Fukushima Update!

It still is bad and is getting worse. 
Radiation traced to the disaster has been found in California kelp. In fact there is 250 times the amount of radioactive iodine in the kelp than there was before the accident.
Japanese power companies are chomping at the bit to re-start their idle reactors.
USA Today reports that Japan's nuclear safety standards will now have "new guidelines" that probably are designed more to placate an angry anti-nuke populace than to actually ensure safety. There is only one nuke online at this time in Japan and it is scheduled to be shut down soon. Economy and Trade Minister Yukio Edano called the guidelines "easy to understand."
I am sure all will rest easy that the new manual is called "The Complete Idiot's Guide To Nuclear Safety."
Nuclear energy previously provided about a third of Japan's power. Japan's managers are warning that there could be blackouts this summer if nuclear plants are kept offline.
Last week four tons of radioactive water leaked into the Pacific from the Fukushima Daiichi  complex.
Oh, and in case you missed it, TEPCO sought a 12 BILLION dollar bailout from the Japanese people.
I thought (in this beautiful world capitalist system we all enjoy) bad, criminal,  unsuccessful, dangerous, and unreliable companies were supposed to go belly up, not get saved by the very same people they have harmed.

Well, it was discovered a little over a week ago that the water level was way too low and the radiation was way too high at the Fukushima plant complex.  Watch the video posted by AP on March 28.

The Archon, Devil Radiation, Assaults an Innocent

"I am he who received revelation from the Pleroma of Imperishability…
he who stripped himself and went about naked…."
From The (Second) Apocalypse of James



Fukushima!


It hasn't gone away.


It's still bad and getting worse.


TEPCO announced today that their Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility was experiencing record high  radiation levels. 
Reading of 10 sieverts an hour have been recorded in a ventilation duct at plants 1 and 2. Such a level of radiation is lethal after only an hour's exposure. 
This is double June's previous high readings at the site since the earthquake and subsequent tsunami triggered meltdowns at the inadequately designed and fortified reactor complex.
This is bad news for the workers trying to batten down the site.

Peter Burns, former chief executive officer of the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency, says given the scale of the Fukushima emergency, the high reading is to be expected.

"The levels reported of 10 sieverts per hour are very high levels and it's going to be very difficult to manage workers going into those areas and doing operations," he said.

"To put the 10 sieverts into context, that 10 sieverts is actually a lethal dose of radiation. So you can't afford to be exposed for more than a few minutes at those levels.

"It means you're directly exposed to fuel rods in the reactors or the spent fuel ponds very closely and while it's possible to get to those levels it means there is very little shielding going on there."

from an ABC News (Australia) report

But, as has been reported in this space, the workers at Fukushima Daiichi already expect to die. 

Abraxas begetteth truth and lying,
good and evil, light and darkness,
in the same word and in the same act.
Wherefore is Abraxas terrible.
It is love and love’s murder.
It is the saint and his betrayer.
It is the brightest light of day
and the darkest night of madness.

–The Seven Sermons to The Dead—

Yesterday the Japanese government expanded the prohibition of the shipment of cattle from another area in the vicinity of the radiation. Iwate prefecture may now not ship cattle along with Fukushima prefecture and Miyagi prefecture. Tochigi prefecture, closer to Tokyo, may soon be added to the list.
More and more food of all kinds, vegetables, seafood and meat. Has been found on grocers shelves with unacceptable radiation levels.
More and more we know and understand that the "clean and safe" nuclear industry  lied to the world and is harming all of us. But I should not have put the verb "lie" in the past tense.
Evil never gives up.

Straight from the Pleroma, Susan Hayward as Sophia

The Book of Thel, William Blake 

Sunday Morning EDT/

Sunday Evening Japan Time

Spiraling Down the Damn Drain

Update

Let's glance at the situation in Japan. 

It's been a while since we have done that, but as has been observed here all along. 

Things are bad. 

They are getting worse. 

They are still not letting much information out.

Failure To See The Forest For the Trees

Fukushima prefect is home to a flourishing moribund forest products industry. Several managed woodlands are in danger of falling into a state which will make them difficult to use in the near future Digital Journal reports. 

Approximately 341,000 acres (138,000 hectares) in Fukushima Prefecture are under the jurisdiction of five forestry cooperatives, based on information from the Fukushima Prefectural Government and an association of prefecture forestry cooperatives. Located in 11 municipalities, the woodlands are either part of a no-entry zone or required evacuation areas in coming weeks, based on government orders.
“If we can't go in to thin the trees for a year or longer, the underbrush will grow and the saplings that have been newly planted will suffer from lack of sunlight,” said Hiroshi Sagara, a forestry cooperative chief, the Mainichi Daily News (MDN) reports. “The forest will fall into disrepair and trees will fail to grow well.”

An untidy forest must be especially galling and unnerving to the Japanese. 

A small country with limited natural resources must manage well what it has. 

I live on nine acres of Maine woodland which I have begun to maintain in a manner which encourages orderly and healthy growth. It brings great satisfaction to stroll through the more maintained areas. 

Wild and unkempt is not necessarily good.

Yea, you shall leave in joy and be led home secure.

Before you, mount and hill shall shout aloud,

And all the trees in the field shall clap their hands.

Instead of the  brier, a cypress shall rise;

Instead of the nettle, a myrtle shall rise.

These shall stand as a testimony to the Lord,

As an everlasting sign that shall not perish. ISAIAH 55.12-13

Tanks For The Memories

The gambling known as business looks with austere disfavor upon the business known as gambling.

-Ambrose Bierce

TEPCO, it seems, according to reports,  is now committed to storing highly radioactive water ad infinitum. 

370 water storage tanks capable of holding a total 40,000 tons of water have been ordered by the corrupt and failing corporation in an attempt to prevent radiation from further contaminating the environment. 

TEPCO is reporting that they expect to lose $7 billion this year, not counting expected disaster compensation for the millions of victims of their incompetence. 

Filthy water cannot be washed. ~African Proverb


Yet they shall attempt to wash the filthy water using a French process. An estimated 15 million gallons of radioactive water remain on site in storage and in the ruined plants with more being created all the time in the attempts to calm down the meltdowns and incineration processes going on in the reactors and cooling bins.

