Pacific Spirit Marine Institute
U.S. Spy Satellite: Coming To A Neighborhood Near You!
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
On Monday I found a little story tucked away at cnn.com. I was initially insulted that the government felt I was on a 'need to know basis' when it comes to things blasting through the Earths atmosphere and possibly landing on my head.
As the story went on Monday, "Appropriate government agencies are monitoring the situation". With more than 17,000 man made objects having fallen into the Earth's atmosphere in the past 50 or so years, I am happy to know the 'appropriate government agencies are monitoring' something.
Seldom however does an object the size of a small bus come crashing to Earth. That is the reported size of this spy satellite. Apparently someone in the 'know' felt the rest of us should 'know' about the pending re-entry of this object and leaked the story.
This plummeting object the size of small bus could weigh as much as 10,000 pounds and it could contain hazardous materials. Maybe it's just me, but I'm pretty sure someone knows there are or there are not hazardous materials on board this spy satellite and I'm certain they know exactly how much the thing weighs. Whether or not they know how much it will weigh after it re-enters the atmosphere and whether any hazardous materials would survive re-entry may be another story, but I think they should say. Pretending they don't know is an least an insult to the public and at most tremendously incompetent.
Compared to the 78-ton Skylab that fell to Earth in 1979 this satellite is small. I remember when Skylab was falling. I didn't panic. Where would I have gone when I didn't know where to go? Lucky for all of us Skylab showered debris across a sparsely populated area of Australia and the Indian Ocean.
Fast forward from Monday to Wednesday. Now we know there is a likelihood this falling satellite will come to rest somewhere in North America. One Air Force General, Gene Renuart says, "As it looks like it might re-enter into the North American area," the U.S. military along with Homeland Security and FEMA will have to deal with the impact or assist Canadian or Mexican authorities.
I know I'll rest easier knowing FEMA will be on hand to help deal with the aftermath should there be a disaster following this satellite's impact.
Heaping on the insult, Renuart said military agencies are doing an analysis to determine which pieces most likely would survive re-entry. Call me crazy, but shouldn't analysis be done to determine which pieces most likely to survive re-entry have been done before they shot this thing into space? I'm pretty sure what goes up does come down eventually.
This satellite failed shortly after launch and there are a variety of theories floating about as to the reason why. But, more to the point, this thing was declared a total loss about a year ago. I guess that isn't enough time to do a meaningful analysis.
The tone of Renuart seems to be one of more concern over what sensitive technologies falling into enemy hands rather than the safety of the 'citizens of Earth'.
Initial estimates were that the satellite would take years to re-enter the atmosphere...so much for estimates.
The bad news is, it will be difficult to predict where the satellite will fall until it reaches about 59 miles above the Earth. The worst news is at that point it will reach the ground in about 30 minutes.
Go figure...and watch the sky over north America late this month or in early March.
Photo Thanks: NASA
An Earth observing satellite Not the spy satellite mentioned above.
Labels: Re-entry, Satellite falling, U.S. Spy Satellite
© 2007, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
U.S. Spy Satellite: Coming To A Neighborhood Near You!
posted by Pacific Spirit on Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Suicides and Despair Resulting From Hebei Spirit Oil Spill. Samsung Heavy Industries apologizes.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Nearly two months after South Korea experienced the worst oil spill in it's history the beaches around the Taean Coast still show the aftermath. Not so easily seen is the aftermath left in the souls of families that made their living there.
More than a million volunteers have braved wretched weather to help in the cleanup. Senior citizens sang as they try to clear the mudflats of nearly frozen oil sludge that has laid waste to the area. One 78 year old woman working in the freezing conditions used to make enough money to support herself and her ailing husband shucking oysters in the same mudflats she is helping to heal. She tells Kim Seong-ryong in the JoongAng Daily she feels devastated and she hopes she can shuck oysters again. Until then she sings as she cleans the mudflats.
It may be years before anyone will shuck oysters in Taean. Just two months ago Taean was a thriving and beautiful tourist destination. 20,000 households operated resorts, restaurants catering to the tourists. 10,000 households made a living from fishing in the area. Now there is nothing left but the spirit of the people. For some the blow of the oil spill was too much for the spirit. Channel NewsAsia is reporting there have been 3 suicides as a result of this horrible disaster.
The government acted swiftly to declare 6 of the affected cities and counties 'special disaster' status paving the way for aid to be distributed faster. Victims are still waiting. One man, a fish seller, set himself on at a during a protest earlier this month and later died. Unless aid comes quickly he may not be the last suicide.
Thousands of people were demanding answers to how they would be justly compensated. About 64 million dollars have been sent to the disaster areas. Half of that money has been raised by the private sector, but it so far has not been distributed to those in need. Reportedly officials cannot agree on how the money should be spent.In the mean time lives already in trouble are being ruined.
