Worst US Environmental Disaster Definitely Not from an Oil Well

Adapted from a recent article at Lawyer Kickers pro bono.

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill is the worst environmental disaster the US has faced, a senior Obama official has said. Carol Martha Browner, Director of White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy in the Obama Administration and a lawyer, called the Gulf spill, which started April 22, “probably the worst environmental disaster we’ve ever faced in this country,” and said that it was being met with “the biggest environmental response.”
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Very interesting and WRONG!
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How can anyone contradict Ms. Browner?
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Is there a larger environmental disaster in the US? Yes, but lawyers naturally blame private business and industry, the source for most of the parasitic fees they collect, funds they exploit, and insurance claims built into the prices of products they intend to litigate eventually rather than governments. If there is an even larger environmental disaster looming, why is the public relatively unconcerned about it?
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First, because the handmaiden of government, the mainstream media, does so little reporting to remind the public. Secondly, because the government has done something about the larger ecological disaster -- legislated laws to fix it by 2024 (still indefinite). Thirdly, it is not private businesses that have been the culprits in the larger environmental disaster, it is municipal governments like New York, Washington, D.C., etc.
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Government data released Thursday suggests some 19 to 30 million gallons of oil have poured into the Gulf. Taking the worst case, that is 750,000 gallons daily, a large quantity to be sure, but not as large as the real culprit.
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A Gathering Storm - New York Wastewater Infrastructure in Crisis -... one-quarter of the 610 facilities in New York are operating beyond their useful life expectancy and many others are using outmoded, inadequate technology, increasing their likelihood of tainting our waters... Every year, old sewers flooded by stormwater release more than 27 billion gallons of untreated sewage into the New York Harbor alone.

Every year, old sewers flooded by stormwater release more than 27 billion gallons of untreated sewage into the New York Harbor alone... An inadequate sewage treatment infrastructure jeopardizes the viability of current and future businesses, stymies economic growth and threatens the quality of life for New York State residents. - 2010 New York State Department of Environmental Conservation

Washington: Agreement On Storm Runoff - [2004]

The District of Columbia, in a settlement with federal environmental officials, agreed to build a $1.4 billion underground storm water storage system over the next 20 years to prevent raw sewage from entering rivers during heavy storms, the Justice Department said. The agreement should stop the annual discharge of an estimated 3.2 billion gallons of untreated sewage into the Anacostia and Potomac Rivers and Rock Creek. Eric Lipton (NYT)

For just D.C. and NY alone, the raw sewage flowing from rivers to the ocean is over 30 Billion gallons per year (average of over 82 Million gals/day). In addition to fecal coliform and disease, other pollutants may include pharmaceutical trace drugs, nickel, copper, zinc, cadmium, lead and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). See what I mean, now which do believe is really the larger environmental disaster?

82 Million gallons /day of raw sewage is more than 750 Thousand gallons / day of raw oil, and it ain't good for shrimp, oysters and seafood, either. Are lawyers accustomed to say only that which helps those paying them? Absolutely, with practice and testing provided by Law School.

Submarine Mystery Questions of the Week - 05/30/2010

................Selected Clues for this Mystery Sub
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Commissioned: 03-16-1904
Hull: Single
Displacement: 70-1/2 tons (surfaced)
Range: 200 nautical miles (surfaced)
Armament: 2 torpedoes
Complement: 12 (with 2 officers)
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...Questions & Difficulty Levels: I,II,III,IV,V - (explained below)
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1) Was the sub's submerged displacement higher or lower than its surfaced? I
2) Was the sub's submerged range higher, lower, or the same as its surface range? II
3) Was the sub's surface speed higher or lower than its submerged speed? II
4) What was the diameter of the torpedo tubes (in rounded inches)? III
5) What was the sub's nationality and class name? III
6) What was the sub's name? IV
7) What year were subs of this class stricken and are any examples extant? V
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ANSWERS: To be posted Wednesday
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Explanation of Difficulty Levels in ascending order:
I....-Surfaced navy average
II...-Submerged nonqual submariner average
III..-Test Depth dolphins
IV...-Oulie COBs
V....-Beyond Crush Depth requires help from above
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Submarines are always silent and strange.

