short notes:
will brady's ruminations
will brady's ruminations
2009-10-28
blogger news items
• The Courage Campaign pushes for marriage equality. Having now been legally wed for a couple of years now, I fully support the initiatives elsewhere.
On Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009- less than a week away- there will be critical votes on on LGBT equality in three states: Washington State, Maine, and Michigan. With so much attention devoted to other issues in the political realm, bloggers have banded together to ensure we don't forget the ones with a firm deadline next week.
For that reason, Courage Campaign staff have put together a summary of who, what, and how about these three campaigns. If you haven't heard of these campaigns, and/or haven't done anything yet to support them, please consider helping out. If you are a blogger please feel free to grab this content whole cloth and use it for your blog posts.
Last year, as Obama and Democrats were winning across the country, we lost marriage equality in California. It was a bittersweet victory. Pitch in to make sure 2009 isn't a bittersweet year. Take action to support LGBT equality TODAY. Find out more about phone banks and getting supportive voters to the polls at The Courage Campaign website.
• Absurd Inventions is the subject of a Planet Oddity entry. Everything you never thought to ask for including a bulletproof bed [the "Quantum Sleeper"]; piercings to hold eyeglasses to one's face [how's that for ick factor?]; the "Fish and Flush" toilet [the fish get a panoramic view of the sitter's back]; a hurricane proof house [a refurbished jumbo jet - the rationale being that the shape can already withstand high winds].
My hands down favorite, though, is "the human car wash." According to the blurb on Planet Oddity,
All said and done, I'd guess that these inventors marvels are not really the most absurd inventions of all time.
• Web Urbanist's Abandoned Wonders of the World.
There really is no shortage of abandoned buildings in the world and they are exciting. They stoke the imagination of many an urban spelunker. Websites such as Infiltration and Opacity freely offer advice to any neophyte explorer of abandoned buildings, sometimes with disclaimers suggesting not to traipse on property not technically your own.
The batch of sites noted at Web Urbanist provides a glimpse of the many kinds of sites that get abandoned. Most curious to me is the
Chapel to Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester, NY. Such famous persons as Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglas are among those buried there in everything from lawn crypts to family mausoleums. It seems strange, then, that the chapel at such an historically significant location would be abandoned to the elements, though it remains elegant even in its disrepair.
Of special interest to me is the Bethlehem Steel factory in Lackawanna, NY, located just south of Buffalo, I worked there for about a year as a laborer in the bricklayer's department. It would indeed be a treat to wander about that complex once more. The plant traversed the entire western edge of Lackawanna, and across a highway that separated that city from a most likely very polluted part of Lake Erie. At the north end were the coke ovens where we'd work on relining one oven just next to others that were operational. It was hot work.
I understand that much of that plant is no longer explorable and has, in fact, been demolished. In place of the old coke ovens are a small, and growing assortment of tall wind generator mills. Thankfully, people did manage to explore the plant before it was torn down.
• At Nightmare Hall, blood pressure rises with a TV diet of "...apocalyptic and tin foil helmet conspiracy news." This erstwhile blogger does no believe in conspiracies noting, aptly, that "...The powers that be are right in the sheeple's faces, but nobody seems to notice or care."
Arriving at a conclusion that TV can be toxic is nothing new, of course. My favorite film version of TV poisoning is the creepy Canadian produced 1983 social sci-fi flick Videodrome written and directed by David Cronenberg and starring James Woods and singer Debbie Harry. The premise is that that Videodrome is the public "face" of a political ideology movement with unspecified but apparently violent goals. Sound familiar? I'll stop here.
Universal Studios announced, last Spring, they will do a remake of the film.
Harking back to Nightmare Hall's recount, he references Druid Journal's 8 reasons why TV is evil [It is Plato's Cave "...now in Hi-Def"] and check his other links to doing away with the one-eyed face-changing monster from your home and your life.
