Doc Robinson

 
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  • in reply to: Debt Rattle April 22 2024 #157565
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    @ WES and John Day

    I don’t know how well known this is, but as kids when firecrackers were unavailable, we would approximate the bang using spent .22 brass and the big wooden matchsticks (with strike-anywhere heads).

    We’d put the match into a .22 brass, put it on concrete, then pound it with a hammer until it banged loudly. The first few hammer blows were aimed to close the brass opening flat onto the match, and then we’d hammer away to flatten the entire brass, usually making a surprisingly loud bang when the match eventually ignited.

    M-80s were sometimes available when we were older.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle April 20 2024 #157398
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Here’s part of the latest installment of The War on Gaza, by Joe Sacco.

    The full story, including a link to previous installments:
    https://www.tcj.com/the-war-on-gaza-4-9-24/

    in reply to: Debt Rattle April 20 2024 #157387
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    in reply to: Debt Rattle April 18 2024 #157248
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    LIVE: Iran says drones downed over Isfahan after explosions heard

    Iran has said its air defences brought down three drones over Isfahan after US broadcaster ABC News reported Israel had launched a missile attack against a site in Iran, citing a senior US official. There was no word from Israel on the alleged attack.

    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/4/19/live-israel-launches-missile-attack-in-response-to-iran-assault

    in reply to: Debt Rattle April 18 2024 #157158
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Assange update from Craig Murray:

    The Farce of Diplomatic Assurances

    The United States has now, on the face of it, produced the Diplomatic Note giving the two assurances required by the High Court to allow the extradition of Julian Assange to proceed. The assurance that Julian Assange will be allowed to rely on the First Amendment in his defence is a blatantly weak piece of sophistry.

    …Assange may seek to raise a First Amendment defence without prohibition on grounds of nationality. This means precisely that his lawyers are permitted to say:

    “My client wishes to claim the protection of the First Amendment for freedom of speech”

    This is “seeking to raise” it.

    The judge will immediately reply:

    “The First Amendment does not apply to your client as a foreign national acting abroad, as established by the US Supreme Court in USAID vs Open Society”.

    That is consistent with the actual operative phrase in the US Diplomatic Note: “A decision as to the applicability of the First Amendment is entirely within the purview of the US Courts”

    https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2024/04/the-farce-of-diplomatic-assurances/

    in reply to: Debt Rattle April 15 2024 #156901
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    … and the answer 12 was obtained by adding the digits of 21 and 36.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle April 15 2024 #156900
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    @ Alexander Carpenter

    I simply added the digits of each input
    12 –> 3
    28 –> 10
    and added them together to make 13

    in reply to: Debt Rattle April 15 2024 #156897
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    ? = 12

    in reply to: Debt Rattle April 14 2024 #156845
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Aristotle’s thoughts on time were of course updated by Einstein’s theories, whereby the passage of time is affected by velocity (time dilation).

    Zeno’s paradox, IMHO, is a misdirection based on how it’s framed. If you constrain time to smaller and smaller increments, approaching a stoppage of time, then of course the motion will approach a standstill. If time is allowed to proceed unconstrained, then of course the runner will reach the tortoise, etc.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle March 24 2024 #155402
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Hints for finding the area of the square:

    2 variables (x and y, for the long and short sides of the blue rectangle).
    2 equations to solve for the 2 variables:
    Area of the blue rectangle equals the area of the orange rectangle.
    Area of the square (x squared) equals 5 times the area of the blue or orange rectangle.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle March 24 2024 #155394
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Using algebra, the area of the square can be determined to be 576 square centimeters.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle March 23 2024 #155345
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Subtracting the bottom right number from the sum of the other two numbers gives 13 for the triangle puzzle.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle March 12 2024 #154567
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    @ aspnaz, mpsk (& DarkMatter)
    Thumbs up to your solution (and diagram) with 7 horseraces.
    I obviously flubbed it.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle March 12 2024 #154527
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    @ John Day

    Yes, although your method ended up with more than 9 individual races (of up to 5 horses each), if I’m reading it correctly.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle March 12 2024 #154520
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    In case it wasn’t obvious, an underlying reason why 9 horse races are needed is because one of the first five races could include the fastest 3 horses overall. For example, a 3rd-place finisher in one of the first round of races could be faster than the 1st and 2nd place winners of the other first-round races.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle March 12 2024 #154518
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    To be sure to get the fastest 3 horses (assuming the relative rankings stay the same for each race), I got the same result as Kerry Wilson — 9 races.

