A Russian capsule delivered three new astronauts to the International Space Station on Wednesday, doubling the size of the crew just in time for a pair of major space anniversaries. (April 7)
Continue reading …Japan hit with another earthquake, Tsunami warning as the NRC issues chilling find on reactor 2
April 7, 2011 No Comment
enlarge Credit: CNN Second Earthquake in Japan Japan was rocked again by a second earthquake, this one measuring between 7.1 and 7.4 and the Japanese government has issued another Tsunami warning. A powerful earthquake struck Japan on Thursday, triggering a tsunami warning for one prefecture and advisories in other prefectures. The Japan Meteorological Agency said the quake was a magnitude of 7.4. The U.S. Geological Survey said it was 7.1. There were no reports of casualties from anywhere in the earthquake zone, the National Police Agency said. Workers evacuated the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant following the quake, the Tokyo Electric Power Company said. Tokyo Electric said it has communication with the plant and the power is still on there. There were no immediate reports of damage, it said. The quake’s epicenter was off the coast of Miyagi in northeastern Japan, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. Living through two big earthquakes myself, I know aftershocks are very, very scary after you’ve been hit and Japan has had a tremendous number of those following the 9.0 monster quake, but to then get hit again so soon has to have shaken up the psyche of the Japanese people even more. Let’s hope nothing more happened to the Fukushima reactors. And then we get this news from the NRC : The Nuclear Regulatory Commission thinks the reactor in unit 2 of Japan’s disabled power plant got so hot it “probably melted through the reactor pressure vessel,” U.S. Representative Edward Markey said. Martin Virgilio, the agency’s deputy director for reactor and preparedness programs, told reporters after a House hearing today that the commission doesn’t think the “core has breached,” which would let radiation escape. The commission gets reports several times a day from agency staff in Japan and none mentioned a breach, he said. The pressure vessel is one line of defense preventing a larger radiation leak from Fukushima Dai-Ichi’s crippled reactors, where workers have sought to reconnect power to provide a steady supply of water. “After you lose the vessel, then you are down to one final barrier, that’s the containment,” Virgilio told reporters. Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, has pressed for new safety regulations in response to the crisis in Japan , triggered by the 9-magnitude earthquake and resulting tsunami on March 11. Virgilio said workers have yet to stabilize the damaged facility. Giselle Barry, a spokeswoman for Markey, said information on the status of the unit 2 reactor came from correspondence between his staff and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Markey and Virgilio spoke at a House Energy oversight and investigations subcommittee hearing today on the Japan crisis. — Virgilio said he wasn’t aware of an agency report, cited by the New York Times, that said water used to keep fuel from overheating at the Japanese plant makes containment vessels more vulnerable to rupture amid aftershocks that have rattled the region since March 11. The report raises the possibility of explosions inside containment structures from the release of hydrogen and oxygen in the seawater pumped into the reactors, according to the Times. The assessment doesn’t speculate on the risk of new explosions or damage from an aftershock, events that may lead to a more serious release of radiation from the nuclear core, the newspaper reported. The Japanese people don’t believe anything TEPCO is saying to them and have lodged over 40,000 complaints and neither do I. I’ve been following this pretty closely and all I can tell you is that I have ordered some Potasium Iodine pills. The reporting by the MSM has been very flaccid on the Japanese nuclear tragedy because of politics. Japan is making it up as they go along. Just pumping seawater into the reactor is not going to work. I’ll have more on this soon..
