Ocean munitions dumping

I know this isn’t quite library related, (maybe government docs?) but I feel the need to pass it on.  I’m catching up on feeds and whatnot this evening, and I came across this alarming admission by the US Army:

“The Army now admits that it secretly dumped 64 million pounds of nerve and mustard agents into the sea, along with 400,000 chemical-filled bombs, land mines and rockets and more than 500 tons of radioactive waste – either tossed overboard or packed into the holds of scuttled vessels.”

This is from a Deep Sea News blog from two days ago, apparently citing an article from something called the Daily Press.  (The Deep Sea blog has a gruesome photo of a dolphin, just so you know, before you click to it)  I haven’t checked the Daily Press out yet as it requires a (free) sign in, but there are .pdfs of disposal sites and such on the site.

Supposedly the Army’s dumping was revealed in November of 2005 , but this is the first I’ve read about it.  Someone named Herbert Levinson posted, in a comment on the Deep Sea News article, “I am 72 years old and these revelations are not new. All kinds of stuff was dumped there and everyone knew it. The place was called the acid waters 65 miles off Long Island’s coast.  People just didn’t know what to do with these materials. Nuclear waste was very dangerous. The Newspapers even had pictures dumping the stuff.”

Yet another reason to reallocate tax dollars to libraries.

HR 2060: Internet Radio Equality Act

Just a quick post to encourage anyone who listens to online radio to contact your Congressional Representatives about co-sponsoring this act.  A recent ruling has given the green light to enormous rate hikes for music webcasts, far higher than over-the-air broadcasters.  Even more onerous is that these new rates would be retroactive, beginning January 1, 2006.  HR 2060 was introduced to prevent the new rates from taking effect, and there is still time to stop the Copyright Royalty Board’s webcasting royalties.

WFMU’s blog post from April 27th, 2007 has detailed info and links about the issue.   You can also go to Savenetradio.org to find out who your representatives are, and how to contact them.  The new rates start on July 15th if we can’t stop it, so act now!