in my Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future, which includes safe and responsible production of our domestic oil and gas resources and doubling down on fuel efficiency in the transportation sector while investing in everything from wind and solar to biofuels and natural gas. None of you will agree with every aspect of this strategy. But I am confident that, in many areas, we can work together to help show the American people that we can make progress on an energy policy that creates jobs and makes our country more secure.
And I hope we can all agree that, instead of continuing to subsidize yesterday’s energy sources, we need to invest in tomorrow’s. We need to invest in a 21st century clean energy economy that will keep America competitive. In the long term, that’s the answer. That’s the key to helping families avoid pain at the pump and reducing our dependence on foreign oil.
Sincerely,
Barack Obama
Much Of Northern Japan Uninhabitable Due To Nuclear Radiation?
With no resolution to the crisis in sight, the damaged facilities at Fukushima continue to pump massive amounts of nuclear radiation into the surrounding environment every single day. So will much of northern Japan end up being uninhabitable due to nuclear radiation? Everyone agrees that the area immediately around Fukushima will be uninhabitable indefinitely. The only question is how large of an area around Fukushima is eventually going to be considered unlivable. This week authorities in Japan finally raised the crisis at Fukushima up to a level 7 disaster on the international scale. In fact, they are now telling us that the total release of radioactive material will likely surpass that of the Chernobyl disaster. Chernobyl was incredibly nightmarish and there are still vast areas around Chernobyl that are basically uninhabitable. But Chernobyl only burned for 10 days. The crisis at Fukushima could end up lasting for many months. Keep in mind that radiation is cumulative. Every single day the total amount of radioactive material that the world is dealing with because of Fukushima just continues to increase.
It would be hard to overstate how much of a disaster this will eventually be for Japan. At this point it seems clear that those that lived within the 30 km evacuation zone will never be able to safely return to their homes.
But what about the rest of northern Japan?
Already there are indications that areas beyond the evacuation zone will soon be unlivable as well as Stephen Lendman recently noted....
Japan's Asahi Shimbun reported a Hiroshima and Kyoto Universities' study showing radioactivity in soil samples beyond the 30 km evacuation zone is up to 400 times above normal, saying:
'The predicted changes in the level of radiation at the ground surface were calculated after analyzing the amounts of eight kinds of radioactive materials found in the soil and taking into consideration the half-lives of each material.'
The health effects of the various kinds of radioactive material that are being released at Fukushima should not be underestimated. Just consider what Dr. Russell Blaylock recently told Newsmax....
When we look at Chernobyl, most of West Germany was heavily contaminated. Norway, Sweden. Hungary was terribly contaminated. The radiation was taken up into the plants. The food was radioactive. They took the milk and turned it into cheese. The cheese was radioactive.
That’s the big danger, the crops in this country being contaminated, the milk in particular, with Strontium 90. That radiation is incorporated into the bones and stays for a lifetime.
So would you like to have radioactive material in your bones that affects your health for the rest of your life?
Do you want to live every day in fear of what you are eating?
Those are the kinds of decisions that residents of northern Japan are going to be facing.
Some 'experts' on the mainstream media have been downplaying the health risk from nuclear radiation, but the truth is that there is a world of difference between 'external radiation' and 'internal radiation'.
In a recent article for The Guardian, Helen Caldicott, explained why internal radiation is such a health hazard....
Internal radiation, on the other hand, emanates from radioactive elements which enter the body by inhalation, ingestion, or skin absorption. Hazardous radionuclides such as iodine-131, caesium 137, and other isotopes currently being released in the sea and air around Fukushima bio-concentrate at each step of various food chains (for example into algae, crustaceans, small fish, bigger fish, then humans; or soil, grass, cow's meat and milk, then humans). After they enter the body, these elements – called internal emitters – migrate to specific organs such as the thyroid, liver, bone, and brain, where they continuously irradiate small volumes of cells with high doses of alpha, beta and/or gamma radiation, and over many years, can induce uncontrolled cell replication – that is, cancer. Further, many of the nuclides remain radioactive in the environment for generations, and ultimately will cause increased incidences of cancer and genetic diseases over time.
