When Does a Nuclear Disaster End? Never.

from Chaotic Fate by qew

http://www.blacklistednews.com/?news_id=13251

March 27, 2011

Source: NOVA - Forward by Tony Cartalucci:

NOVA - Inside Chernobyl's Sarcophagus
Those who think Japan's Fukushima disaster is today's headlines and tomorrow's history need to take a good look at the Chernobyl disaster, which to this day is a continuing threat to the people of Ukraine. It will be hundreds of years before the area around the destroyed reactor is inhabitable again and there are disputes over whether or not Chernobyl's nuclear fuel still poses a threat of causing another explosion. There is also a teetering reactor core cover and the deteriorating sarcophagus itself that may collapse and send plumes of radioactive dust in all directions.

The deteriorating "sarcophagus" containment building at Chernobyl.

The New York Times article "Lessons from Chernobyl for Japan," reflects on the Chernobyl disaster and how its legacy still looms over us today as a very real threat. Those who believe in a quick fix for the Fukushima disaster would be wise to remember Chernobyl's legacy. More importantly, with tens of millions of lives at stake, nation actors that have the ability to assist in mitigating this disaster now, but choose instead to squander their manpower and resources elsewhere (like in Libya), must remember that their actions today will be remembered and judged for centuries to come. 
Below is a sobering look at the Chernobyl disaster and the many men who fought and died trying to contain it. There is also the little known tale of the scientists who over the years have risked their lives to assess and direct the management of the threat Chernobyl's destroyed reactor continuously poses. We must look to history and take the catastrophic effects of Chernobyl's disaster to heart. Downplaying the threat in Fukushima, Japan today needlessly puts millions of people at risk who might otherwise begin making preparations to leave the area on a long-term basis. 
Knowledge is power, ignorance can literally be death. 

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General Electric Paid No Federal Taxes in 2010 on a 14 BILLION Dollar Profit

from Chaotic Fate by qew

http://www.blacklistednews.com/?news_id=13249

March 27, 2011

Source: ABC

The top tax bracket for U.S. corporations stands at 35 percent, one of the highest rates in the world. So how is it possible that a giant of American business, General Electric, paid nothing in federal taxes last year, even as it made billions in profit? And should the CEO of GE, Jeffrey Immelt, be advising the president on business?

For two years, President Obama has been talking about the need for corporate tax reform, declaring that the system is too complicated and that companies pay too much.

Read Full Article Here...

Feds Finally Recognize The Anti-Cancer Potential Of Cannabis, 36 Years Too Late!

from Chaotic Fate by qew

http://www.blacklistednews.com/?news_id=13244

March 27, 2011

Source: NORML

Scientific trials have for decades documentedthe anti-cancer properties of cannabis and its constituents. Yet it took until this week for the website of the National Institute of Cancer, a component of the U.S. government’s National Institutes of Health, to finally acknowledged the herb’s therapeutic utility for patients living with disease or suffering from the adverse side-effects of cancer treatment.
In a newly added section to the website, entitled ‘Cannabis and Cannabinoids,’ the Institute states:

Cannabinoids may cause antitumor effects by various mechanisms, including induction of cell death, inhibition of cell growth, and inhibition of tumor angiogenesis and metastasis. Cannabinoids appear to kill tumor cells but do not affect their nontransformed counterparts and may even protect them from cell death.”

…The potential benefits of medicinal cannabis for people living with cancer include antiemetic effects, appetite stimulation, pain relief, and improved sleep.In the practice of integrative oncology, the health care provider may recommend medicinal cannabis not only for symptom management but also for its possible direct antitumor effect.”

It’s a stunning acknowledgment, given that the NIH is a branch of the very same government that presently maintains that the cannabis plant and all of its naturally-derived components have ‘no accepted medical use.’ Yet it also begs the question: Where has the National Institute of Cancer been all these years?
After all, the anti-tumor activity of cannabinoids were initially documented in 1975! That’s right; it’s taken 36 years for the Institute to get with the program.
Hopefully it won’t take them another 36 years to demand that the Feds finally assess whether these preclinical results are replicable in human trials.
Please visit NORML to show your support for ending marijuana prohibition.

