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And two from The Onion, too!
Fewer people watched Community last night, but it's still doing better than it was Excerpts:
After such a strong return, Community’s ratings experienced a probably inevitable correction last night, dropping by about 20 percent from around 5 million viewers to around 3.9 million, with a 1.7 ratings share among adults 18 to 49.
Yet:
These are slightly higher numbers than the show was pulling in the fall, and in fact, Community was the overall ratings winner on NBC’s Thursday night, outscoring both 30 Rock and Up All Night (to say nothing of the increasingly spiraling Awake). Combining that small yet significant audience bump with that small yet significant victory, as well as Comedy Central’s recent move to put Community into syndication—and of course, all of those animated GIFs you’ve been making—we’d say it all bodes well for the show’s chances ..
Best comedy on Network/Basic Cable television among several funny comedies. Not only "Best," but "Funny" too. Six seasons and a movie. Yes, please!
Speaking of Awake.. “Kate Is Enough” The AV Club (The Onion). Excerpts:
We don’t really know which world is real and which is the fantasy; we don’t even know if this is the right question to be asking. One of the smartest creative choices Awake has made so far is the show’s willingness not to dig too deeply into its premise.
..
As genre protagonists go, Michael is of the stoic variety. At first glance, he appears calm, patient, and mildly befuddled by life, like someone’s just told a joke he doesn’t quite get. It’s easy to overlook the effectiveness of Jason Isaacs' performance, because he isn’t doing a lot of obvious heavy-lifting. Why should he? Hannah and Rex are the ones who are suffering; they’re the ones who lost someone. For Michael, life is pretty much the same as it’s always been. Things are just a little more complicated.
Except that isn’t true, and the more you watch Isaacs, and get to know Michael, the more you realize he knows it. Awake benefits from not poking its premise too hard, and this single-mindedness stems directly from the show’s leading man. He’s a sleepwalker, moving from scene to scene with his eyes half-open, because his only objective is to sustain this new reality for as long as he can. Other genre shows introduce a strange premise and then provide a hero whose central goal is to solve the mystery; here, we have someone who would sacrifice all he has just to make sure that mystery stays in place. Usually, that’s the antagonist’s job, which sets up the potential for an interesting dynamic down the line, but for right now, it’s enough that Michael’s objective is to make whatever is happening to him work for as long as he possibly can, and to do that, he needs to balance the demands of two worlds, maintain his composure, and do his job in both, while at the same time avoiding any substantial divergence or change. And once again, I am impressed by the perfection of this as a metaphor for grief: a hero who spends his every waking minute trying to stand still.
And:
At some point, the show will most likely come to some sort of conclusion about what’s “real” and what isn’t, but for right now, we’re in a nebulous place where nothing is exactly real, but everything matters anyway. Because of this, the episode at times is less like a cop drama, and more like watching a man’s internal struggles played out in real time.
Awake is unfolding beautifully. It'll be a shame when NBC cancels it. If I made the programming decisions(keeping the same shows minus The Office swapped for Up All Night/all times Central..)? Awake 7-8. Up All Night at 8. Parks and Recreation at 8:30. 30 Rock at 9. Community at 9:30. Awake is no longer up against The Mentalist, and now up against Big Bang. The big difference is there's now a genre choice between. NBC and CBS the entire night! Just by taking Community away from Big Bang's dominant 7p.m. slot, NBC could grow Community pretty quickly. Let's face it, if The Mentalist sucks that night, or it's a re-run, that's a ton of people right there! NBC should really consider some long term growth in aspects of their programming. CBS owns the ratings every Thursday. But I think NBC has better shows. They just need the opportunity to grow until more people find out about them. NBC has the programming. In order to beat CBS on Thursdays, NBC needs patience.
The type of people who love The Mentalist would also love Awake. Now they don't compete! Person of Interest is a clear choice from Up All Night and Parks and Recreation. If it were me, I'd definitely give the people who love 30 Rock and Community the chance to get home late and still see two of their favorite shows before The News. Research indicates Community fans are more urban and get home later in the evening. It seems like a perfect fit for both shows. Note: As 30 Rock is in its sixth season, it is not new, but has never connected, even initially, with a larger core audience in its single slot. Now that both WGN and Comedy Central have picked it up, people are starting to Get It. People's awareness of 30 Rock is just now where it should have been all along. That is the premise to build upon..
