Deepest Dive: Geographic Honors Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
Posted by Michelle Moquin on April 19th, 2010
Deepest Dive: Geographic Honors Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
Posted on April 15, 2010
By Ford Cochran
Fifty years ago–January 23, 1960–Don Walsh, then a U.S. Navy lieutenant, and Swiss oceanographer Jacques Piccard climbed inside a sphere at the bottom of the “bathyscaphe” (deep-diving research submarine) Trieste and descended some 35,800 feet to the deepest place in any ocean on our planet, Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench off Guam. No one has ever returned to the spot, literally Earth’s ultimate abyss.
Last night, National Geographic bestowed its highest honor, the Hubbard Medal, on Walsh in a ceremony at our Washington, D.C. headquarters. The U.S. Department of the Navy also awarded Walsh its Distinguished Public Service Award.
“Don Walsh is one of only two people to have visited Earth’s deepest place, and no one else has come close,” said Gil Grosvenor, National Geographic’s chairman of the board. “His accomplishment ranks along with those of our other Hubbard Medal recipients, people like Robert Byrd, Charles Lindbergh, and Robert Ballard.” Jacques Piccard died in 2008, at the age of 86.
I spoke with Don Walsh, now 78, about the historic journey and its legacy.
How did you end up aboard Trieste?
I got into the program primarily because no one else wanted to volunteer for it. It wasn’t like the astronaut corps: I sort of backed into it. I was just 28 years old when I made the dive. I didn’t have any competition.
I had been in submarines a couple of years at that point. I was serving in the “smokeboats,” as we called them in those days, the diesel boats. I had just come back to San Diego from a tour on a submarine as a bachelor, thinking about the grand times I’d have around Coronado, when I got asked up to see the commodore. I thought, crikeys, what have I done? I’d only been in port about 30 minutes.
Turned out they wanted me to act as an aide to the commodore. Now I’m the guy in the motorboat going out to meet returning submarines. I was working a desk job. I ended up doing it for three months.
I really am a sailor. I love to go to sea, and I was afraid I’d be driving a desk on the submarine tender for years. Among my duties, I set up briefings for the commodore. One day this guy comes into my office, says the Navy’s got this new Trieste bathyscaphe ready to dive the depths in the Pacific. It was going to be based not far from where the submarine corps was and he thought the boss might be interested. He invited him to lunch, and said ‘Why don’t you come, too?’
He was a marine biologist with a PhD out of Scripps [Institute of Oceanography], and he had Jacques Piccard in tow. An opportunist, he had arranged for Trieste to be brought alongside the submarine tender (one of the two ships that serves the subs in San Diego). The bathyscaphe had been shipped in pieces, and was getting towed up the bay to the Navy electronics lab for reassembly.
It looked like an explosion at a boiler factory. That was my first glimpse of Trieste. I’m a submarine officer, but I had no idea what any of that stuff was. I thought “They’re all nuts!”
After they left, I was directed to write up a radio message for all the subs operating in the eastern Pacific asking for volunteers. There were about 15 subs, and we got one volunteer. I went in to see the chief of staff and said ‘Captain, we only got a single volunteer.’ The commodore had promised to send over two officers. So I told him I thought I ought to volunteer to keep the commodore’s promise.
That’s how I ended up becoming the officer in charge of Trieste.
How did the deep dive come about?
The Navy had bought the Trieste in 1958, not to set a world’s record, but as a scientific platform. It was carefully evaluated during the summer of ’57 by a group of ocean researchers: A biologist, an acoustics guy, a geological oceanographer. They chartered it to see if such a platform would be useful for naval research and decided, yeah, having the trained mind and trained eye right at a deep-sea work site would be ideal.
At the time the Navy purchased it, they also took note of the fact that, theoretically, Triestecould go to any depth in the ocean. That was in the back of everyone’s mind.
When it was brought back to the U.S., I took the operating plan to the Navy Department to get approval for the deep project at Guam. I finally ended up in front of the chief of naval operations–the senior-most admiral in the U.S. Navy. All the lower ranks were not ready to sign off on this.
Admiral Arleigh Burke finally, tentatively, approved it, but conditionally: There would be no publicity. If you come back, we’ll publicize it, he said. But if you don’t, no one will know about it. Satellite launches were failing, there was lots of publicity, and it was embarrassing. He didn’t want more of that.
There were only three organizations that sniffed out the story and got inside the tent: Lifemagazine, National Geographic, and the London Daily Mail. The Navy made a deal and said you can go out there with them, you just can’t publish until afterward.
As a submarine officer, had you dreamed about exploring the deepest parts of the ocean?
Before I got involved with the project, I had no idea how deep the ocean was. As a navigator, you only care about having a lot of water under your keel so you don’t hit anything. That’s navigation, not oceanography. I’d been serving on submarines that could dive to 300 feet, maybe 400. I go to a Navy lab, and they start talking thousands of feet. In March of ’59 I made a dive to 4,000 feet. Then they started talking about going to 36,000 feet.
Within six months, I’d gone from being behind a desk on a submarine tender to getting ready to make the world’s deepest dive.
Were you nervous about making the dive?
No. When we got to Guam, we set out to do a series of increasingly deep test dives. Each one was designed to test out the platform, figure out what would break, fix it, test it again. The harbor at Guam was the first–just 400 feet.
By the time we did the deepest dive, we’d been through this many times. Two weeks before, we dove to 23,000 feet. It was simply a longer day at the office, I tell folks.
It’s like flying an airplane: Your preflight, your operations, your checklists are pretty much the same whether you fly around the control tower and land or take it to New York City. So the deep dive was just a longer day.
Were there any surprises during the journey?
The diving sphere–our cabin–was pretty tiny, about the size of a household refrigerator and the same temperature. By the time you put all the kit inside, there wasn’t much room for us. And we were in there for nine hours.
Something gave out with a loud bang as we got near the bottom. That was extraordinary, but at least it wasn’t fatal to the dive, fatal to us. At about 31,000 feet, where it happened, the pressure is kind of high, something like five or six tons per square inch. We would’ve perished instantly. We sure as hell didn’t know what had failed, and it wasn’t routine. Were we scared? No, but we were concerned.