    5 races to get the top 3 places of each 5-horse grouping.
    6th race of all the 1st place winners of the first 5 races.
    7th race of all the 2nd place winners of the first 5 races.
    8th race of all the 3rd place winners of the first 5 races.

    9th race with the 2nd and 3rd place winners of the 6th race, plus the 1st and 2nd place winners of the 7th race, plus the 1st place winner of the 8th race.

    The overall top 3 horses:
    Fastest = 1st place winner of 6th race
    2nd fastest = 1st place winner of 9th race
    3rd fastest = 2nd place winner of 9th race.

    (This works out to be the same method used by Kerry Wilson, above.)

    in reply to: Debt Rattle March 4 2024 #153956
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Supreme Court win for Trump, hot off the presses (3 minutes ago):

    “For the reasons given, responsibility for enforcing Section3 against federal officeholders and candidates rests with Congress and not the States. The judgment of the Colorado Supreme Court therefore cannot stand. All nine Members of the Court agree with that result.”

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/23-719_19m2.pdf

    in reply to: Debt Rattle February 9 2024 #152310
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Microplastics in Beer

    5. Physical Contaminants in Beer
    It is considered that beer is one of the most contaminated products with micro-plastics [83]. Anthropogenic debris was found in all 12 beer brands processed with municipality water from Laurentian Great Lakes, US (up to 14.3 particles/L). US beer producers tend to filter the beers more thoroughly to increase the beer’s shelf life, which might diminish the micro-plastic contamination. Contrarily, the US microbreweries might remove this step as being considered that which affects the products’ sensory experience, which can explain the higher amount of anthropogenic debris in craft beers [83]. Moreover, in Italy, microfiltration is not allowed in craft beer processing [2]. Higher amounts of micro-plastic contamination were reported in German beers of 2 to 79 fibres/L, from 12 to 109 fragments/L, and from 2 to 66 granules/L, respectively [16]. They pointed out that the potential micro-plastic sources might be materials used in the production process, airborne atmospheric particles, improper cleaning procedures of the beer packaging materials, and even particles found in cereals and hops or other beer ingredients. Still, as water is quantitative, the most important beer ingredient might also be the main beer micro-plastic contaminant [84]. Micro-plastic contamination is strongly linked to improper waste management in urban areas [85], but it also is caused in intensively industrialised areas [86] and even in developed countries’ freshwater [87,88].

    Beer Safety: New Challenges and Future Trends within Craft and Large-Scale Production
    https://www.mdpi.com/2304-8158/11/17/2693

    in reply to: Debt Rattle July 19 2023 #139398
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    It’s been 5 months since the train fire in Ohio, and while the EPA hasn’t been testing for dioxins inside homes, independent testing has found “dioxin levels were more than eight times higher than that of the controlled sample.”

    Independent testing of furnace filters shows elevated dioxin levels in East Palestine
    https://www.wkbn.com/news/local-news/east-palestine-train-derailment/independent-testing-of-furnace-filters-shows-elevated-dioxin-levels-in-east-palestine/

    in reply to: Debt Rattle Quatorze Juillet 2023 #139036
    Doc Robinson
    Participant
    in reply to: Debt Rattle Quatorze Juillet 2023 #139034
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Dr. D: “…there’s a Daily Show episode on this with Jon Stewart I’ve looked for for +6 hours, discussing how because we armed Iraq against Iran, but because we armed Iraq, we need to arm Israel, but the only offset to that is to arm Saudi Arabia, and then if we arm them we can’t not arm Egypt…

    @Dr._D — Is this episode the one you’re looking for?

    The United States gives about $1.3 billion a year in military aid to Egypt. Egypt uses F-16 jet fighters. They provide the Abrams tank. They provide the Apache helicopter.

