Tuesday 20 December 2011

58% increase in female breast cancer and 50% increase in lung cancer in men downwind of two Magnox reactors in Wales. Report and TV program

On Monday 19th December, the Welsh-language TV channel S4C published new evidence of a cancer cluster near the nuclear power stations at Wylfa in Wales. Commissioned by S4C, Professor Chris Busby analysed official data for cancer deaths, showing a 58% increase in female breast cancer and 50% increased lung cancer in men downwind of the two Magnox reactors, which began production in 1971. The findings are statistically significant.
    This information was derived from llrc, the Low Level Radiation Campaign.

Saturday 26 November 2011

From the historical events in Where The Fox Goes".The people stand up for their rights at the time of the enclosures.. Some of the best people were sent to Australia.

An extract from "Where The Fox Goes" 
       “Rose saved your life, too.” said Edwin. “If she hadn’t shouted, Harry wouldn’t have reached you in time.”     
       “Do you know who I am?” Michael asked her.
       “Yes. You’re the bad man who wants to take the wastelands away.” said Rose bravely.
       “But you shouted to your father to save me! ”
       “Yes.” said Rose.
       “It’s in the family.” said Edwin, dryly.
       “Would you do that for my child? ”  Michael asked Rose, who was looking up at him, unflinchingly, with her clear blue eyes.
       “Would there be man traps in the field? ”
 He looked down at his feet and shook his head.  
       “No.”
       “Would  we be hung or sent to Australia?”
       “No.”
       “If the field was hedged in, you wouldn’t be able to get there in time, anyway.” said her father.

To find out more go to  http://www.insideoutsider.co.uk    Christian family fiction with a difference.

Singing a favourite hymn in the mist.

Singing a favourite hymn when things were tough was what Alan did,  if he thought no one could hear him.
In "Where The Fox Goes" Alan does just that, but he had no idea where it would lead him and how it would help them all.
You can read more at http://www.insideoutsider.co.uk/where_the_fox_goes.html
 This is a basic, drm free, low download pdf and Epub ebook which you can print out.   It's about caring for each other and the doors that open. You won't find it anywhere but my website at the moment, it costs £1.00 and you can download it and pay with Paypal..

Saturday 19 November 2011

Why now?

     Several years ago, when I wrote Everyone Can be a herO, (fiction from the future) I didn't know what was going to happen at Fukushima.  In my book I guessed that the English government would be sparing when it came to the truth about the amount of radioactive contamination left and that there would still be people around wanting to make money out of nuclear power. There would also be a majority of people who didn't want it and just wanted a healthy and fairer life for the future generations, although they knew that, because of the accident, their future would be blighted by increased disease and mutations.  In my book, however, no one speaks about it. The kids don't know much about nuclear waste, because they boycotted nuclear power lessons on principle.
     Society has learned to cope without oil and it hasn't been as hard as people expected, but when a nuclear accident happens, this is something that can't just be a forgotten event. The aftermath is there for millions of years.
     It takes people power and a deal of bravery to protest and stand up against the hidden lobby who want to make money out of the situation and whereas the good guys play clean, the bad guys play dirty.  Plus ca change...

Find out more at Inside Outsider Publications  http://www.insideoutsider.co.uk

Thursday 3 November 2011

A cat, the snow, and a kind heart.

   Sometimes it takes a cat or another animal to melt a frozen heart, sometimes it's the cold snowy weather that brings out the hidden kindness in people, and sometimes a sprinkling of kindness can melt a path through a frozen landscape.
    But the thing is....that it doesn't stop there.
To find out more, read Where The Fox Goes, a tale of kindness at a time of hardship, of people sharing and of people standing up for their rights in a time of recession and oppression. This is Christian family fiction with a difference, non judgmental, compassionate and inclusive. 
    From Inside Outsider Publications,
  http://www.insideoutsider.co.uk/where_the_fox_goes.html
    ...to read about the cat...

