Punk rock against war

This music video is This Year’s War, by Subhumans.

Lyrics are here.

USA: How the Pentagon uses taxpayer dollars to subsidize Hollywood’s pro-war movies & make it hard to make anti-war films: here.

Oldest albatross survives Pacific tsunami

This video is called Dancing Laysan Albatross – Midway Atoll, December 2008.

By Suzan Phillips:

Elderly Albatross Survives Tsunami Damage to Midway Atoll

Published Mar 13, 2011

The Laysan Albatross, Wisdom, one of the world’s oldest known birds, and her newly hatched chick, have survived a tsunami at Midway Atoll.

14th March 2011 – Among the terrible human tragedy of the Japan earthquakes and the tsunami waves that have swept the Japanese coastline and across the Pacific ocean, comes a good news bird story.

Last week, news sources around the world celebrated Wisdom’s efforts to raise another chick when she is reported to be the oldest known albatross (according to American records), at more than 60 years old.

Wisdom had returned safely to her nest on Sand Island to raise another chick in the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in the Pacific Islands.

Last Saturday, one of the tidal waves from Japan’s 8.9 magnitude earthquake hit Midway Atoll.

The islands of Midway Atoll include a large colony of Laysan Albatross and the second largest breeding population of Black-footed Albatross and these were nesting on the ground with eggs and chicks in the nests this week when the tsunami waves struck.

Tsunami washes away nests and chicks

Staff on Midway Atoll reported that the tsunami that hit Midway Atoll was about 1.4 metres high and flooded some parts of the island. At least some chicks and adult Laysan Albatross were killed and hundreds of chicks were washed away from their nests onto roadways and under bushes. The nests inland were not affected, and by the morning both the adults and chicks there were going about their business as usual, according to one report.

Volunteers and visitors to the island spent the afternoon freeing dozens of albatross chicks that had been washed into and caught inside thickets of naupaka. This often required hacking through the bushes with large clippers and small saws, and either crawling through the spaces or climbing on top of the branches to perch suspended over the ground. Visitors also dug out many petrels who had been trapped and buried in their burrows.

Wisdom had a nest in the inland area, and so was safe. The first Short-tailed Albatross to nest on hard hit Eastern Island was also out of danger.

Kure Atoll colonies also devastated

The colony on Kure Atoll (89km east of Midway), was also devastated. Field Camp manager, Cynthia Vanderlip from Kure Atoll Conservancy said they climbed up onto the roof of their building.

“We are all fine. We stayed on the roof from 12pm until 4 am (on March 11th). Midway called and said that the wave had passed. … I took a quick walk to see the damage at the beach and it is extensive. The wave washed about 400 feet inland,” she said.

“The Black-foot colony at the pier is gone, chicks are everywhere. Thousands of ghost crabs are cleaning up the dead. The wave washed over the top of the pier and tore the window frames out. The ocean is chocolate brown.”

“I am thankful that our building is 700 feet inland and 20 feet above sea level. We were spared, but I fear for all the other folks in the Pacific. The loss of wildlife breaks my heart. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers,” she said.

See also here. And here.

Tsunami kills thousands of albatrosses on Midway Island – Galapagos has minor damage: here.

Tsunami death toll for Laysan & Black-footed Albatrosses Midway Atoll increases to over 100,000 birds: here.

September 2011: Critically endangered Nihoa millerbirds are now living on the Hawaiian island of Laysan for the first time in nearly a century, thanks to a historic and collaborative conservation effort: here.

On the sizeable wings of albatrosses: here.

Fukushima update: cracked fuel rods threaten meltdown: here.

Tokyo Electric to Build US Nuclear Plants: The No BS Info on Japan’s Disastrous Nuclear Operators: here.

Related articles

• Plastic Oceans, Islands and Albatross Devastation – High Seas Matter (oceansnrg.com)
• Study projects earlier sea-level rise threat to islands (summitcountyvoice.com)
• [Radio New Zealand] Study Says Low Lying Atolls To Be Submerged Quicker Than Expected (concernedyapcitizens.wordpress.com)

Pro-democracy mass movements continue

This video is called Yemen Military comitted massacre in Aden south Yemen.

Police fired live bullets and tear gas at democracy activists across Yemen at the weekend, killing at least ten and wounding over 100: here.

