FOUR POWERFUL LASERS NOW AIMED....WHERE?

IT JUST DOESN'T "FEEL QUITE RIGHT", THIS BUSINESS OF THESE SUPER-LASERS, BUT CAN'T PUT MY FINGER ON WHY...

WE'RE TOLD THIS WEEK THAT ASTRONOMERS HAVE JUST TURNED ON 4 VERY POWERFUL LASERS CALLED "LASER GUIDE STARS", ARTIFICIAL STAR IMAGES THAT SUPPOSEDLY HELP CORRECT...."ATMOSPHERIC DISTORTION OF LIGHT".

HOW THE HECK DO LASERS DO THAT? 

"It's the kind of laser show you'd expect from the Death Star, only there are four of them. 

[ DEATH STAR? THEY'RE COMPARING THEM TO THE DEATH STAR? WHY?]

"The new Four Laser Guide Star Facility was fired up on Tuesday after years of development. ESO says the lasers are the most powerful laser guide stars to be used for astronomy.
With this technology, scientists hope to capture a clearer display of our universe. 

Right now, what serves as a barrier between ground telescope and the stars is Earth's atmosphere, creating atmospheric turbulence. 

"[It] causes a romantic but undesired effect in astronomy: Twinkling stars result in blurred images," ESO said on its website.

A way to solve this problem is by using an adaptive optics system, which needs a light source from a bright star as a reference."

HANG ON!
IT GETS VERY STRANGE!
ALIENS?
REALLY?

"A laser guide star is an artificial star image used for astronomical imaging. These lasers, along with some mirrors used for adaptive optics, will help ESO's Very Large Telescope pierce through the blurriness created by the Earth's atmosphere so it can take crisper images of the night sky.

When turned on, the lasers excite sodium atoms floating in Earth's upper atmosphere, giving the molecules a fluorescent glow.
This process is important because the glowing atoms are used by the telescope to correct wavelength distortion created by the atmosphere." 

IS THAT LOGICAL?
THE LASERS CREATE A "GLOW", BUT THIS IS A GOOD THING? 

SURELY SOME OF YOU READING THIS ARE KNOWLEDGEABLE OF SUCH THINGS... SO IS THIS "BS", OR IS IT ACTUALLY GOING TO DO WHAT THEY SAY IT WILL DO?

ANYONE?

HERE COMES THE PART ABOUT THE ALIENS!  

"Although these lasers will be used to take better images of our skies, some astronomers have proposed using powerful lasers to help hide Earth from potentially dangerous aliens. 

Those scientists include Stephen Hawking, who warned against humans broadcasting our presence to avoid attracting extraterrestrial foes."

STEPHEN HAWKING SUGGESTED THIS?
AS IN, STEPHEN HAWKING?

ISN'T THAT LIKE SAYING EINSTEIN SUGGESTED IT?

LOOKS MORE LIKE A BEACON.

THAT BOTTOM PHOTO DOES LOOK A BIT LIKE SOMETHING FROM "STAR WARS", SORT OF.


SEEMS THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF SUCH LASERS....BUT THEY ARE CALLED BEACONS IN THE ARTICLE BELOW!
TOLD YOU!
THEY'RE SIGNALING THE ALIENS TO COME ON IN!
[JUST KIDDING, BUT THEN AGAIN....]

"Sodium beacons are created by using a laser tuned to 589.2 nanometers to energize atoms in the sodium layer of the mesosphere at an altitude of around 90 kilometers.

The sodium atoms then re-emit the laser light, producing a glowing artificial star.

The same atomic transition of sodium is used to create bright yellow street lights in many cities.

Rayleigh beacons rely on the scattering of light by the molecules in the lower atmosphere.

 In contrast to sodium beacons, Rayleigh beacons are a much simpler and less costly technology, but do not provide as good a wavefront reference, since the artificial beacon is generated much lower in the atmosphere.

As of 2006, only two laser guide star AO systems were regularly used for science observations and have contributed to published results in peer-reviewed scientific literature: those at the Lick and Palomar Observatories in California, and the Keck Observatory in Hawaii.

The laser guide star system at the Very Large Telescope started regular science operations in June 2007." [SOURCE: Markus Kasper; Stefan Stroebele; Richard Davies; Domenico Bonaccini Calia (13 June 2007). "Free from the Atmosphere – Laser Guide Star System on ESO's VLT Starts Regular Science Operations". ESO for the public. ESO. ]

BUT CNN's REPORT SAID THEY WERE JUST TURNED ON TUESDAY.
WHICH IS IT?
HAVE THEY BEEN IN USE FOR 10 YEARS OR NOT?