The entire food chain in northern Japan is being absolutely soaked with radioactive material. Anyone that eats any food produced in northern Japan from now on is going to be taking a very serious risk.
That also applies to any seafood produced in northern Japan. The Japanese seafood industry is going to be absolutely decimated by all of this.
Authorities in Japan recently told us that 11,500 tons of 'moderately radioactive' water were going to be purposely released into the Pacific Ocean.
All of that radioactive material is going to be in the Pacific food chain for generations.
Seawater near the facility at Fukushima was recently measured to contain 7.5 million times the legal limit of iodine-131.
Anyone hungry for some fish?
But iodine-131 only has a half-life of about 8 days.
Some of the radioactive material being released at Fukushima has a much longer life span.
As I wrote about recently, radioactive cesium-137 is being released at 60% of the level that it was being released at during the Chernobyl disaster.
Cesium-137 has a half-life of approximately 30 years. That means that all of this cesium-137 is going to be with us for a very, very long time.
Not only that, authorities in Japan are now admitting that strontium is being released into the environment at Fukushima....
Slight amounts of strontium, a heavy radioactive metal that could lead to leukemia, have been detected in soil and plants near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, Japan's science and technology ministry said on Tuesday.
And perhaps most deadly of all, the plutonium being released at Fukushima is going to contaminate the environment pretty much forever as Kurt Nimmo recently noted....
The alpha emitter plutonium is especially deadly. Plutonium 239 has a high half-life of around 24,000 years. Plutonium transforms into americium and enters the water table. It can contaminate a water supply for centuries.
What we are doing to the earth is beyond criminal.
When people talk about the possibility that northern Japan could end up being uninhabitable they are not making things up.
Remember, radioactivity from Chernobyl deeply contaminated 77,000 square miles.
So how long is the crisis at Fukushima going to last?
Well, there is at least one nuclear expert that claims that it could be 50 to 100 years before any of the spent nuclear fuel rods at the Fukushima complex will cool down enough to be removed from the facility.
That is a very, very long time.
And the truth is that every single man, woman and child in the northern hemisphere is going to be exposed to radioactive material from Fukushima.
Already, radioactive iodine-131 from the nuclear disaster at Fukushima has been found in seaweed in Puget Sound.
Ack!
Our authorities are trying to keep us calm, but the truth is that significant amounts of radioactive material are getting into the U.S. food chain.
According to Natural News, alarmingly high levels of radioactive material from Fukushima are being found in U.S. milk samples....
In Phoenix, Ariz., a milk sample taken on March 28, 2011, tested at 3.2 pCi/l. In Little Rock, Ark., a milk sample taken on March 30, 2011, tested at 8.9 pCi/l, which is almost three times the EPA limit. And in Hilo, Hawaii, a milk sample collected on April 4, 2011, tested at 18 pCi/l, a level six times the EPA maximum safety threshold.
Try not to think about the possibility that there may be radiation in your milk the next time you have a glass.
Amazingly, U.S. workers are actually being recruited to go over to Japan and work at Fukushima.
Anyone need a job?
The pay is apparently very good. You just might not live long enough to spend much of the cash that you make over there.
This crisis could end up being a death blow to the Japanese economy. Already it is being projected that approximately 5 million new vehicles will not be built this year because of the crisis in Japan.
In fact, Toyota is warning U.S. car dealers that there could be significant shortages of new vehicles this summer.
That means that if you want a new Toyota you better go out and grab one while you still can.
So could the crisis in Japan get even worse?
Yes.
The truth is that the area around Japan is incredibly seismically active right now.
Since the original earthquake back on March 11th, Japan has experienced over 980 aftershocks.
In some areas of Japan there are moments when you can literally see the ground moving. The video posted below absolutely blew me away the first time that I saw it. In this video, you can actually watch the ground in Japan move. Trust me, this video is worth a couple minutes of your time because it will absolutely blow your mind....
