Global Warming Heats up Cold War: Planet feeling the heat, neighbors feeling the cold
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
A Russian expedition expected to send divers into the Arctic waters around the pole yesterday or today.
This development ups the ante for the Canadian Arctic Rangers who protect Canada's sovereignty in the Arctic.
Is the Lomonosov Ridge an extension of the Siberian continental shelf? If so the ridge that runs under the Arctic Ocean would belong to Russia. Russia is wanting to prove that the Arctic is Russian. In fact they are intent on proving the North Pole is an extension of the Russian Coastal shelf.
Malery Kuznetsov, is head of a Russian expedition team who thinks they may even discover as yet..."unknown Organisms"...
If the Arctic is found to be Russian the Geopolitical ramifications would be huge. Some geologists believe as much as 18% of the world's oil reserve may be underneath the Arctic. 18% of the world's oil reserve would put the Arctic in the same league as Saudi Arabia.
As it stands now, any country that borders the Arctic Ocean can "exploit" resources within a 200-nautical mile economic zone of its territory. Russia needs to prove with scientific evidence that the Region does belong to them.
Canada and Denmark also have a dog in this fight, both claiming the Lomonosov Ridge is connected to their territories.
The Canadian Government recently placed a $7 Billion C order for new naval patrol vessels. Prime Minister Harper said they would be designed to 'defend its sovereignty over the Arctic'.
The North West Passage is opening up due to melting ice from 'Global Warming'. As temperatures heat up the North West Passage could possibly remain open all year. This little development could shave 2,000 nautical miles off the trip from Europe to Asia.
The ramifications of that would be rather astounding. Holy Cod Fish Batman, Oil isn't the only precious item that could be 'exploited' in the Arctic. There are large mineral deposits, coal beds, and perhaps large fish reserves.
As the planet heats up, the cold war may also be heating up.
Photo thanks goes to "Bob Shavelson/Marine Photobank".
Saving The Galapagos from Frankenplankton, Tourism and Residents
Monday, July 30, 2007
In 1978 The Galapagos Islands were given World Heritage Site status by UNESCO. In 1985 the islands were made a 'Biosphere Reserve' in December of 2001 the marine reserve was expanded to 43,500 miles of ocean surrounding the islands.
UNESCO is looking at an application from Ecuador, the territory's ruler, requesting further protection for the Galapagos.
Tourism is said to be threatening the environment of the islands. Ecuador's President, Rafael Correa, has named the islands management as one of his nation's top priorities.
Correa thinks there needs to be further restrictions placed on tourism and residency permits.
This leaves room for the notion that someone will be keeping an eye on Russ George's plan to dump 80 tons of iron particles just 350 miles west of The Galapagos, into the ocean. It would seem the more eyes on this plan the better, but Correa seems to be someone that can stare down many giants at one time.
Ecuador appears to be crawling out from under a large and very thick blanket of corruption that has been covering it for a very long time.
Correa ran his Presidential bid seeking a clear mandate for 'deep political reform'. He seems to be committed to cleaning up the government and stoking social reform. He's been an outspoken critic of the Bush administration and said he would reject the US backed hemispheric free-trade agreement.
It bodes well for the environment of The Galapagos if Correa takes up his mission to protect it, when the administration in the US is still in a state of denial where the environment is concerned.
If compassion for people can be extrapolated to compassion for the beasts of the field and of the oceans then the fragile residents of The Galapagos can hope for some permanent protection. Correa seems to be a man that isn't afraid to stand up for his idealism.
The people of California have been voting in national elections since 1850 one would think that in 157 years they might be expecting the 2008 Presidential primary.
After all they have had more than a century and a half to find a safe and secure way to cast a vote. They should have seen this election coming.
But, the Secretary of State will now have 5 days to make a decision regarding the unassailability of California Votes in the February Presidential Primary.
Voters in California are finding security for there votes is merely an 'add-on". In the same way side impact airbags might be optional on some models, voter security may be optional.
I like to think of options as...you know...things that are optional, not imperative.
Security for my vote, I consider to be imperative like...oh say the stirring wheel on my car.
Secretary of State, Debra Bowen was given a security report on nearly all of California voting machine models on Friday. In order for Bowen to 'decertify and of the electronic voting machines she has to do so by this coming Friday.
California laws state these matters must be complete 6 months before the, Feb.5 2008, Presidential Primary.
Scant time indeed to make a final decision which many people consider to be life and death, while others judge their right to a free and honest vote the bedrock of democracy.
Following the money, as is always the 'smart' thing to do, we can't be surprised to learn that the least egar, least supportive of a free and honest vote are the very elections officials though-out California. Most are unwilling to toss millions of dollars spent on unsecured electronic voting systems down the toilet in favor of an honest and accurate, secure vote for the people of California.
The real mystery comes from why the non-secure systems were purchased in the first place. The word Diebold may be explanation enough.
On Monday in the state capital UC Davis investigators will present their finding on the security of the voting systems UC Davis' computer science hacking team tested.
Representatives from the electronic voting machine corporations will be allowed to refute the UC Davis findings. Undoubtedly these companies will want to rebuff ...as in re-polishing a turd type buffing...
Although Matt Bishop, US Davis computer science professor who led the hacking team, said he found no malicious source code he was 'surprised by the weakness of the security measures, both physical and electronic protecting the voting systems.
How long it would take to write and install 'malicious source code' in unsecured voting machines. The elections still 6 months away.
Bishops team of hackers found not only high-tech ways to breach the systems security, but low tech put your hand in situations at the polling places.
Bishop added they been given more time they would have found even more security flaws.
Bishop is a recognized expert in computer security and says "...the security seems like it was added on."
The hearing on Monday will be open to the pubic. I hope the people of California can muster a vocal contingent...I think the security of my vote is as basic as brakes on my car...neither of which should be add-ons.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported that in Japan Sushi Chefs have been driven to experimenting with meats other than tuna to make their delectable. Horse meat anyone?
Tadashi Ymagata, vice chairman of Japan's national union of sushi chefs puts it this way: "It's like America running out of steak."
Blue fin tuna are slow-maturing fish. They simply cannot keep up with demand. Fewer Bluefins are driving the prices out of reach for the average sushi eater.
One wholesaler in a Tokyo fish market said 3 years ago he sold 2 or 3 bluefins everyday, this year he can only find 2 or 3 everyday, this year he can only find 2 or 3 per month to sell.
The fact that NOAA is celebrating its 200th year of service in and of itself is mind boggling. Their website boasts 200 years of science, service and stewardship. Regardless of NOAA's recommendations, warnings and reports somewhere stewardship of the oceans has fallen through the cracks.
More than 60 countries and the European Commission are engaged in 'global monitoring network' Great idea. While chicken little runs around screaming at the top of his lungs 'the sky is falling, the sky is falling.' who will participate in devising a method to hold up the sky?
