Tuesday, March 18, 2014

WIPP A Nuclear Disaster In 2014 In New Mexico and How to Understand It


A reader asked me, what does this WIPP thing really mean, put it in laypersons terms.  And I don't write quick, but after 3 hours, I think this will be understandable to many people.

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stock out
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We don't know how much they have been lying, but one thing is for sure, they attempt to cover up, and then they attempt to minimize, and then they attempt to confuse the issue, and then additional admissions come out (usually).    
For sure, a lot of Plutonium and Americium came out in the air.    And it came out for weeks because they had some open ductworks prior to the "good" HEPA filters, so the contaminated air was blasted out through an opening at a high volume rate.      We only have their numbers to work with, so it could be highly variable.   We know that TEPCO has lied for years, and when they do fess up we find they have been lying by a factor of 10 to 100.     The more they have to lie, the more they do lie.
HUGE LIE, An Argument of False Equivalence
One of the HUGE lies they are still running with is that they are comparing Pu and Am to any other type of radiation, and it is not.    One chart above shows that sucking in some hot Pu particles is 110,000 times worse than your average non-transuranic radiation.     But WIPP and DOE and the University "independent lab" which is funded by DOE 100%, all have been pretending that Pu and Am are equal to the more harmless of external radiation.
HUGE LIE!     Pu and Am are some of the most dangerous things on the planet.    When breathed in they kill 255 out of 255 young Beagles in 2 to 5 years.
How Much Plutonium Does It Take to “Almost For Sure” Kill a Human
Some people say that even one microgram (one one-millionth of  gram)  will  kill a human.    And that is true...I mean it is possible that one micro-gram could product a lung, liver, or bone tumor that would cause death.   But now what is likely?     The "best" testing was on Beagles, but sometimes some animals are more tolerant than humans when it comes to contamination, they don't live as long, but dogs are tougher while they live.   But if humans were as tough as Beagles, then a dose of 150 micro-grams to 450 micro-grams would be enough to almost for sure kill you in say 2 to 10 years, maybe 20.
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OK now let’s bring it home so to speak.     They were pumping air out of that radiation cave at the rate of 100,000 CFM and maybe a bit higher because they had some big open hole to the atmosphere (that was a mistake on their part, could be something to do with the recent fire 2 weeks earlier, who knows, but they did fess up to that).     So roughly 10% to 20% was going directly to the atmosphere.
CFM Cubic Feet per Minute
OK what does this CFM mean?  Well it’s Cubic Feet Per Minute.   What does that mean?   Well let’s use an example.    A really good quality kitchen exhaust fan (not the cheap ones you often see at a house) but a gourmet kitchen or a light commercial kitchen will have an exhaust fan that can push 500 CFM.    That’s a lot of air!      Well the amount they were exhausting was like 2000 of this really good fans.     And 10% to 20% was going direct to atmosphere, so that is like 200 to 400 really good fans, pumping the radiation accident direct into the atmosphere....and that lasted for several WEEKS.    
Grams, a Pretty Small Unit of Weight
OK now to bring the concept of "grams" into something you can relate to.    Picture a dime, and make it a silver dime, you know back before 1963 when money was “real money”, back when you sometimes trust what the government was telling you?   Right, back in the day before spin was “in”.      OK that silver dime weighs 2.5 Grams (g).   Now what if it was Plutonium?    Well Plutonium is a VERY heavy metal, in fact it weighs almost 240% more than silver.   That’s heavy.     OK so some Plutonium (Pu), about the size of a dime would have 240% more mass than the silver, or roughly 6 grams of Pu.    That is equal to 6,000,000 micrograms.     