Patience, successful-despite-yourself corporate-lunkheads; Patience..
Wisconsin Town Figures Out Source of Mystery Booms Newser. Excerpts:
The mysterious booms heard in Clintonville, Wisconsin, had experts stumped—but there may be a simple explanation. "The mystery is solved. We have experienced an earthquake here in Clintonville,"
..
..explains that the fact that Clintonville's soil and granite isn't like what's normally found under towns suffering earthquakes.
And:
Portable detectors picked up a magnitude 1.5 earthquake—which can only be felt within a 5-mile radius—early Tuesday morning. The devices make their way around the country, and very few are in the state; it was a pure "fluke" that they were in the right place at the right time, adds the city official.
Not that booms don't occur with earthquakes; they do. But not always, and usually of larger magnitude. So maybe.. There could be an earthquake swarm in Clintonville. Have many EQ's does the USGS think happened before the recorded EQ? Have more sounds/booms occurred? That equipment would still be there, or was it "Mystery solved: Let's get the fuck outta here!" And the seismometers are already gone?
And what of Montello? The eyewitness reports seem to all point to more intense episodes. Wouldn't the USGS make the effort to get some seismos just 80 miles to the south west of Clintonville if Montello's shaking harder? Assuming seismometers are still in Clintonville, how many quakes have they recorded since? Also, only a small quadrant of Clintonville was effected, opposed to most of Montello. Also, according to reports from Montello, the boom events overlapped, with Clintonville starting Sunday, and Montello starting Tuesday. How many quakes have been recorded in Montello?
Tunnels?
Rift Expansion?
Solar-triggered Skyquakes?
Mysterious Sounds And Rumble Now Being Reported In Montello, 80 Miles South of Clintonville – March 21, 2012 Follow up/More background from The Truth Behind The Scenes. Excerpts:
In Montello, it’s the talk of the town.
Lekas said, “There was a loud boom and all the windows shook. The whole house shook.”
A loud rumble around 5-thirty last night immediately triggered calls to the police department.
Montello Police Chief Richard Olson said, “We have a lot of good, reliable sources that reported this pretty much community wide.”
Jean Dawidziak’s son heard the boom.
She says, “He was out at the farm and said mom there was this big thing, the whole house shook.”
Pretty much everyone we talked to in Montello says they either heard and felt this rumble themselves or they know someone who did. One person even described it like a really bad train wreck, all the cars slamming into each other at once, right where you’re standing.
Olson says, “They reported it almost as if it was under ground or ground level.”
The police chief is still trying to make sense of it.
These booms are much more intense and widespread than those in Clintonville. And you thought anything with the word "Mystery" or "Mysterious" couldn't get more mysterious..
It's also happening in Oklahoma. That sound is ominous. Lots and lots of videos at the link.
Developing..
Mystery Booms, Ground Shaking in Second Wisconsin Town – Videos Death By 1000 Papercuts. Excerpts:
The “Big Story” in Wisconsin: mystery booms appeared in a second town Tuesday night. The still unexplained phenomena heard by residents in Montello, Wisconsin, 80 miles southwest of Clintonville, the location of mystery booms or ‘blasts’ and shaking that have frightened residents three nights in row beginning Sunday night. Ruled out as the cause of the mystery booms and ground shaking in Clintonville: mining, the military, earthquakes, sewer gas, and anything caused by humans. The current theory: the granite bedrock beneath the town is the culprit. Other theories in the comment sections of news reports: The mystery booms are caused by ‘HAARP’, a ‘sinkhole’ beneath Clintonville, or, ‘giant earthworms’.
..
The latest news: “There are reports of more booming sounds 80 miles away. Police in Montello are now investigating similar sounds.”
“It’s the talk of the town in Montello today, a loud rumble last night that was apparently loud enough to shake walls and rattle windows. Last night the police department received several reports of loud noise and a loud rumble around 5:30. Police say they are investigating.”
Meanwhile, Clintonville residents tired of booming noise.