3D Projection Mapping: 10 Jaw-Dropping Examples
Generating extra buzz around marketing campaigns worldwide is 3D projection mapping, a relatively new technology that animates stationary objects with 3D video. With added sound effects and music, the result is a remarkable and immersive experience.
“Projection mapping can provide a great double whammy if used right, because you get a great live event, followed by a compelling video and PR opportunities. But, if that’s the aim it’s important to think about the film when planning the projection — the sense of scale you get live won’t be replicated on YouTube,” cautions Matt Smith, director of strategy for The Viral Factory.
“Good camera work, slick editing, and a rocking soundtrack will all help drive the film, but if the projection is too detailed it will still get lost.”
So, while we wait to see if this a temporary craze or soon to become standard in the marketeer’s toolbox, take a look through our gallery of great examples of such projections on buildings. This list is by no means exhaustive, so please let us know about any impressive versions you’ve seen in the comments below.
Samsung's whimsical projection to promote its 3D TV products works well.
Vienna's Tourist Board gets in on the 3D projection action with this classy effort.
Sony turned two buildings into giant football-themed pinball machines in Madrid. The spectacle was watched by around 1500 people on the day, and by nearly 20,000 more since.
A perfectly synced soundtrack helps the effect as this building sings to the transfixed audience.
Customs House in Sydney, Australia gets virtually wrecked by Mattel's 'Hot Wheels Skull Racers.'
The lucky residents of Sugarland, Texas got to witness this spectacle live on New Year's Eve 2010.
This arty German projection imagines 'how it would be, if a house was dreaming'.
ACDC go up against Iron Man on the backdrop of front facade of the Great Keep at Rochester Castle.
BMW uses not one, but two office buildings in Singapore with its joy-themed projection.
You can hardly imagine a more impressive backdrop for a 3D projection than the Kharkov state building in the Ukraine. The building's architectural features are used to great effect in this brilliant example.
Source: Mashable
“Projection mapping can provide a great double whammy if used right, because you get a great live event, followed by a compelling video and PR opportunities. But, if that’s the aim it’s important to think about the film when planning the projection — the sense of scale you get live won’t be replicated on YouTube,” cautions Matt Smith, director of strategy for The Viral Factory.
“Good camera work, slick editing, and a rocking soundtrack will all help drive the film, but if the projection is too detailed it will still get lost.”
So, while we wait to see if this a temporary craze or soon to become standard in the marketeer’s toolbox, take a look through our gallery of great examples of such projections on buildings. This list is by no means exhaustive, so please let us know about any impressive versions you’ve seen in the comments below.
1. Samsung 3D Projection
Samsung's whimsical projection to promote its 3D TV products works well.
2. Vienna 3D Building Projection
Vienna's Tourist Board gets in on the 3D projection action with this classy effort.
3. NuFormer
Sony turned two buildings into giant football-themed pinball machines in Madrid. The spectacle was watched by around 1500 people on the day, and by nearly 20,000 more since.
4. 3D Projection Mapped on Building
A perfectly synced soundtrack helps the effect as this building sings to the transfixed audience.
5. Hot Wheels Secret Race Battle
Customs House in Sydney, Australia gets virtually wrecked by Mattel's 'Hot Wheels Skull Racers.'
6. 3D Projection Mapping
The lucky residents of Sugarland, Texas got to witness this spectacle live on New Year's Eve 2010.
7. 555 KUBIK
This arty German projection imagines 'how it would be, if a house was dreaming'.
8. ACDC vs Iron Man 2
ACDC go up against Iron Man on the backdrop of front facade of the Great Keep at Rochester Castle.
9. BMW JOY 3D
BMW uses not one, but two office buildings in Singapore with its joy-themed projection.
10. Projection Mapping on the Kharkov State Building
You can hardly imagine a more impressive backdrop for a 3D projection than the Kharkov state building in the Ukraine. The building's architectural features are used to great effect in this brilliant example.