Saturday 22 October 2011

Regaining democracy.. in fiction

Today I am selling books... ebooks and a freebie audio book.  I can wrap it in a friendly blog, but what I am trying to do is to sell books. Like most other people I need to, but unlike most other people I wouldn't say the quality of presentation was that good.  Everyone Can be a herO is fine. Micheal Smith of the Green (living) Review liked the book enough to suggest that we made an ebook too, and when I told him I hadn't ever done one before, he very kindly rolled up his sleeves and did it.
Where The Fox Goes is words... nothing but words. I thought that was what stories were about. It's also a very low download at around 600kb..  Everyone Can be a herO is around 1 MB and that includes one picture.
  These are people's books, about regaining democracy and not accepting a post democratic society, about warm friendly people who don't just care about their own problems but are prepared to step in and help their neighbours, Where this leads them and the adventures they have is part of the stories.. One thing is certain, they don't use violence to solve problems..They are too bright to do that.
     Everyone Can be a herO is for teenagers, but other people read it.. This is set in the future and is a school library book due back in 2040. There has been another nuclear accident, but this time it's in Britain. It isn't as bad as Fukushima or Chornobyl but the same problems are there.  The people who are left behind are the ones who can't buy their way out... but they are some of the best ones and they are trying to grow food organically and share what they grow.  The oil ran out some time before the accident and they have already come to terms with this, there were even some surprising benefits, what wasn't so good was the nuclear legacy.... and  the baddies have decided that there are a few quid to be made from it.
    "Where The Fox Goes" is Christian family fiction with a difference, it doesn't fit a conventional pattern and you don't have to be a Christian to read it.. There are various extracts  you can read on my website, including this one from "  The Fight to Save the Allotments"..Ivan is talking to his grandchildren.
     “Maybe I’m wrong, maybe I’m right, but when ordinary people have something special, that they work hard  at and take care of, someone always seems to come along and tries to take it away from them on the pretext that they’re doing it to improve things.  Really, all they’re bothered about is making money out of it. Even if you can’t see who it is, they’re always there.” He smiled wryly. “It’s power or money, but it’s usually money.” he added. http://www.insideoutsider.co.uk/page24.html 
  I have left the ebooks as pdf's  because people have so many different readers that it seemed silly to try to limit what I was selling. If you have problems with this, please email me and I'll do my best to sort it out for you.  Should you have a more modern Kindle, apparently  you can just copy them into "documents" folder on your Kindle device when it is connected to your Mac or PC via USB cable.
To find out more, my website is pretty basic but it is solar powered!!  http://ww.insideoutsider.co.uk

Tuesday 18 October 2011

natural gas extraction - hydraulic fracturing.

     Since the discovery of massive amounts of shale gas in the U.K. I have been curious as to the extent of damage to the environment by hydraulic fracturing.  Having a strong conviction that there are few truthful official sources of news coming out of the country, when someone can make a bob or two at our expense, and here I include the BBC's coverage of nuclear power and accidents which I, personally, would find laughable if it wasn't so sinister, I was grateful to come across the review in Grist of the best green films in 2010.  This included a film called  Gasland by the avant garde filmmaker, Josh Fox, who grew up in Pennsylvania on a gas rich shale formation and has chronicled the impact of natural gas extraction known as hydraulic fracturing, on the American landscape.
     It's a very good review and if you live in the North West of England and haven't read it yet, I would strongly recommend it  http://www.grist.org/article/2010-01-29-the-best-green-films-at-sundance  as I would also strongly recommend a visit to the Gasland website  http://gaslandthemovie.com/
     These people have already walked the walk.  And yes, if you read the review in Grist, there is the famous clip of flames coming out of the drinking water tap.  It lasts around 15 seconds and it is spectacular!
    There are much better wind turbines on the way, with far higher energy output and much quieter and safer.  We have solar power.  Just for once, wouldn't be lovely if people cared about people and made a future we could look forward to leaving to the next generations?

Thursday 13 October 2011

Train drivers in Japan ask for your help.

Years ago when I wrote "Everyone Can be a herO",  I envisaged that train drivers would be some of the people who might be at risk during and after a nuclear accident and wrote this into the story.
Sadly, even this is coming true, but we can do something about it if we are prepared to stand up for the Japanese rail drivers when they need international support.  Please could you pass the message on to other people. This isn't fiction, this is real.
  There is a link to their attachment which I have placed at the end of their letter which explains in full the situation they find they are in.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, October 12, 2011 7:01 PM
Subject: Doro-Chiba QR#34: strike against radioactive workplace

Dear Friends,
Japanese rail workers launched a historic strike against radioactive exposure of train crews and passengers. "We are not slaves of the Government and Tepco. Refuse to be exposed to high radiation from Fukusima Daiichi!"
Please forward this email as widely as possible, send protest messages to the Japanese government’s email form below and organize anti-nuke struggle all around the world.
And please read and fill the attached endorsement form of November 6 rally and send back to us.
In Solidarity,
International Labor Solidarity Committee of Doro-Chiba
These are the two attachments:  The first one explains the situation the drivers are in  far more fully.
Doro-ChibaQR_034.pdf, Endorsement_to_Nov_6_Rally.doc   in English.