Meanwhile, the Mystery Booms remain a mystery.
Alternate: "'S'cuse me! Musta been that bean I had earlier.."
Residents search for answers to what’s rattling small Wisconsin town CNN, via The Extinction Protocol. Excerpts:
Mysterious explosions. Unexplained shaking. Something’s going on in Clintonville, Wisconsin, but nobody seems to know what it is. The sounds — variously described as rattling pipes, clanging metal, thunder or firecrackers — have continued on and off since early Sunday night in just one part of the small town of 4,600, located about 180 miles northeast of Madison. Accompanying the sounds are vibrations that have shaken homes and household objects in the northeast corner of town, city manager Lisa Kuss said. The sounds were loud enough Monday morning that a CNN journalist could hear them during a cell phone conversation with Kuss. The baffling phenomenon does not appear to have caused any significant damage or injuries, according to Kuss.
Meanwhile in British Columbia, three booms bring down a rickety-ass barn.
Strange Sounds In Sky Explained By Scientists. Geo Change Journal. Excerpts:
In geophysics, they are called acoustic-gravity waves; they are formed in the upper atmosphere, at the atmosphere-ionosphere boundary in particular. There can be quite a lot of causes why those waves are generated: earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, storms, tsunamis, etc. However, the scale of the observed humming sound in terms of both the area covered and its power far exceeds those that can be generated by the above-mentioned phenomena.
In that case, what could be causing this humming in the sky?
In our opinion, the source of such powerful and immense manifestation of acoustic-gravity waves must be very large-scale energy processes. These processes include powerful solar flares and huge energy flows generated by them, rushing towards Earth's surface and destabilizing the magnetosphere, ionosphere and upper atmosphere. Thus, the effects of powerful solar flares: the impact of shock waves in the solar wind, streams of corpuscles and bursts of electromagnetic radiation are the main causes of generation of acoustic-gravitation waves following increased solar activity.
Given the surge in solar activity as manifested itself in the higher number and energy of solar flares since mid-2011, we can assume that there is a high probability of impact of the substantial increase in solar activity on the generation of the unusual humming coming from the sky.
Comforting. The uptick in Solar energetic activity could also explain the "Super Bolt" phenomenon. Whether or not it turns out to be accurate, it feels poetically fitting that, whatever they are, these sounds, these core shaking, soul quaking sounds herald the arrival and appearance of The Wave that returns us to The Source. But not before engulfing us.
Are the trumpets sounding?
All links from The Extinction Protocol. Thank you!
Of course, there was a big one in Mexico.. Plus a 5.1 and 5.0 aftershock (Mexico), 6.2 in Indonesia, 5.0 in Vanuatu, 4.6 in Greece, a 5 in the Loyalty Islands, 5.2 in Tonga, and a 4.3 in Bolivia.. Nothing HUGE, but taken all together so close to the recent solar activity, 188 day theory (Which is exact Thursday, March 22), all this activity is interesting.. Oh yeah, not to mention that the government of the Mexican province of Chiapas scheduled a 7.9 Earthquake drill for almost that exact time! Somebody call The freakin' Mentalist!
Also.. What if the Mexico quake was a fore shock? Hopefully, when we revisit Friday, this theory will be disproved. We shall see..
From Move On. Check out the chart..
With only two exceptions(New Mexico, sporadic towns in Arkansas), the "affordable" gray states are unlivable, light blue are passable/ok, and dark blue states are cool, but too expensive. More evidence that life in 2012/"Universe 'B'" blows..
I think this event had at least some roots from The Tree of Conflicted Desire. It's also very possible that drugs or alcohol were not involved. Wherever he is, I hope he's getting real help, and that it really helps.
Still: What Was It that set Jason Russell off?
From Raw Story. Excerpts:
A unique thermosolar power station in southern Spain can shrug off cloudy days: energy stored when the sun shines lets it produce electricity even during the night.
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“It is the first station in the world that works 24 hours a day, a solar power station that works day and night!” said Santago Arias, technical director of Torresol Energy, which runs the station.
The mechanism is “very easy to explain,” he said: the panels reflect the suns rays on to the tower, transmitting energy at an intensity 1,000 times higher than that of the sun’s rays reaching the earth.