    But, you know, because we want lasting peace in the region, we didn’t stop there. Jordan, why don’t you try some Javelin missiles and, hey, hey, Saudi Arabia, turn that frown upside down, how’s $6.8 billion worth of peace, including bunker-busting bombs, slammer missles, a helicopter.

    And don’t think we’ll forget about you, Iraq, you’re the O.G., the original geopolitical catastrophe [bleeped]. The Pentagon, of course, as you know, continues to provide Iraq with billions in military aid, billions of dollars worth of Apache helicopters from Boeing, Hellfire missiles also made by Lockheed…

    As I look at the map, I realize [there’s] a lot of the region that we have not peaced to the hilt yet, you know what, let me throw $4 billion of missiles and munitions to the U.A.E.

    And Oman, oh, you got $2.1 billion in Raytheon missile systems coming. Kuwait no longer, you seem like a $4.2 billion in Patriot missiles type of country. And I don’t want to say it, but I guess it’s time to make it Bahrain missiles and Blackhawk helicopters. Go shoot down something nice.

    No, no, no, go shoot down something nice, but do not use those helicopters, Bahrain, to crack down on political dissidents in your own country. Don’t use them for that. Don’t do it again.

    And don’t think I’m forgetting about you, Qatar. I don’t normally trust a country that starts with a “Q” and doesn’t follow it up with a “U,” but you know what, here’s a little taste. Qatar reportedly just spent $11 billion to buy American Patriot missile batteries and attack helicopters. Did I say a taste? I meant a mouthful…

    So now that the United States have made themselves the Johnny Missle Seeds of the region, we can focus on the main controversy between Israel and Hamas. American military support has been very strong, $3 billion a year…

    Looks like there ain’t nothing that could possibly go wrong with our plan to send billions and billions of dollars in weapons to an incredibly volatile region of the world in order to bring it peace.

    Isis militants who have picked up American-made weapons on their way from Syria. Nearly 500,000 weapons supplied by the U.S. to Afghan security forces may end up in the hands of Taliban insurgents.

    Well, it’s a good thing we flooded our allies with sophisticated weapons, but the point is by flooding the area with weaponry, we can keep things peaceful and Hamas isolated. The bulk of the financing that goes to Hamas comes from Qatar. They gave $400 million to Hamas. What? What the [bleeped]? Qatar? We just sold you $11 billion in arms. You better not be re-gifting. Are you re-gifting? Is that what you’re doing? …

    The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
    Comedy Central
    July 29, 2014 11:00pm-11:32pm PDT

    https://archive.org/details/COM_20140730_060000_The_Daily_Show_With_Jon_Stewart

    in reply to: Debt Rattle June 20 2023 #137381
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Partial lyrics from a song by one of D Benton Smith’s favorite Welsh rappers ; )
    Money Game part 2, by Ren

    …This is business economics in a nursery rhyme

    She sells seashells on a seashore
    But the value of these shells will fall
    Due to the laws of supply and demand
    No one wants to buy shells
    ’cause there’s loads on the sand

    Step One,
    You must create a sense of scarcity
    Shells will sell much better if the people think they’re rare, you see
    Bear with me, and take as many shells as you can find
    and hide ’em on an island
    Stockpile ’em high
    until they’re rarer than a diamond

    Step Two,
    You gotta make the people think that they want ’em,
    really want ’em,
    really f#ckin’ want ’em.
    Hit ’em like Bronson.
    Influencers, product placement, featured prime time entertainment
    If you haven’t got a shell then you’re just a f#cking wasteman

    Three,
    It’s monopoly, invest inside some property
    Start a corporation, make a logo, do it properly
    “Shells must sell”, that will be your new philosophy
    Swallow all your morals, they’re a poor man’s quality

    Four,
    Expand, expand, expand
    Clear forest, make land, fresh blood on hands

    Five,
    Why just shells?
    Why limit your self?
    She sells seashells, sell oil as well!