• The Courage Campaign pushes for marriage equality. Having now been legally wed for a couple of years now, I fully support the initiatives elsewhere. On Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009- less than a week away- there will be critical votes on on LGBT equality in three states: Washington State, Maine, and Michigan. With so much attention devoted to other issues in the political realm, bloggers have banded together to ensure we don't forget the ones with a firm deadline next week.
For that reason, Courage Campaign staff have put together a summary of who, what, and how about these three campaigns. If you haven't heard of these campaigns, and/or haven't done anything yet to support them, please consider helping out. If you are a blogger please feel free to grab this content whole cloth and use it for your blog posts.
Last year, as Obama and Democrats were winning across the country, we lost marriage equality in California. It was a bittersweet victory. Pitch in to make sure 2009 isn't a bittersweet year. Take action to support LGBT equality TODAY. Find out more about phone banks and getting supportive voters to the polls at The Courage Campaign website.
• Absurd Inventions is the subject of a Planet Oddity entry. Everything you never thought to ask for including a bulletproof bed [the "Quantum Sleeper"]; piercings to hold eyeglasses to one's face [how's that for ick factor?]; the "Fish and Flush" toilet [the fish get a panoramic view of the sitter's back]; a hurricane proof house [a refurbished jumbo jet - the rationale being that the shape can already withstand high winds].
My hands down favorite, though, is "the human car wash." According to the blurb on Planet Oddity, Hospital patients [and prisoners, as well] need bathing and to speed up this process, may we suggest the Human Car Wash? The HCW eliminates slipping and falling because the washees are strapped into a hanging harness and merely need to stand or dangle in a fixed position while the conveyor belt moves them from station to station. First the wetting station, then the soapy spray station, next the rinsing station and at the end, no towels are needed because there’s a blow drying station!Yeah, there's a few things that might be said about violations of personal dignity and the like, but with a contraption like this, it may cut down on rapes in the prison shower.
Developed in 1969 during the cold war, the inventor suggests the Human Car Wash can be built into a mobile trailer “to cope with the mass bathing requirements after an atomic bomb”.
All said and done, I'd guess that these inventors marvels are not really the most absurd inventions of all time.
• Web Urbanist's Abandoned Wonders of the World. There really is no shortage of abandoned buildings in the world and they are exciting. They stoke the imagination of many an urban spelunker. Websites such as Infiltration and Opacity freely offer advice to any neophyte explorer of abandoned buildings, sometimes with disclaimers suggesting not to traipse on property not technically your own.
The batch of sites noted at Web Urbanist provides a glimpse of the many kinds of sites that get abandoned. Most curious to me is the
Chapel to Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester, NY. Such famous persons as Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglas are among those buried there in everything from lawn crypts to family mausoleums. It seems strange, then, that the chapel at such an historically significant location would be abandoned to the elements, though it remains elegant even in its disrepair. Of special interest to me is the Bethlehem Steel factory in Lackawanna, NY, located just south of Buffalo, I worked there for about a year as a laborer in the bricklayer's department. It would indeed be a treat to wander about that complex once more. The plant traversed the entire western edge of Lackawanna, and across a highway that separated that city from a most likely very polluted part of Lake Erie. At the north end were the coke ovens where we'd work on relining one oven just next to others that were operational. It was hot work.
I understand that much of that plant is no longer explorable and has, in fact, been demolished. In place of the old coke ovens are a small, and growing assortment of tall wind generator mills. Thankfully, people did manage to explore the plant before it was torn down.
• At Nightmare Hall, blood pressure rises with a TV diet of "...apocalyptic and tin foil helmet conspiracy news." This erstwhile blogger does no believe in conspiracies noting, aptly, that "...The powers that be are right in the sheeple's faces, but nobody seems to notice or care." Arriving at a conclusion that TV can be toxic is nothing new, of course. My favorite film version of TV poisoning is the creepy Canadian produced 1983 social sci-fi flick Videodrome written and directed by David Cronenberg and starring James Woods and singer Debbie Harry. The premise is that that Videodrome is the public "face" of a political ideology movement with unspecified but apparently violent goals. Sound familiar? I'll stop here.
