Other people's posts that leave me humbled.

At present in Rio de Janeiro, The Second International Uranium  Film Festival is taking place. It's on until July 14th and if you visit their website, , the breadth and depth of coverage may surprise you.  This independent  film festival is, amongst  its other virtues, a rich source of the often unheard and certainly unseen history of people caught up in the nuclear legacy. http://www.uraniofestival.org/index.php/en/programme
When I was looking for some more background information about uranium mining, I came across an article written in 2009 by Winona LaDuke in Orion Magazine,  She begins by telling one of the Dine creation stories.... the people were gven the choice of two yellow powders.  They wisely chose the yellow dust of corn pollen and were told to leave the other yellow powder, uranium, in the soil and to never dig it up.  If it were to be taken from the ground, they were told, a great evil would come   http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/4248/   This is someone writing who knows what they re talking about and has been involved in the outcome of uranium mining.
On Thursday, The return of Navajo Boy will be screened, in Rio de Janeiro, this film is already an acclaimed documentary, and there is a long list of others you can read about, some of which are world premieres. http://www.uraniofestival.org/index.php/en/programme  It is an exceptional list and I certainly had no idea of the range of issues covered, including uranium mining across the world.
What can I do about it all? Only what I can.  At the moment, the world waits while our future is being decided in one of the most consequential games of "Pick a sticks"  imaginable as the engineers face the problems with damaged reactors and the highly radioactive fuel rods in the spent fuel pools in Japan...
I can sign a couple of petitions.  One is for everyone to sign,  to the EPA: Don't Sacrifice Navajo Water for Uranium Mining   https://www.change.org/petitions/epa-don-t-sacrifice-navajo-water-for-uranium-mining  and the other one is for British citizens or a resident in the U.K. against nuclear power in the UK
It's the E petition  http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/1035

And I can leave you with the final question.. How many atom bombs have been dropped on the planet earth between 1945and 1989?  Is is 22...220...1212... or 2201?
The answer is in Peter Greenaway's film, nominated for a yellow Oscar, http://www.uraniofestival.org/index.php/en/programme/53-en/films/46-atomic-bombs-on-the-planet-earth

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.