Navy Scientists Zip Lips LENR

In June 2005, M.E. reported that since February 2002, the U.S. Navy revealed some of its researchers had been studying cold fusion on the quiet more or less continuously since debate started. These studies were conducted by the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center in San Diego.

UPDATE (March 2009) - Analytical chemist Pamela Mosier-Boss of SPAWAR has broken the silence. Speaking at the American Chemical Society in Salt Lake City (the site of the infamous Pons/Fleischmann press conference) she described The first scientific report of the production of highly energetic neutrons from a LENR device. LENR means Low Energy Nuclear Reaction, a euphemism since the words "cold fusion" tend to incite fits of conventional science heresy.

Unlike Pons and Fleischmann, Mosier-Boss's results were accepted by a peer review scientific journal, Naturwissenschaften.

"People have always asked 'Where's the neutrons?'" Mosier-Boss says. "If you have fusion going on, then you have to have neutrons. We now have evidence that there are neutrons present in these LENR reactions."

In addition:
1) - Tadahiko Mizuno, Ph.D., of Hokkaido University in Japan, reported the production of excess heat generation and gamma ray emissions from an unconventional LENR device that uses phenanthrene, a type of hydrocarbon, as a reactant.
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2) - Antonella De Ninno, Ph.D., a scientist with New Technologies Energy and Environment in Italy, described evidence supporting the existence of low energy nuclear reactions. She conducted lab experiments demonstrating simultaneous production of excess heat and helium gas, tell-tale evidence supporting the nuclear nature of LENR, and shows that scientists can control the phenomenon.
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3) - DARPA? Silence.

Like M.E. you have no serious reaction to our Navy's efforts with LENR. No fun to be in the dark is it? Here is something clever, much easier, and guaranteed to put you in the sunlight that you can try at home. Remember, your fingerprints will be on it (if you forget to tether) and you are responsible for any resulting hazards to navigation or UFO reports.
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Submarines are always silent and strange.

Some Juicey Insights: USS Scorpion's Deck Camera

U.S. Navy investigations into the loss of the nuclear submarine though reportedly inconclusive, offer few theories.

Accidentally self-torpedoed

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Explosion of torpedo in fire

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Malfunction of Trash Disposal Unit

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However, a few have been more outspoken. In 2203, Admiral P.F. Sullivan wrote the following on behalf of VADM John J. Grossenbacher (Commander Naval Submarine Forces), the Naval Sea Systems Command, Naval Reactors, and others in the US Navy regarding its view of alternative sinking theories:

The first cataclysmic event was of such magnitude that the only possible conclusion is that a cataclysmic event (explosion) occurred resulting in uncontrolled flooding (most likely the forward compartments).

Public speculation over the mysterious cause of USS Scorpion (SSN-589)'s tragic sinking (5 June 1968) with all hands has grown during decades of official fog. Causes proffered by authors include:

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Backlog in submarine maintenance

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Mk 37 (conventional torpedo) explosion

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Soviet retaliation for the sinking of K-129, allegedly by USS Swordfish (SSN-579)

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Ka-25 helicopter anti-submarine torpedoes immediately covered-up by American and Soviet officials, to avoid public outrage and an increase in Cold War tension.

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Neither listing is exhaustive, nor will any of the above be proven totally correct. The Navy wishes us to believe a simple, mundane fault caused the tragedy. Before you decide your favorite theory, do yourself a favor and read some interesting commentary from author (Silent Steel: The Mysterious Death of the Nuclear Attack Sub USS Scorpion) Stephen Johnson's Amazon Blog. Here are only a few tidbits:

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ADM Rickover wanted me to go to the SSBN George Washington, but when I was detached from Scorpion, that was the first time a nuclear sub went to sea without a nuclear trained doctor on board. (BuMed was running out of doctors volunteering for that duty). -Dr. C. J. McGrew, Jr. MD

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About a month later, Dad told me that sub couldn't be found. It spooked me for years. And I never wanted to volunteer for sub service. - James D. Bowers III

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Dan Rogers, the electrician's mate who fought successfully to depart the Scorpion, told me during my first meeting with him in 1987 that he always suspected a malfunctioning TDU as the culprit. - Stephen Johnson

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There are juicier ones that may blow your socks off with disgust, humor and outright amazement. Read them all, as they are fairly short.

