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    <title>Maine Owl</title>
    <link>http://maineowl.net/blog/</link>
    <description>Comment and nature photography from the State of Maine</description>
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      <title>Maine Owl</title>
      <link>http://maineowl.net/blog/</link>
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    <item>
 <title>Maine Owl is on long-term hiatus</title>
 <link>http://maineowl.net/blog/index.php?itemid=2118</link>
<description><![CDATA[If you hadn't guessed, this blog is dormant. I treat it as an archive site for Maine Owl and Deep Blade Journal as well. It is unlikely that new postings again will appear on a regular basis. I may from time to time add a photo or archive note, but this blog is pretty much done. The comments are locked down now. It is possible to post comments, but you must log in to an existing account to do so. New account registrations are closed. Hopefully this eliminates the comment spam that's been getting through lately. <br />
<br />
Enjoy the photos that remain. And for those interested in historical research, the blogs and media clips posted during the 2009 health care debate form something of a treasure trove.<br />
<br />
Bye now... <br />
]]></description>
 <category>Site news</category>
<comments>http://maineowl.net/blog/index.php?itemid=2118</comments>
 <pubDate>Thu, 20 Oct 2011 20:07:40 -0400</pubDate>
</item><item>
 <title>9/11 Conspiracists</title>
 <link>http://maineowl.net/blog/index.php?itemid=2116</link>
<description><![CDATA[<blockquote><div>"across those ten years have the charges that it was an "inside job," a favored phrase of the self-styled "truthers," received any serious buttress?  The answer is no."</div></blockquote><a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/09/02/the-911-conspiracists-vindicated-after-all-these-years/">The 9/11 Conspiracists: Vindicated After All These Years? » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names</a><br />
<br />
Alexander Cockburn in the piece above gives a pretty good rundown on the hapless state of 9/11 conspiracy theory "movements." It's always been a sad enterprise.<br />
<br />
I think I won't write more about it, but if you are so inclined, here are two earlier posts:<br />
<ul><br />
<li><a href="http://maineowl.net/blog/item/2008/08/911-collapse-of-wtc-7-due-to-fires">9/11 collapse of WTC 7 due to fires</a></li><li><a href="http://maineowl.net/journal/2006/11/physics-and-911-truth.html">Physics and 9/11 truth</a></li></ul>]]></description>
 <category>Mathematics and science</category>
<comments>http://maineowl.net/blog/index.php?itemid=2116</comments>
 <pubDate>Sun, 4 Sep 2011 23:13:36 -0400</pubDate>
</item><item>
 <title>Equinox-perigee Moon</title>
 <link>http://maineowl.net/blog/index.php?itemid=2114</link>
<description><![CDATA[<i>Another interesting moon</i><br />
<br />
<a href="http://maineowl.net/blog/media/1/20110320-equinox-moon-2011-2564.jpg">Equinox-perigee Moon</a><br />
<i>Taken Friday March 18 in Iowa</i><br />
<br />
By reader request, my best shot, one day short of the big full moon. This frame pushes the limits of <a href="http://maineowl.net/blog/item/2009/11/new-camera">my little Canon 120SX-IS</a>. I don't have the DSLR with the better glass here in Iowa.<br />
<br />
<b>Nuclear disaster in Japan</b><br />
There have been some other friends who have requested postings on the nuclear disaster in Japan. On Facebook, I have made a few link posts public. I think you can use <a href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=674456909">THIS LINK</a> (if logged into Facebook) to find them. Meanwhile, check out <a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/makhijani03142011.html">THIS ARTICLE</a> and <a href="http://peacecast.us/2008/01/arjun-makhijani-on-carbon-free-nuclear-free-energy.html">THIS PEACECAST PROGRAM</a> for discussion of the issues by Arjun Makhijani of <a href="http://ieer.org">ieer.org</a>.<br />
<br />
Check back in May for new posts to this blog.]]></description>
 <category>Nature photography</category>
