Sunday, February 24, 2013

Hanford back in the news and an "air-conditioned atomic suit"

By Jack Brummet, Energy Editor 

With Hanford back in the news due to the discovery of leaking radioactive waste containers, I remembered this great picture I had stashed away. This is a tearsheet from Popular Science magazine that I found in a drawer of ephemera at a bookstore.

 

The piece shows a "girl" with a Geiger counter, in an "atomic suit inflated with conditioned air" about to do her job at the Hanford site. The Hanford Atomic Site occupies 586 square miles in Benton County, in central Washington, just off the Columbia River. It was established in 1943 during World War II as the Hanford Engineer Works, part of the Manhattan Project, to provide plutonium for the development of nuclear weapons. Plutonium from Hanford was used to build the first nuclear bomb (the one tested in New Mexico), and used to build Fat Man, the bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. Hanford is now a storage facility for nuclear waste, and the only operating nuclear plant in Washington state.
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The Friendly Skies: it's safer than ever before to fly (well, maybe except on The Dreamliner)

By Jack Brummet, Aviophobia Ed.



  • The past 10 years have been the safest in the country's aviation history, with 153 "just" fatalities. That translates to two deaths for every 100 million passengers on commercial flights, according to an Associated Press study of government data.
  • All fatal crashes in the U.S. in the past decade occurred on regional airlines.
  • Ten years ago--which was the the safest air travel had ever been--passengers were 10 times as likely to die when flying on an American plane. The risk of death was even greater during the early years of jet travel, with 696 people dying (133 out of every 100 million passengers) from 1962 to 1971. 
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Friday, February 22, 2013

Faces No. 363 - Scratchboard reversed

By Jack Brummet


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A skillful plane crash

By John Newton Brummet III, Aviophobia Editor


Now, this is one skillful 'plane crash—the kind I'd like to be in if, say, God said, "OK Jack, I'm assigning you to a plane crash." Hudson River Sully has nothing on this pilot, although I bet there were likely some seriously rattled molars and passengers and pilots in dire need of an underwear change.

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Thursday, February 21, 2013

Poem: "burning down the house to roast the pig."

by Jack Brummet





The machines began to turn in 1900
And we started down a path

To the dark at the end of the tunnel.
We are in it and watching it,

Pretending we're not in it,
And carefully observing

For the sake of others;
Writing it all down

For a dubious tomorrow.
We can't slow back down

And run twice as fast
To keep up.
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Photo: Training Day

Source: Unknown

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Task force: Tourists welcome to get stoned in Colorado

(via Raw Story )

Regulators on Colorado’s Amendment 64 Implementation Task Force recommended on Tuesday that tourists be allowed to toke up when visiting the Centennial State, but officials stopped short of saying it’s cool for visitors to carry their stash back across state lines once they’re headed home. The…

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Former Republican Senator Domenici reveals secret child with Sen. Paul Laxalt's daughter

Former Republican Senator reveals secret child with another Senator’s daughter


(via Raw Story )


Former Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) admitted on Tuesday to fathering a child with Michelle Laxalt, the daughter of former Nevada Gov. and Sen. Paul Laxalt (R) after what she called “one night’s mistake” more than 30 years ago. According to Talking Points Memo, Domenici and Laxalt gave separate statements…

Click here to read the entire, sordid story.  Note, also, that According to The Washington Post, Ex-Senator Domenici supported the impeachment of then-President Bill Clinton for covering up his affair with intern Monica Lewinsky.

Cookin' with Jack No. 2 - U.S. Senate Bean Soup






By Jack Brummet, Cooking Editor



  • 2 cups dried navy beans
  • two quarts water (or chicken or ham stock)
  • 1+ pound smoked ham hocks or shanks
  • 1 TBS Olive Oil
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 or 2 bay leaves
  • [optional: a touch of cayenne, a couple cashes of Tabasco or habanero sauce]
  • 1 medium potato peeled and quartered
  • 3 stalks chopped celery
  • 2 carrots
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1 Bay leaf
  • some form of heat: not much: cayenne, tabasco, habanero in the sauce for a while
  • fresh ground pepper/salt
  • handful chopped Italian parsley  


Chop the onions, garlic, celery, carrots and sweat them for a couple of minutes in olive oil in a soup pot.   Wash the navy beans and add to the vegetables with the pot with the water. Add the bay leaf and ham hocks and simmer 2- 21/2 hours in a covered pot, stirring occasionally.  Add the peeled, quartered potato for the last half hour.

Remove ham hocks and set aside to cool. Dice meat and return to soup. Add the optional chili or hot sauce.  Before serving, bring to a boil and season with salt and pepper. Add parsley.  You can serve it as is, or blend the soup to a creamy consistency.
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The bomb squad

Source Unknown




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Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Cat tracks through the centuries

By Jack Brummet, Cat Editor


Emir O. Filipovic at the University of Sarajevo's History Department  was working on a 15th century manuscript when he ran across this medieval cat paw prints.  Yes, unlike dogs, we have let cats walk all around us through the ages.  This cat, sometime in the 1400s, either stepped in an inkpot or on a freshly lettered patch of the manuscript.  All in all, it's probably a good embellishment.  
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