• Home
• About
• Why ‘PaleBluDot’
• Petition
• Contact

Subscribe

Marvin Heemeyer, sometimes ordinary people get pushed too far

Video: YouTube

This story is about Marvin Heemeyer and his infamous “Killdozer” incident in Granby, Colorado back in June 2004.

You make up your own mind as to whether this guys was justified in his actions or not. Personally I see and hear of many incidents around the world where ordinary people are pushed too far by business and people in power, sometimes you get people that are not going to be pushed around, Marvin was obviously one not to mess with.

The Story

52 year old welder Marvin Heemeyer lived in Granby, Colorado fixing vehicle mufflers. His small repair shop was located near a concrete factory called Mountain Park. To Marvin and his neighbors’ horrors, the owners of Mountain Park decided to expand the factory, forcing the people living near-by to sell their land to Mountain Park. Sooner or later the factory’s neighbors gave up, except for Marvin. Having tried every way possible, the owners of the factory failed to acquire his land. However all the surrounding land was now owned by the factory, which resulted in Marvin’s shop getting cut off from the rest of the world.

Marvin tried everything in his powers to restore justice. Obviously, the city council and other politicians of the state were on the factory owners’ evil capitalist side. It’s not surprising that Marvin lost the case to the owners, in court. After that Marvin was also given a $2500 fine for not having a connected sewer line. When paying the fine, Marvin attached a note to the check and ticket that read “Cowards”. He was just one of those who would not give up.

On the 4th of June, 2004 during a rainy day Marvin rolled out into town on a bulldozer reinforced with metal sheets.

Image: forums.legitreviews.com

SEE THE FULL STORY, POST CONTINUES Read more

Nuclear is not the answer for climate change

I think that most open minded people would agree that Climate Change / Global Warming is here, it is happening as we speak.

Man is without doubt responsible for a major percentage of this global warming. Quite possibly our major problems began with the industrial revolution.

So some among us want to fix the problem of global warming using Nuclear Power. You have people like our former Australian Prime Minister John Howard saying that we need to investigate nuclear power.

Well coal is definitely a problem, BUT nuclear is not the answer.

Two years ago at a national press club conference here in Australia a person by the name of Professor Ian Lowe was asked to speak. Below is Ian’s response to the supporters of nuclear power. Now Professor Lowe is no crazy crack preaching under the guise of being green, he is a qualified physicist who among other qualifications was trained at the University of York, supported by the UK Atomic Energy Authority, so I believe he is very qualified to speak on these matters.

Professor Ian Lowe AO, ACF President, on Nuclear Power.

“Proponents of uranium mining are again loudly promoting nuclear power as a ‘climate friendly’ energy option. ACF President Professor Ian Lowe’s address to the National Press Club, reproduced below, explains why nuclear is no solution to climate change…

I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet. One of the foundations of a sustainable future must be reconciliation with the Indigenous people of this country.

Forty years ago, I was preparing for my final exams. Having studied electrical engineering and science part-time for seven years at the University of New South Wales, I did well enough to spend the following year doing Honours in physics. I then went to the UK for doctoral studies at the University of York, supported by the UK Atomic Energy Authority. At the time, like most young physicists, I saw nuclear power as the clean energy source of the future. I want to tell you today why my professional experience has led me to reject that view.

I was nominated to speak here today by the Australian Conservation Foundation, of which I am President, and The Natural Edge Project, of which I am co-patron with former Governor-General Sir Ninian Stephen. ACF has been a leading independent force for conservation for nearly forty years. With about 30,000 members and supporters, ACF works with community, business and government, inspiring people to achieve a healthy environment for all Australians. The Natural Edge Project is a sustainable development think tank hosted in-kind by Engineers Australia. Both organisations are staffed by dedicated people who work tirelessly for the good of our nation. It is a real honour to be associated with ACF and The Natural Edge Project.

There is no serious doubt that climate change is real, it is happening now and its effects are accelerating. It is already causing serious economic impacts: reduced agricultural production, increased costs of severe events like fires and storms, and the need to consider radical, energy intensive and costly water supply measures such as desalination plants.

POST CONTINUES Read more

Comment by Ken

We recently received some comments by Ken to our post on Nuclear nonsense.

We at PaleBluDot are not in the habit of censoring our readers and their comments, even if we don’t fully agree with them. Therefore we have decided to post one of Ken’s comments here for you all to see and make up your own mind.

Ken is obviously well educated, possibly a scientist or has studied some form of science. My assumption here is based on his email user name (we cannot divulge his user name here) but Ken will know what we mean.

