Sorry I havent posted in a few days, been out at Hanford reservation taking a tour of the first place to manufacture plutonium, which was used on Japan in the second world war. What I didn't know is that Hanford continued to manufacture plutonium until the mid 1980's!!! The United States has 10x the amount of nuclear weapons that the entire world has combined, which means that we more than likely have between 50-80x that as well.
SCARY.
So, I think my focus will be on that for the next couple of entries.
Ill write more tommorow--we are finishing our nuclear weekend with Silkwood.
Read more!
25 June 2005
Hanford Exposure
Sorry I have not written in a while--been out at the tri-cities touring the hanford facility--the place where they manufactured the weapons grade plutonium for the first atomic bomb that was dropped on Japan.
So I have been a bit busy, collecting my thoughts. We are watching silkwood tonight--people in the tri-cities seem to be in denial about what happened at these plants over the years. Let me just say that it is one of the more frightening experiences I have had in quite some time. Not by what I saw, but what I didn't see.
More tommorow I promise. Read more!
So I have been a bit busy, collecting my thoughts. We are watching silkwood tonight--people in the tri-cities seem to be in denial about what happened at these plants over the years. Let me just say that it is one of the more frightening experiences I have had in quite some time. Not by what I saw, but what I didn't see.
More tommorow I promise. Read more!
21 June 2005
Solstice
I feel as times like life is just passing me by and I am just sitting here touring the life of Tim Hogg. Here we are the first day of summer, my father's birthday and the day just seemed to cruise right by me once again. It seems like just yesterday I was going to college for the first time, falling into a hole and breaking my ankle, hearing one of my ex-girlfriends got married or graduating college. Life is particular that way.
The summer equinox always seems to bring a change in tides for me-soon the weather here in Seattle will start to get worlds nicer, people will be out in the open wanting to do more things, life will sprout once again. I must admit that I have been feeling slightly down lately because I still can't seem to control how fast these days seem to move forward. I spend most of my time wanting to just catch a moment and relax, but then I find that I have spent too much time relaxing and another day has found itself in the past.
As Eddie Vedder once said, Lifetimes are catchin up to me.
I don't especially have a lot more to add, mostly because it is late and I feel that I should try my best to get some sleep in. Happy Birthday to my Dad, who turned 51 or something like that today. My sister Sarah is currently in route to Britian, where she will be for the next 6 weeks, hopefully discovering more about herself and the world than what she has come into thus far. She has a ton of potential. Read more!
The summer equinox always seems to bring a change in tides for me-soon the weather here in Seattle will start to get worlds nicer, people will be out in the open wanting to do more things, life will sprout once again. I must admit that I have been feeling slightly down lately because I still can't seem to control how fast these days seem to move forward. I spend most of my time wanting to just catch a moment and relax, but then I find that I have spent too much time relaxing and another day has found itself in the past.
As Eddie Vedder once said, Lifetimes are catchin up to me.
I don't especially have a lot more to add, mostly because it is late and I feel that I should try my best to get some sleep in. Happy Birthday to my Dad, who turned 51 or something like that today. My sister Sarah is currently in route to Britian, where she will be for the next 6 weeks, hopefully discovering more about herself and the world than what she has come into thus far. She has a ton of potential. Read more!
The Split
I have been feeling that there is too much content that is going through this one page of my blog, so I have decided that in order to keep everything to where it doesn't seem to overwhelming, I am going to split this blog into different catagories. This page is going to be mainly for incessent ramblings which do not fit into the other schemes of what I am attempting to do. So, if you are looking for cheeky pictures of people and other oddities that come along, this is your place.
Politik is going to be for ---you guessed it, my general agnst and anger about this foolish system of lies and capitalism that America has become. In this site, I am also going to include some stories from media sources that I feel are not covering the real story.
There is going to be another page dedicated to reviews of films and music that is going to focus on those subjects specifically. (A side note, I just went and saw Layer Cake today and it was fucking great. However it is bloody midnight and I am going to bed, but will write something in the new blog tommorow about it.)
Finally, there is going to be another page which will list all the things that I am currently workshipping and would like to eventually publish or print for money that will go directly to paying off my student loans. There is currently one story up there, but it will soon be followed by another that is going to be about the trip to Hanford that I am about to embark on. I think you will want to stay tuned for that one-- I will be one of the first non-employees to tour the site since 911 and will be covering it just for you, the reader. (Unless I can get someone else to pay me for it.)