Energy is stored in a vat filled with molten salts at a temperature of more than 500 degrees C (930 F). Those salts are used to produce steam to turn the turbines and produce electricity.
It is the station’s capacity to store energy that makes Gemasolar so different because it allows the plant to transmit power during the night, relying on energy it has accumulated during the day.
..
As a result, the plant produces 60 percent more energy than a station without storage capacity because it can work 6,400 hours a year compared to 1,200-2,000 hours for other solar power stations, he said.
“The amount of energy we produce a year is equal to the consumption of 30,000 Spanish households,” Arias said, an annual saving of 30,000 tonnes of CO2.
Helped by generous state aid, renewable energies have enjoyed a boom in Spain, the world number two in solar energy and the biggest wind power producer in Europe, ahead of Germany.
Readers in the comment section had some great tidbits to add, including possible solar satellites beaming energy down to power stations, solar's capability to create energy without carbon dioxide, and while still not as powerful as nuclear plants, solar plants are as much as one-fortieth the cost and no nuclear waste. What a fucking concept. My favorite (partial but Right On)post and dumbass response:
Gee, imagine where we might be today had America listened to the peanut farmer physicist who said we have to start now (late 70's), to avoid all the BS going on today with big energy and pollution and wars. BUT, NOOOoooooo!, Americans had to have an actor king, with a James Watt 'jehovah witness' anything goes for profit when it comes to natural resources because there is no tomorrow, in the White House.
..
George Washington Carver, just thought it was appropriate to write his proper name. For he was such an extraordinary man!
Actually, it was Jimmy Carter. Crazy old Jimmy Carter. We could have had solar collectors on all new buildings after say.. 1978. Yeah, solar collectors sucked in the 70's and 80's, but with 30 years of hardcore Research and Development, we would have prevented the endless loop of Resource Wars the 21st Century will surely hold.
And all the oiltards laffed. HAR HAR HAR! That peanut farmer don't know nuthin'! OIL is KING! Turns out, they were wrong, he was right, and we're all fucked.
And why don't any of the progressive pundits ever bring this up? Say it loud and proud: Jimmy Carter was fucking RIGHT!
I've been a tad wary of the KONY phenomenon, as its subject matter is not new. Granted, its younger audiences probably haven't heard tell of the insane, generalized cruelty of the despot and warlord littered political landscapes that control several African countries/dictatorships, including Uganda, sort of.. And that same audience certainly had never been told such tragedy by someone so handsome! Many countries are much worse off, Dar fur(Sudan), Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, and Libya all immediately come to mind. Again, not to downplay anyone's suffering, but the Urgency and Handsomeness surrounding this particular viral sensation was fascinating, yet not entirely pitch perfect.
Within this Event Arc, blow back in the form of deeper investigation began, and evidence, or "evidence," wherever you stand, was revealed about KONY and Invisible Children's operating expenses, which was one scandal(Or not: "Non-Profits" can take A Lot of money in the form of Organizational Operations, and while it might suck or be un-ethical, it is not necessarily against the law..), but then this shows up. That one simple connection happens to be very connected. Huh. Yeah..
So things took a turn yesterday when Jason Russell Freaked The Geek Out very publicly, the damage and implications from said Event still to be determined. Mainstream Conventional Wisdom is saying Bath Salts or Meth. It's not Meth. There are some pretty dark theories floating about out there(which I shall allow you to search on your own..), following them provokes more questions than provides answers. Whatever you think of Russell, though, his extreme behavior warrants a serious and caring response. I hope he's getting the help he needs.
My questions:
What Event or Series of Events would produce this behavior?
Does this, or the other revelations destroy the original message?
Is the whole thing a hoax?
Does anyone else feel like there's something pretty heavy happening, just off-screen?
There's much, much more to this story, I'm sure. And I'm sure most or all of it will be deemed "interesting," to say the least.. Stay tuned..
