Here are the top twenty stories about Space that people have voted as popular on digg.com, a social networking website whose users submit and then also rank news stories and blog entries.  This entry is generated dynamically using javascript and xml, so it will likely change everytime you look at it.  Because of this, no comments are allowed. Honestly, this entry is for my own convenience, as much as it is for you.  However, it is a menu item that I hope you also find helpful, useful or informative.

 

 

Here are the top twenty stories in Politics that people have voted as popular on digg.com, a social networking website whose users submit and then also rank news stories and blog entries.  This entry is generated dynamically using javascript and xml, so it will likely change everytime you look at it.  Because of this, no comments are allowed. Honestly, this entry is for my own convenience, as much as it is for you.  However, it is a menu item that I hope you also find helpful, useful or informative.

 

 

The Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire) is attempting to crawl out of the decades of chaos that had previously characterized the large African nation and continues to do so.  The Kabila government in Kinshasa has scheduled democratic elections in the coming weeks, something the Congolese haven't seen in 40 years.  This coming election is a pivotal event for the DRC.  If it will actually help the country is anybody's guess.

Intrigue

The situation in the DRC came to my attention recently when I read in the Orlando Sentinel that two local central Florida men had been detained and accused of a coup attempt against the Kabila government.  As I like to do, I look up names and places in some news articles in order to gain a better understanding of the story.  The local angle seemed intriquing enough. These men did work for an Orlando consultancy firm subcontracted into the often very shady world of private military contractors (PMC).

Retired Orlando police captain, Joe Robinson and retired U.S. Secret Service Agent, Kevin Billings, were being held in the DRC because of their work for AQMI Strategy Corp.  Following all the subcontractor corporations currently involved in the DRC providing private security with names like Nexia Strategy, Omega International and Tactical Intelligence LLC, led me to wonder about all the PMCs from South Africa, Nigeria and the U.S. running around the DRC.

As it turns out, AQMI is owned by Frank Amodeo, who sits on the board of Nexia Strategy, Nexia received $5 million in venture capital from multinational conglomerate Mirabilis Ventures, and Mirabilis seems to have had a relationship with the presidential candidate that AQMI was working with, Dr. Oscar Kashala.  Dr. Oscar Kashala is actually a dual citizen of the U.S. and the DRC.  He had been residing in Virginia until he decided to become a candidate in the DRC presidential election.

Politics

I can only describe the history of political leadership in the DRC to that of Star Trek's Klingon Empire.  More often than not, the leader is assassinated and replaced.  Rinse and repeat.  Here's some reference reading for you:

• 'Official' DRC history - United Nations
• DRC - CIA World Factbook
• Recent events - South Africa Sunday Times

You'll have to read those one page references to understand what I say now.  The history of the DRC depends upon your perspective.  I don't mean to seem simplistic, but the 'official' history written by the Kabila government is very telling and might explain the paranoia of the government of young Joseph Kabila.  His father, Laurent Desire Kabila, was killed by a personal bodyguard in 2001, after all.

Because of all the pre-election turmoil, the actual day of free elections in the DRC is a little hard to nail down. The CIA has June 18th as the date.  Sadly, that's not current.  I've seen June 30th and July 30th in various news articles.

Just for you, I went so far as to call the DRC Permanent Mission to the United Nations office to get the correct elections date, because I have Skype, and it's basically a free phone call.  However, I had to leave my inquiry on some answering machine.  That seemed a little lame to me for an entire country's U.N. office in this day and age, but their web site is also stuck in a wayback machine, too.

The Democratic Republic of Congo will be in your news this Summer.  If the country survives and doesn't descend into further chaos -- it might be a good news story -- no matter who is elected as the next president.  There is alot more to the DRC story and I'll post that in the next entry.

[Headphones] :: Living with War - Neil Young DRC, kabila, kashala  politics, travel, business africa, congo, DRC

 

One of the ways to make your blog more available to a wider audience of readers is to utiltize the syndication features available on all blogdrive blogs, even the free ones.  While all subscription levels offer extended feeds, a free blog still automatically creates a feed with previews of your last ten entries and links back to your blogdrive blog.  Now, all you need to do is use the feed provided and tell your readers how they can use it.

People visiting your blogdrive blog can use its automagically generated index.xml or atom.xml file for their own news readers and feed aggregators.  For easiest recognition, I have added some of the more popular services that can use my Dark Skies feed in that little icon cluster on the left side section.

