Artie Schopenhauer
If I ever get the financing
for my Schopy script I'm casting Ed Harris.
What do you think?

Saturday Morning EDT/

Saturday Evening Japan Time

Voici! La tour est frappé par la foudre.
Il s'effondre vers le destin inévitable.

Update. 

Presented today with the words of  

Arthur Schopenhauer, 19th Century German Philosopher
b. 22 February 1788 in Danzig 
d. 21 September 1860 in Frankfurt

He postulates that the world makes no sense.  

He was a favorite of the Romantics.
In his dissertation, 'The Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason'
He says that different classes of things needed to be explained in different ways. 
He also suspects that metaphysical things cannot be properly explained by man since man's sensory apparatus is strictly limited. 
This observation is the basis of his criticisms of Hegel, among others, for having a flawed ontology (study of the nature of what is) by making assumptions about God's existence.  
Crowley would call this error the curse of because. 
Schopenhauer's insights on Will can be especially instructive, I believe, for my Thelemite friends.
"Will" is the ruling force of the universe; 
However "Will" is irrational and stupid, more id than superego or even ego.
Schopenhauer's philosophy finds the whole universe 
Driven by mad reflex movements 
Akin to the activities of  selfish scrambling menacing archons as described by the gnostics.
Yet this activity has no self knowledge at all.  
Arthur had woman problems during his life. 
He held his mother in contempt. 
At the age of 31 he got a woman pregnant. 
The baby  died. 
Later he lost a judgement for pushing down a screaming woman who refused to leave his doorstep. 
He had to pay her off for twenty years, 
Until she died. 
He wrote "Obit anus, abit onus" on her death certificate. 
He always kept two  poodles, 
Always naming them Atman and Butz. 
He hoped that the insanity of the universe could be escaped 
Via a kind of oriental transcendentalism and a repression of worldly desires. 

"The deep pain that is felt at the death of every friendly soul arises from the feeling that there is in every individual something which is inexpressible, peculiar to him alone, and is, therefore, absolutely and irretrievably lost."


Today Takashi Sawada, the deputy director of the Japan Atomic Energy Society optimistically said the Fukushima Daiichi crisis will take another two to three months to resolve. However TEPCO admits that it still doesn't even have a plan to solve the myriad problems they are facing at the destroyed complex.

The Death Toll from the earthquake and tsunami is officially over 13,000. Over 14,000 are missing. 

There are no estimates yet on the number expected to die from radiation, yet we can expect that any number but their own will be disputed by the industry. The effects of small dose radiation are not manifest for many years and can be attributed to anything else by nuclear apologists.

"My guiding star in all seriousness has been truth. Following it, I could first aspire only to my own approval, entirely averted from an age that has sunk low as regards all higher intellectual efforts, and from a national literature demoralised but for the exceptions, a literature in which the art of combining lofty words with low sentiments has reached its zenith."

TEPCO is selling real estate assets to pay for their damages arising from Fukushima Daiishi. The Japanese Government is mulling ways to "save" TEPCO by setting up an insurance fund.

"Unlike man, animals, so to speak, live without knowing death. The individual animal enjoys fully the immutability of its gender, being conscious of itself only as an immortal being." 

For those of you concerned about radiation levels and maybe do not trust the authorities to tell you the truth about such things here is a neat prototype geiger counter  ad-on for your iphone.  Knowledge is power. Yet having knowledge of invisible death, while, at the same time, knowing nothing can be done about it, is a recipe for despair. 

"First remove murder from the world, and then capital punishment ought to follow."

“Damage by perception. Let’s fight against it.”- a poster in Sakuna, a restaurant in a government ministry.

Japanese politicians are publicly eating vegetables and fruits from Fukushima prefecture in an attempt to buck up the population.

"Pride is generally censured and decried, but mainly by those who have nothing to be proud of."

It is not a good time to buy a Japanese automobile or repair one you already may have. Factories in Japan are operating at reduced capacity and many models are in short supply. Whatever models available are being sold at top dollar. Repair parts are scarce including parts for All-American models like the Cadillac which use many Japanese parts.

