Slovenia rejected gay marriage in a referendum today. What a stupid country.

Spain elected its most fractured parliament yet. The Conservatives failed to get the needed majority number of seats that would allow them to avoid seeking a coalition, which is good. But stupid Putinoid Podemos did quite well, which is bad.

It seems that Ukraine will get its visa – free entrance to the EU. Let’s just hope there is an EU for Ukrainians to enter.

Russia is being quite secretive about the explosion at one of its nuclear reactors. The residents of the neighboring area are panicking.

13 responses to “World News Digest”

  1. Dreidel Avatar
    Dreidel

    “Russia is being quite secretive about the explosion at one of its nuclear reactors.”

    Looks like Russia hasn’t changed that much since Chernobyl, when the authorities were criminally slow about informing other governments of the potential dangers.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar

      Yes, absolutely. They are doing the exact same thing of “it’s ok, everybody is safe” as they did then. 😦

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    1. Clarissa Avatar

      Oh God. I don’t want to believe this but I know how mean these people can get.

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  2. NG Avatar

    Have you ever followed the adventures of “Bionerd 23” on YouTube as she lives off the flora and fauna of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone?

    “A ‘superhero’ scientist has ventured into one of the most radioactive places in the world – scaling missile defence system towers, getting bitten by ‘radioactive’ ants and eating contaminated apples that have grown on trees close to Chernobyl’s epicentre.

    Anonymous scientist Bionerd has attracted thousands of subscribers to her YouTube channel for her visits into the Chernobyl exclusion zone, the site of a devastating nuclear explosion 29 years ago on April 26, 1986, as she measures the high levels of radiation still lingering in the air.”

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3056382/Radioactive-girl-Superhero-scientist-ventures-heart-Chernobyl-exclusion-zone-eat-toxic-apples-pose-reactor-s-control-room-defying-officials-say-humans-t-live-20-000-years.html#ixzz3uxY5Aujk

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    1. Clarissa Avatar

      Lord have mercy. There’s every kind of freak on the planet.

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      1. Stille (@aperfectbalance) Avatar

        Well, it’s a Daily Mail article, of course it’s going to make everything and everyone seem far more freakish than they actually are.

        Her media-personality schtick is doing things that appear very dangerous but that actually aren’t. She monitored her exposure to radiation while in the area around Chernobyl, and the total was below an X-ray, or a day spent on a Brazilian beach.

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        1. Clarissa Avatar

          There are things that shouldn’t be used for self-promotion purposes, I believe. What’s next, traipsing all over the Rwanda genocide to get more YouTube followers? There has to be some sensitivity to the suffering of others.

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  3. NG Avatar

    P.S.

    “People no longer believe the environmentalists, who issued a special message. In it, they confirm that the radiation background in Sosnovy Bor is normal, and to explain that it is not the fact that the emission of steam had no radiation, but the fact that, by happy coincidence, the wind at the time of the accident was blowing not towards the city, but the Gulf of Finland. “

    http://www.svoboda.org/content/article/27437109.html

    The article also says that the wind blew in the direction of Vyborg and I’ve travelled through that city. At the time, the smell of the sulfur from the pulp and paper operations was so strong that it burnt my eyes. I think that a little radiation is the least of their concerns.

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  4. Shakti Avatar
    Shakti

    Is Japanese Culture Traumatized by Centuries of Natural Disaster

    There is some evidence that the Japanese are being similarly affected. Japanese people of all ages are more likely to carry a gene that predisposes them to react more strongly to stressful events than people outside of Japan. The brains of many Japanese people were found to shrink in response to the tsunami – specifically within the orbitofrontal cortex, a region in the brain associated with emotional regulation, indicating the severity of post-traumatic stress disorder. And in a 2008 study, Japanese infants were found to react to the pain of being inoculated with more cortisol than American infants did, though they also whined less than the Americans.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar

      Very interesting. Thank you for the link!

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  5. cliff arroyo Avatar

    “Slovenia rejected gay marriage in a referendum today. What a stupid country.”

    That’s the result approximately 99% of the time it’s been put to a vote. Sounds about average.

    “But stupid Putinoid Podemos did quite well, which is bad. ”

    But they hurt the independistes in Catalunya, which is good, it’s all swings and roundabouts as the Brits probably don’t say.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar

      Yes, I’m very glad the independentists took a hit. That’s something, at least.

      Like

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