Except for the [+ favorites] icon and link, which simply adds Dark Skies to a visitor's browser bookmarks, the rest of the icons are linked to my blog's feed.  If you wish to have all of these icons, the HTML code to add them to your side section, and some simple instructions -- I put together a little compressed ZIP file that you can download: jfz_addicons.zip

I personally use the Yahoo and Google portal pages to stay updated with a number of blog feeds on blogdrive.  If you only wish to use one or two of these icons on your blog, you can copy and save the icon, and copy and edit the shortcut associated with it.

There are a number of free third-party blog tools and services you should use.  Blogdrive has integrated PhotoBucket into its entry editor.  That is one free account you should activate.  Another very useful free service is FeedBurner.

FeedBurner is useful not only as a one-stop shop for your blog's feed, but also for the added free services, like automatically pinging Technorati for you.

I like FeedBurner because they get (understand) it.  They can help you optimize your feed and publicize it.  The future of syndication and feeds is being developed everyday.  The orange icon, above, will soon be the internationally recognized icon for your blog's feed.

Until everyone understands this, I will display my icon cluster during the transition phase.  Sometimes, we all get so excited about tech stuff, that we forget that everyone doesn't share our enthusiasm for changes in the geekdom.

[Headphones] :: Illinois Street Lounge [lo-fi] - SomaFM web2.0, blogdrive, rss  internet, people, web design networks, blogs, geeks

 

Since I was old enough to understand that there were other law makers out in the big world other than my mother, I've never really understood the logic or rationale underpinning government policies that advocate marijuana prohibition.  Marijuana has been a naturally-growing herb for an epoch, specifically cultivated by mankind for thousands of years, and used by millions upon millions of people at one time or another -- right up to the present day.  Apparently, "because I told you so" is the best government argument available.

The U.S. federal government has some alligator clamp down upon the issue of marijuana remaining one of the most controlled substances, equal to cocaine and heroin.  Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a rare statement that no one requested entitled, "Inter-Agency Advisory Regarding Claims That Smoked Marijuana Is a Medicine."

I dare you to read the FDA statement.  It's only one page long.  Most of the logic presented in the narrative falls along the lines of, "because I told you so."  It simply cites other government agencies whose very existence depends upon illicit drugs and their bloated agency budgets enforcing and supporting prohibitions -- the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), and the National Institute for Drug Abuse (NIDA).  When their own studies have shown that marijuana is the most widely-used illicit drug, these agencies can't throw away their cash cow.

The modern government agency attitude toward weed seems to have been formed from taking too much LSD, or something.  Perhaps after some Cold War MK-Utlra studies by the black cells of the military industrial complex, someone decided that marijuana caused communist subverseness.

Marijuana was placed on the schedule I list of contolled substances in 1970.  Richard Nixon apparently thought that might fix his administration's problem of all those anti-war hippies protesting Viet Nam all over the country.  The so-called War on Drugs was then militarized during the Reagan administration.  While first lady Nancy was wearing "just say no" swag in American schools, Ronald's idea was to go after the source.  The Columbian cocaine cartels found themselves on the receiving end of joint task forces comprised of CIA, DoD, DEA and Customs assets.

George H.W. Bush continued the War on Drugs by signing the drug asset forfeiture laws.  Average U.S. citizens worried that they could lose their car or home, if they got busted with a bag of weed.  However, the forfeiture system has grown into a self-funding law enforcement racket much larger than that.  According to this news item from the DEA:

Nationwide in Fiscal Year 2005 the Department of Justice forfeited assets valued in excess of $687,000,000; shared in excess of $101,000,000 with state and local law enforcement agencies; and used $5.7 million in forfeited assets to make restitution directly to crime victims.

What would you do with over a half-billion dollars a year?  Why you could fund an international, high tech, Mission Impossible-like scenario called Operation Twin Oceans. On May 17th, the DEA announced the conclusion of this 3-year-old Op and the seizure of over $70 million in assets -- including three frackin' tropical islands!  Only Ian Fleming could've have made up this truth.

Personally, I have a libertarian attitude about all drugs.  If you want to kill yourself smoking crack or meth, I don't care.  It's your troubled life, not mine.  Of course, I reserve the right to put a bullet into your forehead the very nano-second your drug addiction drives you to enter my house in the middle of the night to steal my PC.

