We will continue to discuss the SMOKEY MOUNTAIN designation as UNESCO and the recent withdrawal from that designation a few years ago. We see a PATTERN----when UNESCO sites are WITHDRAWN-----the land becomes raped and pillaged by global banking 1% OLD WORLD KINGS----MINING, ENERGY, OIL/GAS.
Just an example back on the US CANADIAN border---below we 'MAYORS' saying they want to protect the ENVIRONMENT of GREAT LAKES when in fact they are far-right wing global banking 1% NEO-LIBERALS. We will pick on this NIAGARA FALLS mayor to ask-------does the mayor focusing facial recognition and surveillance structures inside public schools really have NATURE in mind-----as almost all media and public justice structures say------these surveillance policies are not even protecting HUMANITY.
'Cities Initiative Chair, Mayor Paul Dyster of Niagara Falls, New York, said, “News of the potential U.S. withdrawal from UNESCO is unfortunate. As a binational coalition of mayors working between the US and Canada, eight states and two provinces, we recognize the significance of working within the global community to protect our natural resources and promote their sustainable management.”'
A UNESCO designation across GREAT LAKES would be that UNITED NATIONS border control at a time when GREAT LAKES is being drained of fresh water for global fracking ---global private water corporations.
'Opinion | Spying on Children Won’t Keep Them Safe - The New ...
www.nytimes.com/2019/06/07/opinion/lockport...
Jun 07, 2019 · The facial-recognition software is designed to detect weapons and the faces of people barred from Lockport schools, like sex offenders, suspended students and staff members, and others deemed to be...
Author: Jim Shultz
Face it: It’s creepy to put facial recognition technology in ...
www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-its-creepy...
Jun 24, 2019 · (Getty Images/iStock) Earlier this month, the school system in Lockport, N.Y. (pop.: 20,569), near Niagara Falls, became the first in the nation to begin testing facial recognition technology, much...'
Great Lakes Mayors Support UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve Designation
By Water Canada October 16, 2017
In June of 2017, the more than 130 member mayors of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative called on the U.S. and Canadian federal governments to work together to designate the Great Lakes, St. Lawrence River and Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve. The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River is a unique ecosystem of worldwide significance and if successful, this would be one of the largest UNESCO Biosphere Reserves on the planet. Biosphere reserves designate areas of global biodiversity and importance and emphasize the value of shared human and natural use of land.
Cities Initiative Chair, Mayor Paul Dyster of Niagara Falls, New York, said, “News of the potential U.S. withdrawal from UNESCO is unfortunate. As a binational coalition of mayors working between the US and Canada, eight states and two provinces, we recognize the significance of working within the global community to protect our natural resources and promote their sustainable management.”
(R-L) Mississauga Ward 1 Councillor Jim Tovey, Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie, and Paul Dyster the new Chair of the Cities Initiative and Mayor of Niagara Falls, New York, during the 2017 Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative Annual Meeting and Conference in Montreal.Mayor Bonnie Crombie of Mississauga, Ont., added, “The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River represent the largest concentration of freshwater on the planet. Their importance is greater than any one political administration or policy. Now, more than ever, we must push ahead with achieving the UNESCO designation to make sure that everyone, governments included, understand the importance of this biosphere to our survival as a people on both sides of the border.”
The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative is a coalition of 131 U.S. and Canadian cities and mayors representing over 17 million people committed to the long term protection and restoration of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence.
_______________________________
Yesterday we suggested that SMOKEY MOUNTAIN UNESCO was about to super-size an already active military research site------global research facility creating PATENTED PRODUCTS tied to ONE WORLD ONE TECHNOLOGY/ENERGY GRID.
What is the concern? This area is about to made into the NEXT SUPER-FUND TOXIC WASTE DUMP ------and should not be allowed in areas called AMERICAN NATURAL WONDERS.
'The group toured the heavily guarded Y-12 complex and the nearby Oak Ridge National Laboratory as Chattanoogans seek more ways to grow business ties with the federal facilities, which together receive some $4 billion in annual funding'.
We already know of nuclear waste dump toxicity ---the retooling of our nuclear arsenal is making these sites soar. What will go hand in hand is now the BIOMEDICAL/BIOWEAPON waste-----piled side by side to the nuclear waste.
'Y-12 also provides nuclear materials for the U.S. Navy and research reactors, and it disposes of materials and does packaging and storage'.
Look at each UNESCO site being taken OFF the list to know where WORLD BANK plans to devastate-----global banking 1% IT'S GREEN------because it makes LOTS OF MONEY.
U.S. Quietly Removes 17 Sites From UN Biosphere Reserve Network
Lorraine Chow
Jun. 15, 2017 10:17AM EST
The U.S. has quietly withdrawn 17 sites from the UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves program.
As first reported by National Geographic, the sites include a number of national forests, preserves and reserves from Alaska to the Virgin Islands (see list below). There were previously 47 biosphere reserves in the U.S.
The move was made during the International Coordinating Council of the Man and the Biosphere Programme meeting in Paris this week. Bulgaria also removed three sites.
"Prior to this year, a total of 18 sites had been removed from the program since 1997, by seven countries," National Geographic noted.
"It's not currently clear why the U.S. and Bulgaria asked to remove those sites: requests for comment have not yet been returned. In the past, sites were removed after countries were no longer able to meet the requirements of the program for protecting them."
According to the United Nations, biosphere reserves are nominated by national governments and remain under the sovereign jurisdiction of the states where they are located.
As detailed by the conservation nonprofit George Wright Society, the biosphere program was launched in the 1970s to establish internationally designated protected areas, help minimize the loss of biological diversity, raise awareness on how cultural diversity and biological diversity affect each other, and promote environmental sustainability.
But over the years, the program has been criticized by certain individuals and groups as—per this Infowars post—a United Nations "land grab" of American landmarks.
The George Wright Society writes:
"A large, almost bewildering variety of charges have been alleged about biosphere reserves. Many of these charges revolve around a basic fear and distrust of the United Nations. This category of objections includes such claims as the United Nations is poised to invade the United States, confiscate American land, impose some kind of 'new world order' on citizens here, and so forth. There is no truth whatsoever to these charges."
The U.S. removed the following sites from the biosphere reserve program:
________________________________________
Here are the OAK RIDGE MOUNTAIN BOYS-------telling us the next MANHATTAN project is happening and SMOKEY MOUNTAINS are going to be TOXIC SUPER-FUND CLEANUP designation in only a few decades. Get rid of that UNESCO designation.
JOBS JOBS JOBS------that's why it has to be in THEM THAR HILLS----also all that yellow cake uranium protected these few decades of UNESCO designation.
'The semi-autonomous NNSA is responsible for managing the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile, reducing global dangers posed by weapons of mass destruction and providing the Navy with safe reactors to power its ships and submarines'.
Now, we have NEVADA deserts full of buildings and infrastructure to handle storage and development of all these chemical weapons. Why devastate a pristine APPALACHIAN MOUNTAIN RANGE?
'2) the MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina; and'
The answer is this: it will make LIVING in that area so toxic---forcing people to relocate to be followed by global mining, fracking, and bringing mountains to RUBBLE to make coal extraction easier.
DON'T WORRY says FEINSTEIN -----we will not allow all the fraud, criminality, corruption and failed engineering that is happening in a similar site in South Carolina which we call GREEN.
Hmmm, LAMAR retiring just as this UNESCO designation disappears and toxic super-fund site about to bring hundreds of billions of dollars. LAMAR'S history tied to that global banking 1% OLD WORLD KINGS----
'First visited by Europeans in the early 1600’s the Inlet was named for Lt. John Rankin of the British Royal Navy'.......Lamar Alexander
So, when US 99% WE THE PEOPLE wonder why our US NATURAL WONDERS like SMOKEY MOUNTAINS are about to be made into TOXIC SUPER-FUND WASTE DUMPS----it is the OLD WORLD KINGS connection killing our US sovereignty.
'Lamar Alexander's starring role: Why a retiring Tennessee senator took the fall for Trump
Alexander may think he's following in the late Howard Baker's footsteps — but his sellout will live in infamy
Heather Digby Parton
February 3, 2020 2:20PM (UTC)'
These few decades of CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA working for global banking 1% OLD WORLD KINGS have taken our US public military and created a global private military complex not really worried about our US sovereign NATURAL WONDERS or our public health.
