How to create a safe and prosperous downtown...

A post from the indomitable Tara Almond, currently legislative aide for 40th LD representative Jeff Morris, made me remember how much I have to say as a father and citizen about the health of Bellingham's downtown. Bellingham's downtown was one of the original reasons I concluded Bellingham would be a good place to live and raise a family. Originally, when I scouted this place, I rented a hotel room on Samish and spent the next three days walking the entire town from Fairhaven to Cornwall Park.  I walked around Bellingham's downtown repeatedly. I was pleasantly surprised at how safe it seemed. As a note, both my wife and I were raised in east Oakland. I had never really walked through a downtown without my senses alert and guard up. I just didn't realize that until I moved here.

As I have mellowed  and lost many of my 'street instincts' in the last 12 years here, I can easily see now how there are real problems that need addressing downtown and these problems are distressing to many residents.  I sent the letter below based on my beliefs that small communities like this should cultivate a  downtown that is  "family centered" and create appeal to parents who want to move here to give their children a safe and prosperous community to grow up in.  I invite you as readers to send your thoughts to these elected and non-elected officials below. Nurturing and cultivating a prosperous, safe downtown is so important. Many activists and citizen organizations here think and pontificate about this. Much important work has been done by many both publicly and privately.  If you have something to say, your voice should be heard.

Oso Landslide Part I: Data from Oso and Jim Creek Naval Station

Oso, WA landslide from JCW Seismograph (Jim Creek) of March 22nd. The middle energy signature is present in all graphs below for March 10, March 19-22

UW postdoctoral researcher Kate Allstadt has a comprehensive post on PNSN on Seismic Signals generated by the Oso Landslide. Among the more interesting notes in her post is a "sound recording" of the landslide at 160x speed. Local geologist Dan McShane has a number of excellent posts on the geology of the region and the landslide itself. Chuck Forsberg of Omen.com generously shipped me a dump of VLF transmissions log from Jim Creek Naval Station. The the JCW seismographs compiled below show March 10th (date of 1.1 quake) and March 19 - 22.  My guess is that the recurring 8 - 10 AM energy signature identified by Kate Allstadt as a "cultural source" is probably some cycle of the nearby 250 KW VLF transmissions in Jim Creek. Seismographs from PNSN.  Click to enlarge.

From left to right: March 10, March 19 - 22.  Note the two sharp disturbances early morning of  March 21st; the day before the slide. Also note the persistent "cultural source" signature that shows up in each plot. 

Testing for Evidence of Fukushima in Bellingham: Part I

45 days of filtration in a Bellingham neighborhood that heats with wood.

I am working on (DIY)  testing for evidence of Fukushima fallout in Bellingham. This is a "science project" fraught with difficulties for a layman. I will leave pictures and R code output without much comment for now. So far most of my testing has been exploratory and I looking at how to systemize my methodology.  I have collected three years worth of external air filters sealed in plastic. I change them out every 45 days as they are so filthy with smoke and soot! 

Why you should install heat pump technology now!

In a statement Tuesday, U.S. Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA) and John Hoeven (R-ND) called on the Obama administration to order the DOE to quickly evaluate more than 20 applications to export LNG to countries without a free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States. Specifically, they want DOE to approve all of the pending permits within 60 days, or provide reasons why they can't be approved.

"For the first time in a generation, America is in a position to export energy, and acting strategically to increase our natural gas exports will weaken [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's grip on energy supplies for Europe and Ukraine," Warner said. "We're suggesting a comprehensive, bipartisan approach that will have a positive impact in the near term and the longer term on the energy security of Ukraine and the EU." from 

http://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/97781-europe-ukraine-discuss-pipeline-upgrades-reversals

Don't believe energy company hype about Shale Gas. It is not a panacea and the energy industry is seeking to make profits exporting LNG!  Global warming and the new Cold War will result in future shock to your household each winter. I recommend you install either the new 'greenspeed' or  the hybrid heat pump technology for your heating needs.  Our gas bill this January in Bellingham, WA? $38.00.

Passed the three year anniversary of Fukushima last week...

A John Servais column about radiation found in the Fraser River Valley in Northwest Citizen reminded me that we passed the three year anniversary of Fukushima last week.  Little is known about the effects of the radiation releases on the West Coast because the monitoring is so sparse and distrusted. For what it is worth, here are the EPA RadNet (air source) graphs of ten different gamma energy ranges in Seattle, Fairbanks, and Juneau for the last six months. Click to enlarge:

My general feeling is the radioactive releases from Fukushima are affecting our health now and will for a very long time.  My guess is that the amount and effects of such releases are being covered up or dismissed.