We checked everything out, checked all the gauges. Trieste appeared to be working. So we continued on with the dive to the bottom.
Jacques saw a fish just before we landed. The invertebrates weren’t such a surprise. But to find a fairly high-order marine vertebrate at that depth was a significant find. And it was a flat bottom-dweller, not something that had just gotten lost and ended up down there. If there was one, there had to be more.
After 20 minutes on the bottom, we dropped our ballast and headed back to the surface.
What followed?
We definitely enjoyed getting recognized for what we did. Myself and the other chief plotters of the program, we were happy with what we’d done with our little crew: We had delivered on what we set out to do. We had a damn good team that worked really hard for a long time, seven days a week, to get us to the point we could make that deep dive. But I think we had also showed what is possible in the oceans.
There was the Life cover story and the one in the Geographic. It all went by, and by the time we turned around twice it was gone. What we did was really not noted for very long. It disappeared into the mists of history.
I think more than a thousand people have climbed up Everest. Several hundred have gone into space. More people have walked on the moon than have done what we did. At the time, few people understood the scale of the challenge. I like to joke: The right stuff, but the wrong direction.
But today, our group can still see our fingerprints all over almost every submersible in the world, manned or unmanned.
In our time, you couldn’t go to a catalogue and buy what you needed. You either made it yourself or told people what you needed and had them make it for you. Cameras, lights, underwater electrical systems–we had to do it ourselves. It’s not like we were trying to be terribly clever: If we wanted to operate, we had to make these things. In those days, the number of people who had the technical skills and the pilots–you could probably invite them all to lunch for a sandwich around one table. There wasn’t a lot of support structure.
Even Woods Hole’s Alvin–the original concept was developed by our group at San Diego. We were beating up the bathyscaphe taking it out and around the world’s oceans. We wanted a small submersible you could put on the back of a ship of opportunity rather than towed along behind a vessel at five knots, which is what we had to do with the Trieste. Our captain thought it was a wonderful idea. We called the conceptual design the Sea Pup. Then he dropped the other shoe: Said ‘We’re gonna get one of these and send it to Woods Hole.’ That became Alvin.
When you made the historic dive, did you imagine that 50 years later, yours would remain the only manned journey to the deepest place in the ocean?
No, no. We thought there’d be more dives to Challenger Deep and places like it. While we were waiting for someone to find us after we returned to the surface, we were chatting, happy that we’d gotten the job done. We wondered: How long will it be before someone else does this? It would never be routine, we figured. But we agreed it would just be a year or two before someone was back out again, doing research in the deep trenches.
Ford Cochran directs Mission Programs online for National Geographic. He has written for National Geographic magazine and NG Books, and edits BlogWild–a digest of Society exploration, research, and events–and the Ocean Now blog. Ford studied English literature at the College of William and Mary and biogeochemistry at Harvard and Yale, with a focus on volcanoes, forests, and long-term controls on atmospheric CO2. He was an assistant professor of geology and environmental science at the University of Kentucky before joining the National Geographic staff.
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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.
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michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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April 19th, 2010 at 10:28 am
Loved the article Michelle
April 19th, 2010 at 10:30 am
Hafa adai
Nice article Michelle, here’s what is happening around it. Missing people and things.
Coast Guard, Navy Launch Search After Obscure MAYDAY Call
Last Updated on Sunday, 18 April 2010 10:20
Written by Kevin Kerrigan
Sunday, 18 April 2010 09:55
Guam – Guam News
Guam – The U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Navy have launched a search after hearing a “MAYDAY” call broadcast on Channel 16 of the VHF-FM Marine Band.
Coast Guard Spokesman Officer Lee Putnam issued a media release this morning reporting that U.S. Coast Guard Sector Guam heard the MAYDAY call about 10:15 Saturday night.
The voice was that of a man who, Putnam reports, simply said “May-Day, May-Day”. No name of vessel, no name of person, no location. Putnam says the broadcast was strong and clear, but no other information was given.
The use of “May-Day” is an internationally recognized declaration of distress.
U.S. Coast Guard vessels from Station Apra Harbor and a U.S. Navy Helicopter from Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron -25 began searching off the western coast of Guam Saturday night and are continuing that search effort today, Sunday.
The Coast Guard is asking the public to notify them if they have any information about this case. Coast Guard Search & Rescue: 564-8724
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So what’s next? An alien invasion?
Gill
April 19th, 2010 at 10:34 am
Garage Dangers — How to Keep Your Family Safe
Eric Peters
Your garage could be a very dangerous area of your home. Unsecured tools and equipment… toxic and flammable chemicals… and garage doors that can weigh several hundred pounds often are accidents waiting to happen.
What you can do…
Keep clutter under control. Garages often resemble obstacle courses. They may be full of precariously stacked boxes, tools and equipment, in addition to vehicles.
A weekend spent organizing your garage — and clearing a safe path to walk through — is probably the single biggest safety improvement you can make.
A great way to organize tools and equipment is to reuse old kitchen cabinets that might otherwise be thrown away during remodeling. Another option is to buy ready-to-use storage systems from retailers such as Sears, Lowe’s and The Home Depot.
Example: The Craftsman Garage Storage Collection is pricey at $1,130 to $1,450, but it will add value to your home, as well as get the clutter under control. 800-377-7414, http://www.sears.com.
Individual, locking storage cabinets in sizes that fit your needs also are helpful.
Example: Sears sells a very sturdy, all-metal Craftsman Professional Floor Cabinet Locker for $330. Less expensive models are also available.
Add proper lighting. Poor lighting makes it more likely that people will trip over or bump into things. It also makes it harder to work safely.
Most modern garages have several existing outlets available, so it’s simple to just plug in a new fixture.
Tube-style fluorescent lights are energy efficient and provide excellent illumination. They can be hung from the ceiling or attached to a wall. Freestanding fixtures are another possibility.
Utility-type plug-in fixtures can be bought at a home-supply or hardware store for $50 or less.
