Greenpeace Protest Exposes Gaping Hole In Heathrow Security.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Sarah Shoraka says from atop the fuselage of a British Airways plane, "We may have exposed a hole in security at Heathrow, but it's not as big as the hole in Gordon Brown's climate change policy."
Two men and two women we able to walk through two double doors at Terminal One at Heathrow International, walk across a tarmac and climb stairs in order to hang signs on a domestic flight from Manchester to London.The flight from Manchester to London is only an hour long flight. The trip is said to take only two hours by train. The government wants to build a third runway that would increase flights the airport can handle by nearly double. Currently there are approximately 480,000 flights a year the third runway and 6th terminal would increase those to approximately 700,000 per year.
The theory that Heathrow needs to be expanded to accommodate International flights seems to be flawed. 100,000 flights a year take place between Heathrow and destinations within 500 kilometers from the airport. Protesters claim they are destinations easily reachable by train, and that train travel is up to 10 times less damaging to the climate than flying. By using the trains for these trips the traffic at Heathrow would be essentially reduced back to the levels the airport was seeing in 1990.
Editor's note: Since September 11, 2001 the amount of resources both human and economic has known no bounds. It is patent those resources have gone either into a black hole where they have been lost forever, or they are now lining the pockets of a few of those wearing H. Huntsman or Anderson & Sheppard. Clearly those resources have not been spent on improving the security of the masses, but it would appear the financial security of some has been greatly improved.
They say 1 picture is worth 1,000 words. These pictures represent what has 'not happened' to the millions and millions of dollars spent toward security, and in the end they actually represent only 3 words. We need to start pouring our resources into the security that really matters. The securing Earth from the raveges of her enemies should be our first priority. Without that we are nothing.
Global Warming is a Crock of Sh*t or algunos pinchazos pequenos?
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Bob Lutz, Vice Chairman General Motors will be the winner of Eye on Designs' 2008 Lifetime Design Achievement Award.
Bob Lutz is not a designer nor is he an engineer. He isn't even a product development expert. So how has he come to be named the receipiant of the prestiegious Lifetime design award? Previous award winners decide.
Jack Telnack, previous award receipiant and retired Vice President of Design at Ford Motor Company sent his ballot back with a comment about Bob Lutz. Jack Telnack is considered the father of the breathtakingly divinely beautiful design that is the Ford Taurus. Jack said, in part, "if it were not for Bob's emotional connection with design and backing, I may not have convinced top management at Ford that the original Taurus design was the wave of the future."
I'm not sure how the Ford Taurus lines up with Lutz's ideas that a car is an exciting mobile sculpture.
Apparently Bob Lutz is receiving this award because he wields an incredible amount of influence. At least over designers of Autos and that's too bad since Lutz expressed his opinion that "Global warming was a total crock of sh*t" recently.
The problem with making statements that sound like a 'total crock of sh*t' is the need to follow-up defending your crock. In Lutz's blog entry at GM's FastLane Blog site Lutz's seems incredulous that his "Global Warming is a total crock of sh*t statement would "catch on" out there.
Bob Lutz sees that the Hybrid cars "make no economic sense" and gets 'turned on by' "...forcing people to re-think their beliefs." Lutz supports the new fuel-efficient Chevrolet Volt that will run on lithium-ion batteries, but that doesn't come from worry over the CO2 in the air, but from a business stand point. He says card dealers will thrive in a sluggish economy and they need to say "I make my own prosperity."
Lutz is intitled to his opinion, but his assertion that "my opinions on the subject-like anyone's-are immaterial" makes as much sense as the hombre's assertion in Frida Kahlo's depiction of a man that had murdered his girlfriend. His defense? 'I only gave her a few small nips'.
Every 'Global Warming' naysayer takes a small 'nip' at the planet. Each time we make an indifferent decision not to turn off a light when we leave a room or buy a coffee in a styrofoam cup we are taking 'a small nip' at our world.
Every opinion counts. Some opinions influence more people than others; too bad.
Spy Satellite Hit. So says the Department of Defense!
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Another flurry of activity. It's a hit. At 10:26 p.m. EST The Spy Satellite, or as it's now being called 'non-functioning National Reconnaissance Office satellite has been hit while in its final orbits.
The USS Lake Erie fired the modified tactical Standard Missile-3 and hit the spy satellite approx. 133 nautical miles over the Pacific Ocean and the USS Decatur and Russell assisted in the task.
Don't hold your breath though, confirmation on the fuel tank will only be available within the next 24 hours. Debris should begin to re-enter Earth's atmosphere "pretty much NOW" or immediately since the satellite was relatively low in altitude.
U.S. Navy To shoot Down Malfunctioning Satellite. What could possibly go wrong?