Chico Harlan in the Washington Post tells us:

A potential turning point comes roughly two weeks from now, when Tepco plans to begin a treatment process in which water is sucked from the basement rooms and fed into a special tank, then treated with chemicals that eliminate its radioactivity. The process creates a byproduct of radioactive sludge, which is generally mixed with bitumen, poured into drums, then sealed and buried. The water itself can either be cycled back into reactors or discarded into the ocean.

The treatment system is being set up by Areva, a French company that uses the technology at its La Hague nuclear reprocessing plant, off the Normandy coast. Since 1997, Greenpeace — after taking water samples from La Hague’s discharge pipe — has made repeated claims that the supposedly decontaminated water in fact contains radioactivity levels above the regulatory limit.

The process “is not 100 percent, but it’s better than nothing,” Lochbaum said. “The alternative: you let the water simply evaporate and radioactivity carries to all parts far and wide.”

Mary taught me to go merry go round!
We're all going merry go round!
C'mon, c'mon let's merry go, merry go, merry go round! Boop boop boop!
Merry go, merry go, merry go round! Boop boop boop!
Merry go, merry go, merry go round!
I say let's merry go, merry go, merry go round!
I say let's merry go, merry go, merry go . . .
- Wild Man Fischer

Japanese Prime Minister and corporate flunky Naoto Kan will be stepping down this summer, reports the Wall Street Journal, so he can be replaced by another corporate flunky whose soiled and vile dirty laundry  hasn't yet been exposed to the public. Party Chairman Katsuya Okada  refuses to give a date for Kan's departure  because that would make him a lame duck!

It is no wonder that so many beautiful spirits have refused to be born into this world. 

I do believe I've had enough.

Take our politicians: they're a bunch of yo-yos. The presidency is now a cross between a popularity contest and a high school debate, with an encyclopedia of cliches the first prize. ~Saul Bellow

An IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) preliminary report blames the Fukushima Daiichi disaster on inadequate preparedness for tsunamis. The tsunami wall around the complex was 5.7 meters high. The wave that devastated the plant complex was 14 meters high. It is sadly amusing that the land that gave us the word "tsunami" was so unprepared for a real tsunami.

Last week the Japanese government revised exposure limits for children to radiation by a factor of twenty times  previously permitted, causing a furor among parents, which caused the government to back down on this policy. 

If these events haven't caused the obedient Japanese people to rise up and slaughter their venal politicians and greedy corporate men, then nothing will. 

Export of green tea from areas near Fukushima has been banned by the Japanese Government. I ask my strict libertarian friends:  Is this action is a proper function of government?

 She wanderd in the land of clouds thro' valleys dark, listning

Dolours & lamentations; waiting oft beside a dewy grave,
She stood in silence, listning to the voices of the ground,
Till to her own grave plot she came, & there she sat down,
And heard this voice of sorrow breathed from the hollow pit:

"Why cannot the Ear be closed to its own destruction?
Or the glistning Eye to the poison of a smile?
Why are Eyelids stord with arrows ready drawn,
Where a thousand fighting men in ambush lie?
Or an Eye of gifts & graces, show'ring fruits and coined gold?
Why a Tongue impress'd with honey from every wind?
Why an Ear, a whirlpool fierce to draw creations in?
Why a Nostril wide inhaling terror, trembling, and affright?
Why a tender curb upon the youthful burning boy?
Why a little curtain of flesh on the bed of our desire?"

The Virgin started from her seat, & with a shriek
Fled back unhinderd till she came into the vales of Har.

- Final lines, The Book of Thel, William Blake

The Book of Thel, Thel Leaning over the "Matron Clay" and the Worm

Charles Darwin, 1881, photograph by Herbert Rose Barraud

Wednesday Morning EDT/
Wednesday Evening Japan Time
Hell in a Handbasket Update

Presented with the assistance of Charles Darwin, 
12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882
He was a thoughtful, intelligent and conflicted man. 
He was not an ogre out to disestablish God. 
He sought truth as he found it in the study of Nature.
If you find an error in his work, 
And there are many, 
That doesn't mean you have proved that the Bible is inerrant.

To sum up, I believe that species come to be tolerably well-defined objects, and do not at any one period present an inextricable chaos of varying and intermediate links: firstly, because new varieties are very slowly formed, for variation is a very slow process, and natural selection can do nothing until favourable variations chance to occur, and until a place in the natural polity of the country can be better filled by some modification of some one or more of its inhabitants. And such new places will depend on slow changes of climate, or on the occasional immigration of new inhabitants, and, probably, in a still more important degree, on some of the old inhabitants becoming slowly modified, with the new forms thus produced and the old ones acting and reacting on each other. So that, in any one region and at any one time, we ought only to see a few species presenting slight modifications of structure in some degree permanent; and this assuredly we do see. - On The Origin Of Species

The Wall Street Journal has a summing up of the first day of the events at Fukushima Daiichi and tells us what readers of this blog already know. The cascading disaster at the nuclear plants was much worse than presented by the authorities and their failures of action and their lack of truthfulness were numerous. 

Some highlights:

-It was thought they were unneeded so there were no filters on the vent pipes to remove nuclear materials when high pressure radioactive gas filled the reactor buildings. This delayed venting to allow time for  evacuation and ultimately caused explosions. 

-The emergency cooling system at the melted down reactor one didn't operate properly, probably because of a combination of human error and battery failure after the loss of electrical power. 

-The emergency response center fifteen miles from the plant lost power and all (satellite, cell, landline) telephone communication. The emergency power plant failed. 

-Authorities mistakenly thought reactor 2 was the problem when it was reactor 1 all along. This mistake allowed the meltdown of reactor 1 to occur.  

The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us; and I for one must be content to remain an Agnostic. -Autobiography

The nuclear industry in the UK through the good graces and soothing words of nuclear chief inspector, Mike Weightman, has convinced the government that what happened in Japan could never happen there according to the Guardian UK. 

"The extreme natural events that preceded the accident at Fukushima – the magnitude-9 earthquake and subsequent huge tsunami – are not credible in the UK.
"We are 1,000 miles from the nearest fault line and we have safeguards in place that protect against even very remote hazards.
"Our operating and proposed future reactor designs and technology are different from the type at the Fukushima plant.

