Society's ChildS


Attention

Radiation soars to 10 MILLION TIMES normal level at Fukushima plant

Justin McCurry
The Guardian
Sun, 27 Mar 2011 07:20 UTC
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© Kyodo/ReutersFukushima Daiichi's reactors 1 to 4 are shown in this image taken 30km (18 miles) offshore from the stricken nuclear plant
Tests at Fukushima No 2 reactor reveal radiation at 10m times normal levels amid warnings crisis could last months

Radioactivity levels in one part of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant are 10m times higher than normal, Japanese officials have said, amid warnings that the operation to avert disaster at the facility could last for months..

Tests on the surface of a pool of water that has formed in the No 2 reactor revealed radioactivity of 1,000 millisieverts (mSv) per hour - four times the level deemed safe by the government. The worker carrying out the test reportedly fled before taking a second reading.

Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for Japan's nuclear and industrial safety agency (Nisa), said: "This is quite a high figure." The water was "likely to be coming from the reactor", he said.
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Bug

Dubai: 'French spiderman' takes on world's tallest tower


Agence France-Presse
Sat, 26 Mar 2011 05:53 UTC
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© Agence France-Presse/Martin BureauFrench climber Alain Robert poses in Paris on March 17. After scaling the Eiffel Tower in Paris and Sydney Opera House, the "French Spiderman" now has his sights set on the world's tallest tower, Burj Khalifa in the cosmopolitan Gulf emirate of Dubai.
After scaling the Eiffel Tower in Paris and Sydney Opera House, the "French Spiderman" now has his sights set on the world's tallest tower, Burj Khalifa in the cosmopolitan Gulf emirate of Dubai.

Alain Robert, 48, is due Monday to climb the exterior of the skyscraper which stands 828-metres (2,717-feet) tall, as part of an "Education Without Borders" conference for which it is being used as a venue, organisers said.

The climber, whose nickname comes from wearing the outfit of the fictional superhero while scaling the tallest of the tall around the globe, usually works without a safety harness, relying on bare hands and sturdy footing.

In Dubai, however, he will resort to a rope and harness, organisers said.
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Butterfly

US: Geraldine Ferraro Dies at 75


NBC News
Sat, 26 Mar 2011 06:30 UTC
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© unknownGeraldine A. Ferraro
Geraldine A. Ferraro, who rose from a U.S congressional seat in Queens to a place in history as the first woman to run on a major party national ticket for vice president, has died. She was 75.

Ferraro, born in Newburgh, N.Y., died Saturday at Massachusetts General Hospital while surrounded by her loved ones, a statement from her family said.

The cause of death was complications from multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that she had battled for twelve years, her family said.

Geraldine Anne Ferraro Zaccaro, a former Queens schoolteacher, was the first woman and first Italian-American to run on a major party national ticket, serving as Walter Mondale's vice presidential running mate in 1984 on the Democratic Party ticket.
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Newspaper

US: Vice President's staff lock journalist in a closet for hours during a fundraiser to stop him talking to guests

Simon Neville
The Daily Mail, UK
Sat, 26 Mar 2011 09:37 UTC
The White House website proudly says 'President Obama is committed to creating the most open and accessible administration in American history.'

But try telling Vice President Joe Biden's staff that, after they held a local reporter in a closet for hours after he was invited to cover a Florida political fundraiser because they did not want him talking with the guests.

As the unaware $500-a-head invitees dined on caprese crostini with oven-dried mozzarella and basil, rosemary flatbread with grapes honey and gorgonzola cheese, grilled chicken Caesar and garden vegetable wraps, veteran reporter Scott Powers was locked away.
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© The Associated Press and Getty Images1st Amendment: Freedom of the press was stretched when VP Joe Biden's staff refused to let a reporter talk with guests at a fundraiser with Sen Bill Nelson

The Orlando Sentinel reporter was ushered into the closet inside wealthy property developer Alan Ginsburg's Winter Falls mansion, after being told that Joe Biden and Senator Bill Nelson had not yet arrived.

They were due to speak to the audience to raise money for the 2012 elections.
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Evil Rays

Extreme Radiation Detected at Fukushima No.2 Reactor


NHK (Japan Broadcasting Co)
Sun, 27 Mar 2011 01:13 UTC
Fukushima plant
© n/aDamaged reactor buildings at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
Tokyo Electric Power Company says it has detected radioactive materials 10-million-times normal levels in water at the No.2 reactor complex of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

The plant operator, known as TEPCO, says it measured 2.9-billion becquerels of radiation per one cubic centimeter of water from the basement of the turbine building attached to the Number 2 reactor.

The level of contamination is about 1,000 times that of the leaked water already found in the basements of the Number 1 and 3 reactor turbine buildings.

