Chevron oil fire in California, USA

This video from the USA is called Chevron Oil Refinery Fire, in Richmond, California.

From the Sierra Club in the USA:

August 7, 2012

Sierra Club Statement on Chevron Refinery Fire

Washington, DC – Yesterday at 6:15 PT explosions and a massive fire at Chevron’s Richmond, CA, oil refinery released a plume of black smoke over the region.

Sierra Club Director, Environmental Justice and Community Partnerships Director Leslie Fields Released the Following Statement in Response:

“Yesterday residents of four California cities—Richmond, North Richmond, San Pablo and El Cerrito—were told by emergency officials to shelter-in-place, close doors and seal windows to avoid toxic smoke from the massive Chevron refinery fire. Fortunately, there were only minor injuries at the site. However, area hospitals reported at least 350 visits for respiratory problems and vomiting.

“No one should have to live downwind of a dangerous oil refinery. Our thoughts are with the families living near the Chevron facility who must now contend with the aftermath and long-term health consequences of breathing in smoke filled with dangerous particulate matter, soot and cancer-causing toxins like sulfur compounds. These explosions and the massive toxic cloud hanging over their community and homes are only a part of the pattern of operation at Chevron’s Richmond facility, and Chevron should be held to account.”

For the fourth time in the past 18 years, Chevron’s Richmond, California refinery has caught on fire, blanketing thousands of homes in toxic smoke: here.

Chevron faces heat over refinery blaze: here.

Chevron, the second largest oil and energy company in the United States, was fined $963,200 by Cal/OSHA (the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health) for state safety standard violations related to the August 6, 2012, fire at its Richmond, California, refinery: here.

Refinery fire highlights pollution concerns: here.

10 of the most dangerous chemical plants in the U.S.: here.

Related articles

• Chevron fined nearly $1M for Calif. refinery fire (sacbee.com)
• $10 Million to Injured Workers from Chevron Payout (earthfirstnews.wordpress.com)
• Chevron Fined Nearly $1 Million For California Refinery Fire (huffingtonpost.com)
• State Fines Chevron $1 Million For Richmond Refinery Fire (sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com)
• Chevron fire: State seeks nearly $1M fine (sfgate.com)
• Chevron Says It Has Paid $10M In Richmond Refinery Claims (sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com)
• Exxon, Chevron Made $71 Billion Profit in 2012 As Consumers Paid Record Gas Prices (readersupportednews.org)
• Chevron Finally Punished For Massive Richmond Refinery Fire (huffingtonpost.com)
• Chevron profit up on asset exchange, refineries (miamiherald.com)

Willet migration, new research

This video from the USA is called Marbled Godwit and Willets.

By Darci Palmquist in the USA:

Secrets of Willet Migration Revealed

August 7th, 2012

Olympic athletes are impressive, no doubt. But when it comes to athletic prowess, few creatures compare to migratory birds like the eastern willet.

A large shorebird with distinctive white racing stripes and a unique penchant for nesting in salt marshes, the willet flies at speeds up to 57 MPH to cross the Atlantic Ocean in just 3 days. Leaving its nesting grounds at the Delaware Bayshores by early August, willets cover some 3,500 miles before eventually settling down for the winter in … where?

The secret location of willets’ wintering grounds had been a mystery—until now. Conservancy ecologist Joe Smith studied willet migration for the past 3 years and discovered that the eastern willet winters in estuaries on the northern coast of South America, mostly in Brazil and Suriname.

His discovery comes with the aid of new geolocator tags that rely on hours of sunlight to pinpoint latitude and longitude. Geolocators are lightweight, small and cheap—allowing scientists to track more types of birds, like willets, that were considered too small for the bulkier satellite tags traditionally used.