We know the ocean is dying. Who will hold up the ocean?
Breeding Bluefin Tuna Like Cattle. Home, home on the Range.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Breeding Bluefin Tuna Like Cattle!
In Australia a company called Clean Seas Tuna Limited is attempting to breed the highly sought-after Bluefin Tuna in captivity.
For the Tuna this may be a little like trying to get drunk on Sherry. It can be done, but it's a lot of work, and probably not very satisfying. But, for the sushi and sashimi eater it could be very satisfying.
In 2003 researchers near Osaka Japan became the first in the world to successfully spawn southern Bluefin tuna in captivity. They were able to grow that generation of fish to the point where some actually produced their own eggs.
Remember how excited the world was when the first Panda Bears actually bred in captivity? This, for a lot of people is something like that.
In 2004 Marcus Stehr, Clean Seas Tuna Limited, was able to successfully move 6 Bluefin tuna from offshore nets into an onshore dam. At the time Clean Seas Tuna may have been the only company to even attempt such a thing, let alone succeed.
In April 2007 Clean Seas Tuna's Bluefins started pairing up. Marcus Stehr be lived this to be one more milestone moving toward his quest. The Bluefins were very healthy and they were showing spawning tendencies. The captive tuna's were also very healthy eaters.
Showing signs of wanting to breed, and having a healthy appetite sounds like the tuna aren't too depressed with their situation. Maybe fish Viagra keeps their spirits high.
In the Clean Seas' Arno Bay Breeding facility male Bluefins were given hormone therapy to stimulate their 'need to breed'. Again, maybe like trying to get drunk on Sherry, as I recall the Panda's were shown some X rated Panda films. What ever does the trick I suppose. Though the release of sperm by the Southern Bluefin Tuna was captured on film by an underwater video camera.
How are the females responding to all this courtship behaviour? Hagen Stehr Clean Seas Chairman says the broodstock will continue to be monitored and the therapy potentially repeated, with the expectation of completing their reproductive maturation and producing viable (fertilised) eggs.
If all of this turns out to be really successful the Bluefin in the wild may be given a chance to get a little R&R. While they rest up maybe their Bluefin Brethern in captivity can help shoulder the burden of supplying at least some of the world the protein it so desperately craves.
Oh please, someone pass me the Sherry!
Photo thanks (c) Wolcott Henry 2005/Marine Photobank
Kinder Morgan has a facinating past, but not such a facinating present. The pipe that was broken in Burnaby Tuesday is exposing the corrosive underbelly that lies 3 feet below Kinder Morgans tender underbelly.
Reported in The Tyee.ca back in September 2005, Kinder Morgan had been hit with a corrective action order from the US Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, PHMSA.
What was being reported as 'A widespread failure' to address adequately, outside force damage could lead us to the conclusion that when Kinder Morgan blames Burnaby road crews for rupturing its pipe they may be right.
On the flip side of this greasy coin the road crew believes the pipeline was improperly marked. Finding the truth may be more difficult than catching a greased pig at the county fair.
In an explosion November 9, 2004 that killed 5 people and seriously injured 4 others Kinder Morgan was found to have not marked the pipeline properly and was fined $140,000 for their part in the accident. Cal/OSHA found the accident to have been completely preventable.
Indeed if history is repeating itself the pipe broken in Burnaby may not have been properly marked. Interestingly enough one of the arguments for Kinder Morgan to be approved to take over Terasen Inc. inspite of a less than stellar safety record was that the same people maintaining the pipes would still be maintaining them after the sale.
Terasen pipes were transporting natural gas, and propane to about 900,000 customers in British Columbia when in February the company announced it would sell Terasen Inc. to Fortis Inc. for 3.2 billion US, and assumed debt taking Kinder Morgan out of the retail business.
If all of this is putting you to sleep here is where you'll want to get an extra cup of coffee.
In an interview by Martin Rosenberg, EnergyBizOnline, Scott Parker of Kinder Morgan "Kinder Morgans Pipe" Scott Parker gets it done we learn that 1 week after Enron's Key Ley was convicted of fraud and conspiracy Richard Kinder announced that he would take Kinder Morgan private in a 13.5 billion dollar deal.
Richard Kinder formed Kinder Morgan in 1997 with $40 million worth of pipeline assets that Ken Lay had unloaded. Kinder jumped the Enron ship's CEO position in 1996.
Parker says in the interview "Rich Kinder is a very smart individual...our company was in a position to be on very sound footing when Enron's problems surfaced and the trouble occurred in the industry."
Very smart indeed. However the pipe that was ruptured by a work crew in Burnaby on tuesday has been in operation since 1953, long before it was a Kinder Morgan pipe.
It's current capacity prior to the break was 225,000 barrels of crude oil per day and is Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline. That's some pretty old pipe. The records as to where that pipe was buried may certainly have been lost or corrupted over that many years. It would have seemed prudent for Kinder Morgan to aquire accurate maps and records at the time of purchasing the pipe though.
Mother Jones reports Richard Kinder and his wife Nancy served as regional co-chairs for George Bush's Presidential Exploratory Committee and that Kinder pledged to give the Bush campaign at least $100,000.00. WHOOwah!
Scott Parker says in the EnergyBizOnline interview "Everything we do is buried. It, (The Rockies Express) will have a minimum of a 3-foot cover, so agriculture can occur over the pipe.
As far as I know most places require that a dead human body must be buried at a 6 foot depth. The big question today may be:
Who decided a dead body was 2 times more dangerous to the environment than a pipe traveling thousands of miles across a nation, carrying thousands of barrels of crude oil per day to the environment?
Is Chinese Celebrity Justice Different than American Celebrity Justice?
When celebrities and government officials are caught breaking the law in China's Hunan province it's handled quite differently than when they are caught breaking the laws in the US, or maybe not...
Officials belonging to the Communist Party of China won't be getting that promotion they've had their eye on if it turns out they have broken the national family planning law which allows a family to only have 1 child.
In the US it feels like every Official belonging to the 'Party in Power, or just the Party in Crowd' receives some sort of pardon, commute or reduced sentance.
In the Hunan province the current regulation calls for a fine of double their last years income for having a second baby. Triple that for every extra baby after that. It feels like fines that large would put the brakes on having more than 1 child, but if your income is high enough to raise multiple children, then a 1 time fine may not seem like much. After all would Britney Spears care what a 2nd baby might cost? Especially based on her last years income, did she work last year?
I'm not sure how the 'cause celeb' works in China, but I'm willing to go out on a limb and guess that the human experience in many ways is going to be the same regardless of geography. After reading in addition to the nearly 2,000 celebs and officials in Hunan, it was also discovered at least 21 national and local lawmakers, 24 political advisers, 112 business owners and 6 senior intellectuals had broken the law.