Thank you.

Friday 16 September 2011

Skulking in the bookshop

Unless I've got it wrong and I'm quite good at that, I should be in the Barnet Waterstone's in Hertfordshire, tomorrow between 11.30am and 3.00 pm, gripping a pen or fumbling with it in order to sign copies of "Everyone Can be a herO"... I'm not expecting to sign that many (!) but if you want to come and have a look at how we made the covers, because they are fun and very eco or find out about some of the characters, or talk about the weather, you'll find me skulking somewhere amongst their real books written by well known authors.
Come to think of it, that's not such a bad way to spend a few hours!
(The branch is in The Spires, which is off the High Street and runs up to Stapylton Road, opposite the library, )

Wednesday 14 September 2011

Revolutionary wind power design can triple output. Where is the news coverage?????

  Have you seen anything about this new cheaper, logical, simple, safe, elegant wind turbine invented in Japan in the main papers?...  I just wondered if I had missed some, because this is a simple idea which has been shown to triple energy output and the turbines can be floated on hexagonal bases offshore and they even cut down on noise.  So why aren't any of the national newspapers even mentioning it?.... There are loads of references in smaller eco friendly journals but I didn't even know about it until Eco-tube emailed me with the video. http://www.eco-tube.com/v/ENERGY/New_Wind_Power_cheaper_than_nuclear.aspx  
O.K. SO this is probably the best invention in years, and even if our national press apparently don't want to mention anything that isn't nuclear or massive biomass, or gas..  and if you think the same as I do about it, well, why not pass the message on.  People power doesn't have to rely on the press, they proved that in Italy... so here is another reference for you from those I found on the internet, http://www.geekosystem.com/japanese-wind-power/
You can read about it as well, on the Geeko link if you don't want to run the video.
Geeko amazingly brings a comment  from someone about a new wind turbine being developed in Canada which works on the jet engine system and can run at much higher wind speeds than was possible.. " load was completely removed from the generator at 80 mph wind speed with no damage"  and it runs at lows speeds too..go to:
http://www.vortexwindfunnel.com/
there is a video as well, which shows it in action... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v..

Have fun! !

Saturday 10 September 2011

Sometimes you write it = and then it happens.

     When I wrote "Everyone Can be a herO" I hoped that there wouldn't be another major disaster in the  nuclear power industry.... It seemed pretty unlikely because there have been quite a few accidents which I, for one, would never have heard about if I hadn't started to research them... However, we all know about Fukushima. 
    Much nuclear contamination won't go away for millions of years..there is still the problem of the nuclear waste we are allowing to be built up.  This is one of the things the kids in the book have to face.  Our waste.. their inheritance.
     I thought that there would still be decent kids around, however, like today, and they would be kids who couldn't see any point in violence and just wanted to have fun, look out for their friends, and have a sustainable future.
    It's up to us whether or not they do.
 http:// www.insideoutsider.co.uk

Friday 9 September 2011

Breakthrough in wind turbines from Japan

     A new wind turbine which could triple the power of offshore wind turbines has been developed in Japan.. It's a revolutionary design. I first received the news from ecotube.com  http://www.eco-tube.com/v/ENERGY/New_Wind_Power_cheaper_than_nuclear.aspx     They email out links for some of the best eco videos they encounter.
     You can also read more about it at http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/08/japan-has-wind-lens-turbine-design-that.html  and see the video from the university.
     This new wind turbine would, I guess, make wind power much cheaper than nuclear. Apparently it cuts down the noise problem as well and is safer.   It was lovely to hear such positive news from Japan.  There are more references on the internet and another short link is  http://skimthat.com/article/2703/japanase-breakthrough-for-wind-turbines
This is the wind of change!


Saturday 23 July 2011

Today I went for a walk.

Today I went for a walk, the footpaths were open and if I had had time, I could have gone into the stillness of the woods with the soft paths, paved with generations of fallen leaves.  How long will these rights remain, though?  If you have a wood or a forest you love to walk through, maybe one near you or one you have visited on holiday or on a day's walking expedition, there are two organisations who have a  form for you to fill in, to tell the independent panel on forestry why the woodland are important to you... and there are only nine days left now before the consultation is closed..They say they want to hear from YOU. The Woodland Trust has one form you can access on  http://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/en/campaigning/our-campaigns/panel/Pages/forestrypanel.aspx?WT.mc_id=panel  and The Ramblers Association has a slightly different version at http://e-activist.com/ea-campaign/clientcampaign.do?ea.client.id=117&ea.campaign.id=10747  They are thoughtful questions and maybe you will enjoy telling the panel what you feel about your woodlands... it's a great opportunity to really say how much they matter to you... and your family if you have one.

