Thursday, June 06, 2019

D-DAY 75TH COMMEMORATION STORIES 1



"The supreme Allied command Tuesday sent the greatest air fleet in history over the French coast in support of the invasion, winning complete mastery of the air within the first hour of the landings," Walter Cronkite wrote 75 years ago today, as he covered the D-Day invasion. Read his original article from June 6, 1944 here.

Seventy-five years after more than 150,000 Allied troops descended upon Normandy beaches to liberate German-occupied France, World War II veterans, heads of state and history buffs will gather for what is perhaps the last major anniversary for living D-Day participants. Watch the live coverage here.

Events around the world remember D-Day 75th anniversary with pomp, solemnity


75 Years Ago—Biggest Undertaking in the History of the World

Patrick Murfin at Heretic, Rebel, a Thing to Flout - 7 hours ago

*Note: **A lesson that bears repeating. Even the cloddish vanity of Donald Trump can’t mar this anniversary.* When it comes to *World War II*, certain dates are etched indelibly into the *American consciousness*, even occasionally piercing the *historical unawareness* of young people now generations removed from the events. December 7, *Pearl Harbor Day* is one. August 6 when the U.S. dropped the first *Atomic Bomb* making the end of the war with *Japan *inevitable is another. So is June 6, known without further explanation as *D-Day*. American troops pinned down on Omaha Beach... more »







The Express Tribune

How the longest day unfolded


International







Photos of D-Day 75-year memorials show World War II jeeps, fighter planes, and parachuting veterans in Normandy







UNITED NATIONS FORCES INCLUDED RUSSIA AND CHINA FLAGS BOTTOM LEFT OF AMERICAN FLAG 







UPI.COM
Control of skies assured in first hour of battle
LONDON, June 6, 1944 (UP) -- Drawing upon the reservoir of 11,000 first line planes, the supreme Allied command Tuesday sent the greatest air fleet in history over the French coast in support of the invasion, winning complete mastery of the air within the first hour of the landings.

Troops descended upon Normandy beaches to liberate German-occupied France, World War II veterans, heads of state and history buffs will gather to commemorate the victory.

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BIG DATA IS BIG BROTHER


Group calls for boycott of airlines that use facial recognition software
A digital rights group on Wednesday called on passengers to fly only with airlines that don't use facial recognition technology in an effort to end what it calls an "unethical" practice.


UPI.COM






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ACME (TM) MEMORIAL ROCK 
CHECK IF THERE IS A COYOTE UNDERNEATH 
Giant roadside rock to remain on Colorado mountain highway as landmark
Colorado has a new Instagram-worthy landmark. An 8.5-million-pound boulder that rolled off a cliff and demolished a section of mountain highway has been rename


An 8.5-million-pound boulder that rolled off a cliff and demolished a section of mountain highway in Colorado has been renamed "Memorial Rock," Gov. Jared Polis said.







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CRYPTO-ENGINEERING 

'Metal thieves' steal 56-tonne, 23-metre rail bridge in Russia

Central span of bridge in Arctic Russia vanished leaving no trace or debris



The theft of a 56-tonne, 23-metre bridge structure has prompted a criminal investigation in Russia's Arctic region.
Aerial footage circulated on Russian social media in late May showed that the two opposing sections of the bridge were intact, but the central span had mysteriously disappeared. 
The heist took place at a long-dismantled bridge over the Umba river, near the abandoned settlement of Oktyabrskaya, in the Arctic region of Murmansk, which borders with Finland.
Residents realised only days after the theft took place. Photos dating 16 May circulating on Russian social network VKontakte showed that the central span of the bridge had fallen into the water. In aerial photos taken just ten days later, there was no trace of the section or of any debris.

“Natural phenomena could not bring down the bridge,” wrote the VK page that initially posted the pictures. The page owners noted that a lower bridge nearby had remained intact. “Even if you bring in an icebreaker, then it’s strange that the lower road bridge nearby wasn’t knocked over.
Residents immediately speculated that the bridge had been stolen and submitted a statement to nearby Kirovsk police.
Police initially dismissed claims of theft, alleging that the owners might have dismissed the bridge themselves, but later launched a criminal investigation into a possible theft. They say the perpetrators might have acted to sell scrap metal, but their identity and the way they operated is still unknown.
“Most likely, metalworkers pulled the structure down into the water, and there they slowly took it apart into scrap pieces,” the VK page speculated.
It noted that it wasn’t the first episode of scrap metal thieves damaging infrastructure in the region, citing attempts to steal transmission towers in the nearby Apatity in summer 2018.

