*What is freedom? Hundreds detained in Belarus Social Network Revolution: "President Aleksandr Lukashenko said at a major press conference last week that he was not going to allow any unsanctioned rallies in central Minsk.“I will listen to you but do not oppose the law and the authorities. If you do – the proper reaction will follow,” Lukashenko told his political opponents."
Social network activists ask Lukashenko to stop persecution of silent protesters: "The letter urged Lukashenko “not to give illegal orders” which will not stop the protest actions in any case. “We will not stop, the actions will continue under any circumstances… Now the process of Belarusians’ acquiring self-awareness is under way. Soon dozens of thousands of people will not feel intimidated” ."
*The Saudis prepare to step up: "We Arabs used to say no to peace, and we got our comeuppance in 1967. In 2002 King Abdullah offered what has become the Arab Peace Initiative. Based on UN Security Council Resolution 242, it calls for an end to the conflict based on land for peace. The Israelis withdraw from all occupied lands, including East Jerusalem, reach a mutually agreed solution to the Palestinian refugees and recognise the Palestinian state. In return, they will get full diplomatic recognition from the Arab world and all the Muslim states, an end to hostilities and normal relations with all these states."
*4th of July: Independence Day for Whom? "This ideal deserves a true celebration, even if the reality has fallen so short. Our task is to restore the goal, and institute the means to make it genuine. If our Nation was created by men of honor, it can be reinstated with brothers and sisters of similar courage and integrity. Are you one of this new breed that seeks LIBERTY? Or are you content on bowing to a dictator of a depraved empire? We all must choose! Who’s birthday will you celebrate . . . Your own as a ‘son of liberty’, or a master who you continue to pay homage."
*Oil spill outrages Montana residents: Up to 42,000 gallons surge overnight Friday into the Yellowstone River, and some say Exxon Mobil's cleanup needs more oversight: "Some officials feared the oil would reach the Missouri River, just across the border in North Dakota.
"The water is fast and furious," said Kennedy, the Yellowstone County official. "I'm hoping that we get it cleaned up and stopped before it even approaches there"."
*Researchers find plastic in more than 9% of fish in northern Pacific Ocean: "The study published this week by scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego estimated that fish in the middle depths of the northern Pacific Ocean are ingesting as much as 24,000 tons of plastic each year."
*Sea turtle choked with 317 plastic pieces found dead on Australian beach: "According to a recent study, about 36 percent of sea turtles are affected by marine debris, which is 17 times higher than any previous estimate. This is quite an alarming figure for these threatened sea turtles and marine ecosystem, she added."
*Dead Penguins Washing Ashore With Disturbing Regularity: "For the last ten years, with disturbing regularity, penguins have been washing ashore starving or covered in oil. And while the origins of these annual mass deaths remain officially a mystery -- one biologists believes he knows the sinister truth behind them."
Info is free, spread it!
Monday, July 4, 2011
Video of activists brutally arrested for hand clapping in public
Humanrights??
Info is free, spread it!
Silent Outcry: Brutal crackdown on 'hand clapping' protest in Belarus
How about human rights?
Info is free, spread it!
Cooper, NRC Inspection Reports: scheduled for repair in early June, 2011
*Nuclear Plants and Disasters: NRC Inspection Results: Please wake up! It says:
"Cooper NRC Inspection Report Issues Cited: The licensee identified a potential vulnerability associated with its ability to position various contingency components during a site-wide flood. For example, the licensee’s ability to put in place the portable fire pump or portable diesel generator would be challenged with the river at probable maximum flood levels. The licensee identified that the diesel fire pump batteries could be impacted during a probable maximum flood. The administration building houses the technical support center and the operations support center but receives no flooding barriers per current side procedures. The flooding of this building could hamper the execution of the emergency plan following a safe shutdown earthquake concurrent with a probable maximum flood event. All of these issues have been entered into the station corrective action program for resolution."