New cybervirus found in Japan / Stuxnet designed to attack off-line servers via USB memory sticks

from Chaotic Fate by qew

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T101004003493.htm

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Stuxnet, a computer virus designed to attack servers isolated from the Internet, such as at power plants, has been confirmed on 63 personal computers in Japan since July, according to major security firm Symantec Corp.

The virus does not cause any damage online, but once it enters an industrial system, it can send a certain program out of control.

Symantec says the virus reaches the servers via USB memory sticks, and warns against the careless use of such devices.

Systems at power plants, gas stations and water facilities are not connected to the Internet to protect them from cyber-attacks.

A Symantec engineer who has analyzed the virus said it was made using advanced technology, and it is highly likely a well-funded organization, not an individual, produced it. The virus has spread throughout the globe via the Internet.

After Stuxnet finds its way onto an ordinary computer via the Internet, it hides there, waiting for a USB memory stick to be connected to the computer, when it transfers itself to the memory stick. When the USB device is then connected to a computer linked to an isolated server, it can enter the system and take control of it.

As computers that harbor Stuxnet do not operate strangely, the virus can be transferred to a memory stick inadvertently.

According to the security company, the virus is designed to target a German-made program often used in systems managing water, gas and oil pipelines. The program is used at public utilities around the world, including in Japan.

The virus could cause such systems to act erratically, and it could take months to restore them to normal.

The 63 infected computers found in Japan were likely infected sometime after June.

According to the company, about 60 percent of the computers that have been infected with the virus were discovered in Iran. Since September, about 30,000 computers there have been found to be infected with the virus. The country's Industry and Mines Ministry has called the virus an electronic act of war.

Some computers at the Iranian Bushehr nuclear power plant, which is scheduled to begin operation in October, have been infected with the virus.

A supervisor at the plant said the virus has not damaged the facility's main computer system and would not affect its planned opening.

In Japan, no public utilities have been affected by the virus. Nevertheless, the Cabinet Office's National Information Security Center has urged electric power companies to exercise extreme care when using USB devices, and to scan any programs that may have been tampered with.

(Oct. 5, 2010)

NASA Shows How Photoshop Is Used To Create Stunning Forgeries Of Space

from Chaotic Fate by qew

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/27/nasa-photoshop-images-video_n_841187.html

Ever wonder how NASA creates those stunning, brilliantly colored images from space? Wonder no more! The agency has created a time-lapse video demonstrating the effort behind imaging the cosmos.

The video (below) shows how Photoshop is used to reconstruct a Hubble panorama of spiral galaxy NGC 3982. Data from seven greyscale image of the galaxy are scaled, rotated, and combined into one image that undergoes color retouching and further editing before it is is ready for release. The whole process takes 10 hours.

Gizmodo explains why NASA chooses to Photoshop its images: 

Scientists have to choose how to represent this information in a way that we can observe directly. Sometimes they will use a natural representation, which is very close to what we would see if we zoomed there inside the Enterprise. Other times they will choose representative color, which helps them see invisible features of the object—like those that can only be captured in infrared or ultraviolet light. And sometimes they show the image in enhanced color, a hyperrealist mode that brings a lot of hidden, subtle details.

Watch the video to see the process unfold, then explore NASA's HubbleSite to learn more about the story behind these epic pictures. For more incredible images, click on over to our slideshow of10 amazing Hubble images.

WATCH: [via Geekosystem]

Do you know what NASA stands for.. ?
Never A Straight Answer

-qew

IMF Global Austerity Programs – Coming to your country soon

from Chaotic Fate by qew

http://seeker401.wordpress.com/2011/03/28/imf-global-austerity-programs-coming-to-your-country-soon/

by seeker401

———-

once the IMF have you amongst their claws you are finished as a sovereign country..its all over..funny thing is the USA is undergoing its own austerity but the sheep are so asleep they dont even realise..other countries march and protest..in the USA they change the channel..
401

austerity measures, is such a polite way of saying "you're gettin' jacked!" "shut up and hand it over"
-qew

