Modern History (1800 – present)
Re: Modern History (1800 – present)
Russia’s Forgotten Nuclear Disaster
by Joshua Frank
November 4, 2022
Extract:
For those that don't trust Counterpunch, Wikipedia also has a write up on the accident: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyshtym_disaster
by Joshua Frank
November 4, 2022
Extract:
Read more here: https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/11/0 ... accident/(Counterpunch) Mayak was constructed in 1946 and helped procure the Soviets’ first atomic bomb in 1949 under the leadership of Joseph Stalin. Like virtually all of Russia’s nuclear projects during the Soviet era, and just like the United States’s Manhattan Project, Mayak was built and operated in total secret and with outright disregard for local communities and ecology…
(A)t Mayak …the site had instituted a cooling system early on that continually kept its hot nuclear waste from reaching a critical point. But (on September 29,1957) the waste in a holding cistern buried twenty feet underground began to heat up fast. The system had failed, but nobody knew what was happening until it was far too late. As the radioactive slop reached 350 degrees Celsius, its 160-ton concrete lid began to tremble, and finally blew. The cistern and the eighty tons of boiling gunk inside exploded in a volcanic eruption filled with radioactive steam and soot a half-mile into the air. The black cloud darkened the sky, spreading twenty million curies of blistering atomic particles across 52,000 square kilometers, roughly the size of West Virginia, and contaminating the homes of an estimated 270,000 people. Later, the accident at Mayak became known as the Kyshtym disaster, after the name of the closest town to the blast. In the immediate aftermath, the first wave of forced evacuation, encompassing nearly 10,000 people, was initiated, but it took upwards of two years for other evacuations to be carried out in nearby towns that had also been exposed to the radioactive fallout.
The horrific blast was measured as a Level 6 disaster on the International Nuclear Event Scale, which places the Kyshtym disaster behind Chernobyl and Fukushima (both Level 7s) as the third-most significant nuclear disaster ever. It is certainly the least well-known. At the time, just as the United States government kept the inner workings of their own nuclear program shrouded in secrecy, the Soviet government kept Mayak under wraps. Mayak, according to many Soviet maps, did not even exist.
It wasn’t until 1976, when dissident scientist Zhores A. Medvedev wrote an article for the British journal The New Scientist, that the Western world was made aware of what happened.
For those that don't trust Counterpunch, Wikipedia also has a write up on the accident: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyshtym_disaster
Don't mourn, organize.
-Joe Hill
-Joe Hill
Re: Modern History (1800 – present)
And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future
Re: Modern History (1800 – present)
And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future
Re: Modern History (1800 – present)
Are The Aztec Crystal Skulls Real Or Fake?
by Ben Taub
February 3, 2023
Introduction:
by Ben Taub
February 3, 2023
Introduction:
Read more here: https://www.iflscience.com/are-the-azt ... ake-67376(IFL Science) Arguably some of the most iconic archaeological artifacts ever to come out of Mesoamerica, the famous Aztec crystal skulls have inspired countless blockhead theories about alien sculptors, psychic technologies, and magic stones. In reality, however, the supposed pre-Columbian relics might just be cheap knock-offs sold by a nineteenth-century French conman.
The Story Of The Crystal Skulls
It’s thought that there are around a dozen of the skulls in museums and private collections around the world, ranging from a couple of inches in height to roughly the size of a bowling ball. The shiny noggins made their debut in 1856, when the British Museum purchased a miniature skull that was said to have been crafted by Aztec hands, although it’s unclear exactly where the piece came from.
The British Museum then purchased a second crystal skull from Tiffany & Co. in 1897, and it’s this piece that can be seen on display today. Despite initially believing the skull to be pre-Columbian, the museum says that "attempts to verify this on technological grounds have not proved successful," and that the item's origins are "most uncertain."
Other crystal skulls of varying sizes soon appeared in the collections of Mexico’s National Museum of Anthropology and the Smithsonian Institute. It wasn’t until the 1950s, however, that a Smithsonian minerologist named William Foshag identified the latter as a fake after noticing that the piece had clearly been created using modern jewelry-making tools.
A few more skulls popped up at antique auctions in the twentieth century, including one that was sold to an English deep-sea fisherman in 1943. Known as the Skull of Doom, the artefact is rumored to emit blue lights from its eyes and cause computers to crash, but has clearly been made using modern technology and is quite clearly a fake.
Don't mourn, organize.