AS I FOUND OUT, YES, THEY'VE BEEN IN USE IN CHILE AND ELSEWHERE FOR 10 YEARS OR SO (just not all 4 at once from the one observatory), THE ABOVE PHOTO BEING OF THE LASERS USED IN GERMANY.  
[Allgäu Public Observatory in Ottobeuren,Germany. ]

It is a smaller version of the laser guide star that has been installed on the Very Large Telescope in Paranal, Chile.

 BELOW, "LASER MEETS LIGHTNING" AT THE OBSERVATORY IN GERMANY, AUGUST 2006.

I ALSO FOUND AN "AWARD-WINNING PHOTO" TAKEN IN 2010 AT THE VERY LARGE TELESCOPE IN CHILE AND THEY WERE USING THE LASERS THEN.


AND, I FOUND THAT THE AIR FORCE IS RESTRICTING AND OVERSEEING THEIR USE BECAUSE THEY POSE A HAZARD TO SATELLITES AND SPACECRAFT.
"Air Force Space Command regulates their use to protect passing satellites. All uses of the lasers must be approved days ahead of time by the Laser Clearing House at Vandenberg Air Force base to prevent the beam from crossing paths with an approaching spacecraft.  

The lasers cannot damage a craft’s hull, but they could potentially burn out sensitive optical equipment.

The Federal Aviation Administration also regulates the laser’s usage. It requires that spotters outside the observatory keep watch and shut off the laser if any aircraft nears the beam.

 These shutter times vary nightly depending on the flight paths of passing satellites. Usually lasers need to be shuttered for five to fifteen seconds at a stretch. 

When observatories are studying areas of the sky near the slower-moving geosynchronous satellite band, blackout periods could last up to several minutes. 

“The percentage of lost time to Space Command is around two percent,” said Randy Campbell, an astronomer at the Keck Telescope, adding that poor weather is a more serious concern, as it can cut observations by a third. 
He said also that overall the restrictions have had only a small impact on operations at Keck."

 DOESN'T THAT MEAN THAT THESE "BEACONS", THESE LASERS ARE AT WORK 24 HOURS A DAY, EVERY DAY?
THAT SEEMS EXTREME.

I HAVE NOT HEARD OF THIS PRIOR TO TODAY, AND NOW IT LOOKS AS THOUGH THIS TECHNOLOGY HAS EVOLVED OVER A DECADE, AT THE LEAST.

"New third generation laser systems based on tunable diode lasers with subsequent narrow-band Raman fiber amplification and resonant frequency conversion have been under development since 2005.  

Since 2014 fully engineered systems are commercially available."

THIRD GENERATION CAME IN 2005?

THEN IT'S OLDER THAN A DECADE, BUT HOW MUCH OLDER?  

 BELOW IS AN IMAGE TAKEN IN 2006 WHEN THE GEMINI GROUP FIRST BEGAN USING THEIR LASERS.

Gemini's Laser Vision Reveals Striking New Details in Orion Nebula

March 22, 2007
"An image released today by the Gemini Observatory brings into focus a new and remarkably detailed view of supersonic "bullets" of gas and the wakes created as they pierce through clouds of molecular hydrogen in the Orion Nebula."

AND THE GEMINI TELESCOPES ARE ALSO IN HAWAII AND CHILE. ..TWO FAIRLY ACTIVE AREAS, SEISMICALLY SPEAKING, AND WOULDN'T EVEN MINOR TREMORS SPOIL THEIR STARGAZING?   ODD, AGAIN.

 "First Light of New Laser at Paranal".   8 MAY 2015.

"The technology will also serve as a testbed ahead of the construction of the future European Extremely Large Telescope, which will also have multiple laser guide star units."

THIS NEW 'ELT' WILL ALSO BE IN CHILE.

EXTREMELY LARGE?
MULTIPLE LASER GUIDE STARS?
HOW MANY ARE ALREADY OUT THERE?

I COULDN'T FIND A LIST, BUT WILL CONTINUE THE SEARCH. 

DID DISCOVER TWO OTHER SITES USING THEM:  
"Other observatories developing laser AO systems as of 2006 include the Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona, USA,and Gran Telescopio Canarias on the Spanish Canary Island of La Palma."

THAT MAKES 5 KNOWN SITES, CHILE AND HAWAII SUPPORTING MULTIPLE OBSERVATORIES,  WITH THESE LASERS, AND THEY'RE ALL FIRING CONTINUOUSLY, WE MAY ASSUME.  