If I were to compromise with the socially conservative fascists on current U.S. drug policy, I would advocate the Dutch model.  No one has ever overdosed on marijuana, ever.  The "gateway drug" argument is pure psychobabble.  Even official government statements seem to be very lukewarm for this argument, so we're not protecting children from using crack because they might steal and smoke their uncle's stash of pot.  In addition, the wacky Dutch model hasn't seemed to impair Norwegian economic institutions or standard of living.

There are religious reasons for not smoking pot.  Many religions believe that the body is the temple of the soul.  I fully support you practicing your religious beliefs, in private.  I don't support you forcing your Christian or Islamic fundamentalism upon society-at-large where marijuana possession leads to lengthy sentences, life imprisonment and death penalties.

If I were dying of cancer or aids, I don't think God would look upon me as a sinner for smoking marijuana instead of using FDA-approved chemical synthetics that profit the multi-billion-dollar pharmaceutical industry.  That is what this issue seems to be about -- money.  If the powerful pharmaceutical industry doesn't profit from it and the government can't control and tax a frackin' weed grown in a person's backyard, they will be against it.

To me, the medical marijuana debate is a no-brainer.

[Headphones] :: Living with War - Neil Young drugs, marijuana, drugwar politics, books, family & home cocaine, heroin, marijuana, mdma

The big news of the day about the National Security Agency (NSA) datamining hundreds of millions of phone records with the direct cooperation of U.S. telecommunications corporations seem to push this issue far enough in the public's face that president George W. Bush actually took the time to read a brief statement before hopping on air force one for a post-Katrina photo junket.  The prepared statement was undoubtedly crafted for the benefit of cable and nightly news soundbytes to give the Bushworld side of this.

Media

I can appreciate the value of getting the NSA story out to the public in venues with larger audiences, like USA Today and Good Morning America.  Many Americans don't go online, and don't read news only two minutes old, and don't read news alerts in their email, and they certainly don't read any of a million blogs with endless opinion and commentary.  Many Americans need to be reminded to sign up for Medicare part D by the May 15th deadline with TV and print newspaper stories and advertisements.

To be honest, I think it's great that the non-digital demographic is starting to pay attention to this issue.  Oftentimes, the younger crowd is either too self-absorbed or apathetic to some issues about the nature of our country.  Older people, with a sense of history, often take a great interest in it.

Other than some policy wonks in cyber rights, law, constitutional issues, or politics -- and conspiracy theorists -- most of the general public had no interest in this issue.  Many people simply channel surf among evening TV news outlets while trying to relax and have dinner.  Apparently, "keep me safe" and "keep gas affordable" are the top Pavlovian soundbytes expected while dining.

Politics

In politics, this story is news not only for reaching a wider audience, but also because of the upcoming confirmation hearings for CIA director.  The Bush nominee, General Michael Hayden, will likely have to dodge questions concerning the scope and nature of the NSA programs.  Call it "warrantless wiretapping," "terrorist surveillance," or "impeachable high crimes."  It doesn't matter.  Label it in the languages of the libertarian, dittohead or moonbat, the Puzzle Palace datamining of phone records is just the tip of the data iceberg.

In December 2005, the story broke in the New York Times -- six months ago.  The Democrusader immediately responded by trotting out Alberto Gonzales (DOJ) and General Hayden (DNI) for the dog and pony show.  You might have missed that.

Days later, Senate Judiciary committee member Joseph Biden had an Op-Ed in the Miami Herald on January 1st, "No President is Above Our Constitution."  Perhaps you were too hung over to read a newspaper that day.

The president is taking actions incompatible with the expressed will of Congress and the intent of the Constitution .... The president needs to stop this unconstitutional, and, I believe, illegal expansion of executive power. No president is limitless in his power.

Military

The term datamining, itself, came swimming up to the public focus around the time of the 911 Commission and the news about a military program called Able Danger.  It was talked about in Congress quite a bit by Representative Curt Weldon and in his book, Countdown to Terror.  Some history of the pre-911 datamining ops of the military by Able Danger can be found on the Early Warning Washington Post blog of William M. Arkin -- history, demise, and future impacts.