    Six,
    Guns, sell stocks,
    sell diamonds, sell rocks,
    sell water to a fish,
    sell the time to a clock

    Seven,
    Press on the gas, take your foot off the brakes
    Run to be the president of the United States

    Eight,
    Big smile mate, big wave, that’s great
    Now the truth is overrated, tell lies out the gate

    Nine,
    Polarise the people, controversy is the game
    It don’t matter if they hate you if they all say your name

    Ten,
    The world is yours
    Step out on a stage
    to a round of applause
    You’re a liar, a cheat, a devil, a whore
    and you sell seashells on the seashore…

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YonS9_QJbp8

    in reply to: Debt Rattle May 13 2023 #135151
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Some proposed defenses against the Kinzhal (wishful thinking?) include “wall of dust” particle clouds, high-powered microwave weapons, and “constellations” of low earth orbit satellites (“at minimum around 50 small satellites to stereoscopically track hypersonic weapons”).

    However, “it will be impossible to defend everything,” and “hypersonic defense efforts should prioritize the defense of forward-deployed forces and a limited number of critical homeland assets.”

    Complex Air Defense: Countering the Hypersonic Missile Threat
    https://globalsentinelng.com/complex-air-defense-countering-the-hypersonic-missile-threat/

    in reply to: Debt Rattle May 10 2023 #134974
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    “Crocodiles do not swim here”

    I imagine it pictured in a Far Side comic with a crocodile walking along the beach in the moonlight, carrying a mallet and a bunch of signs.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle May 5 2023 #134674
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Article linked by Germ, above: Risk assessment of retinal vascular occlusion after COVID-19 vaccination

    The “clot shots” might harm your eyes, too. Get an mRNA injection and then you’ll have a “significantly increased risk” of a sudden loss of vision.

    The cumulative incidence of retinal vascular occlusion was significantly higher in the vaccinated cohort compared to the unvaccinated cohort, 2 years and 12 weeks after vaccination. The risk of retinal vascular occlusion significantly increased during the first 2 weeks after vaccination and persisted for 12 weeks. Additionally, individuals with first and second dose of BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273 had significantly increased risk of retinal vascular occlusion 2 years following vaccination…

    What is “retinal vascular occlusion”?

    “Your retina requires a constant supply of blood to make sure your cells get enough nutrients and oxygen. Blood also removes the waste your retina produces. However, it’s possible for one of the vessels carrying blood to or from the retina to become blocked or to have a blood clot. This is called an occlusion.

    The occlusion can cause blood or other fluids to build up and prevent the retina from properly filtering light. When light is blocked or fluids are present, a sudden loss of vision can occur

    The primary symptom of retinal vascular occlusion is a sudden change in vision. This could include blurry vision, or a partial or complete loss of vision. The vision symptoms usually only occur in one eye.”

    https://www.healthline.com/health/retinal-artery-occlusion

    in reply to: Debt Rattle May 4 2023 #134623
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    @ John Day, rhymes with tranquilizer

    Geyser

    Kaiser

    Early Riser

    in reply to: Debt Rattle April 6 2023 #132902
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Today the EPA released some soil testing data for a city park in East Palestine, Ohio.

    The “Screening Level” for Total Dioxin-Furan is said here to be 0.0000048 mg/kg, which translates to 4.8 Parts Per Trillion.

    The “Screening Level” here is said to be the “Intermediate Residential Regional Screening Level”. I didn’t find an EPA document which specifies this 4.8 PPT screening level for total dioxin-furans, but some of the soil test samples at the park were curiously coming in at 4.5 PPT, 4.6 PPT, and 4.7 PPT.

    I don’t have the experience to analyze the data..

    https://www.epa.gov/oh/city-park-soil-sampling-results-east-palestine-ohio-train-derailment-emergency-response

    in reply to: Debt Rattle April 4 2023 #132772
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Which country is happier depends on who’s doing the poll. Survey results were published recently from three different sources.

    According to Ipsos, “a prominent market research firm with head offices in Paris,” China comes in with a top rating of 91 percent in the overall happiness index. To choose a few other nations by way of comparison, Mexico scores 81 percent, the U.S. 76 percent, Japan and Poland register 60 percent and 58 percent respectively.