The company says the latest reading is 10-million times the usual radioactivity of water circulating within a normally operating reactor.
TEPCO says the radioactive materials include 2.9-billion becquerels of iodine-134, 13-million becquerels of iodine-131, and 2.3-million becquerels each for cesium 134 and 137.
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Attention

UK: TUC protest march: anarchists on the rampage in London

Patrick Sawer
The Telegraph, UK
Sat, 26 Mar 2011 02:58 UTC
Anarchists went on the rampage in central London as hundreds of thousands of people marched in protest at government cuts.


Police fought mobs of masked thugs who pelted officers with ammonia and fireworks loaded with coins.

The anti-capitalists started fires and smashed their way into banks, hotels and shops, bringing chaos to Britain's busiest shopping street.

The violence began as Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, addressed a TUC rally of at least 250,000 peaceful protesters in Hyde Park who had marched from Westminster to demonstrate against government spending cuts.

As he spoke, an apparently co-ordinated attack began on shops and police in Oxford Street as a mob tried to storm into shops including Topshop, BHS and John Lewis.

MPs and retailers said the scenes damaged Britain's reputation around the world.
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Sheeple

The Biggest Threat Facing the Country Today Is Fast Creeping Ignorance

Stephen Pizzo
AlterNet
Fri, 25 Mar 2011 00:00 UTC
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© AlterNet
It's reached epidemic levels in government. Isn't wanton ignorance among those we trust with nuclear policies, war, famine, jobs, the national debt and more, a concern?

I am old enough to remember the days when what Americans were told to fear most was "Creeping Communism."

There were even hearings. There was a blacklist. There were arrests and even a couple of executions.

In the end all communism turned out to be creeping toward was its own extinction.

We may not be as lucky with the new creep we're facing today: Creeping Ignorance.

As a story from AlterNet put it, "3/4ths of Senate GOP Doesn't Believe in Science: The Tea Party and its allies had made it unacceptable to the GOP base to be anywhere except pandering to the anti-science crowd."

Comment: Perhaps ignorance is not the only or the most dangerous threat facing American society but the creeping epidemic of psychopathic individuals in positions of power. For more information on the destructive nature of psychopaths in our society readPolitical Ponerology: A Science on The Nature of Evil adjusted for Political Purposes.

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Dollar

Elizabeth Taylor's fortune may approach $1B


CBS News
Sat, 26 Mar 2011 00:00 UTC
Elizabeth Taylor
© The Associated PressA 1983 photo of Elizabeth Taylor.
Few realize the other side of the film legend: mogul; Where will all the money go, and how much can she make from the grave?

Elizabeth Taylor left more than her historic Hollywood legacy when she died Wednesday at 79.

It's believed she was worth between $600 million and $1 billion, most of it, according to Bloomberg Businessweek Senior Editor Diane Brady, from the side of her few fans realized had grown so big - Liz Taylor, businesswoman.

Brady says Taylor was actually "one of the first people out there basically branding her personality."

On The Early Show on Saturday Morning, Brady told co-anchor Rebecca Jarvis estimates of the size of Taylor's fortune fall in a "pretty broad range. You are hearing a billion. You're hearing $600 million. I think $600 million seems to be what most people are settling on.

"But, you know, clearly, they're auctioning off her jewelry collection. They think that's going to be about $150 million. She had real estate that was worth at least $130 million.

"But a lot of the money she made was actually in her perfume business. She had costume jewelry.

"This was an entrepreneur. So it wasn't just an actress who amassed a fortune. She was one of the first people out there basically branding her personality."
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Crusader

Elizabeth Taylor: James Dean was molested by his minister


CBS News
Fri, 25 Mar 2011 04:46 UTC
Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean
© The Associated PressElizabeth Taylor and James Dean in a scene from Giant
Elizabeth Taylor shared a shocking secret about fellow screen legend James Dean during an interview 14 years ago, but requested that it not be published until after she died.

"I loved Jimmy. I'm going to tell you something, but it's off the record until I die. OK?" she told writer Kevin Sessums during a 1997 interview for POZ magazine, according to a piece published by the Daily Beast Friday.

"When Jimmy was 11 and his mother passed away, he began to be molested by his minister," she alleged.. "I think that haunted him the rest of his life. In fact, I know it did. We talked about it a lot."

"During Giant we'd stay up nights and talk and talk, and that was one of the things he confessed to me," Taylor said, referring to the 1956 movie the two co-starred in with Rock Hudson.

Dean was killed in 1955 in a car accident at the age of 24. He earned two posthumous Oscar nominations, one in 1956 for East of Eden and in 1957 for his role in "Giant."

Taylor died Wednesday of congestive heart failure at 79. She was 15 minutes late for her own funeral on Thursday.
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Nuke

Where were you between April 26 and May 9, 1986? Animation of Radiation Cloud Over Europe Following Chernobyl


Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire
Sat, 26 Mar 2011 17:55 UTC
Translated from French by Sott.net


This animation shows the spread of radiation based on readings taken of the concentration levels of cesium 137 over Europe between April 26 and May 6, 1986.

Download the note accompanying the animation - "Modeling the Europe-wide dispersion of cesium 137 in the air following the Chernobyl accident" (pdf) .fr
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