What were you doing on this day in 1968?
Posted by Michelle Moquin on April 3rd, 2011
I have no idea what I was doing. No doubt, I was probably playing with my friends; no clue of the happenings in the world.
Meanwhile one man, one very important man, a prophet, was giving an inspiring speech, unaware that it would be his last.
Readers: Not enough? Want more? I don’t blame you. I can never tire of such inspiring words. How I wish Dr. King was still around to this day and beyond. To read the entire transcript of Dr. Martin Luther King’s prophetic last speech, ”I’ve been to the mountaintop”, click here.
Have a beautiful Sunday – Peace out.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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April 3rd, 2011 at 9:35 am
Some Free Wi-Fi Connections Are Traps
Craig Crossman
Crooks steal information from people who sign onto these illegitimate networks, called honey pots, which are found at airports, restaurants and other public places. Account information, passwords and anything else typed to gain access to Web sites can be stolen by the honey pot operator, as well as anything stored on the computer’s hard drive. When using free Wi-Fi service: Limit your activities to ones that do not involve your personal or financial information, such as reading the news and watching videos.
Personal interviewed Craig Crossman, technology columnist, McClatchy-Tribune newspapers, Asheville, North Carolina, and host of the nationally syndicated radio talk show Computer America. http://www.ComputerAmerica.com
April 3rd, 2011 at 10:01 am
Hafa adai
For those of you wondering about how the Tsunami will affect the relocation of some 50,000 military and civilians from Japan to Guam here is the latest.
___________________________________
Japan disaster slows down US naval base relocation to Guam
By Robert Gonzaga
Central Luzon Desk
First Posted 21:53:00 04/03/2011
Filed Under: Disasters (general), Military, Earthquake, tsunami
OLONGAPO CITY – The earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan recently have slowed down the relocation of the United State naval base in Okinawa to Guam that could open new ventures for Filipino supply companies, an official involved in the buildup said.
Dean Alegado, executive director of the Association of Pacific Islands Local Government (APILG) Conference, said the disaster that hit Japan “made the fate of the military buildup uncertain, to say the least.”
The US government approved the relocation of its naval base from Okinawa, Japan, to Guam starting 2012.
Under the agreement for the transfer of the bases to Guam, the US and Japan governments will both fund the movement jointly, it was learned.
Projects
During the APILG Conference in Subic Bay Freeport last year, Captain Ulysses Zalamea said projects worth about $1 billion were scheduled to be completed or have begun in 2010.
Zalamea, 53, is the Filipino-American naval officer in charge of the planning and execution of the $15-billion US military buildup in Guam. A native of Pagsanjan, Laguna, he is the highest ranking Filipino-American in the US Navy.
He said major engineering work would proceed for the next four years, while 14,200 military personnel and their 38,000 dependents would move to Guam from Okinawa from 2012 to 2016.
But in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Alegado said “the timetable [for the US base transfer] may be delayed, owing to the fact that now we’re not sure if Japan [will] meet its commitments because it will be focused on recovering from the effects of the disaster that hit them.”
“The good news is that contracts worth a billion dollars have already been approved,” he said, adding that this is in keeping with the schedule for the initial phase of the buildup.
Alegado said at least seven contractors from Hawaii, Pennsylvania, Guam, Colorado and California have been chosen and that “Filipino enterprises are actively pursuing opportunities to be suppliers of these firms.”
Concern
“Many of these Filipino firms are manpower and engineering firms. We’re helping some of them to form linkages with the main contractors,“he said.
The immediate concern is whether the transfer of another $740 million from the Japanese Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) to the US Department of Defense for the upgrading of Guam’s water and power infrastructure will take place anytime soon, Alegado said. Without this fund transfer, the military buildup will be delayed, he said.
“It will still happen. Not just in the way that we envisioned it,” he said.
_______________________________
I can’t understand the logic of investing in something that will eventually cost thousands of times in the future what the benefit it gives in the present.
Peter
April 3rd, 2011 at 10:28 am
I drink a coffee every morning
It comes from a place that’s far away
And when I’m done I feel like talking
Without you here there is less to say
I don’t want you thinking I’m unhappy
What is closer to the truth
Is if I lived ’til I was one-hundred and two
I just don’t think I’ll ever get over you
I’m no longer moved to drink strong whiskey
I shook the hand of time and I knew
That if I lived ’til I could no longer climb my stairs
I just don’t think I’ll ever get over you
Your face it dances and it haunts me
Your laughter’s still ringing in my ears
I still find pieces of your presence here
Even, even after all these years
I don’t want you thinking I don’t get asked to dinner
‘Cause I’m here to say that I sometimes do
And even though I may soon feel a touch of love
I just don’t think I’ll ever get over you
And if I lived ’til I was one-hundred and two
I just don’t think I’ll ever get over you…
April 3rd, 2011 at 11:01 am
We are in the year 1864. One of my favorite cowboys Jack Slade has met his end.