Hmmmmm, MERCENARY MEDICINE
'David Michaels:
Mercenary science means [when scientists] produce studies that aren't designed to better understand the world, or they help make the world a better place --
which is why most scientists are in the business of science – but to defend products and to defend corporations. And often to influence regulation or to slow the compensation of victims'.
This is why LAMAR ALEXANDER would defend a TRUMP while both work to end the USESCO designation for GREAT SMOKEY MOUNTAINS.
THIS IS BIOMEDICINE-----AS BIOWEAPON as well.
Remember, SALON as this MICHAELS working at a global banking 1% raging stock broker as medical public health is not POPULIST--------this is very FAKE NEWS as OBAMA era installed much of what this journalist now calls MERCENARY MEDICINE
'David Michaels | Milken Institute School of Public Health | GW
publichealth.gwu.edu/.../david-michaels-phd
From 2009 to January 2017, Dr. Michaels served as the United States Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health. Appointed by President Barack Obama and unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate, Dr. Michaels was the longest serving Assistant Secretary in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s history'.
Michael Milken
- Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Milken Michael Robert Milken (born July 4, 1946) is an American financier . He is noted for his role in the development of the market for high-yield bonds ("junk bonds"), and his conviction and sentence following a guilty plea on felony charges for violating U.S. securities laws.
The art of scientific deception: How corporations use "mercenary science" to evade regulation
David Michaels, former Assistant Secretary of Labor, explains how corporations whitewash harmful products and drugs
Keith A. Spencer
February 2, 2020 1:00PM (UTC)
One curious difference between humans and corporations is our capacity to harm others and emerge unscathed. If you or I were to poison someone on camera in broad daylight, we would be given a trial and sent to prison in a hurry. But if you or I were a corporation, we could hire consulting firms to produce research papers that claim that the poisoning didn't happen, and/or question the existence of the poison, or claim that said concoction actually does good rather than harm. If that failed, we could then gum up the legal and political system with lobbyists and lawyers for decades.
In public discourse about our supposed post-truth society, most op-eds fixate on the way that social media can create separate reality bubbles. Few focus on what David Michaels, Obama's Assistant Secretary of Labor for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), calls "mercenary science" — science-for-hire, contracted out by chemical and pharmaceutical companies to prove that their harmful products aren't harmful by giving them the quantitative imprimatur of STEM knowledge.
The idea that science and truth could diverge is profoundly troubling for our entire civilization.
While the vast majority of scientists, both employed publicly and privately, are honest and do their work as part of a larger quest for truth, there are a few notable exceptions. Specifically, a few mercenary science consulting firms have been very effective at helping corporations continue selling harmful chemicals and drugs long after they should have stopped.
Michaels, who has a new book on the topic titled "The Triumph of Doubt: Dark Money and the Science of Deception," has been studying this problem for years, in part by virtue of his 8-year tenure at OSHA. Now a public health professor at George Washington University, Michaels' book pulls back the curtain on the way that dark money and for-profit science is quite literally killing Americans.
YOU MEAN-----HOSTING SERVER BARBER SURGEONS?
I spoke with Michaels over the phone about the problem of corporate science and his insider's view; as usual, this interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
00:20/01:12
Salon: To start, what is "mercenary science"? How do you define this?
David Michaels: Mercenary science means [when scientists] produce studies that aren't designed to better understand the world, or they help make the world a better place — which is why most scientists are in the business of science – but to defend products and to defend corporations. And often to influence regulation or to slow the compensation of victims.
This is the Enron-ization of science. It's created a fiction in order to promote an actual game, fiction around science. And it is quite mercenary. In fact, this phrase is not one that I invented, but actually is used by these consulting companies whose business model is to provide some using reports and testimonies to corporations, so they can continue to market dangerous products or activities without being hindered by regulation or by compensating the people they've hurt.
What would you say is the most shocking, real-life example of something like this — of mercenary science becoming embedded in mainstream discourse?
I think the most famous [example] is in the tobacco industry… who didn't invent it, but who certainly gained the most from it — and in climate change. There's actually some overlap between some of the same mercenary scientists in both examples.
But as I write [in my book], this is now become standard operating procedure for virtually every industry, and in many cases, it's the same so-called scientists who are involved in doing it. Nowadays, the instinct of corporate leaders — CEOs and executives —when there's an allegation that their product could be causing harm is to say, "How can we show that it isn't causing harm?" Not, "how can we determine whether or not we cause harm," and then figure out what to do about it.
Other examples [include] opioids, and essentially how a few pharmaceutical companies misrepresented the studies to make it look like these opioids were not addictive. We have a death toll of tens of thousands a year as a result of that.
So do you think the people who are actually doing this kind of mercenary science, do they --
How they sleep at night?
Yes — and, how do they find these people?
My parents were scientists and I hung out around a lot of scientists, and in my experience pretty much all of them were driven by the quest for truth, not money.
I mean, go look back at the 1994 tobacco hearings with Henry Waxman. You had well-educated corporate executives put their right hands in the air, swear that they did not believe that nicotine was addictive. I opened [my book] with a quote from Upton Sinclair, "It's difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon him not understanding it."
It's very clear that your financial relationship with products, with corporations influences how you think about them. The example I like to give, and this is Vioxx. You may remember Vioxx — it was a pain killer, a prescription drug invented by scientists at Merck to be used for arthritis and other sorts of pain, especially for people who couldn't take aspirin. They, to test effectiveness they did a randomized clinical trial comparing it to Naprosyn, also known as Aleve. And they found it was effective, it was approved by the FDA, it went on the market, immediately became a very widely used, and successful and profitable drug.
Shortly after it came out, scientists independent of Merck looked at the results and found that the patients who were given Vioxx had more than twice the cardiovascular incident rate — including heart attacks — of the people who took comparable drugs like Naproxen (Aleve).
Instead of saying, "well, this is a significant problem," scientists who were associated with Merck — and these were academic scientists at major academic medical centers — looked at these data, and they said, "No, Vioxx doesn't increase risk of heart attack and stroke. It prevents it."
And it's true, you could look at it that way, but we don't have a drug that prevents 60% percent of heart attacks — if we did, we'd put it in the water supply. We quickly learned the truth though, because at the same time, Merck started a randomized clinical trial to see if Vioxx prevented colon polyps, and we have no prevention for colon polyps — so [they did] a randomized, double-blind placebo trial, and that trial had to be stopped early because Vioxx was killing people. It more than doubled the risk of cardiovascular events.
In the few short years since Vioxx was on the market, FDA scientists estimated it cost somewhere between 88,000 and 120,000 heart attacks.
Here were very well-known cardiologists who were blinded for the truth by their financial relationship with Merck. And they were scientists who were not even in the business of product defense. So I think what happens is if your business model, if your financial relationships can influence how you look at science, it does.
What that tells me is we desperately need good science, and we desperately need accurate interpretation of scientific results, but they have to be done independently of the corporations that make these products or we won't have honest results.
That leads to my next question for you. Are there good policy solutions for ending this type of situation?
Well, first of all, I think it's worth saying [that] President Trump has done us a favor by his conscious destruction of our system of public health protection.
THIS IS THE FAKE NEWS INSIDE AN ARTICLE HAVING REAL INFORMATION---THIS JOURNALIST BEING A RAGING GLOBAL BANKING 1% NEO-LIBERAL IS SUGGESTING TRUMP IS DISMANTLING ALL PUBLIC HEALTH PROTECTION WHEN THESE FEW DECADES OF CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA-----THOSE PEOPLE THIS JOURNALIST WORKS FOR-----DID JUST THAT---KILLED OUR STRONG PUBLIC HEALTH INFRASTRUCTURE.
We will have to rebuild it when the next administration comes, and given that, I think we can look at some of the problems that are justified — which all predate President Trump — and think about how we can do a better job.
So one example is the first thing clearly is we need a new head of science, and we need to have [rules] that the research on, say, opioids can't be done by opioid manufacturers. E-cigarettes too — Juul, which is one-third owned by Altria, shouldn't be overseeing the research on the health effects of e-cigarettes.
Still, we need to know what are the long-term health effects of essentially volatilizing nicotine and a number of different flavors — and perhaps some metal — and putting it deep into your lungs, and then exhaling it. Juul and the other e-cigarette companies should be paying for that research, but it has to be independent of them.
And so, the first thing is we need independent science paid for by the producers.
The other thing, though, is we have to change the presumption of regulation. Right now, for toxic chemicals, our regulatory system is based on the idea that we have to show harm before we protect people.
So what you have to do is you've got to regulate on the best available evidence, but not wait until you definitively know that the product is harmful.
