11.02.11
Posted in Church Issues and Bible Interpretations, Historical Trivia, History, Uncategorized at 8:00 pm by Administrator
Back in 1999, I was diagnosed with Very Severe Idiopathic Aplastic Anemia. Idiopathic basically meant that they didn’t know what caused my aplastic anemia. But that didn’t stop me from wondering what might have caused it, and so one of the things I did was take a minerals test to see if I had any heavy metals problem. The one metal that stood out was uranium. My level was off the chart. My naturopath remarked that all the people he had seen with levels that high pretty much all had cancer. He also remarked that there was a woman he knew who got uranium exposure through tailings from the uranium mines. I didn’t think about it back then because I really didn’t know anything about uranium and what it was. So I had no idea where any uranium mining was done. Since then I have read quite a bit on it. And recently when Borders went out of business, I purchased a bunch of books, several about the topic of nuclear energy and/or nuclear arms. I’m currently reading one of those books, which is entitled Yellow Dirt by Judy Pasternak.
I’m only half way through Pasternak’s book, but I can definitely say that she is an excellent writer. As usual, I never know at first if anything I’m reading is true or not, so I do like to look up other sources to see what they say about the topic. In particular, Pasternak’s book deals with uranium mining in Navajo territory. For anyone who may not know where Navajo territory is, it’s in the four corners region of where New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah meet, thus it’s name, four corners. Now, I’ve been to Taos, New Mexico, Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park in Utah, and the Grand Canyon in Arizona, but I’ve only been to the airport in Denver, Colorado. I’ve always thought it would be nice to one day visit Four Corners. After reading about the uranium mining done on the Navajo reservation and how it was never cleaned up properly, I don’t think I want to go there anymore, sigh. It’s a really sad thing to think about how the Navajo reservation was poisoned like that considering the Navajo were trying to help with the cold war effort of mining for uranium and earlier for vanadium. Not only were the Navajo “not” informed of the dangers of radiation exposure, then were purposefully monitored (in secret) to see how the human body reacted to radiation exposure. Basically, they were used as both slave (they only got a small portion of what the uranium was worth) and guinea pig (according to Pasternak, the Manhattan Project was interested in understanding the risks their scientists were taking with radiation exposure). To add insult to injury, it was the Navajo Code Talkers that helped the U.S. take Iwo Jima, yet their land and people were knowingly exposed to dangerous levels of radiation through their mining. The Japanese were never able to crack the code because they didn’t know the Navajo language.
So I wanted to see what other sources there were regarding the uranium mining in Navajo territory. I found videos such as this one on the subject.
While Pasternak’s book hasn’t discussed it (I’m only half way through the book, so she might mention it later), it seems there were other Indian reservations that were involved with uranium mining. Here’s another video on the subject.
Frankel mentioned Crow Butte, so I’m assuming that’s in Washington State. But I’ve seen other videos mentioning mining with the Lakota Indians, so I think that’s also South and North Dakota. The rush for uranium was during the 40’s to 70’s, but some mines continued on longer. Yet, to this day, it seems that those sites have never been properly cleaned up and people continue to be exposed to unsafe levels of radiation.
After watching some of these videos, I came across this one wherein McCain and several other politicians are trying to continue uranium mining in Arizona. Either McCain is mistaken about his information regarding the safety of uranium mining or he is just out-right lying, I don’t know, but he’s definitely pushing to commence uranium mining. They mention the Arizona Strip, which sounds like it’s along the Arizona-Utah border.
I know that the nuclear issue is very controversial, but after Fukushima, after Chernobyl, after Three Mile Island, after Windscale, after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the multitude of studies showing the dangers and harmful effects of radiation, when will we learn? I don’t understand how anyone can think nuclear power is safe. From the mining of uranium ore to the spent fuel rods that they don’t know what to do with, nuclear power is dangerous. They talk about opening uranium mines for jobs, but are we willing to pay our lives for those jobs? Many, if not most, of those guys who mined uranium didn’t even know they were in danger until it was too late. What people do to each other is really appalling. If we only followed God’s golden rule to love one another, we wouldn’t be deceiving people into working in dangerous conditions. Instead of loving one another, we love money and power. But God sees everything.