Quelle suprise, eh? I'm shocked that the very people that make the laws would break the laws. 1 lawmaker at the national level was found to have 4 mistresses, and 4 children.
Now here's the rub. A survey conducted by China's 'national family planning commission' showed that the majority of celebrities and rich people have 2 children, 10% of them in fact have 3 children. So what's a government to do?
Very unlike the USA, to avoid the appearance of impropriety, or looking like one group may be favored over another: EXPOSE THE CULPRITS and raise the fines. Thus giving the appearance of social justice.
In a very 'like' the USA CHINAdaily's report states, "...the official declined to reveal details on enforcing the fines."
The Hunan province wants to keep its population within 70.1 million by 2010. With Hunan being only the 7th most populated province in China, officials there think the current policy has prevented 30 million births. Wow.
Frankenplankton: Plans to force feed iron to plankton may create the world's first Carbon-credit bank.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
A company in California plans to plow a field under the sea with iron dust.
The company, Planktos says it is "possible to boost the ocean's absorption of carbon dixoide by increasing the production of phytoplankton".
How much iron do they want to 'dump' into the sea? how about a whopping 80 tons?
Where do they want to 'dump' their 80 tons of iron particles? 350 miles west of the Galapagos islands in the Pacific Ocean.
Johannah Barry, Galapagos Conservancey says, "it's still this extraordinary place that contains 95% of its prehuman diversity."
Planktos intends to drop iron dust into the ocean, feeding plankton and encouraging growth. The 'restored' plankton blooms would generate food for sea life. Some plankton would sink and store carbon deep beneath the surface of the sea.
As I've said before, I'm not a rocket scientist, but Russ George says I don't have to be. According to George, "This isn't rocket science, it's ocean farming."
In what sounds like a story that rivals 'Citizen Kane' the protagonist in this novel is Russ George. Planktos plans to estimate the amount of carbon dioxide captured by the plankton and sell it on the nascent carbon-trading markets.
Where Kane inserts the words 'you provide the prose poems, I'll provide the war" in place of W.R. Hearst's "You provide the pictures, I'll provide the war" one could be tempted to imagine George saying, you provide the market, I'll provide the credits!
Color me dubios yet again. When I wrap my mind around carbon-trading, it falls back on the dot.com boom and bust.
Worse yet carbon-trading leaves me with the bitter taste of the rich man's war, and the poor man's fight. pay either $300 or supply a substitute as happened during the US Civil War. Will people like George ultimately turn our oceans into 'the 300 credit seas'...amassing carbon-credits with which to buy influence.
From the Galapagos to the Vatican, Russ George is a man that seems to be all over the map. Both literally and figuratviely. Billed as CEO of Planktos, and managing director of its 'forest subsidiary', KlimaFa, George recently presented Cardinal Paul Poupard a bushel basket of carbon credits. George hopes to make the Vatican the first carbon-neutral sovereign state.
Whoowah!
This carbon-credit donation is coming from not the iron dumpped off the back of a boat near the Galapagos, but from a new "Vatican Climate Forest" planted in Hungary's Bukk National Park. The dimensions of said 'Vatican Climate Forest' will be determined by the Vatican's 2007 energy usage. Fair enough.
Frankenplankton and carbon-credits as always, follow the money. This idea isn't passing my Acid Test, if I have to drink the kool aid, I'm going to chase it with a large dose of skepticism.
Theo Jansen, Kinetic Beach Mutant Sculptures. Otherworldly.
Saturday, July 21, 2007
From the studio to the beach this scuplture arrives at it's destination the way most of us do. Via Fossil Fueled machines. Still, watching thses beasts, one has to believe there is a lesson to be learned...
In this video we may gain a small amount of insight into the lesson...
Hang on to your wallet, you maybe about to be mugged.
Any time I go to a government website and see pages that defend, counter, and protest being picked-on...color me dubious. That's the situation we have going on at the USA's Security and Prosperity Partnership website.
There you'll find a prominent Myth vs. Fact page where the U.S. is taking the very mature and ever popular 'school yard approach'to their critics. "oh yeah?" "Well, NAH AH!"
Canada on the other hand is taking an entirely different approach to Canadian critics on their official SPP website. Instead they have compiled letters from the 'important' and 'in the know' that are singing the praises of the SPP. After all, after you read what Jim Flaherty, had to say about the SPP you would surely have to agree that this plan is a good one. Dig deep and read long to come across what he has to say about the SPP on the official website.
According to the USA's myth busting page,"The SPP in no way, shape or form considers the creation of a European Union-like structure or a common currency. The SPP does not attempt to modify our sovereignty or currency or change the American system of government designed by our Founding Fathers."
So is the Amero 'much ado about nothing?' If so, why are a growing number of Canadians and Americans not laughing?
A collapse of the American greenback dollar could pave the way for the debut of the 'Amero'. China would be the key to a collapse. Maurice Strong is still singing the praises of the Chinese economy's potential and believes "China will soon replace America as economic king," I'm not sure how much credibility that garners but...
On a side note, my ex-husband has been saying the same thing for years. If it gives anyone any comfort, he is wrong about nearly everything!
After Downing Street Memo: NRC Sends Its Own Memo: Don't ask Don't tell when Highly Enriched Uranium spills!
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
In 2004, the Office of Naval Reactors, which is part of the Department of Energy, sent a memo to the NRC, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, requesting that all correspondence between the NRC and Nuclear Fuel Services of Erwin, Tennessee be marked "Official Use Only". This memo itself was labeled "Official Use Only". The Memo that established the policy was itself kept secret.
Fast forward to March 6, 2006 when NFS of Erwin Tennessee had a spill of "high-enriched uranium" HEU solution at their Erwin plant. Approximately 35 liters and did not notify local officials, or their neighbors. Apparently not one word of this occurrence left the plant which employs approximately 715 employees until April of this year, 2007.
In its required annual report to Congress the NRC included this incident. Titled "Report to Congress on Abnormal Occurrences: Fiscal Year 2006"
Nuclear Fuel Services, NFS actually acted in compliance with the DOE and the NRC when it did NOT disclose the spill to the public, but did report the spill to the NRC. I find no fault in their compliance. Their fault will, no doubt, be determined in this instance to safety issues that led to the spill in the first place, not to their obligation to inform their neighbors of what happened.
I would have been freaked out had I found 35 liters of orange juice leaking out of my refrigerator and running down my hall. I can't imagine the feeling a worker had when coming upon 9 gallons of yellow HEU flowing from under a door and into a hallway.
