Our Living Earth

Quake kills 3,000 and sparks 'Krakatoa' fear
The Indonesian archipelago is in the centre of the world's most active volcanic zone, and includes the island of Krakatoa, west of Java, scene in 1883 of one of the fiercest volcanic eruptions in history.

KRAKATAU, INDONESIA (1883)

Krakatoa - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Strong quakes rattle islands in South Pacific

Of course as this region is 'alive' and growing disasters to humans are to be expected. Tragic but expected. The recent massive undersea earthquake and Tsunami that resulted in the tragedy of December 2004 continues to reveal its earth shattering consequences. See my Earth in Upheaval-Updated for an earlier look at the Earthquake and Tsunami in light of Velikovsky's theories.

Krakatoa

At the site of the old Krakatoa island, a new volcano has slowly emerged from the sea, like Godzilla returning for a romp through Tokyo. Anak Krakatau (literally "Son of Krakatau") is much smaller than the original edition, but it's growing steadily. The most optimistic scenario sees another earth-changing explosion within a few hundred years. Those with a more Apocalyptic bent need not despair, however. Volcanologists assure us that -- sooner or later -- we will be witness to a supervolcano explosion that stands a reasonably good chance of obliterating all life on earth.

Which may explain the urge of some of those in the Indonesian archipelago to commit the ancient art of human sacrifice to apease the gods.Violence erupts in East Timor, again


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Werner Patels Cesspool

His cesspools runneth over. In an aptly titled blog article Blogging "cesspool" Herr Werner Patels promises to continue blogging his repetitive, turgid, uninformed opinions on three more new blogs.

I have decided to publish my editorials and columns on three mirror sites with different providers each, so that they remain accessible at all times.

• The Alberta Pundit (Wordpress)
• The Alberta Times (Blogging/Domain Direct)
  and
• My Opinion (Blogger)

Conservative Notes on Politics & Society and to Media Notes

These are just the latest blogs incarnations in his ceaseless campaign of Blog Spamming. Here is a listing of his previous blogs. You have been warned.

The guy just does not give up. It's not like he has anything of value to say. So he figures lacking any foundation in reality if he repeats himself over and over, in multiple blogs people might begin to believe he is an entire community

PS. at least he has dropped the pretenious MA after his name. And that only took a day of blog criticism to do. On with the show this is it.

PPS. and as you can tell I am Herr Patels biggest fan.

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Make Up Your Mind

Sunlight healthy in small quantities

In what has turned out to be a delicate balancing act, the group is advising that while too much time in the sun raises the risk of skin cancer, avoiding it entirely can lead to a deficiency in vitamin D -- and that may elevate the risk of other types of cancers and diseases.

Cancer research is another form of social hysteria fueled by speculation, and lack of empirical data, by the medical pharmaceutical establishment.

Like the myth of Second Hand Smoke and the myth that associates Lung Cancer with smoking.

Cancer is a direct result of the industrial revolution, it is the 'social disease' of capitalism. Of course a little bit of sushine never hurt anyone. Even if the Ozone layer is being depleted. Another result of industrial development.

We ban sunshine and cigarettes because it's easier than banning capitalism.

What does this tell you when the environmental causes of cancer have NOT been studied by the medical pharmecutical establishment till now.

The University of Pittsburgh has created a center—considered the first of its kind anywhere—that will identify environmental causes of cancer. The center’s first director is more than ready to do battle against the disease. In fact, battles are her specialty.

Cancer Crusade

Now as director of the new Center for Environmental Oncology, a collaborative venture between the Graduate School of Public Health and the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, Davis will be fighting to find environmental causes of cancer. The center is the only one of its kind within a cancer institute, says Bernard Goldstein, professor and retiring GSPH dean.

The first project is a collaboration between the center and the University’s Center for Minority Health that will investigate why more young Black women have breast cancer than their White counterparts. They will examine whether beauty products for African American women contribute to increased occurrences of breast cancer. Environment isn’t limited to forests, rivers, lakes, fields, and sky. It is what we eat, what we use, and what we wear. Beauty products that target African American women often contain estrogen. This affects women in a few ways. For instance, these products might induce early menstruation, and researchers believe that women who menstruate earlier are more likely to get breast cancer. And it’s commonly believed that higher levels of estrogen contribute to increased risks of breast cancer. If African American women are using products that increase the level of estrogen in their bodies, they may be at higher risk.