Outside of normal oversight, the DOD has been using the excuse of force protection to physically surveil U.S. persons for some time.  These programs are generally done in secret.  Since no politician is going to cut the defense budget, don't expect this activity to change anytime soon.

Commerce

People in business and marketing have also used datamining for some time.  Did you know that the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a class action lawsuit against one of the telecom giants, AT&T, over this NSA privacy issue?  Don't you also remember the fight between DOJ and Google over your surfing habits?

Most online Terms of Service and Privacy statements generally strike a mutual bargain between the use of the service and the privacy of your data.  When your personal data is commonly being sold or given away for doing evil, or stupid things, Google is the exception to the rule.  Just about every company quickly co-operates with any idea law enforcement or governmental security concerns put forth.  Terrorists and Sexual Predators are the popular bogeymen to use in order to ignore the U.S. Constitution and laws.

Honestly, I think the majority of people leading corporations fold immediately because they don't want any trouble from the government at all, especially after seeing the Enron example.  Only the minority actually have to wait to fold after subtle insuation of greater legal hassles by an alphabet of federal agency acronyms, like EPA, or IRS, or FTC, or SEC, or DOJ, or FBI.  Even more rare is the corporation that tells the government to fuck off and try again.

By February, this fun fact wasn't aired much in the local TV news, but it did get published in Government Security News magazine.  Here is an excerpt from Jacob Goodwin's article, "Wal-Mart defends itself with new intel unit," in which he interviews David Harrison of the Wal-Mart Analytical Research Center:

The company maintains personal data – names, addresses, social security numbers – on its 1.6 million current employees; millions of additional former employees; and 47 million members of its Sam's Club operations. It keeps records of anyone who has tried to use fraudulent checks or filed a claim against Wall-Mart; anyone who uses a Wal-Mart's pharmacy; as well as the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN), license plate number and home address of any motorist who has had his automobile's oil changed at a Wal-Mart, said Harrison.

Even more noteworthy, Wal-Mart keeps track of any customer who has a history of buying propane tanks at its stores or anyone making "bulk purchases" of prepaid handheld cell phones, which some law enforcement officials have tied in the past to terrorist or criminal activities. "If you try to buy more than three cell phones at one time, it will be tracked," said Harrison.

The vast majority of the data being collected by Wal-Mart is not currently being used for any investigation purposes, said Harrison, but the company would be willing to cooperate with law enforcement officials, if necessary, to fight terrorism, or to defend itself against criminal activity.

Let's not debate the wrong thing.  Security and Civil Liberties are not mutally exclusve of each other, no matter what entity wishes to erode your constitutional rights for whatever reason.  Don't let the NSA, Walmart, or Bushworld make excuses to do it to you.

Believe or not, the erosion of civil liberties under Bush has become so bad that the idea of a rebel alliance between the far left and the far right is gaining popularity.  The unchecked reality of an all-powerful American Emperor/Dictator/CEO president isn't what most Americans want.

[Headphones] :: Living with War - Neil Young NSA, bush, datamining  politics, books, family & home bush, whitehouse, spies

Pretend the year is 2106, one hundred years in the future.  What does your world look like?  I've thought about this scenario a number of times.  Admittedly, some of my ideas about the future are pure imagination, but my imagination is also guided by the extrapolation of current events.  Only seventy years passed from the Wright Brothers first flight at Kitty Hawk to U.S. astronauts landing on the moon.

So what could 2106 be like?

Oil producing nations in the Middle East turn to tourism of the ancient world as their primary national industries. The United States, European Union, and the mega city centers in China and India have banned the use of petroleum-based fuels for personal transportation, citing political, economic and environmental reasons.

Saudi Arabia leads the way in tourism when it purchases over a thousand passenger jets from China and offers free flights for all Muslim pilgrims.  Not to be outdone, Israel follows suit.  Religious tourism booms in Jerusalem as the number of free flights from New York, Moscow and Sao Paulo increase.

Baghdad, Tehran, and Cairo form an Antiquities Tourism Cartel and promote it heavily in the wealthy Asian markets.  The new cool thing among the jet setters in Hong Kong and Tokyo is to have a sarcophagus in their home made by artisans from Giza.

I honestly believe that the future market for oil will reach an epiphanous point and be phased out for wasteful use, like personal transportation.  Alternative methods, like telecommuting, as well as alternative fuels, will become common place.  Petroleum will still be a useful resource, just as steel is, but it won't be the axis point around which much of the world is currently revolving. We all need plastic and some of you ugly chicks need cosmetics.