-Joe Hill
-Joe Hill
Re: Modern History (1800 – present)
Exploring Differences in Elite Mobility During Japan’s Meiji Restoration
February 13, 2023
Extract:
February 13, 2023
Extract:
Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/979476(EurekAlert) Regime changes lay the groundwork for non-elites to elevate themselves to the elite class, regardless of their social origin. During the various stages of a successful regime change, the new elites are not necessarily opposed to the old elites. The change is a gradual process which starts with a hostile relationship between the old and incumbent elites, but slowly evolves into a compromising one, after the political transfer of power is done. The researchers found that with the initial overthrowing of the old regime, the commoners had the biggest opportunity to join the elite classes. Meritocracy played a huge role at this stage. However, after the consolidation of the new regime, the opportunities for elite mobility gradually declined, as a stable structure, based on elite compromise, was created.
Don't mourn, organize.
-Joe Hill
-Joe Hill
Re: Modern History (1800 – present)
So, You’ve Found a Shipwreck Full of Treasure, Now What?
by Charlie Haugh
February 17, 2023
Introduction:
The article then goes on to describe the second relevant maritime law of salvage act. Read more here: https://www.iflscience.com/so-you-ve-f ... hat-67584
by Charlie Haugh
February 17, 2023
Introduction:
(IFL Science) With an estimated three million shipwrecks littering the ocean floor, chances of stumbling across one during your routine deep-sea scuba dive are higher than you might think. So, what should you do if you find a shipwrecked treasure trove, and can you keep the booty?
The laws surrounding the discovery of shipwrecks, and who’s entitled to the cash, are complicated and entirely dependent on where the ship is found.
The first step, however, involves informing the correct authorities so the site can be properly investigated by marine archaeologists to determine historical significance. Once jurisdiction is established for the site, then two maritime laws can be applied.
The law of finds
Your best chance of being able to keep any monetary value from a shipwreck is by arguing "finders keepers, losers weepers", more officially known as the law of finds.
This law states the finder of valuable property to be entitled to the full monetary worth, so long as the property doesn’t have a declared owner. In the case of a shipwreck, it should have been abandoned for a number of years, and the owner must not be actively searching for it.
The article then goes on to describe the second relevant maritime law of salvage act. Read more here: https://www.iflscience.com/so-you-ve-f ... hat-67584
Don't mourn, organize.
-Joe Hill
-Joe Hill
Re: Modern History (1800 – present)
Supreme Court Conservatives Rewrite History
by Lawrence Davidson
March 28, 2023
Extraction:
by Lawrence Davidson
March 28, 2023
Extraction:
Read more here: https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/03/2 ... -history/(Counterpunch) As Saul Cornell, the Paul and Diane Guenther chair in American history at Fordham University and adjunct professor of law at Fordham Law School, observed …the court majority “invokes the authority of history but presents a version of the past that is little more than an ideological fantasy, much of it invented by gun-rights advocates and their libertarian allies.” Cornell singled out Clarence Thomas …“The distortion of the historical record, misreading of evidence, and dismissal of facts that don’t fit the gun-rights narrative favored by Thomas are genuinely breathtaking in scope.”
…
Most Americans have heard of the “shoot out at the OK Corral” (Tombstone, Arizona, 26 October 1886)—an iconic story of the Old West. Almost no one realizes that it was a deadly fight over the issue of gun control. There were two factions involved in this confrontation: constables and sheriffs on one side and cowboys on the other. The latter “thought it an infringement on their rights to give up shooting in town.” The former were pledged to enforce gun control—no carrying guns or knives—within town limits.
At the time, the Second Amendment was not an issue. It was assumed that regulation was compatible with the Founders’ intent. As one judge in1840 Alabama put it, the state had a right to regulate personal firearms, and permission to carry such firearms did not mean the right “to bear arms upon all occasions and in all places.” Indeed, from its beginning most of United States followed English Common law including a ban on traveling armed in populated areas as well as a concealed weapons ban. Passing the Second Amendment, which if read with common sense was tied to the maintenance of militias, was not considered in any way contracted by this approach.
...
In 1886 Tombstone, civilization won (at least temporarily). “Marshal Virgil Earp, having deputized his brothers Wyatt and Morgan and his pal Doc Holiday” confronted representatives of the “cowboy faction,” Billy Clanton and McLaury brothers. They had refused to give up their weapons while in town. When the confrontation took place, the three cowboys died. The Earps and Holiday walked away uninjured.
Don't mourn, organize.
-Joe Hill
-Joe Hill
Re: Modern History (1800 – present)
SS Athenia
SS Athenia was a steam turbine transatlantic passenger liner built in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1923 for the Anchor-Donaldson Line, which later became the Donaldson Atlantic Line. She worked between the United Kingdom and the east coast of Canada until 3 September 1939, when a torpedo from the German submarine U-30 sank her in the Western Approaches.