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Submarines are always silent and strange.

Where is Their Ballad?

Bubblehead of TSSBP has an interesting discussion going related to remembering the men of the USS Scorpion (SSN-589), who were declared lost June 5, 1968 [2], the month before I reported to my first sub.
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Unaware she was even missing at the time, I had been in training at Newport, R.I. when the navy realized Scorpion's comms were overdue late in May. Press coverage of Scorpion's loss was almost nonexistent compared to the daily TV-news updates that had prevailed after USS Thresher (SSN-595)'s loss on April 10, 1963.
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When should the brave men of Scorpion be remembered? By submariners on the anniversary of their deaths May 22nd? By their families on June 5th, the anniversary of when declared lost? Or by all Americans as submarine sailors memorialized in popular music?
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How should these brave men be remembered? As hapless victims of an accident, or as helpless victims of a Soviet aggression (example)? We certainly do not know. Perhaps her brave crew will deserve a bit more than the empty graves and eternal patrol for which they are currently remembered, don't you think?
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At the very least, the Scorpion's crew easily deserves a ballad like this, in M.E.'s humble opinon. But, no one will ever write much less sing such a ballad until the Navy reveals all that it has learned from Russia's Cold War archives.
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Documents declassified in 1993, made the public aware the Court of Inquiry had considered a possible cause of malfunction was one of Scorpion's own torpedoes, although the panel qualified its opinion saying the evidence it had available could not lead to a conclusive finding about the cause of her sinking. Oddly, the Court of Inquiry appears not to have reconvened after the 1969 Phase II investigation to take testimony from a group of submarine designers, engineers and physicists who spent nearly a year evaluating the data.
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Submarines are always silent and strange.

Brazil's Coming Used Submarine Sale on Target

Last August M.E. had asked readers:

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What will Brazil do with its current fleet of 5 submarines by 2021? Brazil's current fleet consists of a 209 class sub constructed by Germany's HDW and 3 more built by Arsenal de Marinha do Rio de Janeiro (AMRJ). AMRJ launched its improved Tupi class Tikuna, in 2005.

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M.E. predicted that spending $10 billion on a nuclear subs would induce Brazil's Navy (Marinha do Brasil) to:

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(1) Update its submarine insignia. ( here is the current design)

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(2) Sell some of its used submarines. If Hugo Chavez is still in power, Venezueula would like to buy 1 or 2, depending upon condition, and immediately sell the HDW 209 to Iran. Ahmadinejad (if still in power) plans to upgrade the HDW 209 using Russian assistance.

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UPDATES: According to a recent report from Brazil, domestic submarine reactors are on a schedule. Also, Hugo Chavez has been solidifying his reign for life; and at least one design for a new submarine insignia may be under consideration by 2011. Oh, and remember, Ahmadinejad succeeded in his intervening election.

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Submarines are always silent and strange.

1MC: "Rig Ship for Lady Visitors"

What was the evolution we called Rig Ship for Lady Visitors called on your boat(s)?

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Chances are that if you do remember the order, you remember what was involved ...things that movies get R and X ratings for, of course ( L, N, V). Well, maybe not so much V.

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Let's hope it went a little better than this. (Hat tip to Bob 'Dex' Armstrong).

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Submarines are always silent and strange.