<comments>http://maineowl.net/blog/index.php?itemid=2114</comments>
 <pubDate>Sun, 20 Mar 2011 20:28:04 -0400</pubDate>
</item><item>
 <title>Winter solstice eclipse</title>
 <link>http://maineowl.net/blog/index.php?itemid=2112</link>
<description><![CDATA[Some time ago I posted a series on the last visible spectacular total lunar eclipse [Feb. 2008, scroll down to <a href="http://maineowl.net/blog/archive/1/2008-02/catid/4">entire series</a>]. Now in Florida over the Christmas break, last night I managed to stay up into the wee hours of 2 am to 5 am (EST) to get some shots of the unusual winter solstice eclipse. A series of four images is below. Officially, winter solstice occurred at 6:38 pm this evening. Happy solstice!!<br />
<br />
<a href="http://maineowl.net/blog/media/1/20101221-eclipse_0218.jpg">2:18 am 12-21-2010</a><br />
<i>Part-way to totality</i><br />
<br />
<a href="http://maineowl.net/blog/media/1/20101221-eclipse_0318.jpg">3:18 am 12-21-2010</a><br />
<i>Mid totality</i><br />
<br />
<a href="http://maineowl.net/blog/media/1/20101221-eclipse_0405.jpg">4:05 am 12-21-2010</a><br />
<i>Just after totality</i><br />
<br />
<a href="http://maineowl.net/blog/media/1/20101221-eclipse_0445.jpg">4:45 am 12-21-2010</a><br />
<i>Almost over</i>]]></description>
 <category>Nature photography</category>
<comments>http://maineowl.net/blog/index.php?itemid=2112</comments>
 <pubDate>Tue, 21 Dec 2010 21:07:10 -0500</pubDate>
</item><item>
 <title>Sears Island court case</title>
 <link>http://maineowl.net/blog/index.php?itemid=2105</link>
<description><![CDATA[<i>From<a href="http://penobscotbay.blogspot.com/"> Penobscot Bay Blog</a>...</i><br />
<br />
Ron Huber has reported recently on the Sears Island court case <a href="http://penbay.org/searsisland/2010/si_lawsuit_dismissed_090810/index.html">HERE</a> and <a href="http://penobscotbay.blogspot.com/2010/10/sears-island-case-goes-to-maine-supreme.html">HERE (latest, posted yesterday</a>). It's complicated, but in essence Huber is challenging the constitutionality of the tandem moves made by the Maine Department of Transportation and the Maine Legislature Committee on Transportation in promoting and approving the "split" of Sears Island into conservation and sacrifice zones.<br />
<br />
Sacrifice, that is, for a container port for which the state has been unable to discern any interest in the private sector. Arrrrrrrg.<br />
<br />
Previous posts:<ul><li><a href="http://maineowl.net/blog/item/2009/08/sears-island-marketeer-was-hired-june-1">Sears Island marketeer was hired June 1 [2009]</a></li><li><a href="http://maineowl.net/blog/item/2009/03/sears-island-boondoggle">Sears Island boondoggle</a></li><li><a href="http://maineowl.net/blog/item/2010/06/disturbing-sears-island-update">Disturbing Sears Island update</a></li></ul>]]></description>
 <category>Environment</category>
<comments>http://maineowl.net/blog/index.php?itemid=2105</comments>
 <pubDate>Sat, 2 Oct 2010 14:54:42 -0400</pubDate>
</item><item>
 <title>Asters mean fall</title>
 <link>http://maineowl.net/blog/index.php?itemid=2103</link>
<description><![CDATA[<a href="http://maineowl.net/blog/media/1/20100926-hoverfly_on_asters_960w.jpg">Hoverfly on Asters</a><br />
<i>Seen along an Iowa roadside</i>]]></description>
 <category>Nature photography</category>
<comments>http://maineowl.net/blog/index.php?itemid=2103</comments>
 <pubDate>Sun, 26 Sep 2010 20:16:34 -0400</pubDate>
</item><item>
 <title>Fall 2002 playbook dusted off for Iran</title>
 <link>http://maineowl.net/blog/index.php?itemid=2099</link>
<description><![CDATA[<i>Nothing learned: NY Times pages open to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/07/world/middleeast/07nuke.html">Iran nuke fear mongering</a></i><br />
<br />
<b>Iran Remains Defiant, Nuclear Agency Says</b><br />