The spill could have caused a self-sustaing chain reaction, meaning this spill could have reached 'criticality'. A simple explanation of 'criticality' is when a pooling of HEU material takes place. This particular spill, according to reports from the NRC itself, had 2 such opportunities and ..."it was merely a matter of luck that a criticality accident did not occur"
It was reported by Matthew L. Wald in the NY Times July 6 that in fact this spill was so bad it kept the plant closed for 7 months last year. Nuclear Fuel Services, NFS, spokesperson Tony Treadway took extreme issue with this report saying NFS immediately and voluntarily shut down the 'process', and that numerous 'other process operations within the plant were never "closed" due to the spill...
The potentially life-threatening spill was hidden for more than 13 months and US congressman John Dingell is demanding answers. Dingell is House energy Committee Chairman.
Since 9/11 the NRC has become increasingly more secretive claiming it is protecting the public from terrorists. This information begs the question' "which terrorists?"
So, thanks to the DOE Memo, requesting "official use only" labels on all correspondence between NFS of Erwin and the NRC the public never heard of the accident. Wald wrote "after an investigation, the commission changed the terms of the factory's license and said the public had 20 days to request a hearing..."
The public could not request a hearing because of course, that document was also labeled "Official Use Only" so the public couldn't know about that either.
The "official use only' stamp barred the public from even knowing about the document, let alone granting them their legal right to a hearing if they felt they were being adversely affected.
Chairman Dingell and subcommittee chair Bart Stupak's demand letter in PDF form.
It would seem, the US is covering up its Nuclear accidents, while Japan is announcing theirs to the world.
Earthquake in Japan: 1.5 liters of radioactive water released into sea. No damage done to environment!
Monday, July 16, 2007
The leak was from unit 6 which is located at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant. This unit was already closed by coincidence for maintenance.
Officials at TEPCO, (Asia's biggest utility) "The contaminated water was released into the ocean and had had no effect on the environment."
Let's deconstruct that sentance. Contaminated water. Released ocean. No effect on environment. All-righty then.
After today's earthquake in Japan I started wondering about nuclear waste being dumped into our oceans.
This isn't a subject I had given a lot of thought to as I've always heard about the controversy surrounding the safe or unsafe containment of Nuclear waste was on land.
Yes, I've heard about nuclear powered ocean vessels rotting away in the far reaches of Russia, but I never considered that anyone, under any circumstances, would just drop this poison into the water intentionally...anywhere.
The US dumped an estimated 112,000 drums of nuclear waste into the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans before the Senate declared a moratorium on this bad behaviour in 1982. Of course and sadly, the US isn't the only country guilty of dumping nuclear waste into the ocean.
Now a new scheme has been hatched. Nuclear waste would be packed in containers and shipped out to sea and then buried.
Greenpeace estimates there are 80 known ocean dump sites where nuclear waste is routinely dropped. This does not account for the millions of litres of radioactive waste being pumped into the ocean from nuclear processing plants.
The Oslo Convention negotiated in 1972 the first regional treaty to regulate the dumping of waste waters at sea. The nuclear industry blocked the inclusion of radioactive wastes within the jurisdiction of the convention. So, while it was deemed illegal to dump organic sewage sludge, dredging spoils and the like, it was perfectly fine to dump radio active waste. Later that same year the London Dumping Convention "high-level" radioactive waste dumping at sea was banned.
Who do we supposed was left to define what was meant by 'high-level' waste? Yes of course... The International Atomic energy Agency! That was too easy wasn't it?
By the way, that earthquake in Japan? The early official word is, just over 1 liter of radio active water was lost into the ocean. I think I relieved myself of that much liquid after I woke up this morning. Seems like a really small amount. We'll keep an eye on later numbers.
This of couse was a horrible event and we mean in no way to diminish the loss of life that has occured there. We wish those impacted solace.
North American Union: Three Amigos, one army, one currency, one nation.
The news would have us thinking there are ways the NAFTA COULD go. The problem is, the plan is already in motion for the way NAFTA WILL go.
Here is a little background video. Lou Dobbs asks if the American people have the stomach to stop the SPP.
We will be posting on NAFTA and the SPP all this week.
Efforts by the public of both Canadian, and American citizens to slow down or call off this Orwellian agreement have fallen on deaf ears so far. Too few of the public are even aware of what the SPP has in store.
If there is any progress being made we will be looking for it this week and posting where and which efforts are having success....if any.
Eballot For World: More Ewaste and Bycatch, Texted Your Vote In!
Sunday, July 15, 2007
This story falls under the heading of news you can use.
Don't ever forget: it doesn't matter for whom you vote, what really matters is who counts your vote!
Actions for bringing you internet voting are going on across the globe. Canada, the USA, France. The UE has launced the Cyber Vote Project trials have already been used in Sweden, France and Germany.
Why leave the club when the party is just getting hot? Text in your vote while in a drunken stupper via your cell phone. How about casting your vote for the next American Idol and then voting for your next Prime Minister or President. Careful now don't get the two mixed up.
In spite of the US Department of Security warnings in 2004 listing its top 5 reasons to not use internet voting Evoting is rolled forward:
Our conclusions are summarized as follows:
DRE (direct recording electronic) voting systems have been widely criticized elsewhere for various deficiencies and security vulnerabilities: that their software is totally closed and proprietary; that the software undergoes insufficient scrutiny during qualification and certification; that they are especially vulnerable to various forms of insider (programmer) attacks; and that DREs have no voter-verified audit trails (paper or otherwise) that could largely circumvent these problems and improve voter confidence. All of these criticisms, which we endorse, apply directly to SERVE as well.
But in addition, because SERVE is an Internet- and PC-based system, it has numerous other fundamental security problems that leave it vulnerable to a variety of well-known cyber attacks (insider attacks, denial of service attacks, spoofing, automated vote buying, viral attacks on voter PCs, etc.), any one of which could be catastrophic.
Such attacks could occur on a large scale, and could be launched by anyone from a disaffected lone individual to a well-financed enemy agency outside the reach of U.S. law. These attacks could result in large-scale, selective voter disenfranchisement, and/or privacy violation, and/or vote buying and selling, and/or vote switching even to the extent of reversing the outcome of many elections at once, including the presidential election. With care in the design, some of the attacks could succeed and yet go completely undetected. Even if detected and neutralized, such attacks could have a devastating effect on public confidence in elections.
It is impossible to estimate the probability of a successful cyber-attack (or multiple successful attacks) on any one election. But we show that the attacks we are most concerned about are quite easy to perpetrate. In some cases there are kits readily available on the Internet that could be modified or used directly for attacking an election. And we must consider the obvious fact that a U.S. general election offers one of the most tempting targets for cyber-attack in the history of the Internet, whether the attacker's motive is overtly political or simply self-aggrandizement.
New Report:
The US Department of Defense has continued analyzing Online Voting and concluded in a new report that reads in part May 2007:
"There really is no good way to build such a voting system without a radical change in overall architecture of the Internet and the PC, or some unforeseen security breakthrough." Online voting security is "an essentially impossible task."
