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 

Bunker, Peaks Island, April 8, 2011, John Bonanno photograph

Sweepings
And Quotes


"I would like to apologise from my heart over the worries and troubles we are causing for society due to the release of radiological materials into the atmosphere and sea water. We caused worry and trouble for having made this decision without taking sufficient time to explain the matter beforehand to those involved, to the press, to the fishing industry and to people overseas, and we are sorry for this." Sakae Muto, a TEPCO vice president today.

"For the disaster-struck areas to recover their vitality, the entire Japanese economy needs to be vibrant. I would like to see a limit to extreme self-restraint."-Yoshihiro Murai, the governor of Miyagi Prefecture

Here Comes The Putzmeister!

A Russian Antonov cargo plane loads a Putzmeister concrete/water pump at Atlanta today for transportation to its last job at Fukushima Daiishi. 

"Like others all over the world, our thoughts have been on helping the people of Japan. Fortunately, we have a piece of equipment that's working to help cool the reactors, so we're moving fast to get additional pumps to Japan."-Dave Adams, chief executive, Putzmeister America

The leader of Japan's largest crime syndicate, Kenichi Shinoda, 69, was released from jail today after serving a five year sentence for illegal gun possession. He had previously done time for killing another Yakuza with a samurai sword.

Radiation levels at Fukushima Daiishi continue to be kept quite secret.

Large areas of northeast Japan continue to lack electrical power after Friday's strong aftershock.

The Moment Of The Tsunami At Fukushima Daiishi

Baruch Spinoza (Hebrew: ברוך שפינוזה‎ Baruch Shpinoza, Portuguese: Bento de Espinosa, Latin: Benedictus de Spinoza) and later Benedict Spinoza (November 24, 1632 – February 21, 1677)

Saturday Morning EDT/
Saturday Evening Japan Time
"I don't have to tell you things are bad." Update

Today's Inspiration Comes From The Philosopher and Lens Grinder Baruch Spinoza. 

"Fame has also this great drawback, that if we pursue it, 
we must direct our lives so as to please the fancy of men."

Workers at the shattered Fukushima Daiichi site are battling a plethora of problems. It seems one solution leads to a new set of problems.

Plug the water leak out of reactor two. Water rises in the steam condenser at reactor three. 

Huge amounts of water continue to be added to the various cooling pools and reactors at the site resulting in huge amounts of radioactive water that must go somewhere according to the Laws of Free Surface Hydraulics. That somewhere, lacking integral and waterproof structures and forms to confine the water, is the lowest level available which is the nearby sea. 

Workers are feverishly pumping nitrogen into reactor shell one to avoid another catastrophic explosion of flammable hydrogen being generated in the core of the reactor, even though TEPCO insists the chances of such an explosion are "extremely low".

TEPCO is constructing an arrangement of barriers and walls to try to keep highly radioactive water from reaching the sea reports the Wall Street Journal today.
This appears to be an infinite loop.
Logic tells us that as long as they are pouring water on the site they are going to have to build a higher gigantic dam around the site to prevent the new radioactive water from flowing away. 

"God is the indwelling and not the transient cause of all things."

TEPCO has commissioned Honeywell to fly an unmanned T-Hawk helicopter drone over the plant complex today to allow close  inspection of damage to high radiation areas at the various reactor sites. 

"A miracle signifies nothing more than an event... the cause of which cannot be explained by another familiar instance, or.... which the narrator is unable to explain."

The Kyodo news agency reports that much cash has been found by rescue workers and survivors of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Police in the affected area have reported receiving "tons of cash" found everyday in the rubble. Some 10% has been returned to the owners but survivors are urging authorities to use if for reconstruction until  the owners can be found. 

"I believe that a triangle, if it could speak, would say that God is eminently triangular, and a circle that the divine nature is eminently circular; and thus would every one ascribe his own attributes to God."

An umbrella organization of German utility companies has called for a "swift and complete" abolishment of nuclear power by 2020 reports Bloomberg/Business Week. 

"I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of established religion."

Water is still rising in plant two. TEPCO announced that radioactive water will be pumped into the sea until tomorrow as an emergency measure. TEPCO says it does not understand why the water is rising in the plant yet this is the plant that was releasing highly radioactive water into the sea through a maintenance pit until TEPCO blocked the water to the pit earlier this week. It seems perfectly logical to me that water which previously was draining from the plant, once blocked, is now building up in the plant.