"Fort Calhoun NRC Inspection Report Issues Cited: Condition Reports were written for any deficiencies and for any procedure or material enhancements that were discovered. Specific vulnerabilities and deficiencies noted were: (1) severe accident management guideline equipment is not maintained through a preventive maintenance process –actions were assigned to develop regular inventories, inspections, and tests as appropriate; (2) one method of venting containment (personnel airlock door window removal) was not determined to be viable, however additional compensatory measures and capabilities have been identified; (3) one method of providing reactor coolant system makeup from the spent fuel pool was not determined to be credible-multiple alternate paths exist and improved procedure guidance may make this path credible again; (4) one degraded component, fire pump FP-154, is credited in the flow path for three of the methods of using fire protection water to reduce offsite releases however, many alternatives exist and this equipment was previously identified and is scheduled for repair in early June, 2011; and (5) several procedure changes as identified in condition reports to provide enhancements and correct minor editorial changes (including plant labeling)."
*When Scientists Take to the Streets It’s Time to Listen Up: "A central claim of climate change denial is that the physics of thermodynamics is in conflict with climate models. Even a quick Google search reveals that this claim has been refuted many times."
*Iran official threatens to destroy Israel: "Mohammad Karami Raad, member of the Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said: "If Israel embarks on committing a mistake against us, we will destroy Tel Aviv and Israel will have from 2 to 3 million refugees in the very first moment". "
*Financial chaos makes Greece Israel’s hero and flotilla’s wrecker: "Just a day earlier, the prime minister spoke with his Greek counterpart, imploring him to issue an order preventing ships from disembarking from Greece toward the Gaza Strip. Unlike in the past, Papandreou responded positively, and a top Israeli official involved in the talks between the Greek prime minister and Netanyahu said that Israel knew as early as Thursday afternoon that Greece was planning to block ships from leaving its ports toward the strip." How you can help Jews for Justice for Palestinians, find out here!
*German tanks serve Saudi crackdowns "The decision for the sale of 200 Leopard tanks worth billions of dollars was revealed by the German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel on Saturday. The plan was enabled by Berlin's removal of a decades-long ban on the sale of heavy weaponry to Riyadh."
* Again?
August 31, 2006: "Two companies from Pennsylvania and New Jersey have informed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that two moisture density gauges have been stolen from a temporary job site in Stroudsburg, Monroe County." Read here: Highbeam
March 20, 2007: "Authorities are seeking the return of a portable nuclear gauge that was stolen from a worksite in the City of Philadelphia on Monday, March 19. The gauge, containing small amounts of radioactive material, is used for industrial purposes such as measuring the density of soil at construction sites." link: nrc.gov/reading
April 25, 2008: "Police say a portable nuclear gauge was stolen today out of the bed of a construction truck." Read here: abclocal.go.com
December 7, 2009: "CPN Instrotek, California License CA1100-07, reported that a MC-3 gauge was stolen from a delivery truck while it was being transported to CPM Instrotek." says NRC, read more here.
December 30, 2010: Reward offered for stolen nuclear gauge "The device is used to measure density in soil and is used by construction companies on a daily basis."
And now(03/07/2011): "A portable moisture density gauge that uses radioactive materials has been reported stolen from a truck in a suburb north of New York City. Stony Point police tell the Journal News in Saturday editions that they are searching for the over $4,000 device, which is regulated by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The gauge is licensed to a company that inspects construction material. The gauge was reported stolen June 27 from a truck parked outside the home of an employee who works for the testing company. The device's radioactive sources are categorized by the NRC as "very unlikely to cause permanent injury to individuals." State Department of Health spokesman Tom Alloco tells the newspaper that the radioactive sources are "doubly encapsulated and secured." Exposure would occur if the device broke." link here!
Device with radioactive materials missing in NY and Soil gauge with radioactive material stolen in Stony Point "The device contained 8 millicuries of cesium-137, 40 millicuries of americium-241 and an unspecified amount of beryllium, according to the the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's website that listed the theft as part of its current event notification reports."
Follow the jellyfish!
28/06/2011 Jellyfish-swimmers' new BFFs? "As a recent article in the New York Times reported, we now know that box jellyfish possess a complex visual system that allows them to navigate the murky swamps in which they live. Some of box jellies' 24 eyes - yes, 24 eyes per jelly - are relatively simple and respond to light and shadow. But box jellies also have eyes that are surprisingly similar to our own - with lenses, retinas and corneas - that unerringly point skyward."
28/06/2011 Jellyfish return to the nation's coasts "Last year they made much of the western Mediterranean unswimmable. A couple of weekend's ago – the official start of summer -- thousands of nasty, golf-ball sized jellyfish washed ashore on a 10-mile stretch of Florida's east coast, stinging a reported 1,800 swimmers."