Female Submariners (Thought Experiment #05182010)

Submarines have transported some very unusual cargoes during times of armed conflict when ultimate stealth or absolute secrecy have been required. Other cargoes have been somewhat more difficult to explain: goat; motorcycle; contraband (you either know, or you don't).
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Now, we have a new category to consider; in the future some U.S. submarines will officially embark women sailors. Historically, submarines have shared a casual affinity with pirate ships of yore which, if they ever embarked women, used them for purposes including cumshaw and barter.
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U.S. women will not only serve in traditional naval officer roles, however, they will provide our submarines with a resource.
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What additional benefit(s) will the presence of female crew on some U.S. subs provide, do you imagine? HINT: this guy dare not assign women to his submarine crews.
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COMMENTS ON....CAUTION: Mild language only; vulgar, abusive, and adolescent thoughts will be deleted as quickly as spam.
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Submarines are always silent and strange.

Unravelled - Credible Story Behind the proposed medal for “courageous restraint”

A final decision has not been made on the controversial award, proposed by British Maj. Gen. Nick Carter1.

However, Professor Jeffrey F. Addicott2, Director of the Center for Terrorism Law at St. Mary's University School of Law, said, “The implication of this award is that we do not engage in war fighting that is appropriate. They're sending a chilling message to our troops that we are not complying with the law of armed conflict. It's a propaganda victory for our enemies."

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What is going on here? In M.E.'s opinion, the medal concept is the Obama admiistration's first attempt to win a propaganda victory, not for our enemies so much as or our JAGs (military lawyers). Lawyers (Supreme Court) oversee our Bill of Rights, but have neither the rank nor similar final authority in our military.

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How can Obama fix that? Done/Predicted

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Phase One was coaxing our British ally to appoint a credible spokeperson to identify the need for another medal in the first place. This would have been done through back channels, of course, so the public not know about it.

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Phase Two was the recent hoisting of the medal concept up the domestic flagpole to see what kinds of initial public reactions would result. As expected, not very popular with many troops who actually engage in combat operations.

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Phase Three simply allows the concept to create news occasionally over the next few months, or so, in order for everyone to remember it is still alive. This is easy, every 3 -6 weeks someone else will testify about it at a congressional committee hearing. Expect more lawyers, a few women who have been wounded in combat, and perhaps relatives of deceased servicemen, who could have fired but did not.

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Phase Four [sometime after the 2010 congressional elections in which Dems retain a majority of seats] final details will emerge: name of the distinguished medal, illustrative description; provisions for award of subsequent stars; and, specific qualifications. [All of this may have been done by the time this writing]. The medal will signify the idea of courageous restraint, but may be awarded only to members of the JAG corps in instances where they directed U.S. forces to withhold fire (e.g. predator missile attacks) and it could later be established that their decision saved significant civilians (in number or station) from harm by the U.S.

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Phase Five After the backlog of hundreds of the medals has been awarded to active and discharged JAGs, publicized in the media, and digested by skeptics, public mood will swing inevitably toward similar awards for ordinary troops. A plainer version of the JAG medal will suddenly be ready. Was Prof. Addicott corect about "a propaganda victory for our enemies"?

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Submarines are always silent and strange.

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Notes:

1 - Member of The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 1995, an Officer in 2000 and a Commander in 2003.

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2 - Professor Addicott spent 5 of his 20-year JAG career as a senior legal advisor to the U. S. Army's Special Forces.

It's like a free enterprise scene from "Seinfeld"

What state needs a fraud like this more than debt-ridden California? Get busy, California, have you looked into environmental fraud yet? The price tag could well be in the $Billions.

LOS ANGELES - DOJ: Recycling fraud rings robbed state of $3.5 Million - Sacramento Business Journal - Three separate recycling gangs trucked millions of bottles and cans into California. (so that's where they go!)

Californian is one of 11 states where you get 5 or 10 cents for each returned bottle/can brought to one of its recycling centers. The redemption value is paid when consumers buy a beverage, and can be redeemed to encourage recycling. About 80 percent of bottles and cans are redeemed, California A.G. Jerry Brown said in a news release.