"The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free."

Spinoza's Proposition 9 states: "The more reality or being each thing has, the more attributes belong to it." which illuminates the difference between east and west.

"All the prejudices I here undertake to expose depend on this one: that men commonly suppose that all natural things act, as men do, on account of an end; indeed, they maintain as certain that God himself directs all things to some certain end, for they say that God has made all things for man, and man that he might worship God."

A New Fox Poll  reveals another curious contradiction of the American mind. 

83% of Americans think a nuclear crisis such as is happening in Japan could happen in the United States.

Yet the same poll reveals that 49% of Americans think nuclear power is safe. 

Mencken's booboisie is alive and well. 

Hypnos, British Museum

Nikolai Berdyaev with Maria Skobtsova, a saint of the Russian Orthodox Church 

"Only he who is free, creates."- Nicolai Berdyaev

Thursday Morning EDT/
Thursday Evening Japan Time
Eve of Destruction Update

With the assistance of the words Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev 
(March 18 [O.S. March 6] 1874 – March 24, 1948), 
Christian Anarchist, although I prefer to say Idealist.  
Berdyaev believed Marx replaced an evil materialist Capitalism with an evil materialist Socialism. In other words, he considered both philosophies as two sides of the same materialist coin. 


"Habitual, time-hardened slavery may not appear to be a form of violence, while a movement which is directed to the abolition of slavery may appear to be violence." from "Slavery and Freedom"


The Wall Street Journal is reporting today that Japan is considering enlarging the evacuation zone around the ruined nuclear complex.
Also nitrogen gas is being injected into the number 1 reactor building to avoid another catastrophic hydrogen explosion. And there is confusion and controversy on the state of the reactor core number 2. Meltdown, partial meltdown, exposure of the core? Who knows? Who is telling the truth? Should I believe Japan? Ho Ho! Or should I believe the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission? Ho Ho Ho!


"We find the most terrible form of atheism, not in the militant and passionate struggle against the idea of God himself, but in the practical atheism of everyday living, in indifference and torpor. We often encounter these forms of atheism among those who are formally Christians."


In Massachusetts government and corporate officials are wrangling about re-licensing the ancient and dangerous Pilgrim nuclear plant in Plymouth.  Entergy, the operators, claim this plant, which is generally regarded as the riskiest still operating in the United States, is safe. Well, corporate officials wouldn't lie, especially if they work for a company with the ugly and clumsy corporate name of Entergy.

"There is a tragic clash between Truth and the world. Pure undistorted truth burns up the world."


The Japanese government is considering severing the office that regulates nuclear energy from the office that promotes it.


"Bread for myself is a material question. Bread for my neighbor is a spiritual one."


People all over the world are looking hard at their friendly neighborhood nuclear plant operators.
It's a great time for the public relations and lobbying industries.


"Creative experience foreshadows a new Heaven and a new Earth."


300 police in protective gear have been tasked to search for dead bodies in the proscripted zone around Fukushima Daiichi. It is believed many are to be found since none have dared enter to look since the evacuation.

"Anthropologists and sociologists have devoted a great deal of attention to the primitive man but their methods and principles of investigation were determined by the evolutionary theory of the second half of the nineteenth century. They studied modern savages and from them drew conclusions about the primitive man. Scientific investigation in the strict sense was from the nature of the case impossible, but as a result of philosophic assumptions it was believe that, to being with, man was at a savage, half-animal stage and then, up to the nineteenth century, he gradually progressed. Man’s distant past was inferred from his present, from savages and animals. The scientists’ imagination was so poor that in man’s distant past they could conceive of nothing different from what they found in modern times at the lower stages of life. But ancient man and his life were infinitely more significant and mysterious than anthropologists and sociologists suppose. In this respect theosophists and occultists are nearer the truth. There is something to be said for the Akashic Records, the Chronicle of the world, though the idea is easily vulgarized. At the dawn of humanity the world was at a different stage than it is now. It was more plastic, and the limits which divide this world from other worlds were less sharply marked. We are told this, in a covert form, in the book of Genesis."-from 'The Destiny of Man' 

Timing is everything! The United States apparently was trying to convince Mongolia that it would be a fine place to store the world's nuclear waste just before the events in Japan. Informal talks were held March 9 on the subject. I wonder how much money they were offering Mongolian leaders for the privilege? I am a little bit incredulous that, in the long run, dangerous radioactive materials can be safely shipped half way around the world for storage. I am also suspicious about maintaining the security of these dangerous materials once they get to the other side of the world. I hope Mongolian leaders are aware that the acceptance of this deal would require them to become American satraps.
Bloomberg is reporting today that Mongolia is reconsidering its commitment to build nuclear plants on its territory. I have a feeling the storage center there may also be in the process of reconsideration.