WHAT DOES THAT LOOK LIKE FROM THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION (ISS) AND WHY CAN'T WE FIND PHOTOS FROM THE ISS OF THE LASER LIGHT SHOW FROM CHILE EVEN? 
BACK TO THOSE ALIENS...    
April 1, 2016   

"To prevent the potential annihilation of the human race, two astronomers from Columbia University are proposing that Earth use lasers to hide itself from potential alien foes.  

Professor David Kipping and graduate student Alex Teachey published a paper in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society on Thursday on how our Earth can cloak itself from other intelligent life that may want to exploit our planet for its natural resources.

Realistically, if our scientists are searching for alien civilizations by looking for light dips, there's a chance aliens are using similar methods to find us, Kipping said.

Also, recent news of the dimming light of Tabby's Star, which had some thinking the space anomaly was an alien megastructure, inspired Kipping to propose a way to hide Earth from advanced alien civilizations.

 "We realized that because lasers are narrow directed beams, it was quite feasible to produce artificial transits," Kipping said. "We then took this a step further and had the idea that one could use such a laser system to completely cloak the Earth's transit," he explained.

Seth Shostak, director of the Center for SETI Research, a group that is searching for intelligent extraterrestrial life, is a bit skeptical about the effectiveness of a laser-cloaking device. 

"To do this over all the wavelengths of visible light would require a lot of energy," he said. "And you know what? If they've already found Earth, and then suddenly see it 'disappear,' that's a signal that we're here."

This idea of unfriendly aliens is not new. 
Scientists such as Stephen Hawking have warned against humans broadcasting our existence out into space.

 "We've been broadcasting our presence into space since World War II with TV, FM radio and radar. These signals could be picked up by advanced aliens. Even hostile ones. But there's no point in worrying about it. We've already told the cosmos we're here," Shostak said."


SOMETHING ELSE I THOUGHT WAS A BIT ODD WHEN THEY FIRST CAME OUT...NASA TRAVEL POSTERS:

 FREE TO DOWNLOAD NASA SPACE TRAVEL POSTERS.
-- a set of 14 COLORED posters released by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

WHAT IS NASA's MESSAGE?
GET READY TO HAUL OFF FROM EARTH?
YOU REALLY NEED TO THINK ABOUT MOVING ELSEWHERE?
MAYBE CERTAIN THINGS DON'T SET OFF "ALARM BELLS" FOR YOU, BUT THEY DO FOR ME AND THIS LASER THING IS ONE OF THOSE THAT HAVE THE BELLS RINGING. 

SO DO A FEW THINGS IN THE FOLLOWING LIST.
Strange, strange science:

WHAT ARE THE NEXT GENERATION PHYSICS EXPERIMENTS?

JOHN BOEHNER:"CRUZ IS LUCIFER IN THE FLESH ...A MISERABLE SONOFABITCH"

BOEHNER ACTUALY SAID THAT, AND THE THREE REPUBLICAN SENATORS, YES, JUST 3, WHO SUPPORT CRUZ TOOK OFFENSE.

WHY?

"Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) on Thursday said that he was “appalled” by former House Speaker John Boehner’s comments about Ted Cruz being the devil, demanding an apology for the “horrible” statement.

Lee, who is confrontational in his tactics but generally soft-spoken and deliberative in his remarks, called Boehner’s [comments] “really vile stuff” and said he had held his tongue for years out of respect for Boehner's office as a powerful GOP leader.
But after reading about Boehner’s comments in Stanford on Wednesday evening, Lee said he was “livid to have him talk about my friend Ted Cruz" like that." 

FOR MY MANY READERS FROM OTHER NATIONS, THIS IS JUST PURE GOLD FOR US HERE IN AMERICA WHO WATCH POLITICAL FIGHTS FOR ENTERTAINMENT.
CRUZ, YOU SEE, IS HIMSELF A REPUBLICAN BEING ATTACKED BY OTHER REPUBLICANS, AS IS TRUMP., WHOM GOP PARTY HEADS HAVE VOWED TO NEVER ALLOW THE REPUBLICAN NOMINATION.

 IT IS, AT ONCE, QUITE FUNNY IN ONE RESPECT, BUT DEEPLY TROUBLING IN ANOTHER.
AND, AS ALWAYS IN AMERICAN POLITICS, HYPOCRISY REIGNS. 
 