There's a lot of discussion now about what are called sometimes "forever" chemicals. The chemicals that are used — the chlorinate chemicals that are used in Teflon, and of lining of fast-food containers [PFAs]. There are 4500 of chemicals in this class so far, I'm sure more will be invented. We have reasonably good human data on the health effects. We have reasonably good data on the health effects amongst in humans for two of those chemicals, and they are very powerful chemicals in terms of causing damage to people's health.
Now, the Trump administration is moving very slowly, if at all, to regulate those two chemicals, but the way we ought to be addressing it is to regulate the class of chemicals in all 4500 of them, because until we know that any of them are safe, we should presume that they're dangerous. And this relates to what we call the way that industry has successfully framed the debate around chemicals, and given them the presumption of innocence that we give human beings in the criminal justice system. We presume people are innocent until proven guilty, but chemicals harm people and they don't deserve that presumption of innocence. If there's reasonable evidence that they could be dangerous, until we show that they're safe, we should treat them as dangerous. Chemicals are not worth more than people are.
How do other countries regulate these chemicals? I assume in the EU they have better regulation, right?
Well, Europe actually through it's the REACH Program, [which stands for] Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals. It is not perfect, but the basic principle there is [that] producers of these chemicals are required to provide information to the European regulator sbefore they're allowed to sell these chemicals.
Europe also takes [the] studies on pesticides much more seriously, and they don't allow a lot of pesticides that we use here to be sold [. . . . ] Certainly some of the chemicals that are banned in Europe, they're very toxic to humans. We should just ban them here, there's no reason to be using [these.
Regarding the mercenary scientists, as you call them, I'm curious if it's possible to quantify exactly how many scientists are in this class. Is it possible to do so, or is there any data about how many scientists have been, I suppose, influenced or become mercenary in this way? Is this a large portion or a tiny portion of scientists?
You know, it's a relatively small number.
OH, REALLY?????? A SMALL NUMBER MR. MICHAELS OF GLOBAL BANKING 1% SALON MAGAZINE.
There are a few consulting firms that do this, and they obviously are very lucrative operations. When big chemical companies need to defend their products, they usually don't go to their own scientists who are — in general —I find to be very good, honest scientists with real integrity. But they want someone to write a report that will say exactly what they want, and they want someone to go on to defend them. So they use one of these product defense consultants.
And there are a few dozen of them at these companies or …. maybe perhaps a few hundred. It's a tiny portion of scientists. But it's a very lucrative operation.
One thing though, I found very interesting though, is when I went onto Glassdoor — which is the website that collects information about salaries and working conditions for employers — I looked up the comments by the staff who work at some of these product defense firms, and their descriptions of their employer were very telling.
Really?
For example, one employee of a firm called, Cardno ChemRisk, wrote in his comments about working there: "This is a law consulting company, not a science consultant company.
Don't expect to be a quote-unquote, scientist.
Wow.
____________________________________________
As SMOKEY MOUNTAINS as UNESCO ends and ramps up super-duper expansion of global private military research we see a LAYOFF of hundreds of people----new leadership from overseas --------and wonder------are those people laid off moving from being 'US' and now are 'THEM'?
What happened to our US PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES ------not only corporate----but militarized ---and super-duper global private military affiliations.........it's all SECRET SOCIETY.
'Thomas Zacharia (born 1957 in Kerala, India) is an Indian-born American computer scientist. He received his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from National Institute of Technology, Karnataka in 1980 and a master's degree in Materials Science from the University of Mississippi in 1984. He obtained his doctoral degree from Clarkson University in 1987.
He has contributed to research in computational materials science, particularly on Marangoni Effect in solidification processes.[1] He previously served as the executive vice president and chief port officer captain at Qatar Science and Technology Park[2] at Qatar Foundation.[3]
Zacharia was previously deputy director for science and technology at Oak Ridge National Laboratory[4] and a professor at the University of Tennessee[5].
On June 1, 2017, UT-Battelle named Zacharia as ORNL's new laboratory director. He succeeds Thom Mason.[6]'
UNESCO designation with goals of PROTECTING US NATIONAL NATURAL WONDERS as SMOKEY MOUNTAINS became enfolded into OAK RIDGE LAB. We just want to say this: REAL LEFT SOCIAL PROGRESSIVE LIBERAL I AM MAN/WOMAN do not want first generation immigrant bias----but when we look UP and the VERY TOP of our US sovereign agencies and see more and more and more of these TOP EXECUTIVES seeming to arrive in US just in time for ROBBER BARON few decades of taking US to colonial status------we wonder -------how is all this in our US NATIONAL SOVEREIGN interests?
UNESCO is about BEAUTY--NATURE -----ECOLOGY --SAVING THE PLANTS AND ANIMALS----it's about preserving sovereign cultures------HMMMMM.
'Scientific CityOak Ridge National Laboratory is like a city, not only in the size of the campus but also in the way it runs'.
ORNL Director Thomas Zacharia reflects on first 7 months in his post
Brittany Crocker, Knoxville Published 5:00 a.m. ET Feb. 2, 2018 | Updated 11:43 a.m. ET Feb. 2, 2018
Oak Ridge National Laboratory Director Thomas Zacharia remembers being in a different position in 2001.
He pointed to the seat across from him in his office on a Friday afternoon and recalled a conversation with one of his predecessors, former ORNL Director Bill Madia.
More: How does Oak Ridge National Lab determine who gets laid off?
“I had this idea that this laboratory could be the best in the world in computing,” Zacharia said, recalling the day he — then the director of the Computer Science and Mathematics Division — sat across from Madia and pitched him the dream that would become the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing facility.
At that time, ORNL was putting just $7 million toward computing.
“And (Madia) said, 'We don’t even talk about having anything significant in computing unless we have about $40 million,' ” Zacharia recalled.
"I had the presence of mind to say 'Well, one way to guarantee that you're not going to have $40 million is not to do something in computing because if you don't try, you're never going to get there.' ”
Madia could have cut the meeting short, but instead, he heard Zacharia out and sent him off about a half-hour later with permission to build the facility that will soon hold the most powerful supercomputer in the world.
“He chose to bet on me,” Zacharia said. “There was nothing concrete that I could tell him other than my passion and my conviction that it could happen.”
The experience made its mark on Zacharia's leadership style. In just his first seven months, employees say they often see him walking the halls, talking to scientists and support staff about their projects and ideas.
“To me, that is the lab director’s job and that is the experience that I bring to this office,” Zacharia said. “You have to listen. We are a people-centered organization. Our product is our people. It is their intellect that drives this organization, and we have to foster and support that.”
Not without its challengesHis values have not made his first few months easy, however. He said he knew coming into his new position that it would be "the privilege of his life," but the decisions he must make are not always pleasant.
Just one month after he began his new position last year, Zacharia had to announce a voluntary reduction in force at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
The voluntary reduction awards a week of compensation for every year of service at ORNL, up to 25 years, if workers apply to leave the organization. It’s a perk that compels many retirement-age employees to wait for the next opportunity, instead of retiring immediately.
But workforce reductions are hardly ever good news for everyone. Applications to the reduction program fell short of the goal by about 100 people, and in January, Zacharia had to announce more positions would be terminated.
"These are friends and colleagues," Zacharia said. "Some of them I know personally, and so these are difficult decisions, but that's what I signed up to do. I do that in order to make sure that the staff have a bright future."
So, Zacharia directed the cuts, beginning with some of his own support staff.
"I feel like everything that we do and ask our staff and managers to do, I as a leader should also do to make sure that we are reducing. That means travel, that means being careful about where we spend every nickel, because now is the time to invest for the future."
On the horizon
While Oak Ridge National Laboratory will lose around 350 people by the end of the force reduction, the laboratory has hired 161 people, and several big projects are on the laboratory's horizon.
"This is an amazing laboratory with a bright future," Zacharia said. "As much as I thought I knew this laboratory, I have found that it is even deeper, more impactful and critical to the nation, and I take that responsibility even more seriously because I do know what I do makes a difference."
Zacharia said federal priorities serve as guideposts in that decision-making.
Right now, ORNL is installing the Summit supercomputer, the country's next step between our current computing capabilities and a national goal to create the world's first exascale computer by 2021.
Oak Ridge will be the home of that machine, too.
The Spallation Neutron Source will soon get a proton power upgrade and a new target station, which will allow scientists to make advances in the design of new cancer drugs and in materials sciences like 3D printing.