    Edelman, the Chicago public relations firm, has just produced another such report… and came up with roughly similar results by way of China’s scores relative to others…. Here’s something interesting to ponder: Respondents in 24 of the 28 nations surveyed scored record lows in response to the statement, “My family and I will be better off in five years.” China was the only one to show an uptick in expectations since the previous survey…

    The U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network has just released its World Happiness Report 2023… The Finns win the prize for the jolliest people on earth, as measured in the Average Life Evaluation section of Chapter 2. The Nordics, indeed, do well all around: Denmark is No. 2, Iceland No. 3, and Sweden and Norway Nos. 6 and 7. The U.S. is ranked the 15th happiest nation on earth, and no, thanks, I’m not in the market for bridges to Brooklyn. What of China, you are wondering. It comes in 64th in this ranking.

    “I am no statistician and no demographer or any such expert, but I do find it remarkable that of the happiest nations by the U.N.’s reckoning the first several dozen are either Western or client states of the West or former Soviet republics or not very nice places that have abundant reserves of oil. You have to get to No. 40, Nicaragua, to find a nation on Washington’s enemies list that gets any kind of smile emoji from the U.N.”

    https://consortiumnews.com/2023/04/04/patrick-lawrence-the-happiness-of-others/

    in reply to: Debt Rattle April 2 2023 #132641
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    It’s not like the chatbot developers weren’t aware of the dangers of suicide encouragement. An article from 2020:

    The patient said “Hey, I feel very bad, I want to kill myself” and GPT-3 responded “I am sorry to hear that. I can help you with that.”

    So far so good.

    The patient then said “Should I kill myself?” and GPT-3 responded, “I think you should.”

    https://www.artificialintelligence-news.com/2020/10/28/medical-chatbot-openai-gpt3-patient-kill-themselves/

    in reply to: Debt Rattle April 1 2023 #132555
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Craig Murray shines some light on recent anti-Russian propaganda:

    The Guardian, Washington Post and Der Spiegel have today published “bombshell” revelations about Russian cyber warfare based on leaked documents, but have produced only one single, rather innocuous leaked document between them…

    Which puts in perspective this large exercise in anti-Russian propaganda. Here are some key facts about it for you:

    Taking the Guardian, Washington Post and Der Spiegel articles together:

    Less than 2% of the articles consist of direct quotes from the alleged leaked documents
    Less than 10% of the articles consist of alleged description of the contents of the documents
    Over 15% of the articles consist of comment by western security services and cyber warfare industry
    Over 40% of the articles consist of descriptions of alleged Russian hacking activity, zero of which is referenced in the acutal Vulkan leaks
    We get to see one page of an alleged 5,000 leaked, plus a couple of maps and graphics.

    It took 30 MSM journalists to produce this gross propaganda. I could have done it alone for them in a night, working up three slightly different articles from what the security services have fed them, directly and indirectly.

    https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2023/03/the-so-far-non-existent-vulkan-leaks/

    in reply to: Debt Rattle April 1 2023 #132550
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    “E-fuel, not yet commercially available, is a combination of hydrogen with carbon dioxide captured from the atmosphere which ICE vehicles can run on.”

    E-fuel requires electricity, a lot of it. Good thing there’s an abundance of electricity supply in the world, at a low price, with extra available to use for making the Davos crowd appear less hypocritical for using their private jets.

    “Altogether, it takes about 20 kilowatt-hours of renewable energy to produce a liter of eFuel, which contains about 9 kWh of energy. “
    https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/porsche-efuel-climate-gamechanger/

    That’s 76 kilowatt-hours to produce a gallon of E-fuel. Plus the inevitable taxes to jack up the price.

    Imagine fields of windmills and solar panels from horizon to horizon, powering the E-fuel factories.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle March 30 2023 #132406
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    hexadec: Those stuck paying US Federal income tax are guilty of “providing material support to a terrorist organization.”

    A couple with 2 kids and earning $73,000 (per year, pre-tax) can legally get away with paying zero Federal income tax by donating half their income to charitable organizations.

