Millions Against Monsanto – NYC
Sunday, March 27th, 2011
Bringing awareness about genetically modified food, and what we need to do about them, to the press,public and politicians. Using the City Hall steps as a platform gives a nice background, but everyone needed to go through metal detectors and police scrutiny to get into the plaza, which I’m sure discouraged any passers-by from hearing what they had to say. No sound system was allowed, and extremely noisy road work was going on right at the gate. Many women spoke but I only got usable footage from the louder speakers, the men. I think the organizers were mainly aiming this event at the media, but I did not see a professional news crew there, only fellow bloggers and documentarians and maybe some print.
In the video: Mitchel Cohen, Green Party organizer in Brooklyn speaks on food used as a weapon of war, and Bob Klein of the Safe and Healthy School Food Coalition says “Don’t buy GMO.”
This was one of many events that took place yesterday on this issue. organicconsumers.org/monsanto
Monsanto and GMO cheerleaders in the US government.
- Michael R. Taylor former Monsanto VP, the deputy commissioner for foods at the FDA
- Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack’s supporter of GMO pharmaceutical corn, presently the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.
- Islam Siddiqui, US Agricultural Trade Representative.
- Rajiv Shah, head of USAID
- Dr Roger Beachy, Director of the
- National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA)
- Elena Kagan, Supreme Court Justice, has previously ruled in favor of Monsanto.
- Clarence Thomas, Supreme Court Justice – former lawyer for Monsanto.
Shot from outside the gate on Park Row.
radiationnetwork.com
Friday, March 18th, 2011radiationnetwork.com A map composed of live feeds from digital Geiger counters around the nation. So far they are all reading within the range of normal background radiation. A count of over 100/minute is considered an alert level and the icon for the location will turn red.
Nutritional Protection against Radiation
Thursday, March 17th, 2011Melatonin, Vitamin C, garlic, onions, juicing whole citrus fruits, kelp and nori, and wheat grass juice are some of the simpler nutritional protections recommended for radiation protection by Gary Null. He lists many more 22 minutes into this podcast.
Zirconium
Thursday, March 17th, 2011This article on Buzzflash by Investigative reporter and Journalism professor, Karl Grossman set me to research references for the outrageous claims. The Insanity of Zirconium in a Nuclear Power Plant I haven’t been able to verify that the Zirconium alloy tubes cladding the reaction pellets will explode at 2000F, but I have found these links:
- Zirconium is used because it is relatively transparent to neutrons, and is corrosion resistant under normal operating conditions.
- Finely slivered zirconium wire was what gave the pop and flash to old fashioned flash bulbs.
- But Massive pieces of zirconium do not ignite spontaneously under ordinary conditions
- Zirconium’s melting point is 3371 °F and boiling point is 7968 °F
- “Hydrogen embrittlement is a problem with zirconium and zirconium alloys, which often are used as cladding materials for nuclear reactors. Zirconium reacts with water as follows.Zr + 2 H2O ® ZrO2 + 2H2″ That is, it makes the cladding brittle and produces explosive Hydrogen in the reaction.
- Partial melting can solidify and block cooling channels, leading to more melting and higher temperatures if adequate cooling isn’t present.
- Diary on the Daily Kos exploring the same issues with the fuel rods.
Inside Fukushima
Wednesday, March 16th, 2011Rachel Madow explains that the problem with the spent fuel rods, may be worse than the situation with the reactors:
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Update 3/15: Michio Kaku – If I Had the Ear of the Prime Minister, I Would Recommend the “Chernobyl Option”
- Put the Japanese Air Force on alert
- Assemble a huge fleet of helicopters. Put shielding underneath them.
- Accumulate enough sand, boric acid, and concrete to smother these reactors, to entomb them forever.
- This is what the Soviets did in 1986, calling out the Red Air Force and sandbagging the reactor with over 5,000 tons of concrete and sand.
Meteorologist Jeff Masters blogs about the weather and possible paths the radiation may take
“One case where a ground level release might get lofted to high altitudes is when the source region is located near an approaching low pressure system (extratropical cyclone), as is the case today.”
Computer model has radiation plume over the ocean for several days and then hitting Alaska. Radioactive particles are heavy and will mostly fall int0 the ocean before hitting land. But this weather system in Japan makes it more likely for the particles to reach the west coast of the United States and Canada.
No Bottom in Sight for Nuclear Disaster with Every Hour Bringing More Bad News – Michio Kaku
Rem and millirem can be converted in a straightforward way to the SI unit, sievert:
1 rem = 0.01 Sv = 10 mSv = 10000 μSv
1 millirem = 0.00001 Sv = 0.01 mSv = 10 μSv
1 Sv = 100 rem
1 mSv = 100 mrem = 0.1 rem
1 μSv = 0.1 mrem
Fukushima
Saturday, March 12th, 2011
Bill Nye is worried. The fact that cesium has been detected in the air and that they are using sea water as a coolant is a sign of serious breakdown.
Hard to see, but watch as the rectangular building on top of the containment structure below disappears in a violent explosion.
The Mystery of the Black Goo
Tuesday, January 18th, 2011When the team pulled up the multi-corer, they were stunned by what they found: the cylinders filled with pitch black, gelatinous goo that looks exactly like crude oil. But it didn’t act like oil: the scientists were able to wash it off their hands easily, and it smelled strongly of sulfur, not petroleum. “As a sedimentoloist I can tell you that none of us have ever seen anything like this in the Gulf of Mexico,” Hollander says, “especially not in shallow water. It certainly didn’t belong there.”
