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The First Nuclear Chain Reaction – Enrico Fermi and Henry Moore (ONE of TWO) – ARCHIVE

Historian Iain Boal tells the story of The Beginning of the Nuclear Age (ONE of TWO) The Italian physicist Enrico Fermi set off the first nuclear chain reaction in an underground tennis-court at the University of Chicago in December 1942. His experiment led directly to the building of the plutonium bomb that destroyed the city of Nagasaki.
There are competing claims as to the beginning of the nuclear age. Was it the day of Trinity, was it Hiroshima, or was it Fermi with his willingness to risk a nuclear explosion in the middle of a crowded city.
But more important than the date is the need to comprehend the fundamental change that the beginning of the nuclear age has brought about. [ . . . ]

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Economic Disobedience & Debt Abolition – Chris Hedges with Thomas Gokey

How can a discussion of the enormous debt and looming homelessness faced by ordinary people in the US, once the covid pandemic is ending, be inspiring and visionary?
In preparation for that fight Thomas Gokey and the Debt Collective have begun organizing debtors into a union. They already had victories canceling $2.8 billion in student debt, medical debt, payday loans, probation debt and credit card debt.
Today the sheer magnitude of the problem we will have to deal with soon – over 40 million people in the US facing eviction once Covid moratoria disappear – is seen as an opportunity.
Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, a New York Times best-selling author, a professor at Rutgers University, and an ordained Presbyterian [ . . . ]

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How Much Do Rockets Pollute? Are They Bad For Our Air?

Tim Dodd asks: What comes out of the flamey end of a rocket?
I’m alerting you to the helpful information in Tim Dodd’s 2020 film immediately following the two space flights by billionaire Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos. Both businessmen are aiming at greatly increasing the number of flights into Space for commerce and space tourism.
Tim Dodd begins his film by wondering why NASA, with a mission of protecting the atmosphere, agrees to polluting space flights and their expansion into space tourism.
Tim Dodd is also known as The Everyday Astronaut. He is a science communicator, photographer, and musician. His website – everydayastronaut.com – features videos and information about past and upcoming spaceflight.
Tim is clearly a fan and supporter of [ . . . ]

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Junk in Space – The World’s Largest Garbage Dump – says NASA

How will it affect Space Exploration and Tourism?
This program begins with part of the LIVE transmission from Mission Control of the launch on April 23, 2021, of the SpaceX Crew Dragon “Endeavor” to the International Space Station. The crew was being informed of a piece of orbital debris that might pass close to their spacecraft. They were told to cover the windows with kevlar blankets, put on their pressurized flight suits, and get into their seats just in case there was an impact that caused a loss of air pressure. Preparations for space junk collisions are now routine.
Meanwhile, at their point of destination, the International Space Station crew, in a monthly inspection, had found that their Canadarm had been pierced [ . . . ]

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SPACE JUNK – Fast And Dangerous

The Australian physician and anti nuclear campaigner, Helen Caldicott, has since the late 1970s worked with Bruce Gagnon and Karl Grossman from Space For Peace to keep space free from weapons and nuclear material. And all had tried to prevent the deployment, in 1997, of the space probe Cassini to Saturn with 72 pounds of Plutonium-238 on board. A launch accident could have dispersed the deadliest material known to man across our planet.
Space Junk has become an important topic. As early as 2001 Bruce Gagnon was describing that of all the man-made objects in Low Earth Orbit, 95% are space junk: rocket thrusters, derelict satellites, and most of all, tiny fragments of debris from collisions and explosions. These pieces of [ . . . ]

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Gain of Function Research – How labs across the world make viruses more dangerous

Ralph Nader and Andy Kimbrell discuss why Gain of Function research must be banned Excerpts from the Ralph Nader Radio Hour of July 18, 2020: Andrew Kimbrell is an internationally recognized public interest attorney, bioethicist and NGO organizer. He has led efforts to regulate biotechnology and ban biological weapon research. Andrew Kimbrell established the International Center for Technology Assessment (CTA) in 1994 and the Center for Food Safety (CFS) in 1997.
Ralph Nader is a political activist author, lecturer, and attorney. Areas of particular concern to him include consumer protection, environmentalism, and democratic government. The Ralph Nader Radio Hour is a weekly one hour talk show broadcast on the Pacifica Radio Network. It is also available as podcast.
An audio recording and [ . . . ]

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The origin of COVID: Did people or nature open Pandora’s box at Wuhan? – Nicholas Wade

Nicholas Wade is a science writer, editor, and author who has worked on the staff of Nature, Science, and, for many years, the New York Times. His May 5, 2021 article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, asking whether people or nature opened Pandora’s box at Wuhan, generated huge interest and follow-on interviews.
In this interview Nicholas Wade covers intriguing questions regarding the remaining mystery of who the original host animal was – and what intermediate animal introduced it to humans. Also – how Donald Trump naming it, without evidence, the China Virus made scientists and media want to support the theory of a natural origin in order to stem the tide of racism. And – to make it [ . . . ]

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The U.S. Space Force – Interview with Bruce Gagnon, co-founder of Space4Peace