Fwd: SEP Newsletter: What the Western-backed regime is planning for Ukrainian workers

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Socialist Equality Party" <sep@socialistequality.com>
Date: Mar 16, 2014 11:05 AM
Subject: SEP Newsletter: What the Western-backed regime is planning for Ukrainian workers
To: "rferrisx@gmail.com" <rferrisx@gmail.com>
Cc:

Fwd: Today on the WSWS

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "World Socialist Web Site" <list@wsws.org>
Date: Mar 9, 2014 10:57 PM
Subject: Today on the WSWS
To: "rferrisx@gmail.com" <rferrisx@gmail.com>
Cc:

Doubling Tar Sands production for Imperial War » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

Doubling Tar Sands production for Imperial War » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

Fwd: Downtown Bellingham Plan: March 27 Planning Commission Meeting Materials

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Pool, Lisa A." <lapool@cob.org>
Date: Mar 13, 2014 12:29 PM
Subject: Downtown Bellingham Plan: March 27 Planning Commission Meeting Materials
To:
Cc:

DOWNTOWN BELLINGHAM PLAN: March 27 Planning Commission Meeting Materials

All documents associated with the draft Downtown Bellingham Plan are scheduled for a public hearing at the March 27 Planning Commission meeting. The Planning Commission packet, including the staff report and City Center Implementation Strategy, is now posted online here: http://www.cob.org/government/public/boards-commissions/planning-materials.aspx.

Written comments should be submitted to planningcommission@cob.org no later than March 25, 2014, for consideration at the meeting. All comments submitted prior to or during the meeting will become part of the written record.

Thanks,

Lisa Pool, AICP

Senior Planner

City of Bellingham, WA

360-778-8390

My incoming and outgoing email messages are subject to public disclosure requirements per RCW 42.56.

The Post Crimean World Order...

The U.S. blinked!  The situation is still fluid, but the apocalypse didn't happen.  The world will now pursue a "Post Crimean World Order".  In this new world, major economic powers will each pitch  the less powerful countries in the World. States from Ukraine to Ecuador will have some choices to make in alliances: US or Russia Federation or China or Brazil or... perhaps the "middle way" of balancing between all of them! Hey, it worked for the French!

Russia is not weak anymore. The United States economy is still too weak to engage in substantial military or economic risk. The neo-conservative / neo-liberal dream of interfering far and wide has seen limits. With the Asian axis developing strong capitalist economies, national power will become more globally diffuse or 'multilateral'.  In the 'Post Crimean World Order' the Asian economies will increase in power and strength.  Europe and Japan will to have to bend towards them.  The United States is in a difficult position for now. It's aggressive neo-colonial era launched under the guise of the 'war on terrorism' has resulted in lost international good will. But this can change.

My contention is that the world will be at  greater peace and eventually more prosperity with a stronger Russia. With a burgeoning capitalist economy of its own now, it should be able to help China, Brazil, India challenge the economic and political axis of the West. It is possible that with less (or more hard earned) foreign economic opportunity, the US may have no option but to substantially grow and innovate the domestic economy. This could increase the prosperity of the US workforce and shrink the wealth gap. It might also shrink all of our ridiculously bloated defense and intelligence budgets.  And that, dear reader, is an outcome worth hoping for!

Of course, there are always other outcomes.  The U.S. could become bitter and reactionary, engaging in more needless foreign intrusions. An impoverished America could fall into nationalism and elect right wing extremists convinced that nuclear wars are "winnable"....  But I don't think this is going to happen. The general public here is sick of sending there sons to die in foreign countries and hearing about how we supported neo-Nazis to overthrow elected governments like Ukraine.  Let us hope the future brings out the best in United States and the rest of this very large and growing world!

Fwd: SEP Newsletter: The David Miranda ruling and the attack on press freedom

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Socialist Equality Party" <sep@socialistequality.com>
Date: Mar 2, 2014 4:55 PM
Subject: SEP Newsletter: The David Miranda ruling and the attack on press freedom
To: "rferrisx@gmail.com" <rferrisx@gmail.com>
Cc:

Socialist Equality Party Newsletter Below is a selection of articles appearing on the World Socialist Web Site last week. Six days a week, the WSWS publishes on all the major political, social and cultural developments. To sign up for the daily newsletter, click here. Contents: The David Miranda ruling and the attack on press freedom Coup in Ukraine: A warning to the international working class The political lessons of the UAW debacle in Tennessee US and Japanese troops train for war against China

The brilliance of Neo-Nazi paramilitarism combined with Neo-Con dreams of world domination....