Thanks for check, checking it out. The links for all the sites will be listed to the right of the page, below the google search engine.
Ciao Read more!
Politik is going to be for ---you guessed it, my general agnst and anger about this foolish system of lies and capitalism that America has become. In this site, I am also going to include some stories from media sources that I feel are not covering the real story.
There is going to be another page dedicated to reviews of films and music that is going to focus on those subjects specifically. (A side note, I just went and saw Layer Cake today and it was fucking great. However it is bloody midnight and I am going to bed, but will write something in the new blog tommorow about it.)
Finally, there is going to be another page which will list all the things that I am currently workshipping and would like to eventually publish or print for money that will go directly to paying off my student loans. There is currently one story up there, but it will soon be followed by another that is going to be about the trip to Hanford that I am about to embark on. I think you will want to stay tuned for that one-- I will be one of the first non-employees to tour the site since 911 and will be covering it just for you, the reader. (Unless I can get someone else to pay me for it.)
Thanks for check, checking it out. The links for all the sites will be listed to the right of the page, below the google search engine.
Ciao Read more!
20 June 2005
How The Media Sucks Part 1
I think that I am going to take a little from the friedman book and start to put up stories which I find where I can comment on what the reporter and the newspaper did incorrectly in certain stories. I can then allow you to comment upon these comments.
My first victim:
Man fatally shot at federal courthouse in Seattle
By Sara Jean Green
Seattle Times staff reporter
Now, when you read this article, look at how much attention is put on the actual building and the infastructure of the building and not what happened on the scene, what witnesses saw (there is some mention of this, but not nearly enough), etc. Instead, the reporter uses old information on the building. Why? The person that had the grenade more than likely did not attack the building because he didn't like how it was designed....
ELAINE THOMPSON / AP
A Seattle police officer holds a rifle as he runs toward the Federal Courthouse in downtown Seattle today after a man carrying what appeared to be a hand grenade was shot to death in the lobby of the building after he walked inside and made threats, police said.
BETTY UDESEN / THE SEATTLE TIMES, 2004
The new courthouse is on a full city block at Seventh Avenue and Stewart Street in downtown Seattle.
ELAINE THOMPSON / AP
A member of the Seattle Police Department bomb squad, dressed in protective clothing, walks toward the Federal Courthouse in downtown Seattle today.
E-mail article Print view Search
Most e-mailed Most read RSS
Detailed layout of the courthouse
AP video: Man killed at courthouse
A man who walked into the federal courthouse in downtown Seattle today carrying a hand grenade was shot and killed, police said.
Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske said the man walked into the building armed with a hand grenade. After a 20-minute standoff, Seattle police officers fired several rounds.
The man was shot twice, once in the chin with an M-16 and once in the chest with a shotgun. He collapsed still clutching the grenade, that was later determined to be inactive.
The Seattle Police Department's bomb squad examined the man's backpack before medics were allowed in to treat him.
He was then pronounced dead at the scene, said police spokesman Rich Pruitt.
Police said he walked into the building shortly before noon. The man, dressed in camouflage gear, also wore a backpack attached to his chest, but the chief said it did not appear the backpack held any explosives.
The man did not go through any security checkpoint and was just inside the building lobby.
He was shot by Seattle police. His identity was not immediately known. Two courthouse employees who saw the man said he appeared to be white with blond hair.
Employees were evacuated from the building under escort.
A federal employee said two loud shots were heard, then the man was seen crumpled on the lobby floor. At 12:30 p.m., he was still lying there with what appeared to be a yellow backpack. No one was near the man.
During the stand-off, the man stood at the west side of the lobby, while police with rifles were at a distance near the building's elevators.
The FBI is in the process of obtaining a search warrant for the man's studio apartment, but its location wasn't immediately released.
Court Administrator Bruce Rifkin said that, following protocol, the building was evacuated from the ground floor up to floor five or six. He was unaware of any controversial hearings or trials scheduled for today.
The $171 million federal courthouse at Seventh Avenue and Stewart Street opened in August.
The building houses U.S. Marshals Service, judges, support staff and court clerks, as well as the U.S. Attorney's Office, bankruptcy courts, and probation and pretrial services.
The courthouse was hailed as a huge improvement over the old building, located on Fifth Avenue downtown. In the old building, for example, judges, defendants and jurors walked many of the same hallways and used the same elevators. The trial of terrorist Ahmed Ressam was moved to a newer federal courthouse in Los Angeles, in part because of security concerns.
