Morse code and Macbeth

Morse code

So now that we've poisoned enough people, we can finally admit that oil dispersants are bad for us?

What young people need to know about porn.

The 1% are becoming aware the peasants are getting restless.

Women's right to choose.

The water wars of the near future.

Ian McKellen does Macbeth's soliloquy .

This affects all of us who border the Pacific... and beyond.

Tepco?

Fukushima operator may have to dump contaminated water into Pacific: As Japan marks the third anniversary of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster, Tepco is struggling to find a solution for hundreds of thousands of tonnes of contaminated water  

What gives you the right to poison our oceans with radioactivity?  (Ignore our 'work' on the Bikini Islands.) Is this the best idea you can come up with for the continuous leaks and the huge quantity of radioactive water?  Tepco, the company that has gangsters taking over contracts and hiring homeless people to work clean up?  Why should we trust you when you tell us it is safe to do this?

We must never forget Fukushima and the lessons it has taught us.  At least we can see some changing attitudes about nuclear power.

Merika the Beuuutiful...

WTF Americans?!

The face of guilt.

Militarized police overreach (After the raid, the shooting of the family dogs and the trashing of their house)

Two days later, after the raid had made national and international news, the Prince George’s County Police Department finally cleared Cheye Calvo and his family of any wrongdoing. They did it by way of a press release they put out at 4:30 p.m. on a Friday, the time and day of the week when bad news is typically buried. It also happened to be the night of the opening ceremonies for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. 

Perhaps even more baffling, officials continued to insist that the raid shouldn’t have happened any other way. Even as they acknowledged that Calvo and his family were innocent, in the months and years following the raid they would repeat again and again that not a single officer did anything wrong, and that no one had any reason for remorse.

And when they give up all pretense, you get this: Payday Loans And High-Powered Weaponry: Arizona Businessman Linked To Armed Patrols In Wisconsin Woods and more about it here.

Because they don't really care about children or fetuses, they care about saying no to sex. Your sex. Texas Abortion Bill Author In 2007: No Health Care For Unborn Because 'They're Not Born Yet'  Apparently politicians would back off trying to control women's bodies if we had vaginas that shot bullets...

One reason why I'm really careful about where my seafood comes from:

Japan’s nuclear watchdog said Wednesday the crippled Fukushima reactors are very likely leaking highly radioactive substances into the Pacific Ocean. 

Members of the Nuclear Regulation Authority voiced frustration at Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), which has failed to identify the source and the cause of spiking readings of radioactive materials in groundwater. 

“It is strongly suspected that highly concentrated contaminated waste water has leaked to the ground and has spread to the sea,” the authority said in its written review of TEPCO’s recent announcements.

Resistance to Monsanto's control of seeds.

The international resistance against Monsanto and the genetic manipulation of the food supply has advanced to an all new level, with countless citizens around the world taking the fight online and partaking in the Monsanto Video Revolt grassroots movement. Though scheduled to officially take place on July 24th, we’ve seen thousands of citizens around the world upload their videos exposing Monsanto from as far away as Nigeria and Thailand.

And pesticide sales are skyrocketing even though people are aware of "the declining effectiveness of GMO-seed giant Monsanto's flagship products: crops engineered to resist insects and withstand herbicides."

Making fake food look real by putting in fake imperfections.

The whole world is Fukushima'd.....

Fukishima nuclear disaster update.

Fukushima Medical Care Provider: Hospital president says people will be healthier after radiation exposure from triple meltdowns — “There is no argument allowed”

Post-Fukushima, Japan’s irradiated fish worry B.C. experts
The numbers show that far from dissipating with time, as government officials and scientists in Canada and elsewhere claimed they would, levels of radiation from Fukushima have stayed stubbornly high in fish. In June 2012, the average contaminated fish catch had 65 becquerels of cesium per kilo. That’s much higher than the average of five Bq/kg found in the days after the accident back in March 2011, before cesium from Fukushima had spread widely through the region’s food chain. In some species, radiation levels are actually higher this year than last.

Asahi: Fukushima nuclear disaster is affecting every region of the world – Japanese Professor

Nothing could possibly go wrong, they said....