Bad Air a 'Genetic Risk'

Hamilton scientists' findings show genetic damage from the tiny chemically coated particles of soot regularly spewed out by both industry smokestacks and vehicle exhaust pipes. Soot particles mutate genes in male mice, scientists find. Genetic mutations passed along to offspring via sperm.

Rare lung cancer is leaving sorrowful legacy among working class

Mesothelioma, caused by asbestos, may one day strike rescuers and survivors of World Trade Center attacks

Lung Cancer in a Steel City: A Personal Historical Perspective

In my 1972-74 studies, the male death rate from lung cancer in the most heavily polluted residential zone was 65/100,000, which was 2.83 times higher than the national average of 23/100,000 (2), compared with a 2.42 times higher rate reported in a 1988 study of the same zone involving a correction for age which reduced the ratio to 1.99, along with an additional correction for smoking which further decreased the ratio to 1.40 (5). In terms of my own experience, I suspect that the correction(s) for smoking might be excessive, because the lung cancer victims which I studied had not smoked as many cigarettes as did their "white collar" colleagues. Nevertheless, the main point to remember is that even a suspected over-correction of the raw data revealed a significant difference in lung cancer deaths between the heavily polluted zone and other areas, even when based on "guestimates" calculated 14 years later.

Age and smoking-adjusted lung cancer incidence in a Utah county with a steel mill.

In a recent study of urban air pollution, a Utah county with a steel mill was compared with a county without a steel mill. The result was that 38% of respiratory cancer deaths could be attributed to the air pollution emanating from the mill.


Lung cancer among steelworkers in Ontario.
In internal comparisons within the steel companies, increased lung cancer risk was observed among foundry, coke oven, and pouring pit workers. Retrospective hygiene assessment suggested that the increased risk of lung cancer among steel pourers might be related to the use of tar-based mold coating agents or to exposure to mineral fibers.

Male Breast Cancer
Men who work in steel mills, blast furnaces, rolling mills, or other environments of intense heat have a slightly increased incidence of breast cancer ...


Pollution Poses High Cancer Risk

Residents in Indiana’s heavily industrialized areas - particularly Lake County and Indianapolis - face an elevated risk of developing cancer from breathing air pollution, according to a new federal analysis.

The study released by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is the agency’s most ambitious look to date at cancer risks from breathing chemicals.

In its National Air Toxics Assessment, the EPA studied 133 chemicals emitted in 1999 by businesses and traffic. It outlines lifetime cancer risks in states, counties and census tracts.

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My Lai Redux

Marines Killed Civilians "In Cold Blood"

By Michael Scherer and Mark Benjamin

Senior House Democrat Jack Murtha warns that the details of a reported massacre in Iraq last year will prove "a very bad thing" for the US.

DPA US Representative John Murtha says the US military may be in for some bad press.

A senior House Democrat with close ties to the military claimed Wednesday that U.S. Marines wantonly killed innocent Iraqi civilians, including women and children, in an early morning raid last November, buttressing a March report by Time.

"Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them, and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood," said Jack Murtha of Pennsylvania, a decorated Marine Corps veteran who served in Vietnam and is among the most influential Democratic voices on military matters. "This is going to be a very, very bad thing for the United States."

Flashback

by TChris

The secretary of defense and the national security adviser debate "whether there was any way to stop newspapers and television news programs from showing graphic photographs of the victims."

Pictures of Abu Ghraib? No. Pictures of My Lai, 1969.

A transcript of this 1969 telephone conversation, with its uncanny echoes of the Iraq war and the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison, at least in the fact of the photographs, if not in the severity of the wrongdoing, was released on Wednesday by the National Archives as part of 20,000 pages of records of Mr. Kissinger's telephone conversations.

The tapes show a secretary of defense frustrated by his inability to bury the truth.

In their conversation on Nov. 21, 1969, about the My Lai massacre, Mr. Laird told Mr. Kissinger that while he would like "to sweep it under the rug," the photographs prevented it.

United for Peace : Press Release: Haditha Massacre Is Iraq's Mai Lai


Marines accused of cover-up after Haditha killings

— Stark evidence is emerging of deliberate reprisal killings of about two dozen civilians, including women and children, by a handful of U.S. Marines last November in what may prove to be the worst atrocity yet by U.S. forces in Iraq.Details surface of US ‘atrocity' in Iraq

Stay the Lie: Iraq equivilant of Viet Nam Mai Lai Massacre? Why is there no outrage?