As has been made clear, this is the same fallacious reasoning presented in the US to justify the continuation of the nuclear program. Each nuclear disaster is different. That is what is so dangerous about this kind of energy generation. It requires complicated and expensive systems that can fail in myriad ways, each of which a public relations flack could justifiably say: "That failure, well, it can't happen here."

In my most extreme fluctuations I have never been an atheist in the sense of denying the existence of a God.  -Letter to John Fordyce, May 7 1879

 The New York Times says today that Fukushima Daiichi had recently installed the same new more powerful and modern GE venting systems which American plants claimed would prevent the problems which occurred in Japan. These systems  failed to react properly when workers finally tried to use them in Japan. The nuclear industry can't get prevarication (lies) out of their system.

[In conversation with the atheist Edward Aveling, 1881] Why should you be so aggressive? Is anything gained by trying to force these new ideas upon the mass of mankind? -from Edward Aveling, The religious views of Charles Darwin, 1883

The Christian Science Monitor reports that the corrupt Japanese government is now requesting their corrupt banks to assist the corrupt TEPCO by granting them loans which they probably never will repay without assistance extorted from the people by the corrupt government. 

This means the people of Japan, through taxes,  will be subsidizing a failed and criminal capitalist company which does not deserve to exist any longer. 

"The accident occurred on March 11. Accidents like this are factored into loans made prior to that. Naturally, I expect financial institutions to be asked for cooperation in light of Tokyo Electric's new financial standing," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told a regular news conference.

My theology is a simple muddle: I cannot look at the Universe as the result of blind chance, yet I can see no evidence of beneficent Design. - Letter to Joseph Hooker, July 12 1870

It is really funny that an establishment news outlet like NBC, which predictably mocks  all conspiracy theories, is giving a little credence to the notion that  Dominique Strauss-Kahn was set up. From The Wall Street Journal:

NBC touted the conspiracy theories surrounding the case as the news broke. On Monday's Today, Lauer talked to Newsweek's Paris bureau chief Christopher Dickey, and gave credibility to the bizarre claims: "Talk to me about the more conspiratorial aspect of this....there are some people speculating that this was more than just a chance encounter. That, in fact, Strauss-Kahn was set up. And some have even speculated...that Nicolas Sarkozy could have been behind something like this. Take me through it."
"Dickey went after Sarkozy: "He's seen as an absolutely ruthless, no-holds-barred politician. Some people even compare him to the gangster actor Joe Pesci, just in his manner. That's one of the reasons the French don't like him. They don't like his style." He then explained: "So the minute his main political rival falls into this bizarre situation, horrible situation, in New York and is accused of crimes and is taken on a perp walk, many people sort of automatically assume Sarkozy must have had something to do with this."


The Washington Post has posted a discussion with establishment conspiracy experts, the so very cautious and reasonable debunkers, Ilan Shrira and George Johnson on  the DSK affair and other myths today. An example: 


RE: DSK AND CONSPIRACY THEORY
"In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way."
Q: Was FDR, whose quotation this is, a conspiracy theorist? And, in light of the Bay of Tonkin, the US-condoned attack on the spy ship USS Liberty by Israel in the '67 war, Project Northwoods, MK-Ultra, Iran-Contra, the creation of the Federal Reserve (from Jekyll Island to its Christmas Eve 1913 Senate vote and Wilson's later lament, "I've ruined my country!" ), and a host of other thoroughly documented conspiracy facts, many quite horrific, why do you present this Q&A session regarding the DSK affair--about which surely FDR would have had some private words to share--as an opportunity to use a social psychologist and a slayer of conspiracy strawmen to further paint those who agree with our 32nd president as abberants?
May 17, 2011 1:13 PM
A.GEORGE JOHNSON :
I don't know the FDR quote, but I doubt that he meant that everything, down to the finest detail, is planned -- that nothing happens accidentally. (Some conspiracy theorists have actually called that view "accident theory.") And of course there are real conspiracies -- just not the overarching, almost supernatural ones that some people are so eager to invent and believe.
– May 17, 2011 1:43 PM
A.ILAN SHRIRA :
Can we really say that FDR was a conspiracy theorist just from this quote? Imagine if George W. Bush had said the same thing--Would you still interpret it as conspiracy-minded?
But you bring up a good point. That there have been conspiracies uncovered in US history (things that almost anyone would agree constitutes a conspiracy--something like the Tuskegee experiment). But just because they have happened in the past, this doesn't not necessarily lend credibility to conspiracy theorizing on any given issue.
– May 17, 2011 1:43 PM


The establishment would want us to take seriously the possibility that a rich privileged man like DSK could be the victim of a conspiracy with a Ghanaian maid at the center while we are expected to accept that John F. Kennedy, or his brother, or Martin Luther King, or George Wallace, or Malcolm X could never have been victims of  conspiracies of the rich and privileged who give orders to governments.

There can be no doubt that the difference between the mind of the lowest man and that of the highest animal is immense. An anthropomorphous ape, if he could take a dispassionate view of his own case, would admit that though he could form an artful plan to plunder a garden--though he could use stones for fighting or for breaking open nuts, yet that the thought of fashioning a stone into a tool was quite beyond his scope. Still less, as he would admit, could he follow out a train of metaphysical reasoning, or solve a mathematical problem, or reflect on God, or admire a grand natural scene. Some apes, however, would probably declare that they could and did admire the beauty of the coloured skin and fur of their partners in marriage. They would admit, that though they could make other apes understand by cries some of their perceptions and simpler wants, the notion of expressing definite ideas by definite sounds had never crossed their minds. They might insist that they were ready to aid their fellow-apes of the same troop in many ways, to risk their lives for them, and to take charge of their orphans; but they would be forced to acknowledge that disinterested love for all living creatures, the most noble attribute of man, was quite beyond their comprehension. - The Descent of Man

The Pharyngula blog posts today on the subject "Evolution is a Jewish Conspiracy" in which PZ Myers tells us  that Karl Marx did not dedicate Das Kapital to Charles Darwin as many creationists believe. He outlines some of the attempts by creationists to prove their point by linking evolution, Darwin, Communists, Karl Marx and Jews. [The guilt by association fallacy.]