Friday, February 15, 2008
So the U.S. military hopes to smash that spy satellite, plumeting towards earth, with a single missile. The missile will be fired from a Navy cruiser. The missile needs to hit the out of control satellite before it enters the earths atmosphere.
The Pentagon revealed the spy satellite is loaded with toxic fuel. The fuel, hydrazine is listed at the ATSDR, Agency For Toxic Substances and Disease Registryas colorless liquids that are used in rocket fuels. After a review of "hydrazine" it seems to be actually the very least of the threat this falling satellite the size of a school bus presents. On January 29th the AP reported Air Force Gen. Gene Renuart, who heads the U.S. Northern Command dismissed the likelyhood of a toxic threat posed by the satellite when he said, "they [small engines] are not large booster engines with substantial amounts of fuel."
Was Renuart wrong, or was attempting to downplay the threat from the falling satellite?
As 'luck' would have it, U.S. defensive missiles and supporting radar were already being modified and tested to shoot down enemy warheads. Now these defensive missile's software is being reprogrammed to home in on the signatures of a large satellite instead of ballistic missiles.
The U.S. opposes a treaty limiting antisatellite and other weapons in space. The U.S. says it will comply with other treaties that require notification to other nations before launching a missile aimmed at the out of control satellite. The United States criticized China last year when it tested an antisatellite system on an out of commission weather satellite. the Bush administration called the Chinese test "a destabilizing development."
NASA administrator, Michael Griffin says, "We looked very carefully at increased risks to shuttle and [space] station, and broadly speaking, they are negligible." Broadly speaking seems to be the best way to speak. Why get hung up in the details and facts of all the possiblities and ramifications of launching missiles into space to bring down a deadly spy satellite?
Broadly speaking this satellite has lost 50% of it's weight also. U.S. officials were saying the weight of the satellite was 10,000 pounds, small by fallen skylab's weight, now weight estimates are 5,000 pounds. Even Jenny Craig would envy that kind of weight loss in only one month.
This from the defenselink.mil: Hydrazine is similar to chlorine or ammonia in that it affects lung tissue. People inhaling it would feel a burning sensation. “If you stay close to it and inhale a lot of it, it could be deadly,” Cartwright said.
If the military did not shoot down the satellite, the hydrazine would disperse over an area roughly the size of two football fields, the general said. Those who breathed it would need medical attention.
“As we reviewed the data, if we fire at the satellite, the worst that could happen is that we miss,” Cartwright said. “Then we have a known situation, which is where we are today.”
General Cartwright serves as the eighth Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Photo: Michael Griffin (right), administrator of the National Areonautics and Space Administration, comments on a proposed attempt to destroy an unresponsive U.S. reconnaissance satelite just as it enters the Earth's atmosphere, during a news briefing at the Pentagon, Feb. 14, 2008. Griffin, joined Marine Gen. James E. Cartwright (center), vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Ambassador James F. Jeffrey, assistant to the president and deputy national security advisor, is discussing details of the planned operation. Photo by R. D. Ward
Welcome to the Capitol of the World! Mayor Bloomberg's New York City.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
New York City's Mayor Michael Bloomberg takes Global Warming seriously. He sees Global Warming as the same kind of threat as terrorism, only on a slower scale.
Bloomberg has a plan to create "the first environmentally sustainable 21st-century city" with 127 ways to attain that goal in 25 years.
Last year Mayor Bloomberg outlined his plaNYC which is far- reaching and visionary to say the least. There is no doubt this man is serious about what he sees as a real threat to not just NYC but the entire planet. Some would say Bloomberg has gone beyond serious and planted himself firmly on the loony toon side of the ledger sheets.
Cultivating mussels to suck pollution out of the rivers, platforms over rail yards and highways to create land for housing seem futurama like, yet somehow they make sense. NYC's population is expected to grow by 1 million more residents by 2030. Creating room for more housing is definitely going to be a challenge. But an even larger challenge will be keeping future leaders of the city and the state on board with his plan. As Bloomberg says, "If we don't act now, when?"
On the more conservative side of the ledger plaNYC proposals include 'congestion pricing" which would charge people who drive cars below 86th street a fee which he believes would not only reduce congestion, but raise funds to complete more public transportation projects.
Earlier this week Mayor Bloomberg addressed the United Nations and announced his long term plan to reduce the city's use of tropical hardwoods. The city purchases more than $1 million each year of tropical hardwoods. These types of woods are resistant to rot and are very durable. Bloomberg explained tropical deforestation, "accounts for some 20% of the world's greenhouse gas emission."
Last fall Bloomberg, along with New York Restoration Project Founder Bette Midler, planted the first of what will be 1 Million new trees that will be planted in New York. The two planted a Carolina Silverbell tree in the Bronx.The tree project is part of PlaNYC effort to increase the city's urban forest by 20% in the next 10 years.
