Eureka EPA Radnet Radiation Detection System Goes Off Line After Hight Levels Reported

The local Eureka EPA Radnet monitoring station had been giving out hourly readings of Beta background radiation on a regular  basis for as long as I have been monitoring it. That is only days  before New Years day 2014. That's when I discovered the site where we could plug in our city or one near us and get a radiation reading.

That all stopped this afternoon in the 4 pm hour Pacific Time. I reported that the radiation levels in Eureka had jumped from 30 CPM or counts per minutes to 146 CPM. The graph says it was in the end of the 9 pm hour Pacific but you can see when I posted it on my last post here on this blog and it was at 4:27 pm local time. Now it is 10 28 pm Pacific and there are no new numbers to report. Radiation levels are high but we don't know how high because the monitor is off here.


This is bad news. 2/3 of the system is already down and out of order waiting for maintenance that may never arrive. We are now flying blind except for this.
http://www.netc.com/

I hope the EPA gets this fixed soon. There is no government testing of the Pacific Ocean and now no readings of the air in Eureka, Sacramento or Bakersfield. Fresno and Anaheim were still working earlier today. You can always keep checking  by going to the Querry Interface link to see if they are back on line.

Record High Of 80 Degrees Eureka Today, That's Not All That's Hot

The National Weather Service on Woodly Island in Eureka said that Eureka Ca. broke a record for high temperature today when it hit 80 degrees by Noon.

That's not all that's heating up. Background Beta radiation has just about doubled this afternoon. Normal background is between 7 and 15 Counts Per Minute or CPM but take a look at the the graph below and the last 3 hours measurements. Last hour we hit 146 CPM which is about 10 times hotter than normal.

Use this link to do your own search or to check back to see if things are getting better or worse.
https://cdxnode64.epa.gov/radnet-public/query.do

The Link To The Query Tool For EPA Radnet Air Monitors

For some reason, the EPA Radnet website does not make it easy to find the query tool so that you can plug in the town nearest you see what comes up. For those of you that haven't been following the blog, we have been talking about background radiation levels here on the west coast of California.

I have been showing screen shots of graphs generated from this site. The higher the beta number the higher the background radiation being measured on a filter with air blowing over it. This is the official government site for this sort of air testing around the country.

In light of the Fukushima melt downs and myself being down wind from the continuing meltdowns I have done some stories about what we know, think we know and what we don't know about the subject. I have posted links before but they were always a page or two back and some people said it was hard to figure out what to do from there so here it is.

 https://cdxnode64.epa.gov/radnet-public/query.do

 This link takes you to a stage of the site where you bypass the BS and get right to the testing,  I have already selected Beta Gross Count Rate and use 5 for Gamma energy range. I'm not looking at Gamma rays so if you are looking for a specific range use that instead. I just use 5 because I always have so things look consistent.

Now you have to select the date range and city/state choice and hit submit button at center bottom of page.

Empty columns of  0's everywhere indicate that site is off line or down for the time being. Only about a third of the sites scattered around the country still have operating monitors. 


 To get an idea of what your normal background levels are where you're at, you have to look at several weeks and see the lowest numbers, usually not much lower than a 7 or 10 CPM Beta. We measured over 200 CPM here in Eureka back in February as I recall.

 To toggle from town to town, just click the back page arrow one page and you can plug the next town in. Enjoy! Or not. Share the link while some of this stuff is still working.

Nothing in this story addresses radiation levels in fish or the Pacific Ocean.  That is another story. It is an important story since there is no US Government monitoring of the waters off our west coast.
More on that later.

I Get Phone Calls From Numbers That Don't Exist

On an almost daily routine, I get calls on my cell phone from numbers that don't exist. OK, they must have existed long enough for the people to call me but when I call them back, a minute or 2 later, I get the message that says "We're sorry, you have reached a number that has been disconnected or is no longer in service. If you feel that you have reached this recording in error, please check the number and try your call again".

