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originally posted by: Komodo
they're pockets are deep and so are they friends
originally posted by: PeaceVindicator
She had her thyroid removed when she was 15 and takes ridiculous amounts of medication daily for her health problems caused by the radiation in the area, Praxair, the Coke plant, etc.
I thank God that I've since been able to help get her out of that neighborhood.
It's definitely worth researching the history of where you live. If the rumors that our government raised acceptable radiation levels to accommodate the Fukushima fallout are true, that about sums it up.
originally posted by: bonaire
a reply to: MyMindIsMyOwn
I have passed the Ashland stink-zone refinery ever since I was a kid.
Modern disposal in Ransomville has one of the only truly hazardous waste reclaimation sites in the area.
Keep digging into this area. It is worth at least publishing your story in the Niagara Falls Reporter, the local rag, which exposes issues like this.
originally posted by: schuyler
1) It could really use an "Executive Summary" at the top which lists the main points of your research.
2) Your tone is completely academic, then suddenly we get something like this: “This site was once a very bad place but is no longer. We have evidence of fairies, unicorns and trace elements of rainbow dust. All is well." Now I know you are just trying to be sarcastic here, and the sentences themselves are very witty. You ought to be proud you can turn a phrase such as that. But it is COMPLETELY out of place and your credibility suffers as a result.
What you absolutely must do here is save your stints of creative writing for something else and play it straight here.
3) You can certainly establish that it was USED at Hanford, but to say it is "Hanford Tailings" is misleading at best.
WHAT chemicals? WHERE are they from? And so forth.
This is a very weak part of your paper, and the thing is, critics will jump on your weakest points to emphasize.
A lawyer told me once, "If you have five arguments, with two being really good and three being so-so, don't even bring up the three so-so arguments because your opponent will use those three arguments against you.
4) So far you're really only banking on fear.
You make fun of "them" saying, in essence, "everything is peachy," with your rainbows statement, but that's as far as you go. What if it is "peachy"?
It kind of reminds me of the kid who urinated in a water reservoir in Oregon and got caught. What did the authorities do? They dumped millions of gallons of fresh water to "clean out" this reservoir from this horrible urine.
5) Your documentation isn't very good. It hardly exists at all. You say several times that you "can't cite this" because of the nature of the research and the set up of the search engine you used to produce a report, but it's much more than that.
Horse pucky...and how dare you (sorry, you really hit a nerve here and that just plain hurt). I've presented what I have to date with much of what I cite from Government sources on the issue at hand. As for the inability to link specific site code reports that is of no fault of mine, address it with the DEC website developers. I did the best I could at that point by providing the main report generation page and the information needed to populate the necessary fields so that for those who cared enough to look, could see specifically what I was looking at. The bullet points under those are directly from the DEC reports aside from sarcastic personal opinions which are obvious.
CONTINUED
6) Right now your motivation appears to be because one friend is about to "move in" to this complex and this one friend "has a concern."
Well, that was infact the initial motivation, so your statement there is spot on. It's from this initial concern that now my scope has widened to a great degree. I've done what I can for our friend in giving her even more information than she already knew of, so while this may sound insensitive, her next move is purely her own. I take pride in knowing that I have at least provided her and her co-workers with information not previously given to them so that whatever their next step may be will be one made in a more informed fashion. However, MY next step is to focus on my backyard, literally, which is an area where my involvement may have some benefit and after that who knows. Maybe if I can get some folks together locally to tackle this we can take on the whole of western NY, wouldn't that be great!
7) I REALLY hope ATS is not your sole venue for this.
Thank you for acknowledgment of the work I have put into this already, much appreciated. Unfortunately, ATS is the only platform to present this information available to me at this point. If you or anyone else has any ideas, then I would love to hear them. Honestly, I would. I think this issue deserves more attention than it is getting. For me, it's almost like playing the game of 'Hot Potato"... now I've got it, to whom do I throw it?
Again, I do appreciate your observations and constructive criticism on this no matter how stinging it was. I am sure that taking your excellent points into consideration in writing up my next thread, they will make it all the better for reading. I cannot however guarantee there will not be one or 2 snarky bits included, it's just who I am.
I do have one question for you. Taking your professional experience in the library sciences into consideration do you think a good place to start looking for information outside the internet is the local library? If so, what questions should I be asking the librarian to direct me to the correct information? Any ideas on local agencies that may be able to help? Lastly, aside from the tips on actual write up, can you point me in any other direction that may prove fruitful?
6) Right now your motivation appears to be because one friend is about to "move in" to this complex and this one friend "has a concern."
7) I REALLY hope ATS is not your sole venue for this.
originally posted by: MyMindIsMyOwn
LOL, in all honesty I was wondering when or if you would enter the thread. While I'm sure your tone was not meant to be as insulting as it is, the criticism is actually appreciated.
Right now your motivation appears to be because one friend is about to "move in" to this complex and this one friend "has a concern." Well, what's the easiest solution to that? If your friend "has a concern," then don't move in. It's not going to get better any time soon. So if there is all this concern, then the solution is to not go there. Problem (for her) solved. With all this evidence, in fact, how could anyone in their right mind "move in" at all? Therefore, in formulating your introduction and summaries, the overall health of the region and its populace must be the motivating factor--not your friend. You can certainly mention in passing that the "concerns of an acquaintance" fueled your interest, but that simply cannot be your motivation for this research.
I've been there, and I've experienced what I'm talking about. But if you're the smartest guy in the world, there's no talking to you. It's not really my fight, and the one thing you have done is make me regret I spent as much time on this as I did. On the other hand, you didn't ask me to, so thanks for the lesson.