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
Monday, 25 April 2011
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.
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.
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!
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."
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
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.
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.
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