More: Spallation Neutron Source expansion timeline picking up
The Department of Energy also has approved funds for ORNL to accelerate research in quantum materials, grid-cybersecurity, and the opening of a new bioenergy research facility that will study ways to use plant-based products for fuel and other products.
_____________________________________
Looking at this list of functions and operational goals many tied to ONE WORLD ONE GOVERNANCE ONE TECHNOLOGY/ENERGY GRID----and all that public surveillance as 5G SMART CITIES------we wonder how this long-time SECRET AGENCY ----might lose its goal of ALL-AMERICAN well-being.
We love PHYSICS but much of these global BIOSPHERE partnerships started with the cooperating global PHYSICS industry. What is good for global PHYSICS ------we say lots of BLIND AMBITION happening ----those being among the TRANSHUMANISTS.
This area of TENNESSEE/KENTUCKY/NORTH CAROLINA is expanding to meet the military infrastructure supporting global oil/gas processing and shipping off of SOUTH CAROLINA-----
ONE GREAT BIG GLOBAL FOREIGN ECONOMIC ZONE------HAVING NOTHING TO DO WITH BEING US SOVEREIGN ECONOMY.
So, how many US 99.9% WE THE PEOPLE are going to meet the goals of being the BEST OF THE BEST IN THE WORLD----in order to be called 'US' and not 'THEM'?
OrganizationOak Ridge National Laboratory Mission Organizations
Mission Support Organizations
______________________________________________
70% BUILT then closed------what will become of this will be OFFSHORE DRILLING OIL AND GAS facility we are pretty sure.
SC under GOV HALEY was the earliest East Coast state to embrace OFF-SHORE DRILLING. So, this MOX FACILITY funded for ONE OBJECTIVE will now be repurposed for just what the 99% of WE THE SOUTH CAROLINA citizens are FIGHTING today.
This is FAKE POPULISM------IN 2020 -----
'SC’s plan to stop offshore oil drilling builds steam | The State
www.thestate.com/news/local/environment/article...
Jan 15, 2020 · Offshore drilling is a hot topic in South Carolina, particularly among coastal communities. Virtually every local government on the coast has come out against drilling because of concerns that oil...'
PERRY ends this MOX status of being tied to nuclear processing because the facility was always meant to be a TEXAS OFF-SHORE OIL AND FRACKING facility . PERRY not environmental---simply working for global 1% ENERGY CORPORATIONS.
"I can confirm that the Department is committed to removing plutonium from South Carolina intended to be disposed of in the MOX facility," Perry said. "We are currently processing plutonium in South Carolina for shipment to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) and intend to continue to do so."
This article shows the SOUTH CAROLINA state assembly PRETENDING to be fighting for those citizens of SC and their love of CAROLINA BEACHES.
Senate panel OKs effort to ban oil drilling, prevent tests that could hurt dolphinsBy Sammy Fretwell
January 15, 2020 11:10 AM
Five companies have won permission to conduct seismic testing off the East Coast, a big step toward offshore drilling. Al Seib TNSA plan to stop offshore drilling along the South Carolina coast sailed through a Senate subcommittee Wednesday as momentum builds to halt what many consider a threat to the environment and tourism.
The agriculture committee panel voted 4-1 for a bill preventing state regulators and local governments from issuing permits the oil industry needs to build pipes, refineries or other facilities to support offshore drilling, as well as giving any approval that allows for oil and natural gas exploration.
The Legislature OK’d a temporary measure last year aimed at preventing drilling, but the new bill makes the ban on infrastructure permanent. The House has a similar bill that did not pass last year.
The bill technically can’t stop the federal government from allowing drilling three miles or more off the coast, but it is intended to make that impractical because the oil or natural gas could not be piped from offshore to South Carolina. If drilling did occur, the bill would prevent industrialization of the coast line, supporters of the legislation say.
Sen. Chip Campsen, R-Charleston, said the country has plenty of oil and doesn’t need to pull more from the South Atlantic coast.
““If we really had an oil crisis and crunch, it would be a different story,’’ Campsen said. “But we are awash with oil.’’
Isle of Palms Mayor Jimmy Carroll said coastal protection is more important than allowing drilling.
“Listen to your constituents and not big oil,’’ Carroll told senators.
Offshore drilling is a hot topic in South Carolina, particularly among coastal communities. Virtually every local government on the coast has come out against drilling because of concerns that oil spills could hurt tourism and seismic testing, the method used to find oil and natural gas, could harm marine life, such as dolphins and fish.
Republican Gov. Henry McMaster, a major supporter of President Donald Trump, has opposed drilling, saying in a budget message this week that his office “is profoundly concerned’’ about building refineries, storage tanks and other facilities that aren’t “economically compatible with existing coastal residential and resort development, protected sea islands, estuaries and tidal marsh refuges.’’
The president wants to allow offshore drilling in an effort to increase oil production, seen as a way to make the U.S. more energy independent. But critics say drilling isn’t necessary because oil supplies are more than adequate. They say drilling would create too much risk for communities along the Atlantic coast. The state’s $20 billion tourism economy, anchored by national resorts like Myrtle Beach and Hilton Head Island, would be in jeopardy, critics say.
Most at Wednesday’s agriculture committee hearing supported banning infrastructure to aid offshore drilling, but a representative of the American Petroleum Institute urged lawmakers not to take drilling off the table. The nation will need oil and gas in the future, even though it is abundant now, the API’s Mark Harmon said.
Sen. Dwight Loftis, R-Greenville, voted against the bill. Loftis said he doesn’t want to tie the state’s hands to “never, never’’ allowing drilling.
“I know I’ll get painted as a bad guy, but I think we need to keep an open mind,’’ Loftis said.
But Sen. Stephen Goldfinch, R-Georgetown, said he’s skeptical the state has enough space on the coast to allow construction of infrastructure to support drilling. Much of the state’s coast is developed or protected in nature preserves.
Harmon said drilling infrastructure could be built near existing port facilities and at a new port proposed for Jasper County.
The Senate bill now goes to the full agriculture committee, perhaps as early as next week. The House anti-drilling bill also could come up in the lower chamber next week, said Ann Timberlake, a lobbyist for the conservation group Oceana.
“It is great that it’s moving early in the (legislative) session,’’ she said. “We really appreciate the agriculture committee’s leadership.’’
The federal government temporarily put drilling on hold in 2019 as a result of a court decision about oil development in Alaska that the Trump administration saw as unfavorable. But the administration still favors drilling and is moving to allow it. In the meantime, the federal government has signaled that it will allow a handful of companies to move ahead with exploration.
Looking for oil involves the use of loud blasts that can ripple for miles under the ocean. Sea life, including dolphins and fish, can be harmed when that occurs because the noise is so loud.
Unlike the Gulf coast, offshore drilling would be a first for the South Atlantic coast. It is still unknown if significant oil deposits lie beneath the ocean floor, which is why oil drilling supporters favor seismic testing.
Trump’s support for drilling is in opposition to the position taken by former President Barack Obama, whose administration abandoned efforts to allow it off the South Atlantic coast.
Just an example back on the US CANADIAN border---below we 'MAYORS' saying they want to protect the ENVIRONMENT of GREAT LAKES when in fact they are far-right wing global banking 1% NEO-LIBERALS. We will pick on this NIAGARA FALLS mayor to ask-------does the mayor focusing facial recognition and surveillance structures inside public schools really have NATURE in mind-----as almost all media and public justice structures say------these surveillance policies are not even protecting HUMANITY.
'Cities Initiative Chair, Mayor Paul Dyster of Niagara Falls, New York, said, “News of the potential U.S. withdrawal from UNESCO is unfortunate. As a binational coalition of mayors working between the US and Canada, eight states and two provinces, we recognize the significance of working within the global community to protect our natural resources and promote their sustainable management.”'
A UNESCO designation across GREAT LAKES would be that UNITED NATIONS border control at a time when GREAT LAKES is being drained of fresh water for global fracking ---global private water corporations.
'Opinion | Spying on Children Won’t Keep Them Safe - The New ...
www.nytimes.com/2019/06/07/opinion/lockport...
Jun 07, 2019 · The facial-recognition software is designed to detect weapons and the faces of people barred from Lockport schools, like sex offenders, suspended students and staff members, and others deemed to be...
Author: Jim Shultz
Face it: It’s creepy to put facial recognition technology in ...
www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-its-creepy...
Jun 24, 2019 · (Getty Images/iStock) Earlier this month, the school system in Lockport, N.Y. (pop.: 20,569), near Niagara Falls, became the first in the nation to begin testing facial recognition technology, much...'
