The New UFO (Unidentified FALLING Object) Threat... Space Debris.

"The Sky Is Falling!... The Sky Is Falling!"

Guess What? The Children's Tale of The Histrionic and Hysterical Barnyard Bird Might Need a Re-Write...

Chicken Little Wasn't Exaggerating...

I've Blogged about the potential threat of Space Debris before, but with the recent Big News Story of the US Navy's targeted missile strike of a clunker of a US Spy Satellite that did a "George W." -it was sent to do a job... cost a lot of money... got into position... "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED"... went rogue and became a deadly threat to people everywhere - I decided that it was worth re-visiting.

From the "Way to Go, China... Way to Go!" File:

In April 2006, China was scheduled to host an international conference on minimizing debris in space.

The Not-So-Funny thing is... only three months earlier, China had destroyed an old weather satellite in an anti-satellite weapon test that NASA called "the single worst contamination of low Earth orbit during the past 50 years."
(...Considering all of the space junk NASA is responsible for... Well, "people who live in glass Space Centers...")

Not surprisingly, the Chinese canceled the meeting.

The problem with what they did is this: when the Chinese satellite exploded, tens of thousands of shards shot off in every direction, creating a debris field which extends from 125 miles above the surface of Earth to 2,500 miles.

US Air Force engineers have figured that it will take 100 years for all the pieces to fall out of orbit.

O.K., we can all agree, that sounds pretty bad... But, let's be fair... I'm still waiting for the Air Force engineers to calculate the size of the debris field created by the Navy's destruction of our toxic satellite... and how long it's many thousands of pieces and chunks will take to fall out of orbit...

(Of course, I'm not holding my breath.)

Needless to say, there's a lot of debris out there... um, up there. From nuts and bolts to Rocket Boosters, that big tank of Ammonia from the ISS, an astronaut glove, "pieces of exploded spacecraft", etc.

According to NASA, "...these objects number in the millions and orbit the earth at hyper-velocities averaging 10 km/s (22,000 mi/h)."

What NASA considers 'larger particles' (objects greater than 10-cm in diameter) are being tracked and catalogued by USSPACECOM radar.

The real threat comes from so-called 'medium size particles' (objects with a diameter between 1 mm to 10 cm). These aren't easily tracked, yet they are big enough to result in catastrophic damage to spacecraft and satellites.

Now that around 20 other countries have the technology to blast satellites and whatnot into orbit and with the private sector racing to stick a flag in space... all with potentially varying degrees of success/failure at keeping their stuff up there... and considering that there are no widely-accepted international space safety protocols...

THIS is a situation that calls for a 'preemptive strike', as it were. The international community needs to get together and agree on and maintain sensible safety standards regarding whats up there and protocols to follow when an object becomes a potential threat...

What we should NOT do is wait until there is a catastrophic collision between a chunk of debris and, say, the Space Shuttle or have an important communications satellite get clobbered and rendered useless to get all nations motivated to do something.

Peace.
L.
From: www.guardian.co.uk/.

Warning of Catastrophe From Mass of 'Space Junk'

'Failure to act would be folly,' says report to UN

Robin McKie and Michael Day
The Observer,
Sunday February 24 2008


The amount of debris orbiting the Earth has reached a critical level. Old satellite parts, solar panels and the odd astronaut's lost glove now pose serious risks to space missions. A report from the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety is calling for stringent international laws to be brought in urgently to avert a tragedy.

The threat posed by orbiting debris can only be allayed by extending civil aviation standards into space, says the report, which is to be presented to the United Nations in April. 'Failure to act now to regulate space to protect property and human life would be pure folly,' says the association's director, Tommaso Sgobba. Professor Richard Crowther, who is representing the UK at a UN space safety meeting in Vienna, agrees: 'Eventually binding international civil aviation style laws will have to come.'

Last week, the United States courted an international row after shooting down a disabled spy satellite, saying its fuel could cause serious damage if it crashed to Earth. Russia, however, claimed that the operation was a US cover-up to test its anti-satellite weapons.

According to the space agency NASA, there are now 9,000 pieces of orbiting junk, weighing a total of more than 5,500 tonnes: old rocket launchers, tools and instruments dropped by astronauts, and pieces of exploded spacecraft. Examples include a glove lost by astronaut Ed White during a 1965 space walk, a camera that Michael Collins let slip in space in 1966 and a pair of pliers that an International Space Station astronaut recently let slip through their fingers.

Space junk varies in size from tiny bolts and screws to huge lumps of fuselage and are to be found in two main regions: low Earth orbit, a few hundred miles above Earth, and geostationary orbit, 22,300 miles up, where communication satellites are programmed to hover above the planet.