OUR POLITICIANS ARE ALL A RABID PACK OF LIARS AND CROOKS  (IN MY OPINION) AND I MUST BELIEVE MOST OF US ARE AWARE OF THAT, BUT THE MAJORITY OF US JUST CAN'T FIGURE OUT THAT WE CAN FIRE THEM ALL AND LOOK FOR BETTER.

SO, MANY AMERICANS [MOST, ACTUALLY] JUST PUT UP WITH THE FIGHTING, INFIGHTING, ALL FIGHTING AND GO VOTE FOR THE SAME COMBATANTS OVER AND OVER AGAIN.

I KNOW, IT'S CRAZY.

AS I'VE SAID REPEATEDLY, IN AMERICA, THE INMATES ARE RUNNING THE ASYLUM.

SINCE THE WHOLE COUNTRY IS EQUALLY DIVIDED, ABOUT HALF CHOOSING THE DEMOCRATS, HALF CHOOSING REPUBLICANS, WE ENGAGE IN A TYPE OF CIVIL WAR CONTINUOUSLY.
IT OFTEN GETS UGLY.

THOSE OF US, SUCH AS MYSELF, WHO LOATHE ALL POLITICAL PARTIES AND DIVISIONS BY CLASS, ETC, ARE THE WEE MINORITY.... AWAKE AND DETERMINED TO THINK FOR OURSELVES.


BUT, BACK TO OUR STORY...LET US BE ENTERTAINED.


"Lee said. “This is a wake up call to people who are supporting Donald Trump thinking that he’s the guy that’s going to rail against the establishment. He’s not. He is the establishment. He’s the golfing buddy, the texting buddy, of John Boehner. The same guy who praises Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.”

[If that's not "shock and awe", what is, right? (grin)]

Lee admitted he was angry, “He [BOEHNER] goes out and calls him [CRUZ] the devil. This is wrong. This should be a wake-up call … I speak to my friends in Indiana. Anybody who is thinking about how to vote in Indiana on Tuesday, please, please vote for Ted Cruz.”

BUT, MIKE, BABY, A VOTE FOR CRUZ IS A VOTE FOR LUCIFER....JOHN BOEHNER, REPUBLICAN EXTRAORDINAIRE, HAS SPOKEN, AND THAT'S THAT.
WHY ARE YOU ASKING VOTERS TO VOTE FOR SATAN? 

WE HAVE IT ON TAPE, MIKEY:

“Lucifer in the flesh,” Boehner told an audience at Stanford University on Wednesday night, according to the Stanford Daily. “I have Democrat friends and Republican friends. I get along with almost everyone, but I have never worked with a more miserable son of a bitch in my life.” 

I JUST CAN'T READ THAT WITHOUT LAUGHING...
NOT EVEN OBAMA, JOHNNY?
HMMM?

JOHNNY B. WAS NOT THE ONLY REPUBLICAN SENATOR TO SLAM CRUZ...THEY ACTUALLY FIGHT TO GET TO SLAM HIM, REALLY, SERIOUSLY.

"On Thursday, Representative Peter King (R-N.Y.) seized on Boehner’s comments and again showed he’s not letting bygones be bygones over the shutdown.

“Maybe he gives Lucifer a bad name by comparing him to Ted Cruz,” King said on CNN.

[Fellow congressmen ought to know, right?]

“Listen, what John Boehner was most concerned about was Ted Cruz perpetrated a fraud and a hoax when he brought about the shutdown of the government on some kind of a vague promise that he was gonna be able to take Obamacare out of the budget or to end Obamacare.”

[No mention of the fraud and hoax perpetrated by the G.W. Bush regime regarding "weapons of mass destruction" and the Middle East wars fiasco.  Anybody in the GOP want to talk about Reagan and the Iran-Contra thing? No? Didn't think so.]

"White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters, “Obviously, Speaker Boehner was speaking based on his own experience. I don’t know that he was looking to be helpful for harmful. I think he was just looking to be honest about his own view.” 

[That's what SOME call a "zinger" here in the U.S. ...a VERY camouflaged TRUTH that says it all without actually saying what the speaker wants to say....that Cruz is a real putz, maybe?]

Boehner was more magnanimous when talking about fellow Ohioan John Kasich.

The governor “requires more effort on my behalf than all my other friends … but he’s still my friend, and I love him,” Boehner said, according to the report.

[AHHH, LOVE,IT'S WONDERFUL, ISN'T IT?]