"Mystical art has theurgy as the goal of its striving. Theurgic art posits as its aim the creation of new being, of a new mankind. This -- is the practising of a mystical realism. In the final end there are only two directions in art -- the classical and the theurgic, everything else is but a transitory state. The so-called realism in art has merely been pseudo-theurgic." from 'Decadentism and   Mystical Realism'

Advertisement in My Local Weekly Newspaper

Today I noticed this ad in our local weekly advertising paper which everyone in the area gets free in the mail.
I am certain it will entice lots of old people into getting The Shingles Vaccine!!!!.
And all you have to do is go to the pharmacy.
The shingles vaccine is called Zostavax and it is made by Merck, which also sells the controversial Gardasil vaccine. Merck is the second biggest pharmaceutical corporation in the world. Merck is the very incarnation of Big Pharma. Notice how the ad just says "shingles vaccine" and does not use the scary word "Zostavax".

First, shouldn't a physician be involved in giving vaccines?
This ad just encourages the elderly to walk into the pharmacy and get it.
"Speak to your doctor or pharmacist to see if this is right for you!"

I'm not worried about getting shingles and who the hell is recommending that I get this?
Well, it's the CDC.

The CDC recommends that "everyone over the age of 60"  get this vaccine.
The CDC says that Zostavax, the shingles vaccine, cuts the risk of shingles 51%.
Merck claims 70% success.

What is the chance of getting shingles? 

22% of men and 32% of women over 45 will have at least one outbreak of shingles in their life.
So, for me, as a man, this vaccine has about an 11% chance (the vaccine supposedly cuts the rate in half) of helping me to avoid a shingles attack. 

Of course, I have already made it to age 61 without shingles (Or chicken pox, which supposedly is what  develops into shingles when you get old. But I never had Chicken Pox.)
I suspect the chance this vaccine will help me is much less than 11%.
I also supplement with lots  of vitamin B complex including vitamin B12 which is said to protect against shingles. 

What are the dangers?
This is a relatively new vaccine (2006) so who knows what the long term effects are.
And we can guess that it contains many of the usual suspect nasties that vaccines contain. 

Looking up Zostavax I found a page on Drugs.com which listed its side effects. 
(Here is Merck's circular on it.)

Official common side effects were diarrhea, rash, headache, flu like symptoms, pruritis, pain, swelling.
Buried in the side effects at the bottom of the page under the rubric "For health professionals" I found this:

"Fifty-one individuals (1.5%) receiving Zostavax were reported to have congestive heart failure (CHF) or pulmonary edema compared to 39 individuals (1.2%) receiving placebo in the AE Monitoring Substudy; 58 individuals (0.3%) receiving Zostavax were reported to have congestive heart failure (CHF) or pulmonary edema compared to 45 (0.2%) individuals receiving placebo in the overall study."


This same verbiage is buried in the Merck circular linked above.

So I would have a .1% to .3% more (depending on how one reads the study) chance of hastening death due to congestive heart failure after taking Zostavax. So for every 1000 people who take this 1 to 3 more persons will die who wouldn't otherwise die so soon. I assume a serious pulmonary event like congestive heart failure in a person over 60 has a pretty good chance of meaning an early visit from the Grim Reaper. I could be wrong. Let's call it "Death" just for fun. 

I don't want to make this bet.
Shingles is very painful but it is not lethal unless you have a very compromised immune system.
And if you have a compromised immune system Merck doesn't recommend you take Zostavax.
And, anecdotally, a friend of my wife had to go to the hospital with severe chest pains after taking the Zostavax. Fortunately, she was OK. 

The CDC makes the reassuring point on their website that this vaccine does not contain mercury (thimerosol). We have been assured by the Medical Industry and the CDC that thimerosol is perfectly safe. So why do they feel the need to say Zostavax does not contain it? They, the CDC, do not mention in their list of side effects that studies have shown  there is a slight increased chance of congestive heart failure with this vaccine. 