"Marrying means, to grasp blindfolded into a sack hoping to find out an eel out of an assembly of snakes."

Mort au milieu de tout plaisir mondain,

Sus bouleronde, semble tres-fort dormir:

Mais son reveil est mobile & soudain,

Dont faut-il estre toujours prest de mourir.


Death in the middle of worldly pleasure,
Upon the round ball comes the strongest semblance of sleep:
But his wake up call is sudden and jolting,
For isn't it necessary to be always ready to die. 

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839-1892), from the series One Hundred Aspects of the Moon, created 1885-1892

Thursday Morning EDT/

Thursday Evening Japan Time

Catastrophic Something is Wrong With This Catastrophe Update

"I believe there will ultimately be a clash between the oppressed and those doing the oppressing. I believe that there will be a clash between those who want freedom, justice and equality for everyone and those who want to continue the system of exploitation. I believe that there will be that kind of clash, but I dont think it will be based on the colour of the skin." - Malcolm X

I must admit that much of the most interesting news from Japan is coming from Bloomberg. The bank lobby in Japan has urged the government to take half the responsibility for claims of compensation against TEPCO for the devastation caused by their fragile nuclear plant complex. Masayuki Oku, head of the Japanese Bankers Association also urged that the Japanese government not nationalize TEPCO. My advice is that the government should act in the best interests of the people and not the banks or TEPCO. Bad companies deserve to die. 

"Life is beautiful. Let future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full."- Leon Trotsky

No one on Wall Street has yet to go to jail for the events surrounding the economic implosion of 2007-2009. Senator Carl Levin's committee investigating Goldman Sachs yesterday said Goldman's representatives lied to Congress in hearings under oath soon after those events. The committee forwarded that information to the Attorney General's office for action. Attorney General Holder has not shown any inclination to pursue wrong doing by the investor class. I predict Roger Clemens will be punished far more than any banker for lying to Congress.

"All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind." -Adam Smith

Reuters tells us that International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn insisted yesterday that the IMF's lending programs will not include targets to ameliorate unfair distribution of income or improve wages for workers in projects funded by the loans or demand improved working conditions in countries getting these loans. In other words, the IMF is  pleased that the sheep are going to continue to get screwed. Strauss-Kahn said that the IMF will continue to work with labor groups but that the IMF does not have the expertise to do anything about imbalances in income or worry about airy fairy considerations. 

"I don't believe I'm going to turn the IMF into an institution with a lot of expertise on this question. I don't see these topics becoming defined targets for IMF programs." Dominique Strauss-Kahn to an audience at the Brookings Institution

"I spent 33 years in the Marines. Most of my time being a high-classed muscle man for Big business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenue in. I helped in the rape of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street...." 

- Smedley D. Butler (1881-1940) Major General (U.S. Marine Corps)
Twice awarded the Medal of Honor
"War is a Racket" (Please read this link. General Butler tells it like it is.)


I say to the anarchists: government is not so much the problem as the demon corporations which have literally possessed government. These invisible and  powerful creatures which have been imagined into existence by truly evil men who lust for power, must be exorcised. Until the corporations have been discorporated there will be no personal freedom. And that goes for the "charitable foundations" too.

The corporate banks are pirates who have taken possession of whole countries through crooked loans for projects that seldom benefit the people.
The weapons corporations have turned the American people and their leaders into de facto war mongers who have directed their government's military forces into hundreds of countries to "defend" them and is making war in several countries on the guidance of their possessors. The present and future wealth of the people has been stolen in advance to finance these destructive and oppressive activities.

Governments become corrupt through the actions of corrupt people who hide behind the artificial construct of the corporation. Men must stop using legal unreal entities such as "think tanks", trusts, foundations, and corporations as masks to wear while committing crimes and forcing people to do what they are not interested in doing. These legal fictions must be abolished.