Such advances in technology are ushering in a new era of bird studies and giving scientists deeper insight into the full annual life cycle of migratory animals, a burgeoning field known as “migratory connectivity.” It goes beyond discovering where birds like willets winter to answering more complicated questions about how they migrate—such as how many miles they travel per day and how many places they stop. Migratory connectivity even uses advanced analysis of birds’ chemical makeup to understand what the habitat conditions are like at their wintering grounds.

“It’s a golden age for tracking migration,” enthuses Smith. “We’re learning that it’s a big world, yet it’s a small world for these birds because they use very discrete places.”

And these advances in science can mean better conservation for birds like the willet.

(See a photo slideshow of Smith catching willets as part of his research.)

An Overlooked Species of Scientific Research

Very few studies have been conducted on eastern willets, with only one significant research project in the 1970s. Smith’s study will provide the richest collection of data about the migration of this species to date.

In addition to the geolocator tags, Smith’s team collects feather and blood samples that are then analyzed for mercury and carbon and nitrogen isotopes by experts at the Biodiversity Research Institute (BRI) and Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center. Together they’re piecing together a more complete picture of the annual life cycle of an eastern willet.

The birds’ primary wintering area in Brazil happens to be a shorebird hotspot—it has the largest tract of intact mangrove forest in the Western Hemisphere and is sparsely populated. It’s not a big surprise that the willets spend their winter here, where the mangroves are lush and the food is plentiful.

What is a surprise is the other discovery that Smith’s team has made: willets are picking up mercury pollution at potentially harmful levels at these seemingly pristine wintering grounds.

“We know this because of the feather samples,” explains Smith. “Feathers retain a signature of the habitat conditions where they were grown. When the birds arrive here to nest, we can get a really good sense of what their winter habitat conditions were like from feather samples.”

Terrorist Breivik no lone wolf

This is a video called Norway mass killer Anders Breivik gives far right salute as he arrives in court.

From Socialist Worker weekly in Britain:

Tue 7 August 2012

Pedlars of Hate: new report shows Breivik was no lone wolf

Hassan Mahamdallie reviews a new pamphlet looking at the rise of the far right across Europe

Judges at the trial of Anders Behring Breivik, the fascist who murdered 77 people in Norway last year, are deliberating whether he is criminally insane.

The Norwegian authorities, along with establishment politicians and press across Europe, have already decided that Breivik was a “lone wolf”.

This angle has allowed mainstream politicians to continue the xenophobic, anti-multicultural, anti-Roma and anti-Muslim speeches and policies that fed into and affirmed Breivik’s worldview.

That is a point Liz Fekete of the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) makes in her latest invaluable publication Pedlars of Hate: The Violent Impact of the European Far Right.

Pedlars of Hate shows that Breivik’s murders can’t be seen as being the act of a “mad” or “evil” individual. Instead they should be seen in the context of the growth of far right groupings and parties.

The pamphlet records over 100 cases of far right terror across West and East Europe from the beginning of 2010 until April 2012.

These range from websites publishing lists of targets, to small groups involved in stockpiling weapons for a “race war”. Individuals’ attacks on mosques, mass street movements and electoral parties are also included.

In Britain we are more aware of the rise in anti-Muslim racism. In central and eastern Europe it is Roma and Gypsy populations who are principal victims of far right terror.

The situation in Hungary is instructive. The far right Jobbik party harks back to a Nazi era founded on the extermination of Jewish and Roma peoples. It is Hungary’s third largest party.

In classic fascist manner it is also building a paramilitary force. In an extraordinary episode in March 2011 its “Civic Guard” occupied a small village 50 miles from Budapest for two months.

Floodlights

They were “marching every morning… singing war songs, bellowing abuse and shining floodlights into the windows of Roma families at night.

“They were soon joined by members of various hate groups… armed with axes, whips and accompanied by snarling bulldogs… hammering on doors and calling the inhabitants ‘dirty fucking Gypsies’.”

They tried to force Roma children out of the village schools. For two months they were allowed to do this. The only people prosecuted were Roma men who fought back.