I bet this was a "busy phone day" within the Murdoch Publishing Empire.. From The Daily Mail. Today's highlights and excerpts:
* Five men and one woman arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice
* Rebekah Brooks and millionaire husband Charlie held at their Chipping Norton home, which was being searched by officers
* Charlie Brooks wrote that yesterday - the first day of the Cheltenham Festival - is his 'happiest of the year'
* News International head of security Mark Hanna among those held
* 23 people have now been arrested under Operation Weeting, the phone-hacking probe
Rebekah Brooks and her racehorse trainer husband Charlie were arrested in dawn raids yesterday by police investigating allegations of a cover-up in the phone hacking inquiry.
The former News International chief executive and her husband – both close friends of David Cameron – were held on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
They were among six people detained by detectives from Operation Weeting, the inquiry into illegal hacking of voicemail messages.
Mrs Brooks, the former editor of The Sun and the News of the World, has been on bail since last summer when she was arrested on suspicion of phone-hacking and corruption.
That arrest in July was ‘by appointment’ but yesterday the couple were woken by a sharp, unexpected, knock on the front door of their Cotswolds mansion.
The dramatic new police action is hugely embarrassing for the Prime Minister, who was flying to the United States for an official visit to President Obama while his friends and neighbours in the so-called Chipping Norton set were being questioned by police.
Earlier this month Mr Cameron’s links with the couple came under fresh scrutiny over the ‘Horsegate’ revelation that the Met Police had lent Mrs Brooks a retired police horse. He was forced to admit he may have ridden the horse with Mr Brooks, a friend from their Eton days.
Asked about the arrests, a Downing Street spokesman said: ‘The Prime Minister is travelling to Washington. It is an operational matter for the police. You wouldn’t expect him to comment on it.’
Chris Bryant, the Labour MP who was a victim of phone hacking, tweeted: ‘Cameron flees the country as his mates are arrested.’
And:
Court documents released last month allege a cover-up of phone-hacking at the now-defunct News of the World with bosses creating a policy of deleting emails which could be used against it in court. The papers, filed in the High Court, said the policy’s aim was ‘to eliminate in a consistent manner’ emails that ‘could be unhelpful in the context of future litigation in which a News International company is a defendant’.
The number of people arrested in Operation Weeting, which has been running since last January when police reopened investigations, stands at 21. Two other linked investigations – Operation Elveden into corrupt payments to police and Operation Tuleta into computer hacking – have resulted in 26 arrests.
Previous Operation Weeting arrests for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice include Cheryl Carter, a PA to Mrs Brooks.
The Mail also gives great Timeline. Here's that..
PHONE HACKING PROBE: TIMELINE OF EVENTS AT NEWS INTERNATIONAL
2007: January 26 - The News of the World's royal editor, Clive Goodman, is jailed for four months and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire receives a six-month sentence after they admit intercepting voicemail messages on royal aides' phones. The paper's editor, Andy Coulson, resigns,
2009: July 9 - The Guardian reports that the News of the World's publisher has paid over £1 million to settle cases that threatened to reveal evidence of its journalists' alleged involvement in phone hacking.
Scotland Yard says it will not be carrying out a new investigation into the allegations, but the Crown Prosecution Service announces a review of material provided by the police in 2006.
2010: February 24 - A Culture, Media and Sport Committee report finds no evidence that Mr Coulson knew phone hacking was taking place at the News of the World, but says it is 'inconceivable' that no-one apart from Goodman was aware of it.
May 11 - Mr Coulson becomes head of the new coalition Government's media operation after Mr Cameron enters 10 Downing Street as Prime Minister.
September 5 - The New York Times publishes an article which claims Mr Coulson knew his staff were carrying out illegal phone hacking. The story also raises questions about how vigorously Scotland Yard pursued the case.
2011: January 21 - Mr Coulson announces he is standing down as Downing Street communications chief, saying the claims about illegal eavesdropping under his editorship was making his job impossible.
January 26 - Scotland Yard launches a fresh inquiry into the phone hacking controversy, called Operation Weeting, after receiving 'significant new information' from News International, which publishes the News of the World.
April 8 - News International admits liability and apologises "unreservedly" to a number of public figures whose phones were hacked.
July 4 - The Guardian reports that the News of the World hacked the mobile phone of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler after she went missing in 2002.
July 6 - Mr Cameron announces a public inquiry into the scandal. Rupert Murdoch describes the phone hacking allegations as 'deplorable and unacceptable' but backs Rebekah Brooks to continue as News International chief executive.