Ken seems to be an ardent supporter of Nuclear power and also seems to know quite a lot about it. This I must say makes me more than just a little suspicious right off the bat. Are you somehow associated with the nuclear industry Ken?

Who in their right mind, if not aligned with the nuclear power industry would want the potential risks associated with nuclear to be increased by more nuclear power stations. There are other answers and we will discuss them in subsequent posts.

Now one last thing before we show you Kens comments, We would appreciate any comments you have regarding your own feelings on nuclear power generation.

KEN”S COMMENT

Ken on February 17th, 2008 5:11 am

“Okay, PaleBluDot

You and I are kind of lonely, probably because when you resort to the kind of language used to describe people you disagree with as above, people won’t take you seriously. Could it be that most corporations are motivated by profit and the more money you have the more power you have, no matter where or when you live?

“The whole push for Nuclear power is nothing more than a bunch of sociopathic power hungry; generally old men, who are trying desperately to hang onto their power and influence by controlling the energy resources.”

Like these guys, they’re all old sociopaths. Like Hans Blix for example.

“http://www.thoriumpower.com/

Their problem with Solar, Tidal, Wave, Geothermal, Wind and who knows how many other possibilities for generating power there are or will be in the future, is that it is largely with in the range of small to medium companies which throws it open to genuine competition and does not lend it’s self to being monopolized.”

It’s a pipe dream, these alternative sources are good for reducing peak demand and reducing the quantity for base load required on the grid during the day, but they can’t replace the base load. Look, in principle I’m all for it and if you can figure out how to actually make it work, great. Wind generators deliver between 1.1 and 6 MW s of load (not MW hours). Electrical grids need stability, and this energy source provides the opposite. They also need gigawatt capacities, remember, electricity is instantly generated and consumed, its not store somewhere until you need it. Windmills also are very low density generators and they don’t function off grid. Generation III+ reactors provide between 1.1 and 1.7 Gigawatts of power to the grid per reactor that is predictably constant and at a much greater efficiency per mass of uranium than the power plants of the 70’s and 80’s. So, one nuclear power plant could be replaced by 200 windmills, that is the smallest current reactor (not power plant) replaced by the largest most expensive windmill currently on the market and it is also assuming that the windmill produces at peak 98% of the time, like a nuclear plant. Solar cells are more predictable in their output and since they can directly power things at the point of generation are probably a good idea but not the solution.

POST CONTINUES Read more

How A Simple Innovation Saves Money

Video: YouTube


This is a great example of lateral thinking that too many companies would omit from their operational procedures.

Actually it’s not really so much lateral thinking but more Thinking, which more often than not is not done because of office politics, a tenancy to fix the blame rather than the problem and a system where managers often are, when they are not trying to justify their often excessive salary packages, are more interested in screwing workers and unions rather than encouraging those on the shop floor to take part in the managerial process.

A company should be a Team not just rhetorically but in reality. Where workers who come up with solutions are rewarded… from my experience it was often the workers who had the practical knowledge, but were largely ignored because of the illusory divide between the ‘workers’ and ‘management’… now I’m going to be accused by some of being a ‘communist’ or a ’socialist’, when in fact I’m a member of an even more hated group, a group hated by both the Capitalists & the Communists, which to my mind are both badly failing systems.

I’m a Social Democrat, a believer in true Democracy, unlike America’s phoney ‘democracy’ where votes are either ignored or stolen. Where most people have either given up or can’t be bothered to vote. I’m a supporter of more Referendums like the Swiss, though with more Spirit, I’m in favor of a touch of anarchy, not quite as bad as the Italians but more like the classic Australians, who fought above their weight both in sport and war when they had to, who despised class systems, stuck up for the underdogs and were willing to give a hand when needed.

I’m raving again aren’t I? mmm OK this is what really has set me off. We just got rid of what I consider to be probably The Worst government Australia has had, a government run in my opinion by a few incredibly mean spirited individuals led by John Winston Howard, though put in power by the same types responsible for the like minded George W Bush. Well eventually Australia woke up and the extreme right wing ‘liberal’ Howard government was Slaughtered.

It was the extreme right wing desperation to drive down the workers with what’s called AWAs (Australian Workplace Agreements) effectively banning Unions and forcing individuals to supposedly bargain without representation with intimidating bosses waving cleverly worded contracts. This despite Unions in the last 20 years having for the most part, been more responsible than the bosses, whilst the bosses and directors pay themselves huge and ever increasing salary packages. It is I believe, this that largely led to Howard’s spectacular demise.