On the Democratic side of the race, Boehner said that while Hillary Clinton WOULD WIN the party’s nomination, Bernie Sanders is a likable guy and the most honest politician in the race.

He also apparently impersonated the former secretary of state, saying, “Oh, I’m a woman, vote for me,” while reportedly later noting her accomplishments."

BOEHNER IS DOING FEMALE IMPERSONATIONS NOW???
WELL, THAT'S A STEP UP FROM SPEAKER, RIGHT?

JOHNNY WAS,  PERHAPS, 'IN HIS CUPS' WHEN HE ROUNDED OUT HIS ROUTINE WITH THE FOLLOWING...

Boehner also had some fun with how people botch his name, telling the crowd, 

“You can call me boner, beaner, jackass, happy to answer to almost anything.”

ATTABOY, JOHNNY B. GO FOR THE LAUGHS!

AFTER ALL, ONCE THIS 'ELECTION' IS OVER, NO MATTER WHO BUYS THE OVAL OFFICE THIS TIME, AMERICA IS "FUBAR", TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY, AND THE LAUGHS WILL DIE OUT THEN.

IT REALLY WON'T MATTER WHICH OF THOSE WALL STREET WHORES, THOSE LOWER-THAN-WHALE-POOP-IN-THE-MARIANA-TRENCH, SLIME-SUCKING , ROTTEN, TRAITOROUS $*^%$##$(*^!+#@><  MAGGOTS GETS THE DEAL, WE, THE PEOPLE ARE IN FOR IT....4 MORE YEARS OF THE SAME, MAYBE WITH A DIFFERENT PARTY EMBLEM ON THE OVAL OFFICE TOWELS, BUT SAME RESULTS...DOWN THE TUBES WE GO...SAME AS THE PAST 200 YEARS OR SO.   

 AS YOU CAN SEE, EVEN THE ENTERTAINMENT FACTOR OF AMERICAN POLITICS CAN GO BAD....AND ONLY ANGER SURVIVES. 

MY APOLOGIES TO WHALES, MAGGOTS, WHORES AND ANY SLIME-SUCKING ORGANISM FOR MENTIONING THEM IN THE SAME SENTENCE WITH ANY AMERICAN POLITICIAN.

FOUND THESE JUST NOW....

[CRUZ, AS LUCIFER]

[TRUMP, ALSO AS LUCIFER]

[OBAMA AS LUCIFER]

[JOHNNY BONER (grin) WHO SAYS HE KNOWS WHICH ONE REALLY IS LUCIFER, OR IS IT REALLY...HIM?]


AMERICAN POLITICS....SO CONFUSING.    


HEY, MAYBE AMERICAN POLITICS IS....LUCIFER?
OR MAYBE, THE DEVIL TAKE THEM ALL?
SAY, THAT I MIGHT VOTE FOR!

CHERNOBYL SURVIVORS TODAY :ABANDONED BY THEIR GOVERNMENTS

[THE ABOVE IMAGE IS A TIME-LAPSE GIF, SO GIVE IT TIME TO RUN]


MORE THAN FIVE MILLION SURVIVORS OF CHERNOBYL ARE NOW SUDDENLY LEFT WITHOUT ANY GOVERNMENT MEDICAL, FOOD, OR OTHER HELP.

NO MORE SOCIAL SERVICES, NO MORE MEDICAL SERVICES, AND NOW THEY'RE EVEN LOSING THEIR ELECTRIC POWER..  
 
BY CLAIMING THAT THE CONTAMINATED AREAS ARE "OFFICIALLY HABITABLE", ALL THREE NATIONS HAVE LEGAL RECOURSE TO STOP HELPING THOSE WHO KNOW THE RADIATION LEVELS REMAIN TOO HIGH.

THE PROBLEM IS, THERE IS MUCH MORE TO DETERMINING DOSE RATE LEVELS THAN WE ARE GENERALLY TOLD, AND ALL GOVERNMENTS PLAY-DOWN THE RISKS OF "NORMAL BACKGROUND RADIATION", FAILING TO MENTION THAT HAS GROWN AND GROWN OVER THE YEARS SINCE THE WORLD FIRST DETONATED AN ATOMIC BOMB. 