Great Lakes Mayors Support UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve Designation
By Water Canada October 16, 2017
In June of 2017, the more than 130 member mayors of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative called on the U.S. and Canadian federal governments to work together to designate the Great Lakes, St. Lawrence River and Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve. The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River is a unique ecosystem of worldwide significance and if successful, this would be one of the largest UNESCO Biosphere Reserves on the planet. Biosphere reserves designate areas of global biodiversity and importance and emphasize the value of shared human and natural use of land.
Cities Initiative Chair, Mayor Paul Dyster of Niagara Falls, New York, said, “News of the potential U.S. withdrawal from UNESCO is unfortunate. As a binational coalition of mayors working between the US and Canada, eight states and two provinces, we recognize the significance of working within the global community to protect our natural resources and promote their sustainable management.”
(R-L) Mississauga Ward 1 Councillor Jim Tovey, Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie, and Paul Dyster the new Chair of the Cities Initiative and Mayor of Niagara Falls, New York, during the 2017 Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative Annual Meeting and Conference in Montreal.Mayor Bonnie Crombie of Mississauga, Ont., added, “The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River represent the largest concentration of freshwater on the planet. Their importance is greater than any one political administration or policy. Now, more than ever, we must push ahead with achieving the UNESCO designation to make sure that everyone, governments included, understand the importance of this biosphere to our survival as a people on both sides of the border.”
The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative is a coalition of 131 U.S. and Canadian cities and mayors representing over 17 million people committed to the long term protection and restoration of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence.
_______________________________
Yesterday we suggested that SMOKEY MOUNTAIN UNESCO was about to super-size an already active military research site------global research facility creating PATENTED PRODUCTS tied to ONE WORLD ONE TECHNOLOGY/ENERGY GRID.
What is the concern? This area is about to made into the NEXT SUPER-FUND TOXIC WASTE DUMP ------and should not be allowed in areas called AMERICAN NATURAL WONDERS.
'The group toured the heavily guarded Y-12 complex and the nearby Oak Ridge National Laboratory as Chattanoogans seek more ways to grow business ties with the federal facilities, which together receive some $4 billion in annual funding'.
We already know of nuclear waste dump toxicity ---the retooling of our nuclear arsenal is making these sites soar. What will go hand in hand is now the BIOMEDICAL/BIOWEAPON waste-----piled side by side to the nuclear waste.
'Y-12 also provides nuclear materials for the U.S. Navy and research reactors, and it disposes of materials and does packaging and storage'.
Look at each UNESCO site being taken OFF the list to know where WORLD BANK plans to devastate-----global banking 1% IT'S GREEN------because it makes LOTS OF MONEY.
U.S. Quietly Removes 17 Sites From UN Biosphere Reserve Network
Lorraine Chow
Jun. 15, 2017 10:17AM EST
The U.S. has quietly withdrawn 17 sites from the UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves program.
As first reported by National Geographic, the sites include a number of national forests, preserves and reserves from Alaska to the Virgin Islands (see list below). There were previously 47 biosphere reserves in the U.S.
The move was made during the International Coordinating Council of the Man and the Biosphere Programme meeting in Paris this week. Bulgaria also removed three sites.
"Prior to this year, a total of 18 sites had been removed from the program since 1997, by seven countries," National Geographic noted.
"It's not currently clear why the U.S. and Bulgaria asked to remove those sites: requests for comment have not yet been returned. In the past, sites were removed after countries were no longer able to meet the requirements of the program for protecting them."
According to the United Nations, biosphere reserves are nominated by national governments and remain under the sovereign jurisdiction of the states where they are located.
As detailed by the conservation nonprofit George Wright Society, the biosphere program was launched in the 1970s to establish internationally designated protected areas, help minimize the loss of biological diversity, raise awareness on how cultural diversity and biological diversity affect each other, and promote environmental sustainability.
But over the years, the program has been criticized by certain individuals and groups as—per this Infowars post—a United Nations "land grab" of American landmarks.
The George Wright Society writes:
"A large, almost bewildering variety of charges have been alleged about biosphere reserves. Many of these charges revolve around a basic fear and distrust of the United Nations. This category of objections includes such claims as the United Nations is poised to invade the United States, confiscate American land, impose some kind of 'new world order' on citizens here, and so forth. There is no truth whatsoever to these charges."
The U.S. removed the following sites from the biosphere reserve program:
- Aleutian Islands National Wildlife Refuge - US Fish & Wildlife Service
- Beaver Creek Experimental Watershed - US Forest Service
- California Coast Ranges - University of California Natural Reserve System
- Carolinian South-Atlantic - Non-Game and Heritage Trust (South Carolina)
- Central Plains Experimental Range - USDA Agricultural Research Service
- Coram Experimental Forest - US Forest Service
- Desert Experimental Range - US Forest Service
- Fraser Experimental Forest - US Forest Service
- H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest - US Forest Service / Oregon State University
- Hubbard Brook - US Forest Service
- Konza Prairie Research Natural Area - Kansas State University
- Land Between the Lakes - US Forest Service
- Niwot Ridge Mountain Research Station - University of Colorado
- Noatak National Preserve - National Park Service
- Stanislas-Tuolumne Experimental Forest - US Forest Service
- Three Sisters Wilderness - US Forest Service
- Virgin Islands - National Park Service
________________________________________
Here are the OAK RIDGE MOUNTAIN BOYS-------telling us the next MANHATTAN project is happening and SMOKEY MOUNTAINS are going to be TOXIC SUPER-FUND CLEANUP designation in only a few decades. Get rid of that UNESCO designation.
JOBS JOBS JOBS------that's why it has to be in THEM THAR HILLS----also all that yellow cake uranium protected these few decades of UNESCO designation.
'The semi-autonomous NNSA is responsible for managing the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile, reducing global dangers posed by weapons of mass destruction and providing the Navy with safe reactors to power its ships and submarines'.
Now, we have NEVADA deserts full of buildings and infrastructure to handle storage and development of all these chemical weapons. Why devastate a pristine APPALACHIAN MOUNTAIN RANGE?
'2) the MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina; and'
The answer is this: it will make LIVING in that area so toxic---forcing people to relocate to be followed by global mining, fracking, and bringing mountains to RUBBLE to make coal extraction easier.
DON'T WORRY says FEINSTEIN -----we will not allow all the fraud, criminality, corruption and failed engineering that is happening in a similar site in South Carolina which we call GREEN.
Hmmm, LAMAR retiring just as this UNESCO designation disappears and toxic super-fund site about to bring hundreds of billions of dollars. LAMAR'S history tied to that global banking 1% OLD WORLD KINGS----
'First visited by Europeans in the early 1600’s the Inlet was named for Lt. John Rankin of the British Royal Navy'.......Lamar Alexander
So, when US 99% WE THE PEOPLE wonder why our US NATURAL WONDERS like SMOKEY MOUNTAINS are about to be made into TOXIC SUPER-FUND WASTE DUMPS----it is the OLD WORLD KINGS connection killing our US sovereignty.
'Lamar Alexander's starring role: Why a retiring Tennessee senator took the fall for Trump
Alexander may think he's following in the late Howard Baker's footsteps — but his sellout will live in infamy
Heather Digby Parton
February 3, 2020 2:20PM (UTC)'
These few decades of CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA working for global banking 1% OLD WORLD KINGS have taken our US public military and created a global private military complex not really worried about our US sovereign NATURAL WONDERS or our public health.
Hmmmmm, MERCENARY MEDICINE
'David Michaels:
Mercenary science means [when scientists] produce studies that aren't designed to better understand the world, or they help make the world a better place --
which is why most scientists are in the business of science – but to defend products and to defend corporations. And often to influence regulation or to slow the compensation of victims'.
This is why LAMAR ALEXANDER would defend a TRUMP while both work to end the USESCO designation for GREAT SMOKEY MOUNTAINS.
THIS IS BIOMEDICINE-----AS BIOWEAPON as well.
Remember, SALON as this MICHAELS working at a global banking 1% raging stock broker as medical public health is not POPULIST--------this is very FAKE NEWS as OBAMA era installed much of what this journalist now calls MERCENARY MEDICINE
'David Michaels | Milken Institute School of Public Health | GW
publichealth.gwu.edu/.../david-michaels-phd
From 2009 to January 2017, Dr. Michaels served as the United States Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health. Appointed by President Barack Obama and unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate, Dr. Michaels was the longest serving Assistant Secretary in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s history'.