Hundreds of Saudi subjects were allowed to protest outside the Interior Ministry on Sunday to demand the release of political prisoners in the largest demonstration in Riyadh in years: here.

After Day of Clashes, Saudi Arabia Troops Enter Bahrain: here.

Canada: Tomorrow in Toronto: Support the Libyan revolution, not military intervention: here.

Pro-democracy fight continues in Yemen, Egypt

This video is called Anti-government protesters killed in Yemen.

Violent crackdown against mass demonstrations in Yemen: here.

TIME’s reporter in Yemen has been deported along with other foreign journalists: here.

Protests continue against threat of counter-revolution in Egypt: here.

Tension as Bahrain awaits protests: here.

Saudi Arabian forces prepare to enter Bahrain after day of clashes: here. And here.

Britain: William Hague has come under increasing pressure in the last few weeks, criticised for a series of blunders over Libya, Egypt and the whole Middle East, culminating in the disastrous SAS mission, which further unravelled yesterday, The Sunday Times reportingthat rebels had accessed secret MoD computer codes on “scraps of paper” captured from operatives on the bungled operation, described by one expert as “so inept, it is unbelievable”: here. And here.

Wisconsin workers fight on

This video from the USA is called Wisconsin workers speak on the general strike, social inequality, and democracy.

More than 100,000 workers, young people and other protesters marched in the Wisconsin state capital of Madison Saturday in the largest of the month-long demonstrations against attacks on public employees and cuts in public education, health care and other services: here.

Jeanne Mirer and Marjorie Cohn, Truthout: “The International Commission for Labor Rights (ICLR) sent a notice to the Wisconsin Legislature, explaining that its attempt to strip collective bargaining rights from public workers is illegal. Anyone who has watched the events unfolding in Wisconsin and other states that are trying to remove collective bargaining rights from public workers has heard people protesting the loss of their ‘rights.’ The ICLR explained to the legislature exactly what these rights are and why trying to take them away is illegal”: here.

Nearly Identical Anti-Labor Bills Appear in Maine, Missouri, New Hampshire, Other States: here.

Students in 20 states walked out supporting Wisconsin and teachers Friday. Media roundup: here.

Linn Washington Jr., This Can’t Be Happening: “Swinging a sledge hammer, Pennsylvania’s first-term Republican Governor Tom Corbett smashed into educational spending and state worker jobs during his first-ever budget address, following in the footsteps of his conservative cost-cutting confederates across the nation. While Corbett proposes slashing over a billion dollars in funds for pre-K through college, he spares the Keystone State’s burgeoning billion-dollar Marcellus Shale natural gas industry from his call for ‘shared sacrifice’ to close a $4-billion gap in the state’s budget”: here.

A special meeting of the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD), the second largest district in California, approved a proposal that represents another round in the attacks against the working class in the state. Every March for the past four years, a new and perverse ritual sees school boards throughout the state issue layoff notices to teachers and workers in anticipation for the latest round of budget cuts to be voted upon at the state level in the summer: here.

USA: Amnesty International warns on states’ plan to severely restrict workers’ rights: here.

USA: Hedge fund manager makes as much in on hour as a middle-class family earns in 47 years: here.

The Truth About GOP Hero Ayn Rand: here.

Japan’s nuclear crisis continues

This video is called Nuclear Meltdown New Threat for Japan.

Explosion at second reactor (unit 3) in Fukushima, Japan: here.

Hiroko Tabuchi and Matthew L. Wald, The New York Times News Service: “Japanese officials struggled on Sunday to contain a widening nuclear crisis in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake and tsunami, saying they presumed that partial meltdowns had occurred at two crippled reactors and that they were facing serious cooling problems at three more. The emergency appeared to be the worst involving a nuclear plant since the Chernobyl disaster 25 years ago. The developments at two separate nuclear plants prompted the evacuation of more than 200,000 people. Japanese officials said they had also ordered up the largest mobilization of their Self-Defense Forces since World War II to assist in the relief effort”: here.

What the Media Doesn’t Get About Meltdowns: here.

The aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and other US Navy ships in the waters off the quake zone in eastern Japan were repositioned after the detection of a low-level radiation plume from the troubled Fukushima nuclear plant located 100 miles away: here. And here.

Humanitarian disaster in wake of Japanese earthquake, tsunami: here.

India will double-check the safety features of all its nuclear reactors in light of the radiation leak in tsunami-devastated Japan, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said today: here.