With savages, for instance, the Australians, the women are the constant cause of war both between members of the same tribe and between distinct tribes. So no doubt it was in ancient times; "nam fuit ante Helenam mulier teterrima belli causa." [ Darwin has cleaned up the original of Horace: Nam fuit ante Helenam cunnus taeterrima belli causa. which can be translated roughly as: For even before Helen's time many a hideous cunt was the cause of war. -JB] With some of the North American Indians, the contest is reduced to a system. That excellent observer, Hearne (22. 'A Journey from Prince of Wales Fort,' 8vo. ed. Dublin, 1796, p. 104. Sir J. Lubbock ('Origin of Civilisation,' 1870, p. 69) gives other and similar cases in North America. For the Guanas of South America see Azara, 'Voyages,' etc. tom. ii. p. 94.), says:--"It has ever been the custom among these people for the men to wrestle for any woman to whom they are attached; and, of course, the strongest party always carries off the prize. A weak man, unless he be a good hunter, and well-beloved, is seldom permitted to keep a wife that a stronger man thinks worth his notice. This custom prevails throughout all the tribes, and causes a great spirit of emulation among their youth, who are upon all occasions, from their childhood, trying their strength and skill in wrestling." With the Guanas of South America, Azara states that the men rarely marry till twenty years old or more, as before that age they cannot conquer their rivals. - The Descent of Man

Monday Morning EDT/
Monday Evening Japan Time
The Whole World Is Going To Hell
And It Is Our Fault
Update

With the Kind Assistance of Thomas Paine 
Revolutionary Pamphleteer
A Complicated, Difficult Man
Who Hated All Engines of Human Oppression

February 9, 1737 [O.S. January 29, 1736] - June 8, 1809

The Bible is a book that has been read more and examined less than any book that ever existed. [The Theological Works of Thomas Paine]

Vivian Norris at the Huffington Post has also noticed the lack of information on the true state of affairs at Fukushima Daiichi.
From her post today:

There is something extremely disturbing going on and having lived through the media blackout in France back in April and early May 1986 [Chernobyl Time for you kids out there], and speaking to doctors who are deeply concerned by the dramatic increase in cancers appearing at very young ages, it is obvious that information is being held back. We are still told not to eat mushrooms and truffles from parts of Europe, not wild boar and reindeer from Germany and Finland 25 years later.


Vivian recommends (also cited and recommended on this blog)  http://www.fairewinds.com/updates for honest information on the situation from nuclear experts such as Arne Gundersen. She further details stonewalling by officials in Japan.
Highly recommended.


Fukushima Groundwater Contamination Worst in Nuclear History from Fairewinds Associates on Vimeo.

Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and tortuous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistant that we call it the word of a demon than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind; and, for my part, I sincerely detest it, as I detest everything that is cruel. [Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason]

MIT's The Physics arXiv Blog tells us today that chain reactions continued despite shutdowns at Fukushima Daiichi in a  self explanatory post titled  "Chain Reactions Reignited At Fukushima After Tsunami, Says New Study Radioactive byproducts indicate that nuclear chain reactions must have been burning at the damaged nuclear reactors long after the disaster unfolded"

Today, Tetsuo Matsui at the University of Tokyo, says the limited data from Fukushima indicates that nuclear chain reactions must have reignited at Fuksuhima up to 12 days after the accident.
Matsui says the evidence comes from measurements of the ratio of cesium-137 and iodine-131 at several points around the facility and in the seawater nearby. He has calculated what the starting ratio must have been by assuming the reactors had been operating for between 7 and 12 months.
He says the ratios from drains at reactors 1 and 3 at Fukushima are consistent with the nuclear reactions having terminated at the time of the earthquake.
However, the data from the drain near reactor 2 and from the cooling pond at reactor 4, where spent fuel rods are stored, indicate that the reactions must have been burning much later.

"The reformation was preceded by the discovery of America, as if the Almighty graciously meant to open a sanctuary to the persecuted in future years, when home should afford neither friendship nor safety." - Common Sense, January 10, 1776

Over and over in what my active imagination appears to be almost a conspiratorial enterprise we are being reassured by the local press in the United States with similar phraseology like this example drawn from Pantagraph.com of Bloomington, Illinois.  

A nuclear radiation incident similar to the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that crippled the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in northeastern Japan is unlikely to happen at the Clinton nuclear plant, say Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials.
"All nuclear power plants are designed to handle the most severe, natural phenomenons such as earthquakes, flooding, tornadoes and things of that nature," said NRC public affairs spokesman Prema Chandrathil at a recent open house in Clinton. "But we will continue to evaluate such incidents as they had in Japan and see how they relate to our plants and make any changes if necessary."

No my friends, the Clinton plant will have its own inimitable and unique problems as happens in every nuclear disaster. And its nuclear problems will be cited  as not being possible anywhere else. Each nuclear plant in the United States is telling us that an accident such as happened at Fukushima Daiichi is unlikely. 

But do they say that any accident is unlikely? 

No.

"It is of the utmost danger to society to make it (religion) a party in political disputes." - Common Sense, January 10, 1776

Read the story of Angelo "Doogie" Golatt, a minister who specialized in working with developmentally disabled youths and allegedly abused them sexually wherever he went. Religion is the perfect mask for evil. 

Doogie's blog. 

"Not all the treasures of the world, so far as I believe, could have induced me to support an offensive war, for I think it murder; but if a thief breaks into my house, burns and destroys my property, and kills or threatens to kill me, or those that are in it, and to "bind me in all cases whatsoever" to his absolute will, am I to suffer it?" - The American Crisis, No. 1, December 19, 1776

It's so bloody heart warming to see that the Wheeling Intelligencer is still banging the war drums to destroy people who are simply defending their own land against foreign incursion as they have done for thousands of years. There are enemies everywhere. And we shall keep making them as long as we send American soldiers half way around the world to kill tribesman on their own turf. 

"If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace." - The American Crisis, No. 1, December 19, 1776

The 14th Dalai Lama spoke at the University of Minnesota last night. 