I know that these are just sales people that somehow got my number but I think that they are like anonymous posters. If they really wanted to talk to me or sell me something they would use a number that I could call back on or they would leave a message. They deserve to be treated as the harassing and annoying non people that they are. I went ahead and put my number into the do not call list but just for fun, I thought I would share some of these numbers so others could look out for them.
916-301-4118
206-777-1016
313-941-0619 these people called me yesterday and today with the same disconnected number. I called them back yesterday and the number was disconnected. Today they called me with that same number again and when I called them back, you guessed it. Disconnected again.

276-306-0987
276-400-0423
541-369-8742

954-688-3007
0000000000  This has to be my favorite, followed by,
11146


There were a couple of other numbers that were trying to sell me insurance. I didn't list them since they existed and I could actually call them back.

So if you haven't yet gone to the Do Not Call website and are getting calls from numbers that do not exist, go ahead and post them and then go to the Do Not Call website and stop this nonsense.
https://www.donotcall.gov/

It takes 30 days before it is active so the sooner the better.

Garboligists Rummaging Through Local Trash Bins

A team of garboligists descended on our radio station dumpster this morning. They were a part of a study being conducted by CalRecycle Department of Resources and Recovery.

CalRecycle is conducting a study of the types and amounts of materials in California’s waste and recycling streams. We were randomly selected along with more than 800 other California businesses to be part of the study.

Cal Recycle says they use the information:

1. Determine where specific material types are originating-and where they’re ending up.
2. Track our progress in providing Californians the tools necessary to reduce our wastes; and
3. Identify key opportunities to support Californians in using less, recycling more, and taking resource conservation to higher levels.

Brad Anderson of Sky Valley Associates, one of four companies contracted to do the hands on study said the information they gather is used for the states database which enables cities and counties to be able to plug in types of businesses and depending on the size of the businesses, better determine what amount of what materials to expect to be entering the waste stream.

Businesses in the sample will be asked questions relating to 3 phases of the study:

The first phase is a 15-20 minute phone interview asking general questions about our current trash and recycling services.

The second phase consists of collecting a sample of our waste, which will be sorted at a local waste disposal or processing facility to determine the quantities and types of materials thrown away.

About half of the businesses will participate in the third phase. This will be an onsite survey of  the businesses by one of their specially trained consultants to identify and measure current diversion practices. This may include sorting materials in our recycling or compost bins.

For more information on the program go to http://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/WasteChar/2014Study.htm

The Humboldt Civil Liberties Defense Fund Endorses DA Candidate Elan Firpo

Press Release:

The Humboldt Civil Liberties Defense Fund (HCLDF) enthusiastically endorses Élan Firpo for District Attorney. The HCLDF is committed to the protection of civil liberties for all residents of Humboldt County and feels that Ms. Firpo is the candidate that would best protect those liberties guaranteed in our State and Federal Constitutions.


The HCLDF was founded in 2011 and is made up both conservatives and liberals. While the membership may differ on matters of legislation, we are united in our unwavering defense of civil liberties because we believe them to be the cornerstone of our democracy.


The office of District Attorney plays an unparalleled role in both the protection and violation of our cherished liberties. Few public officials hold such power to take away one's freedom as a prosecutor does. We urge all citizens who share our concern for protection of the freedoms we hold so dear to join us in working to elect Élan Firpo as Humboldt County's District Attorney.


For more information or to offer your support to the Defense Fund go to www.hcldf.org or visit us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/hcldf/

We Get Rain!

That's the forecast from the National Weather Service in Eureka Ca. The bottom picture is of the forecast for

Trinidad for the next few days. We get rain while the rest of the state waits, and waits. 

The other shot is from my kitchen table looking into the yard with rain on the window. You can see the reflection of a green lamp in the top center.

National Weather Service Eureka

The Koch Brothers Exposed

This really is a must see movie from Robert Greenwald. It's only 55 minutes and will open yor eyes to what these billionaires are really up to.



http://www.kochbrothersexposed.com/

Scandinavian Radio And Web Site Suggest Link Between UN, Greystone LTD. Mercenaries and Ukraine

 Contractors from private security companies are supposed to do what NATO cannot do openly, they train terrorists who destabilize situation in Ukraine, Michel Chossudovsky, Director of the Centre for Research on Globalization told RIA Novosti Tuesday.