Freedom is for human beings and human beings must be responsible for what they do with their freedom.

I have no problem with entrepreneurs who, through honest enterprise, want to amass some wealth. I understand that some men are greedy and desire riches beyond their ability to use. The good person in society can avoid such men. Their reputation precedes them. But when such brigands band together behind the mask of the corporation the world must tremble. I would prefer that they war amongst themselves as individuals. They would  harm each other more and hurt the people less. The damage they do is self-limiting if they cannot mobilize together against the general population. Ending the corporate system would bring the concept of real  competition and "survival of the fittest" to the protected capitalist class for the first time in generations.

If corporations are people, let's start putting them on trial, and then in jail and finally applying capital punishment. Killing a corporation sheds no blood, which is better than Goldman Sachs, General Electric or whatever Halliburton calls itself now, can say.

It is necessary to simply declare these creatures enemies of mankind, Hostis humani generis, and take from them their patents, their property and their wealth as ill-gotten gains.
The officers and executives of these corporations must be held accountable for the method they used to gather their riches.

"This month's safety slogan: Be sure to check everything and do a risk assessment. Zero disasters for this year." A sign still posted outside the gate of the Fukushima Daiishi Nuclear Complex 
Related articles

• "Carl Levin To Refer Goldman To Justice Department, SEC For Misleading Investors And Committing Perjury" and related posts (zerohedge.com)
• Senate Panel Slams Goldman Sachs (huffingtonpost.com)

Rudolf Steiner in 1889. 

Midnight EDT/

Noon Japan Time Update

Our guest commentator today is the anthroposophist Rudolf Steiner, who was born 25 or 27 February 1861 in Donji Kraljevec, then Kingdom of Hungary, Austrian Empire, now Croatia, and died 30 March 1925 in Dornach,Switzerland.

Underneath the solid earth there are a large number of subterranean spaces which communicate to the sixth layer, that of fire. This element of the fire-earth is intimately connected with the human will. It is this element which has produced the tremendous eruptions that brought the Lemurian epoch to an end. At that time the forces which nourish the human will went through a trial which unleashed the fire catastrophe that destroyed the Lemurian continent. In the course of evolution this sixth layer receded more and more toward the center and as a result volcanic eruptions became less frequent. And yet they are still produced as a result of the human will which, when it is evil and chaotic, magnetically acts on this layer and disrupts it. Nevertheless, when the human will is devoid of egoism, it is able to appease this fire. Materialistic periods are mostly accompanied and followed by natural cataclysms, earthquakes, etc. Growing powers of evolution are the only alchemy capable of transforming, little by little, the organism and the soul of the earth.-Rudolf Steiner, An Esoteric Cosmology

Yesterday TEPCO desperately sought ways to retrieve spent fuel rods from the leaking storage pools. This is a tacit admission that the effort to keep these rods cool using vast quantities of water was a losing battle. Temperatures in these pools are still rising as are surging radiation levels and the threat of spontaneous combustion of the rods is a real threat according to this story from the Associated Press.  It was obvious from the beginning that the creation of irradiated water indefinitely was not a feasible plan. Of course, we know now that TEPCO never had a plan for this. And we know that TEPCO was storing far more spent fuel at the site than acknowledged or permitted. 

"It may be difficult to completely remove the contaminated water and so allow work to proceed. We may need to think of other options." -Hidehiko Nishiyama, Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency Deputy Director-General

Assume for instance that we take, as firewood, wood that is derived from trees which were planted in the Earth without understanding of the cosmic rhythms. It will not provide the same health-giving warmth as firewood from trees that were planted intelligently. These things enter especially into the more intimate relationships of daily life, and here they show their great significance. Alas! the life of people has become almost entirely thoughtless nowadays. They are only too glad if they do not need to think of such things. They think it must all go an just like any machine. You have all the necessary contrivances; turn on the switch, and it goes. So do they conceive, materialistically, the working of all Nature.- Rudolf Steiner, The Agriculture Course

It seems that much  reclaimed land around Tokyo Bay has undergone liquefaction from the effects of the earthquake according to Bloomberg. Some of the most affected land is in the Urayasu suburb. The alchemy of the earthquake basically turns the loose reclaimed land to mud. Urayasu is one of only three residential areas in Tokyo that enjoyed increased housing values last year. 