July 7 - News International chairman James Murdoch announces he is closing the News of the World.
July 8 - Mr Coulson is arrested on suspicion of phone hacking and corruption and held for questioning before being released on bail.
July 14 - Former News of the World executive editor Neil Wallis is arrested on suspicion of phone hacking, putting Scotland Yard under pressure to explain why it employed him as a PR consultant in 2009-10.
July 15 - Mrs Brooks resigns as chief executive of News International and is arrested two days later on suspicion of phone hacking before being bailed.
July 18 - Scotland Yard Assistant Commissioner John Yates stands down following criticism of his handling of a review of the initial probe into phone hacking at the News of the World.
Former News of the World journalist and phone-hacking whistle-blower Sean Hoare is found dead at his home in Watford, Hertfordshire.
July 19 - Rupert and James Murdoch, along with Mrs Brooks, give evidence to the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee.
September 6 - The News of the World's former editor Colin Myler and ex-legal manager Tom Crone tell the Culture, Media and Sport Committee they informed James Murdoch in 2008 about an email that proved hacking went beyond a single 'rogue reporter' on the News of the World. Mr Murdoch denies their claim.
November 8 - The BBC reports that the News of the World paid private detective Derek Webb to spy on Prince William, the parents of Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe and a host of other high-profile individuals.
November 14 - The Leveson Inquiry, sitting at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, starts hearing evidence about the culture, practice and ethics of the British press.
December 12 - A lawyer for Scotland Yard tells the Leveson Inquiry it is 'unlikely' that News International journalists erased messages from Milly Dowler's phone three days after she went missing in 2002, contrary to the Guardian's original report in July.
2012: January 6 - Mrs Brooks's former personal assistant, Cheryl Carter, is arrested on suspicion of attempting to pervert the course of justice and questioned before being released on bail.
January 19 - The High Court hears that dozens of celebrities and politicians, including Jude Law and Lord Prescott, have now settled damages claims over the News of the World phone hacking scandal.
January 23 - A report reveals a News of the World journalist told police in April 2002 that they got Milly Dowler's mobile phone number and pin from other schoolchildren.
January 26 - Former defence secretary Liam Fox said attempts were made to hack his phone, though not while he was a government minister, and says he has met with officers from Scotland Yard's hacking inquiry Operation Weeting
January 28 - Four former and current Sun journalists and a serving Metropolitan Police officer are arrested over alleged illegal police payments. Senior Sun employees Chris Pharo, 42, and Mike Sullivan along with former executives Fergus Shanahan, 57, and Graham Dudman, are detained by officers from Operation Elveden. They are later bailed.
February 2 - Labour MP Tom Watson says he has received a letter from Scotland Yard informing him that police are investigating allegations of email hacking at The Times, after the newspaper admitted one of its reporters tried to access a private account. The Times named Lancashire detective Richard Horton as the author of the award-winning NightJack blog in June 2009 after the High Court refused to grant him anonymity. Editor James Harding later told the Leveson Inquiry that one of his reporters - named as Patrick Foster - was issued with a formal written warning for professional misconduct for gaining unauthorised access to Mr Horton's email account.
February 7 - The Metropolitan Police force admits at the High Court that it failed to warn victims and potential victims of phone hacking at the time of its original investigation into the scandal.
February 8 - Steve Coogan and Paul Gascoigne are among 15 phone-hacking damages claims which settle close to trial. The payments mean 54 of the original 60 cases have been settled. Five more are due to be heard later, while singer Charlotte Church and her parents have refused to settle, paving the way for a landmark trial on February 27.
February 11 - Eight people, including five employees from The Sun, a serving member of the Armed Forces, a Ministry of Defence employee and a Surrey Police officer, are arrested in connection with the probe into inappropriate payments to police and public officials.
Police confirm Operation Elveden has widened to include the investigation of evidence uncovered in relation to suspected corruption involving public officials who are not police officers.
February 13 - Trevor Kavanagh, associate editor of The Sun, accuses police of treating the paper's journalists like 'members of an organised crime gang'.