The building, which began construction after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing but before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, was designed to give the feel of open public access while still providing tight security.
"It isn't easy to make a building feel welcoming and at the same time have security," Court Administrator Rifkin said last summer, on a tour of the new building.
The planners handled it this way:
Visitors may walk into the lobby area a short distance without going through security screening. "The public can come in and enjoy it without having to go through the drill," Judge Carolyn Dimmick said on the same tour.
But in order to get to the courtrooms, the clerk's office, or anywhere else in the building, a visitor must go through a walk-through metal detector, which takes up the right side of the lobby. The court security officers who run the metal detectors are armed. Many of them are retired law-enforcement officers, Rifkin said.
The rest of the large entranceway features what court workers refer to as a moat รข€” a wide, shallow reflecting pool that essentially blocks access to the main part of the building and directs visitors towards the metal detectors. There is an infrared security curtain around the moat, which presumably would set off an alarm if it was breached. It is unclear what might physically prevent a determined intruder from running through the water other than the quick action of the security guards.
In addition, the building's floor-to-ceiling windows have special glass that protects against bombs. The building is set back from the street, artistically, with a large plaza on one side, a block-long staircase on another, and concrete barriers. These features help prevent someone from driving up to the building with a truck bomb. Parking is not allowed along the adjacent streets.
In the fall of 2001, after the anthrax scare, building designers also added a special ventilation system for the mailroom. Read more!
My first victim:
Man fatally shot at federal courthouse in Seattle
By Sara Jean Green
Seattle Times staff reporter
Now, when you read this article, look at how much attention is put on the actual building and the infastructure of the building and not what happened on the scene, what witnesses saw (there is some mention of this, but not nearly enough), etc. Instead, the reporter uses old information on the building. Why? The person that had the grenade more than likely did not attack the building because he didn't like how it was designed....
ELAINE THOMPSON / AP
A Seattle police officer holds a rifle as he runs toward the Federal Courthouse in downtown Seattle today after a man carrying what appeared to be a hand grenade was shot to death in the lobby of the building after he walked inside and made threats, police said.
BETTY UDESEN / THE SEATTLE TIMES, 2004
The new courthouse is on a full city block at Seventh Avenue and Stewart Street in downtown Seattle.
ELAINE THOMPSON / AP
A member of the Seattle Police Department bomb squad, dressed in protective clothing, walks toward the Federal Courthouse in downtown Seattle today.
E-mail article Print view Search
Most e-mailed Most read RSS
Detailed layout of the courthouse
AP video: Man killed at courthouse
A man who walked into the federal courthouse in downtown Seattle today carrying a hand grenade was shot and killed, police said.
Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske said the man walked into the building armed with a hand grenade. After a 20-minute standoff, Seattle police officers fired several rounds.
The man was shot twice, once in the chin with an M-16 and once in the chest with a shotgun. He collapsed still clutching the grenade, that was later determined to be inactive.
The Seattle Police Department's bomb squad examined the man's backpack before medics were allowed in to treat him.
He was then pronounced dead at the scene, said police spokesman Rich Pruitt.
Police said he walked into the building shortly before noon. The man, dressed in camouflage gear, also wore a backpack attached to his chest, but the chief said it did not appear the backpack held any explosives.
The man did not go through any security checkpoint and was just inside the building lobby.
He was shot by Seattle police. His identity was not immediately known. Two courthouse employees who saw the man said he appeared to be white with blond hair.
Employees were evacuated from the building under escort.
A federal employee said two loud shots were heard, then the man was seen crumpled on the lobby floor. At 12:30 p.m., he was still lying there with what appeared to be a yellow backpack. No one was near the man.
During the stand-off, the man stood at the west side of the lobby, while police with rifles were at a distance near the building's elevators.
The FBI is in the process of obtaining a search warrant for the man's studio apartment, but its location wasn't immediately released.
Court Administrator Bruce Rifkin said that, following protocol, the building was evacuated from the ground floor up to floor five or six. He was unaware of any controversial hearings or trials scheduled for today.
The $171 million federal courthouse at Seventh Avenue and Stewart Street opened in August.
The building houses U.S. Marshals Service, judges, support staff and court clerks, as well as the U.S. Attorney's Office, bankruptcy courts, and probation and pretrial services.