..."Most of the security problems with Internet voting are generic to any PC and Internet application, and fundamentally have no effective solutions. This is why the majority of all email transmitted ove the Internet is spam, and an estimated 50% of all Internet-connected PCs in the world are infected with malicious software, despite more than a decad of effor and immense investment by the world's high technology companies in trying to fix these problems." ..."The real problem is that no fundamental solution is possible using the current Internet protocols and the current PC hardware and software platforms."
Demand that your vote be counted as cast. Demand paper ballots that can be verified. Your most fundamental of rights are in peril regardless in what nation you live.
THE TIME HAS COME FOR YOU TO STAND UP FOR YOURSELF, don't ever forget, it isn't them against us. They are us, we have sent them into our goverments to represent us, now demand that they proctect our right to cast an unempeachable ballot. We need to stop letting the tail wag the dog.
The illustrated migration route shown in this video really drives home just how amazing the trek from breeding grounds to feeding grounds really is for the Gray Whales. Just knowing there is a creature on this earth with that much stamina and drive makes me feel privileged to share the earth with the Gray Whale.
The mother Gray whales stay behind with their young in the protected bays in Baja until they are both ready to make the trip north to feed on the fatty amphipods in the Bering Sea.
These days, upon arrival at the Bering Sea these poor mothers are finding there is a dwindling food supply for both themselves and their young. Any mother would feel the heartbreak and the alarm finding a situation like this. The Gray Whales cannot be too different from us.
Now why in the world is there no way to repopulate the Gray Whales feeding grounds with more amphipods? This earth is spotted with huge manmade lakes that have been 'stocked' with fish of all varieties for the sport fishermen. But, apparently there is no way to toss some food the Gray Whales way. Is there no way to help?
When will the world start coming up with immediate stopgap solutions? There are those that will say, "Temporary help is like putting a bandage on a gaping wound". Well okay then, shall we do nothing at all but debate ad nauseam the cause of Global Warming?
If you see me by the side of the road with a gaping wound, please put a bandage on me until I can be fixed properly. It's the humane way to act.
Quite honestly if ice-cold deep seawater is being pumped into pipes under soil, for heaven sakes, so that people in the tropics can 'enjoy the wonders of spinach', then why can't some of this water be used to cultivate amphipods? Oh the reason is as plain as the nose on my face! There would be no profit in doing that.
Lost habitat in the Sea as well as on Land make living risky. Gray Whales may be Starving!
Friday, July 13, 2007
The Gray whale that died June 3, in Metchosin after beaching himself probably died from starvation. This young guy was the 5th dead whale, 3 of which were Gray whales, to show up in the area. It was a bad month for the Gray whales.
Dr. Stephen Raverty told The Vancouver Sun he didn't believe there was a pattern of whale deaths emerging and that it was probably a coincidence...Probably because their bodies weren't sinking...Probably because they were showing up in more accessible places. Raverty said, "this animal is quite emaciated. It probably starved..."
Probably. I'm not a rocket scientist, I'm not a Gray whale or Grey whale expert, but how many dead gray whales or other species does it take to make a pattern? Pattern or not, one thing is certain; the sea is not a safe place for sea creatures.
A Gray whale washed up in Boundary Bay on May 17th, and a few days later another Gray whale died on the beaches of the Oregon coast.
The dead Oregon Gray whale was a female 5-10 years old. She may have starved to death too. Adding insult to injury, this poor thing was stripped of her baleen on the right side of her jaw after she died. Someone also took parts of her body and skin proving some people have no respect for the dead, let alone the living. In the USA taking marine mammal parts is a federal crime.
Biologists have speculated the emaciated Gray whales had reached their 'carrying capacity'. Their migration back and forth from Baja California to breed and birth, to the Arctic Circle to eat, requires a huge amount of energy. They need refueling that used to come from the previously nutrient rich, shallow waters of the Chirikov Basin in the north Bering Sea.
Global Warming is having a huge impact on marine health, and the future doesn't look rosy for the Gray whales. Loss of habitat for food sources are only one cause for alarm, there may loom an even bigger threat from the US, Canada and even Russia to the Gray whale. We'll look at that tomorrow it's a biggy.
Global Warming Causing Immigration Problems in the Sea for Gray Whales
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Gray whales that have been feeding in the Northern Bering Sea for thousands of years are finding their favorite food is disappearing.
In June The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) counted 1,018 Gray whale calves passing Point Piedras Blancas off the California coast. That number being up from 2001 when only 945 were counted. That sounds like a good thing until we find out more and more of them are looking 'skinny'.
These fattened numbers lead Wayne Perryman, NOAA biologist to tell the Chronicle "In the short term, they (Gray whales) appear to be doing well based on our monitoring of reproduction, but we really don't know how the long-term warming trend is going to affect this population."
Well, now scientists are getting a better understanding of how Global Warming is affecting these animals. In May a Canadian researcher said the Gray whales in the eastern Pacific were "facing starvation".
William Megill, from Earthwatch, reported finding Gray whales off the coast of Mexico "that were starving" over this past winter. In 1993 their numbers were reported as being in the 25,000 range while this year those numbers have fallen to about 18,000.
Eastern Pacific Gray whales eat small shrimp, which live at the bottom of the Bering Sea. These tasty fatty amphipods have all but disappeared, Global Warming being the the ultimate culprit.
Researchers say the warmer El Nino weather of 1998 and 1999 reduced oxygen levels, resulting in fewer tiny crustaceans for whales to dine upon.
The Gray whales that migrate from Mexico to the Bering Sear are stopping along the way to munch down on foods less high in fat content. These non-traditional food sources are also leaving the whales open to new types of parasites. This could be accounting for the 'skinny whales syndrome'. The skinny Gray whales were first spotted this winter off the coast of Baja California where they breed and nurse their calves before their summer trip to the Arctic.
One of the reasons for the disappearing amphipods is the loss of ice and warming waters in the north. The warmer waters are inviting new types of fish to migrate further north causing even the oceans to now have an immigration problem. The new immigrants are in turn eating more of the tiny shrimp leaving less food for the Gray whales.
The tiny amphipods are disappearing not only because there are more 'customers' dining in the Bering Sea, but because they are also being starved out. The amphipods eat an alga that rains down from mats that hang below ice sheets.
Warmer waters, fewer ice sheets and less algae is a recipe for an Eco-system in crisis. The Gray whales are in trouble.
Pacific Spirit Bonus Entry: Fox News Attacks Environment, Giving New Meaning to "Your World" Today!
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Here's a short little video put together using Fox News clips.by the people at 'bravenewfilms'. This one will leave you wondering exactly who is in charge at Fox News and what exactly their Agenda may be!
Enjoy!