Saturday 9 July 2011

The mists of Murdoch

     In the Mists of Murdoch, there are some hidden truths.  One is that the Italian people managed  to overcome the near monopoly of the media, and opposition from the politicians to mount an extraordinary and brilliant people to people campaign against nuclear power and for the public ownership of water.
     It is up to the people of Britain to say what they think should happen about nuclear power.  According to a piece I read in the Guardian, God bless them,  around 51 per cent of  the people in the U.K.voted against nuclear power recently. I think I found reference to another poll somewhere, which was 57%. .
     Surely this is the time for a referendum, if ever there was one. We are not represented in Parliament.  The Liberal Democrats, in case they have forgotten, were voted for by people who believed them when they said that they were against nuclear power before the election.
     However horrible and morally outrageous as the News of the World and some other papers  reporting methods have been, I assume that they told the truth in some of  these issues. However,  I think that the recently uncovered emails revealing  the Government's handling of the facts after Fukushima, hardly show a government committed to the truthful reporting of massively important facts to the people.
     Whatever the outcome of the Murdoch issue, I sincerely hope any inquiry will not be used for parliament to grab more protection from the truth for itself.
     I'm far from perfect, but I don't think any one of us has the right to leave this nuclear legacy to the coming generations.  Perhaps it's about time for the government to ask themselves whom they really represent..  It's not to late ...yet.

Wednesday 15 June 2011

Hello ice age...Bye Bye Global warming. Please let's get rid of nuclear power before the freeze.

For years I have been getting fed up at at being told that nuclear power is zero carbon rated.  This is an absolute lie to me because, for a start Uranium mining is anything but low carbon, and the legacy of sickness and contamination of water and soil that goes with it can be devastating.  Are we human beings or unfeeling aliens?  I hope the former and no one on earth should wish this for their neighbour.
We have had yet another nuclear accident at Fukushima and it is still out of control and the Missouri River is flooding and apparently if one of the dams burst it will be a very serous scenario at the Nebraska nuclear plant..
The people of Italy, Germany, Switzerland, have recently said No to nuclear and countries like Norway made up their mind years ago not to go down that road. Surely this is the time to begin to close down the plants before anything worse happens. We know that the leukaemias will already come in a few years time, the hard cancers will follow some years later.... and they will. There will also be other diseases and abnormalities which will be genetic.
Now, if the scientists are right, we are almost certainly heading into a new mini ice age and that means that global warming won't happen.  This means that nuclear power industry simply can't use the carbon argument any more.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/06/14/ice_age/  and, even sooner with the news: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1242011/DAVID-ROSE-The-mini-ice-age-starts-here.html
I personally think that peak oil will come upon us far sooner than most people are allowing for and that will have a huge effect on our contribution to global warming. I just don't want future generations to be trapped into drinking water which is radioactive, eating food which is radioactive and grown in soil contaminated with alpha particle emitters.  It won't seem funny to them, I'd guess when they know that they and their children are tasting the future and it's one of leukaemias, cancers and other diseases, and a genetic legacy they hadn't asked for.
Certainly, it probably is a fact that whatever these sunspots herald, the earth has a habit of going into another real ice age every 15,000 to 20,000 years and as we are around 18,000 years we may not have too long before this hits in again.
A lot of the things that have come out of the global warming theory are useful.  Every solar panel and wind farm out at sea, wave machine and tidal power station will be a boon and surely micro generation is a blessing. I love the idea of generating electricity at the site it is needed.  It's fun!
Keeping your home warm will be even more important and if nuclear power is allowed to be one of the future
mix, heaven help the poor people because according to the bright guys I've read,  the costs will be passed on in the electricity bill and they will be huge. Don't forget that decommissioning the plants after their twenty years or so, takes a huge amount of energy and costs a huge amount too, and we still don't know what to do with the waste, a lot of which which will be dangerously radioactive for thousands of years. That will cost too. 
Anyway, grease the runners on the sled and hold onto your sweaters, because you may need them!!

