The Robot's Thoughts

Discover Magazine did an article following up what many people are calling the 'real' 9/11 conspiracy. That of people like then Mayor Guiliani declaring that the air is safe for rescue workers to work in without respirators and special suits.

The towers each had over 1,000 tons of asbestos. Each computer in the tower had about 4 lbs. of heavy metals like lead. The tower's florescent lights all contained mercury. How many thousands of computers and lights were in the trade centers -- a pile that smouldered and burned for hours, releasing a giant toxic cloud of deadly aerosols?

The EPA actually refused to use their most accurate asbestos sampling equipment, choosing instead to use a cheaper, much less accurate test. Since the EPA ceeded authority to local organizations for the clean up, its very likely that a conflict of interest arouse: Wealthy
landlords of Manhattan don't want to evacuate tenants and pay $10,000 to $20,000 per apartment to clean up the asbestos, and as such, pushed local testing authorities to declare the air safe.

Parts of Manhattan might STLL be polluted. Something like 70% of first responders and clean up crews are showing clear cut signs of contamination and exposure to heavy metals and asbestos and fiberglass. So are a lot of residents that lived OUTSIDE the one square mile zone that was "unsafe" according to the EPA.

Its a depressing and frightening read. We really haven't moved past the 'duck and cover' days of the government. The reality of what happened on September the 11th, 2001, isn't at all like the fairy tale politicians like to tell when running for office and promising to protect us.

Labels: 9/11, EPA, government failures, politics, science

This article lists some interesting facts.

Among the highlights:

8. The U.S. government has paid about $1.5 billion in benefits to thousands of sick nuclear-weapons workers since 2001.
(I wonder when we'll get my uncle's check.)

14. An impact crater 18 miles in diameter was found 12,500 feet under the Indian Ocean.

22. The hole in the earth's ozone layer is closing - and could be entirely closed by 2050. Meanwhile, the amount of greenhouse gases is increasing.
(And I'm 100% confident our science-friendly government will get everyone to band together and solve this problem, just like we did with the Ozone layer....)

25. Women gain weight when they move in with a boyfriend because their diet deteriorates, but men begin to eat more healthy food when they set up a home with a female partner.
(so let me get this straight, even as a guy begins to take diet seriously, what he eats is still worse for his partner than if she were living single? Are all these single women crysterbeating?)

28. Around the world, middle-aged and elderly men tend to be more satisfied with their sex lives than women in the same age group, a new survey shows.
(maybe they're seeing the world through blue-pill colored glasses?)

32. Just 30 minutes of continuous kissing can diminish the body's allergic reaction to pollen, relaxing the body and reducing production of histamine, a chemical cell given out in response to allergens.
(it doesn't say where they're kissing...)

39. The common pigeon can memorize 1,200 pictures.
(and I can't remember where I stashed my keys!!!!)

43. Sleeping in on Saturday and Sunday can disturb your body clock, leaving you fatigued at the start of the week.
(we DIDN'T know this in 2005? Seriously? Oh, yeah, maybe its because too many scientists are going to bed early on their friday and saturday nights.)

45. During the past five years, the existence of a peanut allergy in children has doubled.
(this makes trail mix all the more tempting to give out on halloween.)

46. Photos taken of Mars in 1999 and 2005 show muddy sand, indicating there may have been a flood sometime between those years.
(Mars has spring break...now mars just needs women.)

47. A python was the first god worshipped by mankind, according to 70,000-year-old evidence found in a cave in Botswana's Tosodilo hills.
(As Richard Dawkins would say, "More evidence that religion was a bad joke since day 1.")

49. One of the most effective ways for athletes to recover after exercise is to drink a glass of chocolate milk.
(Now I'll never get my SO to cut back on her chocolate milk intake.)

50. Researchers from the University of Manchester managed to induce teeth growth in normal chickens - activating genes that have lain dormant for 80 million years.
(I, for one, welcome our new chicken overloads.)

Labels: 2006, lists, me trying to be funny, Reddit, science