Some people state that a single microgram can kill a person, so if that dime size material was vaporized and exhausted out the exhaust fans, AND it was distributed equally to 6,000,000 people it could kill all of them.     Well I don’t think that Plutonium is that dangerous, at least on the basis of “is it almost for sure going to kill you”.   I think a better number for “almost for sure going to kill you”, is about 300 micrograms of Pu.    
You got a calculator?   Sheesh, don’t make me do all the work, divide 6,000,000 by 300 and see how many people could be killed “almost for sure”.   Again based on that amount being equally distributed among those people.     
How many “dimes” of vaporized Pu do you think came out of that radiation cave with 200 to 400 high quality fans pumping air out, with 10% to 20% of the air bypassing the filters, for weeks on end?     How much dust do you get when you vacuum your house and it doesn’t even look dirty?  
How many 55 gallon barrels of high level waste do they have in that cave?    500,000 total and about 2% to 4% is high level (highly dangerous concentrations).    4% is supposedly the maximum they are planning on storing in their cave, but in reality, in their deep dark hearts, the nuclear “scientists” who don’t give a rip about you and want to put all the waste, even from nuclear power plants down there.   And if YOU don’t shut them down NOW, at this crisis, and while they are being caught in their lies, then it will happen, they will stuff that cave full of everything radioactively dangerous in the country.     Either way, stop now or fill to the brim, I would never ever live within 50 miles of that radiation cave.
How Much High Level Waste Have They Put Into WIPP?
4% of 500,000 barrels is 20,000 Barrels of high level waste, that’s a lot!    How high is “high level”.    Well the former director of the “independent” monitoring agency for WIPP was caught bragging on a pro-nuclear website called Atomic Insights, just recently,  that they stashed very hot liquids down there, “hotter than anything at Hanford, 7 Curies per Liter”.      Google “Hanford Radioactive Waste” and realize that what they are trucking into New Mexico from all over the country is worse than that.
A Liter is Almost the Same As A Quart
OK let’s bring it home again.   You probably know what a Liter is…it’s what most larger soda bottles are, about the same size as a Quart.    OK simple enough on that one…now we get to the tricky part, the part that the pro-nukers count on, using varying engineering units so that people just turn their brain off and never get a “gut feeling” for what a radiation unit is.    Don’t turn your brain off yet, follow me down this last rabbit hole just a little bit, and I am going to convert that 1 liter of radiation at 7 curies, into the amount of Chickens that would be contaminated to the point that you shouldn’t EVER eat them.     OK how many Chickens?
Curies & Bq (or Becquerel) Are a Way to Measure Radiation.   Curies is A LOT, A Becquerel is A Little.   
7 Curies is 259,000,000,000 Bq and if you want to run down these rabbit holes yourself, you can use this really cool online calculator, here is the proof of those numbers.
50 Bq per pound is the upper limit in animal flesh for radiation.   So for the average Costco size Chicken at 5 lbs, a total radiation load of 250 Bq would be a rational maximum.    
OK can your calculator fit 259,000,000,000 divided by 250 Bq?     I’ll give you the answer, about  1 Billion Chickens contaminated from 1 liter of that “hotter than anything at Hanford” liquid.    
OK That is One Liter, How Many Liters Do They Have In That Cave?
OK how many liters in a 55 gallon barrel?     It’s actually fun to ask the online calculator and make IT do the work.    
The answer is 208 Liters per barrel.   And at 1 Billion Chickens per Liter, that is 208 Billion Chickens that could be contaminated by 1 barrel!     Is there even 208 Billion Chickens in the whole WORLD?   There are only around 6 Billion people.
Now are you starting to understand the incredible danger of what they are doing in that cave?    They have at least 20,000 barrels of this high level radiation down there now.     And another 480,000 barrels of other radioactive waste.   And they want to keep adding more, and they want to expand the scope to include even more dangerous stuff.  