Matthew 25:40
“And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Since you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me.”
Marlakins
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10.06.11
Posted in Uncategorized at 8:34 pm by Administrator
Immigration in the U.S. has been a touchy subject these days. I know legal immigration is separate from “illegal” immigration, but the line between legal and illegal is easily and commonly blurred when all too often just “looking” foreign is construed as being illegal. I have to admit that it makes me very uncomfortable. I am a legal U.S. Citizen, but I look foreign. I was born in a foreign country, as were my parents. But my parents came here legally during a time when the U.S. recruited professionals from all sorts of fields from all sorts of countries. I suppose it was part of what President Clinton referred to as “Brain Drain.” That is, all the top minds in all sorts of countries were recruited to work in the U.S. and given special visas such as the H1B. As an electrical engineer, my father entered the U.S. and brought us, his family, along. Now that my father has passed away, I have been able to mingle more with his old-time buddies and former school mates. Like my father, many of them came here to the U.S. as professionals such as chemical engineers, electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, doctors and teachers even. So when I saw Dr. Michio Kaku discuss the H1B, I thought of people like my father and his friends.
To view Dr. Kaku’s argument click here.
One thing that stood out to me is how Kaku states that a lot of those bright minds are going back home. I recall when I was in the Philippines one discussion was regarding encouraging graduates to stay in the Philippines and help to bring up their own country rather than exporting their minds and skills to other countries. It also reminds me of the portion in the Bible that states that people will go back to their own countries.
Jeremiah 51:9
“We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go everyone into his own country: for her judgment reaches unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.”
Some people argue that America is Babylon. See America, the Babylon by R.A. Coombes. I know others think Babylon is the Vatican or the Catholic church, but I don’t think so. Coombes description makes more sense to me.
Marlakins
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10.01.11
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:53 am by Administrator
A little while ago I watched this video on uranium mining in Australia. There was supposed to be a decision made in September regarding expanding uranium mining there. I haven’t seen the final verdict, but for anyone interested in nuclear issues, check out this video.
According to the video, Australia has 40% of the world’s uranium. I didn’t know that. I also didn’t know that the U.S. is Australia’s biggest customer for their uranium. I knew that some uranium mining was done in Niger, and that the process leaves a lot of contamination in the land and surrounding areas. So for those who think that nuclear power is clean energy, think again. We’re talking about damaging the land before the uranium is even reprocessed. Plus it’s very costly to refine and uses a lot of energy in the process. Greenpeace put out a video called Left in the Dust–Uranium Mining in Niger showing a bit about how Niger has been negatively affected by uranium mining.
Is it true and/or how severe is it really? As a lay person, I don’t really know, however, from what I’ve read and heard, I think nuclear power is a Faustian bargain. Unfortunately for our generation, I think it’s too late.
Marlakins
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09.26.11
Posted in Uncategorized, hobbies, knitting and crocheting at 2:42 pm by Administrator
This is going to be the first part of a couple posts or more on my spinning experiences. I actually learned how to spin years ago on a drop spindle and blogged about it a while ago. Here’s a link to that old post. But you know how life has a way of getting in the way of hobbies. . . I took a break for a while then a while later I broke down and bought a spinning wheel. I blogged about that, too, when I first got my wheel. I was so excited. Here’s the link to that post. I had every intention of learning how to use it, but life got in the way again. Then I thought I was going to get back into spinning a little over a year ago, but just as I was starting to get back into it, Dad passed away. I didn’t touch my spinning wheel again until about 2 weeks ago. What happened? Well, after all the year activities and getting accustomed to life with mom without dad, I got back from the Philippines and found that my spinning guild was offering classes taught by Judith McKenzie McCuin!!! Okay, okay. I’m not the most knowledgeable about spinners and the spinning greats, but from the announcement, I knew that this was a class I shouldn’t let pass me by. So I promptly signed up for the class and got the list of things to bring to class on the 23rd September at 8:30AM sharp!