Universal Studios announced, last Spring, they will do a remake of the film.
Harking back to Nightmare Hall's recount, he references Druid Journal's 8 reasons why TV is evil [It is Plato's Cave "...now in Hi-Def"] and check his other links to doing away with the one-eyed face-changing monster from your home and your life.
IMAGE SOURCES: Equal Rights map from The Courage Campaign; bulletproof bed and human conveyor shower found at Planet Oddity; Rusted doorway is an entry to a building that once housed the "criminally insane" and the rocking chair was in the basement of the same building. Those photos I took myself; Intestinal TV from Running Downhill
Labels: abandonded buildings, bloggers, equal rights, gay marriage, propaganda, steel mills, strange inventions, urban exploration, videodrome
¶ 12:42 1 comments
2008-11-13
politics: the know nothings
Now that the US Presidential election is over and the 21st Century version of the Know Nothings have completely overrun the Rethuglican Party leadership we can get back to work at solving our various social, economic and political ills.
There are some notable replacements from the Catholics, Irish and Chinese immigrants with Muslims, Arabs and "the Gays", but I expect the new know nothing leadership [still up for grabs but could include Rush Limbaugh, Lou Dobbs, Ann Coulter, maybe even Sarah Palin?] will be able to improvise.
Formally named The American Party, the Know Nothings had some basic tenets which included:
• Severe limits on immigration, especially from Catholic countries
• Restricting political office to native-born Americans
• Mandating a wait of 21 years before an immigrant could gain citizenship
• Restricting public school teachers to Protestants
• Mandating daily Bible readings in public schools
• Restricting the sale of liquor
Thanks to the persistent dumbing-down of public education that has taken place since the Reagan Era, the evisceration of the Fairness Doctrine [You know, that FCC policy that mandated broadcast media had an obligation to provide for for discussion of contrasting points of view on controversial issues of public importance], the odd promotion of "home schooling" [with precious little oversight as to whether or not the teachers were even prepared], Dubya's so-called "No Child Left Behind", the upsurge of violent thought numbing video games, and the proud braying of opinionated propagandists to blot out any opinion save their own [the Fairness Doctrine's reinstatement could help counter that], the social atmosphere for a new generation of intolerant uninformed know nothings is ripe.
Can't say I'm happy to see this resurgence, but now we know it's there, I do think one of the Obama Adiminstration's goals ought to include re-examining and rebuilding the engine that successfully provided universal education for USA citizens more than half a century.
Now that the US Presidential election is over and the 21st Century version of the Know Nothings have completely overrun the Rethuglican Party leadership we can get back to work at solving our various social, economic and political ills.
There are some notable replacements from the Catholics, Irish and Chinese immigrants with Muslims, Arabs and "the Gays", but I expect the new know nothing leadership [still up for grabs but could include Rush Limbaugh, Lou Dobbs, Ann Coulter, maybe even Sarah Palin?] will be able to improvise.
Formally named The American Party, the Know Nothings had some basic tenets which included:
• Severe limits on immigration, especially from Catholic countries
• Restricting political office to native-born Americans
• Mandating a wait of 21 years before an immigrant could gain citizenship
• Restricting public school teachers to Protestants
• Mandating daily Bible readings in public schools
• Restricting the sale of liquor
Thanks to the persistent dumbing-down of public education that has taken place since the Reagan Era, the evisceration of the Fairness Doctrine [You know, that FCC policy that mandated broadcast media had an obligation to provide for for discussion of contrasting points of view on controversial issues of public importance], the odd promotion of "home schooling" [with precious little oversight as to whether or not the teachers were even prepared], Dubya's so-called "No Child Left Behind", the upsurge of violent thought numbing video games, and the proud braying of opinionated propagandists to blot out any opinion save their own [the Fairness Doctrine's reinstatement could help counter that], the social atmosphere for a new generation of intolerant uninformed know nothings is ripe.