Michael Milken
- Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Milken Michael Robert Milken (born July 4, 1946) is an American financier . He is noted for his role in the development of the market for high-yield bonds ("junk bonds"), and his conviction and sentence following a guilty plea on felony charges for violating U.S. securities laws.
The art of scientific deception: How corporations use "mercenary science" to evade regulation
David Michaels, former Assistant Secretary of Labor, explains how corporations whitewash harmful products and drugs
Keith A. Spencer
February 2, 2020 1:00PM (UTC)
One curious difference between humans and corporations is our capacity to harm others and emerge unscathed. If you or I were to poison someone on camera in broad daylight, we would be given a trial and sent to prison in a hurry. But if you or I were a corporation, we could hire consulting firms to produce research papers that claim that the poisoning didn't happen, and/or question the existence of the poison, or claim that said concoction actually does good rather than harm. If that failed, we could then gum up the legal and political system with lobbyists and lawyers for decades.
In public discourse about our supposed post-truth society, most op-eds fixate on the way that social media can create separate reality bubbles. Few focus on what David Michaels, Obama's Assistant Secretary of Labor for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), calls "mercenary science" — science-for-hire, contracted out by chemical and pharmaceutical companies to prove that their harmful products aren't harmful by giving them the quantitative imprimatur of STEM knowledge.
The idea that science and truth could diverge is profoundly troubling for our entire civilization.
While the vast majority of scientists, both employed publicly and privately, are honest and do their work as part of a larger quest for truth, there are a few notable exceptions. Specifically, a few mercenary science consulting firms have been very effective at helping corporations continue selling harmful chemicals and drugs long after they should have stopped.
Michaels, who has a new book on the topic titled "The Triumph of Doubt: Dark Money and the Science of Deception," has been studying this problem for years, in part by virtue of his 8-year tenure at OSHA. Now a public health professor at George Washington University, Michaels' book pulls back the curtain on the way that dark money and for-profit science is quite literally killing Americans.
YOU MEAN-----HOSTING SERVER BARBER SURGEONS?
I spoke with Michaels over the phone about the problem of corporate science and his insider's view; as usual, this interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
00:20/01:12
Salon: To start, what is "mercenary science"? How do you define this?
David Michaels: Mercenary science means [when scientists] produce studies that aren't designed to better understand the world, or they help make the world a better place — which is why most scientists are in the business of science – but to defend products and to defend corporations. And often to influence regulation or to slow the compensation of victims.
This is the Enron-ization of science. It's created a fiction in order to promote an actual game, fiction around science. And it is quite mercenary. In fact, this phrase is not one that I invented, but actually is used by these consulting companies whose business model is to provide some using reports and testimonies to corporations, so they can continue to market dangerous products or activities without being hindered by regulation or by compensating the people they've hurt.
What would you say is the most shocking, real-life example of something like this — of mercenary science becoming embedded in mainstream discourse?
I think the most famous [example] is in the tobacco industry… who didn't invent it, but who certainly gained the most from it — and in climate change. There's actually some overlap between some of the same mercenary scientists in both examples.
But as I write [in my book], this is now become standard operating procedure for virtually every industry, and in many cases, it's the same so-called scientists who are involved in doing it. Nowadays, the instinct of corporate leaders — CEOs and executives —when there's an allegation that their product could be causing harm is to say, "How can we show that it isn't causing harm?" Not, "how can we determine whether or not we cause harm," and then figure out what to do about it.
Other examples [include] opioids, and essentially how a few pharmaceutical companies misrepresented the studies to make it look like these opioids were not addictive. We have a death toll of tens of thousands a year as a result of that.
So do you think the people who are actually doing this kind of mercenary science, do they --
How they sleep at night?
Yes — and, how do they find these people?
My parents were scientists and I hung out around a lot of scientists, and in my experience pretty much all of them were driven by the quest for truth, not money.
I mean, go look back at the 1994 tobacco hearings with Henry Waxman. You had well-educated corporate executives put their right hands in the air, swear that they did not believe that nicotine was addictive. I opened [my book] with a quote from Upton Sinclair, "It's difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon him not understanding it."
It's very clear that your financial relationship with products, with corporations influences how you think about them. The example I like to give, and this is Vioxx. You may remember Vioxx — it was a pain killer, a prescription drug invented by scientists at Merck to be used for arthritis and other sorts of pain, especially for people who couldn't take aspirin. They, to test effectiveness they did a randomized clinical trial comparing it to Naprosyn, also known as Aleve. And they found it was effective, it was approved by the FDA, it went on the market, immediately became a very widely used, and successful and profitable drug.
Shortly after it came out, scientists independent of Merck looked at the results and found that the patients who were given Vioxx had more than twice the cardiovascular incident rate — including heart attacks — of the people who took comparable drugs like Naproxen (Aleve).
Instead of saying, "well, this is a significant problem," scientists who were associated with Merck — and these were academic scientists at major academic medical centers — looked at these data, and they said, "No, Vioxx doesn't increase risk of heart attack and stroke. It prevents it."
And it's true, you could look at it that way, but we don't have a drug that prevents 60% percent of heart attacks — if we did, we'd put it in the water supply. We quickly learned the truth though, because at the same time, Merck started a randomized clinical trial to see if Vioxx prevented colon polyps, and we have no prevention for colon polyps — so [they did] a randomized, double-blind placebo trial, and that trial had to be stopped early because Vioxx was killing people. It more than doubled the risk of cardiovascular events.
In the few short years since Vioxx was on the market, FDA scientists estimated it cost somewhere between 88,000 and 120,000 heart attacks.
Here were very well-known cardiologists who were blinded for the truth by their financial relationship with Merck. And they were scientists who were not even in the business of product defense. So I think what happens is if your business model, if your financial relationships can influence how you look at science, it does.
What that tells me is we desperately need good science, and we desperately need accurate interpretation of scientific results, but they have to be done independently of the corporations that make these products or we won't have honest results.
That leads to my next question for you. Are there good policy solutions for ending this type of situation?
Well, first of all, I think it's worth saying [that] President Trump has done us a favor by his conscious destruction of our system of public health protection.
THIS IS THE FAKE NEWS INSIDE AN ARTICLE HAVING REAL INFORMATION---THIS JOURNALIST BEING A RAGING GLOBAL BANKING 1% NEO-LIBERAL IS SUGGESTING TRUMP IS DISMANTLING ALL PUBLIC HEALTH PROTECTION WHEN THESE FEW DECADES OF CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA-----THOSE PEOPLE THIS JOURNALIST WORKS FOR-----DID JUST THAT---KILLED OUR STRONG PUBLIC HEALTH INFRASTRUCTURE.
We will have to rebuild it when the next administration comes, and given that, I think we can look at some of the problems that are justified — which all predate President Trump — and think about how we can do a better job.
So one example is the first thing clearly is we need a new head of science, and we need to have [rules] that the research on, say, opioids can't be done by opioid manufacturers. E-cigarettes too — Juul, which is one-third owned by Altria, shouldn't be overseeing the research on the health effects of e-cigarettes.
Still, we need to know what are the long-term health effects of essentially volatilizing nicotine and a number of different flavors — and perhaps some metal — and putting it deep into your lungs, and then exhaling it. Juul and the other e-cigarette companies should be paying for that research, but it has to be independent of them.
And so, the first thing is we need independent science paid for by the producers.
The other thing, though, is we have to change the presumption of regulation. Right now, for toxic chemicals, our regulatory system is based on the idea that we have to show harm before we protect people.
So what you have to do is you've got to regulate on the best available evidence, but not wait until you definitively know that the product is harmful.
There's a lot of discussion now about what are called sometimes "forever" chemicals. The chemicals that are used — the chlorinate chemicals that are used in Teflon, and of lining of fast-food containers [PFAs]. There are 4500 of chemicals in this class so far, I'm sure more will be invented. We have reasonably good human data on the health effects. We have reasonably good data on the health effects amongst in humans for two of those chemicals, and they are very powerful chemicals in terms of causing damage to people's health.
Now, the Trump administration is moving very slowly, if at all, to regulate those two chemicals, but the way we ought to be addressing it is to regulate the class of chemicals in all 4500 of them, because until we know that any of them are safe, we should presume that they're dangerous. And this relates to what we call the way that industry has successfully framed the debate around chemicals, and given them the presumption of innocence that we give human beings in the criminal justice system. We presume people are innocent until proven guilty, but chemicals harm people and they don't deserve that presumption of innocence. If there's reasonable evidence that they could be dangerous, until we show that they're safe, we should treat them as dangerous. Chemicals are not worth more than people are.