AFTER DECADES OF MINING FOR THE NECESSARY RADIOACTIVE METALS THAT ARE USED IN BOMBS, WARHEADS, NUCLEAR REACTORS AND IN MEDICINE, AFTER DECADES OF ATMOSPHERIC AND UNDERGROUND AND EVEN SPACE "TEST" DETONATIONS, AFTER HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF SOURCES OF DAILY RADIATION HAVE BEEN INSTALLED IN HOSPITALS, CLINICS, LABORATORIES AND DENTAL OFFICES, AFTER DETECTION DEVICES IN AIRPORTS, SEAPORTS AND BORDER CROSSINGS HAVE BECOME COMMONPLACE, AND AFTER RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL HAS BEEN USED IN MANY TYPES OF MANUFACTURING, OUR "NORMAL BACKGROUND RADIATION" IS QUITE SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER THAN IT WAS EVEN 50 YEARS AGO.

ADD OUR LEAKING, AGING POWER PLANTS ALL ACROSS THE GLOBE AND ALL THE "ACCIDENTS" THEY'VE HAD....GET THE POINT?

The meter reads 839 , taken recently at a site near Chernobyl.
NOT AT ALL SAFE AND NOT AT ALL "NORMAL"!

And yet, the Belarus government opted to build a NEW nuclear reactor just 80 kilometers (49 miles) away from here, even though the suffering caused by Chernobyl shows why we need to get rid of nuclear power for good.

The EPA's Radiation Network website uses a threshold warning level of 100 CPM.  

CONVERSION FROM CPM TO MICROSIEVERTS PER HOUR IS AN EXERCISE IN FUTILITY.
WHY? 

There is no direct equation because beta CPM (counts per minute) is an electron count and (micro and milli) sieverts is an account of bodily damage.

BODILY DAMAGE, REMEMBER THAT.  

WHILE THE GOVERNMENTS OF UKRAINE, BELARUS AND RUSSIA SPEND BILLIONS TO TRY TO DEVELOP NUCLEAR POWER, MANY VICTIMS OF THE CHERNOBYL MELTDOWN CONTINUE TO LIVE ON RADIOACTIVE LANDS, ARE TOO POOR TO MOVE, MUST EAT CONTAMINATED FOODS, DRINK CONTAMINATED WATER AND MILK, STILL SEE TERRIBLE BIRTH DEFECTS IN THEIR NEWBORNS, AND SEE RADIATION CAUSE THEIR CHILDREN, ELDERLY, ALL CITIZENS ILLNESSES NOT SEEN IN AREAS UNAFFECTED BY THE CHERNOBYL FALLOUT.

WHILE THESE GOVERNMENTS CITE ECONOMIC DOWNTURN, FINANCIAL PROBLEMS, THEIR INABILITY TO KEEP FUNDING CLEANUP PROGRAMS OR EVEN HEALTH SERVICES, AND CLAIM THEY CAN NO LONGER EVEN PROVIDE ONE MEAL A DAY TO SCHOOLCHILDREN OF THE CONTAMINATED AREAS, THEY CAN BLOODY WELL AFFORD TO KEEP PUMPING MONEY INTO THE VERY THING THAT CAUSED SO MUCH SUFFERING FOR THE PAST 30 YEARS THERE...NUCLEAR POWER.


Today, more than five million people in the Ukraine, Russia and Belarus live in areas contaminated by Chernobyl's radioactive fallout.

In the contaminated areas, Chernobyl touches every aspect of people's lives. 

Chernobyl's radiation is in the food they eat, the milk and water they drink, in the schools, parks and playgrounds their children play in, and in the wood they burn to keep warm.

That radiation surrounds them, in the forests, along every dusty road, and every rain that falls washes the contamination all through their environment.
 
Every wildfire, every cookstove, every fireplace sends plumes of fresh radiation into their air, into their lungs, and it then resettles everywhere.

Every day these survivors must make decisions on how to reduce or limit their exposure to radiation.
It's almost impossible to do so.

The simplest things like going shopping, cooking, eating, working outside or heating their homes are daily choices that put their families at risk. 
They have little choice but to take those risks since they aren't offered a way to move out of the area anymore.
The government ceased funding such moves, and this is a very poor region where most families don't have the resources to pack up and move away.

They are being abandoned by their governments who are not taking adequate care of their citizens, governments that scramble to cut protection programs that ensured needed monitoring, health treatments and uncontaminated food. 

This is so they can save money... NOT LIVES.

Worse still, these same governments want to spend billions on extremely risky nuclear energy while ignoring their responsibility to support those who still live in the shadow of Chernobyl's radioactive legacy?
THAT'S CRIMINAL!

The amount of radiation released at Chernobyl is approximately 200 times higher than the combined radiation releases of the atom bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

Radioactive rain fell as far away as Ireland. 

