Humanity is just two-and-a-half minutes from the apocalypse because of Donald Trump, Doomsday Clock scientists say via Independent

Posted on 2017/01/26 by yukimiyamotodepaul

The election of Donald Trump is driving the planet towards oblivion, the elite organisation said

Humanity is now just two-and-a-half minutes from midnight, when the world ends, according to the Doomsday Clock.

The change means that the earth is closer to oblivion than it has been since 1953. That’s according to the experts who make up the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and set the time of the clock, which indicates the danger that humanity finds itself in.

Lawrence Krauss and David Titley, who lead the organisation, said that the adjustment by half a minute towards midnight had been made because the international community had failed to deal with humanity’s two most pressing threats: nuclear weapons and climate change.

But it said that the danger had been amplified because “the United States now has a president who has promised to impede progress on both of those fronts”.

[…]

The clock has only been closer to midnight than it is now once before, in 1953. That was when the US was pursuing the hydrogen bomb, and both Russia and the US had successfully tested thermonuclear bombs.

The Bulletin was founded by concerned US scientists involved in the Manhattan Project that developed the world’s first nuclear weapons during the Second World War. Today the Bulletin is an independent non-profit organisation run by some of the world’s most eminent scientists.

In 1947, they established the Doomsday Clock to provide a simple way of demonstrating the danger to the Earth and humanity posed by nuclear war.

Read more at Humanity is just two-and-a-half minutes from the apocalypse because of Donald Trump, Doomsday Clock scientists say

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福島の帰還困難区域で暮らす人々の日常捉えた記録映画「残されし大地」3月公開 via ナタリー

Posted on 2017/01/26 by yukimiyamotodepaul

福島第一原子力発電所事故により帰還困難区域となった地域で暮らす人々の姿を追ったドキュメンタリー「残されし大地」が、3月より東京のシアター・イメージフォーラムほか全国にて順次公開される。

2013年にベルギーから妻の母国である日本に移り住んだサウンドエンジニアのジル・ローランが初監督を務めた本作は、帰還困難区域として指定された福島・富岡町にとどまり、猫、犬、牛、福島第一原子力発電所で飼育されていたダチョウといった動物の保護活動を続ける松村直登氏らの生活を切り取るドキュメンタリー。なお、ローランが2016年3月22日に起こったブリュッセル連続テロ事件で命を落としたため、同作はプロデューサーや同僚の手によって完成された。

続きと予告編は福島の帰還困難区域で暮らす人々の日常捉えた記録映画「残されし大地」3月公開

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Democrats introduce bill to curb Trump’s ability to launch a nuclear strike via Business Insider

Posted on 2017/01/25 by nfield

Rep. Ted W. Lieu and Sen. Edward J. Markey, both Democrats, introduced legislation on Tuesday that would forbid the president from launching a nuclear strike without first having Congress declare war.

The bill expresses clear doubts in President Donald Trump’s judgment, with the lawmakers saying in a joint release “the crucial issue of nuclear ‘first use’ is more urgent than ever now that President Donald Trump has the power to launch a nuclear war at a moment’s notice.”

“It is a frightening reality that the US now has a Commander-in-Chief who has demonstrated ignorance of the nuclear triad, stated his desire to be ‘unpredictable’ with nuclear weapons, and as President-elect was making sweeping statements about US nuclear policy over Twitter,” the statement continues, apparently referencing a moment in a Republican primary debate in which Trump appeared not to know what the US’s nuclear triad was.

[…]

Read more.

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「国と東電はきちんと償うべき」　新潟地裁の原発避難者訴訟via西日本新聞

Posted on 2017/01/25 by nfield

 

東京電力福島第１原発事故の影響で、福島県から新潟県に避難した被災者が国と東電に損害賠償を求めている訴訟の第１５回口頭弁論が２５日、新潟地裁（今井弘晃裁判長）で初めて本人尋問があり、３０代の女性が「子どもたちの心に深い傷を作った。国や東電は『真摯な対応』が口癖だが、きちんと償うべきだ」と訴えた。

弁論では、福島県南相馬市の自宅が全壊し親子で避難しているこの３０代女性も含め、３人の男女が証言した。３０代女性は当時小学１年の長男が「南相馬で仲良かった友達に会えなくなった寂しさから精神的に不安定になり、急に泣き叫んだことがあった」と避難所での様子を語った。

 

原文

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Company that tested Bridgeton homes for radiation falsified similar sampling in California via St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Posted on 2017/01/25 by yukimiyamotodepaul

The report, issued by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), details an investigation into the consulting and engineering firm, Tetra Tech Inc. It found that at least two individuals with the company “deliberately falsified soil sample surveys” at a California site in 2011 or 2012, during cleanup work for the U.S. Navy.

The investigation conducted from 2014 to 2015 also determined that during testing at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in San Francisco, Tetra Tech failed to survey areas “that were reasonable to evaluate concentrations and potential radiological hazards of residual radioactivity.”

Despite the report, regional EPA representatives said there was “no concern” that the sampling conducted with Tetra Tech in Bridgeton was compromised in any way. That sampling examined homes on the 3500 block of El Ferrol Court after a couple living on the street filed a lawsuit in November alleging that household dust and soil showed elevated levels of radioactivity matching the signature of the nuclear waste in the nearby West Lake Landfill.

[…]

The EPA’s relationship with contractors could be further complicated by actions taken Tuesday by President Donald Trump. A freeze was applied to the agency’s grants and contracts, subjecting billions of dollars of projects and partnerships to review. Regional EPA officials could not say what impact the action may have locally. Smith sought more information, but feared that it may threaten contractors such as the Technical Assistance Services for Communities, which helps distill hundreds of pages of tedious EPA documents into concise fact sheets upon request from the public.