"It's not just the abundance of jellyfish in Florida's that was surprising, it was the species. The critters washing ashore in the thousands were so-called "mauve stingers," which haven't washed up on Florida beaches for more than a decade (more common are the blue Portuguese man-of-war or cannonball varieties). Compact but fitted with long tentacles, these are exactly the same jellyfish that harassed Mediterranean beaches during the summer of 2010."
29/06/2011 - 03:29:53: Masses of jellyfish entering the Torness nuclear power plant's cooling water inflow area led EDF Energy to shut both units there manually on Tuesday, the company said. "This is temporary and the reactors will be restarted once the jellyfish situation subsides," a spokeswoman for EDF Energy said. The two 640-megawatt (MW) units in Scotland went off line on Tuesday afternoon, National Grid data showed. The presence of jellyfish, seaweed and other marine life is not uncommon at nuclear power plants, EDF Energy said. Two weeks ago, an Atlantic Grey Seal was rescued from EDF Energy's Hinkley Point nuclear power station in Somerset after it got trapped in the inflow area chasing fish. The plant's operations were not affected.
Jellyfish swarm forces nuclear power plant to shutdown after they swim into filters
Two new jellyfish species spotted in Maltese waters "Both the nomadic and the barrel jellyfish are similar in appearance but they can be distinguished through a number of subtle differences, including a marginal blue ring around the bell, found only in the barrel jellyfish. Such reports bring the total number of new jellyfish species reported from Maltese coastal waters over the past year by the Spot the Jellyfish team to seven."
02/07/2011 - 13:49:44: Up to 150 visitors of Parangtritis Beach in Yogyakarta have been stung by jellyfish since last weekend, with the attacks resulting in skin rashes and pain. "I was swimming when suddenly I felt heat and an itchiness on my chest. It seemed like I'd been attacked by a jellyfish. I've been laying around for a half an hour now, hopefully the sun will burn [the venom] away," said Ashari, 42, one of the beach visitors, as he rubbed sand against his chest in the hopes of relieving the lingering discomfort. A woman was also seen carrying her child to the local search and rescue (SAR) station, where she asked for the child to be treated for what appeared to be a jellyfish sting. Officers immediately told her to lay the child in the sun, and then rubbed an oil on the child's stomach, where it had been stung. Parangtritis SAR head Ali Sutanto said jellyfish commonly attacked between July and August, adding that of all of the beaches in Bantul they seemed to be mostly concentrated at Parangtritis. "On Tuesday alone up to 70 people were attacked by jellyfish," he said, as quoted by tribunnews.com on Thursday.
Jellyfish attack beach-goers in Parangtritis: "Up to 150 visitors of Parangtritis Beach in Yogyakarta have been stung by jellyfish since last weekend, with the attacks resulting in skin rashes and pain."
03/07/2011 - 16:13:37: It's not just beachgoers who are flocking to the shore this holiday weekend, so are the jellyfish. Nearly 700 people were stung yesterday along Volusia County beaches, mainly in New Smyrna and Ormond Beach. Lifeguards said onshore winds are bringing the jellyfish closer to shore. In June, Brevard and Volusia County beaches had to deal with another jellyfish invasion when 2,000 people were stung.
Jet-Ski crash, jellyfish stings on Volusia beaches: "The holiday weekend brought crowds of visitors out to Volusia County beaches today— unfortunately, it also brought crowds of jellyfish"
Strange but true: Jellyfish inhabit Colorado waters: "Its tiny size and erratic occurrence make it nearly invisible and hence virtually unknown as part of Colorado's wildlife, details that embellish the surprise that we have our own jellyfish."
Info is free, spread it!
"Cooper NRC Inspection Report Issues Cited: The licensee identified a potential vulnerability associated with its ability to position various contingency components during a site-wide flood. For example, the licensee’s ability to put in place the portable fire pump or portable diesel generator would be challenged with the river at probable maximum flood levels. The licensee identified that the diesel fire pump batteries could be impacted during a probable maximum flood. The administration building houses the technical support center and the operations support center but receives no flooding barriers per current side procedures. The flooding of this building could hamper the execution of the emergency plan following a safe shutdown earthquake concurrent with a probable maximum flood event. All of these issues have been entered into the station corrective action program for resolution."