How do other countries regulate these chemicals? I assume in the EU they have better regulation, right?
Well, Europe actually through it's the REACH Program, [which stands for] Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals. It is not perfect, but the basic principle there is [that] producers of these chemicals are required to provide information to the European regulator sbefore they're allowed to sell these chemicals.
Europe also takes [the] studies on pesticides much more seriously, and they don't allow a lot of pesticides that we use here to be sold [. . . . ] Certainly some of the chemicals that are banned in Europe, they're very toxic to humans. We should just ban them here, there's no reason to be using [these.
Regarding the mercenary scientists, as you call them, I'm curious if it's possible to quantify exactly how many scientists are in this class. Is it possible to do so, or is there any data about how many scientists have been, I suppose, influenced or become mercenary in this way? Is this a large portion or a tiny portion of scientists?
You know, it's a relatively small number.
OH, REALLY?????? A SMALL NUMBER MR. MICHAELS OF GLOBAL BANKING 1% SALON MAGAZINE.
There are a few consulting firms that do this, and they obviously are very lucrative operations. When big chemical companies need to defend their products, they usually don't go to their own scientists who are — in general —I find to be very good, honest scientists with real integrity. But they want someone to write a report that will say exactly what they want, and they want someone to go on to defend them. So they use one of these product defense consultants.
And there are a few dozen of them at these companies or …. maybe perhaps a few hundred. It's a tiny portion of scientists. But it's a very lucrative operation.
One thing though, I found very interesting though, is when I went onto Glassdoor — which is the website that collects information about salaries and working conditions for employers — I looked up the comments by the staff who work at some of these product defense firms, and their descriptions of their employer were very telling.
Really?
For example, one employee of a firm called, Cardno ChemRisk, wrote in his comments about working there: "This is a law consulting company, not a science consultant company.
Don't expect to be a quote-unquote, scientist.
Wow.
____________________________________________
As SMOKEY MOUNTAINS as UNESCO ends and ramps up super-duper expansion of global private military research we see a LAYOFF of hundreds of people----new leadership from overseas --------and wonder------are those people laid off moving from being 'US' and now are 'THEM'?
What happened to our US PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES ------not only corporate----but militarized ---and super-duper global private military affiliations.........it's all SECRET SOCIETY.
'Thomas Zacharia (born 1957 in Kerala, India) is an Indian-born American computer scientist. He received his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from National Institute of Technology, Karnataka in 1980 and a master's degree in Materials Science from the University of Mississippi in 1984. He obtained his doctoral degree from Clarkson University in 1987.
He has contributed to research in computational materials science, particularly on Marangoni Effect in solidification processes.[1] He previously served as the executive vice president and chief port officer captain at Qatar Science and Technology Park[2] at Qatar Foundation.[3]
Zacharia was previously deputy director for science and technology at Oak Ridge National Laboratory[4] and a professor at the University of Tennessee[5].
On June 1, 2017, UT-Battelle named Zacharia as ORNL's new laboratory director. He succeeds Thom Mason.[6]'
UNESCO designation with goals of PROTECTING US NATIONAL NATURAL WONDERS as SMOKEY MOUNTAINS became enfolded into OAK RIDGE LAB. We just want to say this: REAL LEFT SOCIAL PROGRESSIVE LIBERAL I AM MAN/WOMAN do not want first generation immigrant bias----but when we look UP and the VERY TOP of our US sovereign agencies and see more and more and more of these TOP EXECUTIVES seeming to arrive in US just in time for ROBBER BARON few decades of taking US to colonial status------we wonder -------how is all this in our US NATIONAL SOVEREIGN interests?
UNESCO is about BEAUTY--NATURE -----ECOLOGY --SAVING THE PLANTS AND ANIMALS----it's about preserving sovereign cultures------HMMMMM.
'Scientific CityOak Ridge National Laboratory is like a city, not only in the size of the campus but also in the way it runs'.
ORNL Director Thomas Zacharia reflects on first 7 months in his post
Brittany Crocker, Knoxville Published 5:00 a.m. ET Feb. 2, 2018 | Updated 11:43 a.m. ET Feb. 2, 2018
Oak Ridge National Laboratory Director Thomas Zacharia remembers being in a different position in 2001.
He pointed to the seat across from him in his office on a Friday afternoon and recalled a conversation with one of his predecessors, former ORNL Director Bill Madia.
More: How does Oak Ridge National Lab determine who gets laid off?
“I had this idea that this laboratory could be the best in the world in computing,” Zacharia said, recalling the day he — then the director of the Computer Science and Mathematics Division — sat across from Madia and pitched him the dream that would become the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing facility.
At that time, ORNL was putting just $7 million toward computing.
“And (Madia) said, 'We don’t even talk about having anything significant in computing unless we have about $40 million,' ” Zacharia recalled.
"I had the presence of mind to say 'Well, one way to guarantee that you're not going to have $40 million is not to do something in computing because if you don't try, you're never going to get there.' ”
Madia could have cut the meeting short, but instead, he heard Zacharia out and sent him off about a half-hour later with permission to build the facility that will soon hold the most powerful supercomputer in the world.
“He chose to bet on me,” Zacharia said. “There was nothing concrete that I could tell him other than my passion and my conviction that it could happen.”
The experience made its mark on Zacharia's leadership style. In just his first seven months, employees say they often see him walking the halls, talking to scientists and support staff about their projects and ideas.
“To me, that is the lab director’s job and that is the experience that I bring to this office,” Zacharia said. “You have to listen. We are a people-centered organization. Our product is our people. It is their intellect that drives this organization, and we have to foster and support that.”
Not without its challengesHis values have not made his first few months easy, however. He said he knew coming into his new position that it would be "the privilege of his life," but the decisions he must make are not always pleasant.
Just one month after he began his new position last year, Zacharia had to announce a voluntary reduction in force at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
The voluntary reduction awards a week of compensation for every year of service at ORNL, up to 25 years, if workers apply to leave the organization. It’s a perk that compels many retirement-age employees to wait for the next opportunity, instead of retiring immediately.
But workforce reductions are hardly ever good news for everyone. Applications to the reduction program fell short of the goal by about 100 people, and in January, Zacharia had to announce more positions would be terminated.
"These are friends and colleagues," Zacharia said. "Some of them I know personally, and so these are difficult decisions, but that's what I signed up to do. I do that in order to make sure that the staff have a bright future."
So, Zacharia directed the cuts, beginning with some of his own support staff.
"I feel like everything that we do and ask our staff and managers to do, I as a leader should also do to make sure that we are reducing. That means travel, that means being careful about where we spend every nickel, because now is the time to invest for the future."
On the horizon
While Oak Ridge National Laboratory will lose around 350 people by the end of the force reduction, the laboratory has hired 161 people, and several big projects are on the laboratory's horizon.
"This is an amazing laboratory with a bright future," Zacharia said. "As much as I thought I knew this laboratory, I have found that it is even deeper, more impactful and critical to the nation, and I take that responsibility even more seriously because I do know what I do makes a difference."
Zacharia said federal priorities serve as guideposts in that decision-making.
Right now, ORNL is installing the Summit supercomputer, the country's next step between our current computing capabilities and a national goal to create the world's first exascale computer by 2021.
Oak Ridge will be the home of that machine, too.
The Spallation Neutron Source will soon get a proton power upgrade and a new target station, which will allow scientists to make advances in the design of new cancer drugs and in materials sciences like 3D printing.
More: Spallation Neutron Source expansion timeline picking up
The Department of Energy also has approved funds for ORNL to accelerate research in quantum materials, grid-cybersecurity, and the opening of a new bioenergy research facility that will study ways to use plant-based products for fuel and other products.
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Looking at this list of functions and operational goals many tied to ONE WORLD ONE GOVERNANCE ONE TECHNOLOGY/ENERGY GRID----and all that public surveillance as 5G SMART CITIES------we wonder how this long-time SECRET AGENCY ----might lose its goal of ALL-AMERICAN well-being.
We love PHYSICS but much of these global BIOSPHERE partnerships started with the cooperating global PHYSICS industry. What is good for global PHYSICS ------we say lots of BLIND AMBITION happening ----those being among the TRANSHUMANISTS.