Mayor Bloomberg pointed out that local officials in every large city on the earth are the closest to the people and the problems they face. "And it's why the mayors of many of the world's largest cities have joined forces to fight climate change in the 'C-40' organization, whose conference it was New York's privilege to host last May."
The Mayor reminded those in attendance at the UN that even though the government, at a national level, has yet to approve the Kyoto Protocol, "more than 700 cities in the United States, representing more than 80 million Americans, have pledged to meet its goals."
Mayor Bloomberg delivers remarks at the “Addressing Climate Change: The United Nations at Work” Conference. February 11, 2008.
Second Photo Thanks: Edward Reed
Mayor Bloomberg and New York Restoration Project (NYRP) Founder Bette Midler today launched the Million Trees NYC initiative to plant and care for one million trees throughout the five boroughs in the next decade. October 09, 2007
USNS Lawrence H. Gianella Delivers 6 Million Gallons of Fuel; Doesn't Spill A Drop.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
We like it when things go well especially when it comes to tankers and oceans. MSC, Military Sealift Command, is an ice-strengthened tanker that took part in Operation Deep Freeze January 28 through February 3rd.
Operation Deep Freeze is the annual replenishment of supplies to Antarctic Research Station McMurdo. The McMurdo Station was established in 1955 and is built on bare volcanic rock on the Hut Point Peninsula on Ross Island.
This month, MSC, American Tern delivered 12 million pounds of equipment and supplies to McMurdo's ice pier. There are approximately 1,500 researchers and support personnel who work at the station. The American Tern picked up nearly 5 million pounds of waste generated at the station by its inhabitants as well as science items like ice core samples. The Swedish icebreaker Oden arrived in advance of the Gianella and the American Tern breaking a channel through about 18 miles of ice that was blocking ships access to McMurdo. American Tern said thank you by refueling Oden its last day in port. Photograph by: Peter Rejcek National Science Foundation Date Taken: January 8, 2008
A January snow storm blankets McMurdo Station. The building at left is the Movement Control Center where passengers and cargo transit en route to other destinations.
Photograph by: Chris Demarest National Science Foundation Date Taken: February 11, 2008
The Swedish icebreaker ODEN, left, receives fuel from the cargo ship AMERICAN TERN at the McMurdo Station ice pier. The TERN off-loaded cargo and up-loaded waste and recycled materials for its trip back to the United States.
Public Getting Hosed While Bush Administration Attempts to Grease Polar Bears!
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Our friends over at PEER, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, have released internal e-mails from the Department of Interior exposing more of the Bush administration's shenanigans.
On January 24, Peer told us the Interior Department "Purged Scientific Concerns" about the introduction of invasive species into Arctic waters that would be brought in if offshore drilling was allowed to take place.
On January 29, The United States Department of Interior's Office of the Solicitor requested PEER "immediately cease your unauthorized publication of [these] privileged communications and return them to MMS, along with any other MMS communications or documents in your possession that MMS has not authorized for disclosure."
Protecting internal communications appears to be a euphemism for the outright ban on informing the public of the truth. The tax payers of the U.S. pay the wages of all federal employees from the President down to the local dog catchers. To ban from the public information they have, in fact, paid to have compiled is unscrupulous.
Bush's energy policy may be failing the Arctic, its waters and its inhabitants, but it could be a resounding success for the energy industries. Oil drilling, liquefied natural gas facilities, year-round tanker traffic and the employment of ice breakers to keep it all moving year round flies in the face of environmental responsibility.
These things and the entire accompaniment required to accomplish them are paving the way for untold tons of pollution to be spewed into the air and waters of the Arctic.
The most invasive of species being brought into the region is man and everything he needs to sustain himself. How long before housing, fast food chains and drive thru auto-lube garages begin to litter the landscape?
Bats in New York and Vermont are not surviving their hibernation period. As many as 11,000 bats were found dead last winter and this winter isn't shaping up to be any better.
Scientists don't know if what is killing the bats is contagious, or if can be spread to humans. For now they are asking people to stay out of caves and mines with bats until they can figure out how the disease is being spread and in fact what the disease may be.
The dead bats are found with a white fungus ring around their noses. Experts don't at this time know if that white fungus is a cause or merely a symptom. People could unknowingly spread the disease from cave to cave since it is not yet known how the disease is spread.
The bats are using up stored fat reserves before they would normally wake up from hibernation. Essentially the bats are starving to death in their sleep.
Literally hundreds of thousands of bats hibernate in just 5 caves and mines in New York State. With as many as 300 little critters sleeping in just 1 square foot the spread of this unknown disease is especially troubling to scientists.
Nearly half of the entire population of Indiana bats migrates to hibernate in just one cave in New York. That cave is infected with the mystery disease. Indiana bats are on the state and federal endangered species list.