"Fort Calhoun NRC Inspection Report Issues Cited: Condition Reports were written for any deficiencies and for any procedure or material enhancements that were discovered. Specific vulnerabilities and deficiencies noted were: (1) severe accident management guideline equipment is not maintained through a preventive maintenance process –actions were assigned to develop regular inventories, inspections, and tests as appropriate; (2) one method of venting containment (personnel airlock door window removal) was not determined to be viable, however additional compensatory measures and capabilities have been identified; (3) one method of providing reactor coolant system makeup from the spent fuel pool was not determined to be credible-multiple alternate paths exist and improved procedure guidance may make this path credible again; (4) one degraded component, fire pump FP-154, is credited in the flow path for three of the methods of using fire protection water to reduce offsite releases however, many alternatives exist and this equipment was previously identified and is scheduled for repair in early June, 2011; and (5) several procedure changes as identified in condition reports to provide enhancements and correct minor editorial changes (including plant labeling)."
*When Scientists Take to the Streets It’s Time to Listen Up: "A central claim of climate change denial is that the physics of thermodynamics is in conflict with climate models. Even a quick Google search reveals that this claim has been refuted many times."
*Iran official threatens to destroy Israel: "Mohammad Karami Raad, member of the Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said: "If Israel embarks on committing a mistake against us, we will destroy Tel Aviv and Israel will have from 2 to 3 million refugees in the very first moment". "
*Financial chaos makes Greece Israel’s hero and flotilla’s wrecker: "Just a day earlier, the prime minister spoke with his Greek counterpart, imploring him to issue an order preventing ships from disembarking from Greece toward the Gaza Strip. Unlike in the past, Papandreou responded positively, and a top Israeli official involved in the talks between the Greek prime minister and Netanyahu said that Israel knew as early as Thursday afternoon that Greece was planning to block ships from leaving its ports toward the strip." How you can help Jews for Justice for Palestinians, find out here!
*German tanks serve Saudi crackdowns "The decision for the sale of 200 Leopard tanks worth billions of dollars was revealed by the German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel on Saturday. The plan was enabled by Berlin's removal of a decades-long ban on the sale of heavy weaponry to Riyadh."
* Again?
August 31, 2006: "Two companies from Pennsylvania and New Jersey have informed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that two moisture density gauges have been stolen from a temporary job site in Stroudsburg, Monroe County." Read here: Highbeam
March 20, 2007: "Authorities are seeking the return of a portable nuclear gauge that was stolen from a worksite in the City of Philadelphia on Monday, March 19. The gauge, containing small amounts of radioactive material, is used for industrial purposes such as measuring the density of soil at construction sites." link: nrc.gov/reading
April 25, 2008: "Police say a portable nuclear gauge was stolen today out of the bed of a construction truck." Read here: abclocal.go.com
December 7, 2009: "CPN Instrotek, California License CA1100-07, reported that a MC-3 gauge was stolen from a delivery truck while it was being transported to CPM Instrotek." says NRC, read more here.
December 30, 2010: Reward offered for stolen nuclear gauge "The device is used to measure density in soil and is used by construction companies on a daily basis."
And now(03/07/2011): "A portable moisture density gauge that uses radioactive materials has been reported stolen from a truck in a suburb north of New York City. Stony Point police tell the Journal News in Saturday editions that they are searching for the over $4,000 device, which is regulated by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The gauge is licensed to a company that inspects construction material. The gauge was reported stolen June 27 from a truck parked outside the home of an employee who works for the testing company. The device's radioactive sources are categorized by the NRC as "very unlikely to cause permanent injury to individuals." State Department of Health spokesman Tom Alloco tells the newspaper that the radioactive sources are "doubly encapsulated and secured." Exposure would occur if the device broke." link here!
Device with radioactive materials missing in NY and Soil gauge with radioactive material stolen in Stony Point "The device contained 8 millicuries of cesium-137, 40 millicuries of americium-241 and an unspecified amount of beryllium, according to the the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's website that listed the theft as part of its current event notification reports."
Follow the jellyfish!