Fortunately, I had everything on the list. The only thing I needed to do aside from get my butt to class on time was make sure that my wheel was in good working order. I pulled it out and dusted it off. It still had yarn on a couple bobbins, so I decided that I should get that yarn off, and at the same time practice some spinning to make sure I could do it still before the class came. I decided to spin enough to make a 2 ply yarn. And am I glad I did that! First of all, I never really knew how to work my wheel properly. So fiddling around with it forced me to learn how to change bobbins and start a fresh bobbin. I also pulled out the Lazy Kate that came with the wheel when I bought it and figured out how it was supposed to be assembled. When, I felt I had spun enough to make a two ply, I tested out my Lazy Kate for the first time. So far so good! I was actually learning something! Here’s the yarn that I got off of the wheel from that exercise. 
While I was able to get these two hanks from the yarn I had sitting on the bobbins, I still had a little bit more, so wanted to spin more singles to get the rest of the yarn off. I dug in my closet and found that I still had some yarn that I was spinning on my drop spindle. I don’t even know how many years it was sitting in there. But I decided why not ply it with the other white I had left on the bobbin? Eh, so I did, and this is what came out. . . ha! 
Ah, yeah, you see why I wanted (needed) to take a proper spinning class? But being the pack rat that I am, I still didn’t want to waste this material, so I decided to try to knit it up and see if it would knit okay. I made a test little piece, then decided that I could make little pouches out of it. I was going to a gathering with some of my mom’s senior citizen friends and I had picked up little trinkets that I planned to give to the ladies. I thought putting them in little pouches would be nice. Here’s what they looked like in progress. 
And here’s a picture of the completed pouches. I sewed little pieces of fabric for the portion with the drawstrings. 
I pretty much taught myself how to spin after only a few minutes in the store where I first bought my drop spindle. So, I never felt very confident that I knew what I was doing. I still wanted to learn, so when I saw the Popular Wheel Mechanics class taught by Judith McKenzie McCuin offered, I knew that was the class I needed. And boy oh boy am I glad I took that class! Judith is a wealth of information, and a lovely, lovely lady to boot! What a knowledgeable woman, and a gentle soul! I liked her very much, but I’ll talk more about that later. Suffice it to say that I learned a LOT in her class (both what I should be doing, and what I’ve been doing wrong, wah) and am now raring to spin! If anyone is interested in spinning, check out anything by Judith McKenzie, you won’t be disappointed. Marlakins
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09.16.11
Posted in Uncategorized at 12:36 am by Administrator
“A time comes when silence is betrayal.”
~Martin Luther King
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09.07.11
Posted in Uncategorized at 2:58 pm by Administrator
Despite the heat and my current stack of books still waiting to be read, I couldn’t help but run down to Borders to see what they had left. While in the Philippines I got emails that Borders was going out of business and they were having sales. I lamented that I would miss out on the sales because I was still in the Philippines. However, since arriving back in Los Angeles, I found that their sales were still going on. I think there’s only a few more days left, so go check them out if you can. I decided to go check it out and, while I didn’t find any of the books I have on my list to read, I still found quite a few books that looked pretty good. So this is what I picked up:
Age of Deception Nuclear Diplomacy in Treacherous Times by Mohamed Elbaradei
To End All Wars by Adam hochschild (same author of King Leopold’s Ghost, which I thought was an excellent book)
Cultures of War by John W. Dower
Fallout, The True Story of the CIA’s Secret War on Nuclear Trafficking by Catherine Collins and Douglas Frantz, authors of the Nuclear Jihadist
Miracles on the Water, The Heroic Survivors of a World War II U-Boat Attack by Tom Nagorski
War Beneath the Waves, A True Story of Courage and Leadership Aboard a World War II Submarine by Don Keith
The Nuclear Express, A Political History of the Bomb and Its Proliferation by Thomas C. Reed and Danny B. Stillman
Yellow Dirt, an American Story of a Poisoned Land and a People Betrayed by Judy Pasternak