The massacre in this farming town on the Euphrates, about 150 miles northwest of Baghdad, may not be precisely part of Operation Iraqi Freedom's official mission, but neither is it an aberration. Indeed, it is, as Iraq vet Charlie Anderson said to me, a "foreseeable consequence" of an occupation that from day one was clumsy, brutal and clueless. As it grinds into its fourth year, with thousands of GIs caught by stop-loss orders in a tour of duty without end, and with all claims of noble purpose long since abandoned by our government like burned-out tanks in the desert, the frustrations and hatreds generated by our presence continue to intensify.

What happened in Haditha six months ago -- two days after Rep. John Murtha introduced his brave, lonely resolution to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq -- shatters every argument of the stay-the-course crowd and throws the dithering cowardice of Congress into stark relief. The longer we force our exhausted troops to stay not the "course" but the lie, the more dangerous the occupation becomes, for the Iraqis, for us, for the world.

The Politics of Evil versus Boston Legal

The 2002 invasion of Afghanistan showcased the "march-in-shooting" strategy of US house searches, which served to boost support for bin Laden. There were reports of massacres. It was alleged that 30 to 40 U.S. Special Forces assisted in the massacre of 3,000 Taliban prisoners. When Amnesty International viewed the documentary footage, much of it wisely shot in secret, it stated there was prima facie evidence of serious war crimes. In July, US planes and helicopters swooped on a wedding party southwest of Kabul, killing 54 guests and injuring over 100. "It was like an abattoir", said a survivor. "There was blood everywhere." One of the guests, Mohammad Anwar, whose wife was killed in the raid, told Yahoo News that after the bombing, US soldiers "stormed into the houses and tied the hands of men and women. They refused to let the people help the victims." A week later, the local District Commissioner Abdur Rahim, paid out to relatives US$200 on behalf of each person killed and US$75 for each of the wounded. Little was made of this at the time. The US military has had four years to learn how to win Afghani hearts and minds. Last week, when A-10 "Warthog" warplanes strafed the village of Azizi from midnight till dawn, suspected Taliban ran from a religious school into nearby mud brick homes, which were then attacked. "I saw 35 to 40 dead Taliban", said Haji Ikhlaf, a blood smeared witness, "and around 50 dead or wounded civilians". Another villager, Zurmina Bibi, cradled her wounded 8-month-old. She said about 10 people were killed in her home, including three or four children. Attah Mohammad, said at the hospital that 24 members of his family were dead , including children. In New York Times speak, such houses would be considered "legitimately bombed".


American Experience | Vietnam Online | The My Lai Massacre | PBS On March 16, 1968 the angry and frustrated men of Charlie Company, 11th Brigade, Americal Division entered the Vietnamese village of My Lai. "This is what you've been waiting for -- search and destroy -- and you've got it," said their superior officers. A short time later the killing began. When news of the atrocities surfaced, it sent shockwaves through the U.S. political establishment, the military's chain of command, and an already divided American public. Word of the atrocities did not reach the American public until November 1969, when journalist Seymour Hersh published a story detailing his conversations with a Vietnam veteran, Ron Ridenhour. Ridenhour learned of the events at My Lai from members of Charlie Company who had been there. Before speaking with Hersh, he had appealed to Congress, the White House, and the Pentagon to investigate the matter. The military investigation resulted in Calley's being charged with murder in September 1969 -- a full two months before the Hersh story hit the streets.


My Lai Massacre - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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No More Mr. Nice Guy

Provinces won't dictate equalization, Harper says

Prime Minister Stephen Harper says the national equalization program falls under Ottawa's jurisdiction and none of the provinces can dictate how the money collected from taxpayers gets divvied up among poorer regions.

So much for Asymmetrical Federalism. Gee this guy is sounding more and more like Trudeau.

In representative first past the pole parliamentary democracy it's so much easier to be an autarch than a democrat.

If Trudeau was Canada's Philosopher King, then the Harpocrite is Pooh-Ba, the Minister of Everything.




Also See: He Won't Share


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Greedy Banks

Royal posts $1.1B profit Analysts said the Royal, which delivered a record $3.4-billion annual profit last year, is on track to achieve its 2006 targets, including more than 20 per cent growth in earnings per share.

So how much is too much profit. Why it's never enough since the Royal Bank intends to up its service charges on Canada Day. While some folks worry about gouging gas prices, the real gouging we face is Bank Service charges. Something that should be outlawed.



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The Big Lie

Emissions reality check
environmental activists and individual scientists claimed the Conservative government was deliberately misleading the public on climate-change matters, especially on international comparisons and the payoff from its new domestic programs

Gee do ya think the Conservatives would rig the data to make good on their promise, err priority to get out of Kyoto?! That they would mispeak the facts?!