In older homes, the garage may not be equipped with more than one or two outlets — or even wired for electricity. In this case, having an electrician run a new circuit or install extra outlets can be money very well-spent.
The cost of adding a few new outlets to an existing circuit in your garage should not be much more than $100. If a new circuit or line has to be built, the cost will be higher.
Secure and properly store dangerous chemicals and equipment. Gasoline should always be kept in a container specifically designed to store fuel, not just an old jug that could be made of materials not designed to come into contact with motor fuels. Such materials may weaken when exposed to gasoline, resulting in a spill or leak. They even may begin to chemically dissolve, contaminating the fuel.
The container should be equipped with a cap that prevents vapor from escaping. Gas vapors can accumulate and easily ignite in the closed confines of a garage. Be sure that gasoline, chemicals and aerosol containers are not stored near a heat source, such as a furnace.
Antifreeze should be kept in a marked container that is capped with a childproof seal (the original containers will have this). Antifreeze is a lethal poison but tastes sweet and looks pretty to children.
Pesticides and other dangerous chemicals, such as aerosol cleaners and paint, should be stored in lockable cabinets, out of reach of children.
Any sharp-edged tool, such as pruners, knives, razor blades and machetes, similarly should be stored securely and out of reach of children.
Peg-Board — available at most hardware stores in various sizes — can be used to make an inexpensive but effective tool organizer that can be mounted on a wall above the reach of children.
Individual tools can be secured to the Peg-Board with various fasteners. Use a marker to outline the shape of each tool on the Peg-Board so that you’ll know where it goes after you are done using it.
Clean up spills. Kitty litter is very effective at sopping up oil and grease spills. Just put some on the spill and, after a day or so, sweep up the litter and dispose of it properly (check with your town about hazardous waste pickup days).
Any remaining oil or grease can be cleaned up with a solution of 50% liquid bleach and 50% warm water. Use a stiff brush, and mop up the mess with old towels or paper towels. Repeat as necessary until the floor is no longer slick.
Keep keys for the lawn mower stored separately. Just like a car, a riding lawn mower with the key in the cylinder is easier to steal. And if there are children about, they won’t be able to start the engine — and the cutting blades — if the key is not there.
For smaller gas-powered equipment that starts without a key — chain saws, leaf blowers, string trimmers, snowblowers — it’s wise to pull the spark plug wire off the spark plug.
Some people prefer to store power equipment with the fuel drained, but this can result in dried-out, brittle and leaky gaskets — and starting difficulties come spring. A better approach is to add fuel stabilizer to the gasoline before long periods of disuse. The stabilizer will keep the fuel fresh for several months and your equipment ready to go when you need it.
Make sure garage doors are safe. Most newer homes are equipped with automatic garage doors that have built-in safety devices, such as an “invisible eye” light beam that stops the door from continuing downward if anything is in its path. The door also should stop in its tracks — and reverse — if it physically strikes an object or person in its path.
To test whether a garage door’s safety system is working properly, simply put an object in the path of the sensor as the garage door is coming down. If the system is working, the door should stop automatically and reverse. If the door continues to come down, there is a problem that needs to be checked by a professional garage door mechanic.
Some older homes (1993 and older) may have automatic garage doors without any safety features at all — and some of these doors weigh hundreds of pounds and are capable of coming down with tremendous force.
Manual doors, those with no electric assist, usually are lighter and thus less dangerous, but they also often have no built-in safety features and still can cause damage to property and possibly people.
If your home has an older garage door without modern safety features, consider replacing it with a modern door and opener system. Prices vary from the low hundreds for a basic door to $1,000 or more for heavily insulated units with glass panels.
Very important: Some older garage doors are equipped with large, free-hanging springs that provide the tension to help raise and lower the doors. These springs, typically located along the upper tracks, can weaken over time and suddenly snap with great force. The spring can severely injure any person who happens to be nearby or put a big dent in your car.
If your garage door uses this type of spring, consider having it removed and replaced with a much safer, modern system that uses a spring mounted directly above the garage door opening. All modern doors use this system.
This kind of spring can snap, too, but when it does, there is little danger to people or property, because the spring is wound around a metal rod, not free hanging.
Caution: The do-it-yourself home handyman should never attempt to replace or adjust either type of spring. They are under tremendous tension and can be extremely dangerous.
Contact an installer of garage door openers. You can find one in a phone directory or ask at stores, such as Lowe’s, Sears and The Home Depot.
Bottom Line/Personal interviewed Eric Peters, a Washington, DC-based automotive columnist and author of Automotive Atrocities! The Cars We Love to Hate (MBI). http://www.ericpetersautos.com.
April 19th, 2010 at 10:46 am
Hafa adai
Thanks Michelle for this very informative article. I am not so much worried about aliens as I am about the influx of thousands of marines and their accompaniments of addition people that the island can not support in its present condition.
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GUAM – April 22nd is Earth Day. And for Guam, this celebration of the planet’s precious natural resources couldn’t be more appropriate, as local and and federal officials weigh the life-changing impacts of the military’s proposed expansion plans here.
In the midst of Earth Week 2010, Guam faces daunting environmental challenges. A landfill receivership still festers in District Court. So does Guam Waterworks Authority’s stipulated order for violations of the federal Clean Water Act. But that’s just the start.
Today, Guam beholds the burgeoning of a $15 billion armed forces buildup that it can neither afford nor sustain.
According to local attorney and We Are Guahan member Leevin Camacho, existing problems could grow much worse if the buildup is left unchecked. “USEPA came out and it was kind of a wake-up call to the island that there are some major concerns with the DEIS and the buildup as proposed — and DOD’s plans for the buildup,” said Camacho.
“Specifically, USEPA predicts up to a 13.1 million-gallon-per-day shortage of water. If that happens and the wastewater treatment plants aren’t taken care of, we’re talking about raw sewage contaminating our drinking water.”
So serious are the environmental concerns that President Obama sent his highest level environmental staffers to see things for themselves. Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality Nancy Sutley serves as the principal environmental policy adviser to the President.