So far so good, the people decided and the Rudd Labor government, and although I’m not convinced that this new government is all together immune to the influences of Lobbyists and the machinations of the ‘New World Order types, I did appalled Rudd’s Sorry to the dispossessed Australian Aboriginals who have been treated sooo appallingly for so long. Rudd seemed sincere though it remains to be seen how much the Aborigines situation changes.

But what really pissed me off was a recent Liberal rather clumsy attempt to apparently tie Rudd in with corrupt members of both parties both state and federal, in a an apparent shonky development deal in Western Australia. Now we are going to have another American type smear campaign, that some parts of the media, in the pathetic guise of informing the public, will blow up for their own benefit, possibly in the hope that it will either distract or immobilize the new government… the arrogance of this is almost too much to be believed.

Why the tycoons fear hemp: From drugs to oil

G’day again,
Before I continue with this post I’d like to recommend a few products and no I’m not being paid and at the time of me composing this post there were no adds pertaining to my suggestion as far as I know (gee I sound like a politician - “I have no knowledge of that” or “I did not have sex with that woman” or “Evil doers” or “The tyrant has fallen, and Iraq is free.”).

Anyway the products to which I refer are:-

1. ReadPlease, a free text to speech software, it’s quite good but you should not click on their faces… which of course guarantees that you will, which is exactly what I want you to do… see how easy it is to manipulate people? I might say at this point this is, and the subsequent piece of software are very handy software to own, that will help dyslectics, people with poor eyesight or perhaps blind and and it’s an excellent product to help your kids with their studies. Now is a good time to try out this software since it is a longish post.

2. Verbose, another bit of software, not free but a bargain at about $20 and it has several advantages over ReadPlease in that you can highlight text such as this, tap an allocated key and it will read out the text to you whilst you go on surfing or whatever… it’s a truly great piece of software.

3. The third item is a book by Jack Herer called “The Emperor Wears No Clothes” It’s a very informative book on the Hemp industry and the politics of Pot.

OK now on to the real meat in this post.

I have copied the following post written by Seth Michaels from Helium.

POST CONTINUES Read more

NUCLEAR NONSENSE

Interview # 1 - Harvey Wasserman

Video: YouTube

The whole push for Nuclear power is nothing more than a bunch of sociopathic power hungry; generally old men, who are trying desperately to hang onto their power and influence by controlling the energy resources.

The problem regarding those relatively few ultra powerful and rich yet pathetic individuals… they are not human in the sociological sense of the word, but they can always get a few lackies voted in to power (by making political donations and using their media) who in turn place amoral pragmatic individuals into key positions so they can continue with their control of nuclear (hugely costly and potentially extremely dangerous), petroleum (century old filthy technology) and coal (ancient filthy technology) power generation.

Their problem with Solar, Tidal, Wave, Geothermal, Wind and who knows how many other possibilities for generating power there are or will be in the future, is that it is largely with in the range of small to medium companies which throws it open to genuine competition and does not lend it’s self to being monopolized.

Most people know that what I’m saying is true… for the few pragmatists or people who haven’t really thought about it I have a question or two. Why is it that Germany, with less than half the available solar energy than Australia, is leaving our famously Sunny country for dead when it comes to Solar power?

Why do when our own scientists, at our much underfunded yet now commercialized universities, when they developed the Solar Splinter cell technology, have to go to China to get the relatively small amounts of funding to finish it off?

Meanwhile the previous Australian Prime minister John Winston Howard, whom I and I believe many many others consider to be really stupid (sneaky cleverness is no substitute for Intelligence), gutless, ill spirited and a war criminal, like his like minded mates Tony Blare and George W Bush. Anyway, John Winston Howard like George W Bush is willing to spend countless billions of your dollars on Nuclear power, despite the fact that there is no safe way of dealing with the waste, nor do I believe will there ever be a way to safely store it… hey, they can’t even effectively dismantle old nuclear power stations.

194 Countries of the World

Image: Google images

Below is a list of the 194 officially recognised countries in the World, along with their capital cities.

Some of these countries have more than one capital and if so these additional cities are mentioned.

Afghanistan - Kabul
Albania - Tirane
Algeria - Algiers
Andorra - Andorra la Vella
Angola - Luanda
Antigua and Barbuda - Saint John’s
Argentina - Buenos Aires
Armenia - Yerevan
Australia - Canberra
Austria - Vienna
Azerbaijan - Baku

POST CONTINUES, see all the countries and each capital city Read more

Aptera 300 mpg