In 2008, Russian police hunted scrap metal thieves who stole an even larger 200-tonne metal bridge in a night-time raid.
The rail bridge over the Umba river had long been dismissed, with tracks lifted a long time ago. Local media Opentown.ru said that when reporters asked who the bridge belonged to, the Murmansk Railway Division said it was “better to turn to historians”.
Police said in their statement that the bridge belonged to a company operating in the area, and estimated material losses at about 600,000 Russian rubles (£7.250).
“Ah, who cares,” commented the VK page, sardonically. “This isn't Germany, and restoring order to the vandalised landscape is not high on the agenda.”



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BC has entered the era of extreme old-growth logging. We must stop it.

By Jens Wieting in Opinion | May 31st 2019
The growing public outcry and conflict over the B.C. government’s support for extreme old-growth logging shows that British Columbians want change. Tinkering around the edges is not enough. Vancouver Island and other parts of the province need a bold plan for healthy communities and ecosystems that truly acknowledges our climate and biodiversity emergencies. 
The BC government is currently inviting British Columbians to provide input into improving BC’s forestry regulation, until July 15. The improvements must include an end of all forms of extreme old-growth logging. Sierra Club BC is planning a province-wide day of action at MLAs’ offices on Thursday June 6, calling on the B.C. government to protect old-growth forests and improve forest management.
Species loss due to habitat destruction across B.C. is part of a global trend hundreds of scientists warned about in early May. The UN backed report showed that globally, one million species are at risk of extinction, with habitat destruction the primary driver.
The report found that three-quarters of the world’s land has been impacted by human activity. For Vancouver Island, the numbers look even worse. Here, only about a fifth of the original productive old-growth rainforest remains unlogged. Nearly a third of what remained standing just twenty-five years ago has since been destroyed.
Conservation science used in the Great Bear Rainforest shows that destroying more than 70 per cent of old-growth means destroying the web of life that depends on ancient trees. A 2016 Sierra Club BC assessment showed about half of Vancouver Island and the South Coast are beyond this threshold for high ecological risk. By maintaining business as usual and ignoring nature’s limits, the B.C. government is now responsible for extreme, extinction-level logging across vast parts of the province.



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CARBON CAPTURE NEITHER CLEAN NOR GREEN 2

Mayor of Estevan, Sask., frustrated with lack of carbon capture decisions
By The Canadian Press in News, Politics | June 5th 2019

The mayor of a southeastern Saskatchewan city says he's frustrated by a lack of government announcements on the future of a technology that would allow coal-fired power plants to stay open.

 Roy Ludwig of Estevan says he wants carbon capture and storage capacity expanded to the Shand Power Station and to an additional unit at Boundary Dam where it already exists.

 The technology takes emissions produced by burning fossil fuels and stores them primarily underground.

 The one unit at the Boundary Dam that uses carbon capture is being allowed to stay active beyond 2030 — the year Saskatchewan has agreed with Ottawa to shut down most of its coal-fired plants.

 Last year, SaskPower cited the low cost of natural gas when it decided against expanding the technology to at least two other Boundary Dam units and to study the feasibility of doing so at Shand instead.

 Ludwig said people living in his city are nervous and he wants to see the province expand the technology to keep coal miners working.

 "We support this provincial government and we expect them to support us," Ludwig said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

 "We will continue to press the government, but it is frustrating that we haven't had those announcements, 'cause we absolutely need those announcements."

 Premier Scott Moe has said carbon capture and storage is part of a conversation taking place about cleaning up Saskatchewan's emissions profile.

 "You don't just commit to a technology," he said on the last day of the spring legislative sitting in May.

 Ludwig has a background in the coal industry and expects the decision to shut down both units at Boundary Dam by 2024 instead of retrofitting them with carbon capture technology to put 100 coal mining jobs at risk.

 "That's going to be huge," he said. "These are all people that have well-paying jobs and have families in our community."

 Farming, oil and gas, and coal mining are staple industries in the city, Ludwig said.

 Estevan has formed a committee with local leaders to look at what businesses can be expanded or attracted to the area in the face of a move away from coal.