<i>By DAVID E. SANGER and WILLIAM J. BROAD; Published: Sep. 6, 2010</i><blockquote>WASHINGTON -- Three months after the United Nations Security Council enacted its harshest sanctions yet against Iran, global nuclear inspectors reported Monday that the country has dug in its heels, refusing to provide inspectors with the information and access they need to determine whether the real purpose of Tehran's program is to produce weapons....</blockquote>Imagine that! Iran doesn't trust what might happen when you cooperate with the IAEA. What events in history could cause not just the Iranian enemy, but any reasonable person to doubt the motives of Washington?<br />
<br />
Writer and former CIA presidential briefer Ray McGovern recently has pointed to the obvious answer -- Iran hawks in the White House are trying to figure out how to re-run the fall 2002 George W. Bush playbook. Despite a few skeptics like Admiral Blair (who was fired last spring), "pressure is building" to come up with some sort of "Curveball II" so the null 2007 nuclear estimate on Iran can be rewritten in time for Democrats to run a fear campaign in October. <a href="http://www.consortiumnews.com/2010/071710a.html">THIS STORY</a> by McGovern from July lays out the case. An Iranian scientist, Shahram Amiri, who had been in the U.S. for 14 months until earlier this summer did not quite fill the bill. But as can be seen from the story above, there is plenty of dry powder left in the armory.<br />
<br />
For those unfamiliar with Curveball, <a href="http://maineowl.net/journal/2004/06/we-paid-to-fool-ourselves.html">THIS long post</a> from the old blog is a detailed examination of the "mobile bioweapons labs"  canards -- the famously non-existent "Winnebagos of Death."<br />
<br />
Today's particular story about Iran not filing reports to the liking of it's enemies eerily reminds me of a <a href="http://archives.cnn.com/2002/US/09/07/bush.blair/">story</a> from exactly eight years ago this week:<br />
<br />
<b>Bush, Blair make case against Iraq</b><br />
<i>CNN; September 7, 2002</i><blockquote>CAMP DAVID, Maryland (CNN) -- President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Saturday there is ample evidence that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction, but critics questioned that conclusion and late Saturday some of the evidence the leaders cited was brought into question....<br />
<br />
Blair said on Saturday morning, "We only need look at the report from the International Atomic Energy Agency this morning, showing what has been going on at a former nuclear weapon site."<br />
<br />
He said satellite pictures indicate new construction in Iraq at "former nuclear weapon sites."<br />
<br />
Blair said he had just read about a number of attempts by Saddam to conceal weapons of mass destruction and concluded that he must act. "A policy of inaction is not a policy we can responsibly subscribe to," he said.</blockquote>I dare say there was more critical reporting then than there is now. It's almost like the War Party has learned better how to manage media than major media has learned about how to report skeptically on official claims.<br />
<br />
From a political point of view, I highly doubt that the U.S. Democratic administration in power can get the same mileage out of Iran fear mongering that the Republicans did in 2002. It just doesn't work the same for Democrats.<br />
<br />
About former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, isn't there a dock for him somewhere at The Hague? At least the sickening image of Blair strutting around his new book like a puffed-up peacock is being met by vigorous and healthy <a href="http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Politics/Tony-Blairs-Book-Party-To-Go-Ahead-Despite-Anti-War-Campaigners/Article/201009115715900?lpos=Politics_News_Your_Way_Region_5&amp;lid=NewsYourWay_ARTICLE_15715900_Tony_Blairs_Book_Party_To_Go_Ahead_Despite_Anti-War_Campaigners">protest</a>:<blockquote>When Mr Blair visited Dublin, protesters threw shoes and eggs and one attempted to perform a citizen's arrest. He has now confirmed his second public appearance, an event at a branch of Waterstone's in Piccadilly, will be scrapped.<br />
<br />
Mr Blair said: "I have decided not to go ahead with the signing as I don?t want the public to be inconvenienced by the inevitable hassle caused by protestors."</blockquote>]]></description>