During a recent news conference on island, Sutley said, “We are committed to the principle of ‘One Guam’, where both civilian and military residents are served well. This visit is just one part of the work that the Obama Administration is putting into ensuring that the proposed buildup actions are done in a sustainably sound and sustainable way.”
Yet the issues before Guam are not all buildup related. United States Environmental Protection Agency Administrator for Region IX Jerald Blumenfeld says even without the massive military buildup, Guam has a lot of work ahead.
During his visit to Guam with Sutley, Blumenfeld told News Watch, “I think there’s some real issues that need to be overcome in terms of how the infrastructure is improved just for the folks that are on island at the moment…so not even looking at the issues of the military buildup we have some very serious concerns about the capacity of that infrastructure to serve the residents of Guam today.”
Buildup or no buildup, Earth Week on Guam takes on new meaning, given the serious environmental problems now frontline and center.
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What do they expect the people of Guam to do?
Peter
April 19th, 2010 at 11:05 am
Today I woke up with peace in the house for the first time since Obama got elected. My tiny dick husband is off marching to preserve his “God given right to bear arms.”
This is a man who passionately argues that the 10 Bill of Rights aren’t God given rights to the OTWS, but he will argue that owning a gun is a God given right.
Michelle since my niece pointed me out to your blog, I have gotten a measure of peace. At least now I know why my husband is such a fanatic. It is amazing what having an inferiority complex about the size of your dick will do to a man.
Violet
April 19th, 2010 at 11:15 am
Violet
I understand your plight. My husband is black and he is always screaming about the white media giving deference to white men when they do or say something stupid.He went ballistic when a white man at the rally was interviewed and he said what your husband said about owning a gun being a god given right.
I could use some peace in this household too. It seems men are always raving about something. John has a big d**k but it doesn’t seem to stop him from ranting on about white oppression.
Yolanda
April 19th, 2010 at 11:39 am
The real problem with the financial system is that we are still solving their white collar crimes with civil penalties. The shit Goldman Sach pulled should be in a criminal court not a civil one.
It was fraud. Someone should go to jail. It should not be about the reputation of a firm. It may be a corporation but some human planned and executed the scam.
This is just another case of “Just us” white boy justice. If an OTW committed a fraud that stole money from the public he would go to jail. You tell me the difference between this fraud and Madeoffs.
They end result is they both took other people’s money claiming they were selling a sound investment. Madeoff was more honest he just pocketed the momey
Golden Sachs took that money and used it to bet against the buyers making money with an insurance company. They stole form the investor and the insurance company because they knew the car had bad brakes when they sold it and then bet on it to crash.
I’m with you Yolanda. When will the white boy news media stop giving deference to their own?
Evelyn
Hello Mom
April 19th, 2010 at 11:49 am
So what else is new. The Right is using scare tactics to defeat and to slander Obama’s attempt to wean us from fossil fuels.
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Exposed: Obama’s TRUE Environmental Agenda
It’s Monday morning in the year 2015, and thanks to the “clean energy” and “green” policies Obama rammed through Congress in 2010, life is..different.
You flip on a light switch, but nothing comes on. You turn on the hot water, but only cold gushes out.
You live in a tiny, cramped “energy-efficient” home and eat two meals a day because the cost of food is astronomical.
Sound preposterous?
Get ready for your future, says bestselling author Chris Horner in his blockbuster new book, Power Grab: How Obama’s Green Policies Will Steal Your Freedom and Bankrupt America.
In this devastating new book, Horner exposes how President Obama is using environmentalism as his latest excuse to take away our rights, freedoms, comforts, luxuries, money—even our jobs.
By declaring war against America’s most reliable sources of energy—coal, oil, and natural gas—the Leftists in Washington are determined to change the way we live—and crush both our liberties and the economy in the process.
In Power Grab you will learn:
How Team Obama is designing an artificial energy shortage to force Americans to downsize, downgrade, and change their lifestyles
The checkered pasts of climate czar Carol Browner and chief science advisor John Holdren—and how they hold enormous influence over Obama and his green agenda
How Obama’s green jobs program will not only strip even more jobs from our economy, but will export them overseas—along with our hard-earned money
How Sen. Harry Reid has charged Sen. John Kerry with rebranding the “cap-and-trade” bill as soon as possible and how Sen. Lindsey Graham is usefully enabling him
The first book to expose Obama’s true environmental agenda, Power Grab is a jaw-dropping account of the government’s arrogant plans to take over our nation’s energy sources—and our lives.
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It should be obvious to everyone that these bigots will not support anything the black President proposes because he is black.
It is a terrible thing to have to admit but it is true Yolanda what your husband is raving about. I may be white but I recognize selective journalism when I see it.
The white news media is giving deference to the Right by not pointing out that a lot if not most of the opposition to Obama is based on bigotry and out right racism.
Mike
April 19th, 2010 at 11:52 am
Q: If the value of my house is going down, why is my homeowner’s insurance premium going up?
A: Real estate values and homeowner’s insurance values do not necessarily correlate. The decrease in the value of your home (and many others) is probably due to the housing crisis, to growing supply and weak demand for houses.
Homeowner’s insurance premiums, on the other hand, are based on the concept of “insurance to value.” That means insurance companies set homeowner’s premiums according to the estimated cost of rebuilding a home from scratch if there is a total loss.
Thus, premiums take into account not only the cost of building materials, but also debris removal and labor.
In recent years, raw material costs have increased exponentially. The higher costs have been attributed to increased demand resulting from catastrophes (such as hurricanes) as well as from the continued growth of developing countries.
Fuel, which is used to transport building materials, is also considered in setting insurance premiums. Even though prices have come down lately, they’re still very high.
Therefore, even though the resale value of your home may be decreasing, your insurance premium is increasing to keep up with the higher costs of rebuilding or repairing a home.
Our inside source: Douglas Liptak, CPA, CFP, head of insurance operations at SignatureFD, a wealth-management firm in Atlanta.