Dinner With Mugabe, the untold story of a freedom fighter who became a tyrant by Heidi Holland
The American Way of War by Eugene Jarecki
Third World America, How Our Politicians are Abandoning the Middle Class and Betraying the American Dream by Arianna Huffington
Prisoners of America’s Wars, from the Early Republic to Guantanamo by Stephanie Carvin
Spin Control, Techniques for Spinning the Yarn You Want by Amy King
Magnificent Mittens & Socks, the beauty of warm hands and feet by Anna Zilboorg
I’m so happy to have more reading material! I know, I know, my library has a lot of books I can read still, too! It’s just a weakness of mine to have access to books. Even though I was already starting to read a book–Vietnam, the Definitive Oral History Told from All Sides by Christian G. Appy, I couldn’t help but start in on one of my new books–The Age of Deception by Mohamed Elbaradei. So far I’m finding it very well written and also very informative. That made me curious about the quality of the other books I purchased, so I looked up the reviews on Amazon of all the books I purchased. I’m happy to say that most of them had pretty good reviews. A couple had some questionable reviews, but it looks like it was because of political biases especially the reviews for Cultures of War by John W. Dower. And then the other book that had some bad reviews mingled in was War Beneath the Waves by Don Keith. Apparently, Keith has lots of errors regarding submarine or nautical stuff. Otherwise, the story is good, so it seems. At any rate, I look forward to reading all these books.
I’m one of those creatures of habit, and I hate to see changes like Borders going out of business. . . However, I’m tempted to run down to another Borders to take advantage of their big sale, but I feel guilty that I’ve already purchased enough books. Eh, my boys also bought books, so we’ve got a whole new load here. But Borders is having a great sale which should be over in a few days, so for anyone interested, it might be still worth taking a peek. If so, HURRY! as the shelves were getting mighty thin. . .
Marlakins
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09.04.11
Posted in Uncategorized at 10:26 am by Administrator
Whenever I read something on the news (or anywhere for that matter), I wonder how much of it is really true. It’s sad that we can’t always trust what we read, but such is life. So when I read about the pollution of our environment, no matter how shocking, I always wonder how much of that news is exaggerated. It’s getting to the point where I want to see for myself what’s what. But there’s so much to know, and the world is a huge place that there’s no way that I’d be able to check everything out for myself. One such example is this latest revelation from the Washington Post that our space debris is now at a tipping point. The article is called, Report Say’s Space Debris past ‘tipping point;’ NASA Needs to Step Up Action. It’s disturbing to me to think of how polluted we have made our own environment, so to read about the pollution in our “space orbit” makes me shake my head in disgust.
Yes, I know the above picture is only an artist rendition. I guess space is a huge place and it’s not the easiest task to take actual photos that would show us the actual amount of space junk we’ve put up there. And when I say “we,” I mean humanity as a whole, not just the U.S. I mean, China, Russia and other countries have space programs, too. But, I have a feeling that the U.S is a big contributor to this space junk because I know that our military has been working on Star Wars Projects and I’ve read about nuclear tests in space and crap like that. I’ve read about how much nuclear waste we as a collective have mined and, quite frankly, man seems to be pretty capable of executing very large projects. Even back in the olden times such endeavors like the Great Wall of China was not too large to deter man. Although I think the Great Wall was harmless in terms of environmental pollution, but not so with other large projects likes drilling for oil, fracking, mining for various minerals and metals, biological and toxicological experiments, etc. I know there are some who believe all this is necessary, but there was a time when all that didn’t exist and we weren’t living in caves. Maybe life was slower without all these modern inventions, but what’s wrong with a slower life? Modernization has made life easier for us in some regards, but it has also made things more difficult in terms of stress and lowered health quality (think of the toxic environment we are all engulfed in and what a struggle it is to find clean food free of chemicals, GMOs, etc.)
