200,000 U.S. Personnel to be evacuated from Japan to West Coast

 News  1 Response »
Mar 202011
 

According to American television station KIRO, 200,000 U.S. personnel are currently being evacuated from Japan to cites along the U.S. West Coast. The Seattle, Washington, based broadcaster states on its website:

The USO said about 200,000 U.S. personnel are being evacuated from Japan to U.S. West Coast cities including San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle/JBLM.

The voluntary evacuation is in response to growing concerns over the ongoing Fukushima nuclear power plant catastrophe.

As we recently reported, barring a nuclear detonation at the site, the Fukushima disaster should have little direct impact on the United States mainland.

Japanese nuclear plume hysteria in US is unwarranted for now

 Analysis, Health, News, Opinions, Science  3 Responses »
Mar 172011
 

I have been very concerned about the fear mongering and outright hysteria that has erupted as a result of the ongoing Japanese nuclear catastrophes. I have attempted, through mostly anonymous channels, to dispel and debunk some of the most egregious hoaxes, misconceptions, misinformation and profiteering that have exploded since the tragic March 11th Japanese earthquake that has since been upgraded from 8.9 to 9.0 on the Richter Scale.

As conditions exist at the moment, the fallout from the Fukushima reactors does not directly pose a threat of any significance to the United States with the possible exceptions of some areas of Alaska.

I served as a Nuclear Weapons Maintenance Specialist in the U.S. Army where I attained the highest average score in the history of that school. I was in West Germany during the Chernobyl disaster and I took measurements to detect fallout in that area. I have a degree in physics. Consequently, I have some perspective on nuclear fallout.

Certain radioactive isotopes that are the products of nuclear fission will likely become detectable in the United States over the next week using specialized equipment. However, the diffuse levels of these isotopes will be so low that, like during the similar Chernobyl disaster, the American fallout will be more of a curiosity than a threat.

The only way that the United States mainland can become directly and measurably impacted by the Fukushima nuclear plume is if the power plant suffers an atomic detonation that disperses many tons of radioactive material high into the atmosphere. This is unlikely, but it would devastate Japan with fallout, poison the northern Pacific Ocean for many years and contaminate large areas of the Northern Hemisphere to levels high enough to appreciably increase cancer and birth defect rates.

However, I do not mean to downplay the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, which will likely eclipse Chernobyl, perhaps by a large margin. It is increasingly apparent that large areas surrounding the afflicted Fukushima nuclear power plant will have to be permanently evacuated. If the situation continues to worsen, hundreds of thousands and perhaps even millions of Japanese will have to be relocated. Tens-of-thousands of Japanese casualties are possible. Ocean life in the surrounding waters will become contaminated. Many square miles of farmland may have to be abandoned for decades.

The Fukushima nuclear plant crisis might well become the largest human initiated disaster outside of war, but the United States mainland is currently safe from the resultant fallout.

8.9 magnitude earthquake strikes Japan; CME’s involved?

 Analysis, News, Science  3 Responses »
Mar 112011
 

One of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded struck 230 miles east off the coast of Tokyo earlier today. The most powerful quake to hit Japan in over 100 years, the massive shock has triggered tidal waves that are racing across the Pacific and that have already wrecked devastation onto many areas of Japan.

At least 32 people have been killed and destruction is widespread. The earthquake struck at 2:46 PM local time.

The earthquake’s timing so soon after the sun’s recent bought of volatility may suggest a connection between the two.

The catastrophic 8.8 earthquake that struck Chile around this same time last year was predicted based upon incoming solar coronal mass ejections (CME’s).

The sun’s recent activity triggered rampant speculation among sun watchers that a large earthquake was imminent. A direct prediction of a Japanese earthquake made about two weeks ago can be found here.

The sun has been cranky lately

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Mar 082011
 

UPDATE: Below is a video of the recent and impressive solar activity. It’s worth watching all the way to the end.

A very large coronal mass ejection (CME) was caught today on cameras from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO).  The sun’s relative size can be seen by the white outline on the occlusion disk in the center of the picture.

March 8, 2011, CME

March 8, 2011, CME

This eruption follows a warning issued yesterday by South Africa of a large solar flare triggering high radiation levels and possibly impacting the power grid.

NASA disputes alien life discovery

 Analysis, News, Science  Comments Off on NASA disputes alien life discovery
Mar 082011
 

Several NASA scientists have openly refuted claims made last week by fellow NASA scientist Richard B. Hoover of discovering extraterrestrial fossils within a sample of French stony meteorites.

In an apparently condescending and dismissive remark, NASA’s Carl Pitcher is quoted as saying, “He [Hoover] clearly does some very interesting microscopy. The actual measurements on these meteorites are very nice measurements, but I am not aware of any other qualification that Mr Hoover has in analysis of meteorites or in astrobiology.”

However, Hoover’s paper has more than a few scholarly supporters.

This cat-fight reminds me of several that I have directly witnessed (and even instigated) during my career. The sundry scientific fields have more than their fair share of socially stunted, territorial, insecure and emotionally volatile (and even unstable) people.

NASA claims evidence for extraterrestrial life again

 News, Science  2 Responses »
Mar 062011
 

A NASA scientist claims to have discovered fossil evidence of microscopic extraterrestrial lifeforms. Like earlier, similar claims from NASA involving Martian life, this evidence originates within rare types of meteorites.

The evidential image below is taken from a report by NASA’s Richard B. Hoover.