Genetically modified grass blamed for mass cattle deaths in Texas

Preliminary tests revealed that the grass, an altered form of Bermuda grass known as Tifton 85, had mysteriously begun producing cyanide gas. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture are conducting further tests to determine if some sort of mutation caused the grass to suddenly begin giving off the deadly gas.

 [snip]

Abel told CBS that he’d been using the modified grass for about fifteen years with no problems, until now. And he’s not the only one with a suddenly toxic pasture. Other farmers in the area who use the same modified grass have also found cyanide on their properties, though as yet no other cattle have died. Genetically modified crops have long been used to feed both humans and farm-raised animals. In recent years, however, activists concerned about potentially detrimental health impacts from GMOs have begun pushing for increased regulation and labeling of food products that contain modified crops. In California, voters will decide in November on a ballot measure that would require companies to label all foods containing GMOs. Such a law would be the first of its kind in the nation.

Pre-oiled? Or glow in the dark?

Tuna contaminated with Fukushima radiation found in California:

Bluefin tuna contaminated with radiation believed to be from Fukushima Daiichi turned up off the coast of California just five months after the Japanese nuclear plant suffered meltdown last March, US scientists said. Tiny amounts of caesium-137 and caesium-134 were detected in 15 bluefin caught near San Diego in August last year, according to a study published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal. The levels were 10 times higher than those found in tuna in the same area in previous years, but still well below those that the Japanese and US governments consider a risk to health. Japan recently introduced a new safety limit of 100 becquerels per kilogram in food. The timing of the discovery suggests that the fish, a prized but dangerously overfished delicacy in Japan, had carried the radioactive materials across the Pacific ocean faster than those conveyed by wind or water.

If you don't want that tuna, have some fish without eyes.

 Going vegan makes more and more sense....

Can we stop ourselves from poisoning the earth?

We use our oceans both as a pantry and as a toilet. We drill without knowing how to plug the holes. We genetically modify without testing.  Will we die before we learn we are poisoning ourselves and future generations? ... don't answer that.

 Following Garbage's Long Journey Around The Earth

 Study: Plastic in 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch' increases 100-fold

The lesson of the Gulf of Mexico is forgotten...

Rules relaxed for reporting offshore oil and gas accidents: 

The North Sea safety regulator has lightened up the rules for reporting accidents offshore even as one operator in the field, Total, struggles to halt a gas leak that has been going on for over a month. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has introduced a new regulation that says injuries need only be reported if workers are out of action for over seven days. The former level was three days.

Exclusive: Shale causes rise in waste gas pollution

(Reuters) - The shale energy boom is fuelling a rise in the burning of waste gas after years of decline, a World Bank source told Reuters ahead of the release of new data, giving environmentalists more ammunition against the industry.

Monsanto's attempts to stifle reporters:

Yum yum

Eyeless shrimp, fish with oozing sores... enjoy your ocean and your seafood courtesy of BP.

Help! Radioactive kelp!

The fallout from Fukushima is showing up along the Californian Pacific coast in giant kelp.

Radioactive iodine was found in samples collected from beds of kelp in locations along the coast from Laguna Beach to as far north as Santa Cruz about a month after the explosion, according to the study by two marine biologists at Cal State Long Beach. The levels, while most likely not harmful to humans, were significantly higher than measurements prior to the explosion and comparable to those found in British Columbia, Canada, and northern Washington state following the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, according to the study published in March in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. Giant kelp, or Macrocystis pyrifera, is a particularly good measure of radioactive material in the environment because it accumulates iodine, researchers said. They wrote that radioactive particles released into the atmosphere, in particular radioactive isotope iodine 131, made its way across the Pacific, then was likely deposited into the ocean during a period of significant rain shortly after the meltdown in Japan. The highest levels were found in Corona del Mar. Researchers wrote that the levels were probably highest there because the kelp is also exposed to urban runoff, which may have increased the amount of rainfall it received. The study’s authors said that while the effect of radioactive material in kelp is not well known, it would have been consumed by organisms that feed on the kelp such as sea urchins or crustaceans. Certain species of fish, including opaleye, halfmoon or senorita may be particularly affected because their endocrine systems contain iodine, according to researchers.

Come to California, where we glow even without the sun!

BP poisoned the Gulf. Life there is still suffering.

A study of 32 dolphins were

underweight, anaemic and suffering from lung and liver disease, while nearly half had low levels of a hormone that helps the mammals deal with stress as well as regulating their metabolism and immune systems.