Source: Mashable
Haitians eat dirt cookies to survive
Thanks Clinton foundation for NOT delivering the relief money everyone donated. I'm sure the mud cookies are wonderful. Maybe when you get around to it you can ship them some irritated milk from the Fukushima fallout that's all over the U.S.
Oh wait fail government will just pretend that's not an issue and continue to sell it to us...
How Can You Tell Someone Is al-Qaida? Look at His Watch
A new batch of WikiLeaks files from Guantanamo Bay reveals a secret checklist U.S. investigators used to figure out whether detainees were really al-Qaida members. Among the criteria was the kind of wristwatch they were wearing.
The U.S. military lists the Casio F-91W model -- a cheap plastic watch available all over the world -- as a "suspicious item" on par with military transceivers, satellite phones, huge wads of cash and secret notes from al-Qaida facilitators.According to a confidential document distributed to American interrogators at the Guantanamo Bay prison, the Casio model "is an indicator of al-Qaida training in the manufacture of improved explosive devices (IEDs)."
"The Casio was known to be given to the students at al-Qaida bomb-making training courses in Afghanistan, at which the students received instruction in the preparation of timing devices using the watch," the document states.
One transcript reveals how U.S. military interrogators kept questioning one detainee, a Kuwaiti engineer, about his Casio watch. According to the German newspaper Der Spiegel, which republished an excerpt of the transcript, the Kuwaiti man expressed surprise when told that his wristwatch could link him to al-Qaida.
"We have two watches in Kuwait: Fossil and Casio. This watch has a compass that shows the direction of Mecca. I am Muslim and pray five times a day," the man explained.
In fact, he said all four Muslim chaplains working at Guantanamo at the time of his interrogation also had the same Casio watch to identify the direction in which to pray.
"I swear I don't know if terrorists use it or if they make explosives with it," the Kuwaiti detainee said. "If I had known that, I would have thrown it away. I'm not stupid."
Guantánamo Bay files: Was Bin Hamlili really an MI6 source?
Another cache of intelligence nasties has emerged, blinking, into the mainstream media daylight by way of WikiLeaks. This time, the information is drawn from official Guantánamo reports on detainees, drawing on information gleaned over the years of "enhanced" interrogations.
One case that caught my attention was that of Algerian carpet seller Adil Hadi al Jazairi Bin Hamlili, an alleged "al-Qaida operative, facilitator, courier, kidnapper and assassin" who also apparently worked as an agent of CSIS (Canadian Secret Intelligence Service) and our very ownMI6. So was this man a double-agent, playing his own lonely game and caught between the demands of his al-Qaida contacts and his western handlers? Or has MI6 been employing its very own al-Qaida assassin?
Read More @ guardian.co.uk
Ron Paul 2012: Last Chance To Rescue America?
With Ron Paul now all but certain to officially announce his bid for the 2012 presidency, it is imperative that Americans understand that the Texas Congressman represents the United States’ last hope of preserving its position as a pre-eminent economic superpower and avoiding a Soviet-style collapse into an abyss of debt, depression and decay.
“Sources close to Paul, who is in his 12th term in the House, said he will unveil an exploratory presidential committee, a key step in gearing up for a White House race. He will also unveil the campaign’s leadership team in Iowa, where the first votes of the presidential election will be cast in caucuses next year,” reports the National Journal.
During an appearance on The View yesterday, Paul addressed numerous issues, including Obamacare and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Although for a while Paul indicated that he was undecided about whether 2012 was the right time to re-launch the Ron Paul Revolution, we were never really in any doubt.
As we pointed out last year, Ron Paul is the only presidential candidate who can defeat Obama. Despite Obama’s plummeting popularity, Republican candidates expected to run against him, the likes of Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, have all lost support at a similar pace to the President.
Unless Americans want four more years of Obama, at the end of which the country will be little more than a rotting husk of its former glory, Ron Paul is the only viable solution.
Ron Paul is now 75 years of age, it’s virtually guaranteed that this will be his last run for the office of President. In 2016, which is coincidentally when the IMF predicts America will lose its crown as the leading economic superpower to China, there will be no new campaign, unless of course it is headed up by Paul’s son, Senator Rand Paul.