In low Earth orbit, pieces of debris pose particular problems. They could strike manned spacecraft and lead to fatal de-pressurization, space experts warn. In 1991, a space shuttle had to carry out an emergency seven-second burn of its engines to avoid being struck by part of a Russian Cosmos satellite.

Low-orbiting debris also poses a risk to Earth itself. In 2006, pieces of a Russian spy satellite burnt up in the atmosphere, passing perilously close to a Latin American Airbus carrying 270 passengers over the Pacific.

To date, only one person has been injured by space debris, however: an Oklahoma woman who was hit in the shoulder by a piece of a Delta rocket's fuel tank, but was uninjured by this extraterrestrial attack.

The problem, according to the Association for the Advancement of Space Safety report, is that up to 20 countries are now able to launch objects into space - but very few of these have rigid safety protocols. Nor is the problem of space debris confined to near Earth, it adds. Satellites in geostationary orbit are supposed to be moved farther into space after they become defunct - but often that obligation is not met.

More than 200 dead satellites now litter this vital part of space. Within 10 years that number could increase fivefold, warns the report. The resulting chaos could lead to serious damage or loss of a spacecraft.

'Unfortunately we may have to wait for something to happen, perhaps a big near miss, before people realise we can't go on as we are,' Crowther said.

Under the USDA, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad Cow World.

Recent News Reports have been filled with the news of the biggest recall of beef in history. The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Sunday ordered the recall of 143 million pounds of frozen beef from Chino-based Westland/Hallmark Meat Co.

The recall will affect beef products dating to Feb. 1, 2006.

In other words, this being February 2008, most of the beef being recalled has likely already been consumed by unwitting, carnivorous, American consumers.

The recall and federally-ordered suspension of operations at Westland/Hallmark comes only after an undercover video from the Humane Society of the United States surfaced showing crippled and sick animals being shoved with forklifts.

Authorities said the video showed workers kicking, using electric shock and otherwise abusing "downer" animals that were apparently too sick or injured to walk into the slaughterhouse. Some animals had water forced down their throats from a high pressure hose.

(In spite of the video (only the most recently caught-on-tape case of animal abuse), the USDA, after much hoof-dragging, finally declared in 2003 that so-called 'downer' animals should be kept out of the human food supply. This was because of the possibility that they might be suffering from/their meat products contaminated with Mad Cow Disease. People who eat the contaminated meat can develop the human version of spongiform encephalopathy.)

I don't know how many slaughterhouses there are in the U.S., but I'm quite sure that this is not an isolated incident.

History is filled with evidence that (and research studies have shown) when some human beings are given absolute power over anyone, be they inmates in a U.S. prison, detainees in Abu Ghraib/Gitmo... or helpless and frightened animals in a factory farm or slaughterhouse...
Terrible Abuse... up to and including Torture... is bound to occur.

Unfortunately, it's a 'no-brainer.'

What I want to know is... who are the people who the news is saying are "...up in arms over video of animal abuse"? (Other than vegan people, of course, like myself, who find the whole process barbaric whether there's over-the-top torture of the animals or just the run-of-the-mill, normal torture.)

Are they the same people who, at lunch, gave in to a Big Mac Attack?
Are they the same people who think nothing of grabbing a couple of Happy Meals for their kids? ("Happy Meal" is one of the greatest and most horribly ironic misnomers in modern history... Trust me, the cattle who passed through the McMillions Murdered processing plant didn't die happy.)

I saw the video... and it is gut-wrenching to see these gentle and harmless animals -who are obviously suffering horribly (enough to render them incapable of taking the march to captive-bolt stunning and carotid artery slicing death under their own power) being Tortured in their last Torturous Moments.

As for this headline-grabbing, breaking news/lead-in story-worthy and (honestly)relatively pointless recall goes...

"It's really closing the barn door after the cows left.", as Jean Halloran, director of food policy initiatives at Consumers Union noted.



From www.goveg.com/.

Mad Cow Disease: It’s Mad to Eat Meat

Mad cow disease is one of the most frightening diseases of our generation. Also known as “bovine spongiform encephalopathy,” it is a member of a group of diseases called transmissible spongiform encephalopathies. These diseases, which cause the brain to degenerate until it becomes “spongy” and lead to eventual death, are caused by misshapen proteins called “prions.”1 Researchers have traced massive outbreaks of the disease on factory farms to the meat industry’s cost-cutting practice of mixing the brain tissue of dead farmed animals into the feed of other farmed animals.