Can't say I'm happy to see this resurgence, but now we know it's there, I do think one of the Obama Adiminstration's goals ought to include re-examining and rebuilding the engine that successfully provided universal education for USA citizens more than half a century.
Labels: education, kow-nothings, noise, politics, propaganda, social change, social control
¶ 07:37 0 comments
2007-12-17
media control
The FCC is determined to pursue a corporate financed gag order on free speech! Even though there has been extensive opposition at crowded public hearings, as well as opposition from public interest groups spanning the the political spectrum FCC 
commission whores plan to make it easier for corporations to restrict free speech by gaining even more control over the media.
The five commissioners include:
Kevin J. Martin, Chair Republican North Carolina
Michael J. Copps Democrat Wisconsin
Jonathan S. Adelstein Democrat South Dakota
Deborah Taylor Tate Republican Tennessee
Robert M. McDowell Republican Virginia
At public hearings across the nation, the citizenry have been resoundingly clear that we are opposed to making it easier for corporations to control both print and telecommunications media. Bushco Lap Dog Martin Chairman has completely ignored the Peoples' Voice on this matter.
So indifferent is Martin to public opinion that he wrote, and submitted, an op-ed essay to the New York Times advocating giving corporate titans what they want. The essay was turned over to the New York Times even before that last of the public hearings, in Seattle, last week, were even held [though he says he can't remember this].
Chairman Martin is under investigation for a lack of transparency in FCC proceedings as well as an abuse of his power in relation to cable industry regulations. He has also been accused of keeping his fellow commissioners in the dark in an attempt to push through policy. John Dingell (D) of the House Commerce Committee commented that this, his cable industry proceedings, as well as an attempt to relax the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership ban "lead to larger concerns as to the inclination and ability of the commission to perform its core mission: the implementation of federal law to serve the public interest."
A faithful lap dog to the Bushco Regime, Martin has also served as a Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy. He has also served as the Deputy General Counsel to Bush-Cheney 2000, on the Bush-Cheney recount team in Florida, and on the Presidential Transition Team in 2000.
You can call the Federal Communications Commission [445 12th Street SW, Washington, DC 20554] weekday business hours by a toll free number 1-888-CALL-FCC to express your concerns about this hijacking of American Citizens' interests. But don't try calling after hours, they only offer phone menu options to corporate applicants, the new media and others. There is no access for the ordinary citizen.The FCC has an e-mail address E-mail: fccinfo@fcc.gov and a fax number 1-866-418-0232, where you can express your concerns. But do it quickly. Chairman Martin plans on rendering a decision in favor of the corporate titans this week.
Or contact your senator or congressional representative via Congress.org, EFF's Congressional contact sheet. In general, it is usually better to CALL rather than write [takes too long to receive it] or e-mail a Congressperson [many don't take e-mail seriously].
commission whores plan to make it easier for corporations to restrict free speech by gaining even more control over the media.The five commissioners include:
Kevin J. Martin, Chair Republican North Carolina
Michael J. Copps Democrat Wisconsin
Jonathan S. Adelstein Democrat South Dakota
Deborah Taylor Tate Republican Tennessee
Robert M. McDowell Republican Virginia
At public hearings across the nation, the citizenry have been resoundingly clear that we are opposed to making it easier for corporations to control both print and telecommunications media. Bushco Lap Dog Martin Chairman has completely ignored the Peoples' Voice on this matter.
So indifferent is Martin to public opinion that he wrote, and submitted, an op-ed essay to the New York Times advocating giving corporate titans what they want. The essay was turned over to the New York Times even before that last of the public hearings, in Seattle, last week, were even held [though he says he can't remember this].