 See this story at Red Ice Creations or watch the RT Video below or both. 

The article in Red Ice Creations linked above suggeest the link between mercenaries like Greystone and the Ukrainian government.
Greystone is the company formerly known as Blackwater which received 6 billion dollars in funds from the US that the State Department didn't keep track of. An ABC News report says the company denies it's involvement in the Ukraine.

In another RT report, the recent reports of Russian troops on the boarder photographs appear to be from 8 months ago during a training exercise.
 http://rt.com/news/nato-satellite-images-drills-712/
Click above link to see the photos and more on this story.

Candidates for District Attorney Forum On KGOE 1480 AM Eureka Ca. This Afternoon

The KGOE 1480 AM Candidates forum for District Attorney will air at 4:05 pm right after ABC News this afternoon (Saturday).  No, you can't listen to the stream because there isn't one but if you are on the North Coast of California or Southern Oregon, you might be able to hear it.

3 of the 4 candidates attended, from left to right in the picture: Alex Krug, the time keeper and engineer, JB Mathers the host with Maggie Fleming, Elan Firpo and Allan Dollison. Arnie Klein couldn't make it due to illness. 

Great Ball of Fire

It was a fantastic sunset tonight over the Pacific Ocean on the North Coast.

3 Out Of 4 Candidates At Trinidad Forum

The League of Women Voters threw a nice forum tonight in Trinidad. 3 of the 4 candidates vying for

the open seat being vacated by District Attorney Paul Gallegos made the trek to Trinidad Town Hall and were pleasantly
greeted by beverages, Hors d' oeuvures and a nice crowd. Candidate Arnie Klein couldn't make it due to the flu. I hope he gets well soon.

 The crowd was encouraged to to write questions on a card and those were used in the forum. I asked if any of them believed that being homeless should be illegal or a crime and why. Allan Dollison, Elan Firpo and Maggie Fleming all said that not only did they not believe that homelessness should not be a crime, all three argued that homeless people were often and disproportionally victims of crime.

I'm going to be producing a forum with, hopefully all 4 candidates for DA for KGOE AM 1480. We will be recording it on April 10th and I would like to invite anyone that lives in Humboldt County to submit questions for us to ask the candidates. You can just leave your questions in the comments section of this blog and I still allow anonymous posts so feel free to ask away.

We have a great bunch of candidates this time around so this race is anything but certain for any of the them. Lucky for us, there are going to be many chances for people to see, read about or hear from the candidates before the June runoff. I assume a runoff but if one candidate get more that 50% of the vote, from what I understand, they could wrap it up early. That just doesn't seem likely with this great bunch of candidates and I'm expecting it to go all the way to November. If I have that part wrong about the way this election will work, straighten me out in the comment section.

KXGO, 93.1 FM Has Become KSLG

The Classic Rock station for Humboldt County has become KSLG or K-Slug. What has been the quintessential rock station for Eureka Ca., 93.1 FM KXGO has become a slave or simulcast of KSLG which used to be a modern rock station that changed their format to something. This is not an April Fools prank as far as I know. The move away from classic rock has been in the works ever since Station Manager Tom Newhouse was hired. KSLG switched their format from Modern Rock to  "New Bands, New Songs & New Sounds ( or in other words, modern rock) which is an eclectic mix of new stuff that has few outlets on commercial radio anywhere in the United States.

93.1 and it's translator at 94.5 FM in Eureka which were well known and established as the Classic Rock station for a couple of decades for Humboldt County are now passing along that new sound.  KSLG is suggesting that former classic rock listeners tune to their local version of classic rock or "The Point" FM 100.3 and 102.7 FM but there are other alternatives such as Cool 105.5 which plays mostly Classic Hits from 1964 to 1984 and moves up a year each year as time goes on.

The times they are a changing, but there are still places on the dial where you can hear the likes of The Who,The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Cars, Ozzie Osbourne, Blue Oyster Cult,, Jimmy Hendrix, he Beatles, And all those other great classic rock bands I left out but it isn't 93.1 FM.

RIP KXGO