"Compassion is the key factor for good health. ... It is not money or materialistic concerns, it is compassion and also education," he said. "If you do bad things for people, you get negative consequences. But if you do good things for people, you get good consequences."
"Use this for your own well-being," he urged.
In recognition of Mother's Day, the Dalai Lama lauded mothers for providing the affection and warmth people need to develop a compassionate society.
"My mother (was) so kind to me when I was young — I was the youngest of the children — that she really spoiled me," he said with a laugh. With the influence of his mother, he felt "deep inside, I am much calmer."

Tom's Death Mask

Thomas Paine died reviled and abandoned by both those in whom he had once generated conservative hatred and those in whom he inspired the spirit of revolution. 

"Thomas Paine had passed the legendary limit of life. One by one most of his old friends and acquaintances had deserted him. Maligned on every side, execrated, shunned and abhorred – his virtues denounced as vices – his services forgotten – his character blackened, he preserved the poise and balance of his soul. He was a victim of the people, but his convictions remained unshaken. He was still a soldier in the army of freedom, and still tried to enlighten and civilize those who were impatiently waiting for his death. Even those who loved their enemies hated him, their friend – the friend of the whole world – with all their hearts. On the 8th of June, 1809, death came – Death, almost his only friend. At his funeral no pomp, no pageantry, no civic procession, no military display. In a carriage, a woman and her son who had lived on the bounty of the dead – on horseback, a Quaker, the humanity of whose heart dominated the creed of his head – and, following on foot, two negroes filled with gratitude – constituted the funeral cortege of Thomas Paine." -Robert G. Ingersoll

Common Sense

The Rights of Man

The Age of Reason

Complete Writings of Thomas Paine

Joan Crawford is Coming For You

Friday Morning EDT/

Friday Evening Japan Time 

I'm Melting! I'm Melting! Update


With the Assistance of Joan Crawford

"Don't fuck with me, fellas. This cowgirl has been to the rodeo before."

Superb photographs of Fukushima Daiichi can be found here.  At the Cryptome website where you can find photographs and documents of all kinds on the nuclear industry in this world. The first link brings you inside Fukushima Daiichi 1 for the first time since the earthquake.

"I love playing bitches. There's a lot of bitch in every woman - a lot in every man."

CNN reports Prime Minister Kan wants to shut down the Hamaoka nuclear plant with three reactors in Omaezaki until earthquake and tsunami protections can be built. Authorities are very concerned about the high risk of earthquake at the site. Perhaps the concern would have been more appropriate when plans for construction were brought before authorities. 

"The primary reason for this request is in the interest of the safety and security of the people of Japan," Kan said. "We came to this conclusion because of the grave impact on Japan's people that could be incurred as a result of a serious accident at Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant."

"During 'Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?', I knitted a scarf from Hollywood to Malibu."

It is now, as reported in Discovery Magazine, believed that the early African hominid Paranthropus boisei used his huge flat dentition to eat grasses rather than nuts as previously believed. Scientists cleverly pulverized the enamel of twenty two of the primates who lived 1.4 to 1.9 million years ago to determine carbon signatures of the foods consumed. The various carbon isotopes matched up with a grass and sedge diet rather than the nut diet.  It sounds like an evolutionary dead end to me. Primates competing with grazing animals for grass sounds like a losing proposition. Primates had no chance until they picked up weapons and fed on the grazers, which is a much more efficient way to get nutrition from grass.  Oxygen isotopes in the samples revealed the climate was “semi-arid savannah with woodlands along rivers or lakes.”

"I was born in front of a camera and really don't know anything else."

Fans of CSI will be interested in this article about forensic anthropologist Doctor Bill Bass. Bill has run  a "body farm" since 1971 for the University of Tennessee where dozens of corpses of different sexes and age are scattered in various states of decay under different circumstances, such as bagged and buried or left in the open air. It is a sort of pilgrimage site for the Gil Grissoms of the world. From the article:

Law enforcement is asking two questions when bring you a body. First is: who is it? And second is: how long have they been there?" said Bass.
The corpses are placed in all sorts of positions and conditions to duplicate crimes. They're buried in mud, locked in trunks, submerged in water. They're even hanging from trees.
"Because you think about how people dispose of bodies. You wrap 'em. Wrap'em in plastic or you have trash cans," said Rebecca Taylor, assistant coordinator of the Body Farm........

"I cannot abide the odor in the body farm," said Carol Bass. "It takes you three days to get it out of your nose, it really does. I don't care what anybody says."

Highly recommended. And what Carol says about the smell of a corpse is absolutely spot on. When I was a young man living in Dorchester there was a horrendous smell coming from under a porch I had to pass on the way to the Savin Hill Station. The next day it was said that they pulled out the decomposed body of a Whitey Bulger associate.

"I, Joan Crawford, I believe in the dollar. Everything I earn, I spend."

Meanwhile, politicians are resuming meeting about the "budget crisis" and all are just so ready to work together to resolve it. From a PBS talking head show yesterday:

REP. JOHN BOEHNER [Majority Leader Of the United States Congress, in a clip] R-Ohio: When it comes to increasing the debt limit and the need to have reductions in spending nothing is off the table except raising taxes.

LORI MONTGOMERY [The Washington Post] : I don't think they are. I think what they're saying is, we recognize that Democrats have pledged to protect these programs. We believe that these are the largest drivers of future deficits -- and they're absolutely right about that -- however, we also recognize that we need to reach an agreement to pass this debt ceiling pretty quickly. Therefore, instead of arguing forever about health care and taxes, like we always do, why don't we start looking for some common ground and start from there?

LORI MONTGOMERY: That's an excellent question, and I wish I could answer it fully.
They say that they're still plowing ahead. Sen. Tom Coburn, who is a member of the gang of six, had to suddenly go home because of a family emergency. So they aren't meeting right now. But they say they're going to return to the table when they get back next week.
And I think the problem they're facing at this point is, you know, these are three very conservative Republicans who desperately believe in this goal. But the package that they're looking at would involve a tax reform proposal that raises additional revenue but it leaves to the committees to decide how that will happen. And I think they're having a very difficult time signing off on something where they can't control the particulars.

