radioactive weekend roundup: pacific nw infant deaths increase

Are increased infant deaths recorded in Pacific NW, since March, due to Fukushima fallout? Where is the US government to provide any guidance? Are you psychologically prepared for the answer? A recent Counterpunch article by Dr Janette Sherman and Joseph Mangano begins starkly, "US babies are dying at an increased rate." The article reports statistics, as provided by the CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, eight cities in the Pacific Northwest totaled a greater number of infant deaths for babies less than a year old. Infant deaths averaged 9.25 per week for four week period ending March 19, 2011. Infant deaths averaged 12.5 for ten week period ending May 28, 2011. The eight cities contributing to statistically significant total: Seattle, Spokane, Boise, Portland, Sacramento, San Francisco, Berkeley and Santa Cruz. The Japanese government has yet to move to entomb the reactors or dig ditches to prevent contamination of surrounding groundwater! This uncharacteristic lack of initiative seems a huge indicator of a sinister agenda at work behind the scenes and will be of interest to note any change in course after the Bilderbergers meet?

chernobyl nuclear disaster: 25th anniversary

On 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, an amusement park stands nearby in abandoned Prypiat, Ukraine as a monument to unrealized dreams. The park was scheduled to open May 1, 1986--five days too late--and no one ever got a chance to ride the ferris wheel (pictured). Prypiat, a new city built in 1970 especially for the Soviet Union's nuclear power industry, remains a radioactive ghost town, today.

The unfolding Fukushima disaster raises important questions. A talking head like Professor Christopher Busby, informs us a fissioning reactor cannot be sealed like Chernobyl. Busby still compliments a rapid Russian response in comparison to a weak one in Japan. Col-Gen. Nikolai Antoshkin involved in the 1986 cleanup, as reported by The Telegraph, believes, "Soviet efforts to contain the Chernobyl nuclear disaster a quarter of a century ago were far better than Japan's 'slow-motion' response to the disaster at Fukushima.."

The present writer believes the courage and intelligence is clearly present to respond effectively at Fukushima. The sad reality is a reaction similar to Antoshkin's, "...said he was shocked at how poorly Japan had coped with its own nuclear disaster". Everyone should be asking what containment efforts can be implemented? There are other ways to effect a measure of containment even if a shroud of concrete to cover a fissioning reactor isn't possible. The world should be shouting--do something!

fukushima daiichi nuclear plant damaged by stuxnet?

Did Stuxnet infiltrate Fukushima Daiichi plant? The question is getting asked--and rightfully so! Fukushima plant uses Siemens Supervisory Control And Data Acquistion Software (SCADA), which Stuxnet is designed specifically to target. Is Stuxnet implicated in rendering, say, water pumps inoperable, a question asked recently on The Ugly Truth podcast? A Stuxnet link is also examined at whatREALLYhappened.com, "So now the difficulty the Fukushima nuclear plant operators faced in recovering control over their runaway reactors takes on a darker significance. Remember that the first problem following the quake was that the automated shutdown systems failed to operate at some of the reactors, because pumps failed and valves would not open even while running on batteries; the very sorts of mischief Stuxnet supposedly was designed to cause at Iran's power station." Multiple failures experienced at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant begs the question whether Stuxnet malware involved? Webster Tarpley's call for action seems truer than ever at the moment: get active--or get radioactive!

update: attack code for scada vulnerabilities released online

aurora alert: year's largest solar flare

The largest so far this year, a category M6.6 solar flare is earthbound. A skywatcher alert has been issued for auroras in possibly lower as well as higher latitudes. Experts agree a cloud of radiation from a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME), will hit the Earth's magnetic field on or about Feb. 15th. The source of the activity is sunspot 1158, which is expected to grow. Many thanks go to Oystein Lunde Ingvaldsen for his wonderful images like the one pictured. The captured Northern Lights image is from the present buffeting of the magnetosphere above Bo, a town in Norway. They are a wonder to behold!. You can enjoy more aurora pictures from another Norwegian, Bjorn Jorgensen, here.


update: solar flare jams radio, satellite signals*
largest solar flare in 4yrs could disrupt power grids, satellite communications*
dept of energy to spend $27m on 'sun shot'*
japan may send humanoid tweet-bot to space*

'cyber storm iii' tests US on cyber attack

stuxnet & cyberstorm3 are unrelated, nothing to see here...
from defencetalk: US keyboard warriors were doing battle Tuesday with a simulated cyberattack on government and private computer networks that undermines basic trust in the Internet. The "Cyber Storm III" exercise involves participants from seven US government departments, including the Pentagon, 11 US states, 60 private companies and 12 international partners.

The biennial exercise is being staged by the Department of Homeland Security and is the first test of the new National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center based in an office building in this Washington suburb. The NCCIC booted up in October 2009 to serve as the coordinating center for US cybersecurity operations and houses US government computer experts and their private sector counterparts under one roof.

Briefing reporters ahead of "Cyber Storm III," Brett Lambo, the director of DHS's Cyber Exercise Program, stressed that the exercise, which is expected to last three days, is "completely simulated... We're not attacking any real networks," Lambo said. "We're not taking down a network. We're not injecting any real malware."

The thousands of participants in the exercise will receive more than 1,500 "injects" of simulated events that they will have to react to as unknown adversaries seek to exploit known vulnerabilities in cyber infrastructure...

The international partners taking part in the exercise are from Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden and Switzerland.

update: millions of comps hit by virus across china*
'cyber storm iii' simulates large-scale cyberattack*
dhs tests cyber response plan in global drill*
cyber attack on iranian industry appears well-funded*
iran says no virus hit nuclear systems*
in a computer worm, a possible biblical clue*

defcon 7/29: leaky lawsuits

100 million facebook pages 'leaked' on torrent site*
hackers shut down eu carbon-trading website*
7 people have been entrusted with the keys to the internet*
video: isp's spying on australians, govt document heavily censored*
'minority report' technology used by uk police to predict crimes*
tokyo trials digital billboards that scan passers-by*
US wants increased police access to email: report*
video: 2nd student sues school district over webcam spying*