“(If discontinued) that is an area that really hampers the public’s ability to understand what’s happening at the West Lake Landfill going forward,” said Smith.

It was also reported that the Trump Administration issued a separate notice Tuesday forbidding the EPA from communicating with the media. But as of Tuesday afternoon, Region 7 EPA personnel said they had not received such instructions.

Read more at Company that tested Bridgeton homes for radiation falsified similar sampling in California

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Nuclear Hotseat #292: Chernobyl/Fukushima Mutations – Mousseau + Small Modular Reactors w/Don Safer via Nuclear Hotseat

Posted on 2017/01/25 by yukimiyamotodepaul

This Week’s Featured Interviews:

  • Evolutionary biologist Dr. Timothy Mousseau on his on his groundbreaking, on-the-ground research at Chernobyl and Fukushima on the mutations showing up in a wide variety of species.  A Nuclear Hotseat special encore presentation.
  • Don Safer of the Tennessee Environmental Council and the Nuclear Matters Committee for the Sierra Club on the TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority), Oak Ridge, and a possible reason behind the push for Small Modular Reactors (SMRs).  A must-listen for anyone living in the American southeast.

Listen to the program at Nuclear Hotseat #292: Chernobyl/Fukushima Mutations – Mousseau + Small Modular Reactors w/Don Safer 

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横浜市長、教育長発言を謝罪　原発避難いじめ認定めぐりvia朝日新聞

Posted on 2017/01/25 by nfield

　福島第一原発事故で福島県から横浜市に自主避難した中学１年の男子生徒がいじめを受けて不登校になった問題で、横浜市の岡田優子教育長が「金銭授受をいじめと認定できない」などと発言したことに対し、林文子市長は２５日の定例会見で「子どもに寄り添った発言ではなかった。大変申し訳ない」と謝罪した。

[…]

岡田教育長は２０日の市議会の委員会で、「第三者委員会においても、金銭授受についていじめとは認定できないという結論になっており、新たに認定し直すということは難しい」などと発言した。

 

もっと読む。

Posted in *日本語 | Tagged , | 3 Comments

窪塚洋介　日本政府を批判「弱者に目も向けない」via デイリースポーツ(Yahoo!ニュース）

Posted on 2017/01/25 by nfield

俳優の窪塚洋介（３７）が２１日、都内で行われた米映画「沈黙－サイレンス－」の初日舞台あいさつで「弱者」に対する政府の姿勢に疑問を投げかけた。

映画はマーティン・スコセッシ監督（７４）が江戸初期の長崎を舞台に隠れキリシタンへの弾圧を描いた。司会者から「社会的弱者に対するこの映画のメッセージは？」と質問されると、窪塚は「２０１１年の３月１１日に東北大震災（東日本大震災）が起こってたくさんの弱者が生まれました。なのに、この国のみっともない政府の連中は他の国には１兆、２兆、３兆円とオレたちの血と汗の税金を使って、ばらまき倒して自分の国の弱者には目も向けないじゃないですか」と厳しい言葉で現状を分析した。

その分析を踏まえ、窪塚は映画のテーマになぞらえ「神が沈黙しているのなら、自分の心に答えを見つけて前に進んでいかなきゃいけない。重い映画だけど、オレたちを導いてくれるし、今の時代に必要だと思う。マーティン・スコセッシ監督は命がけです」と強調した。

[…]

全文はこちら。

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Nuclear submarine crash off UK coast kept hushed up for 40 years ‘could have triggered World War Three’ via Mirror

Posted on 2017/01/25 by yukimiyamotodepaul

A ‘Secret eyes only’ CIA document revealed the severity of the crash which took place in Scotland at the height of the Cold War

A nuclear submarine crash off the British coast which was kept secret for more than 40 years could have triggered World War Three.

CIA documents have revealed the full extent of the crash between a Soviet and US vessel close to Holy Loch in Argyll, Scotland in 1974 – just as relations between the two nations were at an all-time low.

[…]

The incident came to light soon after a military expert warned a faulty Trident missile fired by a Royal Navy nuclear submarine may have been heading for Florida.

[…]

The 18,030mph Trident II D5 weapon was meant to hit a practice target in the Atlantic off West Africa.

But a “fairly major” failure of telemetry may have sent if off course, the Commons Defence Committee heard.

No 10 covered-up the missile flop, which came a month before a crunch Commons vote on renewing the deterrent.

Read more at Nuclear submarine crash off UK coast kept hushed up for 40 years ‘could have triggered World War Three’ 

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Nuclear Whistleblower Vanunu Convicted of Violating Parole via Haaretz

Posted on 2017/01/25 by yukimiyamotodepaul

Jerusalem court convicts the man who spent 18 years behind bars of holding unauthorized meetings with two American citizens three years ago and failing to report his move to another apartment inside the same building.

Jerusalem Magistrates Court has convicted Mordechai Vanunu of violating restraining orders imposed since his release a decade ago after spending 18 years in prison for leaking Israeli nuclear secrets to the media.

In its verdict on Monday the court also acquitted Vanunu of violating two other orders.

Vanunu had been jailed for leaking information to the media from his place of employment at the Dimona nuclear reactor in the 1980s.

[…]

The judge called it a technical violation rather than criminal. He was acquitted of a third offense because the state had failed to prove that he had found out about information he provided to Channel 2 while working at the reactor, rather than afterwards.

No sentence was immediately given.

Read more at Nuclear Whistleblower Vanunu Convicted of Violating Parole

Related article:

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