Some on the extreme right have built electoral forces, such as the Front National in France and the People’s Party in Denmark. They have been matched outside parliament by “looser, less hierarchical and more conspiratorial” grassroots networks.

They feed on the widespread notion of “reverse racism”—that the “majority” is being held hostage or under threat from a “minority”, whether it be Muslims in Western Europe or Roma in the East.

This falsehood underpins the racist rhetoric of mainstream politicians against multicultural society and provides the far right with a sense of “grievance” that they can exploit.

Pedlars of Hate documents how far right threats and violence increasingly go beyond their specific racist target as they seek to bend society to their will. As we know from Britain that includes attacks on LGBT people, feminists, the left, anti-fascists and trade unionists.

What lessons should we draw from this? We need to be vigilant, organised and active against the far right, in our home countries and abroad.

We have to be uncompromisingly against the politics of scapegoating, defend those under attack and strive always for the greatest unity. The challenge of the far right, in Britain and abroad, as Liz Fekete’s publication warns us, is not going away anytime soon.

Pedlars of Hate: The Violent Impact of the European Far Right can be downloaded from the Institute for Race Relations website or purchased as a hard copy for £15.

The Intouchables, directed by French filmmakers Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache, is a predictable but touching comedy about the relationship between an upper class Frenchman and his Muslim Senegalese caretaker. Based on a true story, the movie is clearly intended to counteract the racist and anti-immigrant policies increasingly being promoted by the French ruling elite and ultra-right political elements in particular: here.

Monti’s capitalism or democracy in Europe?

This video by Mark Fiore from the USA is called Assaulting Austerity.

By Peter Schwarz in Germany:

The euro bailouts and the crisis of democracy in Europe

7 August 2012

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said Monday that Europe would fall apart “if governments are completely bound by the decisions of their parliaments.” Every government has “a duty to educate the parliament,” he added in an interview with the news magazine Der Spiegel.

Monti’s statement amounts to an admission that the numerous bank bailouts organized to rescue the euro in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crash, and the austerity programs launched to make the working class pay for them, have strained European bourgeois democracy to the breaking point. The responsibility of the government to parliament, and parliament’s control over the government—which Monti is questioning—is a basic principle of parliamentary democracy.

Monti attacks parliament, but his real target is the working class. For the vast majority of the population, it has already become impossible to influence politics through the ballot box. Major political decisions are made ​​by the financial markets and their henchmen in Brussels, Berlin and the other European capitals.

In the recent elections in Greece and France, parties that appeared to promise an end to, or at least a moderation of, brutal social cuts received broad popular support. In France, the Socialist Party won the presidential election for the first time since 1988. In Greece, the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) emerged as the second largest party.

…

Under these circumstances, Monti’s comment underscores the basic class agenda of the European bourgeoisie: to press ahead with the policies of the banks, whatever the outcome of elections or the size of street protests and strikes against austerity measures.

Monti knows well that the social counterrevolution demanded by the international financial markets is incompatible with democratic methods. He leads a government of technocrats that has no democratic legitimacy. Monti—an economics professor, advisor to Goldman Sachs and member of several conservative think tanks (Bruegel, Bilderberg Conference, Trilateral Commission)—is a trusted representative of international finance capital. At its behest, he succeeded the Berlusconi government last November without the holding of an election because Berlusconi had failed to cut the budget quickly and deeply enough.

Since then, the Monti government has systematically attacked the social gains and rights won by Italian workers since the fall of the fascist dictatorship of Mussolini at the end of World War II. It has reduced pensions, increased consumption taxes and eliminated legal protections against dismissal and other social rights.

The rich don’t pay taxes. Everybody knows that. Especially not in Italy, where governments have remained firmly on the side of the 1 per cent: here.

Last week, former German foreign minister Joschka Fischer (Green Party) published a column in the Süddeutsche Zeitung arguing for authoritarian forms of rule by the EU: here.