What is it at Fox News that actually makes them a News Network?
Will Deep Seawater Systems Produce a New Kind of Bycatch?
What kind of applications are there for deep seawater? It would seem there is nothing this water can't enhance, change into or be used 'for'.
So how deep is 'deep seawater' and what could it be used for? Deep sea water is located at a depth of generally lower than 200 meters. It takes about 2,000 years for this water to circle the globe.
Once it was discovered that, for example, the Japanese would pay up to $33.50 for a single bottle of desalinated deep seawater all kinds of people started jumping on the deep seawater pipeline.
The NELHA upwells a mind boggling 88,000 metric tones of the stuff per day. Japan has started several deep seawater projects as well as Norway.
Once the attributes of this water were discovered, the race was on to develop new ways to exploit its properties. Can we develop new industires based around this here to fore unexploited resource?
Ice-cold deep seawater was found to be advantageous in the aquaculture of cold-water species unable to be farmed in tropical seawater climates. Other aquaculture benefits are deep seawater increases the ability to grow cold water organisms, disease control and it contains few viruses and pathogenic bacteria.
Other applications could be used in the food industry, in medical treatment facilities, and even cooling water for power stations.
The demand for this water is growing as private companies are inventing new uses for it. Commercial fisheries often don't take their catch directly to market, holding it until prices go up. The need to keep fish alive and in sanitary conditions is another use for deep seawater.
The ease at which water temperatures can be controlled by mixing surface water with the cold deep seawater is another benefit being touted. How can further changing the surface temperatures of the sea be a good thing?
This up-welled water is even being run through pipes underground to cool the temeratures of soil. Cold weather crops such as spinach can be grown in parts of the world where it was never intended to be grown by nature.
This up-welled deep seawater accounts right now for only .05% of all water in the ocean, but it supports nearly 50% of all sea products being manufactured.
The prospect of pulling this water up and sending it all over the earth to cool homes, soil and even power plants sounds like a tricky idea to me. Growing fish and crops in places they were never intended to be grown sounds like a bad idea to me.
Yes, we need to find new ways of sustaining life on the planet, but what will be the unintended consequences of using these methods?
Only time will tell if man will become his own bycatch.
Longline Fishing is said to be one of the most efficient methods of killing unintended sea life by commercial fisheries.
These lines can stretch for 50 miles. In some cases up to 3,500 hooks are baited per day. Longlines aren't discriminating when it comes to what they catch either.
In the course of a year more than 4 million creatures are the unintentional bycatch of these longlines. This bycatch includes whales, dolphins, sea turtles and porpoises. Sea lions can also fall victim to the longlines.
Longline fishing has killed approximately 65,000 albatross and Southern Giant Petrels, in just the last 20 years, in the waters off of New Zealand. Longline fishing is a huge threat to these petrels.
Longline fishing is used to catch the bluefin tuna among other types of fish.
Diving birds, like the petrels, plunge into the ocean to grab a morsel of bait and are then hooked and pulled under the sea to their death.
There are method being employed by some to mitigate bycatch of some types of sea birds. Weights attached to lines can cause them to sink faster thereby taking the bait out of the petrels view. Streamers attached to the lines may also scare some of the birds away from the bait. Setting lines at night can also decrease the attraction to birds. But, these methods of mitigation don't address other species in the bycatch such as sea turtles.
In what seems to be an unimaginable or at least surreal scene they bycatch is tossed back into the ocean either dead or dying.
On the other hand, the bluefin tuna once caught on the longlines are very carefully 'KILLED with a SPIKE to the head'. The crew will gently lift the catch wearing gloves to protect the bluefin 'gold'. Blankets and grass mats are used to protect the fish from bruising.
How can mankind be so cruel?
With the advent of bluefin aquaculture maybe flooding the market with more tuna will bring down the prices. If prices are lower maybe it will become economically unfeasible to continue longling fishing.
Did you know that the Bluefin Tuna is the most valuable fish in the ocean?
Thirty years ago this fish sold for as little as five cents a pound.
Today one single bluefin tuna can sell for between $10,000.00 to $20,000.00. In fact the highest price on record for a single bluefin tuna was $80,000.00 and that record could be broken as demand for them goes up, and their numbers decline.
A mature bluefin can weigh as much as 1,300 pounds, but we won't be seeing many of those as time goes by. Most bluefin tuna never reach this size before they are caught. The average bluefin catch today is less than 1,000 pounds; not given the chance to mature.
One might think that at $75.00 for a single serving the demand just might go down. But, in Japan where demand is the highest in spite of the astronomical prices it is only now being considered to be a luxury. The Japanese consume more seafood per capita than any other country in the world.
The bluefin tuna can reach speeds of up to 50 miles per hour. They are one of the fastest swimmers in the ocean, but they can't out swim demand.
The more we study these tuna the more we learn about their intelligence. These fish, like the dolphins, have social behavior patterns. They have been observed actually playing and socializing with each other and they have learned to cooperate with dolphins when feeding. In fact this sounds more civilized than some peoples of the earth.
Only 1 in 40 million bluefin tuna survive. This is a horrific number!
As the late Carl Sagan said "...A new consciousness is developing that sees the earth as a single organism, and recognizes that a single organism that is at war with itself is doomed"
Tomorrow we will look at Longline Fishing, which is how bluefin tuna is caught. In the meantime, opt out of that tuna sushi and have the rice and vegetables instead!
Get inspired! Do something! Something big! Something small!
Something as small as bringing your own coffee cup to the coffee shop in the morning makes a difference. Setting your own cup on the counter will inspire others. Spread the music. Hold the hope.
Desalinated Bottled Water is Finding New Markets and New Bycatch: Octosquid!
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Something strange has been sucked out of its ocean habitat from 3,000 feet under the sea.
Is it a squidopus? Is it an octosquid?
What ever 'it' is 'it' was found caught in a filter in one of the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority's deep-sea water pipes. These pipes are pumping ice-cold seawater up from 3,000 feet down for desalinated bottled seawater.
The Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority (NELHA) is currently hosting 3 desalinazation bottled water companies, with 4 more companies slated to tap into the NELHA pipeline soon. The Koyo USA Corp., is now the largest.
The claim to fame this water has is that it's thousands of years old and free of modern impuritites. The desalinated water is marketed as a stress reducer, a weight loss aid, skin tone enhancer and digestive aid. Wow!
Deep sea desalinated bottled water is a multi-million dollar market recently developed. Until this year the market for 'unsweetened' water was tasting pretty sweet, but sales of the desalinated water have fallen 5% in the first three months of this year. While the same three months of 2006 showed a mind blowing 700% increase.
The decline may not indicate a lack of takers on the seawater market, but several other countries are breaking into this latest trend in bottled drinking water.