 <category>Iran</category>
<comments>http://maineowl.net/blog/index.php?itemid=2099</comments>
 <pubDate>Mon, 6 Sep 2010 17:48:12 -0400</pubDate>
</item><item>
 <title>Nagasaki</title>
 <link>http://maineowl.net/blog/index.php?itemid=2095</link>
<description><![CDATA[<div class="leftbox"><div class="content-title"><a href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/153941/press-censorship-how-truth-was-hidden-about-nagasaki-65-years-ago" style="border: none;" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.japanfocus.org/data/nagasaki_afterbomb.jpg" width="136"</a></div><div class="boxcaption">One bomb turns a city to radioactive cinders and ashes</div></div><i>The late Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. <a href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/153941/press-censorship-how-truth-was-hidden-about-nagasaki-65-years-ago">called</a> the nuclear bombing of Nagasaki (65 years ago today) the "nastiest act by this country, after human slavery"</i><br />
<br />
Sixteen years ago I attended a Hiroshima/Nagasaki Commemoration at the University of Chicago. Of course, Chicago was a key site in the development of nuclear weapons. It was there under the Stagg Field football stadium on December 2, 1942 that Enrico Fermi and his Manhattan Project team started up the first nuclear reactor capable of a sustained, controlled chain reaction.<br />
<br />
Vonnegut was the featured speaker that day in 1994. The final question asked of him was about how we know that use of The Bomb was about something other than ending World War II or "saving lives" in said-to-be-necessary military actions.<br />
<br />
He replied with one word, "Nagasaki," and left the platform.<br />
<br />
Last Friday August 6 we held our annual Peace Center commemoration at Peirce Park in Bangor. Below I am including two videos. The first is the full ceremony and runs 25 minutes. Yours truly is the last speaker. The second video is the local television coverage airing on all three channels Friday evening.<br />
<br />
Below the fold, I have included a written version of my remarks, as prepared. And <a href="http://www.bangordailynews.com/story/Greater-Bangor/Bangor-remembers-Hiroshima-nuclear-bombing,150770">HERE</a> is a link to the Bangor Daily News story that ran Saturday. (Wow, BDN comments tend toward a swamp of wingnuttia, don't they?)<br />
<br />
<embed type='application/x-shockwave-flash' id='single2' name='single2' src='http://peacecast.us/wp-content/plugins/player-viral.swf' width='425' height='290' bgcolor='undefined' allowscriptaccess='always' allowfullscreen='true' wmode='transparent' flashvars='author=PJCEM&description=Hiroshima 65th commemoration&duration=1501&file=http://peacecast.us/wp-content/uploads/2010/8-6-2010_full_ceremony.flv&image=http://peacecast.us/wp-content/uploads/2010/hiroshima_2010.jpg&stretching=exactfit' /><br />
<i>This video runs 25 minutes and includes the whole commemoration and die-in. Maine Owl is the last speaker.</i><br />
<br />
<embed type='application/x-shockwave-flash' id='single2' name='single2' src='http://peacecast.us/wp-content/plugins/player-viral.swf' width='425' height='290' bgcolor='undefined' allowscriptaccess='always' allowfullscreen='true' wmode='transparent' flashvars='author=PJCEM&description=Hiroshima 65th commemoration&duration=198&file=http://peacecast.us/wp-content/uploads/2010/8-6-2010_coverage.flv&image=http://peacecast.us/wp-content/uploads/2010/hiroshima_2010_coverage.jpg&stretching=exactfit' /><br />
<i>Ch. 2, Ch. 5, and Ch.7 stories from Friday August 6</i><br />
<br />
Sadly no tape could be made of the reading of "Grandmother's Doll" by Masanobu and Tomoko Ikemiya of Bar Harbor. The story is about a little girl, a <i>hibakusha</i>, who survives the horror of Hiroshima. Masanobu is a wonderful <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fbxx-U58I3k">concert pianist</a> who told of his own WWII family tragedies.<br />
<br />