The Greek government has announced £9 billion in new cuts—but it can’t hide the chaos it is causing, writes Nikos Loudos: here.

Britain: Financial giant Standard Chartered saw its shares tumble by nearly a quarter yesterday as it became the second bank in as many months to be embroiled in money-laundering allegations: here.

Irish bottlenose dolphin saved

This video from Ireland is called Biodiversity in our Seas.

From Wildlife Extra:

First confirmed successful refloat of stranded dolphin

August 2012. A bottlenose dolphin that live-stranded in North Kerry and was refloated, was recently photographed from dolphin tour boats in the Shannon Estuary. This is one of just a few occasions when there is proof that refloating a dolphin had some long-term sucess.

Stranded in Co Kerry

A bottlenose dolphin live-stranded at Béal, Co. Kerry, on the shores of the Shannon Estuary, on 1 June 2012. The 3.5m female bottlenose dolphin was lying on the sand about 10m from the waterline, but appeared to be in perfect condition and had no signs of injury. She didn’t seem in a very distressed state despite her predicament and her skin was still moist, but she was starting to overheat.

Rather than wait for the whale pontoons to arrive from Kilrush in Co. Clare on the other side of the estuary, those present at the stranding decided to try using a tractor equipped with a large transport box on the back to lift her out of the sand and put her slowly into the water. Once in the water, they stabilised the dolphin for a few minutes and allowed her to become acclimatised, before she started to swim away from the shore. She quickly increased her swimming speed and was observed swimming for about 10 minutes before she was out of view.

Photographed 4 weeks later

On 27 June 2012, the same bottlenose dolphin was photographed from Dolphinwatch Carrigaholt’s tour boat during a dolphin-watching trip. She was with a group of adults with calves and looked to be in good health. Researchers from the Shannon Dolphin and Wildlife Foundation, who monitor the Shannon dolphins, were able to match a photograph taken of the dolphin’s dorsal fin to a photograph taken during the stranding event. She has since been photographed twice from the Kilrush based Dolphin Discovery tour boat on 5 June and 6 June 2012. On all occasions, she was seen in groups of individuals which included some of the same adults with calves. Her presence in these groups and her behaviour within them suggests that she is healthy and well.

Shannon Estuary dolphins

The Shannon Estuary bottlenose dolphin population numbers around 120-140 individuals and is thought to be genetically discrete. The loss of one dolphin, especially an adult female, could have a significant impact on this population, thus highlighting the importance of the prompt action on the shore at Béal.

September 2012. Marine law enforcement staff (NOAA) and US marine mammal experts received a report a bottlenose dolphin that had been found dead on Elmer’s Island in Louisiana. A necropsy revealed the dolphin died of a gunshot wound; the dolphin had been shot on the right side just behind the blowhole, probably with a small calibre firearm. The bullet was discovered lodged in the dolphin’s lung: here.

Bottlenose dolphins call out the specific names of loved ones when they become separated, a study finds: here.

New technology can identify individual dolphins: here.

September 2012. Three months after their release, Tom and Misha, two captive dolphins rescued from certain death in a filthy swimming pool in Hisaronu, are successfully adapting to life back in the wild. The Back To The Blue team made up of experts from the USA, Turkey and the UK, undertook twenty months of intensive rehabilitation, organised and funded by international wildlife charity, the Born Free Foundation, ultimately transforming Tom and Misha from lethargic dependent ‘captives’ who were close to death, into effective independent wild animals: here.

Bottlenose dolphins using sponges to protect their noses while foraging is a technique that the animals discovered in the 19th century, a study has found: here.

Related articles

• €1 million project to protect bottlenose dolphins, loggerhead turtle (timesofmalta.com)
• Emerald Coast Wildlife Refuge investigating dolphin death (nwfdailynews.com)

General Electric boss gets $89,000 a month for not working

This video from the USA says about itself:

A Japanese parliamentary inquiry has concluded last year’s nuclear meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was “a profoundly man-made disaster — that could and should have been foreseen and prevented.” We speak to former nuclear industry executive Arnie Gundersen about the report and what it means for U.S. nuclear facilities, in particular the 23 with a similar design to the Fukushima plant.

