Random News Items

[tacklewasher]

 

I grew up in Pinawa....we're taught from birth to beware the anti-Nuke voice out there.  My grandfather was a nuclear scientist who worked his way up the ladder at Atomic Energy of Canada and created Whiteshell Nuclear Research Establishment in the 60s, along with his team. We were taught various "emergency protocols" throughout school, just in case something should ever go wrong out at "The Plant", but nothing ever did. The amount of safety measures in place...especially after incidents like Chernobyl and Three Mile Island.....really kept the dangerous stuff at bay.

 

other then not being built in an earthquake zone could anything have been done to prevent what happened in Japan after that earthquake a few years back?

 

While being a very bizarre way to phrase the question, yes. The basic design of the reactor is partly to blame. One of the reasons the CANDU is considered safe is because it shuts down if the water is removed. But there were other design issues with the Fuji reactor that more modern reactors don't have.

 

But not building in an earthquake zone is a pretty big deal.

 

And other sources of power generation carry their own risks.

[kelownabomberfan]

They must have stolen the idea from Homeland... the CIA on the show just blew up a plane in mid-air last week!

Dude!!! Waiting for season to be over to do Homeland marathon - no spoilers please!

[iso_55]

 

 

(CNN)Antarctica is gaining more ice than it has lost, according to a new study by NASA.

 

A NASA team came to this conclusion after scientists examined the heights of the region's ice sheet measured from satellites.

 

The new methods used by scientists to come to this study's conclusion, such as measuring small height changes in the ice over large areas, warrant consideration. But the findings do conflict with more than a decade of research indicating that Antarctica is losing ice and that the loss has contributed to rising global sea levels

 

Many scientists agree that the Antarctic Peninsula and parts of West Antarctica are losing ice and that the rate of loss is increasing. In the eastern part of the continent and part of the interior, there have been ice gains. These gains, scientists from the study say, are more than the losses in the rest of the region.

 

This net gain in ice would mean that Antarctica would not be contributing to sea level rises, but could help offset some of the major ice losses in places from Greenland and glaciers worldwide.

 

Scientists suspect that increased snowfall, which began 10,000 years ago, is the reason for the gain in Antarctica. Over the years, the snow has accumulated and compacted to form ice.

 

 

****Hmmmm, so a change in weather 10,000 years ago is impacting the climate today?  Thats weird.  I dont recall the industrialized age beginning 10,000 years ago.  Weird.  I wonder if the earth goes through regular warming and cooling trends over the course of it's lifetime, regardless of the actions of man.  Wouldnt that be something.

 

 

But if you believe that, you won't buy carbon credits and put money into Al Gore's fat pockets.  And we can't have that. 

 

And poor David Suzuki will be standing in line at food kitchens in Vancouver. 

[The Unknown Poster]

@darrenrovell: Adidas announces it will help high schools change names & logos from Native American mascots, offering financial & design assistance

[bigg jay]

On a related note, a Native artist had come up with this re-designed Chicago Blackhawks logo a few years ago, and it's popping up again on social media (it's done this a few times).  While Chicago's name/logo isn't nearly as offensive as other teams, I'd be on board if they ever went with a design like this one:

 

[Mark F]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/doctors-without-borders-report-kunduz-hospital-bombing_563b408ee4b0307f2cac20dc?utm_hp_ref=canada&ir=Canada&section=canada&adsSiteOverride=ca

 

 

The medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders released its internal report on Thursday about the October attack on its hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan. 

At least 30 people were killed in the airstrikes, led by U.S. forces, the report said. "Patients burned in their beds," it added, and "medical staff were decapitated and lost limbs."

The organization found that "a patient in a wheelchair attempting to escape from the
inpatient department ... was killed by shrapnel from a blast."

 

 

Drs without borders say that the Americans were given the location and coordinates of the Hospital. Similar to Israelis bombing UN peacekeepers headquarters, which the Israelis had the coordinates for, in Lebanese invasion.