Topics are: STRATCOM, the weaponization of space, full spectrum dominance, surveillance, and 5G satellites.
At the end of December 2019 then President Donald J. Trump signed into law legislation creating the first new armed service since 1947 — the U.S. Space Force. In February 2021 President Joe Biden declared that he will not seek to eliminate the Space Force and roll military space functions back into the Air Force. Instead he increased the funding of the Space Force in the defense budget proposal for 2022.
Bruce Gagnon has dedicated his life and energy, and inspired so many others along the way, to organize against the weaponization of space. He cofounded the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in [ . . . ]

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Suzanne Simard with David Haskell – Finding the Mother Tree

A small bookstore in Point Reyes Station, a coastal town in West Marin, California, was the first to invite Suzanne Simard for a conversation. Three days earlier, on May 4, her book had been published. Finding the Mother Tree, Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest, has already become a best-seller.
Suzanne Simard was born in the Monashee Mountains of British Columbia and grew up in an old growth forest. She was educated at the University of British Columbia and Oregon State University; and is now Professor of Forest Ecology in the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Forestry.
Over 1,000 people participated on the Zoom book release hosted by David Haskell. He is professor of biology and environmental studies at [ . . . ]

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Prof. Ilan Pappe: The Idea of Israel – A History of Power and Knowledge – TUC Archives

The Israeli historian Ilan Pappe spoke on September 14, 2018, at the City Club of Cleveland.
Attempts were made to prevent Prof. Pappe from speaking, however the President of the Board of Directors of the City Club explained why they did not retract the invitation. She said that a forum devoted to freedom of speech will use this as an opportunity to reflect on the role the City Club plays in the community. We believe, she said, that our work requires us to listen and learn.
As the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians continues, many question the very representation of the Zionist state. Ilan Pappe, Ph.D., Professor of History and Director of the European Centre for Palestine Studies at the [ . . . ]

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Is anti-Zionism anti-Semitism? Israeli historian Ilan Pappe and former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis

The question put to Israeli historian Ilan Pappe by Intelligence Squared and recorded before the most recent attack on Gaza was: is anti-Zionism anti-Semitism?
His response, recorded on March 30, 2021, is an extraordinary mini-lecture on the origins of this argument and how it is now used to prevent the critique of Israeli policies.
Ilan Pappe is an expatriate Israeli historian and socialist activist. He is a professor with the College of Social Sciences and International Studies at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom.
Pappé is one of Israel’s New Historians. Since the release of pertinent British and Israeli government documents in the early 1980s, they have been rewriting the history of Israel’s creation in 1948. And that includes the corresponding [ . . . ]

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Israel’s Bombing of Gaza – May 2021 / Rashida Tlaib and Sami Al-Arian

Thanks to Amy Goodman and Chris Hedges for the moving presentations on the status of Palestinians. Democracy Now re-broadcast congresswoman Rashida Tlaib’s courageous speech of May 13 on the floor of the House.
Rashida Tlaib says that she is a reminder to colleagues that Palestinians exist, that we are human and we dream. She calls for Apartheid and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians to end.
She points out that currently military support of Israel is unconditional and that Israel as the largest recipient of security assistance from the US does not comply with federal laws and international human rights standards.
Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Presbyterian minister, author and television host of On Contact. He was a foreign correspondent and bureau chief [ . . . ]

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Professor Avi Loeb: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth

In October, 2017, an object that came from outside the solar system was discovered near the sun. Harvard Professor Avi Loeb says that it is an artifact – many colleagues say it is just another comet or asteroid.
Here is part of the ongoing and escalating controversy laid out in the Big Brains podcast from the University of Chicago from May 6, 2021. The full 34 minute conversation between Paul Rand and Professor Avi Loeb is on the University of Chicago website.
Avi Loeb is a theoretical physicist who works on astrophysics and cosmology. He is former chair of the astronomy department at Harvard University and directs the Black Hole Initiative. He chairs the Advisory Committee for the Breakthrough Starshot Initiative [ . . . ]

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Suzanne Simard – Dispatches from The Mother Tree Project

A report on the underground networks in the forest
Suzanne Simard is Professor of Forest Ecology in the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Forestry. In spite of her status in academia, rigorous research and love and respect from her students it took over 30 years for her ideas to break through.
Ferris Jabr writes in the New York Times Magazine: “By analyzing the DNA in root tips and tracing the movement of molecules through underground conduits, Simard has discovered that fungal threads link nearly every tree in a forest — even trees of different species. Carbon, water, nutrients, alarm signals and hormones can pass from tree to tree through these subterranean circuits…
Resources tend to flow from the oldest and biggest trees [ . . . ]

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Saving Redwoods in Northern California – Pomo Indian Perspective

A call for support went out early in 2021. Logging was to begin in a coast redwood forest in Mendocino County on the Pacific ocean that many of us believed was protected since it is owned by the State of California. The State purchased almost 50,000 acres from a bankrupt logging company in 1949. The Jackson Demonstration State Forest, located between the city of Willits inland and Fort Bragg on the coast, is managed by CalFire, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Research showed quickly that CalFire, except for a short pause, never stopped logging the land of their second growth coast redwoods. But now, in the age of climate change and devastating forest fires, their timber harvest plans [ . . . ]

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