“There is some curious information on Fukushima Unit 1, the first one to fail,” Gundersen says. “It was built by an American company, General Electric, and an American architect/engineer. It’s hard for the Japanese to blame themselves when this was an all-American design … I’m concerned that the nuclear industry in the United States will say it’s a Japanese problem, and it’s not.”

By David Walsh in the USA:

GE executive to be paid $89,000 a month for not working

7 August 2012

General Electric (GE) executive John Krenicki is leaving the giant firm at the end of 2012, bound up with the company’s decision to break up his energy division, where he functions as chief executive and president, into three separate operations.

In return for agreeing not to go to work for any of GE’s rivals for three years, Krenicki will be paid a “retirement allowance” of $89,000 a month for ten years, or some $10.7 million. The allowance is a portion of an exit package worth at least $28.3 million, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Krenicki’s deal also includes nearly $15 million worth of stock options and restricted stock units, and a bonus for 2012 equal to last year’s $2.8 million.

These obscene amounts have become entirely standard in America’s boardrooms. If the media treats the issue in more than a passing fashion, the tone tends to be one of awe or jealousy, rather than outrage. This is the narrow world of the American aristocracy.

The wealthiest New Zealanders have not suffered from the austerity drive being imposed on the working class: here.

Long-tailed duck video

This video from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in the USA says about itself:

The Long-tailed Duck has one of the most distinctive vocalizations of any tundra nesting bird. The Lab’s Charles Eldermire describes the calls of this loud and garrulous species.

Learn more about Long-tailed Ducks on All About Birds: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/long-tailed_duck/id.

US Sikh massacre, more than one nazi murderer?

This video from the USA is called Hate Groups – N[ational] S[ocialist] M[ovement] – (Report from NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams).

By Barry Grey in the USA:

US gunman alleged to have killed six at Sikh temple was a neo-Nazi

7 August 2012

Much remains murky in relation to the mass shooting Sunday at a Wisconsin Sikh temple that resulted in the death of seven people, including the gunman, and critical wounding of three others. One thing is clear, however: the alleged shooter had a long and deep involvement in white supremacist, neo-Nazi circles.

The ample information about Wade Michael Page’s fascist sympathies has been downplayed by the mass media and US officials, and the general theme of media commentary is “the search for a motive.” The evidence, however, strongly indicates that Page’s homicidal rampage against ethnic Indians was driven by a racist and fascist political agenda, defining his crime as an act of right-wing domestic terrorism.

The 40-year-old Army veteran used a 9 millimeter automatic handgun to fatally shoot six worshippers at the Wisconsin Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, a suburb of Milwaukee, and send two others, as well as a police officer, to the hospital with life-threatening wounds. Page was then killed in a shootout with police.

The deceased Sikhs, ranging in age from 39 to 84, included five men and one woman, identified as Sita Singh (41), Ranjit Singh (49), Satwant Singh Kaleka (65), Prakash Singh (39), Paramjit Kaur (41), and Suveg Singh (84).

The police and FBI claim that only one gunman was involved. However, there are reasons to treat this version of events with some skepticism. Initial news reports Sunday morning, based on statements from witnesses at the scene, spoke of multiple shooters. One witness reported that four white males opened fire. Others said there was more than one gunman.

Temple officials reported seeing suspicious persons and receiving suspicious phone calls in the days prior to the incident. The chairman of the temple said several suspicious men were seen on the premises on Saturday, the day before the shooting.

At a press conference in Oak Creek held Monday morning, authorities said they were attempting to identify another person, a white male, whom they described as “a person of interest.” Reporters for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said a man matching the photo officials had shown was seen at the scene of the temple on Sunday.