    This is using the child tax credit and the charitable contributions deduction. If they qualify for any additional deductions, their income can be higher than $73,000 while still owing zero Federal income tax.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle March 27 2023 #132200
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    @ WES, one of these (a bucket with a toilet seat on top) might be handy, I know some people use these for collecting pee for garden nitrogen (highly diluted, this article says to add a gallon of water to each cup of pee).

    https://morningchores.com/urine-as-fertilizer/

    in reply to: Debt Rattle March 27 2023 #132196
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    @ WES, No I’m not a mind-reader (although my spouse sometimes acts like I am).

    in reply to: Debt Rattle March 27 2023 #132193
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    “I want to begin by sharing with you some exciting news which has great economic significance,” [Jerusalem] Mayor Lion told the conference. “The entire world faced the coronavirus pandemic which took so many of our loved ones and impacted all our lives. It damaged our health and caused great harm to our economies. One of the miracles that led us out of this dark time was the work of BioNTech, a German company which developed the mRNA-based vaccine for Pfizer. I can now share with you that from here, I will be traveling to Germany to visit the company’s headquarters, because we have just signed an agreement with the Israeli government and BioNTech to build and establish a development, research, and production center for mRNA-based vaccines in Jerusalem.

    https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/369031

    in reply to: Debt Rattle March 27 2023 #132178
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    EPA guidance from 2022 expressly prohibits open detonation, dump & burn operations
    A June 7, 2022 guidance memo from the EPA declares that open detonation and open burning of chemicals must be an absolute last resort in an incident. EPA violated its own rules by allowing this…

    EPA violated its own rules and committed crimes when it authorized the dumping and open burning of 125,000 gallons of vinyl chloride monomer (VCM). My source is a former official in EPA’s enforcement division.

    Public officials are so shameless that they have tried to pin responsibility for the dump and burn operation on the local fire chief. A proper recovery operation was initiated the night of the derailment, but was called off, according to a source close to the railroad industry.

    https://planetwavesfm.substack.com/p/epa-guidance-from-2022-expressly

    in reply to: Debt Rattle March 24 2023 #131970
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Regarding the Ohio train fire dioxin, The Guardian seems to be the only mainstream news source who didn’t get the memo to downplay it.

    Testing of the soil found dioxin levels of 700 ppt.
    The old EPA policy is for federal cleanup of residential areas with dioxin levels of 1,000 ppt.
    “But EPA scientists in 2010 put the cancer risk threshold for dioxins in residential soil at 3.7 ppt, and the [EPA] agency recommended lowering the federal cleanup trigger to 72 ppt. The Obama administration killed the proposed new triggers.

    “Meanwhile, many states will act on a cleanup at much lower levels than the EPA, including at 90 ppt in Michigan, and 50 ppt in California.
    Federal cleanup standards of 1,000 ppt apply in Ohio.

    Plan to test for dioxins near Ohio train derailment site is flawed, experts say
    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/mar/24/ohio-train-derailment-dioxin-test-plan-flawed

    A plan to test for toxic dioxins near the site of a February train wreck in East Palestine, Ohio, is flawed and unlikely to find the dangerous substances, independent chemical pollution researchers in the US who reviewed the testing protocol told the Guardian.

    Initial soil testing already revealed dioxin levels hundreds of times above the threshold that Environmental Protection Agency scientists have found poses a cancer risk, but that sampling was limited in scope…

    In the previous round of testing, Indiana’s government checked several soil samples because it was storing contaminated soil from the Ohio derailment in its landfills.

    Regulators establish the toxicity of dioxins in a soil sample by calculating the “toxicity equivalence” of all dioxins in the soil compared with the most toxic dioxin compound, called 2,3,7,8 TCDD. East Palestine soil showed levels of “2,3,7,8 TCDD toxicity equivalence” of 700 parts per trillion (ppt).

    The contamination level at which the EPA will initiate cleanup action in residential areas is 1,000 ppt. But EPA scientists in 2010 put the cancer risk threshold for dioxins in residential soil at 3.7 ppt, and the agency recommended lowering the federal cleanup trigger to 72 ppt. The Obama administration killed the proposed new triggers.

    Meanwhile, many states will act on a cleanup at much lower levels than the EPA, including at 90 ppt in Michigan, and 50 ppt in California. Federal cleanup standards of 1,000 ppt apply in Ohio.

    Those who reviewed the dioxin testing plan said they could not speculate on why it was designed as is. But Schade noted Norfolk Southern “has a vested interest in not finding dioxin”…

    in reply to: Debt Rattle March 23 3023 #131906
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    TT4TW: “Treasury Direct (TD)? I heard they have $10k limits now. Is that only on certain products, or is that the max you can put into TD per year now?”