Russia’s Zhirinovsky calls to revoke Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize

from Chaotic Fate by qew

http://seeker401.wordpress.com/2011/03/28/russias-zhirinovsky-calls-to-revoke-obamas-nobel-peace-prize/

by seeker401

http://en.rian.ru/world/20110321/163134252.html
Russia’s head of the Liberal Democratic Party, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, has appealed to the Nobel Prize Committee to revoke U.S. President Barack Obama’s Nobel Prize, the party’s press service said in a statement on Monday.
Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 for his commitment to non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.
“The situation in Libya is yet another shocking act of aggression by NATO forces and in particular by the United States. This is a clear reflection of colonial policy. This is another crude invasion into the domestic affairs of an independent state. There is only one goal: to take control of Libyan oil and the Libyan regime and not saving the Libyan people,” the press service quoted Zhirinovsky as saying.
The colorful and flamboyant leader of Russia’s LDPR party plans to meet with Libyan Ambassador to Russia Amir al-Arabi on Wednesday to discuss the latest events in the North African country.
Earlier Zhirinovsky called on the Muslim world to support Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and sent an official letter to NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen demanding the immediate stop to the military operation in Libya.
A military operation against Libya’s strongman Gaddafi, who has ruled the country with an iron fist for more than 40 years, began on Saturday. On Monday, Western forces launched a second wave of air strikes on Gaddafi’s positions under a UN resolution authorizing military action to protect Libyan civilians.
NATO has so far not indicated if it will participate in the operation.
Libyan television has reported that at least 50 civilians have been killed and over 150 wounded in the UN strikes and that many health and education facilities have been destroyed.

———–

i agree..we are moving to orwells world..where war is peace..obama basically said that when he accepted the gong..
401

Radiation levels highest since crisis began in Fukushima Japan

http://chaoticfate.blogspot.com



http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/27/japan-idUSL3E7ER06020110327

* Battle to control Fukushima plant seen far from over

* Japan crisis helps tip Germany poll against Merkel

* More than 27,000 dead or missing from quake and tsunami (Adds Kyodo on PM, expert)

By Kiyoshi Takenaka and Yoko Kubota

TOKYO, March 28 (Reuters) - Japan appeared resigned on Monday to a long fight to contain the world's most dangerous atomic crisis in 25 years after high radiation levels complicated work at its crippled nuclear plant.

Engineers have been battling to control the six-reactor Fukushima complex since it was damaged by a March 11 earthquake and tsunami that also left more than 27,000 people dead or missing across Japan's devastated north east.

Radiation at the plant has soared in recent days. Latest readings at the weekend showed contamination 100,000 times normal in water at reactor No. 2 and 1,850 times normal in the nearby sea.

Those were the most alarming levels since the crisis began.

"I think maybe the situation is much more serious than we were led to believe," said one expert, Najmedin Meshkati, of the University of Southern California, adding it may take weeks to stabilise the situation and the United Nations should step in.

"This is far beyond what one nation can handle - it needs to be bumped up to the U.N. Security Council. In my humble opinion, this is more important than the Libya no fly zone."

Under-pressure plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501.T) has conceded it faces a protracted and uncertain operation to contain overheating fuel rods and avert a meltdown.

"Regrettably, we don't have a concrete schedule at the moment to enable us to say in how many months or years (the crisis will be over)," TEPCO vice-president Sakae Muto said in the latest of round-the-clock briefings the company holds.

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Japan disaster in figures r.reuters.com/ser58r

Japan market report [.T]

Special Reports on Japan [ID:nL3E7EN0C6]

Restrictions on Japanese food imports [ID:nL3E7EN0JP]

Charting the Japan crisis: r.reuters.com/fyh58r

Picture, graphic packages: r.reuters.com/wyb58r

LIVE: here

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Though experts said radiation in the Pacific waters will quickly dissipate, the levels at the site are clearly dangerous, and the 450 or so engineers there have won admiration and sympathy around the world for their bravery and sense of duty.

The nuclear crisis is an especially sensitive subject for Japanese given they are the only nation to have been hit by atomic bombs, at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

Last week, two workers at Fukushima were hurt with radiation to their legs after water seeped over their shoes, and on Sunday engineers had to abandon reactor No. 2 after the new reading.