The courthouse was hailed as a huge improvement over the old building, located on Fifth Avenue downtown. In the old building, for example, judges, defendants and jurors walked many of the same hallways and used the same elevators. The trial of terrorist Ahmed Ressam was moved to a newer federal courthouse in Los Angeles, in part because of security concerns.
The building, which began construction after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing but before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, was designed to give the feel of open public access while still providing tight security.
"It isn't easy to make a building feel welcoming and at the same time have security," Court Administrator Rifkin said last summer, on a tour of the new building.
The planners handled it this way:
Visitors may walk into the lobby area a short distance without going through security screening. "The public can come in and enjoy it without having to go through the drill," Judge Carolyn Dimmick said on the same tour.
But in order to get to the courtrooms, the clerk's office, or anywhere else in the building, a visitor must go through a walk-through metal detector, which takes up the right side of the lobby. The court security officers who run the metal detectors are armed. Many of them are retired law-enforcement officers, Rifkin said.
The rest of the large entranceway features what court workers refer to as a moat รข€” a wide, shallow reflecting pool that essentially blocks access to the main part of the building and directs visitors towards the metal detectors. There is an infrared security curtain around the moat, which presumably would set off an alarm if it was breached. It is unclear what might physically prevent a determined intruder from running through the water other than the quick action of the security guards.
In addition, the building's floor-to-ceiling windows have special glass that protects against bombs. The building is set back from the street, artistically, with a large plaza on one side, a block-long staircase on another, and concrete barriers. These features help prevent someone from driving up to the building with a truck bomb. Parking is not allowed along the adjacent streets.
In the fall of 2001, after the anthrax scare, building designers also added a special ventilation system for the mailroom. Read more!
19 June 2005
The world is flattening people
After being some 100 or so pages in Thomas Friedman's latest book, "The World Is Flat", I have come to the conclusion of several things. Most importantly, the book makes me wonder why in the hell someone like Friedman would write such a basic book on globalization. It is written in the same kind of format that a book like Globalization for Dummies is written, except without the yellow marketing behind it. (Friedman's book also comes with a shit load of exclamation points as well)
What seems to be missing from the piece is what the hell does all of the discussion mean? Why is it that Friedman and other Americans that like to chime in about how globalization works don't seem to want to think about all the people out there who are not connect and for that fact, don't want to be. The digitial divide as it is called, is still climbing higher and higher.
digital divide is the term commonly used when describing the people that have it vs. the people that do not get it. While all the white people in suburbia are happily connected to the internet, there is still a majority of people that have not the slightest clue how the whole thing works on any level.
It seemed to me that the only thing so far that got flat was Friedman's thought process of who technology is not getting to the people that need it the most. Instead of information being exchanged between people, we are developing a culture of litigation and marketing, too serious downfalls of community. In order for people to be able to work together to debate issues of their own seperate communities, we as a collective need to sort through them in this way. The internet could be used to assist with things like this, but the capitalist side has allowed thins like spam and fraud to gain so much power and momentum for the web that the people that could use it the most, writers, workers are totally disinfrancised from the concept because of the overwhelming control shady business has.
"It's not their fault, they are just attempting to make whatever they can in a free market economy..."
When is our society, even a slight percentage going to begin to look at these issues and begin to debate them? The other book I am reading, John Adams, lived at a point where a simillar discussion took place, right before the US began the War for the freedoms which we don't even understand anymore. Back then, there was respect and debate at the same time--not this mudslinging media circus we have today. Our technology is clouding people's judgements of the way that things are.
Do I keep getting off topic? Well, it doesn't matter anyway, no one but me reads these long ass synopsis of our current climate-mostly because I seriously thing that people are no longer really interested in a discourse about where we are going as a country, they just wanna get rid of all them people that do not agree with the statement, "On Earth as it is in Texas."
Well, Texas is not even close to a global economy and the reality is that the old west mentality, the eye for an eye crap is not going to work against terrorists or people that are connected to them. This homeland security twaddle is just that--another line drawn in the sand that the binLaden's of the world are just laughing at. Why bomb us again when we are spending so much money on nothing that it will virtually bancrupt us anyway.
But that doesn't matter either!
So confusing and so philisophical, it is hard to think about because we don't even know who is right-the scary part is that we are going to find out years from now who was really right and because of technology, my blog might make much longer than I ever do (ya never know) and 100 years from now, when historians are showing that it was because we didn't pay attention to history and we once again allowed the religious zealots to run the country, you'll see this and find time to crack a smile.
Read more!
