Ambrose Bierce, as he appeared in 1892
 born June 24, 1842, disappeared December 26, 1913, 

Tuesday Morning EDT/
Tuesday Evening Japan Time
Nightmare Update

Assisted today by Ambrose Bierce's Devil's Dictionary

HEMP, n. A plant from whose fibrous bark is made an article of neckwear which is frequently put on after public speaking in the open air and prevents the wearer from taking cold.

Authorities continue to withhold accurate radiation reading emanating from Fukushima Daiichi and spreading around the world. Only radioactive iodine is being somewhat monitored, which, with its relatively short half life,  is the least of our worries.

HEAVEN, n. A place where the wicked cease from troubling you with talk of their personal affairs, and the good listen with attention while you expound your own.


EX-SKF blogger gives us the fantastic story today that the symbol or mascot of the Fukushima Daiichi Plant 1  is the ostrich. He is not kidding. The Yomiuri Shinbun reports today, so far only in the Japanese edition as far as I can tell, that there is an ostrich farm with thirty of the pathetic creatures that have been left to die for lack of care in the evacuated area near the plant. Why the ostrich? Fukushima Daiichi public relations states:
"Just like an ostrich that grow big on small feed, the nuclear power plant that generates large amount of electricity with small amount of uranium"

HOSPITALITY, n. The virtue which induces us to feed and lodge certain persons who are not in need of food and lodging.

The Wall Street Journal tells us that officials are inspecting wrecked Plant 1 for leaks today with robots.  I suspect this attempt to discover the location of leaks that must be patched before continuing with a scheme to fill the damaged and cracked plants with water in an attempt to stall the continuing meltdowns of reactor cores will unfortunately be futile. There are also leaks in the spent fuel rod pool at Plant 4 that must be repaired unless they are happy with a situation that requires constant addition of water to prevent waste fuel ignition, which creates tons and tons of new radioactive water which will end up in the Pacific Ocean. The more I think about it, the more I believe that this huge mangled beast will never be tamed. This mess is going its own way no matter what the authorities say. 

IDIOT, n. A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant and controlling. The Idiot's activity is not confined to any special field of thought or action, but "pervades and regulates the whole." He has the last word in everything; his decision is unappealable. He sets the fashions and opinion of taste, dictates the limitations of speech and circumscribes conduct with a dead-line.

Protesters in the UK are complaining about the Prince Charles' guest list for the upcoming nuptials of his son. They are upset that some of the royal attendees include various princes and kings from countries mostly in the Middle East and dictators from Commonwealth nations which are not quite up to their standards in granting civil rights to their people. 

Don't these people understand that their Royals created those Royals and dictators? 

From bad comes bad. 

Protest the fact that you have your Own Parasitical Royals, not the fact that they tend to hang out with their spiritual offspring. 

ROSTRUM, n. In Latin, the beak of a bird or the prow of a ship. In America, a place from which a candidate for office energetically expounds the wisdom, virtue and power of the rabble.

The Huffington Post presents to us a handy interactive map that shows the location of nuclear plants around the world. It makes it easy to check how close you live to a death dealing device from Hell and how old and dangerous it is. They try to suggest that "legal costs" helped prevent plants being built since Chernobyl, which is relatively insignificant in a totally subsidized industry.  Ignore the BS about how much greenhouse gas has been prevented by these plants. That is pure propaganda from the nuclear industry akin to telling someone he  has fortunately avoided further leg injuries since having that double amputation.

MEDAL, n. A small metal disk given as a reward for virtues, attainments or services more or less authentic. It is related of Bismark, who had been awarded a medal for gallantly rescuing a drowning person, that, being asked the meaning of the medal, he replied: "I save lives sometimes." And sometimes he didn't.

TEPCO released a vague, poorly labeled and confusing radiation map of Fukushima Daiichi on April 23. 

OMEN, n. A sign that something will happen if nothing happens.

The India Express quotes the determined Srikumar Banerjee, chairman, Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) who says there is "no substitute" for nuclear energy and that the country is going forward with the Jaitapur project: 

“Around 40 per cent of the country’s population does not have access to electricity. If providing power to those deprived of it is important for growth, then there is no substitute to nuclear energy. Coal, for instance, won’t last forever. Also, if we consider coal as the option to produce energy, then we would be increasing the carbon dioxide emission by 50 per cent, which, on the backdrop of depleting environmental conditions is not feasible. Nuclear energy is thus sustainable energy, not for decades but for centuries. Also the volume of nuclear waste is very small.” 

Of course, they are doing it for the people. 

ORATORY, n. A conspiracy between speech and action to cheat the understanding. A tyranny tempered by stenography.

Yesterday Emperor Akihito ate fish caught at the town of Kitaibaraki forty miles from the Fukushima Daiichi plant. "I felt calm when I saw His Majesty's face. Tear came to my eyes." said a 74 year old survivor at a shelter he was visiting yesterday. 

OSTRICH, n. A large bird to which (for its sins, doubtless) nature has denied that hinder toe in which so many pious naturalists have seen a conspicuous evidence of design. The absence of a good working pair of wings is no defect, for, as has been ingeniously pointed out, the ostrich does not fly.