Let's look again at the numbers from the Merck study/substudy for congestive heart failure related to this vaccine.
It looks like there's anywhere from a .1% to .3%  (their study so the numbers may have been sandpapered around the edges a bit, it has happened before) increased chance of CHF (congestive heart failure) or pulmonary edema with Zostavax.
Again, that means anywhere from one to three people per thousand who take Zostavax will greet an early death (or suffer "serious cardiovascular events" says Merck) who would not have died had they not taken Zostavax.
Considering that about 50 million people over 60 live in the United States that means if they all did what the CDC wanted them to do, 50,000 to 150,000 thousand Americans would be expected to perhaps die (or at least experience "serious cardiovascular events") soon after taking Zostavax who wouldn't have died had they taken nothing.

That would be a lot of social security and medicare checks that wouldn't have to be cut anymore.
It's brilliant (if you are an evil genius).
You kill a lot of useless feeders yet not so many as to raise a lot of uncomfortable questions.
You don't want to make the plan obvious.
But wait, here is the insurance policy.
The Supreme Court recently protected Big Pharma from vaccine liability.

Let's cull the herd, boys.

Anarchist Mikhail Bakunin 30 May 1814- 1 July 1876

Wednesday Morning EDT/
Wednesday Evening Japan Time
Predicament Update

With some words from Anarchist Atheist Mikhail Bakunin.
(Next time we shall entertain the thoughts of Anarchist Christian Nicolai Berdyaev.)

"We see that the richest property owners . . . are precisely those who work the least or who do not work at all."

Yesterday Japanese authorities were able to stanch the flow of highly radioactive water from plant 2 directly into the ocean by injecting liquid glass into the leaks at the maintenance pits. But before we just accept this news as a trumpeted victory over radiation let's just do a thought experiment.
The question must be asked: Where is that water going now? I have noticed from experience repairing roofs that when one stops a leak in one area, the water must go someplace else. Where is that someplace else at Fukushima Daiichi? If it backs up into the plant authorities will eventually be forced to pump it into the sea anyways. If it backs up onto the land around the plant it will drain into the sea eventually.

Lonely rivers flow to the sea,
to the sea
to the open arms of the sea
lonely rivers sigh 'wait for me, wait for me'
I'll be coming home wait for me

-from 'Unchained Melody' lyrics by Hy Zaret (Hyman Harry Zaritsky), music Alex North

"It has been proven 8 thousand times that an isolated worker cannot produce much more than what he consumes. We challenge any real worker, any worker who does not enjoy a single privilege, to amass tens or hundreds of thousands of francs, or millions. That would be quite impossible. Therefore, if some individuals in present-day society do acquire such great sums, it is not by their labor that they do so but by their privilege, that is, by a juridically legalized injustice. And since a person inevitably takes from others whatever he does not gain from his own, we have the right to say that all such profits are thefts of collective labor, committed by a few privileged individuals with the sanction of the State and under its protection."

Fukushima prefecture fishermen are rightly demanding that TEPCO stop dumping radioactive water into the sea. Fish from the area are measuring in excess of the new safe levels set by the government. I agree with the fishermen's desire to have TEPCO stop dumping  radiation into the sea but the problem with the nuclear genie is that he won't go back into the bottle once the bottle is broke. TEPCO can't stop radiation from going into the sea or into the air at this point. This should have been understood when the decision was made to build a nuclear power plant. The fishermen protested specifically the decision to deliberately pour irradiated water into the sea. That water was going into the sea anyways lads. When you are pouring millions of gallons on several damaged locations in a huge nuclear complex to prevent meltdowns and spent rod flareups, there is no way to control where the overflow goes.
The only solution to this problem would be to get a gigantic Star Trek like transporter device and send the whole area into a star. But that might have unforseen consequences too. And, as far as I know, we do not have such a device.

"The modern State, as we have said, has freed itself from the yoke of the Church and consequently has shaken off the yoke of universal or cosmopolitan morality of the Christian religion, but it has not yet become permeated with the humanitarian idea or ethics - which it cannot do without destroying itself, for in its detached existence and isolated concentration the State is much too narrow to embrace, to contain the interests and consequently the morality of, humanity as a whole."