Republicans think they can balance the budget without raising taxes. No one ever mentions the defense budget. Medicare and Social Security are always on the table for these people. They are hallucinating that they even have a chance to balance their imaginary dollars. The central bank (Federal Reserve) will not let them. Debt is too profitable.

"Nobody can imitate me. You can always see impersonations of Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe. But not me. Because I've always drawn on myself only."

Fox News actually used a President Obama impersonator to debate Ron Paul on the John Stossel Show. The amazing thing is that Paul went along with the farce.

"Recently I heard a 'wise guy' story that I had a party at my home for twenty-five men. It's an interesting story, but I don't know twenty-five men I'd want to invite to a party."

"The best time I ever had with Joan Crawford was when I pushed her down the stairs in 'Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?'"- Bette Davis

Young Joan by Alfred Cheney Johnston

Check her out:
Mildred Pierce 
A Woman's Face
The Women
Sudden Fear

This card is attributed to the letter Peh, which means a mouth; it refers to the planet Mars. In its simplest interpretation it refers to the manifestation of cosmic energy in its grossest form. The picture shows the destruction of existing material by fire.....
At the bottom part of the card, therefore, is shown the destruction of the old-established Aeon by lightning, flames, engines of war. In the right-hand corner are the jaws of Dis, belching flame at the root of the structure. Falling from the tower are broken figures of the garrison. It will be noticed that they have lost their human shape.
They have become mere geometrical expressions......
The dominating feature of this card is the Eye of Horus. This is also the Eye of Shiva, on the opening of which, according to the legend of this cult, the Universe is destroyed.

-The Master Therion (Aleister Crowley) the Book of Thoth, XVI. THE TOWER  [OR:WAR]

Thursday Morning EDT/

Thursday Evening Japan Time

A Corrupted and Disintegrating World Update

Punctuated by the Words Of 
Carl Philipp Gottfried von Clausewitz, 

June 1, 1780 – November 16, 1831

A Philosopher of War

"War is the province of chance. In no other sphere of human activity must such a margin be left for this intruder. It increases the uncertainty of every circumstance and deranges the course of events."

Workers entered Plant 1 at Fukushima Daiichi today for the first time since it exploded on March 12.
They are limited to forty minute shifts due to the extremely high levels of radiation in the blasted plant.
They are attempting to install six special filtering units to remove radioactive dust from the air  which will allow workers to spend more time in the plant to install critical cooling equipment to pump in water with the aim to avoid further meltdown or explosive reactions by forcing a cold shutdown on the glowing melted pile of nuclear material in the gut of the plant.
Good luck lads. You couldn't pay me enough.
The Los Angeles Times also reports on this story today and also drops a few tidbits on radiation in the area:

Even as work to stabilize the reactors continued, officials announced new findings of radioactive contamination. Tepco said Tuesday that it found high amounts of radioactive isotopes along the sea floor less than 2 miles off Japan's northeastern coast. The company said that cesium-134, cesium-137 and iodine-121 turned up in tests performed April 129 in two places at a depth of 65 feet to 100 feet.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. President Masataka Shimizu, right, bows to a Nihonmatsu villager to apologize [again] for the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. (Associated Press / May 4, 2011)
I wonder if he is getting a sore back yet.

"We continue to monitor radioactivity levels in fish and other sea organisms."

-Taisuke Tomikawa, TEPCO flack

Yes, keep monitoring, but what are you doing with the information, Taisuke?

And what can you possibly do about it?

"Only great and general battles can produce great results"

The Wall Street Journal tells us that TEPCO is finally bringing in fresh bento meals to the belabored workers at Fukushima Daiichi. They had been subsisting on pouched-packed food, bread and noodles. Bunks are also being brought in to the nearby Fukushima Daini nuclear plant's gym. They had been using sleeping bags on mats on the floor. By mid May they will have showers.

Goshi Hosono, a senior aide to Prime Minister Naoto Kan, said that nearly two months after the onset of the crisis, the time had come to take better care of workers. He and Tepco officials were speaking at a news conference.
"I hope this will allow workers to refresh themselves and devote themselves to the hard task in hand," said Mr. Hosono, who is representing the premier at a joint disaster headquarters with Tepco.
"Until now, we haven't paid enough attention to conditions for workers, as we have focused squarely on containing the accident," he said. "It has also been hard for Tepco to improve conditions for its own workers, given the hardships faced by evacuees forced out of their own homes."

"If the enemy is to be coerced, you must put him in a situation that is even more unpleasant than the sacrifice you call on him to make. The hardships of the situation must not be merely transient - at least not in appearance. Otherwise, the enemy would not give in, but would wait for things to improve."


Reuters reports that the problems in Japan have not prevented taxpayer assisted and indemnified new construction of nuclear facilities in the United States. New projects in South Carolina and Georgia are expected to begin soon without delay. These will be new reactors at existing facilities. Westinghouse which is mostly owned by Toshiba is the provider. 

"If the leader is filled with high ambition and if he pursues his aims with audacity and strength of will, he will reach them in spite of all obstacles."


The last know World War One combat veteran, Claude Choules,  who served in the Royal Navy, died at the age of 110. He witnessed the surrender of the German imperial fleet at the Firth of Forth, in Scotland.
Link at CNN. 

"It is clear that war is not a mere act of policy but a true political instrument, a continuation of political activity by other means"


Jonathan Jones in the Guardian UK gives a strange take on the quest to restore looted Nazi art treasures to rightful owners. He claims that paintings like the Klimt Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I returned to the Bloch-Bauer family from Vienna in 2006 after a long legal battle, belongs in the museum that essentially looted it from the Bloch-Bauer estate after the Nazis absorbed Austria. Jones claims it would have acted as a kind of monument to the lost Jewish culture of the city. Antisemitism takes many contorted forms these days.
At any rate, if you or your family had art stolen by Nazis there is an inventory online at the Commission for Looted Art in Europe.

"Where judgment begins, there art begins."

Klimt, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I
Note the Eye in the Pyramid motif in her dress.

Our meandering and aimless and impossible to win war in Afghanistan will reach its tenth anniversary on October 7, 2011. It continues without a goal, without strategy, and without meaning.