Chairman Martin is under investigation for a lack of transparency in FCC proceedings as well as an abuse of his power in relation to cable industry regulations. He has also been accused of keeping his fellow commissioners in the dark in an attempt to push through policy. John Dingell (D) of the House Commerce Committee commented that this, his cable industry proceedings, as well as an attempt to relax the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership ban "lead to larger concerns as to the inclination and ability of the commission to perform its core mission: the implementation of federal law to serve the public interest." A faithful lap dog to the Bushco Regime, Martin has also served as a Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy. He has also served as the Deputy General Counsel to Bush-Cheney 2000, on the Bush-Cheney recount team in Florida, and on the Presidential Transition Team in 2000.
You can call the Federal Communications Commission [445 12th Street SW, Washington, DC 20554] weekday business hours by a toll free number 1-888-CALL-FCC to express your concerns about this hijacking of American Citizens' interests. But don't try calling after hours, they only offer phone menu options to corporate applicants, the new media and others. There is no access for the ordinary citizen.The FCC has an e-mail address E-mail: fccinfo@fcc.gov and a fax number 1-866-418-0232, where you can express your concerns. But do it quickly. Chairman Martin plans on rendering a decision in favor of the corporate titans this week.
Or contact your senator or congressional representative via Congress.org, EFF's Congressional contact sheet. In general, it is usually better to CALL rather than write [takes too long to receive it] or e-mail a Congressperson [many don't take e-mail seriously].
SEE: Wikipedia's bio on Kevin Martin; read Bill Moyers ongoing account of abuses of power under FCC Chairman Martin; and Normon Solomon's essay on Why FCC Rules Matter to us.
Labels: censorship, corporate control, economic treason, freedom of speech, gag orders, government accountability, propaganda
¶ 08:20 0 comments
2007-12-16
technology
Nuclear power's adherents see a bright, clean future supplying America's energy-starved consumers with abundant nuclear power. Paul Guinnessy wrote close to a year ago at Physics Today: 
Other industry propagandists, such as the CASEnergy Coalition promise they will "...be an important voice in the public dialogue over current and future energy needs, particularly in addressing how nuclear power can contribute to America’s energy security and economic growth."
But it's not just the fevered greedy who are looking optimistically at rebuilding nuclear power resources. A recent article in the Voice of San Diego cites that even Californians [long opposed to any nuclear energy plant construction] are looking favorably at building new nuclear power plants. Given this fevered pitch, combined with the fact that the Oilmen are still in the White House, and American consumers incessant thirst for electrified gadgetry, I think we can expect more efforts will be made, and successfully, to get the nuclear power industry up and running again.
Which means keeping a watchful eye on outfits like Duke Energy going into the nuclear power business shall be critical. Duke already comes with a tarnished record as a major coal-fired plant polluter. The state of North Carolina denied Duke Power, in March 2007, an application to build a new coal plant and there is major litigation filed by the Environmental Defense Fund against Duke Power before the US Supreme Court for past abuses. Employee rights advocates diligently monitor Duke Power's penchant for abuse and disregard for the environment, worker safety and economic equity. Duke Power's close ties to Bushco officials is troubling as well.
Singling out Duke Power is not my objective here. This is still only one of many corporate entities that share similar shady histories and yet are likely to take major roles in a re-emerging nuclear power plant growth tide.
It makes me think of the 1970s film The China Syndrome which was not, upon reflection, and anti-nuclear power screed [though industry PR flaks ranted otherwise]. It was actually a film identifying corruption between politicians and big business, shoddy construction short-cuts and lack of adequate impartial government oversight that the story to the film made as an expose.
For the record, as I've noted before, I have long lived in the shadow a nuke plant [now dismantled] fraught with unpublished problems. I am not completely opposed to thoughtful, planful, judicious use of this awesome source of energy. But I am mindful of the risks; the largest of which to me, is human folly. That is my fear when we talk about building new nuke plants. The other risks, elusive and unknown, I myself have already been living with. Would that our politicians and business executives had to do so as well.