Whoever crossed Jack Slade died. Slade was happier with foul means that fair. Once, for example, he taunted a man who had drawn a gun on him with being afraid to face him in a fist-fight. When his exasperated antagonist threw the pistol aside and advanced in a puglist’s crouch, Slade promptly drew his own gun and killed him.
I liked him because unlike some famous cowboys he was actually an excellent shot with a pistol. He demonstrated this once by telling a man who insulted him that he was going to kill him by shooting him through a particular button hole on his coat.
The man walked about 25 yards away turned and pointed to the specified button hole and said do it. Slade pulled and fired killing him through that button hole.
But this year the vigilantes of Montana are in high fettle. Early this year, the Montana Vigilantes decided it was time to hang some associate of villains, who was not himself guilty of any crime. In order to frighten citizens out of socializing with known badmen.
Since the roving outlaws carry out their depredations in the vicinity of townships where they enjoy the rowdy companionship of Wild West bar and brothel frequenters, it was thought shunning them would freeze them into neighboring territories. So a non-criminal roisterer should be executed as a warning against befriending robbers.
That was the Vigilantes excuse. Actually it was more about their fear of accosting actual armed badmen. They felt much safer hanging innocent harmless outnumbered men who they claimed were associates of robbers.
On this day they picked one Frank Parish for this monstrous demonstration Pour Encourager Les Autres, but were spared the guilt of spilling innocent blood when he at the last moment Parish confessed to not only drinking with bandits but to riding with them when they robbed stagecoaches and livestock.
To their intense disgust, the “law-enforcers” found they were hanging a guilty rather than an innocent man!
Much of this year’s striking law-enforcement has been the work of these amateurs in the unfederated territory of Montana.
Plagued with bandits and robbers, the honest citizens and miners were outraged when they realized that sweet-talking charismatic Henry Plummer, who had got himself elected sheriff of Bannock and marshal of Virginia City, was using his law-enforcement offices as a base for controlling one of the worst gang of bandits.
Some of the most respected young men in the territory joined with miners to extirpate the villains. They have had immense success.
They nail a mysterious warning reading “3-7-77″ on the door of any man they suspect. Should he heed it and leave town, he will not be harassed.
Should he brave it out, he will be hanged without question. The length of rope left around his neck from the hanging is left to trail out of the grave they put his hanged body in as a warning to others.
Bita says with all the graves in the territory with ropes trailing from graves, it’s surprising that she doesn’t remember any western movies that told of this behavior by the “honest” citizens of the west.
In March of 1864 these Vigilantes gave Slade a warning to get out of town. The reckless bravo ignored it, jugging himself a terror none would dare threaten seriously.
On the evening of March 3, 1864 when he was drunk and shooting randomly around the streets, Slade was horrified to find himself grabbed, tied up and marched away to execution.
“My God! My God! Must I die? Oh, my poor wife, my poor wife? My God, men, you can’t mean that I’m to die!” were the tearful last words of this cowardly killer of so many others.
I liked him so I pinned this Obituary:
JOSEPH “JACK” SLADE (1824-1864)
—————————-
Died in Virginia City, Montana Territory, of strangulation by a noose of hempen rope. The son of an Illinois congressman. Mr. Slade fled to the western territories after killing a man in a quarrel. Here he came into his own as a determined killer, officially working in various capacities for the Central Overland stagecoach company in which he rose from driver to district supervisor.
_________________________________________
Next stop 1865
AH
April 3rd, 2011 at 11:03 am
Japan is not revealing that two of their reactors have gone critical – the point at which a nuclear chain reaction becomes self-sustaining.
April 3rd, 2011 at 11:04 am
Misch, great video, inspiring…!
Anonymous 3, I hear you completely, what a beautiful sentiment, that’s a keeper of a poem and I’m copying it now.
Luv, Zen Lill
April 3rd, 2011 at 11:29 am
A5 this is what the aliens obviously planned when the warring factions were deciding what to do with Japan. IMHO I believe they opened up the proverbial Pandora’s Box with this particular chain of events. The planet may have had the dominoes of disaster standing but an alien group chose to push the first tile that felled the chain. My opinion is not popular regarding this point of view. I also believe the Two cannot possibly be on the planet. No one residing here now or coming after will not be adversely affected by current conditions. The water, the air, the ground, our food, our bodies… its the domino effect. Even if their intention was to attempt to get humans to wake up about they are doing to their planet and each other, I fear it has failed. The NRC is pumping up the media with how safe and safer new plants will be. New plants, that no one is stopping being built. Its a runaway train and we are all on the tracks. My secret hope is that this group took the time to be prescient about their decision to attack Japan and not just let events unfold as they will. In that case, we are doomed.