 Officials are also in talks with different cannabis producers to develop greenhouses for growing product and are looking to expand into warehousing, Ludwig said.

 About 200 kilometres to the west, the town of Coronach is also looking to hire a consultant to help broaden its economy.

 "Honestly we don't even know where to begin," said mayor Trevor Schnell.

 It looks like hundreds of jobs could be lost in about 10 years, he said, and Coronach needs to be prepared.

 A request for proposals posted to the province's buying and selling website says the Poplar River Power Plant and the Westmoreland Coal Mine have been the main employers in the southern region for decades.

 "The socio-economic impact of their proposed shutdown will affect over 300 workers directly, as well as a yet undetermined impact on trading area businesses/communities within a 100-km radius," the online document reads.

 "The quality of life and emotional state of local and regional residents are already being impacted."

 SEE MY POST(S) ON CARBON CAPTURE NOT GREEN NOR CLEAN 

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Whale hunt In Faroe Islands Turns Sea Red With Blood After Yearly Slaughter

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(TMU) — In Denmark’s Faroe Islands, the centuries-old tradition of butchering whales was in full swing last week as the waters off of Torshavn Bay were turned into a sea of deep red. Anywhere from 130-150 pilot whales and 10-20 white-sided dolphins were brutally killed in the annual mass hunt.
The summer slaughter brings the number of slaughtered sea mammals—or cetaceans—to about 500 as of this year—par for the course in an old tradition dubbed Grindadráp by the local Danish community.
Around 800 whales are killed annually by the people of the Faroe Islands to satisfy the historical natural diet of local denizens who subsist on the meat and blubber of the sea mammals. Each whale provides several hundred kilos of meat to locals, whose hunting exercises are communal activities where catches are shared among locals without any sort of cash exchange, according to Condé Nast Traveller magazine.
The Kingdom of Denmark’s foreign affairs and trade ministry spokesman Páll Nolsøe told Metro UK:
“Whaling is a natural part of Faroese life. It has long since been internationally recognized that pilot whale catches in the Faroe Islands are fully sustainable.”
Indeed, the tradition is an example of locals subsisting on local wildlife rather than the capital-intensive industrial agriculture and factory farm-sourced foodstuffs that most Europeans rely on.
The practice entails boats enclosing whales who venture close to the bay, after which they are headed toward the land where they are beached and killed. Hooks are inserted into the whales’ blowholes to haul them onshore, after which spinal lances are used to pierce the neck and sever the spinal cord, ending all blood flow to the brain. Within seconds, the whale is dead. An entire pod of whales can be killed in less than ten minutes, especially since the entire community is on-hand to assist in the slaughter.
Tradition aside, campaigners have reacted to graphic imagery of the hunt by calling for a ban on hunting dolphins and small whales in countries where the tradition is widespread, with groups like The Blue Planet Society starting petitions aiming to outlaw the practice in Japan and the Faroe Islands.
Locals continue to defend the right of their community to continue the tradition, as is clear on the tourist website Visit Faroe Islands, which reads:
“The Faroese have eaten pilot whale meat and blubber since they first settled the islands over a century ago.
Today, as in times past, the whale drive is a community activity open to all, while also well organised on a community level and regulated by national laws.
Records of all pilot whale hunts have been kept since 1584 and the practice is deemed sustainable, as there an estimated 778,000 whale in the eastern North Atlantic region.
Approximately 100,000 swim close to the Faroe Islands, and the Faroese hunt an average 800 pilot whales annually.
The meat and blubber from the hunt is distributed equally among those who have participated.”
The whale catches are also strictly recorded and regulated by authorities, who insist that the events aren’t cruel and that international law allows for the practice to take place. Since 1584, an estimated 2,000 whale catches have taken part in the Danish archipelago.
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The official Whaling website explains:
“Scientists estimate that the pilot whale population in the eastern North Atlantic is about 778,000 whales, with approximately 100,000 around the Faroe Islands. The Faroese hunt on average 800 pilot whales annually.”
Yet public health authorities have also warned that the high levels of mercury and persistent organic pollutants render the meat a health hazard and risk to the intellectual and neurological development of those who consume it. The toxic content of the meat, released by industry into the environment and subsequently ending up in the whales, may provide the most compelling argument against the continuation of the centuries-old whaling practice in Denmark.
This post was written By Elias Marat | Creative Commons | TheMindUnleashed.com
Images credit: 123RF
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