Yet the evening news programs on the three major broadcast networks and the Public Broadcasting System dropped any reference to the “person of interest.”

…

Page, born in 1971 in Colorado, joined the Army in 1992 and was given a “general discharge” in 1998. He was denied an “honorable” discharge and, in fact, was kicked out for repeated instances of being drunk on duty.

According to officials, Page received his basic training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma before being moved to Fort Bliss in Texas and ending up at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. He joined the psychological operations unit, a branch of the Special Forces. He was a parachutist and received a commendation medal, five achievement medals, two good conduct medals, the National Defense Service Medal and a Humanitarian Service Medal.

Wade Michael Page Identified As Sikh Temple Shooting Suspect (LIVE UPDATES): here.

The Sikh temple shooting suspect’s “body reads like a poster text for white nationalism”: here.

Sikhs mourn temple victims: here.

Sikh Temple Shooting: Why Do the Media Care Less About This Attack? Here.

The climate of racism after 9/11 is what helped spark this act of terrorism against the Sikh community of Wisconsin: here.

Sikh temple massacre: Gunman was convicted criminal who’d been ‘looked at’ by Federal authorities due to white supremacist links. Wade Michael Page was nonetheless able to legally purchase the 9mm handgun and ammunition used in Sunday’s attack: here.

When Wade Michael Page gunned down half a dozen Sikh worshippers and a police officer at a temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin on August 5, 2012, only a handful of writers on the conspiracist fringe were shameless and/or ingenious enough to blame the left: here.

Republicans Blasted Obama Administration For Warning About Right-Wing Domestic Terrorism: here.

America breeds terrorists. And they are white not brown: here.

New bird species discovered in Peru

From the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in the USA:

New Species Discovered by Cornell Grads, Named for Cornell Lab Director

On a remarkable expedition in 2008, a team of young explorers including three Cornell graduates discovered an undescribed bird in Peru. Now named Sira Barbet, the new species graces the cover of The Auk (July 2012), and receives its formal scientific description inside. Its scientific name, Capito fitzpatricki, honors the contributions of John Fitzpatrick, director of the Cornell Lab, who did pioneering work in Peru (including discovering seven new species of his own) and also helped mentor the Cornell graduates on the expedition. ,,,

The three-week expedition ventured into remote highlands that had never been the subject of an ornithological study before.

See also here. And here. And here. And here.

Twitter – building an online ornithological community: here.

Kreativ Blogger Award, thanks J.E. Lattimer!

Dear Kitty. Some blog has been nominated for a Kreativ Blogger Award!

The rules are:

1] Thank the person who nominated you and link back to their blog:

J.E. Lattimer blogs at Fictional Machines. An interesting, valuable blog, about photos, literature, and more. Thanks for nominating my blog!

2] List seven random things about yourself:

1) I am really surprised and honoured by the blogging awards I got since I moved to WordPress in December last year. Thanks everyone!

2) Though the house-shaped bird feeder on the balcony fell and broke recently, blue tits, great tits, blackbirds, jays, and other birds keep coming today.

3) It is a rainy day, so today I will probably not go to the cemetery.

4) Since my blog moved to WordPress in December 2011, the most watched page so far is Home page / Archives, with 9,680 views.

5) My second most visited page is Boy raped by priest, then castrated, with 1,418 views.

6) My third most visited page is Günter Grass poem on Greece and austerity, English translation, with 1,134 views.

7) My fourth most visited page is King of Spain, elephant killer, petition, with 492 views.

3] Nominate ten other blogs [and link to them]:

1) The Tale Of My Heart

2) Valerie Davies

3) Ooggetuige

4) PhotoBotos.com

5) advocatemmmohan aksharaalu

6) Science on the Land

7) Tracie Louise Photography

8) schtiel

9) clotildajamcracker

10) Jae Lei Nyght

4] Notify the ten nominees

and

5] Put the award logo on your blog.