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AJDABIYAH, Libya – Libya’s civil war is reaching stalemate, a senior US general said on Thursday, and rebels fighting to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi said a NATO air strike killed five of their fighters. Wounded rebels being brought to a hospital in Ajdabiyah in rebel-held east Libya said they were hit by a NATO strike on their trucks and tanks outside the contested port of Brega. NATO said it was investigating an attack by its aircraft on a tank column in the area on Thursday. General Carter Ham, head of US Africa command, told a Senate hearing Washington should not provide arms to the rebels without a better idea of who they were. Asked if there was an emerging stalemate, he replied: “I would…
Continue reading …Tuesday night Wisconsin’s extreme right Governor, hard core ideologue Scott Walker, suffered a major rebuke when one of his most craven minions, Jeff Stone, was soundly defeated in the race for his old job, Milwaukee County Executive, by a little-known Democrat, Chris Abele. It was a stunning 60-40% loss for the Republicans. Meanwhile, after a running at 25% in the February nonpartisan open primary for a Supreme Court seat, Democrat JoAnn Kloppenburg has fought rabid right sociopath David Prosser, another Walkerite, to a dead 50/50 tie. (He had scored 55% in February and was considered completely safe.) And all this even before Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan announced his plan to end Medicare and John Boehner signaled he didn’t have the strength to hold back the teabagger mob inside his own cause that so badly wants a government shutdown! enlarge Tony Mendoza Sometimes it seems that warm, sunny, prosperous, blue California is in a world apart from this insanity. But not to those who watch Sacramento politics closely. True enough, California has a Democratic governor, state Senate and state Assembly. But that’s hardly the end of the story. All of the Republicans and nearly all of the Democrats are in the pockets of the big money lobbyists, who practically run the state legislature. You can count the number of dyed-in-the-wool progressives in the legislature on the fingers of one hand. Last month Digby, John and I spent some time with one of the most outstanding and courageous of them, Assemblyman Tony Mendoza, who has had a spectacular career in the Assembly and is campaigning for the state Senate seat opening up in his East L.A. area– Bellflower, Artesia, Paramount, South Gate, Long Beach, Lynwood, Cerritos, Hawaiian Gardens. Today Tony will be joining us in the comments section below for a live chat at 2pm (PT). Tony, the son of immigrant parents, farm workers, is a former school teacher and the first in his family to go to college. Public education is close to his heart and he has been one of California’s most outspoken champions for teachers and students. “I have benefited,” he told us, “from a system that is free, open and non-discriminatory. The greatest strength of the U.S. educational system is universal access to public education. This belief is what keeps our country competitive. It is what fuels the American dream. More than 90 percent of students in the United States attend public schools. And if they try hard, almost all of them have the opportunity to go to college– the opportunity to make whatever they wish of their lives. I fight for public education not only because I am a former public school teacher of 10 years, but because I am one of those kids you read about who has defied the odds and graduated from college. I know I couldn’t have done it without a strong public education system and I am committed to preserving, protecting and strengthening it for the benefit of future generations.” When Tony got to the Assembly, instead of resigning himself to settling into the widely accepted go-along-to-get-along mode, he moved right into action, never fearing controversy. His very first bill, A.B. 97 in 2007 was all about ending the use of trans-fats in California restaurants. With the special interests– particularly the California Restaurant Association and the Chamber of Commerce– lined up solidly against him, it literally looked impossible. It took two years and he didn’t get a single Republican vote, but he managed to get it passed and signed into law. “We’re the first state to require restaurants to cook without artery-clogging trans-fats, which have been linked to heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Banning their use helped to reduce the number of cases of cardiovascular disease– the No. 1 killer in the nation– by an estimated 6 to 19 percent, reducing health care costs and most importantly, saving lives.” That’s why Tony is in government service– to make a real difference in people’s lives. It’s why Digby, John and I have decided to try to help keep him in government service and why we’re recommending him today. Right now we’re working with him on a bill he’s shepherding through the legislative process again, A.B. 22, a model for what progressives in Washington would like to do. Tony’s bill would prevent employers from using credit reports to discriminate against workers. It’s already passed both houses twice… and was vetoed twice by Schwarzenegger. “A credit report,” Tony told us, “is not a good indicator of a person’s trustworthiness or work ethic. Many Californians are still experiencing financial hardships from the economic downturn including layoffs, high unemployment rates, and the ongoing foreclosure crisis. All of these things make it harder for people to pay their bills. Consider the condition of the economy and the negative effect these circumstances can have on a person’s credit– a credit report is an unfair lens through which to view job applicants. Using credit checks in the hiring process decreases employment opportunities. Many people have blemishes on their credit reports, especially at this time in our economy. Preventing someone from becoming employed due to a poor credit history is shameful. This bill will simply remove an unnecessary barrier to employment for those seeking jobs.” It’s essential to keep the few men and women with Tony’s perspective and instincts in government and not just leave it to the special interests and their shills, whether in Washington or in Sacramento. If you can, please join us in contributing to Tony’s senate election campaign .