No BPA in food packaging!

Tell the FDA.

From Swedes to Sketches...

Scandinavian humor (with explanations!)

And of course, if we discuss Sweden at all, we must include: (bork bork bork)

   

Prehistoric monster snake invades New York. Think I saw this movie....

The true cost of coal:

This presents a bit of a challenge, given that the Appalachian communities where the mining takes place are extremely poor, and poverty and low education are associated with a lot of health problems. In addition, many of the problems associated with coal mining—particulates from the mining process and water contamination—don't respect the county borders that divide up the health care data. But even after adjusting for the variations in things like income and education, counties with active coal mines came out far worst in many measures of health. These include the problems you'd expect from mining, such as cardiopulmonary and respiratory issues, black lung, hypertension, and kidney disease. But they also include things like a 25 percent increase in birth defects in mining counties. Ahern summed up the fate of people located near mines rather grimly: "Their property value goes down to zero, then they get ill, then they die."

Shutting down a California Monsanto office for a day.

Etch a Sketch will live on now in perpetuity ....

One year after the BP oil disaster

The Gulf fishermen can see what the dispersants and oil did to the seafood industry.

It adds a certain piquant flavor...

One reason I have cut back on seafood... the choices are pre-cooked radioactive fish from the Pacific or pre-oiled polluted and toxic seafood from the Gulf

New Study Says FDA Underestimated Seafood Contamination Risk After BP Oil Spill

The EPA is evil

Because it prevents corporations from poisoning your food, dumping toxic waste, befouling the air. Bring back the good old days when people died from eating canned goods and breathing polluted air!!

...Just how stupid are these people?

Terroritories is an excellent word....

For what's going on in Japan.

Nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen says in a new interview that the Japanese are burning radioactive materials. The radioactivity originated from Fukushima, but various prefectures are burning radioactive materials in their terroritories.

One time you might want to not compliment people from California on their 'healthy glow'.

h/t to mahakal in Facebook.

Update 8/18: Radioactive sulfur over California shows exactly how bad the Fukushima radiation leak was.

BP oil spill one year later

People are ill.

Gee... I wonder why?

Scientists are alarmed by the discovery of unusual numbers of fish in the Gulf of Mexico and inland waterways with skin lesions, fin rot, spots, liver blood clots and other health problems.

"It's a huge red flag," said Richard Snyder, director of the University of West Florida Center for Environmental Diagnostics and Bioremediation. "It seems abnormal, and anything we see out of the ordinary we'll try to investigate."

Are the illnesses related to the BP oil spill, the cold winter or something else?

That's the big question Snyder's colleague, UWF biologist William Patterson III, and other scientists along the Gulf Coast are trying to answer. If the illnesses are related to the oil spill, it could be a warning sign of worse things to come.

Yes, get the scientists out in force to look at the Gulf. But this means when the scientists come back with the data, YOU CAN'T CHANGE THE FACTS.

Here we go again....

These GOP Budget Cuts Might Make You Puke (or Worse): How food safety could fall victim to the Republicans' budget-slashing mania.

Monsanto

Why Monsanto always wins.
The biotech industry plays hardball in Congress as well. One week before Roundup Ready alfalfa was deregulated, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack testified before the House Committee on Agriculture, where Chairmen Frank Lucas (R-Oklahoma) led a charge to press the USDA to fully deregulate the alfalfa. A political action committee and individuals associated with Monsanto donated $11,000 to Lucas' campaign last year, and Lucas has received $1,247,844 from the agribusiness industry during his political career, according to watchdog site www.opensecrets.org. Since 1999, the top 50 companies holding agricultural or food patents have spent more than $572 million in campaign contributions and lobbying efforts, according to a report released last year.

The USDA does invite the American public to weigh in on controversial issues like GE crops, and the CFS reports that, last spring, 200,000 people submitted letters "highly critical" of the department's draft conclusions on Roundup Ready alfalfa. "Clearly the USDA was not listening to the public or farmers but rather to just a handful of corporations," CFS Director Anthony Kimbrell said after Roundup Ready alfalfa was fully legalized. The public comments may have fallen on deaf ears, or perhaps they were just drowned out by the booming voice of a biotech industry that refuses to take no for an answer.