[bigg jay]

 

They must have stolen the idea from Homeland... the CIA on the show just blew up a plane in mid-air last week!

Dude!!! Waiting for season to be over to do Homeland marathon - no spoilers please!

 

 

LOL sorry, no more spoilers from me!

[kelownabomberfan]

On a related note, a Native artist had come up with this re-designed Chicago Blackhawks logo a few years ago, and it's popping up again on social media (it's done this a few times).  While Chicago's name/logo isn't nearly as offensive as other teams, I'd be on board if they ever went with a design like this one:

 

That looks awesome!

[kelownabomberfan]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/doctors-without-borders-report-kunduz-hospital-bombing_563b408ee4b0307f2cac20dc?utm_hp_ref=canada&ir=Canada&section=canada&adsSiteOverride=ca

 

 

The medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders released its internal report on Thursday about the October attack on its hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan. 

At least 30 people were killed in the airstrikes, led by U.S. forces, the report said. "Patients burned in their beds," it added, and "medical staff were decapitated and lost limbs."

The organization found that "a patient in a wheelchair attempting to escape from the

inpatient department ... was killed by shrapnel from a blast."

That Bush, what a war-monger. What's that now? Bush hasn't been president since 2008? Well who's in charge now? Obama?! But but we can't say anything bad about him, that's just not acceptable. This must be someone else's fault. Like Bush for instance. Aw...that feels better.

 

Drs without borders say that the Americans were given the location and coordinates of the Hospital. Similar to Israelis bombing UN peacekeepers headquarters, which the Israelis had the coordinates for, in Lebanese invasion.

Yes, somehow when Doctors without Borders is speaking, they always find a way to fit in a shot at the Israelis. The US and Israel, the only two nations on earth that ever mistakenly bomb people. No one else ever does. So weird.

 

 

[Mark F]

KBF I agree that Bush was a war monger,

 

and I  Also agree that Obama is a war monger... at least I think that's what you meant....

 

good to agree with you about something....

 

MSF didnt stick that in about Israel bombing the peacekeepers, I did. Cause it's similar, they were given the coordinates, and bombed it anyway.

 

The point is, it wasn't a mistake.

[kelownabomberfan]

KBF I agree that Bush was a war monger,

 

and I  Also agree that Obama is a war monger... at least I think that's what you meant....

 

good to agree with you about something....

 

MSF didnt stick that in about Israel bombing the peacekeepers, I did. Cause it's similar, they were given the coordinates, and bombed it anyway.

 

The point is, it wasn't a mistake.

 

So you think that the Americans and Israelis deliberately bombed MSF?  Why?  Unless you subscribe to some kind of idealism that both nations are just that evil to do it on purpose, I don't know why they would do it.  It makes no sense.

[bigg jay]

Irony:  Complaining about racist sports team/names & then dressing up for Halloween using blackface.

 

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/nov/4/terry-rambler-apache-leader-offended-by-redskins-n/

[The Unknown Poster]

Irony:  Complaining about racist sports team/names & then dressing up for Halloween using blackface.

 

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/nov/4/terry-rambler-apache-leader-offended-by-redskins-n/

That was a poor decision.  Also considering the amount of backlash over wearing anything Aboriginal as halloween costuming. 

[Mark F]

Israel had nothing to do with this.

 

 

Not me saying it was intentional. It's the New York Times, amongst others.

 

New York Times

 

 

"KABUL, Afghanistan — The Doctors Without Borders hospital was among the most brightly lit buildings in Kunduz on the night a circling American gunship destroyed it.

The rest of the northern Afghan city was mostly dark after days of fighting between the security forces and Taliban militants. But the hospital was keeping its lights on as doctors there were working, according to the group’s general director, Christopher Stokes.