The octosquid or squidopus was found along with three rattail fish and half a dozen satellite jellyfish, and it stayed alive for three days. The little guy is now being examined at the University of Hawaii Manoa campus.
Two years ago NELHA filters trapped a fish that had never before been seen. NELHA cleans their filters every two to three months, but a more frequent cleaning may be in order these days.
This little creature had the ability to light up or glow while trying to frighten off predators. Sadly that tactic didn't work on the NELHA pipes. DNA testing will be done at The Ohio State University.
Great! Mankind has discovered one more way to violate one more untouched portion of the planet. Now a whole new species can look forward to being sucked out of it's ocean habitat in a new form of 'bycatch'!
If these undersea creatures figure out how to avoid stationary pipes sucking in water, they will have to develop another skill-set; Avoiding moving pipes.
DSH International Inc., operating as Deep Ocean Hawaii began harvesting deep-sea drinking water from a ship positioned 3.4 miles west of Ko Olina.
This may be one more 'good idea' that will ultimately have devastating consequences to the environment. Decades from now we may discover we unintentionally wiped out the last hope to cure cancer...It was washed out of pipe filters as bycatch.
Meanwhile, we will discover all kinds of 'new species'.
It would be easier to list product that don't contain any type of phthalates. This Class of toxic chemical is being found in nearly everything that is tested for its presence.
In our environment everything from literally, from below the ground to the air we breathe, up to the clouds held in that air, contain some amount of phthalates.
Building materials, all types of flooring PVC pipes and even household dust contains phthalates. Kitchen utensils and packaging of all types of products that contact both you and your food are found in our environment.
In hospitals, besides the building materials and plastic pipes phthalates are found in blood-bags, medical tubing ans all sorts of medical equipment. This is especially disturbing when considering people in hospitals generally have compromised health situations thereby perhaps making them more susceptible to the dangers of this class of chemical.
Cosmetic products are replete with phthalates. Products such as perfumes, hair spray and nail polish. Women between the ages of 20-40 years were found to have the highest levels of phthalates of any group tested. This is especially disturbing when considering woman in that age group in the main child bearing years. Given the fact that phthalates are endocrine disruptor and estrogen stimulators; no wonder birth defects of males reproductive systems are on the rise.
Also commonly found in foods, phthalates are easily absorbed by fatty foods such as cheese and meat. Restrictions placed on plastics contain phthalates coming in contact with food were meant to reduce the exposure and absorption of these chemicals. But, these chemicals are entering food from a variety of ways, not just from being wrapped in plastics.
Phthalates are being found in food before processing, suggesting they are so prevalent in our environment there may be no way to escape them.
Vast amounts of products containing phthalates plastics such as PVC, toiletries and cosmetics are being literally washed down the drain into sewage and wastewater systems. From wastewater it then goes on to rivers, estuaries and the sea. Ocean habitat, marine mammals and everything in the middle are being affected and poisoned by runoff tainted with these chemicals.
Plastics being incinerated are distributed into the atmosphere where they are then rained down upon the oceans and land. Crops are being irrigated with water that contains phthalates and then is run through pipes that contain them. Crops are then harvested and fed to animals that we then eat that are processed in plants that use equipment that cnatinas phthalates...We are getting the picture!
There isn't any way for me to put into words the totality of this situation, other than saying "it's even in our urine".
How can we protect ourselves from the ubiquitous phthalate? One government website suggests we vacuume regularly. How ridiculous!
The old joke 'if you want to feel like a real woman, then wash this shirt and get me a beer' may actually have more truth to it than we previously thought.
I don't mean to imply men don't do laundry. But, the constant contact with household cleaners usually does fall upon the human female. So it's remarkable to find a connection between a class of toxic chemicals widely used in household detergents and the feminization of male fish.
This development has been studied for about the last 10 years. Nonylphenol ethoxylates, (NPE) known as estrogenic, means contact with this chemical will actually stimulate the production of estrogen.
There's some irony! Maybe washing shirts really does make me feel more like a woman.
I don't know if the mature male fish that carry eggs in their testes exhibit female behavior, but eggs in the reproductive system is definitely a female trait.
Canada and Europe have tighter restrictions imposed on the use of NPEs than the US.
In the US the answer to the use of these toxic class chemicals appears to be awarding certificates, maybe bronze plaques to companies that voluntarily commit to the use of safer substitutes for NPEs. How's that for feminization? Why not a nice scrapbook page for their memory book too?
Voluntarily reducing the use of toxic chemicals is a 'good thing' as Martha Stewart would say. Procter & Gamble and Unilever have voluntarily substituted NPE's with other chemicals in their products. Wal-Mart is still trying to hop on the green-train by rewarding companies it does business with that find alternatives to NPEs.
The Sierra Club thinks it's time the EPA takes action to restrict or ban the use of this class of chemical.
Feminized or intersex fish have been found nearly everywhere. This leads me to agree with the idea that more than on estrogen stimulating, endocrine blocking chemical is being introduced into the environment and in more than one way.
Meanwhile, male salmon are loosing their urge to swim up stream, and becoming more amiable to staying home with the kids and keeping house.
More tomorrow on Phthalates, Nonylphenol ethoxylates, the Feminization of Marine life and the Human Male.
Feminized Male Fish, Testicular Dysgenesis Syndrome and Phthalates in Plactics are Linked
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
This article began as being a story about the feminization of some types of male fish. While doing research I came upon some very sobering statistics regarding male testicular cancer and other types of frightening conditions of the male reproductive organs. This type of cancer as well as defects of the male reproduction system are on a disturbing rise and are being increasingly linked to the use of a chemicals called Phthalates.
Phthalates are found in all types of plastics. sometime in the 1950's these chemicals started being mass-produced and used in the production of plastics. this chemical makes plastic more flexible. Look around your home or office and see just how many things are made from, or contain plastic. Don't forget about those things unseen like PVC pipes. Most all of the water you come in contact with has moved at some point through some PVC pipe. In fact 90% of the Phthalates produced in the UK go into the production of PVC products.
The danger to the male reproduction system is so high in fact that the European Food Safety Authority placed a temporary ban on the use of Phthalates in the use of products that directly contact food. In 2004 Greenpeace research reveled, in fact, packaging used by UK retailers still contained Phthalates, which can migrate into foods. In 2005 the European Parliament voted to permanently ban the use of these chemicals in children's toys and childcare articles, belief being that's the most critically sensitive time in the reproduction system development.
The ban may be too little, too late. A laundry list of conditions now on the rise reads like an alien sci-fi movie script. Cryptorchidism (undescended testicle) hypospadias ( a birth defect of the penis) impaired spermatogenesis (sperm production) and testicular cancers are taking a steep rise.