And then they tell us “take it or leave it”, we either stuff it in the WIPP cave or we just leave it were it is at.    Huh, an ultimatum from these “scientists” who made the mess.   This is another false argument of Limited Choices.   And no, “We The People” do not accept limited choices, especially when you are putting our children at grave risk, and us too, at grave risk.
 
Putting it all in one place does not make sense, especially because we now know that when these various wastes mix up through corrosion of the steel containers they are putting in the salt, or through accidents where one barrel blows up and ruptures others, or a ceiling collapse.   

The “scientists” who created all this really dangerous waste never thought there could be a large collapse at WIPP, but it happened in the past, the day after workers were in a cave section called a “panel”, and more than    It was beyond their “design basis”.   In other words, their assumptions were not accurate enough nor careful enough from the beginning.    Now their response is “we have to keep going, we have to keep filling WIPP up, because there is nowhere else for the waste WE created to go, and we will just have to use bigger boltsso the ceiling doesn’t collapse so fast.”


100,000 pounds of ceiling caved in.
Didn’t we hear here that expression before when government officials were trying to cover up a big scary problem at Amity on the Atlantic ocean “I think we are going to need a bigger boat!”.      LOL

The bottom line is that these “scientists” who are trying to cover up their stinking mess are ignoring new information as it presents itself, and are “all in” on stuffing all the waste into one place in New Mexico which will, perhaps sooner rather than later, become inaccessible and therefore impossible for us to deal with any problem that comes up.     And they don’t care about you, they will lie to you.    The former president of WIPP went on video at the town hall meeting as stating “it is like getting a dental X-ray”.    Ask him about that when you see him at the local grocery store buying a chicken.
And now they you to trust them, they got it all figured out now, and the only reason they are going slow now in getting back into the cave is “because so many people are interfering”.    

 In the meantime, because the accident area is too hot to enter, they are paying over 1000 people full wages, while not working,  at a cost to the taxpayer of around $640,000 a day.   Seems like I could rent a robot and get them down there to assess things for less than a few million, right?   They want to make sure the gravy keeps flowing so the whistleblowers keep quiet.
URS is the parent corporation of the private company who runs WIPP under “family” supervision from DOE.      URS also does work at Hanford where there have been allegations from fired employees who claim they are whistleblowers who were cautioning the company and DOE against the chances that mixed radioactive liquids could off gas hydrogen and blow up in a massive accident.   Does any of this sound familiar?
So folks, does that bring it home? Do you now know what you need to do?

39 comments:

  1. I've got it now stock over and out

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    1. Good deal, spread the word.

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    2. Stock, mail for you. Please check mail again. Something we discussed yesterday & you were waiting for it.

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  2. Got a lot out of your explanation. You are good, keep it up. I sent the link to a couple of talking types and a congressman.

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  3. Thanks for your thoughts. Yeah, I know Hanford well and the whistle blower is a very good friend of mine. So true. I will call him tomorrow to talk to him about this. The difference is, he will tell me, is that WIPP is supposed to be the TRU Waste. Transuranic Waste. It is different from the highly radioactive waste that WIPP does want to get from Hanford and that of course, is off the table for the time being since the explosion happened. But Hanford has never been known for good record keeping. I wonder if in fact the drums that WIPP has received from Hanford is in fact all TRU waste or if they were trying to delude and elude the "officials" (DOE) and send over the highly radioactive waste anyway just to get it off Hanford's land. There is a HUGE push for the HRW to go away and WIPP was going to be the answer. This puts another major boulder in the field of cleanup for Hanford...this, being the explosion at WIPP. Hanford gets fined when they go beyond the due dates for completion. We went inside URS and filmed an underground video of me questioning their safety/whistle blower policy ....it's URS. They were full of shit. What's new. But anyway, what Walt was talking about was the unknown substances in the huge tanks at Hanford. Because they don't know what is in the mix along w/ the highly radioactive substances, that's why the explosion could happen from the tanks to the Pre-Treatment Bldg. The drums and the tanks are not supposed to be similar at all...but who really know, eh?
    Mimi
    RadCast.org

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    1. Mimi, they are storing 20,000 barrels in WIPP with stuff way hotter than anything at Hanford, so hot that 1 liter could contaminiate 1 Billion Chickens

      http://nukeprofessional.blogspot.com/2014/02/wipp-busted-dead-to-rights-they-were.html

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  4. I recommend to not be a lurker, but to contribute and spread the word, especially to sites that don't normally see the truth. Mahalo!

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  5. HEPA Filter System Failed At WIPP Facility; What Is The REAL Story About Radiation Release? via @AGreenRoad
    http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2014/03/hepa-filter-system-failed-at-wipp.html

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    1. Cool, glad you got that manual, it is useful evidence, more evidence as to the number of basic safety standards and codes they were breaking as they ramped up from 1 to 2 deliveries a week to 20 to 30 deliveries a week.

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  6. If only I could get these assholes to give a shit.... :(

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    1. Take away their "precious" and you will get their attention

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  7. I love the costco chicken analogy.
    Those types of images are helpful to visualize the situation which is harder for laymen like me to grasp, when just numbers.
    Also, analogies can become viral and carry info far and wide.

    Thank you.

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    1. Promote it please, send it far and wide, put it on websites and newsites that don't normally see truth.

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  8. BANANA SAFETY....
    http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o287/combomelt/fukushimabananas_zpsb59bacbf.jpg

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  9. Thanks Stock for doing the math & research, it helps us to better understand the issue.

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  10. shared on Facebook. I just wish that I could convince other people to take the time from their day or night and read all of this. Excellent breakdown of info.

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    1. Do what you can, prepare for you and yours. We are near a tipping point. Help tip it the right way.