The New York Times got hold of a confidential assessment of the nuclear disaster from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Needless to say, it don't look good.
For example:
Water filling the buildings will put further stress on the structures allowing water to leave the building easier.
Water stress on the buildings make them vulnerable to more damage from aftershocks or future earthquakes.
More hydrogen explosions are possible in the buildings due to release of the gas from water in the nuclear cores.
No one knows how much the salt and molten materials in the cores are interfering with cooling the cores.
Long term safety of workers at the site is "challenging".
If the cores cannot be efficiently cooled unwanted criticality could lead to molten radioactive cores for a long time.
It is unknown if the tactic of pouring water on nuclear cores to cool them can be carried on indefinitely since this is an unknown and unforeseen situation.
Explosions spread chunks of highly radioactive material from spent fuel rods up to one mile from the site. These materials have had to be bulldozed over so workers could more safely do what they do.
Have a nice day.

"Anyone who makes plans for after the revolution is a reactionary."


President Hiroaki Nakanishi of Hitachi Ltd, which is partnered with General Electric in the nuclear business, said today, "It is impossible for Japan to stop using nuclear power" while admitting the events of the past month will have a considerable impact on profits, according to the Wall Street Journal.


"If you pull a sapling out of the ground, cut off all the leaves, and branches and make it into a club, you cannot expect to plant it back in the ground and have it grow into a beautiful tree..." Bakunin to Marx 

Our Special Guest Philosopher today is Giambattista Vico, b.23 June 1668  d.23 January 1744

VERUM ESSE IPSUM FACTUM (the truth is what has happened, or, as it is more commonly translated, the truth is what is made)

Tuesday Morning EDT/

Tuesday Evening Japan Time
Shipwreck Is Everywhere Update
"Si bene calculum ponas, ubique naufragium est."

-Gaius Petronius Arbiter

Which I roughly translate as 

"All in all, an objective consideration of life leads one to conclude that shipwreck is everywhere."

Debris from the tsunami is drifting off the coast of Japan creating a hazard to shipping. Everything from ship containers, to truck trailers and houses are floating in the ocean according to Bloomberg. 
“Usually, there’s only the odd piece of debris,” said Hidefumi Akagi, who is responsible for advising shipping lines on sea routes for Japan’s coast guard. “Currently, we’re getting reports of loads of floating objects.”

"Men first feel necessity, then look for utility, next attend to comfort, still later amuse themselves with pleasure, thence grow dissolute in LUXURY, and finally go mad and waste their substance."

For those who want a reactor by reactor status update you can go to CNN. The update is remarkable for the paucity of information on radiation levels and how much the press must rely on TEPCO's largess for the little information available. It just goes to show that if you are a big company and you create a disaster it helps for public relations purposes to be able to totally control the area in which it happens. But I suppose there are not too many reporters banging down TEPCO's doors to be allowed into the plant complex to report first hand.

"Common sense is judgment without reflection, shared by an entire class, an entire nation, or the entire human race."

Radiation levels in the ocean near Fukushima Daiichi have been running five to seven million times safe levels in the last few days. Measurements several hundred yards from the plant are said to be 1000 times the legal limit. The Associated Press reported that the Japanese government has set a standard for acceptable radiation allowed in fish for the first time.


"Uniform ideas originating among entire peoples unknown to each other must have a common ground of truth." 


Environmentalist George Monbiot has created a stir with his endorsement of nuclear power after the Fukushima Daiichi affair. You can read his views at his website. Basically George says that an old nuclear plant of bad design got hit with a giant earthquake and tsunami and the world didn't end. Ergo, nuclear power is good.
Here is a refutation of his beliefs. "Why George Monbiot is Wrong On Nuclear Power" 

"It is noteworthy that in all languages the greater part of the expressions  relating to inanimate things are formed by metaphor from the human body  and its parts and from the human senses and passions. Thus, head for top or  beginning; eyes for the looped heads of screws and for windows letting light  into houses; mouth for any opening; lip for the rim of a vase or of anything else; the tooth of a plow, a rake, a saw, a comb; beard for rootlets; the mouth  of a river; a neck of land; handful for a small number; heart for center (the  Latins used umbilicus, "navel," in this sense); foot for end; the flesh of fruits; a  vein of water, rock or mineral; the blood of grapes for wine; the bowels of the  earth. Heaven or the sea smiles; the wind whistles; the waves murmur; a body  groans under a great weight. The farmers of Latium used to say the fields were  thirsty, bore fruit, were swollen with grain; and our own rustics speak of plants making love, vines going mad, resinous trees weeping."- a passage from Vico's The New Science revealing his approach to etymology. Vico, as do most thoughtful and intelligent men, finds revelation in etymology. He also points out to us in The New Science that the Greek word for 'war' 'polemos' finds its etymology in the Greek word for 'city' 'polis'. Now we know that anyone who indulges in polemics is a war-monger. And, perhaps, that the anthropology of premeditated war begins with the establishment of cities.

