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Remembering Aquino Braganca (b. 6 April 1924), who fought for freedom
of the former Portuguese colonies in Africa. An online tribute
http://aquinobraganca.wordpress.com/ (includes many historical
references, some photographs and documents)
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This one is for the all of us, including nuclear engineers and policy wonks.
venantius
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Startling Revelations About Three Mile Island Raise New Doubts Over Nuclear
Plant Safety
Fooling with Disaster?
By Sue Sturgis
(excerpt)
But the moment the Thompsons heard about the TMI incident, they wanted to
get inside the plant and see what was happening first-hand. That didn't
prove difficult: Plant operator Metropolitan Edison's in-house health
physics staff fled after the incident began, so responsibility for
monitoring radioactive emissions went to a private contractor called Rad
Services.
The company immediately hired Randall Thompson to serve as the health
physics technician in charge of monitoring radioactive emissions, while Joy
Thompson got a job monitoring radiation doses to TMI workers.
"I had other health physicists from around the country calling me saying,
'Don't let it melt without me!" Randall Thompson recalls. "It was exciting.
Our attitude was, 'Sure I may get some cancer, but I can find out some cool
stuff.'"
(excerpt2)
Today they live quietly in the mountains of North Carolina where, inspired
by time spent seeking refuge with a traveling circus, they have forged a new
career for themselves as clowns -- or what they like to call "professional
fools." As Joy Thompson wrote in the fall 2001 issue of Parabola, a journal
of myth, the role of the fool is to help people "perceive the foolishness in
even ... the most powerful institutions," noting the medieval court jester's
role of telling the King what others dare not.
http://www.counterpunch.org/sturgis04032009.html
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