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  11. I hate to rain on your parade, but as a Carlsbad, NM, resident for 61 years and a former member of the media, I feel I have to interject some small amount of truth into your otherwise old lady hysteria. I will quote an article from the Carlsbad Current Argus of 3/20/2014, "On average, American receive a dose of 620 millirem per year, or roughly 1.7 per day, according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission..." Another quote from later in the article: "The radiation levels detected on March 4 are estimated to be equivalent to 0.5 millirem as reported by the DOE, up from an equivalent of 0.1 millirem on Feb. 18."

    WIPP has enjoyed a flawless safety record since waste first began to be interred nearly a half mile underground in 1999. There is probably no other industry that can boast of such a record. Two neighbors on my street work at WIPP (I have no association with WIPP other than living in Carlsbad) and are unconcerned about the small release of radiation, other than wondering when operatiions will resume.

    The hysteria promulgated by the media is understandable when you realize that members of the media are concerned first with making a name for themselves and second with selling advertising. Sensationalism is now the norm.

    Whether nuclear energy is here to stay or not is debatable and has little to do with what we do with waste that currently exists and for the most part is stored temporarily in non-secure locations because a hysterical public hampers the development of safe and secure long term storage.

    The salt beds near Carlsbad are probably the most stable geological formations for disposal of these materials that have been discovered. Continued disposal of nuclear waste, whether low level TRU waste that is currently interred there, or high level waste, should that ever happen (it hasn't yet), will remove this waste from areas where real contamination is more likely to occur.

    I don't expect this comment to change the mind of anyone who is prone to anti-nuclear hysteria. Hysteria has been a part of the human condition since ancient mariners challenged the idea that the earth was flat, and probably before.

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    1. Quote: "There is probably no other industry that can boast of such a record."

      An old friend (called common sense) told me once that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.

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    2. People of carlsbad, STOP BELIEVING WHAT THE DOE SAYS AND DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH!! True, Alpha emitters (Plutonium) are of little danger dose wise. Alpha radiation cannot perpetrate the skin, so this is a half truth they are telling you because Plutonium if inhaled or ingested is one of if not the most toxic materials on the face of the planet. That is what they aren't telling you!! Think of it as cyanide:If your standing next to it sitting in a bottle or laying on a table (external dose) little problem. BUT inhale it or ingest it (internal or uptake)...HUGE FREAKING PROBLEM!
      Quit listening to their half truths..it's going to get you cancer or killed. How can you be so ignorant??

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  12. We breathe in Pu as a component of background radiation.

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    1. Could you please explain your point in more detail, indicating what the background levels of Pu are in your area, and your point, then we can have a discussion of relevance.

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    2. actually Pu has been flying around the atmosphere since the dawn of the ages. Its only recently (the last 60 years) that man has been able to measure it and the last 13 since 911, when radiation instrument technology has emerged a quantum leap above the previous generation that the minutest amount of transuranics can be detected. Just because we can detect them, doesnt make it inherrently dangerous. Man has been living on a radioactive planet since the days of burning coal and before. You need to understand the various source term mechanisms that NATURALLY occur just because this is a radioactive planet.

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    3. Hate to burst your bubble, but quote "Man has been living on a radioactive planet since the days of burning coal" because of the radioisotopic content of said coal. Oxidizing such radioisotopes was an amazing delivery method as it was both solid at room temperature and water soluble.
      What was it? Out of a 112 boxcar train, at least the contents of one or two were Uranium?

      That is certainly an artificial process.

      Quote: ..." radiation instrument technology has emerged a quantum leap above the previous generation that the minutest amount of transuranics can be detected."

      Good luck making a room clean enough for those kinds of detections with today's "new background" levels. Somebody needs to learn how to harness all that free background bullshit now, as it might be enough to power a small mobile.

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    4. @Dud, thanks for responding to the "background apologist"

      the amount truly natural Pu from a very rare reaction of uranium is like 1 in a Trlllion....