A Korean court ordered the Hebei Spirit to be seized on December 24 in an effort to make her owners pay for the cleanup costs from the disaster. Samsung No.1 struck the Hebei Spirit while it was moored.
The estimated cleanup will run over 10 billion dollars. Under Korea's maritime laws the oil tanker has the responsibility to help pay for the cleanup.
Meanwhile, Samsung Heavy Industries is saying they are sorry. "We are sorry for causing a big shock and concern to the public," Samsung Heavy Industries was charged earlier this week along with 5 individuals 2 are being held in custody and 3 more have been told not to leave the country.
Photo thanks: Lee Jin-man
Labels: Hebei Spirit, oil spill, oil tanker, Samsung Heavy Industries, Samsung No.1, South Korea, Taean
© 2007, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Suicides and Despair Resulting From Hebei Spirit Oil Spill. Samsung Heavy Industries apologizes.
posted by Pacific Spirit on Monday, January 28, 2008
Japanese Whaling. Insights Into Why Japan Seems Compelled To Continue Whaling.
Extolling the virtues of roadkill? Boiled whale ventral grooves with a lot of grated ginger?
The esoteric opportunity to 'think about whales' linking man with the whales and the oceans? Essay contests winning the President Prize of the Ishinomaki Chamber of Commerce and Industry written by a second grader?
All this and more can be found at the Japan whaling Association website.
I came across this website while doing research on the Australian Governments use of the Airbus A319's first whaling surveillance mission.
With all the tensions growing and turmoil surrounding Japan's dogged pursuit of it's "scientific" whaling program I had to wonder why they continue to sail in such politically charged and unpopular waters. After all, what could possibly be learned from 900 dead minke that wasn't learned from the first 35?
In the name of 'science' isn't even a clever cover-up. Not many are buying that thinly sliced excuse, but they may just be buying some thinly sliced whale meat. Waxing nostalgic for her school lunches, Chizue Yamagiwa, cooking expert, most fondly remembers "whale cutlet," "fried whale meat," and "whale soup."
Yamagiwa says, "Thinking simply, there is nothing wrong in adding whales to our food options, which include poultry, pork and beef." She goes on that as it is beginning to become quite chilly she will cook kujira-jiru, whale pot, in the evening. She describes it as a beautiful, colorful dish with the red and white of whale bacon and the green of the radish sprouts. She says, "I am sure it will invite me to more cups of sake this evening."
Is whaling really a cultural issue or is it a propaganda issue? To borrow words from Ms. Yamagiwa, "Thinking simply" I'm thinking it may just be a commercial code kind of issue.
One thing is certain from my vantage point. I'd have to have more than "more cups of sake" to garner the ability to sit down to a steaming bowl of whale bacon soup.
Don't miss this window into the thinking of the Japanese Whaling Association.
Photo Thanks msnbc.com
Whale burger
Labels: Airbus A319, Australia, Japan, Whales, Whaling
© 2007, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Japanese Whaling. Insights Into Why Japan Seems Compelled To Continue Whaling.
posted by Pacific Spirit on Monday, January 28, 2008
Marine Mammals Paying The Price For The War On Terror. U.S. Navy resumes training with sonar.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
The Christian Science Monitor has reported the aircraft carrier, USS Abraham Lincoln, and her accompanying ships began exercises Wednesday in the waters off San Diego.
U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper highlighted in her preliminary injunction against the use of sonar the Navy's own estimate that these exercises would temporarily disrupt or harm 170,000 marine mammals and permanently injure more than 400.
Rear Admiral Lawrence Rice says, he doesn't understand "why the sonar has become such a big deal." Whales and other marine mammals are killed by ship strikes, fishing nets and loud sounds from oil and gas exploration. Rear Adm. Rice is the Navy's director for environmental readiness. With friends like Rice the marine mammals might be asking themselves; who needs enemies?
The ocean is a mighty big place. It's could be conceivable there is more than enough room for the Navy and marine mammals to stay out of each other's way. The days of Navy training exercises being carried out far far away from coastlines vanished with the 'war on terror'. The U.S. now feels attacks on ports by enemies using 'silent' subs is a likely potential. This is what has prompted the Navy to move some exercises closer to shore.
Logic could dictate that detecting an enemy's 'silent' sub before it came close to port would be the prudent thing to practice.
Navy officials say more than 40 countries are using sophisticated diesel-electric submarines which are less expensive and more stealth. These cheaper stealthier submarines could be accessed by potential U.S. enemies. Navy officials also contend the coast simulates smaller waterways like those found in the Middle East.
Richard Kendall, National Resources Defense Council attorney, believes Bush used an agency within his own executive branch to overturn a federal court ruling which limited the use of sonar during these exercises. "The president's effort to use a White House agency to override a court order is very dangerous in our legal system, highly illegal, and completely unjustified."