What seems to be missing from the piece is what the hell does all of the discussion mean? Why is it that Friedman and other Americans that like to chime in about how globalization works don't seem to want to think about all the people out there who are not connect and for that fact, don't want to be. The digitial divide as it is called, is still climbing higher and higher.
digital divide is the term commonly used when describing the people that have it vs. the people that do not get it. While all the white people in suburbia are happily connected to the internet, there is still a majority of people that have not the slightest clue how the whole thing works on any level.
It seemed to me that the only thing so far that got flat was Friedman's thought process of who technology is not getting to the people that need it the most. Instead of information being exchanged between people, we are developing a culture of litigation and marketing, too serious downfalls of community. In order for people to be able to work together to debate issues of their own seperate communities, we as a collective need to sort through them in this way. The internet could be used to assist with things like this, but the capitalist side has allowed thins like spam and fraud to gain so much power and momentum for the web that the people that could use it the most, writers, workers are totally disinfrancised from the concept because of the overwhelming control shady business has.
"It's not their fault, they are just attempting to make whatever they can in a free market economy..."
When is our society, even a slight percentage going to begin to look at these issues and begin to debate them? The other book I am reading, John Adams, lived at a point where a simillar discussion took place, right before the US began the War for the freedoms which we don't even understand anymore. Back then, there was respect and debate at the same time--not this mudslinging media circus we have today. Our technology is clouding people's judgements of the way that things are.
Do I keep getting off topic? Well, it doesn't matter anyway, no one but me reads these long ass synopsis of our current climate-mostly because I seriously thing that people are no longer really interested in a discourse about where we are going as a country, they just wanna get rid of all them people that do not agree with the statement, "On Earth as it is in Texas."
Well, Texas is not even close to a global economy and the reality is that the old west mentality, the eye for an eye crap is not going to work against terrorists or people that are connected to them. This homeland security twaddle is just that--another line drawn in the sand that the binLaden's of the world are just laughing at. Why bomb us again when we are spending so much money on nothing that it will virtually bancrupt us anyway.
But that doesn't matter either!
So confusing and so philisophical, it is hard to think about because we don't even know who is right-the scary part is that we are going to find out years from now who was really right and because of technology, my blog might make much longer than I ever do (ya never know) and 100 years from now, when historians are showing that it was because we didn't pay attention to history and we once again allowed the religious zealots to run the country, you'll see this and find time to crack a smile.
Read more!
Happy Father's Day....
I wish I had more time to write today, but I needed to get the place ready to start showing. My roommate Scott, moved out this weekend. He is getting married in the next couple of weeks and moved into another place while they were looking for a house to buy. I have come to the conclusion that I am quite content being a renter that is in control of the property that he lives in. It is a different kind of control that you have when you own the place, but you don't have control over who lives next to you, or what happens to the neighbourhood that you live in. Strange things to think about, but I am in the position right now where there are some pretty annoying mexicans that live next door to me. They have lived there since the 1st and already their parking space is full of broken down cars that the guy sits outside of his house and fixes all day long listening to spanish pop music.
I don't mind it half as much as I would if I were the property owner. I am just concerned that people are going to come and see the house, see the group of Corona guzzlers outside the house and just drive on by....
Which effects my ability to rent the place. It has a slight tinge of racism to it, but these guys really seem to fit that stereotype to the fullest.
Such as life.
Anyway, I am needing to get into the shower and go and hang out with my pops on his day. Read more!
I wish I had more time to write today, but I needed to get the place ready to start showing. My roommate Scott, moved out this weekend. He is getting married in the next couple of weeks and moved into another place while they were looking for a house to buy. I have come to the conclusion that I am quite content being a renter that is in control of the property that he lives in. It is a different kind of control that you have when you own the place, but you don't have control over who lives next to you, or what happens to the neighbourhood that you live in. Strange things to think about, but I am in the position right now where there are some pretty annoying mexicans that live next door to me. They have lived there since the 1st and already their parking space is full of broken down cars that the guy sits outside of his house and fixes all day long listening to spanish pop music.
I don't mind it half as much as I would if I were the property owner. I am just concerned that people are going to come and see the house, see the group of Corona guzzlers outside the house and just drive on by....
Which effects my ability to rent the place. It has a slight tinge of racism to it, but these guys really seem to fit that stereotype to the fullest.
Such as life.
Anyway, I am needing to get into the shower and go and hang out with my pops on his day. Read more!
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