"War belongs not to the province of Arts and Sciences, but to the province of social life. It is a conflict of great interests, which is settled by bloodshed, and only in that is it different from others. It would be better, instead of comparing it with any Art, to liken it to business competition, which is also a conflict of human interests and activities; and it is still more like State policy, which, again, can be looked upon as a kind of business competition on a great scale."

Paracelsus

Saturday Morning EDT/
Saturday Evening Japan Time
Catastrophe Update

Created with the assistance of
THEOPHRASTUS BAUMBAST VON HOHENHEIM,
Commonly known as Paracelsus, Swiss
Physician, Alchemist and Occultist of the sixteenth century,
Born on the 10th November, 1493, at Sihlbrücke,
Near Einsiedeln, Canton Schwyz,
Died on the 24th September, 1541, at Salzburg.

"Thoughts give birth to a creative force that is neither elemental nor sidereal. Thoughts create a new heaven, a new firmament, a new source of energy, from which new arts flow. When a man undertakes to create something, he establishes a new heaven."

Japan's cavalier approach to its nuclear crisis has forced one government official to give up his post. Bloomberg reports that Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan accepted the resignation of  a nuclear advisor today.


The government accepted the resignation of Toshiso Kosako, a professor at the University of Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said at a press conference in the capital today. The adviser disagreed with the maximum annual radiation exposure allowed in elementary schools, Edano said, adding there was a “misunderstanding.”...
Kosako resigned in protest against the government’s “impromptu” handling of the crisis and delays in bringing the situation under control, Kyodo News reported, citing comments made by the adviser at a press conference yesterday. Kosako disagreed with the maximum annual radiation exposure of 20 millisieverts allowed by the government in elementary schools, according to Edano.
“We’re not saying it’s OK for children to get exposed up to 20 millisieverts,” he said. “We’re trying to reduce children’s radiation exposure as much as possible. Our plan would be much lower than 20 millisieverts a year.”

It was only a misunderstanding. Ignoring laws and prolonging the crisis is a "misunderstanding." What I do not understand is why the Japanese government has been so stingy with information on radiation emanating from the wreck at Fukushima Daiichi. What I do not understand is why the government of Japan has not frog-walked TEPCO executives to jail for falsifying information and ignoring safety rules. But I suppose their reasons are the same reasons no Wall Street crooks have been arrested here in the United States. Governments are now wholly owned subsidiaries of the corporations. Our politicians have no sympathy or empathy with the people, they only obey their Masters in the hidden mansions and  board rooms of the world. 

"The human body is vapor materialized by sunshine mixed with the life of the stars."

The Mainichi Daily News reports that a member of a panel advising the government on earthquake reconstruction plans does not want Fukushima prefect to continue to produce nuclear power. 

"I want Fukushima to make the decision to abandon nuclear power, independent from government policy discussion," the 57-year-old panel member, Norio Akasaka, told the Mainichi.

Watch your back, Norio.

Bloomberg reported this week that radiation readings inside the reactors are the highest yet. I suppose that means radiation escaping the reactors must be pretty pretty high. But it is difficult to come by such information.

"It should be forbidden and severely punished to remove cancer by cutting, burning, cautery, and other fiendish tortures. It is from nature that the disease comes, and from nature comes the cure, not from physicians."

The New York Times tells us that old nuclear plants are "cash cows" because they can be bought much more cheaply than new ones can be built. I might ad that these buyers of nukes have no liability for damages they inflict on the people or the planet since the government has hoodwinked the people into indemnifying these dangerous monstrosities for free. Let's start sending insurance bills to the nuclear industry based on real potential for damage, death and loss. Or, the people could simply stop indemnifying any nuclear plant, or at least those operating after their posted lifespans. The market for old nuclear plants will then collapse.

Meanwhile, there is no investor sentiment to invest in new nuclear plants. Only the United States government seems enthusiastic about pouring billions of dollars it does not have into the nuclear industry for construction. Someone ask our President at his next press conference about this. Please. 

The 19th Figure

'Thou art leaping about in thy garden and art well pleased with thyself; but giving up thy wisdom and following thy pleasure thou makest bad use of thy leapings. Therefore shall it happen to thee even as thou art lying there, and those that should be thy peace will hunt thee and force thee to leap high. But take thought with thyself and consider that human things are vain. Then wouldst thou become altogether changed and wouldest be safe from the misfortune into which thou doest daily walk. Bethink thyself that pride and ill-manners never ended well.'-The Nineteenth Figure of the Prophecies of Paracelsus

Euthanization of animals starving and neglected in the Fukushima Exclusion Zone has begun.

The 16th Figure

'A child that goes to school and learns, when it arrives at years of discretion is ashamed of its childish work and destroys it. Thus shall it also happen to thee. As thou writest in such a manner thine own work shall be nought. For which reason there will be much labour for nought and in vain. For the time teacheth and giveth knowledge that not every pearl is a true pearl that is alleged so to be. Therefore a hand shall fall upon thee that will tear thee to shreds.'-The Sixteenth Figure of the Prophecies of Paracelsus

Two senior Japanese officials stated that four of the six reactors at Fukushima Daiichi  have a chance of further catastrophic events and are remain volatile. 

The 2nd Figure

'A flower groweth to the destined height. He that causeth her to grow also causeth her to fade. This happens to thee, for Magic hath therewith adorned thee, that thy coming up should be known, and also how thou has come to nought. For before thou wast, Magic hath known thee and therefore compared thee to a flower, that to-day is in bloom and to-morrow is withered. Wisdom and Fear of God would have preserved thee, but thou has overlooked it, thine own wisdom hath seduced thee.'-The Second Figure of the Prophecies of Paracelsus

Information about the spread of radioactivity in Japan is being suppressed. 


The chief of the Meteorological Society of Japan has drawn flak from within the academic society over a request for member specialists to refrain from releasing forecasts on the spread of radioactive substances from the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
In the request posted March 18 on the society's website, Hiroshi Niino, professor at the University of Tokyo, said such forecasts, which he says carry some uncertainty, ''could jumble up information about the government's antidisaster countermeasures unnecessarily.''.....
Niino later said in commenting on the intention he had in issuing the statement, ''If (society members') forecasts were announced, it would have carried the risk that ordinary people may panic.''