Is the space debris really past the tipping point? And if so, I wonder what that means to us. Maybe my generation will not find out what the true consequence is, but likely our children’s generation will. I hope it’s not another horror story for them.
Marlakins
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08.31.11
Posted in Uncategorized, family stuff at 7:44 pm by Administrator
It’s been almost a week, but I still feel a bit jet lagged to think long enough for a proper post. So I’ll make an easy one that I want to share of Andrew’s birthday. Funny we celebrated Aaron’s birthday in the Philippines, and now we celebrated Andrew’s birthday there, too. We had a lot going on, so we wanted it to be a simple, easy celebration, which only involved our family. So, we just had dinner at Abe’s. There were eight of us all together. Four on one side of the table, and the other four on the other side of the table. Here’s Grandma with the boys.
Here’s the other side of the table with my sisters, Brian, and me.
One thing I love about the Philippines is the drinks. . .
My favorite is the pineapple-coconut shake, yum!
Since Abe’s is a Filipino restaurant, the “Happy Birthday” song was sung in Tagalog. Unfortunately, I don’t have a recording of it.
Hee, this picture makes me smile to see how my mom is smiling here. Wish Dad were here, too.
And here’s the birthday boy with his dessert. Not as fancy as Aaron’s was, but was still tasty nonetheless.
And last picture is of Andrew after he opened Anna’s birthday card. My sweet friend remembered that Andrew’s birthday would be during our trip away, so she made sure to send his birthday card along so that he would be able to open it on his birthday. What a sweet friend! Thanks, Anna!
Okay, graduation is finished, birthday is finished, we’re now home from being away for 5 weeks. . . time to hunt for a job, Andrew. . . sigh. . .
Marlakins
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08.08.11
Posted in Uncategorized at 6:10 am by Administrator
Still here in the Philippines, but managed to get a WiFi connection here in Baguio City. A friend sent this nice email, which I have copied and pasted below. While I assume “it” is referring to our lives, I do believe in the afterlife, so the definition of “end” is questionable to me. However, I like Josephson’s conclusion to “live a life that matters”.
What Will Matter
by Micheal Josephson
Some day it will all come to an end.
There will be no more sunrises, no more minutes, hours or days.
All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else.
Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance.
It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.
Your grudges, resentments, frustrations and jealousies will finally disappear.
So, too, your hopes, ambitions, plans and to-do lists will expire.
The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.
It won’t matter where you came from or what side of the tracks you lived on at the end.
It won’t matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant.
Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.
So what will matter?
How will the value of your days be measured?
What will matter is not what you bought, but what you built,
Not what you got, but what you gave.
What will matter is not your success, but your significance.
What will matter is not what you learned, but what you taught.
What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example.
What will matter is not your competence, but your character,
Not how many people you knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss when you’re gone.
What will matter is not your memories, but the memories of those who loved you.
What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what.
Living a life that matters doesn’t happen by accident.
It’s not a matter of circumstance but of choice.
Choose to live a life that matters.
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08.01.11
Posted in Uncategorized at 6:34 am by Administrator
It’s monsoon season here in the Philippines. We’ve been having rain, rain, and more rain. Apparently, there’s a slow storm hovering above us that’s supposed to clear by this Friday. In the meantime, this is what it looks like from the balcony.
Okay, so the above paragraph and pic was written and taken about a week ago. Quite a bit has already happened. Both my sisters have already come and gone. Well, actually they are at the airport right now awaiting their flight back to California. We all flew out here to the Philippines for my dad’s babang luksa (first year death anniversary). The ceremony was held last Friday the 29th. That marked the end of mourning, so now my mom doesn’t have to wear black anymore. It seems strange to see her in regular colors again. We’ve been visiting with family again and still have a few more dates with them, then we’ll head off to do a little sightseeing if the weather permits. At the moment it’s pouring with thunder and lightening. Apparently, another storm is barreling through. I’m pooped so will probably hit the hay soon and share some of our adventures later on. However, I want to add one more pic just before I sign out. Here’s my sisters and I when we all just arrived.
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