“The problem is, buyers who bought the high-rise apartments because of the convenience of the bay area’s location and a view of the ocean are now reminded of danger,” said Miyoshi Kaido, a manager at Sanyu Appraisal Corp., a Tokyo-based property appraisal company. “We will see a rising number of sellers.”

Significantly, Disneyland is located in Urayasu. One can study elsewhere the esoteric nature of the fantasy-land of Disney if one desires. Fantasy and imagination in the service of greed is a trickster djinn. 

Take yarrow—a plant which is generally obtainable. If there is none of it in the district, you can use the dried herb just as well. Yarrow is indeed a miraculous creation. No doubt every plant is so; but if you afterwards look at any other plant, you will take it to heart all the more, what a marvel this yarrow is. It contains that of which I told you that the Spirit always moistens its fingers therewith when it wants to carry the different constituents — as carbon, nitrogen, etc. — to their several organic places. Yarrow stands out in Nature as though some creator of the plant-world had had it before him as a model, to show him how to bring the sulphur into a right relation to the remaining substances of the plant.
One would fain say, “In no other plant do the Nature-spirits attain such perfection in the use of sulphur as they do in yarrow.” And if you also know of the working of yarrow in the animal or human organism —if you know how well it can make good all that is due to weaknesses of the astral body (provided it is rightly carried into the biological sphere) — then you will trace it still farther, in its yarrow-nature, throughout the entire process of plant growth. Yarrow is always the greatest boon, wherever it grows wild in the country — at the edges of the fields or roads, where cereals or potatoes or any other crops are growing. It should on no account be weeded out. (Needless to say, we should prevent it from settling where it becomes a nuisance — it may become a nuisance, though it is never actually harmful). 

In a word, like sympathetic people in human society, who have a favourable influence by their mere presence and not by anything they say, so yarrow, in a district where it is plentiful, works beneficially by its mere presence.-Rudolf Steiner, The Agriculture Course

This AFP story reports that the ranks of the workers at Fukushima Daiishi are "thinning" but that some are ignoring personal radiation limits as they push on in the spirit of the samurai.

"...engineer Hiroyuki Kohno was heading back into the leaking plant, fully aware that one day it could make him very ill.
"My boss phoned me three days ago. He told me: 'The situation over there is much worse than what the media are reporting. It is beyond our imagination. But, will you still come?'," he told AFP.
"It was just that. We didn't need to say anything more because we both knew that the situation is really dreadful," the soft-spoken Kohno said, leaving lengthy pauses between his sentences.
The two did not discuss financial reward or compensation for the possible long-term health risks, which could include cancer.
"It's not even about money any more,"

We know that TEPCO has raised the radiation exposure limits for workers at the site three times. We also know that not all of the workers have been given personal dosimeters and must trust the company to track their exposure. We also know that the rapacious TEPCO has been using low paid  temporary workers who have negligible benefits.

To some extent, in this respect, the potato is akin to the tomato. The potato, too, works in a highly independent way, and in this sense: it passes easily right through the digestive process, penetrates into the brain, and makes the brain independent — independent even of the influence of the remaining Organs of the body. Indeed, the exaggerated use of potatoes is one of the factors that have made men and animals materialistic since the introduction of potato cultivation into Europe. We should only eat just enough potatoes to stimulate our brain and head-nature. The eating of potatoes, above all, should not be overdone.- Rudolf Steiner, The Agriculture Course

Southern Co. (SO) Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Thomas Fanning, whose company won $8.33 billion in U.S. nuclear loan guarantees last year, said the nation should build reactors without letting radiation releases from a Japanese plant “distract us from what we must do here.” Bloomberg reports. 