April 4th, 2011 at 1:55 am
If you are “doomed,” it will be of your own accord. We have no sympathies for you. The NRC are not operating in a vacuum.
Your voters put in the party that supports the NRC. We see no reason for concern. There are plenty ready to take this planet after you are gone.
As for our part in Japan’s faith, it was only a matter of time before a disaster occurred with that many nuclear power plants. Your real concern should be that without the present notice you would have all died eventually because Japan was secretly poisoning the sea with nuclear waste.
All the nations on earth that use nuclear waste are secretly poisoning the seas. Not knowing you are dying does not slow your death. This knowledge gives you a opportunity to stop the madness.
Should you not. It will be ONLY your fault. Do not concern yourself with the TWO. They will not be allowed to be harmed by the negligence of earthlings. We destroy Japan or any nation first.
Should this warning not be taken seriously, you will discover that this “disaster” is but a blip on the screen of disasters.
W63453e
April 4th, 2011 at 2:07 am
Anon#3
I drink the energy from the stars to quench my thirst.
It comes from a place very, very far away.
And when I’m done, it’s you I think of first,
some are gentle and sweet, others a bit risque
I am very, very unhappy, but I obey the call of duty
And as my thoughts drift back to you
I wish I could contain my awful misery
But the thoughts drift back anew.
Getting over you is not an option.
I will love you as long as love and hope exist
You have my heart and devotion,
for it is your love among the stars that glows the brightest.
And though I could live 3,000 earth years
If I am not able to spend your lifetime with you
I will discover the meaning and use of tears
Because without your love, I can bid happiness adieu.
April 4th, 2011 at 6:37 am
Well, we all read W63453e’s assessment of the situation in Japan, we brought it upon ourselves. Same story with global warming, overpopulation, runaway pollution, and a host of other planet condemning maladies. Yes, earth is polluted beyond any cleanup. So we are doomed, as far as having a home that is able to support our lifestyle. We have an opportunity to stop this madness, but we won’t do a thing as long as there is more profit in polluting the planet more, than there is profit in cleaning it up. And how much time do you think we have left at our present rate? My guess would less than ten years. I would hope for a quicker way out.
The one thing I disagree with W65453e’s statement is the average earthling had no idea what the profiteers and opportunists had planned for this planet, did they tell us that they were going to destroy the place, NO. Any elected official has been elected on lies and more lies. So, I say no, we did not bring this on ourselves, it was pushed on us by liars of our own kind.
You know it as well as I do that despite the nuclear reactor problems in Japan. Not a thing will be done to clean up this planet, and it will only get worse as long as there is a dollar to be made. We were doomed long before the earthquakes hit Japan.
Sorry to be the one to tell you, but as stewardship of this planet was left up to mankind, we were certain to treat it like a garbage can.. Just this morning another cargo ship hit the rocks and spilt oil all over the place. A catastrophic amount of oil again spilt into our oceans.
April 4th, 2011 at 6:47 am
GREED IS WHAT IS KILLING US.
April 4th, 2011 at 7:11 am
We are doomed.
April 4th, 2011 at 7:22 am
PW hurry your task and come home to me. Come spend my lifetime. Jump off the moon and into my arms. You are too precious to spill tears. Let no more drown from the flow of sorrows. I am for you and you are for me. As ever I await you jewel of my heart.
April 4th, 2011 at 8:07 am
Hi Michelle: very romantic #9 and #13. No doubt the “TWO” Prince and Princess of the Realm. Beautiful as poetry and love can ever be. I wish them all the happiness in this universe.
Al
April 4th, 2011 at 8:13 am
If you have a mortgage, I have some bad news.
http://badforeclosures.blogspot.com/
April 4th, 2011 at 8:29 am
Cass, this one’s for you babe:
Greenpeace said Monday that hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians are still eating food contaminated by radiation from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion a quarter-century after the blast. In a report, the environmental group said samples of milk, berries, potatoes and root vegetables in two Ukrainian regions show unacceptably high levels of the radioactive isotope cesium-137 from the 1986 blast.
April 4th, 2011 at 8:35 am
ENS Newswire
Thursday, March 17, 2011 (FLASHBACK)
NEW YORK, New York, – Nearly one million people around the world died from exposure to radiation released by the 1986 nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl reactor, finds a new book from the New York Academy of Sciences published today on the 24th anniversary of the meltdown at the Soviet facility. The book, “Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment,” was compiled by authors Alexey Yablokov of the Center for Russian Environmental Policy in Moscow, and Vassily Nesterenko and Alexey Nesterenko of the Institute of Radiation Safety, in Minsk, Belarus.