He also tells BBC Radio 4's The World At One that there were concerns at the way evidence passed to the police by the NI's Management and Standards Committee (MSC) was being used.
February 16 - Rupert Murdoch arrives in the UK to take charge of the latest crisis involving one of his titles.
February 17 - Mr Murdoch declares his 'unwavering support' for the Sun's journalists and announces he is lifting the suspensions of all arrested staff.
He also confirms he will begin publishing the top-selling tabloid seven days a week by launching a new paper called the Sun on Sunday 'very soon'.
February 19 - News International announces The Sun on Sunday will be published on February 26 for the first time.
February 27 - Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers, the police officer leading the phone hacking investigation, tells the Leveson Inquiry officers have uncovered a 'network' of corruption and evidence suggesting 'culture of illegal payments' at The Sun which appeared to have been authorised at a 'senior level'.
March 1 - Virginia Wheeler, 32, defence editor of The Sun, is arrested on suspicion of paying public officials for information. She becomes the 23rd person to be arrested by officers working on Operation Elveden.
March 6 - It emerges that the Attorney General is looking into concerns that Ms Akers's evidence could have prejudiced any potential trials.
March 13 - Rebekah Brooks and her racehorse trainer husband are among six suspects arrested by detectives investigating phone hacking at News International. They are held on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
Stay tuned! It's going to be a wonderful spring..
"What the hell is that thang?"
"I don't know, but take my pitcher with it!"
Seriously, what is this? It looks to be about one-fifth of The Sun's visible surface! Combine this with the spherical object near The Sun spotted earlier this week, and we've got ourselves a genuine, bona-fide, simultaneous, anomalous occurrence!
Spaceweather calls it a Coronal Hole, and that solar wind from this hole could arrive here on Earth as early as the 16th. If other geometric shapes appear on the face of The Sun, I will let you know, provided, of course, we're all not solar-microwaved first..
Don't forget to take your Vitamin D this week!
Found it all on Godlike Productions..
The Dangerous Myths of Fukushima Counterpunch. Excerpts:
The myth that Fukushima radiation levels were too low to harm humans persists, a year after the meltdown. A March 2, 2012 New York Times article quoted Vanderbilt University professor John Boice: “there’s no opportunity for conducting epidemiological studies that have any chance for success – the doses are just too low.” Wolfgang Weiss of the UN Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation also recently said doses observed in screening of Japanese people “are very low.”
Views like these are political, not scientific, virtually identical to what the nuclear industry cheerleaders claim.
..
But just one year after Fukushima, the “no harm” mantra is now being crowded by evidence – evidence to the contrary.
First, estimates of releases have soared. The first reports issued by the Japanese government stated that emissions equaled 10% of 1986 Chernobyl emissions. A few weeks later, they doubled that estimate to 20%. By October 2011, an article in the journal Nature estimated Fukushima emissions to be more than double that of Chernobyl.
..
Where did the radioactive particles and gases go? Officials from national meteorological agencies in countries like France and Austria followed the plume, and made colorful maps available on the Internet. Within six days of the meltdowns, the plume had reached the U.S., and within 18 days, it had circled the Northern Hemisphere.
How much radiation entered the U.S. environment? A July 2011 journal article by officials at Pacific Northwest National Lab in eastern Washington State measured airborne radioactive Xenon-133 up to 40,000 times greater than normal in the weeks following the fallout. Xenon-133 is a gas that travels rapidly and does not enter the body, but signals that other, more dangerous types of radioactive chemicals will follow.
A February 2012 journal article by the U.S. Geological Survey looked at radioactive Iodine-131 that entered soil from rainfall, and found levels hundreds of times above normal in places like Portland OR, Fresno CA, and Denver CO. The same places also had the highest levels of Cesium-134 and Cesium-137 in the U.S. While elevated radiation levels were found in all parts of the country, it appears that the West Coast and Rocky Mountain states received the greatest amounts of Fukushima fallout.
L.A. Times: Speculation that “supercritical fission event” occurred at Fukushima reactor irradiating plutonium, says nuclear expert — Explosion so massive investigators found fuel rod fragments a mile away ENews. Excerpts:
Robert Alvarez, a former senior policy adviser in the U.S. Energy Department
"They were irradiating plutonium in Unit 3, which experienced the biggest explosion"
The explosion was so massive that investigators found fuel rod fragments a mile away, leading to speculation that a supercritical fission event may have also occurred.