The blanket term for all these conditions is now known as Testicular Dysgenesis Syndrome (TDS). Keep an eye out for that term in the coming years. I fear we are only just now seeing the tip of the iceberg regarding this terrible trend.
In particular there is also thought to be a very real link between Phthalates absorbed by women while pregnant. This is causing disruption of the prenatal testicular development leading to 'feminization' of the developing reproductive tracts in the womb.
Male fish of many variety, both fresh and saltwater, are increasingly being found actually producing eggs in their testis rather than sperm. They are also developing ovary tissue and being found with a reduction of sperm.
As fish are not shopping for their meals at the market, how are they coming in contact with Phthalates?
More Tainted Chinese Products,with Fewer 'Factories' Operating
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
China has one million food-processing plants give or take a few thousand; whose counting anyway?
Apparently China is counting. The 'State Administration for Industry and Commerce', a Chinese regulatory agency said 152,000, yes that's one hundred fifty-two thousand, food plants and retailers were shut down last year due to unsanitary and substandard food being sold.
Now 180 more factories have been closed. They haven't been closed due to employees failing to wash up after lavatory visits, they haven't been closed because hairs were falling out of the nets into the potato salad. No, nothing that benign; Nothing that innocent.
These factories were purposfully, with forethought, contaminating their foods and products. Toss in some malice sprinkled with forethought and we, in the west, call that a felony. Using things like formaldehyde to heft up a product, keep it from spoiling, or any other reason seems far from a malice free act. Even an illiterate should be able to reason things like anti-freeze, formaldehyde are poisons. Most people never want to come in contact with formaldehyde until they're dead and many don't want to even then.
Sadly formaldehyde and anti-freeze are on the short list of poisons being pumped into a long list of Chinese products. Paraffin and industiral oil perhaps? How about mixing in a little 'already used' food. I'm unable to determine in which food group 'recycled food, expired, or already used' may fall.
So, 23,000 contaminated food products were seized by Chinese inpsectors and they aren't finished yet. And, less than 1 percent of regulated imports from China were even inspected by the US FDA.
So what is our tally now? 152,180 Chinese factories closed since December. China says, most of these factories were small, having fewer than 10 employees, and they were 'unlicensed'. If China is trying the quell the trepidation with which the west is eye-balling their products, calling a business with fewer than 10 employess a factory isn't a step in the right direction. Around here that's a 'mom and pop' business. That's Mom, Pop their three kids and their spouses. Oh, and one cousin. See how that makes 9 employees? That's fewer than 10 employees which in China constitutes a 'factory'.
But, now comes the fun part of this equation; these small 'factories' make up 75% of China's one million food-processing plants. Excuse me? Now here's the real question. At some point did China lay down the figure of 1 million food-processing plants in order to impress the west or maybe intimidate? Were I wanting to become a player on the 'world market' it could be advantageous to inflate my presense, like a puffer fish, in order to appear a little larger to preditors. On the other hand, when the products I'm exporting start turning up with poison in them, it would behoove me to say that a group of tiny, unregulated, unlicensed 'vendors' is what 'did-me-in'. Understandably and entirely not my fault.
China wanted to look like a formidable player on the world market. It looks as though the way to do that was for the government to spread it's arms open wide and sweep in every available resourse, including the 'mom and pop' operations.
Maybe the 'sleeping giant' really has been asleep. Maybe the giant part is the consumer. Maybe we underestimated China's consumer goods manufacturing prowess. Maybe we saw millions of tanks, and hundreds of millions of woven Chinese Finger Traps and mistook that for commercial expertise.
If Friday's news about factory closures' was meant to quell the rising fears concerning Chinese Imports...it didn't work on me.
What Color is Your Money? Are you unknowingly funding lawless 'brown pirates' or 'green jeannies'?
Monday, July 2, 2007
Overseas Shipholding Group Inc., Donates $9.2 Million to Marine Environmental Projects!
Okay, no they didn't. Donate is the wrong word. Overseas Shipholding was fined $37million for criminal activities; $9.2 million was ordered community service payments to fund community marine environmental projects. Wilmington; Boston; Portland Maine; Los Angeles; San Francisco and Beaumont Texas all of which were harmed by the illegal dumping of waste oil by Overseas Shipholding Group Inc.
The US Coast Guard says Overseas Shipholding Group was deliberately polluting by dumping waste oils in the above ports. The Department of Justice agreed.
Let's cut to the chase here and make a long story short. OSG's management failed to stop this dumping after allegations were brought to them several times. They in fact failed to stop this activity even after the government started its investigation.
Acting on a tip from Canadian Officials an investigation was launched and it was discovered that Overseas Shipholding Group Inc. had offloaded more than 150,000 gallons of oil-contaminated waste in the waters between only Maine and Massachusetts. Adding insult to injury they falsified log records to cover-up their dirty deeds.
OSG company officials admitted in court that its "motive for the crimes was financial" "OSG was saving the cost of offloading waste oil in port and the time it would take to comply with the law,"
There is no way to read anything other than it was cheaper to pay any fines than it would be to comply with environmental regulations.
This tells me, the fines being brought are vastly too low. If this penalty is supposed to serve as a deterrent for other companies attempting to circumvent the law, it's not going to work.
Overseas Shipholding Group Inc. is one of the largest publicly traded tanker firms in the world and according to William Mercer, Acting Associated Attorney General, Overseas Shipholding Group "has engaged in repeated and deliberate pollution of our oceans,"
In April 2007, the Company completed the acquisition of Heidmar lightering business from Heidmar, Inc. which is a subsidiary of 'Morgan Stanley Capital Group, Inc. OSG (Overseas Shipholding Group) completed the acquisition of Maritrans Inc., a US Flag crude oil and petroleum product shipping company.
On August 6, 2006 OSG announced a strategic partnership with TransCanada CNG Technologies Ltd.
Are you investing in publicly traded corperations that are commiting evil acts? If while you are planning your future and your childrens future, your investments are assuring your future demise, wittingly or not, you are contributing to global warming, and distrution of ocean habitat.
Please take a hard look at your investments and see where you stand.
It's interesting to note; OSG's address is listed as 666 Third Ave. New York, NY.
Kick save and a beauty, you can't make this stuff up!
Comedy and Tragedy: Film of 'the front falling off'
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Video shot from helicopter as Kirki burned. Be sure to stay for the entire clip.
Millions of gallons of oil have been spilled into our oceans in accidents just like these. Tankers simply falling apart at the seams, rusting away in their bowels, and running each other over in collisions.
Many oil spills are never owned-up to like this mystery spill in the Firth of Forth Estuary in Scotland. Scotland has had a tough week overall.
Monday's entry was going to be more on the Poison products pouring out of China, but something else has caught my attention. How eco-friendly is your 401K or other retirement investments? Is your stock portfolio packed with companies that are polluting our oceans? Isn't it time you took an honest look?