Fraud rings illegally brought in truckloads of containers from Nevada and Arizona, which don't have redemption programs. The loads were taken to recycling centers in Riverside, San Bernardino, Imperial and San Diego counties, authorities say. In one case, 1.6 million pounds of cans and bottles were imported from Nevada, authorities claim.

A Las Vegas man collected and stored them at his home and in several storage facilities, according to the attorney general's office. Twice a week, the man and others used rented 16-foot and 24-foot trucks to haul 5,000-pound loads to a storage facility in Montclair, where the materials were parceled out to other ring members who took them to various recycling centers, authorities allege. In another case, authorities said cans filled with sand to increase their recycling weight, were hauled from the Phoenix area to Moreno Valley.

Hmmm, Kramer and Newman were bad examples!

Ex-Nuke Submariner / M.D. Shares Interesting Radiation Exposure Concerns

If you have not already, read the predictions in my previous post, Justice for Fertile Females as Nuclear Submarine Crews, here.
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Often, my opinions are in the minority. Just as often, they have eventually proven accurate.
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Three footnotes were provided in the fertile females post, which is 3 more than you will find in most blogs today.
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Today, I can add another esteemed supporter for my opinion, Dr. Roger C Dunham, MD, a former reactor operator as well as a practicing internal medicine physician with 35 years of experience. Readers may have read his book SPY SUB. He was also mentioned in Submarine Mystery Question (10/03/2008).
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Today, Dr. Dunham wrote an opinion piece, Women, subs and nuclear radiation, for the Los Angeles Times. Here are only a few excerpts, and you will want to read it in full:
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While sperm from men are frequently changing and thereby present a reduced vulnerability to radiation consequences, women have ovaries that contain radiation-sensitive tissue fixed for the life of the woman. Damage to the egg cells remains with the woman until that egg produces a baby.

A nuclear reactor generates gamma energy, slow neutron energy (creating five times more tissue damage than gamma energy) and fast neutron energy (creating 10 times more tissue damage), as well as other types of less consequence. My former engineering officer recently informed me that he had absorbed about 5,000 millirems during his time aboard our submarine.

In civilian life, a pregnant woman must first don a lead shield to protect her unborn baby before she has a chest X-ray (delivering about 10 millirems of gamma energy) or for a mammogram (70 millirems of gamma energy). But lead shields on submarines do not entirely protect personnel from the far more damaging neutron energy.

We know that fetal doses between 1,000 millirems and 10,000 millirems create a "low" level of congenital malformations, mental retardation, uterine growth retardation or childhood cancer.
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My predictions involve litigation for hundreds of million dollars filed by female ex-submariners in cases between 2017 and 2021. You and I, my taxpaying friends will foot the bills to settle these expensive, unnecessary lawsuits. Unless you are a trial lawyer, perhaps you should reconsider your support for female submariners on nuclear subs (ditto the space program).
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Submarines are always silent and strange.

Justice for Fertile Females as Nuclear Submarine Crews

Phase One..........April 29, 2010

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS [Fertile?] Women Allowed to Serve on Submarines

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Phase Two..........Nov 12, 2011 (estimated)

The first woman allowed to serve reports aboard USS Rhode Island

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Phase Three..........Dec 16, 2017 (estimated)
CORRECTED (12/2011)

Ex-Female submariner sues Navy for miscarriage due to submarine's contaminated atmosphere during pregnancy. XXXX infertility after radiation expsosure from reactor incident XXXXX

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Phase Four..........Jan 2, 2019 (estimated)

Jury Awards $35 million to Female ex-Submariner XXXX in Fertility Case XXXX

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Phase Five..........May 8, 2019 (estimated)

Navy orders pre-deployment pregnancy XXXX fertility XXXX examinations for all female submarine volunteers

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Phase Six..........Feb 16, 2020 (estimated)

Female submarine candidates sue Navy for gender discrimination - borderline women excluded from service

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Phase Seven..........July 9, 2021 (estimated)

Ex-female submariners file $2-Billion class action suit against Navy for childhood cancers and mental retardation of children.