Spread across the hospital roof was a large white and red flag reading “Médecins Sans Frontières,” the group’s French name. On the afternoon before the strike, the fighting in the neighborhood had quieted enough for staff members to safely climb to the roof and lay out the markers identifying the building to any military aircraft flying over.

The group had also sent the longitude and latitude coordinates of the hospital, for years the most important trauma center in that part of northern Afghanistan, to the United States military to remind it where not to attack during the fighting.

 

 

 

Despite all that, and the protection afforded to war-zone hospitals by the Geneva Conventions, the hospital was gutted by an American military bombardment in the early hours of Oct. 3. The strikes occurred over an hour and 15 minutes and killed 30 people, including patients on operating tables and the wounded in their beds and wheelchairs.

 

At a news conference in Kabul on Thursday, the international medical organization said that more than a month after the attack the United States military had yet to offer an explanation for why a clearly marked hospital was struck, other than to say it had been hit by mistake.

 

“A mistake is quite hard to understand and believe at this stage,” Mr. Stokes said at the news conference. The organization shared more details of the attack and renewed its call for an independent investigation, which both the United States and Afghanistan have resisted so far. “From what we are seeing now, this action is illegal in the laws of war. You cannot do this. You cannot bomb a hospital.”

 

 

As details continue to emerge that suggest that the military struck the target it intended to hit that day, a troubling question hangs over the various investigations into the attack: Did someone intentionally decide to fire on the hospital, whether because of the presence of wounded Taliban fighters there or for some other reason?

 

You can look up a picture of the building, taken from the air. I did.

 

It's by far the biggest building around, completely different in appearance than anything else, and I would say it would be difficult and unlikely to mistake it for anything else.

 

By the wa two weeks later Saudi Arabia bombed  an MSF hospital in Yemen.

[The Unknown Poster]

Interesting story on CNN about the Russia air disaster

(CNN)Concern that there might have been a bomb smuggled aboard the Metrojet flight by an insider at Sharm el-Sheikh airport raises the question: Could such an insider attack happen in the West?

Short answer: It isn't out of the question.

Five American citizens involved in serious terrorist crimes since 9/11 have worked at major U.S. airports in a variety of capacities.

***additionally story reports 73 people working in secured areas were on terrorist watch lists.

I'm sort of a nervous flyer as it is....

[The Unknown Poster]

Funny?  Sad?  Embarrassing?  Some combination of the three?

 

 

 

Winnipeg city councillor Ross Eadie admits he spent a night in the drunk tank over the weekend but is incensed that police informed the mayor’s office.

The Mynarski councillor says he was drinking Friday night at a number of locations and was taken by police to the Main Street Project after the bars closed.

The Main Street Project, on Martha Street, is the only shelter and drop-in centre downtown that will take people if they’re intoxicated.

Eadie admits he had "way too much to drink" and had passed out in a cab when the police were called. But he said doesn’t remember what happened after that.

"What happened is I had several drinks too much to have and I was with a friend. He put me in a taxi and I guess I probably passed out in the taxi and the taxi driver must have called to get assistance to get me out of the taxi," Eadie, who is legally blind, said in a telephone interview on Sunday.

"If you wake up a blind guy who’s drunk, probably the first thing I’d do is try to push people away or whatever."

"Someone from the mayor’s office called me and said that I assaulted somebody or something, a paramedic or something," he said.

"It’s interesting in that I don’t understand why you would call the mayor," he said.

"Why would you, the police, call the mayor? I’m 55 years old. I obviously had too much to drink. Why would you call the mayor, though? I don’t understand that. He’s not my father. I’m not accountable to him, so for me, it was kind of like, wow, what’s that all about."

City spokeswoman Carmen Barnett said the mayor was not available Sunday and "he would not comment on this personal matter."

Eadie said he and a friend had been drinking at The King’s Head pub in the Exchange District Friday, had a few more drinks at the Urban Shaman art show where he bought some art, and then they went to another bar.