Thursday 9 June 2011

The harsh facts

The harsh fact is that nuclear accidents leave a legacy of sicknesses which develop over the years and are spread across the globe. If the wind blows you "hot spot" particles to breath in or eat and those hot spots causes you cancer, it doesn't make much difference if your friends have them or not.. Those ones are yours. This means that countries have a global responsibility to their neighbours.
We seem to be very quick in offering to go and bomb someone else's country, in England. Well, not me, but our government. Maybe they don't mind what they do to other people, and  it's up to us to point out to them.. because the Lib Dems certainly seem to have forgotten.. that nuclear power is dangerous, accidents do happen and countries like Norway have already chosen not to have nuclear power.  However, the wind from Sellafield only takes minutes to reach them, if it's blowing in the right direction. We don't have the right to risk giving  the Norwegian people cancer.  They didn't vote this government in and my guess is that if a lot of people in this country had known how it would turn out.. they wouldn't have either.

Tuesday 31 May 2011

German Children, Swiss Children, Norwegian Children...

     German Children, Swiss Children, Norwegian Children, amongst others, all have parliaments who want to safeguard their futures. Are British Children's or American Children's futures something that their governments have the right to risk? and do we have a duty to neighbours who want to have a nuclear free future not to pollute their countries?  It can be done and the countries who are the most progressive in true green renewables will surely be the countries who prosper.
     We are also told that the global temperature is rising too quickly. What part do the billions of gallons of sea water whose temperature is raised up to 25 degrees F,  by once through nuclear power plant cooling systems, play in this temperature rise and can anybody tell me if this heat is taken into account when the carbon footprint of nuclear power plants is worked out?

A typical once-through cooling system draws into each reactor unit more than a billion gallons of water a day, 500,000 gallons a minute.... from  NIRS  http://www.nirs.org/reactorwatch/licensedtokill/executivesummary.htm

Saturday 28 May 2011

It was an ordinary Sunday morning,... but radioactive water was seeping into the laundry room

Yes it was... One of the contractors working on the decommissioning of the Sizewell A nuclear power station in Suffolk in the U.K..decided to wash out some dirty clothes and while he was in the laundry room he spotted something out of the ordinary: radioactive cooling waster which was leaking out of the pond which holds the reactor's extremely radioactive spent nuclear fuel... No... none of the alarms had gone off and Yes..by the time the next patrol came round, the pond level would have gone down enough to expose the nuclear fuel rods. Potentially, they could have overheated, caught fire and sent a plume of radioactive contamination along the coastline.. or which ever way the wind blew.  Does the scenario sound horribly familiar?
This is very well reported in the Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jun/11/nuclear-waste-nuclearpower  but the episode took place on January 7, 2007 and when was it reported? June 11, 2009.  Why the gap, when it was so significant?
     This report  from the HM Nuclear Installation Inspectorate was obtained under the freedom of information act by John Large, when he was compiling a dossier for the local "Shutdown Sizewell Campaign, otherwise would we have found out?
     The U.K is ringed with nuclear power plants and this government would still like more.  This is a link to a dynamic map, to show what would happen if there was an accident at a nuclear power plant in Britain, it's from No 2 Nuclear Power and you can make the wind blow in different directions. http://www.no2nuclearpower.org.uk/Chernobyl-UK.php
    I don't suppose the leaking water looked different to any other leaking water, but the contractor knew it was...what if he hadn't.  Would you know? Why did it take an independent nuclear consultant to ferret this out?  Luckily there are a few.
     Do you feel confident that we won't ever be in a similar situation to Japan?  We don't have earthquakes of that ferocity, but even if less people would develop cancer some years later, if that cancer is the one which affects you, it probably doesn't make too much difference how many other people are suffering in the same way, except for the NHS resources to treat you. 
     
 

Tuesday 10 May 2011

People can hack into a car's microprocessors, "Stuxnet" happened, now we're told about "Stars" how safe are nuclear power plants ?