However, 2012 sees a confluence of factors coming together that shape a perfect environment for Ron Paul’s message of fiscal conservatism and a return to constitutional principles both domestically and in foreign policy.
As Joe Weisenthal writes for the Business Insider, Ron Paul’s presidential run will be a much bigger deal this time around.
“It’s just obvious that in the last four years, since the last time Ron Paul ran for President, the ideological center of gravity in the GOP — and the whole country for that matter — has shifted a lot closer to Ron Paul’s position,” writes Weisenthal, noting that even the mainstream media has now been forced to regularly address and even be critical of the Federal Reserve and its policies.
“In 2008, the GOP primary was dominated by serious candidates like Mitt Romney and John McCain and Fred Thompson and even Rudy Giuliani. They were content to basically ignore what Ron Paul had to say. This time, they’ll be fighting on his turf.”
Ron Paul is the only real alternative to the trail of destruction that Republicans and Democrats have left from continually launching new wars while sinking the country deeper and deeper into debt. The so-called “change” offered by Obama in 2008 has manifested itself as an intensification of the unaffordable military adventurism launched under George W. Bush.
Not only has Obama maintained the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, he has launched new campaigns in Yemen, Pakistan, and now Libya, the bombing of which cost the American people over $600 million dollars in just the first week, a price tag now likely to be in the billions, with no end in sight.
Even as the Standard and Poor ratings agency indicates that the United States is set to lose its AAA credit score, the Obama administration is looking to trouble in Syria and Iran as an opportunity to advance the geopolitical conquest of the middle east. But as with all great historical empires, the beginning of their decline is usually at the exact point when they overreach. America has now arrived at that stage, with its own cities rotting and decaying even as it attempts to capture new lands on different continents, and with the dollar rapidly losing its stability as the world reserve currency.
America can no longer afford to waste its resources on defending militants engaged in a civil war in a far flung country in north Africa, nor squandering them on propping up compliant regimes in middle eastern countries. None of this will even matter when the country collapses and crumbles from within and China hastily takes the reigns as the world’s policeman.
Of the roster of leading candidates, Ron Paul is the only one who will bring the troops home, restore constitutional values, and set about repairing America’s devastated economic base. He is the only one who can rescue America from becoming a subordinate afterthought to the powers that will shape the globe in the next 50 years, China and the European Union.
In many ways, Americans have been gifted one final opportunity to rescue their country, and Ron Paul represents the nation’s last hope.
Source: darkpolitricks.com
“Sources close to Paul, who is in his 12th term in the House, said he will unveil an exploratory presidential committee, a key step in gearing up for a White House race. He will also unveil the campaign’s leadership team in Iowa, where the first votes of the presidential election will be cast in caucuses next year,” reports the National Journal.
During an appearance on The View yesterday, Paul addressed numerous issues, including Obamacare and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Although for a while Paul indicated that he was undecided about whether 2012 was the right time to re-launch the Ron Paul Revolution, we were never really in any doubt.
As we pointed out last year, Ron Paul is the only presidential candidate who can defeat Obama. Despite Obama’s plummeting popularity, Republican candidates expected to run against him, the likes of Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, have all lost support at a similar pace to the President.
Unless Americans want four more years of Obama, at the end of which the country will be little more than a rotting husk of its former glory, Ron Paul is the only viable solution.
Ron Paul is now 75 years of age, it’s virtually guaranteed that this will be his last run for the office of President. In 2016, which is coincidentally when the IMF predicts America will lose its crown as the leading economic superpower to China, there will be no new campaign, unless of course it is headed up by Paul’s son, Senator Rand Paul.
However, 2012 sees a confluence of factors coming together that shape a perfect environment for Ron Paul’s message of fiscal conservatism and a return to constitutional principles both domestically and in foreign policy.
As Joe Weisenthal writes for the Business Insider, Ron Paul’s presidential run will be a much bigger deal this time around.