<b>Remarks by Maine Owl on August 6, 2010</b><br />I stand here today with the best news about the effort to rid the world of nuclear terror in at least the decade-and-a-half since President Clinton signed the as-yet un-ratified Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban treaty.<ul><li>President Obama is sympathetic to the idea that we should eliminate nuclear arsenals worldwide, including that of the US. He gave an April 2009 speech in <a href="http://maineowl.net/blog/item/2009/04/proliferation-is-stabilizing">Prague</a> where he said, "I state clearly and with conviction America's commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons."</li><li>The Obama Administration has issued in 2010 a new Nuclear Posture Review about which journalist Robert Sheer (of "With Enough Shovels" fame) suggested that the president with it moved towards "<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-scheer/earning-his-nobel-prize_b_528053.html">Earning His Nobel Prize</a>" because it (and I?m quoting Sheer) "pledges a halt to U.S. efforts to modernize such weapons, as had been proposed by then-President George W. Bush in his call for new nuclear 'bunker busters.'" Doubtless, this is a major step in the right direction.</li><li>President Obama has signed a new (START) Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia. In my view, the importance of this Treaty is the signal it sends that the US and Russia know the Cold War is over, even though the overwhelming impetus of those awful decades is taking decades to undo.</li><li>Last, I?ll mention that for the first time ever, the US sent an envoy to Hiroshima to participate in the commemoration of the bombings. "For the sake of future generations, we must continue to work together to realize a world without nuclear weapons," said the envoy, John Roos, in remarks echoing a statement made by Secretary of State Clinton yesterday.</li></ul><br />
With all this good news, could there be any bad? Is there anything left for us to do?<br />
<br />
We can petition for two things:<ul><li>One is to let our senators know that we want the new START Treaty ratified.</li><li>Two is we can tell our senators that the decades-long unfinished business of a Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty finally must be ratified, 14 years now after President Clinton signed it, but blocked by Republican opposition.</li></ul><br />
Handily, a petition covering these points should be going around?<br />
<br />
But here is the hard part. Control of the nuclear establishment in the U.S. is deeply entrenched within a complex of scientific & military insiders and is firmly welded to the notion that power & security in a world where nuclear weapons exist flows directly from possessing the biggest nuclear bludgeon.<br />
<br />
The Pentagon and the Department of Energy (yes, it is Energy that runs NNSA, the National Nuclear Security Administration) operate on the belief that an umbrella of national security comes from the ?essential deterrence role? of nuclear weapons. This means that despite the end of the Cold War, the U.S. continues to spend tens of billions of dollars annually preparing to strike first with nuclear weapons anywhere on the globe under conditions of its own choosing.<br />
 <br />
Perhaps recognizing this nuclear entrenchment, President Obama immediately followed that hopeful 2009 statement in Prague with, "I'm not naive. This goal will not be reached quickly ? perhaps not in my lifetime."<br />
<br />
Herein lie the contradiction, indeed the price tag that has been assigned to the president's nuclear disarmament desires.<br />
<br />
In order to get START through the senate, the budget proposals take a 180-degree opposite tack to the stated goals of nuclear elimination. During this past winter, the nuclear weapons production complex, a network of high-secrecy laboratories and the environmentally dirtiest industrial production facilities on the planet were given a 13% budget boost for new programs. Then just three weeks ago, an LA Times story (that was given a little tiny page-3 box in the Bangor Daily News) said that the budget increases will be part of a decades-into-the-future plan to keep our existing nukes, ?modern? ?safe? and ?secure?.<br />