April 19th, 2010 at 11:55 am
Tom, right on and thank you for the compliment. My father ranted about OTW’s all the time, he once caught me at home with several pals drinking beer, he threw us out, I later went to apologize to him and he cut me short and said what was that nigger doing in this house? I was blown away, it was harsh even for him. I smiled and said her daddy is the district attorney, recognize the name? He was furious, not only was he a black man but he held a higher position that him as a cop, oh boo freakin’ hoo, daddio…!
All I can tell you is my kid hangs with whoever is a kid of good character and I don’t care what color or what ‘socio/economic’ group they come from either, she still has Indian, Guianan, Dutch, Brit pals from our Singapore days thanks to email/Facebook and so do I. I find it ridiculous that any one color or sex of peeps would find themselves superior, it actually masks a nice inferiority complex nicely, and you don’t need my degree in psych to know that : )
On another note, I had coffee with a pal today, I ordered and paid this barista, we walked away and this pal was going off about how that barista was slovenly, doesn’t care about himself and others, blah blah and blah…the barista is quite overweight and one of the nicest peeps I’ve met, always keeps his cool and manners no matter how others act, so whilst the pal was going off, I was looking around the room bc it was making me cringe, I finally said…are you listening to yourself? Have you no idea how unbecoming you sound? And do you not know that your subconscious is listening to you so it is taking this in and filing it away so it can cop judgments on the next oevrweight soul it runs into and worst, it also will feel totally free to cop judgments on you/yourself. (met with silence) so I said further, with all due respect to you as a person, he is a person also and just so you know – intelligent people talk about ideas not other people. (pal said I have never thought of any of that in depth, do you write down the things you say bc you should) and to that end I said, before you go off being prejudicial about anothers physicality, how about thinking about what that person has to face everyday, their challenges in having a weight problem whether its been lifelong or caused by meds or depression or…OR just let them be, live life while you live yours, free of judging or thinking about why they look the way they do.at.all.
On another note, feel free to goof on strangers and the way they dress ocassionally : ) but do it in fun knowing they just may be looking back at you and thinking ‘what up with the honking sunglasses’ or whatever… : )
Ladies of MM blog, let’s get that torso workin’ the ‘kini shall we? Ok, a yoga stretch that’ll rock your world and your obliques ; ) stand straight, roll those shoulders back and down, ta’s north, (the usual position) tummy tucked towards spine but allow that slight curve at small of back to be there, G note in your crack : ) now, step your right foot out as far as possible while maintaining balance, slide that right hand down your thigh till at least your knee, advanced move: go for the shin or ankle…your left hand is straight overhead – advanced: curved over to the right as far as possible, hold this for a count of 15, advanced 30, slide back up and do other side, do 5 on each side, advanced do ten each side, feel that long stretch through that side, it’s amazing, this will tone not build that oblique.
We’ll add another few exercises later in the week. I HOPE you all are doing your warm up stretches before doing your power walk, please do not skip this, bc at any age or any fitness level, you run the risk of hurting yourself if you do not warm up. Make it part of your exercise religion!
Ok, I’m out now…Howie, Al, come on now – please check in, 30 kids are wondering how Howie is doing, I cannot answer lah bc I do not know lah : ) a little Singlish just bc I’ve been missing Singapore a lot lately.
Caio, Luv, Zen Lill
April 19th, 2010 at 11:59 am
Love the article Michelle. The office is abuzz with talk about aliens and the planet. I hope the volcano stops soon. But this is very interesting.
April 19th, 2010 at 12:01 pm
Subject: Take two aspirin…
Every year, English teachers from across the country can submit their collections of actual analogies and metaphors found in high school essays.
These excerpts are published each year for their amusement.
Here are last year’s winners…
8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of
his wife’s infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly
surcharge-free ATM machine.
April 19th, 2010 at 12:05 pm
Michelle
Sir
We could engineer the loss of 4 republican US senate seats in november. It is your call.
Sir
Madaline
April 19th, 2010 at 12:11 pm
The main point is that EXXon will still be polluting to the tune of 400 tons a year.
======================================
UPDATE 1-Exxon settles over air pollution in Guam, Marianas
Fri Apr 16, 2010 4:06pm EDT
Related News
Exxon Mobil Corporation
XOM.N
$68.31
+0.38+0.56%
10:46am PDT
* Exxon to pay $2.4 mln, upgrade two terminals for $15 mln
STOCKS | GLOBAL MARKETS | ENERGY
* Company says discovered problems through internal review
SAN FRANCISCO, April 16 (Reuters) – Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) will pay a fine for alleged Clean Air Act violations in Guam and the Mariana Islands and upgrade facilities to prevent them from emitting hundreds of tons of pollution every year.
The largest U.S. oil company said on Friday it discovered the problem through internal reviews and reported its findings to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The U.S. Department of Justice said Exxon’s two local units had agreed to pay $2.4 million for allegedly violating the U.S. Clean Air Act, and they expect to spend $15 million to bring two gasoline terminals into compliance, reducing their annual discharge of volatile organic compounds by close to 400 tons.
“We are in the process of installing new air emission control equipment on tanks and loading racks for the Cabras and Saipan terminals,” the Irving, Texas-based company said of the two sites, which store gasoline before it is hauled to filling stations.
According to a complaint filed with the settlement, Mobil Oil Guam and Mobil Oil Mariana Islands allegedly failed to install vapor pollution controls on 13 storage tanks and all of their loading racks at the storage facilities, the Justice Department said.
“This enforcement action should serve as a warning to other large companies that they need to ensure that each part of their operations complies with the law — even facilities that are more than 7,000 miles from their headquarters,” said Jared Blumenfeld, the EPA’s administrator for the Pacific Southwest.
The settlement, lodged in Guam’s U.S. District Court, is subject to a 30-day comment period and final court approval. (Reporting by Braden Reddall. Editing by Robert MacMillan)
————————————
So we are to be pleased that Exxon was allowed to report their pollution before the government did to allow them a free pass with a reasonable fine.
Ralph
April 19th, 2010 at 12:19 pm
Zen Lill
you are my ideal woman. I would love to meet you some day. Oh and I follow your exercises. I have lost 41 lbs. I have 53 to go. Thanks for helping. I often am the butt of crude fat jokes.