The worst offense that can be committed by a polemic is to stigmatize those who hold a contrary opinion as bad and immoral men. -John Stuart Mill

Bust of Plato, a Roman copy of a Greek Original in the Vatican

Monday Morning EDT/
Monday Evening Japan Time
Calamity Update


With the words of Plato, a Greek Philosopher who lived 429-327 BCE

"What is at issue is the conversion of the mind from the twilight of error to the truth, that climb up into the real world which we shall call true philosophy."                 

The New York Times is reporting on the dilemma of radioactive water faced by Japanese authorities which I described a while back. The need to keep the reactor cores cool to prevent fission and the need to keep the spent fuel rods covered with water to keep them cool to prevent spontaneous iginition are primary objectives. Either event will spread dangerous radioactivity. However, the vast quantities of water needed to achieve this goal becomes radioactive once it is in contact with these materials. Obviously the plant complex has been heavily damaged by the earthquake and tsunami and the water is draining out of these areas willy nilly. In fact a big story of the past week has been the futile attempts to prevent highly radioactive water from flowing out of a "maintenance pit" at reactor 2, at first using concrete and then plastic powder, sawdust and ground up newspapers!
"After an unsuccessful attempt to flood the pit with concrete to stop the leak, workers on Sunday turned to trying to plug the apparent source of the water — an underground shaft thought to lead to the damaged reactor building — with more than 120 pounds of sawdust, three garbage bags full of shredded newspaper and about nine pounds of a polymeric powder that officials said absorbed 50 times its volume of water." -The New York Times today, link above
Japanese authorities officially announced today they plan to dump 11,500 tons of contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean Monday evening (about now as I write). 10,000 tons is said to be "less contaminated". Another 1,500 tons will be released from reactors 5 and 6. This water is threatening the pumps and diesel back up power at these plants.
We all know vast quantities of radioactive water have been draining into the Pacific since the spraying and pumping activities began shortly after the disaster. This is merely official confirmation of the obvious. Much of this water has evaporated with the heat of the radioactive materials. Some has remained in place. Most, I suspect,  has drained away already.
“Unfortunately, the water contains a certain amount of radiation.This is an unavoidable measure to prevent even higher amounts of radiation from reaching the sea.”- Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, quoted in the Times.

My guess is that they were never serious about stopping that highly radioactive water because if they do it must back up and go somewhere in the plant complex. It's basic hydraulics. Their preferred somewhere has got to be the ocean since they don't want their workers walking around in it.

"The object of knowledge is what exists and its function to know about reality."

After what CNN called a "search surge" another 70 bodies were found over the weekend.
12,087 are now officially dead and 15,552 are officially missing.


"I don't know anything that gives me greater pleasure, or profit either, than talking or listening to philosophy. But when it comes to ordinary conversation, such as the stuff you talk about financiers and the money market, well, I find it pretty tiresome personally, and I feel sorry that my friends should think they're being very busy when they're really doing absolutely nothing. Of course, I know your idea of me: you think I'm just a poor unfortunate, and I shouldn't wonder if your right. But then I don't THINK that you're unfortunate - I know you are."

Reuters is reporting that the material damages of the earthquake are now estimated as $300 billion by the Japanese government; and, apart from that, the civil liability will be the largest in the history of Japan. Japan's 1961 Act on Compensation for Nuclear Damage has no liability limits for the nuclear industry. Here in the United State, as I have been repeating now for weeks, we have the great gift of Congress to the nuclear industry known as the Price-Anderson Nuclear Industries Indemnity Act which protects the heavily subsidized nuclear industry from liability over $12.9 billion. The taxpayers foot the bill for the atomic wasteland nuclear plants eventually create. And the nuclear industry has a slush fund to cover that first $12.9 billion. 
Great job, General Electric! 
And the Repubicans are worried about unionized workers making  fair wages and benefits. 
Yup, they think workers making too much and getting too uppity is the problem with this country.
Why don't they move to China where unions are illegal and they have very little regulation of industry and few environmental laws?