<br />
Apart from what is immediately before Congress, this I believe is the most urgent cause for action. We must point out and head off the budgetary violence that is set to wire the world with bombs while robbing us of the true security that comes from funding human needs ? health, education, nutrition, environmental protection.<br />
<br />
Furthermore, there is bad news on proliferation of technology in the nuclear field. Our leaders would blame North Korea and Iran on this account. But here I see BIG contradictions. You?ve all heard the stern warnings and I?m sure you know Congress and the Administration have applied sanctions against Iran. So I won?t go into all of that. But it pains me that the same Obama Administration that is so keen on diplomacy could not take yes for an answer when Turkey and Brazil brokered a significant settlement on nuclear issues that Iran appeared to accept last spring.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, Israel possesses a <a href="http://maineowl.net/blog/item/2008/06/obama-us-and-israel-forever">full-blown triad</a> of 200 land-, sea-, and air-launchable nuclear weapons. <br />
<br />
So what do WE need to do. We have a president who understands the danger of believing security flows from nuclear weapons. I say that we must appeal to him, insist that he make good, remind him by pen and in the streets every day that we all want that world without nuclear weapons sooner rather than later. The message is simple: <i>what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki must never happen again.</i> The fact that you are all here to say this today is the best news of all.]]></description>
 <category>War and peace</category>
<comments>http://maineowl.net/blog/index.php?itemid=2095</comments>
 <pubDate>Mon, 9 Aug 2010 17:57:51 -0400</pubDate>
</item><item>
 <title>Activity at the feeder</title>
 <link>http://maineowl.net/blog/index.php?itemid=2093</link>
<description><![CDATA[<embed type='application/x-shockwave-flash' id='single2' name='single2' src='http://maineowl.net/blog/mediaplayer.swf' width='400' height='319' bgcolor='undefined' allowscriptaccess='always' allowfullscreen='true' wmode='transparent' flashvars='author=Maine  Owl&description=Feeder activity 7-29-2010&duration=300&file=http://maineowl.net/blog/media/misc/2010_07_29_feeder.flv&image=http://maineowl.net/blog/media/1/20100729-goldfinch1_425w.jpg&link=http://maineowl.net/blog/item/2010/07/Activity-at-the-feeder&frontcolor=006600&lightcolor=EEEEEE&screencolor=006600&stretching=exactfit' /><br />
<br />
The first visitor is a female American Goldfinch. Later there are Chickadees, Chipping Sparrows and a Song Sparrow. But the real show is the male American Goldfinch. He looks around for a <i>long</i> time to see if it's going to be okay then he.... You'll just have to watch between 2:30 and 3:30!]]></description>
 <category>Nature photography</category>
<comments>http://maineowl.net/blog/index.php?itemid=2093</comments>
 <pubDate>Thu, 29 Jul 2010 22:49:27 -0400</pubDate>
</item><item>
 <title>Schoodic Head</title>
 <link>http://maineowl.net/blog/index.php?itemid=2091</link>
<description><![CDATA[<i>Sunday in Acadia National Park</i><br />
<br />
<a href="http://maineowl.net/blog/media/1/20100726-cadillac_mountain_425w.jpg">Cadillac from Schoodic Head</a><br />
<i>Few saw this awesome scene</i><br />
<br />
I climbed Schoodic Head and descended The Anvil with my father-in-law on Sunday afternoon. The picture above is looking west across Frenchmen Bay towards Bar Harbor from the highest point on the Head, one of the few open views on the Schoodic Peninsula side of Acadia National Park. Cadillac Mountain is the only feature high enough to be out of the fog bank.<br />
<br />
This is a wonderfully low-traffic part of the park. We did see four parties, but while atop Schoodic Head, we were all alone.]]></description>
 <category>Nature photography</category>
<comments>http://maineowl.net/blog/index.php?itemid=2091</comments>
 <pubDate>Mon, 26 Jul 2010 22:01:51 -0400</pubDate>
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