Any animal with a brain has the potential to become infected with a prion disease and could pass the disease on to humans who eat the animal’s flesh.

To make matters worse, prions are nearly indestructible. They're impervious to radiation, washing, boiling and the intense heat of autoclaves used to sterilize surgical instruments. Unlike many harmful bacteria, prions aren't destroyed by cooking or by the strong juices produced in your stomach.

Scientists have already identified mad cow disease variants in humans, fish, sheep, minks, cows, deer, and cats. Although illegal in Japan and Europe, in the U.S. and Canada it remains common to include the blood, bone, and unwanted flesh of all types of farmed animals in the feed of chickens, turkeys, and pigs. Of all the animal flesh and bone meal that is processed into food for farmed animals, almost half is fed to chickens and turkeys, 13 percent is fed to pigs, and 10 percent is fed to cows.

How Do People Get Mad Cow Disease?


When people eat infected animals, they can develop the human version of spongiform encephalopathy called “new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease” (nvCJD). This disease eats holes in the brain (which results in a spongy appearance), initially causing memory loss and erratic behavior. Over a period of months, victims gradually lose the ability to care for themselves or communicate, and they eventually die. There is evidence that a large number of Americans diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia may in fact be victims of CJD.

Eating contaminated meat has caused more than 150 deaths worldwide. Thousands more are likely infected but do not know it yet, according to a study published in The Journal of Pathology, and it can take years for symptoms to develop.6,7 Millions of cows developed the disease in Europe in the 1990s and were killed and their bodies burned—although burning does not destroy prions. Hunters in the U.S. and their families may have contracted the disease by eating infected deer they killed.8


What Is the U.S. Government Doing to Protect Americans From Mad Cow Disease?

The USDA, which is supposed to ensure the safety of the American food supply, has a long, disturbing history of protecting the profits of the wealthy meat, dairy, and egg industries instead of protecting consumers and animals. But the agency’s actions on the mad cow issue may be the most appalling dereliction of duty to date:

“Downed cows” (those too sick or injured to walk) are considered the most likely to have mad cow disease. After years of stalling, the USDA finally announced in late 2003 that it would stop allowing these animals into the human food supply. However, a damning internal report released three years later found that USDA inspectors were still allowing many downed cows to be slaughtered for human consumption.9

While Japan and England test every slaughtered cow for mad cow disease, the U.S. tests fewer than 1 percent of cows.10,11 The USDA even refused to allow a slaughterhouse to do its own testing—perhaps fearful of what the slaughterhouse might find.12

A 2006 audit found that top USDA officials tried to stop additional testing on a cow who was suspected of having mad cow disease because the agency feared that a positive test would cause economic harm to the beef industry. When the inspector general finally insisted that the cow be tested, the results showed that the cow was indeed infected with the disease.13

How to Protect Yourself

The American government is not following the World Health Organization recommendations for protecting Americans from mad cow disease.

There is no cure for vCJD (the form of Mad Cow which humans can develop).

There is also no treatment that will slow the progress of the disease. Drug therapy can be used to help some of the psychiatric symptoms of the condition.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is always fatal. The typical survival time is eight months after symptoms first appear. About 5 percent of patients live longer than two years. The usual survival time for patients with nvCJD is twelve months after onset.

Simply put, the only way to ensure that you won’t eat something that will cause you to develop a horrific, brain-rotting illness is to go vegetarian.

Human Body Exhibits Reveal More Than Expected

Is it Art?... Science?... Entertainment?... Or Something Much More Sinister?

You may have seen the commercials...
"The Universe Within", "Body Worlds", "Bodies Revealed"...
The ads all look alike... (if you have a weak stomach, stop reading Here.)
Real Human Remains/Bodies... that have been embalmed, skinned, cured, trimmed, soaked in chemical baths... so that they are preserved... no decomposition, no smell...
They are then posed, in various activities, for all to see... for a price.
(Personally, I wouldn't want to see the exhibit, even if it were Free.)

I first heard of this modern Carnival of the Macabre a couple of years ago. "Body Worlds" had come and gone and a copycat competitor was currently spending ridiculous amounts of money in local TV advertising. I glanced up at the TV screen only once... my gut winced and so did I... and I made a point to avoid the images thereafter. I thought it grotesque... and not in a good way.
And I had a Question:
"WHERE DID THEY GET THE BODIES?"
I had an interest in the show... but not in a way that they can make money from.

Apparently, I wasn't the only one. California State Assemblywoman Fiona Ma had some serious concerns about these exhibits, too.