This area of TENNESSEE/KENTUCKY/NORTH CAROLINA is expanding to meet the military infrastructure supporting global oil/gas processing and shipping off of SOUTH CAROLINA-----
ONE GREAT BIG GLOBAL FOREIGN ECONOMIC ZONE------HAVING NOTHING TO DO WITH BEING US SOVEREIGN ECONOMY.
So, how many US 99.9% WE THE PEOPLE are going to meet the goals of being the BEST OF THE BEST IN THE WORLD----in order to be called 'US' and not 'THEM'?
OrganizationOak Ridge National Laboratory Mission Organizations
- Computing and Computational Sciences (org chart)
- Energy and Environmental Sciences (org chart)
- Exascale Computing Project (org chart)
- National Security Sciences (org chart)
- Neutron Sciences (org chart)
- Nuclear Science and Engineering (org chart)
- Physical Sciences (org chart)
- Second Target Station Project (org chart)
- US ITER Project (org chart)
- Business Services (org chart)
- Environment, Safety, Health, and Quality (org chart)
- Facilities and Operations (org chart)
- Human Resources (org chart)
- Internal Audit (org chart)
- Legal (org chart)
- Biosciences (org chart)
- Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (org chart)
- Chemical Sciences (org chart)
- Computational Sciences and Engineering (org chart)
- Computer Science and Mathematics (org chart)
- Consortium for Advanced Light Water Reactors (org chart)
- Cyber and Applied Data Analytics (org chart)
- Electrical and Electronics Systems Research (org chart)
- Energy and Transportation Science (org chart)
- Environmental Sciences (org chart)
- Field Intelligence Element (org chart)
- FIRST Center (org chart)
- Fusion Energy (org chart)
- Isotope and Fuel Cycle Technology (org chart)
- Materials Science and Technology (org chart)
- National Center for Computational Sciences/Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (org chart)
- National Security Emerging Technologies (org chart)
- Neutron Scattering (org chart)
- Neutron Technologies (org chart)
- Nonreactor Nuclear Facilities (org chart)
- Nuclear Nonproliferation (org chart)
- Office of Strategic Planning and Performance Management (org chart)
- Physics (org chart)
- Reactor and Nuclear Systems (org chart)
- Research Accelerator (org chart)
- Research Reactors (org chart)
Mission Support Organizations
- Accounting Operations (org chart)
- Business Operations (org chart)
- Communications (org chart)
- Contracts (org chart)
- Engineering Management (org chart)
- Environmental Protection (org chart)
- Facilities Management (org chart)
- Health Services (org chart)
- Information Technology Services (org chart)
- Integrated Operations Support (org chart)
- Laboratory Modernization (org chart)
- Laboratory Protection (org chart)
- Logistical Services (org chart)
- Nuclear and Radiological Protection (org chart)
- Office of Research Excellence (org chart)
- Research Library (org chart)
- Retirement Services (org chart)
- Safety Services (org chart)
- Talent Services (org chart)
- Technology Transfer (org chart)
- Transportation and Waste Management (org chart)
- Utilities Division (org chart)
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70% BUILT then closed------what will become of this will be OFFSHORE DRILLING OIL AND GAS facility we are pretty sure.
SC under GOV HALEY was the earliest East Coast state to embrace OFF-SHORE DRILLING. So, this MOX FACILITY funded for ONE OBJECTIVE will now be repurposed for just what the 99% of WE THE SOUTH CAROLINA citizens are FIGHTING today.
This is FAKE POPULISM------IN 2020 -----
'SC’s plan to stop offshore oil drilling builds steam | The State
www.thestate.com/news/local/environment/article...
Jan 15, 2020 · Offshore drilling is a hot topic in South Carolina, particularly among coastal communities. Virtually every local government on the coast has come out against drilling because of concerns that oil...'
PERRY ends this MOX status of being tied to nuclear processing because the facility was always meant to be a TEXAS OFF-SHORE OIL AND FRACKING facility . PERRY not environmental---simply working for global 1% ENERGY CORPORATIONS.
"I can confirm that the Department is committed to removing plutonium from South Carolina intended to be disposed of in the MOX facility," Perry said. "We are currently processing plutonium in South Carolina for shipment to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) and intend to continue to do so."
This article shows the SOUTH CAROLINA state assembly PRETENDING to be fighting for those citizens of SC and their love of CAROLINA BEACHES.
Senate panel OKs effort to ban oil drilling, prevent tests that could hurt dolphinsBy Sammy Fretwell
January 15, 2020 11:10 AM
Five companies have won permission to conduct seismic testing off the East Coast, a big step toward offshore drilling. Al Seib TNSA plan to stop offshore drilling along the South Carolina coast sailed through a Senate subcommittee Wednesday as momentum builds to halt what many consider a threat to the environment and tourism.
The agriculture committee panel voted 4-1 for a bill preventing state regulators and local governments from issuing permits the oil industry needs to build pipes, refineries or other facilities to support offshore drilling, as well as giving any approval that allows for oil and natural gas exploration.
The Legislature OK’d a temporary measure last year aimed at preventing drilling, but the new bill makes the ban on infrastructure permanent. The House has a similar bill that did not pass last year.
The bill technically can’t stop the federal government from allowing drilling three miles or more off the coast, but it is intended to make that impractical because the oil or natural gas could not be piped from offshore to South Carolina. If drilling did occur, the bill would prevent industrialization of the coast line, supporters of the legislation say.
Sen. Chip Campsen, R-Charleston, said the country has plenty of oil and doesn’t need to pull more from the South Atlantic coast.
““If we really had an oil crisis and crunch, it would be a different story,’’ Campsen said. “But we are awash with oil.’’
Isle of Palms Mayor Jimmy Carroll said coastal protection is more important than allowing drilling.
“Listen to your constituents and not big oil,’’ Carroll told senators.
Offshore drilling is a hot topic in South Carolina, particularly among coastal communities. Virtually every local government on the coast has come out against drilling because of concerns that oil spills could hurt tourism and seismic testing, the method used to find oil and natural gas, could harm marine life, such as dolphins and fish.
Republican Gov. Henry McMaster, a major supporter of President Donald Trump, has opposed drilling, saying in a budget message this week that his office “is profoundly concerned’’ about building refineries, storage tanks and other facilities that aren’t “economically compatible with existing coastal residential and resort development, protected sea islands, estuaries and tidal marsh refuges.’’
The president wants to allow offshore drilling in an effort to increase oil production, seen as a way to make the U.S. more energy independent. But critics say drilling isn’t necessary because oil supplies are more than adequate. They say drilling would create too much risk for communities along the Atlantic coast. The state’s $20 billion tourism economy, anchored by national resorts like Myrtle Beach and Hilton Head Island, would be in jeopardy, critics say.
Most at Wednesday’s agriculture committee hearing supported banning infrastructure to aid offshore drilling, but a representative of the American Petroleum Institute urged lawmakers not to take drilling off the table. The nation will need oil and gas in the future, even though it is abundant now, the API’s Mark Harmon said.
Sen. Dwight Loftis, R-Greenville, voted against the bill. Loftis said he doesn’t want to tie the state’s hands to “never, never’’ allowing drilling.
“I know I’ll get painted as a bad guy, but I think we need to keep an open mind,’’ Loftis said.
But Sen. Stephen Goldfinch, R-Georgetown, said he’s skeptical the state has enough space on the coast to allow construction of infrastructure to support drilling. Much of the state’s coast is developed or protected in nature preserves.
Harmon said drilling infrastructure could be built near existing port facilities and at a new port proposed for Jasper County.
The Senate bill now goes to the full agriculture committee, perhaps as early as next week. The House anti-drilling bill also could come up in the lower chamber next week, said Ann Timberlake, a lobbyist for the conservation group Oceana.
“It is great that it’s moving early in the (legislative) session,’’ she said. “We really appreciate the agriculture committee’s leadership.’’
The federal government temporarily put drilling on hold in 2019 as a result of a court decision about oil development in Alaska that the Trump administration saw as unfavorable. But the administration still favors drilling and is moving to allow it. In the meantime, the federal government has signaled that it will allow a handful of companies to move ahead with exploration.
Looking for oil involves the use of loud blasts that can ripple for miles under the ocean. Sea life, including dolphins and fish, can be harmed when that occurs because the noise is so loud.
Unlike the Gulf coast, offshore drilling would be a first for the South Atlantic coast. It is still unknown if significant oil deposits lie beneath the ocean floor, which is why oil drilling supporters favor seismic testing.
Trump’s support for drilling is in opposition to the position taken by former President Barack Obama, whose administration abandoned efforts to allow it off the South Atlantic coast.
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