Kenny
April 19th, 2010 at 5:33 pm
Hafa adai
I can leave Guam on a Saturday and arrive in Honolulu on the previous Friday.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Continental Airlines will add new service between Guam and Honolulu, with a stop in Majuro in the Marshall Islands, beginning June 5.
The flight, operated by Continental Micronesia, will depart Guam at 6 a.m. on Saturday, stop in Majuro at 12:05 p.m., then arrive at Honolulu International Airport at 7:35 p.m. on the previous day, Friday, after crossing the International Date Line.
Return flights will operate on Saturdays, departing Honolulu at 10:30 p.m. and arriving in Majuro at 1:40 a.m. on Sunday before arriving in Guam at 4:40 a.m. early Monday morning.
Continental will fly 155-seat Boeing 737-800 aircraft on the new route, which will be in addition to the airline’s current “island hopper” service between Guam and Honolulu.
That service stops in Chuuk, Pohnpei, Kosrae, Kwajalein and Majuro and is offered three times a week.
Houston-based Continental (NYSE: CAL) serves more destinations in the Pacific than any other U.S. carrier. It is Hawaii’s seventh-largest carrier based on the number of passengers flown to the Islands in 2008, according to PBN research.
Read more: Continental to add Guam-Majuro-HNL flight – Pacific Business News (Honolulu):
===========================
How’s that for time traveling aliens?
scott
April 19th, 2010 at 7:31 pm
Me and some of my girlfriends got together to watch the McVelgh Tapes on MSNBC. WE did it because most of our husbands were off “defending” their rights to bear arms.
So11 white girls, 2 latinos, 1 black and 7 asians got together at Zia’s father’s theater. We had our own private popcorn machine. Everybody but Cheryl brought something. Cheryl like her husband is a bigot, but she provides the spark for most of our political arguments.
We have been friends for the most part at least 30 years. Shannon is the oldest. She is 47. Me, I’m the youngest. I’m 37.
Most of us are avid fans of yours Michelle so we chuckle when we hear the last name of the guy who interviewed McVelgh. The film starts and as we expected the guy was portrayed as highly intelligent person with a grudge against the government.
I can understand the anger that non whites could have at the presentation. This was presented as the white man’s anger. Most of us could hardly watch it without screaming at the screen.
When he was referred to as “the good angel and the bad angel in a way,” the collective gagging was unanimous. Even Cheryl had to admit that this was sick. We were being asked to try to understand the anger and reason of a mad man because he was white.
If he had been Arab or Black, this would have been an entirely different presentation. The presentation would have emphasized the growing madness of this insane man.
They brag about the fact that he killed two men with one shot. Almost the entire recitation by the men was a tacit respect for the man and an apology for the man’s skewered logic.
The lone woman hit it on the head. He failed in the military so he had to demonize it to justify his inability to make it in the military.
Many of us recognize some of the actions and beliefs in our male relatives and associates. It didn’t matter what color the male was. All of us to a girl had a power mad male we knew.
Granted it was the white males who were the most gun crazy. I guess little penis, big gun is true. But I would say the real reason white men are involved in the most violent acts against the federal government is because as a white male he is given more tolerance.
If a bunch of minorities had massed in Virginia with guns today. The local police would have been out in force to harass them. The local whites and whites from all over would have gathered to insist that they be arrested.
But a bunch of tiny dick white men and the silly white women who defer to those types was okay to be out with guns.
We were totally sick of the male commentators trying to convince us that McVelgh was acting out against the federal government because he perceived the federal government as a bully. And he had been bullied when he was a child so he hated bullies.
How does that factor when he was contemplating doing what no bully he knew had ever done. He was out to kill as many innocent men, women and children as he could.
The interviewer is busy handing out expressions like McVelgh was the “alpha male.” As if McVelgh was anything but and sexually repressed white man trying to get revenge on a society that had not recognized his “specialness.”
His attempts to portray himself as this great planner who carried out this evil deed. The men are too busy admiring his skill in making such a big bomb to comment on the cold bloodied insanity of the maniac.
Comments like his “super presence of mind” or “I’m going to kill this man if he comes over.” Are spewed out of the interviewer’s mouth almost in reverent respect.
We girls laugh and vent at how white men can find a way to appreciate the sickness in their own. Lou Michael is pathetic in his obvious admiration of McVelgh.
We are supposed to believe that he lit the fuse well before he got to the building. We as a group of dumb women were very certain that he didn’t light the fuse until he got out of the truck.
He added a few more moments of tensions and expressions of his courage. He mentioned that he didn’t run away from the truck, but he did jog. We think he mentioned that he jogged it was because he was afraid that someone may have seen him running away from possible danger.
We are to believe that he wasn’t sure that the bomb would go off from the fuse so he was prepared to go back and “shoot” the bomb to force it to go off.
Sure he was going to do that while he was running away from the possible blast as fast as he could.
Only a tiny d**k white boy could claim that he was pulling off this great military feat when he was cold bloodily murdering 168 men, women and children. And only another tiny d**k white boy could tell the story in a manner like they tell of their serial killers as if the murder is a genius.
This “genius” forgot to put license plates on the car. He claims he did it deliberately. But when he is pulled over by a cop, although he is armed, he doesn’t have the balls to accost an armed police officer.
He confesses that he has a gun and gives up. Typical gutless coward. We are told by the male story teller that McVelgh wanted to be caught. Again we gag and scream at this stupid male.
White men are so easily manipulated by acts of super cruelty that it is easy for them to slip into admiration of any white male that commits multiple murders while condemning the murders themselves.
