Ridley's Believe It Or Not-This Day In History-March 12, 2014 World Day Against Cyber Censorship

Ridley's Believe It Or Not--March 12, 2014:  Five days to St. Patrick's Day and counting and only three days left to clean and press your toga if going to the Senate. Dallas Seavey won the Iditarod yesterday, $50,000 and appropriate for Alaska, a new truck. Aliy Zirkle thinking the race was over and in a blizzard that blew then leader Jeff King off course and into a scratch rested for over two hours at the last checkpoint Safety only 22 miles from Nome and then with a cup of coffee in her hand to her surprise saw Dallas coming into the checkpoint; he left with a 16 minute lead she could not surpass but narrowing it to two mins, 22 seconds to finish 2nd. Other than the 17 mushers who had previously scratched, most of the teams are still on the course mushing for pride and dreaming of a good night's sleep in a warm bed in Nome.  One happy winner with two of his dogs, probably even happier!

         1. World Day Against Cyber Censorship--observed since 2009 as tyrants know the first thing to do in case of unrest is not to shoot or arrest the protestors but to terminate internet services in the affected area of protests.

           2. Girl Scout Birthday (United States)--celebrating the establishment of the first Girl Scout Troop of 18 girls on this day in 1912 in Savannah, Georgia. Happy Birthday to Girl Scouts around this nation, past, present and future.  

           3. Registered Dietitians Day--not sure if there is a link, given the sugar content of Girl Scout Cookies and the fears of growing obesity trend in this country; but today is the day to celebrate those who fight on our behalf the nutrition wars on what is good for us to eat and to keep us healthy and to their great credit devise occasionally meals you want to eat.

On this day in:

              a. 2009 Bernard Madoff pled guilty to swindling investors out of $18 billion, the largest scam in U.S. history. Mr. Madoff will be serving time in a federal penitentiary until released in a coffin.

              b. 2011 a nuclear reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant melted and exploded and released s radioactivity into the atmosphere a day after a massive offshore 8.9 earthquake and resulting tsunami devastated Japan, killing some 19,000 people and contaminating a large area near the reactor.

              c. 2013 JOGMEC became the first company to successfully extract methane hydrates for the seabed off the coast of Japan; which, if proved commercially viable, could provide for Japan's natural gas needs for the next 100 years. Hope the U.S. and Northern Europe are watching these developments closely and Putin is developing a major headache if tests are successful. Eliminate gas leverage and Russian economy falls faster than a house of cards in a hurricane.

With more internet users than the U.S., the new Great Wall is the Great Firewall: "No one does it quite like China, which has proved that old-school communist apparatchiks could tame something as wild as the Web. China has the world's "most sophisticated" Internet filtering system, according to the OpenNet Initiative, an academic cooperative that tracks censorship issues. “Wall Street Journal article on Cyber Censorship in China. No wonder why people still want to come to this country, NSA eavesdropping on the internet notwithstanding.

   Please enjoy the 140 character poems on events of interest on my twitter account below (if you like them, retweet and join almost 140 growing followers and please follow me) and follow my blogs. Always good, incisive and entertaining poems on my blogs--click on links below. www.alaskanpoet.blogspot.com for an original poem to honor Cindy Abbott, a half blind 54 year old mother suffering from a rare disease who competed in last year's Iditarod until forced out with a broken pelvis after 600 miles; an original poem on Bode Miller and the human spirit; an original poem for Cupid on Valentine's Day; an original poem to honor Cory Remsburg to join a great collection of my poems to inspire, touch, emote, elate and enjoy. Go to Rhymes On The Newsworthy Times for poems on Rutgers' faculty despicable attempt to ban Condi Rice from being a commencement speaker; the holiday creep of St. Patrick's Day; the crash of a Malaysian Air flight; Obama's need for vacation time as Ukraine crisis unfolds; Newport Beach's assault on recovery homes, including the Ohio House; food fight between Issa and Cummings as Lerner takes the 5th again; Sally Jewell, Department of Interior, telling the residents of King Cove, Alaska to take a hike in placing wildlife over their lives; on students protesting Keystone XL as the world's largest oil producer militarily occupies the Crimea: the banning the wearing of the American flag on Cinco de Mayo; Putin winning the Great Game against Obama; Obama need for fund raising trumping Russian moves into Crimea; Potomac fever infecting the Governors’ Conference; the Cal Ripken, Jr. equivalent in the House, John Dingell after almost 60 years announcing his retirement to join numerous other comments on news events always in rhyme of course.

©March 12, 2014 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet

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