Only last week Duke Energy Corporation filed an application this the Nuclear Regulatory Commission [NRC] to build two new nuclear generating plants in South Carolina. And industry lobbying groups like the Nuclear Energy Institute have been aggressively promoting nuclear power as "clean, efficient" and that it "does not release carbon emissions" into the atmosphere.
The US nuclear power industry has been virtually frozen since the Three Mile Island accident in 1979, but in the US Congress 2005 energy bill, tax credits worth $3.1 billion, along with liability protection and compensation for legislative delays, were added for the industry. On 30 December 2005, for the first time in years, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) certified the design of a new reactor—the 1000-MW Westinghouse advanced passive (AP) reactor.Six US power-plant operators are preparing combined construction and operating license (COL) requests to the NRC that could restart construction in the next five years. NuStart Energy, a consortium of nine nuclear energy companies, submitted plans for a General Electric simplified boiling water reactor at the Grand Gulf nuclear station near Port Gibson, Mississippi, and an AP-1000 reactor at the Bellefonte nuclear plant near Scottsboro, Alabama.
According to representatives of the electric utilities involved, the US government and the reactor technology suppliers are paying for most of the $150 million the certification process costs. "The utilities are waiting to see if they can get any more subsidies out of the government," says Lyman, "so it's still premature to say if any of them will go ahead." A satisfactory means for disposal of their radioactive waste products has not yet been announced.
But the nuclear power industry believes the first new US order is only two years away. Says NuStart Energy president Marilyn Kray, "Our country needs these advanced nuclear plants."
Other industry propagandists, such as the CASEnergy Coalition promise they will "...be an important voice in the public dialogue over current and future energy needs, particularly in addressing how nuclear power can contribute to America’s energy security and economic growth."
But it's not just the fevered greedy who are looking optimistically at rebuilding nuclear power resources. A recent article in the Voice of San Diego cites that even Californians [long opposed to any nuclear energy plant construction] are looking favorably at building new nuclear power plants. Given this fevered pitch, combined with the fact that the Oilmen are still in the White House, and American consumers incessant thirst for electrified gadgetry, I think we can expect more efforts will be made, and successfully, to get the nuclear power industry up and running again.
Which means keeping a watchful eye on outfits like Duke Energy going into the nuclear power business shall be critical. Duke already comes with a tarnished record as a major coal-fired plant polluter. The state of North Carolina denied Duke Power, in March 2007, an application to build a new coal plant and there is major litigation filed by the Environmental Defense Fund against Duke Power before the US Supreme Court for past abuses. Employee rights advocates diligently monitor Duke Power's penchant for abuse and disregard for the environment, worker safety and economic equity. Duke Power's close ties to Bushco officials is troubling as well.
Singling out Duke Power is not my objective here. This is still only one of many corporate entities that share similar shady histories and yet are likely to take major roles in a re-emerging nuclear power plant growth tide.
It makes me think of the 1970s film The China Syndrome which was not, upon reflection, and anti-nuclear power screed [though industry PR flaks ranted otherwise]. It was actually a film identifying corruption between politicians and big business, shoddy construction short-cuts and lack of adequate impartial government oversight that the story to the film made as an expose.
For the record, as I've noted before, I have long lived in the shadow a nuke plant [now dismantled] fraught with unpublished problems. I am not completely opposed to thoughtful, planful, judicious use of this awesome source of energy. But I am mindful of the risks; the largest of which to me, is human folly. That is my fear when we talk about building new nuke plants. The other risks, elusive and unknown, I myself have already been living with. Would that our politicians and business executives had to do so as well.
SEE: The Atomic Revolution 1957 [courtesy of comic book researcher Ethan Pearsoff; Information about M Philip Copp, the artist behind the comic book in question. |IMAGE SOURCES: 1- The Atomic Revolution - comic by M. Philip Copp. 2- a page from myt diary, a sketch of what once had been Connecticut Yankee Nuclear in Haddam Neck, Connecticut.glmxaulc
Labels: industrial comics, nuclear power, propaganda, regulatory agencies
¶ 09:20 0 comments