Further afield, beyond the evacuation zone around Fukushima, there has been plenty of evidence of radiation -- from tap water in Tokyo 240 km (150 miles) south of the nuclear facility to particles found as far away as Iceland.

Japanese officials and international nuclear experts have generally said the levels away from the plant are not dangerous for humans, who anyway face comparable radiation doses on a daily basis from natural substances, X-rays or plane flights.

"NOT OVER"

Two of the plant's six reactors are now seen as safe but the other four are volatile, occasionally emitting steam and smoke.

TEPCO officials indicated the highly contaminated water is probably coming from inside the reactors rather than from pools of spent fuel rods outside.

Experts are anxious to find out whether the reactor cores are broken and leaking, as that could lead to a meltdown.

One long-term solution may be to entomb the Fukushima reactors in sand and concrete as happened at Chernobyl, Ukraine, after the 1986 disaster that was the world's worst.

Yukiya Amano, head of U.N. nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the crisis may drag for weeks or months. "This is a very serious accident by all standards," he told the New York Times. "It is not yet over."

The Japan crisis has prompted a reassessment of nuclear power across the world. It had its most direct political impact yet in foreign politics in Germany at the weekend.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats lost control of Germany's most prosperous state, Baden-Wuerttemberg, as anti-nuclear sentiment benefited her opponents in a regional vote.

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan has kept a low profile during the crisis, but may face awkward questions after Kyodo news agency said his visit to the region the day after the disaster delayed TEPCO'S response to the unfolding situation.

"The process to release the steam was delayed due to the premier's visit," it quoted an unnamed government source as saying, adding there were fears Kan may be exposed to radiation.

NATIONAL AGONY

Away from the plant, radioactivity in Japan's air remained in normal ranges.

In downtown Tokyo, a Reuters reading on Sunday afternoon showed ambient radiation of 0.16 microsieverts per hour, below the global average of naturally occurring background radiation of 0.17-0.39 microsieverts per hour.

The nuclear crisis has compounded Japan's agony after the magnitude 9.0 quake and massive tsunami devastated its north east coast, turning whole towns into apocalyptic-looking landscapes of mud and debris.

The latest death toll was 10,804 people, with 16,244 still missing 17 days after the disaster. About a quarter of a million people are living in shelters.

Damage could top $300 billion, making it the world's costliest natural disaster. (Additional reporting by Chizu Nomiyama, Elaine Lies and Shinichi Saoshiro in Tokyo, Gerard Wynn in London and Alister Doyle in Oslo, Scott DiSavino in New York, Christiaan Hetzner in Stuttgart; Writing by Andrew Cawthorne)

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http://chaoticfate.blogspot.com

4.4 Earthquake off Oregon Coast, Foreshock?

http://chaoticfate.blogspot.com

[Translate]

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credit: base images: GoogleEarth, IRIS
credit: overlay: MSB

I found this latest earthquake to be interesting, 100 miles off the coast of California / Oregon, a magnitude 4.4.

The magnitude is of no particular interest, however it’s location is, at least to me… Given the recent very large earthquakes that have been shaking at the Pacific tectonic plate boundaries during the past year or so, the remaining ‘untouched’ region so far has been the west coast U.S (untouched – meaning a large earthquake).

While looking at the location of the past 5,000 earthquakes in the region shown in the map above, it is interesting that the recent magnitude 4.4 earthquake occurred in an area by itself, with no other apparent history of quakes there. In itself this is not alarming, but given the specific region with it’s very high concentration of historical earthquakes pulling and tugging at the Pacific plate boundary, the specific location of yesterday’s quake is exactly between two very active zones.

Could it be a precursor or fore-shock of the next big Pacific plate earthquake? Or is it just another anomaly. No one knows of course, but it did peak my curiosity.

The region is complicated in that on the left there is the Pacific plate, which is actually pulling away from the coast there. Towards the right, just off the coast of Oregon and northern California lies the Cascadia Subduction Zone, where the piece in-between itself and the Pacific plate (the Juan de Fuca plate) is actually diving down underneath the North American plate to the right.

This subduction zone is capable of producing magnitude 9+ earthquakes, and it’s historical timetable is due for another one.

Got your earthquake kit ready?