01.23.12
Posted in Book Reviews, Church Issues and Bible Interpretations, History, quotes at 12:23 pm by Administrator
For anyone interested in nuclear issues and the history of it’s discovery, I recommend reading The Plutonium Files by Eileen Welsome. I actually finished reading this book back in November, but was too busy to sit down and give it a proper review. Now that I’m currently reading another book called, Plutonium by Jeremy Bernstein, I figured I’d better pound out my comments on Welsome’s book before I forget about it. That would be a shame because her book is very informative and an excellent commentary on how our government has operated. It also exposes the blatant disregard of peoples’ lives for the sake of science. Another reason I’ve held off on commenting on Welsome’s book is because it is so full of information, I didn’t know where to start. What particularly struck me was that her book tied in a lot of information that I had read in previous books, so The Plutonium Files helped to put many things in order in my mind.
The Plutonium Files is a 489-page book dealing with America’s secret medical experiments in the cold war. Welsome explains how plutonium was once so rare that the largest stock of plutonium in our laboratories was too small to be seen by the naked eye. As more plutonium was produced, it was held in a beaker the size of a sewing needle. Now we have hundreds of tons of the stuff that we don’t know what to do with. According to Bernstein, author of Plutonium, “aside from making nuclear weapons, plutonium is good for nothing else.” Basically, it’s a deadly poison that is now here with us for the rest of lives.
While I have read about secret programs such as Operation Paperclip where after WWII German scientists were brought to the U.S. and allowed to continue their work here like Von Braun on the V2 rocket and others that helped with mind control experiments later revealed as MKUltra, and even other medical experiments such as those described in Acres of Skin on prisoners, I had not realized the extent to which secret medical experiments were carried out. Sure I had read about G.I. guinea pigs, which I actually read a book years ago by that same name, which described how our military was exposed to harmful chemicals such as Agent Orange and also purposely exposed to radiation in the many nuclear bomb tests such as Operation Crossroads and the others that followed. But Welsome reveals experiments that were performed on unsuspecting and uninformed U.S. citizens, including children and pregnant women. Sure I realize it was a time when medical ethics codes were not strongly enforced (think the Tuskegee experiments), but just the fact that they did these experiments in secret shows that they knew it was not right. Yet it was done at the hands of professional scientists and medical personnel using government funding. Experiments such as feeding plutonium to young boys in their oatmeal and having pregnant women drink radioactive “cocktails,” on the pretense that they were having a nutritional drink were among these secret experiments that lasted for decades.
As I type this, I realize again why I have put off writing my comments on this book–it’s very disturbing to me and really wears me out emotionally. It saddens me to think how people treat each other. I find it ironic that these discoveries and inventions (i.e. nuclear bombs) were said to have been necessary for our safety, but yet, the safety of our soldiers and civilians is compromised by those very forces behind trying to protect us with these nuclear devices. The same forces that have developed bombs to protect us has endangered all of us from the threat of nuclear war to the contamination of our environment–soil and water. We are left today with highly contaminated areas and tons of radioactive wastes that they “still” don’t know what to do with. With the Chernobyl accident and now the Fukushima accidents, which is still not contained, our world is being blanketed with radioactive particles contaminating our food and water. And yet, they continue to march on creating more and more radioactive waste every day, every minute. The silence in our media reflects the U.S.’s disregard for our true safety and well-being because less information to it’s public translate into less opposition to nuclear technology. The more sane countries such as Austria, Sweden, Germany, Italy, Belguim, and Spain have at least acknowledged the dangers of nuclear power and are phasing them out.
The nuclear issue is so complicated that I don’t even want to start into that subject right now. However, I do find it upsetting that many of us have no say in what happens or if nuclear projects get funded. The secrecy is astounding. An example is that even the Manhattan Project, which cost billions of taxpayers’ dollars, was so secret that even Truman, the vice president at the time, wasn’t even aware of the project until Roosevelt died. It appears this is the way our government operates, with many highly secret plans and operations. For a supposedly Christian society, this culture of secrecy is contrary to the Bible–John 3:20 states that,
“For everyone who doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.”
So many government operations are secret, and for the most part, the public is completely kept in the dark. This secrecy ensures no outcry or opposition to these projects. Strangely enough, this secrecy creates the “in” groups vs. the “out groups.” Those who are “in” (who know of these secret projects) feel privileged and possibly superior to the “out groups,” who don’t know of these projects. So they convince themselves that they have a right to “experiment” on others for their “higher cause” (commonly patriotism is the name of that higher cause). This is again contrary to the Bible regarding treating others as you would like to be treated. Or even contrary to the biblical concept of caring for those who are poor or needy (many secret experiments are carried out on the underprivileged like prisoners or lower income groups). It’s contrary to the biblical concept of not participating in evil so that good will come from it. But light will eventually shine as the bible does tell us in Luke 12:2-3 that,
“For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known.
“Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoke in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.”
This post is turning out to be a book in itself, so I’ll wrap it up here. But first, one last point I want to bring up is Welsome’s title of chapter 20–Shields Warren: ”Patriotic Enough to Lie.” This chapter documented how some of the scientists were being questioned by ethics groups regarding their participation in some plutonium experiments. Many of these scientists covered their butts with lies or acted like they didn’t know about these projects. One such scientist was Shields Warren of who fellow scientist Merril Eisenbud once wrote, “some people are patriotic enough to lie.” Again, another contradiction to the bible wherein we are told not to lie, patriotism is not an exception.
Welsome’s book is excellent, and especially insightful as it ties in so many other books I’ve read such as the Radium Girls and Yellow Dirt and others. Definitely two thumbs up!
Marlakins
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01.20.12
Posted in Anything goes, cooking, family stuff, felt projects, hobbies, knitting and crocheting at 1:33 am by Administrator
This post is going to be a mixed bag of things. The first item is actually a mixed bag of yarn. Around Christmas time I was doing a search online for sock yarn and came across a link to the Supersock Store. They were advertising a 50% off sale on Cherry Tree Hill yarns. However, there were “rules” to follow to participate in the sale. First of all, the sale would start on New Year’s Eve at 11:30PM eastern standard time. The first 200 customers to place their orders would get a free “goodie bag.” Within one of those 200 goodie bags would be a card that had a saying that would have the initials DBNY. If you got that card then your whole order would be free! Well, just the 50% off sale was an incentive for me. The goodie bag was yet another lure that was reeling me in. And finally the thought that my whole order “might” be free was the clincher. On New Year’s Eve I planted my butt in front of the computer shopping for sock yarn like a looney looking at sock porn. Ha ha! I then chose the skeins I wanted to sample, placed my credit card at the ready, and waited for 11:30PM. . . errr, that is 8:30PM Pacific Standard time (the east coast is three hours ahead of us). Okay, so I didn’t just sit there really, I joined the family feasting on our New Year’s meal. It wasn’t long when 8:30PM arrived, and I ran upstairs to start dumping my order in the “cart”. One of the rules was that you couldn’t add anything to the cart until 11:30PM when the carts would open. In ten minutes I had my order placed and confirmed. Was I one of the first 200 customers? I wondered. . . The next morning I got a confirmation letter from the Supersock Store with the added info that they ran out of goodie bags just before the ball dropped in Times Square. Ah! I must have been one of the 200! Yes! A week later my order arrived. . .
Aren’t they lovely? Ummmmm.
And what’s this? My “goodie bag?”
I got seven balls of novelty yarns, a needle gauge, some sample corn yarn, a few buttons, and several knitting patterns. Ah, I love it! Nothing like a goodie bag!
So what I found out was that the Supersock Store has these sales twice a year. So I decided I’m gonna test out these yarns to see if my boys like the quality. I’ve started to knit up some of the yarn to see if I’ll be participating in the next 50% off sale with goodie bag. This is the first pair of socks in the works.
Not sure how the boys are going to like the colors, but there she be. I’m curious to see how well they hold up.
Now while I’m at it, here’s something else I worked on for Christmas gifts for my crafting buddies.
Here they are completed with the scissors paired up.
I actually didn’t know what I was doing when I was making them and just winged it as I went along. Overall, I’m satisfied with how they came out. Most of all, my crafting buddies seemed to enjoy them. Here’s another view of the completed scissor cases.
Then my sister asked if I would help her out by making cookies for her staff. She wanted me to make some ornaments to tie onto each bag of cookies. Here’s what I came up with.
By this time my camera was starting to die on me. I had to try a million shots to get something that wasn’t over-exposed looking. This was the best I could get. The tie cords I made were done on my spinning wheel.
Here’s what the cookies looked like all bagged up.
There were 20 bags all together of oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies.
My camera was acting up again, so this picture has a weird coloring. But at least it captures the gist of what the completed cookie bags turned out like. Oh! While I’m sharing goodies, my friends from the Isle of Man sent me a really nice gift basket of fruit cake, pudding, and chocolates. I thought these boxes of chocolates were so cute shaped into their IoM emblem–the three legs, which I was told meant that no matter which way they are thrown, they will stand.
Now those were yummy! This picture is all that’s left of them. . .
Toodles for now!