Continue reading …ABC Grills Boehner, a ‘Hostage’ to the Tea Party, on Whether He Can Avoid the ‘Fate’ of Gingrich
April 7, 2011 No Comment
According to World News' Diane Sawyer, House Speaker John Boehner is being “held hostage” by the Tea Party. Over two days and two shows, Sawyer and interviewer George Stephanopoulos hit the Republican as captive to an unreasonable base who want to shut down the government. On Thursday's Good Morning America, after Boehner asserted that taxpayer dollars shouldn't fund abortions, Stephanopoulos chided, “If you hold on to that, the White House and Democrats have been very clear, there's no deal. The government is going to shut down.” He didn't make the obvious logical conclusion that the Democrats are being held hostage by a liberal, pro-abortion base. Later, the GMA host reiterated his point, arguing: “You know what the Democrats say. They say they can cut a deal with you. But you don't buck the Tea Party.” In a political warning to the Speaker, Stephanopoulos wondered, “You saw what happened to Speaker Gingrich during a government shutdown. Are you going to avoid that fate?” (What exactly was Gingrich's fate? He was reelected, kept his job through 1998 and the Republicans held the majority until 2006.) On Wednesday's World News, Sawyer spun, ” We keep reading that a lot of people think he's being held hostage, as it were, to the Tea Party inside his own party .” A transcript of the April 7 GMA segment, which aired at 7:06am EDT, follows: GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: You know, that potentially explosive issue of congressional pay is just one of the topics I covered in my exclusive interview with Speaker Boehner. He also took on claims by Democrats that he's kowtowing to the Tea Party. And just hours before that White House meeting, signaled why he wasn't ready to accept president Obama's proposal. SPEAKER JOHN BOEHNER: We're fighting for the largest cuts that we can because it will help our economy. STEPHANOPOULOS: But you called for $32 billion in cuts in your original proposal. Now, you're at $33 billion. BOEHNER: George, remember where all this started. The Democrats controlled the House last year. They controlled the Senate. They should have done this budget last year. They couldn't come to an agreement. We're cleaning up last year's mess. STEPHANOPOULOS: When you came in this year, you proposed and your leadership proposed a bill that would cut $32 billion. And now, they're beyond that. Why isn't that good enough? BOEHNER: Well, because the House came up with $100 billion worth of spending cuts. And specific policy riders that have been part of everybody appropriations process. And we send it over to the Senate. It's been 46 days. The Senate has not acted. STEPHANOPOULOS: You mention those policy riders. Some of them include cutting funding for Planned Parenthood. Cutting the enforcement for the Environmental Protection Agency. The President says those have no place in a short-term continuation resolution. Your response? BOEHNER: There's never been an appropriation process where there were
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We’ve seen oscilloscopes repurposed as clocks and MAME machines , but we hardly ever see the pendulum swing in the opposite direction. The iMSO-104, however, actually turns your iPad, iPhone, or iPad touch into an oscilloscope display. Using a Cypress Semiconductor system on a chip, the iMSO-104 touts a 5MHz bandwidth and as much as 12 megasamples per second, and connects to your device by way of the dock connector — according to its maker, it’s also the world’s smallest and most portable oscilloscope. That’s all well and good, but what we really want to know is, does it support Tennis for Two ? The iMSO-104 is now available for pre-order for $300, but if you’re itching to see the thing in action, you can download the corresponding app today and give it a test drive. Full PR after the break. Continue reading Oscium’s iMSO-104 turns iPad, iPhone into mixed signal oscilloscopes Oscium’s iMSO-104 turns iPad, iPhone into mixed signal oscilloscopes originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Apr 2011 17:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Tragedy in Brazil: A former student killed at least 12 people at an elementary school in Rio de Janeiro this morning. Wellington Menezes de Oliveira, 24, brought two loaded 38-caliber revolvers into the school and opened fire before shooting himself, say police. He reportedly left a note outlining his desire…