Much remains unknown one year after the disaster.
Authorities can't say exactly where breaches occurred in the reactor vessels and spent fuel pools that caused contaminated water to flood the plant's lower levels.
The last two excerpts within the article might be misinformation.. The commentors in the following section seem to think so! Plutonium 241 release at 1/10,000 of Chernobyl? Uh-huh.. Uh-huh..
"Planetary Genocide": Fukushima One Year Later : The Poisoning of Planet Earth Global Research via Before It's News. Excerpts:
Early on, even essential radioactive monitoring was shut down. In May 2011, the prestigious Norsk Institute’s online site was blocked from the US. They had been monitoring on a daily basis the worldwide radioactive contamination to which we were all –and continue to be– exposed. Conveniently, any early radiation monitoring in the US was inconsistent, with numerous sites supposedly not working for one or another reason. Then the so-called “acceptable” radiation levels in food were raised in the US and EU:
..
So, what is not monitored, or where the radiation rates are manipulated, then no one –government officials and corporations– can ever be held accountable, nor can increased death rates, diabetes, stillbirths, birth defects ever be attributed to this catastrophic planetary event.
When have we ever been told the truth about our life-long systemic radiation poisoning? For decades, we have been uninformed experimental laboratory rats since before the Manhattan Project. There never were any ethical or precautionary considerations. Greed and secret agendas trumped everything else.
With various half-lives –some eons-long– of numerous radioactive components, the human race and every other living creature on our planet is on its way to extinction, due to the known sterilization effects of radiation. Here is a short list of the half-life of five of the radioactive isotopes that are and will continue to poison all of our children, and us, ad infinitum, in the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the water we drink and in which we bathe:
Cesium 137: 30 years
Plutonium 239: 24,000 years
Strontium 90: 29 years [mimics calcium in the body]
Uranium 235: 700-million years
Iodine 131: 8 days [absorbed into the thyroid and gives heavy radiation dose. Also goes into the soil, passed onto us through cow’s milk.]
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Any reasonable safety precautions or realistic evacuations never took place at Fukushima or elsewhere. In addition, a collection of 40-years worth of 600,000 spent fuel rods posed an immediate HazMat threat that never went away. The water poured over them evaporated into radioactive steam to go directly into our planet’s atmosphere and the tons of sea water sprayed on the entire nuclear conflagration were criminally dumped into the Pacific Ocean. Again, because it was not monitored, we will never know how many millions of tons of radioactive water were dumped into the Pacific Ocean. The entire web of ocean life then was irreversibly contaminated with radioactive nuclear waste and detritus, as the ocean currents carried this nightmare to the west coast shores of North America (California, Oregon, Washington, and Vancouver).
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While hundreds of thousands (perhaps millions?) will develop various radiation-related illnesses (cancers and diabetes, as well as radiation-induced miscarriages, stillbirths and birth deformities) over the next decades, the coffers of the medical profession, pharmaceutical companies, and nuclear industry will be bursting with profits. The 1986 nuclear accident at Chernobyl continues its deathly impact –and that was only one reactor.(2) Fukushima had six reactors.
Most Important Video of the Year? Asahi TV: “Unbelievable” — If Unit 4 pool gets a crack from quake and leaks, it would be end for Tokyo -Expert — Doesn’t have to be large tremor, already shaken many times You don't really need to watch the video or even read the excerpts from ENews. Just re-read the previous three sentences.
All of Western US and most of East Coast, Midwest, Canada covered with airborne particles at various altitudes on March 20, Fukushima plume model shows — Based solely on Reactor No. 1 explosion (PHOTO)
Look at the plume simulations for March 20th. March 22nd was the first day I can remember a Metallic taste to the air. I was jogging, and in SW Missouri, it was drizzling. I knew, just knew my imagination was getting the best of me. Again, I second guessed my intuition. I guess it really doesn't matter now, does it? The damage continues to be done, and it continues to be Too Late. Happy Anniversary, everyone!
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