Yesterday, I changed some light bulbs. Yes, it would have been nice had I changed them when it was getting dark earlier – but there isn’t a lot of ancillary lightng in that room, and I had to be able to see to do it. Also, balance is an issue – I’ve had balance issue on and off since childhood. Most of the time you wouldn’t know it – I can walk aound fine inside without a cane or crutch (because i knpw all the handholds) – but when I go even one step up I need something to grab. But I got it done. Later, I listenet to the Met Opera “A Concert For Ukraine.” I hoped it might show up later on YouTube, but all that has been loaded is the final curtain calls (If anyone does care, when they bring on the soloists, they are, from left to right, .Jamie Barton, Elza van den Heever, Lisa Davidsen. Then Yannnick Nézet-Séguin (the conductor), and on the right, a 24-year-old Ukrainian bass-baritone in the Met’s Lindemann Young Artists Program (which is what thy call their apprentice program, Every major opera company has one now.), followed bt Piotr Beczala and Ryan Speedo Green. Davidsen sang the Four Last Songs by Strauss, and the young Ukrainian soloed in the Ukrainian National Anthem. The other four were the soloists in the last movement of Beethoven’s nintu (Ode to Joy). Sorry I didn’t catch the young Ukrainian’s name … but I also watched a video of a different performance of the anthem, prior to an opera, and I actually picked him out – he was the only one not reading the words, and he had his hand over his heart just as he does in the curtain call. (Beczala, who also puts his hand over his heart in the curtain call, is from Poland, one of Ukraine’s nest door neighbors.) I realize this is not as meaningful if one doesn’t know the peole … but I do (except the one I will get to know better later.)
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Crooks and Liars – Ukraine To Release Commemorative ‘Russian Warship, Go F#ck Yourself’ Stamp
Quote – The Ukrainian postal service will release a stamp that says “Russian warship, go f#ck yourself” to commemorate the soldiers who reportedly cursed out Russian forces attacking Snake Island during the early days of the Russian invasion. Ukraine’s Ukrposhta wrote on Facebook that they will be holding a vote to choose one of 20 finalist designs sent in which feature the phrase, which has become a rallying cry for Ukrainian troops and citizens defending their homeland. Click through for more. The contest is over and the winner is in (and shown here.) My mom took up philately as a hobby after she retired, so I know that collectors all over the world will want this. So if you want one, find yourself a business that deals in philately and you should have no trouble putting in an order Ask about first day covers – I know those are a thing but I really don’t know what effect it would have on the value of this one. You may have to wait a while – I don’t know how hard it will be to get it printed while being shelled. God, I love the Ukrainians. (Can we get a stamp that says “F*ck the GQP”?)
Slate – A New Report Adds Evidence That Trump Was a Russian Asset
Quote – During the campaign, Trump, his national security appointees, and his allies in Congress insisted that China was meddling in the election to help Joe Biden. They even claimed that China’s interference was more dangerous than Russia’s. The report shreds that fiction. China “did not deploy influence efforts intended to change the outcome of the US Presidential election,” says the assessment. It finds no attempt by China to “provide funding to any candidates or parties,” and it challenges the Republican spin that China feared Trump because he was too tough. It argues, to the contrary, that Beijing saw Trump as a weaker adversary because he “would alienate US partners,” whereas Biden “would pose a greater challenge over the long run because he would be more successful in mobilizing a global alliance against China.” Click through. This report doesn’t mention that he may actually have been a Russian asset for 40 years, or nearly – since the 80’s (when he started getting loans from thhem through Deutsche Bank), but that has also been mentioned recently.
CNN – After over three decades of covering Russia, I leave in despair. One man has extinguished the bright hope many once felt
Quote – Over the past couple of months while I’ve been reporting from Moscow, I’ve met many people who have been horrified, shocked and numbed by Putin’s wanton aggression. Some of them believed him when he said he wouldn’t invade Ukraine. Some even knew players in the Kremlin inner circle and thought they understood the President’s red lines, but now that trust is blown and they fear he has no limits at all. Click through for full analysis. It’s pretty clear that Mr. Robertson feels strongly about this. I certainly would in his shoes. I wish I had a solution. I wish someone – anyone – had a solution.
Glenn Kirschner – Mike Flynn Pleads the 5th; He Should be Ordered to Active Duty & Court-Martialed for his Crimes
Meidas Touch – Exclusive: Ukrainian Diplomat has a message for America
The Daily Show – Russia Threatens to Abandon American Astronaut in Retaliation for Sanctions
Vox – How a no-fly zone would change the war in Ukraine
Armageddon Update – Freedumb Convoy
Sprouts – Skin in the Game: No Risk No Learning
Beau – Let’s talk about a unique proposal going after oligarchs…. Well, this is an interesting development. Did you notive he started with “Ahoy,” not “Hi there”?
Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”
I can’t imagine there is anyone here who is not concerned about radiation, not only in Ukraine, but about what could happen to the rest of the world. This article is not going to answer every question or address every fear. But, as far as it goes, it is based on sound science, not on propoganda. It can be trusted. And it can be confidently shard.
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Military action in radioactive Chernobyl could be dangerous for people and the environment
The site of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in northern Ukraine has been surrounded for more than three decades by a 1,000-square-mile (2,600-square-kilometer) exclusion zone that keeps people out. On April 26, 1986, Chernobyl’s reactor number four melted down as a result of human error, releasing vast quantities of radioactive particles and gases into the surrounding landscape – 400 times more radioactivity to the environment than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Put in place to contain the radioactive contaminants, the exclusion zone also protects the region from human disturbance.
Apart from a handful of industrial areas, most of the exclusion zone is completely isolated from human activity and appears almost normal. In some areas, where radiation levels have dropped over time, plants and animals have returned in significant numbers.
A fox near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. T. A. Mousseau, 2019, CC BY-ND
Some scientists have suggested the zone has become an Eden for wildlife, while others are skeptical of that possibility. Looks can be deceiving, at least in areas of high radioactivity, where bird, mammal and insect population sizes and diversity are significantly lower than in the “clean” parts of the exclusion zone.
As of the beginning of March 2022, Russian forces controlled the Chernobyl facility.
Why invade via Chernobyl?
In hindsight, the strategic benefits of basing military operations in the Chernobyl exclusion zone seem obvious. It is a large, unpopulated area connected by a paved highway straight to the Ukrainian capital, with few obstacles or human developments along the way. The Chernobyl zone abuts Belarus and is thus immune from attack from Ukrainian forces from the north. The reactor site’s industrial area is, in effect, a large parking lot suitable for staging an invading army’s thousands of vehicles.
The power plant site also houses the main electrical grid switching network for the entire region. It’s possible to turn the lights off in Kyiv from here, even though the power plant itself has not generated any electricity since 2000, when the last of Chernobyl’s four reactors was shut down. Such control over the power supply likely has strategic importance, although Kyiv’s electrical needs could probably also be supplied via other nodes on the Ukrainian national power grid.
The reactor site likely offers considerable protection from aerial attack, given the improbability that Ukrainian or other forces would risk combat on a site containing more than 5.3 million pounds (2.4 million kilograms) of radioactive spent nuclear fuel. This is the highly radioactive material produced by a nuclear reactor during normal operations. A direct hit on the power plant’s spent fuel pools or dry cask storage facilities could release substantially more radioactive material into the environment than the original meltdown and explosions in 1986 and thus cause an environmental disaster of global proportions.
View of the power plant site from a distance, with the containment shield structure in place over the destroyed reactor. T.A. Mousseau, CC BY-ND
Environmental risks on the ground in Chernobyl
The Chernobyl exclusion zone is among the most radioactively contaminated regions on the planet. Thousands of acres surrounding the reactor site have ambient radiation dose rates exceeding typical background levels by thousands of times. In parts of the so-called Red Forest near the power plant it’s possible to receive a dangerous radiation dose in just a few days of exposure.
Radiation monitoring stations across the Chernobyl zone recorded the first obvious environmental impact of the invasion. Sensors put in place by the Ukrainian Chernobyl EcoCenter in case of accidents or forest fires showed dramatic jumps in radiation levels along major roads and next to the reactor facilities starting after 9 p.m on Feb. 24, 2022. That’s when Russian invaders reached the area from neighboring Belarus.
Because the rise in radiation levels was most obvious in the immediate vicinity of the reactor buildings, there was concern that the containment structures had been damaged, although Russian authorities have denied this possibility. The sensor network abruptly stopped reporting early on Feb. 25 and did not restart until March 1, 2022, so the full magnitude of disturbance to the region from the troop movements is unclear.
If, in fact, it was dust stirred up by vehicles and not damage to any containment facilities that caused the rise in radiation readings, and assuming the increase lasted for just a few hours, it’s not likely to be of long-term concern, as the dust will settle again once troops move through.
Forest fires, like this one in 2020 in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, can release radioactive particles that had been trapped in the burning materials. Volodymyr Shuvayev/AFP via Getty Images
Possible impacts further afield
Perhaps the greater environmental threat to the region stems from the potential release to the atmosphere of radionuclides stored in soil and plants should a forest fire ignite.