The Ukraine, Belarus and Russia were the most affected countries. They received 63% of the contamination from Chernobyl.

 While the governments cite the high numbers of large mammals now living in the 30 kilometer exclusion zone, they fail to mention that those animals all have higher mortality rates, increased genetic mutations and decreased birth rates. 

The same is true of the human beings living there.   

Sweden was the first country to inform the world about the Chernobyl meltdown as the Soviet government had decided to keep Chernobyl's explosion a secret, much as Tepco officials at the Fukushima disaster site in 2011 tried to do.

But even after reactor 4 melted down, the three other Chernobyl reactors at the site were restarted and operated for another 13 years!

 
The EPA recommends that our exposure to background radiation should not exceed 100 millirem a year, which is 1 millisievert, although we ordinarily are exposed to about 300 to 600 millirems in the US from background radiation (3 TO 6 millisieverts).  

Considerable background radiation derives from nuclear power plants, past nuclear weapons testing,lax mining practices and radon gas.
Even certain fertilizers contribute to radiation levels.
  

A PEER-REVIEWED STUDY OF EFFECTS OF FERTILIZERS ON POPULATION CONCLUDED:

"The use of fertilizers in large extent have affected radionuclides concentration, especially phosphorus and potassium containing fertilizers are the one of the cause of presence of high activity of ²²⁶Ra and ⁴⁰K in soil.

 The application of these fertilizers has the effect of an accumulation of radioactivity in soils that can be harmful for the health of farmers, workers and consumers of the products."

HALF-TRUTHS AND OMISSIONS REGARDING SUCH AS THE ABOVE ARE COMMONPLACE.

[We are told that] there is no "immediate" health risk from 18 days of exposure of 700 CPM in the sense that people not will develop radiation sickness at this level.

[REMEMBER, THAT METER READING IN THE PHOTO UP ABOVE.]

However, cancer rates and other diseases have been PROVEN to increase at every 3 millisievert increments.

A MORE RECENT APPRAISAL OF "NORMAL BACKGROUND RADIATION" PUTS IT AT AN AVERAGE  ANNUAL HUMAN EXPOSURE OF 6.2 milliSieverts (mSv).

(There are 1000 microsieverts in 1 millisievert)

THAT FIGURE, BTW, IS 600% ABOVE WHAT LEVELS WERE IN THE 1930s.

Being exposed to the levels seen near Chernobyl every day, all day, FOR MONTHS ON END guarantees one will NOT live to a "ripe old age", and guarantees a high risk of cancers and genetic damage that will not be reversed and will be handed down to future generations through human DNA , 

The readout for alpha and beta radiation is normally in counts , while that for gamma and X-ray is normally in a reading of radiation dose. The SI unit (International System) for this latter is the sievert. 

There is no simple universal conversion from count rate to dose rate, as it depends on the particle type, its energy, and the characteristic of the sensor.  

Count rate therefore tends to be used as a value which has been calculated for a particular application for use as a comparator or against an absolute alarm threshold. A dose instrument may be subsequently used if a dose reading is required. To help with this some instruments have both dose and count rate displays.

Background radiation varies with location and time.
For example, "normal background radiation" for Winnipeg, Canada is 4.1
mSv/y, while for Vancouver it is 1.3 mSv/y.

THE VAST MAJORITY OF THAT RADIATION IS INHALED, SO THOSE LIVING IN EACH AREA ARE INHALING DIFFERENT AMOUNTS EACH DAY.

SUCH FACTS ARE ALMOST NEVER DISCUSSED IN MAINSTREAM MEDIA, WHICH IS CONTROLLED BY SOME OF THE SAME CORPORATIONS THAT INVEST HEAVILY IN NUCLEAR ENERGY.

YOU SEE, NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS COST SO MUCH TO BUILD AND START UP, SO MUCH TO MAINTAIN, AND CREATE SO MUCH RADIOACTIVE WASTE THAT IS COSTLY TO LEGALLY DISPOSE OF THAT NO COMPANY OR GOVERNMENT INVOLVED IN BUILDING THEM WILL SHUT THEM DOWN WITHOUT A FIGHT...SHUT-DOWN MEANS BILLIONS OF DOLLARS LOST.

PROFIT TAKES PRECEDENCE OVER HUMAN LIVES AND SAFETY.


Very deadly radioactive material still remains in a crumbling cement sarcophagus built over the destroyed Chernobyl reactor following the accident. 

A new massive shell is being built over the current leaking sarcophagus, but this new shell will only last for 100 years.

