posted by The Vidiot @ 1:55 PM Permalink
So, I'm surfing around, and I find a youtube that shows that the rain this AM here in St. Louis was hotter than Hades, radioactively speaking.
ALERT!!! 178 X Background Radiation in Saint Louis Rain
STAY OUT OF THE RAIN!
This data may be indicative of a RECENT SIGNIFICANT radiological event in Fukushima.
The reading was taken at approximately 10:20am on 8/20/11 in Saint Louis Missouri from a vehicle that had driven approximately 4 miles through the trailing edges of a thunderstorm.
The sample returned a reading of 1.786 mR/hr, which equates to ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY EIGHT times greater than normal background radiation. This reading is almost 3 times greater than are previous high reading of 62x background radiation.
And what does that mean? Well, I'm not entirely sure, but it does SOUND bad. Having worked in a lab that used a lot of radiation, whenever the geiger counter sounded like that, we panicked.
I found an explanation somewhere else that may or may not be correct. I'm hoping it's wrong.
so that would be about 4272 CPM (Counts Per minute)
anything over 100 CPM is considered Alert Level
Now, it could've been cumulative. Who knows. But jeebus. Why does the news totally not cover this? Don't they give a damn? They live here too! When I go to the EPA website, there are huge gaps in the data and the spikes are unexplained. There's no context. I don't know if I should be frightened or terrified.
Like, here's a scary data point for St. Louis:
2011-08-16 12:57:10 132.0000 CPM
Now, keep in mind, anything over 100 is bad. And wouldn't you know it, the data stops on the 17th which means there will probably be no reading for today. The thing always goes down near a storm.
When you listen to the news, there's nada. When you read the news, nada. Nada, nada, nada. The nada is deafening. Obviously, there's something more going on in Japan for this new wave of radiation to be hitting us. But I guess they want us to be concerned with who Perry slept with instead.
Paul Gunter, Beyond Nuclear joins Thom Hartmann. Meanwhile, Japan is not out of the danger zone...in fact the nuclear crisis is getting worse and worse! We've recently learned from Japan that the amount of radiation released was more than 20 times that from the Hiroshima bomb, and now it looks they may be experiencing the early stages of a total China Syndrome meltdown. And is the United States in danger too?
We're still spiking here in in St. Louis. Teen Vidiot still won't believe me when I say the rain his hot. It was nice being in S. America where I knew the radiation hadn't spread in mass quantities yet.
Yet.
Keep tabs on what's going on near where you live here.
Excerpt: ThinkProgress has found that a Goldman Sachs vice president changed his name, then quietly went to work for Issa to coordinate his effort to thwart regulations that affect Goldman Sachs’ bottom line.
posted by The Vidiot @ 10:52 AM Permalink
Because Heaven forbid that anybody who smokes should be reminded of what smoking actually does to a human body.
Four tobacco companies filed a lawsuit against the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over what they say are unconstitutional requirements for warning labels on US cigarette packaging.
I'll tell you right now, the warning labels on the cigarettes in South America are far more explicit. In fact, the labels are so large, they nearly obstruct the brand name of whatever cigarette pack you buy AND they're so graphic, they'll turn your stomach. One pack I saw had an emaciated comatose cancer patient, all yellow skinned and dead looking with a ton of tubes sticking out of his body. Jeebus.
The companies only put up a stink here because they can. The US government will always be railroaded by corporate interests.
posted by The Vidiot @ 3:39 PM Permalink
Actually, I've been back for a few weeks, but I had no idea how many i's needed dotting and t's needed crossing after such a long trip. All sorts of things were spiraling out of control, including my credit rating for some odd reason. All of my bills were automatically paid and I'm not overdue on anything. Yet, my credit rating is in the crapper. Once I know why, you'll know why because I suspect it's something so ridiculous it's laughable.
The trip itself was pretty amazing. What we did wasn't for everybody though. We spent one month in Quito, Ecuador studying Spanish. We rented an apartment so I got to actually buy the food I've only ever drooled over in the mercados in Latin America. Dr. Vidiot's Spanish really improved, my Spanish only got a little better. But, in my defense, I only had half the hours a day he did. After Ecuador, we made our way south to Cusco, Peru. Yes, I saw Machu Picchu and boy was it something. And we spent a night with an indigenous family on one of the islands of Lake Titicaca. We stayed in hostels for the most part and though the hot water wasn't always reliable (or even existent) it was all pretty cheap. Two months is a long time to be away though and we really missed our dog.
While there, I ended up sending reports every three or four days to family and friends so they wouldn't worry about us. (Close to half of them were worried we'd be kidnapped. I honestly don't know why. We're just not that interesting.) The reports ended up being pretty lengthy and not half bad to read so I'm going to be self publishing them at some point, just as soon as I can decide if I want to illustrate it with with photos or drawings.
Politically, back here in the States, I didn't miss much. I mean, the whole debt ceiling thing was going on and I guess I missed Wiener's wiener. Both issues were ridiculous. Whatever was decided about the debt ceiling was a done deal way before it entered the public discourse and well, a wiener is a wiener. I couldn't be bothered with any of it.
Of course, I returned to the launching of the Republican primary debacle, otherwise known as the "Ignore Ron Paul" road show. WTF is up with that? Jon Stewart's "Ron Paul is the 13th floor of Republican politics" really says it all.
I shall resume some semblance of regular posting. It seems my blogmates have had busy summers as well.
1.(sometimes capital letters 'V' and 'S' with no space) a style of writing or saying something using emotion and/or logic and snark, esp. in order to elucidate the obvious while pretending to be objective.
2. anything written by The Vidiot, The Sailor, Mr. Vidiot and anyone else they allow to post on the blog “vidiotspeak”
[Origin: loosely based on new + speak, coined by George Orwell in his novel, 1984 (1949)]
And for godsakes, stay away from FOX, MSNBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC.
It's ALL CRAP!!!
Watch the BBC news or ITN news instead.
"POSSE COMITATUS ACT" (18 USC 1385)
A Reconstruction Era criminal law proscribing use of Army (later, Air Force) to "execute the laws" except where expressly authorized by Constitution or Congress. Limit on use of military for civilian law enforcement also applies to Navy by regulation. Dec '81 additional laws were enacted (codified 10 USC 371-78) clarifying permissible military assistance to civilian law enforcement agencies--including the Coast Guard--especially in combating drug smuggling into the United States. Posse Comitatus clarifications emphasize supportive and technical assistance (e.g., use of facilities, vessels, aircraft, intelligence, tech aid, surveillance, etc.) while generally prohibiting direct participation of DoD personnel in law enforcement (e.g., search, seizure, and arrests). For example, Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachments (LEDETS) serve aboard Navy vessels and perform the actual boardings of interdicted suspect drug smuggling vessels and, if needed, arrest their crews). Positive results have been realized especially from Navy ship/aircraft involvement.