“It’s just obvious that in the last four years, since the last time Ron Paul ran for President, the ideological center of gravity in the GOP — and the whole country for that matter — has shifted a lot closer to Ron Paul’s position,” writes Weisenthal, noting that even the mainstream media has now been forced to regularly address and even be critical of the Federal Reserve and its policies.
“In 2008, the GOP primary was dominated by serious candidates like Mitt Romney and John McCain and Fred Thompson and even Rudy Giuliani. They were content to basically ignore what Ron Paul had to say. This time, they’ll be fighting on his turf.”
Ron Paul is the only real alternative to the trail of destruction that Republicans and Democrats have left from continually launching new wars while sinking the country deeper and deeper into debt. The so-called “change” offered by Obama in 2008 has manifested itself as an intensification of the unaffordable military adventurism launched under George W. Bush.
Not only has Obama maintained the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, he has launched new campaigns in Yemen, Pakistan, and now Libya, the bombing of which cost the American people over $600 million dollars in just the first week, a price tag now likely to be in the billions, with no end in sight.
Even as the Standard and Poor ratings agency indicates that the United States is set to lose its AAA credit score, the Obama administration is looking to trouble in Syria and Iran as an opportunity to advance the geopolitical conquest of the middle east. But as with all great historical empires, the beginning of their decline is usually at the exact point when they overreach. America has now arrived at that stage, with its own cities rotting and decaying even as it attempts to capture new lands on different continents, and with the dollar rapidly losing its stability as the world reserve currency.
America can no longer afford to waste its resources on defending militants engaged in a civil war in a far flung country in north Africa, nor squandering them on propping up compliant regimes in middle eastern countries. None of this will even matter when the country collapses and crumbles from within and China hastily takes the reigns as the world’s policeman.
Of the roster of leading candidates, Ron Paul is the only one who will bring the troops home, restore constitutional values, and set about repairing America’s devastated economic base. He is the only one who can rescue America from becoming a subordinate afterthought to the powers that will shape the globe in the next 50 years, China and the European Union.
In many ways, Americans have been gifted one final opportunity to rescue their country, and Ron Paul represents the nation’s last hope.
Source: darkpolitricks.com
Fukushima Blast Was Nuclear Explosion
British scientist Christopher Busby, a researcher on the negative health effects of ionizing radiation, told Russia Today that one of the explosions at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan was a nuclear explosion, not a hydrogen explosion as widely reported in the media.
Busby said the explosion at Chernobyl in 1986 was also a nuclear explosion. The Chernobyl nuclear accident dispersed large quantities of radioactive fuel and core materials into the atmosphere. Busby told RT the crisis at Fukushima is far worse than Chernobyl.
He said the explosion did not originate in the reactor core, but the tanks where spent plutonium MOX fuel rods are stored. MOX fuel contains plutonium blended with natural uranium, reprocessed uranium, or depleted uranium. The explosion vaporized the plutonium rods and ejected a large amount of radiation into the atmosphere.
Takeshi Tokuda, a member of the Lower House of the Japanese Diet, also believes the first explosion at Fukushima was nuclear. Tokuda talked with a doctor Oikawa of the Minami Soma City General Hospital. Oikawa told the government representative that materials ejected from the plant after the explosion registered high radiation levels.
“When the hospital checked the radiation level on the people who escaped from around the nuke plant after the explosion, there were more than 10 people whose radiation level exceeded 100,000 cpm [counts per minute], beyond what could be measured by the geiger counter the hospital had,” Tokuda wrote. “100,000 cpm is the new level that the Japanese government set that requires decontamination. Before the Fukushima accident, the level was 6,000 cpm.”
The EPA has attempted to downplay the fact that plutonium is now bombarding the United States and much of the Northern Hemisphere. According to Lucas Hixton Whitefield, an EPA RADNet report shows increased levels of plutonium in the atmosphere. Whitefield found information on the plutonium in a RADnet dataset.
Busby said the explosion at Chernobyl in 1986 was also a nuclear explosion. The Chernobyl nuclear accident dispersed large quantities of radioactive fuel and core materials into the atmosphere. Busby told RT the crisis at Fukushima is far worse than Chernobyl.