My extrapolation of the future is based upon one question I posed to myself.  Why would anyone go to many of the countries in the Middle East if there was no need for their oil?  Without oil, many of these places would only have infertile desert sand to export to the rest of the planet.

At the same time, many wonderful cities in the Middle East could be great tourist destinations, once the governments can create societies where terrorism isn't such a deterring factor to visiting them.  The future of declining oil revenues in Iraq, Iran, and Saudia Arabia may come faster than 100 years in the future.  It could happen as quickly as 5-10 years once currently large markets, like the United States, decide to switch to biofuels.

Until then, the spice must flow.

[Headphones] :: Living with War - Neil Young iraq, iran, israel politics, travel, religion & beliefs egypt, iran, iraq, israel, saudi arabia

 

White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan gave his final press briefing on Friday, making good on his April 19th announcement to resign amid the Bushworld personnel shake ups.  Serving George Bush for many years and since 2003 as the Democrusader's press secretary, McClellan no longer has to act as official Bush Administration spin doctor.  He passes that honor to Tony Snow, who starts his job on Monday.

Not to speak ill of the dead and gone, but Scott McClellan should really take this opportunity in between jobs by following the example of Rhode Island Representative Patrick J. Kennedy -- admit he has a problem and seek some rehab.  I'm not suggesting that McClellan is a pill junkie (or maybe I am).  Maybe McClellan is actually like Tom Cruise, not on drugs, but clearly another person in need of anti-delusional pharmaceuticals.

Something is going on.  What else could explain these statements from his very last press briefing?

• Bush's dismal job approval polls? -- "Let's keep in mind that these are snapshots in time."
• War on terror? -- "We are making the world a safer place."
• The public's war anxiety? -- " ... this country is on a solid track under this President because of his leadership."
• Lying about Iraq? -- "I think you ought to step back and review history a little bit, not try to rewrite history."
• Rumsfeld a war criminal? -- "Those are your words. I'm saying that people can express themselves."
• Federal deficit is $8 trillion? -- "We have a solid record of making sure that our priorities are met while holding the line on spending elsewhere."
• Paying at the gas pump? -- "The President is moving forward on making sure that there's no price-gouging."
• Iraq war just for their oil? -- "I think you'll see the oil (production) continue to come back up as we move forward on our plan for victory there."
• Osama bin Laden? -- "And that's why we are continuing to take the fight to the enemy abroad, so that we're not fighting them here at home."
• The next war of choice? -- "And this President knows that the most difficult decision a President has to make is to send our men and women in uniform into combat."
• Have you had your head up Bush's ass for almost 3 years? -- "I cannot thank the President enough for the privilege of being a part of his team."

Now, if you are shaking your head in disbelief after reading these statements, just know I could write up a dozen RANT entries on each of these bullet points.  All this, from the transcript of only one press briefing Scott McClellan gave, albeit his last one.  It might not rile me up so much as it does, but reporters in American media actually have misguided empathy for Scott McClellan -- and they mostly feel sorry for him -- thinking, "Poor bastard, he had to lie for George W. Bush ... better him than me."

While that feeling may be justified and understandable among peers, it doesn't serve me, or you.  It certainly weakens the ability of the press to find out anything close to the truth, instead of parroting the Orwellian Bushword speak in our country's newspapers and on our airwaves.  With McClellan passing his microphone to Tony Snow, one can only look forward to the future White House press briefings as one might an old episode of frackin' Monty Python.

Check the headphones link below to listen to all the songs on Neil Young's latest CD entitled "Living with War."  Track #7 sounds like a song that Akira3009 or I have made in the past.  Totally appropriate tuneage.

[Headphones] :: Living with War - Neil Young politics, bush, iraq  politics, books, family & home bush, whitehouse, iraq

The internet is once again under seige by misguided federal legislators in the United States.  House and Senate members are currently hammering out a huge Telecom reform bill which could, among other things, enable telecom providers to gut a basic principle of the free and open internet, net neutrality.  While decrying governments like in China and Iran censoring content and access, lawmakers will be allowing big corporations do essentially the same thing to Americans.