That's easy for you to say, Tom. I might be tempted to dispose of all morality and decency for an $8.33 billion loan guarantee from Uncle Sam. Get the tar and feathers for Mr. Potato, boys. 

Samuel Beckett in Paris

Wednesday Morning EDT/
Wednesday Evening Japan Time
We Must Cater To The Rich Update

With The Help of Samuel Barclay Beckett 
13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989

"My mistakes are my life."–How It Is

TEPCO admitted today that they have no plan on how they are going to solve the problems presented by the destroyed Fukushima Daiichi complex and that they have basically been pulling ideas out of their ass as they go along as we read in the Telegraph.UK today.


"As instructed by Prime Minister (Naoto) Kan, we are working out the specific details of how to handle the situation so they can be disclosed as soon as possible. We are making the utmost effort to bring the reactors at Fukushima Daiichi to a cold shutdown and halt the spread of radiation."-Masataka Shimizu, the president of Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) yesterday

Reuters gives us the nuts and bolts of the state of the site today. They are still dealing with the endless problem of dealing with the radioactive water that is constantly being produced by their efforts to prevent meltdowns and the ignition of radioactive waste.

“Humanity is a well with two buckets,” said Wylie, “one going down to be filled, the other coming up to be emptied.”–Murphy, Chapter 4

Meanwhile in the United States nuclear operators are on a public relations blitz to reassure the public that it can't happen here. This article from The State, South Carolina's Newspaper titled "'Nothing to Hide' Tour of Jenkinsville Nuclear Plant" is a perfect example.

"Stephen Byrne, SCE&G’s chief operating officer and head of generation and transmission of power, noted that Jenkinsville, in Fairfield County about 25 miles northwest of Columbia, was about 150 miles from the South Carolina coast and not located near the intersection of planetary tectonic plates where the world’s most intense earthquakes and tsunamis, such as the ones that struck Japan, occur.

“Jenkinsville is not a tsunami zone,” he told the media Tuesday. He said the tour was arranged to counter the public’s “fear of the unknown.”
“We have nothing to hide,” he said. “The plants are safe.”

Perhaps Mr. Byrne has missed the point. In the universe there is an infinity of unknown and unforeseen events that can happen. When just one of these events happens to damage your plant, Mr. Byrne, you still will be able to say that it is safe from tsunamis and earthquakes.  


"How agreeable it is to be confirmed, after a more or less long period of vacillation, in one’s first impressions. Perhaps this is what tempers the pangs of death."–Molloy, Part I

There was another fire at plant 4 yesterday as another aftershock knocked out power for a time to Fukushima Daiishi. It is unknown if the two events were related. TEPCO's stock price has fallen 75% since the earthquake. Their stock is still overvalued unless the government bails them out further, but that is what governments do to the people. They take their money and give it to incompetent corporations.

Bloomberg reported today that Japanese Bonds rose on lowered government assessments of the economy due to effects of the earthquake. 

Toyota's problems in Japan are interrupting supplies of parts to plants in the United States, Europe and the Philippines. 

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that losses to insurers could reach $34 billion as a result of the events in Japan. 

"We are all born mad. Some remain so."–Waiting for Godot

Kirstie Alley said someone tampered with her shoe in the dressing room prior to her fall on Dancing With the Stars Monday night but she was only joking says People Magazine.
The many deals are going down at the IMF meetings this week in Washington.
The plans that are not going down are just as interesting.
Serbia seeks "precautionary loans".
The IMF is warning the USA and other advanced economies to cut  budget deficits. The USA has the biggest deficit and the IMF would rather see it dealt with now rather than later. Of course, dealing with budget deficits will hurt the "recovery" but that really doesn't matter. A US recovery is just not in the cards. The IMF is also said to be whining about the mortgage interest and home tax deductions in US law. It has called the mortgage tax break "expensive and regressive" in the past.
Ireland and Greece were left on the rack when the IMF informed them they will not have their debt loads restructured.
The IMF is doing a "technical assessment" of Portugal this week.
The IMF made reassuring noises to Spain after they made positive moves to "overhaul" their pension system.
The IMF is giving Egypt $500 billion in "soft loans". Egypt is planning to build a huge superhighway and water pipelines with the money.
No doubt the IMF has plans for these assets when Egypt ultimately fails to make payments on the "soft loans".