Read the "Presidential Exemption from the Coastal Zone Management Act"
Council on Environmental Quality Letter to Navy (Don't miss page 150) of 151 pages pdf format
Photo Thanks: PH3 Kittie VandenBosch, USN.
Labels: California, marine mammals, Sonar, US Navy
© 2007, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Marine Mammals Paying The Price For The War On Terror. U.S. Navy resumes training with sonar.
posted by Pacific Spirit on Sunday, January 27, 2008
USDA Approves the Sale of Food from Clones, but USDA Recomends Against the Sale of Food from Clones! Too Late Suckers!
Friday, January 18, 2008
It's safe to eat cloned meat, but it's apparently not safe to sell the stuff. It's lovely to find out both of these things, only yesterday, since we been doing both of these things for quite some time.
There is mounting evidence indicating Americans and others, (read trade partners) have already been eating meat from the offspring of clones. There are only a handful of cattle cloning companies and oddly each seems to suffer from the same record keeping defect. Is this perhaps because each of these companies was cloned from a defective host company?
These cattle cloning companies have been unable, that's unable, to keep track of how many offspring of clones have already entered the food supply. Unleashing these cattle into the food supply and into the bodies of unsuspecting consumers is at the least immoral, at the most criminal charges should be brought against all those 'unable' to keep track of their lab experiments.
Allowing the cloned animals to enter the food supply before the completion of the FDA's safety report, in essence, turned the public into an ongoing lab experiment without their knowledge or consent.
Many meat producers have been using semen from prize-winning cloned bulls for more than a few years already.
Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition released a 968-page 'final risk analysis' saying, "meat and milk from cattle, swine and goat clones are as safe as the food we eat everyday." This is a cruel statement since we're already eating it everyday.
Photo: Dolly first cloned mammal, stuffed and on display at the Royal Museum of Scotland. Thanks Wikipedia.
Labels: Clone, Cloned, FDA, USDA
© 2007, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
USDA Approves the Sale of Food from Clones, but USDA Recomends Against the Sale of Food from Clones! Too Late Suckers!
posted by Pacific Spirit on Friday, January 18, 2008
Could M. Knight Shyamalan read the "Signs" BMO's Donald Coxe is Laying Down in the Corn Field?
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
In Toronto on January 3, global portfolio strategist Donald Coxe, dished out some grim "signs" of a coming global food catastrophe. To what does Coxe attribute this looming disaster? Corn of course.
The kernel at the heart of Coxe's theory is, more to the point, biofuels. Coxe warned the Empire Club; biofuels are expected to eat up about a third of America's 2007 grain harvest.
Coxe's is quoted as saying, "Those who have food are going to have a big edge." This is hardly an intuitive grasp of reality. Anyone who has ever been hungry at mealtime knows food is good and no food is bad.
Coxe suggests reasons for the coming cataclysmic food shortage will be a growing demand for more meat and dairy products by India and China as well as a growing demand from the biofuels industry. Dharmic Law and Karmic Consequences aside in India the very name of cow is Aghnya ('not to be killed"). Mahabharat Shantiparv 262.47 ...Surely, one who kills a cow or a bull commits a heinous crime...
In my mind there would have to be a complete paradigm shift in India if their demand for meat is going to take a sharp rise anytime in the near future. A paradigm shift might take generations, that is unless a good marketing firm can sell the benefits of red meat, arterial disease and many types of cancers to millions of consumers.
The same marketing firms may have an easier time selling the benefits of red meat and dairy products to the Chinese, as long as they keep certain facts out of their advertising. Men in China and Japan have up to 90 percent less prostate cancer than their meat eating, dairy downing American counterparts. Asian women also have up to 90 percent less breast cancer than American women.
Clearly improving the health of the planet isn't what Mr. Coxe is promoting. There are more holes in his theory than a slice of Swiss cheese.
More cattle equals more methane gas which is responsible for nearly as much as all other CO2 greenhouse gases put together. Methane is a greenhouse gas nearly 21 times more powerful than CO2. The number one source of methane worldwide is animal agriculture.
Coxe contends the way to combat the crisis he sees coming is by using more fertilizer, genetically modified seeds and producing less biofuels.
So where is the smart money?
Petroleum stocks to insure more greenhouse gas emissions. Pharmaceutical stocks to treat even more diseases caused by increased meat and dairy consumption. Biotech stocks, not for cleaner fuels, but livestock feed. Chemical industry stocks to further pollute our waters with fertilizers...
The signs in the cornfields are easier to understand.
Image Thanks: Google Earth
Labels: biofuels, CO2, Global Warming, Methane
© 2007, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Could M. Knight Shyamalan read the "Signs" BMO's Donald Coxe is Laying Down in the Corn Field?
posted by Pacific Spirit on Tuesday, January 15, 2008