28/06/2011 Jellyfish-swimmers' new BFFs? "As a recent article in the New York Times reported, we now know that box jellyfish possess a complex visual system that allows them to navigate the murky swamps in which they live. Some of box jellies' 24 eyes - yes, 24 eyes per jelly - are relatively simple and respond to light and shadow. But box jellies also have eyes that are surprisingly similar to our own - with lenses, retinas and corneas - that unerringly point skyward."
28/06/2011 Jellyfish return to the nation's coasts "Last year they made much of the western Mediterranean unswimmable. A couple of weekend's ago – the official start of summer -- thousands of nasty, golf-ball sized jellyfish washed ashore on a 10-mile stretch of Florida's east coast, stinging a reported 1,800 swimmers."
"It's not just the abundance of jellyfish in Florida's that was surprising, it was the species. The critters washing ashore in the thousands were so-called "mauve stingers," which haven't washed up on Florida beaches for more than a decade (more common are the blue Portuguese man-of-war or cannonball varieties). Compact but fitted with long tentacles, these are exactly the same jellyfish that harassed Mediterranean beaches during the summer of 2010."
29/06/2011 - 03:29:53: Masses of jellyfish entering the Torness nuclear power plant's cooling water inflow area led EDF Energy to shut both units there manually on Tuesday, the company said. "This is temporary and the reactors will be restarted once the jellyfish situation subsides," a spokeswoman for EDF Energy said. The two 640-megawatt (MW) units in Scotland went off line on Tuesday afternoon, National Grid data showed. The presence of jellyfish, seaweed and other marine life is not uncommon at nuclear power plants, EDF Energy said. Two weeks ago, an Atlantic Grey Seal was rescued from EDF Energy's Hinkley Point nuclear power station in Somerset after it got trapped in the inflow area chasing fish. The plant's operations were not affected.
Jellyfish swarm forces nuclear power plant to shutdown after they swim into filters
Two new jellyfish species spotted in Maltese waters "Both the nomadic and the barrel jellyfish are similar in appearance but they can be distinguished through a number of subtle differences, including a marginal blue ring around the bell, found only in the barrel jellyfish. Such reports bring the total number of new jellyfish species reported from Maltese coastal waters over the past year by the Spot the Jellyfish team to seven."
02/07/2011 - 13:49:44: Up to 150 visitors of Parangtritis Beach in Yogyakarta have been stung by jellyfish since last weekend, with the attacks resulting in skin rashes and pain. "I was swimming when suddenly I felt heat and an itchiness on my chest. It seemed like I'd been attacked by a jellyfish. I've been laying around for a half an hour now, hopefully the sun will burn [the venom] away," said Ashari, 42, one of the beach visitors, as he rubbed sand against his chest in the hopes of relieving the lingering discomfort. A woman was also seen carrying her child to the local search and rescue (SAR) station, where she asked for the child to be treated for what appeared to be a jellyfish sting. Officers immediately told her to lay the child in the sun, and then rubbed an oil on the child's stomach, where it had been stung. Parangtritis SAR head Ali Sutanto said jellyfish commonly attacked between July and August, adding that of all of the beaches in Bantul they seemed to be mostly concentrated at Parangtritis. "On Tuesday alone up to 70 people were attacked by jellyfish," he said, as quoted by tribunnews.com on Thursday.
Jellyfish attack beach-goers in Parangtritis: "Up to 150 visitors of Parangtritis Beach in Yogyakarta have been stung by jellyfish since last weekend, with the attacks resulting in skin rashes and pain."
03/07/2011 - 16:13:37: It's not just beachgoers who are flocking to the shore this holiday weekend, so are the jellyfish. Nearly 700 people were stung yesterday along Volusia County beaches, mainly in New Smyrna and Ormond Beach. Lifeguards said onshore winds are bringing the jellyfish closer to shore. In June, Brevard and Volusia County beaches had to deal with another jellyfish invasion when 2,000 people were stung.
Jet-Ski crash, jellyfish stings on Volusia beaches: "The holiday weekend brought crowds of visitors out to Volusia County beaches today— unfortunately, it also brought crowds of jellyfish"
Strange but true: Jellyfish inhabit Colorado waters: "Its tiny size and erratic occurrence make it nearly invisible and hence virtually unknown as part of Colorado's wildlife, details that embellish the surprise that we have our own jellyfish."
Info is free, spread it!
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