NELL: One mustn’t laugh at those things, Nagg. Why must you always laugh at them?
NAGG: Not so loud!
NELL (without lowering her voice): Nothing is funnier than unhappiness, I grant you that. But–
NAGG (shocked): Oh!
NELL: Yes, yes, it’s the most comic thing in the world. And we laugh, we laugh, with a will, in the beginning. But it’s always the same thing. Yes, it’s like the funny story we have heard too often, we still find it funny, but we don’t laugh any more.
–Endgame

Example of  'superflat' art by Takashi Murakami

More on Takashi Murakami here: https://www.artsy.net/artist/takashi-murakami/works

Goethe by Andy Warhol

Tuesday Morning EDT/

Tuesday Evening Japan Time

Katastrophen und Unglück Bericht

With the Assistance of  

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
28 August 1749- 22 March 1832

"The first and last thing required of genius is the love of truth."

Today TEPCO officially classified the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster all the way to level 7 from level 5, equal to Chernobyl on the official scale of nuclear disasters. Level 7 is defined as the release of tens of thousands of terabecquerels of radioactive iodine 131. This followed the disclosure that 10,000 terabecquerels (a terabecquerel is one trillion becquerels, 1TBq = 1 trillion Bq = ~ 27 curies) of radiation per hour were estimated released into the environment for a time (as yet unknown) after the series of unfortunate events in March. Authorities say with confidence that radiation release is now under 1 terabecquerel an hour. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano apologized again today for the accident but said, "Unlike in the case of Chernobyl, we have not seen cases of direct damage to health because of the accident." It is early yet Mr. Edano and the problem is not under control. The nuclear beast takes his time. At one time a gentleman could only apologize for a colossal screw up like this by suicide in Japanese culture. No suicides of TEPCO executives have yet been reported.

Strong aftershocks continued today in northeast Japan. Authorities say their prime job is to protect the smashed nuclear site from further damage resulting from such aftershocks. Water is still being applied to reactor cores and cooling ponds to prevent meltdowns and spontaneous combustion of radioactive waste. 

"That is the true season of love, when we believe that we alone can love, that no one could ever have loved so before us, and that no one will love in the same way after us."

Prime Minister Naoto Kan had encouraging words for the masses today in a televised press conference.
 "Step by step, the reactors in the Fukushima Daiichi power plant are moving toward stability. The level of radioactive materials released is declining." 

"Every day, in every way, I'm getting better and better" ["Tous les jours à tous points de vue je vais de mieux en mieux."]-motto at the asylum of French psychologist Émile Coué de Châtaigneraie

"Whatever you can do or dream, begin it."

Kirstie Alley fell down again on dancing with the stars last night. Now we can attribute a cause to the aftershocks in Japan today. 

"As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live."

PG&E, the owner of California's Diablo nuclear plant decided not to seek licence renewals for two plants near major fault lines until earthquake vulnerability studies can be completed, or, at least until all this hysteria has subsided. Remember this: nuclear energy is the most government protected and subsidized energy thanks to the lobbying industry and crooked politicians. It produces expensive electricity if one is honest enough to total up all the costs. In fact, an honest accounting shows it loses money. No private company or investor would indulge in nuclear energy if there were no public protections and money involved. It is not clean. It is not safe. The taxpayers indemnify the operators for their mistakes. It is welfare for giant corporations that pay no taxes. Hello GE! That means you.

"If children grew up according to early indications, we should have nothing but geniuses."