"I’ll just tell you, (a friend) put me in a taxi on Main Street after the bar closed and all I can figure is that I probably passed out in a taxi. Nobody told me anything. I’m just telling you what more than likely happened," Eadie said.

"Given how drunk I was, probably passed out in the car. If I was a taxi driver, what I would probably do is call the cops. Wouldn’t you?

"They took me over to the Main Street Project and let me out at 10 o’clock Saturday morning."

Eadie said he has not been charged with anything.

A Winnipeg police spokesman said late Sunday he had no information on the incident.

A source told the Free Press Eadie was verbally abusive to police, prompting a senior officer to report his behaviour to the mayor’s office.

Eadie said he did not knowingly lash out at anyone.

"And again, if you wake up somebody who is totally drunk and you’re blind and you don’t know where you are, more than likely, because I don’t remember, more than likely I probably tried to push them away. Leave me alone. I just want to go home."

Asked if he wanted to add anything or if he had any regrets about what happened, Eadie said, "I don’t think any of it is newsworthy. I had too much to drink."

Eadie was first elected to city council in the Mynarski ward in 2010, then re-elected in 2014.

He worked previously as a policy analyst with the provincial Department of Labour and Immigration, and as a school trustee with the Seven Oaks School Division, his election website states.

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca

[Rich]

If you don't think something like this is newsworthy, you shouldn't run for public office.

I actually don't understand why anyone would want the scrutiny of public office.

[sweep the leg]

He's wrong to think this isn't a story, but I get why he'd try to play it down. IMO it's more of a funny/embarassing story than anything of real importance though.

[The Unknown Poster]

If you don't think something like this is newsworthy, you shouldn't run for public office.

I actually don't understand why anyone would want the scrutiny of public office.

His whole point about why would the cops call the Mayor...well, I have a feeling some of his verbal abuse was "do you know who I am" and "Im going to have your job".

 

Im also disappointed he'd use his disability as justification for abuse.  And what sort of role model basically says going on a drinking binge and being passed out in a cab to an extent the police and paramedics are called and he's taken into custody is really no big deal.  Personal life is personal life but character is fair game when it comes to elected officials.  If he was a celebrity, he'd be roasted. 

 

I'd like to see a break down in cost of the public resources he wasted by getting blackout drunk.

 

And if he was physically abusive (he pretty much admits its possible), I'd suspect his position might have saved him from a charge.  The drunk tank is better than getting arrested for assault, public drunkeness etc.  His excuses and defensiveness are tone deaf.  He should grow up.

 

Now imagine if the poor cabbie had driven him home and this guy had fallen at his door or stumbled inside but choked on his own vomit...they'd be blaming the taxi driver.  Cabbie did the right thing calling the cops.

[The Unknown Poster]

@mikeoncrime: Source says it wasn't fact councillor was drunk. It was his expressed views on police that promoted mayor alert.

This would also be newsworthy. Public has right to know

Councillors views on police

[Taynted_Fayth]

At least he was in a cab. I think itd look worse if he got pulled over for drunk driving then got belligerent. Ive gotten into fights with cabbies before too they are dicks to drunk ppl

[Rich]

I was thinking the same thing with drunk driving ... But if he is blind, we'd have even bigger problems if he was driving.

[bigg jay]

At least he was in a cab. I think itd look worse if he got pulled over for drunk driving then got belligerent. Ive gotten into fights with cabbies before too they are dicks to drunk ppl

You know many blind people who drive?

[Rich]

@mikeoncrime: Source says it wasn't fact councillor was drunk. It was his expressed views on police that promoted mayor alert.

This would also be newsworthy. Public has right to know

Councillors views on police

By his own admission he was so drunk he can't say for sure what happened ... He can only spectate.

I've been there, not fun to wake up the next morning and friends tell you what happened. Then again I was also in my early twenties at the time.

[Mr Dee]

The question should be..

Do you know how many stupid people drive?