Did you know that cyber criminals can use the microprocessors in cars to disable, track or cause the car to malfunction?
Apparently so! Microprocessors, and there are a lot of them in modern cars… seem to me to be just waiting to be hacked. 
From what I can recall reading yesterday (!) horns have already been made to blast and cars have been disabled, and apparently it has been proven that the pressure checking system in the tyres can allow a car to be tracked, while I gather one of the universities managed to write a program which would disable brakes!!!
Now this is just cars.  Do you remember the Stuxnet story that came out about the virus being fed into the nuclear power plant in Iran last year?  O.K. well,  how many of you read the more recent update from Iran that they have been infected with another virus the call Stars.  I remember reading a comment at the time that  Stuxnet wasn’t that clever a worm and that it was probably masking an attack by much more efficient virus.
O.K. So as usual this sent me thinking… Like isn’t it a tad arrogant to assume that just because one or two countries together or separately, are capable of messing up a targeted nuclear power plant,  no one in another country or even the same country but with a different agenda, couldn’t have a lot of fun with any nuclear installation, cooling system or even waste disposal, just by sitting back and firing a few extra neurons and flicking a few keys? Especially if there were a bunch of guys who really enjoyed this kind of thing ?
Just wondered??

Source for car information http://cybercrimenews.norton.com/articles/car_computer/index.html

Saturday 7 May 2011

Christian fiction

It seems a long time ago, but it isn't so long. It was the late eighteenth, early nineteenth century and things were not well for many poor people.  The enclosures act had  forced many of them off the land, and into the cities or made them emigrate to America. They no longer had the right to gather firewood from the common and  even cooking their own food became a problem. Those places which had been theirs and their forefathers to roam and  live on, were no longer theirs.
In a few places, there were Christians who cared, who didn't want to see their fellow villagers ousted and reduced to poverty and then treated like criminals through no fault of their own... villagers often had to work as roundsmen to qualify for poor relief and the system was abused by the farmers and overseers.
One village where there were Christians who were prepared to help and who were in a position to do so, is the place I describe in Where The Fox Goes.
The first part of the story is set in the end of the last century, less than twenty years ago, when people discover that the same land is threatened by developers.  They love the wastelands, the woods and the allotments, but they are in the middle of a recession, jobs have gone and homes are on the line. What can they do?

www.insideoutsider.co.uk     Ebook, Epub or pdf,  £1.00

Monday 25 April 2011

The last day, the last evening, and soon, the last moment.

    If you have an allotment, if you ever wanted an allotment, if you'd like an allotment or you'd like your kids to have one, some day....  this is the last chance you may have to take part in the government consultation to take that right away from you.  Yes, it's a lovely evening, but your two minutes to comment online could blossom into years of happy growing, or hapless landless years of government inspired loss of your previous rights. These rights have existed since 1908.
     To read more and link direct with the consultation site, go to Landshare and the article.  Act Now to Save Allotments

Tuesday 12 April 2011

A is for alpha particles

     It would be good if A was mainly for apple, a round, red, wholesome flavourful, juicy organic apple. Right now it's for alpha particles. Why? Well you can't identify them easily with every Geiger counter...  You can make a reasonable assumption, I have read, from spikes in Geiger counter readings from other radioactive sources, that they are present.... or you need a Geiger counter that you can specifically measure them with.
     What is so special about them? I was taught at A level that they couldn't get through a thin sheet of paper...bumbling, heavy kind of things in an atomic kind of way.  Oh how little we knew then!  I reckon that when you thought you knew it all, then... when you realise that you know very, very little, in fact almost nothing at all.... this is the beginning of true learning.
     Actually, alpha particles emitted from plutonium or uranium which has been inhaled or ingested can very definitely cause you problems in the long term. It isn't just alpha particle emitters, some of the other radionuclides aren't too people friendly either.
     This is why, when people in the Tokyo region reported that they have swollen lymph nodes and sores in their nostrils, it is concerning.
      The website, which I, personally, am very grateful to be able to use at the moment is that of the Low Level Radiation Campaign.  It has always been at the forefront of exposing uncomfortable truths and right now, people are beginning to value its content more than ever. If you want to find out more, you can look up alpha particles and cancer for yourselves and I seriously recommend a visit to http://www.llrc.org/ if you want to find out about Japan right now and see what practical steps the Japanese people can take.
     I don't blame anybody... we can all make mistakes... let's just learn from them.  We are possibly at a cross roads in the future of mankind... whether, frankly,  we are going to survive or not .. and I am here only looking at the whole nuclear scenario.... Don't think we haven't had scares in the U.K. because we have.  Belarus or Britain, it can happen anywhere.
     We still have time.... some of us.
   
             
  

Tuesday 22 March 2011

World Water Day

Today is, was, or will be, according to your position on the planet, World Water Day. I have always thought that water should be free, by right, ... there to drink, wash, swim and play in.  Furthermore, it should be clean.  It should neither be contaminated with pesticides or disease, nor should it be dangerously radioactive over thousands of years either from uranium mining, tritium leaks from nuclear power plants, or radioactive contamination from  leaking storage pools.
We are told that it is one of our most precious commodities, that we have to save it.  But perhaps we should save it from ourselves.