Of course they wold, they are from Alberta after all home of the big lie. As I said before Rona Ambrose Lied. And now it looks as if her script written for her by the PMO has worn thin. As thin as the ozone layer over the Antarctic.


Also See:

Harper Has Already Abandoned Kyoto

The Cone of Silence Over Kyoto

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Oligarchs

Some oligarchs are more equal than others,
to paraphrase George Orwell.

Proving once again that State Capitalism is the highest form of Monopoly Capitalism.

A Steel Magnate With Kremlin Connections New York Times

The first step in Aleksei Mordashov's path to becoming Russia's seventh-richest man, with a fortune estimated at $8.5 billion, was privatizing the steel mill where both his parents had worked as Soviet engineers.

Actually, his luck can be traced to his days as a college student. He studied economics at the Leningrad Economic and Engineering University, where he was an assistant for an up-and-coming professor, Anatoly B. Chubais. Mr. Chubais later became the architect of Russian privatization in the 1990's under President Boris N. Yeltsin. He also met students who later went on to hold high-level positions in the Russian government. It did not hurt that he went to school in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, where Mr. Putin is from.

Dofasco guessing game heats up
Dofasco Inc.'s future ownership is murkier after Luxembourg parent Arcelor SA struck a complex merger deal with Russia's Severstal to fend off hostile suitor Mittal Steel Co.

Also See:

Mittal

Steel Wars-Why Isn't This An Election Issue

Time For A Canadian Steel Workers Union

Union Free State Capitalism

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A Perfect Storm

The Sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, made famous in song by Gordon Lightfoot, was the result of a Perfect Storm according to the latest news reports.

"During the late afternoon and early evening of Nov. 10, conditions deteriorated rapidly with winds in excess of 69 mph, hurricane-force gusts [over 74 mph] and waves more than 25 feet high," said Thomas Hultquist, science and operations officer at the NOAA National Weather Service forecast office in Negaunee, Mich.

The freighter, thought like the Titanic to be invincible, was heading south. Waves were traveling west-to-east, the new analysis shows. This could have created a hazardous rolling motion. The ship sank about 15 miles from Whitefish Bay. New Clues to the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

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Caledonia, Caledonia

What seems to be overlooked in this dispute between the Sovereign Six Nations and the local folks in Caledonia is that both the local folks and natives settled this dispute over the road closerure through mediation and discussion. Despite flaring tempers and hot heads, mostly on the locals side on Monday, the spokesperson for the local folks , Ken Hewitt stated it clearly, no level of government helped. The negotiations were between the local folks and Six Nations. Sure there were government appointed mediators, but the real dispute which underscored the blockade, land development on native land, which is a Federal responsibility, has been abdicated by the Harpocrite government. Probably because they are on the side of the developers. Which is contrary to the interests of both the local folks and the Six Nations. That cool heads prevaled is a tribute to the enlightened self-interest shown by the local residents and their neighbours the Six Nations. And what was avoided was violence, due to limited police interference, again thanks to what in effect became a joint protest, until some local yahoos decided to resort to reactionary racist attacks on the Six Nations.

A tip o' the blog to Cowboys for Social Responsibility and Verbena-19 for their coverage of this.

Caledonia

Now my mother told me she said “Tom you leave that girl Caledonia alone.
You know she just ain’t no good for you
She come from the wrong folks in the wrong part of town
I said mama you don’t know what this gals putting down
I love her I need her I ain’t never gonna leave her

Cho: Caledonia, Caledonia
You’re what make my big head so hard
I love her I love her just the same
I’m crazy ‘bout the girl Caledonia is her name.





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Brokeback Mounties

RCMP Consts. David Connors (left) and Jason Tree to wed.

MPs gagged on gay Mounties' wedding Oh those Kinky Conservatives either this has to do with their immediate reaction, as in they gagged over the idea of a Gay Mountie Wedding, or else its a bit of Bondage and Dominace from the PMO. Yep defintely B&D PMO muzzles MPs on wedding of gay Mounties

The Prime Minister's Office has warned Tory MPs not to comment on the marriage next month of two gay RCMP constables. The gag order went to all MPs but was aimed at "the small minority who might say something stupid," said one caucus member.

Stupid as in opposing Gay Marriage?! What the Conservatives are admiting their opposition to Gay Marriage is Stupid. So much for their Sixth Priority; Harper Promises Free Vote on Same Sex Marriage.

This gives new meaning to "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Don't tell even if reporters ask Prime Minister's Office lays down the law

Also See: Gay Marriage

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Brokeback Mountain,