Brittany
April 19th, 2010 at 7:49 pm
I just read the article, I love Don Walsh’s almost self-deprecating approach to question answering : )
Kenny, thank you. I’m so glad you’re benefiting from the exercises and that’s an impressive weight loss so far. I hope the new you is consistent with your inner self image and I would encourage you to do that inner work so you keep your new ‘energy mass’ (better known as your body) at it’s newfound set point, whatever that number turns out to be…can you visualize yourself leading a dynamic and healthy life where the idea of not moving your body everyday would be weird? Where shopping for fruits/veggies and fish/chicken and lean meats are by total choice and not bc you HAVE to eat this way bc I’m on a ‘diet’? I ask this bc I have known people to yo-yo their weight and in my guestimation, this ‘inconsistent self image’ is what ocurred. Just thought it was worth mentioning…
Just a reminder: get your 15-30 minutes of sunshine daily without sunscreen, have been doing lots of research on chronic disease, number 1 thing patients have in common: defient in vitey D-3! ‘Fortified’ Milk and other products are supplying more Vitey D2, not the much needed Vitey D3, a short walk in the sun for even the sickest of peeps results in a boost in health and mental well-being. If it’s still too cold where you are, take that lemon-flavored cod liver oil, what do you know, your grandma knew what she was talking about : ) and put on a jacket and go for a walk…
I’ll be back with a list of supplements – have done lots of research on this and experimented on myself : ) the short list, the medium list and the long list will be supplied this week…I think I said I’d do that back in Oct but better late than never and I like to exhaust all search engines.
Caio for now, Zen Lill
April 19th, 2010 at 8:10 pm
I may not be the oldest or the youngest, but i am the one who pointed out the “thousand yard stare” of McVeigh was really the typical sexually repressed male look that is supposed to imply “look at what I did aren’t you sorry you didn’t date me”? That’s how those sick men think.
Linsay
April 19th, 2010 at 8:13 pm
Al if you are still here. Tell us how Howie is doing. He can’t speak for himself obviously. So it’s on you.
How is he doing?
April 19th, 2010 at 8:53 pm
I may be a new american citizen but I know when i hear stupid stuff. My husband has been standing through the McVeigh tapes clapping and saying if more americans had that boys bravery.
Now this is a man who could use some anti-freeze in his coffee. He is a Limbaugh fanatic. I am glad he paid for my coming to America and the fact that I am now a naturalized American citizen, but I am going to divorce this nut before I am forced to lace his coffee with anti-freeze.
I refuse to give birth to anything he may force me to spawn in my womb. I have never met a black man or woman as a friend but I am sure that they can not be as bad as he claims.
Olga
April 19th, 2010 at 9:12 pm
The thing that struck me was the comment that McVeigh looked like “the kid down the block.”
Meaning he was white and we whites don’t do things like that. My cousin was killed by that bastard.
April 19th, 2010 at 9:14 pm
My small penis husband suffers from erectile dysfunction. God I hate viagra. I thought I was through with having to put up with his inept attempts at sex.
April 19th, 2010 at 9:18 pm
Oh, I almost forgot McVeigh was convicted of the deed, but he fought it by exhausting all his appeals. So it was pure lies when he claims that he was at peace with his conviction and that he wanted to get caught.
He wanted to live to do it again. Remember his saying he was making a statement that if they didn’t stop doing what they were doing, it would happen again.
Jessica
April 19th, 2010 at 9:32 pm
Actually what he said Jessica is “If you don’t knock it off there is more of this to come.” Which of course implies that he wanted to get away to strike fear in the hearts of the government.
But as usual we get hypocritical lies from the white man. And those telling his story are so full of themselves that they try to make the white man seem to have some justification for his deed.
Petro
April 19th, 2010 at 9:52 pm
Women everything isn’t about the size of a man’s penis. I saw the Special. To me it was more about a person who felt he had no one so no one mattered to him but himself. So he did something to punish those who wouldn’t accept him and left them something to remember him by.
April 19th, 2010 at 10:06 pm
Lou Michel was the perfect pick for McVeigh. Lou is the typical hick who admires violence on a grand scale. That bully line about the government now having the horns is just silly.
Lou insists that Mcveigh is against the bully and people who could impose their will on others. Hello, Lou that is what McVeigh did to almost a thousand. people. the 168 he killed and the hundreds he maimed.
If you can catch the special again, watch Lou when he refers to the huge 7 thousand pound bomb, you can almost see his erection. He is in awe of the person who could make this huge bomb.
Little dick, big bomb.
Robert
April 19th, 2010 at 10:17 pm
It was unnerving hearing him refer to himself as a military man on a mission. It is as hypocritical as him claiming that he was disillusioned by the fact that he was killing innocent Iraqis while planning to kill innocent fellow American citizens.
i am a military man. Military men plan on missions to kill fellow combatants not ambush unarmed innocent civilians. I found it just as sick listening to Michel talk in almost revering terms about the creep.
Howard
April 19th, 2010 at 10:18 pm
Robert i taped the special. So I went back and checked your assertion.
Lou Michel attributes “super presence of mind” to McVeigh. He is obviously in awe of McVeigh. Your assessment of Michel Robert seems to be pretty good.
When he refers to the bomb with expressions like “his monstrous creation” you can see his erection. It is a sexual moment for him.
Abbey
April 19th, 2010 at 10:33 pm
OTWs don’t plan on blowing up the government because they have nervous breakdowns or anything else.
Only white men who are used to the getting government bias in their favor believe they are owed something so they feel justified in blowing up government buildings. We have to suck it up and deal with it.
And how about that part where the white woman says “I talked to the peoole who booked him in they say he was a nice boy. “This boy can mask.”
What mask he was a white boy being interviewed by other whites in Oka. Who would suspect him. He was one of them. And white boys don’t do things like that.
Doug(not the main Dude)
April 19th, 2010 at 10:43 pm
Lou Michel is either an incredibly gullible man or a moron. When he asserts that McVeigh left clues everywhere because McVeigh told him so. McVeigh was using his knowledge after the fact to suggest he deliberately left clues that actually were just stupid mistakes most inept criminals make.
Of course this would belie Lou’s claim that McViegh was highly intelligent. McVeigh was planning on walking out of the court house until Nichols turned him in.
“that looks like the kid down the block.” Yeah, that is exactly what it was the kid down the block, a typical white boy sexually arrested acting out violently as they do most of the time. Usually it is as serial killers or bigots or racists.