Athenia was the first UK ship to be sunk by Germany during World War II, and the incident accounted for the Donaldson Line's greatest single loss of life at sea, with 117 civilian passengers and crew killed. The sinking was condemned as a war crime. Among those dead were 28 US citizens, causing Germany to fear that the US might join the war on the side of the UK and France. Wartime German authorities denied that one of their vessels had sunk the ship. An admission of responsibility did not come from German authorities until 1946.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Athenia_(1922)
SS Athenia was a steam turbine transatlantic passenger liner built in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1923 for the Anchor-Donaldson Line, which later became the Donaldson Atlantic Line. She worked between the United Kingdom and the east coast of Canada until 3 September 1939, when a torpedo from the German submarine U-30 sank her in the Western Approaches.
Athenia was the first UK ship to be sunk by Germany during World War II, and the incident accounted for the Donaldson Line's greatest single loss of life at sea, with 117 civilian passengers and crew killed. The sinking was condemned as a war crime. Among those dead were 28 US citizens, causing Germany to fear that the US might join the war on the side of the UK and France. Wartime German authorities denied that one of their vessels had sunk the ship. An admission of responsibility did not come from German authorities until 1946.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Athenia_(1922)
Re: Modern History (1800 – present)
In the fall of 1999, Robert Weinberg and Douglas Hanahan published an article entitled "The Hallmarks of Cancer." In it they describe what they viewed as six essential alterations in cell physiology that collectively dictate the malignant growth of cancer:
From The Emperor off All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee.
- Self-sufficiency in growth signals: cancer cells acquire an autonomous drive to proliferate - pathological mitosis - by virtue of the activation of oncogenes (cancer causing genes) such ras or myc
- Insensitivity to growth-inhibitory (antigrowth) signals: cancer cells inactivate tumor suppressor genes, such as retinoblastoma (Rb , that normally inhibit growth.
- Evasion of programmed cell death (apoptosis): cancer cells suppress and inactivate genes and pathways that normally enable cells to die.
- Limitless replicative potential: cancer cells activate specific gene pathways that render them immortal even after generations growth.
supply of blood and blood vessels - tumor angiogenesis.
- Sustained angiogenesis:: cancer cells acquire the capacity to draw out their own supply of blood and and blood vessels - tumor angiogenesis.
- Tissue invasion and metastastisis: cancer cells acquire the capacity to migrate to other organ organs, invade other tissues, and colonize these organs, resulting in their spread throughout the body.
Don't mourn, organize.
-Joe Hill
-Joe Hill
Re: Modern History (1800 – present)
How the Dollar Became the World’s Top Global Currency
by Ryan McMaken
April 29 , 2023
Introduction:
Read more here: https://www.eurasiareview.com/29042023 ... analysis/
by Ryan McMaken
April 29 , 2023
Introduction:
(Eurasia Review) In March 2009, in the midst of recession, then Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner was pressed to respond on the question of whether or not another currency—possibly the IMF’s special drawing rights (SDRs)—might displace the US dollar as the dominant global reserve currency. Geithner responded that he’s open to more use of SDRs but then felt the need to clarify with “The dollar remains the world’s dominant reserve currency and I think that’s likely to continue for a long period of time.”
It’s not a coincidence that this occurred in the context of financial crises, recession, and some big changes in the global economy. Crises have a tendency to bring out questions about the dollar’s reserve-currency status. Similar discussions occurred in the late 1970s as the United States was experiencing stagflation. Policy makers and central bankers began discussing the possible benefits of “diversifying” away from the dollar in the global economy. It is true that during the 1970s the dollar’s reserve-currency status suffered somewhat to the benefitof the deutsche mark and Japanese yen. Nonetheless, decades later, the dollar remains the undisputed favorite.
Yet no global reserve currency retains its place forever. History is a graveyard for currencies that were once considered essential to global commerce, from the Spanish silver dollar in the sixteenth century to the Dutch guilder and French franc of later times.
The last time we saw a dominant global currency give way to its successor was in the first half of the twentieth century, when British pound sterling lost its position as the preferred global reserve currency and was replaced by the US dollar. History never quite repeats itself, but the story behind the fall of sterling and the rise of the dollar contains many familiar events such as war, inflation, and government spending. Many observers of the global currency scene continue to regard the dollar as untouchable, but their predecessors said the same thing about sterling. Indeed, the decline of Britain’s once exalted currency is a powerful cautionary tale about how global currencies lose their power.
Read more here: https://www.eurasiareview.com/29042023 ... analysis/
Don't mourn, organize.
-Joe Hill
-Joe Hill