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Submarines are always silent and strange.

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Notes:

1. Effects of Radiation Exposure before Birth????

2. Rear Admiral Hugh P. Scott, MC, USN (Ret.) THE ASSIGNMENT OF WOMEN TO SUBMARINE CREWS 12 June 2000

3. Retired US Navy nuke best answer

Take it from Her If You Don't Believe M.E.: Reassurance from Female USNA Submarine Selectee

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — 5/5/2010 -AP - The first female U.S. Naval Academy graduates who will be able to serve as officers aboard submarines said Thursday they feel ecstatic, thankful and blessed by the chance to break one of the military's last gender barriers.

Midshipman Misty Webster, of Wesley Chapel, Fla., said she doesn't believe the close quarters will be a concern, because male and female midshipman have been working together through four years of school, where each class is about 20 percent female [color emphasis added].

Midship[wo]man Webster corroborates the rationale underlying Molten Eagle's 2009 prediction 3/16/2010 5:24 PM -

Non USNA graduates are being systematically culled from the submarine hierarchy in advance of the women's liberation movement into "one of the last bastions of of gender segregation".

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M.E.'s rationale -We can expect more non-academy COs to be relieved as only USNA-minted males assure female underlings are accomodated in a PC environment wherein the entire chain of command:

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1 - Assures all male graduates are reliably PC in bending to assist female officers' careers.

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2 - Ignores all but the most egregious female shortcomings (Capt Nowak); Benchmarking to male counterpart performance (Capt Graf); Anatomy Pregnancy at Naval Academy).

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M.E.'s prediction? 3/16/2010 5:24 PM: Non USNA graduates males are being systematically culled from the submarine hierarchy in advance of the women's liberation movement into "one of the last bastions of of gender segregation".

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Submarines are always silent and strange.

Score: 2 Strikes (fatal) and 2 Fouls (balls)... The next pitch to Obama's administration determines whether he Strikes Out

................................ TIMELINE
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January 20, 2009 - Inauguration of President Barack Hussein Obama II

April 22, 2009 - Obama Bans Waterboarding

June 1, 2009 - Fatal Little Rock recruiting office shooting ... Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad

November 5, 2009 - Fatal Fort Hood Shootings ... Nidal Malik "AbduWali" Hasan

December 25, 2009 - Christmas Day Bomber ... Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab

February 3, 2010 - U.S.News & World Report - CIA chief Leon Panetta, FBI Director Robert Mueller, and Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair said that the recent uptick in al Qaeda plots was evidence of a "certain" desire to make an attack on the U.S. homeland, an assault that they surmised could come within the next six months.

April 1, 2010 - WASHINGTON -A federal judge ruled National Security Agency's program surveillance without warrants illegal.

April 5, 2010 - WASHINGTON - The United States committed not to use nuclear weapons against nonnuclear states even if they attacked the United States with biological or chemical weapons or launched a crippling cyberattack.

April 06, 2010 - Los Angeles Times - U.S. plan to train Indonesian elite army unit raises alarmThe plan to train members of Kopassus ("Komando Pasukan Khusus": or "Special Force Command"), which is accused of rights abuses, would violate U.S. law, critics say.

April 7, 2010 - CAIR Welcomes White House Shift on 'Islamic Radicalism' - Administration officials said the change would remove terms like "Islamic radicalism" from the National Security Strategy document.

May 1, 2010 - Times Square car bomb attempt ... Faisal Shahzad

May 05, 2010 - UPDATE - Obama Freezes Budget for Program Designed to Stop Terrorists from Getting U.S. Visas - President Barack Obama’s fiscal Year 2011 budget for DHS--submitted almost two months after the Christmas Day bombing attempt—does not increase funding for the program from its fiscal 2010 level.

PREDICTION: Philadephia, October 4, 2010.

Submerged Submariners and Surprises

There can be little doubt that alarms requiring emergency responses (real and practice) are stressful for submariners. Imagine being awakened from overdue sleep to the daily sounds of dreaded alarms.