A year ago April 20 BP's Deepwater Horizon oil drilling platform exploded and burned leading to the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Fran Ulmer, a member of the commission tasked to make recommendations  to prevent another such catastophe, expressed regret that the President and Congress had failed to act on any of the recommendations of that commission. In fact, Congress has acted to facilitate drilling and bypassing existing environmental protections since the spill. America is a great country if you are a corporation, a big corporation that can afford to buy corrupt politicians.

"It is easier to perceive error than to find truth, for the former lies on the surface and is easily seen, while the latter lies in the depth, where few are willing to search for it."

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal gave us hope. They said the big oil drilling corporations have done some "soul searching" and made changes on their own. BP has re-emphasized training for their drilling subcontractors. Wonderful!

"Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it!'

The World Bank and the IMF are meeting in Washington this week, with events April 12-16.
There are a lot of "work" presentations. Here are a few.
Wednesday at 10:00-IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn speaks before Brookings Institution "The Global Jobs Crisis: Sustaining the Recovery through Employment and Equitable Growth"

Thursday at 08:30- U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has a conversation with Lionel Barber of the Financial Times at the "Back to Work: Innovation, Investment & International Open Markets" conference.

Friday at 09:00- IMF roundtable on "Youth, Jobs, and InclusiveGrowth in the Middle East and North Africa." Participants include Dominique Strauss Kahn, IMF managing director, and Mustapha Nabli, Central Bank governor, Tunisia.

[Yes, the Arab Spring may replace the "leaders" but the bankers are eternal.]

 "All that philosophy can teach,

The lore of jurist and of leech,
I've mastered, ah! and sweated through
Theology's dead deserts, too,
Yet here, poor fool! for all my lore,
I stand no wiser than before."

Kumi Machida, Perch

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by
madness, starving hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn
looking for an angry fix, 
first lines from Howl

Monday Morning EDT/
Monday Evening Japan Time
With Inspiration from the American Poet Allen Ginsberg 

"Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It's that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that's what the poet does."

Another strong aftershock this morning briefly knocked out power to the Fukushima Daiichi plant complex. The Japanese government intends to increase the evacuation zone around the plant from 12 to 19 miles in certain areas, displacing many more thousands of people even as the government is claiming that risks from the leaking radiation were "considerably lower".

"Follow your inner moonlight; don't hide the madness."

Helen Caldicott goes off on George Monbiot ("a journalist not a scientist") and other nuclear apologists today in the Guardian.UK  and takes them to school. Her explication of the difference between external and internal radiation is enlightening on how the defenders of the industry confuse the issue. She shows that no level (even low levels) of radiation is safe. She then writes on the efforts to make Chernobyl appear less devastating than it was. 

.

"Proponents of nuclear power – including George Monbiot, who has had a mysterious road-to-Damascus conversion to its supposedly benign effects – accuse me and others who call attention to the potential serious medical consequences of the accident of "cherry-picking" data and overstating the health effects of radiation from the radioactive fuel in the destroyed reactors and their cooling pools. Yet by reassuring the public that things aren't too bad, Monbiot and others at best misinform, and at worst misrepresent or distort, the scientific evidence of the harmful effects of radiation exposure – and they play a predictable shoot-the-messenger game in the process."


A new book Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment. Published by the New York Academy of Sciences,  by Dr. Alexey Yablokov, Dr. Vassily Nesterenko and Dr. Alexey Nesterenko estimates that Chernobyl is responsible for close to a million deaths.
Book PDF: http://www.strahlentelex.de/Yablokov%20Chernobyl%20book.pdf

"Democracy! Bah! When I hear that word I reach for my feather Boa!"

China has expanded its ban on Japanese food products and has expressed concern about radioactive water discharge from the destroyed Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant complex. China has urged its neighbor on Friday to "act in accordance with relevant international laws." regarding radiation release in the ocean, something China knows is impossible for Japan to accomplish. Once the magic lamp of nuclear energy is broken, its deadly power may not be contained. China further commented in its Friday statement,"We ask Japan to provide China with timely, comprehensive and accurate information."