Ma first encountered one of the Body Exhibits in San Francisco in 2005... When she realized that all of the bodies came from China, she immediately became concerned: "Chinese people are very superstitious about death. If someone dies in a house, they won't buy the house," she said. "They believe in full-body burials. They don't believe in organ donations, and some people don't even believe in giving blood. So, automatically, I thought that something was wrong with the show," said Ma.

Before too long, I heard that this second-rate exhibit was involuntarily closed down... after patrons complained of (and a local news crew filmed) some of the bodies leaking an unidentified substance.

Oops! Seems they skipped a few of the important steps in the Plastination Process. Tsk... Tsk... Tsk...

About a month ago, one of these Human Remains Reviews passed through town again. Same skinned bodies, same barrage of creepy commercials... and the same Question, still unanswered...
On the bright side, at least these poor folks weren't dripping.
Well... it was unanswered until Brian Ross investigated the hugely profitable practice of peeling and posing people for ABC's 20/20...
All I can say is... Add them to the growing list of questionable Chinese exports...
That... and... "Ewww!"

(From Our Body: The Universe Within's Website:) Where do these specimens come from?
"All of the anatomical specimens contained in Our Body: The Universe Within originate from China and have been provided for the exhibit consistent with the laws of China. The anatomical specimens are not owned by the exhibitors, but are provided by a Chinese foundation to promote educational and medical research of the human body. While we do not have the specific identity of each anatomical specimen, they have been donated through medical schools and other research facilities in China to promote education, science and medical research of the human body."

"...consistent with the laws of China..."
REALLY?
That's interesting, cause it's been illegal in China to export human bodies or body parts since 2006.

Then again...
China executes more prisoners than any other country...
That said, perhaps they've just embraced Capitalism...
Why bother disposing of all of those remains...
When you can SELL THEM?!...

Eww.
Peace.
L.

From: //abcnews.go.com

Human Bodies on Display: Where Do They Come From?

Body Exhibit Inventor Says He's Stopped Using Bodies From China Because Some of Them May Be Those of Executed Prisoners

The German doctor who invented the process that led to hundreds of human bodies being put on display around the world, says he has stopped using bodies from China because some of them may be those of executed Chinese prisoners.

The body shows, which have drawn millions of paying customers in more than 30 cities, show human bodies that have been preserved with a liquid plastic process. The bodies are shown skinned and trimmed, in a variety of poses, including throwing a football, playing poker or at a chess board.

In an interview to be aired Friday on the ABC News program "20/20," Dr. Gunther von Hagens also says an underground black market is providing bodies to Chinese companies that export them to the U.S. and Europe, despite a 2006 Chinese law prohibiting the export of human bodies for commercial purposes.

A spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said it was investigating the allegations.

Von Hagens says he had to cremate several bodies he received in China after detecting injuries that led him to suspect they had been executed prisoners. He says those bodies were given to him by a medical school in China to plastinate for teaching models. He said he only used Chinese bodies, all of which he received from the Chinese university, for teaching models, but has never put Chinese bodies on public display.

"There is now no way for me any more to work with specimens in China," said von Hagens, who says his company in China now only deals with animal specimens.

The German doctor, labeled Dr. Death by some European newspapers, said, "I am concerned that public exhibitions are being hijacked by corporate interests."

Von Hagens says the bodies he uses in shows currently running in Baltimore, Milwaukee and elsewhere are from European donors who voluntarily consented prior to their deaths to have their bodies put on display.

Von Hagens provided "20/20" with documents of donors to back up his claim.

"The donors know exactly what is the scope of what we are doing," he said in the interview, conducted at his body factory in the German town of Guben, on the Polish border.

Von Hagens says he invented the "plastination" process initially, in 1975, to prepare body specimens for medical schools.

In 1995, he opened the first public display in Tokyo and has since made millions of dollars with shows around the world that have provoked considerable controversy.

"You're going to be entertained by looking at dead bodies, by looking at cadavers that have been put in the most atrocious poses for our entertainment," said Rabbi Louis Feldstein of Atlanta.

Feldstein says it violates a standard of "respect for the life that was lived."

Earlier this month, the California Assembly passed and sent to the Senate, legislation that would require body shows to have proof that each body had been donated with "informed consent."

"As a person of Chinese descent, I just don't believe any family would consent to have their kin shown this way," said the bill's author, Assemblywoman Fiona Ma.

"The skin is ripped off; body parts are exposed so that someone else could be making millions of dollars looking at them," she said.

Dr. von Hagens says he strongly supports the California legislation and says it should be the standard worldwide.

"Especially as a German, with [our country's] Nazi past, I have to refrain to avoid the tiniest, little strand of any doubt that I am guilty of unethical conduct," he said.