Saturday 19 March 2011

Census and Lockheed Martin

Today is the day of action against Lockheed Martin's involvement in the census.  This post is coming from England, by the way.  I'm sorry I didn't mention it before it was nearly all over, but iif you haven't read about it, this is a link from the Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/mar/18/lockheed-martin-targeted-census-protestershttp://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/mar/18/lockheed-martin-targeted-census-protesters

Tuesday 15 March 2011

Before you say "But it couldn't happen in England,,,.. It nearly did"

Reports have been coming in about the fire in the nuclear reactor storage pond in Japan and the fact that the liquid in one is now reported to be boiling.  Along with the news that one of the affected reactors uses MOX which is far more dangerous in this situation, than ordinary nuclear fuel, it is a dreadful  situation to be in.  What troubles people in the reports I have read is that they can't see the radiation, so they don't know what's happening... If they are being affected or not.
In a report published in 2004, eighteen years after Chornobyl blew, cancer rates in Belarus are 40 per cent higher than they were before the accident. Anyone who heard the "experts" saying that only forty or so people died as a result and was puzzled, is quite right!
   
In November 2004 The Swiss Medical Weekly published findings by workers at the Clinical Institute of Radiation Medicine and Endocrinology Research in Minsk, Belarus. It shows that between 1990 and 2000 cancer rates have risen by 40% overall, compared with rates before the catastrophe in April 1986.
Belarus has had a national Cancer Registry as long as anywhere in Britain, keeping a computer database of all new cases of malignant tumours.  This comes from the Low Level Radiation Campaign's website,   llrc,  http://www.llrc.org/

How many of you knew about the leak at Sizewell A on January 7th 2007, reported in the Guardian  in June 2009....Quite a long time later    http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jun/11/nuclear-waste-nuclearpower
"A nuclear leak, which could have caused a major disaster, was only averted by a chance decision to wash some dirty clothes, according to a newly obtained official report."

Saturday 12 March 2011

This was my prologue

Almost a quarter of the twenty first century had passed, when life in the British Isles changed dramatically. The horror that they had pretended couldn’t happen, did. As the smoke drifted for days, weather vanes took on a new and grim significance and the life style of the humble snail became surprisingly important.

What hadn’t changed was the courage and resilience of the people. No one dwelt on the disaster. In the years that followed, it became a convention for them to say “Before it happened” or “After it happened.” The future was there to be protected and this time the teenagers weren’t leaving it to the adults. 


copyright J.R.Birch 2007
        
you can read some more pages at  Inside Outsider Publications, www.insideoutsider.co.uk 
This comes from " more sample pages" link from the Sample pages   Everyone Can be a herO,  or go to http://www.insideoutsider.co.uk/page5.html  then   http://www.insideoutsider.co.uk/page6.html

Where Love is.

Hi, my name is June and I have written a book called Where The Fox Goes.  It's Christian  fiction, but it isn't a genre book.  My characters aren't all in happy marriages, for one couple it's a happy second relationship. This is about people where they are, not how things necessarily are, in an ideal world. It's a story about animals in a landscape and people in the same area, it goes backwards and forwards in time.
This landscape has been protected during the enclosures, and now it's under threat from developers. Whereas my first book is in print and has been bought by bookshops, this one is being sent out cheaply as as an audio book and pdf ebook. It has the hymn "Who would true valour see" in it.  The people need to protect their wastelands, the area of beauty and woodland they love to visit,  and maybe if they talk to each other and care, they can achieve more than they had hoped for.  It was written about an earlier time of recession, but it is a book for today.
If  you have a wood or a forest you care about, Sunday 20th March is world forest day. In Britain there will be demonstrations throughout the country organised by Save Our Forests campaign and people will be visiting their local forests and woods to make their position clear.  We are not out of the woods yet, the threat to our woodlands and forests is still there.  Frank Dobson M.P. in a letter to me, strongly urged attending a local event and making your voice heard.

for a free short audio clip out of the story, go to http://ge.tt/76PUfkD
and to find out more  about "Where the Fox Goes", visit  Inside Outsider Publications at  www.insideoutsider.co.uk  currently a very simple site, or on facebook. at my author page, Inside Outsider Publications.