"If Russia wants to be a G8 country, it needs to behave like a G8 country."

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry

So  Mr. Secretary, when we invaded Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria... What exactly were we behaving like in the United States? It turns out that supporting a bunch of Neo-Nazi paramilitary reactionaries to overthrow Ukraine's elected government was a really bad idea!  Victoria Nuland and the rest of the neocon world have now learned the lesson that Ukraine isn't El Salvador. Wow! How freaking brilliant for them to learn this at the expense of our country and world economic stability. More on these subjects later. For now read, please William Engdahl....

Fwd: Downtown Bellingham Plan: Planning Commission Public Hearing and DNS Notices

I'm a bit late with this forward...

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Pool, Lisa A." <lapool@cob.org>
Date: Feb 25, 2014 4:17 PM
Subject: Downtown Bellingham Plan: Planning Commission Public Hearing and DNS Notices
To:
Cc:

DOWNTOWN BELLINGHAM PLAN: Public Notices

Two items pertaining to the Downtown Bellingham Plan are now available online:

-          Notice of Public Hearing for the March 27 Planning Commission Meeting: http://www.cob.org/cob/Pubnot.nsf/frmNotice/79E8F0216FD0EEC288257C8A00771146?OpenDocument
-          Determination of Non-Significance: http://www.cob.org/cob/Pubnot.nsf/frmNotice/7332DE73F39985A788257C86006285C6?OpenDocument

The Planning Commission staff report for the Downtown Plan will be posted online by March 13, 2014.

Contact Lisa Pool, Senior Planner, at lapool@cob.org or 360-778-8390 with comments or questions.

Fwd: Climate Wars: Feb 26 in Bellingham

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Robin Everett, Sierra Club <robin.everett@sierraclub.org>
Date: Sat, Feb 22, 2014 at 3:41 PM
Subject: Climate Wars: Feb 26 in Bellingham
To: rferrisx@gmail.com

Christian Parenti visits Whatcom County on Wednesday to talk about the violence Climate Change is causing across the World. -RMF

Fwd: SEP Newsletter: Ukraine and the pro-imperialist intellectuals

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Socialist Equality Party" <sep@socialistequality.com>
Date: Feb 9, 2014 12:00 PM
Subject: SEP Newsletter: Ukraine and the pro-imperialist intellectuals
To: "rferrisx@gmail.com" <rferrisx@gmail.com>
Cc:

Socialist Equality Party Newsletter Below is a selection of articles appearing on the World Socialist Web Site last week. Six days a week, the WSWS publishes on all the major political, social and cultural developments. To sign up for the daily newsletter, click here. Contents: Ukraine and the pro-imperialist intellectuals Social inequality and the war against the working class The return of German militarism The revival of Japanese militarism Contact Socialist Equality Party PO Box 48377 Oak Park, MI 48237 Phone: (313) - 409 - 8083 sep@socialistequality.com * Visit the website! * Join the SEP! * DONATE today! Ukraine and the pro-imperialist intellectuals Alex Lantier 5 February 2014 The "Open letter on the future of Ukraine" issued by a group of Western academics and foreign policy operatives is a vile defense of the ongoing far-right protests in Ukraine supported by Washington and the European Union (EU). It peddles the old lie, repeated over nearly a quarter century of imperialist wars and interventions in Eastern Europe since the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, that US and EU policy is driven only by a disinterested love of democracy and human rights. It states, "The future of Ukrainians depends most of all on Ukrainians themselves. They defended democracy and their future 10 years ago, during the Orange Revolution, and they are standing up for those values today. As Europeans grow disenchanted with the idea of a common Europe, people in Ukraine are fighting for that idea and for their country's place in Europe. Defending Ukraine from the authoritarian temptations of its corrupt leaders is in the interests of the democratic world." The identity of the imperialist powers' local proxies demolishes the open letter's pretense that the imperialist powers are fighting for democracy. They are relying on a core of a few thousand fascistic thugs from the Right Sector organization and the Svoboda Party to topple the Ukrainian regime in a series of street protests, replace it with a pro-EU government hostile to Moscow, and impose savage austerity measures. Washington and the EU are not fighting for democracy, but organizing a social counterrevolution. (Read more) Further coverage on Ukraine can be found here.