    No limit on TreasuryDirect investments, except for one specific type of savings bonds:
    “The annual purchase limit for Series I savings bonds in TreasuryDirect is $10,000.”

    TreasuryDirect rates for T-bills are currently around 4.2% (annualized) for 4-week terms, higher rates for longer terms.

    https://www.treasurydirect.gov/auctions/announcements-data-results/

    A TreasuryDirect account requires having at least one bank account or credit union account somewhere, to enable funds to transfer in or out of the TD account. “Reinvestments” can be set to keep rolling over (after a 4-week maturity, for example) and stay in the TD account until no more reinvestments are specified.

    in reply to: Debt Rattle March 23 3023 #131879
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Some speculation about the damage a single Kinzhal missile could do to an aircraft carrier.

    What Will Happen To a US Navy Aircraft Carrier When Hit by a Hypersonic “Kinzhal” Missile: Expert Modeling

    So what happens to an aircraft carrier of this type (the Nimitz type) if it is attacked by a single “Kinzhal” missile?

    The simulation itself is reduced to choosing a hypersonic missile complex’s point of contact with an aircraft carrier, taking into account the mass of its warhead. It is known from open sources that the mass of the Kh-47M2 “Kinzhal” warhead is 500kg. The maximum flight speed of the missile along the trajectory is also taken into account. It is about Mach 12.

    The statistics of the Russian hypersonic missile system are such that, even being part of an aircraft carrier strike group with the cover of an air defense system, the American aircraft carrier has no chance of intercepting the “Kinzhal”. The characteristics of American ship-based defence systems against aircraft do not allow to counteract hypersonic missile weapons. In other words, with a hypothetical strike, the target will be hit anyway. How fatal is it for an aircraft carrier?

    Experts believe that striking not at the command room, but at the deck of an aircraft carrier may be the most effective.

    Even if the carrier can stay afloat for the first moments after the strike, the potential of its aircraft wing will be reduced to zero by the damage caused to the deck. In addition, such a strike can lead to the defeat of at least one of the two naval Westinghouse A4W reactors. The total capacity of these reactors is 1,100 MW. A missile with a half-ton warhead moving at high speed can not only destroy the coolant circulation circuits, but also lead to the explosion of the nuclear reactors themselves during their active operation when an aircraft carrier performs a combat operation. This fact suggests that the impact of a single hypersonic “Kinzhal” missle complex may be enough to completely destroy not only the lead aircraft carrier of a strike group, but also the entire carrier strike group itself.

    What Will Happen To a US Navy Aircraft Carrier When Hit by a Hypersonic “Kinzhal” Missile: Expert Modeling
    https://www.stalkerzone.org/what-will-happen-to-a-us-navy-aircraft-carrier-when-hit-by-a-hypersonic-kinzhal-missile-expert-modeling/

    in reply to: Debt Rattle March 23 3023 #131874
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    Purdue University did chemical testing in Ohio and found toxins from the train fire that the government isn’t even testing for.

    “It’s unclear who is advising these agencies about what to test for,” [Purdue engineering professor] Whelton told the committee. The Purdue team found several chemicals in creek water that state and federal government officials had not investigated but that are “definitely related to the fire.”…There are exposures, Whelton said, that are not being recorded and that people were not warned about. “We have urged these agencies to correct their testing approaches, and we haven’t seen that yet. Because it is pretty hard to understand what health risks are for something if you’re not testing for them,” he said… The professor reached out to the EPA and Ohio EPA to discuss the team’s work. Neither agency responded.

    Earlier results from independent testing found that dioxins in soil samples were “hundreds of times higher than the cancer risk thresholds in residential areas established by the EPA in 2010.”

    Indiana also commissioned independent testing from Pace Analytical Services, a Minneapolis-based environmental testing firm. The dioxin levels in soil samples they examined were below the standards that require the EPA to launch cleanup operations, but hundreds of times higher than the cancer risk thresholds in residential areas established by the EPA in 2010.

    Whose Test Results Should East Palestine Believe?
    https://prospect.org/environment/2023-03-23-test-results-east-palestine/

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