According to InternetNews, Amazon VP Paul Misener testified before a congressional hearing in March at which he called the lack of a net neutrality clause in the proposed legislation "a clear and present danger" to internet content choice.

"The phone and cable companies are going to fundamentally alter the Internet in America unless Congress acts to stop them," Misener testified. "They have the market power, technical means and regulatory permission to control American consumers' access to broadband Internet content, and they've announced their plans to do so."

Massachusetts Senator Markey explained it this way:

"We know from public statements from several industry executives that the owners of the broadband wires into our homes would like to start charging fees to Internet content providers," Markey said. "In other words, they want to artificially constrain the supply of Internet-based content and services to high-bandwidth consumers." Markey added, "This represents nothing more than the imposition of a broadband bottleneck tax on electronic commerce."

If the concept of net neutrality is still a little confusing to you, let me explain it with an example.  Basically, large telecommunications corporations like AT&T and Verizon would be able to start an internet content service, like Blogdrive.  Lets call the theoretical company, VerizonSpace.

Then, because you use Verizon broadband for your ISP, they could limit bandwidth to their VerizonSpace competitors, like Blogdrive, unless Blogdrive paid Verizon a fee.  Verizon could effectively kill internet connectivity to your Blogdrive blog, or any other web site they felt like blocking or limiting.

This is a real threat to free speech and open access on the internet as we now know it.  Check out the Save the Internet coalition web site now and join the fight for internet freedom.

[Headphones] :: Indie Pop Rocks [lo-fi] - SomaFM net neutrality, blogdrive, censorship  internet, business, web design networks, blogs, censorship

 

"I was a schoolgirl back in 1986 and as soon as radiation level began to rise in Kiev, dad put all of us on the train to grandma's house. Granny lives 800 kms from here and dad wasn't sure if it was far enough away to keep us out of reach of the big bad wolf of a nuclear meltdown."

-- Elena Filatova, aka Kid of Speed / Gamma Girl

As for myself, I was a young man living in Karlsruhe, Germany at the time of the Chernobyl disaster.  Even though I lived as far away from Chernobyl as Elena's granny, many of my friends and I were nonetheless extremely cautious about buying things like fresh produce or imported canned food because the contamination zone of radioactive fallout spread over a vast area of agriculture.

April 26th, 2006 marks the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.  Many people in the United States mark September 11th as an infamous day their world changed in significant and fundamental ways.  April 26th has been a dark day for millions and millions of people in the Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia that marks the world's worst nuclear disaster.

Chernobyl leaves the world the legacy of a million personal tragedies.  At the time, though, many people in the west heard little about it.  Unlike the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the subsequent collapse of the World Trade Center buildings that was broadcast live on television, news from the former Soviet Union only trickled out.  Rumors of the true magnitude of the disaster were rampant as radioactive winds blew over the iron curtain.  It would be several years until the Berlin Wall came down.

If you are too young to know about Chernobyl or so old that you have forgotten that the Chernobyl nuclear disaster released more than 100 times the nuclear fallout than Hiroshima and Nagasaki on this day twenty years ago, take five minutes and watch this short flash presentation, "The Long Shadow of Chernobyl," from this month's National Geographic magazine online.

With over 400 nuclear power plants in the world, taking five minutes to learn from history may be worth your attention.  Currently, there are 104 U.S. nuclear reactors in 31 states.  According to Nuclear Engineering International, "nuclear power was a big winner," when Bush signed the $14.5B Energy Policy Act of 2005 as it paved the way for additional plants to be built.

If you have more than five minutes, take the time to visit the Ghost Town photo journalism site of Elena Filatova (aka Kid of Speed).  And honestly, if you are currently making a comfortable living, consider donating a few bucks to buy gas for her motorcycle and some batteries for her camera.

Chernobyl has been characterized by some as a "tragedy in slow motion."  One of the reasons for this characterization is that we are now witnessing the children of Chernobyl.  Women of child-bearing age, 20 years hence, are now giving birth to infants with genetic health problems and thousands of children have cancer specific to Chernobyl fallout in Belarus.

Radioactive nuclear fallout is not stopped by geo-political border definitions.  It is simply the Reaper riding the wind.  Take a deep breath.

[Full Screen] :: Chernobyl Disaster Video - BBC World News chernobyl, nukes, cancer  illnesses, agriculture, motorcycles nuclear, chernobyl, cancer