The Weather Centre (by Andrew) and other weather/climate information locations

If you are not reading Andrew's  The Weather Centre then you are just not understanding the weather or the climate this year. Other (government or educational) places I like to look:

• http://squall.sfsu.edu/crws/jetstream.html
• http://www.nrlmry.navy.mil/tc-bin/tc_home2.cgi
• http://www.atmos.washington.edu/data/data.php?loc=satellite
• http://www.weather.gov/
• http://www.climate.gov/
• http://www.globalchange.gov/

Here some images for today's weather:

Naval Weather Monterey shows an  outsized Kona Low/Pineapple Express/Chinook wind hitting the Pacific Northwest.

If you think these temps are stressful Alabama; then checkout the temps for Northern Sask.  this morning on Weatherbell.com.

The new 'wavier' or 'meriodonal' jest stream as it affects the Pacific Northwest...

Fwd: [New post] The NSA's Secret Role in the U.S. Assassination Program

"In fact, as the former JSOC drone operator recounts, tracking people by metadata and then killing them by SIM card is inherently flawed. The NSA “will develop a pattern,” he says, “where they understand that this is what this person’s voice sounds like, this is who his friends are, this is who his commander is, this is who his subordinates are. And they put them into a matrix. But it’s not always correct. There’s a lot of human error in that."  from The NSA's Secret Role in the U.S. Assassination Program

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Drones Watch" <donotreply@wordpress.com>
Date: Feb 10, 2014 12:43 PM
Subject: [New post] The NSA’s Secret Role in the U.S. Assassination Program
To: <rferrisx@gmail.com>
Cc:

Fwd: Really...?

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Aaron Ostrom, Fuse Washington" <info@fusewashington.org>
Date: Feb 6, 2014 2:38 PM
Subject: Really...?
To: "Ryan M Ferris" <rferrisx@gmail.com>
Cc:

In just three weeks, the state Senate Republicans have dredged up dozens of failed far–right ideas. The first big legislative deadline is next week, and we're working overtime to protect working families and put Washington back on a path to progress. Will you chip in $10 now to fuel our fight on the ground, online, and at the capitol? Chip in!

Dear Friend,

What are they thinking?

In just three weeks, Sen. Rodney Tom and the Senate Republicans have dredged up dozens of failed far–right ideas. They've introduced bills to cut the minimum wage, gut election transparency, and impose new restrictions on abortion. They even brought Exxon–funded climate deniers to testify before the Senate environment committee.¹

Together, we can ensure not a single one of these dangerous bills ever becomes law.

Fwd: Draft Downtown Bellingham Plan

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Pool, Lisa A." <lapool@cob.org>
Date: Feb 4, 2014 3:28 PM
Subject: Draft Downtown Bellingham Plan

DRAFT DOWNTOWN BELLINGHAM PLAN NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE

Feedback provided by the community throughout the extensive "myDowntown" planning process has been incorporated into the draft Downtown Bellingham Plan that is now posted online here: http://www.cob.org/services/planning/downtown/index.aspx. The draft Development Regulations and a summary of other associated changes are also posted with the Plan.

These documents are available for your review and comment in advance of the legislative process, which starts with the Planning Commission public hearing on March 27, 2014. The staff report for all of the Downtown planning documents will be posted online by March 13, 2014.

The following Boards and Commissions will be asked to provide a recommendation to the Planning Commission on the draft Plan:

·         Historic Preservation Commission, 4p.m., February 11, Council Chambers, City Hall, 210 Lottie Street
·         Transportation Commission, 6 p.m., February 11, Mayors Board Room, City Hall, 210 Lottie Street
·         Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, 7 a.m., February 12, Bloedel Donovan Park (Beach Pavilion), 2214 Electric Avenue

Contact Lisa Pool, Senior Planner, at lapool@cob.org or 360-778-8390 with comments or questions on the draft plan.

An insider outs the criminal United States Banking System and it's Government Protectorate...

"That IED going off in Afghanistan, killing an American or Allied soldier; that is being financed by our banks!" Everett Stern on RT

 Like Edward Snowden, Everett Stern is another 29 year old who believed in the system, until he got a chance peer beneath the covers. What Mr. Stern and Mr. Snowden  have in common: extremely bright believers in the system that just saw the dark side and decided to do something about it. Snowden dumped data. Stern figured out how to do the job of detecting money laundering (for which the bank who had hired him had apparently not trained him) and then started emailing the CIA and the FBI. Mr. Stern is unable to believe that this story can not get more press. Dynamite interview with Sophie Shevardnadze...

More Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everett_Sternhttp://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/gangster-bankers-too-big-to-jail-20130214

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everett_Stern

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/14/us-hsbc-compliance-delaware-idUSBRE86C18H20120714