Currently the zone is home to massive amounts of dead trees and debris that could act as fuel for a fire. Even in the absence of combat, military activity – like thousands of troops transiting, eating, smoking and building campfires to stay warm – increases the risk of forest fires.
A bird from Chernobyl with a tumor on its head. T. A. Mousseau, 2009, CC BY-ND
There is no “safe” level when it comes to ionizing radiation. The hazards to life are in direct proportion to the level of exposure. Should the ongoing conflict escalate and damage the radiation confinement facilities at Chernobyl, or at any of the 15 nuclear reactors at four other sites across Ukraine, the magnitude of harm to the environment would be catastrophic.
============================================================== Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone, you, being goddesses, are, I trust, immune to the effects of radiation suffered by hmans, animals, and plants. Anything you can think of that will kelp preserve the rest of us will be appreciated. (I doubt that Democritus can help. He is probably still in shock, awe, and disbelief.)
Yesterday, the opera was “Ariadne auf Naxos,” which, in the announcements this week, was referred to as a combination of “high drama and hijinks.” It’s about two groups of actors who have been hired to provide after-dinner entertainment for a count’s (or duke’s, I forget which) party (so you can add high privilege to the mix.) In the first act (which Strauss called the “prologue”) we meet all the actors as they squabble about which group is to go first (and other things). Finally, they get orders that both are to perform simultaneously. Of course, there’s more squabbling; no one likes that, since one is an opera comoany with a grand opera, and the other is Commedia dell’Arte, including slapstick. It appears impossible. In the second act (which Strauss called the opera), they do the impossible. I wouldn’t describe how they manage it (even if I could) because that’s kind of the point. But for this performance, the Met made it even more complex by starting with the chorus singing the Ukrainian National Anthem.
As incongruous as it sounds, there was a time (around WWI) when our nantional anthem did open every opera performance, just as sports events still do. But that was long ago, and even those who survive to remember it have I suspect mostly forgotten it. So this gesture — well, I applaud it, but I admit it carries a lot of baggage. For as long as I can remember, the Met has worked hard to stay detached from world events. And there has been pressure on it to recognize some world events, but it hasn’t budged. Until now. I suppose, given that it has disinvited Anna Netrebko from next season, I shouldn’t have been as surprised as I was.
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Mother Jones – I’m a Cop With a Trans Daughter. Lawmakers Want Me to Arrest the Doctors Who Saved Her Life.
Quote – I mean, if I think back to before the doctors, I’ve got pictures of her from the year before she came out, and you can see the look on her face. Like she’s not there. As her health care kicked in and she got more confident about who she was, she became more outgoing, making friends. She never used to talk to people hardly at all, unless she really, really knew them. Now you get her started and you can’t get it to stop. She started her own online group on Discord for kids like her, so they’d have some place to talk. She’s trying to write a book. Before she never wanted to be in crowds, and last night we went to a Billie Eilish concert together. Click through for article. I’ve been saying that misogyny is more powerful even than racism. I don’t exactly think anti-LGBTQIA is part of misogyny (I don’t want to disregard or diminish the effect of any form of bigotry), but I do say they are related as part of opposition to anything other than straight male. And I believe that opposition does transcend racism even.
Democratic Underground (majdrfrtim) – I heard from one of my UKR paratrooper buddies Tuesday.
Quote – Anyway, for most of the rest of my times being deployed I sent him money every month to help him and his growing family so they could buy an apartment. Just after the invasion two weeks ago he sent me a photo of his military kit (rucksack, sleeping bag, bedroll, etc.) with the caption, “All your presents are at work again.” That took my breath away. Since then, I’ve been checking that platform several times daily looking for word from him, his wife, or any of the other guys I know. As the situation over there has worsened, I have engaged every resilience option at my disposal to just get through each day. Click through for this very personal account. It’s easy to get caught up on the big picture of big events and thereby to miss how such events affect every person individually.
Women’s History – HuffPost – Congress Finally Renews The Violence Against Women Act
Quote – It’s been an embarrassingly bumpy road for VAWA reauthorization in Congress. The law’s authorization lapsed three years ago. Once upon a time, this was legislation that passed unanimously in both chambers, and it was uncontroversial to support programs credited with stopping violence against women and saving people’s lives. Click through for details. We once again lost out to the NRA, and the renewal is only for five years. But it’s something. We still have a lot of work to do if we are going to be able to keep it – and the rest of our democracy.
Snake Island during the early days of the Russian invasion. Ukraine’s Ukrposhta wrote on Facebook that they will be holding a vote to choose one of 20 finalist designs sent in which feature the phrase, which has become a rallying cry for Ukrainian troops and citizens defending their homeland.