The authors examined more than 5,000 published articles and studies, most written in Slavic languages and never before available in English.
The authors said, “For the past 23 years, it has been clear that there is a danger greater than nuclear weapons concealed within nuclear power. Emissions from this one reactor exceeded a hundred-fold the radioactive contamination of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”
“No citizen of any country can be assured that he or she can be protected from radioactive contamination. One nuclear reactor can pollute half the globe,” they said. “Chernobyl fallout covers the entire Northern Hemisphere.”
Their findings are in contrast to estimates by the World Health Organization and the International Atomic Energy Agency that initially said only 31 people had died among the “liquidators,” those approximately 830,000 people who were in charge of extinguishing the fire at the Chernobyl reactor and deactivation and cleanup of the site.
The book finds that by 2005, between 112,000 and 125,000 liquidators had died.
“On this 24th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, we now realize that the consequences were far worse than many researchers had believed,” says Janette Sherman, MD, the physician and toxicologist who edited the book.
Drawing upon extensive data, the authors estimate the number of deaths worldwide due to Chernobyl fallout from 1986 through 2004 was 985,000, a number that has since increased.
By contrast, WHO and the IAEA estimated 9,000 deaths and some 200,000 people sickened in 2005.
On April 26, 1986, two explosions occured at reactor number four at the Chernobyl plant which tore the top from the reactor and its building and exposed the reactor core. The resulting fire sent a plume of radioactive fallout into the atmosphere and over large parts of the western Soviet Union, Europe and across the Northern Hemisphere. Large areas in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia had to be evacuated.
Yablokov and his co-authors find that radioactive emissions from the stricken reactor, once believed to be 50 million curies, may have been as great as 10 billion curies, or 200 times greater than the initial estimate, and hundreds of times larger than the fallout from the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Nations outside the former Soviet Union received high doses of radioactive fallout, most notably Norway, Sweden, Finland, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Austria, Romania, Greece, and parts of the United Kingdom and Germany.
About 550 million Europeans, and 150 to 230 million others in the Northern Hemisphere received notable contamination. Fallout reached the United States and Canada nine days after the disaster.
The proportion of children considered healthy born to irradiated parents in Belarus, the Ukraine, and European Russia considered healthy fell from about 80 percent to less than 20 percent since 1986.
Numerous reports reviewed for this book document elevated disease rates in the Chernobyl area. These include increased fetal and infant deaths, birth defects, and diseases of the respiratory, digestive, musculoskeletal, nervous, endocrine, reproductive, hematological, urological, cardiovascular, genetic, immune, and other systems, as well as cancers and non-cancerous tumors.
In addition to adverse effects in humans, numerous other species have been contaminated, based upon studies of livestock, voles, birds, fish, plants, trees, bacteria, viruses, and other species.
Foods produced in highly contaminated areas in the former Soviet Union were shipped, and consumed worldwide, affecting persons in many other nations. Some, but not all, contamination was detected and contaminated foods not shipped.
The authors warn that the soil, foliage, and water in highly contaminated areas still contain substantial levels of radioactive chemicals, and will continue to harm humans for decades to come.
The book explores effects of Chernobyl fallout that arrived above the United States nine days after the disaster. Fallout entered the U.S. environment and food chain through rainfall. Levels of iodine-131 in milk, for example, were seven to 28 times above normal in May and June 1986. The authors found that the highest U.S. radiation levels were recorded in the Pacific Northwest.
Americans also consumed contaminated food imported from nations affected by the disaster. Four years later, 25 percent of imported food was found to be still contaminated.
Little research on Chernobyl health effects in the United States has been conducted, the authors found, but one study by the Radiation and Public Health Project found that in the early 1990s, a few years after the meltdown, thyroid cancer in Connecticut children had nearly doubled.
This occurred at the same time that childhood thyroid cancer rates in the former Soviet Union were surging, as the thyroid gland is highly sensitive to radioactive iodine exposures.
The world now has 435 nuclear reactors and of these, 104 are in the United States.
The authors of the study say not enough attention has been paid to Eastern European research studies on the effects of Chernobyl at a time when corporations in several nations, including the United States, are attempting to build more nuclear reactors and to extend the years of operation of aging reactors.
The authors said in a statement, “Official discussions from the International Atomic Energy Agency and associated United Nations’ agencies (e.g. the Chernobyl Forum reports) have largely downplayed or ignored many of the findings reported in the Eastern European scientific literature and consequently have erred by not including these assessments.”