But Toshio Yamagata, another University of Tokyo professor who is a member of the society, said meteorological scientists have the responsibility to encourage the government to take the right course of action by announcing their forecasts ''especially when a country is going through a critical situation.''
''Our society has degenerated into a bureaucratic entity,'' he warned.

That says it all. 

The Japanese bureaucracy has relaxed hair cutting laws to allow barbers to cut hair in evacuation shelters instead of approved barber shops.

The 11th Figure

'Although the sun did once shine upon thee, and thou hast glutted thyself with food and plunder, and wast sitting among the honeycombs, yet thou hast not wisely considered the end, and hast forgotten the winter; therefore he taketh away thy pleasure, and will compel thee to suck thine own paws. For as thou art bear-like, and has no further reason, Magic hath driven thee into the toils that thou shouldst be known. But if the wit of man had been thine, the winter would not have overtaken thee.'- The 11th Figure of the Prophecies of Paracelsus


Back home more tornadoes have continued to kill more people (339 at last count)  and destroy more churches of those who strongly believe in Jesus and disbelieve in climate change in a part of the country run by politicians who hate the federal government but are now asking for its help. 

Reports of looting are widespread in the afflicted areas. 

'Thou hast divided duty into left and right, as if it were oppressing thee. Both sides will cause thee anxiety and hatred shall altogether overcome thee. For a harlot divideth her wantonness and for a while she hath her way, but woe to her when her deceit is discovered. Then cometh true the saying, "no love without pain." Although thou didst mightily rejoice that thou art without a head, a head shall be placed upon thee and thou shall become a limb, though thou art not accustomed to it. But against thy will shalt thou swallow and eat what is not thy natural food.'- The Fourth Figure of the Prophecies of Paracelsus

The 4th Figure

Links: The Prophecies of Paracelsus

Oliver Cromwell, attributed to Anthony Van Dyck

Thursday Morning EDT/

Thursday Evening Japan Time 

Dropping Over the Falls Update

Presented with the assistance of Oliver Cromwell 
b.25 April 1599 – d.3 September 1658
Called "Old Ironsides" he was a Puritan and a Roundhead soldier in the Civil War,
who brought down the Monarchy,
oversaw the execution of Charles I,
which he called a "cruel necessity" and,

Became Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland.
Within two years of his death the Monarchy was restored, 
His body was disinterred from Westminster Abbey, 
Hung on the gallows then beheaded by Charles II.
His head was publicly displayed on Westminster Hall for 25 years. 

Ollie's Wax Death Mask in the British Museum

"What is all our histories, but God showing himself, shaking and trampling on everything that he has not planted."

The death toll is now 178 and rising [now at 292 at 7PM EDT Thursday]  in the wake of the latest round of tornadoes to rip through the South this week.
155 tornadoes were reported in the United States  yesterday by the Storm Prediction Center, bringing the number to over 800 this month.
Monday in Pulaski County Arkansas the Mount Pilgrim Baptist Church was destroyed.
The Mamre Baptist Church near Peek's Hill, Alabama was destroyed and a man was found dead in the debris, one of 65 who died in the storms in the state.
The Ford Chapel United Methodist Church in Harvest, Alabama, the oldest of that denomination in the state was destroyed yesterday.

The New Bethel Baptist Church in Cherokee County, Alabama lost its roof and steeple. 

In Mississippi the Smithville Baptist Church and neighboring Smithville United Methodist Church were both destroyed.

The First Baptist Church in Cullman, Alabama was heavily damaged. 

In Autaga County Alabama the Boone's Chapel Baptist Church was heavily damaged. 

Last week's tornadoes damaged or destroyed many other churches throughout the South including the Zoar Baptist Church in Deltaville, Virginia. The destruction did not deter Easter worshipers who held outdoor services. 

Christ Church in Wetumpka Alabama was destroyed April 24 last year on Easter Day. This Easter the church broke ground for a new nave and sanctuary. 

"No one rises so high as he who knows not whither he is going. Not only strike while the iron is hot, but make it hot by striking. Do not trust the cheering, for those persons would shout as much if you or I were going to be hanged."

Slate Magazine asks the question "Did industry-government collusion contribute to Japan's nuclear disaster?" in an article title "Nuclear Incest" today which relies heavily on a report in yesterday's New York Times. "Culture of Complicity Tied to Stricken Nuclear Plant"

"A 10-year extension for the oldest of Daiichi’s reactors suggests that the regulatory system was allowed to remain lax by politicians, bureaucrats and industry executives single-mindedly focused on expanding nuclear power. Regulators approved the extension beyond the reactor’s 40-year statutory limit just weeks before the tsunami despite warnings about its safety and subsequent admissions by Tokyo Electric, often called Tepco, that it had failed to carry out proper inspections of critical equipment." -The New York Times

Meanwhile, the latest scheme to prevent radiation from seeping into the sea at Fukushima Daiichi is to build a gigantic holding tank at the site to hold all the radioactive water being created from the frantic cooling activities going on at several locations at the complex. There is no word on how long it will take to build such a huge tank or whether it will be engineered to be earthquake proof. 

TEPCO reports that one of their woman employees was exposed to high radiation at the site but she has not displayed any symptoms of radiation poisoning so far.

Meanwhile Goshi Hosono, Prime Minister Naoto Kan's special advisor on management of the nuclear crisis. said "There is no way Tokyo or Kyoto will come into harm's way." and that the crisis was receding.

"Put your trust in God; but be sure to keep your powder dry."

General Electric has its best profit outlook  in a decade despite the uncertainty in the nuclear industry which is an important part of its business. All the plants at Fukushima Daiichi are of GE design and two were built by the company. 

Afterward..

"I have seen in this revolution a circular motion of the sovereign power through two usurpers, father and son, to the late King to this his son. For ... it moved from King Charles I to the Long Parliament; from thence to the Rump; from the Rump to Oliver Cromwell; and then back again from Richard Cromwell to the Rump; then to the Long Parliament; and thence to King Charles, where long may it remain."- Thomas Hobbes