He said the explosion did not originate in the reactor core, but the tanks where spent plutonium MOX fuel rods are stored. MOX fuel contains plutonium blended with natural uranium, reprocessed uranium, or depleted uranium. The explosion vaporized the plutonium rods and ejected a large amount of radiation into the atmosphere.
Takeshi Tokuda, a member of the Lower House of the Japanese Diet, also believes the first explosion at Fukushima was nuclear. Tokuda talked with a doctor Oikawa of the Minami Soma City General Hospital. Oikawa told the government representative that materials ejected from the plant after the explosion registered high radiation levels.
“When the hospital checked the radiation level on the people who escaped from around the nuke plant after the explosion, there were more than 10 people whose radiation level exceeded 100,000 cpm [counts per minute], beyond what could be measured by the geiger counter the hospital had,” Tokuda wrote. “100,000 cpm is the new level that the Japanese government set that requires decontamination. Before the Fukushima accident, the level was 6,000 cpm.”
The EPA has attempted to downplay the fact that plutonium is now bombarding the United States and much of the Northern Hemisphere. According to Lucas Hixton Whitefield, an EPA RADNet report shows increased levels of plutonium in the atmosphere. Whitefield found information on the plutonium in a RADnet dataset.
Sony Launching Sony S1 and S2 Android Tablets
Seems the doodle exclusive Engadget obtained a few months back panned out as Mashable got a hold of the Sony S1 and Sony S2 Android Honeycomb powered tablets, with photos, as Sony plans to announce it today! The Sony S1 is a 9.4 inch whose design creates its own slight stand. The Sony S2 is a dual screen 5.5 inch, similar to the Kyocera Echo for Sprint, which can be used separately or together; and can be folded onto each other. Of course these Sony tablets are able to download and play PlayStation games plus are Wi-Fi and 3G/4G compatible.
The tablets are to be introduced into the living as they have use infrared sensors for controlling televisions, AV devices and such; acting as a universal remote. In addition, they support DLNA technology for streaming content to other devices. Availability is fall 2011, and price is unknown thus far. What are you thoughts, would you buy one? Let us know in the comments below!
Pictures of Sony S1 and S2 Android Tablets:
This content was originally posted at AndroidTapp.com
Asus Eee Pad Transformer Goes on Sale for $399, Sells Out Immediately
What do you get when you combine a dual-core Tegra 2 processor, 10.1-inch display, 16GB of storage, and a $399.99 price tag? Call that bad boy the Asus Eee Pad Transformer, which is now available for purchase via Best Buy. The Honeycomb tablet manages to grab one of the lowest price points we have seen on a device that doesn’t skimp on the hardware, and as such seems to already be backordered. The order page says units will ship in “1-2 weeks.”
This mirrors the Tranformer’s success in the UK where its first three production runs have already sold out. Either Asus didn’t anticipate high demand and lowballed their stock, or the Eee Pad Transformer is the perfect example of what can happen when you mix powerful hardware, Android Honeycomb, and the right price. Check out more discussion on the Transformer over at AndroidForums.
[via Best Buy | Thanks, Ajit!]
Fukushima and Chernobyl, similar but different
Early on, Japan’s official Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) didn’t think the damage at Fukushima was serious enough to be considered an “accident.” Ten hours after the plant was struck by an earthquake and battered by a tsunami, NISA called the situation a “serious incident,” a level 3 ranking on the IAEA scale. Even after radiation levels in the Fukushima main control room had spiked to 1,000 times normal levels, radioactive steam had been vented into the environment, and hydrogen explosions had demolished large parts of two reactor buildings, sending radioactive debris a thousand feet into the air, NISA only raised the threat assessment to level 5 — the same as the far less catastrophic accident at Three Mile Island.
Only on April 12, over a month after the crisis began, did NISA upgrade the crisis at Fukushima to level seven.
“In hindsight, their assessment of the situation was faulty,” says professor emeritus of nuclear engineering, Kenji Sumita.