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  13. Replies
    1. Hit the reply directly under the comment you want to reply to. Yeah I saw that too. Anon trying to play the "background" lie

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  14. As a retired nuke professional let me state what I know and what rumors I hear... lol
    Yes, you are spot on on your assessment of Pu inhalation, but we can NOT state that to general public or we would have never got any nuke plant off the drawing paper. Also, I myself was one of these dose is dose guys for years. I now fully comprehend dose is not dose when you take into account an uptake. If dose was dose, why are so many of my friends dying or dead from Rocky Flats. So, basically we spread the lie so long that we as professionals even believe it, but hey somebody has got to do the work.
    Now what I hear, there was off gassing in panel 7, I heard major VOC's and the bosses were warned. I imagine a lot of it was more than likely Hydrogen. When the fire broke out, the fire system on the truck and a fire extinguisher both failed! They both were serviced by a fire suppression company that isn't very reputable and rumor has it there may have been kickbacks given to keep this lush contract. I was told this company isn't even supposed to be working on these systems as he isn't an authorized service rep by this manufacturer. I looked it up and found this to be a true statement. So, the audit did prove the system didn't work as stated. When the complex shifted into filtration mode, the air flow was greatly slowed and the "believed" result was a type of back Draft explosion from the offgasing fumes traveling down to the fire and then flashing back into the active panel resulting in an explosion. Yes I looked at and pulled the doe report on the fire. Also I got a tip the seismic equipment has not worked in years and sure enough..There is a lack of reporting on this subject. Now, as far as ground stability is concerned there is as HUGE difference between salt domes like in Houston and the salt the WIPP is built in. These ancient sea beds and layered with clay, iron, ash, etc. NOT like salt domes.. (hint hint) So, the million dollar question for me is : Who kept this fire system company in business and are they going to prosecute them? Why risk workers lives? Fill it full of cement...have we started pumping yet?
    I'll look back for questions and answer when I can.
    God Bless with this mess.

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    1. Quote: "Yes, you are spot on on your assessment of Pu inhalation, but we can NOT state that to general public or we would have never got any nuke plant off the drawing paper."

      It's too late to stop them.
      If only we had come to our senses earlier.

      Instead of "Atoms For Peace", it appears we have "pieces of atoms", as a "trickle-down" affect.

      I wonder if the seismic equipment malfunctions had anything to do with any possible unforseen nearby drilling, etc.

      Is Hydrogen able to act as an oxidizer in the context of such storage?

      Thanks, gentlemen.

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    2. Sorry so long, what I could find was the service company's name is Southwest Safety Specialists. The system is an Ansul system and he is NOT listed as a distributor on their Web site. I don't remember the names of the clay formation but 20 years ago we called it clay "G" and they used to mine the roof along this line until they had some problems in panel 2 and learned the clay was acting as a slip sheet and not allowing the salt to close in uniformly. There are several layers of salt formations and plenty of info on net. Thanks again.

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    3. Here what I found on my own search. WIPP ' s safety record is as deceitful as we thought! There are numerous permit violations that have been swept under the rug! Cesium uptake, worker almost killed in parking lot, backfalls, non-compliance on numerous incidents. They even had a 13 Curie Pu-Be source that made it into their waste stream and got stored in the underground before anyone caught it! That is WAY past their acceptance criteria. The safety company quoted above has been the service provider on numerous fires where the systems were either installed or serviced by this company! Ansul said the system that was installed on the truck that caught fire should have been more than adequate to extinguish the fire if the system was working and had been properly serviced, period. That system even had an automatic detection device that didn't need human interaction to activate! Report after the fire said it had been turned off!!???!! So in my feeble mind, I'm wondering who the owner of this "safety" company is related to??!!

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    4. It's on DOE'S website, but you have to have a sign in to access it. (Q clearance) The Plutonium Berillium source was accidentally thrown into a drum at another facility then shipped to WIPP. The rad tech that caught it at wipp, noted on his survey the drum was over 300 m/Rem (millirem) Neutron radiation an hour @ 30 cm !! WOW Upon trying to locate the worker that shipped the source, it was noted he no longer worked for the company (conviently) so no further information was available!!!! Wow !!

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  15. I find your research flawed and incredulous.

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    1. Holy crap, that is spot on. Why aren't these wipp incidents made public? And how in the hell does a 13 Curie source just go missing? Now that's bullshit!! Guess we can gather their drum loading protocol is total BS. One thing I'm curious about is the fire contractor. Don't you have to meet certain criteria before becoming a contractor for the government? I didn't think any fly by night company could get a contract??

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  16. This really isnt very scientific.

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    1. this troll has been everywhere .... check IP address ...

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    2. At FCF: Indeed I pegged the trolls IP and its at Oak Ridge, imagine that.

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  17. Stock,
    Just want you to know the 1st commenter, "Douglas", is not the same one who's been commenting in Conca's Forbes'.

    This is the Douglas who comments @ Forbes.

    Identify the IP address, and note the "chicanery"!

    Yeah!

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