This is a consideration that Japan has been ignoring from the beginning. 

"Radioactive Nemesis were you there at the beginning black Dumb 
tongueless unsmelling blast of Disillusion?"

Slate Magazine's William Saletan tells us that humans are doing work that robots might do more safely at Fukushima Daiichi. This report asks the question, "How could such a robotically advanced country be so unprepared?"

Spoiler: Slate tells us that robots aren't available for this contingency because TEPCO decided they would be too expensive. Human life is cheap. TEPCO has even been using temporary workers in dangerous nuclear jobs because they have few benefits and lower pay. TEPCO's lack of preparedness for this catastrophe is instructive for us to understand the nuclear industry as a whole. Japan's nuclear industry had been held up as an example to the world prior to it being exposed by events. 

"Birdbrain runs the World!"

TEPCO announced today that the pumping of radioactive water into the sea was discontinued today. 

They are still pumping water all over the sight to cool spent fuel rods and reactor cores and, as has been repeatedly stated here, that water must go somewhere according to the laws of surface hydraulics. That water is still going to drain to the sea after making love to the radioactive materials at the ruined site. 

"Poets are damned...but see with the eyes of angels." 

Makoto Aida, Harakiri School Girls

Cartoon Attack on Thomas Paine

Sunday Morning EDT/
Sunday Evening Japan Time
Disaster Update 
With the Assistance of Thomas Paine, 29 January 1737 – 8 June 1809



"I have no wish to believe on that subject." (Paine's last words)

TEPCO continues to keep real time (and not so real time) radiation levels at Fukushima Daiishi to themselves. But we note that yesterday they employed a helicopter drone to photograph areas of the site to get more detail of damage. Radiation levels must be very dangerous to humans over those areas that an unmanned drone is the only safe way to obtain photographs.

"Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not YET sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favour; a long habit of not thinking a thing WRONG, gives it a superficial appearance of being RIGHT, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason."

Despite the entreaties of the Japanese government, China and other countries have expanded their ban on the import of Japanese foodstuffs. It is estimated that the loss to the Japanese economy in sales of food materials is $305 billion or 5% of Japan's GDP so far. My guess is that the final cost of this catastrophe to Japan will be in excess of $1 trillion. We must ask ourselves if our deal with the nuclear devil is worth it.

"It is pleasant to observe by what regular gradation we surmount the force of local prejudice as we enlarge our acquaintance with the world."


TEPCO has run into problems removing radioactive water from their destroyed nuclear reactor buildings at Fukushima says the Wall Street Journal. They are facing the question of how one can remove highly radioactive water from one place without contaminating another place. Unless they can develop a technology to deradiate water, this problem is insolvable. Fish from the area are being measured with higher than acceptable radiation levels and as noted above, the Japanese economy has been dealt a grievous blow by this "accident" which as we all know was totally preventable simply by avoiding the crude and dangerous technology which the nuclear industry has foisted on the world with the connivance of corrupt governments.


"Hereditary succession has no claim. For all men being originally equals, no one by birth could have the right to set up his own family in perpetual preference to all others for ever, and tho' himself might deserve some decent degree of honours of his contemporaries, yet his descendants might be far too unworthy to inherit them."

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan today.

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan in his natty jumpsuit toured the earthquake/tsunami/radiation damaged village of Ishinomaki in Miyagi prefecture today and promised:
“The government will give all its strength to work with you. We will never abandon you.”

"I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life."


Time Magazine reports on the discovery of an old man near the Fukushima Daiishi plant who has been stranded there since the earthquake.


"Each of those churches show certain books, which they call revelation, or the word of God. The Jews say, that their word of God was given by God to Moses, face to face; the Christians say, that their word of God came by divine inspiration: and the Turks say, that their word of God (the Koran) was brought by an angel from Heaven. Each of those churches accuse the other of unbelief; and for my own part, I disbelieve them all."

Votive Tablet of a Horse, 2001,  Akira Yamaguchi