The Soviet police-state clampdown on information about Chernobyl was many times worse. People surrounding the area (in what is now Ukraine) were told that a nuclear power plant had experienced only a minor accident. They weren’t told that plumes of intensely radioactive smoke were blowing across fields where dairy cows grazed. Unsuspecting resident gave their children milk with high levels of radioactive iodine, causing a spike in thyroid cancers starting ten years later.
Although thyroid cancer is treatable if caught early, and rarely results in death, the residents around Chernobyl were never told that they had been exposed to radiation and needed annual thyroid checkups. Many died needlessly.
One of the biggest differences between what happened at Chernobyl and the crisis at Fukushima is the amount of resources the two countries possess to minimize long-term effects. The Soviet Union was, we now know, facing financial collapse. Though it spent billions on Chernobyl, it simply abandoned vast amounts of contaminated land — making them into exclusions zones.
So apparently the difference is Japan isn't lying as much to the world as Russia did during Chernobyl. Of course this wonderfully in depth article doesn't even go into the differences of the nuclear explosions or meltdowns. Thanks Forbes! Oh yeah, that's right you only care about money.
The Media Corruption that Protects TEPCO
There is one particularly telling example of the media shielding TEPCO by suppressing information. This concerns “plutonium”. According to Uesugi, after the reactor blew up on March 14, there was concern about the leakage of plutonium. However, astonishingly, until two weeks later when Uesugi asked, not a single media representative had raised the question of plutonium at TEPCO's press conferences.
On March 26, in response to Uesugi’s query, TEPCO stated, “We do not measure the level of plutonium and do not even have a detector to scale it.” Ironically, the next day, Chief Cabinet Secretary Edano announced that “plutonium was detected”.
When TEPCO finally released data on radioactive plutonium on March 28, it stated that plutonium -238, -239, and -240 were found in the ground, but insisted that it posed no human risk. Since TEPCO provided no clarification of the meaning of the plutonium radiation findings, the mainstream press merely reported the presence of the radiation without assessment (link). Nippon Television on March 29 headlined its interview with Tokyo University Prof. Nakagawa Keiichi, a radiation specialist, “Plutonium from the power plant—No effect on neighbors.”
On March 15, Uesugi criticized TEPCO for its closed attitude toward information on a TBS radio program. For this, he was immediately dismissed from his regular program. The scandal involving TEPCO’s silencing of the media took an interesting turn two weeks later. At the time of the disaster on March 11, TEPCO Chairman Katsumata Tsunehisa was hosting dozens of mainstream media executives on a “study session” in China.When asked about this fact by freelance journalist Tanaka Ryusaku at a TEPCO press conference on March 30, Katsumata defended the practice.
“It is a fact that we traveled together to China,” he said, “[TEPCO] did not pay all the expenses of the trip, but we paid more than they did. Certainly they are executives of the mass media, but they are all members of the study session.”
When Tanaka requested the names of the media executives hosted by TEPCO in China, Katsumata retorted, “I cannot reveal their names since this is private information.” But it is precisely such collusive relations between mainstream media, the government and TEPCO, that results in the censorship of information concerning nuclear problems.
Now the Japanese government has moved to crack down on independent reportage and criticism of the government’s policies in the wake of the disaster by deciding what citizens may or may not talk about in public. A new project team has been created by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication, the National Police Agency, and METI to combat “rumors” deemed harmful to Japanese security in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.
The government charges that the damage caused by earthquakes and by the nuclear accident are being magnified by irresponsible rumors, and the government must take action for the sake of the public good. The project team has begun to send “letters of request” to such organizations as telephone companies, internet providers, cable television stations, and others, demanding that they “take adequate measures based on the guidelines in response to illegal information. ”The measures include erasing any information from internet sites that the authorities deem harmful to public order and morality.
Makiko Segawa is a staff writer at the Shingetsu News Agency. She prepared this report from Fukushima and Tokyo. She can be reached at shingetsunewsagency@gmail.com
Source: JapanFocus.org
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