Marlakins
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01.18.12
Posted in Anything goes, Playing the Tourist, family stuff, gardening at 1:09 am by Administrator
Apparently, my previous post of the rice terraces was a bit confusing as to how rice grows. To clear the confusion, I thought I’d post a few more rice pictures. Here’s a picture of rice at the terraces before harvesting.
Here’s a closer picture with Brian reaching out to touch the rice.
This woman was harvesting the rice and tying them into bundles for drying.
After bundling, the rice is laid out all over the place–along side the roads, the walls, etc. This is what the bundles looked like while they are laid out to dry.
These bundles were all over the place. Here’s another example.
I believe each family did their own harvesting, so these piles would be all over. They don’t sell this rice commercially. It’s only grown for the community and sold in small quantities to visitors. We were able to taste some of this rice in the local restaurants and also by purchasing a small amount that we were able to take back to Manila with us and cook at the condo. This is the type of bundle Brian was holding in the picture in my previous post on the rice terraces.
While I’m sharing this pictures, I thought I’d throw in a couple more that I liked. Here’s pic of some cute little girls passing through the terraces. These kids are used to walking up and down the terraces to go to school. They must be in great shape because boy, I was pooped walking only a short distance of steep steps.
Brian just loved this closeup.
Isn’t she cute?
Hope this clears up the rice thing!
Marlakins 
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01.12.12
Posted in Historical Trivia, Playing the Tourist, family stuff, food and restaurants, gardening at 4:23 pm by Administrator
Last week I got an email from my sister asking if I would forward her a copy of some family pictures with some Ifugao and/or pictures of the rice terraces. Being the compliant sister that I am, I dutifully forwarded her a few pictures no questions asked (after all we took a ton of them during our visit last August). She gave me no explanation why she wanted them, just a “thank you” when she received it. So I asked her what that was all about. It turns out some good friends of hers had given her an old book that was published in the 50’s. It was a Hardy Boy type of book called The Skull. Apparently, it was a sort of joke as they weren’t familiar with the Rice Terraces or the Ifugao. The story is of some guys who leave from Manila to the Philippine Rice Terraces in search of treasure. My sister’s friends thought it was all made up, but my sister informed them that there are real Ifugao and real Philippine rice terraces. She had forwarded my family pictures to back up her claim, heheh.
My sister’s request got me rummaging through my pictures, so I figured while I was at it, I might as well share some of those pictures on my blog. I know we’ve already started the new year, but there’s still a lot of things left over from last year. Here’s one of the pictures we took last August with my family and mom at the rice terraces with some Ifugao.
Okay so we’re blocking the view of the rice terraces, so here’s a better picture of one of the spectacular views there.
Looks like a postcard, huh? There were so many scenic shots like this. It reminded me of pictures we took while in the Yucatan Peninsula years ago where many of our photographs looked like postcards.
These terraces are in the Banaue area. When we visited, we stayed at the Banaue Hotel, which was actually commissioned by Imelda Marcos from what we were told. When we arrived, we found that they had a welcome sign with all the guests’ names arriving that day.
I guess they listed the guests in alphabetical order, so our name was on top. Gosh we saw so many things there and took so many pictures, it’s hard to know which ones to share as there is only a small space on the blog. I’ll just share a few more that I liked like this one of Brian walking through the rice terrace. He really wanted to walk right in there and touch the rice. . .
The man behind him was our tour guide. He was very nice and accommodating. Luckily for us, there was still a lot of rice to harvest. Other times during the time we visited, the rice would have been harvested already and we would have only seen brown terraces. But fortunately, it was still quite green.
We visited a few museums, and also a small village called Taam Village, IIRC. It’s customary for them to keep the bones of their ancestors in their home, so here’s a pic of a young gal showing us the bones of her grandfather.
The structure we were in was actually one of the homes, which is basically a hut. I don’t think they all had wood floors like this one.
As we were winding up our tour of the village, my boys got ambushed by a bunch of Filipino gals taking a tour there, too. It’s interesting how they can spot outsiders easily and asked if they could take some pictures with my boys. Since they were all taking pictures, I joined in and grabbed a snap. Ah, to be young again. . .
And finally, before we left Banaue, we had lunch at the People’s Inn, which had another nice view of the terraces. There’s actually many, many views as the terraces are very extensive in size. While we felt surrounded by terraces, we actually only saw a small portion of it’s entirety.
You wouldn’t know if from looking at the above picture, but not more than two minutes passed after this shot that it got cloudy and started to rain. The sudden change of climate reminded me of Kauai. It would rain for a short while and clear up quickly as well.
Well, that’s it for now. This wasn’t exactly what I had in mind for my first post of the year, but I’m already behind, ha! I’ll likely post a few more stuffs from last year before I get on with this year.
Marlakins
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