Wednesday 2 March 2011

When is a victory not a victory....yet ...and what can we do about it?

    The huge public outcry against the sale of 100% of the public forest estate has been one of the most heartening events this winter.... but like the winter, which doesn't seem to want to leave us, neither has the problem. The government is still entitled to sell off 15% of the land by law over a four year period. I am indebted to  Save Our Woods for the following information.
    " The Coalition Government is able to sell approximately 40,000 hectares of land over the four year period 2011/12 to 2014/15 under existing legislation even without the need for the Public Bodies Bill. On a yearly basis, this is nearly TWENTY times what was sold per year between 1997 and 2010. These plans, as identified in the briefing note, are only “temporarily suspended"
      If they were left in charge for another sixteen years, then if my maths is right, it's possible they could dispose of around 50% of the land. Since a  hectare is absolutely meaningless to me, it sounds more like a refined person calling their dog, I googled  40,000 of them and found out that these are 98840 acres.
     There  is another problem, which is that, according to The Woodland Trust,  Ancient Woodlands aren't properly protected and there are loopholes in the law which need changing.You may know of woodland near you which has been lost to developers or quarrying or a new road.  They say that 850 ancient woods have been threatened by built  development over the past decade. They have a petition to sign and let's hope that this time, someone listens.  These woods are too precious to lose.
Vested interest... Ebook and audio book,"Where The Fox Goes". Christian family fiction about people trying to save their woodlands. at www.insideoutsider.co.uk 

Saturday 1 January 2011

Short extracts from books

Scott was sitting at the table and she handed him a very white envelope with familiar handwriting. In some ways Linda couldn’t wait for Pat to reach sixteen, just because these letters wouldn’t have such an effect on him.      
       “I ’ll get you a coffee.” she said and went into the kitchen.  When she came out Scott said,
       “Why now? She wants to come and visit the girls in three weeks time, on their way north. Their sister isn’t coming, just them. If she sees the state we’re in, she’ll probably start some sort of legal proceedings over inadequate housing. She’d do anything to get the girls back.”
       “We’ve got three weeks.” said Linda. “Perhaps next week Ben will turn up and we can make him an offer. If we’re buying the house and we’re about to change the bedrooms, surely that’s all right? We aren’t officially anywhere near overcrowded, anyway and the girls are happy.” 
       “You would think so, wouldn’t you?” said Scott.
     They left it for a week, but nothing happened. It was the only area in Scott’s life where he became irrational and insecure. The girls had asked to live with him, and he would do anything to keep them.  He always felt that his wife would find some legal loophole  to get them back, although, logically, he knew that there wasn’t one.
     Scott knew that the main thing in life was not to worry, however, in this situation he found it hard.  Linda found it very easy not to worry. It wasn’t part of her lifestyle and it was something she found difficult to understand.
       “I used to get angry with Peter for not visiting Kim often enough. ” she said. “But now, I’m coming to appreciate his laid back approach.” She thought for a minute. Although she didn’t believe in running away from things, she said,
       “Why don’t we take the children away for that weekend? We can fix another date soon and stick to it, for them to see her.  We’ve got the French holiday fund still to dip into, and we could go somewhere interesting.” 
       “I’m on call that weekend.” Scott said miserably.

A few weeks later:-

  “Are you O.K.?  It ’ll be all right. Just keep the kids out of town for the next hour or so.”
     Scott stared out of the window.
       “Am I a bit late? ”
       “Three minutes. ”
       “Well, they probably won ’t see each other.”
       “I know. I really appreciate Paul and Roger staying there. We owe your family so much. ”
       “Rubbish…See you later. ”    
  
        “There’s nothing I can do.” Scott thought to himself. He sat down on the floor and thought about the last problem he had to solve at work, as hard as he could. It seemed like an eternity before he heard the front door open and Alison’s voice. He kept having visions of their mother seeing them, and wondering what he would have to say in court to keep them.

         A bit about Kim...
        
       His mum always sang when she was cooking and working in the kitchen or going around the house and he loved to hear her as he lay in bed at  night time, before he drifted off to sleep or if he woke up after a bad dream. If he was honest, he still felt somewhat isolated within the new family, but hearing his mum sing made him feel that everything was all right. It gave him a strong feeling of continuity and he was comforted by it. 

Copyright J.R.Birch2004     from "Where The Fox Goes"  pdf ebook  £1.00 with  optional free amateur audio book from www.insideoutsider.co.uk     Inside Outsider Publications