"When the mind's eye rests on objects illuminated by truth and reality, it understands and comprehends them, and functions intelligently; but when it turns to the twilight world of change and decay, it can only form opinions, its vision is confused and its beliefs shifting, and it seems to lack intelligence."

Ban, the bitch who was rescued after three weeks at sea on a floating chunk of roof was reunited with her owner today reported the Kyodo News. 

"And once we have given our community a good start, the process will be cumulative. By maintaining a sound system of education you produce citizens of good character, and citizens of sound character, with the advantage of a good education, produce in turn children better than themselves and better able to produce still better children in their turn, as can be seen with animals."

Arne Gundersen discusses criticality at Fukushima Daiichi Reactor 1. 
YouTube Link From www.Fairewinds.com


Mr. Gundersen tells us today that there is evidence reactor 1 is experiencing moments of "inadvertent criticality", that is, the chain reaction may be spontaneously igniting from time to time. If this is so, deadly neutrons are being given off at those times. (The so-called neutron beam as noted here a few days ago.)
The workers at the site will not be aware of this because their dosimeters do not measure neutrons.

But wait. Dosimeters? We don't need no stinking dosimeters!
On Friday Japan's Nuclear Regulatory Agency reprimanded TEPCO for sending workers into the plant without dosimeters.

John Stuart Mill 20 May 1806 – 8 May 1873

Sunday Morning EDT/Sunday Evening Japan Time Scribblings


With the Assistance of 19th Century Liberal Empiricist Philosopher John Stuart Mill 

"Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives." 

Radioactive water draining from the core of reactor 2 is still pouring out of the "maintenance pit" and into the sea. There is no word if repairs have been accomplished. What is being admitted is that this flow of water is just part of the  problem. They have been spraying millions of gallons of water on these plants and the spent fuel ponds for weeks now and that water has been getting irradiated and boiling off or flowing away from these places.  Nothing is being done about that water because no one can imagine anything can be done about it.

GE's CEO has kindly offered to help TEPCO generate power this summer in anticipation of shortages arising from the fact that the GE designed nuclear power plants at Fukushima Daiichi are all busted up and are failing to provide safe, clean, and cheap energy.

"The despotism of custom is everywhere the standing hindrance to human advancement."


Evacuees in the afflicted areas of the earthquake and tsunami who have been homeless or suffering without heat and power are beginning to ask why little attention has been paid to their plights. Prime Minister Kan, reacting to the criticism,  visited evacuation centers Saturday and gave a speech at one in which he stated firmly, "The government fully supports you until the end". 


"There are many truths of which the full meaning cannot be realized until personal experience has brought it home."


Mass evacuations of its remaining 1,100 persons have begun in the town of Minamisanriku in Miyagi prefecture. Minamisanriku, which formerly had a population of 17,500 persons, was totally devastated by the tsunami and earthquake. It is expected that it will take six months to a year before even temporary housing can be constructed and residents can return to the area.

"That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time."

It is now confirmed that two workers died at Fukushima Daiichi as a result of the earthquake/tsunami. It had been previously reported and recorded here that five had died at that time. 

"The general tendency of things throughout the world is to render mediocrity the ascendant power among mankind."

Meanwhile, Koreans (North and South), despite their sympathy for the plight of their former Japanese masters, are annoyed that Japanese textbooks and diplomatic positions will claim the Dokdo Islands as Japanese territory. The Japanese Textbook Authorization and Research Council announced Wednesday that Japanese claims on the islands, which they call Takeshima,  will be affirmed in this year's texts. Seoul's position is that these islands are traditional Korean territory. Koreans are also rightly peeved that Japanese textbooks will not mention the use of Korean women as sexual slaves by the Japanese during World War II. Koreans accepted an apology last year from Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan when he said, the country should ``frankly reflect on Japan’s mistakes with the courage to look straight at historical facts and humility to admit them,” regarding Japan's illegal (in Korea's view) forced  annexation of the country on the 100th anniversary of that event.

"All good things which exist are the fruits of originality."

CNN reports on  Japanese skipper Susumu Sugawara, who rode out the tsunami at sea in his boat, "The Sunflower". 

"My feeling at this moment is indescribable," he says with glistening eyes. "I talked to my boat and said you've been with me 42 years. If we live or die, then we'll be together, then I pushed on full throttle."
"Here was my boat and here was the wave," he says, holding one hand low and the other stretched high above his head. "I climbed the wave like a mountain. When I thought I had got to the top, the wave got even bigger."