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We probably had 2 unannounced drills per week. Perhaps once every other month, we might have an announced drill. Practice drills competed with real emergencies. If we had just had a real fire, there would be little need for a drill unless there had been a major screw up (never happened). The conclusion of every drill and real emergency response was the same: the critique on what went well, and what should have been done better.

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Fire, flooding, radiation, and critical equipment failures of one kind or another are only the norm. What submariner has never experienced a real collision or man overboard alarm?

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Submarine missions are destined to become more complex in just a few years. Added stress will not be beneficial to anyone. Add females to the mix, and some will inevitably be Muslim. In the United States, Islam is the fastest growing religion, a trend fueled mostly by immigration. There are 5 million to 7 million Muslims in the United States. They make up between 10,000 and 20,000 members of the American military - American Forces Press Service , Islam Growing in America, U.S. Military, WASHINGTON, Oct. 4, 2001.

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Consider that one of the obstacles for some Muslim women serving in the U.S. military is that commanders may authorize them to wear the hijab (headscarf) or not. Some commanders do, while others do not.

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HIJAB IN THE WORKPLACE Q&A:

Q. Why is Islamic dress becoming an issue for personnel managers and supervisors?

A: The Muslim community in American is growing rapidly. Growth factors include conversions to Islam, immigration from Muslim countries and high birth rates for Muslim families. As the community grows, more Muslim women will enter the work force. In many cases, these women wish both to work and to maintain their religious convictions. It should be possible to fulfill both goals.

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Will it be a problem? M.E. does not believe so, in fact it is probably seen by Obama as an opportunity.

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Submarines are always silent and strange.

Insecurity Batch Update

The following collection of unrelated items appeared with today's news:
................................... [1]
04 May 2010 - Maintenance error left subs' crews at risk - TWO nuclear submarines were allowed to go to sea with a safety defect putting the vessels at "serious" potential risk.
Test blanks" fitted to each vessel's hull valves during on-land maintenance to test for leaks were left blocked off when the vessels resumed duties, a leaked memo on the incident, written last month, revealed. For more than a year [> 2 years in HMS Turbulent case] "Test blanks" fitted to each vessel's hull valves during on-land maintenance to test for leaks were left blocked off when the vessels resumed duties.
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04 May 2010 - Serious procedural failure in Trafalgar class nuclear submarine maintenance - equipment that blocked hull valves , used during during earlier maintenance to test hull pressure for leaks – was not removed after the tests. ...Obviously, with the blocks left in place, venting is impossible and excess pressure could then lead to radioactive water bursting into the manned areas of the ship. ... This unchecked procedural fault left both submarines at sea for extended periods on active operations.
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"Detailed investigations to assess the cause and any possible safety implications are ongoing and it is too early to speculate on the outcome of those investigations." - unidentified MoD spokesman.
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................................... [2]
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May 4, 2010 - Navy probes fatality on submarine
Tennessee man's death is 2nd since September aboard USS Nebraska - Lt. Cmdr. Dave Benham, a spokesman for the U.S. Pacific Fleet submarine force at Pearl Harbor said yesterday the Navy is waiting on medical reports, including autopsy and toxicology results.
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................................... [3]
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May 3, 2010 - Army captain who stole $690,000 gets 30 months - Michael Dung Nguyen, a West Point graguate, confessed to stealing more than $690,000 entrusted to him for distribution to Iraqi humanitarian relief, rebuilding projects and security services. The 28-year-old pleaded guilty to theft and money laundering charges in December. The money was stolen from commander's emergency response program funds, which were suppose to be used for security-contract payments with the Sons of Iraq, as well as humanitarian relief and reconstruction programs.
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...............OLDER............ [4]
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April 28, 2010 - "The Alrosa submarine recently suffered an engine fire and almost sank. It is likely to be under repair for the foreseeable future." - Dr. Dmitry Gorenburg
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Submarines are always silent and strange.