Photograph of purported microscopic Martians

Photograph of purported microscopic extraterrestrial life

Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass resigns

 News  2 Responses »
Mar 032011
 

World famous Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass resigned from his post today as Egypt’s antiquities chief. Mercurial and imperial but also entertaining and sometimes compassionate, Hawass has been the face of Egyptian archaeology for many years.

Hawass is featured on the History Channel’s controversial reality series Chasing Mummies. Critics claim the show is scripted and Hawass is unlikeable. While scenes of Hawass’ explosive temper and pharaonic personality depict a man bordering on insanity, the viewer nevertheless also witnesses events that demonstrate Hawass’ surprising tenacity, toughness and dedication to his job.

A cabinet member of deposed President Hosni Mubarak, Hawass resigned amid accusations by some of smuggling antiquities.

Earth’s magnetic north fluctuating daily?

 News, Science  16 Responses »
Mar 032011
 

Our eight-year-old daughter, Hattie, has been conducting a science experiment where she has been monitoring the direction of earth’s magnetic north pole. The expected outcome of the experiment was that the direction would not change over the course of several weeks.

To conduct this experiment, she taped a laminated outline of her compass onto an immovable stone table in our yard. Before she taped it in place, she positioned the outline so that her compass needle lined up with a mark on the paper indicating magnetic north.

Several times each day, she carefully places her compass in the fixed outline and takes measurements of where her compass needle points. Surprisingly, she has obtained measurements which seem to indicate that magnetic north has been deviating very significantly (up to ~10 degrees) on a day-to-day basis.

Of course, this is alarming if true, so we are going to monitor her experiment much more closely over the days to come. However, Hattie is an extraordinarily meticulous child, so we take her findings seriously.

A quick Internet search returns apparent testimony from others who claim to have observed similar phenomena recently.

Bob and Doc I (or anyone else of course),

I know things are going to get exciting today but I have a question sorta in a different direction. You may have noticed from previous posts (kinda infrequent, I know) that I’m a NAVAID tech. I had a most interesting event occur last Friday and wonder what you think about it.

One of my VOR sites was being orbited by Flight Check just about the time that the Geo storm started on Friday. F/C took me off the air, that is they NOTAM’ed my VOR out of service because all of the radials were 3 degrees off. You don’t want airplanes using your site when it’s that far off.

Normally, internal monitoring by the VOR itself will shut the facility down when it goes 1 deg off on ANY radial. 16 small antennas around the site’s counterpoise constantly monitor the signnal. The site itself saw no problems, did NOT shut down, and when we checked it, everything was fine. Apparently the radial “bending” was only in space, not at the site.

Three days later a F/C aircraft flew another orbit and all the radials were … perfect.

What could the geo storm have done to us?

I had a similar event happen about 8 months ago at another site, in Southern Indiana, where only the radials east and south of the site “changed” by up to 5 degrees, then went back to normal a few days later. This time is was several commercial aircraft who reported the radial angles off, compared to GPS, and by the time Flight Check got there everything was back to normal.

At issue is whether we ought to be taking sites off the air during a Geo storm. There’s a lot of expense involved in having special aircraft come down to put us back on the air, plus the time that a NAVAID is down and unavailable.

Some of us are already pushing these questions “upstream” but I was wondering what you guys think, since I HIGHLY value your knowledge of solar and geo mag things.

Thanks

.

A warning against the measles vaccination

 Analysis, Health, News, Opinions, Science  20 Responses »
Mar 012011
 

Over the last decade, my wife, Kathy, and I have become increasingly cautious about exposing our children to the full government recommended battery of vaccinations. We understand and appreciate that inoculations can save lives, but we also recognize that each jab presents risks, so unnecessary vaccinations are to be avoided. Moreover, these risks are compounded when many different vaccinations are combined over a short period of time.

Several years ago, the mainstream media reported a measles outbreak in the U.S., so I asked Kathy to get the children vaccinated just to be safe. However, it was very difficult to obtain the measles vaccine outside of the potentially thimerosal-tainted MMR jab (thimerosal has since been removed from most MMR stocks).

Although I had contracted the measles as a child and, like most people, it was not a serious problem for me, I knew that complications could arise and I didn’t want to put our children at risk.

It took months, but we finally found a source of thimerosal-free measles vaccine and Kathy had our doctor vaccinate all five of our children.

Within days, all of them became ill simultaneously. It was immediately obvious that they had contracted the measles from the vaccine.

The measles vaccine is an attenuated live virus, so we had expected some degree of illness, but it was significantly worse than we had expected. Still, after several days the children began to recover, so we were relieved that none of them had become seriously ill.

However, something much worse then developed.

After tending our sick children for several days, Kathy suddenly became very sick with the measles. Within only a few hours, blood was pouring out of her right ear: her eardrum had ruptured, which is one of the more severe measles complications.

Kathy had contracted the measles from our children who had become ill from their vaccinations. This happened despite the fact that Kathy had taken the measles shot several times before.

Although Kathy recovered, I felt awful. She had not wanted to get the children vaccinated in the first place, but I insisted. The result of my persistence was that my entire family became sick — except for me, thanks to my natural immunity — and my wife’s eardrum burst.

Today, the media is promoting a new measles scare. What many reports fail to mention is that measles can be spread from those people recently vaccinated. The reports also fail to mention that you can contract measles from the measles vaccination and that some cases can be just as severe as naturally contracted measles.

If you are in a similar position as my wife and I were several years ago, I would strongly recommend avoiding the measles vaccination unless significant outbreaks are occurring in your area. And even then, you need to prepare for the potential ramifications from the vaccine, ramifications that can be quite severe. On top of the illness risk, the vaccine does not even provide lasting immunity, as Kathy’s experience illustrates.