AND YET, RIGHT BESIDE THIS NIGHTMARE, THIS DESTROYED REACTOR, THE GOVERNMENT THERE CONTINUED TO OPERATE CHERNOBYL'S 3 OTHER REACTORS, FOR 13 YEARS!

The nuclear industry and supporting governments in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus want to spend billions on OTHER nuclear projects while ignoring their responsibility to support Chernobyl's survivors. 

They minimize the impacts of the disaster and hide the day-to-day reality of Chernobyl. 

 Chernobyl’s contamination will continue to put citizens at risk for generations to come.

The village of Pripyat is most highly contaminated and will remain abandoned as plutonium needs more than 24,000 years to reduce just half of its radioactive intensity.

However, tourist agencies organize day tours into Pripyat...for a price. 

EVERYTHING, ANYTHING FOR PROFITS, NOTHING FOR HUMAN LIVES AND SAFETY.
 
CALCULATING REAL RADIATION EXPOSURE, AN INTERACTIVE WEBSITE FOUND <HERE> SHOULD SHOW YOU A MORE HONEST ASSESSMENT OF HOW MUCH RADIATION WE ARE EXPOSED TO.

MY SCORE WAS 4033.12 mrem

"NORMAL" IS 620 mrems per year. 

International Standards allow exposure to as much as 5,000 mrems a year for those who work with and around radioactive material.


A typical dose for those CHERNOBYL workers who died within one month of the disasters was recorded as 6 sieverts.

BECAUSE OF MY MULTIPLE X-RAYS, CT AND PET SCANS THIS YEAR, AS WELL AS LOCATION FACTORS, I EXCEED THE ALLOWED DOSE FOR NUCLEAR POWER PLANT WORKERS.

HOW MANY OTHERS ARE WELL PAST "ALLOWED LIMITS"?

HOW MANY IN CHERNOBYL ARE? 

ABOUT THAT "NATURALLY OCCURRING" RADIATION...
AROUND THREE-FOURTHS OF WHAT WE HUMANS ARE EXPOSED TO IS NOT FROM "TERRESTRIAL" OR COSMIC RADIATION, AS THIS CHART FROM THE CANADIAN NUCLEAR AGENCY SHOWS...

 

THERE WERE NO MAN-MADE, HEAVY METAL, RADIOACTIVE, DNA-DESTROYING, GENETIC DEFECT-CAUSING POISONS SCATTERED ALL OVER THE EARTH PRIOR TO THE ATOMIC AGE.

FACE IT...WE MUST FACE FACTS.

WE'RE ALL VICTIMS OF A SCIENCE EXPERIMENT GONE TERRIBLY, TERRIBLY WRONG. 

WHEN GOVERNMENTS ABANDON THEIR OWN CITIZENS TO THEIR FATES AFTER BEING COMPLICIT IN THE VERY "DISASTERS" THAT HAPPEN AT NUCLEAR PLANTS, THEN SPEND BILLIONS TO CREATE NEW FACILITIES THAT ENDANGER OTHER MILLIONS OF HUMANS, THAT IS UNACCEPTABLE!

ALL WHO WANT TO BUILD A NUCLEAR REACTOR SHOULD PAY FOREVER IF THAT REACTOR CAUSES HARM...
PERIOD.THE END.

___________________

ETC....~ Governments Cut Services to Chernobyl Survivors while Spending Billions on Nuclear Power Stations



~ SIGN A PETITION TO SHOW SOLIDARITY WITH VICTIMS OF CHERNOBYL <HERE>.

I HAVE LITTLE CONFIDENCE IN "PETITIONS", BUT IT CAN'T HURT TO TRY. 

~  FOR A "GALLERY" OF READINGS AT CHERNOBYL TODAY, SEE  "THE CHERNOBYL GALLERY".

 THAT PARTICULAR ARTICLE SEEMS TO DOWNPLAY THE CURRENT SITUATION THERE, BUT IT STILL HAS A FEW "GEMS" OF TRUTH.

~Russia's Chernobyl victims abandoned by authorities

Date:April 19, 2016  


~Survey meters, Geiger counters, How bad is bad?
<here>]


~ IN 1988, THE NEW YOK TIMES DID A PIECE ON LOW-LEVEL IONIZING RADIATION, TRYING TO CALM FEARS, OR TRYING TO COVERUP....
READ THAT <HERE> TO SEE WHAT TOP SCIENTISTS WERE SAYING THEN, JUST AFTER CHERNOBYL BLEW.