THIS WEEK: Provocative TV Production for Submarine Aficianados

Over-the-air viewers will soon get another (others were cable/satellite) opportunity to see and learn details of Japan's highly secret submarine program to win WWII (WW2). Submarine aficinados know that the IJN's Sen Toku I-400-class were the largest submarines ever built prior to the development of 1960s FBMs.
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With a global strike-and-return range to anywhere in the world, these submarine aircraft carriers would provide Japan the means to terrorize American cities (including New York and Washington D.C.) as well as to destroy the Panama Canal to sap America's will to wage an all-out war on Japan. Only three (I-400, I-401 and I-402) were completed, and before any attacked the U.S. the war was ended by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
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A sampling of innovative design details (Who says the Japanese are uncreative copycats? That is pure nonsense!):
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- Utilized a special radar anechoic coating
- Carried three bombers with 40-foot wingspans, a range of 650 miles and a 1,764 lb bomb.
- Japan considered using I-400 aircraft to conduct biological attacks on U.S. cities
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Secrets of the Dead: Japanese SuperSub was produced by Windfall Films and Spy Pond Productions for THIRTEEN in association with National Geographic Channel and WNET.ORG. Check your local PBS listings for Wednesday May 5th.
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YouTube preview [1:51]

No "Submarine Expert" Would Even Ask: Story Unravelled

In his report to French judges investigating the incident, submarine expert Dominiques Salles recommends asking the US Navy to reveal the position of all of its nuclear attack submarines at the time of the sinking of a French trawler on 15 January 2004.

On July 31, 2008, the judges Richard Foltzer and Muriel Corre, who had been charged with the inquiry into the sinking of the Begaled Breizh, after having received expert testimony, issued a statement that it was likely that the vessel sank as a result of an accident with a nuclear attack submarine.[14] It appears likely that a submarine got caught in the net of the trawler and then pulled it down.[15] The judges indicated that all other possibilities were highly improbable, and official reports by the military authorities had been contradictory.[14] However, they were unable to indicate which submarine was involved and indicated also the possibility that the accident may have been caused by the unidentified spy submarine.[16] As such the relatives of the dead sailors and the owner of the ship have not received any compensations

The unexplained sinking is serious; it killed five crew members.

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At the time, Salles suspects a US submarine may have been spying on a top secret consignment of military grade plutonium shipped from the French port of Cherbourg to Japan on board a British nuclear transport vessel. The Dutch submarine Dolfijn, one of the first ships to reach the site of the sinking, was initially suspected of involvement in the casualty.[3]

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For certain, the U.S. official response will NOT include the recommended locations of all U.S. SSNs. The U.S. had given France all of the information it was going to get in the Bush administration (which like all of the prior administrations, was minimal). The U.S. embassy did not reply after the 2004 sinking that we had no submarines in the area at the time. How do we know this? Simple, such an answer would have eliminated further interst from Salles in the possibility of a U.S. SSN. In other words, the official reply was vague, hinting of "no incidents reported by any U.S. SSN" and an extremely unlikely possibility of any U.S. sub in the area.

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Salles would know better than to ask about the location of any U.S. SSBN/GN. Why? Because even France and the U.K. still have not shared the operating areas of their deterrent missile subs with each other. The U.S. may have reminded France verbally that the locations of SSBNs and SSGNs are highly guarded secrets, but again, no incidents have been reported.

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Salles is hoping that the transformational Obama administration will share more details about any subs in the area of casualty on 15 January 2004. Is he correct?

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Before Obama, such a question would not even have been a tough call; the answer: NO! But with the current administration, submarine tradition is being tossed, military secrecy in general has been exposed to less regard for secrecy and greater regard for questions. The strength of our Navy going forward is even being downplayed. SECNAV Ray Mabus, a lawyer, must advise Obama. Neither SecDef Gates nor Mabus were submariners. Consequently, M.E. believes there is a 15% chance of more disclosures.

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Submarines are always silent and strange.