My brother is one of those sociopaths. He molested me when I was a child and he has convinced our parents I am a liar. He is the all american kid down the block
Nora
April 19th, 2010 at 10:50 pm
ADULT ILLNESS FOR CHILDHOOD CANCER SURVIVORS
Here’s something to feel great about: In just 40 years, researchers and physicians have flipped the mortality figures for children with cancer — where 80% of afflicted children previously succumbed to their cancer, the five-year survival rate is now 80%.
This remarkable achievement poses an important new question… what are the long-term health implications for adults who have survived a childhood bout with cancer? Are there special dangers… or special precautions that the growing population of survivors should know about?
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis is conducting the long-term Childhood Cancer Survivor Study initiated in 1993 by Leslie Robison, PhD, chair of the epidemiology and cancer control department.
The study includes 27 cancer centers in the US and Canada and 14,000 survivors diagnosed and treated under age 21 between 1970 and 1986. The long-term goal is to learn whether childhood cancer patients tend to develop particular health conditions or psychological problems 30 or more years after their cancer treatment… whether these conditions are results of the treatment… and, of course, how to help survivors stay healthier.
These follow-up conditions (called “late effects”) are categorized in the realms of physical (such as organ function) and psychological issues (such as success in education, marital happiness, cognitive function and rate of depression).
HOW DO ADULT SURVIVORS FARE?
Based on results thus far, Dr. Robison told me that it appears that about 75% of childhood cancer survivors will experience some type of late effects in adulthood, ranging from minor (such as low-level pain) to extremely serious, including secondary cancers or heart conditions.
Compared to the control group (siblings of the survivors who’d never had cancer), researchers concluded that the childhood cancer survivors are three to four times more likely to have a chronic health condition and eight times more likely to have a serious to life-threatening medical condition.
Two particular treatments stand out as being responsible for serious late effects, specifically breast cancer and heart disease. Dr. Robison says that women who had chest radiation therapy as girls (about 21% of the female cancer survivors in the study) have a very high risk for breast cancer, with 20% of them developing it by age 45.
Childhood doses of chest radiation can also cause problems with cardiac function in adulthood — and so, too, can chemotherapy (specifically, the group of drugs referred to as anthracyclines, which Dr. Robison told me are important drugs for treating many types of childhood cancers).
Today’s pediatric oncologists do their best to avoid using chest radiation and are working to determine a safer dose of the cardio-toxic chemo.
On average, it appears that childhood cancer survivors often begin to experience heart problems at around age 32. They are twice as likely as siblings to have high blood pressure, 60% more likely to develop high cholesterol and 70% more likely to have diabetes.
Other potential problems for survivors of childhood cancer include short stature because of endocrine disruption from having radiation to the head… loss of teeth from jaw radiation… cognitive deficits from cranial radiation… and skin cancer (basal cell carcinomas) from localized radiation.
I was happy to hear that on the emotional side, the news is excellent. Dr. Robison says “resilience is generally high with cancer survivors.” Rates of stress and depression were relatively low, he said — noting that, in fact, they are about the same as for the siblings.
HOW TO STAY HEALTHY
It’s hoped that this study will help survivors better understand the medical problems that they may face. So I asked Dr. Robison for some advice on what adult survivors of childhood cancer — even those who are healthy now — should do.
He said the number-one piece of advice for all childhood cancer survivors is this: “Be aware of your history and your risk and be prepared to advocate for yourself.” It is crucial to obtain a summary of your treatment from the cancer center(s) where you were treated.
You should know exactly what your treatment involved, including any drugs (names and doses), radiation and/or surgery. Share this information with your primary care doctor, as it may have implications for your adult health.
Also, you and your doctor should review the medical guidelines for survivors provided by CureSearch, a joint effort of the National Childhood Cancer Foundation and the Children’s Oncology Group, where you can get recommendations for screening and management of late effects of cancer treatment. There is a detailed list for physicians and patients at (http://www.survivorshipguidelines.org/).
Another goal of this study is to improve cancer treatment for children so they can be healed without fear of future repercussions. But until then, survivors should understand that knowledge of their past can help them have a better future.
Source(s):
Leslie Robison, PhD, chair of the epidemiology and cancer control department at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee.
April 19th, 2010 at 10:58 pm
Did anyone notice all the ED commercials that ran through that special? It’s was almost as bad as listening to all those white people taking what this white boy claimed to be a true account of what he did as true.
He wasn’t committing any “suicide by cop.” If that was true why did he run? Why did he not have a shoot out with the cop? Why didn’t he accept the verdict of death without exhausting all his appeals?
He wanted to escape and after he was caught he wanted to live. But justice had its day.
Martha
April 19th, 2010 at 11:03 pm
To me the most telling thing about the case was that Michael Fortier was given a new identity in the witness protection program.
If he had been an OTW, he would have be released on his own. White protect their own. Just-us justice at work.
April 19th, 2010 at 11:09 pm
Either we get cooperation or we spread the winds of clouds. It will get bigger tomorrow.
The united Kingdom will not be flying this week. It hasn’t reached above 30,000 feet, but try to make it over 30,000 feet.
We have two earthquakes that will make it presence known by the end of the week to emphasize our point.
April 20th, 2010 at 6:10 am
I certainly do not condone McVeigh and his actions. I do not think that one must kill to make a point. Our government does this DAILY in our country and throughout the world to show the world “who is boss”…This was his, McVeigh’s impetus…I did find it interesting in how, as he searched for truth to laws and justice in Amerika, he became frustrated upon learning more and more about the governmental lies and abuses that were transpiring that affected his life. He wanted change…He took the red pill, which is fine and I ask EVERYONE to do so. However, the after effects of this pill did not comply with his conscience to allow him to participate within a civil society.
http://www.theworldsprophecy.com/america-freedom-to-fascism-must-watch-must-share/
There are various concepts that become truth. Truth, as there is an inherent truth, must be severely sought out, as the powers that be that create the “other truths” work hard to cover inherent truth up for their profit. To find truth, you must not look to the government or corporate factions such as corporate news organizations. Their agenda to truth, and delivery of their perceived truth, is much different than that of a citizen of any country…
April 20th, 2010 at 10:12 am
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