Continue reading …Clad in protective suits, some 340 police officers began the search for bodies within the 12-mile evacuation zone surrounding the Fukushima plant today. Nearly four weeks have passed since the earthquake, and some 4,200 who lived within the zone remain missing, reports the New York Times . Officials now say…
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TOKYO – Japan’s meteorological agency says it has lifted a tsunami warning for the northeastern coast 90 minutes after a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck offshore. The quake hit about 11:30 p.m. Thursday Japan time. It has rattled nerves nearly a month after the devastating earthquake and tsunami that flattened the northeastern coast. (SCROLL DOWN FOR LIVE UPDATES) Announcers on Japan’s public broadcaster NHK had told residents in the northeast to move to higher ground away from the shore. The warning was for the same area devastated by last month’s tsunami, which is believed to have killed some 25,000 people and has sparked an ongoing crisis at a nuclear power plant. Officials at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant say there was no immediate sign the aftershock caused new problems. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below. TOKYO (AP) — Japan was rattled by a magnitude-7.4 aftershock and tsunami warning Thursday night nearly a month after a devastating earthquake and tsunami flattened the northeastern coast. Announcers on Japan’s public broadcaster NHK told residents along the northeastern shore to run to move ground and away from the shore. An hour after the quake, there were no reports of a tsunami hitting the shore. The Japan meteorological agency issued a tsunami warning for a wave of up to 6 feet (two meters) for a coastal area already torn apart by last month’s tsunami, which is believed to have killed some 25,000 people and has sparked an ongoing crisis at a nuclear power plant. Officials at the tsunami-ravaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant said there was no immediate sign of new problems caused by the aftershock. Japan’s nuclear safety agency says workers there have retreated to a quake-resistant shelter in the complex. No one there was injured. Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said it evacuated two workers there and seven at a sister plant to the south that was not badly damaged. Officials say Thursday’s aftershock hit 30 miles (50 kilometers) under the water and off the coast of Miyagi prefecture. The quake that preceded last month’s tsunami was a 9.0-magnitude. The U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colo., later downgraded Thursday’s quake to 7.1. Buildings as far away as Tokyo shook for about a minute. In Ichinoseki, inland from Japan’s eastern coast, buildings shook violently, knocking items from shelves and toppling furniture, but there was no heavy damage to the buildings themselves. Immediately after the quake, all power was cut. The city went dark, but cars drove around normally and people assembled in the streets despite the late hour. The quake struck at 11:32 p.m. local time. Japanese TV flashed a warning about an impending quake moments before it struck. In Tokyo’s western suburbs, loudspeakers warned residents. Paul Caruso, a geophysicist at USGS, said Thursday’s quake struck at about the same location and depth as the March 11 quake. It’s the strongest of the more than 1,000 aftershocks that have been felt since, except for a 7.9 aftershock that day. The USGS said the aftershock struck off the eastern coast 40 miles (65 kilometers) from Sendai and 70 miles (115 kilometers) from Fukushima. It was about 205 miles (330 kilometers) from Tokyo. A Pacific Tsunami Warning Center evaluation of the quake said an oceanwide tsunami was not expected. However, it noted quakes of that strength can cause waves that are destructive locally.
Continue reading …Anthony Smith was in high spirits as arrived in St. Maarten yesterday, and why not? After all, he’d just realized a boyhood dream, sailing a 40-foot raft on a two-month journey across the Atlantic with the help of three of his friends—at the ripe young age of 85. “Some…
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